Hillary Clinton's four "core" themes of her "Economic Populism" is as phony as Barack Obama's "Hope and Change."

Stay tuned for more.

Rand Paul and Hillary Clinton are frauds just like Barack Obama... who will expose them?

Has anyone noticed that all political parties are "framing" their economic rhetoric around left wing sounding ideas?


Even the French fascist nationalist party and Rand Paul along with the backers of Hillary Clinton are hiding their very reactionary ideas and agendas behind left sounding economic rhetoric.


Hillary Clinton is running on a agenda of "economic populism" using left sounding rhetoric to cover up her anti-worker agenda dictated by Wall Street.


Even their reactionary imperialist foreign policies they try to hide behind left sounding rhetoric which they call "humanitarian intervention."


Of course, the Italian fascist Benito Mussolini who learned to use left phraseology he learned from the socialists and Communists to advance his fascist, right-wing agenda and he became a master at perverting the humanism of socialist working class values to promote fascism.


And it was none other then Barack Obama who has picked up on using left wing rhetoric to hide his reactionary Wall Street agenda of wars abroad paid for through austerity measures making life miserable for working people.


All of this begs the question:


If it takes all these hypocrites using left sounding rhetoric to get elected, why doesn't the real left in this country undertake electoral politics in an honest way by bringing forward a real left wing agenda seeking peace, full employment and full equality in simultaneously challenging Wall Street for political and economic power?


During the 1930's, a whole slew of Democratic politicians ran, and won, political office while bringing forward a left wing populist agenda.


The real left in this country seems to be too timid to take a left wing anti-imperialist/anti-monopoly agenda framed in a populist way before the American people; why?


Years ago, when asked what the U.S. working class needed more than anything; William Z. Foster, the preeminent trade union and Communist Party leader of the times responded:


"A good strong dose of anti-imperialist education in preparation for challenging Wall Street for power."


All of these dishonest politicians using left sounding rhetoric to cover up their reactionary Wall Street agendas--- from Ron Paul to Hillary Clinton--- are not capable of making the connections between the economic problems causing such pain and misery for working class families and these dirty imperialist wars. None of these Wall Street politicians will make the case that financing these dirty imperialist wars makes about as much economic sense as tossing the wealth of the Nation into the deepest depths of the oceans. None have learned the lesson--- or more appropriately seek to cover up the lesson, that no nation can have "guns and butter."



It is kind of ironic that all the conspiracy theorists have tried to blame Lyndon Johnson for killing John F. Kennedy when it is more likely the military-industrialists to which the Kennedys belonged, might have been involved in sending LBJ to an early grave shortly after he endorsed and supported the election of George McGovern which most likely demonstrated that even LBJ learned the lesson, albeit too late, that no nation--- not even the United States--- can carry on with endless imperialist wars without causing massive suffering among its own people.


Instead of being sucked in by the likes of the Rand Pauls and Hillary Clintons, real leftists should get heavily involved in electoral struggles by running for public office and using their campaigns to expose the fascist danger and educating workers about the nature of Wall Street's imperialist agenda.


How can either Rand Paul or Hillary Clinton make the claim they are running on populist economic agendas when their campaigns are being bankrolled to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars by parasitical Wall Street merchants of death and destruction who benefit from these dirty imperialist wars?


We make a huge mistake thinking that we need to wait for some "big name" to take up a real left wing anti-imperialist/anti-monopoly agenda explaining the nature of imperialism. What we need are candidates willing to visit with groups of people in their homes, in church basements and public parks bringing forward a discussion on what we need to do to challenge Wall Street for power and the kind of real reforms required to help working class families cope in the meantime.


We shouldn't fall for this crock of shit that now is not the time to run real left wing candidates for political office.


And contrary to the advice of all these "left wing" phonies like Robert Borosage and Heather Booth who have become so enthralled--- not to mention fantastically wealthy by betraying the struggles of the people for peace and justice to the Democrats--- that now is not the time to talk about socialism; this is just the time we need to be talking about the socialist alternative to capitalism.


No doubt this worthless phony progressive, George Lakoff, will launch a new book as a followup to his vicious red-baiting diatribe from his last book "Blueprint" intended to boost Hillary Clinton's campaign behind this perverted "populist economics" being pushed by Robert Reich who backed Clinton and NAFTA.


In fact, never mentioned by any of these Democrats, their front organizations of stalking horses for Hillary Clinton supporting Obama and the Republicans with these new trade agreements--- the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Transatlantic Trade and Investor Partnership (TTIP)--- is the fact that these trade agreements are preludes to new wars.


Just what are the connections between the TTP and the TTIP and Wall Street and the Democrats and Republicans? Isn't all of this part of Wall Street's imperialist agenda intended to target the working classes of all the countries involved?


And just what is the connection between war and politics in this country? Shouldn't we be talking about state-monopoly capitalism which is the centerpiece of corporations and government working together in this era of imperialism, the most advanced stage of capitalism in its most cannibalistic and barbaric form? who is going to explain all of this in educating the American people, especially the working class, if the left refuses to initiate the building of a progressive working class political party?


We have run out of excuses--- the time for the left to undertake political action is now--- not later. If Rand Paul and Hillary Clinton both running under a phony left cover appealing to a "populist economic agenda" to get votes doesn't propel us to action to challenge their dishonest and unethical behavior and outright deceit we have learned nothing from these Obama years.


The Democrats want us, and expect us, to keep sucking up this lesser evil line of crap. They know if we buy into this crap we will not be a challenge to them. A challenge from the working class left is the Democrats' worst nightmare.

We need socialist solutions to the health care mess

Obama had the Republicans all but dead but with his own Wall Street agenda he fed the Republicans red meat and demobilized his grassroots supporters who expected him to challenge Wall Street and the Republicans.


Instead, Obama established his "Cat Food Commission" putting the slimy, sleazy, corrupt Republican Alan Simpson at the helm and this further enabled a Republican come-back.


We need a real people's progressive party here in this country in order to break free from this two-party trap. A party which will bring forward real solutions to our problems. Solutions like a National Public Health Care System that is universally free for all which would create over twelve-million new good-paying jobs. It would be publicly financed (instead of wasting money on militarism and wars and billions of dollars in subsidies to the Israeli killing machine); publicly administered and publicly delivered by putting all health care workers, including doctors and nurses, on the public payroll. Controversial? No more controversial than public education which is financed and run the same way and free for all.


This is what Bernie Sanders, the self-proclaimed "independent" and "socialist" should be pushing; not playing these games serving as a stalking horse, pimp and fundraiser for a bunch of worthless Dumb Donkeys.


We need to be challenging Wall Street for political and economic power not getting further trapped by "blaming the Republican" game when the Democrats are no better.


Obamacare, the Affordable Care Act, is every bit the fraud as the entire for-profit driven health care system is. It should be called by its proper name: the Health Insurance and Pharmaceutical Industry Bailout and Profit Maximization Act.


That Obamacare helps some people is not the point. It is helping some at the expense of the many who are paying through the nose for fraudulent health insurance schemes that are nothing but a rip-off.


Those of us who oppose Obamacare for the fraud that it is don't want to deny anyone health care coverage; we want quality publicly provided free health care for everyone.


We definitely have no sympathy for Republicans attacking Obamacare from their own reactionary angle intent on denying people anything but for-profit the hell with people health care.


But let's not delude ourselves into thinking as Bernie Sanders does that Democrats are anymore our friends than the Republicans are.


Shame on Bernie Sanders for joining up with these worthless Democrats and trying to deceive us into thinking that the Democrats are some kind of "lesser evil" when compared to the Republicans.


Obama and Hillary Clinton are as rotten as any of the worst Republicans. They are both warmongers intent on perpetuating dirty never-ending imperialist wars.


This is the wealthiest country in the world. Workers created this wealth not these Wall Street coupon clipper parasites who profit from "free enterprise" health care the same way they profit from wars.


Instead of wasting our Nation's wealth on militarism and wars the American people are entitled to a National Public Health Care System.


And for the record: it was Democrats who sabotaged the Single-Payer Universal Health Care movement and even single-payer would only have been a band aid for the problem compared to what is the real solution to this health care mess: a National Public Health Care System with health care centers strung out in every community across this Nation instead of over 800 U.S. military bases dotting the globe protecting Wall Street's investments and profits derived from exploiting labor in the process of raping Mother Nature.


I expect a socialist like Bernie Sanders to bring forward socialist solutions to our problems.


After all, poll after poll is telling us a healthy segment of the U.S. population is open to socialism and opposed to capitalism--- far more people have indicated their support for socialism than those who turn out to vote for Democrats or Republicans so why don't we have a socialist campaigning for president bringing forward socialist solutions to our pressing problems?


Come on Bernie Sanders, stand up and give us the truth not this worn out "blame the Republican" crap.


Populist solutions are socialist solutions.

Are you fed up?

I’m fed up; are you?

We the People need to come together if we are going to turn this country around. We need to bring our views into the proverbial public square which Wall Street has been monopolizing for far too long.

Some people, mostly well-heeled intellectuals, have initiated a campaign around the need for a national dialog concerning an alternative to this problem-plagued system. The system is capitalism in its most moribund, brutal, bestial and barbaric stage of imperialism where Wall Street monopolies dominate the government from local to national

This is their call for dialog and discussion:

http://thenextsystem.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/nextsystem_ForWeb.pdf

We need a “Prosperity Economics, An Economy For All.” Most people know this as socialism. As far as I can tell, socialism is the only alternative to capitalism.

We need to create discussion about the direction of organized labor and the kind of country we all want to live in where peace, social justice and economic justice for working people prevail.

Democracy --- as well as social, economic and environmental justice --- requires no less than a full and broad discussion of important concerns and issues.

At a time when democracy needs to be expanded it is being smothered by big money, government decrees and sheer arrogance on the part of politicians and prosecutorial police repression.

We need to advocate for “prosperity economics; an economy that works for everyone.”

There are several very basic facts left out of discussions in our country when it comes to using the wealth of our Nation created by workers.

Politicians seeking election are very hazy, vague and nebulous as to what the concrete and specific goals and objectives are to be and how the wealth of our Nation will be spent.

The politicians try to “frame” issues in a way to trick us into giving up our votes thinking we are actually going to be getting something of substance in return for our votes when they have no intention at all in solving our many problems. There is a never-ending bunch of over-paid “pundits” who are nothing but liars and professional tricksters. Are we not entitled to something in return for our votes?

Millionaire labor “leaders” are equally as vague about what kind of movement and struggle it will take for the working class --- organized and unorganized together --- to create a prosperity economics for us all. They are all hot air; bark without bite but they aren’t shy about living off our union dues.

Because of the lack of rank-and-file empowerment within the working class, we do not hear a clear articulation that our main enemy is Wall Street. Politics and working class activism haven’t risen to reflect the fact that we, as working people, need to be engaged in a social, political and economic struggle for power with the intent, of not just curbing Wall Street’s power and influence, but ending Wall Street's dominance over every aspect of our lives --- in our schools, at work and in our communities.

Let's state right up front --- workers create all wealth, but workers have had no say in how this wealth is distributed and used. This needs to change. Democracy requires no less. Without economic democracy there is no democracy at all.

We have no say in how our tax dollars are spent. Most people want peace; what we get are costly wars. This is not democracy.

Let's also put it right out there before the American people that militarism and wars are squandering the wealth of our Nation to such a large extent we don't have the resources to solve our many domestic problems.

These dirty imperialist wars, as Mark Twain correctly called them, are killing our jobs and our standard of living just like they kill people.

Militarism and wars are a major contributing factor to the world-wide collapsing capitalist economy. No nation can continue to endlessly squander the wealth of the nation to prepare for wars and to fight wars. This is sheer insanity. We might as well be dumping the wealth of our Nation into the deepest depths of the oceans.

Wall Street's greedy drive for profits results in wars which exacerbate our problems.

Detroit goes broke; the rest of our cities are sure to follow as Wall Street wallows in profits.

Working people go without adequate health care. Insurance and pharmaceutical companies get fabulously wealthy. Shorter work weeks/longer vacations with no cut in pay would create jobs and would keep us healthier, too. Working ten, twelve and fourteen hours a day certainly can’t be healthy for human beings while the resulting unemployment ruins lives and wrecks families.

Our public institutions like public education fall apart, crumble and collapse just like our roads, highways and bridges because we are constantly feeding a war machine intended to fight never-ending wars waged to protect Wall Street's interests, assets and profits abroad.

Prosperity for all begins with the recognition peace is required to achieve full employment and a Basic Income Guarantee for every citizen.

Full employment is about the government seeing to it that jobs are created for all at real living wages. It is about putting people to work by creating massive universal social programs like a National Public Health Care System and a National Public Child Care System all financed, administered and delivered just like public education but with adequate funding instead of job destroying legislation and trade agreements like the TPP and TTIP as detrimental to our health and jobs as are these wars. Without providing real health care reform the price of health care goes up when the intent should be to the push the real prices down while providing adequate health care for all.

Eliminating militarism and wars eliminates the largest carbon footprint contributing to global warming and climate change. The Military Industrial Complex wastes our precious resources in a huge, monstrous complex that ruins our environment and our health --- power generation for mining and manufacturing. Resources like oil and gas are required to fight wars. Preparation for war, and war itself, creates a mammoth sized carbon footprint destroying our living environment while creating massive joblessness and poverty and ill health for our people as our air, water and land gets polluted. Rebuilding in the aftermath of these wars is a double whammy inflicted upon people and Mother Nature. The stupidity of destroying what precious human labor has created--- sheer insanity.

There are only two sources of wealth: Labor and Mother Nature. Wall Street exploits Labor and rapes Mother Nature. Common sense should tell us this can’t continue.

The Wall Street selected and bribed politicians talk about “jobs, jobs, jobs” when their hidden agenda is really about “profits, profits, profits” and “war, war, war”… more war, more profits for Wall Street’s merchants of death and destruction… so Bob Dylan’s song “Masters of War” goes.  War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing.

The time has come to make politicians legislatively responsible for full employment and peace because prosperity economics requires: peace and full employment --- a healthy people and a healthy environment.

There is no reason for poverty here in the wealthiest country in the world. If we can’t end poverty here in the United States, how can much poorer countries put an end to poverty? It is all about priorities.

We need a government that provides jobs.

We need a government that will assure a Basic Income Guarantee for every citizen just as our own revolutionary hero, Thomas Paine, advocated.

The central goal of the American labor and working class movement needs to be the building of an economy for all that is inseparably linked to peace, full employment and a Basic Income Guarantee which must include:

A Minimum Wage tied to all cost of living factors indexed to inflation. Jobs and a living income for all.

A National Public Health Care System… twelve-million new jobs.

A National Public Child Care System… three-million new jobs.

Protect, defend and expand Social Security programs.

Legislation prohibiting lockouts and scabbing.

The repeal and rescinding of “At-Will Employment” legislation --- the primary obstacle to worker empowerment and union organizing needs to become a priority.

Price roll-backs and Price controls are needed for food, medication, gas, home heating fuels and electricity.

A healthy economy means a healthy living environment and a healthy planet.

We need a quality of life index as called for in the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The two-party system is a trap for working people. We must free ourselves from the Democrats and Republicans. A working class based progressive, populist people's party like the old socialist Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party of Floyd Olson, Elmer Benson and John Bernard is required if we are going to have a prosperity economics that works for all of us.

We can learn a thing or two about health care and politics from our Canadian Brothers and Sisters who are now challenging Wall Street and it junior partner in crime, Bay Street, for political power.

We are now at a crossroads

We will continue to have an economy that serves Wall Street or we will create the kind of economy that works for the rest of us --- we can't have both, just like we can't have both wars and full employment.

I would encourage the use of what was the proposed Full Employment Act of 1945 pushed by the left-wing led CIO unions and authored by liberal Texas Congressman Wright Patman and the associated hearing testimonies to broaden this discussion. You can check it all out here:

http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015081304209;seq=10;view=1up

  

I also call to your attention the excellent Op-Ed piece by journalist Bob Herbert, “Losing Our Way.” This was his last piece published in the New York Times (March 25, 2011 [See full article at very end]), in he which declares:

"The U.S. has not just misplaced its priorities. When the most powerful country ever to inhabit the earth finds it so easy to plunge into the horror of warfare, but almost impossible to find adequate work for its people or to properly educate its young, it has lost its way entirely.”

As a trade unionist, I am asking:

What ever happened to William Winpisinger's "Rebuild America Act" and the “peace dividend”? The AFL-CIO should bring back to life its Committee on Conversion launched under the initiative of William Winpisinger --- from military production to producing for human needs; swords into plowshares is what was advocated by the International Association of Machinist's former President.

Where is this advocacy for peace and reordering our Nation's priorities now?

Thank you for taking the time to read and consider my views. I thought it was important that as a working class activist and concerned trade unionist I speak up and bring forward an alternative perspective.

As a working class youth I fought to end that dirty war in Vietnam.

As a rank-and-file worker and often an elected union leader and union organizer, I have fought to expand the rights and defend the livelihoods of working people. I felt now as we approach another election this was an appropriate time to share my views. We are living in a very dangerous world with wars and crumbling economies all around us. Wall Street is trying to solve its problems at the expense of working class families while making even larger profits in the process of taking advantage of our problems.

We have been forced into a crisis no one wants to talk about: A Cost-of-Living Crisis. Anyone who doesn’t understand what I am talking about has never had to make a choice about what to buy in a grocery store or tried to figure out how to pay the winter’s heating bill or to pay for health insurance or child care. Prices for goods and services soar; wages stay the same or go down.

We need a broad-based campaign to win a “21^st Century Full Employment Act for Peace and Prosperity” as part of a populist agenda which would include the kinds of reforms which I have described. Together we can win.

Let’s talk about the politics and economics of livelihood from a rank-and-file working class perspective for real change.

I’m fed up with Wall Street’s agenda and I am ready to move on to the “next” agenda which I believe to be a socialist agenda which includes fighting and struggling for reforms working class families require to get beyond these systemic problems and on the road to socialism. Are you fed up, too? If so, let’s get our two-cents into this discussion.

In solidarity and struggle,

Alan L. Maki

Please check out my Blog, The Podunk Blog:

http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/

Contact me by e-mail:

red_finn@live.com

Contact me by telephone:

651-587-5541

Feel free to write me at:

Alan L. Maki

58891 County Road 13

Warroad, Minnesota 56763

Something to think about: Instead of free health care and child care which would create millions of decent new jobs we get warfare. This just isn’t right; especially when we could put everyone to work solving the problems of the people. What happened to the only justified war; the war on poverty?

Another thing to think about: Minnesota politicians had a blitz to shove a football stadium, a billion dollar plus boon-doggle, down our throats from which the billionaire owners of the Minnesota Vikings will profit. But they won’t mount a similar blitz to end the scourge of poverty; what the hell is going on here?

Losing Our Way

By BOB HERBERT       

Published in the New York Times        

MARCH 25, 2011

So here we are pouring shiploads of cash into yet another war, this time in Libya, while simultaneously demolishing school budgets, closing libraries, laying off teachers and police officers, and generally letting the bottom fall out of the quality of life here at home.

Welcome to America in the second decade of the 21st century. An army of long-term unemployed workers is spread across the land, the human fallout from the Great Recession and long years of misguided economic policies. Optimism is in short supply. The few jobs now being created too often pay a pittance, not nearly enough to pry open the doors to a middle-class standard of living.

Arthur Miller, echoing the poet Archibald MacLeish, liked to say that the essence of America was its promises. That was a long time ago. Limitless greed, unrestrained corporate power and a ferocious addiction to foreign oil have led us to an era of perpetual war and economic decline. Young people today are staring at a future in which they will be less well off than their elders, a reversal of fortune that should send a shudder through everyone.

The U.S. has not just misplaced its priorities. When the most powerful country ever to inhabit the earth finds it so easy to plunge into the horror of warfare but almost impossible to find adequate work for its people or to properly educate its young, it has lost its way entirely.

Nearly 14 million Americans are jobless and the outlook for many of them is grim. Since there is just one job available for every five individuals looking for work, four of the five are out of luck. Instead of a land of opportunity, the U.S. is increasingly becoming a place of limited expectations. A college professor in Washington told me this week that graduates from his program were finding jobs, but they were not making very much money, certainly not enough to think about raising a family.

There is plenty of economic activity in the U.S., and plenty of wealth. But like greedy children, the folks at the top are seizing virtually all the marbles. Income and wealth inequality in the U.S. have reached stages that would make the third world blush. As the Economic Policy Institute has reported, the richest 10 percent of Americans received an unconscionable 100 percent of the average income growth in the years 2000 to 2007, the most recent extended period of economic expansion.

Americans behave as if this is somehow normal or acceptable. It shouldn’t be, and didn’t used to be. Through much of the post-World War II era, income distribution was far more equitable, with the top 10 percent of families accounting for just a third of average income growth, and the bottom 90 percent receiving two-thirds. That seems like ancient history now.

The current maldistribution of wealth is also scandalous. In 2009, the richest 5 percent claimed 63.5 percent of the nation’s wealth. The overwhelming majority, the bottom 80 percent, collectively held just 12.8 percent.

This inequality, in which an enormous segment of the population struggles while the fortunate few ride the gravy train, is a world-class recipe for social unrest. Downward mobility is an ever-shortening fuse leading to profound consequences.

A stark example of the fundamental unfairness that is now so widespread was in The New York Times on Friday under the headline: “G.E.’s Strategies Let It Avoid Taxes Altogether.” Despite profits of $14.2 billion — $5.1 billion from its operations in the United States — General Electric did not have to pay any U.S. taxes last year.

As The Times’s David Kocieniewski reported, “Its extraordinary success is based on an aggressive strategy that mixes fierce lobbying for tax breaks and innovative accounting that enables it to concentrate its profits offshore.”

G.E. is the nation’s largest corporation. Its chief executive, Jeffrey Immelt, is the leader of President Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. You can understand how ordinary workers might look at this cozy corporate-government arrangement and conclude that it is not fully committed to the best interests of working people.

Overwhelming imbalances in wealth and income inevitably result in enormous imbalances of political power. So the corporations and the very wealthy continue to do well. The employment crisis never gets addressed. The wars never end. And nation-building never gets a foothold here at home.

New ideas and new leadership have seldom been more urgently needed.

This is my last column for The New York Times after an exhilarating, nearly 18-year run. I’m off to write a book and expand my efforts on behalf of working people, the poor and others who are struggling in our society. My thanks to all the readers who have been so kind to me over the years. I can be reached going forward at: bobherbert88@gmail.com

What you can do:

* Gather a few friends around your kitchen table to discuss all of this

* Share this leaflet with your friends.

* Write a “Letter to the Editor”

* Express your views often. What good is any discussion about the problems we are experiencing if the views of workers are not included in a discussion about the solutions?

Wall Street is very powerful. Wall Street is our common enemy. Individually, as workers, we are like one little rain drop; we don’t amount to much. But, together with a common agenda of shared concerns and united movement we become a torrential downpour.

Netanyahu and democracy

Netanyahu has an interesting take on democracy. The right to vote is held up as the most democratic of all rights by the U.S. and Israeli governments and most of the capitalist world even though the right of citizen participation in these countries seldom goes beyond this "right to vote" where big money generally determines who runs and who wins.


Anyways, Netanyahu won his re-election largely by developing a fear mongering claiming massive numbers of Arabs were going to turn out to vote in the Israeli election.

What the heck, don't Arab citizens of Israel have the right to vote?


According to Netanyahu, Arab citizens in Israel voting represent a threat to Israel. And this "threat" of Arabs voting was a major part of Netanyahu's campaign... along with assuring that his re-election would mean no Palestinian nation would be established.


Talk about a campaign of racist bigotry and hate!


Netanyahu's entire campaign was one of fear-mongering pandering to hatemongers.


Yet, did we hear much about this campaign of hate and complete disdain for democracy from the media pundits here in our own country as Congress and the president continue to subsidize the Israeli killing machine to the tune of tens of billions of dollars?

Why do so many unions refuse to place their contracts on their web sites?

It would be very easy for unions to place their contracts on their web sites.

These contracts placed on union web sites should encourage the unorganized workers to join unions; right?

But, in spite of union officials giving lip service to how their unions are "rank-and-file" unions, union members have little say in what they want from their own union contracts.

In addition, most union "leaders" are ashamed making their contracts public because instead of winning improved wages and working conditions and benefits, each succeeding contract is worse than the previous one... the reason being union "leaders," especially those of the millionaire variety, want union members who are paying the dues as little involved as possible in the decision-making process of the union.

These millionaire labor "leaders" are often as undemocratic as the bosses.

Many union members can't even find out when their union meetings are.

Many union members who pay dues have no say in their own union. The only link many of the members have with their union is seeing how much is taken out of their paychecks for union dues; they don't know when union elections are and if they do find out when the elections are they don't find out in time to run for office themselves to be in compliance with union constitutions and by-laws.

Even many large local unions with a thousand members or more have fewer that what is required for a quorum show up for union meetings even if they raffle off a color television with all in attendance being eligible to have their names in the raffle.

Try to find a union official when you want to file a grievance; good luck.

In fact, few unions in this country today even have union stewards in each department.

Look on many union bulletin boards or web sites and you don't find the most basic information needed in order to participate fully in your own union but you will find all kinds of campaign materials for Democrats and big pictures of union leaders supporting these worthless Democrats.

It is no wonder union membership has hit an all time low with fewer and fewer workers joining unions.

Unions are much like anything else. When workers are happy with their unions they tell everyone. When workers have problems within their unions they also tell everyone.

Perhaps there is some truth that having any union is better than having no union but isn't this the same logic we get for voting for Democrats? That Democrats are better than Republicans even though more often than not they are equally as rotten.

Do we really have to be satisfied with what the sparrows leave behind when it comes to politics, economics and what is being passed off as "democracy" in our unions?

George Lakoff going to Canada to undermine the left; ironically, sponsored by the left.

George Lakoff is a vicious anti-Communist.

If you read his "Don't Think of an Elephant!" you will find that he uses words and "framing" to trick people into voting for Democrats. In this book he advises Democrats to never bring forward specific solutions to problems but limit their statements to properly framing policy directives. Policy directives without real solutions with implications there will be solutions knowing full well there will be no solutions. This is intellectual dishonesty at its worst. It is mean and cruel towards working class families.

Lakoff's newer book, which you don't mention, is viciously anti-Communist, anti-Socialist, anti-Marxist. I would suggest you read this book:

"THE LITTLE BLUE BOOK by George Lakoff"

Lakoff is no liberal nor progressive. His role is to hoodwink people into remaining in the two-party trap by deceiving them into believing nice sounding linguistics will be turned into solutions to their problems.

Alan L. Maki

---

Subject: George Lakoff April 18th, Toronto
From: info@canadiandimension.com
To: red_finn@live.com
Date: Wed, 25 Mar 2015 17:02:16 +0000

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You are invited to attend:   George Lakoff: Activism, Elections and Beyond   George Lakoff April 18, 2015 Doors: 7pm, Event 7:30 Bloor United Church—300 Bloor St W, Toronto Q & A with Trish Hennessy, founding director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives' (CCPA) Ontario office. Presented by rabble.ca and Canadian Dimension magazine. Globally we are witnessing a time dominated by trends of growing inequality: Runaway wealth to the wealthy Runaway climate warming Runaway privatization of public resources Around the world, and in Canada, progressives are fighting to maintain long fought for wins, and struggling to communicate progressive values in a political sphere largely dominated by successful conservative messages. Why are conservatives so successful in communicating their messages? What do progressives need to do to communicate their values to large populations? It's a big year for Canadian politics and the stakes have never been higher electorally. Lets make a new stand for the most important election in Canada's recent history and beyond, by Framing Progressive values to win. Join George Lakoff for a unique opportunity to learn about the next winnable political frames—whether you are concerned about climate change, income inequality and privatization—or on how to in the next federal election the leading expert on political framing. Interested in a more in depth opportunity to hear from George Lakoff?  Lakoff is in Toronto to provide a unique training at the Centre for Social Innovation, during the day on April 18. Limited to only 100 participants, a few spots are still available. See details here: http://inspiringtowin.rabble.ca/program ABOUT GEORGE LAKOFF George Lakoff is an American cognitive linguist, best known for his thesis that lives of individuals are significantly influenced by the central metaphors they use to explain complex phenomena. Lakoff has publicly expressed both ideas about the conceptual structures that he views as central to understanding the political process, and some of his particular political views. He almost always discusses the latter in terms of the former. Moral Politics (1996, revisited in 2002) gives book-length consideration to the conceptual metaphors that Lakoff sees as present in the minds of American "liberals" and "conservatives." The book is a blend of cognitive science and political analysis. Lakoff makes an attempt to keep his personal views confined to the last third of the book, where he explicitly argues for the superiority of the liberal vision. Lakoff argues that the differences in opinions between liberals and conservatives follow from the fact that they subscribe with different strength to two different central metaphors about the relationship of the state to its citizens. Both, he claims, see governance through metaphors of the family. Conservatives would subscribe more strongly and more often to a model that he calls the "strict father model" and has a family structured around a strong, dominant "father" (government), and assumes that the "children" (citizens) need to be disciplined to be made into responsible "adults" (morality, self-financing). Once the "children" are "adults", though, the "father" should not interfere with their lives: the government should stay out of the business of those in society who have proved their responsibility. In contrast, Lakoff argues that liberals place more support in a model of the family, which he calls the "nurturant parent model," based on "nurturant values", where both "mothers" and "fathers" work to keep the essentially good "children" away from "corrupting influences" (pollution, social injustice, poverty, etc.). Lakoff says that most people have a blend of both metaphors applied at different times, and that political speech works primarily by invoking these metaphors and urging the subscription of one over the other. Lakoff further argues that one of the reasons liberals have had difficulty since the 1980s is that they have not been as aware of their own guiding metaphors, and have too often accepted conservative terminology framed in a way to promote the strict father metaphor. Lakoff insists that liberals must cease using terms like partial birth abortion and tax relief because they are manufactured specifically to allow the possibilities of only certain types of opinions. Tax relief for example, implies explicitly that taxes are an affliction, something someone would want "relief" from. To use the terms of another metaphoric worldview, Lakoff insists, is to unconsciously support it. Liberals must support linguistic think tanks in the same way that conservatives do if they are going to succeed in appealing to those in the country who share their metaphors. Between 2003 and 2008, Lakoff was involved with a progressive think tank, the Rockridge Institute, an involvement that follows in part from his recommendations in Moral Politics. Among his activities with the Institute, which concentrates in part on helping liberal candidates and politicians with re-framing political metaphors, Lakoff has given numerous public lectures and written accounts of his message from Moral Politics. In 2008, Lakoff joined Fenton Communications, the nation's largest public interest communications firm, as a Senior Consultant. One of his political works, Don't Think of an Elephant! Know Your Values and Frame the Debate, self-labeled as "the Essential Guide for Progressives," was published in September 2004 and features a foreword by former Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean. An updated version was published in 2015. For more information visit: rabble.ca, canadiandimension.com or georgelakoff.com or contact inspire@rabble.ca Bloor Street United Church 300 Bloor Street West Toronto, ON Attend Event

More discussion about the Basic Income Guarantee

This is what I posted on my blog about the Basic Income Guarantee. It might be worth it to call another conference in Duluth specifically to address organizing for BIG? There should be support for this kind of initiative in Wisconsin and Michigan, too.

I my opinion this should be linked to a Full Employment Act, peace and re-ordering priorities with how to pay for it coming from the military/war budgets, a tax on Wall Street transactions and a hefty tax on the wealthy beginning at around $100,000.00 and it should be made clear that BIG would be tied to the actual cost-of-living.

To start off a campaign for BIG we would need a good one page leaflet with a graphic; a statement of support signed by a couple hundred people, and a petition.

Letters to the Editor from around the state could be put together to form a little pamphlet.

I think this should be undertaken as a complete grassroots initiative without even asking for "big name" support. Let these people feel the heat building from below and respond to that. 

I recently purchased a high-quality laser printer (black print only) and would be willing to print everything we need at no cost provided the paper and printing cartridges are paid for. 

With all working class families now caught up in a "cost-of-living crisis" none of the politicians want to acknowledge let alone talk about or take action to resolve now is the time to move forward with the Basic Income Guarantee.

What do others think about this?

I would encourage others to circulate this entire e-mail to see if we can't reach some kind of meeting of the minds about how to develop this struggle for the Basic Income Guarantee.

I have e-mailed this to people in at least 20 states; how about a discussion?

This is the kind of issue that is perfect for organizing discussions and debates and should be a topic we can all come together around.

There has already been quite a bit of initiative taken. Here is an e-mail I  received from Liane Gale Notice: attached are the attachments Liane sent out):

Hello Alan:

I am very happy that you support BIG and that you are encouraging people to get involved and support the concept. Basic income has garnered quite some interest in Europe just the last few years, and the group that met a week ago in NYC is trying to initiate a political movement here in the US.

One of the speakers from last week's congress, Jurgen De Wispelaere, will be coming to Minnesota on March 19 to speak at the Minnesota State University in Mankato in a series of "Ethics of Economic Institutions". Flier is attached. The talk is open to the public.

Jurgen will then visit friends in the Twin Cities and he has agreed to give a talk on Friday, March, 20th. We were able to get 4200 Cedar for that evening, and I have set up a FB event. 

www.facebook.com/events/1559710660963183/

Attached is also the full information for the event. I will try to have some fliers made, and will share them with you as soon as they become available.

I would appreciate if you could share the events, but especially the one of the 20th, with your MN network.

Let me know if you have any other comments and questions.

We also decided that we try to start a movement. As you may know, I am currently one of the contacts for BIG and Women, New Economy, and Anti-Poverty. By March 20th, Ann Withorn and me have hopefully figured out a few first steps to take and can open it up to the community.

I am convinced that basic income has the potential to become a center point of a new women-lead movement that seeks to supersede patriarchal capitalism.

I am quite excited to have found a focus for my activism. Just a month ago, I was quite confused, as I had left the leadership of the Green Party, and also left a commitment to organize an event on Community Rights.

Thanks so much Alan for you immense support so far for BIG and I hope that you will want to be involved in some ways. Kristine Osbakken is the current contact for regional groups, so we will see whether besides a women-focused group we could also have a regional group here in MN. Maybe they can be one and the same.

In solidarity, Liane

For those who believe all the hype about an improving economy you might want to read this article which has been really big news in media all over the country:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2015/03/10/target-layoffs/24697457/

Working people are going to need this Basic Income Guarantee to get through these ordeals combined with poverty wage paying jobs, part-time/on-call jobs and this cost-of-living crisis; not to mention that in spite of all this malarkey about an improving economy, tens of millions remain unemployed as this Wall Street bribed government seeks to use unemployment and poverty wages to "keep inflation down" and Wall Street profits high as we are forced to pay through the nose and with austerity measures for these never-ending dirty wars making us all poor. 

Any country which can afford the high cost of militarism and these wars certainly can provide everyone with a Basic Income Guarantee.

Check out this op/ed piece by Bob Herbert:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/26/opinion/26herbert.html

Herbert wrote a book with the same title:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/09/books/review/losing-our-way-by-bob-herbert.html?_r=0 

And this is the introduction to the book:

http://billmoyers.com/content/bob-herbert-losing-way/ 

We need not wait for the Democrats or the foundation-funded outfits fronting for them like the Campaign for America's Future to bring forward solutions like the Basic Income Guarantee; nor should we pay any attention to their taunts that we must be patient and accept "incremental reforms" with the full remedy well into the future. We have seen where our patience has gotten us with the Democrats when it comes to the Minimum Wage, health care reforms and the need for child care as the Democrats push us towards a "three year war" with ISIS.

Here in Minnesota the Democrats joined with Republicans for a "blitz" to build a new Minnesota Vikings' stadium with tax-payer dollars for a bunch of billionaires. why no such "blitz" to put an end to poverty?

We need to figure out how to mount a "blitz" to win the Basic Income Guarantee.

Alan L. Maki

Saturday, March 7, 2015

Just about everything you need to initiate a campaign in support of the Basic Income Guarantee

Basic Income Guarantee...

BIG

… a big idea whose time has come.

I don't know anything about this organizational undertaking or the conference, theNorth American Basic Income Guarantee Conference, other than what you are able to read here; although I know a couple of the people involved.

I'm glad to see people working on this idea about a Basic Income Guarantee(BIG) first advanced here in the United States by the great citizen-patriot-revolutionary Thomas Paine.

In the year 2000, political leaders from around the world signed on to a commitment to end poverty in fifteen years... here we are fifteen years later and poverty is getting worse instead of being alleviated and ended.

Common sense tells us that people without jobs are going to be poor... the unemployed need BIG.

Common sense tells us that workers being paid poverty wages are going to be poor. Poverty waged workers need BIG.

Common sense tells us that workers employed “on-call” and part-time are most likely to be poor. These workers need BIG.

Common sense tells us that people living on pensions and Social Security providing incomes that aren't in line with the actual cost-of-living are going to be poor. Retired people need BIG.

Common sense should tell us that people who face discrimination in education and employment based on race and sex are going to be poor. Victims of discrimination need BIG.

Tens of millions of people in this country are living in poverty many of whom are children, women and people of color. These are all people who will benefit from BIG.

There is the basis for a massive grassroots and rank-and-file coalition effort to win this Basic Income Guarantee.

This is the richest country in the world; if we can't put an end to poverty with all of our resources and wealth what other country can?

At the present time, much of our Nation's wealth created by workers is being squandered on militarism and wars, subsidizing Wall Street's profits with our tax dollars and this Wall Street bribed government--- local, state and federal--- does nothing to put an end to poverty because there are big profits in poverty--- whether the profits come from paying workers poverty wages or banks being paid big bucks for being involved in administering poverty programs.

In my opinion, this Basic Income Guarantee is a very good reform provided it becomes legislatively tied to ALL actual cost-of-living factors.

While I definitely support the idea of lobbying for this important reform, I don't think we should kid ourselves into believing this Wall Street owned and dominated government will provide such a reform anymore that they will put an end to all these dirty wars which are making us all poor.

This Basic Income Guarantee is going to have to become a big part of the platforms and programs of alternative political parties; and, in my opinion, what we really need is a new progressive working class based political party to bring forward this important reform--- a political party intent on challenging Wall Street for political and economic power.

I hope others will forward and circulate this e-mail everywhere.

Post it on union and church bulletin boards.

Bring this idea into the proverbial public square where it belongs.

Create resolutions in support for your organizations, political party and unions to endorse.

Get out and leaflet and table.

Tens of millions of names on petitions are needed.

Organize demonstrations and educational picket lines.

Talk to people at work and at school. Talk to people in your neighborhood.

Make a banner for BIG to be used at demonstrations and on picket lines.

Put a sign in your window or in your yard for BIG.

We should be thinking of convening some kind of local, state, regional and national conferences involving hundreds, if not thousands, of people in active support of theBasic Income Guarantee--- BIG.

The Basic Income Guarantee is an effort we should all be able to plug into in one way or another to lend our support.

Cindy Sheehan did a good job bringing this issue forward in her campaign for California Governor on the Peace and Freedom Party ticket.

We also need a Full Employment Act making it mandatory for the president and Congress to attain and maintain full employment.

I have suggested the two be tied together as some kind of reform package like a "21st Century Full Employment Act for Peace and Prosperity;" does this make sense to you?

The Basic Income Guarantee is in line with our Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights along with the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights, too.
I am especially happy to hear there is cross-border collaboration with our neighbors to the north in Canada on this very important issue of a Basic Income Guarantee.

Spread the word because if you don't, the Wall Street owned and controlled media isn't going to spread the word for us, although this would be the perfect issue for writing a "Letter-to-the-Editor" of your local newspapers--- and don't forget the many newsletters, too. And FaceBook posts and blogs.

If we want to build a movement to win the Basic Income Guarantee we need to bring this issue into the public square in a massive way.

We can't talk about a Basic Income Guarantee in isolation from all “cost-of-living” factors anymore than we can talk about wages in isolation from the actual “cost-of-living.”

Educate about BIG.

Organize for BIG.

Unite for BIG.

Action in the streets, places of employment and at the ballot box is needed to win BIG.

Don't be patient waiting for Wall Street bribed politicians to implement BIG.

Don't settle for incremental reforms with promises to implement BIG someplace down the road.

Inching our way towards reforms doesn't work--- health care and the Minimum Wage prove this.

The Basic Income Guarantee is a universal reform we need NOW!

Yours in the struggle,

Alan L. Maki

Here is the e-mail I received from USBIG...

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Karl Widerquist 
Date: Wed, Mar 4, 2015 at 2:45 PM
Subject: Special USBIG NewsFlash report from the meeting to create a political movement for basic income
To: bignews@widerquist.com

As editor, I'm sending this report is to all subscribers of the USBIG NewsFlash. A new political movement began organizing itself at the 14th NABIG Congress in New York on March, 1, 2015. The following report shows how interested people can get involve. Please send correspondence to the relevant committee contacts (below), or to Jason Burke Muprhy .

Thank you, 
Karl Widerquist, editor, USBIG NewsFlash
Report from the meeting to create a political movement for basic income

Thirty-one people signed the attendance sheet at the first meeting of group of people attempting to start a political movement for basic income in the United States. Several more people attended without signing, and others followed and contributed to the meeting online. The meeting took place from 6:30 to 9:30pm at the Commons Brooklyn on February 26, 2015, at the close of the Fourteenth North American Basic Income Guarantee (NABIG) Congress. The meeting began with all participants discussing their background and the history that brought them to the basic income movement. The group then split into several small groups, each discussing a different issue. Participants reassembled to bring their discussion to the whole group and to make some decisions.

The group chose not to name a leader or a leadership committee. It did not even pick a name for the new organization at this point. Instead, it created several committees and asked them to perform certain tasks. The group created the following committees:

1. One committee will be in charge of legally chartering two groups. The U.S. Basic Income Guarantee (USBIG) Network, which has existed since 1999 without an official legal charter, will become a U.S. nonprofit organization—a so-called 501(c)(3). This means that it will be able to accept tax-deductible donations, but it will not be able to do overtly political work. The second organization (yet to be named) will be chartered as a social welfare organization or a lobbying group with a 501(c)(4) tax designation. This means that it will be able to do overtly political work, but donations to it will not be tax-deductible. The following members have so far joined the committee to charter the two organizations:

CONTACT PERSON: Steven Shafarman 
Ian Ash Schlakman 
Jason Burke Murphy 
Mark Witham 
Eri Noguchi 
Dan O'Sullivan 

2. A committee was created to organize the next meeting of the unnamed political group. The USBIG Network meets once a year at the NABIG Congress (which alternates each year between the U.S. and Canada), but the political group will meet more often. The committee hopes to organize the next meeting within 3 to 6 months. The committees within the unnamed political group will probably meet earlier via the internet. The following members volunteered to organize the next meeting of the unnamed group:

CONTACT PERSON: Mark Witham 
Jude Thomas 
Diane Pagen 
Ann Withorn 
Dorothy Howard 

3. The content creation committee is in charge of research, news reporting, social media presence, and media relations.

CONTACT PERSON: Jason Burke Murphy 
Contact for people interested in the NewsFlash and BI News: Karl Widerquist 
Contact for people interested in improving the Basic Income articles on Wikipedia: Dorothy Howard 
Scott Santens 

4. The regional network committee will work on establishing local chapters of the group in cities and towns across the United States. The contact person for this committee is:
Kristine Osbakken 

5. Liane Gaile and Ann Withorn agreed to be the contact people for the four working groups on women & Basic Income, basic income & the new economy, and basic income as an anti-poverty policy.

The organizers of this new group without a name put out a nationwide call to anyone who wants to get involved. If people would like to join one of the existing committees or propose a new committee, please email the relevant committee contacts and volunteer. If you don’t know which committee to contact, the two groups have two general contact people:

Contacts:
The unnamed political group: Jason Burke Murphy 
The USBIG Network coordinator: Michael Howard 

The Following people signed the attendance sheet at the meeting:

Ann Withorn
Buffy Cain
Dan O'Sullivan
Diane Pagen
Dorothy Howard
Felix Coeln
Ian Ash Schlakman
Jason Burke Murphy
Jesse Alexander Myerson
Joel Cabrera
Johannes Ponader
Jude Thomas
Karl Widerquist
Kristine Osbakken
Leah Grace
Liane Gale
Mark Witham
Mary Bricker-Jenkins
Michael Bohmeyer
Michael Lewis
Mike Sandler
Mitchel Cohen
Peter Barnes
Ron Rubin
Scott Santens
Scott Simpson
Steven Shafarman
Eduardo Suplicy
Tristan Roberts
Tristan Mantel-Hoffmann
Victor Chudnovsky

===========================================================
Karl Widerquist
Associate Professor at SFS-Qatar, Georgetown University
3300 Whitehaven Street, N.W.
Suite 2100, Harris Building
Washington, D.C. 20007-2401
US cell phone: +1 504-261-0891
Qatar cell phone: +974 5508-9323
Qatar office phone: +974 4457-8384
Qatar fax: +974 4457-8231
EMAIL: Karl@widerquist.com
Website: http://works.bepress.com/widerquist/
===========================================================

_______________________________________________

This e-mail circulated and distributed by:
-- 
Alan L. Maki

58891 County Road 13
Warroad, Minnesota 56763

Cell: 651-587-5541

E-mail: alan.maki1951mn@gmail.com