Some thoughts about where we go after these Mid-term elections

Jerry Rose November 5 at 4:58pm Reply• Report

After the elections: time to change our socks
This to those Friends--well over a thousand---who have participated so heartfully in the just-completed elections, which I think we can say in honesty were rather disastrous for the progressive political cause in America. Electoral victories for progressive populist candidates and even on ballot initiatives were few and far between, though these campaigns were far from "wasted" because they helped to build the momentum toward an ultimate triumph of "the people" over the military/corporate interests which dominated the results of this election.
What now? For my suggested answer, I'd like you to go to the article I've just posted on Principled Progressive: "Now That the Election is Ended, Let the Politics Begin."
http://sunstateactivist.org/ssablog/?p=540
This message is to ask our Facebook friends across the nation and world to begin the process of organizing local chapters of a People's Caucus that, in the brief opportunity furnished by a hiatus in frequent elections, can create a center for carrying into everyday political action the agenda of Voices for the People which is the vision of Campaign Corner. Without "candidates" in each state and perhaps each community, we need "convenors," men and women who will step forward, with the assistance of the Corner, to start the process of post-election "service" of, by, and for the people in your locality. If you're the first to offer your services as a convenor, you'll get that job, to be assisted by later volunteers from your region, maybe divided by, say, different parts of your state (up and down state, etc.)
So yes, the election is over, but your City Commission meets tomorrow, a Public Service Commission is holding a hearing on a new nuclear plant in your town. Yes indeed, "politics" goes on---will you be going on, or waiting for the next election to get involved?
Jerry D. Rose
www.facebook.com/campaigncorner

NOW THAT THE ELECTION IS OVER, LET THE POLITICS BEGIN

sunstateactivist.org

Political pundits and garden variety political junkies (like me) are still poring over the results of Tuesday’s election, which appears on its face and may be underneath the skin as well to have been a terrible beating for the progressive cause in America. Angry and upset Americans have endured a c

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Alan L. Maki November 5 at 8:38pm

Most elections in this country have been a disaster for liberals, progressives and the left... for working people in general and for the entire world.
Obama's election was the biggest disaster of all for liberals, progressives and the left.
Liberals, progressives and the left should make sure Obama is a one-term president and either "primary him out" and/or run a progressive against him in the 2012 Election... this Wall Street flim-flam man and con-artist who is a health insurance salesman posturing as a president is nothing but a warmonger and war criminal just like George Bush.

David Bell November 6 at 5:52am Reply• Report

Alan,
Which progressives would you suggest run against Obama?
I'm still uninsured!

Jerry Rose November 6 at 6:33am Reply• Report

How about a ticket of Feingold and Grayson? Both lost their seats in Congress to GOP/Tea party forces. Who better to stand up for the Democratic Party to those forces to which Obama will no doubt kow-tow? (Already he's said maybe no repeal of tax cuts for wealthy, no carbon emissions standards, and that's just in the first 4 days. Man give him time! Jerry Rose

Alan L. Maki November 6 at 11:11am

@David... I think it should be an interracial ticket to start with; a man and a woman. I also think a cabinet should be announced so people see what they are really going to get and I think this ticket and its cabinet should reflect full political diversity of liberal, progressive and left.
I also think that this "team" needs to make a commitment to the American people that if they are not successful in getting Obama "primaried out" they will run on a third party ticket.
I'm not sure specific names are all that important at this point... rather, I think liberals, progressive and left activists have to agree to sit down and hammer out a very simple and basic program that a wide section of the American people who tend to be liberal, progressive and left can relate to with ending these dirty wars at the very top of the agenda explaining that there can be no progress on solving social/economic problems without ending these wars and advancing the idea we need to tax the hell out of the rich in order to began real wealth redistribution.
Hammer out such a program and then find out who is willing to run on that program. This crap of we are supposed to kiss the ass of any politician looking to get a soft job in politics at are expense has to end.
If Feingold or Grayson or anyone else wants to run on a platform developed by the people let them come forward and put their name to the platform and state their willingness to run on the platform with the intent of fighting to fulfill this platform once elected... there should be a clear clause in this platform that all aid and support to the Israeli killing machine needs to end.
Such a platform should explain that the way to create jobs is the government becoming the employer of first choice by creating the kind of universal public social programs we need... like health care and child care... we have to state flat out that we are not going to put up with waiting for small business or private enterprise to solve the unemployment problem. Between national public health care and child care programs some 15,000,000 people can be put to work and their work will be socially useful labor.
I don't think it is so much "who" runs representing liberals, progressives and the left... it is more a question of what who runs is representing.
While a true progressive like someone like George McGovern would be great (he is too old) I am sure that if the American people saw a cabinet that reflected diversity in race, gender and class along with real liberal, progressive and left track records just about any liberal would be ok to run for president... Finegold or Grayson would be ok with me... as would Cynthia McKinney or Cindy Sheehan.
I have been traveling quite extensively talking with people... it seems a lot of activists would like to see some kind of "open letter" distributed across the country... kind of an open letter to the American people in the form of an "Appeal to Reason from liberals, progressives and the left" articulating the role of government, talking about the need to defend the entire U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights and not pick and choose what sections to support and call for the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights to become more than mere words on a piece of paper as all too often is the case with the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights.
We need to point out that the military-financial-industrial complex leaves behind the biggest carbon footprint of all and ending this insanity is more important than changing out light-bulbs.
Things like the need to start enforcing affirmative action along with a moratorium on ending home foreclosures and evictions needs to be addressed.
Liberals, progressives and the left comprise the largest voting block in this country... if the votes end up being split by three or four or even five parties such a liberal, progressive left electoral coalition has a good chance of being very successful sooner, rather than later... but, if we don't act in this manner we remain the captives of Wall Street... caught in the two party trap and without any power to defend our interests, our lives and our livelihoods.

What gives… workers want unions and peace--- they get fired and they get wars.

Alan L. Maki

Frances Perkins, FDR's Secretary of Labor, pointed out very often that unless workers know they will be protected by the government when they organize, very few organizing drives take place.

I had a meeting a week ago with the head of the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED)... their office is full of publications they send out to employers (even when not requested by the employer) booklet after booklet teaching employers how to stop union organizing drives and campaigns. The employers are taught how to fire workers under Minnesota's (and some 28 states have similar legislation) "at-will hiring, at will firing" legislation. In other words... as long as the employer gives no reason for firing a worker the firing is considered legitimate and legal.

So, I asked the Commissioner: "Where are the publications you distribute to workers teaching them how to organize?"

For asking this this question, Mr. McElroy told me to leave his office.
At first I thought he was joking since we hadn't even begun to discuss our business... but, when he called security I knew he was no longer joking.
The "state" is aligned against workers and workers know it... and this is what gets passed off as "democracy."

I brought this issue of the need to repeal "At-will hiring; at-will firing" before the State Convention of the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party on two occasions in the form of a resolution from the floor since several other times, even though the resolution was supported by over 150 precinct caucuses, it was never authorized by the resolutions committee.

Guess who the primary opposition came from? None other than Ray Waldron the then President of the Minnesota AFL-CIO who told his labor delegates to remain seated and vote "no." Only two local unions had their delegates rise in support.
Waldron later told me at the MN AFL-CIO convention that he really supported my resolution (ya... sure, you betcha) but that its passage would have destroyed the MN DFL because labor only has about a quarter of the delegates and big-business and professionals and small business the rest.

 
CUPE Saskatchewan published what I think is one of the most important books any working person could ever read. The book. "Class, State and Power: The Struggle for Trade Union Rights in Saskatchewan, 1905-1997" written by the late Glen Makahonuk who served CUPE in various capacities and was the President of the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour... from whom I think this book can still be obtained.

It seems like union organizing should be such a simple task, yet because every worker understands they are bucking employers backed by the "state" organizing a union remains one of the most difficult tasks--- even when the majority of workers want the union--- its kind of like the entire Nation wants these dirty wars to end and one would expect the democratic will of the people to be supreme... but, real life offers up something completely different to the democracy that is preached and boasted of by both the U.S. and Canadian governments--- the two greatest bastions of democracy in the world to hear these hypocrites tell it.

Let the Republicans get rid of Obama’s health care legislation… why fight them?

The "Health Insurance and Pharmaceutical Industry Bailout and Profit Maximization Act of 2010" should be repealed in its entirety and in its place we nee a "National Public Health Care Act." This would establish 30,000 neighborhood health care centers across the country providing the American people with free health care while creating around ten-million new decent and good-paying jobs financed with the funds saved from ending these wars in combination with a tax on the rich with, if needed, a tax on employees and employers similar to how Social Security is funded.

Why would anyone waste their time defending Obama's thoroughly rotten health care legislation which is only dividing this country... we wouldn't expect private enterprise and the free market to teach our children to read and write... we trust the public schools to do this and the public schools, when adequately financed, do this job very well. A public health care system is the only way to go.

In fact, with VA, the Indian Health Service and the National Public Health Service we already have the foundation of a National Public Health Care System and I don't see one single Tea Bagger or Republican calling for ending any of these three agencies or refusing their care and services. 

If the American Medical Association doesn't like this kind of arrangement today any better than they liked it when Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins first advocated for this kind of National Public Health Care System they can go to hell... there are plenty of current students from poor families in universities and colleges who with a little more training would love to have jobs employed as doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals if the had a nice guaranteed living income.

Not only is the right-wing opposed to Obama's stupid health care legislation that leaves insurance & pharmaceutical companies along with money-grubbing greedy doctors in charge and reaping huge profits; but just about every single liberal, progressive and leftist that I know is opposed to this legislation.

Let us face reality--- a lot of you participated in a dirty campaign to undermine single-payer universal health care telling us the lie that a "public option" was going to be part of the legislation... another truth--- it wasn't the Republicans who prevented a "public option" it was the very Democrats who have been bankrolled and supported for years by the labor unions.

Now you expect us to drop everything to fight to defend a thoroughly rotten and reactionary piece of Obama's legislation because it is going to be attacked by Republicans and Kochs' John Birchers and Tea Baggers.

Here is an article from the Wall Street Journal about who is setting doctor fees for Medicare... and you are silent and quiet like a church mouse:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704657304575540440173772102.html

Please, explain why you are silent about this bilking of the Medicare system?

Minnesota… the DFL state

Alan L. Maki

I'm wondering why the roads are so bad here in Minnesota when we had the long-time congressman, Jim Oberstar, as chair of the House Transportation Committee--- could it be that most of the funding allocated for roads, highways and bridges made its way in the form of profits into the pockets of engineering and construction firms who skimp on materials creating shoddy roads, highways and bridges and while Oberstar was shaking hands with construction workers boasting to them how they owed having their jobs to him with his other hand behind his back waiting to grasp a handout from management?

They talk about the "bridge to no-where" in Alaska while James Oberstar secured millions of dollars for funding for a road out into the Big Bog up here in northern Minnesota so a Canadian firm can truck away the profits in a peat mining boon-doggle that could destroy this entire freshwater aquifer--- the largest freshwater aquifer in the lower 48.

True, Minnesota is mostly DFL--- when most people vote.

However, most people don't want top vote anymore because the "F" for farmer means nothing anymore; the "L" for labor just stands for a bunch of corrupt high-paid union officials who go out for lunch with management to have a good laugh over the problems workers complain about... and the "D" definitely has very little to do with democracy.

Brian Melendez, the MNDFL Chair who as a corporate attorney makes more than one-million dollars a year; rather than supporting Mark Dayton's call to "tax the hell out of the rich" to fund socially necessary and useful programs like public education, sent his party hacks out across the state to assure big-business interests who are among his law firm's clients, that they wouldn't have to worry because most Democrats in the Minnesota State Legislature wouldn't go along with his "crazy ideas to tax the wealthy."

Mark Dayton like Rudy Perpich, is going to have to fight the big-business interests who control and manipulate the DFL to their ends.

When we can say that the DFL fights to strengthen democracy (by-the-way; how many DFL'ers did you hear speak out against the Red Squad raids on peace and socialist activists?); fights to protect what remains of the family farms and for the rights of farm workers employed by big-agribusiness; and stands up to extend the rights of all other workers protected by state and federal labor laws to 40,000 casino workers now employed in the smoke-filled casinos at poverty wages and without any rights because of the creation of these "Compacts" created by the Democrats at the behest of casino managements who now contribute the bulk of campaign funding to these Democrats for their loyalty... then, and only then, can we once again be proud to boast that Minnesota is a "DFL state."

There are many people who would like to forget that we are the DFL because the Democratic Party and the socialist Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party merged. Many Minnesotans want to know why sleaze-balls like John McCarthy and his Minnesota Indian Gaming Association are calling all the shots in the MNDFL instead of those loyal to the ideas and thinking of our greatest and most respected governors, Floyd Olson and Elmer Benson and Congressman John Bernard.

Olson and Benson's portraits hang in our state capitol building alongside those of the other governors but their ideas have been smothered... not by Republican Tea Baggers, but by corporate Democrats.

My response to a socialist who thinks we socialists need to be more open with our ideas…

I think that is a good idea that socialists finally stand up and speak for ourselves instead of letting the Tea Baggers and every other two-bit capitalist apologist from Obama to Alan Greenspan define who we are and what we stand for. We also need to articulate in great detail socialist solutions to our many problems.

The catalyst for all real change of benefit to working people has always come from the left.

So, why isn't the left bringing forward real solutions to problems as part of explaining what socialists think? For some reason, the left in this country is unable or unwilling to speak to the American people with a united voice for real change.

For instance; I think we need to ask why the left has not developed some very common solutions to basic problems... health care and childcare come to mind... housing could easily be included.

But, we need to be explaining how unemployment can be addressed by putting people to work solving the problems we face... end the wars and free up funds for a national public health care system that will create around ten-million jobs staffing and maintaining 30,000 neighborhood health care centers providing people with free health care... instead of 800 U.S. military bases spread out across the globe protecting Wall Street's interests courtesy of the U.S. taxpayer, we would build 800 health care bases enabling a neighborhood system of healthcare centers to flourish.

Public education works in this way and it works well.

We wouldn't trust the "free market" to teach our kids to read and write why would we trust the "free market" to provide adequate health care when we know Wall Street's only incentive is to turn a profit for its coupon clippers.

I have traveled widely talking with people about this kind of approach and people would even find it acceptable to finance a health care system the same way we finance Social Security... but, the struggle should be to redistribute wealth to pay for universal social programs by "taxing the hell out of the rich."

Here in one small paragraph we articulate socialist thinking yet our socialist organizations have trouble agreeing to bring this concept forward as part of a united platform for real change.

What would be the result if every single socialist (and I use the word in the very broadest sense) were to wage a campaign in their local newspapers and other media expressing this kind of approach? Would we not be building a leftwing version of the Tea Party movement that would become a real force to be reckoned with? Do we really need these "Progressives for Obama" to articulate socialist positions so that when they go off confused supporting a worthless flim-flam man and con artist like Obama we can not articulate our socialist positions using the mainstream media?
We need a similar approach to childcare and housing.

I agree with you completely; the American people need to hear from us socialists what socialism really is. Are we socialists up for the challenge?

Minnesota politics just created a massive vacuum for liberals, progressives and the left to fill…

Now is the time for liberals, progressives and the left to clearly articulate an agenda for real change where the needs of people come before corporate profits and real reforms are paid for with peace dividends derived from ending these dirty wars.

The sooner we free ourselves from the two-party trap the better and now is the time to do this... Mark Dayton will be facing opposition from not only Republicans but most of his own Democrats... what a shame... will he come to the same conclusion Rudy Perpich did that real change will only come through the creation of a new political party? Hopefully Dayton draws this conclusion sooner rather than later because the closer he placed himself to Obama the more he placed his own campaign in jeopardy... we are very fortunate there wasn't time for another Obama or Biden visit to Minnesota.

Brian Melendez and the corporate Democrats should be driven from the leadership of the MNDFL... these corporate Democrats distributed more Margaret Anderson-Kelliher t-shirts for the state DFL convention than what they produced in yard signs for Mark Dayton.

Mark Dayton received mere lip-service support from this corporate DFL leadership.

In fact, Mark Dayton owes his victory to the Warriors for Justice who nominated him on the state DFL convention floor which showed Minnesota Democrats that Margaret Anderson-Kelliher, the choice of corporate Democrats, was a loser. Without this massive demonstration of support shown for Dayton from the grassroots DFL'ers on the state convention floor, the nomination of Margaret Anderson-Kelliher would have been a done deal and we would have another worthless Republican Governor.

We have seen how independent political initiatives properly organized can bring about real change... if Mark Dayton is smart he will meet with Nicole Beaulieu and Greg Paquin as one of his first orders of business to determine how affirmative action will be enforced.

The racist arrogance of Jim Oberstar finally was responsible for doing him in... it is just too bad that liberals, progressives and the left didn't rise to the occasion to defeat this epitome of corrupt politics long ago.

Peace is at the center of every question and these dirty wars are the primary barrier to solving our pressing problems…

• I don't mean to suggest that everything else needs to be set aside to take up the question of peace; instead, in my opinion, peace needs to be emphasized in all the struggles for social and economic justice but I seriously doubt that as long as our tax-dollars and resources are being squandered on these wars we will be solving many problems. There is now a crisis of everyday living for tens of millions of people in this country and around the world when it comes to food, housing and healthcare and we should advocate without let-up for solving all problems surrounding the denial of these basic necessities of life for people. Here in the United States the questions of food and housing can be addressed and resolved merely by the proper response of a change in government policies and programs... food prices should be brought under strict control since government handouts to big agri-businesses have resulted in monopoly price-fixing and the same big agri-businesses are still being paid NOT to produce food through reactionary and regressive tax policies and all kinds of government subsidies to big agri-businesses not to produce food. As far as housing... the first order of business has to be a moratorium on home foreclosures and evictions and the Wall Street banks should be ordered to allow the millions of people who have been foreclosed on and evicted to move back into their homes... on top of this, we have millions of good quality unsold homes and unrented apartments in this country sitting vacant... people without homes and those living in substandard housing should be moved in and if there is still a housing problem we should move to have the government fully underwrite Habitat for Humanity and expand the program as needed.
  Solving the healthcare mess is very simple if the needs of people for access to healthcare are placed before corporate profit... the only thing required is that we take the exact same approach to healthcare as we take towards education--- we need a fully national public healthcare system providing free healthcare through neighborhood healthcare centers... this would create around ten-million new jobs. The exact same approach should be taken towards childcare: a national public childcare system.
  There are a variety of ways to pay for all of this which the majority of the American people will find acceptable... end the wars and use the resources and funds for these social needs, tax the hell out of the rich... when it comes to healthcare and childcare, I am sure that most people in this country would be more than willing to finance these two very important public services the same way we do Social Security... after all, it was this last method of financing that was advocated by Frances Perkins, Franklin Roosevelt's Secretary of Labor, who called for national public healthcare and national public childcare which together would create some 15,000,000 new jobs.
  I think we have got to put before the American people the fact that the only way to very quickly create decent jobs with good living wages that will give working people money to spend on the things they require for full and complete lives that is key to economic recovery is to create jobs solving the problems of the people... there is only one way to economic recovery and that way is to work our way out of this economic depression; not spend out way out in a way that enables Wall Street to reap greater profits.
  The time has come to put people before corporate profits of Wall Street.
  I do find it interesting that Wall Street thrives while most people suffer and the greatest profits Wall Street reaps are the profits caused by the greatest human misery of all: wars.

Democrats defeated because they failed to deliver as promised

Alan L. Maki

The reason for the Democrats staggering defeat at the polls has but one cause:

Barack Obama and the Democrats failed to deliver peace and they saddled the American people with the "Health Insurance and Pharmaceutical Industry Bailout and Profit Maximization Act of 2010" instead of delivering a national public health care system which would have provided the American people with free health care and created ten-million new jobs... kick in a national public childcare system and you add another five-million new jobs.

The more Obama and the Democrats pushed reactionary thinking that private industry and small business through the "free market economy" would create jobs the more disillusioned working people became with the Democrats and if the truth be known, working people never were too thrilled with Obama or the Democrats they voted for them out of disdain for the Republicans... now what we have in this country is mass confusion and its likely going to remain this way until the working class gets re-oriented and gets actively engaged in the class struggle.

Liberal, progressive and left thinking is still the dominant thought pattern in the United States but there is no organized movement for these people to relate to.
I see where "leaders" of the CPUSA which should be bringing clear thinking to the working class is now blaming the Democratic Party defeat on another strawman: "left-wing kooks and crazies who didn’t vote" rather than providing any kind of comprehensive analysis of why this has taken place--- of course it might help if this CPUSA leadership could hold back their tears of joy still streaming down their faces over the election of Barack Obama to try and figure out what class Obama is working for.

Democrats divided on Obama in 2012

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/30/AR2010103004260.html

 

Democrats divided on Obama in 2012

By Alan Fram

...Sunday, October 31, 2010

Democratic voters are closely divided over whether President Obama should be challenged within the party for a second term in 2012, an Associated Press-Knowledge Networks Poll finds.

A real Democratic challenge to Obama seems unlikely at this stage, and his reelection bid is a long way off. But the findings underscore how disenchanted his party has grown heading into the congressional elections Tuesday.

The AP-KN poll has tracked a group of people and their views since the beginning of the 2008 presidential campaign. Among Democrats, 47 percent say Obama should be challenged for the 2012 nomination and 51 percent say he should not be opposed.

Those favoring a contest include most who backed Hillary Rodham Clinton's unsuccessful faceoff against Obama for the 2008 nomination.

Among all 2008 voters, 51 percent say he deserves to be defeated in November 2012 while 47 percent support his reelection - essentially a tie.

Political operatives and polling experts caution that Obama's poll standings say more about people's frustrations today with the economy and other conditions than they do about his reelection prospects. With the next presidential election two years away, the public's view of Obama could easily improve if the economy revives or if he outmaneuvers Republicans on Capitol Hill or in the presidential campaign.

 
"Democrats currently disappointed with Obama will likely be less disappointed if he spends the next two years fighting a GOP Congress" should Republicans do well on Election Day, said Charles Franklin, a University of Wisconsin political science professor and polling analyst.

The “perfect candidate” and “political perfection”

Winston Borden I have never met a perfect candidate. When I look in the mirror--I know why. The anger and bitterness in this election year is not so much a reflection on the candidates as it is on how we live our lives. Want a perfect candidate, then have the courage to run yourself. Don't vote? And blame who for the choices they make? Doesn't sound like a perfect strategy to me.

 

 

Alan L. Maki

‎@Winston... I don't know of anyone looking for "perfection" in politics... just some basic common human decency and accountability... some honesty wouldn't hurt, either.
Politics has got to become a two-way street--- politicians and political parties have no right to expect votes they have not done anything to justify receiving.
What we need is a new political party like the real Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party of Floyd Olson, Elmer Benson and John Bernard.
Why would I turn over my one precious vote to any politician who repeatedly votes against the interests of working people and for big-business.
The top leadership of the MNDFL, including Brian Melendez, has been undermining Mark Dayton's campaign from day one. The MNDFL does not represent working people even though a few of its candidates do and the majority of its grassroots activists are working people who get the shaft every time they ask for help in solving their problems. Let the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association come along with big fat campaign contributions and now we have over 40,000 Minnesotans working in smoke-filled casinos at poverty wages without any rights under state or federal labor laws. This puts over 200,000 Minnesotans in poverty and without access to healthcare. Mark Dayton has agreed to push for affirmative action and the building of a state-owned, state-managed casino industry competing with the mobsters in the Indian Gaming Industry--- profits would be ear-marked for public education. These casino workers would be state employees. We see these casino managements who funded the DFL to the hilt now backing Republican Tom Emmer... let me ask you, Winston: How come no one is going to these casino managements telling them they shouldn't expect "perfection" from Mark Dayton when he is the one and only candidate for governor who has boldly stepped forward calling for enforcement of affirmative action as a way to break the back of institutionalized, systemic, structural and ideological racism in one of the states with a very large Native American Indian population yet not one single Native American Indian sits among the more than two-hundred state legislators and the DFL leadership of Brian Melendez had the unmitigated gall to wage a campaign to keep two Native American candidates off the ballot when the two racist bigots running on the DFL ticket--- Senator Mary Olson and Representative John Persell--- could have been "primaried out" very easily to make way for Nicole Beaulieu and Gregory Paquin.
Make no mistake, no one is talking about "perfection;" we are talking about peace, human rights and human dignity; ending unemployment by putting people to work solving the problems of the people.
It is not perfection to expect Democrats to bring forward a plan for a national public health care system that would put ten-million unemployed people to work providing the American people with free healthcare in the exact same way we provide everyone with a free public education. Ditto for a national public childcare system.
End these dirty wars to pay for it and put 15,000,000 unemployed people to work solving these problems of the people... make "Habitat for Humanity" a massive government public works project and put another 5,000,000 unemployed people to work instead of bombing people out of their homes in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan... again, this is basic common sense combined with fundamental human decency we have a right to expect from all political parties and public officials... for the most part the Democratic Party is no better than the Republicans.
This is not about "perfection;" this is about politicians earning votes they are not otherwise entitled to.
The vote each and every worker is entitled to is not something that should be surrendered without receiving something in return that makes life better for everyone.
Think about this:
The Democrats had every opportunity to solve the unemployment problem by putting the unemployed and under-employed to work solving the pressing problems of the people... Barack Obama and his entourage of Wall Street appointments CHOSE to wage wars instead of solving the problems of the people--- thus making life worse all the way around for hundreds of millions of people... we have all become victims of these dirty wars yet not one single Democratic candidate for the U.S. House or U.S. Senate is asking the all important question even as they posture as "economic populists:"
How is Obama's war economy working for you?
Why isn't this most basic and fundamental question being asked on this Election Day?
This is not about "perfection;" this is about ending the killing and using our tax-dollars and our Nation's resources putting people to work solving the healthcare mess and providing relief to working class families who need childcare. This is about building and restoring hundreds of thousands of homes so people can live in basic human dignity with a roof over their heads at a time when Obama and the Democrats continue to allow Wall Street bankers to foreclose and evict.
Not once have I suggested we seek anything that amounts to political "perfection" yet you toss the "strawman" of "political perfection" at me.

There is no politician more deserving of being defeated than the crooked and corrupt James Oberstar

Alan L. Maki

United States Congressman James “Jim” Oberstar is nothing but a worthless crook... liberals, progressives and the left should have given him the boot long ago... he is a worthless self-serving politician who talks out of one side of his mouth in breakfast meetings with the mining, forestry, engineering and construction firm managements and then goes talks out of the other side of his mouth at union meetings at night. Oberstar gives full and complete meaning to the word "schizophrenic." I once followed Oberstar around International Falls for a day… he told the Boise executives one story, a group of local elected officials another version of the same cock-and-bull story and another version to High School students and yet another version of the same story with a whole new twist to union members employed at Boise later that same evening… I felt like asking: Will the real Jim Oberstar please stand up?

Oberstar had the nerve to get up in front of over two-hundred people at the Freeman Forum on "Water, Water Everywhere" and called me a "liar" for saying that he backed the destructive peat mining in the Big Bog. He then went on to tell another lie... that he never heard anything about peat mining in the Big Bog even though it was he who personally boasted on the radio that he had brought through the deal which would create, "Jobs, Jobs, Jobs." Oberstar wasn't lying about creating these jobs--- all thirty of them that will pay $8.00 an hour according to Oberstar.

Oberstar is now supporting the ruinous sulfide mining on the Iron Range.
Oberstar supported allowing MinnTac to cleanse its tailing reservoir--- Clearwater Reservoir (now there is some name for one of the most contaminated bodies of water on earth)--- into either the Dark River or St. Louis watersheds... actually, Oberstar has the brilliant idea to allow the contamination of both watersheds because in his opinion dilution is the solution to pollution.

I find it interesting that Aaron Brown never suggested Oberstar's defeat by liberals, progressives and the left... the only real voices for real change and Oberstar has always been a thoroughly reactionary politician day in and day out; except on one special day: Election Day when he needs workers' votes to get elected... when Oberstar talks to working people he always shakes their hand... unfortunately his other hand is always extended behind his back ready to accept bribes from the mining, forestry, banking, telecommunications, engineering and construction firms.
Alaska may have a "bridge to nowhere" but while Oberstar was at the helm... a bridge collapsed and people died... have we forgotten?

Perhaps it is just wishful thinking that Oberstar will be defeated…

We need an analysis of those supporting Barack Obama who call themselves liberals, progressives and leftists not more analysis of where the American people stand in relation to these wars...

Alan L. Maki said...


There are only three wars the majority of the American people were ever in favor of winning--- the Civil War, the Spanish Civil War and World War II.



All other U.S. wars have been imperialist wars without the support of the majority of the people.



The American people in their overwhelming majority have been able to discern just from unjust wars. Even if the United States could "win" the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan the majority of the American people would not support these imperialist wars.



The real question is not whether or not the American people support these wars but: What can we do to end the wars.



The Rag Blog still continues to cling to supporting Obama... the need to expose Barack Obama as a Wall Street imperialist warmonger is what is needed; not more analysis about how the majority of the American people feel about these dirty imperialist wars.



As long as there are significant numbers of liberals, progressives and leftists clinging to supporting Obama rather than finding a way to make sure he is a one-term president with a liberal-progressive-left coalition pro-peace, anti-imperialist agenda pushing him from office these wars are going to continue.



I would suggest that the Rag Blog analyze its own contribution towards prolonging these dirty wars as it very selectively gives voice without any challenge or debate to the phoney liberals, progressives and leftists who continue backing Obama who are the ones holding back building the kind of massive coalition required to end these dirty wars and occupations.



Oct 23, 2010 3:44:00 PM

Are the wars killing the economy along with jobs and people?

Pat Porter

‎'Obama chose the Wall Street Agenda over solving the problems of the people'...I would like to focus on that remark for a moment. The problems of the people are directly connected to the health of our economy. Would have rathered that the... banks fail? Would you rather have more people unemployed because the banks went belly up...which were the conditions the proceeded the last depression? Your argument is not logical. FDR created jobs through programs like WPA, Conservation Corp. and many others...and that is what we will have to do soon in order for people to get jobs and participate in this economy. What you are proposing may seem honorable to you but in my opinion is foolish at best. All it will do is give the GOP one more chance to screw us even more. There are no progressive candidates prepared to run, unless I am missing something here.

Alan L. Maki

We don't know who might be prepared to run yet.
I have from day one been pushing for WPA and CCC type programs... anyone can go read my blogs.
You miss the point completely, Pat; the point is YOU are not asking or answering the most important... question of all:
How is Obama's and the Democrats' war economy working for YOU?
There isn't any economy under any economic system that can survive a war economy.
This country has been on a war economy since World War II.
The Iraq and Afghanistan wars have cost us more than World War II and have gone on twice as long.
Obama and the Democrats are pushing these wars to continue... for our own livelihoods and a better world we need to push the masters of war and the merchants of death and destruction from public office--- and this includes the foremost warmonger of our times... Barack Obama who has had every opportunity and the full support of the American people to bring an end to these wars that kill jobs just like they kill people.
Pat, do you really expect any thinking person to believe that the main and primary reason for this failing economy is not these wars? Financing these wars has taken money from the pockets of working people and severely restricted the money they have to spend.
If this same amount of money was spent on WPA, CCC and social programs like a public health care system and a national public childcare system these programs solving the problems of working people would create well over twenty-million good-paying jobs and we would have a very robust economy.
Pat, you state:
"FDR created jobs through programs like WPA, Conservation Corp. and many others...and that is what we will have to do soon in order for people to get jobs and participate in this economy."
I agree... but, why don't you explain where the money for these programs is going to come from?
Again, it is Obama and the Democrats spending money on wars instead of spending our taxes how they should be spent... just how you suggest.
Let me tell you a little fact, Pat; It doesn't make one dime's bit of difference if it is Democrats or Republicans voting to spend our money on these wars--- they are the same dirty wars funded by the exact same money.
In a very round about way; you have made my point.
If we can't find the progressive candidates to run... I would suggest we all just bend over; put our heads between our legs; and kiss our butts good-bye.

Too “apathetic” or “lazy” to vote? Or just no choices?

• 

  Timothy Wheeler Think about Medgar Evers, shot to death in his driveway in Mississippi for organizing Black people to vote. It is a right that oceans of blood was spilled to win. Do not forfeit that right out of laziness or apathy. If you are not registered to vote, do it NOW! The deadline is NOW! Karl Rove is depending on you staying home Nov. 2 to give the Republicans majority control of the House and Senate. Vote Nov. 2!

  • • 

      Alan L. Maki

      Perhaps you could post a list of Democrats and others worth voting for based on the positions taken by those running for the U.S. House and U.S. Senate and for Governors?
      Maybe start with those who are opposed to funding the Israeli killing ...machine and work towards issues like those opposed to funding these dirty wars (and occupations) in Iraq and Afghanistan working towards where they stand on government becoming the employer of first choice in ending unemployment and supporting the enforcement of affirmative action (Executive Order #11246).
      Medgar Evers fought for the vote in order that people would be able to participate in electoral struggles to compliment the struggles in the streets to make life better for people of color and all working people.
      There seems to be a "laziness" on the part of some to issue shallow calls for people to vote without taking the time to educate voters where politicians stand on the issues.
      And, when people vote for candidates who work against their own interests because they lack required information about these candidates it doesn't really make any difference if they vote or not. And when voters have no choices at the polls there really is no reason to vote... failing to vote for such a reason is not "apathy" or "laziness."
      I already voted... out of a very long list of candidates for many offices, I voted for only one candidate, Mark Dayton for Governor--- the rest of the candidates for various offices don't care about the problems and concerns of working people so what do I care who wins or loses?
      Believe me, it was not that I was "apathetic" or too "lazy" to vote any of the other races... I intentionally didn't vote, and none of the Republicans that might win could possibly scare me into voting for worthless Democrats.
      In most places across this country when I look at the Democrats running the Republicans aren't scary enough to make me vote Democrat.
      Here in my own Congressional District, Democratic Congressman Colin Petersen, a big Obama booster who won't even put up a yard sign for Mark Dayton for Governor; Peterson boasts that he is more conservative than any Republican. Why would I vote for Peterson?
      Then I look at Barbara Boxer and her shameful support for the
      Israeli killing machine and her support for the managements of the Indian Gaming Industry--- I wouldn't bother wasting my gas or a bus ticket to get to the polls to vote for her as "liberal" as she claims to be.
      In fact, we need to make sure that some of these Democrats are not part of the same political system that caused Medgar Evers to be murdered in his driveway.
      Hasn't anyone compiled the voting records and the positions of all these Democrats you want us to turn out and vote for? In memory of Medgar Evers and all those who gave their lives in the struggle to secure voting rights for everyone, don't we owe it to all these people who sacrificed their lives to at least conduct some education on where the candidates stand on the issues of importance--- like those issues brought forward at the recent October 2 One Nation Working Together march and rally? Remember, what we saw on the signs carried by working people and on their t-shirts is just as important as what was said in the speeches.
      Shouldn't all voters be asked to consider a very important question before they cast their precious votes:
      How is Obama's war economy working for you?
      It just might be that not showing up to vote for many people is their way of answering this question and it is an insult to suggest that people who are offended that candidates are not responding to their needs are "apathetic" and "lazy."
      For instance, had the candidate for Governor that the leader of the Minnesota Communist Party, Erwin Marquit, supported for Minnesota Governor, the candidate--- Margaret Anderson-Kelliher, the candidate of the Summit Hill Club and Democratic Party "Business Caucus" won the Primary Election... I would not have bothered to vote at all... not because I am "lazy" or "apathetic" but I don't need a Democrat shoving a telephone pole up my butt until it hurts any more than a Republican.

Is opposing Barack Obama from liberal/progressive and left positions the same as voting for Republicans?

Pat Porter You might just not bother and just simply vote for republicans because it will create the same result.

 

Alan L. Maki

The "result" is NOT the same as voting Republican when movements for peace, social and economic justice are being built even if Republicans end up winning because powerful movements can do more to influence public policy... this has been demonstrated time and time again... Franklin Roosevelt had a much more reactionary House and Senate to deal with in pushing through the New Deal reforms than does Barack Obama... the difference was the tremendous upsurge of working people demanding change. And, by-the-way, Roosevelt never kicked Frances Perkins or Harry Hopkins "under the bus" as Obama would most certainly do with any of his cabinet members if they were to advocate for social and economic justice as Hopkins and Perkins did--- in fact, when Frances Perkins, FDR's Secretary of Labor, came under attack by Tea Bagger-like rightwing fascist elements who accused her of trying to implement the agenda of the Communist Manifesto with her social programs like Social Security, unemployment compensation and socialized health care she responded, "I would rather see these words on paper put into government policies helping people instead of remaining words on the pages of an old pamphlet." And even the Democrats in Congress joined the Republicans in trying to impeach Frances Perkins... they called her a Bolshevik, they accused her of screwing Communist labor leader Harry Bridges, they accused her of having "affairs with Negros." For her entire period at the helm of the United States Department of Labor (three terms with Roosevelt) Perkins was under constant and unrelenting attack but she stuck to her intent to bring forward a liberal/progressive/left agenda intended to solve the problems of the people... think about this: Social Security solved problems for everyone in this country and look how many hundreds of thousands of jobs were created through the administration of the Social Security system. Public education provides jobs; look at all the government agencies from garbage to water departments providing work for people while solving problems encountered by society.
Barack Obama is focused on private industry as the "solution to unemployment and he is promoting wars that kill jobs just like these wars kill people.
I have no illusions that any politician can work "miracles," however, Obama had tens of millions of people willing and eager to support a progressive agenda that would have of necessity been in opposition to Wall Street's very narrow agenda which has one and only one goal and objective: maximum corporate profits... Obama chose the Wall Street agenda over solving the problems of the people; Obama chose more war instead of peace. No one held a gun to Obama's head forcing him to choose Wall Street over Main Street; Obama made this decision on his own. As such, Obama needs to be pushed from office, not by Republicans and Tea Baggers--- but from the liberals, progressives and the left... and we need to have a candidate of this liberal, progressive,left grouping to challenge Obama in the Democratic primary who is prepared to run as a third party candidate if she/he loses the primary challenge... this is the way to break free from the two-party trap.

No; opposing Obama and the Democrats from liberal, progressive and left positions is not the same as voting Republican even if the Republicans win because the most powerful coalition in this country is the liberal/progressive/left coalition when it is understood that struggles in the streets and at the ballot box must compliment and strengthen one another… and what isn’t won at the ballot box can be won in the streets and victories won in past struggles must be defended at the ballot box and in the streets.

Hey, Small Spender

From: Alan Maki <maki_alan@yahoo.com>
Subject: [Out_Of_The_Frying_Pan] Re: [progressivesforobama] The Spending that Wasn't: Still Another Reason for a Popular Front vs. Finance Capital
To: progressivesforobama@yahoogroups.com
Cc: Out_Of_The_Frying_Pan@yahoogroups.com, "Carl Bloice" <cbloice@comcast.net>, "Carl Davidson" <carld717@aol.com>
Date: Tuesday, October 12, 2010, 12:57 AM

It is not that the "size" of the stimulus spending was inadequate; Krugman shows his true colors on this one... its the fact that all this money was turned over to the private sector.
Those of you in the Progressives for Obama have been afraid to criticize Obama at the time he is making decision every single time.

Anyone can understand that it will take government becoming the employer of first choice in order to get the most "bang for the buck;" more jobs.

You berated alternatives like spending for a national public health care system and a national childcare system because you knew that it would embarrass Obama. Between the two programs some 15,000,000 jobs would be created and still at this late date you refuse to advocate for specific solutions to specific problems.

All of this and more can be paid for by ending these dirty wars and "taxing the hell out of the rich." A federal bank should be created to borrow at substantially lower interest rates so tax-payers reap the profits in interest rates and not Wall Street bankers.

Mark Dayton is calling for "tax the rich" in his campaign for Governor of Minnesota and Virg Bernero running for Governor in Michigan is calling for Michigan to create a state bank like The State Bank of North Dakota.
The Progressives for Obama run away from these concrete suggestions as Barack Obama and the leadership of the Democratic Party is mounting pressure on both Bernero and Dayton--- in fact, their campaigns are being sabotaged by the state and national Democratic Party.

Are you waiting for Paul Krugman to endorse these two ideas? If so, I hope you are holding your breath.

In fact Barack Obama is a HUGE spender; the problem is, not as Krugman claims the spending is too small; the money is not being spent in the correct way with the federal government becoming the employer of first choice investing our tax dollars solving the problems of working people--- solving the problems of working people is what creates jobs. We need to work our way out of this capitalist economic depression not spend our way out... in fact, Barack Obama and Wall Street are afraid to create the kind of massive universal social programs required because they see that once these programs work, they will be defended by the people--- Social Security and public education being perfect examples.

Wall Street apologists and Sooth-sayers are definitely afraid of people realizing that socialism works.

Alan L. Maki
58891 County Road 13
Warroad, Minnesota 56763
Phone: 218-386-2432
Check out my blog:
http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/
--- On Mon, 10/11/10, Carl Davidson <carld717@gmail.com> wrote:

From: Carl Davidson <carld717@gmail.com>
Subject: [progressivesforobama] The Spending that Wasn't: Still Another Reason for a Popular Front vs. Finance Capital
To: "progressivesforobama" <progressivesforobama@yahoogroups.com>, "moderator" <moderator@portside.org>, the-rag-blog-group@googlegroups.com
Date: Monday, October 11, 2010, 12:36 PM

October 10, 2010

Hey, Small Spender

By PAUL KRUGMAN

Here’s the narrative you hear everywhere: President Obama has presided over a huge expansion of government, but unemployment has remained high. And this proves that government spending can’t create jobs.
Here’s what you need to know: The whole story is a myth. There never was a big expansion of government spending. In fact, that has been the key problem with economic policy in the Obama years: we never had the kind of fiscal expansion that might have created the millions of jobs we need.
Ask yourself: What major new federal programs have started up since Mr. Obama took office? Health care reform, for the most part, hasn’t kicked in yet, so that can’t be it. So are there giant infrastructure projects under way? No. Are there huge new benefits for low-income workers or the poor? No. Where’s all that spending we keep hearing about? It never happened.
To be fair, spending on safety-net programs, mainly unemployment insurance and Medicaid, has risen — because, in case you haven’t noticed, there has been a surge in the number of Americans without jobs and badly in need of help. And there were also substantial outlays to rescue troubled financial institutions, although it appears that the government will get most of its money back. But when people denounce big government, they usually have in mind the creation of big bureaucracies and major new programs. And that just hasn’t taken place.
Consider, in particular, one fact that might surprise you: The total number of government workers in America has been falling, not rising, under Mr. Obama. A small increase in federal employment was swamped by sharp declines at the state and local level — most notably, by layoffs of schoolteachers. Total government payrolls have fallen by more than 350,000 since January 2009.
Now, direct employment isn’t a perfect measure of the government’s size, since the government also employs workers indirectly when it buys goods and services from the private sector. And government purchases of goods and services have gone up. But adjusted for inflation, they rose only 3 percent over the last two years — a pace slower than that of the previous two years, and slower than the economy’s normal rate of growth.
So as I said, the big government expansion everyone talks about never happened. This fact, however, raises two questions. First, we know that Congress enacted a stimulus bill in early 2009; why didn’t that translate into a big rise in government spending? Second, if the expansion never happened, why does everyone think it did?
Part of the answer to the first question is that the stimulus wasn’t actually all that big compared with the size of the economy. Furthermore, it wasn’t mainly focused on increasing government spending. Of the roughly $600 billion cost of the Recovery Act in 2009 and 2010, more than 40 percent came from tax cuts, while another large chunk consisted of aid to state and local governments. Only the remainder involved direct federal spending.
And federal aid to state and local governments wasn’t enough to make up for plunging tax receipts in the face of the economic slump. So states and cities, which can’t run large deficits, were forced into drastic spending cuts, more than offsetting the modest increase at the federal level.
The answer to the second question — why there’s a widespread perception that government spending has surged, when it hasn’t — is that there has been a disinformation campaign from the right, based on the usual combination of fact-free assertions and cooked numbers. And this campaign has been effective in part because the Obama administration hasn’t offered an effective reply.
Actually, the administration has had a messaging problem on economic policy ever since its first months in office, when it went for a stimulus plan that many of us warned from the beginning was inadequate given the size of the economy’s troubles. You can argue that Mr. Obama got all he could — that a larger plan wouldn’t have made it through Congress (which is questionable), and that an inadequate stimulus was much better than none at all (which it was). But that’s not an argument the administration ever made. Instead, it has insisted throughout that its original plan was just right, a position that has become increasingly awkward as the recovery stalls.
And a side consequence of this awkward positioning is that officials can’t easily offer the obvious rebuttal to claims that big spending failed to fix the economy — namely, that thanks to the inadequate scale of the Recovery Act, big spending never happened in the first place.
But if they won’t say it, I will: if job-creating government spending has failed to bring down unemployment in the Obama era, it’s not because it doesn’t work; it’s because it wasn’t tried.

We need to push Obama aside to make way for a real peace candidate in 2012…

Alan L. Maki

I think Reaganomics definitely pushed this country into darkness... however, it was the defeat of George McGovern that set this country on the steep slippery slope to perdition.

Liberals, progressives and the left should now begin looking for a real honest-to-goodness progressive like George McGovern to run in 2012... Obama is a loser and if he doesn't resign he should be either "primaried out" or face a real progressive running independent of the Democrats and Republicans; its time, long over-due, to finally set this country on a progressive course that will benefit, not only our own country, but the entire world.

It was the same Wall Street backed Democrats now backing Barack Obama who betrayed George McGovern and the peace majority of this country by with-holding their support for McGovern who now tell us we need to vote for them out of fear of Republicans when it was these very sell-out Democrats who gave us Richard Nixon... and the rest is history.

Liberals, progressives and the left should drive Barack Obama from office the same way we drove Lyndon Johnson from office for expanding the war in Vietnam.
There is no way liberals, progressives and the left should tolerate being intimidated into voting for candidates who are for these dirty wars and keep supporting the Israeli killing machine.

An unanswered question about health care reform

This letter was sent to Maggie Mahar of The Century Foundation which funds Democratic Party front groups and think tanks:

 

Why aren't we talking about a national public health care program (socialized health care)?

This is the only solution to this health care mess created by the for-profit, market driven health care system.

We already have three of the finest socialized health care models to expand and work from: VA, Indian Health Service and the National Public Health Service. Even as under-funded as these public health services are--- they are the best examples of good health care systems in the world.

If we ended these dirty wars that George Bush and the Republicans started with support from the Democrats which Barack Obama and the Democrats now keep going and expanding all on their own, we could use the money now being used to kill people and killing jobs to create the finest public health care system in the world which, in turn, would create up to ten million new jobs.

Here is a formula we should all be considering:

Peace = Socialized health care + Jobs

I work with people employed in the loud, noisy, smoke-filled casinos of the Indian Gaming Industry for whom real health care reform is a matter of life-and-death... working people employed in environments causing diseases and illness should not have to pay a single penny for health insurance.

People went to the polls to elect a president and congress to end these dirty wars, for real health care reform and for creating jobs paying real living wages... what we are getting is more wars, the "Health Insurance Industry Bailout and Profit Maximization Act of 2010" and trillion dollar "stimulus funding" creating poverty wage jobs without the enforcement of Executive Order #11246 (affirmative action).

I look forward to your response. In the meantime, we are telling people we are fed up with the politics of the Democrats and the Republicans:

No peace; no votes.
No public health care system; no votes.
No living wage jobs with affirmative action enforced; no votes.

This is what they call "accountability" in a "democracy."

We are living in the richest country in the world with a Wall Street imposed government that can't even provide its own citizens with something so basic as a fundamental human right like health care as trillions of dollars are squandered on militarism and wars.

We have a President who moonlights as a health insurance salesman who has a bunch of Congressman working for him as if they are part of Amway's pyramid scheme as the health insurance industry rakes in the dough and organizations like The Century Foundation have schemed to undermine even a simple reform like a single-payer universal health care system based upon the Canadian model.

Ms. Mahar--- you and The Century Foundation along with your "partners" like the Campaign for America's Future are playing us all for fools as if every day of the year is April Fool's Day.

Alan L. Maki
Director of Organizing,
Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council

Role of lack of purchasing power by workers in financial crisis…

George Hewison: Strike by big capital in the US in the billions. Big business blames Obama, but the real reason is the lack of purchasing power by workers. Note the Chamber of Congress even refused to meet the White House liaison to discuss the situation.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/14/AR2010071405960.html

www.washingtonpost.com

• My response…

• 

  Alan L. Maki

  I agree with you completely, George. "Lack of purchasing power by workers" is the biggest culprit in this whole financial mess yet it is seldom discussed; although even Robert Reich, Clinton's Labor Secretary, has been mentioning this.
  Obama has been used by big capital for their own purposes; now they are done with him.
  That unused "capital" should be seized by the government and placed in a government created and owned bank like the State Bank of North Dakota... combine these funds with union pension funds, money saved from ending the wars and a nice big tax on the rich and we can create millions of jobs solving the problems of the people including national public health care and child care systems which will put money through wages in the pockets of workers to spend.
  Big capital should be told that we are just borrowing their money until we get the country back up on its feet again and they will receive the same interest that Wall Street bankers have been paying to those with savings accounts... and they should "hope" that things work out better for their assets than how things worked out for all the people who have lost their life savings invested in 401K's and in the homes they have lost.
  We have two very prominent Democratic Party politicians advocating real solutions to this economic mess...
  One is Mark Dayton--- a liberal with some progressive ideas and a very left main objective (although he has some bad ideas to go along with the good)--- here in Minnesota who is advocating "tax the rich" as the main part of his campaign platform as he explains it here:
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlipIaVskPc
  And, here is Virg Bernero the Democratic candidate for governor in Michigan on his proposal for a state bank (Bernero has also called for a moratorium on home foreclosures):
  http://www.detnews.com/article/20100930/POLITICS02/9300381/1022/Bernero-lobbies-for-state-bank
  Both Bernero and Dayton push "private industry" as the key to job creation when it is quite obvious private industry has seized on this economic crisis to squeeze more work out of fewer workers thereby making unemployment and its associated poverty even worse.
  Government is going to have to become the employer of first choice creating huge public programs designed around solving the problems of working people and for the common good of society.

An Open Letter to Leah Daughtry

• 

  Alan L. Maki Leah Daughtry, the Campaign Manager for One Nation Working Together wrote to me and asked for my opinion and suggestions... what follows is my response:

  • • 

      Alan L. Maki

      Leah Daughtry, Campaign Manager for One Nation Working Together;
      Since you are asking me my opinion; I will be blunt and to the point.
      You are in a bind.
      Working people aren't going to turn out at the polls to hand over their votes to Obama and the Democrats because they aren't getting anything in return for their votes.
      In recent days Obama, his Administration and the Democratic Party started trying to bully, badger and intimidate people on the left, progressives and liberals--- all those who comprise the majority of the working class. When this intimidation didn't work to silence these critics Obama began a campaign of outright repression that will soon consume just about every single organization who sponsored and endorsed Oct. 2--- everyone is waiting for their subpoenas... not exactly the kind of atmosphere where people under attack and being kicked under the bus are going to be to encouraged to go knocking on doors and making phone calls let alone wasting their gas to drive to the polls.
      Obama is now changing his tune by telling working people not to worry about how everything he and the Democrats have done have hurt working people because the Republicans will be worse.
      Most people who participated in Oct. 2 did so, not to support Obama and the Democrats, but, to send them a message that they expected the change as it was promised.
      You have not helped matters either the way you first helped derail the single-payer universal health care movement; now you turn around and try to silence the anti-war movement by preventing a discussion as to what the major cause of this economic recession or depression is.
      You didn't want any of the speakers on Oct. 2 posing the question:
      How is Obama's war economy working for you?
      Nor did you want the statement made:
      Obama's wars are killing jobs just like these dirty wars kill people.
      Have you considered looking for help to get out the vote from your buddies at Brownstein/Hyatt/Farber/Schreck who helped you control and manipulate preventing the concerns of working people from rising to the top of the agenda at the Democratic Party National Convention?
      No peace; no votes.
      No jobs; no votes.
      No single-payer universal health care; no votes.
      No enforcement of affirmative action; no votes.
      War really is making all of us and our Nation very poor... so poor we cannot solve our many problems and the thing about this is that it is solving the problems of our people and society which is the way to create jobs.
      I really think you are exaggerating the numbers of people who you say turned out for Oct. 2... but, then again, it is an exaggeration to claim that there is a reason for working people to vote for Democrats who are willing to fund and continue these dirty wars as so many people suffer.
      But, no matter how many people were in Washington on Oct. 2 not many of these people, judging by what was on their shirts, signs and in leaflets handed out came to support Obama and the Democrats--- many, if not most, were there to demand an end to these wars and occupation and insist that the money saved would give us a nice start doing good things.
      I find it interesting that you, Richard Trumka and Ben Jealous didn't think of projecting an alternative to Obama's Wall Street agenda by insisting on creating a world-class public health care system which would provide ten-million people with jobs providing the American people with free health care--- instead of paying for wars.
      In closing, let me ask you: Is there a reason that after bringing all these working people to Washington D.C. you didn't take the opportunity to convene a founding convention for a labor-based peoples' party that would take up an alternative agenda? I bet a lot of young mothers and young families would like to participate in a new political party that would push, not only for public health care; but, national public child care centers, too.
      There really is a very good reason why the issue of peace must be at the center of every attempt to improve the lives and livelihoods of working people because otherwise things are just going to keep sliding downhill.
      Are you really interested in getting America back to work or only interested in electing and re-electing a bunch of Dumb Donkeys.
      I notice you didn't seem to want much discussion about the need to cut off funding to the Israeli killing machine, either.
      Thanks for requesting my opinion; I lok forward to your response.
      Yours in struggle and solidarity;
      Alan L. Maki
      Director of Organizing,
      Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council
      58891 County Road 13
      Warroad, Minnesota 56763
      Phone: 218-386-2432
      Check out my blog:
      http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/

Grassroots activists in Winnipeg, Manitoba take on big-business interests; from the Winnipeg Labour Election Committee…

This is a planning meeting to defeat the Katz' majority on Council.

* * * * *
Date: Fri, 08 Oct 2010
To: Winnipeg Labour Election Committee <wlec@mts.net>
...From: Winnipeg Labour Election Committee <wlec@mts.net>
Subject: Wed, Oct 13: Help defeat the big business - developer majority on City Council [Please forward widely]

From: Winnipeg Labour Election Committee
Re: Defeat the big business - developer majority on City Council

Dear Friends, Sisters and Brothers,

With just under three weeks before election day, Oct. 27, we are writing to everyone who rallied at City Hall and protested the sell-out of our City water department in the last two years. As the group that organized the rallies, we want to thank you for taking an interest in our future as a city and for acting as responsible citizens, unlike the majority of City Council.

A strategic push to defeat the right wing, pro-developer majority at City Council may be all that is needed to shift the balance at City Hall more in favour of the vast majority of people. We hope the following suggestion will meet with your active support.

We are proposing a visible postering campaign to defeat specific members of City Council who voted for the Veolia contract, including Mayor Sam Katz, and about a week before election day to have a picket line at Katz' campaign headquarters (883 Notre Dame).

As before, we are inviting a broad array of community organizations to become involved, especially all those who accepted our invitation to speak at our rallies in the last two years.

We will finalize our plan this week at a meeting where everyone is invited:

Wed, Oct 13, 7:00 pm
Workers Organizing Resource Centre
280 Smith St. (between Portage & Graham)
Please use the buzzer if the door is locked

Draft posters and campaign materials will be available at the meeting - in advance upon request by email. A brief analysis about the proposed two-week campaign is below.

If you have questions, please reach us at wlec@mts.net or 792-3371.

Yours Truly,
Cheryl-Anne Carr and Andre Lavoie
for the WLEC

* * * * * *
Two-week Poster and Picket Line campaign - proposal
Winnipeg Labour Election Committee

The aim of the campaign will be to defeat the right-wing majority at City Hall led by Mayor Sam Katz. Indirectly, the campaign will help candidates who are more easily influenced by people, not money. "A City for people, not big business and developer interests" is the proposed slogan.

Postering
The posters will play three roles:
1. Strengthen the anti-right momentum of Winnipeg voters who are unhappy with four years of favours to developers and big business, like the Veolia deal.

2. Urge people to get out and vote on Oct. 27, an essential need since wealthier voters already come out in high numbers and we need to mobilize the voters who want change at City Hall.

3. Build the supporter-base of the LEC.

Picket Line/ rally
Picketing of Sam Katz' campaign headquarters will be a visible rallying point for everyone who is unhappy with the right-wing majority. The aim will be to build enthusiasm to defeat Katz and his supporters. The picket may end with a brief rally; we may have to walk to a parking lot close by.

We will choose a date and time at the meeting, but these considerations should be kept in mind:
- should be on a weekend or after work hours; day is better than evening
- enough time after the picket to make a final postering push (lots of posters will be available at the rally)
- we need to collect funds at the event to pay for the postering campaign

The plan
Copy posters right after the meeting on Oct. 13.
Call for a large turn-out at the picket.

Phyllis Bennis is wrong…

 

Phyllis Bennis wrote this:

http://www.yesmagazine.org/peace-justice/one-nation-uniting-for-jobs-not-war

 

Here is my response

 

Alan L. Maki

Phyllis Bennis raises a most important point here yet she still fails to clearly see how the issue of unemployment and war are interconnected.

And, why must anyone walk a tight line fearing offending Barack Obama or any of these Dumb Donkeys?

The real shame came when Richard Trumka refused to address how Obama's wars kill jobs just like they kill people. It was Richard Trumka who should have posed the question from the speaker's podium to the American people:

How is Obama's war economy working for you?

Not only was the question of war and jobs not brought forward as they are connected; but, the issue of real health care reform and the very important issue of the need for a national public child care system was not even so much as mentioned.

In fact, Obama's wars and occupations are making us all poor and impoverishing our entire nation because spending our taxes and and wasting our resources on war and militarism is tantamount to dumping our resources into the ocean.

We need to unite the American people behind real calls for change.

Solving the urgent and pressing problems of working people is what creates real, long-lasting employment.

Instead of wasting money and resources on war and military bases all over the world protecting Wall Street's profits; what we need is a national public health care system with neighborhood clinics in every community providing the American people with free health care in the same way we have public schools. This would create around ten-million new, good-paying decent jobs.

Establishing a similar network of public and free child care centers would create many millions of jobs more.

We have a right to expect that the national president of the AFL-CIO advocates such a real progressive agenda for real change by serving notice on Barack Obama that come Election Day there will be no votes for him and these other Dumb Donkeys if they don't move in this direction.

I don't think Phyllis Bennis is right that it is because of workers in the war industries that Richard Trumka is refusing to bring forward these issues. I think this kind of thinking is a slap in the face to working people who would rather be manufacturing the requirements of a nation at peace solving the problems of the people.

I think Phyllis Bennis has taken a very cowardly stance in providing an excuse for this unconscionable behavior of Richard Trumka in first, not even stating his name as being one who did not raise the question of the need to end these dirty wars; but, Bennis then goes on to make this cowardly excuse for Trumka that insults working people when she knows full well that it is not because of workers in the defense industry Richard Trumka didn't broach this issue but because Trumka is wedded to the warmongering Democratic Party which is willing to sacrifice the needs of working people for health care and child care on the alter of Wall Street's quest for greater profits.

It is the "leadership" of the AFL-CIO which presents the problem not workers in the war industries who would be thrilled to have jobs manufacturing what is required to solve the problems of working people rather than implements of war.

William Winpisinger pointed out the fallacy of this well-heeled, upper-middle class mentality which blames workers instead of labor's mis-leadership for remaining tied to the war machine.

Alan L. Maki
Director of Organizing,
Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council

More about the One Nation Working Together rally

Alan L. Maki

I share most of Chris Hedges’ concerns about the One Nation Working Together rally... however, it does have to be pointed out that Hedges and his grouping on the left, refused to participate in trying to change the focus of the rally.

Hedges and this particular left grouping has yet to bring... forward a solid and coherent left agenda that can be placed on the plate of liberals and progressives. We all know that it is the left that bears all responsibility in bringing forward such an agenda--- liberals generally always have the right ideas when understanding what is wrong, but, they are liberals because their thinking does not lead them to action in solving the problems they usually articulate so well using statistics and figures but they have a very difficult time understanding that behind each and every number there is a living, breathing human being suffering to one degree or another.

Hedges appears to be content writing off liberals and even progressives and those on the left working inside of the Democratic Party at a time most of these liberals, progressives and leftists are in fact working outside of the Democratic Party, too.
I think the thing most noteworthy from this One Nation Rally is that when looking at the signs people were carrying, they were signs signifying the fact that Obama and the Democrats are not sincere in their talk of wanting to solve their problems. Hedges hasn't considered this.

The other problem is this that none of the left wants to face up to... in my opinion, almost all blame for the lack of direction and the false direction lies squarely in the lap of the Communist Party USA which has been hijacked by a leadership that has completely withdrawn from the struggles of working people.

It is unheard of in this country, that we have had such huge assemblies of people, during the Obama campaign, and now with this huge rally, and the Communist Party USA has never so much as distributed a leaflet articulating a progressive agenda as an alternative to Wall Street's wars abroad and austerity at home.

 
This is where the real problem lies.

People need to understand that it was a fight and a struggle just to get Harry Belafonte on the list of speakers... In this battle, I did not come across Chris Hedges or any of those who go way out in the opposite direction from the Richard Trumkas. Chris Hedges and many of these people were aware that this battle was being fought out among those supporting this rally--- I know for a fact that they were informed months ago because I sent them all e-mails which each and everyone of them ignored--- while I might add they denied us a voice in any of the publications they control and have influence over just because of their own very selfish anti-communist motivations.

Common sense dictates that the left on its own is nowhere near powerful enough to do anything on its own except become a catalyst for change through advancing a program and agenda that will bring together the three largest ideological groupings in the working class and in the working class movement: liberals being the largest with progressives and leftists... seeing as how the Communist Party USA is beset by severe problems that won't be resolved anytime soon, "the left" is going to have to find a way to work together more cooperatively and with some give and take without exclusions if we are going to make some headway. Getting Harry Belafonte on that speaker's platform was no small feat and accomplishment... it took a lot of people who don't normally even talk to each other to agree who that speaker would be... and it is just this kind of effort on a much larger scale that will be required by those on the left if we are going to move forward.

The left could have had a program and agenda to distribute at this rally had a small grouping not gone off on their own to "seize the initiative" for their own selfish interests under the guise of some kind of "socialist alternative." Their statement was obviously wholly inadequate which could have been corrected had they been willing to work in a friendly and open way with others rather than intentionally excluding so many on the left... the pretended they were the left knowing full well they had excluded most of the left.

We need an explanation why it is that those on the left like Hedges (and I don't mean to single out Hedges, it is just that his essay is being discussed) but, where is the link between war and unemployment and how solving the problems of the people are interconnected?

In fact, much of the left is trapped in the exact same hole that George Lakoff dug for liberals and progressives... you talk about policy directives but you never bring forward specific solutions to well defined problems. Hedges has fallen into this trap--- at least in my opinion. It was the same trap this group of "socialists" fell into.
I would encourage everyone to read the 90 page or so book by George Lakoff, "Don't Think of an Elephant!" if they want to understand the trap he has set. Obama uses this trap brilliantly and masterfully; his trap-tenders are Richard Trumka who is so easily manipulated and controlled by the likes of Leah Daughtry who the Democratic Party put in control of the One Nation Working Together rally which included some "marches."

As far as I am aware... Chris Hedges and others have never sought to inform people and educate people as to how this manipulation and control takes place through people like Leah Daughtry and her connections with Brownstein/Hyatt/Farber/Schreck. Why is this? Most people who participated in this rally were not even aware of the machinations used by these people to manipulate them... by the way, it was the same machinations--- and very same players--- used to subvert the single-payer universal health care movement at the Democratic Party National Convention.

We cannot blame people for being used and manipulated when we don't explain how this is all taking place.

In fact, I find most liberals completely appalled when I explain how they they have been sucked and and used by these people.

 
I have found Alternet and Truthdig to often contain a number of intentional inaccuracies based on anti-communism and even when the truth is pointed out, the corrections are not made. What kind of "left" is an anti-communist left?

Why are the organizers of the One Nation rally sending a message to Glenn Beck?

Alan L. Maki

I don't get it... why is this rally being pawned off by the primary organizers themselves as a response to Glenn Beck, which has prompted the media to hone in on this?

Why isn't this rally being touted by the organizers as a caution to Barack Obama and the Democrats to do what they promised or they aren't getting the votes of liberals, progressives and the left?

Aren't the organizers of this rally the same ones who said, "Vote for
Obama and the Democrats and we will hold their feet to the fire?"

Now, here we are, two years later and these party hacks like Leah Daughtry say they are sending a message to Glenn Beck!

Glenn Beck isn't the president of the United States--- the message needs to go to Barack Obama and the Democrats who apparently didn't listen very well to harry Belafonte's speech.