Monday, July 30, 2018

The Mason Missile, July 30, 2018

Greetings! August 1 is my birthday-I won’t say which one. I’ll just say I have plenty of miles ahead of me, many goals I’m going to fulfill. I continue to be disgusted at how our alleged Commander-In-Chief, supposedly a big strong Alpha Male, capitulated to Putin in Helsinki; the vast array of intelligence agencies-including the FBI, CIA, National Security Agency, the House and Senate Intelligence Committees-agree that computer hackers, commanded by Russian military intelligence agents, entered into the computer system of the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign and stole information; which, the reports say, were passed on to WikiLeaks. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/07/16/us/elections/russian-interference-statements-comments.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/06/us/politics/russia-hack-report.html https://www.vox.com/2018/7/13/17568710/mueller-russia-gru-email-hacking-indictment-trump https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/7/16/17575940/russian-election-hack-democrats-trump-putin-diagram The US intelligence agencies are certain the Russian agencies will work on hacking into the nation’s electric power system, just to show they could do this, as was done in the Ukraine. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/27/us/politics/russian-hackers-electric-grid-elections-.html. This is another area where the security of the country is in jeopardy. Still, trump (I’ll never treat him with any less than the greatest contempt!) chose to accept the word of Putin, the former KGB officer, over the professionals of his intelligence agencies with their vast resources. Plus, I do believe the Russians have stuff on him, not discounting the alleged pee-pee tape with the sex workers in Moscow. trump, having been declared bankrupt, could not attain financing for his projects, so he turned to Russian oligarchs and mafia dons, particularly those close to Putin, for financing. Plus, trump, having such a fragile ego, needs to have it flattered constantly-recall if you will the cabinet meeting, as shown by Huffington Post. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLZNj_9sPgI . The worst part is, several of trump’s supporters act as if the Russian intervention was either a wonderful thing-keeping the evil Hillary away from the Presidency-or else it was no big deal, on the vein of “Everyone does it.” https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/07/trump-voters-putin-russia/565592/ (These are about the same ones who are so morally absolutist when opposing same-sex marriage or birth control.) The neo-Nazi-white-nationalist movement, in particular (one of the main pro-trump movements), have boasted of their connections to Russia and its own neo-Nazi movement, as documented by the Southern Poverty Law Center (https://www.splcenter.org/news/2018/07/19/weekend-read-white-nationalists-who-shouted-%E2%80%9Crussia-our-friend%E2%80%9D-weren%E2%80%99t-just-whistling ) (https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2017/10/10/when-white-nationalists-chant-their-weird-slogans-what-do-they-mean) . It’s all about protecting trump as he implements policies that the supporters hope are harmful to people of color, not thinking about how his policies, like the bungled tariff or the corporate tax cut, could also harm them. I have been reading Isaac Deutscher’s biography of Leon Trotsky, who along with Lenin was one of the leading live wires of the Bolshevik phase of the Russian Revolution. After the downfall of the Tsar-urged on by the generals after the disasters of the First World War and the bread riots in Petrograd-which developed into mutinies in the Army and among the elite Cossack regiments-there existed alongside the Provisional Government the Soviets (councils) of Workers, Soldiers, and Peasants, challenging the established government from the tsarist regime, presenting a revolutionary alternative to the government. The leaders of the old regime and the elite of Russia, fearful of loss of privilege after the failure of the coup attempt by the Cossack general Lavr Georgiyevich Kornilov, the same elite looked forward to occupation by their German enemies to repress the Revolution-after accusing Lenin of accepting German financial support for the Bolshevik movement and to reenter Russia. I sense something like this among elements of the supposedly “patriotic” far right in this country with trump-accepting interference by a foreign power-Russia attacking our election system-so as to “protect” whatever illusory privilege of white skin they feel they need. In their view-like with the pre-revolutionary Russian elite-“Patriotism” is whatever benefits them and their illusions of privilege. That is as dangerous a narcotic as any opioid. You can bet I’ll play my role in fighting the Tangerine Tumor as I call him, and I urge you to do the same. In August 10-12 I’m going to the Delegates’ Assembly of the National Writers Union/UAW Local 1981, in New York joining other freelance writers in working for each other’s interests and the interests of other Americans. Also, as a committee-person in my ward, I’m going around urging people to register to vote, and then go out TO vote. Use your vote, or lose it-it’s the weapon of the conscious American worker. Bye!

Monday, July 2, 2018

The Mason Missile, July 2, 2018

Greetings! This is Independence Day-what do we have to celebrate? We have a regime (I won’t call it an “administration”) that separates immigrant children as young as several months from the parents, as a bureaucratic form of punishment for entering this country “illegally” (which is classed as a misdemeanor). That has never happened before, and this practice inflicts trauma upon these children and their parents-but what to the alpha males ruling our affairs care? They show what kind of big strong men they are by terrorizing people who can’t resist, talking about a “zero tolerance policy,” and have sadistic fun doing it. Attorney General Jeff Sessions used the Bible, the Apostle Paul letter to the Romans, chapter 13, verses 1-7, (RSV) as an excuse to justify this: “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities; for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists authority resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Do you wish to have no fear of the authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive its approval; for it is God’s servant for your good. But if you do what is wrong, you should be afraid, for the authority does not bear the sword in vain! It is the servant of God to execute wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be subject, not only because of wrath but also because of conscience. For the same reason you also pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, busy with this very thing. Pay to all what is due them—taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due.” That verse had always been a favorite of slaveholders and authoritarians, using some biblical justification for their domination of their subjects. It would not hold sway except for some true believers of the Leader. (Were he to go further down the chapter, Sessions would have found verses 8-10 “Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet”; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.”) This is the kind of thing that conservatives, who have whined about “big government taking control of our children,” have warned us about- but it’s happening to dark-skinned foreigners, so they say nothing. I’m pleased, though, that people have risen up against this; I doubt, though, if it would influence this regime from ending the practice, but hopefully, it would make people on the ground ashamed to implement such policies on behalf of their superiors up the chain. There is also institutional resistance to this evil practice, as several state governors have refused to send their National Guard units to the border for this kind of duty. There is also publicly confronting the top officials responsible for these policies, such as the crowds shaming Stephen Miller and Kristjen Nielsen-as they ate at MEXICAN RESTAUANTS-and Sarah Huckabee Sanders being asked to leave the little restaurant. Now the conservatives complain that the officials are being oppressed and bullied-any worse than the little kiddies in the detention centers separated from their families, scared out of their minds, feeling lost and abandoned, put through possibly all kinds of abuse, not knowing if they’ll ever see their parents again? Can’t we look at THAT, Americans, and know the shameful thing going on in our name, and with our tax dollars? With protests against unjust conditions, there are always complaints about how the protestors behave-“They’re not polite, they’re not civil, they use such bad language!” But what about trump’s line in a rally, “I’d like to punch him in the face”? His instigating violence against protestors by his fans? The incidents of white people calling the police on African-Americans for such crimes as sitting in a Starbuck’s, playing golf, napping in a dorm at Yale, holding a cookout in Oakland, mowing a neighbor’s lawn for a few bucks, selling water for money for tickets to Disneyland? It’s as if we need permission by our conservative superiors to protest unjust conditions, from which they benefit, and the consequence of which they don’t suffer (so it’s no skin off their asses)-and such permission won’t be forthcoming. No one will give us our rights-we’ll take them. It’s just a way for them to not deal with it-but there are people who deal with it every day, and they won’t take it anymore, and will let everyone know they won’t take it. Again, let’s discuss “big government“-the boogie of right-wing propaganda for decades, since the New Deal and beyond. This is the scare used when the issue is using the mechanism of government, local, state, or federal, to restrict the ability of corporations to swindle consumers and oppress workers. Added to this is the Labor movement, the institutional gathering of workers for their mutual benefit, to prevent corporate bosses from forcing workers into long hours, in oppressive and unsafe worksites, for merger pay. With the Janus decision of the Supreme Court-which says workers who don’t want to be in a union do not have to pay the “agency shop” fee, but would still be protected by the union-The ability of unions to protect workers is in trouble. But do we take it lying down? No, we organize, just like our forbearers did a century ago, in the face of company thugs, police and militias, and hostile courts, judges, and governments. We have a history and tradition to draw our strength from. Indeed, activism abounds throughout the nation against the trump agenda-and NO, I will not show him any respect! Along with the protests against the immigration policies along the border, there are protests by high school kids against the gun violence they witnessed, when they had to see their friends killed by gunmen who had too easy an access to an AR-15, and the #MeToo movement of women who refuse any longer to put up with sexual harassment from rich and powerful men. The Labor movement can tap into that energy, and once again be the insurgent force our plutocratic masters fear it to be. Bye!