The Mason Missile, December 29, 2022

Season’s greetings, Americans! Yes, it’s that wonderful time of the year—where religiously-based haters and zealots while about how THEIR own religion is not the only one in America, that there are hundreds of faith traditions in this country. The whine about the “War on Christmas” has been heard throughout the years. Religiously-based haters have used THEIR religion as an excuse to discriminate against LGBTQ+ people; one case in point is the recent case before the US Supreme Court, 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis, whereby a web-design company refused to create a wedding website for same-sex couples. (https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/the-new-faith-based-discrimination/?utm_source=Boston+Review+Email+Subscribers&utm_campaign=2fb3d76592-newsletter_12_14_22&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_2cb428c5ad-2fb3d76592-40728217&mc_cid=2fb3d76592&mc_eid=a96ac50b25) There have also been cases where, in certain states, LGBTQ+ people could be discriminated against in medical care, on a “religious” excuse. (https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-health-and-wellness/1-8-lgbtq-people-live-states-doctors-can-refuse-treat-rcna39161) The US Department of Health and Human Services, under “President” Donald whatshisface, issued a “refusal to care” rule, wherein health care providers receiving federal funds may refuse to provide medical care, insurance, or information, due to THEIR religious or moral beliefs—so, if an EMT or doctor could refuse care to a person due to their sexual orientation or their need for an abortion. (https://www.aclu.org/news/religious-liberty/patients-needs-not-personal-beliefs-come-first-in-health-care) (https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/04/medical-religious-exemptions-doctors-therapists-mississippi-tennessee/478797/) All of this is to support one specific religious system, the evangelical Christian worldview which condemns same-sex marriage and affection, women’s reproductive rights, or scientifically-based sex education. The religious-right political movement, supplied with vast amounts of campaign money, remains powerful enough to push such laws through state legislatures, no matter how they affect people in real life. However, the pushback against these laws remains strong; voters in Kansas, a conservative state, voted in a referendum against an amendment that would have denied abortion as a right in that state. (https://www.npr.org/sections/2022-live-primary-election-race-results/2022/08/02/1115317596/kansas-voters-abortion-legal-reject-constitutional-amendment) Have these anti-abortion, anti-LGBTQ+ activists EVER considered that THEIRS is NOT the ONLY religious tradition, that OTHER religious groups have different ideas about same-sex love and when a fetus becomes a person? Of course not; it’s the act of a dominant religious body kicking against any challenge to their dominance. It’s the same with other areas of society, social, economic, what have you; corporations utilize their hired politicians and press against workers organizing unions, racists terrorizing racial and ethnic minorities daring to campaign for their civil and human rights. And, as part of the campaign against these usurpers, the dominant group cobbles together some noble philosophy or theory to justify their dominance and repression of the insurgent groups; one such is the “objectivism” exposed by Ayn Rand, and the “religious exemption” excuse to justify anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination. And, of course, these once-dominant groups wish the groups they have oppressed—people of color, women, workers, LGBTQ+s, etc.—would either be quiet and acquiesce, or disappear; and we can pretend this, situation of corporate-theocratic dominance is the best of all possible worlds. The aforementioned groups are showing NO interest in rolling over and playing dead, but are continuing their fights for their rights and very existence. A now-common phrase has been “stochastic terrorism,” which means “the public demonization of a person or group resulting in a violent act, which is statistically probable but whose statistics cannot be predicted.” (https://www.dictionary.com/e/what-is-stochastic-terrorism/) The phrase is new, but the idea isn’t; the media and public officials have long known how to direct verbal abuse towards their enemies, hoping some deranged person would attack them, since THEY don’t have the guts to do the violence themselves; the Red Scares after the World Wars, after which progressive and reform movements—Socialist Party, the IWW, the CIO, activists for African-American Civil Rights—were slandered, imprisoned, lost their jobs, and were assaulted. We have the same phenomenon with the rightist media and activists slandering election officials doing their jobs accurately; schools and libraries daring to have books discussing Gay and African-American issues; school kids questioning their sexuality and their gender identity; and drag performers acting out a venerable art. I’m always pleased, however, when there is resistance to all this verbal and physical abuse. Trust me, verbal abuse is as bad to a person’s psyches as physical abuse is to their bodies; we can’t have any of this “sticks and stone” thinking, and damn sure no more “turn the other cheek.” As we enter the New Year—after recovering from our New Year’s Day parties—let us remember what we have accomplished is the far and recent past, recognize the struggles ahead of us, and remember that we can defeat them, as we have done more often than not in the past year. Stay safe, stay strong, and stay together! Slava Ukraini! America will be free! Happy New Year!

The Mason Moment with John Oliver Mason, December 19, 2022

I speak about the Holiday Season, and of the need to resist the neo-fascists of today.

The Mason Moment with John Oliver Mason, December 12, 2022

I speak about the recent Philadelphia CLUW awarads reception; trump's dinner with Kanye West and Nick Fuentes; and Krysten Sinema's becoming an "independent."

The Mason Moment with John Oliver Mason, December 5, 2022

I speak of the need to suport railroad workers, and of trump's demand to suspend the Constitution.

The Mason Missile, November 28, 2002

Greetings, Americans! This past election, November 8, I served on my division’s election board, helping people work with the voting machines, so that they could elect the candidates of their choice. It was a long day of getting up early and staying up late, but it was well worth it. Ever since the end of the 2020 election, election officials, from election board workers to county-level officials, had faced terroristic threats to their lives, simply because they did their jobs honorably, and the neo-fascist right (particularly the trumpst MAGA wing) hated the reality of losing. Their interest isn’t in democracy, but taking and holding power over the rest of us. That’s been how fascist movements have operated over the decades; they utilize the democratic process as far as they can go, but undermine it when finally attaining state power. They have also played the victim, complaining about being oppressed and discriminated against when they’re challenged, but their agenda is to oppress their opponents. Don’t be fooled when they whine about “losing their Second Amendment rights.” I’m proud to have done my part to elect Josh Shapiro as our next Governor of Pennsylvania, and John Fetterman as our next US Senator. The Republican Party, still under the trumpist grip, selected Doug Mastriano for Governor—a white Christian Nationalist who worked with Andrew Torba, who heads the far-right social-media platform Gab, is and a notorious anti-Semite (https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/28/politics/doug-mastriano-gab-pennsylvania-republican/index.html); the Mastriano campaign paid Gab $5,000 for “campaign consulting,” utilizing the site for advertising (https://forward.com/fast-forward/514364/josh-shapiro-doug-mastriano-gab-antisemitism/). While a professor at the Army War College in Carlisle, Mastriano posed in a group photo with other faculty members—wearing a Confederate Army uniform, the same Confederate Army that sought to destroy the Union for the sake of its precious slave system! (https://www.reuters.com/world/us/exclusive-pennsylvania-candidate-mastriano-posed-confederate-uniform-army-war-2022-08-26/) For the Senate, under the trump influence, the Republicans selected Doctor Mehmet Oz. Once a respected cardiothoracic surgeon, then a TV health-and-fitness host, Oz ruined his reputation by selling dietary supplements on his show, supplements that supposedly could burn away fat, but cuaed serious health problems. (https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/scaachikoul/dr-oz-senate-campaign-tv-show) (https://apnews.com/article/dr-mehmet-oz-political-career-2022-midterm-f6ecd9ac9f0e95cda41193adc13c8437). Along with that, Oz only just recently established a home in the Philadelphia suburb of Bryn Athyn, while his real residence is in New Jersey, along with owning 10 other residences around the world. (https://www.inquirer.com/news/mehmet-oz-new-jersey-cliffside-heights-pennsylvania-senate-20221031.html) (https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/crudits-snooki-john-fetterman-voters-remember-dr-ozs/story?id=87765213). The Fetterman campaign had fun—as did I—with the video of Oz grocery shopping at “Wegner’s” (a mashup of the Wegman’s and Redner’s grocery chains) for “crudités,” otherwise known as a “veggie tray,” showing Oz as an out-of-touch rich guy playing plain folks—as did Donald whatshisface. This is what the Republican Party has sunk to; but it’s been sinking this way since the Goldwater campaign. Can it sink any further? The results of the election were not the “Red Wave” that the news media hyped all year. Why did they talk so much about the alleged “Red Wave?” An attempt to raise the number of viewers and therefore advertising dollars? A way to discourage people from voting, saying “Your guy’s not going to win, so don’t bother voting”? That I call irresponsible. Along with the aforementioned victories in Pennsylvania, the Democrats managed to hang on to the Senate, but the Republicans held a tiny majority in the House, with the help of gerrymandering of congressional districts—supposedly, the opposition party attains several dozen new seats in a midterm election. Kevin McCarthy, now the House Minority Leader, is supposed to become speaker, his dream job—but he has to work with the trump-loving element in the party, and he has restored Marjorie Taylor-Greene of Georgia to her committee assignments, while trying to remove Democrats from their own committee positions. (https://www.alternet.org/2022/11/kevin-mccarthy-2658736247/) McCarthy, like I said, has to deal with the pro-trump “Freedom Caucus” in the House, We can expect nothing but a freak-show from the House, as it ignores such real issues as the economy, Russia warring on Ukraine, health insurance, jobs and job safety, and fatal gun violence, and get hysterical about their favorite scapegoat, President Biden’s son Hunter and his laptop. What more needs to be said about it? (https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/kevin-mccarthy-face-floor-fight-speaker-hasnt-happened-century-rcna58391?link_id=13&can_id=c6b214524e142a4cda41a3e4163755a6&source=email-trump-team-panics-over-fcking-nightmare-meeting-2&email_referrer=email_1750175&email_subject=trump-in-freefall-after-antisemitism-summit) The Republican “leadership”—McCarthy, Mitch McConnell, all of them—could have done the statesman thing and denounce trump, with his coddling of domestic terrorists, neo-Nazis and white supremacists, along with his misogynistic behavior of women—as evidenced by the Charlottesville neo-Nazi rally (“very fine people on both sides”), his embrace of the Q-Anon cult because “they like me,” his encouraging his followers to riot in the Capitol on January 6 and threaten the lives of elected officials in both parties (“Hang Mike Pence!”), his refusal to take seriously the dangers of COVID-19, his wining and dining of two notorious anti-Semites at Mar-A-Largo, and his “grab ‘em by the pussy” talk in the Access Hollywood tape—that’s just scratching the surface. Instead, for the sake of the tax breaks for billionaires and corporations that don’t need them, and for the sake of the votes trump’s disciples have, the GOP elite tolerated it all, even after their lives were threatened. Behold the gutless, brainless, characterless specimens leading the Republican Party! For this, they don’t deserve to be anywhere near office! Now, as we enter the December holiday season, let us enjoy our rest and our times with our loved ones, and celebrates or wins; then, let’s get back to the business of standing up for our rights and the rights of others. That’s what a true American does. Stay safe, stay strong, and stay together! Slava Ukraini! America will be free! Bye!

The Mason Moment with John Oliver Mason, November 14, 2022

I speak about the election results, the possible fading of trump's power, the corruption of the evangelical political movement, and the downslide into racism of the Republican Party.

The Mason Moment with John Oliver Mason, November 7, 2022

The Mason Moment with John Oliver Mason, November 1, 2022

I speak about the Pennsylvania Senate debate, the uselessness of oratory, the terrorist attack on Paul Pelosi, and the blatant racism and anti-Semitism in the country. 

The Mason Moment with John Oliver Mason, October 25, 2022

The Mason Missile, October 20, 2022

Greetings, Americans! I rejoice at the latest labor victory—after two years of being ignored by management at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and after a strike, museum employees, organized under Local 397 of AFSCME District Council 47, won a contract from the museum. (https://www.inquirer.com/news/philadelphia/philadelphia-art-museum-strike-settlement-union-20221014.html) This is one victory among several, along with successful organizing drives among workers at Starbucks, Amazon, and the Home Depot on Roosevelt Boulevard in Northeast Philadelphia. (https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/23/business/home-depot-union-vote) Please remember that despots, whether political, military, or corporate, don’t give up their power easily; when their former subordinates organize and stand up to them, they make small concessions, but they plan to resume their former power later on, and punish those whose crime is fighting for their rights. The old Peanuts comic strip—I loved it as a kid, and still do—had a lot of fun with the commercialization of holidays, whether it be Halloween, Christmas or Beethoven’s birthday. We see this in how soon stores are so quick to prepare for holidays, so they can sell the stuff for that holiday; I’ve seen Halloween candy and costumes when it wasn’t even Labor Day, Christmas lights up way before Halloween, and Valentine’s Day cards on New Year’s Eve. This season of holidays, from Halloween through New Year’s, is said to be the biggest season for retail sales, and thus one of the driving engines of the economy. I feel, though, that the rush to get from one holiday to the next takes the fun out of them. The Philadelphia Inquirer has been running a series, “A More Perfect Union,” about how this nation deals with race, or else fails to do so. This series has looked at how institutional racism, and the abhorrent institution of slavery, have affected several venerable Philadelphia institutions. (https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/more-perfect-union-freedom-inequality-philadelphia-20210704.html) This is what is needed in our society—a full accounting of the racism still permeating our nation. This is the premise of Critical Race Theory, that this thorough-going racism prevails in every aspect of US society—academia, business, media, politics, etc. It’s an academic discipline in law schools, and NOT—do I HAVE to keep repeating myself?—NOT a means of brainwashing pre-K kids into hating being white. We must keep the discussion on race, racism, and combatting racism going, with or without any educational institution’s involvement. If an educational institution fails to do this, to bring about intelligent discussion about our past to the table, it has failed in its task; education should be a means of developing independent-thinking citizens, and not mindless inmates in the corporate asylum. I can’t emphasize enough the need for voting in this election; all elections are important, both primaries and generals, from President to county row offices. But this election has dire consequences for this country, should Republicans retake the House, Senate, and state offices (God forbid!). It would mean the continued limiting of abortion rights for women, down to zero; the diminishment of rights for LGBTQ+ people, leaving them vulnerable to harassment and discrimination; the taking-away of rights for workers to organize; and further attacks on people of color, as we see in the whining about CRT. It’s grassroots organizing, in our worksites and our neighborhoods, which have, and continue to, make a difference in affecting change. I have finished reading the book by Eric Foner, Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution. (https://www.harpercollins.com/products/reconstruction-updated-edition-eric-foner?variant=32116709523490) Foner writes about how the federal government dealt with, or failed to deal with, efforts to bring the former slaves, who sacrificed so much to attain their freedom, into full citizenship in this “land of the free.” During this era, the Republicans were pulled between organizing state governments that would implement programs benefitting lower-class people of all colors, such as schools, and industrial development ideas that they hoped would bring prosperity to the war-battered southern states, such as land grants and tax breaks for railroads. Then, as now, there were the complaints of “extravagant government spending” when talking about schools and hospitals, and this came along with the depression of 1873, the rising of genuine class warfare (culminating in the Great Strike of 1877, which spread from railyards in the east and moved through other classes of workers and to other regions in the country, https://www.history.com/news/1877-railroad-strike-trains). These labor conflicts welded governments at all levels to the rising industrial capitalist class, and has led to the severest repression of workers’ organizing efforts, with the courts issuing injunctions against strikes, and physical force from the national guard, police forces, and vigilante mobs of “respectable, upper-class people.” In this, the federal government lost whatever real interest they had in protecting and advancing the freedmen, and after the horse-trading over electoral college votes after the election of 1876, the federal troops were reassigned to repress uprisings of workers and natives, and the freedmen were left on their own to face the not-so-tender mercies to “Reclamation” state governments that wore away, as much as they could, the gains the former slaves made to advance themselves—and, along the way, low-income whites suffered also, with such problems as high rates of illiteracy and poverty. Is this going to happen again? Are we going to go through the erosion of whatever advancements we’ve made in social progress, such as abortion rights, workers’ safety and health, and civil rights for people of color and LGBTQ+s? The “reclamation” of state governments by white supremacists, and the resulting Jim Crow laws, have slowed much social and economic development in this country; but we have a legacy of freedom fighting in our past, with such events as John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry, the Great Strike of 1877, the Lawrence strike of 1912, the Montgomery Bus Boycott—the list of precedents is endless; and as we make our own stand in 2022, let’s add our work to the list; our ancestors, and our progeny, are counting on us. Stay safe, stay strong, and stay together! Slava Ukraini! America will be free! Bye!

The Mason Moment with John Oliver Mason, October 17, 2022

The Mason Moment with John Oliver Mason, October 10, 2022

The Mason Missile, September 29, 2022

Greetings, Americans! The New Year 5783is upon us, and we celebrated Rosh Ha-Shona, the New Year, on September 25-27, and the Day of Atonement Yom Kippur October 4-5. I wish everyone all the best this new year. The idea of the New Year is that you’re no longer bound by your past; you can learn from it, so you can plan better for the future, but you can’t continue to dwell there. That would require new ways of thinking, to challenge ideas in the air that would keep you helpless and powerless. Yes, reality can be pretty bad—I’ve had my share of bad news—and it HAS to be confronted, but by the very fact that you ARE confronting the bad news therefore changes the situation to your favor. I proudly joined other Philadelphia area trade unionists for the Tri-State Labor Day Parade on September 5, which started with a rally at the Sheet Metal Workers Hall, 1301 South Columbus Boulevard; down Columbus Boulevard; and into Penn’s Landing for the Celebration. Our movement is something to celebrate, with its worthy goals and achievements (in spite of all opposition, and with its recent campaigns—the organizing drives for employees at Amazon and Starbucks, the organizing work of employees at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (https://www.inquirer.com/news/philadelphia-museum-of-art-strike-union-contract-20220916.html), and the tentative contract for railway workers, averting a strike (https://www.npr.org/2022/09/15/1123289508/a-look-at-the-tentative-deal-between-freight-railroads-and-rail-workers-unions) . but more work remains to be done, since we’re up against powerful corporate interests who would take back everything we’ve campaigned for over the decades. From Reagan (curse his name!) to this day, the economic orthodoxy has been a warmed-over attempt to re-impose the classic liberal model of “free trade” and deregulation of industry practices (no matter how shady and dangerous to the public) with some corporate welfare, fully confident that prosperity would flow. but the prosperity flowed all the way to the top, economically depressing the working class and narrowing the middle class (do these categories mean anything now?), so that we are, with all the “democratic” trappings, a fall-blown oligarchy. We don’t have to accept this as the only way for the nation to do; all of the Labor organizing activity shows that the system is under scrutiny, and under challenge. Donald whatshisface went on Hugh Hewett’s program to complain about (what else?) the investigations he’s under, like for the documents he stole and stashed at Mar-A-Lago, and his role in the January 6 coup attempt. Believing he’s above the law (which he thinks is just another commodity), t---p bragged, “I think you’d have problems in this country the likes of which perhaps you’ve never seen before. I don’t think the people of the United States would stand for it.” He also said, “I think they’d have problems. Big problems. I just don’t think they’d stand for it. They will not.” (https://www.alternet.org/2022/09/donald-trump-warns-big-problems/) (https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-public-wont-stand-for-charges-mar-a-lago_n_6323a055e4b046aa023d6f90?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Morning%20Email%209-16-22&utm_term=us-morning-email) This statement has been interpreted as a call to t---p’s followers to get violent in case he’s formally tried and convicted. Would that happen? Lately, there has been talk about another Civil war in this country, bandied about by the loonier elements of the right. You remember what t---p’s followers did on January 6, stampeding through the capitol, ready to kill members of congress, shouting “Hang Mike Pence!” and erecting a gallows to put him on. This November 8, we have an opportunity to deal a blow to this rise of fascism in America, that has Donald t---p as their avatar. We CAN and MUST vote for pro-worker, pro-woman, pro-people of color, pro-education, pro-LGBTQ+ candidates—and vote out the republican Party, root and branch, as it is now. It is no longer the party of Lincoln, or TR, or Eisenhower, or event Nixon; it’s the roost of white nationalists, Christian chauvinists, conspiracy worshipers, willful ignoramuses who want everyone else to be unlearned, gun bullies, and plutocrats who want working and low-income people out of decision-making in society. The stakes are high, Americans, let’s get serious about this—as serious as the danger. Stay safe, stay strong, and stay together! Slava Ukraini! America WILL be free! Bye!

The Mason Moment with John Oliver Mason, September 20, 2022

The Mason Moment with John Oliver Mason, September 13, 2022

The Mason Missile, August 23, 2022

Greetings, Americans! On August 1, I turned 65 years—I won’t say old, because I don’t recognize the idea of “old;” “old” compared to what? I’ll say I’m 65 years alive, it means I have much more living ahead of me. Also, the High Holy Days—Rosh ha-Shona and Yom Kippur—are upon us, and this is the time of reflecting on the past, what we’ve done right and wrong; recognizing where we’ve fallen short, and repenting from them; and new opportunities. If I have offended anyone over the past year, I ask your forgive ness; and whoever offended me, I forgive them. At last! The Biden administration tried to pass some version of the Build Back Better Act, but it kept having to be whittled down to accommodate the corporate interests what still influence our politics, and it now takes form as the Inflation reduction Act. (https://www.npr.org/2022/08/16/1117709411/biden-signs-sweeping-climate-health-care-tax-bill-into-law) Alas! What kind of deal did Schumer have to make with Joe Manchin (West Virginia) and Kirsten Sinema (Arizona) to get it passed? Sinema, supposedly a “Democrat,” has received close to $1 million from hedge fund managers, private equity executives, and venture capitalists, and so she opposed any tax increases on these firms, as we all hoped for, leaving, once again, the tax burden upon working men and women in America; Thanks to her efforts, these investors, who do nothing to build anything or deliver anything, but who reap all the rewards of other people’s labor, have gotten a $13 billion dollar tax break. This is a welfare program for people who are already super-wealthy but still feel they need more money. (https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/sinema-received-nearly-1-million-from-wall-street-while-killing-tax-hike-on-investors) (https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/kyrsten-sinema-delivers-gift-private-equity-democrats-big-agenda-bill-rcna42394) (https://www.ft.com/content/64305c91-c7aa-427b-adb9-7a32d74d3490) With “Democrats” like this, who needs Republicans? This makes the necessity of increasing the majority in the Senate and the House more imperative; but it can’t be with corporate-friendly “centrists” who say, “Health care? Clean the environment? Sure, but we can’t offend any powerful interests.” The progressive forces need to step up and get into the party apparatus. Another piece of important legislation that passed is the Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act, or PACT Act. This addresses medical care for former service members who were exposed to toxic chemicals during their service; one issue has been when service members were exposed to toxic fumes from the burn pits in Afghanistan and Iraq. (https://www.militarytimes.com/news/burn-pits/2022/08/04/now-that-the-pact-act-passed-how-soon-will-veterans-see-their-benefits/) (https://www.npr.org/2022/08/02/1115325176/pact-act-veterans-burn-pits-toxins-passes-senate) But this came after Senate Republicans voted AGAISNT the bill, with some lame excuse about cost, and voted to support it after public complaint about their behavior. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania alleged that the bill had some “gimmick” that “allows $400 B in spending unrelated to veterans care.” Tommy Tuberville of North Carolina said the PACT Act was “well intentioned” but it “creates new promises while breaking existing ones”. (HUH?) (https://www.businessinsider.com/41-gop-senators-block-healthcare-bill-for-veterans-exposed-to-toxins-2022-7?inline-endstory-related-recommendations=) (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/08/03/pact-act-11-senate-republicans-opposed/10223007002/) It’s an old story; trot out our veterans for patriotic events, but to anything FOR them? “We can’t afford it!” People from the working and low-income classes are expendable for the dominant classes, in the battlefield and in the workplace. “Democracy” is one thing the Republican Party and the factions in it—“libertarians” who want corporations to have the “liberty” to do whatever they want, to whomever they want to do it to; and “Christian Nationalists” (also known as WHITE Christian Nationalists) who want the government, and therefore the nation, to be run based on THEIR interpretation of Scripture, thereby excluding anyone THEY don’t deem to be “Christian”—and you can forget about religious and racial minorities having any role in such a regime. In Arizona, Republicans have upfront insisted that the United States of America is not at all a “democracy” but a “republic.” (https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/arizona-republicans-are-making-case-against-idea-democracy-itself-n1297965?cid=eml_mda_20220816&user_email=56443b86787902b10c4645fc42bff8ee9ec2614de6cc5f00300871db6871f4c6) The decades-old dream of certain persons identifying as “conservatives” has been to exclude people who are not of the dominant social-economic classes from any say in running the government and in the nation. To them, consumers and workers have no business inquiring about how corporations manufacture their products, plan their advertising, employ their workers, and operate overseas; they and their political and media handmaidens treat these plutocrats like their a superior race of economic geniuses, who, if left to their own devices, would lead the nation to prosperity for all—somehow. (That was the premise of Ayn Rand’s rag of a “novel” Atlas Shrugged.) The study by Princeton professor Martin Gilens and Northwestern professor Benjamin I. Page isn’t getting old; they said that “economic elites and organised groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on US government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence.” Gilens and Page summarize thus: “American do enjoy many features central to democratic governance, such as regular elections, freedom of speech and association and a widespread (if still contested) franchise. But we believe that if policymaking is dominated by powerful business organisations and a small number of affluent Americans, then America’s claims to being a democratic society and seriously threatened.” (https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-echochambers-27074746) And now we see the results of oligarchic rule in this country: a nation where racism and anti-Semitism are blatant and in the mainstream political discourse by candidates and pundits (racism and democracy do NOT go together); corporate oligarchs funding candidates, media outlets, political movements and organizations (like the old Tea party “Astroturf” movement and the American Legislative Exchange Council) and “research foundations” to rewrite laws and science to their liking; the semi-conscious racism in hiring and bank loans (“redlining”); billionaires receiving tax breaks , supposedly to improve their factories and hire more workers, but spend the money on $500 million yachts and their own space programs (I’m talking about YOU, Jeff Bezos!); and corporations exporting their plants, and their jobs, to impoverished nations with corrupt and repressive governments, where workers make pocket change a week while American workers are urged to kill each other for whatever crumbs remain. But, praise God, young people in particular, and the public in general, are standing up to this nonsense, and banding together to restore SOME semblance of our democracy. For me, one place to start is at the Labor Day Parade and festival in Philadelphia on September 5. I’ll be there with my union siblings to stand up for our rights, and have some fun along the way. (Why not?) Stay safe, stay strong, and stay together! Slava Ukraini! America will be free! Bye!

The Mason Moment with John Oliver Mason, August 22, 2022

The Mason Missile, July 24, 2022

Greetings, Americans! On August 1, I’ll have my 65th birthday, and I’m looking forward to this milestone. I feel like my best years-and I’ve had some good years, some not so great-are coming. Over the years, there has been a new idea about aging; life doesn’t end at a certain time, you don’t have to look forward to decrepitude. In the words of the poet Robert Frost, I have “miles to go before I sleep.” Issues of class and race remain in the forefront, whether or not the news media brings them up. So many times I hear of working-class people complaining about some alleged “benefits” someone just a little less fortunate than they are have attained, or about some other branch of the working class that attained said benefits from being in a union; it’s mainly someone’s biased perception, or someone told them something at a bar or in line at the store, and such anecdotes get passed around, and sometimes the commercial news media is no help. The attitude is, “I don’t have that good stuff, so why should they have it also? Let them be miserable like I am!” It’s people like these who are the audience for such fascist charlatans as t---p, who direct working people’s anger at some other target than who is really putting them down-the plutocratic class, as dangerous as the oligarchs around Putin, who have subsidized political campaigns, media platforms, so-called “research institutions,” etc., to turn our politics, our economy, and our very thinking processes in their favor. It’s the undoing of decades-centuries-of faithful work by labor organizers, suffrage campaigners, activists for the rights of people of color, LGBTQ+s, workers in fighting for their most basic human and civil rights; and the removal of legal protections for working people, women, and minorities, and the end of restrictions on how far the traditional dominant classes-in race, gender, or class-can continue to dominate. One thing that occurs is the hero-worship of such figures as corporate executives, and of the so-called Founding Fathers” who wrote the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Corporate execs are simply people on top of vast private bureaucracies, passing down orders to those below them, hiring and firing people whom they employ for the work of their hands and brains (for as little money as possible), getting as much work out of as few workers as possible trying to attain a slightly higher quarterly profit, using money from tax breaks to stash in offshore tax havens and buying up the company’s stock to raise the value of the stock. These are not forward-thinking geniuses concocting new ideas and technologies in their basements; otherwise, they would see that fossil fuels are tearing apart the environment, eventually leaving the planet inhabitable; and that their employees can take only so much abuse and not do anything against it. As for the Founding Fathers, the geniuses behind the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution: they were indeed great men of that time, but in that time, they owned slaves, and lived off their unpaid labor; they were mortal human beings, with all the feeling that men have; and they were primarily upper-class men of that society, and that turned the decision-making apparatus of the new country in favor of that class; there was chattel slavery for African-descended people, property qualifications kept low-income whites from voting, and women were mainly totally excluded from any role in society outside of the home. Plus, the Revolutionary War economy was primarily agrarian, mainly in the South, and manufacturing was more of a supplement, focused on small localized shops worked by master craftsmen. And in THIS era? Lower-income people, of all colors and genders, and after much grassroots agitation, won the right to vote; and the small shop for manufacturing has been replaced by multi-state, multi-national, highly beaucratized corporations, which can safely ignore shop-floor workers in their local branches (if the workers don’t have unions), who are only answerable to their boards of directors, who care nothing for the quality of the product and all about the next quarterly profit, and have evolved into financial capitalism, where banks and hedge-funds make all the primary decisions about the economy-if there is no popular intervention, either through the ground-level activism or through a government actually on the side of the people. In short, the made-up idolatry of the corporate class and the earliest leaders of this nation has to cease, and we must make up OUR OWN minds to take responsibility for the well-being of this country and those of us in it. And we must avoid the two traps of despair (“They’re gonna take back the House and Senate, and the election hasn’t happened yet!”) and overconfidence (“The Republicans are running the most stupid and reactionary candidates, who’s gonna vote for THOSE guys?”). The task of defeating them will require much effort, for they are wealthy, organized, and indifferent to anyone else’s rights or well-being; but our nation’s history is studded with the struggles of put-down, put-upon people organizing, alongside of other similarly-repressed peoples, and with their efforts, they won their rights-the rulers of our society didn’t just cheerfully give in to them. They did it in the past, and we can and must do it today. Stay safe, stay strong, and stay together! Slava Ukraini! America will be free! Bye!

The Mason Moment with John Oliver Mason

I speak about the Torah portion Shelach-Lecha, the issue of self-esteem for an individual and a community, and the need to stand up for reproductive rights. 

The Mason Missile, June 25, 2022

Greetings, Americans! Earlier this month, I took part in the reorganizing meeting of the 48th Ward Democratic Committee, in South Philadelphia, and I was elected Secretary of the committee. I’m proud of the assignment, and I look forward to doing my part in urging people in my neighborhood to band together to address the problems they face-gun violence, racism, and the rise of fascism in this country. The members of the committee, who I’m proud to work with, and working-class people committed to dealing with our community’s issues. We need more of that-activism at the grassroots and shop-floor level, people who are affected by decisions in corporate boardrooms and legislative bodies, where we working people are excluded. That’s the thinking of the billionaire class in this country and throughout the world: they act as if we, low-income and working people, who work in the factories where their products are made, have no business asking about how they run the business. (It’s the tendency shown in the rag of a “novel” by Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged. ) Also, I have been in and out of the national convention of the national AFL-CIO, which took place June 13-15 in Philadelphia, with its theme, “Building The Movement To Meet The Moment”. Here is another area of working people banding together to find their collective power. I heard addresses from Liz Schuler, the new (and first female) President of the federation, who came out of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW); and Fred Redmond, the Secretary-Treasurer, who came out of the United Steel Workers (USW). There was also a panel of younger workers, from various backgrounds, adding their energy to the movement. So many decisions and policies take place in corporate boardrooms—and country clubs, high-end restaurants and brothels, and golf courses—that serve to fatten billionaires’ bank accounts and stock portfolios, as well as weaken any attempt by working and low-income people to resist these attacks on our rights and our livelihoods. A terrible example of this is the latest atrocity: The United States Supreme Court has voted 6-3 to overturn the landmark decision Roe v. Wade. (https://6abc.com/supreme-court-protest-roe-v-wade-philadelphia-city-hall-abortion/11993756/) Don’t think for one minute they won’t overturn other rulings, which, like Roe v. Wade, have been considered “settled law” —voting rights, same-sex marriage, anti-sodomy laws, interracial marriage (like Clarence Thomas’). These nine individuals had the power to decide which laws are legitimate and which are not. It was the same body, though not all the same people, who voted to sustain Citizens United and similar rulings that called unlimited millions in donations to political campaigns “protected free speech.” This is some fine legal logic—comparing the right to express your beliefs to dumping money on politicians who will do the oligarchy’s bidding! But logic and justice has nothing, NOTHING, to do with sustaining the power of ruling plutocratic elites. For decades, corporations have donated to think-tanks that cranked out press releases attacking environmental laws, unions, LGBTQ rights, and abortion rights; to political movements that raised fears about drag queens in schools, transgender girls in girls’ sports, the “Oppression” of Christians, the greater prominence of non-white people in America; and to scapegoating people who are a little worse off than we are financially, like mothers on public assistance, or public employees who got their benefits from being in unions. (Hint, hint!) Thus, we are divided against each other over some lame excuse or another; why be angry at a union workers for their benefits, when you yourself should enter a union to get the same damn benefits? Why bother the same-sex couple who love one another and don’t bother anyone else? Why keep a kid from learning about the world, and about our nation’s real, and bloody, history—and about who and what they truly are? Who is anyone else to decide the workings of a woman’s body, and what she needs to sustain it, and whether she should continue a pregnancy? All of these issue are critical in and of themselves, but we must also remember the issue of class in our society—and yes, we have our own class of oligarchs, as evil as the crowd around Putin. They would love for us to attack and hate each other, so that we don’t combine against them. It’s not either/or, it’s another serious issue we have to deal with, for the betterment of our society. I was there Friday, June 24, for the rally in front of Philadelphia City Hall to protest the court’s terrible decision. The energy and determination of the crowd, with a lot of young people, was strong, and we must keep it up, in the streets, but more importantly in the ballot box. Does the oligarchic class really think women who just accept passively the end of Roe v. Wade? Do the managers of Apple, Starbucks, Amazon, and others think their workers will continue to accept mistreatment? That LGBTQ people would accept being oppressed again, after the legacy of the Stonewall uprising of 1969? Do they think we’ll passively accept losing the right to vote, among other rights? Apparently they do; their attitude around social issues is “We don’t want to hear of it or talk about it, and neither does anyone else.” Yes, we WILL talk about them, we WILL advocate around these issues, and we WILL vote, and we WILL NOT give up our right to vote! Stay safe, stay strong, and stay together! Slava Ukraini! America will be free! Bye!

The Mason Moment, June 20, 2022

I speak about the forming of the Greater Philadelphia Community Alliance, and of the significance of Juneteenth.

The Mason Moment, June 14, 2022

I speak about the AFL-CIO, the importance of the Labor movement, and the need to resist the oligarchic class.

The Mason Moment, June 6, 2022

I speak about the dangers of assault rifles in this country, and linking it to fighting the current wave of Fascism 2.0.

The Mason Missile, May 28, 2022

Greetings, Americans! It’s been coming, slow but sure-a draft of a decision of the US Supreme court, written by Justice Samuel Alito, calls for the repeal of the Roe v. Wade decision of 1973, prohibiting states from preventing a woman from having an abortion. (https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/02/supreme-court-abortion-draft-opinion-00029473) Some of the highlights of Alito’s draft state that “At the time of Roe, 30 states prohibited abortion at all stages. Is the years prior to that decision, about a third of the states have liberalized their laws, but Roe abruptly ended that political process. It imposed the same highly restrictive regime on the entire Nation, and it effectively struck down the abortion laws of every single state.” Alito mentions how the case Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey, from, 1993, whereby “the Court decided on stare decisis, which “required adherence to what was called Roe’s ‘central holding’—that a State may not constitutionally protect fetal life before ‘viability’—even if that holding was wrong.” Thus, the Casey decision reinforced Roe v. Wade. So, it did the right thing, it eliminated laws that would restricted women’s rights to control their own sexuality; the same way Brown v. Board of Education effectively ended legal segregation of schools by race, and was a milestone in advancing civil rights of African-Americans. (There was a mention of the fear of “judicial overreach,” another conservative boogie, of “Legislative from the bench.” Since when does a branch of government try to restrict its own power? Is it when it could be used to protect traditionally marginalized people, or to protect an oligarchy?) . Alito goes on, “We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled. The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision, including the one on which the defender of Roe and Casey now chiefly rely—the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.” The Due Process Clause seeks to guarantee rights not mentioned in the Constitution, but any such right “must be deeply rooted in the Nation’s history and tradition,” and “implicit in the concept of ordered liberty.” But, says Alito, “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start,” and “far from bringing a national settlement in the abortion issue, Roe and Casey have enflamed debate and deepened division.” Therefore, “It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.” “Elected representatives” means the state legislatures, dominated by trump-loving, proto-fascist Republicans-not just “conservative” in the Edmund Burke sense, but people contemptuous of human and civil rights-who, out of a twisted interpretation of the Christian concept of the Bible, have shown themselves ready to take from women the right to control their own bodies. A “right” means no one can interfere with how you conduct yourself, as long as you don’t interfere with others’ lives. Alito goes on in page 24-25 of the draft: “The inescapable conclusion is that a right to abortion is not deeply rooted in the nation’s history and traditions. On the contrary, an unbroken tradition of prohibiting abortion on pain of criminal punishment persisted from the earliest days of the common law until 1973.” Legal professionals often use precedent to make their cases in court, I know that; but the invocation of “tradition” often means just “We’ve always done things like this.” At the start of this country, there was a long tradition of chattel slavery, the use of human beings as forced labor, treating them no better than livestock; there was also the tradition of abusing people of color, women, and LGBT+s based on some sort of religious teaching. Alito cited the work of Sir Matthew Hale, a 17th-century English legal scholar, in his opposition to Roe v. Wade. But Hale is believed to be the source of much legal discrimination against women. (https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/05/samuel-alito-roe-v-wade-abortion-draft) For Hale, it was legally acceptable for husbands to rape and physically abuse their wives: in his work Pleas Of The Crown, Hale writes, “For the husband cannot be guilty of a rape committed by himself upon his lawful wife for by their mutual matrimonial consent and contract the wife hath given up herself in this kind unto her husband which she cannot retract.” (https://digitalcommons.law.ggu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1248&context=ggulrev) Hale sentenced two women to death on the charge of witchcraft, and thus laid the basis of the Salem Witch Trials in Massachusetts in 1692-1683. (https://www.jstor.org/stable/1409846) (https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2009&context=jclc) This is the mentality of those opposing abortion, and they’re in centers of power in federal and state government. Theologians and scientists have debated forever about when life begins, and they still haven’t decided; but politicians are taking upon themselves the privilege of deciding that, from women who have to carry the baby to full term, no matter the physical stress upon the woman, and no matter the economic stress upon a family having a child they cannot maintain. we must organize ourselves, educate ourselves and each other on the issue, and get out the vote this year. And PLEASE don’t be deterred by the doom and gloom predictions of a Republican victory-the campaigns haven’t started yet! We CAN and MUST fight this violation of women’s rights and lives. Stay safe, stay strong, and stay together! Slava Ukraini! America will be free! Bye!

The Mason Moment, May 23, 2022

I speak about how the Biden administration is handling the baby formula crisis, the need to fight against racism, and the need to vote.

The Mason Moment, May 19, 2022

I speak about the need to vote, and the need for public participation in the political process; the decline of the Republican Party into trumpism; and the danger to women's rights, worker's rights, and LGBT rights if the Republicans get back into power.

The Mason Moment, May 10, 2022

I speak about the need to vote this primary election, and the campaign against abortion rights, LGBT rights, and workers' rights.

Soldier of the Cross - John Mason

Here is my interview in Frequency99, about my novel, Soldier Of the Cross.

The Mason Missile, April 28, 2022

Greetings, Americans! Ketanji Brown Jackson has been finally confirmed as a Justice on the US Supreme Court-the first African-American woman to be so appointed. Alas! In her confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, she had to endure the racism, transphobia, and conspiracy-mongering ruling the Republican Party. April, in many former Confederate states, has been proclaimed Confederate heritage Month; Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves recently signed a proclamation for his state. (https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/mississippi-gov-proclaims-confederate-heritage-month-84071071) The proclamation says nothing about slavery, the reason that Mississippi and other southern states seceded from the union, leading to the Civil War. The declaration of secession by Mississippi proclaimed, “Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery-the greatest material interest of the world.” (https://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/csa_missec.asp) This is the “heritage” Confederate heritage Month commemorates, the enslavement of millions of people. This is what some people thought worth fighting and dying for. I’m currently reading Eric Foner’s history Reconstruction, and WEB DuBois’ Black Reconstruction, stories that challenged the narrative of the post-Civil-War era as one of corruption and manipulation of the poor, ignorant former slaves, the oppression of the southern states by northern oppressors, and the reclaiming of the south, along with the idea that the Confederacy was some form of noble “lost case” for which men died valiantly; thus the plethora of statues of Confederate soldiers, naming streets and schools after Confederate leaders, and the writing of textbooks saying that slavery had NOTHING to do with the war. While Confederate Heritage Month is being promoted, learning and discussion of race in this country’s schools is being repressed, in the name of confronting the evil entity known as Critical Race Theory; in Florida, 41 percent of new math textbooks are banned because they allegedly deal with CRT. (https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/17/us/florida-math-textbooks-critical-race-theory/index.html) Conservatives, as they are constituted in this country anymore, are fine with this nation becoming a nation of illiterates; lack of learning, not knowing real information or even how to think independently, is the only way they stay in power. Speaking of power—the primary elections in Pennsylvania are coming up May17, and once again I’m running for committee-Person in my ward in Philadelphia. I urge others to participate in the electoral process, by joining campaigns, listening to debates, attending meetings-maybe even running for an office yourself? It’s OUR government, after all, and who we elect (or not, if we don’t bother to vote) will decide the fates of all of us. This is especially important, with the power of this country’s oligarchic class, which is just as dangerous as the gang around Putin. We have seen how our oligarchs—Bezos, Musk, Zuckerberg—have, instead of spending the money they save from tax cuts and outright grants on new equipment and hiring workers, have used it to purchase yachts in the hundred-million range, and have gone off into space. Now, Elon Musk, of Tesla and SpaceX shame, is acquiring Twitter, for $44 BILLION. (https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/25/tech/elon-musk-twitter-sale-agreement/index.html) Musk, like so damn many of the tech oligarchs, talks of himself as a pioneer on the cutting edge, a visionary entrepreneur, saying that “Twitter has tremendous potential” and that “I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it.” (There are still people who fall for this kind of talk—the same ones who thought that Donald whatshisface was a business whiz who would bring his business savvy to the White House.) In reality, Twitter under Musk will be a garbage dump of racist, sexist, and homophobic abuse, allowing slanders and willful misinformation to spew out. Plus you see the danger of one individual having SOOO much power to shape the opinions and information of millions of Americans. I’m also amazed at $44 billion being spent on—what? Something so intangible as to not even be gas? Nothing physical, like land or buildings? But Twitter IS a communications medium, like a newspaper or a magazine, compatible to Bezos owning the Washington Post and MGM Studios. Hence, this same oligarchic class that cares nothing for working and low-income people will decide what the news is, what “education” is to be, and even what we should think. That’s why we have to organize for our own protection and advancement, in education, in our work lives, and in our voting. Stay safe, stay strong, and stay together! Slava Ukraini! America will be free! ADVERTISEMENTS

The Mason Moment, April 26, 2022

I speak about the purchasee of Twitter by Elon Musk, and of the danger of an oligarchic class in this country.

The Mason Moment, April 19, 2022

I speak about Passover and the ongoing struggle for freedom, and the need to get out and vote.

The Mason Moment, April 4, 2022

I speak about the need to tell the real story about the Confederacy, and the need for honest dialogue about race in this country.

The Mason Moment, March 29, 2022

I speak about the confirmation hearings for Ketanji Brown Jackson, and the Republicans grandstanding for their base.

The Mason Missile, March 27, 2022

Greetings, Americans! I have just submitted my petition to run again for Committee-person in the 48th Ward of Philadelphia. I’m pleased to serve another term of helping out my neighbors as they deal with the political process in the city; it’s their political process, after all. I urge people to get involved in the political process that affects their day-to-day lives. Public engagement in the political process is the main remedy to the rise of authoritarianism, plutocracy, and fascism in this country. This is the path the Republican Party, still dominated by trump and his minions are taking this country, since trump, with his racist rhetoric against Latinx peoples, immigrants, and Muslims, has encouraged the racists, religious cranks, and conspiracy-mongers out of the shadows and into the political mainstream. Don’t hesitate to call them authoritarians; Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, after a vote by the legislature, now has a statewide “Office of election crimes and Security,” an “election police” supposedly to monitor claims of “election fraud.” (https://www.politico.com/news/2022/03/10/desantis-gets-florida-election-police-00015926) (https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/19/politics/ron-desantis-pushes-election-police-force/index.html) This is all part of repressing the votes from minority communities, which mainly vote Democratic and would be open to progressive policies. This is the result of the whine by the trump campaign about “election fraud,” since trump could never admit defeat and the monopoly on power that held by white plutocrats is being challenged—which has been long overdue. The love of authoritarianism has come up among conservatism (not all of them, I must say, but a significant number of high-profile ones), particularly after Russia, under the former KGB officer and czar-wannabe Vladimir Putin, invaded the sovereign nation of Ukraine. Our own former disgrace-in-chief (Barf!), who got to the White House due to Russian meddling in our elections, has long praised Putin; during a podcast with Clay and Buck, trump harped on his favorite themes—other nations dumping their prison inmates into this country, the “rigged election” he lost fair and square, and Putin invading Ukraine, saying “This is genius,” and saying about Putin’s two puppet breakaway “republics” from Ukraine, “How smart is that?” ; trump added, “And he’s gonna go in and be a peacekeeper. That’s strongest peace force;” Also “We could use that on our southern border. That’s the strongest peace force I’ve ever seen. There were more army tanks than I’ve ever seen. They’re gonna keep peace all right. No, but think of it. Here’s a guy who’s very savvy… I know him very well.” (https://www.clayandbuck.com/president-trump-with-cb-from-mar-a-lago/) It’s not just trump: other conservatives (not all of them, let’s be fair) have heaped praise on Putin. One is Mike Pompeo, trump’s Secretary of State, who has used the terms “savvy,’ “talented,” and “capable statesman” to describe the wannabe czar, adding, “He was a KGB agent, for goodness sakes. He knows how to use power. We should respect that.” (https://www.alternet.org/2022/02/mike-pompeo-has-been-openly-praising-vladimir-putin-as-ukraine-crisis-intensifies-report/?utm_source=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=9889&list_id=2 ) Steve Bannon, a former trump advisor hosting a podcast, said to his guest Erik Prince (former owner of Blackwater, the mercenary army-for-hire), “Putin ain’t woke. He’s anti-woke,” and Prince said “The Russian people still know which bathroom to use.” Bannon replied, “They know how many, how many genders there are in Russia?”, and prince replied, “Two.” (https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/steve-bannon-russia-trans-woke-b2022537.html) (https://www.newsweek.com/former-trump-adviser-steve-bannon-backs-anti-woke-vladimir-putin-1682122) I remember all during the Cold War era, conservatives who vocally despised the regimes in Moscow and Peking heaped praise on them over the forcefulness they responded to such things as stifling dissidents, invading Czechoslovakia in 1968, and invading Afghanistan in 1979, how they just rammed in without any trouble and not tolerating any questions. It’s the same authoritarian tendency that had long been hidden and is now emerging again. These are the fan-boys and fan-girls of Putin and trump; people who care nothing about democracy or the rights of others, who want to regain and perpetuate their power over people they, for some reason, deem “inferior.” The efforts of African-Americans, LGBTQs, Latinx people, Native peoples, wage workers, what have you, are a threat to them. SO—Let’s continue to scare them with our demanding that the problems of race be intelligently discussed! Let’s challenge the power of our own, homegrown oligarchy, as dangerous to our society as the ones around Putin! Let’s continue to educate ourselves about the great issues of the day, organize ourselves at the grassroots and the shop-floor, take to the streets, and vote on Election Days! This is our challenge to our nation’s Putin-wannabees! Stay safe, stay strong, and stay together! Slava Ukraini! America will be free! Bye!

The Mason Moment, March 22, 2022

I speak of the need to support locally-based artists and arts programs.

The Mason Moment, March 15, 2022

I urge people to involve themselves in the affairs of their communities and the political process.

The Mason Moment, March 7, 2022

I speak about the need to get involved in the political process, and of the problem of gerrymandering.

The Mason Moment March 1, 2022

I speak about the resistance of the valiant Ukrainian people, the rising of the peace-loving people of Russia, and the examples they give us.

The Mason Missile, February 26, 2022

Greetings, Americans! I’m currently reading the hardcover book of The 1619 Project, the series of articles published in the New York Times about the history of racism in this land of the free, and how it’s permeated throughout our society. Racism has done this, and we must grapple with it like adults if our nation is to heal and grow. (I acquired my copy from the Free Library of Philadelphia, https://freelibrary.org/.) Conservatives have long acted like education is not for the training of the mind to think independently, or to expand people’s horizons and learn new things; to them, it’s the dumping of words pre-approved by people in power, telling the students “This is what WE want you to know, and don’t go any further!” They also accuse teachers and professors of “Indoctrinating” students with Marxist, America-hating propaganda, which is an act of projection. An example of this is in the tail end of the regime of t---p, when he announced the forming of the “1776 Project,” as a response to the 1619 Project. (https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/how-trump-administration-s-1776-report-warps-history-racism-slavery-n1254926) This was along with his order to ban diversity training in federal agencies. (https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/why-trump-administration-slashing-anti-discrimination-training-n1239903) It as if the entire goal is to say “Let’s not talk about it,” accusing such educational programs of causing division and America-hating. The whole approach of conservatives to dealing with race is to NOT deal with it, unless they want to excite white voters to vote against their interests in favor of corporations and the über-wealthy who don’t care squat about them. The same idea to repress the 1619 Project also started the move in the Texas state legislature, and signed by Governor Greg Abbot, to pass a bill forming the “1836 Project,” a similar effort to propagate about Texas-exceptionalism, and to hide the long and terrible history of racism in that state. It took its name from the year when the Republic of Texas declared its independence from Mexico. The reality was, in 1821, Stephen Austin asked the Mexican government (which won its independence from Mexico the year before) to be allowed to settle 300 families in this sparsely populated region of the country, along the Brazos River, and the settlers mainly came from the US South and had slaves, and slavery was outlawed in Mexico (https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/texas-declares-independence); the constitution of the Republic of Texas, modeled after the United States constitution, allowed slavery. (https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/alamo-republic/) Slavery, racism- are THESE terrible things worth glorifying? Or were the authors of the bill seeking to hide it? Either way, prohibiting students from hearing or reading this part of Texas’ past a detriment to people seriously out to learn. I know that, as legend goes, Americans aren’t great students of history, but we have to and CAN disprove that. We have to learn our history, all of it, particularly from the perspectives of African-Americans, Native Americans, Asian and Pacific Islands people, Latinx people, people descended for Eastern European immigrants, and women-the voices of those who have traditionally not been heard. As George Santayana said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Do we want to repeat the past of slavery, genocide, repression of workers, warmongering, and contempt for immigrants? I’m sorry that, due to deadlines, I have to wait until next month’s Missile, to talk about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a sovereign nation. But don’t work, I’ll have plenty to say. On that note, stay safe stay strong, and stay together! Victory to the Ukrainian people! America will be free! Bye!

The Mason Moment, Feb. 21, 2022

I call for the need for serious discussion and learning about racism problems in this country, past and present.

Mason Moment February 14, 2022 (Sequence 2)

I speak about transferring from Spotify, and of the recent rash of banning of books in schools.

The Mason Missile, January 30, 2022

Greetings, Americans! Over the Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, Torah portion Beshalah, Exodus 13:17-17:16; after the Israelites left Egypt for the Promised Land, Pharaoh is angry that he let them leave slavery under him, and he orders an elite chariot unit to attack them. The Israelites, terrified by the chariots, and they turn against Moses, saying, “Is it for a lack of graves in Egypt, that you brought us here to die in the wilderness?”, and talked about going back into slavery in Egypt. Moses tells the people to not fear, “The LORD will battle for you.” God tells Moses, “Tell the Israelites to go forward,” and Moses lifts his rod over the Red Sea, and the water part to let the Israelites through. After they cross to the other side, the Egyptian chariots attack, but God allows the waters of the sea to come down on them. Pharaoh was originally frightened by death of the first born, including his son; rulers seldom do handle problems until it affects them personally; he therefore “gets tough” and tries to reassert his power over the Israelites, his former slaves. Tyrants, both political and economic, hate it when their once-docile subjects challenge their tyranny; when the once-oppressed people make gains, they old regime temporarily pulls back, but they plot again to take their former power back and put their subjects back down. That’s what the MLK weekend is about-the ongoing fight against tyranny and for freedom and justice-it never ends. Any advance towards a more just and democratic society isn’t guaranteed, and that its defense is ongoing. Upcoming is African-American History Month, and we’re up against efforts to force school boards throughout the country to ban books dealing with Black History or LGBTQ+ issues, acting like they’ll hurt white people’s feelings-this, from the faction that mocks people protesting racial and religious attacks as “snowflakes” and telling them to just put up with it. The latest of this is from Tennessee, where the McMinn County School Board ordered the banning of the graphic novel Maus by Art Spiegelman, depicting the horrors of the Holocaust- depicting the Jews as mice and the Nazis as cats.( https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/holocaust-novel-maus-banned-in-tennessee-school-district) This came the day before Holocaust Memorial Day. The board complained about so-called “bad language” and a picture of a naked woman! Can a person be more ignorant? More stupid” One genius on the board said “It shows people hanging, it shows them killing kids, why does the educational system promote this kind of stuff? It is not wise on healthy.” It’s because it’s HISTORY, dumbo, a terrible historical event, and people have to learn about it, so we don’t go through that again! These are the deep thinkers deciding on your kids’ education, Americans. Still,their favorite enemy-of-the-month remains the evil “Critical Race Theory,” which (as I’ve said for the HUNDRETH time!) is a 40-year-old study about race as a social construct, which is pervasive throughout the legal system and in our politics, and not an individual attitude. It came about from the work of such legal scholars as Derrick Bell, Kimberlé Crenshaw, and Richard Delgado, examining such patterns of discrimination as which areas of a city are “redlined”, which decides the residents’ ability to attain a loan, for one thing. It is also a tool for sociologists and literary experts to see the effects of racism in school funding, policing, utilities, advertising, movies, and so forth. (https://www.edweek.org/leadership/what-is-critical-race-theory-and-why-is-it-under-attack/2021/05) It is prevalent in law schools and graduate studies, and not-repeat, NOT! - taught to kindergarten kids to make them hate themselves. The conservative reaction to CRT has always been the logical fallacy of “exaggerated extrapolation,” that it would cause such terrible things as discrimination against white people, gay activism in schools, the Black Lives Matter movement, and school shootings. This is immature, unwilling to confront one of the greatest stains and impediments to the development of our democracy. Plus, the conservative attitude has always been self-centeredness, believing that everything should be as THEY want, whether it’s schools, neighborhoods, and sexuality; they don’t do a thing, they’re not forced to do a thing, yet they demand the right to penalize an dpolice other people’s behavior.; it’s all about them, and they’re like little kids who don’t want to share. This is what we’re dealing with in our politics and in our country; it’s gone on all through our history, taking different forms, different eras, and different power relations within our country. We must never give up our part of the fight; we must study the news, organize, educate ourselves on the issues, and finally, get out there and VOTE, and not allow anything or anyone to stop us. Our forebears went through this so that we can vote and have our rights, and I believe they’re looking on us; can we let them down? Stay safe, stay strong, and stay together! America will be free! Bye!

The Mason Moment Jan. 17, 2022

I speak about fighting homelessness, and the work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and how we must keep it going.I screwed up the opening credits, sorry.

The Mason Moment, January 4, 2022

I speak about the danger of censoring library books dealing with race and LGBTQ+ issues, and of rededicating ourselves to preserving our democracy.