The Mason Moment with John Oliver Mason, April 15, 2024

I speak on social and political issues, calling them as I see them. I speak about how abortion is now a toxic issue for Republicans, and the need to commemorate Confederate Surrender Day.

The Mason Moment with John Oliver Mason. April 8, 2024

I speak on social and political issues, calling them as I see them. I speak about the upcoming solar eclipse, and the need for better scientific education. Transcript

The Mason Moment with John Oliver Mason, March 26, 2024

I speak on social and political issues, calling them as I see them. I speak about NBC's wrong decision to hire Ronna McDaniel, and of trump and his legal issues in New York State.

The Mason Missile, March 23, 2024

Greetings, Americans! Again, Social Security and Medicare are in the sights of Republicans, particularly their glorious leader, Donald whatshisface. On the CNBC program Squawk Box (after you get past the commercial), trump raised once more the idea of cutting “entitlements,” using the old excuse “bad management,” with a particular emphasis on Social Security and Medicare, and raising the old scare of “rising inflation.” (https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-entitlements-cutting_n_65ef1763e4b0bd5228d4eadd) (https://www.cnbc.com/video/2024/03/11/former-president-donald-trump-on-entitlements-theres-tremendous-numbers-of-things-you-can-do.html) Part of the Republican-conservative drive to eliminate Social Security and Medicare is to raise the retirement age for both, raising the scare of “the Social Security fund will soon be insolvent! It won’t have enough funds!” (If they’re trying to eliminate Social Security, why should they worry about its solvency or lack thereof?) The Republican Study Committee (RSC), a caucus of way-to-the-right republicans, put their proposal out, for the 2025 federal budget, to raise the retirement age of eligibility for Social Security and Medicare, along with cuts in SSI for the blind, aged, and disabled retirees. (https://prospect.org/blogs-and-newsletters/tap/2024-03-21-republicans-want-to-raise-retirement-age/) (https://www.businessinsider.com/social-security-benefits-republicans-raise-age-retirement-cuts-2024-3) (https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/republican-budget-raise-age-retirement-social-security-medicare-rcna144341) Do they actually expect a lot of work out of elderly people, the blind, or physically challenged? But, knowing damn well this idea isn’t at all popular, they announce, in the most soothing tones, that they’re just making “adjustments” to the program, denying that they WILL NOT deny payments to the elderly or retirees. That’s the Republican propaganda tactic, to scoff and mock at any suggestion that they would eliminate these vital programs millions of Americans (like me) depend on to survive. Their real constituency are the billionaires and corporations who have their cushy positions and fortunes, and don’t have to worry about getting from oen paycheck to the next. How long have we heard this? I remember this talk since the 70s: pundits would warn, in an “as we all know” tone, that all of our financial foes stem from “excessive government spending” and “excessive regulation” of industries, and such programs as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Food Stamps (now SNAP), Unemployment Compensation, etc., and made the scapegoat for such problems, and the mainstream, commercial, “left-liberal slanted” news media picks up on this line and broadcasts it ad nauseam. (Media conglomerates, remember, are also mega-corporations, and they also have a stake in preserving the economic system.) And so, low-income and working-class people are lectured about being “too lazy to find a job, just leaching off welfare,” and racial stereotypes are added in the mix. This line of “reasoning” is seldom ever questioned or examined; seldom are the questions asked, “IS federal government social spending all that “excessive? DOES federal regulation of industries REALLY damage the economy? ARE people of color the only ones feeding off the welfare trough?” NOW is the time to start asking these questions, and the current movement of workers organizing, along with the Bernie Sanders campaigns of 2016 and 2020 and the COVID pandemic, where workers had to either work at home to do their jobs, and “essential” workers like store workers and medical workers realized how essential they were in making the economy, at least the company, run; with our the workers, they’d be like generals without an army, just talking to themselves and can get nothing done. In my reading of history, primarily US Social History, Capitalists want workers dependent upon them for jobs, since workers’ only asset is their labor power; a vast population of unemployed workers, fighting amongst each other for the same few jobs, with no other source of income but the pittance the employer gives them, is their ideal. A form on social insurance, such as SNAP (I remember the program as Food Stamps, and I had them), or Unemployment Compensation, or Social Security (I get that also), gives workers a little breathing space, a little bit of independence, something to live on while looking for a job; it’s a form of independence from the capitalist employers, to show they’re not totally in control of their lives. The capitalist class needs this vast population of unemployed workers fighting amongst each other, to depress wages and make the workers dependent on them; and their political lackeys whine about low-income people becoming “dependent” on government funds to get by. Now, after COVID, these “non-essential” workers see how essential they are to the economy, and to the very life of the corporation they work for. SO, let us continue to support workers’ work in organizing themselves for their mutual protection and well-being. SO, Americans, let us organize and educate ourselves about the REAL issues, the REAL dangers facing us. The CEOs of the multi-billion-dollar corporations are as much a danger to us as are the goons, bullies, and fascists trump riles up in his rallies. And, of course, on election day, get out there and VOTE, like our nation and our democracy depend on it, because it does. Stay safe, stay strong, and stay together! Slava Ukraini! Am Yisrael Chai! America will be free! Bye!

The Mason Moment with John Oliver Mason, March 18, 2024

I speak about the Jewish holiday Purim, and its theme of taking down tyrants.

The Mason Moment with John Oliver Mason, March 11, 2024

I honor the memory of my friend and union sister, Barbara Rahke (OBM), and I offer a commentary about the State Of The Union address.

The Mason Moment with John Oliver Mason, March 4, 2024

I speak today about the corruption of the Supreme Court, Mitch McConnell's legacy, and trump's judicial problems.

The Mason Moment with John Oliver Mason

I speak on social and political issues, calling them as I see them. I speak today about the decision by the Alabama Supreme Court on frozen embryos, and the movement towards theocracy in this country.

The Mason Moment, February 25, 2024

Greetings, Americans! We have reached the end of African-American History Month, set aside to honor the history of African-descended people in our country-a history that has long been slandered and distorted, for the basest political purposes. Ever since the end of the Civil War, and the giving-up on Reconstruction in the former Confederacy (which led, albeit briefly, to the empowerment, economically and politically, of the former slaves), historians, learned men in some of the most respected universities, helped to propagate the myth of the “Lost Cause—” that the Confederacy was at war to defend their “states’ rights” (for what?) and that such Confederate military commanders as Lee, Jackson, and Jefferson Davis were valiant warrior chiefs, and that the slaves were perfectly happy in their slavery and loved ole massah, and that Reconstruction was a monument of corruption and rule by bestial, ignorant ex-slaves. Historians, and many other influencers of the post-Civil war era—a period of “free-market” capitalism at its worst, with politicians on company payrolls, wealth flouted in the people’s faces, and grinding poverty—went along with the “lost cause” idea, calling it “binding the nation’s wounds,” but the attitude was more like “we don’t want to deal with it anymore;” and the federal troops, once utilized to police the post-war South, were sent to fire upon workers striking against their terrible pay and working conditions. A great source for reading on Reconstruction is Eric Foner’s Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution; I highly recommend it. (https://www.harpercollins.com/products/reconstruction-updated-edition-eric-foner?variant=32116709523490) There have been in our history efforts to control how such events as the Civil War and Reconstruction are taught and presented to school kids. The United Daughters of the Confederacy, founded in 1894, led the way in altering the memory of that era, as memories were fading. They called for the construction of monuments in honor of Confederate leaders, and they demanded local school boards not purchase history books that were “unjust” to the South. (https://www.vox.com/videos/2017/10/25/16545362/southern-socialites-civil-war-history) Monuments, statues, and school textbooks are prime propaganda tools; they tell the kids, the future leaders, who their heroes were, what to believe was just, and whom to emulate. the classroom is just one more medium of acceptable propaganda. The film The Birth Of A Nation (1915), considered at one level to be a cinematic masterpiece, was also part of the “lost cause” movement, portraying Klansmen as valiant defenders of white women, protecting them from bestial freedmen; this film was one of the prime motivators of the founding of the 20th century Ku Klux Klan. (https://www.atlantahistorycenter.com/blog/the-connection-between-the-united-daughters-of-the-confederacy-and-the-kkk/) This idea was helped along with the help of academia at the time; in the late-19th-early-20th centuries, two “scholars” based in Columbia University—William A Dunning and John W. Burgess—developed what became known as the Dunning-Burgess school of the history of Reconstruction, which stated that the South under Black governance was a disaster to the South (the WHITE South), and that the former slaves were to childlike and emotional to govern, and the end of reconstruction was to them a blessing, the passing of a “disastrous” era. (https://slaveryexhibits.ctl.columbia.edu/exhibits/show/williamdunning/columbia-and-johnburgess) This shows that popular beliefs and prejudices could influence scholarship, and “learned” professors could be influenced by racism. Slowly but surely, the Dunning-Burgess theory has been challenged, and leading this challenge was the scholar WEB Du Bois, with his history Black Reconstruction (http://www.webdubois.org/wdb-BlackReconst.html) (https://libcom.org/article/black-reconstruction-america-web-du-bois) ; Du Bois contends that rather than being a total disaster, reconstruction was a positive movement for the freedmen AND poor whites; who if combined would be able to challenge the dominant economic powers of that era—southern planters and northern capitalists. In short, race did NOT have to be the great dividing line in this country; white and black workers and low-income people COULD unite to defend against the financial powers that still seek to pit us against each other, so they can remain in power; I still hold out hope that such unity is attainable. Now, for example in Florida, the teaching of African-American History is a political battleground, with their genius governor declaring “war on woke” and policing the teaching of Black History, and resisting the horrible, terrible, very bad, no-good thing that is (gasp!) CRITICAL RACE THEORY! (https://www.reuters.com/world/us/florida-proudly-teaches-african-american-history-official-says-he-defends-2023-01-21/) Governor Deshithead also has the audacity to declare that slaves, during their enslavement, acquired skills that they could utilize for their benefit. This movement by the state, under the so-called “Stop WOKE S Act,” bill also tries to deemphasize white privilege, and tries to prevent white people, particularly school kids, from “guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress” over what their ancestors did. Remember, these are the same damn people who have no trouble terrorizing transgender or gay kids, or allowing racism to run amuck in this country, and who mock concerned people as “snowflakes,” and NOW they don’t want to hurt white people’s feelings. (https://www.politico.com/news/2023/07/20/florida-black-history-teaching-standards-00107067) (Do I HAVE to mention it again? Critical Race Theory is really—pay attention now—the theory of how racism has permeated every aspect of American life, like the judiciary, the financial-corporate sector, government, law enforcement, AND education and academia. I’ll keep repeating this for as long as I have to.) (As for “woke,’ it has a long tradition in African-American culture; “woke” meant to pay attention to what’s going on around you, especially dealing with white authority figures; then it moved on to mean having consciousness about social and economic issues. Marcus Garvey, founders of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), once proclaimed, “Wake up, Ethiopia! Wake up, Africa!” Later, during the case of the Scottsboro Boys, Huddie “Leadbelly” Ledbetter , wrote a protest song on the case, which was of nine young Black men accused of raping two white women in 1931. Ledbetter, at the end of the song, warned, “So I advise everybody, be a little careful when they go along through there (Alabama)—best stay woke, keep your eyes open.” (https://www.vox.com/culture/21437879/stay-woke-wokeness-history-origin-evolution-controversy) THESE are the gatekeepers of our education—racial and religious haters who refuse to accept people not like them as full-fledged citizens and human beings. But it’s not at all hopeless; the Republicans, being infested with the trump-MAGA virus, and home for the haters, have been soundly defeated in last year’s elections, particularly in school boards, which were formerly dominated by anti-Black, anti-LGBTQ+ haters. So let’s go to the polls, whenever and wherever they take place, and do some serious voting—and yes stay WOKE! For my part, I’ll be as woke as a cup of coffee with an espresso shot. Stay safe, stay strong, and stay together! Slava Ukraini! Am Yisrael Chai! America will be free! Bye!

The Mason Moment with John Oliver Mason, February 19, 2024

I speak today for Medicare for All, and to comment on the murder of Alexei Navalny.

The Mason Moment with John Oliver Mason, February 12, 2024

I speak about the Republicans playing political games with the needs of the American people.

The Mason Moment with John Oliver Mason, February 6, 2024

The Mason Moment with John Oliver Mason, January 29, 2024

I speak on social and political issues, calling them as I see them. I speak today about the republican politicizing about the border, and with the E. Jean Carrol verdict and the “quality” of trump’s legal team.

The Mason Missile, January 24, 2024

Greetings, Americans! Once again we have celebrated the life and legacy of the reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I believe people are paying attention to that part of King the commercial media doesn’t let out, that of the King who challenged authority and social orders, who recognized the interconnectedness of racial and economic problems, and the injustice of the Viet Nam War. If King was just some harmless nonviolent peacenik, the FBI wouldn’t have the whole smear campaign against him. That’s how social change works; we’re going to anger some powerful people in government and finance (about the same thing). As the movement to correct a social injustice proceeds, those in power, who benefit in some way from said injustice, wit for their time to roll back the gains the movement has done; then comes the backlash (the popular media plays a role in this), and some pundit proclaims, “Isn’t the movement going a little too far?” It happened with the Civil Rights movement, in the latter 1960s, when more radical African-American activists said there were still injustices to addresses, there were uprisings in cities, and King was held to blames for them. All of the injustices of race and class emerged from the shadows, and there is media generated sentiment against the movement, with a note of nostalgia, the dream of returning to some unspecified “good ol’ days,” when certain demographics of people “knew their place” and didn’t make any noise about it. That’s what trump means when he says “Make America great again,” like it stopped being great for some reason. In the 1970s, it was like that with the feminist and LGBTQ-rights movements; the leaders of those movements were veterans of the Civil-Rights and anti-Viet Nam-war movements, and they learned their organizing skills in those causes, and applied them to fighting for the rights of their own groups. Then came the backlash: well-subsidized organizations campaigned against the Equal Rights Amendment (let’s try it again), raising the fear of women press-ganged into the workforce and genderless restrooms; and campaigns rose against LGBRQ+ rights, saying the gays are trying to attain “special privileges” and were out to “recruit our children.” (For them it’s all or nothing; any advancement in Civil Rights for any group is called giving them some sort of privileged treatment, as if the dominant group has become some oppressed minority, or else makes it their right to terrorize their “inferiors.”) The forces opposing changes in society have the advantage of “tradition,” which could, to them, mean “It’s always been like this, and we can’t handle change!”; such changes make them uncomfortable; hence, a crew of media figures (I hesitate to call them “journalists”) and politicians arise to take advantage of such sentiment and anxieties. The commercial media, having the habit of “What’s the latest fad we can talk about?” thinking, and being mainly from the once-dominant classes and races, pick up on this, and they treat this as something here to stay, forever.” That line has been said all through the nation’s social history, coming from every news outlet, that the current situation is how it is for all time. Not so! By banding together, by joining forces with each other, in our neighborhoods and worksites, we can affect change, and move the nation forward to something better. It was an established “fact” earlier in our history that slavery of other human beings, for the benefit of a useless, parasitic class of European-nobility wannabees that pretends to be dukes and duchesses (and getting deeper in debt to keep up appearances) would last forever; that the second-class citizenship of people of color, and the accompanying oppressions and humiliations, were permanently fixed; and that an oligarchic class of multi-billionaires is destined to rule the world, thanks to tax-breaks from their pet congress-members. In short, we fought them before, we beat them before, and, if we band together for our rights, learn together, work together, and VOTE (hint, hint) we’ll continue to beat them. Stay safe, stay strong, and stay together! Slava Ukraini! Am Yisrael Chai! America will be free! Bye!

The Mason Moment with John Oliver Mason, January 22, 2024

Today I speak about the anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, and the need to vote to protect reproductive rights.

The Mason Moment with John Oliver Mason

I speak about the need to remember the REAL history of January 6, 2021, the need to pay attention to the political process, and the need to vote.