tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-44160081961490415802024-03-18T14:12:56.981-07:00The Mason MissileThis is my personal e-mail newsletter, where I let it ALL out about the state of the nation and the world. I don't do "objective", I tell the real story as I see it.John Masonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07918234579398031280noreply@blogger.comBlogger257125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4416008196149041580.post-80619466778792350152024-03-18T14:12:00.000-07:002024-03-18T14:12:24.063-07:00The Mason Moment with John Oliver Mason, March 18, 2024<iframe style="background-image:url(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/7FhGnBK36V4/hqdefault.jpg)" width="480" height="270" src="https://youtube.com/embed/7FhGnBK36V4?si=cvftyvUDLwXIu6JB" frameborder="0"></iframe> I speak about the Jewish holiday Purim, and its theme of taking down tyrants.John Masonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07918234579398031280noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4416008196149041580.post-75162753957231117342024-03-11T13:17:00.000-07:002024-03-11T13:17:38.406-07:00The Mason Moment with John Oliver Mason, March 11, 2024<iframe width="480" height="270" src="https://youtube.com/embed/xGN5xGr3r9E?si=7SZdAAh6VBGAJVFp" frameborder="0"></iframe> 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.John Masonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07918234579398031280noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4416008196149041580.post-62658857675881032012024-03-04T13:28:00.000-08:002024-03-04T13:28:56.317-08:00The Mason Moment with John Oliver Mason, March 4, 2024<iframe width="480" height="270" src="https://youtube.com/embed/s9Fmke2f1hI?si=wcLDal_FxbsvbU5w" frameborder="0"></iframe>
I speak today about the corruption of the Supreme Court, Mitch McConnell's legacy, and trump's judicial problems.John Masonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07918234579398031280noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4416008196149041580.post-40114330573427080472024-02-26T09:56:00.000-08:002024-02-26T09:58:32.824-08:00The Mason Moment with John Oliver Mason<iframe width="480" height="270" src="https://youtube.com/embed/OtTc6ncB3D8?si=ge_ilaGwJqpfuNzU" frameborder="0"></iframe>
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.John Masonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07918234579398031280noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4416008196149041580.post-79590514719809669482024-02-25T14:11:00.000-08:002024-02-25T14:11:02.266-08:00The Mason Moment, February 25, 2024Greetings, 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!
John Masonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07918234579398031280noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4416008196149041580.post-70613854813641185312024-02-19T10:29:00.000-08:002024-02-19T10:29:25.251-08:00The Mason Moment with John Oliver Mason, February 19, 2024<iframe style="background-image:url(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/FaU2rtlocK0/hqdefault.jpg)" width="480" height="270" src="https://youtube.com/embed/FaU2rtlocK0?si=VNnnmd2s5hfRvVP0" frameborder="0"></iframe> I speak today for Medicare for All, and to comment on the murder of Alexei Navalny.John Masonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07918234579398031280noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4416008196149041580.post-79682036661073683052024-02-12T12:53:00.000-08:002024-02-12T12:53:51.172-08:00The Mason Moment with John Oliver Mason, February 12, 2024<iframe width="480" height="270" src="https://youtube.com/embed/WEGWrUmi01M?si=tSA8k5p_i_vp78kv" frameborder="0"></iframe> I speak about the Republicans playing political games with the needs of the American people.John Masonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07918234579398031280noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4416008196149041580.post-35183169465390765782024-02-06T11:10:00.000-08:002024-02-06T11:10:52.218-08:00The Mason Moment with John Oliver Mason, February 6, 2024<iframe width="480" height="270" src="https://youtube.com/embed/uojOX70D5FM?si=XBR1EGVWjiEEfcS5" frameborder="0"></iframe>
John Masonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07918234579398031280noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4416008196149041580.post-32879497793588303362024-01-29T12:35:00.000-08:002024-01-29T12:35:47.094-08:00The Mason Moment with John Oliver Mason, January 29, 2024<iframe style="background-image:url(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/f1s91gQUjYI/hqdefault.jpg)" width="480" height="270" src="https://youtube.com/embed/f1s91gQUjYI?si=rgMCIk10QmvzxBsn" frameborder="0"></iframe> 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.John Masonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07918234579398031280noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4416008196149041580.post-62467762031675547202024-01-24T16:05:00.000-08:002024-01-24T16:05:03.885-08:00The Mason Missile, January 24, 2024Greetings, 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!
John Masonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07918234579398031280noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4416008196149041580.post-23828390319502067122024-01-22T12:46:00.000-08:002024-01-22T12:46:23.475-08:00The Mason Moment with John Oliver Mason, January 22, 2024<iframe width="480" height="270" src="https://youtube.com/embed/xunfQJO3Oyg?si=62gwe6iCAeCuGcyh" frameborder="0"></iframe> Today I speak about the anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, and the need to vote to protect reproductive rights.John Masonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07918234579398031280noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4416008196149041580.post-81129724167945532532024-01-08T13:28:00.000-08:002024-01-08T13:28:31.641-08:00The Mason Moment with John Oliver Mason<iframe width="480" height="270" src="https://youtube.com/embed/RV-6ypK0P6w?si=cE02M0ItuiQ1WrSh" frameborder="0"></iframe>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.John Masonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07918234579398031280noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4416008196149041580.post-79729301168602959812023-12-28T09:26:00.000-08:002023-12-28T09:26:45.879-08:00The Mason Missile, December 28, 2023Greetings, Americans!
We are in the midst of the holiday season, and I notice that old Christmas tradition isn’t happening so much—Fundamentalist Christian Rightists howling about how they can’t say “Merry Christmas” anymore. Actually you can, but they feel oppressed by the fact that there are other religions in this country, and other holidays this season, like Hanukah (my jam!) and Kwanza, the secular African-American celebration. Here is a link to learn about Kwanzaa and its principals: (https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/initiatives/kwanzaa)
The Republican march to nowhere goes on. Kevin McCarthy, who sold what was left of his soul to Donald whatshisface and the MAGAs in their caucus, is finally out. He went through fifteen votes and made concession after concession to the “Freedom Caucus”, thus weakening his authority as Speaker, and he still got ejected from the Speaker’s Chair. (https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/03/us/politics/kevin-mccarthy-house-speaker.html) (https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/matt-gaetz-kevin-mccarthy-house-speakership-10-03-23/index.html)
McCarthy, after the Electoral College certification of Joe Biden after the January 6 riot, announced how the attempt to destroy the democratic process by trump’s disciples was trump’s responsibility; then later, McCarthy went to Mar-A-Lago to kiss trump’s ring (and other things), thus proclaiming trump as the leader of the party. (https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/28/politics/donald-trump-kevin-mccarthy-meeting/index.html) It’s a pattern: Ted Cruz called trump a “sniveling coward” after trump slandered Cruz’s wife and father in 2016, then later endorsed him and afterwards hailed him (https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/28/politics/donald-trump-kevin-mccarthy-meeting/index.html); Lindsey Graham called him “a race-baiting xenophobic religious bigot” who “doesn’t represent my party” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bkDykGhM8c), then became one of trump’s golf buddies.
They must have seen the voters for trump, how jazzed up they were for him, and how he kept winning primaries and the nomination; do they this these trump-loving maniacs think THESE are the real American people, how Americans are like—racist, ignorant, violent, gun-loving?
As interim Speaker was Patrick McHenry of Louisiana, from North Carolina. (https://www.politico.com/news/2023/03/17/patrick-mchenry-tries-to-calm-svb-crisis-00087456) One of McHenry’s first acts was to evict former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and former Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) from their House offices—for what? Because they led the opposition? (https://www.npr.org/2023/10/04/1203566052/pelosi-office-patrick-mchenry-speaker)
Now we have Mike Johnson, from Louisiana, as Speaker. Johnson is a product of the evangelical political movement that attached itself to trump. He spoke about the software Covenant Eyes, which he shares with his son to monitor each other, to see if they’re watching porn; he learned about this software from attending a meeting of the Promise Keepers, a ministry for men that teaches them to rule over women. (https://www.alternet.org/Frontpage-videos/mike-johnson-2666165894/) He has also called the concept of the separation of called the separation of Church and State “a misnomer”, insisting that the writers of the Constitution really did want religion to influence governmental acts. (https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/speaker-mike-johnson-says-separation-church-state-misnomer-rcna125181)
Plus, a video found by a German news agency had Johnson with his daughter at a “purity ball,” a phenomenon of the early 2000s, which has the father attending a ball which looks like a wedding, but it’s to symbolize the supervision of the father over the daughter, who vows to maintain sexual “purity,” and the father is in effect her “boyfriend,” and he keeps her from any sexual “promiscuity,” vetting any men who would marry her. (https://abcnews.go.com/blogs/lifestyle/2014/03/daughters-pledge-to-preserve-their-virginity-at-purity-balls) (https://abcnews.go.com/US/speaker-mike-johnson-daughter-profiled-attending-purity-ball/story?id=105785626) Along the way, Johnson has been a passionate enemy of LGBTQ+ rights, equating them to “pedophilia,” and fighting against same-sex marriage and calling for the criminalization of gay sex. (https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/new-house-speaker-mike-johnson-spent-years-fighting/story?id=104312903)
This is the person, once a back-benching extremist, who is second in line to be President, and we have to work hard in 2024 to make sure he gets back there, and the way to do that is for us to vote in massive numbers; that’s what the Republicans fear, and that’s why the voter restriction laws going through Republican controlled state legislatures.
However, I’m having some schadenfreude over the latest Republican-evangelical scandal. Bridget Ziegler is a member of the Sarasota County School Board and one of the co-founders of “Moms For Liberty,” an Astroturf group that raids school-boards to demand the removal of books dealing intelligently with LGBTQ+ issues and African-American history, and has terrorized transgender kids about bathrooms and lockers, and harassed drag shows. (https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/moms-liberty); Christian Ziegler was the Chairman of the Florida Republican Party, and they were both close to trump and Governor Ron DeSantis, so they were a serious power couple.
Christian has been accused of raping a woman who—hang on—has had a three-way sexual relationship with BOTH of the Zieglers. Since then, another video has surfaced showing Bridget having sex with—another woman! These are people prominent in the movement to police and dictate other people’s consensual lifestyle choices. For me, another person’s private life is their business, and I’m not monogamous myself, but the hypocrisy from these two is appalling.
(https://www.vanityfair.com/news/christian-ziegler-bridget-ziegler-rape-accusation-scandal)
(https://www.politico.com/news/2023/12/02/rape-accusation-florida-republican-party-chair-ziegler-00129753)
(https://www.advocate.com/news/bridget-ziegler-sex-woman) (https://flcga.org/police-have-recovered-second-ziegler-sex-video-sources-say/)
That, Americans, is what we’re up against. It’s not about being moral, it’s about control on other people, from a formerly dominant group who project their desire to rule over them over the formerly subservient group, and, alas, the Republican Party is their vehicle to run the rest of us over. SO, upon this New Year, let’s resolve to educate ourselves, communicate with each other, and VOTE when voting time comes. We can do it, as we have in the past.
Stay safe, stay strong, and stay together! Slava Ukraini! Am Yisrael Chai! America will be free! Happy New Year!
John Masonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07918234579398031280noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4416008196149041580.post-50412536507318832002023-12-18T08:25:00.000-08:002023-12-18T08:25:24.505-08:00The Mason Moment with John Oliver Mason<iframe style="background-image:url(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/h1rNdRHVvDI/hqdefault.jpg)" width="480" height="270" src="https://youtube.com/embed/h1rNdRHVvDI?si=RArwEjVHjfq5TEkB" frameborder="0"></iframe>I speak about the danger of White "Christain" Nationalism, and of the Texas woman leaving the state to attain an abortion. John Masonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07918234579398031280noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4416008196149041580.post-15967549866636147092023-12-11T13:28:00.000-08:002023-12-11T13:28:51.154-08:00The Mason Moment with John Oliver Mason, December 11, 2023<iframe width="480" height="270" src="https://youtube.com/embed/ro-XfvtPSAY?si=WjHUdb0Ozn3sfgQv" frameborder="0"></iframe>I speak about the failure of certain university leaders to address anti-Semitism on their campuses, and to stand up against racism, sexism, homophobia, anti-Semitism, and other forms of discrimination in this country.John Masonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07918234579398031280noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4416008196149041580.post-5215151756142275852023-12-04T14:39:00.000-08:002023-12-04T14:39:13.176-08:00The Mason Moment with John Oliver Mason, December 4, 2023<iframe style="background-image:url(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Ifm77QjVvU0/hqdefault.jpg)" width="480" height="270" src="https://youtube.com/embed/Ifm77QjVvU0?si=soElSrWknlZxCqIn" frameborder="0"></iframe>I speak about the sex scandal in the Florida Republican Party, the accommodation of anti-Semitism in the Texas Republican Party, and the need to organize and vote against a second trump term. John Masonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07918234579398031280noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4416008196149041580.post-40882830014857398472023-11-27T12:35:00.000-08:002023-11-27T12:35:21.195-08:00The Mason Moment with John Oliver Mason, November 27, 2023<iframe width="480" height="270" src="https://youtube.com/embed/-z60KfWQFa4?si=IH_9zEYCzb6NGyrL" frameborder="0"></iframe>
I speak about the possible expulsion of George Santos from the House, and of the rot within the Republican Party.John Masonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07918234579398031280noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4416008196149041580.post-69859732658813804842023-11-20T13:02:00.000-08:002023-11-20T13:02:21.034-08:00The Mason Moment with John Oliver Mason<iframe style="background-image:url(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/psgYzRrlyw0/hqdefault.jpg)" width="480" height="270" src="https://youtube.com/embed/psgYzRrlyw0?si=llyIwxgzmSZxO7QM" frameborder="0"></iframe>I speak about the Black Founders exhibit currently at the Museum of the American Revolution.John Masonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07918234579398031280noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4416008196149041580.post-90251813233669281422023-11-13T11:20:00.000-08:002023-11-13T11:20:38.851-08:00The Mason Moment with John Oliver Mason, November 13, 2023<iframe width="480" height="270" src="https://youtube.com/embed/k9RJ0JhKxpY?si=-u6N5G7F_sXyDStP" frameborder="0"></iframe> I speak about the need to support veterans, and of the misuse of the Israel-Hamas war as a political football for some politician’s agenda. John Masonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07918234579398031280noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4416008196149041580.post-27953043723489594492023-11-06T14:28:00.001-08:002023-11-06T14:28:39.647-08:00The Mason Moment with John Oliver Mason, November 6, 2023<iframe width="480" height="270" src="https://youtube.com/embed/rsYvIKw31vI?si=YHeS-w1e5IJVD1pq" frameborder="0"></iframe>John Masonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07918234579398031280noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4416008196149041580.post-16957464006330173352023-10-30T14:12:00.002-07:002023-10-30T14:13:39.462-07:00The Mason Moment with John Oliver Mason, October 30, 2023<iframe width="480" height="270" src="https://youtube.com/embed/ij-N850c5GQ?si=2U70QoIBjQ7D8PGa" frameborder="0"></iframe>
I speak about the new Speaker of the House, and the need to vote out the Republican Party.John Masonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07918234579398031280noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4416008196149041580.post-65594610725512157082023-10-23T12:05:00.003-07:002023-10-23T12:05:44.360-07:00The Mason Moment with John Oliver Mason, October 23, 2023<iframe width="480" height="270" src="https://youtube.com/embed/EYZStFJdesI?si=GUYsmXasgu31jqVB" frameborder="0"></iframe>
I speak about my distress over events in the Middle East and of the craziness of the House Republican Caucus.
John Masonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07918234579398031280noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4416008196149041580.post-23551255253565622492023-10-22T11:49:00.001-07:002023-10-22T11:49:17.002-07:00The Mason Missile, October 22, 2023Greetings, Americans!
Let us note (not mourn) the passing of Kevin Phillips, whose book of 1969, The Emerging Republican Majority, laid out the path of electoral victory for Republicans, which they have followed to this day. Phillips urged the party to appeal to working-class white voters angry at African-Americans for asserting their Civil Rights, which the Nixon campaign called their “Southern Strategy,” utilizing the phrases “law and order,” “crime in the streets,” “drug dealers,” and “welfare cheats,” instead of up-front spouting racial slurs; white voters would hear these phrases, and let their racially-stereotyped thinking do the rest, ginning up anger and resentment against uppity minorities. (https://www.phillytrib.com/commentary/the-gops-southern-strategy-mastermind-just-died-heres-his-legacy/article_4abdb10b-af22-5bb1-aa60-2d3b06c3e2d1.html)
This has proven to be a recipe for social disaster; instead of bringing people together to solve mutual problems, and bringing people of all races together, Phillip’s formula has fostered racial anxiety and division, keeping Americans at odds with each other. And the news media, as far as I can see, has acted like it’s been a stroke of political genius, guaranteed to continually keep Republicans in the White House and other offices—but what about the real business of governing? What about public safety, schools, water/sewer, defense, housing? Public policy from such elections has produced ideas that shift the blame on the afflicted minorities, talking about them being oversexed, drugged up, lazy and ignorant, which is built on the stereotypes the Southern Strategy promotes.
The Republicans who bewail what t---p has done to their precious party aren’t innocent of this; some variation or another of the Southern Strategy, like Ronald Reagan, in 1980, proclaiming “I believe in states’ rights” in the Mississippi community where the Civil Rights workers—Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James Chaney (glory to their names!) were killed by the Ku Klux Klan (https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-kkk-kills-three-civil-rights-activists); the 1988 campaign of George HW Bush, which featured photos of Willy Horton, “the scary Black rapist” supposedly out on the loose; and the constant promoting of the “birther” movement, which harped the idea that Barrack Obama was really born in Kenya, and they demanded his birth certificate but where never satisfied; and now we have this alleged capitalist business whiz of a real-estate developer, who cheated on his contractors, his taxes, his wives, and his golf, but has been so adored by evangelical Christian voters.
I advocate public policies what would uplift and unite the people, ALL of them, and do not look down on anybody, be it the homeless, drug addicted, unemployed, or in some way or another marginalized.
Ain’t this a trip? At this writing, the House members of the Republican Party, the “law and order” party currently infested with authoritarian ideas, can’t pull themselves together to elect a new speaker, after Kevin McCarthy resigned. Jim Jordan of Ohio, has failed three times to be elected Speaker, and the Republican caucus has been throwing up names of their members crazy enough to take the job, and crazy enough to attain support from the MAGA base, where the Republican Party is at now. The race-baiting and racially-charged innuendos have come to this.
Traditionally, when the Republican Party, like during Ronald Reagan, put out a propaganda slogan not fit for a bumper sticker, all the party, and their allied media outlets, run with it, and the regular commercial media tags along. I remember the 1984 presidential campaign, where the republican media machine kept up the line about Walter Mondale, that he was beholden to “special interests,” and these so-called “special interests” were never identified; Republican voters collectively had their own idea of who these “special interests” were, like gays, Labor, feminists, or anybody they didn’t like. The putrid legacy of Kevin Phillips continues.
This is what we’re up against, and I’m pleased with all the pushback against it, in the courts and in the neighborhoods. Workers have been winning victories in organizing and attaining good contracts, like the Teamsters against UPS, the slow-motion strike by UAW against the big four auto makers, and organizing drives at Starbucks, Amazon, and Trader Joe’s. Often the news media (and I say this with all respect, as I’m in the news media myself) doesn’t pay attention to this, they seldom do; but we’re paying attention, workers are paying attention, and communities are paying attention.
So let’s keep it up! Let’s bury Phillip’s tactics of hate and division, and connect with fellow workers and neighbors in our worksites and blocks, see who the real enemy is, and band together—and VOTE every time an election arises, from President all the way down to town council and township supervisor; and Phillip’s toxic legacy will finally end in our politics.
Stay safe, stay strong, and stay together! Slava Ukraini! America will be free! Bye!
John Masonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07918234579398031280noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4416008196149041580.post-59744526322566425802023-09-26T11:42:00.003-07:002023-09-26T11:42:16.121-07:00The Mason Moment with John Oliver Mason, September 26, 2023<iframe width="480" height="270" src="https://youtube.com/embed/9EtXUWJ3rfY?si=zGD2egjhoMeIUl2b" frameborder="0"></iframe>
I speak about Yom Kippur, the whine about Critical Race Theory and “Woke”-ness, and the need to support all workers organizing.
John Masonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07918234579398031280noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4416008196149041580.post-90867231813528868802023-09-19T12:04:00.000-07:002023-09-19T12:04:04.365-07:00The Mason Missile, September 19, 2023Greetings, Americans!
September 11 has a special meaning; it is the date of some of the worst in world tragedies. On September 11, 2002, two jet liners, seized by Al Qaeda terrorists, crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York; another one was captured and crashed into the Pentagon; and another, which the terrorists planned to ram into the Capitol, was recaptured by the passengers and crashed into farmland in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Thousands of innocent people were killed; I remember I was at my job and one of my coworkers told me about the New York crash, and we all huddled around the radio for the latest news. No cause can justify or excuse these crimes. May the souls of those killed continue to rest in peace.
The other tragedy was in September 11, 1973, in Chile; on that day, the Chilean military, on the encouragement of the CIA, violently overthrew the government—the duly elected government, might I add—of Salvador Allende, killing Allende and bring in the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet—whom Allende, earlier in that year, appointed Commander-In-Chief of the Chilean army.
The coup ushered in one of the vicious dictatorships in the world, where dissidents were murdered by Pinochet’s secret police, DINA, with such means as throwing them into the ocean or into the Andes; crushing their bones by driving a car into them; beatings, rapes, and assassinations, such as the bombing of the car driven by Orlando Letelier, an official in the Allende administration who was a leader in the anti-Pinochet resistance. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orlando_Letelier) Another victim of the regime was Victor Jara, the radial theater producer, poet and songwriter, who was tortured and shot, then dumped into a shantytown in Santiago. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%ADctor_Jara) They were among the thousands of victims of the Pinochet regime, and their loved ones are still seeking justice for them.
Documents are still being dredged out about OUR OWN government’s role in the coup. (https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2023-08-29/us-releases-chile-coup-documents) Henry Kissenger, then Nixon’s Secretary of State and National Security Advisor, was full of the fear, dominating foreign policy at that time, of COMMUNISM and the belief that any government pointing anywhere to the “left” was a client for the Soviet Union and its schemes of world domination, an enemy that had to be eliminated, no matter how popular it was to its people, no matter how peaceful and non-repressive it was. (https://www.e-ir.info/2016/02/12/us-foreign-policy-and-the-1973-coup-in-chile/) (https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/cold-war-henry-kissinger/2023-05-25/henry-kissingers-documented-legacy) (https://www.npr.org/2023/09/10/1193755188/chile-coup-50-years-pinochet-kissinger-human-rights-allende) Eventually, after the coup, the policy of the Nixon-Kissinger regime went from instigating the coup to helping Pinochet consolidate his power, and they didn’t worry their heads about human rights violations, repression of the arts and media, or torture.
Pinochet and his regime has become the role model for the far-right thug element in THIS country, like the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers, and other domestic fascist gun-slingers. (https://theintercept.com/2021/02/04/pinochet-far-right-hoppean-snake/) They want to utilize Pinochet’s tactics of repression and torture against anyone in the “left,” whether it be a Maoist or some milquetoast liberal; no one, no matter how nonviolent or pacifist, would be free from being their enemy of THEIR state.
One big thing about the Pinochet regime is how the free-market loving “Libertarian” faction of economic thought fell in love with the regime, with such heavy-hitters as Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek praising Pinochet for privatizing public services, eliminating the social-welfare system, and the deregulation of business. These “Libertarians” whine and howl about any state intervention into the economy, no matter how beneficial it would be to the general public—environmental protection, protection of union-organizing drives, Social Security, public health, what have you—as “tyranny,” and to them democracy, the general public voting on the future of the country and participating in its works, would be a terrible despotism, and the only TRUE freedom is the freedom of corporations to pollute the air and water, to overcharge for shoddy products, to put contaminated food on the market, to prevent workers from organizing. Hayek and Friedman, however, were perfectly fine with a violent dictatorship, so long as its opponents were denied their “Liberty.” They would have no role in this “Libertarian” society. All of this is chronicled in Naomi Klein’s book The Shock Doctrine. Here, in all its glory, is Fascism, the repressing of dissidents for the benefit of the financial elite.
This is what awaits us if trump is reelected into the Presidency. The elements for undermining our somewhat rickety democracy are as present in this country as they were in Chile, such as a violent racist-fascist element ready to slaughter its enemies, their allies placed in the state apparatus (the Supreme Court and the House of Representatives) , and its fellow-travelers caught up in a news-and-information bunker with no outside interference. (I say bunker, not bubble, purposely.)
We’ve had our bouts of repression in this country, such as the Red Scares after the World Wars, and the attempts to discourage dissent during the invasion of Iraq. The most nonviolent of peace movements were under surveillance during and after the war, and opponents were treated like Neville-Chamberlin type appeasers. Plus during the length of the Civil Rights Movement, the FBI (I say this with all due respect) had a vast program to surveil and undermine the movement, treating it like “the enemy within,” as was the anti-Viet Nam-war movement. It can happen on a bigger scale if trump is reelected, and make Pinochet look like a wimp in comparison.
No, we MUST NOT and WILL NOT allow this to happen! We WILL organize, and support all other organizing efforts of workers and communities; we WILL educate ourselves on the REAL issues, and it isn’t gas stoves and drag queens; and we WILL get out and vote, and help our friends and neighbors do so as well. That’s how we’ll defeat our homegrown Pinochet wannabes.
Stay safe, stay strong, and stay together! Slava Ukraini! America will be free! Bye!
John Masonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07918234579398031280noreply@blogger.com0