The Mason Moment, Dec 27, 2020

The Mason Missile, December 21, 2020

Greetings, Americans! At last! The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved both the vaccines to fight of the COVID-19, from Pfizer-BioNTech (https://www.fda.gov/emergency-preparedness-and-response/coronavirus-disease-2019-covid-19/pfizer-biontech-covid-19-vaccine) and Moderna (https://www.fda.gov/emergency-preparedness-and-response/coronavirus-disease-2019-covid-19/moderna-covid-19-vaccine) . I of course am overjoyed about this. The first recipients of the vaccines will be medical workers-nurses, EMTs, and ambulance drivers, then residents in senior living facilities. Unfortunately, there have been snafus in the distribution of the vaccine, with some states getting fewer than they were told they would get. (https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/vaccine-2649560534/) I hope those errors will be cleared up SOON, so that people can get their vaccines and we can begin to end this nightmare the nation has gone through-due to the incompetence of out alleged “president,” and his crew of racists and thieves. Let us call out Congress-members and Senators to demand that the vaccines be distributed fairly and safely to all jurisdictions. How’s this? Paul Alexander, an official with t---p’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) had the bright idea of allowing the Coronavirus to spread among low-income people, as if they can just catch the virus and become immune-the notion of “herd immunity.” (https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/530490-trump-official-pushed-for-herd-immunity-calling-for-low-risk-americans-to) (https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/-we-want-them-infected-chris-hayes-on-emails-revealing-truth-of-trump-covid-plan-97881669925?fbclid=IwAR0Rk4WA70eXSvNYo0ur3OckQSNCb_idrxNzZh5Ajw1nLrRekNZttesQ0fo) That idea is NO strategy at all; it stems from the idea that low-income people are expendable and can be thrown whatever garbage-political, intellectual, and physical-the ruling elite decide to dump on us. It also shows the unwillingness of this regime to do anything about the virus, including outright denial of its existence. More great news-the Electoral College votes have officially been counted, confirming Joe Biden as the next President of the United States. (https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-270-electoral-college-vote-d429ef97af2bf574d16463384dc7cc1e) I do worry about what influences he will have, due to the long-standing pro-corporate and anti-worker tendency the Democratic party has taken under Bill Clinton, and which has continued (with all due respect) under Barrack Obama. Our work is not finished; we have to push Biden and all the other Democratic officials towards a pro-worker, pro-low-income policy, benefiting working Americans. But alas, there are still those who refuse to accept the reality of t---p’s defeat, particularly the racist-fascist elements that has lingered on the edges of politics and the internet, now emboldened to terrorize those they hate. Ken Paxton, Texas Attorney-General, file a suit with the Supreme court to invalidate the electoral results in the battleground states t---p lost-Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Georgia. (https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/10/politics/texas-attorney-general-ken-paxton-supreme-court-case/index.html) Signing onto the suit were 17 Republican state attorneys-general, and 120 Republican Congress-members. (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/09/us/politics/trump-texas-supreme-court-lawsuit.html) (https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewsolender/2020/12/11/126-house-republicans-now-support-lawsuit-to-overturn-election-in-updated-brief/?sh=2dcd75a8e5db) Fortunately, the Supreme Court-including t---p’s appointees Barrett, Cavanaugh, and Gorsuch-refused to hear this petition. Paxton has his own legal issues, such as charges of securities fraud and bribery; perhaps that makes him the perfect representative of t---p. This shows how conservatives and Republicans truly feel about “democracy,” that it works so long as THEY get in power, but they do everything to prevent their opponents from voting, with such devices as voter ID laws and locating polling stations in inaccessible places. They believe that only THEY can rule the country, and their opponents are usurpers falsely attaining power, and enemies to be vanquished. Bill Pascrell, Congressman from New Jersey, is pushing a bill to prevent those 120 republican Congress-members from being sworn in the next session. This is based on Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution-the same Constitution those Congress-members and Paxton swore to uphold- passed after the Civil War, to prevent former Confederate officeholders, who were previously members of Congress, from entering the Congress again, after they tried to fight against the United States government and secede from the Union, to defend their precious system of chattel slavery. (https://www.rawstory.com/2020/12/democrat-wants-to-use-civil-war-law-about-traitors-to-ban-126-republicans-from-being-seated-in-congress/) The section reads: "No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof." To Republicans and conservatives, patriotism is relative; they’re loyal to the country if it suits their purposes, and bolsters their power and privilege. IF the lower orders, the people they oppressed previously, attain some control of the country, they will abandon the government, since it no longer serves them. On that same weekend, there was a march in Washington by the Proud Boys, one of the leading right-wing militias in the country; they assaulted counter-protestors, and burned the “Black Lives Matter” signs of two historic African-American churches. The theme was to try to keep t---p in office, and urge him not to leave, as part of t---p’s myth that he really won the election. Speakers at the rally included Alex Jones, the conspiracy-crazy webcaster; Sebastian Gorka, the former t---p advisor and Islamophobe; and Michael Flynn, former t---p National Security Advisor. (https://nypost.com/2020/12/12/proud-boys-anti-trump-protesters-tangle-in-dc-as-daytime-rallies-end/) (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/12/12/trump-march-brings-thousands-dc-ahead-electoral-college-vote/3882935001/) Biden, with all due respect, shouldn’t bother to try to “meet half way” or “reach across the aisle” to these people. They will perpetuate the “stolen election” fable, pretending that he really isn’t President, as part of their habit of treating anyone other than a conservative or a Republican as aa pretender to the throne. After decades of racially-motivated rhetoric about “welfare queens” and “law and order”; after the Citizens United decision from the supreme Court, ending limits on campaign contributions from corporations, thereby corrupting both parties; after a media system, including Fox News and Rush Limbaugh passing off misinformation as news, with Newsmax and OANN joining the team; after big-money donors paying millions to deny the science behind fossil-fuel based pollution; after people, under the guise of religion, fight for the right to discriminate against racial and sexual minorities- how can we reason with tem? The old liberal idea of “all classes and factions coming together for the good of the nation” has died; conservatives look at compromise and discussion as signs of weakness. We must go to the streets, to the grassroots, to our neighborhoods, to fight for the change we need in this country. That is what has created change for the better and not back-room dealing. These lunatic elements are the people t---p is listening to, in his fear of losing the Presidency and the immunity from prosecution that’s supposed t go with it. (But is that “immunity” rooted in law, or is it just “custom?”) One of these is Mike Flynn, former Army general and former National Security Advisor, convicted of lying about his Russia connections, and pardoned by t---p, posted on Twitter a message from the We The People Coalition, a far-right group in Ohio, calling of t---p to declare “limited” martial law, and the military supervise a new election, one skewed towards older white voters, or else the group would “take matters into our own hands and defend our rights on our own.” (https://www.huffpost.com/entry/michael-flynn-martial-law-new-election_n_5fc7d3e6c5b6f3fe59724a45) This is a call for the overthrow of the government, also called sedition; but I’m afraid Flynn would get the kid gloves and light sentence that extremists on the right always get when they threaten violence, like the Proud Boys and the terrorists who have threatened to kill election officials for the “crime” of accurately counting the votes of the American people. This is the fight on our hands; as I said, we must continue to hold ALL of our elected officials accountable, from President on down. We must be conscious of the forces arrayed against us that would take away our freedom to preserve their privilege, and of our power, and the history of protest in this country. We can do it, because we’ve been able to do it so far. Stay safe, stay strong, and stay together! Enjoy your holidays! America will be free! Happy New Year!

Mason Moment, Dec. 19, 2020

The Mason Moment with John Oliver Mason, December 11, 2020

The Mason Missile, November 24, 2020

Greetings, Americans! I take this time to honor the memory of Jim Moran-Director Emeritus of the Philadelphia Area Project for Occupational safety and Health (PHILAPOSH), an organization dedicated to advocating for workers killed or injured while doing their jobs to earn their livings; Jim was instrumental in organizing in Philadelphia such events as Workers Memorial Day, late in April, honoring the memory of workers killed while trying to earn a living for themselves and their families; organized the Labor Day parade in September, where we celebrate ourselves, the working men and women in the Philadelphia area, and have fun doing it; and brought to Philadelphia the May Day celebration, where we celebrate the internationally recognized day honoring working people, and we learn the real history of the Labor movement in this country. Jim was a working –class kid from the heavily industrialized neighborhood of Kensington, and he helped other works find their pride and empowerment. Jim, may your memory continue to be a blessing and an inspiration. Rejoice! We did it! Joe Biden, after a long ballot-counting drama that lasted for a week, is elected the 46th President of the United States. He always had the larger popular vote over whatshisface, just like Hillary Clinton did in 2016; but we had to wait until the right number of Electoral College votes in each state-particularly Pennsylvania, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Nevada-were tabulated, so that Biden got over the 270 threshold. The Electoral College was a system formulated during the Constitutional Convention of 1787, where the framers of the Constitution-affluent white men, many of whom owned slaves-had no concept of what we now call “democracy;” the states had, at that time, requirements of property for white men to qualify to vote. Also, the delegates of the southern states, where slavery was predominant, knew they would be underpopulated compared to the northern states and thus outvoted in a popular election. There was also the longstanding fear among elites-still going on today-that the slaves would unite with lower-income whites to challenge the elites’ privileges and power (not at all a BAD thing!). Thus the Constitution-Article II, Section One-organized the system of the Electoral College, which has given disproportionate power to numerically weaker southern states, so they can continue their system of chattel slavery. The Electoral College has led to elections that had the person with the majority of votes losing, or else the election thrown to the House of Representatives for them to sort out in the wheeling and dealing, and oftentimes threatening the very existence of the country. This was shown in the election of 1800, where John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Aaron Burr ran against each other, and Alexander Hamilton’s influence swung the House’s votes from Burr to Jefferson. In 1876, Samuel Tilden had more popular votes than Rutherford B. Hayes, but questions of Florida’s electoral votes caused a threat of another civil war, just as the nation was recovering from the last one; a special commission was formed, but a deal was made-the Democrats would allow Hayes to be President, if he agreed to remove federal troops, who were protecting the newly-freed Blacks during the reconstruction period, from the South. Thus, the Republican Party, “the party of Lincoln,” betrayed the former slaves, their most loyal supporters, and left them at the “mercy” of the growing system of racial segregation known as “Jim Crow.” The Electoral College is a mechanism formed by oligarchs, to protect oligarchic privilege and power, and it is long overdue to be eliminated. I urge you to contact Congress members and Senators to do so, thereby ending a destructive element in our elections and our history. But more importantly, we must continue-after we catch our breath, of course-in fighting the Coronavirus, demanding that the Senate pass the relief bill passed by the House-in MAY!-to benefit working people who lost employment due to the pandemic; state and local governments who have borne the brunt of the pandemic, since certain of our “leaders” refused to deal with it, preferring to play political games while Americans get sick and die; and medical workers, such as nurses and EMTs, who have worked tirelessly to deal with our illnesses during and including the pandemic. This will take much serious grassroots organizing, from the bottom up, of working people, people of color, LGBTQ+ people, and homeless people-people who have long traditionally been deliberately excluded from the decision-making process. Let us now and forever bury the once noble and necessary, but now impractical, idea of reaching a bipartisan consensus, “reaching across the aisle,” to work out deals for the benefits of our common nation and its people. The Republican Party is too far gone in its embrace of racism, religious fundamentalism, rejection of education and of scientific fact, and plutocracy to deal with on that score; this has gone on for, I would say, since the New Deal, when our capitalist class hated FDR for imposing controls over them and for encouraging the empowerment of workers through organizing into unions. This has gone on through the Barry Goldwater campaign of 1964, where he rejected the Civil rights Act of 1964; to Richard Nixon’s “Southern Strategy,” where he sought the voters for George Wallace, and called for “law and order,” the buzzword for repressing Civil Rights activism, and with his “War On Drugs,” which was a cover for a war on the Black community and anti-war activists; Ronald Reagan’s proclamation, “I believe in states’ rights,” as he starting his 1980 presidential campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi, where, in 1964, the Civil Rights activists-Michael Schwerner, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman- were killed by the Klan for registering Black people to vote (showing how important voting is); the campaign of 1988, where the patrician George HW Bush, through his campaign manager Lee Atwater, waged the Willie Horton propaganda campaign, with the image of the scary Black man out to rape and kill. Whether or not the Republicans are personally racist is not important; playing to racially-based fears remains a long-standing republican propaganda tool. The behavior of trump and his minions during the period between the election and the inauguration has bene appalling. Such routine procedures as counting the ballots and certifying the election, as well as the General Services Administration (GSA) releasing funds to begin the transition to the new Biden administration-so that the new regime can make plans based on new evidence, on such serious issues as the pandemic-have seen trump’s lawyers going to court to find SOME excuse to stop the ballot count, or to deny the validity of the ballots-mostly from communities of color, like in Detroit. There have also been threats of physical violence and death to election officials. But fortunately, the GSA has finally released the funds for the transition, and the courts have recognized the futility of the trump attorney’s case, which has been no case at all. We must abandon trying to reason with the Republicans and their racist hangers-on, and stand fast for, and advance, the needs of working and low-income people, and for the rights and needs of communities of color and of LGBTQ+ people to advance in the world, and to simply live their lives without violence or abuse, by the agents of the State of anyone else. Stay safe, stay strong, and stay together! Enjoy your holidays! America will be free! Bye!  

The Mason Moment with John Oliver Mason, November 22, 2020

The Mason Moment with John Oliver Mason, November 6, 2020

The Mason Moment with John Oliver Mason, October 24, 2020

The Mason Missile, October 27, 2020

Greetings! I cannot stress enough the necessity of voting on November 3rd, if you haven’t already done it by mail. Only WE the American people stand as a bulwark against t---p’s drive to attain a dictatorship, just like his idols Putin and Kim Jong Un. We know t---p is down in the polls, but that is no grounds for overconfidence-that’s what got us the disaster of 2016. The debates have revealed the types of people t---p and pence are: privileged white males who interrupt and bully people they consider inferior to them. The FBI has uncovered another effort by the Russian intelligence agencies of trying to interfere with our election system (https://www.npr.org/2020/10/22/926825699/ongoing-russian-cyberattacks-are-targeting-u-s-election-systems-feds-say), just as they did in 2016. But t---p continues to accept such interference, since it benefits him; he is dependent on foreign meddling in our elections. But, as they say, the Russian cyber-attacks on our elections have utilized the racial divisions that have plagued our country from the beginning. It’s a cliché-though VERY true- that racism and ethnic rivalry have been used by elites to keep the working and lower classes under control, so that they don’t combine against their masters. Well, it’s true once more, but this time it’s a foreign entity playing Americans against each other. The Republican leadership-of course Mitch McConnell-willfully did nothing about it, but accepted the Russian cyber-attacks, just so they can attain power and ram through their dreams of deeper tax cuts for billionaires and loading the federal judiciary with their kinds of judges-ones who will bring women’s reproductive rights to zero, who will limit workers’ rights to organize, and who will reduce the ability of people of color to vote-which brings me to the nomination and finalized appointment of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. t---p and the Republicans act as if we should sit back and allow this to happen to us-the elimination of people’s rights is now a done deal. No, we will NOT accept this! The protests against Coney-Barrett, demonstrations against police abuse in minority communities, the neglect that our own government has for its own citizens in distress, are signs of continuing upheaval in this country. Our “leadership” in this country has disconnected itself from the rest of the population, caring nothing for the suffering the COVID-19 pandemic has cause, refusing to pass legislation for relief for state and local governments, small businesses, hospitals that have dealt with treating COVID patients and workers who lost work due to the pandemic. And what has been the Republican leadership’s response to pandemic unemployment? “reopen the schools, reopen the job sites,” while the COVID is resurging throughout the country, and if workers catch the virus and die so that Republicans and their corporate backers can get richer, how heroic of them! Failure is NOT an option, Americans! We MUST vote out this regime on November 3, so that the good name of our country will be restored. And if Donnie and his dodos refuse to leave graciously, we must take to the streets in record numbers, as they did in Belarus against their authoritarian regime. We owe it to ourselves, the generation before us fighting for freedom, and our descendants. Stay safe, stay strong, and stay together! America will be free! Bye!

The Mason Moment with John Oliver Mason, October 26, 2020

Notes on Torah Portion Bereshith

https://johnomason.com/2020/10/18/notes-on-torah-portion-bereshith/

The Mason Moment with John Oliver Mason, October 16, 2020

The Mason Moment with John Oliver Mason, October 5, 2020

Take The Gloves Off! (from website)

https://johnomason.com/2020/10/01/take-the-gloves-off/

The Mason Moment with John Oliver Mason, September 27, 2020

Filling Ginsberg's Seat

https://johnomason.com/2020/09/26/filling-ginsbergs-seat/

Pennsylvania: How to Return Your Ballot!

The Mason Missile, September 23, 2020

Greetings, and L’Shana Tova, a sweet and happy and prosperous new year to all of you fine Americans. We are in the midst of the High Holy Days, Rosh haShona and Yom Kippur. What a test our nation is going through! Can we remove this plague of a President who has undermined our nation’s economy, security, and honor, using the democratic process? Can we elect a person who is essentially decent to office, who knows and respects the Constitution and the people of this nation? I believe w can do it, but we must stay together and strong, and not let any thugs that trump has intimidate us, either with fist, guns, or lawsuits. We see now how trump, the commander-in-chief, thinks of those in military service, in the Atlantic Monthly article, calling them “suckers” and “losers.” (https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/09/trump-americans-who-died-at-war-are-losers-and-suckers/615997/) This, from a “man” who talks all bad-ass against peaceful demonstrators and his opponents for his fans (who are just as ignorant and bullying as he is), but utilized his father’s connections to evade the draft for Viet Nam, one of them for the “bone spurs” of legend-while lower-income kids went to die in a useless, tragic war. ON September 8, the New York Times had an article about the incompetence of the trump campaign‘s financing system. (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/07/us/politics/trump-election-campaign-fundraising.html) trump had a campaign bank account of $1.1 billion late last year, and that gave him a bid advantage over the potential Democratic candidate; but by July, over $800 million has been spent, much of it on fundraising under the then-campaign manager Brad Parscale; campaign ads during the Super Bowl, amounting to $11 million; trump’s legal expenses; and lobbyists. The trump campaign has been a nice cash cow for Parscale and others to tap into, and now the campaign has to watch its spending, just as election day gets closer. (It’s November 3, remember that.) Now we have the book by Bob Woodward, of Watergate fame, Rage (https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/17/politics/bob-woodward-donald-trump-new-book/index.html), written after Woodward taped interviews of trump from December through July. trump, according to Woodward, knew the danger posed by the Coronavirus, but refused to treat it like the emergency it is, and choosing to keep saying it’s no big deal, just the regular flu you get event winter, and claiming he “didn’t want to cause a panic.” Panic for whom? The stock market, which is the only part of the “economy” that matters to him, the only thing doing well under his watch? trump claimed he wanted to be like Churchill during World War II, but a real leader, like Churchill or FDR, would have told the public the facts-that we’re up against a killer disease, and it’s going to be rough for a while, but if we all pull together, show some discipline in wearing masks and social distancing for a while, we can beat this thing. But NOOO, he chose to keep holding his big rallies, while his fans refuse to wear masks and rub up against each other; he also ridiculed mask-wearing, like it was unmanly, denying the virus was serious, and talking about ingesting cleaning fluids into the body. So, due to his inaction and incompetence, over six million Americans have been infected by the COVID-19, and now over 200,000 died, who did not have to die. We also honor the memory and work of US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg; may her memory be a blessing and an inspiration for those who want to use the law for the rights of all Americans, particularly women and LGBTQs. BUT-Ginsberg’s body was still warm when Mitch McConnell, Majority Leader (and apparently High Overlord) of the Senate decides to want to push through a nomination for her replacement ton the Court, a few weeks before the election. Those of us with historical memory remember ow McConnell, in 2016, would not allow a vote on a replacement for Antonin Scalia, saying, in all piety, that the newly-elected President must make the appointment. The public has come out against the game-playing McConnell and the Senate Republicans on the appointment of Ginsberg’s replacement, saying the nomination must take place after the election. Already the party is losing popularity, and McConnell himself is facing a strong reelection opponent in Amy McGrath, and former Marine fighter-pilot. Doesn’t he know the trouble the party is in? Is he so disconnected from the reality all of us Americans face day by day-a pandemic killing our loved ones; jobs lost due to shutdowns, and people facing eviction and hunger; and racial division, stoked by the tangerine tumor in the White House, who actually believes that the raving racist mobs at his a=rallies are the true American people. Americans, this is not our government-not our Senate, not our President. We deserve better than this mess. And, if his former attorney Michael Cohen can be believed, he won’t leave quietly, but he’ll hang on to power by force if necessary. The civics lesson days of American politics are over; we can no longer bargain with the Republican Party like they’re a responsible political player you can deal with over cocktails and at the golf course after hours. They have become the host of the viruses of racism, theocracy, and plutocracy in this country. As the kids of today have done, we must take to the streets and show our numbers, to come together in solidarity, as we also have during the pandemic, i=n seeing how everyone is doing, in delivering food packages, and in other ways. That is how we’ll beat the twin viruses of COVID and trump. Stay safe, stay strong, and stay together! America will be free! Bye!

The Mason Moment with John Oliver Mason

Labor Day in Philadelphia 4

Labor Day Rally in Philadelphia

The Mason Moment with John Oliver Mason

The Mason Moment with John Oliver Mason, August 31, 2020

The Mason Missile, August 27, 2020

Greetings, Americans! I have been active in demonstrations to support the United States Postal Service (USPS) from its own Postmaster-General, Louis DeJoy-a big Republican donor and investor in several private delivery services, and who would profit hugely if the USPS was destroyed, and not compete with the private firms. That is the common capitalist tendency, to think that if it can’t make a profit for already rich plutocrats, it’s no good; they can’t think beyond lining their own pockets, no matter what it does for, or to, the public good. The Postal Service is OURS, it is the means by which veterans attain their medicines from the VA, people send letters and cards to their loved ones, paychecks are sent out, and businesses send their products. But the charlatans and money-grubbers in the trump regime can’t see that; trump has FLAT OUT said that he wants to prevent mail-in ballots from going out, so people afraid (justifiably) of the COVID still in the atmosphere. The public welfare in being destroyed due to one sorry-ass excuse of a man’s paranoia; just another reason to vote him out, and however you can do it, do it, in person if you have to; the nation’s live is at stake. People are rallying behind the Postal Service, in localized rallies like the one I participated in. (https://www.inquirer.com/news/philadelphia/usps-mail-voting-delays-ballots-philly-rally-dejoy-trump-20200822.html) The Postal Service is great for hiring veterans at good wages. To find out how you can help save the Postal Service, please contact the real experts on the postal system-the postal workers themselves, in the form of the American Postal Workers Union (https://apwu.org/) There is the weird movement QAnon, the crazy idea that there is, in the US intelligence apparatus, a person named Q, who passes along information about trump fighting against a global elite of Satanist pedophiles comprised of Democrats and Hollywood stars. (https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2019/04/23/qanon-conspiracy-increasingly-popular-antigovernment-extremists) trump has refused to directly refute it-the believers are his base, after all-and a number of Qanon believers are running as Republicans for congressional seats, such as Marjorie Taylor Greene in Georgia, Mike Cargile and Erin Cruz in California, Theresa Raborn in Illinois, and Lauren Bobert in Colorado, and Jo Rae Perkins, running for the Senate in Oregon. The FBI has declared Qanon a domestic terrorist threat- but our commander-in-chief (gag!) wont’ turn against them or call them out; people carrying Qanon signs, t-shirts, and caps have congregated trump’s rallies. (https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/12/politics/qanon-congressional-candidates/index.html) The Republican party has sunk to an even lower low; this is a continuation of the tea-party AstroTurf “movement” electing their candidates as Republicans, which the party leadership accepted, just so they can undermine Obama’s Presidency and implement tax cuts for corporations; I also can’t help but remember Arthur Jones, a total, balls-out, Jew-hating Nazi, running for Congress in Illinois as a Republican, and the party leaders not bothering to run anyone against him, instead saying “He doesn’t speak for us.” Added to this is the Republican National Convention; instead of drawing up a platform outlining the party’s policies on defense, the economy, and welfare, the convention put out a resolution stating that it would just support trump and everything he does; they would “reassert the Party’s strong support for President Donald Trump and his Administration.” (https://www.huffpost.com/entry/gop-party-platform-2020-trump_n_5f4353bac5b6305f32597ec4?fbclid=IwAR3dua9EViaMQ96Bi06rug56QIUzqrWjesPiHg86qyyLt0vHqJVUy7a3YfQ) The Republican Party, once a breeding ground for great statesmen, has rotted into the Cult of trump. Contrast this to what going on in the Democratic Party; the progressing wing of the party is growing and making an impact, unseating long-serving placeholders. One is Cori Bush, a registered nurse and leader of the Black Lives Matter Movement in Missouri, who was hit with teargas by police during a BLM demonstration; she beat 20-year incumbent William Lacy Clay in the congressional primaries, in a Saint-Louis-area district. (https://www.huffpost.com/entry/cori-bush-black-lives-matter-activist-congress_n_5f2c32e9c5b6b9cff7eeaded) In New York, in a congressional primary in the Bronx, Jamaal Bowman, a middle-school principal, defeated Eliot Engel, a 32-year incumbent who had largely been absent from his district. (https://www.huffpost.com/entry/bowman-defeats-engel-new-york-democratic-primaries-2020_n_5ef22705c5b663ecc8544563) If they win their general elections, they will join “the Squad” of congress-members already making an impact-Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (New York), Ilhan Omar (Minnesota), Rashida Tlaib (Michigan), and Ayanna Pressley (Florida). These and many others were endorsed by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), who, in spite of losing the primary to Joe Biden, has inspired a new generation of young progressive activists, to challenge the system, and that in itself is a victory. The party leadership-Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer come to mind-must pay them attention and respect, for they have ideas and energy we the American people so desperately need. The fight is on, Americans, for the life and soul of our nation. We must educate ourselves on the issues of the day, and how we got there; we must realize we don’t have to be put down and abused by fools in power, that we have rights and we can and will utilize them; we certainly don’t have to accept our own demise from the Coronavirus, no matter trump’s “It is what it is” attitude showing he care zero about us. AND, we must get out there November 3 and vote, and don’t let ANY one take that right away from you. Stay safe stay together, and stay strong! America will be free! Bye!

The Mason Moment with John Oliver Mason, August 24, 2020

The Mason Moment with John Oliver Mason, August 18, 2020

The Mason Moment with John Oliver Mason, August 12, 2020

The Mason Moment with John Oliver Mason, August 2, 2020

The Mason Moment with John Oliver Mason, July 26, 2020

The Mason Missile, July 24, 2020

Greetings, Americans! It’s official-the United States of America is a pariah state, “thanks” to the Coronavirus and trump’s negligence. The states of the European Union have announced a list of nations whose citizens are welcome to enter the block-and ours is NOT one of them. (https://www.dw.com/en/eu-agrees-to-reopen-borders-to-14-countries-extends-travel-ban-for-us-tourists/a-53986435?maca=en-newsletter_en_bulletin-2097-xml-newsletter&r=77175521877467155&lid=1528755&pm_ln=36039 ) I can’t say I blame them, though; after much suffering and labor, they have managed to diminish the number of COVID-19 cases and fatalities to rock-bottom, whereas, under the leader-shit of the tangerine tumor, new highs in infections and deaths are being set. I lament, is there NO way to eliminate him from office NOW? Pence would be no improvement, since he bootlicks trump as every opportunity. Trump has also been calling for schools to reopen in the fall, no matter that the COVID is still lurking around in the atmosphere, and trump’s disciples keep talking about how young kids can’t get the virus, but the virus is an equal-opportunity killer. I also lament the police state tactics that federal agents have been using in Portland, Oregon. (https://www.opb.org/news/article/federal-law-enforcement-unmarked-vehicles-portland-protesters/) (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/17/us/portland-protests.html) (https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/oregon-expanding-criminal-probe-of-unmarked-federal-troops-88038469617?cid=eml_mra_20200721) This, from the party of “small government” and “get the government off your backs!” This is the culmination of what the Republicans have long advocated, since at least the New Deal: return the government to the enforcers of plutocratic power, and prevent it from being utilized on behalf of working and low-income people. These agents have been recruited from such agencies as the US Marshall’s Service, Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and the Bureau of Prisons; they have been wearing military gear (like they’re at war with-US? Their fellow Americans?), grabbed peaceful protestors, and anyone else they thought “looked funny,” hauled them into unmarked cars-their “due process,” the kind of stuff your recall from Chile under Pinochet. trump has also prepared to send these agents to other cities in the nation-Chicago, New York, AND Philadelphia-“all run by liberal Democrats-” without any input by the municipal governments, calling the cities “stupidly run.” (https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/criminal-justice/ct-chicago-police-dhs-deployment-20200720-dftu5ychwbcxtg4ltarh5qnwma-story.html) Yes, a dictatorship CAN happen HERE, in the “land of the free,” and we must NEVER allow it! At this time, we remember and work and example of Congressman John Lewis-a leader of the Civil Rights struggle of the Sixties, who organized sit-ins at segregated lunch counters, who was the youngest speaker at the March On Washington For Jobs and Freedom in 1963, and who led the March on Selma in 1965 for voting rights-and, as the state troopers and other police assaulted the marchers, one trooper cracked Lewis’ skull; but through the sacrifice of Lewis and other brave activists, Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act. Lewis risked his life to make sure ALL Americans have the right to vote, to elect their public officials who run our society. Let the history of the Civil Rights movement, and the lives of its brave freedom fighters, guide us as we struggle against trump and his minions. This is the basis of the long-time Republican-conservative disparagement of utilizing the government to redress grievances; the same people who have been long oppressed finally asserting and attaining their rights. Can we do any less than what Lewis and his cohorts did? We, regular working and low-income Americans can indeed band together and improve our communities-and in this situations, save our country. On the same day Lewis died, so did another titan of the Civil Rights struggle, the Reverend CT Vivian (https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/17/us/ct-vivian-death/index.html). Both Lewis and Vivian emphasized the right to vote as the height of a people’s empowerment, and they both advocated for non-violent resistance to oppression. But alas, trump and his disciples are happy to apply violence against their enemies; you’ll recall trump cheering as his fans at his rallies beat up protestors-“Knock the crap out of them, will yuh?”-and promising to pay their legal bills for beating them up. The brute force applied by the federal agents is one more example of the disregard trump and his minions have for the rights of working people, low-income people, and minorities, or anyone who stands against him and for their rights. With the police-state tactics emanating from the regime, and rightist thugs carrying assault rifles to terrorize legislators (and just while going to the grocery store to pick up a gallon of milk) is treated like free speech, the idea of progressives and leftists carrying guns and learning, how to use them, is inevitable-you can only push a person SO far. (https://www.salon.com/2017/09/03/6-gun-groups-that-arent-for-white-right-wingers_partner/) (https://philadelphiapartisan.com/2017/08/12/armed-and-revolutionary/) (https://harpers.org/archive/2020/04/good-guys-with-guns-socialist-gun-club/) One is the John Brown Gun Club (affiliated with Redneck Revolt), mainly comprised of white leftists, and modeled on the Young Patriots, a radical group allied with the Black Panther Party. (https://www.redneckrevolt.org/) There is also the Pink Pistols, for LGBTQ Gun owners. (http://www.pinkpistols.org/). There is also the National African American Gun Association (https://naaga.co/), the Liberal Gun Club (https://theliberalgunclub.com/) the Huey P. Newton Gun Club ( https://hueypnewtongunclub.org/), and the Socialist Rifle Association. (https://socialistra.org/). I would never condemn a person for doing what it takes to protect their lives and the lives of their loved ones. We are up against people who have no respect for the rights and lives of working-class people, low-income people, or people of color-the same types of people John Lewis, CT Vivian, and the other Civil Rights activists stood up against, and finally defeated, through their bravery and collective effort. But an even mightier weapon for us Americans it our vote-it’s our first line of defense against tyranny, and let’s never allow anyone to take it from us. Let us band together like the Civil rights heroes to fight this dime-store despot wannabe contaminating the White House-we’re in this together. Stay safe, stay strong, and stay together, and America will be free! Bye! ADVERTISEMENT Since this publication takes a good deal of work and time, I welcome any donations, and I am willing to discuss selling ad space. For a fee I will be happy to advertise your business on the Missile. Please contact me and we’ll talk about it.

The Mason Moment with John Oliver Mason, July 20, 2020

The Mason Moment with John Oliver Mason, July 12, 2020

The Mason Missile, The COVID-19 Chronicles, June 8, 2020

Greetings! I hope we continue to stay safe in this crisis. We have now surpassed the 100,000 mark in Coronavirus fatalities in this country, all thanks to the incompetence on the weird per lurking in the White House. He and his minions have failed to show leadership in organizing the manufacture of vaccines, test kits, PPEs, respirators, etc. trump’s preferred method to deal with the crisis is the old tactic of failed regimes, the scapegoat, blaming China for the virus, and the Republican Party has ordered its candidates to blame China-and so Chinese-Americans, and Asian-Americans in general, have been subjected to racist assaults. This is what passes for statesmanship currently in DC-and let’s not forget the constant golf trips trump takes to his resorts (and the taxpayers pay for these), the encouraging of white-supremacist maniacs parading at state capitols with assault rifles demanding that their favorite bars, hair salons, etc. be reopened, pandemic or no pandemic. This would demand workers risk their lives from the pandemic to do the work, coinciding with demands from right-wing pundits and politicians that factories and other worksites reopen, to “stimulate the economy.” To corporations and their political pets-like the one squatting in the White House-the stock market IS the economy, and not the paychecks of workers or the prosperity of local communities. For TOO long, economic policy has been in favor of corporations and the wealthy as opposed to working and low-income people, the real generators of wealth in our economy; hence the skewing of the trillion-dollar stimulus payments, supposedly to “small businesses,” going to billion-dollar corporations-$30 billion going to Amazon’s head Jeff Bezos, already worth $130 BILLION. But Kevin Hassett, a trump economic advisor, referred to workers as “human capital stock”-they’re like livestock, cattle that can be slaughtered. ( https://www.vox.com/2020/5/26/21270863/kevin-hassett-human-capital-stock-coronavirus) In public discourse about the economy, Americans have been reduced to their function in the economy, as “producers” making stuff for the corporations, and “consumers” buying the corporations’ stuff; not as citizens participating in the community’s affairs. That’s all working and low-income people are to them, and that’s the way they want us to remain. That is also why they want unions to stay powerless, economically and politically, and to prevent consumers of goods and services from protesting shoddy corporate practices. We have seen the blatant assaults upon African-Americans, showing that racism is alive in this country, fueled by trump and his pet media. Ahmaud Aubrey, in Georgia, was killed while jogging in a residential area, in February, and his killers, Gregory McMichael (father) and Travis McMichael (son), were only arrested late in May; the McMichaels and their companion William Bryan (who videotaped the whole killing), had the idea of capturing Aubrey by themselves and detaining him, in a citizens’ arrest, but it turned into a killing. It’s as if white people have some sort of police power over people of color. ( https://www.nytimes.com/article/ahmaud-arbery-shooting-georgia.html) Amy Cooper, who worked in an investment company, took her dog into Central Park in May; Christopher Cooper, an African-American man going bird-watching, urged Amy Cooper to leash her dog, as required by the park’s rules, but she got on her cell, all hysterical (why?) and threatened to tell police that Christopher Cooper was threatening her. For that she lost her dog and her job in the investment firm. (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/amy-cooper-christian-cooper-central-park-karen-video-uncomfortable-hate/) Breonna Taylor, an EMT in Louisville, was shot in March by plainclothes police armed with a “no-knock” search warrant. (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/05/15/minute-minute-account-breonna-taylor-fatal-shooting-louisville-police/5196867002/) And now there is the case of George Floyd, killed while a Minneapolis police officer sat his knee on Floyd’s neck and choked him to death, out in the open, while a cellphone camera was on him. That was the trigger of a national movement addressing police abuse within communities of color, and racism in this country in general. Let me be clear: I do NOT think ALL police officers are horrible or racist, and so many of them go out of their way for the community. However, racism in law enforcement is a reality and a danger to be cut out of our society root and branch, in law enforcement and in other areas of our community, such as education, with city schools dilapidating and underfunded by state legislatures filled with rural hacks who hate the people of the cities; medical care, with minority communities having the worst rates in infection of COVID-19, diabetes, cancer, and heart attacks; and higher rates of unemployment. Let us not forget that June is the month for several great demonstrations; the Tiananmen Square incident in China in 1989, which was put down by a government at war with its own young people seeking a change in the system, a repression trump at that time, in a Playboy interview in March 1990, applauded: “When the students poured into Tiananmen Square, the Chinese government almost blew it. Then they were vicious, they were horrible, but they put it down with strength. That shows you the power of strength. Our country is right now perceived as weak … as being spit on by the rest of the world…” (https://www.playboy.com/read/playboy-interview-donald-trump-1990) Another event was the Stonewall uprising in June 1969, when patrons of a crappy bar owned by a Mob associate rioted against the police harassment they endured forever, saying “Enough is enough of this!”, thereby jumpstarting the LGBT rights movement. Fighting for freedom in an ongoing process, it is not something that happens just in one particular season of the year, and not always in the view of the news media. One little thing can happen to finally trigger national discussion of a longstanding injustice-Rosa Parks challenging racial segregation by simply not giving up her seat on the bus; young gay men in a skuzzy bar fighting off police harassment; or jobless military veterans who, in 1932 during the Great Depression, peacefully camped out near the White House to attain some help from President Herbert Hoover, but instead were forced out of their camp by soldiers under the command of General Douglas MacArthur (yep, that one). That has been the trump response to the peaceful demonstrators-and the VAST-est majority of them HAVE been peaceful-to have police and Guard troops assault them, and trump-in his bunker talking bad-ass on Twitter, then ordering peaceful protestors attacked by police so he can hold a bible in front of St. John’s Church for a photo op- threatened to deploy the regular military if state governors did not “dominate” their streets against protestors. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/06/03/insurrection-act-trump-history/) Here is trump impersonating his role models Putin, Kim Jong Un, and Xi of China. I have been reading Bruce Catton’s centennial history of the American Civil War, published on the hundredth anniversary of the terrible conflict that finally ended the shame and scourge of chattel slavery in this country. Some many of the southern men threatened for at least a decade before the war to secede from the Union if it didn’t do their bidding in defending slavery, and the northern men, to preserve the Union and avoid war, constantly accommodated the southern men, like indulging spoiled kids; but at the election of Lincoln in 1860, instead of waiting to see what he would do, the southern states began to secede. It was all bold talk at the beginning, and it ended up in war; what about today? trump and his disciples talk big and bold, threatening to not accept the election results of 2020 if it doesn’t go their way; If another civil war, God forbid, in the offing? Bullies are like that; they talk all tough as opposed to doing anything, but what if they feel threatened by people standing up to them, challenging their alleged power? Here, Americans, is a watershed moment in our history, akin to the Civil War, the 1929 Depression, and the Civil Rights and Anti-War movements of the 1960s-when we decide where our country is to go. Let us not falter, but let us take this chance to save our freedom, and deal finally with the ills of our country-systemic racism, extremes of wealth and poverty, poor medical and educational services, and corrupt government. Stay safe, stay strong, and stay together-bye!

The Mason Missile-The COVID-19 Chronicles, May 7, 2020

Greetings! I hope we continue to stay safe in this crisis. May First was May Day, AKA International Worker's Day, a day honoring working men and women throughout the world. It has been celebrated all over the world, except in the United States, due to the Cold war and the association of May Day to the Stalinist regime in Moscow. (Of course, people in power will associate any challenge to their regime with Communism, thus having an excuse for repressions.) This year, amidst the COVID-19 crisis our nation faces (no thanks to trump's willful incompetence), May Day takes a special meaning to workers. Due to the Corona-virus, workers had to be put out of work through no fault of their own, and are trying to attain Unemployment benefits through their states. Congress has allocated trillions of dollars for small business relief, but that money has would up in the hands of multi-million dollar corporations, including the ones with the "trump" name on them. Workers who have been particularly hard hit have been those at Amazon and Whole Foods, “essential” businesses that need to stay open. On May Day, workers in those two companies-along with workers at Target, Walmart, Instacart, FedEx, and Shipt went out on strike over their managements’ failure and refusal to provide safety measures to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus, while these same companies have made enormous profits. (https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/884w3a/amazon-instacart-target-whole-foods-fedex-workers-explain-why-theyre-striking-may-day) Christian Smalls, a worker in the Amazon distribution center in Staten Island, led a walkout at the facility over COVID-19 safety, and he urged company leadership to sanitize the building and seriously deal with the pandemic among employees. For this, Smalls was fired and subjected to a company-sponsored slander campaign. (https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/5dm8bx/leaked-amazon-memo-details-plan-to-smear-fired-warehouse-organizer-hes-not-smart-or-articulate) That has always been a tactic of corporations, to smear workers who stand up for themselves. Amazon is a particularly serious example of profiteering during the pandemic, since people can’t go to stores and go have to order their goods online. Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos, already the richest human being on the planet worth $113 BILLION, and now, with the pandemic, his profits have risen, and he has thus added $24 BILLION to his bank account. With the trillions of dollars of stimulus from the federal government-call it the “rich man’s welfare,” as it is-corporate leaders are feeling confident again of a recovery for their own selves, still engaging in stock buybacks, which take stocks out of the market and thus raise (artificially) their value, thus raising the profits from them. (https://fortune.com/2020/04/14/jeff-bezos-net-worth-2020-billionaires-amzn-amazon-stock/) State governments are not necessarily the friend of workers. In Iowa, the state government has ordered furloughed workers to resume work, with no regard for the continuing presence of the CIVD-19, or else lose forever their unemployment benefits. (https://www.businessinsider.com/iowa-tells-workers-return-to-work-or-lose-unemployment-benefits-2020-4?fbclid=IwAR1_Mr0j4_0M6GlmOYk5iBjOC8Cx6nI0Ej0Avcq64Yi8lsAGTMLSriQ3qeI) Wisconsin Chief Justice Patience D. Roggensack was hearing a case around Governor Tony Evers’s stay-at-home order related to the JBS Packerland meat-packing plant in Brown Country, which had close to 800 COVID cases; the learned chief justice’s comment was, “These were due to the meatpacking, though, that’s where Brown County got the flare. It wasn’t the regular folks in Brown County.” (https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/05/07/meatpacking-workers-wisconsin-coronavirus/) Does this mean that the meat workers were NOT part of the community, that they were alien, from another planet perhaps? The meat-packing industry has particularly shown itself to be abusing to its workers, many of who are immigrants and of color; trump, who has not utilized the Defense Production Act to order manufacturers to turn out masks and ventilators, has invoked the act to order meat-processing workers back to their job sites, which have been hotbeds for the COVID. The Smithfield pork processing plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, was found to have 853 workers test positive for the virus. Tyson shut down its pork processing plant in Waterloo, Iowa due to the pandemic. (https://kstp.com/coronavirus/tyson-foods-suspends-operations-largest-pork-plant-amid-iowa-outbreak/5707704/) (https://kstp.com/coronavirus/smithfield-tyson-react-to-trump-executive-order-keeping-meat-packing-facilities-open/5714501/) trump’s order would demand these workers risk their lives from the virus-for what? The profits of the board of directors over the next quarter, which none of the workers will benefit from? Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced plans to end the stay-at-home order in his state; over a phone call with legislators, he admitted that would be a health threat to people in his state: “Listen, the fact of the matter is pretty much every scientific and medical report shows that whenever you have a reopening—whether you want to call it a reopening of businesses or of just a reopening of society—in the aftermath of something like this, it actually will lead to an increase and spread. It’s almost ipso facto,” knowing full well the danger to the public was real. (https://www.thedailybeast.com/texas-governor-greg-abbott-admits-dangers-of-reopening-state-on-private-call-with-lawmakers/?via=twitter_page) (https://www.rawstory.com/2020/05/texas-governor-slammed-after-being-caught-on-hot-mic-admitting-his-reopen-order-will-worsen-the-pandemic/) The COVID-19 crisis has laid bare many of the ills of American society-inaccessibility to healthcare; government focused on aiding the already- rich and powerful at the expense, and to the detriment, of working and low-income people; racial disparities in health care; and class privilege flaunted brazenly in our faces, as when Mike Pence strolled through the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota without a face mask, as is policy in the clinic to do, and stating afterwards that he has gotten regular tests, while regular people have to line up for hours, if they’re lucky, to get one; does he think that the rules we follow don’t apply to him? (https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/28/politics/mike-pence-mayo-clinic-mask/index.html) Our vote is our weapon, and we must use it to restore our government for working and low-income people. We deserve, and must attain, leaders who will operate the government for the benefit of all, not just for a gang of con artists, pseudo-science cranks, upper-class twits, and Wall Street gamblers. In Pennsylvania, the primary election is June 2, and the general election is November 3. PLEASE, for the sake of the nation, for the sake of your communities, for the sake of future generations, get out there and VOTE! Stay safe, stay strong, and stay together-Bye!

The Mason Missile, Special Edition-The COVID-19 Chronicles, April 19, 2020

Greetings! I have just finished celebrating Pesach, aka Passover, the holiday commemorating the liberation of the Jews from slavery in Egypt-Mitzraym in Hebrew, the “narrow place,” the place of limitation and powerlessness. My synagogue, Congregation Leyv ha-Ir (http://www.leyvhair.org/) held its second night Seder over the video-conferencing system Zoom (zoom.us). Many congregations have held their Passover and Easter services online due to the COVID-19, aka Coronavirus. Alas, several others have refused to heed the warnings about social distancing and not congregating during the pandemic, thereby possibly exposing them to the virus. One such is Life Tabernacle Church in Louisiana, near Baton Rouge, where the pastor, evangelist Tony Spell, has defied a ban on mass gatherings in his state and has insisted on holding services, including Easter services. (https://www.thedailybeast.com/louisiana-pastor-tony-spell-vows-satan-and-virus-wont-stop-easter-service-as-others-make-unusual-plans) Spell has made this a form of martyrdom, saying “Like any zealot or any pure religious person, death looks to them like a welcome friend.” ( https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/491928-louisiana-pastor-who-refuses-to-stop-holding-church-services-says-true) Several states, like Florida, have carved out exemptions to the state-at-home orders for religious bodies. This follows along with other evangelists, such as Rodney Howard-Brown of Tampa, who has refused to close his church because “we’re raising up revivalists, not pansies.” (https://nypost.com/2020/03/17/evangelical-pastor-mocks-pansies-wont-close-church-for-coronavirus/) Jonathan Shuttlesworth, an evangelist near Pittsburgh, called for a “Woodstock-style” Easter gathering, and called pastors who close over the virus a ”bunch of pansies” and they practice a “fake faith.” (https://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2020/04/01/pittsburgh-pastor-to-hold-woodstock-like-easter-gathering-despite-coronavirus-pandemic/) (https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2020/03/pastor-says-sissies-pansies-wash-hands-prevent-coronavirus/) (Here he sounds like a little kid in the playground.) I see a pattern here; religious zeal, certainly, but also a sense of privilege and entitlement that conservative-evangelical communities have about how they conduct themselves, like they don’t have to follow the same rules everyone else follows. This shows in the evangelical movement’s pushing for certain privileges, like the end of the Johnson Amendment, the rule that prohibits nonprofit 501c(3) organizations, like churches, from endorsing political candidates. Also there is the strain of theology traditionally known as “Muscular Christianity,” a movement from the Victorian Era that combined Christianity with manliness and physical fitness. This movement called for young men participating in sports as a means towards self-discipline and moral standards. This movement led to the development of the Young Men’s Christian Association (the Y) And the Boy Scouts. President Theodore Roosevelt was part of this movement, as was Billy Sunday, the leading evangelist of that time. It also played into the development of Laisse-faire capitalism and the dominance to the corporate “robber-barons;” Social Darwinism, the biologically-based reasoning for the dominance of wealthier classes over everyone else, even for the death of the “unfit;” eugenics, the “science” of determining the “superiority” or “inferiority” of certain races and ethnic groups; and imperialism, the drive for European (and American) powers to dominate African and Asian nations, thus asserting their “superiority” Here is a great article about Muscular Christianity in Counterpunch, https://www.counterpunch.org/2013/08/09/the-brutal-legacy-of-the-muscular-christian-movement/. In Muscular Christianity, we have several toxic strains in American thought-racism, sexism, imperialism, the glorification of force over intellect, the treating of reason and thought as effeminate. This has shown up in the forming of the Ku Klux Klan (coinciding with the movement of Christian Fundamentalism) and the resistance to the Civil Rights movement in the Sixties, where white parents, refusing to allow their kids to go to school with black kids, formed “Christian “ schools for the sole purpose of racial self-segregation, under the cover of “Christian”. It was out of this movement, rather than campaigns against abortion and gay rights, where the religious right political movement gets its origins; it could also explain why this movement loves trump-racist, whoremaster, misogynist, wife-tax-business-golf cheater. He like a “real” man would not tolerate any opposition or dissent. Due to businesses closing down due to the pandemic-to prevent people congregating and spreading the virus-people have been laid off from their jobs, and are having trouble paying their rents. Many of these are workers in the restaurant and hotel industries, which don’t make much money and are thus already struggling. Many of them, in Philadelphia and throughout the country, are preparing to carry out rent strikes, to try to cut deals with property owners. (https://www.inquirer.com/health/coronavirus/rent-strike-coronavirus-philadelphia-constellar-corporation-guy-laren-20200408.html). Among the progressive media, these has been talk about a general strike. (http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/22426/general-strike-coronavirus-workers-unions-labor-healthcare-economic-crisis?link_id=2&can_id=a133d0f069f90f7c5fb79c2acd0407fd&source=email-not-working-in-these-times-the-incoming-wave&email_referrer=email_767511&email_subject=so-you-want-a-general-strike-workers-are-essential-ceos-are-not) That would be an extraordinary event, but we’re living in extraordinary time, with corporations demanding that workers go to work while the virus is still going on, our “president” more worried about how he looks on Facebook and how the stock market is doing, and pundits saying that workers need to go back to work and possibly die from the virus for the greater glory of the “economy.” But whose “economy?” Is the “economy” Wall Street, the Fortune 500, the 0.1 percent of billionaires ruling our politics, government, media, and academia? Or is it the workers who work in the factories, stores, and shops, and who buy from local vendors and thus stimulating the local economy? The Coronavirus crisis has laid bare many of the social problems in this country, like the commodification of health care, so that people can’t afford to get sick due to medical bills and huge co-pays; racial disparities in health care, as seen in the disproportionate number of deaths from Coronavirus among African-Americans; the “one paycheck from disaster” phenomenon, where any sudden reversal of fortune, like losing a job, could mean eviction or foreclosure from your home, shutting off of your utilities, and inability to buy groceries. And-What federal response? Initially, trump told governors that they were on their own, telling them to get their own ventilators to deal with the Coronavirus, rather than utilize the resources of the federal government to deal with this crisis-and greater buying power than any of the states-as any other president would deal with a war or other national crisis. (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/16/us/politics/trump-coronavirus-respirators.html) (https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-trump-told-governors-get-medical-equipment-on-their-own-2020-3) (https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-to-us-governors-get-your-own-ventilators) This approach has created a bidding war between states and cities for equipment, driving up the costs of the equipment. (Here, the “free market” hasn’t done any good, as corporations are using this catastrophe to line their pockets, the public’s health and safety be damned.) Can you imagine, during the Civil war or the Second world war, Lincoln and FDR telling divisions and regiments, “get your own rifles, cannons, bombs, bullets,” etc.? Jared Kushner, trump’s son-in-law/senior advisor/pet boy, told a press conference that the Federal Strategic Reserve, a stockpile of health-care supplies to be used for such emergencies as this, kept saying “the notion of the federal stockpile was it’s supposed to be our stockpile, it’s not supposed to be the states’ stockpile that they then use.” No it’s the American stockpile, to help Americans! (https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2020/04/03/jared-kushner-federal-stockpile-sanders-intv-cooper-nr-vpx.cnn) (https://www.huffpost.com/entry/jared-kushner-stockpile_n_5e86dca8c5b6a949183425ca) And what the hell does he mean by “our” stockpile? Who does he think it belongs to? The Strategic National Stockpile’s website has stated, “When state, local, tribal, and territorial responders request federal assistance to support their response efforts, the stockpile ensures that the right medicines and supplies get to those who need them most during an emergency.” All along, trump and his minions have told the sattes they were on their own, in a perverse version of “federalism” and “states’ rights,” the Republican gospel since Barry Goldwater. Now? trump has arrogated to himself, supposedly as “President,” the authority to order states’ governors to reopen their states’ businesses, no matter what the situation is with the virus. (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/13/us/coronavirus-updates.html) State governors in the northeastern United States-including Pennsylvania-and on the West Coast have formed alliances to work together in this crisis, and they let trump know they would decide when to reopen their businesses; trump has since backed down from his “edict.” (https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-backs-down-after-cuomo-governors-unite-coronavirusk-response-n1183471) Thus ends the notion of “states’ rights” and “get the government off our backs.” Conservatives and Republicans find the federal government useful, is it’s used to beat down anyone they want beaten down, like minorities, workers, and slammed nations. So much has been discussed around this crisis-the possibility of a general strike, the incompetence of our federal-level leadership-yes, I mean our alleged “president!”-the forming of mutual-aid networks locally, cluster of states doing collectively what the federal government can’t and won’t do, the movement of rent strikes and-maybe-a general strike-what does the future hold? In my interactions with my fellow Americans, I have regained hope that we will overcome this crisis-if we consider our friends and neighbors, our co-workers, and our own health, to follow the science, not the rhetoric or the blather from the strange person lurking around the White House-AND his enablers in Congress and his regime and his family-and realize this “person” cares nothing about our health and safety, and we know the value of our lives and health. We do NOT deserve to die of a disease that could have been prevented, and we do NOT deserve the “leadership” that has constantly misled us into this crisis. Let us, NOW, lead ourselves out of this. We can do it. Stay safe, stay together, and stay strong. Bye!

The Mason Missile, April 2, 2020, Special Edition-Special Edition-The COVID-19 Chronicles, April 2, 2020

Greetings! The COVID-19, aka coronavirus crisis goes on and so do trump’s failures as a “president”, as well as the charlatanism of his cheerleaders. Many of them are the evangelical Christian wing, who can’t stop seeing trump-thrice-married adulterer, tax-business-wife-golf cheater, racist, sexist, ignoramus rich kid who got out of the draft through his father’s connections-as their Messiah. Many of them are refusing to abide by stay-at-home, social-distancing rules; one has been Jonathan Shuttlesworth, a Pittsburgh-area evangelist, has called for a big Easter revival service on the scale of Woodstock. (https://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2020/04/01/pittsburgh-pastor-to-hold-woodstock-like-easter-gathering-despite-coronavirus-pandemic/?fbclid=IwAR15NtquugQF_ez5IEr6PChnDEFe9vFs3KFYPifnhxIkLet7COOEimB4sw0) Shuttlesworth has been on Twitter complaining that church leaders who close their churches due to the COVID-19 crisis were a bunch of “sissies” and “pansies.” ( https://deadstate.org/christian-pastor-churches-that-shut-down-due-to-coronavirus-are-a-bunch-of-pansies/) Another, Rodney Howard-Brown of Tampa, was just arrested for defying rules against holding large gatherings, continuing to hold services at his River Church. (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/30/us/coronavirus-pastor-arrested-tampa-florida.html) Howard-Brown, a supporter of trump, kept the church open and urged his congregants to shake hands, saying that “we are raising revivalists, not pansies.” (https://nationalpost.com/news/world/covid-19-florida-pastor-arrested-for-violating-bans-on-large-gatherings-says-closures-are-for-pansies) So many of our plutocratic leaders, and their media mouthpieces, are demanding that workers jeopardize their health by returning to work, “to save our country,” and it makes no never mind to them that the virus is still floating around. We the working people of America are expendable to them. But workers are still recognizing their value, as human beings and as parts of the economy, and are stepping up to the fight against COVID. Workers at the GE aerospace plant in Lynn, Massachusetts, are demanding that they, and their laid-off colleagues, be put to work in producing ventilators for hospitals in their fight against the virus. (https://www.wbur.org/bostonomix/2020/03/30/general-electric-silent-protest-coronavirus) (https://www.masslive.com/business/2020/03/coronavirus-related-layoffs-at-general-electric-prompt-workers-in-boston-and-lynn-to-walk-off-the-job-demand-ge-make-ventilators.html) Workers at the Amazon warehouses in Staten Island NY have walked off the job, urging greater safety conditions and pay. This is similar to the demands of workers at Whole Foods (a subsidiary of Amazon) and of Instacart (a grocery delivery firm). What the Amazon workers need especially is a deep cleaning of the warehouse to kill the virus, more sick time, and availability of hand sanitizer and sanitary wipes. (https://www.npr.org/2020/03/30/823767492/amazon-instacart-grocery-delivery-workers-strike-for-coronavirus-protection-and-) (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/30/business/economy/coronavirus-instacart-amazon.html) (https://www.bbc.com/news/business-52096273) (https://www.post-gazette.com/news/nation/2020/03/29/Amazon-walkout-New-York-City-Staten-Island-fulfillment-center/stories/202003290163?fbclid=IwAR3KX_zOJQAV3i22BjKguaFHGd4f65AOVdMUoiep-P56s1gqC64UdP8pKdI) Of course, Amazon spokespeople announce d the company’s concern for the well-being of its employees during the pandemic; but Amazon fired Chris Smalls, the organizers of the Amazon workers in Staten Island, for his activism for the workers. (https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/30/amazon-fires-staten-island-coronavirus-strike-leader-chris-smalls.html) Even in the midst of a national crisis, union-busting and intimidating workers go on. Throughout the country, Whole Foods workers announced plans to “call in sick” to demand paid leave for workers who self-quarantine due to the virus, plus free COVVID-19 testing for employees, and hazard pay for workers working during the crisis.( https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/5dmeka/whole-foods-employees-are-staging-a-nationwide-sick-out) These are companies owned by Jeff Bezos, estimated worth $115 billion-wealthy enough to form his own space program- and yet he doesn’t spend a dime of his fortune on the people who got it for him, the workers who toil in his warehouses, with every move monitored electronically, with no time for rest of breaks. Amazon employees, and workers in general, are easily disposed of these days-just like in the “Gilded Age” of this country, right after the Civil War, when capitalism was at its most blatantly laissez-faire, where corporations grew and were more powerful than the state and local governments they bought and sold, when immigrants were brought into this country-amid hostility by the “native” (i.e., white Protestant) Americans- to do the lowest-paid, most dangerous and tedious, and unskilled jobs available, and workers were expected to fight amongst each other for whatever such jobs the bosses condescend to throw at them-and the bosses look down on workers as losers and insignificant. But now, in this situation, this crisis that the leading leader was supposed to lead us out of, due to his vast business skills hones in tax evasion, bankruptcy, underpaying immigrant workers, and fraud, has shown himself to be a disaster of a President and as a human being altogether; and the working people-despised as “losers,” toiling in minimum-wage jobs for eternal hours-grocery workers, medical and cleaning staff, and truck drivers-are the saviors of this nation, and let’s never forget that. We are seeing an entirely different ethos in the works in this country, and where we work together mutually in our communities, watching out for each other; as a recent editorial in the New York Times shows. (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/21/opinion/sunday/coronavirus-governors-cities.html?smid=fb-nytopinion&smtyp=cur&fbclid=IwAR2n5irW9zYsZOVxztkJC8DMA0taJ02s4-KUxVU7NB6dmKS5xfwGTDGQj-A) This meshes well the workers organizing-at Amazon, at Whole Foods, at GE- for their rights and welfare, and for that of their communities-no different than from a the labor struggles over a century ago; but we have a rich history of Labor struggles to draw inspiration from during our current struggles. We are up against a serious crisis; but if we band together, connect with each other, support eachother, and love each other, we’ll be victorious. Bye!

The COVID-19 Chronicles, March 24, 2020

I’m doing whatever I can to abide by the rules laid out to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus, AKA CODIV-19; I’m social distancing, I’m standing and sitting far apart from people, and regularly washing my hands. It does suck, not being out, but I don’t want to burden the hospitals as one more patient. I always look at the news to find any good news out of this-but the reality is, our commander in chief has abandoned us by his actions. He has told people to get back to their jobs immediately, even as medical professionals-the only ones we should pay attention to-warn that the spread of the COVID-19 has not yet abated; trump is more worried about the stock market and bailing out luxury industries-like his own-than in the health of the American people, not caring if they get sick or die; his own followers, who believe every lies he coughs up, are expendable to him. (https://www.aol.com/article/news/2020/03/24/trump-again-breaks-with-experts-by-calling-for-people-to-go-back-to-work-claims-seniors-will-be-watched-over-protectively-and-lovingly/23960346/?a_dgi=aolshare_facebook&fbclid=IwAR11M7GPyURptlLVyR1V_ZO10syiCdtn6Qk_j2qcjnZ-s40RwZd08blYMGg) (https://news.yahoo.com/america-not-place-shutdown-trump-222523478.html?soc_src=newsroom&soc_trk=com.apple.UIKit.activity.PostToFacebook&.tsrc=newsroom) There are always these little nuggets of hope; a few days ago, my neighbor’s son’s girlfriend gave me a big box of groceries-fresh and canned veggies, oranges, pears-God bless them! People are in need this time; a lot of people, who work in restaurants, hotels, airports, etc., have been laid off due to shut-down orders; they need help, so let’s stay in contact with them; phone them and ask how they’re doing and do they need anything. There are many private individuals, of varying levels of affluence, who have stepped up and donated money and supplies to hospitals and medical staff who are working round the clock to save COVID-19 patients, so let’s support them however we can. Let’s also commend the state and local officials who have taken charge in this crisis, particularly Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York, who has demanded help for the federal government, which has the greatest amount of power to set up aid for states, and who has called for contributions of surgical masks, and people have stepped up. The refusal of the “president” to do anything about the pandemic-besides piling on some fabulous lies- is a crime, period, and he needs to be evicted from the White House NOW. Can you imagine Lincoln during the Civil War, and FDR in the Second World War and Great Depression-three of this nation’s greatest crises-acting this way? He had told the governors “you’re on your own” in acquiring needed equipment -ventilators, respirators, hospital beds, etc.-even as the federal government outbid the states for this equipment. Couldn’t he just donate the gear to the states’ hospitals? Has he continued, even in a crisis, his habit of greed and avarice, “Gimme more, gimme more!”? At ANY moment, trump could implement the Defense Production Act of 2020, authorizing the federal government to order the production of the venerators, respirators, and other machines, and he would come off as a hero; but NOOO, he remains close to our nation’s oligarchy, who are too addicted to the “free market,” even at the nation’s hour of need, to put their greed aside, just once, to fight off this enemy. (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/22/us/politics/coronavirus-trump-defense-production-act.html?searchResultPosition=1) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5X0NHWy_Q6I) And Congress? The Republican leadership-yeah, you, Mitch McConnell!-has tried to push through the Senate the trillion dollar spending bill that would have a little for working people-maybe-but $500 BILLION for businesses, to be handed out at Steve Mnuchin’s and trump’s discretion, with no oversight or transparency. (https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a31901316/mitch-mcconnell-bailout-bill-steve-mnuchin-500-billion/) The emphasis on the fund has been on such luxury industries as hotels (like trump’s), cruise liners, and airlines, companies that have used the money saved from the 2017 tax bill to buy back stock to raise the value of the remaining stock. You KNOW that trump will divert some of that money to his own properties, like he has held campaign events at Mar-A-Lago and his other clubs. (https://qz.com/1823225/senate-republicans-corporate-rescue-more-like-slush-fund-dems-say/) (https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/trump-refuses-to-promise-his-own-company-wont-get-a-taxpayer-bailout/0) The attitude is that corporations-vast soulless bureaucracies that overpower the state-are more worthy of help than working people who need to pay their bills, feed their families, and live their lives. Even more insidious, Bill Bar, technically Attorney-General but acting like trump’s personal legal valet-is calling for the power to hold people without trial and suspend the right of Habeas Corpus, and to allow judges to pause trials during “emergencies”. (https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a31903481/william-barr-emergency-powers-coronavirus/) (https://thegrio.com/2020/03/22/department-of-justice-emergency-powers/) This is another Republican-plutocratic dream, to repress any popular opposition without consequences-or are they afraid of a popular uprising? Americans, we DO NOT need to accept this. We deserve a government-particularly a President-who will work of, by, and for the American people, and not be lignin their own pockets and the pockets of already billion-dollar criminals. We deserve and demand action NOW to fight this disease killing our loved ones, and we must organize for that; current communication technology like the internet make that doable during this social-isolation period. Stand fast, stand strong, and stand together, and we’ll beat this.

The Mason Missile, March 21, 2020

Greetings! Since this publication takes a good deal of work and time, I welcome any donations, and I am willing to discuss ad space. I will be happy to advertise your business in the Missile. Please contact me and we’ll discuss it. The Corona Virus-COVID-19-has hit this country, and it’s getting real here. Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf has ordered a shutdown of schools and “non-essential” businesses in the state for two weeks (https://www.spotlightpa.org/news/2020/03/pennsylvania-coronavirus-statewide-shutdown-tom-wolf-governor/ ). Restaurants would only have take-out service, no sit-down dining. Meetings and conferences have been postponed, as are religious services. I, as many of you, am frustrated by the turn of events; but I will adjust to it, and I’m sure you will be able to also. We in this country have been through difficult times in this country, this is only a phase we’re going through, and we will definitely get through this. I advise we follow the basic practices for health, like not going out so much if we’re not feeling well, washing the hands, and calling our loved ones to see if they’re okay. Where is the leadership in this situation? Mostly at the local and state levels, such as Governors Andrew Cuomo of New York, Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania, JB Pritzker of Illinois, and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, who have criticized the trump regime’s refusal to deal with the crisis, telling the governors about acquiring ventilators and respirators, to “get them yourselves.” trump, true to form, resorted to attacking them on Twitter for “playing politics,” while they were standing up for the people of their states and pointing out the refusal of the “President” to do something about the public health crisis. (https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisettevoytko/2020/03/17/keep-politics-out-of-it-trump-lashes-out-at-governors-critical-of-federal-coronavirus-response/#19a12af160c3) Part of the regime’s failure was to not accept a testing mechanism produced by German scientists, and offered by the World Health Organization (WHO) (https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a31677485/coronavirus-trump-administration-rejected-who-test/?fbclid=IwAR3vSjEnuWmEXWlIX7RNsGW-UYEKLi8w3c_jOtVDLbwhdekEpGwmrtPlPdE). The “America First” mentality of the regime is one factor; it has shown contempt for international agreements and longtime allies, while it has shown affection to the most infamous dictators on the planet. It may be also the trump tendency to make a buck or two out of the Presidency; Joshua Kushner, brother of First-Son-In-Law and “Senior Advisor” Jared, is a part owner of Oscar Health Insurance, which has developed a system for locating testing sites for COVID-19. (https://www.dcreport.org/2020/03/16/how-the-kushner-family-is-cashing-in-on-covid-19/) Plus, Reuters reports that trump tried to persuade a German biotech firm, CureVac, to move to the US and produce a vaccine for COVID-19-but exclusively for the US. (https://www.reuters.com/article/health-coronavirus-germany-usa-idUSL8N2B8075) This, along with trump calling the disease the “Chinese virus” and an aide joking about “Kung Flu” to a reporter, are all parts of his blatant racism, xenophobia, and look-out-for-number-one attitude, for himself and for what he perceives to be “America.” (https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-pacific-heart/202003/calling-covid-19-chinese-virus-or-kung-flu-is-racist?fbclid=IwAR0cLn66ubdqFYq5CCJhNKXOSc4ILitUQ9c9Av-qVW2--oor34Y_G6x24Q4) No leadership anywhere! Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina spoke to a group of affluent people in his state-HIS kind of people-and warned of the danger of the virus earlier than was previously announced-at the level of the 1918 influenza epidemic. (https://www.npr.org/2020/03/19/818192535/burr-recording-sparks-questions-about-private-comments-on-covid-19) As Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, he could have sounded his own warning about the pandemic, but what did he do? Burr, and several other senators-“representatives of the people,” so-called-cashed in their stocks, to the tune of $598,000 to $1.6 million, ahead of what they saw was an upcoming Stock Market crash. The others were Kelly Loeffer of Georgia, Diane Feinstein of California, and James Inhofe of Oklahoma (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/03/19/reports-burr-loeffler-sold-stocks-ahead-coronavirus-marketcrash/2882006001/). So many of our elected officials-aside from the ones to have actually taken action during the virus-who we need for leadership in times of crisis-like this!-have failed us, they have betrayed us, they have focused on lining their own pockets. We need confidence and faith that we can surmount this crisis, and from the experience to the past few weeks, the “president” has not inspired the confidence or hope the American people need in this time. It is compatible to right after Pearl Harbor; the nation was frightened and worried, and FDR regularly spoke to the American people assuring them of victory. Whatever we can do in our own localities, whether it’s sewing surgical masks, calling you neighbors to see if they’re okay, demanding help and accountability from our elected officials, donating time and money-let’s do it, and we’ll beat this enemy. As in earlier crises in our history-the Depression, the Civil war, and World War II-we have emerged a stronger and better nation. we have that in our hands. Bye!