The Mason Missile, December 13, 2025

Greetings, Americans! The off-year elections of 2025 have shown the importance of voting in municipal, county, and state elections, and whatever special elections occur to fill a vacant seat. Three candidates for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court—Christine Donohue, David Wecht, and Kevin Dougherty—won retention, in a race that had national coverage, and in which several Republican-allied interest groups (such as the ones affiliated with billionaire Jeffery Yass), dumped money into the campaign. (https://www.spotlightpa.org/news/2025/11/pa-election-results-supreme-court-retention-donohue-dougherty-wecht/) (https://www.spotlightpa.org/news/2025/10/pennsylvania-supreme-court-retention-race-spending-independent-expenditures-elections/ ) Two women were elected governors of their respective states—Mikie Sherrill in New Jersey, Abigail Spanberger in Virginia—defeating Jack Ciattarelli and Winsome Earle-Sears, respectively, Ciatarelli being endorsed by t---p himself. In New York City, Zorhan Mamdani, a young state assemblyman, was elected Mayor. In California, Proposition 50, the amendment to redraw the Congressional Districts in the Democrats’ favor (responding to Texas’ amendment to redraw THEIR districts in trump’s favor), passed overwhelmingly. (A federal court voted to declare Texas’ plan unconstitutional.) (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/texas-redistricting-court-ruling-california-prop-50/) (https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-elections-watch-this-week-nyc-mayor-governors-redistricting-2025-11-03/) (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sherrill-spanberger-ciattarelli-earle-sears-virginia-new-jersey-governor-trump/) In Mississippi, Democrats won enough seats in the State Senate to break the Republican “supermajority,” and Democrats won a 13-seat majority in the Virginia House of Delegates. (https://mississippitoday.org/2025/11/05/democrats-end-gop-two-thirds-supermajority-in-mississippi-senate-what-does-that-mean/) (https://news.ballotpedia.org/2025/11/06/virginia-democrats-gain-13-seats-in-the-house-of-delegates/) In other words: people are standing up to the trump regime, and even some hard-core MAGAs are waking up. But, alas, he’ll still have his true believers. trump’s use, misuse, and abuse of our military goes on. In September, SOMEone in our military shot down a boat off the coast of Venezuela, which, according to the trump administration (not a reliable source for news) said it was transporting narcotics into the US. From the video that the Pentagon released, it looked like the kind of boat you take to the lake to go fishing, not for crossing the sea from Venezuela. This—let’s be clear—would be called a war crime if we were at war with Venezuela—Is that what trump is after? After the first strike, the survivors held on to what was left of the boat and signaled for help, but the boat as attacked a second time, a “double tap.” There are reports that Hegseth himself gave the order, “kill everybody.” https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/pete-hegseth-drug-boat-survivors-order-b2874580.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/11/28/hegseth-kill-them-all-survivors-boat-strike/ https://thehill.com/policy/defense/5628265-hegseth-boat-strike-order-congress-trump/ If this is not a war crime, since we’re not at war, it’s murder, and everyone involved in this operation, from trump and Hegseth down to whoever carried out the order, is an accessory. The excuse-rationale from the regime was the boat was transporting drugs. That talk does not wash; recently, trump had granted a pardon to several people involved in the narcotics trade, such as Juan Orlando Hernandez, former President of Honduras, who allowed his country to be a safe haven for drug cartels. Others have been Ross Ulbricht, who ran the “Silk Road” online drug market, gang leader Larry Hoover of Chicago, and Baltimore drug boss Garnett Gilbert Smith. But that’s classic trump, always favoring anybody with millions of dollars to shove his way. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/12/07/trump-drugs-pardons-hernandez-venezuela/ Also, Trump’s war on immigrant communities carries an elitist element, for all his “plain folks” talk. Earlier this month, trump announced a new “gold card” visa program, whereby anyone who pays $1 million will have their application expedited, and promised applicants residency “in record time”; trump’s Commerce Secretary Howard Luttnick told Fox News that applicants “are the best people coming in” who would be “economically capable of driving our economy.” (https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/trump-gold-card-launches-offering-032737976.html?fr=yhssrp_catchall) (https://trumpcard.gov/) (https://apnews.com/article/trump-gold-card-website-live-us-visa-22edbd7e65d188bbf6c8ec1d5f78d11a) (https://www.ms.now/opinion/msnbc-opinion/gold-card-immigration-address-congress-trump-newsletter-rcna194521) The story is that these millionaires buying their way into this country are, through their magic, going to create jobs for Americans, just while millions of people flee poverty, political repression, and gang violence in their homelands to this country, in hopes of something better for themselves and their families; and without their labor in farms, hotels, restaurants, and construction sites, these billionaires would only be talking to themselves; they’d be NOTHING. Time is running out for funding for the Affordable Care Act, aka “Obamacare.” Congress-member Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania (serving the suburban counties of Berks and parts of Montgomery) introduced a bill for subsidizing the ACA with a cap on high-income earners, and NO restrictions on abortion. Squeaker of the House Mike Johnson has shown no urgency to fund ACA, so that Americans don’t get stuck with increases in premiums, thereby having to do without life-saving procedures. Remember, Johnson calls himself a “Christian,” and he’s allowing people to die for lack of medical care. You would think he, of all politicians, would pay attention to the November election results, and see that the public is turning against the trumpified GOP. https://www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/news/aca-subsidies-2026-health-insurance/ What a difference a year makes! Earlier in the year, we thought that trump was unstoppable in his drive to fascism, with his control over the Republican Party, which controls the House, the Senate, and dominates the Supreme Court; now, an estimated 22 House and Senate Republicans have announced their resignations before the New Year, or have already resigned. They know the party’s chances of losing “bigly” in the midterms are huge, and they got their pensions and health insurance (that ordinary Americans DON’T have), and they know NOW that rump is politically toxic, so it’s time for them to cash out. (https://www.newsweek.com/full-list-of-republicans-leaving-congress-11154919) (https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5630833-house-republican-exodus-problem/) SO, it IS urgent for Democrats to organize immediately for the 2026 midterms, and run candidates with pro-worker, pro-low-income agenda, one that addresses the needs of the people in our neighborhoods; the Clintonist, Republicans-but-nicer, “neo-Liberal” (whatever the hell that means) approach that the party has done, which has done ZERO to address issues as they are but only emulates the Republicans (who still attack the Democrats anyway). SO, as we enter the new year, let us make a resolution to continue the grassroots and shop-floor work of organizing our coworkers and communities, and stand up to the trump-MAGA-fascist agenda. Stay safe, stay strong, and stay together! Slava Ukraini! Am Yisrael Chai! Fuck Trump! America will be free! Happy New Year!