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!

The Mason Missile, December 29, 2019

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. It happened-trump has been impeached by the House, and the senate has to hold a trial. Mitch McConnell, the Majority Leader of the Senate (who thinks he owns the damn thing!) announced he would work along with the White House Counsel to fight the vote to convict trump. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/12/13/mcconnell-says-hell-let-trumps-white-house-dictate-trumps-impeachment-trial/) The Senators are to take an oath: “I solemnly swear (or affirm) that in all things appertaining to the trial of ____, now pending, I will do impartial justice according to the Constitution and laws, so help me God.” Here are the senate’s rules on impeachment: https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/resources/pdf/1_1868ImpeachmentRules.pdf Already, McConnell has shown he cares nothing for the constitution and the rule of law, and will do the bidding of his master in the White House; he showed that in a fundraising video, https://www.inquirer.com/politics/nation/mitch-mcconnell-vows-to-stop-impeachment-fundraising-video-20191006.html. Covering his own ass, trump has been connecting Republican Senators with his own network of donors for their own reelection. (https://www.politico.com/news/2019/10/31/trump-impeachment-senators-donor-062084) All of this corruption is no longer hidden behind closed doors, either at a Beltway restaurant, a golf course, or an upscale brothel; it’s all out in the open, and we see it-and they’re daring us working and low-income people, “What the hell you gonna do about it?” Along with all this is the Republican tendency of suppressing the votes of demographic groups that wouldn’t usually vote in their favor-racial and religious minorities, students, seniors. Presumably, they expect us to take this-forever. No way! We will NOT accept this! We must and WILL use every avenue to make our Voices heard, even if we have to travel to the capitols of the states, and DC, to tell OUR elected representatives personally what we think. Yes we are angry about our right being eroded for so long, how blatant racism, sexism, anti-Semitism, and homophobia are out in the open-such as the recent assaults on Hasidic Jews in the New York area over the Hanukkah season. There have also been the people ranting racial slurs at African-Americans and Hispanic-Americans, and assaults on same-sex couples peacefully walking down the street holding hands. And we’re supposed to be ashamed of ourselves for complaining about this, we’re called “snowflakes,” and we’re expected to just take it. Bullies are like that; they pick on you and tell you what a big baby you are to complaining about it, like they have every right to abuse you. Conservatism-go ahead and howl, you’re the big strong he-men!- has been shown to be the political movement of the school bully who wants to keep kicking the sand in your face without consequences, to beat you up for your lunch money and you’re supposed to accept it like a good boy/girl, and it’s (somehow) your fault anyway. To hell with that! We won’t be quiet anymore! We’ll continue to organize, to educate ourselves, to communicate our ideas, and involve ourselves in the political process, and reclaim it for ourselves and our future generations. 202 is the year we go out and vote out this regime in Washington and do more than repair the damage trump has done to this country, we WILL build it better than before, and we definitely won’t tolerate our votes being repressed. A Happy New Year, and a Happy New America!

The Mason Moment, December 9, 2019

The Mason Missile, November 25, 2019

Greetings! This past election on November 5, I was on my division’s election board, assisting people in working with the new voting machines; somehow, people were afraid that the new system would be too complicated, and that therefore people would not bother to vote-the establishment always sets up impediments to people voting-but I helped them make sense of it, and it really wasn’t so complicated. Turnout was said to be greater than in other off-year elections? Off-year? All elections are important, and every office, from President down to the lowest municipal row offices, affects our lives, and we have to pay attention to who we elect into office, and stay active in our communities. This was a great progressive election year: Democrats have taken both houses of the Virginia legislature and the Kentucky governor’s mansion. I got the feeling, “There’s hope after all!”, and others felt the same way. But in past non-Presidential elections, when republicans were voted out, they didn’t take the loss of their power graciously, but tried to subvert the power of the incoming Democratic officials. In Houston, Texas, nineteen African-American women were elected to judgeships last year; this year, Governor Greg Abbott (R) and the legislature introduced a bill that would allow the Governor to appoint judges in Texas’ urban, more racially-diverse counties, while allowing the mostly white conservative counties to elect their judges. (https://www.facingsouth.org/2019/11/texas-considers-ending-judicial-elections-democrats-gain-ground). I have also followed as best I can the impeachment hearings by the House Intelligence Committee, with the testimony of Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and Dr. Fiona Hill, highly-regarded veterans in their particular fields of government service, pointing out the efforts by trump himself to demand that the Ukrainian government claim the Hunter Biden, son of former Vice-President Joe, engaged in corrupt business deals with that nation’s oil company, in exchange for military equipment to help Ukraine in their defense against Russia. trump’s threats and corruption have been so blatant, so out in the open, he doesn’t bother hiding them, like it’s a sign of his power, his masculinity, which he’s constantly trying to impress others of-just like Mussolini and Hitler a little under a century ago. It’s significant that Vindman and Hill are immigrants to this country, and they have shown themselves to be true, patriotic Americans, like many immigrants have been; this challenges the nativism and xenophobia that has long pervaded this country’s history, the fear of the foreign-born for whatever excuse, be it “taking our jobs away” or “they’re not our kind of people.” Plus, it also important that women have led the charge against trump, the “grab ‘em by the pussy’ guy-Hill, Marie Yovanovich (the Ambassador to Ukraine he had removed, and whom he tried to intimidate via twitter while she testified), and Nancy Pelosi. trump’s misogyny is coming back at him. It gives me faith and hope that there are honorable and decent people in public service-military, diplomatic, and congressional-who aren’t willing to be the sycophants of a wannabe dictator, and who are willing to act by principle to undermine trump’s crimes. But trump’s tendancy has been to honor the most low-down elements of our government, and insult and attack honorable people, like Vindman, Yovanovich, and Hill, for the crime of not putting the vanity of the Glorious Leader ahead of the welfare of the nation. Case in point: the Navy has tried to punish Eddie Gallagher, a Chief Petty Officer in SEAL Team 7, for war crimes, such as firing upon noncombatants and stabbing a wounded Islamic State fighter. trump intervened in support of Gallagher, along with supporting Army Major Matthew Goldstyn and Army First Lieutenant Clint Lorance, in spite of Defense Secretary Mark Esper urging him not to. (https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/17/politics/mark-esper-donald-trump-military-pardons/index.html). The Navy brass carried out a review of Gallagher, seeking to remove his from the SEAL force; Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer tried to cut a deal with trump directly, bypassing the chain of command that was to go through Esper, and was forced to resign-and Gallagher, as trump wanted, retains his SEAL trident pin. The lesson: in this administration, you can commit any crime while trump is in office, and get away with it and be rewarded. We have to get ourselves ready for next year’s elections, from President on down. That means registering our family and friends, staying conscious of the issues, following the candidates, and THEN going to the polls on Election Day. It would also help if we go out into the streets, like in Beirut, Santiago (Chile), and Hong Kong, where people are out demanding their voices be heard in the halls of government. Like I said, the crooks and despots in power won’t go out quietly, and trump has his followers talking all badass, ready to start a civil war on his behalf as I warned previously. (https://www.lawfareblog.com/armed-militias-are-taking-trumps-civil-war-tweets-seriously) In short, Americans, we are in a dangerous time in our history-as we were during the Civil War, the Depression, the World Wars, and other periods of upheaval. If we band together, we’ll move this nation to a higher level. Bye!

The Mason Missile, October 23, 2019

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. We have been through the High Holy Days-Rosh Ha-Shona, the New Year, the start of new hope and opportunities; and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the day of re-tuning your life; these are the days where we re-assess our lives, and look at where we went right and how we can be better for the future. It’s not always good to call where we went wrong “sins;” the idea is that we have these good intentions, but we slip often, and we recognize where we slipped and we learn from our mistakes and start over again. For a person, most of the time, there is room for improvement. And where there is re-alignment with your true, positive self, there is still hope, for the individual and the nation. Let’s keep these lessons in mind as we go through the rest of the year. In the situation this country is in, we need hope to see us through, to know that we can get ourselves out of this predicament. The forces are arrayed against working and low-income people: a Supreme Court and federal judicial system filled with ideologically backward incompetents; states, like North Carolina, rewriting election rules to make it damn near impossible for minorities, students, and retired people to vote; the elimination of limits on campaign donations, as in the Supreme court’s Citizen’s United decision, so that corporations and plutocrats can pay for favored candidates to get elected. Those are just the beginning of the list of tactics used to “legally” perpetuate oligarchic rule in this country, under the guise of “democracy.” It’s gotten even more desperate with the news of trump’s contacting the President of Ukraine to demand information about the business dealings of Joe Biden’s son Hunter, in exchange for military assistance to Ukraine as it fights off Russian incursions into its territory. On top of this-oh the shame, Americans!-trump withdrew US personnel from Northern Iraq, giving the Turkish military the opportunity to attack Kurdish “terrorists”-these so-called “terrorists who have joined with the US in fighting the Islamic State fighters; the Kurds, who for generations have fought for their Own territory and their Own nation-lost 11,000 fighting against ISIS, (By the way, trump has a Trump Towers in Istanbul, along with over a hundred business interests in Turkey-a fun fact to know.) trump has a soft spot in his “heart” for “strongmen” dictators-Putin, Kim Jong Un, Oban in Hungary, Erdogan in Turkey, and Bolsonaro in Brazil. In his business dealings, he has had close ties to the American La Cosa Nostra and the Russian mafia; and he has, in his rallies, encouraged violence against protestors. (Not that he’s the type to do it himself; I’m familiar with rich kids who think they’re badass since they’re hanging out with guys on the street, but when things get rough, they can count on the old man’s pull and money to get them out of the jam.) Interviewed by Breitbart, trump said, “I can tell you I have the support of the police, the support of the military, the support of the Bikers for Trump – I have the tough people, but they don’t play it tough — until they go to a certain point, and then it would be very bad, very bad.” (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/03/15/trump-deletes-breitbart-post-how-tough-his-supporters-can-get/3172413002/) This tough talk includes threats from the evangelical “Christian” supporters of trump, such as Rick Wiles (https://deadstate.org/christian-tv-host-if-dems-impeach-trump-veterans-and-cowboys-will-hunt-them-down/?fbclid=IwAR0bSFCKLK7k8Qmkkq9sWBtHNz5P2idHWy3zIivMMyTsL3vwyrUugszPF5E) and Robert Jeffress (https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/10/who-is-robert-jeffress-civil-war-trump-impeachment.html) who threatened “a Civil War–like fracture in this nation from which this country will never heal.” Civil war? Do they mean this, or are they trying to intimidate us? Or both? let us remember the history of the original civil war; southern states threatened to secede from the Union if Abraham Lincoln was duly elected President; this bullying escalated into an actual civil war, where hundreds of thousands of young men died-some to preserve the Union, others to preserve the slave system and their feeling of being of a “superior race.” I’m afraid that, like the last time, some gang of idiots will follow through on this threat. There have been over the years groups of paramilitary pseudo “militias” of men playing soldier pretending to be valiant warriors carrying assault rifles on their way to the grocery store-just to show they can do so. trump is relying on them to be a backup for him if he is impeached or otherwise removed from office (God willing!); one of these groups the Oath Keepers, certified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a “hate group (https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/oath-keepers), served as security for trump’s rally in Minneapolis (https://www.newsweek.com/anti-government-group-escort-minneapolis-trump-rally-1464170). This is a dictator move, having your own personal army-police-militia, outside of the military chain of command, like Hitler’s SS and Mussolini’s Blackshirts. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackshirts) Recently, we have the news that about a dozen Republican Congress-thugs stormed into the secure committee chamber where Laura Cooper, a veteran Defense Depatment official involved in policy about Ukraine, gave testimony surrounding the attempt by trump to demend information about Joe Biden and his son concerning “corruption” (a topic trump is adept at). These thugs barged in, holding cellphone cameras in violation of security rules, and Capital Police and the Sergeant-At-Arms’ office tried to talk them out of the room. This was a blatant attempt to intimidate Cooper; I hope she stands strong. (https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/watch-republicans-disrupt-closed-door-impeachment-deposition?fbclid=IwAR3OjSFdmVbyzq4QXrRuddyOpBCNbkl1I4LqFfC1E94SLPHMsR1yQGKeUsc) If these Congress-creeps were anywhere to the left politically, would they get the kids gloves, or the iron hand? In my reading of American history, more than likely it’s the latter. Throughout the Sixties and Seventies, the Republican Party has presented itself as the party of “law and order” and “strong national defense,” while, if convenient, willing to break the law and compromise national security to attain power. Let me count the ways: Nixon contacting the South Vietnamese government to urge them to back off from peace talks with the North and the NLF, promising President Theiu a better deal-thereby prolonging the war and American’s involvement in it, dragging Cambodia into the war (thus allowing the Khmer Rouge to wage its genocidal regime), and allowing more American servicemen to be killed (how’s THAT for “support the troops!); organizing gangs of thugs to assault anti-war protestors opposing a terrible war, and organizing a crew of burglars to break into the Democratic National Committee office at Watergate; (this is recorded in The Arrogance of Power; The Secret World of Richard Nixon by Anthony Summers) contacting the regime of the Ayatollahs in Iran, urging them to back off of negotiations with Washington to release the hostages in the Embassy, thus making Jimmy Carter look weak and inept and allowing Ronald Reagan into office; the Iran-contra affair, whereby anti-tank weapons were sold to Iran to pay for the contra campaign in Nicaragua, against the law passed by Congress; Mitch McConnell’s refusal to speak out against the blatant effort, recorded by our intelligence and security agencies, by Russian state entities to interfere in our elections in 2016; I guess I just scratched the surface. Fellow Americans, let us NOT be intimidated by the thugs in and out of office. Let us organize, educate ourselves, and show them we will not be intimidated. Let’s get out and VOTE!-November 5 in Pennsylvania-and let’s keep ourselves strong, and America will be free! Bye!

The Mason Missile, August 21, 2019

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. Gilroy, California; El Paso, Texas; Dayton Ohio-more tragedies; more shootings with military-style assault rifles by deranged men, aimed at innocent people; more grieving families; more babbling by politicians about thoughts and prayers; more demand for control over these guns; and more-nothing. That has been the ritual over the years whenever these incidents occur. (On August 14, there was an incident in the Nicetown-Tioga section of North Philadelphia: a gunman opened fire upon police officers, injuring six of them. There is no information about the shooter. No place is safe from this scourge.) It has happened in houses of worship, schools, places you have out at for fun. Young men-almost entirely men-who pick up white-supremacist propaganda from the internet, and are inspired by the maniac-in-chief lurking in the White House, with his ravings about the “invasion” of people-including children-from Central America, escaping poverty, gang violence, and political repression in their countries-due to our government’s intervention in those countries over the decades, thus creating destabilization in those countries. trump has enabled and encouraged racism and violence to be normalized in this country, after decades of both being unacceptable. The Republican Party does not have the will or the courage to challenge trump on this, but is in the thrall of the trump voters-they actually think that the MAGA hat wearing racists and bullies are the true American people, the “silent majority” Richard Nixon deigned to speak for. They act as if ALL Americans are like them, and are not working and low-income people conscious of the true state of affairs in this country; are not people of color-the Republicans have bragged about making inroads in attaining votes from Hispanic-Americans and African-Americans, when not appealing to fears of dark-skinned rapists, drug dealers, and welfare cheaters; and are ignorant of how the Republican tax policies of the past forty years have shoveled more money for the already-billionaire class while making workers work longer for decreasing paychecks. This indicates how ignorant the Republican leadership-ALL our political leadership in this country-knows nothing of rank-and-file Americans and what they go through. trump is as much the symptom of the racist appeals of the Republican Party as he is the end result. His racism is all his own; it shows in his preventing Black families from renting in his company’s buildings in the seventies-resulting in lawsuits and hiring the notorious sleazebag attorney Roy Cohn; in his stereotyped statements about Jews being handy about money; in his continued demanding that the Central Park Five, accused falsely of raping a white woman, be executed, even after their innocence was proven; in his ordering Black employees off the floor of his casinos when he and Ivana came in; when he started his presidential campaign by saying Mexicans were rapists, drug dealers, criminals, “and some, I assume, and good people;” in his saying that Muslims in New Jersey celebrated the destruction of the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001, when they didn’t; and when he demanded a “complete shutdown” of Muslims entering this country-I’ve just scratched the surface. trump’s racism melded with the racist appeals of the Republican party, and this is the result. The Republican party is stuck with trump. Also-the myth of the almighty, all-scary National Rifle Association (NRA) is falling apart. The story in that politicians were scared to implement any meaningful gun controls for fear of the votes of NRA members; but recent scandals among the NRA leaders-Wayne LaPierre and Oliver North (of Iran-Contra infamy)-concerning living deluxe lifestyles from the NRA treasury, and big payoffs to the public-relations firm it hired, Ackerman-McQueen. (usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/08/03/nra-faces-financial-crisis-claims-might-unable-exist/902918002/) Many of the men who committed these terrible crimes are part of neo-Fascist, white-nationalist extremist movements-with some “Christian” rhetoric thrown in- encouraged by the words of the racist idiot-in-chief in the White House. Social networking sites-such sites as Gab and 8chan come to mind-connect these men to each other, encouraging each other in these beliefs. It’s no different from a young man in the Middle East being recruited similarly into Al-Qaeda. In fact, the Southern Poverty Law Center reports that there are NOW over a thousand of such racist, neo-fascist, and white nationalist groups in the United States. (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/20/us/hate-groups-rise.html?fbclid=IwAR3I_WO6rGM6fCgomURq2MpL3Ei9jGdrPTW4vZR6ELkxD16WSmdCTneCCbg) But-People are reluctant to call this by its right name-TERRORISM!-which Britannica calls “the systematic use of violence to create a general climate of fear in a population and thereby to bring about a particular political objective.” (https://www.britannica.com/topic/terrorism) The US of A is NOT immune to terrorism; company thugs and official law enforcement have applied violence against organizers of workers, and still do; and let’s never-EVER-forget the sacrifice of Civil Rights activists facing beatings and murder at the hands of the Klan and the police (often the same thing). Let us not wait for the “leaders” to come their “senses,” let us hit the streets to fight against the scourge of gun violence, the easy availability of military-level assault rifles, and the rise of a murderous neo-fascist movement. The fight is ON for the future of America, and the planet. Coming up is Labor Day, the holiday of, by, and for American working men and women. Let us enjoy our burgers and beer-and afterwards, let us remember and relearn the struggles working people went through to organize themselves for their mutual benefit; how THEY endured terrorism, by sheriff’s deputies, police, militia, and company thugs to attain a better life for themselves and their children, knowing they were worth the struggle. I will take part in the Philadelphia area’s Labor Day parade and family celebration on September 2, and I hope you’ll all join me. Bye!