The Mason Missile, October 29, 2021

The Mason Missile The E-Newsletter of John Oliver Mason October 29, 2021, 2021 1500 Walnut Street, Suite 700-21A Philadelphia, PA 19102 johnomason@johnomason.com https://johnomason.com amazon.com/author/masonjohn (Please forward to your friends) (Donations appreciated, advertising space available) https://www.paypal.me/jom57 Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist. -Ralph Waldo Emerson Greetings, Americans! I’m continuing to promote my novel, Soldier Of The Cross; it’s available through Amazon. (https://www.amazon.com/Soldier-Cross-John-Oliver-Mason/dp/0578988402/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3VQ9PDCKAUKLK&dchild=1&keywords=soldier+of+the+cross+john+oliver+mason&qid=1635266248&rnid=2941120011&s=books&sprefix=soldier+of+the%2Caps%2C111&sr=1-1) But I encourage you to first order it through your local independent bookstore; there you find writing workshops, meet-the-author events, and poetry readings. It’s at the grassroots level, in these small indy bookstores, where new literary talent flourishes. And, please support all you other small businesses, like the small grocer and local diner; they’ve been particularly hit hard by the pandemic, and the billion-dollar mega-corporations don’t need the money as much as these small family businesses do. Amazon, in particular, is wealthy enough that Jeff Bezos can afford to have his own space program, Blue Origin. But the latest is that Amazon is in negotiations to purchase MGM Studios. Amazon is about to pay $8.45 billion for MGM, as they paid $13.7 billion for Whole Foods. (https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/26/amazon-to-buy-mgm-studios-for-8point45-billion.html) This has been possible through the series of tax breaks that corporations over the past 40 decades have attained from Congress, with the help of their lobbying firms; I’m thinking particularly about the 2017 tax cut, which created the federal deficit, and the Republicans have no problem with it. (But, to the Republicans, spending money on such socially beneficial things as infrastructure, schools, medical assistance, nursing mothers, and unemployment would be an economic catastrophe.) Workers have never benefitted from these corporate tax breaks; it’s only more money for more luxury items-such as Bezos’ brand-new, $500 million dollar yacht. ((https://www.geekwire.com/2021/see-worthy-first-look-jeff-bezos-reported-500m-superyacht-netherlands-shipyard/) (https://www.autoevolution.com/news/first-look-at-jeff-bezos-new-toy-record-breaking-oceanco-sailing-yacht-y721-launched-172333.html) Bezos’ acquisition of MGM, Whole Foods, and The Washington Post, shows the need for the mega-billionaire class-along with Elon Musk and Jeff Zuckerberg-have to be taxed at the appropriate rate. Elon Musk has been particularly vehement about his class being taxed, (https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-democrats-billionaires-tax-arguments-tesla-stock-net-worth-2021-10) proclaiming on Twitter, "Eventually, they run out of other people's money and then they come for you." All of the plutocrats in history try to make the lower classes identify with them, like they have the same thing in common; whereas the in reality, all of the tax cuts from Reagan to today have benefited billionaires and corporations, with no benefit to workers or consumers. Fortunately, workers are flexing their power; the pandemic has shown the importance of “essential workers,” works who had to work throughout the COVID crisis-store works, medical professionals, sanitation workers, etc. Another set of essential workers are the bus, trolley, and subway workers of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA), who were prepared to go on strike on November 1, but they, through their union, Transport Workers Union Local 234 (TWU) settled it just before deadline. (https://www.inquirer.com/transportation/septa-strike-update-2021-contract-agreement-20211029.html?utm_source=browser_notification&utm_campaign=browser_notification&utm_medium=notification&utm_content=No-strike-SEPTA-and-its-largest-union-reach-a-contract-agreement-) The strike by the Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union (https://bctgm.org/) is continuing its strike against Kellogg, the cereal and food company. The issues for the workers have been of moving production to Mexico (leaving the workers stranded without a job), the taking away of health-care and retirement benefits, cost-of-living wage increases, holiday and vacation pay, and that the union label be on each box of Kellogg’s products. There are picket lines around all Kellogg facilities, including in Lancaster, PA; I hope soon to be able to get there, and celebrate the workers’ victory. The strike of John Deere by the United Auto Workers (https://uaw.org/) goes on. With the skilled assembly-line workers out on strike, the Deere company has resorted to bringing in scabs-in this care, salaried office workers for the company. This has resulted in accidents by the salary workers and orders from the company not to talk about what goes on in the plant. (https://theintercept.com/2021/10/26/john-deere-strike-accident/) I’m currently reading Philip Foner’s History of The Labor Movement In The United States. It’s a great history of the terrible conditions that working people endured as the nation developed into the capitalist powerhouse it is now: poor or no housing, meager pay a family couldn’t live on, dangerous working conditions for long hours; and any attempt to organize workers to resist this, so workers could live and work as full human beings, were put down by all the ruling corporate elite had at its disposal-courts, legislatures, company goons, police, sheriff’s deputies, militia, the regular army, the era’s news media, vigilantes (composed of some of the most respectable men in the community), and the clergy. But in the face of all that, workers persisted in their organizing, so that they can be the basis of the American middle class-which has been eroded for the past four decades by tax breaks for billion-dollar corporations, the transfer of manufacturing overseas (leaving American workers jobless), the weakening of unions and protections for workers, and the weakening of laws controlling the amount of money donated to political campaigns (I’m thinking now the Citizens United case). We have a history of Labor organizing and struggle in this country. Our ancestors fought and died so that workers live a decent life. We must NOT disappoint them, and allow the corporate elite to take away our rights. We must support our fellow workers, at John Deere, Kellogg, Nabisco, Frito-Lay, IATSE, and in our own shops and neighborhoods as they fight our fight, and fight alongside of them. The ballot is the mightiest weapon in the freedom-fighting arsenal, and on November 2, I want you all to use it, for your friends, your coworkers, your families, and your neighbors. Stay safe, stay strong, and Stay together! America will be free! Bye!

The Mason Moment, October 24, 2021

I speak about the ongoing Labor unrest in the country, the need to protect small businesses like bookstores, Trump's social media scam, and celebrating PhillyCAM.

The Mason Moment Oct. 18, 2021

I speak about the raving anti-vax, anti-mask maniacs in school board meetings, and the big money behind them.

The Mason Moment, October 14, 2021

I speak about the wave of Labor activism going on in the country, AT&T paying for OANN, and the need to vaccinate and vote.

The Mason Moment, October 4, 2021

I speak about the Pandora Papers, and of the "moderate Democrats" hampering the passage of meaningful legislation.

The Mason Missile, September 28, 2021

Greetings, Americans! After 39 years of work, my novel, Soldier Of The Cross, is completed. It’s available now on Amazon.com (https://www.amazon.com/Soldier-Cross-John-Oliver-Mason/dp/0578988402/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=soldier+of+the+cross+john+oliver+mason+fiction&qid=1632259383&rnid=2941120011&s=books&sr=1-1). I will place it on other platforms as I go along. I thank everybody for their support. I urge people to first try to attain a copy of the novel through their favorite independent local bookstores, they being close to the community and locations for poetry readings, writing classes, and other grassroots literary events. In Philadelphia, one of my favorites is A Novel Idea On Passyunk, on East Passyunk Avenue. (https://anovelideaphilly.com/) Please look them up, or any other independent bookstore in your locality. Being published on Amazon obligates me to support organizing efforts of Amazon employees, with reference to the organizing drive at the Amazon facility in Bessemer, Alabama. (https://www.cityandstateny.com/politics/2021/09/what-will-it-take-amazon-workers-unionize/185163/) It’s the old story: the company distributes memos and phone messages to employees, telling them what evil the union is, and forcing them to attend anti-union lectures and watch anti-union films. (https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights/latest-news-headlines/amazon-employee-testifies-about-grueling-working-conditions-amid-union-battle-63210649) Employees have complained about speedups among the line, dangerous safety conditions, constantly being monitored by supervisors (including about restroom breaks), and poor medical care for workers. (https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/feb/05/amazon-workers-protest-unsafe-grueling-conditions-warehouse) THIS is how Jeff Bezos became the world’s richest human being, worth $211 BILLION dollars, (https://time.com/6078311/jeff-bezos-net-worth-record/#:~:text=The%20world's%20richest%20man%20reached,to%20the%20Bloomberg%20Billionaires%20Index.) wealthy enough to have his own space program as a vanity project. The organizing of Amazon workers, and of workers in all other industries, is a serious and worthy fight; without the workers working, Bezos, Elon Musk, and all the cyber-robber-barons of the 21st Century—compatible to Rockefeller, Carnegie, Vanderbilt, and JP Morgan in the 19th Century—would be just talking to themselves, and be totally helpless. The nonsense around the 2020 election, with republicans, trying to appease the insatiable trump base, continues. The firm Cyber Ninjas, hired by the republicans in the state legislature to “audit” the ally of votes, has concluded that Joseph Robinette Biden is definitely the winner of the presidential election in Arizona, with more votes than were originally recorded. (https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/elections/2021/09/23/arizona-audit-draft-report-confirms-biden-beat-trump-2020/5835521001/) But alas, republicans in the Pennsylvania legislature, who observed the Arizona recount, plan to perform their own “audit” of the votes in Pennsylvania. (https://www.inquirer.com/news/arizona-audit-report-pennsylvania-republicans-20210924.html) When, Lord, will this stupidity ever end? By going through this bullshit of trying to undo a properly conducted election, in vain hopes of trying to reverse the results, for the benefit of a small minority of racists, medical quacks, and religious charlatans, the republican party—it’s no longer worthy of the respect of capital letters—has proven itself unfit to govern this country. The very fact that trump was nominated in 2016 over more experienced politicians must say something about the state of the party. But the republican party was headed this way for a long time, starting with the Barry Goldwater campaign in 1964, when white supremacists pinned their homes on him after he came out against Civil Rights legislation; when Richard Nixon latched on to “law and order” as a cover for repressing the African-America community’s Civil rights drive and anti-Viet Nam-war activists; when Ronald Reagan, notorious for his “welfare queen” speeches and beginning his 1980 campaign in the area of Mississippi when three Civil Rights activists were murdered, and where he proclaimed, “I believe is States’ Rights” (the south’s slogan before the Civil War); and when George HW Bush, that scion of American gentry, ran in 1998 with the “Willie Horton” ads with the theme of “the big scary Black Man is going to rape you!”—the other candidates weren’t so clean either. Racism, whether the subtle kind of Lee Atwater or the blatant ranting of trump and his crew, has long been their favorite propaganda tool. Let us all do our parts in resisting the neo-fascist thugs and bullies. I used the word “fascist” deliberately, there’s no other term suitable for trump and the republican party as it stands—physical force against political opponents and suppressing opposition activities. I’ll do my part; I have just had a class in Philadelphia as a member of my division’s election board, and I urge all of you to get out and vote, whether the contest is for President or township supervisor. All offices are important. Stay safe, stay strong, and stay together! America will be free! Bye!

The Mason Moment, September 19, 2021 (Sequence 1)

I speak about the need to stand up to anti-vaccine-anti-mask bullies who prevent the rest of us from resisting COVID.