The Mason Missile, February 26, 20223

Greetings, Americans!

The primary elections are coming up, and I’m again urging everyone to get out and vote. Before voting, please listen to the candidates and ask them questions, since they’ll perform works in government that would affect how we live, now and for years to come. They must not be disconnected to the people.

I watched parts of President Joe Biden’s State Of The Union address, and also watched the luminaries of the Republican Party, such as Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, make damn fools of themselves; MTG particularly acted up, yelling at Biden, when he bought up the long-term Republican goal of eliminating Social Security and Medicare. (Just so you know, I’m on both of those programs, as are millions of Americans who would face financial disaster without them.) Also, Greene, along with calling Biden “liar” and howling like she was in a poorly-run strip club, wore a fur-trimmed coat inside the chamber. (That’s all she has to offer the public; hysterics, lies, conspiracy theories, and grand-mal tantrums to get the media looking at her, rather than working on the needs of the American people—to such a low has the Republican Party sunk to.)

Another freaky thing Taylor-Greene did was screaming “Liar” when Biden accused “some” republicans of wanting to end, for all time, Social Security and Medicare. (https://www.mediamatters.org/social-security/mainstream-medias-extensive-reporting-gops-efforts-cut-social-security-and-medicare). (Full disclosure, I’m on both programs, and they have been a big help to me and millions of other Americans.) The Republicans in Congress have threatened to not allow the raising of the debt ceiling unless Social Security and Medicare were damaged in some way, either by raising the eligibility age or attaining less in payments. They say they want to “sunset” the programs, and to vote on them as “discretionary” spending; their long-term goal has been, since the New Deal, to eliminate them altogether.

Republican Senator Mike Lee of Utah let the cat out of the bag when a video resurfaced of him telling a group, “It would be my objective to phase out Social Security, to pull it up by the roots, and get rid of it,” adding that, “Medicare and Medicaid are the same sort and need to be pulled up.” Here is the video: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8UxMnrk8qI) https://www.mediamatters.org/social-security/mainstream-medias-extensive-reporting-gops-efforts-cut-social-security-and-medicare) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iJKpSUpltE) Of course, the republicans are insulted that they’ve been called out on this, “How DARE you accuse us of destroying Social Security and Medicare?” But the evidence is there.  Another Republican Senator, Risk Allen of Georgia, said, “People come up to me, and they actually want to work longer,” which is why he calls for raising the retirement age to 70 years; Ted Cruz of Texas (when he’s not in Cancun) compared Social Security to a “Ponzi scheme.”  (https://www.alternet.org/proof-republicans-social-security-medicare/) So here are the receipts on the Republican War on Social Security and Medicare.

Social Security and Medicare, however, enjoy overwhelming support from Americans—so why are the MAGAists and other rightists still hell-bent to destroy them? It can only be ideological fanaticism. The Republican MAGAs and their rightist cousins have lived in a doctrinal bubble, assuming without any evidence that the American people are behind them. But so far they’ve given up on that assurance, as shown by the gerrymandering of legislative district to give them an advantage in elections, and the restricting of people’s ability to vote, particularly people of color, through repressive laws and police force. And they distract us with “culture war” (oh, how I hate that phrase!) nonsense like their scare about drag-queens and intelligent discussions about race, gender, gender identity, and sexual preference.

Let’s not fall for that crap. The real issue isn’t big-government-small-government—it’s about who the government works for—ALL the people, or an uber-wealthy oligarchic class? Please keep this in mind as we study the issues, and organize for the benefit of our communities.

Stay safe, stay strong, and stay together! Slava Ukraini! America will be free! Bye!

My Novel, “Soldier Of The Cross.”

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The John Mason Talk-Walk, February 24, 2023

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1937652/12322123

I speak about the call among racists and neo-Nazis for a “National Day of Hate,” and about the mainstreaming of racism and anti-Semitism in this country.

My Novel, “Soldier Of The Cross.”

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The Mason Moment, February 20, 2023

https://www.youtube.com/live/tcv43OqCU7I?feature=share

I speak about Jewish views on reproductive rights and the need to defend them.

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My Novel, “Soldier Of The Cross.”

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The John Mason Talk-Walk, February 17, 2023

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1937652/12274442

I speak about the need to involve oneself in the electoral process, and of the rail derailment and environmental danger in Ohio.

My Novel, “Soldier Of The Cross.”

 

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What I’ve Been Reading, February 15, 2023

I finished reading (for now) David McCullough’s biography of John Adams, the second President and one of the drivers in the movement towards this country’s independence. (2001; New York, Simon & Schuster) McCullough writes about how Adams worked tirelessly towards America’s independence, advocating for Jefferson’s Declaration in the Continental Congress; nominating George Washington as Commander-In-Chief of the Continental Army; and his vast and sometimes dangerous diplomatic missions to plead the nation’s case in the courts of Great Britain, France, and the Netherlands, and to attain loans to sustain the war effort. It also deals with Adams’ relationship with his wife Abigail and their children; how Adams interacted with some of the “Founding Fathers” of the Revolution, with each of them having his own agenda and idea about the future of the new nation, particularly his troubles with Alexander Hamilton and his friendship with Thomas Jefferson.

The book also covers his time as the second President, dealing with the “Quasi-War” with France, his ordering for an army, under Washington’s command, to deal with any land invasion, and his beginning the development of the Navy; his signing of the Alien and Sedition Acts, which endangered the liberties of the new nation based on liberty; and his difficulties with his cabinet, which was more loyal to Hamilton than to Adams.

Also—Time On Two Crosses: The Collected Writings of Bayard Rustin, edited by Devon W. Carbado and Donald Weise (2003; San Francisco, Cleis Press). These are a collection of writings from one of the greatest strategists of the Civil Rights Movement, who unfortunately had to keep his gayness hidden during a homophobic era. Rustin writes about his nonviolent protests—in the tradition of Gandhi—such as his refusal to enter the military draft during the Second World War; interracial rides on interstate buses during 1947, with the Fellowship of Reconciliation, to test the effect on interstate buses of a US Supreme Court decision prohibiting racial segregation, which led to his doing twenty-two days in a North Carolina chain gang; his work alongside of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1956 against segregation in the public transit system; and the need for coalition of white and Black workers, to challenge the inequities in the social-political order, and not be satisfied with superficial concessions just to quiet things down. (Social change movements follow their course, having with their own energy, which liberals try to control but can’t, and must not try.)

Also—Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877, by Eric Foner (1988; New York, Harper Perennial). Challenging the long-held dominance of the Dunning-Burgess ideas about post-civil-war reconstruction, Foner writes about how the former slaves, far from being helpless pawns of northern “carpetbaggers” and southern “scalawags,” played active and positive roles in becoming full citizens in the regions they were  enslaved in, working for and demanding such basic things as education, suffrage, and respect as human beings, running for county offices, state legislatures, and Congress to advance their cause. Foner also deals with how the same Republican Party the freedmen allied with betrayed them at the start of the post-war Gilded Age, when corporations that prospered flourished, wealth and poverty went to extremes, class conflict was becoming more real, and workers organized for their rights; and so the federal troops who enforced Reconstruction and protected the former slaves from their former masters and the Klan were withdrawn from the South to deal with any potential workers uprising, therefore leaving the freedmen at the mercy of white-controlled state governments oppressing them in a different way.

Know America’s history, so we don’t have to repeat the mistakes and crimes of the past.

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The Mason Moment, February, 13, 2023

https://www.youtube.com/live/bOUz_t9lVKQ?feature=share

I speak about the rash of censorship in school curriculums and libraries, and of the need to study US History.

My Novel, “Soldier Of The Cross.”

Hemperiffic LLC
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The Mason Moment, February 6, 2023

https://www.youtube.com/live/puQFbL7OMyE?feature=share

I speak about the Republican hypocrisy around the Chinese spy balloon, the decline into racism of the Republican Party, and the work of Bayard Rustin.

My Novel, “Soldier Of The Cross.”

Hemperiffic LLC
hemperifficllc.com