The Mason Moment, June 25, 2024

 

I speak about the Torah portion Shelah-Lecha, and of the need to control our minds for the upcoming election.

Voting Womens Rights GIF by INTO ACTION

My Novel, “Soldier Of The Cross.”

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The Mason Missile, June 24, 2024

Greetings, Americans!

It has happened: Donald t—p, the twice-impeached, raping, cheating, stealing, ignorant, self-centered sick bastard who lurked around the white House, has been formally indicted for falsifying business records to hide the hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels, to keep their affair quiet during the 2016 presidential election. (https://manhattanda.org/d-a-bragg-announces-34-count-felony-trial-conviction-of-donald-j-trump/) (https://apnews.com/article/trump-trial-deliberations-jury-testimony-verdict-85558c6d08efb434d05b694364470aa0)

We are at the end of LGBTQ+ Pride Month, when Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning (as in young kids, growing up, ask themselves, “Am I gay?”) show their pride and self-acceptance of who they are and what their sexuality is, and knowing there are others just like them. It’s also a time to fight against those who, “for the noblest of reasons, like religious liberty,” seek to find any excuse to pare down, slice by slice, any or all of the advancements they have made in civil and human rights, and acceptance as citizens. Such attempts include, but not limited to, laws dictating which gender bathroom trans kids go to in school, complaints about libraries hosting drag queen story times, school libraries having LGBTQ+ themed books on the shelves (that show gay kids that there are, and have been in history, others like them)—the list goes on.

Because of these dangerous crusades, gay kids will get the idea that there’s something wrong with being gay—and that THEY THEMSELVES are wrong and evil for being gay. These same crusaders against LGBTQ+-ness, as part of the evangelical rightist movement, have attached themselves politically to the twice-impeached, thrice-married, tax-cheating, wife-cheating, business-cheating, golf-cheating, nation-cheating, rapist and indicted criminal as their presidential candidate.

The interesting thing is, so many of these evangelical campaigners have been found out to be sexually off base themselves. Case in point: Robert Morris, senior pastor of Gateway church, a Texas megachurch, and a “spiritual advisor” for trump, has been found to have had “inappropriate sexual behavior with a young lady” who was TWEVE YEARS OLD at the time. (https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-adviser-pastor-robert-morris-confesses-sexual-behavior-rcna157474) The list goes on. The evangelical political movement has shown its corruption by having such a corrupt person as their standard-bearer.

If you want to what a second trump regime (God forbid!) looks like, read about the document popularly called “Project 2025,” put out by the Heritage Foundation, a so-called “think-tank” designed to dress up the most reactionary ideas in the best academic finery. This has been called the “bible” of another trump administration, whose main author is Russel Vought, who was trump’s Director of the Office of Management and Budget. (https://www.thenation.com/article/society/russell-vought-center-renewing-america-christian-nationalism/)

Vought, after leaving the government (thank God!), assembled the Center for Renewing America, another position-paper factory, and their documents have gone on about returning America to be “one Nation Under God,” and whining about schools grooming children by drag shows and “wokeness.” Project 2025 has a strong dose of Christian Nationalism to it.

These are some more of the thoughts this think-tank has been thinking:

Concentrate all power upon a unitary executive; this follows the Unitary Executive Theory, which states that the Congress cannot control or limit the President’s power over the executive branch. It was an idea common in the George W. Bush administration, that the President has the absolute authority to locate military forces upon his orders, and arrest and detain persons. It was advanced by John Woo, an attorney in the Office of Legal Counsel in the Bush II administration, during the “War On Terror.” (https://www.acslaw.org/expertforum/exploring-the-limits-of-presidential-power/);

Eliminate the Departments of Justice, of Education, of Commerce, and of Homeland Security, and the FBI (which used to be conservatives’ favorite bureaucracy, along with the military), eliminate cabinet secretaries and replace career civil servants with trump loyalists and flunkies (https://www.alternet.org/authoritarianism-project-2025-trump/);

Eliminate protections against discrimination based on race, gender, sexual orientation, and gender identity;

Direct the military to perform domestic law enforcement functions, thereby declaring war on its own fellow-citizens; arrest and deport immigrants; and implement capital punishment with swift “finality.” (https://www.phillytrib.com/commentary/the-death-of-america-as-we-know-it/article_388920c1-1442-54ba-865c-d9b8923f06c8.html)

Also in Project 2025 is the idea of restoring the military draft, so that young men and women would be compelled to serve under a commander-in-chief who regards them as “Suckers” and “Losers,” and would not hesitate to use them as cannon fodder for some egocentric war, so he could make himself look like a REAL man; and there would be no anti-war movement to stop it. (https://cardinalpine.com/2024/06/17/trump-mandatory-military-service/)

It’s a common political fantasy on the right: look for a “strong man” dictator who would destroy the unclean, non-conforming, and dissenting elements of our society, and not let a silly little thing like Civil and Human Rights, or democracy, get in his way. the evangelical right has, as I have stated, been corrupted by its proximity to power, from the Reagan administration through trump. Its whole agenda anymore is to bash LGBTQ+ people: bash Jews, Muslims and other religious minorities; and ignore discrimination of people based on race and class.

BUT—all is not lost. The presidential election coming up on November 5 will give us the opportunity to end this scheme of dictatorship, by us going out IN DROVES to the ballot box. But concern yourself with the polls; one thing I can’t stand is when the news media acts like trump will win, even before we’ve voted, so why bother to vote?  DO go out and vote, and we will thwart trump and his nightmare of dictatorship. We’ve GOT this!

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

My Novel, “Soldier Of The Cross.”

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The John Mason Talk-Walk, June 22, 2024

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1937652/15294064

I speak about my work in PHILAPOSH and the nessesity of occupational health and safety.

http://johnomson.com

My Novel, “Soldier Of The Cross.”

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hemperifficllc.com

Save UArts!

Earlier in June, the University of the Arts, located at Broad and Pine streets in Philadelphia, abruptly announced that it would close, with no prior warning, no time for students to move to another arts school or for employees, including faculty and staff, to find employment elsewhere. That I find grossly unfair to stuents and employees of UArts-they invested soo much time studying their arts, and working for the University to take care of themselves and their families, to allow this to happen to them.

There remains SOME hope-Temple University has been in negotiations with UArts’ administration to for a merger into the Temple system; let’s hope this pans out-anything to save arts education in Philadelphia, and in the nation.

Drop Out Art Student GIF by INTO ACTION

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The Mason Moment, June 17, 2024

I speak about trump’s address to corporate CEO’s, and of corporate corruption.

 

Bye Bye Boss GIF by FTX_Official

My Novel, “Soldier Of The Cross.”

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Keeping on!

Last weekend I took part briefly in the Northeast regional Conference of the A. Philip Randolph Institute (https://www.apri.org/), the organization of African-American trade unionists-I happen to be recording Secretary of the Philadelphia chapter. I met once again Norman Hill President emeritus of APRI, and for sale were copies of his memoir with his wife and comrade Velma, Climbing The Rough Side Of The Mountain (2023; New York, Regalo Press). I had my copy ready for Norman to sign-Velma, for helth resons could not arrive-and he placed his autograph on the copy, with the words, “Keep on.”

Any worthy struggle and movement for freedom-Labor, African-American civil rights, LGBTQ+ rights, feminism, what have you-has been in history a long, hard fight, going on for generations, one generation of activists picking up the banner from the next one, each generation learning from each other, the youngsters learing from the elders and vice-versa. Norman and Velma Hill have been in the fight for Labor and Civil Rights for decades,  learning from and associating with such titans as A. Philip Randolph, Bayard Rustin, and Martin Luther King Jr. I pray to God I’ve learned some things from those that came before me, and have shown me the way to serve the Cause, so I can passit on to the young’ins who will come after me.

Digital art gif. Blue words in different sizes and fonts emphatically spell out, "A man who stands for nothing will fall for anything - Malcom X," all against a mottled black and blue background

Hemperiffic LLC
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thegtsf.org

My Novel, “Soldier Of The Cross.”

 

The John Mason Talk-Walk, June 14, 2024

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1937652/15250935

I speak about republican bootlicking for trump, and the need to engage in the political process.

http://johnomson.com

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thegtsf.org

 

Describe one of your favorite moments.

In May 2018 I received my Master’s degree from University of Massachusetts Amherst. We assembled in a gymnasium, and I called friends about the event. We lined up to get on the stage, and they handed us the diplomas, and it was on a huge TV screen. That was a glorious moment for me.