I honor the memory of my friend and union sister, Barbara Rahke (OBM), and I offer a commentary about the State Of The Union address.

http://johnomason.com

My Novel, “Soldier Of The Cross.”

Hemperiffic LLC
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I speak today about the corruption of the Supreme Court, Mitch McConnell’s legacy, and trump’s judicial problems.

http://johnomason.com

My Novel, “Soldier Of The Cross.”

Hemperiffic LLC
hemperifficllc.com

Last week’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), held in National harbor, Maryland, had in attendance several neo-Nazis. In earlier CPACs, blatant neo-Nazis, like Richard Spencer and Nick Fuentes, were ejected; in last week’s conference, neo-Nazis were seen chatting with “mainstream” conservatives, spreading racist and anti-Semitic ideas, and giving the Nazi salute. And, of course, CPAC organizers, such as its head, Matt Schlapp, are in denial of it. (https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/nazis-mingle-openly-cpac-spreading-antisemitic-conspiracy-theories-fin-rcna140335) 

Fascist and authoritarian ideas, including White Christian Nationalism, here on tap at the recent CPAC; in a speech, conspiracy-theorist Jack Posobiec proclaimed, “Welcome to the end of democracy. we’re here to overthrow it completely. We didn’t get all the way there on January 6, but we will endeavor to get rid of it,” as he held up a cross and called for a more theocratic, Christian-chauvinist regime for America. (https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/jack-posobiec-jan-6-2024-cpac-rcna1402250)

(https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2024/02/23/jack-posobiec-cpac-remarks-democracy-cnc-vpx.cnn) 

This is what we’re up against, Americans. This is no kid stuff, no parlor game. They’re serious about destroying our democracy, so let’s get serious about preserving it, and we can do it getting out there and voting.

http://johnomason.com

My Novel, “Soldier Of The Cross.”

Hemperiffic LLC
hemperifficllc.com

I speak on social and political issues, calling them as I see them. I speak today about the decision by the Alabama Supreme Court on frozen embryos, and the movement towards theocracy in this country.

http://johnomason.com

My Novel, “Soldier Of The Cross.”

Hemperiffic LLC
hemperifficllc.com

Greetings, Americans!

We have reached the end of African-American History Month, set aside to honor the history of African-descended people in our country-a history that has long been slandered and distorted, for the basest political purposes. Ever since the end of the Civil War, and the giving-up on Reconstruction in the former Confederacy (which led, albeit briefly, to the empowerment, economically and politically, of the former slaves), historians, learned men in some of the most respected universities, helped to propagate the myth of the “Lost Cause—” that the Confederacy was at war to defend their “states’ rights” (for what?) and that such Confederate military commanders as Lee, Jackson, and Jefferson Davis were valiant warrior chiefs, and that the slaves were perfectly happy in their slavery and loved ole massah, and that Reconstruction was a monument of corruption and rule by bestial, ignorant ex-slaves. Historians, and many other influencers of the post-Civil war era—a period of “free-market” capitalism at its worst, with politicians on company payrolls, wealth flouted in the people’s faces, and grinding poverty—went along with the “lost cause” idea, calling it “binding the nation’s wounds,” but the attitude was more like “we don’t want to deal with it anymore;” and the federal troops, once utilized to police the post-war South, were sent to fire upon workers striking against their terrible pay and working conditions. A great source for reading on Reconstruction is Eric Foner’s Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution; I highly recommend it. (https://www.harpercollins.com/products/reconstruction-updated-edition-eric-foner?variant=32116709523490)

There have been in our history efforts to control how such events as the Civil War and Reconstruction are taught and presented to school kids. The United Daughters of the Confederacy, founded in 1894, led the way in altering the memory of that era, as memories were fading. They called for the construction of monuments in honor of Confederate leaders, and they demanded local school boards not purchase history books that were “unjust” to the South. (https://www.vox.com/videos/2017/10/25/16545362/southern-socialites-civil-war-history)  Monuments, statues, and school textbooks are prime propaganda tools; they tell the kids, the future leaders, who their heroes were, what to believe was just, and whom to emulate. the classroom is just one more medium of acceptable propaganda.

The film The Birth Of A Nation (1915), considered at one level to be a cinematic masterpiece, was also part of the “lost cause” movement, portraying Klansmen as valiant defenders of white women, protecting them from bestial freedmen; this film was one of the prime motivators of the founding of the 20^th century Ku Klux Klan. (https://www.atlantahistorycenter.com/blog/the-connection-between-the-united-daughters-of-the-confederacy-and-the-kkk/)

This idea was helped along with the help of academia at the time; in the late-19^th-early-20^th centuries, two “scholars” based in Columbia University—William A Dunning and John W. Burgess—developed what became known as the Dunning-Burgess school of the history of Reconstruction, which stated that the South under Black governance was a disaster to the South (the WHITE South), and that the former slaves were to childlike and emotional to govern, and the end of reconstruction was to them a blessing, the passing of a “disastrous” era. (https://slaveryexhibits.ctl.columbia.edu/exhibits/show/williamdunning/columbia-and-johnburgess) This shows that popular beliefs and prejudices could influence scholarship, and “learned” professors could be influenced by racism.

Slowly but surely, the Dunning-Burgess theory has been challenged, and leading this challenge was the scholar WEB Du Bois, with his history Black Reconstruction (http://www.webdubois.org/wdb-BlackReconst.html) (https://libcom.org/article/black-reconstruction-america-web-du-bois) ; Du Bois contends that rather than being a total disaster, reconstruction was a positive movement for the freedmen AND poor whites; who if combined would be able to challenge the dominant economic powers of that era—southern planters and northern capitalists. In short, race did NOT have to be the great dividing line in this country; white and black workers and low-income people COULD unite to defend against the financial powers that still seek to pit us against each other, so they can remain in power; I still hold out hope that such unity is attainable.

Now, for example in Florida, the teaching of African-American History is a political battleground, with their genius governor declaring “war on woke” and policing the teaching of Black History, and resisting the horrible, terrible, very bad, no-good thing that is (gasp!) CRITICAL RACE THEORY! (https://www.reuters.com/world/us/florida-proudly-teaches-african-american-history-official-says-he-defends-2023-01-21/) Governor Deshithead also has the audacity to declare that slaves, during their enslavement, acquired skills that they could utilize for their benefit. This movement by the state, under the so-called “Stop WOKE S Act,” bill also tries to deemphasize white privilege, and tries to prevent white people, particularly school kids, from “guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress” over what their ancestors did. Remember, these are the same damn people who have no trouble terrorizing transgender or gay kids, or allowing racism to run amuck in this country, and who mock concerned people as “snowflakes,” and NOW they don’t want to hurt white people’s feelings. (https://www.politico.com/news/2023/07/20/florida-black-history-teaching-standards-00107067)

(Do I HAVE to mention it again? Critical Race Theory is really—pay attention now—the theory of how racism has permeated every aspect of American life, like the judiciary, the financial-corporate sector, government, law enforcement, AND education and academia. I’ll keep repeating this for as long as I have to.)

(As for “woke,’ it has a long tradition in African-American culture; “woke” meant to pay attention to what’s going on around you, especially dealing with white authority figures; then it moved on to mean having consciousness about social and economic issues. Marcus Garvey, founders of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), once proclaimed, “Wake up, Ethiopia! Wake up, Africa!” Later, during the case of the Scottsboro Boys, Huddie “Leadbelly” Ledbetter , wrote a protest song on the case, which was of nine young Black men accused of raping two white women in 1931. Ledbetter, at the end of the song, warned, “So I advise everybody, be a little careful when they go along through there (Alabama)—best  stay woke, keep your eyes open.” (https://www.vox.com/culture/21437879/stay-woke-wokeness-history-origin-evolution-controversy)

THESE are the gatekeepers of our education—racial and religious haters who refuse to accept people not like them as full-fledged citizens and human beings. But it’s not at all hopeless; the Republicans, being infested with the trump-MAGA virus, and home for the haters, have been soundly defeated in last year’s elections, particularly in school boards, which were formerly dominated by anti-Black, anti-LGBTQ+ haters. So let’s go to the polls, whenever and wherever they take place, and do some serious voting—and yes stay WOKE! For my part, I’ll be as woke as a cup of coffee with an espresso shot.

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

http://johnomason.com

My Novel, “Soldier Of The Cross.”

Hemperiffic LLC
hemperifficllc.com

https://thejohnmasontalkwalk.buzzsprout.com/1937652/14563249

I speak about CPAC and the blatant effort to destroy our democracy.

My Novel, “Soldier Of The Cross.”

Hemperiffic LLC
hemperifficllc.com

It’s happened! The Alabama Supreme Court has decided that frozen human embryos, used for in-vitro-fertilization, count as children, according to a law from 1872 and the Alabama state constitution, which prohibits abortions. (https://www.npr.org/2024/02/20/1232815486/alabama-supreme-court-frozen-embryos) (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/2/21/2224769/-The-Alabama-Supreme-Court-just-provided-a-blueprint-to-establish-a-theocracy?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=top_news_slot_6&pm_medium=web) 

Several conservative Republicans, like Ann Coulter, realize this ruling would lead the party to disaster in the elections; but Nikki Haley, the purported “moderate” in the primary as opposed to trump, stated that yes, an embryo is definitely a baby, and then she had to backtrack that statement. (https://www.alternet.org/nikki-haley-frozen-embryos-babies/) (https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/haley-clarifies-statement-about-alabama-supreme-court-ruling-on-ivf/vi-BB1iICqs#details) (https://www.alternet.org/gop-strategist-alabama/)

The republicans deserve to have their asses handed to them this November. They thought by cultivating religious extremists and theocrats,  and passing laws to suit their prejudices, they could stay in power forever. Now, they see that we who respect’s women’s right to control her reproductive system, and who support our LGBTQ+ fellow-citizens, are also organized and we damn sure DO vote. So, Americans, we have some serious voting to do, in our primaries and definitely November 5.

http://johnomason.com

My Novel, “Soldier Of The Cross.”

Hemperiffic LLC
hemperifficllc.com