https://www.buzzsprout.com/1937652/12466389
I speak about current banking disasters, the welfare state for the wealthy, right-wing fondness for authoritarians, the right-wing attack on learning about racial and LGBTQ issues, and recent Labor activities at Temple, Penn Medicine, and Rutgers.
My Novel, “Soldier Of The Cross.”
Hemperiffic LLC
hemperifficllc.com
https://thejohnmasontalkwalk.buzzsprout.com/1937652/10927299-the-john-mason-talk-walk-july-8-2022
I speak about the need for genuine gun control and the need to organize and vote to prevent a fascist regime.
Hemperiffic LLC
hemperifficllc.com
Greetings!
I have celebrated my 60th birthday on August 1st, and I know my best days are ahead of me. I thank everybody for joining me on my life journey.
Charlottesville, Virginia, is, like the rest of the country, a flashpoint for the racial problems and hostilities plaguing our nation; one hundred and fifty years or so after the Civil war, fifty to sixty years after the start of the contemporary Civil rights movement, race is still the great dividing line of the nation. (Class is also a real issue, even though we still don’t talk about it.)
A gathering of neo-fascist groups, called “Unite The Right,” took place in Charlottesville, around the statue of Robert E. Lee, the great Confederate general-he was indeed a great military strategist, as well as the focus of great sentimental historical revision. The neo-fascists marched through Charlottesville, which is from what I hear a lovely university town-the headquarters of the University of Virginia- carrying tiki torches (like Klansmen have done) chanting “Jews will not replace us!” and “Blood and soil!” like straight out of the Third Reich. Counter-demonstrators challenged them; there was violence, with the deaths of Heather Heyer, a fine progressive activist, and two Virginia State troopers whose helicopter crashed as the monitored the march-Lieutenant H. Jay Cullen and Trooper-Pilot Berke M. M. Bates; may their memory be a blessing.
The immediate cause for the march was to resist the taking down of various statues of Confederate “heroes,” such as Lee, Jefferson Davis, and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. These statues were a form of propaganda, “art” used for a political purpose; they were set up during the time, after the Civil War, when the “Jim Crow” segregation laws were being enacted, and again during the rise of the Civil Rights movement. It was to remind African-Americans so was still in charge.
The rewriting of the Civil War’s history was also part of the propaganda; the war, historically proven to be based on the determination of the seceding states to maintain their slave systems, was now seen as merely a clash of differing ideas about what America was to be like, etc.
The Robert E. Lee myth, that of the kindly Christian gentleman-warrior, who sought to reconcile the nation after the war, was part of this. As a recent article in The Atlantic shows ( https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/06/the-myth-of-the-kindly-general-lee/529038/) , Lee indeed oppose slavery, but only because it was bad for white people; He once wrote, “I think it however a greater evil to the white man than to the black race, & while my feelings are strongly enlisted in behalf of the latter, my sympathies are more strong for the former. The blacks are immeasurably better off here than in Africa, morally, socially, and physically. The painful discipline they are undergoing, is necessary for their instruction as a race, & I hope will prepare & lead them to better things. How long their subjugation may be necessary is known & ordered by a wise Merciful Providence. Their emancipation will sooner result from the mild &melting influence of Christianity, than the storms & tempests of fiery Controversy.”
How did our Commander in Chief handle this situation? First he said there was violence “on many sides,” then his staff urged him to make a real condemnation against racism and bigotry, then he went back to talking about the good people on the white nationalist side. He is either to gutless to stand up to his base (many of the racist marchers in Charlottesville wore his “Make America Great Again” caps), or he is too ignorant of the reality of racism contaminating our nation’s psyche-OR, more than likely, he’s a stone-cold racist himself. His wealth and power don’t bring him and more knowledge or wisdom, even though we are taught to revere the wealthy as geniuses.
What are we to make of trump supporters, people who stick with him right or wrong, sink or swim? He is not a friend of working people, but you hear so much about how working-class white people love him, and who love his bad-ass talk about building the wall and being allowed to beat up dissidents, like he urged them to do in his rallies. Many trump lovers are our friends or relatives whom we love, and we certainly can’t cut them off-trump isn’t worth it.
“Populist” is a word bandied about in the news media, like a kind of shorthand, to describe low-income racist politics. The origins of the word “populist” come from the movement in the US, the Populist Party, which was an alliance of farmers who were oppressed by railroads charging too-high rates for shipping their produce, and banks charging too-high interest on their mortgages. It was a movement of low-income people against the corporations dominating the nation’s politics and government, and it allied with labor unions and the women’s suffrage movement. One of its greatest activists, Thomas Watson of Georgia, spoke of the need for Black and White farmers to unite against the common enemy, but Watson and other Populist Party leaders succumbed to the white supremacist idea, for getting who the real enemy was.
It’s a fight, but we’ve had our fights before-organizing workers for their benefit, women organizing for their right to vote at the minimum, people of color working to have their American dream, LGBT people fighting for their right to love-we have a tradition to fall back on, and we have living elders who can tell their stories and inspire the young ’ins, who will add their chapters to the history of the struggle.
What will I be doing in the fight? On Monday, September 4 I’ll march with other Labor activists in the 30th annual Tri-State Labor day Parade and Family Celebration, where we honor the working people of America-that is, US-our institution the labor unions, and the accomplishment we have made for our class and our nation. We are more than worthy of a party.
On Wednesday the 6th I’ll take part in a meeting of Philly for Change, a group which came out of the presidential campaign of Howard Dean in 2004. This group discusses campaigns around legislative district boundaries (and the problem of “gerrymandering”), environmental and gun laws, and LGBT rights, to name a few.
Bye!
On Sunday, August 13, I joined other community members at a rally at Julian Abele park, 22nd and Carpenter streets in South Philadelphia, to protest the violence, by racists and neo-fascists, in Charlottesville, Virginia. Here is the story: a “Unite The Right” rally took place in Charlottesville, around the statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, to resist the movement to remove statues of Confederate generals from public sight,. originally set up to glorify and sanitize the ‘Lost Cause” of the Confederacy, the regime which committed treason against the United States for the sole purpose of keeping one race of people in slavery, in a status resembling that of cattle.
The neo-fascists were ready for violence; that is part of fascism, the physical and legal beating down of opponents. They marched down the streets of Charlottesville chanting “Jews will not replace us,” and the old Nazi slogan “blood and soil.” They were accompanied by the rightist “militias,” guys who parade around in camo carrying assault rifles like they’re going to invade somewhere-another frightening phenomenon.
Like schoolyard bullies-such as the current inmate in the White House-they taunt their enemies, hoping the enemies attack them to they can beat them up. Photos of the marching neo-Nazis have gone all over the internet, and they have gotten in trouble with their families and employers; know their name, and spread their shame.
Yes, there was a fight, there was violence; how can you not react to when someone yells about wanting to kill you because of your race or religion? In the incident, one young woman, Heather Heyer, was killed when a car by one of the racists rammed into the protestors. Also, two Virginia State troopers, Lt. H. Jay Cullen and Trooper-Pilot Berke M.M. Bates, died as their helicopter crashed while they monitored the march. (May their memories be a blessing.)
And how did our Commander-in-Chief react? How did he heal thenation’s woulns? He got on TV and acted live all parties, ne-Nazis and protestors, wre equally responsible for violence. That was good news for the white nationalists-neo-Nazis, like David Duke and Richard Spencer, who felt confident that the President of the United States is on their side.
SHAME! There is NO moral equivalence between the racists and neo-fascists one the one hand, and the fine people protesting them and the hate and violence they stand for. The same capitalist class, such as the CEOs populating his manufacturing commissions, has abandoned him-remember, for all his populist talk, trump is one of them-has abandoned him. The military brass has repeated how their forces would never tolerate racism and bigotry in their ranks. The real opposition party in this country is an alert, aroused public, allied with a vigilant news media with backbone; THAT is how we’ll get rid of trump. And so what if Pence talks over after trump? We’ll study, protest repeat against Pence also.
The supporters of Donald Trump have indicated they would not graciously accept that they would lose the election; many have threatened violence and “civil war,” which I seriously doubt they are capable of. They would be, however, capable of localized acts of terror, like trying to destroy houses of worship or murder, on an individualistic basis rather than as part of a conspiracy. With the Internet, however, such terrorists could network ideas and information of events and tactics with each other.
And yes, I called them “terrorists;” self-proclaimed white “Christians” have been terrorists-look at the Klan and the medieval Crusades and the Inquisition.
Trump has been of no help; he had indicated that he may or may not make a concession speech or accept the outcome of the election WHEN he loses. His campaign has been one long trip of narcissism, barroom brags and threats passing as policy statements, assaults real and threatened upon his critics, and, worst of all, his welcoming into is coalition the most notorious racists and neo-fascists in the nation, bringing h=them back into the political mainstream, giving them a platform to spout from.
After the election, these are the elements who will scream that the election was stolen from them, and who threaten violence; this is the comeuppance of the Republican party, which has worked form before Obama was inaugurated to deny his legitimacy as President, who has fostered the “birthers” like Trump, who thought the “tea party” phenomenon would bring them back into power, but has instead turned on the party establishment. After the election, one fight ends, and another begins; let’s be ready.
The danger of Fascism in this country is REAL! IT’s the organized people againt organized money.
“Fascism is rising in America”: The Koch brothers and democracy’s dispiriting demise – Salon.com
via “Fascism is rising in America”: The Koch brothers and democracy’s dispiriting demise – Salon.com.
With the election of Obama as President, the cover has come off conservativism; for all its talk about “limited government” and “free market,” the true nature of conservativism is to restore and maintain power for the upper classes, repress those of the lower classes who would stand up to their “betters,” and find some dupes in the lower classes to do their enforcement for them.
In spite of conservative denials, fascism is conservativism on steriods, the most extreme movement to repress the masses and enforce “traditional values.”
The Conservative Mind – The Chronicle Review – The Chronicle of Higher Education
via The Conservative Mind – The Chronicle Review – The Chronicle of Higher Education.
In 2014 America Abandoned Its Constitution And Devolved Into a Fascist Theocracy
via In 2014 America Abandoned Its Constitution And Devolved Into a Fascist Theocracy.
The milities are not even discreate about trying to intimidate people from voting. How disgusting! And they think we’re just going to sit back and TAKE it. NEVER! People, BLED and DIED for the right of others to vote, and we WILL NOT give it up!
Tea Party Miltia Group Threats to Arrest Democrats at Polls! | Americans Against the Tea Party
via Tea Party Miltia Group Threats to Arrest Democrats at Polls! | Americans Against the Tea Party.
Welcome to America, kids, Land of the Free-except if you have to register to vote, in which case the forces of the State pile up on you. The Republicans are so SHAMEless about repressing voting rights, including Gestapo tactics and lies. Which means Abbott and the rest of the Republicreeps are leading us towwards Fascism, in which case we’ll fight for our rights.
Republicans Continue To Revive the Jim Crow Rhetoric and Tactics They Say Don’t Exist Anymore.
