The John Mason Talk-Walk, June 10, 2022

I speak about the upcoming AFL-CIO convention, the need for gun reform, and the neo-fascist turn of the Republican Party. 

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Hello, hello, hello, hello, John Mason. How is everybody? Hope you're all well. I my plan for the weekend is to do volunteer work at the uh at around the uh national convention of the AFL CIO. I am totally, completely, utterly dedicated to the labor movement as as it encompasses uh social deals with social problems at the grassroots, at the shop level. Like such things as employment and working conditions and and rising in the job and and housing. That very basic the very basic bread and butter things that are subject to discrimination if left unattended. And I believe that the labor movement as an organized body is uh best suited to help deal with the uh with the social ills of that are confronting us in this country. An organized body of people who by banding together and learning how to work as an organized body is very effective in uh dealing with uh the problems facing our communities, such as the gun violence. Now some some pe some of us uh uh dupas has firearms for sports and hunting and stuff, and I myself have a license to carry. But what's the sense to have a military grade uh assault rifles for sale to the public? Oh sure, maybe cool for sport, but not just as not everyone is suited to own to own drive a car, not everyone is suited to own and possess and use a firearm. And just as you have uh inspections and rules or laws of rules and laws around uh around driving and only an automobile, so should you have them for um for only a firearm, even more so. Like frequent inspections of your car, you have frequent inspections of your car, and you should have frequent uh examinations uh every uh couple of years. So you should have frequent uh every couple of years frequent uh firearms practice to show how you if you that you know how to handle a firearm and periodically renewal of your license. Ever since uh the shooting in Buffalo, we had the shooting in Ulvaldi, Texas, and in Philadelphia, more shootings right after the one down the South Street in Philadelphia. That was a very famous par uh having fun spot, you know, party going spot, and as by two guys in a boxing scene uh arguing with each other, bringing their guns with them. This has got to stop. The carnage has got to stop have background checks for for only a firearm. And just as you have uh a legal age to uh drive and a legal age to drink alcohol, have a raise the legal age to twenty one for only a firearm. And it's like there's this whole cult around a firearm. Like uh makes you feel like a hero. Rather than knowing that what a uh dangerous instrument it is. It's like uh it's like uh and the right wing, uh neofascist element in this country. Oh yes, let's call him that neo-fascist. We have this uh fetish for firearms. It's like uh a firearm is power. They emphasize the Second Amendment of the Bill of Rights without ever mentioning uh the other well deeming the other uh amendments of the Bill of Rights as expendable. We have now what does the Second Amendment say? A well-regulated militia being to be used for the protection of the state. Not against the state, but to protect the state. And as the um see in that era of in the late 1780s when the uh when the Constitution was being written, drawn up, there was there remained the great fear of a permanent standing army in this country as the as a tool of a for a tyrant. They had the precedence of uh Oliver Cromwell with his new model army during the English Revolution in the 1600s as the vehicle for his power, and as as people influenced by the Enlightenment, they were very educated in the Greek and Roman classics with the stories of uh Caesar crossing the Rubicon with his legions uh to destroy the republic and set up his dictatorship. They were like I said, they were afraid that a permanent standing army would be the instrument of power of a tyrant, and so they preferred uh uh public militias, which were pretty much all the white males in the in the county being called up to uh uh to defend the county. But the big concern was uh in the southern states were slave uprisings. That was a big big uh need for militias as uh slave patrols to put down the slave uprisings. And what was the weapon of choice in that uh era? Uh the musket where you uh poured the powder in, then the wad, then the ball, and you ramp it down, and uh the whole operation would be one minute tops. And they are 15 like like you shoot uh hundreds of bullets in five seconds. In that time you can massacre a whole shopping mall full of people. We and uh as for a permanent standing army, we got that. Our uh status as the world's super duper power demands that we have a huge standing army and navy and air force and marine corps and and this space force. Do we s why can't we eliminate the space force? Do we really need it? It was just a hallucination in Donald Wash's face as uh a fe a sewer of a brain. Anyway. So, in other words, it's a hell of a lot different world we're living in from the fabled founding fathers. And let us eliminate the Second Amendment. Okay, haters, hate me all you want, eliminate the Second Amendment. And treat uh treat owning a firearm as as much of a privilege as uh having a driver's license. Not for everyone. Background checks, criminal record checks, mental health examinations, the whole nine. And and the public hearings are on for the January 2nd, uh 6th committee, which are making public all of its findings about uh how Donald Trump unleashed thousands of maniacal followers on members of Congress trying to do their job, constitutionally uh uh mandated job of uh counting the ballots in the Electoral College to certify Joe Biden as president. I mean it was sedition, an attempt to overthrow the government. And I'm one of those that's wondering why the Justice Department doesn't come down harder on these traitors trying to overthrow the democratically elected uh government of this country. I believe we should get in touch with a member of con members of Congress to um uh to get up uh to get on the uh the Justice Department to uh come down harder on these on these uh criminals. Yes, criminals. They broke the law. They have millions of millions of dollars of resources, but and they're still criminals. I mean, crime isn't always just some punk in a corner trying to um mug you out of your wallet. I mean, these guys around Trump, they were trying to mug us out of our uh our our liberty, our freedom, our constitutional rights, and our tax dollars with their corporate sponsors. Oh yeah, I'm rambling, but I'm angry. So much to be angry about. And let's use our anger right wisely. In November, get out and vote. And don't pay attention to doom and gloom about about uh the Republicans already have the House and the Senate in the bag already, so don't bother. You've seen the Republican Party. You've seen the Trump element taking over. It's not just Trump, it's QA maniacs and neo-fascists and white supremacists and anti-Semites, uh Christian chauvinists. They've taken the old-fashioned moderate conservative of the William Buckley, Barry Goldwater mode. They're trusty as compared to these guys. The Republican Party does must and and the way they behave about the um about the uh the hearings. Members of Congress like Jim Jordan, they're involved in the sedition, try uh calling up uh they're involved in it. Cathorne and Marjorie Taylor Green and Jim Jordan, but they blow off uh uh summonses to the committee. It's like it's like Republicans got this kind of uh feeling of superiority, of entitlement, uh the government belongs to them and nobody else, and they'll destroy the government rather than let the people take over. All the more reason to vote out each and every Republican. If you think I'm uh in uncomfortable waters in my talk, well, the whole country's in uncomfortable waters. I won't feel safe in this country until uh the Republican Party is rooted out, root and branch. And whatever responsible conservative Republicans are left, hopefully they'll take over. But they must never take power ever again. Okay. Okay, that's my rant for the day. Now advertisements. Himporific LLC is a lovely little CBD product store located on Snyder Avenue near 15th Street on uh in South Philadelphia. There you'll find some of the finest canvas products uh flour and gummies and candies and drinks and teas and lip balm and hand sanitizer and dog treats. Yep, dog treats. Look them up please. Hemporificlc.com. And now I talk up my beloved career and business coach, Michelle Snow. Michelle is excellent in guiding you like any other coach as you develop your professional career and your business. That you know what you're doing right, where you need work, and help you network with other uh with other professionals and uh business people. Look her up please. Grow with snow.com. Okay Cast and Kins, we got our work cut out for us. Just remember, we deserve better than what we've been have what we had the previous four years. We deserve better than uh to have uh politically powerful people trying to destroy us and their corporate enablers. I've started with the discussion about the national AFL CIO Hamius Convention. I see hope in the organizing of young workers as such traditionally low-wage jobs as Starbucks and Amazon. The working conditions there, those institutions are pretty abysmal for what they say. I urge you please join me in uh supporting uh the organizing efforts of of Amazon workers and Starbucks workers. And there are also organizing efforts around uh uh coffee chains in Philadelphia, such as uh in the coffee chains in Philadelphia. Where workers are organizing, be it in a factory or a coffee shop or a library or a university. There's even organizing efforts in uh the fill employees of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Please support them. They're setting an example for the rest of us. They're displaying a fighting spirit for for the for themselves and their families and their communities. Don't let them down. Support them. Okay, that's it. Thank you. Enjoy the weekend. Bye.