The John Mason Talk-Walk, July 10, 2026

I speak about the Graham Platner episode, and about red cards for immigrants' rights. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 1:07

Hello, hello, hello, hello, hello. John Mason. How's everybody? Hope you're all well. Okay. Graham Platner did the right and sensible thing of stepping down from his his campaign from the for the city in Maine held by Republican Susan Collins. We would definitely condemn the behavior of in a Republican of the kind of behavior that Plattner be betrattner displayed. Plattner was accused of sexting women while he was married, uh raping a former girlfriend, and put out the most ridiculous uh racist uh well and uh misogynistic uh Reddit posts like uh blaming the victim for a rape and a tattoo. I'm sure he had a pretty good idea what that tattoo symbolized. We would condemn it from anybody in the Trump administration or MEG or the Republican Party, as we should. Meanwhile, we on the Progressive side in the Democratic Party has to have to uh be sure to police our own ranks. Usually there's this uh opposition research, they call it APO, on your opponent to see what kind of skeletons are in the other person's closet. And in the meantime, do appo on yourself so there's no problems lurking around that your opponent can use against you. As like I said, we sh we should do that. We need a better job of uh policing our ranks, betting our candidates. It's interesting, like the story about him being this poor old uh oyster farmer it's all a bunk, a bunch of bunk. And the stories he put they put on need to be double checked. So let's do it. We can do it. We should demand a higher standard for ourselves. Not just say Joe Blow Schmoe uh just uh who calls himself a progressive uh BR guy in a way. And also, and now I talk about recently we've been enjoying soccer in Philadelphia and several other cities. The World Cup. I was at the FIFA Fan Fest and Lebanon Hill in Fairmont Park in Philadelphia with a friend of mine, and we were there at the start of the game between England and the Democratic Republic of Congo. And the tradition and referees in in uh soccer, they call it football in the other countries, have this has this uh card system for penalizing uh players who uh misbehave, to put mildly. A red a yellow card means a warning. Be careful next time or you're out. And a red card, I'll two, as well as uh two yellow cards, meaning you're out of the game. You'll be suspended for the next game. I got the these red cards I have are from uh for these part of the movement to uh protect uh immigrants, immigrants and their rights. Perfectly legal, perfectly uh vetted immigrants who do such work as uh clean bathrooms, uh pick pick produce from the farms, all that fun stuff. They come to this country for a better life. And what do they get? Their homes raided, their children taken from them, sent to hellhole concentration camps, including little kids, like the one in Texas, where there have been big outbreaks of measles. And as part of the campaign to advocate for their rights, they have uh they have these red cards and enunciates their rights, goes, where you can say to an ICE agent, I do not wish to speak to you, answer your questions, or sign or hand you any documents based on my Fifth Amendment rights under the United States Constitution. I do not give you permission to enter my home based on my Fourth Amendment rights under the United States Constitution unless you have a warrant to enter signed by a judge or a magistrate with my name on it that you slide under the door. I do not give you permission to search any of my belongings based on my Fourth Amendment rights. I choose to exercise my constitutional rights. And these are the red cards that are printed in English and Spanish. So here's the website www.ilrc.org slash red hyphen cards. And order a bunch of them. I order a hundred of them and a hundred more, and I pass them around in any available space. Let's get these cards and we'll give Ice and Trump and his minions the one hell of a red card. And on a frightened note, advertisements. All this work I do on my podcast and my YouTube and my blog and poetry and fiction, they're all work. And I pay good money to put this material onto these various platforms, and I need to be compensated. And with enough money, raise it all to a higher level. So please get on my website, johnomason.com, and click either the PayPal button or the Buy Me a Coffee button and see what you can give. I would greatly appreciate it. And Hamperithic is a lovely little CBD product store located on Snyder Avenue near 15th Street in South Philadelphia. There you will find some of the finest cannabis-infused products. Gummies and candies and drinks and teas and lip balm and flower hand sanitizer and dog trees. Yeah, dog treats. Look them up please. Himperificlc.com. And also, my beloved career and business coach Michelle Snow. Michelle is excellent in helping you develop your professional career or small business. Let you know what you're doing right where you need work and help you network with other up-and-coming entrepreneurs professionals. Please look her up. Grow with snow.com. Okay. Alrighty then. Those are the lessons for the day, kids. Be careful about who we have on our side. Any charlatan, any screwball can can come in and talk to a good game, but give them a good background check first before endorsing them. And and let's keep the let let our immigrant friends know and ourselves know what their rights are in dealing with with ice. Ice ain't cool, man. You have a good weekend ahead of you. Shabbat shalom. Bye.