The John Mason Talk-Walk, April 20, 2024

I speak about the stoner holiday 4-20, the trials of trump, Passover, and the need to vote. 

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Hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, John Mason. How's everybody? I hope you're doing all well. I'll start off by bidding everyone happy 420. In the pothead community, this is a high holy day, and there's always some debate about what its origins are. How did it come about? One story I've heard was was that some high school kids met at a parks somewhere on 4.28 p.m. after school and started blazing. Oh who knows? But it's a good jumping-off point to discuss uh decriminalizing marijuana. Yes. I myself have a medical marijuana license from the Pennsylvania Department of Health. And I look forward to the day when my state uh actually uh does what uh other states have done. New York, New York, New Jersey, and decriminalizes marijuana for recreational purposes. It is, trust me, it is not all that terrible. It was seen as a way by the government to uh to attack minorities, always associated it with uh black and brown people, and like I said, using it to attack minorities. And now we understand that racism, like I said, was behind the crusade. John Ehrlichman, who is on the staff of President Richard Nixon, admitted as such that uh that they couldn't that the war on drugs Nixon waged in 1972 and be uh has gone on forever, was based on a was a way to uh attack uh those groups uh the administration uh wanted to repress, and that was uh was black people who are who are still who are still into the civil rights movement and anti-war activists. So they always associate uh marijuana with with uh the anti-war protesters and heroin with uh with the the black and brown people, and that's the way it's gone on ever since. And the war on drugs has been a total disaster. It has corrupted law enforcement agencies, it's enriched drug cartels and given them monopolies, and don't doubt it's been a major factor in in some world economies. The war on drugs must stop. Drug addiction is not a sin or a crime, it is an illness. And you don't jail people for having a cold. Therefore, treat drug addiction it is a serious problem, it is serious. Treat drug addiction like some medical problem, a health problem, and not like a crime. Generally people doesn't uh end their addiction. It is a serious problem though, like I said. I mean you go down Kensington, Philadelphia, uh the drug acts are just all over the street. And who know who knows how they got there? But let's not but we don't judge anybody. We don't criminalize people. So let us treat a drug addiction and decriminalize and treat it like marijuana. Okay. And I'm following uh the the hush money trial in New York that the state has brought against Trump over the the hush money payments to Stormy Daniels. And one depressing thing I keep hearing is Trump's gonna walk. Trump's not gonna do some prison time. How do we know that? I hope this uh discussion highlights the fact of our two-tiered justice system that rich people can get off. Rich and famous peoples can get off scot-free or get an easy sentence because they're white and affluent. And if you're a person of color, it's an entirely different story. They don't just throw the book at you, they throw the whole library at you. And it is all rigged against uh minority people and poor people, against poor people who can't afford an attorney, like these high-end people do. The great socialist uh Eugene V. Debs, the great socialist and trade unionist, said that our uh judicial system are so adjusted as to catch the minnows and let the whale slip through. So the Trump trial must be a good jumping off point for these discussions. However, let us not assume that he's going to get off scot-free. We have to hope and demand that Trump be appropriately punished for his crimes. His crimes with the hush money case against on Storm with Stormy Daniels, and his crimes against this country, such as uh holding on to the doc classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. I mean that's a crime. What was he gonna do with them? Pat pass them on to Putin and or Xi Jinping or Kim Jun? No doubt no doubt. No doubt he would do that. Those are his world models as uh rulers. He wants to be a dictator. And he has his minions, his followers, his disciples, his cult adherents. Now hope he does so that he could implement their kind of dictatorship and terrorize the rest of us. So, A, let us contact our member of Congress, our elected representatives, and insist that Donald Trump, an ex-president, not current president, an ex-ex-president, be punished for his crime. And be just another inmate at Rikers. Okay. I'm all talked out now for now. And now advertisements. All this media work I'm doing, the podcast, the um, the podcast, the uh blog, the poetry, my YouTube channel, all my stuff is work. And workers should be paid for their work. So therefore, I'm asking for your help. Please click on my website, johnomason one word.com, and click on either the the PayPal button or the Buy Me a Coffee button. I greatly appreciate it. Thanks. And also, my novel Soldier of the Cross is available on Amazon.com. It's the story of David Lucas, who as a young man in the early 60s is a drunk and a whore chaser and a school bully. He gets in trouble in the army, he comes out of it out of it a fanatical born-again Christian, determined to be a manly man for Christ. But the way he goes about it leads him to catastrophe. Do please purchase it. Soldier of the Cross on Amazon.com. And also Hamporific is a lovely little CBD product store located on Snyder Avenue, near 15th Street in South Philadelphia. There you'll find some of the finest cannabis-infused products. Flour and gummies and candies and drinks and teas and lip balm and hand sanitizer and dog trees. Dog trees, yeah. Do please look them up. Hemporificlc.com. And also my beloved career and business coach, Michelle Snow. Michelle is excellent in helping you grow your uh small business or professional career. Let you know what you're doing right, where you need work, and help you network with other up and coming entrepreneurs and professionals. Please look her up. Grow with snow dot com. Okay. Alrighty then. And a couple of things, more things. Coming up next week is the beginning of Passover. Pesach, we call it. The holiday commemorating the liberation of the Jews from Egypt Egyptian bondage. And beginning the process to be a free people. It is a process. Unlearning old negative habits and learning positive new habits is a is a task. It's a job. It's a lifelong job. And I've been doing I'm doing it day by day by day. So ask yourself, what narrow spot physically and mentally am I in? And please keep in mind the plague as we uh dip the wine out of our wine cups and on the ground to come to on to remember the sufferings that that the Egyptians had from the plagues. You know, the blood and the water, the frogs, the locusts, the cattle blight. We also we sit we have the plagues of war and racism and homophobia and sexism and child abuse and poverty and famine and domestic violence, gun violence, you name it. As we commemorate our liberation from those plagues, let us work to end the plagues in our own era. And also I'm gonna keep harping on it, keep harping on it. I'm not gonna shut up about it. April twenty-third, this coming Tuesday is primary election day in Pennsylvania. So my Pennsylvania peeps, get out there in the polls and vote. Every election is important from president all the way down to county commissioners and school boards and township supervisors, all that. But this is especially important. On the one hand, we got we're up against Donald Trump and his worshipers. Yes, worshipers. They worship him like he's a god, literally. And those people are out for a fascist theocratic state. And destroy everybody who doesn't think like them, doesn't pray like them. He will unleash his dogs on them. And I apologize to dogs. And on the other side, we have people who care about our democracy, care about the well-being of the nation, people who would not sell their country out to foreign entities so they can get into power. You know, and I endorse Joe Biden, Joseph Robinette Biden for President of the United States one more time. And vote. And I'm also the democracy. That's what it's about. Preserving our democracy. If Trump gets back in, it's game over for America. So please get out there and vote April 23rd. That's the primary election day in Pennsylvania. And November 5th is general election day. Vote as if your lives depend on it. Your country depends on it, your children depend on it because it does. Okay. Okay then. Oh take care. Happy Passover. Happy 420. Bye.