The John Mason Talk-Walk, July 3, 2026

I speak about Independence Day, and the ongoing fight for freedom in this country. 

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 1:06

Hello, hello, hello, John Mason. How is everybody? Hope you're all well. Hope you're keeping cool in this case. A hundred degrees now in Philadelphia. But they expect the temperatures to drop uh to go down to the low 80s and rain. I won't complain. Tomorrow is the glorious fourth, where we so where we celebrate the 250th anniversary of our glorious independence, of our glorious nation with our glorious freedom. So who the hell am I kidding? We have in the White House as a self-centered, ignorant, morally bankrupt, money grabbing, pussy grabbing, a wannabe despot, who's trying to stay in power for as long as he can. For we the people who can't uh get hold of him in court, of course. And in the meantime, he rakes in millions of billions of dollars. Report is out that that in that last year 2015, he raked in 2.2 billion dollars. Yep. 2.2 billion dollars. And what happened, and what about the rest of us in in this country? Gas prices, groceries, they're all going up. People can't afford to buy houses or even gasoline or milk. And and Trump's ice goons are on patrol, trying to make life hell for immigrant communities. People just trying to work their jobs, trying to make a comfortable living for themselves and their families and their future generations. And they, like last month, or so during the graduation ceremonies at the Marine Corps training facility in Paris Island, North Carolina, it was reported that ICents were outside the gates of the of the facility ready to nab uh uh immigrant families who wanted to uh see their sons again after surviving 13 years at boot camp. Can't even imagine it. But anyway, supposed to be the proudest moment of their life, but no. They gotta make it a time of terror. Let's see how long those ice idiots uh last in Paris Island. They melt right away. And we have and our polit and our president, if you can call his ass that, telling is telling, has as his allies, people who are willfully ignorant people who want to dictate to the rest of us what we should read, what we should uh how we should worship, how we should read, how we should educate ourselves, and preventing an honest assessment of our country's history. Let's be honest. They were great men or the guys who signed the Declaration of Independence and they lost so many of them lost so much. As soon as they put their uh signatures to the paper on the parchment, they they will they're guilty of treason. And as Ben Franklin said, you must all hang together or hang separately. That's how we'll stamp the Trump, but but I digress. So these were white males, affluent white males, all almost all of them holding slaves, and as so many of them had the were terror terrified by the very thought of the democracy, meaning us the people, having any say in government, having any say in the running of what of the decisions that affect our lives. But but the ideas of the Enlightenment and of the natural rights of Hitman, as they put it, are still good ideas. It's just we the people need to assert them for ourselves. For we the people to have a say in the in the matters of our of our government. We first they eliminated uh uh uh property requirements for white males, then the Emancipation Proclamation, they ended the Civil War, and and for that brief glorious moment, black people were allowed to participate in a saying say so of their governments, until Jim Crow settled in with the fact that they were betrayed by African Americans, formerly enslaved people, were uh were betrayed by the party of Lincoln, the guy who signed the emancipation proclamation. See, they want see the Republicans and Democrats and their financial overlords were getting very terrified by the by the fact that labor was organizing and they needed the army to become taken out of the south to repress uh work workers standing up for themselves. Like in 1877, after the first after the last federal troops were removed from the south, thereby uh uh starting the Jim Crow era. Uh strikes were started along the railroad lines. First once one of the shops at the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, then the rest of the BO B and O line, then other railroad lines, then cities had their own general strikes. I would recommend Eric Foner's work work on this, the work of Eric and Philip Foner on these events, momentous events. And and af and after a century, more or less a century, the civil rights movement movement was up and running, and and we finally had had an opportunity to deal with racial problems in this country. And also and and also the social race and class were also about to be dealt with. Like in you remember in August 1963, if you were old enough, the was the march on Washington for jobs and freedom. Jobs and freedom, along with the usual civil rights organizations were labor unions like like the UAW under Walter Ruther. See, Martin Luther King Jr. knew of the as did uh Philip Randolph of Bayard Rustin, understood the fact the reality of class as it intertwines with race. Race and class had to be dealt with. But the Republican propaganda machine kept telling white workers that all the welfare stuff was going to black people, not telling them that white people can apply for food stamps and Medicaid and Medicare and all that fun stuff. And so that and that was the basis of Nixon's uh Southern strategy. And and when Nixon died, I'm sidetracking here, when Nixon died, uh news commentators talked about what a brilliant move that was to turn white workers against black workers, lower class whites again against uh lower income black people and people people of color. They always talked about what a brilliant move that is. And what does and what what did that cause? What did that uh bring about? Racial division has been continued black and white against each other, but Nixon give didn't give a shit. He he stayed in power. Yes, I've gone in a slow rant, I have gone quite a ways, but I I do this because the work of fighting for freedom is not over yet. And we're not gonna allow that orange ogre, that nectarine, Nazi, that tangerine tumor, and his minions, and his ass kissers get in our way. We are g we we will celebrate the fourth by continuing to fight for freedom. I urge us all, when the temperature cools down of course, to organize and educate ourselves. Network with each other truly understand what what the issues are and then get out and vote. That's the that's the super sauce, kids. Get out and vote. And now that I've finished my rant advertisements all this work I do on my my podcast and my blog and my YouTube and my poetry and my fiction all work. I need to be compensated for my work. I put money out to put this material on these various platforms, and and I need and I need to be compensated for uh this this work and also with enough money to raise it 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. Thanks. And also, Hamperific 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. Gummies and candies and drinks and teas and flour and hand sanitizer and dog trees. Yeah, dog trees. Look them up please. At PorificLLC.com And also my beloved career and business coach Michelle Snow. Michelle's excellent in helping you develop your professional career or small business. Don't 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. Growwithsnow.com. Okay. Okay, as I just told you, the fight is on, it's never ended. And as long as Donald Trump is shitting his diapers in the White House, I don't think it is not going to end. So let's keep it up. Our revolutionary ancestors are looking down from heaven upon us. Let's not let them down. Have a good weekend, I have you. Keep cool, mommyos, daddios. Bye.