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On Wednesday at 7 p.m. inside the Two Dollar Radio Headquarters, Columbus Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), hosted Eric Blanc to discuss his book, Red State Revolt, about why there was an upsurge of teachers striking last year in supposedly right-wing majority states. DSA invited Regina Fuentes, member of the teachers’ union, Columbus Education Association, to present on their Columbus Students Deserve movement.

What would Jesus do about the undocumented immigrant crisis at our southern border?

He would walk with them to America but then hold up his hand and proclaim, “Stop Here!”

He would also create a far-reaching network of pro-Trump Facebook pages, including Blacks for Trump and lie that he’s African American. 

For us at Freep, this is not the Jesus we know. But for Upper Arlington’s Kelly Kullberg, a far-right Evangelical celebrity of sorts, this is her Jesus, as she transforms him and the scriptures into political weapons.

Deep within the American heartland there are a host of Evangelical Christian strongholds, and no doubt, Columbus is one of them.

Two local congregations or megachurches, both with thousands of devoted followers, stand out. There’s Rod Parsley and his World Harvest Church, which sort of looks like a massive menacing spaceship, in Canal Winchester. In Westerville there’s the main campus of the Vineyard, which recently announced that its congregation raised $13 million in six weeks to build five more campuses.

On Independence Day this month, many people celebrated with fireworks and barbeques while forgetting the United States’ history of settler colonialism, slavery, genocide, imperialist wars and internment camps. Meanwhile, migrant children are still be in detention centers and are deprived of basic human essentials such as soap, toothbrushes and blankets.

Public outrage is growing over the civil rights violations and dehumanization of children. The Coalition to Close the Concentration Camps formed to call for mass mobilizations of concerned people, activists, organizations, and social justice groups to demand the closure of the camps.

All Hands on Deck!  Tell Your Ohio Senator and Representative NO ON HOUSE BILL 6.

FIND your legislators and their phone numbers at http://legislature.ohio.gov. Call by July 16.

Ohio House Bill (HB) 6 is a huge proposed bailout for FirstEnergy, the electric utility that owns Ohio’s two nuclear power plants, Davis-Besse and Perry, both located on Lake Erie where they threaten the drinking water of millions. 

The latest incarnation of the ever-changing HB 6 would give FirstEnergy about $157 million/year through 2026. This would come from Ohio’s electric ratepayers – even those outside FirstEnergy territory. The regressive measure would add about $1/month to residential bills and would hit small businesses hard.  

Ending bigotry has gone mainstream among the enlightened people of the developed world.

Did you spot the acceptable bigotry in that sentence?

We’re against racism, sexism, and more kinds of bigotry than I could ever list.

But the 96 percent of humanity that’s not within the United States is hardly worthy of concern.

Millions of lives in Yemen lack the value of one Washington Post reporter dismembered with a bone saw. A third of the United States would gladly murder a million innocent North Koreans, the pollsters tell us. Not a million handicapped Americans, not a million atheist Americans, not a million gay Americans. We’re above all that. A million North Koreans. Or a half million Iraqi children, judging by the respect still afforded to Madeleine Albright to this day.

Everyone’s a buzz. No, not that kind! Both traditional and social media seem to be buzzing about what’s wrong with the Ohio Medical Marijuana Control Program. Missed deadlines. Onerous restrictions. Exorbitant license fees. Sky high prices. Poor supply. Even illnesses. What gives?

First, the good news. From January to May 19th, 892 pounds of plant material and 6,719 units of processed product were sold, generating 51,278 receipts totaling $7.3 million. Patient purchasers numbered 15,339, representing about half of those eligible.

Sounds OK, right? If removing the sickest from the drug war battlefield was the objective, then success! Despite the poundage and product, no one got arrested, no one went to jail, no one forfeited assets, and no one carried a lifetime scar on their record for possessing, buying or selling.

That said, comparatively, other states evidence Ohio’s short comings.

With each criminal conviction, the state of Ohio matter-of-factly tells the defendants how long they will spend behind bars. Hidden from view, in the “fine-print,” is a long list of additional penalties attached to these convictions. 

Only upon leaving prison and while attempting to rebuild their lives, do offenders experience, first-hand, how these non-prison “collateral consequences” limit or deny their basic rights to housing, food stamps, education, voting, employment, child custody and much more.

A 2018 study conducted by the Prison Policy Initiative found that “formally incarcerated people are unemployed at a rate of over 27%—higher than the total U.S. unemployment rate during any historical period, including the Great Depression…[and]…Exclusionary policies and practices are responsible for these market inequities.”

The study concludes: “A prison sentence should not be a perpetual punishment…States should implement automation record expungement procedures and reform their licensing practices so as to eliminate the automatic rejection of people with felony convictions.”   

The affordable housing crunch in Columbus is growing by the day and you can see one of its causes at the corner of Lane and High just off-campus.

Located there is the shiny new Wilson Place, where (trustafarian) Ohio State students can rent a tiny 2-bedroom with a 24-hour concierge for $2,400-a-month.

No doubt the Scott Schiff-owned property – yes, the ambulance chaser who is also one of the largest property owners around OSU – is putting upward pressure on the cost of off-campus housing.

Negatively affected is a huge number of not-as-fortunate young adults in need of affordable housing.

The invasion of over-priced apartments has caused local market price, which was once affordable, to overheat. And as the region continues to boom both economically and in popularity, greedy landlords can’t resist but to overcharge.

For Central Ohio the average cost of rent has risen from $758 in 2013 to $942 in 2018, according to local real estate research firm Vogt Strategic Insights. The apartment-finder website Rentcafé states 55 percent of Columbus residents rent, compared to 46 percent in 2006.

Only immediate climate action can save the future. If we don’t take action, the collapse of our civilizations and the extinction of much of the natural world is on the horizon.

A speech by Bill Moyers

At an April 30 conference entitled “Covering Climate Now,” co-sponsored by The Nation and Colombia Journalism Review, Bill Moyers made a speech which included the following remarks:

“I have been asked to bring this gathering to a close by summing up how we can do better at covering the possible 'collapse of our civilization and extinction of much of the natural world,' to quote the noted environmentalist David Attenborough, speaking at the recent United Nations climate summit in Poland...