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On Wednesday, May 3 supporters of Palestine from across the state testified before the Ohio House Government Accountability and Oversight Committee in opposition to House Bill 476, bipartisan legislation that would prohibit state agencies from contracting with a companies or individuals who are boycotting Israel or divesting from Israel.
“We are opposed to HB 476 because it violates our free speech,” said Don Bryant from the Cleveland area, one of the 14 who testified. “To outlaw BDS is to outlaw a non-violent form of resistance against the oppression of the Palestinians.”
BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) is an economic strategy for pressuring Israel to end its occupation and colonization of Arab lands in Palestine, dismantle the Gaza Wall, and recognize full equality for Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel.
On April 25, 2016 the NAACP Columbus Unit and Columbus City Schools (CCS) sponsored a Community Education Forum at The Neighborhood House, Inc.
At the start of the meeting the community was informed that the CCS district mission is to “Ensure that each student is highly educated, prepared for leadership and service and empowered for success as citizens in the global community.” To achieve this mission, the CCS focuses on three key principles: 1) That each student reaches their full potential to continue education, serve in the military, go to college, start a business, enter the workforce as lifelong learners. 2) That the district create a safe student centered, innovated learning that recruits, develops and retains world class talents. 3) That the district is accountable to our community and to our customers and that we’re confident in the district in maintaining itself through strategic, responsible, and transparent leadership.
A coalition of student organizations at Ohio State University (OSU) occupied Bricker Hall, the administrative building, on April 6 to #ReclaimOSU and demand that school officials release information about the university's investments and respond to campaigns by Real Food Challenge (RFC), United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) or OSUDivest.
Manuel Cuellar-Rocha remembers his first Cinco de Mayo on the Ohio State University campus. The fourth-year design major from Dayton does not recall it fondly. “Ohio State doesn't necessarily aid you much with getting used to campus life...you get thrown into the fishbowl with all the other students. I just kept thinking, 'Man, I can't wait until I see someone that looks like me.' I felt extremely intimidated...I truly understood what it meant to attend a predominately white institution.”
Before long, he saw an eye-opening example of racial stereotyping that personified the unfriendly climate toward Latinos on campus. “My first semester when I got here there was a senior crawl,” he says. “A student organization designed the t-shirts for the senior crawl, which happened to be on Cinco de Mayo. On the shirt, they had a figure wearing a sombrero, crawling. When people had an issue with that shirt, no one could understand the view of the minority who saw that shirt and were disgusted. I don't celebrate Cinco de Mayo, and I sure as hell don't celebrate it crawling wearing a sombrero.”
When it began to go viral a Change.org petition was calling for open carry of guns at this summer’s Republican National Convention in Cleveland, the joke that followed was this: “The only way to stop a bad Trump delegate with a gun is a good Cruz delegate with a gun.”
The petition proved to be satirical, but over 50,000 gun lovers were convinced it was real.
The fever for guns, and for what some are calling “constitutional carry”, is as hot as ever. For those who don’t want to carry a gun on their hip at all times, it’s becoming more difficult to grasp what’s real and unreal, and what’s downright surreal.
Take for instance what’s real.
An ad in the Columbus Alive says the ladies can go to Vance gun stores for over 40 styles of concealed carry handbags. In Clintonville, at a store called Gun Envy, you can rent a machine gun and invite all your pals to party.
Yet what’s deadly serious is that earlier this year two Glock 22 semi-automatic handguns went missing from Gun Envy after shipped via US Postal Service, this according to Columbus police. The ATF is investigating.
At this delicate moment in the primary season, we all need to take a deep breath and evaluate what comes next.
Bernie Sanders has a mathematical chance to win. But Hillary seems the likely Democratic nominee.
Donald Trump has an army of delegates. But if he doesn’t win on the first ballot, Paul Ryan could be the Republican nominee.
Oy!
For a wide variety of reasons, we believe Hillary and Bernie could beat Trump. But we’re not sure about Ryan, who we find absolutely terrifying.
Key is the stripping of our voter rolls. Millions of Democrats have already been disenfranchised. In a close race, that could make the difference.
Also key is the flipping of the electronic vote count, which few on the left seem to be willing to face in all its depressing finality.
Both are explored in our new Strip & Flip Selection of 2016: Five Jim Crows & Electronic Election Theft (introduced by Mimi Kennedy and Greg Palast) at www.freepress.org and www.solartopia.org.
April 26 marks the 30th anniversary of the catastrophic explosion at theChernobyl nuclear power plant.
It comes as Germany, which is phasing out all its reactors, has asked Belgium to shut two of its nukes because of the threat of terrorism.
It also comes as advancing efficiencies and plunging prices in renewable energy remind us that nukes stand in the way of solving our climate crisis.
Congressional Briefing April 21, 2016: "How Voter Suppression Efforts Are Threatening Our Democracy"
"It is democracy time!" were words that led into this historic congressional briefing, "How Voter Suppression Efforts Are Threatening Our Democracy." Sponsors were the National Election Defense Coalition and Transformative Justice Coalition. The moderator of the distinguished panel and members of the Congressional Black Caucus was Barbara Arnwine, former Executive Director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and presently co-sponsor of the Transformative Justice Coalition. What does the dismal handling of the primaries and caucuses held so far bode for the U.S. Congress?
Arnwine listed members of the Caucus who were present: Reps. John Conyers (former Chair of the House Judiciary Committee), Sheila Jackson Lee, Terry Sewell, Marc Veasey, Maxine Waters, Elijah Cummings, Hank Johnson, and others. 2016 marks the fifth year of intensive voter suppression. Long lines have marred proceedings in so many of the primaries and caucuses. Too
WHAT Educational and advocacy event to learn more about legislative solutions to issues impacting women.
WHEN Wednesday, April 20, 2016 from 9:00 AM to 12:30 PM
WHERE Trinity Episcopal Church - 125 East Broad Street, Columbus, OH 43215 - View Map
Women United For Change, a coalition of a group of nineteen organizations, has joined together to create an educational and advocacy event opportunity to learn more about legislative solutions to issues impacting women. This event will also be an opportunity to learn tips on how to effectively advocate for legislation that positively impacts women at the Ohio Statehouse.
Disturbing signs of the time-tested “Strip and Flip” strategy for stealing elections have already surfaced in 2016. Will they ultimately decide the outcome, as they have in too many recent elections?
The core approach is to STRIP citizens of their voting rights, then FLIP the electronic vote count if that’s not enough to guarantee a win for the corporate 1%.
Historically, “stripping” has been based on race. It’s rooted in the divide-and-conquer strategies of slavery and Jim Crow segregation. Today it centers on racist demands for photo ID and other scams designed to prevent blacks, Hispanics, the young and the poor from voting.