Politics
Just when you thought Ohio’s nuclear bailout scandal couldn’t get any wilder, the twists and turns of our state’s historic bribery saga now seem reminiscent of a spy thriller or conspiracy theory novel. It has been over nine months since the FBI announced its investigation into the infamous HB6 bailout, which since has only shed more light onto the rampant corruption going on behind the scenes in Ohio’s Statehouse. Since July 2020, some frustrating, tragic and fortuitous events have taken place, which hopefully hint at potential silver linings somewhere on the horizon when it comes to political justice and energy policy in the Buckeye State.
Joe Motil, former Columbus City Council candidate and longtime outspoken critic of Mayor Ginther and City Council’s blanket tax abatement policies once again criticized the Mayor and City Council for defunding public education and denying social and economic opportunity for the citizens of Columbus.
Joe Motil, former Columbus City Council candidate and longtime outspoken critic of Mayor Ginther and City Council’s blanket tax abatement policies, once again blasted them at last night’s City Council meeting for approving of a $1.1 million 10-year 75% tax abatement to the T. Marzetti Company.
T. Marzetti’s has been in business for 125 years and Lancaster Colony has owned Marzetti’s for 52 years now. Marzetti’s is headquartered here in Columbus along with five of its company’s operations and two additional ones are located elsewhere in Ohio.
Joe Motil, former Columbus City Council candidate and longtime outspoken critic of Mayor Ginther and City Council’s blanket tax abatement policies, once again blasted them at last night’s City Council meeting for approving of a $1.1 million 10-year 75% tax abatement to the T. Marzetti Company.
T. Marzetti’s has been in business for 125 years and Lancaster Colony has owned Marzetti’s for 52 years now. Marzetti’s is headquartered here in Columbus along with five of its company’s operations and two additional ones are located elsewhere in Ohio.
U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown has taken over the Ohio Democratic Party (ODP), putting his protégé Elizabeth Walters in charge with the blessing of a handful of union donors.
On one hand, this could be good because Sherrod is the only Ohio Democrat who knows how to win statewide partisan elections.
It is less good when you consider that he lacked the coattails to pull any of the other statewide non-judicial candidates over the finish line in 2018.
On the other hand, the powerful labor donors have not been able to help Democrats regain control of the governorship and other statewide administrative offices and win more state legislative races.
It is less bad when you consider that Democrats have gained three Ohio Supreme Court justices in the last two elections and are on the verge of gaining a majority for the first time in a long time if they can turn one more seat in 2022.
David Pepper beat out a Sherrod-backed candidate for the ODP chair job six years ago. He compiled a record of mostly failures in statewide and legislative races, but won some key judicial races.
By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, January 22, 2021
https://worldbeyondwar.org/popes-words-in-open-letter-to-joe-biden/
Dear President Joe Biden,
Congratulations and best wishes!
t can happen four ways.
But one thing is clear: No viable democracy can endure 14 full days ruled by a deranged madman who’s just instigated an armed fascist coup attempt.
Reports from long-time staff and close personal associates working within the White House indicate that Trump is dangerously “out of his mind” and “has lost it.”
Trump has access to nuclear codes that could end all human life on Earth.
As a fear-mongering fascist, he’s just incited the storming of the House and Senate, an armed assault aimed at the processing of the Electoral College votes for president.
At least one person was shot dead while invading the Congress. Three others died under varied circumstances. Countless more who rioted without masks were certainly infected with Trump’s virus, and will soon pour into hospitals that can’t handle them.
Trump could easily instigate further such coup attempts, especially by creating a fake “Reichstag Fire” disaster.
The Republicans may lose majority control of the United States Senate if they are unable to pick up one of the last two seats, both in Georgia where automatic run-off elections will be held Tuesday, January 5th.
The Republicans have secured 50 of the 100 total US Senate seats leaving them one seat shy of a majority. In Georgia, the two US Senate races were so close last November that local laws triggered automatic run-off elections scheduled for January 5th.
With the two Senate races neck and neck, voting rights activists have been fighting to get hundreds of thousands of disenfranchised voters back on track to vote.
The races will impact the Senate in the coming years since with Biden as president, if Republicans are not able to pick up another Senate seat, Vice President Kamala Harris will be able to cast a tie-breaking vote in the Senate overpowering the Republican voting bloc for votes along party lines.
Trump’s team filed multiple lawsuits in battleground states alleging voter fraud even though, according to most major news outlets, Presidential Candidate Joe Biden won.
The Ohio House Health Committee approved Senate Bill 260 today, Tuesday, December 15. The full House could vote on the bill by this Thursday.
When a person decides to have an abortion, they deserve safe, legal, affordable, and accessible care in their community. For many Ohioans, that means a local health center and a video conference with a prescribing physician. Don't let Ohio Republicans take that critical option away from your friends and neighbors.
In the midst of a pandemic, where everyone, including the Ohio Legislature has lauded the use of telemedicine as an important way to ensure patients have access to the healthcare they need while simultaneously eliminating the possibility of the spread of a deadly virus, that this legislature would choose to attack the use of telemedicine for a very specific procedure.
A new poll shows that 68 percent of Americans say they want lawmakers to reject any corporate-linked Biden nominations. So why is he picking them?
Although mostly considered the not-Trump candidate, Biden’s presidential campaign nonetheless offered a glimmer of hope for Americans – investment in infrastructure, debt cancelation, modestly helping Americans during pandemic, etc.
None of these modestly progressive policies, however, will make it far without Democrats winning Georgia’s two Senate seats. But his brief time as president-elect is showing he might turn back on these campaign promises even if Dems win those two Senate seats in January.