Politics

When establishment Democrat Tiara Ross, City Council candidate showed up for the Free Press’s recent candidate forum for the District 7 primary, it came as a mild surprise.

Did she know anti-establishment Democrat Joe Motil is a regular writer for the Free Press? Our blistering criticism of the out-of-control, tax-abated and mostly unaesthetic development establishment Dems have forced into our most popular neighborhoods?

Certainly, the Free Press wanted Ross to be there, and here she was. But also to our surprise was who else unexpectedly showed. A broadcast reporter from Channel 10 (WBNS). And this is what we’ve come to know about Ross. She wasn’t going to let the other two candidates appear on the 11 o’clock news without her.

In some ways Ross reflects a growing cadre of modern-day political office seekers and holders. There’s a distinct and disingenuous difference between her public and not-so public persona.

Although the statement that “power grows out of the barrel of a gun” was made by Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong, it’s an idea that, in one form or another, has motivated a great many people, from the members of teenage street gangs to the statesmen of major nations.

The rising spiral of world military spending provides a striking example of how highly national governments value armed forces. In 2024, the nations of the world spent a record $2.72 trillion on expanding their vast military strength, an increase of 9.4 percent from the previous year. It was the tenth year of consecutive spending increases and the steepest annual rise in military expenditures since the end of the Cold War.

Despite much lofty rhetoric portraying the United States as a democracy (in which the people rule), this nation, in fact, has often resembled a plutocracy (in which the wealthy rule).

The confusion owes a great deal to the fact that the United States, at its founding, was somewhat more democratic than its contemporaries.  In the eighteenth century, European nations, governed by kings, princes, and other wealthy hereditary elites, usually provided a contrast to the more unruly, less hidebound new nation, where some Americans even had the vote.

Even so, the overwhelming majority of Americans didn’t have the vote, which was largely confined to property-owning or tax-paying white males―about 6 percent of the U.S. population in 1789.  Women (comprising about 50 percent of the population) were, with very few exceptions, denied voting rights.  And slaves (about 18 percent of the population) lacked both voting rights and citizenship.

Andy Ginther’s 41-minute State of the City Speech given yesterday was as usual heavy on campaign rhetoric, self-promotion and empty promises rather than admitting or even hinting at his failures and mistakes.

Ginther emphasized that LinkUS Columbus is critically important to the growth of Columbus yet he continues to exclude the essential services of regional bus transportation providers as partners of LinkUS Columbus.    

Ginther stated, “How lucky are we to lead and shape the future of this incredible place.” Of course, the mayor was referring to his major campaign contributors, developers, power brokers, and the 80 member Columbus Partnership.

Greep Zoom #219 opens at the giant multi-million global marches that tried to confront the Trump regime.

One performer at LA’s Pershing Square gathering is CLIFFORD TASNER of the Southern California Americans for Democratic Action who introduces us to Trillionaires for Trump.

The fictional Trump “tariff advisor” Ron Vara is exposed by TATANKA BRICCA as a mythological economy crasher.

Our co-convenor MIKE HERSH chimes in with his usual wisdom.

The great DAVID SALTMAN raises the issue of a general strike.

Computer genius LEE FELSENSTEIN offers a “Reverse the Media” strategy going forward, complete with a national mailer on his critical digital design.

Radio maven LYNN FEINERMAN adds to the brilliance with her call for grassroots organizing.

Indivisible’s MIMI S calls for support for the “Make Polluters Pay” movement.

From Minnesota KARLA SAND tells us that 1 in 4 Americans is disabled while she emphasizes the need to protect Medicare and emphasizes that she goes of ‘every darn thing.".

President Donald Trump counts on Steven Witkoff, a longtime acquaintance from their New York real estate days, to negotiate solutions to some of the most fraught issues in world politics—those confronting Israel and Palestinians and those driving war between Russia and Ukraine. Witkoff also ventures to speak about improving US relations with Iran.

The real estate magnate concedes that each item on his to-do list is very complicated, but he plunges ahead, confident that President Donald Trump, is behind him as he deals with life and death issues in multiple settings. Both Trump and his envoy seem to think that problem-solving in international affairs is no different from real estate and requires no particular knowledge.

Sows in Factory Farm Gestation Crates, courtesy of CIWF USA/Jo-Anne McArthur /We Animals Media Non-Commercial use

The blades move ever faster, slicing through flesh—animal and human alike. Workers, pressed shoulder to shoulder in a factory of blood, push through exhaustion, through pain, through the deafening machinery, knowing that slowing down isn’t an option.

Pigs scream, their bodies trembling from stress and drugs, their legs buckling beneath them. Some won’t even make it to slaughter—collapsing from heat, injury, or sheer terror before they reach the kill floor.

Amid growing international chaos, it should come as no surprise that nuclear dangers are increasing.

The latest indication is a rising interest among U.S. allies in enhancing their nuclear weapons capability. For many decades, remarkably few of them had been willing to build nuclear weapons―a result of popular opposition to nuclear weapons and nuclear war, progress on nuclear arms control and disarmament, and a belief that they remained secure under the U.S. nuclear umbrella. But, as revealed by a recent article in London’s Financial Times, Donald Trump’s public scorn for NATO allies and embrace of Vladimir Putin have raised fears of U.S. unreliability, thereby tipping the balance toward developing an expanded nuclear weapons capability.

As part of our commitment to sharing actionable research in support of progressive policies, Innovation Ohio recently conducted a survey to see where Ohioans stood on President Trump and his early 2nd term actions.