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Amid widespread revulsion at the behavior of the second Trump administration and its Republican loyalists, there is a curious tendency to blame Democrats for the slide of the United States toward fascism. As one enraged commentator put it recently, “the Democrats” have “let us down day by day by day.”
But, in fact, “the Democrats”―at the grassroots and at the federal government level―have repeatedly displayed overwhelming opposition to the rightwing Republican onslaught. By contrast, Republicans have almost uniformly backed Trump’s priorities. Indeed, the gap between the two parties on most key issues has been enormous.
After sold-out screenings across the country and multiple festival awards, the documentary Ain’t No Back to a Merry-Go-Round will screen at Columbus’ Gateway Film Center on Sunday, February 15. The latest film by Emmy-award winning filmmaker Ilana Trachtman (Praying with Lior, Mariachi High, Black in Latin America, etc.) recounts a watershed moment in American history: the first time Black student activists were joined by an organized white community to protest segregation. Together, they demonstrated against Washington, D.C.’s whites-only Glen Echo Amusement Park in 1960, provoking the first counter protests by the American Nazi Party, luring civil rights giants A. Phillip Randolph, Roy Wilkins, and Adam Clayton Powell to the picket line, and addressing the U.S. Supreme Court.
This article first appeared on Substack.
I am a member of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists, and I also sit on its board of directors. Our president, Marc Murphy, wrote a statement for the organization in defense of journalist Don Lemon, who was arrested by the Trump regime for doing his job.
Don Lemon followed a protest into a church in Minneapolis, where the minister is an officer in ICE. Lemon had received a tip about the protest beforehand, so he went to the location to cover it. Donald Trump's Department of Justice figures that since Lemon knew beforehand of the protest, he must be a part of it. This displays either a total lack of understanding of how journalists often work or that the Trump administration is just out to get Don Lemon.
February 2, 2026, 2-4pm PT / 5-7 ET
“ICE is a bunch of pussy motherfuckers who wanna beat their wives. White supremacists aren’t taking over shit. Fuck ‘em. If you support ICE get the fuck out of this show, pussy.
This is a Hip Hop show, pussy.”
R.A. The Ruggedman - Columbus, Ohio January 26, 2026
The 2026 blizzard and ICE slowed Columbus for the week leading up into Atmosphere’s Columbus, Ohio’s Winter Carnival. Atmosphere is from Minneapolis. ICE invaded Minneapolis. ICE abducted people into for profit internment camps. ICE murdered US citizens. ICE harassed anyone attempting to speak English in Columbus.
I looked at Instagram. Atmosphere’s Columbus concert didn’t announce a canceling. I took the number 1. I walked from Nationwide into Promowest. Downtown Columbus pays someone for shoveling the sidewalks.
I walked into a room full of people who wanted a dope rap show, and someone yelling Fuck ICE. I missed Kool Keith and Mr. Dibbs because my neighborhood sidewalks weren’t plowed during my walk to the bus.
Solar surpasses wind as largest renewable source
Solar and storage accounted for 72 percent of new electrical generating capacity on the U.S. grid for the first 10 months of 2025, according to a review of Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) data. Solar photovoltaics (PV) has held this position for 26 months in a row and has now edged out wind power as the largest source of renewable energy capacity on the U.S. grid.
Solar, wind, hydropower and biomass accounted for 87.2 percent of all new generating capacity while natural gas added 12.4 percent, with the remainder being oil and waste heat. Taken together, wind and solar constitute nearly one-fourth (23.79 percent) of the United States' total available installed utility-scale generating capacity. More than 25 percent of U.S. solar capacity is in the form of small-scale (rooftop) systems that are not reflected in FERC's data.
Check for more activist events in the Calendar
Sunday, February 1, 2026, 1:00-2:30pm
Weinland Park Shelter House, 1280 Summit Street
Join in showing appreciation for Alex's courage and the others murderd by ICE.
See more activist events at the Columbus Free Press calendar
Saturday, January 31, 2pm
Westervile ICE Field Office, 675 Brooksedge Blvd.
COLUMBUS! Meet us at the Westerville Field Office, Saturday Jan 31 at 2pm! 50501 calls for a national day of action, we LISTEN!
It’s going to be COLD, but that didn’t stop over 102,000 OSU fans from filling the shoe to watch Tennessee lose. Let’s go!
Scroll through the slides for safety and protest information! National’s slide at the end!
Sponsored by 50501. We are a nonviolent movement dedicated to inclusivity and conflict resolution.
More info below
Friday, January 30
Statehouse rally - 3pm
Enough is enough!
No Work, No School, No Shopping.
No ICE funding!
The people of the Twin Cities have shown the way for the whole country – to stop ICE’s reign of terror, we need to SHUT IT DOWN.
On Friday, January 30, join a nationwide day of no school, no work and no shopping.
The entire country is shocked and outraged at the brutal killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good by federal agents. While Trump and other right wing politicians are slandering them as “terrorists”, the video evidence makes it clear beyond all doubt: they were gunned down in broad daylight simply for exercising their First Amendment right to protest mass deportation. Every day, ICE, Border Patrol and other enforcers of Trump’s racist agenda are going into our communities to kidnap our neighbors and sow fear. It is time for us to all stand up together in a nationwide shutdown and say enough is enough!