Local

Trump’s Global Gag Rule restricts international family planning aid and access to reproductive health care, forcing clinics to either accept restrictions on the care they can provide to patients or lose aid. The Domestic Gag Rule bans the use of Title X funding for U.S. family planning clinics that also offer abortion services. 

So, Jeff Epstein “committed suicide” while on suicide watch in prison. This was widely predicted, since Epstein, in part to gratify himself, was running one of the world’s most notorious “honey traps.” if you were rich or powerful and liked underage girls, Epstein was your guy. Now that Epstein’s gone, the likes of Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, Prince Andrew and other former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson can breathe easier.

If the public is lucky, a slew of civil suits will come forward and provide more revelations. But we can expect the majority of these to settle quietly with non-disclosure statements, thus allowing pedophiles of the world to continue to unite in their quest for illegal sex.

Epstein was also the intelligence community’s guy. As journalist Vicky Ward pointed out in “Jeffrey Epstein’s Sick Story Played Out For Years in Plain Sight,” Alexander Acosta, the former U.S. attorney who went light on Epstein in a 2017 deal, became the Secretary of Labor under Trump. Reportedly he told the people vetting him in the Trump administration: “I was told Epstein belonged to intelligence and to leave it alone.”

Saturday, August 10, 6:30-11pm
1021 E. Broad St. in the backyard
Join progressive friends for food, drink, socializing and networking. This event will include music by DJ LaChewla and a presentation by Eriyah Flynn. Contact: colsfreepress@gmail.com or 614-253-2571                                                                                                                                                

Friday, August 9, 2019, 8:00 – 9:00 PM. 
Miriam will be preparing vegetarian pupusas for all who attend the event! You don't want to miss! Please join us at sunset for an evening of music, refreshments, and the premiere of a documentary on Miriam's story.  The goal of this event is to widen the circle of solidarity surrounding Miriam and her family, as part of continuing the work begun by Rubén Castilla Herrera.  Weather permitting, the event will take place on the church lawn. In the event of rain, the event will be moved inside to the Fellowship Hall. There is no cost to attend this event.  Location:  First English Lutheran Church, 1015 E. Main St., Columbus 43205.  Faceook. 

On Wednesday, August 7, I had the opportunity to attend a meeting for an activist group called RAID. RAID stands for Resistance Against Immigrant Detention. The goal of RAID is to stop the Department of Homeland Security and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, commonly known as ICE, from mishandling and mistreating those they deem as "illegal."

I'd noticed that the group consisted primarily of younger activists, mostly in their 20s. During the meeting, I noticed they were very quick to embrace the fact that they were all from various leftist factions united against the same cause: The liberation of immigrants from the clutches of ICE. One thing they emphasized was their desire to be directly involved in their communities with actions such as protests and so forth. One of the leaders there named Jorge saw that the United States' policy towards Latin America has been imperialistic and that this current mistreatment of Latin Americans within the United States is an extension of the United States' policies that are negative towards Latin America dating back almost 200 years. Jorge said that this movement "Has to be Anti-capitalist in nature."

Thursday, August 15, 2019, 6:30 – 8:30 PM
Calling all the S.E.X.Y. Voters come and be EMPOWERED ! Ask questions of the Candidates asking for YOUR vote!  Location: 1561 Old Leonard Ave., Columbus 43219. Facebook. 

As we go to press on Sunday, August 4, we gradually learn details of the horrible mass shooting in Dayton’s Oregon District. The first one this close to home – another young white male “lone gunman” shooting into a crowd – just hours after the heinous Walmart shooting in El Paso.

So why have disaffected white males continued to turn our gathering places slick with blood?

One reason may be that no one is calling it what it is – Domestic Terrorism. Here’s another reason most major media outlets won’t mention:

Stochastic Terrorism

Facebook memes and online articles point out how the words of Donald Trump are likely stirring up hatred and violence. They call it “Stochastic Terrorism.”

Daily Kos defined the phrase:“The use of mass communications to stir up random lone wolves to carry out violent or terrorist acts that are statistically predictable but individually unpredictable.”

The word stochastic comes from the Greek stochastikos, meaning “proceeding by guesswork” and “skillful in aiming,” Wired Magazine tells us in a January 2019 article warning about stochastic terrorism.

In the early seventies I went to East High School and lived right smack in the middle of Mt. Vernon Ave and 21st, in a big ten room brick house. When I lived there the neighborhood was clean. People kept their lawns up and the streets clean. Adults watched out for the children roaming the neighborhoods and reported their bad behavior to their parents. Contrary to the common stereotype portrayed of black men at the time, my father was in the home, his brother was in his home, and just about everybody I knew had a father or father figure in the home.  

In the eighties, Crack Cocaine was “dropped” into the Near East side area. HUD begin to outplace and outsource decent hardworking families, some who had lived there all of their adulthood, out of Poindexter Village. They replaced them with young, mostly single mothers. Some of these young mothers had friends that brought terror and fear to the village due to gang activity and drug activity that caused the “decent” people to move, those who could move, the elderly on fixed incomes had to stay and live in fear, while their landlord watched and did nothing.  

The Black Keys and Raconteurs' new albums were my subject this month – until my sweet little lunchbox-sized boombox someone gave me died last week with nary a bang or a whimper. Honestly, the sound wasn't bad when the little bugger worked. Oh, well, next month.
   My decade-old $39.99 Target DVD-player however functions though sometimes I need a butter knife to pry open the disc changer. Yay, technology!
   I didn't realize until just the other day I've been going through a cinematic revolution-themed phase. Let us recount the ways:

Having lost the governorship and other statewide offices in 2018, Ohio Democrats have a chance to reassert themselves in state government in 2020 by capturing two Republican-held seats on the Ohio Supreme Court.

Democrats Michael Donnelly and Melody Stewart were elected justices in 2018, shrinking the GOP majority to five-two. If Democrats knock off GOP justices Sharon Kennedy and Judith French, they would control the state's highest court by four-three.

It would mark the first time Democrats have led any of the three branches of Ohio government since 2010.

Such a stunning reversal of fortune would augur well for 2022 when the statewide administrative offices are on the ballot again and when redistricted and reapportioned state and federal legislative boundaries will improve Democrats' prospects of, among other things, retaking the Ohio House of Representatives.

Meanwhile, 2020 features a Presidential election the likes of which we have never seen before and may never see again, which is likely to affect races lower on the ballot.