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Protests and vigils in Columbus last week focused largely on fear of President-elect Donald Trump, outrage at his supporters, and grief over Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton losing the election. But while over 200 demonstrators had a lot to say against Trump at the OSU Oval on Friday, they also pointed a clear path forward: mass organizing and rejection of establishment politics.
“This is our wake-up call. We’ve been asleep, and we woke up to a nightmare,” said Bilal El-Yousseph, a Palestinian Muslim. “My mother wears a head covering, and she shouldn’t be scared to go to her job.”
El-Yousseph supported Bernie Sanders as the Democratic nominee, who polled better against Trump than Hillary Clinton did. He was angry when the DNC used underhanded tactics to give Clinton the nomination anyway. “The Democratic Party is not here for us,” he said.
Tuesday, November 15, 3-5pm, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 5905 Lewis Center Rd., Lewis Center, Ohio
Join us Tuesday [November 15] in front of the Lewis Center office of the Army Corps of Engineers. We will demand that the U.S. government and the Army Corps of Engineers reject the Dakota Access Pipeline.
We will have a few signs, but, if you can, make a sign to bring and brandish.
We will stand with our signs until close to dark.
If I told you Moonlight is about an African-American boy growing up in a world of drugs and poverty, you’d probably begin to form an image of the film in your mind. And that image probably would be wrong.
Director/screenwriter Barry Jenkins has put together a movie so sensitive, so lyrical and so different from anything we’ve seen that there’s no way to avoid being taken by surprise.
Moonlight tells the sad tale of Chiron, a boy growing up in a scruffy neighborhood of Miami. Divided into three chapters, the film follows him into high school and finally into adulthood. At all three stages of his life, he struggles with loneliness brought on by his own—and other people’s—inability to accept him for who he is.
As a boy, Chiron (Alex R. Hibbert) is nicknamed Little due to his small size and is constantly bullied for being somehow different from the other boys. A sympathetic classmate named Kevin (Jaden Piner) advises him to stick up for himself, but Chiron’s mother, Paula (Naomie Harris), is too consumed by her drug habit to pay attention to his needs.
Hundreds joined a protest against President-elect Donald Trump at the Statehouse on November 10. The turnout was encouraging. The messaging probably gave protesters a needed catharsis. But more needs to be done to direct the momentum into building a fighting movement of the 99%.
Protesters chanted about how awful Trump is. They bemoaned that Hillary Clinton didn’t win the presidency. And hey, let’s sign a petition to ask the Electoral College to give Hillary the election.
All of this is easy, and it won’t accomplish anything. What’s needed is a clear path forward. And the way forward needs to be informed by an accurate assessment of why so many working-class Americans have turned away from the Democratic Party. Robert Reich’s article in The Guardian is a good place to start.
For the sixth time in our history, a candidate for President of the United States may have won the popular vote and lost the White House.
This must end.
While the nation—and much of the world—shudders at the thought of a Donald Trump presidency, our electoral system has once again failed to deliver a formal victory to the person who got the most votes.
Hillary Clinton appears to have won the nationwide popular vote. As of about 1 PM eastern time, the tally was roughly 58,909,774 votes (47.6%) for Clinton, versus 58,864,233 votes (47.5%) for Trump. (The exact numbers will change as the vote count continues.)
But Donald Trump's Electoral College tally has exceeded the 270 Electoral College votes needed to take the White House.
There is much more to tell about this. This year’s vote has once again been stripped and flipped by GOP Jim Crow segregationist tactics that disenfranchised millions of primarily African-American and Hispanic citizens.
Thursday, November 10 @ 7pm
The Hub, 1336 East Main Street, Columbus
$5 requested donation
"The film builds its case piece by shattering piece, inspiring levels of shock and outrage that stun the viewer, leaving one shaken and disturbed before closing out on a visual note of hope designed to keep us on the hook as advocates for change." ~ Odie Henderson
According to Green Party election observer Tekla Lewin, at Columbus precinct 13-A,B,C, the Godman Guild, six out of 17 voting machines have been taken offline because they are running out of the paper tape that is the only paper trail for any electronic voting. The Presiding Judge called the Franklin County Board of Elections and said he was told “It’s happening everywhere” and that they “don’t have enough technicians.” It started around 4:30pm and the machines are still offline as of 5:15pm.
At the Indianola Presbyterian Church polling site, the Green Party observer reports that there are 24 machines there and they all ran out of paper tape and were taken offline and the paper is being replaced one by one. Two other iVotronic machines have broken down and the two technicians there don't seem to be able to fix them. Voters reported that the screens froze on the touchscreen. About a hundred people are waiting to vote.
Report any further voting problems to these number: 614-374-2380 and 614-253-2571.
Election Day report from Columbus:
We are getting few early reports from Franklin County (Columbus) Ohio that voters are being offered provisional ballots when the lines are long at the polling sites. This happened to Free Press Editor Bob Fitrakis at Precinct 55 in Columbus. A call to the Franklin County Board of Elections verified that the provisional ballots are only supposed to be given out if someone requests one, no to make it a routine option. Historically provisional ballots are rejected at a higher rate than other types of ballots. There is no option to vote on a regular paper ballot instead of a voting machine in Franklin County.Election Day report from Columbus:
On November 4 supporters of the North Dakota Sioux from across Ohio gathered at the Statehouse to call on Governor Kasich to recall state troopers from Standing Rock. The demonstrators chanted, “Mni Wiconi!” (Lakota for “water is life”).
The Ohio State Highway Patrol sent 37 troopers to Standing Rock on October 29, ostensibly to “help law enforcement there protect property and to protect everybody’s rights.”
Opponents of the Dakota Access Pipeline understand that law enforcement has been called in to protect property rights. But they don’t believe that everyone’s rights are being protected. Police violence against protesters blocking the path of pipeline construction has been escalating, including the use of pepper spray, tear gas, stun guns, and rubber bullets.
Why, why, why, are people saying that we should prepare to hold Hillary Clinton accountable once she is in office? Why on Earth isn’t everybody doing that right now? Are we seriously going to gift her the White House and then expect her to listen to us?
If she is elected on her current platform, she will have a mandate to remain moderate for the next four years. The people will have given their approval of her ideas, and handed her permission to act on them throughout her term. Should she be moved to the left before election day, she would have a more progressive mandate to govern. Electing Hillary Clinton after she agreed to offer free pre-K classes to all children would let the people hold her accountable for actually doing so. It would be ridiculous to vote for her platform in November then kick and scream for something different in February.