Local
“We The People” in Ohio just had another nail pounded into the casket lid of our “presumed Democracy.” Our constitutional right to pass our own local laws in our communities is now all but disallowed. Over the past two years, we have witnessed that the judicial system has been turned against We The People as they politicize constitutionally-presumed precedents by flipping them in favor of moneyed interests. For two years in a row, the Supreme Court upheld the latest vaporization in the separation of powers by allowing our Secretary of State to cheat We The People. He does this by illegitimately instructing our boards of elections to nix our rights of initiative through refusing their path to the ballot.
Hey everyone, David Bromberg has a new CD out. It’s called “The Blues, the Whole Blues, and Nothing but the Blues.” Do you think you’ll be able to appreciate it properly? Do you have a proper blues education?
Oh yeah, education. That’s how I was introduced to the blues; something you were expected to learn about if you wanted to know music. Like algebra or The Great Gatsby. Learn about it, respect it and insist that others do the same, because it is self-evidently great. When I was in high school, all of us wanted to play guitar like Pantera’s Dimebag Darrell or Sepultura’s Max Cavalera. But we all professed to be huge BB King and Eric Clapton fans, although their recordings secretly made us squirm with boredom. To say otherwise would show a lack of respect to the elders, the depressing but mystical spawning pool of Rock ’n Roll.
Thursday, February 2, 8:30am-4:30pm; Friday, February 3, 9am-2:30pm; Ohio Statehouse Atrium
Purpose: to facilitate and further the conversation about the rise of human trafficking in Ohio.
Hosted by State Representative Teresa Fedor; details will follow.
Participation is free but tickets are required. For tickets, please register at Eventbrite to keep up to date with our speakers and program information.
Registration: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/8th-annual-ohio-human-trafficking-awareness...
Please note: backpacks are not allowed in the Ohio Statehouse.
Contact: Jen Stack, 614-644-6017 or jen.stack@ohiohouse.gov
https://www.facebook.com/Representative-Teresa-Fedor-112183629770/
Like a flashback from a distant memory, an egg cracked into a frying pan. Ominous words followed, “This is your brain on drugs…” The replay of a bizarre commercial from the 1990s? No, it was the 21st Century iteration of the Partnership for a Drug Free America, once again smearing marijuana with “alternative facts”.
It is one of the ghosts of the past from which the present day resistance movement might take lessons.
The morning after the fall election, a host of progressive movements awoke in aftershock. Climate Change. LTBTQ. Black Lives Matter. Water Protectors. And numerous others. Groups like Muslim Americans and even reporters felt a heightened sense of trepidation as they found themselves in unexpected crosshairs. Others, like the women’s and environmental movements, which have enjoyed decades of progress, now shared the same heartache as their mothers and fathers in the 1960s and 1970s.
One social cause that has traveled this same rocky road is marijuana reform. For all that is new and frightening about Trump, this movement has been living with daily, for decades.
Not that I was getting all that much good sleep before, but I've written off getting much more in the next four years. I've always been a pretty dour person, at least as my external facade, so in some way I'm well equipped for the joy shortage hitting America. It's everyone else I'm worried about, even the Trump voters who aren't open racists. Quite frankly I can't see how anyone smiles or falls in love or achieves transcendence. That part of the Obama administration I took for granted. As much as I have maintained the argument that a capital-dominated elections in a political system designed to suppress real democracy is functionally not that different from a dictatorship, I underestimated the psychological benefit of everyone at least respecting the decorum. The morning of November 9, I was struck with the feeling that this must be how the people in any dictatorship feel. I softened a bit in my defense of one-party socialist states, or at least become more interested in the proposed two-party socialist system that was floating around Yugoslavia back in the day.
Run The Jewels ended their sold-out Columbus show by playing deceased Columbus icon and friend of El-P, Camu Tao’s “Hold The Floor.” It's a record produced by DJ PRZM who is another deceased Columbus Hip Hop icon.
Philly Phil entertainment is releasing DJ PRZM”s LLABTIPS 3 vinyl on Record Store Day. April 22nd.Philly Phil gave me the PRZM record last month. I’ve been so aghast in regards to the behavior of the President that I haven’t been much use for music.
Video ideas for 4 of the 11 songs on LLabtips 3.
Heavy Metal Maniacs:
The production has a sinister, slow march baseline that picks up with a small subtle melody, and a gritty vocal hook by PRZM. The video should start with PRZM hopping into a car in his leaving Native Detroit at sunset. It’s ‘Devil’s Night” so there are several teenagers riding bikes around a fire in the middle of the road.
The Columbus Charter Review Committee is considering possible recommendations for changing Columbus City Council. City officials announced the committee just weeks before the August 2, 2016 special election on Issue 1. Columbus voters in that election turned down a citizens' initiative to expand the size of council and add district representation. Before the vote, city officials said the committee would use a better process for studying reforms of council.
The committee sees problems with the present council of seven members all elected at large. They recognize that council's size is smaller than in similar cities. They likely think each council member cannot be familiar with all of Columbus' more than 200 neighborhoods. And they're concerned that some areas have had no representative on council for decades.
Hero: Nina Turner
“We can't have testimony without a test, and we are being tested right now for whether or not we've got courage enough, hope enough, fight enough and love enough to do what is necessary. Donald Trump's election was a wake-up call—it's up to all of us to keep our mission for social, economic and political justice alive,” pronounced former Ohio State Senator and Minority Whip Nina Turner, chosen as this month's Free Press hero for resurrecting the true legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in her rousing speech at his memorial on January 14. King's legacy, above all else, is activism in the name of social justice and Nina Turner is calling for a new mass movement of the people.
Heroes: Hundreds protesting at airports after Muslim ban
Wednesday, Feb. 1 at 12 PM - 2 PM at the Ohio Statehouse.
We are gathering together in opposition to President Donald Trump's unlawful attack against the entire Muslim community and refugees worldwide. The recently signed executive order, the "Muslim Ban", prevents Muslims from a select set of Muslim-Majority countries in the Middle East and Africa to enter the United States, and also poses a threat to permanent residents (green card holders). Come out and show your support!
Do you prefer to have your cinematic guilt and grief delivered with a Boston accent? If so, you might enjoy the Oscar-nominated Manchester by the Sea. (Well, maybe “enjoy” is the wrong verb, since Jimmy Fallon accurately described it as “the only thing from 2016 that was more depressing than 2016.”)
If, on the other hand, you prefer to have your guilt and grief delivered in Spanish—and leavened with a faint ray of hope—you might try Pedro Almodovar’s Julieta. It’s not a great film, and it’s certainly not the director’s best, but it does have its charms.
Fans of Almodovar (Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown) won’t be surprised to learn that the central character is a woman going through a very rough time. They also won’t be shocked to discover that the film shows the influence of an earlier filmmaker—in this case, Alfred Hitchcock. Many scenes are tinged with a feeling of ominousness that’s reinforced by Alberto Iglesias’s relentlessly Hitchcockian score.