Local
It’s been a while since I was a groupie of any band. I am too old for concert going and fan obsession...or so I thought. I have found my new calling. I have been revived. Last night I attended the concert of Young Rising Sons, a soulful soul-filled band from Red Bank, NJ.
The show started with The Mosers, their music is upbeat, fun and loud and their personalities shown through in their new sound. Their energy was a great way to start the show.
Following this uplifting act came Night Riots. Lead singer Travis Hawley’s voice was hauntingly eerie and it was fitting we were in Brooklyn, as they were as hipster (in a good way) as they come. At one point Travis stood on the drums. Yes, on the Drums – don’t ask me how. Their music left you entranced and ready, and talent was tangible.
It’s been a while since I was a groupie of any band. I am too old for concert going and fan obsession...or so I thought. I have found my new calling. I have been revived. Last night I attended the concert of Young Rising Sons, a soulful soul-filled band from Red Bank, NJ.
The show started with The Mosers, their music is upbeat, fun and loud and their personalities shown through in their new sound. Their energy was a great way to start the show.
Following this uplifting act came Night Riots. Lead singer Travis Hawley’s voice was hauntingly eerie and it was fitting we were in Brooklyn, as they were as hipster (in a good way) as they come. At one point Travis stood on the drums. Yes, on the Drums – don’t ask me how. Their music left you entranced and ready, and talent was tangible.
As you read this, a terror attack has put atomic reactors in Ukraine at the brink of another Chernobyl-scale apocalypse.
Transmission lines have been blown up. Power to at least two major nuclear power stations has been “dangerously” cut. Without emergency backup, those nukes could lose coolant to their radioactive cores and spent fuel pools. They could then melt or explode, as at Fukushima.
Yet amidst endless “all-fear-all-the-time” reporting on ISIS, the corporate media has remained shockingly silent on this potential catastrophe.
Nor has it faced the most critical step needed to protect our planet in a time of terror: shutting all atomic reactors.
The world’s 430-plus licensed commercial nuclear plants give terrorists like ISIS the power at any time to inflict a radioactive Apocalypse that could kill millions, destroy huge parts of the Earth and devastate the global economy.
Mindful of the violent reactions from Donald Trump supporters at recent campaign rallies, a small group of protesters took a more subtle approach when the presidential candidate spoke at the Greater Columbus Convention Center on November 23. When Trump got to the podium and began to speak, the protesters turned their backs on him.
As Trump pitched his anti-immigrant, anti-woman, anti-Muslim agenda to a cheering crowd, the protesters took out books by classic and modern socialist authors and quietly read through the first 40 minutes of the rally. They stood about 200 feet from the podium, surrounded by thousands of ardent Donald Trump supporters.
The action was organized by Hayley Cotter, who supports Bernie Sanders’ run for President. “My inspiration was from Johari Osayi Idusuyi, a woman who read a book through another Trump rally,” she said. “It was a very powerful statement in opposition to Trump’s fascism.”
The “stolen election” controversy over this month’s officially defeated Ohio pot legalization referendum has gone to a new level.
“The results are not only impossible but unfathomable,” stated Ron Baiman, Assistant Professor of Graduate Business Administration at Benedictine University, where he teaches economics and statistics.
The Columbus Free Press asked Baiman to calculate the odds of the official vote count of Ohio’s Issue 3, to legalize marijuana, being correct – compared to the tracking polls charting voter preference leading up to this year’s November election. The Free Press supplied Baiman with poll results taken prior to the election by noted pollster Jon Zogby.
The polls leading into the November 3 vote showed the referendum passing. But the official results claim it lost by 2:1.
In the lead-up to the November 3 referendum on pot legalization in Ohio, reputable mainstream polls show it winning.
Then, amidst the usual “glitches” that distinguish the Buckeye State’s electronic elections, it officially failed by a 2:1 margin.
The outcome is a virtual statistical impossibility. But it fits a pattern that has made Ohio elections infamous since the 2004 “selection” of George W. Bush over John Kerry.
As in 2004, this year’s balloting was supervised by a Secretary of State with a heavy partisan stake in the outcome.
In 2004, the presidential voting was supervised by J. Kenneth Blackwell, who simultaneously served as the co-chair of Ohio’s Committee to Re-Elect Bush and Cheney.
In 2015, the general voting was supervised by Jon Husted, who vehemently opposed pot legalization and threatened legal action against the sponsors of the referendum.
“I’m here to stand up for people who don’t make a decent wage,” said Genelle Rhynehardt, who works as a janitor in the Huntington Center in downtown Columbus. “People have to earn more to better their communities and better themselves.”
A member of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1, Rhynehardt was speaking on November 10 at a #FightFor15 rally on the steps of Columbus City Hall. It was one of 230 solidarity protests held across the U.S. as part of a national day of action. Fast food workers went on strike in 270 cities, demanding a $15 an hour wage and the right to join a union.
The current minimum wage is not a living wage, Rhynehardt said. “For people to try to live on it and live on welfare at the same time is not fair. We want to be able to stand up for ourselves financially, to be able to go to the grocery store and not rely on food stamps.”
When word began to spread on election night that Athens County – a long-time stronghold for Ohio marijuana legalization – was soundly defeating Issue 3 by nearly 30 percentage points the death knell for medical marijuana in the state became earsplitting.
The pro-legalization base in Ohio was mostly unified in their defiance of the oligopoly Issue 3 tried to create. An anti-corporate push back in the age of Occupy. The Free Press itself was critical of ResponsibleOhio and its big money investors who clearly had aspirations of astronomical profits for years to come.
But not all marijuana activists stood behind those who believed the issue was putting a massive marijuana industry in the hands of a few.
The activists who did support Issue 3 say the base’s outrage over marijuana corporatization may have blinded them. Building up enough contempt that it took away any compassion for the many Ohioans who use medical marijuana (illegally) for whatever ailment they have.
According to the Ohio Secretary of State, the people of Ohio defeated a November 3 proposition to legalize marijuana by a tally of nearly 2:1.
The official vote count is not plausible.
The assertion that the election was probably stolen fits a well-established Ohio pattern of official manipulation of electronic poll books and voting machines.
Issue 3’s promoters should demand a recount, though the system is rigged and they would certainly be stonewalled. As in 2004, critical election records are likely to not materialize even though they are legally required to be maintained.
Given evidence at very least from Cincinnati, Dayton and at least three pre-election statewide polls, the margin of defeat approaches the range of virtual statistical impossibility.
The controversial measure would have established an oligarchy of ten licensed growers operating regulated indoor grow sites of up to 300,000 square feet each. The pro-marijuana activist community was divided on the measure (disclosure: Bob voted against it, Harvey voted for it).
Here are some basic facts: