Right now, Congress is working on a giant, fast-track bill that would make historic cuts to basic needs programs to finance another round of tax breaks for the wealthy and big corporations.

As the Communications and Policy Director for the Rural Democracy Initiative, I’ve been hearing from rural leaders across the country about the devastating impacts this bill would have.

The good news is it’s not too late. But there’s little time to spare.

Ohio is one of three states which allows the owners of private property to do as they please with human remains if dug up during construction on their property, according to the Ohio Archeological Council. Couple that with the construction boom across Central Ohio, and Ohio-based Native American activists are increasingly worried about the continuing desecration of their ancestors.

Cranes and construction equipment these days are seemingly everywhere in Columbus and surrounding counties. Rising out of the excavated dirt are apartments, roads, data centers, and everything in between. Just east of Columbus in Licking County – home to the Native American earthworks that became Ohio’s first World Heritage site – the “Silicon Heartland” is slowly being built by Intel and others.

Our esteemed Poet Laureate MIMI GERMAN opens the Green Grassroots Emergency Election Zoom with one of her great poems: “A Thousand Grains of Sand”.

We pay homage to BROOOCE SPRINGSTEEN and his stellar defense of democracy as well.

We follow with MAYOR HEIDE LAMBERT of Waldport, Oregon and her astonishing parallel fight for democracy.

In the wake of a meeting with Christie Brinkley and Alec Baldwin, the legendary KARL GROSSMAN tells us the Democrat Governor Kathy Hochul is now pushing nuke power in NY.

The great MYLA RESON fills us in on the latest lunacy from Arizona's Palo Verde nukes, which are owned in part by the city of Los Angeles.

Our co-convenor MIKE HERSH thanks Karl for helping to shut the Shoreham nuke on Long Island.

Legendary computer pioneer LEE FELSENSTEIN adds his contribution to encouraging organizers of upcoming mass rallies to distribute business cards with QR codes to special websites for further organizing.

It has been an interesting few days with the United States renaming the Gulf of Mexico and Persian Gulf while also doubling down on spying directed against Greenland in expectations that it will be acquired as a US territory sometime soon. Meanwhile, some of us who have been watching developments in what has been described as Donald Trump’s “peace initiative” trip to the Middle East, which might also have included a stop in Istanbul to sit in with Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky, are now examining the pluses and minuses as the travel has ended. In my mind, high grades should be awarded for two aspects of the trip.

Below we suggest three options for getting out of the Russia-Ukraine stalemate and in the process review briefly the relevant history. It’s time to up the ante. We write this exploration in the form of a hypothetical letter President Donald Trump might send to President Vladimir Putin.

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Dear Vladimir,
            Russia continues to resist entering into peace talks with Ukraine or even to consider a ceasefire and, instead, insists on continuing hostilities, aimed primarily at civilians. This was yet again evident from your absence at direct talks with President Zelensky (and me) in Istambul, Turkey, last Thursday (5/15/25), even though you yourself called for these face-to-face negotiations. This was also evident from your massive drone attack ahead of our today's (5/19/25) telephone call on ending the war.