This article first appeard on World Beyond War

Tuesday, January 7th at 6:00pm
Buckeye Environmental Network will be holding an informational webinar for the community and media to learn more about the ARCH2 project and its implications. Presenters include: eastern Ohio-based environmental scientist and retired chemistry teacher Dr. Randi Pokladnik, who will be presenting the health and environmental impacts, and Sean O’Leary, a researcher with the Ohio River Valley Institute, who will discuss the economic impacts of hydrogen and how the region has already suffered economically from fracking.
Register for the webinar at the following link: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0vduyqrzsrHt0C6ZX8B9f5CQDFQBv605Ya#/registration

The Presidential Election

Trump barely won the presidential election in November. Although he claims that his victory gave him a mandate to implement an extreme right-wing agenda, the numbers say otherwise. His margin of victory was the smallest of any presidential election since 1900. And we should bear in mind that Trump’s vote is unfairly buttressed by widespread right-wing gerrymanding in “red” states. James M. Lindsay cites the following “official” numbers in an article for the Council for Foreign Relations (https://cfr.org/article/2024-election-numbers). 

The freezing cold bites hardest on those who don’t have a home to head to at the end of the day. It doesn’t stop. Some may be lucky enough to have an abandoned home (“bando”) that provides shelter but not utilities. There are encampments with tents around the city that provide strength in numbers. Shared resources last longer and different hustles combine to provide more varied goods. But not long enough if the City of Columbus bulldozes your encampment after threatening “trespassers” with arrest.

On the night of the Winter Solstice – the longest night for those with nowhere to go – candlelight vigils are held across the US mourning and remembering the unhoused residents who have passed. According to the Columbus Coalition for the Homeless, 112 local unhoused passed in 2024 in Franklin County. The Coalition believes 400 unhoused passed over the previous three years.

President Trump may commute the sentences or pardon convicted criminals who have broken the law for him.  Anyone involved in the January 6, 2021 attack on the capital may get these considerations. Rudolph Giuliani may get a pardon so he won't have to pay out any of the millions of dollars of claims against him. The president may even pardon himself and other close friends and relatives for crimes they may have committed. He might not even reveal these pardons publicly until they are needed like having a "Get out of jail free" card. As a result, he might not have to pay E. Jean Carroll anything or anyone else who has ever had a judgement against him. We may only be able to call him a "former" 34-time convicted felon.

Many farmers who supported Trump may be surprised when he helps put them out of business. New INS raids will deplete fields of migrant workers who do agricultural labor that no American would do. Many of these farmers may also be arrested for trying to help poor people support their families. Expect food prices to skyrocket.