Bob Bites Back: Business As Usual

A hand with like an orange squeezer with the Earth inside pouring a liquid out of it in to a cup on a table, the other half of the world lying on the table and off to the left on the table are Saturn and two other planets

Judge Cynthia Ebner, endorsed by the Stonewall Democrats, handed out sentences to three of the four #BlackPride4 on Tuesday, March 13. The #BlackPride4 were arrested when they held a silent vigil during the 2017 Stonewall Pride march to call attention to the murders of black trans people and killings of black people in Columbus by the police. Just seconds into the vigil, Columbus Police attacked and brutalized them.

Ashley Braxton was sentenced to two years probation, 90 days in jail with 89 days being suspended, 60 hours of community service, and a $250 fine. Kendall Denton, convicted of a mere fourth degree disorderly conduct, the lowest misdemeanor charge, was given a surprisingly harsh sentence: two years probation, 30 days in jail with 29 days being suspended, 48 hours of community service, and a $100 fine – with $50 suspended because he spent a night in jail.

Rethinking the Whole Country

Repeal and replace? How about the Second Amendment?

“A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

Setting aside the antique strangeness of the wording, isn’t it time to give thought to the values that permeated the era in which it was written — and who, exactly, “the people” were to which it referred?

I say this realizing that the United States has evolved over the years. Women gained the right to vote. Slaves gained quasi-freedom and then, a hundred years later, their descendants won the right to vote, the right to use a public restroom, the right to . . . live as first-class citizens, sort of. Except for the economy, the prison system, the ongoing racism.

Threats From the Junta & Civilians in Thailand

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Thailand's military government insists the army will not turn against the ruling junta and is warning pro-election civilians to stop trying to split the regime, smear it with corruption allegations or protest in the streets for democracy.

 

The escalating confrontations threaten Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha's purported plan to manipulate a post-election parliament to extend his stay in power which began when he led a bloodless 2014 military coup.

 

"I am not interested in dragging things out," Mr. Prayuth said on March 30 responding to fears that he would again delay the election because his popularity is falling.

 

Small, fearless, anti-junta demonstrations meanwhile have again appeared in Bangkok's congested, sweltering streets.

 

Psych Drugs and Guns Don’t Mix

“Violence and other potentially criminal behaviors caused by prescription drugs are medicine’s best kept secret.” -- David Healy, UK psychiatrist and author (and co-founder of www.RxISK.org)

 

“The establishment media ignores the scientific evidence linking psychiatric medications and violent behavior because psychiatry is the religion of the mainstream media, and they don’t want to see the dangers of psychiatrically prescribed drugs.” -- Peter R. Breggin, psychiatrist and author (www.breggin.org)

 

It's On Wendy's

Darkened photo of back of a black woman outside waving a yellow flag over her head and signs all around her about justice and against Wendys

Thursday, April 5, 5-6pm
2004 N. High St.
In response to powerful and beautiful Freedom Fast and Time's Up Wendy's March, Wendy's released this statement:
"There's no new news here, aside from the CIW trying to exploit the positive momentum that has been generated by and for women in the #MeToo and Time's Up movement to advance their interests."
Since then, the network has called Wendy's statement despicable, reprehensible, and vile. They're right!
We've seen what sexual harassment and sexual violence looks like on college campuses, and we won't tolerate it in Wendy's supply chain. April is sexual assault awareness month, and too often farmworker women are excluded from that conversation. Stand with us April 5th as Columbus heeds the call for a national day of action. Let's show Wendy's that farmworker women are leaders in the movement against sexual violence and that Wendy's has crossed the line.

Shelter Me From The Powder And The Finger

Man playing a guitar with his hair sticking straight up in the air and his face in a strange scowl he's wearing a plaid shirt without sleeves and he has long sideburns, the name Neil Young in red letters at top and Powderfinger below

"Look out, mama, there's a white boat coming down the river" ~ from Neil Young's "Powderfinger"

Damned little makes me happier than riding a bicycle – except maybe a motorcycle. For our purposes today, though, it's the human-powered invention usually attributed to a 19th century French man who was allergic to horses(hit).

I pedal, I thrive. Rhythmic grooves arrive. I bob my head in time as my legs go to the Derby, pumping energy through chain to wheels barely more mechanical than a chariot. Good lawd, I loves you, Porgy!

And when I'm feeling good, I want to the whole neighborhood to hear it.

Thus I break out in song. Lately, Powderfinger.

I lustily howl the quoted opening line--then forget virtually every other word except

Red means run, son, numbers add up to nothing from a following verse where the father advises the rebel son bravery isn't everything. Then – no kidding – I go into Rod Stewart's Maggie May

Cardinal Health the Pusha Man?

Brick sign outside with words Cardinal Health and words superimposed over picture in white below saying Drug Cartel?

Any marijuana user knows failing a drug test will most likely cost you your job. Or, that getting popped for marijuana possession could ruin your career.

But what happens to a Fortune 500 company that’s been accused repeatedly over the previous decade by both federal and state law enforcement of breaking federal law by distributing massive amounts of opioids? A Fortune 500 company the Ohio Attorney General’s Office and others allege has helped fuel the heroin epidemic that’s killed tens of thousands?

If you are Dublin-based Cardinal Health, you pay a small fine and keep distributing huge amounts of opioids as your revenues go over $130 billion annually, that’s what.

You also pump Congress full of money so it hamstrings the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) from investigating opioid distributors, as told recently to 60 Minutes by a DEA whistle blower. And as for the founders of Cardinal Health, the Walter family, you become, over this same decade one of the richest if not the richest family in Central Ohio.

Indict the Grand Jury

Painting of a black man's face against a yellow and orange circle on a white sided building with a bouquet of flowers in the foreground

On March 27th, 2018, once again, the legal “authorities” made the same decision that seems to be the norm when it comes to police officers killing black man and boys “in the line of duty.” What decision did the Louisiana officials make regarding the fatal shooting of Alton Sterling? A black man that was seen, not alleged, but seen, laying on his back while two police officers held him down and shot him dead. They made the decision that police officers are not held responsible for killing citizens, especially black citizens, and will not be charged with murder when it is very clear, through visual evidence, that murder was committed.

Police officers getting off with killing black boys, or anyone for that matter, isn’t always the case. The police officer who shot unarmed 15-year-old Jordan Edwards in 2017 was charged with murder in Texas within a week of using his rifle to shoot into the car that Edwards was sitting in, with three other black boys, at a house party. This past March in Minnesota a police officer was indicted with murder charges for shooting 40-year-old Australian woman, Justine Damond, when police responded to her 911 call.

Help Save the Wayne National Forest from Devastating Industrialization

A huge tree at the bottom with a mess of huge tangled roots, in a forest

On March 22, people around the world celebrated World Water Day, an international holiday established by The United Nations in 1993 to advocate for sustainable management of freshwater resources. This year’s theme was Nature for Water. According to worldwaterday.org:

Environmental damage, together with climate change, is driving the water-related crises we see around the world. Floods, drought and water pollution are all made worse by degraded vegetation, soil, rivers and lakes. When we neglect our ecosystems, we make it harder to provide everyone with the water we need to survive and thrive. Nature-based solutions have the potential to solve many of our water challenges. We need to do so much more with ‘green’ infrastructure and harmonize it with ‘grey’ infrastructure wherever possible. Planting new forests, reconnecting rivers to floodplains, and restoring wetlands will rebalance the water cycle and improve human health and livelihoods.

Music and Racial Justice: From Abolition to Black Lives Matter

The silhouette of Martin Luther King made up of photos of civil rights rallies with the words at top that say An Evening of Song

Wed, April 4, 6:45-8:45pm
King Arts Complex, 867 Mt. Vernon Ave.
On the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination we will commemorate through song, narration, and images, the African-American resistance to the violence and oppression that have defined the Black experience in America. Keith Kilty, at kilty.1@osu.edu. kingartscomplex.com.

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