Man speaking into bullhorn and crowd with Jewish Voices for Peace sign

Eighty peope from Columbus and all over Ohio came together Saturday, July 29 at noon to protest the Congressional vote to send $705 million of taxpayer dollars for the US-Israel Missile Defense Partnership.

There is also an active international group advocating a BDS movement - boycott, divest and sanction -- against Israel for their treatment of people in Gaza and the West Bank. Ohio Senator Rob Portman is sponsoring a bill that would CRIMINALIZE the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement in the US.

For the past decade, Israel has enforced a military blockade on over 2 million Palestinians in Gaza and now they only have 3 hours of electricity per day.

Mainstream media isn't covering these atrocities, so several local groups got together to speak out at the Statehouse last Saturday and demand an end to the brutal blockade.  

Tuesday, August 1, 7pm
Dempsey's 346 S High St, Columbus, OH 43215
The healthcare bill is dead and it's time to celebrate! Join us at Dempsy's for fun and food. We can celebrate while writing thank you cards to send to the senators that deserve them the most!
There will be cards so you can send a picture along with your thanks. The senators would love to see the faces of those they saved, especially those who risked so much voting against their party. There will also be thank you postcards for a quick note and blank postcards to design your own. 
Stamps, cards, and writing supplies will be provided. We will also have a list of the senator's addresses for your convenience. 
I look forward to seeing you all there!

Orange face of Donald Trump

Angst, fear and loathing are the overwhelming emotions six months into the disastrous Trump presidency. Just exactly who, or what, do we have at the helm of the United States Ship of State, and the little red button that could end life as we know it?            

This month’s Free Press cover depicts a Trump regime floundering in rough sea waters, with the Don confident, but clueless.

The planet and its leaders are watching in horror as the ship appears to be capsizing. Trump and his fools enrich themselves, all the while gleefully decimating domestic social programs, dooming the environment and destroying our nation’s relationships around the world.

Charles Wince, the artist, is asking: just who is steering this ship of fools?

A buffoon? A bully? An oft-bankrupt billionaire businessman? A Benito Mussolini in the making?

Simply put, what we have is an international criminal hell-bent on continuing his crime spree within and without his corrupt administration. Making the world safe for oligarchy.

Casinos, luxury hotels equals money laundering

Red and black background with words Gaza, Save Gaza

Saturday, July 29, 12noon
Ohio Statehouse, Broad and High Streets
For a decade, Israel has enforced a military blockade over two million Palestinians in Gaza. Now, people in Gaza only have an average of 3 hours of electricity per day. Mainstream media isn't covering the humanitarian crisis. Meanwhile, Columbus/Mansfield Reps. Beatty and Tiberi just signed a bill authorizing $705 million of taxpayer dollars for the US-Israel Missile Defense Partnership. Ohio Senator Rob Portman is sponsoring a bill that would CRIMINALIZE the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement in the US. 
The people of Gaza should have electricity, clean drinking water, functioning hospitals, and opportunities to rebuild. This means that Israel has to end its brutal blockade, and the world needs to pressure them to do just that. Show up to show solidarity with Gaza, and to demand an end to American complicity in the illegal military occupation of Palestine.
We'll meet in front of the Statehouse on High St. Bring signs calling for justice in Palestine!
Co-sponsors:
Students for Justice in Palestine at The Ohio State University

After a major setback, the struggle for a living wage in Ohio has been re-energized thanks to a ruling by a Franklin County judge. In June Common Pleas Judge Richard Frye blocked portions of Senate Bill 331, passed in December of last year by the Ohio General Assembly and signed into law by Gov. Kasich.

Part of SB 331 prohibited Ohio cities from setting a local minimum wage higher than the state minimum wage.  Judge Frey tossed out this and another portion of the law, citing the one-subject rule in the Ohio Constitution, which prohibits “Christmas tree” bills: legislation with unrelated riders tacked on that benefit special interests.

In other words, the Ohio legislature is not allowed to sneak minimum wage rules into a bill that has nothing to do with labor. SB 331 was about regulating dog breeders and pet stores. This was an underhanded maneuver to pre-empt cities from setting their own minimum wage without any opportunity for public debate.

To read Witnesses of the Unseen: Seven Years in Guantanamo is to run your mind along the contours of hell. 

The next step, if you’re an American, is to embrace it. Claim it. This is who we are: We are the proprietors of a cluster of human cages and a Kafkaesque maze of legal insanity. This torture center is still open. Men (“forever prisoners”) are still being held there, their imprisonment purporting to keep us safe. 

The book, by Lakhdar Boumediene and Mustafa Ait Idir — two Algerian men arrested in Bosnia in 2001 and wrongly accused of being terrorists — allows us to imagine ourselves at Guantanamo, this outpost of the Endless War. 

Yes, I’m going to tell you what’s missing from this film without watching the film. Trump has, as promised, made me so sick of winning that I really could enjoy watching a defeat film, but I think I’ll pass. If I’m wrong about what’s missing from it (I mean one of the many things that are, no doubt, missing from it), I promise that I will eat an entire plan for victory in Afghanistan annually for the next decade.

One of the oddest things about World War II is how it has been marketed as a humanitarian war since the moment it ended.

One reason this is odd is that several times the number of people killed in German concentration camps were killed outside of them in the war (at least 50 million worldwide vs. 9 million killed in the camps). And the majority of those people were civilians. So a war against killing people in camps would be a very strange way to understand World War II, unless killing many more people can be made an acceptable means of opposing killing people. The scale of the killing, wounding, and destroying made WWII the single worst thing humanity has ever done to itself in any short space of time.

In the corporate war against renewable energy, a single Ohio regulation stands out.

It is a simple clause slipped into the state budget without open discussion, floor debate, or public hearings.

The restriction is costing Ohio billions of dollars and thousands of jobs.

The regulation demands that wind turbines sited in the Buckeye State be at least 1,125 feet from the blade tip to the nearest property line, about 1300 feet total—nearly a quarter-mile.

Blue, pink an white flag background with words take action for trans rights
Thursday, July 27-29, 5:30-9pm
Goodale Park march to Statehouse
Facebook Event
Buckeye Region Anti-Violence Org, Equitas Health, HRC Columbus,Equality Ohio, Kaleidoscope Youth Center and Stonewall Columbus invite you to join us in protest. We will gather at 5:30pm Thursday at the Goodale Park Gazebo and march to the Statehouse in protest of the Trump administrations attacks against transgender military service members.
We need to rise up together to show this administration that these acts are unacceptable, and show that we are here to support, protect, and empower our community.
The march will begin at the gazebo in Goodale Park and will proceed via the sidewalks to the Statehouse. Signs and chanting are encouraged! We hope to see community members and allies out in force, raising their voices in support!
We stand by our brave, selfless transgender service members and will not stand idly by.

 

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