The so-called Gaza ceasefire was not a genuine cessation of hostility, but a strategic, cynical shift in the Israeli genocide and ongoing campaign of destruction.

 Starting on October 10, the first day of the announced ceasefire, Israel transitioned tactics: moving from indiscriminate aerial bombardment to the calculated, engineered demolishing of homes and vital infrastructure. Satellite images, corroborated by almost hourly media and ground reports, confirmed this methodical change.

We start GREEP #247 with our Laureate MIMI GERMAN’S poetic Hallelujah for last week’s honored guest, the new US Rep Adelina Grijalva, on the brink of changing the world.

From Waldport, Oregon we hear from organizer TONY & Mayor HEIDE LAMPERT in the midst of an anti-Trumpian fight for democracy itself.

We link them to former Charlotte Mayor JENNIFER ROBERTS of the Carter Center, herself fighting for democracy against Border Patrol fascists running rampant in Charlotte, NC.

From HARTZELL GRAY we meet an extremely articulate & powerful GenZ rising star now running for Congress & a better world in Kansas City, Mo.

We’re then honored by the presence of the great RAY MCCLENDON with an in-depth report on the critical RICO case against Trump for the attempted theft of Georgia’s 2020 election.

From JOMAR LLOYD, of Food & Water Watch, we get the latest on the Renew Act now being proposed in Maryland to study damage done by fossil fuel burners & then to mandate polluters to pay into a state fund to support remedial action through an update infrastructure.

“Syrians are nasty people.”

This ancient Roman graffiti was found during World War II etched on a rock in Syria by a friend’s father who was soldiering in the British Army. Not much has changed since the 1st Century AD.

Syria continues to be a danger and headache to its own people and neighbours. Its only time of relative peace - if one discounts the murderous Mongols and Crusaders - was during the centuries of Ottoman rule when the Turks allowed Syria’s 20-odd different peoples to do their own thing and worship their preferred gods.

Modern Syria used to be the beating heart of the Arab world. A centre of deep cultures, dazzling architecture, bizarre cults, strange religions and rich farmlands. Damascus rivalled Cairo as the capital of the Mideast. Created by French imperialists after World War I, the modern state of Syria became very important due to its vital geographic importance. Syria bordered on newly created Iraq, Jordan and Palestine - which would later become, in part, the Jewish state of Israel. Syria and Egypt were historic rivals who have warred over Syria across the centuries. Napoleon saw Syria as the key to the Mideast.

I dedicate this question, which is at the core of the book with which I am struggling, to Donald Trump.

When we think of power, the word itself commands that we carve the concept into something isolated and wieldable: a sword, a gun, a scepter. Power means power over. There is no basic concept of power – no word for power in the English language – that also means collaboration, collective participation: people working together, individually empowered at the same time that they are part of a larger whole.

The Columbus Free Press lost a member of our community Saturday, November 15, 2025. Michael Eckhardt passed on to the spirit world after a courageous journey battling lung disease.

Michael wrote for the Free Press since the 1990s, covering Native American topics, particularly his work with the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee (LPDC). He served as Regional Director, member of the National and International Speakers Bureau, member of the LPDC Advisory Board, and his last position was being appointed a member of the LPDC Executive Council. Michael also represented the national LPDC at the 1995 United Nations Working Group for Indigenous People in Geneva. After that he was given the responsibility for maintenance and oversight of over 100 support groups worldwide.