People meeting

Saturday, June 7, 2-4pm, Upper Arlington Public Library [Friends Theater], 2800 Tremont Rd.

DEI stands for “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.” In our nation today, there are significant changes taking place within identified DEI programs on all different levels: companies, organizations, universities, schools, government, and more. Whether DEI programs are worthwhile or not is a topic worth learning more about and discussing by using “The Braver Angels Way.”

Some believe that these programs are essential to achieving fairness in our society. Some believe these programs have created more division and even furthered discrimination.

Join us for a discussion on this timely topic. There will be three panelists who will help us understand differing perspectives. A non-partisan panelist will provide a helpful overview of the purpose of and what is involved in DEI. Two other panelists will discuss the pros and cons of DEI programs from their knowledgeable and differing perspectives:

• Cindy Burack, Political Theorist and Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at The Ohio University

Guy in t-shirt

Haga clic aquí para la traducción al español

First Things First

We want to take a moment to say we know this has been a really hard week. So many Ohioans have been grappling with bad news that dramatically affects their lives. For example, in the last few days alone:

We expected the worst environmental outcomes when Trump ran for and won re-election in November. Unfortunately, Trump and his administration are doing what we expected, though not totally.

At the time of the election in November 2024, I wrote this about Trump’s environmental policies 

“One of Trump’s signature slogans is ‘drill baby drill,’ which means, as he has told us, his upcoming government, once installed after January 20,2025, will (1) increase government support for fossil fuels, (2) reduce support for solar, wind, and geothermal, (3) encourage more export of fracked natural gas, (4) eviscerate or close the Environmental Protection Agency, (5) open up public land to drilling; and (6) serve as a discouraging international model for other countries to follow (https://vitalissuesbobsheak.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=4795&action=edit).

Drugmakers want drugs that people take for decades (which is why they don't develop antibiotics, taken for a measly 10 days.)

Pharma's top revenue streams include kids with ADHD (remaining on drugs until adulthood), people "living with mental illness," the obese and diabetic, those "at risk" of cardiovascular disease (who will take statins), and women.

Until 2003, approximately 61 million US women took hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for the "disease" of menopause, once called simple aging. Drugmakers increased the take by moving the "start date" for menopause ahead ten years through inventing the term "perimenopause." Then the wheels fell of the menopause franchise.

Remonetizing Menopause

When HRT was found to increase the risk of breast cancer by 26 percent, heart attacks by 29 percent, stroke by 41 percent and to double the risk of blood clots, millions of women quit. For a while, "hormone" was even a dirty word.

But Pharma could not let millions of women be non-customers.

Want Democracy? Defend Dissent sign

Trump is building a giant database of our personal information with the help of tech giant Palantir. 

Trump intends to use the company’s mass data-collection technology to compile master lists of Americans’ personal data, including everything from bank account records to disability status to medical claims, without their consent. Trump could then use these vast datasets to abuse the law, persecute his adversaries, and advance his political agenda.

The Trump administration has already awarded Palantir, founded by Trump mega-donor Peter Thiel, more than $895 million in government contracts. 

Former Palantir employees have warned, “Combining all that data, even with the noblest of intentions, significantly increases the risk of misuse.”

Let’s put a stop to this mass data collection before it’s too late. Tell Congress to oppose Trump’s surveillance scheme and Thiel’s data collection cash grab.

Our great poet laureate MIMI GERMAN kicks us off with her usual genius at the GREEP zoom #225 from Monday, June 2, 2025.

Mimi additionally fills us in on the astounding fight for real grassroots democracy in the allegoric & all-too-real “Mayberry” on the Oregon coast.

Homelessness advocate SUSIE SHANNON gives us a full & powerful report on the horrific Budget Bill’s ugly assault on the tragically unhoused.

Minnesota’s KARLA SAND questions the role of Medicaid qualifiers for elder citizens.

From DR. NANCY NIPARKO we get a unique medical perspective on the horrendous impacts of being unhoused.

We hear from MIKE HERSH that his blog on Trump reminds us that FDR had Eleanor & Frances Perkins at his back.

From Georgia we hear from the great RAY MCCLENDON about a critical upcoming utility commission election in the Peach State.

PSC candidate DANIEL BLACKMAN tells us first hand about the challenges of running for election amidst some of the most corrupt electoral realities anywhere.

Legendary Pacifica activist MYLA RESON asks what we can do to help Daniel help save Georgia’s electricity grid.

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US Solar Industry Continues Growing

The latest data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, or EIA, reveals that the mix of renewable energy sources produced over the first three months of 2025, provided nearly a third of the total U.S. electric generation.

Utility-scale solar expanded by 43.9 percent in the first quarter of this year. Small-scale rooftop solar increased by 11 percent compared to the same period in 2024.

The combination of utility-scale and small-scale solar increased by over one third and was 6.8 percent of the total U.S. electric generation for this first quarter, up from 5.3 percent a year earlier.

This means that energy generated from solar surpassed the output of the nation's hydroelectric plants, which was 5.7 percent.  This is a first in our nation's history.

Biofuels Demand More Land than Solar Generation

Logo

US Solar Industry Continues Growing

The latest data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, or EIA, reveals that the mix of renewable energy sources produced over the first three months of 2025, provided nearly a third of the total U.S. electric generation.

Utility-scale solar expanded by 43.9 percent in the first quarter of this year. Small-scale rooftop solar increased by 11 percent compared to the same period in 2024.

The combination of utility-scale and small-scale solar increased by over one third and was 6.8 percent of the total U.S. electric generation for this first quarter, up from 5.3 percent a year earlier.

This means that energy generated from solar surpassed the output of the nation's hydroelectric plants, which was 5.7 percent.  This is a first in our nation's history.

Biofuels Demand More Land than Solar Generation

Chorus and conductor with raised fists

The Columbus Gay Men’s Chorus (“CGMC”) is proud to present their Pride Month concert “35-n-Thrivin’” on June 28th and June 29th at the Davidson Theater in the Vern Riffe Center. The show consists of songs by well-known LGBTQIA+ artists and is a celebration of CGMC’s 35th anniversary season.

Brayton Bollenbacher, CGMC’s Artistic Director, said the Chorus’ 35th anniversary brought to mind renowned LGBTQIA+ artists, including Tracy Chapman, Melissa Etheridge, Elton John, Chappell Roan and Ricky Martin, and the notable music they were working on before the age of 35. “As we are celebrating our 35th season, I was curious to see what Queer musicians were doing when they were 35 years old,” Bollenbacher said. “This concert is really celebrating music by the amazing artists that they created prior to being 35 years old.”

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