Busting Myths: The Ohio State University vs. The Students, The Law, and The Truth

Harvey J Graff

On March 14, 2023, a day that will live in infamy in Columbus and across the Oval, The Ohio State University filed the petition to the US Supreme Court that it foreshadowed the moment the federal District Court of Appeals ruled against its previous attempt to escape responsibility for the criminal misconduct of Dr. Richard Strass and its refusal to respond responsibly to the more than 600 documented victims of Strauss’ sexual abuse.

It is no accident that OSU’s unnamed attorneys file their brief with the right-wing ideological and anti-Constitution majority United States Supreme Court. They purposefully and blatantly misrepresent the case and the issues. The University declares that it asks, “the justices to review at divided decision by the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in order to preserve the statute of limitations for Title IX claims, which is foundational to the nation’s shared rule of law, and affirm the scope of federal education protections under Title IX.”

Let’s begin with this summary statement. I note:

1. “Divided opinion” = 24 against OSU; 4 in favor. In today’s wording that is called a super-majority, not a division.

Bus Stile Activities: CML and Protomartyr

Protomartyr cover

Bus Stile Activities celebrated the Columbus Metropolitan Library’s (CML) 150th anniversary. Our libraries were founded in March 1873 after the Civil War showed the importance of literacy. CML still astound me. Our society agrees acquiring knowledge can exist as a public collective agreement. I used the library as a kid.

Once I became good at shoplifting I didn’t need the library.

By 6-20-2016 I had stopped shoplifting. I had stopped shoplifting before 2016 but this was the day I decided I needed a library card.

My first library items 6-20-2016…as an adult:

Rules For Radicals: A Practical Primer for Realistic Radicals, By Saul Alinksy.

Eric Rohmer’s La Collectionneuse, Love in the Afternoon, Claire’s Knee, Suzanne’s Career and My Knight at Maud’s.

I celebrated CML’s 150th Anniversary by perusing these items last week:

A Decade Under The Influence: the 70s Films That Changed Everything

No Miracles Needed: How Today’s Technology can Save Our Climate and Clean Our Air

Details about event

Ohio Nuclear Free Network:  
3-3-23 webinar recording: No Miracles Needed: How Today’s Technology can Save Our Climate and Clean Our Air.  
Top energy expert Mark Jacobson outlines innovative new technologies, says no to all combustion. A lot of that is laid out in his new book by the same name. 
Moderated by Ken Cook from the Environmental Working Group. 

The U.S. must stop threatening China

It appears that the military-industrial complex has complete control of the government of the United States, which recently voted to give the Pentagon roughly a trillion dollars of the tax-payers money. This was done

by cutting back on social programs which would have helped poor working families.

 

Recently Joan Roelofs published a book entitled “The Trillion Dollar Silencer: Why There Is So Little Anti-War Protest in the United States” (Atlanta: Clarity Press, 2022). In this book, she points out that the U.S. military-industrial complex has located military bases in regions where the local economy is entirely dependent on them. The vast river of money flowing into the pockets of the military-industrial complex implies that very many people earn their living, directly, or indirectly, from the manufacture or use of weapons.

 

Ohio solar panel farms are booming, but construction workers are being exploited to make it happen

Map of Ohio solar farms and solar workers

Ohio’s non-residential solar industry – also known as utility-scale solar energy – is entering into a boomtime. Across the state’s vast farmlands massive solar panel farms are coming online, under construction or in a planning phase, with several of these projects a few miles west and southwest of I-270.

According to the Ohio Power Siting Board (a state office), just three solar farms are currently operational, but 11 are under construction and 22 are in a planning phase.

The Highland Solar Farm in southern Ohio, for example, will be a 300-megawatt facility built on 3,500 acres and expected to produce enough clean energy to power over 49,200 homes. What’s more, Ohio may someday be home to the nation’s largest solar panel farm if Microsoft’s Bill Gates – one of Ohio’s biggest land owners – decides to build it in Ohio.

Failure of SVB Confirms Surprising Extent of Corporate Fraud

The high-profile and sudden failure of Silicon Valley Bank, which hid huge losses from its depositors, investors, and regulators, highlights the dangers of corporate fraud for our financial system. It confirms the kind of problems highlighted by a recent study published in the Journal of Financial Economics estimating that only one-third of corporate frauds are detected, with an average of 10% of large publicly traded firms committing securities fraud every year. This means that the true extent of corporate fraud is much larger than what is currently being reported. The study also estimates that corporate fraud destroys 1.6% of equity value each year, which equals to $830 billion in 2021.

ACLU of Ohio Abortion Defenders Campaign Launch ONLINE LARGE MEETING

Bans off our bodies

Monday, March 13, 2023, 6:30 – 7:30 PM
The time is NOW to protect Abortion access in Ohio. Overwhelmingly, Ohioans support abortion, and other types of reproductive healthcare, and believe that the government should stay out of people's healthcare decisions. The ACLU of Ohio, along with a multitude of organizations, is working to put abortion on the ballot this year through a citizen-initiated effort. Join us on Monday, March 13th, to hear about our efforts and how you can help protect and defend this human right.  
Register here. 

Israel’s Liberal Supporters Are Taking Their Denial to a New Level

This week, when the New York Times featured an opinion piece by billionaire Michael Bloomberg, it harmonized with a crescendo of other recent pleas from prominent American supporters of Israel. Bloomberg warned that Israel’s new governing coalition is trying to give parliament the power to “overrule the nation’s Supreme Court and run roughshod over individual rights, including on matters such as speech and press freedoms, equal rights for minorities and voting rights.” Such a change would, Bloomberg added, undermine Israel’s “strong commitment to freedom.”

 Strong commitment to freedom?

Ginther Continues to Display a Lack of Leadership and Vison To Address our Affordable Housing Crisis

Joe Motil

Candidate for Mayor of Columbus Joe Motil states, "The Conference of U.S. Mayors tweeted Saturday that, “Tomorrow marks the second anniversary of the signing of the American Rescue Plan Act, which provided $65.1B directly to America's cities. Over the past two years, mayors have put this funding to work to address long-standing challenges and build stronger, more equitable cities.”

Mayor Andy Ginther’s reply on Twitter conveniently neglects to inform voters that he has not spent a dime of our city’s $187 million share of ARP funds to build a single unit of affordable housing. The city has $84.6 million remaining. Since 2021, there has been 36,500 evictions, close to 300 homeless in Columbus have died, and about 60,000 people are paying 50 percent or more of their incomes to pay for rent.

 https://twitter.com/MayorGinther/status/1634290225324384256

Free Press Salon discussion on East Palestine disaster

Example of Poweroint slide with Cathy's face and a photo of big smoke cloud

The March 2023 Free Press Second Saturday Cyber-Salon happened on Zoom and Facebook Live on March 11, facilitated by Free Press Board member Mark Stansbery.

Watch the salon video here.

International Women’s Day was March 8 and Mark pointed out how women are the backbone of all peace organizing and he talked about women organizing in Sudan.

Cathy Cowan Becker spoke on the timeline and issues surrounding the East Palestine train derailment in Ohio. She mentioned a group operating in East Palestine, River Valley Organizing, a labor and environmental group who wanted the area called a disaster area, but Biden has not done it yet. She showed a detailed Powerpoint presentation on the timeline from the day of the derailment.

She noted that the rail industry blocked safety regulations that may have prevented the derailment for many years. The cover-up after the derailment has been obvious, especially when a reporter at the scene was arrested and charged with trespass, though charges were finally dropped.

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