A friend, a young journalist in Gaza, Mohammed Rafik Mhawesh, told me that food prices in the besieged Strip have skyrocketed in recent weeks and that many already impoverished families are struggling to put food on the table. 

 “Food prices are dramatically surging,” he said, “particularly since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war.” Essential food prices, like wheat and meat, have nearly doubled. The price of a chicken, for example, which was only accessible to a small segment of Gaza’s population, has increased from 20 shekels (approx. $6) to 45 (approx. $14).

 These price hikes may seem manageable in some parts of the world but in an already impoverished place, which has been under a hermetic Israeli military siege for 15 years, a humanitarian crisis of great proportions is certainly forthcoming. 

The war in Ukraine rages on, and the war mentality, promoted by propaganda on all sides, generates ever more devotion to keeping it going, even escalating it, even considering repeating it in Finland or elsewhere based on having “learned” precisely the wrong “lesson.” The bodies pile up. The threat of famine looms over many countries. The risk of nuclear apocalypse grows. The impediments to positive action for the climate are strengthened. Militarization expands.

Columbus searches in vain for an identity, bouncing ridiculously from Cowtown to Crop Town, Cap City, Arch City, Buckeyeville, Nationwide or Crew City, or Number 14 or 15 (in population rank among U.S. cities). None of those fit the city past or present. I propose another, more appropriate and accurate moniker: the lawless, wild-wild-Midwest. (See my “Columbus’ identity crisis and its media”; “Columbus searches for its Downtown with historical, urbanist, and developers’ blinders”; “Columbus, Ohio, searches to be a city: The myth of the Columbus Way”; “Is Columbus actually a City?”)

A group calling itself the Columbus Coalition on Rent Control filed a petition this week with the city to officially begin a citizen-led ballot initiative which would create a rent control ordinance and establish a new city office named the Department of Fair Housing.

While the petition for rent control or rent stabilization may not be a first for the state of Ohio, this would be Ohio’s first-ever rent control ordinance if the citizen initiative were to win at the ballot.

The Columbus Coalition on Rent Control is driven by several well-known progressive and political activists, such as Jonathan Beard, Joe Motil, Tyrone Thomas, and Noel Williams, Chair of the housing committee for B.R.E.A.D, the local faith-based activist group.

Seemingly overnight, the cost of housing in Columbus went from relatively affordable to now putting tens of thousands under extreme pressure to keep a roof over their family’s heads. 

With the great ANDREA MILLER and JOEL SEGAL our GREE-GREE gathering #91 dives into the realties of grassroots campaigning.

While the major parties will blow tens of millions on TV advertising, we saw in Georgia 2021 how effective “relational campaigning” can be.

Andrea reveals the realities of a Democratic Party dependent on a foreign-owned data company, and unwilling to do the nitty-gritty work of getting on the ground.

If a right-wing wipe-out is to be avoided, democracy centers and door-to-door tactics will be key.

TATANKA BRICCA, WENDI LEDERMAN and RON LEONARD then fill us in on the war against rooftop solar.  Anti-green moves in CA and FL are now at the cutting edge.

Join us to save both our democracy & our planet!!

https://youtu.be/CgstC82_I2M