Release the Report Rally

Words We demand the truth, release the full Mueller report, trumpisnotabovethelaw.org

Thursday, April 4, 5-6:30pm
Sen. Rob Portman's office
37 w. Broad St.
Trump appointed Attorney General Barr failed to meet Tuesday's deadline for releasing the Mueller report to Congress. Therefore, Central Ohioans will join people across the country in coordinated actions to demand full transparency and accountability from our government. #ReleaseTheReport

Fighting for freedom and against dystopia: A report back from LibrePlanet 2019

Purple background and drawings of lots of stars and planets and the words Libreplanet 2019

Technology was supposed to liberate us from the oppressive forces of authoritarian censorship, allow us to connect with diverse voices around the world and in general make the world a better place by building an interconnected world. It is hard to look at the current political landscape and not be cynical about the promises of the techno visionaries of the past. But there are groups of freedom fighters who still think that we can find liberation in the technology we use and that we can liberate it by freeing the technology itself from centralization and control by both governments and corporations. These are the type of people who attended the Free Software Foundation’s LibrePlanet 2019 conference held in Boston.

To give a brief introduction, the Free Software Foundation is an organization built around the four software freedoms. In their basic form, they are the freedom to use, study, share and improve the software. This manifests in a lot of ways, but at its heart the Foundation helps build a community where people care about freedom. LibrePlanet was a meeting of these people.

Amber Evans and the memory of another missing black woman

Young black woman smiling in a black suit against a colorful background

On March 23, Amber Evans body was recovered from the Ohio Scioto River.  She had been in the river since January 28, 2019.  The community of Columbus and people across the nation had been waiting since January 28th for the police to recover Amber’s body as there was clear evidence that she was in fact, in the Scioto River.  They found her car near the river, they found her cell phone near the river and all evidence pointed to the fact that Amber would be found in the river.  How she got there was to be determined, after they found her body.  

I understand the pain, fear and the torture of having to wait for the police to tell you that your loved one, that has been missing for several weeks, has been found.  On March 3rd, 1977, on my 21st birthday, my father’s first cousin, a woman that he grew up with, loved and considered his “favorite cousin’s” body was recovered from the river in Indianapolis, Indiana.  She had been missing since December 1976, when her family found her door unlocked, her purse and keys on her kitchen table and no signs of her, anywhere.  

Bob Bites Back: The Columbus Way won’t work

White middle aged man with black hair yelling into a microphone and words Bob Bites Back

Mayor Ginther: Unopposed and Unindicted

Mayor Andrew Ginther is running unopposed in this year’s election. His major accomplishment in his first term was successfully remaining unindicted in the RedFlex camera scandal.

Ginther perfectly personifies the so-called “Columbus Way,” and that way is pretty straightforward. You suck up to multimillionaire and billionaire developers who don’t live in Columbus and give them massive tax breaks. In return, they fill your coffers for re-election.

Also as part of the Columbus Way, you make it difficult for any oppositional forces to get on the ballot. Municipal election signatures on candidate petitions cannot be gathered until after the November election. You have Thanksgiving, Christmas and then the coldest month of the year in January to try to get signatures. You require 1000 valid signatures for Mayor.

The Mayor with his power of patronage, appointment and abatements can gather a coterie of sycophants looking for favors.

Three Mile Island's Murderous Legacy Still Threatens Us All

By Harvey Wasserman, Reader Supported News

02 April 19

orty years ago this week, the Three Mile Island nuke began pouring lethal radiation into our air and water, lungs and livers.

Throughout central Pennsylvania and beyond, people, animals, plants, and the planet began to die en masse.

In 1980, a mile from the plant, I interviewed many of the immediate victims. It was the worst week of my life.

Today 98 US reactors could repeat the slaughter. Worldwide there are about 450. Many are falling apart. Each could deliver a lethal dose of apocalyptic proportions. All heat the planet, emit carbon, kill nearby newborns, suck up public money, hinder renewables, and threaten fresh catastrophes.

None are “zero emission” or “carbon free.” None can compete with the solar, wind, battery storage, and LED/efficiency technologies that can save us from a fried planet.

If we’re to live on this Earth, King CONG (Coal, Oil Nukes & Gas) must die.

Socially Just Dining: Portia’s Next Door and Tofu Louie

Close up of a sandwich with lettuce and tomato spilling out the side

Portia Yiamouyiannis knocked down a wall in Porta’s Cafe and opened the expanded new coffee shop and deli concept “Portia’s Next Door” on Indianola in Clintonville on Feb 11, 2019. I’m already delighted with the “eggless salad” and the many prepared deli-style salads one can discover there. Portia has also teamed up with Eric “Tofu Louie” Ma creating a dynamic duo for delectable vegan sushi pop-ups featuring “vegan carrot lox, cucumbers and cream cheeze” rolls; “scallops” (mushrooms); and a “sashimi with avocado roll.” Spare the fishes and get your sushi on with sustainable, socially-just, healthier consuming plants. That amazing breakfast sandwich is the cholesterol-free, low-on-the-tropic-level-biomagnification, healthier option bomb, too.     

 

Album review: Hellroys is Real

Three white men dressed in blue jeans and black T-shirts with withe baseball caps and little white tabs around them like they are cut-out paper dolls standing outside on the grass under a big black sign that says Hellroys is Real

Everyone who read the adventures of Peter Pan knows the directions to Neverland – first star on the left and straight on ‘til morning. But after a heavy night of bourbon swilling directions can get a little muddled up, especially when your truck starts making that weird whining noise as you’re pushing it off your neighbor’s lawn. All the stars start running into each other, and the next thing you know you’ve cruised right past Neverland and arrived in a strange region where the towns have names like Abilene and Dogpiss.

This is ‘Murica, a place where heavily armed work comp fraudsters order 50 Big Macs while seated on a Wal-Mart scooter parked in the back of their cousin’s girlfriend’s truck while flags cover the sky and Lee Greenwood rolls around naked in the street screeching for beer money. A bacon-soaked world where there are always plenty of bottle rockets at the trailer park, and where misguided promiscuity is never hindered by literacy.

Copwatch

Yellow pamphlet with words Copwatch Pocket Guide at top and a drawing of two cops apprehending the Statue of Liberty

New Chief:There’s a new Interim Columbus Police Chief in town – 29-year CPD veteran Thomas Quinlan – replacing embattled Kim Jacobs during the nationwide search for a permanent chief. Lucky him, walking into this mess…see below.

FBI investigation:Enough said.

The Stormy Daniels saga: Although the allegations that the debacle was pre-planned and politically motivated, the Internal Affairs Bureau found the Columbus Police arrests of Stormy Daniels and two other women at a strip club event to be “improper.” The city spent $150,000 in a settlement with the two women arrested with Daniels.

Mary Jane’s Guide: Hemp Has FINALLY Arrived!

Black and white old time photo of rope on a ship and the words Hemp for VIctory

Finally. Dare I say, FINALLY, hemp has arrived in Ohio. After decades in the shadows, confused with its more popular cousin marijuana, hemp is getting the attention it deserves. It owes this glow to two important developments.

First, the Agricultural Improvement Act of 2018, aka 2018 Farm Bill.At the end of last year, an amazing transformation, right out of left field, found U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) hastily shepherding hemp through Congress. While agricultural in title, the text within was revolutionary.

Hemp-became-legal!

Erasing 70 years of prohibition, this remarkable plant reclaimed its long-lost domicile as a seamless source for food, fuel, concrete, clothing, cosmetics, and, yes, CBD. The bill removed hemp from the definition of marijuana as a strictly controlled substance so long as THC content falls below 0.3%.

Exposing the Plot to Overthrow Venezuela

The words The Plot to Overthrow Venezuela

Monopoly Media

"Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one," said American journalist A. J. Liebling.  Who owns the press in America?  The class who owns the rest of America: the capitalist class. Today 90% of the media are dominated by just six corporations: GE, News Corp, Disney, Viacom, Time Warner, and CBS.  The World Wide Web is no better.  Our search for information is filtered by the powerful duopoly of Google and Facebook.  You don't have to be a Noam Chomsky or an Edward Herman to figure out that corporate media are not inclined to give fair representation of governments or movements that challenge the interests of capitalists. They would rather exclude them altogether or portray them as villains to be defeated.

Voices of Chavistas  in  Venezuela,  Solidarity Activists in the  United  States

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