Local

Emmanuel Remy was appointed to Columbus City Council in 2018, like all of his colleagues on Council, not elected. On the very first day he took office, Remy voted to approve the City’s “district” system that some consider fake, and even racist. Remy faced off against community activist Adrienne Hood at the polls yesterday and won with 60 percent of the vote. Hood’s campaign, however, made a strong showing for an activist candidate not endorsed by the local Dem machine by earning nearly 60,000 votes, 40 percent of the vote.

Eastside activist Jonathan Beard, who has kept a close eye on how the “fake” Council districts came to be, remembers that City Council meeting in January of 2018 as if it were last night.

“On the very first day new member Remy took office, Shannon Hardin passed legislation to put his ‘fake districts’ proposal on (a local) ballot,” said Beard. “Shannon needed Remy’s vote because he did not have the votes to pass it, due – in part – to Councilmember Tyson’s unwillingness to disregard the NAACP Legal Defense Fund’s concerns about the potential illegality of Shannon’s fake district proposal.”

With no recognizable history or identity of its own, the Columbus anti-democratic Democratic machine—funded by Republican private interests who live outside the city that they have commanded for much of its history—are rooted in deep currents of U.S. history. Earlier this year, I compared “mayor” in name only Andy Ginther unfavorably to infamous mid-19th century New York City’s Boss Tweed. Tweed did much more for his city than Ginther can imagine.

As a life-long resident of major cities and recognized authority on cities and their histories, I must place Ginther and his anti-publics City Council and division heads in long- and short-term context.

When I was growing up in Pittsburgh, many major cities were dominated by corrupt, dishonest, self-serving Democratic machine politicians. Comparisons with loosely defined “mafia” and “mobs” were not completely imaginary. There were associations and parallels.

The Pittsburgh of my youth was controlled by mayor Davy Lawrence. Philadelphia, Detroit, New York City, Chicago, Cleveland, among many others, had their parallels in lawbreaking, corrupt, dishonest self-serving machines.

Wednesday November 14th, 7:00 – 8:00pm
Zoom link: https://thirdact-org.zoom.us/j/85087321012?pwd=Yzc1elMzRGt4ZEcxOWRlYktZQVpQUT09
This session is brought to you by  TAOH's PUC (Public Utilities Commission) sub-group.

Gather with other members of Third Act Ohio for an evening of learning and conversation. Hear from Third Act Central’s campaign strategist and find out how we as Ohio citizens can accelerate our state's transition to a clean energy supply. Let's magnify our power by sharing life experience and discovering, together, our way forward.

Learn - Share - Find Ways to Act

Our GREEP zoom #156 opens as the magnificent ANDREA MILLER of the Center for Common Ground tells us about the critical election in Virginia, showing us the astounding flood of money into these key races.  It’s an amazing show of the power of corrupt funding in what’s left of our democracy.

From the labor movement we then hear PATRICK CROWLEY, AARON WAZLAVEK and JAY PONTI fill us in powerful developments in the green economy as strikes proliferate throughout the nation.  The recent rise of organized labor is one of the great unexpected successes of the new century.

MYLA RESON and TATANKA BRICCA give us critical perspectives on all this.

Then WENDI LEDERMAN tells the horrifying on-going details of the Cop City assault on Atlanta, protestors and the actual law with a wave of brutal, illegal repression.

Pussy Riot performed from the stage at the A+R Bar Sunday after making an announcement “Pussy Riots isn’t a punk band. Pussy Riot is a protest performance.”

This didn’t deter a woman wearing a Bikini Kill shirt standing next to me from proclaiming “Pussy Riot is the most Punk Rock thing I’ve ever watched.”

Pussy Riot were performing Riot Days, a musical piece which is a book and movie written by Pussy Riot’s Maria Alyokhina about her stint in Russian prisons for opposing Vladimir Putin.

In 2012, Pussy Riot performed their song, “Punk Prayer” in an Orthodox Russian Church. “Punk Prayer” isn’t sacrilegious with a King Diamond intent. “Punk Prayer” invites Catholic women to oppose Vladimir Putin.

At first you might question why would Putin respond if some band didn’t like him? Two hundred fifty people in Columbus, Ohio were at this show. I saw a woman wearing a La Tigre shirt. Even with a Diplo remix. I would assume Putin wouldn’t worry about the Riot Grrl movement disliking him.

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When Channel 6 news recently called John Coneglio, president of the Columbus Education Association (CEA), he knew exactly how they were going to frame their story on the Columbus City School’s levy, or Issue 11. They asked Coneglio how to explain the Ohio Education Association’s annual grade given to Columbus City Schools. They gave the district a ‘2,’ which means the district is not up to state standards.

“Find me a failing district with rich people living in it,” Coneglio told the Channel 6 reporter, owned of course by Sinclair Broadcast Group, which everyone knows is anti-union, especially unionized teachers. “If I go to Dublin, Olentangy, or Bexley, are any of these school districts failing? Why not? This is what I asked Channel 6.”

He turned the table on Sinclair Broadcasting, which comes from a position that public school teachers aren’t worth their salary, benefits, and summer break.

Something’s Wrong

After school let out that day, Jean, Annie, and I walked home together. During the day, I kept my ears open in the lunchroom and bathroom, but I didn’t hear nothing about Smooth’s death, so I was hoping that one of them had, especially Jean our social butterfly. Annie had and started talking about it before I could figure out a way to get the ball rolling.

“Did you hear about Smooth? They found his body in the alleyway behind IGA a couple days ago.” Annie said.

“No, I ain’t heard nothing, who told you about it?’ I asked. 

“No one in particular, I heard it in the lunchroom, you know how people talk.” 

“Yeah, I know, but do they know what they’re talking about?” Jean cracked. 

“Well, they said he was shot three times in the chest, and his body was laying there for two days before it was found.”

“Three shots! It wasn’t that many!” Jean slipped up. Big mouth!

“What Jean, what did you hear?” Annie stopped walking and asked her excitedly. 

“Not much, they was talking about it in the lunch line. Didn’t hear it all, said it was more than one shot, that’s all.” 

Somethings Wrong

After school let out that day, Jean, Annie, and I walked home together. During the day, I kept my ears open in the lunchroom and bathroom, but I didn’t hear nothing about Smooth’s death, so I was hoping that one of them had, especially Jean our social butterfly. Annie had and started talking about it before I could figure out a way to get the ball rolling.

“Did you hear about Smooth? They found his body in the alleyway behind IGA a couple days ago.” Annie said.

“No, I ain’t heard nothing, who told you about it?’ I asked.

“No one in particular, I heard it in the lunchroom, you know how people talk.”

“Yeah, I know, but do they know what they’re talking about?” Jean cracked.

“Well, they said he was shot three times in the chest, and his body was laying there for two days before it was found.”

“Three shots! It wasn’t that many!” Jean slipped up. Big mouth!

“What Jean, what did you hear?” Annie stopped walking and asked her excitedly.

“Not much, they was talking about it in the lunch line. Didn’t hear it all, said it was more than one shot, that’s all.”

Monday, November 6 through Sunday, December 17, 2023, 8:00 AM
World Beyond War's online courses are self-paced, using videos and texts and graphics, available on your schedule, 24-7, and discussion forums in which you can use videos and texts and graphics to discuss and gain feedback, as well as to submit optional assignments for feedback. There are also a few optional zoom calls. Those are the only parts of the course that are scheduled. Everything else is simply available on your schedule. 

Course fee: $100 (Pay less if you have to, more if you can.) There will be a limit of 150 tickets sold for this course.  Everyone registered for the course will receive a PDF of David Swanson's book The Monroe Doctrine at 200 and What to Replace it With, which will provide additional reading to those who want to go beyond the written, video, and graphic materials provided in the course.