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Is Ice Trump’s Gestapo?

“Renee sparkled. She literally sparkled. I mean, she didn’t wear glitter but I swear she had sparkles coming out of her pores. All the time. You might think it was just my love talking but her family said the same thing. Renee was made of sunshine.”

The words are those of Renee Good’s wife Becca. They cut to our heart – our humanity. She was shot in the face by an ICE agent, who then muttered: “Fuckin’ bitch.” The murder of this 37-year-old mom as she tried to drive around the ICE guys who stopped her is national news, of course. Almost everyone has seen at least one of the many videos of the incident and, you might say, the national dialogue about virtually anything else has been put on hold.

Free Press is committed to documenting the people taken by ICE

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has arrested, detained, deported, and/or imprisoned many people that it has unilaterally determined to be undesirables.  At first, they claimed they would deport only criminals, but it has already gone beyond that.  We at the Free Press consider every person who has been sent to the Tecoluca (El Salvador prison), Guantanamo naval base, or detained in other prisons throughout the country to be innocent until proven guilty. We will include students who have been expelled for protesting genocide.  It appears the government will revoke Visa's to get rid of undesirable students.  This article will be updated as long as is necessary.

Familiar tale gracefully blends feminism and fantasy

Feminism has a crucial role to play in modern life, but I sometimes wish it would leave our fairy tales alone. The results of its revisionist meddling are too often unconvincing and unsatisfying.

Remember last year’s Maleficent? It turned an age-old story on its head by revealing that the fairy (Angelina Jolie) who turned a princess into a “Sleeping Beauty” was not evil at all. No, she was merely wronged and misunderstood. Worst of all, we learned that the somnambulant princess could not be awakened by a kiss from the handsome prince, but only by a motherly peck from that same fairy.

How heartwarming. And how utterly unromantic.

Thank goodness Disney’s new live-action version of Cinderella doesn’t wear its feminism on its sleeve. It has nods to modern sensibilities, to be sure, but they’re handled with a lighter touch.

Video: Vigil for Alex Pretti, Renee Good and other ICE victims

On Sunday, February 1 there were two vigils for Alex Pretti, Renee Good and other victims of ICE terror -- one at Weinland Park and one at the VA hospital in Columbus.

Watch video here

Ohio Poor People’s Campaign Moral Wednesday

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Wednesday, February 4, 12-1pm
Ohio Statehouse Rotunda, 1 Capitol Square

There will be a litany, prayers, and songs.  Participants’ thoughts, poems, prayers, and songs welcome.  General and handicapped parking may be available under the statehouse.  Even when the sign says FULL, there may handicapped parking available; please ask attendants.

Cool Runnings

Vigil for those killed by ICE

People outside holding candles

On a bitter cold street corner nurses, union workers, musicians, and other folks gathered to remember the life of Veterans Administration (VA) Intensive Care Unit nurse and American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 3669 Union member Alex Pretti and mother of three, writer, and musician Renee Good. 

Pretti and Good were murdered in separate incidents by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Minneapolis last month. Both were participating in peaceful protests against ICE violence in the city at the time of their murders.

In response, the Ohio AFL-CIO organized a vigil across from the Chalmers P. Wylie Ambulatory Care VA hospital in Whitehall. 

Jason Perlman, Political Director of the Ohio AFL-CIO was among those who spoke: “Tonight, we honor the lives of our union brother, Alex Pretti, Renee Good, Keith Porter, Jr. and the countless names we don’t know who have died in these for-profit, so-called detention centers. Columbus, do we believe our own eyes? Do we know what we saw? Two citizens were  gunned down because they chose love over fear.”

Boomers and Gen Z to the Rescue

Straw Hat flag

In facing off against repression and standing firm against growing autocracy in one place or another, there’s a weird and powerful de facto alliance taking shape that’s worth learning more about: Boomers and Gen Z are at the frontlines.

With the caveat that any survey that is more self-selected than random, The Economist reported a scholarly effort by several researchers at the American University on protestors. They polled 7500 “people who signed up for the ‘Free America Walkout,’ a national protest that took place on January 20th.” Here’s what they found:

“…84 percent of respondents were female, three-quarters were college-educated, and that the media age was 71. Some 99 percent of these aging boomers, said they were supporting nonviolent civil disobedience, and 65 percent of them said they would be willing to take part themselves.”

This conservative journal notes that Republicans have absolutely noticed this phenomenon. They have a name for it: AWFULS, for affluent white female urban liberals.

Unmask ICE in Springfield, and beyond

Two men hugging

DHS Secretary Noem announced that federal agents in Minnesota will begin wearing body cameras. This comes after the world has been outraged about their behavior in U.S. communities — behavior that resulted in death and serious bodily injury.

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