Advertisement

Though geographically it lies near Qom, Jamkaran (the site associated with the hidden imam, Mahdi) exists far beyond any mosque, shrine, or well. It is a psychological architecture— a way of relating to power, history, and responsibility. Jamkaran names the belief that salvation arrives from outside human agency, that redemption descends from above rather than being constructed through collective action. It is not theology per se, but a political imagination shaped by waiting.

Karl Marx described this condition as inverted consciousness: a world turned upside down, where material relations are masked by metaphysical fantasies. Michel Foucault would recognize it as internalized power, domination reproduced within the subject rather than imposed solely from without. Antonio Gramsci named it hegemony: the absorption of ruling ideas so deeply that they appear natural, inevitable, even desirable.

Last month, 200 ICE agents converged on Central Ohio targeting Somali and Mexican businesses and schools. For nearly two weeks, businesses and streets were deserted. People feared for their safety as they heard ICE thugs shoot, arrest, and deport US citizens, including veterans without any due process of law. Basically, Central Ohio was being terrorized by ICE agents in an operation called as Operation Buckeye that lasted from December 16 to December 21.
 
The Ohio Immigrant Alliance said in a Jan. 9 news release that the organization identified at least 214 people arrested during "Operation Buckeye." The organization said in an analysis of publicly available jail rosters that 80 percent of the people detained were Latino and less than 10 percent were Africans.
 
Durning that mass hysteria, I had three of my grandchildren with us for the winter break.
Rashida

The ICE shooting of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis is the latest in a string of deaths related to ICE raids, traffic stops, and detention facilities. Last year 32 people died in ICE custody―the most in more than two decades. Border Patrol agents have also shot, wounded, and killed civilians during Trump’s mass deportation raids. ICE and Border patrol agents are bullies who intimidate, and attack people based on the color of their skin, the language they speak, or the accents they have. They’ve also shot and killed people in their cars and used deadly weapons against bystanders and people who are standing up for their neighbors. 

Butler County lawsuit

Haga clic aquí para español

Watch: Medical neglect in Butler County Jail, an ICE contract facility (Spectrum News)

In early January, Geraldo Lunas Campos died in civil immigration jail in Texas, choked to death by a guard. Last year, 32 people died in immigration jail, making 2025 the deadliest year since Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was founded. Despite the dangers, the Trump administration continues to rapidly grow the nation’s civil immigration system, with help from Congress and some county sheriffs. 

There’s a reason JD Vance converted to Catholicism right before entering politics and it had nothing to do with God. This is the same man who once wrote an article calling Trump “America’s Hitler,” and in a 2016 interview, said he’d rather vote for his dog than for Trump.

Now he’s Vice President of the United States, and he is just one blood clot away from taking control. While the legacy media and influencers fixate on Trump’s swollen ankles, slurred words, bruised hands, and mental decline they’re missing the real threat. Something worse is coming, and it’s wearing a crucifix.

“Trump is cultural heroin. He makes some feel better for a bit. But he cannot fix what ails them, and one day they’ll realize it.” — J.D. Vance.

It is always easier—and more profitable—to align oneself with existing wealth and power than to resist it on the principled grounds of justice, equity, or stewardship. While the pursuit of profit rewards speed, scale, and indifference, conservation demands restraint and the acceptance of limits. The incentives are fundamentally lopsided: on one side, the gains from exploitation are immediate, private, and compounding; on the other, the rewards of conservation are delayed, diffused, and socialized. Those who seek profit have the obvious motive and the ample means to dominate the discourse, while those who argue for restraint must expend their own time, resources, and credibility with no hope of reimbursement. It is asymmetrical warfare made personal. 

Woman with ICE Kills sign

“It’s about time,” was my first reaction when I saw the headline on Michelle Goldberg’s column saying “The Right is Furious with Liberal White Women.” This has been an uncontrollable thunderstorm steadily building in ferocity for years. Conservatives have known for a long time that this was a huge problem and have ignored it at their peril. Truthfully, it’s worse that just liberal white women, because they are losing women, one demographic at a time, on one issue after another. Let’s be honest. When you lose women, it’s just a matter of time before you lose everything.

I know something about liberal white women. I was raised by southern women, which is a whole different problem. If you combine that with politics, right or left, it’s “Katie, bar the door” and no surrender until it’s the last man standing. I’ve worked alongside women my whole career, both liberal and progressive, and there’s not much space between those poles, it just a matter of degree before something makes them explode. They never forget, and forgiving can be equally rare.

Bob and Dan and Mitch Ryder album cover

Dr. Bob Fitrakis and Dan-o Dougan play the greatest hits of Mitch Ryder.

Listen here

Listen live at 11pm Fridays, January 16 and 23, and Mondays at 10am January 19 and 26, streaming at wgrn.org or on the radio at 91.9FM
and
Mondays at 2pm streaming January 19 and 26 at wcrsfm.org or on the radio at 92.7 or 98.3FM

Pages

Subscribe to ColumbusFreePress.com  RSS