Josh Mandel and John Kasich appear to have spent upwards of $5 million of taxpayers' money on their vain pursuits of a U.S. Senate seat.

Ohio Treasurer Mandel spent nearly $2 million on TV ads pushing him off as a nice guy who supports charity.

Governor Kasich is nearing the $3 million mark in secret spending of taxpayer money on security, travel and lodging while he runs for president, peddles his book and maybe runs for the Senate.

Do the math. Kasich has spent 300 days of the last 2 years out of state and not doing his job at an estimated $10,000 a day. That adds up to $3 million down the drain.

Imagine what the combined $5 million could do to fight the opioid epidemic that Kasich purports to care about.

Speaking of Kasich's latest "book," Two Paths, it limped into the 13th spot on the New York Times best-seller list three weeks ago only to drop out of the list the following week.

So far, the Trump administration has been every bit the worst case scenario we feared. And while some of the agendas of his underlings have been thwarted by just how outlandishly villainous they are, others are more likely to slip under the radar of the average American. One of the latter is the very idea of an open internet.

Under President Barack Obama’s FCC, the internet was ruled to be a public utility, in recognition of the importance it plays in the lives of everyone from Netflix bingers to homeless people using smartphones to look for work. This let the FCC regulate internet service providers, and they used that to put in place privacy protections and maintain net neutrality – the principle that all internet traffic, no matter if you’re visiting Facebook or your friend’s obscure blog, must be given the same access.

Trump’s FCC chairman, Ajit Pai, has already dismantled our privacy protections, letting our ISPs spy on us so they can sell our data for even more profit. Now he’s looking to kill net neutrality. Get ready for your favorite sites to be held ransom, throttled unless you (or they) pay a premium.

I began my month certain that Metallica possessed the mother bread of justice. I feel they understand the human condition and have a special role in American culture. Everyone I know says, “I love the first three or four Metallica albums.” Metallica only got popular during the past 25 years.

In 2017, Monday is dedicated to Metallica. Tuesday is dedicated to bands influenced by Metallica. In 1989, they couldn’t even win the Grammy over Jethro Tull.

The month ended with me watching Metallica begin their set at Rock on the Range screaming in Columbus: “Hard-Wired to Self-destruct.”  This was in front of the largest crowd I’d even seen for music in Columbus. This is from Metallica’s platinum album of the same meme.

How do you interpret this meme?  Human death drive?  The condition of our country that appears to have spited themselves into Russian subterfuge? Who are the fall guys for the oligarchical revenge of the one percent?

If a FISA warrant falls in the Russian Mob’s woods does it record a sound? Do they reference technology that leaves issues of surveillance, hacking and electronic mishaps? 

Do you ever wonder how vegans survive, or rather, have the discipline to live without dessert, or actually believe vegans live a life of such stinking deprivation? Are you a would-be-vegan or a new vegan desperate for vegan dessert in what seems like a vegan dessert desert? Wonder and despair no more. These Columbus locations provide delicious, decadent vegan dessert options:

Building on a successful strike against Verizon last year, on May 19 the Communications Workers of America hit the picket lines again to protect their livelihoods against corporate greed in the telecom industry. 21,000 AT&T Mobility workers in 36 states; 17,000 AT&T wireline employees in California, Connecticut and Nevada; and 2,000 DirectTV workers went on a three-day strike.

There was an outpouring of community support for the strikers in central Ohio. At 3 p.m. picket lines formed outside multiple AT&T stores in Columbus, Reynoldsburg, Hilliard, Upper Arlington and Westerville.

“Hey Randall, you can’t hide. We can see your greedy side!” 50 protesters chanted outside the AT&T store in the OSU Gateway district. AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson took home $28.4 million in 2016. AT&T Mobility made $13 billion in profits last year.

The AT&T Mobility workers have been working without a contract since February. AT&T has not budged on its offer of a 2 percent raise, which would not be enough to cover increases in health care costs. But the strikers’ main issue is not pay. They are more concerned about the company’s outsourcing jobs.