Columbus mayoral candidate Andy Ginther in his latest commercial hails the local economy as one of the “strongest in the Midwest.” Last month the consumer-focused website Nerd Wallet crunched the numbers of 100 cities and declared Columbus was the third best city to find a job in 2015.

By now, if you follow marijuana in Ohio, you probably know of a group called Responsible Ohio (RO). It seemingly came out of nowhere last summer, bringing with it exorbitant sums aimed at financing a citizen-led initiative to place the legalization of marijuana on the Ohio ballot.
  Bringing this useful plant back from decades of prohibition has been an arduous process. Since 2000, six legislative bills concerning cannabis – aka marijuana – have graced the Ohio legislature, none making it past committee, all while 23 other states have established a legalized marijuana system, whether medically-focused or broadened to include adult use. The apparent success of these systems in Colorado, Washington and other states has ignited a modern-day gold rush, with the prospect of billions drawing a new class of advocate – the investor – into marijuana policy reform. These investors lack the magnanimity of their poorer predecessors, less interested in social justice and more concerned with ROI, the SEC and LLCs. Such is RO.

  Federal Judge Michael Watson, fearing democracy might break out in Ohio, upheld a Republican state law that makes it virtually impossible for minor parties to get on the ballot. Judge Watson sided with Ohio's Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted, who argued that if minor political parties were treated as they are in other democracies, it would add "additional cost" and would cause “the risk of overcrowded ballots and frivolous candidates."
   The United States, recently rated last in election integrity among the world's 76 long-standing democracies, is the only democracy that has a two-party system. America's two-party system is often referred to as "American Exceptionalism." Every other democracy has three or more political parties.

  The Green Party of Ohio stands alone as the only ballot-qualified minor party in the Buckeye State.

  The Libertarian, Constitution, and Socialist Parties will need to gather at least 30,560 valid signatures just to return to official party status in Ohio. Additionally, out of the over 30,000 valid signatures, there must be 500 each from half of Ohio's 16 Congressional districts.

Last time, they committed treason to prolong a war.

   This time, they’re apparently trying to start one....

   The backstabbing letter sent by 47 Republican members of Congress warning Iran off a possible nuclear weapons treaty is a haunting re-run of what Richard Nixon did to Vietnam peace talks in 1968.

   Back then, Nixon was in a close race for the presidency with Hubert Humphrey. Humphrey was Lyndon Johnson’s Vice President, both of them neck-deep in the catastrophic assault on Vietnam.

   By fall 1968 the war had just about undone the Democrats. Draft card burnings, huge demonstrations at the Pentagon and around the US, and a deep malaise of anger and betrayal gripped the country.  On March 31, Johnson announced he wouldn’t seek re-election. Four days later, Martin Luther King was murdered. Robert F. Kennedy was killed in June. In August the Democratic Convention in Chicago was torn to pieces.