Mayor Ginther, City Council: Time to take a pay cut

Middle aged white ma's face looking vacant

After watching Mayor Ginther’s online interview with Channel 4’s Colleen Marshall on Wednesday, I have to ask, why has it taken our Mayor nearly 19 years to recognize and address the obvious inequalities that exist in the African-American communities of Columbus?

Never before has this question had more weight or relevance than during the pandemic.

Mayor Ginther said Wednesday he would focus on those who were most in need. Homeless, those in need of food, and affordable housing. Working with the Community Shelter Board, Urban league, YMCA.

Nearly 30 percent of Columbus is African American, and the issue of racial disparity is confronting us once again in terms of blacks being greater infected by the virus due to economic and social disparities.

Unfortunately, the virus further exposed the inequality where it matters the most – our overall health. Yet Ginther has been an elected official since 2001. Columbus School Board from 2001-2007, Columbus City Council from 2007-2015, Council President from 2011-2015, and Mayor of Columbus from 2016 to today.

Columbus International Film & Animation Festival

Details of event

Live online digital film festival - through April 19. 
Now celebrating its 68th year, the festival introduces Central Ohio to the best independent filmmakers from around the world, this year you can attend from the comfort of your home. Unlike physical film festivals where you need to rush to get a good seat, CIF+AF Digital Film Festival is delivered entirely online. Your seat can't get much better than this. Select a few films, an entire film block, or an ALL ACCESS PASS!

It’s up to you! With over 100 filmmakers, the films you want to watch are just a click away: Our selected filmmakers will be screening their films over a 5-day period. If you have a genre that you would love to see, we've got you covered.

Follow your selected film blocks for exclusive screenings completely online: Choose the topics you'd like to follow and we'll keep you up to date with its content, viewing times and pricing.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE * APRIL 16, 2020 * SECRECY UNDERMINES SHELBY COUNTY, TN, VOTING-SYSTEM PURCHASE & NATIONAL AND LOCAL REFORM GROUPS DECRY SHELBY’S LACK OF TRANSPARENCY

National and local election reform groups have weighed in on the local controversy about the purchase of new voting machines, assailing the process for its unwarranted secrecy. Representatives of AUDIT Elections USA (AUDIT USA), a national nonprofit advocating for hand-marked paper ballots and post-election audits, have said that the secrecy surrounding the Shelby County purchasing process is unprecedented. The organization has advocated for auditable and secure elections in various local jurisdictions around the country, assisting local grassroots activist groups. It hosted an April 9 national forum focusing on the Shelby County controversy with experts from around the country. 

“The Shelby County Election Commissioners are being asked to vote on a staff recommendation for a $10 million purchase without even seeing the alternatives they’re voting on,” said AUDIT USA founder John Brakey. “The public is being asked to comment without seeing that information either. In all our efforts around the country, we’ve never seen anything like it.”

Vote-by-Mail could cost Dems the Election

I get it:  We all must vote by mail—or we die.  There is really no other safe choice.

But there is much to fear, especially for minority and young voters, with a switch to all-mail voting—unless our broken absentee ballot system is fixed.

Here’s what the “Go Postal” crowd doesn’t tell you:  In 2016, 512,696 mail-in ballots—over half a million—were simply rejected, not counted.  That’s official, from the federal Elections Assistance Commission (EAC).

But that’s just the tip of the ballot-berg of uncounted mail-in votes.  A study by MIT, Losing Votes by Mail, puts the total loss of mail-in votes at a breathtaking 22%.

Move to 80% mail-in voting and 25 million will lose their vote.

And not just anyone’s mail-in ballots are dumped in the electoral trashcan.  Overwhelmingly, those junked are ballots mailed by poorer, younger, non-white Americans.

Senator Amy Klobuchar’s proposed bill takes baby steps to expanding vote-by-mail protection but will barely bite into the 22% loss of votes especially among minorities.

Name Shame

Bernie’s Pivot for Biden Isn’t Pleasant. But Trump Must Be Defeated.

This week, soon after Bernie Sanders suspended his campaign, one of its most effective message-crafters summed up a vital challenge ahead. “The best hope to defeat Trump is to positively and constructively motivate a large Democratic turnout,” David Sirota wrote.

Chinese Are Slaughtered in a War of Memes & Politics

BANGKOK, Thailand -- A vicious, hilarious, political war has erupted
on the Internet between Thailand's satirical dissidents and China's
outraged nationalists, prompting the Chinese embassy in Bangkok to
complain, apparently in vain.

"The recent online noises only reflect bias and ignorance of its
maker(s), which does not in any way represent the standing stance of
the Thai government nor the mainstream public opinion of the Thai
People," a Chinese embassy spokesperson insisted on its official
Facebook page.

"The scheme by some particular people, to manipulate the issue for the
purpose of inflaming and sabotaging the friendship between the Chinese
and Thai people, will not succeed," the embassy's 372-word statement
on April 14 said in English, Thai and Chinese.

The Internet battle also attracted activists in Hong Kong, Taiwan and
elsewhere, mostly cheering Thailand's mischievous jokes, insults,
political stabs, and pop art memes against China.

"Perhaps we can build a new kind of pan-Asian solidarity that opposes

Heroic Angry Badger Voters Show How to Dump Trump

This week’s astonishing people’s victory in Wisconsin has shattered the myth of an unbeatable Trump dictatorship.

A gerrymandered legislature and the Trumpite US Supreme Court failed to steal an election they were heavily favored to win.

The big upset victory put liberal challenger Jill Korofsky on to the Wisconsin’s supreme court.  It has upended all the assumptions about November 2020. 

It means people power can beat dirty tricks even when perpetrated by a gerrymandered legislature and a corrupt US Supreme Court. 

Let’s count the ways:

X  In 2016 Wisconsin’s vicious labor-hating Gov. Scott Walker used a wide range of dirty tricks to turn Wisconsin for Donald Trump.  Green attorney Robert Fitrakis found questionable voting machine software and other problems that made the official vote count highly dubious.  (Bob was told by a ranking Trump insider that Walker stole at least five elections).

X  But as in Michigan and Pennsylvania, Hillary Clinton—-who won nationwide by nearly three million popular votes—- refused to support legal challenges that might’ve kept Trump out of the White House. 

Pandemic inspiration: Columbus tenants organize against “big time slum lords”

Shayla Favor

Alek Nielsen has quietly been advocating for tenants’ rights around Central Ohio for two years – and he’s never witnessed such energy and enthusiasm for a local tenant union than now.

“Five different people from five different properties have reached out to us,” says the 28-year-old Nielsen, co-chair for the Columbus Tenants’ Union (CTU) – the only official tenant union in Central Ohio. “Two of these properties are run by big time slumlords we’ve wanted to organize against for some time.”

The Freep also heard from several groups of tenants, almost all 20-somethings, who live in half-doubles or smaller buildings. Whether some can pay rent or some cannot, they’ve banded together to tell their landlord they will need some sort of compromise.

Nielsen admits though, “it’s one thing to really want to form a tenant union, compared to forming one.”

The Pandemic of Fear, a view from Moscow.

In just a short period of time the world in Russia has changed for
everyone. I’ve started to notice how people around me are going mad.
They’ve started blaming and avoiding other people, making social
distance the priority of their lives. These people are well-educated,
well-off, with flexible minds. It doesn't matter who they were in their
life “before corona”. Now all of them are afraid. And that's the reason
for their madness.

They are afraid to go to the office, walk, meet with their friends and
just do what they usually do. And all of them are repeating the same
mantra - the situation is _very_ serious; we don't want the Italian and
American scenario be repeated here. One person told my friend: “They
cancelled the Cannes Film Festival”. They never did that before. So it
does mean the world is close to catastrophe.

Would you say it's the pandemic of coronavirus that is changing Russia?
No, I'd say it's the Pandemic of Fear that did it.

Of course, no politician wants to see all these human victims (and the

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