My latest for
@thisisinsider
examines the problem of plastic. With plastic production increasing every year and there being no feasible way to recycle 90% of it, I look at the contentious process of pyrolysis recycling in polymer valley (Akron, OH):
The blackout in Columbus rn is truly dystopian. Those w money have fled to hotels outside the blackout zones, leaving blocks of houses empty. Those without money are forced to remain in their dark, burning homes with no end in sight.
I’m in Heath, Ohio outside a Boeing facility where activists are blockading entrance roads. Trucks are being turned away and one police car is on scene.
I’m here at the South Oval at OSU where students, faculty, and community members are setting up an encampment during a rally calling on the university to divest from Israel. Jewish supporters are here leading a prayer.
It should be noted that even as the Columbus 2022 blackout causes heat strokes, car crashes, and widespread chaos, a sole glimmer of light shines through the disarray: the Hudson 14-0.
Trying this again:
@TheLantern
confirms that snipers were deployed on the roof of Ohio Union last night. Throughout the day troopers used binoculars, but when they began to use force, troopers aimed rifles at the peacefully assembled students, faculty, and community members.
According to information obtained Friday, university spokesperson Ben Johnson said once the troopers began using force on the students around 10 p.m., the state troopers on the roof switched to long-range firearms as part of their protocol.
Read more:
Students, faculty, and supporters started an encampment on the oval at OSU early this morning. After dispersal and multiple arrests, supporters will be gathering back on campus for a protest at 5pm at Ohio Union.
At least two more Ohio State students have been detained for a pro-Palestine stage-in on the South Oval on campus, per
@david_rees5
. Photos show police outnumbered protesters. Students are apparently not allowed to sit on the Oval today.
@nbc4i
One of the 16 students who was arrested last week is speaking to the crowd. “Instead of defending my thesis this week, I was in the ER with a concussion.”
Between 4am-8am today activists blockaded 3 entrances to Boeing’s Heath, Ohio facility. Activists were protesting the company’s involvement in supplying Israel with weapons/bombs.
🧵
I’m in Heath, Ohio outside a Boeing facility where activists are blockading entrance roads. Trucks are being turned away and one police car is on scene.
I recently quote-tweeted an article tweeted by
@TheLantern
verifying that snipers were positioned on Ohio Union last night. Soon after, the quote-tweet disappeared from my profile without notification and now the original Lantern tweet is gone too.
It’s not surprising that the Dispatch used a picture of a small post-protest crowd instead of images of a thousand people marching through Columbus in solidarity with Palestine. Media censorship works in many ways.
City council started at 5pm, but a line of folks in support of Palestine are still waiting outside. The huge turnout led by
@SJPOSU
is calling for Columbus City Council to retract support for Israel and endorse a ceasefire.
Professor of 20 years at OSU condemns the use of snipers last Thursday. He says 200 staff attended a recent meeting for Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine.
Young activists from
@climatestrikeOH
and
@SunriseColumbus
disrupted an event that presented OSU president Kristina Johnson with a climate award. Activists demanded that the university fully divest from fossil fuels and halt construction of the gas plant.
Jewish activists from the Columbus chapters of
@jvplive
and
@IfNotNowOrg
are outside
@SherrodBrown
’s office calling for him to support a ceasefire.
“We are here to say that we don’t want our government fueling a cycle of violence,” said one of the activists in a press release.
@SJPOSU
is leading a march through the Wexner Center for the Arts denouncing the Wex for canceling a panel talk with Palestinian Jumana Manna. They’re also in support of her show that’s currently up and at risk of being taken down.
Ope. When Communists defined fascism in the 1930s, they emphasized the power struggle waged by a smaller “reactionary” segment of finance capitalists to overthrow capitalist democracy and replace it with a dictatorship ruled by that segment. Maybe they were on to something.
VIDEO — JD Vance aims to “completely replace the existing ruling class with another ruling class”
He says there's no "compromise that we're gonna come [to]," so "unless we overthrow them in some way, we're gonna keep losing"
I’m here at the Franklin County Investment Advisory Committee where Treasurer Brooks Sullivan is claiming that not renewing Israel Bonds would be a political decision voters would have to force her to do. She says the bonds are a profitable investment and wouldn’t divest.
By militarizing Columbus’ central shopping and bar hopping strip, leadership is issuing the dystopian and almost comical demand to consume and enjoy safely.
My latest column for
@matternews_
:
The child of Russian revolutionaries, Bea started organizing as a teen during the Great Depression and is still active in the Chicago Teachers Union and the Communist Party at 104 years old!
Read my interview with the working-class hero here:
Tonight a man yelling “fuck Palestine” rammed his car into a cyclist protestor. Everyone was ok and the man was reportedly arrested. The protest calling for an end to Israel’s attack on Gaza carried on unhindered.
Another week, another long line of citizens calling on Columbus City Council to pass a ceasefire resolution. Since last Monday, Biden suggested a ceasefire was imminent and Kamala Harris explicitly called for one.
It was another unprecedented night at Columbus City Council. The livestream was cut, council refused to pass a ceasefire resolution, and the packed chamber chanted “ceasefire now” to an unreceptive elected body.
🧵
Another week, another long line of citizens calling on Columbus City Council to pass a ceasefire resolution. Since last Monday, Biden suggested a ceasefire was imminent and Kamala Harris explicitly called for one.
My latest
@matternews_
column exposes how millions of Columbus tax dollars are being directly invested in Israel during their military campaign against the citizens of Gaza. Treasurer Sullivan has invested $10.5 million since October 7.
Since this is getting traction, let me shamelessly plug my mixtape (essay) on Columbus’ dystopian future/present in Ready Player One for
@clereviewbooks
.
Organizers called for media to gather in the middle for an announcement. Heba from SJP is talking about the heavy police presence in response to a peaceful protest. “Shame on OSU and shame on President Ted Carter.”
Nazis have been active on college campuses for years. Local activists are constantly taking down anti-Semitic propaganda and urging universities like OSU to address it (with no response). This legislation could target the very activists who’ve been fighting against the Nazis.
The media-driven campus panic is manufacturing consent for a whole new wave of racist surveillance and suppression of political organizing. This is so dangerous
CEA members braved the weather to rally again this evening outside the CCS board office. Tell the Board not to walk away from our students and continue bargaining for the safe, properly maintained, fully resourced schools
#ColumbusStudentsDeserve
! Sign
Photos from the action disrupting OSU President Johnson's acceptance of a climate award.
@climatestrikeOH
and
@SunriseColumbus
demanded OSU fully divest from fossil fuels and stop construction of the new campus gas plant.
Anna Morgan was a Columbus labor organizer and civil rights activist blacklisted in the 1950s. Her and a young lawyer from Akron appealed all the way to the Supreme Court & won.
My latest column for
@matternews_
:
It’s a packed house in Columbus City Hall this evening. Organizers are calling on Columbus City Council to pass a ceasefire resolution as smaller Ohio cities like Dayton have already passed ceasefire resolutions. They’ve reached “capacity” and stopped letting people in.
My latest column for
@matternews_
is a report on what's happened in Columbus since Israel's siege on Gaza. From a protester being hit by a truck to an unprecedented city council meeting, activists haven't given up in calling for a ceasefire.
As a fan of
@BootsRiley
's work, I was surprised nobody was talking about the ideological struggle transpiring throughout his new show, I'm a Virgo. So I wrote a little thing about it for
@PeoplesWorld
:
I’m at the quarterly meeting of the Franklin County Investment Advisory Committee where community members have gathered to oppose Treasurer Brooks Sullivan’s continued investments in Israel Bonds.
We obtained emails between Israel lobbyist and Franklin County Treasurer Sullivan that expose Sullivan’s doubling down of “solidarity” with Israel in early December after 17k civilians were killed.
My latest for
@ColsFreePress
:
Excited to have a column (still to be named) over at
@matternews_
working w the legendary
@andydowning33
. My first piece covers how Silicon Valley's right-wing venture capitalists are hijacking Ohio's future:
Only way to save the USPS at this point is to promote the gift shop as some kind of a street fashion label.
Don't 4get, new bugs bunny stamps dropping 2MORROW!
Personal fav: mermaid bugs with the WAGON.
OSU has Marathon's former CEO on its Board and recently accepted $250k from Marathon to carry out pipeline research.
My latest for
@ColsFreePress
on OSU's relationship with oil giant, Marathon Petroleum.
While claiming that reinvesting in Israel Bonds isn’t political, emails and social media posts show that Treasurer Brooks Sullivan explicitly stands in “solidarity” with Israel and has attended a virtual event featuring PM Benjamin Netanyahu.
After claiming citizens asking for her not to reinvest in Israel Bonds didn’t represent Franklin County, I asked whether her friend Israel Bonds lobbyist Kathe Turiel did. She fired back that I should go to ethics or legal prosecutors with those kinds of questions.
The current speaker pointed to county and state funds invested in Israel Bonds, telling city council “This city has blood on its hands.” Most council members are avoiding eye contact with her.
I've been combing through all of the annual reports I can get my hands on for Ohio's policing and prison data and as you'd expect, it's not good. Here's a look at the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction's 2019 report:
Emails and social media posts show a close relationship between Franklin County Treasurer Cheryl Brooks Sullivan and Israel Bonds representative Kathe Turiel.
My deep dive into the treasurer’s support/investment in Israel Bonds for
@ColsFreePress
:
23-year-old Henry Green was walking home in 2016 when two Columbus Police officers in an unmarked car and civilian clothes pulled up, hopped out and shot/killed Green. The officers’ story contradicts multiple witnesses and even each other’s. Neither were indicted or fired.
Ultimately, Treasurer Brooks Sullivan admit that she had the authority to not reinvest in Israel Bonds, but wouldn’t unless a voter initiative made it illegal. She also admit that she reinvested a $1 million Israel Bond on April 1.
Paul Robeson credits his political development to his time in England where he met figures like Kwame Nkrumah and Bernard Shaw. “My whole social and political development was in England,” he recalled.
My latest for
@tribunemagazine
@Nerd4Cities
When the Bolshevik poet Vladimir Mayakovsky travelled through the Midwest in the 1920s, he was “taken aback by the train station in St. Louis.” He called the Mississippi River “the American Volga.”
Columbus police have been arresting organizers with no charges then charging peaceful protesters with riot charges as a fear tactic to, as they admit, “end the protests�� and as “retaliation”.
Happy to announce that I'm a contributing writer at
@clereviewbooks
and my first piece with them just dropped on the cyberpunk future/present of Columbus in Ready Player One/Two!
"Cline’s vision of Columbus, Ohio in 2050 isn’t just the somber conclusion of dystopian fiction. It’s a disturbingly realistic future for the city." Taylor Dorrell on urban development and the virtual-real via 𝘙𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘺 𝘗𝘭𝘢𝘺𝘦𝘳 𝘖𝘯𝘦 & 𝘛𝘸𝘰.