The Licking County Progressives

Here begins a new feature of this website, a semi-regular round-up of local progressive blog posts which you may find worth your while to read. This first installment consists of some blogs posts which extend back to November, but they are still worthy of your attention.

Recent blog posts by fellow Licking County Progressives that you may have missed:

• Newark Ohio News Analysis (NONA from this point onward), November 1^st, 2019: “Something for Something”. In this analysis, the author (Stan), assesses what was then the upcoming Mayoral Election in 2019 between Incumbent Mayor Hall and Challenger Jeremy Blake. He notes that Hall claims that he wants certain services but that we supposedly “can’t afford” them, that we must focus our expenditures on improving our downtown to attract businesses, and this analysis includes an interesting take on the issue of the Hotel-designated Longaberger Basket and how it connects with the East End Fire Station.
• Working Families First Blog (WF1st), November 13^th, 2019: “Talking Points that may come up on social media…know the truth”: Here, the author (Garry), offers some key pointers for how to respond to common critiques of the progressive viewpoint.
• NONA, November 13^th, 2019: “Free Exercise of Faith Democracy”. Stan looks at the appointment of State Representative Mark Fraizer after he was reelected to Council, but appointed and seated to the State House before even finishing his first term on Council. He asks an important question about how Fraizer will respond to the controversial bills on forcing doctors to reverse ecotopic pregnancy removals and forcing schools to accept science homework which is turned in with the wrong answers (due to religious influence).
• WF1st, November 22^nd, 2019: “Like it of not, we have to start talking about politics”: Here, Garry writes about the importance of getting over what divides us and talking about the issues which unite us. His major point here is that talking politics – while taboo – is crucial to save our democracy.
• NONA, November 24^th, 2019: “Under the Law Updated”: Stan analyzes the recent forced selling of the Arcade downtown, including all of its small businesses and the residential units. He connects this conspicuous sale with the equally conspicuous and curious appointment of a man named Spencer Barker to replace Mark Fraizer on City Council. As he points out, Barker is a key figure in development plans for the Newark Development Partners, which is the organization responsible for the Arcade sale.
• NONA, November 28^th, 2019: “Act Like An Owner”: An excellent analysis by Stan bemoaning the horrid and embarrassingly low turnout in Newark’s recent election and in elections overall.
• NONA, December 1^st, 2019: “Uncanny Prophet”: An interesting entry by Stan wherein he offers the words of some author about American prosperity back in the 1960s.
• NONA, December 8^th, 2019: “Framed, the Continual Sequel”: This, another excellent analysis by Stan, is a clever indictment of the way the City of Newark (and perhaps even the County and Country as a whole) approaches a whole host of problems. Here, the author assess a recent public forum on homelessness, the willingness of the City to spend money on consultants to “frame” the problem, and the equal unwillingness of the same City to spend money on addressing the root causes which we all know exist.
• NONA, December 9^th, 2019: “ALEC gets Religion”: Stan does a great job touching on the corrupt connection between the infamous lobbying organization and Ohio Elected Republicans.
• WF1st, December 12^th, 2019: “The Case for Impeachment is Overwhelming”: Garry asks readers to take the time and read a compelling case for Trump’s removal from office.
• NONA, December 14^th, 2019: “Culture of Denial”: As the title suggests, Stan delves into one of the premier hurdles we face as a society.
• NONA, January 6^th, 2020: “Remember the Alamo”: A stinging analysis of the downfall of print news, and particularly the plight of local newspapers like the Advocate and the Columbus Dispatch. Stan reminds readers that all printing for both papers will be outsourced, which is the reason for the delay in reporting local news…a delay which will only get worse.
• NONA, January 18^th, 2020: “Representation”: Stan looks at the erasure of history (including National Archives editing which edited photos of the 2017 Women’s March to erase images critical of Trump) while also delving into our creepy new facial recognition technology.
• NONA, January 25^th, 2020: “How It Starts”: Stan assesses the historic revisionism by Putin, his connection with Trump, and how Trump appears as willing as Putin to test our definition of “right v. wrong”.