Ohio's largest newspaper has broken its own ban on major-race endorsements to back Democrat Amy Acton for governor, after condemning Republican Vivek Ramaswamy's campaign advert featuring Acton's estranged mother as 'vile' and 'weaponizing' her alleged childhood sexual abuse.

VivekRamaswamy's latest ad puts Amy Acton’s estranged and abusive mother on TV to attack her.

Gov. DeWine we ask you to stand with Ohio’s vulnerable children and withdraw your endorsement of Ramaswamy.

https://app.sosha.ai/s/ZDt2rZPz

I am writing this post with the understanding that political discourse is allowed and based on my observations that this sub tends to lean left.

There is a LOT of Republican/corporate/millionaire money coming into Ohio to support Vivek, Jon Husted, and other GOP candidates. The numbers are mind-boggling and they make me nervous.

Today, I had a realization: all that money is meant to buy influence over us, the people who live and vote in Ohio. These campaigns want to buy their way to convincing US to vote for their candidate. It might sound obvious, but it changed my outlook. At the end of the day, WE still hold the power. My vote has as much value as yours, which has as much value as Vivek’s, which has as much value as any farmer or plumber or teacher living in Ohio.

The GOP might have more money, but we have something else: the power of peer pressure- and it’s free! These elections are so important that it’s time to text our friends, our coworkers, our dem relatives, and make sure they vote. Give friends a ride to the polls if they need it. We all have huge networks of people in our lives. Let’s utilize them. Personally, I don’t care about the possibility of irritating someone anymore. Too much is at stake

It doesn’t matter how much money republicans spend on commercials. What’s more convincing than a commercial or a flyer? A real, live person that you know and trust. If enough of us take this approach, we can overcome those dollar signs and make our votes matter. The key is spreading the word.

Let’s try having hope. What do we have to lose?

Hocking Hills this weekend

Hey fellow Ohioans, I want to address a systemic public health failure by the state government that is actively shortchanging taxpayers and endangering high-risk individuals across all 88 counties.

The Ohio Department of Health (ODH) has centralized its respiratory illness reporting into a dashboard that is an interactive mess—it’s difficult to navigate, poorly organized, and completely lacks actionable, real-time numbers.

Instead of tracking current community viral load, the dashboard relies on cumulative hospitalizations. Hospitalizations are a severe lagging indicator. By the time a patient is admitted to an ICU, that specific viral wave has already been tearing through schools, workplaces, and grocery stores for three to four weeks. It tells us where the virus was, giving vulnerable citizens zero warning to protect themselves today.

Even worse, ODH used to publish incredibly useful weekly reports broken down by the state's official Surveillance Regions (Northwest, Northeast, Central, West Central, Southwest, and Southeast). They killed those reports. Now, the state and the CDC only push a single, flat "statewide average" for Influenza-Like Illness (ILI).

But diseases do not spread evenly across Ohio. Cleveland or Columbus could be experiencing a massive surge while Toledo and Cincinnati are completely quiet, or vice versa. A single statewide average completely erases our regional realities, masking local outbreaks and leaving communities completely unprepared.

ODH is actively hiding early-warning data points like regional clinical laboratory test positivity rates and outpatient doctor visit percentages—metrics that neighboring states like Michigan openly publish in clean, weekly text summaries.

I am an Ohioan managing severe asthma with a history of ICU flu stays. I rely on real-time data to know when to wear an N95 mask so I can protect my health and stay employed. Our tax dollars fully fund this public infrastructure, yet the bureaucracy is prioritizing its own legal comfort and "Cover Your Assets" culture over basic public transparency.

One person complaining won’t change an agency's culture, but a wave of constituent pressure will.

Please take 60 seconds tomorrow morning to call the ODH Director’s office and your local state legislators to demand that they restore regional weekly reporting and real-time early indicators:

• Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff (Director, Ohio Dept of Health): (614) 466-7217
• Your State Representative & Senator: Find them here by your ZIP/Address

What to tell them:
"My name is [Your Name] from ZIP [Your ZIP]. I am demanding that the Ohio Department of Health restore its weekly regional public health text reports. The current dashboard is non-functional for daily life and relies on cumulative hospitalizations, which are a lagging indicator providing zero actual warning. Hiding regional test positivity and outpatient data leaves vulnerable Ohioans blind during the winter surge. We deserve a functioning data pipeline."

Let’s force Columbus to stop hiding the math and give us our regional data back!

full article:

Ohio Republicans are struggling to find places willing to host Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign bus tour after his attack ad featuring Democrat Amy Acton’s estranged mother sparked bipartisan outrage, according to new reporting from Zeteo.

“We’re getting calls that people don’t want him there,” a top Ohio Republican told the outlet. The source said would-be hosts are wary of the blowback but wouldn’t identify them.

“It’s that damn ad,” the Republican said.

Ramaswamy’s campaign took ownership of the spot this week and pledged $4 million to put it on the air. In the ad, Acton’s birth mother, Donna Arthur, brands the Democrat “a liar.” Acton was 12 when her stepfather, Cledith Arthur, was charged in 1978 with raping her, according to police and court records reported on by The Washington Post. She and her brother were later taken out of their mother’s custody.

Zeteo has characterized the contest as “deeply vile and nasty.”

A Trump adviser told Zeteo the ad is “having a very negative impact on the tour,” including on GOP candidates who had “NOTHING to do with” it.

At least one host has already bailed. Old Dog Ale House & Brewery in Delaware, Ohio, canceled an event featuring the state’s Republican slate, USA Today Network reporter Jessie Balmert wrote on X, and the party has since lined up a different venue. Sources confirmed to Zeteo that the uproar was behind the cancellation.

Other stops appear to be in flux. A Sunday service at CrossPointe Church in Westerville has quietly vanished from the Ohio GOP’s bus tour page, Zeteo reported. Ramaswamy had defended the ad at a campaign event at the church on Tuesday. A planned Trumbull County stop is now missing a location altogether.

The backlash has crossed party lines. Casey Putsch, who lost the GOP primary to Ramaswamy, announced he’s backing Acton, calling the ad “pretty damn low.”

The Cook Political Report shifted the race from Toss Up to Lean Democrat on Friday, writing that the ad “confirmed that the race is slipping away from him.”

When Zeteo shared the new rating with a Trump White House official, the reply was two words: “Well f---.”

1,021 Ohio doctors wrote the same prescription: Dr. Amy Acton.

We caught up with Dr. Jennifer Snyder (family medicine), Dr. Valerie Fouts-Fowler (pediatrics) and Dr. Lauren Beene (pediatrics) outside the Obama rally in Cleveland yesterday. Dr. Beene leads Doctors for Dr. Amy Acton, the group that answered when the Ohio State Medical Association's PAC endorsed Vivek Ramaswamy. The PAC never asked its own members, so more than 1,000 Ohio physicians, many of them OSMA members, signed a letter saying the PAC doesn't speak for them.

Their biggest worry is access to care. Vivek has called Medicare and Medicaid "mistakes," and more than a million Ohio kids rely on Medicaid. Dr. Acton is a pediatrician and preventive medicine doctor who led Ohio through the start of COVID under a Republican governor, and she's running on lowering prescription costs, relieving medical debt and protecting Medicaid and Medicare.

If the doctors who take care of your kids are all backing the same candidate, maybe take the hint.

Trump isn't on the ballot in November, but Trumpism sure is. Early voting in Ohio is open now through November 1st. Vote early and in person if you can, and bring a friend or family member. The sooner the better, because anything can happen: illness, car trouble, a family emergency, or this administration pulling a fast one on DEMOCRACY. Bonus: campaigns can see who has already voted (not how). Once you vote, they take you off their call, text and door-knock lists, and your candidates can put that money and those volunteers toward people who haven't voted yet. Fewer texts for you, more help where it counts.

https://abc6onyourside.com/news/election/healthcare-hot-topic-ohio-governors-race-heats-dr-doctor-amy-acton-vivek-ramaswamy-governor-gubernatorial-issues-politics-government-voting-elections

On a personal note, I've come to know Dr. Valerie Fouts-Fowler and Dr. Lauren Beene quite well in the past year. I only just met Dr. Jennifer Snyder, and she seems cut from the same cloth. They're well loved by their patients, they're sincere, and they're fighting for Ohioans' health care.

A FB follower named Christine wrote this comment this morning:

Hippocrates wrote, “Wherever the art of medicine is loved, there is also a love of humanity.” 💛 That love shines through these doctors standing up for their patients, especially the million-plus Ohio kids who rely on Medicaid. Thank you for your care and your courage! 🩺🙏

"Adam A Thomarios CEO of Klutch and OhCann member and leader also heavy on Vivek and has supported SB 56. Pay attention and spend your money wisely. These people are using your money against the cannabis community and small business in order to control and monopolize the market.

Klutch is also apart of a trademark lawsuit with NBa legend LeBron James and his sports agency Klutch sports"

This is just one of many posts that this page has outed owners of dispensaries for supporting shitheads like Vivek

Brian's shipping off to DC.

Friday night in Brook Park, Dropkick Murphys called Brian Poindexter For Congress up on stage at the Ohio AFL-CIO "For the People" rally, and UAW Local 1250 went wild. Union members from the UAW, IBEW and more packed the lot for one message: workers over billionaires.

Brian's a working-class guy running for Ohio's 7th District against Max Miller, the congressman whose ex-wife told detectives he held a gun to her head, and who both of Ohio's Republican senators told to resign.

One of them gets called on stage by Dropkick Murphys. The other gets small conference rooms and a camera guy filming the ceiling, while the crowd goes mild.

Medina, Wayne and Holmes counties, Strongsville, North Royalton, Brecksville, Broadview Heights: this is your district. You get to decide who represents you.

Trump isn't on the ballot in November, but Trumpism sure is. Early voting in Ohio is open now through November 1st. Vote early and in person if you can, and bring a friend or family member. The sooner the better, because anything can happen: illness, car trouble, a family emergency, or this administration pulling a fast one on DEMOCRACY. Bonus: campaigns can see who has already voted (not how). Once you vote, they take you off their call, text and door-knock lists, and your candidates can put that money and those volunteers toward people who haven't voted yet. Fewer texts for you, more help where it counts.

I posted this earlier but it was removed because I didn't post sources. I apologize to the community for the oversight. Here is a repost with linked sources added inline.

Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign signs promise “Lower Taxes. Bigger Paychecks.” It seems simple enough on the surface, but one huge detail deserves a lot more attention than I think it’s getting.

His proposal is to eliminate Ohio’s capital gains tax first, starting in 2027, and then phase out the rest of the state income tax over up to 10 years.

For anyone unfamiliar with capital gains, we’re talking about profits from selling investments, stocks, businesses, and other assets, not the wages you earn by going to work every day. Many people aren’t familiar with capital gains because the scenario simply doesn’t apply to them. Only about 17% of Ohio tax filers reported them in tax years 2022 and 2023.

According to an analysis by Ohio’s nonpartisan Legislative Service Commission:

• 55.6% of the benefit from eliminating capital gains taxes would go to Ohioans earning over $1 MILLION annually.
• 81.6% would go to those earning over $200,000.
• Ohioans earning under $100,000 would receive just 7.3% of the total benefit.

(Note: These LSC estimates concern H.B. 617, a proposal to exempt capital gains from Ohio income taxes, consistent with the first step of Ramaswamy's stated tax plan.)

So, if you sell investments at a substantial profit, you receive a direct tax benefit as soon as that exemption takes effect. You don’t have to create a single job. You don’t have to increase anyone’s wages. You don’t have to invest those savings back into Ohio. You simply pay less in taxes.

So why make this the policy if it benefits so few people who are desperate for relief from this relentless economy? Well, Ramaswamy argues that eliminating these taxes will attract investors, entrepreneurs, and businesses to Ohio instead of places like Florida or Texas, creating economic growth and higher-paying jobs.

Okay, let’s follow that logic:

IF wealthy investors and business owners respond to the tax incentive…

AND IF they choose to relocate or expand in Ohio…

AND IF they actually invest in businesses that create new jobs here…

AND IF those jobs pay better than existing opportunities…

AND IF you actually get one of those jobs…

THEN, maybe, you get a bigger paycheck, in however long all of the above takes, of course.

So what’s it all mean for Ohioans? It means millionaires would get a substantial tax break written into law and effective next year, while everyone else would have to wait for the above theoretical benefits to trickle down, if and when they ever do. To be fair, he does intend to eliminate the state income tax for everyone, but over up to 10 years. So, I guess until then we are just…waiting? Hoping that timing, size, and enactment aren’t set off course by future legislative and budgetary realities?

Ramaswamy does propose more immediate property-tax relief. That’s a separate promise worth examining on its own merits. But it doesn’t change who gets the first benefit from his income-tax plan.

The bottom line is this:

If the objective is bigger paychecks for working people, why isn’t direct relief for working people the first priority?

You don’t have to oppose capitalism, business growth, entrepreneurship, or even tax cuts to recognize the distinction and asymmetry.

One benefit is written into the proposed law. The other depends on a whole series of things going right. And we’re supposed to look at a campaign sign saying “Bigger Paychecks” and assume those are equivalent?

That’s not a bigger paycheck. That’s a bet that giving wealthy investors more money will eventually translate into one. You know, hypothetically speaking.

At the very least, Ohioans driving past Vivek’s campaign signs should know who’s first in line in his plan for lower taxes. Spoiler alert: It ain’t them.

East of Canton on rt 62.

He grew up in Middletown, served in the Marines, went to Ohio State and Yale Law, and wrote “Hillbilly Elegy.” Few people have had more opportunity to learn how one label can flatten a whole human life.

There are gay hillbillies, too, Mr. Vice President. They have families and hometowns. Their claim to belonging is every bit as real as yours.

Vance chose “hillbilly” as the defining word of his public introduction. People from poor and Appalachian families have the same capacity for generosity as anyone else. His conduct belongs to him, and Ohioans should refuse to let him pass it off as our regional character.