MAGA Supreme Court Okays G.O.P. Overthrow of American Democracy

Disenfranchising 40% of a state’s citizens cannot be reconciled with representative democracy

Mitchell Zimmerman

The Supreme Court gave a “two-fer” to white supremacists and proponents of Republican autocracy: First, six right-wing justices completed the erasure of the crowning achievement of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement, the Voting Rights Act. Second, in the same case, Louisiana v. Callais, the right-winger judges approved of states shaping legislative districts that deny the opposing party any role in government.

In essence, the Supreme Court okayed the destruction of Congress as an instrument of American democracy.

The Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution was enacted and ratified five years after the Civil War. The Amendment confirmed – in principle – that African-American citizens have the right to vote and to have their votes count.

So said the Constitution. But for almost a century the former Confederate states negated African-Americans’ right to vote.

The Voting Rights Act put an end to the myriad legal schemes Southern white politicians had used to disenfranchise Black Americans

The Fifteenth Amendment also gave Congress the power to enforce its mandate. After years of struggle over civil rights – after peaceful demonstrators in Birmingham confronted snarling police dogs, mass arrests and lethal bombing, after hundreds of nonviolent students worked for freedom in Mississippi in the face of murder, assaults and the burning of Black churches, after peaceful marchers for voting rights returned to Selma after being clubbed by state troopers and ridden down by racist possemen – Congress tackled the white supremacist obstacles to African-American voting.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 put an end to the myriad legal schemes that Southern white politicians had used to disenfranchise Black Americans and terminated the ploys used to deny African-Americans a fair opportunity to elect representatives of their choice.

Republican conspiracy bingo

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Rep. Spears honors great-nephew of Ellison ‘Tarzan’ Brown for completion of Boston Marathon

Congratulations Thawn 

The House approved a resolution from Rep. Tina L. Spears honoring the great-nephew of Ellison “Tarzan” Brown for his completion of the Boston Marathon 90 years after Brown’s first Boston Marathon victory.

Thawn Sherenté Harris of Charlestown completed the marathon in an official time of 3 hours, 59 minutes, and 30 seconds, making him the third member of the Narragansett Tribe to complete the race and giving him the second-fastest recorded time among the tribe.

The resolution (2026-H 8539) sponsored by Representative Spears (D-Dist. 36, Charlestown, New Shoreham, South Kingstown, Westerly) declared that “Ellison ‘Tarzan’ Brown rose to national prominence in the 1930s, winning the Boston Marathon in 1936 and again in 1939, and competing in the 1936 Olympic Games, while bringing recognition and pride to the Narragansett people. 

Tarzan Brown’s 1936 victory included his legendary passing of race favorite Johnny Kelley on the hills of Newton, an iconic moment that gave rise to what is now known as ‘Heartbreak Hill.’ In completing the Boston Marathon, Thawn symbolically followed in his great-uncle’s footsteps along that same historic stretch, retracing the site of one of Brown's most celebrated achievements.”

Doctors Are Surprised by What This Vaccine Is Doing to the Heart

New benefits found for getting shingles vaccine

By American College of Cardiology

A new study suggests that people with heart disease who receive a shingles vaccine may face far fewer serious heart problems within a year. The research, presented at the American College of Cardiology’s Annual Scientific Session (ACC.26), found that vaccinated individuals had nearly half the rate of major cardiac events compared with those who did not get the shot.

The analysis included more than 246,822 adults in the United States with atherosclerotic heart disease, a condition caused by plaque buildup in the arteries. The findings add to a growing body of evidence that the shingles vaccine may do more than prevent shingles, with potential benefits that extend to heart health and even conditions like dementia.

“This vaccine has been found over and over again to have cardioprotective effects for reducing heart attack, stroke and death,” said Robert Nguyen, MD, a resident physician at the University of California, Riverside and the study’s lead author. 

“Looking at the highest risk population, those with existing cardiovascular disease, these protective effects might be even greater than among the general public.”

Private Equity Is Taking Over Nursing Homes — And Seniors Are Paying the Price

Vulture capitalists milk Medicare and Medicaid money 

By Scott Doerr 

As Americans age, we deserve the peace of mind that we can find nursing care for our parents or ourselves when we need it. But for private equity firms, that need isn’t a mission to fulfill — it’s an opportunity to profit at our expense.

As private equity takes over more nursing care, studies show higher mortality rates, reduced staffing, and increased costs as a result. But seniors are fighting back.

I live in Lincoln County, Wisconsin. For generations, our public nursing home — Pine Crest — has served our seniors. “Pine Crest is there for us when we need it. It’s worked that way for 70 years,” said retired accountant and Pine Crest Nursing Home volunteer Eileen Guthrie.

Eileen and I were among the concerned locals who tirelessly fought to keep our five-star-rated home in public hands when the county board put it up for sale to the highest bidder. Few wanted to privatize our beloved county-owned institution, which always treated residents with love and respect. Privatizing it would turn us into expendable cogs in the wheel for greater profits.

Despite broad public opposition, the county board sold Pine Crest to a subsidiary of the Ensign Group, a for-profit company. Almost immediately, the harm started. Less than a month after the sale, state regulators cited the nursing home for neglecting a patient’s medication needs, sending that person to the hospital, and reducing the necessary staff.

Since 2016, there have been 125 publicly-owned nursing home sales to private companies in Wisconsin. In nearly half of these, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) quality ratings declined after the sale.

That tracks with what communities have seen nationally.

The Center for Medicare Advocacy has found that “promised cost savings rarely materialized” when communities privatized public nursing homes, “while accountability and public oversight were significantly reduced,” the Daily Yonder reported. And the Kaiser Family Foundation has found that privatized nursing homes nationwide tend to have lower-quality ratings than those that are publicly owned.

The High Cost of Climate Change Inaction

We're already paying the price and it's going higher 

By Gina-Marie Cheeseman 

Key Takeaways

• The Trump administration underestimates climate change, leading to significant economic damage estimated at $10.2 trillion since 1990.
• Climate-related disasters could shrink U.S. GDP by 10% by 2050, with poorer communities bearing the brunt of the costs.
• Climate change has already cost the U.S. economy over $750 billion in the last five years due to weather disasters.
• The impact of climate change on households includes rising costs from property damage, healthcare, and insurance gaps, disproportionately affecting minority communities.
• A 2023 EPA report highlighted that underserved communities, particularly Black individuals, face the highest risks and costs associated with climate change.

From the first day of Donald Trump’s second term, he has made it clear his administration does not take climate change seriously. 

That is a very costly mistake, as a recently published study shows. U.S. greenhouse gas emissions since 1990 have caused $10.2 trillion in global economic damage, with U.S. carbon emissions the largest source.

 Almost $3 trillion in damage from U.S. emissions occurred within the U.S.

Donald Trump gets an MRI

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New method to raise investment funds for projects that restore coastal wetlands for climate adaptation

Conservation takes cash. Lots of it.

By Mike Peña

Photo by Will Collette

Key takeaways

• Researchers have launched an innovative process for turning natural flood protection into a certifiable investment. By quantifying the exact dollar value of storm protection provided by wetlands, this new methodology creates “Coastal Resilience Assets” that can be sold to private and public investors.
• This tool aims to close the global funding gap for coastal protection. In addition to the new investment framework, the team released a web-based calculator to help project developers worldwide estimate the financial value of mangrove conservation in the face of increasing storm risks.
• The program shifts how climate adaptation is funded, by moving away from traditional debt. This standardized approach creates a clear pathway for businesses and governments to proactively invest in nature-based solutions that protect property and lives.

The Center for Coastal Climate Resilience (CCCR) at the University of California, Santa Cruz, has partnered with The Nature Conservancy to develop a new tool for funding wetland conservation and restoration projects through verifiable “Coastal Resilience Assets.”  The value of these assets are based on the storm and flood protection benefits that the wetlands provide. 

Wetlands play an extremely valuable role in storm protection. For example, mangroves reduced storm damages from Hurricane Ian by more than $4.1 billion; and in San Francisco Bay, the value of some marshes that serve as flood protection infrastructure exceeds $350,000 per acre. 

URI studies drugs in the water

URI Professor Studies Effects of Pharmaceutical Pollution on Wastewater Systems

By Ellie Sennhenn / ecoRI News contributor

One University of Rhode Island researcher is studying the health and environmental effects of pharmaceutical pollution from over-the-counter and prescribed medications designed to treat ailments from headaches to infections.

Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) are a diverse group of chemicals that include all drugs (both prescription and over-the-counter medications) and non-medicinal consumer chemicals, such as the fragrances in lotions and soaps and the ultraviolet filters in sunscreens, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. These compounds are considered contaminants because they are released into water systems through sewage or agricultural runoff.

Finding out what happens when these drugs enter the environment is the premise of Thomas Boving’s recent research into PPCPs. These pollutants occur at low concentrations in soil and groundwater, according to Boving, chair of the University of Rhode Island Department of Geosciences. However, seemingly insignificant measurements can accumulate over time, creating potential adverse health effects, he said.

“These environments become breeding grounds for these bacteria, and if they spread, then we have a real problem,” Boving said.

One possible effect is antimicrobial resistance, according to Boving, which occurs when there is an overuse or misuse of antimicrobial compounds designed to treat or prevent infections, such as antibiotics, antivirals and antiparasitics.

NOAA Is Still Standing. For Now.

Impact on fisheries especially harsh

By Meg Wilcox

At a seafood expo in Boston last month, Togue Brawn, the founder of the seafood business Downeast Dayboat, spoke up from the audience to ask a panel of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) administrators an urgent question about funding.

What, Brawn wanted to know, is the status of the Saltonstall Kennedy program? The grant program—which helps fishing communities market their catch, build capacity, and conduct research to advance their fisheries—had been on hold for a year. “As someone who works with a lot of small-boat fishermen, we could use all the help we can get,” she told the panelists.

But Eugenio Pineiro Soler, assistant administrator of NOAA Fisheries, could not say when the popular program would restart.

Congress fully funded NOAA in January, ignoring the president’s plan to gut the agency. But NOAA has yet to restart many programs that were put on hold by the Trump administration in 2025, and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is slow-walking the release of congressionally approved funding.

Why Trump’s $2 billion buyoff to cancel offshore wind farms is a bad deal for American taxpayers and the US energy supply

Who, other than the fossil fuel industry, benefits from Trump's jihad on offshore wind?

Christopher Niezrecki, UMass Lowell; Ben Link, Johns Hopkins University, and Zoe Getman-Pickering, UMass Amherst

The U.S. is in a bizarre situation in 2026: It’s facing a looming energy shortage, yet the Trump administration is making deals to pay offshore wind developers nearly US$2 billion in taxpayer money to walk away from energy projects.

These politically motivated moves are costing Americans far more than just the buyouts.

Communities have been laying the groundwork for offshore energy projects for years. Offshore wind development brings jobs and economic development that reshape regional economies, with the scale of public and private investment reaching into the hundreds of billions of dollars over years. 

East Coast communities have built up ports to support the industry and launched job-training programs to prepare workers. Construction, maintenance and shipping businesses have sprung up, along with secondary businesses that support the industry.

Losing the projects, and the threat of losing other planned wind farms, will also likely mean higher energy prices. And while some offshore wind farms are moving ahead, developers must account for both lost momentum and increased uncertainty from the Trump administration.

As a result, Americans will bear the economic brunt of these decisions for decades ahead.

He didn't like the soup

Most important part of Trump trip