Saturday, July 4, 2026
Heat Wave Politics: GOP Leaders Deride Calls to Conserve
Heat doesn't care who you vote for
Seeking to sow unity amid a pending heat crisis, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani reaped a whirlwind of right-wing rage.
Mamdani’s post on X on Wednesday urged New Yorkers to turn their thermostats to 78 degrees F and turn off unneeded lights and electronics—nothing original. It echoed the advice of the state’s largest utility, ConEd, which also asked customers to limit air conditioning in a Tuesday press release. “Let’s ease demand — and get through the heat — together,” Mamdani wrote.
“Welcome to socialism,” shot back Nikki Haley, the former Republican governor, diplomat and presidential aspirant.
Reader-provided context beneath Haley’s post noted that she had made a similar plea for conservation during a 2015 cold snap when she was South Carolina’s chief executive. They also pointed out that former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, a Republican, urged an identical 78-degree limit on AC during a 1999 heat wave.
Would Hunters Take a Lyme Disease Vaccine?
We Asked
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| (Kyle Pyatt for KFF Health News) |
More and more Americans are being exposed to these parasites as climate change expands the range where they can survive.
That means more people are also exposed to the bevy of health conditions they can cause, such as Rocky Mountain spotted fever, the alpha-gal-triggered red meat allergy, and, most common of all, Lyme disease.
For the latter, there may be some additional protection on the horizon. Pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Valneva announced this spring they plan to seek regulatory approval for a vaccine to protect against Lyme disease. A previous vaccine for Lyme became available in the late 1990s but was pulled only three years later due to lawsuits, public fear of side effects, and a lack of interest.
It’s unclear whether this latest stab at a Lyme disease vaccine will get a warmer reception if it’s approved, especially in the postcovid era of vaccine skepticism.
For a sense of how it might go over with rural populations at high risk of Lyme, KFF Health News spoke with a group of hunters.
Few people spend more time in the woods exposed to ticks.
At the same time, as a collective, hunters skew conservative, rural, and male, according to a survey from the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. And these are identities associated with increased hesitancy about or resistance to vaccines, according to Ashley Kirzinger, associate director for Public Opinion and Survey Research at KFF, a health information nonprofit that includes KFF Health News.
At the same time, few people spend more time in the woods exposed to ticks and the possibility of Lyme disease.
Global review confirms mRNA vaccines are safe, effective and full of promise
mRNA vaccines offer breakthrough on preventing cancer, viruses, and many other life-threatening diseases
By University
of British Columbia
Edited by Sadie Harley, reviewed by Robert Egan
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| Bobby Kennedy Jr. has been trying to ban mRNA vaccines |
Published in The Lancet, the review draws on laboratory science,
clinical trials and real-world effectiveness data to provide one of the most
comprehensive assessments of mRNA vaccines to date. It spans the full vaccine
life cycle, from design and manufacturing to real-world performance and
monitoring.
By bringing this evidence together in a single resource, the
researchers aim to support health care providers, policymakers and the public
with clear, evidence-based information as new mRNA vaccines and therapies are
developed.
"After billions of doses, we now have an extraordinary
amount of scientific evidence," said lead author Dr. Anna Blakney,
assistant professor at UBC's Michael Smith Laboratories and School of
Biomedical Engineering.
"This review affirms that mRNA vaccines are a safe and
highly effective platform, supported by rigorous testing and real-world
monitoring. It provides an evidence-based foundation as this technology
continues to expand into new areas of medicine."
Friday, July 3, 2026
At 250, American Democracy is Under Siege
As the Trump regime attacks the foundations of our democracy, Americans are fighting back
Writing the Declaration of Independence by J.L.G. Ferris
(Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson)
This Fourth of July marks the 250th birthday of a new
kind of nation state – based not on ancestral ties to a land nor
on the territorial reach of monarchs, but on shared principles about the rights
of citizens and the purpose of the state.
The Founding Fathers set forth those principles in the
Declaration of Independence: “All men are created equal” and have “unalienable
Rights [to] Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” “To secure these
rights” and to ensure that equality, government must “derive [its] just powers
from the consent of the governed.”
America has come a long way over two and a half centuries, but today we face a grave challenge from within – from those who occupy the White House and control Congress and the Supreme Court.
From the outset of the nation, the noble intention of
creating a society based on respect for human rights and the fundamental
equality of man was an aspiration, not an agenda.
In a sense the Declaration of Independence was an
invitation, after independence was won, to struggle over the inequalities that
marred the new nation: slavery and white supremacy, the subjugation of native
American peoples, the legal subordination of women, the limitation of voting
rights to the well-off.
In the course of 250 years, the equalitarian principle
has advanced.
A bloody Civil War won what Lincoln called “a new birth of
freedom.” Slavery was abolished and the Constitution amended to strengthen
government’s ability to safeguard the rights of African-Americans and other
people.
Women were eventually enfranchised and achieved formal legal
equality. The lawless subordination and genocides of Native Americans were
eventually recognized as the evils they are. The Civil Rights Movement repealed
American apartheid and restored rights that had been stripped away.
America is and always has been a nation of diverse peoples,
a multi-ethnic, multi-racial mix – and that is what the Framers and their
successors had in mind.
Indeed, the Declaration of Independence complained that King
George obstructed the “Naturalization of Foreigners” and failed to “encourage
migration hither.” Enslavers brought millions of Africans to our shores, and
America became their land as well. National expansion westward – the Louisiana
Purchase and the annexations that followed the Mexican-American War –
incorporated French, Spanish and Mexican people into America.
But today the Trump regime seeks to erase the diversity
essential to our national character. White supremacy and white nationalism are
threads running through nearly every policy – from ending
civil rights enforcement to discriminating against African-American
military leaders, terminating
refugee programs for nonwhites, slandering
Haitians, and calling Hispanic
migrants “the worst of the worst.”
Free elections, majority rule and democracy itself are
Trump’s targets. Like the fleeing crook who yells “stop thief” to
confuse the pursuit, the man who led a mob to attack the Capitol in order to
overthrow a free and fair election cried “stop the steal,” and nearly all
members of the G.O.P. supported his effort to overthrow the 2020 election.
Today, gerrymanders demanded by Trump are likely to
eliminate one
third of African-American members of Congress. The Supreme Court has
erased the protections of the Voting Rights Act.
Public confidence in our elections is eroded by evidence-free
claims of voter fraud, and voter
suppression lawss are making it more difficult to eligible voters to
cast their ballots, with zero evidence of significant voter fraud or of non-citizens
voting. Meanwhile, Trump seeks to outlaw
voting by mail, and his backers threaten to deploy
ICE to intimidate midterm voters..
In a functioning democracy, “Vote the rascal out” would be
the traditional response to a party’s leader whose deportations, tariffs and
Iran war inflicts economic pain on Americans across the board, who says he
doesn’t care about the voters, uses his office for corrupt profit, and rejects
the nation’s principles. Most Americans appear prepared to throw Trump’s party
out this fall. But Trump aims to democracy-proof Congress through
gerrymandering, voter suppression and possibly political violence.
On this 250th anniversary of our first
struggle for American freedom and democracy, we Americans are fighting back
against Trump’s war on what makes America America – in the
voting booth, in the courts, in the streets, and in our hearts.
The lesson of 250 years: Democracy is hard won and may be easily lost unless we are vigilant in protecting it. Come November, vote as if the vision of our Founding Fathers depends on you to safeguard it – it does.
Mitchell Zimmerman is an attorney, longtime social activist, and author of the anti-racism thriller Mississippi Reckoning. He's also a longtime contributor to Progressive Charlestown. His writing can also be found on his Substack, Reasoning Together with Mitchell Zimmerman.
Subscriptions to Reasoning Together with Mitchell Zimmerman are free at this time. If you find my writing of value, please like, subscribe and recommend Reasoning Together to your friends. Thank you.
You may also be interested in my road-trip novel / social thriller Mississippi Reckoning. Read an excerpt. Read the Progressive Charlestown review HERE.
RI Food Bank Receives $1M from Taylor Swift & Travis Kelce
Taylor Swift gives Rhode Island a wedding gift
RI Community Food Bank
“We are incredibly grateful to Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce
for their extraordinarily generous and unexpected gift,” said Melissa
Cherney, CEO of the RI Community Food Bank. “As the need across our
communities continues to grow, this $1 million donation will go a long way in
helping us purchase and distribute the nutritious, culturally appropriate food
that Rhode Islanders deserve. I hope their gift inspires others; it has
certainly inspired us.”
The timing of this gift is particularly appreciated by the
Food Bank team. Summer is typically a slower time of year for food donations,
which means a greater demand for food purchasing to keep
shelves stocked at food pantries across the state.
Heat wave peaks today. Hot? Charlestown cooling centers open
Heat and bad air can kill. So can wildfires. Be careful out there.
USA! USA!
Americans are not as well off as people in peer nations
Stephen Bagwell, University of Missouri-St. Louis and Susan Randolph, University of Connecticut
As the United States celebrates the 250th anniversary of its Declaration of Independence, the global data we collect and analyze shows that the country is failing to “promote the general Welfare,” as the Constitution’s framers promised a little more than a decade later.
We are scholars of human rights. Alongside the Human Rights Measurement Initiative, a nonprofit that tracks how well more than 200 countries and territories are meeting the human rights commitments their governments have made, we annually update scores measuring whether people can actually get the basics of a decent life, such as healthcare, adequate food and a quality education.
The latest data our team has amassed shows that the U.S. is falling short compared with what it could achieve, given its US$32 trillion economy. This is not a one-year blip – the U.S. has been underperforming for the past 25 years.
Thursday, July 2, 2026
There’s No Doubt: The Supreme Court Is Part of Trump’s Anti-Democracy Movement
They don't even try to hide it anymore
Robert Reich in Inequality Media
They
are losses for the authority of Congress to have its laws fully executed by a
president who doesn’t agree with them.
Markwayne Mullin vs. Al Otro Lado concerns a
1917 law that requires immigration officers to inspect noncitizens who arrive
at ports of entry to determine whether they may enter the United States.
Congress amended the law in the Refugee Act of 1980 to allow noncitizens
fleeing persecution in their home country to apply for asylum as part of this
inspection process.
The act lays out a required set of procedures to guide this
process. It says that a noncitizen who seeks admission to the United States
“may apply for asylum.” If the noncitizen lacks valid travel documents, the
officer “shall order [her] removed” unless she conveys an
intention to apply for asylum or a fear of persecution, which in turn requires the
officer to “refer” her for further processing of her asylum application.
This system is designed to ensure that the US government
considers the application of each person seeking to come into the United States
to determine who should be let in, who should be turned away, and who should be
allowed to apply for asylum.
This must be seen for what it really is—a systemic effort by the six Republican appointees on the court to shrink congressional authority and enlarge the authority of the executive branch.
CRU asks you to come out to sign nomination papers for town candidates on Sunday
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