Countries and territories that Trump has said should be taken by the US:
Canada
Greenland
Cuba
Venezuela
Panama
Gaza
Greenland
Cuba
Venezuela
Panama
Gaza
And, speaking of Greenland, Trump also posted this:
Friday, June 5, 2026
Foulkes Unveils Third Component of “Believe in Rhode Island” Economic Plan: Creating & Growing Good-Paying Jobs
Proposes $150 Million Ocean Economy Investment Fund
“For too long, Rhode Island has been solving the wrong problem when it comes to our economic development strategy, and it’s driven away large employers and left our people behind. I’m excited to share the final part of my economic plan, centered around my belief in Rhode Island,” said Helena.
“It’s time to lean into what sets Rhode Island apart from other states: our people, our colleges and universities, our world-class food and arts scene, and our 400 miles of coastline and access to the ocean. As governor, I’m going to bet on our people and lean into our strengths, and I’m excited to grow our economy together.”
Part Three of Helena’s Believe in Rhode Island Plan includes:
Bottle Bill, Producer Responsibility Again Topics of Legislative Debate, with No Resolution in Sight
Looks like we're going to kick the can (and nips and water bottles) down the road again
By Rob Smith / ecoRI News staff
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One year, for Christmas, he gave his 5-year-old grandson a toy truck. His grandson asked him for help opening the packaging on the truck, which had hard plastic, wire ties, buttons, and cardboard. It was difficult for his grandson to open, and, as Bennett tells the story, just as difficult for him as an adult to open.
“It took me penny cutters, write cutters, scissors, and
pliers just to open the packaging on the truck,” Bennett said during a
committee hearing May 27. “About 15 minutes later I’m done, and I turn around
and he’s got three more trucks.”
For years now, Bennett has told that story when introducing
his legislation (H7910) for extended producer responsibility (EPR) program
for packaging and paper. The program puts the onus on producers of plastic and
paper packaging to come up with a recycling program for the materials.
There’s no easy way to recycle the hard plastic that encases
toys, electronics, and other high-value products. The traditional catechism
from some producers of some packaging is it makes it harder to shoplift and
cuts down on theft — but it also all but guarantees packaging fills up Rhode
Island’s already limited landfill.
“It’s a theft, we’re throwing all that stuff in our
landfill,” Bennett said. “We have to pay for that.”
Stronger EPR legislation has struggled to make it out of the
General Assembly in recent years, due in part to local business opposition to
its close cousin, the bottle bill (H7911).
Bottle bills, or beverage container redemption systems,
attach a fixed fee — 10 cents per container, according to this year’s
legislation — that can be redeemed once returned to a recycling collection
center.
The redemption fee is aimed at incentivizing consumers to
recycle empty water bottles, soda bottles, and other plastic waste associated
with drinks. Similar programs exist in Rhode Island already for two categories
of products: mattresses and paint.
Bottle redemption programs, like EPR programs, are run by
producer responsibility organizations, entities made up of the producers of the
waste being recycled.
Feds jump in after battle over prediction market regulation hits Rhode Island
RI wants to regulate prediction betting. Trump regime says NO
By Christopher Shea, Rhode Island Current
Add the federal agency overseeing prediction markets to the list of antagonists seeking to supersede the state of Rhode Island’s authority to regulate online platforms that allow wagering on everything from politics to sports.
And here's why Trump wants to block Rhode Island
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Thursday moved to intervene in the federal lawsuit Kalshi filed against Rhode Island last week. The five-member commission, appointed by the president to oversee futures trading and financial technology, argues the agency alone has the authority to regulate online betting on national and world events.
“This lawsuit is about whether Rhode Island state officials can usurp the CFTC’s jurisdiction and enforce state gaming laws against federally regulated exchanges in connection with the listing of federally regulated event contracts,” the commission’s filing states.
The motion came a week after Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha filed his own lawsuit in Providence County Superior Court asking the court to declare companies such as Kalshi and Polymarket as effectively sports betting businesses operating without state approval. Just hours before Neronha’s complaint was filed, Kalshi filed suit against the state in U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island, claiming its business activity does not fall under state gambling laws because its event-based contracts are assets traded between its users on a federally regulated exchange.
Thursday, June 4, 2026
Full-Frontal Neofascism
And What We Must Do
Then, when the deal is widely criticized, he posts:
“I gave up a lot of money in allowing the just announced
Anti-Weaponization Fund to go forward. I could have settled my case, including
the illegal release of my Tax Returns and the equally illegal BREAK IN of
Mar-a-Lago, for an absolute fortune. Instead, I am helping others who were so
badly abused by an evil, corrupt, and weaponized Biden Administration, receive,
at long last, JUSTICE! President DJT.”
Does he really believe he could have
settled his case for an absolute fortune — the case that he brought
against himself — the case a federal judge doubted was even a
“case” because he was on both sides of it?
Last week, a disclosure form showed that Trump’s investment portfolio executed more than 3,600 trades in the first three months of this year alone, many involving companies that he has favored with access or policies.
America is slouching toward the 250th anniversary of our revolution against arbitrary power with a president who shamelessly exercises it. Never before have we witnessed this degree of self-dealing, bribe taking, usurpation of congressional authority, and open defiance of federal courts.
It’s an unconstitutional slippery slope. If Trump can get
away with creating for himself a $1.8 billion slush fund that Congress never
approved and courts cannot oversee, and wantonly trade the shares of companies
his policies are favoring, what’s to stop him from creating a $10 billion or
$10 trillion self-dealing slush fund?
If he can get away with preemptive pardoning himself and his
family for any and all future financial wrongdoing, what’s to stop him from
pardoning himself and family for any future criminal acts?
These are only a part of the slippery slope we’re on. If he
can abduct a foreign president without Congress’s permission, what’s to stop
him from abducting anyone? If he can order the U.S. military to
kill a foreign head of state without even Congress declaring a war, what’s to
stop him from ordering the military to kill anyone?
If he can target political enemies for criminal prosecution,
what’s to stop him from jailing or murdering his opponents?
If he can unilaterally decide that someone on a boat in the
high seas is an “enemy combatant” and summarily kill them, what’s to stop him
from calling anyone he dislikes an enemy combatant and having them killed?
If he can put his name on buildings all over Washington and
take a wrecking ball to the East Wing of the White House, what’s to stop him
from taking a wrecking ball to the entire edifice and putting up a Trump tower?
He feels unstoppable because there’s no one around him to
tell him no. Instead, he’s surrounded by sycophants who tell
him yes. He gets blind loyalty from his lapdogs — his vice
president, his Cabinet, and most Republicans in Congress — who work for him
rather than for the American people.
He feels indomitable because his billionaire backers — Jeff
Bezos, Elon Musk, Larry and David Ellison, Mark Zuckerberg, and Rupert Murdoch,
among others — have stuffed his PAC with their money and silenced criticism of
him on their media platforms, in order to garner his favors. Meanwhile, his
followers feast on his white Christian nationalism, and regard him as godlike.
He feels invincible because he was reelected president even
though he was impeached twice and has been found guilty of 34 felony counts,
and the Supreme Court has shielded him from further criminal prosecution for
“official” acts (which he takes to mean any actions while he’s president).
Congress is barely an obstacle because, as he demonstrated as recently as last
week, he has a chokehold over the Republican Party. He even says he “doesn’t
need Congress.”
He feels invulnerable because he’ll never directly face
voters again, and therefore will never lose — nor, he assumes, ever be held
accountable for anything.
My friends, this is full-frontal neofascism. I suggest we
respond in these ways:
On July 4, the 250th anniversary of the
nation’s independence, we wear black armbands to acknowledge the near death of
our democracy and the rule of law under Trump.
In the weeks and months leading up to the midterm
election on November 3, 2026, we commit to getting the largest
voter turnout in American history, to take back Congress and stop the
neofascist in the White House. Not just a blue wave but a blue tsunami.
On Election Day 2028, we elect a
president whose character and temperament are consistent with the founding
ideals of the United States — someone both humble and honorable, who’s
committed to strengthening democracy and the rule of law, who will revive the
self-governing institutions that Trump has shat on and refocus the nation on
our vast unfinished agenda of inclusion, rather than exclusion.
Beyond these, we will do whatever we can
to learn from this catastrophe and help America learn. We will teach our
children and grandchildren the truth of what has happened, and how close we’ve
come to losing our democracy. And we will educate future generations on what we
owe one another as citizens of this great land.
To accomplish all this, we mutually pledge to each other our
lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.
Robert Reich is the Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and a senior fellow at the Blum Center for Developing Economies. He served as secretary of labor in the Clinton administration, for which Time magazine named him one of the 10 most effective cabinet secretaries of the twentieth century. His book include: "Aftershock" (2011), "The Work of Nations" (1992), "Beyond Outrage" (2012) and, "Saving Capitalism" (2016). He is also a founding editor of The American Prospect magazine, former chairman of Common Cause, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and co-creator of the award-winning documentary, "Inequality For All." Reich's newest book is "The Common Good" (2019). He's co-creator of the Netflix original documentary "Saving Capitalism," which is streaming now.
Senate OKs Sen. Gu bill to expand online database of affordable housing
Senator Gu thinks people have the right to more affordable housing information
“A few years ago, the General Assembly tasked RIHousing with creating and maintaining a searchable online database of low-income housing developments to inform the public of low-income housing opportunities,” said Senator Gu (D-Dist. 38, Westerly, Charlestown, South Kingstown).
“But that law
only narrowly applied to the limited number of rental units funded by
RIHousing, leaving large gaps that made it difficult for Rhode Islanders
searching for affordable housing to find an available unit. This bill expands that
database to all low- and moderate-income housing units — including
homeownership units — to create a comprehensive one-stop location for Rhode
Islanders searching for housing.”
The legislation (2026-S 2690) would expand the database to include all
residential developments that meet the definition of low- or moderate-income
housing, including homeownership units. Currently, the database is limited to
rentals in specific low-income housing developments and subsidized housing
developments.
Scientists discover why Alzheimer’s risk hits women so much harder
By the numbers
University of California - San Diego
 |
| Why are women more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease? - Harvard Health |
Scientists at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine analyzed data from more than 17,000 middle aged and older adults and found that certain modifiable dementia risk factors appear to have a greater impact on women's cognitive function than men's.
The findings were
published May 19, 2026, in Biology of Sex Differences.
Remind Me. Why Cuba?
I’ve Lost the Rationale for Why We’re Doing What We’re Doing
By Tom Cantlon
There isn’t much
left of it in the world. Out of the three or four still claiming it there is
China which is primarily a typical single-top-leader with a mix of some central
planning and programs with a significant amount of free-market.
There is North
Korea which is a dictatorship. Even if you could describe Cuba as truly
communist, so what? It’s not going to be leading a wave of other countries
becoming communist. What do we care what form they take?
Oppressed people? That’s also true in countries all over the world that we don’t seem to care about. Even further, Viktor Orban in Hungary was transitioning the country to an oppressive authoritarian system and we supported him. Is it because Cuba is in our Western hemisphere? So is Peru where President Bukele is leading a harsh authoritarian rule, but we’re making deals with him to take the immigration rejects (to put it in terms that fit Trump’s attitude) that Trump wants to get rid of.
And much of what the Cuban people suffer is simple poverty which the
U.S. has played a big role in creating. We’ve had embargoes of varying degrees
imposed on them since 1960, and of course much worse now since Trump has almost
cut off their ability to import oil.
Wednesday, June 3, 2026
The Supreme Court’s Whites-First Reasoning on Gerrymandering
It’s Always Been About Race
This is the question posed by possible Supreme Court review
of the finding by an Alabama judicial panel that Alabama could not use a
congressional district map that deliberately discriminated against Black
voters.
Two of the three judges on the panel which found race-based
discrimination had been appointed to the bench by President Trump; one, by
President Reagan. The issue now is whether the conservative justices of the
Supreme Court will upend the panel’s racial discrimination finding,
notwithstanding that the Alabama judges had followed legal standards set in the
Supreme Court’s recent decision in Louisiana v.
Callais.
If they allow the Alabama decision stand, it will be a rare
exception to the flood of Supreme-Court-encouraged gerrymandering prompted by
the Callais decision. Those Republican gerrymanders are likely
to purge
one-third of African -Americans representatives from Congress by
destroying the Black majority districts that elected them.
Nonetheless, the six justices of the Supreme Court who
caused this political bloodbath along racial lines claim that Republican
gerrymandering does not violate the voting rights of African-Americans. The
purge is lawful under the Voting Rights Act, say the justices, because the
G.O.P. has partisan reasons to eliminate the Black districts
that cannot be “disentangled” from racial motives.
Meet and support our great state Rep Tina Spears
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