An example of why some sexual assault victims are afraid to come forward

New Low Even for him as Trump Openly Mocks Christine Ford

By Jake Johnson, staff writer for Common Dreams

In what was denounced as a cruel new low even for a man with a long history of misogynistic comments who has been accused of sexual misconduct by over a dozen women, Donald Trump on Tuesday viciously mocked Dr. Christine Blasey Ford before a crowd of his cheering and laughing supporters in Mississippi, casting doubt on her credible claim that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh attempted to rape her when they were in high school.

"How did you get home? I don't remember. How'd you get there? I don't remember. Where is the place? I don't remember. How many years ago was it? I don’t know. I don’t know. I don't know. I don't know," Trump sneered, deriding Ford's testimony before the Senate, which was widely viewed as compelling and forthright—in stark constrast to Kavanaugh's enraged, evasive, and lie-filled performance.

Michael Bromwich, one of Ford's attorneys, quickly denounced Trump's attack on Twitter, calling it "vicious, vile, and soulless."

"Is it any wonder that she was terrified to come forward, and that other sexual assault survivors are as well?" Bromwich wrote. "She is a remarkable profile in courage. He is a profile in cowardice."

South County Hospital rated best in RI, one of the best in New England

Westerly Hospital, not so much

By Will Collette

More than 50,000 hospital patients responded to a Medicare survey that evaluated how well New England’s 176 hospitals did in meeting patients’ needs. Medicare now allows easy on-line access to the evaluations of hospitals at its Hospital Compare website.

According to those patient evaluations, summarized in GoLocalProv.com, South County Hospital in Wakefield outscored every other Rhode Island hospital by a wide margin. Overall, South County ranked at #18 among all 176 New England hospitals. The next-ranked hospital in Rhode Island was Women’s and Infants, in 29^th position.

Troubled Westerly Hospital was ranked #121, which is bad, but five other Rhode Island hospitals had even worse ratings: Memorial in Pawtucket at #137, Kent County at #141, St. Josephs at #154, Rhode Island Hospital at #170. Landmark in Woonsocket was rated #176, the worst hospital in New England.

Westerly Hospital’s likely buyer, Lawrence & Memorial Hospital in Connecticut, was much further down the rankings, at #156, than Westerly, which is not a great sign for Westerly Hospital patients.

In a separate rating, South County was one of only two Rhode Island hospitals to receive an "A" rating for patient safety from a non-profit hospital scoring group. The other hospital was Miriam. The scoring was done by the Leapfrog group that used federal data and surveys to measure such criteria as preventable medical errors, injuries and accidents, infections, sanitation, medication control and staffing levels. In the same ranking, Westerly Hospital received a "B."

Trump’s America: A Shining Outhouse on a Hill

I give up.

By Donald Kaul

When Donald Trump announced he was running for president, I mocked him. “Of the United States?” I asked. (I got a C- in Mockery when I was in college, unfortunately.)

When he jumped into the lead almost immediately, I laughed. “The higher the climb, the harder the fall,” I said. (I did better in Pithy Quotations.)

When the early campaigning found him doing well in such disparate states as Nevada, New Hampshire, and South Carolina, I fell into denial. “He’ll never, ever be the Republican nominee,” I said. “Republicans are too sensible.”

"It's Yuuuugggeeee! Trust me."

Then Super Tuesday happened and Trump basically wiped the floor with his opponents, who finally paused their fights with each other to join in a pathetic mass spitball attack on Trump. They were joined by the ghostly reappearance of Mitt Romney, who as usual was a day late and a dollar short.

So I give up. I’m now convinced that Donald Trump is going to be the Republican nominee for the presidency. Yes, of the United States.

He crisscrossed the country and stitched together a diverse group of people — young and old, conservative and moderate, well-educated and “poorly educated,” Southern and Northern.

They’re united by a single characteristic: They’re no smarter than a box of rocks.

South County again rated best in Rhode Island

Also considering merger with southern Massachusetts hospital chain

By Will Collette

South County Hospital is a great hospital and it’s not just me saying that. Once again, South County came out tops in the annual survey of hospitals conducted by Medicare for patient satisfaction. We’ve come to expect that of them.

But this year, not only was South County ranked best in Rhode Island, but the Number One hospital among all 176 New England hospitals, compared to their 18^th place finish last year.

They were also the only hospital to be given an “A” rating for safety.

In general, Rhode Island hospitals improved greatly over last year. Four out of the top ten slots went to RI hospitals including the surprise quantum leap by Westerly Hospital which came in at #9 compared to their awful #121 ranking last year[1]. They left their new parent company, Lawrence & Memorial Hospital, in the dust. L&M was ranked #144 out of 176.

Can South County Hospital maintain its high rankings as internal discord goes public? Can it survive?

Shit hits the fan at South County Hospital

By Will Collette

One of the many signatures on the “open-letter” that forced South County Health’s internal problems into the open was that of Dr. Gloria Sun. She was my primary care doctor since 2004 and saved my life at least once. 

She left SCH a little over a year ago telling me she was disgusted by the grind of paperwork and bureaucracy and moved over to URI’s student health services.

We’ve experienced the effects of SCH’s high turnover and disappointing recruitment results. Since then, Cathy and I have not had a regular doctor, relying instead on a succession of family nurse practitioners. Cathy relies on getting home blood draws but that was one of the several services SCH discontinued. She used to get iron infusions at the Cancer Center, but all of those staff quit in protest.

Most alarming for us is Cathy’s primary care doctor for her kidney disease who was cited by The Public’s Radio reporter Lynn Arditi:

In the last two months, four of the five staff in the hematology and oncology group submitted their resignations, Dr. Mark Mancini, the hospital’s medical director of nephrology, said in an interview Friday.

Mancini, who cares for patients with kidney disease, said that he is “on the brink of departure” because of frustrations with operation since Robinson was appointed chief executive officer in 2019, replacing Lou Giancolo.

“We haven’t had an organized meeting with the administration specifically representing the employed physicians in five years,’’ Mancini said. “(That’s a) prime example of an administration that has completely dissociated itself and alienated itself from the individuals such as physicians and advanced practice providers who are the pillars of your hospital.”

I have no complaints about SCH staff whether at the hospital, affiliated medical groups or our go-to favorite SCH Westerly site. We’ve always felt proud to have such an outstanding hospital as “our” hospital and appreciated the regular high ratings SCH has received. I spent four days as an inpatient with pneumonia and wrote about how great I was treated HERE.

But things have changed.

Right after Labor Day, the open-letter I mentioned in the opening hit the media and created a firestorm. The letter cited a callous attitude by hospital CEO Aaron Robinson, interference with proper medical treatment, bureaucracy and under-funding as the cause for staff resignations and difficulties in recruitment and retention.

While many institutions, especially in the health and non-profit sections, may have similar complaints, the open letter and protests make SCH’s issues much more than business as usual.

Since the letter, the focus has shifted to demands for Robinson’s removal and a shakeup of SCH management.

Aaronson and the SCH Board respond that the hospital has been losing money and that its reimbursements for services are 20% lower than similar hospitals in Connecticut and Massachusetts.

Their most recent audit report showed a loss of $6.3 million. They lost almost $6 million last year too. Despite these losses and all the internal turmoil, in the two years after he became CEO, Robinson enjoyed a pay hike of 60% to $757,503.

As doctors, staff and patients go public, several facts stand out: we all want South County Health to survive and thrive as the high-quality health care institution many of us rely on. Yes, there are reimbursement and market pressures pushing management to try to stem the bleeding – the state should do whatever it can to help out.

But it’s also clear that management, particularly Dr. Aaronson, are central to the problems that need to be resolved. While Aaronson may still have the full confidence of his Board - for now - he has lost the hearts and minds of a significant part of the staff and community so much so that I don’t see how he can continue.

My relationship with South County Hospital goes back 50 years to 1974 when I met their legendary, long-time CEO Donald Ford. I was working on a campaign to push hospitals to provide uncompensated care to the uninsured, a problem exacerbated by a deep recession. Donald, alone among hospital administrators, actually took out radio ads telling the uninsured and unemployed that South County Hospital would never turn them away for lack of ability to pay.

He became a source as well as a friend and mentor. He oversaw SCH’s growth and I believe he inspired the kind of care that gave South County Hospital its top rankings. He died in 2010.

I wish current administration at SCH would use the axiom “What would Donald Do?” as they work their way through this crisis.

Can't have too many billionaires

Trump and the Reverse Revolving Door

By Phil Mattera for the Dirt Diggers Digest

Late in his presidential campaign Donald Trump seized on the issue of government ethics, and since the election he has talked about putting stricter limits on the ability of federal officials to move into jobs with government contractors. That process, called the revolving door, creates the possibility that an official will skew decisions in favor of a future employer.

What Trump has not discussed is a related phenomenon that can also have a pernicious effect on federal policymaking: the appointment of lobbyists and corporate executives to public posts in which they are likely to pursue policy in a way that benefits their former (and probably future) employers and business interests. This is known as the reverse revolving door.

Not only has Trump not challenged that practice, he has embraced it with gusto — and personally embodies it. 

Along with retired generals and conservative zealots, his proposed cabinet includes hedge fund investor Steve Mnuchin as Treasury Secretary, vulture investor Wilbur Ross as Commerce Secretary and fast food executive Andy Puzder as Labor Secretary. 

And now comes the coup de grace: the nomination of ExxonMobil chief executive Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State.

Ghost of Trump’s Dad again dumps mashed potatoes on his head

The Petty Revenge of a Soon-to-Be-Ex-President

By Michael Winship for Common Dreams

In Mary L. Trump’s book about her family, Too Much and Never Enough, there’s a moment referred to in the index as the “mashed potatoes incident.”

Apparently, young Donald was a major pill almost from birth, undisciplined, rude and nasty to his siblings and his mother. One night at dinner, he was, as usual, picking on his younger brother Robert. He had the boy in tears. Older brother Fred, Jr., then 14, intervened.

“Robert’s crying and Donald’s needling became too much,” Mary Trump writes, “and in a moment of improvised expedience that would become family legend, Freddy picked up the first thing at hand that wouldn’t cause any real damage: the bowl of mashed potatoes.

Everybody laughed and they couldn’t stop laughing. And they were laughing at Donald. It was the first time Donald had been humiliated by someone he even then believed to be beneath him… From then on, he would wield the weapon, never be at the sharp end of it.

On November 3, a majority of voters dumped mashed potatoes on Donald Trump’s head and he’s still screaming from the injustice of it all. Despite overwhelming evidence that he lost the election, he continues to falsely bellow “Fraud!” via his Twitter feed and pursues one frivolous lawsuit after another to challenge the result, all to no avail. So far. (As of this writing, he and the Republican Party were 0-33.)

Boss Trump threatens autoworkers to endorse him or die

Trump to UAW: Endorse me or you won’t have a union

By Andrew Roth, Rhode Island Current

Former President Donald Trump told United Auto Workers (UAW) leaders Wednesday that they would not have a union if they fail to endorse him in the 2024 presidential election.

“They have to endorse Trump, because if they don’t, all they’re doing is committing suicide,” Trump said.

UAW President Shawn Fain criticized Trump’s Wednesday night visit to Drake Enterprises, a non-union automotive parts manufacturer in Clinton Township, which the former president scheduled to counterprogram the second 2024 Republican presidential debate.

Playing monopoly, playing dirty, playing rough

Charlestown Tapas: 17 tasty nuggets for the refined news palate

By Will Collette

In case you missed it: L&M/Westerly Hospital exec wants a Westerly monopoly

Bruce Cummings is playing the blackmail game again

I had meant to comment in the last edition of Tapas about complaints by Bruce Cummings, CEO of Lawrence & Memorial Hospital, the owner of Westerly Hospital, to the Westerly Town Council about South County Hospital’s plan to expand its services into Westerly through a new medical office building under construction on Route One near Dunn’s Corner.

Bruce Cummings, as you may recall, was responsible for last year’s awful strike and lock-out at L&M that put hundreds of hospital workers out of work between Thanksgiving and Christmas, 2013. Cummings hard-nosed union-busting style also shows itself with cutbacks in services not only at the parent hospital in New London but also in Westerly.

While Westerly may be somewhat indebted to L&M for keeping poorly managed Westerly Hospital open, for Cummings it was a pure business decision because he bought the distressed hospital at a bargain basement price and expanded his empire across the state line.

He has done little to improve Westerly Hospital’s less than stellar rankings for quality of care, safety and patient satisfaction, perhaps because L&M ranks pretty low among Connecticut hospitals. Clearly, workers' rights and quality care are not Cummings’ priorities.

But for Cummings to have the gall to tell the Westerly Town Council that South County Hospital is “poaching” patients and that the Council needs to be mindful of all the jobs Cummings saved by picking up Westerly Hospital for peanuts is plain outrageous.

VIDEO: Trump urges Americans not to buy from American companies because of his own tariffs

He really doesn't understand just how bad his own plan is.

ZACK FORD

To watch this video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6bi4ENiExs 

President Donald Trump kicked Monday morning off with a series of tweets defending his new tariffs against China. His latest tactic is to urge Americans not to buy products from American companies if they manufacture in China.

The way tariffs work is that American businesses pay the fees for bringing in goods manufactured in China, which they then pass on to consumers. The president reasons, however, that Americans can easily avoid these increased costs.

Trump said there is “no reason” for U.S. consumers to pay the tariffs, before claiming that companies inside China would soon move to other countries. In the meantime, Trump said people should just buy products from inside the United States.

….completely avoided if you by from a non-Tariffed Country, or you buy the product inside the USA (the best idea). That’s Zero Tariffs. Many Tariffed companies will be leaving China for Vietnam and other such countries in Asia. That’s why China wants to make a deal so badly!…— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 13, 2019

Tariffs can still have an impact on the cost of a product, even if you buy it from inside the United States.

If the measure of success is losing billions of dollars, than chalk one up for King Donald

Trump deals another blow to American automakers 

by Emily Singer, Daily Kos Staff

Donald Trump announced late on Tuesday that he and Japan reached a trade agreement, which will slap a 15% tariff on Japanese imports in exchange for Japan investing $550 billion in the U.S.

The so-called deal is another shit sandwich for Americans, especially U.S. car manufacturers. 

That's because Japanese cars imported into the U.S. will face a 15% tariff rate—lower than the 25% tariff American car companies currently face for imported auto parts. 

American automakers have already said Trump's tariffs have dealt a massive blow to their companies.

General Motors reported Tuesday that it lost $1 billion from April to June, attributing the losses to Trump's tariffs. And Stellantis, which manufactures American brands like Chrysler, Jeep, and Dodge, said it lost a whopping $2.7 billion in the first half of 2025 because of Trump's tariffs.

That 15% rate is less than the shocking 25% tariff Trump had threatened against Japan if a deal wasn’t struck.

That’s why Japanese car stocks rose on Wednesday, with Toyota up about 13%.

“Toyota is up +8% on the news of a 15% tariff. Why? It's simple,” Spencer Hakimian, founder of the hedge fund Tolou Capital Management, wrote in a post on X. 

“Ford, GM, Tesla, and all the other American manufacturers are going to be paying 50% more for their steel, 50% more for their copper, 25% more for their Canadian production, 25% more for their Mexican production, and 55% on their Chinese production. Toyota only has to pay 15% more and they're done with all the shenanigans. Ford has to pay much more than that. A lot more in fact."

“We've given a Japanese car company an advantage over American car companies. All in hope of bringing auto jobs back to America,” he added.

The American Automotive Policy Council—which represents General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis—said on Wednesday that the Japanese trade agreement is a "bad deal for U.S. industry and U.S. auto workers."

But Trump’s trade policy is not hurting just automakers.

Goldman Sachs on Tuesday said that U.S. economic growth will slow in 2025 because of Trump’s tariffs. The bank’s chief economist, Jan Hatzius, wrote in a memo to clients that the tariffs “will eat into real income, at a time when consumer spending trends already look shaky.” 

Criminal law expert explains new charge based on Trump's role in Jan. 6 insurrection

Using ‘dishonesty, fraud and deceit’ to cling to power

Gabriel J. Chin, University of California, Davis

Special Counsel Jack Smith announces the second federal
indictment of Donald Trump on Aug. 1, 2023.
 AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin

The Justice Department announced its second federal indictment of former president Donald J. Trump on Aug. 1, 2023. The charges are groundbreaking and not just because a former president is facing multiple criminal charges.

It’s because these are the first federal charges alleging a former president effectively attempted a particular kind of coup, called an auto-coup, in which he attempted to keep himself in power by illegal means.

The indictment lists four felony charges. All of them rely on the same facts and boil down to the same set of five allegations, many of which have been previously reported.

All of the charges rest on the claim that Trump and his co-conspirators knew the former president lost the 2020 election, and that his claims of fraud and voting irregularity made before and on Jan. 6, 2021 were unfounded.

Three counts in this new indictment allege conspiracies: There is conspiracy to defraud the government; to obstruct an official proceeding – in this case, counting the electoral votes on Jan. 6, 2021; and against the rights of the voters to cast ballots and have them fairly and honestly counted.

The remaining count alleges obstruction of an official proceeding – namely, tallying the electoral vote. The document states that Trump allegedly had the help of six co-conspirators, including four lawyers, a Justice Department official and a political consultant.

None of them are charged in the indictment, and they are identified by number, not name. This could mean one or more of these people are cooperating with the Justice Department, but not necessarily.

The indictment charges that all of Trump’s many claims of election irregularities “were false, and the Defendant knew that they were false.”

I am a scholar of criminal law and procedure. While Trump is facing multiple other charges, this indictment contains the most serious charges he has faced thus far.

Former President Donald Trump with his attorneys inside the
courtroom during his arraignment at the Manhattan
Criminal Court on April 4, 2023.
 Seth Wenig/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

In another case, Trump is being charged in New York with falsifying business records, which is, to some extent, a technical offense. 

And the Justice Department has charged him in Florida with illegally keeping national security documents, but there is no allegation they were disclosed to foreign agents or represented much more than souvenirs.

This indictment, by contrast, alleges that Trump knowingly worked to hold on to an office he knew he was not entitled to.

Thank you South County Hospital for saving my life

Now I understand why they get such high rankings

By Will Collette

I’ve been a fan of South County Hospital going back fifty years to the late Donald Ford, the hospital's long-time CEO. I was proud to consider a friend and mentor. For the second time in 20 years, I was an inpatient at SCH with a life-threatening ailment.

The most recent hospitalization started with a classic flu-like illness. Despite having gotten my annual flu shot, I was able to check off nearly every box on the Mayo Clinic’s list of flu symptoms. After a couple of weeks, it got worse. A wracking cough, intermittent fever and debilitating fatigue knocked me on my ass. But I thought I could tough it out helped by CVS’s strongest over-the-counter cough syrup.

Idiot.

My wife Cathy knew I was bad off and began to push me to go get help. After some resistance, one morning, I just knew that I was well past my ability to ride this out.

I went to South County Hospital’s Westerly annex on Route 1 and got quickly taken into their Express Care unit. After checking me out, they took an Xray whereupon I heard some of the most dreaded words any patient can hear: “you have a mass on your right lung.”

Dr. Jill Volk told me gently but firmly that I needed to be hospitalized. She said the top suspects were (a) an abscess, (b) tuberculosis and (c) cancer. At that point, I didn’t need much convincing. After a quick stop at home to talk to Cathy, Donna Walsh drove me to the hospital (thank you, Donna) where the emergency room was ready to take me in immediately.

They did a boatload of blood tests and a CAT scan that confirmed the “mass in the lung” part. They quizzed me on my exotic travels to see if I had visited places that had a lot of TB and other infectious diseases. Of course, I did but none in the past twenty years. Still, there was a slim chance that I had been carrying something that lay dormant but could have been activated by the flu.

As I was about to transition from the ER to inpatient, hospitalist Dr. Sal Abbruzzese sat with me and told me candidly that the odds of my illness being TB or cancer were very slim. After looking at the images, he called it a “cavitating lesion” almost certainly caused by a bacterial infection. By that time, they had begun giving me IV antibiotics.

Dr. Sal said that while it was bad, it could be completely resolved with IV antibiotics and that he was admitting me. I waited until after I was discharged before Googling how dangerous this thing was. I’m glad I waited because, untreated, gangrene and sepsis were in store for me.

When they brought me upstairs to Frost 2 (telemetry), my room was an isolation unit. I called it the “plague room” and asked if the last occupant went out in a body bag (didn’t).

It was private, quiet, with a negative air flow that made a perfect white noise for pleasant sleeping. There was an airlock for staff to suit up in full PPE before coming in. They were pumping me with saline and IV antibiotics and generally taking very good care of me.

I woke up that first morning feeling better and grateful to Cathy for nagging me to go get help.

Then over the remaining three days of my hospital stay, I came to really appreciate all those high ratings SCH has earned over the years. The nurses and treatment staff were really great – kind, attentive, and consummate professionals.

I hacked up three sputum samples for the state lab to check for tuberculosis. Those have been slow to come back, but the first sample was clear, confirming the consensus that I did not have TB. The results for the other two must come back clear for it to be official.

The antibiotics were knocking down the infection, getting my white cell count down to normal and dramatically improving my breathing. I was able to sleep soundly in my single isolation room with the blissful white noise from the negative air pressure. I also enjoyed some shockingly good hospital cooking (more on that below).

I had a couple of visits with infectious disease specialist Dr. Brian Cilley who was pleased with my progress.

While blood tests findings still hadn't identified what bacterial organism was responsible, the official diagnosis ended up being pneumonia. Obviously the IV antibiotics were working, enough that he felt confident about discharging me a day earlier than originally scheduled and going with oral antibiotics, rather than outpatient IVs. Plus, I felt so much better.

I did hold some lingering resentment about catching the flu despite the flu shot and pneumonia despite being vaccinated for that. I found out later from CVS that my last pneumonia shot was in 2014 so I really needed a new one. Despite my experience, I remain a diehard pro-vaxxer.

So, after four days of great treatment, I was able to go home without having to struggle to breathe. I have been recovering well and hope to have that confirmed when I see Dr. Cilley in a few days, followed by another CAT scan.

Beyond a doubt, the SCH team, ranging from Express Care to the ER to the staff of the Frost 2 unit, were primarily responsible for saving my life.

But before ending my little medical travelogue, I want to tell you about the food. It’s a cliché that hospital food is terrible. At South County Hospital, the food far exceeded my expectations. Though they can’t match Charlestown’s Sly Fox Den Too, they served me some dishes that were excellent.

I spoke with the dietician at least once a day where I gave her a review of the earlier meal and ordered the next. The meals were crafted to fit my needs as a diabetic and as an ill patient who needed to regain strength (I had lost 15 pounds over the previous month). I also got menu tips from the ward staff.

Breakfasts included such taste treats as nice, scrambled eggs, tasty French toast and, on the last morning, an excellent spinach, mushroom and Swiss cheese omelet. Usually there was fresh fruit, twice in the form of a cup of perfect plump fresh blueberries.

Lunches and dinners featured cooked from scratch soups, including an excellent clam chowder. The entrees were also cooked with care with nice sauces. One standout was poached salmon. A couple of nights, I had sugar-free lemon Italian ice (made by Hood) that was surprisingly delicious.

None of the good things I experienced during my stay in South County Hospital were accidents. They are Rhode Island’s last free-standing independent hospital, the only one not gobbled up by some corporate chain. They work hard to earn those high rankings they regularly receive from the various rating services. 

I don’t know how much my poor condition on admission or my natural charm had to do with the great way the staff treated me. I’d like to think everyone gets the same treatment and I truly believe they do.

What I can say with certainty is that, aside from being sick, it was a great experience. I feel a great debt to everyone I met and thank them all.

Rebutting 3 GOP Talking Points on Trump Indictment

 No one is above the law - holding Trump accountable is necessary for our democracy and trust in our legal system.

ROBERT REICH in Robertreich.Substack.Com

Donald Trump has been indicted.

You’re going to hear three basic criticisms of this indictment. Let me rebut each in turn.

1. It sets a dangerous precedent.

Rubbish. In order for the justice system to work, there must be trust that the system will not play favorites or ignore the wrongdoing of the powerful.

Donald Trump has done everything possible over the last seven years to destroy that trust for his own political gain.

It is true that no former president has ever been indicted, but no former president has done what Donald Trump has done — repeatedly defied laws and disregarded the U.S. Constitution. America never quite recovered from Gerald Ford’s decision to pardon Richard Nixon for all crimes he might have committed.

The Framers of the Constitution explicitly provided that presidents could be charged after leaving office. Article I Section 3 states that a president impeached by the House and convicted and removed from office by the Senate “shall nevertheless be liable and subject to indictment, trial, judgment and punishment, according to law.”

The fundamental idea that no one is above the law is only true if we make it so. Holding our leaders accountable is vital to maintaining trust in our legal system, and the survival of our democracy itself.

2. The indictment plays into Trump’s claims that he’s the victim of a witch hunt and will further rile his core supporters

Irrelevant. Undoubtedly some Trump supporters will be upset by this. The indictment will confirm for them that Trump is not only being prosecuted but also being persecuted.

But Trump has used every move against him so far — whether by the FBI, the Justice Department, Congress, or even opponents in the Republican Party — to claim he’s the victim of a witch hunt. This indictment is not fundamentally different from all the other charges and allegations. His entire campaign is founded on variations of this same grievance.

But in this case, a grand jury has found that he broke the law. It will be harder to cast an independent grand jury composed of ordinary people as part of a “deep state” witch hunt.

3. This is the weakest of the cases now being prepared against Trump

So what? To be sure, paying hush money to cover up something embarrassing during a presidential campaign is not nearly on the same level as asking Georgia’s secretary of state to “come up” with the exact number of votes needed to reverse the outcome of Georgia’s presidential election, or fomenting an attack on the U.S. Capitol.

And it may be true that an allegation like this is usually treated as a misdemeanor rather than a felony.

None of this alters the fact that a grand jury had enough evidence in this case to decide that Trump broke the law. That’s the critical point. A federal judge can decide whether the case rises to a felony or is more appropriately treated as a misdemeanor. The overriding issue is that no person is above the law, not even a former president.

Indeed, since the basic issue here is one of accountability, this case could actually open the way for the other, more serious ones. Prosecutors in Georgia and Washington won’t have to bear the burden of justifying an action that had never been taken before. Their more serious charges would come to a public that had already adjusted to the phenomenon of a Trump indictment.

© 2021 robertreich.substack.com

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.

South County Hospital loses its "A" rating for patient safety

This is on management's heads

By Will Collette

South County Hospital was once the jewel in the crown of Rhode Island health care, consistently topping the charts that rated hospitals.

But that's no longer the case. South County Hospital's safety grade has dropped to a "B," putting in the bottom ranks among Rhode Island hospitals.

In contrast, the following hospitals scored an A:

• Newport Hospital, Newport
• The Miriam Hospital, Providence
• Landmark Medical Center, Woonsocket
• Rhode Island Hospital, Providence
• Westerly Hospital, Westerly.

For many years, South County received "A" ratings from the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade for patient safety. That's a very important metric since it measures your chances of leaving the hospital alive. Anything less than an A is simply not good enough.

What changed? Management. 

CEO Aaron Robinson, who assumed leadership in 2020, earns around a million dollars and seems more concerned with saving his job than saving patients' lives. 

He and his captive hospital board are actually suing critics of his management practices in a nearly unheard-of SLAPP suit against the group Save South County Hospital.

It gets worse when you look at the various criteria. The ratings show that hospital staff are not to blame.

South County's score in this category was 120 points out of 120

South County Hospital staff also scored highly for "Practices to Prevent Errors:"

That's the good news. The bad news comes when you closer at the rest of the criteria and scores for patient safety.

Infections

South County Hospital's problems are even worse than the table below shows. The footnotes red-line SCH's response to the request for MRSA infection data with this: 1. Declined to Report: The hospital was asked to provide this information to the public, but did not. Data on blood infections was also "not available."

Surgical problems

SCH apparently could not or would not report on deaths from treatable complications. The three red-lined categories are disturbing: blood leakage, kidney damage and accidental cuts and tears.

Safety problems

In this category, two items are red-lined while only two of the seven items are in the green. 

One of them, "harmful events," is described by Leapfrog this way: "Patients can experience complications and potentially harmful events following a surgery, a procedure, or childbirth."

The red-lined score for "collapsed lung" was personally chilling since I sent four days in SCH for pneumonia in 2023. I had a great experience with a good outcome, largely due to the excellent staff. 

To be clear, I love South County Hospital and my relationship with them stretches back 50 years to my friendship with their long-time CEO, the late Donald Ford. I want them to succeed and thrive and regain their top ranking once again.

As a first step, they need to drop their frivolous harassment suit against Save South County Hospital. They should be talking and listening to critics, not suing them. Can SCH achieve a turn-around under CEO Aaron Robinson? I doubt it, but Robinson's leadership is an issue that needs to be negotiated in good faith.

Hospitals can be turned around. Westerly Hospital suffered poor ratings and nearly went out of business. Now, as part of the Yale-New Haven Hospital system, they seem to be thriving with ratings to prove it. 

Just in the past month, I had two operations to remove cataracts at Westerly Hospital and was impressed at their quality of care. If Westerly Hospital can change, there is certainly hope for South County Hospital.

Congratulations to local heroes

Let’s give a round of applause to local folks doing good things

By Will Collette

Over the past 12 years that I’ve written in Progressive Charlestown, I must admit that most of the things I write go after people and organizations who, in my opinion, deserve to be criticized. This article is different as it celebrates a crop of local heroes who have, again in my opinion, made life a little better for all of us.

Earlier this year, I flagged Charlestown’s own gourmet spot, the Sly Fox Den Too, at the junction of Routes 2 and 112, and Chef Sherry Pocknett for winning this year’s James Beard Foundation Award for Best Chef Northeast. I’m looking forward to congratulating her again when she gets her first Michelin star.

In this article, I will feature South County Hospital, our intrepid town staff who came up with a way to save lives at the beach, opening the beach to the public and two guys who worked hard to make that happen, including one who has been giving Charlestown some of its best coverage since Cynthia Drummond stopped being our town’s go-to reporter.

Thank you, South County Hospital. 

As a recent patient (read my review HERE), I was not surprised to see that South County is the only hospital in Rhode Island to receive a double-five-star rating from Medicare. They earned this top rating for “Hospital Quality” and “Patient Experience.”

In a separate rating done by US News and World Report, South County was rating as “High Performing” in three categories of orthopedic care: back surgery, hip and knee replacement. This is probably due to their affiliate, Ortho RI.

I can add my amen to both those rankings after my four days as an inpatient, where even the quality and taste of the food was great. South County has been earning top marks for a very long time, a tradition I trace to their long-time legendary administrator, the late Donald Ford. If you must go to the hospital, South County is the place to be.

Using drones to save lives. 

Charlestown's drone drops rescue device, not bombs

Congratulations to Charlestown GIS Coordinator Steve McCandless and the Parks & Recreation lifeguards for deploying rescue drones at each of the town’s beaches. Unlike the Russo-Ukrainian war where drones play a Terminator role, our drones watch for swimmers in trouble, missing kids, debris in the water and sharks.

They can drop a flotation device to a swimmer in distress. The importance of beach safety was recently highlighted after a 15-year old from New London drowned off a Westerly beach. While a system like Charlestown’s would not have saved that boy (he died after hours when no lifeguard was on duty), it can and will save others.

DEM also has a single drone, but according to WPRI, hasn’t figured out how to use it. I don’t know if WPRI intended to make DEM look bad or if DEM did it to themselves.

DEM admitted they: (a) can’t come up with trained operators, (b) don’t have a plan for where to deploy it and (c) admit the obvious problem of only having one drone for all the waters DEM covers. DEM has not been able to hire enough lifeguards either. Hmm, maybe they should buy a few more drones. Or pay lifeguards more.

DEM told WPRI they will study what Charlestown is doing to see if there are lessons they can learn. Duh.

Public use of the beach.

Scott Keeley, beach crusader (photo by Steve Ahlquist)

Congratulations to the RI General Assembly for finally passing legislation that clarifies where the public’s right of beach access begins on Rhode Island’s coast. Though snotty beachfront owners, fake fire districts and the Filippi family are still fighting as well as flouting the law, the tide has turned, if you’ll pardon the pun.

I credit passage of the new law to the years of relentless fighting by Charlestown activist Scott Keeley, whose recent run-in with private security had a happy ending. I also credit South County public radio reporter Alex Nunes for his frequent, in-depth stories on beach access in general and the role played by fake fire districts in worsening the problem.

What missing from this picture from the Central Quonnie
Fire District? Answer: fire trucks cuz they don't have any

Fake fire districts are misnamed organizations because they have no capacity to fight fires. Instead, they operate as upscale homeowners’ associations as well as tax shelters for millions of dollars’ worth of prime coastal land – for which they pay little or no property taxes.

They own lots of beachfront land and are among the most tenacious in trying to keep the public off “their” beaches. Next, the General Assembly should enact legislation stripping fake fire districts of their undeserved tax status. How can you honestly call yourself a “fire district” when you have nothing to do with fires. Except for the barbeque at the tennis club.

Shining a light on Charlestown affordable housing

Alex Nunes

Congratulations again to The Public’s Radio’s Alex Nunes for an in-depth look at Charlestown’s affordable housing crisis. 

I can’t remember any other major media outlet taking such a detailed look at this Charlestown issue in the 20+ years Cathy and I have lived here.

It’s an open secret that Charlestown’s near complete lack of affordable housing either for sale or rent is largely due to blocking efforts by the Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA) and their de facto leader, Planning Commissar Ruth Platner. 

Through the CCA’s exclusionary zoning, rapacious land deals and the use of arbitrary standards, “affordable housing” has become anathema in Charlestown.

But maybe that will change now that the CCA is out of power. 

Nunes interviews the pro- and anti- sides of the affordable housing debate, giving ample time to proponents such as Affordable Housing Commission chair Evelyn Smith and commission member Thom Cahir time and space to build the case for affordable housing.

Nunes also gave Ruth Platner the most time and space I’ve ever seen in an article she didn’t write herself to expound on her philosophy of aesthetics, astronomy and what she sees as the common good. 

This is just a summary - this article is a must-read for anyone living in Charlestown.