Tuesday, March 17, 2026
Republican candidate for Lieutenant Governor says Rhode Islanders SHOULD NOT get refunds for Trump's illegal tariffs
Yeah, no refunds for you. Here's Loughlin in his own words:
Revolution Wind begins delivering electricity to Rhode Island and the regional grid
We’ve got the power
By Nancy Lavin, Rhode Island Current
The initial power delivery is not the final achievement: The 65-turbine project is 93% complete and not expected to hit its full 704-megawatt nameplate capacity until the second half of the year. However, the initial test of connection to the region’s electric grid marks an important benchmark, especially after two attempts by the Trump administration to block the project’s completion.
The initial power delivery appears on schedule with the prior timeline, despite two separate pauses forced by the Trump administration. The project was first put on hold in August 2025, with federal energy regulators unexpectedly demanding a review for national security concerns, despite having already completed a comprehensive review of project impacts nearly two years earlier. The stop work order was overturned by a federal judge in D.C. in September in response to one of two lawsuits filed by developers and state attorneys general.
Bobby Jr.'s crazy anti-vax campaign monkey-wrenched
Federal judge blocks Kennedy’s changes to childhood vaccine policy
In a ruling issued this afternoon, Judge Brian E. Murphy
said the changes made by Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F.
Kennedy Jr. to the childhood immunization schedule likely violated the
Administrative Procedure Act, as did Kennedy’s reconstitution of a federal
advisory board that makes recommendations on clinical use of vaccines.
The preliminary injunction comes in response to a lawsuit
filed by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and other leading medical
groups against HHS in July 2025 over
Kennedy’s unilateral changes to COVID vaccine recommendations for children and
pregnant women. The suit was amended in
January after HHS overhauled recommendations for childhood vaccines, reducing
the number of recommended vaccines from 17 to 11.
The lawsuit argued that these moves, along with Kennedy’s
appointment of vaccine skeptics to the Advisory Committee on Immunization
Practices (ACIP) after firing 17 previously
appointed members, bypassed the scientific process and didn’t follow
proper administrative procedures.
Murphy said in his ruling that there is a method to how
decisions about vaccine recommendations have historically been made, “a method
scientific in nature and codified into law through procedural requirements.”
“Unfortunately, the government has disregarded those methods
and thereby undermined the integrity of its actions,” he wrote.
Kristi Noem all but killed FEMA.
Will her departure save it?
Jake Bittle, Staff Writer
During the year she spent leading the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, or DHS, Kristi Noem faced a torrent of criticism. Lawmakers from both parties assailed her for lying about the shooting of protestors in Minneapolis and spending millions of dollars on television commercials. Government audits concluded that she “systematically obstructed” investigations and created security risks at airports.
Jake Bittle, Staff Writer
"This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist's weekly newsletter here."
Now she has become the first cabinet-level official fired by President Donald Trump during his second term. After a combative hearing this week, during which Noem seemed to mislead Congress about whether Trump approved her ad spending, the president fired her.
As DHS secretary, Noem also raised eyebrows for an unprecedented degree of control over staffing and spending at the Federal Emergency Management Agency. She paused most FEMA payments, leading to extensive delays for disaster recovery, and sought to slash the agency’s on-call workforce by thousands of employees. She also expressed a desire to downsize or eliminate the agency entirely, shifting the burden of disaster relief onto the states.
A growing number of critics and experts believe that Noem’s interference with FEMA may well have been illegal. This week, two Senate Democrats released a report alleging that Noem’s blanket freeze on FEMA payments violated federal law. At the same time, lawyers for a federal workers’ union argued to a federal judge in California that Noem’s workforce cuts also violated the law. In both cases, critics pointed to legislation passed after Hurricane Katrina, which prohibits DHS from interfering with FEMA.
Monday, March 16, 2026
I’ve studied MAGA rhetoric for a decade, and this is what I see in Hegseth’s boasts, action‑movie one‑liners and gloating over dominance
How much before Americans say "enough!"
Mattis’ professional tone was a stark contrast to Secretary Pete Hegseth’s remarks following the first days of the joint U.S.-Israeli combat operations in Iran.
On March 2, 2026, after bragging about the awe-inspiring lethality of U.S. “B-2s, fighters, drones, missiles,” Hegseth casually brushed aside concerns about long-term geopolitical strategy, declaring “no stupid rules of engagement, no nation-building quagmire, no democracy building exercise, no politically correct wars. We fight to win.”
Admonishing the press for anything less than total assent, he commanded, “to the media outlets and political left screaming ‘endless wars:’ Stop. This is not Iraq.”
Two days later, Hegseth gloated about “dominance” and “control,” while asserting that the preoccupation of the “fake news media” with casualties was motivated by liberal media bias and hatred of President Trump.
“Tragic things happen; the press only wants to make the president look bad,” he said. He dismissed concerns about the rules of engagement, declaring that “this was never meant to be a fair fight. We are punching them while they are down, as it should be.”
I’m a communication scholar who has studied MAGA rhetoric for a decade. I have observed how Hegseth and other officials in the second Trump administration refuse to abide by what recurring rhetorical situations – urgent public matters that compel speech to audiences capable of being influenced – typically demand of public officials.
The theme of this administration is that no one is going to tell it what to say or how to say it. It will be encumbered neither by norms nor the exigencies that compel speech in a democratic society.
The big man
When the U.S. goes to war, the public expects the president and the defense secretary to convince them of the appropriateness of the action. They do this by detailing the justification for military action, but also by addressing the public in a manner that conveys the seriousness and competence required for such a grave task as waging war.
But during the first week of the Iran war, Hegseth’s press briefings deviated from the measured tone expected from high-ranking military officials.
Hegseth flippantly employed villainous colloquialism – “they are toast and they know it,” “we play for keeps,” and “President Trump got the last laugh” – delivered with a combative tone that communicated masculine self-assurance.
Many observers were taken aback by his haughty tone, hypermasculine preoccupation with domination, giddiness about violence and casual attitude toward death.
During Trump’s first term, this penchant for rule-breaking was by and large isolated to the president, whose transgressions were part of his populist appeal.
Although Trump’s first cabinet members agreed on most political objectives, they attempted to rein in what they saw as the president’s more dangerous whims.
But with loyalty as the new bona fide qualification for administration officials, Trump’s second cabinet is populated with a large contingent of right and far-right media personalities like Hegseth, including Kash Patel, Sean Duffy and Mehmet Oz.
Why some people keep making the same bad decisions
For some people, everyday cues keep pulling the brain toward the same bad decisions.
Society for Neuroscience
For example,
a familiar sign, sound, or setting can signal whether a choice is likely to
lead to a reward or a negative outcome. This process is known as associative
learning, which simply means learning through repeated connections between cues
and results.
In everyday life, this kind of learning helps people make faster
and often better decisions.
However, this system does not work the same way for
everyone. For people with compulsive disorders, addictions, or anxiety, these
learned associations can become overly powerful. Instead of serving as helpful
guides, cues may start to dominate decision making. Individuals may feel pulled
toward certain sights or sounds or strongly driven to avoid them, even when
doing so leads to poor outcomes.
Study of 30,000 Shoppers Reveals Hidden Environmental Cost of Treat Foods
Junk food is bad for you AND the environment
By University of Helsinki
According to a recent study, nearly 20 percent of all food
spending in Finland goes toward discretionary products. This group includes
candy, sweet pastries, desserts, savory snacks, sugar and other sweeteners,
soft drinks, both sweetened and unsweetened, juices, alcoholic beverages,
cocoa, coffee, and tea.
Researchers from the University of
Helsinki, Tampere University, and the Natural Resources Institute Finland
analyzed grocery purchases from almost 30,000 members of the Finnish S Group
retail cooperative who agreed to take part. The team compared households based
on their preferred protein sources, such as red meat, poultry, fish, or
plant-based proteins, to assess differences in spending patterns, nutritional
quality, and environmental effects.
War in Middle East brings uncertainty and higher energy costs to already weakening US economy
Trump continues to torpedo the economy now with an unnecessary war
Michael Klein, Tufts University
This principle has a parallel when it comes to the economic consequences of wars as well, especially when they occur in a region that is a chokepoint for the production and shipment of one-fifth of the world’s oil and a third of its natural gas.
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| Trump wearing his tacky, disrespectful campaign cap |
As for the U.S. economy, it was already showing signs of weakness. Data released on March 6 showed an unexpected loss in jobs in February.
As an economist, I expect the biggest economic risks of this war to be inflationary pressures and slowing growth due to the rising price of oil. In addition, uncertainty from the “economic fog of war” could make consumers reticent to spend and businesses hesitant about hiring and investing. These conditions will make it challenging for policymakers to steer the economy.
Uncertainty and risks
There is currently, and likely to be for some time, great uncertainty about the length of the war in Iran, the range of countries involved and its costs. All of these factors will determine how much the war hurts economies in the U.S. and across the globe.
We do know there will be disruptions to the supply of oil and liquefied natural gas, which is difficult to ship through the Strait of Hormuz, and from the fiscal costs associated with this military action.
The price of crude oil has jumped by about 25% since the U.S. and Israel began bombing Iran on Feb. 28, which has driven up gasoline prices across the U.S. The majority of oil and liquefied natural gas produced in the Middle East travels through the Strait of Hormuz – but the threat of attack has made travel through this waterway uninsurable, which has brought shipping through this vital passage to a virtual halt.
This is also an expensive military campaign for the United States, which has already seen the loss of aircraft and a depletion of its stock of missiles. Early estimates of the cost of the war were nearly US$1 billion a day.
Sunday, March 15, 2026
Sue Anderbois is running for Lieutenant Governor
A candidate worth considering
Sue Anderbois: I made that decision this past
fall after a lot of thought. It was a lot of wrestling with where I can be most
effective. It’s a chaotic time, Steve. In Rhode Island, we have so many
enormous problems. I honestly love my time on the Providence City
Council. I feel like I’ve accomplished a lot and feel positive about what
I’ve achieved. Most days, I’d say it’s the best job I’ve ever had. It was a
hard decision to run for Lieutenant Governor and give up my seat, which I’ve
never taken for granted. Elections are important. I was not concerned about
reelection because I’ve delivered a lot for my constituents, but if someone ran
against me, I would welcome it. That’s democracy.
I was trying to decide whether to run for reelection or do
something else. Am I going to do none of this? I had a great day job that I
loved, and I got a big promotion. I was traveling a lot for work. I talked with
a lot of folk, asking, “How can I be most effective?” And the one thing that
came up was the real opportunity in the lieutenant governor’s office. There,
someone can lead without authority, because there aren’t very many statutory
requirements for that job.
The job allows you to say, “This is an important thing, a
hairy topic that we need to dig in on. We need to bring people to the table. We
need to know how to work the legislature. We need to know how to work with the
administration. We need to know how to bring in the community.” The job has
room to solve some things. And honestly, my main skill in life is blowing
things up, taking a larger view, and asking, “What is this? Transportation is
never roads and bridges. How do we access healthcare? How do we access food and
tourism?” It’s like all the things.
EDITOR'S NOTE: I had my own conversation with Sue, though hardly as long and in depth as Steve's. I was very impressed with her and think she's worthy of support. You should read Steve's extended interview below. Though the office of Lieutenant Governor is often thought of as an almost useless position (current LT Sabrina Matos and her predecessor Dan McKee are good examples of that type), it can also be a productive one. Charlie Fogarty showed that during his 1999-2007 term as did his successor Liz Roberts when she served from 2007-2015. It takes the right person. - Will Collette
News and events from the Charlestown Democrats
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