Friday, November 28, 2025
Donald Trump's especially crazy Thanksgiving message posted just before midnight
This is the guy who has the nuclear launch codes.
URI Dec. 3 program: Building climate resilience ‘From the Ground Up’
Jainey Bavishi will explore how local leadership and civic collaboration are reshaping climate action
Jainey Bavishi, former deputy administrator of NOAA and
former director of New York City’s Office of Climate Resiliency, will discuss
“From the Ground Up: Communities Leading the Next Chapter of Climate
Resilience” for the Charles
and Marie Fish Lecture hosted by the URI Graduate School of
Oceanography. 
Costly repairs to the Charlestown Breachway are
an example of the price of climate change.
Photo by Will Collette
The event, scheduled for Wednesday, Dec. 3 at 6 p.m., will be presented in-person at the URI Narragansett Bay Campus, Corless Auditorium, 215 South Ferry Road in Narragansett. The lecture is free and open to the public, but registration is requested.
As climate impacts accelerate and uncertainty grows, communities across the country are redefining what it means to be resilient. In a fireside chat, Bavishi will explore how equity, local leadership and civic collaboration form the backbone of effective climate action, even as traditional systems face strain.
Thank you, Bobby Jr., for reviving Whooping Cough
Waning Immunity and Falling Vaccination Rates Fuel Pertussis Outbreaks
Rates of pertussis, also known as whooping cough, are surging in Texas, Florida, California, Oregon, and other states and localities across the country.
The outbreaks are fueled by falling vaccination rates, fading immunity, and delays in public health tracking systems, according to interviews with state and federal health officials. Babies too young to be fully vaccinated are most at risk.
“Pertussis cases increase in a cyclical fashion driven by waning immunity, but the size of the outbreak and the potential for severe outcomes in children who cannot be vaccinated can be mitigated by high coverage and good communication to folks at risk,” said Demetre Daskalakis, a former head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s immunization program, who resigned in August.
Before the first pertussis vaccine became available in the early 1900s, whooping cough was one of the most common childhood diseases and a major cause of childhood death in the United States. Today, children get a series of DTaP shots (full-dose version) starting at 2 months old, and teens and adults receive a Tdap booster (lower-dose version) every 10 years. (Both vaccines target diphtheria and tetanus in addition to pertussis.)
Until recently, 8 in 10 toddlers had received four doses of the DTaP vaccine by age 2, and case rates were controlled. But vaccine coverage has declined since the covid pandemic and increases in state nonmedical exemptions have widened immunity gaps, which is when the proportion of individuals who are immune falls below the level needed to contain spread.
Texas logged 1,928 pertussis cases in 2024. By October 2025, the state had exceeded 3,500. National numbers are just as stark: In the first three months of 2025, the U.S. tallied 6,600 cases — four times last year’s pace and 25 times 2023’s. Several states are posting their highest case totals in a decade, and outbreaks from Louisiana to South Dakota to Idaho make clear this surge isn’t regional. It’s everywhere.
Who wins and who loses as the US retires the penny
It's a toss-up for consumers
By now, Americans know the strange math of minting: Each penny costs about 4 cents to make. Chances are you have some in a jar, or scattered among pockets, purses and car ashtrays.
The Charlestown Citizens Alliance features
rusty pennies in its budget postings
As small as it is, the penny punches above its weight culturally. If it ever disappeared, so too might the simple kindness of “take a penny, leave a penny,” alongside timeless classics like penny loafers and the tradition of tossing a penny in a fountain.
But the penny’s days are indeed numbered. The U.S. Mint pressed the last 1-cent coin on Nov. 12, 2025, following a directive from the White House. While pennies will remain legal tender, old ones will gradually be taken out of circulation.
The impact of this change will reach beyond coin jars. Its ripples will be felt as small, cash-reliant Main Street merchants face another test of adaptability in a system that increasingly favors scale, technology and plastic. It will also be felt by people who rely on cash – often people without bank accounts who have the least room to absorb even tiny shifts in price.
My interest comes from my former lives as the chief financial officer of a large credit union and as a small-business owner. Now, I bridge theory and practice as a professor – or “prac-ademic,” as I like to say – studying the challenges facing Main Street businesses.
When the penny goes away, some will win, some will lose – and for some, it’ll be a coin toss.
Thursday, November 27, 2025
New UNH poll shows McKee has only 11% support for his re-election bid
McKee's only hope seems to be the 42% of Democratic voters who remain undecided
By Alexander Castro, Rhode Island Current
Nearly half of likely Democratic voters still aren’t sure who they’d choose in Rhode Island’s 2026 gubernatorial primary, according to the latest Ocean State Poll conducted by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center.
A sizable 42% of Democratic primary voters considered themselves “undecided” in the survey released Monday. But former CVS executive Helena Buonanno Foulkes holds a slight, early lead in a hypothetical Democratic primary with Rhode Island House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi and incumbent Gov. Dan McKee.
Of the 359 respondents who are likely to hit the polls in the Democratic primary slated for September 2026, 29% said they would back Foulkes.
Shekarchi, who has not publicly committed to a run but has expressed interest in media interviews, secured 13% of support from the surveyed respondents.
Limping along with slightly lower polling numbers is McKee with support from only 11% of primary voters — his latest dismal showing in a string of polls, especially in concert with the poll’s other numbers for McKee, which demonstrate a broad and more diffuse dissatisfaction with his leadership both within and across party lines.
Holiday greeting from Rhode Island Energy: PAY us more
Rhode Island Energy proposes increases in customer electric and gas service charges
By Nancy Lavin, Rhode Island Current
More bad news for Rhode Islanders struggling to pay their energy bills: Hikes are coming.
Rhode Island Energy unveiled its long-anticipated request to increase service charges for gas and electric customers in a press release the day before the Thanksgiving holiday. An application spanning thousands of pages across 21 separate documents was simultaneously submitted to the Rhode Island Public Utilities Commission for review.
If approved, the increases would take effect in September 2026.
For the first year, the average residential electric customer would see their monthly bills rise $7.78, or 4.83%, while a typical residential gas customer would pay $343.53 more, a 20.6% increase, according to Rhode Island Energy’s proposal. Charges would rise again in the second year, with another $1.56 added to monthly electric bills, on average, and $89.43 more tacked on to annual gas bills.
Anticipating the fury coming its way, Rhode Island Energy President Greg Cornett had already attempted to justify the proposal by highlighting the benefits for customers.
Everyday microplastics could be fueling heart disease especially in men
Microplastics may be silently fueling heart disease by damaging the very cells that keep arteries healthy.
University of California - Riverside

A research team at the University of California, Riverside
has found that routine exposure to microplastics -- tiny pieces released from
packaging, fabrics, and common consumer plastics -- may speed up the formation
of atherosclerosis, the artery-narrowing condition associated with heart
attacks and strokes. The effect appeared only in male mice, offering new
insight into how microplastics may influence cardiovascular health in people.
"Our findings fit into a broader pattern seen in
cardiovascular research, where males and females often respond
differently," said lead researcher Changcheng Zhou, a professor of
biomedical sciences in the UCR School of Medicine. "Although the precise
mechanism isn't yet known, factors like sex chromosomes and hormones,
particularly the protective effects of estrogen, may play a role."
How farmers screwed themselves by supporting Trump
Farmers – long Trump backers – bear the costs of new tariffs, restricted immigration and slashed renewable energy subsidies

But Trump’s second term may be different.
A new round of administration policies now cuts deeper into farmers’ livelihoods – not just squeezing profits but reshaping how farms survive – through renewed tariffs on agricultural products, visa restrictions on farm workers, reduced farm subsidies and open favoritism toward South American agricultural competitors.
In the past, farmers’ loyalty to Trump has overridden economics. In our study of the 2018–19 trade war between the U.S. and China, we found that farmers in Trump-voting counties kept planting soybeans even though the trade war’s effects were clear: Their costs would rise and their profits would fall. Farmers in Democratic-leaning counties, by contrast, shifted acreage toward alternatives such as corn or wheat that were likely to be more profitable. For many pro-Trump farmers, political belief outweighed market logic – at least in the short term.
Today, the economic effects of policies affecting farmers are broader and deeper – and the resolve that carried farmers’ support for Trump through the first trade war may no longer be enough.
Tariffs: The familiar pain returns
The revived U.S.-China trade conflict has again placed soybeans at its center. In March 2025, Beijing suspended import licenses for several major U.S. soybean exporters following new U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods. Trump countered with a new round of reciprocal tariffs, broadening the list of Chinese imports hit and raising rates on already targeted goods.
An October 2025 deal promised China would buy 25 million metric tons of U.S. soybeans a year, but relief has proved mostly symbolic.
Before the 2018-19 trade war, China regularly imported 30 million to 36 million metric tons of U.S. soybeans annually — more than one-third of all American soybean exports. Now, Beijing has signed long-term contracts with Brazil and Argentina, leaving U.S. producers with shrinking overseas demand for their crops.
Wednesday, November 26, 2025
Is the DOJ Serious About Investigating Beef Price-Fixing?
Or will they just blame immigrants and Democrats?
By Philip
Mattera, director of the Corporate
Research Project of Good Jobs First, for the
Apparently shaken by the Democratic gains in this month’s
elections, Donald Trump has changed his tune on the economy. He still tries to
get us to believe everything is marvelous, but at the same time he has rolled
out a series of proposals designed to give the impression he is addressing the
affordability crisis.
This administration must be on drugs
Most of these initiatives do not amount to much. The rollback of tariffs on some food products is easing an aspect of inflation Trump himself caused. The idea of getting banks to offer 50-year home mortgages would result in modest monthly savings for borrowers while causing them to pay much more in interest over the life of the loan and slow the rate at which they build equity in their homes.
It is unclear whether the deals he has been making
with pharmaceutical companies will result in significant cost reductions for
consumers. The suggestion that Obamacare subsidies be replaced with payments to
health savings accounts would result in the proliferation of junk insurance
policies and financial ruin for those with serious health conditions.
What these initiatives also have in common is that they do
not challenge corporate interests in any significant way. The one possible
exception to this is Trump’s call for a probe of price fixing in the beef
industry.
Trump seeks rollback of protections for endangered species
Trump Administration Seeks ESA Regulatory Rollbacks, Risks Accelerating Extinction for America’s Most Vulnerable Wildlife
Defenders of Wildlife
“America’s imperiled wildlife remains at an uncertain crossroads, with one road pointing toward extinction and the other toward recovery. The Trump administration’s proposals announced today seek to undermine critical portions of the Endangered Species Act and will make recovery for many of those species that much more difficult,” said Andrew Bowman, president and CEO at Defenders of Wildlife.
“These devasting proposals disregard
proven science and risk reversing
decades of bipartisan progress to protect our shared national heritage and the
wildlife that make America so special.”
“The ESA is one of the world’s most powerful laws for
conservation and is responsible for keeping 99% of listed species from
extinction,” said Jane Davenport, senior attorney at Defenders of
Wildlife. “But the ESA is only as effective as the regulations that
implement it. Rolling back these regulations risks reversing the ESA’s historic
success and threatens the wellbeing of plant and animal species that pollinate
our crops, generate medicine, keep our waterways clean and support local
economies.”.webp)
Trump action became inevitable after this happened
These proposed rollbacks would make it easier for federal
agencies to greenlight destructive projects, such as mining, drilling, logging
and overdevelopment, without fully assessing their impact on threatened and
endangered species or their habitats. The move would also allow economic
interests to influence decisions about which species warrant protection and
which critical habitat receives federal designation. In addition, automatic
protections for some threatened species would be eliminated.
Mayo Clinic says you should stop believing these eight back pain myths
For example, surgery is not the only or best option in all cases
By Mayo Clinic
Back pain is one of the most prevalent health issues globally, affecting up to 80% of individuals at some point in their lives and ranking among the leading causes of disability across all age groups.
The
condition encompasses a broad spectrum of problems involving muscles,
ligaments, intervertebral discs, nerves, and the vertebral column itself,
making its origins multifactorial and often difficult to pinpoint.
Its impact reaches far beyond individual discomfort—chronic
or recurrent back pain contributes to reduced mobility, lost workdays, and
diminished quality of life, placing a significant burden on healthcare systems
worldwide.
Despite its commonality, several misconceptions about it
persist.
Meghan Murphy, M.D., a neurosurgeon with the Mayo Clinic Health System in
Mankato, outlines eight of the most frequent myths and explains what scientific
evidence actually shows.
Myth: Lifting heavy objects is the main cause of back
pain.
Fact: Lifting heavy objects with poor form can contribute to
back pain, but the major culprits are a sedentary lifestyle, poor posture,
obesity, and genetic factors.
Myth: Bed rest will make my back pain better.
Fact: Probably not, but it depends on the cause of your
pain. If it’s muscle strain, taking it easy for a few days may help. However,
bed rest can also make back pain last longer or even worsen. If your pain is
from nerve compression, a disc issue, or joint degeneration, inactivity can
cause muscles to tighten, pain to worsen, loss of physical condition, and more
debility. In these cases, you should modify your activities, switch to
low-impact exercises like walking and swimming, and avoid movements like bending,
twisting, or lifting. Maintaining some degree of physical activity can help you
heal faster.
Renewable energy is cheaper and healthier – so why isn’t it replacing fossil fuels faster?
One word: Trump
Jay Gulledge, University of Notre Dame; University of Tennessee
You might not know it from the headlines, but there is some good news about the global fight against climate change.
A decade ago, the cheapest way to meet growing demand for electricity was to build more coal or natural gas power plants. Not anymore. Solar and wind power aren’t just better for the climate; they’re also less expensive today than fossil fuels at utility scale, and they’re less harmful to people’s health.
Yet renewable energy projects face headwinds, including in the world’s fast-growing developing countries. I study energy and climate solutions and their impact on society, and I see ways to overcome those challenges and expand renewable energy – but it will require international cooperation.
Tuesday, November 25, 2025
Stop Pretending Trump Has a Coherent Economic Strategy
Trump's only apparent strategy is to enrich himself, his families and his buds
He also loves making people, markets and countries jump whenever he tries out some new idea that pops into his head
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| Trump's only strategy is self-enrichment |
To anyone paying attention, it should be pretty clear that Donald Trump is clueless about the economy.
Just to take an obvious example to make the point:
Trump has repeatedly promised to lower drug prices by
800, 900, or even 1,500%. As he rightly says, no one thought it was possible.
It wouldn’t be a big deal that he got confused once or twice
and forgot that you can’t lower prices by more than 100%, unless you envision
drug companies paying people to use their drugs. But Trump has done this
repeatedly, over many months.
This tells us two things. First, he really doesn’t have even
a basic understanding of arithmetic and percentages. That would be bad in and
of itself. After all the president is sometimes directly negotiating deals, and
it would be bad if he agreed to something and then had to call back his
negotiating partner and tell them he didn’t understand what he had agreed to.
But the other issue is even more serious. Surely people like
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Kevin Hassett, Trump’s national economic
adviser, understand percentages. But apparently, they are too scared of Trump
to explain how they work. Instead, they let him go out week after week and make
a fool of himself by making nonsensical promises on lowering drug prices.
This fact is crucial if we are trying to assess whether
Trump has a coherent economic strategy. The point is he is obviously confused
about many things when it comes to the economy. He seems to think that other
countries pay tariffs and
send the US checks. He also seems to think that wind and solar power are
very expensive sources of energy. And he seems to think that the economy was
collapsing when he took office.
The seemingly never-ending chemtrail "conspiracy"
Why are we still talking about it?
The chemtrails theory has circulated since 1996, when conspiracy theorists misinterpreted a U.S. Air Force research paper about weather modification, a valid topic of research. Social media and conservative news outlets have since magnified the conspiracy theory. One recent study notes that X, formerly Twitter, is a particularly active node of this “broad online community of conspiracy.”
I’m a communications researcher who studies conspiracy theories. The thoroughly debunked chemtrails theory provides a textbook example of how conspiracy theories work.
R.I. must speed up lowering carbon emissions to meet Act on Climate mandates
We need more and better alternatives to cars
By Nancy Lavin, Rhode Island Current
The 9.52 million metric tons of carbon dioxide produced from travel, buildings, and other human activity across Rhode Island in 2023 marks a 1.4% increase over 2022 level emissions, according to the 41-page analysis published Friday.
Even worse: The long-term pace of progress, while showing modest reductions in emissions, is too slow to meet deadlines set under the state’s Act on Climate law.
The 2021 decarbonization mandate requires that Rhode Island achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, with incremental progress markers, including a 45% reduction from 1990 levels by 2030.
If Rhode Island continues to decrease its fossil fuel reliance at the same rate as it has over the last five years, it will miss the 2030 target, while further jeopardizing its 2050 goal, the report warns.
“Significant decarbonization of transportation, electricity consumption, and buildings are instrumental to attain net-zero emissions by mid-century,” the report states.
The warning comes amid major shifts in federal incentives and policies under the Trump administration that are expected to make state clean energy mandates harder to achieve.
“The Trump administration’s rollback of clean-energy initiatives and its cuts to billions of dollars in funding have intentionally undermined the clean-energy future for states across the nation,” Gov. Dan McKee said in a statement Friday. “As federal policies continue to shift, we will keep working with our partners to chart a practical and responsible path forward on reducing emissions.”
Leading the way is the Executive Climate Change Coordinating Council, a consortium of state agencies charged with helping Rhode Island meet its decarbonization mandates.
Initial projections reported by the council suggested the state was poised to fall short of that 2030 milestone, though the 2022 report emphasized that the model was “simple” and “preliminary.” A more detailed report will be published by the end of this year, informed in part by the latest state greenhouse gas emissions.
Terry Gray, DEM director and chair of the council, called the latest emissions results “disappointing,” but noted that it mirrors national trends which saw a rise in travel-related emissions in 2023.
FACTOID: Charlestown remains the only Rhode Island municipality with no RIPTA bus service, except of course Block Island.
Monday, November 24, 2025
The Verdict of History
Trump and his fascist glorification
Trump has ordered the U.S. Treasury to draft a $1 coin featuring him on both sides, for the purpose of “honoring America’s 250th Birthday and @POTUS,” according to Treasury officials.
Meanwhile, Trump wants the
Washington Commanders to name their planned $3.7 billion stadium after him. A
senior White House source told ESPN:
“It’s what the president wants, and it will probably happen.” Presumably,
Trump’s name will be carved into a granite facade at the stadium’s entrance.
The giant $300 million ballroom that Trump is adding to the
White House is called “the
President Donald J. Trump Ballroom” on the list of donors to the project, and
senior administration officials say the name is likely to stick.
Trump is moving to immortalize himself with his name etched
into coins, carved into pediments, and inscribed into White House marble. He
wants to glorify himself in the most permanent ways possible.
This is what fascist dictators do when in power. Stalin,
Hitler, and Mussolini built monuments to glorify themselves so they’d be
exalted in history.
Democracies don’t do this. They memorialize their heroes
only after they’ve died, and only if the public wants them commemorated.
He must be remembered as the president who claimed without
evidence that an election was “stolen” from him. Who then instigated a coup
that included false electors, threats to state officials, and an assault on the
U.S. Capitol that resulted in five deaths and injuries to 174 police officers.
He should be remembered as the president who, after being
reelected, tried to erase the nation’s memory of what he had done by pardoning
1,600 rioters who had been criminally convicted for participating in the
Capitol attack and 77 people who had conspired with him to carry out the
attempted coup. He called them all “patriots.”
He must be remembered as the president who then usurped the
powers of Congress. Who denied people due process of law. Who prosecuted his
political opponents. Who violated international law by killing people he
labeled enemy combatants. Who sent the military into American cities over the
objections of their mayors and governors. And who openly and brazenly took
bribes.
We must not allow Trump to erase this history with false
tributes to himself, etched into silver, marble, or granite.
Instead, after he is gone, a monument should be erected to
remind future generations of Trump’s treachery and the treachery of officials
who supported him.
It would be a simple building constructed of iron and
cement, containing the records of his attacks on democracy and the names of
everyone who aided him.
Over its doorway would be the words “Trump’s Treason.”
It would be situated on the White House lawn where the Trump
ballroom (since demolished) once stood. It would face Pennsylvania Avenue so
that families visiting the nation’s capital — including those commemorating
America’s 500th anniversary — have easy access, and will long remember this
catastrophe.
Bad toys!
Choking hazards, toxic resin and unfiltered AI teddy bears, oh my!
By Christopher Shea, Rhode Island Current
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| (NY Public Interest Research Group) |
They were displayed on a table at a downtown Providence shop Friday afternoon in a collection of popular toys families might be considering purchasing for their kids this holiday season.
But they’re also among the most dangerous, according to the latest “Trouble in Toyland” report recently published by the Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), a Denver-based consumer rights nonprofit.
It’s the 40th year the group has published its annual list of toys that could be dangerous to children, Henry Welch, a campaign associate for the Rhode Island chapter, told reporters gathered outside Craftland Friday afternoon.
In the past, Welch said the biggest dangers with toys were choking hazards and lead.
“A lot of the toys that we found that were dangerous are no longer available,” Welch said. “However, some of these dangers are still out there, including some toys that seemed like a dystopian science fiction of the past that are now available.”
Exhibit A among those dystopian toys is that teddy bear on the table.
Sold for $99 by Singapore-based FoloToy, “Kumma Bear” uses OpenAI models to hold “both friendly chats and deep conversations to stimulate curiosity and learning,” according to its now-gone product page.
But the PIRG report found Kumma’s programming had very few guardrails in place.
Charlestown Dems invite you to event for Council candidate Jill Fonnemann tomorrow night at the General Stanton
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