More endorsements for progressives running for General Assembly seats

Three progressive groups, three different sets of endorsements

By Bob Plain in Rhode Island’s Future

Local picks of interest: Cathie Cool Rumsey, Teresa Tanzi, Kathy Forgarty

Moira Walsh and Susan Donovan were endorsed by all three. Marcia Ranglin-Vassell, Lisa Scorpio, Teresa Tanzi and Jeanine Calkin won the endorsement of two of the three. 

While the vast majority – 22 of the 36 endorsed candidates – were only endorsed by one of the three, so far. Such are some of the similarities and differences between the three general interest, progressive-leaning organizations making legislative endorsements this election cycle.

The RI Progressive Democrats, the Young Democrats of Rhode Island and the Working Families Party of Rhode Island have now each announced legislative endorsements.

While all three groups say they will be making more endorsements in the days, weeks and months to come, to date it seems each group has different criteria for winning their endorsement.

Club names its picks in “key primaries”

Sierra Club endorses 17 candidates for legislature

By Bob Plain in Rhode Island’s Future

EDITOR’S NOTE: September 13 is the date for the Rhode Island primary election for seats other than US President. While Charlestown voters will not see any local seat on the ballot, there is a primary choice to be made by Democrats for US House of Representatives, District 2.

Rep. Jim Langevin has been endorsed by the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee. So please, get out and vote.

The RI Chapter of the Sierra Club has endorsed 17 legislative candidates – 12 running for a seat in the House of Representatives and 5 running for Senate seats.

“Our political committee based these decisions on a shared questionnaire with Clean Water Action, sent to every candidate, that focused heavily on what the two groups see as the top challenges and goals of the upcoming legislative season,” according to a news release from the Sierra Club. 

“The candidates below are the ones the Sierra Club believes are both willing and capable of creating a truly resilient, renewable and environmentally responsible Rhode Island.”

The Sierra Club said it will be “adding more endorsements in the days to come for those unopposed or facing/posing a November challenge. The below list of endorsements is specifically focused on the candidates involved in races we have determined to be key primaries.”

Not the pivot you were hoping for

"In Trump We Trust?"

Compromise nearly guaranteed when a woman is involved in decision-making pairs

Study finds when making joint decisions, men need to prove masculinity, 'push away' from compromise

Boston College

More isn't necessarily better when it comes to men making decisions together, especially if you want a middle-of-the-road compromise. 

That's according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research which finds that compromise always occurs among two decision makers when a woman is involved (female-female pairs or mixed gender pairs), but hardly ever when the pair of decision makers are men. The findings could be pertinent to marketers, managers, and consumers alike.

Another reason why camels do not make good house pets

Common cold viruses originated in camels, just like MERS

German Center for Infection Research

There are four globally endemic human coronaviruses which, together with the better known rhinoviruses, are responsible for causing common colds.

Usually, infections with these viruses are harmless to humans. DZIF Professor Christian Drosten, Institute of Virology at the University Hospital of Bonn, and his research team have now found the source of "HCoV-229E," one of the four common cold coronaviruses -- it also originates from camels, just like the dreaded MERS virus.

The Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) coronavirus was identified in humans for the first time in 2012. It causes severe respiratory tract infections that are often fatal. Dromedaries were confirmed to be its animal source some time ago.

An actual doctor dissects Trump’s “medical report”

Highlights eight key problems indicating the letter was faked

By Samuel Warde

Dr. Harold N. Bornstein (Twitter.com) from The Raw Story

Dr. Jennifer Gunter, a Canadian OB/GYN and pain medicine physician, is speaking out about Donald Trump’s medical letter in a detailed article on her website that was cross-posted on Huffington Post.

Dr. Gunter begins her piece, writing that: “Donald Trump is talking about Hillary Clinton’s health as are two doctors who have never evaluated Clinton. 

When Trump released this letter on Twitter last December, he
thanked Dr. Jacob Borenstein for writing it. The problem is
Dr. Jacob Borenstein died at age 93 in 2010,
five years before heallegedly wrote this letter.

They have apparently diagnosed her with all kinds of ailments using the long disproven Fox-Drudge equation.”

“This attention on Clinton has renewed some interest in the letter Donald Trump released last year from his personal physician,” she continued.

Dr. Gunter then explains that while “many outlets” have picked the letter apart, she wants “to tell you as a doctor exactly how bad it is.”

I would never write anything this terrible for a Jury Duty excuse or a back to work note, never mind something that half the country (and possibly half the world) might see or could possibly end up one day in a Presidential Library!

Writing that “there are so many issues with the letter,” Dr. Gunter details 8 key issues she finds with the letter.

Pretty birdie

From Fake Science

How logic works

Is Solar Energy Really Too Expensive?

Utilities are lobbying against the expansion of rooftop solar, and that's no good for anyone.

By Jill Richardson

In order for solar power to compete with other forms of energy, the conventional thinking goes, it needs to become way cheaper.

Installing rooftop solar panels can be prohibitively expensive, after all, and it takes years before the resulting energy savings pay off. For the individual, it doesn’t matter whether solar panels will save you money in the long run if you can’t afford them in the short run.

For those of us who are renters, the decision of whether to go solar is even more irrelevant. We don’t have the option to install panels ourselves. And unless your apartment comes with utilities included, your landlord has no incentive to install solar panels, because you would get all the savings.

Zika infection may affect adult brain cells

New findings suggest risk may not be limited to fetuses of pregnant women

Rockefeller University

Concerns over the Zika virus have focused on pregnant women due to mounting evidence that it causes brain abnormalities in developing fetuses.

However, new research in mice from scientists at The Rockefeller University and La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology suggests that certain adult brain cells may be vulnerable to infection as well.

Among these are populations of cells that serve to replace lost or damaged neurons throughout adulthood, and are also thought to be critical to learning and memory.

Right-wing myth busted

'Chemtrails' not real, say atmospheric science experts

Carnegie Institution for Science

Well-understood physical and chemical processes can easily explain the alleged evidence of a secret, large-scale atmospheric spraying program, commonly referred to as "chemtrails" or "covert geoengineering," concludes a new study from Carnegie Science, University of California Irvine, and the nonprofit organization Near Zero.

Some groups and individuals erroneously believe that the long-lasting condensation trails, or contrails, left behind aircraft are evidence of a secret large-scale spraying program. They call these imagined features "chemtrails." Adherents of this conspiracy theory sometimes attribute this alleged spraying to the government and sometimes to industry.

The authors of this study, including Carnegie's Ken Caldeira, conducted a survey of the world's leading atmospheric scientists, who categorically rejected the existence of a secret spraying program. 

Master lever repeal fails to produce results

Where are the down-ballot Republicans?

By Samuel G. Howard in Rhode Island’s Future

Sam G Howard; Sources: RI Board of Elections, RI Secretary of State

Eliminating the master lever was supposed to assist the RI Republican Party (and strengthen RI’s democracy) by assisting in one of the most important things a party needs: candidate recruitment.

The problem, as it was posed, was that the prevalence of the master lever basically acted as a deterrent for potential Republican candidates for the General Assembly; why put in the effort of running if loyal Democrats, voting for president or US senator or governor at the top of the ticket, would simply pull the master lever and obliterate down-ballot Republicans?

Eliminating the option would allow Republican candidates to run without fear of such occurrences, thereby assisting efforts to recruit quality candidates.

The only issue is that the candidates haven’t materialized. See the above graph of seats (Republicans in red, independents in grey) contested by Republicans since legislative downsizing ahead of the 2002 elections:

This year, Republicans will contest 40 seats in the legislature. If they won all of them, they would barely break the Democratic supermajority in the Senate, and still fail to do so in the House.

Keep in mind, 40 would be about twice as many districts as they have won, ever. There are only about 20 districts across the state that Republicans have ever won.

Winning 20 districts would actually make this the most successful year the Republicans have ever had since the General Assembly reached its current size in 2002.*

Simply put, the Republican candidates necessary to make their party a functioning opposition haven’t materialized.

And it’s noticeable to me that Republican recruitment issues have grown worse since 2010, when a Republican wave election empowered Republicans nationwide and gave them majorities in both chambers of the U.S. Congress.

The grey line is candidates running as Independents, and the point to notice here is that they have increased the number of seats contested over time. And Independents in Rhode Island often caucus with the Republican Party in the State House (e.g., Blake Filippi) or are already Republicans (e.g., perennial Providence candidate Luis Vargas who volunteered for the RI Republican Party). Not all, mind you, but many would’ve been Republicans.

Fox's hen house

For more cartoons by Jen Sorenson, CLICK HERE

"O beautiful for spacious skies..."