Happy Holidays!

For more cartoons by Jen Sorenson, CLICK HERE

Tapes emerge of attempted bribe by Trump

 

Congratulations to Wood River Health

Wins designation as LGBTQ+ Safe Zone

Wood River Health was recently designated by Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island (BCBSRI) as an LGBTQ+ Safe Zone, certifying that it provides care that meets the specific needs of patients who identify as LGBTQ+.  

Safe Zones are represented by a broad range of adult and pediatric services including behavioral health, primary care, medical imaging, physical therapy, obstetrics and gynecology.

Certification requirements for BCBSRI LGBTQ Safe Zones include staff training specific to the care of LGBTQ patients, protection for patients and staff from discrimination based on gender identity or expression, gender neutral bathrooms, inclusive forms and procedures, and a public commitment to connecting with and serving the LGBTQ community.

Many members of the LGBTQ+ population don’t seek the health care services they require to maintain or improve their health, especially when they have previously experienced discrimination from a health care provider. “Health care access is stark throughout much of our nation, but the access rate is even bleaker among the LGBTQ+ population,” stated Jonathan Gates, MDCM, Wood River Health’s Chief Medical Officer. 

“As a Safe Zone, Wood River Health has proven that we provide safe, affirming, and inclusive care to the members of the LGBTQ+ community.”

A Christmas present from Pope Francis

Pope Francis’ approval of blessings for LGBTQ+ couples is a historic gesture

Steven P. Millies, Catholic Theological Union

Pope Francis speaks during his weekly general audience
in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican on Oct. 18, 2023.
 AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino

Pope Francis’ Dec. 18, 2023, announcement that Catholic priests may bless LGBTQ+ couples and others in “irregular” situations marks a definitive shift in the Roman Catholic Church’s posture toward many types of loving relationships. 

It may also mark a definitive turning point within the Roman Catholic Church.

Across the last few years, Francis has made gesture after gesture indicating his desire to find a way for the Catholic Church to accompany and welcome people whose loving relationships do not fit into the church’s sacramental understanding of marriage as between a man and a woman, ordered toward procreation and ended only by death.

He has telegraphed for a long time his desire to come to some new arrangement that would welcome loving relationships in the church without transforming the church’s doctrine on marriage and sexuality all at once – the Dec. 18 declaration seems to do exactly that.

RI Heritage Hall of Fame disgraces itself

RI Heritage Hall of Shame

By Beth Comery

The horrifying news that disgraced former National Security Advisor and Russian operative, Michael Flynn, has been inducted into the RI Heritage Hall of Fame has already hit the national news, so this is going to be painful. 

At least all the decent people, people loyal to the U.S. Constitution, are speaking out, resigning from the Hall, and refusing to attend the induction. I can’t bear to even be writing and thinking about this right now. From Dan McGowan’s piece in the Boston Globe.

The conspiracy-mongering Christian nationalist, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and became one of the country’s most prominent 2020 election deniers around the same time former president Donald Trump pardoned him, has been offered a spot in the Hall of Fame alongside everyone from Roger Williams to John Chafee.

So who is running this organization? First, there is Hall of Fame President Lawrence C. Reid. Here’s how he responded to McGowan’s request for information:

When we spoke on Tuesday afternoon, Reid stood by the board’s decision, arguing that it wasn’t exactly a narrow vote to select Flynn for the honor. When I asked how he voted personally, he told me it was “none of your business.”

“It’s controversial, but lots of things are controversial,” Reid said flippantly, as if he was defending the right to drink Del’s with a straw.

I think we all recognize the tone of that response.

EDITOR’S NOTE: My wife Cathy was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2014. – Will Collette

Then there is the current Hall of Fame President, the odious, self-promoting windbag — and now self-proclaimed MAGA conspiracy theorist — Patrick Conley, himself inducted in 1995. (Just look at the entry he wrote for himself. 

Can we please stop calling him a “historian.” He’s the only person who calls him that. He’s a hack.) Here is Conley’s response to lawyer John Tarantino upon receiving his letter of resignation: Katherine Gregg writes in the ProJo:

But Conley made public a letter he wrote Tarantino last Friday defending the induction of Flynn into the Hall of Fame “to vindicate Flynn in his home state in the manner contained in his executive grant of clemency from President Trump – another innocent victim of the ‘Russia hoax’.”

“Flynn did not commit high treason, espionage, sedition, or any high crime,” Conley wrote.

“Flynn was illegally surveilled by the outgoing Obama administration … set-up without benefit of counsel by two agents from a weaponized FBI …. [then] tried and convicted by a biased media,” wrote Conley, who still guides the Hall of Fame board from behind the scenes.

I’ll bet URI President Parlange is breathing a sigh of relief that he took our advice last year and rescinded Flynn’s honorary degree. See Dooley Retires in Disgrace; and URI Pres Parlange — Rescind Flynn Honor; and URI President Parlange: Revoke Honorary Degrees (plural . . . the other one was Giuliani).

Sad to say this will probably be the end of the RI Heritage Hall of Fame, although the writing was on the wall when they inducted Gene Valicenti.

Is it too much to ask?

For more cartoons by Tom Tomorrow, CLICK HERE

What causes insomnia?

Been There, Felt That

The Intriguing Puzzle of Déjà Vu

By ANNE CLEARY, COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY 

Have you ever had that weird feeling that you’ve experienced the same exact situation before, even though that’s impossible? Sometimes it can even seem like you’re reliving something that already happened. 

This phenomenon, known as déjà vu, has puzzled philosophers, neurologists, and writers for a very long time.

Starting in the late 1800s, many theories began to emerge regarding what might cause déjà vu, which means “already seen” in French. 

People thought maybe it stemmed from mental dysfunction or perhaps a type of brain problem. Or maybe it was a temporary hiccup in the otherwise normal operation of human memory. However, the topic did not reach the realm of science until quite recently.

Why 14th Amendment bars Trump from office

A constitutional law scholar explains principle behind Colorado Supreme Court ruling

Mark A. Graber, University of Maryland

On Jan. 6, 2021, then-President Donald Trump exhorted
followers to object to the results of the 2020 presidential
election. AP Photo/Evan Vucci

In 2024, former President Donald Trump will face some of his greatest challenges: criminal court cases, primary opponents and constitutional challenges to his eligibility to hold the office of president again. 

The Colorado Supreme Court has pushed that latter piece to the forefront, ruling on Dec. 19, 2023, that Trump cannot appear on Colorado’s 2024 presidential ballot because of his involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.

The reason is the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1868, three years after the Civil War ended. Section 3 of that amendment wrote into the Constitution the principle President Abraham Lincoln set out just three months after the first shots were fired in the Civil War. On July 4, 1861, he spoke to Congress, declaring that “when ballots have fairly, and constitutionally, decided, there can be no successful appeal back to bullets.”

The text of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment states, in full:

“No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.”

To me as a scholar of constitutional law, each sentence and sentence fragment captures the commitment made by the nation in the wake of the Civil War to govern by constitutional politics. 

People seeking political and constitutional changes must play by the rules set out in the Constitution. In a democracy, people cannot substitute force, violence or intimidation for persuasion, coalition building and voting.

The Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA) is lying

Truth about the Ninigret Park Master Plan Update

From Charlestown Residents United

Collage by Lin Collette

Charlestown Residents United (CRU) strives to publish factual information, and not engage in a campaign of fearmongering, as another Political Action Committee is currently doing.  

A link to the town of Charlestown’s website with the documents regarding Ninigret Park is included at the end of this article.

 

Contrary to articles circulating online, there is currently no construction plan for anything at Ninigret Park.

This article will focus on the facts.

Find the mistake in this cartoon (answer below)

ANSWER: Trump doesn't know how to use a Thesaurus

The face of domestic terrorism

 

This One Simple Diet Change Could Transform Your Blood Pressure

Cut the salt

By BRIAN DOCTROW, PH.D., NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH 

Lowering sodium intake significantly reduced blood pressure in most people, even those who were already taking blood pressure medications.

The findings suggest that consuming less sodium could have health benefits in a wide range of people.

Half of all Americans have high blood pressure, or hypertension. Blood pressure is considered high when systolic readings (the top number, the pressure when blood is pumped out of the heart) are consistently over 130 mm Hg or diastolic readings (the bottom number, between heartbeats when the heart is filling with blood) are 80 mm Hg or higher.

EPA begins review of PVC ingredient vinyl chloride, which could lead to restrictions or ban

“This is one of the most important chemical review processes ever undertaken by the EPA.”

Brian Bienkowski for Environmental Health News

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced it’s reviewing vinyl chloride under the Toxic Control Substance Act (TSCA), which could lead to restrictions or a ban on the widespread, toxic chemical.

Vinyl chloride is used primarily to make polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastics. The chemical is already classified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a carcinogen, and is linked to higher rates of lung and liver cancer, as well as liver disease, neurological problems and miscarriage. Billions of pounds are produced annually in the U.S.

It is one of five chemicals the EPA will review under TSCA, which is the primary chemical safety law in the U.S. The other chemicals include acetaldehyde, acrylonitrile, benzenamine, and MBOCA.

“Under the Biden-Harris Administration, EPA has made significant progress implementing the 2016 amendments to strengthen our nation’s chemical safety laws after years of mismanagement and delay. Today marks an important step forward,” assistant administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention Michal Freedhoff said in a statement.

Under TSCA, the EPA will examine all exposure routes — including air emissions, drinking water and soil contamination — as well as workplace and accident exposure.

The latter is especially significant as on Feb. 3, a Norfolk Southern train carrying a long list of toxic chemicals — including vinyl chloride — caught fire as it approached East Palestine, Ohio. 

The train derailed and the cars burned for three days. Months after the incident, residents, despite reassurances from the EPA and other agencies, were experiencing myriad health problems. Many residents left and never returned.

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