He just can't help himself

The Gavle Goat is dead. Long live the Charlestown New Year's Eve bonfire!

After several safe Christmas seasons, world's favorite goat finds a new way to die

By Will Collette

I first started writing about Sweden's Gavle goat in 2011, the year Tom Ferrio and I launched Progressive Charlestown.

A proud holiday tradition in the Swedish town of Gavle since 1966, local resident build a giant goat (Gävlebocken) made of straw that stands in the town square through the Advent season.

Except when it doesn't.

While a majority of town residents love the goat, a sizeable minority don't. They make it their business every year to burn the goat down. It does make a pretty spectacular bonfire. There's a lively betting pool on whether the goat will survive and, if so, how long. And as the saying goes, a certain amount of alcohol is involved.

Vandals caught in the act usually do three months of jail time. Metro.UK reports "of the 58 Gävle goats in history, 42 have been destroyed."

Each year I wrote about the Gävlebocken, usually in the context of publicizing Charlestown's own New Year's Eve bonfire. Some year's, the goat made it; other years, it didn't.

Due largely to dramatically heightened security, the Gävlebocken made it through the past several years uncharred.

But this year, its luck ran out.

Yesterday, December 27, the Gävlebocken was busted up by high winds from Atlantic Storm Johannes.

Hopefully, the weather will be kind on Wednesday night for Charlestown's annual New Year's Eve bonfire at Ninigret Park. Currently, the National Weather Service is forecasting a cold (20 degrees) and cloudy for Charlestown.

Charlestown's bonfire was started as volunteer effort by Frank Glista who hustled up the lumber (usually from Arnold Lumber) and hand-crafted it himself. Frank carried on this work for years until recently handing it off to former Engineers union leader and current Charlestown Residents United chair Tim Quillen.

The Charlestown bonfire has had its own share of troubles. In 2013, an undisclosed complainant to DEM asked that the bonfire be banned because it created an illegal "municipal waste disposal site." DEM issued a "Notice of Intent to Enforce" which was promptly appealed by then Charlestown Treasurer Pat Anderson.

DEM rejected Pat's appeal and then former Charlestown state Representative Donna Walsh got to work, ultimately getting DEM to rescind its intended enforcement action.

There was a lot going on in Charlestown at that time. Bradford residents were hammering at DEM for its failure to enforce the law on the infamous Copar Quarry on the Charlestown-Westerly line. Town Councilor Deputy Dan Slattery was going on a tear about Ninigret Park, "phantom properties," state acquisition of properties to protect water resources after just completed his campaign to destroy former town administrator Bill DiLibero's career. Planning Commissar Ruth Platner was cranking up her effort to micromanage every business, residence and land parcel in town. 

Banning the bonfire was someone's bright idea, someone who has never stepped forward to take the "credit."  But if you study the history, you can make a pretty good guess.

Pharmacists offer tips that could reduce your out-of-pocket drug costs

My prescription costs what?! 

Sujith Ramachandran, University of Mississippi and Adam Pate, University of Mississippi

Even when Americans have health insurance, they can have a hard time affording the drugs they’ve been prescribed.

About 1 in 5 U.S. adults skip filling a prescription due to its cost at least once a year, according to KFF, a health research organization. And 1 in 3 take steps to cut their prescription drug costs, such as splitting pills when it’s not medically necessary or switching to an over-the-counter drug instead of the one that their medical provider prescribed.

As pharmacy professors who research prescription drug access, we think it’s important for Americans to know that it is possible to get prescriptions filled more affordably, as long as you know how before you go to the pharmacy.

US Launches Christmas Strikes on Nigeria—the 9th Country Bombed by Trump

Trump has now bombed more countries than any president in history.

Brett Wilkins

Donald Trump—the self-described “most anti-war president in history”—has now ordered the bombing of more countries than any president in history as US forces carried out Christmas day strikes on what the White House claimed were Islamic State militants killing Christians in Nigeria.

“Tonight, at my direction as Commander in Chief, the United States launched a powerful and deadly strike against ISIS Terrorist Scum in Northwest Nigeria, who have been targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians, at levels not seen for many years, and even Centuries!” Trump said Thursday in a post on his Truth Social network.

“I have previously warned these Terrorists that if they did not stop the slaughtering of Christians, there would be hell to pay, and tonight, there was,” the president continued. “The Department of War executed numerous perfect strikes, as only the United States is capable of doing.”

“Under my leadership, our Country will not allow Radical Islamic Terrorism to prosper,” Trump added. “May God Bless our Military, and MERRY CHRISTMAS to all, including the dead Terrorists, of which there will be many more if their slaughter of Christians continues.”

A US Department of Defense official speaking on condition of anonymity told the Associated Press that the United States worked with Nigeria to conduct the bombing, and that the government of Nigerian President Bola Tinubu—who is a Muslim—approved the attacks.

It was not immediately known how many people were killed or wounded in the strikes, or whether there are any civilian casualties.

Why the GOP Healthcare Plans Won’t Fill the Prescription

So is this the best they can do?

Dean Baker in Beat the Press

During his first term, after repeatedly promising the country a terrific healthcare plan, Donald Trump famously commented, “Nobody knew that healthcare could be so complicated.” In fact, everyone who spent even a few minutes looking at the issue knew that healthcare was complicated. 

That is why Obamacare ended up being a hodgepodge that was pasted together to extend healthcare coverage as widely as possible. It is also the reason Trump and the Republicans never produced a healthcare plan in Trump’s first term.

The basic problem is that healthcare costs are hugely skewed. Ten percent of the population accounts for more than 60% of total spending, and just 1% accounts for 20% of spending. Most people have relatively low healthcare costs. The trick with healthcare is paying for small number of people who do have high costs.

Individual Choice, Cherry-Picking the Pool, and Screwing Cancer Survivors

The Republicans in Congress, along with Trump on alternate days, are pushing plans that are supposed to give choice to individuals and somehow take it away from insurers. It’s not clear what they think they are saying. They seem to still envision that people will buy insurance, as they do now in the Obamacare exchanges, but somehow that they will have more control in the Republican option.

There is one story they could envision, which would make it much easier for insurers to skew their pool. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) restricted what sort of plans could be offered in the exchanges in order to limit the ability for insurers to avoid high-cost individuals.

It would be possible to relax these restrictions to allow insurers to cherry pick their enrollees. For example, they could offer high-deductible plans, say $15,000 in payments, before any coverage kicked in.

No person with a serious health condition would buy this sort of plan since they know they would be paying at least $15,000 a year in medical expenses, and then a substantial fraction of everything above this amount, in addition to the premium itself. 

On the other hand, a low-cost plan with $15,000 deductible might look pretty good to someone in good health, whose medical expenses usually don’t run beyond the cost of annual checkup.

They know exactly what they're doing

Not counting freebies from friends

Turn Your Christmas Tree into Fish Habitat

Here's a smart way to dispose of your xmas tree

Spruce up wildlife habitat this holiday season! For the eighth year, the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) and the Rhode Island Chapter of Trout Unlimited (TU) team up for  “Trees for Trout,” recycling donated conifer trees to restore habitat for wild brook trout and other aquatic life. 

Drop off your trees Saturday, Jan. 10, between 10 AM – 3 PM at the Arcadia Check Station, Wood River Arcadia Management Area, 2224 Ten Rod Rd, Exeter.

Is RFK Jr. backing Big Food’s drive to overturn tough new state laws?

Bobby Jr. echoes industry talking points on food safety laws

Stacy Malkan, U.S. Right to Know

For months, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert Kennedy Jr. has crisscrossed the nation advancing his Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) agenda — spotlighting plans to crack down on unhealthy ultra-processed foods, and praising state-level efforts to restrict chemical food additives and bolster consumers’ right to know. 

At least 90 proposals in dozens of states seek to restrict, ban or label ultra-processed food or synthetic ingredients. The push is based on strong scientific evidence that the poor health of many Americans may arise in part from eating so much ultra-processed food. 

Two new COVID vaccine studies show shots keep kids out of the emergency room and reduce risks to pregnant women and their babies

While Bobby Jr. peddles fake science, real science reinforces value of vaccine 

Two articles on two new studies

Updated 2024-25 COVID vaccine cut emergency visits among kids, study suggests

Laine Bergeson 

A new analysis from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) finds that the 2024-25 COVID-19 vaccine substantially reduced the risk of emergency department (ED) and urgent care (UC) visits among US children and adolescents. The findings, published yesterday in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, draw on data from more than 98,000 pediatric cases in nine states. 

Researchers looked at data from electronic health records to assess how well the updated vaccines, which target the Omicron JN.1 and JN.1-derived sublineages, protected against COVID-related ED and UC visits from August 2024 to September 2025. The test-negative, case-control study measured the added protection provided by the 2024-25 dose in children and adolescents, many of whom already had some immunity from prior infection, previous vaccination, or both.

76% effectiveness against severe disease in young kids

Among children aged 9 months to 4 years, vaccine effectiveness (VE) against COVID-associated ED/UC visits was 76% during the first 7 to 179 days after vaccination. Protection remained stable through 299 days. 

These VE estimates are similar to or higher than those observed in adults during the same season, and they exceed that reported in young children during the 2023-24 season. According to the authors, the higher 2024-25 estimates might be related to different infection patterns compared with previous seasons or fewer changes in circulating variants in 2024-25. 

During the 2024-25 season, hospitalization rates among US infants aged 6 to 11 months were higher than those of all adult age-groups except those aged 65 years and older. These findings underscore the potential benefits of COVID-19 vaccination in eligible infants, note the authors.

In children and adolescents aged 5 to 17 years, the 2024-25 vaccines reduced the risk of an ED/UC visit by 56% during the first 7 to 179 days after vaccination. Protection declined slightly to 45% when the window was extended from 7 to 299 days.

Who’s the Last Person in the World to Deserve the Nobel Peace Prize?

The person who’s been waging illegal wars

Robert Reich

Trump recently had his name engraved on the U.S. Institute of Peace — now renamed the “Donald J. Trump U.S. Institute of Peace.” The White House confirmed the renaming, calling it “a powerful reminder of what strong leadership can accomplish for global stability.”

Actually, it’s a reminder of what a strong malignant narcissist can accomplish when untethered from reality.

Gianni Infantino, president of FIFA, the world football league, awarded Trump the first (and likely last) annual FIFA Peace Prize — along with a hagiographic video of Trump and “peace.”

What FIFA has to do with peace is anyone’s guess, but Infantino is evidently trying to curry favor with Trump. (Infantino, by the way, oversaw the 2020 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, defending and minimizing Qatar’s miserable human rights record. He also played a key role in selecting Saudi Arabia to host the 2034 FIFA World Cup, notwithstanding the Saudi murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.)

Both Trump’s absurd renaming of the U.S. Institute of Peace and the equally absurd FIFA award are parts of Trump’s campaign to get the Nobel Peace Prize — something he has coveted since Barack Obama was awarded it in 2009 (anything Obama got credited with, Trump wants to discredit or match).

Check your history - this is how it works

 

Happy Kwanzaa!

Why are Trump's latest inflation numbers so low?

Answer: He cheated.

Note in the chart below that the only numbers included are for gasoline and cars. Food, housing, energy and health care are excluded.

Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics

Don't forget that Trump fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics for producing data he didn't like. When this happened, economists warned this may make future federal data untrustworthy. And so it is.

2025: The year the US gave up on climate, and the world gave up on us

US not only walked away from its promises but committed to more climate-destructive policies

Naveena Sadasivam, Senior Staff Writer

"This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist's weekly newsletter here."

Well, except for Trump's billionaire friends

As the year comes to a close, 2025 looks like a turning point in the world’s fight against climate change. Most conspicuously, it was the year the U.S. abandoned the effort. The Trump administration pulled out of the 2015 Paris Agreement, which unites virtually all the world’s countries in a voluntary commitment to halt climate change. And for the first time in the 30-year history of the U.N.’s international climate talks, the U.S. did not send a delegation to the annual conference, COP30, which took place in Belém, Brazil.

The Trump administration’s assault on climate action has been far from symbolic. Over the summer, the president pressed his Republican majority in Congress to gut a Biden-era law that was projected to cut U.S. emissions by roughly a third compared to their peak, putting the country within reach of its Paris Agreement commitments. 

In the fall, Trump officials used hardball negotiating tactics to stall, if not outright derail, a relatively uncontroversial international plan to decarbonize the heavily polluting global shipping industry. And even though no other country has played a larger role in causing climate change, the U.S. under Trump has cut the vast majority of global climate aid funding, which is intended to help countries that are in the crosshairs of climate change despite doing virtually nothing to cause it. 

It may come as no surprise, then, that other world leaders took barely veiled swipes at Trump at the COP30 climate talks last month. Christiana Figueres, a key architect of the 2015 Paris Agreement and a longtime Costa Rican diplomat, summed up a common sentiment.

“Ciao, bambino! You want to leave, leave,” she said before a crowd of reporters, using an Italian phrase that translates “bye-bye, little boy.” 

These stark shifts in the U.S. position on climate change, which Donald Trump has called a “hoax” and “con job,” are only the latest and most visible signs of a deeper shift underway. Historically, the U.S. and other wealthy, high-emitting nations have been cast as the primary drivers of climate action, both because of their outsize responsibility for the crisis and because of the greater resources at their disposal.