Blaming the victim

Trump’s behavior toward Puerto Rico “fails even the most basic test of humanity”

Dan Rather

Trump: These people want us to do everything for them. 

Excuse me, Mr. President but your Saturday morning tantrum tweet storm this morning attacking the mayor of San Juan, a fellow American citizen dealing with a real-time life and death struggle for hundreds of thousands of her constituents on an island of millions in crisis, is not only far below the dignity of the office you hold. It fails even the most basic test of humanity.

Did she have harsh words for your Administration's response to the aftermath of Hurricane Maria? Yes.

It's called a reality check, and one that conforms to every firsthand account coming out of Puerto Rico no matter how much you try to deflect with your "Fake News" epithets.

To take this personally is to put ego before country.

And you also blame the Puerto Ricans themselves? That they want "everything done for them"? No. They just expect to be treated as any other American would.

Oh for the good old days

For more cartoons by Jen Sorenson, CLICK HERE.

Comparison shopping

From too much hurricane to not enough ice in a few days.

Fickle Nature

By Peter Dykstra for The Daily Climate 

September 15 marks the unofficial turning point in Arctic ice cover— the time when the ice reaches its low before firming up for the winter. 

This past year continued a trend of ice cover decline. The good news about the bad news: NASA's "Global Climate Change" webpage has a time-lapse of the stunning changes in Arctic ice cover from 1979 to 2016. 

The site shows a stark decline in ice cover in each September from 1979 to last year in time-lapse video format. 

The bad news about the bad news: The can't-miss website hasn’t been updated in 2017.

Let's go fishing!

DEM Stocks Local Waters With Trout For Columbus Day Weekend

The Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) is stocking ponds across Rhode Island with some 10,000 trout in advance of Columbus Day weekend – a popular time for recreational fishing. 

The number of waterbodies stocked will be limited given current drought conditions; if conditions improve, additional stocking will take place this fall.

The following waters will be stocked: 

Trump numbers in the toilet - time for another crisis

No Upside for Trump as New Poll Shows US Majority Think President "Unfit to Serve"

By Common Dreams staff

A new Quinnipiac poll released Wednesday shows that a majority of Americans believe Donald Trump is "unfit to serve" as commander-in-chief and head of the nation's executive branch.

"With an approval rating frozen in the mid-thirties, his character and judgment questioned, President Donald Trump must confront the harsh fact that the majority of American voters feel he is simply unfit to serve in the highest office in the land." —Tim Malloy, Quinnipiac

Alongside an overall disapproval rating of 57 percent (with only 36 approving of his job performance), the survey revealed that by a 56 percent believe Trump does not have what it takes to be a good president, while only 42 percent think he does. 

Broken down by party affiliation and other factors, the poll found:

Why the Tribe made the deal: “What would you have us do, do nothing?”

Invenergy Solidifies Water Plan with Tribe Backup

By TIM FAULKNER/ecoRI News staff

Water is again a source of contention for the proposed fossil-fuel power plant.

A week after opponents of the energy project failed to persuade the state siting board to halt the project, the developer named two backup sources to provide water for cooling.

The Narragansett Indian Tribe and Benn Water of Hopkinton will be paid by Invenergy Thermal Development LLC to serve as standby water supplies. Benn Water, a pool-filling company, has already been named as the primary water delivery company.

John Brown, Narragansett Indian Tribe medicine man, gave ecoRI News a list of reasons for agreeing to work with what could be one of the biggest polluters in the state. 

Brown said he was impressed that Invenergy invited the tribe to survey the 105-acre site for Native American artifacts. Brown also claimed that the proposed Clear River Energy Center is necessary to keep the electric grid running.

“Until there are viable energy sources, you have the system that you have,” Brown said.

He also noted that the tribe is an insignificant piece in a much larger project and, therefore, sees no harm in accepting money from the Chicago-based company.

“It doesn’t start with us or end with us,” Brown said. “What would you have us do, do nothing?”

EDITOR'S NOTE: As of this posting at midnight Friday, the Charlestown Citizens Alliance made any statement. The CCA did post this EcoRI article on their website. The Westerly Sun will run its first story in tomorrow's newspaper. - W. Collette

Assume the position

It matters

Fishing warning at Richmond’s Carolina Trout Pond

Weed Treatment for Carolina Trout Pond in Richmond This Fall to Control Invasive Species

The Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) is advising the public that Carolina Trout Pond in Richmond is being treated to help control invasive weeds. 

The chemical treatment, which will be applied two times this fall, poses no public health risk nor harm to fish or other aquatic life.

The next treatment will get underway on Monday, October 2 and will target invasive plants such as variable water milfoil and water hyacinth; the first treatment was on Monday, September 18. 

The public should avoid fishing and other recreational activities in the pond on treatment days; signs are posted around the pond with information about temporary water use restrictions.

Weed infestation can affect proper management of freshwater ponds. 

Trigger Happy With Toxins

New varieties of GMOs come with instructions to douse the earth with toxic herbicides.

By Jill Richardson

For many years, genetically engineered crops were said to be environmentally responsible.

Those crops have genes from different species implanted in them, giving them traits they normally wouldn’t have. Companies like Monsanto that produced such strains claimed they were good for the planet.

One genetically engineered crop variety is specifically designed to withstand exposure to Monsanto’s herbicide Roundup, which Monsanto claimed broke down quickly in the soil.

With these “Roundup Ready” crops, farmers can spray their entire fields with Roundup, trusting that their crops will live and the weeds will die.

Monsanto said it was safe. Why? Because Roundup was safe.

Some contest the claim that Roundup is actually safe. California lists it as a carcinogen,so maybe it isn’t.

Another Monsanto product, Xtend, uses a different herbicide — dicamba — that inspires no such debate. It’s bad for you.

Trump’s Puerto Rico rip-off

Here’s how Trump is partially responsible for Puerto Rico’s financial crisis

BY ROBERT HAFFEY

Trump’s muted response to the disastrous effects wrought on the island of Puerto Rico by Hurricane Maria is puzzling, with two popular speculated explanations: either Trump doesn’t know that Puerto Ricans are American citizens, or he doesn’t care about them because he’s an avowed white supremacist. Of course, it could be a mix of the two.

Now, another explanation for Trump’s weak Puerto Rican relief efforts has surfaced. Death and Taxes Magazine reports that Trump tried and failed to launch one of his gaudy golf courses on the island territory.

The Trump International Golf Club Puerto Rico borrowed $26.4 million in government-backed bonds for renovations but later defaulted on $119,814 to the bondholders. 

When the golf course went bankrupt, Trump tried to distance himself from the failed endeavor, which he had licensed his name to and made hundreds of thousands of dollars off. 

ProJo reports Narragansett deal to sell Charlestown water to Burrillville power plant

Well, now Charlestown has some skin in the anti-power plant movement
By Will Collette


According to the Providence Journal, the deeply unpopular Invenergy proposal to build a big natural gas power plant in Burrillville just signed up Narragansett Indian Tribe as a source for required back-up water.

The ProJo also reports that local water delivery service, Benn Water, would deliver the water. 

That's water pumped inside tribal land from the aquifer that provides just about all of us with our drinking water. It would be shipped via tanker truck from one end of the state to the other.

The ProJo posted the story on-line this afternoon.

Is this true? And if so, what happens next?

I'll venture one prediction: Charlestown is about undergo a Category 5 shit-storm.

The phone lines have probably already started burning up between Town Hall and Charlestown's special anti-Narragansett lawyer Joe Larisa. There's probably a late-night meeting going on at the CCA clubhouse.

The town pays Larisa almost $25,000 a year just to watch the Tribe and to block anything the Tribe might do. CLICK HERE for Larisa's most recent 6-month billing.

I'm surprised Larisa didn't see this coming since Charlestown pays him to keep his eyes on the Tribe. If this matter goes to court, his retainer contract with the town calls for Larisa to be paid extra. 

Beyond these predictions, we have a ton of very large "Ifs."

The march to mediocrity

For more cartoons by Ted Rall, CLICK HERE.

Priorities, clearly stated

Support the RI Community Food Bank

Order your Empty Bowls tickets today.

Empty Bowls:
More than 30 Restaurants at One Event

At this year’s Empty Bowls fundraiser, you can enjoy tastings from more than 30 local restaurants like Chapel Grille, The Salted Slate, and Two Ten Oyster Bar. You’ll also choose a handcrafted artisanal bowl to take home as a reminder that your support helps fill all the empty bowls in our community. Please join us on Friday, October 13 at Rhodes on the Pawtuxet for this fun, family-friendly event.

Empty Bowls Collector’s Corner -
Shop Online

In addition to the handmade bowl every guest receives at our Empty Bowls event, a selection of unique artisanal bowls will be available for sale. Bowls were contributed by Rhode Island artists such as Tracy Glover Studio, Anna Galloway Highsmith, Peàn Doubulyu, John Fazzino and many more. Sales benefit the Food Bank. Pieces can be purchased in advance by calling 401-230-1678.

© 2017 Rhode Island Community Food Bank

200 Niantic Avenue

Providence, RI 02907

Phone: (401) 942‑MEAL (6325)

Email: [contactus@rifoodbank.org]

LOCK HIM UP!

Jared Kushner has been using private e-mail for official White House business

BY NATALIE DICKINSON

Turns out most of the senior Trumpsters - including Ivanka (not
pictured) have been using private email for government business.
Weren't these the guys who wanted to lock up Hillary for her private
e-mail?

In a stunning display of hypocrisy from Donald Trump’s inner circle, son-in-law and presidential advisor Jared Kushner was just discovered to have been using a private email server to conduct White House business.

POLITICO has “seen and verified” over a dozen emails from Kushner’s private email account to other “senior White House officials, outside advisers and others about media coverage, event planning and other subjects.”

Those officials and advisors include senior White House staff like former chief of staff Reince Priebus, former chief strategist Steve Bannon, Gary Cohn, and spokesman Josh Raffel, indicating that serious business and potentially classified information was being discussed in these emails.

This normally wouldn’t be a big deal, but Donald Trump made the issue of Hillary Clinton’s private email server that she used in her time as Secretary of State one of the central platforms of his campaign, demanding that she be arrested and tried for her potential mishandling of state secrets.

When Is The News Not The News?

When You ‘Turn To 10’
By Beth Comery in the Providence Daily Dose

This erosion of the independent press is terrifying. Never has it been more important to have energetic news gatherers, with journalistic standards and integrity, keeping an eye on our elected officials. 

Sadly, one of our local news outlets has been compromised on all those counts, and has been presenting biased segments as if they were objective reports, or analysis. 

Channel 10 News is owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group and, as such, is now a propaganda arm of the Trump White House. The Providence Journal writes,

The company that owns WJAR-TV is mandating the broadcast of multiple programs favorable to President Donald Trump on the state’s most-watched television station.

Sinclair Broadcast Group, a rapidly growing media company that bought Channel 10 in 2014, produces “must-run” segments and distributes them to its local stations nationwide. They must air during daily news programming, Sinclair executives said.

VIDEO: Sing along

To watch this video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZDYhQ4UAnA

At the Mystic Aquarium

Kick off Hispanic heritage month with us with live music, dancing, arts & crafts, food and more. Learn More Meet an African penguin at our great event featuring a pizza buffet and beverage bar. Reserve Now Pack your overnight bag for unique Aquarium adventures then fall asleep next to your favorite exhibit. Register Today! Run, walk or donate, no matter what you do, you can help the endangered African penguin! Register Today A sea witch and wizards and magic - oh my! Hear Tails of the Deep as you cast spells at the Aquarium. More Hocus Pocus Here At this free event, discover the truth behind the shark's "killer" reputation. Registration requested.  Dive In Here TAIL US ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Mystic Aquarium, 55 Coogan Blvd., Mystic, CT 06355

Some enviro bills pass including one wingnut bill

R.I. Passes Environmental Bills in Shortened Session

By TIM FAULKNER/ecoRI News staff

The General Assembly’s weeklong bonus session saw the passage of several environmental bills that were nearly approved in June. Here’s what passed last week:

Safe furniture H5082: For years, the chemical industry fought the removal of flame retardants and toxic chemicals from furniture and children’s products such as clothing. But Rhode island will ban the manufacturing and sale of mattresses, electronics and children’s products that exceed the allowance of certain chemical compounds that contain bromide, which is linked to cancer and harmful to fetal and child development. The law takes effect July 1, 2019. Watch video testimony of the Senate hearing here.

Geoengineering H6011: Theories abound about chemical engineering of the atmosphere and the cloudy spray from aircraft, called chemtrails. The legislation makes Rhode Island one of the first states to study the issue. A five-member committee will make recommendations for licensing geoengineering technologies — real or not — such as solar radiation management, ocean fertilization, and cloud cover protection and cloud whitening. The House commission is tasked to report its findings by April 2, 2018.

EDITOR'S NOTE: It boggles the mind that the General Assembly passed local wingnut Rep. Justin Price's bill to "study" one of the most insane far-right conspiracy theories. 

The idea in a nutshell is that some sinister force is mixing chemicals into jet fuel so that their contrails disperse mind-altering substances on an unaware, innocent public. 

These chemicals make them do crazy things, according to the wingnut theory, such as vote for Democrats. 

The only evidence I see of mass lunacy is that Richmond and Hopkinton voters actually elected people like Justin Price, and I'm not sure chem-trails are to blame. But maybe that's something for this study commission to examine. - Will Collette.