Quick Read

A man picks a path in the woods

The New York Times question goes shallow on why Democrats don’t actually implement progressive policies.

By Justin Katz | November 29, 2021 |

Don’t get me wrong.  It’s wonderful that the New York Times is raising any questions at all about why Democrat strongholds aren’t the utopias that voters were promised and to challenge the obviously facile talking point that evil Republicans are to blame, even where the GOP has almost no power. That said, Johnny Harris and Binyamin…

A toy school bus

Bell chimes in on education to distract from plain reality.

By Justin Katz | November 27, 2021 |

Progressive Democrat state senator Sam Bell is fascinating to watch. Some years ago, he was a participant in a debate I helped organize, and he made a perplexing statement about the number of tax cuts Rhode Island government had enacted.  Even watching such things closely, I had to go home and research what he might…

A pencil with eraser

School administrators and teachers should be aware that society is self-healing.

By Justin Katz | November 27, 2021 |

Of course, anybody who has known someone who refused to see a doctor about a broken bone knows that self-healing doesn’t always mean a desirable condition.  Sometimes bodily and social healing mechanisms render appendages less useful, or even liabilities. Anyway, the lesson comes to mind after reading Erika Sanzi’s concerns that school administrators and teachers…

Abuse during the Chinese Cultural Revolution

Yes, “equity audits” and “anti-racism” are critical race theory (CRT) in action.

By Justin Katz | November 26, 2021 |

Perhaps it feels redundant or like beating a dead horse for me to direct readers to Mike Gonzalez’s list of “The Five Lies of CRT,” but I have a feeling it’s a topic to which we have to return with reinforcements constantly.  The attempted gaslighting from radicals is simply too dogged.  Complacency is an enemy.…

Chart of Biden approval among young, non-college Rhode Islanders

Biden’s unpopularity can be a guide in Rhode Island.

By Justin Katz | November 26, 2021 |

Via Stacey Lennox, who looks at Biden’s approval/disapproval ratings across all states for PJ Media, comes a fascinating tool that may prove useful in the toolboxes of anybody who writes about or engages in politics. It’s an interactive poll tool from Civiqs that allows the user to cut up the data by various demographics in one…

Bob Walsh talks on A Lively Experiment 11/12/21

Walsh gives away the game for the local media and his union.

By Justin Katz | November 26, 2021 |

Referring to an appearance by National Education Association of Rhode Island director Bob Walsh on A Lively Experiment, Erika Sanzi plainly describes a reality of local media. Walsh’s offending claim was that Nicole Solas shouldn’t call herself a “stay-at-home mom” when she’s “in a different community at a different school committee meeting screaming at the top…

American flag behind a barred window

We’re not reactionaries, so let’s stop being exclusively reactive.

By Justin Katz | November 24, 2021 |

As I’ve thought about it, this morning’s post on New England governors’ poll results ended a bit short.  I closed with a suggestion for Democrats, but what about Republicans? Considering the huge jump of New England’s three Democrats from the bottom of the national list in 2019 to the top now, two possibilities come to…

A Providence neighborhood through a Statehouse window

Don’t trust politicians who don’t ask “why” about housing before they proclaim a solution.

By Justin Katz | November 24, 2021 |

Right from the beginning, an op-ed in the Boston Globe by RI Political Co-Op progressive candidate Lenny Cioe gives off warning signals: In many neighborhoods near colleges like Providence College, Johnson and Wales, and Brown University, predatory real estate companies are jacking up rents and forcing out families in favor of high-paying students. And that’s…

Chart of most popular governors in Autumn 2021

New Englanders seem to approve of their governors, lately (especially Republican ones).

By Justin Katz | November 24, 2021 |

During our weekly conversation on Monday, John DePetro and I had some mild disagreement about how one might explain the most recent results of Morning Consult’s regular ranking of U.S. governors’ popularity. The headline for Rhode Island is that Governor Dan McKee is the second-most-popular Democrat governor in the country (at thirteenth overall), behind Connecticut’s…

Cooling towers at Brayton Point

Keep track as progressive laws tangle Rhode Islanders and our economy up.

By Justin Katz | November 23, 2021 |

Gregory Booth, who works with the advocacy section of Rhode Island’s Public Utilities Commission (PUC) makes a reasonable point when he suggests that it might not be in our state’s best interest to have National Grid sell its Ocean State electrical distribution business to another company that lacks its cross-state infrastructure, but that isn’t why…