Quick Read
Surprising absolutely nobody, Democrat Gabe Amo won the available Congressional seat in Rhode Island yesterday. For those who really get into local politics, the thrill of the bet in such races is predicting whether the Republican will come in closer to 30% or closer to 35%. Gerry Leonard hit the 35%, so congratulations to him.…
Although it no-doubt reveals my prejudices, if I were to rank Rhode Island’s handful of institutions of higher education on matters of freedom of thought, I’d expect Brown University — the Ivy League bastion of the elites and producer of the likes of Aaron Regunberg and Tiara Mack — to top the list of badness. …
Providence Democrat City Councilor Miguel Sanchez has been catching some deserved flack for marching with the anti-Israel rally in Providence over the weekend (although the criticism is coming from people who don’t exist within the awareness of Rhode Island power): If local journalists weren’t so intent on not paying attention to the wrong people, they…
Whether it’s deliberate manipulation or just a sloppy resort to groupthink, Nancy Lavin’s recent article on Rhode Island Current is a good illustration of how issues can be framed to support the preferences of the powerful. Note this section: Proponents tout these expansions as ways to improve voter turnout and access while easing the pressure…
A recent teapot tempest in the Censorship Wars (at least the skirmishes over keeping arguably pornographic and sex-promoting work out of elementary school libraries) has to do with parents’ objecting to a graphic novel version of Ann Frank’s diary. You can dig multiple layers into the story, though, for a more-full picture. The first layer,…
As Americans on both sides of the political aisle highlight how poorly situated our federal government is in a time of international volatility (albeit for different reasons), we can’t look only at events of the past few months. We also can’t assume we know the full answer fully from our own perspectives, so this is…
Yesterday, through the ministrations of U.S. District Attorney Zachary Cunha under Attorney General Merrick Garland, the Biden administration pressured Rhode Island’s Washington Trust bank into a multimillion-dollar settlement and imposed a big PR hit over alleged racism in its lending practices. Journalists are faithfully transcribing the “redlining” narrative they’ve been handed, which means our state…
One hesitates to make too much of an activist article like Steve Ahlquist’s August 9 report and transcription of a conversation with a Woonsocket city worker. However, two observations are worth making, considering Progressives’ ascendance in Rhode Island and beyond. The first relates to the underlying issue. The city has installed armrests in the middle…
Social media provide a strange, unprecedented venue for public interactions. On one hand, these platforms promise the degree of connectivity and access that has characterized the Internet from its early popularization. On the other hand, a bit of space between our raw personalities and our in-print public personas is healthy. So, what to make of…
Excellent work by Jim Hummel of the Hummel Report with this investigative report, published on the front page of yesterday’s Providence Journal, pertaining to a state mandate that 25% of its vehicles be electric; i.e., zero emission. The goal was to make one quarter of the state’s light duty vehicle fleet EV’s by 2025. So…