Ripple

A water drop and ripples

I see we’ve entered the phase of the Washington Bridge controversy of having to prove things that should be obvious.

By Justin Katz | September 5, 2024 |

Gabrielle Caracciolo, of NBC 10, reports that the McKee administration is hiding behind its lawsuits to avoid releasing the “forensic analysis… to determinhe what went wrong and who is responsible for the failure of the Washington Bridge.”  But she did do some investigating: An NBC 10 News investigation found when it comes to “quality control…

A water drop and ripples

We are being brought to the brink of calamity because…

By Justin Katz | September 4, 2024 |

… to relieve their existential anxiety, people want a simple story in which the good guys and the bad guys are easy to identify. Genuinely bad people are willing to lie and tell that simplistic story, while good people acknowledge nuance and accept a share of blame.  This imbalance tilts the community’s judgment scale against…

A water drop and ripples

Our national police force is starting to remind me of the Rhode Island mob.

By Justin Katz | September 3, 2024 |

Mark Steyn raises the peculiarity of the mysterious deaths of two businessmen who actually managed to beat the U.S. Department of Justice’s process-is-the-punishment racket.  Apparently, the statistics suggest that the DOJ way overcharges its targets in the hopes of pushing for a settlement:  “95 percent of cases are won by prosecutors, 90 percent of those…

A water drop and ripples

The yard sign connection to mail ballots is terrifying.

By Justin Katz | September 3, 2024 |

In the heat of the battle, political controversies over yard signs can become an almost comedic proxy for heated disagreements.  I’ve seen people in the heat of a busy campaign drop everything to do battle with people stealing the yard signs of the other side or placing their own signs on property where they aren’t…

A water drop and ripples

You can tell we’ve inadequately educated our population about fascism…

By Justin Katz | August 27, 2024 |

… by the discomfiting fascist, Orwellian tone of this campaign from supposed good-government-group Common Cause RI:   It’s bad enough on its face, but it’s worse when you break down the manipulative message. First, Common Cause wants you to believe that you can instantly identify “disinformation about voting.” Next, the organization asserts that you have…

A water drop and ripples

We can disagree, but U.S. literacy ought to be the subject of heated debate.

By Justin Katz | August 27, 2024 |

Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby offers a startling statistic: Blaming the Department of Education isn’t only a matter of post hoc ergo propter hoc, and I’d say the unionization of teachers played an equal or greater role in destroying American education.  To be sure, both developments echo a similar underlying problem in the same direction:  They move…

A water drop and ripples

Progressivism/socialism start with inhuman principles.

By Justin Katz | August 26, 2024 |

I mean the title of this post in the sense both that progressivism/socialism ignores human nature and that it pretends people aren’t human.  Consider: The underlying assumption appears to be that producers will simply produce because they are producers.  Human beings don’t fall into nice progressive categories.  We make decisions and change our status, and…

A water drop and ripples

Coffee results suggest that everything I enjoy will eventually be proven good for me.

By Justin Katz | August 26, 2024 |

I may revise my opinion if conflicting results come in, but for now, I’m choosing to believe that this is 100% on the money: Among 6,001 Health and Retirement Study participants in the U.S., drinking two or more cups of coffee a day was associated with a 28% lower risk of dementia over 7 years…

A water drop and ripples

Here’s a partial standard for judging “they’ll end democracy” claims.

By Justin Katz | August 24, 2024 |

Whether you think Mark Smith’s reasoning here is dead-on, insane, or somewhere in between, an element is important to consider: Namely, he’s not just stating dislike and projecting an action, á la “Trump will end democracy.”  He’s offering actual policy steps by which Democrats could achieve that end. The same can’t be done in reverse…

A water drop and ripples

Lack of General Assembly competition shows the progressive-union-Democrat axis has things locked up.

By Justin Katz | August 22, 2024 |

Further to yesterday’s post on Johnston politics, don’t forget this corresponding news about the state legislature: In 2022, just 20 percent of Rhode Island’s 113 General Assembly seats went uncontested in a primary and/or the general election. But this year, 52 percent of those Assembly seats will go uncontested thanks to a sharp drop in…