Ripple

A water drop and ripples

A dark fringe outlines Jillian Michaels’s refreshing honesty a out Cali craziness.

By Justin Katz | July 24, 2024 |

While the news cycle has definitely moved on from Michaels’s explanation of how crazy California has become, it’s worth pausing for an observation.  By her own admission, she is and remains progressive.  She’ll play along with a child’s gender dysphoria, for example, even if she thinks puberty blockers and schools’ lying to parents is beyond…

A water drop and ripples

A belated thought on Patricia Morgan’s campaign finance problems.

By Justin Katz | July 12, 2024 |

A few weeks ago, Republican state representative and candidate for U.S. Senate, Patricia Morgan, came under the local media searchlight for some errors in campaign finance. I don’t see anything particularly suspicious in the findings, but the story does give me an opportunity to restate my thoughts on campaign finance law.  It’s just a way…

A water drop and ripples

Rhode Islanders must ask deeper questions about our healthcare system.

By Justin Katz | July 12, 2024 |

I’ll start with two arising from Ian Donnis’s recent article about the state’s approval of the sale of two hospitals “to an Atlanta-based nonprofit with no experience in managing hospitals.” The first question arises from the description of the institutions as “cash-strapped safety-net hospitals.”  Rhode Island, among all states, dove right into the centralizing forces…

A water drop and ripples

The Washington Bridge failure in Rhode Island raises the key question for the nation.

By Justin Katz | July 10, 2024 |

Which is:  Why is our system not producing the type of leaders we need? With Governor Daniel McKee, Rhode Island is getting a distilled lesson in our nation’s problem in D.C.  At the same time his administration is signing a contract to pay a premium to dismantle the Washington Bridge quickly, he can’t find a…

A water drop and ripples

The progressive version of community always needs villains.

By Justin Katz | July 5, 2024 |

I don’t want to make too much of it, but something seems off to me about Bill Bartholomew’s crusade against Providence businesses’ commandeering parking spaces to use for use in their valet parking service.  (I assume that means they’re the spaces right in front of the businesses, allowing cars to pull in and then be…

A water drop and ripples

What’s wrong with APRA for profit?

By Justin Katz | July 5, 2024 |

Democrat Speaker of the House Joseph Shekarchi made an interesting statement in passing on a recent episode of WPRI’s Newsmakers.  The spectacle of the state’s top political official instructing a journalist about how to lobby is worth noting, but this is the particular comment I mean, immediately after the speaker referenced the Access to Public Records Act…

Abe Greenwald explains how the radical Left is somehow getting along with reactionary jihadists.

By Justin Katz | July 4, 2024 |

The explanation is worth a read in full: Maybe you’re not convinced. Perhaps you’re inclined to agree with former U.S. ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul, who tweeted in May, “Hamas has nothing in common at all with liberal or progressive values.” If you think he has a point, look more closely at those protesting in…

A water drop and ripples

The origin of inflation matters.

By Justin Katz | July 3, 2024 |

This tweet reminds us, incidentally, that it makes a difference where inflation enters the economy, particularly in whom it benefits: If inflation results from an increase in the monetary supply, there’s more money floating around for the same goods and services, and the benefit tilts from the top down (starting with investor types), and effect is…

A water drop and ripples

The problem was the day before yesterday

By Justin Katz | July 3, 2024 |

I’ve been mystified by young(er) adults’ absolute panic about “climate change” in the face of actual experience and the extended timelines of real problems, if they were real.  Then I recently watched The Day After Tomorrow for the first time, and I wondered how huge an impact that movie (and the myriad lesser copies that have…

A water drop and ripples

“Moderates” are wrong to slip from responsibility by poxing both parties.

By Justin Katz | July 2, 2024 |

I appreciate Ken Block’s intellect and civic engagement, but his political commentary leaves much to be desired.  Consider this, from the end of a long recent tweet: I cannot imagine either of these candidates effectively dealing with a crisis, commanding the situation room, keeping the complexities of a crisis fully in their heads, ready to…