Justin Katz

A water drop and ripples

Could things we now think of as bullying have had positives?

By Justin Katz | December 6, 2023 |

That’s a deliberately provocative statement, but it points to a common error in our thinking.  When aspects of our culture strike us as bad, or at least wrong, we tend to think of them as lingering shadows from our benighted past.  We see more clearly these days, right? But some of those things — maybe…

A water drop and ripples

Does RI media not know how to process this… or not want to?

By Justin Katz | December 6, 2023 |

We’re descending to a place, in the United States and Rhode Island, in which controversy is not permitted over certain subjects, as Erika Sanzi points out: Of course, several trends probably all come together. Media outlets don’t have the business model to fund all that they used to, and most journalists don’t have the legal…

A dragon cradles three journalists

Yes, the Cicilline-run Rhode Island Foundation “investing” in journalism should be controversial.

By Justin Katz | December 5, 2023 |

It’s strange to note, but Providence Journal political reporter Kathy Gregg got some heat from others in the local media (specifically from the Boston Globe) for writing this: The political flap erupted a week after Cicilline – a leader in the second impeachment of former President Donald Trump – told the Boston Globe and more recently a…

A water drop and ripples

URI polling shows a schizophrenic public.

By Justin Katz | December 5, 2023 |

Ian Donnis tweeted, in October, some poll results from the University of Rhode Island that raise an perennially interesting point: Note that “most respondents favor increased state-level spending on education, housing, infrastructure, and aid to the poor.  73% want government “investment” in “blue economy initiatives like offshore wind.”  Yet, those with “a great deal” or…

A mechanic stares down a destroyed machine

Politics This Week: The Era of Mismanagement

By Justin Katz | December 4, 2023 |

John DePetro and Justin Katz challenge the common wisdom in RI government, media, and higher education.

A water drop and ripples

Multiple-job holders offer an explanation of what’s going on.

By Justin Katz | December 4, 2023 |

You don’t have to be an old hand at data analysis to see what’s going on in this chart of Americans holding multiple jobs, from the St. Louis Federal Reserve:   From 1994 through 2020, the number oscillated around approximately 250,000 to 300,000.  Now we’re rapidly approaching 500,000. One conclusion about which I’d speculate, given…

A water drop and ripples

URI shows what we’re training younger generations for.

By Justin Katz | December 4, 2023 |

Yes, of course, we’re decades into college radicals provoking tutting responses from the normies with events like “Sex Fest,” details of which Anthony De’Ellena shares here, and it’s getting boring and cliché: A significant development, though, is that these events are now developed and promoted by official centers of the institution, which deliberately promote activities…

A water drop and ripples

Musk’s truth bomb is a flag in the cultural ground.

By Justin Katz | November 30, 2023 |

Yes, there’s a language warning.  Yes, Musk is an imperfect messenger, but when it comes to the concluding statement, his articulation of the point of this clip as it comes to its final words may prove to be an historical moment: MUSK: “The judge is the public.” SORKIN: “And you think that the public is…

A water drop and ripples

Looks like progressives are finally managing to drag down East Greenwich to rest-of-RI status.

By Justin Katz | November 30, 2023 |

Accept no rationalizations. This is the result of the rising tide of typical Rhode Island bad governance finally reaching the state’s high points: Classes have been canceled for students and staff again at East Greenwich High School. The superintendent sent an email to parents Wednesday night with the announcement. According to the superintendent, the school…

A man in a suit yells at a brick wall

The joke’s on us as RI officials fall into communist clichés.

By Justin Katz | November 28, 2023 |

Don’t let things like this slip under your awareness or your commentary, because plenty of Rhode Islanders have no experience or intellectual foundation to question the reporting: The R.I. Department of Health on Thursday ordered the owner of Roger Williams Medical Center and Our Lady of Fatima Hospital to take immediate steps to stabilize their…