Justin Katz

"I Voted" sticker in a pile of leaves

CD2 is putting the lie to a National Popular Vote talking point.

By Justin Katz | November 8, 2022 |

The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, which Rhode Island has ill-advisedly joined, requires that, whenever enough states have joined to control the Electoral College outcome for the President of the United States, all participating states must give their Electoral College votes to whichever candidate won the most individual votes nationally, no matter what their own…

A water drop and ripples

No matter what happens…

By Justin Katz | November 8, 2022 |

… no matter how much you lose (or is taken from you) … you will always be able to find moments like this, because they are your relationship with God, and that relationship is eternal.

A water drop and ripples

And in Georgia, too.

By Justin Katz | November 7, 2022 |

News out of Georgia adds to the impression that no society that treated the right to vote as sacred would allow no-reason early and mail-in voting: A Cobb County judge extended the deadline for 1,036 absentee ballots because Cobb Elections officials did not send them out to the recipients. The ballots have to be postmarked…

A water drop and ripples

What’s going on in Pennsylvania?

By Justin Katz | November 7, 2022 |

Am I crazy to think it’s just too coincidental that one of the key battleground states for control of Congress is having this sort of unbelievable electoral complication? Some of Pennsylvania’s largest counties were among those working Monday to help voters fix mail-in ballots that have fatal flaws such as incorrect dates or missing signatures…

The moon over a weathervane

Politics This Week with John DePetro: Election Eve

By Justin Katz | November 7, 2022 |

John DePetro and Justin Katz check in on the state of play the day before the election.

Thomas Eakins Cowboys in the Badlands

A careful look at gun-control rhetoric shows where it’s going.

By Justin Katz | November 4, 2022 |

Here’s a noteworthy WPRI headline: “‘Speechless:’ 7-year-old child brings gun to Boston school.” Must be all those Republicans who control the city! Out of curiosity, I went in search of information about how strict Massachusetts’s gun-control laws are and found myself reminded of that old Weezer song about unraveling a sweater:  “If you want to…

Joe Biden's smile.

The damage Biden does with his self-congratulatory rhetoric is even more than it seems.

By Justin Katz | November 2, 2022 |

Many in Rhode Island are too steeped in the mainstream narrative to even consider such a thing, but Joe Biden is, in his way, nastier, more divisive, and more destructive of our civic norms than what Democrats claim of President Trump.  In fairness to Biden, however, his is just an exaggerated and less competently executed…

A water drop and ripples

Our political impressions of violence might be a lot like pockets of traffic.

By Justin Katz | October 31, 2022 |

I just saw a formerly conservative pundit agreeing with an always ridiculous advocate for rule by “experts” that the right is more prone toward and tolerant of violence. I honestly cannot understand how anybody could believe such a thing. I mean, we could maybe have an interesting conversation about tendencies toward what we might call…

A skull screams amidst hands

Politics This Week with John DePetro: RI Politics’ Scary and Nasty Turn

By Justin Katz | October 31, 2022 |

John DePetro and Justin Katz check the state of play a week out from Election Day.

A toy school bus

Something’s puzzling about Rhode Island’s SAT scores.

By Justin Katz | October 31, 2022 |

Why are Rhode Island parents so lackadaisical about the poor value they’re getting from the state’s government schools?  As Dan McGowan reports, SAT scores are down from where they were before the pandemic, and they were already low compared with those of neighboring states: Math (minimum score of 530 out of 800): 25.3 percent English…