Justin Katz

A water drop and ripples

Just to head off the inevitable commentary…

By Justin Katz | September 5, 2022 |

… if you see people citing the strange flash flooding in the Providence area and Rt. 95 as evidence of “climate change,” ask them whether the blame mightn’t more reasonably land on government officials’ poor management of the infrastructure under their authority.

A cartoon cottage

The Rhode Island Saga needs a hero.

By Justin Katz | September 2, 2022 |

The Rhode Island Saga, Post 2 When people begin thinking in a deliberate way about how to turn their ideas, capital, and effort into businesses (which they sometimes get around to years after they’ve started operations), I put the process in terms of a story. The hero of the story is, obviously, the person or…

A floor chart spanning the floor and walls

A (Small) Change in Emphasis: Moving from Observe to Orient in the OODA.

By Justin Katz | September 1, 2022 |

The Rhode Island Saga, Post 1 Somehow, I’d naively believed that my ridiculously busy summer would cool as the children returned to school and I overcame a few large projects.  New content from me on Anchor Rising has certainly been lacking, and I apologize for that, but more has simply not been possible. To recap:…

A red bird isolated on a wire

Politics This Week with John DePetro: A Politics Built on Pariahs

By Justin Katz | August 31, 2022 |

John DePetro and Justin Katz discuss the harm of a political system so monolithic those who disagree are outcasts.

Racial conflict fist as a green light

Elorza’s reparations head fake is telling.

By Justin Katz | August 24, 2022 |

Although families and individuals who can show a direct link to harm by a specific government entity should, of course, have recourse, the idea that a city, state, or country should broadly atone for the sins of the people who used to live there is wrong-headed even in concept — more so in a churning,…

A man picks a path in the woods

Politics This Week with John DePetro: Incentives Gone Wrong

By Justin Katz | August 23, 2022 |

John DePetro and Justin Katz discuss the ways in which Rhode Island politics encourage or discourage candidates.

A man in multiple poses of consideration and doubt.

Politics This Week with John DePetro: Politicians’ Reluctance to Do Their Job

By Justin Katz | August 17, 2022 |

John DePetro and Justin Katz review the many ways Rhode Island’s government officials refuse to do address the basics of their jobs.

A Christian mug with colored pencils and an apple

The administration is raiding the homes of political opponents as well as Catholic schools (in a sense).

By Justin Katz | August 12, 2022 |

Maybe my brain is excessively wired to see connections and patterns, but the raid on President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home and the Biden administration’s efforts to bully Catholic schools into promoting radical sexual ideology seem very much connected. Rod Dreher gets us most of the way there, in an essay titled “Trump & Our Late Roman…

Help wanted sign

What’s up with gas demand?

By Justin Katz | August 10, 2022 |

The economic news is peculiar, lately.  Inflation is high, and the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) is shrinking.  Yet, government data shows a strong increase in payroll jobs in the most-recent month.  It’s difficult to know which side of that “yet” the following news supports, or whether it helps explain how all of the above…

Allan Fung and Kevin McCarthy in Jamestown 2022

RI Republicans must stop taking an apologetic stance.

By Justin Katz | August 9, 2022 |

As long as I’ve been paying attention to politics in Rhode Island, mainstream Republicans have given the impression that they are ashamed of their affiliation — that they just found the ruling Democrats to be so off-base and corrupt that they needed a different option, and the GOP was the only viable one.  This isn’t…