Justin Katz

Monkey hear no, see no, speak no evil statues

Politics This Week with John DePetro: Polls, Cynical Politics, and McMentum

By Justin Katz | July 5, 2022 |

John DePetro and Justin Katz take the temperature of Rhode Island politics.

The mob tackles Jeann Lugo

Providence Police Chief Hugh Clements is shameless in executing injustice against Jeann Lugo.

By Justin Katz | July 1, 2022 |

From the beginning, the likelihood that Providence police officer Jeann Lugo would receive a fair hearing was vanishingly small.  His political views conflict with those of the ruling class in Rhode Island, and he therefore does not enjoy basic rules of justice and due process. How egregiously brazen this injustice can be is shocking, nonetheless. …

A wind farm at sea

Folks, “100% renewable” targets are a scam.

By Justin Katz | June 30, 2022 |

The politicians and activists proclaim their value and the news media echoes those claims, but that doesn’t mean legal mandates for “renewable energy” are anything other than a scam to take money from Rhode Islanders and give it to special interests.  (Same old same old in Rhode Island, I know.).  And so, we get headlines…

Surveillance cameras on a pole

How exactly will license-plate cameras prevent suicide on the Mount Hope Bridge?

By Justin Katz | June 29, 2022 |

Oddly, that’s a question Melanie DaSilva doesn’t manage to answer in her WPRI article about the plans of local police to put license plate recognition cameras on both sides of the bridge that connects Portsmouth and Bristol.  It’s almost as if a paragraph is missing: [Investigating criminal activity is] not what [the cameras will] be…

McKee signs gun control bills

Governor McKee’s gun-control photo-op was wildly inappropriate.

By Justin Katz | June 28, 2022 |

The image used as the featured image of this post shows Rhode Island Democrat Governor Dan McKee signing gun control legislation recently at the State House, and even people who support the outcome should be concerned by it. For the good of our states and our country, Americans used to have a clear, if undefined,…

A fist punches water

Politics This Week with John DePetro: Punches and Polls

By Justin Katz | June 27, 2022 |

John DePetro and Justin Katz review up-to-the-minute politics in Rhode Island.

The moment before Lugo strikes Rourke

Will we ever develop the skills to process online political content like Bartholomew’s doctored abortion-protest clip?

By Justin Katz | June 25, 2022 |

First things first: It is very difficult to imagine circumstances that entirely excuse the actions of Jeann Lugo in a five second clip from last night’s pro-abortion rally at the State House.  Lugo is a muscular man with police training.  Striking a woman — progressive candidate Jennifer Rourke — should not be something he would…

A water drop and ripples

Trying to explain the Supreme Court ruling to a child.

By Justin Katz | June 24, 2022 |

What did they change? Well, there was a rule that said mommies had to be allowed to kill their babies before they were born everywhere in the country, and the court said states could decide whether or not to keep that rule. Why would mommies want to kill their babies?

A sonogram.

The Supreme Court has undone a travesty of law by overturning Roe v. Wade.

By Justin Katz | June 24, 2022 |

Honestly, I never thought I’d see the day, but the Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade, which invented a Constitutional right to abortion across the country.  To this day, many Americans don’t realize just how radical the judicial legislation was, making the United States much more extreme than most of the world, with abortion…

Blake Filippi

Blake Filippi is exiting the House, and Rhode Island will come to regret it.

By Justin Katz | June 24, 2022 |

Voters (and other citizens) very often make claims about what attributes they want in elected officials that they do not substantiate with their support.  They say they’d prefer public servants who are not career politicians and who are in it for “the right reasons,” by which they generally mean they are not merely seeking power…