Justin Katz
A theme of progressive politics is coming into sharp clarity, exposing how the ideology brings about totalitarian ends while using the language of freedom, democracy, individualism, civil rights, and so on. Many on the right have observed that the progressive dictionary is simply different from standard English — they use words to mean things that…
You don’t have to pay very much attention to political discourse in the United States to know that “mass shooting” has a very particular definition. When Americans hear the phrase, they think of one or more psychotic gunmen killing people indiscriminately as an expression of alienation. It feels deliberate, therefore, that the mainstream media appears…
In China, the Communist Party has implemented and is continually expanding a social credit system that seeks to use economic opportunities and restrictions to reward behavior the party likes and punish those who do things it doesn’t. The system affects where people can live, how easily they can access credit, the speed of their Internet…
To begin with, let’s focus on the word that caught Republicans’ eye and drew out the label, “woke”: Last month, Sen. Steve Daines (R-Montana) sat down on his office couch and recorded a video explaining that he’d be voting against a $1.5-trillion government spending bill that included $13.5 billion in aid for Ukraine. “There are…
John DePetro and Justin Katz talk about Rhode Island politicians’ battle against the need for change in what they do and how they run.
Something about creating an acronym out of technical jargon for life experiences gives it a dangerously dehumanizing feel. I have in mind this pair of tweets from Democrat state representative Marcia Ranglin: What are Adverse Childhood Experiences? CDC indicates that ACEs can have Traumatic experiences in childhood and the teenage years may put children at…
The Annenberg Center on the Study of Educators at Brown University took a look at employee retention in the Providence school district and concluded that there has not been an “exodus of teachers”: Using data up and including the start of the 2021-22 school year, we show that, while retention did fall in Providence more…
Sometimes when you’re busy and check in on the news, it seems nothing makes sense, so let me make sure I’ve got a complete picture, here. Immediately upon entering office, Joe Biden took deliberate steps that were certain to drive up the cost of fuel (restricting drilling, canceling a North American fuel pipeline, etc.), and…
John DePetro and Justin Katz take on the recent craziness of RI politics.
The recently released video promoting Republican Ashley Kalus’s campaign for governor provides reason to think she’s got some real opportunities and exposes some of the risks her campaign faces: On the risk side, her references to bringing policies from specific other states is the sort of thing that rubs provincial Rhode Islanders the wrong…