Rhode Island Governor Dan McKee tweets yet another area in which Democrats manipulate language to insinuate ideology:
A grant from a government agency to another government agency is not “momentum.” Momentum suggests that the entity or project is moving on its own. Government subsidies are pushes… force. Democrats’ language is (deliberately) manipulative and always to make government the center of all of our lives, which it absolutely should not be.
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One can absolutely make the case that generous time-off policies have their benefits for employers and do right by employees, but we allow Democrats like Magaziner to throw around terms like “fundamental human right” far too easily:
You cannot have “an absolute human right” to be given things by other people, no matter how nice or just it might be if only for the reason that it grants either an absolute right to individually seize property or for sleazy politicians like Magaziner to do so as middlemen.
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Well, look, Electric Boat relies hugely on government funding in Rhode Island and Washington, D.C.:
Radicals in the Democrat Party will hold a lack of such policies against Electric Boat, while even the most conservative Republicans who can possibly gain decisive power in government won’t hold it against them very strongly. Barring discrimination lawsuits in our judiciary, which is increasingly intellectually captured, the economic incentives all point in one direction.
Conservatives frequently note this disparity in incentives, and it’s a genuine problem. Imposing regulatory consequences on private companies for social policy we don’t like is not (and should not become) our thing. That brings us back to two courses of action.
First, we have to concentrate on gaining the ability to reduce government’s ability to create these incentives in the first place by limiting its power and budgets and reviving Americans’ understanding of its appropriate limits. Second, we can start laughing at people associated with companies like Electric Boat. I mean, imagine catering to the gender cult for a buck. Where is there integrity?
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On WNRI 1380 AM/95.1 FM, John DePetro and Justin Katz discuss:
- GOP primary Senate debate
- Walzing in Newport
- Washington Bridge suits and suitors
- McKee’s old gang
- Democrats say the darndest things
Featured image by Justin Katz using Firefly.
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Perusing Twitter or X (which I may henceforth call “TwiX”) often leaves me feeling panic at the state of our world and the hopelessness of recovering humanity’s footing. No doubt, this is at least partially the way it feels to have your attention manipulated, but stepping back, even that reality is just another contributor to our worrying state of affairs.
One way I see people responding (particularly the profiteers) is to assume the world always feels like it’s full of danger and risk, so the best response is to ignore all that and go about building your life and career, leveraging the reality of the moment toward those ends. After all, humanity has gone on, generally progressing, despite the ups and downs, and as the large timescale has life improving, some people suffer relatively little during the smaller-scale changes. It would be better to focus on being one of them, while waiting for the rising tide to lift all our boats, than to live with anxiety and missed opportunities worrying about things one person can hardly change.
In this frame, neither Harris nor Trump will destroy it all. Life will go on, so concentrate on what you can control.
On the other hand, most of our advancement has been relatively recent, and there was no reason it had to take as long as it did. Electricity, for example, didn’t change. Humans’ choices about how to perceive the world and organize themselves were the primary catalyst for the prosperity we’ve enjoyed, and we can go in the other direction, too.
Of course, my tendency toward these concerns is why I’ve made one of my daily reminders to “remember what world you live in.” Ultimately, it all pales in comparison with eternity with God. But I can’t help but conclude it has been preferable to be grappling with others’ personal demons on an individual scale than seeing those demons coalesce into an existential threat.
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On WNRI 1380 AM/95.1 FM, John DePetro and Justin Katz discuss:
- Red tape and the homeless village
- McKee uses the budget as an assault weapon
- Walz swings through Newport
- Young progressives look for parents in their politics
- Small town political controversy in Foster
Featured image by Justin Katz using Dall-E 40.
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I was puzzled recently when I discovered that updated registration forms had somehow not made it into two of our cars. The technician inspecting one of them told me many Rhode Islanders are accidentally throwing their registration forms out. I chuckled along with him but wondered how that would be possible.
A couple days later, I was about to put new plates on my car, and I realized that I was about to do exactly that. The registration is printed on the folded inside of the piece of paper with your mailing address on it, which is stuck to the envelope.
At around $20 per online duplicate registration, that little error can add up quickly for the state (let alone tickets and fees for people who don’t have the current registration in their cars). If the state were a private company, it might find itself subject to a class action lawsuit. As it is, I guess the best we can do is alert each other about the scam.
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[The Roll Call speech, below, by RI GOP National Committeewoman Sue Cienki on July 15 at the RNC Convention included a description of offshore wind, “industrial vandalism of the ocean”, that was not only on point but prophetic — the very next day, Nantucket announced the closure of its beaches and the world began to learn the full extent of the pollution and vandalism being caused by the failed, splintering Vineyard Wind turbine. Emphasis added.]
Ocean State, where almost 90 years of Democratic control has led to the industrial vandalism of the ocean. Wind turbines in our ocean killing our fishing industry and marine life which leads to ALL PAIN NO GAIN.
We were the first colony to declare our independence from Britain and the last colony to ratify the Constitution because we believe in states rights. We are home to the Independent Man who wonders what happened to that independent, freedom of religion spirit that Roger Williams brought into Rhode Island. Let’s bring back that spirit and soul of America with patriotism and intelligence rather than blind ambitious power.
Madam Secretary, the great state of Rhode Island proudly casts all 19 delegates for Donald J Trump.
Featured image: photograph of broken Vineyard Wind turbine by New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association; re-printed with permission.
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I came across a quotation from Nassim Taleb’s book, Antifragile, suggesting that the more immediate your focus (e.g., hourly versus annually), the greater the noise-to-signal ratio. That is, the effects from moment to moment are more likely to result from random or unrelated factors, while longer-term trends are more likely to reflect genuine changes. The advice is worth keeping in mind while listening to commentators try to fit every moment’s occurrences into a long-term analysis and prediction.
The same goes for assessing strategies.
I don’t know if they reflect a deliberate plan (with Donald Trump, I tend to doubt it), but much of the reaction to statements from the Trump campaign seem blithely to ignore the fact that there are still months of campaign to cycle during which he can cycle through all variety of evidence that Harris is a dishonest chameleon, whether about her identity, policies, Biden coverup, etc. An off-color comment, now, about her race will get a lot of attention, embed ideas about whether he life story is truly reflective of a particular demographic’s experience, which people might not otherwise have considered, and then fade with the constant news cycle.
How much is instinct and how much is strategy is always a difficult question with Trump, but commentary at the speed of Twitter is mostly noise.
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On WNRI 1380 AM/95.1 FM, John DePetro and Justin Katz discuss:
- No-bid moving contracts in Warwick schools
- No academic gains in Providence schools
- No Ruggerio at Ruggerio fundraiser
- Amore returns (some) transparency to voter rolls
- Two big private-sector layoffs
- One big Democrat donation from Kalus
Featured image by Justin Katz using Dall-E 40.
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