Political Thought

An indoor self-storage facility.

Think more deeply about self-storage bans.

By Justin Katz | April 21, 2023 |

Justin Roias — the Providence City Councilor for the ward covering the North End — doesn’t like self-storage facilities. That’s fine, but his response and reasoning raise crucial points of organization and problem solving: I came across Roias’s tweet via Rachel Miller, who is participating in “the effort to update our zoning laws to prohibit…

1 plus 1 equals 3 with young man on smartphone in background.

Politics This Week: Education and Agendas

By Justin Katz | April 18, 2023 |

John DePetro and Justin Katz walk through how the effects of today’s education, or lack thereof, are trickling through all facets of society.

A masked figure shushes silence

Bud Light has provided a warning case for our culture.

By Justin Katz | April 14, 2023 |

If you pay attention to non-leftwing media and/or haven’t blocked or muted anybody who isn’t progressive on social media, you’re likely to have heard that Anheuser-Busch has taken a huge financial hit after a young marketing executive aligned the company fully with radical gender ideologues by partnering with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, a man whose…

A water drop and ripples

The Vermont homeless shelter killing cuts across narrative lines.

By Justin Katz | April 12, 2023 |

As we’re rightly reminded frequently in the face of such incidents, we would err if we overgeneralized from incidents like this one: A homeless woman “was wiping blood off of her hands with a paper towel” after she allegedly killed a homeless shelter coordinator with an ax, police said. Zaaina Asra Zakirrah Mahvish-Jammeh, a 38-year-old…

Providence, Rhode Island, USA park and skyline.

Politics This Week: Blame, Budgets, and Bailouts

By Justin Katz | April 3, 2023 |

John DePetro and Justin Katz walk through the latest comedies in Rhode Island politics and discuss the characters who have been stealing the spotlight.

Fane Tower rendering

Fane Tower Shows Rhode Island Has No Center to Hold

By Justin Katz | March 28, 2023 |

Now that it is no-longer-proposed, we are free to look at Fane Tower renderings in detail, beyond the gut reaction that it is odd and would be misplaced in Providence.  Structurally, the building would have been akin to a tree trunk that began to split near the ground.  The strength comes from the middle, providing…

Jim Palmisciano, Sarah R, and John Carlevale on State of the State

State of the State: Introducing the RI Forward Party

By John Carlevale | March 26, 2023 |

Host John Carlevale introduces viewers to the RI Forward Party with Jim Palmisciano and Sarah R.

Shady businessman with contract

Politics This Week: State Vulnerability to the Virtual Con

By Justin Katz | March 20, 2023 |

John DePetro and Justin Katz examine the ways an excessive purview and incompetence leave Rhode Island politicians and bureaucrats vulnerable to scams and other bad decisions.

A couple uses self-checkout.

Self-checkout laws are the sort of question civics education should address.

By Justin Katz | March 10, 2023 |

Americans really need to be able to step back a bit from the immediate issue addressed in legislation and think about how it relates to our understanding of society’s proper structure.  A Rhode Island bill going after self-checkout lanes in retail stores is an excellent case study.  Kathy Gregg writes in the Providence Journal: An army…

A water drop and ripples

The government plantation model requires a cartel.

By Justin Katz | March 8, 2023 |

With Lawrence, MA, as my inspiration, I described what I’ve since come to call the “company state” or “government plantation.”  Just as big companies used to set up “company towns” which existed mainly to serve the companies, now governments are becoming the central industry and animating force of the regions under their control.  Their model…