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A water drop and ripples

Multiple-job holders offer an explanation of what’s going on.

By Justin Katz | December 4, 2023 |

You don’t have to be an old hand at data analysis to see what’s going on in this chart of Americans holding multiple jobs, from the St. Louis Federal Reserve:   From 1994 through 2020, the number oscillated around approximately 250,000 to 300,000.  Now we’re rapidly approaching 500,000. One conclusion about which I’d speculate, given…

A water drop and ripples

URI shows what we’re training younger generations for.

By Justin Katz | December 4, 2023 |

Yes, of course, we’re decades into college radicals provoking tutting responses from the normies with events like “Sex Fest,” details of which Anthony De’Ellena shares here, and it’s getting boring and cliché: A significant development, though, is that these events are now developed and promoted by official centers of the institution, which deliberately promote activities…

A water drop and ripples

Musk’s truth bomb is a flag in the cultural ground.

By Justin Katz | November 30, 2023 |

Yes, there’s a language warning.  Yes, Musk is an imperfect messenger, but when it comes to the concluding statement, his articulation of the point of this clip as it comes to its final words may prove to be an historical moment: MUSK: “The judge is the public.” SORKIN: “And you think that the public is…

A water drop and ripples

Looks like progressives are finally managing to drag down East Greenwich to rest-of-RI status.

By Justin Katz | November 30, 2023 |

Accept no rationalizations. This is the result of the rising tide of typical Rhode Island bad governance finally reaching the state’s high points: Classes have been canceled for students and staff again at East Greenwich High School. The superintendent sent an email to parents Wednesday night with the announcement. According to the superintendent, the school…

A man in a suit yells at a brick wall

The joke’s on us as RI officials fall into communist clichés.

By Justin Katz | November 28, 2023 |

Don’t let things like this slip under your awareness or your commentary, because plenty of Rhode Islanders have no experience or intellectual foundation to question the reporting: The R.I. Department of Health on Thursday ordered the owner of Roger Williams Medical Center and Our Lady of Fatima Hospital to take immediate steps to stabilize their…

A water drop and ripples

A little math on illegal immigrants should be the headline.

By Justin Katz | November 27, 2023 |

Place these two paragraphs from a recent Amy Russo article in the Providence Journal next to each other, and the real headline emerges: From July into September, Jallow said about 50 migrants arrived in the state by plane from the southern border. Yet they come from a wide array of countries, including Afghanistan, Senegal and the Congo,…

A water drop and ripples

Rhode Island was one of just seven states in which residents’ income shrank in 2022.

By Justin Katz | November 27, 2023 |

Really, can’t we do better? Why do we put up with this? The answer to my questions may be that the people who won’t put up with it leave and take their income with them. Then the state redoubles to draw in people who’ll need government services, because that’s what their incentives are.

An colonial elite looks in a broken mirror while leaving the scene of an assault

With Thanksgiving for our national inheritance, let’s turn away from the turmoil progressive division will create.

By Justin Katz | November 22, 2023 |

As we all prepare (if only nominally) to recall the gratitude we ought to feel for the establishment of the beacon of freedom into which we were born, with a specific nod to a moment of shared humanity on Thanksgiving, take a moment to play with a fancy interactive infographic Bloomberg published in September. The…

A young figure looks up the stairs in a shadowy building

The other day in RI, I saw the voters who weren’t there.

By Justin Katz | November 21, 2023 |

Mainstream ignorance of Rhode Island’s political opposition is a warning sign of an unhealthy and surreal political environment.

A water drop and ripples

I wouldn’t claim to have a direct solution for Rhode Island’s early intervention programs.

By Justin Katz | November 20, 2023 |

But I have to wonder: as these groups come forward demanding more money, is anybody — whether journalists or state agencies — investigating the services that are being provided, the mandates imposed on the providers, or the nuts and bolts of the organizations providing them? Such stories typically evince no trace of skepticism about the…