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The People’s Republic of China “has used the power of its economy beyond its borders to push its illiberal and authoritarian geopolitical objectives and to change the behavior of individuals, governments, companies, and multilateral institutions,” says Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian, author of “Beijing Rules: How China Weaponized Its Economy to Confront the World.” “The reason I chose […]
(updated 2:35pm May 19) Only one of the five (5) major announced candidates for Governor of Rhode Island has responded to The Ocean State Current’s request for a statement about the “Protect Our Kids” legislation – S2219 and H8230 … whether in support, opposition, or other position. Kalus’ statement was brief, but to the point: […]
Rhode Islanders have reason to have a growing sense that the benefit of the legal doubt will always be applied unequally as insiders continue to find “loopholes” in the rules that they have helped to create.
The surprise, here, is that a progressive machine with out-of-state funding isn’t helping Bell match his opposition.
A recent bill to mandate aspects of media reporting deserved its death and ridicule, but the reaction does raise questions about when censorship is OK and how much it depends who is being censored.
Rhode Islanders don’t have to look too closely to see the threads that run through various stories about local corruption and to (hopefully) learn a lesson.
Laws regulating corruption in government are the farthest thing from open and fair if they only apply to one side of an issue.
RI is one of three (all Democrat-dominated) states in which only one-third of state legislative races is are contested, and local advocates are proposing the wrong fixes.
The seemingly minor travails of former Providence Democrat Chairman Patrick Ward provide a lesson in Rhode Island politics and the direction that seemingly unrelated trends are taking us.
Lawyers for the General Assembly, many part-time with full health benefits, appear to donate quite a bit to local politicians, particularly the Speaker of the House.
As Trump’s perception of who is on “his team” expands to include political allies, the Right may have a champion to push back against the bullies.
The July 27 Providence Journal might as well be a deliberate example of the hypocrisy of progressives when it comes to advancing partisan ends.
A society in which every action is potentially a violation of some law or regulation is one in which residents will think twice before doing anything in public, especially attempting to innovate and grow the economy.
The House floor debate on 7147 betrays the reality that legislators pass laws having no idea what they actually do or what their consequences might be.
The RI House will vote today on legislation that will show which legislators actually understand their constituents’ rights and are willing to defend them.
Poll findings about trust in government at different levels and in different states might reveal a contradiction for progressives and a dark future for Rhode Islanders.
It isn’t mere coincidence that Rhode Island is simultaneously poorly run and uncharitable.
A member of an international commission undermines his complaint against the United States by admitting something the commission left out of its report.
Worrying about minor conflicts of interest in government planning misses the point that progressivism is an ideology built around the idealization of conflicts of interest.
Senator Whitehouse’s notion of expanding the application of RICO suits might point the weapon in the wrong direction.
1. Bud. Art. 11, sec 15: The oddly-constructed statewide property tax, written not as a tax on property but on “the privilege of utilizing property as non-owner occupied residential property within the state during any privilege year commencing with the privilege year beginning July 1, 2015”, which applies to non-owner occupied properties valued at $1M or more. (H Finance; Tue, Apr 7) A tax on the “privilege” of owning property is very difficult to justify (using earth logic) from the perspective of trying to writing laws that are clear and fair, as a tax on a “privilege” can be assessed whether the privilege is exercised or not. But here’s an interesting question: Is a tax on “privilege” versus actual property deductible from Federal income tax? There are ramifications either way…
2. H5784: Requires that at least one health plan offered to individuals and small businesses by the Rhode Island health benefits exchange exclude “coverage for induced abortions”, with exceptions for cases involving rape and the life of the mother. (H Corporations; Tue, Apr 7)
3. H5903: Salary controls for hospital administrative staff, limiting non-health care professionals to “a rate of compensation [not] greater than one hundred and ten percent (110%) of the amount determined annually by the director to constitute the northeast regional average compensation level for comparable personnel serving in comparable hospitals”. (H Corporations; Tue, Apr 7)
4. S0620: Centralizes healthcare decision making in government in a new “office of health policy”, whose powers include the power to cap the amount of healthcare in RI paid for with commercial insurance. (S Health and Human Services; Tue, Apr 7)
5. H5374: Constitutional amendment (requiring voter approval) restoring Ethics Commission jurisdiction over the legislature. (H Judiciary; Tue, Apr 7)
1. H5621: Resolution calling for a Constitutional Convention to propose amendments to the Federal Constitution (requiring 2/3 of state legislatures to agree), with the initial scope of the Convention limited to narrowing First Amendment protections for political speech. (H Judiciary; Wed, Mar 25) Also, the article of describing the proposed make-up of the convention is grammatically awkward: “That this House hereby respectfully requests that the delegates to said convention be comprised equally of individuals currently elected to state and local office, or be selected by election, in each Congressional district for the purpose of serving as delegates”. Formally that could say we either get a split between state and local officials or a special election. Is that what’s meant?
2. Series of anti-Uber bills, H5808 prohibits non-taxicab rides from being arranged less than 2 hours in advance. H5809 requires non-taxicabs used for transporting passengers to obtain a “vehicle identification device” from the state. H5811 subjects “public motor vehicles” to the Public Utilities Commission. (H Corporations; Tue, Mar 24) A government that wants to tell people they can’t schedule rides with one another less than two hours in advance needs some deeper thought on the fundamental limits it should be allowed to place on its citizens, just because an activity is considered “commercial”.
3. S0488: Moratorium on opening new “licensed home care, home nursing care, inpatient hospice care, and outpatient hospice care agencies” in Rhode Island, and creates a “home healthcare system planning task force” that will lift the moratorium at some time in the future. Also, S0486 gives the Department of health new powers for shutting down unlicensed home healthcare agencies. (S Health and Human Services; Thu, Mar 26)
4. H5455: Anti patent trolling legislation. (H Judiciary; Tue, Mar 24) This seems to be as good a place as any for actual bi-partisan agreement in Rhode Island.
The Providence Journal’s war against Buddy Cianci feels similar to the battles that the paper regularly conducts against people on the wrong side of its institutional bias.
John Marion of Common Cause Rhode Island: “The question [of whether to have a convention] has come before the voters three times since the 1974 changes to the constitution. In 1984 it passed, it got 53.8% of the votes. In 1994 it was defeated, and only received 40.5% of the votes. And in 2004, the most recent time it was on the ballot, it received 48% of the votes.
What are its chances this time?…The only thing we have to go on is a January 2013 poll by Public Policy Polling, where they did, I believe, a sample of roughly 500 Rhode Islanders, and it came up with 40% of Rhode Islanders supporting, 25% opposing, and 35% undecided.”
A social system built on big government is rooted in myths and destined to increase the distance between the powerful and everybody else.
IRS targeting, news media nonchalance, and the interweaving of private political groups with government illustrate a system at all levels designed to exclude and counter people of different views.
1. Three items from the “gun safety package”: {H5286/S0455} banning possession of firearms that have had their serial numbers removed; {H5991/S0860} making possession of a stolen firearm illegal, and increasing the penalty for using a firearm while committing a crime of violence; and {H5992/S0862} creating a “Behavioral Health and Firearms Safety Task Force”, i.e. a study commission. (H Judiciary; Mon, Jun 24 & S Judiciary; Tue, Jun 25)
2. H5205/S0041: Extends the current requirement that persons convicted of sexual and violent offenses provide DNA to be logged in a database, to a requirement that persons arrested for certain violent crimes or convicted of any felony do so. (H Judiciary; Mon, Jun 24)
3. S0992: Special exemption for the Providence Redevelopment Agency (but that strenuously avoids mentioning the agency by name) requiring that its permits for “new buildings for commercial or industrial uses contemplated by its redevelopment plan” be automatically granted. (H Municipal Government; Mon, Jun 24)
4. H5079 raises the minimum wage to eight dollars per hour and automatically increases it according to inflation, with an additional provision that it must always be $0.15 greater than the Federal minimum, while S0256 raises the minimum wage to eight dollars per hour, without the other provisions. (H Labor; Mon, Jun 24)
5. H6262: “State police, local police departments, and registry of motor vehicle enforcement personnel, upon observation of foreign registered vehicle present within the state for thirty (30) days or more shall identify the owner of the vehicle and, if a Rhode Island resident, provide a notice containing a copy of this section to the owner, and to the tax assessor in the city or town in which the vehicle is located”. (H Judiciary; Mon, Jun 24) Advocates for illegal immigrants and dealers of imported cars, don’t panic right away; I believe “foreign” in this context means from out-of-state.
The question of blame for Rhode Island’s political culture requires an accurate view of how politics (and media) operates in the state. It’s not sports or business competition; it’s life.
The national scandals facing the Obama administration arguably point to the underlying causes of Rhode Island’s economic troubles.
Believing the political worst of priests; spinning bad SAT results; the skill of being trainable; the strange market valuation in Unionland.