Local veteran Charles Callanan found the behavior of state Progressive Democrat Representative Justine Caldwell (District 30, East Greenwich, West Greenwich) during East Greenwich Veterans Day activities so objectionable that he went home and wrote about the incident:

I witnessed our own state representative Justine Caldwell trying to have a conversation with Town Council President Mark Schwager during the national anthem. He had the dignity not to respond. Not everybody had their hands on their hearts.

Sometimes it's difficult to know for whom to root in political contests.  Take the attacks of RI Political Cooperative co-founder Melanie DuPont on the state party's new bylaws: 

When asked if she thought the Bylaws were sexist or misogynist, DuPont replied, “They are. As well as racist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist, and anti-veteran. They run counter to the values published by the National Democratic Party. Tom Perez (Chair of the Democratic National Committee) should be very concerned about Party corruption in Little Rhody.” 

Wow!  We all knew the Democrat Party in Rhode Island was bad, but DuPont's litany of -isms and -ics brings things to another level.  Or maybe...

WPRI political reporter Ted Nesi conveys the crowing of Rhode Island Democrat Governor Gina Raimondo upon the apparent win of Democrat gubernatorial candidate Andy Beshear over Republican incumbent Matt Bevin.  Raimondo is the chairwoman of the Democrat Governors Association, which is where Rhode Islanders are increasingly realizing her real attention and passion lie, rather than managing their state.

Scroll down the list of legislators in the RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity's 2019 RI Freedom Index, and Representative John "Jack" Lyle (District 46: Lincoln, Pawtucket) stands out, separated from his fellow Republicans by a number of Democrats who performed better on the index.  Lyle's particular hangup stands out, too.  As a retired teacher, now on his second career as a labor attorney, Jack is a union guy.

When the left-wing Working Families Party (WFP) endorsed Justine Caldwell's campaign as a progressive Democrat for state representative from East Greenwich, the group emphasized her commitment "to championing a $15 an hour minimum wage."  

Caldwell's fellow far-left Democrat, representative Moira Walsh, recently fleshed out that commitment when she admitted that she's fine with shutting down Rhode Island small businesses by raising minimum wages beyond what they can pay.  "If your business can’t afford to pay people, you shouldn’t be open," said the 29-year-old Walsh, whose career experience has been limited to waiting tables, activism, and living on her part-time legislator salary.

Is that also the position of Justine Caldwell, who is also a professional activist?

Representative Thomas Noret (Democrat, Coventry and West Warwick) retired from his municipal job with the Coventry Police Department at the age of 43, and now in the Rhode Island state legislature, he's looking to give back to the labor unions that got him a pension at such a young age.  During the 2019 legislative session, he fulfilled his obligation to the unions and the Rhode Island establishment by rubber stamping every terrible bill that the House leadership put forward.

The complete domination of the Democrat political machine across Rhode Island has been accomplished in the past fifteen years, and the poison fruits can be seen in legislation that tramples Rhode Islanders’ rights.  As the Rhode Island Center for Freedom & Prosperity’s annual Freedom Index makes clear, our rights are no longer a consideration when legislators make the laws by which we all must live.

Something RIGOP Chairwoman Sue Cienki told the team on WPRI's Newsmakers brought John DePetro and I to a mild disagreement during our Monday segment on his show, yesterday.

In a quick exchange, Cienki told reporter Ted Nesi that the party currently has no plans to run a candidate against U.S. Senator Jack Reed.

In its ongoing mission to prove that Rhode Island spells "ethics" u-n-i-o-n, the state Ethics Commission has found that the vice president of the National Education Association of Rhode Island has zero conflict of interest when, as a state senator, she votes for state-mandated giveaways to her union's members.  In fairness, the RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity's Freedom Index for 2019 proves that Valarie Lawson (Democrat, District 14, East Providence) is perfectly happy to give away taxpayer dollars to members of any government union.

The RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity has published its 2019 Freedom Index, which grades all legislators in the General Assembly based on their votes during the session.  Overall, the picture isn't pretty.  Of the 95 bills scored on the index, the Center considered 66 to be a negative for freedom, with only 25 being positive, and the positive bills were mostly not as significant in their effect.  The most useful part of the index, however, is the scoring of individual legislators, which will help voters to make decisions when the next election comes around.