Month: January 2016

This year began with frigid cold and ended with Christmas in the 60*F range. In that span, all sorts of odd things happened but there were still some characters who will remain forever the winners and losers of the year

WINNERS

YOUR LOCAL VERIZON UNION WORKERS
These folks have been amazingly resilient and brave this year. For months now, Verizon has refused to budge and give them a fair contract. It is obscene to put working families through the holidays without a contract like this, threatening to put them on strike at any minute. We have previously covered this story in a series of posts that are worth your time reading. This standoff is one that could impact the future of private sector labor unions as severely as the forthcoming Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association will the public sector, with consumer safety and privacy on the line to boot. Remember next time you see your local Verizon worker to give her a hug, she deserves it!

RIC PRESIDENT NANCY CARRIUOLO
It was shameful and a loss for the State that Dr. Carriuolo was forced out of office by a crew of pusillanimous naysayers who were not brave enough to even come forward publicly, instead sending a semi-anonymous letter to the Journal and the Department of Education calling for the President’s ouster on the basis of hyperbole and silliness. The silence of President Emeritus John Nazarian is equally notable. Nonetheless, Dr. Carriuolo carried herself with dignity and grace that is sadly in short supply these days and from whom our Losers could learn much.

THE NATURAL GAS POWER PLANT OPPONENTS
Despite the support of our resident climate change spokesman Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, who knows how absurd he looks in the midst of this, Rhode Islanders with half a clue have rejected this methane-belching monstrosity and refused to let up without a fight, going to jail and incurring fines in the process. With the recent example of Aliso Canyon in California showing just how badly a natural gas plant can go, luck might win out and change the tide.

LOSERS

LARRY LUCCHINO, THE PAWSOX, MAYOR DON GREBIEN, AND ANYONE ELSE STUPID ENOUGH TO FALL FOR THIS SILLINESS
For those of you who were living under a rock all summer, you missed one of the greatest public relations car accidents in recent memory. Not since a certain official was found diving into a dumpster for a bribe has Rhode Island seen anything this ridiculous. Lucchino bought the PawSox with the late Jim Skeffington expecting to play Rhode Islanders for suckers, get a taxpayer-funded stadium, and flip the team at a profit in five years. Of course, when Democratic Party insider Skeffington suddenly died, Lucchino was left holding the bag and tried to salvage his vulture capitalist sports hustle with a statewide “listening tour” featuring such notables as Dr. Charlie “Cheap Suit” Steinberg, Patti “What am I talking about” Doyle, and Syd “Vicious” McKenna that went over as well as a fart in church. Now we have the elected officials, beginning with Gina Raimondo and including Nicholas Mattiello, Don Grebien, and a host of more cartoon characters begging Lucchino to stay and promising tax monies to refurbish McCoy if they do. Folks, here’s a clue: if you think this is such a brilliant idea, get a job working for the stadium. You will have plenty of time to spend there when you get voted out of office over the first issue in decades that has united Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, Greens, and everyone in between. There are plenty of poor people in this state, a boob like Larry Lucchino does not need our welfare unless he is selling shares in his team akin to how they do it in Green Bay. Of course, that kind of community investment is way above his yuppie pedigree, so there’s only one thing left to say: BUH-BYE!

THE CLINTON SUPERDELEGATES
Sen. James Langevin says that he respects Hillary Clinton’s foreign policy credentials, which I guess means the carnage of Palestinian, Libyan, Egyptian, Syrian, Iraqi, and Afghani children that Madame Secretary oversaw in her disastrous and barely-there term at the State Department, committing war crimes and subverting the Arab Spring, the democratic uprising the region waited generations for, so we could all keep the oil flowing and the brown people down.
Rep. Joe McNamara, who had the Chairmanship of the Democratic Party handed to him by Tsar Nicholas Mattiello, says he trusts Clinton’s experience, meaning perhaps how she privatized and logged Arkansas state forests dutifully for her International Paper campaign donors.
Rep. David Cicilline says Clinton has proven she can get things done for working families, probably talking about the defenestration of the Welfare system under Bubba that she supported and getting money from the anti-union Walton family, owners of Wal-Mart, a company on whose board she sat.
I respect Lauren Niedel and other Bernie Sandernistas, but the reality is that the Democratic Party is not democratic and does not care about primaries, these folks were bought and sold years ago by Billary and do not care about their constituents. Even if the entire country votes for Chairman Bernie’s Great Proletarian Leap Forward, these folks will blow you off to serve their masters. When they do (there is no ‘if’ at this point), remember the moment well when you go to vote next time. And, considering that the Clinton campaign is going as well as passing a kidney stone, when Trump gets elected, remember to blame the superdelegates for that one also, perhaps every day for the rest of their lives.

ANYONE SILLY ENOUGH TO TRUST ANYTHING OTHER THAN THE MOVIE LISTINGS IN THE JOURNAL
Need I say more?