Democrats – Page 4

May 19, 2016May 20, 2016

Nevada Caucus: What really happened inside

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The caucus in Nevada has been an messy affair from the beginning. Being new to the caucus process, there has been any number of irregularities and confusion, and none of this has been helped by the corporate media “dog race” coverage. Instead the media has tried in earnest to make the Bernie Sanders campaign the equivalent of Donald Trump. The coverage of the alleged violence inside of the convention is no exception. Cell phone video of the supposed chair throwing by a Sanders supporter shows that not only was there no chair ever thrown, rather fellow supporters peacefully took the the chair away and then hugged the enraged person who had lost his cool. I got it off of Twitter and anyone media outlet looking for the real story could have reported it correctly too.

RT this! NO chair throwing at #nvdemconvention – guy picks chair up, puts it down, they HUG it out. #TeamBernieNV pic.twitter.com/mBZmEeg1T5

— Jenn Dize 👩🏻‍💻Bit.ly/RickSnyderFlint (@JennElizabethJ) May 17, 2016

Here former Ohio Senator Nina Turner is interviewed by Ed Shultz https://youtu.be/OYaR4X2KDmk who was there and has said repeatedly that there was no violence on the part of the Sanders supporters. They go into the spin the media and the Clinton surrogates in California are trying to distort the record. It is definitely worth watching.

Instead the corporate media blew this out of proportion and tied this incident into reports of death threats to the chair and vandalism at the party HQ. None of this was instigated or sanctioned by the Sanders campus, and Bernie himself this issue the statement on this.

However, in keeping with their drumbeat of the inevitable coronation of Clinton, this served the media narrative as a useful distraction from the fact that Sanders won his first closed primary in Oregon and Hillary squeaked by at the last minute in Kentucky state that she had one by a wide margin against Obama.

Democracy Now reported it this way.

“Bernie Sanders’ victory in Oregon comes amid tensions with the Democratic Party after Sanders supporters erupted into protest Saturday at the Nevada convention. They say rules were abruptly changed and 64 Sanders supporters were wrongly denied delegate status. Clinton ultimately won 20 pledged delegates to Sanders’ 15. The state party chair, Roberta Lange, said she received death threats, while state party headquarters were vandalized. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid urged Sanders to condemn the behavior of some of his supporters, saying he faced a “test of leadership.” In a statement, Sanders rejected violence, and noted that during the Nevada campaign, shots were fired into his campaign office in the state, and his staff’s housing complex was broken into and ransacked. He also accused Nevada Democratic leadership of “[using] its power to prevent a fair and transparent process” at the conventions on Saturday.”

It is worth noting that inside the caucus they had a policeline guarding the stage which gave the appearance that it was not a transparent process and was intimidating. The tone of favoritism toward Clinton has been set by by the DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz. She has always been close to Hillary Clinton and has tried to limited debates as well as a number of other things to give Hillary the full advantage. Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver has complained vociferously about this.

There is a lesson to be learned here. When you are inside any party convention, everything you do will be held as an example of the campaign and it will be used by the media to tell the story that they want to tell. It is a good lesson for the the State Convention in RI convention which is coming up in June.

Also, for any delegates going to the Democratic National which will be contested as the neither candidate will have the number of pledge delegates needed so it will be up to the superdelegates to tip the scale’s. Not everyone inside of the Democratic Party has been pleased about the way Debbie Wasserman Schultz has manipulated the election and many of them made it clear that they didn’t want to be the one deciding the election.

Footnote: For anyone interested in the wonky details of what went on in Nevada here is a good explanation,

https://johnlaurits.com/2016/05/15/what-happened-at-the-nevada-democratic-state-convention/

May 19, 2016

Justin Katz, Joe McNamara, and all this Gaspee chatter

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What do Democratic Party Chair Joe McNamara, Justin Katz, the burning of the HMS Gaspee, and a concentration camp have in common? Quite a good deal!

There is a bit of a schoolyard tiff being had out in public today between Joe and Justin where they are trying to see who can be the most bloviating about colonial history in Rhode Island. Joe is having a fit because some outfit called the Gaspee Project is doing typical right wing think tank nonsense and Justin is posturing and preening about how this is all within the heritage of the Gaspee.

Joe is very involved with the annual Gaspee Days celebrations of these events, including marching in the parade every year. He is very dedicated to this image of civic engagement and the role the Gaspee plays in that image, ergo the use of that historical incident to go after him and/or his colleagues is a huge taboo.

As someone who spent five years researching every aspect of the Gaspee incident, I find this spectacle patently offensive and white supremacist, not to mention banal as all hell after communing with the soul of Hannah Arendt.

An advertisement for a runaway slave in the predecessor of the ProJo.

In 2010, with the help of Drs. Richard and Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban and Ray Rickman, I decided to make a film about the Gaspee and what really happened.

The Gaspee was a revolt by American colonists against English efforts to abolish slavery, plain and simple. The English Parliament had begun to levy a series of taxes on slave trade-related commodities, including rum, molasses, and sugar cane, and slave traders like Moses and John Brown did not like that. As such, they decided to launch a nighttime citizens militia attack against a government tax enforcement agency, the HMS Gaspee. Whereas Joe and thinkers like him look at the Gaspee and think red, white, and blue, I see the same iconography and think of Auschwitz.

The fact that Justin Katz, whose political movement to criminalize abortion uses American abolitionists as a rhetorical device sometimes, does not know this basic element of the history of the abolitionist movement in Rhode Island indicates just how preposterous such analogues truly are. The fact McNamara consistently calls the Gaspee raiders, who were engaging in a vanguard attack on behalf of the Triangle Trade genocide against Africans, patriots and heroes is indicative of what Frantz Fanon described as cognitive dissonance.

On behalf of this cognitive dissonance, in November 2014 Joe premiered a documentary created with the Gaspee Days Committee about the Gaspee, produced after he had seen my film about this topic, AARON BRIGGS AND THE HMS GASPEE, that totally leaves out the fact this whole incident was all about the enslavement of human beings and treating African people as if they were lower than pig droppings.

So, in closing, I hope we all learned something.

I hope Katz has learned to stop giving praise to slave traders and actually do some basic historical research that goes beyond the tawdry material offered by the Gaspee Days website. But then again, looking at the Gaspee Project’s website and ideology, perhaps he is actually correct, their mission is pretty much in line with the ideology of John Brown.

I hope the general readership has learned that, when the Tea Party does it over taxes that can unfairly target working class people while giving freebies to the rich, Joe and his fellow Democrats call it extremism, but when rich white men who trade in human slaves do it, they are “patriots”.

And I hope we all have understood that part of getting rid of white supremacy is beyond going after random personalities who say boo about people of color and gets into toppling structures such as our Disney-fied colonial history to show the ugly, racist, despicable nature of it all.

This country was founded on two genocides that are inter-connected. The first was the extermination of the Native Americans, begun here in Rhode Island when Roger Williams sold captives taken from the Pequot War out of Boston to Bermuda, which proves that his glory as some kind of freedom fighter is white supremacist garbage.

The second was the genocide against Africa, which was enacted because the refugees from the Pequot War escaped inland and told their fellows to migrate West to escape the wrath and wickedness of the white man. That migration reduced the number of Natives the colonists could enslave, therefore they looked across the Atlantic to the Gold Coast for a fresh supply of human beings.

The Gaspee incident was our Warsaw ghetto uprising. Aaron Briggs, who I profile in my documentary, was the Afro-Indian youth who tried to rebel against the slavery system by trying to testify against the Gaspee raiders in the trial the British set up to figure out what happened.

And the Gaspee raiders were the Nazis who suppressed the uprising and continued the murder.

Some would perhaps say that using an analogue between the Shoah and American slavery is problematic for any number of reasons. Ah, but here’s the rub, Adolf Hitler said in Mein Kampf that his plans for the Final Solution were modeled on the American treatment of people of color.

Those who are curious about further elements of this story can find a good deal of scholarship in Dr. Gerald Horne’s excellent monograph The Counter-Revolution of 1776: Slave Resistance and the Origins of the United States of America or my film AARON BRIGGS AND THE HMS GASPEE.

If you like my reporting,please consider contributing to my Patreon!

May 13, 2016May 14, 2016

Jennifer Siciliano challenges Solomon Jr in House District 22

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Jennifer Siciliano announced her candidacy for State Representative today in House District 22 – Warwick.

“Enough is enough,” said Siciliano, “How many more times are we going to have to go through this? It seems like every week a Rhode Island politician is getting arrested or fined for breaking the law. Those in charge seem to believe that everyone up there is good and ethical until the day charges come down. The problem goes deep. Many officials up there aren’t looking out for us. They aren’t looking out for the state. All they are looking out for is themselves. It has to stop.”

Siciliano went on to point out the larger effect this has on the state. “The games they are playing are hurting our state, and they are hurting our community. How are we supposed to bring new families or businesses here when the first thing someone sees about our state is corruption? Do you think that makes someone want to move or stay here?”

Siciliano went on to talk about her reasons for running. “I’m running for State Representative because, if I’m being quite honest, what goes on in Rhode Island politics disgusts me. I ran two years ago because I wanted change and didn’t think the current representative would push for it. In the last two years I’ve seen nothing to indicate differently. Whether it is the abuse of legislative grants or the massive expansion of the agency that championed 38 studios. He seems happy to keep doing things the way they always have.”

“I’ve been living here in Warwick for a while, and I’ve seen the same problems we’ve all seen. Our economy is struggling, we are not doing enough to help the environment, and even if our children do get through our schools, it’s becoming harder and harder to afford college. We can do better. We have to do better. We need a government that is open and transparent. We need a government that looks out for the working families of Rhode Island.”

Andy Larsen, who has lived in the area for many years, said, “Jennifer is going to be an excellent representative. Unlike the guys up there she seems to get what is actually important.”

Sean Holly, local business owner is also excited. “I don’t know what they are doing up there but it isn’t working,” he said. “Jennifer would change things.”

Siciliano lives on Harris Ave in Warwick. Jennifer completed her bachelor’s at UConn and her Masters degree at UMass Amherst. She works as an urban planner in Woonsocket and is a member of the Warwick Historical District Commission.

[From a press release]

May 9, 2016May 10, 2016

Raimondo agrees to meet with Burrillville residents about power plant

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Governor Gina Raimondo agreed to meet with Burrillville residents about the proposed Invenergy power plant Monday evening after Kathy Martley, a Burrillville resident and founder of BASE (Burrillville Against Spectra Expansion) invited her. Raimondo was in Warwick, at the Veterans Memorial High School, as part of her “series of community conversations” around issues of job training. As the question and answer period began, Martley rose to give the Governor a flower and a card and invite her to Burrillville to discuss the power plant.

“We have a lot of worries about it,” said Martley.

Raimondo took Martley’s card and said, “Yes. I will do it… if you will host me at a community meeting in Burrillville I’d be very happy to do it.”

Raimondo has been an unwavering supporter of the fracked gas and diesel oil burning power plant since the plan was announced back in August of last year.

Before the event started, outside the entrance to the school, members of BASE approached Representative Joseph Shekarchi, who doesn’t think the RI House will be voting on the plant, but said he is very close to Burrillville Representative Cale Keable and that he would support Keable’s opposition to the plant. Keable, along with Burrillville State Senator Paul Fogarty, wrote a strong letter to the Energy Facilities Siting Board (EFSB) in opposition to the plant. The EFSB has the ability to approve or reject Invenergy’s application.

In a Facebook post Keable wrote:

I have been exploring legislative possibilities with the State House legal staff. As the application has already been submitted, there are significant legal hurdles to simply “stopping” the plant. There is no doubt we could seek to change the law for future applications. We will continue to explore all possibilities. Legislation will be introduced shortly and there will be a public hearing scheduled at the State House. We are looking at requesting this hearing on the same day as a planned rally at the State House designed to let the Governor hear our voices. More on that as soon as I know.

On Tuesday, May 10 the EFSB will be holding the second half of its first public commentary hearing, starting from 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM in the Burrillville Middle School Auditorium, 2200 Broncos Highway, Harrisville.

On Wednesday, May 11 the Burrillville Town Council will have its regular meeting at 7:00 PM in the Town Council Chambers, 105 Harrisville Main St., Harrisville. It is unclear whether any of the business or public comment will concern the proposed power plant.

May 9, 2016May 9, 2016

Why Democrats are as much to blame as GOP for Donald Trump

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Every night the “experts” on cable news explain how the Republican Party has failed to stop the unanticipated rise of Donald Trump. Everything on the excuse spectrum from simple ignorance to absolute culpability.

They claim that the establishment Republicans did not take Trump seriously. His candidacy was looked at by many as an over the top public relations stunt, an attempt to sell more books and remain relevant in the field of popular culture. His rivals failed to attack him early and often enough. The media gave him an astronomical amount of coverage. Perhaps the most practical explanation for the rise of Donald Trump, is the complete failure of the Republican party establishment to recognize the level of anger in their own party.

Some in the Republican base have undoubtedly pledged themselves to the dangerously extreme, fact-free movement fueled by the rise of right wing media. They truly believe that President Obama was born in Kenya, or that climate change was invented by the Chinese in order to ruin the United States economy. It is no coincidence after all, that many listeners of Alex Jones have been represented at Trump’s rallies across the country.

But what about your college educated neighbor, the one who almost exclusively votes Democrat and the last person you would expect to support a candidate like Donald Trump? We have all, at some point during this exhausting primary process, been completely shocked when one of our otherwise sensible friends or co-workers admits he or she has jumped on the Trump bandwagon. After all, isn’t he a know-nothing bigot that stands for everything that the great United States of America is not?

Yes. But those criticisms ignore the most important point of the entire nominating process in 2016. Trump is not one of them. He is not one of the politicians that has continued to worship at the church of “trickle down economics” long after it has been debunked. He has not continuously supported global trade agreements written by powerful corporations that provide a select few of the world’s elites with the large majority of resources leaving billions to compete for the scraps. He was not in a government that allowed millions of jobs to go oversees and he was not in charge when Wall Street nearly wrecked the global economy with corrupt and illegal behavior, only to be bailed out using tax payer money. So while it is more than probable that he is everything his critics describe him as, in the eyes of a Trump supporter one all important fact remains. He is not one of them.

Democrats have become one of them, too.

For the better part of three decades, the Democratic party has undergone a complete ideological shift. The Party of F.D.R that championed the labor movement of the 20^th Century has, for the most part, abandoned the millions of people it once regarding as its core constituency. It has been hijacked by a band of intellectual elitists and self proclaimed experts. It is a party that has come to worship education and status, and dismisses anyone who is not part of the exclusive club.

The ideology of professionalism, as author Thomas Frank has labeled it, has become the very essence of a party that was once represented by a president who famously said he welcomed Wall Street’s hatred. Instead, today’s Democratic Party is represented by presidential candidates that are far more more likely to welcome Wall Street’s money than its hatred.

The most consequential period of economic deregulation in modern history took place during the Clinton Administration. By 2008, Senator Obama became the first Democratic presidential candidate to out-raise his Republican rivals on Wall Street. The promise of “hope and change” was quickly rescinded when President Obama appointed infamous members of the financial industry to vital cabinet positions early in his presidency. By 2010, most of the passion and excitement produced by candidate Obama was a distant memory to most liberals. Hilary Clinton refuses to release the transcripts of her Wall Street speeches for which she was paid a grotesque amount of money.

In a recent speech in Indiana, Bernie Sanders appropriately asked hose side are we on. “Are we on the side of working people or big money interests? Do we stand with the elderly, the sick and the poor or do we stand with Wall Street speculators and the insurance companies?” A profound question that would not have been considered 30 years ago and until recently had been completely ignored.

Both parties have discarded the working majority of this country, and Donald Trump has mistakenly become the candidate for many blue collar citizens left to fend for themselves. He took full advantage of the vacuum left created when Democrats ceased representing the people. Trump’s ascendancy has been inevitable for decades. And for millions of desperate Americans, desperate times call for desperate measures.

May 1, 2016

The case for Vice President Sanders

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It would seem at this juncture two things have happened that are worth contemplating following the victory of Bernie Sanders in the Rhode Island primary on April 26, 2016. Allow me to perhaps utilize a historical materialist perspective here and offer an objective summation of what I think has happened.

First, Sanders has mobilized a mass of people that have fundamentally been radicalized away from consensus neoliberal politics, even if they have a huge level of variety in their own political visions. It is worth remembering here also that, unlike notable sheep dog candidacies like Jackson, Kucinich, and Dean, we are dealing with an election that is not a referendum on a Republican presidency but a Democratic one. When Jackson ran it was against Reagan. Kucinich and Dean were against the W. Bush presidency. This election, despite the efforts of the mainstream media to say otherwise, is in reality a referendum on the failure of the Obama administration in a fashion similar to how 2008 was a repudiation of Bush. And considering that The Atlantic was recently floating the as a potential Vice President Governor Raimondo, it also seems an obvious rebuke to the Democrats as a whole.

The reason Sanders has done so well and lasted this long is to be attributed to a populist rejection of neoclassical economics, something also to be seen in the Trump constituency. For instance, both sides of the populist upsurge reject various manifestations of these economic doctrines, be it Common Core education policy, the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, Monsanto and genetically modified food, the Pentagon eating up over half of the federal discretionary budget, the rigged nature of the primary system, the Federal Reserve, or any number of other elements of post-Cold War politics. Bob Plain was onto something recently when he asked if there is common ground between the two. I would in fact argue that, excepting the extremists in both constituencies that are absolutist in nature, something I referred to in a previous piece here, there is possibility for an anti-war/anti-austerity united front from below to be formed after this election between the Sanders and Trump supporters. Such a coalition could take on things in the community hated by both groups, such as the union-busting Wal-Mart that chases every small business out of a town.

That the Democrats have not cut Sanders off already is demonstrative of a false impression they have about being able to channel this into votes for Clinton, perhaps reinforced by the promise from Sanders he will support Clinton. I highly doubt these folks are that easily swayed, hence the development of a new term, “Bernie or Bust”, and a response that demonizes those who refuse to vote for the Queen of Chaos. I have already been brow-beaten by some who tell me that women’s rights are not important to me because I refuse to vote for Clinton. But then again, Clinton has shown women’s rights are not important to her with the support she has shown for those blessed souls in the Saudi monarchy. Sheikh, Sheikh, Sheikh señora, Sheikh your oil pipeline!

Second, despite the pleas of the Sanders supporters, he has absolutely zero chance of getting the nomination. When Obama beat Hillary, it was a public and frankly hilarious spat between two of the running dogs of capital. Those two personally hate each other but they both have the same masters at Goldman Sachs, hence why the Obama Justice Department has refused to prosecute Clinton over the e-mail scandal.

For those who are unclear still, Clinton committed a series of crimes by using this email server that were far more egregious and illegal than those she and Obama claimed were committed by Manning, Assange, Snowden, and so many other whistleblowers they have prosecuted and ruined over the past eight years. The highest crime in a moral universe was obviously in the text of the emails with their plans for Libya and Syria. But in the immoral universe we occupy, it was the lack of moral cause. Snowden and Manning blew whistles about illegal and immoral behavior by the United States government while Assange published materials as a press agency in the name of his Libertarian philosophy that informs his morality. Even if one disagrees with the motivation, it remains irrefutable that they did it for moral reasons.

By contrast, Clinton risked exposing intelligence to genuine security threats in the name of either petty convenience regarding a BlackBerry, something I find dubious as her official explanation, or perhaps, in my own view, so to avoid creating a paper trail akin to the Nixon tapes that would document her criminal behavior in Libya, Syria, and elsewhere. That is a very immoral cause in comparison to the aforementioned heroes of our generation. Obama is protecting her and she knows this very well, hence her relative level of self assurance in this campaign.

So what I want to suggest is something rather unorthodox but also the only way Sanders and Jill Stein would get into the White House. Sanders needs to drop out of the race after the super-delegate count is reached by Clinton and become Stein’s Vice Presidential candidate. The Greens have already made such overtures to Sanders, including a recent invitation for Sanders to collaborate with Stein on her presidential campaign webpage and another invitation from the Green Party to Sanders supporters emphasizing that there is a Green welcome mat waiting for them to join the campaign.

I admit this is going against almost every rule in the playbook involving the politics of both the Green Party and the Democratic Socialists. The Greens are in the midst of their own primary schedule in seventeen different states. The Democrats are in the midst of a similar situation in all fifty (for those of you who missed this point, there is no independent Democratic Socialist party in America, it is a progressive caucus of the Democratic Party). The only thing that can make Sanders reach the White House is getting out of this failing Democratic Party and embrace the future, a third party candidacy. Even The Donald agrees with me! This could be YUGE!

I say the future because it is quite obvious that, should the Sanders supporters not be placated properly, they could split the Democrats in two and create the prospect for a genuine third party. This dynamic is also at play with Trump, though the genuine third party option for the Right is far more fragmented and it is difficult to envision the Trump followers all joining the Libertarian Party as the Sanders people might join the Greens. Nevertheless, the failure of Sanders opens up the possibility of, after a century of state-enforced consolidation, the collapse of the duopoly system in America. That is something I am far more enthusiastic about and yearn for than Bernie Sanders hands down. If votes for the Green Party were to take progressive votes away from the Democrats, a common element of the Nader baiter agenda, the fact is that an elected Green would stand up for working class values more reliably than a Democrat that could be bought by the special interest lobby class in Washington.

So Sanders should seriously consider this option of becoming a Green vice president and therefore undermining the identity politics dynamic of Hillary Clinton’s neoliberal corporatized feminism. Whereas the Democrats would be as intransigent to a Sanders Democratic administration as the Republicans have been in the past eight years, the Greens have the infrastructure to get elected at the 2018 midterms to make the Sanders agenda a reality. When FDR got his Keynesian programs passed in the New Deal, it was because he had the Solid South in his coalition. And thirty years later, LBJ’s similar programs were scuttled precisely because that coalition had been fractured by the civil rights movement and the rise of Barry Goldwater. The Greens are the coalition Sanders needs to make his presidency not just a symbolic gesture wherein the Congress, who are bought and paid for by Wall Street, scuttles his efforts.

Think that is a bit utopian? Not as utopian as the idea that Sanders will be nominated at the convention!

April 26, 2016

Bernie Sanders In RI – video of the his speech

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Bernie Sanders visit to Rhode Island was the largest political primary rally in RI, over 7000 people, since JFK. It is worth watching to see what all the excitement was about.

If you have a liberal cause you believe in it is in there, but the difference is that it is not a campaign stunt.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qQf_bvfR6Y&feature=youtu.be
Look how Bernie was so moved by Flint and #BackLivesMatter that he is still talking about it, while Hillary just plays them as part of the campaign and is on to the next wedge issue to play the people.

Nothing is more emblematic in the difference between the challenge to the status quo than a comparison with Hillary’s visit in Central Falls where, with a full delegation of Senators, Congressmen, the Governor etc., they could barely draw 1200 people. Most telling is that they were all there as Clinton claimed “she has been standing with Latino Families in Rhode Island and across the country for her entire career.”

PolitiFact said:

Sanders has a strong record on immigration issues, Warren Gunnels, his senior policy adviser, replied. Sanders supports “comprehensive immigration reform and a path towards citizenship for 11 million people today who are living in the shadows,” the senator said in a MSNBC Democratic primary debate in New Hampshire in February.

He voted for the Dream Act in 2010, which would have legalized immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children. He also supported the so-called “Gang of Eight” bill in 2013. This bipartisan legislation created a path for people already in the United States, focused on reducing visa backlogs, and improved work-visa options for low-skilled workers.

Why aren’t the political class being held accountable? The political establishment stood with Clinton giving credence to Clinton’s mischaracterization.

Contrast this with Bernie’s rally at Roger Williams Park on Sunday where actress Shailene Woodley, a guest of Students for Bernie, praised Bernie as a political movement builder in the mold of Martin Luther King and said that she has been making phone calls for Bernie herself.

Here is your choice- back the establishment who will use their office to to help politicians play political tricks, on Latino’s in this case, to get their vote or join the political revolution and help build the better world we know is possible.

April 22, 2016April 23, 2016

Whitehouse addresses power plant protesters

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Senator Sheldon Whitehouse wrapped up his keynote address at a University of Rhode Island Climate conference addressing members of Fossil Free RI who stood in the room silently holding signs asking him to weigh in against the proposed power plant in Burrillville. Among those holding signs were Lisa Petrie, who was recently arrested in Governor Gina Raimondo’s office after refusing to leave the building until the Governor agrees to meet with residents of Burrillville about the plant, and Professor Peter Nightingale, who was arrested in Senator Whitehouse’s office protesting fracked gas in 2014.

Whitehouse mistakenly refered to the sign holders as members of FANG, but of course FANG was in Boston during Whitehouse’s keynote, as can be seen here. Whitehouse seemed to say that while he appreciates the efforts of those holding signs, his priorities are on things other than preventing the expansion of natural gas infrastructure in Rhode Island.

I think the biggest message here, though perhaps not the one Whitehouse intended to deliver, is that the residents of Burrillville can count on getting no help from their Senator on this issue.

They are on their own.

More on the climate conference will be released over the weekend.

2016-04-22 URI Climate 001 — Lorraine Savard

2016-04-22 URI Climate 002 — Lisa Petrie

2016-04-22 URI Climate 004 — Peter Nightingale

Here are Senator Whitehouse’s full comments:

April 19, 2016May 3, 2016

Lisa Petrie arrested at State House protesting power plant

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One time RI Future contributor Lisa Petrie was arrested at the State House this evening by State Police for failing to leave the State Room after protesters demanded an audience with Governor Gina Raimondo over the proposed Invenergy oil and fracked gas burning power plant proposed for Burrillville. Petrie is a member of Fossil Free RI and a long time environmental activist here in the state.

[Update courtesy of FANG (Fighting Against Natural Gas): Lisa, resident of Richmond, RI, was charged with willful trespassing and has a court date set for May 6th.]

When State Police told the protesters to leave the State Room at 4:30pm, Petrie refused, and stayed alone in the room. Every one else, including the press, was instructed to leave the building. At about 7pm Petrie seems to have been arrested and taken out the side door of the State House. It is not known if she had any interactions with the Governor while she was alone inside the building.

Seconds after placing Petrie in the rear of the vehicle, an officer placed the circular “NO NEW POWER PLANT” banner in the car with her.

April 19, 2016May 3, 2016

Power plant protesters take over State House state room

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Burrillville residents and local activists began a sit-in at Governor Gina Raimondo’s State House office, urging the Governor to drop her support of the fossil fuel power plant proposed for Burrillville.

Members of The FANG Collective (Fighting Against Natural Gas) and BASE (Burrillville Against Spectra Expansion) are sitting-in at the office with a large circular banner that shows the local impacts of the proposed power plant, and the global impacts of climate change, which the power plant would significantly contribute to.

“Governor Raimondo should not be supporting a power plant opposed by her constituents that would cause problems ranging from increased truck traffic and cancerous MTBE water locally to increased violence against women and more climate refugees globally,” said Burrillville resident and BASE founder Kathy Martley.

Governor Raimondo has been a staunch supporter of the proposed power plant. The plant would burn diesel fuel and fracked-gas and use water contaminated with MTBE (a now banned gasoline additive) to cool its turbines. BASE and FANG are urging the Governor to revoke her support of the project.

“We are asking the Governor to listen to her constituents and to be on the right side of history by helping us stop this toxic project,” said Lorraine Savard of Central Falls

Today’s sit-in comes on the heels of an action yesterday during which BASE and FANG dropped banners from the fourth floor of the Department of Administration and sat-in at the Office of Energy Resources (OER). That action immediately led to an in-person meeting with Marion Gold, the Commissioner of the OER who was been a supporter of the Invenergy project.

“We will keep organizing and taking nonviolent direct action until the people of Burrillville are listened to and Invenergy’s power plant proposal is scrapped,” said Nick Katkevich of The FANG Collective.

[From a press release, more to come]

April 18, 2016May 3, 2016

Banners dropped at RI Office of Energy Resources opposing power plant

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Two large banners were dropped from the fourth floor of the Rhode Island Department of Administration Building outside the offices of the Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources (OER), to protest Commissioner Marion Gold’s support of the fracked-gas and diesel fuel power plant planned for Burrillville by Invenergy.

One banner read, “All That Glitters is Not Gold” and another “No New Power Plant”. The group began a sit-in at OER office, demanding that Dr. Gold revoke her support of the power plant project and pledge to meet with Burrillville residents.

“For five months we have been trying to schedule a meeting with Dr. Gold to no avail. Enough is enough.“ said Kathy Martley a Burrillville resident who participated in the sit-in and one of the founders of BASE (Burrillville Against Spectra Expansion). “We need our State’s energy leaders to stop supporting fossil fuel projects”.

After being ordered by the Capitol Police to roll up and remove the banners, Dr. Gold emerged from her offices, initially saying that she did not have time to meet with the small group because the Federal Energy Secretary Moniz, in town to deliver a lecture at Brown University.

Gold then reconsidered and offered the group ten minutes, which turned into 15. Kathy Martley and others explained their objections to the plant. Nick Katkevich, of FANG, (Fighting Against Natural Gas) asked Gold to reconsider her support for the plant. Gold indicated that she is waiting “for the process to play out” before making a decision about the plant, but Katkevich countered that in the past she has supported the plant.

Gold also wouldn’t say she supported the plant, adopting a curiously neutral position, given her past support.

“The power plant is bad for Burrillville, bad for Rhode Island and will impact the most vulnerable communities around the world by contributing to global climate change. We are asking Dr. Gold to do the right thing and revoke her support of this project,” said Sally Mendzela of North Providence in a statement.

In a statement the group added, “According to the region’s utility regulators, this power plant is not necessary to meet demand. Rhode Islanders should be weary of Invenergy’s false claims. They are not concerned about what’s best for Rhode Island, only what’s best for their own profits.”

You can watch the meeting with Marion Gold in the video below.

April 18, 2016April 21, 2016

Video: Saturday’s State House rally for Bernie Sanders

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Several hundred people rallied on the State House South Lawn Saturday to speak out on why we need Bernie Sanders to be our next president. Basically rough and ready raw footage to archive this exciting event where people are taking part in getting a President for the People elected- Bernie Sanders. Join the political revolution. The images at the beginning of each video are courtesy of Nicholas Delmonico.

Rhode Island state legislators Rep. Aaron Regunberg, of Providence, and Sen. Jim Sheehan, of North Kingstown, were previously covered here. You can watch the rest of the rally below.

It began with a march from Kennedy Plaza, where volunteers could sign up to canvass and phone bank to get the vote out for the April 26th primary.

Tracy Hart reads her poem saying goodbye to the old ways and hello to the new called “Care Enough to Act.” c.2016 Tracy Hart.

Lauren Niedel, a leading organizer both for Bernie’s campaign here in Rhode Island as well as the RI Progressive Democrats, calls out the troops to canvass and phone bank. She deemed Rhode Island “is Bernie country now!”

Former state Department of Health director Dr. Michael Fine couldn’t be there, but a message from him for the rally about why we need a single-payer health care system was.

Sandy Pliskin played poetry and music inspired by Bernie Sanders. In the tradition of sometime Rhode Islander Pete Seeger, he played a banjo.

Carolyn Colton-supports Bernie because of his positions on college debt and education.For a teacher, artist and activist on the cycle of Student Debt it is stressful for young teachers with crushing loans and low pay face knowing that this will be in the future of the students who they are teaching unless something changes in a major way.

Abel Collins-South Kingstown Town Council President Abel Collins spoke on the environment. Abel supports Bernie because he understand the issues and the solutions. He notes Hillary Clinton as Sec. of State promoted fracking world wide and now the methane released by fracking and the expansion of natural gas has wiped out the gains that all of the build out of renewables would have provided.

Jared Moffet, aLegalize Marijuana Activist, supports Bernie because he is right to want to End War on Drugs which has failed too solve the problem but created a country with the highest incarceration rate in the world.

Linda Ujifusa, lawyer and activist, supports Bernie because she feels he understands the immigrant experience recounting the internment of her Japanese-American parents during WW2. “I’m here today to prove that all Bernie supporters are not white, or young,” she said.

Dr. Mark Ryan supports Bernie because he wants Single Payer. Mark recounts a story about a patient who died because she could not afford the treatment he prescribed.

Ricky North, a Libertarian For Bernie because he can bring people together and attract people who would not ordinarily support Democrats.

Nikki Vanasse from South County for Bernie Sanders – supports Bernie because is is “a dream come true that we have someone representing us with love and compassion” for our people and the world, noting his visit to Pope Francis.

Laura Perez, candidate for State Representative, supports Bernie because we live one of the most powerful country in the world and we still don’t have free public education and college, and living wage for all and Bernie will work for this. Let’s send work for Bernie and send a message to the RI Statehouse.

I spoke about racial justice. An important reason that I support Bernie is that we need a president with activist roots who participated in civil disobedience to stand up against injustice. I believe that Sanders will work with the community to uproot systemic racism and plant one that recognizes the value and equality of all races.

The Black Out Drum Line led a Community Celebration while people sign up and get information on Democratic Socialism and building a Fossil Free RI.

Tony Hempher from the Bank Tellers Union talked about why bank tellers are supporting Bernie’s economic justice platform pointing out their poor pay and job security.

For What It’s Worth: Full Circle – Time for a political revolution

Colorful and hysterical- the Anti- War and Pro-Environment activist singers the Raging Grannies sing take offs on popular folk songs with humorous lyrics on important issues.

Music for the Revolution while people sign up fro shifts to canvas signups.

April 18, 2016

Sanders’ Wall Street plan is ‘incoherent’ says Barney Frank

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Former Massachusetts Representative Barney Frank was in Providence Monday morning campaigning for Hillary Clinton in the form of an interview with RI Treasurer Seth Magaziner. The Congressperson was the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee from 2007-2011 and the Frank half of the Dodd-Frank Act, a major reform of the financial industry signed into law under Obama.

Frank says that the United States is trapped in a vicious cycle: People have lost confidence in a government that responds to their needs, so they elect anti-government candidates who produce a government that is even worse than before. Frank believes that the only way out of this is to elect Hillary Clinton as president.

Bernie Sanders, says Frank, is being too critical of anything that falls short of his own lofty ideals. Frank thinks this is a mistake and strongly disagrees with this way of thinking.

“Almost every representative committed to progressive change is for Hillary Clinton,” says Frank, including the entire congressional LGBT caucus and every member of the Black caucus, save one. This isn’t because they are part of the “establishment” says Frank, but because they are committed to progressive change.

2016-04-18 Barney Frank 02 — Seth Magaziner and Barney Frank

“If you tell people it’s either revolution or nothing worth fighting for,” says Frank, “you open up the not-voting behavior.”

As for taking money from Wall Street, Franks says that Sander’s idea that politicians taking money from businesses they want to change cannot be counted on “goes against every person I’ve ever served with.”

Frank then went into his experiences passing Dodd-Frank, which reversed 12 years of a Republican-controlled Congress loosening the regulations that controlled Wall Street. He noted Rhode Island Senator Jack Reed’s contributions to that process.

Sander’s promise to break up the big banks makes no sense to Frank. The problem “isn’t that institutions are too big, it’s that they had more debt than they could handle.”

Frank says that he helped pass legislation to prevent too much indebtedness. “AIG couldn’t happen today,” he says. He helped to outlaw sub-prime loans and increased the companies on-hand capitol.

“General Electric got out of the financial business because of these laws,” says Frank.

Under Frank’s legislation, regulators can look at a company’s holdings and in the event that it looks dangerous, can order divestment. Clinton’s plan to regulate Wall St would lower the bar for divestment, giving her enhanced authority to order divestment.

In contrast, says Frank, Sanders isn’t coherent on this issue. “How can you say something is too big if you don’t know what size it should be?” asks Frank.

“Hillary,” says Frank, “understands how it all works.”

Clinton’s tax policy was also touched upon. As President she wants to tax high frequency stock trades and tax hedge funds as income. Frank objects to Sander’s “McCarthy-ite suggestion that she’s soft on these issues because of the money she accepts.”

Clinton will increase taxes on people making more than $1 million and especially those who make more than $5 million, says Frank.

When asked about health care, Frank was not in favor of introducing single-payer system, at least not quickly. “People need to be shown how this can be done,” said Frank. “I think Sanders will be a disaster [on health care],” says Frank, “People are not ready to have a tax increase to pay for universal health care.”

Clinton will crack down on big pharma pricing, prevent tax dodging of companies incorporating overseas and expand health care, says Frank.

Frank, who was among the first openly gay members of Congress, ended with some words on LGBT rights. “Though Sanders has always voted the right way on LGBT issues there is near unanimous support in the LGBT community for Hillary,” he said.

Clinton’s Supreme Court picks, Frank said, will help reverse the Hobby Lobby decision and uphold legislation, like the kind being worked on by RI Representative David Cicilline, to prevent private action discrimination against LGBT people.

One final note: Frank did say that if Sanders wins the nomination, “Of course I’ll campaign for him.”

April 12, 2016April 12, 2016

Home health care workers rally for higher wages at State House

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The Rhode Island Partnership for Home Care has been feeling the squeeze as Medicaid rates have not been increased since 2008. Under legislation introduced in the House by Representative Shekarchi and the Senate by Senator Doyle those rates could be increased by 40 percent, bringing RI into parity with Massachusetts and Connecticut. Proponents estimate the cost of this increase will be about $9 million, and will fetch equivalent funds from the Federal government.

Those at the rally were not happy with Governor Raimondo’s 7 percent “wage-pass through” which is too little for workers and not something Nicholas Oliver, executive director of the Partnership, thinks the companies can provide. Many of the companies are struggling to survive, and the small wage increase Raimondo is suggesting may be swallowed up by the companies and “never reach the home health care workers as intended.”

Lee Ann Quinn, a nurse and home health care provider has a 17 year old son named Zachary who is wheelchair bound due to a progressive neuro-muscular disease. “It’s a really sad day,” said Quinn, “when one of my son’s home health care aids comes to my home and tells me ‘you know they’re paying $10.25 at McDonald’s and they don’t have to do any of the things I do…'”

April 12, 2016May 3, 2016

Burrillville Democratic Party Chairman announces opposition to power plant

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As the Burrillville Democratic Party Chairman, I am stating my opposition to the proposed Invenergy gas power plant in the village of Pascoag.

I have deep reservations and concerns about the safety and quality of life for local residents should this power plant be allowed to be built. I am very concerned for the welfare of the people living and working in Pascoag The very rural character that Burrillville residents are proudest of and continuously fight to protect would be compromised.

In addition, the town infrastructure, including its roads, would be severely tested, and police, fire, and rescue services would be pushed beyond their capacity to respond adequately should a natural or man-made disaster occur at the plant.

As a Democrat, I believe strongly in protecting our environment. I’m greatly concerned that should this plant be constructed, our abundant, pristine water systems that surround the proposed site would be at risk for contamination and environmental disturbance. Noise pollution and light pollution are another concern. Our town has already suffered from a water contamination crisis. Do we really want to chance another crisis that could have been prevented?

I will remain a tireless advocate for the core principles of the Democratic Party: the interests of working families; protecting our children, elders, and most vulnerable; fighting for rigorous and comprehensive planning; and encouraging public participation in town governance.

I look forward to working with like-minded residents to prevent this plant from being built here in Burrillville.

April 9, 2016April 11, 2016

Mattiello at the Grange

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I got to the event a good half hour early. As I crossed the small parking lot outside the Oak Lawn Grange I was intercepted and asked about my business.

“I’m just here to take notes and a few pictures,” I said, “for RI Future.”

Pause. “We’re not set up yet,” said the man, “you’ll have to wait.”

“Okay,” I said, “I’ll sit over at the picnic tables.”

“Sure,” said the man, “Why not? It’s a beautiful day out.”

It was. I sat for a few minutes, reading my phone, when another man holding a clipboard approached me. We introduced ourselves. He was Leo Skenyon, Nicholas Mattiello’s chief of staff.

“I don’t know if we can get you in,” said Skenyon, “We’ve got over 130 people coming, and priority will be given to Cranston residents.”

“Okay, “ I said, “I get that. I can stand. I just need to take some notes and a few pictures.”

“We might get you into the basement with a TV,” said Skenyon, “You’ll be able to hear the answers, but you might not hear the questions.”

“We’ll see what happens then,” I said.

Mattiello at the Grange 003 — Tom Wojick

I waited outside near the entrance, watching people arrive. I saw two people from the Rhode Island Coalition Against Gun Violence (RICAGV) handing flyers to passers by. One of them was Tom Wojick.

“Do you support common sense gun legislation?” asked Tom, holding out a flyer to a man and his wife.

“No,” said the man, “I’m a NRA member.”

I had taken a bus on a Saturday morning to the middle of Cranston to see Representative Nicholas Mattiello, the Speaker of the House and arguably the most powerful politician in Rhode Island, engage with his constituents.

This isn’t an every day occurrence. Some reps have regular events with their constituents, some have none, but as Mattiello told the crowd, his duties as Speaker take up a lot of time, and he doesn’t often get the chance to hold events like this. Today was a rare chance to see Mattiello engage with his constituents and hear what voters in Mattiello’s district care the most about. [Spoiler: It’s RhodeWorks]

Mattiello wasn’t alone either on stage or behind the scenes. Organizing the event were about a dozen men delivering coffee and donuts, escorting people to their seats and acting as what seemed like de facto security. There were two Cranston police officers stationed at the event. In addition to Leo Skenyon, who was organizing, I saw Larry Berman, communications director for the RI House of Reps, helping out.

On “stage” with Mattiello were RI State Senators Frank Lombardi and Hanna Gallo, Rep Robert Jacquard and RI Department of Transportation director Peter Alviti, there to answer technical questions about truck tolls and RhodeWorks.

When I entered the Grange Larry Berman saw me and said, “He can come in,” but behind me Leo Skenyon said, “He’s taking a couple of pictures and heading downstairs.”

That’s what I did. Here’s one:

Downstairs in front of the TV was a man who was interested in RhodeWorks but happened to live in Providence, so he was sent to the basement with me. A minute later we were joined by Lorraine Savard, wearing a small version of her “Save Burrillvile: No New Power Plant” sign pinned to her lapel.

At least I was in good company.

We ended up watching everything on closed circuit TV, downstairs from the main event. We laughed when the camera upstairs went to a wide shot, showing at least seven empty seats in the main room. We laughed again when we noticed that the two police officers were in the downstairs room with us, leaving no police presence in the room above, where over one hundred people were in attendance.

Most of Mattiello’s talk was a defense of RhodeWorks. One idea the Speaker was keen to dispel was that RhodeWorks was broadly unpopular. He said that he has in his district 14 thousand constituents and 10 thousand registered voters. When he counted the number of emails he received opposed to RhodeWorks, it was thirty.

“I don’t believe that,” said the man from Providence sitting next to me.

But I don’t think Mattiello lied. People in Mattiello’s district aren’t that upset about RhodeWorks, or at least not upset enough to threaten him politically. Mattiello maintains that the reason people don’t like RhodeWorks is because they are misinformed about it.

“We have a talk radio community,” said Mattiello, “misinformation gets out through that medium” either through callers saying things that aren’t true or talk show hosts repeating false information.

“Misinformation takes your vote away from you,” said the Speaker.

Lombardi and Jacquard also defended their RhodeWorks votes. Lombardi said, “We live in a post 38 Studios world. RhodeWorks opposition is based on a distrust of [any] legislation, not on the plan itself.”

Gallo went a different direction, touting the work she does on education, including full day kindergarten.

Eventually the question and answer phase of the discussion, nearly three hours into the event, got around to a subject other than RhodeWorks. A woman (it was very hard to hear the specifics of her question on the TV) asked about the three bills the RICAGV has brought forward, including the bill to prohibit people with concealed carry permits from bringing guns into schools.

“There are two sides to this issue,” said Mattiello (who incidently has an A+ rating from the NRA), “There are those who want no change [to our guns laws] and there are those who want to abolish guns.”

This opening surprised me. The RICAGV has worked hard to strike a nuanced position on guns, and here Mattiello was claiming that the group was simply seeking to abolish all guns.

As for guns in schools, said the Speaker, “Please tell me where this has been a problem. And if its never been a problem, you’re affecting the rights of law abiding citizens.”

Mattiello gave the hypothetical situation oaf a man with a concealed carry permit picking his kid up at school. Is he supposed “to leave his gun on the sidewalk? Leave it in his car where it might be stolen, or drive home and drop it off first?”

“In trying to solve a problem you’re creating a bigger problem,” said the Speaker.

Guns are not allowed in courthouses or airports, countered the woman (and I might add, not allowed in the State House where Mattiello works either.)

Senator Lombardi cut in at this point, saying that the problem isn’t gun owners, it’s the mentally ill accessing guns. Columbine and Sandy Hook were the results of mental illness, said Lombardi, not lack of gun control.

“If,” said Lombardi, “God forbid, a [gunman] goes into a Cranston school, I hope the first person he sees is a law abiding citizen with a concealed carry permit.”

“We have to address the mental health aspect of this equation,” added Mattiello, “People with concealed carry permits are not the problem. I don’t think they’ve ever been the problem.”

Mattiello’s last words on the issue of guns were, “You can affect the behavior of people who respect the law, but not the behavior of those who don’t respect the law.”

That kind of makes me wonder why we pass any laws.

The next question was about the ethics commission.

“Senator Sheehan’s bill is the worst bill I’ve ever seen,” said Mattiello, “I can’t imagine supporting that bill because it make’s no sense to me.”

“Conflict of interest rules are ‘gotcha’ politics,” said the Speaker, “lawyers in the General Assembly serve clients across the country. Technically they are always in conflict of interest. They would never vote!”

Mattiello feels that Sheehan’s bill will encourage “frivolous complaints”. “What’s going to happen is good people are not going to want to run [for office],” said the Speaker.

“Most people in government are extremely ethical,” continued Mattiello, “Everybody up there, I believe, is entirely ethical and good.”

Mattiello seems to believe that the job of identifying conflicts of interest falls to the fourth estate, saying, “Kathy Gregg is a great reporter. She points out every conflict of interest.”

Somewhat echoing his last word on gun control laws, Mattiello said about ethics, “Ethics commissions don’t make better people. That’s [the electorate]’s job.”

Other random things of interest Mattiello said during the meeting:

“I disagree that the Speaker is the most powerful person in the state. Sometimes it’s the governor.”

Ex-Speaker Gordon Fox, now in prison, “had his problems but he did good things policy wise.”

“I don’t believe in trickle-down economics. I just want to be competitive with our neighboring states.”

“Rhode Island right now is in excellent shape.”

April 5, 2016April 5, 2016

Rep Coughlin: Democrats ‘pandering’ on marriage equality

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Representative David Coughlin, who represents District 60 in Pawtucket, ran unopposed during his first election, becoming a state rep with just 725 votes during the 2014 Democratic primary. As a first year legislator he has been a reliable vote for Speaker Nicholas Mattiello’s agenda. Coughlin voted for the truck tolls, Tiverton gambling and the subpar minimum wage increases passed last year.

So it was with some surprise that I received an email from a reader containing a screenshot of a Facebook post from Coughlin that seemed to indicate a willingness on his part to break ranks with the Democratic Party over marriage equality. Coughlin’s District 60 predecessor, Elaine Coderre, was a co-sponsor of the marriage equality legislation that ultimately became Rhode Island law.

Coughlin shared a link to a Washington Post piece entitled, “Republican National Committee reaffirms its opposition to same-sex marriage” and wrote:

My recollection is my Democratic Party barely squeezed out a majority of the popular vote last November. If the leadership keeps pandering on this issue they may find a conservative element of the party changes allegiances giving the Republicans a very solid majority next time around.”

Coughlin’s post seems to indicate that the Democratic Party position on marriage equality is “pandering” and that conservative Democrats might bolt the party over this issue and become Republicans.

I emailed Coughlin and House Communications Director Larry Berman for clarification. I wanted to know if Coughlin considered himself part of the “conservative element” of the Democratic Party and if he supports marriage equality. One also wonders if Coughlin would be willing to change allegiances and switch to the Republican Party, as did Representative Karen MacBeth last week, over this or other conservative social issues. His Facebook post seems to indicate that he might.

Coughlin and Berman declined to respond to my emails.

March 29, 2016

Elorza storms past two protests outside his own fundraiser

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Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza tore past the twin protests taking place outside his exclusive fundraiser taking place at the Rooftop at the Providence G. On one side were members of Providence Fire Fighters IAFF Local 799, who are in the midst of difficult negotiations regarding overtime and staffing. On the other side were members of the STEP-UP Network, a coalition of community groups eager to pass the Community Safety Act (CSA), which candidate Elorza pledged to support in October, 2104.

Since his election, Elorza has avoided any substantive meetings with any groups about the CSA, and has not supported the bill’s passage as he promised. This protest was, in the words of the STEP-UP Network, “to denounce the fundraiser for Mayor Jorge Elorza’s campaign as he has neglected and in some cases, refused to meet with groups representing low-income people of color on issues such as public safety, housing, and jobs.”

As a result of Elorza’s broken campaign promises and disinterest in meeting with community groups, the STEP-UP Network asks that instead of donating to Mayor Elorza’s campaign, funds be directed “to local organizations whose work directly impacts those affected by police violence, housing instability, and unemployment.”

Vanessa Flores-Maldonado, a PrYSM organizer, introduced three speakers outside, before the Mayor’s arrival.

Malchus Mills, volunteer for DARE (Direct Action for Rights and Equality), said in a statement, “A fundraiser for a mayor who refuses to meet with his constituents is absurd. We have been asking for a meeting for over a year now, but instead we keep getting passed off to police administrators. We still have not met with Mayor Elorza since the start of his administration, yet he falsely claims to have met with us on numerous occasions.”

Mike Araujo, Executive Director of Rhode Island Jobs with Justice, stated: “Not only have we been passed off to police administrators, but we have been given offers of only 15 to 30-minute-long meetings with the Mayor. How are we supposed to talk about the safety of an entire city in just 15 to 30 minutes?”

Jorrell Kaykay, volunteer at the Providence Youth Student Movement (PrYSM), stated: “Last time we publicly asked Mayor Elorza about his changing stance on the CSA, he got this bill confused for a statewide bill. Clearly, Mayor Elorza is not paying attention to the issues that are affecting the community he serves especially when he keeps denying to adequately meet with said community. Whose mayor is he really?”

Kaykay spoke in reference to an East Side community forum that took place in November 2015 in which protestors had shown up as it was the second forum held in a neighborhood where crime rates were actually falling. When questioned about his stance on the CSA, Mayor Elorza responded on a different bill that had recently been passed in the General Assembly. I covered that event here.

The STEP UP Network includes the Providence Youth Student Movement, Direct Action for Rights and Equality, the American Friends Service Committee, and the Olneyville Neighborhood Association.

March 21, 2016May 14, 2016

Bill Deware to challenge Rep O’Brien in District 54

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Bill Deware has announced his candidacy for state representative today for House District 54 – North Providence. He will be challenging incumbent William O’Brien in the Democratic Primary. O’Brien won his seat in 2012 in a three-way race with just over 40 percent of the vote. He ran unopposed in 2014. Deware has issued the following press release:

“I have raised my family right here in North Providence, and there’s nowhere else I’d rather live,” said Deware, who works as a radiographer at Rhode Island Hospital and leads the Rhode Island Society of Radiologic Technologists. “I’m running for State Representative because our district needs someone to stand up for our community. I decided that it was time someone was willing to stand up for us. It was time someone ran to help the people of this neighborhood rather than himself. I promise I’ll be an independent voice that fights for what the community needs–not for the people who have been running our state into the ground.”

Deware listed his representative’s unresponsiveness as central in his decision to run. “When my daughter, Adrianna, was born, the doctors told my wife and me that she had Down Syndrome as well as multiple physical disabilities. Later we learned she also was autistic. I love my daughter, and I wouldn’t trade her for anything in the world. However, I quickly realized that her life would be very different, and I would have to fight for her every step along the way. Like most parents in our situation we quickly became experts on the programs that were necessary for my daughter and became much more involved in the community. When I heard that cuts were coming down on those programs and on my daughter, I did what I had always been told to do, I called my representative looking for help. At first his state email didn’t work, then no one would pick up the phone. Next I did finally get a response but it was just a text giving me another email address to send my “complaint” to. I sent an email pleading for help. I’m still waiting for a response. I reached out for an ally, someone to help protect my daughter, instead I found someone who couldn’t be bothered to return my phone calls. ”

This experience, Deware says was just the final straw. “This isn’t acceptable. This isn’t okay. It horrifies me that we apparently have money in the budget to give the rich another round of tax cuts but people like my daughter are “too expensive”. My mother’s pension is okay to slash, but God forbid if we question a handout for a corporation. Our schools are crumbling, our taxes are going up, and our jobs are disappearing. We have to do something!”

Deware feels his current representative is just a part of the problem. “My representative seems to care more about those at the state house than those in our neighborhood. It shouldn’t be this hard to just get a response. I decided that it was time someone was willing to stand up for us. It was time someone ran to help the people of this neighborhood, rather than himself.”

Deware’s announcement was widely welcomed across the neighborhood. Lenny Cioe, who has lived in the area for many years, said, “I’ve known Bill for a long time and he has always been a straight guy. When he sees something wrong he just goes out there and fixes it. I have no doubt he is going to do great things for the district.”

Danielle Delaney, longtime community member, is also excited. “We need change,” she said. “I don’t feel like the guys at the statehouse are fighting for us. Bill is honest. If he says he’ll do something, he’ll do it.”

Deware lives off of Hatherly St in North Providence with his wife, Tiffany, and three children. He graduated from URI, works as an X-Ray tech at Rhode Island Hospital, is head of the local non profit Rhode Island Society of Radiologic Technologists, and is a former Vice President of UNAP Local 5098.

March 20, 2016March 20, 2016

Say no to PARCC with the Caucus of Rank and File Educators

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This month Rhode Island students will again be subjected to the PARCC testing regime. Here are some tools used by others to resist and refuse the testing regime.

Screen Shot 2016-03-08 at 8.52.50 PM — RI Department of Education website screenshot.

Out in Chicago, the Caucus of Rank and File Educators has created a treasure trove of anti-testing materials we want to share with parents and students who in turn can share it with peers. This is certain to annoy people like Andy Moffit, the charter school champ and husband of Gina Raimondo, Edward Achorn, the Providence Journal editor whose wife is a charter school proponent, and a slew of others who make a career out of advocating for the privatization of our public schools.

Saying no to PARCC is a pro-union, pro-child, pro-teacher act that would make the rich and powerful look bad.

It is worthwhile to repeat what was said by the RI ACLU in November 2015 regarding the previous school year’s test results: Though not surprising, the test results released this week show that using PARCC as a graduation requirement would have barred the vast majority of Rhode Island students from receiving a diploma. Worse, and just like the NECAP, it would have disproportionately affected students of color, students with disabilities, and ESL students in a devastating manner.

In a statement regarding this year’s testing the ACLU said:

The ACLU of RI does not oppose the implementation of PARCC testing per se. We recognize that standardized assessments can, if prepared and used properly, provide information to school districts and to students that can help target appropriate support services. However, we strongly oppose the use of PARCC, or any other standardized written test, as a high school graduation requirement or for any other punitive purpose, such as grading students. This high-stakes testing has a clear discriminatory impact on students of color, English Language Learners, and students with disabilities. Further, students’ grades or graduation prospects should not be based on flawed standardized tools that cannot take into account an individual student’s actual work in school. They should serve as a guide, not punishment. We are currently examining the policies of each school district to find out whether they plan to use the test for such purposes.

The ACLU does not take a position on refusal to take the test but, “it is critical that schools make clear to parents whether there are any potential adverse consequences that flow from taking the test.”

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