Weekend Newsletter and Announcement: Pension Commission Meeting-December 14, 2023 at CCRI
A news recap of the past week, reading recommendations, and a major local announcement on the campaign for real Rhode Island pension reforms.
A special edition of this newest newsletter:
Congressman George Santos is finally expelled. His rap sheet was just too much for the GOP to deal with after nearly 12 months of drama. While a special election might indeed be a fresh pickup opportunity for Democrats, it would be very risky to take that for granted now. Republicans have enjoyed recent electoral successes on Long Island not just in 2022, but in 2021 and in this past November of 2023.
Is West Virginia a foregone conclusion for Senate Republicans to win? Perhaps, but Senate Democrats could and probably should try to keep conservative special interests busy in West Virginia. If only to ensure that that special interest money is not spent elsewhere in more critical Senate races. A formidable candidate for the West Virginia seat would serve Democratic’s strategic purposes very well. Former US Senator Carte Goodwin could be one example of such a candidate. Stephen Smith of WV Can’t Wait is another, and he might have the capability to run a unique, blue-collar populist campaign that has never been tried in a West Virginia state general election before.
Long story short, the balance of power in the United States Congress and in state governments is going to be a grueling months-long process; a process focused on controlling all the different levers of government, from races in suburban districts to contests in rural states. The party contrasts can be set up very clearly in 2024 between a vision of progression vs. a vision of diminishment.
Condolences to the families of former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Of course, we must not forget to acknowledge and discuss Secretary Kissinger’s controversial record in more detail for better or worse.
Some more recommended reads for you: local journalist Steve Ahlquist (formerly of Uprise RI and RI Future), and The Onion (still around and still as relevant as ever).
And now to the big event:
As part of the ongoing initiatives to restore COLAs after years of major stress and inflationary pressures, Rhode Island state retirees—potentially alongside other prominent local & even national stakeholders—will be appearing in solidarity to support state COLA restoration in the upcoming December 14 Pension Commission meeting at the CCRI Auditorium in Warwick, RI starting right at 3:00 PM.
The meeting and events will start with consequential commission testimony on the negative impacts of the 2011 pension legislation. This testimony will draw attention to demands for state legislative action, rallies by speakers (where state lawmakers will be welcome), and demonstrations calling for a congressional oversight commission to be established in Rhode Island to investigate the overall conduct and behavior of Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo in state & federal offices (the same Commerce Secretary Raimondo, incidentally, who pressured Biden operatives to have the former Vice President drop out of the 2020 primary for Bloomberg, and who has actively been promoting her name for VP in 2024 via her favorite columnist buddies).
Amping up the pressure to listen to these calls are the concerns that she enriched her allies to the detriment of the common good, and did so in possible violation of multiple federal & state laws. And that she then worked overtime since to cover up any potentially harmful leakers or headlines for her own political advantages only adds to those concerns.
We hope to have your support, assistance, and presence in this upcoming forum at CCRI—and against the mastermind of the disastrous pension law with an office in the Herbert C. Hoover Building. Not to mention the mastermind of so many other local fiascos and national schemes.