Connecticut Commentary: Red Notes from a Blue State

Titan and Jake Mark Twain, who said pretty much everything worth saying, said about dogs: “The more I learn about people, the more I like my dog.” Twain, one of those lucky few in whom the virtue of humor was fully grown, told a stretcher or two in his day, but his humor was the iron fist of truth, always difficult for those of us who are not saints to bear, wrapped in appetizing comic chocolate, and so made easier to swallow. He liked dogs and often compared them to people: “If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man.” The modern progressive, full of rancor and social justice, might want to pause over that one. One of Twain’s dogs was named “Prosper” and, unlike the fire breathing, eat-the-rich, modern progressive, Twain had no quarrel with prosperity.  A true child of the Gilded Age, which he named, Twain’s fervent hope for today was always that he would be prosperous tomorrow. Lucky for hi...

There comes a point in any taxing scheme when one more tax, however slight, breaks the camel’s back. Here in Connecticut, we passed that point long ago. The recent effective resistance to tolls, a new revenue stream for the state, arose largely because those who pay taxes in perhaps the most progressive state in New England had reached a limit. There is a limit to all good things, even taxes. And, feeling the toll tax bit in their mouths, those from whom taxes in Connecticut are collected began to express their dissatisfaction by moving away from a burdensome load of pain. Consequently, total revenues in the state declined. And everyone knew this, including progressives calling for higher taxes on those in Connecticut who could, so they thought, more easily heft the burden, the much derided rich, and profit-greedy companies. It is a mystery why we never refer in print to profit greedy politicians motivated by impure motives. The rich moved, companies moved, tax revenue diminished. ...

Blumenthal and Harris Kamala Harris, Joe Biden’s choice as Vice President, is no moderate. Her voting record in the US Senate places her one notch below Democrat Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, who on her best day manages to sound like an inflamed librarian scolding a student for returning late a borrowed book. Harris’ social policies place her on a par with U.S. Senator Dick Blumenthal. Both have endorsed Alexandra Ocassio Cortez’s de-energizing Green New Deal. At times, both have favored Medicare for all, a mask for universal health care, and the consequent destruction of Connecticut’s still vibrant insurance industry. Asked during the Democrat primary debate who favored abolishing private health care to assure a government run plan, Harris raised her hand in assent, along with socialist Sanders, but later backtracked and in July rolled out a plan that largely left private insurance intact. Both favor the repeal of tax cuts that juiced the national economy and made it possi...

The fault lines within the Democrat Party should be obvious to everyone. The Democrat Party left, best caricatured by Alexandria Ocasio - Cortez , had a diminished presence at the Democrat National Virtual Convention. AOC’s spiel was only a minute long, 14 minutes less that anyone else’s “15 minutes of fame.” A Republican Party Benedict Arnold, former Ohio Governor John Kasich , was given 4 minutes at the Democrat virtual convention to fume over the titular head of the Republican Party – until he can be impeached, again – President Donald Trump. Biden’s tightrope walk over a leftist-socialist ravine was lucidly described by Jeff Weaver, a top advisor to socialist Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. “The efforts to attract support from people like Kasich,” Weaver said, “are part of building an electoral coalition; it's not the governing coalition… We certainly have seen no backsliding on the substance’ of the issues that the Biden and Sanders camps agreed to.” Weaver fully expects...

  Smith It would make a fine obituary. From the New Haven Independent : “Dayshon Smith, a 28-year-old local boxer nicknamed ‘Superfreak’ for his power and reach in the ring, was shot and killed amid gunfire in the Hill Saturday after a large party on Rosette Street turned deadly, leaving five others hospitalized.” Brian Clark, who runs the  Ring One boxing gym on Congress Avenue , turned out for the rain-soaked press conference following the shooting to speak up on behalf of his former boxing student. “Smith had a job working with disadvantaged youth, Clark said, and no criminal record. He said Smith had a daughter whom he adored and spent much time with. “’He worked. Had a real job. A real legit job,’ Clark said. ‘He was a good father. He was doing the right things.’” “And, Clark said, Smith was a tremendous boxer.” An email released by New Haven police ticks off the victims of the shootout. While Smith died, five other victims survived. They included “a 27-year-o...

"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary" – Henry Mencken At some point, some bright-eyed and bushytailed reporter will notice that the Democrat National Convention has no clothes on. The event is being referred to in news stories as “the Democrat National Convention,” although delegates are not convening anywhere because there is no “where” there, no delegates, no contestable nominating speeches, no reporters roaming the convention floor shoving microphones into delegates faces and asking them what they might think about party leaders. The non-convention this year will be a video presentation, an entirely scripted event featuring a host of speakers including former Ohio Republican Governor John Kasich, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, high-profile black speakers former first lady Michelle Obama and her consort,   former President Barack O...

“If ever a time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in Government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin” – Sam Adams I’m sitting in the Midnight Café, only half full on orders of Governor Ned Lamont, having breakfast. The place names and personal names throughout have been changed to protect innocent, non-politicians. The usual waitress, Sami, of indeterminate age, sporting her usual braided ponytail, greets me, a steady customer, and the order is quickly put on the table. The next few booths are filled with electricians brought into the state by Eversource to reconnect houses and businesses with mostly repaired power lines. They are, many of them, on their way back to their home states after a grueling stretch in Connecticut. Sami calls out to them, “Have a safe trip back, guys,” and they wave beefy forearms in her direction. “Sami, look at this picture, and tell me what you think.” The photo, top ...

It appears that Governor Ned Lamont and teachers – which is to say, teacher unions – may be at loggerheads. Lamont wants schools in Connecticut to open in the fall because he believes, rightly, that tele-education is insufficient education. Many teachers, if they could break away from union propaganda, might agree with him. There is little indication that young people, even when they are exposed to Coronavirus, suffer serious harm. School closings and forced sequestration, much of the data shows, are attended with a variety of serious, sometimes fatal, problems. Who then, in this head-butting contest, will prevail, the governor or state unions? Based on previous head-buttings between Connecticut’s fourth branch of government, state employee unions, and Democrat governors, the state unions appear to have a winning edge in push and shove negotiations. Governor Dannel Malloy and state unions were on the friendliest of terms. Indeed, Malloy gained credibility, campaign funds, and ext...

The Associated Press (AP) story, “ Sobering’ report shows hardening attitudes against media ”, should ring alarm bells in all the right places. The first three paragraphs are clangers: “The distrust many Americans feel toward the news media, caught up like much of the nation’s problems in the partisan divide, only seems to be getting worse. “That was the conclusion of a ‘sobering’ study of attitudes toward the press conducted by Knight Foundation and Gallup and released Tuesday. “Nearly half of all Americans describe the news media as ‘very biased,’ the survey found.” The AP story draws upon a random survey of 20,046 American adults conducted between Nov. 8, 2019 and Feb. 16, 2020, and the story’s money graph is a blow to the solar plexus: “The study found 73% of Americans feel that too much bias in news reports is a major problem, up from 65% two years ago. “Those surveyed also didn’t believe much in honest mistakes. When there were inaccuracies in articles, 54% of Americans...

Lamont and police accountability law The ceremonial signing of Connecticut’s new police reform law and the consequent messaging by Governor Ned Lamont, some may have discovered, was dizzyingly confusing. Nearly everything touched by Lamont, sooner or later, becomes fuzzy on its edges. “ Lamont signs police reforms, but tells cops, ‘You’re my heroes’ ”  reads the headline on one publication. The “but” in that headline is meant to caution the reader – confusion ahead. If the reforms were necessary, police across the state could not be heroes, because the reforms, as we’ve been told countless times by the reformers, are intended to change the unwonted, non-heroic behaviors of police officers. And, since the new law is a  state  law that applies to all police in Connecticut, not merely a handful of police officers who stray from right-behavior, we must suppose that all officers in Connecticut, in the absence of necessary reforms, show a tendency to slide into unheroic beh...