Connecticut Commentary: Red Notes from a Blue State

Orwell In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act – George Orwell The state of Connecticut – read: Governor Ned Lamont, a multi-millionaire Democrat, and the state General Assembly, controlled for the past half century by a Democrat majority – have concluded a “deal” with Connecticut’s State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition (SEBAC), a consortium of public employee unions. “The Senate gave final approval Friday to a four-year package of raises for state employees that includes $3,500 in bonuses to help stem a surge in worker retirements,” CTMirror reported as a sodden April was giving way to May flowers. “The Democratic-controlled Senate voted 22-13 along party lines to approve the contracts, which cover about 46,000 workers — the bulk of the state’s workforce.” Speaking for Democrats in the General Assembly, co-chairwoman of the Appropriations Committee Sen. Cathy Osten of Sprague said, intending no irony, “Today we’re living in a post-COVID...

Lamont opening the General Assembly “ The future ain’t what it used to be ” – Yogi Berra The Headline in a CTMirror story, “ CT budget deal includes $600M in tax cuts, extends gas tax holiday ”, includes a telling subtitle: “ But more than half the tax relief is guaranteed for just one year. There’s always a “but” in good journalism raining on someone’s parade. The thrust of the   story raises an interesting question: In what sense is “tax relief” a “tax cut”? Many of the “tax cuts” referenced in this and other stories in Connecticut’s media are either temporary tax cuts or tax credits. A temporary tax cut is only a “tax cut” until it elapses, after which it becomes once again a tax increase. And a “tax credit” is not, properly speaking, a tax cut. A tax, almost always permanent, moves money from a taxpayer’s budget to a state or federal treasury.   A “tax cut” terminates the movement and leaves disposable assets in the account of the taxpayer. A tax credit retain...

Blumenthal There is little doubt that Connecticut U.S. Senator Dick Blumenthal has been emotionally affected by his recent visit to Poland, where he saw writ large at first hand the ravages of Russian imperialist Vladimir Putin’s policy towards Ukraine, NATO, the United States and democracy. About a third of Ukrainians have fled Putin’s assaults on major Ukrainian cities, many of them ending up in Poland. Blumenthal well understands Putin’s unjustifiable attacks on a sovereign country that has served since the Soviet Union recession as a buffer between Russia and Eastern Europe. Strategically, Putin wants to crush Ukrainian independence, move Russia’s border westward, so that it is contiguous with the borders of NATO states, put Ukraine permanently at the mercy of Russia by annexing the Donbas region, as Russia had earlier annexed Crimea, providing a land bridge from Russia to Crimea. Both Blumenthal and Biden are familiar with Putin’s strategic war aims. So are nearly all Democrat...

The Lamont Family On the one hand, Connecticut Democrats have for years had a love/hate relationship with the rich. Not a few Democrat Jeremiahs have let loose on the rich over the years, partly in order to claim solidarity with the more numerous middle class. In our progressive post-Marxian leftist universe, class is still king. The rich, by simply being rich, are still regarded in leftist quarters as oppressors of the proletariat. Connecticut’s “Gold Coast,” a parcel of well-endowed rich people stretching snake-like along the state’s southern coastline, fairly glows with wealth. Greenwich is wealth central, and a few Democrat politicians live in the glorious gilded bubble, far from the madding crown. U.S. Senator Dick Blumenthal and Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont, both of whom will be heading the Democrat ticket in the midterm elections, live in Greenwich. Other Democrat U.S. Congressional millionaires are U.S. Representatives Jim Himes, who also lives in Greenwich, and Democr...

Blumenthal, Biden In the campaign season now upon us, money is, more than ever, the mother’s milk of politics. U.S. Senator Dick Blumenthal, we all know, is rich in every sense of the word. He is a multi-millionaire who lives in splendor in Greenwich, Connecticut, a billionaire’s Eden. And he, as well as other Democrat U.S. Congresspersons, also redundantly rich – such as 3 rd District U.S. Representatives Rosa DeLauro, first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives more than three decades ago in 1990, and 4 th District U.S. Representative Jim Himes, now enjoying his seventh term in office – is able at the drop of a hat to assemble a formidable campaign war chest that will serve to discourage primary opponents and assure an effortless glide path to victory. In addition to personal wealth, Blumenthal is also rich in mostly flattering news reports, many of which he or his staff had a hand in creating through carefully crafted news releases not always critically examined by Conn...

Polarization, most often caused by rapid political change, sets group A, most often a majority, against group B, an aggressive minority determined, as Father of the American Revolution Sam Adams used to say, to set fire in the minds of men:  “It does not take a majority to prevail ... but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.” For Adams, the lust for freedom and liberty always played a leading role in the shape and substance of government. “Government,” Father of the Country George Washington once said, “is force ,” which is why it should be deployed sparingly. In postmodern times, liberty is less important than political organization. The postmodern politician is not especially interested is freeing mankind from political oppression and unwanted force. It is interested chiefly in occupying a place of power and using hard won political advantage to rule. Force, not freedom, is the political desideratum among most parties s...

The Black Madonna of Czestochowa Just before the joy of Easter broke upon us, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, far from Russian bombardments in Ukraine. In an interviewed on NBC’s “ Meet the Press ,” Nehammer said that Putin thinks he is winning the war in Ukraine despite heavy military losses and the fruitless non-stop bombing of Ukrainian cities. Putin certainly has left his mark on Ukrainian cities, and will continue to do so as long as Ukraine’s military cannot close Ukrainian air space to what can only be called urban carpet bombing. More bombing in Bucha and Mariupol, for instance, can do little more than disturb the rubble of Putin’s carefully chosen targets. There is not a single military man in Connecticut, from Private First Class to General, who would not tell you that whoever controls the skies in a war also controls ground offenses, however brave and resolute the resistance.  “We have to confront him [Putin]...