Category: ENDORSEMENTS

In today’s Hartford Courant, there are a couple stories (at least a couple) that fly in the face of all reason, and should prompt most of us to say, Are You Serious?

According to the Courant, over the next 13 years, the cities especially Hartford and Bridgeport are going to experience a boom while the smaller municipalities, especially the wealthier ones, like Greenwich and Wilton, are going to see their populations diminish.

The Courant reported that, “Patrick Flaherty, an economist at the state Department of Labor, analyzed the data from the Connecticut State Data Center and found numbers that surprised him.”

Most of the data and projections come from state sources, which are remarkable unreliable, biased, and politically motivated. In this case, both the data and the analysis is derived from state data. They can’t even figure out the size of the deficit which is based on current data let alone perform complex, multivariate, economic projections.

The article assigns the anticipated success of our large cities to our Governor, who, in the eyes of this publication is a combination of Mother Theresa, for his enlightened selflessness and Pope Francis, for his infallibility, because of his tireless, attack on the “ joblessness, blight and crime”, that plague those cities, as well as, “looking for ways to improve cities”, and “spending money to clean up unused and dilapidated industrial sites to promote business growth, funding so-called innovation places to create urban districts promoting high-tech business and upgrading inter-city transportation that attracts downtown retail and residential development around rail and bus stations”.

However, before we start appealing to Rome for Dannel’s immediate canonization, it is necessary to think about this for a moment.

All of the projections fly in the face of common sense, which not only confuses the situation but also lends further doubt as to the credibility of the data,  the analytics, or both.

To predict the unlikely rise of Hartford and Bridgeport and the demise of the ‘burbs, especially in lower Fairfield County, where I live reminds me of the old Groucho Marx saying, – “Who are you going to believe, me? or your own eyes?”

We need to enlist outside sources to not only provide the projections but to aggregate and maintain the data. This will lessen our dependence on the ever-growing bureaucracy, and reduce costs dramatically, as well as, provide greater assurance that the data is not tainted with political bias.

Connecticut’s constitution calls for the establishment of 6 offices, like the Office of the Governor, Office of the Secretary of State etc. However, we currently have over 106 offices, departments, agencies, boards, councils, and commissions. This does not include the quasi-public agencies like the Capital Region Development Authority or the Connecticut Airport Authority, nor does it include the 20+ agencies overseeing the state-provided higher education system.

I have argued that the private sector can perform nearly all government services with greater competence and efficiency than the public sector. There are numerous examples that demonstrate this over the last 240 year history of our country, as well as the basic laws of economics.

I have a saying that, “nothing is permanent, except a temporary government program”.

I am a conservative and the prime directive of the Conservative Party is to limit the interference of the federal government, and to scale back the involvement of the federal government to those powers enumerated in the Constitution, which are very few. However, even those who believe otherwise, those who believe that the government should be involved in governing the Internet and our healthcare, it doesn’t mean that they government must manage these systems.

If you believe that the feds should tell us, how fast our Internet should be, or what medical insurance we must buy, or what treatments and procedures, each of us should be entitled to it doesn’t mean that the government necessarily has to provide those services.

I had stated several times in posts, only partially jokingly, that the Democratic governor and legislature of our state would rather let the bridges fall down and the roads become impassible and the quality of our schools to fall down to Mississippi’s level before they would consider imposing any realistic concessions on the public employee’s unions of the state (a.k.a. The Aristocracy of Labor). Well, it appears that that is already taking place.

According to a 24/7 Wall Street research analysis, our state comes in a #4 in states whose roads, bridges and dams are crumbling, or as they put it, “States That Are Falling Apart”. To make matters worse, only one (Rhode Island) of the three states that is in worse condition than Connecticut spends less than the Nutmeg State to correct their problems. So, it appears that we are in a position to challenge Little Rhody to become the state with the worst municipal infrastructure in the country. To add to the embarrassment all the states that are considered worse than us have lower per capita incomes including one of the lowest – West Virginny.

Now that our leaders have committed all that money to appease Malloy’s union cronies, and to fulfill Speaker Aresimowicz’s obligations to his full-time job, and considering that that has been accomplished in a fashion which will shackle the hands of any incoming, more fiscally-responsible, administrations for the next 10 years, we can be pretty certain to be sitting atop this infamous list before the next decade is completed, unless; of course, Dannel Malloy becomes governor of Rhode Island and the citizens of RI are insane enough to elect a union bigwig to control that state’s purse strings.

Watching the protesters at the Women’s March on Washington we witnessed a microcosm of the Progressive utopia. The marchers were mainly young and mainly white. If this were a protest of working class people each clutching a copy of Atlas Shrugged there would certainly be an accusation of racism, divisiveness etc. But that aside, in most respects it was a typical Progressive affair.

Like most Progressive affairs, the one of the principal mantra was diversity but the practice was exclusion. Pro-life groups of women were not welcome. As usual, equality, fairness and rights was demanded for others but not practiced. I am sure that very few of these ladies would allow Clarence Thomas or Ben Carson move in next door or marry their daughters .

Asking what they were marching for elicited a variety of responses mostly in the form of clichés and slogans. They were there to protest Fascism. To unite behind all immigrants and for all women worldwide. etc. Not very much that was actionable.

There were however two exceptions. The mob was united by two things. First – they love abortion and I mean they really love it, and second, they hate Donald Trump.

So, despite all of the signs saying, Love Trumps Hate. The one thing that united this mob was hatred. Eric Hoffer once remarked that hatred is the force that binds mass movements. A common love drives people apart. Two people who love the same person are enemies. One looking at the other as a trespasser. But hatred binds. Two people who hate the same person, whether it is one the National Mall or around the office water cooler, will form a cohesive powerful vehicle of hatred. They will gossip and contemplate sinister outcomes and fantasize about all kinds of horrible ills falling upon the head of the object of their disdain. Even to the extent of welcoming the destruction of the White House. Perhaps with the president, his cabinet and all 65 million supporters huddled within.

And who can be a better partner to channel this venom that the leading merchant of human destruction than Planned Parenthood.

Finally, this march gave new meaning to the Soros globalist vision of the classless society. Although maybe with a distinctly new meaning. Perhaps it was the uterus with the fallopian tubes fashioned into fists with the middle finger sticking up, or perhaps it was the “Fuck Trump” chants, the “Abortion Rules!” signs, or Madonna’s call for destruction, the 10-year old lad boasting of setting fires and proclaiming, “Screw the President” while his proud parents look on, or it may have been Ashley Judd accusing the President of the United States of contemplating sexual relations with his daughter. Overall, it gave new meaning to the demand of the classless society, not a society without classes but one without class.

(1)Loosely based on Bob Dylan’s I Shall Be Free No. 10. https://genius.com/Bob-dylan-i-shall-be-free-no-10-lyrics

Meryl Streep received the Golden Globe Lifetime Achievement award to blast President Obama.

“We need the principled press to hold power to account, to call them on the carpet for every outrage,” she bellowed, in an apparent reference to the fawning treatment that the press has given the Obama over the last nearly eight years. She was obviously referring to the fact that the press has ignored his original promise to be a great unifier and instead has been the most divisive president ever. Or perhaps their ignorance of his promise to “bring hope” to American while his own wife admits that after two terms that, “now we know how it feels to be without hope.”

“Disrespect invites disrespect. Violence incites violence,” she continued, in apparent reference to the President’s disrespect for the men and women of law enforcement and his infamous, ”the police acted stupidly” remark; or his perhaps his repeated attempts to convince certain racial hate groups to visit the White House. However, she could have been referring to his visceral hatred and disrespect for Benjamin Netanyahu by snubbing him on his last three visits to the US, or his final U.N. betrayal, or perhaps his support of Iran, the leading sponsor of violence and terrorism, which he refers to as, “Our partner in peace.”

Ms. Streep also blasted Obama saying, “when the powerful use their position to bully others, we all lose,” in an apparent reference to Mr. Obama statements that he has a “pen and a phone,” and he will make his own laws ignoring the separation of powers, and his decision not to enforce the immigration laws duly passed by congress, or to bully states by threatening to withhold funding if some of his imperialist dictates are not followed.

Hollywood is a very liberal, insular world and most top tier performers have no idea what normal, working-class people who buy tickets to their performances do daily and the hardships that they face. But, don’t worry, Meryl, the people have spoken and they have rejected the bully that has wreaked so much divisiveness in the country, who has spread so much hatred, who has burdened the future generations with mountains of additional debt, and created safe havens for terrorists in Iraq, Syria and Libya and who has ignored the founders and their brilliant Constitution to which you have referred. Things are changing and the mistakes of the past 8 years can still be rectified.

“Not my president”, was probably the mantra for the 4 million signers of a petition which urged electoral college members to disregard the will of their constituents and submit to the tyranny of the majority because Hillary Clinton won the popular vote.

That is just plain wrong.

Hillary Clinton did obtain more votes than Donald Trump but that wasn’t part of the game. You cannot win something if there isn’t a game being played. If the popular vote was relevant, perhaps Donald Trump would have set a foot in California and perhaps persuaded some voters to change their minds or perhaps to persuade some less liberal voters to venture out to the voting booth to cast a vote without considering that their a vote for Trump in California or in New York is somewhat futile. Point is, that if you change the rules of a game after the game you can’t really make any ex post assumptions with regard to the outcome under the revised rules. To say Hillary Clinton won the popular vote is unsupportable, because no such contest was ever held.

I am a NY Yankees fan, and although I was a mere babe in 1960, and I don’t remember the game, I do remember my father’s angry reaction to Bill Mazeroski’s homer to win the series for the Pirates. Or the string of obscenities directed at Ralph Terry and Casey Stengel. I can fantasize that Rachael Maddow may have had a similar reaction at about 2:00 AM on November 9.

Someone may have made the argument that baseball is a game in which one team tries to score more runs that the other. In those seven games the Yankees scored 55 runs and the Pirates scored 27. So, the argument could be made that the Yanks outscored the Pirates and therefor are the rightful world series champions. Bobby Richardson was the MVP, for cryin’ out loud!

Absurd to be sure, but undoubtedly today would have some declaring, “Pirates are not my champion”, and sending agents to disrupt the victory parade down Grant Street.

Barack Obama is preparing to move out of the White House and into another white house a few blocks away and he shows no signs of returning to the earthly side of the Looking Glass from the land of Oz or escaping from his insular bubble.

The deterioration of race relations that has occurred over the past 8 years was even evident to Jay Levine of CBS, asked the president why he thought that race relations have been getting worse. Obama actually said that race relations were actually getting better and not worse as 77% of Americans believe according to a Gallop Poll released before the latest video of 4 blacks torturing and beating a mentally disabled white man while hurling racial insults. Nevertheless, the President replied, “I promise you, for the most part, race relations have gotten better.”

One must wonder if this man actually believes his own BS or is he simply one of the greatest, straight-faced liars in history.Although Mr. Obama seems quite out of touch with reality. I don’t think that this is unique. Think of Donald Trump’s frequent boasts that “Mexicans love me”. Here in Connecticut, Governor Malloy is considering running for a third term despite favorability ratings in the low 20’s. The spotlight has a unique isolating effect on those upon whom it shines. They are surrounded by supporters and sycophants, who repeat how great they are in comparison to mere mortals and pooh-pooh any criticism as isolated and temporary partisan chatter.

Well, we knew that the President was lost in the ozone, but now it appears that his wife is partaking of the same Kool-Aid. In an interview with Oprah Winfrey, the FLOTUS claimed that the President fulfilled his promise of restoring hope to the country over the last 8 years and then promptly contradicted herself by adding that, “now we are feeling what not having hope feels like.” So Barack has fulfilled his promise of restoring hope by ending his tenure leaving the country with the feeling of not having hope. Confused? Yes, I think she is.