Blumenthal escapes questions as he promotes needless war

By Chris Powell

Last week Connecticut U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal returned from a quick trip to Ukraine even more enthusiastic about the U.S. proxy war against Russia there. He said he plans to propose many more billions of dollars for the war.

Journalists dutifully conveyed what the senator said but their reports gave no hint of critical questions. 

Where is the money for more proxy war to come from? Still more debt and inflation rather than taxes and difficult choices in spending? 

Should Russia not have felt provoked by U.S. involvement in the overthrow of Ukraine’s pro-Russian government in 2014, our maneuvering to bring Ukraine into NATO, and our use of Ukraine for gathering military intelligence at Russia’s border?

Eastern Europe has been partitioned dozens of times over the centuries and all of Ukraine used to be part of Russia, so what is wrong with reincorporating into Russia Ukraine’s Russian-speaking provinces? 

Having already extended NATO right up to Russia’s border in four Baltic countries, are the United States and its allies really prepared to fight a war there when they can’t even properly staff their militaries?

What exactly do those nations add to the defense of the United States? Do their contributions match the liabilities they impose?

What is wrong with having neutral buffer zones between great powers?

More than 70 years ago there was good foreign policy advice in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical play “The King and I,” wherein the king sings similar questions: 

Shall I join with other nations in alliance?
If allies are weak, am I not best alone?
If allies are strong with power to protect me,
Might they not protect me out of all I own?

This war is not necessary to U.S. security or that of its allies. It is a dangerous provocation and a bloody mess. Having provoked it, the United States should move urgently to end it, not prolong it.

‘EQUITY’ IS PENSION JACKPOT: Another former state legislator is on his way to a state pension jackpot.

He’s Brandon McGee Jr., a Democrat who served nine years as state representative from Hartford and a year as deputy housing commissioner. He has just been named executive director of the Connecticut Social Equity Council. 

As a state legislator McGee never earned more than a part-time salary, but as deputy housing commissioner he was paid $152,000 per year and he’ll likely be paid more as the Social Equity Council’s executive director. His nine low-paid years in the legislature provided most of his qualification for a state pension, and that pension will be based on the average of his five highest-paid years with state government, with three more high-paid years being virtually assured to him.

Life is good — in state government anyway.

But the Social Equity Council is based on a faulty premise. 

The council will distribute as political patronage millions of dollars in state marijuana tax revenue, which will be awarded in communities believed to have been disproportionately harmed by the “war on drugs” — poor communities, which are disproportionately minority. 

The harm done by the “war on drugs” is construed to mean mainly the criminal prosecutions of dealers and users of contraband. During the “war on drugs,” the poorer, less parented, and less educated were more tempted to try to make money in contraband, just as they are now.

Mistaken as much drug policy may have been and still may be, the communities in which the contraband trade disproportionately occurred also disproportionately benefited from it, disproportionately reaping its profits, since not everyone dealing drugs was caught.     

And what will state government give people who have always obeyed the drug laws? Higher electricity bills.   

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Chris Powell has written about Connecticut government and politics for many years. (CPowell@cox.net)  

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