By Chris Powell After three fatal shootings of young men in New Haven in less than two weeks, Mayor Justin Elicker gave news interviews to assure people that downtown is safe for holiday shopping, dining, and other festive activities. The mayor noted that, as with murders and shootings in other cities, most in New HavenContinue reading “Terrible policies created Connecticut’s underclass”
Category Archives: Uncategorized
If free speech is criminal, there really will be ‘hell to pay’
By Chris Powell Even the most firmly established constitutional rights often seem to be hanging on by a thread. That may be the lesson of the case of William Maisano of Guilford, a retired police officer and former school board candidate who, according to Connecticut’s Hearst newspapers and the Yankee Institute’s journalism project, Connecticut Inside Investigator, could beContinue reading “If free speech is criminal, there really will be ‘hell to pay’”
Rallies at murder scenes aren’t stopping violence
By Chris Powell Most shootings in Hartford are followed by rallies by Mothers United Against Violence at the scenes of the crimes. The shootings two weeks ago were especially atrocious, the victims being a 20-year-old woman and her infant son, killed in what police said was a dispute over a car, with the young perpetratorContinue reading “Rallies at murder scenes aren’t stopping violence”
Attorney General Tong succeeds Trump as foremost insurrectionist
By Chris Powell The more fulminating they do, the more elected officials should be challenged and questioned by journalism. These days Connecticut’s fulminator-in-chief is Attorney General William Tong, a Democrat, yet he gets a free ride from the state’s news organizations and even from the General Assembly’s Republican minority. Two weeks ago Tong was joinedContinue reading “Attorney General Tong succeeds Trump as foremost insurrectionist”
‘Guardrails’ have big gaps and so don’t achieve much
By Chris Powell There’s a big gap in Connecticut’s “fiscal guardrails,” the rules enacted in 2017 to require state government to save a big part of any budget surplus and apply it to its unfunded pension obligations. The gap was noted the other day in an essay in the Hartford Courant by the executive director of the ConnecticutContinue reading “‘Guardrails’ have big gaps and so don’t achieve much”
Ranked-choice voting is good but Connecticut isn’t ready
By Chris Powell Governor Lamont and some good-government activists want Connecticut to adopt ranked-choice voting. This is the mechanism of “instant runoff” elections in which voters rank candidates in order of their preference. Candidates receiving the fewest votes are eliminated and their votes are transferred to the remaining candidates in accordance with voter preferences untilContinue reading “Ranked-choice voting is good but Connecticut isn’t ready”
McMahon is qualified at last by the shrieks of teacher unions
By Chris Powell By conventional standards wrestling entrepreneur Linda McMahon’s qualifications to become the next U.S. education secretary are a bit thin. She has had two years on Connecticut’s feckless State Board of Education, many years on the Board of Trustees of Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, and two years as chief of the U.S.Continue reading “McMahon is qualified at last by the shrieks of teacher unions”
Connecticut’s nullifiers echo the old South’s segregationists
By Chris Powell Upon his inauguration as governor of darkest Alabama in January 1963, George Wallace famously proclaimed his defiance of the federal government on the steps of the state Capitol in Montgomery: “Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever!” At a rally on the steps of Connecticut’s Capitol this week the state’s attorney general, WilliamContinue reading “Connecticut’s nullifiers echo the old South’s segregationists”
Can Democrats ever admit the true cause of their defeat?
By Chris Powell When in 1974, having persuaded Ohio’s state legislature to impose an income tax, Gov. John Gilligan, a Democrat, was narrowly defeated for re-election by his Republican predecessor, he was remarkably honest about it. He took full responsibility. The vote, Gilligan said, was simply a rejection of him. Gilligan fairly could have madeContinue reading “Can Democrats ever admit the true cause of their defeat?”
Many Democrats are crazy too; and ‘on track’ to ignorance
By Chris Powell Supporters of Donald Trump have a reputation for being crazy. Of course some are, but the reputation is strong mainly because supporters of Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, and Kamala Harris run most news organizations and the U.S. Justice Department and have made sure that Trump crazies are well publicized. Now maybe theContinue reading “Many Democrats are crazy too; and ‘on track’ to ignorance”
Chris Powell column 