Political Discourse 2020

I previously wrote on the importance of Angie Parkinson’s political values and the intensity to which she adheres to them. Based on her seven-year service on the town council, I respect her capacity to focus on the complex pragmatics of town-based governance matters while remaining grounded in her core political values as expressed in a variety of public forums. I appreciate the unique focus she brings as a high school social studies teacher and how her position has opened her students to the greater world around them. I admire her openness to all people and her grassroots approach to coalition building and campaigning. In living out the mantra of thinking globally while acting locally, Angie Parkinson would add a tremendous amount of positive value to the CT legislature as the next 10 th District Assembly Representative.   Angie’s underlying political passion is based on an inner drive to root out injustice on any level. This desire sparks her belief that in a country as wealthy...

Many thanks to Maura Fitzgerald for so succinctly making the case for Rep. John Larson’s candidacy in the August 11 th Democratic primary against his main opponent, former Hartford Mayor, Luke Bronin. She is on target in pointing to Larson’s seniority as a major advantage against President Trump’s unrelenting effort to dismantle democratic governance. This is particularly the case with the so called Save America Act, aimed to prevent the “godless communists” of the “Dumocrat” party from winning congressional election in either house in 2026, thereby, upholding the MAGA vision for decades to come. It is this objective—of promising Republicans that if they passed the Act they would win elections for the next 100 years—which is the rot at the center of this legislative proposal.   What makes Larson’s reelection so vital is his seasoned experience in providing needed oversight, particularly in his passioned commitment to protect and expand social security benefits for millions of se...

  In 2015, the Obama administration negotiated an agreement with Iran which resulted in the regulation and reduction of that nation’s nuclear program capable of producing weapons ‑ grade material in exchange for sanctions relief. Specifically, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) plan was concluded by the governments of the U.S., China, Russia, France, the United Kingdom, and Germany, coordinated by the European Union. It resulted in a significant reduction of Iran ’ s ability to enrich uranium and sharply limited the amount of enriched material it was permitted to retain. It also established strict monitoring of its nuclear activities.   The agreement had the objective of extending that nation’s “breakout” time from a few months to a year before they would reach capacity to acquire the material and technical capability to build a nuclear weapon should the agreement be broken. At the time of the deal, Iran possessed a uranium stockpile that, if further enriched, co...

  With little prospect for normalcy to reassert itself in our deranged political culture, the new year unfolds upon us with three dominating stories: the intrusion into Venezuela, the killings by ICE of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota, and the reigniting of Trump’s obsession to control Greenland. This letter addresses the interrelated foreign policy issues.   The move to take out former Venezuelan President, Nicolos Maduro cannot be viewed in isolation but needs to be seen within a broader objective of exerting U.S. power in Latin and South America and the intrusion into the wider western hemisphere. Whatever other reasons offered, the least credible was that of preserving democracy in Venezuela. Equally dubious was the accusation that Venezuela was a primary source of fentanyl importation into the U.S., given that most fentanyl imports originate in Mexico.   A somewhat stronger case could be made for Venezuela’s role in facilitating cocaine shipments to the U...

With little prospect for normalcy to reassert itself in our deranged political culture, the new year unfolds upon us with three dominating stories: the intrusion into Venezuela, the killing by ICE of Renee Good in Minnesota, and the reigniting of Trump’s obsession to control Greenland. This letter addresses the interrelated foreign policy issues.   The move to take out former Venezuelan President, Nicolos Maduro cannot be viewed in isolation. It must be understood within a broader context that included the previous several month bombings of small vessel ships in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific, the broader objective of exerting U.S. power in Latin and South America, and the intrusion into the wider western hemisphere, particularly Canada and Greenland. Whatever other reasons underlying the Trump administration’s push to remove Madruro, the least credible was that of preserving democracy in Venezuela. Equally dubious was the accusation that Venezuela was a primary source of fent...

If the initial 28-plan program developed by the Trump- and Putin-led governments, which gave Russia nearly everything it wanted in its war against Ukraine is any indication, the United States is on the verge of rewarding the naked aggression of Russia against its neighboring country. Given the current occupant of the White House this should surprise no one. When Russia initially invaded Ukraine in February of 2022, then former President Trump declared the unprovoked act “wonderful.” There is a long history of Trump’s involvement with Russia extending to the 2013 Miss Universe Pageant in Russia and the machinations of his 2016 campaign manager, Paul Manafort’s lobbying for Russian favored politicians in Ukraine. Trump’s emissary to Ukraine, Rudy Giuliani acted to remove the highly acclaimed Marie Yovanovitch as Ambassador to Ukraine because she obstructed efforts to get negative information on the Biden’s during the spring of 2019 in anticipation of the 2020 Presidential election. ...

  According to the President and CEO of the National Constitution Center, Jeffrey Rosen, a constitutional crisis  occurs “if a president refuses to carry out an authoritative opinion of the Supreme Court.” Adam Liptak provides a more expansive view, defining a constitutional crisis as “generally the product of presidential defiance of laws and judicial rulings. It is not binary: It is a slope, not a switch. It can be cumulative, and once one starts, it can get much worse.” (New York Times, 2-12-2025). Consider Trump’s response to federal judge James Boasberg who temporarily blocked the removal by the Trump administration of Venezuelan migrants under the Alien and Sedition Act of 1798, which his administration is stonewalling. In Trump’s eloquent phrasing, the judge is a “Radical Left Lunatic” who should be impeached (Huffington Post, 5-20, 2025). This evoked a response from Chief Justice John Roberts that “for more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachmen...

  Fact: Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022. It was assumed that Ukraine would fall in short order. Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky was offered safe passage by the United States out of Ukraine. His legendary-like response: “I need ammunition, not a ride.” In point of contrast, then former President Trump called the initial Russian incursion into eastern Ukraine “genius.” It was nothing less than “wonderful.”   The accolade was based on giving homage to Putin’s propagandistic acumen in his admiration of the Russian president’s manipulation of “alternative facts” in masking Putin’s colonial driven masterstroke.     Zelensky’s courage reinforced Ukraine’s resolve to take on the juggernaut from the east in a brutal ground and air war. The Ukrainians have fought valiantly over the past three years in a long, vicious stalemate. Combining their own heroic military efforts with the massive support provided by a broad array of European nations, the U.S. and...

Fact: Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022.   It was assumed that Ukraine would fall in short order. Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky was offered safe passage by the United States out of Ukraine. His legendary-like response: “I need ammunition, not a ride.” In point of contrast, then former President Trump called the initial Russian incursion into eastern Ukraine “genius.”  It was nothing less than “wonderful.”  The accolade was based on giving homage to Putin’s propagandistic acumen in his admiration of the Russian president’s manipulation of “alternative facts” in masking Putin’s colonial driven masterstroke.   Zelensky’s courage reinforced Ukraine’s resolve to take on the juggernaut from the east in a brutal ground and air war. The Ukrainians have fought valiantly over the past three years in a long, vicious stalemate. Combining their own heroic military efforts with the massive support provided by a broad array of European nations, the U.S. an...

It is widely acknowledged across the political sector that the second Trump administration will usher in a sea change within the United States that politicians, journalists, and historians will be assessing through the year 2050 and beyond. Commentary will depend on what transpires over the next 4-8 years and on the collective views of those who exercise influence and power within the public square. It is commonly believed that history is written by the winners, a view that is overly simplistic. The historical record is comprised of many voices written from various perspectives, including those that potentially can, as well as that are less likely to be ultimately reconciled with the prevailing power structure—itself, a fluctuating phenomenon. As the French philosopher, Michel Foucault has so brilliantly illuminated, the power/knowledge relationship has an indelible influence on what emerges as reality, a factor which cannot be lightly ignored.    The Trump administration is...

The elevation of Donald J. Trump to the presidency—for the second time—is both absurd and obscene. Absurd, for the very presence of this cartoonish jokester, which is a sick parody of the low-brow culture that he personifies. It is as if Marshal Mcluen’s dictum that the media is the message got processed through Neil Postman’s classic, Amusing Ourselves to Death in the elevation of an utterly uncouth TV reality host to the highest political position in the land. Interpreted through Postman’s lens, Trump’s appeal to the lowest common denominator among those who are inclined to be persuaded by right wing media outlets, is a structural phenomenon that uncannily mimics the absurdities of a constitutional republic which has been corrupted by the multitude of forces that push the nation in the opposite direction. In short, it is absurd to the nth degree that this ridiculous individual, and his group of election denying cronies that he is promoting to the uppermost offices in the land, will ...

  Various commentators have provided rationales as to why Kamala Harris lost the 2024 presidential election. These include the charge that the Democrats were out of touch with the average voters and were either too consumed by the machinations of identity (woke) politics or a radical “far left” socialist agenda that could not be operationalized in the current social, economic and political climate.   Some Democratic prognosticators thought that Harris did not veer sufficiently to the center while others identified the failure to embrace a hard-working class agenda based on high paying jobs and a firm commitment to the labor movement.   I had wanted Biden to announce he would not run for a second term right after the mid-term election, which would have provided time for a sufficient airing of several candidates for the Democratic nomination.     The Harris campaign was launched with a burst of energy after Biden pulled out of the race. Harris dominated the ai...

  I appreciate editor of the East Hartford Gazette, Bill Doak’s detailed article last week on the many legislative accomplishments of 10 th District Rep. Henry Genga. Without repeating the specifics laid out in Doak’s article, what comes across is Rep. Genga’s commitment to serve the needs of those he represents by delivering tangible benefits to them. I observed Rep. Genga hard at work recently at the Rivermead Pointe manufactured home community meeting between a homeowner’s group—the newly formed Rivermeade Council—and the management of the park in their discussion of critical issues raised that the resident group wanted to discuss.   I am uncertain as to the results of that meeting, but it was clear that Rep. Genga was there to work toward solutions in his encouragement of constructive dialogue between the two groups.     I also read the letter by Matt Harper in his endorsement of Salema Davis for her election as the next 11 th District House Representative. ...