21 March—Yesterday it was toilet paper. Today, following the logical chain of thought, then, it must be the Connecticut General Assembly. In particular, the state’s far too complacent ruling party. Tomorrow it may be back to toilet paper.

It’s no surprise and entirely understandable that the Democrats in Hartford should suck up to organized labor as well as other segments of society they depend on to keep them in power. The Republicans do the same, to be sure. Problem is, Democrats have a far bigger base that depends on them. And they’re far better at giving political head than the Republicans.

The result is that Connecticut is being flushed down the crapper and has been for most of the half-century I’ve been living here.

Take the General Assembly’s latest insult, for example. There’s a bill being pushed through the Labor and Public Employees Committee that would require state agencies to automatically and continually recruit employees to fill vacancies as they occur. Really and truly.

Of course that makes no sense. It’s no way to manage a business or a government. But we’re talking about political whores buying votes. As well as doing favors for friends and others. And that’s all that matters. And, it must be said, it’s shamelessly conspicuous in its intent. The arrogant bastards don’t have the decency to camouflage their evil intentions.

On the other hand, there’s the way the insidious whores of Hartford are slithering to centralize and maximize their own power by subtly stripping home-rule authority from mostly smaller towns and giving it to gerrymandered regional agencies or directly to Hartford. Take planning and zoning.

There’s the ongoing juggernaut to usurp local P&Z authority for affordable housing, among other abominations, of course. And the latest power grab is even more subtle. Restaurants are to be allowed to continue outdoor dining by state fiat even if local zoning regs don’t permit it.

Regardless of how you feel about that holdover from the darkest days of the COVID panic—and I’ve been critical of sidewalk dining—and even though local P&Zs can be royal pains, it should be up to the towns and not the state. Not if the whores of Hartford have their way.

And that’s not all, folks . . .