3 September—El Conservatissimo took me to task again from his iPhone (whose automatic text correction must have been disabled for the purpose) for being critically truthful about Donald Trump and his foul flunkies: “mordy the whole world knows you suffer from tds like all the other leftwings in the liberal media so give trump a break for a change and give up comparing him to caligula which you know is bullshit and stop defending connecticut which you know you hate for defending immigrant criminals. I bet your stocks are doing better then ever and your taxes are lower then ever so admit you owe trump a big thank you. make america great again.”
Okay. I’m flattered. But suffice to say (for now) that Donald Trump doesn’t deserve yet another break. Of any sort. From anyone. And what possibly could have led El to believe I hate Connecticut? I certainly disdain the current irresponsible tripartite Democrat government, but the state itself is merely an innocent victim. Just as the country is merely an innocent victim of the evil tripartite Republican government.
On the better hand, El Liberalissimo emailed: “Let me know when I can join you in campaigning for Litchfield and Washington to be Sanctuary burghs.” Noble sentiment indeed. And given the political demographic of both towns—even more so in Washington than Litchfield—the sanctuary declaration should pass easily. On principle and if ever proposed. And I can imagine residents of both towns hiding immigrants and proudly defying the ICE blackshirts.
But it’s all gratuitous and feel-good. Because, as I wrote a couple of days ago (evidently to El Conservatissimo’s chagrin), Connecticut, while officially denying it’s a sanctuary state, is indeed what the federal government calls a sanctuary jurisdiction thanks to the Trust Act of 2019 which “intentionally, clearly, and quite rightly prohibits law enforcement agencies from arresting or detaining people based solely on ICE orders or requests and limits information sharing with ICE except under specific and limited circumstances.”
Reminds us of the days when good people risked criminal prosecution among other things to give sanctuary to escaped slaves. Incidentally, Connecticut didn’t completely abolish slavery until 1848, being the last New England state to do so.
On a different note, then, here’s a candid picture of the pope crashing a garden party at an Oxford University college:
2 September—Erratum et corrigendum first: Sunday’s daily disquisition about campaign politics in Litchfield took the poor Hearst Republican-American piecework correspondent to task for having a town employee rather than someone connected with the campaign extol the virtues of her boss, Litchfield’s first selectman. But it turns out that the extoller, Roberta Andrulis Mette, isn’t a town employee at all. Rather, she’s First Selectman Denise Raap’s campaign manager. Shame on me for not knowing that. And shame on the poor Hearst Republican-American piecework correspondent, Kurt Moffett, for not mentioning that pertinent fact. Or was Roberta Andrulis Mette not transparent with Kurt Moffett?
Back to the business at hand, then, allay all doubt, ye of little faith, that Donald Trump deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. Because he has declared yet again and in no uncertain terms, “War is over.” And that’s obviously all it takes to give peace a chance.
So let’s repeat it: “War is over.” In fact, let’s emphasize it: “War is over!” And let’s not forget who said it. Kind of like British PM Neville Chamberlain declaring “Peace for our time” (rather than “Peace in our time”) after being hoodwinked by Hitler in 1938.
While we’re awarding Nobel prizes, Trump certainly deserves the one in Economic Sciences because his novel—some would say radical—take on bringing down prices by imposing punitive tariffs and making super-rich people even richer is sure to make America affordable again. Adam Smith, among others, has a lot to learn from Donald Trump.
And let’s not forget about the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Trump has earned that without question by appointing the radically brilliant nut-job Robert F. Kennedy Jr. his secretary of health and human services. Come to think of it, that might even qualify Trump for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, since he and Kennedy obviously know more than accredited experts and authorities about vaccines and other silly stuff.
The other Nobel Prize Donald Trump so richly deserves is, of course, the one in Literature. While Trump himself hasn’t the attention span to actually have written any of the many books with his name attached, he surely has provided more work for ghost writers than any other individual in the history of publishing.
(If there were a Nobel Prize in Law, Trump would deserve for that for the same reason.)
While we can’t think of anything that would even remotely qualify Donald Trump for the Nobel Prize in Physics for a clean sweep, give him some time. We won’t speculate about the miracles Trump is capable of. But it’s safe to say, if God can do it, so can Donald Trump . . .
1 September—Today is Labor Day and it appears that the holiday, traditionally observed by most employees of most agencies in the public sector by not laboring, is now being observed that way by more and more employees of more and more businesses in the private sector. And why not? Fair is fair, after all. So our hearts and prayers go out to the poor souls who must nevertheless labor on Labor Day. It’s just not fair.
On the subject of fair, then, Litchfield should do the fair and right thing and declare itself a sanctuary town. For all it’s worth, to be sure, since the town itself has no means of detaining undocumented (i.e., illegal) immigrants. Or anybody else, for that matter.
And why would Donald Trump’s paramilitary ICE blackshirts want to come to Litchfield anyway? Oh yes, illegals—rather, undocumented immigrants—have been known to work in and for various business establishments in and around Litchfield. But that was a long time ago, as far as we know. Before Trump at least. And in Trump’s police state it’s inconceivable that they’d still be doing it.
But Litchfield should declare itself a sanctuary town on principle anyway. Should but won’t. Of course. It would make Litchfield the first sanctuary town in Connecticut, joining cities on the corrupt and weaponized Department of Homeland Security’s shit-list of honor like Hartford, New London, and New Haven (which prefers to call itself a “welcoming city”).
Connecticut itself officially denies it’s a sanctuary state, although the Trust Act of 2019 intentionally, clearly, and quite rightly prohibits law enforcement agencies from arresting or detaining people based solely on ICE orders or requests and limits information sharing with ICE except under specific and limited circumstances. That’s why Trump’s corrupt and weaponized Department of Justice considers Connecticut a “sanctuary jurisdiction.” The state should be proud of that designation rather than try to deny it.
Litchfield could be declared a sanctuary town by executive order of the first selectman, by the board of selectmen, or by a town meeting. Such a declaration would be meaningless in the circumstance, to be sure. But it would be a source of pride. It should be, anyway.
In all events, it’s doubtful that the sanctuary city declaration will be an issue in the Litchfield election campaign. But candidates’ feelings or opinions about Donald trump just might . . .
31 August—Evidently we’re going through a slow news period. Because the Hearst Connecticut Media bean counters posing as journalists actually assigned a beleaguered piecework “correspondent” to do a story on Litchfield. It’s on the currently low-key first selectman’s race, pitting newbie William Zampaglione against three-term incumbent Denise Raap.
Candidates’ party affiliation is mentioned only once in the story, in the second paragraph, as it shouldn’t be—but invariably and unfortunately is—a consideration in a local election. The Litchfield Republican Town Committee chairman extols the virtues of his candidate and a town employee extols the virtues of her boss—which should more appropriately have been done by a representative of the Litchfield Democratic Town Committee for obvious reasons.
We look forward to reading more Litchfield news but don’t expect to find much of it—especially in a timely manner—in the Hearst Republican-American. That’s what Litchfield.bz is for.
While in or on Litchfield, then, the “Dear Region 20 Community” was notified on Friday that “the district store has officially reopened, now through September 26th. Once closed, there will be approximately a 4 week lead time for shoppers to receive their products.” District store? News to us. The sports-oriented (naturally) shmatas aren’t inexpensive, so we hope the region gets a big piece of the action.
We must admit that we hadn’t known Region 20 had a district store of any sort. Then again, until the ridiculous kerfuffle about the Cracker Barrel Old Country Store logo, the only knowledge we had about anything called Cracker Barrel was the mediocre cheese once made and marketed by Kraft (now Kraft Heinz) and now by Group Lactalis S.A., a French dairy company.
Back to Region 20, now that term has begun, we expect that maintenance of the buildings will resume. For whatever reasons, it appears to have been on the back burner during the summer. We haven’t been inside any of the buildings lately, but the exteriors of the ones in Litchfield could do with some diligent TLC.
And lest we let it go unnoticed, today is the 2013th birthday of Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, more popularly known as Caligula. He was assassinated in 41 AD when he was 28, in the fourth year of his notorious reign. In addition to being a sexually perverted, cruel, sadistic, murderous tyrant, he was self-indulgent and extravagant, and of course insane; and he took pleasure in humiliating senators, among others.
Caligula’s popular nickname comes from the Latin “caligula,” meaning “little boot.” It was given him by his wealthy father’s soldiers when he was a child, as he was often (cutely or purposefully?) dressed in mini-military attire, including little boots. Kind of like military school, you might say.
In all events, we shouldn’t want to compare Caligula to a modern self-indulgent, extravagant, insane tyrant who takes pleasure in humiliating people, had a wealthy father, and was sent to military school . . .
30 August—After reading yesterday’s daily disquisition, a reader we’ll call El Conservatissimo (to spare him embarrassment) emailed from his iPhone: “Mordy you are so sick with Trump derangement syndrome that now you call his cabinet members Russian comisars in stead of the Nazis you use to call them. Why can’t you be honest and admit that president Trump is doing a great job to make America great again.”
Well, for starters, he’s not doing anything at all to make America great again. In fact, everything Trump is doing is having just the opposite effect. Notwithstanding Ronald Reagan’s clever 1980 campaign slogan “Let’s Make America Great Again” (merely intended to knock Jimmy Carter’s administration), there’s never been any doubt about America’s overwhelming greatness. Until Donald Trump and his singularly inept, corrupt, dysfunctional administration.
So I’ll ask El Conservatissimo, why can’t he see the light and admit—make that realize—that Donald Trump is the very worst president this nation has ever suffered? In addition to the first totally self-serving autocrat. And I’ll leave it at that. For now, anyway. But I appreciate El’s interest.
In other Trump-related news, yesterday’s Mallard Fillmore comic strip had Mallard commenting: “Marjorie Taylor Greene is so unhappy with Republicans that she’s threatening to leave the party . . . And in related news, the tambourine player in my nephew’s garage band is threatening to go solo.”
Cute. In actual fact, however, according to less comic-stripical sources, Georgia termagant Marj merely told an interviewer that she felt the Republican party had “lost touch with its base” but she had no plans to quit and become an independent or join or form a third party. “No,” she insisted, “I’m urging my own party to support ‘America first.’”
But just what did Marj, a Trump loyalist and mighty MAGA momma, mean by support America and that the GOP had lost touch with its base? Could she possibly have been alluding to the days when the Republicans were the good guys? Nah, not Marj. For now, anyway.
And Marj’s tangential allusion to a third party that she’d never consider brings to mind Elon Musk’s America Party. What could have happened to it? Remember when it was in the headlines just last month? And a hope for the Democrats that it might split the Republicans? Well, evidently the America Party is now a was because Elon needs to get back to his businesses so that he can become the world’s first trillionaire.
Elon has a long way to go (but don’t doubt that he’ll do it), because at the moment his net worth is only something like $420 billion. So it appears that filthy lucre means more to him than his adopted country. Then again, why should he be any different from all the other cryptocrats and oligarchs?
29 August—It was on this day in 1949 that the Soviet Union set off what the commissars called First Lightning (Peravaya Molniya). The good guys—the West—called it Joe-1. It was the Soviet Union’s first atomic bomb. And a direct copy of Fat Man, the bomb dropped on Nagasaki on 9 August 1945 that essentially ended World War II. The plans for Fat Man had been stolen by Klaus Fuchs.
German-born theoretical physicist Klaus Fuchs was a committed communist. Yet, thanks to lapses in American and British security vetting, he worked on the Manhattan Project in the United States. But being a naturalized British subject he was arrested in London and tried in the Old Bailey under British law. At the time of his trial in 1950, treason was a capital offense.
But since the USSR, whom Fuchs was working for (for purely ideological reasons, without pay), was technically a British ally, he couldn’t be tried for treason. The law’s the law. (Except for Donald Trump and his commissars, of course.) So instead he was tried and convicted for violating the Official Secrets Act, which, inter alia, prohibited giving state secrets to a foreign government.
The maximum sentence for that crime was 14 years. So that’s what Fuchs got. Nobody outside of the Soviet Union was happy about it, mind you. And then, to add insult to injury, he was sprung after nine years for good behavior. Thereupon he moved to East Berlin, resumed his work in theoretical physics, received lots of red honors, and died a natural death in 1988 at the age of 76.
While spilling the beans, Klaus Fuchs indirectly fingered Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, among other Soviet spies. They, too, were committed communists (though Julius quit the party during the war for what could be called security reasons), but not as closely involved with passing atom secrets as Fuchs. But they were tried, convicted, and executed in the United States for conspiracy to commit espionage. At their trial, however, the prosecutor and judge more than once referred to their crime as treason, but the defense evidently never moved for a mistrial. Not that it would have done any good.
Public reaction to the Rosenbergs’ conviction, death sentence, and execution was—and remains—deeply divided, especially in Ethel’s case. And the fairness of their trial is still questioned. But the law’s the law. (Except for Donald Trump and his commissars, of course.)
28 August—Saint Augustine, Bishop of Hippo died on this day in 1595 years ago (that’s 430 AD), so naturally it’s his feast day. He’s the patron saint of printers, theologians, and converts to Christianity. The Monitor celebrated his 1668th birthday with a day-late disquisition on 14 November 2022. So here it is again, to fortify your appreciation of the great man. With minor emendation, as appropriate. And on his proper feast day:
Although Augustine of Hippo was quite a respected Latin teacher and theologian, most of us remember him fondly and primarily (only?) for his heart-wrenching supplication to God, as he tells us in his “Confessions”: “Da mihi castitatem et continentiam, sed noli modo.” What Latin! What a guy!
What a guy indeed. Augustine’s family were North African Berbers. But they were quite Romanized, so they likely spoke Latin at home. Except perhaps when parents Monica and Patricius didn’t want little Gus and brother Navigius and sister Perpetua to know what they were talking about. (In the Rosenberg household Yiddish was the language for parental secrets. Our everyday language was Latin.)
Mother Monica was canonized herself, by the way, in part, we’re told, because husband Pat—a pagan who allegedly converted to Christianity on his deathbed (like so many people, we’re told)—tended to screw around. We’ve all heard of Santa Monica.
Since the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, Augustine started sowing his wild oats (but not mixing metaphors) as a teenager and, ignoring his saintly mama’s admonitions, took up with a girl in Carthage. Santa Monica had wanted her brilliant son to avoid fornication (what mother wouldn’t?) and marry a person of at least his own class (what mother wouldn’t?).
Evidently, though, Augustine and his concubine (a.k.a. inamorata) had read a leaked copy of Clarence Thomas’s infamous Dobbs concurring opinion and didn’t take precautions. So when Gus was 18 he found himself father to a son, Adeodatus. Adeodatus means Gift of God in Latin, like Theodore in Greek, which language Augustine the Latin belles-lettrist wasn’t too comfortable in.
To his credit, Augustine maintained a presumably cordial relationship with his son’s mother for 15 years and confessed that he felt guilty when, no fool he, he decided to marry a teen-aged heiress. Kind of like . . . no, I won’t go there. Teen-aged like eleven years old, by the way. And Gus felt guilty when he broke off that engagement, too.
But Augustine jilted his prepubescent heiress only because he had decided to become a priest and by that time celibacy had begun to infect the Roman Catholic priesthood. Go figure. The church and Augustine. Like so many people then and now, Gus seems to have regarded his family-way relationship as equivalent to marriage. To prove his point, he wrote that it produced a decreased sensitivity to pain. He also confessed that, rather than a lover of marriage, as he put it, he was a slave to lust. Evidently a happy, enthusiastic slave.
But the fun ended when Augustine was 31, just about the time he got himself baptized, when, as he put it rather obliquely in Latin, he was “roused to a desire for wisdom, yet still was delaying to reject mere worldly happiness.” And he hadn’t even been thinking of the priesthood at the time.
But that’s when Augustine begged God in the most elegant Latin, “Da mihi castitatem et continentiam, sed noli modo.” In English, we’d put it, “Give me chastity and self-control. But not yet.”
It sounds so much better in Latin. Doesn’t everything? And it’s God’s favorite language. In all events, we don’t know if Augustine actually gave up the flesh in favor of celibate wisdom, as it were, except that he told us he did. And if you can’t believe a saint, whom can you believe?
Incidentally, Saint Augustine of Hippo is not to be confused with Saint Augustine of Canterbury. That Augustine’s claims to fame are that he was the first Archbishop of Canterbury and that Austin cars are named after him. The current Austin car, called the Arrow, is a battery-electric retro-style fair-weather (i.e., topless) roadster that isn’t yet street-legal in the United States.
Da mihi patientiam . . .
27 August—Once you’ve digested (and likely excreted) the biggest news of the year to date that Travis Kelce has proposed to Taylor Swift, consider Donald Trump’s rather less momentous attempt to fire a Federal Reserve governor for alleged mortgage fraud.
You’ll recall that last year Trump and his two eldest sons and elder daughter were found liable (because in civil litigation there’s technically no guilt) for essentially the same kind of fraud—and lots more and in a much bigger way—in a New York State court. (And don’t forget about Trump’s 34-count felony conviction that’s on hold until—hopefully—he’s no longer tyrant-in-chief.)
Recovered? Then consider the latest Region 20 scandal. The following email was sent to the region’s email subscribers Monday evening. It’s a good letter and a good policy regarding discipline. But it raises questions about inconvenience to the “local businesses and non-designated locations,” the potential of trespass, as well as RSD 20’s and property owners’ contingent liability.
Solutions? A couple of years ago, the Connecticut Department of Transportation was allegedly considering sticking a traffic light on Route 202 at or near the high school driveway. But not for the benefit or safety of high school pupils. Silly idea then, silly idea now. You’d figure that high school kids would know how to cross streets and roads. But a well-marked zebra crossing wouldn’t be inappropriate. As well as speed-limit enforcement, of course.
Is the unpaved area on the high school campus dry enough in wet weather for parking? Can the law be amended to permit teenage drivers to carry passengers to and from school?
Forget about more kids suffering school buses. Young Lincoln is said to have hiked four miles to school. Young Rosenberg is known to have hiked a mile and a half to junior high and later to high school, and to this day has never been on a school bus. Nor tasted school cafeteria food. Lucky bugger.
So here’s the scandal:
Dear Region 20 Families,
We are writing to address a significant safety concern in our community regarding students parking their cars at local businesses and other non-designated locations in Litchfield and walking to school. Over the course of last year, the school system received numerous complaints from concerned citizens who observed students crossing Route 202 in potentially hazardous situations.
We understand the desire and the convenience for high school students who are licensed drivers to transport themselves to school. Unfortunately, Lakeview High School only has sufficient parking for the senior class members. While discussions have been held about building parking lots, the fiscal reality is that there are no funds available for such projects. The district has also considered providing a shuttle to and from Plumb Hill Middle School, but logistics and cost are barriers to this solution as well.
We need your help to address this concern with your student because Region 20 Public Schools does not have legal jurisdiction to monitor students parking in various community locations. We cannot issue school-based discipline measures or other consequences unless conduct outside of school causes disruption inside of school. Parking clearly does not meet this criterion.
Our lack of jurisdiction, however, does not lessen our concern for the safety and well-being of our students. It is to this end that we are asking you to take steps to be sure your student is safe on their way to and from campus. The best way for this to happen is to use district-provided transportation.
Region 20 remains open to exploring alternative safe solutions to this dilemma. Last June, the District participated in the Connecticut Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Policy and Planning Safe School Walking Audit. This process examined the hazards that exist around the school that impact students walking to campus. We are looking forward to receiving this report this fall and hope it will provide suggestions on how we can improve community conditions around the school, particularly from the perspective of walking safely.
We appreciate your support as we collectively navigate this complex issue.
Regards,
Jeffrey A. Villar, Ph.D., Superintendent of Schools
Tiffany Parkhouse, Chair, Region 20 Board of Education
Michael Valerio, Principal, Lakeview High School
26 August—The non-news today concerns—wait for it—Donald Trump. Specifically, it’s about the notorious Trump Derangement Syndrome. It’s common knowledge that Trump is deranged. And his niece, a clinical psychologist, says that anyone who listens to him also is deranged. So it looks like we’ll be putting up with wide-spread TDS during Trump’s reign of terror.
It’s also common knowledge that Trump desperately wants the Nobel Peace Prize. That’s in equal part because of the million dollars that goes with it and because his elephantine ego needs constant reassurance and fortification. He fantasized (because we know he never lies) to the press just a week ago that “I’ve ended six wars… all of these deals I made without even the mention of the word ‘ceasefire’.” What a guy! The next day he raised the number to seven.
And if “pre-wars” are included, the “peacemaker-in-chief” (as his flunkies have dubbed Trump for the occasion) has “settled” ten whatever-you-want-to-call-thems. The flunkies stress that “it’s well past time” for their perfect pacific paragon to get the Nobel Peace Prize. Sure it is.
In all events, it’s unlikely Trump will be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for a number of very good reasons. One is that he simply doesn’t deserve it. (But neither did Barack Obama and Albert Gore Jr.) Another is that at least three of the five members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee have publicly condemned him for things like “dismantling American democracy, and . . . doing everything he can to tear down the liberal and rules-based world order”; causing “the erosion of freedom of expression even in democratic nations”; and “putting millions of lives at risk” by banning U.S. foreign aid for international abortion services.
On the other hand, why not award the Nobel Peace Prize—any peace prize, in fact—to a clearly deranged, truly tyrannical, belligerent despot who just the other day announced that he intends to rename the Department of Defense the Department of War?
Trump’s flunkies are mum on what he’ll do if he doesn’t get the Nobel Peace Prize, by the way. But we can imagine. How about 200-percent tariffs on Norwegian imports?
25 August—Region 20’s new superintendent has taken the opportunity of the start of the new school year to issue the de rigueur letter of welcome, commitment, and thanks. It’s posted here.
After reading the super’s letter, you’ll want to click on this link to a ledger of RSD 20’s non-payroll expenditures from May 2024 through July 2025 that was forwarded to The Monitor by a conscientious reader. It’s a public record, evidently posted on the Amazon Web Services cloud computing platform. You’ve got to love the super’s last two sentences. They’re why Jeffrey Villar, Ph.D., is a superintendent of schools.
August 22, 2025
Dear Region 20 Community,
On August 28th, our students will begin the 2025-2026 school year. It is hard to believe that we are approaching the end of August! Summer has gone by so quickly. Only a few weeks ago, it seemed as though we would begin the school year with $2,630,000 in debt, with concerns about how we would transport our students due to a mountain of unpaid bills.
Today, I am pleased to share that it is no longer the case. Each of the four Region 20 towns have agreed to make voluntary payments over a period of up to three years to help the school system pay its debts. Additionally, several towns have helped the district by making their educational services payments weeks earlier than usual. This ensured the district had sufficient funds to pay our transportation provider and other critical vendors prior to the start of school.
I want to thank the local town leaders; Selectmen, Boards of Selectmen and Boards of Finance, whose strong problem-solving mindset helped move us through this process, supporting the school district with its fiscal challenges that shouldn’t have happened.
In the coming months, I will work closely with the Region 20 Board of Education and the Chief Financial Officer to ensure the district reports its finances regularly and keeps the public informed about our budget status. We must carefully monitor our finances and maintain absolute transparency at all times.
I look forward to welcoming our students to the first day of school on August 28th, knowing that the future for Region 20 is now much brighter. Our fabulous Principals, Teachers, and Staff are ready and will work hard to ensure our students have a school year filled with challenging educational experiences, quality athletics, and engaging co-curricular activities.
I am committed to continuing to work hard and lead this district to the heights of success that we all know it is capable of reaching. Region 20 is a school system that represents four beautiful Connecticut towns filled with incredible natural resources. Our schools are filled with even more precious and wonderful resources – our children. They, like the future of Region 20, are amazing!
Regards,
Jeffrey A. Villar, Ph.D.
Superintendent of Schools
24 August—An old voyeurist—make that an observant reader of The Monitor and (still, evidently) the Hearst Republican-American—wrote enthusiastically yesterday about the Go Topless Day Rally on the New Haven Green, while bemoaning the “just plain boring” protesters on the Litchfield Green.
So our photographer hot-footed it to the Litchfield Green just in time to catch two topless demonstrators. Boring? What could the reader have been referring to?
