Posts tagged as “Column of the Day”

Public discussion on Ukraine is all about confrontation. But do we know where we are going? In my life, I have seen four wars begun with great enthusiasm and public support, all of which we did not know how to end and from three of which we withdrew unilaterally. The test of policy is how it ends, not how it begins.

Far too often the Ukrainian issue is posed as a showdown: whether Ukraine joins the East or the West. But if Ukraine is to survive and thrive, it must not be either side’s outpost against the other — it should function as a bridge between them.

Russia must accept that to try to force Ukraine into a satellite status, and thereby move Russia’s borders again, would doom Moscow to repeat its history of self-fulfilling cycles of reciprocal pressures with Europe and the United States.

The West must understand that, to Russia, Ukraine can never be just a foreign country. Russian history began in what was called Kievan-Rus. The Russian religion spread from there. Ukraine has been part of Russia for centuries, and their histories were intertwined before then. Some of the most important battles for Russian freedom, starting with the Battle of Poltava in 1709 , were fought on Ukrainian soil. Even such famed dissidents as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Joseph Brodsky insisted that Ukraine was an integral part of Russian history and, indeed, of Russia.

● Read in Washington Post

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Rising inflation is driving up expenses for many large U.S. pension funds that have promised retirees cost-of-living raises.

About half of states link pension benefits for some or all of their retired workers to changes in the consumer-price index, according to the National Association of State Retirement Administrators. With inflation reaching 7% in December, some retirement funds are now looking at increasing pension checks by 3% or more for the first time in a decade. At others, board members or state officials are approving one-time cost-of-living raises. 

● Read in Wall Street Journal

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European governments are scrambling to shore up their natural gas supply if Russia cuts off exports. But one question worth raising: How in the world did Europe leave itself so vulnerable to Vladimir Putin’s energy extortion?

The nearby chart shows how Russian gas exports have increased in tandem with declining European production. A mere 15 years ago, countries in the European Union produced more gas than Russia exported. Yet European production has plunged by more than half over the last decade. Mr. Putin has happily filled the supply gap.

In 2020 Russia exported nearly three times more gas than Europe produced. What’s amazing is that Europe increased its reliance on Russian gas even after Gazprom repeatedly suspended pipeline exports to Ukraine. Germany’s response: Build the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to make itself less dependent on gas flowing through Ukraine.

● Read in Wall Street Journal

● Read and comment here on The Red Line

Nobody needs the federal investigation that is under way to grasp the basics of the racket that was being run from the state budget office -- the Office of Policy and Management -- by its deputy secretary, Konstantinos Diamantis, who a few weeks ago was fired by Governor Lamont, not by OPM Secretary Melissa McCaw.

Diamantis, who was in charge of state government's financing of municipal school construction projects, steered no-bid contracts to a construction management company that employed his daughter, Anastasia. Diamantis also facilitated Anastasia's hiring as the $99,000-a-year assistant to the chief state's attorney, Richard Colangelo Jr., while Colangelo was seeking the budget office's approval for raises for prosecutors.

Did McCaw know what her deputy was doing, fixing the job for his daughter in the chief state's attorney's office and steering the school construction contracts to her other employer?

McCaw, who is Black, has insinuated racism, which may be construed as a cheap distraction and evasion of responsibility for the corruption that has exploded right under her nose.

● Read in Journal Inquirer

● Read and comment here on The Red Line

After leaving his victims with shattered dreams and millions in collective financial losses, the legendary con artist Charles Ponzi observed with casual cruelty, “Even if they never got anything for it, it was cheap at that price.”

There is something of that same unrepentant sentiment in the unwillingness of woke corporate boards and national media pundits to demand accountability and transparency of Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, a $90 million organization that publicly promised social justice to its millions of small donors and corporate benefactors.

On January 5, Washington State Attorney General Robert Ferguson issued a “Closure Notice” demanding that BLM “immediately cease” all fundraising activities, because it had failed to file its annual financial disclosure report for tax year 2020, due last November. California Attorney General Rob Bonta followed suit a few weeks later. Despite these clear directives, BLMGNF continued fundraising until reports last week exposed their flagrant violations.

According to those reports, the group’s charity registration is also out of compliance in Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina and Virginia.

● Read in Real Clear Politics

● Read on and comment here on The Red Line

Connecticut’s Partnership 2.0 healthcare plan, the basis for a proposed state-run healthcare plan called the Public Option, has been hiding cost overruns through some creative accounting, according to a new study released by Yankee Institute.

The Partnership Plan 2.0 allows local governments to purchase healthcare insurance through the state employee plan. The Public Option legislation pushed by former Comptroller Kevin Lembo would have allowed small businesses, unions and possibly individuals to join the program, as well.

● Read at Yankee Institute

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Connecticut is about to undergo a turnover in state employees unprecedented in its history. This presents a challenge in assuring that services are adequately maintained.

But it also presents opportunities — to find savings, to make government more efficient, and to diversify the state workforce so that it better reflects the populace.

Ideally, strategies to manage the anticipated turnover in workers would come in coordination with state employee unions. But realistically, that will be difficult.

Related Content: Gov. Lamont Is in Public (Union) Service

What cannot happen is for this or future administrations to allow the unions to dictate how this plays out. Gov. Lamont and any future governor must push back against attempts to institutionalize inefficiencies through labor contracts.

● Read in The Day

● Read and comment here on The Red Line