Free Israel. Free Jewish Students and Professors. Free Jewish Students from Campuses Where They Are Being Persecuted.

Free Israel. Free Jewish Students and Professors. Keep them from harm and abuse in colleges such as Columbia, USC, and Yale. I really cannot believe we are having this discussion in our society today. But with our economy, lives and society turned upside down by Joe Biden and his liberal socialist/communist Democrat Party along with complicit state governments run by incoherent and delusional haters of our country, the hatred of Israel and people of Jewish faith should be no surprise.

I and many others have had enough of the anti-Israel and Pro-Hamas demonstrations we have seen on our college campuses and through the illegal protesting at airports, highways and other public places in our country and world. I and many others have simply had enough of the surreptitious posture of feckless leaders like Connecticut’s King Gov. Ned Lamont the Unaccountable making statements about the Yale protests such as “I think broadly speaking (the anti-Israel protests) been a peaceful demonstration over a cause people believe in,” https://ctexaminer.com/2024/04/23/rise-in-antisemitic-incidents-spark-fear-security-concerns-in-connecticut/. I and many others have had enough of cowardly legislatures such as Connecticut’s not cutting off state funding to schools like Yale until such time as the abuses cease. I and many others have had enough of the silence of elected officials overall, especially Jewish Democrats in not condemning the terrorist actions of Hamas and the murdering in cold blood of over 1,200 Jewish people on October 7, 2023. I and many others want to know why our work, travel and education must be violated by these protestors. I and many others wonder why we must endure their incoherent psychobabble nightly on television and wonder why these attention-seeking spoiled brats are not summarily arrested, or at least summarily ignored by now. Many Taxpayers are sickened that their hard-earned tax dollars have been sent in all sorts of financial benefits to many of these same Universities where it seems like these protests are nurtured and encouraged.

Yale, Columbia, USC, and New York Universities come to mind as being models for anti-Jew and anti-Semitic conduct by observing what is taking place on their campuses. Universities where learning obviously no longer has a place for the students and professors of the Jewish faith who attend and teach there. Racism and bigotry reign supreme for these woke, liberal cesspools of supposed learning and diversity that Taxpayers help to fund.

As an educator, my view of the targeting of Jewish people is ironic, if not dastardly. The Jewish people have always prized the gift and virtue of education as one of their highest priorities. This thirst for knowledge reaches back to Biblical times. Boys aspiring to become rabbis had to memorize the first five books of the Old Testament by the time they were thirteen. The Torah reinforces the forty-eight (48) scriptural virtues, many having to do with education. My friend and colleague Tony De Angelo pointed out on the Lee Elci Show that the goal of Senator Joe Lieberman’s mother was to encourage him to be the first Jewish President of the United States. So, it would seem perversely apropos that the most devastating attack upon the Jewish people would be against their education. (And it is also a blessing that Joe Lieberman is not alive to see the travesty that is taking place against his people at his beloved Yale University, especially with such tragedy engendered by the modern-day version of his Democratic party).

Moreover, having taught for over 42 years on a college level, I have instructed many students of all different faiths including Jewish students. In my own observation these Jewish students excel in their studies. They try to better themselves through education. They have a true respect and tradition with many colleges and universities throughout the world. Why is it socially acceptable now to strip them of this achievement? Why is it acceptable to satisfy these protestors who are in the minority in their beliefs and twisted ideologies of terrorism? Where are the leaders of these colleges? They obviously are ill equipped to remain in their highly paid positions of power if they are so blind to what is happening on their campuses. Campuses that are now segregated between Jews and non-Jews. Campuses where Jews are being persecuted regularly. What happened to the rights of all students, of all faiths?

Are we as a people just going to stand back as those did in the 1930's when the Nazi's started rounding people of the Jewish faith to begin the Holocaust? Are we beginning the new Holocaust of 2024 with paid college demonstrators and their love of the Hamas terrorists? The protestors have no issues with the terrorist actions of Hamas and their murdering of over 1200 Jewish people in cold blood. And now, we have now absolutely no decency or respect for the human life especially if one professes the Jewish faith.

It is time for these protests to end. It is time for the Hamas terrorists to be eliminated and jailed for their crimes against humanity. It is time for educational institutions facilitating this abusive and abhorrent behavior to be defunded and starved out. Remember that this situation would not have reached this point of no return if these Hamas terrorists did not murder on October 7, 2023. And are the Hamas terrorists the true government of Palestine? It sure seems like it to many rational law-abiding citizens of the world.

Israel will always defend itself against those who wish would eliminate it and its right to freedom of religion and the right to self-government. Maybe, (just maybe) we could see a daily condemnation of these Hamas terrorists by both sides of our political aisle, followed by a withholding of educational grant funding. Maybe (just maybe) we could see the entire Connecticut legislature pass a unanimous joint resolution condemning this wretched behavior and withholding its state funding until this nightmare ends. If this were to occur, it would be the first time in the past four years that the horrific Biden and Lamont Administrations did something right for both religious freedoms, and the free world.

 

Connecticut! The Place Where Your Government Is Your Best Friend, and Where Your Grocer Is Your Bitter Enemy

From time to time, we are treated to a manufactured fake-news event promoted by the Connecticut Democrat Party in their sworn mission to damage Connecticut's fragile and failing economy.  This latest event concerning “elevated” grocery store prices led us to a pseudo-intellectual faux economic mission reverberating all over state-run media outlets last week stating that grocery stores of all sizes are "price gouging", are earning "excessive" profits, and telling us that only state government can fix this problem. During a charade of a press conference held on April 10, Democrat Attorney General William Tong stated: “We won’t stop!” in announcing the inquiry. “We will keep going until we have an understanding of this market.” (https://www.supermarketnews.com/retail-financial/connecticut-ag-launches-inquiry-grocery-price-gouging). 

 First, I had no idea Democrat Attorney General William Tong had degrees in economics and/or accounting and was an expert in grocery store logistics and management.  Secondly, I had no idea that grocery stores large and small were price gouging?  Third, I had no idea that Democrat Attorney General William Tong could instantaneously get his finger around the concept of runaway inflation which has been occurring since Democrat President Biden has taken office in 2021.  My good friend Tony De Angelo talked about this new Tong investigation at length on this past Tuesday in his weekly segment on the Lee Elci Show 94.9 (A MARKUP OF MISINFORMATION- Tony De Angelo) where Tony pointed out that the 63 page Federal Trade Commission report (“FTC”, “report”) sourcing this press charade, never even once mentioned the term “price gouging” therein. This is even more startling, considering  that the report was engendered by the far-left Biden-appointed Marxist-inspired Commissioner of the  FTC, Lina Khan. And as Tony pointed out, who can trust any representation the media-political machine makes in Connecticut, especially when one remembers the debacles of the Scott Franklin-BLM mural vandalism a year ago in Hartford, or much more the lies, graft, and mismanagement of Covid-19.

As a primer to the political class, there are many costs involved in running a business.  In order to remain in business, a business needs to make a profit.  A profit may be defined as when the amount of revenue is greater than the costs of producing/selling a service or product.  In the case of Connecticut's grocery stores, revenue must exceed the cost of products they are selling.  It is very difficult for any business to operate during a period of runaway inflation and dysfunctional energy costs such as we have experienced since the Biden regime took office in 2021.  Depending on what you may see, food prices over the past three years have gone up between 30 and 120%.   Food store operating costs have basically doubled along with increases in most other consumers products such as energy, housing, insurances and transportation.  Everything we need to live on has gone up dramatically. And everything we either have or do or purchase has a cost factor tied to energy. When one considers the fantastical and irrational wind-driven climate change-paralyzed energy policy of Connecticut, none of what we see is difficult to understand in the least of ways.

For those of us who are based in reality and candor, here is a mere sample of the costs that grocery stores incur when trying to sell those "overpriced" almonds or eggs in their stores: labor costs that include hourly wages, social security taxes, workers’ compensation insurance, mandated Family Medical leave taxes, benefits paid by the grocer including (but not limited to) paid sick, vacation, personal, holiday time off, medical and dental insurances. If there is a company retirement plan, it is an administrative monster to administrate; if there is not, the store must deal by law with the confused, horrific (and inept) “My CT Savings” plan presided over by a state Comptroller with no understanding of the present value of a dollar and his accompanying four-star CT administrative state Retirement Security Authority. But wait! There is more!  Like Insurance costs! These costs include insurance premiums paid on property including accident, personal property liability, vehicles owned by the grocery, and theft.  There are also the costs of transportation to get the products to the store (since fossil fuels have been attacked by the Democrat Party, prices have skyrocketed).  There are also the costs of transaction fees by customers using debit and credit cards.  Taxes are a large cost to the grocer that include but are not limited to permits, licenses, local property taxes, state corporate income taxes including surtaxes, sales taxes collected and sent to the state, state and federal taxes on fuel, state unemployment compensation taxes, and other miscellaneous taxes paid to the state.  There are also increasing utility costs that include one of the highest electric rates in the country, internet, phone, and natural gas.  The costs of all of the food that is sold by the store also have to be factored in. The costs of maintaining and cleaning the stores both inside and outside need to be added.  We should include the costs of shoplifting and theft in grocery stores as items stolen by criminals in Crime Free Democrat Connecticut are removed from inventory.  There are more costs both implicit and explicit including the actual time spent filling out governmental bureaucratic forms, but we can save that for another time.  In review of all of the above costs, it is clear that just about all of our elected officials have no clue of the costs and burdens involved in running the "profit gouging" grocery stores in Connecticut as they are the people responsible for causing the increases in the first instance due to their burdensome and horrifically costly policies.  

I am also confused as to how "price gouging" can exist given all these costs?  And if most of these grocers are private businesses, what right does Connecticut's state government have to either impose limits on their "highest" profits and or tell them what they can or can't charge in their stores based on exceptionally low profit margin which are traditionally 1 to 3% of gross sales? But I know it is possible to get more votes in an election year by bashing an entire visible industry like evil capitalist grocers.  This burden is especially obscene as this same government placed such costly and ridiculous protocols on grocers to stay open during the pandemic while erasing their meager profit margins. But during that same pandemic, didn't King Ned Lamont's The Unaccountable’s family hedge fund Oak HC/FT, make some incredible profits at Connecticut Taxpayers expense during the same Covid-19 crisis and such fact is not even disputed by his sycophants, toadies, and lackeys? Why has that not yet been investigated by William Tong? We also see sales tax revenues at an all-time high due to inflation.  Why isn't this considered "price gouging"?  Why isn't there an investigation launched to study this, as well? 

Why would any rational person want to own and operate a business in Connecticut?  Connecticut still has over $100 to $150 billion dollars in short- and long-term debt along with unfunded liabilities. Connecticut is still a bottom five state in our country in all business categories including high taxes, excessive regulations, a pitifully poor infrastructure, and is still incapable of creating new jobs to get out of the recession of 2008-09.  Rather than deal with this compounded corrupt and inept mess, the solution for Connecticut Democrats is to slam the grocery industry and put them in their place.  I can only imagine the contraction in the grocery industry in the state after this latest farcical attempt by elected rulers to demand, demean and destroy their profitability.  Yet, this is another example of a state government's excess and its economic illiteracy and incompetency as to how the economy works.  The food shortages and food deserts will be coming soon due to your local closed and out-of-business "profit gouging" retail grocery store, thanks to the omnipotent Connecticut Democrat Party. 

 

 

The Economic Farcical Clown Show Commonly Known As Connecticut

This past week, the poor, beleaguered taxpaying citizens of Connecticut were treated to the public sham and spectacle of the state’s leading political brain trust cursing and condemning supermarket operators for “price gouging”. Since just about every single one of these people has never done anything whatsoever in the realm of private-sector gainful employment, or can tell the difference between a profit and loss statement and a kite, it does not dawn upon them (or just about anyone in the Connecticut Legislature) that bad and foolish energy policy is the root cause of the majority of economic problems. All products and services are affected by fuel. Fuel costs money. Fuel costs increase expenses. Expenses impact prices. And as my friend and colleague Tony De Angelo often says, it's as simple as that, and just as difficult. And unfortunately, these concepts are much too difficult to comprehend for just about every elected official in the state.
Welcome to the pie-in-the-sky fintech-wind powered-climate-change-terrified Economic woke-liberal universe, where simple economic facts understood by high school business students are difficult to comprehend for many of the liberals/Democrats and Socialists in our country. We can see this from the complete economic failures of the pathetic, inept, and corrupt Biden Administration featuring runaway inflation, a failed green energy plan, excessive taxation, and a crippling $34 trillion dollar National Debt. As apples do not follow far from trees, let us now focus on the vast economic wasteland with an omnipotent one party Democrat-ruled government known as Connecticut, with socialistic pressure on legitimate businesses, high taxation, a loss of jobs, a poor and uncoordinated infrastructure, an imperious administrative state, excessive state mandates on its cities and towns, and the excessive economic costs of rampant and unchecked crime that the state does not wish to control and frequently explains away in its state-run media broadcasts.
As just about no legacy–reward the loyal with government jobs media outlet in Connecticut can be trusted with any consistent objectivity, one is forced to look outside of the state to find honest and objective information as to what is actually happening. In this connection, these economic facts were presented in the "2024 Rich States, Poor States ALEC-Laffer State Economic Competitiveness Index © 2024 American Legislative Exchange Council report". (https://alec.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/2024-17th-RSPS-State-Pages_WEB.pdf). This report presents pure and objective economic facts for all 50 states. When reading the report, one can see the differences between "liberal Blue states" and "conservative Red states". As a spoiler alert, Connecticut did badly in this survey. According to the ALEC-Laffer State Economic Outlook Rankings, 2024, Connecticut is ranked 40th out of 50 states that is based upon equal-weighting of each state’s rank in 15 policy variables for this category. Connecticut ranked 48th out of 50 states for the ALEC-Laffer State Economic Performance Rankings, from 2012-2022 based on its State Gross Domestic Product that measures cumulative growth over this time frame, since it was only 33.59%, its non-farm payroll employment showed a .91% growth over the same time frame, and its absolute domestic move-out of state rate reflected a loss of 181,117 people over the same time frame (https://alec.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/2024-17th-RSPS-State-Pages_WEB.pdf page 12).
Also, there is one horrible elephant in the state-run media newsroom that this veritable Ministry of Information does not want for you to focus on...Illegal Immigration. Just how many illegal migrants are being transported into the state? Credible reports from real citizens tell us of squatters and break-ins happening in formerly safe neighborhoods. Every bordering Blue State to Connecticut unabashedly admits its mismanagement and incompetence in not being able to stem the tide of the Biden open-border policy. But we have none of those issues in the Land of King Ned Lamont the Unaccountable! He keeps Connecticut safe! Much like he mismanaged Covid-19 while busily figuring out how he could rip off Pandemic money. After all, it's simply the best state to be in!
Regardless of the state-run media spin that Connecticut residents pay for with their tax dollars, even an unobservant observer can tell what is happening in the state by just living here from day to day. Connecticut is graced with high state and local taxes, a high minimum wage, a high debt service as a share of tax revenue along with it also not being a right to work state. Connecticut is perpetually in a recession of its own making. Connecticut is always at the bottom of most business and economic categories. Connecticut still has over $100 to $150 billion dollars in short- and long-term debt along with unfunded liabilities. Economic facts are difficult to accept to the economically illiterate Democrat Party at any level of government. Tax more, spend more, promise more, demand more, rule as dictators never compromising on anything at all especially economic issues is their platform. It is a platform that has failed miserably but is endorsed at all costs to the point of economic ruin.
As the above-mentioned report is proof of the failures of Democrat led states such as Connecticut, one really does not need it. Just venture a little way into the state and draw your own conclusions.