Anyone who wonders why the general public was so outraged that they put Donald Trump in the White House has only to look at the behavior of our new governor Ned Lamont.  Taking a page from the playbook of his fellow Greenwich plutocrat, Lowell Weicker, Lamont deliberately misled the voters by promising to place tolls only on incoming trucks, just like Weicker misled the voters in 1990 into believing he would not initiate a state income tax.

Perhaps there was a time when journalism commanded such respect, but not anymore. While journalists have always been left of center, most took pride in their work, and accurately reported events free of political bias. The mantra of journalism once was, “If your mother says she loves you, check it out.”

First of all, I wish Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg well. She is a courageous advocate for women’s rights and a cultural icon. But in one reads between the lines of published reports on her situation, this woman is probably quite ill.

Unlike most columnists who make annual predictions and hope you forget them, I will review the predictions I made for 2018 before proceeding:

1. The Republicans will hold the House and pick up Senate seats. Half right
2. The stock market will gain at least another 10 percent. Wrong
3. The mullahs are going down. Wrong for now but will be correct in the foreseeable future.
4. North Korea will be brought under control. Debatable. North Korea has stopped testing ballistic missiles but is ignoring its promise to end its nuclear program.
5. The Steelers will win the Super Bowl. Wrong. But we wuz robbed.

Given this lackluster record, I will now proceed to 2019 predictions:

A major reason for Connecticut’s political dysfunction is that it remains a convention state. In most states, prospective candidates are only required to gather a reasonable number of signatures to have their name placed on the ballot. Not in Connecticut.

A Yale psychiatrist, Dr. Bandy Lee, is enjoying her 15 minutes of fame as the editor of the bestseller “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump.” This book contains the opinions of 27 psychiatrists and psychologists, some of whom believe the President suffers from cognitive dysfunction and mental illness. In doing so, they are damaging a specialty that has struggled to gain respectability among the general public and making it more difficult for those with mental disorders to receive treatment.

  A tentative deal has been reached by the Democratic and Republican leadership in Connecticut’s unresolved budget crisis. According to published reports, there will be no concessions by the state workers’ unions, miniscule cuts to the University of Connecticut and a bail out of the bankrupt city of Hartford. In return, teachers will have to pay one percent more of their salary to their pensions, there will be no sales tax increase and the car tax will be eliminated.

Our politicians and their corporate overlords, in their infinite chase for money, are trying to perpetrate another scam on the good people of Connecticut – an MGM Resorts International casino in Bridgeport Harbor.  They will promise jobs, entertainment and tax revenues. They will bring more traffic, Amtrak delays along with despair, personal bankruptcies, embezzlement, domestic violence and suicides.