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Sen. Richard Blumenthal will discuss relevant current topics, including Ukraine, AI, veterans, the economy, workforce development, tariffs and manufacturing. Sen. Blumenthal served as a U.S. attorney for Connecticut from 1977–1981. He then served in the Connecticut House of Representatives from 1984–1987 and the Connecticut State Senate from 1987–1990. From 1991–2011, he served as Connecticut’s attorney general for an unprecedented five terms.

Sen. Blumenthal was sworn in to represent Connecticut in the U.S. Senate in 2011. Having been re-elected in 2016 and 2022, he is serving his third term. He is a member of the U.S. Senate’s Committee on the Judiciary, Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs, Committee on Armed Services, Committee on Veterans’ Affairs and the Special Committee on Aging. He has built a longtime advocacy for consumers by holding companies accountable for the safety of their products and is working to bring Connecticut’s transportation systems and infrastructure into the 21^st century. Working with Connecticut’s congressional delegation, he has secured billions of dollars of federal funding to improve rail safety, promote climate resiliency, and protect Long Island Sound and Connecticut’s rivers and streams.

His father, who fled Nazi Germany at age 18, and mother, who left Nebraska’s farmland to become a social worker, raised Sen. Blumenthal with a deep dedication to public service, a duty to give back by helping others and a bedrock belief in hard work. Those values carried him through his childhood and his education at Harvard College and Yale Law School. At Harvard, he was editorial chairman of The Harvard Crimson and achieved Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude recognition. In law school, he was editor-in-chief of the Yale Law Review. He also worked as assistant to Daniel Patrick Moynihan when he was assistant to the President of the United States.

After graduating from law school in 1973, Sen. Blumenthal clerked for then U.S. District Judge Jon Newman and then for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun. Sen. Blumenthal then transitioned to lead the staff of Connecticut’s U.S. Sen. Abraham A. Ribicoff as an administrative assistant (a position now known as chief of staff).

Arranged by Bob Fiske

Video Presentation 

Summary of Presentation by Senator Blumenthal on 1/21/26

Senator Blumenthal thanked the group for the invitation to speak and reflected on his early years in public service. He paid tribute to Bob Fiske, a long-time DMA member who passed away last year. Bob and Blumenthal had been good friends. Bob had served as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Blumenthal praised him as having been a great source of help to Blumenthal when he served as U.S. Attorney for Connecticut. Blumenthal pointed out that Fiske had emphasized the importance of cooperation among local, state, and federal law enforcement, and Blumenthal criticized what he describes as a breakdown in that relationship in Minneapolis, arguing that effective prosecutions require the trust and knowledge of the local community held by local police.

Addressing the possibility of a federal shutdown when the current Continuing Resolution expires at the end of January, Blumenthal said that he does not expect one because shutdowns have no winners and Congress has enough time to finish its appropriations before the Continuing Resolution expires. He pivoted to cost-of-living concerns about which he has heard from constituents he has visited throughout Connecticut, particularly electricity, food, and healthcare costs. He argued that continuing to subsidize health insurance coverage makes sense because it encourages preventive care and avoids the more expensive alternative of uninsured people relying on Emergency Room care at hospitals.

Speaking as ranking member on the Senate’s Veterans Affairs Committee, he said the VA has lost 30,000 staff, harming access to care, and he has held oversight hearings and created a report on this issue on that agency. On national security, he called for strong defense funding, especially submarines built in Connecticut, and expressed concern about China’s growing naval capacity. He has strongly supported aid to Ukraine, recounting his multiple visits there, and argued that U.S. support is essential to protecting American security and stopping Putin from seeking to restore Russia to the size of the former U.S.S.R. Blumenthal stressed the benefits of bipartisanship, citing his work on AI policy and the “Kids Online Safety Act” which passed the Senate overwhelmingly but stalled in the House amid Big Tech lobbying. He reminded members about a practical concern regarding USPS postmark practices, informing us that the USPS has acknowledged that due to recent process changes, postmarks are no longer a reliable indicator of the date a letter is mailed — important for time-sensitive filings.

In Q&A, he was asked for his view about imposing age limits for holding high public office. He replied that elections serve as the main “limit.” Reflecting on astory about Supreme Court Justice William Douglas suffering a stroke when Blumenthal was clerking for another Justice, noting that Douglas had to be persuaded to resign even though he had been hospitalized and had been unable to perform his duties, Blumenthal conceded that age limits might make sense for some senior roles. He added wryly that such limits would be difficult to enact because every office holder wants to hold office forever. On immigration, he endorsed comprehensive reform — border security plus an earned path to citizenship — and condemned demonization of immigrants, describing naturalization ceremonies as a powerful reminder of American ideals, including his own family’s immigrant story.

Pressed about President Trump and Ukraine, he refused to speculate about the President’s psychology but admitted to being baffled by President Trump’s posture because he believes that strength through allied relationships is needed to maintain peace. Asked about ICE and protests, he asserted that ICE agents have acted recklessly. He called for higher training and enforcement standards, and stated that excluding local police is a serious mistake. He also stressed that protests must remain peaceful.

Asked about America’s economic resilience and sufficiency of manufacturing capacity, he noted his support for current industrial policy in critical areas like semiconductors and tied supply-chain vulnerability to lessons learned during the COVID period. He also warned about market concentration. As an example of his concern, he asserted that consolidation and private equity ownership of fire truck manufacturers have led to higher prices, delays in delivery dates and reduced ability for purchasers to customize.

Asked how the U.S. can restore civil discourse, he replied that it starts with individual responsibility and leaders modeling restraint. On the issue of whether the U.S. should acquire Greenland, he argued the U.S. can pursue resources and security interests through investment and partnership rather than “bullying,” and he closed by emphasizing that alliances — especially NATO — are essential in a world of rising threats. He ended on a note of optimism, expressing confidence in American strength and civic engagement.

George Gershwin (1898–1937) is one of America’s greatest composers and a true rarity. He was at home in many different musical worlds, from Broadway and Hollywood musicals to opera and symphonic works with his compositions spanning jazz, popular and classical music. Among his best-known works are “Rhapsody in Blue,” “Swanee,” “An American in Paris,” “Porgy and Bess,” “Embraceable You,” “I Got Rhythm,” “Summertime” and “Of Thee I Sing.”

The 1920s, in particular, saw the establishment of a new American spirit on Broadway. Inspired by Jerome Kern’s shows in the late teens, a new, young group of American composers and lyricists threw off the European trappings of former shows and created the concept of the ‘American Musical’. Brassy and irreverent, these shows featured such composers and lyricists as George Gershwin and his brother Ira Gershwin, Rogers and Hart, Jerome Kern, Dorothy Fields, Irving Berlin and Cole Porter. Many of their songs and lyrics remain a part of our American heritage today, a century later.

Dr. Orin Grossman is renowned internationally for his knowledge of music. He has been closely associated with the music of George Gershwin, lecturing and performing concerts of his music to critical praise around the world, including performances in Florence, Cairo, and St. Petersburg. Dr. Grossman was also chosen to play for the New York City Mayor’s Awards of Honor for Arts and Culture. He graduated magma cum laude in music from Harvard College and continued his studies at Yale University, earning a Ph.D. in music. Dr. Grossman became assistant professor of fine arts at Fairfield University in 1975 and dean of its College of Arts and Sciences in 1991. He was then appointed to be the university’s academic vice president in 1999. In 2009, he returned to teaching as professor of visual and performing arts.

Orin’s presentation will include live unique piano performances, which will use Gershwin’s own piano arrangements — arrangements that Gershwin created to give the public a sense of how he played his own songs at private parties.

Video Presentation

Summary of Dr. Orin Grossman’s DMA Presentation on January 14, 2026

Dr. Grossman explored why George Gershwin remains one of America’s most important composers, not only for his famous concert works like “Rhapsody in Blue”, “An American in Paris”, and “Porgy and Bess,” but also for the popular songs that became the backbone of the great American songbook. Grossman described Gershwin as uniquely at home in multiple musical worlds — Broadway, jazz, popular song and classical composition — and emphasized how his melodies have lasted for a century because they combine sophistication with emotional directness.

Grossman traced Gershwin’s early life in New York as a lower-middle-class kid who dropped out of school as a teenager, took odd jobs in the music business and pursued music with relentless drive. Grossman noted that although many people assume Gershwin was mostly self-taught, he had formal musical training as well as a deep curiosity that pushed him to develop his own style. His breakthrough came with “Swanee,” which Gershwin wrote when he was about age 20, and which was made famous by entertainer Al Jolson. Grossman placed the song in the context of the blackface/minstrel tradition, explaining how that world shaped early American entertainment and how Gershwin later became embarrassed that his career began there.

A key point of the talk was how Gershwin’s songs remain popular because performance styles changed. Early recordings from the 1920s often sound stiff to modern ears because singers had to keep a strict beat for dancing. With the rise of the microphone and more advanced recording techniques, artists like Bing Crosby, Louis Armstrong and, later, Frank Sinatra developed conversational phrasing — slightly ahead of or behind the beat — that made songs feel like spoken poetry. Grossman demonstrated this with “The Man I Love,” contrasting an early recording with a later, smoother interpretation.

Grossman also highlighted Gershwin’s extraordinary productivity, especially in 1924, in which he wrote songs for the George White Scandals, which were popular Broadway revues modeled after the Ziegfield Follies, and premiered “Rhapsody in Blue.” He also produced a major Broadway hit that year with his brother Ira. In closing, Dr. Grossman performed “Summertime” on the piano, noting Gershwin’s admiration for Duke Ellington and his insistence that “Porgy and Bess” be performed only by black artists. In Q&A, Grossman explained that Gershwin respected both popular and classical music.  Grossman noted that Gershwin may have shown greater personal ambition with respect to classical compositions but surmised that this may have been because Gershwin was unique among popular composers in being able to excel in both traditions.

Dr. Robert Ballard is one of the world’s most famous oceanographers. He is best known for his 1985 discovery of the legendary RMS Titanic, which captured the world’s attention. Dr. Ballard also has succeeded in tracking down numerous other significant shipwrecks, including the German battleship Bismarck, the lost fleet at Guadalcanal, the U.S. aircraft carrier Yorktown (sunk in the World War II Battle of Midway) and John F. Kennedy’s boat, PT-109.

While those discoveries have captured the imagination of the global public, Dr. Ballard believes his most important discoveries were, in fact, of hydrothermal vents and “black smokers” in the Galapagos Rift and East Pacific Rise in 1977 and 1979, along with their exotic life forms living off the energy of the earth through a process called chemosynthesis. Fifty years ago, the deep sea was terra incognito. We knew next to nothing about what lay underneath the waters that cover 70% of the earth’s surface. Fifty years later, in vast areas supposedly devoid of life, scientists found large ecosystems teeming with life, including non-photosynthetic life forms that biologists thought were impossible.

His discoveries also include sunken remains of ships along ancient trade routes in the Mediterranean Sea; two ancient Phoenician ships off Israel, the oldest shipwrecks ever found in deep water; and four 1,500-year-old wooden ships, one almost perfectly preserved in the Black Sea. Dr. Ballard’s Black Sea project seeks evidence of a great flood that may have struck the region thousands of years ago.

Arranged by David Earle

Video of Presentation 

Summary of Robert Ballard’s Presentation to DMA on 1/7/26

Robert D. Ballard, Ph.D., one of the world’s most famous oceanographers, reflected on his young life which was shaped by curiosity and a lifelong fascination with exploration. Born in Kansas and raised amid the aerospace world of Southern California, he fell in love with the ocean after his family moved to San Diego. A childhood viewing of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ignited his dream of becoming “Captain Nemo,” a dream that evolved into oceanography and undersea exploration.

Ballard’s career became a rare fusion of science and military service. Trained initially as an Army officer during the Vietnam War era, he was later transferred to the Navy and assigned to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, where he worked on deep-submergence submarines, often in classified operations. This dual background led him to study the ocean floor as complex terrain, revealing the immense scale of mid-ocean ridges and helping confirm plate tectonics as a unifying theory of Earth science.

He is best known for his discovery of the RMS Titanic in 1985, which immediately captured the world’s attention. He also has succeeded in finding numerous other important shipwrecks, including the German battleship Bismarck, the lost fleet at Guadalcanal, the U.S. aircraft carrier Yorktown (sunk in the World War II Battle of Midway), and John F. Kennedy’s boat, PT-109.

While those discoveries of historic ships have fueled the imagination of the global public, Ballard believes that his most important discoveries were of hydrothermal vents — “black smokers,” which caused the rewriting of geology, chemistry and biology textbooks. These vents have proven to be a key mechanism for cycling the ocean’s chemistry throughout the Earth. They are part of ecosystems powered not by sunlight and photosynthesis, but rather by chemosynthesis in waters that are not penetrated by sunlight. The discovery reshaped ideas about the origin of life on Earth and strengthened the case that life could exist elsewhere in the universe, though Ballard emphasized there is “no Planet B” in our solar system or any other on which humanity can live meaningfully.

Seeking to escape the physical limits of human diving, Ballard pioneered tele-presence exploration: robotic vehicles, real-time data and global expert networks that allow scientists to explore the undersea world remotely. This technology enabled both open scientific discovery and secret Cold War missions, including the classified work that ultimately led to the discovery of the RMS Titanic. That success sparked decades of underwater archaeology, from World War II wrecks to exquisitely preserved ancient ships in the oxygen-limited Black Sea.

Ballard expressed deep concern about artificial intelligence, particularly in military contexts, calling it transformative but dangerous if uncontrolled. Regarding climate change, he stressed evidence over ideology, noting risks to our planet deriving from a warming climate, methane release, and intensified storms. He also outlined a vision for a “blue economy,” which would include carefully targeted deep-sea mining and ocean-based food systems that minimize environmental harm. Throughout, Ballard framed his work as being in service to future generations, urging curiosity, courage and responsibility in an increasingly uncertain world.