Meet some of the people whose lives are being destroyed by Trenton Democrats

Working mothers and others depend on the flexible arrangements that working as an independent contractor provides them. It’s a global feature of what’s become known as the new “gig economy”. But such arrangements could soon be illegal in New Jersey, if Senate Democrats have their way.

Senate Bill S-4204 was recently passed out of the Senate Labor Committee on a 3 to 1 vote. That’s three Democrat YES votes – Fred Madden, Joseph Lagana, and Jim Beach – to one Republican NO (Tony Bucco). The bill has one sponsor – Senate President Steve Sweeney.

The Assembly Democrats also passed their own version of the bill out of committee on a 6 (Democrats) to 3 (Republicans) vote. The Democrats waited until after Election Day to introduce their bills in both chambers of the Legislature. Now it’s getting fast-tracked. How dishonest is that? Waiting until after the voters could do something about it.

As proposed by Sweeney, S-4204 “provides that, for the purposes of all State employment laws, individuals who perform services for remuneration are employees, not independent contractors, and are subject to the provisions of those laws… unless and until it is shown to the satisfaction of the Commissioner that:

a. The individual has been and will continue to be free from control or direction over the performance of the service, both under the individual’s contract of service and in fact; and

b. The individual’s service is either outside the usual course of the business for which that service is performed; and

c. The individual is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, profession or business of the same nature as that involved in the work performed.”

This is an incredibly stupid move for Senate President Sweeney, a potential candidate for Governor in 2021. But it gets worse because the guy Sweeney would be running against – incumbent Democrat Governor Phil Murphy – supports Senate Bill S-4204 too.

Who is affected by S-4204? Several Facebook groups have formed in response to the actions by Trenton Democrats. Some feature the stories of those whose livelihoods will be destroyed by the Democrats’ actions.

One such group is www.fightforfreelancers.com . In under two weeks, this group has attracted nearly 1,000 activists and its Facebook page features dozens of stories about the hardships S-4204 will bring.

Alida Kass of the New Jersey Civil Justice Institute is leading the fight against S-4204 and its companion legislation. NJ101.5’s Bill Spadea recently interviewed her…

You can do something to save the professions chosen by working moms and others. The Senate Labor Committee is meeting again on Thursday in Trenton. You can call or email the Senators responsible for voting for this atrocity and give them a piece of your mind…

Senate President Steve Sweeney (D)
856-251-9801
856-339-0808
sensweeney@njleg.org

Senator Fred Madden (D)
856-232-6700
856-401-3073
senmadden@njleg.org

Senator Linda Greenstein (D)
609-395-9911
sengreenstein@njleg.org

Senator Joe Lagana (D)
201-576-9199
senlagana@njleg.org

The Democrats are lying – they raised taxes 139 times and cut aid to school kids

What do Stacey Gunderman, Lisa Mandelblatt, Lisa Bhimani, Darcy Draeger, Christine Clarke, Laura Fortgang, and Deana Lykins have in common?

In their campaign advertisements, these Democrats are not telling voters the truth. They want to pretend they are agents for change, but their party has run things in the Legislature for more than 17 years.

Instead of making anything better, they will simply add to an already overflowing pot of fetid corruption. Another layer of fat onto an already corpulent political party apparatus.

The Democrats have raised more than 139 taxes over 17 years in the majority – costing New Jerseyans at least $11 billion.

The Assembly Democrats passed 25 bills increasing taxes and fees since Gov. Phil Murphy took office in January 2018. Murphy signed 16 bills, increasing or creating 20 taxes and fees at a cost of at least $2.5 billion for taxpayers.

Over two years, Democrats have increased spending by over $4 billion – nearly 12 percent.

Meanwhile, the Democrats have slashed aid to education for many rural and suburban school districts – despite half the state’s poorer, at risk children living in these districts.

The Democrats slashed aid to school kids but have given more money to Democrat political machines and to the cause of illegal immigration. It’s a disgrace. And it’s time it stopped.

Many Democrat Assembly candidates belong to a far-Left group called Action Together New Jersey.

On February 10, 2018, Action Together New Jersey accepted an award from Linda Sarsour. But the Women’s March cuts its ties with Linda Sarsour over her long history of making anti-Semitic statements.

Sarsour’s attacks on Jews finally got too much for the Women’s March… but not for New Jersey Democrats. In September, Trenton Democrats refused to include Sarsour in a resolution condemning hate.

Linda Sarsour is the controversial Democrat activist who has praised the notoriously anti-Semitic Louis Farrakhan, cop-killer Joanne Chesimard, and the anti-Semitic BDS movement. In 2017, Sarsour famously called for “Jihad” against the elected government of the United States of America…

The award was in recognition of voter registration drives and other political campaigning done by Action Together New Jersey in coordination with a group called CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Presenting the award was CAIR National Chairwoman, Roula Allouch, and CAIR-NJ Founder, Ahmed Al Shehab.

Due to its apparent ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, one of America’s most important Islamic allies – the United Arab Emirates – has designated CAIR a “terrorist” organization. American troops have been deployed to this nation and are currently engaged in operations there.

Action Together New Jersey is in the forefront of the drive to push the Democrat Party in New Jersey to the far-Left. They have joined CAIR in opposing the bi-partisan efforts of New Jersey Congressman Josh Gottheimer (D-5) to push back on members of the so-called “Jihad Squad” (far-Left Democrats Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib) in their attempt to promote the anti-Semitic BDS movement.

No less than eight Democrats who are running for the New Jersey Legislature this year have been clearly identified as members of the far-Left Action Together New Jersey on the group’s website. They are Stacey Gunderman, Lisa Mandelblatt, Deana Lykins, Lisa Bhimani, Darcy Draeger, Christine Clarke, Laura Fortgang, and Steven Farkas.

Each one of these candidates has been asked to release a statement on Linda Sarsour that condemns her anti-Semitism. To date, none have issued such a statement.

At a time when America is engaged in an active battlefield confrontation with Islamic terrorism, the Democrats’ failure in this regard is worrisome. They should be asked again.

Dawn Addiego exchanges one machine for another.

Dawn Marie Addiego has always been a cosseted politician.  Depending on others to lay out a path for her.  To brush the impediments from her way.

Hence, from her earliest days she was attracted to establishment politicians and powerful political machines.  The old Burlco GOP machine of Glenn Paulsen worked for her – and in return for her exact fealty and obedience she rose through its ranks.  Now, with the patrimony of Paulsen squandered by others, the Senator set adrift, she has looked for and found a new powerful political machine to protect her.

Engaging, charming, tough – but pleasant – her insecurities have led her to changing one party for another.  Of course, her attempt to define her switch as maintaining some core affinity for the Republican Party of Ronald Reagan is total nonsense.  As Senator Addiego well knows, she has never been comfortable with the Republican electorate and the political platform of the national Republican Party… not since Ronald Reagan changed it in 1980.  In this, she has remained in lockstep with the establishment GOP in Burlington County.

Lacking a Republican message – unable to embrace, motivate, and lead Republicans and those who are open to voting for Republicans – Senator Addiego reasoned that she had no choice but to become a Democrat.  Now she should look to the fate of Arlen Specter and know that she may be called to account, like Specter was, by the “purer” elements within her new party.  Her hope must be that powerful men will protect her.  Her faith… must look to her new bosses.

Some weeks ago, we explained how both major parties are really each three separate parties all occupying the same space and seeking to speak for the same “brand”. 

(1) There is the broad “party” defined by formal “membership” (voter registration, etc.), self-identification, or electoral support.  These people have some idea of what the party brand means and they like candidates to adhere to it.  They like to get what they think they are voting for.

(2) Next is the activist base.  These people are motivated by a particular issue or set of issues (or by a candidate who serves as the vessel for such).  Some organize themselves to great effectiveness.  Many are organized permanently and have established themselves as genuine powers.  Others can be motivated in the right season, on a case by case basis.  The most successful are able to create enough activity to earn a living from their activism (essentially, they are paid for their leadership).

(3) Finally we have the “professional” party – the regulars.  Broadly speaking, they are paid or make money from politics, whether as attorneys, vendors, lobbyists, elected officials, appointed officials, patronage employees, political consultants, legislative staff, and such.  They are transactional and make money through or directly from politics – that is the big difference between them and the broader party. 

The story of Dawn Marie Addiego wouldn’t be complete without an exposition of the role played by this “professional” party – and its corruption.

Leave it to David “Wally Edge” Wildstein to annotate the role played by lobbyist Jeff Michaels… once a captain in the regime of Republican Senate President Donnie DiFrancesco, now part of the far-flung empire of Democrat Party boss George Norcross.  According to Wildstein, editor at the New Jersey Globe, Michaels played a key role in negotiating Addiego’s party switch.

Those of us who remember the young Jeff Michaels – then a stalwart Republican, YAFer, and religious conservative – will sadly recall when he left being a legislative staffer for a lobbying gig that led him down the path of… money.  We lost a great compatriot and mammon gained a very effective advocate.  Of course, such is the world. 

We wonder what will become of District 8 Chief of Staff Rick England, a lieutenant in the DiFrancesco operation, who once answered to Michaels.  Will he follow his Senator?  Rick ran the District 8 office and controlled it very closely.  He knows the sins of all he served which, given the circumstances, could be of benefit to the Assembly Democrats this year… or SRM in 2021.  So in thrall was Senator Addiego to her handler that she refused to meet with a bi-partisan delegation of religious leaders regarding the Human Trafficking and Child Exploitation Prevention Act, simply because Rick would not sign off on it.  Such is the power he held at the District 8 Legislative Office.

So we can see how the concerns of each of these three separate parties all occupying the same space and seeking to speak for the same “brand” can be very different.  While the first two want candidates who will represent some set of principles, the concerns of the “professional” party can often come down to… dough-re-me. 

At the “professional” party level, this can lead to a certain “blending” of the two major parties.  And that, of course, leads to an estrangement from the base.

Speaker Prieto: Suspend the Bill of Rights

Speaker Vinnie Prieto stepped away from the podium yesterday to suggest that the Bill of Rights be suspended if it will save one life.  Later, Assemblyman Lou "man hair" Greenwald said much the same thing.  This phrase has become a kind of last refuge when they run out of logic:  "It is worth it, if it saves just one life."

Good thing President Franklin Delano Roosevelt didn't think so, otherwise he would have surrendered to the Japanese Empire and the Nazis.  Quite a few "just one" lives would have been saved.  Of course our freedom would have been screwed and our country would have looked something like out of the video below, but hey, "if it saves just one life..."

Of course, Speaker Prieto ignores the thousands of lives sacrificed to an undefended border that allows violent criminals into America illegally.  When fellow Hudson County Democrat Senator Robert Menendez wrote a book in which he took leaves of his senses -- suggesting that the United States change its emphasis from patrolling our southern border with Mexico to focusing on our northern border with Canada -- Speaker Prieto sat in silent agreement.  But there the words remain, as a testament to the madness of political correctness:

“Good fences don’t make good neighbors with this wall.  The existence of the southern-border fence is bad enough, and its estimated four-billion-dollar price tag is mind-boggling.  Meanwhile, Americans appear to fret little about those lightly patrolled 3,987 miles on the Canadian border from Atlantic to Pacific.  Our border with Canada is twice as long as the border with Mexico.”  (Page 147)

“Solidifying the porous northern border should be a priority for the Department of Homeland Security.  And yet, as of 2007, far fewer than ten percent of the fourteen thousand U.S. agents were patrolling the Canadian border.  How is it possible that we haven’t been focusing on the danger of terrorists crossing the U.S. – Canadian frontier?  Instead, we have been listening to hot air from Lou Dobbs and his allies, complaining about people who would cross that border in search of jobs as gardeners, busboys, hotel workers, and maids.”  (Pages 148 and 149)

Speaker Prieto's hold on reality was just as tenuous when he supported allowing the United Nations to continue to vet refugee applications from Islamic war zones for placement of those refugees within the borders of the United States.  Speaker Prieto did this only days after the terrorist attacks in Paris -- in which at least one terrorist used Syrian refugee status to gain entry into Europe -- and just days before America suffered a similar terrorist attack in California.

While Speaker Prieto and the Democrats he leads in the New Jersey Assembly trust the United Nations -- with its employees from member states like Yemen, Russia, China, Pakistan, Iran, and Vietnam -- to vet refugees that include combatants from Islamic zones of conflict, many Americans are concerned that we may be importing Islamic terrorism into the American homeland.  And while Speaker Prieto and his fellow Democrats call for disarming law-abiding American citizens every time terrorists attack a military base, a recruiting office, or a Christmas party, many ordinary Americans question why they should be made defenseless in the face of the importation of terror into the United States.

So much of our illegal immigration comes from countries with violent crime rates many times higher than in the United States and we have no way of safely vetting refugee applications from Islamic war zones.  Speaker Prieto and the Assembly Democrats are adding to our hazards, while trying to take away our ability to defend ourselves.  They should be held responsible for every violent young man who slips into the United Sates and commits an act of violence here.  They should be held responsible for every act of terror nurtured by their words and actions.

Prieto puts P.C. before the lives of Americans

The Democrats' Speaker Prieto would rather add more photos to these victims of terror, than not be politically correct.

The boss of New Jersey's Assembly Democrats, Vincent "Limp Vinnie" Prieto, issued a public statement today (drafted by sometime journalist, sometime political hack, Tom "whatever pays" Hester) that was monstrous in its conceit.  It let the world know that Limp Vinnie Prieto is willing to sacrifice the lives of innocent Americans on the altar of political correctness.

In it, Speaker Prieto accused Governor Chris Christie of "xenophobia" for suggesting that America properly police its borders and hold off taking in new immigrants from Syria in light of the ongoing investigations into Syrian involvement in the terrorist killings of more than 120 people in France last Friday night.  Looks like another case of P.C. uber alles.

Ever notice that when they can't think of anything original to say, idiots like Prieto will use the term "phobia" to excuse themselves from having to make a rational argument?  Today it is "xenophobia" -- the fear of discussing our government's failure to secure its borders against narcotics smuggling, human trafficking, illegal firearms, and terrorism.  Tomorrow it will be "Mistressphobia" -- the fear of discussing how many jobs are held by people who have seen various Democrat legislators naked.  Whenever you don't want to discuss something, call it a "phobia", pull your shorts down around your ankles, and then hop away.

Speaker Prieto is the very worst kind of hypocrite -- supporting restrictions on Cuba that led to thousands trying to reach America by raft -- while weeping crocodile tears over those trying to reach Europe by raft.  Prieto tries to blame Governor Chris Christie for the drowning deaths in the attempt by Syrians to reach Europe, while he ignores the drowning deaths of Cubans trying to reach the United States. 

Speaker Prieto even attacked President Obama when he lifted restrictions on Cuba in 2014, telling the Hudson Reporter (December 21, 2014) that he "does not want the restrictions lifted."  So while he pretends concern for Syrian children, Speaker Prieto didn't give a damn about the children of Cuba who, according to United Nations reports, were harmed by the restrictions he supports. 

Under the restrictions that Prieto supports, Cuban children and their parents were denied access to technology, medicine, affordable food, and other goods.  According to a report commissioned by the American Association for World Health, under those restrictions, doctors in Cuba had access to less than 50 percent of the drugs on the world market.  The same report stated that food shortages led to a 33 percent decline in caloric intake between 1989 and 1993.  The report went on: "It is our expert medical opinion that the U.S. embargo has caused a significant rise in suffering-and even deaths-in Cuba." 

In 2011, Amnesty International reported: "Treatments for children and young people with bone cancer... [and] antiretroviral drugs used to treat children with HIV/AIDS" were not readily available with the restrictions in place because "they were commercialized under US patents."  And yet the same politician who supported these restrictions -- leader of the Assembly Democrats, Speaker Vincent "Limp Vinnie" Prieto, has the monstrous hypocrisy to call out Governor Christie for his prudent calls to restrict the flow of Syrian immigrants into the United States in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Paris that left hundreds of innocents killed and wounded. 

As Francois Hollande, the President of France said to his people:  "The Paris attacks were decided and planned in Syria, organized in Belgium and carried out in France." 

Only an uncaring fool would place the lives of Americans at risk in order to make a P.C. fashion statement.  Only an uncaring fool like Limp Vinnie Prieto.