Glenn Greenwald: MSNBC/CNN = State TV & CIA TV

This is a must watch video.  Conservative Tucker Carlson and Liberal Glenn Greenwald discuss the state of modern journalism and the media’s campaign to get Donald Trump at all costs…

The Hugin campaign would have done better in a Democrat primary.

Bob Hugin is a great guy.  Really.  He’s a good and decent man.  It was unfortunate that he found himself in a Republican primary… this year.  The fact that he persevered with such confidence and grace makes him a heroic, somewhat tragic, figure.  

Bob Hugin could have run in the Democrat primary.  $35 million… against Bob Menendez?  Hugin had the issues right for a Democrat primary… and the media wouldn’t have pounced on a Democrat Bob Hugin the way they did a Republican Bob Hugin.  The media love rich members of the One Percent when they are Democrats (it is a capital sin when you are a Republican)… they love woke, right-on pharma folk of the proper political affiliation.  They would have forgiven him everything.

But Bob ran as a Republican, and he ran this year.  A year when the media he wanted to appeal to was working to nationalize the election – to make it about Trump.  That media ended up vouching for Bob Menendez, despite having formerly called for his resignation. That media still cuts it with the people who Bob Hugin wanted to convince:  Democrats and liberal-leaners.   

Rather than shutting down Menendez, Hugin’s attacks were used by the media as evidence that he – Bob Hugin – was a “bad” man.  Of course, this only works with those who are open to receiving a message from the likes of Tom Moran and MSNBC.  Unfortunately, they were precisely the voters that the Hugin campaign was aimed at. 

Can we put aside the myth that Republican voters will come out no matter what, and dutifully vote Republican?  That myth should have finally, once and for all, been discarded after the low turnout Assembly races in 2015, when Republicans AGAIN lost seats in the Legislature and were AGAIN provided with irrelevant excuses for having done so. 

Oh the excuses!  One year it is Christie’s fault, the next it is Trump’s, and in between, the dog ate it!  New Jersey Republicans should set up their own public relations firm specializing in excuse-making.  Excuses aside, New Jersey’s GOP establishment should understand that the days of Republicans “holding their noses” and voting are over.

Republican voters are like anyone else.  Ignore them, say you are embarrassed to be with them, that you are “different” from them… and they will reward you in kind.  As an experiment, try some of that language next time you are in public with your wife and her family (or your husband and his).  Invite them out to a restaurant, then tell the host:  “I’m a different kind of member of this family, I’m not really one of them… They are a little, umm… backward.”  And say it so they hear it.  Say it loud, like ten million dollars’ worth of loud, and see how they like it.  Go ahead, try it.  Get back to us on it.

And that’s what the whole Hugin campaign was based on, wasn’t it?

“I’m a different kind of Republican.”  They are a little backward, a little off, but I’m with it.  I am a cool Republican.  Except that there are no “cool” Republicans.  Not in the minds of the media.  They only thought John McCain was cool when he was pissing on Bush.  The moment it became about him and Obama, John McCain became a troglodyte in the minds of the media.  After the dust settled, he became cool again, especially when pissing on other Republicans… especially when pissing on Trump.  But when he needed them, the media screwed John McCain.  So why even bother with them?

President Ronald Reagan understood the media (and they were a lot more condensed, more centralized, and a lot stronger back then).  That’s why he talked past them – to the people.  He didn’t give a damn about their approval.  He fed them the diet he wanted them to eat and even when they shit it out it contained the kernels of his message.  Reagan wasn’t afraid to be a Republican and to explain what that meant.  He had a message that he tested and honed by human contact – by speaking to people, engaging them, listening for the examples that would be used in his speeches, turning them on to his way of thinking, building a movement of ideas and about issues that mattered to people.

How many Republicans today, in New Jersey, can explain why they are Republicans or what Republicanism is?  At the big Republican show put on by the NJGOP last spring in Atlantic City, two professional Republican organizers up from Washington, DC, posed the same questions to attendees.  Not only was there no apparent theme or connectivity between the responses, even the organizers couldn’t adequately provide reasons or an explanation as to why they were there in the first place.  It was kind of sad.

What that confab did showcase, however, is the top-down meddling that has become the hallmark of the establishment in New Jersey, with a congressional candidate in a contested primary receiving top billing as the event’s featured speaker.  Yes, there was resource-draining meddling in districts 2, 5, and 11 – in an effort to promote candidates who would fit seamlessly with the statewide message being promoted by the campaign of Bob Hugin.

Instead of building a grassroots coalition of Republicans and reformers – of the kind Ralph Nader wrote about in his book, Unstoppable – the Hugin campaign  actually determined that their best chance lay in targeting “soft” Democrats and culturally “left-leaning” independents.  But these are the very same voters open to arguments from left-leaning media like CNN, MSNBC, NJ.com, and the Bergen Record.  So when the Hugin campaign pushed a relentlessly negative message about Menendez, those “independent arbiters” pushed back and were listened to. 

This allowed the Menendez campaign to focus on making the link between Hugin and Trump – which the media backed up.  The more the media pressed, the more Hugin denied Trump, the more he suppressed his own base.  Meanwhile, the Hugin campaign went right on churning out GOTV communications and efforts to turn out those “soft” Democrats and culturally “left-leaning” independents who had by now been convinced by the media that Hugin was a “bad” man who was lying about Menendez.  Gagged and gagged again.

In the days and weeks ahead we will be taking a proper, in depth, examination of the Republican operation in the Garden State.  It will be a necessary, warts and all, detailed review.  So stay tuned.

For now, we will leave you with this: 

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”  - Winston Churchill

Andy Kim: Petraeus gave out medals for "schmoozing"

Poor Andy Kim.  Trying to make himself out to be some kind of warlord while working for two of the wildest hanky-panky loving generals in memory. 

Andy Kim claims to have been on assignment in Afghanistan in 2011.  That's when two now disgraced generals ran the United Nations operation there.  Kim claims it was a NATO deal, but that is just more of his b.s. -- it was a U.N. operation. 

The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was a NATO-led security mission in Afghanistan, established by the United Nations Security Council in December 2001 by Resolution 1386.  Its main purpose was to train the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) and assist Afghanistan in rebuilding key government institutions.  In October 2003, the UN Security Council authorized the expansion of the ISAF mission throughout Afghanistan.  ISAF ceased operations and was disbanded in December 2014. 

And while Andy Kim wants to beat his chest about it, the truth is much sadder, as these headlines show...

Taliban control of Afghanistan continues to grow, US data reveals - CNN

https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/30/asia/afghanistan-taliban-us-control.../index.html

Jan 30, 2018 - The Taliban strengthened its hold over Afghanistan in the second half of last year, according to new US military data released to CNN on ..

Taliban threaten 70% of Afghanistan, BBC finds - BBC News

www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-42863116

Jan 31, 2018 - The BBC study shows the Taliban are now in full control of 14 districts .... a bloody insurgency which continues today; In 2016, Afghan civilian ...

Afghan Forces Battle Taliban for Control of Western City, Farah - The ...

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/15/world/asia/afghanistan-taliban-farah-.html

9 hours ago - KABUL, Afghanistan — Taliban insurgents entered the capital of the ... “We are hoping to get control of the fighting in the city by today,” Gen.

No, it doesn't look like Andy and the Obama administration solved much. 

But there was time for fun... and a lot of hanky panky.  According to numerous media reports, one of the guys Kim worked for -- John Allen -- exchanged 30,000 emails with a lovely beauty in Tampa, Florida.  No kidding -- 30,000 emails.  How did the guy manage to get anything done with all that playmail?

All that carrying on made the American military a laughingstock...

'Commander, you are SUCH a tease!' How Gen Petraeus was nicknamed James Bond by the socialite who felt his quads over dinner - and who exchanged 30,000 flirty emails with another top general

(Daily Mail, March 28, 2016)

In Andy Kim's defense, he is never mentioned in connection to any of the hanky panky -- unless he answered to one of the nicknames "snoopy" or "moe of planet moe".  No, Andy Kim didn't merit a mention in the biography of General Petraeus written by the lady reservist Petraeus was getting it on with.  But they did get the same photo-op:

And as for awards.  Poor Andy was left in the dust again.  The civilian service award that Andy Kim got was a paltry affair compared to the big-deal Joint Chiefs of Staff award that the "quad-feeler" socialite got.  Apparently they were handing out civilian awards like candy over at Fort Runamuck. 

Jill Kelley awarded prestigious medal from Joint Chiefs in 2011

(New York Post, November 22, 2012)

COMRADES: Jill Kelley demonstrates her “selfless contributions” for which Gen. David Petraeus (left) bestowed the second-highest citation for a civilian.

They’ll give a medal to anyone.

Military schmoozer Jill Kelley — a central figure in the investigation of Gen. David Petraeus — in March 2011 was awarded a prestigious medal from the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The award, the country’s second-highest honor for a civilian, was given to acknowledge Kelley’s “selfless contributions” and “willingness to host engagements” for top pols and military brass.

Beads... Maybe Andy should have worn beads.

Meanwhile, actual heroes were getting screwed by the Petraeus crew that Andy Kim worked for...

Ex-Army Gen. David Petraeus tried to downgrade war hero’s valor award: Pentagon

(New York Daily News, November 8, 2013)

A soldier nominated for the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest award for valor, had to endure a sneak attack from then-Army Gen. David Petraeus, who reportedly wanted to downgrade his heroism.

A Pentagon investigation into the botched nomination of Army Capt. William Swenson revealed Petraeus surreptitiously tried to give Swenson the nation's second-highest award, according to reports.  Swenson, 34, ultimately was awarded the Medal of Honor by President Obama last month for nearly singlehandedly fighting off 60 Taliban insurgents in 2009. He heroically assisted injured U.S. and Afghan troops following an assault in the Ganjgal Valley, and further proved his mettle by returning to the dangerous scene multiple times to recover his fallen brothers and sisters.

Never fear though, Petraeus did manage to dish out the civilian awards like hot dogs at a baseball game...

General Petraeus Gave Jill Kelley A Medal For Schmoozing

(Business Insider, November 22, 2012)

Did you know you can get a medal from the U.S. military for schmoozing?

Apparently you can.

At General David Petraeus's recommendation, the Joint Chiefs of Staff gave Tampa Bay socialite Jill Kelley the country's second-highest honor a civilian can receive, reports Jeane MacIntosh of the New York Post.

Kelley received the award from Petraeus himself in a ceremony in Washington DC last year.

Jeane MacIntosh quotes from the citation, which lauds Kelley for many achievements:

·       "outstanding public service to the United States Central Command, the MacDill Air Force Base community and the Department of Defense from October 31, 2008 to May 31, 2010."

·       Kelley's work in "advancing various military endeavors" and her "willingness to host engagements with senior national representatives from more than 60 countries," according to the Tampa Tribune.

·       "On multiple occasions, Mrs. Kelley invited senior national representatives, their spouses and senior leaders to her home to demonstrate their gratitude and support. These events promoted camaraderie, understanding and a better appreciation for coalition and military customs, concerns and abilities."

·       "She [was] instrumental in introducing the commander, early in his tenure, to local and state officials, particularly the mayor of Tampa and the governor of Florida."

·       "The singularly distinctive accomplishments of Mrs. Jill Kelley are in keeping with the finest traditions of public service and reflect great credit upon herself, United States Central Command and the Department of Defense."

Amazing the things you learn from a sex scandal.

We have excerpts below for those of you who have not had the opportunity to read General Petraeus' biography, All In, written by former "squeeze" Paula Broadwell...

NY Times writer leads PAC that attacks suburban Republicans

A group from Amherst, Massachusetts, the only town in America that flies the UN flag in front of its town hall, is coming to New Jersey's 3rd District, home of one of America's largest military bases and a large population of serving and retired military personnel.

The group, Swing Left, was founded by a New York Times travel writer from Amherst, Massachusetts, a solidly Left-Democrat area.  He told the New Yorker magazine that where he lived there was "no immediate opportunities to flip or meaningfully defend a congressional district." 

“No Republican ran for office around here—they didn’t even bother—and a lot of progressives live in districts like that,” he said. So he went home and perused CNN’s Web site to find the closest district where the margin of victory was close. It was New York’s 19th Congressional District...  “I was getting ready to post on Facebook, to say that I would commit my time and energy to flipping N.Y. 19 in 2018,” he said. “But then I wondered, Why did I just have to do that? Why doesn’t a tool for finding your nearest swing district already exist?”

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/jia-tolentino/swing-left-and-the-post-election-surge-of-progressive-activism

So bubbleland comes to suburbia.  Not to live here, of course, but to choose our elected officials, so that they can inflict on suburbia the kind of fashion statements that bubbleland demands.

We asked some Swinging Lefties why they didn't just move to places they consider uncool and boring -- like most of New Jersey -- there was a uniform gasp, followed by "no way!"  Perish the thought!

Swing Left isn't looking to become your neighbor.  They just want to choose your Member of Congress.

And it's not just the 3rd District they're coming for.  Democrat Andy Kim may be their latest love interest, but they are also playing for Democrat incumbent Josh Gottheimer -- and for the eventual Democrat nominees in the 2nd, 7th, and 11th districts.

The presence of the U.N. flag in front of the Amherst town hall is important, because the U.N. has a very particular record regarding Israel:

"As of 2013, Israel had been condemned in 45 resolutions by United Nations Human Rights Council. Since its creation in 2006—the Council had resolved almost more resolutions condemning Israel than on the rest of the world combined. The 45 resolutions comprised almost half (45.9%) of all country-specific resolutions passed by the Council, not counting those under Agenda Item 10 (countries requiring technical assistance)."

Some call this anti-Semitic. 

The flag has stirred up a lot of controversy.

They say timing is everything. But for indoctrinated college students, timing, along with respect, apparently doesn’t matter much as long as their narrative is heard.

On the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, unidentified students at Amherst College in Massachusetts hung a banner outside a campus dining hall shaming the U.S. for its “war on terror.”

Here’s the banner in question:

The banner reads, “There is no place large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people. In honor of those killed and displaced by America’s so-called ‘war on terror.’”

The strange neo-Victorianism of millennial America

Penis.  It is a perfectly good word to describe a well-known part of the male anatomy.  Nevertheless, eyebrows were raised when New Jersey's own Steve Lonegan used the word on CNN yesterday.  The newscaster evidently thought the word "obscene" or "dirty" because she accused him of going "crazy" and promptly gave him a maternal "time out".

Is there a better word for it than "penis"?  Perhaps wee-wee?  How about tally whacker?  Or schlong?  There's todger and wang to consider too.  And what about that good old stand by... "private parts." 

http://ncfm.org/2011/06/activities/san-diego/174-ways-to-call-a-penis-something-other-than-penis/

According to this website, there are 174 different words or phrases to use in place of "penis" -- enough to totally confuse everyone as to what you are referring to.  After all, who knows what an "Adolph" is... or an "Albino Cave Dweller."  Imagine the possibilities for confusion when someone refers to a bratwurst, burrito, or an eggroll... or even a candle?  And what goes through your mind when someone speaks of "krull the warrior king" or of "Bob Dole"?  Penis just might be the clearest word out there.

Maybe post-modern, millennial America is in penis denial mode?  Senator Ray Lesniak certainly is.  That goes for Assemblymen Tim Eustace and Reed Gusciora too.  And Bruce Springsteen. 

All of them support allowing adults with penises (what we, in a more humble age, referred to as men) into toilets and similar facilities formerly reserved for girls. 

Can they not see the penis?  Or do they simply refuse to see the penis?   Are they in penis denial? 

Lesniak, Eustace, and Gusciora have built an artifice of language around their penis denial.  Those who see the penis are "deluded by hate."  To see the penis is an act of "discrimination." Such discrimination must be acted against by the imposition of economic sanctions until such time that those who see the penis claim that they can no longer see it.  This is called the Lesniak method of "corrective thinking" or the Eustace-Gusciora therapy towards "cognitive readjustment."  Stare at it long enough, the latter tell their patients, and the penis will seem to disappear.   And it works!  Eustace and Gusciora have under their care some of the state's leading Republicans.  Of course, other things tend to disappear as well... like the Bill of Rights... but some side effects are to be expected.  

Ray Lesniak plans an exposition of these methods on Thursday, May 5th, at the Senate State Government, Wagering, Tourism & Historic Preservation Committee.  The hearing starts at 1pm in Committee Room 7, on the 2nd Floor of the State House Annex in Trenton.  Under Ray's hand and in combination with the therapy of "cognitive readjustment" he will attempt to make every penis appear to disappear .  It will be a memorable exercise.  We urge you to attend.

Look... it was here and now it aint!