Will Steinhardt now disclose his clients who invest in Communist China?

By Rubashov

Did you hear… Jack Ciattarelli is a Commie!
 
Yep, the campaign of gubernatorial candidate Doug Steinhardt has followed up the announcement that “I’m not a politician, at all”, with a bigger, stupider lie. 
 
Yesterday, the Steinhardt campaign sent around an email that accused Ciattarelli of investing in “the Chinese Communist Party.”  The email went on to explain:
 
“As recently as 2017, Ciattarelli had ownership in several Chinese business investments all tied to the Communist Party of China (CPC).  It’s outrageous, but true - Ciattarelli actually owned financial interests in China Eastern Airlines, China Lodging Group and China Mobile Ltd.” 
 
The email included an image of Ciattarelli’s 2016 Personal Financial Disclosure Statement, filed with the New Jersey Legislature on May 2, 2017).  Steinhardt’s missive continued:
 
“At least two of his investments have direct connections to the CPC. According to Centre for Aviation, Shanghai-based China Eastern Airlines is one of China's 'big three' state-owned airlines. Moreover, China Mobile is reportedly controlled directly by the Communist Party of China. According to a report from Forbes, the Federal Communications Commission sought to reject China Mobile’s application to provide telecommunications in the United States because of its CPC influences.”
 
While it is true that candidates for public office are responsible for where they place their money and with whom they invest, it is also true that investments are often made without very much detailed geo-political information on the company invested in or the fund doing the investing.  Perhaps there should be federal labeling laws? 
 

True to its tribute band aspirations, the Steinhardt campaign goes on to level this attack against Ciattarelli:

“While Ciattarelli has been profiting from his investments in Communist China, President Trump and Doug Steinhardt have been promoting strategies that put America first, protect our Nation’s interests, promote election integrity, and hold China accountable for the spread of the COVID-19 virus.”

They even have a quote from Steinhardt – one in which he does the full Elvis impersonation…

“New Jersey needs a leader who will stand with President Trump’s ‘America First’ policies and against the Communist Party of China, not invest American dollars in the CPC. It’s time New Jersey leaders start protecting our financial interests instead of only worrying about their own. While conservative leaders who understand the threat the CPC poses seek to distance themselves from Communist China, Jack Ciattarelli has a long history of making money by investing in CPC linked companies. Voters must know that Jack is morally compromised on this important, national issue.”

Morally compromised? Didn’t the Philadelphia Inquirer report that Doug Steinhardt’s law firm wanted to buy a marijuana farm? Isn’t Steinhardt’s partner, the ever-so-conservative Jim Florio, the state’s biggest promoter of edible marijuana? You know, they put the stuff in chocolate bars, peanut butter cups, and gummy bears… and then the kids get hold of it and nobody is the wiser. A teacher or a parent or a cop can see when a kid is smoking a joint – but how do you effectively monitor candy? Guess “morality” must come in assorted flavors too.

But let’s place Doug Steinhardt’s questioning of Jack Ciattarelli's morality to one side for the moment.

We have to ask… Why doesn’t the Steinhardt campaign know that Donald Trump is heavily invested in China and that he does so much business with China, he maintains a bank account there? Given who is running the Steinhardt campaign… WTF!

If anyone missed it, the New York Times did a pretty big story on it at the end of October. Oh, and catch these dates…

“Trump Records Shed New Light on Chinese Business Pursuits... As he raises questions about his opponent’s standing with China, President Trump’s taxes reveal details about his own activities there, including a previously unknown bank account... President Trump at a 2017 meeting with the leader of China, Xi Jinping. Mr. Trump has a long history of chasing licensing deals in the country.”

One story from October 20, 2020, was particularly in-depth:

“Mr. Trump’s own business history is filled with overseas financial deals, and some have involved the Chinese state. He spent a decade unsuccessfully pursuing projects in China, operating an office there during his first run for president and forging a partnership with a major government-controlled company.

And it turns out that China is one of only three foreign nations — the others are Britain and Ireland — where Mr. Trump maintains a bank account, according to an analysis of the president’s tax records, which were obtained by The New York Times.”

The story notes that Trump paid China $188,561 in taxes – which is, by some accounts, more than he paid in the United States. Trump’s attorney would not identify the bank in China where the account is held, but the Times noted that China’s biggest state-controlled bank rented three floors in Trump Tower as late as 2019.

The Times continues:

“Mr. Trump has long sought a licensing deal in China. His efforts go at least as far back as 2006, when he filed trademark applications in Hong Kong and the mainland. Many Chinese government approvals came after he became president. (The president’s daughter Ivanka Trump also won Chinese trademark approvals for her personal business after she joined the White House staff.)”

“In 2008, Mr. Trump pursued an office tower project in Guangzhou that never got off the ground. But his efforts accelerated in 2012 with the opening of a Shanghai office… Mr. Trump found a partner in the State Grid Corporation, one of the nation’s largest government-controlled enterprises. Agence France-Presse reported in 2016 that the partnership would have involved licensing and managing a development in Beijing. Mr. Trump was reportedly still pursuing the deal months into his first presidential campaign, but it was abandoned after State Grid became ensnared in a corruption investigation by Chinese authorities.”

Doug Steinhardt should take a moment and read this and accompanying articles on Donald Trump’s business connections with China. We’re surprised nobody on his staff took the time to do so before issuing an attack that questioned Jack Ciattarelli’s morals – and by implication, those of President Donald Trump as well.

We would like to ask Doug, because he allowed his handlers to place a direct quote from him in their attack, do you now believe that Donald Trump is a Communist too? Does this mean that Jack Ciattarelli is more like Trump than Doug Steinhardt? That’s never good for a cover band, Doug.

But this get’s worse.

Doug Steinhardt allowed his team to put out this quote from him: “While President Trump and I were fighting to hold the CPC accountable, swampy politicians like Jack Ciattarelli were taking financial advice from the likes of Hunter Biden and making a personal profit off of questionable investments. I call on Jack Ciattarelli to immediately disclose all of his Chinese business holdings."

Hunter Biden? Where the hell did that come from?

See Doug, this is why you hire competent people. Sane people. People who don’t throw some name into the mix, simply because they heard it somewhere, regardless of whether it has anything remotely to do with what you are on about.

Can we flesh out this Hunter Biden thing? Does your campaign have any evidence at all that Ciattarelli took “financial advice” from Hunter Biden or, is the former top Republican in New Jersey (now a gubernatorial candidate) simply smearing the entire financial services industry? Shame on you for letting them put your name on that. It wasn’t smart.

Even less smart was them getting you to issue a call for Jack Ciattarelli to “disclose all of his Chinese business holdings.” You know you probably have all that information already. But now you’ve opened the door for him to ask you to disclose the Pandora’s Box of your clients – and all their dealings. And how many of them look at the geo-politics of a stock instead of its bottom line? Donald Trump doesn’t, for one. How about the Mayor of Jersey City? Isn’t he a client? Somebody pissed down their own leg.

See Doug, this is why you hire competent people.

“We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men. If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. In times of universal deceit, telling the truth will be a revolutionary act.”

George Orwells

N.B. We welcome a conversation on this and all topics raised on this website. Jersey Conservative is entirely open to your ideas and opinions. To submit a column for publication, please contact Marianna at marianna@JerseyConservative.org.

Malinowski tries to smear opponents of human trafficking

Tom Malinowski is at it again.  Blaming labor unions and working people.  Calling them haters because they fail to adopt his globalist vision of cheap labor, child labor, and slave labor.  In his latest “note from Tom” he insults every working stiff concerned about globalist off-shoring and outsourcing.  

But shilling for the very worst forms of corporate globalism is nothing new for Malinowski, a Democrat congressman from Somerset County.  He’s done it all before.

We’ve all heard about the outrages perpetrated by human trafficker Nike sportswear.  For at least twenty years, Nike has been criticized for its labor practices – including the offshoring of jobs to sub-contractors who use child labor and who practice human trafficking or modern day slavery to help Nike turn a very handsome profit.

Yes, Nike has been caught…

According to Wikipedia and numerous other sources, “Nike has been criticized for contracting with factories (known as Nike sweatshops) in countries such as China, Vietnam, Indonesia and Mexico… The company has been subject to much critical coverage of the often poor working conditions and exploitation of cheap overseas labor employed in the free trade zones where their goods are typically manufactured.”

“Nike has faced criticism for the use of child labor in Cambodia and Pakistan… Nike continues to contract their production to companies that operate in areas where inadequate regulation and monitoring make it hard to ensure that child labor is not being used.  A BBC documentary uncovered occurrences of child labor and poor working conditions in a Cambodian factory used by Nike.  The documentary focused on six girls, who all worked seven days a week, often 16 hours a day.”

“As of July 2011, Nike stated that two-thirds of its factories producing Converse products still do not meet the company's standards for worker treatment. A July 2011 Associated Press article stated that employees at the company's plants in Indonesia reported constant abuse from supervisors.”

Sources for this criticism include Naomi Klein's book No Logo and Michael Moore documentaries… including the clips from the one below…

Enter Congressman Tom Malinowski who labels as “racist” or “anti-Semite” any working man or woman who objects to such globalism. According to Tom Malinowski, if you oppose the exploitation of children, that makes you a dangerous “white supremacist”. Since when did standing up to slavery make you a racist?  Who – besides Congressman Malinowski – equates opposing globalism with “anti-Semitism”?   

Of course, Tom Malinowski has been shilling for globalism’s worst of the worst for years.  In 2015, when Tom Malinowski was a top State Department appointee (supposedly charged with protecting human rights), he put corporate interests before principle and in an effort to broaden the markets included in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, tried to cover-up and reclassify Malaysia’s human trafficking problem.  Unfortunately for Tom Malinowski, the attempt to downgrade the human trafficking crisis in that country came just as hundreds of bodies of trafficking victims were discovered, buried in a forest.

160 members of Congress – a bi-partisan outpouring – condemned the Malinowski State Department for ignoring the plight of victims of modern day slavery.  Here are some headlines…

State Department Watered Down Human Trafficking Report

Senators: State Department ‘Heartless,’ Lacks ‘Integrity’ After Politicized Human Trafficking Report

Lawmakers threaten to subpoena all information about inflated grades for countries that have failed to crack down on forced labor, prostitution

Earlier in May, 139 graves in camps for human trafficking victims were found near Malaysia’s northern border with Thailand.

160 Members of Congress Call on State Department to Not Upgrade Malaysia Ranking in 2015 Trafficking in Persons Report

Those headlines are from May 2015.  In June 2015, then Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Tom Malinowski testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and claimed that it was all about the trade and passing the Trans-Pacific Partnership.  Malinowski argues:

“I am convinced that, on balance, TPP will greatly aid the effort to advance human rights in the Asia-Pacific region.”

Slavery is Freedom… so long as some corporate pig makes a buck (and screws the workers).  It’s like something out of Orwell.  A nightmare… straight from Tom Malinowski’s lips. 

In July 2015, Ranking Democrat Congressman Lloyd Doggett sent a letter to the State Department chastising Tom Malinowski and others responsible for the State Department’s policies.  Congressman Doggett wrote:

“Once again trade is being prioritized over trafficking enforcement.  Bending the standards to reward a country that accepts trade in women, children and forced laborers is wrong.  Malaysia adopting some new provision that will not be consistently enforced is no substitute for effective prosecution… It is easier to lower the standard than to insist that Malaysia protect trafficking victims… this (is) another indication that the Trans-Pacific Partnership is not being used to bring about meaningful change on critical issues.”

Congressman Malinowski should quit trying to stifle debate by calling it names. The only hateful act is Tom Malinowski’s… he plans to end the debate by criminalizing it and sending in men with guns… and dogs (Bull Connor style).  A true liberal, upon considering the crap that flows out of Tom Malinowski’s brain, would never stop throwing up. 

This graph explains why America can’t afford ideas like Reparations.

The United States of America is $22 trillion in debt.  A significant portion of that debt is owed to China.  Democrats from Cory Booker to Elizabeth Warren are talking like America is the endlessly rich country it once was.  That once-upon-a-time nation that won every war and led the world’s economy.

Maybe THAT America could have afforded to think about reparations.  This one – the America of today – cannot.  It has already made future debt-slaves of its grandchildren.  THIS America had better get humble fast… think about ways of spending LESS, not stupid fashion statements for spending MORE.

Lady Gaga's point about transgenders in the military

This is just too delicious.  Expect to see it -- in mail, email, and on radio and on cable -- as part of some future election campaign. 

Lady Gaga's recent tweet in support of transgendered soldiers actually made a prima facie argument against transgendered individuals serving in the military.  Here's what she wrote:

Lady Gaga suggested that President Trump's ban on transgendered military personnel would lead to increased mental issues within the transgendered community that would lead to more suicides.  In order to prevent this, she suggested that these suicidal individuals be provided access to weapons, including weapons of mass destruction. 

Yes, look for this come election time.

In 2015, USA Today (hardly a journal of the right) wrote about a study by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention which reported that 41 percent of transgendered individuals attempt suicide at some point in their lives -- compared to only 4.6 percent of the general population.  The study, by the Williams Institute, found that transgender adults were 14 times more likely to consider suicide, and 22 times more likely to attempt suicide, than the general population.  Sure, give that man (woman?) an M-16 and a flame-thrower.  No... make that a missile launcher and an Abrams tank.

Has the nice-guy, feel-goodism of post-modern American politics finally reached the point of farce?  Or perhaps we should commission a study into the mental state of our elected officials?

But it doesn't end there.

Recently, the United States Congress took a vote to have taxpayers pay for the sex-change operations of military personnel.  Where once it was "join the navy and see the world" -- now it's "join the navy and become a girl."  All on the taxpayers dime.

A few years ago a Republican Congressman calculated the amount of money America pays to what used to be called "Red China" in interest payments on the money our government borrowed from them.  He came up with the figure of $73.9 million per day -- every day!  Politifact fact-checked that figure and adjusted it up to $74.4 million per day. That's over $27 billion a year.

During the same period, China was able to increase its military spending by 11 percent -- from $131 billion to $146 billion.  Thanks to the interest we pay to China, the Chinese military budget is now the second largest in the world and growing at a rate sustained by our debt payments.  Chinese weapon sales to other countries (many of whom are not friendly to the United States) has grown by 143 percent.

So why are we paying for sex-change operations in the military?  It is something that we obviously cannot afford to do, making this an issue for fiscal conservatives as well as for social conservatives.

This goes out to all those who made China's military expansion possible.  Enjoy it... we paid for it.