IS AMY WILSON WRITING FOR A RACIST WEBSITE?

Ms. Amy Wilson, writing on behalf of editor David Wildstein (aka “The Mastermind of the Criminal Conspiracy known as BridgeGate”), has pronounced Congressman Tom MacArthur a “racist” because the NJGOP sent out a mailer attacking his opponent that appears to have deliberately used a font associated with businesses like “Chinese restaurants”.  MacArthur’s opponent’s ethnic background is Korean.

Evidently Ms. Wilson doesn’t know that Congressman MacArthur’s children share the same ethnic background as his opponent.  They too are ethnically Korean.  This delineation is, of course, of great importance to people on the Left, who have made a religion of such things.  For most of us, it is enough to know that we share an allegiance to the same flag.  That what matters is nationality.  That when tested in a time of war we would all wear the same uniform, which is, at the end of it all, the only color that matters. 

Ms. Wilson is apparently unaware that there are federal election laws in place that forbid Congressman MacArthur from knowing about or having anything at all to do with the preparation of such an expenditure by the NJGOP.  So if, as Ms. Wilson seems to suggest, Congressman MacArthur or his campaign team personally selected that font for that mailer… Well, let’s just say that Ms. Wilson’s opinion of him would be the least of his worries.

Clearly, the fault lays not with the Congressman, but rather with the State Party – the NJGOP.  Or does it?  Perhaps this is merely the case of some too cute-by-half Millennial  graphics designer and the failure of the institution to catch it.  And now there’s a controversy… but does it rise to the level of racist?  Especially when a simple Google search will reveal hundreds of advertisements featured in American newspapers that use the same or similar fonts.  Yes, these newspapers charged businesses money for these ads and, in most cases (because this is how it works) THE NEWSPAPERS DESIGNED THE ADVERTISEMENTS IN-HOUSE.  Should we conclude that print journalism is inherently racist?

Should we have legislation to ban the use of such “hate fonts” as they have banned the image of the swastika in Germany?  We can all agree that the use of such a font was in bad taste and juvenile.  Like a fart joke at a Bar Mitzvah.  But racist?  We thought racism was something serious… that crept into a man’s heart, turning him sour and away from God and his fellow man. 

If we use the term “racist” to describe a font, what are we left with to describe an entire book… like Mein Kampf or the Protocols of the Elders of Zion?  Or even a sign, held by United States Senator Cory Booker…

We don’t know who is endangered by the silly font in the NJGOP’s mailer, but we do have a very sound estimate of the number of Jews who would face a pogrom of terror, torture, rape, and murder.  Calling for an end to Israel’s border wall and other fortifications that protect innocent civilians against terrorists is like calling for a second Holocaust. 

Most Americans are not racist but they are racialist – W.E.B. DuBois made this distinction.  They are racialist because they were taught to think in terms of race from a very early age.  Today, it is the religion of the Left that teaches some races have primacy over others, for a varied set of reasons, while some are marked with a kind of original sin (see Anne Hathaway).  Americans are supposed to be better than this.  We are supposed to be a people of the idea.  And that idea is America itself, of our Constitution, and the Republic – a Republic that doesn’t recognize wealth or class, in which the highest honor is the word “citizen” and where all stand equal before the law.  Of an individualism that says, “I’ll be judged by who I am… not by who my father was.”

Which brings us back to Amy Wilson.  The venue she’s chosen to write for is instructive.  As we mentioned earlier, NJ Globe is run by David Wildstein – former political operative, former elected official, former patronage appointment, convicted for his involvement in the infamous BridgeGate scandal.  We wonder if Ms. Wilson recalls some of the details of that scandal and the resulting testimony. 

Does she remember this exchange between the man she writes for and another staffer:

The lane closures caused many Fort Lee students to be late for their first day of school.

"I feel badly about the kids," the unknown person said. "I guess."

"They are the children of Buono voters," Wildstein replied.

Now, unfortunately, we must return to the delineation of race.  Fort Lee is 63 percent White and 32 percent Asian.  So “the children of Buono voters” are who?

We will leave Ms. Wilson to sort that one out with her boss.

Andy Kim should tell NJ Citizen Action to beat it!

According to a press release issued by New Jersey for a Better Future, a group media accounts claim is tied to New Jersey Citizen Action, they plan to launch a $1 million media attack on Tom MacArthur, a two-term Republican congressman from Toms River.  Of course, this will benefit Andy Kim, the Democrat challenging MacArthur.

To understand who Andy Kim is getting into bed with and what New Jersey Citizen Action is all about, you need go no further than the group's attempt to scam New Jersey's taxpayers through something called the New Jersey Residential Foreclosure Transformation Act, better known as the “Residential Destruction Act”.  This legislation (S-1566/A-2168) was designed to grease the skids for banks to push property taxpaying, working families out on to the streets. 

The “Residential Destruction Act” legislation had the potential to completely and totally change the way New Jersey families live.  It enabled the state to create a corporation to sell bonds in order to purchase foreclosed homes in any neighborhood, slap them with a 30 year deed restriction making them low income subsidized housing, and then turn around and sell or rent the property to recently released criminals, homeless people, sexual predators, and a myriad of others who would never be able to afford to live in these homes. 

In short, this was the largest expansion of State Government ever undertaken by Trenton.  Property values would have been destroyed, once safe neighborhoods would become new hunting grounds for criminals, and the days of neighborhood tranquility shattered from Bergen County to Cape May County.

Support for this legislation came from an alliance of Wall Street banking interests and ACORN-like organizations who service “clients” who would get the homes that would be taken from hard-working taxpayers who fell behind on their mortgage.  Citigroup was one of the interest groups that testified on behalf of S-1566/A-2168 and it has an atrocious record of pushing families out of their homes and onto the streets. 

In fact, there's a federal class action lawsuit that accuses CitiMortgage of illegally foreclosing on the homes of "thousands" of service men and women on active military duty.  This is in direct violation of the Service members Civil Relief Act. 

While our troops were over in Iraq and Afghanistan worrying about how to stay alive, fighting for our freedom, back home these special interest were trying to figure out how to make it so they didn’t have a home to come back to.  It’s disgusting.

The “Residential Destruction Act” passed both chambers of the New Jersey Legislature with strong support from a lot of those same Democrats who Andy Kim calls allies.  Fortunately, it was vetoed by then Governor Chris Christie.

So here is the challenge for Andy Kim:  (1) Tell New Jersey for a Better Future and New Jersey Citizen Action to get out of the Third District and take their schemes -- like the “Residential Destruction Act” -- with them.  (2) Will you publically repudiate the members of your party who voted to make it easier for banking interests to throw working families out on the streets – and to use taxpayers’ money to do it?

(3) Will you repudiate the Wall Street lobbyists and groups like Citizen Action for getting together and supporting this scheme that tried to benefit from the misfortune of others?  Don’t you think it is immoral for your allies in the New Jersey Legislature to have anything to do with making it more advantageous to Wall Street to push families onto the streets? 

This issue isn’t going away Andy.  If you fail to take a stand, we will keep asking questions.

Why John McCann is a non-starter for Congress

So-called "Republican" John McCann is following the Democrat DCCC playbook and -- just as they do with President Trump -- trying to question conservative Republican Steve Lonegan's bonafides.  They did it to every Republican since Ronald Reagan.  It's just what liberals do. 

But there is a reason why the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) and every elected Republican in the 5th congressional district have said "no thank you" to stumbling John McCann:  They don't trust him.

And why should they?

During the 2016 Presidential Election in which Democrat Hillary Clinton faced Republican Donald Trump, John McCann was the "right-hand man" (according to The Record newspaper) to Democrat Sheriff Michael Saudino, Hillary Clinton's running mate.  That's right, wannabe Republican candidate John McCann was the consigliore to and "brains" behind a Bergen County Democrat candidate who shared a ticket with Hillary Clinton.

Not only did McCann's boss, Democrat Saudino, share a ticket with Mrs. Clinton, he shared it with Democrat congressional candidate Josh Gottheimer.  And yes, on election night, in Bergen County, they all partied together and celebrated Josh's win and Saudino's win... and then they all started to cry when Hillary didn't.

Now why would any self-respecting Republican trust (forget support!) a guy like McCann -- who was in the middle of all those Democrats?

Here they all are, on election night in Bergen County, whooping it up. 

The only people rooting for John McCann are Democrats who want to see Josh Gottheimer not have the tough fight he deserves -- so that the Democrats are free to focus on races against Republican congressmen Rodney Frelinghuysen, Leonard Lance, and Tom MacArthur.  Any Republican who goes along with that is either corrupt or a fool.

Seth Grossman stands up for Tom MacArthur

Seth Grossman, one of the state's foremost libertarian-conservative leaders, has come to the defense of Congressman Tom MacArthur.  Seth, who some at Jersey Conservative have had policy differences with, particularly on social issues, has made a well-reasoned argument in support of the Congressman:

Two months ago, Republican leaders in Congress (including South Jersey Congressman Frank LoBiondo) met in secret and tried to ram though an Obamacare replacement that was just as bad as Obamacare.   They were stopped only by the determined opposition of some three dozen conservative Congress members known as “The Freedom Caucus”.    

For weeks, it looked like no repeal of Obamacare was possible.   That was when our own Republican Congressman Tom MacArthur of Ocean/Burlington County stepped forward and became a game-changer. 
 

Tom MacArthur reached out to conservatives in the Freedom Caucus and found common ground with Republican moderates.   MacArthur almost single handedly worked out the compromise that includes some very good conservative ideas.  If Republicans in the Senate do their part, MacArthur’s bill can bring free markets, competition, better care, and lower prices back to our health care system. 
 

The Republican Establishment is now punishing MacArthur for doing the right thing.  Earlier this week, they forced MacArthur out of the “Tuesday Group”– some 40 “moderate” Republicans who include anti-conservative NJ Republican Congressmen like Leonard Lance, Frank LoBiondo, and Chris Smith. These “Tuesday Group” Republicans are generously funded by “the swamp” that Trump promised to drain.  

It is not enough to just criticize and politicians when they oppose us.  We must also thank, support, and help officials when they do the right thing--even when they are not Constitutional or conservative on some other issues.   That is why every conservative in New Jersey should now publicly thank and support Republican Congressman Tom MacArthur. 

The compromise package he put together is not the simple and complete repeal we favored.   However, it is much better than what we have now.  It also gives President Trump and the states new power to restore individual choices and costs in the future.    Finally, it also won recognition and respect for conservative, Freedom Caucus members who are too often ignored or marginalized by Establishment Republicans.

Please contact Tom MacArthur's office and thank him yourself.  Please visit is webpage for contact information at https://macarthur.house.gov/contact 

Also, please forward copy, paste, email, “like” and “share” this post with everyone you know in MacArthur’s district of Ocean and Burlington Counties.  Please do it every way you can. 

Please post your support in the comments section of newspapers like the Asbury Park Press at www.app.com.     You can submit a letter of 200 words or less for publication there to yourviews@app.com

For more information or help, please contact me at info@libertyandprosperity.org or at (609) 927-7333. 

And let's talk more about it over breakfast.   This and every Saturday morning at the Shore Diner, 6710 Tilton Road, Egg Harbor Township/Northfield, NJ.   Thanks.

Seth, who is supporting Jack Ciattarelli for Governor, has some insights into the upcoming Republican gubernatorial primary on June 6th.  It must be noted that some of our contributors here at Jersey Conservative are supporters of Pro-Life, pro-Second Amendment candidate Steve Rogers.

This is what Seth has to say:

The Governor's Race:   Conservatives have no interest in who gets the Democratic nomination this year.   At the debates, all Democratic candidates agreed, "We are all progressives!".   Here is the latest Stockton University poll for June 6 Republican primary:  
Kim Guadagno:   37%
UNDECIDED:        31%
Jack Ciattarelli:    18%
Steven Rogers:      4%
Joseph Rullo:         3%
Hirsh Singh:           3% 

Republicans have 12 days to stop this trainwreck.  Guadagno is tied to a very unpopular Christie. She also improperly let top officials collect both salaries and state pensions as Monmouth County Sheriff.  Many local Republican officials privately worry that Guardagno will be an anchor around the neck of every Republican candidate in Atlantic County this November. But they publicly support her.

Polls eight years ago showed only 11% of Republicans undecided in the primary battle between Chris Christie and conservative Steve Lonegan. Today, 31% are undecided. That is more than enough to tip the election to conservative Jack Ciattarelli.   

However, this poll indicates that there are not enough undecided voters to elect Rogers, Rullo, or Singh.   The only way Ciattarelli can defeat Guadagno is if most undecideds and some Rogers/Rullo/Singh supporters switch to conservative Ciattarelli.  

 Seth Grossman, Executive Director. Liberty and Prosperity

Police response time shouldn't determine life or death

The police work very hard to do a good job for the citizens who pay them.  But many people fail to understand that the police are crime orientated.  They stop it if they see it, respond when it is in progress, investigate it after the fact, and help prosecutors convict and punish the bad guys.  That's a lot to do-- in addition to maintaining a general level of public safety (on highways, at crosswalks, crowd control and the like).

The police are not personal security guards for each and every citizen.  They will certainly respond if called, but it is not their job to ensure your personal safety.  You cannot sue the police in civil court if they fail to arrive in time to prevent you from being harmed or worse.  As long as they reasonably attempted to respond to a 9-1-1 call they have done their job. 

In America, individual citizens are their own first line of defense.  That's been the idea since the founding of our nation.  We are responsible for protecting ourselves until the cavalry -- the men and women in blue -- get there to secure the situation, investigate what happened, and so on.

Those who wish to do away with legal firearm possession (because they will have as much success with illegal firearm possession as they have had with illegal drug possession) had better be prepared to formally change this concordat, placing the police firmly in charge of the personal protection of every resident, vastly increase budgets and taxation to pay for this, and allow individuals to bring civil actions against government when it fails to protect them.  This would be a reasonable starting position in any discussion about "swapping" government protection for the rights and duties under the Second Amendment to the Bill of Rights of the Constitution of the United States of America.

Unfortunately, this is not the starting position advanced by those who profess "gun control."  They are fixated on the bad that firearms can do and ignore their necessity as part of that first line of defense, possibly because they mistake what the police are there for.  As the number of lawsuits brought against government for "failing to protect" (all tossed by the courts) shows, many do not understand the role of the police and what the citizens' role is in his or her own self-protection.

Like the automobile, the firearm is a piece of technology -- a tool.  It should be used safely, but how it is used depends on the user.  Misuse either and you can lose your freedom.  But some in the so-called "gun control" movement would extend "misuse" to simple possession, ignoring the absolute need for firearms as the best means of self-protection, the duty of which falls to all of us as individuals.

Unfortunately, in New Jersey the state has thrown up regulatory and legal hurdles to self-protection -- while its courts have insisted that state, county, and local governments are not responsible for the lives of the people who live there.  There have been a number of well-publicized cases where vulnerable members of society have been denied the right to protect themselves or the implementation of that right was held up in red tape, and they ended up as victims of homicide.

That is why new federal legislation is so important.  Introduced in the US House of Representatives as HR38 and the US Senate as S446, these bills will allow people licensed to carry a concealed firearm in their own state to do so legally in all states.  Among New Jersey's congressmen, Tom MacArthur is taking the lead.

Legislation proposed in the New Jersey Legislature by Assemblyman Parker Space,  AR-221, memorializes Congress and the President of the United States to enact HR38.  Space and Assemblywoman BettyLou DeCroce are the prime sponsors of this legislation.  Joining them are Assemblymen Anthony Bucco and Ron Dancer.   Below is the text of the Space-DeCroce legislation:

An Assembly Resolution memorializing the Congress and the President of the United States to allow reciprocity for the carrying of certain concealed firearms.

Whereas, There exists a public interest in individuals maintaining the ability to protect themselves and their families from violence; and

Whereas, The right to keep and bear arms is enshrined in the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution and recognized by the Supreme Court of the United States; and

Whereas, The ability of law-abiding citizens to legally carry concealed firearms to defend themselves is a fundamental right; and

Whereas, It is in the best interest of our nation that citizens be able to travel freely from state to state without sacrificing the right to protect themselves and their families; and

Whereas, States currently may decline to recognize permits to carry concealed firearms issued by other states, thereby causing our citizens to forego the ability to protect themselves and their families when traveling outside of their home states; and

Whereas, Requiring all states to recognize a concealed carry permit issued by another state would rectify this inequality; and

Whereas, H.R. 38 of 2017-2018, the “Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017,” has been introduced in the United States Congress in an effort to protect our citizens’ Second Amendment rights, allowing them to travel between states without sacrificing the ability to protect themselves and their families; and

Whereas, H.R. 38 permits a person carrying a valid identification document containing a photograph of the person and a state concealed weapons permit to carry a concealed handgun in any state, so long as the individual is not prohibited from possessing a firearm under federal law or from carrying a concealed firearm in the individual’s state of residence; and

Whereas, At present 22 states recognize other states’ permits to carry concealed firearms or allow law-abiding non-residents to carry a firearm without a license; and

Whereas, Enactment of the “Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017” will enhance citizens’ Second Amendment rights by permitting reciprocity among all the states for the carrying of concealed firearms; now, therefore,

     Be It Resolved by the General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

     1.    The Congress and the President of the United States are respectfully memorialized to enact H.R. 38, the “Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017.”

     2.    Copies of this resolution, as filed with the Secretary of State shall be transmitted by the Clerk of the General Assembly, to the President and Vice President of the United States, the Majority and Minority Leaders of the United States Senate, the Speaker and Majority and Minority Leaders of the United States House of Representatives, and each member of the United States Congress elected from this State.

Has Senator Gordon lost his mind? Or is it just fashion?

There was this silly headline run in the Star-Ledger (NJ.com) last week.  It read:  To N.J. congressmen: If you're not battling travel ban, you're backing bigotry. 

Accompanying the silly headline were the faces of two Republican Congressmen who, if the author had taken just 5 minutes to study them, would understand that they are as far removed from bigotry as human beings can be.  Congressman Chris Smith and Congressman Tom MacArthur... bigots???  Then you know not a thing about them, their families, or their good works.

The opinion column underneath that headline was written by a young "progressive" political consultant.  A nice enough young man, recently married, who is starting on his journey in life.  We don't know his character or if it will ever match that of the men he has so casually maligned.  

Of course, "progressive" these days is defined as establishmentarian, globalist, corporate, and politically somewhere between Hillary Clinton and Tony Blair.  This is what the Democratic Party's incumbent class is made of and to it must bend the knees of people like our young writer.

If this headline had been written by a member of the Tea Party -- about a couple of Democrats -- it would have read something like this:  To NJ congressmen:  If you're not backing travel ban, you're backing terrorism.

The hysteria of it.  Both headlines.  We can already see the campaigns that will be run -- the terrorists vs. the bigots!

And it will be all such bullshit and so unedifying.  But that is how we communicate to each other now -- via twitter or Facebook or even face-to-face.  Whether snarky or roaring, nowadays we speak "asshole" to each other. 

We speak "asshole" to each other because our knowledge is limited and our emotions unchecked.  We are scared shitless of something, so shitless and so lost for solutions that we act like so many cats stuffed into a sack, suffocating, clawing at each other in our darkness.  And so we get headlines like the ones above.

And talk about limited knowledge.  The nations engaged in the so-called War on Terror can't even agree on what a terrorist organization is.  The military wing of Hezbollah is a terrorist organization according to the European Union and the United Kingdom but not the United States.  The Muslim Brotherhood is recognized as an Islamic terrorist group in such Islamic countries as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates -- but not in the United States. 

Our Department of Homeland Security understands so little that they processed the visa of a woman using the name of a male jihadist, with a false address, and a plethora of red flags concerning her social media.  She ended up participating in the 2015 massacre of 14 people (22 others were seriously wounded) in San Bernardino, California.  And this happened a decade and a half after student visa-holder Hani Hasan Hanjour flew American Airlines flight 77 into the Pentagon, killing 184 people, including everyone on the flight.

Our knowledge is flawed, our process faulty, but the deaths and injuries are very real.  If we don't want more and possibly a lot worse, we need to accept that we don't know, place the emotion and name-calling to one side, stop speaking in "asshole" and start communicating to each other so that we can -- together -- work the problem.

Fritz Kuhn, that old Nazi who led the German American Bund back in the 1930's clothed his organization in the red, white, and blue too.  Kuhn used accusations of "bigotry" towards those who attempted to close down his organization.  The ACLU defended him too.  A Democrat State Senator even spoke at one of his rallies, held at a Nazi camp in Andover Township, Sussex County. 

Now Senator Bob Gordon and others are attempting to interfere in the federal government's work to keep us safe from terrorist attack.  Legislation Gordon is sponsoring, S-3006, would prohibit personnel of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey from providing "any aid, resources, assistance, or support to any federal employee or representative in enforcing the provisions of a United States Executive Order issued on January 27, 2017 regarding Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States, nor may any resources or facilities of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey be used for such purpose."

Wow, imagine if the State Legislature in Alabama had passed such a law affecting the Alabama National Guard in 1963.  Remember your history and remember well that it was the federalized Alabama Guard led by General Henry Graham that affected the end to Governor George Wallace's "schoolhouse door" blockade of African-American students attempting to register for classes at the University of Alabama. 

Senator Gordon should be careful of the precedent he is setting, for he might just be taking a major step in turning our federal Republic into something akin to the Wild West.  Has the Senator thought this through, or is he simply caught up in the "be-in" surrounding the opposition to all things Trump?  Is this helping or is it merely a fashion statement?

Last year, Gordon supported legislation that directed the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to take extra-measures, above and beyond those of the federal government, to prevent hunting trophies from coming through the transportation facilities (airports, etc.) controlled by the Port Authority.  This too was a reaction to something that had gone viral on Facebook.   

The language of last year's legislation couldn't be more direct:  "Any Port Authority agent or Port Authority police officer shall have authority to enforce the prohibition in subsection b. of this section and, where necessary, to apply for and execute any warrant to search for and seize..."

It is a question of language and of priorities.  Representing counties in a state that suffered so much death and misery at the hands of terrorists, why is there no similar language regarding the vigilance against terrorism in S-3006?  Where is the insistence that no more innocent victims suffer death or maiming?

It's not there, because it's not "trending" on Facebook.  Not at the moment, anyway.  But legislators like Senator Gordon must be keeping their fingers crossed.