Why is a journalist on a sexual-identity “power” list?

Some people still subscribe to newspapers in the hope of providing themselves with basic information on the current events of the day.  And once upon a time, newspapers did just that.  Older journalists worked very hard to keep their personal opinions, emotions, feelings, and biases away from their job of reporting the news. 

Not anymore.  Now newspaper reporters publicly celebrate their biases – flaunt them – and, as a result, journalism as a career is on life support. 

Readers today expect reportage to be grossly untrue and biased and they are guided accordingly.  More and more, newspapers bore voters.  Most voters can tell you today how the newspapers will report on each and every debate next year between Donald Trump and whoever the Democrat candidate is.  You could place a bet on it if anyone would take a bet on it but nobody will because everybody knows.  So very predictable.

What happened to intellectual curiosity?  Back during the day before yesterday, a reporter approached a story with an open, interested mind – excited by the prospects of where the story might take it.  Not today.  Now it is “time to make the donuts” – the work of drudgery – a fine cabinetmaker reduced to nailing together crates.  Reporters have everything arranged in advance.  The story is written before they write it.  There are those with the white hats and them with the black – with 95 percent of the story slanted against the designated “baddies” and praising the “goodies” – and 5 percent reserved for a “response” from the “baddies” (which, in the course of a conversation with the reporter, is often turned into the worst bit).  Journalism today is like writing while sleepwalking.  A fiction produced through automatic writing.   

Many reporters – the Star-Ledger’s Jonathan Salant comes to mind – cannot get their brains out of their comfortable suburban surroundings, the cozy press club, the shared prejudices and opinions.  Never meeting another soul who is unlike them, they cannot imagine any way but their own.  A machine stuck at one speed, one function, doing the same thing, grinding on until it burns out. 

Then there are the activists.  These are the so-called journalists who think it cool to show that they are compromised from the start, their minds made up.  The Star-Ledger’s Tom Moran laid in out last year when he wrote:  “Voters will be standing in the booth Tuesday, and our core mission is helping them decide which lever to pull.”  Sounds more like the “core mission” of a political operation than of journalism.

Of course, there still are some genuine journalists out there.  A month before Moran wrote that stunning admission, the Atlantic City Press published an editorial which included these reassuring lines:  “Telling readers how to vote, however, is contrary to the mission of newspapers and other media, which is to extend the public’s experience and perspectives.  Newsgathering organizations give the public eyes, ears and memory beyond the capability of an individual.  

People want them to be reliable and credible.  When the media start making judgments, their audiences wonder if they’re altering their content to support that judgment too.”

Which brings us to Matt Arco of… you guessed it, the Star-Ledger.  Why is Matt Arco number 34 on a list of 100 “LGBT Power” brokers?  Why is that kind of self-defining celebrity necessary for a journalist?  We thought he was covering the news, and here he is a power broker making the news.  What is a journalist doing cheek-by-jowl on a list of politicians, lobbyists, and political operatives?  

And why is he described as a “voice” when he should be a conduit of information, which is the heart and soul of journalism.  Is anyone really looking for another celebrity “voice” shouting to be heard, telling us their feelings, thoughts, opinions – or do we want to be informed about what’s really going on?  The title “political reporter” shouldn’t be meant literally. 

How can a journalist who allows himself to be placed on a celebrity “power” list be taken seriously?  As one of the top named members of a political identity group, how can we expect Matt Arco to fairly and honestly cover stories concerning religious groups with theological traditions that don’t line up with the policy agenda of his political identity group?  Groups such as Biblical Christians, Torah Jews, and adherent Muslims. 

How can Matt Arco be expected to fairly and honestly cover a candidate or  political organization whose positions or platform is not in agreement with the positions and platform of his political identity group – of which he is the 34th most powerful operative in the state?  Having Matt Arco cover the Republican Party is like sending Ann Coulter to cover the Democrats.  It’s not fair or honest.

Clergy calls out State Democrat Chairman’s attack on religion

In an open letter to State Democrats, a member of the New Jersey clergy questioned Democrat Chairman John Currie’s motives for encouraging the media to attack religious leaders…

Chairman John Currie

NJ Democratic State Committee

196 W State Street

Trenton, NJ 08608

Dear Chairman Currie:

I am writing to you because I am disgusted with the offensive way the state Democratic Party, of which you are Chairman has used Matt Friedman and the Politico website to smear, attack and denigrate people of faith.  You seem to think that you are above God, that in order to achieve salvation, we need only drink the Koolaid offered by the State Democratic Party and its allies in the media. 

To be a Christian is to follow The Christ. That means to order your life to the discipline of the Word of God – not the word of your political party.  We take our instruction from the Bible and not from the Star-Ledger or the Record or a political blog or a political party.  When we follow the tenants of our faith, you and your allies in the media should not try to label us as “haters”.  

My faith tells me that the “LGBT lifestyle” is wrong and that it is contrary to the Word of God.  That does not make me a “hater” like you and your friends like to call us.  It makes us Christians.  Please let me share this story with you, a story from my life, and then you can decide whether you and your party and the Matt Friedmans of the world should call me a “hater”.

I am a nurse. As the AIDS epidemic hit Dayton, Ohio, in the early 80’s I volunteered for the Dayton Area AIDS Task Force.  I personally cared for many men as they were dying of AIDS.

The only medicine available at the time was the toxic, previously banned for human consumption, AZT.  From the disease and medicine, these men could barely take care of themselves. As a nurse, I helped take care of their daily needs, including bathing, toileting, dressing, and feeding them.  I wiped their bottoms, gave them their medicine, took them to their doctors.  I also did their eulogies and officiated over the memorial services.

Many clergy and church people stepped up to take care of these men and minister to their families.  The accusation that the clergy is “hateful” towards LGBT people is false.  I remember when the late Cardinal O’Connor was alive, he would go to the AIDS wards in New York hospitals, not just to pray for these men, but he helped feed them. He would take off his clerical robes, roll up his sleeves, and help bathe them.  But your party and agenda driven reporters want to accuse all clergy of being haters bigots and homophobes. In so doing you show your hatred and bigotry to Biblical Christians, Torah Jews, and adherent Muslims. That’s a lot of people.

In New Jersey, LGBT identified persons have been given more rights, more protections, more attention than any other socioeconomic group in the state, with the possible exception of illegal aliens.  This has all been done at the expense of the 1st Amendment rights of people of faith. This is by design. The New Jersey legislature has passed a plethora of bills in the last several years that deal with alternative lifestyles. Including enabling children to change sexual identity, mental health services, without parental consent at the expense of the taxpayer. They are now forcing children and teachers to be indoctrinated about the contributions of LGBT identified persons in every subject beginning in eighth grade.  The contributions of other citizens perhaps even more qualified and more accomplished will not be taught because they’re not LGBT.

You and your media allies with your hate, will not rewrite Holy Scripture or destroy our faith.  Political parties will not be allowed to intrude into religion and make it bend to their political will. 

I am here to tell you today that your politics is intruding into our religion.  You cannot judge us by your political yardstick which is your faith.  When we don’t comply, you should not set your Matt Friedmans upon us to mock religion and call us names. 

If you don’t know the difference between theology and politics, then perhaps we can teach you.  We preach against adultery, but we encourage adulterers to attend our church.  We preach against substance abuse, but we minister to those who suffer from it.  We preach against sodomy, but all are welcome in our church. We stand with the Bible, but we do not treat any “sinner” different than another.  And rest assured, that begins with the sinner in the mirror every morning.  The ground is level at the foot of the cross. 

To this end, I would like to invite you to attend a public discussion on this subject.  We can work with your schedule. 

Please let us know what week works best for you. 

Thank you,

 Rev. Greg Quinlan

Will S-1500 force Sen. Singleton to resign from his job?

New Jersey Democrats are in the process of making a pig’s breakfast of efforts to reform the use of “dark money” to influence elections, as well as the operations and processes of government.  Legislation proposed by Senator Troy Singleton (D-07) seeks to require “disclosure by independent expenditure committees; raises certain campaign contribution limits; repeals ban on certain intraparty fund transfers.”  The Bill is S-1500.

We strongly support full disclosure and are great fans of groups like Common Cause and RepresentUS, which campaign for transparency and honest government.  That said, along with open government comes the need to enforce laws against those vigilantes who use the data from such to harass and harm those who chose to financially support a political candidate or committee. 

The United States Supreme Court has ruled that making a political contribution to a candidate of your choice is a form of free speech – protected by the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights.  Disclosure should not be a means by which thugs can target the homes, families, and employment of individuals who exercise that right.  From the NAACP seeking to protect its donors from southern KKK groups to Christian groups seeking the same protection from wealthy LGBT activists, disclosure will soon lose its popular support if it becomes a means to vengeance or violence. 

Particularly as some Democrats are seeking to recruit and politicize the actual criminal class (including violent criminals), S-1500 should include tough sanctions to protect the free expression of political choice.  And this is just as important for Democrat Party primaries as it is for General Elections, if you get our drift… so don’t cut your own nuts off just to spite someone else.

S-1500 amends existing law to increase campaign contribution limits, but neglects to address the glaring deficiencies in the rules enforced by the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission (NJELEC).  Take this portion of the bill as a for instance:

“No individual, other than an individual who is a candidate, no corporation of any kind organized and incorporated under the laws of this State or any other state or any country other than the United States, no labor organization of any kind which exists or is constituted for the purpose, in whole or in part, of collective bargaining, or of dealing with employers concerning the grievances, terms or conditions of employment, or of other mutual aid or protection in connection with employment, or any group shall: (1) pay or make any contribution of money or other thing of value to a candidate who has established only a candidate committee, his campaign treasurer, deputy campaign treasurer or candidate committee which in the aggregate exceeds [$2,600] $3,000 per election… No candidate who has established only a candidate committee, his campaign treasurer, deputy campaign treasurer or candidate committee shall knowingly accept from an individual, other than an individual who is a candidate, a corporation of any kind organized and incorporated under the laws of this State or any other state or any country other than the United States, a labor organization of any kind which exists or is constituted for the purpose, in whole or in part, of collective bargaining, or of dealing with employers concerning the grievances, terms or conditions of employment, or of other mutual aid or protection in connection with employment, or any group any contribution of money or other thing of value which in the aggregate exceeds [$2,600] $3,000 per election…”

Why is it a bigger deal for a labor union to contribute $3,001 to a candidate or incumbent, but no big deal to throw a six-figure job, benefits, and a pension at him?  Because that’s what is being done.

Let’s look at the case of Senator Troy Singleton as an example.  On his personal financial disclosure statement covering 2017 (the latest available), the Senator lists that he was paid in excess of $50,000 by the Northeast Regional Council of Carpenters.  This was the largest portion of his income.  His personal financial disclosure statements (2011-2016) all list the same source of income.  

And it’s not like Singleton was a union carpenter who worked his way up through the ranks and was rewarded by his brothers and sisters.  Singleton was a political operative a lieutenant in the regime of south Jersey political boss George Norcross.  Singleton worked for Norcross captain Joe Roberts, a Camden County Assemblyman who was made Speaker of that chamber.  His hiring was a straight political act.

So let’s get serious.  If you want to take out the corruption, dry up the money, stop ignoring the elephant in the room. 

But hey, if you are looking to put out press releases that congratulates yourself on some bullshit tweak that will go the same way as all the other bullshit tweaks… well, this is the kind of legislation that will accomplish that.  Just like old Joe Roberts’ “Clean Elections” b.s. of more than a decade ago.  Yep, old Joe was so committed to the people of New Jersey, that the moment he retired he got out of the crap hole he helped to create and moved to a low tax Red State.  Joe Roberts might be a hypocrite, but he was no fool.

The Democrat Party vendor blog, InsiderNJ, recently reported that Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-03) was in support of S-1500.  This is curious, given his own sources of income.  In an ethics case from 2013, documents from the United States Labor Department were entered into the record, stating the following:

“As Senate President, Steve Sweeney is paid $49,000 per year, plus an “allowance equal to 1/3 his compensation” ($16,333) for a total of $65,333.

Steve Sweeney is also an official with the Iron Workers union.  As a general organizer paid through the International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers Union, AFL-CIO, Sweeney received a base salary of $165,264 in 2012.  In addition to his base salary, Sweeney also received compensation in the form of allowances and disbursements for expenses. His total compensation through the International in 2012 was $206,092.

In addition, Sweeney received allowances of $21,351 as President of Iron Workers District Council of Philadelphia and Vicinity. In 2012, Sweeney's total compensation through the Iron Workers was $227,443.

The Department of Labor requires public disclosure by labor unions of how union dues are spent.  These disclosures list union employees, their salaries and allowances.  The disclosure also includes the allocation of time by union officers and employees estimating the amount of time spent on various activities such as organizing or administration.  One of the purposes of this disclosure is to show how much the union has spent on its core activities: collective bargaining, contract administration, and grievance adjustment.  Non-members working in a union environment are obligated to pay dues, but only to support these core activities.

According to disclosure filings by the International, Sweeney spends a considerable amount of his time as a union official on activities described as ‘Political Activities and Lobbying.’ (LM-2, Schedule 12, Disbursements to Employees, Line I, Schedule 16)

What political activities did he engage in and on behalf of which candidates and causes? The explanation offered as part of the disclosure describes political activity as ‘to influence the selection, nomination, election, or appointment of anyone to a Federal, state, or local executive, legislative or judicial public office, or office in a political organization, or the election of Presidential or Vice Presidential electors, and support for or opposition to ballot referenda.’ (Instructions for Form LM-2 Labor Organization Annual Report, page 27)

Lobbying is described as ‘associated with dealing with the executive and legislative branches of the Federal, state, and local governments and with independent agencies and staffs to advance the passage or defeat of existing or potential laws or the promulgation or any other action with respect to rules or regulations (including litigation expenses).’ 

Senator Sweeney is not registered as a lobbyist with the United States Senate or House of Representatives.  He is not a registered lobbyist in Pennsylvania.  The union that pays Sweeney's salary does not use outside lobbyists.  Instead, it uses an employee as its primary lobbyist – registered with both the House and Senate.  It is interesting to note that the primary lobbyist in Washington allocates only 50% of his time to political activity and lobbying.

New Jersey state law does not appear to allow legislators to simultaneously serve as lobbyists. 

Questions concerning Senator Sweeney's political activity and lobbying for the Iron Workers union become a more serious matter when the amount of time allocated to these activities is noted.  Calculating the value of that allocation as a portion of Sweeney's compensation adds further emphasis. 

Sweeney spent 30% of his union effort in 2012 on political activity and lobbying.  In 2011 and 2010, the amount was 38%.  In 2009, the amount was 34%.  There is no indication of the actual amount of time Sweeney devoted to these activities, only the proportion of the whole.

Placing dollar amounts on Sweeney's activity helps put matters into an easily understandable form.  In 2012, Sweeney's gross pay was $165,264, and his total compensation was $227,443.  In simple terms, Sweeney was paid $49,579 of his gross, or $68,233 of his total compensation, to engage in political activity and lobbying for the union.  In 2011, Sweeney was paid $62,141 of his total compensation for political activity and lobbying.  In 2010, $58,377, and in 2009, $56,669.”

In Senator Sweeney’s defense, it must be said that he started his career as a blue collar man.  Sweeney was an actual ironworker, served his apprenticeship and earned his way.  He wasn’t a fake like Troy Singleton.

As for the ethics complaint.  It was brought before the New Jersey State Legislature’s Joint Committee on Ethical Standards, that august body where ethics goes to die.  They duly heard the complaint, killed a few chickens, and closely examined the entrails… before the Norcross lieutenant who chaired the committee delivered a lecture to the complainant about daring to bring such affronts before them.  Don’t you know man, this is New Jersey!

And it’s not just these guys.  Most of the Democrats in the New Jersey Legislature are in hock to some machine, serving some master, living off pay checks courtesy of some regime.  Do they recuse themselves when presented with a conflict of self-interest?  Of course not!  That’s why they are there.  People like Senator Nick Sacco (with three public jobs and collecting a public pension) and Teresa Ruiz (two public jobs, with a third for her spouse) routinely vote on legislation that directly benefits the political machines that pay them.  That’s why they are there.

David Goodman, a spokesperson for Represent New Jersey, recently had this to say about political reform in New Jersey:  “Partisan Gerrymandering serves to strengthen the forces and effectiveness of dark money.  What it really amounts to is rigging elections—politicians prioritizing big donors to get elected, and then redrawing their districts to stay in office. They are picking their voters, instead of the other way around.”

He noted that just a month ago, Represent New Jersey alongside coalition partners, like the League of Women Voters of New Jersey, organized the fight against the partisan gerrymandering bills with action alerts, countless calls to legislators, impromptu hallway lobbying and in-person advocacy at the Statehouse in Trenton.  Facing massive grassroots pressure, the Senate President and Assembly Speaker pulled the amendment.  RepresentUs members showed that this movement is ready to fight against corruption by those in power—regardless of party affiliation.

Goodman says he is excited that the state Senate is holding hearings on S-1500, on January 17th.   He should temper that excitement with realism and know that they are playing him and RepresentUS.  And that’s okay, so long as he knows, and then uses that knowledge to turn it around… and play them.

Blame Trenton Democrats for making Cory Booker discuss his sexuality

Writer Matt Katz recently tweeted: “Cory Booker confirms his heterosexuality (which he has to do, because opponents have stirred rumors about this from the beginning) & says he sees a pathway to becoming the first unmarried president since 1884.”

Well lucky Cory Booker… at least he is alive to confirm his sexuality.  That’s not the case with James Buchanan, the 15th President of the United States, and someone whose sexuality has been the center of endless speculation – in an attempt to codify same and to teach children that he was America’s “first gay president.”

See, the LGBT movement has become a kind of religion… well, not kind of, it is a religion.  This new religion has adopted, as one of its core beliefs, something not unlike the Mormon Church’s “baptism for the dead” – also known as vicarious baptism or proxy baptism.  In the new LGBT faith, living people speak on behalf of those who are dead and ask on their behalf to become “gay” so that they may be added, posthumously, to the fold. 

Once added to the LGBT “sainthood” their life “stories” are then taught to children in the didactic manner, much as children in religious schools are taught about the lives of saints or martyrs or prophets.  In New Jersey, with yesterday’s passage of S-1569, the Legislature has made this an unfunded mandate – with the scrapping of old textbooks and their replacement with new “religious” tracts that focus on the lives of said “saints”. 

Strange how things go.  That we are back to this again.  It is like the ring-around-the-rosy in Poussin’s “Dance to the Music of Time”.  There is no such thing as progress… we just get stupid again, profligate, dissolute. 

But the religion bit is for real.  No less than Atlantic magazine and New York magazine have today unveiled stories that paint Cory Booker as the candidate of a “new” religion.  Atlantic calls it the “theory of love”, while New York magazine plumps for “candidate of the Christian Left”.  No kidding.  So it’s here.  Welcome to the new paradigm.  The religion of the Trenton Democrats is no longer Roman Catholic or Jewish or Protestant… but that of the golden ass, the most holy orgasm, and the sacrament of abortion.  These are not matters of policy… but of faith.  Not open to debate.

Writing in the Star-Ledger yesterday, reporter Jonathan Salant (pronounced Slant) noted that when Booker first ran for the Senate and was asked about his sexual orientation, Booker answered, “What does it matter?” 

We could not agree more.

But that was back in those quaint times of long ago… 2013.  Today, in today’s politics, religion matters – and nothing matters more than how you reach orgasm and with whom.  Piss on policy… today’s religious leaders in politics, corporate America, and academia want to know how you get down.  Just read S-1569.  It is the most important thing about you.

Poor Cory Booker.  He wants to run for President, so he has to declare a side.  And in the America of today – the America fostered by legislation like that passed yesterday in Trenton – it is a conundrum as great as that faced by any Irish politician in the midst of The Troubles.  What are you?  Who are you?  It’s all that matters.

The illusion of LGBT’s power to help Republicans…

Yes, we know it’s about the parties.  Who wouldn’t want to be invited?  The music is cool, the drinks well poured, the energy is just… better.  But none of this is about politics.

Once again we must, sadly, point out that Republicans do not benefit by currying favor with Garden State Equality and the state’s LGBT political bosses.  To have GSE high priest Chris Fuscarino’s benediction means nothing in a General Election and even less in a Republican primary.

Two incumbent Republican congressman came to an understanding with GSE that meant keeping social conservatives at arm’s length.  In return for dissing their base, their Democrat opponents lost Fuscarino’s blessing – but won (or appear to have won) their elections anyway. 

As with the case of Bob “I am a different kind of Republican” Hugin, wrapping oneself in a rainbow flag meant not a jot on the profit side – but very much depressed the base on the debit side.  Conversely, the one unabashedly social conservative Republican in the congressional delegation – the one specifically targeted for defeat by Garden State Equality – won re-election without much difficulty.  It appears he will now be New Jersey’s only Republican member of Congress. 

We suspect this is why the ever watchful David Wildstein placed GSE’s Chris Fuscarino in the losers column on Friday, over at NewJerseyGlobe.com.  Wildstein noted that the portly Fuscarino “missed the boat” by failing to endorse the Democrat challengers to the two GOP incumbents and instead “making his top target the only Republican congressman who won.”

Sigh… When will Republicans learn that the only sure way to earn the support of people who vote like LGBT is their top priority is by executing a change of registration form and running in the Democrat primary.  It’s all about the shoes, and red is just so out of fashion. 

Do voters prefer to be lied to? Is it the fault of PC and LGBT speech codes?

Ever wonder why candidates are so afraid to tell it to you straight?  Maybe it’s because they’re afraid of the extreme reactions that being honest produces?  So in an effort to avoid those extreme reactions – and to prevent being branded an “extremist” themselves – politicians resort to bullshit.  And voters – especially the snowflake variety – suck up the bullshit and condemn anything that even smells like the truth. 

That would explain the two years of non-stop ANTIFA inspired rants by candidates like Obama bureaucrat Mikie Sherrill, Obama bureaucrat Tom Malinowski, and Obama bureaucrat Andy Kim… and it would explain why those Democrats are now looking for a way to move their followers and activists to the center. 

Well, he’s at it again…

Did you enjoy that?  What?  Too much? 

Yeah, it certainly is shock therapy.  But then, you needed it, didn’t you?

About Jonathan Pie (from Wikipedia)… Jonathan Pie is a fictitious British news reporter, created and played by British actor and comedian Tom Walker.  Pie appears in a series of video clips where he rants about the state of politics in the United Kingdom, and the United States presented as if he is a real reporter speaking his personal opinions to camera before or after filming a regular news segment.

The first spoof news report featuring Pie, released just after the election of Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the Labour Party, was responding to mainstream media reports that gave particular weight to Corbyn's past relationship with Diane Abbott. Walker was soon approached by several media companies, including RT UK, the Russian government-funded television channel, which offered him complete creative control. He worked with RT for several months, before leaving in July 2016, just prior to his appearance at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August.

The character received international coverage after the 2016 US election, when his report on Donald Trump's victory went viral, becoming a YouTube trending video. PJ Media did not recognise Jonathan Pie as a fictitious character, presenting him instead as a real-life, professional "British lefty reporter".

Are all Hollywood “makers of our culture” rapists and molesters?

Liberal Hollywood runs on money.  The “art” of imagining what will hook both investors and consumers.  Hollywood is what makes our culture – has made our culture – for nearly a century.  This November we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the end of the what was built on hard work and “manifest destiny” and the beginning of the culture of modern make-believe. 

It is no surprise that Hollywood is liberal.  That the “entertainment” industry and its media sidekicks are the Democrat Party’s most consistent donors. 

From that perfectly “sincere” smile to his well-manicured toenails, Senator Cory Booker is a media darling.  Hollywood sees nothing wrong in the importation of women (“for a friend”) or in exchanging luxuries for “help” (“for a friend”)… and so Hollywood sees nothing wrong with Senator Bob Menendez.

And Hollywood just adores that weasel class of ex-bureaucrats with Hollywood manufactured “back stories” who now menace New Jersey’s voters… Andy “winner of the hot cross bun, with bar” Kim, Tommy (him pretty) Malinowski, and Mikie Sherrill.  BTW, “Mikie” is Hollywood for “Rebecca Michelle”.  Aside from the ubiquitous “AKAs” employed by the criminal class, apparently the two careers for which a change of name is accepted practice are Hollywood and politics. 

Among the latest Hollywood icons felled by the #MeToo movement is one of its prominent feminist leaders (who is alleged to have seduced a teenaged boy).  No, it wasn’t her student and she isn’t a member of the NEA. 

Then there are the two LGBT activists who drugged and raped another man.  Prior to this they were famous for having been “married” by no less than far-Left U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.  According to the New York media, the rape was “violent”.  One of those names came up as a contributor to our old pal Andy Kim, a candidate for Congress in South Jersey.  You need to check it out Andy and make sure it’s not the guy accused of rape.  See buddy, we’re giving you a heads-up (that’s the kind of sob’s we are). 

We kid with Andy about him winning the “hot cross bun, with bar” because he got a civilian award from a famous general.  No, it wasn’t as important an award as the one the general’s mistress got… or as big a deal as the one the general gave to his other gal pal.  But hey, that shit probably wasn’t worth it anyway, so we’re just happy you got your handshake and photograph.  It’s all cool.

As the list of fat donors to the Democrat Party and its candidates felled by the #MeToo movement has rotted and eaten through the Democrats’ hegemony in Hollywood, their sidekicks in the media have largely looked the other way.  The Star-Ledger’s Tom Moran has, once again yesterday, used his newspaper’s editorial pages as an in-kind contribution to Democrats on the ballot this year. 

“Impeach, condemn, then execute” seems to be Tom Moran’s and the Star-Ledger’s message – for both the President and congressional Republicans – but that’s not how it used to be.  We remember finding stuff like this in the Ledger…

“Kenneth Starr, meat-ax in hand, is entering the critical and, let's hope, final stages of his rugged surgery to transform Bill Clinton's image from cut-up to criminal. He must also change the country's mind-set from so-what shrugs to gasps of begone. It may take some doing.”

“Most members of Congress from New Jersey would like to hear more facts and less speculation in judging the allegations facing President Clinton, but U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) said he's heard enough. Lautenberg, the state's senior Democrat, said he was satisfied with Clinton's denials… ‘I believe him,’ he said.”

Ah, now that was journalism.  Not what you get today…

“Dramatic, split-screen findings of criminality by President Trump's ex-lawyer and his former campaign chair this week… Both will probably go to prison, and testimony also implicates Trump in a serious crime… two women who said they had affairs with Trump… it's a felony, a final insult from a man who rose to power on a promise to drain the swamp, but instead gave it over to even bigger gang of grifters, including himself.”

“Robert Mueller, whose job it is to sort through all this stink, is pursuing his own investigation of potential collusion by the Trump administration in Russia's hacking of our 2016 election… But if the president committed election fraud, it rises to the level of ‘high crimes and misdemeanors,’ and is therefore an impeachable offense.”

“Once again, the focus turns to our own squirming GOP representatives, and we hear crickets. None would say on Wednesday what they will do to ensure that Congress investigates this; not even two newcomers running for office… Not only have they done absolutely nothing to curb Trump's swampy behavior, as he brazenly profits off his public office and invites serious conflicts of interest; all five -- including three seeking re-election -- helped to cover up any crimes…”

Wow… Trump is a criminal, all Republicans are criminals… even the ones not yet in office!

This is certainly a change in tune for a newspaper that defended Hillary Clinton’s monetization of the Office of the Secretary of State, or that never asked how Bill Clinton, who entered national office a rather economically challenged man, left office decidedly well-off and who has gone on to amass a fortune worth more than $100 million.  Grifters?  Conflicts of interest?  Crickets, Mr. Moran… crickets?

In fairness to Tom Moran, this editorial came out after a particularly eventful lunch (one with which his very white gut couldn’t cope) leading to a three hour long stream of consciousness, during which his screed was composed.  In future, remember this, and don’t fault the man.  Fault his bowels.

To close on an up-note, the Star-Ledger suggested we look to the leadership of the great and the good… that godfather of a family of saints – priests even – the incorruptible Pascrells.  So what did godfather, Congressman Bill Pascrell, have to tell us about President Trump?  That his family was part of the swamp?  Too close to bad people?  Conflicted?  A crook?  “I’m the face of Democrat Party reform,” says the godfather.  Indeed.  A monograph is long overdue, charting that family’s financial progress, as godfather made his way up the greasy pole of political advancement.  The face of sweetness and light.  Indeed.

We appreciated him more when he was a little less full of shit, considering the fate of President Clinton…

“Democrat Bill Pascrell Jr. said Clinton's admissions were ‘painful to all of us,’ and added he hoped ‘we can soon put this behind us.’  But he said he could not second guess what Starr would eventually report to Congress. ‘I'll keep an open mind if I'm called to make a decision in my official capacity.’”

Yes, “an open mind” – good idea.  You do that.  Keep an open mind.

A warning to those GOPers who attended the GSE ball.

Democrat operative Jay Lassiter wrote a column for InsiderNJ in which he gloated over the number of Republicans who appeared at the “Equality Ball” – a fundraiser for Garden State Equality, a political action committee and lobbying organization.  Yes, we agree, it was remarkable.

Republicans don’t need a special event to interact with those fellow humans who have been marketed, sliced and diced, and packaged into what is now dubbed “the LGBT community.”  There are some of us who live in communities – actual towns, real places – in which there is an “equality ball” going on every day – 365 days a year. 

The seed of bigotry is the segregation of human beings into “identities” and then being made to orientate yourself to addressing those different identities instead of the common humanity.  Of course, this is the model that global capitalism and the cultural “New Left” (NOT!) uses.  The marketers of Madison Avenue like placing people into silos – or identity groups – as much as do the tax-avoidance rip-off artists of the entertainment industry.

But it wasn’t enough for marketers of products to segregate us into identity groups – now identity organizations emerge to speak for those groups.  They presume to tell those segregated into the identity how to think and what to do in order to remain “loyal” and part of the group.  Think independently and you risk being labeled a “traitor” to the group.  Of course, the first and foremost duty of group identity is always the same… to give the self-appointed folks who speak for your group some of your money.

The purpose of Garden State Equality is the organization itself.  It can never be satisfied.  One “goal” must always be replaced by another, lest the urgency flag, the money dry up, and Christian Fuscarino not be paid.  Of course, this requires hate objects… and this is where YOU come in, dear Republicans.

GSE is no great thinking shop.  There are no subtleties – only black and white – and Republicans, “that’s them over there, wearing the black hats.”  The easiest way to make money is to cry “Trump”!  To insist that “R” is for “Reptile.”

So why would you treat a GSE fundraiser any differently than you would a Phil Murphy for Governor fundraiser?

The record of Garden State Equality is clear:  It is a Democrat Party PAC and a bulwark of Democrat hegemony in New Jersey.  And it’s a bullying kind of PAC – quite willing to threaten if it doesn’t get its way when it wants it.  Remember GSE’s meltdown in 2010, after they lost a vote on same-sex marriage:

“Smarting over the state Senate's refusal to pass marriage equality and disillusioned at the moment with the Democratic Party majority, Garden State Equality’s 85-member Board of Directors unanimously decided against giving financial contributions to political parties and their affiliated committees.  

Under the new policy, Garden State Equality will make financial contributions only to individual candidates and to non-party organizations that further equality for the LGBT community, according to a release issued this morning by the organization…

Garden State Equality estimates that since 2005 they have given $500,000 to Democratic Party candidates, while giving only minimally to Republicans.”

(PolitickerNJ.com, February 8, 2010)

No Republican genuflected before Garden State Equality more than former Senator Jennifer Beck.  It was to no avail.  When she really needed them to return the favor, they stabbed her in the back and supported Democrat Vin Gopal.  She succeeded in suppressing her Republican base but got nothing in return for doing so.  GSE considered Beck’s defeat one of their singular achievements of 2017.

At last year’s “Equality Ball” (2017 GSE Gala) in May, Senator Beck was in attendance with Republican gubernatorial candidate Kim Guadagno, sucking up to people who would shortly celebrate their defeats.  To what purpose?  And when Beck and Guadagno lost, GSE wasn’t even delicate about it, releasing blood-thirsty statements cheering their loss. 

According to Jay Lassiter, GSE bagged a quarter-million dollars at their fundraiser, enough to cause plenty of havoc for Republicans politically – but there is a larger concern too.  So-called LGBT issues, some of them mere artifice, not only dominate but have pushed out other legislative business.  On the Legislature’s last session day, as they faced a government shut-down, the legislation being debated and voted on included no less than five transgender bills – but not a single piece of legislation addressing property tax reduction, or job creation, or New Jersey’s growing poverty.  Everything is thrown aside for GSE’s fundraising agenda.

The New Jersey Legislature even caved into pressure to use government to fund Garden State Equality's lobbying and political efforts, through a GSE license plate scheme.  In effect, the Democrats created a program of taxpayer-funded lobbying and political campaign activity -- but only for one side.  And that “side” is increasing rigid and authoritarian in their outlook towards those who hold different opinions, whether for philosophical or religious reasons.

Read the statement below.  It could have been written in the 1930's by a guy named Ernst Rohm. 

"The wrong side of history"???

That was said of Churchill and of all those who counseled resistance to that modern and "inexorable" movement of the last century. 

Did GSE's Fuscarino lift that directly from Mrs. Charles Lindbergh's book, The Wave of the Future, A Confession of Faith?

GSE's Fuscarino suggests that there can be no discussion, no disagreement, that the Golden Ass has replaced the old God and we are now dominated by a cultural paradigm that is both Post-Christian and Post-Western.  Aside from being profoundly juvenile to expect a world in which everyone holds the same opinion, it is starkly authoritarian.  Not content with that, GSE's Fuscarino plays the LGBT storm trooper and goes a step further by threatening those who even consider voting their conscience.

And some New Jersey Republicans are funding this???

Why not take a cue from those liberal U.S. Supreme Court justices who joined their conservative colleagues in siding yesterday with a Colorado baker who refused to be bullied into “celebrating” something that was not in his heart to celebrate?  The justices did not like the disrespect shown by Colorado’s Civil Rights Commission towards dissenting points of view – specifically dissenting points of view based on religious beliefs.  Freedom won.

Funny.  Freedom used to be a cherished Republican ideal.  So why are Republicans helping to fund an authoritarian, anti-freedom, anti-Republican political action committee scam that will never be satisfied so long as it has “activists” to make money off it?

Why is the NJ media so very anti-Roman Catholic?

An interesting case study is emerging in New Jersey political circles that could have national implications and might very well, in the long run, change the way people look at who the "Establishment" really is.  First, the setting...

This story takes place in the same week that a committee of the New Jersey Legislature passed a bill to discriminate against people who do not engage in homo-erotic carnality when handing out government business assistance.  How they determine that, they haven't quite figured out.  Does experimenting in college count?  Does one act count or a dozen?  Is there a time cut-off?  If somebody applied based on the sex partners one had in the 1990's -- would it count?  Do you need to go all the way -- oral, anal, and so on?  And who certifies it?  Does just thinking about it count?  Does someone who is sexually abstinent, but who considers themselves to be part of the LGBT community get the money?  And it is money we are talking about here... taxpayers' money.

Hey, we are all for helping members of the LGBT community -- or indeed, ANY community -- to get a leg up in starting a business.  But make it about NEED.  Base it on their ECONOMIC CLASS -- not on what someone does in his or her or whoever's bedroom (or indeed anywhere else one can think of).  Rich people, no matter what their sexual orientation, don't need any more help.  Money attracts money, and it's all green and all spends the same.  Make it about ECONOMIC CLASS, not about how someone gets off.

So that's the backdrop.  Now here's the story...

We all know that we live at a time when saying the wrong thing about the wrong people can earn someone a media-stoked one-way ticket to demands for your public shaming, loss of employment, and calls for your assisted suicide. Seemingly normal people will spit on your children or poison your dog and think that they are doing so for the greater good... that they are on the side of the angels.

Some have put it down to a state of madness brought on by environmental factors -- as in the Terror during the French Revolution (when apparently a bread mold made everyone take to beheading each other) -- and blame it on all the crazy dieting we do.  Does it never occur to anyone to just ignore the media and stop buying ever varying things to stuff down our gullets?

But we digress...

There are some groups that are sacrosanct.  This is true in every age.  For every time -- there are those who you dare not speak against.  It is a form of blasphemy.  Try saying something against them and there is an immediate backlash from all the forces of Establishment culture.  They are the agreed upon, "sacred" objects.

And everyone else is dreck. 

Well, Roman Catholics, it's official -- so far as the New Jersey media is concerned, so far as most of the political blogs in the state besides this one are concerned -- you are dreck.

Every week someone is calling on someone to resign because they said something or did something.  Go to the wrong concert and stand in front of the wrong band banner and it's... resign; call out some Democrats because they talk like 1930's Fascists and it's... resign; make a joke about the Women's March (which lauded a cop-killer) and it's... resign; and the madness just goes on and on.

The Star-Ledger's Tom Moran can write in introspective detail about how he loathes Catholics and he is praised by the Establishment... they even lay-off a few more workers in celebration!  A few weeks ago, some Democrat who ran for mayor in Bogota claimed that -- 12 years ago -- Steve Lonegan called him a "faggot".  Hey, gay people call each other that, not to mention students in junior high.  It is a rude word. But a hanging offense?

And it was just an accusation.  A dozen years old.  That the accused denied making.  And the accuser said that he wasn't gay.  Soooo.... a hanging offense?

Apparently, yes.  The Star-Ledger's lead moron -- Tommy Moran -- said to hang him high.  He played judge, jury, and executioner and said that Steve Lonegan had to resign from his campaign for public office over the allegation.

A few weeks later and there is Steve Lonegan again, holding a meeting of those who question the modern day sacrament of abortion.  The idea that in the passage from adolescence to adulthood, a woman's womb should first hold death before it holds life.  That's a heavy duty concept... Wiccan, even.

Steve Lonegan is a Roman Catholic.  Like many millions of Roman Catholics (as well as other religions and philosophies), Lonegan is Pro-Life regarding abortion.  He takes the exact position that his Church takes.

So someone from the campaign of Joshua S. Gottheimer -- a Member of the United States House of Representatives -- fires back at Lonegan and his gathering of mainly Roman Catholic Pro-Lifers.  The Gottheimer campaign calls them a "brand of extremism."

Come again?  The Roman Catholic church's teaching on abortion is very clear.  It believes the fetus to have a human soul and so, the body encompassing that soul is worthy of human protections.  It is a spiritual idea that one can respect even if you disagree with it from a pragmatic aspect.

But to dismiss it as a "brand of extremism"?  And from a Congressional office that wouldn't be caught dead saying the same thing about a tenant of the Muslim faith?  Or about a giveaway to rich members of the LGBT community?  Or about anyone or anything that the Establishment has said that we can't get away with criticizing?

Lots of media outlets covered the exchange and published the words of Gottheimer campaign spokesperson Andrew Edelson.  But a curious thing happened when the Lonegan campaign shot back a reply...

It wasn't covered.  It wasn't published.  In fact, so-called political blogs and websites that post EVERY press release from EVERY kind of critter imaginable would not post Lonegan's reply. 

So what was it that InsiderNJ and NJGLOBE and Politico and all the rest of the state's media didn't want you to read?  Well, here it is...

Yes, that's it.

They didn't publish an attack on Josh Gottheimer because it accused him of being an anti-Catholic bigot. 

See, you can accuse Republican Steve Lonegan of being an anti-gay bigot, based on a 12-year old accusation by a straight guy, but you can't accuse Democrat Josh Gottheimer of being an anti-Catholic bigot, based on a days-old statement from his campaign spokesperson.

This isn't about Republicans and Democrats as much as it is about anti-Roman Catholic hatred.  The Establishment -- its politicians, its media, academia, and the PC corporate world -- hates the Roman Catholic church.  They don't recognize anti-Catholic bigotry because, in their collective view, you cannot be anti-Catholic enough.

They want to tax all non-conforming, politically-incorrect religions out of existence.  For them, spirituality is meaningless unless it can be monetized and a good profit made from it.  They have no time for our old-fashioned Gods who speak of selflessness and balance.

Most of the media outlets in New Jersey -- and especially its political blogs -- are the trained lapdogs of the Establishment.  They will not even consider that something can be anti-Roman Catholic.  In their collective view, all things should be... anti-Roman Catholic.  They -- as is much of the rest of the Establishment -- are already operating in a Post-Christian world.  Their attitudes are visceral and displayed thoughtlessly.  They are the enemies of Faith.

And the enemies of justice.

Because shilling for someone like Josh Gottheimer sets a very low bar.  The behavior of this kitten from the Clinton years has been as astonishing as it has been repulsive, to all persons of good-will. 

Hey, don't take our word for it.  Here's what MSNBC's Rachel Maddow had to say about the firm where Josh Gottheimer held the number two position as International Vice President (his buddy Mark Penn was International President):

Yep, Josh Gottheimer and his pal Mark Penn ran the "PR Firm from Hell"!  So now we know who it is that the NJ media is shilling for.

Is the darling of LGBT Democrats helping McCann?

After losing the coveted "Column One" position in Bergen County and filing a campaign receipts and expenditures report with the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) in April that showed his campaign was deep in debt and not raising enough money to sustain itself, candidate John McCann apparently sent out an SOS to his friends and colleagues.  They responded in a big way.

A former Democrat candidate for Mayor of Bogota (Bergen County) stepped forward to accuse McCann's opponent of saying some pithy things about him a decade or so ago.  McCann's campaign neglected to fully vet this Democrat (who they, oddly enough, describe as a "Christian conservative"), who recently attacked the policies of President Donald Trump and the Republican Party. 

Now liberal Democrat Assemblyman Tim Eustace (D-38) -- described by some as one half of the New Jersey Legislature's LGBT caucus -- shuffles up and gets into the act of defending McCann by attacking his opponent in the June 5th Republican primary.  It is important to remember that it was Assemblyman Eustace -- affectionately known by some as "Brother Eustace" (or, as "Major Eustace" by others -- on account of his dashing, British-officer mustache) -- who led the early skirmishes in 2016 against then incumbent Congressman Scott Garrett, who went on to be defeated by Josh Gottheimer in the 5th District.

During one of his recent re-election efforts, it emerged that Brother Eustace had an unresolved issue.  A check of the incumbent Assemblyman's name on the New Jersey Court's public ACMS website, indicated that there were are two "active" (at the time) judgments against a Timothy J. Eustace:

A search of the details reveals that two civil cases filed in Bergen County are connected with these judgments.  They are dockets DC-624821-89 and DC-625025-89.  These cases refer to civil actions taken by the Leonard Shaw Bail Bond Agency against Timothy J. Eustace of 453 Golf Ave., Maywood, NJ 07607. 

453 Golf Ave., Maywood, NJ 07607, is the same address used by Assemblyman and candidate Timothy J. Eustace.  Could the Timothy J. Eustace with the two outstanding judgments be Assemblyman Timothy J. Eustace?

Who is the other party in the case?  Who or what is the Leonard Shaw Bail Bond Agency?  Well, they are now known as Kirk Shaw Bail Bonds.  The company website advertises that they are "directly across from the Bergen County Jail" and have "24-hour service."  Here is a look at their website:

http://www.kirkshawbailbonds.com/

Who uses a bail bond company?  To explain that, here is a video by a well-known New Jersey attorney:

So what we have here are two outstanding judgments against a Timothy J. Eustace, by a bail bond company.  These relate back to two civil cases in which, apparently, Timothy J. Eustace owed something to the bail bond company.  This could relate back to a criminal case, for which the bail was needed.

Now it is important to understand that these court records are maintained by the same entity that has taken it upon itself to dictate the education funding formula in New Jersey.  These people are idiots, so there is every possibility that the Court's records -- just like the Court's judgments -- are full of crap. 

Of course, Assemblyman Timothy J. Eustace of 453 Golf Ave., Maywood, NJ 07607, can probably set the record straight.  So, Brother Eustace, if you would like to, we'd be happy to.

Murphy wants to raise taxes. Pity there's not enough GOP legislators to stop him.

And whose fault is that?

The NJGOP Establishment's second blog (both appeared during the Christie Project, the New Jersey Globe being the latest incarnation of the project's first one) decided to prate a bit over Governor Phil Murphy's threat to undo part of the compromise reached in 2016 and raise the state sales tax to 7 percent.  The NJGOP Establishment's blog thinks this an "I told you so" moment when, as anyone with even a little gray matter should know, Governor Murphy was not part of the 2016 compromise, as he did not take office until January of 2018.

In fact, the compromise is working very well for New Jersey.  The state's infrastructure is being repaired, restored, and improved upon.  Out-of-state drivers who use our roads have assumed more of the responsibility for paying for them.  More infrastructure funding is flowing to counties and municipalities, with the result that property taxes are being held in check or -- in some cases -- actually reduced.  And revenues from state taxes -- in particular, the state income tax -- are increasing above projections.  Now the Democrats who control the Legislature (some of whom participated in the 2016 compromise) might wish to jeopardize this in order to fulfill the election promises made by candidate Murphy, or they might not.  Time will tell.

The Establishment blog makes an argument against legislative compromise, calling it "unadulterated BS."  Of course, the writer cannot be so stupid as to fail to see that the Founders of our Republic fashioned a system to ensure such compromise.  Indeed, compromise has been the working necessity of every representative democracy since the beginning of Western history. 

Now compromise is quite different than surrender.  Compromise is when you give something and get something back in return.  Like re-funding the Transportation Trust Fund (TTF) through an increase in the gas tax for doing away with the Estate Tax, plus four other taxes, while doubling the flow of money to counties and municipalities for property tax relief. 

This is different from what the NJGOP normally does.  Because what the NJGOP normally does is to provide votes for far-left Democrat legislation for free -- for NOTHING in return.  Yes, they just give it away.  Like they did on legislation to end the death penalty, impose the Highlands Act, fund Planned Parenthood, give tax money to illegal immigrants, pass the original sales tax increase, and gut the Second Amendment.  Heck, the other day, legislators in the NJGOP leadership cast their votes to allow people to re-write their own birth certificates and pretend that they were born one way, when they (as a matter of genetic science) were born another.  It seems science only matters when we're talking climate change. 

They gave away all this for free... and got back NOTHING in return.  And our Establishment blog criticized it not a word.

The Establishment blog complains bitterly about the lack of leadership from the NJGOP.  We agree.  The Establishment blog claims that the "gas tax increase" could have been "weaponized" for the 2017 elections.  It could have been, but that would have meant NJGOP leadership -- up front.  Instead, the GOP Senate Leader gave encouragement to both Pro and Anti compromise leaders, never actually choosing a side until it didn't matter.  In the Assembly, it was no different, waiting for word from the Governor.  As for the state party, well only a fool would have looked to them for leadership.

You cannot blame people for not following, when you will not lead!

Having no principles or platform beyond that which bellowed from a single man (apart from those placed into his head by a small coterie of handlers) the NJGOP was NEVER going to "weaponize" the gas tax or indeed anything else.  Ha!  The NJGOP failed to "weaponize" the twenty-point election landslide of a sitting Republican Governor!!!

As for Kim Guadagno.  She did a dance all right.  She literally danced with the LGBT Left and the Pro-Aborts until realizing too late that they already had a perfectly fine candidate to vote for in Phil Murphy (and he's a DEMOCRAT too!)  When Guadagno's campaign team finally decided it was time to motivate the base, it was just weeks before Election Day and way too late.  The 2017 Guadagno campaign team (the same moes who managed to lose an incumbent Republican Congressman in 2016) have been rewarded by getting to run Bob Hugin's campaign for U.S. Senate this year.  Hey, it's the NJGOP, and nothing gets you promoted quicker than a crushing defeat -- the more, the better.

And that's the heart of the matter, isn't it?  The NJGOP are losers.  They are content to lose.  After eight years of having all resources directed at one entity and everyone else being told they had to lose rather than disrespect some scumbag deal with some disreputable Democrat, the NJGOP has adjusted to losing.  That's why so many of its "leaders" are "lobbyists" -- eels feeding off the bloated carcass that once held a majority in both Chambers and the Governor's office.  The NJGOP's leaders are literally in business with the Democrats.

Don't expect any of this to change any time soon.  There are still crumbs to be gathered, still bits of the carcass to eat off.  Only yesterday, the "mastermind" of Christie project visited a legislative caucus to bask in the praise of NJGOP leaders (reminiscent of the video below).  Under this "mastermind" the NJGOP lost ground in EVERY election cycle, even as "love" for the entity grew.  Christie was elected with legislative control a very real prospect... and left with a hollowed out party and legislative numbers so low that you have to go back to the period just after Watergate.

For his next act... the "mastermind" wants to de-conservative the NJGOP.  Get rid of all those folks who persist in having principles or who continue thinking in terms of the RNC platform.  They gotta go.  What needs to replace them are Republican candidates with the principles of... LOBBYISTS. 

Before the NJGOP Establishment thinks about providing us with another lecture, it should put these few things in place first:

(1) Get Republican leaders who aren't conflicted by having business dealings with Democrats.  Make sure they support the RNC platform.  Otherwise, it's like having a Roman Catholic leader who doesn't believe in Transubstantiation. 

(2) Sell Republican principles, ideas, solutions.  Lead.  Recruit candidates accordingly.  Build the party up by recruiting and sustaining believers. 

(3) Hire people who win elections.  Don't expect someone who has never tasted victory to find it.  That's like asking the wrong dog to sniff out a hamburger stand.  What you'll end up at is a truck stop shithouse.

Is GSE's Chris Fuscarino the face of modern Fascism?

Read the statement below.  It could have been written in the 1930's by a guy named Ernst Rohm. 

Friend, moments ago the Birth Certificate Bill, a bill vetoed multiple times by Governor Chris Christie, passed the Senate!

This is great news for LGBT equality in New Jersey!

One thing is bothering me, though. 7 Senators voted against the bill. Senators Bucco, Conners, Doherty, Holzapfel, Oroho, Pennacchio, and Thompson all decided to stand on the wrong side of history and spat in the face of every LGBT resident in our state.

Together, we are going to take their negativity and turn it into something positive that helps our community.

The bill now needs to pass in the Assembly and then it heads to Governor Murphy's desk for signing!

[Donate] to send a message to any Assembly person that plans to vote against Equality, we get stronger when you stand against us!

Thank you for your support,

Christian Fuscarino
Executive Director
Garden State Equality

"The wrong side of history"???

It was said of Churchill and of all those who counseled resistance to that modern and "inexorable" movement of the last century. 

Did GSE's Fuscarino lift that directly from Mrs. Charles Lindbergh's book, The Wave of the Future, A Confession of Faith?

GSE's Fuscarino suggests that there can be no discussion, no disagreement, that the Golden Ass has replaced the old God and we are now dominated by a cultural paradigm that is both Post-Christian and Post-Western.  Aside from being profoundly juvenile to expect a world in which everyone holds the same opinion, it is starkly authoritarian.  Not content with that, GSE's Fuscarino plays the LGBT storm trooper and goes a step further by threatening those who even consider voting their conscience.

In the July 1941 Issue of Foreign Affairs, The Wave of the Future, was panned for its meek surrender to the bullies of Fascism:

"This is one of the most controversial books to appear in recent years, and one of the most difficult to appraise. In substance, Mrs. Lindbergh's thesis is that the great fact of history, the law of life, is eternal and inexorable change, that we are now in one of the great periods of rapid and profound change, and that it is therefore the better part of wisdom -- for Americans as well as for all other peoples -- to accept this process, whatever it may be, and not to fight against it.

The 'wave of the future,' as it presents itself to Mrs. Lindbergh, is totalitarian, and in her eyes there is no use in our trying, Canute-like, to stem it. The net effect of Mrs. Lindbergh's book, perhaps unintentional, is even more destructive than the mechanistic approach to life expounded by her husband because it furnishes a sort of vade mecum for the defeatists. One of the most disturbing things about this sincere, and in some respects courageous, little volume is its evasion of some of the real issues, particularly the moral ones. It carries the subtitle 'A Confession of Faith,' but it is precisely faith that the author seems to lack."

Of course, Western culture withstood that "Wave of the Future" and prevailed as it would later prevail over Communism -- itself presented as part of the unstoppable march of history. 

The truth is, all these things that appear "new" are in fact "old".  It is just that people like GSE's Chris Fuscarino are so ignorant of history that they don't know it.  Their progress consists of rummaging through the attic of mankind's past, to find clothes that appear exotic, but are in fact relics from the past.  The ignorant do this endlessly in their chase for fashion.

As the writer and philosopher (and liberal Democrat, Hillary Clinton supporter, and openly lesbian) Camille Paglia explains, we have been here before and are simply going through another one of mankind's "Great Re-Learnings."

Fashion.  The honorable members of the New Jersey Legislature should think before succumbing to fashion, no matter how much money they are promised for doing so.  Because rest assured, fashion will change.

McCann trashed law enforcement officers. Read their stories.

The Bergen Record has identified McCann as the "right hand man" to Democrat Sheriff Michael Saudino.  It was Saudino's feud with the Republican County Executive that undermined and ultimately lost Republicans control of Bergen County.  The coup de grace came when Saudino, a one-time Republican, joined Hillary Clinton and Josh Gottheimer on a ticket that crushed Republicans in Bergen County. 

John McCann remained Sheriff Saudino's consigliore through all of this and ran for Congress (as a Republican) with Saudino's blessing and while still on the Democrat's payroll.  Sheriff Saudino has formally endorsed fellow Democrat Josh Gottheimer for re-election this year. 

The media has recently reported on 22 Bergen County officers who claimed they were wrongly terminated or mistreated.  In a class action suit, the officers accuse Sheriff Saudino of demoting or firing qualified officers out of spite or for political retaliation.  Saudino, who supported Gottheimer for his stance on LGBT issues, is accused of allowing the "despicable and dehumanizing treatment" of a gay police officer.

A federal lawsuit filed last year contains the personal testimony of dozens of veteran law enforcement officers who fell victim to a power play by the Democrat Sheriff of Bergen County.  Here are a few of their stories:

"In 2014 my wife and I decided to have our 2nd child even though there were talks of merging The Bergen County Police with the Sheriff's Department.  we both agreed that we could afford to make this life changing decision based on the fact that the merger specifically stated there would be no layoffs, and no decrease in pay.

We had purchased a smaller home, which needed improvements... We are not going to be able to make these improvements or expand our home due to the impending layoff or pay decrease.  In fact we may lose our home if these changes take place.

My wife and I were discussing the possibility of having a third child as recently as February of this year.  However this will not happen now because of these layoffs."

***

"In 2015, I got engaged.  In 2016, I got married and purchased a home.  In 2017, I welcomed another child into my family... I have a wife and two children, ages 6 and 3 months.  Now with the threat of a potential layoff, not only will my life be affected, but my family will be negatively affected as well."

***

"I have been employed by Bergen County as a Police Officer since July, 2004.  I have recently re-financed my 30 year mortgage to a 15 year mortgage due to the promise that the Sheriff, County Executive, and Freeholder Board made that my job was safe when they merged us.  I am also the caregiver to my elderly parents... If I am demoted, I will not be able to afford the extra payments that a 15 year mortgage brings as well as care for my parents in a way that they deserve."

***

"I can personally say the moral and pride I had as a County Police Officer has been stripped away and this entire process has affected me personally.  I never knew what it was like to go to work and be unhappy.  I've always loved my career and the organization I worked for.  There are often times I get sick to my stomach thinking of how the politicians have destroyed this place and everything it represented.  My mind is consumed with thoughts of whether or not I will be able to retire..."

***

"I am a single father of two children.  I have full custody of my children... I had financial plans in place to send my oldest daughter who is currently in high school to attend specific colleges she had picked out.  With this demotion I will no longer be able to pay for my daughter's college education..."

***

"In August of 1996 I joined what I believed was a dedicated profession and well known department... I joined the United States Marine Corps Reserve in 1982... I was activated in support of Operation Desert Shield/Storm... I retired with 20 years of service in 2003.

...I have made many life choices on the promises and assurance my family and I would be able to live without the threat of losing our home or not being able to afford the basic simple lifestyle we have had in our lives.  Upon the assurance of the County of Bergen, the politicians and the Bergen County Sheriff my family committed to providing an education for my son that now involves the payment of an incredible amount of education loans."

***

"I am currently a Police Officer with the Bergen County Sheriff's Department... I am also a United States Disabled Combat Veteran.  I served four and a half years with the 82nd Airborne Division, with a fifteen-month deployment to Iraq as an Infantryman... With the promise of job security, I continued my life as any other reasonable person would have.  I recently purchased a home and have plans to marry my longtime girlfriend, whom this layoff also affects tremendously..."

***

It's no wonder then that candidate John McCann is so agitated by questions regarding the cummulation of power by Democrat politicians (and the concurrent loss of power of local elected Republicans).

Are NJ Republicans heading for civil war?

By Rubashov

Remember the great culling of 2007?  That's when a bunch of young up and comers like future Bridgegate figure Bill Baroni, future LGBT lobbyist Tom Wilson, and a number of individuals associated with the Chris Christie project decided that some incumbent legislators had been there too long.  They were members of the Great Generation, had fought our nation's wars, and had rebuilt our party after the Watergate debacle.  But the youngsters said they were old, their time was up.

And so they set upon them and worked from within and without to push them, unceremoniously, from office.  Guys like Senator Bob Littell resisted such rude attentions, so they circulated rumors about his health and attacked him on blogs like the old PoliticsNJ.  In fact, the genesis of this blog can be traced from those efforts to defend that old gentleman. 

It is a decade later, and another culling is afoot.  Only this time, it is being led by the fag end of a depleted and demoralized party who strangely believe that the road to salvation is to become as close to the Democrats as possible on issues like abortion, LGBT, the Second Amendment, climate change (or global warming or whatever they are calling it this week), crime, Abbott Districts, COAH, and pretty much everything except a few balance sheet issues and the hobby-horses of this lobby group or that.

The voices in favor of this culling are not just limited to the metro-sexual wing of the Young Republicans.  Younger party leaders, some quite powerful, will assure you in all seriousness that the future of the Republican Party is about identities instead of ideas.  They earnestly believe that we must compete with the Democrats in having our very own LGBT or Muslim contingent.  Some will insist that only a set of breasts and a fashionable haircut will win the day.

As with any culture brought up on watery advertising, they eschew data and have developed myths and mythological figures.  Chief among these is the "soft Republican."  They will tell you that we must ignore all those old-timers who still judge people by their ideas and conduct, instead of their identity or surface appearance.  "Soft Republicans" (limp dicks?) is where it's at.  These softies -- in both mind and groin -- constitute a great untapped vein of young voters.  "They are the future!"  Or so we are endless told.

So here is a wake-up call for the metros who seem to run the party these days.  The data is in, and you are going to have to wait awhile for that coming day of the 57 genders.  The old f*cks aren't dying off quick enough and they'll dominate the party until some of you are well into middle age.

Nearly half a million registered Republicans, 43 percent of all Republicans in New Jersey, are aged 60 or older.  Another 31 percent are middle aged -- 45 to 59.  10 percent are 35 to 44.  9 percent are 25 to 34.  With just 6 percent 18 to 24.  The Democrats are not so much a young party as a middle aged one, with their two youngest groups coming in at just 8 and 13 percent, respectively.  37 percent of their voters are aged 60 or older.

The truth is that young people really don't like political parties.  They don't trust them.  So if you really want to appeal to the young -- quit party politics and organize a group around an issue that matters, like human trafficking and the sexual exploitation of children.

Political party organizations are about as exciting as newspapers and about as relevant.  Except for the BCRO, whose website currently features a couple in a rather explicit situation.  But old people like them -- political parties and newspapers, that is -- and so for the next few more years we will have them.  But nothing is following.  There will be no GOP metro-sexual new day.  There will be something else, but it won't be a party as we know it today.

Now don't all you metros go running to the lavatories at once.  Your sperm counts weren't that much to begin with.  Have a good cry on your best mate's shoulder and buck up.  Because the old f*cks are still here... and so you still have a party.  But you are going to have to cater to them.  Or lose even more than you lose now.

From the Dallas police massacre

This is from the webpage of one of the organizers behind the Dallas rally at which five police officers were murdered, nine more wounded, and hundreds of civilians endangered (many having to be rescued by police).  It reveals not only an animosity towards the justice system, but towards our culture itself.

There is an argument that the goal of some in the LGBT movement is to replace our residual "Christian" or "Western" culture with a new kind of spirituality or, if you will, a new "religion".  It has been noted by some that the Supreme Court's Obergefell decision represents an endorsement of a new religious paradigm as profound as that by the Roman Emperor Constantine -- under whom the practice of Christianity was formally recognized (in 313) and afterwards declared the state religion (in 380). 

The biography below, provided by the Rev. Dr. Hood himself, provides insight into what this new religion might look like.  By itself, it presents no problem.  What presents a problem is the observable fact that government is no longer neutral on which world view it favors and is actively imposing this new "religion" on the military (as Emperor Constantine did) and the citizenry by judicial diktat, legislation, executive orders, and the regulatory powers of state agencies.  In light of this, the Rev. Dr. Hood's biography gives us a glimpse of what we might be forced to "celebrate" -- or at least comply with -- in the near future:

The Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood is a Baptist pastor, theologian and activist living and working in Texas. A graduate of Auburn University, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Emory University’s Candler School of Theology, University of Alabama and Creighton University, Dr. Hood also concluded a Doctorate of Ministry in Queer Theology at Brite Divinity School at Texas Christian University. Dr. Hood was ordained at a church within the Southern Baptist Convention in 2006 and received standing in the United Church of Christ in 2015. 

The author of ten books (The Queer: An Interaction with The Gospel of John, The Queering of an American Evangelical, The Sociopathic Jesus, The Year of the Queer, Jesus on Death Row, Frances, Last Words from Texas: Meditations from the Execution Chamber, The Rearing of an American Evangelical, The Courage to Be Queer and The Basilica of the Swinging Dicks), Dr. Hood also serves in the governing leadership of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and Fellowship of Reconciliation USA. In 2013, Dr. Hood was awarded PFLAG Fort Worth’s Equality Award for Activism. In 2015, Hood was named Hope for Peace and Justice’s Ambassador of Justice for his theological activism and also the Next Generation Action Network’s Person of the Year for his work against police brutality. In addition to being the husband of Emily and father of Jeff III, Phillip, Quinley Mandela, Lucas & Madeleine, Dr. Hood also maintains a close friendship with Texas Death Row prisoner Will Speer. With deep soul and a belief that God is “calling us to something queerer,” Dr. Hood is a radical mystic and prophetic voice to a closed society. 

Conformity to Rev. Dr. Hood's world-view, compliance with such a "religion" as outlined above, would not only be a problem for traditional "people of the book" (Christians, Jews, Muslims, and variations thereof), it would also be a problem for agnostics, nonconformists, and individualists of all stripes.  Legislators who seek to impose statutes that restrict speech, that force people to "celebrate" the rituals of others, that label religious belief as "hate," that demand people of conscience renounce their beliefs, that penalize so-called "thought crimes," that replace genetic science with emotion-based "theories" -- they are the prodigy of the new Empire who must, on principle, be driven from office, however much we might like them personally. 

It is the duty of every freedom-loving person of conscience -- from the devoutly religious to the nonconformist agnostic -- to prevent the establishment of this new state religion.  It must not be allowed to use government to lecture to us, to coerce us to conform, to take our freedom from us.

Senator Beck should drop support for trans-men in girls' toilets bill

If we are to avoid another performance like 2015, the Republican legislative caucuses of both chambers should use 2016 to prepare for 2017.  The most important thing is to do yourself no harm. 

We've detailed before how bills like S-283 have no base of support and how they could do enormous damage -- not only to the prospect of turning out our base -- but with any voters who believe in privacy between the sexes and with protecting vulnerable women and girls.  Polling shows large majorities in favor of traditional privacy no matter how the question is posed. 

Such a poll was recently conducted in the Eleventh Legislative District in Monmouth County.  More on that later.

Suffice it to say that modesty might draw barbed mockery from some, but in a district in which 48 percent of all registered Republicans are aged 60 or over and 66 percent of Republican super voters (3 of 4 or above) are aged 60 or over, it is a safe bet that it still counts for something.  And we can't wait to find out.

When educated as to the number of convicted male sex offenders who could use a law like S-283 to gain access to girls and women for their self-gratification, the response is off-the-charts.  Republicans, Democrats, Independents -- it doesn't matter.  Many in the LGBT community break ranks with their lobbyist class and oppose S-283 on the grounds that it leaves too many people vulnerable to sexual abuse, rape, and even murder.

We understand from a highly placed source in the Legislature that S-283 will be making an appearance again.  This source also confirmed that S-283 will have GOP support. Prominent among those GOP supporters is Senator Jennifer Beck, a co-sponsor of S-283.

We didn't expect such a betrayal of the Republican base in an election cycle as rebellious as 2016-17 is turning out to be.  Of course, Senator Beck is making a lot of noise on other issues in an attempt to get conservative voters to forget who she really is, and her decades-long record as a lobbyist and legislator devoted to the liberal causes dear to the heart of the political and corporate establishment.     

If passed into law, Beck's legislation allows a man, with a penis, to become a legal "woman", simply by saying that he is seeing a therapist and then re-submitting his birth certificate to reflect his "new sex".  No surgery required. 

And it won't be recorded as an "amended" birth certificate.  It will be filed as the original.  The government will pretend that it can go back in time to correct the "perception" of the doctors and nurses who saw a child with a penis and checked "male".  The government will, in fact, lie and pretend that the attending physician checked "female" when, of course, he did not.    

What S-283 will do is endanger the lives of women and girls in New Jersey.  And come election time every legislator who supports S-283, regardless of their party, is going to have to answer some tough questions from average constituents about why you had to do this and not something important, like lowering property taxes, ending the tax on retirement income, or fixing the Transportation Trust Fund. 

Watch the video below and see if you are ready to answer those questions:

We are with Garden State Equality on Kelly

Garden State Equality (GSE) sent out an email today that opposes Ocean County politico Jack Kelly getting a $100,000 per year patronage appointment to the State Parole Board.  On Monday, Governor Christie re-nominated Kelly, a long-time Ocean County Freeholder and life-long patronage job holder, who ran for the Republican nomination for Congress in District 3 in 2008.  Kelly's appointment to the Parole Board must be approved by the full Senate.

GSE says they oppose Kelly's appointment for the very narrow reason that they "cannot allow him to be in a position of power to continue to do harm to the LGBT community again."  That's the problem when you see everything through the lens of sexual identity. 

Believe it or not, the term "LGBT" is already outdated.  Real "progressives" use "LGBTQIA" as their designation.  This includes "Queer," "Intersex" and "Asexual." 

Others take it much further and include designations like "Bear," described below:

Bear Community: a part of the queer community composed of queer men similar in looks and interests, most of them big, hairy, friendly and affectionate.  The community aims to provide spaces where one feels wanted, desired, and liked.  It nourishes and values an individual’s process of making friends, of learning self-care and self-love through the unity and support of the community.  Bears, Cubs, Otters, Wolves, Chasers, Admirers and other wildlife comprise what has come to be known as the Brotherhood of Bears and/or the Bear community.  See also: Ursula

(SOURCE:  University of California at Davis, LGBTQIA Resource Center)

These designations owe more to the commercial marketing of products or political marketing for donations that they do our shared human reality.  

Whether or not you are "big and hairy" doesn't change your human needs for food and shelter.  It doesn't mean you breathe differently, bleed a different color, or suffer disease and death differently.  We are all human beings and we share a lot more than groups like GSE want us to think about. 

A jobless economy, high property taxes, foreclosure, and homelessness doesn't give you a pass because you are a member of the "Bear Community."  Here's a news flash for GSE and its "allies" -- just as our common humanity transcends our sexual habits, there are human concerns that have nothing to do with how individuals do or don't achieve orgasms.

One of these human concerns is justice.  Human beings living here in America expect a certain fairness.  Regardless of what we do with our sexual equipment, we don't like the idea of someone getting a $100,000 taxpayer-funded job based on who he knows, not what he knows. 

And this isn't the first time for Jack Kelly, back in 2008, he was slammed by fellow Republicans for earlier patronage scams:

"(Kelly was criticized for his) former employment with the South Jersey Transportation Authority and the payments in lieu of health benefits he received through that job while also receiving tax-payer funded benefits as an Ocean County freeholder... both of the jobs Kelly held while working at Atlantic City International Airport -- airport analyst and airport business manager --were created on the day Kelly was hired and neither job was publicly advertised.  There was no need or justification for those positions, and Jack Kelly did not meet qualifications for either of them... the qualifications listed for the jobs include a college degree and at least five-years of experience in the aviation field. Kelly had neither." 

(SOURCE:  Atlantic City Press, May 2, 2008)

Just how is politician Jack Kelly now qualified to serve on the State Parole Board?  Has he written a book on the subject that we don't know about?

The arguments against Jack Kelly's appointment to the  State Parole Board are stronger because of the common morality that we share as human beings, our shared sense of right and wrong.  GSE screws that all to hell when they make it narrowly about THEM and THEM ALONE.

It makes us ask the question, would GSE be supporting Jack Kelly if he were a Democrat and a member of the LGBTQIA "Bear Community"?  And it certainly doesn't help when they point to the "moral" outrage of career political hacks like Senators Ray "Lord of Ass" Lesniak and Loretta "Mother Roach" Weinberg.  For years, Ray Lesniak (his Lordship to the rest of you) was the poster boy for the corrupt practice of pay-to-play -- while Mother Roach has sat quietly while some of the biggest turds on earth have been appointed to high office.

It is a pity that GSE threw our common shared morality out the window in its pursuit of a narrow-minded, juvenile, narcissistic grievance narrative.  It's like they are telling us that they don't give a crap about anybody not represented by a letter in the LGBTQIA... alphabet.  That's how they are with their so-called bathroom legislation when they say "shut up and do what we tell you to do" to girls and women who don't want to share a toilet with someone sporting a penis.  

GSE has lost its common morality.  It has become like so many others who have put their bullshit before their humanity.

808,676 sex offenders would agree with Sen. Lesniak

Senator Ray Lesniak (D-Azz) is a politician on the make.  Once upon a time he was the king of pay-to-play.  He even defended the practice and it was reported by the media.  But then they changed the law, made it stricter, and now he has to look for new ways to trouser campaign cash.

The LGBT lobby is flush with cash.  Remember how Steve Goldstein snorted and threatened the Democratic Party when Garden State Equality didn't get its way in 2009-10?  Old Ray was always good at minding other people's wallets.  The guy can smell money a long way off and knows how to pick a mark.  He wants some of that "gay" money.

And so he's going to put on a show this coming Thursday, May 5th, in front of the Senate State Government Committee.  He's pulling in favors from other Senators (of both parties) in order to get them to pass out of committee his legislation (S-2043) that is a response to a law passed by the Legislature in North Carolina that seeks to prevent anatomical males from using the private facilities (toilets and such) of women and girls.  According to Lesniak, S-2043 would "ban non-essential state funded travel to North Carolina to protest its law prohibiting municipalities from passing laws protecting the LGBT community from discrimination."

New Jersey is an economic sinkhole with record child poverty, foreclosure, homeless, joblessness, and hopelessness and this is what the "honorables" are focused on -- even though Lesniak himself admits publicly and in writing that "S-2043 faces a certain veto by Governor Christie."

So why are we wasting our time on crap like this?

Are rich gay people really so powerful that they can hold up everything to focus on b.s. fashion statements?  Is their money so important to fashionably-correct politicians like Ray Lesniak? Guess so.

This whole economic boycott thing is really juvenile.  It is an admission by politicians like Ray Lesniak, Loretta Weinberg, Reed Gusicora, and Tim Eustace that because they cannot do anything to fix New Jersey's failing economy they will focus on damaging the more successful economy of a state like North Carolina.

And it is being answered in kind.  Target is one of those corporations that Lesniak praises for joining in the boycott of North Carolina -- only now, Target is itself the target of an economic boycott by more than a million consumers that has already knocked $2.5 billion off the value of the company's stock.

Is this America now?  Is this who we are?  Trying to destroy the economy of a state because of how its elected Legislature voted?  Whatever happened to respect for democracy and democratic outcomes?

And what happens when states like North Carolina and Pennsylvania enact travel bans on New Jersey for its failure to uphold the Second Amendment?  One such bill is already in the works by a Pittsburgh-area legislator.  Another has a bill that whacks New Jersey companies like Johnson & Johnson for its failure to warn women of the threat by its products of ovarian cancer. 

Is this our future?  Is this going to be the focus of the legislative process from now on?  Unable to fix our own economies we will focus on destroying the economies of other states?  We suppose it is one way of improving New Jersey's dismal standing in all those rating charts, but it won't create any jobs or address homelessness or hunger.

The problem that the elected Legislature of the State of North Carolina sought to address is a real one.  There are 808,676 registered sex offenders in the United States and at least that many victims.  That's those we know about.  Heck, one of the LGBT leaders fighting the law in North Carolina -- a local Chamber of Commerce President -- was himself a registered sex offender.  Shouldn't reasonable people be able to get together and talk like human beings and find a way to protect women and girls from being sexually assaulted, while at the same time preventing any overt discrimination? 

Or are we really past the point of talking?  Is it really going to be a case of "you destroy ours and we'll destroy yours" from now on?  That's like the end of civilized human behavior.  How depressing.

Pandering politicians like Ray Lesniak don't help any.  This guy is so bad that he pulled down the American flag off his letterhead and put an LGBT "rainbow" flag there instead.  What's wrong with Lesniak?  Does he no longer represent all the people of his district or is it the case that only LGBT lives matter?

The problem is money.  Money drives the agenda.  Money moves some b.s. fashion statement to the front of the line.  We have to stop the undemocratic affect money has on policy.  Here's how we do it...

Legislators, meet your 2017 running mate

Democrat Assemblymen Tim Eustace and Reed Gusciora are two legislators we hope to be fashioning religious freedom legislation with next month, so we don't want them to take this salutary warning the wrong way.  It is meant as a benefit to you and to the other legislators who voted for A-3613 last week.

Last week, legislation sponsored by Eustace and Gusciora was rushed to the Assembly floor for a vote, bypassing the normal committee process. That meant that legislators voted on A-3613 without the benefit of public comment.  This is correct.  Public comment was not permitted.  Citizen participation was denied. 

On the issue of process alone, we would have expected more legislators to sit this vote out. 

A-3613 "prohibits state-sponsored travel to states adopting religious freedom statutes without protection against discrimination."  The bill is a direct reaction (hence the speed) to HB-2, a piece of legislation passed by the elected Legislature in North Carolina and signed into law by the Governor there.  HB-2 mandates that people use toilets and changing facilities based on the biological sex (determined by science, i.e. their genetic chromosomes) stated on their birth certificates.  Opponents of HB-2 claim that this discriminates against biological men, with penises, but who "identify" as women, because it prevents them from using facilities designated as women-only. 

Just as A-3613 was a reaction to HB-2, HB-2 was a reaction to a local ordinance in Charlotte, North Carolina, that allowed biological men, with penises, but who "identify" as women, to use facilities designated as women-only. 

Now meet the man who led the campaign in Charlotte to pass that ordinance, Chad Sevearance-Turner.  The ordinance HB-2 was meant to address.  The ordinance you supported when you rushed A-3613 to the floor and voted for it without citizen participation or public comment.

Chad was convicted of sexually molesting an under-aged boy.  He ran Charlotte's LGBT Chamber of Commerce and was the LGBT community's 2015 "person of the year." (http://goqnotes.com/40281/person-of-the-year-2015-chad-sevearance-turner/)

Now you've all been through campaigns before.  Use your imagination.  You see where this is going.  We are not looking to be uncharitable, but imagine how much it is going to cost you -- even in a "safe" seat (and in the age of Bernie and of Trump, what is safe?) -- to step on a single mailing, backed up with a robo-call, backed up with a moderate-to-heavy social media/Internet buy?  Is this the discussion that you want your campaign to be having in May or October 2017?  Your photo, next to Chad's? 

Chad doesn't believe that his conviction should matter.  He told the Charlotte Observer (March 9, 2016) that "his conviction had not stopped him from achieving success, such as being chamber president."  We wonder what affect it has had on the boy he molested?  You should wonder that too.  Maybe research it.  Because, we suspect, you're going to own it.

Here's a nice photo of Chad that you might want to use in the direct mailing or two or three that you need to explain your vote:

Of course, someone may ask why a convicted sex-offender is on a parade float with children?  As one North Carolinian woman said:  "No one who is a convicted sex offender should be leading a campaign to allow men to be in women’s bathrooms and showers.  It’s just common sense.” 

We agree.  You... apparently not.

Beware of ex-liberals like Jeffrey B. Steinfeld

Jeffrey B. Steinfeld is the president of the Pascack Valley Regional High School Board of Education.  Mr. Steinfeld is a well-known immigration and criminal defense attorney, who maintains a number of political relationships that allows him to practice municipal law as well.  According to his law practice's website, Mr. Steinfeld specializes in "sexual offense cases":

"When a person is arrested in New Jersey for a sex crime like lewd conduct, child pornography, child molestation, sexual assault, indecent exposure, sexual battery, pimping, prostitution or pandering, they will likely be treated as if they have already been found guilty... We cannot stress enough how important it is that you speak with your attorney before answering questions or making statements to police or prosecuting lawyers.  They can, and most likely will, use your words and actions against you, which will damage your case.  You will need aggressive and highly experienced representation.  We have extensive litigation experience and are well versed in all laws pertaining to New Jersey sex crimes... If you have been arrested or are under investigation for a sex crime, contact a New Jersey Sex Crimes Lawyer from our firm now for help."

Let's read that last part again.  Just so it is clear, Mr. Steinfeld identifies himself, on his website, as a "Sex Crimes Lawyer."

Mr. Steinfeld recently wrote a column in the Bergen Record (April 8, 2016), in which he took to some name-calling in defense of "transgender rights."  In this case, the "right" of a person with a penis to use the same facilities as girls aged 14 through 17.  Mr. Steinfeld admitted to being "angered" before writing the letter, and it this anger that may have got the better of him. 

In his column, Mr. Steinfeld accuses those who support "religious freedom" of "bigotry" and calls them "radical and extreme."  He goes on to cite a group that is steeped in its own controversies, The Southern Poverty Law Center, as evidence that those who disagree with him are guilty of "anti-LGBT hate."  Enough of the name-calling!

Mr. Steinfeld is a member of the ACLU.  We recall when people said organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center and the ACLU were "communist front" groups. According to some, these groups are "anti-Christian" and "anti-American."  And we remember how people like Mr. Steinfeld said that to name-call like that was unfair. 

Here at Jersey Conservative we respect the ACLU for its committed defense of the First Amendment, even as we disagree with them on what appears to be their war on religion.  We try notto name-call because people and organizations are seldom all-good or all-bad.  Name-calling nurtures a childish and simplistic view unworthy of adults whose business should be the process and furtherance of democracy.

If Mr. Steinfeld cannot understand why someone would be concerned about allowing people with penises into the toilet, showering, and changing facilities of underage girls, perhaps he should watch the video below:

And if Mr. Steinfeld still wants to engage in name-calling, perhaps he should consider how he might be characterized for choosing to make money as a Sex Crimes Lawyer and for representing the clients he has.  Clients like the man who pleaded guilty to the sexual assault of his daughter's 19-year-old boyfriend.  Or the man who beat his school teacher wife to death with a baseball bat.  Or the man convicted of killing his girlfriend's two-year old son.  Or the 39-year-old man convicted of giving alcohol and drugs to a 13-year-old girl and then raping her.  Need we go on?

Mr. Steinfeld may well argue that everyone -- even a violent sexual predator -- has the right to be heard and that judgment should be reserved until all the evidence is scrupulously examined.  We can't say that we disagree, but we would simply add that the same should apply to average people without criminal charges against them -- average people who are only concerned for the safety and welfare of a child or grandchild.  We question Mr. Steinfeld's temperament. 

Jeffrey B. Steinfeld calls himself a liberal when, in fact, he is nothing of the sort.  A liberal is tolerant of other opinions , generous of spirit, someone who is -- well -- liberal. Now Mr. Steinfeld might have been a liberal at some point in his life, but his recent letter indicates that he has left liberalism some way behind and is now more of an authoritarian -- demanding that everyone adhere to his way of thinking and name-calling when he doesn't get his way.  Now that's not liberal, which makes Mr. Steinfeld an ex-liberal.  We'll be watching him and the voters of the Pascack Valley Regional High School Board of Education should too.