SCCC Trustee Burrell (D) running for Mayor of Vernon

So now we know what tonight’s circus is in aid of…

Politics.  Real scumbag politics.  The kind that masquerades as self-righteousness when it is really only about self-dealing.

It turns out that for some time now, SCCC Trustee Howard Burrell has been discussing and planning a comeback political career.  Trustee Burrell was a Democrat Freeholder until he was defeated for re-election in 2002 by 4,000 votes.  Sussex County Democrat Committee Chairwoman Katie Rotondi and Murphy county coordinator Leslie Huhn are both Burrell backers.  

We understood why Democrats like Dan Perez and Lorraine Parker wanted to hold an anti-Trump rally disguised as a special public meeting of the SCCC trustees, but we couldn’t figure out why SCCC Board Chairman Bill Curcio went along with it.  Now we know. 

SCCC Trustee Howard Burrell managed Democrat Dan Perez’ 2017 Freeholder race against Republican Freeholder Director Herb Yardley.  Perez lost by 7,000 votes.  Now Perez is returning the favor and supporting Burrell.

The SCCC Board of Trustees dumped a Sussex County firm as its attorney and hired the Union County Democrat machine firm of former State Senator Ray Lesniak.  So it is official.  The facts surrounding this appointment are shocking and will be dealt with in length but suffice to say that Ray Lesniak was a big defender of the corrupt practice of pay-to-play.

So now we know why some players on the SCCC Board of Trustees have dragged their colleague of seven years through the dirt for something he’s apologized for again and again…

Politics.  Dirtbag politics.  The kind of politics that sacrifices human decency, forgiveness, and pity for self-advancement. 

Sussex County Community College isn’t supposed to be about politics.  The SCCC Board of Trustees aren’t supposed to create venues by which to hang one trustee so that another can launch his political comeback campaign.

In fact, using SCCC facilities for partisan political purposes is explicitly against the rules of the Internal Revenue Service.  The process by which an executive session of the Board was called (a trustee is not “personnel” and no lawsuit has been filed by any party) and a public meeting held could pose legal hurdles for the SCCC.

Curiously, Howard Burrell launched his original political career 30 years ago in the midst of the same rhetoric being used by some Democrats today… accusing anyone they don’t like of “racism” and “bigotry” while they push legislation that even most Democrats say is anti-Semitic.  It seems some Democrats have learned nothing in 30 years.

Also worth noting are the assurances made by Trustee Burrell to the Freeholder Board at the time of his appointment just last year.  Burrell’s appointment had been held up by an earlier Freeholder Board over concerns that he would use his position on the SCCC Board of Trustees as a springboard to political office.  The current Freeholder Board appointed him after being assured that politics would not be part of it.  This has obviously turned out not to be the case and Trustee Burrell will have some explaining to do.

It looks like former Freeholder Carl Lazzaro was right about Howard Burrell and Watchdog was wrong to have advocated for Burrell’s appointment to the SCCC Board of Trustees.  We admit our mistake.

Democrats use Antifa tactics to disrupt Sussex County meeting.

On Wednesday evening, August 14th, the Sussex County Board of Chosen Freeholders held a scheduled meeting to discuss placing a public question on the November ballot to address the Murphy administration’s illegal Sanctuary State directive.  A ballot question was proposed.  It passed with every vote. 

This was representative democracy at work… in an open public meeting…

Except that the so-called “Democrats” were there to stop the vote from ever happening.  At the direction of the same State Democrats who strong armed Jersey City Mayor Michael Fulop out of the gubernatorial primary in 2017, Sussex County Democrats tried to shut down the meeting and stop the vote from ever happening.

Sussex Democrats were instructed to use the occupancy code to try to have the Freeholders meeting cancelled until after the August 16th deadline for public questions to appear on the November ballot.  They contacted local officials and had them come to the Freeholders meeting to do an occupancy count.  The Democrats were more than matched in turnout and their plans were stymied by Skylands Tea Party President Bill Hayden, who had his people leave the meeting.  The Sussex Democrat coordinating the operation was heard reporting back on her cell phone:  “Our plan failed.”

These tactics are right out of the Antifa handbook and disgusted citizens who had come to the meeting to participate in democracy and open government.  Some went to social media to comment on what they saw, including the gentleman below:

 “I was shocked to see the way the democrat operatives used phony issues and outrages to basically try to shut down the vote. The way they pretended they couldn’t hear, the way they sabotaged the audio system before the meeting, the way they pretended their (sic) was a fire code violation and the hearing had to be shut down...we aren’t just fighting for issues here, we are fighting for our constitution, our way of life. The democrats are really Bolshevik thugs.”

Now the Democrats have been provided with another opportunity to obstruct due process and the rule of law.  This time it is courtesy of the Board of Trustees of the Sussex County Community College (SCCC). 

The politicization of the SCCC is very troubling and runs contrary to the rules governing the college.  The lobbying by Democrats and the coordination with the Board raises serious concerns. 

These issues will be addressed in the weeks and months ahead.

Memo to Dems and SCCC: Don’t Give In To Terrorists

We know all about the Sussex County GOP Chairman who mistakenly re-tweeted some Twitter “trains” that contained controversial language regarding some anti-Semitic members of Congress and Islam.  The Sussex County GOP took away his Twitter account and the Chairman took responsibility and apologized.

That should have been an end to it.  Especially as, in trying to make their complaint against the GOP Chairman, Sussex County Democrats managed to attack Disabled American Veterans, Judeo-Christian theology, and the American Bill of Rights.

But it didn’t end there.  The New Jersey chapter of CAIR got involved.  CAIR, which is short for Council on American-Islamic Relations, put out a statement that labeled the re-tweets “anti-Muslim” and “Islamophobic, racist, and xenophobic” and called for the GOP Chairman’s resignation as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Sussex County Community College (SCCC).

Unfortunately for CAIR. Its Democrat Party allies, and for some faculty and staff at the SCCC – the GOP Chairman broke no laws or SCCC rules.  There is no legal basis to remove him or to force his resignation. 

America is a Republic.  We are a nation of laws.  We have due process.  We have the Bill of Rights.  We do not succumb to the emotional howls of lynch mobs.  We do not honor vendettas or fatwas.  We don’t give in to terrorists.  We don’t let them have their way.  We are Americans. 

It is a pity that people need to be reminded of this.  It is a pity that a college board needs to be reminded of this.  That Freedom of Speech, to be worthy of the name, requires us to protect even that speech which we despise.  Otherwise, there is no freedom at all.

What the Board of Trustees can do is to create a new rule that proscribes the behavior of faculty, staff, and trustees – going forward.   A new rule applicable to all, to which all would be responsible. 

We hope the Board does not take the cheap way out, the extra-legal way.  To attempt to satiate the lynch mob’s bloodlust with a head, so that the Board can go back to exactly what they were doing – with no rules in place, only the fear of the mob.  This would constitute not just a cave to the mob… but to a designated “terrorist organization” as well.   

If you Google CAIR and go on the home page of CAIR’s website, you will find this headline:  CAIR Wins Landmark First Amendment Victory Striking Down Texas Anti-BDS Law.

CAIR is in direct opposition to the bi-partisan efforts by Congressmen Josh Gottheimer (D-Sussex) and Chris Smith (R-Mercer) to oppose the BDS movement:

Two New Jersey congressmen today celebrated the passage of a resolution denouncing the Global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement that targets Israel.

“The BDS movement demonizes Israel and Jews and applies a double standard whereby Israel is always wrong, and the “oppressed” Palestinians are always in the right – regardless of whether groups such as Hamas are engaging in terrorist acts upon Israeli citizens,” said Rep. Christopher Smith (R-Hamilton), the co-chair of a Bipartisan Task Force on Combatting Anti-Semitism.   “The overwhelming vote in favor of the House resolution to reject the BDS movement and its efforts to delegitimize the State of Israel, underscores America’s strong support for Israel as a key ally and our commitment to Israel’s right to exist.”

The resolution, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives last night by a 398-17 vote, opposes economic apparatuses aimed at punishing companies that do business with Israel.

“There are few clearer examples of bias and double standards than BDS movement. But BDS is also fundamentally incompatible with a two-state solution. It seeks to punish only Israel and it rejects direct negotiations in favor of a unilateral strategy,” said Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-Wyckoff).  “That is why it is so important that Congress is on record opposing BDS and other harmful efforts to single out and delegitimize Israel.”

The only New Jersey House member to vote against the measure was Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing).

Wikipedia explains that CAIR is “a Muslim civil rights and advocacy group. It is headquartered on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., with regional offices nationwide.”  Wikipedia goes on to note:

Critics of CAIR have accused it of pursuing an Islamist agenda[5][6][7] and have claimed that the group is connected to Hamas[8] and the Muslim Brotherhood,[9][7] claims which CAIR has rejected and described as an Islamophobic smear campaign.[10] Due to apparent ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, the government of the United Arab Emirates has designated CAIR as a terrorist organization.[11]

A “terrorist organization”?  That is a very serious matter.  And it is a matter that remains unexplained in the media or by the Board of Trustees of the Sussex County Community College

CAIR’s demands have been repeatedly referenced by the Board of Trustees of the Sussex County Community College.  CAIR’s demands have been repeatedly highlighted in statewide newspapers, media, websites, and blogs.  The media has not been honest in identifying who and what CAIR is. 

The media has been afraid to even discuss CAIR’s designation as a “terrorist organization” by one of America’s best Islamic allies in the Middle East.  Why?

Pardon us for noticing, but we can’t help but think a designation as a “terrorist organization” (by one of America’s Islamic allies) is worthy of at least as much attention as a re-tweet of a Twitter “train”, a mistake, for which responsibility was accepted and apology given.  Or has everyone forgotten September 11th and the wars against radical Islam and all those subsequent acts of Jihadist terror?  Does the media, the Democrats, and the SCCC trustees wish to erase the sacrifice of all those dead and wounded and disabled soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines

Besides which, CAIR has a greater duty in this matter.  That is the duty a believer has to God. 

"…They should rather pardon and overlook.  Would you not love Allah to forgive you?  Allah is Ever-Forgiving, Most Merciful." (Qur'an, 24:22) 

Second conference on Religious Liberty to be held in Ocean County

Following up on June’s successful conference on religious Liberty held in Newton, Sussex County, a second conference is scheduled for Ocean County on August 27th in Toms River.

At the first conference, attendees heard from Senator Steve Oroho on the status of various legislative initiatives – including the Human Trafficking & Child Exploitation Prevention Act and the 20/20 bill, which recognizes that a fetus experiences pain at 20 weeks (all but 7 nations on earth recognize this FACT).

Rev. Mandy Leverett gave a talk about the threat of human trafficking in New Jersey and detailed a number of horrific cases.  There was a discussion about how a porous border and the Murphy administration’s Sanctuary State directive empowers human traffickers in the sexual exploitation of women and children. 

Christine Flaherty explained the importance of the 20/20 bill, also known as the "Babies in the Womb Feel Pain".  This legislation recognizes the scientific fact that a fetus or unborn baby is pain-sensitive at 20 weeks.  Every other country on earth recognizes this fact except North Korea, China, Vietnam, Singapore, Canada, and the Netherlands.  Similar legislation has been passed in nearly half the states and is moving forward in others in an attempt bring our laws into line with the rest of the civilized world. 

An ecumenical movement has formed called the 20/20 Project.  Its members represent many religious denominations.  It is actively supported by a number of organizations including the Respect Life Office of the Archdiocese of Metuchen, the Respect Life Office of the Archdiocese of Newark, Project LEARN, the New Jersey Family Policy Council, New Jersey Right to Life, the Center for Garden State Families, Corazon Puro, LifeNet, the League of American Families, among others. 

Of course, the 20/20 bill has been attacked by the death-cult wing of the New Jersey Democrat Party (there are still a great many religious Democrats who value life and recognize that their communities are being slaughtered for profit by Planned Parenthood).  As one activist said:  “They celebrate taking life and would do anything to maintain the barbaric practices that are illegal in most of the civilized world."

And speaking of attacks…  Since the first conference in Sussex County, one of the speakers has been attacked for his Biblical-based beliefs.   

Pastor Phil Rizzo, who spoke to the conference on the importance of religious freedom, was stalked and targeted by Sussex County Democrats for agreeing to help sort out a recent Twitter controversy involving the GOP county chairman.  State Democrats reached out to a political blog to arrange a “hit” on Pastor Rizzo, the gist of which was that he didn’t embrace Islam and wasn’t pro-LGBTQ+. 

The fact that those two world-views differ dramatically apparently didn’t dawn on the author of that hit piece, but the incident did offer up an important lesson:  There are Establishment forces who want to drive traditional Judeo-Christian beliefs out of the public square and to make it punishable (and eventually illegal) to express them. 

Despite the presence of good believers in the Democrat Party, the leadership of that party is in thrall to these forces – as is corporate media.  As evidence of this was the statement by the Sussex County Democrat Chairwoman that compared Pastor Rizzo to “Hitler” because he held traditional Biblical beliefs and the attack by an LGBTQ+ activist employed by the Star-Ledger. 

The battle lines are drawn and they are coming for your Bible.  They want to make reading it (or repeating what you have read) a “hate crime”.  And they will target and stalk anyone who stands for religious freedom.  Faith will either win this one or be driven into the wilderness. 

If you are interested in attending the Second Conference on Religious Liberty, please contact the Center for Garden State Families at

info@gardenstatefamilies.org

If you have a conflict, please contact the center and ask when the next one will be (at least four more are planned throughout the state).  Let’s get active!

And be of good cheer.  Faith can move mountains, while government and politicians and corporations and media and academics are all… “a small dust in the balance.”

Sussex DEMOCRAT Chair shuts down Twitter page

After making the boast that she was holier-than-thou, the Sussex County Democrat Chair shut down her Twitter page after a tweet mocking a Disabled American Veteran was found on it.  How bad was her page and how many more “offensive” tweets were there that she had to shut her page down rather than simply clean it up?

Former Democrat Chair Leslie Huhn, who was brought in by the Murphy administration to stalk through GOP Chairman Jerry Scanlan’s Twitter pages, also made a holier-than-thou boast a day before a racial comment was made on social media by one of her county committee members.  Commenting on a photograph of an interracial couple, the Democrat wrote that he found it “creepy”. 

In a “tweet” from February 5, 2019, the Chair of the Sussex County Democrat Committee wrote that she was watching the State of the Union address, when she caught sight of Congressman Dan Crenshaw and tweeted… “who’s the pirate?”

You can view the Democrat’s offensive tweet here…

Congressman Crenshaw of Texas is a former United States Navy SEAL.  He served with the SEALs for ten years – including five tours of duty – reaching the rank of Lt. Commander.  He served with SEAL Team Three in Iraq.  He was wounded in Afghanistan and became a “pirate” – losing his right eye.  Emergency surgery saved the vision in his left eye. 

Crenshaw earned two Bronze Stars, the Purple Heart, and the Navy & Marine Corps Commendation Medal with Valor.  That is some “pirate”. 

Democrat leaders like Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill, Lt. Governor Sheila Oliver, and New Jersey Democratic State Committee Chairman John Currie have been rooting through the drawers of their political opponents.  They have been quick to condemn others… but what about the dirt in their own cupboard?

Does Congresswoman Sherrill, by her silence, give her assent to the mockery thrown at a fellow Naval officer?  Are her loyalties more to the venial politicians of her party?

Lt. Governor Sheila Oliver – a supporter of the anti-Semitic BDS Movement – also claimed she was offended.  As a member of the Assembly, Democrat Oliver was one of just three legislators to oppose a resolution that prohibited investment of state pension and annuity funds in anti-Jewish companies that followed the BDS Movement boycott of the Jewish State and Jewish businesses.  We would like to know if the Lt. Governor has changed her position on the BDS Movement since taking that vote?  We think that should interest the Democrat Party as well.

As for New Jersey Democratic State Committee Chairman John Currie, a venial politician himself, we can hardly expect him to care about someone mocking a disabled American veteran.  After all, he didn’t care when one of his own Democrat Party workers was raped by a Murphy higher-up.  To Currie, a tweet by an opponent is a greater cause than the rape of one of your own, by one of your own.  No wonder voters are disgusted.

The Chair of the Sussex County Democrat Committee has some explaining to do.  So do the people who support her.

Analysis: Murphy uses “tweets” to distract from illegal Sanctuary scheme.

By Rubashov

Leslie Huhn is a former Democrat county chairperson and candidate for the state Legislature.  She got her start in politics as an activist protesting Republican Governor Chris Christie’s cuts to school funding in his first budget.   It is a measure of Huhn’s hypocrisy that she did nothing to protest the more drastic cuts imposed by Democrat Governor Phil Murphy on rural and suburban school districts.

But then, Leslie Huhn is a fan of Phil Murphy…

Similar women are heavy in the ranks of the Left – which has come to dominate the formerly centrist Democratic Party.  Unlucky in human relationships, frustrated in their attempts to embrace another soul, they embrace the world.  But they are not very clever, and need the “world” explained to them.  Enter Phil Murphy.  Billionaire Guru.

We have had the opportunity to observe the men who are drawn to the Left, which increasingly has come to include the Democratic Party.  There are a fair number of “opportunists” – there because they smell possibility.  Some are predators even, in the way of an Al Alvarez.  This emotional cauldron of boiling, disillusioned sexuality is evidenced in the irrationality the movement exhibits.  The emotional madness.  Marriage counselors and divorce attorneys will know what we mean. 

Of course, the media depends on this cesspit of emotion when it fashions its click bait.  After all, the commercial media must pull eyes to a page in order to perform its real mission (the one it gets paid for) and that is the advertising that accompanies the click bait.  Unless you are NPR, the purpose of newspapers and other media is to sell advertising – used cars, insurance schemes, miracle drugs, suppositories – the “content” is only the bait.  One of the underlaying benefits of the bait is that the consumer gets the pleasure of a better self-image, because they believe they are “informed”.  

That is how the scam works.  It is why a “re-tweet” of someone else’s naughty word or tasteless image is covered more extensively than an anti-Semitic vote cast in the United States Congress.  It is bullshit over substance.

A few days after Leslie Huhn began “following” Sussex County GOP Chairman Jerry Scanlan’s Twitter account, the Democrats began efforts to change the narrative in Sussex County from Governor Murphy’s illegal Sanctuary scheme, which was clearly not going well for them, to Jerry Scanlan’s re-tweets.

The Democrats put considerable resources into the effort.  From “spin doctors” associated with the Murphy administration, to the state Democratic Party, the Lt. Governor, and Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill – a great many Democrats and/or people of the Left worked on aspects of this. 

Scanlan’s employment was contacted, in an attempt to have him fired.  Yes, the modern equivalent of capital punishment, for we all need to eat – and who but someone claiming to be “compassionate” and “liberal” would seek to deny a fellow human being the ability to feed his family, to provide a roof over their head?  The self-righteous have no conscience.  No mercy.

They chose their timing carefully, when Scanlan was out-of-state, vacationing with his family.  As their mouth pieces, they selected one from within the Democratic Party, with the other a self-identified “anarchist”.

They focused on a single tweet that had been used successfully in Illinois.  This was a movie poster trope that featured four very far-Left – and by degrees anti-Semitic – members of Congress.  Three are members of the anti-Semitic BDS Movement, decried by Democrat Congressman Josh Gottheimer, who represents Sussex County.  The co-chair of the Bipartisan Task Force on Combatting Anti-Semitism said that the BDS movement “demonizes Israel and Jews.” It is said that the next genocide will be caused by people in pussy hats – not jackboots and brownshirts.   

The tweet referred to the four members of Congress as “The Jihad Squad” and was clearly a satirical treatment of their public statements and the votes they have cast in Congress.  When this was noted, the Left changed course and focused on language that was ungentlemanly towards women.  There is a wonderful Victorian aspect to this, and the Left clearly hit its target, because traditional conservatives are not modernists and do not like women referred to as “whores” – even women with whom they disagree. 

The county GOP’s women were not going to stand for such language, so they stepped in and took Chairman Scanlan’s tweeter away.  But instead of claiming victory, the Democrats – in the person of Sussex County Democratic Chair Katie Rotondi – promptly attacked the Republican women.  Of course she would, because this was never about “tweets” it is about keeping the focus away from Governor Murphy’s illegal Sanctuary scheme.

Meanwhile, Democrat Rotondi managed an own-goal when it turned out that she had “tweeted” an offensive comment about a disabled American veteran.  And the Left did one better, rolling out the state chapter of CAIR (the Council on Islamic-American Relations) to bash Scanlan, and apparently forgetting that one of America’s closest Islamic allies in the middle east had designated CAIR a “terrorist organization.”  Having lost 715 New Jersey residents on September 11, 2001, most reasonable people believe terrorism to be more important than tweets.

The Sussex County GOP is conducting its own review of Chairman Scanlan’s actions and will undoubtedly produce a report of some kind and some public statement on the matter.  What they do from there is their internal business, but it should be noted that the word that got Scanlan into trouble was part of a long chain of images and language, re-tweeted over and over again.  From our cursory review of the tweets and re-tweets (there are more than 20,000 of them) we could find no original content from Chairman Scanlan that could be considered by traditional standards “offensive”.  That said, we do live at a time when just using the words “sir” or “ma’am” is problematic.  The presence of a penis does not mean what it has meant since the beginning of time.  One can give offense quite easily today.

One final point.  In many of the news reports, the phrase “deemed offensive” was used.  Who is doing the deeming?  In a nation that allows its flag to be burned as an act of speech or a Crucifix to be placed in a vat of urine as an act of art, what is offensive?  Now we have Katie Rotondi, joining with the designated “terrorist organization” CAIR, joining with anti-Semitic BDS legislators… and setting the bar for all of us as to what is or isn’t “offensive”.  We find that offensive.