Gottheimer: Is it okay to call the Editor of NJ Globe a “terrorist”?

By Rubashov

Let’s remember that terrorism is a crime. As Congressman Josh Gottheimer well knows, Section 802 of the USA PATRIOT Act (Pub. L. No. 107-52) expanded the definition of terrorism to cover domestic, as opposed to international, terrorism. A person engages in domestic terrorism if they do an act “dangerous to human life that is a violation of the criminal laws of a state or the United States, if the act appears to be intended to: (i) intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination or kidnapping.”

Now, let’s recall what Bridgegate was all about. Wikipedia explains: “The Fort Lee lane closure scandal, also known as the George Washington Bridge lane closure scandal or Bridgegate, was a political scandal involving a staff member and political appointees of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie colluding to create traffic jams in Fort Lee, New Jersey, by closing lanes at the main toll plaza for the upper level of the George Washington Bridge… It was later suggested that the lanes had been closed intentionally to cause the massive traffic problem for political reasons, and especially theorized that they were a retributive attack against Fort Lee's Mayor Mark Sokolich, a Democrat who had not supported Christie as a candidate in the 2013 New Jersey gubernatorial election. The ensuing investigations centered on several of Christie's appointees and staff, including David Wildstein, who ordered the lanes closed…”

According to the New York Times (May 1, 2015), the School Superintendent of Fort Lee thought Bridgegate was an act of terrorism. Here’s how the New York Times covered it:

Fort Lee School Head Calls Lane Closings an ‘Act of Terrorism’
FORT LEE, N.J. — Hearing that the bridge lane closings were intentionally scheduled for the first day of school made Dr. Paul Saxton, the interim superintendent of the town’s schools, angry all over again on Friday.

Dr. Saxton called the plot “an act of terrorism.” To carry out a “premeditated action designed and targeted toward the kids, what did they expect?” he said in a phone interview after a former Port Authority official pleaded guilty in the scheme.

The official, David Wildstein, told a judge that the lane closings were timed to the first day of school in 2013 to maximize punishment to Fort Lee’s mayor, Mark Sokolich.

The gridlock, which lasted for days, created all sorts of headaches for the school district and for Dr. Saxton, who was starting out as the interim superintendent.

School buses were stuck in traffic, teachers could not get to work, crossing guards failed to make it to their posts. Worst of all, Dr. Saxton said, were the hazards all the distorted traffic posed for the majority of the town’s schoolchildren who walk to school.

“It was a thoughtless, mindless action,” he said. “It’s really disturbing to think that the kids were targeted.”

Now, let’s be clear about something. David Wildstein, the Editor of NJ Globe, is not a terrorist. Why? Because he was never charged and convicted of the crime of terrorism. In America, for the moment anyway, everyone of us is protected by the phrase, “Innocent until proven guilty” by due process, in a court of law.

Apparently, Democrats don’t believe this anymore. At least not the Democrats in Sussex County and, along with them, Democrat Congressman Josh Gottheimer.

The Sussex County Democrats believe they can state, as fact, that someone committed the high crime of terrorism. The Democrats believe that to object to accusing someone of having committed a crime when no conviction has been rendered or even charges filed, and allow us to quote their lawyer directly here, “…is blatantly attempting to stifle open discussion about matters of public importance: the conduct, platforms, and beliefs of those who represent the citizens of our state in election related matters.”

Got it. So, when Josh Gottheimer was accused of sexually molesting a staff member and fooling around on his wife… that would be okay to put in direct mail? At the time, we defended Congressman Gottheimer, not knowing that we were in the wrong for doing so. We had no idea that we were “attempting to stifle open discussion about matters of public importance: the conduct, platforms, and beliefs of those who represent the citizens of our state in election related matters.”

If Bridgegate could reasonably be described as “terrorism” (read the law) and some people (people like the former head of the school district in Fort Lee) have made the accusation that it was terrorism, then is appearing on NJ Globe the same as appearing on a “terrorist” website? Would it be okay to make the accusation that any political figure who ever appeared on NJ Globe is “linked” to a “terrorist” website? Heck, just writing “linked to Bridgegate” would probably be enough. Could you put that in a direct mail piece and feel good about?

Apparently, the Sussex County Democrats, their Chairman Dawne Rowe, and Josh Gottheimer all believe you could. The Editor of the NJ Globe himself appears to believe it would be acceptable. What’s with these people? Could it be the end of “innocent until proven guilty”? It’s a brave new world we’re heading into.

The hypocrisy of the establishment.

The New Jersey GOP’s angry, bitter congressional primaries

By Rubashov

At the “A Seat At The Table” conference – held on Thursday, April 28th – former 2016 Trump campaign operative and later White House advisor Dr. Sebastian Gorka made the point that last November’s legislative and down-ballot victories by Republicans in New Jersey were won not by the party organization, but by a wave of grassroots activism angry with the policies of Democrat Governor Phil Murphy. Republicans’ most spectacular victory – trucker Ed Durr’s upset win over Senate President Steve Sweeney – seems to bear out Gorka’s assertion.

Run by a grassroots activist instead of an insider consultant, Durr’s campaign was ignored by Trenton and the NJGOP establishment. Durr achieved his victory with practically no money – while his Democrat opponent had a war chest of over $2 million. Durr’s victory upended all the Trenton establishment’s most basic assumptions about how campaigns are won – although the blogs representing the Trenton establishment (InsiderNJ, NJGlobe, and Save Jersey) have since reverted to the conventional obsessions with money and organizational support.

In the months since he won, no real attempt has been made to figure out how Durr did it and – more importantly – on how to replicate a victory on a shoestring budget. That’s obviously not in the interests of insider campaign consultants who make a commission on every mail piece, every cable ad, every paid campaign communication. That’s not their business model. And even though it would be in the party’s best interests – it’s not in their best interest. So they’ve used their influence at the NJGOP to shut down any attempts to replicate the Durr victory.

Durr’s campaign manager has largely been shut out of GOP gatherings and prevented from conveying his proven strategy to a new generation of campaign managers. Durr’s victory has been embarrassingly pushed under the rug as its very existence does so much to undermine the often pronounced certainties of New Jersey’s political class – especially the campaign consultants and the Trenton blogs that rely on their advertising revenue.

Dr. Gorka compared the grassroots wave of 2021 with the wave in 2016 that had upset expectations and placed someone who had never held public office in the White House. He reminded those present of just how out-of-touch the Washington, DC, GOP Establishment was in the run-up to 2016 – its political operatives, donors, and consultants. Remember all those polls and pundits who insisted that GOP voters wanted amnesty for illegals? Only the Trump campaign was uncompromised by interest groups and their hirings to allow themselves to genuinely understand what voters wanted. He swept the primaries.

The “A Seat At The Table” conference was put together by three very accomplished women, all grassroots activists with large followings. The audience was full of recently elected school board members – all elected on a shoestring, the Ed Durr model. In contrast to the recent NJGOP “leadership summit” in Atlantic City, the “A Seat At The Table” conference was bubbling with policy ideas, and was impressive for the sheer number of thinkers, writers, and authors present. That’s not to say they were light on practical politics. The state’s top talk show host MCed the event. The head of the nation’s top conservative PAC – the guy who puts on CPAC each year – was the keynote speaker. An alternative lineup of pollsters and political consultants was present – as well as a few dozen folks that we know of who think nothing of writing maxed-out checks.

Most impressively, the conference was filled with thoughtful average citizens who are energized and want to help. That was a big difference from the summit, most of whose attendees were in the business of politics: paid party operatives, political consultants, lobbyists, vendors, patronage job holders, appointees, county and municipal professionals, elected officials, and the like. Where the summit was more about networking and fattening the bottom line, the conference focused on getting excited about policy and then going out and doing something about it.

Some view the “A Seat At The Table” conference as a threat to the hegemony of the present state GOP establishment. We don’t feel that way at all. To us, they appear to be about policy, about winning policy battles, and about finding candidates who understand the policy concerns of the grassroots and who will fight for them.

This does pose a challenge to some in the state party who do not share those policy concerns – or who actively oppose them. But it poses the greatest challenge to the professional political consultants who most candidates turn to develop the messages they run on. The fashion today can be summed up as policy minimalist. There is an epidemic out there of candidates who refuse to answer questions, fill out questionnaires, or allow themselves to be pinned down on any issue. But they’ve been advised to take this opaque, bait and switch approach by the consultants they pay to run their campaigns.

Political scientists noticed this trend over the last couple decades. The late Sheldon Wolin, Professor of Politics at Princeton University, wrote about the personal narrative of the candidates becoming more important than the policies they stand for. Benjamin DeMott called it “junk politics” – while others have labeled it “stupid politics” or “post-literate politics” or “political theater”.

Well, it is now standard operating procedure for insider Republican campaign consultants in New Jersey. They demand it of their candidates – a strict discipline of no issues pages, no questionnaires, and only the most generalized positions on policy. This fashion of “policy-free” campaigning is running head-on into the new grassroots activism evidenced at the conference. Average voters realize it for the hollow rip-off that it is: In return for your vote, my candidate offers nothing beyond his pretty smile and some highlights on his resume. In other words, the voter gets nothing.

Of course, the dumbed-down media long ago swapped policy discussions for competing political personalities – as if it were an episode of “American Ninja Warrior” instead of a campaign for public office. And the worst of the lot are Trenton-centric so-called “insider” blogs that focus on “process” stories and gossip. And so you get full coverage on a congressional candidate standing on one foot for a minute or so but nothing on why these candidates are failing to tell people where they stand on important issues in the news… like Roe v. Wade. “Junk politics” – “stupid politics” – “post-literate politics” – “political theater” or stupid celebrity wannabees, take your pick.

But recent developments have made things even worse and threaten to turn state GOP politics into a cesspit of vitriol. In the aftermath of a series of election cycles that saw the state GOP lose all its Republican congressmen save one – along with such formerly powerhouse Republican counties as Bergen, Somerset, and Burlington – some in the party have questioned the habit of giving all the campaign work to a few insider political consultants. They wanted to expand the party’s management stable to include people like the guy who ran Ed Durr’s winning campaign on a shoestring. This pissed off the insiders to no end – and it’s been reflected in the tone of their campaigns.

Hey, it’s bad enough it’s a policy-free zone but now the arguments are over infantile nonsense – like a congressional candidate complaining because his opponent’s campaign manager (so he claims) treated him like he was “a ghost” and compared it to “an episode of Mean Girls.” No shit, a candidate actually said that. A former Marine, no less. And it took up a big piece of a debate – hosted by two Trenton insider bloggers. They actually focused on shit like this. Not on policy differences, mind you, but on shit like this.

These congressional campaigns are becoming petty schoolyard hatefests because some consultants are afraid they’re going to have to share the vittles. And it pisses them off. They want it all – all of it. No sharing!

And where once they advertised their win-loss records, now they make up narratives about how losing last year’s gubernatorial race was the best thing that happened to Republicans in 30 years. Really??? And they brag about the awards given them by other insider establishment political consultants. Hey, every marginal “profession” has similar awards – trash haulers, used car salesmen, insurance agents – but maybe not so many as political consultants, who have so many awards no one need go home without one. Dave Chappelle did a fine spoof on this that captures nicely the attitudes and inner thoughts of any gathering of political consultants.

Dave Chappelle's interpretation of the (Lou) Reed Awards.

Come and get your trophies. A winner every time!

Platkin’s next letter: 51 family members of nursing home victims?

By Rubashov

It is always easy for those in power to obtain an unrepresentative sample of a particular group of people and claim it is otherwise. Earlier this morning, the Murphy administration posted the fruit of no doubt some considerable arm-twisting on NJ Globe: 51 political insiders who happen to be women.

Here is how the Globe characterized the letter: “51 New Jersey women sign letter praising Platkin nomination as attorney general, urging his confirmation. Support for Murphy nominee comes from some of the most powerful women in N.J. politics.”

But is this list of lobbyists, political patronage appointees, political operators, elected officials, and fronts for special interests representative of the women of New Jersey? Do they share the same daily concerns? Are they even interested in the same things?

People in politics – both male and female – are a rarified bunch. Their minds work differently, which is why they so often fail to sync up with those of average voters.

Would the average woman living in New Jersey want to work for a middle manager who ignored the rape of a coworker and refused to notify the boss? A middle manager who allowed the man accused of the rape to continue on, with no justice? A middle manager who thwarted not only justice for the victim, but the protection of every woman involved with that establishment, every woman who visited that establishment, and every woman who the accused might come in contact with?

No, we doubt the average woman living in New Jersey would think much of that middle manager. Not even if 51 other women or 51,000 other women signed a letter telling her that he was a great guy. Who would wish to work in such a place? Who would wish to send their wife, sister, mother, daughter, niece, or any woman they cared about to work in such an establishment?

And then we have Matthew Platkin’s signature on all those executive orders – closing churches, businesses, and schools. We have the greatest respect for folks like Sue Altman – but how can any self-respecting person of the Left fail to recognize the fact that in America when government blocks someone from earning a paycheck, it blocks them from the ability to pay for healthcare. So, unless that executive order entails some measure of temporary universal health care (not ObamaCare, mind you, but Clement AtleeCare) it isn’t really worthy of your support, is it? And the Murphy administration is swimming in cash, by-the-way, so shame on you.

Matthew Platkin was the legal mind behind all those strange contortions and permutations that went into those executive orders – like Executive Order 103. Platkin signed that executive order (see below). His nomination gives the survivors of those victims and their elected representatives an opportunity to ask Platkin questions about the legal, scientific, and medical reasoning behind Executive Order 103 and the other executive orders also signed by Platkin.

https://nj.gov/infobank/eo/056murphy/pdf/EO-103.pdf

Matthew Platkin’s signature on Executive Order 103, hurried between 8,000 and 10,000 nursing and veterans’ home residents to their deaths. Take a moment to watch this ABC News Nightline piece on the victims of just one of the nursing facilities involved and the impact Platkin’s actions have had on their families. This facility, in Andover Township, Sussex County, saw dozens of deaths…

Matthew Platkin signed Executive Order 103 that hurried thousands of nursing and veterans' home residents to their deaths.

Curiously, some of the political insiders who signed letters and expressed support for Matthew Platkin’s nomination are lobbyists for this same facility and others like it. More on this later.

In the aftermath of those deaths, county officials submitted Open Public Records Act (OPRA) requests seeking public information. Many of those requests are still pending, despite the Murphy administration coming to a monetary settlement with some of the families of veterans’ home victims who brought suit against the state. Matthew Platkin’s nomination provides an opportunity for transparency and to resolve some of these outstanding OPRA requests.

Lifting the stonewall with regards to these OPRA requests is a necessary first step to having open hearings on Platkin’s nomination. Anything less is a cover-up and taints the process and his appointment.

GOP Insiders: BLM Republicans rather than MLK Republicans?

By Rubashov

David Wildstein has been a Republican candidate, an elected Republican office holder, a Republican campaign manager, a Republican political consultant, and a high-ranking appointee in a Republican administration. His PoliticsNJ and PolitickerNJ political blogs supported the rising political fortunes of childhood friend Chris Christie. When Christie was United States Attorney, Wildstein’s blogs would often break stories before established media outlets had even got wind of one.

After Bridgegate, Wildstein joined with fellow Republican political consultant Ken Kurson to start New Jersey Globe. And when Kurson found himself in some trouble, it was a Republican President who granted him a pardon. By any measure then, David Wildstein is a Republican insider.

We thought about this when reading a column Wildstein posted on Friday, bidding farewell to New Jersey Globe reporter Nikita Biryukov. Wildstein wrote:

“Frankly, I can’t help but have pride in the careers of some of journalists who began their career working for me, including three of my first hires: MSNBC’s Steve Kornacki, who spent three years as a reporter at my old site, PoliticsNJ; and the Boston Globe’s James Pindell, who spent a few years at PoliticsNJ and is now the nation’s premier expert on New Hampshire presidential primaries; and POLITICO’s Matt Friedman, who was just developing his snark and perhaps had not yet owned a cat. Reporters I’ve helped train now work at the Philadelphia Inquirer, POLITICO in Washington, Roll Call, National Journal, Advance Publications, and other news organizations, and I wear that with a badge of honor.”

Wait… he’s a Republican, right? So, why didn’t anyone he mentored go on to work at Fox or Newsmax or National Review? Why isn’t conservative media represented at all?

Steve Kornacki and Matt Friedman are among the most knee-jerk corporate Democrats writing today. They, along with everyone Wildstein recruited, worship big government power and push a relentlessly Establishment line. They all became what Leftwing populist Jimmy Dore calls media “shitlibs”. All good little members of the MSM – mainstream media – and all dedicated to splitting the American people into marketable silos, creating the reality described by journalist Matt Taibbi in his book, Hate Inc.: Why Today’s Media Makes Us Despise One Another.

Just the other day, Nikita Biryukov was bashing Republican gubernatorial nominee Jack Ciattarelli for daring to question Governor Phil Murphy’s unfunded mandate LGBTQ+ curriculum that teaches anal sex to grade school children. As only a very young man could, Biryukov wrote: “Many LGBT issues are considered settled in New Jersey.” Considered by whom? The corporate, media, government, and academic establishment? The One Percent?

You may ask: But Wildstein is a Republican, right? A former GOP campaign manager, an insider in the Bergen County Republican Organization, a GOP mayor, a former consultant to the NJGOP, one of Governor Christie’s top appointees… How is it that he unerringly recruited and produced employees who hate traditional values, who hate conservatives, who hate the platform of the Republican Party? Why was this man rewarded for doing so? And why does he continue to be rewarded by the GOP?

People like David Wildstein are turned on by power. Very early on, they learn to mimic the attitudes and language of those who have power in the institutions they wish to be a part of. In the Republican Party in New Jersey, that means the corporate elite, the lobbyist community, and the Trenton establishment. These are not conservative people. They do not hold with traditional values or with any of the party platforms since Ronald Reagan captured the nomination in 1980.

They are exactly what you would expect corporate people to be… woke. They are exactly what you would expect people who lobby for woke corporations to be… paid to act woke. They mind their language and keep in fashion. And people who want to get ahead in the GOP do the same and act like they do.

That goes for party people – staff and such – all those appointees who keep the engine going. And that’s why it goes the way it does. That’s why, as Tucker Carlson recently observed: “And you wonder why you no longer recognize the party that you vote for.”

And it’s not just the Republicans in New Jersey. This is as much the case in Washington, DC…

The Google lobbyist and the GOP Leader.

Of course, not all Republican leaders are in lock step with the Establishment. Many actually listen to the members of their party and to the people who vote for them. Republican elected officials who listen to average party members and voters tend to do better at elections than those who simply try to mimic Establishment attitudes. Anyone who has closely watched the campaign of GOP gubernatorial nominee Jack Ciattarelli has been impressed by his ability to listen to what average voters have to say.

Did you know the Establishment actually runs finishing schools for wokeness that Republican operatives are enrolled in before going out and imparting their wisdom to candidates, party committees, and campaigns? They go by names like the Center for America Women and Politics or CAWP. It’s part of Rutgers’ Eagleton Institute of Politics and it claims to be bi-partisan – in that it trains both Democrats and Republicans. Yes, it may be bi-partisan, but it is 100 percent woke and in service to the modern fascism of identity politics. Catch this language from a statement CAWP put out last year:

“The Center for American Women and Politics was founded to examine and disrupt the gender bias built into America’s political institutions. But these institutions – formal and informal – were also constructed to privilege whiteness. To uphold that privilege, entire communities have been dehumanized, exploited, endangered, and disempowered. Our work has made us keenly aware that changing institutions built to uphold the power of white men is difficult, and it requires those who benefit most from these power dynamics to call for and actively participate in their disruption. It also requires changing who holds power within those institutions.

We denounce the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Nina Pop, Tony McDade, as well as the systemic racism, sexism, transphobia, and inequity that their deaths illuminate. We condemn the long history of police violence against Black Americans and the legal system's failure to respond. We state unequivocally our commitment to anti-racism and to our continued work to transform political institutions to make them more inclusive and responsive to the demands and experiences of all Americans.

…committing to anti-racism also means educating those who are privileged within racist systems to confront their own privilege, and to become both active and accountable in transforming these racist systems.”

No Republican should be a part of an organization that puts out racialist slop like this. As the party of Lincoln – the party that was formed to end slavery and the party that ensured civil rights for all – Republicans should follow the color-blind path of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. NOT the racist neo-fascism of BLM.

This is the kind of nonsense Republican operatives are being fed before they are handed the keys to run things. This is why there is a disconnect between party operatives and grassroots activists. It’s simple: They are NOT on the same page.

To be sure, the people who run CAWP are racialists. Their ideology is fascist rather than Marxist, because there is no mention of economic class.

In White-Collar Government: The Hidden Role of Class in Economic Policy Making, Duke University Professor Nick Carnes cites studies showing that while a majority of Americans work in blue-collar employment, only 2 percent of Congress were blue-collar workers before being elected and only 3 percent of State Legislators are employed as blue-collar workers. Carnes and others hold that this disparity reflects the economic decisions and priorities of legislative bodies in America. But in the happy-clappy rainbow fantasy world of the One Percenters who run CAWP, Oprah Winfrey is oppressed and the Appalachian family living in a shack are the oppressors. Based on their skin color. The Germans had a word for this.

Conservatives, traditional Republicans, those who believe the party is something more than a racket must demand and keep demanding a seat at the table. Understand that you are not going to be liked, get past it, and keep insisting on an accommodation. They want to keep you out. It is up to you to muscle your way in.

“It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so, and will follow it by suppressing opposition, subverting all education to seize early the minds of the young, and by killing, locking up, or driving underground all heretics.”

Robert A. Heinlein

NJGOP destroys Trump narrative with on-line vote for Chairman

By Rubashov

What were they thinking?  While President Donald Trump is arguing that massive fraud occurred in the November presidential election, the NJGOP has undercut him, conducting its own election for Chairman using a company that is trying to transform elections in America away from in-person voting, embracing on-line technology.
 
Sources said that Tuesday night’s election for Chairman was conducted on-line, using software provided by a company called ElectionRunner.  NJ Globe noted that “Michael Mulligan, a state committeeman from Salem County, objected to the electronic vote and sought to delay the election.”  Mulligan noted the apparent incongruity between how the NJGOP vote was being conducted and a party that has criticized the move away from in-person voting.
 
One GOP leader called it “hypocrisy” that “undermines President Trump’s argument.”  The NJ Globe reported Mulligan as saying: “What we’re going to be doing caused major problems in this country.  We are jumping the gun at the present time.”
 
But Warren County Freeholder/State Committeewoman Jason Sarnoski didn’t see it as abandoning Trump’s argument, claiming that there was “no reason to delay the meeting.”  Sarnoski told NJ Globe: “This is the same process we’ve followed in the past.  We’re not voting on Dominion machines.  We’re going to be virtual for the time being.”
 
One state committee member contrasted the NJGOP’s Murphyesque social distancing for a meeting of such few people, with the hundreds that gathered at Trump National Golf Course on October 20th for the Arise-NJ event hosted by Pastor Phil Rizzo.  There were no reported cases of COVID-19 as a result of that event.  “If hundreds could gather and conduct business six weeks ago, why can’t the NJGOP safely hold an in-person vote of 42 people?”
 
Forbes magazine identified ElectionRunner as one of nine technology companies that want to “revolutionize” voting.  Forbes noted that “computer science professors warn that internet elections are seriously vulnerable to bugs and foreign attack.”

"The problems are growing in complexity faster than the methods to keep up with them. From that perspective, looking at a system that relies on the perfectibility of computers is a really bad idea," says Stanford computer science professor David Dill, who founded the Verified Voting Foundation. Beyond attack, voting online challenges traditional staples of the electoral process. Online, preventing voter fraud, guaranteeing anonymity and ensuring vote verifiability become considerably more difficult. 

Nevertheless, ElectionRunner – which makes a product that allows users to run elections on any device in any location – hopes to be able to expand its customer base beyond organizations and schools. Being able to claim that a major state Republican organization used their on-line voting app in 2020 (of all years!) is a big plus towards getting others to sign-on.

A follow-up NJ Globe story today portrayed the vote as a contrast between Mike Lavery’s hail-fellow-well-met personality and Bob Hugin’s impressive record of raising and donating money. Going forward, we will be watching to see how far the NJGOP can get by on a smile and a handshake.

Stay tuned…

“People that elect corrupt politicians, imposters, thieves and traitors are not victims... but accomplices.”

George Orwell

Don’t use COVID-19 bailout money to cover-up Gov. Murphy’s fiscal mismanagement.

By Joshua Sotomayor-Einstein

In an April 23 article published in the NJ Globe, Jose Arango, titular Chairman of the Hudson County Republican Committee came out playing defense for Democrat New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy. Murphy’s effort to get federal tax dollars to bail out decades of bad budgeting, overspending, risky investments, and a swollen political bureaucracy has been highly criticized by responsible government advocates. Both an increased cost of living and exodus of native-born New Jersey residents out of state prior to Covid-19 has been attributed to the policies Governor Murphy wants the federal tax payer to now subsidize.

Arango, who collects a tax payer fundedsalary, perpetuated the mythology that the federal government’s refusal to subsidize the pre-Covid-19 partisan agenda and bad decision making of left wing run states “will lead to more economic hardship.” Sadly, he ignores the fact that most economic hardship New Jerseyans face comes from trying to navigate the high taxes, surprise fees, hidden fines, and red tape and regulations that come with living in a blue state. Some speculate that Arango, himself on the government dole at what many believe is a low-to-no show job as “Director of Economic Development” for Jersey City, does not want reform of New Jersey’s politically blue bureaucracy as he is part of its system putting patronage and loyalty over competency and efficiency.

In keeping with the far-left propaganda points coming from Governor Murphy’s office, Arango misidentified the cause of the state fiscal challenge as he stated “we would hope President Trump would not support states going bankrupt in the wake of this illness.” Yet the reality, published by NJ.com on April 24, is that the federal government has so far sent the State of New Jersey, our municipalities, small businesses, and residents $14 billion dollars in response to the Covid-19 crisis. This historically unprecedented amount of aid for New Jersey’s governments and residents includes, but is not limited to, the $1.8 billion from the Corona Relief Fund that Governor Murphy and Arango are arguing should be used as a slush fund to cover for municipal and state mismanagement going back decades. This fund, a subset of aid within the overall $14 billion dollars in aid New Jersey has received, is meant for states to cover expenses due to the Covid-19 crisis not systemic bad budgeting and lack of fiscally responsible practices going back decades.

While Governor Murphy, Arango, and fellow far-left partisan New Jersey Representative Gottheimer, who stated (in a NJ.com article published on April 23) that he “can’t understand why we would stick it to firefighters, law enforcement, EMS, and our schools,” may pretend that this portion (less than 15% of the federal aid New Jersey has received) does not support first responders and public education, the Federal Treasury Guidelines on Corona Relief Funds show this is to be false. The Treasury Guidelines include everything from the duties of law enforcement, hospitals, and EMTs/ambulance corps during the Covid-19 crisis, the cost of e-learning for schools, Covid-19 testing, temporary medical facilities, medical transportation, the acquisition of PPE supplies, funding Covid-19 compliant safety measures at state prisons, and much more.

In the NJ Globe article, Arango states that “if we want to come out of this crisis better, we cannot burn it all down” to bolster his non-argument conflating aid to New Jeseryans with the desire of out-of-touch partisans to prevent the reform New Jersey needs to rebuild economically after the Covid-19 health crisis. Why Arango, supposedly a Republican, is joining a partisan line of attack which pretends that the historic $14 billion dollars in overall federal aid New Jersey has received, including support for our first responders and education, doesn’t exist may be inexplicable but burning anything down $14 billion in aid is not. Rather what Arango, Governor Murphy, and the rest of the disconnected leftists in our state fail to admit is that the tax, fine, fee, and spend policies of the state and municipal governments in New Jersey was out of control long before the Covid-19 virus. Their policies resulted in a substandard job generation, high taxes, high cost of living, and a lower standard of living than what could be for New Jerseyans across the economic spectrum.

Arango’s efforts to push left-wing attacks against President Trump at a time of national crisis and in defiance of the facts lay bare the type of Republican he is. Not only does he confuse the issues of pre-Covid-19 unsustainable state and local government spending (from which he benefits) with the economic needs of New Jersey’s working and middle classes, but he is directly contradicting a statement he made on social media earlier in the crisis about refraining from criticizing leadership.

Indeed, Arango, as covered in The Ridgewood Blog, posted on social media that people should not criticize
Governor Murphy in a time of crisis as if the constructive criticism he was responding to, offered by Jack Ciattarelli, a state GOP leader, was not giving voice to millions of New Jerseyans.  It is clear that Arango meant “grand standing” when he stated that criticism of Governor Murphy’s handling of the crisis was “political grand standards,” but the question remains - if according to Arango one cannot criticize Governor Murphy because he is the leader of the state during a crisis, how can Arango criticize President Trump, the leader of the country in his handling of it? Moreover, by the tortured “logic” that one must not criticize the governor even though that governor has increased the cost of living for residents and badly mismanaged the state, Arango must also be against the vocal disapproval of Governor Murphy’s policies the NJGOP started offering after following Ciattarelli’s lead. Like the far-left Democrats he allies himself with, if Arango didn’t have double standards, he wouldn’t have any at all.

Some speculate the Arango is publicly taking the side of the left-wing Democrats in their counterfactual battle with President Trump because he is concerned about his job security. The logic goes that if state and local governments are forced to right size due to decades of expansion and cost-of-living-increase policies, which has stymied collections and for which they have borrowed money to make up the difference on their overspending, Arango and those with low to no show jobs may be forced to retire.  Indeed, Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop, who was a serious contender for the 2018 Democrat gubernatorial nomination before Governor Murphy’s massive round of donations to Democrat Party institutions all but ensured his nomination, has attempted to shrink Jersey City municipal government by offering early retirement buyouts to 400 municipal employees, freeze salaries, and suspend new hires.

While many public employees perform valuable functions (first responders and educators in particular), it is clear even Democrat Jersey City Mayor Fulop believes at least 400 of them to be non-essential to a functioning city. The question for New Jeseryans is how many more off the hundreds of thousands of state and municipal full-time equivalent employees are a non-essential use of our money? How many are, as many believe Arango to be, political appointees who do little to nothing other than cost New Jerseyans more and more of their paycheck? Does Arango believe that state and municipal government should continue to mismanage the people’s money and overcharge residents, reaching deeper into the people’s wallet during economically tough times such as the current crisis?

While we may never get an answer to these questions, the recent past suggests he cares more about serving the Democrat power structure than defending the New Jerseyans.  While the Jersey City Board of Education is infamously known for raising taxes in March during the Covid-19 crisis, and one of the votes in favor was Noemi Velazquez (well known for religious bigotry), what is less known is that not only did Arango use his nominal title to endorse Velazquez and her ticket but he also used official Hudson County Republican Committee funds to do so in a mailer. Surely then, as Arango has remained silent on the JCBOE tax increases by the extremist Democrats he supported, it becomes clear he does not care about lowering the cost of living for New Jerseyans during the crisis nor for creating a climate of job generation and economic prosperity. Rather, to all but those asleep or with a vested interested pretending otherwise, it is painstakingly clear that Arango only comes out publicly to support the Democrat bosses he de facto works for.

From supporting those who increase the cost of living for the people of Jersey City to attacking real Republicans leaders such as Jack Ciattarelli; from benefiting from the corrupt system of political patronage which keeps New Jersey from its full potential to taking Democrat Governor Murphy’s side in his partisan crusade against President Trump - Arango has a demonstrable history of standing both against Republicans and hardworking New Jerseyans. From always growing budgets to ever increasing regulatory fee’s, highest in the nation property taxes to risky investments, an army of thousands upon thousands of official and unofficial political appointees to a constantly rising cost of living, New Jersey cannot afford more of the same. The out of touch Democrats – Governor Phil Murphy, Representative Gottheimer, the JCBOE, “Republican” Jose Arango and many more, may never get it, but New Jerseyans understand that if we are to recover after Covid-19 we need more than complaining that the $14 billion dollars in federal aid to New Jersey is not enough, we need real reform.

Joshua Sotomayor-Einstein currently serves as a Member of the Republican State Committee representing Hudson County. 

NOTE:  We invite Jose Arango, Chairman of the Hudson County Republican Committee, as well as anyone else mentioned here, to write their own column (separately or in response to this column) and we will publish it.   

"At any given moment there
is an orthodoxy, a body of ideas which it is assumed that all right-thinking
people will accept without question. It is not exactly forbidden to say this,
that or the other, but it is 'not done' to say it, just as in mid-Victorian
times it was 'not done' to mention trousers in the presence of a lady. Anyone
who challenges the prevailing orthodoxy finds himself silenced with surprising
effectiveness. A genuinely unfashionable opinion is almost never given a fair
hearing, either in the popular press or in the highbrow periodicals."
(George Orwell, aka Eric Blair)

Quoted by Chris Hedges, in his
bestseller, “Death of the Liberal Class" (2010).

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.