Salant got it wrong: NJ Republicans didn’t reject pro-Trump candidates…

(1) Who were the explicitly anti-Trump candidates?

(2) Generally, too many anti-establishment candidates ran.

By Sussex Watchdog

NJ.com writer Jonathan Salant is widely considered to be extraordinarily biased against Republicans and progressive reformers by both Democrat and especially Republican campaign operatives. Even the moderates think he sucks (and we have that in writing). Establishment Democrats count on him to robotically repeat their line but everyone else has little use for him.

So, you can imagine the bemusement that came with Salant’s political prognostications on Sunday morning. Sure, everyone can have an opinion, but Salant’s understanding of the GOP borders on superstition. You can imagine him beginning the effort by placing a mouse in his pocket and a garland of garlic around his neck.

Post-primary, the NJGOP establishment is still in its cups, yet to recover from a series of shocks, near-losses, and outright losses – all at the hands of vastly outspent rightwingers. Even the line didn’t hold up in places like Bergen and Morris Counties.

Nowadays, nobody runs openly as a “moderate”. Not in the GOP, anyway. Not even in the New Jersey GOP. So, every Republican candidate in every contested primary is trying to convince Republican voters that he or she is the conservative in that race. It makes for a lot of confusion.

Salant was trying to make the point that anti-Trump Republicans defeated pro-Trump Republicans or, as he put it, “only in the 5th District did the apparent pro-Trump candidate emerge victorious.” But that’s not being honest because none of the Republican candidates was overtly anti-Trump, not even in the way that Seth Grossman is (and he’s actually pro-Trump) and certainly not in the intellectually honest way that conservative columnist Paul Mulshine is. Ask yourself: Who is the equivalent of Paul Mulshine in the New Jersey Republican establishment today?

Criticism of the former President is muted, and the phrase “anti-Trump” is found on campaign literature as often as a self-description of “moderate” is, which is never. But despite all that many Republican voters, motivated by dissatisfaction, do figure out who is who and they appear to be getting better at it.

During the height of the Tea Party movement, Joe Kyrillos, an establishment State Senator running for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senator defeated three Tea Party conservatives 163,817 to 19,238 and 17,161 and 12,823 respectively. Kyrillos got 77 percent of the vote. In conservative Sussex County – without a line – Kyrillos won the primary with 45 percent of the vote (Sussex County’s Bader Qarmout came in second with 24 percent).

In last Tuesday’s CD07 Republican primary, establishment candidate Tom Kean Jr. defeated six opponents who were running to the right of him. He did so on a vote of 24,106 to 12,481 and 8,102 and 2,907 and 2,576 and 2,176 and 414. That is 45 percent of the vote. The anti-establishment vote in CD07 now mirrors that of Sussex County a decade ago. And on Tuesday in Sussex County, Kean was defeated with 33 percent to 37 percent for Pastor Phil Rizzo. And that was with the support of the Sussex County political establishment.

In 2006, as the establishment candidate, Kean won the GOP primary for U.S. Senate in Sussex County 4,809 to 2,414 – defeating a Steve Lonegan-backed candidate 66 percent to 34 percent. Now the relative strengths of the establishment and rightwing have been reversed.

Things have gotten a lot more crunchy, but maybe not in the way that people once defined it. Until quite recently, conservatives liked to talk about the movement’s three-legged policy stool of guns, babies, and taxes. More recently, especially since 2016, it was a four-legged stool of guns (the Second Amendment), babies (Pro-Life), taxes, and illegal immigration. That’s all in flux now.

The good news is that what it means to be a “social conservative” is changing and broadening. The bad news for some will be what those changes mean. Some talk of the rise of “bar stool” conservatism that is a reaction not to social changes, but to the bullying by movements associated with those changes.

Take same-sex marriage, for example. Many of the new “social conservatives” support it, just as they support basic civil rights protections for people regardless of their sexual preferences or identity. That said, these new conservatives (very often recent Democrats or with no party identification) loathe the religion-like proselytization by the LGBTQ+ movement, their demands that we fly their flag and celebrate their deal (and the name-calling if we don’t), and once in power their attempts to mandate their movement and indoctrinate children in schools and employees in the workplace.

A lot of “bar-stool” conservatives are former liberals (many still identify as liberals) – it is just that they still think they have the right to judge for themselves what a man is or a woman is, still believe they should be allowed to suggest that the science of chromosomes trumps the religion of faith-based feelings. They don’t like being threatened, they don’t care if they are “cancelled”, they have chosen to stand up to the bullying.

These new social conservatives have expanded the ranks but not the movement – because they are not “movement” people. They don’t want to be told. Not by a drag queen… or a religious leader. Nevertheless, they have potential for bringing together a loose majority.

Social conservatives – once a movement coasting south – have been provided a new urgency, a new momentum, by the overreach of the flag wavers, curriculum mongers, and pronoun Nazis’. But prognosticators like Jonathan Salant would be wrong to believe it’s the same movement it was just a few years ago. Here is an interesting discussion between two younger writers on the subject – one who was just published in the New York Times.

The NEW Culture War After the Religious Right | Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar

Premiered Jun 8, 2022 Krystal and Saagar have Marshall Kosloff interview National Review columnist Nate Hochman about the evolving culture war on the right due to secularization and the waning of the religious right.

Today’s Star-Ledger editorial explains why fewer and fewer read it

By Rubashov

In its editorials, the Star-Ledger has often referred to its predicament and has sadly complained about its declining readership. At the foot of everything its editorial board writes there’s a begging bowl: “Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.”

Editorials are something the Star-Ledger gives away for free. For the rare pieces of investigative journalism or in-depth news coverage – those are behind a pay wall – you need to give them money to read it. But nobody pays for the editorials.

And why would they?

The editorial board of the Star-Ledger is entirely predictable. Its writers are close-minded and lack any intellectual curiosity at all. As writers, they appear to lack the imagination to place themselves in the shoes of someone living outside the bubble they inhabit. They think in stereotypes. And they lie.

For example, in today’s offering by the editorial board, they claim it was Fox News that “fanned this whole firestorm” about school curriculum when, in fact (and as the personal testimony of parents reveals) it was the pandemic, the mandated school closings, and the consequent distance learning that did it. Parents saw what their children were learning. It was like taking a walk through the kitchen of an unhygienic restaurant. Nobody needs the media to tell you that you shouldn’t be eating there. It’s as simple as that.

If someone wanted to create a new bar game (along the lines of Quizzo) that gave players a topic and then asked them to guess the position on it taken by the editorial board of the Star-Ledger, it would be a dud. Nobody would ever fail to guess correctly. It would get boring – just like the Star-Ledger editorials.

The Star-Ledger is so predictable that it is boring even to the partisans it is trying to impress.

People enjoy reading different angles. They like an unexpected twist. That’s what makes mysteries so popular. Can anyone imagine Tom Moran as a mystery writer? What would the characters sound like in a Julie O’Connor novel? The average reader would have it figured out by page three.

We’re not sure if reading Star-Ledger editorials is a cause of dementia, but it can’t help. Maybe they should apply a warning label?

When they make an effort to get the reader’s attention, the editorial board relies on a prodigious amount of name-calling. A week or so ago, they were calling on people to travel to Pennsylvania to fight fascism. No kidding, like ISIS asks for volunteers to travel to Syria. But even after being jabbed with this fork, 99.9 percent of their readers went back to sleep. Hey, it’s not like Tom Moran is going to be there beside you when you get to Syria, er… Pennsylvania. He was just using a word he hoped would get your attention – if only for a moment.

The tone of the editorial board is a cross between a harridan, a karen, with a bit of church lady thrown in. As a rule, unpleasant, humorless, bathed in snobbery, pickled in certainty, always in a lather over something, screeching hysterically while trying desperately to remove an item unpleasantly lodged up the bunghole, and generally unhappy with life. Today’s editorial went further. It took on airs of official superiority. The editorial wasn’t only partisan, it went further and formally aligned the newspaper with the government. Now that is like Syria! Here’s what they wrote:

“Faced with the uproar over sex education in New Jersey, in which conservative critics continue to claim the state is ‘grooming’ children and stoke fears about the standards, the chair of our Senate education committee, Vin Gopal, took the high road.”

Our boys! Our flag! Our Senate education committee! By jingo!

No, it wasn’t the “high road”. It was the partisan road. It was the road of fear. There is as much “high road” in Trenton as there is “love” in rape. Everyone – from the denizens of “Trenton” to the average voter in every town and neighborhood across New Jersey – knows this. The editorial board suggesting otherwise is an insult to its readers.

The editorial board never once noticed that the legislation being pushed by “the chair of OUR Senate education committee” – Senator Vin Gopal – is in answer to a problem created by legislation that he earlier co-sponsored. And the editorial purposely obscured the controversy by focusing on the pretty words used in the language of the curriculum standards – instead of the realities of their implementation. The realities that parents saw first-hand and reacted to.

And the editorial board never noted the lack of transparency in the way Gopal’s “transparency” legislation was rolled out. In secret. In order to suppress public comment and – especially – comments from parents. He was shocked and angry when they showed up anyway.

Throughout the editorial, the Star-Ledger folks employ language in the way Pol Pot once did. It is the language in which the reality is the opposite of the words used to describe it. The word used is “transparency” but what it describes is opaque and unclear. The Star-Ledger, in common with government news organs throughout the world, promotes the literal view as opposed to the reality. It’s not a “death camp” – it is an “employment retraining center”.

Gopal lied when he claimed that the new curriculum has “nothing to do with ideology.” It is all about ideology, which is defined as “a system of ideas and ideals.” Gopal’s political allies at interest groups like Garden State Equality push their worldview, their “system of ideas and ideals.” Some would argue that aspects of it, such as the faith-based assertion that biological science can be altered by the exercise of individual will, give it a religious orientation.

There is nothing “wrong” in holding such a view, any more than it is to hold the view that water can be turned to wine or wine to blood. It is the imposition of these views that is at issue. The demand that we all have the same views and that it is the job of government to inculcate such views to all children – regardless of what their parents and taxpayers think about it. Gopal should stop lying about it. Talk about it, don’t lie about it.

But politicians like Vin Gopal never stop lying. It is their go-to drug of choice. And everybody knows this about them. And the media won’t cover that up. They can try, but they won’t.

As liars go, Vin Gopal is a politician.

Will Weinberg dare mention colleagues’ predatory sexual behavior???

By Rubashov
 
Led by Governor Phil Murphy, Trenton Democrats are feigning “shock” over an NJ.com report detailing the predatory sexual behavior of many who run New Jersey’s government, political, and lobbying institutions.  What shameless hypocrisy!  Their disbelief and shock are reminiscent of that famous scene from the movie Casablanca…

Save Jersey’s Matt Rooney was quick to note: “It’s especially curious given Murphy’s well-known practice of employing non-disclosure agreements to muzzle women who work for him.”
 
Senator Declan O’Scanlon (R-13) expressed the disbelief shared by many, when he wrote:  “The fact that the Governor can utter these quotes with no sense of shame or irony, while his campaign attorneys continue to threaten female campaign consultants WITH RETALIATION (emphasis not enough) if they speak out about the atmosphere/incidents on his campaign, is astounding.”
 
Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg (D-37) has proposed setting up an “ad-hoc committee” to address “misogyny and sexual harassment” among New Jersey’s political and lobbying class.  According to press reports, Senator Weinberg has invited veteran lobbyist Jeannine LaRue, political operative Julie Roginsky and Patricia Teffenhart, executive director of the New Jersey Coalition Against Sexual Assault, Senate Majority Counsel Alison Accettola and Senate Minority Executive Director Christine Shipley to serve on the panel. 
 
Outside of Ms. Teffenhart, this appears to be an insiders’ panel and we seriously doubt that someone like Ms. Accettola will actually call out her bosses or a lobbyist like Ms. LaRue will be in an economic position to be an independent whistleblower.  It simply isn’t credible.
 
Senator Weinberg knows this – and her efforts appear more and more to be along the lines of an attempt to seize control of a potential scandal, control it before it gets out of hand, and then brush it under the rug.  Like they did the rape case, still unresolved, of Katie Brennan. Nobody was charged.  Blame was sufficiently obfuscated and dispersed.  The Trenton way.    
 
“Entering a sexual relationship with a subordinate, even when the contact is initiated by the latter, is considered unethical by some because of the subordinate's vulnerability to the superior and the inequality of power that characterizes the relationship.” (Wikipedia… on Sexual Misconduct)
 
Weinberg and her committee must be committed to taking on the problem at its source.  That means identifying those in the governmental/ political/ lobbyist power structure who sleep with staff members they have the power to fire at will.  Those who have sexual dependents on their payrolls. 
 
This is where the rot begins.  The military doesn’t allow such fraternization.  Neither do enlightened corporations.  What message does it send?  What tone does it set – when powerful people are allowed to hire paramours or groom them at the workplace?  Everyone knows what is going on, everyone sees it, people are rewarded, predators are lauded and further empowered – and nothing is said. 
 
Writing about the Weinstein rape case, Alexia Fernandez Campbell, of the Aspen Institute, notes: “Sexual misconduct is pretty broad — it can cover everything from asking a work subordinate out on a date to pressuring them for sex in exchange for career advancement.”
 
Are the reports detailed by NJ.com evidence of a social pathology at the heart of the Trenton Establishment?  Here is therapist Steve Becker’s take on sociopaths.  Does it sound like some of the folks rolling around Trenton? 
 
Pathologically self-centered individuals, such as sociopaths or narcissists, often project a level of self-confidence that is pathologically tremendous. This can be a problem for others who, unlike the sociopath, will be prone to empathy and self-reflection, along with which come self-doubt and hence fluctuating, less dependable levels of confidence.
 
But the pathologically self-centered individual is often seemingly immune to self-doubt and can thus seem implacably, impressively confident. Why?
 
The answer is surprisingly simple: When your interest in others is principally, if not entirely, about what you can get, or take, from them; when you lack the capacity for, and/or inclination to, genuine, thoughtful self-reflection; and when the meaning, or purpose, of life is fundamentally reduced to the expectation, and pursuit, of continual gratification, you have a prescription not only for pathological self-centeredness, but its frequent concomitant—pathological self-confidence.
 
Think about it: for such an individual, it is mostly, and sometimes only, about what he wants. And if he knows what he wants, such an individual will feel entitled to it. And his sense of entitlement becomes self-validating—self-validating, that is, of whatever argument, rationalization, or manipulation brings him closer to his demand.
 
In other words, the pathologically self-centered individual has something very powerful in his favor—conviction. His is the conviction of his entitlement, of his right to have what he wants—whether it’s agreement, an apology, special attention, cooperation, sex, a favor, forgiveness, you name it.
 
And he wields his sense of conviction powerfully and persuasively—all the more so if he’s also articulate and glib.
 
This explains how a sociopath can look you in the eye and blame you for something—even his victimization of you—and yet you struggle to fully disbelieve him. As I just noted, if he is intelligent and glib, he is in an even better position to erode your sense of reality. He can construct positions, however absurd and even confirming of his sociopathic orientation, that nevertheless have just enough superficial plausibility to arrest your attention.
 
Once you’ve been disarmed, even slightly, his impregnably confident assertions, stemming from his pathological self-centeredness, can have a brainwashing influence.
 
You wonder if you’re not crazy? The “gaslighting effect” is in full throttle. It is disorienting, literally, to have someone present even a ridiculous proposition, demand, or accusation with unwavering confidence and certitude.
 
And the disorienting effect is magnified exponentially when the assertion is simultaneously packaged in superficially intelligent, coherent, “rational”-sounding language. Confidence in one’s sense of reality can wane, and fail, under this combination assault.
 
This can explain why sometimes extremely intelligent, thoughtful and self-respecting individuals can actually be at greater risk of accepting and tolerating abuse. It can be a case of the exploiter’s pathologically inflated confidence overwhelming the more self-questioning, self-doubting individual’s reality.
 
Here’s an idea…
 
Why not ditch all those Trenton insiders and put together a committee made-up of average, common-sense taxpayers and mental health professionals?  Maybe the latter will confirm what the former has long suspected:  Trenton is nuts.

New Jersey Law Enforcement News blasts Sweeney

Yesterday, the leading figures of New Jersey’s legislative, governmental, legal, judicial, and political establishment (aka Trenton “insiders”) gathered together at a press conference to decry the state’s criminal justice system. NJ.com’s Blake Nelson did some great straight-forward reporting on this, with an assist from fellow journalist Brent Johnson:

Gov. Phil Murphy and leaders of the state Legislature said they’re planning to act swiftly on new recommendations to overhaul how people are sentenced in New Jersey, where prisons have had the worst racial disparity in the nation.

Murphy said during a news conference in Trenton on Thursday that he supports calls to eliminate mandatory minimum sentences for non-violent drug and property crime and to speed up when people convicted of second-degree robbery or burglary are eligible for parole in the Garden State.

The recommendations were detailed in a new report by the New Jersey Criminal Sentencing and Disposition Commission.

Some of the changes, if adopted, could apply retroactively, although the Democratic governor emphasized that nobody was guaranteed release.
Murphy called the fact that black residents are incarcerated at far higher rates than whites “galling,” and he said the reforms would ensure that the criminal justice system works "for all communities.”

… State Senate President Stephen Sweeney said the changes were “long past due.”

“We’re destroying people," Sweeney, D-Gloucester, said. "People that made mistakes. They’re not criminals. But we turn them into criminals if we keep them in jail for a long period of time.”

Deborah Poritz, a former chief justice of the state Supreme Court and the leader of the commission, said there was “overwhelming consensus” behind the proposals.

The hypocrisy here is rich.

If this was Pennsylvania – a state where the voters ELECT every judge and every prosecutor – there might be some cause for Establishment types gathering to point the finger at a system that they have only a partial hand in creating. But this is New Jersey, where EVERY facet of the criminal justice system is ENTIRELY controlled by this same Establishment. EVERY judge is a political appointment. EVERY prosecutor is a political appointment. The state Attorney General is a POLITICAL APPOINTMENT.

Trenton insider Deborah Poritz, who presented the recommendations, has worked in state government since 1981. Poritz was the APPOINTED state Attorney General from 1994 to 1996. Then she became the APPOINTED Chief Justice of the state Supreme Court from 1996 to 2006. She is critiquing the very system she played a huge role in creating!

Is it the sentencing… or the laws? New Jersey regulates or criminalizes some new behavior nearly every week. Even now, the Legislature is hard at work trying to criminalize menthol cigarettes. In his famous article on the subject, conservative columnist George Will argued that "overcriminalization" was responsible for the death of Eric Garner, a sidewalk merchant who was killed in a confrontation with police trying to crack down on sales tax scofflaws.

Will raises the question of how many new laws are created by state legislatures and by Congress in the rush to be seen to be "doing something". Will's brilliant column is a must read for legislators thinking about proposing their next round of ideas that will end up being enforced by men with guns. New Jersey has too many laws, too many restrictions, too many regulations. It suffers under a New Deal Era constitution that idealized the kind of authoritarian central-control necessary to fight a world war, but stifling in normal times. And to top it all off, it has the least democratic Legislature in America.

Perhaps those Establishment types should read a little before opening their mouths. We recommend Douglas Husak’s Overcriminalization: The Limits of the Criminal Law or Harvey Silverglate’s Three Felonies a Day. What we do know is this: Whenever the Legislature makes a law that requires blue-collar law enforcement officers to enforce it, when something inevitably goes wrong, you can always count on the white-collar Establishment to blame the cops who they sent to enforce the law. It’s a class thing.

To feign outrage over something created from the top down – as though you and your fellow Trenton insiders were innocent bystanders – is the height of hypocrisy. It is play-acting. The New Jersey Law Enforcement News summed up the politics behind the Establishment’s performance art…

New Jersey Law Enforcement News
“We’re destroying people," Sweeney, D-Gloucester, said. "People that made mistakes. They’re not criminals. But we turn them into criminals if we keep them in jail for a long period of time.”

WTF is Sweeney talking about? If you're in prison, you are in fact a "criminal." You committed a crime, you were prosecuted, sentenced and incarcerated. 100% leftist drivel here. The leftists believe you, the LEO are the criminal, the law abiding citizen is the "criminal," working people who want to enjoy the prosperity they've earned are the "criminals" To them capitalism is the crime, and "criminals" are merely political prisoners and victims of the "system." This is an evil philosophy. If you support, or vote for Murphy or any Democrat, in my opinion you are voting for self-destruction.
- NJLEN

Did Star-Ledger collude with Murphy A.G. to produce anti-ballot question headline?

Journalism isn’t what it once was.  Today, there is a revolving door between journalism, government, politics, and lobbying.  Today’s journalist is likely to be tomorrow’s political director.

Look at the case of Mark Magyar, one of Senate President Steve Sweeney's top aides.  In December of 2014, Magyar was hired as the Democrat's new Director of Policy and Communications.  Magyar had been a statehouse reporter for the Asbury Park Press and the Bergen Record, as well as the editor of the New Jersey Spotlight.

The corporate and political empire of Democrat Party boss George Norcross – the political machine of which the Senate President is a part – has a history of co-opting or attempting to co-opt local and regional newspapers in that part of New Jersey where his authoritarian rule is almost uncontested.  The machine is in the process of solidifying its rule in its southern New Jersey base, while expanding its power across the state – and beyond.

Mark Magyar is the spouse of Elizabeth K. Parker, Co-publisher and Executive Editor of the New Jersey Hills Media Group.  The group is controlled by the Recorder Publishing Company, a privately held entity in Bernardsville, that owns and publishes 17 local newspapers in Republican Morris County, Somerset County, and Hunterdon County -- and in Republican towns in Essex County.  Their readership comes from towns that usually get the short end of the sick from the Democrats in Trenton.  The company also sells other services, including website development, search engine optimization, "Reputation Management", and "Social Media Management".

Newspapers were never as pure and disinterested as their cheerleaders would have us believe, but at least – once upon a time/ just yesterday – they did constitute a locus of power independent of political machines.  Not necessarily of their corporate advertisers (per Herman and Chomsky), but certainly of base political machines.  Those days are drawing to a close.

We saw evidence of this on Saturday, when the office of Gurbir Grewal, the state Attorney General appointed by Governor Phil Murphy, conspired with Star-Ledger/ NJ.com reporter Rob Jennings to concoct a news headline the Murphy administration could use to undermine the people of Sussex County’s right to vote on Murphy’s Sanctuary State scheme.  At issue was a public question on the November ballot, passed by the Freeholders in April, that asks the voters their opinion on whether Sussex County Sheriff Mike Strada should follow American law on illegal immigration – or the directives of the Murphy administration.

The Democrat Murphy administration is arguing that Sussex County taxpayers should not have the right to vote on issues that affect the performance of county functions that they pay for entirely out of their highest-in-the-nation property taxes.  Taxation without the right to vote sounds pretty un-American to us.

Concurrent with plans to allow illegal aliens to have drivers licenses and to give incarcerated violent criminals the right to vote and hire lobbyists, the Murphy administration is using Grewal in an attempt to bully and intimidate the elected Freeholders of Sussex County into ending plans to allow the people the right to vote on a public question on the November ballot.  Popular sentiment across the state has been running against Murphy, so Grewal’s office was charged with finding a reporter who would provide them with a headline they could use.

Jennings, a former intern with Democrat Governor Mario Cuomo, was used to provide it.  Grewal’s office leaked confidential correspondence to Jennings, who promptly wrote a story with the headline:  “Sussex County caves to Murphy AG, will not put immigration question on ballot.”  It was the journalistic equivalent of performing fellatio for Grewal’s office.

Of course, the headline was false.  Jennings lied.  The Star-Ledger printed fake news.  Only the County Clerk had “caved”.  In fact, the County Freeholder Board had hired a conservative attorney less than 48 hours before to fight the Murphy administration.  This special counsel was charged with creating an updated ballot question with language that defeats the legal objections raised by the Murphy administration, so that Murphy and his cronies cannot hold up its placement on the ballot through legal maneuverings.

Jennings refused to write about it.  Even after he was contacted by Freeholders and the Special Counsel, Jennings refused to correct or update his story.  The lie remained published.

Not only did Jennings break the Code of Ethics of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), but Grewal’s office may have broken its professional code as well.  Word is that both may face ethical enquiries.

Despite the false headline, the Sussex County Freeholders remain resolved to fight the Murphy administration, with or without the assistance of the County Clerk.  And the Freeholders could always bring a lawsuit to compel the Clerk to place the public question on the November ballot.

New Jersey is unique in its forms and ways of political corruption – especially of systemic corruption – in that it rides the wave just ahead of the rest of America.  Sadly, it appears that what we once called journalism is on a rapid descent into the realms of propaganda and in future will be little more than coarse party broadsheets -- advertisements using histrionics worthy of Pravda or the Völkischer Beobachter.

The Hugin campaign would have done better in a Democrat primary.

Bob Hugin is a great guy.  Really.  He’s a good and decent man.  It was unfortunate that he found himself in a Republican primary… this year.  The fact that he persevered with such confidence and grace makes him a heroic, somewhat tragic, figure.  

Bob Hugin could have run in the Democrat primary.  $35 million… against Bob Menendez?  Hugin had the issues right for a Democrat primary… and the media wouldn’t have pounced on a Democrat Bob Hugin the way they did a Republican Bob Hugin.  The media love rich members of the One Percent when they are Democrats (it is a capital sin when you are a Republican)… they love woke, right-on pharma folk of the proper political affiliation.  They would have forgiven him everything.

But Bob ran as a Republican, and he ran this year.  A year when the media he wanted to appeal to was working to nationalize the election – to make it about Trump.  That media ended up vouching for Bob Menendez, despite having formerly called for his resignation. That media still cuts it with the people who Bob Hugin wanted to convince:  Democrats and liberal-leaners.   

Rather than shutting down Menendez, Hugin’s attacks were used by the media as evidence that he – Bob Hugin – was a “bad” man.  Of course, this only works with those who are open to receiving a message from the likes of Tom Moran and MSNBC.  Unfortunately, they were precisely the voters that the Hugin campaign was aimed at. 

Can we put aside the myth that Republican voters will come out no matter what, and dutifully vote Republican?  That myth should have finally, once and for all, been discarded after the low turnout Assembly races in 2015, when Republicans AGAIN lost seats in the Legislature and were AGAIN provided with irrelevant excuses for having done so. 

Oh the excuses!  One year it is Christie’s fault, the next it is Trump’s, and in between, the dog ate it!  New Jersey Republicans should set up their own public relations firm specializing in excuse-making.  Excuses aside, New Jersey’s GOP establishment should understand that the days of Republicans “holding their noses” and voting are over.

Republican voters are like anyone else.  Ignore them, say you are embarrassed to be with them, that you are “different” from them… and they will reward you in kind.  As an experiment, try some of that language next time you are in public with your wife and her family (or your husband and his).  Invite them out to a restaurant, then tell the host:  “I’m a different kind of member of this family, I’m not really one of them… They are a little, umm… backward.”  And say it so they hear it.  Say it loud, like ten million dollars’ worth of loud, and see how they like it.  Go ahead, try it.  Get back to us on it.

And that’s what the whole Hugin campaign was based on, wasn’t it?

“I’m a different kind of Republican.”  They are a little backward, a little off, but I’m with it.  I am a cool Republican.  Except that there are no “cool” Republicans.  Not in the minds of the media.  They only thought John McCain was cool when he was pissing on Bush.  The moment it became about him and Obama, John McCain became a troglodyte in the minds of the media.  After the dust settled, he became cool again, especially when pissing on other Republicans… especially when pissing on Trump.  But when he needed them, the media screwed John McCain.  So why even bother with them?

President Ronald Reagan understood the media (and they were a lot more condensed, more centralized, and a lot stronger back then).  That’s why he talked past them – to the people.  He didn’t give a damn about their approval.  He fed them the diet he wanted them to eat and even when they shit it out it contained the kernels of his message.  Reagan wasn’t afraid to be a Republican and to explain what that meant.  He had a message that he tested and honed by human contact – by speaking to people, engaging them, listening for the examples that would be used in his speeches, turning them on to his way of thinking, building a movement of ideas and about issues that mattered to people.

How many Republicans today, in New Jersey, can explain why they are Republicans or what Republicanism is?  At the big Republican show put on by the NJGOP last spring in Atlantic City, two professional Republican organizers up from Washington, DC, posed the same questions to attendees.  Not only was there no apparent theme or connectivity between the responses, even the organizers couldn’t adequately provide reasons or an explanation as to why they were there in the first place.  It was kind of sad.

What that confab did showcase, however, is the top-down meddling that has become the hallmark of the establishment in New Jersey, with a congressional candidate in a contested primary receiving top billing as the event’s featured speaker.  Yes, there was resource-draining meddling in districts 2, 5, and 11 – in an effort to promote candidates who would fit seamlessly with the statewide message being promoted by the campaign of Bob Hugin.

Instead of building a grassroots coalition of Republicans and reformers – of the kind Ralph Nader wrote about in his book, Unstoppable – the Hugin campaign  actually determined that their best chance lay in targeting “soft” Democrats and culturally “left-leaning” independents.  But these are the very same voters open to arguments from left-leaning media like CNN, MSNBC, NJ.com, and the Bergen Record.  So when the Hugin campaign pushed a relentlessly negative message about Menendez, those “independent arbiters” pushed back and were listened to. 

This allowed the Menendez campaign to focus on making the link between Hugin and Trump – which the media backed up.  The more the media pressed, the more Hugin denied Trump, the more he suppressed his own base.  Meanwhile, the Hugin campaign went right on churning out GOTV communications and efforts to turn out those “soft” Democrats and culturally “left-leaning” independents who had by now been convinced by the media that Hugin was a “bad” man who was lying about Menendez.  Gagged and gagged again.

In the days and weeks ahead we will be taking a proper, in depth, examination of the Republican operation in the Garden State.  It will be a necessary, warts and all, detailed review.  So stay tuned.

For now, we will leave you with this: 

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”  - Winston Churchill

Tom Moran shits the bed again. NJ.com editorial goes nuts with the name-calling (again).

By Rubashov

At what point did Star-Ledger/NJ.com editor Tom Moran go from a somewhat reasonable – albeit excruciatingly liberal – man of journalism, to New Jersey’s own Julius Streicher, throwing invective and hate at anyone who doesn’t see the world through the increasingly dark and confused lens he does.  Like Streicher, who edited a newspaper called “The Attacker,” Moran discards journalism and adopts a political role as the state’s leading propagandist for what has come to be known as “The Resistance.”

Of course, what he is “resisting” is the outcome (under long established rules) of a national election in the world’s foremost democracy.  Moran and his movement are not only threats to the political and economic stability of United States, but of the World.  It takes humility to live in a democracy, to preserve a Republic.  But Moran and his movement place their will above all else – and if their will should triumph, all future elections would be fought after the fact, regardless of outcome, endlessly, the way they are fighting this one.

To Moran and his movement, we are in year three of the 2016 presidential election.  This election will not be over until they get their way.  Only then will they permit us to move on to the next election. 

But who is this movement?  They are the permanent Establishment Party of government.  That’s what they would be called if they were honest about it.  In Mexico, where honesty rates higher than in Washington, DC, the longtime ruling political party calls itself the Partido Revolucionario Institucional – the Institutional Revolutionary Party.  They held power for 71 uninterrupted years – until the corruption and economic decline got so bad that voters, in their pain, sought other answers (both good and bad).  Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders, like Ralph Nader and Ron Paul before them, are symptoms of a corrupt institutional party producing more pain than benefits. 

Tom Moran is a chief propagandist for global corporatists, like those who publish his newspaper, and for all those who are made comfortable and secure by government and the largesse of the taxpayers.  These include the crony capitalists, pay-to-play government vendors, the Wall Street operators (like Moran’s heroes Jon Corzine and Phil Murphy), and the legions of lobbyists and senior bureaucrats who might as well be interchangeable.  It includes too, those well-off academics, like Brigid Harrison of Montclair State University.  A failed Democrat candidate, Harrison was provided a second life as an Establishment propagandist whose work has been pushed as required reading.    

The permanent Establishment Party straddles both established political parties in America – where our political choices are limited to faux chocolate and faux vanilla – and where propagandists like Tom Moran direct members of the working class to battle each other over race, ethnicity, and gender.  Using the last, they are now in the process of endlessly expanding the opportunities for internal division amongst the 99 percent. 

Candidates like Mikie Sherrill are the face of this “Resistance” to working class pain – to those same voters who bet on Barack Obama to rescue them in 2008, and who, in their pain, reached for Donald Trump in 2016.  A wealthy, expensively trained, representative of the Elite – whose career path was to “check the boxes” on the way to being given “power” as a safe pair-of-hands for those who actually wield it.

The means to Sherrill’s rise to celebrity are notorious.  Along with her Antifa-inspired thugs, she stalked and hounded the aged Congressman and Vietnam War Vet, Rodney Frelinghuysen.  They spat insults at him and lied about his record – acting as if this most bi-partisan and gentlemanly of public servants was akin to David Duke.  In this, they are not so different from Tom Moran and the NJ.com editorial board who over the weekend used words like “fraud” and “fanatical” to describe those who oppose their nurtured-by-hand celebrity, Mikie Sherrill.  If anything, they are using others as a mirror to reflect back what they see in themselves… frauds and fanatics.

Over the next two weeks and beyond – until they get their way and the result from the 2016 presidential election that they believe they are entitled to – Tom Moran and company will continue to behave the way they have been, calling names, spitting hatred, urinating down their own trousers.  They are like beings possessed, confirmed in their certainties, their righteousness and indignation.  They can not think outside of it… just ask Jonathan Salant. 

Owners of Star-Ledger/ NJ.com employ demeaning “hate font”

Advance Media is the union-busting, job-killing, working-class-family destroying private company that owns Conde Nast and a basket of newspapers that include the Star-Ledger and websites like NJ.com.  It’s the company that employs the writers that fill the pages of newspapers like the Star-Ledger.  These writers earn a fraction of what journalists once made but they are afraid to organize to stand up to the billionaires who own the Advance Media.  Conde Nast is their flagship enterprise.

What’s up with the stylized fonts?  Are the owners of the Star-Ledger and NJ.com employing racist “hate font”?   

Haven’t they argued that this kind of font is demeaning and an attempt to stereotype fellow human beings?

They don’t use Fraktur to sell Germany do they?  How about Cyrillic to sell Russia? 

And this private company is making lots and lots of money doing this.  Should they be monetizing stereotypes by using “hate font”?

Perhaps someone at Advance Media can explain?  Is this a job for Project Veritas or just some enterprising young maker of documentary shorts? 

Stay tuned…

Oh, by the way, seemingly right-on and woke Democrats have been using “hate font” too and have been doing so for years.   

You know who you are.

Get ready to be embarrassed.

Liberal Democrats rally around McCann's candidacy

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. 

This too is odd, coming from the McCann camp, which claims to be pro-Trump even as it puts forward "spokespersons" who are decidedly anti-Trump.  We get "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" thing, but McCann can only take this so far.

Shambling forward came the "Ghost of losing the Legislature past" -- that impresario of the brylcreem set -- Paulie "the hand" DiGaetano.  He reached out to the "mastermind" behind the Bridgegate scandal with the story about how McCann's opponent had said mean things about the guy who ran for Mayor as a Democrat.  Mind you, this is the same DiGaetano who Senator Kevin O'Toole (R-Bergen, Passaic, Essex, Morris) claimed had threatened him.  It was widely reported on. 

O'Toole claims former assemblyman DiGaetano once threatened his life

https://www.politico.com/states/.../otoole-digaetano-once-threatened-my-life-102642

Jun 9, 2016 - Paul DiGaetano, a once powerful Republican assemblyman and former gubernatorial candidate, is on the cusp of returning to an active role in New Jersey politics for the first time in a decade.

O'Toole Claims DiGaetano Threatened His Life | Observer

observer.com/2016/06/otoole-claims-digaetano-threatened-his-life/

Jun 9, 2016 - Soon-to-retire state Senator Kevin O'Toole (R-40) has made claims that former Assemblyman and gubernatorial candidate Paul DiGaetano threatened his life during a one-on-one conversation the two men had over ten years ago as DiGaetano was mounting his gubernatorial run. O'Toole spoke with ...

'I'll f---ing kill you!' Senator's chilling account of closed-door N.J. ...

www.nj.com/.../ill_f_-_-_-_ing_kill_you_senators_chilling_account_of_closed-door_...

Jun 10, 2016 - A sitting state senator says a candidate for governor demanded his endorsement, and threatened to kill him if he refused. ... all the key parties. O'Toole (R-Essex) says the threat was made in 2005 by Paul DiGaetano, then a leading Republican assemblyman dreaming about a long-shot bid for governor.

DiGaetano was in the middle of a campaign to be Bergen County GOP Chairman, so his opponent seized upon this to demand that he withdraw from the race:

After O'Toole Threat Claims, Yudin Wants DiGaetano to Leave BCRO ...

observer.com/.../after-otoole-threat-claims-yudin-wants-digaetano-to-leave-bcro-race/

Jun 9, 2016 - Current Bergen County Republican Organization (BCRO) Chairman Bob Yudin is calling for his competitor, former Assemblyman Paul DiGaetano, to step out of the race for the position in the county organization. Yudin's call comes after allegations that DiGaetano once threatened the life of LD40 state ...

 Of course, DiGaetano disputed Senator O'Toole's claims and even threatened to sue him.

Bergen GOP chairman sues O'Toole over death-threat claims - Politico

https://www.politico.com/.../bergen-gop-chairman-sues-otoole-over-death-threat-clai...

Jun 15, 2017 - Republican Sen. Kevin O'Toole claimed DiGaetano, now the GOP chairman in Bergen County, delivered a “threat of great bodily harm” during a one-on-one conversation more than a decade ago.

We haven't heard any news about the lawsuit, but it appears as though Paulie "D" learned a new trick, because he is pulling the same thing on McCann's opponent that was pulled on him.  Now it is DiGaetano who is making phone calls on behalf of McCann, urging that their opponent be made to drop out of the race for the Republican nomination for Congress in the 5th District. 

You couldn't make this silly shit up.  As a county chairman DiGaetano has been a disaster.  Now he is calling GOP leaders asking them to join him in demanding someone drop out for being accused of saying actually far less than what he was accused of saying -- only the guy DiGaetano wants to drop out was accused by a Democrat and DiGaetano was accused by a Republican. 

"Stumbling John" McCann and his followers are real pieces of work. 

NJ.com should be fined for not reporting an in-kind for Murphy

We have reported before on the Newhouse media empire and its anti-worker, anti-union, anti-middle class practices.  A book was written about the Newhouse family, their media business, and how they roll.  It is a hoot, unless you lived through it, and it details how they crushed union activity, kept organizers from workers, paid people crap, but then offered them personal loans to keep them in debt and supplicant.  Real pricks.

Well, the pricks are at it again.  They want to crank it up the collective ass of every blue-collar worker in the state by suppressing their wages and breaking their ability to collectively organize for their rights as workers.  This is an old story with the Newhouse boys, who have made a career of taking good paying jobs with benefits and turning them into shit.

The Newhouse plan is to turn New Jersey -- the whole state -- into a "Sanctuary State."  What this means was outlined recently in a letter to concerned taxpayers:

"A 'sanctuary state' will mean a huge influx of people who will need the social services safety net more than average.  The Democrat gubernatorial ticket has promised to impose a so-called 'millionaire's tax' that will chase away those who currently fund the state's social safety net.  Those who are left... the middle class who can't leave because of a job, or because they can't sell their home for what they paid for it, or because their child wants to finish school -- they will have to make up for the shortfall in higher taxes.

That won't be easy, because at 26.1% of income, the cost of living in New Jersey is, according to Bloomberg, by far the most expensive in the nation.  Meanwhile, state household income is nearly seven percent lower than it was in 2008 and has only grown by a little more than one percent since then. 

Those coming to the new 'Sanctuary State' of New Jersey will enter the workforce of the gray economy, where the minimum wage doesn't apply.  But for everyone else it does -- which will leave trade union workers, manufacturing, medical care and health workers, service industry workers, and mothers with part-time jobs all at a disadvantage when competing for a job.  It will be bad news for people trying to pay their mortgage, their property taxes, those hoping to avoid foreclosure. 

And just where will all these newcomers to the 'Sanctuary State of New Jersey' reside?  Why in subsidized sanctuary housing -- courtesy of COAH and its plan to build tens of thousands of new subsidized no-questions-asked units throughout New Jersey. 

This will require massive infrastructure investment by taxpayers -- and an increase in property tax collections.  To pay for it, the Democrats intend to scrap the 2-percent cap on local government spending.  Under the Democrats property taxes rose an average of 6.1 percent a year -- triple the rate of inflation.  Since the cap, property taxes have gone up an average of just 2.1 percent a year."

In the furtherance of their scheme, the Newhouse media empire has directed one of their un-named operatives at the Star-Ledger/NJ.com to write a column that accuses those who wish to avoid the fate outlined above of... you guessed it, racism.  The accusation of "racism" is now the last refuge of those incompetent writers who simply can't make an argument.  So the column begins:

Actually, he was.  That is what making New Jersey a "sanctuary state" will do. 

Look it up, that is the traditional role of sanctuary.  It does not discriminate based on whether you have been accused of a crime or not.  Any place offering "sanctuary" worthy of the name, covers those accused of criminal wrongdoing.

If you are not going to go down this path, then don't use the word.  And words are important, as this scene from the film "Conspiracy" illustrates so well:

Words matter.  The scene above recounts a true event in the somewhat recent past.  It takes place in a country that had recently been a western democracy -- with an elected president, legislative chamber, and independent judiciary.  But in this country the law was used to drive out opposition voices and piece by piece replace the institutions of representative democracy with one-party, one point-of-view authoritarianism.  This country had grand ideas about its destiny and, to that end, committed itself to a program of foreign meddling.  So the country was soon at war.

The setting is a beautiful house on a lake, in a suburb outside the capital.  The house had been seized from its owners, by the government for its use, through a form of eminent domain.  And in the middle of winter, 15 bureaucrats and politicians met there.  Most were lawyers, others were prominent members of the civil service, many had impressive academic credentials.  Over fine wine they lunched (it calls to mind one of those Planned Parenthood videos) and for two hours twisted and contorted language and emerged with a euphemism -- "the final solution" -- that consigned millions to unimaginable horror and death.

If you watch the entire film, pay close attention to how everything they planned had to be "based in law."  And by-the-way, the uniforms are not military uniforms.  They are political party uniforms.  These bastards were not soldiers, they were attorneys. 

We should not allow Phil Murphy and the Newhouse media empire to use the word "sanctuary" as a means to drive down the cost of labor.  It is not "sanctuary" that they seek but union busting, cheap labor, and the continued decline of the middle class.  Don't let them dishonor the word "sanctuary" by turning it into a euphemism for their anti-worker schemes.

Words matter.  Politically correct euphemism is the enemy of truth. 

NJEA should withdraw backing from Jihadist and cop-killer supporters

From our friends at Sussex County Watchdog

We all remember the Women's March organization and who was very loud about supporting it:

...And then it turned out that the leadership of the Women's March was calling for "jihad" against the elected government of the United States of America.

...And then the Women's March posted a birthday greeting on its Facebook page praising a terrorist who murdered a New Jersey State Trooper.  That terrorist cop-killer is on the FBI's "most wanted list" -- with a $2 million reward.

Even the New York Times gets it.

In an August 1st piece titled -- "When Progressives Embrace Hate" -- NY Times Editor Bari Weiss points out that the Women's March is connected to some very unsavory people but that groups like the NJEA (the state teachers' union) and those candidates they support don't seem to care.  Weiss wrote:

"The leaders of the Women’s March, arguably the most prominent feminists in the country, have some chilling ideas and associations. Far from erecting the big tent so many had hoped for, the movement they lead has embraced decidedly illiberal causes and cultivated a radical tenor that seems determined to alienate all but the most woke.

Start with Ms. Sarsour, by far the most visible of the quartet of organizers. It turns out that this 'homegirl in a hijab,' as one of many articles about her put it, has a history of disturbing views, as advertised by . . . Linda Sarsour.

There are comments on her Twitter feed of the anti-Zionist sort: 'Nothing is creepier than Zionism,' she wrote in 2012. And, oddly, given her status as a major feminist organizer, there are more than a few that seem to make common cause with anti-feminists, like this from 2015: 'You’ll know when you’re living under Shariah law if suddenly all your loans and credit cards become interest-free. Sound nice, doesn’t it?'  She has dismissed the anti-Islamist feminist Ayaan Hirsi Ali in the most crude and cruel terms, insisting she is 'not a real woman' and confessing that she wishes she could take away Ms. Ali’s vagina — this about a woman who suffered genital mutilation as a girl in Somalia."

Which brings us to Jennifer Hamilton, Kate Matteson and Gina Trish.  They are running for office in Sussex County.  Matteson and Trish have expressed personal support for the Women's March organization and have failed to retract or even comment on the organization's "illiberal" and "radical" (according to the New York Times) leadership or the group's praise of a terrorist cop-killer.  Now, all three have embraced the same NJEA group that organized for these "illiberal" radicals and that also refuses to comment on the group's praise of a terrorist cop-killer or its leadership's call for "jihad".

The NJEA, along with Jennifer Hamilton, Kate Matteson and Gina Trish have failed to call out Linda Sarsour, the co-chair of the Women's March, and a self-proclaimed advocate of "jihad" against the democratically elected American government.

Yes, the co-chair of the Women's March actually called for "jihad" against the government of the United States of America.  And Democrats have remained politically-correct silent about it.  Instead, Democrat leaders have praised the Women's March and continue to do so -- lending their support to its leadership while American troops are in the field, engaged in a fight against jihadists.  Why have the Democrats and their candidates refused to comment on these threats of "jihad"?

Last month, Linda Sarsour -- a prominent Democrat Party activist and co-chair of the Women's March -- called for a "jihad" against the American government.  You can catch her act here:

Here's what she said:

"During a speech to the Islamic Society of North America convention in Chicago last weekend, Sarsour, a delegate to the 2016 Democratic National Convention who is an anti-Israel and pro-Sharia activist, made the startling call and also urged against 'assimilation.' 

'I hope that we when we stand up to those who oppress our communities that Allah accepts from us that as a form of jihad,' she said. 'That we are struggling against tyrants and rulers not only abroad in the Middle East or in the other side of the world, but here in these United States of America, where you have fascists and white supremacists and Islamophobes reigning in the White House.'

'Our number one and top priority is to protect and defend our community, it is not to assimilate and please any other people and authority,' she said.

'Our obligation is to our young people, is to our women, to make sure our women are protected in our community. Our top priority and even higher than all those other priorities is to please Allah and only Allah,' she said."

Sarsour started off her call for "jihad" by praising Siraj Wahaj, who she described as her "favorite person in the room."  Wahaj is a controversial New York imam who has attracted the attention of American authorities for years.  Federal prosecutors included him on a 3½-page list of people they said "may be alleged as co-conspirators" in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, though he was never charged, the Associated Press reported.

Since the election of Donald Trump as President, some Democrats appear to have gone completely loopy.  We believe that dissent is an American right, but "dissent" isn't "jihad".  When did the democratic concept of a "loyal opposition" morph into "jihad" -- a "holy war" to be waged by all means necessary?  And why are Democrats and their candidates too afraid to talk about it?

And here is another thing that they are afraid to comment on.   It was reported extensively in the media last month that the Women's March "honored" cop-killer Joanne Chesimard (aka Assata Shakur). 

Referring to the notorious cop-killer, who murdered a New Jersey State Trooper in cold blood, as a "revolutionary" whose words "inspire us to keep resisting", the far-left Women' March organization issued a statement "celebrating" Ms. Chesimard's birthday.

The Star-Ledger reported on this:

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2017/07/womens_march_wishes_nj_cop_killer_a_happy_birthday.html

So did the Save Jersey blog:

Joanne Chesimard, the Black Liberation Army member hiding in Cuba after murdering New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster on the New Jersey Turnpike in 1973, has long eluded American justice and vexed New Jersey public officials as well as the public at large.

Donald Trump made headlines in June by spiking the Obama-era Cuba deal and citing the case of Chesimard (a/k/a Assata Shakur) as one of the reasons.

Eyebrows were therefore raised on Sunday when the far-left Women’s March’s social media accounts CELEBRATED the notorious cop-killing fugitive’s birthday:

 “I think you guys accidentally left out the part where she shot a police officer in the face, escaped from prison, then fled to Cuba in this post,” responded one Facebook user.

We know where Republicans like Assemblymen Parker Space stand on cop-killer Joanne Chesimard (aka Assata Shakur).  They want her extradited back to the United States to face trial for the murder of a police officer.  They backed that up by sponsoring a legislative resolution (AR-111) to urge Congress and the Administration to make that happen.

Why haven't we heard from Jennifer Hamilton, Kate Matteson and Gina Trish or the NJEA about this?  Why have they remained silent?

Why don't some Democrats appear to mind associating with radicals calling for "jihad" and cop-killers?  Do they consider these legitimate forms of "dissent"?  We are very interested in hearing what Jennifer Hamilton, Kate Matteson and Gina Trish have to say about a group, that the NJEA strongly supports, honoring a cop-killer.

Mandelblatt should take stand against Jihadist and cop-killer

Even the New York Times gets it.

In an August 1st piece titled -- "When Progressives Embrace Hate" -- NY Times Editor Bari Weiss points out that the Women's March is connected to some very unsavory people but that individuals on the Left don't seem to care.  Weiss wrote:

"The leaders of the Women’s March, arguably the most prominent feminists in the country, have some chilling ideas and associations. Far from erecting the big tent so many had hoped for, the movement they lead has embraced decidedly illiberal causes and cultivated a radical tenor that seems determined to alienate all but the most woke.

Start with Ms. Sarsour, by far the most visible of the quartet of organizers. It turns out that this 'homegirl in a hijab,' as one of many articles about her put it, has a history of disturbing views, as advertised by . . . Linda Sarsour.

There are comments on her Twitter feed of the anti-Zionist sort: 'Nothing is creepier than Zionism,' she wrote in 2012. And, oddly, given her status as a major feminist organizer, there are more than a few that seem to make common cause with anti-feminists, like this from 2015: 'You’ll know when you’re living under Shariah law if suddenly all your loans and credit cards become interest-free. Sound nice, doesn’t it?'  She has dismissed the anti-Islamist feminist Ayaan Hirsi Ali in the most crude and cruel terms, insisting she is 'not a real woman' and confessing that she wishes she could take away Ms. Ali’s vagina — this about a woman who suffered genital mutilation as a girl in Somalia."

Which brings us to Lisa Mandelblatt a suburban lady with a charming smile who suffers from a form of identity dysphoria:  She believes that she is Bella Abzug, the late Congresswoman from New York.  On her Facebook page, Mandelblatt frets:

"Like so many of you, I woke up after the election and I was absolutely terrified. What was going to happen to my friends, family, and neighbors?"

Lucky for Mandelblatt that her last name isn't Oroho.  With a son (U.S. Army Rangers) in Iraq, a daughter-in-law (U.S. Army) in Kuwait, and a brother (U.S. Army Black Hawks) in Afghanistan, Senator Steve Oroho might be expected to have some of the concerns that Mandelblatt claimed to have experienced as the result of... wait for it... an election.

Lisa Mandelblatt is a Democrat candidate for Congress against incumbent Republican Congressman Leonard Lance.  Like fellow Democrat Josh Gottheimer, Mandelblatt has failed to call out Democrat Party leaders for their support of Linda Sarsour, the co-chair of the Women's March, and a self-proclaimed advocate of "jihad" against the democratically elected American government.

Yes, the co-chair of the Women's March actually called for "jihad" against the government of the United States of America.  And Democrats like Gottheimer and Mandelblatt have remained politically-correct silent about it.  Instead, Democrat leaders have praised the Women's March and continue to do so -- lending their support to its leadership while American troops are in the field, engaged in a fight against jihadists.  Why have the Democrats and their candidates refused to comment on these threats of "jihad"?

Last month, Linda Sarsour -- a prominent Democrat Party activist and co-chair of the Women's March -- called for a "jihad" against the American government.  You can catch her act here:

Here's what she said:

"During a speech to the Islamic Society of North America convention in Chicago last weekend, Sarsour, a delegate to the 2016 Democratic National Convention who is an anti-Israel and pro-Sharia activist, made the startling call and also urged against 'assimilation.' 

'I hope that we when we stand up to those who oppress our communities that Allah accepts from us that as a form of jihad,' she said. 'That we are struggling against tyrants and rulers not only abroad in the Middle East or in the other side of the world, but here in these United States of America, where you have fascists and white supremacists and Islamophobes reigning in the White House.'

'Our number one and top priority is to protect and defend our community, it is not to assimilate and please any other people and authority,' she said.

'Our obligation is to our young people, is to our women, to make sure our women are protected in our community. Our top priority and even higher than all those other priorities is to please Allah and only Allah,' she said."

Sarsour started off her call for "jihad" by praising Siraj Wahaj, who she described as her "favorite person in the room."  Wahaj is a controversial New York imam who has attracted the attention of American authorities for years.  Federal prosecutors included him on a 3½-page list of people they said "may be alleged as co-conspirators" in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, though he was never charged, the Associated Press reported.

Since the election of Donald Trump as President, Democrats like Lisa Mandelblatt appear to have gone completely loopy.  We believe that dissent is an American right, but "dissent" isn't "jihad".  When did the democratic concept of a "loyal opposition" morph into "jihad" -- a "holy war" to be waged by all means necessary?  And why are Democrats and their candidates too afraid to talk about it?

And here is another thing that they are afraid to comment on.   It was reported extensively in the media last month that the Women's March "honored" cop-killer Joanne Chesimard (aka Assata Shakur). 

Referring to the notorious cop-killer, who murdered a New Jersey State Trooper in cold blood, as a "revolutionary" whose words "inspire us to keep resisting", the far-left Women' March organization issued a statement "celebrating" Ms. Chesimard's birthday.

The Star-Ledger reported on this:

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2017/07/womens_march_wishes_nj_cop_killer_a_happy_birthday.html

So did the Save Jersey blog:

Joanne Chesimard, the Black Liberation Army member hiding in Cuba after murdering New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster on the New Jersey Turnpike in 1973, has long eluded American justice and vexed New Jersey public officials as well as the public at large.

Donald Trump made headlines in June by spiking the Obama-era Cuba deal and citing the case of Chesimard (a/k/a Assata Shakur) as one of the reasons.

Eyebrows were therefore raised on Sunday when the far-left Women’s March’s social media accounts CELEBRATED the notorious cop-killing fugitive’s birthday:

 “I think you guys accidentally left out the part where she shot a police officer in the face, escaped from prison, then fled to Cuba in this post,” responded one Facebook user.

We know where Republicans like Assemblymen Ron Dancer and Parker Space stand on cop-killer Joanne Chesimard (aka Assata Shakur).  They want her extradited back to the United States to face trial for the murder of a police officer.  They backed that up by sponsoring a legislative resolution (AR-111) to urge Congress and the Administration to make that happen.

Why haven't we heard from Lisa Mandelblatt and Josh Gottheimer and other Democrats?  Why have they remained silent?

Why don't some Democrats appear to mind associating with radicals calling for "jihad" and cop-killers?  Do they consider these legitimate forms of "dissent"?  We are very interested in hearing what Lisa Mandelblatt and Josh Gottheimer and other Democrats have to say about a group, that Democrats strongly support, honoring a cop-killer. 

Drag Queens use children to promote their agenda

This just in from NJ.com...

Drag Queen Story Time at the Cherry Hill Public Library, June 19, 2017

It is one thing to be tolerant.  Adults can figure that out.  It is an entirely different matter to program the minds of very young children and to use taxpayers' money and public facilities to do so.

Here's the story:

CHERRY HILL -- A pair of drag queens had songs, style and a message for kids and their families at the library Monday night: It's okay to be different. 

Around a dozen families slogged through the dreary evening to arrive in the colorful children's room at The Cherry Hill Public Library for story time. Young girls and boys sat cross-legged on the carpet, waiting for "Aria Sheer" and "Natu Sheer," who perform together as the Sheer Sisters, to make an entrance.   

The duo walked in wearing bright, tight dresses, heavy eye makeup, big wigs and high heels. Aria Sheer, who is played by Richie Roberts, had a glittering beard and a purple dress with a long train while Natu Sheer, Lindsay Caswell, wore a fur sash and curly green wig. 

In a program that lasted about half an hour, the two sang songs, read two books titled "It's Okay to be Different" and "Not Quite Normal" and helped kids make unicorn horns out of construction paper. 

"We have a rainbow zebra here, and a regular one here," Roberts said, pointing to a page in the book. "And it's okay, right?"

While shy at first, the group quickly warmed up to the Sheer Sisters, hopping up and coming to the front of the room to get a closer look at the book's pages and posing for photos with the duo. 

READ THE FULL STORY HERE (AND CHECK OUT THE PICTURES, THEY'RE WORTH THE EFFORT)...

http://www.nj.com/camden/index.ssf/2017/06/drag_queens_bring_songs_glitter_and_message_of_acc.html#incart_river_home

"We have a rainbow zebra here, and a regular one here... And it's okay, right?"

Yeah, except that there really isn't a "rainbow zebra" is there?  Unless you take a "regular" zebra and paint it or do some pigment augmentation surgery on it or some shit like that. 

What are they doing to these children?  Sure all kinds of people exist on earth and when these very young children grow up and become adults, they will be running into all of them... drag queens, porn stars, blue collars workers and white collar employees, occupations of every description, people who collect condom wrappers and those who collect stamps, Christian fundamentalists, social justice warriors, communists, fascists, LGBTQRST activists, jihadists, neo-Nazis, Democrats who want to tax them to death, Republicans who could not care less... all sorts of people. 

Should we use public facilities to give them all an opportunity to proselytize to the kids?  Maybe pick up a convert here or there?

We haven't missed the coincidence that this dubious event occurred on the same day that august body -- the New Jersey Senate -- passed S-3067, allowing no debate and after hearings in which the audio of the hearing was doctored to eliminate some uncomfortable testimony from the public record.  George Orwell anyone?

For those of you not paying attention to what the Senate does (that's 99.9% of the electorate -- by design), S-3067 uses the power of the State to require that the Commissioner of Education stick his nose into the business of local school districts and "develop guidelines regarding transgender students."  Things like the use of "the name and pronoun that corresponds to a student’s gender identity... issuance of school documentation such as student ID’s in the name that corresponds to a student’s gender identity... permitting transgender students to dress in accordance with their gender identity... equal opportunities for participation in physical education... participation in gender-segregated school activities in accordance with a student’s gender identity... the use of restrooms and locker rooms... permitting and supporting the formation of student clubs or programs regarding issues related to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth."  In addition, the guidelines will include "information on organizations or other resources available to students and parents that provide support to transgender individuals." Yep, proselytizing and recruitment.

But don't you dare try to start a Christian club at school... or wear a Trump tee shirt to have your photo taken for the school yearbook.  Some things WILL NOT be tolerated. 

And when did the New Jersey Senate become so obsessed with the sexual identities of children?  What's next?  Breast augmentations for the 13 and under crowd so they might better conform to the entertainment media's ideas about the sexualization of children in the furtherance of the marketing of products?

The state has over 500 school districts -- each a hothouse of innovation on how to solve the age old problem of helping people rub along together without needing to tyrannize the majority.  But no, the Senate -- and especially those dried up old figs on the Democrat side -- just have to get their hands on the state's children and force everybody into one way of thinking. 

We have been warned about this before, in another context, by that good liberal, Mrs. Lillian Smith.  A Southern writer, she was a pioneer in the battle to end segregation.  We recommend her book, "The Winner Names the Age."  In it, you will find this passage she wrote when she accepted the Charles S. Johnson Award for her work:

“It is his millions of relationships that will give man his humanity… It is not our ideological rights that are important but the quality of our relationships with each other, with all men, with knowledge and art and God that count.

The civil rights movement has done a magnificent job but it is now faced with the ancient choice between good and evil, between love for all men and lust for a group’s power.”

“Every group on earth that has put ideology before human relations has failed; always disaster and bitterness and bloodshed have come.  This movement, too, may fail.  If it does, it will be because it aroused in men more hate than love, more concern for their own group than for all people, more lust for power than compassion for human need.”

“We must avoid the trap of totalism which lures a man into thinking there is only one way, one answer, one option, and that others must be forced into this One Way, and forced into it Now.”

GOP Legislators get duped into anti-Trump pledge

Democrat Senator Ray Lesniak got New Jersey Republicans to take an anti-Trump stance in an attempt to mar the Electoral Vote victory of Republican President-Elect Donald Trump.   Lesniak takes credit for coming up with something called "The Pledge to Stand Up for the Other."  The idea behind this pledge is that we all inhabit boxes in which we interact exclusively with "people like us."

A little further research revealed that this pledge is actually the work of a group of individuals who the Bergen Record describe as Muslims, although non-Muslims, such as Senator Lesniak, are involved as well.  The impetus is clear from the Record's story (November 23, 2016):

" Many have publicly and privately shown support for Muslims amid anxiety about the intentions of a Trump administration... James Sues, leader of a Muslim civil rights group in New Jersey, received nearly 20 emails in the week after Donald Trump's election, each asking: How can I help?"

" As Muslim Americans ponder the consequences of a Trump presidency, they’re finding momentum within their communities to organize and protect their rights."

"At first, many Muslims questioned whether Trump would carry out promises for proposals such as banning Muslim immigration or asking them to register with the government as a faith group, Sues said.

They grew even more concerned amid news reports that high-level appointees would include retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who has called Islam a cancer, and  Stephen Bannon, a man who ran a media outlet seen as a platform for anti-Muslim commentary. Meanwhile, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, a Trump adviser, said he was drafting a proposal for a Muslim registry program that Trump talked about in his campaign."

"...Trump was casting suspicion on Muslims – something she feared would influence Americans. She said she felt nervous walking at the mall in her hijab, a Muslim headscarf, in the days after the election. 'I felt like everyone's eyes were on me,' she said."

"In a rally on the Statehouse steps a week ago, around 35 people from different faith groups and community groups called for inclusiveness and safety for all, including Muslims. Participants included the Rev. Seth Kaper-Dale, who leads the Reformed Church of Highland Park and is running for governor on the Green Party ticket. He said he would also register as a Muslim if a registry took place.

Mohammad Ali Chaudry, an organizer for a coalition of 150 Muslim groups across New Jersey, said he’s gotten strong support for his 'I Stand With the Other' pledge, which asks people to denounce hate and bigotry when they see or hear it. He created the pledge as an initiative of the New Jersey Muslim-Jewish Solidarity Committee. Clergy, students and elected officials are among those who have signed, with interest growing after the election.

...Sen. Raymond Lesniak, D-Union, signed the pledge and has asked for Senate lawmakers to say the pledge in unison at their Dec. 15 meeting."

We all know who Ray Lesniak is.  He is the king of pay-to-play.  Time and time again, he has adopted the morals of the legal profession, wantonly confusing "legal" with "ethical."  As Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey chapter of the Sierra Club, told the New York Times:  "He (Lesniak) was really the first legislator to put all three together -- power, politics and pay-to-play."

Lesniak vigorously practiced pay to play until it was outlawed -- as if it takes a law to tell a man what is right and what is wrong.  By that rule, Senator Lesniak would have vigorously supported slavery in the 1850's.  It shouldn't take a law to make a man behave.  Those things come from within. 

And who is Mohammad Ali Chaudry, who claims that it is his pledge?  He runs The Islamic Society in Basking Ridge, New Jersey.  The group is suing a local planning board for denying it permission to build a mosque on a 4 acre site.  Chaudry got the Obama Justice Department in on the act and they sued the town as well. 

Then the town cited a conflict of interest between Chaudry and one of the top officials in the Obama Justice Department.  It's a real mess that is costing property taxpayers dearly.

Reporter Dave Hutchinson of the Star-Ledger has been covering this story and he filed this the same day the Record story about the pledge was published: http://www.nj.com/somerset/index.ssf/2016/11/town_that_denied_mosque_accuses_doj_of_conflict_of.html

The pledge's "background" statement reads:  "Racial bigotry, religious persecution, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia or any other form of hatred cannot be wiped out unless each and every one of us confronts it within ourselves, our own circles of family, friends and others that we interact with. Silence is seen as consent. It takes courage to stand up for the other. It is important to prevent bigoted speech coming from public officials, but it is even more critical to focus on our own individual responsibility to prevent bigotry we may see around us. By taking this pledge, each one us can make a profound difference in the world."

The language used here is worrisome.  "Wiping out" a belief system because it is deemed "hateful" is at the root of the aforementioned "Islamophobia" and Lesniak himself is widely read enough to know that the NSDAP (National Socialist Party) painted itself the victim of hate before launching the Holocaust and a World War.  We would direct Senator Lesniak to read some of Dr. Goebbels' pronouncements on the hatefulness of the Poles towards their German minority and the Reich Minister of Propaganda's stated goal to "wipe out" said hatred.

It should be of even more concern that Lesniak's pledge conflates "silence" with "consent," demanding proactive speech.  This is a very fascist prescription.  Will Lesniak adopt the North Korean model -- jailing those who don't express the "right" point of view with sufficient vigor?

In short, Senator Lesniak's pledge not only shackles speech (even comedy) but it prescribes corrective speech, while it allows a giant loophole to hate Republican Donald Trump and his supporters while feeling good about it.  That isn't helping the cause of human respect and understanding.

Too bad so many Republican legislators allowed themselves to be duped.

Lt. Gov. Guadagno votes NO on Trump!

On October 9th, Republican Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno told the Star-Ledger:  

"I won't vote for Donald Trump."

You can read the full article, Lt. Gov. Guadagno breaks with Christie, won't vote for Trump, here:

http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2016/10/lt_gov_guadagno_breaks_with_christie_wont_vote_for.html