The false narrative of Mikie Sherrill and Lisa Bhimani

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In November 2017, three members of the so-called “Resistance” held a press conference to condemn the tax cut plan of President Donald Trump.  They were Mikie Sherrill, a resident of Montclair and then a candidate for Congress in District 11; Lisa Bhimani, a medical doctor and today a candidate for the Assembly in District 25; and Kellie Doucette, who has just been given a congressional staff job by Congresswoman-Elect Sherrill.

At their press conference, the three “resisters” spoke on behalf of the state’s “middle class” and claimed that Trump and the Republicans were only out to help “big corporations and the ultra-wealthy”.  They acted as though they were representative of the families who get by on the median-income of Northwest New Jersey. We now know, in the cases of Mikie Sherrill and Lisa Bhimani, it was all an act. Both Sherrill and Bhimani are rich.  They are establishment members of the One Percent.

But what about Kellie Doucette?  She spoke as if she were a working mom, pinching every penny.

Doucette has just been appointed to be Mikie Sherrill’s “face” in Sussex and Morris Counties.  So who is she?

Well, it turns out that Kellie Doucette had a very bottom-line reason for opposing the Trump tax cuts.  Doucette is a transplant to New Jersey from Bermuda, where her husband, John P. Doucette, is the President and CEO of the Reinsurance Division of Everest Re Group Ltd., a publicly traded reinsurance company headquartered in Bermuda.  The corporation describes itself this way:

“Everest Re Group, Ltd. is a Bermuda holding company that operates through the following subsidiaries: Everest Reinsurance Company provides reinsurance to property and casualty insurers in both the U.S. and international markets. Everest Reinsurance (Bermuda), Ltd., including through its branch in the United Kingdom, provides reinsurance and insurance to worldwide property and casualty markets and reinsurance to life insurers… Additional information on Everest Re Group companies can be found at the Group’s web site at www.everestregroup.com.”

It turns out that the Trump tax cuts helped American companies at the expense of off-shore companies, like those based in Bermuda.  This is from a website maintained by Bermuda (www.bermuda-online.org):

2017. December 21.  US tax reforms approved this week by the US Congress will be “credit negative” for the Bermuda re/insurance market, Fitch Ratings says. The US credit rating agency added that it expected the tax reforms, which will take effect from January 1, to benefit US reinsurers at the expense of Bermudian and other international reinsurers serving the US. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act will cut the US corporate tax rate to 21 per cent from 35 per cent, reducing Bermuda’s tax advantages over US rivals, and a new tax on premiums ceded by US insurers to foreign affiliated reinsurers will be levied.

2017. December 18. Bermuda-based reinsurers are weighing restructuring options in response to US tax reform legislation that could be signed by President Donald Trump as early as this week and come into effect by the start of next year. Tax expert Will McCallum said that the island’s major industry will see its cost of doing business going up when the reform takes effect and some companies will likely have to relocate hundreds of millions of dollars of capital to the US.

According to public SEC filings, John Doucette was paid $2,557,414 in 2017.  That’s $49,181.03 a week – that’s $10,000 more than a Deputy Sheriff makes a YEAR in Sussex County!  

Hey… is this “Resistance” movement beginning to feel more like a “counter-revolution” to you too?  A long-suffering working class, under-represented in Congress and the Legislature, screwed-over by BOTH political parties votes for Obama in 2008 (and is promptly screwed again) then in its pain and desperation turns to Trump in 2016… and now the “Resistance” has come, to put us all back in our place!

In his book, White-Collar Government: The Hidden Role of Class in Economic Policy Making, Duke University's Nick Carnes points out that while upwards of 65 percent of citizens are "working class" and 54 percent are employed in a blue-collar occupation, just 2 percent of the members of Congress and 3 percent of state legislators held blue-collar jobs at the time of their election.  How about some diversity?

Donald Trump's campaign saw through the false political divide of Democrat and Republican to the vast economic and social divide that is the truer measure of America today.  Authors as diverse as George Packer of the New Yorker (The  Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America) to Charles Murray (Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010) to Chris Hedges (Days of Destruction Days of Revolt) to David Brooks (BoBos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There) have written about this, with Brooks actually employing Donald Trump as an example of what the "new upper class" finds unfashionable.  

And to counter this revolution, we have a One-Percenter “Resistance” made up of the likes of Mikie Sherrill, Lisa Bhimani, and Kellie Doucette.  

Congresswoman-Elect Mikie Sherrill wants Kellie Doucette to come into Sussex County and tell us how we should live.  The Congresswoman has sent Doucette to “feel our pain.” But there’s a problem with this… and it’s Kellie Doucette.

Just how insulated from the reality of the working-class is Doucette?  Well, when she moved from Bermuda to New Jersey, she settled in Chatham, a town with pretty good schools… but apparently, not good enough, because she sends her kids to boarding school in Delaware.  And not just any old boarding school… no way.

When Hollywood is looking for a boarding school that just oozes establishment wealth and privilege, they turn to Saint Andrew’s School, situated on 2200 acres in Middletown, Delaware.  You will remember seeing this well-appointed institution and its lush grounds from the Robin Williams film, Dead Poets Society, or from The West Wing, when they wanted to show what a really posh prep school looked like.  Yep, this is one posh school that Kellie Doucette sends her kids to… fall tuition for 2018-19 will set you back a cool $60,470 (per student).  

Yep, tell that to the working families of Ogdensburg – with a per capita income of just $29,447 – next time you are in Sussex County.  Hey, forget about feeling our pain, folks like you are our pain.

But Kellie Doucette has a solution for people who once had good-paying blue-collar jobs but who now must make do with under-employment, working two or three part-time jobs to make ends meet… abortion.

Kellie Doucette sits on the Board of an organization called Ibis Reproductive Health, and serves on their Finance Committee.  Ibis provides her biography:

“Kellie Doucette began her career in the health policy field, and worked for over ten years as an actuary in the individual disability and long-term care reinsurance markets in the United States and Bermuda. However, in 2016, she shifted her focus to the political sphere, first as a founding member of Chatham Moms for Change, and then in 2017 as the campaign manager for a local political campaign.  Kellie is currently the Constituency Director working with a congressional campaign in New Jersey’s 11th district, managing the constituency outreach for what has become one of the top watched congressional campaigns and races in the country this election cycle.

Kellie received her AB in Economics from Harvard in 1992 and completed her Associateship of the Society of Actuaries (ASA) in 1999. Kellie is also a member of the Board of Trustees of St. Andrew’s School in Delaware, of which she is a proud alumna and current parent, serving as Chair of the Advancement Committee and a member of the Finance Committee.” 

Ibis is all about abortion.  Its website makes Planned Parenthood look like a bunch of cautious moderates.  It operates several separate websites targeted to potential “client groups” – such as http://www.laterabortion.org/

Ibis even has a website aimed at teenagers with epilepsy, in which it promotes sterilization as a “birth control” option.  No kidding… here, check it out… http://girlswithnerve.com/birth-control/birth-control-options/

Lisa Bhimani Twitter.png

These people are off-the-hook.  Establishment moes and moettes who think they know better because they were well-born or have figured out a way to rig the system in their favor.  Now they want to masquerade as “comrades” and lead a “revolution” that will secure their fortunes and attitudes and leave America and its working people in the dust.  Mikie Sherrill got over on us this year, now Lisa Bhimani is trying for next year.

Are we going to let them get away with it again?

Lisa Bhimani tries to have it both ways on abortion

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Voters can’t stand a bullshitter.

They can’t stand it when somebody manipulates them, makes a false appeal, and then steals their vote. 

Wouldn’t the world be so much better if politicians simply told us what they believe, how they think, and let the chips fall where they may.  Instead, many politicians behave like high school kids trying to score a date.  They’ll say anything to get a “yes”.  And afterwards… they won’t return your text. 

When she ran for the state Legislature – just last year – Lisa Bhimani told Emily’s List what they wanted to hear.  She told them that she was Pro-Abortion and wanted more money for Planned Parenthood. 

Now Emily’s List is an organization that is very straightforward about who they are.  They describe themselves this way:  “We elect pro-choice (on abortion) Democratic women to office.” 

On top of the Emily’s List endorsement, Lisa Bhimani also got the endorsement of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund of New Jersey.  It’s pretty clear what they are about too. 

So how come at her announcement on Monday afternoon, Lisa Bhimani told several of her Pro-Life supporters that she stood with them on abortion?  She blamed having to run as a Democrat for the reason she had to adopt the positions she did.  “You do know that I am running on the Democrat ticket?”  That’s the excuse she gave.

Bhimani, a medical doctor, was very explicit in assuring one supporter that she “never performed a late term abortion.”  Oh, “late term” – what about abortion, full stop?  This is curious because she was trained as an OB-GYN doctor.  

She said that she hadn’t read the 20-20 bill (babies feel pain at 20 weeks bill) that would bring New Jersey’s abortion laws into line with Europe and the rest of the civilized world, but again… you know, that running as a Democrat thing… her campaign handlers would probably say it was a no-no. 

You can respect someone for thinking about an issue and then forming an opinion.  But what Bhimani is doing is bullshit.  Trying to have it both ways, all ways.

And do we really need another bullshit politician in Trenton?

Planned Parenthood refuses to account for spending

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It is a neat trick to disguise your business as a cult.  Generally this is the domain of some dubious religious hucksters of questionable denominations, east and west.  But you got to hand it to Planned Parenthood, Inc.  They have their followers convinced that what they're doing is religion.

Hence, their resistance to open their accounts and explain what they're doing with all the money they get from taxpayers.  During an Assembly Budget hearing earlier this week, Planned Parenthood again refused to answer questions about their finances -- such as its annual budget, annual revenue and executive compensation -- put to them by legislators. 

The kicker here is that these legislators actually support Planned Parenthood in principle -- they just want to make sure that the taxpayer money spent by them isn't wasted.  But just like any corrupt religious scam job, Planned Parenthood holds that you don't ask questions of god... even if it is your job as a legislator to protect taxpayers.

What's at stake is a proposed $7.45 million supplemental contribution to Planned Parenthood from New Jersey's taxpayers.

Two weeks ago, at a different committee hearing, Assemblywomen Holly Schepisi and Nancy Munoz asked the same questions.  They requested a breakdown of how the money would be spent, what the organization’s annual federal and state revenues are, and how much it pays its executives.  Why Planned Parenthood needs $7.45 million in taxpayer dollars, and how those dollars will be spent, still has not been answered.

To answer these questions, Planned Parenthood sent its Political Director.  That's right, they pay someone to be their Political Director.  Why?  Are they in politics or women's health?

When asked to produce a budget, the political director looked for a time as if she was going to find one up her bottom, but it wasn't there.  So she had to reply to the committee that she had no budget to share with them.  No budget?  Who works that way?  She also couldn't produce an answer as to what Planned Parenthood's annual revenues were.  For that answer, she didn't even go through the motions of finding it up her bottom.  When asked about executive compensation (what rich know-nothings like herself pocket) she flatly refused.

Why would working class taxpayers wish to spend their hard-earned money on an organization that pays an arrogant white-collar hack like her?

We understand that for the uneducated few, Planned Parenthood is synonymous with "women's health."  But it's not.  It is only one of many providers all jostling for market share.

No, you say?  It's a non-profit organization?  Sure, and so was the NFL.  And so are a lot of organizations that make billions and pay their executives millions.  Setting up as a "not-for-profit corporation" is simply a business model -- it's not an "I'm not greedy" pass.

And Planned Parenthood is greedy.  It wants total market share.  That's why it organized the way does -- to spend millions on lobbyists and even more on grassroots marketing -- to convince American women that only they provide the services that, in fact, hundreds of other organizations provide.  We're sure Macy's would like to have the same deal.

Planned Parenthood uses well-paid lobbyists and political pressure to secure government money with as little questions asked as possible.  They want to keep all the vittles for themselves and starve their competition.  Planned Parenthood wants to have a monopoly -- and we all know what that does to consumers and taxpayers.  Consumers pay more and have less choice.  Taxpayers get ripped-off.

Planned Parenthood is a classic case of crony capitalism, delivered by that master of Wall Street chicanery himself... Governor Goldman-Sachs 2.0, Phil Murphy.  On Thursday, February 15th, the entire Assembly is set to vote to give that $7.45 million to a business that won't answer basic questions about how they spend it.

And if passed, you know that Governor Goldman-Sachs 2.0, Phil Murphy, will sign it -- no questions asked.  Just like those bailouts they gave to his corrupt friends on Wall Street.  No questions asked...

Republican Assemblywomen join labor unions in standing up to Murphy

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Better get used to it, Governor Murphy!

At this week's Assembly Health Committee hearing two Republican Assemblywomen took on Governor Murphy's plans to pour taxpayers' money back into crony capitalist groups like Planned Parenthood.  Yeah, yeah, we know that for the uneducated few, Planned Parenthood is synonymous with "women's health."  But it's not.  It is only one of many providers all jostling for market share.

No, you say?  It's a non-profit organization?  Sure, and so was the NFL.  And so are a lot of organizations that make billions and pay their executives millions.  Setting up as a "not-for-profit corporation" is simply a business model -- it's not an "I'm not greedy" pass.

And Planned Parenthood is greedy.  It wants total market share.  That's why it organized the way does -- to spend millions on lobbyists and even more on grassroots marketing -- to convince American women that only they provide the services that, in fact, hundreds of other organizations provide.  We're sure Macy's would like to have the same deal.

Planned Parenthood uses well-paid lobbyists and political pressure to secure government money with as little questions asked as possible.  They want to keep all the vittles for themselves and starve their competition.  Planned Parenthood wants to have a monopoly -- and we all know what that does to consumers and taxpayers.  Consumers pay more and have less choice.  Taxpayers get ripped-off.

Well not when Assemblywomen Holly Schepisi and Nancy Munoz are around!

Holly Schepisi is like a Bergen Bulldog when ripping into a bureaucrat.  The Assemblywoman asked for Planned Parenthood's financial details -- its annual budget, annual revenue and executive compensation, none of which the group's political director could provide during the hearing. 

We can only suppose that Murphy told the director to drop by and pick-up a blank check.  But Schepisi wasn't having it.

"If it was that important, how could the head not be able to explain any of these items?"  Schepisi asked the Health Committee's Democrat Chairman.  "If it wasn’t just a political football, if it was that important to women’s health, how do we not have these answers?"

Schepisi told the group:  "We have a lot of phenomenal organizations in this state that approach us for funding. The amount of money that you guys want is more than every school that I represent gets for school funding every year."

Assemblywoman Munoz advocated using the funding for organizations that aren’t supported by billions of dollars like Planned Parenthood, such as federally qualified health centers and other clinics.

“Why don’t we give this money to the New Jersey Coalition for Sexual Assault?” she asked.

Munoz noted that there are 279 walk-in clinics, 37 retail clinics, 187 urgent care clinics and 9 pediatric urgent care centers throughout the state that perform women’s health services without public funding.  Why should they be left high and dry with all the funding going to Planned Parenthood?

The efforts by the Republican Assemblywoman to keep the process honest was matched by the efforts of some labor union leaders to question why a former Lehman Brothers executive was going to get a no-questions-asked Murphy appointment to head the state's Economic Development Authority.  

Led by the redoubtable Bill Mullen, of the New Jersey State Building & Construction Trades Council, many blue-collar unions questioned the priorities of Murphy-pick Tim Sullivan, late of Lehman Brothers and currently the deputy commissioner of Connecticut’s Department of Economic & Community Development.

Like the Wall Streeter he is, Sullivan has steered a decidedly anti-blue collar course in Connecticut, giving priority to more fashionable projects in what he called the "six key business sectors" he wants to focus on: "insurance and financial services; digital media; green technology; advanced manufacturing; bioscience; and tourism. "

A state like New Jersey, with a new Governor who is committed to bringing in tens of thousands of sanctuary seekers -- many of whom lack language and job skills, should be looking to invest in projects that more broadly employ blue-collar workers and those who, through blue-collar apprenticeship, can learn the skills they need to get onto the employment ladder.

Stay tuned...

Republican Lawmakers Caught in Planned Parenthood Trap Face Rebellion from NJ Voters

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PRESS RELEASE

Contact:  Marie Tasy, Executive Director                                                                                      732 562 0562

Republican Lawmakers Caught in Planned Parenthood Trap Face Rebellion from NJ Voters

July 13, 2017--

The Star Ledger has reported that 4 Republican lawmakers have committed to change their No votes and now intend to vote to force the taxpayers of NJ to fund the Planned Parenthood abortion business, despite the organization's terrible record in NJ of engaging in waste, fraud and abuse and despite the evidence which shows that NJ women's health care services are being met, provided and funded through the FQHCs. 

 "Republican Lawmakers who vote to fund Planned Parenthood will undoubtedly face a backlash by voters in their districts in November," said Marie Tasy, Executive Director of New Jersey Right to Life.

Record of Waste, Fraud and Abuse

The U.S. Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services performed an audit during the period when our state funded Planned Parenthood and uncovered a consistent problem with New Jersey-based family planning clinics run by the NJ Planned Parenthood abortion business.  The government audit found that they were improperly billing Medicaid for services that did not qualify as family planning.

An initial audit revealed New Jersey improperly received federal reimbursement at the enhanced 90 percent rate for 160,955 prescription drug claims that were billed as family planning, but did not qualify as family planning services. A letter from the Inspector General to New Jersey officials recommended that New Jersey repay $2,219,746 to the federal government.

See p. 5 of the audit:

https://oig.hhs.gov/oas/reports/region2/20601010.pdf

In 2011, an employee at Planned Parenthood of Central New Jersey in Perth Amboy, NJ  was caught on video willing to aid and abet undercover investigators posing as sex traffickers of minors.

Central Jersey Planned Parenthood fires worker after release of undercover video

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/02/planned_parenthood_employee_is.html

In addition, a 2011 inspection performed by the surveyors from the Dept of Health found 39 deficiencies for Planned Parenthood of Mercer Areafor, among other things,  improper use of syringes and compounds, improper training and qualifications of staff on pain management and health care counseling (including abortion services), failure to have an infection control program in place, failure to have hot running water in facility, failure to require physical exam for staff and failure to test staff for rubella, and TB tests, improper use of and sterilization of medical instruments and devices, including a vaginal ultrasound and several other sanitary and safety violations involving patient care and many other administrative deficiencies.  This facility also provides “family planning services.”   (Obtained by NJRTL through OPRA. )

"It is unconscionable that these lawmakers want to force the hard working citizens of NJ to fund an organization that is so unworthy of our tax dollars.  This is an organization that proves time and again that they don't care about women, only their bottom line, and we should not be funding them with our tax dollars. Planned Parenthood is a private, non-profit organization that has the ability to raise their own funds. Any lawmaker who wants to support them is free to do so through their own bank account, but shouldn't be forcing the hard working citizens of NJ to fund them.  We plan to monitor this issue and keep NJ voters informed about this important matter that affects all NJ taxpayers, "said Tasy.

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Marie Tasy is the Executive Director of New Jersey Right to Life.

No surprise Kim Guadagno is down in the polls

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By Rev. Greg Quinlan

A recent Monmouth University poll reports that Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno is running 27-points behind Democrat Phil Murphy in the race to be New Jersey's next Governor.  The poll found 53% supporting Murphy and 26% for Guadagno.   Another 6% were planning to vote independent and 14% were undecided.

According to this poll, Murphy has the support of 87% of his party's "registered" voters.  Guadagno has the support of just 69% of Republicans. That is a nearly 20-point deficit.

Laying to one side the fact that establishment polls in New Jersey are often engineered to produce desired results, as in the recent poll from Rutgers-Eagleton on Planned Parenthood funding, it should surprise nobody that a pro-abortion, pro-LGBTQ, pro-RGGI energy tax Republican is turning-off those voters she needs to turn-out in high numbers.

For more on Rutgers' infamous Planned Parenthood poll scam, read:

https://www.jerseyconservative.org/blog/2017/6/29/rutgers-tried-to-spin-legislators-with-planned-parenthood-poll

For anyone whose top issues are funding Planned Parenthood, or funding LGBTQ lobbyists with a state license plate scheme, or funding politically-correct corporate cronies with the job-killing RGGI energy tax, then there is a perfectly fine party that suits your needs.  It is known as the Democratic (in name only) Party.

If, on the other hand, you support traditional values and oppose politically-correct schemes to kill businesses, jobs, and raise taxes, then you should be a Republican and it is the job of Republican Party leaders to present their party's platform in a way that wins that support.  It is not their job to deny their Party's platform or, even worse, to embrace planks of the Democratic Party platform.   If they can't think of a way to present their Party's platform in a reasonable and positive way or if they don't believe in their Party's platform, then they should not be leading the Republican Party. 

The message of the Republican Party, carried in successive party platforms, is a message of electoral success.  Carrying the message of the most conservative platforms in its history, Republicans expanded their congressional majorities, captured an overwhelming number of state houses and legislative chambers, and defeated Hillary Clinton.  

The Platform of the Republican Party is a living document that is debated and voted on every four years by democratically-elected delegates from across America.  If you want to change the Party's platform, that is the time to do it.  If a state party organization wants to "opt-out" then have the guts to stand up and say so at the national convention and then post what you actually stand for on your state party website.  Make sure that it is as detailed as the RNC Platform and point-by-point, plank-by-plank, make your support or objection known.  Then we will at least know who and what you are.

Instead, every four years, New Jersey Republicans elect delegates to the Republican National Convention who write and adopt a platform, only to watch as the state's Republican establishment willfully ignores it and even lies to those who support the Republican Party and what it stands for.  It is time for a little truth in advertising.

The same old lie that has prevented New Jersey Republicans from achieving success is starting to circulate again.  It's the one that claims Republicans can only win with so-called "moderates."  Of course, this ignores the fact that the only Republican to win statewide in the last twenty years ran as a pro-Life, pro-traditional marriage, pro-gun, anti-tax conservative (yes, he used the word... over and over again).  He defeated an incumbent Democratic Governor and was re-elected with over 60% of the vote.  It also ignores the fact that the Republican Governor before him defeated a Democratic incumbent by promising big tax cuts and that the last time Republicans captured the state Legislature was due to a combined backlash on tax hikes and social issues.

It isn't that the average registered Republican lacks the confidence to be a Republican.  It's that the average Republican leader is often too conflicted to be a practicing Republican.  Too many of our Republican leaders get their incomes from sources that are antithetical to the Party's platform.  How many Republican leaders did we see employed as lobbyists advocating same-sex marriage?  How many have lobbied on behalf of Leftists like George Soros?  How many are employed by local and county governments that are controlled by Democrats? 

Republicans could be the party of the new have-nots.  I mean the vast majority of voters who fall outside those 31 urban Abbott districts that absorb most of the state's education money and gives them the highest property taxes in America. This in spite of the fact that half the state's economically disadvantaged children live outside those districts, and that many of those districts have improved economically since the Great Recession, while rural and suburban districts have suffered.  It has become a case of the rural and suburban poor subsidizing an urban elite unwilling to pay to educate the children of their communities, but many Republican leaders remain trapped in a 1980's mentality, viewing places like Hoboken and Jersey City through an antique lens.

Republicans could be the party of real democracy.  With its unelected judiciary, unelected prosecutors, and a Legislature designed to be bullied by bosses, New Jersey is about the least democratic place in America.  That could change and Republicans could be the leaders of that change.  Why not give democracy and good government a chance?  It might just be the "game-changer" the NJGOP keeps looking for.

In embracing these big-picture, broad-based ideas, Republicans should never forget that the average LGBTQ voter will always tend more towards the Left than the Right, so that means the Democratic Party; while the average traditional values voter will always tend more Right than Left, so that means the Republican Party.  It makes no sense to depress and suppress those who want to vote for you, so that you can madly chase after those who have no interest at all in voting for you. 

According to the Monmouth poll Kim Guadagno has already turned off 31% of what should be her Republican vote, while failing to make any serious inroads into her opponents' base.  This is the "moderate" formula for crushing defeat.

Worry about your voters and turn them out, don't worry about their voters.  If someone is such an LGBTQ voter that no measure of reform or democracy or tax fairness interests them, then move on, don't pander.  Besides, with Democratic candidates like Phil Murphy to vote for, they'll be plenty depressed anyway. 

Nothing kills a Leftist's buzz more than having a rich corporate globalist playing a "progressive" in a vain attempt to make voters forget who he hurt as a Wall Streeter.  Get smart and tell your opponent's story so that his potential voters know what kind of dog the Democratic Party bosses expect them to vote for.  But don't pander.  You are looking to turn them off to him, not turn them on to you.

In closing, the French Canadians have a very appropriate motto that Republicans should adopt:  "Je me souviens."  It means, "I remember who I am." 

Rev. Greg Quinlan is President of the Center for Garden State Families.

Rutgers' tried to spin legislators with Planned Parenthood Poll

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Survey research is a wonderful tool for understanding what's on the mind of voters, but it can become a dangerous instrument of self-delusion if not conducted in a way that is an open-minded and honest search for facts.  Just ask Hillary Clinton.  Her polling experts assured her that there no way she could lose.  It was not "if" but "by how much."  Oh well, lesson learned... but apparently not by the leftist enclave that runs the Rutgers-Eagleton Poll.

Rutgers just produced a sales document, cleverly disguised as a piece of science-based survey research.   It reminds us a lot of that carefully crafted polling from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups that popped up after the 2012 presidential election that assured us that "the voters" were clamoring for immigration reform and that no Republican could hope for a future without climbing on board NOW!  Yep, climb aboard they did... Senator Marco Rubio read those polls and proceeded to screw his presidential ambitions, Governor Jeb Bush screwed any future he had in politics... one after another screwed themselves, aided and abetted by survey research with the imprimaturs of some of the nation's "most respected" academic and commercial polling firms.  And the cherry on top was the candidacy of Donald Trump -- who did exactly the opposite of what all those polls said to do.

On June 14, 2017, members of the New Jersey Legislature received a memo from Christine Sadovy, the Legislative and Political Director of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund of New Jersey:

From: Christine Sadovy [mailto:christine.sadovy@ppgnnj.org]
Sent: Wednesday, June 14, 2017 10:24 AM
Subject: 78% of NJ Voters Support State Family Planning Funding

Dear Legislator:

A new Rutgers-Eagleton poll shows that 78% of New Jersey voters support state funding for family planning services.  An overwhelming majority of Democrats (95%) and Independents (76%) support state family planning funding as well as 46% of Republicans. State funding for family planning provides low-income women and men with access to cancer screenings, birth control and STD testing and treatment. New Jersey women and families rely on Planned Parenthood for these services. 

The poll was conducted by Rutgers-Eagleton in conjunction with the NJ Health Care Quality Institute and follows a series of 20 separate nationwide polls that show strong favorability for Planned Parnethood. This latest poll shows what we already know: it’s time to restore funding for preventive reproductive health care services and override the Governor’s veto.

Respectfully,

Christine Sadovy

We all should understand by now that Planned Parenthood is no more synonymous with "women's health services" than is aspirin with "pain relief." Planned Parenthood is merely one provider, albeit one that seeks greater market share and indeed, monopoly, through the use of a marketing arm carefully disguised as a political action committee.  Planned Parenthood is no more a "cause" than are Ford automobiles.  Planned Parenthood lobbies for government funding to its corporation to strengthen its brand and use taxpayer money to improve its bottom line in the way that all corporate cronyism does.

For Rutgers to involve itself in such a scam is surprising.  Then again, it could be argued that Rutgers itself is involved in an on-going scam to extract more and more money from taxpayers -- often for projects of a dubious nature.

The Rutgers Poll was conducted May 18-23, 2017, and used samples from just 605 registered voters in New Jersey.  They used data provided by L2 for said sample.

The demographic breakdowns offered in the memorandum on the poll prepared by Rutgers is missing a great deal of important information.  When asked, in writing, for information that would assist in clarifying the poll's results, Rutgers was very reticent in cooperating and provided very little information at all.  It was a good thing that L2 is so transparent.

With information from L2, we could easily see a few red flags.  Take the age of the voters polled by Rutgers, for instance. 

18-29 years 17%

30-49 years 31%

50-64 years 31%

65+ years 21%

The data provided by L2 is markedly different (this is for all registered voters):

18-24 years 8%

25-34 years 16%

35-44 years 15%

45-59 years 29%

60+ years 32%

But the above data is for all registered voters, among those likely to vote, the numbers are skewed further towards older voters:

(for voters who made it to 2 of the last 4 elections)

18-24 years 3%

25-34 years 8%

35-44 years 11%

45-59 years 31%

60+ years 47%

(for voters who made it to 3 of the last 4 elections)

18-24 years 1%

25-34 years 5%

35-44 years 8%

45-59 years 29%

60+ years 56%

You get the picture.  Among those most likely to show up at the polls (4 of the last 4 elections) 69% are 60 years old or older.  If a campaign professional used a turnout model that over-sampled younger voters and under-sampled older voters the way the Rutgers poll does, he would be accused of having done crack cocaine.

Then there is the voter registration sample used:  Among the 605 registered voters overall, 42% identified as Democrats, 37% identified as Independents, and 20% identified Republicans.  Wow! 

This sort of thing has been written about, in depth, in a book called "Manufacturing Consent:  The Political Economy of the Mass Media."  We will let Wikipedia take it from here:

Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media (1988), by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky, proposes that the mass communication media of the U.S. "are effective and powerful ideological institutions that carry out a system-supportive propaganda function, by reliance on market forces, internalized assumptions, and self-censorship, and without overt coercion", by means of the propaganda model of communication.

We will be writing more on this later.

Gas-Tax Repeal Rally a No Show

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If the gas-tax repeal is Senator Tom Kean Jr.'s plan to save the endangered liberals in his caucus, it totally crapped the bed on Saturday when the kick-off rally to a series of rallies across the state was cancelled and a pro-Senator Steve Oroho rally popped up in its place.  The repeal is being pushed by "Red Shirt" movement leader Bill Spadea, cultural leftist Senator Kip Bateman, and the petroleum lobby. 

Slated for Newton Green on Saturday, October 22nd (11am-2pm), the rally was organized with support from the petroleum lobby by people claiming to represent the Tea Party and other groups.  The run-up to the rally benefitted from paid advertising and media coverage, including a front page story on the New Jersey Herald the day before.  Organizers claimed that the response had been huge and claimed to had lined up a dozen speakers -- including 5th District congressional candidate Michael J. Cino. 

Cino, has attacked conservative Congressman Scott Garrett and the Republican majority in Congress for its "traitorous" votes.  Cino runs a group known as the "Red Dogs" who are described as a sort of vanguard in the "rebellion against the establishment."  We don't know if there is a relationship between the "Red Shirts" and the "Red Dogs."

The morning of the rally was rainy and the forecast called for a light drizzle.  The rally was set expressly "rain or shine" but was canceled a couple hours before it was scheduled to begin "due to weather."

Having explicitly described the rally as "public" in its advertisements, gas-tax-repeal organizers became concerned when they heard that people who didn't agree with them were thinking of attending their public meeting.  The gas-tax repealers asked the police to intervene to "segregate" the rally.  The gas-tax-repeal camp was asked about the criteria they intended to use to "segregate" members of the public at a public rally.  They wouldn't provide a criteria.

A building trades union representing thousands of families in Northwest New Jersey stepped in and obtained  its own permit, which lay outside Newton Green.  But in the end, it wasn't necessary, because with Newton Green vacated by the gas-tax-repeal organizers of the advertised public rally, the people who they had attempted to keep out had the Green to themselves.    

So at 11am on Saturday morning -- instead of the gas-tax-repeal rally that was advertised -- 250 people showed up in support of the Tax Restructuring plan passed by the Legislature and signed into law by Governor Chris Christie.  They came to support conservative Republican Steve Oroho, who has been under attack by the Legislature's two most liberal Republicans -- Kip Bateman and Jennifer Beck -- and they came to combat the lies put out by the petroleum lobby that the 23-cent increase applies to home heating oil and baby ointment and polyester clothing.  All lies designed to frighten people and to inflame hatred and even violence.

The facts, as provided by the Office of Legislative Services, are that nothing new is taxed and that all the exemptions that were in place remain in place. This means the increase does not apply to home heating oil or baby ointment or polyester clothing.  In fact, the law now INCREASES the number of exempt products.  We will discuss these additional exemptions in detail in an upcoming column.

Saturday's crowd -- numbering more than 250 -- was made up largely of trade union members and their families, but many local Republicans turned out, including two Sussex County Freeholders and several local elected officials and GOP municipal leaders.  About a dozen Pro-Life activists were present as well as that many grassroots Second-Amendment campaigners.  About a half dozen people attended who were drawn by the newspaper coverage. 

Three speakers addressed the crowd.  Rev. Greg Quinlan of the Center for Garden State Families reminded those present that Senator Oroho is a leader in the fight to preserve traditional values in New Jersey and America.  He added that those who want to drive Senator Oroho out of office are followers of the two most culturally left-wing members of the GOP in the Legislature and that earlier this week the two had celebrated the deaths of millions of unborn children by honoring the racist memory of eugenicist Margaret Sanger and her Planned Parenthood organization. 

Economics professor Murray Sabrin explained how the gas tax is a user tax and that this is a moral form of taxation.  The gathering was reminded that President Ronald Reagan, the founder of the modern conservative movement, favored user taxes and used the gas tax to fund road and bridge construction in America.  Sabrin went on to remind the audience that those "Red Shirts" who are trying to make the gas tax the big issue of 2017 are doing so to deflect attention away from the real problem tax in New Jersey -- the property tax -- which is a driver of the state's highest in America foreclosure rate.  Those who say the gas tax is the problem do so to support the Abbott-system of spending the state revenue from income taxes.

Finally, a union leader from Sussex County reminded the rally that "this was supposed to be their (the petroleum lobby's) rally" and that they had been there to spread lies about the Tax Restructuring plan and hatred for Senator Oroho.  He went on to thank the working men and women present from Sussex, Warren, and Morris counties and the thousands of union families they represent who live, work, and vote in the 24th Legislative District.  He promised that they would be back again and again and again and again, door-to-door, to carry the message to EVERY household in the 24th District.

The event was topped off with two announcements:  First, that Franklin Mayor Nick Giordano, who had been moved to oppose Senator Oroho after listening to the propaganda of "Red Shirt" lies, had written a letter endorsing the Senator and the Tax Restructuring plan.  And second, that the Senator's youngest daughter had safely delivered a child.  Steve Oroho's new grandson.

 

Legislative Alert: Assisted Suicide and Planned Parenthood.

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By The Center for Garden State Families

LIFE
From conception to natural death
Please take a moment to read this critical information

Legalize Assist Suicide and Commemorate Racism by Celebrating Planned Parenthood. All this on Thursday, October 20. Brought to you by the NJ Democrat Party.

AR182 Commemorates the 100th anniversary Planned Parenthood’s founding.


To commemorate Planned Parenthood is to commemorate a racist: Margaret Sanger. Ms. Sanger was a bigot a self-proclaimed eugenist. Sanger is the founder of Planned Parenthood.

In her own words: Woman, Morality, and Birth Control. New York: New York Publishing Company, 1922. Page 12:

“We should hire three or four colored ministers, preferably with social-service backgrounds, and with engaging personalities.  The most successful educational approach to the Negro is through a religious appeal. We don’t want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population, and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members.”
 

Population control in Margaret Sanger’s own words:
“The most merciful thing that the large family does to one of its infant members is to kill it.”

Woman and the New Race, ch. 6:

“The Wickedness of Creating Large Families.” Here, Sanger argues that, because the conditions of large families tend to involve poverty and illness, it is better for everyone involved if a child’s life is snuffed out before he or she has a chance to pose difficulties to its family. [We should] apply a stern and rigid policy of sterilization and segregation to that grade of population whose progeny is tainted, or whose inheritance is such that objectionable traits may be transmitted to offspring.

“Plan for Peace” from Birth Control Review (April 1932, pg.107-108

Article 1. The purpose of the American Baby Code shall be to provide for a better distribution of babies… and to protect society against the propagation and increase of the unfit.
Article 4. No woman shall have the legal right to bear a child, and no man shall have the right to become a father, without a permit…
Article 6. No permit for parenthood shall be valid for more than one birth.
 

“America Needs a Code for Babies,” 27 Mar 1934

Give dysgenic groups [people with “bad genes”] in our population their choice of segregation or [compulsory] sterilization.

April 1932 Birth Control Review, pg. 108  

Birth control must lead ultimately to a cleaner race. 


The Center for Garden State Families has to ask:
Which race?

 
Below Margaret Sanger talks about those who are of less quality than others; i.e.; handicapped, mentally ill, chronically depressed, or with incurable illnesses being a burden on the more worthy of society.
 

  • Pivot of Civilization, 1922
    “Here, Margaret Sanger speaks on her eugenic philosophy – that only the types of “quality” people she and her peers viewed as worthy of life should be allowed to live. Such parents swell the pathetic ranks of the unemployed. Feeble-mindedness perpetuates itself from the ranks of those who are blandly indifferent to their racial responsibilities. And it is largely this type of humanity we are now drawing upon to populate our world for the generations to come. In this orgy of multiplying and replenishing the earth, this type is pari passu multiplying and perpetuating those direst evils in which we must, if civilization is to survive, extirpate by the very roots.”
  • The Need for Birth Control in America (quoted by Angela Franks.)
    “Women of the working class, especially wage workers, should not have more than two children at most. The average working man can support no more and the average working woman can take care of no more in decent fashion.”

 
AR182 brags about Planned Parenthoods alleged accomplishments and how they have achieved them. However it neglects to mention that it does so with an estimated $500 million dollars of federal monies in 2016. Your tax dollars. Nor do the elitists(those who think they are better than anyone else by reason of their intellect, education, family status or position) who introduced AR182 mention Planned Parenthoods direct involvement in procuring pre-born human body parts for money!

The real irrefutable ugly truth behind Planned Parenthood shows the disproportionate number of minorities this organization kills and how it sets up shop in poor neighborhoods. According to a report by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, in 2012, far more African American babies were killed by abortion—31,328—than were born—24,758.

Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that in New York City, 78 percent of the abortions in 2011 were to black and Hispanic children.

By the way, the redoubtable Rev. Walter Hoye of Oakland, California notes that abortion kills more black Americans in three days than the Klan killed under Jim Crow in 86 years. That is the real legacy of Margaret Sanger, and Planned Parenthood.

See more from our friends at http://www.blackgenocide.org/black.html

This is inexcusable. AR182 is a demonstration of hate! The Center for Garden State Families urges you to call and email each of the legislators on the list above. Simply ask why they support racism and bigotry by applauding Planned Parenthood.  Please don’t call names; just express the realities of supporting a vicious greedy enterprise which profits off fear, misinformation and by inflicting emotional suffering and the destruction of human life.

Sponsors of AR182 as follows:


Aid in Dying for the Terminally Ill Act. A2451 permits qualified terminally ill patient to self-administer medication to end life in humane and dignified manner.
 

The obsession with death continues in the New Jersey General Assembly.

THIS IS A PUBLIC SAFETY ISSUE

This is about you and your loved ones SAFETY!

A2451 is similar to the bill that failed to garner support in the last General Assembly. A2451 is sponsored by Asm. John Burzichelli.

A2451 is opposed by the NJ Medical Association and every pro-life pro-family organization.. 

A2451 allows the insurance companies to be involved in the suicide as a witness. The bill requires “self-administration” of the lethal cocktail. The witness requirements are not objective and bring suspicion as to who actually may have administered the suicide.

Persons with a financial interest in the termination of the individual can be witnesses. Pharmacists are mandated to dispense the poison. There is no provision in A2451 for conscientious objection. The Pharmacist is legally mandated to fill this prescription against his or her deeply held beliefs.  Medical definitions are too vague and too broad. Example of this is a person who has been diagnosed as “Pre-Diabetic” would be considered as “terminal” under this bill. Pre-Diabetic is generally reversible, it is ludicrous to deem a treatable condition as terminal. Depression is treatable, pain is manageable, fear can be changed to hope. Medical science has come too far to make Physician Assisted Suicide a prescribed treatment.

This bill is so controversial that the sponsor’s fellow Democrat colleague Dr. Herb Conaway, MD, would not give A2451 a hearing in the committee he chairs, the Assembly Health and Senior Services Committee. Notice the chronology of A2451 below; introduced then transferred to the sponsors committee which he is the chairman. 

2/4/2016 Introduced, Referred to Assembly Health and Senior Services Committee
9/29/2016 Transferred to Assembly Appropriations Committee

10/6/2016 Reported out of Assembly Appropriations Committee, 2nd Reading 

Introduced as primary sponsor:

Co-sponsor:

Please contact your two NJ General Assembly members to oppose this dangerous and lethal anti life legislation. Find your legislators here.

Pray that the Lord would soften hearts and to give those of us who are lobbying to stop A2451 favor with legislators.

Proverbs 21:1. The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will.

We are your voice in Trenton. We are your missionaries to government.

Please consider donating on our website.

“Righteousness exalts a nation but sin is a reproach to any people” Proverbs 14:34
 Visit us on the Web www.gardenstatefamilies.org

Or email us at info@gardenstatefamilies.org

Democrats Attempt Abortion Funding Again

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Published on behalf of the Center for Garden State Families

7.453 million in Family Planning monies will go to Planned Parenthood the nation’s largest abortion provider.

This maybe the seventh attempt to pass the unnecessary appropriation of taxpayer dollars since Gov. Christie took office. The state is in financial difficulty, The Transportation Trust Fund is bankrupt and the Democrats in the NJ Legislature focus on more money for killing babies. Subsidizing Planned Parenthood who already gets $500 million dollars from the federal government.

There are over 130 Federal Qualified Health Centers in NJ (click to see). FQHC actually support the women’s health services on site that the 26 NJ Planned Parenthood Clinics claim to provide. FQHC also provide their services based on ability to pay. FQHC also do not trade in human fetal tissue. A3492/S2277 is politically motivated and fiscally duplicitous.

At the end of testimony in the Senate Health Committee, Chairman Joseph Vitale gave his usual condescending lecture to NJ Right to Life, League of American Families and the Center for Garden State Families. He actually stated that not all Planned Parenthood clinics provide abortion services. Vitale is apparently unaware that to be an affiliated Planned Parenthood provider you must provide abortion services. It is part of their charter.

John Tomicki of the League of American Families stated in the Health Budget Committee “Children are our future, Stop Killing them.”

More abortion legislation is being voted on. A1963/S1017 “Provides Medicaid coverage for family planning services to individuals with incomes up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level.” Again clearly politically motivated and repetitive funding for services that taxpayers already subsidize.

Contact your State Senator and State Assemblyperson at the link below and simply ask that they vote no on A1963/S1017 and A3492/S2277

Visit us on the Web www.gardenstatefamilies.org

Or email us at info@gardenstatefamilies.org

Contact your State Assemblyperson Here

Sen. Beck votes for Planned Parenthood

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At the State House on Thursday, liberal Republican State Senator Jennifer Beck voted for every piece of legislation she could to help assist Planned Parenthood, the number one provider of abortions in America.  In its 2014 Annual Report, Planned Parenthood bragged that it had performed 324,000 abortions that year.  It's annual revenue is $1.3 billion -- with at least $530 million of that coming from government funding.

S-1017 expands Planned Parenthood's government subsidized services to a greater portion of the population -- in this case "individuals with incomes up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level." 

Led by Senator Steve Oroho (R-Sussex, Warren, Morris), most Republicans opposed the bill.  Senator Jennifer Beck (R-Monmouth) was the only Republican to support the bill.

S-2277 spends more of your tax dollars on a "FY 2016 supplemental appropriation to the Department of Health for $7,453,000 for family planning services."  That's $7.4 Million in extra spending. 

Again, led by Senator Oroho, every Republican opposed the bill -- except for Senator Jennifer Beck.  She voted for it.

One of those looking on while Senator Beck did this was Americans for Prosperity (AFP) Communications Director Mike Proto.  Mike himself is Pro-Life and must have been embarrassed by AFP's support of Senator Beck.

NJ 101.5 impresario Bill Spadea ran for Congress as a Pro-Life candidate.  We wonder if he will ask Senator Beck about her votes when he next has her on his talk radio show.

State Senator Mike Doherty is a Beck cheer-leader.  Doherty also claims to be Pro-Life.  Perhaps Doherty can convince Senator Beck to stop spending money to support the nation's number one abortion provider.  That is a cost savings that can definitely be made.

 

The GOP donor class vs. working-class Republicans

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Two stories from this month's The Week illustrate the battle brewing within the Republican Party between its numerically tiny donor class and the much larger voting block for whom good jobs and traditional values matter.  The battle has its roots in the 1980 presidential election when the GOP, with a ticket led by Ronald Reagan, made a deal to get the votes of social conservatives and the working class (those Reagan Democrats we heard so much about).  The deal went like this:  Give us your votes and we will maintain the traditional values of society and work that make for a genuine safety net. 

Now it's a generation later and the rich who fund the GOP have never had it so good.  But instead of keeping their deal, they used their new profits to undermine traditional values -- supporting groups like Planned Parenthood and underwriting campaigns to overturn traditional marriage.  Economically, they have lied and lied again about doing anything on illegal immigration, because it helps to force down the price of labor and they want cheap labor.  They don't mind that the family wage has been replaced by the two-income necessity.  They look on American workers as a commodity -- not as citizens who have a share in the governance of the nation.  They shout them down with campaign cash, while exporting their jobs overseas -- screwing the very people they count on to wear a uniform and defend them, just to make a fast buck.

To add insult to these injuries, many Chamber of Commerce Republicans have made the ultimate fashion statement and have crossed over to the Democrats, whose donor class is now at least as rich and insulated as the GOP's.   Social conservatives and the working class are beginning to understand that they got screwed on the deal.  What's next is anyone's guess, but don't be surprised if their opposition to things like a millionaires' tax turns to support -- and why would they support a gas tax hike on commuting workers just to please a Chamber of Commerce that consistently screws them?

By-the-way, is there a Republican politician anywhere in America who can hope to win an election without support from social conservatives and the working class?  Without the muscles of this electorate, the GOP -- for all its money -- really is just a numerically weak and tiny group. 

We spoke with a conservative activist who made this prediction:  "Over the next few years, every state party is going to have a fight between its rich, wannabe cosmopolitan Whigs and the blue-collar traditionalists who count for a big hunk of the Republican Party's electoral base.  It will come down to how you take your coffee.  The always fashion-conscious Whigs hang at expensive coffee houses and some have even adopted the cult of the coffee enema.  The traditionalists, we like average joe and we'll continue to sip ours, thank you very much." 

Both columns are the work of journalist Michael Brendan Doherty of the U.S. edition of The Week news magazine.  So here is his take on the showdown brewing between the patricians and the plebs:

The conservative movement has a lot of ideas for improving the life of a typical coke-sniffer in Westport, Connecticut. Let's call that man Jeffrey.

The movement wants to lower Jeffrey's capital gains taxes. It also wants to lower corporate taxation, which intersects with his interests at several points. It wants to free up dollars marked for Social Security so they can be handed, temporarily, to Jeffrey's fund-manager in-law, who works in nearby Darien. The movement has sometimes proposed giving Jeffrey a voucher to offset some of the cost of sending his daughter to school at Simon's Rock. If his household income falls below $400,000, Marco Rubio would give him a generous tax credit for each of his offspring. The movement also constantly hectors universities and media outlets to consider ideological diversity. Jeffrey reads these agitations and thinks of his libertarian-leaning daughter.

And, if Jeffrey gives some money to conservative causes, figures in the movement will at least pretend to cheerfully listen to him as he says that the problem with Republicans is all these religious wackos and their pro-life nonsense. That stuff bothers his daughter. Privately, many of them would like to take Jeffrey's advice.

The conservative movement has next to zero ideas for improving the life of the typical opioid dependent who lives in Garbutt, New York, outside of Rochester. Let's call him Mike.

Maybe they will make a child tax credit refundable against payroll taxes for Mike. He could get a voucher for a private school, but there aren't many around and he can't make up the difference in tuition costs anyway. In truth, the conservative movement has more ideas for making Mike's life more desperate, like cutting off the Social Security Disability check he's been shamefacedly receiving. It's fibromyalgia fraud, probably. Movement spokesmen might consent to a relaxation of laws against gambling near Mike's congressional district, so that Mike can get a job dealing at a blackjack table. More likely Mike ends up on the wrong side of the table, losing a portion of the SSD check to Sheldon Adelson. Finally, the movement's favorite presidential candidate would like to put American armed forces ahead of a Sunni army outside of Homs, Syria, to fight Bashar al-Assad, ISIS, and al Nusra simultaneously. Russia too, if they don't respect a no-fly zone. Mike's daughter will be among the first round of American women to get a draft card. Mike reads this news and thinks, "Your momma wears combat boots" used to be an insult.

If the conservative movement has any advice for Mike, it's to move out of Garbutt and maybe "learn computers." Any investments he made in himself previously are for naught. People rooted in their hometowns? That sentimentalism is for effete readers of Edmund Burke. Join the hyper-mobile world.

Continue reading:  http://theweek.com/articles/603701/how-conservative-elites-disdain-workingclass-republicans

And for the second column:

I recently suggested that the Republican Party, and the conservative movement, offer next to nothing to working-class Trump supporters. There are no obvious conservative policies that will generate the sort of growth needed to raise the standard of living for these working-class voters. Instead, the GOP's Powers That Be make a great show of obedience and deference to the center-right donor class, even when that donor class' preferred policies — endless war, unlimited immigration, and slashing tax burdens on the wealthy — have almost no relation to conservative ideas or even popular opinion.

Continue reading:  http://theweek.com/articles/605312/conservatives-have-failed-donald-trumps-supporters

Sen. Weinberg silent on rape threat

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Senator Loretta Weinberg (D-Corzine) has a history of trying to shame New Jersey Republicans for not speaking out about the antics of some of their allies on the national scene.  Turnabout is fair play.

A story developed over the last week or so that illustrates how different the pro-choice (abortion, not schools) and feminist movements have become.  Much of the pro-choice (abortion, not schools) movement has devolved into a sort of grassroots lobby for the abortion industry's corporate monopoly, Planned Parenthood.   That Planned Parenthood has also attempted to corner the market on the delivery of women's reproductive health care and family planning services is a measure of both its corporate marketing and political lobbying prowess.  Ford Motor can only dream of having customers as devoted as those of Planned Parenthood.  And every independent provider forced out means more government income -- topped off by client fees -- for Planned Parenthood's nascent monopoly. 

When a male university staff member threatened to rape pro-life women in a public exchange on Twitter, we had expected to see people like Senator Weinberg call him out.  Not only was the staff member explicit as to the age of the women he was considering raping ("wife/daughter/great grandmother") he implied that he charges (clients?) to rape women.  The staff member, let's call him Mr. Yum Yum, makes it sound like he once worked for a Serbian paramilitary organization.

Below is a rather disturbing photo of Mr. Yum Yum, taken from social media and posted by several mainstream media sources.  You wouldn't want to appear in an ad with this guy, would you Senator?

We were surprised when we didn't hear anything from Senator Weinberg.  Is she down with the tactics of Mr. Yum Yum?  Well, let's ask her.

Dear Senator Weinberg, please let us know how you feel about the tactics of this university staff member and ideological fellow-traveler.  We will be happy to publish your response.

We will be following up on this, and we certainly urge the Senator to take our offer.  We understand that she already has a primary opponent in the wings who has begun working the 30 percent or so of her adult population who attend weekly religious services.  So get your response in to us asap.

Sen. Weinberg and euphemism

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They are not exactly lies, but they do attempt to obscure the truth.

eu·phe·mism

ˈyo͞ofəˌmizəm/noun

noun: euphemism; plural noun: euphemisms

a mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant or embarrassing.

Commenting on yesterday's budget address by Governor Chris Christie, the always ideologically pedantic Weinberg had little to say of substance but did commend the Governor for his use of the term "reproductive services."  We don't know exactly what the Governor meant when he used the term, but the way it is used by groups like Planned Parenthood -- a group Senator Weinberg has championed -- is unambiguous.  To Planned Parenthood the term means the "right to choose safe, legal abortion at a reasonable cost, in a supportive and confidential setting."  To people who share the worldview of Loretta Weinberg, "reproductive services" is a euphemism for abortion.

Politicians and the governments they make employ euphemism when they seek to hide some or all of the truth.  "Reproductive services" sounds much nicer than "abortion" or "killing" or "terminating a pregnancy."  Because whatever abortion is, we can all agree that it ends something.  It ends a human story that, if allowed to go uninterrupted, would have become a story much like ours, with all our complexity.  Except that now it won't happen, so we won't get to know, and the he or she that could have been will not be.  And if you believe John Donne (or Ernest Hemingway) we will be the lesser for it.

Thinking about an ideology's use of euphemism reminded us of a sort of documentary film the BBC produced a few years back.  It should be required viewing for all high school students -- and again for all lawyers, bureaucrats, and academics in training.  It says something about the use of language and especially, about euphemism.

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.  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.

In this scene from the film, we watch as the word "evacuation" is assigned a new meaning.

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. 

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