Republican Assembly Leader takes on cop-killers

The “new” Democrats have gone nuts… they’re sounding more and more like those crazy, Soviet-era, New Age socialists from the 1970’s.  Forget pragmatic “centrists” like Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, Democrat millennials have embraced their grandparents’ politics… it’s like Jim Jones all over again. 

Remember Rev. Jim Jones?  He was the woke, hip, socialist, New Age, Pro-Green, Pro-Ass, spiritual/political leader so near and dear to the Democrat Party of the 1970’s.  Jones even campaigned with First Lady Rosalynn Carter and was appointed to high office by the liberal Democrat Mayor of San Francisco…

Of course, Jones and his “People’s Temple” ended very badly.  But make no mistake about it, Jim Jones was the original Social Justice Warrior…

We’ve been thinking a lot about this, in light of the so-called “People’s Summit”, a gathering in Washington, DC, that opened with remarks from an officer of the NAACP who led the crowd in a chant that honored a convicted cop-killer.  Now once-upon-a-time, the NAACP was a respected, mainstream civil rights organization, but apparently they’ve gone off the deep end too… or at least one of their officers has.  Here’s the story as it was reported:

As the event began on Monday, there were a series of opening remarks from participants and organizations, and Jamal Watkins of the NAACP led the crowd in a chant.

“It is our duty to fight for our freedom.
It is our duty to win.
We must love each other and support each other.
We have nothing to lose but our chains.”

These possibly familiar words are from convicted cop-killer Assata Shakur (aka Joanne Chesimard). In this famous quote, Shakur is herself referencing Karl Marx, who famously wrote “Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communistic revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win.”

The event’s organizers and sponsors include Planned Parenthood, the SEIU, the Sierra Club, and CPD Action, part of the Center for Popular Democracy, the community organizing group that effectively replace ACORN.

Former Black Panther and Black Liberation Army member Shakur was convicted in the murder of a New Jersey state trooper. She escaped and fled to Cuba where she was granted asylum. In 2013, the FBI under President Barack Obama named Shakur to the Most Wanted Terrorists list, the first woman to ever make the list.

Shakur’s words are often recited at protests, including Black Lives Matter marches and the 2018 “March for Our Lives.”

The Women’s March under the leadership of Linda Sarsour faced controversy in 2017 for celebrating Shakur’s birthday in a tweet.

Eventually the organization was forced to make a statement, saying in a series of tweets that the “Women’s March is a nonviolent movement. We have never and will never use violence to achieve our goals” and that Shakur’s “resistance tactics were different from ours. That does not mean that we do not respect her anti-sexism work.”

Shakur “took a militant approach,” the organization tweeted. “We do not. That does not mean we don’t respect and appreciate her anti-racism work.”

As reported on Matt Rooney’s Save Jersey website, New Jersey State Police Colonel Patrick Callahan stepped up in defense of his murdered compatriot:

“It is an affront to every man and woman who wears the badge that someone would choose to evoke the words of a convicted cop killer and fugitive from justice at a political conference,” said Callahan. “The men and women of the New Jersey State Police will never forget the sacrifice made by Trooper Werner Foerster on May 2, 1973 nor will we forget that the person convicted of his murder remains a fugitive for nearly 40 years. We will remain steadfast, both in the pursuit of Joanne Chesimard and in the preservation of the memory of Trooper Werner Foerster, Badge #2608.”

And Assembly Republican Leader Jon Bramnick launched his own broadside at Democrats who want to make a hero out of a cop-killer:

This year there are a bunch of woke Democrats – all long on emotional rhetoric, with solutions that reek of socialist banality.  All A.O.C. wannabees running for Assembly… like Darcy Draeger and Lisa Bhimani in LD25, Deana Lykins in LD24, Stacey Gunderman and Lisa Mandelblatt in LD21, and Laura Fortgang in LD26.   

Assembly Republicans – led by Jon Bramnick – are standing against their tragic emotional appeals that have failed so horribly in the past.  It is imperative for conservatives to stand with the Republican Leader in this effort.  Jon Bramnick, whose very platform is “reason” – whose watchwords are probity and human decency – must defeat this emotional onslaught from a terrible past. 

Think the People’s Temple can’t happen again?

Think the emotions expressed at the People’s Summit were a fluke? 

The emotion-driven contagion of socialism stalks our nation again.  Rational Americans of all political parties must join together to drive it back into the past, where is should remain as a nightmare remembered. 

Crazy “new” Democrats honor cop-killer at summit

The post-2016 “new” Democrats who got involved in politics after Donald Trump was elected President keep surprising us with just how nuts they really are.  And there is a fey, lack-of-recognition in their own craziness – like a guest who shows up at dinner with a bag of their own excrement… and thinks nothing wrong in doing so. 

On Monday, eight Democrat candidates who are running for President of the United States of America – and countless other Democrat candidates at all levels of government – showed up for a summit in Washington, DC, that opened with remarks from an officer in the NAACP who led them in a chant that honored a convicted cop-killer.  Now once-upon-a-time, the NAACP was a respected, mainstream civil rights organization, but apparently they’ve gone off the deep end too… or at least one of their officers has.  Here’s the story as it was reported:

Top 2020 Democrat candidates are taking the stage this week at the 2019 ‘We The People Summit’ in Washington, DC. As the event began on Monday, there were a series of opening remarks from participants and organizations, and Jamal Watkins of the NAACP led the crowd in a chant. 

“It is our duty to fight for our freedom.
It is our duty to win.
We must love each other and support each other.
We have nothing to lose but our chains.” 

These possibly familiar words are from convicted cop-killer Assata Shakur (aka Joanne Chesimard). In this famous quote, Shakur is herself referencing Karl Marx, who famously wrote “Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communistic revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win.”

The event’s organizers and sponsors include Planned Parenthood, the SEIU, the Sierra Club, and CPD Action, part of the Center for Popular Democracy, the community organizing group that effectively replace ACORN.

Former Black Panther and Black Liberation Army member Shakur was convicted in the murder of a New Jersey state trooper. She escaped and fled to Cuba where she was granted asylum. In 2013, the FBI under President Barack Obama named Shakur to the Most Wanted Terrorists list, the first woman to ever make the list.

Shakur’s words are often recited at protests, including Black Lives Matter marches and the 2018 “March for Our Lives.”

The Women’s March under the leadership of Linda Sarsour faced controversy in 2017 for celebrating Shakur’s birthday in a tweet.

Eventually the organization was forced to make a statement, saying in a series of tweets that the “Women’s March is a nonviolent movement. We have never and will never use violence to achieve our goals” and that Shakur’s “resistance tactics were different from ours. That does not mean that we do not respect her anti-sexism work.”

Shakur “took a militant approach,” the organization tweeted. “We do not. That does not mean we don’t respect and appreciate her anti-racism work.”

The #Resistance continues to quote Shakur’s words, and did so today on the stage at the event where most of the declared 2020 Democrat candidates are speaking, including Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey (where the State Trooper was murdered), former HUD Secretary Julián Castro, Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke, Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT), Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Governor Jay Inslee (D-WA), and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY).

Will any of them offer a similar disclaimer?

As reported yesterday on Matt Rooney’s Save Jersey website, New Jersey State Police Colonel Patrick Callahan stepped up in defense of his murdered compatriot:

“It is an affront to every man and woman who wears the badge that someone would chose to evoke the words of a convicted cop killer and fugitive from justice at a political conference,” said Callahan. “The men and women of the New Jersey State Police will never forget the sacrifice made by Trooper Werner Foerster on May 2, 1973 nor will we forget that the person convicted of his murder remains a fugitive for nearly 40 years. We will remain steadfast, both in the pursuit of Joanne Chesimard and in the preservation of the memory of Trooper Werner Foerster, Badge #2608.”

Assembly Republican Leader Jon Bramnick launched his own broadside at the “new” Democrats:

On Saturday, Governor Phil Murphy was up in Sussex County to promote the candidacy of two Democrats who are running for the Assembly, Deana Lykins and Dan S. Smith.  Lykins, is an insurance industry lobbyist, and Smith, the city attorney of Orange (Essex County), was also an officer in the NAACP – just like the “new” Democrat who led the Marxist cop-killer’s chant on Monday. 

We wonder if Mr. Smith has anything to say about this sorry incident???

Suleiman didn’t learn the lesson of Charlie Hebdo?

All public figures must suffer the slings and arrows of humor.  Whether a politician or a celebrity… comedy adds a measure of humility into the lives of those proud souls who consider themselves to be “the great and the good.”

But some folks don’t take too well to humor – especially when it is directed at them or those they feel a kindred nature with.  They seek to restrain or codify free expression, and in doing so they kill the very nature of comedy itself.

 Imagine what would happen if the Federal Elections Commission took comedy seriously and began requiring Saturday Night Live or Jimmy Kimmel to count their comedy routines as corporate-sponsored paid political advertisements?  What would become of the humor once it was codified and restrained in such a way?

Earlier today, a political figure – the top Democrat Party official in Atlantic County – asked a small, local newspaper to take punitive action against a journalist for engaging in the high crime of humor.  In this case, the journalist made a joke at the expense of United States Senator Elizabeth Warren, about something that she choose to focus the world’s attention on… namely, her self-identification as a native American or, in the parlance that she was brought up with, an “American Indian”. 

Yes, yes, we all now have endlessly heard that “American Indian” is somehow “incorrect”, but it is a matter of historical perspective isn’t it?  The same way that “British” somehow became the correct form over “English” and an American is a “Yank” in Britain, even if he’s from Alabama, and someone of Italian-ancestry is an “Englishman” to an Amishman, simply because he doesn’t speak Pennsylvania Dutch.  Understanding takes away the offense (unless one is seeking to be offended). 

So this journalist (and the United States Supreme Court has given wide leave as to who can be called a “journalist”) made a joke aimed at Senator Warren, who earlier had announced her intention to run for President of the United States in 2020.  And this prominent Democrat politician – Michael Suleiman – responded, not with his own joke, but with a call for brutal repression.  How uncool.

We’ve seen this before.  In Europe. 

On February 9, 2006, the French-language humor magazine Charlie Hebdo published an article titled “Muhammad overwhelmed by fundamentalists” in which it added its own cartoons and reprinted twelve cartoons previously published by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten.  In response, the top politician in France – President Jacques Chirac – condemned the journalists for their “overt provocations”.  The politician argued against Freedom of Expression, saying:  “Anything that can hurt the convictions of someone else, in particular religious convictions, should be avoided.”  It should be noted that Monsieur Le President comes out of the notably authoritarian traditions of bureaucratic France.

The Grand Mosque of Paris, the Muslim World League, and the Union of French Islamic Organizations condemned the humor as “racist”.  It should be noted that Charlie Hebdo (Hebdo is French for “weekly”) is a decidedly Leftist publication and that its humor is more generally aimed at the National Front and Catholicism.  It describes itself as “secular, skeptic, atheist, far-left-wing, and anti-racist.”  But it does believe in comedy and in the right to Free Expression – and, as a result, it got into trouble with the political thought police.

What happened to Charlie Hebdo is an important reminder of what happens when you can’t take a joke and escalate humor into something it’s not.  Some offended parties brought a legal action against the publication, with the publisher memorably stating:  “It is racist to imagine that they can’t understand a joke.”

When the legal action was tossed out, the anti-comedy crowd took it further, they firebombed the offices of Charlie Hebdo and hacked its website.  But Charlie Hebdo, true to its traditions of free expression, refused calls for “self-censorship” and went on its merry way. 

Then… on January 7, 2015… two terrorists who clearly had no sense of humor, two determined repressors of comedy, forced their way into the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo and proceeded to murder journalists, cartoonists, editors, and staff – plus two police officers – twelve dead in all and eleven wounded.  It was an act of terror justified by the offense taken at a joke. 

America today is at a crossroads.  Do we use humor to combat humor… or do we oppress it every time someone is offended?  The latter equals the end of humor, for as all great comedians have recognized, the core of humor is transgressive – somebody is going to be pissed off.   

This is why what this politician – Michael Suleiman – has done is so dangerous.  By asking the newspaper publisher to take punitive action against a journalist for publishing a joke, he has placed himself with those who are at war with comedy and free expression.  If you want to “get back” at a joke you don’t like, undo it with a better joke of your own, don’t seek to harm those engaged in the free expression of humor. 

We hope Democrat Chairman Suleiman will withdraw his silly complaint.

Malinowski and Kim embrace the dangerous Left

There’s a group called BlueWave.  It comes out of one of the most radical places in America… Amherst, Massachusetts… a far-left academic enclave where they fly the flag of the United Nations over their town hall.  Yep, they are “citizens of the world” not the United States of America.

In New Jersey, BlueWave is organized out of Montclair in Essex County.  That’s right, Montclair – a town that gave Barack Obama 83 percent of its votes.  Where Hillary Clinton got 18,000 votes to Donald Trump’s 2,300.  Does this sound like your town?

The deal with BlueWave is that they send people from places like Montclair – into communities like yours.  They go door-to-door and raise money to bring their vision of how the world should be to you… and you better accept it!

Now BlueWave is raising money for Tom Malinowski and Andy Kim – two career bureaucrats who were so imbued with leftist “government-knows-best” ideology that rather than give the newly elected President the benefit-of-the-doubt, they quit government to join Leftist groups to undermine his administration.  Wow, refusing to accept the outcome of a democratic election, and then working to undermine the government you work for, is kind of like…

Well, tonight BlueWave is hosting an event for Malinowski and Kim – two bureaucrats whose tenure in government so screwed the American people that they reacted by electing Donald Trump.  And to place an exclamation point on just how dangerously far-Left they are, they’ve invited in Senator Elizabeth Warren… who represents Amherst, Massachusetts. 

Senator Warren is an academic and the sponsor or supporter of a number of far-Left initiatives that obviously Tom Malinowski and Andy Kim stand for as well.  These include…

1.     Warren, Malinowski, and Kim stands for the abolition of ICE;

2.     Warren, Malinowski, and Kim stands for higher taxes;

3.     Warren, Malinowski, and Kim stands for government, run single-payer healthcare;

4.     Warren, Malinowski, and Kim stands for extreme partisanship;

5.     Warren, Malinowski, and Kim stands for increased job-killing regulations;

6.     Warren, Malinowski, and Kim stands against Israel;

7.     Warren, Malinowski, and Kim stands against free trade.

Obama + transgender = Rule by decree

Rule by decree is a style of governance allowing quick, unchallenged creation of law by a single person or group, and is used primarily by dictators and absolute monarchs.  Rule by decree allows the ruler to arbitrarily create law, without approval by a legislative assembly.

When states of emergency such as martial law are in place, rule by decree is common. While rule by decree is easily susceptible to the whims and corruption of the person in power, it is also highly efficient: a law can take weeks or months to pass in a legislature, but can be created with the stroke of a pen by a leader ruling by decree. This is what makes it valuable in emergency situations. Thus, it is allowed by many constitutions, among which is the French Constitution, Argentine Constitution, Indian Constitution, etc. U.S. presidential executive orders share some similarities with rule by decree.  (From Wikipedia)

Ask yourselves this:  Is the need to allow someone who identifies as a woman -- but who has a penis -- into toilets, showers, and changing facilities with women and girls a NATIONAL EMERGENCY ? 

Or is it a whim?

No matter where you stand on the issue, this is not who we are.  This is not the way a democracy sets its rules. 

When Attorney General Loretta Lynch threatens school boards, teachers, parents, and school children with federal lawsuits and the withholding of their tax dollars if they fail to comply with this presidential decree, remember that this is the same Ms. Lynch who refused to meet with whistleblowers when she was the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.  At great risk to their careers and personal well-being, these whistleblowers came forward to report that HSBC Bank was laundering money for drug cartels. 

That's right.  HSBC Bank was laundering money for those nice people who have flooded our communities with heroin -- while they murder and torture victims in the nations from where they operate.  Yes, these are the same people who hang the naked, decapitated bodies of their victims from overpasses in Mexico and South America.  

Did Ms. Lynch go after HSBC Bank when she was U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York?  Well, let's hear from the United States Senator from Massachusetts, Elizabeth Warren, to know the kind of public official Ms. Lynch is:

Jack can't find a Dem to dump on?

Here's the problem.  New Jersey is a mess.  It is about the worst place to do business in the country.  It's bad on job creation, has high unemployment and under-employment.  It's the state with the highest property taxes in America and one of the top foreclosure rates.  It has a tax regime that literally breaks up families -- while delivering record levels of child poverty.  The state can't pay its bills, can't make good on its promises, and Trenton Democrats' only answer is higher taxes on the poor, working, and middle classes -- while urban Democrat machines lavish tax breaks on the rich.  The Democrats run the show and have done so for more than a decade.  If you want to take a dump on someone, it is a target rich environment.

So why would a Republican dump on a Republican running for President?  And why would anyone go about it in so tone deaf a way?

Most Americans are a lot less fortunate than Jack Ciattarelli.  Jack works hard and has done well for himself.  But many, many Americans work hard and struggle to keep from falling behind.  They have been living through a long grey economy and an endless war.  And what do they have to look forward to?  Economists predict a worsening economy in 2016 and that endless war is moving from places like Iraq and Syria, to towns in Texas, Tennessee, and California.  Those Americans not cocooned by wealth are lost in anguish.

Few who enjoy the privileges of the political class understand the mood of this country.  The parties, pundits, lobbyists, consultants, and all the rest who make up our political class appear utterly at sea to explain "the Trump phenomenon."  But it is not just Trump.  Witness the support Senator Bernie Sanders has gained through giving voice to his plainly Marxist prescriptions.  Senator Elizabeth Warren too understands this moment better than most -- as do activists like Ralph Nader and writers like Chris Hedges.  It is the moment when many, many people have simply given up on the political class, stopped listening, and have started to look elsewhere for ideas.  The center is being evacuated.

Poll after poll most clearly shows that Donald Trump is not out-of-step with the American people.  While the political class -- here in America and overseas in Europe -- excoriated his latest comments on a temporary ban on Muslim immigration, a plurality of Americans (46% to 40%) agreed with him, including a majority of Republicans (66% to 24%).  For better or for worse, many average American voters are using the candidacy of Donald Trump as the unlikely vessel into which they are pouring their anguish.  Politicians, particularly well-to-do ones, are not going to make a good impression on them by pissing into that vessel. 

If you wish to lead, first acknowledge their anguish.  Identify with it and enunciate those issues that have them concerned.  Don't dismiss or gloss over anything.  In a mature Republic like ours we should be able to address anything, to discuss... anything.  Regain trust by action.  Identify problems, solutions, and be clear about how tough the road will be.  Do not mislead by promises and generalities. 

Earlier today MyCentralJersey.com posted a statement by Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli (R-16).  In it, Assemblyman Ciattarelli "condemned" Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump.  Here is the full statement:

At the state and federal level, government’s inability to truly solve our most pressing problems is cause for disgust, anger and disenfranchisement amongst a great many citizens. The end result is strong desire for something that strongly opposes the political establishment, making it the perfect time for a serious and formidable challenge to the status quo. Unfortunately, times such as these are also ripe for the ascension of polarizing opportunists.

Enter Donald Trump.

Instead of providing the kind of leadership that appeals to the better angels of our nature in calling us to meaningful and just action, Mr. Trump preys upon our worst instincts and fears.  In addressing important issues, he is a charlatan who is out of step with American values.  He is a celebrity in his own political reality TV show.  He is a Republican who is out of step with the Party of Lincoln– “We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope on earth.”

Sitting silently and allowing him to embarrass our country is unacceptable. He is not fit to be President of the United States.

We are struck by the Assemblyman's use of the phrase "the Party of Lincoln."  Did President Lincoln appeal to "the better angels of our nature" when he suspended civil rights?  Was the pursuit of war over civil negotiation a "better angel"? Was total war -- economic war -- waged against a civilian population who he maintained were American citizens, was this a "better angel"?  Was the order to burn civilian dwellings, destroy infrastructure, appropriate food, and to instigate rape, murder, and starvation part of "the better angels of our nature"? 

In the pursuit of what he believed to be right, President Lincoln was willing to see the death of more than two percent of the American population -- 620,000 men.  Another two percent were maimed -- missing arms, legs, parts of faces -- and another five percent made homeless.  President Lincoln was content to visit this suffering on his own people -- on fellow Americans. 

What Donald Trump has proposed is a mere inconvenience in comparison, similar to the temporary ban President Jimmy Carter imposed on visas from Iran in 1980.  Even President Obama has used sterner measures -- like the extra-judicial killing of American citizens using drone strikes. 

Being killed without a trial is a lot more permanent than a temporary ban on travel.  And even if you carry a Muslim name, doesn't every American citizen deserve a trial?  We look forward to something from the honorable gentleman calling into question the Obama (D) administration's use of non-judicial capital punishment.

Below is a video of another issue that the honorable gentleman might want to take up: