"Others Pledge" a lesson in Virtue Signaling

Man's inhumanity to man is with us always.  It begins when you take individual human beings and place them into boxes, and then slap labels onto those boxes, by which it is made easier to hate them.

People should be engaged on-the-level, one at a time.  No box, no label, should confer a special grace or sin on any individual person.  Take any box into which you have thrown a group of people, apply any label to it, and within you will find both saints and sinners.

It is the relentless process of commercial marketing that has placed individuals into boxes, given them labels, the better to sell them products and ideas.  And once assigned a label, once placed into a box and provided with a list of "attributes" those in the box should conform to -- many do conform, buy the "right" things, think the "right" thoughts.  So the process is validated, reinforced, and perpetuated.

Our political process dismisses the individual in favor of boxes and labels.  Instead of an on-the-level, personal appeal, the political class employs appeals to labels, assuming that everyone within the box so labeled will conform to the behaviors assigned to them.  We have just been through a presidential election where these assumptions did not run to plan.

Instead of thinking about it, Senator Ray Lesniak and some of his Senate colleagues appear to be doubling-down.  Lesniak has come up with something called "The Pledge to Stand Up for the Other."  The idea behind this pledge is that we all inhabit boxes in which we interact exclusively with "people like us."

The pledge states:  "While interacting with members of my own (box) faith, ethnic, or gender community, or with others, if I hear hateful comments from anyone about members of any other community, I pledge to stand up for the other and challenge bigotry in any form."

Now take Ray Lesniak for instance.  He was raised Roman Catholic and told the New York Times some years back that he was an "evangelical Christian," and yet his voting record doesn't really fit the box that most would place him in.  For Ray Lesniak, as well as for the rest of us, the artificial boxes of faith, ethnicity, and "gender community" have less meaning than do those differences of ideas.

Lesniak is being too easy on himself and allowing a loophole to hate Trump supporters while admonishing his fellow Evangelicals to embrace same-sex marriage.

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

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

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

Finally, who is this Ray Lesniak to even suggest such a pledge?  Has he lived his life as a model to others?  He most certainly has not.  Time and time again, he has adopted the morals of the legal profession, wantonly confusing "legal" with "ethical."  As Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey chapter of the Sierra Club, told the New York Times:  "He (Lesniak) was really the first legislator to put all three together -- power, politics and pay-to-play."

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

The pledge reminds us of a line from that 1960's anthem by Barry McGuire:  "Hate your next door neighbor, but don't forget to say grace."  That line is all about something called "virtue signaling" -- "the expression or promotion of viewpoints that are especially valued within a social group, especially when this is done primarily to enhance the social standing of the speaker."  Wikipedia has an entry on it here:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtue_signalling

Lesniak's "Pledge to Stand Up for the Other" is all about making Lesniak appear morally superior without him actually having to do anything uncomfortable or meaningful.  It is a pure example of virtue signaling.     

If Senator Lesniak wanted to do something to really foster dialogue, he would reach out to those he truly dislikes and then try to understand them.  How about a confab with some right-wing Trump supporters, just to get to know them, just to acknowledge that they are fellow human beings?  We doubt we'll see that in real life, from Senator Lesniak, although they have done it in the movies:

We'll end on this note.  While an exercise in virtue signaling designed to allow those who take the pledge to go right back to hating their neighbor the moment after they sign it, it does at least raise the question of how we can better love those we disagree with.  Yes, "love" is a strong word, so maybe let's just start with acknowledging our common humanity.  That's going to take hard work, and a lot more than this pledge.

Americans for Prosperity (AFP) says “Yes” on Question 2

Americans for Prosperity (AFP) a group that consistently opposed the gas tax increase, dispels all the nonsense being pushed by liberals like Harvey Roseff and Ray Lesniak, and makes its position clear on Question 2.

Americans for Prosperity Advocates “Yes” Vote on Public Question 2

Ballot measure would increase constitutionally dedicated revenues to the Transportation Trust Fund

Boonton, N.J. – Americans for Prosperity, the state’s leading grassroots advocate for economic freedom, is encouraging voters to support Public Question 2 this November which concerns the dedication of certain remaining revenues to the Transportation Trust Fund (TTF).

Specifically, the referendum asks voters to approve dedicating the remaining 3 cents from the 13.5 cent tax on diesel fuel, as well as all of the revenues from the petroleum products gross receipts tax to the TTF. The current dedication from the petro tax is a minimum of $200 million. The tax has generated $215 million in each of the past two fiscal years.

AFP state director Erica Jedynak provided the following statement.

“Americans for Prosperity supports the ballot measure and constitutionally dedicating the remaining revenues collected from the tax on diesel and the petro tax to the transportation fund.

“At the same time, AFP wants voters to be clear that this referendum does not authorize a gas tax increase, nor does it in any way resolve the transportation challenges the state is facing. The remaining revenue from these two taxes amounts to less than $30 million, a mere fraction of the $1.2 billion collected for the TTF last year.

“Americans for Prosperity is steadfast in our opposition to a gas tax hike. We continue to urge lawmakers to pursue reforms to rein in wasteful spending and to ensure our transportation dollars are used solely for our roads and bridges.”

For further information or an interview, please contact Mike Proto at MProto@afphq.org or 201-400-3666.

Americans for Prosperity (AFP) is a nationwide organization of citizen-leaders committed to advancing every individual’s right to economic freedom and opportunity. AFP believes reducing the size and intrusiveness of government is the best way to promote individual productivity and prosperity for all Americans. For more information, visit www.americansforprosperity.org state and taxpayers

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Does the NJ establishment hate Christ?

It is no longer about the separation of Church & State, if it ever was.  Last week we had two senior Senators, Ray Lesniak and Nia Gill (both Democrats), deny a member of the Christian clergy the right to even mention the word "God" at a public hearing.  This week, we catch public school officials including admonishments from "ALLAH" in official school materials.

Could it be clearer?  For folks like Lesniak and Gill, is ALLAH in fashion and Christ out of fashion?

Read the story below, courtesy of the Asbury Park Press (kudos to reporter Amanda Oglesby):

Barnegat school health handouts: Allah loves cleanliness

BARNEGAT – The father of a second-grader in the Cecil S. Collins School was alarmed to see references to hijabs and thawbs – clothing worn by religious Muslims – and a quote from the Quran included in a health and hygiene worksheet given to his daughter.

The worksheet included instruction about cleanliness and neatness not just of shoes and clothing but of a student's hijab and thawb, an ankle-length robe-like garment worn by Muslim men, according to pictures sent to the Asbury Park Press by Barnegat father Chris Sharpe.

The sheet also included a reference to a Quran quote that read "Allah loves those who make themselves clean and pure."

Read the full story here: http://tinyurl.com/zzs828p

Democrats Lesniak and Gill flip out at the mention of God

People of faith must look to Senator Sweeney for protection

Last week, the New Jersey Senate Commerce Committee held a public hearing on Bill S1398. This bill forces insurance companies to pay for fertility procedures for lesbian couples planning to bear children and increases the cost of health insurance for everyone to pay for it.  Remember always that EVERY mandate, be it ever so noble, increases the costs to those who can only marginally afford the insurance premiums they are already paying.

After taking testimony from those in support of the bill, fairness and basic democratic standards demanded that testimony be allowed from those who opposed the bill. You would think that people who run under the banner of the "Democrat" Party would behave democratically.  Unfortunately, this was not the case.

John Tomicki with the League of American Families, and Reverend Brad Winship with Evangelical Civic Outreach asked to testify in opposition.  The session ended with the committee reluctantly hearing Mr. Tomicki's explanation of the unintended consequences of the legislation.  When Reverend Winship was fewer than three sentences into his introduction, the Chairwoman, Senator Nia Gill silenced the pastor, saying, “We are not here to have a religious ––––– [pause], because there is a separation between church and state.” 

Wow!  Did the Senator miss the entire civil rights movement?  Has she forgotten that the civil rights movement in this country -- like the emancipation of women and the abolition of slavery before it -- were moral imperatives, informed by conscience and led by religious folk.

Reverend Winship had opened with a quotation from Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.: “The church is to be the conscience of the state.” Senator Ray Lesniak, responded saying, “The church is not my conscience in terms of a senator, and I don’t think it should be the conscience of any of us. We have a separation of Church and State in this country, and it should not be our conscience.”

Senator Gill agreed, “Because there is a separation between church and state. And I am here to make sure we have that State discussion, and your religious discussion you can have with the individual members, if you think it is necessary to inform their opinion.”

Senators, have you forgotten that Rev. King appealed to America's better nature through religion?

Does Senator Lesniak forget when he brought religious leaders into the State House to participate in the debate to abolish the death penalty?  Did he just use them as a convenient window dressing?

Senator Gerald Cardinale spoke up in defense of Reverend Winship by informing the committee,    “It is clear in our society that there are many centers of influence.   Because someone’s beliefs derive from a religious background does not make them any less valid concepts as to the individual who is testifying than if they came from a legal background, or from a constitutional background, or from some other background… – The First Amendment should give him a right to speak however he has derived the thoughts he wants to express.    Were he from the Communist Party, I believe he would still have a right to speak with respect to the beliefs he derives as a Communist.”

But Senators Lesniak and Gill would not be moved.  They are attorneys, and they argue that civil law alone determines what is moral and that individual conscience and how it is derived must be suppressed or at least denied a voice.  Their argument is not unlike those expressed by other attorneys back in 1933 when the Enabling Laws were being debated in the Reichstag.

We all remember the legal cynicism expressed by Senator Lesniak when he claimed -- so long as there was no law that expressly forbade it -- pay to play was quite fine and he would do it.  But that is like saying it is OK for the Senator to sleep with his best friend's 18-year-old kid, just because no law says he can't.  Just because something is legal, that doesn't make it ethical.

And isn't it this absence of ethics that has corrupted our political system?  Those legions of lawyers endlessly searching for a legal loophole that will allow people to do bad things under cover of law. 

Slavery was once THE LAW in America.  If a clergyman like Brad Winship would have addressed the honorables in the 1850's on the subject, he might have been similarly barred from testifying and been told by an "honorable" member:  "The church is not my conscience in terms of a senator, and I don’t think it should be the conscience of any of us. We have a separation of Church and State in this country, and it should not be our conscience."

Slavery was not undone by THE LAW in America.  In fact, it was coddled by THE LAW and upheld by the United States Supreme Court.  Slavery was defeated by an uprising of conscience led by people of faith and informed by Judeo-Christian values.  Religion defeated slavery.

It is monstrous for Senators Lesniak and Gill to argue that religious values have no place in democracy, and that the wording of our First Amendment, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion” must be interpreted to mean that the state is prohibited from hearing any testimony that involves a morality that is higher than civil law.  This is the atheistic interpretation of the Constitution warned about by liberals of faith, including Pulitzer Prize winner Chris Hedges, the author of "America's New Fundamentalists:  When Atheism Becomes Religion."

After being denied the opportunity to freely express his views to those in power,  Pastor Winship explained: “I did not expect to be shut down in my introduction – even before explaining why evangelical pastors are opposed to the bill.  Every time I tried to speak, I was interrupted by the assumption that I was not, and would not, be addressing the bill. It was apparent that Chairwoman did not want discussed any ethical opposition to the bill."

He continued, “I had to stop speaking because I realized that whatever I said was a catch-22 situation.  If I answered her charge that I was not dealing with the bill, I was not dealing with the bill; if I went on to speak about the misplaced ethical foundation of the bill and the damage it would bring, I was not dealing with the bill. To remain silent was personally irksome.  However, in this situation, I felt the best approach was to keep quiet and let the chairwoman expose her intolerance.”

It is worth noting that both Senators Gill and Lesniak were very close to a fellow attorney/politician whose opinions they were happy to hear on issues that came before the Legislature.  The man in question was a pedophile.  Later, he was convicted of a sex crime, though not disbarred.  In the future, we hope that Senate President Steve Sweeney will ensure that Senators Lesniak and Gill extend the same courtesy to average citizens who come before them.

Hasn't Sen. Lesniak ever heard of a jury?

Senator Ray "Lord of Ass" Lesniak is preening and posturing again.  His lordship is preparing to run against a couple of heavyweights and a self-funder for the Democrat Party nomination for Governor next year.  He's worried, because the pay-to-play that once feathered his nest, the unethical practices that he once defended as business as usual, don't produce what they once did.  For him anyway.  Ray's snout has been squeezed out by a lot of newer, more aggressive snouts.  It happens, Ray.

So now Ray has gone the reformer route, playing the "good government" routine.  And there is nothing wrong in this.  In fact, his lordship has come up with an interesting cost-saving measure.  Ray wants to replace the $120,000-per-year members of the State Parole Board, with $300-a-day part-timers.  So far, so good.

The problem we have is who he wants to give those part-time jobs to.  Yep, you guessed it.  Ray wants those part-time jobs to go to scumbag lawyers. Worse still, he wants those jobs to go to the politically connected scumbag lawyers who score judgeships.  Like the one they approved a year or so ago while the organization he ran was under federal investigation and the FBI were crawling up its arse.

Ray argues that men like Labor Commissioner Hal Wirths are "not qualified" to sit on the Parole Board to determine whether or not a convicted criminal has owned up to what he or she has done and is ready to re-enter society.  In Ray's world, you need a law degree to make judgments like that.

Well hell, if that's the case, then juries should be lawyers only.  What "qualifications" do the average members of a jury have to determine the guilt or innocence of someone in the first place?

Either Ray didn't think this one through, or someone's taken a dump in his brain and forgot to flush it.

Have you ever read the crimes of those people the highest judges in the state have allowed back to the bar to practice law in New Jersey?  Have you read the b.s. excuses that the state's top court gave when they voted against disbarring a convicted sex criminal?  Yeah, we know, he was a well-connected former legislator -- but that still didn't make it cool. 

Nah, let's not let have judges making those moral judgments.  We're even squeamish about allowing anyone with a law degree near it.  Let's just go with regular people.

Besides, our government is already too lawyered-up.  Attorneys hold a majority in both houses of Congress.  They have the White House and, of course, the entire Supreme Court.  This trade association owns our federal government and most of the nation's state legislatures too. That's too much power for any group.  Imagine the outrage if the insurance industry or medical association held all those elected positions? 

So on top of all this, Ray Lesniak wants to provide $300-a-day part-time gigs to legal retirees so they can top-off their earnings while maintaining their lifestyles.  Screw that.  A homeless veteran with PTSD would provide better insight than most in the legal game.  At least he or she would be a human being.

As for Hal Wirths.  Well, he's a pretty regular guy.  And nobody has ever questioned his humanity, his honesty, or his decency.  On that score, Ray Lesniak can't hold a candle to him.

Beck & Doherty join left wingers to oppose tax cut for retirees

At yesterday's back to back press conferences at the State House in Trenton, GOP Senators Jennifer Beck and Mike Doherty joined with Democrat Senator Ray "Lord of Ass" Lesniak and Democrat Assemblyman John Wisniewski in opposing a plan that would give retirees an average $1,200 tax cut and phase out that destroyer of small businesses and family farms, the estate tax, while preventing an increase in property taxes to pay for local road and bridge repairs and maintenance. 

Beck and Doherty have their own plan, also supported by GOP Senator Gerald Cardinale, that freezes property tax relief to local governments for seven years and borrows heavily to run the state deeper into debt.  The Beck plan makes no tax cuts -- something the state teachers' union agrees with -- and leaves New Jersey's tax structure the worst in the region for retirees and the worst in the nation to grow a business and create jobs.

By refusing to fund roads and bridges through a petroleum-based user tax, the Beck plan gives out-of-state drivers a free ride while pushing the costs of maintenance and repair onto property taxpayers and future generations.  Groups  like AFP, which is funded by the petroleum industry, support Beck and Doherty, as do liberal organizations like the New Jersey Education Association and the Sierra Club.

When it comes to opposing the phase out of the Estate Tax, Liberal Assemblyman Wisniewski and talk show host Bill Spadea are both adamantly opposed.  They part company on a user tax on gasoline, with Wisniewski in support of an increase in the current tax, whereas Spadea would rather see no tax on gasoline at all and instead a substantial property tax increase to pay for roads and bridges.

All this is bound to have ramifications for the 2017 elections -- with the primaries now less than a year away.   How would retired voters behave if individual legislators voted against their $1,200 tax cut?  What would the effect be if it failed to become law and the state's retirees saw their $1,200 tax cut taken away?

In Jennifer Beck's District 11, 48 percent of all registered Republicans are aged 60 or over.  Just 20 percent are under age 45.  66 percent of Republican super voters (3 of 4 or above) are aged 60 or over.

42 percent of all registered Republicans in Mike Doherty's District 23 are aged 60 or over.  Just 21 percent are under age 45.  58 percent of Republican super voters (3 of 4 or above) are aged 60 or over.

In Senator Cardinale's District 39, 47 percent of all registered Republicans are aged 60 or over.  Just 18 percent are under age 45.  64 percent of Republican super voters (3 of 4 or above) are aged 60 or over.

Can these legislators afford to vote against a tax cut for retirees?

We are with Garden State Equality on Kelly

Garden State Equality (GSE) sent out an email today that opposes Ocean County politico Jack Kelly getting a $100,000 per year patronage appointment to the State Parole Board.  On Monday, Governor Christie re-nominated Kelly, a long-time Ocean County Freeholder and life-long patronage job holder, who ran for the Republican nomination for Congress in District 3 in 2008.  Kelly's appointment to the Parole Board must be approved by the full Senate.

GSE says they oppose Kelly's appointment for the very narrow reason that they "cannot allow him to be in a position of power to continue to do harm to the LGBT community again."  That's the problem when you see everything through the lens of sexual identity. 

Believe it or not, the term "LGBT" is already outdated.  Real "progressives" use "LGBTQIA" as their designation.  This includes "Queer," "Intersex" and "Asexual." 

Others take it much further and include designations like "Bear," described below:

Bear Community: a part of the queer community composed of queer men similar in looks and interests, most of them big, hairy, friendly and affectionate.  The community aims to provide spaces where one feels wanted, desired, and liked.  It nourishes and values an individual’s process of making friends, of learning self-care and self-love through the unity and support of the community.  Bears, Cubs, Otters, Wolves, Chasers, Admirers and other wildlife comprise what has come to be known as the Brotherhood of Bears and/or the Bear community.  See also: Ursula

(SOURCE:  University of California at Davis, LGBTQIA Resource Center)

These designations owe more to the commercial marketing of products or political marketing for donations that they do our shared human reality.  

Whether or not you are "big and hairy" doesn't change your human needs for food and shelter.  It doesn't mean you breathe differently, bleed a different color, or suffer disease and death differently.  We are all human beings and we share a lot more than groups like GSE want us to think about. 

A jobless economy, high property taxes, foreclosure, and homelessness doesn't give you a pass because you are a member of the "Bear Community."  Here's a news flash for GSE and its "allies" -- just as our common humanity transcends our sexual habits, there are human concerns that have nothing to do with how individuals do or don't achieve orgasms.

One of these human concerns is justice.  Human beings living here in America expect a certain fairness.  Regardless of what we do with our sexual equipment, we don't like the idea of someone getting a $100,000 taxpayer-funded job based on who he knows, not what he knows. 

And this isn't the first time for Jack Kelly, back in 2008, he was slammed by fellow Republicans for earlier patronage scams:

"(Kelly was criticized for his) former employment with the South Jersey Transportation Authority and the payments in lieu of health benefits he received through that job while also receiving tax-payer funded benefits as an Ocean County freeholder... both of the jobs Kelly held while working at Atlantic City International Airport -- airport analyst and airport business manager --were created on the day Kelly was hired and neither job was publicly advertised.  There was no need or justification for those positions, and Jack Kelly did not meet qualifications for either of them... the qualifications listed for the jobs include a college degree and at least five-years of experience in the aviation field. Kelly had neither." 

(SOURCE:  Atlantic City Press, May 2, 2008)

Just how is politician Jack Kelly now qualified to serve on the State Parole Board?  Has he written a book on the subject that we don't know about?

The arguments against Jack Kelly's appointment to the  State Parole Board are stronger because of the common morality that we share as human beings, our shared sense of right and wrong.  GSE screws that all to hell when they make it narrowly about THEM and THEM ALONE.

It makes us ask the question, would GSE be supporting Jack Kelly if he were a Democrat and a member of the LGBTQIA "Bear Community"?  And it certainly doesn't help when they point to the "moral" outrage of career political hacks like Senators Ray "Lord of Ass" Lesniak and Loretta "Mother Roach" Weinberg.  For years, Ray Lesniak (his Lordship to the rest of you) was the poster boy for the corrupt practice of pay-to-play -- while Mother Roach has sat quietly while some of the biggest turds on earth have been appointed to high office.

It is a pity that GSE threw our common shared morality out the window in its pursuit of a narrow-minded, juvenile, narcissistic grievance narrative.  It's like they are telling us that they don't give a crap about anybody not represented by a letter in the LGBTQIA... alphabet.  That's how they are with their so-called bathroom legislation when they say "shut up and do what we tell you to do" to girls and women who don't want to share a toilet with someone sporting a penis.  

GSE has lost its common morality.  It has become like so many others who have put their bullshit before their humanity.

The strange neo-Victorianism of millennial America

Penis.  It is a perfectly good word to describe a well-known part of the male anatomy.  Nevertheless, eyebrows were raised when New Jersey's own Steve Lonegan used the word on CNN yesterday.  The newscaster evidently thought the word "obscene" or "dirty" because she accused him of going "crazy" and promptly gave him a maternal "time out".

Is there a better word for it than "penis"?  Perhaps wee-wee?  How about tally whacker?  Or schlong?  There's todger and wang to consider too.  And what about that good old stand by... "private parts." 

http://ncfm.org/2011/06/activities/san-diego/174-ways-to-call-a-penis-something-other-than-penis/

According to this website, there are 174 different words or phrases to use in place of "penis" -- enough to totally confuse everyone as to what you are referring to.  After all, who knows what an "Adolph" is... or an "Albino Cave Dweller."  Imagine the possibilities for confusion when someone refers to a bratwurst, burrito, or an eggroll... or even a candle?  And what goes through your mind when someone speaks of "krull the warrior king" or of "Bob Dole"?  Penis just might be the clearest word out there.

Maybe post-modern, millennial America is in penis denial mode?  Senator Ray Lesniak certainly is.  That goes for Assemblymen Tim Eustace and Reed Gusciora too.  And Bruce Springsteen. 

All of them support allowing adults with penises (what we, in a more humble age, referred to as men) into toilets and similar facilities formerly reserved for girls. 

Can they not see the penis?  Or do they simply refuse to see the penis?   Are they in penis denial? 

Lesniak, Eustace, and Gusciora have built an artifice of language around their penis denial.  Those who see the penis are "deluded by hate."  To see the penis is an act of "discrimination." Such discrimination must be acted against by the imposition of economic sanctions until such time that those who see the penis claim that they can no longer see it.  This is called the Lesniak method of "corrective thinking" or the Eustace-Gusciora therapy towards "cognitive readjustment."  Stare at it long enough, the latter tell their patients, and the penis will seem to disappear.   And it works!  Eustace and Gusciora have under their care some of the state's leading Republicans.  Of course, other things tend to disappear as well... like the Bill of Rights... but some side effects are to be expected.  

Ray Lesniak plans an exposition of these methods on Thursday, May 5th, at the Senate State Government, Wagering, Tourism & Historic Preservation Committee.  The hearing starts at 1pm in Committee Room 7, on the 2nd Floor of the State House Annex in Trenton.  Under Ray's hand and in combination with the therapy of "cognitive readjustment" he will attempt to make every penis appear to disappear .  It will be a memorable exercise.  We urge you to attend.

Look... it was here and now it aint!

Lesniak fails to take on real human rights abuses

What a bone head!  Senator Ray Lesniak's response to our call for responsible government was something a teenager would come up with:  "Well a rock star is doing it so we should too."

Really?  What does a rock star have to do with the average person in New Jersey?  If you are lucky enough to have a job and a roof over your head, your average household income is $53,482.  Your home is worth $175,700 -- and you pay the highest property taxes in America.

That rock star Ray Lesniak is intent on having us follow has trousered nearly $76 million so far this year.  That's for January through April and that's just for the American leg of his concert tour.  Now he's off to Europe and... well, Europe.  Ray Lesniak's hero only does white people.

Lesniak's rock star has a house in California worth $60 million.  Heck, that's house enough for more than 340 New Jersey families.  But wait, that's not Ray's buddy's only house.  He has another house and properties valued in excess of $200 million.  That doesn't sound like the average guy to us.

What is Ray Lesniak saying to us when he points to a rich celebrity and tells us to do what he tells us to do?  Money makes right? 

Well here's what George Carlin has to say to Senator Ray "Lord of Ass" Lesniak:

If Ray Lesniak was half the man of the Left he claims to be, he'd author a bill to seize his rock star buddy's extra home and turn it into a homeless shelter for those who can't find work because of the lousy job Ray has done as a legislator since 1978.  Yes, this creature has been around since 1978, and his long tenure in politics perfectly encompasses the destruction of the working class in New Jersey and the United States of America.  No, we're not saying that Ray did it all, but he did do his part.

Back in 1978, when Ray was a newborn legislative weasel going from trouser pocket to trouser pocket, getting his snout caught were it didn't belong, a student who worked a minimum-wage summer job could afford to pay a year's full tuition at the 4-year public university of his or her choice.

Thanks to legislators like Ray Lesniak, that doesn't happen anymore.

Since 1978 -- while Ray has grown richer and richer (though not as rich as his rich celebrity friends he wants us to obey) -- average working people have grown poorer and poorer.  The average worker today is over $20,000 poorer than he or she would have been if legislators like Ray Lesniak hadn't got their hands on power in the 1970's. 

And while Senator Ray Lesniak and his rich celebrity friends are fighting to allow people with penises into the girls' toilets in states like North Carolina, there are some battles that Ray is too pussy to fight.  Like the human trafficking and modern day slavery that goes on in Qatar.

On Thursday, when Ray Lesniak leads the members of the New Jersey Senate in taking the "momentous" step of banning travel to places within the United States of America, here is what the cowards won't be doing.  The Senate won't be banning travel to Qatar.  Why should New Jersey take a stand on Qatar?  Because Qatar is using slave labor to build projects related to the World Cup.

Don't believe us?  This is a headline from the Guardian(U.K.):  "Modern Day Slavery in Focus in Qatar" (March 30, 2016).  From Mother Jones:  "Qatar is treating its World Cup workers like slaves" (May 26, 2015).  From Reuters:  "Qatar complicit in modern slavery" (October 28, 2015).  Here is what Amnesty International had to say about Qatar: 

The authorities arbitrarily restricted the rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly. A prisoner of conscience was serving a lengthy sentence for writing and reciting poems.

Amnesty just issued a report (March 31, 2016) titled, "Qatar World Cup of Shame."  Here are a few excerpts:

Migrant workers building Khalifa International Stadium in Doha for the 2022 World Cup have suffered systematic abuses, in some cases forced labour... “The abuse of migrant workers is a stain on the conscience of world football. For players and fans, a World Cup stadium is a place of dreams. For some of the workers who spoke to us, it can feel like a living nightmare,” said Amnesty International Secretary General Salil Shetty.

“Despite five years of promises, FIFA has failed almost completely to stop the World Cup being built on human rights abuses.”

...Amnesty International uncovered evidence that the staff of one labour supply company used the threat of penalties to exact work from some migrants such as withholding pay, handing workers over to the police or stopping them from leaving Qatar. This amounts to forced labour under international law.

“Indebted, living in squalid camps in the desert, paid a pittance, the lot of migrant workers contrasts sharply to that of the top-flight footballers who will play in the stadium. All workers want are their rights: to be paid on time, leave the country if need be and be treated with dignity and respect,” said Salil Shetty...

Qatar’s kafala sponsorship system, under which migrant workers cannot change jobs or leave the country without their employer’s (or “sponsor’s”) permission, is at the heart of the threats to make people work... Some of the Nepali workers told Amnesty International they were not even allowed to visit their loved ones after the 2015 April earthquake that devastated their country leaving thousands dead and millions displaced.

My life here is like a prison... a metal worker from India who worked on the Khalifa stadium refurbishment, complained when he was not paid for several months but only received threats from his employer:  “He just shouted abuse at me and said that if I complained again I’d never leave the country. Ever since I have been careful not to complain about my salary or anything else. Of course, if I could I would change jobs or leave Qatar.”

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2016/03/qatar-world-cup-of-shame/

But Senator Ray Lesniak is not going to peep about Qatar.  You see, it is easy to pick on Americans living in North Carolina, but not so easy to stand up to the powerful people in New Jersey who represent the State of Qatar. 

We happen to have a copy of the signed contact between the Embassy of the State of Qatar and a powerful firm whose lobbyists include the former chiefs of staff for both Senators Menendez and Booker -- signed last December -- courtesy of the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938 (enforced by the United States Justice Department).  Ray Lesniak's political allies pocket a retainer of $100,000 a month just for making sure the State of Qatar isn't embarrassed by anything like a resolution calling them out for their human rights abuses.  Last year, the firm pocketed as much as $155,000 a month just in consulting fees. 

So go ahead, Ray.  Tuck up your balls and make your fashion statement.  Punish your fellow Americans for wanting to keep sexual predators out of girls' toilets, while you and the New Jersey Senate kiss the tail of the State of Qatar and endorse its slavery and abuse of human rights by your silence.  We pity you.

808,676 sex offenders would agree with Sen. Lesniak

Senator Ray Lesniak (D-Azz) is a politician on the make.  Once upon a time he was the king of pay-to-play.  He even defended the practice and it was reported by the media.  But then they changed the law, made it stricter, and now he has to look for new ways to trouser campaign cash.

The LGBT lobby is flush with cash.  Remember how Steve Goldstein snorted and threatened the Democratic Party when Garden State Equality didn't get its way in 2009-10?  Old Ray was always good at minding other people's wallets.  The guy can smell money a long way off and knows how to pick a mark.  He wants some of that "gay" money.

And so he's going to put on a show this coming Thursday, May 5th, in front of the Senate State Government Committee.  He's pulling in favors from other Senators (of both parties) in order to get them to pass out of committee his legislation (S-2043) that is a response to a law passed by the Legislature in North Carolina that seeks to prevent anatomical males from using the private facilities (toilets and such) of women and girls.  According to Lesniak, S-2043 would "ban non-essential state funded travel to North Carolina to protest its law prohibiting municipalities from passing laws protecting the LGBT community from discrimination."

New Jersey is an economic sinkhole with record child poverty, foreclosure, homeless, joblessness, and hopelessness and this is what the "honorables" are focused on -- even though Lesniak himself admits publicly and in writing that "S-2043 faces a certain veto by Governor Christie."

So why are we wasting our time on crap like this?

Are rich gay people really so powerful that they can hold up everything to focus on b.s. fashion statements?  Is their money so important to fashionably-correct politicians like Ray Lesniak? Guess so.

This whole economic boycott thing is really juvenile.  It is an admission by politicians like Ray Lesniak, Loretta Weinberg, Reed Gusicora, and Tim Eustace that because they cannot do anything to fix New Jersey's failing economy they will focus on damaging the more successful economy of a state like North Carolina.

And it is being answered in kind.  Target is one of those corporations that Lesniak praises for joining in the boycott of North Carolina -- only now, Target is itself the target of an economic boycott by more than a million consumers that has already knocked $2.5 billion off the value of the company's stock.

Is this America now?  Is this who we are?  Trying to destroy the economy of a state because of how its elected Legislature voted?  Whatever happened to respect for democracy and democratic outcomes?

And what happens when states like North Carolina and Pennsylvania enact travel bans on New Jersey for its failure to uphold the Second Amendment?  One such bill is already in the works by a Pittsburgh-area legislator.  Another has a bill that whacks New Jersey companies like Johnson & Johnson for its failure to warn women of the threat by its products of ovarian cancer. 

Is this our future?  Is this going to be the focus of the legislative process from now on?  Unable to fix our own economies we will focus on destroying the economies of other states?  We suppose it is one way of improving New Jersey's dismal standing in all those rating charts, but it won't create any jobs or address homelessness or hunger.

The problem that the elected Legislature of the State of North Carolina sought to address is a real one.  There are 808,676 registered sex offenders in the United States and at least that many victims.  That's those we know about.  Heck, one of the LGBT leaders fighting the law in North Carolina -- a local Chamber of Commerce President -- was himself a registered sex offender.  Shouldn't reasonable people be able to get together and talk like human beings and find a way to protect women and girls from being sexually assaulted, while at the same time preventing any overt discrimination? 

Or are we really past the point of talking?  Is it really going to be a case of "you destroy ours and we'll destroy yours" from now on?  That's like the end of civilized human behavior.  How depressing.

Pandering politicians like Ray Lesniak don't help any.  This guy is so bad that he pulled down the American flag off his letterhead and put an LGBT "rainbow" flag there instead.  What's wrong with Lesniak?  Does he no longer represent all the people of his district or is it the case that only LGBT lives matter?

The problem is money.  Money drives the agenda.  Money moves some b.s. fashion statement to the front of the line.  We have to stop the undemocratic affect money has on policy.  Here's how we do it...