When it comes to screwing working moms. Sweeney Dems are fighting a losing battle.

Just got this missive from some of Senate President Steve Sweeney’s minions:

S-4204 (sponsored by Senate President Sweeney) & A-5936 (sponsored by Assemblymen Joe Egan and Wayne DeAngelo) seeks to reform this broken system.

Send a pre-written e-mail to your State Senator and two Assembly representatives RIGHT NOW by CLICKING HERE to ask them to vote “YES” on these important bills.

Really? A pre-written email? What, literacy not a big thing in Sweeneyland?

The Senate President has got himself tangled up in a fight led by a group of women writers. That should scare the bejesus out of him. And even if he’s too arrogant to admit it (them being women and all) – the Democrats he leads should know enough to get out of the way of what’s coming at them.

These woman are smart, wickedly articulate, and they are already making the Senate President a national laughing-stock. One of them (she works as a free-lance investigative reporter for the Washington Post) has already landed him in that newspaper-of-record’s pages. Get a load of these excerpts from the Washington Post, earlier this week…

In 2003, I walked away from my full-time, $80,000-a-year job as the executive editor of a national magazine. I had no other job lined up; I just had a hunch, having worked in the publishing business for about a decade, that I could have a better work-life balance and make a lot more money if I put out a shingle as a freelance writer and editor.

As it turns out, I was right. Today, I work fewer hours, I work only the hours I want, and I make six figures. I’m happier, I get to pick my projects, and I get to choose which editors I want in my life. I am 47 years old with a career that is successful in pretty much every way.

But that career will no longer exist if my home state of New Jersey and other states like it continue on their current path with independent contractor legislation, putting freelance journalists like me out of business…

The laws are being marketed as pro-worker, but the way they are being written is so strict that they are already starting to destroy the careers of people such as me who prefer to work for ourselves.

…The language in these independent contractor laws, though, makes no meaningful distinction between exploited contract workers and people like me. Instead, the language makes it impossible for people like me to work within the letter of the law.

New Jersey’s S4204, for instance, says I have to do all my work “outside all of the places of business of the employer.” That means I can’t spend even one or two days of an 18-month, front-page project outside my home office, having meetings with my editors in a place like The Washington Post’s newsroom. How is any freelancer, no matter whether she is a journalist or a graphic artist or a public-relations specialist, supposed to run her business if she never takes meetings on any client’s premises? The upshot of clauses like that one in S4204 could be crippling fines for employers. And because of that threat, according to testimony given during a standing-room-only hearing in New Jersey’s capitol last week, editors and publishers in New Jersey are already saying the same thing the ones in California are starting to say to freelancers there: Thanks, you’re great, but we’ll find our writers and proofreaders elsewhere.

These states, in writing such overly broad legislation, are hanging a giant, toxic, neon sign around the necks of the middle class…

…everyone from truck drivers to caterers to yoga instructors has their livelihood in the crosshairs. The people testifying in New Jersey that their careers would be hit have ranged from lawyers to wedding photographers to bakers. Newspaper representatives tried to explain that people who deliver those papers are independent contractors, and if this legislation becomes law, citizens will no longer get their local news delivered to their homes. The lawmakers seemed genuinely stunned about how many jobs operate under the independent contractor model in modern-day America. They really seemed to have no clue.

… The lawmakers writing this legislation have no idea who the millions of us choosing to be independent contractors are, or how our industries operate, or why we want to remain our own bosses. Here in New Jersey, the power behind this legislation is state Senate President Steve Sweeney, a 60-year-old high school graduate with no higher education on his résumé, and whose day job is serving as vice president of the International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers. His worldview matches that of the senators we came up against in the hearing room; they seem to truly believe we’re all just confused about our ability to protect our own best interests.

A bunch of clueless, stupid good-old-boy politicians vs. a lot of very smart women. You knuckleheads sure picked yourselves a good fight. Good luck with that boys.

Imagine what would happen to Sweeney’s caucus if these women split into groups and decided to assign three or four or more to each incumbent Sweeneyite. Imagine boys… each of you with your own investigative reporter – or maybe two or three of them – ripping through your stuff and writing about it… endlessly. Heck, maybe the GOP might even take the notion to help them disseminate it… or maybe Sue Altman and Jay Lassiter will.

Politically, most of these women are what you would call attitudinal liberals. Few are Trump supporters. But they could become Jersey Republicans for the simple reason that Jersey Democrats – led by Senate President Sweeney – have pronounced a death sentence on their livelihoods and are preparing to pull the trigger. Nothing so concentrates the mind as having your life destroyed. It becomes crystal clear who your enemies are… and your friends become whoever hates your enemies.

Looks like Sweeney came to a spelling bee armed with a truncheon. No, threats and intimidation aren’t going to work this time. You can’t do a “Sue Altman” on these gals and expect to win.

Democrat legislation will put more drunk drivers on the roads (but they’re illegal, so it’s okay)

Year after year, drunk drivers account for as many deaths in America as murders using firearms do. So why don’t the Democrats seem to care?

A New Jersey Senate committee is hearing some shocking testimony today on S-3229, legislation that would create a special driver’s license for illegals at $18 dollars, while raising the price of driver’s licenses for everyone else from $24 to $29. Members of the Senate Transportation Committee are hearing the following testimony as you receive this…

“Worse, under the bill you’re considering today in particular, documents and information obtained from an applicant for an illegal alien’s driver's license will be confidential and not be considered a government record. More specifically, the bill prohibits the use of this material in the investigation, arrest, citation, prosecution, or detention of illegal aliens, as it relates to for their criminal immigration status. The bill does include exceptions for certain federal legal provisions (pursuant to 8 U.S.C. s.1373 and 8 U.S.C. s.1644) and for a valid court order or subpoena. That said, today’s New Jersey Licenses for Illegals bill does not include an exception for illegal aliens who drive drunk or commit human trafficking, arson, violent child abuse, sexual assault, rape, murder, vehicular manslaughter or homicide, or even terrorism. It should.

An alien illegally present in the United States guilty of such offenses should face investigation, arrest, citation, prosecution, detention, and frankly imprisonment or deportation, as appropriate, for their criminal immigration status, period – and, frankly, should not get a discounted driver’s license in New Jersey regardless.

Let’s take drunk driving as one example directly relevant to drivers licenses. In Fiscal Year 2017, “Traffic Offenses – DUI,” i.e. driving under the influence of alcohol or illegal drugs, was the most commonly listed component of the criminal backgrounds of aliens administratively arrested by U.S. Immigration andCustoms Enforcement, a staggering 80,547 or 56% of those arrested, including criminal charges and convictions in the federal system of record, according to ICE.

Given that fact, S-3229 should include some kind of exception that either bars illegal aliens convicted of drunk driving from receiving licenses, allows law enforcement personnel to use driver’s license application documents in criminal immigration proceedings as part of their investigation into those crimes, or both.

Another example: the second-most common element of criminal background of ICE-arrested aliens in the U.S. in Fiscal Year 2017 was “Dangerous Drugs,” a total of 76,503 aliens, or 53%. Illegal aliens convicted of criminal charges associated with dangerous drugs would seem to be an important ground for excluding

applicants from licenses – or at least allowing law enforcement authorities to use submitted documents in an investigation that might result in deportation.

How about “Traffic Offenses,” which figured fourth most often in the criminal backgrounds of aliens in FY2017, a total of 68,346 aliens, or 47% of those arrested by ICE.

That’s right: You’re about to vote for a bill that gives driver’s licenses to illegals, and shields the documents they submit from disclosure for investigations, even if they are charged or convicted specifically of traffic offenses, one of the most common offenses aliens arrested by ICE commit in the U.S.. That’s a mistake.

The list goes on: Liquor Offenses, Sex Offenses, Weapons Offenses, Stolen Vehicles, Robbery, Sexual Assault, Kidnapping, Homicide – all too common among the backgrounds of ICE-arrested aliens in FY2017.”

None of these exclusions are carved out in S-3229. The result of this vote will become abundantly clear as the victims of this legislation pile up…

Senate President Steve Sweeney is a man given to hubris. Just look at his staff, who is there, and for how long. Hubris.

Of late the Senate President’s hubris appears to have contaminated the Democrat Party caucuses in both chambers of the Legislature. A woman is manhandled and muscled out of a public hearing for the amusement of a Democrat Party boss. A Sweeney bill takes away the property tax cap to allow unrestrained property tax hikes across New Jersey. The “lame duck” session of the Legislature is used to push all sorts of grossly unpopular legislation. The lives and personal well-being of tens of thousands of workers are targeted with a Sweeney bill that takes away their livelihoods. After cutting education funding to hundreds of thousands of school children, the Democrats push an immunization bill that threatens to throw thousands more out of the classroom and on to the streets. What modern government has taken away the right to education from people because of their religion (outside of places like genocidal Myanmar)? And now they push legislation to raise the cost of a driver’s license to citizens and legal immigrants, while rewarding illegal immigrants with a cut rate driver’s license.

We have not seen such hubris in New Jersey since 1990-91.

Thoughtful workers from across the political spectrum come together to oppose Sweeney’s S-4204.

The politics of crony capitalism has distorted the political landscape, turning party ideology into a mask one wears to hide the agendas of Establishment interests. As the reform group RepresentUs notes, we have been on the road to where we are for a long time. But there is an answer… it is in the "fusion politics" that Ralph Nader wrote about a few summers ago in his book Unstoppable: The Emerging Left-Right Alliance to Dismantle the Corporate State. And it is what keeps the Establishment up at nights. The open letter below illustrates why:

Dear Senator Sweeney:

On behalf of the Township of South Orange Village Board of Trustees, I urge you to withdraw S-4204 for consideration until a time when language can be properly integrated to ensure that the livelihood of our state’s legitimate independent contractors is not jeopardized.

As a governing body representing a very progressive community, it is seldom we find ourselves at odds with legislation introduced and supported by Senate and Assembly Democrats. I say this because we wholeheartedly support the goals of the legislation—specifically, proper protections for workers—and believe lawmakers are justified and morally compelled to act given the findings presented in Governor Murphy’s Task Force on Employee Misclassification (July 2019).

However, we oppose the language of the bill as introduced (and amended) and most recently discussed during the Senate Labor Committee hearing on December 5, 2019.

We respectfully, and with a sense of urgency, ask that the three prongs of the ABC test be amended and/or reimagined completely to reflect the new “gig economy,” comprised of successful entrepreneurs, that presents many valuable ways in which these workers—by choice—have created opportunities for themselves to earn a living on terms that work best for them and their families. The testimonies provided by these individuals, whom this bill will impact adversely, should provide sufficient evidence that more modifications are necessary.

In my experience, any bill that needs to carve out “exceptions” is a result of confusing language that can’t be universally applied to everyone in a concise manner. Moreover, while likely not intended, it also gives the appearance that certain professions, organizations, or lobbying entities had special access in the drafting of the bill.

Though the legislation has been described as a “pro-worker” bill, our objections to it do not make us “anti-worker” but rather, reflect our desire to ensure that all workers receive thoughtful and responsive consideration before passage. While New Jersey may have lost millions of dollars as a result of underreported wages, adoption of this bill in its current form can result in hundreds of millions of lost wages in unintended consequences to legitimate independent contractors. As evidenced in the hearings and echoed by the Chamber of Commerce, small businesses and startups will be disproportionately impacted, as they often rely on the gig economy to compete with larger corporations.

Our sentiments have been shared with our District 27 Representatives and I am grateful that Senator Codey, Assemblyman McKeon and Assemblywoman Jasey have heard and share our concerns. A legislative initiative can only be enhanced and improved upon when leaders at all levels of government listen and collaborate with stakeholders. 

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Sheena Collum
Village President

A two-minute video that accurately depicts what happened in Trenton yesterday (and you got the bill)

Senate President Steve Sweeney is a rather immoral guy. On a whole lot of levels. In a whole lot of ways.

He waits until after the November election to unfold a legislative agenda that was fashioned by a hellish cabal of special interests. Sweeney, as we know, is running for the Democrat nomination for Governor in 2021, so the campaign has already started, at least as far as lining up the money is concerned.

Sweeney wouldn’t dare do it before the election, when the voters would have had the opportunity to hold Sweeney’s fellow Democrats to account. He’s like the tradesman who gives his victim a pleasant estimate at the beginning… and then presents her with a grossly inflated bill after the job is done. It’s immoral.

Sweeney’s victims are working mothers and others who depend on the flexible arrangements that working as an independent contractor provides them. The Democrat wants to make such arrangements illegal in New Jersey. And true to form, many other Democrats are going to back his profoundly anti-worker legislation.

It’s called Senate Bill S-4204. The bill has one sponsor – Senate President Steve Sweeney. Yesterday, despite acknowledging that S-4204 was “flawed” and “confusing” and “disappointing”, the anti-worker Democrats on the Senate Labor Committee dutifully passed legislation – that they agree is a mess – out of committee and to the full Senate for a vote.

If these people were moral, if they possessed any integrity at all, they would not use the so-called “lame duck” session after an election to rush through all the controversial legislation they sat on all year long. It spits on notions of transparency, democracy, and honest government. But we all know what they are up to… these are just the games played by brutes in power…

We understand and respect the AFL-CIO’s impulses in supporting S-4204, but we believe they are wrong to conflate those who are forced to work as “independent contractors” with those who do so because they want to – because it is their choice to work that way. Sweeney’s legislation goes way beyond correcting the legitimate concerns raised by our brothers and sisters at the AFL-CIO. The Democrat’s legislation is a thuggish, barbaric attempt to force workers – mainly women – against their will into a working arrangement that is not in their interest. This is akin to slavery.

And it is a slavery that does great harm to the beautiful idea of the right of working men and women to freely organize and collectively negotiate to achieve better pay and conditions in the workplace. When you allow a politician like Senate President Sweeney to replace the word “free” with the term “compel” you brutalize the entire labor movement. An environment is created that brutalizes every worker.

The Cause of Labor is the Hope of the World. We believe that. But that cause can only be achieved when it is a compact between free men and women, freely joining together as a union – the benefits of which should be so transparent that workers should wish to join freely, of their own accord. Proselytize, convince, but do not compel.

Let’s have labor unions made up of free men and women. Not enslaved workers.

Dem activist to working moms: “We need to start our own world with out the white folks.”

“We need to start our own world with out (sic) the white folks.”

With one slight alteration, how would this read in its original German?
 
This individual is a Democrat activist from St. Louis, Missouri, commenting on a New Jersey blog as part of an effort to attack a group of working people from New Jersey – mainly women – whose perspective on the threat to their livelihoods was shared on that blog.  This is who the Trenton Democrats have got to shill for them.
 
What do Senators Fred Madden… Linda Greenstein… Joe Lagana have to say about supporters like the one above?  Are they down with this?
 
Working mothers and others depend on the flexible arrangements that working as an independent contractor provides them.  But such arrangements could soon be illegal in New Jersey, if Senate Democrats have their way.     
 
After Senate Bill S-4204 was passed out of the Senate Labor Committee on a 3 to 1 vote (Three Democrat YES votes – Fred Madden, Joseph Lagana, and Jim Beach – to one Republican NO, Tony Bucco.  The bill has one sponsor – Senate President Steve Sweeney.), a group of working professionals decided to do something to protect their livelihoods. 
 
The group is www.fightforfreelancers.com .  In under two weeks, they have attracted nearly 1,000 activists and its Facebook and web pages feature dozens of stories about the hardships S-4204 will bring. 
 
Other groups have formed as well – all to fight the ruinous provisions of Senate Bill S-4204.  In response, far-Left activists from around the country – from California, Georgia, Illinois, Minnesota, and so on – have been called in by desperate Democrats in Trenton to attack the New Jersey women who are fighting for their livelihoods.  It is a very questionable reaction by the leadership of the Democrats who control the New Jersey Legislature.  They are attacking the New Jersey women on Facebook and on websites that carry their stories. 
 
You can do something to save the professions chosen by working moms and others.  The Senate Labor Committee is meeting again TODAY in Trenton – at 10am.  You can call or email the Senators responsible for voting for this atrocity and give them a piece of your mind…
 
Senate President Steve Sweeney (D)
856-251-9801
856-339-0808
sensweeney@njleg.org
 
Senator Fred Madden (D)
856-232-6700
856-401-3073
senmadden@njleg.org
 
Senator Linda Greenstein (D)
609-395-9911
sengreenstein@njleg.org
 
Senator Joe Lagana (D)
201-576-9199
senlagana@njleg.org
 
We have been happy to stand with the working moms and others who want to keep the option of working as sub-contractors.  Let it remain their choice. 

Working people in New Jersey are under enough pressure as it is.  Democrats like Governor Phil Murphy and Senate President Sweeney seem bent on turning New Jersey into an outpost of France – with the French-style labor laws that have given that nation high-unemployment and under-employment for generations.  Perhaps we should nickname them Pierre and Jacques and pop little berets on their heads in future?
 
In contrast to the plans Democrats like Murphy and Sweeney have for them:  Working class people prefer to work.  They don’t want to need the government, thank you.
 
This website has always been pro-working class.  That is simply another way of being on the side of the average American.  The working class is historically under-represented in the chambers of our so-called representative democracy. 
 
We recognize the inherent conservative nature of the working class.  People less well-off have always had to depend on each other.  They cleave to family and form extended communities for that purpose.  Only the rich can afford to kick out the pillars of society (safe in the knowledge that there will always be a way to buy oneself out of the consequences).  The working class is a movement that marches in the streets, but kneels in church.  

This is the reason the working class has been left behind by the Democrat Party. It is the reason that the vast majority of voters today have become orphans in our political process.

Writers like Ross Douthat (of the New York Times) and Reihan Salam (formerly of National Review, Slate, and The Atlantic) have suggested that the future of the working class is within the Republican Party. Time will tell. We are not sure about the residual presence of the Christie Whitman class and if it will be sufficient to bar the working class. Time will tell.

The American working class are the “forgotten people” of the global economy. Indeed, this can be said of working classes in post-industrial economies around the world. And we recall how one Democrat legislator, just a couple years ago, pointedly stated that “the New Jersey Legislature does not serve the ‘forgotten people'" in a direct reference to the working class.

We suspect that without knowing it, this Democrat legislator was acknowledging one of the great under-reported facts of American political life. In White-Collar Government: The Hidden Role of Class in Economic Policy Making, Duke University Professor Nick Carnes cites studies showing that while a majority of Americans work in blue-collar employment (and over two-thirds can be described as “working class”), only 2 percent of Congress were blue-collar workers before being elected and only 3 percent of State Legislators are employed as blue-collar workers. Carnes and others hold that this disparity reflects the economic decisions and priorities of legislative bodies in America.

This lack of blue-collar perspective shouldn't surprise anyone looking at the Legislature's agenda. And even when a blue-collar guy does get elected, he or she is one of so few that they are quickly pulled into the maelstrom of identity politics that so dominates and pollutes.

This is why Democrat political leaders in Trenton don't appear to care about New Jersey having the highest property taxes in America, or its highest in America foreclosure rate, or its worst business climate in America (as in… the worst place for job creation). Look at the legislative agenda and you will see what they’re about. It’s all ass, ass, ass… as a distraction to the real business of crony capitalism and wiring the system so that this interest or that can make a buck (and then kick back in the form of campaign contributions and such).

All this provides background to a growing body of academic research that shows, again and again, that we no longer live in a representative democracy, but rather an oligarchy. As a recent Princeton University study reported, "The preferences of the average American appear to have only a miniscule, near zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy."

See you at the Committee hearing…

New Jersey Law Enforcement News blasts Sweeney

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The hypocrisy here is rich.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Will S-1500 force Sen. Singleton to resign from his job?

New Jersey Democrats are in the process of making a pig’s breakfast of efforts to reform the use of “dark money” to influence elections, as well as the operations and processes of government.  Legislation proposed by Senator Troy Singleton (D-07) seeks to require “disclosure by independent expenditure committees; raises certain campaign contribution limits; repeals ban on certain intraparty fund transfers.”  The Bill is S-1500.

We strongly support full disclosure and are great fans of groups like Common Cause and RepresentUS, which campaign for transparency and honest government.  That said, along with open government comes the need to enforce laws against those vigilantes who use the data from such to harass and harm those who chose to financially support a political candidate or committee. 

The United States Supreme Court has ruled that making a political contribution to a candidate of your choice is a form of free speech – protected by the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights.  Disclosure should not be a means by which thugs can target the homes, families, and employment of individuals who exercise that right.  From the NAACP seeking to protect its donors from southern KKK groups to Christian groups seeking the same protection from wealthy LGBT activists, disclosure will soon lose its popular support if it becomes a means to vengeance or violence. 

Particularly as some Democrats are seeking to recruit and politicize the actual criminal class (including violent criminals), S-1500 should include tough sanctions to protect the free expression of political choice.  And this is just as important for Democrat Party primaries as it is for General Elections, if you get our drift… so don’t cut your own nuts off just to spite someone else.

S-1500 amends existing law to increase campaign contribution limits, but neglects to address the glaring deficiencies in the rules enforced by the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission (NJELEC).  Take this portion of the bill as a for instance:

“No individual, other than an individual who is a candidate, no corporation of any kind organized and incorporated under the laws of this State or any other state or any country other than the United States, no labor organization of any kind which exists or is constituted for the purpose, in whole or in part, of collective bargaining, or of dealing with employers concerning the grievances, terms or conditions of employment, or of other mutual aid or protection in connection with employment, or any group shall: (1) pay or make any contribution of money or other thing of value to a candidate who has established only a candidate committee, his campaign treasurer, deputy campaign treasurer or candidate committee which in the aggregate exceeds [$2,600] $3,000 per election… No candidate who has established only a candidate committee, his campaign treasurer, deputy campaign treasurer or candidate committee shall knowingly accept from an individual, other than an individual who is a candidate, a corporation of any kind organized and incorporated under the laws of this State or any other state or any country other than the United States, a labor organization of any kind which exists or is constituted for the purpose, in whole or in part, of collective bargaining, or of dealing with employers concerning the grievances, terms or conditions of employment, or of other mutual aid or protection in connection with employment, or any group any contribution of money or other thing of value which in the aggregate exceeds [$2,600] $3,000 per election…”

Why is it a bigger deal for a labor union to contribute $3,001 to a candidate or incumbent, but no big deal to throw a six-figure job, benefits, and a pension at him?  Because that’s what is being done.

Let’s look at the case of Senator Troy Singleton as an example.  On his personal financial disclosure statement covering 2017 (the latest available), the Senator lists that he was paid in excess of $50,000 by the Northeast Regional Council of Carpenters.  This was the largest portion of his income.  His personal financial disclosure statements (2011-2016) all list the same source of income.  

And it’s not like Singleton was a union carpenter who worked his way up through the ranks and was rewarded by his brothers and sisters.  Singleton was a political operative a lieutenant in the regime of south Jersey political boss George Norcross.  Singleton worked for Norcross captain Joe Roberts, a Camden County Assemblyman who was made Speaker of that chamber.  His hiring was a straight political act.

So let’s get serious.  If you want to take out the corruption, dry up the money, stop ignoring the elephant in the room. 

But hey, if you are looking to put out press releases that congratulates yourself on some bullshit tweak that will go the same way as all the other bullshit tweaks… well, this is the kind of legislation that will accomplish that.  Just like old Joe Roberts’ “Clean Elections” b.s. of more than a decade ago.  Yep, old Joe was so committed to the people of New Jersey, that the moment he retired he got out of the crap hole he helped to create and moved to a low tax Red State.  Joe Roberts might be a hypocrite, but he was no fool.

The Democrat Party vendor blog, InsiderNJ, recently reported that Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-03) was in support of S-1500.  This is curious, given his own sources of income.  In an ethics case from 2013, documents from the United States Labor Department were entered into the record, stating the following:

“As Senate President, Steve Sweeney is paid $49,000 per year, plus an “allowance equal to 1/3 his compensation” ($16,333) for a total of $65,333.

Steve Sweeney is also an official with the Iron Workers union.  As a general organizer paid through the International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers Union, AFL-CIO, Sweeney received a base salary of $165,264 in 2012.  In addition to his base salary, Sweeney also received compensation in the form of allowances and disbursements for expenses. His total compensation through the International in 2012 was $206,092.

In addition, Sweeney received allowances of $21,351 as President of Iron Workers District Council of Philadelphia and Vicinity. In 2012, Sweeney's total compensation through the Iron Workers was $227,443.

The Department of Labor requires public disclosure by labor unions of how union dues are spent.  These disclosures list union employees, their salaries and allowances.  The disclosure also includes the allocation of time by union officers and employees estimating the amount of time spent on various activities such as organizing or administration.  One of the purposes of this disclosure is to show how much the union has spent on its core activities: collective bargaining, contract administration, and grievance adjustment.  Non-members working in a union environment are obligated to pay dues, but only to support these core activities.

According to disclosure filings by the International, Sweeney spends a considerable amount of his time as a union official on activities described as ‘Political Activities and Lobbying.’ (LM-2, Schedule 12, Disbursements to Employees, Line I, Schedule 16)

What political activities did he engage in and on behalf of which candidates and causes? The explanation offered as part of the disclosure describes political activity as ‘to influence the selection, nomination, election, or appointment of anyone to a Federal, state, or local executive, legislative or judicial public office, or office in a political organization, or the election of Presidential or Vice Presidential electors, and support for or opposition to ballot referenda.’ (Instructions for Form LM-2 Labor Organization Annual Report, page 27)

Lobbying is described as ‘associated with dealing with the executive and legislative branches of the Federal, state, and local governments and with independent agencies and staffs to advance the passage or defeat of existing or potential laws or the promulgation or any other action with respect to rules or regulations (including litigation expenses).’ 

Senator Sweeney is not registered as a lobbyist with the United States Senate or House of Representatives.  He is not a registered lobbyist in Pennsylvania.  The union that pays Sweeney's salary does not use outside lobbyists.  Instead, it uses an employee as its primary lobbyist – registered with both the House and Senate.  It is interesting to note that the primary lobbyist in Washington allocates only 50% of his time to political activity and lobbying.

New Jersey state law does not appear to allow legislators to simultaneously serve as lobbyists. 

Questions concerning Senator Sweeney's political activity and lobbying for the Iron Workers union become a more serious matter when the amount of time allocated to these activities is noted.  Calculating the value of that allocation as a portion of Sweeney's compensation adds further emphasis. 

Sweeney spent 30% of his union effort in 2012 on political activity and lobbying.  In 2011 and 2010, the amount was 38%.  In 2009, the amount was 34%.  There is no indication of the actual amount of time Sweeney devoted to these activities, only the proportion of the whole.

Placing dollar amounts on Sweeney's activity helps put matters into an easily understandable form.  In 2012, Sweeney's gross pay was $165,264, and his total compensation was $227,443.  In simple terms, Sweeney was paid $49,579 of his gross, or $68,233 of his total compensation, to engage in political activity and lobbying for the union.  In 2011, Sweeney was paid $62,141 of his total compensation for political activity and lobbying.  In 2010, $58,377, and in 2009, $56,669.”

In Senator Sweeney’s defense, it must be said that he started his career as a blue collar man.  Sweeney was an actual ironworker, served his apprenticeship and earned his way.  He wasn’t a fake like Troy Singleton.

As for the ethics complaint.  It was brought before the New Jersey State Legislature’s Joint Committee on Ethical Standards, that august body where ethics goes to die.  They duly heard the complaint, killed a few chickens, and closely examined the entrails… before the Norcross lieutenant who chaired the committee delivered a lecture to the complainant about daring to bring such affronts before them.  Don’t you know man, this is New Jersey!

And it’s not just these guys.  Most of the Democrats in the New Jersey Legislature are in hock to some machine, serving some master, living off pay checks courtesy of some regime.  Do they recuse themselves when presented with a conflict of self-interest?  Of course not!  That’s why they are there.  People like Senator Nick Sacco (with three public jobs and collecting a public pension) and Teresa Ruiz (two public jobs, with a third for her spouse) routinely vote on legislation that directly benefits the political machines that pay them.  That’s why they are there.

David Goodman, a spokesperson for Represent New Jersey, recently had this to say about political reform in New Jersey:  “Partisan Gerrymandering serves to strengthen the forces and effectiveness of dark money.  What it really amounts to is rigging elections—politicians prioritizing big donors to get elected, and then redrawing their districts to stay in office. They are picking their voters, instead of the other way around.”

He noted that just a month ago, Represent New Jersey alongside coalition partners, like the League of Women Voters of New Jersey, organized the fight against the partisan gerrymandering bills with action alerts, countless calls to legislators, impromptu hallway lobbying and in-person advocacy at the Statehouse in Trenton.  Facing massive grassroots pressure, the Senate President and Assembly Speaker pulled the amendment.  RepresentUs members showed that this movement is ready to fight against corruption by those in power—regardless of party affiliation.

Goodman says he is excited that the state Senate is holding hearings on S-1500, on January 17th.   He should temper that excitement with realism and know that they are playing him and RepresentUS.  And that’s okay, so long as he knows, and then uses that knowledge to turn it around… and play them.

Is Kean out to make Codey Senate President?

There are two kinds of labor unions -- those whose rank and file membership voted for Trump and those whose membership voted for Clinton.

President Trump and Republicans who want to build a sustainable GOP majority for the future, seek to work with those unions whose members are inclined to vote Republican or who will consider voting Republican.  These are the largely blue collar trade unions -- Teamsters, Ironworkers, Carpenters, Cabinetmakers, Plumbers, Bricklayers, Electricians, Heavy Equipment Operators, Laborers -- the Building Trades and such. 

On the other end we have the teachers, professors, administrators, and white collar government bureaucrats, clerks and such.  They love everything the Democrats stand for.  They voted for Hillary Clinton -- although some would prefer a "real socialist."  We aint getting these people.  Ever.  Not unless we lose everyone else.

So why are some Republican candidates this year running around telling conservatives that they have the backdoor support of the NJEA and it is a "game changer"?  Haven't we been here before?  Doesn't anyone remember the aftermath of Whitman years when the NJEA and those other liberal unions whose butts we had kissed for eight years turned on us and helped usher in this endless Democrat legislative majority?

We get that Senator Tom Kean Jr. still holds a grudge against the Governor and Senate President for interfering in his leadership election in 2013.  He had every right to be pissed.  It was a legit gripe.  But there comes a point when you have to do the Christian thing and let it go.  But as the AFP screw card showed, it hasn't been let go, it's been expanded to those members of the GOP caucus who sided with the Governor. 

There was more evidence this week, when the Senate Staff -- those same folks who conspired with AFP on the screw card -- sought to crank it up the asses of a few GOP Senators with a release about repealing the tax reform package and replacing it with... Nobody seems to have got that far.

We could go with the plan Senator Jennifer Beck came up with that froze state education aid for seven years to ensure seven years of brutal property tax increases.  Any takers?

In suggesting that they can "repeal the gas tax" what these assbandits actually mean is that they will repeal the Tax Reform package, the whole thing.  So every assbandit candidate who tells the voters that he or she supports "repealing the gas tax" is actually saying that he or she wants to get rid of $1.4 billion in tax cuts, which is just another way of saying that you want to raise taxes by $1.4 billion.

Here are the $1.4 billion in tax cuts these candidates want to shit-can: 

- A tax cut on retirement income.  Most New Jersey retirees will no longer pay state income tax. This tax cut would be worth more than $2,000 annually to the average retiree.

- Elimination of the Estate Tax. This will protect family farms and businesses from being forced to close to pay taxes.

- Tax cut for veterans.  Honorably discharged active duty, guard, and reserve veterans get an additional $3,000 personal income tax deduction.

- Tax credit for low-income workers.  Worth $100 annually to the average worker.

- Sales tax cut.  Worth another $100 annually to the average consumer.

- TTF local government aid:  $400 million in property tax relief for local governments.

That's a pretty sucky platform.

If these machinations are successful and Senator Dick Codey replaces Senator Steve Sweeney as Senate President, conservatives and Republicans who believe in their party's platform will go from having a pragmatic Democrat who from time to time screws us in order to pander to the Democrat base; to a genuine far-left, true-believer, who will spend his every waking hour screwing us simply for the joy of it.  That's not to say that Senator Codey isn't a charming man with a certain integrity.  He just really doesn't buy anything we have on offer and thinks that conservatives and Republicans (the RNC platform variety) are all just full of horse manure. 

Take the Second Amendment for instance.  Senator Codey has proposed two bills to do away with the Second Amendment in New Jersey.  Both S-1159 and S-351 "prohibited the sale, importation, possession and carrying of handguns except by certain authorized persons."  Now why would anyone calling him or herself a conservative or a Republican or even an American ever want to see this despoiler of the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights in ANY position of power?

Our worst nightmare will be Governor Phil "Jon Corzine II" Murphy, Senate President Dick Codey, and a Leftist Democrat Speaker.  Then we will know the meaning of being screwed.  Republicans and groups like AFP should not be conspiring to get us there.

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.