How GOP insiders caused Senator Ed Durr’s primary to happen.

By Rubashov

When Ed Durr beat Steve Sweeney – the longest serving Senate President in New Jersey’s history – it was international news. Newspapers overseas carried photos of the truck-driver who spent a few hundred bucks to beat the powerful Senate President who spent millions. Durr was featured on Fox News and praised by Tucker Carlson.
 
So, how did Senator Ed Durr end up in a primary with an opponent funded by the GOP establishment? An opponent whose campaign is run by establishment consultant Chris Russell, a moderate insider who is 2025 gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli’s top campaign advisor. Russell is the same political consultant brought in by Senate Minority Leader Steve Oroho to run the Space-Fantasia-Inganamort team in LD24.
 
Over a year ago, Senator Durr’s LD03 was identified as the number one target the Democrats would be coming for in 2023. The Senate Republican leadership and SRM were told that if Republicans had a chance at gaining a majority, they needed to hold all the 16 seats (at the time) they had. To do this, special provision would need to be made to protect Ed Durr, who was the most vulnerable Republican incumbent.
 
SRM’s top consultant at the time, and a nationally recognized talent in the field of political campaigning, looked at the data and made this clear assessment of Durr’s chances for re-election:
 
Look, Ed Durr didn’t fit the prototype of someone straight out of central casting. But you know what? His message connected with voters…and while he was outspent WILDLY by the Democrats, it turns out he had enough money…and he worked harder than Steve Sweeney. And guess what, he won. 
 
As I am out recruiting candidates for office next year, I am much more focused on candidates that connect with voters, will put in the effort to raise money and will work hard than any particular box of gender, color or the like.  
 
I am about winning, plain and simple…and those three qualities are what makes winning happen.
 
SRM’s generalissimo went on to note: 
 
These historic victories were driven by voters angry at the status quo… In Senator Durr’s district, 17% of the Republican vote came from people who don’t usually show up the polls! 17% of the Republican vote came from newly registered voters…people who were registered but had never showed up before…or people who only vote in presidential elections – these are all voters who never show up…but 17% of the Republican vote in District 3 came from Republicans who usually sit out elections like the one we just had – that’s unheard of!
 
The polling was good, the seat located in a populist region of the state in which the GOP was growing, and Durr was well known and his numbers solid. What he was weak on – owing to the underfunded nature of his upset win – was money. So, the SRM team pushed to have someone assigned to Senator Durr to help him start fundraising early. This is what any political campaign professional would have counseled anywhere in America. It is what you do.
 
But this is New Jersey, where things are generally not what they seem. That idea was repeatedly shot down by Senate leadership – Durr’s Senate colleagues – including Senators Oroho and Bramnick. Senate Minority Leader Oroho sounded bizarrely Darwinian in his insistence that Senator Durr be left to figure it out on his own.
 
Senator Oroho and top aide Jeff Spatola seemed angry that Durr had defeated Sweeney and offered contemptuous assessments of both the Senator and his remarkable victory. Again, and again and again, attempts to prepare Senator Durr for an expected 2023 assault by the Democrats were thwarted. He was the NJ Senate Republicans’ rock star – known nationally in conservative circles – but attempts to take Durr to Washington for a fundraising roundtable were nixed, as was a planned fundraiser hosted by a major conservative legal group.
 
A superPAC, planned to raise money to help incumbents like Durr, was killed in its infancy. Its inaugural event was essentially cancelled by Spatola, after a significant expenditure.
 
While suggestions to hire a fundraiser to work with Senator Durr were repeatedly rejected, as early as May 26th, there were internal memos circulating by Senate Republican leadership that SRM would need to go into triage mode, with the argument that an underfunded Durr would be too much of a strain on SRM’s finances:
 
“…we need to win six seats to get a net 5 because saving this seat [LD03] is way over what we can raise for all seats.”
 
That was on March 26, 2022! They looked to be giving up and seemed to be offering Durr up to the Democrats on a silver platter. So, Senator Durr, lacking the fundraising component the Senate GOP and SRM recognized that he needed, was allowed to roll into an election year in a vulnerable financial position. This all but ensured the Republican civil war that the Democrats were hoping for.
 
In conversation, Senator Oroho nourished the pipe dream that a GOP majority might be gained by the South Jersey Norcross wing of the Democratic Party joining the GOP en masse. Oroho spoke openly of his “lovely relationship” with Democrat Steve Sweeney. Along with his aide, Spatola, they appeared supportive of Sweeney’s gubernatorial ambitions.
 
Now Senator Durr is locked in a battle for re-election run by a consultant who trousers money from SRM and its candidates. The GOP establishment seems determined to prevent the Ed Durr miracle from happening again. If they succeed in destroying Ed Durr, will that 17% of the Republican vote from people who don’t usually show up at the polls that came out in 2021 to vote against the Democrats and all they stand for, come out again? Will they come out in 2025? And why would they? 

A "Lovely Relationship"?

The New Jersey GOP’s angry, bitter congressional primaries

By Rubashov

At the “A Seat At The Table” conference – held on Thursday, April 28th – former 2016 Trump campaign operative and later White House advisor Dr. Sebastian Gorka made the point that last November’s legislative and down-ballot victories by Republicans in New Jersey were won not by the party organization, but by a wave of grassroots activism angry with the policies of Democrat Governor Phil Murphy. Republicans’ most spectacular victory – trucker Ed Durr’s upset win over Senate President Steve Sweeney – seems to bear out Gorka’s assertion.

Run by a grassroots activist instead of an insider consultant, Durr’s campaign was ignored by Trenton and the NJGOP establishment. Durr achieved his victory with practically no money – while his Democrat opponent had a war chest of over $2 million. Durr’s victory upended all the Trenton establishment’s most basic assumptions about how campaigns are won – although the blogs representing the Trenton establishment (InsiderNJ, NJGlobe, and Save Jersey) have since reverted to the conventional obsessions with money and organizational support.

In the months since he won, no real attempt has been made to figure out how Durr did it and – more importantly – on how to replicate a victory on a shoestring budget. That’s obviously not in the interests of insider campaign consultants who make a commission on every mail piece, every cable ad, every paid campaign communication. That’s not their business model. And even though it would be in the party’s best interests – it’s not in their best interest. So they’ve used their influence at the NJGOP to shut down any attempts to replicate the Durr victory.

Durr’s campaign manager has largely been shut out of GOP gatherings and prevented from conveying his proven strategy to a new generation of campaign managers. Durr’s victory has been embarrassingly pushed under the rug as its very existence does so much to undermine the often pronounced certainties of New Jersey’s political class – especially the campaign consultants and the Trenton blogs that rely on their advertising revenue.

Dr. Gorka compared the grassroots wave of 2021 with the wave in 2016 that had upset expectations and placed someone who had never held public office in the White House. He reminded those present of just how out-of-touch the Washington, DC, GOP Establishment was in the run-up to 2016 – its political operatives, donors, and consultants. Remember all those polls and pundits who insisted that GOP voters wanted amnesty for illegals? Only the Trump campaign was uncompromised by interest groups and their hirings to allow themselves to genuinely understand what voters wanted. He swept the primaries.

The “A Seat At The Table” conference was put together by three very accomplished women, all grassroots activists with large followings. The audience was full of recently elected school board members – all elected on a shoestring, the Ed Durr model. In contrast to the recent NJGOP “leadership summit” in Atlantic City, the “A Seat At The Table” conference was bubbling with policy ideas, and was impressive for the sheer number of thinkers, writers, and authors present. That’s not to say they were light on practical politics. The state’s top talk show host MCed the event. The head of the nation’s top conservative PAC – the guy who puts on CPAC each year – was the keynote speaker. An alternative lineup of pollsters and political consultants was present – as well as a few dozen folks that we know of who think nothing of writing maxed-out checks.

Most impressively, the conference was filled with thoughtful average citizens who are energized and want to help. That was a big difference from the summit, most of whose attendees were in the business of politics: paid party operatives, political consultants, lobbyists, vendors, patronage job holders, appointees, county and municipal professionals, elected officials, and the like. Where the summit was more about networking and fattening the bottom line, the conference focused on getting excited about policy and then going out and doing something about it.

Some view the “A Seat At The Table” conference as a threat to the hegemony of the present state GOP establishment. We don’t feel that way at all. To us, they appear to be about policy, about winning policy battles, and about finding candidates who understand the policy concerns of the grassroots and who will fight for them.

This does pose a challenge to some in the state party who do not share those policy concerns – or who actively oppose them. But it poses the greatest challenge to the professional political consultants who most candidates turn to develop the messages they run on. The fashion today can be summed up as policy minimalist. There is an epidemic out there of candidates who refuse to answer questions, fill out questionnaires, or allow themselves to be pinned down on any issue. But they’ve been advised to take this opaque, bait and switch approach by the consultants they pay to run their campaigns.

Political scientists noticed this trend over the last couple decades. The late Sheldon Wolin, Professor of Politics at Princeton University, wrote about the personal narrative of the candidates becoming more important than the policies they stand for. Benjamin DeMott called it “junk politics” – while others have labeled it “stupid politics” or “post-literate politics” or “political theater”.

Well, it is now standard operating procedure for insider Republican campaign consultants in New Jersey. They demand it of their candidates – a strict discipline of no issues pages, no questionnaires, and only the most generalized positions on policy. This fashion of “policy-free” campaigning is running head-on into the new grassroots activism evidenced at the conference. Average voters realize it for the hollow rip-off that it is: In return for your vote, my candidate offers nothing beyond his pretty smile and some highlights on his resume. In other words, the voter gets nothing.

Of course, the dumbed-down media long ago swapped policy discussions for competing political personalities – as if it were an episode of “American Ninja Warrior” instead of a campaign for public office. And the worst of the lot are Trenton-centric so-called “insider” blogs that focus on “process” stories and gossip. And so you get full coverage on a congressional candidate standing on one foot for a minute or so but nothing on why these candidates are failing to tell people where they stand on important issues in the news… like Roe v. Wade. “Junk politics” – “stupid politics” – “post-literate politics” – “political theater” or stupid celebrity wannabees, take your pick.

But recent developments have made things even worse and threaten to turn state GOP politics into a cesspit of vitriol. In the aftermath of a series of election cycles that saw the state GOP lose all its Republican congressmen save one – along with such formerly powerhouse Republican counties as Bergen, Somerset, and Burlington – some in the party have questioned the habit of giving all the campaign work to a few insider political consultants. They wanted to expand the party’s management stable to include people like the guy who ran Ed Durr’s winning campaign on a shoestring. This pissed off the insiders to no end – and it’s been reflected in the tone of their campaigns.

Hey, it’s bad enough it’s a policy-free zone but now the arguments are over infantile nonsense – like a congressional candidate complaining because his opponent’s campaign manager (so he claims) treated him like he was “a ghost” and compared it to “an episode of Mean Girls.” No shit, a candidate actually said that. A former Marine, no less. And it took up a big piece of a debate – hosted by two Trenton insider bloggers. They actually focused on shit like this. Not on policy differences, mind you, but on shit like this.

These congressional campaigns are becoming petty schoolyard hatefests because some consultants are afraid they’re going to have to share the vittles. And it pisses them off. They want it all – all of it. No sharing!

And where once they advertised their win-loss records, now they make up narratives about how losing last year’s gubernatorial race was the best thing that happened to Republicans in 30 years. Really??? And they brag about the awards given them by other insider establishment political consultants. Hey, every marginal “profession” has similar awards – trash haulers, used car salesmen, insurance agents – but maybe not so many as political consultants, who have so many awards no one need go home without one. Dave Chappelle did a fine spoof on this that captures nicely the attitudes and inner thoughts of any gathering of political consultants.

Dave Chappelle's interpretation of the (Lou) Reed Awards.

Come and get your trophies. A winner every time!

After RICO conviction of Opioid maker, Trenton should come clean on Big Pharma connections

By Rubashov
 
On Monday, as Trenton Democrats failed in their attempt to forcibly mandate a Big Pharma product, federal prosecutors in Boston were securing tough sentences in their first Big Pharma conviction in an opioid crisis that has resulted in more than 400,000 deaths.
 
NPR called the criminal trial of top executives at Insys Therapeutics a “landmark case” and the “first successful prosecution of high-ranking pharmaceutical executives linked to the opioid crisis, including onetime billionaire John Kapoor.” 
 
Kapoor and his four co-defendants were found guilty of racketeering and conspiracy – a charge that is often used to prosecute drug dealers and mob bosses.  In this case the federal government used racketeering to go after corporate executives.
 
The Big Pharma executives were found guilty of running a nationwide bribery scheme. According to court documents, from 2012 until 2015, the pharmaceutical company paid doctors to prescribe opioids in high doses and give it to patients who did not necessarily need it.
 
To facilitate their scheme, the Big Pharma executives created a sham "speakers program” where doctors were paid if they wrote a lot of prescriptions.  It’s the same kind of scam that was used by special interests to pay-off friendly politicians. 

Senate President Steve Sweeney and Senate Democrat Leader Loretta Weinberg have promised their political bosses that they will remove the rights of people to have religious and conscientious objections to the use of Big Pharma products, in this session of the Legislature.  There is a real concern here, because pharmaceutical companies like the one sentenced in federal court on Monday have used their billions to shout down average voters.
 
In 2016, Insys Therapeutics underwrote an effort to defeat a ballot initiative in Arizona.  This included an advertising campaign claiming that opposing the measure was to "protect children".
 
Insys Therapeutics’ allies included major state politicians, the Association of County School Superintendents, the Hospital and Healthcare Association, and several other community organizations.  Big Pharma won… defeating the ballot initiative 51.3% to 48.7%. 
 
That’s why it is so important for New Jersey reformers to demand that a fully transparent website be created that details all of Big Pharma’s influence in New Jersey.  There have been too many deaths as a result of that influence and the resulting lax oversight by government.  400,000 dead and counting…
 
The time for transparency is now.

LUPE should lead investigation on Trenton sex scandal

By Rubashov
 
Yesterday, Latinas United for Political Empowerment (LUPE) PAC sent Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg (D-37) the names of four Latina women who they asked to be added to the “ad-hoc committee” that Weinberg is proposing address “misogyny and sexual harassment” in Trenton.  LUPE president Laura Matos put out this statement (in part):

“While the ongoing coverage of the #MeToo movement has touched upon the topic of the diversity of the women victimized by sexual harassment and assault, women of color are still underrepresented in this coverage.  It has been shown over the past three decades that women of color have vastly different experiences in terms of sexual harassment and assault.”

Let’s leave aside the false construct of “women of color” for the moment and concentrate on things that matter like economic class and the barriers that language may impose on people.  We recall a case in Hudson County in which a judge (yes, a judge) was specifically targeting and sexually preying upon economically disadvantaged working class women, many of whom were not proficient in the English language. 

Cases like this are obviously different from what is suffered by more powerful, economically secure women, so Ms. Matos’ point should be seriously addressed.

On the other hand, if Ms. Matos is arguing that those in power perceive Latina women as especially vulnerable to coercion, that is a different matter.  Is there data on this?  If so, Ms. Matos' group might be in a good position to collect testimony.  We should note that this was a factor in a recent report we received about a senior member of the Speaker’s office who appeared to be targeting a junior staffer.
   
According to press reports, Senator Weinberg has invited veteran lobbyist Jeannine LaRue, political operative Julie Roginsky and Patricia Teffenhart, executive director of the New Jersey Coalition Against Sexual Assault, Senate Majority Counsel Alison Accettola and Senate Minority Executive Director Christine Shipley to serve on the panel, whose membership will be finalized later this week.  Outside of Ms. Teffenhart, this appears to be an insiders’ panel and we seriously doubt that someone like Ms. Accettola will actually call out her bosses or a lobbyist like Ms. LaRue will be in an economic position to serve as an independent whistleblower.  It simply isn’t credible.

Senator Weinberg knows this – and her efforts appear more and more to be along the lines of an attempt to seize a potential scandal, control it before it gets out of hand, and then brush it under the rug.  Like they did the rape case, still unresolved, of Katie Brennan. Nobody was charged.  Blame was sufficiently obfuscated and dispersed.  The Trenton way.     
 
In her statement on Monday, we found it particularly hypocritical of Senator Weinberg to condemn the New Jersey State League of Municipalities and the New Jersey State Chamber of Commerce for what she called their “see no evil responses.”  In fact, the same can be said of Senator Weinberg – and not just concerning what goes on at some annual event – but about what happens every day, day in, day out, in Trenton.
 
Senator Weinberg is part of the power structure in Trenton.  So how many of those in that power structure sleep with staff members who they have the power to fire at will?  How many of her colleagues have sexual dependents on their payrolls?  Would the taxpayers approve of paying for this?
 
The military doesn’t allow such fraternization.  Neither do enlightened corporations.  What message does it send?  What tone does it set – when powerful people are allowed to hire paramours or groom them at the workplace? 
 
This is where the rot begins.  Everyone knows what is going on, everyone sees it, people are rewarded, predators are lauded and further empowered – and nothing is said.  And Senator Weinberg is somehow surprised when it goes outside the Trenton workplace and occurs at the social gatherings of such people?  Don’t start at the fringes – clean it up at the source!     
 
If Senator Weinberg is serious about what she put out in her press release, she might wish to start with her Democrat colleague in the nearby 32nd District…

This has been out in the public domain since 2011 – nearly a decade – and it happened just down the road from where Senator Weinberg lives!  And she’s putting out press releases in 2019 suggesting that this kind of misogynistic behavior is news to her?  We have to ask… are you for real?
 
And why haven’t the members of Congress who represent Bergen and Hudson Counties spoken up about this State Senator?  Why haven’t we heard from Congressmen Josh Gottheimer (D-5), Albio Sires (D-8), Bill Pascrell (D-9), or Donald Payne (D-10)?  These men have all been quick to blame political opponents for indiscretions but are mute when it comes to their political allies.  Don’t they understand that nothing will ever change that way?    
 
There are many serious people in politics and public policy.  You have people like Sue Altman on the Left and Regina Egea on the Right.  But there are a lot more jumped-up, wannabe political celebrities.  And like all celebrities, they think they are special.  They think taxpayers’ money is their money.  They think the voters are their subjects – to be bossed, mandated, manipulated, and ordered about.  They think people are put on earth for them to consume.
 
The institutional misogyny that pervades the Trenton Establishment will never be adequately addressed by a pillar of that Establishment.  Senator Weinberg has too many deals in place and, as a member of the legislative  leadership, she’s part of the problem.  One need only be reminded of how she single-handedly prevented the bi-partisan Human Trafficking and Child Exploitation Prevention Act from even getting a hearing in committee – in spite of this legislation having enough co-sponsors of both parties to ensure its passage.
 
Instead of a committee composed of people who knew about this for years but remained silent, how about bringing in some average taxpayers – the people who foot the bill for all this hanky panky – and let them get outraged.  Maybe a few heads would roll? 
 
Not to worry though, this will get reported on and written about… thanks to Senate President Steve Sweeney’s mighty efforts to piss-off as many working women authors as is possible, thanks to his efforts to destroy their careers.  It’s just another facet of Trenton’s non-stop WAR ON WOMEN.  And this time, you won’t get to contain it using an insider committee like you did with the Brennan cover-up.  

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.

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…

Meet some of the people whose lives are being destroyed by Trenton Democrats

Working mothers and others depend on the flexible arrangements that working as an independent contractor provides them. It’s a global feature of what’s become known as the new “gig economy”. But such arrangements could soon be illegal in New Jersey, if Senate Democrats have their way.

Senate Bill S-4204 was recently passed out of the Senate Labor Committee on a 3 to 1 vote. That’s 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.

The Assembly Democrats also passed their own version of the bill out of committee on a 6 (Democrats) to 3 (Republicans) vote. The Democrats waited until after Election Day to introduce their bills in both chambers of the Legislature. Now it’s getting fast-tracked. How dishonest is that? Waiting until after the voters could do something about it.

As proposed by Sweeney, S-4204 “provides that, for the purposes of all State employment laws, individuals who perform services for remuneration are employees, not independent contractors, and are subject to the provisions of those laws… unless and until it is shown to the satisfaction of the Commissioner that:

a. The individual has been and will continue to be free from control or direction over the performance of the service, both under the individual’s contract of service and in fact; and

b. The individual’s service is either outside the usual course of the business for which that service is performed; and

c. The individual is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, profession or business of the same nature as that involved in the work performed.”

This is an incredibly stupid move for Senate President Sweeney, a potential candidate for Governor in 2021. But it gets worse because the guy Sweeney would be running against – incumbent Democrat Governor Phil Murphy – supports Senate Bill S-4204 too.

Who is affected by S-4204? Several Facebook groups have formed in response to the actions by Trenton Democrats. Some feature the stories of those whose livelihoods will be destroyed by the Democrats’ actions.

One such group is www.fightforfreelancers.com . In under two weeks, this group has attracted nearly 1,000 activists and its Facebook page features dozens of stories about the hardships S-4204 will bring.

Alida Kass of the New Jersey Civil Justice Institute is leading the fight against S-4204 and its companion legislation. NJ101.5’s Bill Spadea recently interviewed her…

You can do something to save the professions chosen by working moms and others. The Senate Labor Committee is meeting again on Thursday in Trenton. 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

GSI Poll: 44% of New Jersey residents planning to leave. Is NJ the new East Germany?

Yesterday was a voting session in the New Jersey Legislature. Regina Egea of the Garden State Initiative (GSI), a think tank that closely monitors the various home-grown diseases that beset the state’s economy, sent around fresh data from a poll conducted for GSI by Fairleigh Dickinson University’s School of Public & Global Affairs. Ms. Egea had this to report:

According to the survey, 44% of New Jersey residents are planning to leave the state in the not so distant future with more than 1 in 4 (28%) planning to depart the Garden State within 5 years. Unsurprisingly, Property Taxes and the overall Cost of Living were cited as the main drivers. The results also debunk two issues frequently cited in anecdotal accounts of outmigration, weather and public transportation, as they ranked 8th and 10th respectively, out of 11 factors offered.

These results should alarm every elected official and policymaker in New Jersey. We have a crisis of confidence in the ability of our leaders to address property taxes and the cost of living whether at the start of their career, in prime earning years, or repositioning for retirement, New Jersey residents see greener pastures in other states. This crisis presents a profound challenge to our state as we are faced with a generation of young residents looking elsewhere to build their careers, establish families and make investments like homeownership.

This out-migration of people should come as no surprise to anyone who has kept track of how and where former New Jersey elected officials spend their retirement. After lifetimes spent raising people’s property taxes, voting for all manner of other taxes and spending – while building up pensions and other benefits for themselves – they move to states less liberal with money, with markedly lower taxes. They escape the taxes they are responsible for, the failing economy they are responsible for. There are actual colonies of former New Jersey elected and appointed officials popping up in states like Florida and North Carolina – all being mailed pension checks from New Jersey!

So how did the New Jersey Legislature spend the voting session on the day the poll was released that showed nearly half the inmates of the garden spot they’re running were planning their escape? In the words of Republican Assemblyman Hal Wirths, the Democrats who control the Legislature decided to make it “criminal appreciation day”.

Yep, the Democrats gave the vote to convicted criminals and also provided them with education funding – just months after they gave millions in education funding to illegal immigrants – while slashing education funding to the children of property tax payers across the state. Of course they did, that’s how they roll.

The Democrats in New Jersey have gone crazy. Everybody can see how this story is going to end. The only thing that can change that ending are Republicans. Elect a Republican as Governor, change the make-up of the Legislature by adding more and more Republicans – and you will give anxious movers-to-be the breathing space to reconsider and give the state a second (or third or fourth) chance.

Democrat Senate President Steve Sweeney has spent a lot of time and energy trying to convince New Jersey’s business community that he is for them. They even backed his guys in District 1 (and lost).

But Sweeney’s promises and plans are not really “bi-partisan” or “pro-business” or “pro-jobs” at all. He showed this when he specifically targeted Republican-voting school districts for his education funding cuts. And again, during the campaign, when he allowed top staffer Mark Magyar’s newspapers to trash even friendly Republicans. And after the campaign, with a $9 million pay-back to abortionist Planned Parenthood for supporting Democrat candidates. And again, when Sweeney proposed S-4204, which will crush working mothers and drive businesses out of the state.

Steve Sweeney always returns to what he is. He is reminiscent of those lines from one of Kipling’s poems:

As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began.
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;

And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!

These Democrats – all of them, in one way or another – are a form of slow motion disaster. Post-election, they have merely increased the speed. All the evidence suggests that with these Democrats, in the end, the only good Republican is one who no longer holds office (just as the only good business or good worker is one who pledges fealty to the corrupt machine). Those 44 percent of New Jerseyans who are so desperate for leadership they are willing to move to seek it elsewhere, will not be assuaged by “bi-partisan” cohabitation. More dramatic measures are in order – clear, unambiguous Republican measures.

Trentonian: The lives of hundreds of thousands of New Jerseyans are about to be destroyed.

The Trentonian newspaper put out a warning yesterday…

Attention fellow New Jerseyans: We are about to get screwed like we've never been screwed before by state Sen. President Steve Sweeney, the rest of the legislature, and Governor Phil Murphy.

…I need you to understand bill S4204, introduced by Sweeney in November, and fast-tracked for passage in the coming weeks. In short: It will eliminate the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of New Jerseyans. Plain and simple.

The bill would upend the current system of people who operate as independent contractors. Basically, you won’t be allowed to offer your services unless you’re hired as an official employee of the business. That’s a simplistic reading of the bill, but that’s it in a nutshell.

For example: Let’s say you’re a kindergarten teacher and, on the side, you’re a wedding photographer. Maybe you shoot four or five weddings a year, and you get the work through Jimmy’s Wedding Photo Emporium. You like photography, you like weddings, it’s a fun little side gig for you, and Jimmy pays you $200 a wedding, and you’re happy. Or maybe you’re not a teacher; maybe you’re a stay-at-home mom trying to make a few bucks. Maybe you’re a college student looking to pay down your debt. Maybe you’re retired and you enjoy taking pictures. Doesn’t matter; unless Jimmy hires you as an employee, you will not be allowed to shoot weddings for him. You cannot be an independent contractor of wedding photography anymore.

So.

Are you a photographer? A truck driver owner-operator? A freelance writer? A tree trimmer? A dog groomer? A lawyer? A locksmith? A tow-truck driver? A million other things? Yeah. You’re screwed.

And woe is the small business owner, because this cuts both ways. Remember Jimmy, our old pal from Jimmy’s Wedding Photo Emporium? Yeah, he won’t be able to afford to hire all these employees, won’t be able to afford the taxes that go along with having all these employees. So yeah. If you’re Jimmy - or any small business owner that hires people to do piecemeal work, guess what? You’re screwed.

You can read Jeff Edelstein’s entire column here: https://www.trentonian.com/news/the-lives-of-hundreds-of-thousands-of-new-jerseyans-are/article_91e95642-0c08-11ea-a16d-e311dc18d1ae.html

Why are they doing this in the face of data that clearly indicates the current structure helps working mothers and others? United States Census data has chronicled this common route back to work for women trying to balance motherhood with gainful employment. And there is a large academic literature on the subject. As New Jersey 101.5’s Bill Spadea noted:

That's right, If you're a working mom who took some time off to have and raise your children, you may be at risk.

The latest attack on our economy from the radicals in Trenton is a new bill that would all but eliminate the ability for a person to work as an independent contractor in New Jersey…

The restrictions placed on employers in order to essentially force them to hire W2 employees only will be most hurtful to working moms. So many mothers need the flexibility of returning to work and controlling their own hours like ride share drivers, food delivery, special education providers, among many, many others.

As we know, the so-called 'gender pay gap' is a very complicated issue and has everything to do with choices many women make to stay home with their kids for a number of years. Naturally, returning to the workforce after a gap in experience results in reduction in pay as many women are essentially starting again. The idea of returning to work as an independent contractor offers the kind of additional income and flexible hours, which empowers moms to continue managing their homes, balancing child care and of course, paying NJ taxes.

We heard from Alida Kass on Monday from the NJ Civil Justice Institute prior to her testifying before the Assembly committee discussing the new law. Then Jon Bramnick, the recently re-elected Assembly Minority Leader, explaining that this is all about new taxes for NJ businesses and another reason that many business owners will look to leave NJ. They can simply head across the river to PA or DE and not pay the additional taxes at all.

Read More: Murphy's and Sweeney's new tax target: Moms returning to work

Hear Bill Spadea interview Alida Kass…

The NFIB noted that the New Jersey Democrats are merely copying a California law that totally screwed working mothers and small businesses in that state, but apparently those pushing this legislation don’t care. The only kind of business they favor is the crony capitalist kind – businesses big enough to collect corporate welfare and then kick-back to the right politicians and their superPACs. Real dirtbag stuff.

Hopefully there’s a Republican on the horizon who will stand up for moms and cut the nuts off these Democrats.

Trenton Democrats are making war on working mothers

Many working mothers depend on the flexible arrangements that working as an independent contractor provides them. But such arrangements could soon be illegal in New Jersey, if Trenton Democrats have their way.

Last week, Senate Bill S-4204 passed out of the Senate Labor Committee on a 3 to 1 vote. That’s 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.

On Monday, it was the turn of the Assembly Democrats, who passed their version of the bill out of committee on a 6 (Democrats) to 3 (Republicans) vote. Figures that creeps like Assemblyman Eric Houghtaling didn’t have the balls to take this vote before the election. In fact, the Democrats waited until after Election Day to introduce their bills in both chambers of the Legislature. Now it’s getting fast-tracked. How dishonest is that! Waiting until after the voters can do something about it – and then screwing mom. Hey, you know what that makes them?

As proposed by Sweeney, S-4204 “provides that, for the purposes of all State employment laws, individuals who perform services for remuneration are employees, not independent contractors, and are subject to the provisions of those laws… unless and until it is shown to the satisfaction of the Commissioner that:

a. The individual has been and will continue to be free from control or direction over the performance of the service, both under the individual’s contract of service and in fact; and

b. The individual’s service is either outside the usual course of the business for which that service is performed; and

c. The individual is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, profession or business of the same nature as that involved in the work performed.”

This is an incredibly stupid move for a potential candidate for Governor in 2021. Whoever advised Sweeney to do this must have been hitting the pipe overtime. But it gets worse because the guy Sweeney would be running against – incumbent Democrat Governor Phil Murphy – supports screwing over working moms too.

Why are they doing it in the face of data that clearly indicates the current structure helps working mothers? United States Census data has chronicled this common route back to work for women trying to balance motherhood with gainful employment. And there is a large academic literature on the subject. As New Jersey 101.5’s Bill Spadea noted:

That's right, If you're a working mom who took some time off to have and raise your children, you may be at risk.

The latest attack on our economy from the radicals in Trenton is a new bill that would all but eliminate the ability for a person to work as an independent contractor in New Jersey…

The restrictions placed on employers in order to essentially force them to hire W2 employees only will be most hurtful to working moms. So many mothers need the flexibility of returning to work and controlling their own hours like ride share drivers, food delivery, special education providers, among many, many others.

As we know, the so-called 'gender pay gap' is a very complicated issue and has everything to do with choices many women make to stay home with their kids for a number of years. Naturally, returning to the workforce after a gap in experience results in reduction in pay as many women are essentially starting again. The idea of returning to work as an independent contractor offers the kind of additional income and flexible hours, which empowers moms to continue managing their homes, balancing child care and of course, paying NJ taxes.

We heard from Alida Kass on Monday from the NJ Civil Justice Institute prior to her testifying before the Assembly committee discussing the new law. Then Jon Bramnick, the recently re-elected Assembly Minority Leader, explaining that this is all about new taxes for NJ businesses and another reason that many business owners will look to leave NJ. They can simply head across the river to PA or DE and not pay the additional taxes at all.

Read More: Murphy's and Sweeney's new tax target: Moms returning to work

Hear Bill Spadea interview Alida Kass…

The NFIB noted that the New Jersey Democrats are merely copying a FrCalifornia law that totally screwed working mothers and small businesses in that state, but apparently those pushing this legislation don’t care. The only kind of business they favor is the crony capitalist kind – businesses big enough to collect corporate welfare and then kick-back to the right politicians and their superPACs. Real dirtbag stuff.

Hopefully there’s a Republican on the horizon who will stand up for moms and cut the nuts off these Democrats.

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

The Reparations Racket is an exercise in vote-buying

Most of those alive today are descendants of slaves. Wikipedia defines slavery as follows:

Slavery is any system in which principles of property law are applied to people, allowing individuals to own, buy and sell other individuals, as a de jure form of property. A slave is unable to withdraw unilaterally from such an arrangement and works without remuneration. Many scholars now use the term chattel slavery to refer to this specific sense of legalized, de jure slavery. In a broader sense, however, the word slavery may also refer to any situation in which an individual is de facto forced to work against their own will. Scholars also use the more generic terms such as unfree labour or forced labour to refer to such situations. However, and especially under slavery in broader senses of the word, slaves may have some rights and protections according to laws or customs.

Slavery existed in many cultures, dating back to early human civilizations. A person could become enslaved from the time of their birth, capture, or purchase.

Slavery was legal in most societies at some time in the past, but is now outlawed in all recognized countries. The last country to officially abolish slavery was Mauritania in 1981. Nevertheless, there are an estimated 40.3 million people worldwide subject to some form of modern slavery. The most common form of modern slave trade is commonly referred to as human trafficking. In other areas, slavery (or unfree labour) continues through practices such as debt bondage, the most widespread form of slavery today, serfdom, domestic servants kept in captivity, certain adoptions in which children are forced to work as slaves, child soldiers, and forced marriage.

Race doesn’t enter in to it, as all manner of human beings, all colors and creeds, have enslaved their fellow man since the beginning of time. If it is, as some suggest, our original sin (and it is high on the list of sins) then it is a sin shared by all mankind, one that in our humility we must all account for.

The Bible tells us that the Israelites often found themselves enslaved as a people – by the Egyptians, and later, by the Romans. Slavery existed in the Americas at the time of its first contact with Europe. At the start of the American Republic, there were two African-based slave trades. One, out of sub-Saharan Africa, provided human beings to slaveholders in the United States and European colonies in America. The other, based in North Africa, brought European slaves and others to Islamic markets. The United States fought two wars to end the latter (1801-05 and 1815) and a civil war (1861-65) to end the former.

Politically, the Democrat Party was the institutional face of the slavery in America. You need only read the Democrat Party platforms prior to the Civil War to recognize this. Long after the Democrats were forced to give up on slavery, they continued to commemorate their slave-holding heritage. Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Bernie Sanders… they all have attended Jefferson-Jackson Day dinners and have, by doing so, honored those two slave-owning Democrats.

Slavery in America ended with the advent of the Republican Party. Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican President, was elected in 1860 with 39.8% of the vote. Lincoln was sworn-in on March 4, 1861. The American Civil War began a month later, on April 12, 1861. By then seven Southern states had seceded from the Union.

At the 1860 census, it was recorded that those in slavery made up 13 percent of the United States’ population. Slavery existed in 14 of the then 33 states (by the end of the war there would be 36 states). 3.9 million people were enslaved, but only 8 percent of American families were slaveholders. Slaveholders did not constitute a majority in any of those 14 states in which slavery was tolerated. But though a minority, slaveholders were an exceedingly rich minority.

All the anti-slavery states (as well as some of the slaveholding ones) produced soldiers and sailors for the holy cause of abolition. New Jersey furnished 76,814 soldiers and sailors – 1,185 of whom were African-American. This was a smaller contribution than neighboring states like Pennsylvania (337,936) and New York (448,850). It was claimed that New Jersey was less enthusiastic than more Republican states. In 1864, in the middle of the war, New Jersey would field the Democrat candidate against Lincoln, who won the state’s 7 electoral votes and a 53% to 47% popular vote win.

Nevertheless, 5,754 New Jersey soldiers/sailors gave their lives in that war to end slavery. Again, neighboring states gave more to the cause. Pennsylvania lost 33,183 of its sons. New York lost 46,534. Regiments were segregated then, so we know that most of those who gave their lives were classified as “white”. But it should be noted that they fought alongside comrades who were classified as “colored” – 36,847 of whom died. In all 178,975 “colored” soldiers and sailors served in the war.

Some Democrats have come up with the ridiculous fable wherein they argue that the parties “switched” ideologies. No, you will not find support for slavery in any Republican Party platform. Unfortunately, the Democrats cannot make that claim. Slavery is the sin of their party. Burdened by such a sin, it is natural that the Democrats wish to deflect the blame for it onto a wider population. And so they have come up with the idea of “reparations”.

What the Democrats propose is a tax (it’s always about a tax with them, isn’t it) on some people – regardless of whether or not their ancestors had slaves, or fought and died to end slavery, or even were in the United States before 1865. Then the Democrats propose that they make a gift of this money to a different group of people.

This satisfies the Democrats’ need to publicly proclaim their “goodness”. It also absolves their party of its unique blame by vastly expanding that blame to others, regardless of whether they have any specific guilt at all or of the sacrifices made by their ancestors. And finally, the Democrats calculate that by taking from Peter and giving it to Paul, Peter will be silenced into submission and Paul will reward the Democrats with his vote. Yes, the Democrats are without shame.

Later today, you can catch this shameless performance at the Assembly Appropriations Committee, Committee Room 11, Fourth Floor, State House Annex, Trenton, New Jersey. The performance is for the benefit of the Democrat Party of Phil Murphy, Steve Sweeney, and Craig Coughlin.

Stay tuned…

Voters in Washington reject Affirmative Action ballot measure… while NJ Dems push Reparations bill

In Washington State, the affirmative-action measure known as Referendum 88 has gone down to defeat after a week of counting ballots. Had it been approved, it would have implemented affirmative-action legislation known as Initiative 1000. Passed by the state Legislature earlier in the year, Initiative-1000 codified affirmative action for public contracting, employment and education.

While recognized as a generally more liberal state than even New Jersey, Washington has embraced direct democracy in a way the party bosses in New Jersey wouldn’t dare. In response to the Legislature’s passage of Initiative-1000, a group called Let People Vote was formed by a group of immigrants, many of whom were originally from China. They argued that the policy reminded them of their country of origin, that it was a divisive policy, and that it created a system of racial quotas that would allow state government to discriminate. They won.

Back in New Jersey, the likes of Democrats Phil Murphy, Steve Sweeney, and Craig Coughlin don’t have much to fear from Initiative & Referendum. Even when people do manage to get something on the ballot, Governor Murphy sends the Attorney General’s office (i.e. men with guns) to try to prevent the democratic exercise of voting. Maybe they should consider changing the name of their party? Or maybe someone should sue them for false advertising? Because the last thing these Democrat party bosses are is democratic.

In the post-election lame duck session of the Legislature the Democrats have put so-called “criminal justice reform” at the top of the legislative agenda. No, not property tax relief… criminal justice reform. You know, that hobby horse of the very rich – of everyone from George Soros to Koch Industries. This so-called “reform” argues for the decriminalization of actual crime – assaults on human beings and their property – while it seeks to make thinking the “wrong” thoughts or expressing the “wrong” opinions illegal.

On Thursday, a performance has been scheduled, hosted by the Assembly Appropriations Committee. It will begin promptly tomorrow, November 14, 2019 at 1:00 PM in Committee Room 11, Fourth Floor, State House Annex, Trenton, New Jersey. Proceeds benefit the Democrat Party of Phil Murphy, Steve Sweeney, and Craig Coughlin.

Among the bills being considered is A-3722/S-2055. This legislation “permits incarcerated persons to receive student financial aid.” And A-5823, which “removes prohibition on voting by persons convicted of indictable offense who are on parole or probation.”

By the way, these are the same Democrats who slashed education funding to New Jersey school children across the state… causing property tax increases. Now they are proposing to provide funding to convicted criminals.

But it doesn’t end there. The Democrats are not only going to ignore property tax relief, they intend to ignore the high rate of foreclosure and the low rate of job creation too. And instead of addressing these important issues, the Democrats will opt to discuss… reparations for slavery. The Civil War ended in 1865 but rather than discuss a problem staring them in the face – like child hunger – the Democrats want to go back and take on history. Hey, Governor Murphy could address child hunger with more jobs and less foreclosure… but nooo, let’s talk reparations. It’s the process by which rich people like Phil Murphy seek to take money from these working class folk to give it to those working class folk, in order to buy votes.

A press release was issued late yesterday by a group calling itself the “Institute”, from which we have taken the following excerpts: “NJ Legislators to Address Voting Rights Restoration and Reparations Legislation This Thursday… Institute, Partners, and Supporters Will Show Support for Full Voting Rights Restoration and Policy-Driven Solutions to Systemic Racism in New Jersey… At 2 pm, the Institute and its partners will join legislators for the introduction of legislation to create a Reparative Justice Task Force in New Jersey. The Task Force will focus on repairing structural racism in New Jersey that can be traced back to slavery in the state and around the country, and recommend targeted policies and investments…”

“Partnering” with the “Institute” include any number of well-funded lobbying organizations – including several affiliated with Rutgers University. So let’s see… property tax relief, high foreclosure rate, low job creation… or reparations? Which will they get to first? We’ll let Princeton University answer that question…

It’s like the Princeton University study says…

“The preferences of the average American appear to have only a miniscule, near zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy.”

Bramnick vs. Sweeney: The politics of competing plans

Good for Jim Florio… at least he remembers who he is.

When asked whether or not he would endorse law partner Doug Steinhardt for Governor, the former Governor put it very simply:  “He’s not the right party as far as I’m concerned.  I would not vote for him.  I’m a Democratic voter.”

Doug is the Chairman of the Republican State Committee.  The two are partners at Florio Perrucci Steinhardt & Cappelli.  This insight came courtesy of that doyen of bloggers… David Wildstein. 

But hey, Florio gets it.  Party means something.

It is the job of the leader of every legislative party caucus – the Speaker, the Senate President, and the minority leaders – to defend and expand their caucus at the expense of the other side.  Those are the rules.  It is first and foremost.  We all understand this.

Last week, Assembly Republican Leader Jon Bramnick rolled out his plan for addressing New Jersey’s fiscal crisis.  It was a direct appeal to elect more Republicans to the Assembly and centered on what they would do if elected.

Bramnick did exactly what he needed to do.  After pointing out the fiscal evils perpetrated by legislative Democrats, Bramnick lays out three solid policy positions that points New Jersey Republicans in the direction of what we should be for…

(1) Cap State Spending at 2% (just like local government spending is capped).

(2) Cut the State Income Tax by 10% (make NJ more competitive w. other states).

(3) Full Deduction of Property Taxes on the State Income Tax (a move that takes the property tax issue away from Democrats like Andy Kim, Mikie Sherrill, and Josh Gottheimer).

In a political sense, the Assembly Republican Leader’s plan does not demonize any organized, well-funded interest groups – it simply starves government for the benefit of taxpayers.  Bramnick makes war on spending, not people.  And that is good politics.    

Bramnick avoids the mistake made in 2015 by then Governor Chris Christie and his Republican Party.  Christie’s pension/health benefits commission called for many changes but he went further and directly confronted the unions and their members, demonizing them in the process.  Christie inadvertently created well-organized, well-financed cells of opposition in every Republican district in the state. 

Like this year, 2015 was a low-turnout election with the Assembly at the top of the ticket.  Public employee unions targeted Republicans and Democrat super PACs – including those controlled by George Norcross – poured money into the campaigns of Democrat challengers.  Republicans lost four seats – four friends by the names of Donna, Caroline, Mary Pat, and Sam.

Yesterday, Senate President Steve Sweeney announced his “bi-partisan” plan that targets many of the same people that Governor Christie pissed off in 2015.  It should be noted that Sweeney’s plan was formally rolled out after the filing deadline for the Democrat primary.  Unfortunately for Republicans… it is some months until the November election.

This is not about the merits of the “bi-partisan plan” but rather, it is about the politics and timing of the plan.   

Are Republicans in danger of repeating 2015 again? 

Will the super PACS’s controlled by Sweeney allies like George Norcross back up every Republican legislator on the ballot this year?  Or will they stay true to form and support their Democrat challengers?  Will the Republicans on the ballot this year end up getting it from both ends?

This situation might be different if New Jersey Republicans had taken the time to build a base of small dollar donors and activists.  But as fundraiser Ali Steinstra noted at the March NJGOP Leadership Summit, broad-based Republican fundraising can only be accomplished by appeals to the party’s conservative base.   

The GOP establishment in New Jersey is barely on speaking terms with its base, so the ground has not been prepared.  We have no equivalent to what the NJEA and the Norcross super PACs will throw against us, so pissing on a hornet’s nest probably isn’t a good idea.  At this moment in time, it is more likely to motivate the kind of turnout that will cost us another four or more seats in November.

Assembly Leader Bramnick has a sensible, Republican plan that addresses the problem of spending and taxation.  It avoids drawing fire from well-organized, well-funded interest groups.  Those on the ballot this year have a choice to make.

Why did Murphy aide leading anti-Sweeney effort try to kill Hebrew school?

Late yesterday afternoon it emerged that Action Together NJ – a Democratic Socialist group closely aligned with LD25 Democrats Lisa Bhimani and Darcy Draeger – was organizing to counter a bi-partisan effort to cut property taxes and make New Jersey more affordable led by Senate President Steve Sweeney, a Gloucester County Democrat.  That’s right, the whacked-out Democratic Socialist wing of the New Jersey Democrats is out to derail an effort to cut property taxes, led by fellow Democrats.  This is how nuts they are.

The move appears to be an attempt by embattled Governor Phil Murphy to divert attention away from hearings into why he and his top lieutenants allowed an apparent predator to sexually assault multiple female Democrat Party campaign workers.  After which they rewarded him with a taxpayer-funded state job.

The Star-Ledger reported:

“A top aide to Gov. Phil Murphy, in a conference call with liberal activists, suggested ways to push back against state Senate President Stephen Sweeney’s big plan to fix New Jersey’s long-term fiscal problems, NJ Advance Media has learned.

The aide — Deborah Cornavaca, Murphy’s deputy chief of staff for outreach — said during the call Wednesday that Sweeney, a frequent Murphy rival, is pushing ‘a false narrative’…

The conference call, organized by advocacy group Action Together NJ, came 24 hours before Sweeney is scheduled to host a town hall in Sewell on Thursday night to discuss his ‘Path to Progress’ report, which he commissioned to find ways to save the state government money.”

Curiously, Ms. Cornavaca has yet to speak out against the sexual assaults made on her fellow Democrat women who had the misfortune of working on the Murphy for Governor campaign.  Say what you will about Steve Sweeney, but if anyone molested a woman on his campaign… well, let’s just say the perpetrator would find himself in great need of dentures.    

It doesn’t surprise us that Ms. Cornavaca has been selected by Governor Murphy to lead the attack on Democrat Steve Sweeney’s bi-partisan solution to save money and cut property taxes.  As a local elected official, Cornavaca defended raising property taxes in 2008 – in the face of record joblessness, foreclosures, and child poverty.  Government is a beast and the beast must be fed – no matter who falls victim to its appetites. 

And like the Governor, Cornavaca doesn’t mind rubbing up to some rather questionable sentiments.  In 2012, she fiercely opposed the efforts of the Jewish community in Middlesex County to open a school to help preserve the Hebrew language and Jewish culture.  Ms. Cornavaca opined:  “The school is not a need, but a want for a small subset of the population.”  Ouch. 

Well, there’s a lot of that going around these days.  Just look at who has taken over the Women’s March…

AFP admits its score card was a screw job

Instead of transparency, the New Jersey affiliate of Americans for Prosperity (AFP) has tried to cover-up their "process" by shoveling more shit over it. 

Instead of telling us who came up with the scheme to do away with the rating process AFP used when Steve Lonegan was in charge and which Trenton staffers AFP conspired with, they have tried to defend what is simply indefensible and inexcusable corruption.  This will be made abundantly clear to them when they have to explain themselves to the Internal Revenue Service.  After all, AFP is a tax exempt organization and their scorecard is meant to be educational -- not a thumb on the scale created for the purposes of party political communications in the form of direct mail, broadcast and cable advertisements, and Internet ads. 

Something is clearly wrong with an organization that puts out a press release taking credit for a vote that -- in AFP's own words -- "saved state taxpayers $1.4 billion in tax cuts-once completely phased in-in the final omnibus bill, including a repeal of the estate tax which saved taxpayers $320 million alone and will protect families from the government raiding inheritances when a loved one dies" -- and then uses that same vote to give every Republican Senator who voted for it an "F" grade.

AFP is either psychotic or sadomasochistic.

AFP actually bragged that the passage of A-12 last October was one of its biggest "accomplishments of 2016" -- before turning around and screwing everyone who voted for AFP's biggest accomplishment of 2016!

Here is the actual email AFP sent around in advance of its 2016 "screwcard":

Americans for Prosperity-New Jersey had some big accomplishments in 2016, and it's all thanks to you and activists like you who dedicated your time to fight for freedom in the Garden State.

As we ramp up our efforts for this year's battles, I wanted to highlight last year's victories to remind you how much we can accomplish.'

What AFP-New Jersey Accomplished in 2016

• Winter : Saved state taxpayers $60 million by fighting against corporate welfare and film production incentives.

• Spring : Saved Morris County taxpayers $1.5 million by fighting against a union mandate initiative for big public works projects.

• Summer : Saved state taxpayers $4-5 billion by fighting against a constitutional amendment that would have frozen current pension benefits as-is and prevented meaningful reforms to the system.

• Fall : Saved state taxpayers $1.4 billion in tax cuts-once completely phased in-in the final omnibus bill, including a repeal of the estate tax which save taxpayers $320 million alone and will protect families from the government raiding inheritances when a loved one dies.

• Playing defense: Blocked numerous legislative efforts to increase red tape in New Jersey, and defeated every attempt at increasing occupational licensing requirements that AFP-NJ engaged on.

You can see that AFP-NJ had a great 2016. It took a lot of hard work and dedication from all of our volunteers, and I sincerely thank you for your efforts to hold our government accountable and protect taxpayers.

There's no time to rest on our laurels-we must continue the fight to bring true affordability and good government back to New Jersey. Be sure to  Like us on Facebook and  follow on Twitter . AFP-NJ posts daily updates about developments in Trenton, Washington, D.C., and your local government.

I look forward to working with you this year to add even more to our list of accomplishments.

In Liberty,

Erica L. Jedynak
New Jersey State Director
Americans for Prosperity

This email was sent to: 
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Americans For Prosperity 1310 N. Courthouse Road, Suite 700 Arlington, VA 22201
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Here are just ten of the nearly 100 detailed questions regarding their screwcard that we have for the psychos/ sadomasochists at AFP:

(1) If the "Gas Tax" was the point of the exercise -- as has been suggested by bloggers, media types, Senate staffers, and AFP insiders -- then how did Republican Senator Sam Thompson get a "B" for proposing that the "gas tax" be increased without any tax cuts or tax reform at all?

(2) While handing Thompson a "B" for his gas tax increase only legislation, AFP cranked it up the buttholes of five Republican Senators who voted for that big "AFP accomplishment" of $1.4 billion in tax cuts (including the elimination of the Estate Tax) because the legislation also contained a gas tax increase.  Why did Thompson get a "B" and those five GOP Senators get an "F"? 

(Of course, we know why.  AFP was asked to help out with Thompson's primary by members of the GOP Senate staff and AFP complied.  Politics as usual.)

(3) AFP actively campaigned for the passage of Public Question 2 at the November 8th General Election last year.  The debate over Question 2 was directly related to the gas tax/tax reform discussion.  Somehow AFP forgot this or didn't think it important enough to include.  Most probably because it would have helped the scores of those it was meant to screw.  

(4) Assemblyman Declan O'Scanlon (R-13), a candidate for the Senate received an "A+" for his vote on the so-called "gas tax" (actually, the Tax Reform package that included 5 tax cuts as well as the gas tax increase), while Senator Joe Kyrillos (R-13) got an "F" for taking the exact same vote on the "gas tax."

(5) Legislation to get rid of the Estate Tax in five years that went nowhere, is marked as a positive.  The legislation that actually did get rid of the Estate Tax in less than two years, is marked as a negative. 

(6) Assemblyman Jay Webber (R-26) gets credit for sponsoring legislation (A-1059), while running-mate Assemblywoman BettyLou DeCroce gets no credit for co-sponsoring the same legislation.

(7) A bill (ACR-213) proposed by far-left Democrat John Wisniewski (D-19) which would allow voters to over-turn all of Governor Chris Christie's vetoes of anti-Second Amendment legislation passed by the Legislature was rated as a POSITIVE by AFP.  Does that make AFP anti-gun?  It certainly seems so.  On top of this, they assigned credit or blame incorrectly.  For instance, AFP credited Senator Michael Doherty even though he hadn't sponsored a Senate version (none exists).

(8) Legislation to spend millions to fund Planned Parenthood, legislation to oppose ObamaCare, legislation regarding Paid Sick Leave, and legislation to provide Welfare to Drug Dealers -- none of this was important enough to include in AFP's screwcard.  On the other hand, legislation regarding interior designers, hair-braiding, music therapy, and drama therapy all were more important, according to AFP.  Really?  Did someone take a dump in their brain and forget to flush it?

(9) AFP is apparently hostile to legislation proposed by Senator Steve Oroho, called the Human Trafficking & Child Exploitation Prevention Act.  It appears to fly in the face of what AFP national chair David Koch calls "free trade." However, the scores of some legislators, such as Senator Tom Kean Jr., improved dramatically.  Kean, who just a session ago was in the high 50 percentile range, suddenly got an "A"!

(10) Of all the hundreds of votes taken in the Legislature, AFP "counted" just nine Assembly votes and six in the Senate -- and one of those they got wrong because they cherry-picked it from a previous session.  In other words, either the ass-monkey can't read a date correctly or somebody really wanted to screw someone.

Now we come to Jersey Conservative's weekly corrective to the AFP screwcard.  Yes, AFP sucks large and somebody has to step in and make it right.  We didn't look for this duty, but as Ronald Reagan once said:  "If not us, who?  If not now, when?"

One of the good things that came out of the Tax Reform package was the increase in TTF money going to fund local road and bridge maintenance.  That's real property tax relief at a time when many local governments are setting their budgets and property tax rates.

A bill (S-3076) to send $400 million to county and municipal governments was passed in the Senate on March 13th.  Only one Senator voted against it -- Democrat Ray "Lord of Ass" Lesniak (lifetime ACU rating ZERO).  Thirty-six other Senators, from Mike Doherty to Jennifer Beck, from Steve Sweeney to Dick Codey, all voted "Yes". 

Yesterday, it was voted on in the Assembly.  Three voted against it.  Democrat John Wisniewski (lifetime ACU rating ZERO), Erik Peterson (R-23), and Jay Webber (R-26) voted "No", while 67 voted "Yes". 

We found it strange... and worth mentioning.

Stay tuned...

Sen. Weinberg: Tell Obama "Cops Lives Matter" too

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That picture on her Facebook page is curious.  Is that Senator Loretta Weinberg (D-Corzine) tickling the former confidant of the "Love Gov"?  It certainly looks like she is doing something to make Steve Goldstein smile. 

The "Lov Gov" is, of course, Eliot Spitzer of New York.  Goldstein was Spitzer's campaign mouthpiece when they were blazing their own version of the sexual revolution.  "Whatever floats your boat" is the mantra of the Kinsey-besotted "Swingers' Lobby."  Spitzer, whom Goldstein insisted was "an incredibly nice man in real life" -- even after the Lov Gov was caught hiring young women for sex, was recently in the news again.  This time he was accused in the New York media of losing it and then trying to strangle a young woman.  He was accused of this kind of "role playing" before, in a book authored by one of his young victims. Now the latest subject of his attentions has fled the country. 

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The lifestyles of rich insiders never ceases to amaze:  Sex, power, money, and let's change the world to do whatever we want.  Average people and their talk of "democracy" doesn't matter.  "Only the rich, the powerful, the well-connected, count and we decide who and what matters.  We set the fashion."

Which brings us to the misdirected "Black Lives Matter" movement that works to pit some Americans, based on their skin color or ethnic origin, against other Americans, based on their employment as law enforcement officers.  Never mind that black police officers are as ubiquitous as Irish cops once were -- especially in the higher ranks.  Black employment in policing of all types is a growth industry.

While United States Justice Department figures indicate that the number of Hispanic and Asian police officers lag behind their proportional representation of America's population as a whole, that is not the case with black police officers, who more than match it.  In some urban police departments, black officers make up more than half the department.  63 percent of Detroit's police officers are "African-American." 

In spewing hatred towards working class police officers, many of whom are black, the "Black Lives Matter" movement is allowing itself to be used by the political establishment, which is now thoroughly anti-police.  Some dislike the police because it is fashionable to do so, just as it was fashionable to hug a first responder in the aftermath of September 11, 2001.  Fashion changes.  Blue is out this year.  Others want the best police protection, but they don't want to pay for it.  For them, undermining the police weakens their position at the bargaining table.  If they can get a police officer to risk his or her life at a cut rate, that leaves more money for the vendors who fund their campaigns or for their criminal friends on Wall Street.

The real target of the "Black Lives Matter" movement should be the very politicians who have duped them into attacking the police.  In a 2014 column titled, "Eric Garner:  Criminalized to death," conservative columnist George Will wrote:

Overcriminalization has become a national plague. And when more and more behaviors are criminalized, there are more and more occasions for police, who embody the state’s monopoly on legitimate violence, and who fully participate in humanity’s flaws, to make mistakes.

Harvey Silverglate, a civil liberties attorney, titled his 2009 book “Three Felonies a Day” to indicate how easily we can fall afoul of the United States’ metastasizing body of criminal laws. Professor Douglas Husak of Rutgers University says that approximately 70 percent of American adults have, usually unwittingly, committed a crime for which they could be imprisoned. In his 2008 book, “Overcriminalization: The Limits of the Criminal Law,” Husak says that more than half of the 3,000 federal crimes — itself a dismaying number — are found not in the Federal Criminal Code but in numerous other statutes. And, by one estimate, at least 300,000 federal regulations can be enforced by agencies wielding criminal punishments. Citing Husak, professor Stephen L. Carter of the Yale Law School, like a hammer driving a nail head flush to a board, forcefully underscores the moral of this story:

Society needs laws; therefore it needs law enforcement. But “overcriminalization matters” because “making an offense criminal also means that the police will go armed to enforce it.” The job of the police “is to carry out the legislative will.” But today’s political system takes “bizarre delight in creating new crimes” for enforcement. And “every act of enforcement includes the possibility of violence.”

Carter continues: “It’s unlikely that the New York Legislature, in creating the crime of selling untaxed cigarettes, imagined that anyone would die for violating it. But a wise legislator would give the matter some thought before creating a crime. Officials who fail to take into account the obvious fact that the laws they’re so eager to pass will be enforced at the point of a gun cannot fairly be described as public servants.”

Last year the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice issued its report on the Ferguson Police Department.  The report was the result of a lengthy investigation, commissioned as a response to the shooting death of a young black man by police.  The report's most notable finding -- placed front and center, although ignored by many in the mainstream media -- was that "(Ferguson's law enforcement) practices are shaped by revenue rather than by public safety needs."

That's right, the Legislature criminalizes behavior as a means of obtaining revenue for state and local governments.  The Legislature turns the police into privateers, pushing them to "earn" more for government.  Then, when something goes wrong, the very same politicians who pressured police into becoming revenue agents turn on them, setting their "movement" political allies on them to devalue police lives in order to make it easier to reduce their salaries, cut benefits, and hollow out pensions.

All you have to do is look at the way President Barack Obama has criminalized investigative journalism and whistleblowers to get a taste of how many new "offenses" have been added to the statute books.  New Jersey leads others states in adding regulations that will ultimately be enforced by men with guns.  If Weinberg and Goldstein have their way, the police will soon be used to issue citations and collect fines from people whose speech critters like the Love Gov (he of the Swingers' Lobby) finds insulting or bullying or "hateful." 

And as they add more and more for the police to enforce, they seek to make fashion statements and dupe black voters by engaging in irresponsible attacks on working class police officers.  Well, the seeds of their rhetoric has borne fruit and we are beginning to see the harvest their words have conjured.

Last week, the National Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), a police officer's union, reported that violence against police had escalated to the point where seven police officers had been killed in just six days.  This is the kind of headline we more often saw coming from a warzone like Iraq or Afghanistan -- not from within the borders of the United States.

National FOP @GLFOP

7 officers have been killed serving their communities in the last six days. Please pray for their families

11:11 AM - 11 Feb 2016

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President Obama has been mute about the violence this rhetoric has unleashed against working police officers and their families. 

Big government legislators, like Senator Weinberg, and their lobbyist allies, like Steve Goldstein, have been mute as well.  Now is the time for them to step up and start to undo what they have done. 

First, take responsibility.  We challenge Senator Weinberg to propose a resolution that reminds legislators, Congress, and the President that police officers only enforce the laws that the political establishment makes them enforce; that there is an inherent danger in this transaction; and that police officers are often injured, wounded, or lose their lives in carrying out the directives of the political class. 

Second, tell the President to speak up.  We challenge Senator Weinberg to sign a letter to President Obama that urges him to acknowledge the costs involved in police work.  This cost is measured in lost or damaged lives and in the stress and trauma dealt with by families and loved ones.  Making the police into villains for enforcing the laws written and decided upon by the political class is outrageous hypocrisy.

Third, make the police "peace officers" not "privateers."  Make policing about public safety and not a source of revenue.  Create a Sunset Committee to review the thousands of laws and regulations that impact police conduct and place police officers on a collision course with the growing number of out-of-work or under-employed citizens who are having difficulty paying the economic sanctions imposed on them by legislative bodies at all levels of government.  Recognize that every time you send a man with a gun to collect money for government, you run the risk that someone will die. 

Because of the vote Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-Norcross) made to end capital punishment, the lives of serial killers, those who rape and murder small children, those who torture to death young women, mass terrorists, and cop killers are all spared the death penalty in New Jersey.  Let's stop legislative action from inadvertently imposing the death penalty on people who can't pay a few traffic tickets or who are selling a couple cigarettes to someone who can't afford a full pack. 

It is insane for a legislative body to spare the life of a Jesse Timmendequas while causing the death of an Eric Garner.  It is monstrous for the political class to blame the police for following its orders.

NJ Democrats: Empowering an Epidemic

Across the western world there is a growing epidemic of identity disorder.  Here is a woman who believes she is a cat. She crawls around on all fours and hisses at dogs. 

She believes that she was "born in the wrong species."  She is just one of many cases of "trans-species-ism".  There are people who suffer from Clinical lycanthropy, a delusion where the affected person believes he or she can transform into a non-human animal (think werewolves).  And in recent years, there has been a growing number of people who have come to believe that they were born vampires and consider themselves members of the "vampiric community." 

A 2014 article in The Gay & Lesbian Review, "Vampires Are Us," noted:

What does the 21st century hold? I can see nothing but a continuation of a parallel trajectory for both gays and vampires. No one is really scared of vampires any more, as witness the continuing popularity of the romantic vampires in the ever popular “Twilight” series and in The Vampire Diaries. Similarly, a majority of Americans now favor same-sex marriage, which was a truly scary prospect only a decade ago. President Obama announced his support for marriage equality and was re-elected handily. Gay people, like vampires, have lost their alien status and no longer frighten people—including voters, whose fears cannot be so easily demagogued by right-wing politicians.

Variants of these disorders are popping up every day and include Body integrity identity disorder or BIID...

BIID, also referred to as amputee identity disorder is a psychological disorder in which an otherwise healthy individual feels that they are meant to be disabled. It is not medically recognized by the American Psychiatric Association's DSM-5. BIID is related to xenomelia, "the oppressive feeling that one or more limbs of one's body do not belong to one's self".

BIID is typically accompanied by the desire to amputate one or more healthy limbs. It also includes the desire for other forms of disability, as in the case of a woman who intentionally blinded herself.  BIID can be associated with apotemnophilia, sexual arousal based on the image of one's self as an amputee. The cause of BIID is unknown. One hypothesis states that it results from a neurological failing of the brain's inner body mapping function (located in the right parietal lobe) to incorporate the affected limb in its understanding of the body's physical form.

Another type of identity is Gender dysphoria or GID...

Gender dysphoria or gender identity disorder (GID) is the formal diagnosis used by psychologists and physicians to describe people who experience significant dysphoria (distress) with the sex and gender they were born with. Evidence suggests that people who identify with a gender different from the one they were assigned at birth may do so not just due to psychological or behavioral causes, but also biological ones related to their genetics, the makeup of their brains, or prenatal exposure to hormones. GID is classified as a medical disorder by the ICD-10 CM and DSM-5 (called gender dysphoria).

Then there is Erotic target location error (ETLE), a theory advanced by Sexologist Ray Blanchard in 1993.  This involves having a sexual preference or strong sexual interest in features that are somewhere other than on one's sexual partners.Wikipedia explains:

The best known examples of erotic target identity inversions are biological males who experience sexual arousal in response to imagining themselves as women (called autogynephilia), but at least one case of anatomic autoandrophilia has also been reported. Whereas gynephilia refers to the sexual preference for women, autogynephilia refers to a male's sexual interest in being a woman. Autogynephilia can be associated with gender dysphoria and gender identity disorder, discontent with one's biological sex and the desire to undergo surgery for sex reassignment and permanently take on a role and life of the other sex. A male with sexual arousal based on temporarily taking on the appearance or role of a woman is transvestic fetishism.

And there is the case of this 52 year-old Steve Sweeney-look-alike who abandoned his family because he believes he is a six year-old girl:

Enter the New Jersey Legislature with its Democrat-majority in search of more LGBTV(ampires) money.  With same-sex marriage no longer an issue, they want to sell some new legislation in return for campaign cash.  So they have come up with this gem of an idea, called S-283.

If S-283 is passed, a man (with a penis) can become a legal "woman," simply by saying that he is seeing a therapist of some kind and then re-submitting his birth certificate to reflect his "new sex."  No surgery required. 

And it won't be recorded as an "amended" birth certificate.  It will be filed as the original.  The government will pretend that it can go back in time to correct the "perception" of the doctors and nurses who saw a child with a penis and checked "male."  The government will, in fact, lie and pretend that the attending physician checked "female" when, of course, he did not.    

Why is S-283 at the top of the Democrats' agenda when child poverty is at a 50-year high?  Because there are some very rich men -- billionaires, in fact -- who want to normalize their behavior or the behavior of someone close to them.  They have the money to buy what they want and that includes legislation.  In America, bribing legislative bodies is legal.  Don't let anyone try to tell you it isn't.