Katie Brennan: Don’t make your cause political. It hurts victims.

By Rubashov

Katie Brennan is a long time Democrat Party political operative. She was a staffer with the campaign of Governor Phil Murphy when she made the claim that she was sexually assaulted by another staffer, allegedly a political favorite of the Governor’s spouse.

Katie Brennan tried to have her problem resolved internally. She went to politically appointed prosecutors and they declined to take her case. Finally, she went to the media and her story became front page news.

As Katherine Landergan of Politico notes:

Katie Brennan’s rape allegation against Al Alvarez and the way it was handled by the Murphy administration prompted hours of hearings, policy changes and a broader discussion about how women are treated in Trenton.

It also became a major scandal for the governor’s office.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli is now using the scandal as part of a website and digital ad campaign that was launched Wednesday. Brennan’s testimony in those hearings narrates the ad. And Brennan is not okay with it.

“Survivors are not your props. We are not your political pawns. To use me as such, without my consent, is disrespecting survivors. It is disrespecting women. Take note @Jack4NJ and Diane Allen,” Brennan said on Twitter, with a screenshot of the website.

Hey Katie, this isn’t the time to make this political. You made the allegation. You went public. When you do that, you lose control over who is allowed to comment. You don’t get to vet people who wish to take a position on the subject you raised. You can’t keep it a Democrat Party thing or a women thing or even a victims’ thing. It is now part of a national discussion. Sorry. Didn’t your lawyer tell you this?

Every entity that came forward to focus a light on what happened to you had a motive or could be accused of having a motive. The media uses scandal to put eyes on the page and increase revenue. Politicians, academics, bureaucrats, activists, and non-profits use it to their own advantage too. As in our adversarial legal system, two sides beat each other up to get to the truth. It is the way we move forward. Let it be.

Most of the women New York’s Governor Andrew Cuomo sexually abused were politically active Democrats too. Like you, they came forward. And like you, they took crap from other Democrat Party operatives. But right and wrong came before party. The same with Nixon and Watergate. It always should.

Don’t make this about politics. Don’t turn yourself into a prop for the Murphy Democrats. For every woman like you who had the opportunity to exact some measure of justice for what happened to you, there are dozens – maybe hundreds – who worked in the Trenton cesspit (for both parties) whose stories never made the front page. Who were abused and exposed to the world and who had to shut up and take it.

Don’t become a shield to the same two-party establishment power structure that abused you. Don’t get in the way of it tearing itself apart. Forget that party shit because party doesn’t matter. Right and wrong does.

Katie... you are not the only one it happened to. And not only women are victims of sexual abuse.

“The entire business model of the Democratic Party is to avoid dealing with its own populists’ concerns, so they’ve never seen the Sanders wing of the party as anything but a threat to what they do for a living, which is basically take corporate money and then sell themselves as socially progressive. That’s what they do for a living. That’s their business.”

Matt Taibbi
Journalist and author of Hate, Inc.: Why Today's Media Makes Us Despise One Another.

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.

Video links Sweeney push on mandatory vaccination to Big Pharma

An explosive new video has been posted on YouTube by the media group News In Jersey.  The video has already been viewed by over 12,700 people.

News in Jersey writes:
 
Many have wondered why New Jersey State Senate President Stephen Sweeney has been so adamant in regards to passing Senate Bill S2173, to the extent that he would remove Health Committee Board Members to push this Bill and then to try to influence other Senators to Vote Yes to the most controversial bill that New Jersey has seen in decades. We investigated and found that there is one constant when Sweeney becomes defiant, those are the bills that he is protecting or pushing that George Norcross has demanded.
 
Welcome to the swamp of New Jersey politics. General Majority is the George Norcross run Super Pac pushing politicians into their positions. New Jerseyans see thru the millions that Norcross has spent to put his personally selected order takers into office.
 
He has been buying votes and influence to steer insurance contracts to his firm for years. He has used the Quid Pro Quo to build his firm and is now doing the same thing for other companies who need influence and are looking to get laws passed that will help their net profits.
 
George Norcross and Stephen Sweeney have crossed the line. We are putting our politicians on notice, we are watching you and we will be investigating your connections…
 
We welcome any additional commentary, rebuttals, clarifications, etc. on this very interesting topic.  Stay tuned…

Sorry Charlie (Wowkanech), women know what’s best for them and will make their own choices.

Charlie Wowkanech can’t get it through his head that there are a lot of creative women out there who don’t need Big Brother to negotiate for them.  They believe they can make their own arrangements, thank you very much.
 
Having never given birth himself, Charlie can’t quite understand how some moms like working outside the traditional arrangements that Wowkanech wants to impose on them – using government.  Ensuring compliance with such rules ultimately entails the use of force or the threat of force (aka ”men with guns”).   

As President of the New Jersey State AFL-CIO, there are plenty of workers who want Charlie Wowkanech’s help.  Plenty who need his help. 
 
When a prominent Bergen County Democrat – a State Senator – held a fundraiser last year, the venue at which he held his fundraiser was undergoing some construction work.  Bricklaying was going on.  A few questions were asked and it turned out that the people doing the work were not union, they weren’t even legal residents.  They were abused by their employer – being paid near slave wages – while qualified union labor was being kept out of work.  All going on before the very eyes of the political class present.  These are the workers who need Charlie Wowkanech’s help – and in a hurry!
 
But instead, Charlie is up in arms because a lot of very savvy, educated, articulate  women have said “thanks, but no thanks” to his attempt to “show them the way” and be their “white knight”.  Hey Charlie, these women don’t need a Cinderella story.  They’ve figured it all out on their own.  They are making it quite well, their way, and now you want to destroy their lives in order to “save them”.  How backward is that?
 
Here’s Alida Kass, one of the smartest women in Trenton, to explain it…

Haven’t enough women testified at legislative hearings?  Haven’t they told the New Jersey Legislature that they don’t want this law?  What don’t you get about “No”?  “We don’t want it” doesn’t mean “maybe, we’ll think about it”.
 
Charlie, if you want to do some good, pass E-Verify legislation and apprenticeship requirements to make sure qualified trades union workers are hired, taxpayers and consumers get their money’s worth, and put an end to the near-slave labor of the illegal gray economy.

Will Weinberg dare mention colleagues’ predatory sexual behavior???

By Rubashov
 
Led by Governor Phil Murphy, Trenton Democrats are feigning “shock” over an NJ.com report detailing the predatory sexual behavior of many who run New Jersey’s government, political, and lobbying institutions.  What shameless hypocrisy!  Their disbelief and shock are reminiscent of that famous scene from the movie Casablanca…

Save Jersey’s Matt Rooney was quick to note: “It’s especially curious given Murphy’s well-known practice of employing non-disclosure agreements to muzzle women who work for him.”
 
Senator Declan O’Scanlon (R-13) expressed the disbelief shared by many, when he wrote:  “The fact that the Governor can utter these quotes with no sense of shame or irony, while his campaign attorneys continue to threaten female campaign consultants WITH RETALIATION (emphasis not enough) if they speak out about the atmosphere/incidents on his campaign, is astounding.”
 
Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg (D-37) has proposed setting up an “ad-hoc committee” to address “misogyny and sexual harassment” among New Jersey’s political and lobbying class.  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. 
 
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 be 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 control of 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.    
 
“Entering a sexual relationship with a subordinate, even when the contact is initiated by the latter, is considered unethical by some because of the subordinate's vulnerability to the superior and the inequality of power that characterizes the relationship.” (Wikipedia… on Sexual Misconduct)
 
Weinberg and her committee must be committed to taking on the problem at its source.  That means identifying those in the governmental/ political/ lobbyist power structure who sleep with staff members they have the power to fire at will.  Those who have sexual dependents on their payrolls. 
 
This is where the rot begins.  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?  Everyone knows what is going on, everyone sees it, people are rewarded, predators are lauded and further empowered – and nothing is said. 
 
Writing about the Weinstein rape case, Alexia Fernandez Campbell, of the Aspen Institute, notes: “Sexual misconduct is pretty broad — it can cover everything from asking a work subordinate out on a date to pressuring them for sex in exchange for career advancement.”
 
Are the reports detailed by NJ.com evidence of a social pathology at the heart of the Trenton Establishment?  Here is therapist Steve Becker’s take on sociopaths.  Does it sound like some of the folks rolling around Trenton? 
 
Pathologically self-centered individuals, such as sociopaths or narcissists, often project a level of self-confidence that is pathologically tremendous. This can be a problem for others who, unlike the sociopath, will be prone to empathy and self-reflection, along with which come self-doubt and hence fluctuating, less dependable levels of confidence.
 
But the pathologically self-centered individual is often seemingly immune to self-doubt and can thus seem implacably, impressively confident. Why?
 
The answer is surprisingly simple: When your interest in others is principally, if not entirely, about what you can get, or take, from them; when you lack the capacity for, and/or inclination to, genuine, thoughtful self-reflection; and when the meaning, or purpose, of life is fundamentally reduced to the expectation, and pursuit, of continual gratification, you have a prescription not only for pathological self-centeredness, but its frequent concomitant—pathological self-confidence.
 
Think about it: for such an individual, it is mostly, and sometimes only, about what he wants. And if he knows what he wants, such an individual will feel entitled to it. And his sense of entitlement becomes self-validating—self-validating, that is, of whatever argument, rationalization, or manipulation brings him closer to his demand.
 
In other words, the pathologically self-centered individual has something very powerful in his favor—conviction. His is the conviction of his entitlement, of his right to have what he wants—whether it’s agreement, an apology, special attention, cooperation, sex, a favor, forgiveness, you name it.
 
And he wields his sense of conviction powerfully and persuasively—all the more so if he’s also articulate and glib.
 
This explains how a sociopath can look you in the eye and blame you for something—even his victimization of you—and yet you struggle to fully disbelieve him. As I just noted, if he is intelligent and glib, he is in an even better position to erode your sense of reality. He can construct positions, however absurd and even confirming of his sociopathic orientation, that nevertheless have just enough superficial plausibility to arrest your attention.
 
Once you’ve been disarmed, even slightly, his impregnably confident assertions, stemming from his pathological self-centeredness, can have a brainwashing influence.
 
You wonder if you’re not crazy? The “gaslighting effect” is in full throttle. It is disorienting, literally, to have someone present even a ridiculous proposition, demand, or accusation with unwavering confidence and certitude.
 
And the disorienting effect is magnified exponentially when the assertion is simultaneously packaged in superficially intelligent, coherent, “rational”-sounding language. Confidence in one’s sense of reality can wane, and fail, under this combination assault.
 
This can explain why sometimes extremely intelligent, thoughtful and self-respecting individuals can actually be at greater risk of accepting and tolerating abuse. It can be a case of the exploiter’s pathologically inflated confidence overwhelming the more self-questioning, self-doubting individual’s reality.
 
Here’s an idea…
 
Why not ditch all those Trenton insiders and put together a committee made-up of average, common-sense taxpayers and mental health professionals?  Maybe the latter will confirm what the former has long suspected:  Trenton is nuts.

Sussex Democrats go low… politicize Jersey City police officer’s death

Yes, they went there.  It’s what you do when you fail and fail again.

As the New Jersey Herald reported this morning, last night’s anti-Trump/ pro-Impeachment rally was a bust.  Nobody showed… but for a counter-rally of Trump supporters, organized last-minute by the redoubtable Bill Hayden.
 
Referring to the inclement weather, Hayden (who is probably the best conservative grassroots organizer in the state) laid this perfect line on the Democrats (we quote, from the Herald): “I guess the snowflakes don’t like ice.”
 
The rally-that-didn’t-happen was organized with the DC-insider group MoveOn.org, which was originally called Censure and Move On and formed to oppose the impeachment of President Bill Clinton.  You can’t make this stuff up.  The hypocrisy of it all.  Does the sucking ever end?  No, it never ends… it just goes on and on.
 
So this morning’s lash-out by the Sussex County Democrat Committee surprised no one.  They always flip-out after a major screw-up.  Only this one was in exceedingly poor taste, somehow managing to equate hunters and owners of firearms in general with “far-right extremists” – while attacking Sussex County Republicans over the tragic death of a police officer in Jersey City, Hudson County.
 
Yep.  Real crazy.  And exceedingly poor taste. 
 
We won’t point out that the Democrats in Trenton did away with the death penalty for cop-killers.  Or that the political leanings of these cop-killers do not fit the Democrats’ narrative.  Or that the Sussex County Democrats supported the efforts of their party to hold a “criminal appreciation day” in Trenton, during which they passed laws to give convicted criminals voting rights and education aid (just months after cutting education funding to Sussex County’s school children).  What kind of message does this send?  Pushing criminals to the head of the line before school kids – if that isn’t proof that “crime pays” what is?
 
Not content with the level at which they disgraced themselves, Democrats ramped it up, attempting to link the GOP to anti-Semitism and terrorism.  Perhaps they were gazing into a mirror?
 
If any party has a problem with anti-Semitism, it is the Democrat Party.  As Democrat Congressman Josh Gottheimer has noted, there are members of the Democrat congressional caucus who are open supporters of the anti-Semitic BDS movement.  Sussex County Democrats even got an award from Linda Sarsour – who was dumped from the Women’s March because of her anti-Semitism.
 
The government of Israel and Jewish community leaders worldwide have noted the inexorable rise of anti-Semitism on the Left.  And it’s not just the Democrats in Washington, DC.  One of the causes for the defeat of the British Labour Party at the recent General Election was its open embrace of anti-Semitism.  It directly led to the worst defeat for the Left since 1935 – and the largest Conservative majority since the 1980’s era of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan.
 
And as for terrorism…
 
The award those Sussex County Democrats got was in recognition of voter registration drives and other political campaigning done by Action Together New Jersey in coordination with a group called CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations.  Presenting the award was CAIR National Chairwoman, Roula Allouch, and CAIR-NJ Founder, Ahmed Al Shehab. 
 
One of America’s most important Islamic allies – the United Arab Emirates – has designated CAIR a terrorist organization.

Action Together New Jersey is in the forefront of the drive to push the Democrat Party in New Jersey to the far-Left.  They have joined CAIR in opposing the bi-partisan efforts of New Jersey Congressman Josh Gottheimer (D-5) to push back on members of the so-called “Jihad Squad” (far-Left Democrats Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib) in their attempt to promote the anti-Semitic BDS movement. 
 
Entire county party organizations are being taken over by Action Together New Jersey.  In Sussex County, for instance, their members have thoroughly infiltrated the local Democrat committees and pushed the moderates out.  On the group’s website, they identify members of Action Together New Jersey who have taken over and occupied leadership positions in the Democrat Party. 
 
These include Katie Rotondi, the Chairwoman of the Sussex County Democrat Committee.  Also listed as members on the group’s website are Democrat State Committee members Michele Van Allen and Ben Silva, Stanhope Councilman Anthony Riccardi, Sparta Board of Education member Kate Matteson, as well as a number of Democrat County Committee members.  
 
The far-Left is on the march, taking over the Democrat Party, pushing out common sense and fiscal responsibility.  The hypocritical attempts by Sussex County Democrats to smear others are merely a cover for this takeover.

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

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

Dear Senator Sweeney:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Sheena Collum
Village President

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

NJ Republicans should hold the line on recreational pot

In a recent column published on the blog InsiderNJ, marijuana lobbyist Ken Wolski argued that legalizing marijuana for recreational purposes “is the best way to get this medicine to the most people,” adding, “legalization changes cannabis from a drug that requires multiple doctor visits to one that can be purchased over the counter, like aspirin.”  Was Wolski, who is the Executive Director of the Coalition for Medical Marijuana, letting the cat out of the bag?  Has this been the goal all along?  Was “medical” marijuana merely a way to grease the slippery slope towards legalization and the inevitable expansion of the drug’s use?

Remember that tobacco too had once been promoted for its “medical benefits” as were opioids.  Both got well out of control.

Wolski’s column urged Republican legislators to support the highly flawed legalization bill being proposed by Governor Phil Murphy and the Democrat leadership in Trenton.  Let me add my voice to those who applaud the GOP for standing with those responsible Democrats who oppose it. 

When I first heard that the New Jersey legislature was considering a bill legalizing the use and sale of recreational marijuana, and expunging the record of anyone who had been charged with a related offense, I was both disheartened and spurred to action. As a Christian, I obviously oppose marijuana and its legalization on moral grounds, and as the pastor of City Baptist Church in Hoboken, I have had the responsibility of ministering to families affected by substance abuse. Knowing the devastation, and the harm that marijuana inflicts on individuals and families, and the crime and moral degradation it brings to communities, I determined to testify against the bill in person before the appropriations committee in Trenton.

I arrived in Trenton on March 18 with the intentions of opposing the recreational marijuana bill on the basis of morality, relying on my experiences and perspectives as a pastor who has worked with people through drug-related issues. However, as I sat waiting to testify, listening as the bill’s amendments were read, my mind turned to other substantial issues this bill would generate if passed into legislation. 

Beyond the moral implications of the bill, and its effect on families, this measure would present practical difficulties for employers and residents generally in many ways, a few of which would affect me personally.  You see, in addition to pastoring in an urban area, I am a third-generation real estate developer in northern and central New Jersey. With 420 garden apartments owned & managed by my family, and 100+ in the pipeline, the marijuana bill would be devastating to our operations. 

Two provisions of the bill are particularly alarming from this perspective: the fact that thousands of New Jersey residents would be able to smoke marijuana recreationally in their homes, and the expungement of previous arrests/convictions for possession.  While there are certainly other provisions that provide cause for concern and alarm, I would like to briefly address the implications and negative consequences of these two. 

First, as the owner of a multi-family unit, I have serious concerns about the negative impacts some residents’ use would cause to others. Many have heard of the harmful consequences of second-hand smoke, and where marijuana is involved, those concerns are magnified. A family, for example, with a baby, will now have to be concerned about their neighbor’s activities both in and outside the apartment. If a neighbor hosts a party where marijuana is smoked, that smoke would filter into the other person’s apartment and potentially harm their baby, and the parents are left with no recourse because the police would now be unable to stop the use. 

Second, from an employer perspective, the record expungement present serious problems for us in making hiring decisions. Under this bill, a now-criminal would have their record expunged if they had been convicted of using marijuana in the past, and that record would no longer be available to potential employers, indeed, we could not even ask about it. Marijuana use is certainly concerning to me as an employer, but even worse is the fact that often, when someone is convicted of possession, it is because they plead down from a much greater offense.  A drug dealer arrested and charged with 10 pounds of marijuana with the intent to distribute could have previously plea bargained down to simple possession. 

The new marijuana bill would hinder me from ever finding out about that potential employee’s behavior. That employee, if hired, would then be given access (with a master key) to all 420 residential units as a complex superintendent. Regular maintenance calls, inspections, and day-to-day operations would put our residents in great danger.   A drug dealer with a plea bargain down to simple possession would now be walking into the homes and lives of innocent people. This is not only a danger to residents, it is a serious liability to employers such as myself, and takes away a necessary tool for evaluating a potential candidate.

In closing, I urge the Republican legislative leadership to continue to stand with Democrats like Senator Ron Rice of Newark, a veteran and former police officer, who understand the problems presented by this legislation. This needs further debate and examination before any final consideration.

Phil Rizzo is the Pastor of City Baptist Church in Hoboken. 

Murphy runs from taxpayers. Changes venue in Sussex County.

Less than 24 hours before he was set to attend a Democrat event in Hardyston, Sussex County, Governor Phil Murphy switched the location to Franklin.  Murphy is evidently trying to avoid protests aimed at his cuts to education funding in Sussex County and his administration’s failure to address illegal dumping in Vernon. 

Sources claim that the new location was selected because it “makes public protest difficult” from a logistical standpoint.  It also requires a permit from the police (Murphy isn’t stupid).  The location was switched from a large community center with plenty of parking to a popular local tavern with limited parking.  The event is now being held at:

The Irish Cottage Inn

602 Route 23

Franklin, NJ

Governor Murphy will be speaking at the event, which is being put on by the Sussex County branch of the Trenton Democrats.  The event starts at around 9 in the morning.  Murphy is supposed to get there by 10. 

Contradicting what they earlier told the media – that the event would be “open to the public” – the Democrats have now imposed a “credentials” requirement for attendance.  We predicted as much. That’s how Murphy rolls.

Bill Hayden of the Skylands Tea Party is organizing a counter-protest.  You can and should access his effort at

https://www.facebook.com/events/1991865810926266/?ti=icl

This is a great opportunity to tell the Governor about the illegal dump in Vernon and about his cuts to education funding in Sussex County.

Governor Murphy has cut education funding for Sussex County and his administration has dragged its feet on stopping illegal dumping in Vernon. 

Murphy is pushing a bizarre New-Left agenda of making taxpayers pay for illegal immigrants with his Sanctuary State programs to fund subsidized legal and education benefits for illegals.  Murphy has allowed dangerous criminals to flow into New Jersey, simply because they claim illegal immigrant status, while he works to take away the rights of New Jersey residents to defend themselves and their families from violence. 

Murphy has driven out jobs (over 9,000 last month alone) with higher business taxes and higher property taxes, while calling for taxes on everything up to and including the rain. His administration is a by-word for corruption – not only hiring convicted politicians who ripped-off taxpayers, but even tolerating the rape of its own female employees.

This Saturday, you have a chance to let him know in person just how pissed off we are.  Governor Murphy will be in Sussex County to place his stamp of approval on Democrat Assembly candidates Deana Lykins, an insurance industry lobbyist, and Dan Smith, the city attorney of Orange, in Essex County.

Hugin should think before hurting the GOP any further

Bob Hugin’s campaign for the United States Senate was a disaster.  Everyone associated with it should be embarrassed, should wear the scarlet letter “L” as an external sign of their shame and contrition.

But there will be no contrition because these are people too proud to admit that their “vision” was flawed, that they outspent an extraordinarily flawed incumbent three to one and still lost badly.  Hugin lost to Bob Menendez, a Democrat incumbent so flawed that one in three Democrat primary voters rejected him.

What’s worse is that the Hugin campaign was deliberately designed to suppress traditional Republican turnout while enormous amounts were spent to create a surge amongst “soft” Democrats and Democrat leaners who had soured on Menendez.  The result of this strategy is best summed up when veterans of the Hugin campaign brag that they “won six Congressional districts.” Too bad that in five of those six districts, the Republican candidate for Congress lost, including two incumbents.  

As recently as 2016, all six of those districts had been represented by a Republican.  Now, just one remains.

Writing in the New Jersey Globe today, David Wildstein notes the re-emergence of Bob Hugin, addressing a meeting of Mercer County Republicans, placing his stamp of approval on the state’s first transgender candidate for the Legislature.  Here we go again. Let’s not learn the lesson that $40 million wasn’t enough to convince voters that Republicans are more reliable social liberals than Democrats, instead… try, try again.

The candidate Hugin spoke on behalf of is Jennifer Williams.  She is running for Assembly in the 15th Legislative District, a district that Republicans have almost no chance of picking up in 2019.  But because Jennifer Williams is the first transgendered candidate of either party to run for the Legislature, she will become a focal point of the 2019 campaign cycle.  Williams worked on Hugin’s campaign, so perhaps Hugin will provide her with the resources to make her campaign even more of a focal point.

The trouble is, 2019 will be a low turnout election, and Republicans are not fighting a statewide campaign but instead, are fighting to hold on to a few remaining Republican enclaves.  Is this the time to be highlighting “a different kind of Republican” or is it time to drag everyone who is likely to vote Republican to the polls? And as for non-traditional Republican voters, are these more likely to be LGBTQ voters or poor working class Roman Catholics?  Yes, there are choices to be made and making one choice often negates the other. So which is the surer bet?

Unfortunately, from all the hype, all we know about Jennifer Williams is that she is what some call a “transwoman”.  That is likely to be of little use in motivating traditional Republican turnout and – in the era of Donald Trump – unlikely to motivate enough LGBTQ voters to make up for what you lose.  The hoopla resulting from this “first” will most certainly bleed beyond the borders of the 15th District, turning off and giving up as it goes.  So that Republicans could neither gain the 15th or the boost necessary to save endangered seats.

For the good of her party, Jennifer Williams should play down the significance of her “gender” and instead focus on a message that aggressively defines the Trenton Democrats as what they are.  But can Williams even use the term, “Trenton Democrats”, as a negative in Legislative District 15? Williams claims to be a “conservative”, well this would be the time for her to craft a message that illustrates what that means.

Candidate Williams has secured the endorsement of the GOP establishment in Mercer and Hunterdon Counties.  We suspect that there will not be much competition for such a thankless task. We wish her well but hope that she does not become the “face” of this year’s Republican legislative campaign in New Jersey, and we hope Bob Hugin doesn’t make it his mission to make it so.

How did Sussex Democrat candidate go bankrupt while making $23,000 a month?

Deana Lykins is a lawyer-lobbyist and member of the One Percent.  She has a big house, fancy automobiles, and a wealthy lifestyle… but that didn’t stop her from spending herself into bankruptcy court.  She recently announced her candidacy for Assembly, running as a Phil Murphy Democrat.

In August of 2014, the candidate filed for bankruptcy (case #14-26076) in federal court and reported a monthly household income of $23,576.00 (that’s every month).  That’s more than the yearly income (per capita) of the average resident in a town like Sussex Borough ($20,887). 

From the bankruptcy court filings,  the debt appears to be consumer or lifestyle based… with a number of credit card companies listed as creditors, as well as tax authorities.  Property listed included a large, well appointed house, as well as a BMW, Land Rover, and a Chrysler Sebring.

Candidate Lykins is well-known in Trenton, where she worked for the Democrats in the Legislature before turning into a lobbyist for the insurance industry.  What skills she has to offer are ominous – especially in the area of keeping spending in check and balancing budgets – but Lykins would be a safe vote in support of the spending and debt agenda of Democrat Governor Phil Murphy and the rest of the Trenton Democrats. 

We will be examining this candidate’s record further in the weeks and months ahead.  So stay tuned…

Trenton Democrats need to call out Bryan Miller’s racist image

This is Bryan Miller.  He advocates for taking away the means of self-defense for working class single moms in cities like Paterson, Newark, and Camden. 

Even the Star-Ledger’s Tom Moran now understands that the police have no legal responsibility to protect each and every individual in America.  In a Republic, that job is left up to its citizens.  YOU CANNOT SUE THE GOVERNMENT WHEN IT FAILS TO PROTECT YOU.  That is established legal precedent. 

So disarming single moms in towns like Paterson, Newark, and Camden… or anywhere else in New Jersey for that matter… is an open invitation to rape and murder for any thug passing by.

But that’s not enough for Bryan Miller.  He wants to use racist images like the one above to scare groups like Moms Demand Action and the Brady Campaign into taking away the rights of single moms and other at-risk people to get the training and equipment to defend themselves against violent criminals determined to harm them and their children. 

This is an old and sad story in America.  Gun control laws were first used to disarm black people so that they couldn’t defend themselves against groups like the racist KKK.  Racist appeals to support these laws were made to upper middle class women like those who make up Moms Demand Action and the Brady Campaign today. 

Along with disarming black people and taking away their right to self-defense, came something called the “poll tax” which served to take away black people’s participation in public life.  Now the Trenton Democrats – led by Governor Phil “coddler of rapists” Murphy – have come up with a way to do both in a single piece of legislation that raises the permit fee to own the means of self-protection from $5 to $300. 

These Democrats are filthy racists and they need to be opposed.

No hard-working single mom should have to live in fear just because she can’t afford to live where the politicians live.  Fear of rape and other forms of violence shouldn’t be the penalty for not having enough money to raise your kids in a town like all those Moms Demand Action and Brady Campaign folks come from.

Unless Murphy and the Trenton Democrats are willing to pay to post a full-time police officer on every street in every at-risk community, raising the cost by which women and other at-risk people can get the training and equipment to protect their bodies and lives is morally wrong and should be opposed by all right-thinking people.

Trenton Democrats need to read Andrew Sullivan

Trenton Democrats need to read Andrew Sullivan… and so do some Republicans.

Andrew Sullivan is a British-born American author, editor, and blogger. Sullivan is the former editor of The New Republic, a magazine founded in 1914 by leaders of the progressive movement.  Sullivan is the author or editor of six books and was a pioneer of the political blog, starting his in 2000. He eventually moved his blog to various publishing platforms, including Time, The Atlantic, The Daily Beast, and finally an independent subscription-based format. He announced his retirement from blogging in 2015.   Sullivan has been a writer-at-large at New York magazine since 2016.

Sullivan is sometimes labeled a “conservative” because of his Roman Catholicism and his embrace of the ideas of the late, great political philosopher Michael Oakeshott.  Sullivan was a leader of the movement to legalize same-sex marriage. Wikipedia notes: “Born and raised in Britain he has lived in the United States since 1984 and currently resides in Washington, D.C., and Provincetown, Massachusetts. He is openly gay and a practicing Roman Catholic.”

His latest New York magazine column is brilliant.  It is called: “The Nature of Sex”.  An excerpt appears below…

It might be a sign of the end-times, or simply a function of our currently scrambled politics, but earlier this week, four feminist activists — three from a self-described radical feminist organization Women’s Liberation Front — appeared on a panel at the Heritage Foundation. Together they argued that sex was fundamentally biological, and not socially constructed, and that there is a difference between women and trans women that needs to be respected. For this, they were given a rousing round of applause by the Trump supporters, religious-right members, natural law theorists, and conservative intellectuals who comprised much of the crowd. If you think I’ve just discovered an extremely potent strain of weed and am hallucinating, check out the video of the event.

I’ve no doubt that many will see these women as anti-trans bigots, or appeasers of homophobes and transphobes, or simply deranged publicity seekers. (The moderator, Ryan Anderson, said they were speaking at Heritage because no similar liberal or leftist institution would give them space or time to make their case.) And it’s true that trans-exclusionary radical feminists or TERFs, as they are known, are one minority that is actively not tolerated by the LGBTQ establishment, and often demonized by the gay community. It’s also true that they can be inflammatory, offensive, and obsessive. But what interests me is their underlying argument, which deserves to be thought through, regardless of our political allegiances, sexual identities, or tribal attachments. Because it’s an argument that seems to me to contain a seed of truth. Hence, I suspect, the intensity of the urge to suppress it.

The title of the Heritage panel conversation — “The Inequality of the Equality Act” — refers to the main legislative goal for the Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBTQ lobbbying group in the US. The proposed Equality Act — a federal nondiscrimination bill that has been introduced multiple times over the years in various formulations — would add “gender identity” to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, rendering that class protected by anti-discrimination laws, just as sex is. The TERF argument is that viewing “gender identity” as interchangeable with sex, and abolishing clear biological distinctions between men and women, is actually a threat to lesbian identity and even existence — because it calls into question who is actually a woman, and includes in that category human beings who have been or are biologically male, and remain attracted to women. How can lesbianism be redefined as having sex with someone who has a penis, they argue, without undermining the concept of lesbianism as a whole? “Lesbians are female homosexuals, women who love women,” one of the speakers, Julia Beck, wrote last December, “but our spaces, resources and communities are on the verge of extinction.”

If this sounds like a massive overreach, consider the fact that the proposed Equality Act — with 201 co-sponsors in the last Congress — isn’t simply a ban on discriminating against trans people in employment, housing, and public accommodations (an idea with a lot of support in the American public). It includes and rests upon a critical redefinition of what is known as “sex.” We usually think of this as simply male or female, on biological grounds (as opposed to a more cultural notion of gender). But the Equality Act would define “sex” as including “gender identity,” and defines “gender identity” thus: “gender-related identity, appearance, mannerisms, or characteristics, regardless of the individual’s designated sex at birth.”

What the radical feminists are arguing is that the act doesn’t only blur the distinction between men and women (thereby minimizing what they see as the oppression of patriarchy and misogyny), but that its definition of gender identity must rely on stereotypical ideas of what gender expression means. What, after all, is a “gender-related characteristic”? It implies that a tomboy who loves sports is not a girl interested in stereotypically boyish things, but possibly a boy trapped in a female body. And a boy with a penchant for Barbies and Kens is possibly a trans girl — because, according to stereotypes, he’s behaving as a girl would. So instead of enlarging our understanding of gender expression — and allowing maximal freedom and variety within both sexes — the concept of “gender identity” actually narrows it, in more traditional and even regressive ways. What does “gender-related mannerisms” mean, if not stereotypes? It’s no accident that some of the most homophobic societies, like Iran, for example, are big proponents of sex-reassignment surgery for gender-nonconforming kids and adults (the government even pays for it) while being homosexual warrants the death penalty. Assuming that a non-stereotypical kid is trans rather than gay is, in fact, dangerously close to this worldview. (Some might even see a premature decision to change a child’s body from one sex to another as a form of conversion therapy to “fix” his or her gayness. This doesn’t mean that trans people shouldn’t have the right to reaffirm their gender by changing their bodies, which relieves a huge amount of pressure for many and saves lives. But that process should entail a great deal of caution and discernment.)

The Equality Act also proposes to expand the concept of public accommodations to include “exhibitions, recreation, exercise, amusement, gatherings, or displays”; it bars any religious exceptions invoked under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993; and it bans single-sex facilities like changing, dressing, or locker rooms, if sex is not redefined to include “gender identity.” This could put all single-sex institutions, events, or groups in legal jeopardy. It could deny lesbians their own unique safe space, free from any trace of men. The bill, in other words, “undermines the fundamental legal groundwork for recognizing and combating sex-based oppression and sex discrimination against women and girls.”

… This is the deeply confusing and incoherent aspect of the entire debate. If you abandon biology in the matter of sex and gender altogether, you may help trans people live fuller, less conflicted lives; but you also undermine the very meaning of homosexuality. If you follow the current ideology of gender as entirely fluid, you actually subvert and undermine core arguments in defense of gay rights. “A gay man loves and desires other men, and a lesbian desires and loves other women,” explains Sky Gilbert, a drag queen. “This defines the existential state of being gay. If there is no such thing as ‘male’ or ‘female,’ the entire self-definition of gay identity, which we have spent generations seeking to validate and protect from bigots, collapses.” Contemporary transgender ideology is not a complement to gay rights; in some ways it is in active opposition to them.

And the truth is that many lesbians and gay men are quite attached to the concept of sex as a natural, biological, material thing. Yes, we are very well aware that sex can be expressed in many different ways. A drag queen and a rugby player are both biologically men, with different expressions of gender. Indeed, a drag queen can also be a rugby player and express his gender identity in a variety of ways, depending on time and place. But he is still a man. And gay men are defined by our attraction to our own biological sex. We are men and attracted to other men. If the concept of a man is deconstructed, so that someone without a penis is a man, then homosexuality itself is deconstructed. Transgender people pose no threat to us, and the vast majority of gay men and lesbians wholeheartedly support protections for transgender people. But transgenderist ideology — including postmodern conceptions of sex and gender — is indeed a threat to homosexuality, because it is a threat to biological sex as a concept.

You can access the entire article here:  

http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/02/andrew-sullivan-the-nature-of-sex.html

Blame Trenton Democrats for making Cory Booker discuss his sexuality

Writer Matt Katz recently tweeted: “Cory Booker confirms his heterosexuality (which he has to do, because opponents have stirred rumors about this from the beginning) & says he sees a pathway to becoming the first unmarried president since 1884.”

Well lucky Cory Booker… at least he is alive to confirm his sexuality.  That’s not the case with James Buchanan, the 15th President of the United States, and someone whose sexuality has been the center of endless speculation – in an attempt to codify same and to teach children that he was America’s “first gay president.”

See, the LGBT movement has become a kind of religion… well, not kind of, it is a religion.  This new religion has adopted, as one of its core beliefs, something not unlike the Mormon Church’s “baptism for the dead” – also known as vicarious baptism or proxy baptism.  In the new LGBT faith, living people speak on behalf of those who are dead and ask on their behalf to become “gay” so that they may be added, posthumously, to the fold. 

Once added to the LGBT “sainthood” their life “stories” are then taught to children in the didactic manner, much as children in religious schools are taught about the lives of saints or martyrs or prophets.  In New Jersey, with yesterday’s passage of S-1569, the Legislature has made this an unfunded mandate – with the scrapping of old textbooks and their replacement with new “religious” tracts that focus on the lives of said “saints”. 

Strange how things go.  That we are back to this again.  It is like the ring-around-the-rosy in Poussin’s “Dance to the Music of Time”.  There is no such thing as progress… we just get stupid again, profligate, dissolute. 

But the religion bit is for real.  No less than Atlantic magazine and New York magazine have today unveiled stories that paint Cory Booker as the candidate of a “new” religion.  Atlantic calls it the “theory of love”, while New York magazine plumps for “candidate of the Christian Left”.  No kidding.  So it’s here.  Welcome to the new paradigm.  The religion of the Trenton Democrats is no longer Roman Catholic or Jewish or Protestant… but that of the golden ass, the most holy orgasm, and the sacrament of abortion.  These are not matters of policy… but of faith.  Not open to debate.

Writing in the Star-Ledger yesterday, reporter Jonathan Salant (pronounced Slant) noted that when Booker first ran for the Senate and was asked about his sexual orientation, Booker answered, “What does it matter?” 

We could not agree more.

But that was back in those quaint times of long ago… 2013.  Today, in today’s politics, religion matters – and nothing matters more than how you reach orgasm and with whom.  Piss on policy… today’s religious leaders in politics, corporate America, and academia want to know how you get down.  Just read S-1569.  It is the most important thing about you.

Poor Cory Booker.  He wants to run for President, so he has to declare a side.  And in the America of today – the America fostered by legislation like that passed yesterday in Trenton – it is a conundrum as great as that faced by any Irish politician in the midst of The Troubles.  What are you?  Who are you?  It’s all that matters.

Will Assembly bill require teaching children about famous alcoholics?

Yesterday, the Trenton Democrats voted to send A-1335 (S-1569) to the floor of the Assembly for a vote (this legislation has already been passed in the Senate).  A-1335 (S-1569) MANDATES that local school boards, paid for by local property taxpayers, adopt a new curriculum that is centered on the accomplishments of individuals based on their disabilities and sexual preferences.  Here’s how the bill’s synopsis reads:

“Requires boards of education to include instruction, and adopt instructional materials, that accurately portray political, economic, and social contributions of persons with disabilities and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.”

Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) people suffering from alcoholism and drug abuse can qualify as disabled.  Here, check it out for yourself:

https://www.eeoc.gov/facts/performance-conduct.html#alcohol 

So, are we to expect, say a class on the arts to focus on John Barrymore’s drinking, rather than on his acting?  Was General (and later President) Ulysses S. Grant distinguished by his military victories – or by the amount of whiskey he could down?

Should the writer and historian James Morris (Jan Morris) be remembered firstly for having undergone sexual reassignment surgery in 1972, or rather for writing the Pax Britannica Trilogy, along with more than 50 other books?  What makes a person important?  The loss of a penis?  Or some of the best travel writing in the English language?  No matter how one feels about trans this or that – the writing is brilliant, and it is the writing that will remain long after the mortal husk is gone.

The New Jersey Legislature is about to require schools to teach that the most important thing about E. O. Wilson is that he was blinded in one eye – rather than his work in myrmecology.  Hey, don’t get us wrong, the story of his blindness is worth telling, and may serve a didactic purpose, but the man is a biologist first and foremost.  He should not be defined by a disability.

Once upon a time a voter could count on the Republican Party and its elected officials to defend local citizen control of education and to oppose the mandates of big government.  Now some Republicans are crossing the aisle to vote with the Democrats.  This is disappointing, because while the unified Democrats clearly tell the world who they are, the disunified Republicans communicate that they stand for nothing (as a party) and that there is no clear blue water between them and the Democrats.  Not much of a reason to throw the Dems out, is it?

Well, the good news is that someone has already prepared a curriculum that can easily be adopted by local school districts that want to conform with A-1335 (S-1569).  Sure, it’s puerile and prurient, but the focus suits the bill perfectly.  And hey, it’s even called “Drunk History”, so it’s all good.  Judge for yourself…

Welcome to the future of educational instruction in New Jersey!

Democrats silent on locking child in cage with sex-offenders

Trenton Democrats have been curiously silent on liberal activist and Democrat campaign contributor Peter Fonda’s call to have the President’s child put “in a cage with pedophiles”.  Especially given their over-the-top behavior when it comes to band banners or photos of men in high heels or Facebook posts comparing Democrats to Fascists or mere humor of any kind (except Trump jokes, those – like the Bush jokes of yore – are permitted).

Where is Lorretta Weinberg (does grandma approve of Fonda’s plan?) or Tom Moran (would he want to climb into that cage too?) or Britnee Timberlake or Ben Silva or NJTV’s Michael Hill or Jersey City’s Michael Maddalena or Michael Billy or Green Party moe Kenneth Collins… Where is the outrage?  Where are the demands that he be fired or that his business enterprise be boycotted?

Can we assume that “silence equals consent”?  Isn’t that what the idiots above claim?  Silence = Consent… correct?  So YOUR silence means… what?

A couple Wednesdays ago, local Democrat Party officials, the National Organization for Women, and some LGBT activists – led by Democrat-turned Green Party-turned Republican-turned Green Party activist Kenneth Collins – showed up at a meeting of the Sussex County Board of Chosen Freeholders to demand that Freeholder Carl Lazzaro, an ordained Christian clergyman, apologize and resign for expressing the following opinion:

Yes, they wanted the man’s head for writing that.  Yep, that’s it.

But from their SILENCE can we gather that they approve of this…

Where is the outrage?  Where are the demands that something be done?

Do they approve?  Or are they just engaging in a sneaky bit of schadenfreude?

Where is the National Organization for Women on this???  Why isn’t the Green Party’s Kenneth Collins organizing a rally on Newton Green?

MEMO to Loretta, Tom, Britnee, et al… Don’t ever bring up “hate” again until you face this head on, openly discuss it, and state your opinions publicly.