Did Gottheimer go too far in calling opponent a “Fraudster”?

By Rubashov
 
Politicians… and the labels they apply to those who oppose them.
 
The latest political commercial paid for and approved by Congressman Josh Gottheimer attacks opponent Frank Pallotta for having worked on Wall Street.  The commercial is short on facts of any kind.  Based on nothing more than having worked on Wall Street, Gottheimer labels Pallotta a “fraudster”.
 
Fraud is a criminal act.  And “fraudster” is defined as “a person who commits fraud, especially in business dealings.”  That is a rather heavy allegation to make absent any evidence of criminal misconduct.
 
Does this mean we can label Phil and Tammy Murphy “fraudsters”?  Cory Booker?
 
If merely working on Wall Street equals fraud, then does taking a campaign contribution of a certain heft constitute bribery?  Could we see a future political commercial with the tagline: “Josh Gottheimer… he takes bribes and is supported by fraudsters.”  Indeed, if all of Wall Street can be summed up as “fraud” – then are lobbyists, the industry as a whole, engaged in “bribery”?  Does it follow that Mrs. Gottheimer, a well-known lobbyist, is engaged in nefarious acts?  Should it be alleged in a campaign commercial?        
 
Going forward – at least in New Jersey – will all political campaigns use this Gottheimer standard when measuring how to define an opponent and his or her actions?  Will future candidates so casually label another candidate a criminal?  And where will it end? 
 
Now that candidates are accusing each other of criminal activities will it be such a reach to label each other for their disgusting habits?  For instance, if one need only work on Wall Street to be labeled a criminal, then it follows that one need only be male to be labeled a hand-job. 
 
Wikipedia points out that “different studies have found that masturbation is frequent in humans. Alfred Kinsey's 1950s studies on US population have shown that 92% of men and 62% of women have masturbated during their lifespan. Similar results have been found in a 2007 British national probability survey. It was found that, between individuals aged 16 to 44, 95% of men and 71% of women masturbated at some point in their lives… The Merck Manual says that 97% of men and 80% of women have masturbated and that, generally speaking, males masturbate more than females.”
 
Now anyone who has ever read the scribblings of this superannuated lapsed Marxist should know that we have no love for Wall Street.  And yet it must be said that most are not convicted of fraud.  Certainly not 97%.  Therefore, the probability that Gottheimer is a masturbator is greater – much greater – than his statement that Pallotta is a fraudster.  Does it then follow that it should be used in a campaign commercial? 
 
We can see it now – the campaign commercial of the future – wherein Candidate A calls Candidate B a “jerk-off” and Candidate B replies by calling Candidate A an “ass-muncher.”  Of course, these labels would be adjusted based on the self-perception of the candidates, a particularly “blue-blooded” candidate, for instance, might refer to his opponent as “an aficionado of the hand” or some such.
 
Gottheimer’s crew superimposed Pallotta’s face on a foreclosure sign.  Will Pallotta’s people return the favor – but instead on Conan O’Brien’s infamous masturbating bear?  How elevating all this will be!  How erudite!
 
None of this should surprise us coming from Josh Gottheimer.  He was second-in-command of a corporation that

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow called “the PR firm from Hell.”

Really… you can watch Maddow say it here…

Lest we forget, before he was elected to Congress in 2016, Josh Gottheimer followed his buddy Mark Penn, the Clintons' polling guy, to take over an international public relations/lobbying corporation.  Gottheimer held the number two position as international Vice President (his buddy Mark Penn was international President).  Here is Gottheimer’s biography from the website of “the PR firm from Hell.” 
 
Global Leadership
Josh Gottheimer, Executive Vice President, Worldwide / Global Chair, Corporate and Public Affairs Practices
 
Office: Washington, D.C.
Email address: josh.gottheimer@bm.com
 
Josh is Executive Vice President, Worldwide at Burson-Marsteller and is Global Chair of Burson's Corporate and Public Affairs Practices.
 
Josh was Director of Strategic Communications at Ford Motor Company. His responsibilities included communication strategy and message development; overseeing Ford's US corporate advertising; and supervising the Washington DC Public Affairs operation. In his time at Ford, he helped develop the company's corporate message, "Driving American Innovation."
 
Between 1998 to 2001, Josh served as Special Assistant to the President and Presidential Speechwriter to President Bill Clinton. In that role, he drafted speeches, op-eds and articles for President Clinton. Among others, he helped draft the State of the Union addresses in 1999 and 2000, several comedy speeches, and the 2000 Democratic Convention speech.
 
After leaving the White House, Josh was a Senior Advisor to the United States Commission on Civil Rights. He was also a founding partner of the Cambridge Writers Group, where he provided strategic communications advice, developed message strategy and drafted remarks for public and private sectors clients (including Fortune 100 CEO's, university presidents and several elected officials).
 
In the 2004 presidential race, Josh served as Deputy Director of Speechwriting and Senior Policy Advisor to the John Kerry for President Campaign. In this role, in which he traveled with the Senator, Josh wrote speeches, op-eds, and policy memoranda. In addition, he aided in the development of communications and political strategy. During the primary season, Josh was Deputy Director of Communications & Chief Speechwriter in General Wesley Clark's bid for the Democratic nomination.
 
Josh is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard Law School and was a Thouron Fellow at Oxford. Josh was a political analyst for BBC television and radio and has held scholarly appointments at major universities. He has published articles in The Washington Monthly, ABA Magazine, and was the editor of Ripples of Hope: Great American Civil Rights Speeches (Basic Books, 2003) a collection of inspiring speeches from five social movements in American history. Josh is also a member of the New York State Bar.
 

"When evil needs public relations, evil has (Josh Gottheimer’s company) on speed dial.”

(Rachel Maddow, MSNBC)

Will Booker’s presidential ambitions get derailed by Trump investigation?

Yesterday morning, the Washington Post reported the following:  “Federal prosecutors unsealed an indictment Monday charging two business associates of Michael T. Flynn with acting as agents of the Turkish government, describing in remarkable detail how the three attempted to persuade the United States to expel a rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Throughout the fall of 2016, while Flynn served publicly as a key surrogate and foreign policy adviser to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, prosecutors say he and business partner Bijan Kian took hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Turkish government to push for the extradition from the United States of dissident cleric Fethullah Gulen. Their efforts, prosecutors said, were directed by Kamil Ekim Alptekin, a Turkish businessman with close ties to the country’s leadership.”

“As the Mueller investigation has moved forward, the Justice Department has seemed to take a more aggressive posture in recent months toward prosecuting those who lobby for foreign interests without registering appropriately. Mueller charged former Trump campaign advisers Paul Manafort and Rick Gates with similar crimes for their work in Ukraine, and the Justice Department recently reached a plea agreement with a Russian woman whom it had accused of acting as a Kremlin agent in the United States.”

Concurrently with the period outlined above, a firm with deep ties to New Jersey Democrats – Mercury Public Affairs, LLC – was also working towards the same goal, on behalf of the Islamist government of Turkey.  Mo Butler, United States Senator Cory Booker's campaign consultant, former chief of staff, and "longtime advisor" and Michael Soliman, United States Senator and former Chairman of the Senate Committee of Foreign Relations Robert Menendez's political advisor and former State Director are top operatives at Mercury Public Affairs.

Began in 1999, Mercury handles national and international clients.  Michael Soliman joined Mercury in 2013 and soon after became a partner.  Mo Butler joined as a "managing director" in 2016 and became a partner this year.  Mercury Public Affairs has 10 partners, 160 employees, at 18 offices worldwide. Omnicom, a Russian company, purchased Mercury in 2003.

Last year, Mercury Public Affairs was the subject of a subpoena in the on-going investigation into Russia's meddling in the United States presidential election in 2016.  According to the Washington Post, former FBI Director and Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller obtained the subpoena seeking information about work Mercury had done for a pro-Putin political party in the Ukraine:

"The investigators asked Mercury for information about their public relations work at Manafort’s behest for a Brussels-based organization called the European Centre for a Modern Ukraine, which pushed for improved relations between Ukraine and European countries. The Brussels group primarily advanced the interests of a Russia-friendly Ukrainian political party that had been a client of Manafort’s before he joined the Trump campaign.”

Ross Perot predicted the rise of this type of international consultant-lobbyist in 1992:

"We've shipped millions of jobs overseas and we have a strange situation because we have a process in Washington where after you served for a while you cash in, become a foreign lobbyist, make thirty-thousand-dollars a month, then take a leave (to) work on Presidential campaigns, make sure you've got good contacts, and then go back out."  (Ross Perot, 1992 Presidential Debate)

In January 2015, Michael Soliman registered with the United States Justice Department, pursuant to the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938, as a person representing the Embassy of the State of Qatar.  You must have read about Qatar in the news...Amnesty International has accused Qatar of being complicit in human trafficking and modern-day slavery. Yes, slavery. In fact, the United Nations gave Qatar one year "to end migrant worker slavery" or face an international investigation.  

Qatar is just one of freedom's garden spots represented by Mercury.  Remember the controversy in Uganda, when the President of that country decided that homosexuality was a crime that should be punishable by death?  Well, the law he wanted passed was "moderated" in December 2013, substituting life imprisonment for the death penalty. In 2015, Mercury was brought on to provide public relations, lobbying, and media monitoring services with regards to the Office of the President and the Ugandan government in general on subjects beginning with "human rights" and ending with "good governance."  For which the contract calls for Mercury to be compensated at the rate of $50,000 per month, with $150,000 up front.

Mercury also represents individuals.  Folks like Khalid bin Saqr Al Qasimi, who in 2003 led an anti-American demonstration in which he personally burned an American flag.  For its work, Mercury pocketed a $30,000 monthly retainer, plus expenses.

In January 2016, Mercury Public Affairs partner Morris Reid negotiated a contract with Amsterdam & Partners, an international law firm with offices in London and Washington, DC.  The document is marked "confidential and privileged" but is public information under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. In August of the previous year, Amsterdam & Partners signed a contract with the Turkish Ambassador to the United States to provide legal services related to a "matter of importance" to the embassy.  The government of Turkey pays Amsterdam a retainer of $50,000 a month.

While the contract stipulates that the greatest security and confidentiality be observed, under the terms of the contract between Amsterdam and Turkey, third parties may be hired "as the Firm and the Client agree in writing are necessary to further the Engagement."  And so, in March of 2016, Amsterdam hired Mercury to perform work on behalf of the Turkish government for $20,000 a month -- above and beyond what was being paid to Amsterdam by Turkey. It is in the contract between Amsterdam & Partners and Mercury Public Affairs that we learn what all this cloak and dagger is in aid of:

The Amsterdam-Mercury contract references an "investigation into Fethullah Gulen and his organization in the United States."  So who is Fethullah Gulen?

Gulen has been in the news since the attempted coup in Turkey in 2016.  Gulen is a religious leader from Turkey, and a one-time political ally of Recep Tayyip Erdogan.  Erdogan is the increasingly authoritarian and Islamist President of Turkey. He has been repeatedly in the news for purging the judiciary, jailing journalists who write unflattering reports, and successfully intimidating the opposition.  Erdogan had a law passed to allow the government to ban websites and he has promised to "rip out the roots" of Twitter. He has even attempted to censor speech in other nations, demanding that Germany prosecute a poet who had written some verse critical of him.

Erdogan and Gulen had a falling out over allegations of political corruption by Erdogan in 2013.  Gulen's books were banned. First, he was indicted on charges that a Turkish judge threw out, but then was indicted a few months later for treasonable offenses that carried the death penalty.  Gulen fled Turkey, came to the United States, and was convicted in absentia. According to Wikipedia, Gulen was one of the first Muslim leaders to condemn the attacks on September 11, 2001, writing a "condemnation article" in the Washington Post, the next day.  He wrote: "A Muslim cannot be a terrorist, nor can a terrorist be a true Muslim."

The government of Turkish President Erdogan has attempted to extradite Gulen back to Turkey in order to execute him for his political and religious beliefs, but the government of the United States hasn't cooperated.  In the hours after the coup attempt, Erdogan was quick to blame Gulen, while Gulen put forward the theory that Erdogan had staged the coup himself in order to consolidate power.

The Associated Press identified Amsterdam & Partners (the firm Mercury is working for) as "lawyer(s) for the Turkish government".  So why are Americans involved in trying to extradite a moderate cleric to satisfy the rage of an Islamist dictator?  

How is Cory Booker going to look when his top guy’s firm is pulled further into the Trump investigation mess?  How is Booker going to explain that this helps the American people? And with all this money from foreign powers floating around, at what point does a political advisor to a United States Senator and a prospective candidate for President find himself in an existential conflict of interest?

Is Andy Kim trying to pretend he’s a veteran AGAIN?

Look at this text going out through the 3rd congressional district in the last hours before Election Day…

Andy Kim tries to pass himself off as a veteran.  In fact, Kim never served in the military.

It is one of the Six crazy things about Andy Kim you should know before you vote.

With the election for Congress just hours away, one of our readers compiled this list of crazy things about 3rd District congressional candidate Andy Kim…

(1) Andy Kim tries to make it seem like he was in the military.  He led Burlington County Young Democrats to believe he was a veteran.  In fact, Kim never served in the military.  In 2017, the Burlington County Young Democrats tried to pass Andy Kim off as a veteran…

Here are the other crazy things about Andy Kim…

(2) Andy Kim brags about a civilian award he got from General Petraeus when, in fact, it is a lesser award than the one the General gave to his girlfriend.  It seems there was a lot of award giving going around. 

(3) Andy Kim is a founder of the so-called “Resistance Movement” made up of Washington, DC-based former Obama administration appointees.  He later lied about it, claiming it was just a “Facebook group” when, in fact, Andy Kim incorporated a Soviet-style “educational” organization and a lobbying group in the State of Delaware. 

(4) “Resistance” leader Andy Kim promoted the political writings of convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu Jamal.  He sold the murderer’s book right on his website.  Kim also endorsed the organization run by Jihadist Linda Sarsour, a racist supporter of Louis Farrakhan and convicted cop-killer Joanne Chesimard. 

(5) Andy Kim was a staff member with a Homeless Advocacy organization in Chicago.  The group Kim worked for fought legislation to prevent “aggressive” panhandling and efforts to prevent people from fouling the streets.  Kim’s efforts added to the violence of that city and a decline in the quality of life there.

(6) Andy Kim doesn’t really live in New Jersey.  He’s never paid property taxes in New Jersey and never paid personal income taxes in New Jersey.  Kim doesn’t own property in New Jersey, but owns an expensive property in Washington, DC – with his DC-based lawyer spouse – on which they claimed a property tax deduction as residents.

Congressional candidate Andy Kim dropped out of nowhere and the corrupt New Jersey Democrat political machine anointed him as their candidate…

Andy Kim tries to pass himself off as a veteran. In fact, Kim never served in the military.

This is the first in a series called Six crazy things about Andy Kim you should know before you vote.

With the election for Congress just 12 days away, one of our readers compiled this list of crazy things about 3rd District congressional candidate Andy Kim.  Are there any you disagree with, or can you find more?

Let’s examine the first one…

(1) Andy Kim tries to make it seem like he was in the military.  He led Burlington County Young Democrats to believe he was a veteran.  In fact, Kim never served in the military.  In 2017, the Burlington County Young Democrats tried to pass Andy Kim off as a veteran…

Here are the other crazy things about Andy Kim…

(2) Andy Kim brags about a civilian award he got from General Petraeus when, in fact, it is a lesser award than the one the General gave to his girlfriend.  It seems there was a lot of award giving going around.

(3) Andy Kim is a founder of the so-called “Resistance Movement” made up of Washington, DC-based former Obama administration appointees.  He later lied about it, claiming it was just a “Facebook group” when, in fact, Andy Kim incorporated a Soviet-style “educational” organization and a lobbying group in the State of Delaware. 

(4) “Resistance” leader Andy Kim promoted the political writings of convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu Jamal.  He sold the murderer’s book right on his website.  Kim also endorsed the organization run by Jihadist Linda Sarsour, a racist supporter of Louis Farrakhan and convicted cop-killer Joanne Chesimard. 

(5) Andy Kim was a staff member with a Homeless Advocacy organization in Chicago.  The group Kim worked for fought legislation to prevent “aggressive” panhandling and efforts to prevent people from fouling the streets.  Kim’s efforts added to the violence of that city and a decline in the quality of life there.

(6) Andy Kim doesn’t really live in New Jersey.  He’s never paid property taxes in New Jersey and never paid personal income taxes in New Jersey.  Kim doesn’t own property in New Jersey, but owns an expensive property in Washington, DC – with his DC-based lawyer spouse – on which they claimed a property tax deduction as residents.

Congressional candidate Andy Kim dropped out of nowhere and the corrupt New Jersey Democrat political machine anointed him as their candidate…

Six crazy things about Andy Kim you should know before you vote.

With the election for Congress just 12 days away, one of our readers compiled this list of crazy things about 3rd District congressional candidate Andy Kim.  Are there any you disagree with, or can you find more? 

(1) Andy Kim tries to make it seem like he was in the military.  He led Burlington County Young Democrats to believe he was a veteran.  In fact, Kim never served in the military.

(2) Andy Kim brags about a civilian award he got from General Petraeus when, in fact, it is a lesser award than the one the General gave to his girlfriend.  It seems there was a lot of award giving going around.

(3) Andy Kim is a founder of the so-called “Resistance Movement” made up of Washington, DC-based former Obama administration appointees.  He later lied about it, claiming it was just a “Facebook group” when, in fact, Andy Kim incorporated a Soviet-style “educational” organization and a lobbying group in the State of Delaware. 

(4) “Resistance” leader Andy Kim promoted the political writings of convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu Jamal.  He sold the murderer’s book right on his website.  Kim also endorsed the organization run by Jihadist Linda Sarsour, a racist supporter of Louis Farrakhan and convicted cop-killer Joanne Chesimard. 

(5) Andy Kim was a staff member with a Homeless Advocacy organization in Chicago.  The group Kim worked for fought legislation to prevent “aggressive” panhandling and efforts to prevent people from fouling the streets.  Kim’s efforts added to the violence of that city and a decline in the quality of life there.

(6) Andy Kim doesn’t really live in New Jersey.  He’s never paid property taxes in New Jersey and never paid personal income taxes in New Jersey.  Kim doesn’t own property in New Jersey, but owns an expensive property in Washington, DC – with his DC-based lawyer spouse – on which they claimed a property tax deduction as residents.

Did someone dump in Alan Steinberg’s brain and neglect to flush it?

Over the past year or so, we have been watching Alan Steinberg’s irretrievable slide into the dark waters of a wannabe fellow-traveler.   With today’s column – the one attacking Republican Bob Hugin and praising the Democrats’ nomination of a 1960’s era socialist as that party’s face in Florida – Steinberg has finally hit crush depth.

We are genuinely concerned for Alan, a one-time devotee of Her Bluebloodedness Christie Todd Whitman, and recall how slavishly Steinberg attempted to defend her disastrous policies – fiscally ruinous – for which every taxpayer in New Jersey continues to suffer.  In recognition of such devotion, the Whitmanites kept Steinberg in patronage heaven.

But with the advent of Donald Trump, something went terribly wrong with Alan.  He’s in touch with too much of the old crowd, most of whom switched party in the Year of Our Lord 2008, when Heaven sent down the anointed one to dwell amongst and lead us.  We hate to remind Alan that when the folks who voted for He Who Must Be Obeyed got through all the smoke and bullshit only to realize that they were still living in their mother’s basement, without a job (but in plenty of debt) – these same folks voted for a newer, coarser savior… The Donald. 

The Bluebloods, who Steinberg seems so intent on virtue-signaling to, never got over their rejection by the vast working and middle classes who make up most of America’s voters.  They are not concerned by people like Andrew Gillum, who they long ago sponsored, co-opted, and turned into salon pets.  Corporate America has been pouring money into the Left for generations, with the understanding that when the Left does get power, it leaves them alone and is focused instead on the average American taxpayer.

That’s the great culpability of the 1960’s era New Left – bourgeois academics who found that it was easier to take the rich man’s money and make war on the working class… to compound a philosophy of “identity” that would split the mighty working class into white and black, male and female, gay and straight, urban and rural… to allow it to endlessly battle itself.  And in the time since, economic inequality has grown to the point where, if you believe the Washington Post, the richest 1 percent own more wealth than at any time in the last 50 years.  If you believe the New York Times, the richest one percent hold more wealth than the bottom 90 percent combined.  That’s what the New Left’s identity bullshit and the fracturing of the working class has got us… vast economic inequality.

As for the race between Republican Bob Hugin and the incumbent Democrat, Senator Bob Menendez, is Steinberg serious?

Yes, we do remember that Menendez was once the pet of Governor Tom Kean and that a great many of the most vulgarly rich, formerly Republican, Bluebloods still carry a torch for “that nice young man” from Hudson County.  The trouble is, that “nice young man” grew up to be a corpulent bowl of putrid corruption – and he’s not from Hudson County anymore, he’s from Washington, DC. 

Hey, maybe it’s not all his fault, that place will do it to you, but after the shit he’s pulled, he owns it.  You can’t help your rich buddy import women into the United States and still expect to be called a civilized human being.  It’s a crime against nature.  And that’s before we examine the policies pursued by Bob Menendez… like wanting to waste money on a border wall with Canada (yep, like in South Park) or never meeting a war that he didn’t want to send some blue-collar kids to fight.  Hey, did this guy ever serve himself?  Does that make him a chicken hawk?

So piss on Alan Steinberg’s prognosticating… it’s all just aid and comfort for a very bad guy who has a lot of old-fashioned, formerly Republican, majorly blueblood friends.  And Alan, get hold of yourself, you don’t need those bluebloods’ approval to feel relevant.  Screw them.  Resist.

Andy Kim’s “resist” friends target mixed-race couple having breakfast

Candace Owens is a very pretty, petite, young lady and Charlie Kirk is a tall, handsome young man.  Candace is black and Charlie White.  Both are professional journalists who write opinion columns for a living.  Culturally, they hold the kind of traditionalists views that most Democrats held a decade ago.  Economically, they are free-market conservatives. 

Candace and Charlie were having breakfast in a Center City Philadelphia restaurant when a group of white young people in their teens and twenties noticed them.  The white guys claimed to be part of the “resistance” movement or the so-called ANTIFA organization which claims the right to use violence to muzzle their opponents, to fight what they deem is fascism by using fascist tactics.  It is the prison mentality of a rape for a rape.

https://twitter.com/twitter/statuses/1026458985967153153

Democrat congressional candidate Andy Kim was the founder of one of the organizations that make up the “resistance” movement.  That’s right, while most level-minded Americans accept the outcome of a democratic election in America, Andy Kim’s first reaction was to make pretend that it was 1940 France instead of 2016 America.  He thought it would be cool to pretend that America was Nazi-occupied territory and that he and his pals were the French Resistance. 

It was fun a first – like the anti-war rallies of the 1960’s, there is a certain sexuality to all that marching and shouting – but now things have got out of hand.  The “resistance” smashed up a United States Marine Corps recruiting office and attacked police because… heck, who needs a reason these days?  Because it is there? 

Andy Kim could have been affair-minded grown-up, shown a little humility, accepted the outcome of an election, and given the new President a chance.  Instead, he decided to form an organization to undermine the elected government of the United States of America.  Now he’s trying to tell us how bi-partisan he is and that he wants to work with both Republicans and Democrats.  Well, that’s just bullshit and we all know it.

This was Andy Kim’s reaction to a Republican winning…

The Story of RISE Stronger

In the days following the 2016 presidential election, Andy Kim, a former White House Director for Iraq at the National Security Council, gathered several hundred people to a meeting in Washington, D.C. to lay out a vision for a new wave of citizen engagement in this uncertain and tumultuous political landscape in America. That meeting launched RISE Stronger, which has since grown to become a citizen watchdog organization of nearly 30,000 members across the country who are ready to ensure elected officials and government are both responsible and accountable to the people.

…Keeping grassroots activism at the heart of its work, RISE Stronger draws from a vast network of former White House and government officials and other policy experts to inform and augment the work of its members throughout the country. A network of local and state chapters, and an active online hub will serve as an incubator to new ideas and initiatives that propel forward the work of members and increase the engagement of Americans.

“A vast network of… (bureaucrats and Obama White House appointees).”  Is this just another name for a shadow government of the far-Left? 

Here is a statement put out by Andy Kim before he was a candidate for Congress:

STATEMENT

The Resistance is Now

Feb 2, 2017 2:29 PM

Feb. 2, 2017

To Members of RISE Stronger,

This has been one of the most volatile two weeks in American politics. We are living in a moment of history, and our ability to stand up together will help shape our nation's trajectory. We have already seen some heroes rise to the challenge - the ACLU/Yale/IRAP team of attorneys who filed the first lawsuit against Trump's Muslim Ban executive order, and the upstanding Judge who placed a stay on the order; Former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates, who stood firmly against enforcing the muslim travel ban, and showed us the importance of checks and balances; and on Wednesday, two Republican Senators confirmed that they would not be voting in favor of Betsy DeVos for Secretary of Education, bringing us closer to halting her confirmation.

While the wins seem few and far between, they are critical to keep in mind. Our efforts are working - the calls, the social media, the actions taken by all of you and millions more are being heard. It is an exhausting, uphill battle right now, but we must keep our vision on the present, as well as the future.

Just two weeks ago, RISE Stronger joined the Women's March in what was one of the most inspiring, exciting days of my life. We followed that with a two day, RISE Above conference, co-hosted with Lawyers for Good Government. We had over 800 hundred participants, over 50 high level speakers, and an incredible amount of energy -- amazing results for an organization that didn't exist 12 weeks ago. We now have over 50,000 individuals engaged on our various networks, local chapters in nearly every states, and working groups forming and strategizing on the best ways we can fight back.

Where do we go from here? We continue to build out RISE Stronger as an organization. We are in the process of filing paperwork for RISE to incorporate as a 501c3 and 501c4. Our policy working groups are honing in on confirmation hearings at the cabinet and sub-cabinet level. We are gearing up for the Affordable Care Act fight, a fight I believe we can truly impact.

RISE Stronger is a community, where horizontal, two-way communication is at the heart of the organization. We hope you will join us as we build a strategic and effective form of resistance, that incorporates each and every one of you.

Please join us on Facebook, Twitter, and online at www.risestronger.org. Please direct questions to questions@risestronger.org.

Warmly,

Andy Kim
Founder, RISE Stronger

Memo to Andy Kim: Americans celebrate Labor Day, not May Day

Hey, we all get that Democrat Andy Kim is from Washington, DC, where he owns a million dollar condo in a really cool part of the city -- but that is no reason for him to go all bubble-world elitist on us and start celebrating May Day.

American workers celebrate Labor Day, in September, and we celebrate it the good old fashioned way -- no we don't have some stupid political protest -- we have a beer, maybe go to the shore, or throw a few burgers on the grill.  We spend it with our families and friends and NO, we don't talk progressive politics at all.

Yesterday, the man who would be King issued a statement worthy of what the Queen does on some high and mighty event.  Andy wrote:  "The heart of America and the strength of the American economy lies with the American worker and middle class. I will always stand up for them..."  Funny how he doesn't include himself.  It's them, as in, "Hell no, I'm not a worker!"

Andy Kim ends his comment with #MayDay.  You can almost see the little right-on hand-popping.  Well Andy, in honor of you and your May Day holiday (the rest of us worked), this one goes out to you...

Now to an even more important topic.

Transparency.

Andy Kim has said he believes in transparency.  He says he will let the people know everything he is doing.  But back on April 18th, Andy Kim held a fundraiser at a big-deal law firm in Cherry Hill. 

We've been looking for it on his campaign's Facebook page, but it's not there.  No pictures, no report on who the host committee was or what fat cats showed up with their checkbooks.  Here's the invitation below.  Note who it is paid by...

Andy Kim likes to claim that he's not taking "corporate money" -- but that's not really true, is it Andy?  Many law firms are corporations of a kind and your fundraiser was held at a law office.  These lawyers all represent big corporations and they contribute big money to trial lawyers' associations. 

We believe Andy Kim throws out the word "corporate" as a distraction -- to make you believe he is better than he is.  How are lawyers better than manufacturers?  Most people probably think they are far worse.

Boasting about giving up one kind of sugar while devouring bowls of honey isn't really a way forward.  You are still going to get fat.  And that's what is happening with Andy.  We goes to Weight Watchers and brags to everyone that he's off carbs, but then when it's time for the weigh-in, it emerges that he's fatter than ever.

Don't go on fooling the public and, just as important, don't fool yourself.  It turns out you are no better than all the others.

Tom Malinowski thinks Americans are the real terrorists

Congressional candidate Tom Malinowski sent out an email blast on Friday that began with the subject line, "the real national threat."  After opening it, Malinowski made it clear that he considers us -- the American people -- the "real" threat.

Yes, we know.  Sure, anyone who lived through September 11th knows that the real threat to our national security is the single-mom night manager at McDonalds who keeps a handgun because the police response times don't give her the edge she needs to stay un-raped or un-murdered in the lousy neighborhood she can afford to raise her family in.  And she's a whole lot more threatening than those Russians with all those nukes or China with all our debt.  Heck, she's what a state department boy like Tom Malinowski would call "an existential threat".

This was Tom Malinowski writing to the people he has deigned to represent:  "I’ll keep this short—I’m getting ready to head down to Washington, DC for tomorrow’s March for our Lives, to stand with our students as they call for an end to violence in their schools and communities."

That's right.  Tom Malinowski was heading back home -- to Washington, DC, where he's lived for nearly a decade, voted in elections, and where he owns his home and pays property taxes.  He even gets a break on his property taxes for being a resident of Washington, DC.  Of course, he would hop on a train and stand with the students in DC because... he knows their parents, they are his neighbors, they're the people he likes to hang with.

Malinowski then asks us to share a letter that he's signed with a bunch of DC insiders that calls on Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and Attorney General Jeff Sessions to elevate the threat posed by our single-mom to first and foremost -- above that posed by North Korea, Russia, Iran, China, Hezbollah, Hamas, Al-Qaeda, and Islamic State.  And speaking of Islamic State, these creatures who signed the letter with Tom Malinowski represent some of the bloodiest people in Washington.

Whether by design or by accident, many of Malinowski's fellow signers have caused the death or displacement of millions of people.  There's the former Under Secretary of State for Whoops We Made a Mistake (and sorry, you died).  The former Executive Secretary of Massive Screw-ups and Sorry about the Massacre.  The former Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Lack of Policies.  And here's the former Special Representative for Taking His Eye Off the Ball (and whoops, here's ISIS!).  The list goes on and on, but between them there is a whole lot of death and misery that they must be called to account for.  Oh, business as usual in Washington, DC?  Can't blame the white collar bosses, can we?  Let's find some police, err.... soldiers to blame it on.

We're shocked that you didn't let Andy Kim sign the letter.  What, too junior a screw-up?  Wouldn't let him sign 'til his next birthday?  We know he tried to horn in.

Tom Malinowski even called semi-automatic scary rifles "weapons of war" -- which indicates that Tommy has never been to war.  Actual war.  He might have helped plan it for others, but not for him.  Being part of the club does have its privileges.

So people, here is how Tom Malinowski ended his missive to his district:  "Before you head to a March in your own community, share our letter—and consider writing and publishing your own, in collaboration with members of your community."

Yes, my people, you "head to a March in your own community" like Jersey or some stuff like that.  I'm going to my community.  And while you're at it, why don't you collaborate with "members of your community"... not mine, yours.  Because I know who I represent.  It's all those DC moes on that letter.

Yes, Tom Malinowski is a callous knucklehead... but he's laughing at us, just the same.

Democrat Cory Booker's war against art

So is this how it will be from now on?

Every few years some new fashion -- or new regime -- will dictate that all the art previous to it (or some subset thereof) will be subject to ideological cleansing for the purposes of re-education.  Statuary -- the plastic arts -- should not simply be objects interpreted by philistine politicians and ideological groups for the convenience of their propaganda battles. 

Art exists apart from such concerns.  Art is its own thing -- a communication between the artist and the person experiencing the art.  Often, art is meant to disturb, to engage the mind with many considerations.

But instead of erecting new art -- in proximity to the old -- to show what was and what is (which will also be, soon enough, what was), as a kind of progression, the fashion now is to rip it down, hide it, or destroy it.  This formula has been notably  practiced by ideological groups like the Taliban and ISIS:

And here is the Islamic justification for destroying art:

This is the direction our nation is heading?  This is what we are choosing?  This is who we are now?  Are you proud?

The artist who conceived the statue in Charlottesville, Virginia, of Confederate General Robert E. Lee and his horse, Traveler, was a New York City native by the name of Henry Shrady.  As a sculptor, he is best known for the Ulysses S. Grant Memorial on the west front of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C.  As the few of us remaining who read American history know, General Grant was the Union General who defeated General Lee and concluded the war against the Confederacy.  He later became President of the United States.  So does anyone really believe that the artist was trying to "celebrate" the ideology of the Confederacy when he designed the statute of General Lee in Charlottesville, Virginia?

The statue of General Lee had not been completed at the time of Henry Shrady's death, and so a second artist was employed, Leo Lentelli, who brought his own ideas to the project, altering the work somewhat.  Lentelli was a sculptor and teacher of sculpture at the Art Students League and Cooper Union, in New York, and the California School of Fine Arts, in San Francisco.  He had studied art in Bologna and Rome, and had emigrated to the United States at the age of 24.  Some of his best-known work is in Rockefeller Center, Steinway Hall, and the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, in New York.  One wonders what of his other work will be persecuted.

There is an artist behind every piece of work targeted, for ideological reasons, and slated for destruction or suppression.  How can we expect a shallow, celebrity-seeking politician like Senator Cory Booker to understand the connection between an artist and his work?

Could Booker -- who has existed his whole life in the corrupting avarice of Wall Street, followed by the venal corruption of municipal politics, followed by the high arrogance of the United States Senate -- how can we expect him to understand?  Has Senator Booker the imagination in his mind and the craft in his hands to fashion even a single, beautiful object? 

Ah, but he does have the cunning to know how to gain political advantage by destroying it.  And that appears to be enough these days.

"Round and round and round we go... in a dance to the music of time... endlessly repeating the past's errors... in bliss, ignorant, forgetfulness."

Stuart Stevens is what's wrong with politics

Stuart Stevens has grown very fat off the system.  Year after year, campaign upon campaign, he's gotten rich off the Republican Party as one of the most inside of insider political consultants to the Washington, DC party bosses.  Stuart always gets his cut of whatever is going down.

Usually everything goes his way.  Some tame, docile, member of the GOP political establishment get's nominated and Stuart makes a bundle.  The candidate loses of course -- but the grease machine of corporate cronyism, lobbyists, wads of money, and consultants like Stuart, it keeps going on and on.  Winning and losing matters less than it did because not only does Stuart have corporate clients who are fully participating members of the grease machine, but he has foreign clients too.

Stuart Stevens ran Republican Mitt Romney's lackluster campaign for President four years ago.  Romney spent a lot of money but lost to a bigger insider, President Barack Obama.  This year finds Stuart upset because he doesn't have a seat at the table and isn't getting his cut.  The candidacies of anti-establishment outsiders like Donald Trump and Ted Cruz have completely undone Stuart, who is now threatening to help the campaign of Democrat Hillary Clinton by getting Republicans to vote for a throw-away third-party candidate.

Stuart Stevens is having a hissy fit because the citizens are refusing to do as they are told.  Democracy doesn't matter to Stuart, getting paid matters, and Stuart is willing to take a dump in the picnic basket if he doesn't get his own way.  More than a few establishment Republicans are applauding Stuart, not thinking about what would happen if we all adopted this attitude. Think of all the unmitigated bear shat you serve up as candidates and think of all the times we have dutifully supported them "for the good of the party"  -- and you don't even pay us like you do Stuart.

Stuart Stevens claims that he's betraying his party because he doesn't agree with what someone like Donald Trump "stands for," that he doesn't like Trump's "tone."  It's rather amusing, coming from someone who has worked for the political operations of foreign thugs.  One such thug, the former President of Albania, actually had his "special forces" shoot protesters at a rally.

That's right, some political consulting businesses are no longer American enterprises but instead work for the interests of foreign potentates wherever there is lots of money to be made. Take Stuart Stevens' client Sali Berisha, the former President of Albania.  This guy is a real piece of work, as Wikipedia reports:

Sali Berisha was elected President on 9 April 1992... Berisha introduced Islam to the Albanian political scene, pursued re-Islamisation of the country to reverse decades of anti-religious policy under Communism. Non-Governmental Organisations from Saudi Arabia and other parts of the Muslim world were invited in to build mosques and schools and provide other aid, and introduce Wahhabi or Salafi Islam to Albania.

...The collapse of the Ponzi schemes towards the end of 1996, into which it is alleged that Albanians invested $1 billion worth of life savings from 1994, recapped the crisis. The schemes failed, one by one, from December 1996, and demonstrators took to the streets accusing the government of having stolen the money. Those demonstrations were then taken over by the opposition.

During the first ten days of March, the situation deteriorated, culminating in the desertion of large numbers of police and military, leaving their arsenals unlocked. These were promptly looted, mostly by militias and some criminal gangs, and for a time it looked like civil war would erupt between the government and rebels. Although the Prime Minister resigned immediately, Berisha refused opposition demands to step down, claiming he had to ensure continuity, and UN and European Multinational Forces were required to step in and take the situation under control. After their intervention in Albania, early elections were held in June 1997, leading to the victory of a socialist-led coalition of parties. On 24 July 1997, a month after the DP lost the 1997 elections to the left coalition, Berisha stepped down as President...

On 3 July 2005, Sali Berisha was able to lead a coalition of five right center parties into the 2005 parliamentary elections, which eventually won a majority of 74 MPs from a total of 140. He was appointed Prime Minister of Albania on 8 September 2005...

The 2009 elections were flawed and have been called as such by the socialist opposition, who have asked for a recount of the ballots. Berisha refused any recount of the votes... The political crisis between government and opposition worsened over time, with the Socialists abandoning parliamentary debates for months and staging hunger strikes to ask for internal and international support. The EU attempted a conciliation, which failed. The ongoing political crisis was one of the reasons for the EU's refusal to grant Albania official candidate status in late 2010.

On 21 January 2011, clashes broke out between police and protesters in an anti-government rally in front of the Government building in Tirana. Four people were shot dead from government special forces. The EU issued a statement to Albanian politicians, warning both sides to refrain from violence, while Berisha defined the protests and the subsequent charges by judges upon policemen as stages of an attempted coup against him - consequently using this to his advantage to further attempt to consolidate his grip on the state institutions. He accused the then President of having been part of the coup after the relations had soured between the two and he embraced his perceived victim status to install his own 'yes man' in the office.

...After his party's defeat in the 2013 parliamentary election, Berisha resigned as party leader, but he remained in parliament.

Another foreign politician who Stuart Stevens worked for is Joseph Kabila, the President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo since January 2001.  He became President after his father, the dictator Laurent Kabila, was assassinated by his bodyguards.  The Kabila family has a long association with such memorable figures as Che Guevara, who worked with the elder Kabila in a 1965 coup attempt.  As a youth leader for Patrice Lumumba, the elder Kabila was present for the orgy of rape and murder that followed.

The younger Kabila (Stuart's client) received his military training in China at the Peoples Liberation Army National Defense University, in Beijing.  He became the commander of the "infamous" army of children -- taken from their families and conscripted -- known as the kadogos.  Up to 10,000 children, some as young as seven years old, were abused in this way.     The International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague has condemned the use of children in combat, calling it a violation of human rights as well as a war crime.

One of Kabila's first acts as president was to round up 135 people -- including 4 children -- and try them for the assassination of his father.  Dozens were executed and others faced torture and abuse.  President Kabila stood for election in December 2011.  We'll let Wikipedia take it from here: 

After the results were announced on 9 December, there was violent unrest in Kinshasa and Mbuji-Mayi, where official tallies showed that a strong majority had voted for the opposition candidate Etienne Tshisekedi.  Official observers from the Carter Center reported that returns from almost 2,000 polling stations in areas where support for Tshisekedi was strong had been lost and not included in the official results. They described the election as lacking credibility.  On 20 December, Kabila was sworn in for a second term, promising to invest in infrastructure and public services. However, Tshisekedi maintained that the result of the election was illegitimate and said that he intended also to "swear himself in" as president.

In January 2012, Catholic Bishops in DR Congo also condemned the elections, complaining of "treachery, lies and terror", and calling on the election commission to correct "serious errors".

On 19 January 2015 protests led by students at the University of Kinshasa broke out. The protests began following the announcement of a proposed law that would allow Kabila to remain in power until a national census can be conducted (elections had been planned for 2016).  By Wednesday 21 January clashes between police and protesters had claimed at least 42 lives (although the government claimed only 15 people had been killed). 

How after working for these monsters, after pocketing their bloody money, how does Stuart Stevens call a Republican like Donald Trump a "thug"?  It's a little ridiculous, isn't it?

Super PAC's connection with Rutgers questioned

Rutgers Super PAC party boss Susan McCue at a cocktail dinner party with Washington, DC insiders.

In a letter to the Rutgers President, Robert Barchi, and Chairman of the Board of Governors, Greg Brown, religious leader and family rights activist Greg Quinlan questioned how Susan McCue, as a member of the Board of Governors, can run a Super PAC whose sole purpose is to influence the election of legislators in New Jersey.  Those same legislators who are responsible for taxing and spending money on behalf of Rutgers.

Here is the letter:

Garden State Families

Rev. Greg Quinlan, President

October 21, 2015

Mr. Robert Barchi, President

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

83 Somerset Street
New Brunswick, NJ 08901-1281 

Mr. Greg Brown, Chairman of the Board of Governors

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

Chairman & CEO

Motorola Solutions, Inc.
1303 East Algonquin Road
Schaumburg, Illinois 60196 

Dear Messrs. Barchi and Brown: 

I would like to bring a serious conflict-of-interest to your attention 

Susan M. McCue -- of Alexandria, Virginia -- is currently serving as one of the 15 members of the Rutgers' Board of Governors responsible for policy and oversight of the University.  Ms. McCue is a political consultant who controls a business called Message Global LLC, where she serves as President.   

Susan McCue is also President of the General Majority PAC -- an organization that in the last two election cycles has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to defeat or elect members of the New Jersey Legislature.  This is from her biography on the General Majority PAC webpage: 

Susan M. McCue is one of the nation’s top political strategists and President of Message Global, LLC, a firm she founded... Susan served as Chief of Staff for U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) for eight years, where she built and managed his leadership, policy and political operations.  

She also co-founded the much-praised Senate Majority SuperPAC to elect Democrats in 2012 to the U.S. Senate, and in 2013 she founded the Fund for Jobs, Growth and Security, now called General Majority PAC, to elect Democrats in state races. 

The taxpayers, through their elected representatives in the New Jersey Legislature, fund Rutgers - The State University of New Jersey.  Should a member of Rutgers' governing Board be engaged in the election or defeat of members of that Legislature?   

What effect will her presence on the Rutgers governing Board have on legislators who, when exercising their own statutory oversight, find themselves facing a quarter-million dollar cable buy advocating their defeat or re-election? Will legislators think twice before taking up the cause of a disgruntled Rutgers employee or student.  Legislators must already know that they take on Rutgers' powerful and incumbent at their peril.  McCue's presence has already had a chilling effect on free expression in and outside the Legislature.   

Lastly, the source of Susan McCue's power -- Citizens United and other decision by that fail-safe of the establishment, the national Supreme Court -- and her misuse of it to amplify the voice of rich corporations to drown out the voices of millions of American people makes a mockery of our democratic process and threatens democracy itself.  Is this the example you want Rutgers students to follow? 

Thank you for your time and consideration.  I look forward to your answers to my questions and to any ideas you might have on how to address this threat to legislative independence and democracy.

Sincerely,

Rev. Greg Quinlan