Murphy extremists are fighting to keep control of School Boards

By Rubashov

On Monday, Governor Phil Murphy’s state Democrat machine put out a press release attacking the concept of parents and property taxpayers having a voice in education by running for local school board. Calling it a “troubling trend among candidates running for school boards all over New Jersey” the Chairwoman of the NJ LGBTQ Democrats, Lauren Albrecht, issued the following statement:

“What we’re seeing is a very small but very loud group of individuals who are running for seats on Boards of Education all over New Jersey in a campaign coordinated by, and funded by an extremist and Evangelical agenda, with the singular goal of pushing animosity aimed at LGBTQ+ students and the LGBTQ+ community in general. These candidates, and their backers, have one goal: to fill school boards with fringe extremists whose sole aim is to destroy the progress that’s been made for the LGBTQ community in our state.”

“An extremist and Evangelical agenda”? Is Ms. Albrecht preaching hatred towards specific religious groups? And why does her organization not embrace the “+” in LGBTQ+? Her statement specifically accuses this “extremist and Evangelical agenda” of “the singular goal of pushing animosity aimed at LGBTQ+ students and the LGBTQ+ community in general.” But her group lacks the “+” so, why is that?

Could it be that part of that “+” is “K” for Kink? Is it that Ms. Albrecht understands sado-masochism as a life-style choice, at least for the moment, makes even politically fashionable suburbanites pause? Ms. Albrecht needs to explain just which part of “+” her organization is so uncomfortable with.

This attack by Governor Murphy’s NJ LGBTQ Democrats could be in response to the success of a group, formed by Pastor Phil Rizzo last year, which successfully fulfilled its mission under the leadership of Lafayette school board president Josh Aikens this year. The group, AriseNJ, has recruited more than 400 candidates statewide – representing both major parties, some belonging to no party or third parties – who are bracketed and running together in over 100 school districts.

AriseNJ helps people to run for school board who believe in parental and taxpayer control over education, who embrace the Bill of Rights, and who oppose Trenton authoritarianism in the form of unfunded mandates and curriculum diktats. That is not “extremist” but rather the very idea of democracy for which the Democratic Party is named.

As Ms. Albrecht knows, the Democrat Party has non-profit groups set-up to train and run candidates for school board. They understand the existential importance of this level of government. Unfortunately, the Republican Party does not.

Contrary to Ms. Albrecht and the NJ LGBTQ Democrats’ assertion that the parents and property taxpayers who now want a say in their children’s education are “well-funded” – the NJGOP is not helping them at all. Quite the opposite.

The Chairman of the NJGOP, Bob Hugin, appears to favor funding a very different agenda. The former Big Pharma executive has busied himself with changing the face of the GOP. Since his 2018 campaign, Hugin appears to have more deeply embraced identity politics.

For example, an independent expenditure committee controlled by Hugin called Women for a Stronger New Jersey spent around $30,000 on direct mail, text-messaging, robo-calls, and social media in an attempt to defeat a conservative State Committeewoman in Mercer County and replace her with what would have been the first transgender State Committeewoman to represent the GOP. The effort ultimately failed, but one can only ask why such resources – scarce in the best of times – would be wasted on such a silly primary, for such a silly cause. $30,000 would be better used to defeat Democrats – or to fund parents and property taxpayers who want a say in their children’s education.

Lauren Albrecht and the NJ LGBTQ Democrats are pushing for an agenda that interferes with the traditional role of parents – teaching their children how to negotiate their sexuality in the world – and with the traditional role of consumers – the right to choose which product they pay for. Property taxpayers are consumers. They pay for a product. They shouldn’t be forced to pay for a product they don’t like. Not without a way of exercising their right to petition the governing body. No consumer should. Democrats once understood that. Liberals – true liberals – still do.

But liberals are few and far between in the Democrat Party of today. Even Leftists – honest Leftists who don’t buy into the security state or the permanent war machine or bailouts that help Wall Street infinitely more than Main Street or executive orders that throw you out of a job but don’t make sure you have a means to pay for health care – Leftists like that don’t inhabit the Democrat Party. Instead you have Wall Street operators like Phil Murphy and government authoritarians like… also Phil Murphy. That’s your Democrat Party today, which is why they need Trump so much as a hate object to unite them.

Apparently without considering the institutions that founded education in America, Albrecht writes: “These candidates no more belong on Boards of Education than religion belongs in our public schools.”

So, is that the position of the New Jersey Democrats under Phil Murphy? If you believe in God or some form of higher consciousness or even possess a spiritually informed conscience of your own, you have no place on a school board? Do they really believe that education belongs only to those who make money from it? To greed alone? To the education establishment, the fat-paid administrators, the insider vendors (like Garden State Equality), and to all those politically-connected who trouser the green from the grease machine? Everybody else shut-up and just keep paying?

Even more disturbing, given recent moves by the National School Boards Association and the Biden administration to criminalize speech at school board meetings, is this weird threat from Lauren Albrecht and the NJ LGBTQ Democrats:

“It’s time for our community and allies to identify and expose these extremist candidates (and their backers) who are exploiting this fraught moment for their own brazen political gain with little regard for the support, safety, and academic achievement of New Jersey public school students. It’s time to send a clear message at the polls that again, hate has no home in New Jersey.”

Lauren Albrecht proves Hank Bukowski right again: “The best at hate are those who preach love.”

Here Tucker Carlson exposes the Biden agenda for restricting the right of parents and property taxpayers to petition the governing school boards that tax them:

Will the Biden administration criminalize speech at school board meetings and use the Patriot Act against those who petition a governing body?

“Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.”
George Orwell

NJGOP Chairman Doug Steinhardt: 20 reasons to Vote Republican on Tuesday

Over on the New Jersey Globe website, editor David Wildstein assures us that New Jersey is still a two-party state, with the caveat that the GOP might not be one of those two parties. Wildstein’s words must be taken seriously, for whatever his faults, he has a laudable record as a campaign manager and operative. He even managed to get elected himself.

Under Governor Chris Christie, the New Jersey Republican Party functioned as a kind of cult of personality. If you were around for earlier GOP administrations, you would have recognized the difference. So far as legislative seats are concerned, this didn’t work all that well even while Christie was Governor.

Post-Christie, New Jersey Republicans have suffered from a crisis of identity. This has been exacerbated by two things. The first, of course, is Donald Trump – the face of the national Republican Party. Many New Jersey Republicans don’t know how to explain him or fit even the positive aspects of his hegemony into a local narrative. They got out of the habit of having big vision ideas or policies – so that they can’t even effectively change the subject.

This brings us to the second… the rise of South Jersey Democrats as a kind of opposition party to the Democrats of Governor Phil Murphy. As they did with the so-called “Clean Elections” gambit, they pose as “reformers” who are “pro-business” and “pro-taxpayer” – with watchwords like “efficiency”. In reality, they are an old-world political machine, fueled by crony capitalism and soft corruption (at the very least). Their model is the one-party state, with a relationship between political power and business that resembles something out of Red China… or National Socialist Germany.

But at least they have ideas and policies, many of which are attractive to business, so they occupy an alternative ground to the Murphy Democrats’ collectivist and confiscatory impulses. On social issues they are equally disreputable. Their refusal to post the Human Trafficking & Child Exploitation Prevention Act for a vote shows that they monetize anything to please a supplicant corporate interest. Just keep the money flowing… and suffer the children.

Which brings us to a post over the weekend on Matt Rooney’s Save Jersey website. In it, NJGOP Chairman Doug Steinhardt provides an outline of why voters should choose Republican candidates over Democrats this coming Tuesday.

It really is a good list, and Matt did a great service publishing it. With due acknowledgement to Matt and to Chairman Steinhardt, we are re-publishing it below:

State Republican Chairman Doug Steinhardt

#20: New Jersey Has The Worst Foreclosure Rate In The U.S.
Phil Murphy and Democrats have had full control of the state house for 2 years now. Their liberal agenda has produced the highest foreclosure rate in the country. New Jersey is too expensive, and Phil Murphy, who said “If … tax rate is your issue … we’re probably not your state,” is too aloof, for hard working families to afford their homes. This is the danger of one-party rule in Trenton.

#19: Governor Murphy Tried To Steal Money From Firefighter Burial Fund
The NJGOP is proud to fight alongside New Jersey’s first responders, especially after their Governor tried to pay for his laundry list of liberal handouts by stealing $33 million from the Firemen’s Association burial fund. And even though his screwball scheme failed, Phil Murphy’s last second retreat can’t erase his blatant disregard for the hard working men and women who risk their lives to protect our lives. New Jersey voters should be shocked and appalled, but then, hey, this is the same Governor who, last week, said, “If … tax rate is your issue … we’re probably not your state.” You shouldn’t be our Governor either, and your Party’s policies are killing our State.

#18: New Jersey Has The Lowest Mainland US GDP Growth
Governor Murphy’s job-killing regulations and ever-expanding tax burden is leaving New Jersey’s economy hobbled and lagging behind the rest of mainland America. While the US economy is booming, New Jersey is failing. Trenton needs business-minded conservatives to bring a common sense check to Governor Murphy’s unbalanced budget.

#17: Phil Murphy Blew The Amazon Bid
Just weeks after New Jersey Democrats passed Phil Murphy’s billion plus dollar tax hikes, Amazon passed on New Jersey and put its HQ2 in New York and Virginia. Governor Murphy’s liberal lunacy cost thousands of well-paying jobs and a chance to revitalize our state’s biggest city. But this is the same Governor who maintains, “If … tax rate is your issue … we’re probably not your state.”

#16: Phil Murphy’s Online Sales Tax
Phil Murphy calls New Jersey a high tax for high value state, but Democrats are squeezing out what little value is left. If it walks, talks, ships, shoots, rides, drives, eats or roots, New Jersey’s daft Democrats devise a devilish way to tax it. Under the Murphy Administration, New Jersey residents now pay an internet sales tax. But, this is the same Governor who says, “If … tax rate is your issue … we’re probably not your state.”

#15: NJ Transit Fail
If a good executive keeps the trains running on time, Phil Murphy isn’t – good. New Jersey Transit is rated among the least reliable nationally. And even though Governor Murphy has the power to change it, he can’t. That’s because he’s more interested in liberal headlines than commuter wait times. People spend more time commuting than they do with their families. The system is so bad that even Democrats are investigating Murphy’s abject failure.

#14: Hiring Corrupt Officials
We should be throwing corruption out of government, not welcoming it back in. When Governor Murphy hired into his administration a former public official convicted of taking bribes, he called it the new normal. Never! The bar should never be so low. At a time when we should be building the public’s trust in government, Phil Murphy is tearing it down.

#13: Sky Blue Soccer Scandal
Governor Murphy preaches public equality, but fails miserably to practice it privately. As the owner of a women’s soccer team, Phil Murphy oversaw a team that was so badly treated that the Star Ledger equated the player’s conditions to a sweatshop. These professional women were housed in impoverished conditions, played without simple resources, like locker-room showers, and refused payment on their medical bills. That’s not stronger and fairer, that’s weaker and poorer.

#12: Legal Aid For Illegal Immigrants
The NJGOP will not ignore Governor Murphy while he scoffs at federal immigration laws for the sake of his personal political agenda. He has funneled millions of taxpayer dollars into state sponsored legal aid for illegal immigrants while hardworking, middle-class New Jersey residents miss another opportunity for tax relief. But this is the same Governor who says, “If … tax rate is your issue … we’re probably not your state.

#11: So-Called Free College
Phil Murphy’s promise of free college tuition is the classic political bait and switch. He dangles the feels-good carrot of “free education”, then beats New Jersey’s already battered taxpayers with his tax hike stick. Two years of free tuition for a lifetime of tax increases isn’t a bargain. It’s another bad deal that New Jersey can’t afford. Then again, all this is from a Governor who said, “If tax rate is your issue … we’re probably not your State.” That’s not leadership Governor. It’s what millionaires say to the middle class.

#10: Sanctuary State
Phil Murphy can’t pay for his progressive platitudes with the health, safety and welfare of New Jersey families. The Governor and the Attorney General should encourage cooperation between law enforcement agencies at all levels. Instead, they weaponize the Attorney General’s office and are taking aim at our County Sheriffs. Millions of innocent New Jerseyans depend on law enforcement to keep them safe from predators, drug dealers and violent criminals, but Phil Murphy will ignore them for a progressive headline.

#9: Worst Employment Rate In The Region
America’s economy is booming and our neighboring states are thriving, but New Jersey lags behind. Evidence continues to mount that New Jersey is teetering on the edge of an economic meltdown, but Governor Phil Murphy is stuck in a tax and spend trance. He is oblivious to, or simply ignores, the State’s affordability crisis and the crippling effect it’s having on New Jersey families. That was on full display at Rowan College in October, when the Governor let slip, “If tax rate is your issue … we’re probably not your State.” If you want more blind, political indifference, elect more Democrats this November, but if you want honest answers to the State’s real problems, vote Republican.

#8: Largest out migration of retirees, businesses and residents
Governor Murphy’s radical, liberal policies aren’t just emptying wallets, they’re emptying nests. More jobs and people are leaving New Jersey than any other State in America. Millionaire Phil Murphy is so disconnected from New Jersey’s working and middle classes that he let slip that, “If tax rate is your issue … we’re probably not your State.” Trenton’s Democrats share Phil Murphy’s callous indifference, so if you want honest answers to the State’s real problems, elect Republicans.

#7: Highest property and income tax rates in the US
Phil Murphy inherited a state with high taxes, but he campaigned on a promise for a stronger and fairer New Jersey. In reality, his radical tax hikes and progressive platitudes make us weaker and poorer. His solution is to tell working and middle class families, who can’t afford his high tax agenda, to move. But why move when we can vote? We need leaders in Trenton who will have the courage to reduce the size of state government and create real tax relief. On November 5, vote Republican.

#6: Ride Share Tax
Ride sharing has revolutionized urban and suburban transportation. Innovative new companies like Uber and Lyft provide safe rides home, affordable transportation for people who don’t own a car, and help stop drunk driving. So, how does Governor Murphy reward successful new businesses providing valuable services? He taxes them! That’s Phil Murphy’s New Jersey. If you don’t like it or can’t afford it, he says you’re welcome to leave. Don’t like the choices? Vote Republican instead. We can do better.

#5: Second Amendment Attacks
Governor Murphy’s political obsession with appeasing the radical, anti-gun lobby can’t come at the expense, or from the pockets, of New Jersey’s law abiding citizens for simply exercising their Second Amendment right to own a firearm. In his haste to punish legal gun owners, he’s proven unwilling and unable to deal with the scourge of gun crime, opting instead to criminalize lawful gun ownership. Taxes, fees and laws must have a rational nexus to a legitimate government purpose, and not just be a back channel to pay for feel-good, liberal giveaways. No Governor is empowered to choose which constitutional rights matter and which don’t and where Phil Murphy will trample long standing rights in his quest to replace them, the NJGOP will fight alongside grassroots Republicans to defend those rights.

#4: Shore Rental Tax
This year, among Governor Phil Murphy’s multitude of new taxes, he signed a tax on Jersey Shore vacation rentals. The NJGOP called on the Governor to refund to the moms and pops who were forced to pay it, the money he was so quick to take. In response, he ignored us, and them. It seems this was just another Democrat money grab that hit hardest in communities still recovering from Superstorm Sandy.

#3: Second Most Miserable State
The most miserable state in the Union is California. Governor Murphy has said he wants New Jersey to be the California of the east. So, it’s no surprise we’re number two. Under Phil Murphy, New Jersey is the second most miserable state in America. People in New Jersey are struggling with affordability. We have the highest foreclosure rate, and one in four families goes hungry. So, when our Governor says that, “If tax rate is your issue … we’re probably not your state,” it hurts. New Jerseyans need hope for a better tomorrow, but they won’t find it in our state’s Democrat Party. This year, vote for the party that still has New Jersey pride and honest answers to our state’s real problems. Vote Republican.

#2: Corporate Business Tax
New Jersey has the worst business climate in America. We lead the nation, not just in the outmigration of residents, but in the outmigration of jobs. We’ve suffered the exodus of leading corporations, like Honeywell and Gerber, who uproot and run for low cost states like North Carolina and Virginia. We even lost the bid for Amazon’s HQ2. When Governor Murphy hikes the corporate business tax by over $1 billion it signals to business owners that they can’t count on New Jersey for stability, predictability or affordability. But then this is the Governor who said, “If tax rate is your issue … whether you’re a business or an individual … we’re probably not your state.

#1: Rain Tax
A rainy day fund used to be what responsible government collected for emergencies. Not anymore. Not in New Jersey. And not under Governor Murphy. Today, it’s just another Democratic property tax and Trenton money grab. Instead of feeding your families, Phil Murphy’s rain tax scheme drains money from your pockets and pours it into Trenton’s coffers, to feed Murphy’s liberal agenda. None of that should come as a surprise, since the Governor let slip that, “If tax rate is your issue … we’re probably not your state.”

Please visit the Save Jersey website here: https://savejersey.com/2019/11/vote-republican-new-jersey-assembly-election-results-november-5th-doug-steinhardt/

What happens after Tuesday will determine whether this is a first step on the road to an actual party platform… or if it was a one-off, albeit a very strong and persuasive one. Stay tuned…

On Bramnick, Murphy Democrats put virtue-signaling before racial justice

In an attempt to distract attention away from the attempted cover-up of a rape within his own administration, Governor Phil Murphy and the Trenton Democrats have attacked Assembly Republican Leader Jon Bramnick, a trial attorney, for his firm’s pledge to zealously defend those accused of sex offenses. That is right, Jon Bramnick’s law firm believes in the Bill of Rights and the very American idea that someone is innocent until proven guilty.

Not long ago, so did every good liberal…

The Innocence Project is not a group that anyone would call right-of-center. They take up the cases of those they consider to have been wrongly convicted – and wrongful convictions happen when law firms don’t do what Jon Bramnick’s firm promises to do… to defend their accused clients zealously.

The Innocence Project reports that the first DNA exoneration happened in 1989. There have been 367 DNA exonerations to date. All people wrongly accused or let down by lawyers who didn’t do what Jon Bramnick’s firm is being attacked for doing.

These innocent people – mainly men – served a total of 5,907 ½ years in prison for crimes they did not commit. The average time served in prison before exoneration was 14 years.

The average age at the time of their wrongful conviction was 26 ½ years. The average age at exoneration was just under 43 years.

42 percent of these cases involved cross-racial misidentification. 225 of those falsely accused and convicted were African-American. That is 61 percent.

Most exonerations involved sex offenses that they were falsely accused of committing. After these innocent people were exonerated, 162 actual assailants were identified. Those actual perpetrators went on to be convicted of 152 additional violent crimes, including 82 sexual assaults, 35 murders, and 35 other violent crimes while the innocent sat behind bars for their earlier offenses.

Apparently, Governor Murphy and the Democrats only cry “racism” when it involves a be-in , a protest, a statue, or a flag… real racism – by white collar, professional, prosecutorial and judicial elites – they could not care less about. That kind of racism involves their people, rich people, and rich people are always right… Just ask Wall Streeters Phil and Tammy Murphy. They’ll tell you how good they are.

Murphy and the Trenton Democrats are phonies. B.S. marketing reps who sell a line of crap they don’t really believe in. They lack character.

Governor Murphy and the Democrats should be ashamed of what they tried to do here. Especially given the backdrop of sexual assault and rape within their own administration.

Parker Space backs Sheriff Strada, rips Murphy on “Sanctuary State b.s.”

Assemblyman Parker Space wanted there to be no doubt as to how he and his legislative colleagues feel about Governor Phil Murphy’s attempt to strip Sussex County citizens of the right to vote on the important issue of Sanctuary State status for Sussex County. “It is left-wing b.s. pure and simple.”

“Sheriff Mike Strada is right to stand up to Governor Murphy and the leftists who run his administration.  We support him 100%.”

A plain-spoken farmer and family businessman, Assemblyman Space said to forget what the all the smooth-talking lawyers have to say about this.  “It is a matter of American principles,” Space said.  “The property taxpayers of Sussex County pay for the operations of the Sheriff’s office… they pay for the Sheriff and all his officers… they have the absolute right to instruct him on how they want him to deal with Murphy’s Sanctuary State b.s.”

“The county’s taxpayers have the right to tell the county Sheriff to follow federal law because they pay the county Sheriff.  If Governor Murphy wants to dictate to the Sheriff then let’s send him the bill for the Sheriff and we’ll all enjoy a property tax cut.”

Assemblyman Space noted some important facts about the debate over illegal immigration:

(1) In its most recent report on illegal immigration, the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) estimates that illegal immigration costs New Jersey taxpayers over $3 billion every year, which is close to 10% of our state’s entire budget.

(2) The State budget which was recently enacted spends $2.1 million for an “Office of Immigrant Protection.”  Assemblyman Space and his colleagues opposed the budget and introduced legislation prohibiting public funding for it (A4033). 

(3) Going even further, Governor Murphy and State Democrat leadership also passed legislation, which we opposed, to give illegals financial aid for college (S699).  And most recently, the Murphy Administration announced that they were looking into providing driver’s licenses to illegal residents.

Assemblyman Space noted that he and his colleagues have introduced the following legislation:

S-305/A-949   Bars companies which hire illegal aliens from public contracts, grants, loans, or tax incentives for seven years.   

S-528/A-172   "New Jersey Jobs Protection Act;" requires E-verification of employment.

S-168/A-497   Requires proof of lawful presence in the United States to obtain certain benefits.

S-2506/A-233    Requires certain contractors to verify work authorization of newly hired employees.   

S-541/A-2640    Prohibits municipal ordinance to create sanctuary city; Establishes State and local employee ethics violation upon noncompliance with federal immigration enforcement request.  

“Clearly, if we are ever to get things back on the right track, we must pass these types of reform measures. It’s important that local, state, and federal law enforcement work together to strictly enforce the immigration laws that are already in place.  If we do not address the problem of illegal immigration, New Jersey will never succeed in getting government spending under control.”

“Finally, we oppose all forms of amnesty for illegal immigrants as well as supporting measures to prevent our state from becoming a destination for terrorists posing as refugees looking to harm our families and neighbors. This is a critical issue and we will not waiver in our beliefs.”

Assemblyman Space shares an office with District 24 colleagues Assemblyman Hal Wirths and Senator Steve Oroho. Space is the Republican State Committeeman for Sussex County.  His wife, Jill Space, was a Delegate to the 2016 Republican National Convention supporting Donald Trump.

Ted Cruz Endorses Lonegan For Congress In New Jersey’s 5th District

HOUSTON, Texas – U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, today announced his endorsement of New Jersey's conservative standard-bearer Steve Lonegan who is running for Congress in New Jersey’s Fifth District.

“Steve Lonegan is a tireless advocate for our founding principles who has proven his willingness to boldly take his message directly to the people of New Jersey, and I am proud to endorse him to become the next Member of Congress from the Fifth District,” Cruz said. “I have known Steve for many years, and look forward to working with him to grow jobs, expand freedom, and ensure the security of the American people.”

Lonegan graduated from William Paterson College with a B.A. in business administration, and went on to earn his MBA from Fairleigh Dickinson University.  He is the former Mayor of Bogota, NJ and was the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in the 2013 special election.

The endorsement by Senator Cruz is only the latest in a string of endorsements coming to Lonegan from state legislative leaders like Bergen County's Senator Gerry Cardinale and grassroots organizations representing Second Amendment voters, property taxpayers, Pro-Life and traditional values.  Conservatives continue to rally to Steve Lonegan as their best chance to elect an alternative to the warmed-over Clintonista policies of liberal Democrat incumbent Josh Gottheimer.

Later today, Lonegan will be meeting with conservative leaders in Washington, DC, including Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform.  For more information on Steve Lonegan's campaign for Congress, visit www.Lonegan.com.

The Star-Ledger asks: Are establishment liberals funny?

There is a reason why Jimmy Kimmel manages to get just around 3 million viewers a night while -- back when America had a much smaller population -- Johnny Carson got 19 million.  Jimmy's humor appeals to a much smaller audience, even though that audience owns everything, runs everything, and tells us what to eat, what to wear, and how to think.

In a recent opinion piece published in the Star-Ledger -- the house organ of the Newhouse Media Empire -- a dreary, oh so earnest lady, by the name of Jennifer The Moe, passed an insight in which she claimed that liberals were funny.  Forget the "funnier than" bit, we couldn't get past the "liberals being funny" piece. 

Sure, they used to be.  When they were actually "liberals" -- but not now, not today, they're not allowed to be.  In the world of the "establishment" liberal, humor (like everything else) is highly regulated.  And the list of "safe" things to be humorous about grows smaller every year.  And if you don't know that list by heart, you might just end up having to make an apology tour, or face social exclusion and public shamming, the loss of status, job, income, the means of life even.

Think of a guy like Phil Murphy trying to add a little humor into a speech.  Pity the poor bugger as he bounces around checking it with everyone he can think of who might be offended.  No wonder he has that thousand-yard-stare of someone with PTSD.  Trying not to offend can be debilitating.

Now here is a guy who is funny, effortlessly so, and who has made quite a career of it (and an international career, mind you).  Here, he is speaking seriously on a topic, while poking some fun at the censoriousness of modern "establishment" liberals (i.e. those who have actually forgotten what being a "liberal" means).

Here is another funny guy making the same point, but in a more directly comedic way:

Writing elsewhere, Jennifer The Moe provides this insight into the creative process:  "I mean, get real: you think that Henry James or Edith Wharton or Leo Tolstoy or Alice Adams wrote all those great books by themselves? Call it what you will—creative inspiration, God, Jesus, Buddha, the muses, Satan, flow, presence, or Zen—but the great stuff always comes out only when 'you' get out of the way and allow it to come."

Satan, huh?  What is it with Satan and these new liberals?  Hate Nazis but love Satan.  And the difference?  Didn't they realize that conservatives were just kidding when they teased them about being Satan-worshippers?  Who would have thought that they would double-down and now include Satan in all their lists of "supreme" beings?

We miss the old liberals.  They were a lot of fun -- and they joined with us in dissing both Nazis and Satan.  They weren't much good at balancing budgets, but damn did they make us laugh.  They were the yin to our yang.  We'd love to have them back -- instead of this hateful, prudish, stick-up-the-bunghole crowd that calls themselves "liberal" now.

There still are a few around though.  Bill Maher is still carrying on the tradition.  And wow does he ever nail it...

And how about this guy?  Monty Python anyone?

Rasmussen Poll: 67% say NO to the NFL

Americans appear to have had enough.  A new poll by Rasmussen shows 67 percent of Americans in opposition to tax breaks for NFL teams and their owners. 

Rasmussen polled this question nationally: "Do you favor or oppose giving tax breaks to NFL teams?"

In response, 67 percent answered "NO", just 18 percent answered "YES", with 15 percent undecided or not sure.  More women opposed tax breaks than men: 68% NO, 13% YES, 19% Not Sure. 

Non-white/non-African-American voters were strongest in opposition.  They answered 70% NO, 16% YES, 14% Not Sure.  African-Americans were strongly opposed however: 62%, 22%, 16%. 

There was very little difference between the parties, with Republicans and Democrats in opposition to tax breaks at 71% and 69%, respectively. 

Looks like the wheels are coming off all those efforts by rich, suburban, pseudo-leftists -- who have troubled so many of our public spaces with their attempts at becoming local B-list celebrities.  Your attempt at making a fashion statement has suffered a backlash.  Congratulations!

Gannett's Al Doblin fails the test of true liberalism

Writing in today's Bergen Record, Editor Al Doblin presumes to reach into a man's soul -- to determine whether he be good or evil. 

The man is a working-class farmer from rural northwest New Jersey.  It is a station-in-life that Mr. Doblin knows very little about.  Mr. Doblin is a confirmed one-percenter, a recognized member of the establishment and of the economic elite.  Residing in a kind of bubble world.

What a great opportunity then, this could have been, for Mr. Doblin to get out a little -- to stretch his legs, so to say, and make his way to a place, amongst people, he knows little about. 

Mr. Doblin's opinion piece concerned the logo of a rock band.  No, it wasn't the Nazi double-lightning bolts in the "KISS" logo.  The logo he objected to belongs to Hank Williams Jr. and his band.  It consists of the old rebel flag with Mr. Williams' face on it and lyrics from one of his songs.  Now those lyrics are not edgy in the way that most rap is, but you could certainly make the argument that they are edgy.

Mr. Doblin's objections appear to be confined to the Hank Williams Jr. logo.  Whether the logo is printed on a piece of cloth or paper or etched in metal shouldn't affect Mr. Doblin's emotions. 

Mr. Doblin objects to the farmer, and the farmer's wife, standing in front of the logo at a Hank Williams Jr. concert.  At a tailgate party.  Then they shared a photograph of it on Facebook.  And added a funny line. 

Yes, we're serious.  This was the subject of a lengthy editorial by Al Doblin.

Now Mr. Doblin would argue that we're leaving out something very important here:  The farmer was elected by his community to serve in the Legislature.  But that is a matter of identity, isn't it?   Because most people elected to the Legislature soon identify with that elite institution and with the establishment it represents.  That's why, in America, most people feel left out by the political process. 

The problem with the farmer is this:  He isn't behaving "as he should" according to the rigid "code" set by the establishment and economic elites.  He still identifies as "a farmer" and continues to behave that way.

It is not enough that just 3 percent of the legislators in America are blue-collar -- that's 3 percent to represent the 60 percent of Americans who are working class -- but economic elites like Al Doblin want to be able to set the agenda for that 3 percent too.  Instead of reflecting the values and folkways of the people they come from, Al Doblin wants them to reflect his values, his agenda.

In Al Doblin's opinion, the farmer's responses to those who object to the Hank Williams Jr. logo were "deflections" -- although he fails to explain how.  What Editor Doblin does is to engage in the sort of embellishment that would make the Ethics Committee of the Society of Professional Journalists cringe. 

Again and again, Doblin reaches into the farmer's mind to tell us what he was thinking, into his heart -- to tell us what his feelings and motivations are.  Al Doblin doesn't know this man, in any way, and yet -- as in a novel -- Doblin speaks to us from within the farmer's soul, as though he were inside, looking out.  This is a style of fiction, not of journalism.

You have to wonder about people who bathe in what they imagine to be the "faults" of others -- in order to signal the "virtue" that they possess.  It is not unlike what Joseph Conrad called "the stench of the repentant sinner."  And you have to wonder what are the sins that Mr. Doblin feels he needs to atone for, that makes him so earnest to demonstrate his very public "virtue"?

What small depravities, sins mortal and venial, dishonesties and behaviors unethical, are in Mr. Doblin's catalog?  Is he remembering all those union workers let go from well-paid, blue-collar jobs?  All those working class newspaper families made to find a new way to live?  Or the writers -- all those writers -- who went from earning a livable wage to a sub-standard one?  All detritus shrugged off by Al Doblin, who went on and on.  Save yourself, be a survivor, there is just one skin that is important.

Or is Mr. Doblin considering all those "political" accommodations he has had to make with the establishment over the years.  To develop "access." 

Suppressing a story about the number of employed lobbyists openly serving in the Legislature, for instance, or the corruption that has allowed convicted criminals to openly serve.  The number of mistresses quite openly on legislative payrolls.  The visits to sex clubs by legislators -- and all the rest he's been handed over the years. Would Doblin say:  Look, being convicted of a federal crime is one thing, but a Hank Williams Jr. logo?  Now you really have gone too far?

We will not do to Al Doblin, what he has done to others.  We will not step into his head and claim to know him.  We won't even qualify his acts of suppression as acts of common cause.  We will chastise him a little though, for missing a great opportunity to be a human being.

Once upon a time, old-fashioned liberals were pretty nice people.  Too nice, some said, but an old-fashioned liberal -- upon hearing or reading about the farmer -- would have reached out to him.  "Can I come over for a cup of coffee," he would have said.  And the old-fashioned liberal would have explained to the farmer why he thought his ways were in error. 

Now maybe they would agree or maybe they wouldn't, but they would come away, each with the measure of the other man.  The old-fashioned liberal would either understand that the farmer meant no harm -- or if he did mean harm, then the old-fashioned liberal would have cause to act.

 But people like Al Doblin don't do that today.  They rely on the media, forgetting that what they see is filtered, and then they re-filter it some more.  They filter out the human factor. 

Perhaps Mr. Doblin forgets that those living outside the bubble world of the economic elite have lives every bit as nuanced as his own.  Their lives matter too, so before you paint the stain of racism on someone -- and on everyone else who would have done the same thing without giving it a second thought -- take a moment to reach out.  Human to human.  Doesn't the Code of Ethics of your own profession demand as much?

A good old-fashion liberal once wrote: 

“It is his millions of relationships that will give man his humanity… It is not our ideological rights that are important but the quality of our relationships with each other, with all men, with knowledge and art and God that count..."

Mrs. Lillian Smith was a Southern writer and a pioneer in the battle to end segregation.  We don't know if she ever listened to Hank Williams Jr., but we're sure there were a few dear to her who did.

Mr. Doblin, you could have been a human being about this.  You could have been what used to be called "a liberal."  Instead, you chose to make it about you.  You chose to call someone else a sinner to deflect from your own sins and the sins of the establishment and economic elites that you serve.

Next time, try to act like a human being.

Asian man loses job because his name is "Robert Lee"

Justice is dead in America and the insanity of wealthy, politically-correct liberals is on the march.  Sports channel ESPN says it has pulled an Asian announcer from a game at the University of Virginia for having the same name as Confederate general Robert E. Lee.  "Lee" is the second most popular last name in Korea (behind "Kim" and ahead of "Park"), so does this move by a top media organization indicate a certain cultural bias in its judgment or just plain stupidity?  Some would argue that it is just another incidence of liberals being racist. 

Journalist Victor Morton , of the Washington Times, wrote:

"Apparently, even being Asian doesn’t mean people won’t take you for being a white nationalist.

ESPN confirmed Tuesday night that it had decided to pull an announcer from calling a University of Virginia football game because his name is Robert Lee. This Robert Lee is Asian.

'We collectively made the decision with Robert to switch games as the tragic events in Charlottesville were unfolding, simply because of the coincidence of his name. In that moment, it felt right to all parties,' reads the ESPN statement posted at the popular Fox Sports college-football blog Outkick the Coverage.

'Did I mention that Robert Lee is Asian?' wrote disbelieving blogger Clay Travis, who first broke the story, citing 'multiple Outkick fans inside ESPN.'

Mr. Lee had been scheduled to call the Cavaliers Sept. 2 game in Charlottesville against William and Mary.

'It’s a shame that this is even a topic of conversation and we regret that who calls play by play for a football game has become an issue,' ESPN said in its statement.

That wasn’t the 'shame' Mr. Travis had in mind, ridiculing the sports-network leviathan for political correctness, calling it 'MSESPN.'

'They were concerned that having an ASIAN FOOTBALL ANNOUNCER NAMED ROBERT LEE would be offensive to some viewers,' he wrote.

The fatal violence in Charlottesville earlier this month grew out of a white-nationalist and neo-Nazi march in favor of keeping up a statue of Robert E. Lee — 'the Confederate General who died in 1870 and shares a name with' the ESPN announcer, Mr. Travis helpfully explained.

'Is there anything more pathetic than ESPN believing people would be offended by an Asian guy named Robert Lee sharing a name with Robert E. Lee and calling a football game? Aside from some hysterical photoshops and Internet memes which would make everyone with a functional brain laugh — Robert E. Lee pulling out all the stops to stay in Charlottesville now! — what was the big fear here? Does ESPN really believe people are this dumb or that having an Asian announcer named Robert Lee is too offensive for the average TV viewer to handle?' Mr. Travis asked rhetorically.

'Yes, yes they do,' he answered."

This is just another indication that the Democrat Party is the face of the establishment in America today, just as it was the face of the establishment in pro-slavery America.  It appears that the public relations departments of every major corporation in America are stocked with former Democrat campaign operatives mouthing politically-correct platitudes that often, as in this case, make no sense at all.  So not only do the Democrats control the media, the entertainment industry (aka "the ministry of propaganda"), academia, and the permanent bureaucracy -- the Democrats control most of the big corporations as well.  No wonder the true Left, the real Left, has stopped calling Democrats "leftists" and insist that they are merely "corporate Democrats of the faux Left."

Think of Phil Murphy, Democrat candidate for Governor.  It costs more to remodel his shithouse than it costs to build a working class home in New Jersey.  Or Democrat candidate for Assembly Kate Matteson, who wears a pink pussy cat hat -- oh so "faux revolutionary" -- to accent a $600 pair of high heels.  These people are fake, they are phonies.  We are witnessing what Marxist philosopher Guy Debord called:  "The Society of the Spectacle."

To be continued...

Just a Minute: Frelinghuysen critic has a Super-PAC???

There have been three stories in the New Jersey Herald about the controversy between Bank Executive Saily Avelenda and Congressman Rodney Frelinghuysen. 

There have been a bunch of other stories from around the state.  None that we read have mentioned this:

National Journal: Hotline Latest Edition (USA)

March 9, 2017

Protests, Super PAC Suggest Frelinghuysen Could Face Serious Challenge

Author: Colin Diersing

Article Text:

Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ) "has never had a hard time getting re-elected. The 22-year incumbent represents a district so safe that Michael Moore in 2000 tried to run a ficus tree against him to highlight the lack of competition. ... But Frelinghuysen's streak of effortless elections may come to an end in 2018, just as he's at the height of his power as chairman of the House Appropriations Committee."

"Anti-Trump activists have incessantly called on Frelinghuysen to hold a town hall .. He's refused. And now, NJ 11th for Change has a super PAC, founded last month by Google executive Jonathan Bellack and local bank executive Saily Avelenda. ... Donald Trump won Frelinghuysen's district last year, but barely — and by a significantly smaller margin than Mitt Romney won it in 2012." ( Politico)

Nearly all of these news stories fail to provide readers with Ms. Avelenda's full title:  Senior Vice President and Assistant General Counsel of the Bank.  Yep, she is a fully-fledged member of the one percent!  Before landing her latest job with Lakeland Bank, in 2010, Ms. Avelenda was general counsel for Hann Financial Service Company, and was a vice president and counsel for Hudson United Bank.

And far from being a simple everywoman the press makes her out to be, Ms. Saily Avelenda is wrapped up with some even bigger mega-rich political operators.  Ms. Avelenda is actually a partner in a Super-PAC with GOOGLE multi-millionaire Jonathan Bellack, a guy who drops $33,400 on a single dinner ticket to hang out with Barack Obama.  $33,400 is what the average working American pays for a new car if they can afford it -- and this fancy arsed executive drops that much on some political chicken dinner?  This is courtesy of WikiLeaks:

Jonathan Bellack is a mega-rich guy who uses his vast wealth to shout down working class voters who can't throw the kind of money around that he can.  While most people worry about their kids' college tuition, property taxes, and staying out of foreclosure, just look at the kind of money this rich liberal throws around on dirtbag politics:

Joint Fundraising Contributions

These are contributions to committees who are raising funds to be distributed to other committees. The breakdown of these contributions to their final recipients may appear below

Joint Fundraising Contributions

These are contributions to committees who are raising funds to be distributed to other committees. The breakdown of these contributions to their final recipients may appear below

Wow, that is a lot of dough!

Here are the actual filing papers for the Super-PAC controlled and operated by mega-dirt rich corporate executive Jonathan Bellack and lawyer/banker corporate executive Saily Avelenda.  Talk about poster children for our screwed-up political system!

Really?  Really???  When did Democrat activists stop being union guys and started being one percenters, corporate executives, lawyers, bankers, owners of Super-PACs, and other corporate scum?

Super-PACs and the people who own them -- people like Jonathan Bellack and Saily Avelenda -- are the problem with politics in America today.  They have destroyed representative democracy in America.  They have destroyed our Republic.  Don't believe us -- listen to this study from Princeton University:

There you have it.  The problem wonderfully explained.  The rich one percent get their way -- the lobbyists, bankers, lawyers, corporate executives, and especially the owners of Super-PACs are responsible for the shit we are in.

Do NJ Senate Dems think America is worse than Iran?

Yesterday, Senate Democrats in New Jersey voted to "strongly condemn" President Donald Trump's executive orders on immigration.  Democrats made up every one of the 22 votes (they needed 21) to pass SCR-143 and Republican Jennifer Beck (who EVERY Tea Partier was calling a "conservative" last year) joined them in voting for SCR-134.  Taken together, the Senate resolutions served as "symbolic acts of resistance" to President Trump's efforts to secure the borders of the United States from terrorism. 

Some would call it a "fashion statement" or an act of "virtue signaling."  Wikipedia defines virtue signaling as "the conspicuous expression of moral values by an individual done primarily to enhance their standing within a social group.”  The term was first used in signaling theory "to describe any behavior that could be used to signal virtue – especially piety among the religious faithful" and has become more commonly used "as a pejorative characterization by commentators to criticize what they regard as the platitudinous, empty, or superficial support of socially progressive views on social media."

SCR-143 specifically condemns the federal government's efforts to secure America's porous southern border against terrorism, human trafficking, and heroin.  The Senators who voted for this must be keeping their fingers crossed that no act of terrorism gets through that border between now and November.

Yes, we understand that many liberals don't like the "feel" of a border wall and look on it as an "extreme" measure.  But in the fight against the modern misery of slavery -- which is what "human trafficking" is a polite phrase for --is it any less "extreme" than the Royal Navy's measure of blasting slave ships out of the water?  If history has taught us anything, it has taught us that for the abolition of slavery (which continues to elude us 152 years after the end of the civil war we fought to abolish it) in all its forms to be won, it will be done so piece by piece, and only through the application of "extreme" measures.

SCR-134 directs taxpayer-funded units of government (specifically school districts, along with colleges and universities) to violate federal law and refuse to cooperate with federal law enforcement authorities -- as if no terrorism suspect has ever held a student visa.  Actually, when you think about this little piece of anarchy it is kind of interesting -- especially for the precedent it sets for disobeying federal authority and federal law enforcement.  Perhaps years hence, when some latter day George Corley Wallace references it and a hundred other similar precedents for defying the federal government, we will know the harvest of what we are today sowing. 

These Democrats are trapped in the bubble of their own perspective.  A frequent situation these days that affects not just Democrats. 

A Rasmussen poll released today shows us that the more Democrat, liberal, and rich you are, the more likely you are to believe that America treats its Muslims worse than Christians living in Muslim nations are treated.  Yep, no kidding.

Everybody but the New Jersey Senate Democrats and their like understand that practicing a Christian faith in a Muslim dominated nation is an often daunting and frequently dangerous, even fatal vocation.  Many of these countries are theocratic states, which places various forms of Christian expression (not to mention Jewish) in direct conflict with the law.  And by "everybody" we are of course referring to the written work of such "far-right" sources as the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, the Roman Catholic Church, and the Guardian newspaper.

As Rasmussen reports:  "Most voters agree that Christians living in Muslim-majority countries are mistreated for their religion.  But Democrats are more likely to think Muslims are mistreated in America than to think Christians are persecuted in the Islamic world."

Rasmussen finds that 62% of Likely U.S. Voters believe most Christians living in the Islamic world are treated unfairly because of their religion.   Just 17% disagree, while 21% more are undecided. The poll was conducted February 2-5, 2017.

And while 47% of Democrats think most Christians are mistreated in the Islamic world, 56% of Democrats believe most Muslims in America are mistreated.  For those who identify themselves as "liberal" those numbers are 45% and 60%, respectively.

And the richer you are, the more you believe this crap.  Only 12% of those earning between $30,000 and $50,000 say that Christians are not mistreated in the Islamic world, which rises with each income group, until we reach 23% among those earning more than $200,000.  As for Muslims being mistreated in America it rises from 39% to 49%, respectively.

The New Jersey Senate Democrats are very much captives of the perspective of their donor class.  Not their voters, their donors.