Martin Marks is a strange kind of “conservative”

The NJGOP is in an existential fight for its very survival.  The fighting confidence of its flag officers has been shattered and its field officers are rattled.  Nothing they have tried has worked.  Too often they are saved by chance and the victories won are by means less unconventional.  The commanders at NJGOP HQ need to re-think their assumptions, come up with a new strategy, and re-tool their tactics.

Conversely, morale is high amongst the troops.  In some ways, it has never been higher.  Thousands of registered Republicans and ideological conservatives, libertarians, and Trumpian populists engage the machine Democrats and socialist left each day on social media.  They do this on their own – without prodding or direction from their leaders.  They are keen for battle and ready.

What the NJGOP lacks is an NCO class.  It lacks on-the-ground leaders in towns, neighborhoods, parishes, churches, gun-clubs, PTAs, taxpayers’ groups, and community associations to take the message from the generals to the troops, focus them, and then get it done. 

So the job of any thinking conservative who genuinely cares about the future of the Republican Party and the conservative movement in New Jersey is to help mold that new strategy, the new message, and then to motivate and train a new corps of grassroots NCOs.  This is what must be done and we need everyone focused on doing it.

But people are naturally selfish and cannot be relied upon to set aside their ambitions to do what so desperately needs to be done.  Even in the midst of a crisis, some will continue to  grab for whatever remains to satisfy a swollen ego. 

And so we have the madness of Martin Marks, of late the Mayor of Scotch Plains and someone who likes the activity of running for higher office.  Having failed to achieve it as a Republican, he has announced that he will run as an Independent or Third Party candidate.  Yes, you heard that right:  Unable to accept defeat, he seeks annihilation. 

The annihilation of such a once promising candidate would be sad.  He could be an asset to his party.  But it is worse than that, because Martin Marks intends to run against the Prime Sponsor of the Human Trafficking and Child Exploitation Prevention Act, Assemblywoman Nancy Munoz, and in doing so Martin Marks will almost certainly ensure her defeat by a machine Democrat or Democratic Socialist. 

In consciously choosing this path – to be on the November ballot, ripping votes out of the heart of the Republican coalition, to the benefit of some Leftist – Martin Marks will most assuredly and consciously be participating in the election of some rabidly pro-illegal immigration, pro-human trafficking, pro-criminal, pro-abortion, pro-Planned Parenthood, anti-law enforcement, anti-Religious Liberty, anti-Second Amendment, anti-First Amendment, anti-Bill of Rights, anti-Constitution scumbag.  Why would any thinking person who claims to be a “conservative” do this?

In stories printed elsewhere, Martin Marks has claimed that he is a supporter of President Donald Trump and that he is running because others within the NJGOP have expressed their concerns about the President’s tone and policies.  Some have noted, for instance, that the President’s tax cut plan passed last year ended up putting congressional Republicans – and, by extension, the NJGOP – on the wrong side of the property tax issue.  There is no disputing that the Democrats seized upon it to campaign to the right of Republicans on property taxes.  In New Jersey, that is deadly for any Republican candidate.  And it was.

It should be noted, that Martin Marks himself was a critic of Donald Trump, even after Trump was assured the nomination.  Marks went out of his way to write a column in SaveJersey that pissed all over Donald Trump:

“I am not happy that Donald Trump is the presumptive nominee for the Republican Party for President. In a field that at first rivaled the size of your typical Kentucky Derby, Trump was my last choice. “ (Martin Marks)

Having said that – which, of course, is his right – why would Martin Marks then use others’ concerns with Donald Trump as an excuse to assure the election of a machine Democrat or Democratic Socialist?

There is a job for Martin Marks to do and it is an important one.  If he wants to show that he can motivate and lead, there is something that he can do this year that will unite Republicans and conservatives around him.  Recent changes to the law now allow candidates for school board in New Jersey to bracket together and run as a team.  They don’t run as Democrats or Republicans, these are non-partisan elections, but they can run as pro-taxpayer or pro-traditional values.

People like Martin Marks can be leaders in the NJGOP fightback by going school district by school district in his county and recruiting like-minded people to run for school board.  Then he can provide direction and guidance to see them through to victory… his victory and a victory for our movement.  Instead of destroying, he will be building.  

The school board is everything.  Every day we hear people complain that kids don’t know the Constitution, they don’t know their history, geography, the process of government, and their responsibilities as citizens.  Well take the school boards over and teach them!  Children only know socialism because they have only been taught socialism.  That’s our fault… but we now have this great tool to recruit, run, and take it back.  What we lack are people with a working knowledge of campaigning who are willing to set aside their own egos and spend a cycle or two building the party.  After 2021, the districts will all be different again and new opportunities will be present, only now you will have built something. 

Conservatives seek to C-O-N-S-E-R-V-E the institutions that are the vessels of our values and hopes.  The Republican Party in New Jersey is in an existential fight for survival.  For better or worse, it is the best political institution we have to conduct the fight from the right.  Don’t work to weaken it.  Don’t kill it.  If you do, your soul will regret the part you played in doing so.

Caution on that poll from Let’s Drive NJ Campaign

The Pro-Illegal immigration lobbying group, Let’s Drive NJ Campaign, recently released the results of a poll they paid to have done.  The poll purports to support claims that New Jersey voters are wildly in favor of handing over a New Jersey driver’s license to anyone who decides to over-stay their visa or who sneaks across the border illegally.  

The poll is being used to stampede frightened Democrats into opening up new employment opportunities to illegal, non-union transport workers – and to silence squeamish Republicans.  No doubt the Star-Ledger will make use of such a law to further drive down the costs of distributing its newspaper.

That said, before taking the poll too seriously (and it did sample just 561 people statewide), take a moment to read how the questions were structured.  Actually it is more of a messaging development document than a poll on what people actually believe.  In other words, if prompted by questions X and Y, would you respond to question Z in such and such a way.  Here is a humorous send up on how it is done…

Pushing for a $15 minimum wage, the Star-Ledger pays its drivers $10 an hour (are any undocumented?)

The Star-Ledger doesn’t report the news.  As Editor Tom Moran wrote (November 1, 2018):  “Our core mission is helping voters decide which lever to pull.” 

That’s right, the Star-Ledger is a advocacy organization.  First and foremost, you can always depend on the Star-Ledger to lobby for its own bottom line. 

For years, the newspaper was a strident supporter of the New Jersey State Supreme Court’s Abbott Decision – which forces working class families in suburban and rural New Jersey to subsidize the property taxes of wealthy corporations and professionals in urban areas.  Among those wealthy corporations was the parent corporation that owns the Star-Ledger, whose property holdings were so extensive in Newark that the city named a street… no, make that a plaza, after the Star-Ledger. 

Now comes this new hypocrisy.

A few days before Christmas, the New Jersey Globe reported that while editorializing for a $15 minimum wage, the Star-Ledger  was paying workers at $10 an hours, with no benefits.  The corporation that owns the Star-Ledger is itself owned by one of the richest families in America. 

Here’s an excerpt from the New Jersey Globe:

The state’s largest daily newspaper ran an advertisement in Wednesday’s print edition seeking drivers for newspaper deliveries willing to work 2-3 hours daily, “starting around 3 AM,” with a typical bi-weekly compensation that starts at $400.   That could mean less than $10-per-hour.

To get a job like that, applicants must have their own cars. Star-Ledger drivers – they call them Delivery Service Providers — receive no benefits; they “are independently contacted, meaning they are self-employed” and receive 1099s.   Minimum wage laws do not apply.

There is no paid vacation time, no workers compensation, and since drivers do not handle collections, there are no gratuities involved.

“The job, once the bastion of neighborhood kids looking to make a few extra bucks on their bikes, has evolved into a grueling nocturnal marathon for low-income workers who toil almost invisibly on the edge of the economy,” wrote Associated Press reporter Michael Levenson in 2016.

Today the Star-Ledger once again editorialized for drivers’ licenses for resident undocumented immigrants illegally in the United States.  Is this another self-serving position for the owners to take?  Will this help drive down the cost of newspaper distribution?  We wonder if there are any internal memos on this?

While the Star-Ledger and its owners are up on all the latest virtue-signaling, paying just enough lip-service to reassure the cocktail set that they are good and worthy people, their actions seek to drive down the wages of American workers, while creating an immigrant class of toiling wage slaves.  Raising the minimum wage is a farce until you can control the gray economy that doesn’t abide by such rules.  Normalizing the gray economy (by things like drivers licenses) will only solidify its position as an alternative workforce.

And while the Democrats talk about the minimum wage, Governor Murphy is doing his utmost to flood the state with illegal labor that every economist tells us will drive down wages.  When there is more of something, you pay less, we all know that.  Either the Democrats are well-meaning but stupid, or they are engaging in the very same hypocrisy that the Star-Ledger is engaging in.

Here is the original New Jersey Globe story:

https://newjerseyglobe.com/media/star-ledger-editorializes-in-support-of-15-hour-wage-but-pays-drivers-much-less/

Democrat Jois ignores the epidemic of sexual violence in his party.

Memo to lawyer Goutam Jois:  In the midst of the hearings going on in Trenton, this is no time to try to change the subject and divert attention away from the topic of sexual violence against women.

The victims are Democrat women… campaign workers, volunteers, and activists in the Democrat Party – and whether through intimidation or direct violent assault they are victims of a politics that places boss-worship over the right of women to say “NO”.

Instead of trying to change the subject with a mincing attack on a Republican arguing for civil discourse and good conduct, lawyer Goutam Jois should be asking tough questions of the Democrat bosses he is instead trying to suck-up to.  Jois should be asking if it is even safe for a women to participate in a Democrat Party campaign anymore?  What guarantee does any woman have that she won’t be subjected to violent sexual assault and that when it happens and she speaks out, that she won’t become a pariah of the party?

Lawyer Jois is seeking to become a member of a legislative caucus with a long and disgraceful history of bad conduct towards women.  From accessing child porn from a taxpayer-funded, legislative office computer to allegations of stalking women and worse, past and present members of the Democrat caucus that Jois aspires to become a member of have a lot to answer for.  Jois should be asking those questions instead of trying to change the subject and divert attention away from the sexual violence against women.

Perhaps Jois should be calling on the NRA to provide gun safety courses for women campaign volunteers and workers as part of their orientation before becoming involved in the campaign of a Democrat running for office?  Maybe he can suggest the installation of “safe rooms” for women in Democrat Party headquarters?

Whatever Jois comes up with, that should be his campaign’s first order of business.  Tell us what you are going to do about the sexual violence and intimidation against women who simply want to exercise their right to be active in the Democrat Party?

Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib at a “pro-Jihad” rally

Look at all those foreign flags… this rally could have taken place anywhere in the middle east, except that this is Detroit, 2014.  And the woman speaking is now a member of the United States Congress.

This is Democrat Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, who is notorious for having called President Donald Trump a mother f**ker recently.  This is her at a “pro-Jihad” rally aimed at destroying the Jewish state, America’s closest ally in the middle east.  The rally was put together by a group linked to HAMAS – aka “The Islamic Resistance Movement.”

What?  Do you think those silly Democrats came up with that “resistance” thing all by themselves?

Speaker Tip O’Neill: “Reject obstructionism”

Many of the people in politics today weren’t around to actually witness the Reagan Revolution.  They have had to rely on hearsay and myth. 

There is a myth going around that President Ronald Reagan, a Republican, and Speaker of the House of Representatives Tip O’Neill, a Democrat, never had a harsh word for each other.  This simply isn’t true.

The truth is, they behaved like adults of their generation did at the time.  A less sensitive time than ours… before trigger words and safe spaces.  Men like President Reagan and Speaker O’Neill didn’t take the rough and tumble of politics personally, the way everyone appears to today… not that it didn’t hurt (but you sucked it up to get the job done). 

Here’s President Reagan himself on the subject… 

And here’s an ad the Republicans used on Tip O’Neill…

Being of men of their time, we have no idea what they would make of Congress and Washington today.  Indeed, America might look foreign to them.  But they got things done, despite their differences, and in the words of Democrat Tip O’Neill, “We expect conflict, but I hope we will reject any obstructionism.”

Associated Press Poll: 65% of Republicans say immigration is the top issue.

An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll conducted shortly before the shutdown began finds that both Republicans and Democrats are far more likely to include immigration in their list of top issues facing the country this year compared with a year ago.

Overall, 49 percent mentioned immigration in an open-ended question as one of the top five problems they hoped the government addresses in 2019. By contrast, 27 percent mentioned immigration in December 2017.

Partisan divides on the best solutions remain deep. Republicans continue to be more likely to cite immigration as a top issue than Democrats, an indication of the GOP’s greater intensity on the issue. But it’s an increasingly important issue to members of both parties.

The poll found that 65 percent of Republicans say immigration is one of the top five problems facing the country, up from 42 percent in 2017. Among Democrats, 37 percent cite immigration as a top issue, compared with just 2 in 10 a year ago.

Roughly two-thirds of those who named immigration as a top priority express little confidence in the government to make progress this year, including a third who say they are “not at all” confident. About a third say they are at least moderately confident in the government to make progress on immigration. This follows a year of intermittent deadlocked negotiations and standoffs between Trump and Democrats in Congress.

READ THE FULL STORY HERE:  https://www.apnews.com/afe8b152156f4b9786832bdf957dbfa8

Pastor Brad Winship: Why Political Paralysis?

The government shut down over the border wall stems from a greater error deeper than deficit spending and illegal immigration.  Our politicians are making policy based on personal gain.  This is the Biblical warning concerning unprincipled men.  When pragmatism and political expediency become the basis for government policy, democracy implodes.

 Scripture References:  Ecclesiastes 8:1 , 2:14 , 10:16 ; 1 Timothy 6:5 ; Psalm 15:4 ; Jeremiah 6:16 , 18:12 , 44:16 , Isaiah 28:12 ; 2 Peter 2:7 , 3:17 ; Deuteronomy 28:20 , 29

YouTube #58 Why Political Paralysis ?  

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Leaked email: AFP plans to push DACA and screw Trump

Breitbart’s John Binder reports…

“The pro-mass immigration Koch brothers’ network of billionaire, donor class organizations will push an expansive amnesty for illegal aliens this year while vowing not to financially support President Trump’s 2020 re-election bid.

In a leaked email obtained by Time Magazine, the Koch brothers’ network of organizations — which includes Americans for Prosperity, the LIBRE Initiative, and Freedom Partners — have their sights set on an amnesty for the at least 3.5 million illegal aliens who are enrolled and eligible for President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

The Koch brothers’ organizations claim Americans have a ‘commitment’ to providing amnesty to DACA illegal aliens, though doing so would strain the country’s social safety net intended for U.S. citizens…”

“’We are making significant investments to unite the country and address critical issues that will help people improve their lives,’ Koch spokesman James Davis told TIME. ‘This starts with a major new initiative to fight poverty in America, and following on the success of the First Step Act in December continuing to build broad-based policy coalitions on issues from education reform to immigration.

These will include a significant investment to support policy champions in Senate, House and state races. This is where we can make the biggest difference for millions of Americans.’ [Emphasis added]

Most recently, the Koch network lobbied the Trump administration not to enforce an existing law whereby foreign nationals seeking to permanently resettle in the U.S. would need to prove that they will not become drains on the American taxpayer.”

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE:  https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/01/02/billionaire-kochs-plot-daca-amnesty-vow-not-to-support-trump-in-2020/

In New Jersey, does “Republican” equal “conservative”?

Unfortunately, not even close.

After years of ignoring its base – and a series of losing election cycles – the New Jersey Republican Party is in the process of figuring out who it wants to be.  It doesn’t have a lot of time, because it faces yet another legislative election in which it will likely be at a disadvantage in terms of financial resources and motivated grassroots manpower.

There is a ready-made model.  It is called the Republican Party – the Republican Party that the rest of America believes in.

The Republican Party – in which the NJGOP participates through two National Committee Members – has a wonderful, ready-made, polling and focus-group tested, set of principles for American renewal.  Here they are:

CONSTITUTION

Our Constitution should be preserved, valued and honored. 

ECONOMY

We need to start growing America’s economy instead of Washington’s economy so that hard-working Americans see better wages and more opportunity. 

BUDGET

We need to pass a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution, make government more efficient, and leave the next generation with opportunity, not debt. 

HEALTHCARE

We need to start over with real healthcare reform that puts patients and their doctors in charge, not unelected bureaucrats in Washington. 

VETERANS

Our veterans have earned our respect and gratitude, and no veteran should have to wait in line for months or years just to see a doctor. 

SECURITY

Keeping America safe and strong requires a strong military, growing the economy, energy independence, and secure borders.  

EDUCATION

Every child should have an equal opportunity to get a great education; no parent should be forced to send their child to a failing school. 

POVERTY

The best anti-poverty program is a strong family and a good job, so our focus should be on getting people out of poverty by lifting up all people and helping them find work. 

VALUES

Our country should value the traditions of family, life, religious liberty, and hard work. 

ENERGY

We should make America energy independent by encouraging investment in domestic energy, lowering prices, and creating jobs at home. 

IMMIGRATION

We need an immigration system that secures our borders, upholds the law, and boosts our economy.

SOURCE: https://www.gop.com/principles-for-american-renewal

On its website, the Republican National Committee offers a survey that asks which of the above eleven principles are most important to the individual taking the survey.  Notice the tone and language used.  It is a very proactive message:  “This is what we believe in… where do you fit in?” 

Top of Form

When RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel laid out her vision for Republican leadership, she outlined the Principles for American Renewal.

These are the core principles that unite and drive the Republican Party. These are the core principles that inform and inspire our policymaking. And these are the core principles that we need to get our country back on track. 

SOURCE: https://www.gop.com/principles-for-american-renewal-survey/

Now compare it with the survey on the NJGOP website.  Notice the difference in tone and language…

The NJGOP is a diverse group of individuals and organizations, with multi-­faceted views on a variety of issues. As we develop a winning strategy for all 21 counties and 565 municipalities, we want to hear from you. Take our brief survey and let us know what issues are most important to you!

What issues are most important to you? (Select all that apply)

Top of Form

Controlling government spending and reducing the debt

Improving health care

Strengthening New Jersey’s economy and protecting jobs

Improving education

Fighting crime and improving public safety

Keeping property taxes down

Improving New Jersey’s roads, bridges, and highways

Protecting the state from threats of terrorism

Protecting the environment and open space

Reforming government to make it more transparent and accountable

Other

SOURCE: https://www.njgop.org/issues-survey/

Instead of “this is what we believe in… where do you fit in” there’s a laundry list of “concerns”, most of which would be just as suitable on a Democrat Party website.  Instead of a unifying message and focus, it is as if the NJGOP were appealing to voters to “tell us who you want us to be.”

X

Improving health care

Strengthening New Jersey’s economy and protecting jobs

Improving education

Fighting crime and improving public safety

X

Improving New Jersey’s roads, bridges, and highways

Protecting the state from threats of terrorism

Protecting the environment and open space

Reforming government to make it more transparent and accountable

Other

In contrast, the message of Governor Phil Murphy and the New Jersey Democrats couldn’t be clearer.  New Jersey Democrats have the sense of who they are that the NJGOP lacks.  In the video on their website, the Governor lays out the Democrats’ message – point by point, no bullshit.  Murphy nails it when he says, “We are who we told folks we would be.”  That is being straight with the voters and they are looking for that.

SOURCE: https://njdems.org/

New Jersey Republicans have fallen far since 2001 and are now in an existential crisis and a battle for survival.  The next three years will determine whether or not the NJGOP continues as a viable alternative to the Democrats – the Legislative elections of 2019, Congressional elections of 2020, and Gubernatorial election of 2021.  It’s life or death.  Time to be bold.

Suleiman didn’t learn the lesson of Charlie Hebdo?

All public figures must suffer the slings and arrows of humor.  Whether a politician or a celebrity… comedy adds a measure of humility into the lives of those proud souls who consider themselves to be “the great and the good.”

But some folks don’t take too well to humor – especially when it is directed at them or those they feel a kindred nature with.  They seek to restrain or codify free expression, and in doing so they kill the very nature of comedy itself.

 Imagine what would happen if the Federal Elections Commission took comedy seriously and began requiring Saturday Night Live or Jimmy Kimmel to count their comedy routines as corporate-sponsored paid political advertisements?  What would become of the humor once it was codified and restrained in such a way?

Earlier today, a political figure – the top Democrat Party official in Atlantic County – asked a small, local newspaper to take punitive action against a journalist for engaging in the high crime of humor.  In this case, the journalist made a joke at the expense of United States Senator Elizabeth Warren, about something that she choose to focus the world’s attention on… namely, her self-identification as a native American or, in the parlance that she was brought up with, an “American Indian”. 

Yes, yes, we all now have endlessly heard that “American Indian” is somehow “incorrect”, but it is a matter of historical perspective isn’t it?  The same way that “British” somehow became the correct form over “English” and an American is a “Yank” in Britain, even if he’s from Alabama, and someone of Italian-ancestry is an “Englishman” to an Amishman, simply because he doesn’t speak Pennsylvania Dutch.  Understanding takes away the offense (unless one is seeking to be offended). 

So this journalist (and the United States Supreme Court has given wide leave as to who can be called a “journalist”) made a joke aimed at Senator Warren, who earlier had announced her intention to run for President of the United States in 2020.  And this prominent Democrat politician – Michael Suleiman – responded, not with his own joke, but with a call for brutal repression.  How uncool.

We’ve seen this before.  In Europe. 

On February 9, 2006, the French-language humor magazine Charlie Hebdo published an article titled “Muhammad overwhelmed by fundamentalists” in which it added its own cartoons and reprinted twelve cartoons previously published by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten.  In response, the top politician in France – President Jacques Chirac – condemned the journalists for their “overt provocations”.  The politician argued against Freedom of Expression, saying:  “Anything that can hurt the convictions of someone else, in particular religious convictions, should be avoided.”  It should be noted that Monsieur Le President comes out of the notably authoritarian traditions of bureaucratic France.

The Grand Mosque of Paris, the Muslim World League, and the Union of French Islamic Organizations condemned the humor as “racist”.  It should be noted that Charlie Hebdo (Hebdo is French for “weekly”) is a decidedly Leftist publication and that its humor is more generally aimed at the National Front and Catholicism.  It describes itself as “secular, skeptic, atheist, far-left-wing, and anti-racist.”  But it does believe in comedy and in the right to Free Expression – and, as a result, it got into trouble with the political thought police.

What happened to Charlie Hebdo is an important reminder of what happens when you can’t take a joke and escalate humor into something it’s not.  Some offended parties brought a legal action against the publication, with the publisher memorably stating:  “It is racist to imagine that they can’t understand a joke.”

When the legal action was tossed out, the anti-comedy crowd took it further, they firebombed the offices of Charlie Hebdo and hacked its website.  But Charlie Hebdo, true to its traditions of free expression, refused calls for “self-censorship” and went on its merry way. 

Then… on January 7, 2015… two terrorists who clearly had no sense of humor, two determined repressors of comedy, forced their way into the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo and proceeded to murder journalists, cartoonists, editors, and staff – plus two police officers – twelve dead in all and eleven wounded.  It was an act of terror justified by the offense taken at a joke. 

America today is at a crossroads.  Do we use humor to combat humor… or do we oppress it every time someone is offended?  The latter equals the end of humor, for as all great comedians have recognized, the core of humor is transgressive – somebody is going to be pissed off.   

This is why what this politician – Michael Suleiman – has done is so dangerous.  By asking the newspaper publisher to take punitive action against a journalist for publishing a joke, he has placed himself with those who are at war with comedy and free expression.  If you want to “get back” at a joke you don’t like, undo it with a better joke of your own, don’t seek to harm those engaged in the free expression of humor. 

We hope Democrat Chairman Suleiman will withdraw his silly complaint.

Is AFP even a conservative organization anymore?

Can we get serious?

In America, there is a consensus, a generally accepted agreement as to what the word “conservative” means.  Take a poll.  Ask the average voter what the word means.  The four pillars of modern American conservatism are pretty easy to remember:

(1) The Right to Life.  Conservatives, real conservatives, Reagan conservatives, we oppose abortion.  Full stop.  

(2) The Second Amendment.  Hey, how many court rulings do you need before you finally get that the government has no duty to protect you?  In a Republic, that is on you.  Conservatives oppose the anarchy of crime.  We support gun rights, local police, and laws that are tough on crime – especially violent crime.

(3) Less Government/ Lower Taxes.  Conservatives know that smaller government and less government regulation leads to less spending and debt, which enables governments to cut taxes.  Conservatives also know that crony capitalism is a form of political corruption and as such is itself a tax on the goods and services used by ordinary citizens.

(4) Illegal Immigration.  Conservatives like America and American culture.  We welcome anyone from anywhere who wants to come here and join us and become an American.  We don’t want to be colonized by foreign cultures with authoritarian or anti-democratic traditions.  We don’t want to be told that we need to change to accommodate those who gate-crash the laws of our country. 

In order to call yourself a conservative in America, you pretty much need to be all four of the above.  Maybe you can get away with being a little mushy on one and still be considered a “soft” conservative.  But if you are bad on more than one, you need to think about why you are a Republican.  (Hey, haven’t these people ever read the PLATFORM of the party they claim membership of?)

That’s not to say that anybody is a “bad” person.  It’s just saying that you’re not a conservative.  See, the word “conservative” actually does mean something.  It’s not just a term of praise used in the proper setting to describe people we happen to like… or want to suck-up to. 

“Conservative” doesn’t mean “libertarian”.  It is per se a traditionalist point-of-view.  Conservatives want to C-O-N-S-E-R-V-E the traditions and values of our American Republic.  Unlike our libertarian brethren, we don’t want to replace Mom and Apple Pie with the Orgasmatron and the Orb.

That’s not to say that conservatives and libertarians (or anyone else for that matter) can’t agree on certain issues and work together.  But having a conservative point of view on this or that issue doesn’t make one a conservative.  Heck, Bill Clinton called himself a “fiscal conservative” – that didn’t make him a conservative.  It made him a liberal who saw the political advantages of conservative policy on issues like welfare reform.  He was still a liberal. 

And so we come to the especially Jersey-style, end of year crap that recently went spewing itself all over the Internet.  For years now, New  Jersey has been working very hard at being the place words go to lose their meaning.  Reading “The Right 40 Women to Watch in 2019” (written by AFP’s head honcho in New Jersey) it’s now clear that this trend has reached new depths of meaninglessness – with many of those mentioned being members of the “Right” only in the way that Hillary Clinton can be considered being to the “Right” of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. 

AFP – Americans for Prosperity – is the group formed by the super-rich Koch brothers as the political and lobbying arm of their business empire.  Anyone who knows anything about the Koch brothers knows that they come out of the Libertarian Party – in fact, one of the brothers actually ran against Republican Ronald Reagan on the Libertarian Party ticket in 1980.  Yes… THAT Ronald Reagan. 

And what a ticket that was… it supported everything from the decriminalization of narcotics and prostitution to America’s standing down as a world power.  If that crew had been elected, we’d still have the Soviet Union (and maybe they would have won).  But happily, Reagan won and the Koch operation was forced to rebrand itself as fake “conservative” – a move that started the process of unwinding the meaning of the word. 

Over the last decade or more, the Koch operation has done much to corrupt the conservative movement in America – in an effort to remake it in their own crony capitalist image.  Now they’ve come full circle and are back to advocating a soft-on-crime approach while pushing to flood the open market with recreational marijuana… this, in the midst of an opioid epidemic that is killing upwards of 50,000 people each year.

In fact, AFP in New Jersey has become so crony capitalist, so establishment, so anti-conservative values, that it has taken to shilling for far-Left politicians like U.S. Senator Cory Booker.  Just before Christmas, AFP paid for a mailing that lauded Senator Gropicus (a great moniker, courtesy of SaveJersey’s Matt Rooney) for a soft-on-crime package of feel good “reforms” that miss the problem entirely, but make for good media ads for his 2020 run against President Donald Trump.  Why the heck would AFP do something like that?  The Democrats don’t need the resources – they already have George Soros – now they have the Koch operation’s millions too? 

Among those women on “the Right” we were asked to “celebrate” were a half dozen who made the list because of their service on the just completed campaign of Bob Hugin for United States Senate.  Now maybe the writer didn’t get the memo, but Bob Hugin didn’t run from “the Right” and his campaign did all it could to distance itself from said “Right” – starting with millions in advertising assuring the electorate that he was a “different kind of Republican” who explicitly rejected at least one of the four pillars of modern American conservatism.  So WTF?

And since when did the legalization and sale of marijuana become a conservative issue?  Hasn’t anyone read about the vaping problem in our schools?  And this is with nicotine… imagine what it will be with marijuana?  And edibles?  How will policing the use of chocolate bars, peanut butter cups, and cookies work?  Candy for children… So how the heck did the “co-founder and executive director of the New Jersey Cannabis Industry Association” make a list of “women on the Right”???

Get out of your offices and talk to average people sometime!  Ask them if they think legalizing and selling an entry level drug in the midst of an opioid epidemic is a conservative political position?  Average voters will think you have lost your mind.  But there she is, on the list for being “at the helm” in her quest to “unleash a new industry within the State.”  What’s next?  Narcotics?  The legalization of human trafficking?  Prostitution?  Body parts?   Wait… it will come.

Rosemary Becchi made the list too.  She’s the president of a “new grassroots advocacy organization” formed in 2018 “to fight Jersey’s high taxes and propose policy solutions to the state’s complex financial problems.”  Except that she hasn’t.  Ms. Becchi is a DC lobbyist who has donated to the Democrats.  Hey, we get that lobbyists do that kind of thing, but let’s not call it conservative. 

Nobody has seen Ms. Becchi testifying in Trenton, or providing information to legislators, or even returning telephone calls from those interested in finding out more about her “organization”.  Cynics would say that it is nothing more than a front – a cover for her personal ambition to run for Congress.  This is something she openly explored against incumbent Congressman Leonard Lance (R-07) a year ago, with her “grassroots” organization forming a kind of parentheses between that and her expected formal announcement for 2020.

But as far as labeling her a “conservative” – we don’t really know where she stands on big government and taxes, leaving aside her unknown positions on abortion, the Second Amendment, and illegal immigration.  So who is trying to fool who here?

Finally, AFP’s list is memorable because of the genuine conservatives – four pillar conservatives – that it leaves out.  Champions like Marie Tasy and Christine Flaherty and Rev. Mandy Leverett… they are fighting to maintain the value of human life, to recognize the threshold of fetal pain, to end the trafficking of human beings and the sexual exploitation of women and children.  Of course, in today’s cash register world of “new industries” like pot and such, none of that matters – except that it does matter to conservatives, and there are a great many of us.

Also dissed were Freeholder Deborah Smith of Morris County – a great advocate for the Second Amendment – and incoming Sussex County Freeholder Dawn Fantasia who took down an incumbent Freeholder by winning 63% of the vote!  Nobody who made AFP’s list ever beat an incumbent.  Why are conservative winners ignored and pot pushers lauded as “conservatives”?   And how about an operative like Kelly Hart, the executive director of the Sussex County Republican Committee.  A four pillar conservative who actually won for Bob Hugin by more than was expected – outperforming everywhere but receiving scant recognition for it.  Obviously, there is a “cool girls” table, just as in high school, and some are not part of it… no matter how much they actually WIN elections. 

So in future, be a bit more judicious in who you label “conservative.”  Be honest with voters.  Stop telling them that you are something you’re not. 

Yes, we expect to hear arguments from pro-abortion, mushy on illegal immigration, soft-on-the-Second Amendment types who claim that they “feel” they are conservative.  But isn’t that just the times we live in?  We’ve all heard of gender-fluidity… well, these people are ideologically fluid.  And just as our chromosomes determine whether we are male or female, how we stand on the four pillars make us conservative – or something else.

Hey, don’t worry.  Not being conservative doesn’t make you a “bad” person.  And it doesn’t mean that you don’t hold conservative points of view on this issue or that.  You can still work with conservatives.  It just means that you recognize that you don’t come from the same ideological place that conservatives do.  And in your heart, you already know that, so let’s cut the bull and get honest with the voters.  Restoring their faith in the labels politicians apply to themselves will perhaps restore some measure of trust… for when the very words people use to describe themselves have no integrity, what confidence can voters have in anything?

The false narrative of Mikie Sherrill and Lisa Bhimani

In November 2017, three members of the so-called “Resistance” held a press conference to condemn the tax cut plan of President Donald Trump.  They were Mikie Sherrill, a resident of Montclair and then a candidate for Congress in District 11; Lisa Bhimani, a medical doctor and today a candidate for the Assembly in District 25; and Kellie Doucette, who has just been given a congressional staff job by Congresswoman-Elect Sherrill.

At their press conference, the three “resisters” spoke on behalf of the state’s “middle class” and claimed that Trump and the Republicans were only out to help “big corporations and the ultra-wealthy”.  They acted as though they were representative of the families who get by on the median-income of Northwest New Jersey. We now know, in the cases of Mikie Sherrill and Lisa Bhimani, it was all an act. Both Sherrill and Bhimani are rich.  They are establishment members of the One Percent.

But what about Kellie Doucette?  She spoke as if she were a working mom, pinching every penny.

Doucette has just been appointed to be Mikie Sherrill’s “face” in Sussex and Morris Counties.  So who is she?

Well, it turns out that Kellie Doucette had a very bottom-line reason for opposing the Trump tax cuts.  Doucette is a transplant to New Jersey from Bermuda, where her husband, John P. Doucette, is the President and CEO of the Reinsurance Division of Everest Re Group Ltd., a publicly traded reinsurance company headquartered in Bermuda.  The corporation describes itself this way:

“Everest Re Group, Ltd. is a Bermuda holding company that operates through the following subsidiaries: Everest Reinsurance Company provides reinsurance to property and casualty insurers in both the U.S. and international markets. Everest Reinsurance (Bermuda), Ltd., including through its branch in the United Kingdom, provides reinsurance and insurance to worldwide property and casualty markets and reinsurance to life insurers… Additional information on Everest Re Group companies can be found at the Group’s web site at www.everestregroup.com.”

It turns out that the Trump tax cuts helped American companies at the expense of off-shore companies, like those based in Bermuda.  This is from a website maintained by Bermuda (www.bermuda-online.org):

2017. December 21.  US tax reforms approved this week by the US Congress will be “credit negative” for the Bermuda re/insurance market, Fitch Ratings says. The US credit rating agency added that it expected the tax reforms, which will take effect from January 1, to benefit US reinsurers at the expense of Bermudian and other international reinsurers serving the US. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act will cut the US corporate tax rate to 21 per cent from 35 per cent, reducing Bermuda’s tax advantages over US rivals, and a new tax on premiums ceded by US insurers to foreign affiliated reinsurers will be levied.

2017. December 18. Bermuda-based reinsurers are weighing restructuring options in response to US tax reform legislation that could be signed by President Donald Trump as early as this week and come into effect by the start of next year. Tax expert Will McCallum said that the island’s major industry will see its cost of doing business going up when the reform takes effect and some companies will likely have to relocate hundreds of millions of dollars of capital to the US.

According to public SEC filings, John Doucette was paid $2,557,414 in 2017.  That’s $49,181.03 a week – that’s $10,000 more than a Deputy Sheriff makes a YEAR in Sussex County!  

Hey… is this “Resistance” movement beginning to feel more like a “counter-revolution” to you too?  A long-suffering working class, under-represented in Congress and the Legislature, screwed-over by BOTH political parties votes for Obama in 2008 (and is promptly screwed again) then in its pain and desperation turns to Trump in 2016… and now the “Resistance” has come, to put us all back in our place!

In his book, White-Collar Government: The Hidden Role of Class in Economic Policy Making, Duke University's Nick Carnes points out that while upwards of 65 percent of citizens are "working class" and 54 percent are employed in a blue-collar occupation, just 2 percent of the members of Congress and 3 percent of state legislators held blue-collar jobs at the time of their election.  How about some diversity?

Donald Trump's campaign saw through the false political divide of Democrat and Republican to the vast economic and social divide that is the truer measure of America today.  Authors as diverse as George Packer of the New Yorker (The  Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America) to Charles Murray (Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010) to Chris Hedges (Days of Destruction Days of Revolt) to David Brooks (BoBos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There) have written about this, with Brooks actually employing Donald Trump as an example of what the "new upper class" finds unfashionable.  

And to counter this revolution, we have a One-Percenter “Resistance” made up of the likes of Mikie Sherrill, Lisa Bhimani, and Kellie Doucette.  

Congresswoman-Elect Mikie Sherrill wants Kellie Doucette to come into Sussex County and tell us how we should live.  The Congresswoman has sent Doucette to “feel our pain.” But there’s a problem with this… and it’s Kellie Doucette.

Just how insulated from the reality of the working-class is Doucette?  Well, when she moved from Bermuda to New Jersey, she settled in Chatham, a town with pretty good schools… but apparently, not good enough, because she sends her kids to boarding school in Delaware.  And not just any old boarding school… no way.

When Hollywood is looking for a boarding school that just oozes establishment wealth and privilege, they turn to Saint Andrew’s School, situated on 2200 acres in Middletown, Delaware.  You will remember seeing this well-appointed institution and its lush grounds from the Robin Williams film, Dead Poets Society, or from The West Wing, when they wanted to show what a really posh prep school looked like.  Yep, this is one posh school that Kellie Doucette sends her kids to… fall tuition for 2018-19 will set you back a cool $60,470 (per student).  

Yep, tell that to the working families of Ogdensburg – with a per capita income of just $29,447 – next time you are in Sussex County.  Hey, forget about feeling our pain, folks like you are our pain.

But Kellie Doucette has a solution for people who once had good-paying blue-collar jobs but who now must make do with under-employment, working two or three part-time jobs to make ends meet… abortion.

Kellie Doucette sits on the Board of an organization called Ibis Reproductive Health, and serves on their Finance Committee.  Ibis provides her biography:

“Kellie Doucette began her career in the health policy field, and worked for over ten years as an actuary in the individual disability and long-term care reinsurance markets in the United States and Bermuda. However, in 2016, she shifted her focus to the political sphere, first as a founding member of Chatham Moms for Change, and then in 2017 as the campaign manager for a local political campaign.  Kellie is currently the Constituency Director working with a congressional campaign in New Jersey’s 11th district, managing the constituency outreach for what has become one of the top watched congressional campaigns and races in the country this election cycle.

Kellie received her AB in Economics from Harvard in 1992 and completed her Associateship of the Society of Actuaries (ASA) in 1999. Kellie is also a member of the Board of Trustees of St. Andrew’s School in Delaware, of which she is a proud alumna and current parent, serving as Chair of the Advancement Committee and a member of the Finance Committee.” 

Ibis is all about abortion.  Its website makes Planned Parenthood look like a bunch of cautious moderates.  It operates several separate websites targeted to potential “client groups” – such as http://www.laterabortion.org/

Ibis even has a website aimed at teenagers with epilepsy, in which it promotes sterilization as a “birth control” option.  No kidding… here, check it out… http://girlswithnerve.com/birth-control/birth-control-options/

These people are off-the-hook.  Establishment moes and moettes who think they know better because they were well-born or have figured out a way to rig the system in their favor.  Now they want to masquerade as “comrades” and lead a “revolution” that will secure their fortunes and attitudes and leave America and its working people in the dust.  Mikie Sherrill got over on us this year, now Lisa Bhimani is trying for next year.

Are we going to let them get away with it again?

Is illegal labor being used to build cemetery? Was there a conflict in the approval process?

Park Lawn Corporation, a publicly traded Canadian-owned funeral, crematorium, and cemetery company, recently started work on a 78-acre cemetery in Lafayette Township in Sussex County.  Park Lawn is empire-building and doing so in one heck of a hurry. Since 2013, it has grown from six cemeteries in Toronto, Ontario, gobbling up other companies along the way. This new cemetery will be operated as part of Park Lawn's CMS Mid Atlantic subsidiary, which currently operates, manages and provides financial services for seven other cemeteries in New Jersey (6) and New York (1).

When local residents attempted to communicate their concerns to workers preparing the site, they faced a language barrier and were ignored.  Sussex Watchdog did some digging and discovered that part of the acreage contains wetlands and that site preparation will be on-going for two years.  Once in operation, the grounds will hold up to 30,000 corpses and is expected to be in operation for 200 years.

Based on the concerns expressed by local stakeholders during the approval process, good communications between residents and those preparing the site is essential, as potential problems with traffic, egress, parking, and water run-off were all expressed.  There are also safety issues, as much of the heavily equipment being operated is potentially hazardous.

As of the posting of this column, Watchdog has not been able to determine if the company sub-contracted to do the work follows E-Verify protocols or hires workers who have had the benefits of a state-certified apprenticeship training program.  Surprisingly, the Land Use Board of Lafayette Township failed to ascertain these important considerations before granting their approval. Again, this presents issues regarding safety as well as value for money. And if the workers are not properly trained or properly paid – if they are being exploited for profit – this robs local taxpayers in Lafayette Township and/or Sussex County of a potential source of income.  

When undocumented immigrants illegally resident in New Jersey are exploited, it harms the immigrants, the taxpayers, and the American workers.  It is an inhuman way to make a profit…

What Watchdog did find was a conflict-of-interest in the approval process.  When one Land Use Board member properly reported that he was a “friend” of the engineer handling the project, the board attorney inexplicably allowed him to remain involved in the process and even vote on its approval.  Perhaps the whole approval process should be re-evaluated and site preparation placed on hold pending said re-evaluation?  

Once upon a time – back when Bill Clinton still had the memory of being a blue-collar boy from Arkansas – he and his party, the Democrat Party, understood illegal immigration.  It was all about protecting American jobs and not exploiting the labor of illegal immigrants to suppress American wages. Now that the Clintons have become members of the One Percent – and the Democrat Party’s leadership is composed of Wall Street One Percenters like Jon Corzine and Phil Murphy – it is all about making a fashionable excuse for exploiting vulnerable immigrants who are here illegally.

We need mandatory E-Verify in New Jersey.  And in a state that requires tree-trimmers to be certified, make sure all those employed in the trades hold apprenticeship certification.  It makes sense for safety, for taxpayers, for American workers, and it protects those who are being exploited for profit.

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?

Blame Trenton Democrats for making Cory Booker discuss his sexuality

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We could not agree more.

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

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

Bhimani and Draeger: Mikie Sherrill’s sore winners.

What a couple of cretins!  

Okay, you did your weekly Antifa routine in front of his office and upset the old guy so much that his doctor told him to give it up.  Hoorah! You tormented a man whose public service began in the jungles of Vietnam and drove him out of office.

Then you beat his party’s nominee with a candidate who masqueraded as a suburban Republican – a veteran, tough on crime prosecutor, and all American mom (hey, where’s that slice of apple pie?).  But that wasn’t good enough for the kind of Antifa gals who enjoy pulling the wings off flies.

You had to show up to his office on his last day open – and act like assholes.  Well good for you. You showed all the world what measure of class and grace you possess.  

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Will Assembly bill require teaching children about famous alcoholics?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Welcome to the future of educational instruction in New Jersey!

Assemblyman Wolfe: Another of those “different” kind of Republicans?

What ever happened to the Republican Party being the party of local citizen control of education?  What ever happened to the Republican Party that opposed big government mandates?

Apparently, in New Jersey at least, the Republican Party is of a mixed mind on these once universally agreed upon principles.  See, this is why they lose.  Nobody can tell what they stand for anymore.

The Democrats today in committee – all of them – in lockstep, voted to send to the floor A-1335 (S-1569) which MANDATES that local school boards, paid for by local property taxpayers (unless you are a Democrat Party machine-controlled Abbott District), adopt a new curriculum that is centered on the accomplishments of individuals based on their physical disabilities and sexual preferences.  Once upon a time, average Republican voters could have expected ALL of their elected representatives to oppose such an overreach by a central government.

Now everyone can agree that Dr. Alan Turing OBE was a great mathematician and scientist.  Whether or not his sexual appetite figured into his great mental capacity is speculative, but he should be honored and remembered for his achievements in science and in war – not for how he got off.  That was his personal business.  Of course, the post-war Labour government never forgave him for being Churchill’s man.  The Left was obsessed with the private affairs of Dr. Turing (who, by-the-way, earned his doctorate at Princeton University). 

Today the Left is still more obsessed with Dr. Turing’s penis that with his brain – and while his penis may or may not have been particularly interesting, it was the quality of his mind that earned him a place in history.  Now the New Jersey Legislature – Democrats (all) and Republicans (some) – is set on elevating Dr. Turing’s penis above his brain.  Demanding that we see his sexuality before his science.  That’s sad… and puerile… and stupid.   

Dr. Turing was victimized by a Labour government because they could not get past his being a “gay” man.  They refused to see the scientist and insisted on only seeing the sex act.  Today a committee of the New Jersey Assembly has asked the full Legislature to mandate that children be taught to see the sex act before the human accomplishment.  Today a committee of the New Jersey Assembly has gone on record to state that what you do with your pecker and who you do it with is the principal measure of a man.  They are on record as stating that it is more important than our common humanity, than our shared aspirations, than the greatest accomplishments of science and art.  They’re like a bunch of high school wankers… obsessed with their new toy.  They can think of nothing else… can’t get past it.

It’s sad… puerile… and stupid.   

This foolish over-reach by big government has already been passed by the State Senate, courtesy of those three moes… Senators Addiego, Bateman, and Brown. 

So when will the Republican Party step up and speak for citizen control of local education?  When will it start opposing big government mandates?

Empower NJ = No Jobs for Blue-collar Working People

Here is the  message from groups like Posh People over Pipeline workers, the Bergen Green Faith Circle, Food & Water Watch, the Wood Stove Heating and Cooking Coalition, Roseland Against the Compressor Station (put it somewhere else!), Don’t Heat the Meadowlands Coalition, Blue Wave, the Dunghill Alliance, People of Faith/Without Faith, Citizen Action, Watersports, and

Climate Mama…

Hey Operating Engineers… screw you!

Hey Laborers… screw you! 

Hey Steam Fitters… screw you!

Hey Pipe-Fitters… screw you!

And the list goes on and on.  Any trade union worker who has anything to do laying underground pipe or the plants and facilities it serves has just been flipped the bird by the One Percenters and their mouthpieces in the so-called environmental movement.

When you understand where they live and what they do for a living, you will get the joke about some of these so-called environmentalists.  “Trust fund” isn’t a job description.  Neither is “spouse of a banker” or “of a Wall Streeter” or “of a corporate lawyer”.  You don’t break a sweat running a non-profit.  Living in bubble land and having a lot of free time on your hands doesn’t qualify you to be an expert on the economic fallout of your thoughts and whimseys. 

A former Governor of Colorado – a Democrat – had it right when he called bullshit on the direction that the environmental movement was heading when it refused to recognize that more people equaled less green areas, less farms, less forests and fields – and more of the crap heros like Rachel Carson and Aldo Leopold started the movement to oppose.  If the founders of the environmental movement came back today and saw what was being done in their name – trees chopped down and fields turned into solar panel farms – they’d never stop throwing up.

Every group involved in the Empower NJ – Stop Fossil Fuels Campaign is in favor of shoehorning more and more people into New Jersey – the most densely populated state in America.  That’s right, New Jersey has 1,210 people per square mile; followed by Rhode Island with 1,022 people per square mile; then Massachusetts with 871 people per square mile; and Connecticut with 742 people per square mile. 

And guess what??? Governor Phil Murphy just put out a “come and get some” sign to the entire world with his Sanctuary State program, special status for criminals, free legal counsel, free health care, education, subsidized college, and a plethora of other free and subsidized stuff.  Just wait until they need to unsave that farmland to make way for more subsidized housing… hey, you can’t ask people to come here illegally and then leave them in the streets.  When you invite people in you have the duty, as a good host, to make sure they are comfortable.

Every group involved with Empower NJ is happy to clear-cut every last scrap of green space in the state in order to conform to fashionable opinions regarding illegal immigration, but when it comes to working people of all colors, genders, and ethnicities – they are as one – and with a unified voice Empower NJ says “screw them”!  That’s because the people who run Empower NJ have nothing to do with the woods.  They live in fey, gentrified urban enclaves playing on their phones, sucking down lattes, and complaining that real woodland folk are “trailer trash” who just don’t get it. 

Yep, working people just don’t understand that they are supposed to sacrifice their means to life and their families to the fashion statements of the One Percent and the pet causes they fund.  But you know how fashion is when it comes to people as powerful as the One Percent are… today’s fashions are tomorrow’s laws.