Murphy desperate to shift focus from nursing home deaths to hate crimes.
/By Rubashov
Over the last few days, the media in New Jersey has taken note of the crisis going on in New York with Governor Andrew Cuomo, whose hold on office is slipping away due to a scandal over how his administration handled nursing and veterans’ homes during the COVID pandemic. In common with New York’s Cuomo, the Murphy administration’s now infamous Executive Order 103 sent COVID patients into nursing and veterans’ homes despite being told by administrators that it would cause the deaths of many.
New Jersey now has the worst rate of nursing home deaths in America. If New Jersey were its own country, it would have the worst rate in the World. This level of death represents a kind of government-induced genocide of its most vulnerable population.
Last week, the Gannett news organization – which includes some of the state’s largest newspapers – called on the Murphy administration to stop using excuses like “terrorism” to obstruct the state’s freedom of information law, known as OPRA or the Open Public Records Act. Under Murphy, requests for public records pertaining to his administration’s COVID nursing home order have been ignored.
On Sunday, the Star-Ledger published an editorial that began:
“According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Studies, New Jersey has the highest rate of COVID-19-related nursing home deaths in the country. The nursing home death toll is around 8,000 and still rising... 124 of every 1,000 nursing home residents died. Our neighbors in New York and Pennsylvania were 34th and 14th respectively. New Jersey’s appalling numbers are indicative of a massive failure somewhere in our senior care system. It’s time for the governor and the Democratic party to stop stalling and launch an investigation into what went wrong.”
Well, those editorials launched something – but it wasn’t an investigation into those nursing home deaths. In a remarkably coordinated use of incumbency as a means of deflection, across the state Democrats have tried to change the subject to “hate crimes” and away from nursing home deaths from COVID. First, Democrat Congressman Josh Gottheimer set the stage with a letter sent to local elected officials inviting them to a briefing by the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security, which is run by a former C.I.A. operative.
Yep, no kidding. The very same outfit that started the war we’re still in – billions spent, thousands dead – based on the “intelligence” that there were “weapons of mass destruction” in Iraq. These are the guys who armed the Taliban to fight the Soviets but who didn’t have enough “intelligence” to figure that one day they would use those weapons against us. Their “intelligence” created the vacuum that allowed ISIS to rise in the first place.
And their hypocrisy is stunning. Not only did their murder of a foreign leader seal our fate in Vietnam, they’ve been involved in murders and the destabilization of democratically elected governments around the globe. But hey, just because they’ve killed people – including U.S. citizens, with drone strikes – we mustn’t call them terrorists… It reminds of this skit by Billy Connolly…
Yes, “hypocrisy is the Vaseline of political intercourse” and hypocrisy’s lubber-in-chief is none other than our own Josh Gottheimer.
Gottheimer is organizing a lecture by the same guys who, in the 1990s, were too worried about domestic “terrorists” like the Branch Davidians to pay attention to the actual terrorists who pulled off the attacks on September 11, 2001. At Gottheimer’s request, they are going to provide local elected officials with some fresh “intelligence” and instruction on how to help them spy on their neighbors.
Here are some delicious bits from Gottheimer’s missive:
“Given the sharp rise in domestic terror and violent extremism both here in New Jersey and nationwide… join me and the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness (NJOHSP) for a briefing on the latest domestic terror threats in our State. This past year, for the first time ever, the NJOHSP raised the threat level posed by white supremacists to ‘high,’ joining homegrown, ISIS-inspired terrorists as the most persistent hostile actors in New Jersey.”
Most persistent? How many people in New Jersey died as a result of the actions of these “hostile actors”? Gottheimer provides no data.
Did 8,000 people die?
If there is a threat posed by terrorism, how does it compare to the threat posed by government incompetence? Or worse… maybe they did it on purpose? How will we know, without an investigation?
Gottheimer continues with the application of the Vaseline…
“Extremists present a clear and present danger to New Jersey families. It is my hope that you will join me for this critical briefing on domestic terrorism and violent extremism, in all of its forms, to help prevent future incidents of hate from occurring in our community. I believe that we can all agree that providing law enforcement and the intelligence community with all the tools necessary to prosecute, financially counter, and defeat these groups is of the utmost importance to keep our shared constituents safe.”
A “clear and present danger”? Compared with the Murphy administration?
Did so-called “domestic terrorism and violent extremism” result in the deaths of 8,000 people?
If Josh Gottheimer was really concerned about keeping his constituents safe, he’d be investigating why 8,000 died. He wouldn’t be trying to help his political ally cover it up by changing the subject.
Within hours of the Gottheimer letter came a “round table discussion” featuring Governor Murphy, his hand-picked Attorney General, and Democrat Congressman Andy Kim. The topic of this “round table discussion” was the “rise in bias incidents in New Jersey.”
According to a press release sent out by the Governor’s office, the “round table discussion” was necessary because preliminary data reports 1,441 “bias incidents” occurring in New Jersey in 2020 – “the highest annual total ever” – the release notes. The release defines a “bias incident” as “a suspected or confirmed violation of New Jersey’s bias intimidation statute… in which a victim is subjected to harassment, assault, terroristic threats, or other specified acts because of race, color, religion, gender, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, or ethnicity.”
So, they hold a “round table discussion” for “preliminary data” on 1,441 “suspected or confirmed” non-fatal “bias incidents” – but not for 8,000 deaths?
For suspected “bias incidents” but not for the highest rate of nursing home deaths from COVID in America? For “preliminary data” but not for the highest rate of COVID deaths IN THE WORLD???
It makes you wonder. Does every function of government involve this much earnest posturing in aid of undiluted bullshit for the purposes of covering up some horrible wrong? Is this what government does now?
The people who died, did not die based on race or gender or sexual preference. COVID didn’t see if they were Democrats or Republicans. Everyone was affected, regardless. It’s everyone’s business that the government make it a priority to get to the bottom of why they died.
“Hypocrisy is the Vaseline of political intercourse."
Billy Connolly
N.B. We welcome a conversation on this and all topics raised on this website. Jersey Conservative is entirely open to your ideas and opinions. To submit a column for publication, please contact Marianna at Marianna@JerseyConservative.org.
