Is Josh Gottheimer guilty of improperly using his office?

By Rubashov

So, it wasn't a real invitation to a real event? Just a political ploy?

Did InsiderNJ’s Fred Snowflack pull the curtain back on Congressman Josh Gottheimer – or did Gottheimer do it to himself?

On March 22nd Congressman Gottheimer sent a formal invitation – on his official stationery – to the Sussex County Board of Commissioners. The invitation was to join him for a “briefing” by the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness (NJOHSP) on “the latest domestic terror threats in our State.”

The invitation, signed by Congressman Gottheimer, did not contain the date and time of said briefing or the location at which it was to be held. It did contain this paragraph:

“I will follow up with specific details on the briefing with NJOHSP and look forward to working together to stop hate, domestic terror, and extremism in all forms. In the meantime, please contact me directly at Josh.Gottheimer@mail.house.gov with any questions. Thank you for your service.”

But Congressman Gottheimer never did follow up with specific details. According to Snowflack, he instead used it as a political hit piece on the Commissioners and, more importantly, on his constituents who reside in Sussex County. On a March 25th post on InsiderNJ, Snowflack wrote:

“Today, Gottheimer, whose 5th District includes most of Sussex County, released a letter he sent to the county commissioners on March 22.
In case, the commissioners have any doubt about the specter of white supremacy, the Democratic congressman is ready to help. His letter invites the commissioners ‘to join me and the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness for a briefing on the latest domestic terror threats in our state.’
It then notes that for the first time the state’s Homeland Security Office has raised the threat level posed by white supremacists to ‘high,’ putting them in a class with ‘ISIS-inspired terrorists.’
Gottheimer adds that three far-right groups in particular – the Proud Boys, Oathkeepers and Three Percenters – are active in Sussex County.
That’s an interesting point.
As the debate raged over the hate-related resolutions, some speakers said condemning extremism is needed, because of the presence in the county of those very groups. Commissioners, as is their apparent custom, didn’t respond to the speakers’ point.
When the issue of political violence from the right is raised – as it has been many times since Jan. 6 – some Republicans point out violence caused by the far left.
So, Gottheimer’s letter also mentions ‘individuals inspired by antifa ideology.’
But make no mistake. The congressman’s main point is about the dangers of right wing extremism. And in Sussex County.”

Well, let’s look at this for a moment. Let us examine the statement: “for the first time the state’s Homeland Security Office has raised the threat level posed by white supremacists to ‘high,’ putting them in a class with ‘ISIS-inspired terrorists.’”

Are the groups mentioned here – the Proud Boys, Oathkeepers and Three Percenters – which are labeled by Gottheimer as “white supremacists”, actually in a “class with ISIS-inspired terrorists”?

ISIS is officially designated as a “terrorist organization” by the United Nations, the European Union, Argentina, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Canada, China, Egypt, India, Iraq, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Paraguay, Malaysia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Paraguay, Syria, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

The Oathkeepers and Three Percenters don’t make the list.

The Proud Boys make the list in Canada, just as CAIR (Council on American Islamic Relations) made the list in the United Arab Emirates. Curiously, CAIR’s designation as a “terrorist organization” didn’t stop Congressman Gottheimer from praising and seeking electoral assistance from Action Together, a group that has coordinated activities with CAIR and has even accepted awards from them.

We can point to numerous activities in which CAIR has worked closely with Democrat Party activists throughout Congressman Gottheimer’s district – everything from voter registration drives to protest rallies. Why did it not earn a mention in Gottheimer’s missive?

In fact, CAIR is closely linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, which is a designated “terrorist organization” in Bahrain, Egypt, Libya, Kazakhstan, Russia, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and the United Arab Emirates.

Given this, Congressman Gottheimer’s assertion about the “threat level posed” seems histrionic, hysterical even. In fact, everything in his “invitation” seems less about the work of government and simply a political hit – albeit one paid for by the taxpayers.

Then there is Congressman Gottheimer’s claim that “the Proud Boys, Oathkeepers and Three Percenters are active in Sussex County.” Are they?

It has been polled you know. Recently.

Nobody heard of them. Nobody knows anyone who is a member. And, by-the-way, nobody thinks Sussex County is particularly racist. Or that their neighbors are racists. Or that “white supremacy” is prevalent.

Why would they? Sussex County is one of the least violent, safest places in America. People move from places like Bergen County and New York City to enjoy all that it offers. It has more incidents of agricultural trespassing than bias crimes.

Now we are all aware that the designation of what is or isn’t a “terrorist organization” is a highly political exercise. Joe Cryan’s beloved Irish Nationalists were all once labeled “terrorists”. Even Nelson Mandela was once designated a “terrorist”. So was Menachem Begin, who went on to become the Prime Minister of Israel. It was Begin who, as the leader of a militant paramilitary group, ordered the bombing attack on the King David Hotel in Jerusalem. 91 people – British, Arabs, and Jews – died in that bombing.

Is Congressman Gottheimer suggesting that Sussex County is a hotbed for activity of the kind practiced by Menachem Begin? If so, where are the crime statistics? No, instead of crimes, we are told about “incidents”. These mainly involve people posting on-line or handing out reading material that other people find offensive – which, in America, is perfectly legal. Other “incidents” involve rude or anti-social behavior which, if it becomes criminal, should be dealt with as the law instructs.

In his rush to stamp out all such “incidents” Congressman Gottheimer runs the risk of creating a species of thought crime and of packing our already packed-out prison system with a new kind of prisoner – a political prisoner. This is not the way forward if you wish to continue to use that name, democracy.

Here to instruct Congressman Gottheimer on the difference between “crimes” and “incidents” is the great Ira Glasser, Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) from 1978 to 2001…

Now this isn’t the first time Congressman Gottheimer has used his office to play political tricks.  Earlier this year he held a press conference on “hate” at the Sussex County Community College and claimed to have had invited the County Commissioners and the state legislative delegation, which he had not.  And then there was the time he crashed the county vaccination center – had his staff members threat face with some sheriff’s officers and then dared them to arrest him – all over a photo op.  Weird.
 
Weirder still is the political angle to all this.  Does he have data showing that his constituents in Sussex County want to believe they live in a violent, racist hellhole and that they and their children are all bad, bad racists?  That’s not a very positive message. 
 
It appears that, in the wake of the January 6th Capitol Riot, a number of Democrats have seized upon it as their Reichstag Fire moment.  They want to use it to criminalize their political opponents to the point that they, once again, enjoy the “permanent majority” they held during the forty years before Newt Gingrich undid it in 1994.  It is a dangerous game that appears to have carried them along to this moment.
 
Of course, Josh Gottheimer is an old hand at playing with fear.  His former boss, President Bill Clinton, played on the fear of “Black” crime for votes and now he is trying to convince people that their real threat is their neighbor (as opposed to corrupt, rapacious politicians like himself).  But it’s a dodgy strategy, because their neighbor is likely to disprove what Gottheimer is selling.
 
Yes, the strategy is a little crazy.  Just like Katie Rotondi, the organizer the Congressman got to pull together the twenty or so Democrats (mostly failed candidates) to represent what Fred Snowflack takes to be “the people” of Sussex County.  Rejected county candidates, rejected municipal candidates, some even rejected by their own party… like Rotondi herself.  Their words will come back to haunt him (and they were all publicly recorded), because the intention in them was so plain:  To them Sussex County is an evil, bad place, full of “white supremacists” and “violent racists” who refused to vote for any of them.  And so, of course, the Democrats, the failed candidates, hate them for it.  This is the just the way some folks deal with the sting of rejection.
  
 

“One of the hardest parts of my job is to connect Iraq to the war on terror.”
George W. Bush

Polling numbers for so-called “Jihad Squad” suck/ Why do Democrat candidates embrace them?

Democrat internal polling released over the summer showed that members of the so-called “Jihad Squad” were so unpopular that it could have an effect on the 2020 presidential race. The Axios organization reported that Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) was recognized by 74 percent of voters in the poll – but just 22 percent had a favorable view of her. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-MN) was recognized by 53 percent of voters, with just 9% having a favorable view.

"Socialism was viewed favorably by 18% of the voters and unfavorably by 69%," Axios added, whereas "capitalism was 56% favorable; 32% unfavorable."

Meanwhile, a poll from Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez's own district found that she had a more than 2:1 ratio of unfavorable (51 percent) to favorable (21 percent), with 33 percent saying they would be ready to vote against her, and only 13 percent prepared to re-elect her.

Polling figures released by the Hudson Institute indicated that 75 percent of American voters support Israel and say that it is in America’s best interest to have the Jewish State as our closest ally in the Middle East.

60 percent of American voters agreed that anti-Semitism is happening more frequently today than 15 years ago – with most blaming anti-Semitism in the United States on Muslim extremists (37 percent), followed by right-win extremists (28 percent), and then left-wing extremists (22 percent). That’s nearly 60 percent of American voters who disagree with the assessment of Democrat Congressman Tom Malinowksi, who solely blames right-wing extremism for the rise.

A majority of American voters told pollsters that the BDS movement – a central plank in the ideology of the so-called “Jihad Squad” – is anti-Semitic. Most American voters believe the United States should stand with Israel in opposing the BDS movement that is supported by groups like CAIR (the Council on American-Islamic Relations) and their allies, like Linda Sarsour and Action Together.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) notes: The campaign to delegitimize Israel is being waged across the globe: The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS), which rejects Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state, is the most prominent effort to undermine Israel’s existence. The BDS campaign is rampant with misinformation and distortion. ADL responds to BDS threats through advocacy and education, and we recently partnered with Reut Institute to develop in-depth analysis and strategic initiatives to marginalize and expose the illegitimacy of the BDS movement.

Advocates of BDS target multinational companies, college communities and well-known institutions, meaning it touches almost everyone. College and university campuses have become battlegrounds.

SOURCE: Anti-Defamation League)

Some pro-BDS activists have indulged in the most bizarre and repulsive kinds of anti-Semitic propaganda, like the statement pictured above.  And yet, when pro-BDS groups like CAIR and Action Together invade college campuses and meetings of their trustees, those institutions do little to fight back.
 
Americans applaud actions like that taken by the German government earlier this year, which passed a resolution condemning the BDS movement, comparing it to Nazi-era campaigns against Jewish businesses.  So why are we not hearing more about this from Republicans in New Jersey?  Do voters here support the BDS movement?  Are New Jersey voters more anti-Semitic than elsewhere in the United States?  Why are Republicans so unwilling to take up this battle when fighting anti-Semitism is so obviously the right thing to do?

And what’s up with the Democrats?
 
No less than eight Democrats who are running for the New Jersey Legislature this year have been clearly identified as members of the far-Left Action Together New Jersey on the group’s website.  They are Stacey Gunderman, Lisa Mandelblatt, Deana Lykins, Lisa Bhimani, Darcy Draeger, Christine Clark, Laura Fortgang, and Steven Farkas.
 
On February 10, 2018, Action Together New Jersey accepted an award from Linda Sarsour.  Accepting the award was Action Together New Jersey’s Executive Director, Uyen “Winn” Khuong; Action Together New Jersey’s Sussex County Co-Chair, Johannah Hinksmon; and Action Together New Jersey’s Director of Operations, Kim Baron.
 
Linda Sarsour is the controversial Democrat activist who has praised the notoriously anti-Semitic Louis Farrakhan, cop-killer Joanne Chesimard, and the anti-Semitic BDS movement.  In 2017, Sarsour famously called for “Jihad” against the elected government of the United States of America…

The award was in recognition of voter registration drives and other political campaigning done by Action Together New Jersey in coordination with a group called CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Presenting the award was CAIR National Chairwoman, Roula Allouch, and CAIR-NJ Founder, Ahmed Al Shehab.

Due to its apparent ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, one of America’s most important Islamic allies – the United Arab Emirates – has designated CAIR a terrorist organization.

Action Together New Jersey is in the forefront of the drive to push the Democrat Party in New Jersey to the far-Left. They have joined CAIR in opposing the bi-partisan efforts of New Jersey Congressman Josh Gottheimer (D-5) to push back on members of the so-called “Jihad Squad” (far-Left Democrats Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib) in their attempt to promote the anti-Semitic BDS movement.

Why are these Democrats in bed with pro-BDS movement members of Congress when opposing BDS is the morally right thing to do? What is wrong with New Jersey Democrats and their failure to recognize the anti-Semitism of their “heroes”?

Opposing BDS and those who support it is the morally right thing to do and the politically sensible thing to do.

Why did Peg Schaffer lie to defend Phil Murphy?

Is it just us or does Somerset County Democrat Chairlady Peg Schaffer remind one of an overly operatic tryout for a role as one of the Valkyries?

Does that make Governor Phil Murphy war-father???

But why does she need to lie?

There is this anti-truth line that woke members of this new Democrat Party take nowadays.  Let someone, anyone, make a point about illegal immigration – and these anti-truth Democrats simply drop the “illegal” and falsely claim that it is an attack on all immigrants. 

And it goes beyond illegal immigration to crime in general.  These new Democrats take the case of a Shawn Custis and turn comments on his illegality into a “racially based” attack.  You say you don’t know Mr. Custis?  Well you can catch some of his work here...

Peg Schaffer’s fellow Democrats have a new demographic to practice their identity politics on... convicted criminals.  That's right.  The Democrat Party in New Jersey wants to give convicted criminals – including those behind bars – the power to vote.

That’s right, they want to give electoral power to murderers, rapists, robbers, and such.  And we all know what happens when a politician smells a vote.  They're going to give something away to get it.  Laws are going to get progressively weaker and weaker.  Especially when the Star-Ledger reports that there are 100,000 criminal votes to be had in New Jersey.  That many votes could easily swing a statewide election and a large prison population would certainly shift the balance in a legislative seat or two.

Imagine Shawn Custis as a prison ward leader, lobbying the Democrat-majority Legislature, organizing a petition drive (doubtless with the help of Action Together and the Women's March) to get Governor Goldman-Sachs 2.0 and Tammy Jane Fonda to sign into law a community release program that gets him out of doors again... Coming to an average door in an average community like yours. Yep, it’s going to be a Mad Max kind of world.

What makes these new Democrats so different from good old-fashioned Democrats is that these new ideologues can’t get past the “identity” stuff.  Their judgments are never about the criminality – whether we are talking illegal immigration or Shawn Custis… the illegal part gets taken away.

About the only thing these new Democrats do believe is criminal is having the wrong political opinions.  Express the “wrong” point-of-view and they will bully, and threat-face, and generally behave like an outraged Valkyrie.  And just as “identity” makes all the difference in the world as to whether a crime is a crime, or not, “identity” also governs whether a thought is a crime, or not.  There are some people who can never be right, just as there are some who can never be wrong.

This is the lens through which we can view Peg Schaffer’s attack yesterday on a Republican Freeholder who used the word “illegal” to describe undocumented immigrants who are resident in the United States in violation of federal law.  Yes, that pretty much can be described as illegal.  But in Peg Schaffer’s warped world, she finds fault with the describer, not the act.

It makes no difference that anybody who can read knows that Democrat Governor Phil Murphy is spending millions in taxpayers’ money on special programs targeted to illegal immigrants, Murphy brags about it!  And it makes no difference that flooding the job market in New Jersey with thousands of new off-the-books, “gray economy” workers will undermine any increase in the minimum wage and further distress the labor market for the working poor.

And it makes no difference that illegal immigrant labor provides for rich professionals just as surely as it destroys the prospects of labor trade unions.  No difference that the gray economy creates a near-slave class trapped by low cost wages, working for a “liberal” suburban bourgeoisie that wants the sweat of its fellow man at the cheapest possible rate. No difference that the cost to property taxpayers to provide a safety net for this gray economy has given New Jersey the highest property taxes and the highest rates of foreclosure in America.  No difference that poverty and child hunger are the legacies of these  woke policies that are designed to allow greedy suburban liberals the chance to feel-good about themselves… simply by voting Democrat.  It’s a great scam to pretend to care for people who you want around only because you can pay them less than you would your working class neighbor – and keep your money in your pockets.

If new Democrats like Peg Schaffer really cared, they would demand open borders both ways.  They would demand an end to international immigration laws that block Americans from moving elsewhere – instead of supporting a one-way open border policy designed to send a never-ending flow of cheap, near-slave labor to undercut the working class, the trade union movement, leaving minimum wage increases meaningless.  But Peg Schaffer doesn’t really care, does she?  These new Democrats are anti-truth.  It is all a scam, a means to muzzle an opponent with a different point of view.  A hectoring Valkyrie.

Meet some of the victims of the Sanctuary State movement…

The Democratic Socialist movement that includes the Women’s March, Antifa, Rise Stronger, Indivisible, Action Together… and who support candidates like Andy Kim, Tom Malinowski, and Mikie Sherrill have all lined up behind Governor Phil Murphy’s plan to make New Jersey a Sanctuary State.  Yes, the whole state.

In doing so – wittingly or unwittingly – they have become allies of modern day slavery, the traffickers in human beings and especially those who deal in the trafficking of women and children for America’s booming (and often illegal) sex industry.  The porous border that Kim, Malinowski, and Sherrill advocate serves the needs of criminal traffickers of illegal narcotics and opioids – and illegal firearms – as well.

This isn’t a victimless position to take.  You aren’t helping people when you help those who kidnap them and bring them to America to sell.  A United Nations study estimated that the criminal cartels who control the trafficking of human beings and illegal narcotics into the United States collect $6.6 billion annually. 

And who is being trafficked?  Here, meet some of the victims…

Now let’s ask Andy Kim, Tom Malinowski, and Mikie Sherrill… do you feel better about your movement… or do you feel worse?

Andy Kim needs to be honest re. terrorist Chesimard

Democrat Andy Kim's campaign blew into South Jersey again today, with a call for more volunteers and the candidate bragging about how much out-of-state and Washington-DC-Beltway money he's trousered.  Kim is the helicopter candidate from DC, popping in to lecture the voters here, putting in a day of campaigning, then popping back to his million dollar pad in Washington, DC.

Along the way he throws up a lot of dust in voter's eyes.  His campaign communications reference war zones and the military so much that the folks we talk to -- average voters in the 3rd congressional district -- are under the impression that Andy Kim was a soldier.  Maybe that's by design.  Maybe Andy Kim's campaign set out to fool them into thinking that, but let's give Andy the benefit of the doubt and just say it is a false impression that voters are forming. 

No, Andy Kim did not serve a day in uniform.  His campaign just kind of pretends.  Yeah, kind of sad, but you know how it is...

In the midst of all this, Democrat Andy Kim forgot an important date.  The 45th anniversary of the murder of New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster.  Now it's not really Andy Kim's fault -- because he doesn't really live in New Jersey and how is he supposed to remember an insider Jersey thing like that?

A memorial page, maintained by law enforcement officers for their murdered compatriots, explains as follows:

"Trooper Werner Foerster was shot and killed with his own service weapon after backing up another trooper who had stopped a vehicle containing two men and a woman on New Jersey Turnpike.

The subjects started struggling with the troopers and were able to disarm Trooper Foerster. One of the men opened fire, killing Trooper Foerster and wounding the other trooper. Despite the wounds, the other trooper was able to return fire and killed one of the subject.

The three subjects were members of the Black Liberation Army. The two surviving subjects were convicted of Trooper Foerster's murder, but the female suspect escaped from prison in 1979 and fled to Cuba, where she has remained at large.

...An accomplice who helped the female subject escape was placed on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list in 1982. He was arrested in 1986 for his involvement in the 1981 murders of two Nyack, New York, police officers.

Trooper Foerster had served with the New Jersey State Police Department for almost three years. He is survived by his wife and two children and is buried in Washington Monumental Cemetery, South River, New Jersey.

The Route 18 overpass on the New Jersey Turnpike was dedicated the Werner Foerster Overpass in his honor.

The Black Liberation Army was a violent, radical group that attempted to fight for independence from the United States government in the late 1960's and early 1970's. The BLA was responsible for the murders of more than 10 police officers around the country. They were also responsible for violent attacks around the country that left many police officers wounded."

If you want to know why the FBI named the accomplice, Joanne Chesimard (aka Assata Shakur), as its most wanted "terrorist", you need go no further than the first paragraph of the group's activities in its Wikipedia entry:

"According to a Justice Department report on BLA activity, the Black Liberation Army was suspected of involvement in over 70 incidents of violence between 1970 and 1976.  The Fraternal Order of Police blamed the BLA for the murders of 13 police officers.  

On October 22, 1970, the BLA was believed to have planted a bomb in St. Brendan's Church in San Francisco while it was full of mourners attending the funeral of San Francisco police officer Harold Hamilton, who had been killed in the line of duty while responding to a bank robbery."

Unfortunately, Joanne Chesimard -- the accomplice in the murder of Werner Foerster -- still has some admirers here in New Jersey.  Yep, the organization that put together the famous "Women's March" in 2017 and again, earlier this year, "honored" Chesimard (Assata Shakur).  Referring to her as a "revolutionary" whose words "inspire us to keep resisting", the Women's March organization issued a statement "celebrating" Ms. Chesimard's birthday.

The Star-Ledger reported on this:

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2017/07/womens_march_wishes_nj_cop_killer_a_happy_birthday.html

Crazy stuff.  But it appears that Democrat congressional candidate Andy Kim knows these people too.  Right after Hillary Clinton lost to Donald Trump, Andy Kim went to work forming his own political action committee.  Kim's group supported the activities of organizations like the Women's March, Action Together, The Resistance, Fight Trump, and the Love Army.  Kim reports his involvement, as required by federal law, on his personal financial disclosure with Congress. 

So none of this should come as a surprise to anyone.  This isn't "new" information.  That's why we are curious that Andy Kim, a self-described "foreign policy expert", has never had anything to say about the terrorist Joanne Chesimard, whose "work" is so admired by organizations that Kim supports.

As an expert, Andy Kim must know that Chesimard's presence in Cuba is a major stumbling block to better relations between that nation and ours.  Do you have any thoughts on the matter, Andy?

And with the anniversary of the murder of New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster so recent, isn't it appropriate for congressional candidate Andy Kim to say something?

Democrats to allow convicted criminals to lobby elected officials

The Democrats have a new demographic to practice their identity politics on... convicted criminals.  That's right.  The Democrat Party in New Jersey wants to give convicted criminals -- including those behind bars -- the right to vote.

Yep, a week after the Brady gang, NOW, Action Together, and the new Weather Underground (aka ANTIFA) held rallies across the state to protest the NRA, their party announced its support for turning cell blocks into voting blocks and prison gangs into GOTV operations.  One group of liberals is rallying to take away your ability to protect your family from murder, rape, and robbery; while a different group of liberals is giving electoral power to murderers, rapists, and robbers.  Such symmetry.  It's liberalism at its most brilliant.

Now we all know what happens when a politician smells a vote.  They're going to give something away to get it.  Laws are going to get progressively weaker and weaker.  Especially when the Star-Ledger reports that there are 100,000 criminal votes to be had in New Jersey.  That many votes could easily swing a statewide election and a large prison population would certainly shift the balance in a legislative seat or two.

Imagine Shawn Custis as a prison ward leader, lobbying the Democrat-majority Legislature, organizing a petition drive (doubtless with the help of Action Together and the Women's March) to get Governor Goldman-Sachs 2.0 and Tammy Jane Fonda to sign into law a community release program that gets him out of doors again... Coming to an average door in an average community like yours.

And you won't have a weapon to defend yourself when it happens, because the other set of "enlightened folk" will have already solved that for you.  Let's vilify law-abiding gun owners while we pander to actual convicted criminals.  Makes sense... if you want a Mad Max kind of world.

So who is the new political leader from Rahway?  Why it is the Honorable Mr. Custis.  Oh, you don't know him?  Well here, why don't you catch some of his work...

We'd like to hear from NOW... the Women's March... Action of the Hand... and other Democrat groups.  Rally about this, why don't you?

Democrats turned vigil into Anti-Trump rally

Several individuals who attended the "anti-hate" vigil at Newton Green in Sussex County on Sunday have contacted us to complain that it was over-politicized by those who ran it.  The vigil was run by Action Together Sussex County, an off-shoot of the leftwing Women's March organization.

According to the New Jersey Herald, the rally organizers included blatantly political groups like NJ 11th for Change, a political action committee opposed to Republican Congressman Rodney Frelinghuysen; Wind of the Spirit, a group that conducts demonstrations in support of illegal aliens; and LGBTQ advocacy organizations.  The vigil also attracted a number of Democrat Party political campaign committees, which were all announced at the rally.  Republicans were not.

What could have been a genuinely non-partisan event -- or even a bi-partisan one along the lines of the "breakfast at the diner" conducted by Democrat Congressman Josh Gottheimer and Republican State Senator Steve Oroho -- turned instead into an anti-Trump gathering, with a speech made against the President and signs in support of the NFL players who are disrespecting the American flag during the playing of the National Anthem.

A recent poll shows that a majority of Americans support President Trump over the NFL players, with 91% of Republicans, 60% of Independents, and 43% of Democrats saying players should not kneel in protest during the National Anthem.   The controversy has also sparked a backlash by NFL fans:

http://insider.foxnews.com/2017/09/27/nfl-fans-burning-tickets-jerseys-merchandise-over-national-anthem-protests videos?nmsrc=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=scoop&utm_medium=email

The controversy prompted Taya Kyle, the widow of legendary Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle, to issue a bold challenge to the NFL via Facebook on Tuesday in response to the National Anthem protests sweeping the league.  In common with other NFL fans, Ms. Kyle is tired of seeing the NFL focus on “division and anger” instead of the message of unity that it once represented.  She is calling on the NFL to make a real difference in America and urging its players to “get off your knees” to get it done.  Here is her statement:

Dear NFL,

You were doing your part to bring people together and heal the world. That's really how healing works. We heal by loving each other and leading by example; showing people what is possible when we love each other just as we are and not only recognize our differences but celebrate them and look at how we can use them together to make us jointly better than our separate parts. You were doing your part celebrating each other based on skills, talent and a joint vision without regard to color and religion.

You were doing your part and we were doing ours. We showed up cheering and groaning together to [sic] as one. We talked in the concession lines and commiserated and celebrated our team together. Did it ever occur to you that you and we were already a mix of backgrounds, races and religions? We were already living the dream you want, right in front of you.

Your desire to focus on division and anger has shattered what many people loved most about the sport. Football was really a metaphor for our ideal world –different backgrounds, talents, and histories actually made us one big team with one big goal - to do well, to win, TOGETHER.

You are asking us to abandon what we loved about togetherness and make choices of division. Will we stand with you? Will we stand with our flag? What does it mean? What does it mean if we buy a ticket or NFL gear? What does it mean if we don't? It is the polar opposite of the easy togetherness we once loved in football.

It was simple – we loved you and you loved us – with all of our races, religions and different backgrounds. Simplicity in a crazy world was pretty awesome.

You dear NFL, have taken that. You have lost me here.

If you ever want to get off your knees and get to work on building bridges, let me know. I have found screaming about the problems in service marriages or even standing in silence in front of them, hasn't healed even one of them. On the other hand, funding the Chris Kyle Frog Foundation, building a team and rolling up my sleeves to get in the trenches during my “off time” -volunteering there outside of my paying jobs - has proven to make real change.

You have a lot of strong guys, I am sure in the off season a lot of them could build some pretty big bridges if they care enough to do the hard work. That would involve getting off their knees and getting to work though. I can do it while I raise two kids as their only parent and work through the greatest pain of my life, let's see if they can do it for the issues they say they care so much about.

Go Longhorns and Sic 'Em …

Sincerely,

Taya