Is Nancy Munoz the first victim of the authoritarian vs freedom divide?

By Rubashov

Earlier this year, an event of great importance happened in New Jersey’s Republican Party: At the June primary election, the establishment candidate – the candidate with all the county party lines and all the public financing – received less than half the vote. Two underfunded, lesser-known candidates – one who began his political career just a year earlier (at a restaurant in New Hope, Pennsylvania) – together captured 160,000 Republican votes.

The winner of that election, Jack Ciattarelli, got 167,000 votes. 11,000 went to a fourth candidate. The primary saw the state’s conservative movement divided between “pragmatists” and “purists” – with the purists further divided between two candidates. The emerging consensus: Never allow the movement to become divided again.

That primary result has been trumped by an even more remarkable event – the intervention of the grassroots into the contest over who will lead the Republican minority in the Assembly. In the late afternoon of Friday, October 15th, New Jersey Globe’s David Wildstein broke the news that Assemblywoman Nancy Munoz (R-21) had the votes to become the next GOP Assembly Leader. Wildstein reported:

Nancy Muñoz appears set to become the next minority leader of the New Jersey State Assembly after forging a coalition with John DiMaio, the New Jersey Globe has learned.

DiMaio (R-Hackettstown) will drop his bid for the post and become the Minority Conference Leader, the number two slot in the Assembly GOP leadership. The new minority whip will be Antwan McClellan, a freshman lawmaker from Cape May County.

Assemblyman Ned Thomson (R-Wall), who had also been campaigning for the post, will also exit the race and back Muñoz, sources have confirmed.

The New Jersey Globe tally gives Muñoz, a six-term assemblywoman from Summit, enough to clinch a majority of the GOP caucus in the lower house after the November 2 election. Those numbers led to Thomson’s exit. He will be offered the post of Assistant Minority Leader.

In reaction to this, the grassroots erupted and Assemblyman Brian Bergen (R-25) offered himself as an alternative. Over the next week, traditional conservative grassroots activists from the Second Amendment and Pro-Life communities began an effort to block Assemblywoman Munoz. Critically however, it was the muscle of a newer grassroots effort – those resisting government medical mandates – that shocked sitting GOP legislators with wave upon wave of lobbying contact.

This group is not part of the traditional “conservative” world of guns, babies, and taxes or the post-Trump “populist conservative” guns, babies, illegal immigration, and taxes. This is new, post-COVID, and was predicted by Ralph Nader in his 2014 book, Unstoppable: The Emerging Left–Right Alliance to Dismantle the Corporate State.

Former Democrat Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, a candidate for president last year, has written and discussed this extensively. Earlier this month, Tucker Carlson described the old partisan Democrat vs. Republican divide as meaningless in understanding the politics of today and termed the new divide this way:

“The people in charge are intent on replacing our free democratic system with an authoritarian system, where they don’t convince you of anything, they simply make you do things. And they benefit from that.”

Here is a video with the entire segment…

“The people in charge are intent on replacing our free democratic system with an authoritarian system, where they don’t convince you of anything, they simply make you do things. And they benefit from that.”

That last sentence is very important: “And they benefit from that.”

The people who brought us the opioid epidemic certainly benefit. Americans pay the highest prices for pharmaceuticals in the world to companies that use our tax dollars for research and development. Goldman Sachs is benefitting from Green Energy mandates to the tune of billions every year. Even Garden State Equality is getting fat off contracts related to the new LGBTQplus curriculum mandates. With every mandate there are those who trouser the cash and those who turn over the cash by way of taxes.

Did Assemblywoman Munoz reckon on this new group? It is looking like she didn’t. Like Jack Ciattarelli and running mate Diane Allen, Nancy Munoz was prepared to smooth the edges around her positions on the Second Amendment and abortion – but it seems she didn’t take the growing free democratic system vs. an authoritarian system divide into her calculations.

If Tucker Carlson and the others are right, going forward, politicians of all political persuasions will need to take this new divide into account. That is, unless you are a committed authoritarian, like Phil Murphy and his charming Lady Macbeth.

"What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account?"
Lady Macbeth
(from The Tragedy of Macbeth, by Wm. Shakespeare)

Martin Marks is a strange kind of “conservative”

marks.jpg

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.

Planned Parenthood refuses to account for spending

It is a neat trick to disguise your business as a cult.  Generally this is the domain of some dubious religious hucksters of questionable denominations, east and west.  But you got to hand it to Planned Parenthood, Inc.  They have their followers convinced that what they're doing is religion.

Hence, their resistance to open their accounts and explain what they're doing with all the money they get from taxpayers.  During an Assembly Budget hearing earlier this week, Planned Parenthood again refused to answer questions about their finances -- such as its annual budget, annual revenue and executive compensation -- put to them by legislators. 

The kicker here is that these legislators actually support Planned Parenthood in principle -- they just want to make sure that the taxpayer money spent by them isn't wasted.  But just like any corrupt religious scam job, Planned Parenthood holds that you don't ask questions of god... even if it is your job as a legislator to protect taxpayers.

What's at stake is a proposed $7.45 million supplemental contribution to Planned Parenthood from New Jersey's taxpayers.

Two weeks ago, at a different committee hearing, Assemblywomen Holly Schepisi and Nancy Munoz asked the same questions.  They requested a breakdown of how the money would be spent, what the organization’s annual federal and state revenues are, and how much it pays its executives.  Why Planned Parenthood needs $7.45 million in taxpayer dollars, and how those dollars will be spent, still has not been answered.

To answer these questions, Planned Parenthood sent its Political Director.  That's right, they pay someone to be their Political Director.  Why?  Are they in politics or women's health?

When asked to produce a budget, the political director looked for a time as if she was going to find one up her bottom, but it wasn't there.  So she had to reply to the committee that she had no budget to share with them.  No budget?  Who works that way?  She also couldn't produce an answer as to what Planned Parenthood's annual revenues were.  For that answer, she didn't even go through the motions of finding it up her bottom.  When asked about executive compensation (what rich know-nothings like herself pocket) she flatly refused.

Why would working class taxpayers wish to spend their hard-earned money on an organization that pays an arrogant white-collar hack like her?

We understand that for the uneducated few, Planned Parenthood is synonymous with "women's health."  But it's not.  It is only one of many providers all jostling for market share.

No, you say?  It's a non-profit organization?  Sure, and so was the NFL.  And so are a lot of organizations that make billions and pay their executives millions.  Setting up as a "not-for-profit corporation" is simply a business model -- it's not an "I'm not greedy" pass.

And Planned Parenthood is greedy.  It wants total market share.  That's why it organized the way does -- to spend millions on lobbyists and even more on grassroots marketing -- to convince American women that only they provide the services that, in fact, hundreds of other organizations provide.  We're sure Macy's would like to have the same deal.

Planned Parenthood uses well-paid lobbyists and political pressure to secure government money with as little questions asked as possible.  They want to keep all the vittles for themselves and starve their competition.  Planned Parenthood wants to have a monopoly -- and we all know what that does to consumers and taxpayers.  Consumers pay more and have less choice.  Taxpayers get ripped-off.

Planned Parenthood is a classic case of crony capitalism, delivered by that master of Wall Street chicanery himself... Governor Goldman-Sachs 2.0, Phil Murphy.  On Thursday, February 15th, the entire Assembly is set to vote to give that $7.45 million to a business that won't answer basic questions about how they spend it.

And if passed, you know that Governor Goldman-Sachs 2.0, Phil Murphy, will sign it -- no questions asked.  Just like those bailouts they gave to his corrupt friends on Wall Street.  No questions asked...

Republican Assemblywomen join labor unions in standing up to Murphy

Better get used to it, Governor Murphy!

At this week's Assembly Health Committee hearing two Republican Assemblywomen took on Governor Murphy's plans to pour taxpayers' money back into crony capitalist groups like Planned Parenthood.  Yeah, yeah, we know that for the uneducated few, Planned Parenthood is synonymous with "women's health."  But it's not.  It is only one of many providers all jostling for market share.

No, you say?  It's a non-profit organization?  Sure, and so was the NFL.  And so are a lot of organizations that make billions and pay their executives millions.  Setting up as a "not-for-profit corporation" is simply a business model -- it's not an "I'm not greedy" pass.

And Planned Parenthood is greedy.  It wants total market share.  That's why it organized the way does -- to spend millions on lobbyists and even more on grassroots marketing -- to convince American women that only they provide the services that, in fact, hundreds of other organizations provide.  We're sure Macy's would like to have the same deal.

Planned Parenthood uses well-paid lobbyists and political pressure to secure government money with as little questions asked as possible.  They want to keep all the vittles for themselves and starve their competition.  Planned Parenthood wants to have a monopoly -- and we all know what that does to consumers and taxpayers.  Consumers pay more and have less choice.  Taxpayers get ripped-off.

Well not when Assemblywomen Holly Schepisi and Nancy Munoz are around!

Holly Schepisi is like a Bergen Bulldog when ripping into a bureaucrat.  The Assemblywoman asked for Planned Parenthood's financial details -- its annual budget, annual revenue and executive compensation, none of which the group's political director could provide during the hearing. 

We can only suppose that Murphy told the director to drop by and pick-up a blank check.  But Schepisi wasn't having it.

"If it was that important, how could the head not be able to explain any of these items?"  Schepisi asked the Health Committee's Democrat Chairman.  "If it wasn’t just a political football, if it was that important to women’s health, how do we not have these answers?"

Schepisi told the group:  "We have a lot of phenomenal organizations in this state that approach us for funding. The amount of money that you guys want is more than every school that I represent gets for school funding every year."

Assemblywoman Munoz advocated using the funding for organizations that aren’t supported by billions of dollars like Planned Parenthood, such as federally qualified health centers and other clinics.

“Why don’t we give this money to the New Jersey Coalition for Sexual Assault?” she asked.

Munoz noted that there are 279 walk-in clinics, 37 retail clinics, 187 urgent care clinics and 9 pediatric urgent care centers throughout the state that perform women’s health services without public funding.  Why should they be left high and dry with all the funding going to Planned Parenthood?

The efforts by the Republican Assemblywoman to keep the process honest was matched by the efforts of some labor union leaders to question why a former Lehman Brothers executive was going to get a no-questions-asked Murphy appointment to head the state's Economic Development Authority.  

Led by the redoubtable Bill Mullen, of the New Jersey State Building & Construction Trades Council, many blue-collar unions questioned the priorities of Murphy-pick Tim Sullivan, late of Lehman Brothers and currently the deputy commissioner of Connecticut’s Department of Economic & Community Development.

Like the Wall Streeter he is, Sullivan has steered a decidedly anti-blue collar course in Connecticut, giving priority to more fashionable projects in what he called the "six key business sectors" he wants to focus on: "insurance and financial services; digital media; green technology; advanced manufacturing; bioscience; and tourism. "

A state like New Jersey, with a new Governor who is committed to bringing in tens of thousands of sanctuary seekers -- many of whom lack language and job skills, should be looking to invest in projects that more broadly employ blue-collar workers and those who, through blue-collar apprenticeship, can learn the skills they need to get onto the employment ladder.

Stay tuned...