Fantasia enlists the "Mastermind of Bridgegate" in war against free speech.

By Rubashov
 
For many years, the political consultant David Wildstein operated anonymous blogs with names like PoliticsNJ, PoliticsPA, and PolitickerNJ. Then he, known then as “Wally Edge”, was outed by one of the folks who writes for this blog – an embarrassment he has never forgiven.
 
Wildstein was very close to Chris Christie when he operated those blogs – providing coordinated coverage of Christie’s political corruption investigations when Christie was U.S. Attorney. Later, Christie rewarded Wildstein with a fat appointment at the Port Authority. This position had never existed prior to Wildstein's appointment and had no job description, but he received an annual salary of $150,020.
 
David Wildstein made national headlines in 2015, when he admitted his guilt in the Bridgegate Scandal – a criminal enterprise timed to disrupt the first day of school.  Dr. Paul Saxton, superintendent of Fort Lee’s schools, called the plot “an act of terrorism,” adding, it was “premeditated action designed and targeted toward the kids.” In a statement that made national news, the Bridgegate plotters, including Wildstein, had dismissed concerns that children might suffer, by saying that they were the children of their political opponent.
 
So, we find it remarkable that Sussex County Commissioner Dawn Fantasia would turn to David Wildstein, who was described as the “Mastermind of Bridgegate” to go head-to-head with a blog that has been critical of her. Even more so, as she runs a school herself – albeit a controversial one affiliated with an Islamic cleric who himself has been labeled a “terrorist” in his native Turkey.
 
Missing from David Wildstein’s article in the New Jersey Globe was the quote taken from a front-page story in the Star-Ledger newspaper. This quote is the key to this story:
 
“Like Jim Cunneely, Dawn Cunneely [Fantasia] believes he will never commit a similar crime. She calls him a good father, and she has granted him joint custody of the children.”
 
Fantasia’s statement was made on the front page of the November 10, 2014, edition of the Star-Ledger, the largest circulation newspaper in New Jersey. In a story concerning her former husband, a school teacher who was convicted of a sex crime against one of his students (and “required to register as a sex offender under Megan's Law and… undergo parole supervision for life”, ibid April 18, 2008).
 
Nobody made this up. It is on the front page of the state’s largest newspaper. And we’re not discussing events that happened at the time of her husband’s arrest and trial – but rather, statements made years after, when Dawn Fantasia was pursuing political office. Further, it appears the 2014 front page story was in aid of marketing a book, written by Fantasia’s former husband. Published in 2013, it is called “Folie A Deux” and is 374 pages of public disclosure. Anyone can buy it on Amazon for $19.95.
 
Our opinion, which we are allowed to express under the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights, is that Commissioner Fantasia’s statement suggests she might be open to policies that allow registered sex offenders, convicted of sex crimes against children, to be granted custody of minor children. That is why we asked her for a clarification of her statement. We even invited her to publish her clarification, unedited, on our website.
 
Fantasia has steadfastly refused to issue a clarification, even though, if she is successful as a candidate for the New Jersey Legislature, she will be voting on bills that affect Megan’s Law and mandatory sentencing, and sex crimes, and child custody. In Wildstein’s column today Fantasia claims that the newspaper was wrong – 9 years after it appeared on the front page. She then tries to blame the judge, making the utterly fantastic statement that a judge would grant custody of minor children to a registered sex offender without the positive agreement of the mother of those children. We would like to see the court transcript of that! Where, in America, does that happen?
 
The issue before us is very simple: Do voters have a right to know candidate Dawn Fantasia’s position? Because that is all we’ve been asking.
 
Micah Rasmussen, Director of the Rebovich Institute of New Jersey Politics at Rider University, provides this answer: “Voters can't make informed decisions unless they're informed. If you asked any self-respecting constituent of George Santos, they'd tell you they wish they knew then what they know now.”
 
Commissioner Fantasia makes the false accusation that this blog coordinates with campaigns. That is untrue and has been investigated by the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and found to be untrue. A complaint was made in 2020 and, after a thorough investigation by federal authorities, there was no indication whatsoever that coordination had occurred. Anyone who knows anyone connected with this blog or its affiliated blogs knows that we take direction from nobody. That’s why they get so angry at us. Unlike most political blogs in New Jersey, we don’t even take advertising from politicians.

Commissioner Fantasia claims that a male consultant runs this blog. That is untrue. The administrator of this blog is a woman. Several people contribute. The administrator of the Sussex County Watchdog blog is a different woman. Neither the consultant or anyone else can post an article without their consent. Those are the facts. 
 
In today’s New Jersey Globe article, Commissioner Fantasia pledges to “stop” conservative media outlets like this from asking politicians tough questions. That’s not what anyone would call a conservative or constitutionalist legislative agenda.
 
Dawn Fantasia is a politician. She is paid by an organization that receives millions in taxpayer funding. She is an elected official who gets paid by the taxpayer. She is seeking higher public office – and a substantial pay raise. Dawn Fantasia does not get to decide what is or isn’t journalism.
 
She might think she’s a big deal, but the United States Supreme Court has over-ruled her. They have determined that blogs are indeed journalism and that bloggers are indeed journalists. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled repeated on anonymous speech and has upheld and protected it as a sacred American tradition. The Society of Professional Journalists agrees as well.
 
Dawn Fantasia is an example of how politicians become when there is no local media to scrutinize them. They become apoplectic when asked questions about statements they made to the largest newspaper in the state.
 
Tucker Carlson reminds us, “Free speech is the main right that you have. Without it, you have no others.”

- - -

Senator Steve Oroho’s longtime political consultant was contacted and responded to this claim, published in the New Jersey Globe today: “After growing weary of his tactics, I did not enlist him for my current campaign,” Fantasia said.  “As such, I am his current target.”
 
The consultant states that the Commissioner is a public office holder and a candidate for public office. He is not. He further states that the accuracy of Commissioner Fantasia’s statement will be tested in a court of law, as he intends to bring a legal action against her and her campaign.
 
He notes that Senator Oroho asked him to be part of the team that vetted all the prospective Assembly candidates in LD24 in December 2022. The consultant’s concerns about her suitability as a candidate and the vulnerabilities she had were discussed and recorded in writing – including the incident described in the Star-Ledger article of November 10, 2014.
 
He further notes that he was lobbied by numerous individuals in an effort to get him to work for Commissioners Dawn Fantasia and Chris Carney for Assembly. These included Ms. Kate Gibbs of ELEC825 and the two candidates themselves, who made a trip to New Hope, Pennsylvania, to take the consultant to dinner in an attempt to convince him to work for them.
 
The consultant refrained from using the word “lie” as, he says, “That is a matter for the court to determine.” The consultant anticipates calling many witnesses and introducing a plethora of documentation that negates Commissioner Fantasia’s statement. 

Commissioner Fantasia should pay close attention to the free speech advocate in this video.

“Voters can’t make informed decisions unless they’re informed.  If you asked any self-respecting constituent of George Santos, they’d tell you they wish they knew then what they know now.”
Micah Rasmussen
Director of the Rebovich Institute of New Jersey Politics at Rider University

"If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear."
George Orwell

Gottheimer: Is it okay to call the Editor of NJ Globe a “terrorist”?

By Rubashov

Let’s remember that terrorism is a crime. As Congressman Josh Gottheimer well knows, Section 802 of the USA PATRIOT Act (Pub. L. No. 107-52) expanded the definition of terrorism to cover domestic, as opposed to international, terrorism. A person engages in domestic terrorism if they do an act “dangerous to human life that is a violation of the criminal laws of a state or the United States, if the act appears to be intended to: (i) intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination or kidnapping.”

Now, let’s recall what Bridgegate was all about. Wikipedia explains: “The Fort Lee lane closure scandal, also known as the George Washington Bridge lane closure scandal or Bridgegate, was a political scandal involving a staff member and political appointees of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie colluding to create traffic jams in Fort Lee, New Jersey, by closing lanes at the main toll plaza for the upper level of the George Washington Bridge… It was later suggested that the lanes had been closed intentionally to cause the massive traffic problem for political reasons, and especially theorized that they were a retributive attack against Fort Lee's Mayor Mark Sokolich, a Democrat who had not supported Christie as a candidate in the 2013 New Jersey gubernatorial election. The ensuing investigations centered on several of Christie's appointees and staff, including David Wildstein, who ordered the lanes closed…”

According to the New York Times (May 1, 2015), the School Superintendent of Fort Lee thought Bridgegate was an act of terrorism. Here’s how the New York Times covered it:

Fort Lee School Head Calls Lane Closings an ‘Act of Terrorism’
FORT LEE, N.J. — Hearing that the bridge lane closings were intentionally scheduled for the first day of school made Dr. Paul Saxton, the interim superintendent of the town’s schools, angry all over again on Friday.

Dr. Saxton called the plot “an act of terrorism.” To carry out a “premeditated action designed and targeted toward the kids, what did they expect?” he said in a phone interview after a former Port Authority official pleaded guilty in the scheme.

The official, David Wildstein, told a judge that the lane closings were timed to the first day of school in 2013 to maximize punishment to Fort Lee’s mayor, Mark Sokolich.

The gridlock, which lasted for days, created all sorts of headaches for the school district and for Dr. Saxton, who was starting out as the interim superintendent.

School buses were stuck in traffic, teachers could not get to work, crossing guards failed to make it to their posts. Worst of all, Dr. Saxton said, were the hazards all the distorted traffic posed for the majority of the town’s schoolchildren who walk to school.

“It was a thoughtless, mindless action,” he said. “It’s really disturbing to think that the kids were targeted.”

Now, let’s be clear about something. David Wildstein, the Editor of NJ Globe, is not a terrorist. Why? Because he was never charged and convicted of the crime of terrorism. In America, for the moment anyway, everyone of us is protected by the phrase, “Innocent until proven guilty” by due process, in a court of law.

Apparently, Democrats don’t believe this anymore. At least not the Democrats in Sussex County and, along with them, Democrat Congressman Josh Gottheimer.

The Sussex County Democrats believe they can state, as fact, that someone committed the high crime of terrorism. The Democrats believe that to object to accusing someone of having committed a crime when no conviction has been rendered or even charges filed, and allow us to quote their lawyer directly here, “…is blatantly attempting to stifle open discussion about matters of public importance: the conduct, platforms, and beliefs of those who represent the citizens of our state in election related matters.”

Got it. So, when Josh Gottheimer was accused of sexually molesting a staff member and fooling around on his wife… that would be okay to put in direct mail? At the time, we defended Congressman Gottheimer, not knowing that we were in the wrong for doing so. We had no idea that we were “attempting to stifle open discussion about matters of public importance: the conduct, platforms, and beliefs of those who represent the citizens of our state in election related matters.”

If Bridgegate could reasonably be described as “terrorism” (read the law) and some people (people like the former head of the school district in Fort Lee) have made the accusation that it was terrorism, then is appearing on NJ Globe the same as appearing on a “terrorist” website? Would it be okay to make the accusation that any political figure who ever appeared on NJ Globe is “linked” to a “terrorist” website? Heck, just writing “linked to Bridgegate” would probably be enough. Could you put that in a direct mail piece and feel good about?

Apparently, the Sussex County Democrats, their Chairman Dawne Rowe, and Josh Gottheimer all believe you could. The Editor of the NJ Globe himself appears to believe it would be acceptable. What’s with these people? Could it be the end of “innocent until proven guilty”? It’s a brave new world we’re heading into.

The hypocrisy of the establishment.

GOP Insiders: BLM Republicans rather than MLK Republicans?

By Rubashov

David Wildstein has been a Republican candidate, an elected Republican office holder, a Republican campaign manager, a Republican political consultant, and a high-ranking appointee in a Republican administration. His PoliticsNJ and PolitickerNJ political blogs supported the rising political fortunes of childhood friend Chris Christie. When Christie was United States Attorney, Wildstein’s blogs would often break stories before established media outlets had even got wind of one.

After Bridgegate, Wildstein joined with fellow Republican political consultant Ken Kurson to start New Jersey Globe. And when Kurson found himself in some trouble, it was a Republican President who granted him a pardon. By any measure then, David Wildstein is a Republican insider.

We thought about this when reading a column Wildstein posted on Friday, bidding farewell to New Jersey Globe reporter Nikita Biryukov. Wildstein wrote:

“Frankly, I can’t help but have pride in the careers of some of journalists who began their career working for me, including three of my first hires: MSNBC’s Steve Kornacki, who spent three years as a reporter at my old site, PoliticsNJ; and the Boston Globe’s James Pindell, who spent a few years at PoliticsNJ and is now the nation’s premier expert on New Hampshire presidential primaries; and POLITICO’s Matt Friedman, who was just developing his snark and perhaps had not yet owned a cat. Reporters I’ve helped train now work at the Philadelphia Inquirer, POLITICO in Washington, Roll Call, National Journal, Advance Publications, and other news organizations, and I wear that with a badge of honor.”

Wait… he’s a Republican, right? So, why didn’t anyone he mentored go on to work at Fox or Newsmax or National Review? Why isn’t conservative media represented at all?

Steve Kornacki and Matt Friedman are among the most knee-jerk corporate Democrats writing today. They, along with everyone Wildstein recruited, worship big government power and push a relentlessly Establishment line. They all became what Leftwing populist Jimmy Dore calls media “shitlibs”. All good little members of the MSM – mainstream media – and all dedicated to splitting the American people into marketable silos, creating the reality described by journalist Matt Taibbi in his book, Hate Inc.: Why Today’s Media Makes Us Despise One Another.

Just the other day, Nikita Biryukov was bashing Republican gubernatorial nominee Jack Ciattarelli for daring to question Governor Phil Murphy’s unfunded mandate LGBTQ+ curriculum that teaches anal sex to grade school children. As only a very young man could, Biryukov wrote: “Many LGBT issues are considered settled in New Jersey.” Considered by whom? The corporate, media, government, and academic establishment? The One Percent?

You may ask: But Wildstein is a Republican, right? A former GOP campaign manager, an insider in the Bergen County Republican Organization, a GOP mayor, a former consultant to the NJGOP, one of Governor Christie’s top appointees… How is it that he unerringly recruited and produced employees who hate traditional values, who hate conservatives, who hate the platform of the Republican Party? Why was this man rewarded for doing so? And why does he continue to be rewarded by the GOP?

People like David Wildstein are turned on by power. Very early on, they learn to mimic the attitudes and language of those who have power in the institutions they wish to be a part of. In the Republican Party in New Jersey, that means the corporate elite, the lobbyist community, and the Trenton establishment. These are not conservative people. They do not hold with traditional values or with any of the party platforms since Ronald Reagan captured the nomination in 1980.

They are exactly what you would expect corporate people to be… woke. They are exactly what you would expect people who lobby for woke corporations to be… paid to act woke. They mind their language and keep in fashion. And people who want to get ahead in the GOP do the same and act like they do.

That goes for party people – staff and such – all those appointees who keep the engine going. And that’s why it goes the way it does. That’s why, as Tucker Carlson recently observed: “And you wonder why you no longer recognize the party that you vote for.”

And it’s not just the Republicans in New Jersey. This is as much the case in Washington, DC…

The Google lobbyist and the GOP Leader.

Of course, not all Republican leaders are in lock step with the Establishment. Many actually listen to the members of their party and to the people who vote for them. Republican elected officials who listen to average party members and voters tend to do better at elections than those who simply try to mimic Establishment attitudes. Anyone who has closely watched the campaign of GOP gubernatorial nominee Jack Ciattarelli has been impressed by his ability to listen to what average voters have to say.

Did you know the Establishment actually runs finishing schools for wokeness that Republican operatives are enrolled in before going out and imparting their wisdom to candidates, party committees, and campaigns? They go by names like the Center for America Women and Politics or CAWP. It’s part of Rutgers’ Eagleton Institute of Politics and it claims to be bi-partisan – in that it trains both Democrats and Republicans. Yes, it may be bi-partisan, but it is 100 percent woke and in service to the modern fascism of identity politics. Catch this language from a statement CAWP put out last year:

“The Center for American Women and Politics was founded to examine and disrupt the gender bias built into America’s political institutions. But these institutions – formal and informal – were also constructed to privilege whiteness. To uphold that privilege, entire communities have been dehumanized, exploited, endangered, and disempowered. Our work has made us keenly aware that changing institutions built to uphold the power of white men is difficult, and it requires those who benefit most from these power dynamics to call for and actively participate in their disruption. It also requires changing who holds power within those institutions.

We denounce the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Nina Pop, Tony McDade, as well as the systemic racism, sexism, transphobia, and inequity that their deaths illuminate. We condemn the long history of police violence against Black Americans and the legal system's failure to respond. We state unequivocally our commitment to anti-racism and to our continued work to transform political institutions to make them more inclusive and responsive to the demands and experiences of all Americans.

…committing to anti-racism also means educating those who are privileged within racist systems to confront their own privilege, and to become both active and accountable in transforming these racist systems.”

No Republican should be a part of an organization that puts out racialist slop like this. As the party of Lincoln – the party that was formed to end slavery and the party that ensured civil rights for all – Republicans should follow the color-blind path of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. NOT the racist neo-fascism of BLM.

This is the kind of nonsense Republican operatives are being fed before they are handed the keys to run things. This is why there is a disconnect between party operatives and grassroots activists. It’s simple: They are NOT on the same page.

To be sure, the people who run CAWP are racialists. Their ideology is fascist rather than Marxist, because there is no mention of economic class.

In White-Collar Government: The Hidden Role of Class in Economic Policy Making, Duke University Professor Nick Carnes cites studies showing that while a majority of Americans work in blue-collar employment, only 2 percent of Congress were blue-collar workers before being elected and only 3 percent of State Legislators are employed as blue-collar workers. Carnes and others hold that this disparity reflects the economic decisions and priorities of legislative bodies in America. But in the happy-clappy rainbow fantasy world of the One Percenters who run CAWP, Oprah Winfrey is oppressed and the Appalachian family living in a shack are the oppressors. Based on their skin color. The Germans had a word for this.

Conservatives, traditional Republicans, those who believe the party is something more than a racket must demand and keep demanding a seat at the table. Understand that you are not going to be liked, get past it, and keep insisting on an accommodation. They want to keep you out. It is up to you to muscle your way in.

“It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so, and will follow it by suppressing opposition, subverting all education to seize early the minds of the young, and by killing, locking up, or driving underground all heretics.”

Robert A. Heinlein

Congressman Gottheimer tries to cancel journalist Matt Taibbi.

By Rubashov

Josh Gottheimer is equal parts bully and crybaby. Quick to apply labels, tropes, and nasty sobriquets but emotionally vulnerable to the same when applied to him – excruciatingly so.

His own employees accused Congressman Gottheimer of workplace bullying. In a Ryan Grim column – titled, “REP. JOSH GOTTHEIMER IS A REALLY, REALLY TERRIBLE BOSS, FORMER STAFFERS SAY” – published in The Intercept (May 22, 2019), former aides to Gottheimer “painted a portrait of a man who pits staffers against each other, screams easily, and throws pens with abandon.”

As for tropes, this is the guy who was slammed just last year on allegations that his campaign darkened the skin coloring of his Italian-American opponent in order to make him look like a Sicilian mobster, while using language like “Fraudster Frank” on direct mail hit pieces. Josh Gottheimer can certainly dish it out.

But he can’t stand for long on the receiving end before crying foul – and looking for a referee of some kind to wipe his nose and smother him in a protective hug.

This happened again on Friday of last week, when one of the best investigative journalists on earth – Matt Taibbi – wrote a column titled, “Congressional Democrats heroic fight to save the rich”, which was published in the National Post on April 28th. Taibbi made the argument that the campaign by Gottheimer and other members of Congress to repeal the SALT cap is for the benefit of wealthier taxpayers rather than poorer ones.

Matt Taibbi is an intellectually curious man of the Left. He had the gig at Rolling Stone magazine once occupied by the great Hunter S. Thompson. Taibbi’s writing can be just as good but is more balanced, always fairer, with an always clear perspective. There is no bullshit about Matt Taibbi. It falls as it falls.

Josh Gottheimer appears to hate journalists like Matt Taibbi. So, when Taibbi re-messaged Gottheimer’s star issue, the powerful Congressman went to destroy him by accusing Taibbi of anti-Semitism. Gottheimer focused on this paragraph from Taibbi’s column:

“Josh Gottheimer, Democrat of New Jersey, made an inspired plea recently. The Harvard man and Alpha Epsilon Pi brother is a member of the so-called ‘SALT caucus,’ a group of congressfolk threatening to hold up Joe Biden’s infrastructure bill if it doesn’t include a full repeal of a Donald Trump-imposed $10,000 cap on deductions of state and local taxes.

‘It is high time that Congress reinstates the state and local tax deduction, so we can get more dollars back into the pockets of so many struggling families,’ intoned Gottheimer, one of 32 members of the SALT caucus, which includes 8 Republicans.”

Ah yes, did we mention that bipartisanship was another of Josh Gottheimer’s star talking points? Bipartisan this, bipartisan that – in reality just a bunch of establishment insiders, regardless of party, scratching each other’s ass in the furtherance of permanent incumbency.

To smear Taibbi, Gottheimer turned to a group that profits off hate – the ADL or Anti-Defamation League. If there was no “hate” to piss and moan about, there would be no cause by which the ADL could pocket the $80 plus million they take in each year. Hate is a commodity. Hate sells. And there can never stop being hate. If that happened, it would need to be re-invented. It is worth billions to some people.

On top of that, it is partisan political. The ADL is so political, in fact, that other Jewish organizations have labeled it a “Democratic Party auxiliary”.

And so, the ADL’s Jonathan Greenblatt tweeted: “Mentioning a member of Congress was in a Jewish fraternity in college in an article about tax policy is wholly irrelevant and plays into classic anti-Semitic tropes about Jews and money. The National Post should edit this article ASAP.”

To which Matt Friedman, who writes for Politico and covers the New Jersey political scene, replied: “As someone of partial Semitic heritage, I had no idea that was a Jewish fraternity.”

So, Gottheimer turned to his old friend David Wildstein of the blog, New Jersey Globe. Yes, the same David Wildstein who was at the center of the scandal that ended the presidential ambitions of Governor Chris Christie – the self-styled “Mastermind of Bridgegate”. Wildstein obligingly wrote a hit piece on Friday, with the title: “Anti-Defamation League demands newspaper pull reference to Gottheimer’s Jewish fraternity. ADL leader says reference to congressman’s college fraternity ‘plays into classic anti-Semitic tropes about Jews and money’”.

Wildstein’s column notes: “Jason M. Shames, the CEO of the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey, echoed the ADL’s criticism.

‘Say what you want about the SALT cap or tax policy, but Taibbi’s unnecessary mention of Gottheimer’s membership in this article for the National Post only serves to perpetuate anti-Semitic stereotypes about Jews and money,’ Shames said.”

Warming to his hit job, Wildstein continued:

“Incidents of anti-Semitism are at a historic high nationally, with 295 recorded incidents in New Jersey last year, according to Alana Burman, the associate regional director of the ADL.

Burman said that New Jersey was the second highest in the nation in 2020.

The Rutgers University chapter of Gottheimer’s fraternity was vandalized earlier this month during a 24-hour Holocaust Remembrance Day reading.”

That headline alone accuses Matt Taibbi of the sin of anti-Semitism. But only if you discount the “classic anti-Semitic tropes about Jews and money” that David Wildstein has served up over the years. Beginning in 2018, David Wildstein has called Josh Gottheimer “the human fundraising machine”. Wait… a Jewish congressman being referred to as a “human fundraising machine”? You can’t get more tropey than that!

Of course, there is a difference. Josh Gottheimer likes that “classic anti-Semitic trope about Jews and money”. He doesn’t cry about that. Doesn’t mind it at all.

Of course, the real question is this: Did Matt Taibbi use the mention of a college fraternity to make a point about Josh Gottheimer’s religious affiliation, or did he do so to make a point about Gottheimer’s economic class affiliation?

Well, according to the United States Census Bureau, only 35 percent of Americans attend college. Pew has put together some interesting research on which religious groups have the greatest access to higher education. Here’s a hint – it isn’t Roman Catholics and Southern Baptists. Those thinking about playing the role of the oppressed should check it out.

Those who belong to fraternities are an even more select group. Just 2 percent of Americans have belonged to a fraternity or sorority. Journalist Cleo Chang wrote:

“Each year, 2 million university students prepare to enter the most prestigious enclave of what is already an exclusive set of American institutions. Think less along the lines of Harvard or Yale and more about the Greek letters that come to define them.

Selective colleges are merely the starting point for concentrated success. One only needs to browse the Greek life section of Cornell’s official website and see the slogan ‘The Power of 2%’ to recognize the perks that come with Ivy League admittance and Greek acceptance, especially when it comes to men.

As Cornell’s official website states, while only 2 percent of America’s population is involved in fraternities, 80 percent of Fortune 500 executives, 76 percent of U.S. senators and congressmen, 85 percent of Supreme Court justices, and all but two presidents since 1825 have been fraternity men, according to Cornell.”

So maybe, just maybe, Matt Taibbi wasn’t trying to make a point about Congressman Josh Gottheimer’s religion and all this pissing and moaning has just been an attempt to smear a good journalist for reporting the truth and messing with crybaby Josh’s message. In which case, the lot of you should be ashamed of yourselves.

"I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me."
Hunter S. Thompson

Gottheimer: Was Bridgegate an act of Terrorism?

By Rubashov

According to the Oxford Dictionary, “terrorism” is a noun meaning “the unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims.”

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) states:

“There is no single, universally accepted, definition of terrorism. Terrorism is defined in the Code of Federal Regulations as ‘the unlawful use of force and violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives’ (28 C.F.R. Section 0.85).”

The FBI goes on to state: “A terrorist incident is a violent act or an act dangerous to human life, in violation of the criminal laws of the United States, or of any state, to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives."

Well, let’s see…

Was closing the George Washington Bridge, with the help of men with guns (albeit sworn officers), trapping thousands in traffic – including “the children of Buono voters” on school buses “an act dangerous to human life”?

Fort Lee officials certainly thought so. They called it a threat to public safety. Emergency services concurred. So did the Port Authority.

The Executive Director of the Port Authority at the time believed that the closure “violated federal and state laws”.

We learned from the related proceedings in federal court – in particular from the allocutions in those proceedings – that the closure was an attempt to intimidate, to coerce, the government of Fort Lee and a segment of the civilian population.

And, for our final question: Did the closing of the George Washington Bridge in what became known as Bridgegate have a political objective?

Check the boxes. Then you decide. Was it an act of terrorism?

Dr. Paul Saxton, Superintendent of Ft. Lee’s schools, called Bridgegate a “plot”, an “act of terrorism”, and a “premeditated action designed and targeted toward the kids.” Is he right?

Of course, Trenton doesn’t think so. Governor Murphy doesn’t think so. The guy he picked to run the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security & Preparedness (NJOHSP) doesn’t think so. Congressman Josh Gottheimer doesn’t think so. Even Patrick Murray doesn’t think so. They who talk so much about “political extremism” and “domestic terrorism” don’t have much to say on those subjects as they apply to Bridgegate.

That’s because those involved were all insiders. Fellow members of the Trenton political class. And you don’t call fellow members names like “terrorist” or suggest that what they did was an act of political “extremism”. Instead, you appear on their radio show and wish them the best.

See… these people are “goodfellas”. They’ve been vetted by Trenton, somebody vouched for them as a “goodfella”. Nobody is ever horrified at what they do. Excuses are made for it. They get a pass.

But if you are not “of Trenton” – not a “goodfella” – you are subject to very different handling. For example, Congressman Gottheimer has accused his own constituents – average citizens – of “domestic terrorism”. He is a rich insider and they supported his opponent.

Then his local party operatives call their job to have them fired. Unlike in Bridgegate, no charges will ever be filed, because the accusation is based on an opinion. It isn’t a real crime. There will be no trial at which the accused might make a defense and clear their name. Those options will not be afforded them. It’s a form of political intimidation, of retribution – an aspect of what’s become known as “cancel culture”. We wonder, does Patrick Murray approve of this kind of “due process”?

Gottheimer is currently undertaking an experiment in which he is attempting to “cancel” an entire county within his own district, by accusing it of extremism and domestic terrorism. He’s brought in the Murphy administration to talk about this (curiously enough, at a time when they are refusing to talk about those 8,000 people they allowed to die in nursing and veterans’ homes).

They didn’t vote for him you see. It was his worst showing – and the reason couldn’t be the COVID relief funding formula he voted for that entirely cut the county out and all its municipalities. No, says Josh, it must be something else. The sin must be with them. They must be extremists. For why else would they not love me?

And for “evidence”, Gottheimer and Murray and Murphy and his NJOHSP all point to the same private organizations whose incomes depend on the public believing some problem is a “crisis” that needs their money right away to address it. Two unelected, secretive, unaccountable, undemocratic private organizations with a sales force who earn in excess of six figures: The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).

Of course, these private organizations have a natural tendency to magnify a problem to increase the income from that problem. And so, we have the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) which last year crushed their 2017 intake of $74.2 million and are looking to do even better this year. They recently released a report claiming that New Jersey went from “12 incidents of reported hate propaganda in 2017 to 323 incidents in 2020.”

What is “hate propaganda”?

Is it like shutting down the George Washington Bridge?

No. According to Gannett’s Hannan Adely it is “flyers, banners and leaflets promoting racism, anti-Semitism and white power.” Hey guys, that is called reading material for idiots – but under the Bill of Rights, it is perfectly legal. You can buy Adolf Hitler’s rantings on Amazon.

We don’t burn books in this country. Even stupid books. Even “flyers, banners and leaflets”. Because we each get to make up our own minds about what is and isn’t stupid. That is the American way. Here to explain this very American concept – one that, once upon a time, united both Left and Right and in-between – is the great Ira Glasser, Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) from 1978 to 2001…

And by the way…
 
Is it any wonder that “incidents” of “hate” and “racism” and “white supremacism” are on the rise when nearly everything today is an “incident” of “hate” and “racism” and “white supremacism”? 
 
Over the weekend, the Star-Ledger published an opinion piece by Patrick Murray, the Director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute.  It was titled “Hate is thriving in New Jersey”, and featured a Confederate flag.  Murray cites the ADL report and claims “the recent growth of hate activity in New Jersey has been stunning.”
 
New Jersey is one of the most woke places in America – and when you expand the definition of “hate” you are going to get more of it.  Look, a year ago Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, was a liberal champion.  Today she is a “hater” and to defend her “crime” of “hate” – flying a Confederate flag as part of a display of flags – is “hate” speech. 
 
A school in San Francisco named for her (Feinstein served as Mayor) had to change its name.  Heck, they are pulling down statues of Abraham Lincoln, the Great Emancipator, apparently because he too was a “hater”.
 
Groups like the ADL and the Southern Poverty Law Center ($471 million, 2018) are manufacturing “hate” at an unprecedented level by redefining what it is.  Why?  Because there is BIG MONEY in hate. 
 
And that goes for the taxpayer funded budgets of agencies like the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security & Preparedness too.  Nothing exists without a reason and if it wants its budget to grow – that reason is going to have to grow… or at least appear to grow.     
 
Ponder this for a moment.
 
Across the United States, the ADL reported 5,125 cases of hateful messages last year, nearly double the 2,724 cases reported in 2019.  And to “combat” this in New Jersey, the Office of Homeland Security & Preparedness (NJOHSP) wants a bigger cut of the state budget – more taxpayer money.
 
5,125 hateful messages.
 
The United States Justice Department, Bureau of Justice Statistics, claims “the self-reported incidence of rape or sexual assault more than doubled from 1.4 victimizations per 1,000 persons age 12 or older in 2017 to 2.7 in 2018.”  It goes on: “Based on data from the survey, it is estimated that 734,630 people were raped (threatened, attempted, or completed) in the United States in 2018.”
 
734,630 rapes.
 
And yet, the Defund the Police movement has gutted the ability of some police forces to cope with this very real threat.  A real crime.  Not “hateful messages” or “flyers” – RAPE.   
 
Hey, but this is New Jersey.  Just like with Bridgegate, when someone is raped in New Jersey – and it involves an insider, a “goodfella” – everybody looks the other way.  It happens all too often, and the prosecutors, the political class, the insiders, the “goodfellas” all want to ignore it and get past it.  Just ask Katie Brennan.
 
Shame on our leaders for having their priorities so screwed up.
 

“Civil liberties victories never stay won, but must be fought for over and over again.”

Ira Glasser

State Dems scrap direct attack, use Politico’s Friedman to attack Christian religion.

Sources from within the Democrat Party in Trenton now say there will not be a “direct attack” on traditional Christian religions (and, by implication, traditional Judaism and Islamic traditions as well).  We are informed that the Democrats had planned to issue a press release yesterday, which would have attacked the Baptist pastor who has been asked to review the Sussex County GOP’s Twitter page to remove objectionable content, in keeping with the party’s platform and its traditional values. 

Two sources within the Democrat Party informed us that this attack would focus on the fact that the Baptist faith in particular (and traditionalist Christianity, Judaism, and Islam in general) is not “pro-LGBTQ+ enough” to satisfy the Democrat Party and the media, as represented by Politico’s Matt Friedman.  We all remember Friedman as the “hatchet man” for the “mastermind of Bridgegate” when said “mastermind” ran the blog PoliticsNJ.

Apparently, Friedman got his assignment this morning.  Generally, his handler is Jay Lassiter, a pro-LGBTQ+ Democrat operative from South Jersey.  We understand that Friedman is pursuing his assignment as we write.  This will be interesting, so stay tuned…

Selling out: Media's decline from Al Doblin to Jonathan Salant

New Jersey's establishment media -- its editors and reporters -- are in a freefall and have lost their sense of decency.  Job security is such that they have all become free agents, writing articles to please prospective employers. 

So we have Star-Ledger Editor Tom Moran performing a masochistic panegyric to please Democrat machine boss George Norcross.  Over at the Bergen Record, that newspaper's editor was turning out pro-Democrat columns non-stop while engaging in backdoor negotiations with Senate President Steve Sweeney's office.  A few years ago, boss Norcross tried to buy the Philadelphia Inquirer, now his machine is getting all the talent on the cheap.

The NJGOP's answer to this was predictably self-defeating.  It's idea of a GOP counterbalance to the growing Democrat hegemony over media was to bring back Bridgegate mastermind David "Wally Edge" Wildstein, possibly the only person more hated in New Jersey than his old boss, Chris Christie.  To fund Wildstein's operation they found former Jamestown alumnus Ken Kurson.  It was Kurson who ran such memorable efforts as incumbent Marcia Karrow's loss to Mike Doherty in 2009 and incumbent Jeff Parrott's loss to Parker Space in 2010.  But losing has never been a bar to advancement in the NJGOP.  In fact, it generally is an asset.

Yep, Kurson has been accused of sexual harassment by writer and cancer-survivor Deborah Copaken.  This comes at a time when Kurson's old firm is trying to convince the women of New Jersey that the NJGOP's choice for U.S. Senate -- Bob Hugin -- is a new kind of man, when it comes to women (whatever that is supposed to mean).  You can read about what Kurson gets up to here: 

https://www.mediaite.com/online/author-deborah-copaken-accuses-ex-observer-editor-ken-kurson-of-sexual-harassment-in-powerful-op-ed/

It was Wildstein who outted Al Doblin as the ethical-free-zone he is.  Doblin plainly hated the kind of attention he's bestowed on others his entire working life.  In a series of whines, he complained to Wildstein:

“I am the editorial page editor.  If someone makes me an offer, I have the right to consider it,” Doblin explained.

Doblin called a request for information regarding his employment search “truly horrific.”

“This is unfair.  Truly unfair,” he said.

But Doblin is not the worst of the bunch.  That "honor" must surely go to Jonathan "short-ass" Salant, a reporter worthy of his own Duranty Prize for consistent blindness to all but the party-line.  In case you've forgotten Walter "the hand" Duranty.  He's the assbandit who denied that Stalin was starving to death millions of human beings in the Ukraine and elsewhere in what was once called the "Soviet Union".  He even won a Pulitzer Prize for it. 

Duranty wrote for the New York Times, which later was forced to admit that his articles denying the famine constituted "some of the worst reporting to appear in this newspaper."  There have been calls to revoke his Pulitzer, but you know how tough it is to get elitist filth to admit they made a mistake.  So Duranty's award -- for 1930's era Fake News -- still stands.  And so much for journalism.

Salant's latest dry-humping of the news came a few weeks back, when he attempted to write an update of the various congressional races in New Jersey. 

He started off by being childishly giddy about Republican Leonard Lance's district having gone for Hillary Clinton in 2016, while failing to mention that Democrat Josh Gottheimer's had done the same for Trump that year.

Salant never fails to describe a Republican donor negatively, offering bits of color, always dark.  On the other hand, old short-ass describes such creatures as George Soros in this light:  "Malinowski (received a donation of) $5,400 from investor George Soros, a major Democratic donor."

Investor?  A major Democratic donor??  How about convicted financial scammer who liberal economists have criticized for his callous manipulations of currency? 

Perhaps Salant is displaying his talents for the consideration of one of the many Soros media organs?  That seems to be the way these days.

In writing about the fifth district, Jonathan Salant somehow missed the fact that a third Republican, Jason Sarnosky, had dropped out of the race weeks before.  He wrote about him as if he were still campaigning. 

He went on to cover the race in southern New Jersey's first district.  And once again, Salant behaved like he was on a job interview.  He never once mentioned the machine that bears the Congressman's name and wrote as if it didn't exist.

Not to place Donald Norcross in the context of the machine of which he is a part is misleading and unethical.  It promotes bad government by purposefully covering up the truth and it gives aid and comfort to one of the most authoritarian political machines in America.  Don't want to see it, Jonathan?  Well just try being an ordinary citizen when the machine decides it wants to use eminent domain to take your property in order to give it to one of their corporate friends.  That's what you are shilling for.

The southern region of New Jersey is an example of a dominant-party system or one-party dominant system of government.  According to South African political scientist Raymond Suttner, such a system occurs when there is "a category of parties/political organizations that have successively won election victories and whose future defeat cannot be envisaged or is unlikely for the foreseeable future".  It is a de facto one-party system, often devolving into a de jure one-party system, a semi-democracy. Usually, the dominant party has a tendency towards "suppressing freedom of expression and manipulating the press in favor of the ruling party." 

Well, short-ass, that is who you are shilling for.  That is who you are now.  All those romantic post-Watergate notions about doing right... well you're over that, right?  Expensive restaurants and sexy vacations got the better of you, didn't they?

Sell-out.

Are NJ Republicans heading for civil war?

By Rubashov

Remember the great culling of 2007?  That's when a bunch of young up and comers like future Bridgegate figure Bill Baroni, future LGBT lobbyist Tom Wilson, and a number of individuals associated with the Chris Christie project decided that some incumbent legislators had been there too long.  They were members of the Great Generation, had fought our nation's wars, and had rebuilt our party after the Watergate debacle.  But the youngsters said they were old, their time was up.

And so they set upon them and worked from within and without to push them, unceremoniously, from office.  Guys like Senator Bob Littell resisted such rude attentions, so they circulated rumors about his health and attacked him on blogs like the old PoliticsNJ.  In fact, the genesis of this blog can be traced from those efforts to defend that old gentleman. 

It is a decade later, and another culling is afoot.  Only this time, it is being led by the fag end of a depleted and demoralized party who strangely believe that the road to salvation is to become as close to the Democrats as possible on issues like abortion, LGBT, the Second Amendment, climate change (or global warming or whatever they are calling it this week), crime, Abbott Districts, COAH, and pretty much everything except a few balance sheet issues and the hobby-horses of this lobby group or that.

The voices in favor of this culling are not just limited to the metro-sexual wing of the Young Republicans.  Younger party leaders, some quite powerful, will assure you in all seriousness that the future of the Republican Party is about identities instead of ideas.  They earnestly believe that we must compete with the Democrats in having our very own LGBT or Muslim contingent.  Some will insist that only a set of breasts and a fashionable haircut will win the day.

As with any culture brought up on watery advertising, they eschew data and have developed myths and mythological figures.  Chief among these is the "soft Republican."  They will tell you that we must ignore all those old-timers who still judge people by their ideas and conduct, instead of their identity or surface appearance.  "Soft Republicans" (limp dicks?) is where it's at.  These softies -- in both mind and groin -- constitute a great untapped vein of young voters.  "They are the future!"  Or so we are endless told.

So here is a wake-up call for the metros who seem to run the party these days.  The data is in, and you are going to have to wait awhile for that coming day of the 57 genders.  The old f*cks aren't dying off quick enough and they'll dominate the party until some of you are well into middle age.

Nearly half a million registered Republicans, 43 percent of all Republicans in New Jersey, are aged 60 or older.  Another 31 percent are middle aged -- 45 to 59.  10 percent are 35 to 44.  9 percent are 25 to 34.  With just 6 percent 18 to 24.  The Democrats are not so much a young party as a middle aged one, with their two youngest groups coming in at just 8 and 13 percent, respectively.  37 percent of their voters are aged 60 or older.

The truth is that young people really don't like political parties.  They don't trust them.  So if you really want to appeal to the young -- quit party politics and organize a group around an issue that matters, like human trafficking and the sexual exploitation of children.

Political party organizations are about as exciting as newspapers and about as relevant.  Except for the BCRO, whose website currently features a couple in a rather explicit situation.  But old people like them -- political parties and newspapers, that is -- and so for the next few more years we will have them.  But nothing is following.  There will be no GOP metro-sexual new day.  There will be something else, but it won't be a party as we know it today.

Now don't all you metros go running to the lavatories at once.  Your sperm counts weren't that much to begin with.  Have a good cry on your best mate's shoulder and buck up.  Because the old f*cks are still here... and so you still have a party.  But you are going to have to cater to them.  Or lose even more than you lose now.

Beware of know-it-alls from the House of Wally Edge

There is a lot of major league handjobbery going on these days from the former occupants of the House of Wally Edge.  You know the guys (no gals, just guys).  They were all trained by that know-it-all of know-it-alls, David "Mr. Bridgegate" Wildstein (aka Wally Edge). 

Whether they occupied positions at PoliticsNJ, or PolitickerNJ, or one of its state affiliates, these people all learned at the hand of Wally and they have all absorbed much of his arrogance.  Like Wally, his acolytes are political "players" disguised as journalists.  They take sides and then try to deliver winners and losers. 

This hubris has caused some to over-reach and to look ridiculous in even bigger settings.  Here is one of the more famous exercises in arrogant over-reach by a former inmate at the House of Wally Edge:

Get that?  Hillary Clinton in a landslide.