Is new Gottheimer campaign commercial a “hate crime”?

By Rubashov

Whenever he gets caught in some hypocrisy or in an outright lie, Congressman Josh Gottheimer tries to deflect criticism from average folks by accusing them of something terrible. It’s a trick Gottheimer picked-up from his former boss, Bill Clinton, who trashed the reputations of the women he forced himself upon.

Gottheimer calls his Right-of-Center critics “extremists” and accuses his Left-of-Center critics of “anti-Semitism”. It seems he has a pejorative for everyone.

Think back to January of this year, when he tried to pin the “anti-Semitism” label on the Left-of-Center Working Families Party. The New Jersey Globe reported it:

Assembly Speaker Pro-Tempore Gordon Johnson has asked the Bergen County Prosecutor to investigate a September 2021 incident where a protestor allegedly screamed “Jew” at Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-Wyckoff) as a possible hate crime.

In a speech at Rutgers University last month, Gottheimer claimed that a member of the Working Families Party hurled the anti-Semitic slur at him at a Glen Rock event with U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. Raimundo is backing up Gottheimer’s allegation.

Working Families state director Sue Altman said last month that her group reviewed footage from the protest and interviewed several participants.

“To be absolutely clear, if that ever happened at a WFP event, the person would have been rebuked instantly and asked to leave,” Altman said. “However, we do not believe Gottheimer’s explosive allegation ever occurred.”

Johnson wants the organization to dig deeper.

Well, the Times of Israel published a piece that dug so deep it got to the bottom of this so-called “hate crime”. It is written by Dr. Russell Miller, a research psychologist at the Graduate Center, City University of New York and adjunct assistant professor of Children and Youth Studies at Brooklyn College.

Dr. Miller is also a journalist who has published in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Rolling Stone, New York, Ha'aretz, and Corriere della Sera. Dr. Miller’s column is titled: “I called Josh Gottheimer a Jew – it wasn’t a slur.” Dr. Miller’s column begins:

A couple of weeks ago, David-Seth Kirshner, the rabbi of Temple Emanu-El, in Closter, New Jersey published a commentary here on the indisputable truth that even among the most well-meaning, compassionate, and socially engaged, there can be people who hate. His impetus? The charge by US Congressman. Josh Gottheimer that a progressive adversary, the Working Families Party, is sheltering an antisemite.

The piece rehashed Rep. Gottheimer’s claim that at a rally in September in support of “Build Back Better,” President Biden’s social services bill, a WFP member attacked the “reputable and respected Congressman” with the Jew-hating epithet “Jew.”

There’s only one problem. The claim is patently false – and Gottheimer almost certainly has to know that. Anyone following this phony blood libel would know it’s false. And how am I so certain it’s false? I’m the “attacker.”

The first time Gottheimer mentioned the supposed antisemitic attack was on December 13 at Rutgers University, three months after the fact. Since then, he’s speechified, fundraised and called in chits around the WFP’s alleged antisemitism. The US Secretary of Commerce signed on. A New Jersey state senator demanded a hate-crime investigation. The ADL announced, “we take him at his word.” Rabbi Kirshner came forward as character witness.

Meanwhile, the WFP scoured its ranks to find the offender. I was late to hear of this; I’m not a member. But as soon as I did, I contacted a reporter and “confessed” on a national podcast. That was four days before Rabbi Kirshner’s indictment of the WFP.

As I told that reporter, like Josh Gottheimer, I’m a Democrat and, as my grandmother would say, oich a yid – also a Jew. Gottheimer has to have known this all along. Rabbi Kirshner may not have, because the Congressman conveniently neglects to report the full sentence I spoke last September — at precisely the place and time he’s vouched the slur was slung. The moment was heated, so my reconstruction of the syntax may be off, but it was something like, “Josh, as a Jew, it’s a shanda that you’re blocking Build Back Better.”

That’s right, “a shanda,” as generations of Ashkenazic Jews have cried in Yiddish: A disgrace. That’s not Jew hating. That’s Jewish shaming. That was one Jew addressing another in a time-honored voice.

If Gottheimer heard “Jew,” he would have almost certainly heard “shanda.” If he heard “shanda,” he would have certainly known his attacker was anything but antisemitic.

Now, the record does show Gottheimer has memory issues. At Rutgers, he claimed several of us were jeering “Jew!” Subsequently, he revised his recollection to one. As a research psychologist, I can understand how, hit where it hurts, his mind might have reframed the scene. I can only assume my podcast appearance jogged his memory since his office has since refused comment. Meanwhile, it appears he’s buying Facebook ads to keep Rabbi Kirshner’s condemnation afloat.

As for the rabbi, in the worrisome week after Colleyville, he might well have missed my interview and subsequent coverage in the Jewish press. Odds are Gottheimer’s team, busy fibbing on Facebook, failed to brief him on my clarification, which surely would have brought him relief.

But by the time his piece went public, no informed observer could believe the Working Families Party, or even a stray antisemite, was the source of the telltale monosyllable.

You can access the entire column at the Times of Israel:

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/i-called-josh-gottheimer-a-jew-it-wasnt-a-slur/

Note how Gottheimer’s team appears to willfully misrepresent what was actually said in an effort to label someone “anti-Semitic”. As we will see, it works the same when Gottheimer is trying to label someone an “extremist”.

Gottheimer calls his Right-of-Center critics “extremists” and accuses his Left-of-Center critics of “anti-Semitism”. It seems he has a pejorative for everyone.

In Gottheimer’s latest campaign commercial, his team tries to label Frank Pallotta an "extremist" by using a quote he made in August of 2020 about the Oath Keepers group and then applying it to the actions of that group on January 6, 2021. Using this same tactic, would it be okay to apply the positive things many elected officials said about Democrat consutant Sean Caddle, as if is was commentary on him after he admitted to having someone murdered? Using the Gottheimer rule, it would be okay. So, maybe they will.

The Gottheimer team then claimed that GOP challenger Frank Pallotta used the term “manslaughter” to describe all abortion – when, in fact, Pallotta was describing the late-term, day-of-birth abortion laws supported by Gottheimer and signed into law in New Jersey by Governor Phil Murphy. Here is the exact statement, made by Pallotta, that the Gottheimer team used for their commercial:

“Advances in modern medical science expanded fetal viability even as politicians like Josh Gottheimer ignored science and pushed for laws that went in the opposite direction and essentially legalized manslaughter.

Roe v. Wade was founded on language that was nowhere in the Constitution, and it featured the usurpation of the elected legislatures' role in determining public policy by the unelected judiciary. We now have the opportunity for real bipartisan reform on the laws that regulate abortion. An opportunity to follow medical science in drafting those reforms.

Instead of following medical science, Congressman Gottheimer and his allies have pursued a wholly ideological agenda of more and more extreme abortion laws - including partial-birth abortion and abortion for any reason up until the moment of birth.”

Of course, Gottheimer and his campaign team are lying because they know that “partial-birth abortion and abortion for any reason up until the moment of birth” are unpopular and do not poll very well.

But the real shocker in the commercial is the Gottheimer team’s use of anti-Italian stereotypes in an attempt to conjure up the image of a Mafia crime figure. Darkening Pallotta’s image and using a photograph in which he is wearing dark glasses? We would object just as sternly if somebody used a photograph of a Jewish candidate wearing a yarmulke.

Remember how the state’s Democrats complained and hurled accusations of “hate” when then congressional challenger Andy Kim was stereotyped using the image of fish and a font associated with Asian restaurants? Would these Democrats have us believe that Italian-Americans are less worthy of their support?

So, is this commercial – paid for by Josh Gottheimer’s campaign and approved by him – a "hate crime"? Or is it simply a matter of poor judgment and poor taste?

If misogyny is “art” when you sing it, is the Horst Wessel song “art” too?

By Rubashov

There is an interesting debate going on in Sussex County's race for County Commissioner. It has to do with the definition of “art” and how acceptable the use of “misogynistic” or “bigoted” language can become when defined as “art”.

Everything seems to start with school boards these days and so does this story. It starts with a female school board member who took issue with the word “bitch” being used in a private conversation that she was part of. She took to social media to denounce the use of the word and to call for the person who used the word – like her, an elected official – to resign from office immediately.

A few days later, it was pointed out to this elected school board member that a candidate she was supporting – a Democrat candidate for Sussex County Commissioner – had used the word as well. The candidate styles himself a “rap artist” and a collection of videos was uncovered – all posted by the candidate – with a great many lyrics that some might find objectionable.

A different school board member posted some of these lyrics and called them objectionable. Here is just one example among many:

Listen up I told ya, I'm a killer I'm a soldier.
And the lady of your dreams,
I got her chilling on my sofa.
And she came so hard,
Now the bitch is in a coma.

Lately I been feelin' so high,
If I ever come down I'm soaring.
Fell asleep in some pussy last night,
I woke up in some pussy this morning.
And even though it happens all the time,
It don't never get boring.
“It's raining, it's pouring,
Her old man was boring.

So she came to bed,
And she gave me head,
And she did the same in the morning.
Itty bitty waste but that ass obese.
Bougie lil' thing got her ass hole bleached.

Seeing that look on a hating nigga face.
I swear it don't never get boring.
Seeing some fine ass thotty backstage.
I swear it don't never get boring.
I'll intent squad got these shows all retarded.
I swear it don't never get boring.
And knowing god damn this is only getting started.
This is just the fuckin' warning.

So, the question was posed to the elected school board member who started the whole thing: If a single word, shared amongst friends of longstanding, is a capital offense – an offense over which someone should lose a career – what should be the punishment for the use of multiple words in multiple instances?

The response from the candidate was a single, self-applied, word: “Art”.

And the elected school member seems to agree with this assessment. Use whatever language about women you wish… so long as you sing it (or, in this case, “rap” it – rap being closer to spoken word than to song). It also helps immensely if you are a member of the right political party.

For our part, we would like to ask the county commissioner candidate what led him to use the line Now the bitch is in a coma? We assume this is meant metaphorically and that no actual harm came to the “bitch” in question.

And are phrases like I'm a killer and This is just the fuckin' warning to be perceived as threats? Is there some violent intent lurking there?

Also, we would like to hear from this man (who hopes to be an elected official with the title “honorable” something or other) about the artistic value of such lines as these:

Is Itty bitty waste but that ass obese a reference to weight shaming?

What is Bougie lil' thing got her ass hole bleached meant to convey?

If this is “art” – as opposed to a jumble of words put to a tune – then what is the meaning behind it? We are happy to give the maestro the time he needs to explain and to educate us about such artistic phrases as she came so hard and she gave me head.

Just what is meant by all retarded and fine ass thotty? What is the artistic merit in the phrase, Seeing that look on a hating nigga face?

By the way, with all the allegations and accusations of racism going around, does the candidate really believe that using words like “nigga” is helpful? Or does he agree with those who argue that the use of such words, in lyrics meant to be repeated, perpetuates the use of such words and the sentiments they embody? We would like to know his mind on this. Perhaps the elected school board member who started this can provide her perspective too?

There are a great many words put to music that some – many – would hold are not “art”. Take the Horst Wessel song for example. It was the “anthem” of the National Socialist Party in Germany. It was very popular and repeated often. But was it “art” just because it was put to music? Again, we would be interested in the thoughts of our candidate and that elected school board member.

For our part, we look on all of this as protected speech. If someone wants to piss on women in his lyrics, that is his business. It tells us more about who he is and does no real harm to women. In fact, it could be considered a warning label and as such a helpful aid to those women contemplating his considerable charms. Of course, he might argue that women like being treated that way, but that is a debate for another day.

People like our elected school board member – the one who showed no regard for private protected speech and who wished to punish it with extremity – should understand that hypocrisy is a very ugly thing. And that her hypocrisy, so partisan and so punitive, is especially ugly.

We leave you with a parody of the Horst Wessel song – the work of the great Bertolt Brecht – translated into Italian by Gino Negri and performed by Milva as part of her Libertà album, released to mark the twentieth anniversary of the end of the Second World War. In our humble opinion, this just might be art. Enjoy.

“Hypocrisy is the vaseline of political intercourse.”

Billy Connolly

New Jersey Law Enforcement News blasts Sweeney

Yesterday, the leading figures of New Jersey’s legislative, governmental, legal, judicial, and political establishment (aka Trenton “insiders”) gathered together at a press conference to decry the state’s criminal justice system. NJ.com’s Blake Nelson did some great straight-forward reporting on this, with an assist from fellow journalist Brent Johnson:

Gov. Phil Murphy and leaders of the state Legislature said they’re planning to act swiftly on new recommendations to overhaul how people are sentenced in New Jersey, where prisons have had the worst racial disparity in the nation.

Murphy said during a news conference in Trenton on Thursday that he supports calls to eliminate mandatory minimum sentences for non-violent drug and property crime and to speed up when people convicted of second-degree robbery or burglary are eligible for parole in the Garden State.

The recommendations were detailed in a new report by the New Jersey Criminal Sentencing and Disposition Commission.

Some of the changes, if adopted, could apply retroactively, although the Democratic governor emphasized that nobody was guaranteed release.
Murphy called the fact that black residents are incarcerated at far higher rates than whites “galling,” and he said the reforms would ensure that the criminal justice system works "for all communities.”

… State Senate President Stephen Sweeney said the changes were “long past due.”

“We’re destroying people," Sweeney, D-Gloucester, said. "People that made mistakes. They’re not criminals. But we turn them into criminals if we keep them in jail for a long period of time.”

Deborah Poritz, a former chief justice of the state Supreme Court and the leader of the commission, said there was “overwhelming consensus” behind the proposals.

The hypocrisy here is rich.

If this was Pennsylvania – a state where the voters ELECT every judge and every prosecutor – there might be some cause for Establishment types gathering to point the finger at a system that they have only a partial hand in creating. But this is New Jersey, where EVERY facet of the criminal justice system is ENTIRELY controlled by this same Establishment. EVERY judge is a political appointment. EVERY prosecutor is a political appointment. The state Attorney General is a POLITICAL APPOINTMENT.

Trenton insider Deborah Poritz, who presented the recommendations, has worked in state government since 1981. Poritz was the APPOINTED state Attorney General from 1994 to 1996. Then she became the APPOINTED Chief Justice of the state Supreme Court from 1996 to 2006. She is critiquing the very system she played a huge role in creating!

Is it the sentencing… or the laws? New Jersey regulates or criminalizes some new behavior nearly every week. Even now, the Legislature is hard at work trying to criminalize menthol cigarettes. In his famous article on the subject, conservative columnist George Will argued that "overcriminalization" was responsible for the death of Eric Garner, a sidewalk merchant who was killed in a confrontation with police trying to crack down on sales tax scofflaws.

Will raises the question of how many new laws are created by state legislatures and by Congress in the rush to be seen to be "doing something". Will's brilliant column is a must read for legislators thinking about proposing their next round of ideas that will end up being enforced by men with guns. New Jersey has too many laws, too many restrictions, too many regulations. It suffers under a New Deal Era constitution that idealized the kind of authoritarian central-control necessary to fight a world war, but stifling in normal times. And to top it all off, it has the least democratic Legislature in America.

Perhaps those Establishment types should read a little before opening their mouths. We recommend Douglas Husak’s Overcriminalization: The Limits of the Criminal Law or Harvey Silverglate’s Three Felonies a Day. What we do know is this: Whenever the Legislature makes a law that requires blue-collar law enforcement officers to enforce it, when something inevitably goes wrong, you can always count on the white-collar Establishment to blame the cops who they sent to enforce the law. It’s a class thing.

To feign outrage over something created from the top down – as though you and your fellow Trenton insiders were innocent bystanders – is the height of hypocrisy. It is play-acting. The New Jersey Law Enforcement News summed up the politics behind the Establishment’s performance art…

New Jersey Law Enforcement News
“We’re destroying people," Sweeney, D-Gloucester, said. "People that made mistakes. They’re not criminals. But we turn them into criminals if we keep them in jail for a long period of time.”

WTF is Sweeney talking about? If you're in prison, you are in fact a "criminal." You committed a crime, you were prosecuted, sentenced and incarcerated. 100% leftist drivel here. The leftists believe you, the LEO are the criminal, the law abiding citizen is the "criminal," working people who want to enjoy the prosperity they've earned are the "criminals" To them capitalism is the crime, and "criminals" are merely political prisoners and victims of the "system." This is an evil philosophy. If you support, or vote for Murphy or any Democrat, in my opinion you are voting for self-destruction.
- NJLEN

HATE: Left moves on from hunting people on social media to movies about killing them.

If you are someone like Jerry Scanlan, the Sussex County GOP Chairman, you already know what the movie “The Hunt” is all about.  After Sussex County legislators demanded that the state Attorney General come to Sussex County to explain to county taxpayers why their Sheriff was being asked to comply with the Murphy administration’s illegal Sanctuary scheme, the state Democrat Party assigned a local Democrat the task of stalking Scanlan’s social media, to find something to kill his political career.

As we know from the testimony of several Democrat insiders, the Murphy administration was desperate to change the topic from its illegal Sanctuary scheme to something else.  So Scanlan was stalked by Democrats who soon found that he had been sloppy in monitoring the content of a handful of MAGA re-tweets.  After hunting for something to be offended about, the stalkers found it, promptly exclaimed that they had been “offended” and then demanded that Scanlan be fired for the offense of “Free Speech”.

The Democrats appear to forget that here – in America – in this country, we have something called the Bill of Rights.  The same Bill of Rights that allows Democrats to do some of their favorite things… like burn the American flag, or wipe their feet on it, or disrespect Disabled American Veterans (something the Left has been up to since the end of the Vietnam War), or paint a portrait of the Virgin Mother using feces, or place a Christian cross in a vat of urine… The same Bill of Rights allows someone to re-tweet something that is disrespectful of Islam or of Left wing politicians or of Caucasian politicians who claim to be “of color”. 

And even though Scanlan said that the controversial re-tweets were not intentional, that they were mistakenly re-tweeted as part of long Twitter “trains”, and that he apologized for doing it… the stalkers are on the hunt and they want their trophy.  Rather like the new movie the Left is promoting…

Comcast’s board of directors is stone silent amid widespread controversy over the media conglomerate’s “The Hunt” movie that has ruffled feathers for reportedly depicting humans hunting people with different political views for sport as the country mourns a pair of mass shootings.

NBC’s Universal Pictures falls under the Comcast cooperate umbrella, along with liberal news network MSNBC.

A Deadline report confirming the screenplay had been picked for production described the movie as “politically charged,” and The Hollywood Reporter sets up the battle as between “elite liberals” hunting “MAGA types.”

The hypocrisy of some Democrats has jumped the bounds of decency. 

The Murphy administration places gag orders against whistleblowers in a rape case, as it sends stalkers to hunt for something to be “offended” about, so it can have someone fired. 

Murphy’s media allies published the “offensive” material – that nobody would have even known existed if not for the media publishing it – and then claim that so many people have been “offended” that someone must be fired. 

Of course, the media was never “offended” when someone burned the American flag, or wiped their feet on it, or trashed Disabled American Veterans, or placed a Christian cross in a vat of urine.  They never asked that someone be fired for offending millions of Americans.  The media called those offenders “heroes”, even called some of their offensive material “art” and said it should be supported with tax dollars.

The Democrats have long supported flag burning.  Have long voted to spend taxpayer money to support “transgressive” art – so long as it transgressed against America and traditional values.  Now, when such transgression applies to Islam or far-left politicians… they call it “hate”.

Just hypocrites and corrupt politicians on the make.

Public shaming is bullying. Treat it the same.

The attempt by the powerful -- in the form of the corporate media and the dominant political class -- to force others to conform to their social values or face the loss of employment, economic security, and status is textbook bullying.  In the case of Assemblyman Parker Space, it is clear that the Republican holds tastes in music and is of a socio-economic class different from that of the dominant establishment class. 

Space is a country boy, a blue-collar farmer, a Trump supporter, and a believer in traditional values.  This makes him a target for establishment bullying.  As for the establishment's complaints that Space used a five-letter word in private conversation, this is simply a case of rank hypocrisy by individuals who use the same words and far-far-worse in private and in public, as evidenced below.

Again and again, we are told that in America, we are a nation of laws.  But this is being steadily eroded by corporate media and their puppets in the political class.  With the connivance of establishment political figures the corporate media are attempting to create an extra-judicial method of determining everything from whether or not you can hold a job or operate a business to serving in public office.

Under this informal, extra-judicial system, the accusers do not need to produce proof of their accusations, neither does the accused have the opportunity to refute the charges made in any legal setting.  In this bullying culture, corporate media whips up a frenzy of bullying -- mobbing -- in order to indict, convict, and punish someone. 

The accusers simply need to "feel" that someone has done something for reasons that they disapprove of.  Of course, these "feelings" must conform to the social norms of the establishment.  Conforming to establishment norms allows some people to believe that they have the right to fire someone from his or her job, or put someone out of business, or overturn the will of the voters.

This is a form of technological vigilantism -- a post-modern lynch mob -- with elements of religion to it.  For "apologize... apologize... apologize," read "repent... repent... repent."  And it was specifically warned against by prescient writers like George Orwell, with the neo-religious fervor whipped up in a shaming exercise very like the two-minutes hate he describes in his great work, 1984:

Think of it.  Political figures like Democrat Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg actually suggested that they could reach into another person's soul to determine evil there, adjudicate on said evil, and then demand that the will of the voters be overturned and said person be stripped of public office.  Mind you, the office-holder in question -- Assemblyman Parker Space -- is one of the most popular elected officials in New Jersey, as determined by the number of votes he receives, and gets more votes than any Republican legislator in the state.  So it does take a particular kind of philosophy, distinctly undemocratic, to suggest such a thing.

Also remember that no laws have been broken.  Unlike Senator Robert Menendez or Assemblyman Neil Cohen or Assemblyman Raj Mukerji or any one of a hundred New Jersey Democrats who actually broke the law, but who nevertheless enjoyed and enjoy the steadfast support of fellow Democrats, Assemblyman Parker Space did nothing even remotely illegal.  Fashion was breached perhaps -- the fashion held by some elites in a few, well-to-do enclaves -- but no laws were broken.  For the moment, our Bill of Rights and our First Amendment are holding firm -- but for how long?

If the media can use extra-judicial shaming to deny employment, ruin a business, or overturn an election, then they will have successfully undermined the Bill of Rights without recourse to a legal challenge before the United States Supreme Court.  It is a subversion of the law, and the imposition of punitive sanctions, through the use of fashion and media technology.  Through the use of it, America will no longer be a nation of laws, but rather a nation of fashions, manipulated by a corporate media controlled by the likes of Jared Kushner, the Newhouse brothers, and the corporate racists at Gannett News.  A bullying culture in which anyone who wishes to work, own a business, or hold office will have to conform to the establishment norms of the bullying class.