Free speech - Page 2 of 2 - THE RIDGEWOOD BLOG.

Posted on March 2, 2015 June 27, 2021

Readers feel the Mission of the “Civility Forums” is nothing more than Censorship and Control political speech of Village residents.

Readers feel the Mission of the “Civility Forums” is nothing more than Censorship and Control political speech of Village residents.

I have not been able to attend the the so-called Civility Forums initiated by Paul Aronsohn of Ridgewood. I am sure that most of us would like to have the volume lowered in public discourse. The irony is that much of the high volume public discourse is perpetrated by politicians, pundits, and the print and electronic news media. I agree with the blogger that it is elitist that elected officials, a lobbyist, and a newspaper publisher would use their position and power to imply that anonymous bloggers are in someway destructive to the democratic process. I should not have to remind the participants that history is riddled with people in power who have sought to control and re-write the public narrative to their satisfaction. Mr. Tedesco and Paul Aronsohn should read Robert’s Rules of Order to maintain orderly public meetings. Public opinion, free speech, and dissent are the domaine of all the people including those who choose to remain anonymous.

“Ed Koch once said ,”If you agree with me on 9 out of 12 issues, vote for me. If you agree with me on 12 out of 12 issues, see a psychiatrist.”

But not according to Stephen Borg, Publisher and President, North Jersey Media Group, who insisted that the whole problem is that since people have found their voice through social media they have come to so many different opinions civil discourse has fallen .Things were so much better when North Jersey Media had a monopoly on public discussion and could always dictate terms . Borg implied that elites like himself we the only ones qualified to make those decisions. Borg pointed out how this blog and its anonymous posters are the greatest enemy to not only American Democracy but to the dominance of North Jersey Media Group. While I was rather flattered that the Publisher and President, North Jersey Media Group thought this blog shook the very foundations of civil discourse and was viewed as the barbarians at the gate , I would suggest the far larger problem might be the totally bias, and slip shot reporting of his Media Empire. Borg set the tone for the evening which came down silencing critics and reasserting the elitist “we know better than you ” , so time to be quite .https://theridgewoodblog.net/civility-forum-moves-forward-to-squelch-public-dissent/ “

Yes, it does sound as if some Gruber-like sentiments about the general public were expressed at the most recent event of Mr. Aronsohn’s series of discussions designed to lay the groundwork for the Obama administration’s plans for naked and direct government censorship of the political speech of individual citizens.

The general public, as a whole, has and regularly displays, far more integrity than do, as a whole, the self-appointed elites in this country. That’s why the following sentiment has always rung so true:

“I would sooner be governed by the first two thousand names in the Boston telephone directory than by the two thousand members of the faculty of Harvard.”― William F. Buckley Jr., Happy Days Were Here Again: Reflections of a Libertarian Journalist

Hillary Clinton, pining for Aronsohn-style “civil discourse”…as if! Sounds suspiciously like Borg with her complaint about non-standard media sources.

Hillary Clinton Blames ‘Different Media’ For Dividing Country by Charlie Spiering/Breitbart , the Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton complained that “different media” are dividing the country, making it impossible for people to even have a conversation with each other.”

Posted on February 21, 2015 February 21, 2015

The Government’s War on Freedom of the Press

The Government’s War on Freedom of the Press
Press freedom has declined in recent years.
Ken Silva | February 21, 2015

The U.S. plummeted to a dismal 49th place on the Reporters Without Borders annual Press Freedom Index, marking the country’s second lowest ranking since the list was created in 2002 and its lowest since 2006. Other countries ranked in the 40s and 50s include Haiti, Mongolia, and Chile .

The index cited “judicial harassment” of New York Times reporter James Risen, the arbitrary arrest of at least 15 journalists during the Ferguson, Missouri clashes, and the fact that U.S. journalists are still not legally entitled to protect sources who reveal confidential information about their work.

The U.S.’s slip in press freedom rankings mirrors its seven-place drop in Freedom House’s Global Press Freedom Index from 2013-2014, though the country still ranks among the 14 percent of countries whose press is classified as “free” in the latter scale.

Reality may be even worse than the rankings suggest. Legal protections for the press have only eroded since the 2006 trough year when the Bush Administration threatened to prosecute Risen for publishing stories chronicling warrantless wiretapping of citizens’ phone calls.

https://reason.com/archives/2015/02/21/the-governments-war-on-freedom-of-the-pr

Posted on February 12, 2015 February 12, 2015

Democrats on FEC open to new regulation on donors, Internet

Democrats on FEC open to new regulation on donors, Internet

BY PAUL BEDARD | FEBRUARY 11, 2015 | 12:01 PM

Claiming that thousands of public comments condemning “dark money” in politics can’t be ignored, the Democrat-chaired Federal Election Commission on Wednesday appeared ready to open the door to new regulations on donors, bloggers and others who use the Internet to influence policy and campaigns.

During a broad FEC hearing to discuss a recent Supreme Court decision that eliminated some donor limits, proponents encouraged the agency to draw up new funding disclosure rules and require even third-party internet-based groups to reveal donors, a move that would extinguish a 2006 decision to keep the agency’s hands off the Internet.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/dems-on-fec-open-to-new-regs-on-donors-internet/article/2560099

Posted on February 10, 2015 June 27, 2021

Civility in Public Discourse :This is truly getting ridiculous!

Civility in Public Discourse :This is truly getting ridiculous!

This party has to be broken up!

What’s next? Will the Village Council eventually vote to make it illegal to go so far as to raise one’s eyebrow in response to misbehavior by public officials? Does anyone remember the Alien and Sedition Acts of the late 1790’s which made it illegal to publicly criticize the government? We don’t need a quasi-public civility panel composed in large part of non-residents to impose via subtle (or not-so-subtle) social intimidation tactics what was so clearly unconstitutional for the government to impose via the criminal code.

Do we really want the newly-elected Bergen County Executive telling us how to express ourselves in Ridgewood? This was a mistake for Mr. Tedesco to intrude on Ridgewood’s strictly local concerns. Tedesco should withdraw from the scheduled appearance immediately unless, of course, he plans to break out into a full-throated defense of the God-given free-speech rights held so dear by self-respecting Ridgewood residents (much to the chagrin of Mayor Aronsohn, who by now must be fed up with us “bitter clingers”).

Make no mistake, the North Jersey Media Group would like nothing more than to turn back the clock to a time when letters to the editor (never anonymous) and speaking at the public microphone (never anonymous) at public meetings were the only timely and reliable ways to get one’s point across to the wider public when attempting to register discontent as a resident or taxpayer with the activities (or unaccountable lack of activity) of local government. Anonymous commenting on local blogs, demonstrably on the increase both in terms of frequency and political effectiveness, is so clearly anathema to traditional news outlets (such as print newspapers) straining to prop up the remnants of the political power structure built up so carefully over time by the progressive elite. Accordingly, we in Ridgewood should not put up with people who live outside the Village seeking to impose their free-speech restriction ideas on us, whether they were invited to do so by our mayor, or not.

The steady march of technology, and the irrepressible desire of Americans to speak their minds freely and without fear of disproportionate political or personal retribution, is making things more and more difficult for progressive House Organs like the Record of Bergen County and The Ridgewood News to control the terms of political debate. And that, as Martha Stewart would say, “is a good thing!”

Posted on February 6, 2015 February 5, 2015

64% of reporters say Feds spying on their email, calls, online searches

64% of reporters say Feds spying on their email, calls, online searches

By Paul Bedard | February 5, 2015 | 5:28 pm

In a survey of investigative reporters that makes Richard Nixon’s enemies list look like child’s play, nearly seven in 10 said they believe that the Obama administration has spied on their phone calls, emails and online searches.

According to a Pew Research Center survey of 454 media figures, 64 percent “believe that the U.S. government has probably collected data” from their calls and email and eight in 10 believe just being a journalist jumps the chance Uncle Sam is spying on them.

The survey follows multiple reports of actual spying by federal officials on reporters, and the White House’s effort to track down those who leak information to reporters despite long-forgotten promises to be the most transparent administration ever.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/64-reporters-say-feds-spying-on-their-email-calls-online-searches/article/2559854

Posted on February 2, 2015 February 2, 2015

Sharyl Attkisson: Obama Administration Treats Journalists Like ‘Enemies of the State’

Sharyl Attkisson: Obama Administration Treats Journalists Like ‘Enemies of the State’

Ben Smith / @bmcsmith92 / January 30, 2015

Investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson accused the Obama administration of stifling press freedom by systematically cracking down on reporters—even treating them like enemies.

“If you cross this administration with perfectly accurate reporting they don’t like, you will be attacked and punished,” Attkisson said. “You and your sources may be subjected to the kind of surveillance devised for enemies of the state.”

Attkisson, a senior independent contributor to The Daily Signal, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday about the Department of Justice’s treatment of journalists under outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder.

Loretta Lynch’s nomination to replace Holder is awaiting Senate confirmation, prompting Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, to call on Attkisson to give her own personal account of troubles with the Justice Department.

“The job of getting at the truth has never been more difficult,” Attkisson said at the hearing. “Facets of the federal government have isolated themselves from the public they serve. They covet and withhold public information that we as citizens own.”

Attkisson highlighted the “bullying” tactics that she claims the government, and specifically the Justice Department, have used against journalists.

Government officials called and threatened her superiors when she was at CBS News, launched a “frenzied campaign” against her with surrogate bloggers, and even denied her and other journalists access to federal buildings.

“Let me emphasize that my reporting was factual,” Attkisson said in reference to her work on the Fast and Furious gun-walking scandal. “It was not because my reporting was poor.”

Attkisson also reiterated her own problems with alleged government snooping, which included “keystroke monitoring, password capture, use of Skype to listen into audio.”

The Justice Department sought to push back on some of Attkisson’s claims yesterday with the release of an inspector general report.

Attkisson concluded that freedom of the press is “under assault due to government policies of secrecy, leak prevention, and officials’ contact with the media, combined with large-scale surveillance programs.”

She urged Lynch, if confirmed, to “chart a new path” as attorney general.

“If we aren’t brave enough to confront these concerns,” Attkisson said, “it could do serious, long-term damage to a supposedly free press.”

https://dailysignal.com/2015/01/30/sharyl-attkisson-obama-administration-treats-journalists-like-enemies-state/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=thffacebook01312015

Posted on January 26, 2015 June 27, 2021

Reader says with civility meetings our Mayor is looking to manipulate opinions and achieve predetermined outcomes

Reader says with civility meetings our Mayor is looking to manipulate opinions and achieve predetermined outcomes

PJ:

I think we are “drilling down” on why our mayor and our most senior Board of Education Trustee are arranging and attending these very strange quasi-public meetings and how they are used to manipulate opinions and achieve predetermined outcomes.

The following is from an early critique of the tactics of the Obama administration and seems eerily similar to what is happening in Ridgewood today:

https://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message740164/pg1

03/02/2009 07:23 PM
WHAT ARE “THE DELPHI AND ALINSKY TECHNIQUES” ???

By Jack Ward

I was very curious when President Obama held a ‘Fiscal Responsibility Summit’ less than a week after signing a budget busting Stimulus Bill. Obama asked summit participants to break up into groups and to report back in a few hours with recommendations. The groups submitted their inputs but the results of the recommendations would come a few days later. Expecting serious responses within this short time period made the process suspicious.

The very next day the House of Representatives passed a $410 billion pork laden spending bill that contained 8878 ‘earmarks’. Either Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi didn’t get the word about ‘fiscal responsibility’ or Obama was speaking with forked tongue. After reviewing the inputs from the previously mentioned ‘Fiscal Responsibility Summit’, Obama submitted his $3.55 trillion budget for fiscal year 2010. This was done under the guise of ‘A New Era of Fiscal Responsibility’. Obama had promised to reduce the deficit and eliminate ‘earmarks’. But neither of those things happened. Saying one thing and doing another is common with politicians but this is so blatant I wonder how long it will fool the people. Manipulating small groups of people has been common place, but now we are seeing manipulation on a nationwide scale. Where would someone learn the techniques for such mass manipulation?

Knowing that Obama had spend considerable time as a ‘community organizer’ in the home town of Saul Alinsky , I was suspicious that the Delphi / Alinsky techniques to manipulate groups of people were being used. I am aware of these techniques because I have used these techniques and have been in groups where they were used.

The RAND Corporation developed the Delphi Technique for the U.S. Department of Defense as a psychological warfare weapon in the 50s and 60s. Saul Alinsky, noted Leftist and spiritual mentor of the youthful Barack Obama, noted the advantages of controlling the masses and adapted special techniques for teachers – it was called the ‘Alinsky Method’. Alinsky promoted his methods in his 1971 book called ‘Rules for Radicals’. ‘Rules’ has become the handbook for community organizers, change agents, and fellow travelers.

Bev Eakman wrote in ‘In Educating for the New World Order’ that the advantage of the Delphi / Alinsky techniques was to preserve the illusion that there is community participation and agreement in the decision making process. Eakman pointed out that these techniques are used to manipulate groups of people to agree to something they oppose. This slight of hand technique is used by many government agencies to defuse opposition. As a result, the Delphi or Alinsky techniques have become common when group ‘consensus’ is desired.

Richard Poe wrote that the youthful Obama was “trained by Alinsky’s Industrial Areas Foundation,” and that “Obama spent years teaching workshops on the Alinsky method.” “In 1985 (Obama) began a four-year stint as a community organizer in Chicago, working for an Alinskyite group called the Developing Communities Project.” “Later, Obama worked with ACORN and its offshoot Project Vote, both creations of the Alinsky network.”

So it is apparent that Obama had more experience as a community organizer and the Alinsky techniques of manipulating the masses than he does as a politician. It is only natural for Obama to fall back on what he knows and is comfortable with when faced with monumental challenges. So it not unexpected that Obama would revert to using his community organizing skills when addressing national problems.

Obama has mastered “the Delphi and Alinsky techniques” and it is apparent to me that these techniques will guide him throughout his presidency. Therefore, to understand President Obama and what guides him, I suggest that you read the works of Saul Alinsky.

1. Using the Delphi Technique to Achieve Consensus 02/10/10
2. The Delphi Technique 05/08/14
3. Is OBAMA employing the “DELPHI” Technique against America?11/14/12
4. Exposing the DELPHI TECHNIQUE in Public Meetings 03/28/12
5. Topics Discussed: “The Delphi Technique”, Clinton’s connections with the and the Bush’s,IQ play between Bush Jr. and Hillary 01/10/08

Posted on January 17, 2015 January 18, 2015

Reader says the Council Only Loves Free Speech when you agree with them

file photo Boyd Loving

Reader says the Council Only Loves Free Speech when you agree with them

Oh, this is hilarious. Je suis Paulie, Je suis Pooch, Je suis the Hawk. Yeah, they all advocate free speech unless the person at the microphone is saying something they do not want to hear. Then that person is interrupted or yelled at or given the brush off. Remember the woman who was so determined about Graydon and they started screaming at her? Remember when the hotheaded DM went nuts on Ellie Gruber? You are not allowed to ask any direct questions of any member of the council, yep this is free speech.

Je suis Paulie. Whoever coined that deserves and award.<br

Posted on January 15, 2015 June 27, 2021

Reader says Ridgewood’s Mayor should go on record voicing his support for Charlie Hebdo and the Ridgewood blog in support of Free Speech !

10556419_730563073649207_8353343441156588053_n

Reader says Ridgewood’s Mayor should go on record voicing his support for Charlie Hebdo and the Ridgewood blog in support of Free Speech !

By any chance, is Ridgewood’s Mayor on record voicing his support for Charlie Hebdo in the wake of the brutal attack on free speech in France? Or is White Horse Strategies only interested in representing clients who benefit when people are afraid to freely speak their minds?

Events of this nature, if they are to be held at all, should be privately organized. For elected representatives to be the planners, hosts and organizers seems like a tactic employed by the National socialist party. Does anyone know their Great Depression and WWII-era history? Even Roosevelt sought to corrupt and coopt public discourse by secretly training thousands of so-called “four minute men” and quietly dispersing them around the country to attend local public meetings where they would take full advantage of open microphone time to proselytize regarding issues near and dear to the collectivist heart of the executive branch. Are we seeing a return to this tactic, 70 years hence?

If the puerile, atheist, nihilist rag Charlie Hebdo and it’s anemic typical print circulation of 60,000 is to be defended arm-in-arm by 40 world leaders marching in solidarity against attack by Islamist barbarians, certainly free-market, free-speech and We-the-People-oriented theridgewoodblog.net with its 90,000 unique electronic visitors per month can expect to be effectively defended against gratuitous depredation by two and 499/1000ths amigos bent on incessantly holding non-public public meetings calling for “civility in public discourse” until we collectively cry “Uncle” for fear of being bored to death. Hey PJ, by any chance, do you have a cartoonist on staff capable of amateurishly lampooning the prophet Aronsohn in honor of tonight’s gala free-speech-chilling civilapalooza?

Enjoy this blog? Please spread the word :)