The Ridgewood Blog Brings a Free Market Laissez-faire Point of View to Local, New Jersey State and National Issues.
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Edison NJ, New Jersey Republican Party is outraged by the Edison Town Council’s appalling decision to ban the presence of the American flag, the U.S. Constitution, and other so-called “props” from their council meetings. This un-American ordinance reached a new low when police were asked to escort a resident from a meeting for holding an American flag.
Continue reading Edison Town Council Goes full Coward Bans American Flag
Joshua Sotomayor-Einstein
Former NJ Lt Governor Kim Guadagno’s ad hominem attack on President Trump, published in the Star-Ledger on November 22, in which she admonishes the President to concede the election despite the fact that Electoral College has not yet met, and ignores the ongoing investigations into dozens of sworn affidavits on voting irregularities, shows how disconnected she is from the party she was once a part of. Guadagno has been MIA in the GOP since her phoned-in and failed gubernatorial run, including this election in which she helped zero Republican Congressional candidates. Moreover, the fact that according to Rasmussen 30% of Democrats believe there was voter fraud/criminality in the election, demonstrates how out of touch she is even with a significant portion of the Democrat Party she is now inexplicably attempting to court.
Continue reading Former Lt Governor Kim Guadagno Joins Chorus of In Name Only Republicans
February 15, 2017
Let’s compare what President Trump has accomplished since the inauguration (with that enormous crowd!) with what congressional Republicans have done.
In the past three weeks, Trump has: staffed the White House, sent a dozen Cabinet nominees to the Senate, browbeat Boeing into cutting its price on a government contract, harangued American CEOs into keeping their plants in the United States, imposed a terrorist travel ban, met with foreign leaders and nominated a Supreme Court justice, among many other things.
(And still our hero finds time to torment the media with his tweets!)
What have congressional Republicans been doing? Scrapbooking?
More than 90 percent of congressional Republicans kept their jobs after the 2016 election, so you can cross “staffing an entire branch of government” off the list. Only the Senate confirms nominees, which they’ve been doing at a snail’s pace, so they’ve got loads of free time — and the House has no excuse at all.
Where’s the Obamacare repeal? Where are the hearings featuring middle-class Americans with no health insurance because it was made illegal by Obamacare?
The House passed six Obamacare repeals when Obama was president and there was no chance of them being signed into law. Back then, Republicans were full of vim and vigor! But the moment Trump became president, the repeals came to a screeching halt.
After the inauguration (gigantic!), House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell put out a plan for repealing Obamacare … in 200 days. They actually gave their legislative agenda this inspiring title: “The Two Hundred Day Plan.”
HOUSE GOP’S CORPORATE TAX SCHEME HAS ITS REPUBLICAN SKEPTICS
BY STEPHEN OHLEMACHER
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans face opposition to their plan to overhaul the way corporations pay federal taxes from a powerful group of lawmakers – other Republicans.
“I’m not very enthused about it,” said Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, the chairman of the Finance Committee and the Senate’s top tax writer.
Another skeptic is John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate.
“The question is, who is going to pay the tax?” Cornyn asked. “Is it going to be our citizens?”
Seeking to overhaul the tax code for the first time in 30 years, the House GOP plan would scrap the 35 percent tax on corporate profits, which is riddled with exemptions, deductions and credits. It would be replaced with something called a “border adjustment tax.”
“We don’t even know if Mitt Romney voted for Donald Trump.”
By MATTHEW NUSSBAUM
Updated 11/27/16 01:30 PM EST
Appointing Mitt Romney as secretary of state would be viewed by many supporters of President-elect Donald Trump as a major betrayal, former Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway told CNN on Sunday.
“It’s just breathtaking in scope and intensity,” Conway said of the opposition to Romney among Trump supporters.
“Receiving deluge of social media & private comms re: Romney Some Trump loyalists warn against Romney as sec of state,” Conway wrote on Twitter on Thursday, linking to a POLITICO article about opposition to Romney.
“I felt compelled to come forward on behalf of the people who were weighing in,” Conway said of that tweet.
https://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/conway-unloads-on-romney-231855
By Joshua Rhett Miller
November 11, 2016 | 11:07am | Updated
The shock and anger over Donald Trump’s ascension to the White House has triggered a flood of calls on Twitter and other social media outlets for the president-elect to be assassinated — and authorities will investigate all threats deemed to be credible, The Post has learned.
Trump met Thursday with President Obama in the Oval Office, with the Republican businessman calling the hour-plus session a “great honor.” Obama said they had an “excellent” and “wide-ranging” conversation while urging all people to “now come together.”
But that message of inclusion was apparently lost in social media circles, particularly Twitter, where a simple search can reveal dozens and dozens of calls to gun down the next leader of the free world. Some posts called for both Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence to be assassinated, and there’s even an #AssassinateTrump hashtag.
By Max Pizarro • 10/10/16 4:58pm
State Senator Mike Doherty (R-Warren) swatted at Lieutenant Governor Kim Guadagno today following the LG’s announcement that she won’t vote for embattled Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
A movement conservative, Doherty was the first Republican elected official to back Trump in this year’s primary.
“Guadagno says nothing for seven years,” Doherty said. “Says nothing about the gas tax increase. Says nothing about Chris Christie running his reelection campaign through the Intergovernmental Affairs Office. She hires [former Christie COS Bill] Stepien, who ran the IGA political office.
“She finally becomes the moral conscience of the NJGOP to kick Trump when he’s down,” the senator added. “Pitiful.”
https://observer.com/2016/10/senator-doherty-laces-into-trump-opponent-lg-guadagno/?utm_campaign=Observer_NJ_Politics&utm_content=New%20Campaign&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=New%20Jersey%20Politics
BBC Scrubs ‘Ali’ From Munich Killer’s Name On TV, In Articles, AND On Social Media
The BBC has unilaterally chosen not to report the Munich attacker’s full name, in what appears to be an attempt to scrub any Muslim or Islamic heritage link to its coverage of the incident.
Most sources at this point suggest that Ali David Sonboly – the Munich attacker who targeted children and killed nine yesterday – is not connected to radical Islam, but the BBC has gone to extraordinary lengths to try to keep any reference to his heritage out of its coverage, opting to name him only as “David Sonboly”.
Other news organisations including the Wall Street Journal, Independent, Daily Mail, and Sky News named the attacker as “Ali David Sonboly” or “David Ali Sonboly”. CNN even referred to him simply as “Ali Sonboly
https://www.breitbart.com/london/2016/07/23/bbc-scrubs-muslim-name-ali-munich-killer-article/
by JEROME HUDSON15 Apr 20169,200
Canada-based circus and theater entertainment company Cirque du Soleil has canceled its upcoming shows in Greensboro, Charlotte, and Raleigh in North Carolina to protest the state’s Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act.
“Cirque du Soleil strongly believes in diversity and equality for every individual and is opposed to discrimination in any form,” the group announced Friday in a press release. “The new HB2 legislation passed in North Carolina is an important regression to ensuring human rights for all.”
Cirque du Soleil’s North Carolina cancelation comes as a growing number of artists and entertainers abandon their respective performances in the state to protest of the Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act.
The world-famous circus, however, has not canceled its upcoming performances in the United Arab Emirates of Dubai.
Indeed, Cirque du Solei has a planned production, Varekai, scheduled to run from September 16 to 24 at the Dubai World Trade Centre. The United Arab Emirates of Dubai has outlawed same-sex marriage, sex or gender reassignment surgery, adoption by same-sex couples, openly gay and lesbian military service, with the aforementioned being punishable by death, fines, or imprisonment.
In fact, Cirque du Solei has performed for years in the anti-LBGT United Arab Emirates, including Michael Jackson: The Immortal Tour in 2014, Dralion in 2013, Alegria in 2009, and Quidam in 2006.
by Craig Bannister
The White House website has censored a video of French Pres. Francois Hollande saying that “Islamist terrorism” is at the “roots of terrorism.”
The White House briefly pulled video of a press event on terrorism with Pres. Obama, and when it reappeared on the WhiteHouse.gov website and YouTube, the audio of Hollande’s translator goes silent, beginning with the words “Islamist terrorism,” then begins again at the end of his sentence.
Even the audio of Hollande saying the words “Islamist terrorism” in French have, apparently, been edited from the video.
According to the official White House transcript of Hollande’s remarks, Hollande refers to “Islamist terrorism.” The audio of the bold text in brackets is missing from the video – the only point in the video were the audio is absent:
“We are also making sure that between Europe and the United States there can be a very high level coordination.
“But we’re also well aware that the roots of terrorism, [Islamist terrorism, is in Syria and in Iraq. We therefore have to act both in Syria and in Iraq, and this is what we’re doing within the framework of the coalition.] And we note that Daesh is losing ground thanks to the strikes we’ve been able to launch with the coalition.”
https://mrctv.org/blog/video-wh-censors-reference-islamist-terrorism-french-president
“Nothing is more symptomatic of the GOP establishment’s death drive than their continued embrace of the presidential aspirations of a man who shrank the party in 2012.”
Clueless GOP establishment continues to flounder
Mittens: GOP Establishment Chooses Mount Romney as Hill to Die on
by STEPHEN K. BANNON & REBECCA MANSOUR3 Mar 20163,677
After President Jeb, President Walker, President Christie,President Kasich, President Ryan, and President Rubio, the Republican establishment is now turning once again to the Adlai Stevenson of the GOP – Willard Mitt Romney.
Perhaps nothing is more symptomatic of the GOP establishment’s death drive than their continued embrace of the presidential aspirations of a man who shrank the party in 2012.
But then, these are the same Republican elites who are determined to grant amnesty to 40 million future Democrats. So, obviously party expansion and broad national victories are not their priorities. How else do you explain their bizarre desire to board the S.S. Mittanic one more time?
A full recounting of the unmitigated disaster that was the Romney campaign is beyond the scope of this op-ed. But let’s cut to the chase. Mitt Romney lost because he was unpalatable to working class Americans.
Sean Trende of RealClearPolitics explained in detail how Romney lost the election in large part because he couldn’t win over white working class voters.
That wasn’t an accident. It was by design. An August 2012 op-ed by Matthew Continetti in the Washington Free Beacon outlined the Obama campaign’s “voter suppression” strategy “to disillusion white voters without degrees in the Rust Belt and Mountain West.” Obama calculated that these working class voters would make Romney president if they voted Republican by the same 30-point margin as they did in 2010, but if they were demoralized and alienated by the GOP candidate, they would hand the election to Obama by simply sitting it out.
January 02, 2016, 09:05 pm
By Elliot Smilowitz
Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump says the nuclear deal with Iran is so bad, he is close to wondering whether it was done poorly on purpose.
“It’s almost like there has to be something else going on,” he said Saturday night at a rally in Biloxi, Miss. “I don’t think there is, I just don’t think they’re competent.”
Trump said he couldn’t believe the U.S. would agree to a deal with Iran that did not include the return of Americans held prisoner in Iran.
“Who would make that deal?” he asked, suggesting Tehran was celebrating as the agreement was being negotiated.
https://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/gop-primaries/264598-trump-iran-deal-was-so-bad-its-suspicious
by MICHELLE FIELDS
17 Dec 2015
Conservative author Diana West says America is seeing a “lining up of Democratic and Republican elites,” working to move America towards socialism.
West told Breitbart News Daily host Stephen K. Bannon that the latest, trillion dollar budget deal reflects the priorities of Republican and Democratic elites, but doesn’t reflect real conservatism.
“It is the definition of what the party elites are, the people in power are, but I don’t think it’s the definition of what a conservative is.”
She also argued that they are sending America down a path to socialism.
“There has been this movement really for 80 years in our history, of socialization….in terms of introducing the tools and mechanisms and practices of socialism into our economy, into our thinking, into our culture” West said. “Even on the right side of the spectrum there is very little consciousness that theres anything else or that there ever was anything else. “
West also told Breitbart News Daily that there appears to be an awakening amongst the American people and that it’s time for them to choose whether America is going be a country with, “sovereignty and with control over our representatives who are supposed to be working for us– the citizens, or whether we’re going to be sucked into the mob of the collectivist internationalist globalist enterprise.”
She added that it, “comes down to, again, this notion of are we citizens or are we subjects.”
Hear the complete interview:
Obama’s Attorney General stands with advocates for terrorists in support of censoring criticism of Islam
December 4, 2015
Daniel Greenfield
While in San Bernardino children wept for fathers who would never come home after the latest Muslim terror attack, Attorney General Loretta Lynch put on some chic clothes to gab with Muslim Advocates, a Muslim group that had become notorious for its aggressive obstruction of Justice Department investigations into Muslim terrorism.
Muslim Advocates, headed by Farhana Khera, who peppered a smiling Lynch with questions about “anti-Muslim rhetoric”, had played a significant role in crippling DOJ investigations of Islamic terrorism by eliminating training materials about Islamic terrorism.
Khera had vocally opposed the sorts of sting operations that had succeeded in capturing a number of ISIS terror plotters before they were able to act. A similar sting might have stopped the San Bernardino massacre. She had opposed the FBI recruiting informants and supported Muslim leaders linked to terrorism. She had even defended terror charities like the Holy Land Foundation.
And she and another Muslim Advocates figure had urged Muslims not to provide information to the FBI. “Any information you provide to the FBI can be used as the basis for further surveillance and investigation of your community,” a Muslim Advocates lawyer had said. “So you really don’t want to be putting yourself in a situation where you’re providing anybody with information about people in your community that the FBI is now gonna follow up and start investigating those people.”
But instead of showing respect to the American victims of terrorism, Attorney General Lynch went to a pro-terror group and promised to crack down on the real threat. Anti-Muslim rhetoric.
“Obviously the incidents in Paris were a tragedy,” Lynch conceded, but her focus was on Islamophobia.
“Certainly in the wake of Paris, which as a part of Europe has been grappling with anti-Muslim rhetoric for some time now because of smaller incidents, this large one is really their equivalent of 9/11, and certainly as we saw here in the US, an incredibly disturbing rise in anti-Muslim rhetoric,” Lynch said.
