The Ridgewood Blog Brings a Free Market Laissez-faire Point of View to Local, New Jersey State and National Issues.
Download The King of Con Audio Book
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Upper Saddle River NJ, from time to time the Ridgewood blog does book reviews and we just finished the “King of Con ” by Thomas Giacomaro and Natasha Stoynoff published in 2018 . We received a copy from the author Tom Giacomaro , the “King of Con: himself through a mutual friend in early February and finally got to reading it this past weekend .
Continue reading The King of Con by Thomas Giacomaro and Natasha Stoynoff
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Saddle River NJ, Well, it was twenty years ago today…when a bunch of FBI guys got hit in the head with a million bucks, falling from the New Jersey sky.
Until that moment, April 2002 had been going okay for NJ con master, Thomas Giacomaro, author of the 2018 memoir The King of Con: How a Smooth-Talking Jersey Boy Made and Lost Billions, Baffled the FBI, Eluded the Mob, and Lived to Tell the Crooked Tale.
True, he was doing 18 months for embezzlement at Fort Dix prison, just south of Trenton. But it was easy time in a low-security prison. And he was such a clean, neat inmate…he was a shoo-in to get out by Christmas.
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Saddle River NJ, Childhood memories of spring are usually happy and bright: Icicles dripping, chocolate Easter bunnies, putting your sneakers on after a long, Jersey winter.
For local anti-hero, Thomas Giacomaro, spring reminds him of the day he saw his father almost kill two men.
“There’s a very old, but wise, proverb “If the upper beams are not straight, the lower beams will go aslant.” Indeed, if society’s leaders set a poor example, the rest of society will follow. There is a clear absence of leadership on all fronts, these days. It’s almost as though the politicians, bureaucrats, and corporate exec’s are in on a secret, and it’s scorched earth and a race to the bottom.
photo Glen Rock Mayor Bruce Packer
June 6,2017
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, according to the PATCH ,Glen Rock Mayor Bruce Packer is joining with nearly 190 other mayors across the United States in the fight against global warming.
Politico tells us that three Democratic candidates for governor have pledged that, if elected, New Jersey will keep following the requirements of the Paris climate accord regardless of President Trump’s decision last week to withdraw the United States from the international pact.
Former U.S. ambassador Phil Murphy, Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D-Middlesex), and former U.S. Treasury official Jim Johnson all said last week that they would follow the lead of California, Massachusetts, New York, Washington and other states that have committed to keep following the Paris agreement in the wake of Trump’s decision.
Our questions is has anyone of these politicians read the “Paris Accord” ? Did you miss the part where American taxpayers will be sending over a $100 billion dollars over seas in a massive transfer of wealth with almost no impact on climate at all?
The Clean Power Plan and oil fee taken together would have an effect comparable to a $30-per-ton carbon tax, which would cost households in the lowest income quintile $20 billion annually. That is equivalent to raising their federal tax burden more than 160 percent. Crushing the poor whom energy is a far larger part of their overall expenses.
Sorry climate alarmist , the sum of many pledges to do nothing is: nothing. When the Massachusetts Institute of Technology compiled the pledges and compared them with its own preexisting projection, it found a temperature reduction by 2100 of only 0.2°C and when the analysts compared the pledges with the projection created by the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change back in 2000, they found no improvement at all.
Douglas Murray
How is your Merkelsommer going? For now, Britain seems to be missing the worst. True, a couple of men of Middle Eastern appearance tried to abduct a soldier near his base in Norfolk for what was unlikely to have been an interfaith dialogue session. But Britain’s geographical good fortune, relative success in limiting weapons and our justified scepticism of the undiscriminating ‘open borders’ brigade mean that we have so far been spared the delights of what Angela Merkel’s growing army of critics refer to as her summer of terror.
It is now a fortnight since Mohammed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ and ploughed a truck along the Nice seafront, killing 84 people. The following Monday Mohammed Riyad, who said he was from Afghanistan but almost certainly came from Pakistan, screamed ‘Allahu Akbar’ while hacking with an axe at his fellow passengers on a Bavarian train. The next day another Mohammed, this time Mohamed Boufarkouch, shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ and stabbed a Frenchwoman and her three daughters (aged eight, 12 and 14) near Montpelier. Mixing things up a little, that Friday’s shooter in Munich was a child of Iranians called Ali David Sonboly. Skip forward a couple of days and a ‘-Syrian asylum seeker’ with a machete was hacking a pregnant woman to death in Stuttgart. The next day another ‘Syrian asylum seeker’, Mohammad Daleel, carried out a suicide bombing outside a bar in Ansbach, Bavaria. And a little over 24 hours later two men shouting the name of Isis entered a church in Rouen during Mass, took the nuns and congregation hostage and slaughtered the priest with a knife.
https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2016/07/will-politicians-accept-reality-islamic-terrorism/
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, The Mayor and his cronies are playing fast and loose with the truth and the rank and file doing their bidding may not understand the real plot. Stooping so low as to grab out dated of context quotes to imply that the 5 members of the incoming Council endorse a YES vote is essentially manufacturing a lie but trying to wipe off your fingerprints of the tools of deceit. The incoming Council DOES NOT endorse a Yes vote and if you doubt me, just ask them, they are all available on email. They are trying to stay on the high road, which the Village Manager couldn’t find with a map, but they are livid at the bald attempt to attach their names to Paul and Roberta’s desperate attempt to deceive.
They don’t want or need any “help” from the outgoing Council who are leaving their post with as little grace and professionalism as you would expect from observing the last 4 years
The Walker study (attached ) makes clear that of the 250 incremental spots created the vast, vast majority (191 of 250 or 76 %) of the spots created will be monthly spots. The 126 hourly spots is less than 50 more than what exists in lot now (76 spots ) when you consider the destruction of on-street parking Garagzilla requires.
So wait …We spend $ 11.5 MM to get essentially less than 2 levels of shopping/dining parking and 3+ levels of monthly parking to warehouse extra cars for the high density residents and serve out of town commuters? That makes sense how?????
Who benefits from developers, out of town commuters and local landlords being happy? Politicians who need money and allies to run for office.
Sharyl Attkisson: There Is Coordination Between Reporters And Politicians
March 21, 2014 10:31 AM
By Chris Stigall
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Chris Stigall talked to former CBS News Reporter Sharyl Attkisson this morning on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT about the trouble reporters have to deal with while covering politicians and the government, as well as the current state of investigative reporting.
Responding to comments regarding a Phoenix television reporter yesterday who initially claimed that the White House pre-screens questions from reporters, Attkisson said, “I wouldn’t surprised if sometimes there is that level of cooperation with some questions. If I need something answered from the White House and they won’t tell me, I’ll call our White House Correspondent. They’re friendlier with the White House Correspondents in general. So the White House Correspondent may ask Jay Carney or one of his folks about an issue and they will be told ‘ask that at the briefing and we’ll answer it.’ They want to answer it in front of everybody. They do know it’s coming and they’ll call on you. There’s that kind of coordination sometimes. I wouldn’t be shocked if there’s sometimes more coordination. I don’t think it’s everybody on every briefing, every day. I’m pretty sure it’s not. But I think people would be surprised at the level of cooperation reporters have in general with politicians.”
Listen to full podcast here…
She also said it is more and more difficult for investigative reporters to get their stories published or on the air because of the trouble it may cause.
“Nobody was interested in the stories. It didn’t seem to matter what the topic was. There’s sort of a problem all over, I talk to my colleagues in different mediums. There’s just a lot of pressure. Investigative reporting gets a lot of backlash. They don’t quite know how to deal with it. Why not just put on stories that don’t draw that kind of response?”
Attkisson also confirmed she’s working on a book about how stories are reported in the media.