Barack Obama promised hope and change when he became the nation’s 44th president eight years ago. He delivered on the change, but leaves a nation still struggling for hope.
He departs office after leading the United States out of its worst economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s, and as the country enjoys its most robust economy in years.
His policies helped revive the auto industry, clamp down on financial industry abuses and provide health insurance coverage to millions. And his very ascension to the White House “sent a strong signal about America as the land of opportunity,” said former South Carolina Gov. James Hodges, a Democrat.
Yet Obama leaves not with a country united and eager for what comes next, but one divided between rural and urban, left and right, lower-skilled workers and the more educated. Huge numbers of people are not confident about their financial futures. They’re deeply concerned about whether the government can keep them safe. Overwhelming numbers of Republicans continue to dismiss Obama as too liberal and out of touch.
The Republican-led Congress and President-elect Donald Trump see Obamacare as emblematic of much that’s gone wrong, a costly big-government disaster spawning higher premiums and less quality care.
Meet The Producers, Mike Muldoon, Gail McCarthy Linda Aktar and Vivienne Muldoon. Photo credit Susan Knudsen
January 12,2017
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, RHS Jamboree’s World Tour 2017 takes off to a flying start with over a 120 cast and crew members including 40 NEWBIES plus returning Jamboree Alumni who all are working rigorously to put on a show this come February 8-11th. To place an AD, DONATE or purchase TICKETS please go to rhsjamboree.org We look forward to welcoming you onboard.
Ridgewood NJ, On Thursday, January 12, the Ridgewood High School Department of Fine and Applied Arts will present the second Maroon & White Music Recital and Art Exhibit for the 2016-17 school year. The second of five such events for this year, the concert will be held in the newly renovated RHS Learning Commons beginning at 3:45 p.m., followed immediately by a reception and gallery opening in the Carroll Art Gallery. Admission is free and open to the public.
The recital will feature four outstanding musicians, presenting a varied program. Following the concert, the January Maroon & White Art Exhibit will officially open in the Carroll Art Gallery. The exhibit will include original works by highly accomplished students in a variety of media.
The Maroon and White Recital Series began in 1964 as a means of highlighting outstanding Ridgewood High School musicians in a featured solo capacity. Over the past five decades, the series has expanded to include art exhibits as well as a recital featuring only dancers. Musicians and dancers are selected through competitive audition, while artists are chosen after an extensive portfolio revue. Past Maroon & White recitalists include Jonathan Spitz, principal cellist with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Elizabeth Ostling, associate principal flutist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the piano duo of Sarah and Susan Wang, renowned Broadway singer/dancer Ali Stroker, Stephanie Buesser, dancer with Ballet West, New York City choreographer Yael Nachajon, Broadway director Marc Bruni, jazz organist Jared Gold and many others. The list of past artists includes Lauren Roth of Lauren Roth Art, renowned illustrator Kyle McCullough, Giovanni Forlino, whose work can be seen on display at the Getty and Guggenheim museums, plus a host of professional freelance artists who work in a wide variety of visual art related fields.
Upcoming Maroon & White Recital/Exhibits will take place on February 2, March 9, April 6 (Dance) and April 27. All recitals are held in the RHS Learning Commons, with the exception of the dance recital, which takes place in the Little Theater. For more information, please contact the RHS Department of Fine and Applied Arts at 201-670-2800 x. 20542.
Ridgewood NJ, Misleading the American people to advance a political narrative has been a hallmark of President Obama’s foreign and domestic policy. The most recent example is the administration’s attempt to conflate the hacking of the Democratic Party with potential cyberattacks on the US Election.
Last week, federal officials went as far as to tell the Washington Post that malware linked to Russian hackers was found on a laptop at Burlington Electric, a Vermont power company. By Monday the Post had recanted, writing that investigators “are finding evidence that the incident is not linked to any Russian government effort.”
The Obama administration and many Democrats as well as Republicans led by Sen. John McCain and Lindsey Graham have ordered hearings and are pushing the Russian hacking story instead of focusing on the hacking of Hillary Clintons unsecured servers and Clinton operative John Podesta being caught in a basic phishing hack giving access to all his emails.
In October the Clinton campaign declined to confirm the authenticity of the WikiLeak documents but called them “stolen, and ” the latest move by Russian operatives they claimed were trying to help Donald Trump.
The problem for Democrats is the WikiLeak released emails, proved unequivocally that the DNC had rigged the primary race against Bernie Sanders, worked in collusion with the mainstream media, the Hillary received debate questions ahead of time, that DNC staffers used inflammatory and derogatory language toward minorities, women and gays, but the most damming was the implication that the entire media appeared to be on the Clinton’s payroll.
Recount efforts failed as Trump picked up more votes and voting irregularities in Detroit pointed to DNC tampering.
Today DNI Chief Clapper took swipe at Trump, Assange as he defended the Russia Hack Intel. This is of course is the same James Clapper who in 2014 the Washington Post featured a story in which a group of congressmen led by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) were pushing for President Obama to fire, the director of national intelligence, claiming he misled Congress about the extent of the NSA’s domestic surveillance activity on American citizens.
NBC reported, Clapper without offering any evidence said Russia had “clearly assumed an even more aggressive cyber posture by increasing cyber espionage operations, leaking data stolen from these operations, and targeting political infrastructures systems.”
In mid-December Jeh Johnson head of the Department of Homeland Security explained DHS’s cyber team was ready on election night and they didn’t see “anything that affected the ballot count,” he said.
When pressed, asking whether he could assure Americans that Russian hacking did not affect the outcome of the election.
Johnson said, “We see no evidence that hacking by any actor altered the ballot count for any cyber actions that deprived people of voting,”.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Members of the 115th Congress will be sworn in at noon Tuesday, setting off an aggressive campaign by Republicans who control the House and Senate to dismantle eight years of President Barack Obama’s Democratic policies.
The first and biggest target is Obama’s signature health care law, which Republicans have long sought to gut and blamed as a primary cause for a lackluster economic recovery. President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday encouraged a wholesale overhaul of the system, tweeting hours before the new Congress convenes “Obamacare just doesn’t work,” is unaffordable “and, it is lousy health care.”
Majority Republicans also are targeting decades-old programs that millions of Americans rely on every day, such as Social Security and Medicare as they seek to shrink both the size of the federal budget and the bureaucracy in Washington.
“We have a lot to do – and a lot to undo,” House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said in a letter to fellow Republicans.
There were signs of Republican-on-Republican drama even before the new Congress officially opened on Tuesday. House Republicans on Monday night voted to defy their leaders and gut the chamber’s independent ethics panel created in 2008 to probe charges of lawmaker misconduct after several corruption scandals sent members to prison.
Ridgewood NJ, it has been pointed out by some readers that unless the published list of Ridgewood Library Trustees is incorrectly stated on their website listing the ex-mayor and one of his appointees on the Library Board as the current mayor .
Last time we checked there was a new mayor in the Village of Ridgewood , and she seemed eminently qualified to represent the residents of the Village.
Removing the Ex-mayor and his appointee and adding the current mayor with her appointee would help restore the public’s confidence as to the direction of the Library . The continued association with the ex-mayor only leads one to conclude for many residents that something nefarious is going on.
Ridgewood Library Board of Trustees
Gail Campbell
President
Arlene Sarappo
Vice President
Daniel Cummings
Treasurer
Christine Driscoll
Secretary
Jean Cleary
Member
Janis Fuhrman
Member
John Saraceno
Member
Paul Aronsohn Mayor of Ridgewood
Albert Pucciarelli Mayor’s Delegate
Dr. Daniel Fishbein
Superintendent
Linda Diorio
Superintendent’s Delegate
Ex Officio
Paul McCarthy
Friends
Betsy Giordano
Foundation
Nancy Greene
Library Director
Meetings are held in the Library’s Administration Conference Room, 3rd Floor
125 N. Maple Avenue, Ridgewood, NJ 07450
Meetings will be held monthly on the 4th Tuesdays of each Month at 7:30 PM
Amid the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune in the stock, bond, and commodity markets this week, a few ‘rotten’ things began to emerge. With major indices diverging notably, new highs and new lows soaring, and breadth deteriorating, analysts noted the re-awakening of The Hindenburg Omen signal…
As John Hussman previously wrote, when we think of market “internals,” the number of new highs and new lows can contribute useful information. To expand on the vocabulary we use to talk about internals, “leadership” typically refers to the number of stocks achieving new highs and new lows; “breadth” typically refers to the number of stocks advancing versus declining in a given day or week; and “participation” typically refers to the percentage of stocks that are advancing or declining in tandem with the major indices.
The original basis for the Hindenburg signal traces back to the “high-low logic index” that Norm Fosback created in the 1970’s. Jim Miekka introduced the Hindenburg as a daily rather than weekly measure, Kennedy Gammage gave it the ominous name, and Peter Eliades later added several criteria to reduce the noise of one-off signals, requiring additional confirmation that amounts to a requirement that more than one signal must emerge in the context of an advancing market with weakening breadth.
And this week saw renowned technician Tom McClellan declare a Hindenburg Omen had struck…
The story, as originally recounted by James V. Grimaldi and Rebecca Ballhaus of The Wall Street Journal, was, of itself, deeply troubling. In March 2009, after meeting with Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey, then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton intervened with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on behalf of Switzerland’s most powerful banking institution, UBS. The IRS, which at that time was seeking the identity of wealthy Americans who had stashed some $20 billion in 52,000 tax evading UBS accounts, then agreed that the Swiss bank need only turn over information on 4,450 accounts. Afterwards, UBS increased its previous $60,000 in donations to the Clinton Foundation ten-fold. By the end of 2014, UBS donations to the Clinton Foundation totaled $600,000. UBS also “paid former President Bill Clinton $1.5 million to participate in a series of question-and-answer sessions with UBS Wealth Management Chief Executive Bob McCann, making UBS his biggest single corporate source of speech income disclosed since he left the White House.”
Those facts, of themselves, raise disturbing questions. Did a bank that still ranks as “the world’s biggest wealth manager” and has at its disposal a bevy of economists and law firms have a legitimate reason for paying Bill Clinton $1.5 million in speaking fees? Or was the $1.5 million and the tenfold increase in Clinton Foundation donations a reward for the former secretary of State’s intervention? If the latter, that reward would have, under federal law (18 U.S.C. § 201(c)(1)(A)), amounted to an illicit bribe.
By Craig McCarthy | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
on October 26, 2016 at 4:36 PM, updated October 26, 2016 at 5:08 PM
Police charged 10 people Wednesday in a protest on the George Washington Bridge that closed lanes and caused extensive delays during morning rush hour.
One of the protesters was a New Jersey resident, according to Port Authority police spokesman Joe Pentangelo. The eight were from New York and one was from California.
The immigrants’ rights demonstration stopped upper-level traffic completely for about 15 minutes before police arrested the protesters, who chained themselves to the bridge, blocking three lanes.
The demonstration caused up to 90-minute delays for drivers heading into the New York City. All lanes were reopened by 8:50 a.m.
The following people were charged in New York with reckless endangerment and criminal trespass:
Christina Fox, 27 , Oceanside, Calif
Felix Cepeda, 35, Bronx, N.Y.
Diego Ibanez, 27, Brooklyn, NY
Karl Kumodz, 25, Brooklyn NY
Elana Gold-24, Brooklyn, NY
Claudia Palacios, 27, Brooklyn, NY
Jeremy Weissman, 22, Jericho, NY
Virgilio Aran, 38, East Orange, NJ
Juan Romero, 25, Queens, NY
Marco Abendano, 31, Bronx, NY
Group linked to Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe donated nearly half a million dollars to 2015 state Senate candidate
By
DEVLIN BARRETT
Updated Oct. 24, 2016 4:41 p.m. ET
The political organization of Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, an influential Democrat with longstanding ties to Bill and Hillary Clinton, gave nearly $500,000 to the election campaign of the wife of an official at the Federal Bureau of Investigation who later helped oversee the investigation into Mrs. Clinton’s email use.
Campaign finance records show Mr. McAuliffe’s political-action committee donated $467,500 to the 2015 state Senate campaign of Dr. Jill McCabe, who is married to Andrew McCabe, now the deputy director of the FBI.
The Virginia Democratic Party, over which Mr. McAuliffe exerts considerable control, donated an additional $207,788 worth of support to Dr. McCabe’s campaign in the form of mailers, according to the records. That adds up to slightly more than $675,000 to her candidacy from entities either directly under Mr. McAuliffe’s control or strongly influenced by him. The figure represents more than a third of all the campaign funds Dr. McCabe raised in the effort.
Halloween tales in The Little Theatre, followed by trunk or treating in the RHS parking lot. $7 in advance / $10 at the door. Click here for more information and the registration form.
Editors Note : Deputy Mayor Sedon could not be reached for comment
By Dave Hutchinson | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
on October 17, 2016 at 8:03 PM, updated October 18, 2016 at 8:12 AM
Since he was accused all over social media of being the hunter who shot and killed Pedals the bipedal bear, Thomas McCreary said people have threatened to kill him and his family, rape his wife and sister, burn his home and business, even come to the business to “shoot it out” with him.
The state Department of Environmental Protection’s Bob Considine confirmed Monday that McCreary was not the person who turned a bear in that appears to be Pedals, which became an internet sensation last year through a number of videos on social media.
That bear was brought to Green Pond station in Rockaway on Oct. 10 during last week’s extended bear hunt. Although the DEP said there’s no way to verify if the bear is Pedals, the agency said is appeared to be the same bear.
McCreary said on Monday he did not kill the bear, nor did he take part in this year’s extended hunt. McCreary showed NJ Advance Media his 2016 Zone 4 black bear hunting permit. If he had turned a bear in at a check-in station, the “Black Bear Transportation Tag” would have been removed from the permit, he said.
A few things you’re unlikely to read elsewhere: Donald Trump’s presidential candidacy – and Americans’ ability to choose their next leader – is being destroyed by a sequence of events way too well orchestrated to be coincidental.
[This election is scaring the hell out of people // Wikileaks shows Univision chairman influence over Clinton campaign // Women’s groups treat Bill Clinton and Donald Trump differently]
This is not about the billionaire’s qualifications or disqualifications to move into the Oval Office, his braggadocio, his awful manners, alleged sexual harassment, crass behavior, ostentatious wealth.
Americans have had unsavory political leaders before, most recently Hillary Clinton’s charming unfaithful hubby who, among other things, received oral sex from an intern in that same revered office. And then lied about it to authorities.
This is about Americans being politically manipulated quite cleverly, something people do not appreciate, if they’re allowed to be aware of it. Recent events could be a movie called “Wag the Dog – Again.”
With costly healthcare, a stereotype of obesity and a culture of creatively fatty foods, “healthy” probably isn’t the first word that comes to mind when you think of the United States.
But according to the Legatum Prosperity Index’s findings for 2015, the U.S. is the healthiest country in the world. However, when it comes to freedom, an ideal most Americans pride themselves on, the U.S. falls to 15.
So what’s the country with the most personal freedom? Canada, followed by New Zealand, Norway, Luxembourg and Iceland.
Photo from left to right: Mary Micale Foundation President; Bart Lidsky owner of Hammer and Nail, Sponsor; Linda Hannafey Foundation Treasurer; Jody Irwin Foundation Secretary; Paul McCarthy Foundation Vice President; and Janis Fuhrman, Sponsor.
September 26,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood bog
Ridgewood NJ, Oktoberfest is THIS Saturday 10/1/16 at the Hermitage. The Ridgewood Education Foundation is hosting their second Oktoberfest to raise funds to support educational grants across the district. Tickets are still available but going fast! The Dad’s Night band is playing! Great food and drinks. Lots of amazing raffle and auction items to bid on. To order your tickets go to www.foundationoktoberfest.com.
Don’t delay! Time is running out. It’s a great event for a great cause.
