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DONALD J. TRUMP ON THE STAKES OF THE ELECTION

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DONALD J. TRUMP ON THE STAKES OF THE ELECTION

Today I‘d like to share my thoughts about the stakes in this election.

People have asked me why I am running for President.

I have built an amazing business that I love and I get to work side-by-side with my children every day.

We come to work together and turn visions into reality.

We think big, and then we make it happen.

I love what I do, and I am grateful beyond words to the nation that has allowed me to do it.

So when people ask me why I am running, I quickly answer: I am running to give back to this country which has been so good to me.

When I see the crumbling roads and bridges, or the dilapidated airports, or the factories moving overseas to Mexico, or to other countries, I know these problems can all be fixed, but not by Hillary Clinton – only by me.

The fact is, we can come back bigger and better and stronger than ever before –Jobs, jobs, jobs!

Everywhere I look, I see the possibilities of what our country could be. But we can’t solve any of these problems by relying on the politicians who created them.

We will never be able to fix a rigged system by counting on the same people who rigged it in the first place.

The insiders wrote the rules of the game to keep themselves in power and in the money.

That’s why we’re asking Bernie Sanders’ voters to join our movement: so together we can fix the system for ALL Americans. Importantly, this includes fixing all of our many disastrous trade deals.

Because it’s not just the political system that’s rigged. It’s the whole economy.

It’s rigged by big donors who want to keep down wages.

It’s rigged by big businesses who want to leave our country, fire our workers, and sell their products back into the U.S. with absolutely no consequences for them.

It’s rigged by bureaucrats who are trapping kids in failing schools.

It’s rigged against you, the American people.

Hillary Clinton who, as most people know, is a world class liar –

just look at her pathetic email and server statements, or her phony landing in Bosnia where she said she was under attack but the attack turned out to be young girls handing her flowers, a total self-serving lie.[1]

Brian Williams’ career was destroyed for saying far less.

Yesterday, she even tried to attack me and my many businesses. But here is the bottom line: I started off in Brooklyn New York, not so long ago, with a small loan and built a business worth over 10 billion dollars. I have always had a talent for building businesses and, importantly, creating jobs. That is a talent our country desperately needs.

I am running for President to end the unfairness and to put you, the American worker, first.

We are going to put America First, and we are going to Make America Great again.

This election will decide whether we are ruled by the people, or by the politicians.

Here is my promise to the American voter:

If I am elected President, I will end the special interest monopoly in Washington, D.C.

The other candidate in this race has spent her entire life making money for special interests – and taking money from special interests.

Hillary Clinton has perfected the politics of personal profit and theft.

She ran the State Department like her own personal hedge fund – doing favors for oppressive regimes, and many others, in exchange for cash.

Then, when she left, she made $21.6 million giving speeches to Wall Street banks and other special interests – in less than 2 years – secret speeches that she does not want to reveal to the public. [2] [3]

Together, she and Bill made $153 million giving speeches to lobbyists, CEOs, and foreign governments in the years since 2001.[4]

They totally own her, and that will never change.

The choice in this election is a choice between taking our government back from the special interests, or surrendering our last scrap of independence to their total and complete control.

Those are the stakes.

Hillary Clinton wants to be President. But she doesn’t have the temperament, or, as Bernie Sanders’ said, the judgement, to be president.

She believes she is entitled to the office.

Her campaign slogan is “I’m with her.”

You know what my response to that is? I’m with you: the American people.

She thinks it’s all about her.

I know it’s all about you – I know it’s all about making America Great Again for All Americans.

Our country lost its way when we stopped putting the American people first.

We got here because we switched from a policy of Americanism – focusing on what’s good for America’s middle class – to a policy of globalism, focusing on how to make money for large corporations who can move their wealth and workers to foreign countries all to the detriment of the American worker and the American economy.

We reward companies for offshoring, and we punish companies for doing business in America and keeping our workers employed.

This is not a rising tide that lifts all boats.

This is a wave of globalization that wipes out our middle class and our jobs.

We need to reform our economic system so that, once again, we can all succeed together, and America can become rich again.

That’s what we mean by America First.

Our country will be better off when we start making our own products again, bringing our once great manufacturing capabilities back to our shores.

Our Founders understood this.

One of the first major bills signed by George Washington called for “the encouragement and protection of manufactur[ing]” in America.[5]

Our first Republican President, Abraham Lincoln, warned us by saying:

“The abandonment of the protective policy by the American government will produce want and ruin among our people.”[6]

I have visited the cities and towns across America and seen the devastation caused by the trade policies of Bill and Hillary Clinton.

Hillary Clinton supported Bill Clinton’s disastrous NAFTA, just like she supported China’s entrance into the World Trade Organization.[7]

We’ve lost nearly one-third of our manufacturing jobs since these two Hillary-backed agreements were signed.[8]

Our trade deficit with China soared 40% during Hillary Clinton’s time as Secretary of State — a disgraceful performance for which she should not be congratulated, but rather scorned.[9]

Then she let China steal hundreds of billions of dollars in our intellectual property – a crime which is continuing to this day.[10]

Hillary Clinton gave China millions of our best jobs, and effectively let China completely rebuild itself.

In return, Hillary Clinton got rich!

The book Clinton Cash, by Peter Schweitzer, documents how Bill and Hillary used the State Department to enrich their family at America’s expense.

She gets rich making you poor.

Here is a quote from the book: “At the center of US policy toward China was Hillary Clinton…at this critical time for US-china relations, Bill Clinton gave a number of speeches that were underwritten by the Chinese government and its supporters.”

These funds were paid to the Clinton bank account while Hillary was negotiating with China on behalf of the United States.[11]

She sold out our workers, and our country, for Beijing.

Hillary Clinton has also been the biggest promoter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which will ship millions more of our jobs overseas – and give up Congressional power to an international foreign commission.[12]

Now, because I have pointed out why it would be such a disastrous deal, she is pretending that she is against it. She has even deleted this record of total support from her book – deletion is something she is very good at — (at least 30,000 emails are missing.)[13]

But this latest Clinton cover-up doesn’t change anything: if she is elected president, she will adopt the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and we will lose millions of jobs and our economic independence for good. She will do this, just as she has betrayed the American worker on trade at every single stage of her career – and it will be even worse than the Clintons’ NAFTA deal.

I want trade deals, but they have to be great for the United States and our workers.

We don’t make great deals anymore, but we will once I become president.

It’s not just our economy that’s been corrupted, but our foreign policy too.

The Hillary Clinton foreign policy has cost America thousands of lives and trillions of dollars – and unleashed ISIS across the world.

No Secretary of State has been more wrong, more often, and in more places than Hillary Clinton.

Her decisions spread death, destruction and terrorism everywhere she touched.

Among the victims is our late Ambassador, Chris Stevens. He was left helpless to die as Hillary Clinton soundly slept in her bed — that’s right, when the phone rang at 3 o’clock in the morning, she was sleeping.

Ambassador Stevens and his staff in Libya made hundreds of requests for security.[14]

Hillary Clinton’s State Department refused them all.

She started the war that put him in Libya, denied him the security he asked for, then left him there to die.

To cover her tracks, Hillary lied about a video being the cause of his death.[15]

Here is what one of the victim’s mothers had to say:

“I want the whole world to know it: she lied to my face, and you don’t want this person to be president.”[16]

In 2009, before Hillary Clinton was sworn in, it was a different world.

Libya was cooperating.

Iraq was seeing a reduction in violence.

Syria was under control.

Iran was being choked by sanctions.

Egypt was governed by a friendly regime that honored its peace treaty with Israel.

ISIS wasn’t even on the map.

Fast forward to 2013: In just four years, Secretary Clinton managed

to almost single-handedly destabilize the entire Middle East.

Her invasion of Libya handed the country over to the ISIS barbarians.

Thanks to Hillary Clinton, Iran is now the dominant Islamic power in the Middle East, and on the road to nuclear weapons.

Hillary Clinton’s support for violent regime change in Syria has thrown the country into one of the bloodiest civil wars anyone has ever seen – while giving ISIS a launching pad for terrorism against the West.[17]

She helped force out a friendly regime in Egypt and replace it with the radical Muslim Brotherhood. The Egyptian military has retaken control, but Clinton has opened the Pandora’s box of radical Islam.

Then, there was the disastrous strategy of announcing our departure date from Iraq, handing large parts of the country over to ISIS killers.[18]

ISIS threatens us today because of the decisions Hillary Clinton has made.

ISIS also threatens peaceful Muslims across the Middle East, and peaceful Muslims across the world, who have been terribly victimized by horrible brutality – and who only want to raise their kids in peace and safety.

In short, Hillary Clinton’s tryout for the presidency has produced one deadly foreign policy disaster after another.

It all started with her bad judgment in supporting the War in Iraq in the first place.[19]

Though I was not in government service, I was among the earliest to criticize the rush to war, and yes, even before the war ever started.[20]

But Hillary Clinton learned nothing from Iraq, because when she got into power, she couldn’t wait to rush us off to war in Libya.

She lacks the temperament, the judgment and the competence to lead.

In the words of a Secret Service agent posted outside the Oval Office:

“She simply lacks the integrity and temperament to serve

in the office…from the bottom of my soul, I know this to be true…Her leadership style – volcanic, impulsive…disdainful of the rules set for everyone else – hasn’t changed a bit.”[21]

Perhaps the most terrifying thing about Hillary Clinton’s foreign policy is that she refuses to acknowledge the threat posed by Radical Islam.

In fact, Hillary Clinton supports a radical 550% increase in Syrian refugees coming into the United States, and that’s an increase over President Obama’s already very high number.[22]

Under her plan, we would admit hundreds of thousands of refugees from the most dangerous countries on Earth – with no way to screen who they are or what they believe.[23] [24]

Already, hundreds of recent immigrants and their children have been convicted of terrorist activity inside the U.S.[25]

The father of the Orlando shooter was a Taliban supporter from Afghanistan, one of the most repressive anti-gay and anti-women regimes on Earth.[26]

I only want to admit people who share our values and love our people.

Hillary Clinton wants to bring in people who believe women should be enslaved and gays put to death.

Maybe her motivation lies among the more than 1,000 foreign donations Hillary failed to disclose while at the State Department.[27]

Hillary Clinton may be the most corrupt person ever to seek the presidency.

Here is some more of what we learned from the book, Clinton Cash:

A foreign telecom giant faced possible State Department sanctions for providing technology to Iran, and other oppressive regimes. So what did this company do? For the first time ever, they decided to pay Bill Clinton $750,000 for a single speech. The Clintons got their cash, the telecom company escaped sanctions.[28]
Hillary Clinton’s State Department approved the transfer of 20% of America’s uranium holdings to Russia, while 9 investors in the deal funneled $145 million to the Clinton Foundation.[29]
Hillary Clinton appointed a top donor to a national security board with top secret access – even though he had no national security credentials.[30]
Hillary Clinton accepted $58,000 in jewelry from the government of Brunei when she was Secretary of State – plus millions more for her foundation. The Sultan of Brunei has pushed oppressive Sharia law, including the punishment of death by stoning for being gay. The government of Brunei also stands to be one of the biggest beneficiaries of Hillary’s Trans-Pacific Partnership, which she would absolutely approve if given the chance. [31]
Hillary Clinton took up to $25 million from Saudi Arabia, where being gay is also punishable by death.[32]
Hillary took millions from Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and many other countries that horribly abuse women and LGBT citizens.[33]
To cover-up her corrupt dealings, Hillary Clinton illegally stashed her State Department emails on a private server.

Her server was easily hacked by foreign governments – perhaps even by her financial backers in Communist China – putting all of America in danger.[34]

Then there are the 33,000 emails she deleted.[35]

While we may not know what is in those deleted emails, our enemies probably do.

So they probably now have a blackmail file over someone who wants to be President of the United States.

This fact alone disqualifies her from the Presidency.

We can’t hand over our government to someone whose deepest, darkest secrets may be in the hands of our enemies.

National security is also immigration security – and Hillary wants neither.

Hillary Clinton has put forward the most radical immigration platform in the history of the United States.

She has pledged to grant mass amnesty and in her first 100 days, end virtually all immigration enforcement, and thus create totally open borders in the United States.[36]

The first victims of her radical policies will be poor African-American and Hispanic workers who need jobs. They are the ones she will hurt the most.

Let me share with you a letter our campaign received from Mary Ann Mendoza.

She lost her amazing son, Police Sergeant Brandon Mendoza, after he was killed by an illegal immigrant because of the open borders policies supported by Hillary Clinton.[37]

Sadly, the Mendoza family is just one of thousands who have suffered the same fate.

Here is an excerpt from Mrs. Mendoza’s letter:

“Hillary Clinton, who already has the blood of so many on her hands, is now announcing that she is willing to put each and every one of our lives in harms’ way – an open door policy to criminals and terrorists to enter our country. Hillary is not concerned about you or I, she is only concerned about the power the presidency would bring to her. She needs to go to prison to pay for the crimes she has already committed against this country.”

Hillary also wants to spend hundreds of billions to resettle Middle Eastern refugees in the United States, on top of the current record level of immigration.

For the amount of money Hillary Clinton would like to spend on refugees, we could rebuild every inner city in America.

Hillary’s Wall Street immigration agenda will keep immigrant communities poor, and unemployed Americans out of work. She can’t claim to care about African-American and Hispanic workers when she wants to bring in millions of new low-wage workers to compete against them.

Here are a few things a Trump Administration will do for America in the first 100 days:

Appoint judges who will uphold the Constitution. Hillary Clinton’s radical judges will virtually abolish the 2nd amendment.
Change immigration rules to give unemployed Americans an opportunity to fill good-paying jobs
Stand up to countries that cheat on trade, of which there are many
Cancel rules and regulations that send jobs overseas
Lift restrictions on energy production
Repeal and replace job-killing Obamacare — it is a disaster.
Pass massive tax reform to create millions of new jobs.
Impose tough new ethics rules to restore dignity to the Office of Secretary of State.
There is one common theme in all of these reforms.

It’s going to be America First.

This is why the stakes in November are so great.

On Election Day, the politicians stand trial before the people.

The voters are the jury. Their ballots are the verdict. We don’t need or want another Clinton or Obama.

Come November, the American people will have a chance to issue a verdict on the politicians that have sacrificed their security, betrayed their prosperity, and sold out their country.

They will have a chance to vote for a new agenda with big dreams, bold ideas and enormous possibilities for the American people.

Hillary Clinton’s message is old and tired. Her message is that can’t change.

My message is that things have to change – and this is our one chance do it. This is our last chance to do it.

Americans are the people that tamed the West, that dug out the Panama Canal, that sent satellites across the solar system that built the great dams, and so much more.

Then we started thinking small.

We stopped believing in what America could do, and became reliant on other countries, other people, and other institutions.

We lost our sense of purpose, and daring.

But that’s not who we are.

Come this November, we can bring America back – bigger and better, and stronger than ever.

We will build the greatest infrastructure on the planet earth – the roads and railways and airports of tomorrow.

Our military will have the best technology and finest equipment – we will bring it back all the way.

Massive new factories will come roaring into our country – breathing life and hope into our communities.

Inner cities, which have been horribly abused by Hillary Clinton and the Democrat Party, will finally be rebuilt.

Construction is what I know — nobody knows it better.

The real wages for our workers have not been raised for 18 years — but these wages will start going up, along with the new jobs. Hillary’s massive taxation, regulation and open borders will destroy jobs and drive down wages for everyone.

We are also going to be supporting our police and law enforcement — we can never forget the great job they do.

I am also going to appoint great Supreme Court Justices.

Our country is going to start working again.

People are going to start working again.

Parents are going to start dreaming big for their children again – including parents in our inner cities.

Americans are going to start believing in the future or our country.

We are going to make America rich again.

We are going to make America safe again.

We are going to make America Great Again – and Great Again For EVERYONE.

——————————————————

[1] (“Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton Remarks on Iraq” The George Washington University, 3/17/2008)

[2] (“2013 Tax Return,” Hillary Clinton, Accessed 6/22/2016)

[3] (“2014 Tax Return,” Hillary Clinton, Accessed 6/22/2016)

[4] (Robert Yoon, “$153 million in Bill and Hillary Clinton speaking fees, documented,” CNN, 2/6/2016)

[5] (“Statement submitted by Thomas O. Marvin, Secretary Home Market Club, Boston,” Committee of Ways and Means, 1/10/1913)

[6] (“Abraham Lincoln, Complete Works,” John Nicolay and John Hay, 1894)

[7] (Domenico Montanaro, “A Timeline Of Hillary Clinton’s Evolution On Trade” NPR, 4/21/2015)

[8] (“All Employees: Manufacturing,” Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Accessed 6/22/2016)

[9] (“Trade in Goods with China,” U.S. Census Report, Accessed 6/22/2016)

[10] (“The Report of the Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property,” The IP Commission Report, May 2013)

[11] (Lauren Carroll, “Fact-checking ‘Clinton Cash’ author on claim about Bill Clinton’s speaking fees,” Politifact, 4/26/2015)

[12] (“Press Release, “Fast-Track Would Give Obama Green Light To Form EU-Inspired ‘Pacific Union,’ Surrender Congress’ Treaty Powers,” Senator Jeff Sessions, 6/8/2015)

[13] (“Paperback version of Clinton’s ‘Hard Choices’ omits her former TPP trade pact support” Fox News, 6/11/2016)

[14] (Melanie Hunter, “More Than 600 Benghazi Security Requests Never Reached Clinton’s Desk, But Reports on Libya from Her ‘Friend’ Did,” CNS News, 10/22/2015)

[15] (Press Release, “State Department Belatedly Releases New Clinton Benghazi Documents,” Judicial Watch, 4/14/2016)

[16] (“’I Want the World to Know That Hillary Lied to My Face,’” Fox News, 8/22/2013)

[17] (Anne Barnard, “Death Toll From War in Syria Now 470,000, Group Finds,” The New York Times, 2/11/2016)

[18] (“Obama: All US Troops Out Of Iraq By End Of Year,” NBC News, 10/21/2011)

[19] (Adam Lerner, “Hillary Clinton says her Iraq war vote was a ‘mistake,’” Politico, 5/19/2015)

[20] (Donald J. Trump, “Your World With Neil Cavuto,” Fox News, 1/28/2003)

[21] (“Secret Service agent’s book claims Clinton has ‘volcanic’ leadership style,” Fox News, 6/6/2016)

[22] (Rebecca Kaplan, “Hillary Clinton: U.S. should take 65,000 Syrian refugees,” CBS News, 9/20/2015)

[23] (Michael Patrick Leahy, “Politifact Says Trump Is Right: Hillary Clinton Supports ‘500% Increase in Syrian Refugees’” Breitbart, 6/15/2016)

[24] (Melanie Hunter, “FBI Director Admits U.S. Will Have No Basis to Vet Some Syrian Refugees” CNS News, 10/21/2015)

[25] (Judson Berger, “Anatomy of the terror threat: Files shed light on nature, extent of plots in US,” Fox News, 6/22/2016)

[26] (Jonathan Landay and Yeganeh Torbati, “Father of Orlando shooter hosted political show on Afghan-Pakistan issues,” Reuters, 6/13/2016)

[27] (Joshua Green and Richard Rubin, “Clinton Foundation Failed to Disclose 1,100 Foreign Donations,” Bloomberg Politics, 4/29/2015)

[28] (Matthew Mosk and Brian Ross, “Bill Clinton Cashed In When Hillary Became Secretary of State,” ABC News, 4/23/2015)

[29] (Jo Becker and Mike McIntire, “Cash Flowed to Clinton Foundation Amid Russian Uranium Deal,” The New York Times, 4/23/2015)

[30] (David Sirota, “Clinton Foundation Donors Got Weapons Deals From Hillary Clinton’s State Department,” International Business Times, 5/26/2015)

[31] (“Office of the Chief of Protocol; Gifts to Federal Employees From Foreign Government Sources Reported to Employing Agencies in Calendar Year 2012; Notice,” Department of State, 8/20/2013)

[32] (William La Jeunesse, “Rights groups silent as Clinton Foundation takes millions from countries that imprison gays,” Fox News, 6/17/2016)

[33] (“Contributor and Grantor Information,” Clinton Foundation, Accessed 6/22/2016)

[34] (Josh Gerstein and Rachael Bade, “Clinton server faced hacking from China, South Korea and Germany,” Politico, 10/8/2015)

[35] (Paula Reid and Hannah Fraser-Chanpong, “Report: FBI pulls deleted emails from Hillary Clinton’s server,” CBS News, 9/22/2015)

[36] (Monica Alba, “Hillary Clinton Calls Trump a ‘Bully’ Who Threatens Economy,” NBC News, 5/23/2016)

[37] (Megan Cassidy, “Mom is angry that man who killed son wasn’t deported,” USA Today, 7/11/2014)

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Ridgewood’s Twinney Pond gets Mosquito eating fish

Twinney Pond Park
June 22,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ,  in a new weapon against the spread of the Zika virus a village pond has been stocked with mosquito-eating fish as part of a program to prevent the spread of mosquito-borne illnesses in Bergen County.

In a campaign called Bergen Bites Back, the Bergen County Mosquito Control stocked Twinney Pond with the mosquito eating fish ,the Gambusia fish .The fish feed on mosquito larvae.  Bergen County Mosquito Control is using the Gambusia fish, along with regular spraying of standing water, as part of a mosquito population control and an attempt prevent mosquito-borne illnesses, including the Zika virus.

More Information
For additional information on efforts underway in Bergen County, please call the hotline at 201-225-7000 or visit the Bergen Health website and click on “West Nile Virus”.

System
Bergen County Mosquito Control Program is based on a system of  “Integrated Pest Management” consisting of surveillance source reduction, water management, and biological and chemical control.

Mosquito Control in Bergen County is an ongoing, year round program.

Early Spring
In early spring, the surveillance and application program begins. Surveillance entails looking for larvae and applying materials to prevent hatching.

After Pre-Season
After the pre-season is completed, a regularly scheduled inspection and control program begins in the eleven districts covering the 70 municipalities.

Nearly 4000 specific breeding sites are routinely inspected and larvae is collected and identified.

Bacillus Thuringiensis
If mosquito larvae is found, Bacillus Thuringiensis (BTI) is applied. BTI is a selected larvicide which affects mosquito and black fly larvae and causes no harm to

Animals
Beneficial insects
Birds
Humans
Marine life
Pets
Vegetation
Wildlife

Warmer Months
During the warmer months, mosquito breeding habitats are stocked with Gambusia, a small fish with a hearty appetite for mosquito larvae. During this time a variety of traps are installed county-wide to monitor the adult mosquito population.

Adulticiding to control the adult population is only done when necessary, from a truck or hand held unit, not by helicopter, in response to adult mosquito surveillance and identification.

Biological Control Program
The NJ State Mosquito Control Commission funds a Biological Control Program which uses five species of mosquito-eating fish which are raised at the DEP’s Division of Fish, and Wildlife’s Charles O. Hayford Hatchery in Hackettstown.

These fish are distributed at no charge to county mosquito control agencies. Where practical, these fish control mosquito populations and reduce the need for pesticides.

Winter Months
During the winter months, hand labor and heavy equipment is used to clear and desilt ditches, streams and ponds to allow for free movement of water. Tide-gates and dikes are inspected and repaired to prevent flooding of low-lying areas and water in ditches and brooks are lowered to minimize mosquito breeding.

MOSQUITO PREVENTION TIPS
Bergen County Executive Kathleen A. Donovan Encourages Residents to Take Simple Precautions

It’s time to take important steps to protect yourself and your family against West Nile Virus (WNV) infection and mosquito annoyance in general.

WNV is transmitted through the bite of an infected mosquito, so it’s important to take steps to prevent getting mosquito bites and to clean or remove items on your property that can serve as mosquito breeding grounds.

Individuals can take a number of measures around the home to help eliminate mosquito-breeding areas, including:

• Dispose of cans, buckets, plastic containers, ceramic pots or similar containers that hold water on your property.
• Properly dispose of discarded tires that can collect water. Stagnant water is where most mosquitoes breed.
• Drill drainage holes in the bottom of outdoor recycling containers.
• Clean clogged roof gutters every year, particularly if the leaves from surrounding trees tend to plug drains.
• Turn over plastic wading pools when not in use.
• Turn over wheelbarrows and don’t let water stagnate in birdbaths.
• Aerate ornamental pools or stock them with fish.
• Clean and chlorinate swimming pools not in use and remove any water that may collect on pool covers.

For stagnant pools of water, homeowners can buy Bti products at lawn and garden, outdoor supply, home improvement and other stores. This naturally occurring bacteria kills mosquito larva, but is safe for people, pets, aquatic life and plants.

Additionally, these simple precautions can prevent mosquito bites, particularly for people who are most at risk:

• Make sure screens fit tightly over doors and windows to keep mosquitoes out of homes.

• Consider wearing long-sleeved shirts, long pants and socks when outdoors, particularly when mosquitoes are most active at dawn and dusk, or in areas known for having large numbers of mosquitoes.

• When possible, reduce outdoor exposure at dawn and dusk during peak mosquito periods, usually April through October.

• Use insect repellants according to the manufacturer’s instructions. An effective repellant will contain DEET, picaridin or oil of lemon eucalyptus. Consult with a pediatrician or family physician if you have questions about the use of repellent on children, as repellant is not recommended for children under the age of two months.

WNV is an arboviral disease which people can acquire through the bite of a mosquito that has fed on an infected bird. WNV is not directly transmitted from birds to humans. About one in 150 persons, or less than 1 percent of those infected with West Nile virus will develop a more severe form of the disease. Symptoms of more serious illness include severe headache, high fever, neck stiffness, stupor, disorientation, coma, tremors, convulsions, muscle weakness and paralysis.

The elderly are at higher risk of more severe disease. Bergen County’s WNV surveillance, control, and prevention activities involve the coordinated efforts of a number of federal, state and local agencies. These include DHSS, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, the New Jersey Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the State Mosquito Control Commission, the Rutgers Center for Vector Biology, local and Bergen County Health Departments, and of course our Bergen County Department of Public Works Division of Mosquito Control.

For more information about mosquito control in Bergen County,
call the Health Hotline: 201-225-7000 or visit the website:https://www.co.bergen.nj.us/index.aspx?nid=325

To contact the Bergen County Division of Mosquito Control about a mosquito problem, call 201-634-2880.

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Executive Order, to force schools, businesses, etc, to allow men to use girls’ locker rooms and toilets

RHS Toilet
June 11,2016

by Ron DuBois

Since the President saw fit to issue “guidelines” in an Executive Order, to force schools, businesses, etc, to allow men to use girls’ locker rooms and toilets, I’ve been following the fallout. Shortly after the decree, some schools and stores began welcoming trans-sexuals, and other gender-confused people, to use whatever bathroom or changing facility they identified most with. One reason given was that such persons should not be made to feel uncomfortable if, for example, they are males who believe they are really females trapped in mens’ bodies, and would prefer to use the ladies room rather than the men’s room.I don’t want to go into the usual arguments, like male predators wanting to see females in various stages of undress, but I wonder – if a male wants to use the female bathroom or locker room because he feels uncomfortable using the male facilities, did the President think how uncomfortable the girls might be with men coming in gawking at them? Transgendered people make up well under one percent of the population; why are we trying to accommodate their feelings at the expense of the, say 50 percent of females in the population, who will now be made to feel uncomfortable? It seems to defy logic, when maybe 80 or 90 females have to be made uncomfortable, so one male/female doesn’t.

Well, about a week after this started, I thought of an answer, but didn’t say anything because I was sure lots of others would also think of it. To date, I haven’t heard or read about anyone proposing my solution. I believe it’s because certain people (in power) on both sides don’t want a simple solution. It really isn’t about inclusiveness for all, it’s about breaking down the traditions that have served us well, like honesty and morality, like traditional marriage and the family, like teaching schoolkids about American History and the Constitution, and making them proud to be Americans. The actions of Progressives and others show just how astute Benjamin Franklin was, when he said the Constitution was only for a moral and religious people, and was totally inadequate for any other.

So here is the solution I propose. Every school, and every large store, has facilities to change, try on things, and go to the toilet; they have multiple places for these accommodations. Schools, for instance have faculty bathrooms, as well as student bathrooms. Since the  number of transgenders, cross-dressers, etc at each school, store or business is miniscule, only one toilet will be needed to accommodate them (maybe more on a college campus with thousands of students). One of the faculty bathrooms can be set aside for this purpose. Large facilities, institutions, and stores also have enough bathrooms to set one aside so transgenders, etc can use a toilet or change, without embarrassment.

For showering, I can only suggest that if someone is uncomfortable showering with others who have the same genitalia, they wait until they get home to shower. I do not advocate males being allowed to barge into a female shower room, and shower with them. I also believe that if a man wants to use the female showers, it should only be allowed if he has undergone the full medical change, so he is now a woman, like Bruce Jenner did. Just because a man feels feminine one morning does not give him the right to shower with the girls at school.

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Get ready for Obamaloans: New regs could drive payday lenders out of business

Barack Obama

By Eric Boehm  /   June 1, 2016

If you loved Obamacare, get ready for Obamaloans.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the federal regulatory agency established in response to the 2008 Wall Street meltdown to police banks and other financial institutions, is set to issue new rules Thursday that could reshape payday lending.

Payday loans are small-dollar, high-interest loans used most often by low-income workers to help cover monthly expenses between paychecks. The CFPB contends the $40 billion industry that serves an estimated 12 million customers each year traps workers in a cycle of debt that is difficult to escape.

The new rules will be the culmination of more than three years of work by the CFPB, and the latest step in an even longer crusade by progressives to see payday lending banned entirely.

When a draft version of the new regulations was released in March, the Consumer Financial Services Association of America, the trade group for payday lenders, said a “substantial part of the industry” could be forced out of business. According to a Politico report Wednesday, the CFPB’s own projections show that loan volume could fall by 84 percent under the new rules.

That’s all part of the plan, according to some critics of the CFPB who believe the Obama administration’s goal is to drive payday lenders out of business and clear the way for taxpayer-backed nonprofits — including one with direct ties to federal regulators — to take over the market for short-term lending with an expansion of taxpayer-subsidized loans, called “Obamaloans” by critics.

Iain Murray, a vice president at the Competitive Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C., says the groundwork for a federal takeover of the small-dollar lending industry has been laid over the past few years.

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Image courtesy Competitive Enterprise Institute

MURRAY: After new regulations force payday lenders to go out of business, says Iain Murray of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the taxpayer-funded “Obamaloans” will be the only game in town for low income workers who need help making ends meet.

“When all other sources of short term cash are outlawed for people with poor credit, where do they turn? The outcry will become overwhelming for federally backed loans to the underserved market,” Murray said in an email to Watchdog.

Along with the expected new regulations from the CFPB, President Barack Obama’s latest budget proposal contains $10 million for the expansion of the federal small-dollar lending program, administered by nonprofits known as community development financial institutions (CDFI).

What does that mean for low-income Americans who might occasionally need a payday loan to help make ends meet?

The CFPB says the crackdown on payday lending will help them escape the “debt trap,” but evidence from states where payday lending has been restricted offers a different narrative.

North Carolina banned payday loans in 2004 after an intense lobbying effort from progressive groups like the Center for Responsible Lending, which decried the industry as a “debt trap” — the same language now being used by the CFPB as it, at the behest of the CRL, crafts new federal rules.

Three years later, a study from the Federal Reserve of New York found low-income workers in North Carolina were worse off than they had been before the ban.  The Fed found higher rates of bankruptcies and bounced checks and found that more borrowers were seeking assistance from CDFIs and other nonprofit lenders.

One of the largest, and certainly the most politically influential, community development financial institution in the country is the Center for Self Help, which is based in North Carolina and was fingered by the Federal Reserve as one of the biggest beneficiaries of the ban on payday lending in the state.

Now, Self Help stands to benefit from both the expansion of federally funded small-dollar loan programs and the coming extinction of their competitors in the payday lending industry.

Some critics see a conflict of interest there, because the Center for Self Help owns the Center for Responsible Lending, which acts as its lobbying arm and has a direct conduit to the CFPB.

READ MORE: Lending Influence – How a progressive group profits from pushing financial regulations

Last year, emails obtained by Politico revealed that the Center for Responsible Lending spent hours consulting with senior Obama administration officials, giving input on how to implement the rule that would restrict the vast majority of short-term loans.

“The group regularly sent over policy papers, traded emails and met multiple times with top officials responsible for drafting the rule,” reported Politico’s Anna Palmer. “At the same time, the group’s financial services business, Self Help Credit Union, was pushing CFPB to support its own small-dollar loan product with a much lower interest rate as an alternative to payday loans.”

With the final rules set to be unveiled this week, critics are pointing to those emails and to a revolving door between the CFPB and the Center for Responsible Lending to claim that the progressive nonprofit had undue influence over policy.

Martin Eakes, who founded the Self Help Credit Union in 1988 and now serves as it’s CEO – as well as the CEO of the Center for Responsible Lending – has been pushing federal regulators for years to crack down on payday lending. In 2007, while serving on an advisory panel for the FDIC, which regulates banks, Eakes suggested allowing banks to extend small-dollar loans to anyone with overdraft protection on their checking account.

According to meeting minutes, Eakes said the most viable outcome of that proposal would be persuading policymakers that there are alternatives to payday loans, “thereby making it more palatable to prohibit payday loans.”

When Eakes pitched that idea in 2007, the CFPB did not even exist yet. Less than a decade later, though, he and other progressives who want to reshape the country’s financial institutions have found the perfect vehicle for doing that.

Created in 2010 as part of the Dodd-Frank Act, the CFPB has nearly unchecked regulatory authority over U.S. banks and financial institutions. To the cheers of progressives such as U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, the CFPB has cracked down on auto loans, payday lenders, community banks and mortgage brokers – though it has also helped to entrench the idea that some banks are “too big to fail,” the very thing that the CFPB was, in theory, supposed to fight against.

Payday lenders are the CFPB’s next target, but reshuffling the small-loan industry might not help American workers as much as Eakes and other reformers claim.

Almost four in 10 Americans say they don’t have enough savings to cover the cost of a $500 emergency, so there is no doubt that payday lending fills a vital role in helping people get by from paycheck to paycheck. But do lenders take advantage of their borrowers?

Image via Wiki Commons

ECHO CHAMBER: Richard Cordray, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, calls payday loans “debt traps,” mimicking the phrase of progressive groups such as the Center for Responsible Lending, which has significant influence over more than just language at the CFPB.

The CFPB certainly think so. When starting the crusade against payday lending in 2013, the agency issued a report slamming payday loans as too expensive and not suitable for sustained use. A sizable share of consumers end up in cycles of repeated borrowing and incur significant costs over time, the report found.

“For too many consumers, payday and deposit advance loans are debt traps that cause them to be living their lives off money borrowed at huge interest rates,” said Richard Cordray, director of the CFPB.

But that’s not the experience of most borrowers. The CFPB’s own publicly available data shows that just 1.5 percent of all complaints submitted to the federal agency were regarding payday loans.

The Consumer Financial Services Association of America says its research shows 96 percent of customers report payday loans to be useful and 84 percent said it was easy to repay the loans.

Some people do use payday loans irresponsibly and end up trapped in a cycle of debt, but even that minority might be worse off without payday lending as an option.  A 2007 paper by Mercatus Center researcher Todd Zywicki suggests that regulators are wrong to look at short-term loans using the same metrics as long-term borrowing like credit cards and mortgages.

In a rather typical payday loan, a borrower might take out $300 with a promise to repay $350 in two weeks.  That’s an annual percentage rate of 435 percent – an absurd interest payment, when even the worst credit cards typically carry APRs of around 30 percent.

Zywicki says that’s the wrong way to look at payday loans, since they’re not meant to be paid back over the long term — there is no “annual” to the percentage rate. And for comparisons’ sake, the effective APR on overdrafted checking accounts can be as much as 1,000 percent, according to the FDIC.

“Although expensive, payday loans are less expensive than available alternatives,” wrote Zywicki. “Misguided paternalistic regulation that deprives consumers of access to payday loans would likely force many of them to turn to even more expensive lenders or to do without emergency funds.”

In this case, the regulations will do little to protect consumers’ finances, while driving more people to use the products offered, at taxpayers’ expense, by organizations such as the Self Help Credit Union — just like what happened a decade ago in North Carolina.

“The infrastructure for this — the community development financial institutions — is already in place,” said Murray. “Obamaloans will be the only game in town.”

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Caitlyn might as well go back to being Bruce

Caitlyn Jenner,  ridgewood

By Andrea Peyser

May 15, 2016 | 11:37pm

Was it all a big, fat, transgender oopsie?

Is Caitlyn Jenner, the most fabulous trans individual ever to strap a bra over budding boobs and squeeze wrinkly buns into extra-extra-large pantyhose, ready to hang up her high heels, trash her female hormones and return to life as a mannamed Bruce?

It makes sense. A depraved, twisted kind of sense. As if the public has been played by a mistress, toying with our heads like kittens with string. For Cait is a devious narcissist who learned her craft at the feet of the Kardashian clan, the most shameless, self-absorbed, attention-seeking hucksters ever to roam the reality-TV universe — until Cait.

I’m not transphobic in the least. I support people’s rights to live, work, date and marry as the genders with which they self-identify. (I just want any stranger equipped with junk to keep the hell out of my bathroom.)

https://nypost.com/2016/05/15/caitlyn-might-as-well-go-back-to-being-bruce/?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=NYPFacebook&utm_medium=SocialFlow

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A fact based rebuttal to the Ridgewood Mayor’s smear campaign against the garage petitioners

BCIA petition OLMC
May 6,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, The Mayor and the Village Manager have persistently and knowingly mischaracterized the Village Council’s decision to call a $ 40-45k special election as being required by the terms of the petition.
The special election is NOT required and the Mayor, the Village Manager, The Village Council and now the taxpayers know it.
The clear and compelling evidence of this is that the language of the special election Resolution #16-110 which was passed by the Village Council on April 27 th incorporates the very statute (NJSA 40-49- 27 otherwise known as the Home Rule Act) that specifically provides the option of waiting until the next General Election in November,or if the municipality desires it may call a special election.
This statute was included in the Resolution, according to Matt Jessup, bond attorney for the council since Matt Rogers recused himself (little known fact), “to protect the Council from any litigation.” That says it all right there. Matt Rogers recused himself because he had done some pro bono work for the church, & felt that if he counseled on the petition, it could be perceived as a conflict of interest.
The Mayor, the Village Manager and the rest of the Mayor’s customary voting bloc desire a special election because:
1) It creates a diversion from the fact that to date they have wasted $ 415,000 on the design process. They were so arrogantly confident that they could shove the original Plan A and its looming 12 Foot encroachment into Hudson Street through the Council, that they ordered $295,000.00 worth of construction documents BEFORE THE DESIGN WAS SELECTED. They subsequently issued a $120,000.00 change order to try again and we are not done yet
2) They bootstrap a false claim that the petitioners don’t support building a Hudson Street garage at all and are anti -everything. This is false and can be verified as such by any number of Council Meeting recordings and correspondence
3) They can falsely claim that the petitioners are causing the Village to incur the roughly $ 40-45k in expenses, thus smearing the petitioners, when in fact, the Council is deciding to call a special election
4) It puts the election on the calendar when they will be still be using the bully pulpit to misinform the public
5) It fits with their overall victim narrative. They are claiming to hostage to the demands of the petitioners when it’s clearly the Village that is being held hostage to the agenda of the other way around. All the petitioners want is either a more reasonable garage or the residents to make an informed decision Mayor, please stop making stuff up. It hurts the Village you claim to Love
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Elderly Couple Sustain Minor Injuries in Midland Park Strip Mall Crash

Mildland Park Mall Crash

photo courtesy of Boyd Loving’s Facebook page

May 6,2016

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Midland Park NJ, An elderly female/male couple sustained only minor injuries when their brand new 4-door Toyota Corolla crashed into a strip mall located at 644 Godwin Avenue, Midland Park at approximately 11:30 AM on Thursday, 05/05. Midland Park PD, FD, and EMS all responded along with a paramedic unit from The Valley Hospital and a BLS unit from Wyckoff. The victims were trapped in the vehicle until Midland Park firefighters removed a rear door to obtain access to the passenger compartment. The were both transported by separate ambulances to The Valley Hospital. A flatbed tow truck removed the Toyota from the building after PSE&G disconnected all gas & electric service. The section of the strip mall affected appeared to have been unoccupied and under renovation at the time of the crash.

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Reader says Nowadays everyone diagnosing the fun and life and desire for adventure out of Kids

school kids

Children just need time to grow and mature like I did. We live in the worst age possible for children. God bless em.

They say the 1950s was a conformist time. No way. That was a great time for kids. THE BEST.

Nowadays everyone diagnosing the fun and life and desire for adventure out of kids and nothing being wrong.

And so-called specialists who don’t know what they are talkin about with their fancy, meaningless psyhobabble, nowadays diagnosing the kids and squeezing the spirit and life out of kids.

The 1950s was great time for kids; I remember being left alone to play after school in untrammeled nature with any friends I wanted to ,; no forced , rigid play dates. God, if I had been a child now , I would have been diagnosed with every ADHD and autism label they make up.

“Autism Spectrum” fancy that, that is enogh to kill the creative lively spirit out of a growing chid. or ADHD and the rest.

No wonder there are so many teen suicides. By that time their spirit is dead, they no longer can respond to life , because they were not allowed to naturally respond. They were made to be walking zombies.

We live in a greedy, robotic world, with stupid so-called educator specialists trying to trap lively, imaginative, kids who want to run run run and explore outside, trap them in stifling all day kindergarten.

I remember myself at that age. Fun and freedom that’s what I craved. Even now..

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The Inquisition: Vermont climate scientist says RICO investigations not attack on free speech

inquisition

From 1483 to 1498, Tomás de Torquemada presided over the Spanish Inquisition, the notorious Catholic tribunal used to try heretics and nonbelievers. In order to force their confession, these victims were subjected to gruesome punishments including strangulation or being stretched on the rack. Others were waterboarded or put through strappado, a grueling torture in whichsubjects were hanged by their wrists until their arms dislocated.

By Michael Bielawski  /   April 6, 2016

RICO 20: Alan Betts, a climate scientist from Pittsford, Vt., is one of 20 environmentalists calling on the Obama administration to use RICO laws to investigate corporate opponents of climate change regulations.

By Michael Bielawski and Bruce Parker | Vermont Watchdog

As more than a dozen states investigate energy companies over an alleged global warming coverup, Vermont “RICO 20” professor Alan Betts says backers aren’t engaged in an anti-free-speech witch-hunt.

Last week, top attorneys led by New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and former Vice President Al Gore announced a collective effort to investigate Exxon Mobil over environmentalist claims that the company misled the public about its role in climate change.

Among those present was Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell, who said his office may join the investigation.

Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt blasted the investigation as a “publicity stunt,” and touted a 27-state lawsuit to fight the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan. West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, appearing on the Inside Shale Weekly radio program, responded, “You cannot use the power of the office of the attorney general to silence your critics.”

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The actions are backed by the “RICO 20,” a group of 20 climate scientists that urged President Obama and U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch to use the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act against fossil fuel companies, especially Exxon Mobil. Jagadish Shukla, a climate dynamics professor at George Mason University, and leader of the RICO 20, has been investigated by Congress for possible abuse of $1.5 million in taxpayer grants.

Alan Betts, a climate scientist from Pittsford, says the professors aren’t attacking free speech.

“It wasn’t about freedom of speech; it was all about Exxon and their deception back in the 1980s,” Betts told Vermont Watchdog.

“(Critics said) we were attacking scientists and things like that, but that was completely untrue. It was about trying to hold Exxon responsible for their deceit over the years, which has led to a great delay in taking action on greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.”

That “deception” and “deceit” refers to reports authored by Columbia Journalism School fellows — and run in the Los Angeles Times — that accused Exxon of expressing climate change doubts while internal company research supported global warming claims. While Exxon has attributed conflicting research to a lack of consensus on what to do about climate change, the New York Post reported that the Columbia Journalism School project was organized by anti-Exxon activist Steve Coll and funded by a host of anti-fossil-fuel foundations.

Despite telltale signs of environmental advocacy behind claims against Exxon, Betts maintains that Exxon’s actions are akin to tobacco companies defending cigarette marketing while knowing the dangers of smoking. That claim could allow states and the global warming industry to reap a financial windfall on par with the $206 billion attained through the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement of 1998. That settlement involved attorneys general of 46 states and four leading tobacco companies in the United States.

Walter Olson, a RICO expert and senior fellow at the CATO Center for Constitutional Studies, told Vermont Watchdog claims by the RICO 20 lack merit.

“This does remind me of the old days in which the authorities would decide they need to convict someone and now let’s find a crime,” he said. “… It does rather look as if they’ve decided they want to convict someone of something, and now the question is what remote area of law can they turn to in hopes finding guilt.”

According to Olson, companies — especially ones with tens of thousands of employees like Exxon Mobil — hire experts to pursue “what-if scenarios,” such as a global warming doomsday situation. He said the companies are not legally bound to promote the views of certain individuals or groups within the company. He added that the effort could have a chilling effect on free speech and open inquiry.

“They are attempting to attach legal punishment to businesses that speak their mind on controversial public issues — that is something that should frighten everyone in the business community,” Olson said. “Everyone sometimes has problems with government and wants to be free to speak out without punishment based on the fact that some people think the opinions are wrong.”

Betts denied that environmentalists could be heading for a scandal of their own making, as when leaked emails from East Anglia University in 2009 revealed climate scientists manipulated data to hide information that did not support the theory of global warming — a scandal popularly known as “Climategate.”

“Those allegations were created by the various organizations,” Betts said. “… Somebody hacked into their databases and proceeded to edit their databases and selectively manipulate their emails to try and make a case.”

Olson said fossil-fuel companies can’t be convicted of fraud in this instance because companies aren’t responsible for endorsing any particular internal opinion within a company.

“There is no single unified brain in a company. … There isn’t a requirement that there be a single person knowing everything that everyone knows in the company and then deciding who’s right,” he said.

He added that companies often keep employees with divergent views to gain the best insights, and that no single researcher represents the company more than another.

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New Proposed Teterboro Flight Approach moves Jet Traffic closer Ridgewood

valley_hospital_theridgewoodblog
March 30,2016

the staff of the Rjidgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, Look in the sky its a bird no its a plane and the new flight path to Teterboro Airport, intended to reduce noise around Hackensack University Medical Center, could take jets over Valley Hospital and Benjamin Franklin Middle School in Ridgewood . This according to a map of the new flight procedure published by a navigational aid company ahead of a six-month trial of the route, which is due to begin on Monday.

The Bergen Record is reporting that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has emphasized that its new they call it the “quiet visual” approach for Teterboro Airport shifts aircraft west of their current route to track Route 17 south from Mahwah to Rochelle Park. The idea is to minimize noise pollution by keeping aircraft over or close to the highway, itself a source of noise.

But the new flight procedure, published by Jeppesen, a Boeing company, shows that a significant portion of the approach takes pilots west of Route 17, particularly between Waldwick and Paramus.

The new flight path according to Jeppesen’s chart has jets approaching Teterboro dropping to a minimum of 3,000 feet around Mahwah, passing over Mahwah and Ramsey high schools. The next descend brings flights to about 2,000 feet, as they approach Julia A Traphagen Elementary School in Waldwick. Then planes would continue south, passing Ho-Ho-Kus Elementary School and, in Ridgewood, Benjamin Franklin Middle School and The Valley Hospital.

As flights continue over Paramus, jets will fly over Stony Lane School and Midland Elementary School as well as close by Bergen Community College, before coming in to land over the top of IKEA and the Westfield Garden State Plaza, while staying more than 1 mile west of Hackensack University Medical Center.

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Brussels needs to be a wake up call for America as we get distracted by political antics here at home

Brussels terror attacks

Scott Mann, is a former Lt. Col and Green Beret. He is the CEO of Mission America and author of the best-selling novel “Game Changers”. He spent 23 years in the Army Special Forces Career involved in Foreign Internal Defense, Counter-insurgency, and Stability Missions. He served in the Special Operations for over 18 years and has been a Green Beret for over 15 years in combat deployments in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Panama, Iraq and Afghanistan. He is one of the only former Lt. Col’s that is actively still involved in the day-to-day transition of Green Berets from active duty into civilian life.

Brussels needs to be a wake up call for America as we get distracted by political antics here at home

Let’s not wait for Brussels to come to America!

The attack that killed 26 innocent civilians in Brussels Belgium is a stark reminder that ISIS and other Islamist violent extremist groups are very much on the march in free society.

The game has changed and these terror groups are not messing around.

Multiple explosions of this caliber with these kind of significant casualties indicate several things:

1- even before knowing many details, it is obvious this was a complex attack that required significant planning and support.

2-Generally complex attacks of this kind also indicate that there was an inside job. Said another way, this likely indicates internal support within Belgium to facilitate this kind of operation taking place. My professional opinion is that we will learn that there was inside support from operatives living in side Belgium. Complex attacks of this nature are just too difficult to pull off in an external fashion. Time will tell on this one.

 

-There is some speculation that this was an attack of retribution for the arrest of Salah Abdelsalam, who helped mastermind the Paris attacks.

-Other  security analysts like KT McFarland think this is more of a traditional political statement. She cited on Fox news this morning all of the multiple political targets inside Belgium

As a career guerrilla warfare expert, who has fought and studied these groups for many years, I disagree… I believe this is about social control.

 

ISIS is a new breed of terror group who want to demonstrate their ability to conduct horrific violence at very local levels to achieve societal paralysis.

 

This paralysis cows community and citizen action and draws Western powers into an emotional response and deeper fight in Syria where we employ traditional forms of warfare that bogs down and feeds the I SI S prophecy and narrative that Islam is under attack by the west.

 

In other words, the attacks in Belgium, Paris, and the ones to come are much more than political statements… They are a bait and switch designed to draw us deeper into a much broader manufactured holy war.

We must not forget the prophetic motivation of ISIS to usher in the “end of days”. They believe this prophesy and they will conduct these horrific attacks across Western Europe and eventually the US in order to draw Western powers deeper into their trap.

Right now, everyone is in a reactionary mode. This is very typical of these types of attacks.

 

Everyone stops their life briefly   to gasp and then shake your head sadly for a few minutes at a violent attack going across their news screen.

 

While we mourn the loss of innocence in Belgium, we must wake up here in America.

 

As Americans get drawn into the political antics of our 2016 election year, it would be well advised for us to remember that ISIS is very much on the march and their temporary silence in America, as we’ve just seen in Brussels, does not equal inactivity.

If we want to see what is coming our way in the United States regarding ISIS, we only need to look at events like this in Western Europe. The same open societal systems and borders that enabled extremists to conduct this horrific attack in Belgium and Paris also enabled to ISIS operatives to conduct the San Bernardino shootings which was the worst Islam asked terror shooting event in American history.

This violent reality is not going away.

Let’s remember that the San Bernardino shooters had multiple explosive devices in their apartment.

 

A responsible planning assumption by politicians and law-enforcement is that ISlS are actively preparing complex attacks of the Belgium caliber here in United States.

If we are going to protect our freedom and our children we must change how we fight ISIS and these other extremists abroad and at home. Here are three significant steps we should take:

1-we should get very serious about addressing the narrative of ISI S. Our politicians and policymakers don’t even talk how these monsters recruit children and draw them into their false utopia known as their caliphate and mobilize them for horrific acts of violence. We must compete with this narrative on the world stage.

2-we must defeat ISIS and Al Qaeda in their safe Havens in rough places like Iraq, Syria, rural Afghanistan, and even north Africa.. This requires much more than drone strikes and night raids. We must empower local citizens in these rough places that were under the oppression of ISIS to stand up on their own. This means getting our warriors out from behind fences and living and working in these areas – Lawrence of Arabia style.

 

Our current administration and Congress currently does not allow this.

3-we must address the watt vulnerabilities here in our homeland that will likely be exploited just as they have been in France, Belgium, and other places in Western Europe. These are realities we must deal with.

Scott Mann’s mission America is actively promoting a “contract to protect America”. This is a contract between the American people and our politicians to get serious about fighting ISIS.

If people are watching the Belgium attack and want to know what they can do at home to take a stand against ISIS and demand political action, they can go to contract to protectAmerica.org and make their voice heard.

Let’s not wait until Brussels comes to America.
LTC (Ret.) Scott Mann

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Impact studies for Ridgewood multi-family high density housing a round up of the Usual Suspects

council meeting
file photo by Boyd Loving
March 10 ,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, to say last nights meeting was a disappointment is an under statement .

1. During the discussion about Ordinance 3523 to Establish Guidelines for Audio/Video Recording of Public Meetings – which was penned by Albert Pucciarelli – the subject of body cameras came up.  Councilwoman Hauck described these cameras as “surreptitious,” which for her information means “kept secret.”  Having stated this, she then went on to say that she has seen what a “body camera looks like and it looked like actually a terrorist with an explosive chest.”  Ummmm….. Councilwoman Hauck, how can something be at the same time secretive and also look like a bomb strapped on the chest?    Her ridiculous characterization elicited laughter from the audience, so much so that Mayor Aronsohn had to reprimand the public to quiet down.  Seems that laughter is not considered civil.

2. Real Estate developer John Saraceno who stands to make a major bundle on all the development in the CBD, went to the microphone and stated that he is a father of school children and yadayada and that he is “a resident first and a developer second.”  Yep, that rings really true.

3.  Rurik Halaby once again went on about how the Village of Ridgewood is in a steady decline, same tired and untrue song.  Ummm….Rurik….how can the village be in such a terrible decline if there are supposedly no parking places due to all the consumers who pour into town to shop and dine?  Really?  We need parking so desperately because there is so much traffic in town, but the town is in decline.  Hmmm, doesn’t really add up Mr. H.

4. The impact studies were described with power points and charts.  The take away is that none of these developments will have any impact on the schools, the water usage, the sewers, the fire department, the police department, the ambulance corps, etc.  Just amazing, isn’t it?!  Plop these great big buildings down all over town, fill them with people, and no one will even notice.  Wow.  What reality is this we are living in?

5. Residents were not allowed to ask any questions of the developers, but reportedly will be able to do so on March 23.

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North Bergen to sue Palisades General Medical Center over tax exempt status ,Valley in Ridgewood Could be Next

Valleywood_theridgewoodblog

BY NICHOLAS PUGLIESE
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD

North Bergen is poised to file a lawsuit challenging the tax exempt status of Palisades General Medical Center and The Harborage nursing home, whose 8.6-acre campus overlooking the Hudson River is some of the most expensive real estate in the world.

The filing, which the township’s Board of Commissioners approved Wednesday, comes on the heels of a precedent-setting Tax Court decision last summer in which a judge ruled that the non-profit Morristown Medical Center was not entitled to its property-tax exemption because its operations were little different from those of a for-profit company.

The ruling, and a subsequent $15.5 million settlement between Morristown and the hospital, raised the specter of a flood of legal challenges by cash-strapped municipalities seeking property taxes or payments in lieu of taxes from the 63 non-profit hospitals statewide. The state Legislature passed a bill in early January that would have circumvented more lawsuits by requiring non-profit hospitals to contribute financially to their hometowns based on the number of beds they have, but Gov. Christie vetoed it later that month without explanation.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/north-bergen-to-sue-palisades-general-medical-center-over-tax-exempt-status-1.1517051

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Turkeys, Running Amok, Are a ‘Success Story’ in New Jersey

Turkeys

By LISA W. FODERAROFEB. 18, 2016

HILLSDALE, N.J. — In some neighborhoods of this placid New Jersey borough in Bergen County, they are seemingly everywhere — waddling by the dozen in the road, perched on car roofs, pecking at the tires of delivery trucks.

But wild turkeys, which were wiped out in the state by the mid-1800s, put on their most brazen display on Tuesday, when a letter carrier felt trapped in his truck and telephoned his boss for help.

“Hey sarge,” the postmaster said in a 911 call to the Hillsdale Police Department. “You’re not going to believe this, but I got a carrier that’s being attacked by wild turkeys and won’t let him deliver the mail.”

The letter carrier, who was not identified, was inside his truck on Esplanade Drive, surrounded by four or five turkeys, when two officers arrived, according to Capt. Sean Smith of the Police Department. “The first officer attempted to blow the siren and that didn’t work,” he said on Thursday. “Then the other officer got out of his car and ran aggressively toward the turkeys and that did the trick.”

It was just one of the latest skirmishes in suburbia’s wildlife wars. Turkeys have now joined the ranks of raccoons, foxes, coyotes, bears and deer, all of which have both fans and detractors and seem to make headlines with growing frequency.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/19/nyregion/bold-as-they-are-wild-turkeys-accost-the-neighbors-in-new-jersey.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=mini-moth&region=top-stories-below&WT.nav=top-stories-below&_r=1

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Why on earth would Ridgewood leap into bed with the BCIA????

3 amigos in action Ridgewood NJ

file photo by Boyd Loving

From the archives: Local towns paying heavily for Bergen County loan program meant to save time, money

DECEMBER 28, 2009, 8:47 PM LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, JULY 22, 2010, 2:41 PM
BY STEPHANIE AKIN AND CHRISTOPHER SCHNAARS
STAFF WRITERS |
THE RECORD

This story was originally published Dec. 28, 2009.

A Bergen County loan program touted as a quick and easy way for local governments to pay for big-ticket items has instead plunged some of them into long-term debt.

The five-year-old Municipal Banc was supposed to let cash-strapped towns bypass conventional borrowing methods and get county-backed loans for emergency services and public works projects. The program promised 24-hour loan approval with no red tape, backed by the county’s AAA credit rating.

Most towns and school districts that used the program borrowed only what they needed and spent the money quickly. Many praised the program for its convenience and low fees.

But some towns took out loans for items as inexpensive as rope and firefighter boots, borrowed money long before they intended to make purchases and paid interest on money they never spent. In some cases, their applications were approved even though they provided little information about how the money would be used.

From 2004 to 2008, Rutherford, Fair Lawn and Hackensack let a total of more than $1.6 million in loans sit idly in Commerce Bank accounts while taxpayers paid more than $200,000 in interest and fees. Fair Lawn, for example, waited four years to buy a $130,000 generator.

“That’s like saying, ‘I’m going to buy a house, I’m going to pay a mortgage and interest on the house, but I’m not going to move in for three or four years,’” said Joseph Tedeschi, a Fair Lawn councilman.

TD Bank took over the program after it bought Commerce in March 2008.

Five consultants that donated more than $450,000 to Bergen County Democrats from 2004 to the end of 2008 were paid at least $1.8 million for professional services by the Bergen County Improvement Authority — the agency that oversees the Municipal Banc — including more than $180,000 for services tied to the loans.

Those consultants included Dennis Oury, the former counsel for the BCIA and the Bergen County Democratic Organization. Oury, who pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges in September, collected more than $1.1 million from the BCIA during that period. Oury resigned from the BCIA in early September 2008 after federal officials accused him of fraud.

The program auditor, Ferraioli, Wielkotz, Cerullo & Cuva, also was the auditor in three of the towns that were the heaviest users of the program: Fair Lawn, Hackensack and Rutherford.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/from-the-archives-local-towns-paying-heavily-for-bergen-county-loan-program-meant-to-save-time-money-1.1243384