Democrats keep public out of “open” meeting to make State House VAX only

By Rubashov

In the coming battles between authoritarianism and democracy, what the State Capitol Joint Management Commission pulled yesterday will be pointed to again and again – used as a cudgel to demonstrate the hypocrisy, lust for unchecked power, lack of rational balance, use of fear, and general bad faith that define the authoritarians. The culprits here are partisan authoritarian bureaucrats – paid by the taxpayer, with benefits superior to those of average taxpayers, and pensions that working people can only dream of.

On a 5 (D) to 2 (R) party-line vote, the Commission voted to block any citizen from entering the public legislative areas of the capital complex if they cannot show proof of vaccination or the negative results of a COVID test from the preceding 72 hours. This includes the public areas of the legislative chambers and the committee hearing rooms, where members of the public once had the right to testify for or against legislation under consideration. All citizens will be required to wear a mask inside the building.

New Jersey now has a vaccine-or-test mandate for entry into public political and policy forums. Citizens not in compliance will be blocked and confronted by men with guns. Any citizen wishing to speak his or her mind to power, whether individually or assembling as a group, to petition the Government for a redress of grievances, is no longer free to do so. Their papers must first be in order. Journalists will likewise be unable to provide the scrutiny that the powerful require.

When it comes to exercising the freedoms contained within the Bill of Rights, five members of a Commission have unilaterally decided that a proof of vaccination card is now more important than a passport. Indeed, the primacy of the proof of vaccination card rises as the need for a passport is diminished.

If this was really about public health, the Murphy administration would not welcome, support, and promote undocumented immigrants residing in the United States in violation of federal law. Especially as so few come from nations that have had the opportunity to offer their people vaccination against COVID-19.

In this segment, anti-authoritarian Democrat Krystal Ball examines the collusion between the Biden administration and the pharmaceutical industry to keep most of the nations of the world unvaccinated and vulnerable – while pursuing a policy of open borders. If this was about public health, the members of the State Capitol Joint Management Commission would be demanding that the national borders be as tight as are the borders they police – the doors of the state capitol building.

Of course, they will not make such a demand because they are aiding and abetting an act of hypocrisy. Now watch this video and listen to a fellow Democrat, a woman of the Left, and a believer in democracy (true to her party’s name):

“The consequences for our own population – of this greed, cowardice, and corruption – will be deadly. We can get every last solitary soul in our own country vaccinated and it is not going to matter much in the end if new variants are constantly emerging from an unvaccinated global south. The pandemic will never end so long as billions of people remain vulnerable as a laboratory for COVID to mutate and jump the vaccines that we’ve already created.”

“Stop worrying about the anti-mask Karens and start worrying about the real COVID criminals, the CEOs and the politicians who would let millions die to protect their profits.”

If Black Lives Mattered as much to the five Democrats on the State Capitol Joint Management Commission as their political bosses say they do, they would issue a statement demanding that American pharmaceutical firms drop their patent protections and allow nations in Africa to produce the vaccine. This would save a lot more lives than any Assembly resolution or protest-turned-riot-turned-looting-turned-arson ever has.

The five Democrats on the State Capitol Joint Management Commission really don’t believe in mass vaccination. This is about power, about crushing the Bill of Rights and bringing a formerly democratic people to heel. They ignore the billions of unvaccinated waiting to come to the United States illegally but demand full compliance from every citizen who wishes to exercise the Bill of Rights.

But the actions of the Democrats who run the State Capitol Joint Management Commission were actually much worse than that described so far. Apparently, someone with the keys to the State Legislature’s website was concerned enough to block access to the Commission’s virtual/remote meeting yesterday morning. We heard from numerous people who looked for the usual link on the Legislature's website to sign-up and provide public input and it wasn’t there. It had been removed.

This went against both the policy of the State Capitol Joint Management Commission and the Open Public Meetings Act. In an October 22nd memorandum to Commission members that was not publicly posted on the Legislature’s website, the Commission Chairman wrote:

Due to the current public health emergency, the State Capitol Joint Management Commission meeting will be conducted remotely. The next meeting of the State Capitol Joint Management Commission will be held on Tuesday, October 26th at 10:00 a.m. in Committee Room 4. All Commissioners will receive instructions for remote access. For anyone who wishes to submit comments on any agenda item, or to participate in the meeting, please have them contact Roger Lai at rlai@njleg.org. For anyone who would like to view the proceedings, they will be live streamed at https://www.njleg.state.nj.us. Enclosed is an agenda and briefing material for this meeting.

In other words, an average citizen, wishing to comment or provide perspective, would need to be invited by one of the Commissioners to do so, as this notice was not made public on the Legislature’s website where members of the public generally go if they wish to testify or comment. The October 26th meeting of the State Capitol Joint Management Commission was posted on the legislative calendar in the usual place on the Legislative website, but all links to testify were removed and the Commission Chairman’s October 26th memo was not publicly posted there.

In effect, public comment was suppressed by the Commission’s actions and indeed, no member of the public was heard from despite dozens going to the legislative website to sign-up to be heard from. Remembering those large numbers of citizens who showed up to the State Capitol to protest attempts to do away with religious exemptions to vaccination, perhaps this is the purpose of the new rule and not “public health” after all?

“The people in charge are intent on replacing our free democratic system with an authoritarian system, where they don’t convince you of anything, they simply make you do things. And they benefit from that.”

Tucker Carlson

Does Phil Murphy get off on seeing people suffer?

By Rubashov

Do you remember this commercial from Phil Murphy’s first campaign for Governor? It details a traumatic event he suffered as a child of 13… at the hands of a rapacious restaurant owner.

At 13, Phil’s first job was washing dishes. But his boss stole his paychecks. That drives Phil to fight for a #LivingWage & #EqualPay: pic.twitter.com/f3rFfEEGGl

— Phil Murphy (@PhilMurphyNJ) April 25, 2017

Well, Phil Murphy grew up, made a lot of money on Wall Street, married into a privileged family, got himself elected Governor of a major northeastern state, and became its most powerful chief executive ever. Unlike every Governor in the past, Phil Murphy rules as he pleases, without legislative constraints, barely with judicial constraints. Like an old-fashioned monarch… or a modern authoritarian. By instinct or whim – and getting away with it.

So… is it payback time?

Where is that restaurant owner his dad had to straighten out all those many years ago? Maybe he’s dead? Maybe the restaurant is long gone?

Maybe he’s gone and so everyone suffers in his place? Because, for Murphy, maybe the pain is not gone? And now, at long last, he’s in a position to do something about it.

According to the National Restaurant Association, Mother's Day is typically the most lucrative holiday of the year for restaurant owners, with millions of families dining at restaurants. According to National Restaurant Association research in 2018, approximately 87 million adults said they would dine out on Mother's Day.

This year, Mother’s Day falls on Sunday May 9th.

And so, restaurant owners across New Jersey waited anxiously to hear Governor Murphy’s announcement today on a relaxation of COVID restrictions and the extended openings and venue capacities that have become a staple of such announcements. They waited and hoped, as the supplicants of old once did, powerless, without representation, for a beneficent nod from their absolute ruler.

But it did not come. There was no reprieve. Was that 13-year-old boy, the dish-washer who got screwed by the restaurant owner, having his fourth or fifth slice of revenge? Soon the pie will be gone (no matter, Murphy will send out for another).

And “the science”? We’ve moved well beyond that, haven’t we? Unless Dr. Fauci can tell us that the virus respects the borders with states like Connecticut and Pennsylvania. Anyway, there is no need for Murphy to explain himself as to why he is making the restaurant owners, their families, employees, and patrons suffer – when he won’t even explain why he issued executive orders that sent thousands in nursing and veterans’ homes to their deaths.

No, if there is an explanation in science to all this, it will be found in psychology.

“Rule by decree is a style of governance allowing quick, unchallenged promulgation of law by a single person or group, and is used primarily by dictators, absolute monarchs and military leaders.”

---

Wikipedia

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez ruled Venezuela by decree in 2000, 2001, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2012.  Between 2004 and 2006 alone, Chávez declared 18 "emergencies" to rule by decree.

Chávez's successor, Nicolás Maduro, has also ruled by decree multiple times since he was elected in April 2013. President Maduro has ruled Venezuela by decree for the majority of the period from November 2013 through 2018.

Voters oppose Biden pipeline order. 60% expect energy prices to rise.

By Rubashov

On his first day in the White House, President Joe Biden signed an executive order blocking further construction on the Keystone XL Pipeline. The Rasmussen polling organization reports that most voters disagree with Biden’s decision.

According to Rasmussen, only 36 percent of Likely U.S. Voters think it is a good idea to cancel the Keystone XL Pipeline that would transport oil from Canada to the United States. 51 percent say canceling the pipeline is a bad idea, and 13 percent are not sure.

60 percent of voters expect energy prices to increase because of President Biden’s energy policies. Only 8 percent think Biden’s energy policies will lead to lower prices, while 25 percent expect prices to stay about the same.

77 percent of Republican voters oppose Biden’s Keystone XL Pipeline decision, but so do 20 percent of Democrats and 58 percent of voters not affiliated with either major party.

Expectations that President Biden’s energy policies will lead to higher energy prices are broadly shared, with 83 percent of Republicans, 60 percent of unaffiliated voters and even 37 percent of Democrats saying they expect to pay more because of Biden. Only 10 percent of Democrats expect Biden’s policies will lead to lower energy prices.

New Jersey residents face a double threat, with the administration of Governor Phil Murphy pushing a Wall Street backed $100 billion Energy Master Plan that will raise costs across the state. The Murphy energy plan pushes a new taxpayer-subsidized, government-mandated solar program like the one pushed on the residents of Sussex, Morris, and Somerset Counties a few years ago – the program that became known, infamously, as “the solar scam”.

The solar scam left taxpayers on the hook for millions, while generating lucrative fees for politically-connected law firms, government vendors, and Wall Street bankers. The taxpayers got nothing but the bill. The children and grandchildren of the taxpayers who were promised the benefits of this solar program will be paying for its corrupt broken promises.

We are concerned that the same kind of scam is going on now – only on a vastly larger and ultimately more disastrous scale – with Governor Murphy’s energy plan. Like the scam that so damaged the fiscal stability of northwest New Jersey, the first sign that something is up (something that they don’t want you to see, let alone comment on) is the lack of transparency.

According to Ron Morano, Executive Director of Affordable Energy New Jersey, the Murphy administration’s failure to provide transparency has revealed Murphy’s own concerns about his plan. In a backhanded compliment, aimed at administration officials who clearly recognize the flaws in Murphy’s plan, in December, Morano wrote:

“We applaud state government officials for finally recognizing that releasing the details of their $100 billion green fantasy will show that it is far too expensive for New Jersey taxpayers to stomach.”

“The fact is, when times were good before the COVID pandemic, the state failed to release this information for the public to see the true costs of Phil Murphy’s Energy plan. Now they are attempting to use the pandemic to distract from the fact that they continue to keep the public in the dark about their flawed plans.

While the Murphy Administration says they need to go back to the drawing board before releasing any analysis of costs, the fact is they need to go back to the drawing board on Phil Murphy’s Energy Plan itself.”

In response to Murphy’s lack of transparency, Affordable Energy for New Jersey submitted an OPRA request to the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, asking for a copy of a report outlining the cost of NJ’s energy goals. Murphy has repeatedly delayed the release of this analysis, which details what the state’s energy policies will cost consumers and businesses to transition to a clean-energy economy.

AENJ's own analysis has totaled just the electrification costs at a minimum of $65 billion. This is only a portion of what is calculable, as the state refused to release additional cost analyses. The overall total is significantly higher.

Government works better when it is open and transparent. That’s not only our opinion – it is the opinion of the civilized world. Governments around the globe have signed-up to the United Nation’s Open Government Partnership. So, why is New Jersey under Phil Murphy lagging behind? Why isn’t New Jersey living up to international standards and universally recognized norms?

On transparency and open government, New Jersey needs to pull itself out of the gutter and up to the level of international norms. The Legislature, the Counties, and local governments should demand a financial impact statement from the Murphy administration. Make Murphy detail how his Energy Master Plan will affect the lives of the state’s residents, as they struggle through a pandemic – the government reactions to which have left people without the means to afford basics like health care.

“A popular government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy; or, perhaps both.”

— President James Madison

N.B. We welcome a conversation on this and all topics raised on this website. Jersey Conservative is entirely open to your ideas and opinions. To submit a column for publication, please contact Marianna at Marianna@JerseyConservative.org.

Will Abul Azad get Murphy’s “Sanctuary” in your town?

Meet Abul Azad.  Politician… religious leader… convicted war criminal.

He’s currently on the run from the law.  Moving to New Jersey is a good option for him.  Under Governor Phil Murphy’s don’t ask/don’t tell Sanctuary policy, someone suspected of being Abul Azad won’t be detained unless he commits a crime in New Jersey.  It doesn’t matter that he might be a convicted mass rapist and murderer somewhere else.  Don’t ask/Don’t tell.

As a Sussex County Freeholder recently pointed out:

According to Wikipedia…

Abul Kalam Azad, (born 5 March 1947) is a former Bangladeshi politician of the Jamaat-e-Islami, televangelist and convicted war criminal of the Bangladesh liberation war.

He was the first of nine prominent Jamaat-e-Islami members accused of war crimes by the International Crimes Tribunal-2 of Bangladesh to be convicted for crimes against humanity, including murder and rape.  On 21 January 2013 Azad was sentenced to death by hanging for his crimes.

Azad is currently on the run.  His whereabouts are unknown.  New Jersey’s Sanctuary State scheme is made to order for a war criminal like him.  Made to order for someone convicted of crimes against humanity. 

The Murphy administration is working to prevent county sheriffs from holding someone like him, pending identification.  If he is in New Jersey, we doubt he will be travelling under his own name or that he will readily cooperate in identifying who he is and what crimes he committed.  The Murphy administration’s  “Sanctuary State” directives will do the rest to keep him from facing justice.

According to the U.S. Department of State, the United States is a destination country for thousands of men, women, and children trafficked from all areas of the world. These individuals are being introduced into sex trafficking and forced labor, organ trafficking, sex tourism, and child labor.

Individuals often flee to the United States seeking a better life, but through dangerous means, and they are preyed upon and victimized because of the way they are choosing to enter the United States. To compound the matter, there is grave danger from those illegally entering the country with the specific intent of committing violence and breaking our laws. 

And then there are those convicted of war crimes – mass murder, mass rape, crimes against humanity – who will be shielded when local cooperation with federal authorities is blocked.  Governor Murphy and his politically appointed attorney general have much to answer for.