Money For New Jersey's Mafia.

November 30, 2013 at 12:50 P.M. I am sitting at computer number #9, Morningside Heights branch of the New York Public Library. The letters and all graphics have been altered to a massive size which makes writing the essay that appears below very difficult. I cannot say whether I will have to deal with this computer crime at other computers. I hope not. Clearly, New Jersey officials are still experiencing difficulties with the idea of freedom of expression or when it comes to accepting ANY limits on corruption. Worse, federal and New York authorities seem incapable of controlling the situation. Threats should be directed at me, not my loved-ones. ("How censorship works in America.")

Ron Wyden, Mark Udall, and Martin Heinrich, "End the N.S.A. Dragnet, Now," (Op-Ed) The New York Times, November 26, 2013, p. A25. (Americans are finally waking up to the imminent threat to privacy and freedom of expression from flagrant violations of their civil rights indulged in by N.S.A. operatives.)

"A Glimmer of Sense On Guantanamo," (Editorial) The New York Times, November 26, 2013, p. A24. (If the President of the United States is unable to close America's notorious concentration camp at Guantanamo, Cuba, then who has the power to do so? Mr. Boehner? Mr. Klapper? Mitt Romney? Mr. Netanyahu, perhaps?)

"New Jersey Goes All In, Online," (Editorial) The New York Times, November 26, 2013, p. A24. 

New Jersey's ugly history of mafia involvement in courts and police activity as well as prosecutors' offices is fueled by vast sums of money to be made in the state's rich gambling industry and related (even supportive) fields that cater to the "luxury needs and comforts" of big-time gamblers: prostitution -- child-prostitution included! -- drugs, and other illicit activities. ("Mafia Involvement in New Jersey Courts and Politics" and "New Jersey Welcomes Child Molesters!")

Until recently, at least publicly, it was recognized even by New Jersey's corrupt politicians that the gaming industry -- while lucrative in terms of generating revenues for the state's coffers that might conveniently "disappear" into the pockets of politicians -- brought many evils to the shining city on a hill that New Jersey has become for one and all. 

For one thing, gamblers tend to become addicted. Families may be destroyed, businesses driven into the ground, crimes are often committed by desperate gamblers. 

It is the responsibility of public officials to assist in controlling social evils rather than creating conditions that will make such evils thrive as unavoidable side effects of policies enriching the mafia -- the mafia, clearly, runs the Garden State. 

Not having gambled in Atlantic City -- nor anywhere else for that matter -- this is not an affliction that I can fully appreciate or judge. Nevertheless, it is quite real. I have seen many lives destroyed by gambling and gamblers. ("Cement is Gold" and "Law and Ethics in the Soprano State" then "Ken Zisa Still Stealing by Fraud.") 

Knowing this tendency to addiction in gamblers and N.J.'s association with legal corruption, as well as the obvious entanglement of the gaming industry with organized crime for decades in America's "Soprano State," Mr. Christie -- as U.S. Attorney -- was cautious about endorsing expansion of the gambling industry to "online" and/or "offshore" enterprises. These terms usually refer to mafia fronts.

"Internet gambling goes live in New Jersey on Tuesday. It's the biggest expansion of the casino business in the state since the 1970s. For gamblers with addiction problems, the process of tapping a paycheck and maxing out a credit card has just become infinitely easier."

Also easier will be physical assaults on women and children by men in the throes of this addiction, more crime resulting from desperate efforts to find money to pay casinos and other assorted "lenders," more mob guys "connected" to the likes of Bob Menendez and Richard J. Codey, or Stuart Rabner, and many of the state's other tainted judges who are often drawn from the mafia's criminal ranks. ("Does Senator Menendez have mafia friends?" and "Stuart Rabner and Conduct Unbecoming to the Judiciary in New Jersey" then "More Mafia Arrests in New Jersey and Anne Milgram is Clueless.")

More "clueless" is Mr. Christie, it seems, who in the best tradition of high Greek tragedy, has discovered his tragic flaw in ambition. Ambition allows Mr. Christie to "look the other way" when great crimes are committed -- including computer crime today aimed at silencing me -- in order to please "paying constituents" whose support will be needed in a forthcoming presidential run. ("You Gotta Pay to Play!")

Crusading corruption busting is all well and good, but it will not finance a national presidential campaign. How much in "contributions" have you received already, Mr. Christie? Is there a danger that you will sell the one aspect of your public persona that voters respect for thirty pieces of silver? If you were elected to the presidency, Mr. Christie, the temptations would only become greater. Would you remain "incorruptible," Governor Christie, if you became President Christie? ("De Blasio and Christie.") 

"Gov. Chris Christie, who signed the legalization bill in February, used to worry [emphasis added!] about all this. 'I'm also really concerned about setting up a whole new generation of addicted gamblers,' he said on a radio show in January. 'If you can sit on the edge of your bed with your laptop and gamble away the paycheck, that's a lot different than making the decision to go down to Atlantic City to gamble in a casino.' ..."

When money talks it seems that legal ethics and the governor's integrity walks. ("Christie Attacks New Jersey's Corrupt Judges.")

All of this is distressingly reminiscent of Bob Menendez's recent adventures. ("Bribery in Union City, New Jersey" and "Is Menendez For Sale?" then "Senator Bob, the Babe, and the Big Bucks" and "Menendez Consorts With Underage Prostitutes.")

In a state that symbolizes corruption and disgustingly failed courts, a further temptation to sin is hardly necessary, nor are the increased inducements to bribery of the FEW officials in the legislature and attorney general's office responsible for (please feel free to laugh) "regulating" the gaming industry. ("New Jersey's Feces-Covered Supreme Court" and "New Jersey's Legal System is a Whore House" then "New Jersey is Lucky Luciano's Havana" and "Is Union City, New Jersey Meyer Lansky's Whore House?")

The residency or presence requirement in New Jersey for gamblers is easy to fake. Expect further organized crime activity and corruption, more indicted judges and prosecutors, more lies, cover-ups, silence and stone-walling from Trenton. 

I will continue to write. 

Drones, Murder, Persons.

November 25, 2013 at 6:32 P.M. Harassments and obstacles at my home computer make writing difficult. I expect continuing attempts to prevent me from writing further about these matters. If more than two days pass without alteration at these blogs, it means that I am prevented from writing against my will. ("How censorship works in America.") 

"The Deaths of Innocents: Two human rights groups cite evidence of dozens of civilians killed by U.S. drone strikes," (Editorial) The New York Times, October 24, 2013, p. A26. (My essay below refers to this editorial, exclusively, despite the nine other related items that will be listed, eventually, to accompany this text.)

Alison Smale, "Amid New Storm in U.S.-Europe Relationship, A Call For Talks On Spying," The New York Times, October 26, 2013, p. A4.

"N.S.A. Spying and the Damage Done: Trust Among Allies is Also a National Security Interest," (Editorial) The New York Times, October 26, 2013, p. A20. 

Johnny Cochrane, "N.S.A. Spying Scandal Hurts Close Ties Between Australia and Indochina," The New York Times, November 20, 2013, p. A11.

James Glagg, "U.S. Can Spy on Britons Despite Pact, Memo Says," The New York Times, November 21, 2013, p. A20.

Charlie Savage, "Warrantless Surveillance Continues to Cause Furor," The New York Times, November 21, 2013, p. A20.

In each of the foregoing items pertaining to spying on friends there have been allegations of U.S. disdain for the personal rights to autonomy of Europeans and others, including Americans. At any time, New Jersey officials or persons acting on their behalf may alter the size or spacing of letters in this text in violation of my personal right to expression and copyright in my essays.

Robert F. Worth & Scott Shane, "Questions on Drone Strike Find Only Silence," The New York Times, November 23, 2013, p. A1. (Stone-walling, cover-ups, lies -- OAE?)

James Risen & Laura Poitras, "N.S.A. Report Outlined Goals For MORE Power," The New York Times, November 23, 2013, p. A1. (N.S.A. requires more ability to act outside the boundaries of law.)

Katherine Q. Seelye & Jess Bidgood, "Prison For a State Chemist Who Faked Drug Evidence: Officials Trace Far Reaching [sic.] Consequences of Fraud," The New York Times, November 23, 2013, p. A9. (Was N.J.'s Supreme Court deceived or defrauded by so-called hypnosis experts -- like Terry Tuchin and Diana Lisa Riccioli -- with regards to forensics? How many lives have been destroyed by such "experts"? Each day that the cover-ups continue is a renewal of the tortures for many victims.)

"Surveillance Goes On Trial: An ACLU Lawsuit Finally Exposes the N.S.A.'s Data Sweep to Opposing Arguments," (Editorial) The New York Times, November 23, 2013, p. A22. (Have N.S.A. experts exaggerated or lied about the benefits of unlimited surveillance?)

Supplemental Articles:

Mark Landler, "Pakistani Premier Meets Obama to Mend Ties: Request is Made to Halt U.S. Drone Strikes," The New York Times, October 24, 2013, p. A10. (Pakistan will close U.S. supply routes again.)

Declan Walsh, "Drone Issue Hovers More Than Ever, Even as Strikes Ebb," The New York Times, October 25, 2013, p. A8. (The U.S. claim that strikes had been reduced or would diminish was a lie.)

Alison Smale, "Indignation Over U.S. Spying Spreads Over Europe," The New York Times, October 25, 2013, p. A10. (Hatred of spying and shock at the brazen "disregard for international law and PERSONAL RIGHTS" revealed by Snowden's leaks is exploding in Europe.)

"In separate reports released on Tuesday, Amnesty International examined in detail nine suspected drone strikes in Pakistan. Human Rights Watch looked at six suspected strikes in Yemen. The groups reached a similar conclusion -- that dozens of civilians have been killed and that the United States may have violated international law and committed war crimes." (emphasis added!)

At the center of the continuing controversy surrounding the use of drones in Pakistan and Yemen as well as other "unspecified locations" with additional "unspecified victims" (C.I.A. jargon) is the concept of a person. I am sure that N.J. will classify me as an "unspecified victim." ("New Jersey's 'Ethical' Legal System" and "John McGill, Esq., the OAE, and New Jersey Corruption.")

If we argue that all human beings are "persons" -- even if some humans happen to be Muslims, regardless of whether they wear turbans and other (to us) strange clothing and speak bizarre languages -- then, as persons, all human beings (equally) must enjoy identical fundamental rights at law and in morality. ("Decline in Humanities and Humanity?")

Disdain for the humanity of innocent persons because those persons are different from us in their culture or beliefs is the crime of the 9/11 terrorists who reduced the occupants of the World Trade Center to "symbols" that might be destroyed to illustrate the terrorists' political arguments or protests. 

Persons are not the "instruments" of others. The victims of the Boston bombers were treated by their killers as "objects" or "instruments," whose lives were sacrificed to make a political point by the bombers. 

America's disdain for INNOCENT victims of drone bombings reduces all of us to the level of terrorists as far as the victims and many persons in the world are concerned. ("America's Drone Murders.")

It is never O.K. to kill or maim innocent persons, to destroy their lives, in order to advance a policy goal or strategic objective of the nation, not even in war time. Furthermore, it is crucial to remember that the U.S. is not at war with Pakistan or Afghanistan's government and people. No war against abstract nouns (like "terror") makes sense. 

Calling a murdered or disfigured seven year-old child a "militant" -- after mistakenly using a multimillion dollar weapon against her and her grandmother -- makes the offense worse because it is absurd, even as the crime is denied, publicly, by our government's spokespersons, usually attorneys, lying about what they know to have occurred. ("Herbert Klitzner, Esq.'s Greed and New Jersey's Hypocrisy" and "Have you no shame, Mr. Rabner?")

Much the same is true if a school or monastery is targeted for a drone strike because of "bad intelligence" -- possibly supplied by the "enemy"! -- when political damage is only enhanced.

Similarly, New Jersey's errors in targeting me are only worsened by continuing lies and cover-ups by Mr. Rabner, the New Jersey Supreme Court, and Office of Attorney Ethics (OAE) -- especially when lies that are posted on-line are absurd since they are unsupported by facts and/or evidence. ("Ken Zisa Still Stealing by Fraud.")

Incidentally, Mr. Tuchin, I will not "cooperate" by behaving as you may wish me to behave in a bookstore or anywhere else. How many Palestinians or African-Americans have been "questioned" under hypnosis or in a drugged state by Terry Tuchin? How many have been assaulted and raped? How many have been stolen from? ("An Open Letter to My Torturers in New Jersey, Terry Tuchin and Diana Lisa Riccioli" and "Terry Tuchin, Diana Lisa Riccioli, and New Jersey's Agency of Torture.")

"Amnesty International's report, based on Pakistani and other sources, says there have been 374 strikes since 2004, including four incidents it investigated in which 30 civilians were killed. ... [emphasis added]"

Each of these lives matters -- legally and morally -- as much as the lives of Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Obama. To the same extent that we respect the rights of Mr. Boehner, we must respect the rights of young Nabila in Pakistan.

Token or meaningless hearings before a handful of Congress persons granting witnesses and victims all of twenty minutes to tell their stories is inadequate, or an insult to these people's pains and losses. This is especially true when the same members of Congress state, privately, that they "don't care about Pakistani lives." 

Mere gestures will not be sufficient for the international community when the U.S. expresses concerns, at some future point, about terrorism by a regime America comes to dislike. 

What is needed is not the "appearance" of concern for drone victims, but the reality of such concern and immediate action to prevent further loss of innocent lives:

"The Human Rights Watch report on Yemen, which examined one attack in 2009 and five in 2012-13, determined that 82 people, at least 57 of them civilians, were killed in those episodes. All except one involved drone strikes; the other involved a cruise missile."

If we decide to ignore the special ontological status of persons that affords them human rights -- rights which trump considerations of convenience or utility in civilized legal systems, including our own (theoretically) and the system of international law, then we may expect others (whom we will call "terrorists") to adopt the same attitudes to Israelis and Americans, like me, reducing us to disposable items in a political game. The killing will go on forever:

" ... a 68 year-old grandmother was gathering vegetables in a field, her grandchildren nearby, when she was 'blasted into pieces' by a drone strike that appeared aimed directly at her. Three months earlier, 18 male laborers, including a 14 year-old boy, were killed in a series of drone strikes on the remote village of Zowi Sidgi."

Fear of drone attacks haunts the daily lives of persons living in remote villages far removed from Al Qaeda or the Taliban, as concern for computer crime accompanies my writing efforts, every day, creating a "permanent state of terror" for unfortunate and traumatized children in Pakistan, Yemen, Afghanistan and other countries. 

Is this how we will defeat terrorism, Mr. Obama? Or is this how we become terrorists?

Ken Zisa Still Stealing by Fraud.

November 21, 2013 at 12:41 P.M. A bogus so-called "Final Order" from New Jersey's Division of Consumer Affairs has been posted on-line by Trenton officials, I surmise. These officials have failed to notice that the Division of Consumer Affairs -- unlike the OAE -- does not have "Final" as opposed to "Intermediate Orders," nor would a civil contract Order/Judgment from 1996 have validity in 2013, nor was such an Order ever obtained against me, to the best of my knowledge, nor could I be the "Respondent" in an action brought by this agency on its own, without naming the litigant seeking damages against me. ("John McGill, Esq., the OAE, and New Jersey Corruption" then "New Jersey's Office of Attorney Ethics" and "New Jersey's 'Ethical' Legal System" finally "Sexual Favors For New Jersey Judges.") 

I am aware that persons were threatened or pressured to seek return of fees paid to me for litigation, probably so that files could be stolen by other lawyers -- such as Gilberto Garcia or Estela De La Cruz, perhaps -- and I did so when appropriate. A litigant seeking reimbursal would be referred by the Division of Consumer Affairs to the OAE. There are no unreimbursed fees in my matters in 2013, nor have I ever been accused of stealing from anyone. However, I have been stolen from by lawyers acting for New Jersey officials and others. 

I trust that other smears will be more adept, New Jersey. ("Is Menendez For Sale?" and "Senator Bob, the Babe, and the Big Bucks" then "Menendez Consorts With Underage Prostitutes.")

November 20, 2013 at 2:30 P.M. I was unable to make a computer reservation at NYPL, Morningside Heights, due to sabotage. Luckily, I was able to sign-on today without a reservation. Efforts to prevent me from writing on-line continue to take place. I cannot use any e-mail account nor can I post images to accompany my texts. ("How censorship works in America.")

Doris Lessing, "Jane Austen," in Time Bites: Views and Reviews (New York & London: Harper Perennial, 2005), p. 1.

Doris Lessing, The Golden Notebook (New York: Simon & Shuster, 1962). (Nobel Prize for Literature.)

Helen Verongos, "Sweeping Aside Convention in Novels and Life: Doris Lessing 1919-2013," The New York Times, November 18, 2013, p. A1. (The author of this obituary has difficulties with the English language. The subject of this comment is accused of having sex "on both sides." Manohla Dargis? I prefer "Briefing For a Descent Into Hell" to "The Golden Notebook.")

John Petrick, "Tick-Tock Manager's Bail is Contested," The Record, November 15, 2013, p. L-1. (GEORGIOS SPYNOPOULOS, 45, of Clifton, New Jersey was charged with seeking to hire a "hit man" [sic.] to kill his boss and owner of the, admittedly excellent, "Tick-Tock" diner located deep in mafia territory. Was the "hit-person" Diana Lisa Riccioli?)

Kibret Marcos, "Perelman Says She's Trying to 'Protect' Grandfather's Wishes," The Record, November 19, 2013, p. A-1. (ESTELA DE LA CRUZ, who may have been involved in efforts against me, secretly and in violation of ethics rules, along with her brother and fellow Republican, RAY DE LA CRUZ, was rewarded with a judgeship for her efforts. Ms. De La Cruz is a member of "Trenton's Nasty Lesbian Love-Fest" and may be a former "lover" of Diana Lisa Riccioli, allegedly, but may not have been among the persons who sexually violated Marilyn Straus. Ms. De La Cruz was "fond" of Mary Anne Kriko. Gilberto Garcia was also known to Ms. De La Cruz. Did they join forces against me at the request of officials in New Jersey? Has Ms. De La Cruz participated in debates against me at The Philosophy Cafe or elsewhere on-line? If so, at whose request has she acted, illegally, against me and/or my family members, both while I was an attorney and since that time? Ms. De La Cruz tends to favor female litigants, especially Lesbians, or wealthy persons: "Marilyn Straus Was Right!" and "Diana's Friend Goes to Prison.")

Hannah Adeley, "New Questions About Zisa's Payout: Records Show Sick Days Cashed In Twice," [sic.] The Record, November 15, 2013, p. A-1.

Ken Zisa is a perfect example and embodiment of New Jersey's legal power-structure and hierarchy, also of the hypocrisy and contradictions that have defined New Jersey, for many people, as a failed jurisdiction when it comes to corruption as well as the absence of legal ethics. ("Law and Ethics in the Soprano State" and "New Jersey's Failed Judiciary.")

Mr. Zisa was formerly a Chief of Police and also Municipal Court Judge in Hackensack: he was usually abrupt, rude, ignorant of the law as a non-lawyer, often unforgiving of human frailty in the unfortunate persons appearing before him, even as he was rumored to be "affiliated" with organized crime and was "seen with," or said to know, the likes of Jay Romano and "Big Nicky" Sacco in addition to Diana Lisa Riccioli. There were others dealing with Mr. Zisa, like Dennis Oury and Joe Ferreiro, who have since been indicted for only some of their many crimes. ("New Jersey is the Home of the Living Dead.") 

Persons like Mr. Zisa must be held to a high standard because they disgrace lofty offices, as Stuart Rabner must be held to the highest possible standard of ethical conduct as the Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court. ("Have you no shame, Mr. Rabner?" and "No More Cover-Ups and Lies, Chief Justice Rabner!")

Mr. Zisa was indicted for criminal fraud victimizing an insurance company (meaning policy holders and the state) in collusion with a former mistress, tried, convicted, then sentenced to 3 to 5 years in prison by a crony on the bench, who allowed Mr. Zisa to walk out of the courtroom AFTER sentencing and enjoy house arrest pending appeal, without detailed explanation for this unusual decision. 

This "release" on new bail after final sentence following conviction is unprecedented under New Jersey law. To my knowledge, this extraordinary remedy has never been afforded to any African-American defendant in the entire legal history of New Jersey. Sharpe James never came close to committing Mr. Zisa's offenses and has served his prison time. Mr. James is African-American. ("So Black and So Blue in Prison" and "Justice For Mumia Abu-Jamal.")

A number of other members of the Zisa "family" are still found in key positions of power in Bergen County and elsewhere in New Jersey. 

Claims of "unofficial assistance" received by Mr. Zisa from the local prosecutor's office and other state officials (family members, perhaps?) have not been investigated and will probably be ignored. 

This continuing Zisa farce suggests to observers that New Jersey's legal proceedings -- especially with regard to what are laughingly called, "ethics" -- are a sham obscuring behind-the-scenes "deal-making" (or bribery) that alone explains the ludicrous outcomes that are routine in Garden State corruption and ethics cases:

"Former Hackensack Police Chief Ken Zisa may have been paid twice for unused sick time in 2010 -- once for June, 2010 amid public discussion about his payout and, quietly, months earlier, as part of a large bond measure."

With Mr. Zisa's indictment and numerous lawsuits against him for official misconduct -- for which the taxpayers will be liable, ultimately -- Mr. Zisa received a buyout "funded by a $4.6 million bond ordinance that was supposed to be for retiring employees." 

As a result of this generosity, Mr. Zisa (despite his conviction!), who was NOT retiring, "got paid $94,513." 

Three months later, according to city manager Stephen Lo Iaccono, Mr. Zisa cashed-out $53,671 in so-called "unused sick pay." 

Mr. Zisa still has not retired. He continues to receive compensation. To my knowledge, based on news accounts, Mr. Zisa has not served one day of the lenient prison sentence that he received after one of the counts on which he had been convicted was, inexplicably, thrown out by the trial judge who had been appointed with Zisa's help, allegedly.

There has been no resolution of the so-called "appeals" by the prosecutor (which would not reduce, but could only increase the already existing sentence) in this fascinating case:

"Zisa was charged with insurance fraud [an offense that involves lying per se or lack of moral probity] for allegedly intervening after a 2008 automobile accident involving his girlfriend at the time, KATHLEEN TIERNAN. [Allegations that Mr. Zisa assaulted and struck Ms. Tiernan have not been confirmed or denied by Mr. Zisa.] Authorities said she appeared intoxicated, but Zisa ordered officers then to write in the accident report that she swerved to avoid an animal. Zisa also took Tiernan from the scene before she could be given a sobriety test. Zisa also was charged with official misconduct after allegedly interfering with a 2004 assault and robbery case."

Mr. Zisa was, and remains, a far worse person than anyone he ever sentenced. Curiously, Mr. Zisa "served" on the ethics committee that went after me, possibly at the request of local officials upset because I do not cooperate with corruption. 

Estela De La Cruz may have been a decision-maker in the same ethics matters concerning me in which she had, secretly and illegally, acted to harm me from behind my back. ("Is Menendez For Sale?" and "Bribery in Union City, New Jersey.")

Mr. Zisa is a man who cannot know the meaning of the word "ethics," even as Stuart Rabner may be a worse human being, a greater hypocrite, or bigger crook -- allegedly, fond of envelopes filled with Solomon Dwek's cash -- than most of those whose ethics he presumes to judge. ("Herbert Klitzner, Esq.'s Greed and New Jersey's Hypocrisy" and "What did you know, Mr. Rabner, and when did you know it?")

I cannot accept (or even take seriously) the ethical judgments of such persons, nor do most people who are now following these events in many places in the world. ("An Open Letter to My Torturers in New Jersey, Terry Tuchin and Diana Lisa Riccioli" and "Psychological Torture in America's Legal System" then "New Jersey is Stronger Than the Storm!")

The judiciary depends on respect and legitimacy. The institutions of law cannot function effectively when they become laughable or obscene displays of criminality or duplicity. ("New Jersey's Judges Disgrace America.")

Both of these values -- respect and legitimacy -- have been lost or abandoned by New Jersey's courts. ("Stuart Rabner and the Decline in New Jersey's Supreme Court" and "New Jersey Supreme Court's Implosion.") 

There is still time to ameliorate the harm done by this criminal conspiracy against me, Mr. Rabner. Many innocent persons have been and will be hurt by your failure to deal with this crisis in your state's legal system much earlier than today. ("Mafia Influence in New Jersey Courts and Politics.")

Nothing will prevent me from pursuing the truth and justice in my life, however long it may take to achieve results. By acting today in response to my requests, Mr. Rabner, you can ease the suffering of many persons. Do the right thing for once, Mr. Rabner, and end the cover-ups today.  ("New Jersey's 'Ethical' Legal System" and "John McGill, Esq., the OAE, and New Jersey Corruption.")

N.J.'s "Buzzy" Dressel Embezzels $350K

Ben Protess, Landon Thomas, Chad Bray, "U.S. Investigates Currency Trades by Major Banks: 'Cartel' Was Nickname," The New York Times, November 15, 2013, p. A1. (Perhaps "Cartel" was more than a nickname or screen-name?)

Charlie Savage & Mark Mazzetti, "C.I.A. Collects Global Data On Transfers Of Money," The New York Times, November 15, 2013, p. A11. (Scrutiny of money transfers will encourage flow of capital to Asia. Do we want the U.S. government monitoring all financial transactions on-line?)

Nicolas Confessore, "$122 Million In Spending by Koch Group," The New York Times, November 15, 2013, p. A17. (Is the C.I.A. monitoring these transactions? Are the Koch brothers fronting for Mr. Netanyahu?)

Michael Powell, "After Ugly Campaign, Finding Little Grace In Brooklyn District Attorney's Exit," The New York Times, November 18, 2013, p. A18. (Sam Kellner, a whistle blower on Brooklyn's Orthodox community's child molestation epidemic, targeted by Mr. Hynes.)

Peter J. Sampson,"Ex-Union Leader's Theft Trial to Begin: He Allegedly Steered Jobs to Future Wife," The Record, November 12, 2013, p. L-1. 

Peter J. Sampson, "Embezzelment Trial Set: Ex-Leader Accused in $350,000 Scheme," The Record, November 13, 2013, p. L-2.

Joe Malinconico, "Teacher in Student Sex Case Loses Certificate: Directed School Play Girl Participated In," The Record, November 13, 2013, p. L-3. (More child sex scandals in New Jersey schools: "Jennifer Velez is a Dyke Magnet!" and "Trenton's Nasty Lesbian Love-Fest!")

"Richard 'Buzzy' Dressel, a once-influential Bergen County union leader, goes on trial today, accused of embezzling more than $350,000 from an electrician's local and its apprentice program to enrich the woman who became his wife."

I am sure the young woman in question was sharing the funds with her husband to be. My deduction is that the young woman was sharing the cash under the table with her "beloved." Then again, the money may have been her beloved. ("Bribery in Union City, New Jersey.") 

This is a familiar pattern in New Jersey: Allegedly, mafia-affiliated or -controlled labor unions STEALING the members' dues and, often, also lots of public money in construction projects, while being protected by crooked or corrupt politicians, police, and prosecutors, to say nothing of bought and paid-for judges. ("New Jersey is the Home of the Living Dead" and "Cement is Gold" then "Deborah T. Poritz and Conduct Unbecoming to the Judiciary in New Jersey.")

The fun-loving union leaders engaging in these activities are civic-minded enough to be active on election days in "getting the vote out" and helping to make sure that the chumps ... eh, I mean the voters, decide things correctly. ("Voting in North Bergen, New Jersey" and "Mafia Influence in New Jersey Courts and Politics" then "Does Senator Menendez have mafia friends?" and "Is Senator Menendez a Suspect in Mafia-Political Murder in New Jersey?")

North Jersey is relatively "affluent" in relation to the rest of the country and state, so there is more to steal than in other territories, as we will see in the days and weeks ahead. This wealth makes illicit activities in the region especially attractive to organized crime figures and their bribed political friends. ("Joe Ferreiro is Bergen's Godfather" and "Joe Ferreiro Indicted Again.")

Zisa family members are facing new accusations of padding, or seeking to steal compensation from the taxpayers, which will serve as the basis for a forthcoming essay. ("The Zisa Family Goes to the Mattresses" and "JoeyD Knows How to Eat!" then "Diana's Friend Goes to Prison" and "More Mafia Arrests in New Jersey and Anne Milgram is Clueless.")

"An eight-count indictment accuses the two men" -- Dressel and John M. DeBouter, 56, of Oakland -- "of conspiring to fraudulently give Dressel's girlfriend and later second wife, KATHLEEN LIPONATI, multiple sources of income from the Paramus-based [union] and its Joint Apprentice Training Fund."

Money from union members and/or fees paid by government agencies are often kept 'all in the family" in New Jersey's public building scams. ("Menendez Says: 'Xanadu and You and Are Perfect Together!")

"In March, 2008, the indictment alleges, Dressel and DeBouter instituted a 'captive lunch program' to purportedly counteract an alcohol abuse problem among apprentices taking classes at the local campus. Libonati's 'Ship-to-Shore' catering business was hired and paid about $60,000 annually to provide meals four days a week to about 40 trainees." 

These meals must have consisted of caviar and fine wine. At the same time, Ms. Libonati was hired as a $1,000 per week member of Mr. Dressel's "office staff" (no conflict of interest?) with 50 percent in fringe benefits for health, pension, and annuity funds.

Ms. Libonati received a total only through March, 2010 of $145,973. Incidentally, she can't type. ("Celeste Carpiano Likes Da Shore" and "Law and Ethics in the Soprano State.")

Meanwhile, back at the Ponderosa:

"A former Kennedy High School music teacher [and teachers' union member?] indicted on charges he had sex in 2010 with a student who participated in a school play he directed has lost his state teaching certificate."

This is only one of the recent child molesting episodes that I will be discussing in the weeks ahead, over a short period of time, occurring in a single small geographical area of New Jersey. There have been more such incidents throughout the state.

The thefts and contracts allowing for thefts from this union were contrived with the assistance of "ethical" New Jersey lawyers. ("Corrupt Law Firms, Senator Bob, and New Jersey Ethics.") 

New Jersey may be summarized in these stories that are duplicated almost on a DAILY BASIS: grotesque, perverse exploitation of children for sexual purposes, with the cooperation of the power-structure (for a small fee), and theft on a massive scale and at every level of the system that can only be made possible by obvious corruption among lawyers, judges, politicians hypocritical enough to judge the ethics of others, usually as a distraction from their own crimes. ("Stuart Rabner and Conduct Unbecoming to the Judiciary in New Jersey" and "New Jersey's Politically-Connected Lawyers On the Tit" then "New Jersey Lawyers' Ethics Farce" and "Is Menendez For Sale?")

No one familiar with the realities of New Jersey law and politics seriously denies the role of the mafia in governing the state. ("More Mafia Influence in New Jersey Courts and Politics.")

Mr. Christie has made some improvements, but much remains to be done before New Jersey can escape its joke-status in America and the world. The Garden State remains far from the norm in government that is acceptable in most of the rest of the nation. 

New Jersey's revolting spectacle of theft from the public treasury and child abuse is sad and painful to contemplate -- especially for many persons afflicted by Super-Storm Sandy who are still waiting for the help they were promised which may have been stolen. ("Mr. Boehner's Disgrace" and "New Jersey Supreme Court' Implosion.")

Do you speak to me of "ethics" at the OAE? ("New Jersey's 'Ethical' Legal System" and "New Jersey's Office of Attorney Ethics.")

Ronald Dworkin Says: "The Law Works Itself Pure!"

November 14, 2013 at 7:16 P.M. Several alterations of the size of letters and spacing of paragraphs in violation of copyright and First Amendment law have taken place and may take place again at any time. This experience illustrates much of what I am saying in this essay. ("Menendez Consorts With Underage Prostitutes.") 

November 14, 2013 at 2:32 P.M. I felt compelled to comment on a fine article by Thomas Nagel reviewing Stephen Guest's latest edition of his book on Ronald Dworkin. 

At this time I cannot write at length on this topic, but I can offer a number of sources that may be helpful to students and that refer to my previous writings on related subjects:

Thomas Nagel, "Ronald Dworkin: The Moral Quest," The New York Review of Books, November 21, 2013, p. 56.

Ronald Dworkin, Taking Rights Seriously (Cambridge: Harvard U. Press, 1977). 

Ronald Dworkin, Law's Empire (Cambridge: Harvard U. Press, 1986).

Ronald Dworkin, Justice in Robes (London & Cambridge: Harvard Belknap Press, 2006).

Ronald Dworkin, Religion Without God (Cambridge: Harvard U. Press, 2013).

Steven Guest, Ronald Dworkin (California: Stanford Law Books, 2013).

Marshall Cohen, ed., Ronald Dworkin and Contemporary Jurisprudence (London: Duckworth, 1983). 

Literature often provided examples for Professor Dworkin. Illustrative literary models of Dworkin's jurisprudence, unsuspected by the authors of these works, may be found in the following texts:

William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice (New York: Signet, 1987).

Barry Unsworth, Sacred Hunger (New York & London: W.W. Norton, 1982).

Barry Unsworth, The Quality of Mercy (New York: Anchor, 2011).

Cinema may also be used to illustrate these ideas and generate discussion:

Judgment in Nuremberg.
To Kill a Mockingbird.
Amistad.
Michael Clayton. ("'Michael Clayton': A Movie Review.")

Arthur Danto, "Anguish: or, Factual Beliefs and Moral Attitudes," in Jean-Paul Sartre (New York: Anchor Books, 1971), pp. 147-165.

Arthur Danto, "Deep Interpretation," in The Philosophical Disenfranchisement of Art (New York: Columbia U. Press, 1983), pp. 47-69.

Hans-Georg Gadamer, Truth and Method (New York: Crossroad, 1982), pp. 153-345. 

Iris Murdoch, "The Sovereignty of Good Over Other Concepts," in The Sovereignty of Good (New York & London: Ark, 1985), pp. 77-105.

Thomas Nagel, The Possibility of Altruism (New Jersey: Princeton U. Press, 1970).

Mary Warnock, ed., Sartre: A Collection of Critical Essays (New York: Anchor Books, 1971), pp. 102-121. (Hide Ishiguro's essay on "Imagination." Professor Ishiguro's son may be a celebrated novelist, but Katsuo Ishiguro is far from an expert on analytical philosophy.)

I.

The recent death of Ronald Dworkin has created a void in America's legal academy that is not likely to be filled any time soon. 

Ronald Dworkin will probably be regarded as America's foremost philosopher of law in the twentieth century. This is remarkable considering the occasional anti-majoritarian tenor of his writings as well as his reliance on canonical philosophers in the Western tradition -- in addition to sources within Anglo-American legal culture -- philosophers whose works were out of fashion among most thinkers adhering to the so-called "analytical" school in the English-speaking world.

I am confident, however, that Dworkin's foundational thinkers were Plato, Hume and Kant, Hegel and Mill, but also Bradley and Green, Murdoch and Strawson, R.M. Hare and John Rawls, Robert Nozick and Bernard Williams as well as his colleagues at Oxford and NYU, respectively, H.L.A. Hart (whom he succeeded at Oxford University as Professor of Jurisprudence) and Thomas Nagel, fellow enfant terrible of sixties' analytical philosophy, concerned to restore moral and political theory to logically sophisticated law and philosophy. ("Bernard Williams and Identity.") 

A previous and more detailed treatment of Ronald Dworkin's ideas may be found at my blog: Mind Games, "Ronald Dworkin and the Jurisprudence of Interpretation." 

Professor Dworkin was a prolific author, especially as a popular essayist for The New York Review of Books. It is impossible to do full justice to his later work here, but it may be possible to suggest why Dworkin is so highly regarded in a brief comment. 

The structure of Dworkin's jurisprudence and political philosophy is important to his argument, notably his concern with interpretation allied to moral theory. My comments are organized in terms of four principles or ideas in Mr. Dworkin's work: 1). the dignity of persons or Dworkin's understanding of human nature; 2). the integrity of law which follows from respect for individuals as "persons"; 3). the centrality of "liberty" and "equality" as competing and balancing values in any sophisticated legal system that are "enshrined" (Chief Justice Marshall) in America's guarantees of "liberty" (14th Amendment, 1st Amendment) and "due process" together with "equal protection of the laws" (14th Amendment, 4th Amendment). Finally, 4). I suggest possible applications of these ideas or concepts in currently raging controversies over massive spying upon Americans and others, as against privacy rights of persons, also concerns about drone bombings and the liberty interests of Americans killed for expressing controversial views on terrorism as well as the rights of admittedly "innocent or collateral victims" of drone strikes. 

II.

For Dworkin persons are autonomous and ontologically unique individuals, moral subjects, who are always worthy of respect. A person is not and cannot validly become an "object" or "thing" under America's legal system. No person in America is a pawn of political leaders so as to be treated as a "disposable" commodity or bargaining chip in a game with other powerful leaders. ("Terry Tuchin, Diana Lisa Riccioli, and New Jersey's Agency of Torture" and "How censorship works in America.") 

This foundational view of persons places Dworkin squarely within the Modern or Liberal tradition in political philosophy. Dworkin was consistently opposed to Richard A. Posner's legal behaviorism and authoritarianism with respect to "rational self-interest" in Posner's law and economics jurisprudence. Dworkin also participated in friendly debates with Leftist thinkers from Critical Legal Studies to Continental Theorists arguing that social justice values are primary over the lone rights-bearer or the dignity of individuals. (Compare "Richard A. Posner On Voluntary Actions and Criminal Responsibility" with "Roberto Unger's Revolutionary Legal Theory.")

Along with Rawls (Left) and Nozick (Right), Dworkin opposed all forms of radical utilitarianism and consequentialism in the administration of laws. A value attaches necessarily to persons, as persons, which cannot be reduced to instrumental calculation in entirely forward-looking, policy-based, or consequentialist decisions rendered by judges acting as mere bureaucratic decision-makers. 

Judges are not "clerks" in the Division of Motor Vehicles. Judges in the American Common Law and Constitutional traditions are entrusted with the administration of laws and "vindication of rights" (language that dates from early in the eighteenth century, from Lord Mansfield to Blackstone's Commentaries as well as early Supreme Court jurisprudence) affecting the lives of persons -- persons who must be seen as every bit as important as the judges themselves:

" ... the guiding value that succeeds in unifying our values is that of dignity, which in turn has two interdependent components, equality and individual responsibility. Dworkin believed that these complementary values enabled him to resolve all the traditional tensions within moral and political theory -- between morality and self-interest, between liberty and equality, between the right and the good." (NYRB, p. 57.)

Please compare "Zero Dark Thirty" and "John Rawls and Justice" with "Little Brown Men Are Only Objects For Us" and "Humanities and Humanity in Decline?"

This is also Dworkin's means of transcending "Hume's Guillotine," or the division between facts and values, in aligning the "plain fact" view of "law as it is" with interpretations aimed at realizing, always, what law "should and must be" to remain legitimate law. ("What is Law?")

The logic of the law is founded on morality seeking its realization in imperfect institutions and laws, it relies on laws "working themselves pure." 

There is a Kantian-Hegelian vision in Dworkin's writings of an underlying moral "aspiration" within the positive materials of law for constant clarification of the project fashioned by free men and women of governing themselves, justly, in accordance with principles, rules, policies adopted in various democratic ways aiming at different goods crystalized in America's written and, until recently, in Britain's unwritten Constitution -- but also in judge-made laws that are, eventually, incorporated into the statutes and codes enacted by state legislatures. ("David Hume's Philosophical Romance" and "Charles Fried and William Shakespeare on Interpretation" then "Manifesto For the Unfinished American Revolution" and "A Commencement Address by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham-Clinton.")

I am, like you, a person and can never be a slave in America's legal system. My rights under the Bill of Rights and moral philosophy, as Dworkin explains, are subject to unique respect in the legal system, but also, politically, at the national and international level, they must be respected by all states that act in accordance with international law. (Compare "Fidel Castro's 'History Will Absolve Me'" with, again, "John Rawls and Justice.")

III.

Much of America's legislation and activity since 9/11 seems to contradict, or conflict with, these basic principles of Anglo-American jurisprudence, as Professor Dworkin noted during his final years, when criticizing in powerful language what he called "the Right-wing phalanx on the United States Supreme Court."

Just as the men and women in the World Trade Center on 9/11 may not be considered "objects" to be destroyed by terrorists to make a political point, so eight year-old Nabila in Pakistan and the 3,000 or so other innocent persons killed by American drones are not "mere statistics" nor "militants" to be wiped out, legitimately or legally, since they are non-combatants with rights to life and safety. 

Neither are the dispossessed and starved Palestinians in Gaza, or Cubans injured under a cruel and illegal embargo, properly, given principles of international human rights laws, targets of military or quasi-military power in accordance with Dworkin's jurisprudence and his understanding of law or basic concepts of justice. 

All of these persons' rights merit great consideration balanced, perhaps, by competing rights claims or concerns about justice, but not mere "convenience" and never, legitimately, in secrecy or without a hearing or some open review that allows prospective victims an opportunity to respond to accusations and examine all evidence, or cross-examine witnesses, never in terms of abstract general policies they have not accepted as opposed to principles of law applied, fairly, to every concrete case regardless of who the parties may be. 

This worry about the dignity of persons ensured and enshrined in rights enacted into law leads directly to a theory of the "integrity of law as interpretation." This is Dworkin's famous "hermeneutic turn" that followed Taking Rights Seriously (1977) and reached its culmination in Law's Empire (1986). 

The judicial task is not merely to provide the best "fix" for the moment in a particular controversy. Rather, a judge in our Constitutional system who inherits the Common Law tradition of adjudication, must ensure both the preservation of legal forms and institutions, long term, and the optimum outcome or most just result in the particular case, short term, given the applicable rules and standards. 

There is a dual-aspect challenge to do justice for persons, as litigants with competing claims and, equally, to assist in the process of "laws working themselves pure" or the system perfecting itself, in a moral sense. As Judge Learned-Hand liked to say: "It ain't easy."

The judiciary is entrusted with a Conservative mission and responsibility, preserving the institutions of law, even as judges must allow for the "formative evolution" of legal processes towards ever greater justice and liberty for all of those served by the system, which is a Liberal and progressive responsibility.

IV. 

Dworkin sees rights as "deontological in nature" (Kant), but also sees the judicial vocation as requiring a telelological mission to maintain "values" of legality, at the deepest levels of the system, through the process of "evaluation" in messy controversies before the bar (Hegel). ("John Finnis and Ethical Cognitivism" and "Why I am not an ethical relativist.")

This dual concern results in a vision of law as a branch of political morality, of legal and moral decision-making as an objective and cognitive process, where there is always a right answer even in "Hard Cases." 

This is certainly not to deny that the right answer may be painful or difficult for judges, litigants, or the society to accept -- nor would anyone deny that lawyers and judges often fail to discover that right answer right away. Obamacare? 

We may always get things wrong. Plagiarism, Senator Paul? ("Larry Peterson Cleared by DNA" and "Justice For Mumia Abu-Jamal.") 

Nevertheless, it is incumbent on judges not merely to make "deals" or "settle for compromises" -- it may be appropriate for legislators to do so! -- since judges must never sacrifice fundamental rights of individuals by finding a way to do justice without allowing the heavens to fall.

Dworkin's "Hercules," his mythical ideal judge based on New York's Judge Learned-Hand for whom Dworkin served as law clerk, insists that judicial responsibility is uncompromising, never subject to political bargaining or intimidation. ("Have you no shame, Mr. Rabner?" and "Law and Ethics in the Soprano State" then "New Jersey's Judges Disgrace America" and "The Galatea Scenario and the Mind/Body Problem.")

" ... Dworkin frankly declared that law is part of morality -- not just that moral reasoning plays a part in determining what the law is. Of course he meant that it is a very special part of morality concerned with what, in light of general principles of political legitimacy and fairness, together with the pertinent legislation, institutions, and precedents, a society is morally justified in coercing people to do." (NYRB, p. 58.)

Dworkin concludes that every legal right is a moral right -- "the right to be free from interference by the state or other individuals in its exercise." Ibid. 

This insight easily ties-in with privacy and First Amendment doctrine in American Constitutional law. ("Is there a gay marriage right?")

The answer to the questions raised by Mr. Snowden's revelations as regards the privacy rights of millions violated by NSA spying or the foreseeable and expected deaths of innocent civilians -- children and old people included -- from U.S. drone bombings in many countries is obvious: These violations of fundamental rights are profoundly unjust and may well constitute state criminality because they offend the core values of American law. 

This violation of foundational law makes subsequent claims of "legality" impossible, inevitably false, despite the provisions of "secret courts" (a contradiction in terms), or post-9/11 legislation, or "secret rules" (another contradiction of due process) of engagement and national security. 

Similarly, despite the Bush lawyers' torture memos, torture must remain a crime against humanity for any legal systems that "takes rights seriously" or is concerned in any way with the dignity of persons. To allow for indiscriminate murders of innocents, torture, secret "Star Chamber-like" tribunals, and massive violations of privacy, diminishes American civilization by hurting all of us. 

Professor Dworkin deserves the final word in this debate and discussion of his ideas -- a debate and discussion with positivist adversaries in which he has clearly prevailed -- as he departs from the scene:

" ... we share what we might call an aspirational concept of law which we often refer to as the ideal of legality or the rule of law. For us this aspirational concept is a contested concept. We agree that the rule of law is desirable, but we disagree about what, at least precisely, is the best statement of that ideal. ... legality holds only when the standards that officials accept respect certain basic rights of individual citizens." (Dworkin, Justice in Robes, p. 5.)

N.J. Priests and Child Molesters.

November 13, 2013 at 3:31 P.M. I am experiencing some highly unusual plumbing problems in my home. I am sure that this is merely a coincidence. Writing is difficult these days. However, I will be adding another essay soon.

November 12, 2013 at 1:28 P.M. I experienced difficulties posting the essay that appears below from my home. Apparently, obstructions to my home Internet connection have appeared. I am now writing at NYPL, Morningside Heights branch. I will continue to use public and private computers. This latest obstruction may be due to someone's "displeasure" at my criticisms of Mr. Netanyahu and New Jersey's continuing spectacle of corruption. ("An Open Letter to My Torturers in New Jersey, Terry Tuchin and Diana Lisa Riccioli.")

Primary Sources:

Abbott-Koloff, "Tighter Reins On Priests: Prosecutor Replaces Church as Monitor," The Record, November 9, 2013, p. A-1. (Priest with history of endangering minors will not go to prison.)

John C. Ensslin, "Bergen Regional Lawsuit -- Can Be Widened: County Agency Seeking $50 Million From Hospital," The Record, November 9, 2013, p. A-1. (More scams from taxpayers facilitated by lawyers. Surely, some of these lawyers serve on the ethics commitee? "Have you no shame, Mr. Rabner?" and "Herbert Klitzner, Esq.'s Greed and New Jersey's Hypocrisy.")

Mark Muller, "Priest Accused of Sexually Abusing Disabled Man Removed From Ministry," The Star Ledger, "County News," November 8, 2013, p. 7. (Father Kevin Duggan is charged with sexually violating a developmentally-disabled man, but will probably not be incarcerated and will remain a priest: "New Jersey is Stronger Than the Storm!")

Secondary Sources:

Tim Teeman, "A Final Plot Twist," The New York Times, November 10, 2013, p. 1. (Gore Vidal remains controversial after death. He would be pleased to know it. "Book Chats and Chits.")

Jodi Rudoren, "On Iran, Netanyahu Can Only Fume: Hard-Line Stance Shows Growing Gulf Between Israel and U.S.," The New York Times, November 9, 2013, p. A8. (Mr. Netanyahu or "Benjamin Netanjahu" -- depending on your choice -- is under the impression that his approval is required to implement U.S. foreign policy, and that the U.S. is receiving Israeli security and financial aid in the billions of dollars. Is this about racism against Mr. Obama? Perhaps it needs to be emphasized that Mr. Romney did not win the presidential election. This is not to dispute Mr. Netanyahu's point about Iran, but to suggest that public criticisms of the Obama administration and American foreign policy may not be the way to achieve Mr. Netanyahu's objectives. Mr. Menendez and Mr. Graham in the U.S. Senate have called for a "tough line" against Iran, but both men are recipients of funds from the Israeli lobby.)

"A Prosecutor is Punished," (Editorial) The New York Times, November 9, 2013, p. A20. (In a "man-bites-dog" story, prosecutors in Texas are finally -- for once! -- held accountable for withholding exculpatory material in violation of the Supreme Court's Brady decision, also for lying to investigators. OAE? "John McGill, Esq., the OAE, and New Jersey Corruption" and "Larry Peterson Cleared by DNA" then "Louis C. Taylor Freed After 42 Years in Prison.")

John Brennan, "State Plans to Revive American Dream Deal: Local Finance Board to Meet Next Week On $750 Million Bond," The Record, October 26, 2013, p. A-3. (Holidays are not looking good for the N.J. mob this year. The mafia wanted $1 billion.)

Mary Gordon, "JP Morgan Gets New Deal: Banks to Pay $5.1 Million Over Mortgage Sales to Fannie, Freddie," The Record, October 26, 2013, p. A-14. (Banks lying to federal regulators or hiding information -- through their lawyers -- will have to cough-up big bucks, allegedly. I'll believe it when I see it. "New Jersey Lawyers' Ethics Farce.")

Abbott-Koloff, "Former DJ Must Face Music in N.J.: Dave Herman in Child-Sex Sting," The Record, October 26, 2013, p. L-1. (Dave Herman joins the armies of "connected" child molesters in N.J., whose recent arrests amount only to a small percentage of the totality of child molesting "enthusiasts" roaming freely through the corridors of power and influence in the Garden State. Senator Bob? "Senator Menendez Consorts With Underage Prostitutes.")

John C. Ensslin, "Bergen Government Rift Grows: Freeholders Override Executive Veto Again," The Record, October 31, 2013, p. L-1. (The war between County Executive, Kathleen Donovan, and the Democrat mafia's representatives among the aptly-named "freeholders" continues at the expense of the taxpayers.)

John Brennan, "American Dream Clears Key Hurdle: State Finance Panel OKs Bond Plan," The Record, November 1, 2013, p. A-1. (American Dream's proposed $748 million public bonds plan received a "benediction laid on with the left hand" from New Jersey state officials looking for an offer they can't refuse. Allegations of contractors' robbery and illicit pressures on legislators will be ignored by N.J. law enforcement.)

Abbott-Koloff, "Herman Denies He Sought Sex With Girl, 7 -- Says 'Internet Mom' Was His Only Interest," The Record, November 1, 2013, p. L-1. (Dave Herman was pursuing a "two-for-one" deal in America's child prostitution capitol, New Jersey. "New Jersey's Child Sex Crisis.")

It is highly unusual and dangerous for private entities to discharge what are, properly, governmental responsibilities. 

I am concerned about private companies making money building and running, say, prisons or schools for failing students, because the incentive to make a buck usually conflicts with the public purposes for which such institutions as prisons and schools exist in the first place. 

The last thing you want -- if you build and operate "private" prisons -- is a decline in the crime rate or a reduction in recidivism because such things are bad for the bottom line. 

Judges in southern New Jersey and Pennsylvania were bribed to send juveniles to a privately-run facility in order to increase earnings for the company that owned the facility. Judges were getting kickbacks for every young person confined to the facility. This resulted in many more children being incarcerated and traumatized than would normally have been locked-up. ("Bribery in Union City, New Jersey" and "Is Menendez For Sale?")

Similarly, where schools for failing students (Stuart Rabner?) are created, teachers will be bribed to flunk students who will then have to go to these facilities. These are obvious dysfunctions of capitalism that government must control rather than ignore. ("Law and Ethics in the Soprano State" and "Cement is Gold" then "Senator Bob Loves Xanadu!")

In a state as corrupt as New Jersey the problem of political influence and secret rules for "insiders" are worsened for persons affiliated, for example, with the Catholic Church -- which is still a political force in the Garden State -- that is supportive of Mr. Christie and, usually, concerned about corruption, but which should not be in the "parole supervision" business. 

There can be no special deals for priests charged with child molesting because of Catholic political clout. 

"In a sweeping agreement that legal experts said is unprecedented in its scope, the Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli announced on Friday that he has taken over the job of monitoring a fomer Wykoff associate pastor [sic.] who confessed to fondling a 13-year-old boy because he does not trust church [sic.] officials to watch him [-- the Pastor that is, not Molinelli.]"

There is obviously a tension between a politically powerful Church -- the word is capitalized to designate the Catholic Church -- concerned with a perception problem as regards priests (quite a few rabbis have also been charged with child molestation in N.J.!) and the Bergen County prosecutor, John Molinelli, who is ostensibly concerned with protecting the public, except when mafia defendants are involved. ("John Molinelli's Ethics Problem" and "The Zisa Family Goes to the Matresses.")

The mafia and Catholic Church are very much alike in New Jersey, perhaps also elsewhere. 

According to Mr. Molinelli, law enforcement "no longer has confidence" in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark to fulfill its obligations under a 2007 agreement that:

" ... barred the Rev. Michael Fugee from working with children. [Mr. Molinelli] also pointed to recent statements by Archbishop John J. Myers, who said the church [sic.] is not equipped to monitor priests and never should have signed the agreement." 

Mr. Fugee will be defrocked after admitting to violating a preexisting court agreement that required him to avoid contacts with children.

Clearly, there is a history of "concern" with this defendant who will avoid a custodial sentence. How many others facing such charges would be treated in this special way? ("Judges Protect Child Molesters in Bayonne, New Jersey" and "New Jersey Superior Court Judge is a Child Molester,")

The agreement for Mr. Fugee is unique to my knowledge. I am not alone in this opinion: 

"Jeff Anderson, a Minnesota attorney who specializes in clergy abuse cases, called the agreement 'unique' and said there are  no precedents for it. Anderson represented a family that received [a] $1.35 million settlement to resolve a lawsuit alleging that Myers [Archbishop of Newark Diocese] failed to keep an alleged pedophile priest away from children when he was a bishop in Illinois." 

More child molesting allegations have arisen in South Jersey and in Hudson County -- just during the past several weeks -- where offenders receive seemingly equally special treatment if they have political friends. 

I will be posting more essays examining the political and legal corruption that continues to threaten the safety of all of New Jersey's children. 

Do you speak to me of ethics in New Jersey? 

De Blasio and Christie.

November 9, 2013 at 10:05 P.M. The usual harassments accompany my writing efforts this evening. I will do my best to continue writing since new child abuse scandals as well as allegations of favoritism for child abuse defendants in Bergen County have arisen.

Peter Lattman & Ben Protess, "$1.2 Million Fine For Hedge Fund in Inside Case," The New York Times, November 5, 2013, p. A1. (The fines accumulating against Wall Street may explain the hostility to Mr. Obama's Justice Department and to the president.)

Declan Walsh & Ismail Khan, "Pakistan Party Votes to Block NATO Supply Lines if Drones Persist," The New York Times, November 5, 2013, p. A7. (Mr. Khan may yet become Prime Minister of Pakistan.)

David E. Sanger, "As U.S. Weighs Spying Changes, Officials Say Data Sweeps Must Continue," The New York Times, November 5, 2013, p. A8. (Perhaps drones can be used in Hudson County, New Jersey?)

Denise Grady & Benedict Carey, "Medical Ethics Have Been Violated at Detention Sites, A New Report Says" The New York Times, November 5, 2013, p. A16. (American MEDICAL professionals assisting in torture is one of the evils inherited from the Bush administration. The only prior example of this crime in recent history is Nazism: "American Doctors and Torture" and "Psychological Torture in the American Legal System.")

Emma J. Fitzimmons, "New Jersey Mall Locked Down After Gunfire," The New York Times, November 5, 2013, p. A19. (Paramus mall shut down after gunfire. More fires are expected in New Jersey.)

Declan Walsh, "Death by Drone Turns a Villain Into a Martyr," The New York Times, November 4, 2013, p. A12. (Mr. Murshad is suddenly a hero; Assad is now admired for resisting Israeli strikes against Syrian targets orchestrated by the U.S., allegedly, in violation of agreements with Russia.)

John Eligion, "Kochs' Group Has Ambitions In Small Races," The New York Times, November 4, 2013, p. A1. (Allegations that American aid for Israeli security -- approved by the Obama administration -- is being sent back by Mr. Netanjahu into the American elections in support of Republican candidates through the Koch brothers.)    

Michael Barbaro & David W. Chen, "De Blasio Wins Mayor's Race in a Landslide; Christie Coasts to 2nd Term as Governor," The New York Times, November 6, 2013, p. A1.

After voting yesterday, I sat back reading newspapers while awaiting the early results of the national elections. There were very few surprises.

Mr. de Blasio's victory in New York was a welcome indication of a necessary change in direction in this great city's politics, featuring a shift of attention from Park Avenue and the Upper West Side to all boroughs, and at least some concern in Gracie Mansion for persons earning less than one million dollars per year. 

How much concern there is for the poor or what difference this new focus will make in people's lives remains to be seen.

Significantly, Mr. de Blasio's victory celebration took place in Brooklyn. Normally, the news media and glitterati would hesitate to make their way to one of the "outer" boroughs. On this occasion, they were forced by Mr. de Blasio to do so. I anticipate that de Blasio's mayoralty will be great for Brooklyn. 

Mr. Lhota's attack ads and the hysteria in the New York Post about de Blasio being a "Communist" (horrors!) actually helped the Democrat from Brooklyn. 

Mr. Lhota, unfortunately, never got his message out -- a message which was much more interesting than people realized -- nor did the Republican manage to define himself rather than being defined by the hysteria and mud-flinging, usually by his own partisans, as distinct from his opponent. 

Mr. de Blasio, wisely, managed to use the words "Tea Party" and government "Shut Down" at least five times in every response he offered during the debates. "Stop-and-frisk" was seen, correctly, only as a symptom of a Bloomberg administration that had drifted in its final years away from its initial attentiveness to the plight of all people in New York, especially the neediest New Yorkers suffering from the genuine ills of inequality in services (like sabotage at the New York Public Library branches that serve the poor!), in favor of the glitterati and party circuit Manhattanites whose affections cost Ms. Quinn the nomination.

Mr. Christie's success in New Jersey is heralded by the usual Republican cheerleaders on FOX News, but it is really a very local phenomenon that comes only after decades of Third World levels of corruption and incompetence, as well as grossly deceitful and unethical practices among lawyers and judges, in a jurisdiction largely governed by the mafia through a bloated Democrat machine. ("Law and Ethics in the Soprano State" and "New Jersey is the Home of the Living Dead.")

Mr. Christie's only achievement was to make New Jersey less corrupt, even if the state is still, indisputably, a dismal failure due to the lingering presence of "bosses" -- like Bob Menendez and Richard J. Codey -- with enough routine theft today in government agencies and the courts to humiliate Mexico or Guatemala, assuming that those countries are guilty of comparable corruption. 

It is difficult to accept that the Garden State is part of the United States of America. Efforts to persuade New Jersey to become an independent country have failed, so far. 

Even Mr. Christie's best friends admit that Trenton's "Governator" is not a man blessed with a great deal of personal charisma or charm, humor or wit. Mr. Christie is no Jack Kennedy. 

There is little danger that Mr. Christie will win the Nobel Prize in physics any time soon. Worse, Mr. Christie cannot be regarded as a great humanitarian. Mr. Christie is also no Ronald Reagan: "There you go again, Chris ..."

However, thus far, Mr. Christie has not been caught taking bribes. By New Jersey standards, this honesty makes Governor Christie comparable to, say, Mother Theresa or Pope Francis in terms of probity and goodness.

Mr. Christie's greatest problem in running for national office is that his party is about evenly divided between "fanatic Conservatives" and "fanatic Fascists." 

Being only a "fanatic Conservative" places Chris Christie at a distinct disadvantage against lunatics on the far Right-wing of the Republican party -- like Mr. Paul or Mr. Rubio -- since Tea Party loyalists support the true self-proclaimed "Lion of the Senate," Ted (zig heil!) Cruz. 

Trenton's continuing scandal over something called "American Dream" (a five BILLION dollar scam) that has recently resulted in a proposed $800 MILLION in additional bonds for the mafia, indictments of leading players in this nightmare (Joe Ferreiro and Joe Di Vincenzo), as well as Bob Menendez in trouble, again, with the U.S. Senate's Ethics Committee and the FBI and Justice Department, to say nothing of New Jersey leading the nation in child-prostitution and kiddie-porn -- all of this creates massive amounts of "baggage" for any politician running for national office, especially one with a lot of "weight" to carry already. ("New Jersey's Child Sex Crisis" and "New Jersey is the Home of Child Molesters.") 

Mr. Christie faces quite a challenge if he runs for president. I hope that he will see the wisdom in dealing with my matters at the earliest opportunity. ("No More Cover-Ups and Lies, Chief Justice Rabner!" and "Have you no shame, Mr. Rabner?")

New Jersey remains, sadly -- I say this as politely as possible -- the "rectum of the nation." Do we wish to pull our presidents out of the national rectum? I hope not. 

Humanities and Humanity in Decline?

November 4, 2013 at 2:06 P.M. The latest bogus site posted by New Jersey government officials attached to my name concerns something called "Instant Checkmate." I have never been arrested or charged with a crime. Any allegations to the contrary would be fascinating to me. I will be happy to post a link to any bogus site making such a claim. I am told that there is no New Jersey Consumer Affairs "Final Order" against me dating from 1996. I am not a Communist. ("John McGill, Esq., the OAE, and New Jersey Corruption.")

Scott Shane, "No Morsel Too Miniscule For All-Consuming N.S.A.; From Spying on Leader of U.N. to Tracking Drug Deals, an Ethos of 'Why Not?'," The New York Times, November 3, 2013, p. A1. (The NSA is spying, among others, on Vatican priests to determine the Pope's schedule. Efforts to spy on the Pope's boss have not yet proved successful. The NSA sounds like New Jersey's OAE. "New Jersey's Office of Attorney Ethics.")

Charlie Savage, Claire Miller & Nicole Perlroth, "N.S.A. Said to Tap Google and Yahoo Abroad," The New York Times, October 31, 2013, p. B1. ("Business Day.") (This may explain my trouble at "blogger.")

Samin Segupta, "No U.S. Action, So States Move On Privacy Law: Voter Support Grows," The New York Times, October 31, 2013, p. A1. (Efforts to rescue some fragments of privacy for the "Ordinary Joes" appear doomed -- or absurd -- in light of new revelations of spying at home and abroad.)

Mark Mazetti & David E. Sanger, "Tap On Merkel Provides Peek at Vast Spy Net," The New York Times, October 31, 2013, p. A1. (Reactions among Germans, French persons, Brazilians and Spaniards -- among others -- have been much more intense than anyone anticipated. Calls on Britain's Prime Minister to halt assistance for U.S. spying on UK citizens are growing.)

Natalie O'Neill, "Tart Reform: Juris-Prudes Lay Down the Law," New York Post, October 26, 2013, p. 1. (Memo at elite law firm advises young female associates not to show cleavage -- unless it helps with a jury. Keep your "inner-slut" in check, except when you get an advantage with a judge or adversary by being a whore. Ms. Guardagno? Legal ethics? What about male sluts and cleavage?)

Lars Svendsen, A Philosophy of Evil (London: Dalkey Archive Press, 2010), p. 182. (Conformity and evil.)

Tamor Lewin, "Interest Fading in Humanities, Colleges Worry," The New York Times, October 31, 2013, p. A1.

As I pondered the revelations on today's broadcast of "Democracy Now," focusing on drones and the killing of civilians in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia, I found it difficult to reconcile the ostensible traditional values of U.S. society with these military actions. ("Manifesto For the Unfinished American Revolution" and "A Commencement Address by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham-Clinton.") 

Part of the legal difficulty in the drone controversy concerns not only the military use of these weapons, but also the "civilian" (C.I.A.) use of drones in non-combatant countries, such as Pakistan, where there is no international legal precedent whatsoever for (or against) such quasi-military activity. 

Civilian use of drones is a legal black hole making such weapons even more of a violation of international law. Legally, it is exactly the same as the Post Office or Division of Motor Vehicles dropping a bomb when the C.I.A. uses a drone weapon anywhere.  

I also found it puzzling that government spokespersons and journalists -- as foreign critics often point out! -- seem incapable of grasping the moral reality in this situation or the human significance of events that are mostly ignored by America's so-called corporate or corporate/entertainment "news" media. 

We are killing innocent and helpless people for no good reason.

It is a truism of American politics that if something is not reported in The New York Times, CBS, ABC/Disney or Time/Warner (a monolithic media/entertainment "power" that serves as an echo chamber for something called "The American Consensus" on key issues), then the unreported issue or event simply has not occurred, or does not exist, politically. Hence, there is no need to worry about it. 

This probably explains the pressure on American journalists to ignore my situation. Bishop Berkeley would be proud of such a conclusion. Bob Menendez is hoping that I will be ignored precisely so that he will not have to face the music. Good luck, Bob. ("Menendez Consorts With Underage Prostitutes" and "New Jersey's 'Ethical' Legal System.")  

The horror or evil in maiming or killing innocent persons, their faces frozen in a mask of pain at death, again, does not register with people, not even when the victims are children or old people. This horror cannot penetrate the national consciousness because of trivializing dismissals ("yuk, yuk, yuk!") or a kind of chosen blindness to what we become when we, as a people, commit atrocities then ignore and deny having done so. We have to make ourselves stupid in order to live with such crimes. ("America's Drone Murders" and "Little Brown Men Are Only Objects For Us.") 

A laugh-track or hideous hyena-like chuckle accompanies our television broadcasts ("The Colbert Report") even in describing the most deplorable human tragedies. Much of the answer to this issue of callousness may simply be convenience: Self-deception on a societal level allows us to think of ourselves (as, admittedly, other countries do too) always as the good guys, bulwarks of freedom and justice in a world filled with tyranny. ("What is Memory?" and "Can you lie to yourself?" then "On Bullshit.")

This national heroism is sometimes true. Much of American foreign policy is motivated by arguably moral concerns among others. It is also true that ideology prevents us from seeing that, like all great powers in history, we are responsible for great evil in the world. ("American Doctors and Torture" and "American Lawyers in the Torture Debate.")

Discussions of such evils, of deaths caused directly by drones, bombings, warfare, and even more deaths caused by sanctions (Iran, Iraq) or embargos (Cuba) that deny innocent people -- old, sick, or very young people -- food and medicine, is sanitized because it is conveyed in abstract policy-wonk double-talk that focuses on "the big picture" as opposed to the individual human beings who are suffering and dying. These abstract terms seem unsuitable to the stomach-churning crimes at issue today. ("The Wanderer and His Shadow" and "Zero Dark Thirty.")

America's obsession with consumption, technology and science in educational institutions and in our everyday lives at the expense of the arts and humanities have led not only to the much-noted decline in American civilization, but also to making all of us less good than we should be. ("Why I am not an ethical relativist.")

All of the statistics compiled by social scientists suggest that Americans are more selfish, cruel, shallow and, proudly, insensitive to the needs and sufferings of others than we have been in previous decades. 

Is this greed and selfishness symbolized by OUR waistlines? Perhaps. 

A recent study observed a group of six persons compare two lines on a blackboard to determine which was the longer of the two. When five of the six persons were told to say that the shorter line was really the longer of the two, the single dissenter quickly agreed with the majority in a startling display of the power of conformity established in Milgram's and Zimbardo's experiments. Juries may also bear out this research: "People want to be told what to believe." ("Terry Tuchin, Diana Lisa Riccioli, and New Jersey's Agency of Torture.")

Far worse than this servility was observed by persons focusing on political uses for these tendencies. Perhaps this research helps to explain why the U.S. Congress is rarely filled with "Profiles in Courage." 

We are less honest and ethical, Mr. Rabner, obsessed with power and privilege. This transformation has coincided with the decline in religious commitments and, more surprisingly, with a decline in humanities education. ("What did you know, Mr. Rabner, and when did you know it?")

Hypocrisy is on the rise. We are more willing to judge others, especially other nations -- nations that often regard these American judgments on human rights issues or ethics, for example, as laughably absurd coming from a Superpower roundly condemned this week by U.N. Human Rights Reports on the drone policy and continuing tortures at Guantanamo. ("Mr. Putin's Advice to America.")

As I write these words new protests in Iran and much of Europe (depicted on BBC and RT News this morning) are a response to "America's hypocrisies." 

A one million person march across Europe by persons wearing masks from "V-For-Vendetta" is taking place as Americans cast their votes on "Super-Tuesday." Will America heed calls to stop spying on our allies? I doubt it.

Americans are accused of "disdain for the rights of others" and "dishonesty" as Edward Snowden becomes an international hero for "speaking truth to power." No wonder they want to assassinate me. ("Law and Ethics in the Soprano State" and "Is Senator Menendez 'For' Human Rights?")

Antiamericanism has not vanished, but continues to increase well beyond the Middle East, even as Al Qaeda establishes a foothold in Africa and Latin America, Europe and Asia -- the latter two continents are now united by an "underground and underwater" railroad from Turkey to Russia, and points East. Lord Byron would not need to swim the Bosphorous today since he could easily purchase a railroad ticket for the necessary crossing in Istanbul:

"Some 45 percent of the faculty members in Stanford's main undergraduate division are clustered in the humanities -- but only 15 percent of the students [wish to study these subjects.]"

Economic conditions and decline in respect for the importance and achievements of humanists have contributed to sharp reductions in education in the humanities. Efforts to explain the importance of these subjects and the loss to our culture from their continuing decline have met with little success:

"Edinboro [sic.] University of Pennsylvania announced that it was closing its [unpopular] degree programs in German, philosophy, and world languages and culture."

I often find persons in Manhattan playing games or texting on their I-Phones as they are walking on crowded sidewalks. Persons bump into one another -- or miss their stops on subway rides -- not because of a failure of technology, but because they are not looking at where they are going. Illiteracy in The New York Times is routine and no longer surprising to readers.  

As a society we are doing much the same: We are not bothering to see where we are going with our wonderful technology. We are obsessed with weapons, science, technology (American medicine and law are rightly criticized for similar failings), but we are frequently inattentive to a drift towards greater cruelty and more inhumanity, loss of values that cannot be supplied by science, as we fail to appreciate the moral implications of our military actions and frequent failures to act in the interest of humanity. ("Drawing Room Comedy: A Philosophical Essay in the Form of a Film Script" and "John Finnis and Ethical Cognitivism.")

" ... 'Oh, you're interested in the humanities? You'll never get a job.' ..."

Students in the Times article are quoted making such statements with no sense of irony. These are America's YOUNG people today. Aside from whether you will be employed or how good a job you'll get, there is the issue of whether you will be an educated or aware person, let alone a good or happy and fulfilled person, someone concerned with the well-being of those you love as well as all others, not just yourself. ("Richard A. Posner On Voluntary Actions and Criminal Responsibility.")

Your values must come from your own reasoning and interpretations, but these reasonings will have to be strong enough to resist the pressures to conform to sometimes questionable societal choices and mores, regarding gender or racism, for example, or the life-options for anyone or everyone. ("Is there a gay marriage right?" and "Have you no shame, Mr. Rabner?" then "New Jersey's Politically-Connected Lawyers On the Tit.")

To resist the hypocrisies and contradictions that surround us, I suggest, informed reflections on choices will always benefit from the wisdom and lessons in our best art and philosophy. The humanities are always, primarily, about your humanity. ("Shakespeare's Black Prince" and "Whatever!" then "What is Education For?")

" ... the study of the humanities offers skills that will help [students] sort out values, conflicting issues and fundamental philosophical questions, said Leon Botstein, the president [sic.] of Bard College."