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.
