Who’s Worse, Aunt Becky Or Phil Murphy?

Governor Phil Murphy

It’s been nearly two weeks since the news of the college admissions bribery scandal, Operation Varsity Blues, broke and social media is still filled with folks talking about it. The national press is still churning out stories about it. I suppose the attention is because Lori Loughlin, “Aunt Becky” from the TV show Full House, is involved. Personally, I was never a fan of the show, so I really didn’t pay much attention to the stories.

I was, and am still, more concerned that over a month ago we learned that thanks to a new law signed by Gov. Phil Murphy New Jersey spent $1.6 million to help send 513 undocumented immigrants to college during the fall 2018 semester.

So, who’s worse, Aunt Becky or Phil Murphy?

On one hand you have a bunch of millionaires allegedly paying bribes to get their kids into supposedly good colleges, on the other hand you have a millionaire governor rewarding the children of illegal aliens for the bad behavior of their parents by helping the kids go to college.

Worse, Murphy, or the state, used $1.6 million taxpayer dollars to reward those kids for the bad behavior of their parents.

At lease Aunt Becky and the others used their own money to allegedly bribe their kids’ path to college admissions. Besides, who wouldn’t do whatever they could to help their kids?

I’m not saying it’s right, or fair, that a bunch of millionaires allegedly paid bribes to get their kids into colleges, but at least I can understand it.

What I can’t understand is why not nearly as much attention has been paid to Governor Murphy using taxpayer dollars to help send 513 undocumented immigrants to college. That’s not right either and I cannot understand why anyone would think it’s even remotely fair.

For all Murphy’s talk of a “stronger and fairer” New Jersey, when it comes to spending $1.6 million taxpayer dollars to help send 513 undocumented immigrants to college there is nothing “stronger or fairer” about that.

Bottom line: I think Phil Murphy is definitely worse than Aunt Becky.

Trouble In Paradise? Progressive Democrats Becoming Part Of The Loyal Opposition In Camco

Camden County is one of the toughest places in New Jersey to be a Republican. It may be one of the toughest places in the country to be a Republican. It’s so reliably Democrat that it’s like paradise for the Democratic party machine.

An Assemblyman resigns. No problem, replace him with another Democrat of their choosing. A School Board member resigns. No problem, just replace him.

But, could there be trouble on the horizon for the machine Democrats? After a Haddon Township Commissioner was forced to resign he was replaced with a Democrat from the progressive wing of the party.

It appears the South Jersey Progressive Democrats are organized. They are actively recruiting progressives to take on the machine Democrats in Camden County.

Reading their recruitment piece on social media I have to wonder if they borrowed some of their talking points from local Republicans. “You support open, responsive, and fiscally responsible government over party boss/machine politics; you support ending pay to play and ending corporate welfare/favoritism for political machine insiders” sound a lot like the same words that have been coming out of the mouths of Camden County Republicans for years.

There are also allegations of intimidation

Frankly, I don’t think staffers showing up at a meeting is “intimidation.” More likely, it’s closer to a campaign sending a tracker to monitor the opposition. Intimidation or trackers, either way, it appears the progressives in Camden County are fighting back.

Who knows, maybe the machine Democrats now having to fight on two fronts means things could start to change for Camden County Republicans.

To the progressives: welcome to being a part of the loyal opposition in Camco. Keep fighting!

Is Phil Murphy’s Meddling In Soccer Team Affairs A Violation Of Blind Trust Agreement?

Phil Murphy

I’m not a lawyer so the question, “Is Phil Murphy meddling in soccer team affairs a violation of his blind trust agreement,” is an honest question.

A few months after becoming Governor, Murphy “and his wife Tammy put their holdings in blind trusts that will manage millions of dollars in assets.”

According to NJ.com Murphy “ held onto his two-thirds interest in the women's professional soccer team Sky Blue FC.

Not being a lawyer I went to Google to try and learn a little something about blind trusts. The simplest explanation of blind trusts comes from Legal Zoom:

In a blind trust, a settlor transfers assets to a third party who has complete discretion in how to use or invest the assets. In the typical blind trust, the settlor is also the beneficiary; thus, the trustee is managing the assets for the benefit of the settlor. However, the settlor/beneficiary can't give any instructions to the trustee about what to invest in; he has absolutely no knowledge of how the assets are invested or what they're being used for.

Based on that explanation of blind trusts it seems to me that calling and attempting to convince draft picks to sign with the team would be a violation of the blind trust agreement. Here at The Bob & Steve Show we mentioned the fact Murphy tried to convince two of the team’s draft picks to sign, The New York Post reported that Murphy tried to convince the number 6 overall draft pick to sign and New Jersey Globe did a piece on Murphy’s “continued involvement in the operations of the professional women’s soccer team he owns.”

Maybe some people feel sorry for Murphy because of all the problems his soccer team has had and are willing to give him a free pass over calling draft picks to attempt to convince them to sign with Sky Blue.

And, I might even be willing to give the same free pass, but it turns out we now know thanks to a Pro Soccer USA report that Murphy didn’t stop at calling only two draft picks. According to Pro Soccer USA:

In addition to having meetings with Reddy and general manager Tony Novo, some players, including Sheridan, spoke to owners Steven Temares and New Jersey governor Phil Murphy after the season. Sheridan said her conversation with them via conference call was good for both parties, particularly the ownership.

And just yesterday NJ.com reported:

The team tweeted photos of players chatting with the first couple at Murphy’s home during a recent dinner party, but it’ll take more than one night of small talk and finger foods to solve the issues.

Obviously, I wasn’t invited to that dinner party, nut I believe it’s a safe bet to assume there was talk about how the team is run.

Mr. Murphy, with all his money, I’m sure has some really good lawyers, but my limited knowledge of blind trusts has me thinking he is in violation of the blind trust agreement. All his conversations with players are/were to either sign draft picks or convince stars to stay because improvements are being made. The way I see it those conversations improve his team’s bottom line, which means Murphy directly benefits from the conversations, clearly a violation of the blind trust.

Then again, I’m not a lawyer, so maybe I’m wrong. You decide.