Legislative Select Oversight Committee Report: So Much For A Stronger And Fairer New Jersey

Gov. Phil Murphy

Remember that time we wrote: “What we do wonder is who will Murphy blame for the lack of action he took in dealing with the Brennan situation. He can’t blame Christie for this one. Maybe, he’ll try to blame his staff, but he can’t. Remember, he did reply to Brennan’s email regarding a ‘sensitive matter’ with ‘Hang in. We’re on it.’ That response, at least to us, proves Murphy knew exactly what the ‘sensitive matter’ was that she wrote him about.”

Only in New Jersey can a single mother of four be sentenced to go to jail for emailing that it was “time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee,” but absolutely nothing happen to a member of the governor’s staff accused of raping another member of the governor’s staff – even after that Governor promised the woman making the rape accusation he was “on it.”

None of that sounds like New Jersey is any stronger or fairer.

In fact, it appears the only things to come out of the Legislative Select Oversight Committee Report is that (A) “the administration of Gov. Phil Murphy ‘mishandled’ an employee’s rape claim and suggested that top officials should be ‘embarrassed’ by their testimony,” (B) that it “rips Gov. Phil Murphy’s inner circle for failing Katie Brennan after she accused campaign worker turned transition staffer Al Alvarez of sexually assaulting her in April 2017” and (C) that the “committee’s report questioned the honesty of some officials.”

Mishandled? Embarrassed? They are the understatements of the year!

To add insult to injury, New Jersey Globe reported in part:

The Select Committee on Oversight won’t be making any criminal referrals following the issuance of a scathing report that said members of Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration failed state housing agency chief of staff Katie Brennan.

“The report is out there and any law enforcement agency that chooses to look at it can,” Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, a committee co-chair, said. “We’ve issued our report, period.”

“Period,” apparently Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg forgot the “full stop” part of one of Gov. Murphy’s favorite lines, “period, full stop.”

Is Weinberg serious? Any law enforcement agency that chooses to look at it can? She knows as well as we do no one from law enforcement is going to look at that report.

It’s obvious that in New Jersey #MeToo and #BelieveWomen only applies when folks like Murphy and Weinberg are attacking Republicans.

We have written repeatedly about Murphy’s hypocrisy when it comes to his treatment of women. More than 30 times, on this blog, we’ve mentioned the mistreatment of women on Murphy’s professional soccer team. We lost count how many times the mainstream press mentioned the lousy way Murphy handled the Katie Brennan situation. And, don’t forget there was the much less covered Allison Kopicki who said she was resigning from her position in the Murphy administration because she alleged she has faced retaliation from Murphy’s administration.

Basically, the recently released Legislative Select Oversight Committee Report proves only that for women is not one thing in New Jersey that is stronger and fairer under Governor Phil Murphy.

The Adventures Of “Brine Boy” – Gov. Phil Murphy Will Buy You Dinner If He Gets To Tax Millionaires

In case you missed it, Governor Phil Murphy is still aggressively pushing the idea of taxing millionaires at an even higher rate. To get folks to agree to raising taxes on millionaires Murphy is offering taxpayers $125 in the form of a “refundable tax credit.” $125 will surly help with the average property tax bill of $8,767.

That’s right, Phil Murphy is offering you a tax credit that’ll cover the cost of a nice dinner out in exchange for raising taxes on the people who employ us. Don’t bother taking the kids to that nice dinner or even hiring a babysitter for the evening because $125 doesn’t go very far.

Of course the Governor, or “Brine Boy” as we like to call him here at the Bob & Steve Show, doesn’t bother to mention that if he didn’t spend $65 million dumping brine on our roads all winter he might not even have to talk about a tax on millionaires.

But, brine only costs about 17 cents a mile. Murphy according to NJ.com:

“I think it costs 17 cents a mile to brine the road, so if we become the brining state of America, I will not be upset about that,” he’s said.

And, don’t forget the time Murphy took “at least $1.2 million and possibly as much as $2 million was cut from our veterans,” yet could “find $2.1 million for the legal defense of illegal immigrants.” Or the time Murphy found $1.6 million to help send 513 illegal aliens to college.

Amazing isn’t it? We’ve found a couple million bucks Murphy has given illegal aliens in New Jersey and he wants to give you, taxpaying legal residents, $125 by taxing millionaires, the people who create jobs.

Great plan, “Brine Boy,” tax the job creators out of the state.

A Cease And Desist Letter That Will Be Ignored

Tom Mastrangelo

On Saturday’s radio show Bob and I chatted a little bit about a cease and desist letter I received as a direct result of a blog post last Wednesday.

I received the cease and desist letter via email from the law firm of Chiesa, Shahinian & Giantomasi PC. They are representing Morris County freeholder Tom Mastrangelo who happens to be on tomorrow’s primary election ballot. The firm represented Mastrangelo three years ago when he filed criminal charges against me and the three freeholder candidates I was working with. The case was eventually dismissed “due to insufficient evidence.”

I have a framed copy of the dismissal proudly displayed in my home:

Oh! I forgot to mention, the last time I checked the law firm representing Mastrangelo happened to be on the Special County Counsel list. I’m not a lawyer, but if they’re still on that list there may be some sort of a conflict.

“Insufficient evidence.” In other words I was never given any evidence the record was expunged, despite three different lawyers asking for that evidence.

Anyway, last Wednesday’s blog post for those of you who haven’t read it talked about a mailer that used a “phony paid for by line.” I said in the post that it was “cowardly” to use a “phony paid for by line.” I truly believe it was cowardly. I practice hardball politics often, but always stand by my work.

The mailer with the phony paid for by line just happened to include a police report that Mastrangelo alleges was expunged. Never mind the fact he said the same thing three years ago and the case was dismissed for insufficient evidence.

What I really found interesting was that shortly after I shared the blog post to my personal Facebook page Johnson McWilliams used the comments section to attack Bob Greco, my radio show co-host and McWilliams’s comments were removed at almost the exact same time I received the cease and desist letter via email.

Could the deletion of McWilliams comments at the same time I received the cease and desist letter from Mastrangelo’s lawyer be a coincidence? It could be, but allegedly Johnson McWilliams is one of several of Mastrangelo’s phony Facebook accounts, so I doubt it was coincidence.

At the time of the comments it appeared Mastrangelo/McWilliams was more concerned that I referred to him as a “scumbag” for once throwing his own son under the bus by denying he sent him to video an event hosted by his opponents.

I standby the scumbag comment because what kind of person would knowingly lie about sending his son to record an event:

As to the cease and desist letter. That law firm can pound sand because, according to the New Jersey State Supreme Court, “The issue before us arises in the realm of political discourse, where speech is often harsh and caustic, but where the constitutional guarantee of free expression is given great latitude. Although our expungement statute relieves a prior offender of some civil disabilities, it does not extinguish the truth.” G.D. v. Kenny, 205 N.J. 275, 283 (N.J. 2011)

While I still think the designer/sender of the mail piece in question is a coward for using a phony paid for by line it doesn’t change the truth.

And, while on the subject of truth I still think any elected official who hides behind fake Facebook accounts and who lies about his own son to save his political hide is truly a scumbag.

You have some interesting choices in tomorrow’s election Morris County!

And just for fun, here’s the cease and desist letter:

Issuu is a digital publishing platform that makes it simple to publish magazines, catalogs, newspapers, books, and more online. Easily share your publications and get them in front of Issuu's millions of monthly readers. Title: Cease and Desist, Author: sandiastrategies, Name: 5.30.19_ltr_to_s._kush, Length: undefined pages, Page: 1, Published: 2019-06-03