Just a Minute: Frelinghuysen critic has a Super-PAC???

There have been three stories in the New Jersey Herald about the controversy between Bank Executive Saily Avelenda and Congressman Rodney Frelinghuysen. 

There have been a bunch of other stories from around the state.  None that we read have mentioned this:

National Journal: Hotline Latest Edition (USA)

March 9, 2017

Protests, Super PAC Suggest Frelinghuysen Could Face Serious Challenge

Author: Colin Diersing

Article Text:

Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ) "has never had a hard time getting re-elected. The 22-year incumbent represents a district so safe that Michael Moore in 2000 tried to run a ficus tree against him to highlight the lack of competition. ... But Frelinghuysen's streak of effortless elections may come to an end in 2018, just as he's at the height of his power as chairman of the House Appropriations Committee."

"Anti-Trump activists have incessantly called on Frelinghuysen to hold a town hall .. He's refused. And now, NJ 11th for Change has a super PAC, founded last month by Google executive Jonathan Bellack and local bank executive Saily Avelenda. ... Donald Trump won Frelinghuysen's district last year, but barely — and by a significantly smaller margin than Mitt Romney won it in 2012." ( Politico)

Nearly all of these news stories fail to provide readers with Ms. Avelenda's full title:  Senior Vice President and Assistant General Counsel of the Bank.  Yep, she is a fully-fledged member of the one percent!  Before landing her latest job with Lakeland Bank, in 2010, Ms. Avelenda was general counsel for Hann Financial Service Company, and was a vice president and counsel for Hudson United Bank.

And far from being a simple everywoman the press makes her out to be, Ms. Saily Avelenda is wrapped up with some even bigger mega-rich political operators.  Ms. Avelenda is actually a partner in a Super-PAC with GOOGLE multi-millionaire Jonathan Bellack, a guy who drops $33,400 on a single dinner ticket to hang out with Barack Obama.  $33,400 is what the average working American pays for a new car if they can afford it -- and this fancy arsed executive drops that much on some political chicken dinner?  This is courtesy of WikiLeaks:

Jonathan Bellack is a mega-rich guy who uses his vast wealth to shout down working class voters who can't throw the kind of money around that he can.  While most people worry about their kids' college tuition, property taxes, and staying out of foreclosure, just look at the kind of money this rich liberal throws around on dirtbag politics:

 

Joint Fundraising Contributions

These are contributions to committees who are raising funds to be distributed to other committees. The breakdown of these contributions to their final recipients may appear below

Wow, that is a lot of dough!

Here are the actual filing papers for the Super-PAC controlled and operated by mega-dirt rich corporate executive Jonathan Bellack and lawyer/banker corporate executive Saily Avelenda.  Talk about poster children for our screwed-up political system!

Really?  Really???  When did Democrat activists stop being union guys and started being one percenters, corporate executives, lawyers, bankers, owners of Super-PACs, and other corporate scum?

Super-PACs and the people who own them -- people like Jonathan Bellack and Saily Avelenda -- are the problem with politics in America today.  They have destroyed representative democracy in America.  They have destroyed our Republic.  Don't believe us -- listen to this study from Princeton University:

There you have it.  The problem wonderfully explained.  The rich one percent get their way -- the lobbyists, bankers, lawyers, corporate executives, and especially the owners of Super-PACs are responsible for the shit we are in.

AFP opposes President Trump on illegal immigration

Last month Time magazine reported that the "powerful policy and politics network organized by the billionaire Koch brothers made official what many had expected: an opposition to President Trump’s ban on visitors from seven countries with Muslim majorities.  In a statement provided to reporters covering the Kochs’ twice-a-year retreat, top official Brian Hooks said Sunday that the groups under his umbrella would not support Trump’s move."

On February 21, 2017, the Washington Times reported on the attack by Tim Phillips, the president of Americans for Prosperity (AFP) on President Trump's attempt to build a wall between Mexico and the United States.  AFP called  Trump's efforts a "tax increase" on business . 

State AFP affiliates have threatened to give pro-Trump Republican members of Congress an "F" rating if they support construction of a border wall.

The Koch Political Network is a special interest lobby group funded by the brothers' extensive holdings in the petroleum industry.  According to figures provided by Koch Industries, they spend between $300 million and $400 million on political activity every election cycle.

The Koch network, officially known as Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, operates groups such as the grassroots focused Americans for Prosperity (AFP), the data-centered i360 and Latino-eyeing Libre Initiative.  Together, they spent roughly $250 million on last year’s elections—while sitting out the White House race.  Over the next two years, they plan to spend as much as $400 million.  

Americans for Prosperity (AFP) is run by David H. Koch, a New York City billionaire ($43.3 billion and counting) who is an owner at Koch Industries and whose core business is the refining and distribution of petroleum. 

The Chairman of AFP -- yes, the same David H. Koch -- is a social liberal.  But don't take our word for it.  Here is what Wikipedia had to say about him:

(David) Koch considers himself a social liberal,^[22] supporting women's right to choose,^[23] gay rights, same-sex marriage and stem-cell research.^[3][24] He opposes the war on drugs.

Ronald Reagan was a social as well as an economic conservative.  He believed in an America built on Judeo-Christian values and the Western tradition of free speech and free markets.  David Koch is no Reaganite.  In fact, he opposed Ronald Reagan in 1980 -- as the Libertarian Party's candidate for Vice President -- running on a platform  that included the following planks:

"We therefore call for the elimination of all restriction on immigration, the abolition of the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the Border Patrol, and a declaration of full amnesty for those people who have entered the country illegally."

" We support an end to all subsidies for child-bearing built into our present laws, including all welfare plans and the provision of tax-supported services for children. We further support the repeal of all laws restricting voluntary birth control or the right of the woman to make a personal moral choice regarding the termination of pregnancy."

"We defend the rights of individuals to engage in (or abstain from) any religious activities which do not violate the rights of others. In order to defend religious freedom, we advocate a strict separation of church and state."

"The repeal of all laws regarding consensual sexual relations, including prostitution and solicitation, and the cessation of state oppression and harassment of homosexual men and women, that they, at least, be accorded their full rights as individuals".

"We believe that 'children' are human beings and, as such, have the same rights as any other human beings. Any reference in the Platform to the rights of human beings includes children."

"The repeal of all laws prohibiting the production, sale, possession, or use of drugs, and of all medical prescription requirements for the purchase of vitamins, drugs and similar substances".

"The repeal of all laws interfering with the right to commit suicide as infringements of the ultimate right of an individual to his or her own life".

"We support recognition of the right to political secession. Exercise of this right, like the exercise of all other rights, does not remove legal and moral obligations not to violate the rights of others."

"We call for the withdrawal of all American troops from bases abroad. In particular, we call for the removal of the U.S. Air Force as well as ground troupes from the Korean peninsula."

"We favor immediate independence for all colonial dependencies, such as Samoa, Guam, Micronesia, the Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico".

"Government interference in transportation is characterized by monopolistic restriction, corruption, and gross inefficiency. We therefore call for the dissolution of all government agencies concerned with transportation, including the Department of Transportation, the Interstate Commerce Commission, the Civil Aeronautics Board, the Federal Maritime Commission, Conrail and Amtrak. We demand the return of America's railroad system to private ownership. We call for the privatization of the public roads and national highway system."

And that, as they say, is how David H. Koch rolls...