Economist Walter Block at Ramapo College on October 5

Long time Austrian School economist and libertarian theoretician Walter Block will deliver the Raciti Memorial Lecture on October 5, 2017.  His lecture is titled:  "The Next Business Frontier."  To attend the event, please register in advance.  Professor Block's lecture is hosted by Ramapo's Sabrin Center for Free Enterprise. 

To register, see the advertisement below or click this link to Professor Murray Sabrin's blog:

http://www.murraysabrin.com/uncategorized/walter-block-at-ramapo-college-on-october-5/

Hope to see you next month.

Murray Sabrin on what to expect from President Trump

Listen to Professor Murray Sabrin on the Tom Woods show:

http://tomwoods.com/ep-826-what-to-watch-out-for-in-a-trump-presidency/

Follow Professor Sabrin as he writes his new book...

(From Murray Sabrin) "My sabbatical officially begins on January 17, the first day of the spring semester.  Every evening I will post a review of the day’s activities so you can see how my research on financial bubbles is shaping up.  I expect to begin  writing my findings in about two months.  The title of my project is Prices, Interest Rates, and Production:  The Quest for Sustainable Prosperity."  

http://www.murraysabrin.com/

Skylands Tea Party: Union families are bad people

Watchdog hasn't mentioned the Skylands Tea Party hypocrites in a while, but over the weekend these critters sent out an email that pissed all over thousands upon thousands of families in Sussex, Warren, and Morris Counties.  Now Skylands will cry and moan that they are being picked on, but this is how bullies always react.  They start fights and then complain about it when someone pushes back.

Most Skylands Tea Party members are dependent on some form of government program.  Every Skylands member is either now receiving Social Security payments or will soon be receiving said payments.  They understand perfectly well that the payments they receive have been adjusted for inflation many times since 1988 and that they would have let out an incredible howl if this wasn't the case. 

For the record, these are the Social Security COLAs (cost of living adjustment) that Skylands Tea Party members enjoy:  4.0% in 1988, 4.7% in 1989, 5.4% in 1990, 3.7% in 1991, 3% in 1992, 2.6% in 1993, 2.8% in 1994, 2.6% in 1995, 2.9% in 1996, 2.1% in 1997, 1.3% in 1998, 2.5% in 1999, 3.5% in 2000, 2.6% in 2001, 1.4% in 2002, 2.1% in 2003, 2.7% in 2004, 4.1% in 2005, 3.3% in 2006, 2.3% in 2007, 5.8% in 2008, zero in 2009, zero in 2010, 3.6% in 2011, 1.7% in 2012, 1.5% in 2013, 1.7% in 2014, and zero in 2015.  And yet these same people piss and moan because the price paid to maintain our roads and bridges had to finally increase after remained the same since 1988.  If they can't survive on 1988 payments how can our transportation infrastructure?

Whoever came up with the fascist, BIG LIE text of the Skylands Tea Party email sent out over the weekend has no sense of history, the Constitution, or of economics. 

First, Sussex County is not "one of the quietest counties in the state."  It has a history of being a hotbed of fascist activity involving the Brown-Shirts, Black-Shirts, the KKK, as well as today's Red-Shirts.  Camp Nordland in Andover Township was the rally spot for the American National Socialists Bund and the Bund Hall has been preserved as a treasured relic by Andover Township leaders, when must communities would have demolished it and left not a trace.

Whereas the Skylands Tea Party's membership is largely made up of retirees, the people who they attempted to "segregate" before ultimately cancelling their own rally due to "weather" are working people paying into the system that supports retirees.  Don't trash those productive elements of society whose taxes are supporting everything from Medicare to the United States military.  They are American workers with American families and they live and vote in Sussex, Warren, and Morris Counties.  They also outnumber the membership of the Skylands Tea Party by many, many thousands of voters.

We sense a class thing going on here.  Much of the Skylands' leadership is white collar.  Maybe they think they are better than blue collar family men and women?  Maybe they look down on them and maybe they think $60,000 a year is too much to pay an operating engineer who knows how to handle the crane that builds our roads and bridges.  These same people think a lawyer who is making $100,000 a year is underpaid.  We think they have their priorities screwed up.  We need the engineer who knows how to operate heavy equipment because we need roads and bridges.  What we can do without is more of the b.s. turned out by lawyers.

Please note that unlike the Skylands Tea Party, those who gathered on Newton Green on Saturday, October 22nd, did not attempt to "segregate" anyone or use the police or other armed government agents to turn away anyone.  In the real spirit of democracy and of the Republic, everyone was welcome.   

And that "everyone" included a few dozen NRA activists and Pro-Lifers and Republican county committee members and members of the public (the rally was extensively advertised).  The author of the Skylands' missive leaves out the fact that the gathering was addressed by conservative leaders Rev. Greg Quinlan and Professor Murray Sabrin -- two people with real conservative credentials.

Skylands then lies about the tax cuts contained in the Tax Restructuring Plan (there are five tax cuts for retirees, consumers, veterans, low-paid workers, and family farms/small businesses) and out and out lie about the estate tax (it is being eliminated).  Maybe, instead of listening to a lifelong liberal like salesman Harvey Roseff, maybe the Skylands Tea Party should invite an actual conservative economics professor to explain it to them.  That's if they REALLY want to know the FACTS, which we seriously doubt.

Skylands even attacks Senator Oroho for what everyone who knows anything acknowledges was the incredible job he did negotiating five tax cuts in a Legislature where BOTH chambers are controlled by Democrats.  The people making these attacks are so undiplomatic that they couldn't even keep the congregation of their church under the same roof.  That's right, they created enmity among fellow Christians.  Whereas, Steve Oroho found commonality between people on opposite sides of the ideological divide. 

Representative democracy -- our Republic -- is not maintained by everyone acting like a dick and one side trying to out-ignorant azzhole the other.  That doesn't get you anywhere.  Now some in the Tea Party have suggested shooting everyone (Can you imagine?  Firing squads made up of geriatrics), but short of that, negotiation and compromise is pretty much what we are left with.  Looking at many of the Tea Party "leaders" -- there's not much in the way of compromise there.  Heck, Seth Grossman bragged about "defriending" his lady friend on Facebook simply because they disagreed on politics.  Really? Who are these people?

Finally, the Tea Party attacks Senator Steve Oroho for being supported by union workers but fails to mention his support by the NRA, New Jersey Right-to-Life, Christian organizations, groups that promote traditional values, the Chamber of Commerce, NFIB, numerous other business and taxpayers organizations, and on and on and on.  Heck, Oroho is the chairman of the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) for crying out loud!!!

Critters like Harvey Roseff's Byram buddies used to attack Senator Oroho for his leadership in conservative groups like ALEC and the Heritage Foundation.  Now Roseff attacks him for the support he receives from the same exact unions that support Assemblyman Parker Space and Assemblywoman Gail Phoebus.  Could it be that Roseff just wants to attack Steve Oroho? 

Maybe it is envy?  Roseff certainly is afraid to meet with Steve face-to-face to discuss the Tax Restructuring Plan.  Again and again Roseff has turned it down.  Has Roseff ever voted in a Republican primary?  Has he participated other than to spread the Big Lie and then turn tail and run when asked to man-up?

It is all  starting to look like 2011 again.  That's when the Tea Party in Sussex County decided to go all emotional, get personal, and then attempt to destroy two solid conservatives by the names of Alison Littell McHose and Gary Chiusano.  The Tea Party went so far as to attempt to extort the legislators into hiring staff chosen by the Tea Party -- an attempt that some suggested be turned over to the county prosecutor.

As with Senator Oroho, in 2011 the Tea Party was disagreeable just to be disagreeable, nit-picked, picked fights, and destroyed its relationship with the state's most solid conservative legislators.  What Sussex County did gave Tea Party groups across the state a bad name and soon nobody had any time for what were increasingly nasty, foul-mouthed geriatrics.  The Tea Party candidates got 5 percent and 2 percent of the vote, respectively.  That was at the height of the Tea Party movement, back when the negative perception of them was much lower than it is today.

Before getting in too deep, the Skylands Tea Party would do well to undertake a poll to find out just how many heads, horns, and tails  the average, everyday voters think they have.  Because others have done their homework and are not relying simply on "feelings".

And remember this.  Morris County is a whole lot more white collar than is Sussex County.  In 2015, two incumbent Republican Freeholders in that county decided to run for re-election by bashing blue collar unions.  They were the incumbents, with lots of support.  They got their asses beat.  Never made it out of the primary.

The people will win because the Republic will win.  The new fascism, with its hatred, its mob mentality, with its lies and violence, will not prevail.

Gas-Tax Repeal Rally a No Show

If the gas-tax repeal is Senator Tom Kean Jr.'s plan to save the endangered liberals in his caucus, it totally crapped the bed on Saturday when the kick-off rally to a series of rallies across the state was cancelled and a pro-Senator Steve Oroho rally popped up in its place.  The repeal is being pushed by "Red Shirt" movement leader Bill Spadea, cultural leftist Senator Kip Bateman, and the petroleum lobby. 

Slated for Newton Green on Saturday, October 22nd (11am-2pm), the rally was organized with support from the petroleum lobby by people claiming to represent the Tea Party and other groups.  The run-up to the rally benefitted from paid advertising and media coverage, including a front page story on the New Jersey Herald the day before.  Organizers claimed that the response had been huge and claimed to had lined up a dozen speakers -- including 5th District congressional candidate Michael J. Cino. 

Cino, has attacked conservative Congressman Scott Garrett and the Republican majority in Congress for its "traitorous" votes.  Cino runs a group known as the "Red Dogs" who are described as a sort of vanguard in the "rebellion against the establishment."  We don't know if there is a relationship between the "Red Shirts" and the "Red Dogs."

The morning of the rally was rainy and the forecast called for a light drizzle.  The rally was set expressly "rain or shine" but was canceled a couple hours before it was scheduled to begin "due to weather."

Having explicitly described the rally as "public" in its advertisements, gas-tax-repeal organizers became concerned when they heard that people who didn't agree with them were thinking of attending their public meeting.  The gas-tax repealers asked the police to intervene to "segregate" the rally.  The gas-tax-repeal camp was asked about the criteria they intended to use to "segregate" members of the public at a public rally.  They wouldn't provide a criteria.

A building trades union representing thousands of families in Northwest New Jersey stepped in and obtained  its own permit, which lay outside Newton Green.  But in the end, it wasn't necessary, because with Newton Green vacated by the gas-tax-repeal organizers of the advertised public rally, the people who they had attempted to keep out had the Green to themselves.    

So at 11am on Saturday morning -- instead of the gas-tax-repeal rally that was advertised -- 250 people showed up in support of the Tax Restructuring plan passed by the Legislature and signed into law by Governor Chris Christie.  They came to support conservative Republican Steve Oroho, who has been under attack by the Legislature's two most liberal Republicans -- Kip Bateman and Jennifer Beck -- and they came to combat the lies put out by the petroleum lobby that the 23-cent increase applies to home heating oil and baby ointment and polyester clothing.  All lies designed to frighten people and to inflame hatred and even violence.

The facts, as provided by the Office of Legislative Services, are that nothing new is taxed and that all the exemptions that were in place remain in place. This means the increase does not apply to home heating oil or baby ointment or polyester clothing.  In fact, the law now INCREASES the number of exempt products.  We will discuss these additional exemptions in detail in an upcoming column.

Saturday's crowd -- numbering more than 250 -- was made up largely of trade union members and their families, but many local Republicans turned out, including two Sussex County Freeholders and several local elected officials and GOP municipal leaders.  About a dozen Pro-Life activists were present as well as that many grassroots Second-Amendment campaigners.  About a half dozen people attended who were drawn by the newspaper coverage. 

Three speakers addressed the crowd.  Rev. Greg Quinlan of the Center for Garden State Families reminded those present that Senator Oroho is a leader in the fight to preserve traditional values in New Jersey and America.  He added that those who want to drive Senator Oroho out of office are followers of the two most culturally left-wing members of the GOP in the Legislature and that earlier this week the two had celebrated the deaths of millions of unborn children by honoring the racist memory of eugenicist Margaret Sanger and her Planned Parenthood organization. 

Economics professor Murray Sabrin explained how the gas tax is a user tax and that this is a moral form of taxation.  The gathering was reminded that President Ronald Reagan, the founder of the modern conservative movement, favored user taxes and used the gas tax to fund road and bridge construction in America.  Sabrin went on to remind the audience that those "Red Shirts" who are trying to make the gas tax the big issue of 2017 are doing so to deflect attention away from the real problem tax in New Jersey -- the property tax -- which is a driver of the state's highest in America foreclosure rate.  Those who say the gas tax is the problem do so to support the Abbott-system of spending the state revenue from income taxes.

Finally, a union leader from Sussex County reminded the rally that "this was supposed to be their (the petroleum lobby's) rally" and that they had been there to spread lies about the Tax Restructuring plan and hatred for Senator Oroho.  He went on to thank the working men and women present from Sussex, Warren, and Morris counties and the thousands of union families they represent who live, work, and vote in the 24th Legislative District.  He promised that they would be back again and again and again and again, door-to-door, to carry the message to EVERY household in the 24th District.

The event was topped off with two announcements:  First, that Franklin Mayor Nick Giordano, who had been moved to oppose Senator Oroho after listening to the propaganda of "Red Shirt" lies, had written a letter endorsing the Senator and the Tax Restructuring plan.  And second, that the Senator's youngest daughter had safely delivered a child.  Steve Oroho's new grandson.