Did someone dump in Alan Steinberg’s brain and neglect to flush it?

Over the past year or so, we have been watching Alan Steinberg’s irretrievable slide into the dark waters of a wannabe fellow-traveler.   With today’s column – the one attacking Republican Bob Hugin and praising the Democrats’ nomination of a 1960’s era socialist as that party’s face in Florida – Steinberg has finally hit crush depth. 

We are genuinely concerned for Alan, a one-time devotee of Her Bluebloodedness Christie Todd Whitman, and recall how slavishly Steinberg attempted to defend her disastrous policies – fiscally ruinous – for which every taxpayer in New Jersey continues to suffer.  In recognition of such devotion, the Whitmanites kept Steinberg in patronage heaven. 

But with the advent of Donald Trump, something went terribly wrong with Alan.  He’s in touch with too much of the old crowd, most of whom switched party in the Year of Our Lord 2008, when Heaven sent down the anointed one to dwell amongst and lead us.  We hate to remind Alan that when the folks who voted for He Who Must Be Obeyed got through all the smoke and bullshit only to realize that they were still living in their mother’s basement, without a job (but in plenty of debt) – these same folks voted for a newer, coarser savior… The Donald.  

The Bluebloods, who Steinberg seems so intent on virtue-signaling to, never got over their rejection by the vast working and middle classes who make up most of America’s voters.  They are not concerned by people like Andrew Gillum, who they long ago sponsored, co-opted, and turned into salon pets.  Corporate America has been pouring money into the Left for generations, with the understanding that when the Left does get power, it leaves them alone and is focused instead on the average American taxpayer. 

That’s the great culpability of the 1960’s era New Left – bourgeois academics who found that it was easier to take the rich man’s money and make war on the working class… to compound a philosophy of “identity” that would split the mighty working class into white and black, male and female, gay and straight, urban and rural… to allow it to endlessly battle itself.  And in the time since, economic inequality has grown to the point where, if you believe the Washington Post, the richest 1 percent own more wealth than at any time in the last 50 years.  If you believe the New York Times, the richest one percent hold more wealth than the bottom 90 percent combined.  That’s what the New Left’s identity bullshit and the fracturing of the working class has got us… vast economic inequality. 

As for the race between Republican Bob Hugin and the incumbent Democrat, Senator Bob Menendez, is Steinberg serious? 

Yes, we do remember that Menendez was once the pet of Governor Tom Kean and that a great many of the most vulgarly rich, formerly Republican, Bluebloods still carry a torch for “that nice young man” from Hudson County.  The trouble is, that “nice young man” grew up to be a corpulent bowl of putrid corruption – and he’s not from Hudson County anymore, he’s from Washington, DC. 

Hey, maybe it’s not all his fault, that place will do it to you, but after the shit he’s pulled, he owns it.  You can’t help your rich buddy import women into the United States and still expect to be called a civilized human being.  It’s a crime against nature.  And that’s before we examine the policies pursued by Bob Menendez… like wanting to waste money on a border wall with Canada (yep, like in South Park) or never meeting a war that he didn’t want to send some blue-collar kids to fight.  Hey, did this guy ever serve himself?  Does that make him a chicken hawk?

So piss on Alan Steinberg’s prognosticating… it’s all just aid and comfort for a very bad guy who has a lot of old-fashioned, formerly Republican, majorly blueblood friends.  And Alan, get hold of yourself, you don’t need those bluebloods’ approval to feel relevant.  Screw them.  Resist.

Democrat Cory Booker's war against art

So is this how it will be from now on?

Every few years some new fashion -- or new regime -- will dictate that all the art previous to it (or some subset thereof) will be subject to ideological cleansing for the purposes of re-education.  Statuary -- the plastic arts -- should not simply be objects interpreted by philistine politicians and ideological groups for the convenience of their propaganda battles. 

Art exists apart from such concerns.  Art is its own thing -- a communication between the artist and the person experiencing the art.  Often, art is meant to disturb, to engage the mind with many considerations.

But instead of erecting new art -- in proximity to the old -- to show what was and what is (which will also be, soon enough, what was), as a kind of progression, the fashion now is to rip it down, hide it, or destroy it.  This formula has been notably  practiced by ideological groups like the Taliban and ISIS:

And here is the Islamic justification for destroying art:

This is the direction our nation is heading?  This is what we are choosing?  This is who we are now?  Are you proud?

The artist who conceived the statue in Charlottesville, Virginia, of Confederate General Robert E. Lee and his horse, Traveler, was a New York City native by the name of Henry Shrady.  As a sculptor, he is best known for the Ulysses S. Grant Memorial on the west front of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C.  As the few of us remaining who read American history know, General Grant was the Union General who defeated General Lee and concluded the war against the Confederacy.  He later became President of the United States.  So does anyone really believe that the artist was trying to "celebrate" the ideology of the Confederacy when he designed the statute of General Lee in Charlottesville, Virginia?

The statue of General Lee had not been completed at the time of Henry Shrady's death, and so a second artist was employed, Leo Lentelli, who brought his own ideas to the project, altering the work somewhat.  Lentelli was a sculptor and teacher of sculpture at the Art Students League and Cooper Union, in New York, and the California School of Fine Arts, in San Francisco.  He had studied art in Bologna and Rome, and had emigrated to the United States at the age of 24.  Some of his best-known work is in Rockefeller Center, Steinway Hall, and the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, in New York.  One wonders what of his other work will be persecuted.

There is an artist behind every piece of work targeted, for ideological reasons, and slated for destruction or suppression.  How can we expect a shallow, celebrity-seeking politician like Senator Cory Booker to understand the connection between an artist and his work?

Could Booker -- who has existed his whole life in the corrupting avarice of Wall Street, followed by the venal corruption of municipal politics, followed by the high arrogance of the United States Senate -- how can we expect him to understand?  Has Senator Booker the imagination in his mind and the craft in his hands to fashion even a single, beautiful object? 

Ah, but he does have the cunning to know how to gain political advantage by destroying it.  And that appears to be enough these days.

"Round and round and round we go... in a dance to the music of time... endlessly repeating the past's errors... in bliss, ignorant, forgetfulness."

Bilik less than honest again?

Marie Bilik is a candidate for Assembly who was recruited by a couple of energy company lobbyists to challenge Assemblyman Parker Space and Freeholder Gail Phoebus.  Why? It is a way for the energy lobbyists and county insiders to get back at Space and Phoebus for calling for an investigation of the Sussex County solar bailout that cost taxpayers millions.

Marie Bilik is a Washington, DC lobbyists herself.  She resides and works in Virginia and claims to make a 260 mile, 4 1/2 hour trip each way, several times a week, to a property she owns in Sussex County.  Based on the time she stays in New Jersey, Bilik is claiming residency and the right to run for office to represent Sussex, Morris, and Warren Counties in the Legislature.

A few days ago, candidate Bilik was asked by an anxious voter to clarify her residency situation. 

April 11 at 8:58pm

I heard that you live in Virginia now ( easily confirmed) I thought only people who resided in NJ can run in NJ. Please explain if I am wrong, I seriously would like to get this straight before voting. Thank you.

This is how Bilik herself responded on Facebook to this voter:

Marie S. Bilik Candidate for NJ Assembly District 24   You are absolutely correct. Only people who reside in NJ can run in NJ. I reside in Green Township. I have an efficency apartment in VA that I stay in two or three nights per week while I am at the HQ for my job. I am certified for all criteria, including residency, by the Secretary of State of the State of NJ. I commute...a lot! I am looking forward to my retirement and a short drive to Trenton!

An "efficiency apartment"?

That isn't how the Virginia assessors describe it.  First of all, the condo Bilik resides at in Virginia is worth more than her property in New Jersey.  It has two bedrooms and 2 full bathrooms and is located in an exclusive section of a fashionable suburb of Washington, DC.

Property Type:	CONDOMINIUM
Municipality:	LEE
Assessor's Parcel Number:	081-2-11-5935-B
Assessor's Parcel Number Unformatted:	812115935B
Living Building Square Footage:	1,244
Year Constructed:	1995
Number Of Bedrooms:	2
Total Numbers Of Rooms:	4
Number Of Bathrooms:	2.00
Number Of Partial Bathrooms:	1
Basement Finish Type:	NONE
Construction Type:	FRAME
Exterior Wall Type:	BRICK/STONE
Fireplaces Present:	Y
Number Of Fireplaces:	1

This does appear to be at variance with what candidate Bilik has claimed.  So which is true, her statement to the voter or the claims made by the assessor's office?

Of course, if candidate Bilik wishes to dispute anything here we of course will publish her rebuttal in full.  Watchdog exists as a means of getting to the truth and we always invite any public figure we criticize to dispute what we post.