At least two of the murderers in London lived there for some time and one was a British citizen.

June 5, 2017
By Griff Witte and Karla Adam

London — Police on Monday (click here) named two of the three attackers who killed seven people during a rampage through central London, saying that both had lived only miles away from the scene of the carnage and that one had been on the radar of security services.

London’s Metropolitan Police identified the assailants as 27-year-old Khuram Shazad Butt, a British citizen who was born in Pakistan, and 30-year-old Rachid Redouane, who had claimed to be Moroccan and Libyan. 

Both lived in the Barking area of east London, only a half-hour’s drive from London Bridge and Borough Market — the two adjacent areas where victims were targeted Saturday night. Police did not identify the third attacker, saying efforts to confirm his identity are ongoing.

One of the attackers had been investigated in 2015, but police said they had no warning of a plot and the investigation had been dropped to a lower priority. 

“Khuram Shazad Butt was known to the police and MI5,” police said in a statement, referring to Britain’s main domestic intelligence agency. “However, there was no intelligence to suggest that this attack was being planned and the investigation had been prioritized accordingly. The other named man, Rachid Redouane, was not known.”...

"The Daily Mail" describes young men radicalized for their own identity as they resided in London.

- One of the London Bridge terrorists who killed seven was left 'traumatised' at the age of 12 by death of father.
- Killer was also involved in a car accident outside his east London home when he was around eight years old 

- Family friends said he 'became radicalised' in 2013 at a conservative mosque and 'tried to convert children'

- Arsenal supporter 'slipped through the security services' net' despite being reported to police twice

5 June 2017

By Jake Willis Simons

One of the Borough Market (click here) terror attackers was left traumatised at the age of 12 by the death of his father, MailOnline can reveal. 

The killer, 27, (According to the Washington Post, the 27-year-old is Khuram Shazad Butt) whose name is not being released on police advice but who is known as 'Abz', had also been run over outside his house in East London when he was around eight years old.

Neighbours said his father 'brought the children up well' and that his loss had a profound effect on the youngster, paving the way for his extremism.

He later became radicalised and had an arranged marriage which produced two children.

The new details come as it emerged the killer:

• 'Slipped through the security service net' despite being reported to police twice for extremism,...

This occurred in Boston as well. What is it about police work that is dismissing a potential killer?

Texas had achieved the highest mortality rate of maternal deaths in the developed world.

20 August 2016
By Dianne Depra

Researchers (click here) have discovered that maternal deaths have nearly doubled in Texas, but data also showed that the problem is prevalent across the United States.

In a study to be published in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology, researchers report that 148 women in Texas died in 2012 due to pregnancy-related causes, up from 2010's 72 deaths. Additionally, the overall maternal death rate in the state jumped from 18 deaths for every 100,000 births in 2006 to 36 for every 100,000 births in 2014.

"It's a tragedy and it really is an embarrassment. This is a problem we should be able to address and fix," said Dr. Daniel Grossman from the University of Texas at Austin's Texas Policy Evaluation Project.

While the rise in maternal deaths in Texas coincided with the state slashing its family planning budget, researchers did not identify that as the cause for the spike. Actually, no one is sure why the problem is as prevalent as it is.

arah Wheat, Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas spokesperson, has pointed out that family planning clinics are entry points for women accessing the health care system. With family planning clinics closed because of the budget cuts, women may be delayed in receiving the care they and their baby need to thrive....

Further analysis of the study related deaths due to lack of health care access and insurance. African Americans are disproportionately impoverished.

5 June 2017
By Alexandra Lozovschi

...In addition, (click here) the 2016 study uncovered black women are disproportionately affected, being more likely to die during pregnancy or childbirth. Although this ethnic group accounts for only 11 percent of births, black mothers make up 28 percent of pregnancy-linked fatalities.

These findings are consistent with a Vox analysis of the data provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The investigation, conducted in the same year, underlined the U.S. maternal death rate doubled since 1987, while decreasing in majority of other countries.

The 2016 Vox analysis also stated black mothers have a triple risk of dying during childbirth compared with white mothers....

"Poverty Rate by Race and Ethnicity" (click here) (Time frame 2015)

White - 9 %
Black - 24%
Hispanic - 21%
Other - 14%

Other includes Asians, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, American Indians, Aleutians, Eskimos and persons of "Two or More Races". These groups have been combined due to their small populations in many states which prevent meaningful statistical analyses of the groups individually.

US Total 14% poverty rate.

Governance, real governance, looks at the entire picture of government policy and decides where changes can realistically be made and does so to improve the outcome of the people while in respect to tax rates, etc.

Texas rejected the Medicaid Expansion which would have provided the state with over $100 billion in federal monies over the next 10 years. Texas' rejection of help through the Medicaid expansion is obvious.

White - 8%
Black - 23%
Hispanic - 21%
Other - 14%
Overall - 15%

My sincerest sympathies to family and friends of the victims, but, this has nothing to do with a travel ban.

This is work place violence. This is an American killing Americans. It is not a new phenomena and by demanding a travel ban it takes attention away from the real problem facing Americans.

June 5, 2017
By David Harris and Michael Williams

Five employees (click here) were killed in a shooting at Fiamma, a business on North Forsyth Road near Hanging Moss Road near Orlando, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office reported this morning.

The shooter — a former “disgruntled employee” who was fired in April — then killed himself, Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings said.

“Sad day for us once again here in Orange County. … Hearts and prayers go out to family of the victims,” Demings said.

Four people — three males and a female — were dead at the scene, and another male victim died at the hospital, Demings said. Seven other people inside the business were not injured....

John Mohammad was an American and former military.


(left) Over course of several months, John Allen Muhammad (born John Allen Williams) unleashed his assault primarily on the D.C area, killing 10 people and injuring over 14 others.

Seung-Hui Cho was a second generation immigrant from South Korea. His family had worried about mental health all during his childhood. The guns Cho used were not controlled and he killed innocent people. He had been in the country since the age of 8 suffering from mental illness. I do not believe he was on medication at the time of the murders.

(right) Student Seung-Hi Co shot and killed 32 people on Virginia Tech's campus in 2007. The mass murder ended when he turned the gun and shot himself in the head.

An American White Supremacist shot and killed three police officers because he wanted to.

(left) April 4, 2009, Richard Poplawski shot and killed three police officers in Pittsburgh, Pa. Poplawski is said to have white supremacist ties as well as anti-government views. Some say he also feared gun laws and President Obama.


A mentally ill American was able to obtain guns, believed in lucid dreams (of which he kept a journal), and hated his Democratic Congresswoman.

(right) On January 8, 2011, Jared Lee Loughner shot U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords and eighteen others during a supermarket parking lot meeting called "Congress on Your Corner" in Tucson, AZ. Diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, Loughner was found unfit to stand trial and was given life in prison for the murders of six people.

James Holmes is an American that decided, as Batman, he had a license to kill. He obtained guns, munitions in incredible numbers, bobby trapped his apartment with explosives to kill police (he knew he would be identified and the authorities would come for him) and killed innocent Americans as they sought some entertainment.

(left) James Eagan Holmes opened fire on a movie theater in Aurora, CO on July 20, 2012. Holmes killed 12 people and at least 70 people were injured on the scene. In 2015, Holmes was given 12 life sentences in addition to 3,318 years in prison.

Wade Michael Page is a American white supremacist that decided he would kill innocent people while they practiced their religion. Page is a former Army Veteran.

(right) Shooter Wade Michael Page attacked a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin on August 5, 2012. Page killed six people and wounded four others before taking his own life. Page had ties to white supremacist groups and neo-Nazis.

Aaron Alexis, an former American Navy man, woke up one day and decided he would kill more Americans.

(left) On September 16, 2013, Aaron Alexis killed 12 people and injured three others when he opened fire on the Washington Navy Yard in DC. The shootout ended when Alexis was killed police. According to the FBI, Alexis was under "the delusional belief that he was being controlled or influenced by extremely low frequency electromagnetic waves."

Eric Frein is an American that had an affection for playing Russian soldiers in Serbia, etc. He had a love of guns from the time in high school. He was on the FBI "Most Wanted" list while he hid from capture for 48 days in the wilderness. 

(right) Eric Frein killed  two state troopers at the Blooming Grove Barracks in Pennsylvania on September 12, 2014. He is said to have anti-government views and an affinity for Russian communism.

Frazier Glenn Miller, Jr., an American White Supremacist and Neo-nazi, killed three innocent people in a hate crime in a Jewish community center. The dead were a grandfather, William Corporon, 69 years old and his 14 year old grandson, Reat Griffin Underwood and a woman, Terri LaManno age 53 a mother. Miller was a member of the Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in Robeson County, North Carolina.


(left) Neo-Nazi Frazier Glenn Miller, Jr. attacked a Jewish community center and retirement community on April 13, 2014, killing three people. It was later found that none of Miller's victims actually identified as Jewish. Miller was sentenced to death in 2015.

Two Americans affiliated with "The Bundy Ranch" took their hatred of the USA government to a new level and killed two Los Vegas police officers after being kicked off the illegally occupied Bundy Ranch land. Can't pick your family, but, evidently you can choose your friends.

(right) American married couple Jarad and Amanda Miller killed two Las Vegas police officers on June 8, 2014 resulting in a shoot out between the couple and the police. Jarad Miller was shot by the police and Amanda Miller committed suicide thereafter. The couple is said to have held extreme anti-government views.

At the age of 26 this American, Chris Harper-Mercer, a quiet man with few words for neighbors failed the USA army in five weeks while he still lived with mother. He decided killing was at least an identity and killed ten people at his college then committed suicide.

(left) On October 1, 2015, Chris Harper-Mercer went on a shooting spree at his college killing 10 people (including himself) and injured over seven other people. A clearly troubled individual, Harper-Mercer is said to have had anti-religious and white supremacist views.

This time a 21 year old white supremacist took the lives of nine people at one of the most sacred African American churches in the country. And he didn't make a grand entrance. No, nothing like that, he simply watched them prayed and talked to them about their lessons and then simply stood up and killed them. In cold blood even after he was in their living presence. Has hatred ever run so deep.

(right above) This mass shooting took place at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Charleston, South Carolina on June 17, 2015. Nine people were killed during a prayer service at the church. Later, Dylann Roof confessed to committing the shooting to start a "race war."

An American Robert Lewis Dear, Jr. decided the day after Thanksgiving he would act on his anti-abortion identity and kill some people. Politics wasn't enough he had to make it real.

(left) Robert Lewis Dear, Jr. is accused of opening fire on a Planned Parenthood facility in Colorado Springs, CO on November 27, 2015. One policeman and two civilians were killed and nine other people were injured. During initial trial proceedings, Dear openly expressed anti-abortion views which could be interpreted as motive for the attack.

These people are all Americans. They are a few examples of the sickness that is part of the American landscape, called hate. There was only one that ever had his feet on foreign soil as a child. All these men decided their identity was tied up in a faulty male value in hate. That is all these men had in common, hate. Some had mental health problems and others simply wanted to kill for reasons of hate. 

THERE IS NOTHING about these killers that spells Travel Ban ANYWHERE! While the White House plays with ideas of hate, the Americans that follow him are diluted to think he is right.

There is a specific exception in US firearms law that permits a non-immigrant alien to purchase and possess provided they have a hunting license issued to them from the State they are a resident of and as long as all other Federal and State laws are followed on firearms ownership.

In case the US Congress doesn't get it, Trump is not practicing US Foreign policy for the national defense, he is conducting business throughout the legislation and Cabinet. He is good for business, but, US Foreign policy is sacrificed. The USA national defense is compromised. When Trump's Congress and Cabinet are finished the USA and its allies will be hemmed in by Putin.

Just as a reminder, the USA petroleum industry was given freedom to export any US petroleum resources.

Trump is bailing out his company by proxy and welcoming any other Wall Street company to do the same. When sanctions were raised for Venezuela as a possible strategy, Goldman Sachs raced to exclusive business investment. After Goldman moved into Venezuela some opinion media began to back off sanctions and state the Venezulian government fall of its own problems.

See, Plutocrats are anarchists so long as they are safe on their ivory towers. We saw this under "W" with Halliburton and no bid contracts and avoidance of fines, etc. Egotistical CEOs think they can solve every world problem if given a chance. It has never worked, China is a prime example and the list is long, including, Nigeria, Equator, Bangladesh, India, etc. 

China finally has a business prowess that is producing a middle class after exploitation for so long. But, if Wall Street was the answer it would have been US policy a long time ago.

The Republicans are fools for there own rhetoric. Elections come first, then the country. McConnell will scream Democrats from morning to night and never address the country's foreign policy. It works to keep him in office, but, the condition of the people and the country are sacrificed. 

I want my country back, intact and protecting it's public lands and resources. No more petroleum exports.

Republicans are afraid to be off message.

I think I'll let that savor in everyone's conscience for tonight.

There is a conscience out there right? Hello? Anyone there?

McCain, you better not sink this country for the sake of politics. I think I know you better than that.

Maybe Venezuela is our new best ally.

June 4, 2017

...What, then, (click here) are we to make of Goldman Sachs fund managers’ recent secondary-market purchase, at a steep discount, of $2.8 billion worth of bonds issued by the state-owned oil company of Venezuela; that is to say, the same government that guns down pro-democracy protesters on a near-daily basis and otherwise subjects its people to vast corruption and economic privation?...

Sanctions against Venezuela? Hm? Does anyone think there are going to be sanctions against our new best ally?

How many Goldman execs are in the White House? Who is kidding who here?

Impeachment requires high crimes and misdemeanors. Well.

The hunt for the smoking gun.

If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, it must be a duck.

A misdemeanor is a minor wrong doing. Was Trump and his buddies involved in a minor wrong doing? That is actually a question? Collusion with Russia by Tillerson and dissing NATO is not a wrong doing? Really?

Top Democrat on the Senate's Intelligence Committee says that while definitive proof of collusion is lacking, there's "a lot of smoke."

June 4, 2017
By S. V. Date

Washington – The top Democrat (click here) on the Senate panel investigating Russian interference in last year’s presidential campaign said Sunday that a major unresolved issue is how the Russians knew which states to target to help President Donald Trump.

“This is one of the questions we have to sort through,” Virginia’s Mark Warner said on CNN’s State of the Union. “It does seem strange, it appears, that Russian-paid Internet trolls who created bots were then able to put forward fake news, selective stories in a way that seemed targeted.”

He added that while he knows of no iron-clad proof of collusion between Russia and Trump’s campaign, “there is a lot of smoke.”

Crucial to Trump winning the the White House was that he carried three states ― Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania ― by a combined margin of about 76,000 votes. Polls had shown Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton leading in the trio of states, and all of them had been won by Democrats in the six presidential elections before last year’s vote....

Turkey should be careful of whom their friends are. The Kurdish region of Iraq is where all the oil fields are. The Kurdistan Regional Government is the Kurdish province of Iraq. Wow. It sounds like sovereignty is on the way. I said it and I said it; Iraq will divide into three autonomous regions. I could be completely correct.

See that name right there? Barzani? He is President of the Kurdistan Regional Government from the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iraq. Damn, I'm good. LOL. Did the Republican Congress of the USA take note of this? Russia. Russia is taking over the purchase of Iraqi oil. Amazing.

Smoking gun? What smoking gun? Russia has no problem recognizing the Kurdish Region of Iraq as a sovereign power to make contracts.

January 6, 2017
By Rudaw

Kurdish delegation headed by Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani [L] meets with the management board of the Russian oil giant Rosneft, including Chief Executive Officer Igor Schein.

St. Petersburg, Russia — A top Kurdish delegation (click here) headed by Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani has met with the management board of the Russian oil giant Rosneft, including Chief Executive Officer Igor Schein, in St. Petersburg Wednesday on the first leg of an official visit to the Russian Federation.

A statement from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) said the meeting centred on cooperation between the KRG and Rosneft in the Kurdish energy sector and broader investment in the oil industry of the Kurdistan Region.

The Kurdish delegation was invited to Russia to take part in the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on Thursday which brings together the chief executives of major Russian and international companies, and senior government officials.  

Prime Minister Barzani is also scheduled to meet with the Russian President Vladimir Putin at the three-day forum.

In February, the KRG signed a pre-financed contract with Russia’s state oil company Rosneft for the export of Kurdish crude oil. The landmark deal became the first time Kurdistan Region crude oil was to ship directly to a major oil refiner, a KRG official with knowledge of the deal told Rudaw at the time.

Rosneft plans to buy the Kurdish crude until 2019. 

The deal with Rosneft is of particular importance as two US oil firms relinquished interest in a number of oil fields in the Kurdistan Region in recent years.

US oil giant Exxon Mobil pulled out of half of the six exploration blocks it operated in the Kurdistan Region last December....

...Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that the KRG had negotiated a $3 billion loan deal with Rosneft which was falsely attributed to the Minister of Natural Resources Ashti Hawrami. 

So, let me get this right.

Russia is taking Turkey on as an ally, while signing contracts with the Kurds of Iraq and Exxonmobile is leaving Iraq to go to Russia. So, Exxonmobile is losing money in Iraq while Russia is buying all the Kurds oil, but, is going to make money in Russia while Russia reaps profits from Exxonmobile. See, this isn't about oil, it is about a military strategy that removes USA interests while controlling the largest USA oil company in the world.

April 19, 2017
By Clifford Kraus

In 2012, Vladimir V. Putin, center, Russia’s president, met with Igor Sechin, left, the chief executive of Rosneft, and Rex W. Tillerson, who was then Exxon Mobil’s chief executive, as the two companies entered into a joint venture.

Houston — Exxon Mobil (click here) is pursuing a waiver from Treasury Department sanctions on Russia to drill in the Black Sea in a venture with Rosneft, the Russian state oil company, a former State Department official said on Wednesday. An oil industry official confirmed the account.

The waiver application was made under the Obama administration, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity, and the company has not dropped the proposal.

The proposal is now before the Trump administration at a delicate time in Russian-American relations, with rising tensions over the war in Syria and a looming congressional inquiry into reports of Russian efforts to influence the United States presidential election.

The appeal did not come up during Senate confirmation hearings for Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson, who was Exxon Mobil’s chief executive before his nomination by President Trump and was known to have a strong working relationship with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. At the time, Mr. Tillerson and other company officials said they had not lobbied against the sanctions, which were imposed on Russia in response to its military intervention in Ukraine...

No, there is no smoking gun, there is a G-D canon!

So, how is the "Strategic Oil Reserve" holding up Donald? Is Congress sure the Commander and Chief actually has a functioning military?

And Congress actually believes Comey as the most competent source of information? Really? The man that put the final nail in the coffin of the Clinton Presidency and decimated the Democratic down ballot? Congress believes him?

Does the USA Congress actually know what is going on right under their own noses? Or, are they too busy being White Supremacists that hate President Obama?

Maybe they just don't care what wheeling and dealing goes on so much as engage the American electorate in hate and dismemberment of their democracy. Ya think?

From RT.

London Bridge attack is a wake up call to stop supporting terrorism - Iran

4 June 2017

The recent attack in London (click here) should serve as a “wake-up call” for the international community to start taking an “honest and responsible" approach to terrorism and root out the “financial and ideological sources of violence,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry said.

Iran has condemned the London terrorist attack, which left seven dead and at least 48 injured on Saturday night, adding that the recent surge in terrorism worldwide should serve as a “wake-up call” for the international community.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi called on certain states to stop “pursuing their short-term political and economic goals, which seem to be strategic, in favor of security for their citizens as well as the entire world.”

“To uproot terror, it is necessary that they [those states] address the root causes as well as main financial and ideological sources of extremism and violence, which are clear to everyone,” Press TV quoted the spokesman as saying.

The sole way to end global terrorism, according to Qassemi, is “to play an honest and responsible part in the global wave against terrorism and extremism free from any double standard.”...

Iran is not responsible for these attacks. These were men attracted to Daesh's charismatic movement. The reason they were attracted to it, is the real question.

I would suggest the Iranian Foreign Minister Bahram Qassemi consolidate this view into a speech for the UN and address his point of view from a country frequently accused of supporting terrorist networks.

Europe has a right to be recognized internationally for it's civilization and it's importance in history.

There is no cultural divide. There is no hatred. The West and the Muslims all over the world have loved and respected each other for centuries.

June 4, 2017
By Steven Erlanger

...In a matter of minutes, (click here) the three assailants were chased down by eight armed officers who fired about 50 rounds, killing the men, who wore what appeared to be suicide vests but subsequently proved to be fake. One member of the public also sustained nonfatal gunshot wounds, the police said....

The authorities response was very fast, but, they don't read minds. They are dedicated to the safety of their citizens. There are massive numbers of armed guards in Great Britain.

June 4, 2017
By Anthony Lane

The night (click here) that a terrorist attack at London Bridge and Borough Market killed seven and injured dozens, counterterrorism forces assembled near the scene.

Now will come the hunt and arrests. We all know what is happening here. It is The West's embrace of freedom and culture that has to survive through the assault on it.

This is not about Muslims killing Europeans, it is about international killers and how to stop them. I am confident there are Muslims killed in these attacks as well. They were killed on 911, too. It is not about Muslims, it is about civilization and how we protect it.

These attacks are stated to be carried out because of Islam. That is a lie.

These are international cowards that will never claim the after life. They kill women and children and are not soldiers in a battle. They kill the elderly. They have no respect for life. They have spell binding power in the methods of fear and carnage. That is not a war. That is desperation of the leaders of these killers to continue to exist and live. They don't want to die. They send their underlings to kill while they feast.

...The assault came days before national elections this week and after the British government had downgraded the threat level to “severe” from “critical,” meaning that an attack was highly likely, but not imminent....

I am sure "critical" emergency designations tie up traffic, slow trains and makes life fairly miserable.

So what.

Such extremism is often fueled by perceived hatred by society. Segregation is an enemy and Prime Minister May is speaking out about such problems. There are still problems within Great Britain the people have to address. Are there people within the UK considered second class citizens? It needs to be addressed by society.

No segregation or other social ill is a reason for such hatred and murder. There are no excuses. The people did not deserve this. The class struggle must end and citizens of the UK and Europe must address their common enemy, from economic deprivation to education to religious acceptance such issues need to dissipate in countries of equality. These social ills provide a breeding ground for the extremism and it works. It is up to the people to eliminate the breeding ground and provide for equal opportunity for all their people.

Ramadan is celebrated in Great Britain and Saudi Arabia with a favorite beverage.

3 June 2017

By Aisha Fareed

...The invention of Vimto dates to 1908, (click here) when the late John Nicolas added berries and herbs with distinctive and refreshing flavors.
The sweet British product was first produced and sold in Manchester, and later spread throughout China, India, the Arabian Gulf and Africa.
After a friend of Nicolas took the drink to India for British soldiers, Vimto soon became a registered trademark.
In 1927, it made its first appearance in the Gulf, when the first generation of traders in the Aujan family brought the product to Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah and Oman.
Vimto started to be produced in the Saudi city of Dammam, where the region’s first beverage production factory was located.
It soon became a huge success in the Middle East, especially the Arabian Gulf, and became an inseparable part of the iftar table.
More than 30 million bottles of Vimto are sold in the Middle East every year, with Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE the largest markets in the region. The Gulf version of Vimto is believed to contain more sugar than in Western markets.
Even the music in the Arabic Vimto advert has become attached to Ramadan in people’s minds.

Elect Jim Johnson for Governor of New Jersey. He is the change candidate with a history to prove it.

Jim Johnson for New Jersey (click here)

He is from Montclair, is 56 and brings new generational ideas. He is married with four children. He is a former US Treasury undersecretary. Any Wall Street candidate has nothing on him. Jim's experience in government secures his knowledge of governance.

"Does anyone believe that if we keep running the same playbook written by the same insiders that your lives are going to get any better? I don't. ... That old playbook got us the highest property taxes" in the nation."It got us Jon Corzine, it got us Chris Christie, Chris Christie again, and it will get us Phil Murphy unless we demand real change."

Given his knowledge and experience in government he doesn't have to have a department of so called experts to write policy. He knows where the change needs to take place and can instrument it without holding anyone's hand.

HE VALUES ETHICS! Yes, yes, yes!

Ethics reform: Johnson wants to eliminate no-bid contracts, ban political contributions from lobbyists, require greater disclosure of lobbying activity, and limit public officials to one public pension.

There may be a pension crisis, but, that doesn't mean the NJ State Pension Funds are valueless, quite the contrary. The very last person that should be leading New Jersey is another Wall Street executive. New Jersey was built by the Middle Class who invested in unions and the pension provided. The vote for Governor has to begin with the promise to fix the pension system to take away the burden from voters to young to vote right now.

January 5, 2016
By Mark J. Magyar'

Next November, (click here) New Jerseyans will be asked to vote on a constitutional amendment to require the state government to make regular quarterly pension payments, which would put the state's pension system -- and the state of New Jersey itself -- on the road to fiscal solvency within six years.

The biggest winners, if the constitutional amendment passes, are not public employees -- who will get their pensions anyway -- but all of New Jersey's taxpayers.

State laws, Supreme Court rulings and legal opinions have already established that public employees are entitled to the vested pension benefits they have earned....

...New Jersey's pension system for teachers and state government workers has a $40 billion unfunded liability that is growing exponentially and is in danger of collapse because governors and legislatures treated the pension system like a credit card that would  never come due.

Over a 14-year span, Republican governors underfunded the pension system by $2.6 billion, then Democratic governors did so by $10.2 billion. The Christie administration promised to fix the problem, but instead made it worse by underfunding the pension system by $17.5 billion in its first six years -- and a projected $23.7 billion by the time the governor's term ends in January 2018

Every year that the pension system goes underfunded, the long-term cost of fixing the problem grows exponentially.

It would have cost only $1.1 billion a year to restore the pension system to full funding when Sweeney first flagged the problem in 2005. Five years later, at the end of the Corzine administration, it would have cost $2.5 billion. It would have cost over $4.5 billion by 2018 when the seven-year ramp-up to full funding was to have been completed under the bipartisan 2011 pension law....

Do not let Wall Street go near this issue. Today, Wall Street, including and especially Goldman Sachs are gamblers, not investors. Greed and not growth is the Wall Street model in the year 2017.

July 11, 2016
By Samantha Marcus

The state Supreme Court (click here) on Thursday upheld a landmark 2011 law freezing cost-of-living adjustments for retired government workers, a decision that will slowly erode the value of pensions paid to 800,000 current and former public employees.

The 6-1 ruling is a major legal victory for Gov. Chris Christie's administration, which warned that restoring the annual increases would hurl a pension system already underfunded by $59 billion closer to insolvency.

"State taxpayers have won another huge victory," Christie said. "One that spares them from the burden of unaffordable benefit increases for public employee unions."

The lawsuit filed by a group of retired prosecutors hinged on whether the legal promise not to reduce workers' pensions includes cost-of-living adjustments. Christie and state lawmakers suspended the regular increases in 2011 as part of a sweeping overhaul of employee benefits that also raised the retirement age and required workers to pay more for their pensions and health care....

Jim Johnson as Governor will be ready from inauguration to target issues that burden future generations. That readiness begins with future generations today, since, New Jersey's education is badly underfunded. The education of future generations is already compromised and New Jersey taxpayers need someone in the Governor's seat that appreciates the priorities they hold.

Is there a difference between health and good environmental policy? No. Good environmental policy insures a better quality of life with increased health capacity. Every time a jogger or runner or walker heads out the door for exercise, they will not be getting a full does of pollution, unseasonable heat, extreme freezing temperatures or ground ozone in their face and lungs to impact wellness. Yes, freezing temperatures despite the obvious, causes stress on the body and mind. If that stress is also due to high energy costs, the switch to alternative solar and wind will improve the budgets of New Jerseyites.

IT WORKS IN CALIFORNIA. It will work in New Jersey.

March 3, 2016
By Craig McCarthy

In its annual list (click here) ranking the world's richest people, Forbes has included eight New Jersey residents, all of whom have amassed a personal net worth in the billions. 

Most of the people who made the cut in New Jersey, according to Forbes, are self-made men with fortunes in finance and investments. 

There are more billionaires in the United States, 540, than any other country in the world, according to Forbes. Trailing the U.S. is China with 320 people who have a 10-figure fortune and Germany with 120....

It is very possible a temporary tax increase would benefit the long term for the state. Where should those taxes be increased first? There are at least eight billionaires in New Jersey who would not feel the tax increase. Promise. Stop to think about the return to the state while their lives go unchanged.

New Jersey needs a change and the person best qualified of ANY of the candidates is Jim Johnson. 

He can keep his promises when no one else can because he is prepared to do so.