As Trump divides nation, men + women, Democratic voters are saying, Never again!

After President Trump asked the military to plan a July Fourth parade in Washington, D.C. -- like the one that wowed him when he visited France -- the popular vote loser was portrayed as just another tin-pot dictator by The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

As our long national nightmare drags on into a second year, women candidates and their Democratic supporters are vowing to turn out in record numbers in the November 2018 elections for Congress.

Racist, con man, pussy grabber, tax dodger and serial liar Donald J. Trump won the 2016 presidential election in the antiquated Electoral College because of lower Democratic turnout.

"He won because Hillary Clinton was less attractive to the traditional Democratic base of urban, minorities, and more educated voters," Forbes opinion writer Ori Ben-Shahar said of Trump on Nov. 17, 2016.

"The story of Hillary Clinton's defeat ... is not the Trump Movement erupting in ballots.... The story ... is very simple: 

"The Democratic base did not turn out to vote as it did for Obama. Those sure-Democrats who stayed home handed the election to Trump," Ben-Shahar said.

Headquarters of The New York Times on Eighth Avenue in Manhattan, opposite the Port Authority Bus Terminal.

'Slovenian Sphinx'

The New York Times' Maureen Dowd wrote a scathing opinion column about Trump:

"He [Trump] is an idiot savant who plays in the roiling ocean of Twitter as naturally as a blubbery-necked sea lion.

"Only Donald Trump, a Rat Pack relic who spurred the reckoning with his transgressions toward women, could send out a tweet taking credit for the women's march.

"But the Slovenian Sphinx has her moments," Dowd said of Melania.

"Trump could humiliate his wife by being a big, horny pig [cavorting with a porn star and telling her not to worry about Melania, at home with a new baby], but he is the one who comes off as ... an embarrassing husband and an embarrassing president and an embarrassing leader of the free world."

See: Trump presidency cannot possibly last

Also: Media love Trump Liar of the Union speech


'Promises, promises'

The Record, my local daily newspaper, today launched a project to hold Governor Murphy "accountable" for the promises he made while campaigning for the job (1A).

The all-caps headline over the story, which covers half of Page 1:

"PROMISES, PROMISES"

I'm certain the Woodland Park daily never did this when GOP thug Chris Christie was governor nor have the editors bothered to hold Trump "accountable" for all the lies he tells about his so-called accomplishments.

Today, Dustin Racioppi, the reporter who covered Christie -- and served as one of the paper's chief apologists for his mean-spirited rule -- wrote stiffly:

"The Record will update this list as needed with the status on these promises as Murphy moves through his tenure."

Racioppi is no wordsmith, but the same can be said about Charles Stile, Mike Kelly, John Cichowski and so many others left in the wake of the mass layoffs after Gannett bought North Jersey Media Group from the Borg family in July 2016. 

For these and many other reasons, readers and critics have long referred to The Record as "The Wretched."

Best bites?

I was shocked by the list of "Best Bites" from Chef Christine Nunn, owner of Picnic Catering by Christine, as published in The Record's Better Living section at the end of January.

She recommends food shops selling pork, beef, veal and cold cuts without saying whether any of the meat is free of harmful antibiotics, growth hormones and carcinogenic preservatives.

Is any of the produce she recommends organic? Readers don't have a clue.

For fish, she ignores The Fish Dock, a small shop in Closter that sells an astounding variety of fresh fish direct from Iceland, not from a wholesaler.

And the five -- soon to be six -- H Marts in Bergen County carry as many Asian ingredients as Mitsuwa in Edgewater, and at far better prices, plus the Korean supermarkets offer free food samples on the weekends.

UPDATE: Reporters question Murphy's ambitious plan, veracity of Trump tell-all

Cartoonist Daryl Cagle commenting on the GOP elephant in the room, in this case a racist President Trump in the Oval Office. "You either stand with America's values of Dignity, Justice and Equality for all -- or you stand with a racist president and administration," the Democratic donkey says. "Let's do both," the elephant replies.

COLUMNIST CHALLENGES BOOK

CALLING TRUMP A MADMAN

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

Editor's note: In one of his first acts in office on Tuesday, Governor Murphy signed an executive order demanding equal pay for women in New Jersey.

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

Democrat Phil Murphy was sworn in on Tuesday as New Jersey's 56th governor, signaling a new direction for the Garden State and ending an 8-year reign of terror by the worst chief executive in New Jersey history.

Murphy's plan -- including legalizing marijuana, creating a state bank, raising the minimum wage to $15 and offering free community college -- only seems ambitious given all the damage conservative ogre Chris Christie did to New Jersey.

When you look at how the GOP thug wrecked state finances, mass transit, the environment and health  care, among other programs, Murphy's progressive agenda may seem impossible to achieve.

But the new governor has a Democratic majority in the state Legislature on his side, and a major ally in New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who, like Murphy, has pledged to resist all of the reckless policies of President Trump.

Slanted coverage

Sadly, reporters and columnists at The Record, my local daily newspaper, have kept up a drumbeat of doubt when writing about Murphy.

A profile on Sunday's front page appeared under block letters:

"FEARLESS PHIL"

The sub-headline:

"Murphy eager to rush

into fire of politics"

Actually, during the campaign, Murphy was all about issues -- not politics -- and The Record's relentless focus on the partisan divide in Trenton and Washington doesn't bode well for readers. 

Murphy as Sisyphus

The Gannett editors running The Record can't help themselves, using more than half of Tuesday's front page to tell readers Murphy is doomed to fail.

Inexplicably, a Page 1 story on key issues Murphy will face after his inauguration uses an enormous illustration of a Sisyphus-like figure:

In Greek mythology, Sisyphus was condemned to ceaselessly roll an enormous boulder to the top of a steep hill, only to watch it come back and hit him, repeating the action for eternity.

Praise for Christie

In the story -- "CHALLENGES ALL AROUND" --reporters Dustin Racioppi and Nicholas Pugliese fall all over themselves trying to praise Christie's two terms in office:

"Despite the accomplishments of his Republican predecessor Chris Christie -- an improved economy, slowed growth of property tax bills [and] pension and health benefits reforms for public workers...."

But the reporters then contradict themselves, noting New Jersey "remains mired in costly, entrenched problems," including "a strained budget [and] a pension system in crisis."

Of course, these inept reporters never explain why state workers' pensions are "in crisis" after Christie supposedly reformed the very same system.

'Liberal direction' 

Racioppi was assigned to cover Christie, and judging from his slanted reporting during and after the 2017 gubernatorial campaign, grew to admire the GOP bully and his lieutenant governor, who lost to Murphy.

Today, in The Record's lead Page 1 story, the reporter couldn't wait to slap a "liberal" label on Murphy:

"Taking control from Chris Christie" on Tuesday, Murphy pledged "to steer the state in a new, liberal direction...," Racioppi said.

50 more vetoes

Also on Tuesday's front page, The Record reports Christie signed more than 100 bills into law on Monday, but executed "pocket vetoes" on 50 more.

That would bring Christie's unofficial total to more than 650 vetoes -- a record for any New Jersey governor.

'Fire and Fury'

In an Opinion front column on Sunday, The Record's Mike Kelly cites "errors of fact and judgment" by author Michael Wolff, and concludes he doesn't "trust" the sensational Wolff book, "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House."

But Kelly's reporting is hardly original, appearing many days after similar criticism from CNN's Jake Tapper, Chuck Todd of "Meet the Press" and Fox News, among others.

Wolff isn't the first to report on this chaotic, divisive presidency or suggest Trump is not only incompetent, but mentally unfit for the job.

And the deeply conservative Kelly had readers rolling their eyes when he claimed, "I'm hardly a Trump fan...."

Really? I can't recall Kelly blasting Trump as a racist, con man, serial liar and tax dodger who has divided the country more than at any time since the Civil War. 

But I do recall Kelly's reports during the 2016 presidential campaign, and his repeated pot shots at the record of Barack Obama, our first black president. 

Martin Luther King

On Monday, The Record's coverage of Martin Luther King's birthday completely missed the point.

The sub-headline said:

"Nearly 50 years after his death, Martin

 Luther King Jr.'s message

 still rings true."

But the real lesson is that nearly 50 years after his death, King's dream of racial equality is even farther away from being realized now that we have a racist president and a GOP-controlled Congress in power.

Bannon subpoenaed

Stephen K. Bannon, Trump's former chief strategist, has been subpoenaed by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, The New York Times reported on Tuesday.

Bannon is expected to testify before a grand jury as part of the investigation into possible links between Trump associates and Russia.

This is the first subpoena served on a member of Trump's inner circle in the probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, The Times said.

Giving Trump unfiltered media platform to lie, then debunking him, doesn't work

Arizona Daily Star cartoonist David Fitzsimmons commenting on President Trump's tweets from the White House or Cuckoo's Nest.

In another Fitzsimmons cartoon, middle-class taxpayers are again holding their collective breath for the GOP-promised "trickle down" from the massive tax cuts for the rich enacted by Congress and signed into law by President Trump.

WASHINGTON POST FACT-CHECKS

 SCOOP BY NEW YORK TIMES

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

Editor's note: This post has been revised so the paragraphs on how the Russia probe began are easier to read on smartphones, and I've added links to previous commentary on President Trump.

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

In a classic case of one-upmanship, The New York Times ran with a scoop, an exclusive golf-club interview of President Trump -- only to have The Washington Post label most of his claims "false or misleading."

Times reporter Michael S. Schmidt was so excited over landing the impromptu 30-minute interview on Thursday in West Palm Beach, Fla., he called his editors to tell them "I had just spent a half-hour alone with the president."

After the interview was published, Schmidt immediately came under fire from other news media.

They noted his minimal pushback as Trump made one preposterous claim after another, many of them lies or completely fabricated, especially about the probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

Esquire.com called the interview "the portrait of a man in cognitive decline," referring to Trump.

'No collusion'

Schmidt said Trump "did not demand an end to the Russia investigations swirling around his administration, but insisted 16 times that there has been 'no collusion' discovered by the inquiry." 

On Friday, The Washington Post's Fact Checker pored over the transcript of The Times interview, and highlighted Trump's many false claims, including this one:

"I think it's been proven that there is no collusion," the president said.

"Trump is entitled to his own opinion," The Post said, "but he sidesteps that the investigation has revealed that members of the Trump campaign interacted with Russians at least 31 times...."

The Post debunks many other false claims by Trump, including these:

"There was collusion with the Russians and the Democrats;" "I won because ... [Hillary Clinton] campaigned for the popular vote [and] I campaigned for the electoral vote;" "I'm the one that saved coal;" "we see drugs pouring into the country [so] we need the wall."

The bottom line

Although The Post's fact-checking was published only one day after The Times' interview, the damage already was done.

The pushback has to come from the very same reporter or reporters interviewing Trump, but few journalists are willing to risk being barred from news conferences or hearing the president's impromptu comments.

And few of their bosses have the balls to stand up to the illegitimate president, Sarah Huckabee Sanders and his other lying mouthpieces.

Or, the reporters can simply shut the president down instead of chasing exclusives; and the news media are under no compulsion to publish every idiotic tweet from the Liar-In-Chief. 

See:

'Trump drops dead and the nation rejoices'

Dem voters stop spread of Trump poison

How probe began

On Saturday, The Times reported for the first time how the Russia probe began:

"At an upscale London bar in May 2016, George Papadopoulos, a young foreign policy advisor the the Trump campaign, made a startling revelation to Australia's top diplomat in Britain:

"Russia had thousands of emails that would embarrass Mrs. Clinton, apparently stolen in an effort to damage her campaign.

"Exactly how much Mr. Papadopoulos said that night is unclear. But two months later, when leaked emails began appearing online, Australian officials passed the information to their American counterparts, according to four current and former American and foreign officials."

The Record?

The front page of The Record, my local daily newspaper, is too busy recapping highlights of 2017 to pay much attention to Trump's chaotic presidency.

Today, a Page 1 headline asks, "How did our 17 newsmakers fare?"

One of them is Lieutenant Gov. Kim Guadagno, who was interviewed by Staff Writer Dustin Racioppi for another front-page story today.

Despite TV ads filled with lies and distortions -- and slanted reporting by Racioppi, who covers Governor Christie -- Guadagno lost the Nov. 7 election for governor to Democrat Phil Murphy.

Saturday's front page was dominated by another look back at 2017:

"Seven North Jersey moments

that shaped the year that was"  

"In New Jersey," Columnist Christopher Maag said in his opening paragraph, "2017 was a year for upstarts."

And in a shameless bow to an advertiser, Maag's third paragraph said:

"And who could forget northern New Jersey finally got a pair of Wegmans grocery stores."

On Friday's front page, Columnist Michael Kelly and other newsroom staffers shared "a behind-the-scenes look at stories that were most popular with our readers."  

Kelly thumped his chest over his interview with White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, who helped Trump lie his way into the White House.

Dem voters stop spread of Trump poison; paper slants stories on N.J. governor-elect

This and other hair-swap photos of President Trump and Kim Jong Il are amusing, but do little to ease the tension from their war of words over North Korean missile tests.

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

We witnessed a simple but powerful lesson in democracy this week when voters in Alabama chose Democrat Doug Jones for U.S. Senate over a Republican who promised to spread President Trump's poison.

Democrats haven't won a Senate seat in Alabama since 1992, CNN reported, adding:

"But the Alabama results also reflect trends in prior elections like the race for governor in Virginia this year that could bode well for Democrats in the upcoming 2018 mid-term elections, when control of the House of Representatives, and now the Senate, will be in play."

Turnout of Democratic voters rose, especially in rural counties in the state's agricultural "Black Belt," where African-Americans make up between 59% to 82% of registered voters, CNN said.

So, that's the key. 

When Democrats vote -- instead of giving in to apathy or GOP propaganda about Democratic candidates like Hillary Clinton, as they did in the 2016 presidential election -- sexual predators, con men and liars like Trump are sent packing.

Write-in votes in the Alabama race totaled 22,780 -- 2,000 more than Jones' margin of victory.

The front page of the New York Daily News commented on losing Republican Roy Moore, who was shown in a photo riding a horse to his polling place:

'SCREW YOU & HORSE

 YOU RODE IN ON'

N.J. angle?

As clear as the News' headline was, a headline on a Page 1 column in The Record of Woodland Park, my local daily newspaper, is a puzzler:

"Booker wins, 

Christie loses in Alabama"

Readers' hoping to explore this so-called New Jersey angle today ran smack into several paragraphs of boring background:

"More than five years ago, Gov. Chris Christie and then-Newark Mayor Cory Booker teamed up as New Jersey's bipartisan bros...."

That's how Staff Writer Charles Stile began yet another political column, putting legions of readers immediately to sleep.

Counting lies

Op-Ed Columnist David Leonhardt of The New York Times reports President Obama "averaged a little more than two blatant, distinct falsehoods per year during his presidency. Trump is on pace for 124 a year."

See: Trump's Lies vs. Obama's

Gov.-elect Murphy

The Record's editors made a huge mistake when they assigned Dustin Racioppi, the Trenton reporter who covers Christie, to also cover the gubernatorial campaign that ended in victory for Democrat Phil Murphy on Nov. 7.

Racioppi gladly channeled Lieutenant Gov. Kim Guadagno, whose ads and tweets were filled with smears and lies, without bothering to seek rebuttal from the Murphy camp.

Racioppi v. Murphy

Now, Racioppi is covering the transition, as he did in a Page 1 story on Wednesday, claiming:

"Gov.-elect Phil Murphy plans to move ahead with a long and costly list of policy proposals once he takes office, despite identifying signs of greater financial instability in the month since winning the election."

On Tuesday, another reporter's front-page story had Murphy and the state's two U.S. senators "pleading ... for federal funding" for new train tunnels under the Hudson River, "seven years after Gov. Chris Christie put the brakes on what would have been the most expensive transit project in the country."

In his two terms in office, Christie brought New Jersey to its knees financially, and nearly destroyed NJ Transit, but in its stories on Murphy, The Record is treating the Christie years as the new normal.

And whatever happened to Trump's much ballyhooed $1 billion infrastructure plan?

#MeToo

More than half of The Record's front page on Monday related the powerful stories of "everyday women" in North Jersey who had been sexually assaulted or harassed by a building superintendent, grandfather, college professor and a minister.

How could the same newspaper, in its premier Sunday edition, also run a Page 1 column from so-called Road Warrior John Cichowski, lamenting missing, broken and upside-down road signs for the umpteenth time since he started writing the column more than 14 years ago?

Please, I don't want to hear any excuses, just get out and vote in race for governor

The Bergen County Board of Elections in Hackensack is where thousands of mail-in ballots cast in Tuesday's election are recorded and counted. In the past few weeks, I hand carried our three mail-in ballots to the board office on the 3rd floor of the Bergen County Administration Building.

DON'T MISS BALLOT QUESTIONS ON LIBRARIES AND THE ENVIRONMENT

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

I still get sick to my stomach when I remember that millions of Democrats sat out the 2016 presidential election a year ago, allowing a con man, liar, racist and sexual predator to be elected to the highest office in the land.

Not the mention the tens of thousands of millennials and other Bernie Sanders supporters who actually voted for Donald J. Trump, and made the difference in three swing states.

There is no excuse for not voting, especially when President Trump and the Republican-led Congress are determined to destroy our democracy and our way of life.

On Tuesday, voters in New Jersey get to decide who will replace Chris Christie, a Trump crony who has been the worst governor in state history.

The choice for governor is between Democrat Phil Murphy and Republican Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, a Christie clone whose ads have used Trump-like lies and distortions.

Sheila Oliver is running for lieutenant governor, and other Democrats are seeking to be returned to the state Senate and Assembly, and the Bergen County Board of Freeholders.

Public questions

The first ballot question on Tuesday asks for approval of $125 million in bonds to provide grants to public libraries.

The second question, if approved, would prevent the governor from using monetary damages or fines from those who contaminate the environment for any other purpose than repairing, restoring or preserving the state's natural resources.

Get-out-the-vote efforts included reminders placed on front doors in Hackensack's Fairmount section.

Campaign coverage

In The Record of Woodland Park, my local daily newspaper, coverage of the Murphy and Guadagno campaigns has been poor.

Most of the reporting has been from Staff Writer Dustin Racioppi, whose objectivity is questionable in view of his permanent assignment, covering Christie.

Racioppi has repeatedly used Guadagno's description of Murphy as a "liberal," which amounts to a smear in our highly charged political atmosphere, and done little if any fact-checking when regurgitating GOP attack ads.

His final piece on the election appeared on Sunday's front page -- "Final push toward Election Day" -- where his first paragraph declared, "Times up."

Of course, it wasn't. Voters have today, as well, to decide who to vote for and how to vote on the two ballot questions.

But there is no election coverage today; for some reason, The Record remains silent on the day before an election.

Voter apathy

In the last gubernatorial election, The Record endorsed Christie over the Democratic candidate, then-state Sen. Barbara Buono.

Yet, turnout in 2013 was the lowest for any election for governor in state history.

Of course, the news media rarely reports on voter apathy, because they would have to examine their relentless focus on politics instead of issues as one of its main causes.

See:

Slanted reporting, voter apathy are election factors

Trump blame game, obsession with lying have us trapped in a trick-or-treat America

As Halloween approaches, tens of millions of people feel they are trapped in a trick-or-treat America, where, if you didn't vote for Donald J. Trump, you are powerless to stop the president's celebration of white supremacy, assault on the environment and repeated attempts to erode our democracy. The Lowe's in Paramus is asking $199 for this Skeleton Couple. 

GUADAGNO LAGS IN THE POLLS,

BUT GAINS AT THE RECORD

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

Today's post was inspired by a Wyckoff man's letter to the editor of The Record, my local daily newspaper.

The letter from Ronald Barone appeared on Thursday's Editorial Page under this heading:

"Tales of a self-absorbed, 

insecure president"

As happens often, letters from readers like Barone often say what the editors of the Woodland Park daily don't or won't say about President Trump's nine months in office.

"One has to wonder how this totally insecure individual, Donald Trump, became president," Barone began. "Why does he feel the need to continually blame others for his failures?

"Why, everytime he speaks, does he feel the need to lie? Does he think people can't check his facts? What is his compulsive obsession with President Obama? Could it be he knows he will never measure up to Obama's presidency?

"Does Trump know that he hasn't the intelligence or empathy required for this position? His recent statements that he's not taking the blame for the failure of the Republican Congress to overturn Obamacare should not be surprising.

"He has not taken responsibility for anything he promised on the campaign trail, which was plentiful.  

"Everything he speaks of ultimately comes back to how it affects him. Have we ever had a more self-absorbed president? I don't think it's close."

Barone's letters to the editor of The Record have been published frequently.

A Bernie Sanders supporter shows her loyalty on her car's rear bumper.

How Trump did it

Of course, one of the factors in the election of Trump was the millions of registered Democrats who stayed home on Nov. 8.

Another was the 12% of Bernie Sanders supporters who voted for the Vermont senator, a Democrat, in the primaries, then voted for Trump in the general election.

That's according to the Cooperative Congressional Election Study, a survey among 50,000 people by Brian Schaffner, a political science professor at the University of Massachusetts. 

In the key swing states -- Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin -- the Sanders supporters who voted for Trump were potentially enough to have handed Clinton those states and the presidency. 

Can happen in N.J.

That kind of voter apathy among Democrats could sink the candidacy of Phil Murphy, who hopes to succeed Governor Christie, New Jersey's own GOP bully.

In the Nov. 7 election, Murphy, a former U.S. ambassador to Germany, is facing Republican Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, who is using such Trump-like tactics as lying about what Murphy would do if elected.

In 2013, Christie was re-elected, but the turnout was the lowest for a gubernatorial election in state history, and that hurt his opponent, Democratic state Sen. Barbara Buono.

On Thursday, The Record's front-page coverage of the second of two Murphy-Guadagno debates was played below the Yankees' chances of going to the World Series.

More slanted coverage

Dustin Racioppi, the same reporter assigned to cover Christie, has filed one slanted story after another favoring Guadagno, and his debate story on Thursday was no exception. 

Racioppi's second paragraph is a classic example of a reporter stacking the deck against the Democratic candidate:

"Guadagno insisted repeatedly that she would lower taxes in New Jersey, and that Murphy would raise them," Racioppi wrote, without telling readers the Democrat wants to raise the income taxes paid by millionaires, and the wealthy corporations and hedge funds the Christie-Guadagno team shielded from taxes.

Guadagno isn't pledging to lower income taxes; she claims she'll be able to lower local property taxes, even though governors have little or no control over levies set by local councils and school boards.

Pulled from air

"She calculated a multitude of promises Murphy has made during the campaign to run between $50 billion to $65 billion, all of it to be borne by taxpayers," Racioppi said, strongly suggesting Murphy would raise taxes on the middle class.

And Racioppi doesn't mention that Guadagno's claim is that she can lower property taxes -- the highest in the nation -- the same Big Lie that got Christie elected in 2009.

As one of the paper's Christie apologists in recent years, Racioppi is absolutely the wrong reporter to assign to the gubernatorial election.

Obama, Bush

Former President Barack Obama campaigned for Murphy on Thursday, saying a victory for the Democrat would reject "the same old politics and division that we have seen so many times before" (1A in The Record).

Meanwhile, in Manhattan, former President George W. Bush called on Americans to reject bigotry and white supremacy -- a veiled reference to Trump's divisive policies (5A).