Racism is rearing its ugly head as Trump dismantles all that Obama accomplished

Cartoonist R.J. Matson of Roll Call captures the turmoil over President Trump's intention to scrap DACA, the federal government program created in 2012 by Barack Obama to give temporary legal immigration status to people who were brought to the United States illegally as children.

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

President Trump's assault on so-called Dreamers is seen as more evidence of his virulent racism, because most of them are Hispanic (nearly 70% are from Mexico).

This is Trump's latest attempt to dismantle all that President Barack Obama accomplished -- from health care to trade agreements to equal pay for women to the Paris climate accord and far more.

The Washington Post's Catherine Rampell says the guiding principle seems to be, "Undo everything the previous guy did," according to the Morning Brief from WNYC-FM.

Except when the "previous guy" is our first black president, Trump's motives appear to be racially inspired, continuing his demonization of Obama, whom he alleged is a Muslim who wasn't born in the United States.

The New York billionaire didn't give up that fiction until September 2016, CNN says.

It would be no surprise that Trump is practicing racial politics; it's what he did during his ultimately successful campaign -- as the national news media stood by and celebrated him as a "newcomer" and an "outsider" determined to shake up the Washington establishment.

And it's no surprise Trump continues to play the race card to his adoring supporters, who are overwhelmingly angry white men, many of them members of alt-right groups, neo-Nazi cells, the Klan and other cesspools.

What are they angry about? Eight years of chafing under a black president who tried to even the playing field for the nation's minorities.

Desperation

In a sure sign of desperation, the defense attorney for U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez's co-defendant claims the charges being heard by a federal jury are an "attack" on successful members of the Hispanic-American community (1 A in The Record).

And the Woodland Park daily's decision to put that BS story on Page 1 today is a sure sign Gannett Co. is desperate for readers.

Federal prosecutors told the jury on Wednesday Menendez was co-defendant Salomon Melgen's "personal senator."

They described a "bribery scheme involving 'a corrupt politician who sold his senate office for a life of luxury he couldn't afford, and a greedy doctor who put that politician on his payroll for when he needed the services of a United States senator'" (7A in The Record).

See: Bob Menendez is unfit to serve in U.S. Senate

Elaine D'Aurizio

Elaine D'Aurizio, who became The Record's only female news columnist in a career that spanned more than 30 years, died on Wednesday. She was 76.

Visiting hours are today from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Moore's Home for Funerals, 1591 Alps Road, Wayne. 

A death notice ran in The Record on Thursday.

We have no use for U.S. Sen. Menendez, who consorted with a jet-setting fraudster

In 2015, Juliana Lopes Leite, a Brazilian actress-turned-lawyer, admitted she had an affair with Dr. Salomon Melgen, lower right, but claimed she had no idea the doctor's pal, indicted U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, pulled strings to get her a U.S. visa (photos by Getty Images, AP).

THE RECORD LAID OUT DEFENSE

 IN EXCRUCIATING DETAIL

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

UPDATE: On Wednesday, a federal prosecutor told the jury U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez "sold his office for a life of luxury he could not afford."

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

Let's pretend a federal jury in Newark will find U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., not guilty of charges he used his office to benefit his co-defendant's personal and business interests.

We still wouldn't want Menendez to continue serving after Dr. Salomon Melgen "bribed" the state's senior senator with more than $700,000 in contributions to political committees that helped get him reelected in 2012.

There was more: A lavish lifestyle that included free flights on Melgen's private jet, vacations at his home in a Dominican Republic resort, golf outings and a stay in a luxurious Paris hotel suite.

Today, the jury heard opening statements in the corruption trial of Menendez and Melgen, an eye doctor who was found guilty at a separate trial in April of defrauding Medicare out of as much as $105 million. 

News coverage

In the past two years, The Record of Woodland Park has published exhaustive coverage of Menendez's defense, reporting every ultimately unsuccessful motion to get the charges thrown out or delay the trial.

Menendez's defense team even appealed unsuccessfully to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Today's story by State House Bureau reporter Nicholas Pugliese reports Menendez faces "the biggest challenge of his political career" (3A).

There's no mention of the ethical standards a U.S. senator is expected to uphold, nor has anyone at The Record asked where Menendez is getting the hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees demanded by his attorneys.

Eating out

The payroll-slashing Gannett Co., The Record's new owner, ended weekly reviews of new restaurants in November 2016 as an economy move.

Why reimburse a reporter hundreds of dollars a week for meals at fine-dining and casual restaurants when a staffer can simply rewrite public-relations material on new restaurants?

Today, Food Editor Esther Davidowitz handles the rewrite chores for the Fall Restaurant Preview on the Better Living cover (1BL and 3BL).

She raves, "A slew of newcomers are set to open in our region," and shouts "hooray" for the ones that have "just opened."

Her briefs range from a humble falafel restaurant (Mamoun's in Fort Lee) to high-end seafood and Korean restaurants (The Hill in Closter and Gayeon in Fort Lee) to a food-court concession slinging mystery meat barbecue (Mighty Quinn's at Westfield Garden State Plaza). 

Clams and bacon

In other food coverage, see a recipe from freelancer Kate Morgan Jackson for the surest way to ruin fresh clams, which are high in iron (2BL).

The clueless Jackson recommends making a clam soup with 4 slices of artery clogging thick-cut bacon, and a half-cup of half and half for an extra measure of saturated fat.

Just like that, she transformed a healthy dish into an unhealthy one.