Filmmaker blasts Trump and his 'political Ponzi scheme'

A Bruce Springsteen lookalike leading the B-Street Band, which was billed as "The Original Springsteen Tribute Band" on Wednesday night at a concert for cancer survivors, caregivers, family and friends at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, above and below.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns is describing racist Donald J. Trump's mean-spirited presidential campaign as "a political Ponzi scheme."

In a scathing attack on the presumptive Republican nominee, Burns told Stanford University graduates on Sunday that "as a student of history, I recognize this type."

"We see nurtured in his [Trump's] campaign an incipient proto-facism, a nativist anti-immigrant Know Nothing-ism, a disrespect for the judiciary, the prospect of women losing authority over their own bodies, African-Americans again asked to go to the back of the line, voter suppression gleefully promoted, jingoistic saber rattling, a total lack of historical awareness, a political paranoia that, predictably, points fingers, always making the other wrong."

On Monday's A-9, The Record of Woodland Park ran an Associated Press report on Burns' commencement speech in Palo Alto, Calif., but the story didn't contain a single word of his attack on Trump, whose name he never mentioned.

Trumping Trump

Speaking of "bitterly contested" elections in the past 216 years and their "clearly qualified candidates," Burns turned to this presidential campaign and said:

"One is glaringly not qualified. So before you do anything with your well-earned degrees, you must do everything you can to defeat the the retrograde forces that have invaded our democratic process, divided our house, to fight against, no matter your political persuasion, the dictatorial tendencies of the candidate with zero experience in the much maligned but subtle art of governance....

"A person who lies easily, creating an environment where truth doesn't seem to matter; who has never demonstrated any interest in anyone or anything but himself and his own enrichment; who insults veterans, threatens a free press, mocks the handicapped, denigrates women, immigrants and all Muslims; a man who took more than a day to disavow a supporter who advocates white supremacy and the Ku Klux Klan; an infantile, bullying man...."

Media reports said Burns' attack on Trump lasted a full 7 minutes. Feel the burn.

Today's paper

Spurred by the massacre of 49 people inside a gay dance club in Orlando, Fla., gun-control advocates picketed the Glen Rock office of Rep. Scott Garrett, the Tea Party crackpot from Wantage (L-3).

"He really is radical when it comes to defending ... the NRA [National Rifle Association]," said a spokeswoman for New Jersey Citizen Action.

Meanwhile, a new TV ad assails Garrett's anti-gay stance and his opposition to same-sex marriage.

Democrat Josh Gottheimer, who is opposing Garrett in the November election, has called the Republican a Tea Party radical, but The Record prefers to describe him as a "North Jersey conservative" (L-3).

Lawyer's take?

Staff Writer John Seasly reports a Hackensack woman who suffered permanent spinal injuries when her car was rear-ended by an uninsured driver from Englewood won't get anywhere near the $1.2 million a jury is recommending (L-6).

"What she's got is Allstate's $250,000 [uninsured motorist benefits]. The rest is sort of gone," her attorney, Thomas Dinan said.

That's not all that will be "gone."

Apparently, Seasly is unaware the woman's lawyer can ask the judge to approve fees and expenses up to one-third of any damages, so Gerri Koch might only receive about $167,000.