Now is the time to defeat Trump, impeach lapdog Christie

From cartoonist Jeff Darcy of Cleveland.com, the website of The Plain Dealer, above and below.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

For commentary on the national nightmare of a possible victory by Donald J. Trump on Tuesday, readers of The Record have to look elsewhere.

Today, for example, Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin exposes campaign fliers depicting 5th Congressional District challenger Josh Gottheimer, who is Jewish, as a devil with horns (A-9).

He blasts Sarah Neibart, campaign manager for Rep. Scott Garrett, R-Wantage, for suggesting the Gottheimer campaign is behind "a political ploy manufactured by them to fabricate a hate crime."

"This is ... exactly what the Nazis would say. Blame the victim for orchestrating his own victimization," Doblin writes.

But I don't recall Doblin condemning Trump for encouraging his supporters to launch attacks against Jewish reporters, nor has he demanded the resignation or impeachment of Governor Christie for lying and covering up his role in the Bridgegate scandal.

After Christie dropped out of the presidential race in February and endorsed Trump's radical GOP White House campaign, The Star-Ledger and six Gannett-owned dailies called on him to resign.

The Woodland Park daily still hasn't followed suit after all of the testimony at the Bridgegate trial that Christie knew about the George Washington Bridge lane closures as they were happening in September 2013.

Clinton emails

The Record continues to channel Republican attacks against Democrat Hillary Clinton and her emails as secretary of state.

Today's Page 1 headline declares the FBI "provides Clinton with last-minute relief," and what follows is yet another sensational report from The Associated Press, which has legitimized every lie from wacko racist Trump in the past two years.

'Rigged' election

Over at The New York Times, Columnist Paul Krugman writes about how the presidential election was "rigged."

Krugman includes voter suppression in southern states, Russian hacking of Clinton's emails; FBI Director James Comey, "who used his position to spread innuendo and influence the election;" and pro-Trump FBI agents, who have been spreading "claims and allegations that may not have anything to do with reality."

"The election was rigged by mainstream news organizations, many of which simply refused to report on policy issues, a refusal that clearly favored the candidate who lies all the time, and has no coherent proposals to offer," Krugman says.

"In 2016, all three [nightly news broadcasts] combined devoted a total of 32 minutes to coverage of issues -- all issues. Climate change, the most important issue we face, received no coverage at all.

"The election was rigged by the media obsession with Hillary Clinton's emails. She shouldn't have used her own server, but there is no evidence at all that she did anything unethical, let along illegal.

"Yet those networks that found only 32 minutes for all policy issues combined found 100 minutes to talk about Clinton emails."

40-day volunteer

Good for Nyree Miscia, a photogenic mother of four who volunteered for 40 days before her 40th birthday and got nearly the entire Better Living cover devoted to her today.

Excuse me for mentioning that thousands of volunteers have given their time for many more months, years and decades, and have never seen their names or photos in The Record.

Hackensack's school board appears to be incompetent

The Avalon Hackensack at Riverside luxury apartments, shown in February, potentially will add students to already crowded classrooms in Hackensack. Two-bedroom apartments are renting from $2,355 a month, and three-bedroom units start at $3,035 a month. Parking is extra: $100 a month for the first vehicle, $50 a month for the second. 

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Hackensack schools are experiencing an enrollment boomlet, and officials are scrambling to lease space in a Catholic school that is closing, The Record reports today.

The story, on the Local front, makes no reference to a Hackensack Avenue luxury apartment complex with two- and three-bedroom apartments that potentially will add more children to the overburdened schools.

Finger pointing

Joseph Abate, the interim schools superintendent, blames the lack of long-range planning, and school board members blame "turnover in administration for the lack of a current plan."

So, what has eight-term school trustee Francis W. Albolino -- a political ally of the Zisa family -- and other longtime members of the board been doing?

They've been spending more money per pupil than Ridgewood, and getting little academic excellence in return.

Wrong story for A-1

Not only do the editors do their best to make today's major Page 1 story hard to follow, but readers who stick with it to the bitter end must wonder why it's on the front page in the first place.

"Wrong number goes

right for ailing woman"

The reporter does a good job with this much-ado-about-nothing occurrence, once you overlook the silly lead paragraph:

"Next time you dial a wrong number, think about this."

Bluenotes

The A-1 obituary of jazz pianist Mulgrew Miller is yet another attempt to avoid the most compelling question about his death at age 57:

Why are so many other African-American men dying in their 50s?

All news is local

On Friday, The Record did what a local newspaper can do best.

A front-page story revealed that James Comey -- President Obama's pick to be FBI director -- was himself a crime victim more than 35 years ago in Allendale.

Sadly, that kind of local perspective is missing from the national and international news stories Editor Marty Gottlieb likes to run on Page 1, as if The Record is a trans-Hudson version of The New York Times. 

Friday's A-1 also was notable for the absence of another Rutgers column by sports writer Tara Sullivan, the paper's own vagina monologue.

Seeing stars

Friday's restaurant review gives a good-to-excellent rating to Raymond's in Ridgewood, even though the only "flawless" dish was French toast (BL-18).

And the restaurant misses a heart-healthy rating by a country mile -- cooking leaves of Brussels sprouts in duck fat, and adding butter, cream and mascarpone to shrimp and grits.

Thai mystery

In the May 2013 issue of (201) magazine, Editorial Assistant Ryan Greene sounds knowledgeable in discussing the food he sampled at Pimaan Thai Restaurant in Emerson.

But then, his review says "the papaya salad" has "no actual papaya, for whatever reason."

I called the restaurant to confirm it serves "green papaya" salad, a staple of Thai cuisine.

Of course, it contains papaya, but it's just not the sweet, ripe fruit Greene or the (201) editors might be familiar with.

If that's not embarrassing enough, who wrote the amateurish headline?

"Thai Something New"