POLITICS OR WHAT ?

Someone suggested that the Nov.9the Council dual session might have been canceled and rescheduled to the 233rd due to the NJ League of Municipalities conference in Atlantic City. However that is scheduled for the 16-18 so there has to be other reasons.

Like all such conventions/conferences this could be a valuable tool for Council members honestly concerned with understanding and improving their role as members of the governing body.

Unfortunately as in many such get togethers there is an abundance of parties and dinners sponsored by exhibitors and that is too often the sole goal of some (annual?) attendees.

This meeting cannot be the reason for such a late postponement.

There have been a few that questioned if this is not in some way related to the Superintendent’s sudden cancellation of the Youth Meeting with only explaining that it was an executive decision. They he anonymous have speculated if it could have been in retaliation for the Mayor’s strong objection to the Campbells using the BOE property adjacent to Cook School for a pre-election non-political party the weekend before elections?

With the weakening of the old power bases in Plainfield and the strong emergence of other aggressive factions seizing control of municipal entities with big budgets and plethora of jobs; the political picture in Plainfield has over the past 5 or 6 years become confused. Indeed there seems to be an ongoing struggle for power.

But this is all speculative at best and we expect that Council President Rivers will be forthcomming with an explanation.

10:23 PM: I will bet that the Ledger will devote its front page to one big headline; "Christie will not be on the stage  at the next debate! Oh the power of the press.

COUNCIL MEETING RESCHEDULED

 

why??  Received at 3:49 pm. No explanation.

CORPORATION NOTICE

CITY OF PLAINFIELD

 

 

please be advised that the joint agenda fixing session/regular MEETING scheduled for monday, november 9, 2015 has been rescheduled to take place as a special meeting on monday, november 23, 2015 at 7:00 p.m. in the municipal court-council chambers located at 325 watchung avenue. 

be further advised that governing body will convene in executive at APPROXIMATELY 6:00 p.m. prior to the special meeting.

consistent with the open public meetings LAW  A public notice containing all matters being considered AT the special meeting shall be forthcoming. 

BY ORDER OF THE PLAINFIELD

MUNICIPAL COUNCIL

BRIDGET B. RIVERS, PRESIDENT

 

/S/S/   ABUBAKAR T. JALLOH, R.M.C.  

    MUNICIPAL CLERK 

 

DATED:     PLAINFIELD, NEW JERSEY

        NOVEMBER 5, 2015.

US AND THE WORLD #1

The day after the elections was another day to cherish due to its weather. It could have been Indian summer except that designation for a period of 70 degrees days in the fall denotes a spell after a frost which we have not had. We will take it though.

The County and Assembly results were as predicted. New Jersey’s politically gerrymandered assembly districts make the vast majority to be foolproof safe for the party. Therefore there can be little change. As noted the Republicans lost three seats; the two from Monmouth County which could be a surprise, and one of the two in District 1. The other seat in that district was already held by a Democrat who was reelected.

Under the circumstances it is hard to attribute the results as an “anti-Christie vote”.

This day being what it was; it became ideal for another goof off day after needed errands were completed. Several hours were spent reading the Times and the WSJ. Most of the news was depressing; this world is a complete mess as is our present foreign policy.

We must not make the mistake of again retreating into isolationism, no matter what the risks and costs; both fiscal and human.

Once again we have erred in the deal with Iran. We have not learned from Munich. This is from, today’s (11/4/15)NY Times: “TEHRAN — Anyone who hoped that Iran’s nuclear agreement with the United States and other powers portended a new era of openness with the West has been jolted with a series of increasingly rude awakenings over the past few weeks.”

“Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader, said the “Death to America” slogan is eternal. New anti-American billboards in Tehran include a mockery of the Iwo Jima flag-raising photograph that symbolized Marine sacrifice in World War II. And an Iranian knockoff version of K.F.C., the chicken chain widely associated with the United States, was summarily closed after two days”It seems that hard-liners, using the intelligence unit of the Revolutionary Guards Corps, have started rounding up journalists, activists and cultural figures, as a warning that the post nuclear-deal period cannot lead to further relaxation or political demands.

In recent days at least five prominent figures were arrested by the intelligence unit, among them Isa Saharkhiz, a well-known journalist and reformist, who was released from jail in 2013 after a conviction for his alleged involvement in the 2009 anti-government protests. On Sunday, Ehsan Mazandarani, the top editor of a reformist newspaper, Farhikhtegan, was arrested by the same unit, the semiofficial Tasnim news agency reported. On Tuesday, they arrested the well-known actress and newspaper columnist, Afarin Chitsaz, the Amadnews website reported.

Their most prominent targets are dual Iranian and American citizens, but on Tuesday, state television said Nizar Zakka, a Lebanese-American information technology expert who mysteriously disappeared here on Sept. 18, also had been seized.

Heralding the arrest as yet another capture of an “American spy,” state television said Mr. Zakka, the secretary general of the Arab Information and Communications Technology Organization, was a “treasure trove” because of “connections with intelligence and military bodies in the United States.”

Mr. Zakka had been invited to Iran with his family by the vice president for Women and Family Affairs, Shahindokht Molaverdi, to speak at a conference. Leaving his hotel in Tehran on Sept. 18, Mr. Zakka never arrived at the airport, his organization has said”.

This is one of the governments we are trusting and “dealing with”. Tomorrow I may post some comments from the Times about Secretary of State Kerry’s present trip to the former Soviet Republics of Central Asia

ELECTION RESULTS

I was informed that the “good guys” won their seats on the Council. It will not change Council control but with 3 seats and always the possibility that one of the other four will as has happened in the past vote with them on items critical to Plainfield’s welfare.

This result could represent a personal defeat Green who if as unconfirmed despite his positions as Chair of the City and County Democrat Committees was giving sub-rosa support to Ortega and Campbell in the Council races.

On the other hand the Mapp Administration should not take this as a mandate. It is hoped that there will be no more baffling weird personal appointments, unexplainable staffing attempts, or ignoring proper procedures.