The King of Spadea
LAFAYETTE – One of the signs on the wall of the local firehouse said “Trump is our rightful president.”
Another condemned the grooming of children.
This was a regular meeting of the Skylands Tea Party, so Bill Spadea was right at home.
The radio host and likely 2025 gubernatorial candidate didn’t disappoint, imploring a supportive audience to join him in fighting “woke” culture and the “elites.”
Referencing his morning radio show and his stops around the state, Spadea cheered the crowd with this pronouncement:
“There are more of us than there are of them.”
Let’s break that down.
The “us” were the “patriots” in the room, those who proclaim support and love for such American traditions as hard work, family and faith.
But the “them.”
They’re just about everyone else – the corporate elites, the media elites, Democrats (of course) and let’s not forget, the RINOs.
Republicans, in fact, are often condemned by Spadea and the Tea Party for being weak and too quick to compromise.
Jack Ciattarelli by all objective accounts ran a good campaign for governor in 2021, losing in a very “blue” state by just 3 points or so.
Spadea was not impressed. He doesn’t consider the margin close and added that if Ciattarelli won, he would have made things worse. Just like he said Chris Christie did.
And don’t even mention Christie Whitman.
In fact, when Spadea did, the crowd groaned, which is something he says happens every time he says Whitman’s name.
Rhetoric has its place, but so do facts.
We are going back a number of years, but let’s not forget that both Whitman and Christie were elected twice as governor.
Those on the Republican right in New Jersey – think recently of the likes of Steve Lonegan, Phil Rizzo and Hirsh Singh – have been elected statewide to nothing.
Expect Spadea to be undaunted and to push ahead.
He railed against Democrats for creating a society in which police are the “enemy” and where the teachers’ union is out of control.
And then there was COVID. Spadea ridiculed the lockdown, the vaccine and admonitions to stand six feet apart from each other.
In truth, a full accounting of the state’s pandemic response has yet to be written. But from a purely political point of view, it’s hard to see the lockdown being any type of issue in 2025.
It was an issue in 2021 when Phil Murphy won reelection. Not surprisingly, Spadea faults the state’s Republican establishment for failing to use the lockdown to mount a winning campaign against the governor.
“We were betrayed in that election,” he said.
Then again, maybe a majority of voters supported how Murphy handled COVID.
Now we come to schools, which for conservatives is the issue of the day.
Spadea said the teachers’ union is recommending such books as “This Book is Gay” and “Gender Queer” as summer reading.
To him and like-minded souls, this is not merely a case of urging kids to read books some may see as “inappropriate.”
It’s more sinister than that.
It’s a sign the education elites “are coming at you as moms and dads.” He added that they want to “get in between you and your children.”
This is a constant theme – the notion that schools, and by extension the government, have some diabolical campaign to take control of kids’ lives. Or worse yet, “groom them.”
This suggests that this year’s school board elections around the state may be quite riveting. In fact, Spadea and other speakers, including Josh Aikens, who just lost an Assembly primary in LD-24, urged so-inclined conservatives to consider running for their local boards. The filing deadline is the end of July.
Near the end of his address, a woman in the audience brought up the possibility of Spadea for governor.
The radio host was coy, saying only, “The thought has crossed my mind.”
This guy has won ZERO ELECTIONS. When losers like this try to tell others how they will win elections, you shouldn’t believe them at all. This is guy is a media elite. Don’t let him fool you. He rolls around in a Mercedes Benz. He’s no different than Trump. There are better Republicans out there than him.
SCHOOL BOARD IRREGULARITIES AND ILLEGALITIES
A number of school boards in New Jersey are in violation of the state code of ethics governing them.
Some of them are are also violating state laws.
And two people in particular are encouraging this illegal activity.
School boards are supposed to be non-partisan. Elections for members do not delineate party affiliation. Nevertheless, it is clear that there are partisan groups, mostly associated with the Republican Party, that have adopted names that, at first glance, look well-meaning, but are in fact code for homophobia, transphobia, racial bigotry, and blatant interference with teachers.
Under the School Ethics Act, first passed in 1991 by the Legislature (https://www.nj.gov/education/ethics/act.shtml),
school boards are administrative entities, tasked with ensuring that facilities are operational, that they are well-staffed, and that employees are paid. They are NOT in charge of curriculum, and have no mandate to interfere with the role of the teacher.
The School Board Code of Ethics (18A:12-24.1) clearly states the parameters under which board members must conduct themselves, including:
• “I will uphold and enforce all laws, rules and regulations of the State Board of Education, and court orders pertaining to schools. Desired changes shall be brought about only through legal and ethical procedures”. School boards have no authority to establish policies that circumvent state laws, which has been attempted and shut down by court injunctions.
• “I will make decisions in terms of the educational welfare of children and will seek to develop and maintain public schools that meet the individual needs of all children regardless of their ability, race, creed, sex, or social standing”. Censorship of textbooks based on subjective, often biased standards is not meeting the needs of children to learn as much as possible.
• “I will confine my board action to policy making, planning, and appraisal, and I will help to frame policies and plans only after the board has consulted those who will be affected by them”. Clearly, boards are violating their oaths by establishing rules outing LGBTQ children, removing books on spurious reasons, and neglecting their administrative mandate in favor of culture wars.
• “I will refuse to surrender my independent judgment to special interest or partisan political groups”. A number of boards are clearly under the control of New Jersey Project, Moms for Liberty, and other right-wing subversive groups.
• “I will hold confidential all matters pertaining to the schools which, if disclosed, would needlessly injure individuals or the schools”. Again, establishing policies requiring teachers and administrators to notify parents of any signs of students changing their gender identity is a clear violation of confidentiality.
• “I will support and protect school personnel in proper performance of their duties”. School boards have taken it upon themselves to terminate teachers, administrators, even school board attorneys, who do not support their bigotry.
And there are two individuals in New Jersey who are leading the charge to eviscerate public education by stacking school boards with their bigoted followers. The first one I’ve written extensively about–Nicole Stouffer, aka “Nik Sto”, “Mathgoddess”, and numerous other aliases. She heads the “New Jersey Project” along with her fellow right-wing nut, Kristen Sinclair. Together, they have grown a network of local groups with names such as “For the Children”, Parents United”, and other titles that sound well-intentioned but are actually hate groups determined to “purify” schools by removing such references as sexuality and slavery while promoting religion in the schools, a clear violation of the church-state separation doctrine. She’s also affiliated with “Moms for Liberty”, a national organization which is about to be classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Locally, their followers include school boards in Sparta and Sussex-Wantage, where well-documented bigot Sharia Nick D’Agostino heads the BOE and posts on Facebook bragging about his homophobia and transphobia, while trying to make people think he’s some kind of saint. He’s running for reelection this year and is up against a formidable opponent in Deborah Jenkins Braconi, and people are beginning to realize what kind of hypocritical ass is in charge of their children’s education.
The other leader of the bigotry brigade is James O’Keefe, an agitator based out of Bergen County who was the founder of “Project Veritas”, a group he started to harass places like media organizations, businesses, and yes, school boards by sending in undercover operatives armed with hidden cameras, many times in violation of either laws or policies prohibiting recording meetings and other activities. This wackadoodle was kicked out of his own company earlier this year following charges of harassment of his own employees and misappropriation of funds. In fact, the Project Veritas board of trustees, after terminating O’Keefe, immediately rehired two board members he had removed. O’Keefe and Project Veritas are currently under investigation by the FBI for any involvement in the 2020 theft of a diary belonging to Ashley Biden, the President’s daughter.
Further, he has announced a campaign–which he is now running on his own–“giving hidden cameras to a variety of parents, and sometimes students, and they will be exposing corruption, lies and abuse in public schools throughout Bergen County”, as he told the Westwood school board in June. What he’s actually doing is facilitating criminal activity, as it is illegal to record activity on school property without permission. Also, the filming of students (which he plans to put online) could be considered child endangerment, not to mention a blatant invasion of privacy. O’Keefe could find himself in some very hot water if he carries out his plan.
As I said earlier, school boards are supposed to be non-partisan. Clearly, that is not taking place. Hate groups such as the ones mentioned earlier are trying to take over your child’s education. Worse than that, a lot of very good teachers are leaving the state because they cannot perform their chosen profession with so much interference from outsiders.
In the classic 1967 film “Up the Down Staircase”, the protagonist, Sylvia Barrett (portrayed brilliantly by the late Sandy Dennis), becomes so fed up with the interference from administrators leashed by the New York City Board of Education that she decides to leave her position–of which she was in her first year–to teach in a private school, where she would not be subjected to so much harassment and could teach the way she wanted. That she ultimately chose to remain–because she wanted to reach her students–was a testament to her unwillingness to let the bullshit get to her. Unfortunately, that was literature (which, ironically, today’s boards would probably censor). In real life, teachers are leaving New Jersey for other locations where they are not hampered by a group of bigoted bullies whose goal is to shut down public education in favor of private, religious schools–funded with taxpayer dollars, of course.
The way to defeat them is to run against them. If the Christian Nationalists such as Nick D’Agostino want to ignore the rules about partisanship, then those who oppose them must do the same. And, by all means, make sure you vote in your school board elections, and make sure you know who you’re voting for. Don’t get swayed by fancy campaign slogans on the ballot. We’ll be publishing a list of those candidates endorsed by Stouffer, O’Keefe and other hatemongers prior to the elections.
We cannot let bigoted criminals run our schools and teach our children how to hate. Make sure you prevent it from happening.
Michael Schnackenberg lives in an alternate world then the rest of us. He attacks Republicans, Conservatives and Christians as bad, and Democrats, Socialists and Communists as good.
He talks about Republicans and Conservatives running hate-filled school boards. How is that possible after Democrats were the ones running school boards and demanding that parents not be told what their children are being taught or being indoctrinated into. This comes from “on-high” from the NJEA, a mostly Democrat-controlled powerful entity, basically running the government by its large donations to Democrats.
The NJEA has given Gov. Murphy $1.5 million in dark money. The political nonprofit run by Gov. Murphy’s wife and close allies attempted to decline to disclose who bankrolled the group and filled its coffers with nearly $2.9 million in the first half of last year to boost the governor’s political agenda.
Stronger Fairer Forward collected 33 large checks ranging from $7,500 to $1.5 million during the period covering January through July 2022, according to its first tax filing with the IRS last month. In March, NorthJersey.com uncovered $1,975,000 worth of donations to Stronger Fairer Forward by examining IRS and U.S. Department of Labor filings in which a handful of groups are required to report their political spending. They include:
New Jersey Education Association, the state’s largest teachers’ union: $1.5 million
International Longshoremen’s Association Committee on Political Education: $100,000
American Federation of Teachers, an affiliate of the AFL-CIO teachers union: $100,000
Service Employees Local 32, a property service workers labor union: $25,000
International Union of Operating Engineers Local 825: $150,000
The remaining $911,000 the nonprofit raised through last July — and anything collected since — remains shrouded in secrecy.
Most of the money has gone to advertisements for Gov. Murphy. The NJEA has a big stake in Democrats, because they maintain their power through the education portion of everyone’s property taxes. The NJEA doesn’t want a shift away from property taxes as their main source of funding. I would posit to say that the NJEA is behind the scenes attempting to take down the STAYNJ senior property tax relief law giving a $6500 annual property tax break to seniors (which was reduced from $10,000 annually by the Governor for some unknown reason; most likely linked to the NJEA).
The real bigots running our schools happen to be the Democrat school boards and Democrat-controlled NJEA keeping poorer inner city and urban districts even poorer and those school results even worse. In most situations, less than 40% of high school graduates from inner city/urban schools can’t read or do math at an 8th grade level.
So, the only bigots I’m seeing are the Democrat school boards and NJEA running (more aptly, ruining) the poorer inner city/urban schools into the ground.
Snackenberg need not pollute the issues with his lengthy, droning diatribes burdening us with mountains of bureaucratic concrete. It should also be noted that his reference to the travails of “Sylvia Barrett” is a self defeating and awkward one – in today’s world Sylvia would be transfering to a conservative, religious school to flee the valueless environment Snackenberg promotes. After all, so many Democrats, Republicans and Independents are advocating for many of the aspects of the freedom-loving hippie movement. “Sylvia”, today, would find that comforting and liberating and would be exiting the public school environment those like Snackenberg have destroyed.
Hey jackass, why don’t you reveal your name so we can all know who tho POS hiding behind a fake name is? Or are you just another right-wing coward?
What you see in the attached pictures is a flock of Sussex Sheep.
Assembled by the Skylands Tea Party, and brought to the Lafayette firehouse by their leader, newly elected Sussex County Republican Committee chairman Blue Falcon Joe Labarbera and their lone representative in government, Cowboy Billy Hayden.
Take a look at the propaganda they posted on the walls:
“Fake news is the enemy”
“Trump, our rightful president”
“Trump won, Biden lost, 2000 mules proof” (whatever that last part means)
“USA are my pronouns”
“Get off ur knees and resist”
You want to talk about indoctrination?
Look at the audience. Most of them look like they were diverted from bingo night, and the others are probably Friends of Bill H–not too dissimilar from Friends of Bill W (look it up).
And to put a sour cherry on the proceedings, the guest speaker was that right-wing radio clown from NJ 101.5, Bill Spadea–New Jersey’s version of Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity. This knucklehead is actually considering a run for governor in 2005–completely ignoring the fact that, outside of his radio disciples, no one knows who he is and fewer people could care. Spadea’s extremism might play in a few conservative areas, but I can assure you he’d be run out of town if he spoke in Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Passaic, Mercer and Camden counties, and probably a few more.
And let’s be real–Sussex is already heavily Republican, but many are more mainstream GOP. Bringing a hate speech specialist like Spadea up north isn’t going to win them any extra votes. Now, I don’t know what the topics discussed at the Tea Bagger soirée were, but given Labarbera and Hayden’s recent actions, I’m sure they weren’t there to promote the Space/Fantasia/Inganamort ticket for Senate and Assembly. Unless the Farming Fraud and Buffalo Bullshit are confirming their hypocrisy, so anything is possible, right?
From this perspective, it seems as though the Skylands Tea Party is trying to stay relevant. That effort will be as successful as any of Nick D’Agostino’s recent campaigns.
“NoMoreMarxistsInDC” is a bigoted coward who doesn’t have the balls to identify him/herself. Why should this troll have any credibility?
Thanks Michael Schnackenberg for setting the bigots right. Sussex County is a political disaster