The New Jersey Green Party thought they had a celebrity champion in author Chris Hedges, who ended up bailing today on his CD-12 campaign.
Well, it was fun while it lasted (a little over 24 hours).
And, just as Bogart sort of said in Casablanca, “We’ll always have War is a Force that Gives us Meaning.”
Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small officially kicked off his July 7th reelection campaign today:
Minneapolis looks like a war zone, says a friend of InsiderNJ on the ground in that midwestern city torn apartin the aftermath of the police killing of George Floyd.
“People openly looting target and other stores in broad daylight with no police intervention. They were carrying shopping carts out. Police station is down the street. Buildings charred, all store windows broken, anti cop graffiti everywhere.”
What are you doing to keep an edge in COVID-19 quarantine?
Assemblywoman Britnee Timberlake (D-36) of East Orange pounds on a heavybag.
She took up kickboxing when she became freeholder president in Essex County.
On a Zoom conference this evening with her legislative collegaues and others, she avidly demonstrated her punching prowess: lefts and rights thrown with conviction.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) on Thursday activated the state’s National Guard to respond to the upheaval over the death of 46-year-old George Floyd in police custody, as federal and local officials said they continue to investigate, according to the Washington Post.
The crisis bears more than a passing resemblance to Governor Richard Hughes’ deployment of the National Guard to Newark in 1967, in the aftermath of stuggles following the police beating of cab driver John William Smith.
New Jersey native Jerry Lewis had a son who formed a band called Gary and the Playboys, which really wasn’t much, and lent credence to the idea that the sons of entertainers should stay out of the business of their elder masters.
That evidently didn’t happen with Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, son of the late poet Amiri Baraka, whose best stuff (not the post-911 period) is damned good.
The son’s stuff is pretty damned good too.
Mayor Baraka’s got a new bunch of poems coming out backed by jazz.
In the meantime, at the end of his COVID-19 press briefing today, the mayor recited some of his verses from a lyric he wrote for a song called “Keep the Faith.”
Here’s a sampling:
“Making the dark stone the cornerstone…painted the color of the ocean floor… we held prophets in her bosom… strangled each other on social media… making them believe the back door they’re building for thmselves is only for themselves…
“We made it here by faith…
“We made something from nothing and turned the bottom into the foundation so when we moved the whole place shook.
“We made it here by faith, yeah, we made it here by faith.
“Our ancestors’ hands held up the sky so we could stand tall, dance across time and be beautiful deliberately…”
It’s probably a safe bet that Newark Mayor Ras Baraka is the only politician in New Jersey who films himself in front of a bookcase that contains a prominently displayed copy of a Fidel Castro biography.
Most would likely choose Abraham Lincoln (Jack Ciattarelli’s favorite president), although New Jersey didn’t like Lincoln when he led the country, and even recruited his nemesis George McClellan to run for governor.
If you’re Jay Webber, you don’t make a public address unless you have a portrait of Ronald Reagan in the background, and if you’re Phil Murphy, you make sure to dust off Arthur Schlesinger’s bio on Bobby Kennedy to feature in the background.
But Baraka doesn’t mind fronting the Fidel association.
10:46 a.m.: Wednesday, March 27th: Hedges announces. He’s in. CD-12. Green Party.
11:46 a.m.: It still hasn’t processed. Again, it’s New Jersey. Politics is static here. There is no reason to overract to the same four fat bald guys fighting for the same three seats.
12:46 p.m.: Same. Snow on the TV screen.
1:46 p.m.: Wait a minute. Chris Hedges. You mean the author?? The guy who wrote War is a Force that Gives us Meaning?
2:46 p.m.: No. Couldn’t be the same guy. Not “Hedges”, you’re thinking of Henry Hill, the guy who wrote Goodfellas. And no, he’s not running for Congress. He’s dead.
3:47 p.m.: Hedges does live in Princeton, though, which is in the 12th District.
4:47 p.m.: Not the same guy. And anyway, war no longer gives us meaning the way it did even as recently as 18 years ago. We thought we hated those guys – our grandfathers and uncles and dads who wore the uniform – then we got Donald Trump, who wimped out of Vietnam, and realized maybe they all weren’t so bad after all. Nothing to see here.
5:47 p.m.: Hedges actually wrote deep stuff, dude. A real author. That book is legendary, man.
6:15 p.m.: No one reads anymore. His profession irrelevant, even a hindrance. How would he communicate?
6:47 p.m.: It is Hedges. It’s actually him, and he’s actually running.
6:48 p.m.: This is BIG news, man. We’ve never had an intellectual run for Congress in this state. We’ve had relgious people and would-be philosphers and dime store economists. But no intellectual heavyweights. Is this really New Jersey?
6:49 p.m.: I can’t believe this. CHRIS HEDGES IS RUNNING FOR CONGRESS. IN NEW JERSEY!!!
6:50 p.m.: This is going to be the best election cycle ever. We’re actually going to be able to talk about issues and not write about people’s tweets.
6:51 p.m.: Does Hedges even tweet??
7:00 p.m.: This is…the…best…day…ever….
4:23 p.m., Thursday, May 28th. Hedges aborts his “quixotic” congressional campaign.
4:23 p.m.: Thanks for the memories, Chris. “You really are a funny guy.”
“Quixotic.”
You don’t hear that kind of language in the two party duopoly that primarily prioritizes machine structuring to stifle language sooner than enlarge its impact.
But author Chris Hedges chose precisely that Cervantes-inspired adjective to describe the effort he pulled the plug on moments ago, a day after he sent the hearts of quasi intellectuals aflutter with the notion of a heavyweight suddenly on New Jersey’s political landscape.
It’s over.
But even if it was just a day in duration, it was fun to think of someone who doesn’t tweet for a living running for office.
War is still a Force that Gives us Meaning, but Chris Hedges won’t run for Congress after all, his day old campaign already consigned to sound and fury.
This just in:
