I am concerned that billionaires want to pick our president.
They are shopping for a candidate and buying newspapers as well. Billionaire Donald Trump got so mad at Union Leader Publisher Joe McQuaid that he called him Chris Christie’s “puppet.”
He’s wrong: They’re both puppets.
I decided to research Christie, in part because of the Union Leader endorsement and front page editorial bashing of Donald Trump. McQuaid had to know that Trump would respond to such a strong piece on his front page, which was published the Monday morning right after a three-day weekend celebrating Christmas. McQuaid made the claim he was expecting Trump’s wrath much sooner after endorsing Christie. I’m not buying that. I believe if you follow the money, the answer will likely present itself.
McQuaid and Trump had quite a dust-up after the Union Leader hit piece. Trump doesn’t play nice after he feels used and betrayed. Clearly McQuaid’s interest in Trump was misunderstood, and vice versa. Stranger to me still is the man that defended McQuaid’s endorsement to the Star Ledger, on Nov. 30 2015, in this story by Tom Moran.
How could Christie be the best choice – unless he’s for sale to billionaires, like Sheldon Adelson, the Koch boys and The Donald. If McQuaid’s endorsement is for reasons other than money, then why didn’t McQuaid talk to the “Star Ledger” himself instead of editorial page editor Grant Bosse?
Who is Bosse? On September 16, 2015 Media Matters for America posted the following: “The Union Leader just hired a disciple of the Koch brothers to run its editorial page:” Grant Bosse. I’m sure that the Koch brothers do many good things for people but, the fact remains they are billionaires driving policy and buying candidates. Bosse’s defense of McQuaid’s endorsement was adequate at best. There are some serious holes in Christie’s resume that were ignored by the UL when “vetting” Christie.
Newark’s newspaper The Star Ledger has the largest circulation in New Jersey. They know much more about Christie than anybody in New Hampshire could ever want to know. I’ve looked at so many articles, videos and magazine pieces about scandals swirling around Christie, my head hurts. This stuff is mind-boggling and it seems like every article has links to people and things involving more scandals. At first it was like going down the rabbit hole in “Alice in Wonderland,” but after so many discouraging stories, I felt like I’d been sucked into a rabbit underworld.
Christie has met with Sheldon Adelson of Nevada, who runs Las Vegas Sands, America’s largest casino company. Adelson was also shopping for a presidential candidate with his billions. Christie is popular with the super rich for various reasons. As governor of Jersey he’s in favor of expanding casino gambling across the state. Adelson as a casino owner in Nevada would benefit greatly if Christie gets what he wants. Strangely enough, Adelson recently bought a large paper in Nevada, the Las Vegas Review-Journal, if not the largest in his state.
Sheldon Adelson’s identity was kept secret for some time after the paper was bought. Kind of silly to think you could keep a secret like that for very long with so many investigative journalists involved. Why was that ever a closely guarded secret?
Nevada is an early primary state, like New Hampshire. They have tried to close in on New Hampshire’s FITN primary status in the past. Maybe that would make the endorsement of their largest paper more valuable than ours. None the less, there is still one more billionaire family that would certainly like Christie’s help.
The Sackler family, aka “The Oxycontin Clan,” was listed in Forbes magazine as the 16th richest family in America. Recently their family’s wealth has surpassed the Rockefellers, Mellons, and Buschs.
How did the Sacklers earn so much money? They own the Purdue Pharmaceutical company. Their company owns the patents on Oxycontin and all the newer reformulated oxy drugs. These drugs known as opioids – and Purdue in particular – have been credited with creating the “heroin epidemic” our state is desperately trying to survive. Purdue already paid out well over $600 million dollars in a settlement with Virginia several years ago, and agreed to settled a similar suit with Kentucky for $24 million in December. I think that case began in 2007 and Kentucky was seeking $1 billion, claiming that Purdue misrepresented its prescription painkiller leading to a wave of addiction and increased medical costs for the state to bear. Purdue admitted no wrongdoing and settled for a fraction of the original amount. So much for speedy trials, or justice.
So, how could Christie help this billionaire family? He already does.
New Jersey’s official website advertises that they are “The Medicine Chest of the World” as 26 of the 28 largest pharmaceutical companies in the world have their headquarters or research facilities in Jersey. On their website they claim to produce scientists and other researchers that Big Pharma can get fresh out of Princeton University and many other fine NJ universities and colleges. Christie has created incentives to get these companies and bring in more of them to expand the leading industry in his state Bio/Pharma/ Medical devices. Purdue has already settled lawsuit brought against them for misleading the medical community, bad research and overly-aggressive sales tactics. Where is this research center that Purdue was sued for? In New Jersey, of course.
Money needs to be monitored very closely, especially in a presidential race. As a Republican governor and Vice Chairman of the Republican Governors Association, and later Chairman of the RGA, Christie was active in a group awash in cash from all types of industries, especially Big Pharma, and Exxon Mobil – by the way, Christie settled what was originally an $8.9 billion lawsuit with Exxon Mobil, after Exxon destroyed 1,500 acres with all types of pollutants. Christie got $225 million dollars after Jersey battled this company for a decade. He settled up for about 2.5 percent of the lawsuit and used millions of the money that should have been spent for clean-up to balance his budget. He passed a law a year earlier that allowed money from lawsuits above $50 million dollars to be used in the general fund.
The things I’ve cited here are only the tip of the iceberg. It’s all out there, if you do a little digging. Campaign finance reform is needed now more than ever. Billionaires will continue to destroy America in their efforts to increase profits.
Jim Robidoux works in manufacturing and is a father of four grown children. He lives in Manchester with his wife, who also happens to be Manchester Ink Link editor Carol Robidoux.
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