Readers’ Column for the week of Dec. 18, 2016

You may call the Owego Pennysaver Readers’ Column at (607) 687-2378 24-hours a day, or e-mail comments to readerscolumn@stny.rr.com. We reserve the right to revise or reject any message.

How angry must Hillary supporters be that they’re still talking about the signs in Candor? Those signs have been down for over a month. I for one enjoyed them. They made me laugh every day on my way to work and again on my way home. Lighten up.

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I’ve never seen anything in this column about the people with the signs in Candor calling the police on the protestors. I’ve only read that someone called because of a vehicle accident that the protestors caused. I don’t understand why anyone would have a problem with people calling to report an accident.

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I want to let the young couple that purchased a tree from the Owego Lions Club and graciously donated money for a tree for a deserving family know that the family received their tree. I wish I knew this young couple’s name, but I do know that they were driving a white pickup truck and I’m hoping they see this. I told them I would definitely pay it forward, so we got the family all the things needed to set up their tree. Merry Christmas!

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The Bread of Life Food Pantry would like to give a great big thank you to the Candor Elementary School for the 1,032 pounds of food that was donated at their annual food parade. The theme this year was “do an act of kindness”. This has been an annual event for them for the past 20 years. 

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What happened to the lights at North Avenue? Cross street traffic can wait an excessively long time to access Mountain Road and Erie Street, even when there is no traffic going into or out of the village.

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Has anyone who is not a billionaire got a say in how our country is run? Our country is no longer a democracy. It is now is a multinational corporation. Moscow branch office opening soon, Vladimir Putin – director.

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Interesting to watch the Liberals in turmoil over the election. We had eight years of depression, frustration, and anger as we watched our country being purposefully destroyed by the Liberal Marxist in the White House. Things, for the most part, were calm, and for the most part, life went on as usual while we were totally ignored. Let Donald Trump take it from Hillary, who thought she was in for a coronation, and there’s Hell to pay. Why? Those the most upset were perfectly content to see the incompetent, inept, inexperienced occupant of the White House all but destroy this country. Now that we can undo the nonsense visited on this country, “Like It Never Even Happened,” they’re in agony. It’s the fault of the Russians; it’s voter fraud, anything but what it was. The Democrats fielded candidates who were unlikeable with a platform no one wanted. Simple. Hey, they lost, get over it and get in line and be a good citizen, like we did for eight long years!

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The state is sending the University 2.8 MILLION dollars to try to improve the lithium battery. That is ridiculous! That money should come from all the rich corporations who have phones that catch fire and blow up and the automobiles that catch fire and cause all kinds of accidents and damage and problems from all the other high tech inventions that call for these very dangerous batteries. Those bucks should come from the big corporations’ research and development dollars, not from the pockets of the residents of New York State.

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“Understandably, there has been plenty of coverage of the racists and white supremacists empowered by Trump’s victory. But, gruesome as they are, they’re peripheral to the policies his team will develop. It’s almost comforting, though, to focus on them, for at least we know who they are and what they stand for. By contrast, to penetrate the corporate misinformation machine is to enter a world of mirrors. Spend too long trying to understand it, and the hypo reality vortex will inflict serious damage on your state of mind. As usual, the left and centre (myself included) are beating ourselves up about where we went wrong. There are plenty of answers, but one of them is that we have simply been outspent. Not by a little, but by orders of magnitude. A few billion dollars spent on persuasion buys you all the politics you want. Genuine campaigners, working in their free time, simply cannot match a professional network staffed by thousands of well-paid, unscrupulous people.” “Frightened by Donald Trump? You don’t know the half of it.” — George Monbiot

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I wonder if those who prepare the budgets in all the counties and small cities in New York State realize where at least part of the major problem lies? That is with OUR representatives giving away the farm to the IDA in allowing real estate tax LULU’s for anywhere up to 25 years; and the immediate current year’s losses because these people with lots of money to buy land and build big buildings but do not have to pay sales tax on the materials; a gift from IDA. If you build even a chicken coop, you pay sales tax on materials. They don’t! So, if the governing area has a shortfall you and I make up the difference.

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Posted last week in error was the statement: “The newly appointed chair to the Democratic National Committee, Keith Ellison (far, far left), the Democratic Party has all but conceded they are no longer a national party in our country and are mainly representing mainly three states: California, New York (let’s just say New York City, Albany and Buffalo here) and Massachusetts.” Correcting this, Ellison has not yet been appointed, but still remains as the only one in the running for the Democratic National Committee and has Pelosi’s personal endorsement. You get the intent of where this is going based on her reelection by her party members to the Congressional Minority Leader. The closing statement however still stands. “For the Democrats, and based on their failure to recognize any effort to correct themselves, we as Republicans should rejoice as they continue on the path as a ‘party of Not-For-Americans,’ and as the recent election so rightly attests.” After the fact of that pronouncement, this past week Allen Dershowitz, Harvard Law professor and a subscribed Democrat and Public Commenter was quoted to say, “If I were a Republican strategist and I were given the choice to pick the head of the Democratic National Committee, I’d say pick [Congressman Keith] Ellison! He would be great for the Republicans, and he’s going to be great for the Republicans. A major contributor to the Democratic Party has said, essentially, don’t count on me anymore.” Rejoice all ye Republicans, Rejoice! Republicans will lead for quite some time until they have a new third party who has a moderate left agenda for America rather than their current global far left of left. It might take several terms as they have no building blocks in place in the majority of the state governments and no incentive to change architects and do the hard work to build one.

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Village of Owego trustee elections are coming up and I have not heard much about dissolving the Owego Police Department or the $750,000 grant that was to dissolve OPD. Has anyone heard anything?

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WARNING! I’m writing this as a letter of warning to all the kind hearted and hard working people out there who often share their generosity with others; especially this time of year, with the holidays drawing near. Last December a friend and I were walking out of a grocery store in Owego one evening when a young man came up to us asking for money. He was well dressed, clean and polite. He told us a sad story of how his pregnant wife needed to get to a hospital in Pennsylvania to be with her mother who was having surgery and that their car had broken down and no garages were open at night. He told us that they needed to get something to eat and a place to stay for the night. He even made the Catholic sign of the cross and swore to us that he was being honest. As my friend was about to reach for his wallet I stopped him and said to the young man, I’m sorry but we have just spent the last few dollars we had in the store. I told my friend to get in the car and drive to a distant parking space and watch them. As we watched the young man tried his sad story on a few other shoppers before leaving. He went directly to a car that had another man driving it and a woman in the back seat. The car appeared to be running fine and the three of them were joyful and having a good laugh as they drove away towards Binghamton. The lesson of this story? Definitely be generous and share your good fortune with others if you can. BUT PLEASE BEWARE OF SCAMMERS! A great reply to someone like the young man who approached us would have been to take out my cell as I dialed 911 and say, “Let me contact the State Police for you, they have wonderful resources and can get you in touch with all the help you are asking for!” See how fast they disappear when offered true assistance. I wish I had thought of it at the time. Shame on me for not getting a license plate number. I could have turned them in. Happy and Safe Holidays to all.

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“I am never going to be the same. Focusing on the light, the love in that camp, the willingness of the people to be there in the first place, and their steadfast adherence to the principles of peace and inclusion, I find solace. Still, the question stands out in bold relief: how can I help my friends?” — John Sheldon, guitarist and songwriter from his experience at Standing Rock.

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A quote from Gen. “Mad Dog” Mattis, Trump’s designated Secretary of Defense: “You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn’t wear a veil. You know, guys like that ain’t got no manhood left anyway. So it’s a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them. Actually it’s quite fun to fight them, you know. It’s a hell of a hoot. It’s fun to shoot some people. I’ll be right up there with you. I like brawling.”

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Wow! 50,000 illegals par day are crossing the border from Mexico. That’s a rate of over 18,000,000 per year. Betcha it’s not true.

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So some Trump fans are complaining that the Democrats are planning on hindering Trump. Gee, they thought hindering was okay when the Republicans were hindering Obama. Why the change of heart?

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Republican hero Ronald Reagan stated, “Trust, but verify”. Why do so many of his followers overlook the verify part before passing on rumors?

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It looks like Trustee Hartman and the current Village of Owego Board want to change the trustee term of office from two to four years. Perhaps they can adjust the antiquated ward system so that all village residents get equal representation. Ward One has more residents than Wards Two and Three combined, but Ward One only has two trustees. I suggest that Wards Two and Three be merged and have two trustees and two from Ward One for a total of four trustees. 

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I knitted 41 scarves for the needy and took them to the Rural Ministry in Owego in October. They were very pleased to get them and will distribute them to those in need. This might be an avenue that the Apalachin Library would like to pursue in the future for their knitting and crocheting groups.

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Now that winter has set in I know that some of you will be thinking about the near zero weather we will be getting. Al Gore and his pseudo environmentalists recently announced to Donald Trump the cold weather is actually caused by global warming and specifically by the hydrogen sulfide emitted by cattle all over the world. Gore, who has made over $100 million on carbon credits announced on the AIB network a new device based on flatulence accumulation and technology. He will be marketing that device to help liberals all over the world. 

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It makes me laugh – the idiot geniuses calling saying the voting machines can’t be hacked because they’re not connected to the internet. Well how do these geniuses think the vote tallies get reported? Do they think the Pony Express riders take them by hand delivery? They go by internet!

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Seven thirty Friday night, the weather was bad and who was the damn kid playing on the police scanner? Check that one out.

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Just a personal opinion, people that talk too much barely get listened to. 

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As a taxpayer I’m tired of giving money to libraries while they find a reason to be. The hype about libraries closing and oh my God wouldn’t that be awful, is crazy with computer availability in this day and age. Now the libraries are teaching other things? Good Lord, pretty soon they will be teaching how to sing. Stop the nonsense and close them up!

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Illegal President. The next president seems to be an illegal in the best of terms. Look at it; the Russians helped him steal this election. Let’s have it done with just American votes folks.

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Well I hope you all still love Trump considering he’s selling us out to Russia and that’s exactly what he’s doing.

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Another village election cycle is coming up and still nothing has been done on the inequality of the sewer billing system in the Village of Owego. They promised to take care of it to make it more equitable, but they have not done anything yet. I wish they would do what they say they are going to do when they are elected.

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How much money and time would it take for the Village of Owego to correct the time on the clock on North Avenue? The time on that clock has been off for I don’t know how long. It’s an embarrassment to the whole Owego community. 

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If anyone observed a hit and run accident on upper Fifth Avenue in Owego between the Chinese restaurant area and Wendy’s on Saturday night, Dec. 10, please call 687-4349 or call the police department and advise them of what you saw. They wrecked my son’s car and I would like to be able know who did it and have them pay for the damage.

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Donald Trump has picked some strange choices for his cabinet. His lack of experience is showing. He promised people change, but appoints billionaires from Goldman Sachs. How is this change? Many of these people have zero experience.

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The big recount is done and Trump picked up even more votes. Why can’t the Democrats and the Clinton’s family accept the big loss handed to them in November by the American people? It’s time for them to move on to other occupations.

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So now Obama wants a full investigation before he leaves office of the supposed Russian hacking that hurled Mr. Trump to the top. Is this the same hacking we heard about throughout the summer that involved Hillary’s emails? Why wasn’t he concerned with any investigations at that time? And then we were also told that North Korea hacked our systems. I must have missed the outcome of that investigation because I never heard anything about that. 

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Isn’t it wonderful that Mr. Trump’s cabinet picks are mostly people without political experience? What a breath of fresh air! These successful people are just what the country needs, not the status quo of do nothing politicians in it for themselves that have been shoved down our throats for way too long. Now America will start growing and prosper. I can’t wait and will certainly be watching on Jan. 20. The day can’t come soon enough for me.

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Congratulations to the Newark Valley football team on their Class C State Title. As former alumni, we enjoyed watching the team and the cheerleaders in the holiday parade last Saturday. But why wasn’t the high school band leading the parade? The fire truck was great but did somebody forget to ask the band? Why weren’t they there?

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I’m calling in saying what a cruel joke the Obama administration did to the people on disability. They said they gave us a cost of earning raise but our checks didn’t go up any more, in fact we actually lost a dollar or two. I’m glad Trump is coming into office because maybe he’ll do something for the poor people, like give them a raise every year on their Social Security because he understands you cannot survive. You can only eat so much cat food a month.

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In response, Hillary should have told Jill Stein to not pursue the recount. Let’s be honest. Both women wanted the recount and were hoping for a different outcome, and in that demonstrates the lying. I hope you get that now.

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Regarding last week’s column, there are gorgeous trees lit up way out Waits Road in the field on the left. It makes the season for us. We thank the folks for such beauty.

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So, are you reading Donald Trump files? It gets more interesting every day. Now, Rick Perry who has no real education on this business of Trump’s cabinet can’t remember three things that he’s supposed to be getting rid of, like the Department of Education? What the Hell is that all about when Rick Perry can’t remember three things and yet he wants to get rid of a Department of Education? I think he needs a higher class of education before he’s allowed to walk the streets!

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My response to last week’s comment – I am very confident with my Donald Trump vote. He and Ryan will do what should have happened a long time ago and get people back to work. Hopefully there will be fewer freebies handed out. Finally someone gets it. The entitlements must stop and why doesn’t anyone want to work? Can somebody please answer that question for me?

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If the sign language is printable, can someone please tell me what these signs are reading in Candor – as I do not live in Candor? I keep reading about this comment over and over in the Pennysaver. You’ve got my curiosity up, I just can’t imagine what this sign says. If it’s printable, could someone call in and tell me what the sign says? 

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Our beloved and magnanimous new leader Donald Trump is hitting the ground running. We should all support his efforts to make America great again. Many in our area look forward to a Support Trump Rally in the spring. A gigantic Support Trump rally would bring thousands into our area and would be a great benefit to the local economy. Make it happen!

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Putin’s Russian bombers are guilty of the indiscriminate slaughter of thousands of civilians in wartorn Aleppo. Think carefully, this is President Trump’s close friend; a medal-winning chum of his nominee to be Secretary of State. Have these Republicans have no shame whatsoever? 

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Hey there, all you Trump voters and supporters, how much do you think the billionaires that he’s appointed to his presidential cabinet think about you folks? That’s right, they don’t think about you at all. All the billionaires think about is more billions of dollars. They want to make more money. Greed is their common denominator. They don’t care one bit that you’re going to go into bankruptcy when Medicare turns into a voucher system, when Social Security is cut back, when food stamps are ended. Aren’t you glad you guys all voted for Donald Trump? Where are the chumps?

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Breaking news, the big question. Are there already Russian commie spies infiltrating the coming Trump administration? You better believe it! 

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I’d like to thank the Highway Department and the County for doing such a wonderful job these past few storms. People don’t realize what these guys go through to make our roads safe for us. They’re away from their families during the time they give. So let’s give them a break, you pass them on the road pull over, give them room, and don’t crowd them. They have a lot to consider while driving that big truck. At the holiday season give them a wave, thank them for what they do because if it weren’t for them we wouldn’t be getting where we need to go. Thank you again to all the plow truck drivers. You are all awesome!