Readers’ Column for the week of December 15, 2019

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. 

Black Friday bowling went very well at Owego Bowl. The kids ate 14 pizzas, 40 pitchers of soda and bowled 270 games, 151 bowlers showed up plus the parents. It was a good day at the Owego Bowl, sponsored by Owego VFW and Owego Bowl. 

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I’m 90 years old and I’ve had two ambulances here and I asked the town of Newark Valley, please could you just put down some cinders at the end of the driveway, it’s nothing but ice. They said we don’t do that. I said I’m willing to pay for it, please help me but they wouldn’t do it. I just want you taxpayers to know we don’t get any satisfaction from the town of Newark Valley. This is real bad!

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This is in regards to the swastika on the home in Owego. I totally understand freedom of speech and whatever, but my concern is, if that door on the second floor doesn’t seem to have a stairway coming down, that seems to be in violation of local code. Why is that allowed to be continued? I would like to know and I think the code officer in the village of Owego should step in and demand a stairway be put in.

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The New York State public schools graduating class of 2019 has added to the electorate, those who experienced Common Core. Classmates, schoolmates, various personnel, and family and community members have shared the experiences. Are those, who received the privilege and responsibility of voting, willing to share those experiences with others? Shared experiences are one avenue of arriving at constructive decisions. Participate in Government (P.I.G.), identify and contact those elected members of government who are responsible (217, Governor, Lt. Governor, Comptroller, Attorney General, 163 Assembly and 50 Senators). Utilize our intellectual strength. Develop communication skills. Prepare for 2020 elections. Make your choices based on information acquired courteously and respectfully. 

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In 1968 I got off the airplane at the Ithaca airport after being flown out of the army and coming back from my tour that just finished. I was wearing my uniform as I got off the plane and guess what, there were Cornell students that were having a protest, calling me a baby killer. Well, here it is all these years later and you’ve got a New York State Governor that’s probably put there by Cornell and its electoral college and, what does he do? Full term abortions! This guy here is killing babies and should be in prison.

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No more gifts to charity or drops of change in the red kettle due to the over billing or stealing by the Owego sewage department. From now on when I get calls from the Heart Association and the Cancer people and all that, I will be referring them to the Owego sewer department, 687-2282, maybe they can spare some of the cash. 

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I would like to thank Cheryl Jordan for her help with contributions to the food bank. Your love and help in our community is very much appreciated. You are truly a Godly person. Good bless you!

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When will the politicians pass strong laws prohibiting people annoying me in my own home with the telephone? I was painting the bathroom and I had to get down from the ladder four times to answer calls with nobody there. Why is this allowed to go on? Pass stringent laws prohibiting telephone annoyances! 

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Attention business people. If you have a storefront where customers walk into your business to avail themselves of your product, you need to accept mail there. Some of you don’t even have mailing addresses on your website or Facebook page. What’s with that?

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I think the person complaining about the flag sketch has demonstrated the point of the sketch.

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Beware Owego residents. There are porch pirates stealing packages from porches. I was very disappointed to have Christmas gifts for my grandchildren taken from our porch on the weekend after Thanksgiving. I have heard of other instances as well. It is so sad this is happening in our community.

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So you’re sitting in the car at the car wash and the disembodied voice at the kiosk keeps saying, “The wash is busy.” No kidding, voice. Maybe that’s why the door is closed and a car is visible inside.

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A caller advises OACSD teachers teach to the tests. If so, then they are doing a better job at it. Always increasing property taxes and rampantly increasing teacher salaries accomplished only damage to students and the community between 2006 and 2016. The OACSD Board of Education should freeze compensation growth until such time as it comes in line with prevailing norms, both relative to teachers and community. The BOE deliberately tied their hands by entering into a four-year union contract. This was done without the slightest consideration of how it would balance funding with the adverse effects on students and taxpayers. This coming year, 2020-2021, the NYS Teachers Retirement System unilaterally increased their bite out of the budget, despite an unprecedented 35 percent increase in the stock market since November of 2016. NYSTRS have a unilateral first right to take whatever they deem in their interests out of the District’s budget, to fund their NYS tax exempt pension. For most teachers their pension contribution is $0. We have seen it is the children who pay for this. Further, excessive increases in the NYSTRS pension budget bit are excluded from the property tax cap formula. Great security for them. Priorities are pensions first, children’s needs, and taxpayers are dismissed. Who works for whom?

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To point of last week’s post – “This 23 percent rate hike is simply Cuomo taxing Upstate for New York City (NYC). Let NYC pay in advance for their green energy in their backyard.” If it were only the Cuomo/Corp/Green Loon Cabal, but it is so much more. All legislation and policy, and by default the elected majority of Democrats to both the State Assembly and Senate who have placed uncontrolled powers into the hands of Governor Cuomo. In their role as elected democrats, they know the game and how to play by Cuomo’s rules of how to “grease the wheel,” if not only for their district but for the personal gain. We as a state are currently operating by design and manipulation of Cuomo’s power in the office of Governor. The tell is by the number of graft convictions of people who he has empowered, and the shortfall in the upcoming budget of $10 billion. Our Capital of Albany and State of New York operates and functions more like the period in our history of Tammany Hall and Democrat Mayor William “Boss” Tweed. Said of him of his time in office, “In depictions of Tweed and the Tammany Hall organization, historians have emphasized the thievery and conspiratorial nature of Boss Tweed, along with lining his own pockets and those of his friends and allies. The theme is that the sins of corruption so violated American standards of political rectitude that they far overshadow any of Tweed’s positive contributions to New York City.” Pretty much sums up what Tweed did to New York City in the late 1800’s is what Cuomo is perpetrating on all of New York State during his time in office.

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I agree about the waste of money being put into the Broome County airport that was posted last week. Also, I’m about sick and tired of the increases with Spectrum. Any ideas? An over the air antenna will not work in the area where I’m located.

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As with failing teachers, a caller(s) advises others (conservatives in this case) are of addle-brain. Sir/Mam, congratulations for making NYS K-12 education so much less than what it could and should be. While nationally having the highest paid teachers, it is the most expensive and ineffective. Instead of pointing out the intellectual inferiority of others, please apply your superior intellect to the benefit of our children. See teacher union Boss Weingarten’s 20 July 2017 screed at https://www.aft.org/press-release/aft-president-randi-weingarten-frames-david-vs-goliath-battle-resist. Bosses Cuomo and Blasio have turned back the clock. Eight years ago, Boss Cuomo called for emptying the rubber rooms (teachers not allowed around children) and firing incompetent teachers; then the city’s Mayor, Bloomberg, was expanding charter schools and choice; at Bloomberg’s behest, NYC School Chancellor Joel Klein called out the teachers’ union. Chancellor Klein identified the union as “morally corrupt” for their indifference to children and called out the Teachers Union business model as articulated by Union Boss Al Shanker, “When school children start paying union dues, that’s when I’ll start representing the interests of school children.” In countries with the world’s best education, the priority is education and not more money. Those schools and unions work to mutual good rather than to mutually exclusive objectives. Bosses Cuomo and de Blasio work to union money. Cuomo eliminated accountability and Blasio is eliminating charter schools. Remember, it’s for the children.

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Thank you Governor Cuomo and the Albany Cabal for coming up with yet another reason for hard working folks to flee the state; not to mention chasing away tourists, at least in upstate. It is they who recently voted to allow vendors to charge customers for using their credit cards to make a purchase! Who is going to be left to pay for all the bloated give aways and programs for career welfare folks who are heading here in droves to feed off the sweat of the few of us delusional working Joes and Josephine’s remaining in this state? Keep it up – We will also finally get to the breaking point and leave. Shooting yourselves in the foot, you dolts.

National Political Viewpoints

Go democrats! They have a lot of spirit. I see Joe Biden wasn’t going to take any crap from that voter falsely accusing him of this and that. Yep, he went after him; and Nancy Pelosi didn’t take any crap from that reporter either, accusing her of hating Trump. Yep, you’ve got to vote democrat; you’ve got to. 

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I am an American first, a democrat second, I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. You know, Star Spangled Banner. Unlike you republicans, apparently pledging your allegiance to the hammer and sickle emblem. Vote democrat, save our country! You want dictatorship? Vote for that clown, you’ll pay for it.

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The common people Obama’s are negotiating for another mansion. This one is for $14.85 million on Martha’s Vineyard, shades of the Kennedy’s. Such a deal! I guess it pays to be a Marxist professor and president too.

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For the Marxist democrat talking heads, here are the facts. President Trump’s policies have created trillions of dollars in wealth, 2.5 million people have been raised out of poverty, seven million jobs have been created since 2016, 3.5 percent unemployment is the lowest it’s been in over 50 years. There’s a middle class economic boom beyond imagination. The stock market and your retirement, IRA’s and TDSP’s are up enormously. The average family income is up $5,000 in three years under Trump, which is about eight times better than Obama’s eight miserable years. 

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How ironic, the democrats quoted founding fathers Jackson, Hamilton and the like on the impeachment guidelines. But are these the same founding fathers the democrats say are racists and continue to take their statues down? So which is it?

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It was said during the Obama administration that jobs were at their peak. Then how do you account for the 226,000 jobs created and reported for this past November under President Trump? The market took off the day President Trump was elected and has not come down since. Now if Hillary had been elected it would be at rock bottom, low wages and high unemployment. President Trump knows what he is doing and he does everything right for the American people and we will see him for another four years, and hopefully one of his children will run and then they will be elected as well.

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Republicans are terrified of Trump. If any of them speak up negatively they know he will destroy them politically and vilify their reputations. Democracy or dictatorship?

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Billionaire Trump came into office vowing to cut health insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, and other programs for those who worked most of their adult life to ensure that these programs would be available to those who needed them. Now billionaire Trump, who is still a rich republican, is expecting us deadbeats to bail him out financially while he continues to tear down our constitution. 

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Every person, village, state and country operates for its own interest. The difference is, it will often be resolved. Trump always starts off hard but eventually makes concessions so it benefits both sides. 

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For you fanatical anti gun people, there is a book, probably more, identifying some of the hundred million people who died under communism and dictatorships. One thing they had in common to both, get rid of the guns. Without a gun, you’re at somebody else’s mercy. 

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Here’s your warning people. If Trump is not impeached and thrown out of office, whether you realize it or not, you’ll be throwing away our democracy to a monarchy for a dictatorship. No more checks and balances because there’s no more congress keeping the president in line as our forefathers thought of. Just imagine a country like that. Hey, why should I pay my taxes, why not cheat on them, Trump does? Serving your country, why join the military? That’s a joke. Trump didn’t. As far as obeying laws, come on, Trump doesn’t do that either. 

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I am very worried Trump will pardon himself with all of his many wrong doings. Also, it cost 100 million of American taxpayer dollars for Trump to play golf last year. Can you imagine the huge uproar if Obama did that? Trump is a nightmare!

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The biggest threat to our constitutional representative government is the brain dead Marxist democrat party, not the Chinese, Russians, Ukrainians, or any other country. We can only be defeated from within. Anyone who is self-aware knows this. The decision to confront these dimwit democrats will be crucial in the 2020 election. All patriots must unite. Go Trump!

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Nancy Pelosi says she hates nobody and never uses the word, but then says she leads a democratic party who will allow a new mother to allow whether her newborn should live or die. Now explain that one please. I’d like to ask her that question if I ever saw her, but somehow I know she’ll get angry and walk away and deny everything and not answer my question. That’s a democratic politician for you. 

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In view of the Pensacola shooting, how many more foreigners do you want to let into this country? Vote republican and build the wall. Protect America! 

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The other day my daughter asked me, “What’s the difference between a republican and a democrat.” I said one honors the constitution and the other one doesn’t. Guess which one is which.

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For the life of me I will never understand how anyone could vote for these delusional democrats. 

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Will someone please explicitly explain to me what Russian tampering in the 2016 election exactly means? What did they do? Did they stuff the ballot box; did they somehow remove votes? What exactly did they do and how did they do it? Please someone; fill me in!

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The republican senators cannot possibly defend Trump. They can’t even dispute the fact that he’s a criminal. The republicans suffer; they’re tribal. At least the democrats are truthful. The republican senators and the U.S. Congress today suffer from truth decay. Vote democrat. Aren’t you tired of these republicans screwing you?

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I sure am enjoying this democratic circus. They just keep throwing one thing after another into the impeachment ring and nothing is working and people are leaving in droves. The polls show Trump beating all candidates by double digits. This is just so funny. I really enjoy just watching it, I really do. This impeachment is nothing but a joke and it’s only being brought up because the democrats realize they have nobody, no way, no how, are they going to defeat Donald Trump in 2020, just like they had no way of defeating him in 2016. 

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Don’t you love it when Trump holds his so called conferences on the White House lawn muffled by the noise of the helicopter? He really doesn’t want some of his dumb words heard. Who is he kidding? Also, I heard no one wants to hang Trump’s picture in the embassy. They don’t hang pictures of clowns there.

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Of all the talk about President Trump’s impeachment, the only thing that President Trump is guilty of is getting elected by the people. That is the only thing that has changed our history. He was elected by the people, for the people; and because he did he’s considered to be guilty.

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Now I know who the deplorables are. At Trump’s rallies they cheer, laugh and applaud Trump’s rudeness, his crudeness, his lies, his vulgarities towards other living human beings. What do children think of adult deplorables acting in this manner? There is no more respect because of Trump and that is no way for the President of the United States of America to act. Perhaps it’s a mental problem, though. 

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I think they should make a requirement that when a republican goes to vote they should have to pass a drug test first, because they’ve got to be on drugs or just plain crazy to keep supporting this character in the White House. He’s been charged with numerous rapes, fraud, embezzlement and theft, and he even stole $2 million from his own charity! And you people keep supporting him and now he’s going to be impeached for abuse of power, obstructing justice? Where does it end? This guy is the biggest criminal in history and you people still think he’s okay and deserves to be president? Come on, you guys are living in a dream world; this guy deserves to be in prison! That’s where he deserves to be. 

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Talk about whiners and babies, which would be the Democratic Party! If they cannot impeach President Trump they’re not going to beat him in 2020. That’s the whole premise for this dead end impeachment. It’s going nowhere. They are the whiners, no one else. It’s like they’ll take their toys and go home because they’re all in deep trouble when all these reports start surfacing, as it’s starting now, and it’s only going to get better for us republicans. They are all shaking in their boots and I love watching it! It’s the best comedy I’ve ever seen and I don’t have to pay a big price to go and sit in the audience and listen to it. It’s a joke!

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Now isn’t that interesting, some of the fake news media is now admitting that the I.G. report surely shows mistakes made by the FBI. All this time they were leading the American people that were watching the fake news, I’m not one of them, but they were telling the people watching their programs that there were no mistakes, this was a given, President Trump was guilty. Well, isn’t that interesting? Something I’ve been saying all along. Fake news, the media, CNN, you cannot watch any of those fake news stations. Don’t waste your time watching them.

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I just read the tweet from Mr. Trump attacking Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old who spoke about climate change. She has Asperger’s and Time magazine named her the most honored person of the year. He tweeted her a message about chilling out and go see a movie. He believed he should have been on the magazine. How childish of a supposed adult and worse yet, the president of the United States. He belongs in a sand box.

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“The lasting consequences of Trump’s leniency and advocacy of war crimes is not yet entirely clear, and though they were the focus of my direst public warning about his presidency, they may not even be among the most horrifying part of his tenure. Trump’s neglect of Puerto Rico during Hurricane Maria, his abusive treatment of migrants, and his empowerment of foreign dictators — to name just three examples — may arguably be worse. But pushing for the acceptability of war crimes in the United States, and lining up an American political party in defense of these actions, is a perilous precedent to set that can’t be undone. It’s impossible to know where it might lead.” “My darkest nightmare about Trump from 2016 is coming true. It’s worse than I feared.” — Cody Fenwick. December 2, 2019

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“The modern-day Pentagon Papers.” That’s how people are describing a confidential trove of documents obtained by The Washington Post revealing how senior U.S. officials have lied throughout the 18-year war in Afghanistan, the longest war in U.S. history. The first installation of the explosive report, published Monday, is titled “At war with the truth.” It documents how U.S. officials repeatedly lied about the war’s progress while hiding evidence the war had become unwinnable. It also shows how three successive presidencies — President George W. Bush, President Obama, and President Trump have bungled the war in Afghanistan, despite deploying 775,000 U.S. troops since 2001. More than 2,000 U.S. soldiers have died in Afghanistan, and 20,000 have been wounded. Report from Democracy Now!

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Our President just announced blowout economic numbers. Poor and middle-income are having real earnings growth. Does it matter if the rich might be getting richer? They pay more taxes. Only for green-eyed and covetous does it matter. None in the democratic presidential clown parade, including the zillionaires, has ever written a check to the IRS for more than their minimum tax, or their “Fair Share”. Many times, Trump’s monthly economic data is revised up or down based on later data. It changes, but not by much and is likely to be as much up as down. Under Obama’s scam, monthly economic metrics were later almost exclusively adjusted downward and his staff and media reported metrics were false. Mexico is paying for the Wall. Are you smart enough to figure out the face-saving means by which this was done? In 1971 Bernie joined the Myrtle Hill commune in Vermont. Bernie refused to work and encouraged others to be slackers. Within a year he was kicked out. He has been a professional politician since. The Myrtle Hill commune was later busted for commercially growing and selling of pot. Parasite defined – a person who habitually relies on or exploits others and gives nothing in return. Hence, rights to free stuff and no obligations to self and others. MAGA

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I am so depressed that so many democrats are gullible. Of course this impeachment waste of time is 100 percent about politics! Hillary was the chosen one in 2016; it was “her turn” to make up for her disgraceful husband having to go through the impeachment process. Oh golly! She didn’t win! Just because: she was up to no good in Arkansas; she was a carpet bagging senator in New York State solely to further her political ambitions; she couldn’t keep track of her husband during White House years while he was a sexual predator right under her nose, and with her young daughter present; she managed to get our people slaughtered in Benghazi. Now we need to make it up to Uncle Joe and Bernie, who were squashed in 2016, before they become (even more) dried up, blithering mummies. You should all be disgusted with the game playing – isn’t there someone in your party with a lick of sense that truly has the best interest of our people and future of our country at heart over their own selfishness? It appears not. 

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I watched part of the impeachment hearing this morning and I’m wondering why when republicans speak they’re so loud, as if to scream when talking. And Mr. Trump is always loud too. Do they think we cannot hear the lies?