Readers’ Column for the week of January 19, 2020

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. 

Thank-you to the Catatonk family that put up the beautiful display to Holiday lights! It keeps getting bigger and better each year. Thank-you for all your efforts, it was truly enjoyed by myself and many others.

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Bail is not intended to keep an accused offender in jail. Bail is collateral to ensure that the accused offender will appear in court at a future date. If the offense is serious and the offender is a flight risk, no bail will be set and the offender will remain in jail. All too often unreasonable bail is set and the offender sits in jail for a long period of time until the court realizes that the offender is still there. Remember, the offender has not been convicted of anything. The taxpayer pays the cost of incarceration and it is expensive. The accused offender cannot help himself or people depending on him from jail. Bail is not supposed to be punishment. I believe that reform is needed. Speed the process up. There is no reason that most of these cases go so long before they are settled and most are plea-bargained. The State is on the right track. 

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Whoever borrowed my Bostitch 6-gallon 150-psi max air compressor, model BTFP02012, from my home on Gail Drive between Dec. 30 and Jan. 9, please return it as soon as possible. I need it to pump up my leaky tires. Thank you.

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It is no wonder that many dairy farmers are suicidal. The price of milk keeps going down, and the cost of living keeps skyrocketing. How stupid, a gallon of gas costs more than a gallon of milk. To top it all off, our city slicker politicians passed a law to pay farm workers minimum wage and time and one half over 40 hours a week. They probably think the cows can hold it from Friday until Monday. Please help the farmers or we will all die.

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I am wondering why a business such as Taylor Garbage was able to build in Apalachin and not have some type of fire prevention plan. Like a water tower or pond?

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A new Post Office for Owego is an idea that makes sense for a variety of reasons. It’s way overdue and it’s a worthwhile conversation to start having; where are potential locations for it, what would it look like, how and by what body can input be widely gathered from the community at large?

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Here is quote that gives you lots of confidence when you strap yourself into the seat of an airplane. In an exchange from 2017 about the Max, an employee wrote, “This airplane is designed by clowns, who are in turn supervised by monkeys.”

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It seems odd that officials at Taylor Garbage are allowed to determine the cause of their fire, and do so with such a high degree of certainty. It’s said that it was an accident, but the public is really to blame for not recycling properly. Really? Aren’t there safety protocols for the storage and containment of batteries, knowing that they are a possible fire hazard? Are they just sitting in an open barrel, like at the transfer station on Glenmary Drive? Are they stored in a separate safe area or were they just sitting in an open barrel on some loading dock ready to take out a 30,000 square foot building? Are they just one recycling error away from another fire? There are more questions than answers in Taylor’s explanation.

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The New York State (NYS) Education Department data and statistics for 2018-2019, as always, awards the Owego Apalachin Central School District (OACSD) first prize for waste of the 57 reporting Districts of the Southern Tier East. Tompkins County and Tioga County are polar opposites, economically. Tompkins County is a uniquely booming Upstate economy, while Tioga is depopulating faster than all other 62 NYS counties except one, Lansing School District in Tompkins County is the richest STE District. The NYS Education Department defines OACSD as poor, and Lansing as rich. At first glimpse Lansing would appear to have the highest Southern Tier teacher salaries; however, when OACSD teacher salaries are adjusted for their relative youth and inexperience you are paying 100 percent of the highest salaries in the Southern Tier. OACSD average teacher salaries are the equivalent to $70,100 when compared to Lansing at $68,400. The average Southern Tier teacher salary is $57,600. Imagine if the OACSD Board of Education (BOE) practiced stewardship of public money. In three years, Superintendent Greene has proved excessive salaries and benefits provided no benefits to anyone except for the union. Annually, since 2011, the BOE has been presented with the facts about their financial student and taxpayer abuse. They have uniformly ignored it and never questioned or challenged it. It has only been exacerbated. Go to the Feb. 5 Budget Forum and ask; a) why the BOE wants to raise taxes yet refuses to give the slightest attention to expenditures, b) what is their rational for this wasteful spending, c) how can state funding be so variable as to prevent budget planning when it is determined by formula, and d) has anyone looked at the NYS ED data, let alone used it as a managerial tool? If the BOE can commit to spending on union contracts years in advance without regards to revenues, such is gross negligence. The salary excess applies to additional positions at OACSD. To say State Aid, as determined by formula, is to variable to allow financial planning is to insult your intelligence. To say you can’t try is as addle-headed as saying you couldn’t try to improve shoddy academic performance three years ago. 

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I am calling regarding the statement made by a reader about the public defender’s office being blocked off. Our office is not blocked off. It is the adjacent building that is blocked off. Our office is open.

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You cannot tell me that in a business like Taylor business for garbage, that they do not have insurance to cover their losses and us poor sucker taxpayers are going to put them back in business? That is a crock!

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Hearing talk about the dissolution of the village of Spencer makes me think that people don’t understand what the village is. The settlers of our village realize the village dealt with issues not relevant to the town. The village residents decided to share the cost of services, which they felt were necessary to the health and safety of the area. Homeowner’s associations today are doing much of the same thing. If you move to an area with an association you will pay your share; in the village that is in a form of a tax. The residents have already decided what’s important to them and the proper procedure if you do not agree is to attend meetings and voice your concerns openly, not to force them to spend money for a study for you. 

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I want to ask all the people who decorate their homes for the supposed Christmas season; how many lights were on the Manger? And besides, study the bible and you’ll see there’s nowhere in there to celebrate the birth of Christ. Jesus says to celebrate his death. Don’t take my word for it; search the scriptures.

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I woke up Sunday morning and the power was out. Thank you guys for getting the power back on so quickly. I was told it was going to be like 11 before it was to come back on and it’s 5:30 and already back on. So thank you for taking care of us in Tioga. 

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Can anyone give me information regarding the New York State EPIC? Is there a local representative? I’ve tried to talk to EPIC on the phone and I’m getting nowhere except a big runaround regarding pharmacy charges. 

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I agree with the caller who is very much annoyed with the telephone calls with nobody there. My phone rings, I rush to answer it, and there is absolutely nobody there. Can politicians help? Can we get some laws in place to stop this annoyance?

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I think they should take the World Series pass away from the Houston Astros and the Boston Red Sox because they were cheating. I think they should also have Pete Rose in the Hall of Fame. Who else thinks I’m right? 

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If you live in New York, you’re liable to get a convicted felon out on bail living right next to you. Thank you so much Governor Cuomo!

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I was just wondering if anyone had any information what is going on with Bel Air Barbeque. It seems kind of hard to catch them open anymore. If anyone has any information on what is going on with them please respond in this column.

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My Friends, I would like to respond to the request about who is the real God. I would begin in prayer asking, “God, if you are real, please show me who You are.” Then open the Bible to the Book of John, begin with John 1:1,14, “In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us, begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” This is a prayer the One True Living God will answer when asked with sincerity of heart, by a person who is truly seeking to know the Truth. For He has said in James 4:3, ”Draw near to God and he will draw near to you.” It will be my prayer that you will find Jesus Christ, the son of Almighty Jehovah God, the Creator of all heaven and earth is the One you are seeking. He can be found in the Word from Genesis through Revelation. 

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To the person seeking the real God. I’m glad you realize there are many little gods out there. If you would like someone to “seek” with, I am willing to read and share and find the real God together; call 642-5037. Tell them keep seeking. He will be found! 

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My first comment is, I have Spectrum for everything and I’m just wondering why it is everything has slowed down. It takes 26 seconds for my channels to change and I have to reboot two or three times a week. Now why is that? Comment two, I know several people in Tioga County that are unemployed, they are in their 50’s, and nobody will even give them a chance! What’s up with that? You talk about age discrimination? 

National Political Viewpoints

In response to the contributor who claimed that Obama GAVE 1.5 billion to Iran, he DID NOT GIVE any money from taxpayers to Iran. That money was what Iran paid to us for military aid but never got. They paid the money, then the hostage situation arose in 1979 and we froze THEIR money and were required to put it into an interest bearing account. The money was returned to them under a Federal order. Please research things before you post the Trump political nonsense. When you hear a statement please fact check it first.

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Climatard – Person who drinks Climate Porn / Scare Kool-Aid, a.k.a. Useful Idiot believing more taxes are the fix. Climate Porn/Scare – Junk Science / Climate Change targeting those devote of science understanding as written by Climate Scientists. Junk Science project results without consideration of associated factors and based on Fictitious Data. Climate Change is a euphemism for excusing the contradictions and failing of Climate Porn. Climate Scientist – a student or Social Justice Warrior who can’t do college calculus, physics, statistics, and purveys Junk Science to secure grant money for a living. Fictitious Data includes and is not limited to the 17 IPCC temperature data sets used to support the desired Climate Porn conclusion. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) provides fictitious Data. United Nations – a corrupt organization. The danger of Climate Porn is that it discredits that science, which deserves rigorous consideration. Climate Change Activist – uneducated liberal Climatard who calls Climate Porn skeptics, Science Deniers so as to associate them with Holocaust Deniers. Sea levels are rising because of global warning. False. In places it is raising and others dropping. Honest science calls it the Post-glacial Rebound. Environmental Racism – a leftist invention without meaning designed for fallacious argument.

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Make no doubt about it, they are after your guns. It’s just that Cuomo and his many corrupt Attorney Generals will decide if you are fit to have a gun. These are the people issuing drivers licenses to illegals so they can vote. You’re not fit for a gun. The 2nd Amendment was intended to give you the same fire power federal agencies had. The 2nd was intended to have the Feds afraid of the people, as we are now afraid of them. In the past 100 years, governments using guns have killed at least 250,000,000. If the Squad (Dems Talib, Omar, AOC, and Pressly) was “in charge,” would you trust them to have a monopoly on guns?  

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Why is it you cannot get a straight answer from this administration?  Trump will give one version as to what happened in Iran and then Mike Pompeo addressed the media with a totally different answer than Trump gave. Then after meeting with a selected few members of congress, they leave with such a disgusted interpretation as to what really happened. What is wrong with us?

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After years of throwing Hillary Clinton under the bus, they have ended the investigation after finding no evidence of wrong doings. All those chants of Lock her UP were found unnecessary. Inspector General Michael Horowitz found no evidence of wrong doings with the FBI. Investigate the investigators. I wonder if Mr. Trump will apologize for all the time, money, and humiliation he’s caused. I won’t hold my breath.

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One thing I know for sure, the media has job security with this administration.

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Could someone tell me why the Liberal / Socialist Democrats are always so angry? They always look like they’ve been weaned on a dill pickle! The language is always full of lies and just pure anger. Can they not ever just have a calm, logical debate using logic and facts?

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The narrative the media would have you believe that the fires in Australia have to do with globe warming is pure nonsense. The Australian government has arrested 150-plus arsonists who purposefully set the fires to add to the global warming hoax. Google it yourself if you have doubts. The warm weather we had recently in Upstate New York has to do with a southerly flow of air, NOT global warming. The wind has been out of the south, thus, southern type temps.

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I just watched Pelosi on TV signing the impeachment papers to send them over to the senate. She made a statement on a Sunday ABC show saying no matter what happens in the senate, we at least got the impeachment on his record. President Trump did nothing wrong. Pelosi said she is so proud that they are utilizing their constitutional rights. She is a hypocrite. They don’t care about the constitution. Number one, when they had this so-called whistle blower, which we never got to see, and they made such a big stink that he was going to blow this hearing wide open and prove President Trump did something wrong. Well what a big lie, because this person was actually a hearsay person. He was never privy to the phone conversation. They have been working on trying to impeach President Trump since day one. They have impeached “we the people” for voting for President Trump. What next are they going to do? The Russia hoax didn’t work, Stormy Daniels didn’t work, the Kavanaugh thing didn’t work, and now the Ukraine thing, which is also a hoax. It’s disgusting and I pray the Dems get voted out big time. I can’t believe they have given illegal aliens driver’s licenses here in New York, and now I find out they have changed the bail laws. This is a stab in the back to the men and women who have fought and died and who are still serving to protect us; to give us the right to protect our constitution. God Bless America!

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The Jan. 12 issue of The Pennysaver had an opinion piece from a person who was unaware of the advancement in societal evolution during the Trump years. He/she had a lot of questions that most informed people would know the answers to; so I am glad to educate the uninformed as to what has happened. The first question was: Why isn’t Mexico paying for the wall? The answer is that Democrats need a permanent underclass to vote for them. During Republican administrations, the underclass thrives and moves to the middle class. Therefore Democrats need new recruits for their voters. Uneducated people are likely to stay in the underclass, so Democrats want open borders, regardless how much it hurts the legal residents of this country. The next question was: “Where is our infrastructure plan? Answer: Obama wasted the “shovel ready jobs money” by giving away part of our car industry to foreigners and labor unions, so there is no money left. Q: Why has the deficit not been eliminated? A: The national debt doubled during the Obama years with Democrats running the show. It will take awhile to pay for the waste. Q: When are all the new jobs coming back from overseas? A: They have landed and we have the lowest unemployment ever. Q: Where are the all the new coal jobs? A: The coal jobs are in the coal producing states. Q: Why is the deficit growing at the fastest rate in our country’s history? A. Because the national debt run up by the Democrats are causing huge interest payments. Q: Where are our lower prescription drug prices? A: Much of it has happened, but not all. That is because the Democrats have spent two years impeaching Trump and ignoring the people. Q: Why does the top one percent get the tax breaks? A: The Democrat Presidential candidates are all millionaires or billionaires. Mr. Bloomberg, for example, has 57 billion dollars (57 thousand millions). He has given a lot of money to Democratic congressmen. The Democrat house controls the spending and it is payback time for them to reimburse the millionaires. Q: Where is our $4,000 raise he said everyone would get? A: The deductions for income did go up in the Trump tax reform. The Democrats opposed outright tax cuts, so that is where the rest of the money was lost. We are still waiting for the $2,500 yearly cut in health insurance that Obama promised over 10 years ago.

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Happy New Year! I’m glad to get back to The Pennysaver. How did you like on Thursday or Friday stumpy Trump’s makeup under his eyes? Was he celebrating something too soon? Let’s hope so. Have a wonderful New Year!

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Why is Hillary still walking around free? So many deals made in exchange for millions of donations to be made to her Clinton foundation, better known as quid pro quo. She’s a real loser. She couldn’t even win when the big six were in. What does that tell you?

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The despicable Marxist democrats support a vial criminal like Ukrainian Soleimani rather than the greatest president of all times, namely President Trump. Democrats are the enemy within and represent the greatest danger to the U.S. than any foreign enemy. Democrats must be totally obliterated in the 2020 elections. There must be no more traitors impeding Trump’s plans to make America even greater than it is right now.

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A house divided against itself cannot stand. I pray to God the democrats get on board with good, common rational sense. 

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To the person talking about the good guy shooting the bad guy in church. What you didn’t say was it was an armed security officer in the church just for something like that if it happened. As far as I know, prior to Trump this is the first time we ever needed armed security in a church.

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President Trump is slowly destroying the Democratic Party. They know it and they don’t like it, so while the American people do not care, Pelosi insists on talking about impeachment. Now she’s back on the Russian collusion train. Democrats love the Iranian regime because that’s their way of governing – take control and keep control. Well, they’re all about to be unemployed this November. It wouldn’t surprise me if they all line up in the unemployment line for benefits; and I love all the articles coming out against the Obama administration’s dealing with Iran. Trump knows what he’s doing and another four years of Trump is a very exciting time. I cannot wait! Hopefully then Don Junior or Evanka will follow and run for president. That would give us another eight years of prosperity. Very exciting!

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Follow the news. Two more broken promises by President Trump. Last year’s budget deficit is now $1 trillion. Revenues to the treasury department are dropping. Secondarily, Trump promised that he would do nothing to refuse people payment, treatment, and healthcare for preexisting conditions. He is now trying to eliminate everything about the ACA health bill. What a guy, what a prince! Broken promises right and left. Who cares? Build that wall Donald! Get with it!

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Well I wasted my time but I was looking for a comedy last night so I watched the democratic debates. Everyone of them said they’re ready to take on President Trump on the economy, but I must have falling asleep because I never heard one plan on how they were going to do that; so if any caller caught that, please call into The Pennysaver because I’m dying to hear their plan. 

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I see as we move forward in this impeachment trial that the crybaby in the White House is continuing to say bad things and slam everybody; but the biggest problem is he is setting the tone and his go right along with it republicans are just following along with him. It is unfortunate and it is very sad in the state of the United States that people seem to think he is so wonderful. If everybody would get a conscience and want to do what’s right and see just how evil and how nefarious this guy is, maybe, just maybe we could put an end to it instead of reelecting him and letting God knows what happen in the future. It’s scary; people need to wake up and stop listening to his nonsense. 

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It really saddens me to see that Trump is busy playing golf like he said he wasn’t going to have time to do, which is a lie, and to keep going around doing all these rallies to keep his republican base all riled up, and lying to them and getting them to buy into it. If he would spend more time in Washington worrying about all the business at hand with the United States instead of worrying about lying to everybody and getting all you followers convinced that everything he says is the truth, maybe he could become an honest president and maybe more people would like him and maybe, just maybe, the United States will become a wonderful place again. But the way it’s going now, it’s going to Hell in a hand basket rather quickly. 

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In just three years Donald J. Trump has turned this country around and done some fabulous things for everybody, and including everybody in the world. He is a great president and I will be proud to vote for him in 2020. His wife is so beautiful and so elegant, probably one of the finest first lady’s ever! I don’t know what everybody writes in and complains about in the column. They’re just a bunch of crybabies! Buck up and accept the fact that he is one of the greatest presidents that America has ever had. Go Donald Trump!

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Why is Donald Trump the defendant in so many lawsuits; hundreds, thousands some say. The reason is because he stiffs contractors, and refuses to pay people who have done honest work for him. What a heck of a guy, our president Donald J Trump.