Readers’ Column for the week of April 5, 2020

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

VFW Post 1371, located at 207 Main St. in Owego, is hosting a bottle and can drive. They have a trailer behind the VFW and are accepting bottles and cans to help with their building fund.

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To the person who asked about ladybugs: they are not ladybugs, but Asian lady beetles (they look very similar, but they bite). I have also been battling them and would love to know how to get rid of them. Anybody?

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I think it’s time for Tioga County to get rid of the sales tax on our utilities and fuel oil and gas and coal or anything else you use to heat your house with. Our electric and gas bill and any other thing the other counties don’t tax. Tioga County has to have that money; they don’t want to give anything up. I was thinking of getting a hold of the congressman or the governor to see if he could help out in this respect.

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In reply to the person that was asking about how to get rid of the bugs in your home. I had them for two or three years until I found out about Home Defense spray. The first year I sprayed outside around the windows and the inside. It’s odorless, colorless, and I would wear a mask or cover your mouth when you are spraying. Since I’ve used the Home Defense I don’t get the bugs anymore. I hope this helps. I live in Sayre and some neighbors had to take down trees because they were infested so bad. 

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I want to say a big thank you to the Tioga Sheriff’s Department. Being elderly myself, and living alone, I had noticed a neighbor, also elderly and handicapped, with no lights on or her car moved in days. I could not reach her by phone or see her either. I called the sheriff; they came up and spent time and found out she was not at home. Thanks so much for that and please let some of your people that are alone know you will look out for them and see that they are fine. God bless all the special responders and everybody concerned. Thank you.

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Come on Tioga County; step up to the plate! Give us a map of the areas in Tioga County that are areas of concern. Other counties have done it, Broome has done it, why can’t you? Remember Election Day.

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There’s some good coronavirus news for a change. TEVA, an Israeli company, is donating 6 million doses of hydroxychloroquine to the United States and 4 more million doses will be donated later. A French study using a combination of hydroxychloroquine plus Azithromycin has shown that there were zero deaths using this combination, sample size unknown. Thanks TEVA and Israel! 

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People are being quarantined at this time, why can’t the Pennysaver quarantine this political opinion garbage? We all need to work together at this time and not bicker. Remember, a house divided cannot stand. 

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This column is not only very negative, but also very political. How about two weeks of the readers’ column being all-positive and no politics? I wonder if it’s even possible for the people of this county.

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Two times in my life I’ve needed New York State unemployment insurance. This time, for coronavirus. But now the website doesn’t work and you can’t through on the phone. Unemployment should be separated in this state between New York State and New York City. Those people who live in the city would never come up here and we would never go down there and they should be separated.

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You know the paranoid rhetoric that you print in your columns only fuel a very bad situation already.

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The people in Tioga County New York have no hospital, no large place to take care of people in the event of a pandemic, which we are going through now. What about a former manufacturing building, which has over 124,000 sq. ft. and is currently empty, and it is located on Route 38 across the street from a medical center. The Tioga County Sheriff’s Department is nearby. Again, we are underserved in Tioga County as far as a hospital. Maybe this would spark some interest in having a hospital in Tioga County in the future.

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I’d like to thank Gail Tapia for shopping and putting together and delivering 100 Easter Baskets to the Rural Ministry. Good job!

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Who is Cuomo trying to impress or trying to fool with these daily conferences. He just goes on and on saying how much he doesn’t know. 

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Lucky New York State – NOT. We have a governor who ignores the recommendations from years ago regarding obtaining respirators and other equipment in case of a pandemic; and to detract from his guilt, tries to blame the president. And is it a mere coincidence New York State has the most cases of COVID-19 during the switch to reusable bags? Some places agree with those of us who thought they are a bad idea. 

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If we are indeed operating under a wartime footing, then maybe it’s time to start rationing things. Toilet paper and other paper products come to mind. Medical and sanitation supplies also seem to be hoarded as evidenced by their absence on store shelves. Sad to say, but there are some folks out there who will take whatever they can and to heck with everyone else.

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I hope the town of Candor fixes the seasonal roads. I know that the town gets money to keep them in good shape. Union Hill Road is one of them. Maintenance is from April 1 to Dec. 1, I think, so fix it this year.

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Dear Chem Trail / Nanoprobe / MSDS guy – it’s actually the dihydrogen oxide that’s dangerous. Thousands have already died. Google it!

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Regarding all the various bugs that get into your house – be they spiders, ladybugs, ants, bees, hornets, wasps, etc., I have had quite a bit of success with one of those portable vacuum cleaners. These insects don’t want to be in the house any more than the house owner (except maybe for ants). I always get a thrill when I let them go and watch them fly off.

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Are you more interested in what your stock is worth or in the health and safety of your family? I will choose my family; they are worth 100 times more than any value of stock!  

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There was a group of young women in Draper Park on Sunday afternoon posing up against each other for selfies and definitely not practicing social distancing. You can have no symptoms and still be infected. You can pass it on to friends and relatives without knowing it. If you don’t practice social distancing you are prolonging the epidemic and could cost the life of a friend or relative. 

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Fear not wards of New York State. The State will reap windfall taxes from the virus. The Dem axiom is “never let a crisis go to waste.” For those of you who pay for health insurance and/or cover your family medical expenses, you shall financially carry those who don’t. Hidden in your medical bills and built into your health insurance bills is a 9.6 percent New York State tax. The person this hurts most is the state’s non-public employee union, middle class. Fear not, the virus shall stuff the state coffers on the back of your labor. Hospitals are and will overflow with virus patients and the state is taxing it to the hilt. Tax revenues will be enormous. Public employee unions will neither suffer greater contribution to healthcare insurance or suffer reduction in pension checks or need to pay taxes on those pensions. 

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I know this may seem heartless, but New York City is where most of the casualties are. So, they’re going to spread it to us now? They say they are overloaded? I thought there was a ship coming into the harbor there to help. If they start bringing the people to Upstate New York, more people here are going to get it. It’s not to be mean and cruel, I don’t know what the answer is. 

National Political Viewpoints

While we are battling the Wuhan virus in our everyday life, the democratic super PAC will spend $6 million on advertisements criticizing President Trump’s response to this pandemic. This PAC received $3 million from George Soros. The ads will run in Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Priorities U.S.A. will spend $120 million against Trump in Michigan and Wisconsin. Billionaire hedge fund manager Donald Sussman has given $8 million for this purpose. This is what the democrats really care about.

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Newsflash. A Chinese government backed company, The Greenland Group, which manages high end real estate projects in Australia, proactively drained Australian anti-coronavirus equipment, including surgical masks, gloves, hand sanitizer and wipes, etc. and diverted them to China in January and February. This is a lesson that we must be ever vigilant and bring back all critical manufacturing to the U.S.A. regardless of cost. 

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If you are trying to contact your state or federal representatives to tell them how you feel about the job they are doing, lots of luck. They don’t want to listen to you; they don’t care about you. You’re wasting your time calling their phone or writing them a letter. Wasting your time.

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Too many people, when they vote, vote by party. I think you should at least know the name of the person you are voting for and what their accomplishments may have been. If you vote by party, you’re not going to get a party – it is their party, not your party.

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Two of the biggest crooks in Washington are Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton. Who’s keeping them out of jail? They should have been in jail years and years ago. They are doing a bad job for the public. A bad job!

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It’s extremely upsetting to learn that New York State was not prepared in any way for the virus. It proves Cuomo is a democrat, they don’t care, and he is no leader. He’s too busy wasting our hard earned money on frivolous things. He’s ruining our state every day just like Mario did, right into the ground. But a big thank you to President Trump for coming to the aid of New York State. No one to thank but President Trump, he still cares about New York State and its people.

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People might want to ask themselves, why is New York State in a very worse situation in all this country. It’s because of Donald Trump. Andrew Cuomo has the guts to stand up to him and he doesn’t like it. Donald Trump is a spiteful child and how he reacts, I’m gonna get you. He is not capable of being president of the United States. You need to think about that.

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Cuomo is so desperate to emulate Trump with these daily briefings. I wish he would tell us something more than the fact that we are in uncharted territory. That’s all he says over and over and that New York needs help. Well, tell me something I don’t know. 

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To all your Trumpsters out there, don’t worry if you go bankrupt, your wonderful president is an expert on that subject. 

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What are Pence and Trump smoking or drinking? They’ve had news conferences and they seem to want to deny everything they’ve said. They must be on something. Governor Cuomo finally got it right, everything comes from China. Everything we need is supplied from China.

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Hey Donnie, fine job. Just under three months, and more people died in the United States of this virus than in Vietnam. You’re doing one hell of a job. It’s about time you step down.

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In an area rebuilt with FEMA money and New York State disaster aid people are ranting about the evil of socialism. Wow!

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The impeachment trial was over Feb. 5, so any claim that it distracted Trump from then until March 13 is nonsense.

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Wouldn’t it be refreshing if Nervous Nancy and her cohorts and the echo chamber media actually did something useful for a change and got BEHIND President Trump and worked together to defeat this virus? It’s always the “Gotcha” game, always the political game. Silly, non-productive, and disgusting! Time for them to actually grow up and be PRODUCTIVE for a change!

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I can’t imagine what a catastrophe our country would be in over this virus if Biden, Sanders, Cuomo, or Hillary were the President of the United States. Great Job President Trump. 

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Best op/ed line this past week: It’s impossible to imagine Biden forcefully commanding the instruments of government; he can barely manage his basement teleprompter. 

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Trump does not care if you live or die, only that you vote for him.

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I cannot applaud enough all the volunteers helping out with the COVID virus. I see organizations making masks and face shields as much as they can produce. I wonder though, why in our great nation this is necessary. We have so many manufacturers with billions of dollars who need to be required to put their people to work, transform their factories to make these crucial PPE’s by the billions. If all these volunteers have figured out a way, I am confident a CEO can do this. Not sure why Donald Trump is not mandating this. He seems to continue to blunder this unforeseen crisis. Not sure what drives him, but he does not appear to be for the health of our Country.

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Dear Climate Folks, don’t let this crisis go to waste. 1) Now is the time to test theory in light of reduced human activity, like airline travel, etc. 2) learn some math, chemistry, and physics online resources are copious, 3) learn how to see bias in the Climate propaganda, 4) find alternatives to products made in China, by far the world’s worst polluter on the planet, and 5) plant some trees. I will help teach and plant trees. So Climate Loons, let’s do something of meaning. Talk is cheap and the Clean New Deal is just more wasteful taxation. If an iceberg melts do sea levels rise or fall? They fall. Figure it out how this is true. Think and learn.