Readers’ Column for the week of May 2, 2021

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.

 

Beware of the latest in scams, they call and say they are Spectrum and are going to do an update on the receivers, and if you don’t pay $300 you will lose access to the cable. I called Spectrum to confirm, it’s a scam.

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Tioga Central School tax voters BEWARE! I received an absentee ballot today and they want us to vote yes or no without even knowing what the school tax increase is. The exact words are, “Shall the Board of Education of the Tioga Central School District, in the County of Tioga, New York, be authorized to expend sums set forth in the General Fund Appropriations in the amount of $19,341,128, and to LEVY the necessary TAX therefore.” What is the increase of the tax amount going to be? GET out and VOTE NO!

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I have an email from the O-A superintendent that says music and arts are NOT being cut. I wonder how the poster this week verified the cuts claim.

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Attention Baby boomers who are plagued by robo / scam calls – when we were born, despite us being termed baby boomers, the world population was about a third less than it is today. Despite ever better means of birth control and a short-lived but well-intentioned campaign to limit family size in order to save the planet / diminishing natural resources, that effort obviously failed. So we have people whose job is to scam you because they can’t / won’t find legitimate work. My best defense: invest in caller ID; if you don’t recognize the name or number, let the phone ring a couple of times then pick up and IMMEDIATELY hang up. Perhaps THEY will be fooled into thinking you have some advanced blocking system and will give up. It won’t stop those calls that just dial down a list of every phone number but it may slow down folks that are targeting you, specifically, for some reason.

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When it comes time to vote for the OACSD budget, please consider the following. When baby boomers were in school, and in elementary school, we had ONE janitor taking care of large schools including bulky furnaces and landscaping, clearing sidewalks, etc. There was ONE teacher for each class (0 assistants), ONE school nurse (no school psychiatrist, that was the job of the parents), ONE principal and his secretary. Junior High, now known as middle school, added a custodian and a couple of “gym teachers” plus a vice principal. In high school, teachers stepped up to be coaches and drivers ed teachers for a small addition to their pay. And I bet our (difficult) test scores, plus comprehension of reading, writing and arithmetic was much higher than now, with all the bloated staff and administration.

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Does anyone know what source of the off and on Humming Noise I hear 24-7 is, inside and outside of the house? This has been going on for the last month or so. I have checked the electric outlets, water pipes, walls, heating pipes from the furnace, with a stethoscope, to no avail. On the outside of the house it seems to be coming from all directions. I live on Route 38, a mile south of Newark Valley. Does anyone else have this problem?

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Looking forward to the rants about free tax-supported community college from the folks that already had free tax-supported K-12 and already have a conditional tuition-free tax-supported SUNY system.

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Did the Easter Bunny take it? A purple plastic Easter bucket with numerous colored plastic eggs has disappeared from a grave in Hope Cemetery, Newark Valley. This wasn’t just any old Easter basket. Each plastic egg contained a message or memory of good times spent with the deceased. I have put that basket (bucket) on the grave for 16 years. It was tied down, so it’s hard to believe it blew away. But whatever the reason for its disappearance, I would like it returned. If you see or find it, please return it to the shamrock grave by where the cornfield is. The friends and family of Tom Malone would appreciate it. Thank you. 

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I want to give a thumbs up to Nancy from Maddie’s Meadows for the wonderful job she does in taking care of the poor cats who need homes. If people can, send her a check to help her buy the food and the kitty litter and stuff because she’s a wonderful person and very, very caring.

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Just wondering when they are going to clean up that house that partially collapsed on the corner of Rhodes Road and Pennsylvania Avenue in Apalachin. It looks like it’s a safety hazard and pieces are falling off of it. 

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Oh yeah, that’s what I want, a pot or a marijuana lounge. Now not only do I have to deal with people drinking and driving, but I also have to deal with people smoking this stuff and driving.

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COVID is over and yes, they cannot prove people are not getting sick or dying because of COVID. They are throwing everything under the COVID umbrella. It’s over, it’s done and all they’ve done is scare people in thinking everyone has passed away from COVID. It’s not true. COVID is over, never really was here.

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To the person who says I didn’t know the real reason for unemployment and help wanted signs. That was in my original letter and apparently did not get printed. I’m disgusted with the extreme pay as well.

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I didn’t think it was possible, but somehow Cuomo has managed to ruin New York State even more. Unfortunately I’m in my 80’s and too old to move to Florida, so I pray every day that we get a republican governor and soon, and we can make my last few years like Florida. Open New York already!

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Thank you to everyone that did such a great job of picking up the garbage along Route 434 and Route 17. It’s absolutely amazing! If you’ve ever traveled to other counties or states, you would be appalled at how horrible their roadsides look. It’s another great reason for living in New York State. Take your trash home and throw it away in your own garbage where it will be picked up. Simply keep a used shopping bag from your takeout food and put your trash in that.

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I find it interesting that the Mayor of Owego was listening to all of the people that were being stopped by traps by state police on the highway. Wouldn’t it be interesting if he was listening to some of the Owego traffic that is flying up and down Talcott Street, West Avenue, Erie Street, Main Street and East Main Street, these people just fly! I don’t ever see any of them pulled over. If our mayor has fun listening to the state, maybe he’d have more fun if he were listening to some of that in the village.

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The only way to fix the naysayers who don’t believe there is COVID or pandemic is to have them do a walk thru in an intensive care unit and watch how hard people are trying to stay alive. Watch how hard each breath of air is. Then they will find out for themselves, maybe. But I really don’t think that will help with the naysayers.

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I see that Nichols needs a code enforcement officer. That explains why, when you come into Nichols and go through Main Street in Nichols, it is loaded with garbage on porches and around homes. Hopefully we’ll get a code enforcement officer and he will get busy and make these people clean up their messes.  

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This is just a reminder to people; please use your turn signals. Yesterday I followed six cars and out of six cars, five people did not use turn signals. This is a dangerous situation, especially in the village when people are turning down side streets. Just a reminder for safety, please use your turn signals all the time.

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Congratulations Southern Tier! It was announced yesterday we have less than one percent infection rate. That is awesome. Keep up the excellent work. Keep doing all the safety precautions as indicated and if you haven’t gotten your vaccine yet, go get it. This is exactly why we don’t have measles, mumps, rubella, polio, and smallpox. All these other horrible diseases are controlled or eradicated by vaccines. 

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I’m so glad I live in this day and age. I can’t imagine having no hope for getting out of this pandemic. I often think of the people who suffered smallpox, measles, polio and all those other horrible contagious diseases. I’m so grateful to live in this day and age. I’m so grateful our children don’t have to go through the measles, mumps, chickenpox and all those horrible illnesses that make them so sick and have to go into isolation. So grateful to live in the U.S.A. where we have medical help available.

 

National Political Viewpoints

To the ignorant people who claim Trump did not downplay the pandemic – what planet did you just arrive from? He sat on his hands and did nothing for three months. And he had absolutely nothing to do with the development of the vaccines. To claim otherwise is a direct insult to the intelligent men and women who worked so hard for their companies to develop the current vaccines. Thank God for these people, not Trump. They are the true heroes.

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According to a recent article, the U.S. is $123 trillion in debt, including the Social Security shortfalls. What is it going to take to get our representatives to stop spending what they don’t have? In the last couple of weeks we have pledged millions of U.S. tax dollars to the Ukraine to buy more U.S. weapons, millions to Afghanistan for civilian projects, millions to support Israel’s genocide against its neighbors, and Biden’s Infrastructure Bill includes several millions not related to the infrastructure. We’re taking in every refugee that is smuggled across the border and putting them up in nice hotels, members of Congress want to pay reparation to Black Americans for something that happened 200 years ago, and we can’t forget the $765 billion for the next Military Budget so the U.S. can police the world, spread propaganda about how great the U.S. Democracy is when we have police shooting unarmed people in the back or choking them to death, 14% of U.S. citizens live in poverty, millions are homeless, and of course the mass shootings. This has to end and it won’t until we hold our government responsible.

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The Global Warming advocates who call those of opposite opinion “Science Deniers” are themselves science ignorant and can’t do math. They have all the qualifications of Prophet and Poo-ba Al Gore (lawyer, tobacco grower, and politician). One knowledgeable of science knows they could be wrong, however, a remote possibility. A climatologist is a biology student who can’t pass physics 101, calculus, or do differential equations, which are essential. When Sleepy Joe endorses “We demand comprehensive non-Eurocentric and intersectional climate education, including literacy on climate justice, environmental racism, ancestral, and indigenous wisdom on historical movements, disability justice, green careers, and sustainable living.” we definitely have a “Climate Crisis”. This couldn’t have been said better, even in California hot-tub psychobabble.

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This is in response to the person who said Trump didn’t downplay the virus. When he interviewed with Bob Woodward he announced it was downplayed. Americans heard him say this. You need a bigger rock.

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In response to Matt Gaetz wearing the oversized gas mask, you are absolutely correct. Simply childish games the Republican Party plays. Wish had the ability to grow up; questionable whether or not they will.

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Someone doesn’t recall Trump playing down COVID? Seriously? There’s a video. What rock are they living under?

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I sincerely hope Biden has continued good health through the end of his presidency. I certainly do not want Vice President Harris taking over the helm. She will be steering so hard to port that the ship will be going in circles. 

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In 2018, Clark said that he considered U.S. foreign policy to be “the greatest crime since WWII. American aggression had already created incalculable levels of misery for the world. The poor of the planet are made poorer, dominated and exploited by the foreign policies of the U.S. and its rich allies. The U.S. invasion of Iraq was a war of aggression, an offense called ‘the supreme international crime’ in the Nuremberg Judgment.” Clark continued, “Our overriding purpose, from the beginning right through to the present day, has been world domination; that is, to build and maintain the capacity to coerce everybody else on the planet: nonviolently, if possible, and violently, if necessary. But the purpose of our foreign policy of domination is not just to make the rest of the world jump through hoops; the purpose is to facilitate our exploitation of resources. And insofar as any people or states get in the way of our domination, they must be eliminated or, at the very least, shown the error of their ways.” — Ramsey Clark (1927-2021)

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Truman, who signed the CIA into existence just after World War II, wrote, “I think it has become necessary to take another look at the purpose and operations of our Central Intelligence Agency – the CIA. For some time I have been disturbed by the way the CIA has been diverted from its original assignment. It has become an operational and at times a policy-making arm of the Government. This has led to trouble and may have compounded our difficulties in several explosive areas. There is something about the way the CIA has been functioning that is casting a shadow over our historic position and I feel that we need to correct it.”  For generations the Intelligence Community has been a runaway truck — crushing everything in its path, creating coups around the world, killing thousands, and intruding on the lives of average citizens. As I already mentioned, even the president who created the CIA and dropped atomic bombs on people — even that guy felt the CIA was a grave danger to the American experiment. Those concerns started just after he saw a president get whacked live on prime time. I wonder why. “The CIA Has Been Taking Over For Decades – Even Former Presidents Tried to Warn Us.” From scheerpost.com.

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The presidential puppet has shown two policies to date. The first is to reverse anything Trump did whether it was good policy or not. The border is now open to terrorists, drug smugglers, the sex trade, and so on. The keystone pipeline is canceled and gas prices have soared greater than a dollar a gallon. The puppet’s promise to not raise taxes on income less than $400k is a joke, as this is only taxable income and does not account for everything you buy rising dramatically. Higher fuel cost means more at the pump, higher heating bills, higher prices on everything you buy including food due to higher shipping costs. Maybe the puppet should address “cost of living” as opposed to his shell game of where he wants to spend your money. The puppet’s second policy is to get as many people dependent on the government as he can, whether they are illegal immigrants or formerly hard working people. I personally know one person who works at an employment agency that can’t get people to show up for interviews and two people who run small businesses that cannot find employees. The Biden administration is a socialist and communism party, and anyone who has any knowledge of history is witnessing China reborn in our country. We need an organization comprised of all ethnic backgrounds and races, all genders, all sexual preferences, all religious beliefs that are united in the belief of our constitution, respect for the law, and the belief in this great country; and the strength through unity to restore the U.S.A. to a democratic, market driven, small government free country and the goal of getting rid of any resemblance of socialist and communist influence in the great U.S.A.

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“That’s right, the Capitol took center stage tonight, and I got to be honest, it was nice to see someone behind the podium who wasn’t wearing deer antlers and a pelt.” — Jimmy Fallon 

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What did I miss? Biden said we don’t have to wear a mask when outside with people we know had a COVID Vaccine or being inside 6-feet apart like they were in the Assembly. So how come in his Address to Congress Wednesday evening, none of the Congressional Assembly had their masks off? So, my question is, is the Vaccine safe or not? 

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The so-called White Supremacists don’t realize that they, too, are of immigrant heritage. Who were in America first – Viking, English, Spanish, present Native American you call Indians, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, German, Italian, Polish, Swedish, etc. – research the numbers and accomplishments of those and more. Who has the pure white blood? What would we lose if any or several selected immigrants had not chosen to come to America? Perhaps the White Supremacists and similar hostile groups should find someplace else where they might be accepted – or perhaps most countries would likely deny them entry to their country. Years ago when a factory averted employment, they sometimes noted, No Irish need apply. Who of us has such a pure heritage that they are superior to others? 

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Newsflash! The Biden administration is finally being sued for letting thousands of illegal aliens cross our southern border without COVID testing and for not enforcing our own law, which states contagious illegal aliens must be returned to their country of origin. Meanwhile the republicans always play catch up instead of going on overwhelming offense. Enough already. We need a strong populous patriot party leader. 

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Hey, Joe, why don’t you wear a third mask? Then we won’t have to hear all the lies, the stupid things that come out of your mouth. What a buffoon.

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I just could not stop laughing! There is Biden on a zoom meeting with all the real leaders of the world and he’s wearing a mask. I’m still laughing. Can anybody explain to me why he would wear a mask for a zoom meeting?

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I find it interesting that the media does not cover all the shootings every day that go on in Chicago and have been going on for years – Obama’s hometown. They started way back in the Obama / Biden administration. The only shootings that get attention are where there is a police officer involved. What’s the difference? Please explain to me the purpose of these protests, riots, looting. Of course the democrats say they are peaceful, but my eyes show me something different. Please, any of you Biden fans? Thanks.

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I just saw a poll that after 100 days Joe’s approval numbers are 54%. Wow! So, I have a number now. Fifty-four percent of the people in this country are either stupid or uninformed. The man is an idiot. There is nothing he’s done to be approved.

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In 2024 we need a republican president; it may not be Trump but we need a good republican president who will work for the good of the American public and not go along with the leftist agenda of Biden and his cronies.

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I agree with the person who wrote the comment about adopting one of Biden’s illegal children. I’d love to have that for a tax deduction and collect the $250 a month. It’s a great idea. I’d also like to voice my opinion on calling Akshar; you are better off talking to the wall. He has other things to do. There are photo shoots at the high school, and he likes to get his picture taken and is not big on the real issues.

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Why are people still donating to Trump? In my opinion people should stop. Remember what he said on national television when he was in office? I bet all of you forgot. He said those who are killed while in the military are low lives and suckers. Can you ever imagine the response if President Biden ever, ever chose those words. 

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I just have to say I am so glad that President Biden is rebuilding our relationship with our allies, which Donald Trump worked so hard to destroy. God bless America and God bless Joe Biden!

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Five things that can’t be proven – ghosts, leprechauns, bigfoot, aliens, and 80 million people that voted for a basement dweller named Joe Biden. 

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Throw your mask away! It’s as useless as Joe Biden.

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Newsflash! So what happened to the $5 million Chinese payoff to the Bidens? And what is happening to Hunter Biden’s prosecution by the FBI? Now we know John Carey shared military secrets with Iran concerning Israel because he hates Netanyahu. What else is new for the perfidious democrats? I guess nothing if you are a Marxist democrat protected by the president’s power. Look for more sweeping under the rug in the future.

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I’m driving around Cortland right now and I’m noticing that there’s a lot of retired young people in their 20’s. They’ve got their two little rodents in the front yard and the old lady is out there and they have high dollar unemployment and my tax money and life is looking pretty good for them. Go slow Joe! 

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Trump supporters, will you please take your Trump 2020 signs down? It has almost been six months since the election. You want to put up 2024 signs, great. But let’s take the 2020 down – it’s in the past. Let’s move on.

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Hillary Clinton won the election by the American people by close to 3 million people yet the Electoral College swung Donald Trump’s way. Okay, well us Clinton supporters, we accepted the fact and we took our banners and our signs down out of our front yards. What in the hell is wrong with you trumpsters? He lost, get it? Take your stupid signs down, he is not our president. He never was.

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Joe Biden’s vice president can’t wait to get Joe Biden out of this picture so that vice president can be president and Nancy Pelosi will be the vice president, then we’ll have trouble!