Readers’ Column for the week of February 6, 2022

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.

 

Cash bail favored the well to do. They could afford bail; the poor could not. For the same crime, one accused would be walking free pending trial, the other languishing in jail. Explain why that was okay.

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If your 401K or retirement plan is decreasing you have chosen a bad investment strategy. Look it up. It’s easy to do. The markets have continued to increase significantly, so don’t blame them for your poor choices.

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Some of my favorite tee shirts include, I’m not someone you should put on speaker phone, sometimes I meet people and I feel sorry for their dog; and my bank balance is a constant reminder that I am safe from ID theft.

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Attention all school art teachers, Sunday school teachers, daycare workers, or anyone who does projects with small children. I am a big believer in recycling or reusing things. Subsequently, I have a lot of little take out salad dressing containers and individual fruit cup containers that would be perfect for holding glue, paint and other objects for projects. If you are interested in them, please put your number in this column and I will gladly get them to you to be reused.

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Nearly two years ago our state was shut down, our schools were closed, and our economy was decimated. The results speak for themselves. One-size-fits-all Albany mandates didn’t work under Governor Cuomo, they don’t work under Governor Hochul. We’re fed up and it’s past time to return to governance based on facts and collaboration with our local governments to end the one-size fits all models, which serves everyone badly. 

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Governor Hochul is currently in the process of requesting legislation to sustain the authority of state health officials to impose a mask mandate, if the appeals court upholds the judge’s order blocking the measure the mask mandate on the basis that only the legislature can impose state compliances. Mask mandates are proven to be government overreach that contributed to the pandemic’s harmful impacts on children’s’ development. Isn’t this the rabbit hole Cuomo took us through? To reinstate this unlimited power now would put us back to where no one is capable of moving forward with their lives or businesses. Contact your Assemblyman Chris Friend, and State Senator Fred Akshar; there should be no authorization to hand over their job to the Governor.

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A recent response from State Senator Fred Akshar regarding mandates: “The Senate Republican Conference has been calling for an end to all of these one-size-fits-all, top-down, politically-driven mandates. See www.nysenate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/andrew-j-lanza/ny-senate-republicans-no-more-mandates. You can count on opposition to all of the COVID-related bills that the Downstate Democrats are pushing. It’s government overreach at its worst.”

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I want to thank the crew from NYSEG when we recently had a gas leak in our house. We were told it would probably take about one hour to get a crew out there and they were there in about 10 minutes and did an excellent job diagnosing the problem. Thanks again to NYSEG!

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Kudos to whoever is raising the old Wheeler Homestead in Apalachin. It can only improve West Main Street. If only they could eradicate all the old cars on East Main Street, it would be a big help. 

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I do not understand mask mandates. Wear one or not, your decision. If they really worked, you’re protected. If they don’t, why wear one? Please explain.

 

National Political Viewpoints

I don’t know that much about politics, but I do know that President Biden had something to do with the flat tire I had last week.

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Has anyone with a brain heard that there is a tremendous shortage of workers in this country that is causing our economy to stagnate? What better reason is there to open our borders to all the immigrants looking to work and better their lives?

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A former UN official says the United States’ excessive military is not for defensive purposes as we have been brainwashed to believe, but purely offensive. We were warned about the U.S. military gaining too much power by Eisenhower, at this point they find the imaginary enemy under every rock; no proof, they just make the allegation, anything to justify their existence. The 2022 military budget’s latest increase is another issue that is ignored. The U.S. acts as the world police with over 800 bases in 135 countries; how many countries has the U.S. invaded, bombed, or sanctioned since 9/11? How many have attacked the U.S., none; the puppet government we have put in place are failures, still fighting between themselves; and then there is Afghanistan, after 20 years.

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Who are the Republicans in the Senate representing, the citizens that put them in office or the GOP? The Impeachment Trial of Trump is an embarrassment to the country. They took an oath and it has been ignored as just another minor roadblock to defend Trump. President Trump has blocked subpoenas of witnesses and documents and the GOP is defending his action, the Founding Fathers are turning in their graves. We have a right to know just how dishonest our President is and it will never happen under the current administration. If asked how I would describe Trump it would include words like conman, liar, cheat and bully, not the traits we need to lead our country.

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The U.S. economic terrorism causing humanitarian crises is nothing to be proud of, unfortunately our federal representatives are so focused on world domination at all cost that human lives are merely collateral damage. They need to learn how to use positive incentives instead of maximum pressure, death and destruction to any sovereign country that dares defy the U.S. dictators. Then we have the U.S. continuing meddling in the domestic affairs of sovereign countries, how dare they do the same to the U.S.? Think about how much good could happen in the U.S. if the Washington DC swamp monsters focused on the U.S. citizens instead of world domination at all cost; of course that would mean the military could be reduced to at least half, closing all military bases not fully funded by the occupying country, and get some pointers from Russia on how to develop relationships and trade agreements instead of destroying anything or anyone we can’t control.

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So to all the Republicans who have been weeping and wailing about the election being stolen from Trump, when will you open your eyes and realize that you have been had? Every day more and more information is coming out about the coordinated attempt by Trump and his sycophants to overthrow a DULY elected government. Peter Navarro, a Trump crony, clearly outlined just how they had hoped to STEAL the election through misinformation, fear, and outright lies. And if that failed, they wanted Mike Pence to simply ‘OVERTURN THE ELECTION. Really? It was sickening to listen to this man lay out in stark terms how they intended to steal the Presidency, no matter how American voted. They knew months in advance that they were going to LOSE, and put into motion a plan to stage a coup. This is the most disgusting, traitorous plan that has ever been perpetrated in America since the civil war. Don’t tell me you love America and seek its destruction just because you didn’t like the results of an election THAT YOU LOST. If you truly loved this country you would have started working to win the NEXT election, just as we did when we lost in 2016. 

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Proof that Trump is not a great thinker – He insists a vice-president can overturn an election, blissfully unaware of the fact that it would include letting Harris overturn the 2024 election. 

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Congratulations Mr. 46th President of the United States of America. Your policies are working and some at warp speed. Most Americans felt it would take longer to become a third world country and as you stated, you are just beginning.

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I cannot believe that Biden has abandoned the rules of law and he is not protecting the people of this country. He needs to be impeached!

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I see the comments where the republicans are finally coming out of their holes. Tucker Carlson saying we should be supporting the Russians. Tucker Carlson supports Trump like you can’t imagine. He supports Trump, the republicans support Trump, and Trump likes the Russians. I thought the Russians were communists? And you people are calling the democrats communists? Wake up!

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Newsflash! The idiocracy continues. We have known reserves of oil and natural gas to last over 1,000 years. Electric cars and electric home heating will require how much lithium cobalt nickel and manganese and other rare materials, and which country will supply them? Which energy source will be used to recharge these batteries? We are being funneled into total disaster by elites who are making billions of dollars on a big boondoggle.

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Does anybody out there really pay attention to Dr. Fauci anymore?

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Hey democrats, with Bill Marr to see what a cesspool your party has become, maybe there’s hope for the rest of you. 

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Someone wrote last week about Jeanine Pirro. I guess she doesn’t have her regular show anymore, but I heard her say she was going to be on the 5, which is 5:00 on Fox during the week.

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Wouldn’t it be great if our country had strong, sensible leadership? A leadership that actually knew the difference between Baltimore and the Baltic states?

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How many business hours and millions of dollars worth of weapons are given to other countries that are hostile to us? Why are we doing this? Get out of the United Nations! Get out of it! If you want to help a country then help the country, not the United Nations. The United Nations is the Enemy! China, Russia, they stop everything. Save the money and spend it in better ways.

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Hey, all you Biden fans, how’s this policy of no jail, no bail working out for you? Unbelievable!

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Daniel Defoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year is an account from 1665, when a yearlong visitation of the bubonic plague decimated London.)  All too much of it seemed eerily familiar; stores shutting down, nightlife curtailed, people locked in their houses, others looking desperately to none-too-wise figures for any explanation but a reasonable one about what was happening to them. And so it went then, and so it’s largely gone now. “…[N]ow led by their fright to extremes of folly… they ran to conjurers and witches, and all sorts of deceivers to know what should become of them (who fed their fears, and kept them always alarmed and awake on purpose to delude them and pick their pockets)… running after quacks and Monte Banks… for medicines and remedies; storing themselves with such multitudes of pills, potions and preservatives, as they were called, that they not only spent their money, but even poisoned themselves beforehand for fear of the poison of the infection.” Fast forward to 2022. I am laughing as I realize that the follies of 1665 are alive and well today! And we think we are so sophisticated, enlightened, and “modern”. Just reading column, with no attribution for the talented contributors, and here we are, as ignorant and gullible as we were seven centuries ago! It might help to read from Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., “When evil men plot, good men must plan, when evil men burn and bomb, good men must build and bind. When evil men shout ugly words of hatred, good men must commit themselves to the glories of love. Where evil men would seek to perpetuate an unjust status quo, good men must seek to bring into being a real order of justice.”