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. 

 

Thank you to my neighbors in the Village and Town of Newark Valley and surrounding area from THE GOOD SHEPHERD B&B in Newark Valley for your patronage over the last 19 years. I have sold and it is time to downsize and move on to new adventures. It has been a pleasure to serve and know your families and friends. June Esler, Innkeeper. 

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Here are some new entries to the kind people of Owego – Doctor Cook, John Jacobi, Officer Mark Starzak, David and Carol Ostrander, and Lazarus Gehring.

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Hi, I’m looking to rent an apartment in Tioga or Broome County. I have excellent credit. I have good references. I’m employed. Have a driver’s license, all the above, but I also have a dog and a cat. My number (607) 239-7713 if anybody is interested in renting to somebody that is dependable. 

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Putting stolen oil in a subdivision, you should be embarrassed.

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Of all the problems in New York, it’s good to see that our liberal Governor Hochul has her priorities straight. This week her priority is to change the word salesman to salesperson. Yeah, that’ll solve things. 

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When choosing a profession there is none better than one where you work 185 days a year, good medical benefits, and a decent state pension for your golden years, plus a decent salary for your 1/2-year of service.

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Happy belated 70th anniversary to Joanne and Ken Brinkman, Apalachin. Thank you.

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I wish you would bring back the political section in this column. That was the best part of the whole paper.

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When local funeral directors go to pick up a deceased body at a person’s home, they expect a family member or members to help with loading the deceased. The family is already feeling bad enough. I think the funeral director should have enough employees on call to do this. Thank you. 

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What do you think of Hochul’s nonsense ad on TV? I want to keep all New Yorkers safe. Sure she does. She wants to take your guns and let the criminals bust in your house and maybe kill one of your family members, maybe you. She’s no good, another Gestapo with all the rules, regulations and laws, nonstop. More laws. How many has she written already? She’s not even been elected yet. I’m telling you, she’s no good. It’s time to run her out of Dodge. She’s part of tyrant little Cuomo, get rid of her. We need a governor that stands with the people. Not all these laws, not all these taxes, someone that wants to help the people, and she is not it. Vote her out!

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I would like to congratulate the team that put together the ALS benefit in Richford on Saturday. I believe this was the first time having this benefit. It was so well organized, good food, plenty to keep the family busy, and fantastic raffles. I am sure a lot of time and effort went into organizing this event. Great job folks. Hope to see you back in the future.

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I see where there was some effort in cleaning up around the Newark Valley village barn. My question is, why are the pipes that have been lying there for quite a while, not stacked, that should not be the way we treat our tax dollars. If and when it’s done, maybe they could get the brush off the building that houses the garbage truck. To quote the Mayor, “This is just a bit of logic to possibly understand why we commit so much time, effort and dollars to the infrastructure owned by you and us, the taxpayer.”

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Attention veterans! Need assistance with anything veteran related? Go see Grace, Mike or Bonnie at their new location in the DMV building. They are professional, passionate, courteous, understanding, friendly, discrete, and the best! Call them at (607) 687-8228, the Tioga County Veterans Service Agency. They are veterans serving veterans.

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Here, here! Candor taxpayers! We need a new Highway Supervisor. Is there anyone who has knowledge of fixing roads? A knowledgeable man or woman who will use taxpayer dollars correctly? We need a person who won’t lie to us and will use the money for the right reasons, buy equipment that’s needed to do these jobs to fix the roads. Fix the roads that need fixing. Candor has more roads in the township besides Honeypot Road. That’s not the most important road here in this town. Start fixing Union Hill Road; yes, it’s a seasonal road, but hey it’s supposed to be maintained from April to December, so fix it! Also, start taking care of roads that need a little TLC; oil and stone them if need be. It’s time for new blood in this department.

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The Apalachin United Methodist Church’s “Clothing Closet” will be closed from Monday, Sept. 19 through Friday, Sept. 23 so that we can transition to our Fall / Winter clothing line. We will reopen on Monday, Sept. 26 at 9:30 a.m. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

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I’m reading the comments about parking on Central Avenue and I am aware of the issue and the root cause of the ticketing. This probably has been suggested, but as a community perhaps we could find ways to assist the tenants with parking. I note that the Walgreens parking lot is never at capacity and the north end of it has at least 15 spots. If the owner / manager of the establishment were willing to rent out spots monthly at a reasonable rate it could be a win/win. The people who live near Walgreens certainly patronize the business, so why not give back to the community. It could be the same offer from CVS. Let’s look for ways to help our community. 

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Shout out to the Town of Newark Valley’s Highway Department. I’ve traveled all 66 miles of your paved and dirt roads. Not one is as bumpy as Route 38 from Owego to Richford.

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Thanks to the reader who reported the latest scam via email, among many. I’ve had an email account for donkey’s years. Words to the wise: when I first set up an email account I was advised NOT to use my name! Legitimate companies purposely will address you by your name, so you know it’s from them; never a generic greeting such as, “Hello dear.” I use Yahoo mail. At the front of every email there is a stylized symbol; CVS is red, with white letters and the CVS heart. Amazon is the trademark smile. Persons are issued one that contains their initials on a stylized, recognizable and consistent background. I put anything suspicious immediately in “spam” and don’t open it. IF IT SOUNDS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE IT PROBABLY IS! If I’m fairly certain an email is legit but little warning bells are still nagging, I call the company directly before responding in any way to the email. I’ve been pleasantly surprised, but more often than not have had my suspicions confirmed. The companies are always grateful to hear from you; their reputation is on the line and they do their best to shut these jerks down if they know about the scam.

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A final shout out to the Town of Owego Highway Department about Mead Road and Hakes Road. Thank you, I guess, for giving me what I originally asked for – roads that are in minimum usable condition. Some of Mead Road was graded flat, and some of the ruts were filled in. Of course the ditches were filled in, too. When (if) it rains the road will be rutted again as the road has no crown. Although you did fill in some of the worst pits on Hakes Road, 90% of the road remains in pathetic condition. Risk of vehicle or personal injury should be expected if you exceed 10 mph on this road. A suggestion, why don’t you take a short field trip to Pennsylvania and check out their dirt roads? They are far superior to yours.

 

National Political Viewpoints

I am a registered democrat. Maybe some one can explain to me why the F.B.I. did nothing when the protesters were outside of the supreme court justices’ homes? If I am correct, this is a federal offense; or when an assassination attempt was made on Justice Kavanaugh? But none of these concern the democratic party, it would interfere with the Jan. 6 hearings, and Hillary’s phony Russia collusion scam. I propose that we change the name of the F.B.I. to the KGB; is that not what the left is planning for there social agenda? 

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So after Liz Cheney was embarrassed in her primary by 40 percentage points, she went on TV to say there is nothing she won’t do, nothing, to stop them with Trump. Now this is one of the people in charge of the Jan. 6 witch-hunt committee. Isn’t that pretty much sum up what this committee is all about? A bunch of people that don’t like Trump throwing anything they can against the wall. They’re trying to get him in trouble. She should be embarrassed, and her career is over. I guess that’s enough reasons right there.

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This is meant for a guy that left a comment about displaying hateful Joe Biden banners. Well, I don’t believe in the Confederate flag either, but Joe is not a nice person as you’re portraying. The only thing he wants to do is destroy America. Maybe if you believe in God so much, where is He now with all the trouble? The new World Order is a sign of the devil.

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Why is Mayor Adams of New York City getting involved in this war of words with Governor Abbott in Texas about all their illegal immigrants being bumped to New York City? Where is Kathy Hochul in all of this? She’s probably too busy being at the football stadium setting up for the season with her husband’s hot dog stand. She doesn’t care about New York. Vote her out come November. Vote Lee Zeldin for governor.

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So as it turns out, Joe has just spent half a million dollars building a wall around his house. Is it to keep out the illegal aliens, Joe? How come we can’t have one on our border, but you can have one around your house? Whatever. 

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News flash. Mandating the end of fossil fuels and printing more money is obviously insane and is causing tremendous inflation. China and India are building coal-fired energy plants to the tune of over five per week. Their people will have electricity and heat for decades, but not the U.S.A. No more refineries will be built until the Marxist Democrats are driven from power. There has been no climate catastrophe in five, 10 or 20 years. Everyone supports clean energy, but we need a comprehensive plan on how to get there in perhaps 30 to 50 years. In the meantime, we need fossil fuels and not birdbrain fear mongers doing energy planning. Throw the bums out in November and make America first again.

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So the CDC has finally admitted that they were pretty much wrong about everything they said and did about COVID; the masking, the isolation, keeping kids home from school. They blew it all. Look at the damage they did to this country. All the fear mongering so the Democrats could try to control us. You think it was coincidental? I don’t.

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So some kids are stupid enough to take out a $50,000 or $60,000 per year loan to go to college and now slow Joe wants us to pay for that? Are you kidding me? What were you thinking when you got the loan? Unbelievable.

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Thanks to the Donald, oil companies now hold millions more acres in leases. Many as low as $2 an acre; they are not drilling; yet they are demanding the government for even more leases. Many are part of parks and monuments and indigenous peoples homes. Imagine standing on the rim of the Grand Canyon and hearing not silence, not birds, not rushing water, but the thump, thump, thump of oil wells, not fresh air. 

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Trump claims he was elected in 2020. That makes twice, so he cannot be elected again – 22nd amendment. 

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Friends, Romans, Democrats and Republicans, not one of you perceived, were aware of, or desired the Feds to hire another 87,000 auditors at a cost of $919,540 each ($80B/87,000). This more than doubles the IRS employees to 167,000. The IRS already had 15,000 auditors. The total number is equal to six and a half Army divisions. We have two types of law, civil and criminal law. The tax code is civil law and that is the IRS’s to administer. Criminal matters of the tax code are the jurisdiction of the Justice Department (contradiction in terms here). Depending whose numbers you use, the tax code is between 12,000 and 72,000 pages; 72,000 is the CCH count and therefore most accurate. This does not include the legal precedent. Believe me, the IRS has near zero understanding of the tax code. They will not answer the phone and they hide in their offices. A flood of 87,000 untrained, unskilled, auditors operating on a quota system. The power granted the IRS is a crime against you as it permits seizure of property without due process of law. The IRS will exhaust you in the court of legal warfare; you lose if you win or lose. Untrained, unrestrained, unknowledgeable, unaccountable, and many unethical bureaucrats with guns is a threat to democracy and freedom. These 87,000 will morph into incompetent Fed tax attorneys on a quota system. For the gun control advocates, giving guns to the IRS is like giving idiots guns; remember Waco, Ruby Ridge, the seizure of Elian Gonzalez, and now the 3 a.m. raids of the FBI and Justice Department.

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Wondering why so many of the conservatives that are forever championing free speech and complaining about being stifled then turn around and accuse people exercising those rights of hating America. Do they think others can only comment in support of what the accuser believes? But then it isn’t free speech. And that’s why I’m wondering.

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Dr. Oz, running for the Senate in Pennsylvania, made a variety of comments in his medical announcements about eliminating human waste products. This is something very important, of course, but now as a political candidate you can imagine the fun many people are having on Twitter, such as this one: “Always good to have a solid movement politically. If you’re running, you have to get regular, even soft voters to support with every fiber they have. Thank you doctor, for trying to fix things from the bottom up. We’re tired of being number 2.”

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“Following the FBI’s seizure of 11 sets of classified documents from Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property, one former White House staffer says Trump’s tendency to show off secret information was well known during his time in office. According to former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham, the now 76-year-old Trump treated classified information as ‘his own shiny toy he’s showing off to his friends to impress them’ — and his eagerness to share the info, she added, often trumped any fear that it might put lives in danger.” Former White House Press Secretary Says Classified Information Was Like a ‘Shiny New Toy’ to Donald Trump. — Virginia Chamlee, Aug. 22, 2022.

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Liz Cheney has my vote for president. She’s a true American patriot, and has the backbone and intelligence to perform a superb job as president. 

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Any one who thinks there is a need to more than double the number of IRS agents surely should do some serious thinking. The most employees recorded within the IRS were 107,000 in the 90s. Currently at 80,000, the IRS is a dysfunctional organization, despite automation. Only 3% of the 87,000 new employees will be used to produce a “Service”. The remainder will be hunting you down for nickels and dimes. They are and will be authorized to carry guns; $80,000,000,000 (BILLION) equals $919,000 annually for each of the 87,000 bureaucrats who will be incompetent because there are not enough people with accounting degrees to fill the slots. Remember Biden trying to require any bank transaction greater than $600 be reported to the IRS? Soon a grocery store visit will be $600. Be careful to ensure that money from your garage sale, whether more or less than $600, is by cash transaction only. The IRS currently has 5,000 firearms and 5,000,000 rounds of ammunition. Hence the 97% of Americans earning under $400,000 must all be tax cheats. Soon we will be like Greece, where cheating on taxes is an art form. 

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Ronald Reagan’s question to voters? He asked voters if they were better off now than four years ago. It’s only been two years with a Democratic President, but also a Democrat controlled House and Senate. You get to ask the same question before you send another Democrat to Washington to support the next two years of Biden’s inflationary spending and legislation acts. Are you better off now than you were two years ago?

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Would it have been wiser to allocate 87,000 personnel to the overwhelmed and harassed Border Patrol instead of hiring more IRS agents? With having a great many less millionaires and billionaires to audit, the IRS new hires will have to audit the people who are and do make up the majority of taxpayers in the United States; the poor and the middle class. When voting this November, keep this in mind and remember who voted for this boondoggle and how many of them are Democrat candidates who are up for reelection this November. It’s time to vote for policies you want, not parties you have had. Not just Federal elections, but the duplication of like policies here in New York, which are putting the squeeze of how, when and where, and the dollars to be spent invoking them on the taxpayers to support them. The same like minded Democrats who grow government, not because they do a better job, but how well it is self-supporting of those who live and work in and for just the government.