Readers’ Column for the week of January 1, 2023

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. 

(Attached to the notice: This gift card is provided to you from the Tioga County Senior Citizens Foundation and the Helping Hands Food Pantry as part of our efforts to brighten your 2022 holiday season.)

To Hollenbeck’s Grocery, Helping Hands Food Pantry and the Tioga County Senior Citizens, thank you for the $25 gift cards and food baskets for Christmas in the Richford area. We are very grateful.

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Hello, I am calling about the job that the village did on Erie Street and some of these other streets. What they did they were going so fast that they blew the snow right up into people’s yards, right over onto the sidewalks. On Erie Street they didn’t blow it the other way where there weren’t any sidewalks. They could have pushed it over towards the railroad tracks. The Tioga County Boys & Girls Club, I don’t know whether they’ll ever get plowed out down there. It’s just terrible. Something needs to be done about this. That’s awful! The kids can’t get into the Boys & Girls Club. 

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Don’t waste another year of your life being addicted to drugs and alcohol. Ask for help. This is your year to be set free in 2023. There is a higher power that is willing and able to help you stay sober, one day at a time, for the rest of your life. Remember, there is nothing so bad that a drink or drug will make it worse.

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New York State mail trucks go electric by 2028. Don’t expect a delivery in the winter. The price of a stamp will be $10 because the vehicles have to be kept in heated garages. Who is this better for? As usual, no true foresight, forcing everyone to go electric. You need to look to the future. What’s it going to do to our water? All these batteries going into the dumps and all the chemicals going into the water; so we can breathe, but we can’t drink. 

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So I just saw the New York State Assembly gave them selves a $32,000 a year pay raise. For what? The crappy job they’re doing? New York State, along with California and Illinois, is probably the worst state in the country. New York has become a dump run by liberals, we are overtaxed and they are underperforming, yet they elected another liberal unqualified governor. Unbelievable!

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I’d like to say thank you to Lockheed Martin and your people that donated so much money to Wreaths across the America. I couldn’t get into the cemetery when I was supposed to, so I hope that they were able to. Also, there was participation at Woodlawn Cemetery, but it said Owego. N.Y. I’m not familiar with that. There is one in Elmira, N.Y. that’s called the Woodlawn Cemetery. I wonder if that’s the one that they meant. Thank you again, Lockheed Martin.

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Everybody talks about the bullying and the damage it does. Well, what about the situation with Albany? Why do they need to get rid of the Native American names? They want the Owego Apalachin School District to get rid of the Indian name and get rid of other Native American names. That, to me, is bullying. We should stand up to Albany’s bullying tactics and say no.

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Hi, I’m wondering why the Owego Pennysaver hasn’t covered a state audit that finds issues with new Tioga shared services building. Number two, I would like to ask who’s in charge of the DRI money? Is it one person? Is it a committee? I’d like to know who’s in charge of the purse strings and I’d like to know where a resident of Owego could go online to find where every dollar has been spent. Thank you.

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I saw on the evening news last night that the New York State Assembly voted to give themselves a $32,000 raise! I think the voters of New York should have been given an opportunity to approve such a raise.

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I hope the Nichols village code enforcement, or whoever is responsible, are warning people about failure to clear their sidewalks after the last snowstorm. I know it was hard, but if my 80-year-old neighbor can do it so can everybody else. There are some treacherous spots out there.  

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“Water and air, the two essential fluids on which all life depends, have become global garbage cans.” – Jacques Yves Cousteau

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Many thanks this holiday season for your beautifully decorated Christmas trees for O Tannenbaum Showcase and your generous donations of lovely items for the Gift Shop at the Tioga County Museum on Front Street, Owego! The Showcase was a great success and the expanded gift shop was well attended by enthusiastic and appreciative shoppers. The Museum is open Tuesdays through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and the Gift shop will remain open for your shopping pleasure through the middle of January 2023. All proceeds help fund the Museum’s projects during the year. Call (607) 687-2460 for more information.

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Found: plush toy / pillow on DuBois Road near Guiles Road on Monday, Dec. 26. It appears to be new and is not damaged. Call (607) 687-0143 and describe the item to claim it.

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Does anyone in the Town of Owego Highway Department know anything about repairing sinking manhole covers? The Terrace is full of them. Drawing white UFPO lines around them is as good as putting up a bump sign and not fixing the road. 

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Our recent cold temperatures are an invention by Climate Deniers. This wasn’t the worst storm in 50 years. Temperatures are at record highs. The science is settled. The flamingos and palm trees on the Riverwalk speak for themselves.

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The Village of Newark Valley is having a Budget Work Session on Tuesday, Jan. 3, at 6:30 p.m. at the Municipal Building. The proposed tax increase is 7.9%. Maybe with a good turnout we, the taxpayers and residents, can change that! 

 

National Political Viewpoints

So, lying Joe claimed to have gained over one million new jobs in the last quarter. Well, it turns out the actual number was 10,000. He was only a million off. More fake news to build up a phony illegitimate President.

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Here’s your sign. We have a President who is mentally and physically unfit to hold the office of being President. We have a country in chaos, and the politicians and big business and those with lots of money are doing nothing about it. This is their plan, our great country is diminishing, and Biden is a puppet. It all boils down to money and power. 

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I heard Joe’s going to Mexico to waste some more money on this Green New Deal crap, but he’s not going to stop at the border. He has no idea what his priority should be. Well, he does, and that’s why he’s doing what he’s doing. What a crook.

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I’m grateful I don’t live in El Paso, Texas. The citizens there say that the illegal migrants are showing up on their porches and knocking on their doors asking for food, asking for money. Now is that a way to live? Biden must go to that border. He must shut that southern border down. I don’t understand why he won’t. Oh, yes I do, because he has no answers. He created this mess and he turned away from it as if it’s not a mess.

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What more do you need to say about Democrats? They are outraged and leaving Twitter because Twitter will now allow free speech from conservatives. It’s amazing seeing how the standard is so double.

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When Trump goes to jail for the insurrection, which I kind of doubt the first place, they ought to take these 121 Republican senators and congressmen along with them. They went along for the ride. They knew it was going on, but let’s not forget about the lawyers and the election workers. I didn’t go as far as saying some Secret Service agents, but they all should be put in jail; every one of them. Otherwise you’ve got 121 representatives that are, by the way, reelected, so they’re going to be around for a while. Trumpism isn’t going to go away unless those idiots do. God Bless America.

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I see there are less and less Trump supporters out there. All the banners are being thrown in the trash more than ever before. About time you people snapped out of it. Nobody likes to be told they’re wrong. Nobody likes being told they’ve been conned and fooled and duped, but if the shoe fits.

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By the way, Democrats, the real insurrection is the planned invasion of our southern border that you allow, not Jan. 6; Jan. 6 was not an insurrection.

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I am so sick and tired of that Jan. 6 garbage. It’s just the smokescreen. Let it go!

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I would like to say congratulations to Joe Biden, the third Democratic president in nearly 90 years, where his party did not lose a single senate seat in the midterm elections. Senate Democratic incumbents went a perfect 14 to zero in the midterms. That’s the best performance for them or a president of any party since 1934. Democrats have gained one Senate seat and two governor seats. It’s the first time since FDR that a president’s party has gained in both in a midterm. Republicans gained only three seats in the house, a very slim majority. Most people were fed up with this Make America Great Again movement. Midterm elections failed to see the sweeping republican victories. The big red wave was just a little pink stream.

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The latest controversy to embroil the Republicans is the revelation that newly elected Congressman George Santos promoted a largely fictional resume. Lets face it, all politicians lie to some degree but then there are a few that want to see their name in lights and get some kind of award for “Mendacious Man of the Year”. If we set to high a bar for honesty for our elected officials, all three branches of government would become a chaotic version of musical chairs.

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“Other documents, released from the House Committee on Ways and Means concerning Trump’s taxes, suggest corruption was widespread under Trump. By law, the Internal Revenue Service must audit a president’s tax returns. It audited President Barack Obama’s taxes while he was in office and has audited President Joe Biden’s taxes as well during his term. But it did not audit former president Trump’s taxes for the first two years he was in office and finally began an audit on the same day the chair of the Ways and Means Committee, Representative Richard E. Neal (D-MA), asked for information about the returns.” — Heather Cox Richardson, Dec. 22, 2022. Fox News is constantly reporting that there is one set of rules for Republicans and another for Democrats. I agree.

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Okay Biden fans, let’s look at a few of Joe’s accomplishments so far: rising crime rate; inflation; an out of control border situation with illegal aliens, drugs, and cartel operations pouring in, and still has not visited the border. “There are more important things.” There was the Afghanistan disaster; the depletion of Strategic Petroleum Reserves, petroleum dependence, and job loss due to pipeline shutdowns; Whelan is still in a Russian prison; and we have out of control National debt. Did I leave out anything for which Joe should be applauded?

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I will forever wonder how many lives were lost, harmed or destroyed by the lies and censorship of Fauci, Biden and his minions, big tech and the lying liberal media, Big Pharmaceutical, doctors, politicians and Teachers Unions that wanted control of We The People and to line their pockets with government funding and favors. We must never forget what this democratic government DID! They have BLOOD on their hands! Not to mention the fentanyl killing our people because of the open border policy.

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This goes out to the imbecile who suggested Biden’s unemployment is lower than Trump’s. Do you realize that most people have extinguished their unemployment and hence don’t count on the total? Of course you wouldn’t know that, being a blind democrat. As for the never Trumpers, I voted for him twice, but I can easily point out his faults. But to say he is guilty because he didn’t pay taxes, did you know he took a loss in 2020 and wouldn’t have paid any? Of course not. You hate Trump, but the only reason you can come up with is, “Well, the media said it, so he must be guilty.” The level of stupidity in this country is astounding. If we don’t start focusing on the real threat to our country, we are forever lost.  

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Surely last week’s comment regarding “America’s economy improved more in Joe Biden’s first two months” was an attempt at humor. Anyone with an IQ bigger than my shoe size (which is 8, by the way) knows enough to fact check actual numbers rather than listen to the “twisted fairytales”, outright falsehoods, and “fuzzy math” coming from the White House. By the way, far too many folks are still sitting home on their duffs collecting what is, by any other name, or however you want to count it, unemployment because the taxpayers via St. Joe are paying them more to sit home than to go back to work. Many businesses, small and large, are still desperate for help. So forget eating in your favorite mom and pop restaurant Monday through Thursday, or running in Wal-Mart for a fever reducer for your kid at 1 a.m. (oh, that’s right, what fever reducer) ever again. Thanks Joe!

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My dad was a cop. He would be sickened and ashamed of today’s corrupt FBI that he admired and worked with back in the J. Edgar Hoover days! 

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It is Wednesday afternoon and I had the TV on, but had to turn it off as I was becoming physically ill. Our President was giving a speech, saying we can’t let the Ukrainian people be cold this winter so “we’re” going to fork over additional billions of dollars. Really? How about our own thousands of homeless? How about us few remaining working folks edging ever closer to the abyss; paying our taxes for BILLIONS already given to Ukraine, while we turn our thermostats down into the 50’s and/or go without necessities so we can pay our oil / gas / electric bill before the utility cuts us off? Enough is enough. Charity begins at home. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.