77 Comments
User's avatar
mike parwana's avatar

It is ironic that we were listening to NCPR yesterday evening when the Emergency Alert sounded and a tornado warning was broadcast for a swathe of St Lawrence county. We were struck by the terrible sound quality, barely understandable, almost as if engineers were in the middle of an upgrade and left with an ancient backup. Makes more sense now.

Stefanik hated NCPR because they caught her in a blatant lie on tape and on video. She called for de-funding, so I imagine she is happy.

Also yesterday, I had a “promoted” ad from Constantino that informed me Dan Stec is a Trump Hating Liberal:

“Dan Stec wouldn’t even sign an endorsement letter in 2024 because he’s a Trump Hating Liberal who now, all of a sudden, wants to cash in on President Trump’s Sacrifice.”

Sure, Dan is lazy and he, no doubt, wants to cash in on Stefanik’s departure, but Constantino is a nutter. It doesn’t make me sad at all that MAGA is eating its own.

Expand full comment
Carol L. Clark's avatar

Thank you for this information. I was blissfully unaware that there were tornado warnings up north. And Elise? How could it be possible not to catch her in a lie?

Expand full comment
Ken Tingley's avatar

There were so, so many of them.

Expand full comment
Kevin Robbins's avatar

I wouldn’t mind so much Republicans running extremists if there wasn’t a chance of them being elected. Marge Greene or Paul Gosar would have a good chance in the North Country.

Expand full comment
Carol L. Clark's avatar

Frightening, isn't it?

Expand full comment
Anthony Galligani's avatar

I didn't know that Dan Stec was a liberal. I saw Dan Stec signs and ... stupid me ... assumed he was a Trumper. But now that I know he's a Trump hating liberal ... like me ... I'll support him when I can.

Expand full comment
Ken Tingley's avatar

Sarcasm intended, right?

Expand full comment
Tanya Goldstein's avatar

All we can do is keep showing up in whatever ways we can. I can admit to being a little scared, because the hate that is projected onto Democrats is so irrational. There is no reasoning with someone who is in the grip of such a great delusion.

Expand full comment
Catherine's avatar

In conversations over the weekend, the same question was asked, to what end is all this government slashing? I said, that is the answer. The end. The end of representative government. We will pay for any "services" that are offered for sale and the rest will be gone, sold off. I worry about the lack of humanity, greed and cruelty exhibited from all aspects of this authoritarian administration and how these disgusting traits are spreading to the population. What has changed here in just a few weeks is just the tip of what we will experience in the next months and years. I hope we get to keep the "free and open"internet where we can at least have a common space to express our thoughts and opinions, but with the unfair clamp down on college campuses, attacks on the media, the courts and lawyers, who knows.

Expand full comment
Susan Andrews's avatar

I thought if you as I was composing my statement for tonight’s Town Board mtg, Catherine…I included notes in the comment section after I got home…

Expand full comment
Catherine's avatar

I am humbled Susan. Thank you.

Expand full comment
Ethel Weeks's avatar

Another excellent piece of well researched reporting, Ken. NCPR must inform its North Country audience again and again on the issue of losing committed funds in direct and simple terms. Personally, I follow weather forecast directly from the NOAA website, house of the National Weather Service. NOAA was ordered over the weekend to fire thousands of professionals from its workforce. Such action by the current administration is a flagrant attack on the well-being of the American citizenry. If anyone wonders why, don't reply to me, ask Google ... "NOAA and emergency weather alerts?" It may be time to think about what is being done with our tax dollars. What are we funding?

Expand full comment
Carol L. Clark's avatar

We're funding Trump and Musk. They recently stated that they want to visit the gold in Fort Knox. Wonder why? And will they be checked on their way in and again on their way out?

Expand full comment
Kathleen Jones's avatar

Proud to say that I am one North Country resident who did NOT vote for Trump!

Expand full comment
Wendy Aronson's avatar

I'm another! Both times.

Expand full comment
Linda Walker's avatar

And where is all this „saved“ money going? Where is the paper trail for that…

Expand full comment
Paula Collins's avatar

Interesting use of the word "tribe."

Expand full comment
Paula Collins's avatar

This whole idea that Democrats wish to transition children is so "weird", as Tim Walz would put it.

Expand full comment
Wendy Aronson's avatar

It's a particularly insane meme to make people think the Democrats are a threat to our children. It's kind of like execution of the Salem "witches."

Expand full comment
Joe's avatar

One comment Ken. The Trump Administration's disdain is not limited to the North Country. Folks from coast to coast, including the country's heartland. Tariffs, layoffs, gutting bedrock environmental laws, dismantling foreign aid, weakening NATO and turning its back on Ukraine and so much more hurts all Americans, republicans, democrats and independents. It is a time like no other, with the exception of the Civil War. I hope that at least some of the those who voted for Trump are feeling remorse and recognize the reckless behavior of the lunatic president

Expand full comment
Xochitl27's avatar

See the polls. Trump voters may be worried that he is doing things that will cause higher inflation or hurt their businesses or farms or maybe lower their 401Ks, but otherwise they are happy with everything going on. He is owning the libs!

Expand full comment
Bob's avatar

Trump and his supporters are learning to love inflation, high grocery prices, high housing costs, and lower retirement funds. Not to mention loving measles and TB, and higher car prices from the Trump tax. I guess all that is called "owning the libs."

Expand full comment
Ken Tingley's avatar

Just read in the New Orleans paper this morning that measles vaccinations have slipped to 92 percent in the state. Guess where the next outbreak will be?

Expand full comment
Ken Tingley's avatar

As I've said before, when it comes to Trump I think it will be very hard for his voters to admit they were wrong because they were told over and over and over and over...

Expand full comment
Bob's avatar
Mar 18Edited

The question for me is not what the fully-committed Trump voters will do, but rather, what independent and swing voters will do. That is, those voters who can change their votes and their support because they feel betrayed rather than wrong. Add to this the more than one-third of Americans who did not vote in 2024. Will they be persuaded to support an alternative to Trump as their economic lives deteriorate?

My overall sense is that, in the past decade, Trump has reached the ceiling of his support, even in the face of Trump’s consistent propaganda. It’s never really expanded to a majority. Further, while there’s a solid, cult-like core of support, I think there’s also a portion of pretty soft support that can erode over time.

At least, this is what the optimistic part of me thinks….

Expand full comment
Carol L. Clark's avatar

What an extraordinary collection of news topics, Ken.

No emergency broadcasting? Where was Our Elise? Isn't she still voting? She hasn't yet given up her seat so what's she waiting for?

This just adds fuel to the fire that made Trumpistan defund NOAA so people will no longer get free public warnings about the weather, whether it'll be sunny or dump 36 inches of snow on you. Like so many "conservatives" who want to privatize everything in sight. Imagine, you'll have to pay some rich bloke for weather reports while his underlings labor at the lowest possible wages to get that news out. I expect subscription services like Microsoft and other tech firms invented after they saw they could corral so much more money with subscriptions.

No action on the conflict of interest? Politics takes such a long time in an overwhelmingly one party locale.

I didn't know Dan Stec was even a Democrat. /s

The Cortland Standard closes after 157 years of publishing. Cortland goes dark. America shrivels.

We could sum up all you've provided as the oncoming darkness descending upon the United States. All to further enrich the "owners" of the country.

There was never a day in my life that I even imagined that the United States of America would fall so low.

Has Elise stayed silent on the Canadian boycott? No surprise there.

Expand full comment
Peter Roland's avatar

I plan on attending the Queensbury Board Meeting to support our independent ethics board and it’s decision process which is non political.

Expand full comment
Ken Tingley's avatar

Thank you. First step is to announce that this issue is not going away.

Expand full comment
Susan Andrews's avatar

See my comments re: tonight’s meeting…

Expand full comment
Ken Tingley's avatar

Peter, Thank you for speaking out. If you can relate what you said and what you observed at the meeting, I would love to write about it again - tingleykenneth4@gmail.com

Expand full comment
Susan Andrews's avatar

Thank you Peter for giving me the opportunity to sign up for John Strough and Dave Strainer on the next election ballot. Your enthusiasm and hopefulness is contagious!

Expand full comment
Barbara Sealy's avatar

This is excellent if anyone is asking themselves this question-I know I have been. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=074gEsTCLMY

Expand full comment
Barbara Bubar's avatar

Yes, he was good to listen to but when he said "AI" had the answers, kind of because (in my words) it would quickly somehow get tons of people's opinions gathered together to give voice to ideas ??)...I was a little on the "hmmm...." side. I'm still in the "scared of the "AI" mode.....

Expand full comment
John A. Figliozzi's avatar

Neither does Stefanik care. Maybe North Country voters should have recognized this BEFORE they pulled the levers for her and Trump back in November. You reap what you sow.

Expand full comment
Trying's avatar

STOP CONSTANTINO

Expand full comment
Dennis Maher's avatar

This is funny (odd) because I have been reading about cults the past few days, because a psychologist friend said that MAGA Trumpsters constitute a cult. One of the techniques of cult members is the constant, repeated use of "projection," whereby they accuse their opponents of the thing they are guilty of. This drives the rest of us crazy. All we can do is explain the reality, over and over again, but they probably will not be changed. There is considerable evidence that MAGA is the hate cult.

Expand full comment
Jane LaBombard's avatar

Nailed it!

Expand full comment
Anonymous's avatar

Watch PresidentiaL election results coverage on YouTube for PBS-NPR since 2000. Biased? NPR covered every minute of the Trump Impeachment hearing but nothing about Hunter, Joe's mental condition, Immigration, gangs, etc. Strange that because a Washington Newspaper failed to endorse Harris ,they're corrupt because of new ownership? PBS and "journalists" are relics of a failed media. Trump's favorability rating is at an all time high, nothing about it on NPR. Saving Astronauts at Space Station was a big story. You'd never know they were saved watching Main Stream Media. Seriously, you'll get more up to date Emergency info on the internet immediately than waiting for NPR to share the Emergency Alerts. Text alerts on Alexia give warning immediately. . It's time to investegate Non-Profits like Hudson Headwaters Health, Crandall Library, etc. DOGE is working and results are shocking and I'll wager NPR is bleeding free money as well. We'll soon find out....Heads up, this post will be pulled so copy this entry before Ken pulls the plug..

Expand full comment
Xochitl27's avatar

No, your comment will remain because Ken is a journalist who believes in free speech and the First Amendment -- unlike Trump, who is forcing people to scrub webpages of government agencies of a list of forbidden words like (gasp) "equity" and is deporting a Palestinian legal resident of the USA with a green card not because he broke any laws (they admit he hasn't) but because of his "pro-Palestinian" views.

Expand full comment
Kevin Murphy's avatar

So brave to post nonsense anonymously, and why? No one with an ounce of integrity would do so and frankly it comes as no surprise. I imagine you have a cute collection of balaclavas you can pick from when you and your fellow outcasts go marching.

Expand full comment
Anonymous's avatar

Ken, you're the one who welcomed "anonymous" sources. I'm returning the favor noting that "anonymous sources" should NEVER be allowed in a "news" story. I am 100 per cent against any and all "anonymous sources" and this forum demonstrates why any "anonymous source" should be discredited. Dan Rather is the classic example. He was not harmed by his bogus report just before the Presidential election and is still revered by the main stream media despite and, coincidentally, still working in the media. I don't believe an "anonymous source" alledging that Rachel Madow is Sammy Davis Jr.'s great grand child yet this BS is happening every day on every forum. It has to stop..

Expand full comment
Ken Tingley's avatar

So much for the value of "Deep Throat." There are many times when anonymous sources are valuable and essential tool, but they have absolutely been valued by the big Washington players - Post and Times.

Expand full comment
Bob's avatar

I’m guessing we’ll see an increase in anonymous sources in our current political environment, where the Trump Regime and its online army harass, intimidate, and threaten whistleblowers with prosecution and violence.

Expand full comment
Xochitl27's avatar

There was plenty of coverage of immigration on PBS and NPR.

Por ejemplo:

https://www.pbssocal.org/shows/newshour/clip/on-the-border-1703192921

Expand full comment
Ken Tingley's avatar

It didn't take long to fact check this: Yeah, NPR did cover Hunter Biden story. So none of this is true.

https://www.npr.org/2022/04/09/1091859822/more-details-emerge-in-federal-investigation-into-hunter-biden

Expand full comment
Edward Low's avatar

if enough gQpeds like anonymous who likely is the same guy who called himself simply put.. as well as other fake accounts.....

Lie to you.. could you see how that isn't anonymous, but annoying?

after so many lies... and false facts (like w tucker) it becomes so frustrating.

The sadest thing, is not that your 10 second google search prove annon wrong, but that s/he decided not to check and just tell a lie.

Expand full comment
Ken Tingley's avatar

I believe Anonymous goes by several different names. Not fooling anyone. Just a lonely person I guess.

Expand full comment
Edward Low's avatar

sad

lonely

fool

Expand full comment
Anonymous's avatar

Check the date. The FBI knew way before the 2020 election. NPR broke the story on 04/22 ? Sad, keep looking the other way and pretend it never happened.

Expand full comment