She is neither. She is simply a career politician. Her goal, like that of the vast majority of office holders is to be reelected. The "job" to current politicians is about their security not public service.
It is imperative for voters to understand a political career is an extremely lucrative position that is not only economically beneficial but also offers the office holder an aura of power. The higher a political figure climbs the food chain the more personal "benefits" accrue.
In a sane world we would instigate term limits to rein in the aura of power. We would also limit the financial aspect by perhaps marrying the pay scale to the district being represented by making the salary equal to the median income of the those being represented and offering appropriate stipends to offset the actual costs of the office.
Of course, neither will be achieved because the vary people who benefit from the career are the same people who derive the benefits of the office.
As for the interview. My take was to compare it to the soft touch on CNN given Biden in his recent interview with Burnett. AT least Breem of the hated Fox tried to call Elise out and make her answer the question. Contrast this to Erin who did not bother calling Biden out about his all to obvious lack of truths. This comparison alone gives strength to the idea of a mass media that is not exactly fair and balanced. It also gives credence to the overwhelming sense that the mainstream media is not to be trusted. And yes Ken, that same lack of balance extends all the way down the ladder to the local news.
Carl, I guess you aren't a woman who has lost fundamental freedoms under a serial violent liar who Eli$e raises MILLIONS for and with. There is no both-sides-ing her with Biden by putting them in the "career politician" Venn diagram circle. The other circle is "Works with global crime syndicate mobster who had unpaid Russian operative Manafort and indebted Russian informant McGonical influencing his election, who also used the press to catch and kill stories of sex, mistresses, NDAs, hush money, extortion," etc. Eli$e chose to work for Trump as a political calculation, she took the risk. Biden has NEVER done anything close to that in the third Venn circle: "career public servant."
I don’t understand you saying a political career is “extremely lucrative.” The base salary in Congress is $174,000 a year. It’s only lucrative if you’re Bob Menendez or Jared Kushner.
I suppose it’s not an “aura of power” though if you can expand presidential powers into dictatorial ones.
While politicians can use there campaign funds for some things - legal fees I believe - I've always thought the money for a politician came after he/she left Congress.
Every now and then you get a Chris Collins busted for insider trading.
Menendez actually got away with being a crook once. Some real chutzpah to go at it again. He did a Thomas/Alito and is blaming his wife. That’s becoming a cliché.
The lucrativeness of a political career largely comes when its over. Look at how many of them retire or are defeated and immediately land well-paying jobs as lobbyists, "think tank" fellows and/or TV pundits. The longer your political career, the more you can command because the more "connections" you made.
Please explain how lifetime politicians become millionaires on their salary. Using Loe as an example, and he is far from alone, he has become quite wealthy as a >public servant". Books? That is a common response. Take a look at who purchases books in bulk.
Dictatorial? Common. Do you not think the student loan largesse in the face of SCOTUS denial is not abit autocratic. That is one obvious example of the Executive acting as authoritarian. There are plenty more. You just do not like those powers when they are against your wishes. That is OK because the feeling extends to both sides of the aisle.
I was with you until the end. My own experience over 40 years was a passion among the colleagues I worked with to get it right with a strong sense of right and wrong. I can be pretty cynical, but your is even more cynical. I think you have to be careful when you talk about balance. Climate change is a great example. 97 percent of scientists believe the source is man. So what is the proper balance for covering climate change. You can't make it 50-50. Sometimes you just have to report and the facts and draw conclusions from that.
Years ago I heard a show on WAMC where the editor of the Times Union said basically the same thing. Here’s how he put it: If candidate A says the moon is made of rock and candidate B says the moon is made of green cheese, then news reporters cannot and should not simply report what they said, they also need to report that the moon is in fact made of rock. Otherwise people will have no way to judge which candidate is actually the best.
So the 9% inflation comment should be widely reported, yet it is not. Just one example of the left-wing media downplaying a comment they want to hide. A better example might be the infamous laptop.
And the laptop? Really? It was reported on ad nauseam everywhere, just like Benghazi was investigated and reported on, long past the point when it became obvious there just wasn’t enough there there. The Republicans wanted both of these to be the big smoking guns that would bring the Democrats down, but just because they didn’t get the results they wanted doesn’t mean there was any downplaying by the “left wing media.” As a listener of NPR I vividly remember being heartily sick of hearing about both these things and wishing the Republicans would either present some real evidence or stop wasting everyone’s time.
In a CNN interview last week with Burnett Uncle Joe claimed inflation was 9 when he took office. It was Under 2. Ms Burnett did not challenge the claim. It was not the first time he made this claim and it went unchallenged. The fact you are unaware of this demonstrates my point.
Yes the laptop is now common knowledge. However it was suppressed by the media for over a year even to the point the media claimed it false news.
If inflation was under 2% when Biden took office, it started its climb very shortly thereafter due in part to actions taken under Trump and, to be fair, exacerbated by actions taken under Biden. It’s a relatively minor bit of fudging, and maybe she should have mentioned it, but it wouldn’t affect the overall point of what Biden was probably trying to say, which is that his policies helped keep the United States out a recession, which all the experts were predicting, and lowered the rate of inflation in the US much faster than in other countries around the world. I didn’t watch the interview, but the fact that an interviewer let a small inaccuracy stand is hardly news that needs to be widely reported. And if you think it is, you must have an even bigger problem with right wing media and their outright lying.
I don’t think the laptop story was suppressed. I think the media rightly saw it as small fish, not worth too much time or space. Until the story became the exhaustive and exhausting effort by the Republicans to make a mountain out of a molehill.
Regarding Benghazi, Hillary et al blamed the attack on a video when it was later proven that the video was NOT the reason for the attack. Her narrative was done to protect Barack's re-election, IMO.
I never said there wasn’t anything questionable about the event, just that it did not rise to the crisis level the Republicans were making it out to be. I find the media reported on it and made corrections as needed as more information came out. The politics of it is one thing, the reporting on it is another. Of the two “wings” of the media, I find the right wing to be far more involved with the politics of events than the left.
And I just broke my own rule. I forgot I wasn’t going to reply to you anymore. Mea culpa.
Since I was first editor in 1999, there were many who used that "left-wing" media trope ad nauseum, yet when it came to political endorsements, more than 75 percent were Republicans or Conservatives. Is this the left-wing media you are talking about?
"Sometimes you just have to report and the facts and draw conclusions from that"
No Ken, the media needs to ALWAYS report the facts on a blank and neutral basis unless it is clearly designated as editorial. You just illustrated exactly what I implied.
That is not journalism by any stretch of the imagination. I stand by the climate change example. You don't have to report both sides of that issue. That is settled science.
Once a journalist adds their opinion it becomes editorial. It is not a matter of 50 -50 it is a matter of presenting facts. It is fine to report 97% because that is the fact.
I used to oppose term limits because we already had them. They're called elections. But then I realized the degree to which most of these elections are rigged beforehand via gerrymandering, in both red states and blue. Absent fair redistricting, which most citizens want and most career pols oppose, I'd be okay with term limits.
YES! I have the same thought. Yet when the table is tilted by the same people who benefit elections become less a result of the electorate and more a result of tipping the scales.
Like you mentioned, the actions of Elise as a kiss up to djt and a politician who dodges the straight answer, are not a surprise to some of us. The "newsletter" she sends out is fluff and name calling compared to the one of substance that I receive from Senator K. Gillibrand.
Aliito should recuse himself,, not just for the flag but for all he said at different gatherings for religious right wing folk, for his sneering and making jokes, for his gaining favors. Even more, Clarence Thomas should recuse himself, for his gaining many many financial favors from Crow, his dinners with millionaires, and mostly for his wife's participation in the Jan. 6 gatherings against the fair election of Biden, and for her outspoken support of the lie that the election was stolen...She believes it...her husband, Clarence, has refused to ever recuse himself from any of the cases involving Trump. If Alito and Thomas recuse themselves perhaps the rest of the Supreme Court will say that Trump is not immune from persecution for crimes--that no one is immune, no one above the law.
I remember seeing all the photos of Thomas and rush LImbaugh, who, it seems, was his main journalist for news, Trump giving LImbaugh the medal of honor.
The question I’d love to see Shannon Bream or some other big-time TV interviewer ask one of the veep bootlicker hopefuls is why they want the job.
Mike Pence and his family were nearly murdered. Same with Sen. Romney. It’s on video how close Trump’s mob got to both of them. And Trump later said that maybe Pence deserved to be hanged. You’re deep in the cups of koolaid if you don’t think that mob would’ve killed any Democrat or apostate Republican they got ahold of. It’s a little disturbing so many people can so easily overlook that.
Even putting the possibility of a violent death aside is looking to what results from never ending service to Trump. Michael Cohen is maybe patient zero. Seems like he’s living the good life. Then there’s Rudy and pillow man Lindell. Rudy could have schools named after him and he’s a national joke for Trump. Mike Lindell went down the rabbit hole and destroyed his business to serve Trump.
JD Vance, Lindsey Graham, Elise and all the rest think they’re the one that’s going to successfully ride the tiger and get the brass ring and never get eaten. Maybe. But Donald Trump has left a long trail of destroyed lives.
I recognized early on when Elise changed her tone and started sounding more like Trump. It was disappointing to see. If I were advising, I would tell her to own it, and not make excuses. The follow-up would be if she still has those same beliefs of Trump. Her answer might be that the more she engages with him, the more she sees him as not as loathsome, but that her views for our Country are in line with his. As a politician, she dug herself a hole, and her chosen path to getting out of it may not have been the best.
Stefanik is a serial liar. From her promise to only serve 4 terms to the never ending lies about providing local funding and advocating for legislation that benefits the district. I'm still wondering why so many of our local tough guy backwater political hacks are so scared of her. It was interesting to see Gerry Douglas, the Plattsburgh area chamber guru sent out a press release, from Stefaniks office, giving her credit for Amtrak keeping the Adirondack route opened. It was a decision by the Minister of Transport in Canada and his staff actually laughed when I mentioned her name. When local business leaders support the lies of a member of congress it is disturbing. Ignoring the lies and in fact supporting them.
This is why we need a Blue congress who will draw articles of impeachment against Alito and Thomas, AND force ethics standards on the Supreme court. If this can happen, maybe one or two of the right wing justices will retire while Biden is still President... We can only hope, right???
We also need Dick Durbin to resign as Chair of the Judiciary and put Sheldon Whitehouse in - Durbin, like Biden, still hold on to traditional norms which we know expired decades ago.
She's a fanatic AND a phony! And a complete DISGRACE! Can you imagine how she'd fare with a microphone being shut off when it's not her turn to speak. Even NewsNation is exposing her. Here's their take: https://youtu.be/cedGEirZFxg?si=REHsVH62uNjwsa0i
I’m a bit more skeptical of the value of the Winter’s Dream light show. 7,700 more room nights is good, but does it justify the initial $3 million investment? I guess we’ll see how the numbers hold up over the next few seasons. $70,000 return on bed tax indicates $1.75 million in room rentals. It will take a long time to recover the investment in an ephemeral experience at that rate. An increase of 31% of visitors from NYC sounds good, but what is the actual number? Is it 30, 300, 3,000?
In my view the BOS should be looking for events that create a more lasting value to the region.
I'm told by friends in the know that the Gazette editorial board was pressured by the publisher to endorse Stefanik last election. Now he's the owner. I'll keep an open mind. But I won't restart my subscription just yet.
She is neither. She is simply a career politician. Her goal, like that of the vast majority of office holders is to be reelected. The "job" to current politicians is about their security not public service.
It is imperative for voters to understand a political career is an extremely lucrative position that is not only economically beneficial but also offers the office holder an aura of power. The higher a political figure climbs the food chain the more personal "benefits" accrue.
In a sane world we would instigate term limits to rein in the aura of power. We would also limit the financial aspect by perhaps marrying the pay scale to the district being represented by making the salary equal to the median income of the those being represented and offering appropriate stipends to offset the actual costs of the office.
Of course, neither will be achieved because the vary people who benefit from the career are the same people who derive the benefits of the office.
As for the interview. My take was to compare it to the soft touch on CNN given Biden in his recent interview with Burnett. AT least Breem of the hated Fox tried to call Elise out and make her answer the question. Contrast this to Erin who did not bother calling Biden out about his all to obvious lack of truths. This comparison alone gives strength to the idea of a mass media that is not exactly fair and balanced. It also gives credence to the overwhelming sense that the mainstream media is not to be trusted. And yes Ken, that same lack of balance extends all the way down the ladder to the local news.
Wish I had read your comment first. You are so right!
Carl, I guess you aren't a woman who has lost fundamental freedoms under a serial violent liar who Eli$e raises MILLIONS for and with. There is no both-sides-ing her with Biden by putting them in the "career politician" Venn diagram circle. The other circle is "Works with global crime syndicate mobster who had unpaid Russian operative Manafort and indebted Russian informant McGonical influencing his election, who also used the press to catch and kill stories of sex, mistresses, NDAs, hush money, extortion," etc. Eli$e chose to work for Trump as a political calculation, she took the risk. Biden has NEVER done anything close to that in the third Venn circle: "career public servant."
Exactly and so much more we have forgotten about.
I don’t understand you saying a political career is “extremely lucrative.” The base salary in Congress is $174,000 a year. It’s only lucrative if you’re Bob Menendez or Jared Kushner.
I suppose it’s not an “aura of power” though if you can expand presidential powers into dictatorial ones.
While politicians can use there campaign funds for some things - legal fees I believe - I've always thought the money for a politician came after he/she left Congress.
Every now and then you get a Chris Collins busted for insider trading.
Menendez actually got away with being a crook once. Some real chutzpah to go at it again. He did a Thomas/Alito and is blaming his wife. That’s becoming a cliché.
I’m waiting to see Trump try to pin it all on Melania.
Bahaha!
😂🤣😂
Do not hold your breath
Kushner is/ was not an elected official, nor is he a career politician.
The lucrativeness of a political career largely comes when its over. Look at how many of them retire or are defeated and immediately land well-paying jobs as lobbyists, "think tank" fellows and/or TV pundits. The longer your political career, the more you can command because the more "connections" you made.
Yes but many members of government profit outside of government- for example speeches etc
Do you consider that close to the "median income of those they represent"?
Please explain how lifetime politicians become millionaires on their salary. Using Loe as an example, and he is far from alone, he has become quite wealthy as a >public servant". Books? That is a common response. Take a look at who purchases books in bulk.
Dictatorial? Common. Do you not think the student loan largesse in the face of SCOTUS denial is not abit autocratic. That is one obvious example of the Executive acting as authoritarian. There are plenty more. You just do not like those powers when they are against your wishes. That is OK because the feeling extends to both sides of the aisle.
I was with you until the end. My own experience over 40 years was a passion among the colleagues I worked with to get it right with a strong sense of right and wrong. I can be pretty cynical, but your is even more cynical. I think you have to be careful when you talk about balance. Climate change is a great example. 97 percent of scientists believe the source is man. So what is the proper balance for covering climate change. You can't make it 50-50. Sometimes you just have to report and the facts and draw conclusions from that.
Years ago I heard a show on WAMC where the editor of the Times Union said basically the same thing. Here’s how he put it: If candidate A says the moon is made of rock and candidate B says the moon is made of green cheese, then news reporters cannot and should not simply report what they said, they also need to report that the moon is in fact made of rock. Otherwise people will have no way to judge which candidate is actually the best.
So the 9% inflation comment should be widely reported, yet it is not. Just one example of the left-wing media downplaying a comment they want to hide. A better example might be the infamous laptop.
Please clarify, what is the 9% inflation comment?
And the laptop? Really? It was reported on ad nauseam everywhere, just like Benghazi was investigated and reported on, long past the point when it became obvious there just wasn’t enough there there. The Republicans wanted both of these to be the big smoking guns that would bring the Democrats down, but just because they didn’t get the results they wanted doesn’t mean there was any downplaying by the “left wing media.” As a listener of NPR I vividly remember being heartily sick of hearing about both these things and wishing the Republicans would either present some real evidence or stop wasting everyone’s time.
In a CNN interview last week with Burnett Uncle Joe claimed inflation was 9 when he took office. It was Under 2. Ms Burnett did not challenge the claim. It was not the first time he made this claim and it went unchallenged. The fact you are unaware of this demonstrates my point.
Yes the laptop is now common knowledge. However it was suppressed by the media for over a year even to the point the media claimed it false news.
If inflation was under 2% when Biden took office, it started its climb very shortly thereafter due in part to actions taken under Trump and, to be fair, exacerbated by actions taken under Biden. It’s a relatively minor bit of fudging, and maybe she should have mentioned it, but it wouldn’t affect the overall point of what Biden was probably trying to say, which is that his policies helped keep the United States out a recession, which all the experts were predicting, and lowered the rate of inflation in the US much faster than in other countries around the world. I didn’t watch the interview, but the fact that an interviewer let a small inaccuracy stand is hardly news that needs to be widely reported. And if you think it is, you must have an even bigger problem with right wing media and their outright lying.
I don’t think the laptop story was suppressed. I think the media rightly saw it as small fish, not worth too much time or space. Until the story became the exhaustive and exhausting effort by the Republicans to make a mountain out of a molehill.
Tanya,
Regarding Benghazi, Hillary et al blamed the attack on a video when it was later proven that the video was NOT the reason for the attack. Her narrative was done to protect Barack's re-election, IMO.
https://www.wsj.com/video/new-caledonia-riots-macron-arrives-in-bid-to-end-unrest/3EEDFED2-2D27-464F-B521-FFFAEECE6EEA.html
https://freebeacon.com/national-security/state-dept-reaffirms-anti-islamic-video-not-motivate-benghazi-attack/
I never said there wasn’t anything questionable about the event, just that it did not rise to the crisis level the Republicans were making it out to be. I find the media reported on it and made corrections as needed as more information came out. The politics of it is one thing, the reporting on it is another. Of the two “wings” of the media, I find the right wing to be far more involved with the politics of events than the left.
And I just broke my own rule. I forgot I wasn’t going to reply to you anymore. Mea culpa.
Are their any moderate media?
Nope.
Since I was first editor in 1999, there were many who used that "left-wing" media trope ad nauseum, yet when it came to political endorsements, more than 75 percent were Republicans or Conservatives. Is this the left-wing media you are talking about?
"Sometimes you just have to report and the facts and draw conclusions from that"
No Ken, the media needs to ALWAYS report the facts on a blank and neutral basis unless it is clearly designated as editorial. You just illustrated exactly what I implied.
That is not journalism by any stretch of the imagination. I stand by the climate change example. You don't have to report both sides of that issue. That is settled science.
No, it is not settled science.
Once a journalist adds their opinion it becomes editorial. It is not a matter of 50 -50 it is a matter of presenting facts. It is fine to report 97% because that is the fact.
It is not an opinion when you add one plus one and get two.
We do not disagree on that.
I used to oppose term limits because we already had them. They're called elections. But then I realized the degree to which most of these elections are rigged beforehand via gerrymandering, in both red states and blue. Absent fair redistricting, which most citizens want and most career pols oppose, I'd be okay with term limits.
YES! I have the same thought. Yet when the table is tilted by the same people who benefit elections become less a result of the electorate and more a result of tipping the scales.
You mean I have to choose? I think she meets both of those categories.. fanatic and phony. It amazes me how many people can’t see through her.
...her advocates, perhaps, deserve more "credit," i.e. many do "see through her"- and do not care: as long as she is useful to the MAGA-machine...
Blame the wife… the chicken’s way out.
The conundrum for NY 21 voters if Eli$e gets the VP nod: vote for her on the top ticket to get rid of her locally.
Thank goodness I've moved to Michigan. I would consider it.
If all of NY was MAGA I probably would move to Michigan or somewhere more exotic. So far only upstate is “ Alabama with snow.”
LOL. Change is coming slowly up here.
Since that’s where Chris Wallace was, it must be the heretic chair.
Like you mentioned, the actions of Elise as a kiss up to djt and a politician who dodges the straight answer, are not a surprise to some of us. The "newsletter" she sends out is fluff and name calling compared to the one of substance that I receive from Senator K. Gillibrand.
Aliito should recuse himself,, not just for the flag but for all he said at different gatherings for religious right wing folk, for his sneering and making jokes, for his gaining favors. Even more, Clarence Thomas should recuse himself, for his gaining many many financial favors from Crow, his dinners with millionaires, and mostly for his wife's participation in the Jan. 6 gatherings against the fair election of Biden, and for her outspoken support of the lie that the election was stolen...She believes it...her husband, Clarence, has refused to ever recuse himself from any of the cases involving Trump. If Alito and Thomas recuse themselves perhaps the rest of the Supreme Court will say that Trump is not immune from persecution for crimes--that no one is immune, no one above the law.
I remember seeing all the photos of Thomas and rush LImbaugh, who, it seems, was his main journalist for news, Trump giving LImbaugh the medal of honor.
The question I’d love to see Shannon Bream or some other big-time TV interviewer ask one of the veep bootlicker hopefuls is why they want the job.
Mike Pence and his family were nearly murdered. Same with Sen. Romney. It’s on video how close Trump’s mob got to both of them. And Trump later said that maybe Pence deserved to be hanged. You’re deep in the cups of koolaid if you don’t think that mob would’ve killed any Democrat or apostate Republican they got ahold of. It’s a little disturbing so many people can so easily overlook that.
Even putting the possibility of a violent death aside is looking to what results from never ending service to Trump. Michael Cohen is maybe patient zero. Seems like he’s living the good life. Then there’s Rudy and pillow man Lindell. Rudy could have schools named after him and he’s a national joke for Trump. Mike Lindell went down the rabbit hole and destroyed his business to serve Trump.
JD Vance, Lindsey Graham, Elise and all the rest think they’re the one that’s going to successfully ride the tiger and get the brass ring and never get eaten. Maybe. But Donald Trump has left a long trail of destroyed lives.
I continue to be irate, speechless and
scared to death.
I recognized early on when Elise changed her tone and started sounding more like Trump. It was disappointing to see. If I were advising, I would tell her to own it, and not make excuses. The follow-up would be if she still has those same beliefs of Trump. Her answer might be that the more she engages with him, the more she sees him as not as loathsome, but that her views for our Country are in line with his. As a politician, she dug herself a hole, and her chosen path to getting out of it may not have been the best.
Stefanik is a serial liar. From her promise to only serve 4 terms to the never ending lies about providing local funding and advocating for legislation that benefits the district. I'm still wondering why so many of our local tough guy backwater political hacks are so scared of her. It was interesting to see Gerry Douglas, the Plattsburgh area chamber guru sent out a press release, from Stefaniks office, giving her credit for Amtrak keeping the Adirondack route opened. It was a decision by the Minister of Transport in Canada and his staff actually laughed when I mentioned her name. When local business leaders support the lies of a member of congress it is disturbing. Ignoring the lies and in fact supporting them.
Small correction. I think she said she would not serve more than 5 terms. She is in her fifth term now.
If only we could succeed in voting her OUT! I will DEFINITELY vote against her!!!
This is why we need a Blue congress who will draw articles of impeachment against Alito and Thomas, AND force ethics standards on the Supreme court. If this can happen, maybe one or two of the right wing justices will retire while Biden is still President... We can only hope, right???
We also need Dick Durbin to resign as Chair of the Judiciary and put Sheldon Whitehouse in - Durbin, like Biden, still hold on to traditional norms which we know expired decades ago.
Yes, yes! I just wrote to him yesterday about that!
She's a fanatic AND a phony! And a complete DISGRACE! Can you imagine how she'd fare with a microphone being shut off when it's not her turn to speak. Even NewsNation is exposing her. Here's their take: https://youtu.be/cedGEirZFxg?si=REHsVH62uNjwsa0i
I’m a bit more skeptical of the value of the Winter’s Dream light show. 7,700 more room nights is good, but does it justify the initial $3 million investment? I guess we’ll see how the numbers hold up over the next few seasons. $70,000 return on bed tax indicates $1.75 million in room rentals. It will take a long time to recover the investment in an ephemeral experience at that rate. An increase of 31% of visitors from NYC sounds good, but what is the actual number? Is it 30, 300, 3,000?
In my view the BOS should be looking for events that create a more lasting value to the region.
I'm also a little skeptical. The number of rooms seems really high and the $6 million investment seems extremely high.
Among the politician class, most MAGA fanatics are complete phonies.
I'm told by friends in the know that the Gazette editorial board was pressured by the publisher to endorse Stefanik last election. Now he's the owner. I'll keep an open mind. But I won't restart my subscription just yet.