Good Morning Ken! I love the your last sentence about America and Mankind. That is what we shouold be aiming for as a country. Despite our inherent iniquities, we have as a nation, enormous strengths which are now being undermined. I'm glad you had to leave that MAGA rally. You have given us a good picture of what the intent is.
There is a strange contradiction growing about the North Country: an exodus of residents, a lack of professional and staff workers vs. an increasing housing shortage. Developers and planning boards in Glens Falls are scrambling for building permits of apartment and town home community approvals, while monies are being sought to restore abandoned properties. (What gives?) Congratulations on your ATF play reading, I look forward to seeing it!
While many GOP electeds in the area talk about an exodus of residents the reality is much more complicated.
1st we are an aging population, not just because we don’t have as many young families, but also because many older people move south in retirement - because many people in NY have had jobs with good pensions that allow them to move in retirement - but also because many people who own vacation properties retire here having bought their camps with the plan of eventual retirement.
At the same time, we have many people who have moved here for all kinds of quality of life reasons and to raise families. These tend to be well educated and entrepreneurial people who want access to both the outdoor recreation, good schools, and access to arts and entertainment.
So while smaller communities are having difficulty with population loss, places like Glens Falls and Saranac Lake are dealing with need to plan for growth. Unfortunately leaders of smaller communities tend to have a very “old fashioned” mindset and don’t understand how to take advantage of opportunity.
Many people dismiss my contention that people move here, but I meet them all the time, and I have a couple of good examples people will recognize: Claudia Braymer, and Diana Palmer.
But also there is an example on the MAGA side: Elise Stefanik. She moved here for the opportunity, right?
You were a very brave gentleman to go to that event. Sooo glad you left early. WOW, how far the mighty have fallen..Roger Stone was at an event in "little ole Glens Falls"???? "let in the clowns"...
In 2019 Stone was convicted of 7 felonies. Days before Stone was to begin his prison sentence Trump pardoned him. Maybe seeiing a cage with bars triggered Stone's anxiety about nearly going to prison that he was unable to attend the event.
Lee enterprises needs to sell off the Post Star. I get my news from NCPR these days...they have more relevant news from Glens Falls than any other outlet...
Some years ago NCPR crowd sourced funding to create a deeper news department. While they cannot hope to cover all the local news in a region larger than New Jersey, they do an excellent job of focusing on specific issues important to the region.
The problem with newspapers was that they generated a lot of profit and held a lot of legacy assets. If Lee had been smart it would have spun off its real estate decades ago and retired much of its debt, given ownership shares to employees, and run at lower profit margins while paying good wages to employees. That would have removed the incentive for vulture capital to attempt a buyout.
With all the smart reporters they employed somebody should have figured that out for them before it was too late.
The digital Post Star posted a brief video clip last night of Roger Stone walking into the center of the cage, thrusting both hands upward with the Tricky Dick Nixon ✌️ fingers ✌️ victory sign as he sucked up the applause…then turned and walked out of the cage. No doubt he was well-reimbursed for his brief appearance.
Will the Not-so-Cool Insurance Civ Center Board be bringing lions into the cage next to attract more MAGA-takeover-movement fans??? Like Elise, this Constantino creature seems to have unlimited funds. The History of The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire seems to have become the template for The Rise and Fall of the American Empire…
But I still believe in the “Power of One” and “The Power of SIX in the North Country Light Brigade” 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 who are braver than any local, state or national corporate boards by exerting our collective Truth to Power…and Justice and Hope… with every set up all seasons of the year.
Thanks for this morning’s edition of the news. Appreciated your closing piece especially Heard on news this morning that Vance is making his first trip abroad as Vice President
It’s interesting that among the first duties of our nation’s first Vice President, John Adam’s, was to travel abroad. For what purpose? To secure loans from France and Holland for the support of the new nation—the United States of America!
Even back then our Founding Brothers saw the U.S. as part of the world community.
I trust he’s not going to the Middle East after his boss’s latest brain storm about Gaza. Then again, probably the only “safe” areas are those run by dictators. Hungary would probably roll out the red carpet.
For clarification, Adam’s was not yet Veep when he went to France and the Netherlands to secure loans. Yet, it was still a mission on behalf of Congress and bears witness to the founders’ vision and participation in the world community. (Self checked myself when I got home from Planet Fitness this morning.)
I understand that when Constantino is elected, he will fire the chairman and board of the Cool Insuring Arena and take over management himself. He will then determine what is produced there, likely getting rid of the Thunder hockey team for Roller Derby and his own team called the MAGAettes, or maggots for short. Tee shirts available soon.
Well, it's official: we now have a Constitutional Crisis --
"A federal judge on Monday said the White House has defied his order to release billions of dollars in federal grants, marking the first time a judge has expressly declared that the Trump White House was disobeying a judicial mandate." (NYT)
Apparently MAGA returns us to prehistory. Nature is red in fang and claw . Get your way by literally or figuratively mauling your opponent. And, more significantly, anyone who disagrees IS your opponent. I am heartsick over the new and terrible direction the nation I love is taking. What do the Trump/Musk supporters who aren't billionaires believe these evil men will do for them? How do they believe the rest of the world will regard us? We are quickly ceding our global position as Reagan's "City on the Hill." What do the (mostly White) people depending on food stamps, Medicaid, veterans' benefits, special education, and myriad other federal programs that help them survive believe will happen when the dismemberment of government is complete? And most basically, what is government for? Is it to save money (that the obscenely wealthy are positioned to steal?) Of course not! Government is to protect the people. It protects us from threats from without, and sustains us within. If you disagree, you are inviting a return to a pre-civilization where we must hunt for food and for each other. Wake up, America, and the needy North Country in particular! We are in grave danger.
Thank you, Ken, for the report. I still get Glens Falls Post Star because there are a still some thoughtful opinion pieces..and some local news, .and I always try to support what is local. I support NPR, WAMC, Vermont PBS, NY WMHT World...--because they give us so much--history, art, culture, news...-- and will be cut off from any government funding soon. Public Citizen ACLU., victims of torture, Reproductive Rights, Rabbis for Human Rights (fighting racist Israeli settlers in the West Bank) and all the environmental groups fighting to protect our earth...and on and on, every group working for truth and life. And letters and substacks like yours and Heather Cox Richardson and Rex Smith and articles from Will Bunch in the Detroit Inquirer and Pro Publica ...because they all deepen my understanding and my commitment to what is good, true, meaningful. I write all the above because I am deeply appreciative of all the people who work for all that is good, important....and fearful of losing so much that nourishes life and democracy.
I do not think that the Republicans have decided who to nominate for Stefanik's seat. Clearly Constantino would love to be "the one." At the last indivisible meeting I suggested we go to our local "leaders" like Stec (who might want to run for stefanik's seat) and to our Washington and Warren country meetings and really confront almost all of our Republicans who have been totally silent about Musk's work to dismantle good work in different agencies--education, health, the treasury, EPA...USAid....I find their silence complicit in endangering our democracy. I want them to take a stand for democracy and earth. I know the Democrats have chosen Blake...and there are zooms to hear him, to meet him, if anyone wants to hear a voice very different from Maga, from Constantino....The chants at the stadium were similar to the "singing" of the felons arrested for their violence at the Capitol on January 6--all of whom have been pardoned, all of them have pledged to buy more guns.
I think showing up at local town board meetings would be far more effective than contacting US senators. I think you need to bring the protests to the grassroots level.
We give 1% of US money to USAid , not much for the richest nation in the world--medical care (for Ebola, HIV, TB, malaria,), saving millions of lives through humanitarian relief for human beings suffering from wars, climate disasters......Our farmers have shipped food...and now have shipments on boats unable to deliver, and their crops spoiling because unused. There has been almost no proof of fraud, even Ivanka has praised our AID as have other doctors and medical workers and advisors....our soft diplomacy. "Make America Great" can be translated as: make America mean, cruel, selfish, hateful...
Like the cult leader himself, Constantino seems to be more interested in bringing the circuses than the bread. I suspect the state GOP isn’t going to run him, although they did run Carl Paladino. Don’t believe they’ve picked a contestant, have they?
Whoever it is isn’t running now. They’re running months into Trump’s presidency. Are they going to run to be the lapdog that Elise was? She may have also had some advantage of starting out normal.
Trump promised lower grocery prices. The eggs I buy have gone from $7.09 a dozen to $8.09. That’s a 14% increase. Granted, the bird flu isn’t his fault. But, what’s he doing about it? When he’s not preening at the Super Bowl or playing golf he’s promoting ethnic cleansing in Gaza or engaging in fantasies of territorial conquest.
Everything is nationalized now. What’s happening in northern NY makes no difference. Did it help us when Stefanik was demagoguing against college professors. Constantino or whoever the candidate is is going to be running in a referendum on Trump months from now. We’ll see which side the enthusiasm is on. The civic center 🤡 show isn’t going to make any difference by then, if it does now.
“While Musk runs the country, Trump had a productive weekend naming himself Chair of the Kennedy Center, picking the Chiefs to win the Super Bowl, canceling pennies, demanding Google Maps rename Gulf of Mexico, invited only White immigrants from Africa, and saved plastic straws.”
That’s Ron Filipkowski on Threads. Whoever runs to replace Stefanik has to answer whether they support performance art or benefiting Americans and northern NYers. He’s doing nothing to make America great again. 🤮
Who pays Elon Musk and his cronies? Can't congress stop authorizing the payments to them? Surely, congress can do something besides sit on their hands...
Good Morning Ken! I love the your last sentence about America and Mankind. That is what we shouold be aiming for as a country. Despite our inherent iniquities, we have as a nation, enormous strengths which are now being undermined. I'm glad you had to leave that MAGA rally. You have given us a good picture of what the intent is.
There is a strange contradiction growing about the North Country: an exodus of residents, a lack of professional and staff workers vs. an increasing housing shortage. Developers and planning boards in Glens Falls are scrambling for building permits of apartment and town home community approvals, while monies are being sought to restore abandoned properties. (What gives?) Congratulations on your ATF play reading, I look forward to seeing it!
While many GOP electeds in the area talk about an exodus of residents the reality is much more complicated.
1st we are an aging population, not just because we don’t have as many young families, but also because many older people move south in retirement - because many people in NY have had jobs with good pensions that allow them to move in retirement - but also because many people who own vacation properties retire here having bought their camps with the plan of eventual retirement.
At the same time, we have many people who have moved here for all kinds of quality of life reasons and to raise families. These tend to be well educated and entrepreneurial people who want access to both the outdoor recreation, good schools, and access to arts and entertainment.
So while smaller communities are having difficulty with population loss, places like Glens Falls and Saranac Lake are dealing with need to plan for growth. Unfortunately leaders of smaller communities tend to have a very “old fashioned” mindset and don’t understand how to take advantage of opportunity.
Many people dismiss my contention that people move here, but I meet them all the time, and I have a couple of good examples people will recognize: Claudia Braymer, and Diana Palmer.
But also there is an example on the MAGA side: Elise Stefanik. She moved here for the opportunity, right?
Thanks, Mr. Parang, for some clarity on this matter.
Sorry about my typos.
It’s the internet age. We don’t worry about a few typos anymore. And you can’t use cursive here either.
"As I looked out at the fighters rolling around inside the cage, the entire evening was feeling almost dystopian."
Reminds me of the Roman Coliseum with gladiator matches. Bread and circuses. And an Emperor deciding who lives and dies.
Thunderdome…2 men in, 1 man out…!
Only the circus for us. Elon gets all the bread dude. 😉
What a petulant, whiny, juvenile political movement MAGA is.
Sooo true. Very well said!
With wildly angry, frustrated and dangerous recruits.
You were a very brave gentleman to go to that event. Sooo glad you left early. WOW, how far the mighty have fallen..Roger Stone was at an event in "little ole Glens Falls"???? "let in the clowns"...
It was promoted he would be there. I never did see him and I have seen no reports that he was there. He was also on the cover of the program.
In 2019 Stone was convicted of 7 felonies. Days before Stone was to begin his prison sentence Trump pardoned him. Maybe seeiing a cage with bars triggered Stone's anxiety about nearly going to prison that he was unable to attend the event.
Maybe he was afraid AG James would show up and slap the cuffs on him.
I'm now hearing that he was in Glens Falls and that The Post-Star posted a video showing him.
Lee enterprises needs to sell off the Post Star. I get my news from NCPR these days...they have more relevant news from Glens Falls than any other outlet...
Their in-depth reporting has been impressive and a leader in the North Country.
Some years ago NCPR crowd sourced funding to create a deeper news department. While they cannot hope to cover all the local news in a region larger than New Jersey, they do an excellent job of focusing on specific issues important to the region.
The problem with newspapers was that they generated a lot of profit and held a lot of legacy assets. If Lee had been smart it would have spun off its real estate decades ago and retired much of its debt, given ownership shares to employees, and run at lower profit margins while paying good wages to employees. That would have removed the incentive for vulture capital to attempt a buyout.
With all the smart reporters they employed somebody should have figured that out for them before it was too late.
Thanks for the clarification, Mr. Parwana.
You are welcome to call me Mike.
Thank you, Mike.
Disgusting display of lunacy.
The digital Post Star posted a brief video clip last night of Roger Stone walking into the center of the cage, thrusting both hands upward with the Tricky Dick Nixon ✌️ fingers ✌️ victory sign as he sucked up the applause…then turned and walked out of the cage. No doubt he was well-reimbursed for his brief appearance.
Will the Not-so-Cool Insurance Civ Center Board be bringing lions into the cage next to attract more MAGA-takeover-movement fans??? Like Elise, this Constantino creature seems to have unlimited funds. The History of The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire seems to have become the template for The Rise and Fall of the American Empire…
But I still believe in the “Power of One” and “The Power of SIX in the North Country Light Brigade” 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 who are braver than any local, state or national corporate boards by exerting our collective Truth to Power…and Justice and Hope… with every set up all seasons of the year.
God bless you all…
Thanks for this morning’s edition of the news. Appreciated your closing piece especially Heard on news this morning that Vance is making his first trip abroad as Vice President
It’s interesting that among the first duties of our nation’s first Vice President, John Adam’s, was to travel abroad. For what purpose? To secure loans from France and Holland for the support of the new nation—the United States of America!
Even back then our Founding Brothers saw the U.S. as part of the world community.
I trust he’s not going to the Middle East after his boss’s latest brain storm about Gaza. Then again, probably the only “safe” areas are those run by dictators. Hungary would probably roll out the red carpet.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Richard_Nixon%27s_motorcade
For clarification, Adam’s was not yet Veep when he went to France and the Netherlands to secure loans. Yet, it was still a mission on behalf of Congress and bears witness to the founders’ vision and participation in the world community. (Self checked myself when I got home from Planet Fitness this morning.)
Constantino seems to think "The Hunger Games" is a guide, not a novel.
I understand that when Constantino is elected, he will fire the chairman and board of the Cool Insuring Arena and take over management himself. He will then determine what is produced there, likely getting rid of the Thunder hockey team for Roller Derby and his own team called the MAGAettes, or maggots for short. Tee shirts available soon.
The possibilities are endless when there are no laws.
Or when you have laws but simply ignore them….
Well, it's official: we now have a Constitutional Crisis --
"A federal judge on Monday said the White House has defied his order to release billions of dollars in federal grants, marking the first time a judge has expressly declared that the Trump White House was disobeying a judicial mandate." (NYT)
Apparently MAGA returns us to prehistory. Nature is red in fang and claw . Get your way by literally or figuratively mauling your opponent. And, more significantly, anyone who disagrees IS your opponent. I am heartsick over the new and terrible direction the nation I love is taking. What do the Trump/Musk supporters who aren't billionaires believe these evil men will do for them? How do they believe the rest of the world will regard us? We are quickly ceding our global position as Reagan's "City on the Hill." What do the (mostly White) people depending on food stamps, Medicaid, veterans' benefits, special education, and myriad other federal programs that help them survive believe will happen when the dismemberment of government is complete? And most basically, what is government for? Is it to save money (that the obscenely wealthy are positioned to steal?) Of course not! Government is to protect the people. It protects us from threats from without, and sustains us within. If you disagree, you are inviting a return to a pre-civilization where we must hunt for food and for each other. Wake up, America, and the needy North Country in particular! We are in grave danger.
I thought you were in NOLA for the Super Bowl!
Came home for the Adirondack Theater Festival and the announcment of my play as part of the summer lineup. July 25-27. Mark your calendar.
Thank you, Ken, for the report. I still get Glens Falls Post Star because there are a still some thoughtful opinion pieces..and some local news, .and I always try to support what is local. I support NPR, WAMC, Vermont PBS, NY WMHT World...--because they give us so much--history, art, culture, news...-- and will be cut off from any government funding soon. Public Citizen ACLU., victims of torture, Reproductive Rights, Rabbis for Human Rights (fighting racist Israeli settlers in the West Bank) and all the environmental groups fighting to protect our earth...and on and on, every group working for truth and life. And letters and substacks like yours and Heather Cox Richardson and Rex Smith and articles from Will Bunch in the Detroit Inquirer and Pro Publica ...because they all deepen my understanding and my commitment to what is good, true, meaningful. I write all the above because I am deeply appreciative of all the people who work for all that is good, important....and fearful of losing so much that nourishes life and democracy.
I do not think that the Republicans have decided who to nominate for Stefanik's seat. Clearly Constantino would love to be "the one." At the last indivisible meeting I suggested we go to our local "leaders" like Stec (who might want to run for stefanik's seat) and to our Washington and Warren country meetings and really confront almost all of our Republicans who have been totally silent about Musk's work to dismantle good work in different agencies--education, health, the treasury, EPA...USAid....I find their silence complicit in endangering our democracy. I want them to take a stand for democracy and earth. I know the Democrats have chosen Blake...and there are zooms to hear him, to meet him, if anyone wants to hear a voice very different from Maga, from Constantino....The chants at the stadium were similar to the "singing" of the felons arrested for their violence at the Capitol on January 6--all of whom have been pardoned, all of them have pledged to buy more guns.
I think showing up at local town board meetings would be far more effective than contacting US senators. I think you need to bring the protests to the grassroots level.
We give 1% of US money to USAid , not much for the richest nation in the world--medical care (for Ebola, HIV, TB, malaria,), saving millions of lives through humanitarian relief for human beings suffering from wars, climate disasters......Our farmers have shipped food...and now have shipments on boats unable to deliver, and their crops spoiling because unused. There has been almost no proof of fraud, even Ivanka has praised our AID as have other doctors and medical workers and advisors....our soft diplomacy. "Make America Great" can be translated as: make America mean, cruel, selfish, hateful...
Like the cult leader himself, Constantino seems to be more interested in bringing the circuses than the bread. I suspect the state GOP isn’t going to run him, although they did run Carl Paladino. Don’t believe they’ve picked a contestant, have they?
Whoever it is isn’t running now. They’re running months into Trump’s presidency. Are they going to run to be the lapdog that Elise was? She may have also had some advantage of starting out normal.
Trump promised lower grocery prices. The eggs I buy have gone from $7.09 a dozen to $8.09. That’s a 14% increase. Granted, the bird flu isn’t his fault. But, what’s he doing about it? When he’s not preening at the Super Bowl or playing golf he’s promoting ethnic cleansing in Gaza or engaging in fantasies of territorial conquest.
Everything is nationalized now. What’s happening in northern NY makes no difference. Did it help us when Stefanik was demagoguing against college professors. Constantino or whoever the candidate is is going to be running in a referendum on Trump months from now. We’ll see which side the enthusiasm is on. The civic center 🤡 show isn’t going to make any difference by then, if it does now.
“While Musk runs the country, Trump had a productive weekend naming himself Chair of the Kennedy Center, picking the Chiefs to win the Super Bowl, canceling pennies, demanding Google Maps rename Gulf of Mexico, invited only White immigrants from Africa, and saved plastic straws.”
That’s Ron Filipkowski on Threads. Whoever runs to replace Stefanik has to answer whether they support performance art or benefiting Americans and northern NYers. He’s doing nothing to make America great again. 🤮
If he really has $2.6 million to invest in this race, that might get the attention of the local GOP.
Who pays Elon Musk and his cronies? Can't congress stop authorizing the payments to them? Surely, congress can do something besides sit on their hands...