As a lawyer I was, for many years, automatically excused from jury duty, much to my disappointment. That silly legal excuse was eventually eliminated. However, the only jury I have ever gotten to serve on was a Grand Jury. I was originally supposed to report, in downtown Manhattan, on September 11, 2001. As you can imagine, the jury did not convene that afternoon. When we finally did meet, a week or so later, it proved to be a very rewarding experience. Many of the cases we heard involved crimes committed at so-called Ground Zero. Mostly thefts. I felt as if I was helping, in a small way, to putting things right.
Stefanik is mum, and that is perhaps the only way for her to say the quiet part out loud. She voted "nyet" because that's what the former guy wanted her to do, but wait, he just threw a bone to Mike Johnson. Dear Elise, if I sent a quarter would you buy a clue? The former guys doesn't have anyone along for long, and no matter how you try, your spot under the bus awaits you.
Jay Heald was clear. He is well known. He called. No response. I had the same experience twice. The president of our local bank says he does not like her. He’s a loyal Republican.
To wit, Jay Elliot Heald is our coroner. Peter Standish Paine II was clear. Valedictorian of his class at Princeton. CEO of Champlain National. These two are Republicans and friends.
Our moribund newspapers do not seem to care.
Substack bleeds reporting. Democracy is threatened when newspapers fail. Yale University historian Timothy Snyder wrote about this in his book On Tyranny. Tim also publishes on Substack.
The letter writer should think about 9/11, and expand that to include every state in this country being attacked. One minute you have a home, the next you have a pile of rubble, and you have no where safe to go. You make your way to a local grocery store...........nothing but rubble. How are you going to eat? Neighborhoods are also nothing but rubble. Picture that in America!
Thank you Ken, for pointing out the protracted, daily struggles of too many people on our planet. It is true that many of us in this country cannot imagine hourly strife and disaster...until it hits us, temporarily or individually, smack in the face. It is ironic and very telling that many of the very comfortable (economically) lawmakers in our country, decry helping others less fortunate than themselves both nationally and internationally, and try anything to impede what they call entitlement spending, when they themselves are the entitled. It is also extremely disturbing that so many individuals in our country cannot, will not, see that those lawmakers or corporate executives don't give a hoot for their welfare.
I hate to tell you this but we’ve been in a civil war for a long time now. There are multiple sides and multiple fronts but greed is at the center everywhere. Greed both divides us and paradoxically binds us together. It’s the conundrum of consumerism. We are convinced we as individuals are smarter, better, more deserving than others who just want to take from us through taxes so we hate them, but we need to work to buy more stuff, a bigger truck, a drive-thru fast food meal and we can’t get all that without the work of our lesser, lazier neighbors who do not deserve $15/hr flipping burgers but what can we do? We need that burger and the fries too! So we stew and lash out and punch down.
The war is not over for the Rockwell Falls Library, and that it is reopened is not a great victory. Former staff - both women - lost their jobs, were harassed, denigrated, publicly humiliated, and defamed. They are forgotten casualties. And territory of free thought and free expression, of treating others as equals has been lost to the side of top down paternalist morality police.
Sedition Stefanik voted No on Ukraine for one reason and one reason only. Make no mistake it was to ingratiate herself with Trump. It’s self interest that drives her actions. Miss Harvard has her eye on being his VP pick.
Your reader’s comments about stefanik’s vote against funding for Ukraine was way off base! Most every person I know supports Ukraine and hates what Putin is doing to it.
According to everything I have read , most of that money stays in the US and goes to the companies that produce the weapons and ammunition that is then shipped to Ukraine. So by refusing to support it Stefanik is actually working against US companies.
It is a movie. But the reality of a possible American civil or revolutionary war is not just that "someone is trying to kill us and we are trying to kill them."
The reality is the rape of American women and girls and the burning of American babies.
Guns and killing people from a distance, or indiscriminate bombings by rockets and planes make war all to impersonal. But war, the ugly truth of war, is the grossly real, insanely horrific inhumanity of it.
Think about that when you talk about a war in America. Think about the rape of American women and girls and the burning of American babies.
Tell me again how you would advocate it. Tell me again how you would support an insurrection led by the likes of Trump and Stefanik. Don't argue that Stefanik would not burn American babies. The forces she would release would do that for her.
I'd like to hear about the pleasure you would take in the horrors of war. Maybe I'm wrong. So convince me.
It's interesting that Stefanik's congressional neighbor, Claudia Tenney, issued a statement explaining her vote against Ukraine funding. Basically, she wants a plan showing how Ukraine can win before giving any more money to its defense. Morally dubious as that position may be, it's at least a stance. But we don't even get that much from Stefanik.
I would submit the burning cities with occupied police stations, “autonomous” blocks and looted business districts were far more disturbing than the DC riot.
That is not to say the DC riot was not disturbing. It is too say it was no more so than the left wing dominated damage across the nation preceding it.
As for immigration in the current form. It in no way resembles the past. Many, most?, have no interest in literally millions of new central and state government dependants.
Fear? Yes that is an undercurrent running below the surface. I fear an additional 4 years of the current administration lowering my children’s standard of living, of its reckless policies that lead to foreign wars, and its complete disregard of fiscal prudence.
Concerned? You bet. Concerned about policies that transfer financial responsibility from the individual to the government. That there is a growing dependency on government, and worse it is fostered.
I believe we are, and have been for several years, been involved in a cultural civil war. I see it on campuses, in the streets, at the local diner, and in our discourse. I pray it stays within the legal system but am concerned it may not.
Sides are being drawn and that is more than just concerning, it is becoming dangerous. We are approaching the status of banana republic, morally bankrupt, history rewritten to suit the flavor of the day, and financially broke.
So yes, there is reason for fear for the future, but Trump, or Biden for that matter are not the cause, just the symptom.
Elise Stefanik said that she was against sending $ to Ukraine for "non-lethal" aid - according to an article in the Press Republican.
I wonder if Elise realizes that that "non-lethal" aid includes flak vests, first aid, food...?
Stefanik is a fraud. She is out there now preaching about anti-Semitism, but, let's not forget she has endorsed & fundraised for Paladino who said that "Hitler is the kind of leader we need now".
But, she has seen her campaign coffer$ increase with her "outrage". So she will continue to push the same relentlessly.
Stefanik, unfortunately, will most likely win another two-year term in Congress. Her sixth term, even though she pledged to only serve five.
Stefanik reflects the same as her idol, Donald J. Trump with her con, her quest to remain relevant, to bilk her supporters, to play the game, whatever...she is a fraud. Through & through.
As a lawyer I was, for many years, automatically excused from jury duty, much to my disappointment. That silly legal excuse was eventually eliminated. However, the only jury I have ever gotten to serve on was a Grand Jury. I was originally supposed to report, in downtown Manhattan, on September 11, 2001. As you can imagine, the jury did not convene that afternoon. When we finally did meet, a week or so later, it proved to be a very rewarding experience. Many of the cases we heard involved crimes committed at so-called Ground Zero. Mostly thefts. I felt as if I was helping, in a small way, to putting things right.
Stefanik is mum, and that is perhaps the only way for her to say the quiet part out loud. She voted "nyet" because that's what the former guy wanted her to do, but wait, he just threw a bone to Mike Johnson. Dear Elise, if I sent a quarter would you buy a clue? The former guys doesn't have anyone along for long, and no matter how you try, your spot under the bus awaits you.
Is Will Doolittle involved with you, Ken?
Rep. Stefanik does not return calls placed to her by loyal Republican supporters and constituents. I have asked.
Jay Heald was clear. He is well known. He called. No response. I had the same experience twice. The president of our local bank says he does not like her. He’s a loyal Republican.
To wit, Jay Elliot Heald is our coroner. Peter Standish Paine II was clear. Valedictorian of his class at Princeton. CEO of Champlain National. These two are Republicans and friends.
Our moribund newspapers do not seem to care.
Substack bleeds reporting. Democracy is threatened when newspapers fail. Yale University historian Timothy Snyder wrote about this in his book On Tyranny. Tim also publishes on Substack.
The letter writer should think about 9/11, and expand that to include every state in this country being attacked. One minute you have a home, the next you have a pile of rubble, and you have no where safe to go. You make your way to a local grocery store...........nothing but rubble. How are you going to eat? Neighborhoods are also nothing but rubble. Picture that in America!
Thank you Ken, for pointing out the protracted, daily struggles of too many people on our planet. It is true that many of us in this country cannot imagine hourly strife and disaster...until it hits us, temporarily or individually, smack in the face. It is ironic and very telling that many of the very comfortable (economically) lawmakers in our country, decry helping others less fortunate than themselves both nationally and internationally, and try anything to impede what they call entitlement spending, when they themselves are the entitled. It is also extremely disturbing that so many individuals in our country cannot, will not, see that those lawmakers or corporate executives don't give a hoot for their welfare.
I hate to tell you this but we’ve been in a civil war for a long time now. There are multiple sides and multiple fronts but greed is at the center everywhere. Greed both divides us and paradoxically binds us together. It’s the conundrum of consumerism. We are convinced we as individuals are smarter, better, more deserving than others who just want to take from us through taxes so we hate them, but we need to work to buy more stuff, a bigger truck, a drive-thru fast food meal and we can’t get all that without the work of our lesser, lazier neighbors who do not deserve $15/hr flipping burgers but what can we do? We need that burger and the fries too! So we stew and lash out and punch down.
The war is not over for the Rockwell Falls Library, and that it is reopened is not a great victory. Former staff - both women - lost their jobs, were harassed, denigrated, publicly humiliated, and defamed. They are forgotten casualties. And territory of free thought and free expression, of treating others as equals has been lost to the side of top down paternalist morality police.
We are in an uncivil civil war. We are losing.
I live in district 21 and I want to fund and aid urkrain!
Sedition Stefanik voted No on Ukraine for one reason and one reason only. Make no mistake it was to ingratiate herself with Trump. It’s self interest that drives her actions. Miss Harvard has her eye on being his VP pick.
Your reader’s comments about stefanik’s vote against funding for Ukraine was way off base! Most every person I know supports Ukraine and hates what Putin is doing to it.
According to everything I have read , most of that money stays in the US and goes to the companies that produce the weapons and ammunition that is then shipped to Ukraine. So by refusing to support it Stefanik is actually working against US companies.
It is a movie. But the reality of a possible American civil or revolutionary war is not just that "someone is trying to kill us and we are trying to kill them."
The reality is the rape of American women and girls and the burning of American babies.
Guns and killing people from a distance, or indiscriminate bombings by rockets and planes make war all to impersonal. But war, the ugly truth of war, is the grossly real, insanely horrific inhumanity of it.
Think about that when you talk about a war in America. Think about the rape of American women and girls and the burning of American babies.
Tell me again how you would advocate it. Tell me again how you would support an insurrection led by the likes of Trump and Stefanik. Don't argue that Stefanik would not burn American babies. The forces she would release would do that for her.
I'd like to hear about the pleasure you would take in the horrors of war. Maybe I'm wrong. So convince me.
It's interesting that Stefanik's congressional neighbor, Claudia Tenney, issued a statement explaining her vote against Ukraine funding. Basically, she wants a plan showing how Ukraine can win before giving any more money to its defense. Morally dubious as that position may be, it's at least a stance. But we don't even get that much from Stefanik.
I would submit the burning cities with occupied police stations, “autonomous” blocks and looted business districts were far more disturbing than the DC riot.
That is not to say the DC riot was not disturbing. It is too say it was no more so than the left wing dominated damage across the nation preceding it.
As for immigration in the current form. It in no way resembles the past. Many, most?, have no interest in literally millions of new central and state government dependants.
Fear? Yes that is an undercurrent running below the surface. I fear an additional 4 years of the current administration lowering my children’s standard of living, of its reckless policies that lead to foreign wars, and its complete disregard of fiscal prudence.
Concerned? You bet. Concerned about policies that transfer financial responsibility from the individual to the government. That there is a growing dependency on government, and worse it is fostered.
I believe we are, and have been for several years, been involved in a cultural civil war. I see it on campuses, in the streets, at the local diner, and in our discourse. I pray it stays within the legal system but am concerned it may not.
Sides are being drawn and that is more than just concerning, it is becoming dangerous. We are approaching the status of banana republic, morally bankrupt, history rewritten to suit the flavor of the day, and financially broke.
So yes, there is reason for fear for the future, but Trump, or Biden for that matter are not the cause, just the symptom.
Elise Stefanik said that she was against sending $ to Ukraine for "non-lethal" aid - according to an article in the Press Republican.
I wonder if Elise realizes that that "non-lethal" aid includes flak vests, first aid, food...?
Stefanik is a fraud. She is out there now preaching about anti-Semitism, but, let's not forget she has endorsed & fundraised for Paladino who said that "Hitler is the kind of leader we need now".
But, she has seen her campaign coffer$ increase with her "outrage". So she will continue to push the same relentlessly.
Stefanik, unfortunately, will most likely win another two-year term in Congress. Her sixth term, even though she pledged to only serve five.
Stefanik reflects the same as her idol, Donald J. Trump with her con, her quest to remain relevant, to bilk her supporters, to play the game, whatever...she is a fraud. Through & through.