It's the 77 million that I really fear
Retired Press-Republican sports editor Bob Goetz passed away this past week
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More than 77 million people cast a vote for immorality on Nov. 5.
There is no other way to see it.
They knew exactly what they were doing in choosing to follow the darkness.
They knew the candidate's reputation as a serial liar who cheated on his wife with a porn star while falsifying business records leading to 34 felony convictions.
They knew he was forced to pay millions of dollars in damages to a victim of sexual assault.
They knew about his long history of swindling consumers, associates, contractors and businesses that went into bankruptcy.
They knew he had lied repeatedly about the 2020 election being stolen.
And they watched as he incited a frenzied mob toward the the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 and witnessed them beating police officers.
Some of those same people have "Back the Blue" signs in their front yards.
Those 77 million looked the other way and ignored the attack on our democracy.
They threw away their conscience, their ethics and their ability to discern right from wrong.
America the beautiful has become America the embarrassment to anyone who used to believe in truth, justice and the American way because if we were a just and moral people we would have shown better judgment this past Nov. 5.
Three days from now will be America's darkest hour. That says a lot for a country that once embraced slavery.
Your friends, neighbors and people all around you are to blame for ignoring the warnings. The facts were out there. We still tip toe around them, unwilling to engage in what they are thinking and why they are thinking it.
Prosecutors have repeatedly brought charges and details of his malfeasance while exposing him as a criminal, but his supporters choose to ignore the truth under a blizzard of misinformation.
Billionaire business leaders are falling in line behind him in scenes strikingly familiar to past authoritarian regimes overseas.
President Biden warned the 77 million Wednesday night he fears for our country's future in an unprecedented farewell address pleading for them to pay attention and fulfill their obligation as citizens.
The election is over.
Biden has nothing to gain by sounding the alarm our country is burning.
He warned of billionaires, many of whom pay no taxes, being so intimately involved in government for their own self-interest at the expense of the middle class.
We've seen in recent days how Republican members of the U.S. Senate are shirking their responsibility to ensure the country is run by capable leaders.
In three days, 77 million will cheer his return to office for a second time despite being the antithesis of what America stands for.
He has promised to set up camps and drive people from our country.
He has promised to see retribution for anyone who dared to stand up to him.
He has promised to take care of his friends and enrich his family.
We know this.
He said he would do all of this.
The Supreme Court - three of whom he appointed - has ruled he is above the law.
A federal judge he appointed dismissed a case where he was accused of stealing top secret documents.
And 77 million of his supporters checked the box next to his name while the other half of the country looked on in horror.
They don't understand why California is on fire.
They don't understand why there is inflation.
And they seem to believe that anyone who looks different than them is a threat to their way of life.
Donald Trump didn't do that alone. Those 77 million supporters allowed this to happen.
I once believed America consisted of good and righteous people.
Instead, we are seeing freedoms stripped away.
We were once needed by the rest of the world to preserve the peach, now the rest of the world is preparing to go it alone.
Those 77 million have changed the equation because their own morality has changed.
They would cheer for Mr. Potter over George Bailey any day of the week because " the Baileys were suckers."
They embrace Gordon Gekko's "greed is good" credo as the way to live.
And they believe Ebenezer Scrooge should not have listened to any of those ghosts.
None of them read newspapers anymore, and if they do, they say it is "fake news."
They have no faith in juries - one found the president-elect guilty of 34 felonies - grand juries, judges and the entire Department of Justice.
I don't know what they believe in anymore.
I don't know what our country stands for anymore.
There is hope because there were 75 million who saw the candidate for all his flaws and found the choice intolerable.
It's not Donald Trump I fear, it's the 77 million who support him and what he wants our country to become.
We were warned again Wednesday night by President Biden, but I don't suppose many of them were curious enough to even listen to what he had to say.
Another loss
When I took a job with the Press-Republican in Plattsburgh in 1980, Bob Goetz was a seasoned veteran. He was in his 30s.
Plattsburgh was my second stop as a sportswriter and perhaps the most significant in my development.
It was a two-man sports department then. Goetz was the sports editor and I was the sportswriter. To put out a daily sports section covering more than a dozen high schools we had to be organized and we had to work as a team.
Bob Goetz showed me how to do that.
Every two years or so, Bob would have to break in another writer. There were a lot of us over the years. He was the master craftsman. We were the apprentices.
He taught me the basics, showed me the importance of keeping statistics and keeping records. He also taught me that using words like "hapless" to describe a struggling high school team could be heartless.
I learned this week Bob Goetz, who never left that job in Plattsburgh, passed away.
I hope I thanked him along the way. He is a big part of my later success.
Bob never made the big time, but I always considered him big time.
Made my day
Dave Hamlen made my day last week with a simple email.
"I just want to tell you how much I enjoy your columns and how you have become a wonderful part of my day. I subscribed to The Front Page about a year ago, and I look forward to each entry. My wife gave me your first book for Christmas, and I couldn’t put it down. I finished it today and just purchased volume 2."
Dave raised his family here in Glens Falls and eventually moved on to New Hampshire after all the kids left. His children delivered The Post-Star and he loved our sports section.
"You did an excellent job as sports editor. You had such a nice way of keeping the human element in high school sports," Dave wrote.
"Your book did such a wonderful job of illustrating how essential a local newspaper is to the community. I fear that a majority of citizens don’t even realize they are uninformed," Dave wrote. "The real intent of this email is to praise you and let you know that you are a very positive part of each of my days. Thank you!"
That's the best part about the message for me.
It's what I have been preaching for some time. People want to read columns and commentary that tell the stories of their community and that's why Will and I continue to write. It is still important to us to be a positive part of someone's day."
Stefanik replacement
The Times Union reported Thursday that Assemblyman Chris Tague, former congressional candidate Liz Joy (She ran against Paul Tonko) and Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin are currently the leading candidates to replace Rep. Elise Stefanik in the 21st Congressional District.
There was no mention of Dan Stec at all.
The T-U reported this:
"GOP sources told the Times Union this week that Tague and Joy are becoming favorites among many of the district’s GOP chairs, although Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin is still a contender. The three potential nominees all have ties to the district and experience running for political office. They also share Stefanik’s fierce allegiance to Trump, whose transition team is expected to have influence in the final decision and is seeking a candidate who will work with his administration, sources said."
Wrong questions
David Brooks, the New York Times conservative columnist, had an insightful column about Democrats failure to pin down Trump's pick for defense secretary, Fox News host Pete Hegseth, on how he will keep the country safe.
"If you’re a Democrat trying to sink a nomination, you would think you’d want to ask substantive questions on life-or-death issues like these in order to expose the nominee’s ignorance and unpreparedness," Brooks wrote.
It's a great piece of writing/reporting that really addresses the issues of what is needed in a defense secretary.
Ken Tingley spent more than four decades working in small community newspapers in upstate New York. Since retirement in 2020 he has written three books and is currently adapting his second book "The Last American Newspaper" into a play. He currently lives in Queensbury, N.Y.
Great pic. Lot of dark hair.
Yes, we are about to enter one the darkest periods in American history. The flags should be are flying at half staff in honor of President Jimmy Carter for the entire month. Instead, over the Capital on Monday, Republicans have decided to make an exception. This is an absolute embarrassment. The flag will be raised to honor the sociopathic narcissist who is felon, an adulterer, a seditionist , a cheat and more. Instead of raising the flag on Inauguration Day, it would be more appropriate to fly it upside down. If we are to survive the next four years, America is going to need a huge wake up call and Devine intervention.