Prime time Stefanik continues to perpetuate a reality that is not true
Girard sits for Raptors; Hudson Falls drops football for a year
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Twisting the facts has been a political art form almost as long as we have had a republic.
Half-truths, hyperbole and never quite answering the tough questions are part of the DNA of the modern-day politician. I know, I was a newspaper editor for two decades and saw it up close.
Rep. Elise Stefanik has always had an uncomfortable relationship with the truth. I remind her constituents that in 2018 when the Glens Falls newspaper's editorial board asked her for a commitment "not to lie" during her congressional race, she did not respond.
Consider that for a second.
Not lying should have been an easy campaign promise.
I guess I was naive.
If we the voters should have one simple standard these days it's that elected officials should tell the truth.
In those early days, we saw in Stefanik a politician with a grasp of the issues, but struggling with the messaging, often filibustering on tough questions and never really answering others.
But over five congressional terms she has become adept at the art of politicking. And that is not a good thing. She has become bolder and bolder in her untruths.
Rep. Stefanik got just five minutes on national television at the Republican National Convention Tuesday night and still could not avoid a few whoppers.
What was even more disturbing was that the only local reporter I could find who tried to fact check her was reporter Aaron Marbone of the Adirondack Daily Enterprise.
She said the Biden border was the most wide open in our nation's history.
She said the inflation rate was the highest rate in her lifetime.
She said there was a violent crime crisis, especially in her home state.
If true, they should be of great concern, but they are mostly not true and I'm sure a Harvard-educated woman like Elise Stefanik knows that.
The border problem has been raging for years. Fact-checkers at Rollcall.com found that the illegal crossings were nearly 15 percent higher in the final year of Trump's presidency than when Trump was elected. And when a Senate Republican came up with a bipartisan solution, candidate Trump stepped in to torpedo the deal.
The Biden administration kept the Trump-era border policy during the pandemic mostly in place and as the crisis got worse reinstated other Trump policies. This is a policy problem that Congress refuses to address at a time when so many rural communities would benefit from an influx of new residents.
Adirondack Daily Enterprise reporter Marbone pointed out that while the inflation rate two years ago (9.1 percent) was the highest since 1981, it has now declined to about 3 percent. My own belief is that presidents don't have much control over world markets, especially a world-wide disruption like what occurred during the pandemic. The United States has also recovered far better than most other countries around the world.
Then there is what Stefanik described as "Biden's violent crime crisis."
That crime epidemic is so bad in the Glens Falls area that the Whitehall Police Department in Washington County was just disbanded this past week.
Two weeks ago, Stefanik told the Times Union that the exodus of New Yorkers to other states was because of the rise of violent crime in New York. And while there was a brief rise in crime in New York during the pandemic, it has been declining for decades.
Fact-checkers at Rollcall.com wrote, "Violent crime and murders nationwide have gone down, according to FBI and other crime data. Figures from the Major Cities Chiefs Association show an 8.6% decline in murders in 69 large U.S. cities from 2020, the year before Biden took office, to 2023, as FactCheck has written before. In former President Donald Trump’s last year in office — 2020 — murders and violent crime went up, and there was a smaller increase the following year, Biden’s first year in office. But since then, murders and violent crime have been dropping."
I'm singling out Stefanik because she is our representative in Washington, but she is not alone. What the Republican Party seems to be selling is fear in places like Glens Falls where there should not be any.
As someone who devoted over 40 years to the journalism trade, the gold standard is to get the facts right and if you are questioned about your facts, you check and recheck. There are so many who do not believe that anymore. They do not trust anyone that disputes their view of the world.
What is so shocking now is that even after checking and rechecking the facts, those in the media are accused of bias. I've repeatedly criticized Rep. Stefanik for her half-truths that have often escalated into full-throated lies and been accused of a political agenda.
Yeah, I used to be a registered Republican, but I'm an independent now.
I'd like to think I'm someone always looking for the right answers to complex problems, but if I had to characterize my beliefs I would say I was a moderate who votes for the best candidate regardless of party affiliation.
I don't dislike Elise Stefanik. I do dislike those who don't tell the truth, so if the shoe fits.
Stefanik described President Biden on Tuesday as "the feckless and failed Joe Biden," yet she has repeatedly taken credit for federal money delivered to her home district in an infrastructure bill that she voted against.
It bothers me when politicians take credit for things they didn't do.
What bothers me even more is that most people in the 21st Congressional District seem unconcerned by the lies their congresswoman had told them, including that she would not serve more than five terms.
She is running for a sixth term.
There are those that will read my critique and say it flies in the face of what they know to be true.
Mark Twain once said, "It is easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled."
We all should consider that for a second.
Could it be possible we've been fooled by millions in campaign ads, a barrage of social media posts and Supreme Court decisions allowing presidents to go unchecked?
These are perilous times.
More than once I have been told I was wrong to criticize Rep. Stefanik because of her obvious popularity in recent elections.
Then, I found this quote from Booker T. Washington, the famous author and educator from the 1800s: "A lie doesn't become truth, wrong doesn't become right, and evil doesn't become good just because it is accepted by a majority."
That seems appropriate for the times we are living through.
Stefanik opened her address Tuesday night saying "Our Constitution and the soul of our very nation are on the ballot."
I agree with that 100 percent but for different reasons.
She also said "President Tump will bring back moral leadership to the White House."
That tells us a lot about Stefanik's standard of morality.
Aaron Marbone fact check Adirondack Daily Enterprise
"President Trump will bring back moral leadership to the White House.
Girard sits
Joe Girard III's NBA experience did not get off to a great start.
Competing in Las Vegas with the Toronto Raptors summer league team, Girard did not play in either of the Raptors first three games.
The Raptors summer league team won two of their first three games.
Hudson Falls football
When I first arrived at The Post-Star in 1988, the Hudson Falls football team was a powerhouse with a stable of big offensive linemen and great tailbacks.
Coach Tom Heinzelman was one of those coaches who not only cared about the players, but insisted they do everything the right way. Even in defeat, he was a quote machine for sportswriters.
Like so many small communities, Hudson Falls has struggled to field a football team in recent years. It combined forces with Fort Edward last year and that was still not enough to field a team this year.
Hudson Falls announced it was dropping varsity football this year. It will field a junior varsity team and hopes to have a varsity team next year.
Taking credit
We've pointed out a number of times here where Rep. Elise Stefanik took credit for funding coming from the federal government that she voted against.
Historian/columnist Heather Cox Richardson pointed out last week that Republicans around the country do this including this one egregious example from former football coach Sen. Tommy Tuberville.
Richardson wrote: "In Alabama, Senator Tommy Tuberville boasted about a bridge project funded by a $550 million Department of Transportation grant, writing: “Since I took office, I have been working to secure funding for the Mobile bridge and get this project underway.” But as Representative Terri Sewell, an Alabama Democrat, pointed out, Tuberville voted against the bill that provided the money."
Fountain Square
If you know a little bit about the history of Glens Falls, you know that the five-way intersection where the roundabout is now was called Fountain Square up until 1900.
As part of the Chapman Museum's diorama project with the Upstate Model Railroaders, a 1900-era model of downtown Glens Falls is being completed with a running trolley line up Glen Street.
Forest Bevins has begun work creating what Glens Falls looked like 125 years ago. He just finished recreating the original fountain in Fountain Square using a 3-D printer.
The club is currently doing the research to recreate all the buildings as well.
We still need $1,000 to buy the materials needed for the project.
Donate what ever you can today.
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.
I turned on the TV last evening and tuned in to the convention proceedings in anticipation that I might learn something about the Republican Party’s proposals for America over the next four years and to hear what Donald Trump might have to say in his acceptance speech. I never made it past Hulk Hogan barking from the speaker’s podium, tearing his shirt off and flexing his aging muscles for “Trumpites” ( his word).
This was truly a “Theater of the Absurd”! The gap between rhetoric and reality has never been wider. It’s like baseball without rules or highways without guardrails.
I turned off the TV and went back to reading a good book. I’m beginning to fear that I might be metamorphosing into an ostrich with my head in the sand.
Ken wrote: "She also said "President Tump will bring back moral leadership to the White House." That tells us a lot about Stefanik's standard of morality."
Hope for the best but prepare for the worst.
Actively support a decent candidate for president who will promote democracy and ethical governance. Someone who demonstrated his (or her) competence over the past four years in a difficult and demanding environment. Vote in November — don’t sit passively on the sidelines.
Prepare as needed to actively resist a twice-impeached convicted felon, business fraud, and sexual abuser. Someone who, while in office, demonstrated his lack of fitness and promoted a violent insurrection against Congress. Someone who vows to be a dictator, to baselessly prosecute his political opponents and use presidential immunity to abuse his power. Resist — don’t sit passively on the sidelines.