22 Comments

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.

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There are monsters in our midst:

“Monsters exist but…. More dangerous are the common men, the functionaries ready to believe and to act without asking questions.” - Primo Levi

…and plenty of functionaries.

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Spreading lies is much easier than correcting them. Demagogues use this truism when they take advantage of less informed but well meaning, good people. Elise Stefanik knows what she is doing and it is up to those good people step back and say “Enough”!

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Bravo!

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Sedition Stefanik is an embarrassment to anyone in NY 21 who sees her for who she truly is. She is nothing more than an opportunist .

Miss Harvard knows better but chooses to do and say anything that will enable her to achieve her goal. She would like nothing more than to leave NY 21 in the dust. We are nothing more to her than stepping stones that she steps on and over.

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It is about the “Rule of 7”. If you repeat something 7 times people will believe it. Unfortunately, a lot of voters in NY 21 are not paying attention to what Stefanik has been saying and doing. Years ago someone like Stefanik would have been driven out of the race for all of the lies, but today people cheer. The more nasty and degrading a candidate is, the more some people love them. It is no longer about issues and concerns, it is about being in lock step with a dictator. And if you aren’t in lock step, you are a RINO.

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It's an interesting question. Is the problem the candidates or is the problem with us. Candidates will say what will get them elected so if the voters are not willing to hold them accountable, well, this is what we get.

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You live in New York State. If you’re not registered with a party, you’re unaffiliated, if you’re unaffiliated you cannot vote in primaries…

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That's true. If you want to have a say in county-wide elections around here, you have to be a registered Republican. But you don't see nearly as many primaries as you did years ago. Candidates within a party are not allowed to battle it out.

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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.

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Please don’t put your head in the sand. As Heather Cox Richardson said, “We are the last guardrail for Democracy.” No one is going to save us, we need to do the work.

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Moral should not be used in the same sentence as the word Trump.

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...his niece, Mary, seems to be a moral, ethical, and, yes, patriotic Trump...

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On top of this, in a very civil interview on CNN this week she was asked to comment on President Biden having Covid. Her response? Not a word about the president’s Covid. Not one word of EMPATHY! Instead, she went immediately into her “script” on Biden.

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Sounds familiar.

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Thanks for your comments on Stefanik, Ken.

I so appreciate your insight. As the Democratic Candidate who is opposing Stefanik, I become disoriented, not only by the lies, but by the voters who buy into the lies.

Unfortunately, we live in an era in which the truth is fluid, as is the reliability of jurisprudence handed down from the courts.

The more they lie, the more they race into court and other administrative proceedings to accuse their opponents of wrongdoing, in an effort to divert attention away from their lies and other shortcomings. My campaign, announced only some 6 months ago, has already been hit with numerous such proceedings, and we haven’t even gotten to the election yet. The whole purpose is to cast doubt through salacious headlines. Unfortunately, Adirondack Daily Enterprise followed the lead of NY Post and perpetuated this charade, as demonstrated in headlines earlier this week.

Please keep telling the truth, as will I and numerous other NY-21 voters who hold a core belief that some way, some how, there will come a turning point in this MAGA nightmare.

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Stop the weasel words. "A reality that's not true" is at best a falsehood. If done knowingly, it's a bald faced lie.

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fool me once, shame on you

fool me twice, shame on me

fool me thousands of time and I am a maga cult moron

---------

give a man a fish

and he will eat for a day

teach a man to be ignorant

and he will be a republican for life

=======

When it comes to lying; It is more than a way of life or statistics (to bastardize a Mark Twain attributed quote. For pos_tfnKKK it is evil and preys upon fools that aren’t smart enough to know better or are willingly ignorant and part of the grift.

In 2018, what amazed me, was not the refusal to sign a ‘no lie pack’ and thus admitting she and her campaign were going to lie.. WERE LIARS.

It amazed me the only honest moment pos_tfnKKK and alex deGRASSe had was when they refused to lie and say they wouldn’t lie.

Now we have a republican party that no longer deals in reality. There are endless examples... One that stands out to me was within the last year

She attacked the host.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CG5aOiPv7cY

She lied and changed the discussion with a filibustered and said “if you listen to my entire statement you would see that isn’t true. The problem is, that statement is still online and if you check it she asked people to SEE that she is lying.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lk4uuu5WB7A

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Legislators can influence what is included in a spending bill for their areas even though they may vote against the final bill for other reasons. Thus, it is not inappropriate for them to take some credit for the funding which they supported and would vote for in legislation which was otherwise supportable.

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I already added a comment below, but when I realized I had soooooo much to say in response to Ken's post, I wrote a separate column on my here: https://open.substack.com/pub/paulany21/p/my-full-response-to-ken-tingleys?r=3g6fcu&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

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Thanks for all that. I think CNN did a fact check on Stefanik and told about a lot of her lies. Great reporting by you.!

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There is a whole chapter on Rep. Stefanik on her campaign in 2018 in my book "The Last American Newspaper." Check it out. Soon to be a play.

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