I refer you to the Second Commandment and the parable about the Good Samaritan. FYI, JFK established US AID and the Peace Corps in the early 1960s to show the world an example of the most effective and efficient positive contribution to international relations called "soft power." Those organizations have left generations of people in unfortunate countries with the best impression of what a country can do.
Golly, why didn't your deity bring all that up regarding the Samaritan and the 2nd Commandment? And tell us where US AID has entered another country illegally.
Did you delete my comment about Stefanik and Rubio?
So only certain sins are sins. Is that how it is? Fraud is a sin. Adultery is a sin, Lying is a sin. Theft is a sin. Your savior commits all of them, yet he is the chosen
If you would like to cite the specific reporting on a "money laundering operation" I'd love to take a look. I'm sure there is stealing and corruption in some of these programs, but there is also a lot of good done. So if you can refer me to the reporting, that would be helpful. And I was wondering if you are referring to me as a "leftist" and could you define "leftist" for me because I've never been called that before.
I saw an article yesterday attributing that to Rubio but I cannot find it now. I do see that Musk said it so I'll sign on to your version. Thank you for the correction.
You've been misled. Most leftists agree with AOC and Bernie. Interestingly, Trump stole Bernie's platform and won on that basis. The difference, of course, is that Bernie is actually on the side of the working class. The current Resident is now openly surrounded by billionaires and never meant a word of all that care and concern for the working class.
Many leftists agree with AOC and Bernie on this, it’s true. But most do not. The college-educated Dem base does not believe in full-on Bernie-style socialism, and definitely is NOW anti- the working class.
But they do indeed believe in Big Tech, Big Government, Big Pharma. This is, after all, what “trust the experts” means.
Trump did not steal Bernie’s platform. He did steal Bill Clinton’s “I feel your pain.”
But the one thing that Bernie and Trump (and myself, to be clear) agree on is that “the system is rigged”. The Establishment/“swamp” is all about crony capitalism.
Neither Bernie nor AOC are "full-on" socialists. But if you favor public funding of maintaining roads, bridges, airports, rail, stop signs, traffic lights, the military - you're favoring socialism. Social Security? Not socialism and not subject to the appropriations procedures in the House and Senate and, since 1983, not available by law to be invaded to pay down the massive national debt the extremely rich got from all those tax cuts by GOP administrations and legislative majorities.
How odd that you don't see the cronyism in the current Resident's programs and plots. How did you miss the point that Project 2025, written mostly by Trump staffers from 2016 on, its plans to gut what's left of aid to the needy and Trump's plan to give each fantastically wealthy individual annual tax cuts of $3.5 million? I refer you to my Substack article titled "Two Unelected Billionaires Target the Needy," among whom are disabled Vets, WIC and SNAP recipients, Social Security - Disability first, they'll x that out and continue to chip away at retirement benefits and send that to Wall Street where the C Suite will take their 10%-20% off the top and shove you into a 401k that's subject to market crashes. It's a long article. When Musk introduced it, he said that the poor would suffer but only for a couple of years. Of course, the billionaire class will be left with that $3.5 trillion each tax cut which will add to the $8 trillion Trump put on the nation's credit card the first time around, and that doesn't take into account the years spent paying interest.
Supporting SOME infrastructure doesn’t make you a socialist.
Supporting national defense, courts and police surely don’t make you a socialist 😂.
I suspect you’ve not read that much of Project 2025. Or maybe you have. As a classical liberal / libertarian, I support probably 80%-85% of what’s in it.
But since by your last comment you make it clear that you are much closer to Bernie and AOC yourself than to Milton Friedman, then yeah, probably not much point in continuing to debate.
But in parting I will note that you are either innumerate or delusional (perhaps both) if you think fundamentally that “tax cuts for the wealthy” are primarily responsible for our massive national debt. If Bernie succeeded in getting tax rates on the rich up to 99% (as he’d like) - and even if miracle of miracles it didn’t cause any change in productive behavior (ha!) - it wouldn’t pay for a fraction of the programs he wants, nor pay down much of the debt even if he didn’t get to enact his programs.
All of those programs are publicly funded, therefore described as "socialist." As for Milton Friedman, he wound up agreeing with Thatcher and Reagan that there is no "society", only looking out for oneself and Trump took that to the max by gutting all fiduciary rules for Wall Street and legislating the fact that the buyer must be wary when investing in securities because the broker is now free to offer what's best for him, not the investor. You are the sheep in that case.
As for those tax cuts and the national debt, a simple non-partisan search of the data will show you that you are dead wrong.
When I say “leftists” I am referring to the people who vote for Democrats (and also the even further left who vote for fringe parties).
And so while I agree that there are still a few “‘moderates” who vote Dem, large majorities of Dem voters are no longer anti-big-corporation, just as overwhelming majorities of them are pro-big-government, and have been for for decades now.
Large majorities of Dem voters now believe in censorship and believing what big government and big tech and big pharma tell you to. If you don’t “trust the experts”, according to them, you are a crazy or racist or bigoted right-winger. And you should be silenced.
I’m curious: which of my generalizations do you claim is untrue? Do you have survey data that indicates otherwise?
I agree they are just generalizations, and I described them as such. I was careful not to claim it was all, or even almost all.
But perhaps you’re correct that I don’t really know the number who call those who disagree with them or “the experts” racist or bigoted. There may just be a large minority of them, and not actually a majority. Fair point.
I didn’t say I thought they were untrue, although I do think they are. But let’s start with “large majorities… are no longer anti-big-corporation” and “overwhelming majorities…are pro-big-government.” You ask where my survey data is. I could ask you, where is yours? You don’t cite any, and without verifiable data what you said seems more like your opinion, not fact.
Anecdotally speaking, most liberal, progressive, leftist, whatever you want to call it people I know (and I know quite a few!) dislike large corporations intensely for many reasons. Things like the income disparity between CEO’s and workers, their willingness to outsource labor to other countries, the pollution they cause…And no one I know is just blanket pro-big-government for big government’s sake. We leftists do want government to do the things for us that we as individuals would find impossible to do. Like fight climate change, clean up the environment, regulate those big corporations so they don’t cut corners to save a buck and put out shoddy or dangerous products, just to name a few examples.
We “leftists” don’t believe in censorship, quite the opposite! It’s the right wing that wants to ban books, drag queen story hours, mentions of climate change, etc, and use the power of the government to do it. I think what the right wing sees as censorship is often just not being able to get away with racist, homophobic or bigoted remarks without being called out on them.
As to who to believe, well that all depends on whose ox is being gored, doesn’t it? Personally, I prefer to be well read, listen to a variety of experts, and keep my salt shaker handy for the grains needed to season the knowledge properly. Isn’t that better than having to swallow whatever nonsense Trump is spouting hook, line, and sinker?
“I’m gobsmacked that leftist are in partnerships with the very corporations and government entities that they claim to be fighting against.
Whatever happened to fighting The Man? Peace, Love all that?”
When “The Man” is Big Government, leftists have supported that for decades now.
It is only in the last 10 years or so that they also support Big Tech and shockingly Big Pharma too.
Trust the science! Trust the experts! Don’t question authority! These are their mantras now - given that they are in power, and control almost all public institutions.
I can't help but wonder how Stefanik will fare at the U.N. when she won't have that backward far right wing rabble waiting to hear more smears and prevarications from her. Or her contact with lawyers to pen her complaints she sends to official sanctioning bodies alleging all sorts of things she's taken out of context.
ANd Rubio with that "criminal enterprise?" Eveidently, he's caught the same infection Elise did from Trump. Imagine what it takes to be so power hungry that you will say and do anything. That is a life not worth living.
My dad worked for USAID in the 60’s in the Indian subcontinent with a team of educators. The important impact these US programs had on our reputation as a beacon of democracy and an aspirational model to struggling, new countries was obvious. But equally significant was the impact on we Americans abroad, living in completely different cultures, learning an appreciation for what we had at home, but also learning that ‘our way’ isn’t always the only way. I doubt Stefanik will bring that important humility and humanity to her role representing us to the rest of the world.
Where is the Musk Cancer Wing? Where is the Zuckerberg Center For Childhood Illness, Where id the Bezos Wing of a college library? Why we don't see the ridiculous need for more by these folks as a disease that should be treated in a secure facility is beyond me. Aid for the starving? Not my problem, Help wipe out disease? , nah, cost too much. The lack of understanding is exceeded only by the lack of empathy. I don't know how to face this current destruction off all that makes us the richest nation ever and based on lies. 50 mill for condoms for Hamas? They are eating the cats.
At least the last Golden Age we got some Carnegie Libraries and performance venues, botanical gardens, museums. Bill & Melinda Gates are the only billionaire names I see attributed to philanthropic endeavors this time around. Maybe they’re silent, humble partners.
We all know Stefanik's utter fealty and subservience to Trump so she will never question or criticize his decisions or words, no matter how disgraceful, denigrating or dangerous they are.
The Republican Party of yore is no more. They will stand by Trump/Musk no matter how much damage they are wreaking upon American values and American democracy. Trump's administration is filling up with far-right white nationalists and conspiracy theorists. Many with the blessings of the Republican Senate.
Many people are saying (to use a favorite line of Trump) that in two years the Democrats will most likely be back in the majority in Congress. But, I wonder, in two years with the way things are going in just two weeks, will there even be elections?
While I hate to be in panic mode, but this administration is routinely breaking laws, not norms, this time around. And with an FBI director and Justice Department in his back pocket, there will be no repercussions. This is not about waiting it out for two years. This is something different and I also wonder if there will be elections in two years and if Congress will pass a law - despite it being unconstitutional to give Trump another term, and then another.... My reading of "It can happen here" has left me pessimistic.
Ken wrote: The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has been taken over my Musk. He tweeted over the weekend, “USAID is a criminal organization. Time for it to die.”
What I worry about most is not a federal government taken over, by traitors, against the will of the American public. Rather, I worry about a federal government taken over by traitors with the support of a plurality of the public.
USAID is not a charity. It is an organization founded by the people who fought WWII and wanted to prevent future mass atrocities, and at the same time to develop friendships and, more importantly, markets in developing countries. The point was to develop mass consumers who would Buy American.
USAID is a tool for projection of American soft power. Most of the money, 90%, spent by USAID goes to NGO’s based in Washington DC. That funding flows through our economy on its way to projects in various countries overseas.
In the late 1980s, I worked as a graduate student researcher with a team of Stony Brook University professors taking a "Health Care Services use" survey in the Dominican Republic. Our in-country liaison was the local USAID Office. Their people had established a good rapport with the DR medical community. That fact enabled our team to set up shop, hire doctors, computer personnel, and field surveyors to carry out our job. The effort was funded by a grant from the World Bank. The work was extremely helpful to the DR. It was a different time. Our country was a leader in groundbreaking and much needed humanitarian work.
The Democratic candidate to run in the special election is Blake Gendebien from Lisbon. He has a fb presence as well as a website, blakegendebienforcongress.com. Fifteen county chairs that make up NY21 have been meeting for a while and announced Gendebien's candidacy this weekend. IMHO, he is an excellent choice. He's lived his whole life in the North Country, is active in his community and has served on several boards that represent the dairy industry.
Check out his website. I think you'll find he is well suited for the position. I also believe he'll have some universal appeal in this district. He already has a war chest, which, unfortunately, is of utmost importance. I hate money in politics! For the time being, however, it is a reality we live with.
And many thanks to Paula Collins for being a true trailblazer, traveling to/from all parts of the 21st District over a 4 month period during her campaign, (areas which Elise never entered in past 10 years) to listen to the real concerns of North Country residents, and give voice to their concerns in her well-attended pre-announced rallies and online informative, well-researched articles in her substack. I’m certain Paula will always be an ally in the battle for human rights in NYS and the wider world.
Apparently he is already asking for money! Be careful about donating through a PAC, thinking he will have all of your dollar! He will get $.20 and the PAC will get the rest!
This pre-planned not-so-silent slow systematic genocide…created by denying long standing infection control programs to under-served countries around the world…is one of many Real Sins this new sanctimonious troll will never acknowledge. Shame on “it.”
Gaza residents were/are not hostile immigrant invaders. The massive demolition of that strip of land and collateral loss of lives, co-created by the Hamas/Israeli bombings, ensured this waterfront property would become uninhabitable for the surviving 2 million residents.
People ignored Jared Kushner’s assertion in March ‘24 that the Gaza Strip was prime property which could be redeveloped into real estate investments…but yesterday the White House Satan-in-Chief announced to the world on live TV that his proposal is to create “The Riviera of the Middle East” ………once he completes the Exodus of the remaining inhabitants.
FYI - Since Monday evening The Post Star has been offline/undeliverable by regular mail… with online apologies for mechanical problems…though some generic national news articles with Trump’s face were accessible till I stopped searching for my account info. The USPS Dept. Head GOP puppet has been threatening for the past 10+ years to privatize our mail delivery system…yesterday the postal workers contract negotiations stopped.
Now the USPS isnt accepting import of small packages from China - which will cause issues. My son orders parts from there for his business - it will be problematic.
Trump is apparently channeling Louis the XIV. Did you hear that slip of the lip when Trump was announcing his “plan” for the Riviera of the Mediterranean? He let half of the word “valuable” slip out before he backtracked and replaced it with “magnificent.” Guess who wants to be building the luxury hotels? So the United States, aka Trumpland, is now in the real estate business? I have to admit though, he has a point when he says nothing else anyone has done for decades has been able to solve the problem. Anyone who thinks his plan will work is truly crazy though.
USAID is going to get rolled under the state department. That way, money can be sent to countries that wanna work with us and not blow us up. Just like all of us do our regular life, when you keep helping somebody out and all they do is crap all over you, you kinda get tired of that.
Once again Ken an excellent commentary ~ Unfortunately it seems America has a serious moral problem. In a moral, ethical society the spirit of noblesse oblige would be embraced and prevail.
I suspect that the tax payer didn’t realize USAID was a money laundering operation. The grift is over! Players are being exposed.
I’m gobsmacked that leftist are in partnerships with the very corporations and government entities that they claim to be fighting against.
Whatever happened to fighting The Man? Peace, Love all that?
Y’all have become everything y’all were once against.
Y’all hate more than you love. This is sad. Really sad.
I’ll pray for all of us to get along. As we are all Gods children. He loves us in spite of our differences.
I refer you to the Second Commandment and the parable about the Good Samaritan. FYI, JFK established US AID and the Peace Corps in the early 1960s to show the world an example of the most effective and efficient positive contribution to international relations called "soft power." Those organizations have left generations of people in unfortunate countries with the best impression of what a country can do.
You have been misled.
Romans 13:1-7
Illegal immigration is the breaking of a government’s law.
It is rebellion against God to unlawfully enter another country. Illegal immigration is a sin.
Golly, why didn't your deity bring all that up regarding the Samaritan and the 2nd Commandment? And tell us where US AID has entered another country illegally.
Did you delete my comment about Stefanik and Rubio?
A sin?? Rebellion against God?????
I'm literally living in the damn twilight zone.
Bearing false witness is a sin.
Satan has a hold on this person’s mind. Out Satan, in the name of Jesus Christ get you out of this person’s mind and soul and leave them forever.
Oh my, I suspect we will see passages from Leviticus next.
Or "Two Corinthians."
Two Corinthians met at the Agora. One said"You look like you're wearing a toga". The other said "How do you know I'm not"..
You made me LOL. Thanks!
So only certain sins are sins. Is that how it is? Fraud is a sin. Adultery is a sin, Lying is a sin. Theft is a sin. Your savior commits all of them, yet he is the chosen
God created borders?
Te, I went to the Bible Gateway site and found https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans%2013&version=NIV I don’t see the connection you are making.
Source for money laundering claim?
If you would like to cite the specific reporting on a "money laundering operation" I'd love to take a look. I'm sure there is stealing and corruption in some of these programs, but there is also a lot of good done. So if you can refer me to the reporting, that would be helpful. And I was wondering if you are referring to me as a "leftist" and could you define "leftist" for me because I've never been called that before.
I saw an article yesterday attributing that to Rubio but I cannot find it now. I do see that Musk said it so I'll sign on to your version. Thank you for the correction.
Most leftists are no longer anti-big-corporation, any more than they haven’t been anti-big-government for decades now.
The left believes in censorship and believing what big government and big tech and big pharma tell you to.
You've been misled. Most leftists agree with AOC and Bernie. Interestingly, Trump stole Bernie's platform and won on that basis. The difference, of course, is that Bernie is actually on the side of the working class. The current Resident is now openly surrounded by billionaires and never meant a word of all that care and concern for the working class.
Many leftists agree with AOC and Bernie on this, it’s true. But most do not. The college-educated Dem base does not believe in full-on Bernie-style socialism, and definitely is NOW anti- the working class.
But they do indeed believe in Big Tech, Big Government, Big Pharma. This is, after all, what “trust the experts” means.
Trump did not steal Bernie’s platform. He did steal Bill Clinton’s “I feel your pain.”
But the one thing that Bernie and Trump (and myself, to be clear) agree on is that “the system is rigged”. The Establishment/“swamp” is all about crony capitalism.
Neither Bernie nor AOC are "full-on" socialists. But if you favor public funding of maintaining roads, bridges, airports, rail, stop signs, traffic lights, the military - you're favoring socialism. Social Security? Not socialism and not subject to the appropriations procedures in the House and Senate and, since 1983, not available by law to be invaded to pay down the massive national debt the extremely rich got from all those tax cuts by GOP administrations and legislative majorities.
How odd that you don't see the cronyism in the current Resident's programs and plots. How did you miss the point that Project 2025, written mostly by Trump staffers from 2016 on, its plans to gut what's left of aid to the needy and Trump's plan to give each fantastically wealthy individual annual tax cuts of $3.5 million? I refer you to my Substack article titled "Two Unelected Billionaires Target the Needy," among whom are disabled Vets, WIC and SNAP recipients, Social Security - Disability first, they'll x that out and continue to chip away at retirement benefits and send that to Wall Street where the C Suite will take their 10%-20% off the top and shove you into a 401k that's subject to market crashes. It's a long article. When Musk introduced it, he said that the poor would suffer but only for a couple of years. Of course, the billionaire class will be left with that $3.5 trillion each tax cut which will add to the $8 trillion Trump put on the nation's credit card the first time around, and that doesn't take into account the years spent paying interest.
Supporting SOME infrastructure doesn’t make you a socialist.
Supporting national defense, courts and police surely don’t make you a socialist 😂.
I suspect you’ve not read that much of Project 2025. Or maybe you have. As a classical liberal / libertarian, I support probably 80%-85% of what’s in it.
But since by your last comment you make it clear that you are much closer to Bernie and AOC yourself than to Milton Friedman, then yeah, probably not much point in continuing to debate.
But in parting I will note that you are either innumerate or delusional (perhaps both) if you think fundamentally that “tax cuts for the wealthy” are primarily responsible for our massive national debt. If Bernie succeeded in getting tax rates on the rich up to 99% (as he’d like) - and even if miracle of miracles it didn’t cause any change in productive behavior (ha!) - it wouldn’t pay for a fraction of the programs he wants, nor pay down much of the debt even if he didn’t get to enact his programs.
All of those programs are publicly funded, therefore described as "socialist." As for Milton Friedman, he wound up agreeing with Thatcher and Reagan that there is no "society", only looking out for oneself and Trump took that to the max by gutting all fiduciary rules for Wall Street and legislating the fact that the buyer must be wary when investing in securities because the broker is now free to offer what's best for him, not the investor. You are the sheep in that case.
As for those tax cuts and the national debt, a simple non-partisan search of the data will show you that you are dead wrong.
Be well, take care, goodbye.
Your first sentence proved my point - a mixed economy. Your second particularized it to only the things you’ll support.
Your last sentence showed that your only believe in your liberty, no one else’s, which is what a libertarian is, at heart - “more for me.”
You are only interested in welfare for the wealthy, which has always been Trump's and the billionaires' true political system, just like Friedman.
What about the middle, the moderates, what do they believe. There are more than just two rules of thoughts in this country.
What about them?
When I say “leftists” I am referring to the people who vote for Democrats (and also the even further left who vote for fringe parties).
And so while I agree that there are still a few “‘moderates” who vote Dem, large majorities of Dem voters are no longer anti-big-corporation, just as overwhelming majorities of them are pro-big-government, and have been for for decades now.
Large majorities of Dem voters now believe in censorship and believing what big government and big tech and big pharma tell you to. If you don’t “trust the experts”, according to them, you are a crazy or racist or bigoted right-winger. And you should be silenced.
Be careful about your generalizations, because your bias is showing.
I’m curious: which of my generalizations do you claim is untrue? Do you have survey data that indicates otherwise?
I agree they are just generalizations, and I described them as such. I was careful not to claim it was all, or even almost all.
But perhaps you’re correct that I don’t really know the number who call those who disagree with them or “the experts” racist or bigoted. There may just be a large minority of them, and not actually a majority. Fair point.
I didn’t say I thought they were untrue, although I do think they are. But let’s start with “large majorities… are no longer anti-big-corporation” and “overwhelming majorities…are pro-big-government.” You ask where my survey data is. I could ask you, where is yours? You don’t cite any, and without verifiable data what you said seems more like your opinion, not fact.
Anecdotally speaking, most liberal, progressive, leftist, whatever you want to call it people I know (and I know quite a few!) dislike large corporations intensely for many reasons. Things like the income disparity between CEO’s and workers, their willingness to outsource labor to other countries, the pollution they cause…And no one I know is just blanket pro-big-government for big government’s sake. We leftists do want government to do the things for us that we as individuals would find impossible to do. Like fight climate change, clean up the environment, regulate those big corporations so they don’t cut corners to save a buck and put out shoddy or dangerous products, just to name a few examples.
We “leftists” don’t believe in censorship, quite the opposite! It’s the right wing that wants to ban books, drag queen story hours, mentions of climate change, etc, and use the power of the government to do it. I think what the right wing sees as censorship is often just not being able to get away with racist, homophobic or bigoted remarks without being called out on them.
As to who to believe, well that all depends on whose ox is being gored, doesn’t it? Personally, I prefer to be well read, listen to a variety of experts, and keep my salt shaker handy for the grains needed to season the knowledge properly. Isn’t that better than having to swallow whatever nonsense Trump is spouting hook, line, and sinker?
“I’m gobsmacked that leftist are in partnerships with the very corporations and government entities that they claim to be fighting against.
Whatever happened to fighting The Man? Peace, Love all that?”
When “The Man” is Big Government, leftists have supported that for decades now.
It is only in the last 10 years or so that they also support Big Tech and shockingly Big Pharma too.
Trust the science! Trust the experts! Don’t question authority! These are their mantras now - given that they are in power, and control almost all public institutions.
I can't help but wonder how Stefanik will fare at the U.N. when she won't have that backward far right wing rabble waiting to hear more smears and prevarications from her. Or her contact with lawyers to pen her complaints she sends to official sanctioning bodies alleging all sorts of things she's taken out of context.
ANd Rubio with that "criminal enterprise?" Eveidently, he's caught the same infection Elise did from Trump. Imagine what it takes to be so power hungry that you will say and do anything. That is a life not worth living.
I thought it was Musk with the "criminal enterprise" but Rubio could have said it too.
My dad worked for USAID in the 60’s in the Indian subcontinent with a team of educators. The important impact these US programs had on our reputation as a beacon of democracy and an aspirational model to struggling, new countries was obvious. But equally significant was the impact on we Americans abroad, living in completely different cultures, learning an appreciation for what we had at home, but also learning that ‘our way’ isn’t always the only way. I doubt Stefanik will bring that important humility and humanity to her role representing us to the rest of the world.
Humility and humanity? Not her strong suits.
Thank you so much for sharing that invaluable experience.
Where is the Musk Cancer Wing? Where is the Zuckerberg Center For Childhood Illness, Where id the Bezos Wing of a college library? Why we don't see the ridiculous need for more by these folks as a disease that should be treated in a secure facility is beyond me. Aid for the starving? Not my problem, Help wipe out disease? , nah, cost too much. The lack of understanding is exceeded only by the lack of empathy. I don't know how to face this current destruction off all that makes us the richest nation ever and based on lies. 50 mill for condoms for Hamas? They are eating the cats.
At least the last Golden Age we got some Carnegie Libraries and performance venues, botanical gardens, museums. Bill & Melinda Gates are the only billionaire names I see attributed to philanthropic endeavors this time around. Maybe they’re silent, humble partners.
Tesla paid zero in taxes last year....theu made billions.
Yeah, that should be shouted from the rooftops.
We all know Stefanik's utter fealty and subservience to Trump so she will never question or criticize his decisions or words, no matter how disgraceful, denigrating or dangerous they are.
The Republican Party of yore is no more. They will stand by Trump/Musk no matter how much damage they are wreaking upon American values and American democracy. Trump's administration is filling up with far-right white nationalists and conspiracy theorists. Many with the blessings of the Republican Senate.
Many people are saying (to use a favorite line of Trump) that in two years the Democrats will most likely be back in the majority in Congress. But, I wonder, in two years with the way things are going in just two weeks, will there even be elections?
Yes there will be an election!!!!
Hope you are right.
I sincerely hope so, only time will tell.
While I hate to be in panic mode, but this administration is routinely breaking laws, not norms, this time around. And with an FBI director and Justice Department in his back pocket, there will be no repercussions. This is not about waiting it out for two years. This is something different and I also wonder if there will be elections in two years and if Congress will pass a law - despite it being unconstitutional to give Trump another term, and then another.... My reading of "It can happen here" has left me pessimistic.
The damage is already being done, just two weeks in. We have no insight into what the Doge clowns have already wrought. It will get worse.
Ken wrote: The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has been taken over my Musk. He tweeted over the weekend, “USAID is a criminal organization. Time for it to die.”
What I worry about most is not a federal government taken over, by traitors, against the will of the American public. Rather, I worry about a federal government taken over by traitors with the support of a plurality of the public.
Who most likely think they are supporting a return to “the greatness of America.”🙄
USAID is not a charity. It is an organization founded by the people who fought WWII and wanted to prevent future mass atrocities, and at the same time to develop friendships and, more importantly, markets in developing countries. The point was to develop mass consumers who would Buy American.
USAID is a tool for projection of American soft power. Most of the money, 90%, spent by USAID goes to NGO’s based in Washington DC. That funding flows through our economy on its way to projects in various countries overseas.
In the late 1980s, I worked as a graduate student researcher with a team of Stony Brook University professors taking a "Health Care Services use" survey in the Dominican Republic. Our in-country liaison was the local USAID Office. Their people had established a good rapport with the DR medical community. That fact enabled our team to set up shop, hire doctors, computer personnel, and field surveyors to carry out our job. The effort was funded by a grant from the World Bank. The work was extremely helpful to the DR. It was a different time. Our country was a leader in groundbreaking and much needed humanitarian work.
The Democratic candidate to run in the special election is Blake Gendebien from Lisbon. He has a fb presence as well as a website, blakegendebienforcongress.com. Fifteen county chairs that make up NY21 have been meeting for a while and announced Gendebien's candidacy this weekend. IMHO, he is an excellent choice. He's lived his whole life in the North Country, is active in his community and has served on several boards that represent the dairy industry.
I hope so. I'm a big fan of paula collins...I will vote for him....not because I like him, but because it's a vote against MAGA
Check out his website. I think you'll find he is well suited for the position. I also believe he'll have some universal appeal in this district. He already has a war chest, which, unfortunately, is of utmost importance. I hate money in politics! For the time being, however, it is a reality we live with.
And many thanks to Paula Collins for being a true trailblazer, traveling to/from all parts of the 21st District over a 4 month period during her campaign, (areas which Elise never entered in past 10 years) to listen to the real concerns of North Country residents, and give voice to their concerns in her well-attended pre-announced rallies and online informative, well-researched articles in her substack. I’m certain Paula will always be an ally in the battle for human rights in NYS and the wider world.
As I understand it he has raised a little money - $100,000? - but he will need a lot more than that.
Apparently he is already asking for money! Be careful about donating through a PAC, thinking he will have all of your dollar! He will get $.20 and the PAC will get the rest!
Thanks for clarifying Ken...tRump is SUCH AN IDIOT!
Comments make interesting reading.
This pre-planned not-so-silent slow systematic genocide…created by denying long standing infection control programs to under-served countries around the world…is one of many Real Sins this new sanctimonious troll will never acknowledge. Shame on “it.”
Gaza residents were/are not hostile immigrant invaders. The massive demolition of that strip of land and collateral loss of lives, co-created by the Hamas/Israeli bombings, ensured this waterfront property would become uninhabitable for the surviving 2 million residents.
People ignored Jared Kushner’s assertion in March ‘24 that the Gaza Strip was prime property which could be redeveloped into real estate investments…but yesterday the White House Satan-in-Chief announced to the world on live TV that his proposal is to create “The Riviera of the Middle East” ………once he completes the Exodus of the remaining inhabitants.
FYI - Since Monday evening The Post Star has been offline/undeliverable by regular mail… with online apologies for mechanical problems…though some generic national news articles with Trump’s face were accessible till I stopped searching for my account info. The USPS Dept. Head GOP puppet has been threatening for the past 10+ years to privatize our mail delivery system…yesterday the postal workers contract negotiations stopped.
Oh my, that will get the attention of regular people.
You would think that, wouldnt you?
Now the USPS isnt accepting import of small packages from China - which will cause issues. My son orders parts from there for his business - it will be problematic.
Trump is apparently channeling Louis the XIV. Did you hear that slip of the lip when Trump was announcing his “plan” for the Riviera of the Mediterranean? He let half of the word “valuable” slip out before he backtracked and replaced it with “magnificent.” Guess who wants to be building the luxury hotels? So the United States, aka Trumpland, is now in the real estate business? I have to admit though, he has a point when he says nothing else anyone has done for decades has been able to solve the problem. Anyone who thinks his plan will work is truly crazy though.
USAID is going to get rolled under the state department. That way, money can be sent to countries that wanna work with us and not blow us up. Just like all of us do our regular life, when you keep helping somebody out and all they do is crap all over you, you kinda get tired of that.
Signed: Backward far right wing rabble
Once again Ken an excellent commentary ~ Unfortunately it seems America has a serious moral problem. In a moral, ethical society the spirit of noblesse oblige would be embraced and prevail.
Is this the "me" generation rising to the top?