37 Comments

Continue to agitate, Ken. "Man's inhumanity to man is not only perpetrated by the vitriolic actions of those who are bad. It is also perpetrated by the vitiating inaction of those who are good." - MLK Jr.

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He's simply telling it like it is. Until you have engaged with these kind of people, you won't understand.

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The boilerplate bs response you received from Stefanik is similar to those I’ve received after writing to her about an issue. I wonder if she even considers the opinions of her constituents. Frustrating.

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Only some…

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Thank you Ken. I agree with your every word. But voters in Rep. Stefanik's district also bear responsibility. Those who continue to vote for her are accepting her lies and reinforcing her behavior. What I don't get is how Rep. Stefanik reconciles her role as a parent and congressperson. Does she teach her son that lying is the key to success? I certainly hope not. Does she teach him right from wrong? I hope so. My hope is that some day (soon), Rep. Stefanik will level with voters like (I hope) she levels with her son. If she doesn't, voters should respond accordingly. Thank you for calling her to task.

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All good questions.

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It distresses me greatly that this woman has a child. I just hope it wasn’t a political decision.

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I’ll never forget interviewing her at the Post Star. I had the feeling she was not being honest with us but had no idea just how bad it would get. I can’t even look at her now without getting nauseous. I remember how difficult this time was for everyone at the PS. If anyone had gotten hurt I’m sure she would have been one of the first to offer thoughts and prayers.

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I remember being stunned that she defended using a 17-year-old for political espionage. There is something wrong with someone who believes that.

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Yes!!!

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Whoa! While presidents can’t have much effect on the price of gas their policies can have a major effect on the economy. Not enough attention has been paid to the Trump tariffs of 2018-19. Those tariffs on imported metals and electronic parts directly imposed costs in the hundreds of billions on goods Americans pay for. But those costs are just the start. Companies that deal in importing and distributing goods overnight had 10-25% increase in the cost of products they ordered but hadn’t placed in inventory. Their customers likely scaled back or delayed orders and entire supply chains were placed under stress. In my business we absorbed those costs, but we are artisanal and materials costs are a small portion of our costs. The problem we found was that our suppliers started going out of business. One of 3 suppliers we relied on for electrical components went out of business. A 100+ year old specialty metals supplier closed their doors. My time spent sourcing some components went from minutes to hours, and we had to find alternatives for some items. 2 years before supply chains became a subject of news stories and public discussion our supply chain was in disarray. And then came the pandemic. Would supply chains have been in disarray without the Trump tariffs? Yes. But there would have been some elasticity in supplies and inventories when Covid shut down factories in Wuhan that make a large portion of electrical components supplied to US distributors. I have a letter from a distributor written in January of 2020 outlining the shutdown of their suppliers and the hope that the shutdown would be over in a few weeks. That supplier is no longer in business.

In contrasts to imposing huge taxes (tariffs) on consumer goods, Joe Biden has focused on stimulating the economy through projects that bring lasting value to people and the country. That spending was inflationary, true, but Biden and Democrats at the same time focused on raising wages for low income workers and encouraged the Fed in battling inflation through increased interest rates. Yes, there are some bad effects from increased interest rates. Biden and his team worked very hard to balance the economy as much as possible through the limited tools they have and in the end Biden’s leadership has avoided letting the economy slip into a major recession, stimulated the economy so that employment is high and the markets are responding with record highs.

So, no, the president doesn’t have a lot of direct effect on the price of gas, but a rational president with a thoughtful economic program makes a huge difference in the economy and the media needs to spend more time talking about it and less time talking about the clown show of Trump’s trial and presidential bid.

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More specifically, my point was that inflation is not controlled by presidents, nor the stock market.

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I think Jimmy Carter provided the lessons on inflation that people think about today. While the president’s tools to control inflation are highly limited and mostly ineffective the Fed has one tool that can be effective but is difficult to control. Carter had a plan for inflation which probably didn’t do much but his Fed ratcheted up interest rates -ultimately they reached more than 20% - until the economy tanked and violá, brought inflation under control. But the political fallout ended his presidency and nobody is going to accept that result. Carter was not Trump but he eventually fired the chair of the Fed but it was too late to save his presidency. Someone like Trump would likely fire the fed chair very quickly if his poll numbers came down. It’s really hard for young people now to understand how bad the economy was in the 70’s. Inflation was at 6-8% for about a decade and home loans for a time were around 20%. So, you’re correct, the president doesn’t have direct control over inflation but he can in some ways affect the market, just rarely in a positive fashion if we ignore massive tax cuts for the very wealthy which Wall Street seems to love.

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/carter-anti-inflation/

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I lived that as well. Interest rate on my first mortgage was 12.5 % so I don’t think current interest rates are cataclysmic. And my wife couldn’t find a job.

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Color me crazy, but i actually believe Trump completely manipulated the stock market. He knew that every time he opened his mouth it affected the stock market. A lot of folks, including the Trumps, made mega bucks using his likely advance “warning”.

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There may be something to that.

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These are random comments about Elise. Elise Stefanik was never a moderate. She knew how to position as one. The kid who recorded Tedra had shown up at several events prior to that particular event. Opposition research during my very short-lived campaign against her uncovered the fact that she had acquired several website domains including, stefanikforsenate, stefanikforgovernor, stefanikforvicepresident and steranikforpresident. You might be able to prove me wrong, but in 2019 that was information gathered on her. I've said this before and I'll say it again, as the Rep whip under Paul Ryan, she knew how to vote to insure her appearance as a moderate. During my tenure as Supervisor, she once left a message on my phone asking for my support. Like her, I never returned the call. Within days of announcing my candidacy for Congress back in 2019, the Town Clerk received a FOIL request for all my emails, and other information about me. In the early days, she would request an exist at her public events in order to avoid having to walk through a group of people. She is deliberate in her actions, is, and always has been, power hungry to the extreme, has no genuine regard for her constituents, has bamboozled enough voters to remain in office and will, undoubtedly, be reelected. I sound like a fatalist, but I can't imagine anyone winning against her. As I've said before, I don't believe she was ever a true moderate, but I do appreciate your continuing pieces about her. If "you know who" is the Rep nominee in 24, either she or Nikki Haley will be the VP choice. So much for my early morning rant. Happy Holidays everyone!

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You are correct. She was never a moderate. Karl Rove did not give her $240,000 to run a primary against Matt Doheny because he was hoping a moderate would be elected in NY21.

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At her last town hall in Kingsbury (2019 I believe. I don’t think she has any any since) that I attended where she had invited the man who threatened our newspaper, a local Republican who was advising her came and sat next to me during the entire event. I thought that was strange. I felt like he was instructed to watch me. Of course, I could be paranoid.

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Enlightening history Sara. Thanks. For a while, I too thought Elise was bucking for a VP role. However, she'd have to debate publicly on TV in front of a non-curated crowd of Americans of all stripes. Her incessant lies and misrepresentation of the truth would be called out. She'd have to respond with more than glib remarks. She'd be seen as a shrill, pushy woman especially by people in her own party. And let's face it, she's not tall enough, thin enough or pretty enough for orange-jesus. He'd want her as a mouthpiece not a showpiece. My guess is she's looking for an appointed position in his administration where she could attempt to reinvent herself. Let's hope we never have to find out.

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You just have to look at Trump’s female lawyers to know that the look is really the most important thing about someone’s qualifications.

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I was in the group of people protesting E'lies'. Her supporters would act like a bunch of low life morons. We wouldn't engage with them, which just made them madder. From what I learned, Kibling lost a couple of good jobs because of his rhetoric. There was also the big whiner, Brooke Boice, who I believe has moved somewhere down south. Good riddance. Both these idiots were loud mouths and trouble makers, and not worth much more than that. The police department knew who the trouble makers were, and it wasn't us.

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Stefanik is a political opportunist who lies and misleads on a daily basis, and continues to support Trump, the most immoral and biggest liar of them all. I keep wondering when her constituents will wake up and vote her out. I don't hold out much hope.

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When you continue to see “Stefanik backs the blue” lawn signs, you know they aren’t accepting the facts.

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It is all done in plain sight so I’m also not sure why more don’t see it. I really think a lot of this has to do with so few people reading newspapers anymore.

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I agree Ken. Too many people don't keep abreast of the news and what their elected leaders are doing whether it is newspapers, television, radio or social media. Sad.

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Terrific column, again, Ken.

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Imagine Trump as President and Elise as VP…sounds like a plot for a horror movie or Teen dystopian novel -but the possibility of that reality has given me nightmares.

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Stood face to face MANY times against Stefaniks good old boys here who viewed themselves as her protectors lom.

Ricky Brown actually barred our entrance into her office while Boice, Kibling and the APEX group stood by screaming and using sirens. Also those huge flags we tried to get the city council to ban.

I've got tons of video from these events.

Also as Kibling directly told me he was going to come to my workplace and then later directed his pal to find out where I live (have that on video) I went to GFPD to file a complaint.

I literally had to go to Chief Lydon and demand they listen to me.

And yes Stefanik encouraged every bit of this.

I asked her outright at that town hall if she had invited those goobers to come and she would not answer.

I'm in Tonko district now due to the new districts and so glad she's not my representative.

That does not stop me from making calls and letting my opinion be known.

Hopefully there will be a strong enough candidate to replace her

She's just too far gone at this point.

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Never thought I would see that behavior in Glens Falls, but we did.

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Amen and true statement regarding inflation factors.

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Another great column, Ken. And, while I agree that President Biden isn't entirely the source of the lovely reduction in gas prices, he really does deserve some credit. Actually a lot of credit. Crediting "supply and demand" for the lower gas prices, is way too simplistic, and I would argue inaccurate. Are you suggesting there are fewer cars filling up? And an increase in petroleum flow? The cost of a barrel of oil is determined by global market actions, as evidenced in the price of a gallon (liter?) of gas in other nations. Whatever the cause, my little Prius gets filled up on less than $30 and I only have to fill once a month. Love it! And all you economists out there, go easy on me. Economics was the only B I got in grad school!

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US had its largest production of oil ever this year. Supply and demand. I stand by that simple standard.

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The typical response you get from someone who never really lived in the North Country anyway. Hopefully 2024 will be a reckoning for these people through voter results. The truth must prevail.

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I would like to know what she means by “moral clarity.” Maybe she will clarify it when she has her next press conference with the regional press, and it’s printed verbatim in the local newspapers. Or perhaps she will clarify it at one of the several open town halls she will be holding throughout her district during the current congressional recess. Or maybe by then Lake George will have rubber pants to keep its bottom dry.

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I would not hold your breath.

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just a thank you for making clear the hypocrisy. And always the question how and why people vote for demagogues, worship tyrants, believe lies, are unable to think, to see, to question.

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