Stefanik misbehavior began in 2019
Lyme Disease doc `The Quiet Epidemic’ gets distribution deal
By Ken Tingley
Election Day is just four days away.
Before casting your vote for Congress, you might want to review Chapter 27 in “The Last American Newspaper.” It has the ominous title, “We’ve got one coming for you, Post-Star” and chronicles the summer of 2019 when there were multiple protests in downtown Glens Falls between warring political factions. It was ugly, profane and shocking violence did not occur.
Chapter 27 tells parallel stories about the disturbing behavior of our congresswoman during her re-election campaign in 2018 through the summer of hate in Glens Falls.
It started with a group of liberals gathering at Centennial Circle in downtown Glens Falls as part of “Impeach Trump National Day of Action” in July 2019. The protesters brought with them a giant blowup Trump chicken, something you don’t see everyday. There were a few counter protesters as well, waving Trump flags and wearing MAGA caps.
In later rallies, the liberals protested outside Rep. Stefanik’s office and her supporters became increasingly confrontational.
During the congressional campaign in 2018, The Post-Star editorial board asked Rep. Stefanik to make a commitment not to lie during the campaign. We appealed to both candidates humanit, arguing that a civilized exchange of ideas would be in the best interest of all citizens. Tedra Cobb, the democratic candidate, immediately took the pledge via a printed letter to the editor. But we never heard back from Rep. Stefanik.
Early in the campaign, a Post-Star reporter found out she hired a 17-year-old high school student to spy on her opponent in a private residence and shoot secret video. He was paid nearly $1,000 for his undercover work.
It said a lot about Stefanik as a candidate and a person. The Post-Star editorial board, which had endorsed Stefanik in 2016, was greatly influenced by her failure to make a pledge not to lie and endorsed Cobb.
During a September protest, six protesters entered Stefanik’s Glens Falls office and demanded to see her. Stefanik was in Washington at the time so they demanded to speak with her on the phone. Her staff responded by telling the six the office was immediately closing and the police had been called.
All six were arrested for trespassing. But after seeing the photo of what we called the “Glens Falls 6,” we wondered if the group really posed any threat. I wrote this in a Post-Star editorial after seeing a photo of the group:
“We don’t want the Glens Falls 6 to take offense, but they were a little beyond middle age, and frankly they didn’t look dangerous to us at all.” The photo was from an earlier court appearance and it reminded me more of over-the-hill hippies. Rep. Stefanik had arrested grandparents.
The protests became more and more heated and profanity-laced over the summer. The liberal protesters reached out to city officials saying they feared for their safety. They asked that the Trump flagpoles be banned. They feared the poles might be used as weapons. We later saw that on Jan. 6.
The Stefanik supporters also were harassing a Post-Star reporter at the rallies. It culminated in an October rally where one of the MAGA supporters pointed a toy gun at our reporter and began repeating over and over through a bullhorn, “We’ve got one coming for you, Post-Star.”
A year earlier, a man had walked into a suburban newspaper in Annapolis, Maryland and killed five people in the newsroom. I was concerned.
I wrote a column that the people at our newspaper were a little worried about the threats. And then I learned Rep. Stefanik had thanked the man for his support and invited him and other members of his group to a town hall meeting later in the week.
When I heard about the invitation, I sent an email to Rep. Stefanik asking her to denounce this man and his threats against the newspaper and its employees.
She did neither.
She never responded to my email or my concerns.
I wrote this in my column afterward:
Rep. Stefanik has given him the green light to shout more profanities and take his actions to the next level in the name of a government representative.
This is now Rep. Stefanik’s responsibility.
This is on her.
This is not about politics, this is about supporting violence and dividing Hometown, USA further.
We received dozens of emails from readers in support of us at the newspaper.
Three years later, Rep. Stefanik has gotten worse. Look at any sampling on her Twitter account and you can see the hate and animosity she is perpetrating in the name of her ambition.
Saying you are against violence while standing in from of a sign that encourages it is not just counter productive, it is dangerous.
What this election should be about is morality.
Read Chapter 27, because I believe Rep. Stefanik has lost her soul.
Doc gets deal
The Quiet Epidemic, winner of the best documentary at the Adirondack Film Festival, has landed a distribution deal with First Run Features for its Lyme Disease movie.
The film was directed by Salem’s Lindsay Keys and Tamarac’s Winslow Crane-Murdoch.
“The Quiet Epidemic is an alarming documentary which everyone needs to see to understand the monumental risk Lyme Disease presents across the country,” First Run Features President Marc Mauceri said in a press release. “The filmmakers have done a masterful job at weaving history, patient stories and scientific information into a call to action.”
the film will begin a one-week Oscar-qualifying run at the IFC Center in New York on Dec. 2, followed by a national wised rollout in early 2023.
The film has been selected for 14 different film festivals this fall and also won Best Documentary Feature at the Macon Film Festival in Georgia.
Next event
Looking forward to talking with WAMC (90.3 FM) host Joe Donahue on Wednesday, Nov. 9 at Battenkill Books in a 6 p.m. event.
We will be talking about my new book “The Last American Newspaper” and may even get to discuss Chapter 27.
And Mark Frost of the "Frost Family Weekly Newsletter" stated in this week's paper that he voted for her. Ah yes, the famous one who tries to walk the middle line in his editorials and paper coverage is now supporting an outright liar (and please read the nonsense he wrote about Castelli). Stefanik FAILED to vote to certify the results of the election. As far as I'm concerned that was the final act of her loyalty to her Dear Leader, Trump. A complete dereliction of her oath of office. The voters made it clear who they wanted yet she went against that to stay in line with McCarthy and Trump. As I've said before, he panders to his ad base, and in this case it's to a lying, crooked, carpet bagger politician who sold her soul to the power machine of national politics on the Trump Train. You correctly point out Stefanik would not sign the "no lying" pledge and hired someone to spy on Cobb's campaign. ANYONE who supports this kind of behavior is a person who lacks the ability to understand why no morals, ethics, and an allegiance to a complete fraud is a red flag. Pelosi family suffered for Trump madness and power over the MAGA REPs. Oh well, we will find out on Tuesday if the second coming of King Donald has been set in motion, but if the close races in the big states go REP, I would guess that Trump will announce his 2024 campaign and claim that his coattails got these folks in to office. Trump has so much blood on his hands from the failed actions during the COVID crisis, allowing the Kashoggi murder to go unpunished, to the January 6th attack on the Capital. Makes me sick that our country has come to this. And worse that we have someone locally supporting and spewing information supporting a person like Stefanik.
It is about morality and decency...and about lying and violence....and about the danger to our democracy. I have been one of those old hippies with my signs and obsessive letters to the newspaper, terrified at the silence of high ranking Republicans and of Stefanik in condemning violence--the vicious name calling, the continual lying, the hate...and I am dismayed at all the election deniers (and climate deniers who are running for office, saying that if they lose the election was stolen, preying on people's fears, lying, having a vendetta against women, immigrants, Jews...But even more i cannot understand that "they"might win,, that the absurd conspiratorial theories and the totally unproven "stolen election" and the "worship" of a man clearly corrupt and obsessed with power have taken hold of so many "good" people who have lost their ability to see, care, understand, who are complicit in their wilful ignorance. As Liz Cheney says, history will someday see the dishonor of the now Republican Party. I can only hope enough people will become aware to not let those people have power in this election...