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despicable

dĭ-spĭk′ə-bəl, dĕs′pĭ-kə-

adjective

Deserving of contempt or scorn; vile.

Fit or deserving to be despised; contemptible; mean; vile; worthless.

Morally reprehensible.

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Stefanik is just one more grifter who's hopped on the Trump Train. It bogles my mind that people are so ready to empty their pockets for these con artists. I am reminded of the LBJ quote: “If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you.”

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The preverbal pecking order. When people go after the weakest among them, they feel better about themselves. I am afraid that we cannot get rid of her until she decides to move on. One can only hope she'll go down with her mentor. She has learned grifting from the best of the best.

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Great quote.

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There is a special kind of hell for people who take advantage of others and exploit situations for their own benefit. I wonder if Stefanik holds her own child responsible for his behavior? If not, she will have one fun teenager! The Republicans are like a perfect example of poor parenting. Trump can do no wrong. If he does, it is still ok because he is allowed. Especially if we all gain power and money in the end. The multitude of damage these people have done to our society over the years is stunning. There are layers and layers of destruction to our laws, morals, ethics and it will take generations to repair if it ever can be repaired.

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As always Barb, well said.

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Great analogy

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How do the wire services fit into the landscape? I read the news on the Reuters site, and was wondering about that. I thought wire services were more "wholesale" selling stories to local papers, but if I can read those stories directly on their sites, wouldn't that make the value of what they sell cheaper? Or, in the alternative, make the local papers cheaper since I can get a lot of their news directly?

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The wire services are a non-profit cooperative - at least AP is - and they fund their world-wide news reporting with money from those that subscribe - newspapers, TV stations, radio stations. That’s the model. I suspect that if AP changed its model, it would not be able to continue the world-wide coverage it provides now. Also, member newspapers are share their content with AP. While the AP is expensive, it is certainly not significant in the grand scheme of things. AP’s presence may be noticed more because local news used to crowd out AP coverage. Without the local reporting, the AP is used to fill the paper. But it is not because AP is so expensive.

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It’s all about money and power over accountability and integrity with Stefanik. I voted for her when she first ran for Congress twice as she represented a passion and drive to help her district. She has aligned herself with a corrupt conman and history will not be kind to her. I doubt she has the capability or conscience to ask herself how she would like to be remembered in years to come, as a congresswoman who decided to betray her constituents and country or as someone who had the moral compass to do what was right for her constituents and country. Her remarks over the past two years that her constituents approve of this behavior and seeing right in my hometown a sign and flag posted prominently; Vets for Trump and Trump 2024 demonstrate strong and unchanged political convictions. I fear for our country.

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Slick and unacceptable Ms Stefanik!

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Unbelievable. This is a new low on Stefanik's part. Stanford's quote from LBJ sadly is quite apt.

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Good morning Ken,

I tried to click on the link for information about Steve Thurston but I received a reply that said it was for a private page and cannot be accessed.

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I will check on that.

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Might just be a wiggy embedded link in the article. If you access The Front Page main page as a subscriber, you can scroll down to access the old story.

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Thanks Sean for the added tip. A little more work, but it is there.

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It worked for me but here is the story if this helps:

By Ken Tingley

After 22 years in the classroom, Steve Thurston got in the game.

Thurston graduated from Queensbury High in 1984 and like so many local graduates he left for college and a career. Eventually, he landed a teaching gig in Washington, D.C..

He spent 22 years at Montgomery College in Rockville, MD where he was a writing and journalism professor while also freelancing for various media outlets. Along the way he also started a nonprofit news website while still teaching. He loved it, but the workload nearly killed him.

Once their kids graduated high school, there was nothing keeping Steve and his wife in Arlington, Va., so they considered other possibilities closer to family and friends. He set his sights on covering the news. His wife was offered a job in Denver, but when a better job came along teaching at Empire State College, their future was sealed.

“We were ready for a change,” Thurston said.

Thurston, following up on his previous experience with a nonprofit news website, started the Foothills Business Daily in 2020 from his home in Saratoga Springs. It could be the future of community news and something you should pay attention to.

“Newspapers are going to go away,” Thurston said assuredly and it is hard to argue with him considering the constant stream of layoffs at community newspapers.

Thurston has a very specific vision for his news outlet.

“Our motto is `News that knows your are busy.’ That gets to the heart of it,” Thurston said. “You should be able to get through a story in a minute or two.”

The Foothills Business Daily is sticking to the economic centers of the region like Saratoga Springs, Queensbury, Glens Falls and Lake George. He can’t cover everything, but he is showing content that is not appearing anywhere else. He leave the police blotter, opinions, sports and features to others, but he is already competing for important news stories.

“You have to really love news,” Thurston said. “Daily newspapers have been struggling. I’ve been studying journalism for years. They keep shooting themselves in the foot.”

It was on the Foothills Business Daily where I learned about the Queensbury Town Board’s decision to raise taxes 56 percent. That opened my eyes and I think it has opened the eyes of others as well.

The Post-Star is currently struggling with just two general assignment reporters. Thurston has himself and three part-timers writing stories. When he first got here, he applied to The Post-Star for a job, but he never heard back. He is now its competition.

He recently joined the substack.com platform and is charging $36 for a yearly subscription while promising to publish news five days a week. Thurston said he hopes to show a small profit on his venture by the end of 2023.

“I really like the work, but like any startup, it is slow going with the money,” Thurston said. “People know who I am now and are happy to see me at meetings. They seem happy to get any kind of coverage. It seems like everything is in place now.”

Thurston, like any small businessperson, wears a lot of hats. He is officially Publisher/Editor of the Foothills Business Daily while also acting as its prime advertising salesperson.

“I think people want short, focused stories instead of 1,500 or 3,000-word stories,” Thurston said. “I think that long-form journalism has moved to podcast. People don’t want to read long-form, but they will sit in their car and listen to 12 hours of a podcast series.”

Thurston is guarding against burnout by publishing just 48 weeks a year so he has four weeks to recharge his batteries.

The good news for consumers is that his journalism is needed to supplement reduced coverage from other print products. You won’t get Dear Abby, comics, your horoscope, crime briefs or much event coverage, but you will get more news and that will only grow in the future.

And that’s what we all need.

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Along with Trump, Elise is a huge blight on our country. The information in your article needs to be presented widely for all to see. The public needs to see what slime she is.

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It’s why local journalism is so important. Support your local journalists!!!!

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Spyou are so right. Make these facts as public as possible.

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When will we help the mentally ill

It is time to get past #pos_tefanik is a liar. It is time to grasp the fact that #pos_tefanik is evil. To pretend she cares about her district or that she isn’t exploiting her lies is long a piece of history.

For #pos_teanik

• exploiting those who are ignorant or mentally short.. is not an accident

• deliberately lying to people who want to hear lies, is doing no one a favor

• if you don’t believe this, ask yourself why she only presents statements but never meets with her constituents or ny21 media

• ask yourself, why does she never have facts

The best you can say, is that #pos_tefanik never says hmpy trmpy is innocent.. she is a liar that lives under the cloak of false plausibility of calculated diversions.

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I truly believe there is a mental disconnect from many republicans. One that allows them to believe what they want to believe by: 1) ignoring facts; 2) the lying republicans like #pos_tefanik who will validate what the mentally inadequate ‘want to believe’; 3) they have been trained to fear things they don’t understand and willingly suspend reality so they can feel the adrenaline of fear.

In the end, if you support hmpy trmpy without questioning reality... you are living an illusion

the first thing humpy trmpy did after his indictment ---> lie to his supporters and they swallowed (https://nypost.com/2023/06/15/trump-promised-food-for-everyone-at-cuban-cafe-left-early/)

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She just did the same thing right now in an E- mail telling me that she was going to nominate me to Trumps advisory board.

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I would love to see that.

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Just got ANOTHER fund raising letter.

I'll be happy to forward it to you but it has personal information.

Perhaps E mail?

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Considering how carefully Trump listened to his lawyers and followed their advice, I don’t think he’d pay much attention to an imaginary advisory board either.

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Her grift is priceless and I can't wait to see how it is presented on the 2024 edition of this mock website: https://eliesforcongress.com/

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Maybe I’ve just gotten cynical, but I can’t help but think the full-throated defense of Trump is what enables the fundraising off of his “persecution.” So, does she believe all the nonsense about “Biden’s Justice Dept” and all or is that just part of the grift?

In any case, her priorities seem to be: Money, Trump and somewhere down the list national security.

I’d like to hear what our congresswoman, who sits on House Intelligence, thinks would’ve happened to that information if Trump had dropped dead and the government hadn’t come for it. Would his kids have inherited it? Would it go out in the MAL yard sale?

I’m hopeful that the trial educates the public to the potential harm Trump did in possessing, failing to secure and refusing to return this material. Maybe Elise Stefanik will decide she cares a little more. I doubt it, tho. There’s no profit in giving a flying one about the security of the country and the people who put their lives at risk to keep it that way.

Reality Winner got 5 years for releasing information that Americans arguably should’ve had access to. Donald Trump deserves at least that and probably more if only for lack of remorse.

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So, do you think Trump is pissed she’s raising money off his plight or proud of her for being a chip off the old block?

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Seems to me, he would be. But he may have bigger fish to fry right now.

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I’ve always felt the presidency has to be the most difficult job in the world and I don’t know why anyone would want it. More importantly, the office should never be held by an amateur who does not know what they are doing. The fact our country survived does show the strength of our democracy despite a lot of continuing headwinds.

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I was reading about this from an AP story, if this is going on with the Trump campaign too. This should be illegal and she should be brought up on charges as well. It’s time we go after these people all of them. For promoting fraud and falsehood.

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Not sure if it is illegal, but definitely unethical. Not a good business practice.

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I don’t understand why she has such strong support just as I don’t understand Trump’s backers. What am I missing?

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Every time I don't think that she can stoop any lower... she does. What an embarrassment.

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I'm with you, Tim.

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