Bill Owens

The Press Republican, our Plattsburgh newspaper published an article about Congresswoman Stefanik’s fundraising which is extraordinary, and largely comes from places and from people outside of the district. Maybe more importantly, were her comments about inflation which she said Republicans would stop by ending the spending of the Democrats.

It appears that former President Trump wants to make the announcement of his 2024 Presidential bid outside of Governor Ron DeSantis’ home in Florida. I am glad to see that Mr. Trump continues his juvenile behavior, and I am sure Mr. DeSantis will find this to be a most amusing spectacle, or he may attempt to bar Mr. Trump from that area or ask the local municipalities to refuse Mr. Trump the necessary permits. In any event, will make for great TV.

The controversy involving Roe v. Wade seems to have died down just a little bit, as the public now awaits the actual decision by the Court. One of the areas of interest to me is the fact that there appears to be a belief on the part of the anti-abortion groups that striking constitutional protection for choice will cause abortions to cease, at least in red states. We need only to look to the war on drugs which has in large measure been a bust (excuse the pun), outlawing alcohol was also unsuccessful, and yet we seemed to be focused on criminalization without any realistic investment in aiding those who may need assistance in these circumstances. I am prochoice, and I once had a priest tell my father (an old-line Brooklyn Irish Catholic) when I was running for office that he saw me as prochoice and he knew very few people who were pro-abortion, but rather people were faced with complex choices in their lives.

This month’s American Legion Magazine discusses Alan Greenblatt’s analysis of inflation which focuses on supply snafus accounting for much of current inflation, while many blame demand caused by too much government spending. This article also points out the fact that massive outlays by the federal government made it possible to stimulate the desired production of goods and services, and quote Mr. Greenblatt as indicating that there is no free lunch, everything having a cost, and inflation is the inevitable cost of recovering from the pandemic recession. Democrats and Republicans, President Biden and President Trump both share the blame associated with government spending, but they also deserve credit for doing it.

Recently, Supreme Court Justice, Clarence Thomas called out the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court with regard to the atmosphere on the court before 2005, and he is quoted as saying, “We actually trusted each other. We may have been a dysfunctional family, but we were a family and we loved it.” This clearly implies that Justice Roberts has somehow disrupted that process. It would seem to me from observing the Court, that the person who is most disruptive, dower and sour is Justice Thomas himself, and when combined with Justice Alito, one can only imagine the negative, unhappy group that they makeup, and thus, fail to contribute to any sense of harmony on the Court. The continuing comments by Justice Thomas, the disclosures about his wife and his inability to see that he has to recuse himself in certain matters in incredibly disturbing.

The new Congressional map for New York certainly takes away some substantial opportunities from Democrats. What is really ironic is that Republicans are always complaining about Democratic Judges, but in this instance the great likelihood is that the majority of the people who voted to overturn the map at the Appellate Division, as well as the Court of Appeals, are Democrats, and thus, they have proven that they are Judges, not political appointees. It is unfortunate that the Republicans can’t say the same in other states where this type of activity has taken place in terms of jerrymandering, but their courts have upheld their maps almost exclusively with Republican Judges. To say that there is a high level of hypocrisy and inconsistency would be a gross understatement.

Recently, a vote was held in Northern Ireland with a surprise outcome. Sinn Fein, which has long been in favor of unification of Northern Ireland with the Republic of Ireland gained the greatest number of seats in parliament. It appears that there may be some question as to whether or not they can form a government, but the mere fact that they prevailed in the election demonstrates a substantial change in their political fortunes. It is also interesting to note that the platform that they ran on had nothing to do with unification, but were typical pocketbook issues like jobs, inflation, etc., and they were successful. Maybe Democrats should learn something from that.

It appears that China may be heeding the warnings about Russia, as US intelligence has not detected any overt Chinese military nor economic support moving to the Russians. The relationship with China is already tense, and it appears that Mr. Biden, at least on a temporary basis has halted the Chinese enthusiasm for supporting the Russians. Let’s hope it sticks.

It appears that the Governor of Florida has created a $1 billion dollar problem due to his decision to terminate certain benefits for Disney World. It appears that when the special district was created it provided that all debt had to be paid before it could be terminated so now it appears that the debt is going to shift to the state of Florida. I’m sure that the citizens of Florida will be delighted when those monies are diverted for this purpose as opposed to taking care of Florida’s other budgetary needs. Talk about hoisted by your own petard.

The New York Times recently published an editorial by Senator Warren that posited her theory as to how Democrats could avoid disaster in November. What I found interesting about the article was that it never talked to the issue of what Americans want from their government at this point in time, she only described those things which the left wing of the Democratic Party believes are important to the American public. Until such time as the Democratic Party, particularly the left fringe does an appropriate analysis of what Americans want, they will be unable to deliver a party platform which will, in fact, be acceptable to large groups of Americans. Proselytizing is not convincing.