What does it all mean?
In May letters were due to political party heads of intended interest. Following that, each party (minus the Independency Party) held interviews and then a caucus and put up a slate of candidates. Selected candidates had to circulate petitions to be allowed to have a place on each line.
Petitions require a percent to run, for example to get the Republican line it’s was just under 80 signatures, Conservative required twelve signatures, Independent if I remember correctly it was about 20. Those petitions had a due date.
Now, in the meantime any person wanting to run on the party lines they were not given at a caucus or at all can do what’s called OTB the ballot, where they too go out and get the same number of signature and to try to steal the party line. Once petitions are turned in by all parties, as in the case in Saugerties this year, a costly primary was set up for you the taxpayers. The candidate who turned in the OTB (opportunity to ballot) petitions would not have their name appear but simply a space for a write in. OTB process is a flaw in the NYS voting system. Not only does it allow for cross-endorsements and party fusion, it allows for lines to be stolen and values to be lost.
In our local race I was nominated and given the Republican, Independence and Conservative lines. I was OTB on all three major party lines. Chris Allen is a egistered Democrat with Working Families and Green Party endorsements. All three of Chris Allen’s lines support public housing, your tax dollars paying for education college (and not just for Americans, look up the dream act), $15-per-hour fast-food minimum wage, supportive of the SAFE act, living off grants and spending excess revenue then we bring in.
Also, I found it interesting that on the front page of the Green Party it clearly states, “opportunity to ballot is an opportunity to theft.” It’s interesting to note the Republican, Conservative, Independence lines do not support any of those principals. As a matter of fact the parties that endorsed me are not for affordable housing, are not for free education to immigrants, do not support the SAFE act, and do not support government control over education.
I do not understand, as many of you are also confused, how a candidate can wake up each morning and decide if they are a Democrat or a Republican. There are standards, values, morals all parties follow — we have lost that!
It’s time for a change! I still have the Conservative line and the Reform party line. Yes, I’m going to continue to run, and yes I’m ready for this. Win or lose I am still here for the real Saugerties residents and not the “good old boys club.” Chris Allen may have the Republican line, but he is a registered Democrat with that line also. You cannot be both especially with a voting record held by Mr Allen to not support Republican or Conservative values.
Vote Conservative November 3. We are ready for a change and ready to say no to candidates that do not represent the residents made up in Saugerties. Thank you for the support, Saugerties!
Angie Minew
Saugerties
Depending on The Donald
I’ve always wondered what life would be like with a man taking care of me. Now, I finally have a chance to know, since The Donald said, “I’m going to take care of women.” Since only one of his three wives was born in this country, I’m still not sure I would be included in the women he cares for.
Since The Donald also stated, “I was the ultimate insider,” we can assume that he knows how money works and can manipulate it as much or better than all the bankers that he worked with to get his billions of dollars.
His comment on hedge-fund guys in his speech on September 14 was: “They’re going to do just fine, because we’re going to make the country so successful, they’ll do just fine. They’ll end up doing better. They’ll end up doing better. But we’ve got to lower taxes for a lot of people. Corporations paying far too much, far too much. Middle-income people are being decimated. They’re being decimated.”
Hmm. Does that mean he’s going to help the decimated people? Or just admit they’re being decimated and then help the corporation that are paying far too much, to pay less?
Well, let’s focus on his heartfelt beliefs. The Donald calls climate change a hoax. He is against wind and solar energy. To quote him from one of his tweets he said, “This very expensive global warming bullshit has got to stop. Our planet is freezing, record low temps, and our GW scientists are stuck in ice.”
I tried searching for The Donald’s investments in oil and gas. At first it looked like his investments are only in real estate. But then I found his other investments in things like the Keystone Pipeline and BlackRock.
A quote from “Investment News” says: “Mr. Trump, 69, displays an affinity for hedge funds and other similar alternative investments. His largest stake is in BlackRock Inc.’s Obsidian Fund, an unconstrained fixed-income product, in which he claims a stake of between $25 million and $50 million.”
If you haven’t figured out what BlackRock’s biz is from its name, just understand that anyone that thinks that climate change is a hoax, probably has at least a few million invested in the oil and gas industry.
So, my fellow lovers of the Planet Earth, we are going to have to work very hard on this upcoming election. We can’t just sit back this time, or we might just be looking to cross our border, going the other way.
Jill Paperno
Glenford
Thwarting the Israel Lobby
Welcome to the Israel Lobby, a heretofore hidden organization that almost pushed our country into a war with Iran. Yes, the lobby is immensely powerful, especially in its almost complete control of Congress. And yes, it follows the dictates of the right wing in Israel rather than representing the interests of Jewish people in the United States.
In fact, most Jews under 40 do not want a war with Iran, and Jewish organizations like J Street and Jewish Voice for Peace played a significant role in thwarting the lobby’s schemes. For a younger generation of American Jews, having their identity as well as their religion tied to a warlike, apartheid state in the Middle East has become increasingly repugnant.
But it was more than the US peace movement that stopped our country from committing another “war of aggression,” the supreme international crime according to the Nuremberg Tribunal. The rest of the world simply said no to Israel and the United States, leaving both countries completely isolated in the community of nations. Representatives of China, Russia, Europe and the Third World declared peace with Iran and moved forward to open trade links and establish embassies. Had our country rejected the peace treaty and proceeded with its aggression, we would have become a pariah state, just like Israel.
Senator Charles Schumer should resign from Congress for siding with Netanyahu rather than representing the American people. And the US must stop sending billions each year to pay for Israel’s genocidal treatment of the Palestinian people.
Fred Nagel
Rhinebeck
