The Northcountry Chronicle

We Have a Choice

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Our lives seem to be fragmenting in the face of spiraling polarization and civil unrest. How do we find what’s authentic in this splintered world of wildly different truths? And what if authenticity, in the traditional sense, no longer exists? I muse on this question as I meditate on an exquisite, little waterfall near my house. The countless, disparate rivulets within it, rushing pell-mell in every direction, remind me of the incessant deluge of information pelting down on us each day—and the multiple realities they imply. In Mother Nature’s world, none of these individual rivulets represent the truth: it is only when they are incorporated …

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Why Billionaires are Detested

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The renowned Western Swing bandleader Bob Wills would joyously call out in mid-song, “Take it away, Leon,” bringing on a crowd-pleasing instrumental solo by steel guitar maestro, Leon McAuliffe. But now comes another Leon who’s such an off-key, screechy, Wall Street billionaire that crowds are shouting: “Go away, Leon!” He is hedge-fund huckster Leon Cooperman, who first gained public notoriety when he compared Barack Obama’s election to Hitler’s rise to power, and he later was dubbed “Crybaby Cooperman” after he got all teary-eyed during a TV interview in which he decried “the vilification of billionaires.” The sad rich man was weeping about Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s …

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The Problem With Plastic…Is Plastic

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In a world that’s clogged and choking with a massive overdose of plastic trash, you’ll be heartened to learn that governments and industries are teaming up to respond forcefully to this planetary crisis. Unfortunately, their response has been to engage in a global race to make more plastic stuff and to force poor countries to become dumping grounds for plastic garbage. Leading this Kafkaesque greedfest are such infamous plunderers and polluters as Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Shell, and other petrochemical profiteers. With fossil fuel profits crashing, the giants are rushing to convert more of their over-supply of oil into plastic. But where to send the monstrous …

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Insurrection: Are We Really Surprised?

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by William Ehrhart Let’s review the facts. Our 45th President openly bragged about grabbing women by their genitals and declared that he could murder someone in broad daylight in Manhattan without consequences. He has paid hush money to prostitutes he was “screwing” (please substitute the F-bomb) even as his third wife was nursing their newborn child. Our 45th President has declared that he and North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un “fell in love,” and that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin “is really very much of a leader,” while calling German chancellor Angela Merkel “stupid,” French President Emmanuel Macron “nasty,” and Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau “two-faced.” Our …

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Covid shows, once more, who’s excluded from the American Dream

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The media and disease experts tell us we must take personal responsibility to avoid Covid-19! Gov. Sununu, to no one’s surprise, has taken the same hands-off approach, choosing to treat the pandemic like we do other social ills, like poverty or homelessness, exemplifying our state motto: “Live Free or Die.” Indeed, some individual behavior is unconscionable, like folks refusing to wear masks and kids flocking to large parties. Yet disease experts stress that responsible leadership is essential because controlling this plague is beyond individual capabilities. That’s why it is so disheartening that after almost a full year, the federal government has yet to provide a …

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Timeless truths for trying times

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What’s wrong with people? Has the savagery, selfishness, and raw, animal hatred within the human species finally come out of the darkness to devour our society?! Fanatics in MAGA caps rabidly cheering a tyrannical, lying, insane president. Gangs of “Proud Boys” strutting around in militia costumes beating protesters whose politics they dislike. Wackadoodle extremists who advocate violence by promoting the group hallucination that Nancy Pelosi is leading a fiendish Democratic cabal of child sex traffickers and cannibals. But is that really who we are? Given the media and political focus on all thing awful about people, you would think so. But consider a couple of …

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