The Northcountry Chronicle

A wealth of riches, a poverty of morals

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Let’s say you’re a millionaire. That’s a lot of money, right? Now let’s say you’re a billionaire. That’s a lot more money! But how much more? Think of all those dollars as seconds on a clock. A million seconds would total 11 days—but a billion seconds equals nearly 32 years! Rich is nice, but billionaire-rich is over the moon—and the wealth of billionaires is now zooming out of this world. There are only 2,200 of these über rich dudes in the world, but the wealth stashed away by these elites hit a new record this summer, averaging more than $4 billion each. They’ve even pocketed …

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The Anti-Racist Revolution

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by Robert C. Koehler The nation has less than two weeks left to live in its comfort zone of platitudes. This is by far the most ominous election buildup of my (fairly lengthy at this point) lifetime. What will happen on Nov. 3 and thereafter? Will all the votes be counted? Presuming Trump loses, will he leave office? Are we approaching the end of our…uh, democracy? A real democracy, of course, has always been a terrible inconvenience to those in power, which is why, in the nearly two hundred and fifty years of the nation’s existence, voting—as well as acknowledgment of certain people’s humanity—has been …

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Rogue Editor Tells Truth!

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To the extent the Brooklyn Daily Eagle is remembered today, it is largely because of Walt Whitman. The poet edited the Eagle from 1846 to 1848, and returned for a second stint about a decade later. We recently stumbled upon another modest reason for remembering the Eagle: it published, on Sunday, August 5, 1883—as the ailing Whitman, 64, languished 100 miles away in Camden, New Jersey—an 1,800 word item on “The Origin and Growth” of The Twilight Club, “A Successful Club Which Has Neither Club House Nor Caterer.” Now, the Twilight Club itself could probably be safely forgotten, had it not provided a platform for …

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Why I’m Not Voting for Donald Trump

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Just a few days ago, an e-mail acquaintance of mine sent me this: “Gotta admit I’m voting for Trump because I fear what happens if he loses. Who is Trump running against? I don’t think that Joe’s cognitive skills are up to the task. I think almost everything he says has been scripted for him. “Harris? I’m not even sure Joe picked her. Look at the horrible claims she made against him while she was still campaigning—and now they’re buds? I have to believe that powers behind the scenes have designs on how they’ll direct Joe on what his policies will be. If, for some …

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The exceptional greed of healthcare execs

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Sometimes I don’t know whether to weep uncontrollably, laugh hysterically, or just throw up. I recently did all three when I saw another gusher of greed pouring out of corporate America. This one is especially nauseating, given today’s raging health crisis, for the culprits are major healthcare corporations! One perpetrator is Larry Merlo, CEO of our country’s largest drugstore chain, CVS. In this time of Covid-19, customers are surging into the chains 10,000 stores for everything from medications to masks. Yet, the boss has blithely left many of the pharmacies so severely understaffed that they pose a danger to public health. CVS pharmacists tell of …

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Liberals, it’s time to stop gazing at our navels

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In a few short weeks, the election will be over and, win or lose, we will have to pick up the pieces and move on. How is that possible with all the bad blood and name-calling between the left and the right? In a word, we must have empathy for the other side. What I am going to say, I’ve felt for a long time, alluded to in my pieces, but now have the courage to say it flat-out, buttressing my case with a recent podcast and a book. The podcast is an interview with Arlie Hochschild about her recent book, Strangers in Their Own …

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