“This agreement is a total abdication of fiscal responsibility by Congress and the president,” said Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a Washington advocacy group. “It may end up being the worst budget agreement in our nation’s history, proposed at a time when our fiscal conditions are already precarious.”

I agree totally with the above statement. This budget deal is taking the nation down the road to a fiscal disaster. A trillion dollar annual deficit is a disaster and will cause the American economy to bleed to death as it slices a hole in the nation’s economic jugular vein with a tidal wave of red rising interest costs.

The Republicans and the Democrats had a great opportunity to do something like rescinding the tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires. This was easy. There are other cuts, which would have been difficult to get an agreement on, but no one seemed to care.

The Republicans call themselves Conservatives. That is a laugh.

The bleeding of this and past deficits will cause increasing the interest cost of the deficit. If left untouched all of the nation’s growth will go into paying interest on the deficit, and instead of producing jobs, this interest cost could cost jobs and eventually destroy the economy.

Elaine Murphy turned 100 on July 26
Elaine Murphy of the Murphy family in Highland was 100 years old on July 26. She was born on July 26, 1919 in what was to become the Highland School District.

In 1932 the Highland Mid-Hudson Post reported that she was the community’s tap dance queen. She was 13 years old. In high school she dated the quarterback of the Highland High School football team, an Irishman named Dave Murphy. He was the love of her life. later they were married, and named their son, Karl, after her father, Karl Weston.

Married with a child Dave was drafted to serve in World War II. He served in the Navy and was involved in a near death experience. When he got home he went to work for IBM and worked there for almost 30 years, while Elaine worked for the First National Bank of Highland.

Their son, Karl, wed Elsa Burfeindt, whose twin sister, Erica, married Jack Gaffney. Elaine and Dave enjoyed helping to raise their grandson, Karl Murphy, Jr. Dave passed away in 2011.

All of the Murphys now live in Chapel Hill, North Carolina where young Karl lives. His children are Maya and Ryan. Maya is a student at the University of California at Santa Barbara.

In the meantime, the Murphys will be holding a quiet celebration for Elaine Murphy. Also Karl Murphy, Jr. is expanding his spiffy chain.

New York Times promotes shared second home
New York Times has promoted “Hamptons on the Hudson” for people seeking a second home. This week its real estate section came up with the idea of a shared second home. It suggested a variety of places in the east including in the Hudson Valley, Cold Spring. Milton, New York may have some homes that would qualify for this list.

It also ran lists of the best and worst states to retire to. New York was on the worst list. A reason is the high real estate taxes. Ahead of New York State is New Jersey. The best list did not impress me, but you may want to retire in North Dakota. Florida is also on that list, but it is facing Climate Change difficulties because of stronger hurricanes and a rising Atlantic Ocean. I wonder if the high cost of flood insurance is included in the cost estimate to live in Florida?

Ulster County continues to trend Democrat
Ulster County Democrat Election Commissioner Ashley Dittus reported that the county in the first six months of the year continued to trend Democrat by more than a two to one ratio. Ms. Dittus said, “We’ve processed 1,254 enrollment change requests since January 1, 2019 - of those 45% have changed to Democrat, 18% have changed to Republican, 21% have changed to not be in a party. I don’t have data on what their party enrollment is currently.”

Likely the big reason for this is women are leaving the Republican party. Big issues are health insurance for their families, and Republican attempts to take away women’s reproductive rights.

Ulster County’s first slaves were Somalian
The first slaves in Ulster County (in 1660) were from Somalia, sold by the Arabs to the Dutch, who brought them to the port of Kingston. Should they go back? They were here earlier than you were. Should you go back?

Congresswoman Ilhan Omar is also from Somalia. She and her family chose to come here, whereas the slaves had no choice as the Arabs and the Dutch had guns and the slaves did not.

Sexual assaults are brutal
In the late 1950’s, a girl from New Paltz graduated and went to college. She was so sweet and all of the guys loved her, including myself. She was tiny. She came home for Christmas with a black eye. We heard it was a college football player. After that she was no longer the same.

Years later, a Highland high school senior, a responsible person that cared for her younger siblings, was victimized when she was knocked out and raped. Another occurred outside a New Paltz bar and that girl died. District attorney Michael E. Kavanagh put away the killer for life.

In today’s world in most Southern States, if any of those girls were pregnant and had an abortion they would have spent more time in prison than their rapist, even if they were beaten within an inch of their lives.

Right now we are all following what the pedophile Michael Epstein did to ruin the lives of young girls.

Roger Cohen of the New York Times has seen rape victims. He wrote of one, “She sobbed uncontrollably. I had seldom seen such grief etched on a young face. Life had been ripped from her before she had begun to live. There was no road back for her. Her eyes were empty vessels, left so by rape.”