Friends, the NHGOP is being held back by corrupt politicians who break the bylaws and work for their own personal gain and to elect the candidates they want. This is of course the head of the party Steve Stepanek and Elliot Gault.

From February 1st to March 20th, there were 7 emails and over 150 social media interactions by Stepanek and his staff supporting the election of specific candidates who are involved in contested primaries!!! Stepanek’s Executive Director, Elliot Gault even had “Sununu For Governor” signs on his Twitter account image and currently says “Executive Director @NHGOP x2 forever Team @GovChrisSununu”!

Stepanek has said several times that part of the NHGOP goals for this year is to “re-elect Governor Sununu” despite Governor Sununu not having won the primary. Stepanek has still not apologized for his statements in the summer of 2020 at the Manchester Trump Victory headquarters opening when he told the gathered crowd we will send Corky Messner and Matt Mowers to DC during two other contested primaries.

We want to thank Idaho for this Op-Ed. If you have an Op-Ed or LTE
you would like us to consider, please submit it to Editor@GraniteGrok.com.

The NHGOP continues to host events that party leadership and Stepanek were involved in where, coincidentally, specific candidates attend but not others. After asking around, the candidates who had attended mentioned they received notice from party leadership of the event, while other candidates were never notified.

After Joe Sweeney left his NH GOP Executive Director job, Stepanek hired Elliot Gault, an elected officer of the NHGOP Executive Committee, to replace him. After that hiring, Elliot is now both an employee and officer of the NHGOP Party leadership. Stepanek refused to have Elliot resign one of the two positions, despite violating the NHGOP State Bylaws. Stepanek didn’t care…

Over the past few weeks, all but one of the NHGOP paid employees left the Party to go join Chuck Morse’s campaign for Senate (favoritism, anyone?). Rumor is…because they refuse to work for Elliot Gault and/or Steve Stepanek! Have they been replaced? If they can’t hire new people because of money, guess what? Steve just insisted he gets paid for his volunteer work $2,000 per month PLUS 10% of fundraising PLUS all expenses!!!

You might not know this but only one non-employee member of the NH GOP is given any compensation while the rest of us are volunteering time. A compensation package was offered to Stepanek. He rejected the offer and had the audacity to counter-propose for more money with a package HE wanted!!! His employee, Elliot Gault, is said to have participated in the discussion of what Stepanek’s compensation should be. This demonstrates the conflict of interest in Elliot not resigning from one of his two positions within the Party.

After the compensation package was approved, Stepanek’s fundraising emails claim that 100% of fundraising goes directly to candidates. However, Steve himself vouched for a compensation package where he skims 10% off the top after meeting a minimum quota for the month. The compensation package he demanded also provides $2,000 per month plus FULL expenses.

These concerns show the clear and repeated pattern of behavior that violates the NH GOP Bylaws and show a lack of ethics in Chairman Stephen Stepanek and his hired Executive Director, Elliot Gault. We need to demand his immediate resignation.

If we want to stop the Party from being corrupt, we need to share the message. Please be sure to share this with all your New Hampshire Republican friends!!!

The post For a “Republican Non-partisan” Party, Is the NH Gop Putting Its Thumb Down on the Candidate Scales? appeared first on Granite Grok.

Parents in Hampton Falls became aware of the 2nd reading on an effort to adopt a policy that was recommended by The New Hampshire School Boards Association several years ago, Policy JBAB. You can read the JBAB policy on Barnstead, NH school district website.  JBAB is the policy that governs the district on transgender non-conforming students.

Parents were concerned that this policy, which is now being challenged in court in three different districts in New Hampshire, would be adopted by the Hampton Falls School Board. Much to their surprise, when they arrived at the school board meeting on May 10th, the meeting began with an announcement that the agenda item would be tabled. It was then mentioned during public comments that the policy would not be adopted by the school board. The parents who attended the meeting were cautiously optimistic by this announcement which caused one parent to inquire about this announcement during the public comments.

As you can see at the beginning of the meeting, the Chair opens the school board meeting by saying the policy would be redundant based on the laws that are already in place. In other words, the current laws already cover the rights of transgender non-conforming students. There is no reason to adopt the JBAB policy. He then further makes a motion to remove the policy from the agenda and to table it. He mentions the possibility of bringing it up at a later date. This left a little bit of confusion as you can see from the discussion with the first parent during public comments at 43:40.

During this discussion, it was revealed by the Board Chair and Superintendent that the NHSBA withdrew this model policy they drafted and sent to all school districts years ago.  The Superintendent also mentions the provision within the JBAB policy that does not allow staff members to share information with parents about their children.  It should be noted that this is a gross violation of parental rights and does not allow for due process,  but that didn’t stop numerous districts across the state from adopting the JBAB policy.

It should be noted that New Hampshire School Boards operate under Dillon’s Rule. That is reflected in school board policy BBA where it says:

SCHOOL BOARD POWERS AND DUTIES

The Hampton Falls School Board enjoys all the powers and duties prescribed to them by applicable state and federal laws and rules of the State Board of Education.

This means that policies adopted by the school board must be based on laws that have been passed by the state and federal governments. This would mean that the school districts must follow the Law when it comes to Transgender and non-conforming students. But now this policy is being challenged in court for violating the rights of children in New Hampshire schools.  This policy was never based on state or federal law. Where does federal or state law instruct school staff to lie to parents about their children or to deny your child their free speech rights?

Within JBAB policy under the section titled “privacy,” it says:

Privacy

The Board recognizes a student’s right to keep private one’s transgender status or gender-nonconforming presentation at school.  Information about a student’s transgender status, legal name, or gender assigned at birth also may constitute confidential information.  School personnel should not disclose information that may reveal a student’s transgender status or gender-nonconforming presentation to others, including parents and other school personnel, unless legally required to do so or unless the student has authorized such disclosure.

This appears to violate federal law:

FERPA: Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act: 

• Parents or eligible students have the right to inspect and review the student’s education records maintained by the school. Schools are not required to provide copies of records unless, for reasons such as great distance, it is impossible for parents or eligible students to review the records. Schools may charge a fee for copies.

How can a school policy instruct staff lie to parents about their children when federal law affirms a parents right to obtain and inspect their child’s records?

Within the model policy developed by the NHSBA it also says:

• Names/Pronouns
  A student has the right to be addressed by a name and pronoun that corresponds to the student’s gender identity. A court-ordered name or gender change is not required, and the student need not change his or her official records.  The intentional or persistent refusal to respect a student’s gender identity (for example, intentionally referring to the student by a name or pronoun that does not correspond to the student’s gender identity) is a violation of this policy.

This is compelling the speech of staff members and students which has already proven to violate free speech rights. Note that while there is the threat of punishment, there is no due process mechanism published; arbitrary and capricious.

In Meriwether v. Hartop, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit handed down a major ruling in favor of Shawnee State University Professor Nicholas Meriwether, who was disciplined for refusing to use a student’s designated pronoun choices.

At the beginning of the school year, Shawnee State emailed all faculty members to order them to refer to students by their “preferred pronoun[s].” The University was ordered to pay the defendant $400k for violating his free speech

This model policy put forth by the New Hampshire School Boards Association is proving to be costly to districts that now have to defend themselves in court. Not only is this costing the district in legal fees, but it also appears to be violating some of our most basic rights.

The NHSBA has come under fire numerous times for standing in the way of parental rights in New Hampshire. Parents are fed up with paying dues out of their school budget to this organization. If the NHSBA is finally withdrawing their model policy, good. It’s about time. But let it be known who put your district in this vulnerable situation. They have a staff of attorneys that you paid, that developed this model policy.  They’ve stood behind their model policy for almost a decade now and you paid for it.

The board members across this state that voted to approve this policy also ignored the gross violations of parental rights and free speech. While they may not be constitutional scholars, a novice could see problems with the language if they really cared about potential lawsuits and civil rights violations.

Look to see if you have Policy JBAB in place. Some school boards were wise to never adopt the policy, some revised it to remove the gross violations against the staff, parents, and students.

If you have this policy in place, take it to your school board and update them on what is going on in Gilford, Manchester, and Exeter. Let them know that this policy is followed in your district, opens your district up to a lawsuit too. And not only does it open your district up to a lawsuit, but it is also a policy that can violate your child’s basic fundamental rights.

There is an alternative to The New Hampshire School Boards Association in New Hampshire. Check them out: New Hampshire School District Governance Association.   
They don’t appear to be hostile to parental rights. There is no need to pay dues to NHSBA, schools have opted to not pay dues to this organization in the past.

The post SAU21 – Hampton Falls School Board Rejects Policy Jbab from Agenda Due to Legal Issues in Other Districts appeared first on Granite Grok.

I just watched her latest political commercial in stunned disbelief.  In the video she proposes giving us simple serfs a federal gas tax holiday, while concurrently emptying our strategic oil reserves.

Does she think that by taking these actions, the more than doubled gas prices she’s given us, will temporarily be lowered until after the election?

Does she really believe that this transparent ploy will fool Granite Staters?

Does she really believe that we will forget the rampant inflation, rising interest rates and crime, out of control spending, weak foreign policy, open borders, and the general incompetence of this congress and this administration? Let’s dig a little deeper into her shamelessly political plan.

• Our strategic oil reserves are to be used for national emergencies, like war or catastrophic natural disasters, not political bailouts.
• Politicians gave us the federal gas tax, to supposedly help us maintain our infrastructure, it obviously didn’t work.

We know this because Congress just passed a 1.2 trillion dollar slush fund to repair our infrastructure – sound familiar?

We want to thank Michael Petruzziello for this Op-Ed. If you have an Op-Ed or LTE
you would like us to consider, please submit it to Editor@GraniteGrok.com.

It should, the $800 billion dollar American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, was supposed to do the very same thing. It didn’t.

The common thread here is that the American taxpayer is paying for it all. We pay the gas tax, we pay to fill the oil reserves, and we pay for every other bit of their wasteful spending.

Now she wants to give us, as Nancy likes to say, some “crumbs” back, using our own money!

Imagine paying a dishonest contractor, multiple times, to repave your driveway, but they never show up to do the work.

Would you continue to trust that contractor, and continue to pay them for doing nothing? Why should we re-elect any of them to “repave” our country?

They’ve already spent more that 2 trillion dollars, and given us nothing in return.

Maybe it’s time we start electing real people, not politicians.

People who will not serve themselves, people who will not serve foreign nationals, and people who will not serve their political party masters.

We need to elect real people, who understand that they are elected to serve the people of New Hampshire, period.

This November, we the people, should send a message to our so-called representatives.

This is our land, not yours, and we are not your serfs.

Sincerely,

Michael Petruzziello
Major, USMC (Ret)
Wolfeboro, NH

The post No Thank You, Senator Hassan! appeared first on Granite Grok.

Recently, State Representative Tim Baxter (R-Seabrook) dared to oppose the UniParty foreign policy establishment by declaring his opposition to sending an additional $40 billion to Ukraine. Meanwhile, the corporate media and political establishment in Congress are commending themselves for their “virtuous” efforts to save the lives of Ukrainians and to “spread democracy”. Just like what Americans were told about Afghanistan, our efforts at arming a corrupt narco-state were going to ensure human rights and everlasting peace. Even though that turned out to be not only wrong but also a blatant lie [Afghanistan Papers], many of our fellow Republicans in Congress are declaring that Ukraine is different. If you oppose your hard-earned tax dollars going overseas and causing even more inflation at home, you must be a Russian agent who supports Vladimir Putin. Unsurprisingly, none of the other major candidates in the race for NH-01 have come out in opposition to this bill, all of whom claim to put “America First”. Apparently, their pledge to fight against the unconstitutional dictates being forced upon the American people by the Biden Administration requires you to send your money to the very same country his family was using to line his pockets.

As the readers of this news site do not need to be reminded, America faces unprecedented economic and mental crises. Our national debt of 30 trillion dollars is spiraling out of control, causing massive inflation at the gas pump, grocery stores, and for those looking to buy a home. Our trade deficit hit its highest point in recorded history last month, all while the Biden Administration eliminates $200 billion of Section 301 Trump imposed tariffs on Chinese goods. Labor force participation is at its lowest point in over 40 years as many have simply given up on looking for work and are no longer counted as unemployed. Meanwhile, a record 160,000 of our fellow citizens have died of despair, from drugs, alcohol, or suicide.

We want to thank Dylan Iacoboni for this Op-Ed. If you have an Op-Ed or LTE
you would like us to consider, please submit it to Editor@GraniteGrok.com.

What’s the political establishment’s answer to those that want the $40 billion of their own money spent to address the problems that America faces, or who better yet doesn’t want that money spent at all? It’s that we’re Russian sympathizers, that we need to learn to code, or that we’re racists. Our country and state cannot send any more people of this globalist ideology representing us in Washington. We cannot send any more people who will simply go along with these last few Congressional bills to advance themselves within the party establishment. Any candidate who does not actively oppose sending $40 billion should be disqualified in the minds of the voters of this district. Tim’s courage to stand up against the political establishment on this issue and many others proves that he is the only true America First candidate in this race. That’s why I encourage everyone to support Tim Baxter in the upcoming Republican primary on September 13th.

 

 

The post Does Your Hard Earned Money Belong to You or Blithely Shipped around the World? appeared first on Granite Grok.

I read a lot of tech stuff on a regular basis but I just don’t blog about it much as this is much more a Politics & Culture site than a tech one.  But this is just plain cool tech. Billions over budget, years late, the James Webb Space Telescope was supposed to the next coming of the Hubble Telescope.  Well, if this is any indication, it’s a home run:

The Webb just got through its alignment process in which all parts of its segmented mirror were precisely aligned to the same spot (two months of work). Both pictures are of the same part of the sky (both telescopes are space based) but the Spitzer image is rather old (Spitzer is already retired) but it is clear what the updated tech can do.

More info at the link below.  I just happened to like the pic; it’s like using my computer glasses to see the other side of my land and then using my “driving/distance” ones.

(H/T: Gizmodo)

The post Palate Cleanser – James Webb Space Telescope: Alignment Complete appeared first on Granite Grok.

“The government solution to a problem is usually as bad as the problem and very often makes the problem worse.”—Milton Friedman

You’ve been flagged as a threat.

Before long, every household in America will be similarly flagged and assigned a threat score.

Without having ever knowingly committed a crime or been convicted of one, you and your fellow citizens have likely been assessed for behaviors the government might consider devious, dangerous or concerning; assigned a threat score based on your associations, activities, and viewpoints; and cataloged in a government database according to how you should be approached by police and other government agencies based on your particular threat level.

If you’re not unnerved over the ramifications of how such a program could be used and abused, keep reading.

We want to thank John W. Whitehead and Nisha Whitehead for this Op-Ed. If you have an Op-Ed or LTE
you would like us to consider, please submit it to Editor@GraniteGrok.com.

It’s just a matter of time before you find yourself wrongly accused, investigated, and confronted by police based on a data-driven algorithm or risk assessment culled together by a computer program run by artificial intelligence.

Consider the case of Michael Williams, who spent almost a year in jail for a crime he didn’t commit. Williams was behind the wheel when a passing car fired at his vehicle, killing his 25-year-old passenger Safarian Herring, who had hitched a ride.

Even though Williams had no motive, there were no eyewitnesses to the shooting, no gun was found in the car, and Williams himself drove Herring to the hospital, police charged the 65-year-old man with first-degree murder based on ShotSpotter, a gunshot detection program that had picked up a loud bang on its network of surveillance microphones and triangulated the noise to correspond with a noiseless security video showing Williams’ car driving through an intersection. The case was eventually dismissed for lack of evidence.

Although gunshot detection programs like ShotSpotter are gaining popularity with law enforcement agencies, prosecutors and courts alike, they are riddled with flaws, mistaking “dumpsters, trucks, motorcycles, helicopters, fireworks, construction, trash pickup, and church bells…for gunshots.”

As an Associated Press investigation found, “the system can miss live gunfire right under its microphones, or misclassify the sounds of fireworks or cars backfiring as gunshots.”

In one community, ShotSpotter worked less than 50% of the time.

Then there’s the human element of corruption which invariably gets added to the mix. In some cases, “employees have changed sounds detected by the system to say that they are gunshots.” Forensic reports prepared by ShotSpotter’s employees have also “been used in court to improperly claim that a defendant shot at police, or provide questionable counts of the number of shots allegedly fired by defendants.”

The same company that owns ShotSpotter also owns a predictive policing program that aims to use gunshot detection data to “predict” crime before it happens. Both Presidents Biden and Trump have pushed for greater use of these predictive programs to combat gun violence in communities, even though found they have not been found to reduce gun violence or increase community safety.

The rationale behind this fusion of widespread surveillance, behavior prediction technologies, data mining, precognitive technology, and neighborhood and family snitch programs is purportedly to enable the government to take preemptive steps to combat crime (or whatever the government has chosen to outlaw at any given time).

This is precrime, straight out of the realm of dystopian science fiction movies such as Minority Report, which aims to prevent crimes before they happen, but in fact, it’s just another means of getting the citizenry in the government’s crosshairs in order to lock down the nation.

Even Social Services is getting in on the action, with computer algorithms attempting to predict which households might be guilty of child abuse and neglect.

All it takes is an AI bot flagging a household for potential neglect for a family to be investigated, found guilty, and the children placed in foster care.

Mind you, potential neglect can include everything from inadequate housing to poor hygiene but is different from physical or sexual abuse.

According to an investigative report by the Associated Press, once incidents of potential neglect are reported to a child protection hotline, the reports are run through a screening process that pulls together “personal data collected from birth, Medicaid, substance abuse, mental health, jail and probation records, among other government data sets.” The algorithm then calculates the child’s potential risk and assigns a score of 1 to 20 to predict the risk that a child will be placed in foster care in the two years after they are investigated. “The higher the number, the greater the risk. Social workers then use their discretion to decide whether to investigate.”

Other predictive models being used across the country strive to “assess a child’s risk for death and severe injury, whether children should be placed in foster care and if so, where.”

Incredibly, there’s no way for a family to know if AI predictive technology was responsible for their being targeted, investigated, and separated from their children. As the AP notes, “Families and their attorneys can never be sure of the algorithm’s role in their lives either because they aren’t allowed to know the scores.”

One thing we do know, however, is that the system disproportionately targets poor, black families for intervention, disruption, and possibly displacement because much of the data being used is gleaned from lower-income and minority communities.

The technology is also far from infallible. In one county alone, a technical glitch presented social workers with the wrong scores, either underestimating or overestimating a child’s risk.

Yet fallible or not, AI predictive screening program is being used widely across the country by government agencies to surveil and target families for an investigation. The fallout of this over surveillance, according to Aysha Schomburg, the associate commissioner of the U.S. Children’s Bureau, is “mass family separation.”

The impact of these kinds of AI predictive tools is being felt in almost every area of life.

Under the pretext of helping overwhelmed government agencies work more efficiently, AI predictive and surveillance technologies are being used to classify, segregate and flag the populace with little concern for privacy rights or due process.

All of this sorting, sifting, and calculating is being done swiftly, secretly, and incessantly with the help of AI technology and a surveillance state that monitors your every move.

Where this becomes particularly dangerous is when the government takes preemptive steps to combat crime or abuse, or whatever the government has chosen to outlaw at any given time.

In this way, government agents—with the help of automated eyes and ears, a growing arsenal of high-tech software, hardware, and techniques, government propaganda urging Americans to turn into spies and snitches, as well as social media and behavior sensing software—are spinning a sticky spider-web of threat assessments, behavioral sensing warnings, flagged “words,” and “suspicious” activity reports aimed at snaring potential enemies of the state.

Are you a military veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder? Have you expressed controversial, despondent, or angry views on social media? Do you associate with people who have criminal records or subscribe to conspiracy theories? Were you seen looking angry at the grocery store? Is your appearance unkempt in public? Has your driving been erratic? Did the previous occupants of your home have any run-ins with the police?

All of these details and more are being used by AI technology to create a profile of you that will impact your dealings with government.

It’s the American police state rolled up into one oppressive pre-crime and pre-thought crime package, and the end result is the death of the due process.

In a nutshell, due process was intended as a bulwark against government abuses. Due process prohibits the government of depriving anyone of “Life, Liberty, and Property” without first ensuring that an individual’s rights have been recognized and respected and that they have been given the opportunity to know the charges against them and defend against those charges.

With the advent of government-funded AI predictive policing programs that surveil and flag someone as a potential threat to be investigated and treated as dangerous, there can be no assurance of due process: you have already been turned into a suspect.

To disentangle yourself from the fallout of such a threat assessment, the burden of proof rests on you to prove your innocence.

You see the problem?

It used to be that every person had the right to be assumed innocent until proven guilty, and the burden of proof rested with one’s accusers. That assumption of innocence has since been turned on its head by a surveillance state that renders us all suspects and overcriminalization which renders us all potentially guilty of some wrongdoing or other.

Combine predictive AI technology with surveillance and overcriminalization, then add militarized police crashing through doors in the middle of the night to serve a routine warrant, and you’ll be lucky to escape with your life.

Yet be warned: once you get snagged by a surveillance camera, flagged by an AI predictive screening program, and placed on a government watch list—whether it’s a watch list for child neglect, a mental health watch list, a dissident watch list, a terrorist watch list, or a red flag gun watch list—there’s no clear-cut way to get off, whether or not you should actually be on there.

You will be tracked wherever you go, flagged as a potential threat, and dealt with accordingly.

If you’re not scared yet, you should be.

We’ve made it too easy for the government to identify, label, target, defuse and detain anyone it views as a potential threat for a variety of reasons that run the gamut from mental illness to having a military background to challenging its authority to just being on the government’s list of persona non grata.

As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, you don’t even have to be a dissident to get flagged by the government for surveillance, censorship, and detention.

All you really need to be is a citizen of the American police state.

The post You’ve Been Flagged as a Threat: Predictive AI Technology Puts a Target on Your Back appeared first on Granite Grok.

C’mon, get with it!

 

One would think that in a state that has Constitutional Carry in place (e.g., no permit or license needed to purchase, own, or carry (open or concealed) firearms as long as one is not a prohibited person from owning such), that 14.4% would be much higher.

I’m envious of Alaska’s. Even Illinois and California (but not NY) which have some of the most restrictive gun laws in the nation have better representation than we do.

Sheesh…

(H/T: Caveman Circus)

The post Data Point – New Hampshire Residents are Pikers on Gun Ownership appeared first on Granite Grok.

…Most fiscal conservatives are not surprised that the left-wing imbeciles in the White House and the Capitol Building are running up massive quantities of debt and burdening the American taxpayer excessively with the government’s bills.

I mean, hell, more than $2.5 trillion was spent on just four acts of Congress by October of 2020. And let’s not forget the Biden administration’s fool’s gold, the bipartisan infrastructure bill of 2021, which, apparently, none of the 17 Republican senators who voted for its passage bothered to read.

If these sell-outs had bothered to read the contents of the bill, they would find a smorgasbord of pork, like the “Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program,” which was allocated $500 million literally to demolish perfectly good infrastructure and completely redesign the layout of entire communities to make access to them more “equitable.” (This is the whole “racist roads” hogwash.)

They would also find that the bill contained an allotment of $7.5 billion for the construction of a network of half a million electric vehicle chargers nationwide, even though, by the Transportation Department’s own admission, electric vehicles accounted for only 2.3% of car sales in 2020, or one-third of China’s E.V. car sales (because the moron in the Oval Office thinks everything is better in China, just ask Hunter).

But no, 17 members of the Senate who were supposed to be fiscally responsible decided to obsequiously bow down to Caesar Biden’s demands.

But then, are they actually fiscally responsible? In the past few years, Republicans have become nearly as fiscally reckless as Democrats. Donald Trump, in just four years, added $8 trillion to the national debt. Barack Obama, who added more to the debt than all of his predecessors combined, added only $9 trillion in eight! And Jeff Van Drew, who made headlines when he switched political parties from Democrat to Republican shortly after he was elected to Congress, and who also happens to be the representative of the district in which I live in New Jersey, voted in favor of the bill in the House — and this man claims to be a fiscal conservative…

-Adam Vicari (America Is Approaching Financial Doomsday)

Heck, I started worrying about the national debt when it was only $6 Trillion – boy, was I naive!  When I was elected to our hamlet’s Budget Committee, I harped on it all the time – PLEASE don’t take that grant/free money – first is the “strings attached” bit that put our small village on the financial hook forever for the ‘free stuff’ that we agreed to do with that money. The second was then that “soaring debt”. Little did I know that our Federally elected Nincompoops have NEVER intended on NOT “Cloward-Piven”-ing us all financially.  Well, not everyone – more likely, our kids and grandkids.

At the time, the national debt was around $.  In 2020, Now, in 2022, that has soared to $91,400/person: man, woman, and child.  It is to the point that it is unpayable – the country is bankrupt.

(image H/T: Statista)

We spend, every day, “over $900 million on interest“, alone. That adds up to $328,500,000,000 / year.  That’s half of our national defense budget.

No, I do not ascribe to the idea that we are a rich COUNTRY on the basis that we as INDIVIDUALS own far more than that (hundreds of Trillions?  Can’t really find a reliable estimate – this is about the closest I can get).

 

(H/T: American Thinker via Instapundit)

 

The post Notable Quote – Has the Financial Doomday I’ve Warned about for Years Finally Here? appeared first on Granite Grok.

On Sunday, January 24, 2021, the Sunday Telegraph published my letter to the editor, titled, The Problem as I See It. At the same time that I submitted the letter to the newspaper, I sent copies of it to all of my State and Federal elected officials.

Most of them didn’t bother to respond. The responses of those that did, Anne McLane Kuster and another, 4 months later, Jeanne Shaheen, were disappointing at best. Both chose to see my concerns as whining from an election-integrity conspiracy theorist. They each lectured me on my unfounded and unreasonable beliefs that there was any possibility of election fraud.

They made no mention of my pleas to them to represent ALL New Hampshire residents, not just those of their own political party, and to protect our Republic. Since then, the lawmakers in the Federal Government have proved EVERY concern I expressed in my previous letter to the editor. I include an excerpt here.

They want to change the way that our shared government is designed down to its foundation so that those on the other side can never have a voice again. This close to 50% of Americans (we Patriots, and I now believe that number to be larger than 50%) have been held in utter contempt, ridiculed and denigrated, by those currently in control who propose to get rid of governmental systems in place (the filibuster e.g.) to ensure that their domination becomes permanent.

They are able to do this through the virtually unfettered control of the media, which has helped them attain this position. This evil plan flies against the Constitution of the United States of America, which was meticulously designed to prevent a hostile majority from stealing the freedom of, and essentially enslaving, those of the minority, using their resources and labor to support their position.

This “majority,” currently in control, have no conscience to guide them, to show them that stealing the freedom of those they plan to dominate through nefarious means, (packing the supreme court and giving votes to non-citizens e.g.) is evil. They are so entrenched in their beliefs, which have been put in place by the programming of the media, that they believe that any means necessary is justified in order to subjugate and permanently fetter those under their control.

Last night, I participated in the virtual premiere of Dinesh D’Souza’s latest movie 2000 Mules. This movie has cemented my view that there were shenanigans in the November 2020 election, and that those shenanigans were enough to change the outcome of the election.

We want to thank Michelle Hoy for this Op-Ed.
Please direct yours to Editor@GraniteGrok.com.

These election crimes, along with other trends currently demonstrated by our government (and society), such as the treatment of anyone who disagrees with the current radical left agenda as political prisoners or terrorists (as demonstrated by the incarceration of January 6th participants for misdemeanor charges and the designation of vocal parents at school board meetings as terrorists), the newly organized “Disinformation Governance Board,” the attempts/plans to delegitimize elections, the attempts to bully any dissenters from their radical agenda into submission (try being a conservative SCOTUS justice right now), the deliberate quashing of our economy, our energy independence, and even our food supply – the list could go on… have brought me to a realization.

We can no longer stand by and do nothing, hoping that someone else picks up the baton and runs with it.

We must EACH do something to stop the destruction of our republic before it is too late. What can we do? Here’s a list. If you have other ideas, please add them in the comments below.

• Buy the 2000 Mules DVD for $25 and host a showing in your own home. Pass the movie on to friends.
• Join TrueTheVote.com and help in any way that you can there. They can help you train to be a poll worker. Do so.
• Sign up to help out with the ongoing project to clean up voter rolls at www.iv3.us. This is something anyone can do from home, as long as you can access the internet.
• Demand election reforms from your elected representatives. Be relentless. Here are my suggestions in that realm:
• Have an election DAY as outlined in the appropriate codes ( https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/2/7).
• Eliminate voter drop-boxes.
• Require proof of identity, citizenship, and eligibility to vote.
• Allow absentee voting only in extenuating circumstances as has been done in the past.
• Ensure that election laws are applied uniformly throughout jurisdictions.
• Ensure that each candidate/party has fair and equal access to the media in order to provide information to voters.
• Ensure that there is chain of custody for each and every vote and that every vote is counted in the presence of independent observers at every moment.
• Start speaking up when the conversation gets dicey.

We can no longer be silent. We can no longer enable the radicals by trying to protect ourselves from “unfriending,” censorship, or criticism. If we only ever speak up in our own echo chambers, the word will never get out, especially in consideration of the current attempts to curb free speech, not to mention the media, which will attempt to thwart you at every turn.

Write your elected representatives. THEN stand on their doorstep and demand recognition.

Attend local governance meetings (school board, town halls, e.g.) and be vocal. I truly believe that patriots are the majority. We are just drowned out by the caterwauling of a radical minority.

Boycott. Boycott. Boycott. Speak with your wallet. This takes planning and sacrifice. You have to be serious and DO IT! Then write the companies and tell them why you did it and pass that along to others, as well.

Now is your chance. As I said in my letter to the editor:

“…it will soon be too late. It will be the end of Democracy and Freedom in the world, and this Great American Experiment, which has brought more of humanity out of poverty and freed more of humanity from bondage than any other government in history, which has been an example, a beacon of freedom throughout the world, will fail. It will fail, because, as John Adams stated, “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution is designed only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for any other.” I pray that we have not reached this point in human history. I pray that sanity will prevail…”

God bless us, and God bless our work. Let’s get started.

 

 

The post We Can No Longer Stand By and Hope Someone Else Picks up the Baton and Runs with It appeared first on Granite Grok.

Democrats who attack the democratically enacted Florida “Parental Rights” (falsely labeled “Don’t say gay”) and New Hampshire’s “Right to Freedom from Discrimination” laws misrepresent and slander them. The laws’ speech restrictions that Democrats call Stalinist censorship are limited to certain work situations and minor compared with many employment restrictions.
The Democrat Party imposes much stricter censorship and punishment of people’s (not just employee) speech they consider adequately objectionable wherever it happens. Such speech often gets people slandered, banned from social media (e.g. Donald Trump), harassed, and/or fired. Speakers with opposing views are shouted down or canceled. Information Democrats oppose is often misrepresented or completely censored (e.g. Hunter Biden’s laptop).

Florida’s law (tinyurl.com/2tbmrzdv) identifies parental rights and control over their children’s education and health and restricts presenting age-inappropriate information about sex and gender in school settings (even most Florida Democrats support it). Its critics don’t explain which sex acts they want to be taught or shown to young (Kindergarten-3rd grade) children and how these help young children. Nor do they explain how creating confusion about gender helps young (K-3rd), impressionable, and vulnerable children.

NH’s law doesn’t restrict teaching slavery (as often falsely claimed), or any actual history of, mostly Democrat, oppression of Blacks, e.g. Jim Crow Laws, the KKK, bad schools. The law (tinyurl.com/32mx7vpr, Sections 354-A:29-A:34) says that people, including children, cannot be discriminated against, nor can they be identified as superior or inferior to others because of age, sex, race, gender, religion, or any other characteristics. Discrimination harms students and society. Democrats don’t explain how creating disharmony and friction among races, genders, religions, etc. is good; they just want to do it.

When so many American schools inadequately educate many students, why do many Democrats demand adding instruction that causes confusion, disharmony, and harm without benefitting students’ successful futures?

The post Democrats Are Selective When Addressing Censorship appeared first on Granite Grok.

As promised in the last Monday Memes, I have an overflow. My meme cup runneth over.

Now, let the mayhem, mockery, and ridicule resume:

*** Warning, a few possibly off-color ones, in case tender eyes are about ***

 

>>>>>=====<<<<<

 

 

>>>>>=====<<<<<

 

And my personal favorite for this batch:

 

The post Meme Overflow appeared first on Granite Grok.

There’s no evidence of voter fraud except for 4 MILLION minutes of video surveillance footage taken by the state itself consisting of mules over-stuffing ballot dropboxes, disposing gloves, and taking photos once they’ve completed the act so they get paid. #2000Mules

— Danielle D'Souza Gill (@danielledsouzag) May 10, 2022

With regards to the recent Sen. Bob Guida-driven amendment to HB 1397 affecting the Gunstock Area Commission, several things need to be understood.

At its most recent meeting, the GAC voted to oppose this “sour grapes” legislation and urge legislators to defeat it. The system as set up in the original enabling legislation has worked well for over 60 years.

The vetting and appointment of Gunstock Area commissioners by the delegation allow for public scrutiny and questioning of anyone offering to serve, while a very costly general county-wide election process heavily favors the wealthy and local media favorites.

The current structure further allows for a removal process by 18 members for cause, whereas the amendment would reduce this to just two of three Belknap County Commissioners.

This amendment has been created by people who have not been getting their way in the regular process. It is a flawed solution seeking to correct a problem that doesn’t exist.

Having watched Sen. Guida in action on this issue has been a sad affair – a once seemingly rational and even-handed politician has become visibly shaken and filled with apparent rage. It begs the question of those of us witnessing this sudden sea-change: Is there something in it for him?

Nobody gets so worked up like this unless they’re hiding something or have been promised some sort of reward.

The same could be said of his allies. Could it have something to do with constructing a massive hotel and restaurants on public lands that have been rightly preserved since the 30s? Who knows?

Sadly, now that there are people serving on the Commission that want only what’s best for Gunstock and its owners, the residents, and taxpayers of Belknap County, there are nefarious forces seeking to prevent it.

Beware the corporate fat cats!

“The tractors came over the roads and into the fields, great crawlers moving like insects, having the incredible strength of insects … Snub-nosed monsters, raising the dust and sticking their snouts into it, straight down the country, across the country, through fences, through dooryards, in and out of gullies in straight lines. They did not run on the ground, but on their own roadbeds. They ignored hills and gulches, water courses, fences…”  -Steinbeck. The Grapes of Wrath

The post The (Sour) Grapes of Wrath. Guida and Gunstock. WHY???? appeared first on Granite Grok.

Missouri House Bill 1878 will have the drop-box banditos cursing in the streets. The legislation, designed to ensure secure elections, would not only require a photo ID to vote and further secure absentee voting, but it also bans ballot drop boxes.

 

No absentee ballot shall be delivered through a drop box and no election authority shall establish or use a drop box for the purpose of collecting absentee ballots.

 

The changes were passed in the House in March and just passed the State Senate this week and would also prohibit ballot harvesting and limit voter registration by third parties while prohibiting payment for such services.

 

Notwithstanding section 115.284, no individual,  group, or party shall solicit a voter into obtaining an absentee ballot application. Absentee ballot applications shall not have the information pre-filled prior to it being provided to a voter. Nothing in this section shall be interpreted to prohibit a state or local election authority from assisting an individual voter.

 

And not only have all the exceptions related to Mail-in Ballots and COVID been struck from state election law, the new changes prohibit an end-around by exercises of executive or administrative authority.

 

Mail-in ballots shall not be authorized by any executive or administrative order and no authorization for the use of mail-in ballots shall be inferred from any general law. This section shall not preclude the use of absentee ballots authorized under this chapter. Any expansion of the use of mail-in ballots subsequent to the effective date of this act shall require the repeal of this section by explicit reference thereto.

 

Neither the Governor nor the Secretary of State can make changes. Only the State Legislature can change election law.

Trying to vote without proof of Identity has also been addressed with provisional ballots and a very lengthy process to discourage the practice, but anyone who needs a non-drivers license ID to vote will continue to get that identification at no cost to themselves. In other words, it is not a hardship to vote without ID or to obtain proof of identity for voting purposes, but the security of elections has been shored up in the process.

To summarize, no ballot harvesting or registration harvesting. It will be illegal to pay people to register voters. No vote by mail or ballot drop boxes while absentee ballot measures have been tweaked to improve proof of identity and chain of custody.  And yes, there’s more, but that’s good enough for our purposes.

The State has taken a giant leap forward to protect Missouri voters and their votes from being diluted by potential acts of fraud. Other states should look at the changes and consider them in their states.

 

 

The post Missouri is about to Ban Ballot Drop Boxes and Tighten ID and Chain of Custody Rules appeared first on Granite Grok.

Jen Psaki is either a great actress or believes she is as good as she imagines. Regardless of which, she is painful to watch. She ends the last six weeks of unethical behavior by finally leaving the White House to cash in at MSNBC.

She has been negotiating her contract and role at the leading misinformation network while still in the highly sensitive position of White House Press Secretary. She stood behind the podium where people like Tony Snow, Arie Fleischer, Dana Perino, and Kayleigh McEnany took the job seriously and served the country and the White House with pride. She claims to have overseen the most transparent White House in history. Just like her view of her performance, the Biden White House has been a lie. It has been a manipulated charade since January 20, 2021.

As part of her farewell tour, she sat down with Howie Kurtz of FOXNews. It was ironic since she has spent the last sixteen months treating the FOX White House correspondents in a childish condescending manner. She turned up her tone with Peter Doucy and Jacqui Heinrich during the previous six weeks when she may have been double-dipping from MSNBC and the American people. She made the job personal and unmistakable. We will never know how much was her new boss’s direction and how much was her initiative.

As muddy as the Psaki/MSNBC scenario is, the sequel may be worse. Biden continues his streak of bad decisions and hires. MSNBC leaves the West Wing as CNN comes in through the bedroom door. Karine Jean-Pierre made history this week as the first black woman and first openly gay person to be named White House press secretary, replacing her boss Jen Psaki. Jean-Pierre is married and shares a daughter with CNN correspondent Suzanne Malveaux. There is no way the White House can sell this as an ethical situation when the White House Press Secretary shares a pillow with a CNN reporter.

We saw enough of Jean-Pierre whenever she filled in at the podium to know she was not competent to handle the job. She will take the term Circle-Back to plain old I don’t know. With the goal of diversity in the Biden White House over experience and credentials, it makes sense they hired someone who checks multiple boxes. Karine is a black gay woman married to a white gay woman. That is a trifecta of boxes for one person.

Aside from the apparent breach of security that the new secretary and her partner present, she is a step down from Psaki, which is not a good place to begin. This leaves us with a President sheltered by his handlers from speaking with the Press and a Press Secretary who is not competent to speak for the President. The American people deserve better than what we are getting from this administration. Joe Biden has put this country in a terrible state. To not have faith in the words of the President and his surrogates leaves us in the dark when we all need to be searching for the light.

 

 

Ray Writes for GraniteGrok.com and the Liberty Loft

The post Jen Psaki Raised the Bar Then Tripped Over It appeared first on Granite Grok.

This week, the House met for two days to vote on all Senate bills. Since this is the end of the session, a lot of political maneuvering took place, attempting to add House positions someone felt had not been properly treated by the Senate to bills we felt were important to them.

Any bill that’s passed the House can be, if desired, added to any bill … And, of course, a motion to table can always be used to shortcut debate.

SB 144, a pilot program for child care scholarships, was killed after a short debate. SB326, developing a plan to create the office of early childhood (but not actually creating such an office…) was killed after some debate, 178-151. SB431, on child support with equal parenting time, was debated and passed, 178-151. SB 457, a study committee on non-profits providing children’s services, was killed without comment.

SB 202, prohibiting the sale of cosmetics tested on animals, had a committee amendment to ban all products tested on animals but was tabled, 320-8, before the debate. SB 210, on the sale of manufactured housing parks, had some simplifications to the the current process and passed without comment. SB 319, allowing insurers to offer incentives to those vaccinated against Covid, was debated and killed as unnecessary, 179-150. SB 355, requiring online marketplaces to disclose some information, was also debated and sent to interim study, 176-155. This bill was an attempt to prevent organized shoplifting (and resale) but seemed to be targeting the wrong entities, hoping to prevent criminal behavior by creating a civil offense, plus presuming that a New Hampshire law would affect the behavior of a Wal-Mart or Amazon!

We want to thank NH State Rep. Carol McGuire for this Op-Ed. If you have an Op-Ed or LTE
you would like us to consider, please submit it to Editor@GraniteGrok.com.

SB 294, updating bail reform law (yet again) was tabled, 209-121, since we’ve passed a similar version at least once this year. HB 629, my bill to legalize possession and home growing cannabis, was added to SB 299, increasing the penalty for escape (from prison or law enforcement!) Without discussion, we killed SB 361, requiring bail commissioners to be paid mileage.

SB 367, regulating advanced recycling (recreating plastics), had a committee amendment, a floor amendment (agreed to by the committee) and extensive debate before passing, 198-128.

From my committee, we killed SB 218, metastatic breast cancer day, and SB 219, kinship care awareness month, and passed SB 220, a study committee on mental health professional licensing, all without comment. SB 274, prohibiting project labor agreements in state construction contracts, was debated and killed, 177-154. SB 325, adding public works and other agencies to the definition of “first responder” for the purpose of making them a part of the incident command structure, was debated and passed, 248-84; the opposition was concerned about expanding definitions that could be used in other statutes for other purposes (quite reasonably), but the promise of getting federal FEMA money faster and more easily won the day!

SB 330, creating a study committee on the Office of Professional Licensure & Certification (OPLC), was amended by my committee to add a permanent OPLC oversight committee, amended by the Ways & Means committee to make sure they were represented on the study committee, then passed with a a minimum of discussion. SB 333, a minor bill licensing case management agencies, was amended to add HB 1417, the state contribution to Your State House Page 1 of 6 May 6, 2022, local pension assessments; I spoke against the addition (as I’d opposed HB 1417 itself) but lost, 170-164. The Senate had funded a similar contribution but only for one year; supporters wanted it to be forever.

SB 358, establishing eczema awareness month, was completely rewritten to become an expansion of JLCAR (15 members in three divisions rather than 10 members in one committee.) The amendment passed, 195-139, and the bill passed, 208-123, all with minimal discussion.

SB 382, on telehealth licenses and simplifying licensure for physicians licensed in other states, was debated on the need for licensure for doctors providing telehealth services. As in so many other situations, it only matters if there’s a problem: licensure (and in this case, the definition that healthcare takes place at the location of the patient) gives an aggrieved patient a clear place to complain and a definition of which state’s malpractice laws apply. Happy patients don’t care! So SB 382 was debated, not tabled, 144-187, then passed on a voice vote.

SB 397, on the mental health counseling compact and the compact on the placement of children, adopted the committee amendment which deleted the placement compact but added specific language about placing children across state lines (triggered by the Harmony Montgomery case.) Then it was debated on the mental health compact and passed, 202-132.

SB 450, prescription drug affordability board statute cleanup, was debated and not sent to interim study, 164-168, then passed, 173-161. The supporters were more concerned with the intent of the board (getting lower drug prices) than what it actually might accomplish (fees for everyone in the business of providing drugs, creating a highly paid administrator, and maybe some guidance for where state agencies might look for savings, other than where they were already negotiating lower prices!)

At this point, several Democrats attempted to take up removing restrictions on abortion. First, there was a motion to special order SB 399 (which dealt with clarification of the ultrasound requirement for late-term abortions) for immediate consideration; this failed, 159-173. Then it was moved to take HB 1674, which guaranteed the right to abortion, off the table, which failed, 158-174; then CACR 18, which put the right to an abortion in the constitution, which failed, 157-174. This was all grandstanding since to take any action on either bill would require a 2/3 majority to suspend the rules, and everyone knew that this majority was not available. It worked – I saw some of their more incendiary remarks quoted in the news.

SB 227, adding suicide to the “killed in the line of duty” death benefit for police and corrections officers, had a floor amendment to add HB 1102, which forbade any assets forfeited under state law be transferred to the (looser and less protective, but “sharing” more with the law enforcement agency) federal asset forfeiture law. Both the amendment and the bill passed on voice votes. SB 267, establishing the upland invasive species program and funding it, passed without comment, as did SB275, opiod abatement trust fund updates; SB 303, updated reimbursement rates for sheriff’s offices for prisoner control and court security; and SB 346, planning to build a pier on Hampton Beach. SB 366, requiring an audit of ballots cast in the 2022 election, was debated on the need to spend on a fast optical reader, when voter fraud was nonexistent in New Hampshire; it passed, 177-139.

SB 371, an appropriation to the lead paint remediation fund, and SB 376, creating a study committee on police interactions with people with Your State House Page 2 of 6 May 6, 2022 mental health issues, both passed without debate. SB 381, creating an office of the advocate for special education, was debated on the committee amendment, which deleted the current responsibility of the office of the child advocate to deal with education. This was necessary to keep the two offices separate: the child advocate deals with children in the custody of the state, and is entwined with the juvenile justice system, while the advocate for special education would be dealing with parents and (primarily) local school systems. The amendment passed, 163-152, and the bill passed, 170-155.

SB 394, expanding “child” through age 21 to agree with federal special education laws, passed without comment. SB 401, an omnibus transportation bill that included local bridge aid, the body worn and dashboard camera fund, and a road to the Balsams, was debated on a floor amendment to add HB 1337, which tapered the duration of unemployment benefits to the unemployment rate. That amendment passed, 173-142, then the bill passed on a voice vote.

SB 407, expanding Medicaid (for the mother) to 12 months after birth, was amended to sunset the program when the federal funding ran out, then amended, 162-153, to include HB 1210. the conscientious exemption to vaccines, then passed, 295-28. Obviously the strategy of giving everyone something they liked in a bill was working…

SB 412, funding increased nursing home rates, and SB 416, on behavioral health assessments before out-of-home placements, both passed without comment. SB 417, an electric school bus pilot program, was tabled, 166-151 (that bill was simply a way to spend some of the Volkswagen settlement money that seemed to be burning a hole in some people’s pockets: several school districts are currently trying out electric buses, so there’s no need to do anything but wait a while.) SB 418, verification of voter affidavits, had a short, extremely dull debate before passing, 164-155.

SB 420, an extraordinary need grant for schools, had a floor amendment to add HB 1298, which increased the eligibility limit for the tax credit scholarship program. The amendment passed, 171-150, then the bill passed on a voice vote. SB 422, adding a dental benefit to Medicaid, had a technical amendment and passed, 205-109. I voted against this bill because I’m not convinced it’s the right thing to do: plenty of people avoid dentists for reasons other than the cost!

SB 430, a multi-part bill about the department of health & human services, had a floor amendment to add HB 1044, which allows direct pay only health facilities (currently any health facility, among other requirements, must accept all comers regardless of their method of payment – or not). This amendment was debated before passing, 167-147, then the bill passed on a voice vote. HB 438, buy American steel for construction projects, had a floor amendment to add HB 1171, exempting some beauty services from licensure, and HB 1560, nonresident licensure for cosmetologists. (Both passed the House but were sent to interim study in the Senate.) The amendment passed, 170-129, and the bill passed on a voice vote with minimal debate.

SB 442, allowing suspension of a vehicle registration for unpaid tolls and fees, was debated and passed, 201-103. SB 444, appropriating $200,000 (presumably federal “American Rescue Plan” funds) for a five year program treating children and families that have experienced trauma, passed without comment, as did SB 445, creating a broadband matching grant fund. SB 458, closing the Sununu Center and building a replacement, passed without comment, much to my surprise. HB 459, health care facility workplace Your State House Page 3 of 6 May 6, 2022 violence prevention program, was amended to change the program from a mandate to a public information system, then passed, 220-87. I was in the minority since I’m not convinced the program is necessary or desirable, although I’m glad the worst parts (warrantless arrests, mandates on smaller businesses) have been deleted.

SB 404, establishing a marketing program for SNAP (food stamps), passed, 226-76, without debate. I was opposed because I don’t believe there is anyone who doesn’t know about these programs!

SB 216, a study committee on the landlord-tenant mediation program, was killed without comment, as were SB 217, doubling eviction notices from 30 to 60 days, 178-140; SB 222, permitting licensing boards to hold remote meetings and SB 339, permitting various boards and commissions to hold remote meetings. SB 302, preserving donor privacy, passed on a voice vote. SB 344, revising the right to know law to allow electronic meetings, was killed, 176-155, without debate.

SB 388, allowing the insurance department to have limited access to 911 data, was tabled, 327-2, because the insurance department was not satisfied with limited data, and nobody wanted to give them any more. SB 392, establishing a study commission on insanity, was killed without comment.

SB 209, on electronic payments, went to interim study. SB 345, on youth employment, was debated on a floor amendment to add back restrictions on night work for 16 and 17 year olds; after debate, it was defeated, 154-181, as too confusing and contradictory to other sections of the law. This bill was not tabled, 145-192, then passed, 185-152, with no further debate. SB 377, on expanding when a state trooper is “on duty” for purposes of workers’ compensation, went to interim study without discussion.

SB 239, adding penalties for towns that do not complete their required audits, passed on a voice vote. SB 245, a study committee on deals between towns and developers, had a clarifying committee amendment that failed to pass, 140-166, then was tabled, 187-148. SB 246, on qualified private communities, had a dull debate before being killed, 183-146. SB 329, a study commission on barriers to increasing housing, was amended, 171-152, to include the text of HB 1194, the procedure to override a local tax cap. SB 329 then passed on a voice vote, with minimal debate.

SB 400, a land use bill about training for planning boards and financial incentives for affordable housing, was tabled, 170-159, before the debate. I expect to see at least some of this attached to a House bill…

SB 258, on African American graves, went to interim study, 180-146, without debate.

SB 259, expanding “municipal host” for purposes of net metering to include undefined “quasi-public entities” went to interim study without comment. SB 263, establishing a youth environmental council, was debated and killed, 174-150. SB 269, creating a study commission on weatherization programs, went to interim study, 182-152, after some debate.

SB 271, extending repayment relief for the Burgess Biopower plant in Berlin for another year, but at least requiring the plant to open its books to the department of energy, was debated on a floor amendment to extend the relief for two years, rather than one. That failed, 143-190, and the bill passed on a voice vote. Burgess Biopower is a large user of low-grade wood, and so necessary for the forest products industry, but it sells the power it produces at above market rates, subsidized by Eversource ratepayers. It has accumulated well over $100 million in such subsidies, and doesn’t seem ever likely to repay them. It does provide quite a bit of sustainable power to the state, good jobs in Berlin, and a healthy demand for low grade wood: but who should pay for it?

SB 424, authorizing the Public Utilities Commission to regulate renewable natural gas (methane generated other than from anaerobic digestion) was debated, not tabled, 139-190, then passed, 214-118. The opposition was concerned that methane is a potent greenhouse gas; supporters wanted the possibility of generating a sustainable fuel. SB 448, urging state agencies to to use electric vehicles, was debated and killed, 181-148, since they are already charged with selecting the most practical and cost effective vehicles available!

We also passed the amendment to SB 200 that made it the congressional redistricting map: the majority amendment, 178-158, and not the minority amendment (the same one we’d rejected the first time we passed redistricting) 156-182; the bill passed, 179-159. (all votes essentially party line, as is expected in redistricting!) This will go to committee of conference to develop the final plan, most likely with the Governor involved. At least the two very different plans give us lots of options.

SB 447, establishing an electric vehicle and infrastructure fund in the department of transportation, was tabled before debate, 183-149.

SB 318, extending charitable gaming hours, was not amended to require local approval, 156-178, then passed with minimal debate. SB 343, a study committee on municipal sharing of rooms & meals taxes, was killed without debate. SB 435, net operating loss carryforward under the business profits tax, had a long, very detailed debate on various technicalities, then passed on a voice vote.

SB 399, clarifying the ultrasound requirement before an abortion, was tabled before the (undoubtedly long, but futile) debate, 177-156, since this topic has already been passed in another bill, with better language. SB 429, technical changes to the site evaluation committee, had a floor amendment to change the allowable fees, in favor of wind or solar. This amendment was debated and failed, 158-176, and the bill passed, 224-111. Finally, SB 316, minor changes to the Lucky 7 program, had a floor amendment from the committee which had late realized the same change needed to be applied to another section of law. This was adopted on voice votes, with only committee explanations.

The only remaining legislative work this year is interim study and committees of conference. My committee will meet towards the end of the month to go over our interim study bills and plan for the study, including assigning a responsible leader for each bill (or pair of bills, in some cases.)

Committees of conference are being formed now on House bills amended by the Senate and vice versa; they need to report their conclusions at the end of the month.

Representative Carol McGuire
carol@mcguire4house.com
782-4918

The post NH State Rep Carol McGuire – Your State House 05/6/22: Senate Bills And the Session End is Nigh appeared first on Granite Grok.

The apparent leak by someone working at the Supreme Court of a months-old February draft opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade has opened the floodgates of histrionic reaction—for an excellent commentary go here.

Governor Sununu has always openly favored abortion. Yet, in the wake of what NH Majority Leader Jason Osborne has aptly called the “outrage du jour,” the Governor seems ready to go even further. Last week, Sununu suggested he would support limiting free speech in the name of protecting abortion.

According to a Boston news outlet on Tuesday, Sununu “said he would not support a move by some lawmakers to ban buffer zones which keep protestors at certain distances from abortion clinics.”

That is a reference to HB 1625, a bill that would repeal New Hampshire’s unconstitutional “buffer zone” law. The buffer zone law allows abortion clinics to ban people from engaging in speech on public way or sidewalks near an abortion facility—including silent prayer.

This law is a clear throttle on free speech in the Live Free or Die state and would be struck down if ever challenged—which is why it’s never actually been enforced. By never using the law, abortion clinics have underhandedly kept it on the books, allowing them to dangle the threat of punishment over peaceful protestors and sidewalk counselors.

Currently, HB 1625 is headed to the Governor’s desk, after being passed by the full Senate last week. This common-sense, moderate bill should become law. HB 1625 is not “banning” anything, despite what Boston media have ridiculously claimed: it is repealing an unconstitutional infringement on free speech.

Sununu pledged in writing to repeal the buffer zone law in a 2016 letter he wrote just before being elected to his first term as governor. The buffer zone repeal was one of five key promises he made to pro-life voters to win their support. As he said, “By voting for me the voters can undo the liberal left-wing agenda that Democrats have imposed on New Hampshire over the past twenty years.”

If the Governor does choose to veto HB 1625, it would be clear proof this was a lie to win votes. If Governor Sununu can’t stand behind a repeal of an unconstitutional law, what can we truly trust him to do?

Sununu-life-commitment-2016

The post Sununu Lied If He Vetoes Buffer Zone Repeal appeared first on Granite Grok.

Donald Trump has taken up a permanent residence in Joe Biden’s head. That has to be an insane neighborhood in which to live.

Biden and his crew know that there is no way they should have beaten Trump in 2020 and live in fear that he will announce his candidacy for the White House. Biden took a page out of Hillary’s 2016 playbook this week. The Basket of Deplorables went poorly for Hillary, and the MAGA Crowd will do the same for Biden. Insulting half the nation’s voters is never a good idea and a minor league move for Biden, a minor league politician.

Donald Trump will not run for President. He is still the dominant head of the Republican Party, but he knows running in 2024 will not be good for the country. I agree. Trump is too divisive, and the country is already polarized to the danger point. Trump wants to be the King Maker, and going 22-0 in this week’s primaries shows that he can pick the winners.

Trump stepping aside will make room for the new generation of Conservative Republicans. DeSantis, Jordan, Abbott, and even Gaetz are poised and ready to right this sinking ship. We need Trump Republicans and not Mitch McConnell Rhinos. We need people with the cajones to stand up to the Democrats, including the Squad and fight them to submission. This Radical Woke wave that has enveloped the country in the last two years has proven to be the wrong people to lead this country.

The performance of the Red-led states versus the Left should make it quite clear to all that personal freedom, low taxes, minimal restrictions, and unleashing the power of the free market are the ticket to success. What we have had from Joe Biden and his incompetent administration is the exact opposite, more on the line of California and New York. People are leaving those states by the thousands because they know those states have lost their way.

The media that was in bed with Biden in 2020 has seen the danger of continuing that path. Their credibility, ratings, and revenues have slid with their continued allegiance to the lies of the Democrat Party. The Elon Musk take-over of Twitter may force their hand for self-preservation. Should the media expand the scope of their reporting to include all of the failings of the Biden team, the nation will move to the center. The polls are already showing that shift.

The leak story with the Supreme Court will give them cover for a short time. Unless the Democrats have something more significant than abortion in their quiver, they may have pulled the trigger too soon. There is no way the story will have the legs to last six months until election day.

Trump was a great President, and history will tell that story in time. After eight years of Obama chipping away at our foundation, he changed our course. Our security, economy, our standing in the global arena were all improved under Trump. He kept us out of war but strengthened our military to let foes know we would be ready for battle. He brought production back from foreign soil and unleashed the capitalist machine by reducing taxes and restrictions. He restored American Pride even though the Radicals and media fought him every step of the way. He was stronger than they believed. And it took a Pandemic and an orchestrated effort of the Left and media to take him down.

The Pandemic is over, as is the belief that Biden was the right choice. He and Harris are the worst duo the Democrats could have assembled. It is time to correct the 2020 mistake. Donald Trump will help us get control of the government and a renewed future for the country.

 

 

Ray Writes for GraniteGrok.com and the Liberty Loft

The post I Am a Proud Member of the MAGA Crowd appeared first on Granite Grok.

An interesting thing happened in Croydon on Saturday. At a special school district meeting, 377 people decided that the voters who attended the annual meeting in March hadn’t offered enough charity ($800,000) to parents of school-aged children, so they gathered to extort more (an extra $900,000) through the threat of force (give us the money, or we’ll take your house).

One parent, who had already been offered $27,000 for tuition for his children at nearby public or private schools, insisted that he needed an additional $27,000. After the end of the meeting, he said that he had ‘never been prouder’ of his town.

He didn’t seem very concerned about the people from whom the money would be taken, or that over the course of their schooling, his children would cost the town more than $700,000.

Taking the money by force wasn’t unusual. It’s just the same kind of Marxism that happens in every district, every year.

As usual, the object lesson for the children of the district was that what you can’t do as an individual, with a gun, you can do as part of a gang, with a ballot. The first is robbery, which is bad. The second is democracy, which is good.

How are you supposed to raise moral children in a society that operates this way?

Anyway, what made Saturday unusual is the vote, which was 377 to 2, because the 40% of registered voters who believed that their money was their money boycotted the special meeting.

Normally, when people vote at a meeting like this, you can’t really tell who voted for what.  That’s the nature, and the purpose, of a secret ballot. With a result like 20 to 14, or 183 to 105, anyone can claim to have voted either way.

But when only one side shows up, there are no secrets. And that’s the value of a boycott.

That is, the supervisors of the checklist in Croydon now have a list of people who are on record as claiming that the homes of their fellow residents can be used — under threat of confiscation — as ATMs to pay for things that they think are more important than whatever the owners of those homes would choose to do with the money.

Buying food, for example. Or medicine, or heating oil, or home repairs.

A couple of weeks before the meeting, one of the 377 was asked: Shouldn’t we try to at least consider that there are people who are elderly, or on fixed incomes, or just poor, who maybe can’t afford to have their taxes keep going up?  The answer was, and I quote:  No, that’s just too bad for them.

This is one of the people that the parent I mentioned earlier is so proud of.

Anyway, that checklist is the closest thing you can get to a signed ransom note.

And it’s public information.  So the question now is:  What should be done with it?

 

 

The post Your House is My ATM appeared first on Granite Grok.

Power Line:  Protest Everything Edition

 

See the rest here.