Tuesday • April 23 • 2024
Vol.XVI • No.XVII
Manchester, N.H.
If it is noble to die for your cause, what do we say about this? Minnesotan Cindy Flash, a long-time resident of Kfar Aza (living in a home abutting the Gaza security fence) was murdered by Islamic militants. Hamas killed her and her husband.
What makes Cindy’s story particularly poignant is the irony that she, an advocate for Palestinian rights, became a victim of the very group she sought to help.
Cindy was known for her advocacy for Palestinian rights. She would often protest against Israeli military operations in Gaza, standing up for the dignity and humanity of Palestinians, according to CNN.
After skimming a few of these stories, I could not find where Cindy was protesting for Hamas, but Hamas runs Gaza. Hamas is the reason Israel gives for military action in Gaza that Cindy opposed. Is it possible for her to have advocated for one and not the other?
She clearly had a blind spot. She chose to live next to the security fence in a region with a long, bloody history of conflict.
Whatever you think of Israel, Hamas has sworn to destroy it and everyone in it. They are not shy about this. It is why they exist. It is how they get weapons and funding. Their goal is to kill the Jews. Exterminate them.
Whatever your opinion about the arbitrary nature of Palestine or people claiming to be indigenous to the area, the people in Gaza either elected or allowed Hamas to take control, which begs the question: why wasn’t Cindy protesting that? Hamas is sworn to holy was by all means. Peace isn’t even an option for them – unless it delays reprisals and gives them time to prepare for their next sortie.
If military action by Israel, justified or not, was something she was committed to protesting, where was she when Hamas retaliated, which it has done often?
Perhaps she did, but the stories that include her activism fail to mention it, and that may be editorial bias. The Press is overwhelmingly on board with the approved narratives about Palestinians and Israel. If she is killed as retaliation for taking Israel’s side in some instance or other, she’s a martyr for the wrong side instead of a casualty of her own pursuit for peace in a place and with people (Hamas) who have no interest in it.
Cindy Flash is dead, as is Igal Flash, her Israeli husband, and while Hamas killed her, the Palestinians in Gaza enabled the violence that was her undoing.
HT | Truth Press – USA Today, …
The post American Pro-“Palestinian” Protester Murdered by Hamas appeared first on Granite Grok.
When I was growing up and attending Catholic schools, I was taught that the pope is infallible.
But then I read Pope Francis’ updated encyclical letter last week, and now I can only conclude that at least this pope is fallible. In fact, the declaration is so filled with anti-Christian fallacies that one has to wonder whether we have a pope that is actually Catholic.
Pope Francis was full of doom and gloom as he warned that the Earth is “collapsing and may be nearing the breaking point” because of climate change. He takes a metaphorical ruler and whacks the knuckles of climate “skeptics” who are preventing the draconian/statist actions that are apparently necessary to cool the planet off. What comes next for the “deniers”? A knock on the door from the Spanish Inquisition.
The pope has given a new voice to the “blame America first” globalists and denounces Americans’ “irresponsible lifestyles” for the ruination of the planet. (RELATED: ALAN DERSHOWITZ: Publish The Names Of Campus Cowards Who Support Hamas Atrocities)
What about China? Amazingly, the pope pointedly gives the world’s greatest polluter a free pass. He declares that “emissions per individual in the United States are about two times greater than those of individuals living in China, and about seven times greater than the average of the poorest countries.” This is naked appeasement to a country with some of the worst human rights violations on the planet. President Xi Jinping is loving life right now.
It’s also intentionally lying with twisted statistics. Yes, the U.S. has more emissions and uses more energy than many other nations, but that is because we produce far more output per capita than all other nations except China. It’s the reason the United States is the breadbasket of the world. Africa doesn’t use much energy. And that’s why it is a desperately poor continent. The solution isn’t for the U.S. to consume less energy, but for poor nations to have access to much more energy.
As Catholics, we are taught to help the least among us to help end poverty, hunger and deprivation, but the primary victims of the environmentalists’ crusade against fossil fuels will be those in the poorest nations of Africa and Asia — deprived of cheap and reliable power from coal and natural gas.
China, meanwhile, emits two times more greenhouse gases into the Earth’s atmosphere than America — but we are the problem, not them.
Worst of all, we now have a Vatican that has aligned itself with the radical “limits to growth” theology of leftist environmentalists. The radical greens view human beings as the problem, not the solution, which is contrary to Catholic dogma that there is dignity in every human life.
Has the Vatican forgotten that the more radical voices of climate change hysteria have come right out of the sinister population control movement of the 1960s and 1970s, when we were told that the world was running out of everything and that the only solution was fewer people? This movement led to some of the most barbaric government actions of modern times: forced abortions, mandatory sterilizations of women, and brutal one-child policies.
The theology in the Pope Francis letter called “Laudate Deum,” which means “Praise God,” is a direct contradiction of the teachings of our greatest pope in modern times, John Paul II, who magnificently declared that economic freedom and human ingenuity have always been the solutions to our planetary problems and the sometimes winds of change that Mother Nature throws at us. People, he reminded all Catholics, are the greatest resource.
Another way of saying this is that the Western world’s economic affluence and our advanced “lifestyles” haven’t held back the poor countries or jeopardized civilization. We have made life on Earth profoundly better for everyone. The pope’s call for energy poverty is a call for everyone to get poorer. That hardly seems to be a very Christian solution. (RELATED: STEPHEN MOORE: Washington’s Nanny-State Credit Card Rules Will Only Hurt Consumers)
If climate change really is the existential threat that the pope sermonizes that it is, we will confront this challenge the way humans have combated every problem since the days when human life on Earth was nasty, brutish and short: We will harness human know-how and new-age technologies that will tame Mother Nature’s savage outbursts.
Thanks to the freedom agenda and scientific advances, deaths from natural disasters have fallen by 90% over the past 100 years. Has anyone in the Vatican told the pope that?
Stephen Moore is a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation and a co-founder of the Committee to Unleash Prosperity. He has also served as a senior economic advisor to Donald Trump.
Stephen Moore | Daily Caller News Service
COPYRIGHT 2023 CREATORS.COM
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The post Pope Francis Joins The Climate Cult appeared first on Granite Grok.
We want to congratulate ‘Grok author Laurie Ortolano. The Nackey Loeb School has chosen to honor her with its First Amendment Award on October 26th at the NH Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College.
Laurie has been writing for us for several years, documenting her travails with the City of Nashua and its obsession with claiming to be above the law.
A Gate City resident who has been fighting city hall for public records for nearly a decade will be celebrated later this month in Manchester.
Laurie Ortolano of Nashua will receive the Nackey S. Loeb School’s 2023 First Amendment Award at an event on Oct. 26 at the NH Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College in Manchester. The guest speaker is Maggie Haberman, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist from the New York Times and CNN.
And I can assure you that the Mayor (Donchess), his legal Igor (Bolton), and the rest down there at City Hall are steaming, stewing, and pissed off that she’s earned this recognition. But they should have seen it coming. Another sometime contributor who also got a lot of coverage on GraniteGrok, Donna Greene, also won the award after years of struggling to get the Timberlane School District to follow the same law.
More from Tony Schinella at Patch.
Ortolano was awarded this year due to her unwavering commitment to open government since her first encounter with right-to-know requests as a member of the Litchfield School Board more than two decades ago. The org said her move to Nashua in 2014 began a different journey.
“City officials in Nashua have met Ortolano’s numerous right-to-know requests for tax assessment, finance, and development information with denials, court battles, and even an arrest for criminal trespassing when she visited city hall during the pandemic without an appointment (the arrest was later annulled),” the org said. “Undeterred by these challenges, she has consistently taken her fight to court, accumulating legal fees and costs totaling $270,000.”
And after all of this, I bet you the current Democrat rouges gallery at Nashua City Hall hasn’t learned a damn thing. Despite the mandatory 91a training and all the trouble they themselves caused, they are likely spending more time and energy looking for a new way to keep public documents away from the public.
There is a cure: a New Mayor, new leadership, and new management in the Cty of Nashua.
And look at that: you’ve got an election coming up in a few weeks.
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“Safe and Effective” already needed a public relations makeover. Hackneyed and threadbare, the mantra rang from every street corner for months on end as COVID town criers peddled what amounted to a bottle of piss. Almost no one wants them now, but could the pro-jab news get any worse?
Yes. Yes, it could!
New data covering June 1, 2022, to May 31, 2023, from the UK Office of National Statistics shows 95% of all covid deaths in that time were among the vaccinated.
The unvaccinated population barely broke into four figures throughout the entire year, hitting a total of 1,161 Covid-19 deaths, whereas the vaccinated population hit five figures with 20,336 Covid-19 deaths, 19,143 of which were among the triple and quadruple vaccinated.
This means, as is shown in the following chart, that the vaccinated population in England accounted for 95% of COVID-19 deaths between 1st June 2022 and 31st May 2023. Whereas the unvaccinated population accounted for just 5%.
Being unvaccinated provided the best odds of surviving infection or reinfection, which is terrible news for the COVIDiots and the jabornaughts. But their natural reaction, when confronted with contrary science, is to ignore it. Pretend it never existed. Like homelessness or foreign-war body counts under Democrat Presidents. It’s not something you need to know. You could even go so far as to call it fake news, disinformation, misinformation, or a vast right-wing conspiracy.
Sadly, the UK Office of National Statistics is, like any bureaucracy, about as far from right-wing as one can get without calling everyone comrade. But unlike many of its comparable, like-minded pencil-pushing American counterparts, it does what is asked. The UK may be a multi-cultural wasteland teetering on an inescapable cultural revolution, but when it comes to public health data, they put it out there, even if quietly.
Blame the media, who would be singing from every hilltop if the results showed 95% of COVID deaths were unvaccinated. It’s the opposite, so the truth is suddenly something that can wait … indefinitely, certainly on this side of the pond, with good reason. The bad news gets worse. Ninety-four percent of that ninety-five percent were recipients of three or four shots. If you got scared into getting the COVID one-two punch and one or more boosters, catching covid wasn’t a death sentence, but statistically, the odds were not in your favor.
No shots at all were best, followed by fewer (one or two), assuming you suffered no vaccine side-effects like heart injuries, blood clotting, other organ failure, or death (here’s a longer list). Oh, and let’s not forget how the “vaccine” could help COVID kill you. And they knew that before it hit the streets.
After launch, CDC scientists were too busy cashing checks from Pfizer to clinically review the AE’s of special interest. Instead, they sidled up with Pfizer and advertised the crap out of how safe and effective they were. Whether there was political pressure and from how high up may never be litigated, but having lived through it, there was a lot of pressure to take the money they were tossing around if you just smiled, rolled up a sleeve, and said, “Safe and effective.”
We’ve known the truth for a long time, but I’d like to thank the UK for sharing this current events update, not just because it will aggravate COVID-19 bots. As we have pointed out often, aside from the systemic failure to achieve fully informed consent – because they lied – there is also the ongoing matter of meaning. What did the CDC, FDA, Pfizer, and everyone else who approved the tagline mean by safe or effective?
Is it safe to say that these will effectively kill many people? That it doesn’t protect you from COVID; it increases the odds of hospitalization or death. That the passports were red flags identifying people more likely to get infected and spread COVID or drop dead at dinner or during a live event?
Yes. Yes. And Yes. And while we’re at it, Operation Warp Speed meant how quickly they could launder vast sums of fiat money into the medical fraud mill at the expense of millions of lives, using a vehicle that did more harm than good.
HT | Dr. Paul Alexander
The post UK Office of Statistics: From 2022 to 2023 The Vaccinated Accounted for 95% of All COVID Deaths appeared first on Granite Grok.
Why, oh why, is the media still suffering us to watch the likes of Asa Hutchinson in New Hampshire when we face our own local elections in mere weeks?
While it’s true that NH possesses the hard-fought power to elevate previously unknown presidential candidates to national importance, the regional media is focusing their attention on obvious losers like Asa Hutchinson and Doug Burgum at the expense of local election coverage. As Foster’s Daily Democrat—Dover’s hometown paper, now a servile subsidiary of USA Today—hosts dismally empty town hall events featuring these two goons, the local candidates for the November election are wholly absent from coverage.
For the first time in years, Dover has brought forward conservative candidates for a City Council, which has hitherto remained the uncontested territory of liberal Democrats (as the tax bill well proves). Like other seacoast cities, Dover has experienced a rapid explosion in urban crime, prompting the outcry of many residents who are increasingly eager to vote against the trend.
What do we hear from the media in these communities facing the steady erosion of their way of life at the hands of drugs and homelessness? A meaningless mélange of GOP primary pleas and the rhetoric of USA Today’s corporate editorial policy.
By reading the coverage in USA Today/Foster’s, one might even be so fooled as to believe that gun violence is the cardinal problem of our New Hampshire cities. If the candidates they platform are to be believed, the war in Ukraine is the second greatest.
While there is clearly a measurable interest in breaking local news, the USA Today papers run stories on condo developments, public sculptures, racism, and Asa Hutchinson. Despite the nearly nonexistent rate of gun crime on the seacoast, Foster’s has nonetheless published no fewer than eighteen stories on the subject since the beginning of April (many within the space of a month), while the word “fentanyl” never appeared in a single headline over the same period. The word “overdose” did occur once, but only in connection to a laudatory story about a van that provides free needle exchange.
In many cases, this dullness results from local reporters deriving their content from press releases rather than actual investigation. But the problem is more inveterate than mere negligence or mercenary drive can so easily excuse.
Indeed, it seems that Foster’s editorial policy proceeds along two tracks: pro-development stories which generate advertising revenue and overt political hackery. The surplus firearm opinions and desolate Hutchinson town halls are intermixed with a heady brew of stories on infrastructure investment and the welcoming progressive ideals of the seacoast, evincing their constant attention to attracting sponsors with upbeat pseudo-newsworthy pablum.
But their pieces on the many virtues of the Dover Children’s Museum neglect the ubiquity of human excreta and castaway heroin needles in the park immediately adjacent to it.
As we are living in the ‘20s and thus brazen to blatant media collusion, it’s no surprise that progressive city governments and local news are naturally acting in ideological concert. That the Dover City Council happens to have instituted a ‘stolen land pledge’ for their meetings at the same time as their adoption of $20+ million waterfront development budget is a mirror image of the press’ bizarre mix of shameless greed and performative progressivism. The USA Today papers seem to be engaging with the leftist government in an act of mutual self-anointing to the detriment of both effective law enforcement and public information.
New Hampshire communities will have the opportunity to throttle back the actual criminal justice, tax, and zoning policies that are harming them in November, but on this, the papers remain mum.
If you wish to see another reason why mainstream media may be turning a blind eye to local politics, look no further than the Northwood special election, where out-of-state Democrat organizations spent over $5,000 to flip the district’s State House seat. Conservative control of the lower house now hangs dangerously in the balance.
It’s clear that the media policy is to dismiss local elections, ignore invidious outside influences, conceal crime, and distract from any pesky national candidates (like Trump and even Kennedy) who threaten the delicate status quo.
While one can’t blame them for preserving their domain of comfort, one can surely detest them for it.
Wary voters ought to continue voicing their protest against this trend by ignoring artful distractions, attending important local events, and rejecting media outlets that seek to sow unending complacency.
The post Presidential Zeros Over Local Heroes: New Hampshire Media’s Priorities Askew appeared first on Granite Grok.
As promised in Monday Memes, I have an overflow. My meme cup runneth over. And yes there will be a Friday edition too.
Also please do check out my memes / links / commentary on the situation in Israel. A lot of info, but I’m confident a lot most will not know.
Let the mayhem, mockery, and ridicule resume:
*** Warning, a few possibly off-color ones, in case tender eyes are about ***
>>>>>=====<<<<<
I personally would have gone for leech or tapeworm…
I’ve been used car shopping as we need a replacement. Holy… I saw one used minivan on the lot for over $40K. Used. How the heck much was it new????
>>>>>=====<<<<<
Pick of the Post:
A tie IMHO:
IMHO the sooner this POS takes a dirt nap, the better.
>>>>>=====<<<<<
Palate cleansers:
—
—
>>>>>=====<<<<<
Come back on Friday for more memes. Same meme time. Same meme channel.
The post Meme Overflow appeared first on Granite Grok.
The Israel-Hamas war wagon is quite popular on our pages, so my apologies – I have another related article later today, but both were too good to pass up. As you’ve likely heard, a hospital in Gaza was bombed. Hamas blamed the IDF. The IDF says it was Hamas, and which is it?
You get to decide, and we won’t even approach the well-known fact that Hamas launches rockets from hospitals, schools, and mosques becasue they know Israel is less likely to strike them from the sky.
So, here we go.
Lots of talk in recent hours of a failed rocket launch striking the grounds of a hospital in Gaza. I think it’s timely to remind viewers that rockets produced by terrorists aren’t always effective. pic.twitter.com/7UxVZMqlDI
— Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) October 17, 2023
The timing is also suspicious. The rocket attack on the hospital occurred right after Hamas announced that it was launching rocket attacks on Israel.
The blast occurred just minutes after a large barrage of Hamas rockets were fired toward Tel Aviv, and Hamas reportedly announced that they were in the process of launching their “most robust weapons” at Haifa just before the hospital explosion — but no such weapon reached Haifa.
Townhall.com has several tweets with video claiming proof it was a Hamas misfire, but this one from Al Jazeera is alleged to have accidentally recorded the misfire, impact, and a secondary explosion.
An Al Jazeera broadcast documented the moment that the Islamic Jihad launched a rocket which misfired and hit a hospital in Gaza, killing hundreds. pic.twitter.com/O5Lx1BtOtJ
— Israel Foreign Ministry (@IsraelMFA) October 17, 2023
Oops.
Hardcore partisans on either side will likely not be dissuaded from their approved positions, leaving us to interpret what we see (was that really the hospital, etc) and what we are being told.
Another day in paradise.
Have at it, then.
The post Did Hamas “Bomb” Gaza Hospital? appeared first on Granite Grok.
Former MLB pitcher Trevor Bauer seems to be the victim of an old fashion succubus after text messages appear to show he never raped accuser Lindsey Hill.
Their sexual relationship appeared to be not only consensual but likely predatory on the part of Hill.
In a video posted to Twitter, Bauer claims Hill sent messages to her friends devising a plan to take advantage of the former L.A. Dodger. He had no idea what was coming for him when he invited her to come over, but he should have. A woman who understands her worth doesn’t accept invitations for meaningless sex.
2 years later and I can finally talk about this pic.twitter.com/o6jFqMzY05
— Trevor Bauer (トレバー・バウアー) (@BauerOutage) October 2, 2023
Bauer lived up to every stereotype for professional athletes. He made himself an easy mark by allowing his selfish desires to cloud his better judgment. It’s like if a woman decided to travel to a country known for imprisoning women only to be shocked she’s sitting in a foreign jail. Of course, men will be victims of manipulative women if they don’t see the value in sex other than to serve their impulses.
Living in the aftermath of the “MeToo” movement is surreal. Men can’t come back from the stain of rape allegations. They are forced to wear scarlet letters until they can sway public opinion. Our society doesn’t abide by the “innocent until proven guilty” rule for men anymore. They are guilty, without mercy or consideration. If they can gain definitive proof of their innocence, as Bauer seems to have done, they are timidly allowed back into polite society.
Men shouldn’t be in fear of losing their lives to false allegations. Still, it is reckless to live like consequence-free sex is a real thing. Evil women are going to use your weakness for cheap sex against you. Complain about it, think it’s morally reprehensible but do not for a second become complacent.
“You can’t treat bodies as sex toys and then complain when you wake up in bed with an abusive pimp or a crazy whore,” Daily Wire host Andrew Klavan wrote on Twitter. “Pimps and whores are vicious people – what did you expect?”
https://t.co/5qlxpOIJ9L pic.twitter.com/Yv8MmccMAv
— Trevor Bauer (トレバー・バウアー) (@BauerOutage) October 4, 2023
To put it plainly — men, avoid women who believe their sexuality is all they have to offer this world. They’ll lie, cheat, and steal to fill the emptiness they feel selling themselves for clout. It’s easy for them to pretend it is empowering to use men — acting like it’s their chance as an independent woman to enact revenge against the predatory men in their past. (ROOKE: Women Aren’t That Complex)
The pain of being their own pimp affects their ability to see human dignity in others. They walk around broken. It’s obvious they aren’t loyal women looking to build a legacy. What is the point of risking your future on anything less?
I confronted Trevor Bauer’s (@BauerOutage) accuser, Lindsey Hill, one-on-one today about the inconsistencies in her story.
Do you believe her? pic.twitter.com/MvDlGeV3Rx
— Sara Gonzales (@SaraGonzalesTX) October 4, 2023
It cost him millions of dollars in lost contracts and legal fees to prove his innocence. Bauer was forced to leave a top career in the MLB to play in Japan. His life was effectively ruined over what appear to be false allegations. Still, all of it could have been avoided if Bauer had been looking for a wife instead of a one-night stand.
A good wife will be loyal and loving. She will comfort and take care of her husband even if the world abandons him. It will always be fun hanging out with the party girl, but kingdoms are not built on infertile ground. Bauer’s ordeal should be a cautionary tale to all men — if you are going to waste your passion on immoral women, don’t be shocked when evil things happen to you.
Mary Rooke is a reporter at the Daily Caller.
Mary Rooke | Daily Caller News Service
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller. All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline, and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.The post Dear Men, Sluts Lead To Ruin appeared first on Granite Grok.
How about a Silicon Valley Big Tech guy opening up about how “Democrats” must stop shooting the messenger and listen to the message? He’s referring to Donald Trump, but it is a general call for sanity. From the border to the economy to Israel and Peace in the Middle East.
It is an admission and lesson, not just for folks with Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS). Judge the message, not the messenger. Feel free to look for loopholes, provisions, and traps. These are politicians. But you also have to ask who best can deliver the message in a way that translates to action, and it is fair to say that TDS may have created an environment where Trump can’t be that guy.
You’ll have a hard time convincing his supporters or – if polls are any indication – Republican primary voters who should, in my opinion, give the rest of the field a fair shake with three months before the voting starts. I made the case countless times at the NHGOP FITN summit. While the 20-50-point lead is stunning, would we be better served if things were closer? If Donald Trump had to get on the debate stage and wrestle in the mud with the other piglets.
Even a few Trump supporters agreed.
Good debate leads to better policy, and sometimes, the other side has a good idea or the inkling of one, assuming it’s not another blatant attempt to hide another assault on your liberty.
Not that what passes for a modern presidential debate will accomplish any of that. You’d need neutral non-media moderators, smaller groups, and a process that didn’t reduce every opportunity to speak into a 30-second commercial for candidate x.
And as it turns out, Trump had some good ideas, and now we can see just how good they were. It’s so good that this increasingly less Democrat guy is concerned enough to say it publicly.
Here’s the conversation.
View on Rumble
The post Democrat Billionaire: Is Trump Derangement Syndrome Doing More Damage Than Anything Trump Could Have Done? appeared first on Granite Grok.
At the time of the mayoral primary, I was approached by an older gentleman outside Charlotte School while I was holding a Mike Soucy sign. He approached to encourage me to stand near “the runway” because he wanted maximum visibility for the sign.
I acknowledged the merits of what he said and cited my reasons for the location I chose. To shore up that anti-Donchess connection, I offered to give him the sign I was holding on a wood post while I fetched an ordinary yard sign for myself from my car. He declined my offer, saying he had to be somewhere, but I took advantage of an opportunity to introduce myself as Alderman Dowd’s opponent. Suddenly, he had an extra 59 seconds to spare!
He said he was from the Kessler Farm condos, which is a huge community, and Dowd was kicked off the condo association. According to this resident, he was playing hooky way too much, perhaps like the likenesses of former Reps Cote and Gidge. I made a mental note of that to save for a rainy day.
I later received a hot tip that there are squadrons of resentful residents in Kessler Farm and that Dowd is NOT a popular guy there. I’ve been doing lit drops for myself, Mike Soucy, Alderman Comeau, and private citizen Sean Rogers, all rolled into one packet at targeted addresses throughout Ward 2. I won’t bore readers with all the details involved in how much time, attention, and resources are divided up, but a vote is a vote. What I learned from this hot tip was that I should be focusing on the condos as they are a gold mine of Dowd critics.
Kessler Farm, being the big community that it is, has hundreds, if not thousands, of voters. I ran out of literature and had to resupply. It took three separate trips to cover the territory. I first started with the northwesternmost part of the area, as that’s where Dowd lives. My plan was to lit-drop but knock if it was obvious that someone was home. An example of evidence of that would be an open front door with a closed screen door. A barking dog is sure to get its owner’s attention, sometimes making the doorbell unnecessary. One such situation opened the door for some very helpful discussion.
Related: Alderman Dowd Is Out of Touch With His Constituents and the City of Nashua
“Good afternoon,” I said in the light rain as a little dog barked at me through a screen door. I greeted the resident, introducing myself as Alderman Dowd’s opponent and handing her a packet. She was quite happy to talk. For her privacy, her identity or address will not be shared, but she was most helpful in telling an oral history of the Kessler “Enron scandal.”
What I heard was that Dowd was the president of the board of directors, the very elected body charged with oversight of the management company and its affairs, as any intelligent person would suppose. When you’re the captain of the ship, YOU are ultimately responsible for what happens. Remember what I said about him playing hookey? This management company was hemorrhaging money, the lost money being the association’s treasury funded by unit owners’ monthly maintenance fees. Think of it like the city losing(spending money) on a new school and arts center and YOUR resulting property tax bill.
Exterior maintenance was being neglected, and it turns out that the contractor for such handyman services was allegedly the spouse or in-law of the property manager! No conflict of interest there, mind you. This resident cited several examples of unit owners taking little exterior odd job matters into their own hands(at their own expense) out of frustration with their maintenance requests being delayed or ignored. There were even some large projects with lousy workmanship that later needed expensive corrective action. This makes one want to ponder.
Dowd’s homepage comment about being penny-wise and pound-foolish.
What I noted above was what I heard on day one of three days of canvassing. Day two was rather uneventful, and I ran out of literature. Once resupplied, I set out on day three to complete the project, saving one particular subset of the Kessler Farm community for last. I saved it for last because a certain sibling and fiscal agent of a certain former elected official that I never voted for lives there. Let’s just say it’s a relative of someone who doesn’t like me broadcasting her voting record if you know what I mean. (wink, wink, nod, nod) Anyway, while completing that part of the area, I ran into another resident who happened to be outside. Having seen her earlier from down the road, I thought I recognized the unit number(which I will not share) where she resided.
I greeted her with a “Hi, are you from unit #__?” When she answered in the affirmative, I smiled and introduced myself as Alderman Dowd’s opponent and handed her a packet, which had my business card paper clipped on top. I haven’t felt so much love in a really long time, but this resident was amazingly glad to meet me! Time stood still as I didn’t have to be in any hurry. We must have talked for a good 20 minutes or so. I listened to all kinds of dirt on Dowd’s condo association presidency and learned that there’s still pending litigation against the management company. This resident went door to door with a petition to remove the at-the-time board of directors and collected signatures from almost all of the community. Again, canvassing this large territory is a big task, especially when it involves required in-person contact. And I found it extremely amusing that this “certain relative/fiscal agent of a certain former elected official” did indeed sign the petition to remove Dowd! How sweet was that to hear!
Alderman Dowd is not only bad for Ward 2, but he has absolutely no business being on any sort of committee that handles money, let alone serving in leadership! Think of him as a “fiscal cancer” in city hall. Once he’s gone, he will have more time to play golf with that “certain neighbor,” and Nashua can begin picking up the pieces from the flotsam he helped create. If you or someone you know has ties to Kessler Farm, please boost and share this message. Saving Nashua is an all-hands-on-deck effort.
The post The “Scandal” That Alderman Dowd Doesn’t Want You To Know About appeared first on Granite Grok.
Gordon G. Chang is the pre-eminent authority on the Communist China Party (CCP) in the world. Mr. Chang opines that the CCP is at WAR with the USA, currently economically but preparing for a tactical war. Let’s see why he thinks this:
We want to thank Charles Bradley 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.
Gordon G. Chang concludes Americans should know that the CCP is executing a plan to exterminate America.
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Former Representative Dave Sharpe (D-Bristol) recently penned a truly execrable op-ed blaming private schools, lack of funding for public schools, and 60s era “white-flight” for the persistent and growing performance gap between higher income students and those living in poverty. He opened his piece exclaiming, “It’s no surprise….”
Well, it’s no surprise to anyone who witnessed Sharpe’s four years as chair of the House Education Committee, 2015-2018!
Sharpe’s biggest “accomplishment” in the role was to shepherd through Act 46, the disastrous school consolidation bill that has since done nothing its supporters said it would (lower education costs, increase student opportunities, and boost outcomes), and many things its supporters promised it wouldn’t, such as force the closings of many small schools.
The law was/is so bad that Sharpe himself tried to cover his own butt with an op-ed in January 2020 claiming that he and his fellow lawmakers were “hoodwinked into permitting a power grab” by the Principal’s Association, School Boards Association, Superintendents Association, and other public school special interests.
As one who was in the room for a lot of that debate, I can tell you that Sharpe wasn’t hoodwinked, he was aiding and abetting the power grab by hoodwinking the public every step of the way. And he’s at it again aiding and abetting the same special interest group’s current attempt at a power grab with this latest piece of propaganda.
First Sharpe argues,
This trend [in outcome disparities] started in the late ’60s when communities were required to integrate their public schools. Relatively quickly, white flight from public schools began in the racially divided southern states.
A couple points. First, this has nothing to do with Vermont which was in the ’60 even more homogeneously White than it is even today. So, White flight from public schools just wasn’t a thing here; there was no one to flee from. Second, the percentage of students attending private schools nationwide has been pretty steady at around ten percent since the 60s. (Statistica) So, no, parents fleeing public schools to private schools was not a trend. He goes on…
As more and more white parents found ways to circumvent the rules by placing their students in private schools, there was less and less interest in properly funding public schools. The underfunded public schools found it more and more difficult to provide quality education to their students.
This is just absurd. Fist, how is placing your child in a private school “circumventing the rules”? As noted above, roughly 10 percent of total parents put their kids in private schools, but 22% of public school teachers make that choice for their own kids. That should tell you something!
But as to Sharpe’s funding assertion, according to National Center for Educational Statistics, average per pupil spending has increased in constant 2018-19 dollars every year from 1960 ($4060) to 2009-10 ($15,232). After that, spending leveled off, bumping up and down to $15,424 by 2016-17, the final year they provide data. But Vermont defied this leveling off trend and shot to where we are today as the state with the second highest per-pupil spending in the country at $23,423. So, no, despite Sharpe’s crocodile tears, spending isn’t the problem underlying the increasing failure of Vermont’s public schools to provide quality education to our kids.
Then Sharpe attempts to blame Vermont’s oldest in the nation school choice system and the independent schools that actually are doing a good job of educating Vermont’s students.
This inequality existed in Vermont as well, particularly in the roughly 90 school districts that provided vouchers for their secondary students…. Parents want the best for their children and many have used the private school subsidies when they can afford it. The once racially motivated separation of white children and black children has developed in Vermont as a separation between children who live in families of means and those living in poverty.
In a polite word, baloney.
All parents in Vermont’s 90 tuitioning towns, from the richest to the poorest, use their tuitioning voucher to send their kids to school that best suits their needs. It’s not just the rich kids in tuitioning towns who get to attend top performing schools like St. Johnsbury Academy or Burr & Burton – all of them do. Fully at taxpayer expense, and at a cost significantly lower than we spend on the average public school student. And if those schools aren’t the best fit for their kid, parents can choose from a menu of other independent and public schools to choose from – again entirely at (almost always lower) taxpayer expense. To imply that a family can only utilize this benefit if they can afford it is a flat out lie. It is arguably the most equitable education system in the nation. Every family should have access to it.
Sharpe trots out…
In addition, the rules under which schools provide education for Vermont children are different for public and private schools. One example is, private schools only need to admit students that they deem “fit” into their culture. If a child is more costly to educate, or perhaps is disruptive in the school, that child may be sent back to the local town for the educational services they need.
First of all, every Vermont school, public or independent, that accepts taxpayer dollars is subject to state and federal anti-discrimination laws. So, no school in our tuitioning system is turning kids away for race, sexual orientation, religion, disability, etc. It is true that unlike public schools, independent schools are “mission driven,” meaning they adhere to a certain educational philosophy. And, no, not every family or kid is the right fit for, say, a Waldorf or Montessori approach to learning. It is a good thing that kids who don’t learn well in a specific educational environment aren’t forced to attend there and are free – and encouraged and enabled — to find a school that better fits their needs. It is truly sociopathic to insist that a school retain a child for whom they know they aren’t structured to provide a constructive learning experience.
In fact, the real problem with our public school system is that it forces kids who do not learn well in the environment they are mandated by zip code to attend every day regardless of their inability to learn in that environment – or be mentally healthy — to stay there year after year and fail.
In severe cases where, as Sharpe notes, students are “disruptive” these students inhibit the ability of other children in the classroom to learn. This isn’t a glitch, it is a design feature of a dysfunctional system that is unfair to everyone in the building – the kids who aren’t getting the kind of services they need, the kids who can’t learn (and in some cases experiencing trauma) because of the disruption, and the teachers who aren’t trained or capable of properly dealing with such a wide spectrum of needs in their classrooms. This is our public school model, and it’s a recipe for large-scale failure. So, it’s failing.
Sharpe lies again when he says,
A recent decision by the U.S. Supreme Court requires states that pay tax dollars to private schools for educating the children in their state, must also remit those tax dollars to religious schools. This decision exacerbates the lack of tax dollars to fund public schools and contributes to the crippling of our public school students.
No. Students who go to now available religious schools with tuitioning vouchers by definition already live in tuitioning towns and have the option of attending non-religious independent schools anyway. Their voucher amount doesn’t change. It doesn’t impact public school funding at all. In fact, there are only 53 Vermont students out of 80,000 in K-12 who currently use tuitioning to attend religious schools. This is not an issue.
Sharpe lastly takes aim at Vermont’s efforts to expand publicly funded Pre-K as a “system that favors families of means.” And here he has a point. Vermont’s government-run Pre-K efforts have been a disaster in terms of equity, cost to taxpayers, and negative impacts on kids, both emotionally and educationally. But the solution Sharpe is lobbying for is a public school takeover of the birth to five childcare – a power grab (and a massive money grab) by all those same special interests that got Sharpe to giftwrap them Act 46. This will be a horrible outcome for kids and taxpayers. Don’t be hoodwinked again.
Rob Roper is a freelance writer with 20 years of experience in Vermont politics, including three years of service as chair of the Vermont Republican Party and nine years as President of the Ethan Allen Institute, Vermont’s free-market think tank. He is also a regular contributor to VermontGrok.
The post Former Rep Tries to Hoodwink Vermonters appeared first on Granite Grok.
I am aghast at the number and size of protests or demonstrations supporting Palestine and Hamas. There are so many layers to this conflict between Israel and Hamas terrorists, and nobody wants to see innocent residents of Israel or Gaza injured or killed as the collateral damage of a vicious war.
But one needs to look objectively at who and how this battle started and which side you should support. This battle is not between Israel and Palestine but between Israel and the radical group Hamas, which calls Gaza its home. You can stand with the Palestinian people, but if you also support Hamas, you are on the wrong side of this duel.
Bill Maher, who has always leaned Left, has become one of the more moderate voices and calls out the Left for their protests. He points out that the protestors are the minority but says forcefully that “their moral compass is broken.” He goes on to say this movement emanates from the country’s elite schools. They are the mouth of the river through which this vile speech flows.
These protestors march through the streets, waving the Palestine flag and screaming “Intifada,” which simply means shaking off or uprising. It sounds ominous but falls short, and I guarantee most yelling the word have no idea of its meaning. They are sheep happy to be part of a movement. Unfortunately, it is a movement that chooses to ignore the atrocities committed against the innocent people of Israel by the Hamas terrorists. Beheadings of children, rape of women, burning of the elderly, and the taking of hostages to use as human shields.
The protestors deny these things happened, claiming they are fabrications of a corrupt Israeli government. These are the same people who deny the holocaust. They are indoctrinated fools. Thousands of Israelis died or were traumatized for life, and these pampered, ignorant protestors called out Israel for shutting off water and electricity to Gaza until the hostages are released.
These protestors take to our streets to protest what they call are human rights violations committed by Israel, but they ignore the humanitarian disaster created at our Southern Border by the Biden Administration. Babies are dying, women are raped, children are taken for the sex trade and illegal labor market, and these people ignore it all. They only see what they are told to see. I’ll say it again. These people are sheep, easily led by people willing to feed them a fake narrative.
The media is just as guilty as these protestors. They refuse to call out Hamas as terrorists, instead glorifying them as militants. CNN and MSNBC are showing their true colors with their coverage of the conflict. Jonathan Greenblatt, the National Director and CEO of the Anti-Defamation League called out CNN for its reckless, biased coverage of the conflict and the damage they were doing to the news industry. He did this on the air while being interviewed live on CNN.
Biden gave time for a softball interview with 60 Minutes on CBS, where he goes for any favorable air time. He refused to claim Iran was behind the Hamas terror attack, which is nothing short of ignorant. Scott Pelley also asked the President about Israel occupying Gaza, to which the President said he thought it would be a mistake. Israel has gone on the record numerous times, and they have no intention of occupying Gaza.
Finally, the Right is not in favor of canceling anyone, but when a nightclub in New York City hosts a pro-Hamas Rave, they have gone past any First Amendment rights and deserve to be boycotted and forced out of business. Businesses and people alike need to think twice before they sign a petition or go on the record in support of Hamas or Hezbollah needs to think their actions through before they act.
The post Palestinian Protestors Need To Stop And Rethink Their Cause appeared first on Granite Grok.
An investigation by the State Attorney General has led to a settlement in lieu of criminal charges, against a former Notary Public for the town of
Londonderry. For well over a year now, the New Hampshire Attorney General’s office has been conducting an investigation into Notary practices within the Town of Londonderry. Specifically in question was the use of official work time and the following of proper procedure regarding the notarization of a “cease and desist” order by the parents of former Town Manager Kevin Smith. The cease and desist letter was addressed to Brian and Jessica Smith, residents of Mill Valley, CA, and was titled “Re: Defamation of Character – For Libel and/or Slander,” dated April 20, 2022.
The document cited several N.H. laws, as well as California Penal Code, threatening legal action against the recipient’s if they continued what the letter claimed were unlawful public statements. The letter purported to be on file with the Londonderry Police Department, as well as the Mill Valley, CA Police Department. However, a California public records request to the Mill Valley Police Department produced no such record.
The document, signed by Bruce and Denise Smith, was also sent to Kevin and Brian Smith’s cousin, Mary Friedel, a current resident of Massachusetts, who was an alleged victim of sexual assault by a Smith family member when she was a young girl.
The letter, delivered by local law enforcement in both states, was notarized by Kirby E. Brown, who recently left her position at the Town of Londonderry, just shy of her 10-year anniversary.
The “order” was spurred by comments made on social media by Friedel during the former Town Manager’s campaign in the N.H. primary for a U.S. Senate seat.
Upon receiving the letter, Brian Smith and Friedel contacted both the town of Londonderry and the N.H. Attorney General, alleging notarial misconduct due to the discovery that Bruce Smith did not sign the document in Brown’s presence, despite the Notary Seal by Brown attesting that he was present. The formal complaint was made on July 25, 2022.
Friedel also noted in her complaints to the town and state that she was contacted by Londonderry Police officer, Marvin Alfaro, on April 20, 2022, instructing her to stop communications with Bruce and Denise.
On Sept. 21, 2023, the Department of Justice (DOJ) released their findings on the allegations.
In a letter addressed to Kirby Brown, it read: “Ms. Brown: On July 25, 2022, this Office received a complaint alleging your potential notarial misconduct under New Hampshire law. Following an investigation, the Attorney General orders you to cease and desist from conducting any further action as a notary public and to resign your commission in the State of New Hampshire. This Office further fines you $250 pursuant to its statutory authority under RSA 455:16.”
The letter to Kirby goes on to describe the facts of the case, in that the State found that Bruce Smith was not present when Brown, as a Town Official, notarized the order. In a statement to investigators, Brown reportedly told Denise Smith, “I know Bruce, just have him sign when you see him.”
The DOJ determined that Brown’s actions violated RSA 456-B:2.II and also RSA 456-B:2-a (*IF a notarial act relates to … a signature executed on a record, the individual … executing the signature shall appear personally before the notarial officer.”).
This violated RSA 455:16, I(d) by making a notarial act in which she purported to witness a signature that she never actually witnessed. The Attorney General provided notice of its intent to seek a civil penalty, to negotiate, and to settle with such suspected violators without court action, provided any civil penalty paid as settlement shall be paid to the Secretary of State. A settlement offer of a civil penalty for Brown’s violation of this state’s notary laws in the amount of $250, resignation of her New Hampshire notary Commission, and ceasing any further notarial activity in New Hampshire was accepted in verbal conversation with the Attorney General’s office.
According to an Affidavit in Support of an Arrest Warrant, Town office staff conducted an internal investigation on the matter and concluded that what was done “wasn’t a notarial act” contrary to the outcome of the State investigation.
Town Manager Mike Maliguti was asked a number of questions related to the State’s findings. Maliguti responded, “Public servants are rightly subject to heightened scrutiny and accountability. That goes with the territory. It is unfortunate, however, that in the ongoing efforts of some people and publications to discredit the Town Council and administration, human decency towards an employee who gave her heart and soul to the Town of Londonderry is nowhere to be found. “In publishing a hit piece about the one-off mistake of a dedicated public servant who gave the residents of Londonderry a decade of her life, the Londonderry Times scrapes from the gutter. Because this publication certainly cannot be expected to do so, let me address this story’s collateral damage directly: Kirby, I am sorry for what you are going through. Nothing, including this episode, can tarnish your contributions to the Town of Londonderry.”
Malaguti declined to answer other questions regarding attorney costs related to the investigation, the close timing of Brown’s departure, and the procedure that led to the call to Mary Friedel by Londonderry Police.
Reaching out to Kirby Brown on the state’s findings, she said, “I was a respected notary for the Town of Londonderry for six years. On April 18, 2022, Denise Smith came into my office needing a notary. The facts are Denise was the only one present and the only one I notarized for. Had there been any additional signatures on the document, I would not have notarized the document in any way, as no other party was present when the document was presented to me. My practice is to stamp any and all signatures based on common notary practices.
I have never made any exceptions to the notary practices, regardless of the circumstances or my familiarity with the party present. There is only one stamp on the form, as I saw and notarized only one signature. As any notary knows, whatever happens with any form once it leaves your presence is out of your control.
Concerns regarding this document were raised to the Town Manager, and in a letter I received from Town Manager Malaguti, dated May 4, 2022, the Town Attorney at the time, after an internal investigation was done, concluded there was no wrongdoing.
I was completely unaware of any investigation related to this instance with the AG office up until two weeks ago when I received notification that I am to resign my notary privileges.
She added, “I am the victim of someone else’s dishonesty. I was simply doing my job that day.” When asked if she’ll be paying the fine set by the state, Brown said, “I’ll be paying the fine and resigning, even though I know I’m innocent because I don’t want the drama and stress in my life, and I just want to be done with this. As mentioned in my statement, I just found out from the AG’s office about this two weeks ago, and they didn’t give me much time to react. And I just want to move on with my life.”
Brown also stated, “I was never given the chance to tell my account of the event to the AG’s office as I was not made aware of any continued investigation by the AG until they had already concluded it.”
Friedel felt the initial letter delivered to her, Brian and Jessica, was a farce, and she was relieved to finally see some resolution to the yearlong ordeal, saying, “I am grateful to the AG for investigating the people who conspired to intimidate me. No victim of sexual assault should ever be re-victimized.”
Jessica and Brian Smith were also pleased to see the matter come to an end, saying, “We thank the AG for their thorough investigation into those who tried to intimidate our family. By bringing these dark actions to light, we hope the use of Londonderry resources to satisfy a personal agenda & silence victims is something that never happens again.”
Note: The Londonderry Times was contacted over a year ago by Smith family members urging us to look into this matter. After the state released their findings, we felt those findings should be shared with the residents.
Chris Paul | Londonderry Times
The post Ex-Town Notary Settles in Lieu of Criminal Charges appeared first on Granite Grok.
It’s been two weeks since our gripping first tick of ‘Autumn” report. And that was the only tick we’d picked off the dogo since spring and until…this weekend. The ticks are back, baby, and the season is on us. Full blown, practically overnight. And yes, this is weird, but it brought two songs to mind.
I listen to just about everything, by the way. I grew up with Top 40 and rock (post-roll). My dad listened to swing and Big Bands. And I grew into Jazz, blues, classical, and even some hip-hop and that crap music that’s all the rage with the younger folks (eh, sonny!).
Since the pandemic, I’ve been top-heavy into country music. I love the storytelling, which has dominated my listening for several years, but I still love the classics. I’ll tune in to pop, techno, dance, top 30, Jazz, Classical, Blues, rock (with or without the roll), grunge, rap, and thrash metal. I don’t love all of it; some of it is utter rubbish, but I have learned to find talent, inspiration, meaning, and value in every genre.
Ticks, however, are useless bloodsucking parasites. I know the wild turkeys eat them, but they’ll eat any bug, and having been bit by more ticks than I can count (the dog has preventatives, I do not), I grow weary of the critters – except for the blog material.
And here I am, trying to write engaging content about disease-carrying arachnids. How to begin. With a song in my heart and an official White Lab Research Report update. As noted above, it has been a tick-less Summer until and Fall last weekend. We’re picking two to three tiny buggers off the white labrador every time he’s outside, which is at least two to three times a day (minimum), so welcome to tick season. I’ve seen deer and dog ticks on every outing, so if you or your pet wanders in the woods or weeds, keep your eye on that – though your circumstances may vary. Just remember. Global Warming could mean fewer ticks during the summer. Write that down.
And about the music? Two songs. Both classics, in my mind, but we encourage you to have your own mind; it’ll serve you well in a wide range of circumstances.
Thin Lizzy’s The Boys Are Back in Town has nothing to do with bloodsucking arachnids. But the ticks are back in town, and it reminded me of the song. If that’s weird, great, and isn’t that why you’re here?
The second song to pop has the word click, which rhymes with tick, which equals bloodsucking parasites. There is also this pleasing image of Looney-Tunes-like tick-removal overkill along the lines of the Monty Python skit, where they hunt mosquitoes with a bazooka.
Click, Click, Boom. I swear it’s all connected.
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While the focus has been on the Middle East, America’s Communists have kept their focus on turning America into a one-party Police State. The latest? An Obama Judge has issued a gag order that prohibits Trump from talking about the corruption/weaponization of the Biden-Regime’s “Department of Justice” under the absurd pretext of assuring a fair trial.
This latest development is a far, far, far greater threat to Americans than Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, or Qatar.
So maybe take a short break from RAZE GAZA! ERASE IRAN FROM THE FACE OF THE EARTH! etc., etc., etc., and pay a little attention to what is going on in your own country.
You know … maybe … multitask?
And if you think that the criminalization of political opposition is going to stop with Trump, that he and his co-defendants are going to get a “fair trial,” that the media is going to be even-handed in its coverage, etc., etc., etc., you are delusional beyond hope.
Judge Tanya Chutkan, a radical activist judge who has made partisan statements against Donald Trump and his supporters in the past, didn’t just issue a narrow ‘gag order’ against him today.
The judge issued it against tens of millions of Trump supporters who are seeking justice… pic.twitter.com/ZmfF9XNfr4
— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) October 16, 2023
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In response to the audacious assault by Hamas, Israel acted swiftly to address the situation and protect its citizens. The immediate response included a series of airstrikes on the Gaza Strip to target Hamas militants and infrastructure while minimizing harm to Palestinian civilians. These airstrikes were a defensive measure to neutralize the threat posed by Hamas and underscored Israel’s commitment to protecting its citizens.
However, conducting military operations in densely populated areas posed a complex challenge – the risk of collateral damage was high. This presented a delicate balance for Israel, where the need for self-defense had to be reconciled with the obligation to minimize civilian harm.
Recognizing the situation’s urgency, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) established a situation room. This dedicated command center was crucial in facilitating communication, intelligence gathering, and decision-making. It demonstrated Israel’s commitment to securing the release of its citizens and ensuring their safety. The situation room reflected the importance of real-time information and communication in responding to crises, enabling Israel to assess the situation, formulate strategies, and negotiate if necessary.
The capture of Israeli civilians and soldiers, including festivalgoers, children, women, the elderly, and people with disabilities, raised grave concerns and heightened the urgency of securing their release. Hamas’s claim of capturing senior Israeli officers, including Maj Gen Nimrod Aloni, added complexity to the situation. The hostages’ safety and well-being were paramount, making their release a top priority for Israel. The nation grappled with the emotional toll and the challenging decisions it might face in negotiating for its freedom.
The scale and precision of the Hamas attack led to questions about a potential intelligence failure within Israel. The surprise assault caught the nation off-guard, revealing vulnerabilities in their intelligence and security apparatus. This event prompted introspection and a reassessment of Israel’s preparedness. Experts and analysts were puzzled by the audacious attack, leading to debates about Israeli intelligence and security.
Hamas’s attack, encompassing land, sea, and air operations, demonstrated a level of sophistication and coordination not seen before. The attackers managed to breach Israel’s defenses on multiple fronts, catching the nation off-guard. This audacious maneuver involved a surprise assault that overwhelmed Israel’s security measures, raising questions about the effectiveness of their intelligence apparatus.
One of the most alarming aspects of the attack was the bulldozer incident at the Gaza border. Hamas exploited a vulnerability in Israel’s defenses when a bulldozer was used to breach the border fence, allowing many fighters to infiltrate Israel. The timing of the attack, strategically launched during a Jewish holiday when many military personnel were off duty, further exposed Israel’s vulnerabilities. The element of surprise was a critical factor in Hamas’s success, revealing a lapse in Israel’s ability to anticipate and prevent such a large-scale operation.
Moreover, reports suggested that Israel’s highly regarded Iron Dome missile defense system was not operational when the Hamas rocket barrage began. If these reports were accurate, it would signify a significant lapse in Israel’s defense infrastructure.
In the wake of this attack, Israeli authorities and security experts initiated a process of introspection and reassessment of their nation’s preparedness. The Israeli government faced the challenge of addressing immediate security concerns while shoring up its intelligence and defense capabilities to prevent future surprises. Israel needed to learn from this event, identify gaps in their intelligence network, and take corrective measures to enhance national security.
The Hamas attack and the potential intelligence failure had broader implications for regional stability. The security of the Middle East was a matter of global concern, and Israel’s ability to defend itself against threats was pivotal to the region’s stability.
Hamas, a Palestinian militant organization, had a well-documented history of using extreme violence against Israeli civilians as a means to achieve its objectives. This history included suicide bombings, rocket attacks, and other acts of terror, earning the group a designation as a terrorist organization by several countries and international bodies.
The scale and precision of the recent attack indicated a level of planning and coordination that went beyond a simple act of retaliation. This operation involved land, sea, and air operations, revealing a high degree of sophistication in its execution. The timing of the attack during a Jewish holiday, when many Israelis were off guard and military personnel were on leave, suggesting a level of strategic planning to maximize the element of surprise.
While the immediate goal may have been to inflict damage and capture hostages, the broader aim might be to shift the dynamics of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Furthermore, this incident served as a reminder of the dynamic and evolving nature of conflicts in the Middle East, emphasizing the importance of continuous adaptation and readiness in the face of emerging threats.
The audacity of this attack stunned Israel and garnered international attention, leading to an escalation of hostilities, with Israel launching airstrikes on Gaza in response. The situation remained highly volatile, with the potential for further violence and instability in the region.
The international community closely watched these developments, with leaders from various countries condemning Hamas’s actions and expressing concern for the safety of Israeli civilians. They emphasized the need to de-escalate the conflict and find a peaceful resolution. Truth be told, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not about land and will not be solved by the two-state solution. It is and has always been about pushing the Jews into the sea. The Hamas attack only underscores the urgency of addressing this reality.
The post Israel’s Swift Response to the Hamas Attack: A Closer Look appeared first on Granite Grok.
The funny thing about getting politicians to promise you immunity from prosecution is that there are limitations to what can be excused. Take deliberate deception and fraud.
If you hide details that lead to harm, the political rats will abandon your ship faster than you can say mRNA Vaccines.
That’s the boat Pfizer may soon find itself in, and it should not expect its Pfederal Pfriends to lift a finger to help, noting that any who might have probably “retired” and have packed their”stipends” and inducements in their saddle bags as they ride into the sunset. Any still on the payroll (wink-wink) also got what they wanted. A full-scale global tyranny test that a majority of the Western World Pfailed.
Rules were bypassed to get here from there, safety measures sidelined, and immunity from prosecution promised. But as we’ve learned, Pfizer lied, and the FDA and CDC either took the idea of Warp Speed to mean they could be loose with their obligations or were pressured to ignore safety signals.
It hardly matters for Pfizer. The ‘crats (Demo and Bureau) will feign surprise and outrage if the weight of truth becomes too much for the narrative damn to hold back, they will find the nearest microphone and throw Pfizer under the bus. The Pfeds will lose the Pf and launch investigations while states bring lawsuits to take whatever settlement they can manage as “compensation” for being fooled or in on the scam.
And the Jabernauts in the Pfizer Glee Club will be the first to hold your hand, bend it behind your back, and slip in some handcuffs.
So, what’s the safety signal suggesting Pfizer is in trouble? Igor Chudoz posted their stock chart, and it does not look like that of a company whose business plan raked in billions of guaranteed sales from billions of doses of product. It seems like a company investors see as a risk. As Chudove notes,
Take a look at this chart: Pfizer’s stock (PFE) is valued at 25% less than it was five years ago, despite the billions of dollars it received from the sales of COVID vaccines, and the stock market and the pharmaceuticals index having gone up:
He then compares it to the demise of Purdue Pharma, which peddled opioids, bought doctors and media, and lied to everyone else until it came to kill their business.
If so, the following are similarities between Pfizer and Purdue Pharma:
- Reckless disregard for the dangers to recipients of their products. Pfizer abandoned any semblance of care for Covid vaccine safety. Pfizer tested their recent vaccines on several mice only – just one example.
- Corporate greed is exemplified by risky decisions to chase billions in immediate profits at the risk of bankruptcy in the long run.
- Buying off the press and regulators to corruptly obtain support for their products.
- Hiding deaths and adverse effects from the public.
Purdue Pharma was able to play its game for years. Finally, the deaths were too many, and the lawsuits took it down.
If the stock price of Pfizer is any guide, the capital markets now see that the same may eventually happen to it.
Hopefully, the people who suffered various ills from COVID vaccines would be entitled to compensation.
Pfizer may also be the perfect player to throw under the bus to save other Covid pandemic players.
Pfizer, however, does not have enough money to compensate every victim fairly.
And while the potential demise of Pfizer might put a smile on a few faces, it is not enough. Absent criminal penalties, massive fines, and jail time in actual prisons for the people in both Big Pharma and Big Government who denied recipients fully informed consent – and we know they knew about all the badness – it is meaningless.
Taking away the golden goose after they’ve collected so many eggs is no disincentive, and while some might dance around the ashes of Pfizer, the Government is to blame.
Suppose we don’t or can’t fix that. What’s to stop Next-Gen Fauci and Company from working another pharmaceutical company into a tizzy with promises of immunity at the expense of Americans’ quality of life or their very lives?
Nothing.
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The Biden Administration has had a credibility issue from day one. Its problem with the truth and transparency is rooted in the President. It has become Standard Operating Procedure with every member of the Administration, right down to Karine Jean-Pierre, Biden’s Press Secretary.
The last couple of weeks since the initial terrorist acts inflicted on Israel by Hamas. When the country and world needed facts and truth from a strong United States President, they got Joe Biden and a package of indecisive actions, questionable information, and lies. In actuality, we got what we should have expected, for this is who Joe Biden has been for the half-century he has been in Washington. What has always been explained as Biden gaffes are actually lies.
Before we recap history, let’s discuss the interview on 60 Minutes on Sunday evening.
Compound these mistruths with those about the Economy, bad investments in Green Energy companies, the banning of countless gas appliances we rely on, his numerous lies about his interactions with his son, Hunter, and how he has weaponized his Justice Department and Intelligence Agencies.
Joe Biden promised the most transparent Administration in history, which was the first lie. After the first, all subsequent lies are easy. We can believe nothing from the White House and must rely on our eyes, ears, and research. When you cannot trust your leader, you have none.
The post Mr. President, With All Due Respect, Stop Lying To Us appeared first on Granite Grok.
When it comes to Israel, the unofficial position of the political left is they hate it. Western Jews are encouraged to do that too and to facilitate the hate, they perpetuate myths.
Ben Shapiro has quick some thoughts to share about history, facts, truth, and the lies the left stands on to justify murder. Feel free, as always, to agree, disagree, or agree to disagree below in the comments.
You’re Being Lied To About Israel And Palestine
pic.twitter.com/yqZDZM8eL8— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) October 15, 2023
The post 4 Myths About Israel and “the Palestinians” appeared first on Granite Grok.