There is a lot of talk just now about the difficulties that the GOP is having in keeping its primaries ‘closed’.

If I understand the issue correctly, the party leadership thinks that only people who have registered in advance as Republicans ought to be able to get a GOP ballot on the day of the primary.

The state government thinks that anyone ought to be able to become Republican for a Day in order to meddle in the party’s nomination process.

But the very existence of a dispute like this raises an important question: Why does the GOP let the state handle its nomination process? The GOP (like any political party) is a private group.  It can and should be setting up and paying for whatever process it wants to use to nominate candidates for office.

This isn’t 1890. It’s not even 1990. There is no reason why the GOP can’t maintain its own membership rolls (instead of delegating that to the state) and use 21st-century technology to poll its members in any way it wants, over any interval it wants (instead of forcing everyone to go to a polling place on an arbitrarily chosen day).

Using the state primary system is like going to McDonald’s every night because you’re too lazy to cook and then complaining about the declining quality and increasing expense of the food.

Also, there are a couple of excellent reasons why the GOP should abandon the traditional primary process altogether.

First, it’s unconstitutional.  To see why, imagine the response you’d get from the Secretary of State if you tried to get the state to open polling places, pay employees, and do all the things it does for primary elections… but for the purpose of letting members of your book club vote for the best book of the year.

Probably, he’d just laugh.  And then tell you to pound sand because it’s not the state’s job to subsidize elections for private groups.  Doing so would violate several articles of the state constitution.

And he’d be justified, right?

Second, it’s just inane to put your group (the GOP) in the hands of an institution (the state government) that actually opposes the goals and principles of that group.

Should you put government in charge of making sure that citizens are armed and trained well enough to resist overreach by the government?

Should you put government in charge of making sure that citizens are educated well enough to resist overreach by the government?

Should you put government in charge of making sure that a political party whose stated purpose is to reduce the size of government can pursue that goal without interference from those who would like to undermine it?

Well, when you put it that way, …

If the GOP wants to keep control of its nomination process, it’s completely within its power to do that.   All it has to do is start acting like a private party instead of like a public accommodation.

 

The post The GOP is Private. It Should Act Like It. appeared first on Granite Grok.

Israel is under a constant barrage of incoming missiles, and the Iron Dome is tested like never before. The Iran Parliament is seen yelling Death to Israel and America in unison. Videos on X (formerly Twitter) show Hamas militants thanking Ukraine for the weapons they are using against Israel.

The intelligence communities of the Free World failed to see the attack on Israel coming, and the country and world are looking to the White House for the leadership needed to retaliate appropriately to the terrorist attack. Still, the President called a lid at 11 AM. Instead of going to the microphone and rallying the world against the animals bombing Israel and pillaging its people, President Joe Biden has called it a day.

Donald Trump told us last month that this would happen. When Joe Biden released $6 Billion of Iran’s frozen funds on September 11, of all days, Trump predicted Iran would use those funds to attack America or our allies. He pointed to the $60 Billion Iran has because Biden relaxed Trump’s sanctions, and Iran could sell oil on the open market. Because of the bad decisions by Joe Biden, Iran has the resources to fund the murderous attack on Israel.

The story that broke today on X may be one of the reasons Biden went into hiding today. If the videos are accurate, the militants driving their trucks, riding their scooters, or hang-gliding into Israel may be armed with weapons supplied by Ukraine. The weapons used by Hamas to kill our allies in Israel may be made in the USA—a slap in the face to Israel and Americans by the Joe Biden administration. As Biden hid, he sent Jake Sullivan and John Kirby out with their Gas-lights to lie to the American people. Denying that we did not push Iran to this point and that we will support Israel with whatever she needs-Full Stop. These people lie just like their boss. That is a full stop-and-drop-the-mic comment.

To add insult to the day, Antony Blinken went to X with the comment he has urged Turkey to work with the United States to negotiate a cease-fire between Israel and Gaza. Blinken is another genius from the Administration on the wrong side of the reality of a solution. We have a complete lack of leadership in this Administration, and the only relief we got today was that KJP did not hold a briefing.

The only semblance of leadership came today from Benjamin Netanyahu, who spoke to the world today and pledged Israel would unleash fury on those who did them harm. And Kevin McCarthy, who was removed from the Speaker’s seat last week, went to the House floor today and showed why he should still be the Speaker of the House. Unlike Biden and Harris, the third person in line for the Presidency, McCarthy was Presidential as he addressed the House and the world about what Israel and its allies should do to put Hamas and any other group that attacks the free world back in its place.

Biden and Harris may have sealed their fate today as a one-term Administration and are now lame ducks for the next fourteen months. They deserve this fate. They have earned it.

The post When America And The World Needs a Leader, They Get Joe Biden, Instead appeared first on Granite Grok.

It seems that all the Pro-Abortion Activists (mostly Democrats but let’s not forget former NH GOP Chair and RNC Committeeman Steve Duprey in giving money to Planned Parenthood contra the NH GOP Platform) are bound and determined to make us all use “FETUS!!!!” when talking about a woman’s pregnancy.

Sidenote: and that would be any human that wasn’t born with a prostate, right? See, that’s another way in defining “What Is A Woman” as well as the swelling of the midriff, changes in hormonal levels, and complaining at the end, “please be over” until the just born baby is laid on her chest in the birthing room.  Then it is “my BABY!!”.

By calling it the Latin word for “the unborn young of a viviparous vertebrate having a basic structural resemblance to the adult animal” (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition), while being technically and medically correct, it serves but one purpose:

To dehumanize that which is, by dint of conception, a newly forming human being so as to desensitize others in assenting to its early killing by abortion.

Why else use that word? WHY do they shy away from calling it what everyone else does – a baby – except to forward their own political and profit gains?

Just ask yourself, how often do you EVER see people talking like this if their viewpoint was the correct one?



It isn’t, most people don’t, and the pro-abortion folks can’t be honest with the rest of us. They have to keep the grift going one way or another.

And now that Planned Parenthood has taken on shoveling out hormones/endocrines to make boys think they are girls and girls believe they can become boys, it shows that only one thing is important to them:

Profit over People

Isn’t that right, Acting CEO Nicole Clegg of Planned Parenthood Northern New England?

(HT: Focus on the Family)

 

The post “A Rose by Any Other Name Is Still a Rose” Still Means: “It’s Still a Baby!” appeared first on Granite Grok.

Despite recent victories, the war on health freedom has not yet been won, but things are looking up. New efforts to impose mandates are met with significant resistance as fresh intelligence surfaces concerning old battles.

Ivermectin has been the beneficiary of increased praise as researchers continue finding new and unique ways to show us how well this stuff may work on a wide range of conditions. And we can imagine, some years from now, a COVID Karen, faced with something horrible that Ivermectin could treat, refusing it because CNN called it horse dewormer. That’s on CNN’s red sheet, not that they much care.

The other whipping boy of the COVID-19 left is Hydroxychloroquine, which raised its head in the first few weeks and months of SARS CoV2 inspired medical tyranny. Many early treatments outside the “approved” death-by-hospital protocol included HCQ with or without Azithromycin, passing under the radar until then-President Trump mentioned the drug.

You would have gotten a less reactionary response from sprinkling holy water on a demon. HCQ is an affordable, well-tolerated treatment with millions of human doses to support its safety. And now we’ve got new research showing that it saved the lives of COVID-19 Patients.

 

A brand-new scientific study compared hundreds of hospitalized recipients of hydroxychloroquine (and azithromycin) with thousands of controls who received standard hospital care. …

It looked at very sick, hospitalized patients with COVID-19 and tried to see if hydroxychloroquine, given with or without the antibiotic azithromycin, would help save lives. …

After adjustment for these variables the OR for mortality was 0.635 (95%CI 0.464–0.875). Patients who did not receive HCQ had a 57% higher risk of mortality.

 

That is not a tiny number – from the Researcher’s conclusion.

 

Treatment of COVID-19 using a combination of hydroxychloroquine plus azithromycin was safe and was associated with a statistically significant mortality benefit in the treatment of COVID-19 infection in hospitalized patients. Our findings do not support the current negative recommendations regarding this treatment.

 

Hold on to this news as traditional flu season peaks from January to March. HCQ is not – to my knowledge – recommended for ordinary flu, and you certainly wouldn’t use it for the head colds making the rounds after school was back in session. However, COVID is still out there (as are the approved narratives), but research is piling up that proves severe cases can be treated with HCQ and Ivermectin.

COVID can get nasty in the right person, but it doesn’t have to kill you if you are that susceptible.

There is also the issue of doctors clinging to the failed CDC protocol. Many of these same do-no-harm professionals won’t prescribe HCQ and Ivermectin, even if it makes sense, probably becasue the Hospital they work for will spank them.

You could find a new doctor, but when you are already feeling lousy, that’s not the best time, so telehealth might be the way to go. It is legal and recognized almost everywhere these days, one good thing (or bad if abused) that came out of the Pandemic politics.

That is, as always, up to you and your family, but there is a growing mound of supporting research, with admittedly too few media outlets sharing it. We’ve been sharing it, to borrow from Obama, since day one. We will continue to do that with your help. We get a lot of leads from readers and encourage you to do the same.

Crowdsourcing works, and so does Hydroxychlorqunie, according to these researchers.

 

HT | Igor Chudov

The post New Research: HCQ Saved Lives appeared first on Granite Grok.

By Joshua Glawson, Money Metals Exchange The Federal Reserve has taken its propaganda activities into a new, younger medium, Instagram and Threads. An announcement video posted to the social media platforms last week stars the "cool" Chairman of the Federal... Tom Bowler

A preliminary note that Mike Pence may have “walked back” or “clarified” by the time this is posted, but as of the time I am writing this (October 10, 9 AM-ish), he has not. Pence went on CNN on Sunday and essentially blamed Hamas’ attack on Israel on Trump, DeSantis, and Ramaswamy because they have not been sufficiently pro-Zelensky.

What an idiot! If anything, the blank check to Zelensky emboldened Hamas because we stripped our reserves of ammunition stored in Israel to fund the military-industrial/Wall Street war against Russia. Here is the clip:

 

This is what happens when we have leading voices like Donald Trump, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Ron DeSantis signaling retreat from America’s role as leader of the free world. When I’m President of the United States, we’ll lead from American Strength. pic.twitter.com/gW3HaN4fIp

— Mike Pence (@Mike_Pence) October 8, 2023

 

Pence and others are trying to link aid for Israel to aid for Ukraine to force the House GOP to continue funding Zelensky and the company. Not to be outdone by Pence, Nikki Haley wants to go to war with Iran. Here is Tucker discussing Haley and other GOP warmongers advocating … indeed practically salivating at … armed conflict with Iran:

 

JUST IN: Tucker Carlson blasts Nikki Haley, Lindsey Graham and Dan Crenshaw for being warmongers with their responses to the Israel-Hamas war.

Carlson specifically blasted Graham for “not caring” about lost lives because he is nearly 70 years old with no kids.

“What exactly… pic.twitter.com/3tUaSbjbYz

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) October 9, 2023

 

The post Is Mike Pence A Ukrainian Agent … Or Just An Idiot? appeared first on Granite Grok.

When the government meddles, things get messed up. The market – whichever it is – no longer works correctly, nor can it – and as you can see in the chart below, it is you that pays the price, typically in two directions.

The subsidy or regulators force and the end cost. So here’s the chart. Tell us in comments if you know what PART the Government has played in the observable meddling.

 

 

 

If you don’t have the time to do that (moment on the meddling), click over to see what the WSJ had to say about it, especially colleges.

As for Healthcare, the Government has owned that market ever since Medicare and Obamacare came to be and when the Government controls a marketplace, we see implemented Socialism, one slice at a time, like the Fabian’s in Britain.

Look at how bad their National Health Service backups are – rationing by time but not by over-the-counter price (but their taxes give away the tale).

Go ahead, change my mind.

 

HT | Powerline)

 

The post Can You Tell Which Marketplace Has the Most Interference from Government? 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.

Let the mayhem, mockery, and ridicule resume:

 

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

 

I’m putting in more commenting and “breakout” memes with very specific themes.  No long diatribes, but IMHO some things need focusing on and highlighting.  Hopefully striking a balance between the desire by some for “pure” memes and more info & comments as communicated to me by others that liked that other format.  Happy medium somewhere.  Please comment as to where that line should be.

Speaking in depth of certain things – the goings-on in Israel, and related to Islam in general:

 

 

 

This is a real worry.  Consider Dearborn, MI.  My wife and I were there in the late 00s; Arabic signs everywhere, men and women in Middle Eastern clothing.  I learned that my favorite restaurant from when I lived out that way had been closed because the owner was sending money to terror groups.  I’m sure it’s worse now… and many of them are US citizens.  As are the Socialists in love with the terrorists.  Consider this:

 

 

Note, there’s some dispute over whether this is photoshopped but I would hope that the NYPost vetted it.

The Left, too, has weighed in on the side of terror.

 

 

Remember, this sign came from well before recent events.  From American Socialists:

 

 

But then the Left and Islam have a long alliance:

Unholy Alliance: Radical Islam And the American Left

United in Hate: The Left’s Romance with Tyranny and Terror Hardcover

 

 

This is 100% true.  How any female can support Islam is beyond me.

 

 

And while all the “usual suspect fact checkers” deny that prayer rugs and other Islamic materials have been found on the southern US border, we know for a fact that people on terrorist watch lists, and people from “Other than Mexico” countries have been caught for decades down there.  It defies belief or even just a healthy survival instinct to not think this is likely.  On that:

Bayou Renaissance Man: Stand by for squalls

What this means is that there are almost certainly multiple terrorist cells already inside this country, and by now they’ll be armed and equipped to do their job. They didn’t have to smuggle weapons or explosives into the USA; there are enough already here, and sympathizers enough to buy them (legally or illegally) or steal them, and make them available to terrorists. What’s more, many of those sympathizers will by now have been trained by the terrorists to be as effective as they are.

 

 

Be aware, people.

Now, some history… including some choice bits, and a reference to an excellent book, here:

The Biden Regime Should Admit the Real Causes of the Jihad Against Israel | Frontpage Mag

And here:

America’s Betrayal of Israel – Tablet Magazine

Iranian Influence Operation Is Deep Inside the U.S. Government

 

Debunking the Palestine Lie

 

 

You might recognize the voice.  This guy:

TERRORIST NATION – YouTube

You’ll hear about Israeli apartheid being used as justification:

 

 

Except a couple of words from people who should know, you know, real apartheid (video links only):

A Black South African on Israel and Apartheid – YouTube

Does Israel Discriminate Against Arabs? – YouTube

You’ll also hear a lot about Gaza being an “open air concentration camp”.  It has hotels and hotels, restaurants and restaurants.  Malls.  Some “concentration camp”.  And odd how in a concentration camp the population is growing:

 

 

Desperation everywhere:

 

Ramadan in Gaza

 

 

 

And while this is dated, it depicts utterly stark and horrific conditions:

 

Gaza Water Park and luxury restaurants Arab Palestinians enjoy

 

 

And you’ll doubtless be bombarded by Palestinian land loss:

 

 

(Parenthetically, note the refugee status.  Insofar as I am aware, the Palis are the only refugees where that status transfers to the kids and grandkids.  Weird how there’s this strange exception to the normal rule when it comes to Israel.)

From where I got that image (links in the original):

This has been debunked so thoroughly that textbooks and news networks that showed it apologized afterwards because they didn’t want to be associated with such a blatant twisting of the truth. This version is even worse than most by calling the area that the UN proposed as “The Arab State” “Palestine” as well as the areas that were under Jordanian and Egyptian control before 1967, as obvious a falsification of history as can be imagined.

And from the first link in the quoted paragraph, this:

 

 

This map shows that Israel gave up control of the Sinai, Gaza, Southern Lebanon and much of the West Bank over the years. Rather than falsely accusing Israel as a land-grabbing rogue state, it accurately shows Israel as perhaps the only state in history that has voluntarily given up more than two-thirds of the areas it controls in exchange for nothing more than a paper agreement – or sometimes not even that. All at the risk of serious security concerns for her people, no less.

I don’t want this section to become too long, so I’ll continue Israel-related stuff below (and depending on how much more I get daily, may create separate postings just on this topic).  On to pure memes.  But first, consider a T-shirt:

 

 

From the river to the sea, Fakestine will never be T-Shirt | Zazzle

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

1.1 million views.  Some, of course, will scoff and deride.  But others will be prompted to investigate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

Again, I’m not advocating for vigilante justice.  But I understand it.  And from the link where I got this, this conclusion:

All across the West, people have lost faith in their government to maintain order. And now they are beginning to realize that there is no cavalry, and that if anyone is going to protect their family, if anyone is going to protect their nation, it’s going to have to be themselves.

Truthfully, I’m surprised we’re not having this kind of thing happen more often given how invaders in Europe are beating, raping, and even murdering the native Europeans.  In America too.

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

More Israel-related things (and yeah, I think I’ll put these into a separate post from now on):

CONFIRMED: Weapons Left Behind By Biden In Afghanistan Are Being Used To Attack Israel (trendingpoliticsnews.com)

 

 

 

Bayou Renaissance Man: The brutal reality facing hostages in Hamas’ hands (link in original, italics replaced by underlining):

You may also have seen pictures of several schoolchildren captured by Hamas at Kibbutz Be’eri, being led through the streets.  More pictures show bodies found by Israeli forces at the kibbutz after it was recaptured.  The images show the same people.  The fact that the victims were children meant precisely nothing to their captors.  They were prisoners who proved to be “inconvenient”, probably because there was no way to take them back to Gaza . . . so they were murdered.

UNBELIEVABLE! Hamas official claims they have not killed one single Israeli civilian (barenakedislam.com)

Warning, graphic images.  Also graphic images here:

GRAPHIC IMAGES of slaughtered Israeli soldiers and civilians posted across social media (barenakedislam.com)

Stilton’s Place: War in Israel (stiltonsplace.blogspot.com)

“Young Women Raped Next to the Dead Bodies of Their Friends” – Geller Report

Gaza: Muslim terrorists refer to kidnapped Israeli girls as ‘sex slaves’ – Geller Report

I’ve been commenting in a few groups on Telegram to the effect that to a Muslim in war, there is no such thing as a non-Muslim civilian.  Because anyone not a Muslim is in the “House of War” so every single non-Muslim is a soldier against Allah.  And therefore fair game.  Another thing to consider as Hamas moves people into harm’s way to become camera fodder, is that any Muslim killed in the service of Jihad is considered a martyr, and thereby gets an automatic ticket to paradise.  Thus, by placing people into the line of fire, these people killed by Israel’s attacks are not just human shields, they’re heading to the greatest gift of all – paradise.

Know the enemy.  Know how they think, and what they’re capable of doing.  Like this:

In Israel: “40 Babies Discovered With Their Heads Cut Off” – Geller Report

Remember, Hamas and jihad against Jews has widespread support in that part of the world:

With Palestinians, there is no need to exaggerate: they really support murdering random Jews ~ Elder Of Ziyon – Israel News

These are people who celebrated the murderers of Hadas Fogel, stabbed to death in her crib in the Itamar massacre.  She was missed, you see, by the killers and they were exiting the house, but she started to cry… so the murderers went back in to get her too.  Feted and cheered by Palestinians everywhere.  And now people cry that the water’s been cut off?  Cry about “Geneva Convention” violations???

And concluding, about that church that Israel allegedly bombed:

FACT CHECK: Israel Bombs and Destroys Oldest Church in Gaza? * 100PercentFedUp.com * by Danielle

With one last tidbit on my understanding of the “rules of war”… any normally-forbidden protected structure, like a church or mosque or such, or a hospital, etc., has its protections removed when it’s used as a munitions storage or troop center.   And a bit more history:

 

 

One other thing that I understand the KGB did.  From 1948 until about 1967 it was “small Israel” against all the Arab states.  But after about then, the KGB pushed to change the perspective to “big Israel” against “hapless Palestinians”.  It worked.

And a coda emailed to me from our friend Surak:

 

 

Gaza has a great location and climate.  Beautiful beaches.  A strategic trade location.  Geographic close access to sites in both Egypt and Israel.  They could be wealthy and prosperous.  A pity they have other priorities.

 

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

 

Pick of the Post:

 

 

Winner, hands-down.  Make this one go viral!

Though I do recall a Reagan speech recalling when someone was talking with him – not sure if it was before his first election or after – and said to Reagan “I’ll be with you through thick”!

Reagan countered with “What about thin”?

“Welcome to Washington” was the reply.

 

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

 

Happy Columbus Day – a little late!

 

 

 

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

 

Palate cleansers:

 

—

—

 

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

 

Come back on Friday for more memes.  Same meme time.  Same meme channel.

 

 

The post Meme Overflow appeared first on Granite Grok.

In New Hampshire, you can vote in either party primary if you switch your party Registration to Independent. Democrats are forever meddling, and this year, there was an enthusiastic push to do exactly that.

According to a Democrat insider, NH Dems pushed hard to get their political brethren to become Indys.

One train of thought says they will vote for Trump becasue they think he is easier to beat in the general. That’s what AFP Action thinks, too. But that makes very little sense to me from an interference perspective. Even in New Hampshire, Trump is crushing the field.  It is wasted meddling.

The other, more likely reason, is they plan to vote for someone like Chris Christie to give him momentum. A Never-Trumper of RINO proportion whom polls show is the most disliked candidate and for whom fewer people will vote under any circumstance than Trump.

They are, of course, Dems, so who knows what might happen in those mental-health-addled brains, but the switch is on. The Sec of State’s office has released the registration numbers (the deadline for the January primary was last week), and Republicans have the edge over Dems – becasue 3,542 Democrats changed their registration to independent.

 

3,542 Democrats -> independents
719 Republicans -> independents
408 Democrats -> Republicans
78 Republicans -> Democrats
41 independents -> Democrats
132 independents -> Republicans

Totals:
269,766 Republicans
265,159 Democrats
344,212 independents https://t.co/nzK0mYQEaO

— Jon DiPietro (@jondipietronh) October 11, 2023

 

If you add the Dem. to Repub. switch (another 408), nearly 4,000 New Hampshire Democrats engage in election interference in the Republican Primary. We’ll assume that’s the plan since that is what we’ve heard from insiders. And why not? We let them. And Democrats in New Hampshire have no primary (they have Biden), so in a way, I’m surprised more Dems didn’t switch.

Our understanding was that the pressure was high to do that. There were third-party ads on television directed at Granite Staters telling them they could switch. That’s no coincidence.

And they will meddle becasue they can, but there is a hitch to all of this. You’ve read all the articles about the NHGOP resolution to close the Primary to anyone not registered Republican. That request was to have been sent to the Secretary of State just before the deadline.

If it has the problems claimed all along, nothing will change. If there was no issue with the request, the Primary could be closed, and all those Dems switched for nothing.

Not holding my breath, but damn, that would be funny.

 

 

The post 3,542 Democrats Switched to Independent So They Could “Interfere” in the NH Republican Primary appeared first on Granite Grok.

What was the reaction of certain Harvard student leaders to Hamas’ attacks on Israel? Blame Israel. The Jews had it coming. See the tweet below. Harvard – and I am sure its peer colleges and universities- are apparently places where it is considered normal to condone killing Jews.

Simply because they are Jews.

And yet the people at these “elite” institutions have the temerity to call Trump and his supporters Nazis?

But it’s much, much, much worse than just hypocrisy. Harvard and its peer colleges and universities generate the future leaders of America. The men and women who will sit on the Supreme Court, Presidents, Senators, the CEOs of major corporations. Imagine what the future will look like in twenty or so years when they take power.

Germany under Hitler? China under Mao? The Soviet Union under Stalin?

What wouldn’t people who support Hamas’ evil do to anyone they deem an enemy of their State?

America is doomed. Destroyed from within.

 

A group of @Harvard students released a statement that begins, "We, the undersigned student organizations, hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence."

The statement continues, but that’s all you need to know.

Israelis – young and old – were… pic.twitter.com/h2hHJuBaou

— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) October 8, 2023

 

The post “Higher Education” BrainWashing … America Is Doomed appeared first on Granite Grok.

Joe Biden used a prisoner swap with the crazy Mullahs running Iran (into the ground) as an excuse to pay the world’s leading sponsor of Terrorism 6 billion (of your) dollars in reparations. Was it for the sanctions, the killing of General Qassem Soleimani?

A gratuitous gratuity?

Pocket change to buy weapons from the Taliban?

Is the Biden Crime Family getting a kickback, or is the invasion of Israel by Hamas the reward? (I don’t believe Biden when he says terrible things about Hamas.)

Sen. Marsha Blackburn says, “Hamas and Hezbollah members say not only did Iran help plan for months, they gave the official green light in Beirut last week.” She wants the money train to stop. The Biden Admin says they haven’t sent Iran the money yet and won’t negotiate unfreezing the funds.

Giving the Mullahs access to billions on top of an even prisoner exchange is a strange choice from a regime that imprisons Americans without due process for walking around inside the US Capitol taking selfies. The former is a self-proclaimed enemy of America and a world sponsor of Terrorism. The latter is a US citizen Democrats view as a sworn enemy of their post-American empire.

Are the Bidenistas mad at Israel for liking Trump’s efforts at Peace in the Middle East?

And can we add to this the other rumor? Hamas is also getting weapons from Ukraine, for which we’ve also paid, or did we send Israeli weapons to Ukraine, leaving them open to attack? So many theories

Enough!

Whatever is going on, it’s important to understand only one word. Fungible.

 

If only someone could have predicted what was going to happen after the deal Biden made with Iran. pic.twitter.com/G0wSc6TM1a

— MAZE (@mazemoore) October 9, 2023

Mullah Mullah, Oh, Baby, Here we go now. Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb-bomb-bomb!

The post The Iranian Mullah Reparations Deal: Money is Fungible, Edition! appeared first on Granite Grok.

One thing I have learned over these past 17 years here at GraniteGrok is that there is a descending value placed on professionals being held responsible.

Certainly, we get to hold politicians to account every 2, 4, or 6 years, depending on the office and that office’s length of term.

As an example (sidenote), I am VEHEMENTLY against the growing trend of legislating the changing of NH County offices from 2 to 4 years. Face it, you’re just not that special. I might reconsider IF a bill was passed and signed that allowed we Citizens to recall any such politician at any time for any cause, political or otherwise, at a time of our choosing BEFORE the next election.

Politicians hate to be held accountable for their votes – both Parties. Especially the NH State Senate, where it always seems that for important votes, only a voice vote is called.

Much better in the NH House, but even then, too many “Representatives” refuse to muster up the courage to be on the record by casting a vote. We’ve chronicled those “walks” and “unexcused absences” many, many times.

Journalists are not fans of being held accountable for what they write or say, either. With their puffed-up chests hiding behind that hackneyed phrase “Comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable.” Poseurs, IMHO, as many have become nothing more than mouthpieces for the Left. (Think I’m kidding? Why, then, do their political donations to politicians, PACs, and Parties rarely end up with the corresponding Right-leaning entities?)

Trust me, they have not liked it once, finding out that when they have berated me or one of my writers, their names and organizations show up on Google results pages.

They then say that Journalism no longer has to be “objective.” That both sides of an issue do not have to be shown; that does not make you news-people – that’s an activist.

And now we see it with lawyers. Specifically, government prosecutors that refuse to hew to the Law and do their job. In their case, by way of some Gordian Knot reasoning containing a mishegoss mashup of Social Justice, Anti-Racism, Critical Race Theory, and various and sundry other Progressive malapropisms, all of which serve as excuses as to NOT doing their job – holding those alleged perps accountable for their alleged crimes against property or people.

They have decided not to be accountable to the Law AND complain when others attempt to hold them accountable by way of throwing the Race Card, the Class card, the extremist card, or whatever other XXXX Card they can think of.  To make themselves victims instead of Society’s Legal enforcers (in which they were either appointed or RAN to be elected to do such).

Georgia Prosecutors File Challenge to Block Law That Holds Prosecutors Accountable.

You know, just like my “No Means NO!” bill that would have forced appointed (i.e., Town Administrators, School Superintendents, Selectmen, and School Boards from transferring monies into zeroed General Ledger accounts (by both Budget Committee and vote of town residents) because of loopholes in the NH Depart. of Revenue and Administration). FORCE them to have to Follow the Law. Of COURSE, they did (especially the “Soros-funded” prosecutors who were specially selected for their willingness to use “prosecutorial discretion” not as a tool for individual cases with specific situations but as a blanket for ALL crimes of a certain type. Because Society has so oppressed these now “victims,” it is outrageous to hold them responsible for crimes that Society forced them to commit…

…or some other form of Stupidness.  It’s the Left’s continued shove push to remove Society’s definition of Personal Responsibility to a “group one.” Which, as we can all reason out, means no one is responsible for anything – and can then make the Stalinist “Show me the man, I’ll find you the crime’ come true far beyond their wildest expectations. Reformatted, emphasis mine:

Back in May, we reported about a new law in Georgia that seeks to hold prosecutors who don’t do their jobs accountable. The General Assembly passed the bill essentially along party lines — the one Democrat who voted in favor of it has since moved over to the GOP — and Gov. Brian Kemp signed it into law at a ceremony in Savannah, Ga.

“I am not going to stand idly by as rogue or incompetent prosecutors refuse to uphold the law,” Kemp said at the time. “Today we are sending a message that we will not forfeit public safety for prosecutors to let criminals off the hook.”

The law, which requires district attorneys to look at every case for probable cause and prevents the blanket dismissal of cases, took effect on July 1. The law also set up a commission that has the power to discipline or remove prosecutors who don’t prosecutes crimes thoroughly and fairly.

It sounds like Society is attempting to defend itself. After all, they found against my “No Means No” that would have allowed regular citizens to hold those officials to be accountable (btw, it was defeated after these same folks decided to fight back. Like these bozos:

 

Naturally, Democrat district attorneys leaped from their fainting couches in the highest of dudgeon over the new law, calling it “excessive and unnecessary” and even “racist” for suggesting that prosecutors should actually prosecute or face discipline. Now, a group of district attorneys has filed a challenge to the law, asking a judge to block it on the grounds that it undermines their ability to choose which cases to prosecute.

 

Well, when you act like children by only doing what you want vs. what you are SUPPOSED to do, why are you surprised when adults step in and correct you? When crimes are not equally gone after, the people hurt are the actual victims, not the criminals recast as criminals. And Society as a whole is harmed. But like children, there is always self-justification for their need to be independent from oversight by ANYONE (am fighting that ongoing battle with the Granddaughter right now).

…Spearheading the effort is DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry “I Can’t Prosecute Domestic Terrorists” Boston, who has twice recused her office from prosecuting Antifa thugs who have targeted the future site of a public safety training center for the City of Atlanta. In typical Democrat fashion, Boston framed the case in the most dramatic terms, pointing out to the AP that it’s “bigger than Georgia.”

“We are talking about prosecutorial discretion and prosecutorial independence, both of which have been solidly under assault the last few years,” Boston said.

Have you noticed that when Democrats don’t like something, that means that the opposite of that thing is “under assault”?

Democrats and their [in]actions are always portrayed as victims. Always. I’ll end with this:

…“All Georgians deserve to be safe, and all crime victims deserve justice,” Carr also tweeted. “Like everyone else, DAs who choose to violate their oaths of office are not immune from accountability, and we will vigorously defend this law in court.”

It’s astonishing the lengths that prosecutors — including one Republican — will go to get out of doing their jobs.

Accountability – another centuries-old, time-honored American trait that is under attack everywhere. Glad to see that someone had the stones to defend it.

 

HT | Instapundit

The post To Be Held Accountable appeared first on Granite Grok.

In international politics, where nations often grapple with the constant specter of terrorism, Israel has chosen a direct and yet controversial path of targeted killings – as a strategy to combat terrorism. In doing so, it has emerged as a resolute defender of its citizens.

This tenacity that has given rise to such a strategic response has drawn both ire and admiration.

A recent example is the drone strike that killed three Palestinian gunmen who had just opened fire at a checkpoint in the northern West Bank. Now let us picture this scene: the north West Bank, a checkpoint shrouded in tension. Three Palestinian gunmen unleash a hail of bullets, their intent clear – to inflict carnage and sow fear among innocent civilians.

When confronted with the relentless menace of terrorism, hesitation is not a luxury afforded to nations that cherish the lives of their citizens. Unlike indiscriminate bombings or protracted military campaigns, targeted killings are surgical, precise, and calculated. It’s akin to a skilled surgeon removing a malignant tumor, leaving the healthy tissue untouched.

But in the realm of geopolitics, Israel often finds itself accused of wielding a blunt instrument when, in fact, its actions reflect the precision of a scalpel.

Often scrutinized and criticized, these actions find their bedrock in principle as old as humanity itself – self-defense. We say to those who would cast aspersions and question the morality of such activities: put yourselves in Israel’s shoes.

In a region where every sunrise brings the uncertainty of survival, hesitation is not a luxury. Imagine, for a moment, that your home is under perpetual threat, your loved one’s lives hanging in the balance each passing day.

Would you not demand resolute action to protect your family, community, and nation? This, therefore, is the very crucible in which Israel exists.

The arguments favoring targeted killings are not merely theoretical justifications but are rooted in the elemental right to self-defense. When terrorists, undeterred by borders or boundaries, hatch their nefarious schemes, Israel takes action. It is a preemptive strike, a calculated response to thwart impending doom. In the moral ledger, the balance is unequivocal. When confronted with the stark choice of allowing terrorist attacks to unfold or taking decisive action to stop them, Israel chooses life over death.

The words of the great philosopher Aristotle resonate here: “Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality that guarantees the others.” Targeted killings, born of necessity, embody this courage, this unwavering commitment to safeguarding innocent lives.

Let us not tiptoe around the undeniable truth: targeted killings are a razor-sharp sword in Israel’s unyielding fight against terrorism.  Consider for a moment the irrefutable evidence before us. When key figures within terrorist organizations are removed, the result is nothing short of remarkable.

 

 

Now, let’s entertain an alternative scenario: a world where targeted killings are shelved in favor of passivity.

Picture Israel sitting idly by, waiting for tragedy to strike before taking action. It is a nightmarish vision where terrorists roam freely, plotting their next assault, knowing that retribution will not come knocking at their door. Thus, targeted killings embody precision and resolve.

Unlike other counter-terrorism strategies, targeted killings do not merely skim the surface; they plunge straight into the heart of terror networks. The consequence of such actions is not just punishment; it is deterrence. It dissuades potential terrorists, forcing them to reconsider their evil intentions.

Targeted killings are the surgical strike, the calculated response that weakens the very infrastructure of terror.

Let’s not beat around the bush or dive into groundless speculation; let’s face the harsh reality that targeted killings have unquestionably saved lives and simultaneously kept the specter of terrorism in check. The proof is right there for everyone to see.

Those convenient critiques seem to materialize with the swiftness of a desert sandstorm. Critics of targeted killings, with their lofty judgments and holier-than-thou proclamations, often conveniently ignore the genuine, very menacing threat that Israel grapples with daily.

Indeed, let us not shy away from the topic of civilian casualties. They exist, and they are undeniably tragic.

But here’s the harsh truth that some are reluctant to acknowledge: when terrorists purposefully use civilians as shields, who bears the true culpability? Is Israel striving to protect its citizens from impending doom, or are those who heartlessly manipulate innocent lives as pawns in their deadly game?

The answer is clear, like a beacon shining through the darkest night.

Yet, a twisted double standard prevails in the echo chambers of international discourse, where self-righteousness often drowns out reason. Israel’s right to defend itself is not just questioned; it is often called into question and scrutinized with an enthusiasm that borders on obsession.

Meanwhile, terrorists, the architects of violence and chaos, are granted sympathy. The real-world dangers that Israel confronts daily, the lurking specter of terrorism that shadows every step its citizens take, often go unnoticed. The weight of responsibility, the relentless burden of safeguarding lives, is borne by Israel alone. Israel’s struggle is not one of choice but of necessity.

Within this crucible of ceaseless turmoil, targeted killings assume the mantle of a reluctant necessity. When the halls of diplomacy echo with empty promises and the specter of terror continues to haunt Israel’s doorstep, what other recourse remains?

What would those who condemn targeted killings propose as an alternative when diplomacy falters, and terror persists? To sit idly by and hope for a change of heart among those who have sworn to destroy?

The effectiveness of targeted killings in the crucible of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not a matter of conjecture but a glaring reality. They have disrupted terrorist networks, rendering them ineffective and decimating their leadership. They have thwarted attacks, preventing bloodshed and anguish.

The alternative – a world where terror reigns unchecked and innocent lives are sacrificed on the altar of diplomacy’s failures – is a vision too bleak to contemplate.

The path we have traversed is one marked by fervent conviction – a conviction that, while controversial, targeted killings have proven to be an indomitable strategy for Israel in the ceaseless struggle against terrorism.

The ethical concerns that cast a shadow over this tactic must be weighed against the imperative of self-defense – a moral imperative as old as time. When lives hang in the balance, the luxury of inaction withers away like a fleeting mirage.

In a world where the alternatives are stark – where passivity often results in tragedy, and diplomacy frequently stumbles in the face of violence – targeted killings offer a lifeline of hope. They are not born of cruelty but of necessity.

In the crucible of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, targeted killings have been both a sword and a shield – a means of defending against impending doom and a testament to unwavering commitment. So, let us not forget the world in which Israel lives – a world marred by threats and peril. Targeted killings are not a symbol of malevolence; they are a symbol of unwavering resolve. In a world riddled with violence, that resolve is, and will always be, Israel’s guiding light.

The post Examining the Efficacy and Controversies Surrounding Israel’s Strategic Approach appeared first on Granite Grok.

One common denominator that explains why previously successful societies implode is their descent into fantasies. A collective denial prevents even discussion of existential threats and their solutions.

Something like that is happening in the United States. Eight million illegal immigrants have entered the United States by the deliberate erasure of the southern border.

Apparently, the Biden administration sees some unstated advantage in destroying U.S. immigration law and welcoming in would-be new constituents.

Yet, the more the millions arrive, the more President Joe Biden and his Homeland Security director Alejandro Mayorkas flat out lie that “the border is secure.”

They both live in a world of make-believe, passed off to the American people as reality.

And the more the Americans are lied to that the border is secure, the more they poll —currently 77 percent — that it is not.

Biden apparently has reversed course and begun using the former pejorative “Bidenomics” as a term of pride.

He now praises this three-year effort to borrow $6-7 trillion, and spike interest rates threefold to 7% on home mortgages — even as prices on essentials like food and fuel have spiked 25-30% since he entered office.

The more that Biden brags about what he did to the economy, the more people poll — over 60% — dissatisfaction with his alternate reality of “Bidenomics.”

Do we remember the humiliation in August 2021 in Afghanistan?

The more retired Gen. Mark Milley, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and Biden assured that the American military presence was stable, the more swiftly it crumbled and descended into the worst mass flight of an American army since Vietnam.

Consider natural gas and oil. The Biden administration waged war on both by canceling pipelines, drilling on federal lands and entire oil fields.

When the price soared and the 2022 midterms neared, Biden suddenly begged formerly shunned illiberal regimes like Saudi Arabia, Iran and Venezuela to pump all the hated oil they could to lower the price.

A desperate Biden drained much of the strategic petroleum reserve — he has yet to refill it — simply to lower the price of gasoline and thus win voters back to the Democratic Party.

When the midterms passed, Biden resumed his attack on once bad, then good, and now bad again fossil fuels — at least until the 2024 election.

Stranger still is the denial of the current crime wave in our major cities. Predators and thugs have turned once iconic downtowns into either war zones or ghost towns or both.

Smash-and-grab swarming of stores and matter-of-fact shoplifting are destroying commerce in our major cities.

Unsustainable stores either leave or shut down. Communities who vote for politicians who defund the police blame the stores for leaving — but not the criminals whose brazen thefts made it impossible to do business in the inner city.

Now modern-day pirates with impunity storm, sink and rob boats of all kinds in the Oakland marina and estuary.

Leftwing journalists and activists, and even Democratic politicians, who all supported defunding the police, now cannot escape the resulting street violence and unleashed murderous predations.

Everyone knows the culprit is the post-George Floyd effort — with Biden administration complicity — to defund the police, end cash bail, institutionalize catch-and-release of criminals and show more sympathy toward victimizers than victims.

Yet neither state nor local officials nor Biden himself even admits to a crime wave. The more the public is attacked and avoids major downtowns, the more it polls furor over the crime wave.

The more our officials, in gaslighting style, claim such alarm is all in our collective heads, the more they themselves are attacked by the very criminals their policies empowered.

Sometimes the fantasies extend to the trivial. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Penn, for months has dressed like an utter slob while on the Senate floor. As a gesture of approval, Democrats junked the dress code so he could wear his sloppy cut-offs and hoodie.

Americans were to assume his slovenly costume was normal apparel — and they were hypercritical for thinking otherwise.

Recently Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-NY, pulled a Senate fire alarm to disrupt and delay a vote on continuing the funding of the government. But he got caught on a Capitol surveillance video committing the crime.

Bowman whined that he got confused. He preposterously claimed by pulling the alarm he thought he was opening a door to go vote.

All of that was pure fantasy. The alarm was clearly marked. A sign in front of the door warned not to enter. And the door itself was placarded with cautions that any attempt to open it would set off emergency alarms.

No matter. Bowman assumed by calling his critics “Nazis” and using the race card, he could invent a virtual reality.

Despite our epidemic of fantasy, there remains reality.

And we will soon rediscover it all too soon.

Victor Davis Hanson is a distinguished fellow of the Center for American Greatness. He is a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and the author of “The Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and Won,” from Basic Books. You can reach him by e-mailing authorvdh@gmail.com.

Victor Davis Hanson | 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 Our Establishment’s Alternate Realities appeared first on Granite Grok.

Our future mayor, Mike Soucy, has had a few meet-and-greet events in various parts of the city. I did not attend the Castro’s Backroom one as I don’t smoke, but I was at the first one, well-attended and hosted by Family Pizza in Ward 5.

This is a report on the most recent one yesterday at Chen Yang Li in Ward 2. To give some background, there is a lot of reliable local intel reports that Family Pizza is a routine Friday night watering hole for Attorney Bolton, the city attorney, and my opponent, Alderman Dowd, and their ilk.  Please see the many Grok pieces written by his perceived nemesis, Laurie Ortolano, who is being honored this month for doing things that are repugnant to Bolton.

People who are familiar with Laurie Ortolano’s RTK journey and various others are also familiar with MY litigation against the City, which was self-represented and “shepherded,” as Nurse Terese would say, by Laurie. On a sidenote, I encourage anyone without blind faith in their local assessor’s office to visit her amazingly constructed public service self-help site, good-gov.org. But back to the story.

I needed to get some more palm cards from Mike Soucy, and what better venue to accomplish that errand than to attend an event of his in my own zip code?  I got there a few minutes early and went inside, also with the intention to meet the owner and say that Lily Tang Williams says hi because they know each other, and I told her I would.  Mrs Soucy warmly greeted me while Mike was talking to supporters already seated in a reserved banquet area on the outskirts of the bar.  This restaurant has an open-concept architecture, and the football game was on the bar’s big-screen TVs.

Once Mike saw me, he greeted me and quietly mentioned that Attorney Bolton and his ilk, Mr Tabasco, were in the bar. Not wanting to be seen turning my head around like a careless passenger who just heard the driver say the police were following them, I played it cool.  There was a potted plant blocking my view as I was told to order my drink from the bar. (Drinks are not a campaign expense, and a mayoral candidate running on a pillar of transparency will point those things out despite it being common sense.)

I contemplated my approach to the not-so-busy bar that had an attentive barkeep.  Attorney Bolton and I have only seen each other once in person, and it was in court last May.  We did not make eye contact that day, plus his accomplice, Attorney Celia (you’re breaking my heart) Leonard, was standing next to him during the hearing, and I was dressed up for court.

I am otherwise a T-shirt and jeans person.  Hoping not to be recognized, I approached the bar from the side, pretending to be interested in the football game, even though I hate football and there was a long series of commercials playing.  The bartender prepared my drink, which seemed to take an eternity(perhaps only in my mind the same way a slow modem or a red light would) as Bolton was living rent-free in my head both then and while she went to the register made change from my $20.

When I picked up my change, left a tip, and collected the drink and my pocketbook, I turned 90 degrees to walk back to the banquet area and shifted my gaze in that direction, and I was taken by an unpleasant surprise! Alderman Dowd, my opponent, was seated next to Bolton, either having just entered from outside or returning from the restroom. Knowing darn well that it’s not “all bout me” as it was Mike Soucy’s event, I was able to refrain from taking the situation personally. However, whether or not Bolton recognized me at that point, Dowd was sure to say something. I acted casually and pretended to ignore them.

These two, or three if you count Tabasco, were spying on Mike Soucy, plain and simple. Of course, they will probably point out that Chen Yang Li is a public accommodation and they were paying customers there to watch the football game, but nobody that I know of has ever seen them there before. What a coincidence! Dowd will also point out that this is his constituency, Ward 2, but since when does he give a darn about restaurants that are NOT on Main St?  “Where’s Chen Yang Li’s Jersey barrier for outdoor dining?” said nobody.

Mike reformatted the event from a stump speech with following audience questions to more of a wedding reception-styled venue.  Attendees enjoyed a complimentary appetizer buffet while he visited each table for some light conversation.  Acts 17:26-28 points out that God has already chosen certain times and places if you will.

This impromptu and adaptive situation set up two things for me.  One of them was meeting Mr & Mrs Brown of Ward 2.  Not only were they fine people to talk to, but they let me place my sign in their yard, and they have an orange cat named Cheddar.  I am an unapologetic cat person, and I am building a collage of pictures called “Ward 2 Cats Against Alderman Dowd,” in which Cheddar is among the ones that need to be added.

The other thing was that the Browns and I were talking about the Ward 7 homeless camp that city hall is relocating from next to the Merrimack River to a controversial place somewhere between Bob’s Pizza and the bridge.  Anyway, Mike Soucy approached our table, and I told him how timely it was because were were talking about the homeless camp, and I asked if he planned to release a statement.  I encourage everyone, Nashua residents or not, to please sign this e-petition related to it.

Mike plans to attend the upcoming Wednesday event to discuss it, followed by a statement.

So, this story is really about spying and how emboldened the ruling class has become.  These things don’t happen overnight.  They are insidious.  And this behavior has been on full display many times.  Nashua’s ruling class thinks that we commoners are really stupid; let’s show them that we are not by showing up to vote and voting correctly!

 

The post Spying and How Emboldened the Ruling Class Has Become appeared first on Granite Grok.

On August 10, 1964, the United States Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin resolution. The resolution gave then-President Lyndon Johnson full authority to engage the North Vietnamese in an all-out war. That war lasted until the United States declared defeat and left Vietnam in April 1975.

The resolution was passed in response to an attack by North Vietnam on two American naval ships, the USS Maddox and the USS Turner Joy. The resolution was passed in direct response to perceived North Vietnamese aggression against American naval vessels.

Only one problem: the reported attack against the two naval ships never happened. In his book, FOG OF WAR, the then-defense Secretary Robert Macnamara admitted that the entire basis for going to war never happened.

Go back to Pearl Harbor. The entire country was shocked by the secret attack of the Japanese against the American Naval fleet stationed at Pearl Harbor. Numerous historians now contend that the Americans knew of the “surprise ” attack but chose to do nothing about it because they knew that only such an attack would motivate the American public to permit entry into the war in Europe and the Pacific.

Go back further to World War I: The Americans wanted no part of a European war. In truth, more Americans favored the Germans than the British but all favored neutrality. Then, the Lusitania was sunk by a German U-boat. America entered the war.

Go forward to 9/11. I, like so many, remember the day and the event as if it were yesterday. I remember falling asleep the nite before on the sofa with the television on the Angels baseball game (I am a California refugee). I woke up to a screaming reporter with a live video showing the first of the Twin Towers on fire. I thought at first it was a movie, but then I realized it was live news. Just as I woke, I saw what most of the country saw-the second plane drove itself right into the second tower.

I, like most, was shocked, shocked in a way that has never happened before or since. I was glued to the news for the next several days and weeks. Reports came in regarding another plane that was trying to fly itself into the Pentagon but which was taken down by the passengers.

In response, the United States invaded Iraq.

Then, we invaded Afghanistan.

Questions began to arise: why are we invading Iraq, which had nothing to do with 9/11? Why did we spend trillions in Afghanistan when no evidence ever surfaced the Taliban had anything to do with 9/11?

Many years ago, a husband and wife team of college professors- Cloward and Picken- came up with a concept that has become the darling of the ruling class in Washington, D.C.

The duo studied “crisis” events and found a pattern: a crisis occurs; people become enraged and fearful and demand Government intervention; the government intervenes, and then a major change in policy occurs to change the “cause ” of the crisis and prevent it from happening again.

Cloward and Picken became rather famous when they published an article setting forth this discovery. They became even more famous darlings of the ruling class. They energetically advocated a simple thought: why should we wait for a crisis to happen?

If we want to cause a change of policy, why don’t we create the crisis that then leads to the change we want?

If a political group wants to change a policy, why not just create the “Crisis” and then allow the people to demand government intervention then the Government can swoop in and institute the policy they wanted anyway, empowered by the fear and anger they created from the crisis they initiated.

To my eye, every time the ruling class wants to institute a policy that only they benefit from, they seem to follow the Cloward and Picken model.

Climate change? No problem. Many times, have you heard the ruling class assert that unless we do as they say regarding carbon, food, cars, water heaters, etc, we will all die? They claim that the earth is dying because of our pollution. No matter what the scientists say to the contrary. The sky is falling, and we are going to die unless we get out of their way as they steal us blind and destroy everything ordinary Americans prize. It’s Cloward and Piven: to institute the policy and controls they want, they invent a crisis; the people out of fear and anger generated by the crisis, demand Government intervention; the Government does intervene and institute the policy they want.

Does this Cloward and Picken model not also apply to IRAQ?

To Afghanistan?

To the Gulf of Tonkin?

To Pearl Harbor?

It’s scary to me indeed, frightening- the thought that the Folks in Washington DC who run our government would follow Cloward and Picken. It’s frightening and scary because it seems to be at least in part supported by the evidence.

What is happening in ‘Israel” is horrible. It is truly a “crisis.”

People are being murdered in the streets for no good reason by crazed lunatics who are driven by hate and malice. But don’t despair because the ruling class never wastes a good “crisis.” The military-industrial complex makes huge fortunes off of the endless wars we engage in, and guess what- this crisis in Israel looks like it is going to save their day: it looks like the war we lost in Afghanistan and the war we are losing in Ukraine is going to get new life in the middle east.

I hope my thoughts are wrong. Maybe I am having them just because I am tired of all the wars and the killing and the atrocities. It’s a hard pill to swallow to think that world leaders create a “crisis”- a crisis that involves killing thousands of people and destroying whole countries- to advance some policy they think is good and necessary for their own power and control.

But think: the news folks want you to believe that the Israeli intelligence corps- Mossad- and the American intelligence corps were unaware of the presence in Gaza of 5000 to 7500 missiles aimed at Israel. They want us to believe that the Israeli army stationed on the border with Gaza- probably the most dangerous and active war zone border in the world- was asleep and had no sentries out to alert the troops to wake up and fight back. And they want us to believe that this attack by Hamas – a Pearl Harbor type of attack- should be a basis for Israel to go to war with Iran.

If Mossad and the Cia had alerted the Israelis of the attack they knew was coming and if the Israelis had been put on high alert, and if the Israeli forces attacked rather than surrendered, no “crisis” would have occurred, and Cloward and Piven’s strategy would have no legs. We would still hate Iran. But we would not be going to war.

My God- I cannot get it out of my head that Mossad and perhaps our own CIA knew all about the Hamas attack well before it occurred but decided to let it happen, even standing down the defense forces to allow the atrocities so that they would have the Cloward and Picken crisis they needed to do what they wanted to do all along-bomb Iran into the stone age.

One Israelite leader summarized all this very well- He proclaimed, ” This is Israel’s 9/11.”

Did he mean by that statement that this is Israel’s “false flag” designed to enrage the world into supporting Israel’s planned strike on Iran to end Iran’s nuclear program?

Israel and the United States have long stated that they would never let Iran get nuclear missiles. Netanyahu told the United Nation’s full assembly not so many years ago that Israel would use all means necessary-including military attack- to end Iran’s nuclear program. Is it possible that they feel that the time is now and made the decision to allow the attack from Hamas so that they would have their Cloward and Picken crisis that would make you and me and the Israeli public demand that Israel bombs Iran? Netanyahu said in a speech little heralded by the press that after he finishes Hamas and Hezbollah, he is going to take the war to Iran.

All I can say is that the world would be a much better place if Cloward and Piven had never been evil and or born.

 

The post Is This Attack by Hamas/Hezbollah/Iran a False Flag To Drag Us Into Yet Another War? appeared first on Granite Grok.

The traditional American view of people as Individuals REQUIRES swift justice. Instead, the Progressives see not individual criminals but Society as a whole being an entire group – which deserves to be punished.

…It is easy to tar opponents of gun control as “soft on crime.” It is easy to tar opponents of prohibition as “soft on abuse.” But in a strange sense, both gun control and prohibition grow out of softness. A system with the moral courage to harshly, swiftly, and surely punish violence would have little need of gun control. A system with the moral courage to harshly, swiftly, and surely punish abusers for stealing, trespassing, vandalizing, and defiling would have little need of prohibition.

In both cases, we haphazardly punish millions of innocents because we refuse to decisively punish thousands of clear-cut criminals.

-Bryan Caplan (Abusers Give Vice a Bad Name)

The many, in their eyes, are just as guilty as any of its individuals, so the many WILL be punished for the activities of a very few. There is no Justice in that and CERTAINLY no sense of mercy or propitiation, or forgiveness. Only “future guilt.”

CAplan’s remarks run a bit long, but I liked bits and thought you should take note:

 

• “…the typical user. Sure, they rarely experience severe personal blowback. But they normalize deviant behavior.
• …The difference between me and normal observers: I don’t consider extreme abusers or “addicts” to be victims. I consider them victimizers. They aren’t a symptom of a greater social problem. They are the greater social problem. Abusers have and continue to make evil choices. Granted, it logically possible to end up on Fentanyl Row through tremendously bad luck. Empirically, however, everything I’ve read on poverty convinces me that the root cause of such residence is almost invariably extraordinarily irresponsible behavior.

 

HT | Instapundit

The post If American Society Hadn’t Grown Soft, We Wouldn’t Have This Problem appeared first on Granite Grok.

First and foremost… there is A LOT of misinformation concerning this “closed primary” issue. The Resolution that passed by the membership at the NHGOP Annual Meeting on January 28, 2023 (Resolution #2, found on this page: https://nh.gop/2023-annual-meeting/) has nothing to do with the 90-day deadline to change your party affiliation before voting in the 2024 Presidential Primary Election (the deadline for that was October 6, 2023.)

https://www.doj.nh.gov/news/2023/20230918-deadline-party-affiliation-primary.htm

This Resolution requires independent voters who want to vote in the Republican primary to switch over 30 days before the primary date. The presidential primary date has NOT been chosen yet. Many states have closed or partially closed primaries for varying reasons (https://www.ncsl.org/elections-and-campaigns/state-primary-election-types.)

There are several reasons for closing our primaries, but in NH, here are some of the reasons why the majority of Republicans voted for the Resolution in January:

 

• The essential purpose of a party primary is to select the candidates who will run in the General Election under the party’s banner. Thus, candidates running in a partisan (i.e., political) General Election under a party banner (either R or D) should only be those actually selected in a primary by voters who are aligned with that party’s principles and who have registered as voters in that party.
• Integrity: Prevents outsiders (undeclared voters that are really Democrats) from attempting to influence the Republican primary selection process.
• Ideological Purity: This is a way to help ensure that the candidate selected is the closest one that adheres to the party’s ideological principles (those NH principles listed here: https://nh.gop/platform/.) Closing the primary helps prevent voters with significantly different views from hijacking a party’s nomination process.
• Informed Voters: People who are going to take the time and switch to the party to be able to vote in the Republican primary (they can switch back on their way out from the polls at which they just voted in the party primary) are typically more informed about what the party believes in, stands for, the party’s candidates, and the party’s primary issues, so closed primaries may lead to more informed voting decisions.
• Safeguarding Votes: Closing the primaries can reduce the likelihood of “party ransacking” that has taken place in NH for years. It is where voters from opposing parties (who hide as undeclared voters) participate in the Republican primary to influence the nomination of a weaker candidate. Recent news stories below verifying this:

 

https://www.nhpr.org/nh-news/2023-10-04/tug-of-war-over-independent-voters-heats-up-in-nh-primary

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/new-hampshire-democrats-weigh-whether-cross-vote-gop-primary-rcna118756

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/10/03/pro-christie-pac-new-hampshire-00119734

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/democratic-groups-spend-money-on-republican-primaries-to-nominate-less-appealing-opponents

 

Primaries in NH have not always been “open.” It has been reported, but unconfirmed, that former Secretary of State William Gardner claimed to have received a resolution (from which party is unclear) in which the primaries were declared open to undeclared voters.

It should be noted that if any such rule opening the primaries had been adopted through a by-law amendment, where is it in the NHGOP By-laws? The simple answer is NOWHERE! So, if such an action did, in fact, actually take place, it must have been by simple Resolution. The distinction is essential because a resolution only requires a majority vote to pass, while a by-law amendment requires a supermajority to pass.

See the responses to Chairman Ager’s statements in bold below:

Chairman Ager:

“After investigating applicable state law in consultation with the Secretary of State’s office, it was determined that the Resolution violated state law and could not be adopted. Specifically, the critical “30 day prior” provision of the Resolution violates RSA 654:7 a&b (same-day registration), and RSA 654:32/34 (change of registration).”

The role of Chairman Ager was to deliver the adopted Resolution to the NH Secretary of State (SOS), David Scanlan. His role was not to “investigate” anything. SOS Scanlon NEVER received the Resolution calling for the primaries to be closed from the Republican State Party. There has been ZERO communication to the voting members about this Resolution from Chairman Ager until yesterday, October 9, 2023, after many Republican committee voting members requested answers. In writing from SOS Scanlan, he confirms this:

“By statute the party chair is to notify the Secretary of State in writing if there is a change regarding which voters can participate in a party primary. I have not received any written communication in that regard.”

And, below, confirmed in state statute:

659:14 Special Provisions for State and Presidential Primary Elections.

 (https://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/rsa/html/LXIII/659/659-14.htm)

1. The secretary of state shall include on the voter instruction cards required by RSA 658:28 whether a party rule has been adopted which permits a person who is registered as an undeclared voter to vote in the party’s primary. The party chairman shall notify the secretary of state in writing prior to the filing period for state offices whether the party has adopted such a rule. This rule shall not be changed or rescinded by a party until the results of the primary have been announced, and any change or rescission shall be mailed to the secretary of state by the party chairman.

Chairman Ager:

“Presidential Primary campaigns have also been informed that there will be no change to our current First In The Nation Primary selection process and have been campaigning accordingly.”

Why would presidential primary campaigns be notified but not the NH Republican Party? When were those campaigns informed? Chairman Ager doesn’t have the authority to unilaterally ignore a resolution adopted by the membership body over eight months ago. Furthermore, he doesn’t control the NH presidential primary. 

Chairman Ager:

“My suggestion to the sponsors is to bring forth a By-Law Amendment that complies with State Law for consideration and critical analysis of the impact by the entire Committee.”

This Resolution was initially brought forward as a by-law; unfortunately, it was not done correctly or on time. The Resolution’s prime sponsor (Karen Testerman) was then told it needed to be submitted as a resolution, so it was changed appropriately. After reading the state statute above, it looks as if the correct process was still followed. Thus, it appears that a state committee member submitting a rule change in good faith has essentially been told to chase her tail by the “elites” at the top of the NHGOP.

Chairman Ager still has a couple of hours to submit the Resolution to SOS Scanlon. If there is a legal issue with the Resolution, the burden of proof is on the state to provide. Time is running out to follow through on what you were elected to do.

So, let’s get this straight: for over eight months since the adoption of the Resolution by a majority of the members of the NHGOP state committee, Ager sat back and did nothing to implement the Resolution or to try to obtain a ruling on its efficacy from the Courts which could rule on whether it could take effect or whether it conflicted with existing state laws.

But putting aside the technical arguments over whether the Resolution was proper or not- assume for argument’s sake that it was not. Secretary of State Scanlan has stated in writing that he cannot produce any prior written notice from the party giving the required notice of adoption of a party rule to “open” its primaries to Undeclared voters. Since RSA 659:14 provides the only mechanism for opening the primaries (by the giving of written notice from the chair of the party to the SOS of the adoption of an opening rule- silent on whether it must be by Resolution or by by-law amendment), in the absence of any writing from the NHGOP advising the SOS of the adoption of an “open” primary rule, logic dictates that the primary must be “closed”- namely voters registered as Undeclared cannot lawfully vote in a GOP primary.

The fact that the primaries have been conducted improperly on an “open” basis for many years does not change the fact that the law is the law and should be applied as written.

Signed,

Many concerned state party members.

The post Response and Clarification to Chairman Ager About Our Closed Primary Resolution appeared first on Granite Grok.

Democrat Rep Marjorie Smith has drafted legislation to legalize medically assisted dying in New Hampshire. In its current form (10 pages), it reads like boilerplate camel nose under the tent- assisted suicide, except that by law, you’re not allowed to call it that.

It’s not assisted suicide, but it is.

The bill includes protections for everyone involved and details an extensive list of rules for qualifications, including mental capacity and a terminal condition with six or fewer months to live. If you wanted to step onto the slippery slope, this is what you’d use to do that. Legislation focused on end-of-life care (compassion) with many guardrails that can, over time, be taken down as they have in every State or country where Medically Assisted Dying has become law.

Mechanically, it appears thought out, but so were all its predecessors, from whom I assume this draft was derived. As such, it will inevitably suffer mission creep like its older relatives.

I have a few textual objections beyond my standing opposition to the politicization of the practice in general. Section 14 prohibits listing the cause of death as anything but the underlying condition. The second objection (same section), as noted above, is the prohibition against designating this death as assisted suicide – an affectation that, in years to come, could protect the State from having to accept its role in the rising number of deaths resulting from the inevitable widening of permissions that may result in the state assisting people toward “medically assisted suicide.”

In Section 10 Prohibited Acts, Part C, 5, makes it a felony to coerce or exert undue influence on a qualified individual to prevent them from requesting or self-administering a terminal prescription. Part C, 4, rightly prohibits trying to convince them, but item 5, to my reading, could be misconstrued. Loved ones who object are likely to do so in a manner that could be mistaken for a violation. Neither undue influence nor coercion for the purpose of the legislation is defined, leaving it open to abuse, not that describing it would not do the same.

Related: Slippery Meet Slope: Doctors in The Netherlands Are Euthanizing People with Autism

If legal, the “patient” has rights, many of the outlined, but this point seems legally dubious.

Another significant issue arises in the proposed preamble, which the author, Rep Smith, is not sure should be included. If you’d like my opinion, Marjorie, and I know you don’t, try reading it in the context of your political party’s approach to Informed Consent and privacy rights during the pandemic. You’ll likely throw the whole thing out to avoid looking like the steaming pile of hypocrisy this represents.

Check this out, and make sure you are not drinking any liquids that you might snort out your nose.

 

 

Important for the topic at hand, but can you imagine how different March 2020 onward would have been if this was the guiding principle of patient rights and privacy in the Granite State? I was giggling the whole read-through, followed by a more sober thought. How many people were victims of medically assisted suicide (sorry) dying as a result of nothing in this preamble having any weight in those circumstances?

It makes for a stunning contrast.

This is a draft bill and not typically for public consumption, but someone who had seen several of my Slippery Slope pieces thought I’d be interested in having a look. A scanned copy awaits you below if you feel inclined to skim it.

Related: Slippery Meet Slope: When the State Decides That it is in Your Best Interest to Die

I would like to remind you (again) that this draft law makes clear that this is not “assisted suicide. It is medically assisted dying. The Acronym for that is MAD, as in MAD Marjorie’s Assisted Suicide Bill (Yes, I’m hoping that name sticks). It may also be referred to as Medical Assistance in Dying or MAiD. Medically assisted dying also happens when you die unintentionally at a hospital or because of a doctor’s treatment or protocol or refusal to provide one that might work.

We should also consider a libertarian perspective – the right to die. It might be a kindness to allow someone to kill themselves because of a terminal diagnosis to avoid prolonged suffering. There is room for that, but not in a proto-socialized healthcare system run by oligarchs pining for a government-run monopoly. That’s the slippery slope. When The State defines the rules, measured by state employees acting as therapists (or even doctors), things can go downhill quickly.

Break the hospital and health insurance cartels’ stranglehold on care in New Hampshire. Incentivize private practice and off-label use of licensed drugs. Open Let patients and doctors accept plans from out of state. All of this can inspire competition, improve quality, lower costs, and optimize outcomes.

Reduce government interference with limited licensing oversight. The State should follow up on complaints or take notes if a patient files a malpractice suit. Fraud or misconduct should include the risk of criminal prosecution. Otherwise, get the hell out of the way.

And yes, I understand that NH State Senators will need to find a new source of endless funding for campaigns if we break up the Hospital and insurance cartels and that this additions loop will make reform impossible. But the current professional political trajectory of what passes for care presents too high a risk to life if you legalize assisted suicide.

Vermont has Death Tourism. They have telehealth death tourism. We don’t need this, even if we could trust the healthcare cartels and the politicians, which we can’t. The Netherlands, Hawaii, Oregon, and Canada (In Quebec, you can pre-order death by doctor if ruled incompetent), and not long from now Vermont, have proven that. Remember, “Governments, especially ones that believe they should manage everything, tend to create the misery assisted suicide will inevitably relieve.”

Kill MAD Marjorie’s Assisted Suicide Bill. It is too much to risk.

 

This is only a draft and not the final bill to be considered.

NH Marjorie Smith Draft Assisted Suicide Bill

 

The post Draft Legislation Would Put New Hampshire on the Slippery Slope of Medically Assisted Death appeared first on Granite Grok.

Someone commenting at GraniteGrok as Doyle shared some thoughts under an article by Ed Mosca, titled,  ‘Maggie Hassan Supports Nazis.’

The actual Nazis were ended in 1945. Maybe rather than use a stupid word like that you may want to be surprisingly accurate and call them national socialists. Of course then your BFF Putin is at the top of that particular list so there’s that. In 2019 Zelensky ran on an anti corruption platform and if you were interested in the truth had been making head way in that area until your BFF Putin criminally invaded the Ukraine again. Don’t forget 2014 or else I may believe you have a closet affection for the Kenyan. So even in the midst of this war Zelensky has been routing out corruption in his oh so copious spare time. I’m not sure what drives so called conservatives like yourself to be so willing to enslave an entire people at the tender mercies of you BFF Putin because you sadly believe Ukraine is some kind of epi-center of world corruption, it clearly is not. Washington DC and the USA make Ukraine look like amateurs as do many other places in the world. Sadly you have been given Ukraine as a freebie and sadly believe that if Ukraine were gone somehow much that is evil in the world would be gone and somehow the Biden crime syndicate’s money machine would dry up…you can not be that delusional. Please explain really why you hate Ukraine in rational terms and not hand waving glib rhetoric….you cannot. You are aiding and abetting Putin’s dictatorship and putting your head in the sand ala Neville Chamberlin win net the same result, the war you obviously seek. Never give a totalitarian a cheap victory if you can, I know to logical for you to understand, you’re just that stupid.

 

First, as I commented, this is a perfect example of Alinsky – pick a target, freeze it, polarize it. Extra rations for you after the Revolution, Comrade.

Putin!  Putin!  Putin!  Putin!  Putin!  Putin!  Putin!  Putin!  Putin!  Putin!  Putin!  Putin!  Putin!  Putin!  Putin!  Putin!  Putin!  Putin!  Putin!  Putin!  Putin!  Putin!  Putin!  Putin!  Putin!  Putin!  Putin!  Putin!  Putin!  Putin!  Putin!  Putin! 

Second, ignoring a vast amount of history – both recent and not – Doyle pretends that all this happened in a vacuum; NATO’s relentless expansion towards Russia was done despite promises not to do so.  So some information and, you know, historical information on that:

Ukraine-Russia: Look… SQUIRREL! – Granite Grok

And lastly, the Nazis were defeated.  And are no more.  A relic of the past.  Gone.  Erased from history.

O-kay… PULL!

 

https://granitegrok.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Nazis-in-Ukraine.mp4

 

And what’s with the guy with the American flag on his uniform doing the Nazi salute at about 2:00?

 

The post No Nazis in Ukraine? appeared first on Granite Grok.