To all those who are sending in memes, thank you!  Keep them coming please, as it helps me gather weaponry to fight the Left.  Please do share this post, and if you share an individual meme, consider mentioning you saw it on the Grok!

Speaking of, from this week, Monday Edition and Wednesday Edition.  Also check out my latest Israel-focused meme & commentary post.  Memes… but also links and commentary about the situation.

 

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

 

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ANYONE who thinks bringing a million+ Palestinians here absolutely NEEDS to read Brigitte Gabriel’s book BECAUSE THEY HATE about her experiences with that Palestinian in-migration into then-Catholic Lebanon… and how they took over.

Not only did they merely take over, but all the do-gooder types were pleading “But we protected you, welcomed you, helped you, advocated for you…”  The answer was simple: Stupid Infidel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Understand that for the most of them, the ones that took it in “good faith”, I have enormous sympathy.  Much less so for those who preened about it and wanted to force everyone to take it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Pick of the Post:

 

 

What is that, a block of Velveeta??  I can feel my arteries hardening just thinking about that…

 

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Palate Cleansers:

 

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And don’t forget… come back Monday for another edition.  Same Meme Time.  Same Meme channel.

 

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The post Friday Meme Overflow-Overflow appeared first on Granite Grok.

Two guys are sitting on a beach; after some small talk, one mentions how they owned a business for many years until the fire. Luckily, they were insured. Everything was taken care of, and they could still retire in style. The second guy looks at the first and says, what a coincidence.

They, too, owed a business, and when a flood took it out, they had adequate coverage and could recoup their losses and retire in style.

The first guy, looking puzzled, turns to the second and says, “How do you start a flood?”

It is not uncommon for a business to burn legitimately, but there is always the chance it was an insurance fire—a way to get out from under a failing business. And not just a business. Homes too. I know that seems cynical, and my apologies. Many people lose much in any number of disasters. The flooding in Vermont this past spring was not as record-setting as advertised, but it was significant. It changed many lives, ended some, and washed out homes, businesses, and livelihoods.

Like the COVID response. The PPP Loans. Medical and bailout money fraud. The system increasingly lends itself to the means and opportunity to do better at someone else’s expense. The entire green energy net-zero movement also comes to mind. And with it, the volatile power cells upon which it stands—lithium Ion batteries. I had to get certified to handle them at the job I used to do. They are considered hazardous materials. They can start fires that take out freighters, trucks, and aircraft. Their ubiquity has taken cars, homes, apartment buildings, businesses, and lives.

Using them to start insurance fires seems logical, as “vehicles” for arson or to hide another crime. Instead of finding the body of the DNC staffer who leaked all the internal emails in a bathtub, they could leave him in his burning Tesla, even though he never owned one. No worries, the FBI is still convinced it’s not suspicious.

New York City, the poster child for the problem of Lithium battery fires, has had more than 200 of them in a single year, and there’s no easy way to put them out.

 

“The lithium-ion battery adds a different degree, when we talk about the fire dynamics of it,” FDNY Deputy Assistant Chief Frank Leeb said at the briefing. “These rooms flash over in just a mere matter of seconds.” …

The problem is that lithium-ion fires burn extremely hot and are virtually impervious to conventional firefighting methods that use water or foam. In fact, lithium reacts very badly to water, which is really a problem if firefighters are attacking a fire for which they don’t know the cause.

 

It follows as night follows day. There will be numerous fires from faulty products, mishandling, or damage, but there will also be some who find it easier to have a delivery bike do the deed than to rely on the old exhaust system or faulty wiring.

And yes, insurance companies, like they have begun to do with electric vehicles, will offset the increased risk with much higher rates for dwelling owners who allow any EV in or on the premises. To protect themselves from mayhem, like how EV batteries can explode when overcome by flood water.

 

The post Are Lithium Ion Batteries the Future of “Insurance” Fires? appeared first on Granite Grok.

For those who remember the days and months that followed 9/11, there is an unnerving feeling of déjà vu about the Hamas attacks on Israel. The same shocking images of carnage and grief dominating the news. The same disbelief that anyone could be so hateful, so monstrous, so evil as to do this to another human being.

“Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”—Hermann Goering, German military commander and Hitler’s designated successor

The same outpourings of support and unity from around the world. The same shared fear that this could easily have happened to us or our loved ones.

Now, once again, the drums of war are sounding on the world stage, not that they ever really stopped. Israel is preparing to invade Gaza, the Palestinians are nearing a humanitarian crisis, and the rest of the world is bracing for whatever blowback comes next.

Here in the United States, as we approach the 22nd anniversary of the USA Patriot Act on October 26, we’re still grappling with the blowback that arises from allowing one’s freedoms to be eviscerated in exchange for the phantom promise of security.

Here are a few lessons that we never learned or learned too late.

Mammoth legislation that expands the government’s powers at the citizenry’s expense will not make anyone safer. Rushed through Congress a mere 45 days after the 9/11 attacks, the USA Patriot Act drove a stake through the heart of the Bill of Rights, undermined civil liberties, expanded the government’s powers, and opened the door to far-reaching surveillance by the government on American citizens.

Pre-emptive strikes will only lead to further blowback. Not content to wage war against Afghanistan, which served as the base for Osama bin Laden, the U.S. embarked on a pre-emptive war against Iraq in order to “stop any adversary challenging America’s military superiority and adopt a strike-first policy against terrorist threats ‘before they’re fully formed.’” We are still suffering the consequences of this failed policy, which resulted in lives lost, taxpayer dollars wasted, the fomenting of hatred against the U.S., and the further radicalization of terrorist cells.

War is costly. There are many reasons to go to war, but those who have advocated that the U.S. remain at war, year after year, are the very entities that have profited most from these endless military occupations and exercises. Thus far, the U.S. taxpayer has been made to shell out more than $8 trillion to wage wars abroad, including the lifetime price of health care for disabled veterans and interest on the national debt. That also does not include the more than hundreds of thousands of civilians killed or the millions displaced from their homes as a result of endless drone strikes and violence.

The tactics and weapons of war, once deployed abroad, will eventually be used against the citizenry at home. The horrors that took place at Abu Ghraib, the American-run prison in Iraq, involved “US military personnel humiliating, hurting and abusing Iraqi prisoners in a myriad of perverse ways. While American servicemen and women smiled and gave thumbs up, naked men were threatened by dogs, or were hooded, forced into sexual positions, placed standing with wires attached to their bodies, or left bleeding on prison floors.” Adding to the descent into moral depravity, the United States government legalized the use of torture, including waterboarding, in violation of international law and in the so-called pursuit of national security. The ramifications have been far-reaching, with domestic police mirroring a battlefield mindset in their encounters with American citizens, including the use of torture tactics at secret locations such as Homan Square in Chicago.

Allowing the government to spy on the citizenry will not reduce acts of terrorism, but it will result in a watched, submissive, surveillance society. Not only did the USA Patriot Act normalize the government’s mass surveillance powers, but it also dramatically expanded the government’s authority to spy on its own citizens without much, if any, oversight. Thus, a byproduct of this post-9/11 age in which we live, whether you’re walking through a store, driving your car, checking email, or talking to friends and family on the phone, you can be sure that some government agency is listening in and tracking your behavior. This doesn’t even begin to touch on the corporate trackers that monitor your purchases, web browsing, Facebook posts, and other activities taking place in the cyber sphere. We have all become data collected in government files.

News cycle distractions are calibrated to ensure that you lose sight of what the government is doing. The average American has a hard time keeping up with and remembering all of the “events,” manufactured or otherwise, which occur like clockwork and keep us distracted, deluded, amused, and insulated from the reality of the American police state. Whether these events are critical or unimportant, when we’re being bombarded with wall-to-wall news coverage and news cycles that change every few days, it’s difficult to stay focused on one thing—namely, holding the government accountable for abiding by the rule of law—and the powers-that-be understand this. In this way, regularly scheduled trivia and/or distractions that keep the citizenry tuned into the various breaking news headlines and entertainment spectacles also keep them tuned out to the government’s steady encroachments on their freedoms.

If you stop holding the government accountable to the rule of law, the only laws it abides by will be the ones used to clamp down on the citizenry. Having failed to hold government officials accountable for abiding by the rule of law, the American people have found themselves saddled with a government that skirts, flouts, and violates the Constitution with little consequence. Overcriminalization, asset forfeiture schemes, police brutality, profit-driven prisons, warrantless surveillance, SWAT team raids, indefinite detentions, covert agencies, and secret courts are just a few of the egregious practices carried out by a government that operates beyond the reach of the law.

Do not turn your country into a battlefield, your citizens into enemy combatants, and your law enforcement officers into extensions of the military. A standing army—something that propelled the early colonists into revolution—strips the citizenry of any vestige of freedom. How can there be any semblance of freedom when there are tanks in the streets, military encampments in cities, Blackhawk helicopters, and armed drones patrolling overhead? It was for this reason that those who established America vested control of the military in a civilian government with a civilian commander-in-chief. They did not want a military government ruled by force. Rather, they opted for a republic bound by the rule of law: the U.S. Constitution. Unfortunately, we in America now find ourselves struggling to retain some semblance of freedom in the face of police and law enforcement agencies that look and act like the military and have just as little regard for the Fourth Amendment, laws such as the NDAA that allow the military to arrest and indefinitely detain American citizens, and military drills that acclimate the American people to the sight of armored tanks in the streets, military encampments in cities, and combat aircraft patrolling overhead.

As long as you remain fearful and distrustful of each other, you will be incapable of standing united against any threats posed by a power-hungry government. Early on, U.S. officials solved the problem of how to implement their authoritarian policies without incurring a citizen uprising: fear. The powers-that-be want us to feel threatened by forces beyond our control (terrorists, shooters, bombers). They want us afraid and dependent on the government and its militarized armies for our safety and well-being. Most of all, they want us distrustful of each other, divided by our prejudices, and at each other’s throats.

Once you trade your freedom for security, the terrorists win. We’ve walked a strange and harrowing road since September 11, 2001, littered with the debris of our once-vaunted liberties. We have gone from a nation that took great pride in being a model of a representative democracy to being a model of how to persuade freedom-loving people to march in lockstep with a police state. And in so doing, we have proven Osama Bin Laden right. He warned that “freedom and human rights in America are doomed. The U.S. government will lead the American people in — and the West in general — into an unbearable hell and a choking life.”

It took a long time to clear away the rubble from the 9/11 attacks.

Yet, as I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, 22 years after the USA Patriot Act was unleashed on a vulnerable nation, we are still reeling from the destruction it has wrought on our freedoms.

 

John W. Whitehead | The Rutherford Institute

The post Postcards from a Police State: 22 Years of Blowback from the USA Patriot Act appeared first on Granite Grok.

Komrade Kuster has adopted the idea that she is a legislator for life—the Ruling Class DC ambassador to the warm bodies assembled in New Hampshire’s second congressional district every election day.

If you look at a map, CD2 is geographically and politically on the left side of New Hampshire, getting its most liberal votes from college towns (Keene, Plymouth, Hanover) and cities like Nashua and Concord.

The smaller blue-leaning towns in the more sparsely populated sections are, in part, a well, poisoned by progressives who fled Vermont’s socialist decline only to inflict it here. They creep across the Connecticut River to vote in our elections and have for years, but some also make the move permanent. Hoping to escape the slippery slope of Vermont socialism but, like any virus, infecting the healthy cells they then inhabit.

CD-2 is a decidedly Democrat district, and winning it back would take the right candidate and more money than the GOP would ever spend. Let’s not write it off, but the last Republican to win it was very progressive, and they lost it to a Democrat six elections ago.

Anyway, as I understand it, Annie Kuster (formerly Ann McLane Kuster or Ann ‘Raise the Roof’ Kuster) is a genuinely nice person outside of politics, but why would any of that matter? Her ideological ghetto almost guarantees her reappointment every two years, and, as noted above and as you’ll see below, she knows it.

She is about as captured an actor of the party narrative as you could be.

It’s embarrassing.

 

 

center

 

The post Klueless Ann Kuster appeared first on Granite Grok.

The term “Bidenomics” has become synonymous with the economic policies of the Biden administration and let’s be frank, they have failed on every possible level. I can’t bite my tongue any longer on this. Bidenomics is not only crushing the American spirit but it’s making millions of Americans dependent on our government, which is not the American dream and will have chilling effects on the future of this nation.

While presented as a plan to bolster the financial well-being of Americans, a closer look at the Bidenomics fact sheet reveals a different story — one where the average American is shouldering the burden of inflation and increasingly high interest rates due to Bidenomics.

The effects of these policies are far more pronounced than what the media and the administration are willing to admit. So while the media and the Biden administration is not willing to speak the truth, I will speak out on this.

Recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau, analyzed in depth by Stephen Moore in his recent New York Post op-ed, paints a troubling picture of the state of poverty in America.

What’s most shocking in this data is the sharp increase in poverty rates for both adults and children. In just a year, from 2021 to 2022, poverty in America rose from 7.8% to 12.4%, marking an alarming increase of 58.9%. Equally concerning is the fact that the child poverty rate also doubled, soaring from 5.2% to 12.4%.

The question we must ask is this: How is Bidenomics working for the American people if over 10% of our nation’s children are living at or below the poverty line? I refuse to accept for a minute that have 10% of America’s youth living at or below the poverty line is something for the Biden administration to celebrate in any way.

In addition, The Federal Reserve plays a major role in U.S. economic policy and can significantly influence the state of the economy in 2023. As inflation remains a pressing concern, the Federal Reserve faces the difficult task of deciding when and how to raise interest rates in this era of increasing interest rates due to Bidenomics.

The prospect of more interest rate hikes has raised questions about the state of the economy, and many are left wondering why the economy is in such a precarious position.

Make no mistake, Bidenomics has heightened tax disparities between states. Forbes reports that California now bears the heaviest income tax burden in the nation, a staggering 13.3%, while Florida enjoys a tax haven status with no state income tax. California’s corporate tax rate at 8.84% far exceeds Florida’s 5.5%.

These punishing taxes deter investment and innovation in California, leading businesses and individuals to seek refuge in lower-tax states like Florida.

Equally concerning is the unchecked rise in living and housing costs in California, exacerbated by Bidenomics. According to PolitiFact, California’s median home price in May 2021 reached a staggering $818,260, compared to Florida’s more reasonable $344,900. Rent is substantially higher in California, with a median monthly rate of $2,518 for a two-bedroom apartment, versus Florida’s $1,256.

Working-class Americans work tirelessly to make ends meet, yet they find themselves at odds with an economy that seems to be working against them. This government’s role in shaping the economy cannot be underestimated, and it’s essential to scrutinize whether the current policies truly serve the people.

The Bidenomics plan aimed to change the economy for the better but it’s an epic failure.

As the nation grapples with inflation and extremely high interest rates, it’s clear that these policies have fallen short of their promises by every single measurable benchmark. The recession forecast looms large, and Americans are left wondering about the steps a nation can take to achieve economic growth.

Furthermore, millions of Americans are being faced with tough decisions every week about whether to put gas in their car to get to work or food in their refrigerator. This is not the American dream that we all love so much, it’s America in decline.

Bidenomics may have promised to improve the financial well-being of Americans, but the reality is far from what was anticipated. Inflation, housing costs, sagging stock market and increasing interest rates have brought about a challenging economic landscape, with many struggling to make ends meet.

The American spirit is being crushed under the weight of inflation and soaring interest rates, stark reminders of the consequences of these policies. As we peer into the economic horizon of 2023, the looming recession is a haunting specter, casting doubt on the effectiveness of Bidenomics in delivering on its promises. Bidenomics is a resounding failure by every single indicator.

Bob Rubin is the Founder and President of Rubin Wealth Advisors. He can be found at https://www.rubinwealthadvisors.com/

 

Bob Rubin | 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 News Foundation.

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The post The Stone Cold Truth About Bidenomics appeared first on Granite Grok.

One of the most eventful things to have happened recently was from an unexpected source. The State Department and the intelligence apparatus didn’t initiate any coups somewhere in the Third World, the Kremlin didn’t launch a blitzkrieg and capture Kiev, and a currency from the BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) hasn’t entered circulation yet.

For the man who was once heralded as a savior for spearheading electric vehicle technology (even with bylines backing Barack Obama) and space exploration, Elon Musk has once again reaffirmed his status as the Beltway’s number one opponent in an extremely bold fashion, far outpacing his purchase of Twitter and the release of the Twitter Files. He denied a Ukrainian request to turn on Starlink and use it to help Kiev launch drone strikes on the Crimean city of Sevastopol.

The reaction was intense. Establishment media outlets screamed bloody treachery over the revelation that Musk singlehandedly thwarted a massive strike that could have been a game changer in Ukraine’s war with Russia, and the media dogpiled on Musk’s handling of X (formerly Twitter) for allowing “Russian propaganda.” Kyiv was livid, declaring that Musk had been complicit in the deaths of innocent Ukrainian civilians. However, Musk stood by his decision. Given the importance of Ukraine (and its access to the Black Sea) to Russia as a geographical barrier preventing it from being encircled in continental Europe by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), as well as the fact that NATO has already signaled that it will allow Ukraine to join once the war with Russia is over, Moscow has every strategic reason to prevent the recapturing of Crimea.

Aside from the media outrage, however, have been the cheers Musk has been receiving, which would not have been there if this incident had happened twenty years earlier. Many of the people who cheered for Musk aren’t predominantly tech geeks or social liberals; they’re from the American heartland, proud to wave the Stars and Stripes and be a good conservative patriot. Once upon a time, these people were unabashed in their defense of American foreign policy, declaring that it was America’s responsibility to democratize the world with bombs. However, the argument no longer captivates them; the recipients of these regime changes didn’t democratize as hoped. Iraq is under an authoritarian and corrupt state, while Afghanistan fell to the Taliban as ordinary Afghans became fed up with the corruption of American-backed Kabul and have demonstrated a preference for (a rough) peace. These conservative Americans are fed up with seeing their standard of living going away and genuinely well-intentioned relatives dying in failed wars that were for nothing; they want their money spent on issues that are more pressing.

Even better, many of them also want the government to step out altogether on certain matters. Vivek Ramaswamy and Ron DeSantis are adamant about getting rid of the Department of Education and returning education back to state policy. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has earned much enthusiasm from libertarians for calling for a return to hard money by backing the dollar with bitcoin and gold, effectively constraining much of the Federal Reserve’s power. Donald Trump remains just as relevant as ever, with the ongoing indictments in Georgia making him look like the archenemy of the Beltway. Polarization is growing ever deeper—no longer between Left and Right but instead between the political elite and the dissidents. The talk of the town next year will be between Trump, Ramaswamy, Kennedy Jr., and maybe DeSantis, not Nikki Haley or Mike Pence.

Being completely realistic here, however, the chances of a much-needed downsize of government power—especially on matters well-engrained as the common ground of both the Left and Right of the Beltway—are a virtual impossibility. The political pundits and the Beltway aren’t giving up without a fight, and much of that only signals to voters how nervous the Beltway is. Even if one of these candidates wins the presidential election, the case of Trump’s many attempts to pull out of Afghanistan and how his staff routinely sabotaged him is a grim reminder. One can argue that Trump should have appointed better employees, but under the weight of having your fate decided by people who could remove you from office by voting for impeachment, there’s not much you can do. Would Lindsey Graham and Mitch McConnell not have voted for impeachment if Trump had immediately followed suit with his promises to pull troops out of Afghanistan and normalize relations with Russia?

We’ve already seen states attempting to remove Trump from the ballot. One Proud Boys member has been sentenced to twenty-two years of imprisonment for the events of January 6th, even though he didn’t attend the riot. Musk is currently being sued by the Department of Justice for not hiring non–United States citizens, even though doing so would have violated international arms trafficking laws. Returning to the complicated relationship between Trump and establishment Senate Republicans, a unilateral change in foreign or domestic policy that goes outside the acceptable boundaries of interventionism, sound money, and the managerial state will not be accepted by the Beltway. They will only accept something that can benefit their ideals; in other words, they will twist and co-opt the opposition into backing the very same ideas that betray liberty.

Indeed, while the conservative movement is experiencing a change of mind, there are proposals that are heartily embraced by the Beltway or can be manipulated into servicing its plans. When Ramaswamy talks about his love for the Constitution, why Americans are dangerously ignorant about the purpose of the Constitution, and how he can rectify this ignorance by imposing a civics test that determines whether the test takers can vote, Ramaswamy should realize that—beyond the reaction from Leftists—the Beltway can determine how the Constitution is to be interpreted by the people, such as what constitutes free speech or sedition. With Republicans now backing “semiconductor independence,” what they mean is to throw more taxpayer money onto wasteful and inefficient economic projects, something Ramaswamy and the other candidates support. Kennedy Jr. wants a return of the fairness doctrine for traditional media to curb polarization, but who will do the enforcing? Like Ramaswamy’s civics test, the fairness doctrine will be enforced by the bureaucrats who have protection from establishment lawmakers.

Ultimately, and unfortunately, while there are major changes in policy orientation, the fundamental point that the government ought to do more remains and is reinforced by the idea that the government is run by incompetent people. Ramaswamy, Kennedy Jr., the rest of the candidates, and much of the general public view the government getting out of the way as part of the government doing something to rectify the problem—contrary to libertarian thinking that the government is the source of the problem.

For Kennedy Jr., restoring the gold standard is part of a broader plan to establish an alternative form of progressivism, where portions of the bureaucracy and government interference in the economy are exponentially expanded. For Ramaswamy, national independence takes greater precedence than individuality and freedom of exchange, which means international trade becomes more of a foreign policy issue than an economic one.

We’re only at the tip of the iceberg. We’re only approaching 2024, with 2028 and so on further in the future. It can’t be stressed enough how much the new populist movement has inherited from the Beltway Left on matters relating to the role of the government and the economy. The ideological positions of the “national conservatives”—or the “progressive right”—are a response to the supposed championing of laissez-faire economics even though these national conservatives have never accounted for the fact that the word “capitalism” has been so heavily distorted into legitimizing big government policies under Republican administrations (need I remind you of who called for a national lockdown and who started inflating the currency during covid?). With economic progressivism favored by the Beltway and much of the public living under the illusion that the US only needs to replace the incompetent people at the helm with competent people, America is still on the road to serfdom.

If anything, what Elon Musk was able to accomplish with Twitter (now X) did much to expose the Beltway’s activities, as well as Musk doing his bit to try and prevent a potential escalation of the war. Libertarians should raise a glass to him for not only fighting against government encroachment but demonstrating that the fight for liberty can be done more efficiently than betting on 2024.

 

Jeremy Powell is a blogger on Substack. His X (formerly Twitter) handle is @jpowell145.

Jeremy Powell | Mises Wire We heartily encourage reprints and shares of Mises Wire articles. If you wish to reproduce an article in your blog, magazine, radio show, newspaper column, classroom material, textbook, discussion group, website, or any other venue, please do so. The original publication source must be included in an appropriate place.

The post The Spirit of the Establishment Will Thrive under a “Populist Opposition” Government appeared first on Granite Grok.

While Steve said a number of things that are absolutely true in his post “At Least One Person Was Not Happy to See Me at the NHGOP Leadership Summit,” this one is the nugget, IMHO, that should stick with you.

“Elected office becomes more about what political power can do for them, not how they might use their influence to restrain it.”

Power is a very corrosive addiction. So many people want to get involved in politics, some for the wrong reasons and some for the right ones. The wrong ones include “To Be Someone” or “Be Seen as Someone of Some Repute.” The ones that I consider to be the right ones are mostly centered around the idea of Limited Government.

And let me further expand that (and this is for you, Southern Poverty Law Center, which branded GraniteGrok as Anti-Government) – seeing that our four (at least here in NH) levels of Government have grown so large, so intrusive and so expensive…

 

Sidenote: after sucking in over $4 Trillion a year, now running a $2 Trillion yearly deficit and a national debt of $34 Trillion (meaning we spend $808 JUST TO PAY THE INTEREST on it – 15% of our national expenditures that are going to RISE because of the Federal Bank raising interest rates. Yet, WE’RE the domestic terrorists because we keep pointing out this fiscal fraud being foisted upon our grandchildren??

 

…that we haven’t had “Limited Government” for decades (think FDR, LBJ, Nixon, Reagan, Obama, Trump, and now Biden, for a few). Our mission SHOULD be LIMITING our Government levels – full stop.

Gaining and then possessing political Power means you have OUR purse. And as they dole out OUR dollars, they see their personal political Power rise (right, Jeb Bradley?).  Always expansion and never, as Steve points out, restraining it. NO Democrat that I know of wants even one dollar less in their budget. Sadly, too many Republicans are in that same camp.

Yet, GraniteGrok and other conservative outlets and activists become the “Oppressors” (to use the wording of the Left), and the spenders become the “pitiful victims.” It’s always the Washington Monument Syndrome variations with these people. Don’t agree with increased spending that piles up debt, WE are the problem and not those raiding our wallets and bank accounts.

I wish I had been able to, but now, in my late 60s, I find myself with a young family again – my priorities have had to change, and I am staying home the majority of my time. But Steve sussed out the major problem with many Establishment Rs – they neither can debate or defend their stances and philosophy against the Constitutions and the NH GOP’s own Platform.

Thus, we shouldn’t be surprised, as we have said many times here on the ‘Grok, when their oath is a mere formality, words quickly said and then forgotten, and not an ironclad promise to us all.

And THAT’S when I have no problem accepting the Mantle of ” GraniteGrok DOES cost Republicans votes” – and hopefully the right ones that show us, by their own words, legislation, and votes, they deserve to be cast out of Power. Like Brodie DeShaies last election. This year, I think it will be no secret that a target will be Democrat-Lite Republicans Mike Bordes, Travis O’Hara, and David Nagel from Belknap County screwing over Parents by actively working with the Democrats in killing off the attempts at legally codifying that PARENTS are responsible and in charge of raising their children and NOT Government.

 

The post An Amplification of What Steve Said, About Political Power appeared first on Granite Grok.

Western Europe is culturally dying and will ultimately lose its independence to new arrivals: Muslims. Eventually, they will be forced to fully embrace Islam or else. This means America will be next, and no one is doing anything about it!

The idea that Muslims are only a very small minority and it is simply not possible that this small group could destroy America from within is a myth that the leftist media crafted and forced down the throats of gullible Americans. These new arrivals have figured out that changing America through subversion (stealth jihad) is easier than violent jihad.

Muslims will never assimilate, and there is a reason for that:

Because it is obligatory for a Muslim to follow Islamic scriptures and not a man-made law such as the US Constitution. Therefore, Muslims will refuse to embrace the American way of life. Sadly, we have not learned anything from the 9/11 attacks but instead act like we suffer from Stockholm Syndrome.

Along with a few other concerned citizens, I have been sounding the alarm for decades to no avail. Apathy, political correctness, and massive Islamic lobbying have successfully prevented the public from truly grasping the all-pervasive nature of the Islamic assault. But, the alarmists are getting old, and we have no replacement for them, which means America, as we know it, will not survive this subversion and an assault on our culture.

The younger American generation is ill-equipped to handle what will be coming at them.

Final Warning: Defeating encroaching Islam will be the future generations’ greatest challenge. If we don’t defeat Islam politically and do it swiftly, our children, grandchildren, and their children could be engaged in a religious and ideological bloody war, the likes of which have never been seen on American soil.

 

The post Islam in America appeared first on Granite Grok.

Jim Jordan’s bid to become Speaker of the House of Representatives has been illuminating. It shows that the Democrats have a working majority in the House … which explains why NOTHING has really changed since the Republicans supposedly took “control” of the House.

As of the time I am writing this (10/19 – 10:00 am), a relative handful of UniParty RINOs, who apparently are totally contemptuous of the Republican voters who put them there, have blocked Jordan and now are talking about an insidious coalition with the House Democrats in order to continue “business as usual.”

Remember this when they tell you “just vote Republican” up and down the ticket.

As noted here, any plan to make McHenry speaker will take a deal with Hakeem Jeffries to get Democrat votes and promise to support Biden spending bills, and will empower the “temporary” bipartisan speaker through next year. GOP would be giving Democrats control of the House. https://t.co/SckCMPqBES

— Jim DeMint (@JimDeMint) October 19, 2023

The only way McHenry becomes Speaker is with significant Democrat support and Hakeem Jeffries’ blessing. McHenry is now the official candidate of D.C. Democrats and turncoat Republicans. Any “Republican” who goes along with it needs to be primaried and thrown out of office. https://t.co/trtzwsdJI1

— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) October 18, 2023

The Republican establishment wants to prop up Patrick McHenry as a “permanent” temporary Speaker.

McHenry is not a conservative at all.

His Liberty Score is a 45.8%. That’s less than half.

He did nothing when Trump had the election stolen from him.

He did not sign the Texas… pic.twitter.com/vqjkBScq3A

— Joey Mannarino (@JoeyMannarinoUS) October 18, 2023

Right now there are two paths forward for the GOP in the Speaker battle:

1) Elect Rep. Jim Jordan Speaker of the House, an actual conservative who already has support from most of the Republican conference, as well as the voters, and get back to doing what Americans elected a…

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) October 18, 2023

The post It’s Republicans That Are Preventing Jim Jordan From Becoming Speaker appeared first on Granite Grok.

Disclaimer: I have no idea whether Logan Clegg is guilty or innocent of the charges for which he is on trial, but you can’t have a fair trial (a constitutional right) if the players are corrupt.

We want to thank Claire Best for this Contribution – Please direct yours to Editor@GraniteGrok.com.
You can review our ‘Op-Ed Guidelines‘ on the FAQ Page.

In the courtroom providing testimony have been – among others – police detectives, former Assistant AG Geoffrey Ward, State Lab Technician Katie Swango, as well as other DNA labs “experts.”

The Concord Police do not have a reputation for being honest, and Concord Police Chief Bradley Osgood has never addressed this. At least two Concord PD are listed on the Laurie List.

Former Assistant AG Geoffrey Ward deleted the files of 28 police officers on the Laurie List after I had written to John Scippa of Police Standards & Training regarding concerns over Concord Police Julie Curtin’s dishonesty (very well documented, in fact, in NH v Owen Labrie. And, it would appear, from her arrest warrant/statements for Primo “Howie” Leung as well as her involvement in the Grand Jury Criminal Investigation into St. Paul’s School, during which she obtained students files without a warrant under instruction from the AG’s office where Geoffrey Ward was working with Jane Young, Gordon MacDonald and Laurie List police officer Jim McLaughlin).

The two bullet casings found a month after the murders for which Logan Clegg is alleged to have committed were discovered by Geoffrey Ward – the man who deletes files of corrupt police officers. The man who helped sort out a no-jail-time plea deal for Judge Julie Introcaso after she whited out judicial documents and ordered a Guardian Ad Litem to be paid using Apple Pay. Julie Introcaso had as her legal counsel former AG Michael Delaney, who is alleged to have tampered with state witnesses in New Hampshire v. Owen Labrie (on record with the US Senate Judiciary Committee). Former AG Michael Delaney also admitted failures of his office for the FRM Ponzi Scheme.

Sitting next to Logan Clegg for part of the courtroom proceedings is Catherine Ruffle, Merrimack County Superior Court Clerk. Catherine Ruffle was the prosecutor in NH v. Owen Labrie and admitted to Judge Larry Smukler that a deal had been made for one of the state witnesses, Andrew Thomson. Thomson’s legal counsel was Jim Rosenberg at Shaheen & Gordon (formerly of the AG’s office. Andrew Thomson’s mother, Lucy Hodder, was legal counsel for Governor Maggie Hassan and on the board of trustees for St. Paul’s School, for whom Michael Delaney was acting as legal counsel during the trial of Labrie.

Prosecutor Catherine Ruffle told the judge of the deal given to Andrew Thomson after she had been informed of the witness tampering involving Michael Delaney. Concord Councilwoman Amanda Grady Sexton informed her of this tampering – according to the report on file with the US Senate Judiciary Committee. Yet Catherine Ruffle proceeded to allow Andrew Thomson to testify. When her admission to the judge about the deal was unsealed months later, she retracted her comments, and DA Scott Murray and Jim Rosenberg backed her up. Miraculously, neither Andrew Thomson’s name nor his solicitations for sexual encounters with the state witness Chessy Prout ever made it into the civil complaint brought against St. Paul’s School. Michael Delaney (who was acting as counsel for the school) stated in writing that he had been in contact with the plaintiff’s (Chessy Prout’s) attorneys before they filed the suit. These attorneys were introduced by Concord PD Julie Curtin, who no longer works with Concord PD.

State lab technician Katie Swango is the only honest one in this group, from my observations. She testified in NH v. Owen Labrie that the DNA in the semen/sperm portion of the State witness/complainant’s underwear could not be attributed to Owen Labrie. But prosecutor Catherine Ruffle and her cohort Joseph Chernieske convinced the judge that the State lab report was the same as the Concord police lab report and that they were interchangeable. Thus, only the Concord Police lab report was entered into the exhibits for the jury’s consideration. The police lab report didn’t test the semen/sperm portion of the underwear, but the police sent the sample to the state lab in a bag which they labeled “AFSA” (Aggravated Felonious Sexual Assault) – bizarre since Concord PD Julie Curtin wrote down that Chessy Prout had said, “I have never said he raped me.”

Concord Police Chief Bradley Osgood admitted a couple of years ago that the police pay witnesses for Grand Jury testimony and that this is not always made known to the defense and judge. It was a case involving federal prosecutors, just like Geoffrey Ward is now.

Has it occurred to anyone that police may have been the murderers? If you think about police statements in relation to past unsolved murders in New Hampshire (especially those of Police Detective Jim McLaughlin), that is an avenue that should have been explored in this case. But police and prosecutors work too closely together for that to ever be considered.

Thus – guilty or not – the lowest hanging fruit for a state win using testimony from state employees with credibility issues is the homeless guy, Logan Clegg.

 

The post NH v. Logan Clegg & Merrimack County Superior Court Corruption – AGAIN appeared first on Granite Grok.

Two bills are under consideration by Vermont’s Legislative Committee on Administrative Rules (LCAR) that will have a substantial impact on Vermonters’ hunting and trapping liberties. Both bills began as efforts to ban trapping and coyote hunting; both were changed to allow these practices, subject to administrative oversight; both have morphed into efforts to essentially ban trapping and coyote hunting under the illusion of permitting them, by imposing complex extra-legislative rules.

LCAR must be held accountable to the clear legislative intent behind these bills: Vermont sportsmen and hunters must speak out NOW!

These bills do not merely impact trappers and coyote hunters: the methodology employed by those circumventing Vermonters’ hunting rights here will be used to steadily expand prohibitions and regulations until all hunting is essentially illegal. Beagle and other dog hunting will be next; bears and raccoons will be protected at the expense of longstanding traditions. If YOU do not stand up now, there will be little hope of standing later.

It appears that Vermont’s Office of Legislative Counsel (Mike O’Grady, the usual suspect) has jettisoned unbiased enforcement of the Vermont Constitution and is instead attempting yet another end run to enslave us. O’Grady and his overpaid office have repeatedly advocated for patently unconstitutional legislation, especially with regard to clear Second Amendment guarantees. Those charged with protecting our liberties are doing the opposite.

In the past, I have requested to know who drafts these legislative initiatives, and I’ve been told by the Office of Legislative Counsel that that is privileged information! That is, the identities of the people who write our laws are kept secret from the citizenry! I want to know who has drafted the proposed rules for LCAR (and the Department of Fish and Wildlife) to oversee Vermont coyote hunting and trapping regulations. That information should and must be available to Vermont citizens and taxpayers: we are tired and sickened by betrayals and lies by those paid to defend our liberties!

S. 201 began as a bill to ban trapping, but was changed to be more balanced. S. 201 was introduced to ban all coyote hunting, but was altered to permit regulated coyote hunting to continue. It appears LCAR will thwart that legislative intent by imposing burdensome rules that will result in a de facto prohibition – YOUR VOICE is desperately needed to tell these bureaucrats who works for whom, and that there WILL be accountability for this kind of Kafkian tomfoolery!

Please email charlene@leg.state.vt.us before noon on Monday, October 16, and sign up to testify on October 19 at 10:00 AM at the continued hearing on these bills. If you cannot attend on the 19th, you can still submit your written objection to Charlene and demand that LCAR honor the legislative intent of these statutes as drafted and not undermine them by addending politically-motivated rules that will render that intent moot.

If Vermonters do not stand up for their own rights, no one else will!! You have the opportunity here to make a difference, and have your voice be heard. Support other hunters, and your own future rights to hunt and enjoy Vermont’s culture and landscape!

Sign up, comment, attend, contact your legislators…. BE HEARD!!

I am working to raise funds to challenge LCAR’s actions in court should it decide to thwart the legislature with burdensome rules not intended in these bills. But the bird in hand is for you and others to attend this meeting and demand accountability NOW!! Please join us, and at least comment about your support for transparency in government and respect for the legislative intent behind these bills!

 

 

John Klar is an Attorney, farmer, and author. Mostly farmer… And Regular Contributor to GraniteGrok and VermontGrok.

The post Anti-Hunting Activists Are Planning an End-Run Around Your Rights! appeared first on Granite Grok.

One of my favorite lines from something I wrote a few years back is that to a Democrat, Diversity is a room full of people who look different but think the same. That it is acceptable to be colorblind if everyone agrees with you on everything, without exception.

A target that moves quickly and without any congruity.

Feminists are the foundation of women’s rights until they object to women with penises taking things away from women who weren’t born with one. People of color get special consideration unless they refuse to support every bullet point of Lefty Party dogma. And the media’s job is to translate that shifting “thing” into the approved words and phrases permitted in what passes for debate.

If you wanted to see this managed from the top down, you could revisit the Twitter files, but any day during the past few years in which the topic was COVID, masks, or “vaccines” will work (and yes, they are all related). Government force defining the information allowed for debate and how one was to respond if there were leaks in the bilge tank.

The Editors at Tablet Mag had some thoughts about it and how it has transformed them as a website.

 

As journalists, the increasingly strident calls for uniformity of opinion and perception struck us, from the very beginning, as dangerous and wrong. We believe in empirical investigation and analysis and in subjective personal observation and experience, not in party-line obedience to an instant consensus being formed and managed God knows how or where.

 

We’ve never been accused of Journalism, though that depends on your definition of what that is and whether we’ve committed some without trying. We are not reported, though we do report, so perhaps there’s a bridge not too far that connects them, and we’re standing on it with flashlights pointing out how important it is to let people who disagree work their ideas out with words.

Polite ones, if that can be managed. The foundation of which is this. We need to protect the forum, the agora, as Kensley reminded us not too long ago. To, with all our means, resist uniformity of opinion and perception on every side, not just theirs.

That’s not to say I don’t enjoy the affirmation of agreement from like-minded readers, but better still is the nut cracked to deliver nuance outside the stated premise. Yeah, that’s true, but! Or, sure, but what if this or that?

It is our mission, and I think we’ve succeeded, to provide something no one else in New Hampshire can. An information portal that embraces dissent for the sake of protecting free speech. A rare thing, in decline across the world and here at home. Something that the purveyors of Uniformity of Opinion and Perception are hell-bent on destroying, not so much because they disagree but because you can’t have a proper tyranny without that.

 

The post The Dangerous Trend Toward Uniformity of Opinion and Perception appeared first on Granite Grok.

What Joe Biden has done in the last few weeks by throwing money around the Middle East is tantamount to going to the Kentucky Derby and putting $100 on every horse to win. Two significant problems with his approach are he shows how flimsy our support for Israel is, and he is playing with our money, not his.

You cannot lose when playing with someone else’s money. He also is bowing to both sides of the aisle- the progressives, anti-Semitic and pro-Palestinian, and the moderate Left and the Right, pro-Israeli. He has already given $6 Billion to Iran, though there is evidence that the Biden Administration, by not enforcing sanctions, has enriched Iran to the tune of $70 Billion.

Today, he pledged unlimited resources to Israel to support their retaliatory efforts against Hamas, while inside sources say Biden is urging Israel to show restraint. And in his next breath, he pledges $100 Million to Gaza for humanitarian relief, referencing the Gaza City hospital bombed on Tuesday that evidence proves was hit by Hamas artillery.

These promises are made while the House of Representatives, the keeper of America’s funds, is in the second week of shut-down because they cannot elect a Speaker to replace Kevin McCarthy. The visit to Israel by Joe Biden comes when the Senate is finally considering the President’s nomination for Ambassador to Israel. The President has been in office for nearly three years without an Ambassador to our most important ally in the Middle East.

Biden is showing his weakness on the global stage while Congress shows its dysfunction at home. We cannot exude strength to our foes when we are so openly inept.

The Republicans could not be doing more to help Joe Biden. When America is self-destructing and needs strong leadership to pull her back together, Republicans are staging a civil war. Instead of the House Republicans taking the opportunity of the majority given them by the voters in 2022, a small fringe group staged a coup on Speaker McCarthy with no plan for the next step. Their actions ground the House to a halt. Their selfish acts stopped the House investigations’ attention on the Biden Family Cartel’s corruption. They allowed the watch to be focused on Biden and his team’s effort to control the crisis in Israel. They are feeding the media’s effort to campaign for Biden’s reelection by praising the President’s moves and mocking those of the Republicans.

As I write this article, the House is in its second vote for Speaker. CNN and MSNBC are reveling in the futility as the Republicans fail to garner support for a candidate to take the Gavel. FOX is disgusted at the Republicans wasting time on this exercise with so much that needs to be done worldwide. I also want to point out Kamala Harris’s absence. Except for a silent show on stage with Blinken, as Biden first spoke on the Israeli Conflict, she has been AWOL. Not even a sound bite from America’s second most powerful person speaks volumes about her place in the Administration.

As the world waits for Israel to make the next move in the Conflict, protests and demonstrations on behalf of Gaza and Hamas are strengthening and becoming more hostile. If there is evidence that Biden has held back Israel from attacking, he will face intense criticism from Israeli supporters and reinforce his weak international policy history. When the dust settles, this may be a terrible period for Biden, and none of his bets will pay off.

 

The post Biden Is Funding All Sides Of The Conflict appeared first on Granite Grok.

I haven’t read the law, so I can’t say for sure, but I’d bet money that there is no right to shelter in the event of criminal activity or fraud. Illegals, regardless of how they came to you, are not legal, even when you call them migrants.

The Feds are committing human trafficking crimes, and you are making excuses to help them.

From WCVB.com

 

Massachusetts is legally required to house homeless families due to the state’s “right to shelter” law. In recent months, the state has rented numerous hotels and motels to serve as housing for the rapidly growing number of families.

 

So why weren’t you housing homeless Americans? Why does Massachusetts, like many other liberal plantations, not house criminals in prisons – preferring to let them wander free to commit more crime, much like their illegal alien counterparts, never showing up for their court date and lost to the wind in a system that was incompetent and overwhelmed before Biden opened the border.

And why wasn’t Massachusetts housing and training up veterans or minorities or their most vulnerable, but they’ve got a state of emergency initiative and buckets of money to do exactly that to people who are not even citizens?

 

To help get families out of the shelter system, Healey said the state is working to connect work-eligible residents with jobs and said her administration would work with the Commonwealth Corporation Workforce Agency to develop a job training initiative specifically targeting shelter residents who do not yet have work authorization.

“We want to make sure they’re trained up and ready to work as soon as their permits come through,” said Healey.

 

Might I suggest getting them trained in the Trades? Those, at least, appear to be jobs Democrats won’t let Americans do.

And as for the real problem, that would be people who keep electing Democrats to public office and expecting a different outcome.

 

The post Massachusetts Has a Problem But It’s Bigger Than the Right to Shelter Law appeared first on Granite Grok.

This is an attempt to “break out” memes, links, and my commentary about the situation in Israel / the Middle East so as to not overload the standard meme posts that I do. My last “normal” meme post. And my last Israel-related one.

I don’t just have memes in the Israel ones, but lots of informative links as well as hopefully-insightful commentary, so if you didn’t see the last one, please do go look after you’re done with this one. Same thing here: lots and lots of links, info, videos, memes, and my added commentary (that I hope adds perspective and value).

 

*** Note that while I will attempt discretion in images that I post, not all are “squeaky clean” in terms of the eyes of the innocent. Be warned here. ***

 

 

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

 

Hamas in its own words.  (From 2009.)

 

 

From this post.  Good site in general.  Almost 15 years ago, and their message is unchanged.

 

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

 

WAR & WHEN WILL IT END?

Understand that terror is THE WAY in Islamic warfare.  Consider this recent shooting in Brussels.  Now, the lesson has been taught: “We Muslims can reach you here, and there, and everywhere.”  Here he is saying, “I am a fighter for Allah. We live for our religion, and we die for our religion.”  (At least, that’s the translation from the post where I got this from.)

 

https://granitegrok.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/brussels-shooter.mp4

 

WATCH: Hamas Brutally Tortured Before Murdering Them, Including Children – Geller Report

The next link is to an age-restricted video; warning, graphic, and upsetting content.

Horrifying video shows the moments at the site of Israel music festival

What astonishes me are the “Doubting Thomases” who, despite evidence like this, continually scream for more proof, more proof, more proof.  Yet when the Palestinian authorities cite casualty figures, etc., there’s totally unskeptical acceptance.  Another distressing video:

Israel-Hamas war: ‘80% of bodies’ found, including children, were tortured

Executed without pity: Shocking moment wounded female Israeli soldiers cowering under a table after being injured by a grenade are shot dead by Hamas gunmen | Daily Mail Online

Video.  Two women cowering under a table.  Shot at point-blank range.

—

 

 

—

They swooped in to kill dozens at the Nova music festival. Now we reveal… How Hamas trained its murderous paraglider squadron – right under the noses of Mossad | Daily Mail Online

What did I say at the end of my prior post?  Complacency.  Underestimation of the enemy.

 

THE ISLAMIC MENTALITY

Let me be clear, while there are many, many Muslims who do want nothing but peace and all, I know because my wife is one of them the hardline doctrine of Islam is one of terror, rape, and murder of anyone not of the faith.

Complete Infidel’s Guides

Robert Spencer’s ‘The Critical Qur’an’ | Frontpage Mag

The Abomination That Is Islam | Gates of Vienna

Make no mistake about it: we are all in the front line of Jihad now and had better find some backbone and start eliminating them en masse before we ourselves are rendered extinct. It really is as simple as that, and the latest example of what are facing can be found in the person of one Feras Al-Jayoosi, he of the dead eyes and a face that defines hatred for us and everything we represent.

—

A lot of people complain about the blockade around Gaza that Israel has up.  This is an indication – one data point among many – of why that blockade exists:

Police spokespersons:

Watch the documentary: The Israel Police Marines who fought in the south in the face of the terrorist attack, located packages of rice in which the Hamas organization had smuggled ammunition to the Gaza Strip.

The IDF soldiers were among the first to respond strongly to the terrorist attack that occurred on Saturday, October 7, 2023.

The fighters attacked and killed about 200 terrorists in the various fighting points in the south.

After the fighting in the battle centers, the fighters collected weapons and ammunition of the terrorists, which they destroyed and discovered ammunition inside rice packages that were in the terrorists’ equipment.

The suspicion is that the ammunition was smuggled into the Gaza Strip as “humanitarian aid” inside rice bags.

@DesertUnit0777

 

https://granitegrok.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/ammo-in-rice-packages.mp4

 

Truces are for rearming/reloading.  Again, read about the Treaty of Hudaibiya and how Mohammed signed a peace treaty… and broke it when convenient.  (That’s why I’ve never fully trusted the Abraham Accords – I had hope, but not trust.)  The Islamic mentality is of total war, eternal war, against the kaffir.  Speaking of war, and terror, repeating this excellent book link:

The History of Jihad: From Muhammad to ISIS

Eternal war by any means necessary:

Iran’s Final Solution for Israel: The Legacy of Jihad and Shi’ite Islamic Jew-Hatred in Iran

Remember how they pay martyrs and soldiers who kill Jews:

PA will pay $2,789,430 to families of 1,500 dead Hamas terrorist murderers, this month

This means each family of the 1,500 dead Hamas terrorists who invaded Israel will receive 7,400 shekels for this first month. Families of those terrorists who were married and had children will receive even more. The PA will pay at least 11,100,000 shekels ($2,789,430) this month as a reward for participating in last week’s murders and atrocities against Israeli civilians.

In addition, the 50 captured Hamas terrorist murderers will receive monthly salaries in prison starting at 1,400 shekels/month which will eventually rise to 12,000 shekels/month. Terrorists who are married and have children will receive even higher salaries. This month these newly arrested terrorists will receive at least 70,000 shekels ($17,590).

—

One of the things I highlighted in my last post was that of rape in Islam.  From Mohammed raping the widow of a conquered Jewish tribe in Arabia on the same day he murdered her husband (video of the son of a Hamas official also included in my last post)…

 

https://granitegrok.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Son2.mp4

 

to the fact that rape of captive women is – absolutely – sanctioned in Islam (links in the original quoted paragraphs):

Hamas Jihadi Admits True Motive for Kidnapping Women and Children | Frontpage Mag

Around the same time, on May 25, 2011, a female Kuwaiti politician, Salwa al-Mutairi, also spoke out in favor of the Islamic practice of sexual slavery of non-Muslim women, emphasizing that the practice accorded with Islamic law and the parameters of Islamic morality.

…

In January 2016, a female al-Azhar professor stated that Allah allowed Muslims to rape non-Muslim women in order to humiliate them.

—

Islam’s rhetoric is also consistent… over centuries upon centuries.

We took the liberty to make some inquiries concerning the grounds of their [Barbary’s] pretentions to make war upon nations who had done them no injury, and observed that we considered all mankind as our friends who had done us no wrong, nor had given us any provocation. The ambassador answered us that it was founded on the laws of their Prophet, that it was written in their Koran, that all nations who should not have acknowledged their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as prisoners, and that every Musselman who should be slain in battle was sure to go to Paradise.

Cited here about early America’s first involvement with Islam.  That statement from over 200 years ago could have been lifted from modern Muslim statements today.  The lesson of not paying DANEGELD was understood before… but it’s been unlearned.  As has Churchill’s lesson on appeasement.

More: consider the Battle of Yarmouk, where the “Sword of Allah”, Khalid bin al-Wahid (the guy who barbecued the head of a tribe chieftain, ate his brains, and raped the man’s widow in a pool of her husband’s blood, remember?) said (bolding added):

Before battle, Vahan and Khalid met under a flag of truce to negotiate. The Armenian commander began by diplomatically blaming Arabia’s harsh conditions and impoverished economy for giving the Arabs no choice but to raid Roman lands. Accordingly, the empire was pleased to provide them with food and coin on condition that they return home. “It was not hunger that brought us here,” Khalid responded coolly, “but we Arabs are in the habit of drinking blood, and we are told the blood of the Romans is the sweetest of its kind, so we came to shed your blood and drink it.

More on that battle.  But… tasty blood?  Why does that sound familiar (bolding added)?

Fox News reports that jihadi web sites are rejoicing over today’s terrorist attacks in Paris. The line we have heard more than once from ISIS-related sites is, “The American blood is best, and we will taste it soon.”

Almost a millennia and a half later, they’re saying the same thing.  And, from the article about Yarmouk, not just doing the same blood-drinking, but doing the same beheading (bolding added):

Things came to a head, quite literally, when 8,000 marching Muslims appeared before the Roman camp carrying the severed heads of 4,000 Christians atop their spears. These were the remains of 5,000 reinforcements who had come from Amman to join the main army at Yarmuk. The Muslims had ambushed and slaughtered them. Then, as resounding cries of “Allahu akbar” filled the Muslim camp, those Muslims standing behind the remaining 1,000 Christian captives knocked them over and proceeded to carve off their heads before the eyes of their co-religionists, whom Arabic sources describe as looking on in “utter bewilderment.”

And another terror tactic used now as in the past:

Cannibalism: ISIS Revives Islam’s Original Terror Tactic (raymondibrahim.com)

Closing out, they make it clear that their hatred of us is simply because we are unbelievers (italics replaced by bolding for emphasis, link in the original):

What’s important to understand here is that although some might argue that your foreign policies are the extent of what drives our hatred, this particular reason for hating you is secondary, hence the reason we addressed it at the end of the above list. […]  The fact is, even if you were to stop bombing us, imprisoning us, torturing us, vilifying us, and usurping our lands, we would continue to hate you because our primary reason for hating you will not cease to exist until you embrace Islam. Even if you were to pay jizyah and live under the authority of Islam in humiliation, we would continue to hate you [emphasis added].

 

 

Related – understand the Arab / Muslim mentality.  They do not think like Westerners:

Why Israel must wage all-out war ~ Elder Of Ziyon – Israel News

—

 

 

In the last post, I brought up Hijra, or conquest by migration and demographics.  The great Islamic push into Europe was stopped at Vienna in 1683.

The Other September 11th | Gates of Vienna

As an aside, Muslims are renowned for doing attacks on the anniversaries of great battles.  Either to reprise the date as another victory… or to reclaim the date of a loss with a subsequent victory.  But what do we make of this?  This was in Vienna.

Muslim Girl Beaten Up For Not Wearing Hijab | Frontpage Mag

It was in 1683 that the Muslim Turks, in their invasion of south and central Europe, lay siege to Vienna for the second and last time. They did not obtain their objective; the Viennese withstood the attack. That unsuccessful siege was the high water mark of the Ottoman entry into Europe. Now, in 2023, there are more Muslims in Vienna (236,000) than there were besieging the city (170,000) in 1683. In all of Austria, there are now 840,000 Muslims. They have no need to lay siege with massive cannons as they did in 1683. They have been slowly conquering the country through a demographic jihad. Muslims have managed to arrive, legally and illegally, in Austria, by the hundreds of thousands, economic migrants posing as asylum seekers who came to the country prepared to batten on all the benefits that a generous welfare state can provide: free or greatly subsidized housing, free medical care, free education, family allowances, unemployment benefits without needing to have any work history in Austria, and more. In this story, we see the result of that.

And in other places:

Welcome to Hamasburg | Gates of Vienna

And coming to the US through The Potato’s open borders.

Iranian Terrorists Are Coming Across Biden’s Open Southern Border – Geller Report

659 known or suspected terrorists caught at the border in 2023, the most ever (jihadwatch.org)

And worse, potentially, to our schools.

Three suspected Hamas supporters arrested after alleged threats to Toronto Jewish school; police deployed inside classroom – Rebel News

Look up the Beslan attack.  Now imagine that happening at your kid’s school.  Or the school of a child of a friend or family member.  How could this happen?  Imagine a bunch of Jihadists dressed as police, showing up at a school (nothing new – they’ve used IDF uniforms before).  They’re heeeeeere:

Iranian Sleeper Cells In Texas, Training and Recruiting in ‘Islamic Education’ Centers Raising – Geller Report

And they’re global:

‘Pro-Palestinian’ rally in Melbourne turns ugly with anti-Semitic chants – Rebel News

Anti-Israel sentiment leads to Berlin official to reluctantly ask Jews to hide their faith | Fox News

 

 

And here:

UK: Muslim demonstrators scream ‘Khaybar’ jihad chant vowing new genocide of Jews (jihadwatch.org)

Khaybar?  That’s the town where Mohammed raped that dead chieftain’s wife.  Remember what I said about them having a long memory?

We dare not let them in here.  Let in a million people who view America as the power behind the agent that displaced them from their homes?  And then think they’ll assimilate without any drive to take revenge?

Republicans ready bill to bar Palestinian refugees on national security grounds | World Israel News

 

 

 

And a critical lesson on Palestinian refugees comes through Brigitte Gabriel’s book BECAUSE THEY HATE, wherein she recounts how Lebanon – formerly a majority-Catholic country – was taken over by the Muslim migrants that were taken in because of western sentimentality and empathy.  Only to have those self-same advocates held down and killed even as they pleaded “But we helped you; we were on your side”!  The reply?  Stupid Infidel.  Here she is speaking from knowledge:

 

Islam: principi di guerra – Islam: principles of war.

 

 

Cut them off too:

Conservative Leaders Urge Defunding Palestinians of Foreign Aid (dailysignal.com)

—

Under pressure from Biden administration, Israel resumes supplying water to the Gaza Strip | World Israel News

Some are critical of this.  I think it’s a wise move – not militarily, but rather from a public relations standpoint.  Israel’s already getting hammered in the “court of public opinion”.  How hammered?

Students for Justice in Palestine Cheers Hamas Crimes at Colleges Across U.S. – Daniel Greenfield / Sultan Knish articles

Here’s a sampling of videos.

Florida:

 

https://granitegrok.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/palis-in-florida.mp4

 

 

Michigan (Dearborn of course):

 

https://granitegrok.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/dearborn.mp4

 

 

Around the country… around the world, Islamists are now deeply embedded.  And many governments are becoming increasingly critical too.  Israel is having to juggle eggs while on a bouncy-house floor.

 

MORE ON INTERSECTIONALITY / LEFTIST SUPPORT

When considering the support of the Left for Hamas, understanding their mentality is necessary.  This seminal transcribed speech by comedian Evan Sayet is critical:

Regurgitating the Apple: How Modern Liberals “Think” | The Heritage Foundation

Here he is speaking.  I’ve skipped the intro.

 

Evan Sayet – Regurgitating the Apple how Modern Liberals “Think”

 

 

 

PALLYWOOD

Gaza Strip’s Arabs enjoy spin classes, fine dining, private beaches, theme parks, luxury hotels | JTF

 

 

Just on a lark… go to Tripadvisor and search for hotels in Gaza, Palestine.  This one looks nice.  Or restaurants.

And a tidbit about Gaza when it was controlled by Egypt:

For some strange reason, Palestinians didn’t behead Egyptian babies between 1949 and 1967 ~ Elder Of Ziyon – Israel News

—

One of the recurring comments that I’ve seen over the years is how – under Ottoman Rule, for example – the land saw Muslims, Christians (the Armenians, as one group, might differ), and Jews peacefully coexisting… until, of course, the dread wave of Zionists started coming in.  On the incoming Zionists “displacing” Arabs… on the contrary Arabs flocked to the land after Jews started arriving (bolding added):

1934 Survey of Palestine Showed How Jews Helped Arabs; Arabs Flocked to Live Near Jewish Areas – Algemeiner.com

It shows that Arabs flocked to Palestine because of Jewish economic success, and that there was essentially no negative effects of Jewish immigration.

More:

Were the Arabs Indigenous to Mandatory Palestine? :: Middle East Quarterly (meforum.org)

Read the whole thing.  It’s eye-opening that many of the current Arabs were descended from labor-migration Arabs coming in because of the Jews.

More on the claim that, over centuries, Jews and Muslims lived in peace side by side.  A specific example of this is the rule of the Moors in Spain.  About that:

The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise: Muslims, Christians, and Jews under Islamic Rule in Medieval Spain

The reality is not quite as presented.  Non-Muslims were dhimmis (link to a book), under the thumb of Muslim rule under the Pact of Umar (links in original, bolding added):

After the rapid expansion of the Muslim dominion in the 7th century, Muslims leaders were required to work out a way of dealing with non-Muslims, who remained in the majority in many areas for centuries. The solution was to develop the notion of the “dhimma,” or “protected person” which applied to the “People of the Book” – Christians and Jews. Though not forced to convert or treated as harshly as other non-believers, the dhimmi were, in the best of times, second-class citizens and, at certain times and places severely persecuted and murdered.

So as you hear people or videos discussing this purported “Golden Age” of relationship between Muslims and Jews (and Christians)… understand there’s some missing background.

—

Another piece of background is on the expulsion of Jews from Arab countries.

Why Jews Fled the Arab Countries :: Middle East Quarterly (meforum.org)

And again I refer you to the excellent book Uprooted: How 3000 Years of Jewish Civilization in the Arab World Vanished Overnight

—

What reporters aren’t telling you about Shifa Hospital: It is Hamas HQ ~ Elder Of Ziyon – Israel News

As I understand it, hiding military functions in a hospital is a war crime.  More on international law:

No, Israel isn’t engaging in “collective punishment” under international law ~ Elder Of Ziyon – Israel News

 

TERROR COMING HERE?

Spain:

 

https://granitegrok.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/spain.mp4

 

It’s flags now.  And it will be Synagogues soon.  Wait, now:

Molotov cocktails thrown at Berlin synagogue, no damage: police – Insider Paper

And people soon after that.  And if the US shows support militarily, not just supplying arms & money but actual troops?  Watch out – not just Synagogues.  Malls.  Schools.  Downtowns.  Churches.  Individual people.  Total terror… but then, that’s what Islam does.

‘Top Secret’ Hamas Documents Show Palestinian Terrorists Intentionally Targeted Children: Report | The Daily Wire

SHOCKER! Islamic extremism apologist, MSNBC, actually is reporting the truth about documents found on dead terrorists’ bodies that shows Hamas targeted the most innocent of victims – children (barenakedislam.com)

 

TREADING ON THE POLITICAL

Nothing specific seen as noteworthy.

 

GIVING SUPPORT TO ISRAEL

You can’t go wrong with a donation here:

Connections Israel

I’ve contributed to them for almost 20 years.  And please share this post – and the following ones – far and wide.  There’s a lot of info here, that many people don’t know.

 

A CONCLUDING THOUGHT FOR THIS POST

Let me clear on something.  I do not relish the idea of razing Gaza.  I do not relish the prospect of all the dead civilians – and there are civilians – among that community.  I am aghast at the blast at the hospital, for example, though there are conflicting data on the cause.  I will say this, repeating something I’ve said earlier:

Cui bono?

Who benefits?

Israel’s reputation is now in a free-fall, just as it was setting up for an enormous crushing of Hamas.  Furthermore, one must take into account the fact that Hamas is known for putting its own people into harm’s way as CAMERA FODDER.

 

 

 

 

The post Israel: More Memes, Links, and Commentary appeared first on Granite Grok.

Who doesn’t like to watch nuns battling climate protesters? I know you’ve likely never even considered it until now, and how should that make you feel? Nuns fighting (I’m a fan of Warrior Nun – Netflix and IMDB – if you care). But that’s fiction. This is the real world.

Defending the faith has become increasingly contentious, so when a climate protester tried to stop construction by trespassing on the property, sister bulldozer hopped to it, so to speak, and tackled him.

 

“I didn’t expect that,” protestor Sylvain Herenguel told France 3.

“I expected the nuns to be a little reasonable for the public order. The problem is that the religious decided to resort to violence. I was attacked 3 times by five people, who snatched me, who wanted to throw me out. There, they decided to protect the site with their actions and their bodies,” he added.

Just ask your average Catholic School survivor – not sure they are as strict as they used to be – and you’ll get an earful about discipline. So he should have seen it coming.

And it looks like he is absconding pipe of some sort, which one of his fellow protesters can be seen crushing. So, there’s nothing wrong with a bit of trespass or destruction of property, but trying to prevent it?

 

 

Énorme ! La bonne sœur qui plaque un écologiste… du grand spectacle en Ardèche où des religieuses défendent le chantier d’un futur centre religieux face aux militants qui bloquent à cause de l’impact sur l’environnement.
@ferro_nicolas
plaquage non réglementaire pic.twitter.com/3wSyO7s3LO

— Léo Chapuis (@leo_chapuis) October 16, 2023

 

HT | TGP

The post Nun vs. Climate Protester – FIGHT! appeared first on Granite Grok.

The discussion is premature, but the Radical Left Wing group, The Squad, is unified that America should swing open its doors for Palestinian refugees who may need a new homeland after Israel destroys Hamas and Gaza.

These few irrational individuals may find themselves alone on their side as anyone with a modicum of common sense and love of this country knows it will be a bad idea to let any Palestinians into America, and there are many reasons to defend our argument.

As reported in Rightvsleft.news:

In a recent development, a member of the progressive “Squad,” Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.), has urged the United States to open its doors to Palestinian refugees.

This call comes in the wake of an estimated displacement of 1 million people in Gaza within a week, as reported by Juliette Touma, a spokesperson for the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees. However, this proposition has been met with staunch opposition from several Republicans.

Over the weekend, Pro-Palestinian and even Pro-Hamas demonstrations were held worldwide, especially in larger U.S. cities and universities. These demonstrators may be the only defenders of the Squad’s stance, but many Republican politicians quickly attacked the Squad and protestors. This debate is heated, but the temperature will rise when Israel begins retaliating against Hamas, and innocent bystanders are hurt or killed.

First, it must be understood that not all Palestinians align themselves with Hamas. Still, it is also known that all Palestinians despise Israel and want to see the obliteration of Jews and also have no love of America. So why would they want to come here in the first place? Letting them all relocate to Iran would be a better fit for them and Americans.

By the time Biden ends his stay in Washington in 2025, he will have allowed 8-10 million people to cross our Southern Border. We are not paying too much attention to our Northern Border, but illegals are crossing into America from Canada. We also have an untold number of refugees coming to a town near you from Ukraine. With the sheer magnitude of the number of people, vetting is not feasible. Biden will tell you these people are all given an appearance date to rule on their asylum claim, but that is years away, and virtually nobody shows up for these hearings.

With the people from Gaza looking to relocate to America, it is not the number of migrants. It is their core beliefs. All people in Gaza are indoctrinated from childhood and reinforced daily to hate Jews and Americans. Bringing these people into our world is tantamount to letting the wolf into the henhouse. That combination never works out well for the hens and will not work well for Americans. 

Currently, Jordan and Egypt have closed their borders to Palestinian refugees. Yes, some countries can secure their borders for the safety of their sovereignty and people. We can learn about border security from these Middle Eastern countries. This whole region is getting complicated. Jordan and Egypt have called off their scheduled meeting with Biden on Wednesday. The Biden trip has no upside. He will come off as weak, and now the principles leave him hanging. His visit may also be delaying Israel’s insurgence in Gaza. Biden should have stayed home and left it with him pledging support. He has no place on the frontline. Remember his history. He has never been on the right side of an international decision, and this one will be no different.

Get Biden back to Delaware, and keep the Palestinians in the Middle East.

 

The post If Arab Countries Can Secure Their Borders for the Safety and Sovereignty of Their People … appeared first on Granite Grok.

As the Biden administration gets closer to finalizing its proposed rule banning the sale of menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars nationwide, a well-known aphorism comes to mind: “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”

The administration’s logic behind the federal ban is that doing so will reduce smoking and correspondingly improve public health. This is the same logic used to justify increasing tobacco taxes or banning tobacco and vaping products at the state level.

When a state bans flavored tobacco or increases excise taxes on cigarettes, legal cigarette sales in the state tend to fall as a result. But what about illegal and out-of-state sales?

High cigarette taxes and bans on flavored tobacco products create black and gray markets through which smugglers become the new suppliers of these products.

Tax rates and smuggling

The Mackinac Center for Public Policy tracks cigarette smuggling in the United States. Its 2021 report showed how cigarette smuggling increases as excise tax rates on tobacco products increase.

New York, which taxes cigarettes $4.35 a pack, saw the highest rate of inbound smuggling—54.48%. The total number of smuggled packs, more than 254 million, was second in the country behind California’s more than 465 million. California also had the second-highest inbound smuggling rate (44.02%) and a tax rate of $2.87 per pack.

When taxes get high enough to encourage large-scale smuggling, tax revenue falls as people stop buying from legal vendors and start buying on the street, and as some vendors switch to out-of-state suppliers and simply don’t report or pay taxes on those purchases. As a result of their high taxes, California and New York saw the two largest revenue losses—more than $1.3 billion and $1.1 billion, respectively.

With a tax rate of $3.51 per pack, Massachusetts had the fourth-highest inbound smuggling rate (37.59%) and the ninth-highest number of smuggled packs (more than 63 million), resulting in the sixth-largest revenue loss (nearly $224 million) in 2021.

Where were these Massachusetts and New York smugglers purchasing these products? Mostly in New Hampshire.

With by far the lowest state tax on cigarette products in the Northeast ($1.78 per pack), the Granite State saw one of the highest outbound smuggling rates in 2021 (-34.13%, which translates to more than 32 million packs).

As smugglers crossed into New Hampshire to purchase cigarettes, the State of New Hampshire collected an additional $58 million in revenue.

High cigarette taxes incentivize illicit market activity, encouraging smugglers to purchase products in low-tax states, cross state lines with them, and consume or resell the products in high-tax states.

A similar dynamic takes place when a state bans tobacco products.

Bans and black markets

After Massachusetts banned flavored tobacco in 2019, JAMA Internal Medicine found that flavored tobacco sales dropped in the state. Successful policy, right?

Not so fast. “In fact, the flavor ban has been far from successful, as sales in both New Hampshire and Rhode Island experienced double-digit growth—almost making up for the entire decrease in Massachusetts,” according to the Tax Foundation.

After Massachusetts’ ban, total sales of flavored tobacco in New England fell by only about 1% from June 2019–May 2020 to June 2020–May 2021.

While sales of flavored tobacco decreased by 24% in Massachusetts between the year before the ban to the year after the ban, they increased by 22% in New Hampshire, 18% in Rhode Island, and 6% in Vermont.

In Fiscal Year 2021, Massachusetts lost out on $125 million in tobacco excise tax revenue as sales shifted to other states.

It’s a mistake to equate falling cigarette sales at licensed, regulated shops with an equivalent decline in smoking. The evidence shows that high taxes and bans on tobacco products shift a lot of activity to the black market.

A University of California at San Diego study of Massachusetts licensed tobacco retailers in the two years before and the two years after the flavored cigarette ban found that the number of new tobacco retail licenses fell by 53% after the ban, with the total number of retail licenses falling by 5.8%. This finding, combined with the documented increases in out-of-state sales and cross-border smuggling, underscores the point that the ban has not ended menthol cigarette smoking in Massachusetts but rather has moved these products onto the black market.

Responding to incentives

Massachusetts created strong incentives for people to buy tobacco products elsewhere and bring them into the state for personal use and/or sales. People responded just as expected.

It’s important to recognize that criminals respond to incentives, too. Gangs and drug smugglers can increase their revenues by adding cigarette smuggling to their repertoire of illicit activities. In the name of public health, states can find themselves strengthening existing organized crime networks and even creating new ones by imposing bans or high tax rates.

Bans and punitive tax rates also induce evasive behaviors among otherwise law-abiding citizens.

The Massachusetts Department of Revenue’s Illegal Tobacco Task Force issues press releases boasting of its enforcement of the state’s tobacco laws. Those press releases list people charged with running large-scale smuggling operations that include flavored tobacco, vapes, and marijuana. But they also include store owners arrested, convicted, and jailed for purchasing tobacco products out of state to avoid Massachusetts’ high taxes.

It’s worth noting that the task force is part of the Department of Revenue. It was created “to address the problem of illegal tobacco distribution in the Commonwealth and the loss of millions of dollars of legitimate tax revenues to the state every year [emphasis added].” Massachusetts’ tax policy stimulated so much tax evasion that the state created a separate team just to find and punish tax evaders.

The solution to this interstate smuggling, some advocates argue, is a nationwide ban. Such policies used to be called “prohibition.” But as that term has fallen out of political favor, advocates instead use the term “ban” now.

There is a large overlap between the people who want to ban tobacco and vaping products and the people who want to maximize government revenue for social welfare programs. Those two goals are in conflict. A Tax Foundation analysis of a proposed menthol cigarette ban shows how.

“A nationwide ban would result in a federal revenue decline of $1.9 billion in the first full year after prohibition,” according to the Tax Foundation. “In the states, the decline in excise tax revenue would be $2.6 billion, the decline in sales tax revenue would be $892 million, and the decline in MSA payments would be $1.2 billion, for a total state revenue loss of $4.7 billion.”

In New Hampshire, where menthol cigarettes make up 34% of the state’s market, a federal ban would mean more than $49 million in lost revenue, of which 71% would be a decline in excise tax revenue.

And just like Massachusetts’ ban resulted in 90% of its lost sales merely moving to neighboring states, a federal ban would increase sales and consumption of other tobacco products like non-flavored cigarettes, and it would move sales and consumption of menthol cigarettes underground.

For example, according to Reason Foundation, “approximately 22 million additional packs of nonmenthol cigarettes were sold in those states in the year after [Massachusetts’] flavor ban, leading to a net increase in cigarette sales.”

Where will illicit menthol cigarettes come from after a nationwide ban is enacted? The same place so many other banned products do: China.

In 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned flavored vaping products. It boasts that since the ban, it has rejected 99% of requests to sell new e-cigarettes, implying that the ban has reduced access to undesired products.

But CBS News reported in June that the “number of different electronic cigarette devices sold in the U.S. has nearly tripled to over 9,000 since 2020.”

The FDA’s ban excludes disposable vape products. So, predictably, consumers migrated to disposables. But closing that “loophole” isn’t the solution advocates think it is. The surge in different vape products sold has been “driven almost entirely by a wave of unauthorized [emphasis added] disposable vapes from China.”

Consumers and suppliers always find ways to circumvent federal bans.

The primary achievement of such bans will be to replace legal, regulated products with illegal, unregulated ones, often from unscrupulous manufacturers. In a legal market, manufacturers and sellers have strong incentives to build market share by building trust with consumers. Legal markets promote accountability. Black markets do the opposite. Manufacturers and sellers have strong incentives to conceal their identities, which weakens accountability and reduces consumer safety.

Any federal ban would bolster illicit trade, flooding the market with less safe products from unaccountable manufacturers.

The goal of high cigarette taxes and flavored tobacco bans may be an altruistic one, namely, to reduce smoking and improve public health. But the actual outcome of such policies is what’s important. Creating black markets, reducing accountability, shifting money from legitimate businesses to criminal networks, and reducing overall economic and personal freedom create a net negative for the economy and society.

Reducing teen smoking is a worthy goal, which is why it’s already illegal for teens to smoke. Rather than using policy levers that distort market incentives and infringe on the personal freedom of adults, activists should focus on improving their efforts to educate young people about the risks of smoking.

 

Mitchell Scacchi | Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy

The post Bans and High Taxes Fuel Black Markets for Tobacco & Vape Products appeared first on Granite Grok.

New Hampshire residents & lawmakers, please wake up fast and recognize what is going on, and start to ponder the level of corruption and how to address it.

We want to thank Claire Best for this Contribution – Please direct yours to Editor@GraniteGrok.com.
You can review our ‘Op-Ed Guidelines‘ on the FAQ Page.

The Andy Sanborn PPP loan case should be the trigger:

Senator Jeanne Shaheen lobbied for the PPP loans.

The City of Concord Planning Committee approved the Sunburn proposed Casino on Loudon Road.

The members of the City of Concord accept bribes – Jim Bouley and Amanda Grady Sexton are among those who got paid to promote Marsy’s Law but didn’t report the earnings from Marsy’s Law as required by RSA 15.

Debra Douglas is the Chair of the NH State Lottery. She is married to Chuck Douglas III, who is Chair of the Judicial Selection Committee. He also got paid to promote Marsy’s Law by Henry T Nicholas III – a drug trafficker who goes to Las Vegas with local DAs who also don’t report their earnings and who kept an underground lair for his sex and drug fantasies.

Andrew H. Crews of Autofair is/was the President of the NH Lottery.

Andrew H. Crews is also based in Bedford, and he is on the board of Children’s Advocacy Centers and Granite One Health.

Children’s Advocacy Centers is tied to the AG’s office, DA’s offices, Police, AND Boston Billiards (Casino/Gambling).

Autofair is listed in the Pandora Papers and Paradise Papers. Autofair got hundreds of thousands in PPP loans given by Primary Bank, on whose board Andrew H. Crews is a director.

Autofair and Andrew H. Crews were sued in Mass. for failure to pay employees even though Autofair was getting PPP loans from Primary Bank where Autofair’s CEO was on the board of directors.

Shaheen & Gordon is the law firm that represents the directors of Primary Bank, which is based in Bedford, just like Andy Sanborn.

Shaheen & Gordon also represent the NHCADSV and Amanda Grady Sexton and threatened me with a defamation suit for calling out the NHCADSV for being involved in a Kids for Cash enterprise.

Remind me again why Amanda Grady Sexton has no issue dealing with Henry T. Nicholas III, a drug trafficker. Remind me again why the Children’s Advocacy Center is tied to Boston Billiards Gaming and to Andrew H. Crews of Autofair and why NHCADSV is tied to CAC and DCYF, which covered up and deleted files of child sex abuse.

$932.5 billion in Pandora Papers accounts is the highest amount for any State in the US, and it is in New Hampshire, where there was just one secretary of state for 42 years.

It is apparently the 2nd highest amount in the world. How does that happen? Money laundering, drug trafficking, sex, and human trafficking are how.

Could you recognize sex and child trafficking in your own agencies?
YDC

Could you recognize money laundering in your own agencies?
Pandora Papers

Could you recognize drug trafficking in your own agencies?
Jeff Hatch, Granite Recovery & Fentanyl drug bust.

Could you recognize Medicaid fraud in your own agencies?
Lori Schibinette’s resignation six days after the US DHHS OIG audit fined NH $7.9 million for Medicaid fraud

Could you recognize PPP fraud supported by your own agencies?

Could you recognize blackmail, bribery, and extortion involving your own agencies?
St. Paul’s School, Dartmouth College

Could you recognize a Ponzi scheme in your own agencies?
FRM Ponzi Scheme

Could you recognize the corruption of the court?
NH v Father Gordon MacRae, NH v Owen Labrie, NH v Griffin Furlotte, to name a few of many

Could you recognize the corruption of the news media in cahoots with the police, attorneys, agencies, and courts?
WMUR, NHPR, Concord Monitor, Union Leader, AP, Seacoast Online, Boston Globe, NH Press?

My conclusion from my years of research is that you cannot, or you don’t want to.

• As a result:
  Decades of abuse at the Youth Detention Center have been covered up.
• Decades of financial fraud involving police, AG’s office, local agencies, non-profits, and local attorneys have been covered up.
• Who is covering this up? The AG’s office, the US Attorney’s Office, the NH Supreme Court, and elected officials in the highest positions, including some on the Executive Committee.

Who pays?

The public.

Is this the world you want future generations to inherit? This kind of corruption from the top to the bottom? It is from the top because it goes all the way from the NH Supreme Court and US Attorneys down to the bottom.

 

The post PPP Loans are Just a Fraction of the Fraud in New Hampshire appeared first on Granite Grok.

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, …

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