Sunday • May 5 • 2024
Vol.XVI • No.XVIII
Manchester, N.H.
I have been honored to represent the people of New Hampshire as their US Congressman and US Senator for 18 years. I know New Hampshire values. I also know that those values are not currently represented by the Biden administration and its left-wing cohorts in the media.
We want to thank Senator Bob Smith for this Op-Ed. Please submit yours to Editor@GraniteGrok.com.
The 2024 elections must bring us back to these values if America is to survive. Pause for a moment and think of all of the candidates who are running for President in both parties. Ask yourself which candidate you really believe will stand up to the left and fight for these New Hampshire and American values that we are losing?
Who do you want to face China, Russia, and North Korea in a crisis? You know that person is former President Donald J. Trump. You know this not because he said he would fight for our values and stand up to those dictators but because he has done so as President and continues to do so now.
Six years ago, in June of 2015, Donald Trump promised us that he would secure our borders, drain the swamp, build up our military, make us energy independent, fill our courts with conservative constitutionalists, and get us out of endless foreign wars. In spite of the incredible dirty tricks and lies perpetuated by the swamp, Hillary Clinton, the media, and yes, even Obama and Biden, Donald Trump prevailed and accomplished what he promised he would do for us.
They did not stop after the election, however. Two political impeachments and even an accusation that he was a Russian asset hounded this good man for four years, and the harassment continues to this day with politically motivated indictments by a weaponized Biden-controlled Justice Department. In spite of all of this, President Trump accomplished more in four years than most presidents do in eight years. In our hearts, we all knew how bad these people were, but the Durham Report confirmed the level of corruption was far beyond anything we could have imagined.
Now that President Trump is running for re-election, they are currently using the same old playbook because they know that they cannot beat him at the ballot box, where millions of his supporters will rally to his defense and elect him again. Why this extraordinary effort by the left to take President Trump down? The answer is clear. Donald J. Trump is the only candidate in the field with the stamina, experience, and backbone to prevail against these vicious forces, and the left knows it. Donald Trump is not only their enemy. He is the symbol of all freedom-loving Americans. If they defeat Trump, they defeat all of us. America will be lost to the left, the globalists, and the swamp.
A few days ago, my wife, Mary Jo, and I had the honor to meet personally with President Trump. When you look a man in the eye, you can see his heart as well. When we left that meeting, we knew that Donald Trump loves America and its people, and he is doing everything he can to save it and preserve our freedoms at great personal sacrifice. President Trump stood up for us when we needed him, and now it is our turn to stand up for him. He has earned our respect and our support. Trust me when I say America needs Donald Trump, and I am proud and honored to support him for re-election to the Presidency of the United States.
Reminder: Content about candidates or by candidates is not an endorsement by GraniteGrok.com or its authors.
The post My Endorsement of Donald Trump For President appeared first on Granite Grok.
I want you to think back to the days of “Tom Sawyer” and one of his greatest pranks performed on his friends. Burdened with a chore for skipping school, Tom comes up with an ingenious way to get out of it.
Sidenote: That is before the SJWs got their uppity mitts on that story and declared it racist because THEIR morals say that anything that doesn’t hew to their “presentism” ideology must be banned or torn down.
Side-Sidenote: Presentism – the only thing that matters is how we think and feel right NOW and judge history from it – as opposed to understanding how those back then felt and instead “punishing them” for wrong-think decades or centuries later.
Back on topic, Skip. Last week I received the result of my NH Legislative Ethics Committee complaints against NH State Rep Harry Bean, Travis O’Hara, and the One-Who-Cannot-Be-Named. The former two waived their Confidentiality so that I can name them. The third did not, so I’ll just call him Voldemort (no, not because he’s that evil, but I legally cannot name him – and no “Lord” title for them – though I’m betting that the three of them are thinking of themselves that way).
The official Summary by the Committee for all three of them is effectively whitewashed. Because neither RSA 91-A (Right To Know law that demands that public meetings be properly noticed) nor RSA 24:9-D (the law that regulates the behavior of how NH County delegations made of all the NH House Reps in that County – including how THEY publicly announce their meetings) have penalties for misbehavior, so there can be no unethical behavior.
Even though the Committee stated in the Travis O’Hara summary that the public meetings for which they were on the hook for handling properly were “That fact is uncontested.” From Bean: …it is clear that they were not properly noticed pursuant to RSA 91-A”. A similar language was used for Voldemort.
However:
I’ll address that in a bit, but here are the official summaries for the first two.
NH State Rep Harry Bean:
NH Legislative Ethics Committee – Harry Bean exoneration
NH State Rep Travis O’Hara:
NH Legislative Ethics Committee – Travis OHara exonerationNo, I can’t put up the summary for Voldermort because that Rep never waived their confidentiality but if you read the two public ones above, you get the idea.
So what are MY takeaways, as an ordinary citizen trying to act in accordance of Article 8 of the NH Constitution?
…all the magistrates and officers of government are their substitutes and agents, and at all times accountable to them. Government, therefore, should be open, accessible, accountable and responsive. To that end, the public’s right of access to governmental proceedings and records shall not be unreasonably restricted. The public also has a right to an orderly, lawful, and accountable government.
Now, go look at the image at the top of this post again. Why say you folks?
I wasn’t looking for a criminal conviction – it was my understanding that this was a panel of former and current legislators to judge these three Legislators’ behaviors from an ethical standpoint – above and beyond (and in some cases, below) the Law and not a LEGAL standpoint. But it’s clear that to me, an ordinary citizen, they turned it into that. Do so ONCE, and I can accept “bad faith.” Doing the same behavior, NOT listening to those that are more experienced or reading the actual law to them multiple times?
I now know that I no longer understand what the definition of unethical is.
However, I did send Rich Lambert, the Executive Administrator (for whom I have nothing but good words) a follow-up to see if another action by these three (and other Reps would fall under Donna Sytek’s Book of Unethical Behaviors. They all put in for and accepted the RSA 24:9-eee meeting and mileage fees for these now admitted-to-be-illegal meetings. Given that “this fact is uncontested,” – would not return the County’s money (I have their forms, they all self-signed, as well as the remittances) be considered unethical behavior? I’m betting it isn’t in that Book:
—— Original Message ——
From “Skip” <Skip@granitegrok.com>
To “Rich Lambert” <Rich.Lambert@leg.state.nh.us>
Date 6/27/2023 7:46:28 PM
Subject A question for you and the Honorable Sytek’s Book of Unethical behaviorGood evening Mr. Lambert,
I am in receipt of the exonerations of Harry Bean, Travis O’Hara, and <Voldermort>. In reading each, it seems that the wordings for each are a bit tortured in coming to their conclusions.
So be it as the NH Legislative Ethics Committee has made its rulings and exonerated all three even as the Committee found that the illegal meetings are summarized by the Committee’s words of “That fact is uncontested” (Complaint 2023-6, Travis O’Hara, second paragraph).
I have a number of takeaways from that line and those rulings but the main one is that if State Statutes in these cases (e.g., RSA 91-A and RSA 24) does not have associated penalties for bad behavior, there can be no ethical unseemliness. My second main takeaway will remain unstated fully but the phrase “his two remaining brain cells are vying to be in third place” as a line of defense / explanation seems to be acceptable and viable.
So before I spend the time that might well be better spent on more productive efforts, let me ask a question of the Committee’s words: “That fact is uncontested” in that the improperly noticed meetings were illegal. My question:
Would those three, and other Belknap Representatives as well, having put in their self-authorizing forms for the per meeting and travel expenses (RSA 24:9-eee) and accepting such taxpayer monies for the now uncontested illegal meeting be considered to be an unethical action? That having this official ruling about the meetings, not returning the monies for meetings that should never have happened, be considered unethical?
Or would it be a charade to attempt to hold them fully accountable per Article 8 of the NH Constitution?
-Skip
So yes, a “pre-question.” I wonder if I will hear back from:
The post The NH Legislative Ethics Commission Results Are In … And Guess What? appeared first on Granite Grok.
Recently I’ve started pushing the idea here at Grok that libraries and schools are inherently political institutions, so we should start treating them as such by electing librarians, teachers, and school administrators.
To give parents and taxpayers more voice over what happens in schools.
Lots of people have had trouble getting their heads around this idea, but Donald Trump has picked up the idea and is running with it.
He’s starting with just school principals, but he’s always been more of an incrementalist than I am.
The post Trump Reads Grok? appeared first on Granite Grok.
This comes to us from the inimitable Victor Davis Hanson (VDH), one of Conservatisim’s deep thinkers and observers of what Society is doing – and where it is heading.
Drawing on his vast historical knowledge and the ability to compare and contrast our situation against those of other cultures and times, he’s always a necessary read. Lawrence Person’s Battleswarm Blog has a video of VDH doing exactly that, and he pulled out a lot of quotes – this post’s title is one of them – so go over and read them.
His post is about how California has gone from hero to zero in a few short decades and made easy by just using pull quotes from VDH.
It’s the epitome of when Progressive/Socialists take over Government – the end results in a type of governance that has never succeeded EVAH, and we can see that in real-time. In the meantime:
“…The consequences of their own ideology”.
I used to fight that battle over at TreeHugger – that our “betters,” that MUST know so much more than we do concerning what is best for us just too casually toss off the downsides (especially the financial ones) of any of their ideas. However, they demand that we embrace those ideas totally and without reservation.
They want themselves to be our gods.
The proper response should always be “Up Yours!”.
The decline of California under one-party Democrat rule has been one of the long-running themes of this blog. Today Victor Davis Hanson discusses how California’s wealthy destroyed the middle class with policies whose baleful effects they knew wouldn’t fall on them.
And because of their wealth, they can weather whatever their policies do to them – but don’t care about what happens to anyone else because of them. I used to, semi-jokingly, ask those that wanted expansive and expensive that intruded upon my financial and liberty freedoms when they’d be sending me a check, like when they wanted to eliminate my propane furnace and wood stove and put in rather expensive heat pumps (that yet are unable to work well in the -20 F temps that are certainly not unknown here in central NH). While they all yammered that I HAD TO BECAUSE WE’RE SAVING THE PLANET, not a single one sent me a check.
Why was I not surprised? That’s how they roll and do exactly the same thing as in California (but with more zeros to the left of the decimal point). And that’s what those that have achieved much financial and/or political success seem to believe – having done so; they have the right to boss other people around.
Actually, they don’t, and the middle class that has borne the brunt of their policies is voting with their feet as California is the largest state in terms of legal outflow (as opposed to the illegal alien inflows, which is going to be another problem for them soon). Already, Gov Newsom is starting to have a bad hair day, and that smirk is getting to get wiped off his face as the billions of surplus last year (of which he boasted broadly) has now gone into the dumper bigley.
The State has been riding its reputation and financial success for decades, where it went from being the best to now cratering (and if you look at their roads and highways, literally cratering). The analogy is like when vulture venture capitalists take over a company simply to siphon its money out of it (instead of the normal VCs that want to BOLSTER the value of a takeover) where the Democrats became the “political culture vultures”.
It’s the same problem that I see in our general culture. Religion, especially the Judeo-Christian tradition, gave us a shared morality and outlook (plus or minus). With the advent of religious animosity starting in the late 1950s, that shared attribute began to disappear and now is, IMHO, now in a death spiral.
For instance, it ISN’T the gun that is committing the crime that the Left blames on guns; it’s the heart/soul/morality (or lack thereof) of those using the guns. The Left can’t stand to admit that their constant pulling out the bricks of our wall that is our norms and mores has brought it to a teetering point – can it stand, or is it inevitable that it will just collapse? When I see that the killing of babies has been normalized, that sexuality has gone wide and into the gutter, and that stealing has been legalized (with California being the prime example, again), what other conclusion can I rationalize?
The Left has now said that we no longer have shared values (Obama wanting to restrict us only to HIS designated media and values!) – that we must yield to them. WHY would I do that, given their results (again, look at California)? An Elite again trying to tell us what to do?
Yeah, screw that. Shut up, Obama, and leave us to our own designs for our own lives. Ditto the rest of them, too.
The post “We Created a Very Very Wealthy Elite Not Subject to the Consequences of Their Own Ideology.” appeared first on Granite Grok.
In lieu of current Iranian protests in Iran, let us make a note of it: If we remain divided, there will not be a chance against the robust Islamic regime with the vast and destructive power apparatus that has no problem using it against their own population as they did in the 2009 Green Movement.
Unlike anything encountered in recent memory, the formidably complex and unique situation in today’s Iran poses an enormous challenge. It defies any conventional solution, and simply resorting to civil disobedience is the equivalent of fighting off a pack of hungry and blood-thirsty wolves with toothpicks!
The incredibly ruthless, deceptive, and cunning nature of the present regime, bundled together with an Islamic modus operandi, creates an enigma and several paradoxes.
Recommendations for Expatriates• Your ideological differences should not stand in the way of uniting against Islamofascists who have made life miserable for all Iranians. Breaking unity at a time when the Islamic vultures want to extinguish the forces of resistance is an abandonment of your national duty.
• Fight the disinformation campaign launched by the Islamic Republic through radio, Internet, and TV broadcasts in Iran.
• Combined with a proposed strategy emphasizing the interdependence of a secular and free Iran with economic rewards for industrialized nations is another major step in gaining meaningful support.
• It is imperative to Launching a widespread information campaign in Iran and across the globe that exposes the regime and its evil deeds is imperative.
• Counter hostile public relations against US/Israel and broadcast meaningful and structured information to Iran that will counter IRI propaganda.
• Inform people about the true nature of Islam and its counter-cultural impact on Iranian civilization, culture, and traditions. This must be done tactfully and in an informative manner.
• Strongly emphasize the role of the Iranian civilization in shaping Western and Eastern cultures and influencing many schools of thought.
• Expose the atrocities committed against the people of Iran (i.e., gross violations of human rights) and the terrorist acts committed against the world.
• Reemphasize the importance of the unity of different Iranian ethnic groups based on shared cultural roots.
• Ward off opportunistic separatist movements by exposing their phony historical and linguistic “justifications.”
• Reinforce that irrespective of linguistic differences, the Iranian people’s common enemy is the Islamic regime. Expose separatists’ deceptive tactics.
• Expose the real reason for the pursuit of nuclear technology.
• Work with LEGITIMATE opposition inside Iran and expatriates that are in tune with the CURRENT issues inside Iran.
• Expose the regime’s lobbyists and sympathizers with personal agendas and those who have had any connection to the Islamic Republic in the past or present.
• Unite your forces with secular democratic groups and persons who promote freedom, democracy, and the rule of law.
• Avoid those whose perceptions of Iranian realities are locked in the 1970s and have no concept of the day-to-day issues facing the Iranian people.
• Worked with labor and organized grassroots movements inside Iran. Non-stop support of independent secular activities.
• Form a provisional coalition of capable individuals, preferably trained in conflict resolution, leadership, and management, who are charismatic and pragmatic enough to lead the post-IRI transitional government.
• Try to work with Iran’s fundamental military forces to destroy the paramilitary forces, such as Basij, Pasdaran (IRGC), Ansar Hezbollah, and other pressure groups.
• Work with International agencies to capture and round up the commanders of these forces and the leaders and key figures of the Islamic regime to hand them to an international tribunal for crimes against humanity.
• Review 50 crucial points about non-violent struggles.
The post A Call to Iranian Expatriates appeared first on Granite Grok.
The Conway Daily Sun has an article on how gun ownership in New Hampshire rates to other states. The piece includes a ranking by the Gun-Grabby Gifford Law Center, ranking states by gun owners and how restrictive their gun laws.
That report also includes homicides per 100,000 for each state.
The premise behind the piece is to explore what percentage of the population owns or possesses firearms but to know these things, there would need to be a record or registry, and the last time I checked, New Hampshire was not allowed to collect or share that sort of information. I might have that wrong, and let’s assume, for the sake of this fisking, I do. But the Sun wants everyone to know that despite the perception of a concealed carry wild-west persona, a minority of Americans own a firearm.
According to a 2020 study published by the RAND Corporation, a research and public policy advocacy group, only about 32% of American households own a firearm.
The article (a reprint sourced here) also shares the Grabby Gifford Law Center data to presumably make a connection between gun ownership, gun-grabbing laws, and violent crime. Except that the data doesn’t compare violent crime. It uses firearm deaths, which probably include suicides. That’s not a proper frame of reference, but even if we accept those terms, the Gifford data contradicts its likely intent.
New Hampshire scores a gun control grade of ‘F’ with 8.3 firearms deaths per 100,000 people, but 18 states in the survey have better grades but more firearms deaths per capita. It also ignores violent and property crimes which are affected by the likelihood that a criminal will be met with equal or superior force or knowledge that they won’t.
Using the same data year (2021) as the Giffords report published in the Conway Daily Sun, Homesnacks compiled FBI crime data to generate their most recent Safest States survey, including violent and property crime.
The 10 Safest States In America For 2023 in Order – after which I have added the Giffords Gun Grab Grade.)
1 New Hampshire F
2 Maine F
3 Vermont C-
4 New Jersey A
5 Idaho F
6 Rhode Island B+
7 Virginia B
8 Connecticut A-
9 Massachusetts A-
10 Wyoming F
As we can see, there is no obvious or consistent connection between gun-grabbing laws and public safety.
If you need a better example, Illinois got an A- from the Gifford Center for lawless gun violence, but Chicago has more murder and violent crime in one year than loose-gun-law New Hampshire could have in nearly a century.
Add the remainder of the state, and Illinois ranks 25th on the Homesnacks list. (A -) but twenty-four states are safer.
It is ridiculous, but gun-grabbing has never been about safety. The driver of violence and gun violence is not firearms. As Democrat Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. noted,
“NIH needs to research what psych drugs are doing to kids mentally – school shootings are a new phenomenon and that his school had a gun club growing up – Switzerland has the same amount of guns and hasn’t had a school shooting in 21 years. – “Something has changed in this country. It’s not the guns. We’ve always had the guns.”
That’s not to say he (RFK Jr) wouldn’t or doesn’t have some Democrat-like thoughts about disarmament, but he’s right, and the article republished in the Conway Daily Sun is just pandering to the lies without even asking any of the questions we pose here.
It’s filler, and some days you need that, but it’s contradictory. Neither gun ownership numbers nor so-called “gun safety laws” correlate to gun safety or crime.
The post New Hampshire’s “Gun Grade” Makes No Sense appeared first on Granite Grok.
Housework is hands down one of the most difficult things to deal with when it comes to managing your adult life. It is, after all, both ubiquitous and unending, which is why it’s so important to engage with anything you can that makes this work easier.
Fortunately for you, this article aims to highlight a handful of great tips that can help you to keep your housework under control.
Dealing with Your LaundryOne the most ubiquitous and unavoidable jobs that will continue to crop up in your housework is laundry. This is such an unavoidable job because clothes are such an unavoidable part of day-to-day life. So, what can you do to make your work with laundry as easy as possible?
One of the best things that you can do is to go ahead and create a specific laundry space where you both wash and dry the clothes that you need sorted. Not only does this allow you to set aside a specific place to deal with your clothes, but it also helps you create a space that’s properly ventilated to ensure that it doesn’t get too humid when drying clothes.
Talking of ventilation, you should also make sure that you take the necessary steps to properly vent your laundry drain so that you don’t cause yourself more problems down the road.
Engage with AutomationIn today’s age of technology, there are plenty of tools that can help you to get work done that would otherwise have taken you a long time.
Things like dishwashers, Roombas, and even laundry chutes for your home, help to automate some of your most time-consuming housework and keep your home looking good for a minimal amount of effort.
Stay ConsistentAs ridiculous as it sounds, one of the best things that you can do to make sure that your housework is under control and easy to deal with is to simply do it often. Or to phrase that another way, make sure that you don’t let it build up.
After all, one element of housework that people don’t often consider is the cost to willpower that comes along with these chores. Your willpower is a finite resource, and every time you start a chore that you don’t want to do, you have to spend a little bit of that precious resource to push through and get it done.
When you let your housework build up, the amount of willpower required will increase exponentially, meaning that it’s going to cost you way more willpower to do a huge amount of chores all at once. This means it’s far more sustainable to do consistent small pieces of housework than it is to let it all build up and then do a huge amount at once.
Reward YourselfFinally, one of the most important things to remember is that you deserve a reward for the housework that you’re getting done. It’s easy to dismiss the housework that you’re doing as just the cost of being an adult, but that doesn’t make it any easier. Your efforts deserve a reward.
Of course, you shouldn’t go overboard with this, but it’s easy to create a simple reward system where you get some of your favourite candy, for example, when you finish your housework.
The post Useful Tips to Help You Keep Your Housework Under Control appeared first on Granite Grok.
I don’t have to say a word – “Linz” says it for us all to hear, and she is targeting your children via your children’s teachers. After all, the Alphabet Mafia doesn’t care about you as long as they have your children all to themselves most of the day – in the classroom.
Trans non-binary kid’s content creator and LGBTQ activist gives teachers a guide for bringing gender ideology into the classroom and dealing with “disgruntled parents” pic.twitter.com/ZjBsZmD15m
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) June 19, 2023
Do you know what these kinds of people hate? Do Right To Know/Freedom of Information demand about your child’s curriculum – EVERYTHING. And not just the materials. Start going after the accounting records to see who is asking to buy stuff and who approves it, and then go get the “paper trails.” Purchase orders, invoices, remittances, shipping and receiving records – it’s all there.
Sure, it’s a lot of work, but it is all available. Then expose the LGBT missionaries like this monster.
Since when should schools get mixed up in sexuality when they can’t even get the basics right anymore (the NAEP scores!)?
Yes, they DO want to replace you, Mom.
The post They ARE Coming for your Children and Schools are Ground Zero – By Their Own Admission appeared first on Granite Grok.
There was much praise from the center-right and parent’s groups when Florida passed a law to protect children from drag shows. Gov. DeSantis signed it, but a court just tossed it out. For all its good intentions, it was poorly written and contradicted existing law.
Eugene Volokh has relevant excerpts from the Court’s opinion here, and while not difficult to wade through, don’t feel bad if you find your un-lawyer-like mind a bit muddled.
Defendants argue that the Act’s language and restrictions track those upheld in Ginsberg v. New York (1968) [which did ban the distribution of “obscene-as-to-minors” material, such as books and magazines, to minors -EV]. There are several significant distinctions, however, between the narrowly tailored statute in Ginsberg and Fla. Stat. § 827.11. First, the Supreme Court in Ginsberg “relied not only on the State’s independent interest in the well-being of its youth, but also on the consistent recognition of the principle that ‘the parents’ claim to authority in their own household to direct the rearing of their children is basic in the structure of our society.'” The prohibition against the sale to minors of material considered obscene for their age in the statute at issue in Ginsberg “d[id] not bar parents who so desire[d] from purchasing magazines for their children.”
As we’ve often stated, especially in support of the argument that limiting access to age-inappropriate material is not “book banning,” parents have rights affirmed in law and statute. One of them is that they have authority in their household, and the material in question is widely available outside a school library.
Physical libraries also have limited space which requires them to decide what books will be removed so others may replace them. This is not, by even the most strained definition, banning books.
When confronted with removing age-inappropriate material from any collection, the question should be, do you still have every book that has ever sat on a shelf in this library? To say yes would be a lie, so the next question is, why did you ban those books?
They didn’t. But I digress.
Adult Drag shows are burlesque. Transvestities engaged in sexualized performance with implicit or explicit material most of us would call “adult.” If that’s your thing, have it. But in its race to protect kids, Florida lawmakers ran afoul of matters in existing Florida law, tripping over precedent on their way.
The most blatant is Florida’s Parental Rights Law. As written, the new law would make protected actions illegal.
“All parental rights are reserved to the parent of a minor child in this state…including…[t]he right to direct the upbringing and the moral or religious training of his or her minor child.” Id. § 1014.04(1)(b)
According to the Court, the Florida Drag Show law is both broad and unclear, with no carve out that would comport with a parent’s rights under Florida Law. A parent who consented to the content has a moral and religious right the Drag Show law would abrogate.
In other words, Florida needs to explain better its compelling interest in protecting children from mature material deemed harmful. It needs to clarify the definitions of terms like lewd, exposure, child, and prosthetic, to name a few, at which point it could take another bite at this apple. But the Court has declared the original law unconstitutional and unenforceable.
Any state looking at Florida as a model for their version should look more closely and choose its words wisely.
The post Florida Drag Show Law Gets Tossed Out appeared first on Granite Grok.
Yes, we had a gap – 3 weeks as Life intruded (especially on Monday mornings when we SHOULD be doing this). No, it didn’t make too much difference in the loss department – we both slowed down (and I got a bit lax, and he went to his daughter’s wedding and had a great weekend gastronomically speaking (and otherwise as well!).
So, we saw each other last week and agreed to get back on the wagon and make up for gained pounds and lost time (as this should have been completed a bit ago). So total, Tom’s lost an impressive 30 pounds while I’ve done 14 (and I’m just there if I stay disciplined – that works at the beginning of the week but not so well in the middle, lately).
And the tale of the tape.
They say the last 4 pounds are the hardest – and I’ve found that out.
What else I have found is that I have to buy new gun belts because I can’t get them any tighter.
The post The Skip & Tom Weight Challenge – Week 17 appeared first on Granite Grok.
Have you seen the WhatsApp message from Hunter Biden to some Communist official in China demanding millions of dollars in pay-to-play money? The WhatsApp message that proves that the “Big Guy,” our figurehead, imposter President, was knowingly and directly involved in Hunter selling influence to foreign officials. Details, such as the multi-million dollars the Biden Crime Family received subsequent to the message, in the Federalist. Here is a screen shot:
Here's a screenshot of the text message. pic.twitter.com/Il2GuWsbxO
— Hans Mahncke (@HansMahncke) June 22, 2023
And here is Trump, as only Trump can, exposing the Bidens as the criminals they are:
TRUMP: “Just two days ago, a very respected IRS whistleblower revealed that Crooked Joe sat in a room while his son, Hunter, messaged a Chinese Communist Party Official… Within ten days, the Bidens got $5.1 million from China.”pic.twitter.com/kucsnB8NhQ
— ALX (@alx) June 25, 2023
The post I’m Telling Daddy!!! … How Hunter Biden “Made” His Millions appeared first on Granite Grok.
Are Campus snowflakes rioting after years of encouragement from professors and administrators the best form of social justice? They deserve whatever grief they get, yes? But they aren’t the only victims. The L, G, and B folks started something that has come to haunt many.
Ben Bartee summed it up nicely over at PJ Media. He has another example of “T dog bites the LGB hand that feeds it.” A French women’s rights group comprised of lesbian and bisexual women has been fighting for “women’s sex-based rights and the rights of lesbian women” for thirty years. Their reward has been to be shouted down and told they are not welcome at a local pride parade because they do not allow transwomen in their group.
Here’s the summation.
As strong as the impulse to defend the women who defend biological reality is within me and probably within most onlookers, it would be an oversight to not acknowledge the tasty irony that feminists, who pioneered the concepts of “gender” and “sex” as social constructs with no grounding in biology, birthed this transgender monster that has now taken over their political movement.
They opened — through their pseudo-philosophy propagated first through the university system in the West, which then seeped into popular culture and lower levels of education — the gender ideology pandora’s box.
Upon seeing the result of the Manhattan Project, Robert Oppenheimer is alleged to have said, “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.’ I suppose we all thought that, one way or another.”
I don’t think anyone coming out of the closet at street level to begin digging under the foundations of Western Culture suspected it might fall on them. Progressive action doesn’t worry itself with consequences or side effects. Knocking things down is what it does. You have to break all the eggs to make the Marxist omelet, including the ones helping you get it done, but you don’t tell the activists that. You praise and motivate them, even finance them, without regard to casualties.
The end game is greater than the bits players.
Same-sex marriage was never about extending rights. It was about ending marriage and families. A few couples will benefit from loosening standards, but acceptance in and of itself was never the goal. Western culture stands on the shoulders of unbroken families who build communities and even states that resist the sucking sound of central planners.
They have broken families, marriages, men and women, and now they’ve moved on to breaking children, which has alarmed many in the LBG part of the movement and more than one or two parents. State-sponsored grooming in public schools. The normalization of transvestitism as a gateway to gender transition drugs and surgery.
They are not proud of that, but any effort to inject an observation or even the slightest pushback results in a wave of anger and cries of bigotry and discrimination. It should look and sound familiar. As should the years of warnings about what was at stake and who would be made to pay the price.
As weary as I grow of repeating myself, no one on the political left cares about your status, be it minority, religious, sexual, citizenship, age, occupation, race, or gender. You are a tool to be discarded, melted down if necessary, to make the next weapon in the culture war. An actual victim, not of the white, male, colonialist patriarchy, but the lies Marxist whisper to get you to help them put on the boots under which we will all be crushed.
I know, a bit dramatic considering the topic. Or is it? Lesbians are denied their place in a Pride parade. Women are denied their position on a podium at a sporting event. “Women” with penises rape female inmates. Blacks are cordoned off into urban ghettoes with no path to success outside crime. Vets are left homeless. Drug addicts are swamped with influxes of Fentanyl from Mexican gangs. Naturalized citizens are overwhelmed by armies of illegals. Gun-free cities are rampant with violent crime.
A black president undermined decades of improved race relations in a few short years while anti-white racism in a white-majority country is offered as a required curriculum.
It’s all about destruction and anyone who thinks otherwise is doomed to end up under the rubble while the political class watches from somewhere in their private jets, traveling between their white towers.
The post Lost Pride: When The Monster They Created Comes for Them appeared first on Granite Grok.
Notice how they hide their faces when their masks get ripped off. As they should. Because they are the modern-day equivalent of the Cheka, the Stasi, the Gestapo, etc., etc.. Every day America becomes more and more and more a Police State.
Wray, Garland, etc. should have been impeached months ago. The FBI and the entire “intelligence community” needs to be demolished and scattered to the winds.
This is the BEST video on the internet right now.
– Pro-America Patriot rally ongoing
– Feds show up dressed as “Nazis”
– Patriots force Feds out of rally
– Unmask the Feds, who PANIC
– The “Nazis” cry, tremble in fear
– Cops rush to save FedsWATCH:
pic.twitter.com/kWBdRiu9hw
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) June 25, 2023
The post Nothing To See Here … Just Some FBI Agents Deservedly Getting Their Butts Kicked appeared first on Granite Grok.
Long term readers remember that I used the website TreeHugger as a foil – going into the lair to counter their enslavement to the Eco-Gaia religion as well as being peachy with adopting totalitarian tactics by Government that ensures we all toe that GAIA religion of doing less.
Travel less, live smaller, and what travel there is will be constrained. After all, carbon emissions will kill us all! Just ask that climate muppet Greta Thunberg about her prediction! But alas, as I have said, it is a shallow shadow of itself nowadays with almost all fluffy posts.
Which, like all the other climatista Apocalyptic predictions made since the first Earth Day back in 1970, fell flat on their collective noses. Not a single one has come true. Now, too many people, as the Eco-Socialists’ demands become bigger and more strident (even as their models are STILL way off), are figuring out this grift and making it clear that they are no longer willing to put up with that. And we’re sick of the stupid taunt “Oh, you just hate clean air, wants us all to drink dirty water, and want kids to die” – enough of the emotional blackmailing, you social connivers!
Anyways, back to the post title. While there were a small handful of writers, the two main ones that drew most of the comment frenzies were Sami Grover and Lloyd Alter – and TH canned both of them. And I’ll be honest, while I pretty much disagreed with Lloyd (from which most of my commenting there was based on), he was detailed, had the stats and numbers, and did his homework. He was also honest about his beliefs – he was walking his talk. And he’s opened up his own site, Carbon Upfront!. So now I get to again ride forth and let the Eco-Socialists know that “grams of CO2 emitted” should never be the highest plane on which we should be governed – self-government should be.
Anyways, his post that got me started again was this:
Why we should be designing for intermittency
Australian study shows how electric hot water heaters can shave peak loads and deal with intermittency.
Immediately upon seeing “intermittency”, I knew that Lloyd was starting to get the message that this continued path of inadequate energy generation, because of Eco-Socialism, is going to get much worse – and soon.
Recent research from Australia found that using electric water heaters to store renewable energy could do the work of 2 million home batteries and save billions. The study authors note that about a fifth of Australian residential greenhouse gas emissions come from domestic hot water, which could be made with renewable off-peak energy and stored in a decently insulated tank.
It’s a clever way of dealing with the lack of solar power at night, and is the most common and obvious form of what could be called “design for intermittency.”
One thing to note is that Australia, even being a large coal exporter (especially to China), is ahead of us in shutting down their coal generation facilities and more push than the US (but not Germany) in moving to renewable energy. Problem is, like with Germany, their electricity costs have skyrocketed and has become “intermittent” as the demand for electricity is outstripping its supply. Thank you, Government policies. And the Australian people are starting to get fed up with it.
But Lloyd? He’s simple taking it as “a matter of course” and something that MUST happen if we are to decarbon everything. Remember from earlier posts, these Eco-Socialists have already run out of everybody else’s money and they keep pushing this downward spiral faster – regardless of who it hurts.
Alter even quotes someone that goes back in time in trying to make an equivalence that since our ancestors had to make do with less, we should as well
“Because of their limited technological options for dealing with the variability of renewable energy sources, our ancestors mainly resorted to a strategy that we have largely forgotten about: they adapted their energy demand to the variable energy supply. In other words, they accepted that renewable energy was not always available and acted accordingly. For example, windmills and sailboats were simply not operated when there was no wind.”
Limited technology? What ISN’T said is that at that time, windmills and sailboats were the BEST technology to be had at the time – so it was used. I keep saying that they want us back in the Stone Age but they’d never admit to it. Finally, a bit of a crack in that wall but it’s also a crock – our modern technology can ensure that when we turn on a light switch, keep our food cold, warm our houses in the winter and cool it in the summer. And in that single paragraph above, they want us to take our eyes off what our modernity gives us.
Now, Lloyd does talk about supply and demand a bit but it is clear that he is willing to settle for a lesser life. What’s worse, he’s happy to have Government work through our “smart appliances and thermostats”. It’s already a deed done in California with people making the bet that the electric companies won’t pull that trigger even as the power companies are sending them money. If I was there, I’d be calling that a suckers bet as Governor “Hair Creme” Newsom is pulling down more generation plants even as demand is soaring – not me, for sure.
But Lloyd’s all in and his new book’s title says it all:
Upfront Carbon
How a Life of Just Enough Offers a Way Out of the Climate Crisis
In other words, never strive for better – just apply “Quiet Quitting” to your lifestyle and never expect (or demand) for better. And he expects us all to hew to that philosophy because GAIA and the “pulled out of the air” 1.5 degree C lifestyle for all.
Yeah, I had words:
“design for intermittency.”
Translation: Government is going to force you into a lower standard of living because Greenies have taken control of the levers of Government. With “Electrify EVERYTHING!”, as Lloyd has said for years, he’s basically saying the an “Energy Monoculture” is great even as he’s said, in the past, that “agriculture crop monocultures” are bad. Sorry, the problem is “monocultures” no matter what you’re talking about.
Now add mandatory 15 minute cities (which increasingly lowers your standard of living in other ways), the removal of all but government approved modes of transportation, one can think of this as an encroaching “wall-less prison” of how mandated living will be.
Just like over at Treehugger, I was always bringing up the idea of “what happened to the Western Classical idea of Liberalism” (that would be TRUE philosophical Liberalism and not the political label which has come to mean, in words and deeds, illiberalism). I do that today as well.
If your energy source is controlled by Government, if your movement is controlled by government, if your 15 minute apartment is no larger than a small closet (and I could go on for a while – just ask Lloyd), are you truly free?
Or is that some old-fashioned and trite notion nowadays? After all, the Slippery Slide does exist. Just look at the US and gas stoves and what’s happening since that first Trumka announcement.
Added: Kinda hard to run a biz with intermittent energy: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/06/18/grid-asks-factories-to-use-less-energy-next-winter-under-blackout-prevention-plan/
So, in a strange way, I’m glad he’s back. And I left comments on a couple others. Sadly, though, this new set of commenters haven’t figured out what I am yet so there are no replies as of yet. I look forward to it to see what these new folks have to say.
The post Be Less, Do Less: TreeHugger Eco-Socialism is ‘Recycled’ into “Carbon Upfront!” appeared first on Granite Grok.
Nitzakhon is on hiatus for a few weeks, so he will not be uploading the typical cache of memes. Sadly, I don’t have the same time or dedication to that craft (yet), but people do send me stuff for him, so here we go!
To borrow from the master,
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!
Until he comes back, send them to steve@granitegrok.com. I’m not sharing as many, but they will be bigger.
*** Warning, a few possibly off-color ones, in case tender eyes are about ***
Let’s start with a classic.
Something cool that was sent by a friend. Not a meme, but it could be.
From the Never Forget Category…
Not a meme, but more people need to ‘warm’ up to it.
Another classic.
https://granitegrok.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/dems-saying-2016-was-stolen.mp4
Nancy Giving Lessons on how to be a Good Democrat
https://granitegrok.com/wp-content/uploads/Pelosi-Smear-Tactic.mp4The post Monday Memes on Tuesday – Filling in Edition appeared first on Granite Grok.
This week the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) rendered its decision in a critical case. The court’s decision was an embarrassment in the United States versus Texas. Here is why.
We want to thank Marc Abear for this Contribution – Please direct yours to Editor@GraniteGrok.com.
You can review our ‘Op-Ed Guidelines‘ on the FAQ Page.
The Border States argued: The Biden regime’s non-enforcement of existing immigration law harms us. SCOTUS ruled: No, it does not. You cannot sue.
Several states were involved in suing the Biden regime over its policy of nullification of immigration law. The procedure in question relates to the non-enforcement of immigration law. The SCOTUS found the states lacked standing to sue. By deciding based on standing, the court never reaches the question in the case.
So, a five-justice majority of the court held: The states were not harmed in any judicially recognizable way. The decision starts on page 4.
Three justices wrote a concurrence to the majority decision. The minority concurrence found it to be the correct answer for the wrong or at least a different reason. They assert the issue was not lack of injury to the states, which is the crux of the matter. Instead, for them, the problem is a lack of redressability. Their position is: The states were harmed, but the courts lack the power under immigration law to force the government to enforce the law. The concurrence begins on page 18.
Justice Alito alone got it right. He dissented from the opinion. Alito asserts: The states were substantially harmed. Further, the majority ignored legal precedent, which favored the state. The dissent begins on page 43.
Here is a synopsis of the precedents:
During the Bush administration, in Massachusetts v Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), several states sued, saying the administration’s non-enforcement of EPA regulations harmed them. SCOTUS agreed. It allowed the states standing, so the states could sue for nullification of the regulation/law.
During the Trump administration, several states sued in Department of Commerce V. New York, asserting putting a citizenship question on the census might harm them. SCOTUS agreed it allowed the states standing, so the states could sue.
The problem here is SCOTUS is not following its own precedent. Maybe there are reasons why they do not apply. But to not go there, to not clearly explain the differences in the decisions, on substantially the same facts, well, it is more than confusing.
It is obvious, blatant political decision-making. That’s a problem when done by SCOTUS. They are out of their lane without so much as a tip of the hat toward a legal explanation.
If a lawyer behaved in this way in court, it seems likely the lawyer would be sanctioned. Were you an academic and you ignored relevant literature, facts, and opinion in your publishing, you would be discredited.
How is it, SCOTUS can simply ignore precedent, which it does not like? How does SCOTUS defend the charge of political rather than legal decision-making when it does so? This was an important decision. Unfortunately, it was poorly decided.
The post This Recent Supreme Court Decision Is an Embarrassment appeared first on Granite Grok.
A sanctimonious “expert” is attempting to “Doc-splain” to their lessers the need to change their summer collegiate baseball team name because it’s “unhealthy.” I guess this Doc forgot that college “kids” are a rambunctious bunch.
And not too keen on being told what to do (reformatted, emphasis mine):
‘Macon Bacon’ Silences Activist Doctor Who Demanded the Amateur Team Change Their Name
Macon Bacon isn’t going anywhere.
The Georgia-based collegiate summer league baseball team released a statement Thursday, after being sent a letter from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine stating they need to stop the “glorification of bacon.” The team made it very clear: “Bacon Yesterday. Bacon Today. Bacon Tomorrow.
“Bacon Forever.”
That is THE correct answer to these “everyones’ health IS our business!”. Experts are helpful at times – when they stay in their lanes. But I was glad to see that this team crushed them for their unwanted preaching:
The letter, written by the nutrition education program manager Anna Herby, stated, “Macon Bacon’s glorification of bacon, a processed meat that raises the risk of colorectal cancer and other diseases, sends the wrong message to fans.”The letter added the team should “promote plant-based bacon alternatives” and said the team could instead be named “Macon Facon Bacon.”
…“As role models in the community, Macon Bacon should set a good example for fans and stop promoting bacon.”
“Facon” – Har-har… not.
These students are KIDS playing a sport – not role models. Just stuff a big glob of tofu in your mouth if that’s how you feel.
In addition, a wee bit of infantilization of the Macon Bacon’s fan base? As if THEY can’t decide for themselves? So NICE of you to be the Food Speech Police. Never knew that was your purpose – to be “Nanny Doctors”? Sure, tell your patients that if they’re a bit chubby, out of shape, yadda, yadda – but ONLY if you yourselves are practicing what yer preaching (“like docs and nurses walking their talk line with a cigarette between their fingers and paunches overhanging their belts with back boobs”).
Great retort.
“We just wanted to make it known that we’re not interested in changing our name for anybody because we are the Macon Bacon, and we are the team of the community here,” he said. The Macon Bacon are in the West Division of the Coastal Plain League, a wood-bat amateur summer league. To participate in the league as a player, you must have played at least one season of college baseball and still have at least one season of college eligibility left.
These docs are like those that spoke up at a school board meeting DEMANDING (and then threatening) that the school board immediately institute mandatory masks across the district instead of the more nuanced “if there’s a classroom/grade/school outbreak, we’ll do a point solution and enlarge if necessary.” The docs got enraged as they proclaimed their expertise and their self-righteousness of themselves.
I’m glad to report that the School Board didn’t cave – we are supposed to be governed by elected representatives and not a technocratic Elite (although the Biden Bureaucrats are doing exactly that).
I’m just hoping that the Macon Bacon is going to run a series of “Bacon Plates for a Buck” promotions – and send fliers to the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.
Here’s the letter from the Doc to the Team.
Emphasis mine to point out the Woke:
The post Baseball Players Knock “Woke Doc” Outta Da Park! appeared first on Granite Grok.
I’ve lived in town for close to 30 years, and there have been several residents over the years with my name. According to the 11th circuit, that’s close enough for government work. If there’s a warrant for one of my doppelgangers, the Constitution allows them to scoop me up and detain me for 72 hours.
That’s what happened to David Sousa.
“IJ [The Institute for Justice] and several men named David Sosa are asking the Supreme Court to grant another David Sosa’s cert petition after the en banc Eleventh Circuit said the Constitution allows police to detain anyone for three days as long as there’s a warrant out for the arrest of anyone with the same name somewhere in the country.”
He wasn’t the David Sousa they were looking for, but he got detained anyway, and that’s a problem – from the petition.
This case is about the constitutionality of Florida police arresting and detaining David Sosa of Martin County, Florida, on a Texas warrant from 1992 for a man named David Sosa. To be clear, that’s not the David Sosa who chairs the philosophy department at the University of Texas.2 Nor is it the New York based songwriter David Sosa.
It’s also not the David Sosa who’s a cardiologist in Albuquerque,4 the one who works at the USDA, the law student at the University of Miami,6 or the David Sosa who owns a construction company in Winston-Salem. None of the David Sosas who submitted this brief are wanted in Texas, either. Two are from North Carolina and two from Los Angeles. Two of the amici David Sosas have even been confused for each other before! There are a lot of David Sosas in this
country—at least 924, if not more. Only one of them is suspected of selling crack cocaine in Harris County, Texas, back in the 1990s.
Okay, so there are a lot of David Sousa’s, and what about it? Why must the US Supreme Court get involved?
Ten of the 11 judges on the Eleventh Circuit ruled that Petitioner David Sosa has no legal recourse for police wrongfully arresting him twice based on the same blatant mistake of identity. Seven of those judges went much further and ruled that state officials do not even violate the Constitution if they hold an innocent person in jail for three days simply because that person shares a name with someone else in the country who has an outstanding warrant.
You don’t have to be David Sousa, just someone with the same name as someone else for whom the police have a warrant for arrest. The cops can show up, use force to arrest you, take you into custody, and detain you, and according to the 11th Circus, you have no recourse.
The writers in Hollywood will need to be careful not to add any dialogue about wrongful arrest for stories taking place in the jurisdiction of the 11th Circuit Court unless the Supremes managed to straighten the matter out.
I’d like to think a Court the same Hollywood writers would call conservative would see that, but there’s no guarantee.
The post 11th Circuit Says Police Can Detain Anyone for Three Days If They Have the Same Name as The One On Their Warrant appeared first on Granite Grok.
Steve has been doing yeoman’s work on this story (here, here, here, here, here, and here) that so much of the history is now known. Then I got a call from one of the residents asking if I could show up for the morning Drag Queen reading / poke-in-the-eyes show at the Conway Public Library.
A second one was to be held later on in the day at the Pope Library in N. Conway. I had previous appointments/activities, so I demurred. However, it turned out that I was able to give that person a couple of ideas and tactics. While all the clips are outside (still waiting for more video to come in), it does show two things:
Heh! I’ve always held that when I grew up, I didn’t want to grow up. My critics would agree that I never have so WHY did Director David Smolen, given that this was a “Pride” event, discriminate against a TransAgist? Aren’t people now able to define their identities any way they want? That’s what the LGBTQRSTUVWXYZ/Alphabet Mafia wants for what THEY are demanding – but are they unwilling to support other “marginalized people”?
This TransPerson identifies as a 12 year old and wanted to listen to “Reverend Yolanda” reading “cutsie” books. Hater, that Drag Queen, Director David Smolen, and Christopher Bellis (Cranmore Hotel, N. Conway) for not being true to their movement and allowing her entrance to the event! Discrimination!
And just because I can, here’s what I put as the description of the video on our YouTube Channel:
This past Friday, the Conway (NH) Public Library was the host of a Drag Queen childrens’ Hour event. Even reserved a room!
And then the Director David Smolens decided, because it was Pride Month (that includes Trans People, right?) that only those with children were allowed entrance. Something about a library being a “limited forum facility” like a courthouse. Even the gay guy wouldn’t allow a transchild into the library (with his foreboding looking Mr. Muscle?).
And I bet the elected Representatives called “Trustees” (whose Code of Ethics basically hand the key off to Smolens, effectively distancing themselves from any “ownership” of the programs Smolens puts on) aren’t going to get closer than a 50 yard measuring tape on this one.
Why else would they not put their contact info on their Library page?
And just because I can, here’s what I put as the description of the video on our YouTube Channel (Please subscribe!)
Speaking of our YouTube channel (over 4,000 videos!), please subscribe!
The post About that Drag Queen Story Hour at the Conway Public Library Last Friday…Part 2 appeared first on Granite Grok.
This week, we met in committees of conference. Since the budget was agreed without one, the atmosphere was much less stressed than previous years. My committee’s bills had generated six committees, and as chair, I served on four of them…
We want to thank Rep. Carol McGuire for this Contribution – Please direct yours to Editor@GraniteGrok.com.
You can review our ‘Op-Ed Guidelines‘ on the FAQ Page.
HB 358, my bill on the administrative rules process, had a three-part Senate amendment. The first part was clarifying language for the original bill, requested by the Administrative Rules staff; we accepted that change without debate. The second was SB 42, on unemployment overpayments, which had passed the House last week: that was removed from the bill without objection. The last change was an employer mandate to accommodate nursing or pumping mothers; we discussed that at some length. The Senate insisted on including it, and after they conceded on the social work compact (on HB 409), the House members reluctantly agreed to accept this. Since the federal government has some new regulations in this area, and the state requirements don’t go into effect for two years, the rather vague language of this regulation can be improved in the meanwhile.
HB 409, which started as a reciprocity requirement for barbers and cosmetologists, was actually better covered in HB 594, which dealt with accepting out-of-state licenses for all professions. Therefore, it was used to add a hefty bundle of changes to various professional regulations. The most significant were the investigation and discipline sections we had pulled out of HB 655; the subcommittee had kept working on them and shared the results with the Senators. So the conference committee went through these sections, making a few minor tweaks to the language.
We discussed the changes to the Board of Nursing: the Senate added two members, a registered nurse and a licensed nursing assistant, and required one of the nurses be a specialist in nurse education. More board members was not a problem – there are over 30,000 nurses in the state and the board has not had a problem meeting its quorum. Board members had convinced the House members (mostly me and the leading Democrat on the committee) that the education specialist was a conflict of interest, as the Board of Nursing approves education programs and regulates them. That was removed in favor of having an education subcommittee of the Board.
Finally, the Senate had added the social work compact to the bill. I, and the Republicans on the committee, were opposed to including this on the bill. First, the compact has not yet been formed, and we felt being “at the table” (as one of the first seven states to adopt the compact) when the rules were developed was not enough to counterbalance that by joining the compact at this time we were accepting its rules as law in New Hampshire – before we knew what the rules contained! Secondly, my committee has retained the compact as part of a retained bill, and we expect it to go to the House in January. So, we caucused, convincing the Democrat member that there was no real hurry on this section, and after some more discussion, the Senate agreed to remove the compact.
I wasn’t on the conference for HB 461, which we had passed as a penalty for employers who converted police chief or school superintendent to “part-time” so that they could hire retirees. The Senate converted it to a study committee on the issue; as expected, they were unable to reach any reasonable compromise.
HB 532, on licensing music therapists, was also amicable. The Senate changes were innocuous, so we agreed with their position.
SB 147, on the dental board, was quick: the Senate, convinced by the dentists’ association, agreed with the House position. We pointed out that the policy on deep sedation for children was being studied in SB 91, which was retained in the Senate Health & Human Services committee, and any policy changes could be implemented by that bill.
SB 207, on critical incident management and conditional licenses for mental health workers, also had a very cordial conference committee to incorporate some updated language.
All in all, a very cordial and efficient committee of conference season for my committee. Since the budget had been agreed as the Senate version, there was none for Finance. Apparently, the conflicts were over bail reform, which had been attached to a number of HHS bills this time…
Representative Carol McGuire
carol@mcguire4house.com
The post Your State House 06/23/23: Committees of Conferences – the Winddown appeared first on Granite Grok.