This week, my committee met to recommend eleven bills to the full House. Most had gone to the subcommittee, and as usual, we nearly always agreed with the subcommittee recommendation, and most recommendations were unanimous.

HB 1387, my bill on the state building code adoption process, had a minor amendment to allow consideration of a new code one year after it was released rather than two. The difference is that we now require the legislature to act before a new code is effective, and that takes some time.

HB 1285, merging the Board of Podiatry into the Board of Medicine, was killed without much discussion. HB 1486, requiring state procurement to use proxy carbon pricing, was killed because we didn’t want to distort the procurement process by a bad guess on the proxy price – we’d rather wait until a carbon tax or federal control program establishes the appropriate price.

HB 1190, the interstate compact for social workers, was rather a surprise to me. I moved to kill the bill since I believe it’s unconstitutional to sign up to have the compact rules have the force of law in the state before we know the actual rules. Discussion brought out that some members were concerned that the compact had uncontrolled authority to make rules, buy and sell property, and assess fees from member states; others, that the benefits of the compact were oversold and other compacts have not brought the interstate flexibility that the proponents sought. We voted 12-8 to kill the bill; I expect a floor fight.

HB 1271, converting a number of the smaller regulatory boards to advisory boards, had an amendment from the subcommittee that revised the composition of some boards in response to stakeholder concerns. We were examining it when one member, not on the subcommittee, raised the issue that some parts of this bill conflicted with the language in the non-germane amendment to HB 1095, which had been in subcommittee this morning. That would be a totally unacceptable result, so I stopped the discussion on HB 1271 so that the two bills could be compared and each section be addressed in only one bill!

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

HB 1059, updating the state building codes, had an amendment to include code amendments approved at the January meeting and to set the effective date to July 1. We discussed the updated energy code, and despite some reservations, we approved the update which left the energy code at the current revision. HB 1606, requiring contact information on state agency web pages, was killed as an update to most web pages is in process, and the Department of Information Technology agreed with us that contact information needed to be obvious. (I plan to check a few websites after they’re updated – we can always try a bill next year if necessary.)

HB 1411. requiring state agencies to accept cash payments was not as smooth. The testimony was that all state agencies do accept cash; the sticking point was the all electronic tolls on the Spaulding Turnpike. I had spoken to someone familiar with the toll system, and there are several ways to pay cash for the tolls, but all require some effort; the simplest would be to stop in the EZ Pass office once a week and pay the missed tolls – fees start accruing after eight days. And yes, they accept cash! Nonetheless, some members were concerned about either people who didn’t have bank accounts or preferred to deal in cash or people who were too poor to maintain a balance in their EZ Pass account. The vote was 17-3; I’m not entirely sure what the real issue was since using cash with state agencies doesn’t seem to be a problem.

HB 1272, on occupational license reciprocity, was killed because we had passed a very strong license by endorsement (that is, with a license from another state) bill last year, and the rules implementing it are still in process. HB 1408, a bill to merge and reorganize a number of boards, went to interim study as we wanted to deal with the advisory boards in HB 1271 and other statutory cleanup in HB 1095. This bill could conflict with either of them, and that would be unacceptable. Another round of board mergers and reorganizations should wait until we’ve finished with the current one.

Finally, HB 1222, deleting the requirement for physician assistants to have collaboration agreements with physicians, was discussed at some length. The subcommittee presented an amendment to clarify the Veterans’ Administration’s use of PAs, which was unanimously adopted. There was quite a bit of discussion about the equivalence of PAs and advanced practice nurse practitioners, who are allowed to practice independently. We also discussed problems with the collaboration agreements – some doctors “collaborate” at a distance for a fee; others won’t sign any such agreement since the insurance companies seem to sue the doctors as well, despite the law establishing the professional responsibility of the PAs. (I think the insurers are just going after all the deep pockets they can see!) The Board of Medicine, which had initially opposed the bill, was now “neutral.” Finally, we voted 12-8 to pass the bill.

On Thursday, the House met in session. The first order of business was to suspend all our rules to introduce a bill that would force those accused of felonies (specifically, Adam Montgomery, according to the petitioner) to be present in court. This motion passed 286-67; I voted against it because it seemed petty and specific to one person.

CACR 17, establishing the fundamental right of parents to direct the upbringing, education, and care of their children, was debated and not killed, 174-184. A floor amendment stating that this right “shall not be infringed” was debated and not passed, 173-189. The constitutional amendment was not passed, 180-183; a representative who voted against it has asked for reconsideration, so we will have another shot at it next week. The 60% requirement to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot (where voters must approve it by 2/3) is a hard bar to meet in a closely divided House.

HB 1006, creating a “family access motion” to have the courts enforce parenting time, had a floor amendment to clarify the language; both the amendment and the bill passed on voice votes. HB 1189, criteria for reporting child support delinquencies to federal agencies, had been rejected by the committee because they thought it was only a problem for the one representative who sponsored the bill; after they voted on it, they got information on how many child support delinquencies are reported – over 12,000, and many of them are for quite small amounts of money. It also happens if they get paid biweekly or monthly, and their support is assessed weekly. So, after some debate, the bill was not killed, 174-191, then passed on a voice vote.

HB 1263, allowing parenting coordinators to be used in high-conflict divorce or custody cases, passed without comment. HB 1266, explicitly allowing recording of open family court proceedings by the parties involved, was debated as to the necessity or usefulness of these recordings, then passed, 191-173. It was not reconsidered, 173-192.

HB 1308, parent’s access to children’s library records, was debated as to the possible expense to the libraries, the need for children’s privacy, and the existence of parent-objectionable material in libraries. It was killed 194-170, with 22 Republicans joining all Democrats in opposition. (If given a chance, I would have supported a floor amendment that clarified that only the books currently taken out by a child were included, with no need for a comprehensive list or any record of books read in the library.)

HB 1392, considering the opinion of the child in determining parenting time, was killed, 219-121, after a brief debate that established that judges could already consult with children before finalizing parenting time.

HB 1527, on criminal trespass, actually proposed that a spray of purple paint meant “no trespassing.” It was debated at some length; supporters insisted that it reinforced property rights, while opponents pointed out that violations (randoms spray painting trees on other people’s property) were impossible to police. In addition, it doesn’t offer the nuanced restrictions that current law allows – just “no.” Some opponents pointed out New Hampshire’s long history of common use, such that it’s normal and expected to hunt on your neighbor’s land. The bill was finally killed, 202-161.

HB 1437 would restructure the state Board of Education to include professional educators. It was minimally amended, 178-176, debated, and not passed, 176-190. Indefinite postponement passed 193-173. It is a citizen board, as it has been since initially structured over 100 years ago.

HB 1695, requiring parents to be notified when personally identifiable information is shared with third parties (private contractors providing special education services, for example), was debated, passed 192-173, and not reconsidered 170-195.The opposition was concerned that school personnel might have more paperwork, but that seemed a reasonable expense to me (and most others).

CACR 14, adding a constitutional provision that the state shall maintain and improve a clean and healthful environment, was debated at some length. Supporters wanted a commitment to the environment, opponents felt the state already has one and the rather vague language of this amendment would be problematic. The vote was 197-168 to kill it.

CACR 11, allowing sheriffs to serve out their elected term even after they turned 70, was killed on a voice vote without debate.

HB 1029, exempting some people from needing a license to land crab or lobster (taken in federal or another state’s waters) for personal consumption, was debated over the cost of such a license ($50 or $500 – I heard both!) and the need for state control of such activities. It was killed, 186-179 (I voted in favor.)

HB 1100, on coyote hunting, was tabled, 241-123, before the probably lengthy and unpleasant debate.

HB 1194, amending the definition of a non-communicable disease to one that is not transmitted from person to person, would not require immunization for malaria or Covid. An amendment that left the requirement for tetanus vaccines passed without comment, then the debate began. The bill passed 191-171 and was not reconsidered 171-192. HB 1213, eliminating the requirement for childcare centers to maintain records of immunizations of children in their care, was debated with the opposition concerned that it would decrease the vaccination rate for children if parents no longer have to report vaccination status to their childcare center. Proponents reiterated that the requirement for vaccination was unchanged, but having to maintain this data was a serious problem for childcare agencies, particularly the smaller ones. The bill passed 189-173 and was not reconsidered 172-193.

On a voice vote, we special ordered HB 1250, allowing the creation of village districts that cross town lines for the purpose of protecting water bodies. This was debated, with opponents concerned about the power of these districts to gerrymander themselves, including properties far from the water, and levy new taxes. Village districts within one town are common; waterside communities can form voluntary associations to protect our lakes without needing to form a village district. The bill was not passed, 182-182; not tabled, 182-183; killed, 184-180; and not reconsidered, 179-187.

Voting 336-29, we then special ordered HB 1416, which forbade non-electric vehicles from parking in EV charging spaces. The bill allowed anyone to take a picture of a violator, present the picture to law enforcement, and have a ticket issued – not the normal method of enforcement! Before the debate, we voted 189-176 to indefinitely postpone the bill and any similar ones.

HB 1240, adding eating disorders as a qualifying condition for therapeutic cannabis, was tabled 310-54, in agreement with the majority of the committee and the Therapeutic Cannabis Medical Oversight Board. HB 1482, allowing the sale of human blood and organs so that recipients could pay donors, was tabled 326-38 before the debate.

HB 1660, banning gender reassignment surgery for minors from being covered by the Medicaid program, was debated on the expected issues. It was not tabled, 174-188, passed 193-169, and not reconsidered, 171-192. HB 1706, informed consent for circumcision, went to interim study without comment.

CACR 12, replacing the 1784 word “cherish” with the current meaning of “cherish,” was Dan’s attempt to amend the constitution to trigger the Supreme Court to reconsider their original Claremont decision on school funding, and subsequent decisions as well. He spoke on the importance of having school funding – an inherently political process – decided by the legislature, not the courts. The interesting thing about the debate was that the speakers against it agreed with Dan on the effects of this change; they disagreed on whether it was a desirable change! In any event, the amendment was killed, 188-171.

HB 1037, repealing limited liability for firearms manufacturers, was indefinitely postponed, 196-163. HB 1089, repealing the statute of limitations on civil suits over PFAS, went to interim study without comment.

HB 1220, abolishing the collection of racial, ancestral, and educational data on the application for a marriage license, was debated on a floor amendment that was identical to the committee amendment (which passed without comment.) Apparently, the person proposing the amendment hadn’t read it carefully enough since she wanted to collect ancestry data (only)… In any event, these data are self-reported and optional and not used by any state agency for any purpose. The amendment failed 324-33 since it didn’t do anything, and the bill passed 293-64.

HB 1412, repealing the licensing of court reporters, had a floor amendment to make it effective in 90 days rather than 60, which passed without comment. After some debate, including the information that the courts have not used court reporters in decades, the bill passed 188-166, and reconsideration failed on a voice vote. This repeal has failed in my committee multiple times, so I was glad another committee could accomplish it. Advanced recording technology has made it possible to use less skilled transcribers in most cases, and the license now serves mostly to limit competition for the actual court reporter positions.

HB 1629, requiring the Attorney General to report to the legislature when investigating cases of a legislator not living in his district, was tabled 339-19. HR 29, declaring an “economic justice bill of rights,” was killed without comment, as was HB 1086, amending public notice of ZBA hearings.

HB 1120, repealing the requirement that municipal votes (by select board or budget committee) appear on the warrant, was debated and killed on a voice vote – then the speaker asked for reconsideration since one of the debaters had asked for a division vote. So reconsideration passed 188-168, and the bill was killed 264-95.

HB 1125 would require county delegation and commission meetings to comply with the same public access and public comment as town or city meetings. It passed without debate on voice votes. HB 1242, authorizing county-wide communications districts, was debated and killed, 173-172, as unnecessary; Carroll County has created one on an opt-in basis, with 16 towns voting to join, whereas HB 1242 would include all communities involuntarily. HB 1297, requiring all zoning ordinances to be directly related to health and safety, was tabled before debate, 285-65. I can imagine the way various towns would twist their current zoning ordinances to ensure they were related to health or safety.

HB 1359, on appeals of zoning decisions by abutters, clarified who, exactly, counted as an abutter for standing to appeal. It was debated, and a floor amendment to include residents in the town who were not abutters in an appeal was rejected, 130-224. After more debate, citing support from various organizations interested in increasing the housing supply, the bill passed 265-88.

HB 1253, renaming the Blair State Forest as the Jane Kellogg State Forest, was quietly killed; despite her leadership and accomplishments, we try hard not to name things for living people. HB 1510, establishing a commission to encourage electric vehicles, was killed without comment.

HB 1142, requiring people who failed the septic system evaluator test to take additional training or work experience before trying again, passed without debate. HB 1208, making the contractor rather than the landowner responsible for getting all permits before cutting timber, was tabled on a voice vote. HB 1483, allowing subdivision regulations to require a suitable water supply, was briefly debated before going to interim study, 182-165.

HB 1036, potentially allowing a different cost/benefit analysis for energy efficiency programs, passed the committee amendment 176-170, then the debate was over the propriety of changes to the ratepayer-funded program. It passed 184-169; examining methods always makes sense to me.

HB 1623, updating the state energy policy, had a long, dull debate as both sides tried to present all the details of this policy. The committee amendment was adopted, 182-169, then more debate. The bill passed 184-168 and was not reconsidered, 165-179. The new policy is more supportive of all types of energy generation and more resistant to mandates to limit energy in favor of climate change control.

HB 1118, issuance of driver’s licenses for legal aliens, was mostly a reorganization of existing statutes for clarity. Importantly, it also included a requirement that licenses for non-citizens were clearly marked as not valid for voting! The debate was largely on that issue, and the amendment passed, 180-167, the bill passed 179-166, and reconsideration failed, 167-178.

At this point, about 6 pm, all the remaining bills were special ordered for our next session day.

Friday, the county convention (all 45 state representatives from Merrimack County) met to consider the budget. This had started the review process as a 17% increase, but extensive work cut it to 7.6%. It’s still high, but with the end of special federal funding (largely for one-time expenses), less income from the register of deeds as real estate sales shrunk, and high inflation, I could understand it. In addition, the county has kept increases to a minimum for a while – even with this year’s jump, the amount raised by taxes has averaged a 1.5% per year increase for the last seven years. So, I voted for the budget, which passed 26-7.

The county delegation also approved 31-2, the county power aggregation plan. This allows the commissioners to purchase power in bulk for anyone in the county, without the regulations imposed on the electric utilities – so quicker responding to market conditions and hopefully, cheaper. At this point any power customer in the county can sign up to use this plan for their default power. If a town so votes, it would become the default power supplier for everyone in the town – but anyone could opt out in that case. If your town already has a community power plan (Canterbury does; Pembroke, New London, Warner and Webster are starting one this month; six other towns are considering it) that takes precedence for default power, but individuals can always opt for the county plan if they prefer.

It seems to me that this agreement might well save money for the aware consumer; the only risk is that the county might change its goals from “least cost” power to “most sustainable.” That would be a problem, but again, the aware consumer has plenty of options to meet their goals for power. (I want reliability and low cost, myself.)

I also met in subcommittee on two bills on mental health licensing, HB 1131 and HB 1413. We discussed what the problems were, and developed amendments to both bills. HB 1413, on supervisory agreements (mental health counselors require supervised practice before they are eligible for a full license,) instead of repealing the definition of these agreements, will change the language of the supervisor’s responsibility to that used in another section of the statute, which is not objectionable. For HB 1413, instead of adding private clinics to the list of organizations that can hire new graduates without specific supervisory agreements, we defined the responsibilities of an organization that can do so, without worrying about its structure.

The post Your State House appeared first on Granite Grok.

So, truth be told, I didn’t mind The Grok recently publishing legislator attendance records, perhaps because I’d missed approximately zero votes, much less any sessions, during six years at the State House. And yes, I was among those who were frustrated when our red team lost some close floor votes due to Republican lawmakers’ absences.

After The Grok published a list of solons with the highest absentee rates I was kind of hoping that it would also publish a list of those of us with 100% attendance rates, like me.

That is until a House Session was scheduled for Thursday, March 7.

Months ago, I’d planned to be at Camp Pendleton, Calif., that day for the dedication of a memorial monument 40 years after my Marine Corps unit, Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, suffered a dreadful tragedy when a helicopter hit a mountain during a night training exercise in Korea. All 29 Marines aboard were killed. I was in a different chopper and, like many others, always carried a touch of survivor’s guilt.

I knew many of the Marines who were killed and would never miss the March 7th reunion, where I could reconnect with old comrades and meet Gold Star families. Our company commander, Captain Jay Paxton, would make special remarks at the commemoration. After a 42-year USMC career, Paxton retired from the Marines in 2016 as a four-star general and Assistant Commandant.

A lot of tears were shed, a lot of folks were remembered, and afterward, there were warm embraces, later laughs, and camaraderie. There was no way I was going to miss the reunion.

But as a Grokster, I soon noticed my name listed in a Grok piece with the number of floor votes I missed on March 7. Fair enough.

Catholic guilt ensued—different from survivor’s guilt. But some humility and wisdom ensued as well. Never again would I judge fellow citizen-legislators who might miss a session for whatever reason. “Stuff” happens—anything from sicknesses to family emergencies to 40th Anniversary USMC Monument Dedications.

Mea culpa.

Live free or die.

The post Excuses, Excuses … and Lima Company appeared first on Granite Grok.

STOP making things so complicated. Things are actually quite simple. Republican good; Democrat bad. That is all you need to know. Just vote Republican … that is all that matters. What? What about primaries? Well, in the case of primaries you vote for the candidate your “leaders” tell you to vote for. Why else would we have “leaders”?!?!?! What a silly question.

What? Another question? Isn’t just voting Republican how we end up with the UniParty … in Concord, as well as DC?  What you have a recent example … Senate Republicans joining with the Democrats to pass yet another omnibus:

The #SchumerMinibus passed tonight.

As Senate conservatives, we did everything we possibly could to stop it.

In the end, we were no match for The Uniparty.

Republicans must stop helping Democrats advance Democrat policies.

Now.

— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) March 9, 2024

This bill is an insult to the American people. The earmarks are all the wasteful spending that you could ever hope to see, and it should be defeated. Read more: https://t.co/Jt8K5iucA4 pic.twitter.com/I5okd4QgDg

— Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) March 8, 2024

But just think how bad it would have been without the “responsible” Republicans who voted with the Democrats! These statesmen and stateswomen who voted for the latest omnibus represent true conservatism! Same but less is true conservatism! Slava Ukraine! Vote Republican! Slava Ukraine! Vote Republican!

The post Vote Republican … Up And Down Ticket … All Day, Every Day … Go Team Go!!! appeared first on Granite Grok.

Vermont taxpayers are screwed. Their Democrat majority government can override any Phil Scott Veto (assuming he’s not also part of the problem) and where there are Democrats, there will be higher taxes and little or nothing to show for the taking. The failed public education experiment is a great example.

Twenty years ago (2004), Vermont had a problem.

A total of 39 schools, or 13 percent, failed to make what is defined as adequate yearly progress this year, Education Commissioner Richard Cate said Tuesday. The results, he said, should be used to better understand how to serve all Vermont students and not to judge schools. “If identification doesn’t mean that terrible things are going to happen, I don’t think we should care quite as much about numbers as we should about the needs of kids,” Cate said. “All I really care about is that all the kids are served.”

If you compare the 2003 troubles reported in that 2004 article to the 2024 troubles (or the 2023 proficiency results), the needs of the kids cost exponentially more while fewer of them are “being served.” Competency is down, and grade-level reading and math are down.

“Bellows Falls Union High School Principal Kelly O’Ryan told the school’s budget committee this week that seven freshmen out of a classroom of 14 students were reading at a first-grade or elementary school level.”

It’s not that only half of the high school students can read to grade level. It’s that half of them can only read to a first-grade level.

It’s not just Bellows Falls but statewide.

As has been reported, Vermont test scores are dropping significantly and have been for over a decade. A recent deep dive revealed that our public schools have been teaching kids to read the wrong way for over a generation. Along that line comes a story from the Brattleboro Reformer, Low Reading Scores Alarm BFUHS Board, in which the Bellows Falls Union High School principal revealed that half of the freshman class “were reading at a first-grade or elementary school level.”

The one thing that IS up is school budgets and spending which brings us to Town meeting 2024. Multiple outlets have reported that a third of towns rejected their school budgets last week. What one commenter suggested might be a historical record.

Well, the reason that so many budgets failed is because property taxes were projected to skyrocket by nearly 20%. And that’s because, collectively, the budgets that were put before voters represented a $230 million increase in education spending. So even before all these budgets went down, lawmakers were already saying, ‘This is a crisis. Something has got to give.’ Tuesday’s results confirmed for them, that they have a mandate for change.

VermontGrok regular Rob Roper wrote about this latest tidal wave tax and the spending last December.

Vermont already spends more per pupil than almost every other state in the Union at the official count of $22,953, but the NEA pegged the number at $25,053 in 2022-23, which is the number you get when you simply divide the education budget by the number of students. And what are we getting for all this increased spending year after year? An unmitigated disaster of falling student outcomes, rising classroom violence, and a shockingly arrogant lack of accountability or common sense by public school officials.

Democrats can’t imagine a solution that doesn’t involve throwing more of your money into a bottomless hole. In the case of public Ed, however, they get some back from union dues to campaign coffers to boots on the ground, and more often than is reported – electioneering. Democrats benefit from recycling your hard-earned dollars through an institution that can’t seem to do much else unless turning generations of kids into helpless illiterate gender queers can be viewed as another positive (though again, you’d be right to wonder for whom).

After spending a barrel of one-time money, Vermont is over a barrel. The state used inflation-driving COVID bailouts to grow school budgets, and taxpayers were left holding the larger bag. That was not an accident. It is a well-honed tactic of government-first progressives: Make government bigger and then cry about how awful things will get if they have to propose cuts. Anyone who dares is smeared, and taxes rise perpetually to fill a space that didn’t exist before the one-time money came along.

Wash, rinse, repeat. When the institution continues to fail, the solution is more money to pay for more failure—a doom loop that few ever escape.

Public education has been in decline for decades, and for just as long, Amininstrators union loudmouths, and politicians have blamed it on money. But the only thing more money can be directly connected to in government schools is dumber children. As the budgets have grown, kids have become less capable, less proficient, and ill-prepared for anything outside that fiscally bloated womb.

It would be nice if you could invest that in something else, but the other problem with electing Democrats is they will do whatever they can to trap your kids in their doom loop.

What exactly you plan to do about that is your decision, but a good start would be to stop electing Democrats for at least as long as your schools have been failing.

 

The post More Money Will Only Make The “Public Education Problem” Worse appeared first on Granite Grok.

Growing up in China, I never heard of parental rights. Every child in China belongs to the State. After Mao used urban youth Red Guards during his Cultural Revolution, he forced them to be re-educated in the countryside. My uncles were sent hundreds of miles away from home for ten years, and my grandparents had no say.

As a student, I was subjected to forced indoctrination in government schools, centralized curricula, testing, data collection, secret “Student Files,” and mandatory vaccinations.

Student Files for each child included grades, speeches, behaviors, rewards, violations, punishments, physical health, mental health, vaccine shots, religion, family members inf. No parents were allowed to see what was in these files.

Our school day started with chanting “Long Live CHAIRMAN MAO, LONG LIVE CCP” and red songs like “My parents are dear, but Chairman Mao is dearer.” We were required to memorize Mao’s quotations, writing dairies reviewed by teachers, report on our family and neighbors for anti-gov speeches, and confess our own incorrect thoughts.

There were posters in schools and communities in front of your eyes everywhere.

Our music and art classes were about showing affection and loyalty to Mao, demonizing the oppressors. I never questioned anything. It was effective in convincing people that if you see something and hear something daily, it must be the truth. I would see Mao’s face in the clouds and in the fire under our wok, smiling at me. I thought Mao was a God until he died when I was 12. That was my first awaking moment.

What happened in China is happening here in the US. I opposed Common Core, centralized education standards, testing, and data collection over ten years ago. I enrolled my kids in a charter school where I served as a board member and a chair. Today’s school kids are being indoctrinated with CRT, the 1619 project, SEL, DEI, Gender Ideology, LGBTQ agendas, etc.

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

Kids are encouraged to keep secrets from parents, health centers in schools keep separate files, and teachers are not required to inform parents about a child’s gender identity change. Some School teachers and counselors are political activists who brainwash and train kids to be SJWs.

Parents are being sidelined, if you dare to challenge age-inappropriate books in schools, you are called bigots, and book banners. If you go to school board meetings speaking up against their indoctrination, you could be a “domestic terrorist”.

The fact that I must go to the State House and Senate to testify to support parental rights bills is concerning. It is absolutely necessary, though. It clarifies and protects one of the most ancient of all human rights – parental sovereignty.

The deepest human bond is between parents and their children. This bond must be protected from being torn by any political agenda. In America, children still belong to their parents, not the government, not the institutions, not any collective groups.

In America, children belong to their parents, not state. Parents have the right to choose the best suitable school for their children. Parents must have the right to know what their children are taught in school, Parents should have the right to access all their kids’ personal data, health records, and make informed medical decisions with/for their children.

Schools should not be political battlefields or indoctrination centers. Schools should be places of joyful learning focusing on academic subjects like reading, writing, math, and science — not places of social engineering with divisive political agendas and age-inappropriate content.

Girls should always feel safe to use their bathrooms, boys, too. Girls’ sports should not be crushed by men who identify as women.

Parents, grandparents, and good teachers, our kids need us more than ever. They are the most vulnerable, innocent, and precious humans and need our love, guidance, and protection.

Local town elections, including school board elections, are coming up on March 12th. Show up to vote for the candidates who represent your values and respect your parental rights. Make it your priority to get involved in your kids’ schools and their lives at home, including their social media activities.

If your state can’t pass a parental rights bill, try to work with local districts or towns to protect kids. At the Federal level, make sure your candidates will pledge to sponsor or co-sponsor a bill to abolish the DOE and return education to local control and parental control. That is what I will do when I get elected.

We need concerned citizen groups willing to be fierce, Mama and Papa Bears ready to protect the children. Your children, families, and freedoms depend on this. Take action now before it is too late.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBoBBQUpa4U&t=225s
Lily Tang Williams
Republican Congressional Candidate NH02
www.lilytangwilliams.com
Reminder: Content about candidates or by candidates is not an endorsement by GraniteGrok.com or its authors.

The post Protect Our Children and Parental Rights appeared first on Granite Grok.

Several Gmail users have emailed me to say they got the newsletter this morning. I checked, and we are in 100% compliance with Gmail’s requirements for now, so if you use Gmail and don’t see it today, it is in your spam folder (mine was).

Compliance with Outlook, Comcast, and several other mail services has also improved, but they are not 100% compliant, so we will continue to work on that.

As a reminder, we now are delivering two newsletters daily. The AM version will have the posts from the previous evening. The PM version will have the posts from that day.

I’m excited to learn that we are making progress.

Again, check spam, and then, if you are still not receiving it and know you signed up, please let me know.

steve@granitegrok.com

The post Email Newsletter Update: Google/Gmail is at 100% Compliance appeared first on Granite Grok.

One could be forgiven for mistakenly believing that Jennifer Mandelbaum was running unopposed in the Rockingham District 21 special election. The 32-year-old contender for a seat in the NH House of Representatives, whose race reaches its conclusion on March 12, is virtually ubiquitous both online and in signage.

How has a hitherto unknown candidate in an obscure contest established such sudden name recognition? I suspect the answer is a progressive advocacy group known as 603 Forward, which has hosted public events with Mandelbaum and invested in the election, according to campaign finance reports.

Founded in 2019 by Lucas Meyer and Elizabeth Wester—both hotshots in the realm of liberal political causes—the youthful organization has quickly grown into a veritable factory of progressive candidates for state and local office. Since its inception, 603 Forward has boasted over 150 successful elections, an unmatched success rate for an NH advocacy group.

We want to thank D. S. Dexter Tarbox Jr. for this Contribution – Please direct yours to Steve@GraniteGrok.com.
You can review our ‘Op-Ed Guidelines‘ on the FAQ Page.

For his part, Meyer was well-equipped to launch an effective electoral machine. Not only was he a principal player in Chris Pappas’ Executive Council and Senate campaigns, the former Deputy Communications Director of the NH Democratic Party, and a consultant for the energy and tech industries (among others); he currently leads a public affairs strategy firm called Catalyst Advocacy.

Wester is likewise no small player in the world New England politics. Best known as the NH State Director for Elizabeth Warren’s 2020 presidential campaign, the Massachusetts native is also an alumna of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign and several Democrat congressional offices.

It should come as no surprise that both of these rather flourishing characters were also accomplished collegiate athletes — a vigor they have seemingly carried into their hale and hearty careers in activism. But to call 603Forward a purely grassroots organization would be an error. Like most movements, its true origins can be traced to the ever-entangled and endlessly-moneyed powers.

Although it solicits donations, 603 Forward is mainly funded by grants. In fact, grants were the sole source of funding used to launch the group in 2019, according to its 501(c)(4) IRS filings.

From whom do these funds derive?

Reports from 2022 alone indicate that 603 Forward was the recipient of hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash awards from leftist donor clearinghouses like the New Hampshire Progress Alliance (“NHPA”), Run for Something, and the Rural Democracy Initiative (“RDI”). Indeed, RDI awarded two grants to this and other progressive NH causes in the same year.

RDI boldly proclaims its ominous objectives in no uncertain terms:

“We establish multi-year relationships with grantees. We invest in efforts that have the power to change immediate statewide and local electoral, public opinion, and policy outcomes, and at the same time RDI extends our impact by building sustainable organizational infrastructure that will support rural people working to transform America—and therefore the entire country—for decades to come.”

A review of the states and communities targeted by the Rural Democracy Initiative (i.e. AK, AZ, GA, NH, NC, ME, MN, MT, MI, OH, PA, TX, VA, and WI) plainly reveals the ultimate objective of their efforts: to strike at the rural conservative bases in key swing states and establish an enduring liberal majority. Ignore the many platitudes they espouse about the country worker. Radical entrenched transformation is RDI’s actual ambition.

The origins of RDI itself are obscure, but not untraceable. One name emerges especially from amidst the fog: William Carter.

Carter is a West Virginian string musician and wealthy financial manager who operates the firm of McKinley Carter Wealth Services and is a key founder of RDI. Carter’s business manages approximately $2 billion in total assets between its purported 5,262 clients, placing it among the largest firms of its type in the United States.

Naturally, Mr. Carter is not the only apex predator in the jungle of donor dollars. Run for Something and NHPA are backed by several shadowy nonprofits connected to billionaire megadonor George Soros (including the North Fund, Open Society Policy Center, and the Sixteen Thirty Fund).

But RDI’s expressed mission to develop a wide-reaching “network of donors” bent on “transforming America” seems to be the most keenly focused on impacting local elections in communities like NH, and Carter is an apparent fountainhead of this comprehensive program.

Billionaire-hating liberals be warned: you are far from immune to their influence.

That rich men have coopted our essential civic processes is no bombshell. On the conservative side, the Koch family’s Americans for Prosperity (AFP) operates a relatively powerful branch in NH, which advocated for Nikki Haley during the 2024 Primary almost to the point of nausea.

But the comparison is hardly equal. While 603 Forward is successfully recruiting and advancing candidates at all levels of government, conservative-minded political prospects are hardly supported by the Republican Party itself. While liberal syndicates have effected hundreds of local victories over the course of a few short years, the conservatives have all but completely abdicated their role in the process.

During the hotly contested November 2023 election, even the local Republican Committee hosted no recruitment events or candidate forums, had no social media activity, published no direct mail, posted very limited signage, and offered no sample ballot to voters in contested cities like Dover and its environs. Meanwhile hardly any Democrat candidate was lacking in any essential support.

The subsequent liberal victories in diverse House special elections—and now, the accelerated rise of Jennifer Mandelbaum against her GOP challenger—evidence the same pattern.

Where is our knight in white satin armor? Will our state ever bring forth a conservative Meyer, Wester, or Carter who will effectively organize GOP money and energy into a fruitful statewide operation? There is no reason why both sides should not be able to participate with equal strength, if certain Republicans will consent to desist in their genteel fantasies about American society and agree to truly involve themselves in the necessary civic mud.

If Republicans fail to learn the lesson of past defeats, the sway of local elections will ever more incline away from the right. It’s behind time for Republicans to learn from their shrewder Democrat counterparts by recruiting, training, and supporting bankable candidates.

The post Billionaire-Backed Organizations Fund NH Progressive Candidates: Republicans Should Take Note. appeared first on Granite Grok.

The New Republic was gobsmacked by a 2022 report that claimed only 5-6% of plastics entering the recycling stream in America were actually recycled. Most of them are relocated until they end up in landfills, incinerated, or in a turtle’s nose photo-op.

We should blame Big Oil.

Among the biggest plastics producers in the U.S. are ExxonMobil and Shell. Shell opened a giant petrochemical plant in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, in 2022. On the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call, it admitted that costs for the project had soared 130 percent past the original estimates. An investigation by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette found that, in the first year of the plant’s operations, its polyethylene units—which convert ethylene into tiny plastic beads—were shuttered as often as they were operational. Shell announced this week that it would be pulling out of talks to build a new petrochemicals plant in Basra, Iraq, having said it’ll cut down on “mega projects” like the Beaver County facility.

The gig is up. Thirty years of knowing that recycling was just a lie to protect the plastics industry has been exposed. The petrochemical cat is out of the single-use thin film bag. We have you where we want you. Except you don’t.

Recycling hasn’t worked for years, not just for plastics. Considering all the moving parts and processes, it is cheaper and less carbon-intensive to use new and bury or burn the old.

And that island of floating plastic bobbing about in the ocean that no one can find is a byproduct of recycling. Much like all the other bad things happening to the planet, most come from Asia, where a lot of America’s recycling has traditionally ended its life cycle. In other words, it would be better for the oceans if we buried or burned it, but the New Republic’s author never goes there.

Incinerators are notoriously bad, says the Climate Cult, but we have a better chance of using them to generate electricity and finding stack scrubbing technology to pull out impurities in the exhaust than we ever had of making recycling a lower carbon footprint endeavor.

Then there’s the biggest question of all. If plastics are not or cannot be recycled (even if it makes economic and emissions sense), what do we replace them with? Wood, cardboard, glass, or metal.

Any guesses as to how much more carbon-intensive those are than plastics individually or in total? Manufacturing, transportation of raw material and finished product (they weigh a lot more), and what about disposal? You can recycle cardboard, some glass, and metal, but the post-consumer process is an emissions bitch and not at all cost-effective, so most of that will end up in landfills, too.

And if you thought reusable shopping bags were carbon-intensive (or more likely didn’t know or pretended it was a conspiracy theory, just like how recycling was a lie), wait until they can’t make them with petrochemicals.

You can talk about environmental injustice until the genetically modified lab meat cows come home. This transition will make everything more expensive, which, the last time I checked, was precisely what the Climate Cult wants. If people can’t afford it, they use less, which aligns nicely with the left’s admission that this is what they want and the reality that they’ve made things like food, electricity, and water exponentially more pricey as a matter of policy.

The real problem, aside from an unhealthy obsession with hating big oil and affordable living, is that they hate you. People are the biggest problem, and it’s one the globalists have been working on. What do you think Medically Assisted dying is all about? They make you miserable, convince you that death is what’s best for the community, and then recycle your organs into elites whom they are convinced will do more with them than you ever could.

And you can’t do the transplants without a lot of unrecyclable single-use plastics (medical waste), so the New Republic is either yanking their chain or yanking their own. You decide which.

The post An Inconvenient Truth About Recycling appeared first on Granite Grok.

I just read today’s “Judy Aron Report,” which is a great thing to do the day after the House meets. One of many reasons to encourage others to do the same is that she captures most of the items of great public interest.

One of those things is enemy camp member and former Speaker Shurtleff’s taking of the gavel and his motion to suspend the rules for his late-season and election-year “feel-good bill.”

I have yet to know of anyone who disagrees that the Harmony Montgomery tragedy was a terrible thing. I’m sure we all can agree that many changes need to be made as a result, but the nuts and bolts of those changes are likely where there’s disagreement. However, there’s plenty of material on that for separate discussions.

I’m here to discuss Rep. Arlene Quaratiello’s newly deceased bill, HB 1308 (relative to parent access to children’s library records), as a “post-mortem,” if you will.  You might remember my previous article on parental rights and Library Lewdness and another on how YOU are the (library’s) CUSTOMER. For your “reference,” to use some “libraryspeak,” tune into 1:11:01 in this video when Arlene’s bill comes up.  Arlene took the mic and made some more points that I didn’t even think of, such as the dastardly UNFUNDED MANDATE.

Then, Queen Heather, whom I’ve previously discussed before, made her retort, defending the ITL committee recommendation.  When done speaking, she “refused to yield” for a question at 1:18:50, which reminded me of two occurrences on the “other side of the wall” that happened yesterday.

At 3:59:30, Senator Gray asked Senator Twitley if she would yield, and she acted like her law degree came from the Lionel Hutz School.   Obviously, she has never watched C-SPAN.  I recommend watching her buffoonery for yourself.  Then, later on, at 4:13:08, Senator Avard had a question for Altschiller after her pearl-clutching diatribe, and she refused.  I’d sure hate to be in a road rage situation with any of those three angry women, even if YIELD signs were facing them, but I digress.

Back to Arlene. You heard in her speech that she requested the ITL be voted down so another amendment (addressing the opposition’s issues) could be introduced. As a lay observer of both chambers, I thought it was etiquette to allow for discussion of new ideas because I’ve observed it happening before in a bipartisan manner, but that’s just me. Sadly, HB 1308 died in a 194-170 roll call vote.

So in keeping with the topic of reactionism, we have the new Shurtleff bill that does nothing for the political process, but the lame duck Damn Emperor did commit to signing it.  Interesting.  Remember the prognostications of Chris Buda. And then there’s the Uniparty, um, I mean gun hater Rep Meuse collaborating with House Criminal Justice Committee Chair Terry Roy in sponsoring HB 1711, which does not resurrect the lives of retired Franklin Police Chief Bradley Hass or any of the Lewiston victims next door in Maine.

So, just a thought here, but let me first say that I do NOT encourage anyone to build a bomb. It is important to get that disclaimer out of the way, so consider it said.  What if you’re a parent and you suspected that your kid went to the library and checked out “How to Build a Fertilizer Bomb” by Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, and your request for such records was refused?  That is, after all, what the American Library Association (ALA) would want librarians to do.

But wait a minute. What if there was an EXEMPTION for any kid not in any subset of “LGBTQABCDEFG,” as Chris Salcedo would say?

Town elections are coming up, and you might consider asking your library trustee candidates if they would agree to stop paying dues (your tax dollars) to the ALA.

 

The post NH House, Selectively Reactionary? appeared first on Granite Grok.

Climate “warriors” and animal rights activists are out in far-left field on cows and livestock farming. The attacks against cows and agriculture have become so ubiquitous that a nearly universal brainwashing has succeeded in conditioning consumers and academics to simply believe cows are bad for the planet—all cows, all the time. But this is the exact opposite of the truth and indeed pushes humanity toward great peril: There is a reason European farmers are rising up in revolt. Ultimately, these activists are clamoring for their own destruction through totalitarianism and starvation. What’s needed is a recovery of actual farming.

I am not defending industrial farming. For a century, America has watched academics, government agencies, and corporations shrink family farms in the name of progress. Ignoring soil experts like Aldo Leopold and Wendell Berry, the technocrats pushed for consolidation of farms, destroying waterways, pushing small families into poverty, and packing more and more animals into tighter and tighter spaces for “productivity” and “progress.”

As the animals sickened under such conditions, the same groups peddled antibiotics, hormones, and other chemical “solutions” to maintain profit margins. The activists who claim humanity must now abandon all animal consumption are non-farmers who have fallen for a triple scam against cows and small farms:

1) They make it sound as if all cows were raised industrially. This enables animal rights activists to use the most egregious animal treatment to slander all farming. It also allows climate alarmists to condemn all livestock because industrial ag concentrates plumes of water, air, and soil pollution into crises not present with traditional regenerative agriculture.

2) Activists also claim livestock is a human health problem. This, too, is built on decades of carb-pushing propaganda that falsely claimed eggs and milk were evil and that red meat causes cancer. Increasingly, it appears that the surfeit of carbohydrates is the culprit and that grass-fed meats are much healthier than grain-fed. A much greater health threat is presented by glyphosate, atrazine, and a plethora of toxic food (and packaging) contaminants, but corporate America would much prefer to target and scapegoat cows.

3) Both groups join together in the simplistic claim that the only solution to the problems technocrats and corporations created by consolidating natural agricultural systems into artificial, industrial death camps is for the exact same groups of technocrats and corporations to rescue humanity using GMO cropping in lieu of cows and other livestock.

One quite typical and typically absurd article recently called to “recogniz[e] the reality that stopping consuming animals and animal byproducts greatly benefits animals as well as the planet.” Both claims are dubious, yet this article touts the usual talking points:

More people eating vegan diets is backed by research confirming the significant impact it would have on planetary health just as much as consumer health, per the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.

From the risk reduction of certain cancers, dire diseases, and chronic conditions to the compassionate sense in knowing that a vegan diet does not involve the suffering or use of animals for human consumption, the vegan diet is the clear standout amongst a crowded and muddled field of modern diets.

Related criticisms of cows for their flatulence display either utter ignorance or a deliberate scheme. Cow burps are accompanied by cow manure, which is a vital fertilizer that, when properly fed to soil, causes more methane and carbon dioxide to be sequestered than the cow ever created. The alternative crops we are told we will eat are to be raised using GMOs (saturating the soil with more glyphosate and other toxic chemicals) and synthetic fertilizers that release nitrous oxide and other pollutants (urea is manufactured from methane!).

The technocratic math doesn’t add up. Small wonder the genuine farmers of the world are standing up in droves in Europe: they see the destruction of their livelihoods and the ecosystem by those feigning its rescue to seize yet more power.

If humanity keeps following misinformed (or duplicitous) people into the ignorant dependency and environmental destruction of this faux eco-cause, perhaps it is well deserved—one ignores one’s food at one’s peril. But this ignorance threatens to sweep all before it aside, not just through totalitarianism (to “save the planet” we must sacrifice all individual liberties) but because expanding humanity’s industrial ag diet will drench the land in neonicotinoids which will kill the bees, atrazine which will kill fish and saturate groundwater, and a host of other chemicals yet to be created to fix the problems these and other man-made disasters cause.

If raising cows humanely is good for people and the land, it’s also good for the cows. Not all industrial livestock practices are as inhumane as the activist agitators claim. It is unpleasant for humans to imagine being housed in a crate, but farrowing pens save piglets’ lives—even veterinarians support them. But not the activists, who believe (as with hunting rights and wildlife management by biologists) that their moral claims are superior to what farmers or hunters, or veterinarians or wildlife biologists, know about animals.

I raise animals traditionally. They never miss a meal, are always with water and housing, run on green pastures, raise their own young, and are slaughtered here where they were born with zero suffering. Those who lump this form of animal husbandry together with industrial factories are either dishonest or profoundly uninformed. Farmers do not enjoy taking life in order to eat well and live: it is an ancient practice entailing humility, reverence, and gratitude.

Climate and animal rights activists may unwittingly further the aims of those who seek to seize control of all food (and its “equitable” distribution”) in the name of saving the world. The World Economic Forum, which seeks to lead the world into yet greater technocratic industrial agricultural dependency, is populated by “partners” who have been among the worst actors in destroying farming, the ecosystem, and animal welfare: Dow, Monsanto (now Bayer), Cargill, Syngenta, JBS…. The list is hundreds of consumer-poisoning corporations long.

This global coordination of corporate “stakeholders” is served by climate/vegan activists, begging Big Brother Ag to rescue them from carbon dioxide, while sparing farm animals from slaughter. But it is not the traditionally raised animals who need rescue: While the vegan/climate alliance lumps soil-building animal husbandry in with factory meat production, the industrial masters were busy at work. New “plant-based” products are highly processed, adulterated with dubious chemical additives, costly, and not very flavorful.

Most of the humans who embrace this baloney about climate-killing cows and cow-killing humans have eagerly thrust their necks into a parallel industrial dependency and blind trust as the factory animals they seek to liberate. Chomping against nature’s bit to expand industrial food production in the name of saving either animals or the planet is a fool’s mission, begging for servitude. I do not say this here to condemn but to spare these well-intentioned but misinformed people the consequences of what they are seeking.

The technocratic destruction of America’s farms (documented in Wendell Berry’s seminal work, The Unsettling of America) pushed millions of Americans into cities for work, where they are disconnected from the soil microbiome upon which the human companion (the stomach) depends. Inhaling toxic air, crammed into compact housing, feeding on plastic-wrapped factory fare trucked into the cities, drinking a long list of unpronounceable chemicals in their tap water, more and more Americans are waking up to their Orwellian enslavement and embarking on homesteading journeys, or at least trying to reclaim a responsible relationship with their food.

In the cities, the vegans and their climate warrior allies dine on styrofoam-packed vegetables raised with tasty glyphosate and atrazine (a ubiquitous endocrine disrupter that imitates estrogen). These consumers do not rebuild soils like cows, and their regenerative masters do, but they advocate for more regulations against farmers. They strive to protect bees from suffering by embracing policies that will extinguish all bees; they embrace no-animal policies that, in the name of animal welfare, will end all livestock animals being alive—and with them, the manure upon which plant agriculture has always depended will vanish.

Sickened by toxic food (and perhaps a deficiency of vital amino acids), big-ag consumers will need more medications to counter the ill effects of their unnatural diets. No worries—the same technocrats are available to proffer more drugs, just like with the CAFO cows. Drugs for obesity replace exercise; bottled water is teaming with microplastics; new antibiotics may be effective for a little while longer. Rushing to enslave themselves like animals in a cage, the animal rights and climate activists who think they are on the “right side of history” are unwittingly reinforcing their dependence on the corporations that have long damaged the ecosystem and human health.

My cows and sheep have much healthier lives and much greater freedom than these self-enslaved human consumers. My livestock do not require rescue from a generation of people so disconnected from farming that they are attacking the natural systems upon which their future health and food security depend.

My animals are that future.

 

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

The post Night Cap: In Defense of Livestock and the Errant Motives of Those Who Attack Cows…. appeared first on Granite Grok.

The cabal of US Intelligence agencies responsible for the censorship industrial complex can welcome a new member. New to us. The National Science Foundation (NSF) has been fingered in a new Congressional report alleging tens of millions were spent on AI to censor the public.

“In the name of combatting alleged misinformation regarding COVID-19 and the 2020 election, NSF has been issuing multimillion-dollar grants to university and nonprofit research teams,” reads the report by the House Judiciary Committee and its Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.

“The purpose of these taxpayer-funded projects is to develop AI-powered censorship and propaganda tools that can be used by governments and Big Tech to shape public opinion by restricting certain viewpoints or promoting others.” ..

The efforts included tracking public criticism of the foundation’s work by conservative journalists and legal scholars.

The NSF also developed a media strategy “that considered blacklisting certain American media outlets because they were scrutinizing NSF’s funding of censorship and propaganda tools,” according to the report.

NSF denies all of it while admitting that it funded Track F, which the report claims is “a systematic federal effort to replace human “disinformation” monitors with AI-driven digital systems that are capable of vastly more comprehensive monitoring and censoring.”

The Obama regime, which began in 2009, invested heavily in at least two ideas—weaponizing federal agencies and large-scale illegal surveillance (foreign and domestic). The rage campaigns against Trump have all proven to be inside smear jobs with the knowledge of high-ranking political appointees and elected officials. The Twitter files exposed the natural evolution of weaponization and surveillance in the form of deliberate Censorship. And the proposals from schools fishing for the grants might as well be NSF whistleblowers.

One illustration that the group provided to NSF in its funding pitch was its ability to “crawl” more than 750,000 blogs and media articles on a daily basis for misinformation and fact-checking on themes such as “undermining trust in mainstream media,” “fear-mongering and anti-Black narratives,” and “weakening political participation.”

“As [Scott] Hale, the director of research at Meedan, explained in an email to NSF, in his ‘dream world,’ Big Tech would collect all of the censored content to enable ‘disinformation’ researchers to use that data to create ‘automated detection’ to censor any similar speech automatically,” the report reads.

Another University “received $5.75 million in NSF funding “to develop a tool to ’empower efforts by journalists, developers, and citizens to fact-check delegitimizing information’ about ‘election integrity and vaccine efficacy’ on social media.”

The tool “would allow ‘fact-checkers to perform rapid-cycle testing of fact-checking messages and monitor their real-time performance among online communities at-risk of misinformation exposure,’” the congressional report reads.

If it walks like Censorship and talks like it,

The National Science Foundation can claim whatever it likes about its intentions. The grant winner applications outline how their AI tool can sift massive amounts of private speech in search of messaging that challenges the government’s approved narratives. Label it as misinformation or identify themes to which the state can launch counter-insurgent narrative warfare; that’s what you’re funding.

Taken as part of the ongoing mission to spy on citizens and control what they see, hear, and read, perhaps someone needs to censor their budget out of existence along with any number of other agencies whose mission creep extends to laundering tax dollars in service to an authoritarian surveillance state.

 

The post The Science of Censorship – NSF Spent 39 Million to Suppress Free Speech and Public Debate appeared first on Granite Grok.

“We’ve all heard the sensational stories of whistleblower retaliation in federal agencies, but I have the sense most potential whistleblowers get left in the dust of federal bureaucracy, with multiple oversight agencies passing complaints back and forth and little resolution.  My biggest fear in this process was retaliation, but I would prefer that over the feeling of alienation.”  This is an excerpt from a letter I sent to Senator Shaheen, Senator Hassan, and Congressman Pappas. I eventually had interactions with staff members from all three; mostly disappointing.

In part one of this series, I discussed the injustice I witnessed in the care of our nation’s Veterans and the malfeasance of management at the Manchester VA. In part two, I discussed the stonewalling I received from the federal oversight agencies after I worked up the courage to blow the whistle.

The only option I had left was to contact our elected representatives and inform them of the experience of a whistleblower.  Senator Hassan and Congressmen Pappas are both on their respective Veteran’s Affairs Committees.  Hassan recently asked the Secretary of the VA to address the failing infrastructure in Manchester, and Pappas has addressed issues of whistleblower retaliation within the VA and the oversight agencies.  All of New Hampshire’s congressional delegation make periodic visits to the Manchester VA to shake hands with employees, take pictures, and visit with management.  I’ll let the reader decide if these are meaningful visits or mere photo-ops.  In my opinion, this isn’t a Democrat or Republican issue but more of a dysfunction of the bureaucracy.

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

My first reply was from a Veteran’s representative for Congressman Pappas.  We emailed back and forth for two months, and I was repeatedly told they were reviewing my information.  Eventually, I was told the oversight agencies have never shared information with their staff, and there is likely little they can do.  I guess whistleblowers are not the only ones whom these agencies are stonewalling.  I’m not sure how Congress can conduct oversight if the agencies refuse to share information.

Worse was the phone call from Senator Shaheen’s staff member, who rushed me off the phone after he independently determined my mistreatment was due to my choosing to be anonymous.  He informed me he would call the VA New England Director to inquire about my case, but he never called me back and did not return my call when I attempted to follow up.

Eventually, I did receive some hope from the staff of Senator Hassan.  I spent time talking on the phone with one person and emailing back and forth with another.  For the first time in eight months, someone spoke to me and listened to what I had to say.  I was told my case was used to inform meetings where communication among the agencies was discussed, and they reached out to the Office of Inspector General (OIG) and received a response to my concerns.

The response from OIG was a disturbing act of gaslighting and excuses of why they didn’t address my concerns, which included not having evidence of harm, too much time passing, and “Covid.”  Most disturbing was only one of my issues was forwarded to VA New England “for awareness,” meaning none of the other issues were forwarded as I was led to believe that nothing was investigated, and there was no follow-up or actual oversight.  This is why I’d asked to speak with a human being to ensure all information was being communicated by all involved agencies.  Additionally, they suggested I should have kept better records to determine if harm occurred to Veterans.  This would not only violate VA policy but also patient privacy laws.  It seems the oversight and investigation agency was suggesting I do my own oversight and investigation.  Of course, I was still not given a point of contact at OIG, so my reply was to Hassan’s staff asking they send it to OIG (talk about a bureaucratic nightmare).

It’s been over a year since I started this journey, and I have yet to speak with anyone at OIG or VA New England Headquarters about these issues.

I want to take a minute and say that most of the Veterans at Manchester VA are receiving good medical care.  There are good people working at the VA, many who are true advocates of the community, but when there are issues that need to be addressed, management fails almost every time.  When I think about the staggering number of managers walking around the Manchester VA on any given day, this is just not acceptable.  The common mantras “we’ve always done it that way” and “look where you work” wouldn’t be a reasonable excuse in any other Manchester Hospital, and it shouldn’t be at the VA either.

This three-part series demonstrated not only a failure of VA management but also a failure of oversight on a staggering scale.

I will supplement this series with commentary and opinion pieces in the future.

 

The post Manchester VA Whistleblower Part 3: Contact with Hassan, Shaheen, Pappas appeared first on Granite Grok.

The New tact for the Democrats is rude, insulting, and degrading. Four women sat on the opinion desk of MSNBC on Super Tuesday and had a good laugh at and insulted every Republican in this country. These people were thrilled that Joe Biden was elected and pledged to be the great unifier.

He failed miserably, and the legacy media is falling into the pit of despair with him. Nothing is funny about Joe Biden’s America, and these people insulting us like we are meaningless individuals is disgusting.



Jen Psaki, Joy Reid, Rachel Maddow, and a no-name to balance the set laughed at Republicans in an attempt to minimize the Party and its supporters. Maybe this is the reason that nobody watches this network. They started with the polling data indicating that immigration was the number one concern for Republicans. Psaki had a good chuckle over Virginians who were concerned about immigration. Maddow quickly pointed out that Virginia has a border with West Virginia. This line got a chuckle, but why? It was insensitive to the good folks of West Virginia.

Joy Reid then went into a monologue, with the other three nodding in agreement, that Republicans are a one-issue Party. That one issue is Race. What an overpaid, undereducated Harvard Ass. Joy Reid is the next generation Al Sharpton, who can twist any topic to Race. Reid is an example of wasting good money on an Ivy League education because, in the end, it is useless for most people. She went on to claim that all Republicans are obsessed with a flow of “brown people” crossing our border. Republicans are concerned about people of any color coming from over 150 countries to break into America. We Republicans will debate any Radical Leftist at any time on any topic. The dim Karine Jean-Pierre can say daily that Joe Biden has done more in his three years than any President has done in two terms in 50 years. She can say it, but no one believes it, and by the polls, that includes Democrats.

This quick video clip highlights a significant difference between Democrats and Republicans. We, on the Right, respect life, whether it is an unborn fetus or Laken Hope Riley. We do not laugh at the plight of Americans in this new Biden America. We pledge to make sure Biden does not have another four years to further destroy our once great country. It must have taken a lot of effort to get four ignorant, callous, and offensive women on the same panel at MSNBC, or maybe I am wrong, and they could have pulled any four people out of their cesspool of talking heads and had the same results.

Rachel Maddow explained on Tuesday night that MSNBC has a policy of not showing any speeches by former President Donald Trump, saying the network opts not to give lies a platform. We can assume, then, that the network will not cover the State of the Union

 

The post Everything Is A Laughing Matter For Libs appeared first on Granite Grok.

We’ve had a warm winter where I live. A statist stooge in neighboring Vermont said it’s the warmest winter on record. Oh yeah, since when? The correct answer is since the last time they had a warmer winter because that would mess with the narrative.

Our New England winter was warm, no doubt about it. And they are on their CO2 high horse shouting about how the emissions are coming (the emissions are coming). But none of that is delivered in any context, certainly not historically, and that’s the first of two Achilles heels on the climate cult. Yeah, they’ve got two.

The first is that they’ve been manipulating or ignoring data to keep a political agenda alive (as you well know, the warming narrative has nothing to do with temperature or the health of you or the planet).

The second is that there is net-zero evidence that even if the earth did warm a few degrees, any of their cataclysmic predictions would occur (none have to date) or that warming would not be good for everyone.

Historically, great civilizations have risen during more significant warming than any we’ve experienced (depending on when you start) – because we’ve actually been cooling. A few warm winters do not make global warming. Likewise, a few cold ones do not mean the opposite. You need unmanipulated a-political historical data to make any comparison, so the yahoo claiming Vermont just had its warmest winter needs to be asked … since when?

Feel free to ponder why. They might be on the dole from the grant machine or just another useful idiot—the sort who still wear masks in their car alone or acted as pro-bono sales reps for Pfizer and Moderna’s safe and effective marketing campaign.

All of that is fine until it starts to affect the lives of others, as both the Climate and COVID Cults did and do. There’s no ramp if you think they are cherry-picking the details. But Australian geologist Prof. Ian Plimer is back to help.

Professor Pilmer’s words have made a few appearances on our pages, most recently last November when we shared his observations and evidence regarding CO2.

“[Six of the six] great ice ages started when we had more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than now. We have 0.04% of that gas in the atmosphere… Well that means nothing to me, because the atmosphere has changed in its carbon dioxide content from over 20% to now, which is really low in geological time. If we halved it, all plant life would die, and animals would die.”

He’s back—or at least we’re noticing something he’s said is back—with another bit of wisdom regarding the notion of warming, which the headline gives away. Warming…since when?

Australian geologist, Prof. Ian Plimer: “We have been cooling down for the last 4000 years… It’s all about when you start the measurements.”

“If you take measurements from the Medieval Warming, we’ve cooled about five degrees since then. If you take measurements from the… pic.twitter.com/Y1YU8kGaIo

— Wide Awake Media (@wideawake_media) February 27, 2024

The post The Earth is Warming … Since When? appeared first on Granite Grok.

After investing billions of taxpayer dollars in electric vehicles (EVs), the Biden administration is making a sharp dogleg on ambitious targets for implementation. In an effort to court United Auto Workers (UAW) ahead of the 2024 election, President Joe Biden is now seeking a bevy of delays in his climate change plans.

From delaying planned EPA climate rules for tailpipe emissions to reevaluating planned dates for EV ownership levels, EV carmakers are swallowing massive losses, autoworkers are deprived of jobs, and consumers remain unconvinced to drive electric cars despite incentives and climate marketing, which were apparently not part of the Biden plan.

Economics 101

President Biden has made EV cars and other renewable energy products a top plank of his administration, announcing grand plans for the nation’s transportation and electric grid infrastructure as the cure for climate change, the foundation of a strong economy, and the source of “thousands of high-paying union jobs.” The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) was substantially focused on these projects. An August 16, 2023, White House Fact Sheet states:

“The Inflation Reduction Act is the most ambitious investment in combating the climate crisis in world history. … The Inflation Reduction Act is accelerating progress to meet America’s climate goals, build a clean energy economy, and strengthen energy security…. EV sales have tripled since President Biden took office, spurred in part by investments in the Inflation Reduction Act to boost clean energy manufacturing and lower EV costs for American families.”

The same document claimed that the IRA’s “clean energy and climate provisions have already created more than 170,000 jobs and could create 1.5 million additional jobs over the next decade.” EV car sales are not comporting with this plan.

Policy Fail Deja Vu

The best-intentioned technocratic plans mostly pave roads to economic Hell. EV car sales are stagnating over high prices for dubious performance (especially in the cold), growing awareness of environmental pollution in manufacturing and disposal (especially of batteries), and complaints of regressive subsidization. The EV car industry failed with a solid “thunk” in the 1990s due to a lack of reliability, high cost, and weak consumer demand.

Consumers are not buying EVs despite Biden’s marketing. Car dealers are losing profits; manufacturers and their supply chains are cutting production; auto workers are rebelling against Biden EPA rules and subsidies for snazzy EVs. Leasing companies are asking for refunds from Tesla and other manufacturers as EV resale prices plummet and rental fleets are downsized due to a lack of customer interest.  The market once again prevails over the planners: None of the various forces of economics demand what Biden plans.

Synthetic Markets

Perhaps one of the greatest market failures in product history will prove to be synthetic meats, where intense marketing of futuristic technological possibilities ran aground on impossibilities of production at cost or scale. But this is a free market failure – voluntarily undertaken by risk-taking venture capitalists, who will take their losses while the industry consolidates (if it survives).

In contrast, partisan regulatory edicts and lavish subsidies favoring EVs using taxpayer dollars for political pageantry are not corrective to their own failures. Indeed, the announcements of delayed implementation of EPA tailpipe emission rules were accompanied by a reaffirmation by the Biden administration that these rules remain the end goal. Mr. Biden will continue pressing destructive economic policies and poor allocation of resources on EVs, squandering good money after bad.

The Biden-Harris administration has pledged to incentivize 67% of cars driven by 2030 to be EVs – but President Biden cannot dictate what cars Americans drive any more than he can control what lever they pull in November 2024. Wooing the UAW may not appease its membership.

Using government regulations and money-printing to force Americans to buy cars they don’t want in the name of saving money is disingenuous. Fox News recently reported that even after lavish federal and state subsidies, “the average cost of an EV is about $52,000, according to the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, while the average subcompact car costs $24,000.” The more government policies warp markets to compel EV ownership, the more low-income and middle-class Americans are coerced into bigger loans for a depreciable asset. All auto prices will rise as increased demand for new and used gasoline-powered cars steadily escalates under EPA rules.

Bidenomics vs Biden Political Optics

President Biden has temporarily paused his efforts to control economic reality in the EV industry to curry favor with union workers and soften a potential rout in the EV market. If being re-elected is more important to Joe Biden than meeting his own emissions goals claimed to be necessary to save the planet, skepticism about the urgency of national EV conversion will increase. Blue-collar Americans won’t be fooled again by promises of great jobs to build pointless products that cost twice as much.

 

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

The post Biden Winning in 2024 is More Urgent Than … Climate Change. appeared first on Granite Grok.

January Littlejohn is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor whose story, though shocking, has become virtually commonplace in America.  Mother of a socially awkward thirteen-year-old daughter who likely is “one the spectrum,” Littlejohn shares her heartbreaking and enraging story of a school captured by trans-activists who would lead her daughter into a transition behind her back.

Littlejohn’s daughter is described as having “ADHD, and she’s gifted,” indicating a high IQ. with relatively love emotional intelligence.  The problem with this combination is her ability to grasp intellectual concepts like trans-identity with a low ability to discern the emotional ramifications of the cost of transitioning.

The social grooming of children to these cult-like teachings is nearing epidemic levels in places like California and other hyper-liberal regions where even legislators are codifying apparent child abuse.  What makes Littlejohn’s story even scarier?  She lives in Florida where the governor and the citizens combined to push back against the ideology.  Despite its reputation, Florida has statewide power centers set up to not only push the trans agenda but protect them as well.

• Part of vulnerable cohort
• Peer influencers
• Online and other influences

Websites Scratch & Deviant Art, Anime, Music (Capetown – trans singer)

Training in the late 90s/2000s, Jittlejohn had no clients presenting as trans or non-binary, and nor were those terms or others like “gender fluid” even in the literature.  As she looked into the treatment options, she found only one type of care – affirming.  Trained as a clinician, Littlejohn understands differential diagnosis, which allows the practitioner treatment options per the client’s needs.  Gender dysphoria, she states, looks remarkably similar to anorexia in its battery of symptoms. Finding only one for this obvious mental illness that calls to affirm it was a red flag. “Intuitively we (she and her husband) did not feel affirming this false identity that came along so suddenly was the right choice for our daughter.”

They found their daughter lacked any real understanding of the things she was requesting.  Things like HRT (Hormone Replacement Therapy), puberty blockers, and top surgery were concepts with no understanding of methods or consequences.  She also couldn’t answer basic questions such as “What do you mean you don’t feel like a girl?”

Over the summer, things got worse to the point of hiring a mental health counselor.

The Littlejohns would find the real threat came from their daughter’s school.  Despite being Volunteer of the Year and a substitute teacher at her daughter’s school, she was stunned to discover that the faculty she trusted would, in fact, undermine her as a parent.  The first teacher she reached out to was the LGBTQ advocate for the school.  Rather than respond to Littlejohn’s concerns, the teacher ignored them while leading the daughter further into the process of transition behind the parent’s backs.

Secret meetings took place in violation of the daughter’s 504 plan which states parents are to be notified and involved in any changes to the plan.  A series of phone calls and emails with counselors, the assistant principal, the principal, and the assistant superintendent finally revealed these surreptitious meetings were somehow protected by non-discrimination laws, essentially usurping her parental rights and conferring them to the state.  Superseding the 504 was now a “gender support plan” that was filled out by their daughter, unbeknownst to them, in the presence of the principal, school counselor, and a social worker they had never met.  If this sounds like state-sanctioned child grooming, it is.

The questions in the six-page document effectively guide the confused and ill-equipped child to divest from the bonds with their parents while pretending to “support the child.” Rather than being protected by her parents, their girl was told she needed to be protected from them. If you’re wondering how anyone could come up with these methods, Mrs. Littlejohn detects it clearly—activism.

If you’re still unconvinced, this is sexual grooming,Littlejohn removes all doubt.  The document asks children, “Which restrooms and showers would you like to use on campus?” and “Which sex would you prefer to room with on overnight field trips?”  Again, this is cloaked as supportive of the child feeling safe at school.  Littlejohn notes there were no questions about self-harm, suicidal ideation or potential abuse in the home.  Furthermore, the accompanying guide, when asked if parents or guardians should be notified, warns, “No. Outing a student, especially to parents, can be very dangerous….” claiming some 40% of LGBTQ youth end up homeless (no citation is given).  Parents and guardians are the real danger, really.

Researching the guides, she found the authors are Equality Florida, who have mapped the entire state for safety plans they deem sufficient in green while marking counties with poor or no plans yellow and red.  Ironically, these are the same colors used by Stranger Danger to warn children of potential predators, only this map inverts them.  Of the sixty-seven counties in Florida, only four had not been infiltrated to the level desired by Equality Florida.

The guides found in the various counties are able to circumvent both parental and school board approval by virtue of being guides, however they are used as policy rather than guidelines. Rather than simple literature these guides are used as training manuals for faculty and staff with the putative weight of law despite being mere guides, anchoring themselves to the weight of anti-discrimination law that ultimately removes parental rights.

Having no choice but to fight the system, the Littlejohns filed a federal lawsuit. The judge dismissed it for “not rising to the level of shocking the conscience,” which begs the question: Who’s conscience? They are now appealing to the 11th Court of Circuit Appeals.

In the meantime, the Littlejohn’s have implemented their own strategy for walking their child through this process.  It is a menagerie of approaches, including finding answers, resetting their relationship and environment, reframing the issue, restoring trust, and practicing patience.

Among the many cult grooming tactics used to disorient their daughter was the use of love-bombing, which is an affirmation on emotional steroids.  This false inclusion technique is what deceives the child into believing the guides are more loving than the non-affirming parents who resist the irreversible transition of the child.  Yet another irony she detected was the love-bombing is really an affirmation of the child’s apparent self-hatred of their natural identity, which, when coupled with a low emotional intelligence, leads the “empowered” child to make harmful decisions they are incapable of understanding.

They removed their daughter from the public school.

Here are some academic resources for concerned parents and guardians:

“The Queering of the American Child” by Logan Lancing and James Lindsay

Abigail Schrier’s books “Irreversible Damage” and “Bad Therapy.”

(Littlejohn includes a lengthy list of resources at the 25:38 section of her YouTube presentation)

Do No Harm website

 

 

The post Warning to Moms – Part 1 appeared first on Granite Grok.

There are easily a thousand other things about which I might fill this particular space at this time, on this day, but for reasons we may never know, I’m wondering about death—specifically, the sudden demise at the age of 33 of another loudmouth media public health fascist.

It has been three months since jabvocate Ian Vandaelle was pronounced neurologically dead. Having reviewed at least a few of his musings and public comments on pandemic politics and policy, it is my opinion this “diagnosis” arrived a few years late. Ian’s body may have been walking him around the world, masked and distanced, but his brain was not working properly – and it killed him.

Vandaelle, a vocal advocate for mandates, passports, and the like, had a visceral hatred of those who dared question his science. How sad he did not live to see that we were right, though I can’t see him taking it well. Being wrong about the outcome of a sporting event or the weather is one thing, but this?

It was a hill he was prepared to die on, and then he did.

The wave of quiet that followed his passing, specifically what killed Ian Vandaelle, was not unlike the wakes of many anti-science conspiracies proven right. The magic medicine neither prevented infection nor transmission (they are still clinging to  “prevents severe disease,” but there’s no proof of that either). Masking, which for decades before COVID was incapable of preventing viral spread, does not prevent it after. Distancing was a prank. The list of COVID Cult false truths, since proven so, is longer than Vandaelle’s obituary. Related: Another Militant Pro-Vaxx Journalist Dies … at the Age of 33

Each is followed by an undying moment of silence like the one that follows the shuffling off of nearly every young loudmouth who bragged about getting jabbed and boosted and boosted again: Sans mortal coil and yet no publicly acknowledged cause of death.

Abdiel Leroy asks, “In a society that denies justice to those who have been medically maimed, mutilated, or murdered, would you permit some celebration that, finally, a glimmer of poetic justice, or even divine justice, has pierced through the darkness of tyrants…”

They rejoiced in our death during COVID, including some who got their magic juice (it makes your immune system disappear), then advocated for individual rights, bodily autonomy, and medical freedom. Infidels!

I’m not inclined to express joy at anyone’s passing, even when the weight of irony has piled so high it obscures anything else they’ve ever done. But we write about it, and more often than not, the cause of death is undisclosed or sounds contrived. I’ve looked. I can’t find a cause of death for Ian Vandaelle, just that before it came, the previously healthy young man and vociferous COVID Policy advocate suffered from a sudden chronic illness, and unlike child advocates arrested for laptops filled with kiddie porn, Jabernaughts, who exit the material realm before “their time” are not painted as antagonists in their own tragic comedy.

If it’s out there, his cause of death, the odds are excellent that the root of his demise has been papered over so as not to conflict with his advocacy. He has been allowed to slip – if not quietly – then mysteriously into that goodnight juxtaposed to the cacophony of pandemic passings that by default were blamed on COVID (or the unjabbed) so that people like Ian would not just line up but provide unlimited fear-marketing for Big Pharma and the depopulation uniparty globalists.

I’m not saying Ian was clever enough to connect those dots or any others, but whatever he might have been remembered for, that has been eclipsed by this. He is one of many, deprived of life in the wake of a campaign whose malfeasance continues to unravel before those still living, many of whom ignored Ian’s advice. The medical and journalistic malpractice. The science of censorship by the government through proxies. That we were right about most everything and Ian was wrong. And in the end, COVID did kill Ian. Not SARS CoV2, but the illusions crafted around it by a culture he advocated and defended. That he, as a journalist, never questioned.

I’m sure someone misses him, and to them, our condolences; he was how he was, and that was likely not your fault. But hiding how he died is, and they are still pushing what may have killed him.

 

The post We Still Don’t Know Jab-Nazi Ian Vandaelle’s Cause of Death appeared first on Granite Grok.

The Northwood Congregational Church has been reduced to a handful of leftist activists in their congregation due to their own actions. The church is in financial chaos because they went woke and now they are going broke. They are so woke that woke “Wake Up Wednesdays” are a weekly event where the church’s “Racial Justice Team” stands outside the church holding BLM signs.

This same church, “Racial Justice Team,” was silent two weeks ago when (now former) Northwood School Board member Gary Caron was in the spotlight for his racist and graphic social media posts that led to his resignation.

The church is running out of endowment money and now wants a Northwood Taxpayer-funded bailout to cover its operational costs. Instead of changing their woke behavior, which chased off their once vibrant congregation, and instead of renting their church out to those who want to use it, they decided to rent it to the Town of Northwood for $39,500 per year.

The only problem with their scheme was that the Town of Northwood was not looking to rent space, so they did a petition warrant article, which the Northwood Board of Selectmen does not support and does not recommend. The town of Northwood has a community center that they own.

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

This “rental deal” also comes with strings… the Northwood Congregational church does not own the parking lot they use. Coe Brown Academy owns the parking lot and the church has an agreement with the Academy to use their parking lot when the school is not in session or using it. Northwood Taxpayers would only be able to use the parking lot with permission from the school.

The church has also said that they will decide who uses the church facility and that those groups that they deem “hateful” will not be welcome. This means only a select group of folks will be able to use this property when the church and school give their permission. This is a taxpayer-funded bailout that will not benefit anyone but the church.

For those who are unaware, anyone with 25 signatures can submit a petition warrant article asking for a taxpayer-funded bailout. It’s up to taxpayers to vote it down on March 12. If this passes, all woke churches will attempt this scheme. If you’re in Northwood or know someone who is, on March 12, please vote NO on the Church Bailout Warrant Article 39.

The post Vote No On Taxpayer Funded Church Bailout appeared first on Granite Grok.

Are you a concerned voter and taxpayer who cannot attend the traditional town meeting or a COOP school district meeting? Some fellow citizens tout the traditional meeting as a pure democracy, as the voters present at the traditional meeting make up the legislative body and decide on all matters.

This statement may be true, but you actually need to be present at the traditional meeting to have a voice as a voting member of the legislative body.

Another truth is that many voters simply cannot practically attend a traditional meeting for a variety of reasons. In Hollis and Brookline, participation in traditional meetings typically ranges from 2% to 5% of voters who approve town and school budgets and spending ranging from $8M to $30M+, deciding for the 95% to 98% of voters, not at the meeting. The town and school meetings determine about 96% of our property taxes, so maximum participation is paramount.

Since 2014, COOP traditional meetings have averaged 6½ hours, sometimes over multiple evenings. I would argue voting on multi-million-dollar bonds for the COOP at 1 am in the morning may not embody true democracy, but that has occurred. Traditional town meetings often run similar durations, past midnight in some cases. This year, the Brookline traditional town meeting has 30 warrant articles with four one-hour ballot votes and is expected to take at least two evenings.

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

From the relatively sparse traditional meeting attendance, we know that many citizens simply cannot participate in the traditional meetings. It is a significant challenge for many elderly or disabled citizens to get to the meeting location and participate in often lengthy meetings. Some citizens have health concerns and cannot risk being in a large gathering. Other citizens have a second shift, overtime, or weekend work commitments at the same time as the traditional meeting. Still, others are out of town on travel for work, are students away at college, serve in the military away from home, or may be snowbirds out of state. Two-parent households with small children often can only have one parent participate. Unfortunately, all of these voters are disenfranchised in the traditional meeting system.

The solution is to adopt the official balloting system known as SB2. Under the SB2 system, we still have a very important deliberative session to discuss, deliberate, debate, amend, and finalize all warrant articles, held in early February. The deliberative session is very similar to a traditional meeting, except for the final vote on the warrant articles. After the deliberative session, voters have time to fact-check and think about how they will vote instead of making the snap decisions that happen at a traditional meeting. The final vote on all warrant articles occurs at least 30 days later via official ballot on election day on the second Tuesday in March. Voters can vote anytime the polls are open on election day at their convenience or by absentee ballot.

Under SB2, no voter is disenfranchised!

Voter turnout on town/school election day in Hollis and Brookline historically ranges from 20% to 25%. So under the SB2 system, we could have five to ten times the number of voters participating than under the traditional meeting. When many more voters participate, we collectively make decisions that better reflect the will and support of our communities.

This year, Hollis and Brookline voters will have the opportunity to adopt SB2 for the Hollis Brookline COOP during the March 19 meeting at 6:30 pm (warrant article 9).

Brookline voters will also have the opportunity to adopt SB2 for the town during the March 13 meeting at 7 pm (warrant article 23).

Motions will be made to bring the vote on adopting SB2 early in both meetings, so please plan on attending at least the beginning meeting so that SB2 is successfully adopted and no Hollis or Brookline voter is disenfranchised. For any questions on SB2, you can email me at info@hollisbrookline.com or visit www.hollisbrookline.com.

The post Traditional Meetings, Voter Disenfranchisement, and SB2 Balloting appeared first on Granite Grok.

A recent article by Russ Payne (a supporter of the John Birch Society) made some outlandish claims that must not be allowed to stand unchallenged.

In 2012, a “balanced budget amendment,” HCR 40, was passed by a bipartisan vote in the NH Legislature, with a great cause and foresight, to control the runaway Federal US Debt. The facts below speak for themselves.

2012 National Debt = $16,066 Billion Debt to GDP ratio * 99% (* pivotal timing in financial history – as we have just fallen off the Fiscal Cliff) 2022 = $30,824 Billion with a Debt to GDP ratio of *123 % (* For the first time since World War II, the federal public debt has reached 100% of GDP, meaning the federal government will soon owe more in debt than the annual size of the American economy We are in a free –fall with no parachute)

Feb 2, 2024, after nearly an increase of $14 + Billion of runaway debt, HCR 9 was introduced to rescind the NH “Balanced Budget Amendment of 2012. The vote to rescind failed. (14 to 6 as “ITL” House State-Federal Relations and Veterans Affairs Committee). In testimony supporting a YES vote – (to rescind), was the John Birch Society supporters and Hal Shurtleff of Camp Constitution. It appears via their testimony they believe in the Constitution – but simply want the authority to pick and choose what parts they want you and I to follow!

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

Fortunately, the wisdom and clear foresight of the 2012 NH Legislature won the day, along with the testimony of concerned citizens, organizations, and supporters of *The Convention of States (* approx 13,000 grassroots petition signers in NH)

Now, let’s reimagine 2012 in terms of what we could have accomplished if all of the#34 required states (#26 have signed on) had just used the authority granted to the states under Article V and, in fact, called for a Convention of The States ( NOT a Constitutional Convention/ Con-Con).

The founding fathers envisioned Article V as a nonviolent solution for states to take back an out-of-control federal government. Article V Convention of States simply and only allows us (the states), the rights to come together to just meet, for the purpose of only proposing amendments to this US Constitution. They also gave us a high bar to cross to amend the US Constitution. Any student of the Constitution understands that all proposed amendments via the States under Article V require a ratification process ( same as federal) in which all #50 State Legislatures have a vote.

John Birch & Camp Constitution “Con/Con of Fear Mongering” is simply folly! Current polling indicates that 68% of US voters support A Balanced US Budget. Why? Because the Debt is projected to double to 200% by 2050, when our net interest payments will be the single largest budget item, exceeding the size of Social Security and Medicare. For perspective, fifteen years ago, the U.S. public debt as a size of our economy was only 35%.

Tell your NH Legislators to please VOTE NO on HCR 9 to protect our Constitution and all of our rights. To keep alive New Hampshire’s support, hope in a “balanced budget amendment” for the sake of our children, grandchildren, and national security.

Al Brandano is the New Hampshire State Director for Convention of States

 

The views and opinions expressed by contributors are those of the author and may not reflect the opinion or position of  Grok Media, GraniteGrok.com, its authors, advertisers, donors, or sponsors.

The post Night Cap: The Folly of HCR9 appeared first on Granite Grok.