Thursday • May 1 • 2025
Vol.XVII • No.XVIII
Manchester, N.H.
The most destructive natural disasters are never 100 percent natural. Human choices, land use, and government policies play a big role in how harmful hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, flash floods, and wildfires are to the affected communities.
And after catastrophes like the wildfire that destroyed much of the historic Hawaiian city of Lahaina last week, it’s worth taking stock of how much of the disaster was the result not of natural or accidental factors, but of policies and institutions that can be changed.
Though details are still emerging, it’s becoming clear that government failure did much to make this disaster worse—and possibly even started it. While the so-called experts are blaming climate change—and in the process demanding that government grab even more power and authority ostensibly to someday give us better weather—the destructiveness this fire was the product of an all-powerful and all-incompetent régime.
The specific origins of the fire are still being investigated, but there is much we already know. The city of Lahaina sits on the west coast of Maui, Hawaii’s second-largest island. It is surrounded by grassland, much of which the state owns.
Nearly a decade ago the Hawaii Wildfire Management Organization, a research nonprofit, warned the Hawaiian government that the area around Lahaina was extremely fire-prone due to frequent downslope winds, steep terrain, and dry grass. Little was done to address these risks. A subsequent report in 2020 added that an invasive species of exceptionally flammable grass was prevalent in the surrounding fields and that passing hurricanes created strong winds known to fuel wildfires on the islands.
Early last week, Hurricane Dora crossed the ocean south of Hawaii. By early Tuesday morning, August 8, winds as fast as sixty miles per hour were blowing down the slopes of the West Maui Mountains into Lahaina. Around sunrise, a large fault was detected in the power grid, indicating a downed power line. Twenty minutes later, the first reports of fire came in from the area around Lahainaluna Road, uphill and upwind from the city.
The area where flames were first spotted is full of electrical infrastructure, mostly operated by Hawaiian Electric, the state’s monopoly electricity supplier. This included a substation and a multitude of power lines. Most of the land in the area is owned by the State of Hawaii except for a parcel belonging to the estate of one of Hawaii’s last princesses. This parcel housed a solar farm supplying electricity to the Hawaiian Electric substation. Early last year, NPR published a glowing article about the solar project, praising it the direct result of government regulation crafted to help transition Hawaii to 100 percent renewable power by 2045.
But on the morning of August 8, as winds hammered the old wooden utility poles, this highly electrified area in the dry grasses above Lahaina was quickly becoming dangerous. Yet no formal procedure was in place to shut off sections of the grid in the face of severe fire risks. As a result, twenty-nine fully energized poles fell across West Maui that day.
But even with downed poles in the way, the first firefighters on the scene met with some early success. Around 9 a.m., the county fire department declared the fire “100 percent contained.” But the message to residents included an ominous request. The county’s water pumps were powered by electricity, much of which was frantically being turned off to deactivate the downed lines. Officials asked the public to conserve water to preserve water pressure.
But by midafternoon, a flare-up brought the fire back to life on the Lahaina Bypass, a major road that heads straight into town. The flames moved swiftly into Lahaina at 4:46 p.m., one minute after the county government finally sent out an alert to warn the city’s population, largely without power, about the flare-up that had occurred over an hour before.
To make matters worse, county officials failed to activate emergency sirens, leaving residents unaware of the danger bearing down on them. And as firefighters heroically rushed toward the flames to try and save their community, they found that there was little to no water pressure in the fire hydrants, which quickly ran dry.
With a single backed-up highway leading out of the city, many residents of Lahaina had nowhere to go. Some scrambled into the ocean to escape the smoke and flames. But in the end, many couldn’t get out. At least ninety-nine people have been confirmed dead at this writing, making this the deadliest American wildfire in over a century. In addition, 2,207 buildings were destroyed, with property damages expected to reach $5.5 billion.
To review, a power company shielded from competition by the state placed electrical infrastructure among highly flammable state-owned grass fields above the historic city of Lahaina, which the government was twice warned were highly susceptible to fire. And once a fire broke out, a combination of defective water infrastructure, terrible communication by government officials, and only one escape route doomed the people of Lahaina to the worst wildfire experienced in this country in over a hundred years.
This was government failure through and through. In Human Action, Ludwig von Mises explains that on the market, the ultimate source of profits is foresight—the ability to anticipate future conditions. And economic loss occurs when market actors fail to anticipate the future. This possibility of riches if one succeeds and the guarantee of painful failures if one doesn’t force producers and service providers on the market to constantly weigh risks and opportunities.
Government immunizes itself from the profit and loss system and, therefore, from much of the need to weigh risk. Sure, some county officials may resign because of this. And the share price of Hawaiian Electric may dip. But the people of Maui will be forced to keep compensating the very organizations that have failed them. And there’s nothing natural about that disaster.
Connor O’Keefe | The Mises Wire
Author: Connor O’Keeffe produces media and content at the Mises Institute. He has a master’s in economics and a bachelor’s in geology.
Mises Wire We heartily encourage reprints and shares of Mises Wire articles. If you wish to reproduce an article in your blog, magazine, radio show, newspaper column, classroom material, textbook, discussion group, website, or any other venue, please do so. The original publication source must be included in an appropriate place.The post Thanks to Government, Maui’s Lahaina Fire Became a Deadly Conflagration appeared first on Granite Grok.
The DeSantis Super PAC has an ad attacking Trump for attacking Republican Governors, one of whom is his excellency, Chris Sununu. The ad even says, “The way you win as Republicans is to unite Republicans.” Is it? Then why are you attacking one?
Related: If They Really Want Donald Trump to Lose the Primary’ Kiss-of-Death’ Chris Sununu Should Endorse Him
By the way, I think they should attack Trump. He’s not perfect. He made mistakes. And this process is messy. The Founders went at each other like wet cats in a burlap sack. It is in the best interest of the electorate for their fighter to actually fight. The Big Ring in DC is not for mild manners or polite people. And down there, they don’t stick to issues or leave their opponents’ families out of it.
When Democrats lose an election, they invest all their resources and time into destroying or undermining the winner. When they win an election, they commit all of their resources and time toward advancing their agenda while trying to destroy viable opponents in the next one.
They send the FBI to your home at 5 am. When they indict you, it’s not election interference. And you think saying Trump was mean will move the needle?
Two words. Peaceful protest.
The Dems send mobs after you; they try to get you to abandon your rights. Try to leave town; there’s no escape. They’ll burn down black businesses and neighborhoods in the name of black folks. Leave disarmed citizens with no police protection. They literally disarmed them with the promise of security, then bitched about needing to gut the police force for their protection, and crime shot through the roof.
And let’s be honest. The Republican party has a lot of progressive policy sympathizers in it (and cowards), one of whom happens to be Chris Sununu. He’s done some good things, he was better than any Democrat and more than a few Republicans, but he’s done some terrible things because he is a by-product of a ruling-class political family that thinks it knows better than the voters the DeSantis PAC is trying to court.
Luckily for DeSantis, many of those voters don’t know that, so there is an opportunity to make Trump look mean, but defending Sununu isn’t going to get the undeclared voter off the couch to vote in a GOP primary in February unless it is for Donald Trump. And if you want that vote, you need to be stronger on the issues and better at pushing back against the very sort of Republican Chris Sununu is just in DC.
What the hell are you going to do about China? How about the out-of-control ‘pubic’ schools, the border, the illegals in the country, the weaponized intelligence agencies, the Neocons, the debt, Ukraine, domestic energy security, foreign drugs and gangs, the FBI – and are you mean enough and tough enough to stop the jackbooted bureaucracy from crushing the states whose primaries you’d like to win?
Everyone down there is going to hate that agenda, so if you win, being mean to Republicans will be a requirement, and the primary voters know Trump is not faking it. When he says he’s fighting for us against them, he means against all of them.
ICYMI – Slippery Meet Slope: Woman Asks for Help with Suicidal Ideation, Her ‘Therapist’ Recommends Euthanasia
If you can’t sell that, you’d be better off attacking Chris Christie – he’s the one that’s actually sucking your polling air out of New Hampshire. Trump is at 49%. No one else is close. All combined, they still lose by almost ten points. And you don’t think his voters know what Trump is like.
Too bad DeSantis can’t fire those PAC guys. What’s next, mentioning the indictments? Trump will be up by 60 points.
Get a clue.
HT | NHJ
The post DeSantis PAC Defending Sununu Is NOT Going To Win Him Republican Primary Support in NH, and Here’s Why? appeared first on Granite Grok.
We are just over a week away from the first Republican primary debate, and Donald Trump was out there bragging how he’ll thrash Joe Biden this time. Candidate Nikki Haley is waving the flag that the real opponent they’re all running against is Vice President Kamala Harris, as Biden is likely to drop dead early-second term.
Respectfully, both are going after the wrong targets.
I’m going to veer away from Vermont politics for a moment and make an observation/prediction about the U.S. presidential election: Joe Biden is not going to be – and was never intended to be — the Democrats’ nominee for president in 2024. So why is he there? To keep Kamala Harris, and perhaps some others, from being able to run at all, and to allow a small group of far-left elites to hand-pick the next President of the United States.
Everybody knows Joe Biden is no longer mentally with it (if he ever was). He’s clearly not capable of being president. The Obama cabal is running the White House, and while Biden has been a useful puppet for the extreme Left, they know he’ll be a terrible candidate in 2024. Another run against Trump is a crapshoot at best, and if a different Republican wins the nomination, Biden will lose to a fresh face/fresh start candidate for sure. There’s only one possible choice worse than he is: his vice president.
Harris has even lower poll numbers than Biden. She is annoying. Confusing. Incompetent. People don’t like her. She’s associated with the unpopular Biden. And she got blown out of the 2020 primary after garnering about one percent in the polls. She doesn’t have the excuse for gaffs that she’s 138 years old. But as the sitting vice president, in a primary, she would be a presumptive nominee, and as a Black woman, the Democrats denying her that spot would look, well, kinda racist and sexist at the same time. Rock/Hard Place.
Moreover, a long, open primary could get ugly and unpredictable. There would be debates flush with fringy candidates reminding voters of all the crackpot policies that have destroyed blue states/cities and the country as a whole. Even worse, from a Leftist perspective, a moderate like Joe Manchin could emerge as the front-runner. Can’t have that!
But as long as Biden is the declared nominee, neither Harris, Manchin, nor anybody else who might be taken seriously (sorry, RFK Jr.) can begin to build a real campaign. Can’t make speeches about how you’d lead the nation, raise money, hire a campaign team, etc. That would run contrary to etiquette.
Instead, Biden’s fake run sets up a late-game “bait and switch” that will allow a small group of elites to hand-pick the next President of the United States. No presumptive nominees. No real primary. Not even a campaign for the candidate; just for the dark money super PACs who will pick (have already picked?) the winner. It’s basically a repeat of The Basement Strategy that worked so well in 2020, but this time I’m guessing, California Governor Gavin Newsom.
Here’s the mass-psychological game I think the Democrats are playing….
The national electorate is dreading an inevitable rematch between Biden and Trump. Except for a small minority of hard-core Trump supporters who want to see a revenge rematch, voters are looking forward to this about as much as opening day for the Broadway musical version of the movie Ishtar. (Not really a thing, thank God, but given recent theater history, you never know.)
An Economist/YouGov poll conducted June 10-13 found 59 percent of voters don’t want Biden to seek reelection, with only 26 percent favoring a run for a second term. Similarly, 56 percent don’t want Trump to run again, with just 33 percent in favor. Independents came in with 64 percent against Biden and 59 percent against Trump. Nobody wants this.
The first party to break that sense of impending doom, which will only get more frustrating and intense as time goes on, by putting up someone credible who is not one of the two above-mentioned political versions of microwaved leftover fish from last week is going to be rewarded at the ballot box.
So, at some point, probably in the summer of 2024, Joe Biden will withdraw from the race for health reasons, or if the charges against Hunter get too hot, maybe citing the legal distractions as being not good for the country or some such thing. The point is he’ll be gone, off eating ice cream and shaking hands with invisible ambassadors in a closet somewhere. The Democrats will “scramble” to find a replacement. “Oh no, what shall we ever do? Who will save us?” A majority of voters will breathe a collective sigh of relief that election day is no longer a political Sophie’s Choice.
It won’t matter that Newsom (or whomever the Dems put forward, but I’m betting Newsom) has destroyed his state with a litany of inane woke policies. Yes, housing costs in California may be through the roof, homelessness out of control, crime is riddling the state’s cities, there’s an app telling pedestrians where all the human excrement is on the sidewalks, rolling blackouts are a thing, and taxpaying/law-abiding citizens are fleeing to other states mostly run by Republicans. The late bait and switch guarantees a campaign so short none of this has time to get out – and that’s the point — especially with a complicit press running interference.
Newsom (or whoever) will simply be the none-of-the-above option that spared the average, not-very-political voter from having to hold their nose and cast a ballot for one of two octogenarian re-treads facing criminal charges they didn’t like the first time around. That’s the trap being set, at least as I see it. The question for the debates is, will Republicans step into it?
Media Note: Rob Roper will be on The Morning Drive (AM620, FM96.3, or streaming at https://listen.streamon.fm/wvmtam) Wednesday, August 23 at 8 am. Tune in/call in!
Rob Roper is a freelance writer with 20 years of experience in Vermont politics including three years service as chair of the Vermont Republican Party and nine years as President of the Ethan Allen Institute, Vermont’s free market think tank.
The post Biden Won’t, and Was Never Going to, Be the Democrats’ Nominee appeared first on Granite Grok.
Another day … another indictment of President Trump. But there is one thing that NeverTrump and MAGA seem to agree on … they think that it’s all somehow going to go back to normal. NeverTrump would have you believe that all that we need to do is put them back in charge of the GOP … and that somehow “their” nominee is going to prevail in all those “swing-States” where elections are rigged. It’s almost a religion. Just move on past Trump and the magically … election-month, Zuckerbucks, drop-boxes, mail-in-voting, Regime-media and Big-Tech censorship, Deep State interference – all go POOF! It all just disappears and we go back to “normal.” Delusional. Totally delusional.
Of course the leaders of NeverTrump know better. They’re content with being “controlled opposition.” Just give us back our grift!
MAGA is equally delusional. If the “opposition” is willing to imprison its main political opponent in order to hold on to power, what won’t it do to hold on to power? The first step in solving any problem is admitting and understanding the problem. Polls are meaningless when the Communists Democrats control the narrative and, in addition, have the ability to generate millions of votes from people who aren’t getting polled … ask Dr. Oz how that works.
Rome went from republic to dictatorship. But that just can’t happen here? It’s happening before your very eyes,
People like to knowingly say “it’s always been this way,” but it really hasn’t. Taken together w/the DOJ/FBI role in the Russia hoax, their coverup of Clinton’s textbook obstruction of justice rap (if smashing hard drives w/hammers after they’ve been subpoenaed isn’t obstruction,… https://t.co/5t1ayEfWE9
— Martyr Made (@martyrmade) August 15, 2023
DOJ has so far arrested and charged more than 1,100 American citizens on bogus charges for protesting Joe Biden’s bogus election more than 2 1/2 years ago. DC US Atty Matt Graves, a Biden apparatchik, STILL arresting people every week.
Yes republic. https://t.co/e2UGpJ5Q6w
— Julie Kelly (@julie_kelly2) August 15, 2023
The post This Is The End appeared first on Granite Grok.
We live in a world where elite capture by the Chinese Communist Party is a growing national security threat to America. One of their many tells is claiming something is a threat to The Demcoracy. We hear it from The Left all the time, but how about from Jonah Goldberg?
Goldberg was a reliable defender of Federalism and an opponent of smiley-faced left-wing fascism. That is how it seemed. I mean, I bought the books, and they were great. But when Donald Trump won the nomination of the Republican Party in 2016, one of the “institutions” he exposed as a fraud and water carrier for the progressive project was National Review. Trump just had to be Trump, and they did the rest.
Sure, they still do some good work, but their stable of authors has since gone down the Never Trump rabbit hole, including Goldberg, and while this probably helps his Deep State street cred, no one living outside that circle will be impressed.
“Large donors actually have a strategic view about moderation, who can win, and who can’t. Small donors are really just venting their spleen with their credit card.”
CNN’s Jonah Goldberg: “Large donors actually have a strategic view about moderation, who can win, and who can’t. Small donors are really just venting their spleen with their credit card.”
pic.twitter.com/JLOXRVMf4G
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) August 10, 2023
It’s a direct attack on Trump who, despite having less money than someone like Ron DeSantis, Trump got most of his form small donors. DeSantis got his from the GOP donor class, whom Goldberg informs us, has a strategic view. Of what? The path to globalization and the end of individual liberty? I agree. The monied elite are all-in on the UN, WHO, Digital Currency, social credit world that just happens to be the thing that China wants.
Remember them? Sworn enemy of the United States with whom they admit being at war for decades? Check this out, donor class.
WASHINGTON — The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party announced last week a significant breakthrough in the CCP’s decades-long “unrestricted warfare” against America. The panel will investigate two companies that at the forefront of Wall Street’s long-running and concerted efforts to help our mortal enemy weaponize U.S. investors’ money against them — and the rest of our country.
Following important testimony recently by former Reagan National Security Council Senior Director for International Economics Roger Robinson, the Committee’s bipartisan leadership declared that: “As a direct result of decisions made by [BlackRock and MSCI], these Americans are now unwittingly funding PRC companies that develop and build weapons for the People’s Liberation Army…
I’m sure Goldberg has thoughts on that as well and thinks it’s all bunk but this guy just told us that.the very thing that makes Democracy .. Democracy, is bad for Democracy.
Let it not be lost on any reader who has donated a portion of your paycheck to a political campaign that, unless you are a member of the top 1% of the 1% who is a billionaire (there are only about 800 such people in the United States), Jonah Goldberg is calling you the “biggest problem for democracy.” … [which] serves as the crystallization of how the ruling class (with CNN as its mouthpiece) views the peasantry it presides over in American “democracy” — which, in fact, is a façade for reasons I have elaborated on elsewhere.
An oligarchy of wealthy elites (can we call them the nobility?) is best suited to manage the democratic process. A way of thinking that leads to what? The end of Democracy actually and the Republic with it.
How far you have fallen, Jonah Goldberg.
The post I Didn’t Think Jonah Goldberg Could Fall Any Further, but He Has appeared first on Granite Grok.
As promised in the last Monday Memes, I have an overflow. My meme cup runneth over. Fairly certain about a Friday Overflow-Overflow.
Let the mayhem, mockery, and ridicule resume:
*** Warning, a few possibly off-color ones, in case tender eyes are about ***
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TRUTH about the 2nd Amendment – Forgotten History
Owned. Damn, that had to hurt! And don’t forget this bit of history about using guns for resistance:
Smuggled arms into Warsaw ghetto | Jews Can Shoot
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I remember these two bicycle riders who went to Tajikistan because they truly believed we were all the same and loved one another and other kum ba ya carp:
D.C. Couple Killed In Tajikistan Attack Were Biking Around The World Together : NPR
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PSA – PSA – PSA – PSA – PSA
Total electronic censorship is nigh.
BEWARE the Digital Platform Commission Act – Adam Townsend
“We are Restricting Freedom … for the Common Good”: Irish Green Party Calls For Limiting Free Speech – JONATHAN TURLEY
The UN Human Rights Council demands the death of free speech | Washington Examiner
The “Free-Speech Twitter” PSYOP – CJ Hopkins (substack.com)
X CEO Linda Yaccarino: “Lawful But Awful” Content To Be Hidden (reclaimthenet.org)
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BOMBSHELL: FDA Admits Guidance on Ivermectin was Illegal, Invokes ‘Sovereign Immunity’ for Misleading Statements (& Crimes Against Humanity) (2ndsmartestguyintheworld.com)
One of the reasons I got from my local pharmacy about why they wouldn’t give Ivermectin to me for Covid-related purposes was that it was an “off label” use. First, as though doctors have never, ever, evah prescribed things off-label before (end sarcasm); side note: I’ve had multiple times when I’ve had a scrip for “off label” use. But it gets better. Without the backstory – and no, I don’t have it! – scabies is a mite infestation and is, apparently, really a bad thing. So what does the CDC say about that, and treatment?
That’s right, the CDC says that off-label use of Ivermectin should be considered under some circumstances. So the CDC recommends off-label use of Ivermectin for one thing, but pans it for another. I wonder why…
And now there’s evidence – not proof, but evidence – that Ivermectin plus another medication is highly effective against cancer. Wait, a pennies-per-dose drug combo that’s a cancer killer? Look for the scorning disapproval from the bought-off pharma shills medical experts any minute now.
And links related to Covid:
Dr. Ryan Cole Blows The Whole COVID-19 Propaganda Away (rumble.com)
I Published An Op-Ed in USA Today On The Excess Mortality In Young People Across The World (substack.com)
I was listening to Howie Carr discussing this, and the follow-up piece, and how the plain fact is that if they’d specifically called out The Jab, it’d never have been published at all. Better to get at least that out, than never have it see the light of day at all.
Boosters studies from Israel that the US FDA relied upon were COMPLETELY WRONG (substack.com)
Maine Hospital Fired Nurses for Refusing COVID Shots — Now It’s Begging Them to Come Back • Children’s Health Defense (childrenshealthdefense.org)
Apple Valley Village Health Care Center saw >10X higher COVID death rates after COVID vax rollout. Isn’t it supposed to decrease rates? (kirschsubstack.com)
Don’t forget this classic bus broadside from – IIRC – the UK, before the Jabs were approved for kids:
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The Road to Hell…
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IMHO – speaking as a psychology & human nature amateur student – people don’t want truth when that truth undermines their view of themselves as good, intelligent, noble people.
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Good Stuff about “Climate Change” – links
Climate Beliefs Can’t Change The Power Of Power Density – Climate Change Dispatch
The Power Of Power Density – Robert Bryce (substack.com)
Wind and solar have their place, e.g., in remote areas. I have a friend with a cabin waaaaay off grid. He has a solar set up. But you can’t power a civilization off that.
Scientist Admits to Spreading Alarm About Climate Change: “It’s a Manufactured Consensus” – The Daily Sceptic
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Pick of the post:
I’ve written about, and bemoaned, the general lack of curiosity – not just about science in general. Something indescribably precious is being destroyed in our youth.
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I’d mentioned Efrat Fenigson in the last meme one; here’s one by her on CBDC:
Soon Your Money Won’t Be Money, and It Won’t Be Yours (substack.com)
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Palate cleansers:
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The post Meme Overflow appeared first on Granite Grok.
Capitalizing on the smashing success of another month of pride the crypto-fascists at Black Rock have excitedly announced they will be sponsoring Greed Month this coming December. With the heavily commercialized holiday season (formerly Christmas) now a staple for churning out fiscal butter for the acquisition class the big players on Wall Street are certain they have a winner.
Spokespersons for the month will be co-chaired by media darling Oprah Winfrey and her island jet-setting pal Bill Gates, both of who have been gobbling up land like the San Andreas Fault. We all have our faults, however some of us actually own them.
Expected in January will be Sloth Month for which we are still waiting to hear back from the long list of proposed sponsors. Calls, texts and emails have all gone out to the following candidates:
We have yet to hear back from any of them and haven’t been able to leave messages because their inboxes are full, but we are hopeful the four month timeline to respond will be ample.
Lust Month will kick-off in February thanks to Valentine’s Day now including essentially every mammal on dry land. The kind people at Disney have generously offered a grant to fund both libraries and parades appropriately themed for all ages, races, sexes, genders and species wanting to participate. Also adjoining themselves to the celebration will be the rubber-barons over at Trojan who have worked out a cooperative crossover deal with the clan at K-Y Jelly in an effort to grease the skids for this highly controversial event. One insider tells us the campaign will use the tag-line “Why celebrate Lust Month? Answer: K-Y not?” Sassy!
March will replace St. Patrick’s Day and in favor of turning green with Envy Month. Participants in this year’s semi-exclusive soiree’s will have several entertainment options from which they will likely struggle to choose due to fear of loss. Area theater’s will be playing Fatal Attraction, the Magnificent Amberson’s, Bridesmaids and Mean Girls on rotation for the entire month. The festivities will culminate with the Envypaloooza concert series featuring Raising Cain, the Killers, Fall Out Boy and a posthumous performance of “My Best Friend’s Girl” by the Cars has been made a possibility thanks to A.I. hologram technology. Get your ticket’s now as they are going faster than your neighbor’s Tesla compared to your silly little Prius.
Next up we will see Wrath Month being spread out over April to May where April showers will bring God’s glower as Vermont will no doubt be flooded again and again until it stops supporting pedophiles, baby-killers, criminals and socialists. Fire’s will be expected to rage against the machine known as California, food manufacturing plants will continue to spontaneously combust, earthquakes, wars and rumors of wars will continue to mount like a debutante on her favorite stallion while other animals will rebel against mankind from sheer disgust at what we’ve become. Thankfully sponsors Raytheon, Halliburton, Boeing, and Lockheed Martin have incredibly deep pockets and have offered to fund both the devastation and clean up efforts for a reasonable fee.
Finally we can satiate our exhausted bodies with a big ol’ heap of Gluttony Month in May. Chik Fil-A, McDonald’s, Burger King and Taco Bell will be offering all you can eat menus. The Mars Company has generously taken up the call to provide Super Deluxe King Size Ginormous Bars and other snacks, while Starbucks will offer the GluMo Ultra-Mega Venti with 7-11 matching the call to corporate corpulence with the 144 oz. Painfully Big Gulp to slake those slovenly thirsts. Schools will echo the spirit by teaching children fat is fun and body shaming is a hate crime so don’t be one of those white supremacist fitness freaks or you’ll end up like your uncle Jimmy who likes to flash his abs at Trump rallies. If you want to show your body parts in public you’ll have to wait til next month like the rest of us.
The post Banana’s: Pride Month To Expand To Seven-Deadly Season appeared first on Granite Grok.
The blind spot on the issue of state-sanctioned assisted suicide just grew exponentially and in the very direction that we have long suggested it would. A 37-year-old woman seeking help for chronic suicidal thoughts was asked if she’d ever considered medically assisted suicide.
Related: Gov. Run Health Care Lesson from Canada – Won’t Pay for Treatment, Will Pay for Assisted Suicide
[Kathrin] Mentler was then told by the counselor that the mental health system was “completely overwhelmed,” that there were no available beds, and the earliest that she could talk with an available psychiatrist was November.
[Michelle Gamage reporting for The Tyee] reports what happened next:
‘It was pretty disheartening and made me feel helpless,’ Mentler says. ‘I’m coming here because I’m looking for help, and you’re telling me there is no help.’
That’s when the counsellor asked Mentler if she’d ever considered medically assisted suicide.
Mentler says she was ‘shocked’ and ‘sickened’ because she came to the Access and Assessment Centre for help, ‘not for recommendations on how to kill myself.’
Mental health “professionals” are certified, licensed, and regulated by the government. In New Hampshire, there are a lot of hoops through which you must jump, including exams for different aspects of the treatment you must complete and pass before the state will license you for the privilege. Canada’s gatekeeping appears equally or more exhaustive. There’s nothing wrong with that, but when we say mental health and whose “health” do we mean?
In a centrally planned society or one headed that way like a runaway train, the needs of the state come before all else. In that scenario, it will reflexively encourage the path of least resistance – the one with the lowest overhead. Even after (or because) it has engaged in policy actions that can increase the number of people experiencing mental health issues. Canadian health care is already socialized. The progs and Libs and Dems )oh, my!) like to remark on its affordability. Opponents point out things like wait times, poor service, and bad outcomes, for which we get pushback, but how do you justify this?
[Kathrin] Mentler was then told by the counselor that the mental health system was “completely overwhelmed.
And what is the solution to this woman’s chronic suicidal ideation? Just do it. Kill yourself. We’ll help.
‘That made me feel like my life was worthless or a problem that could be solved if I chose MAiD,’ Mentler says.
To the socialist society, it is worthless, which is the danger. And it is “painless”— for you and them, and not a new idea. In 2019, we reported on a story out of Canada involving the public health system. The cost of treatment was high, so the health professionals suggested assisted suicide, you know, to keep things affordable for the rest of them.
Related: “The Noxious Notion That Killing Is an Acceptable Answer to Human Suffering,”
So-called ethicists have hinted that euthanasia might be a reasonable solution for the economically disadvantaged (who are what, more likely to make things less affordable?).
Meanwhile, in the Netherlands, where this sort of thing has been around for years, they are euthanizing the autistic.
Clinicians with similar ideological inclinations to the ruling class have already hinted that their political opponents might suffer from a mental health crisis. Are the Clinton’s paying them to say that? Talk about simplifying the “or else” in politics.
But that will never happen, Steve.
Yes, it damn well will! China has been doing it for years and harvesting the organs after, something that’s happening in Canada already – minus the democide (give them time).
HT | LifeSite News
The post Slippery Meet Slope: Woman Asks for Help with Suicidal Ideation, Her ‘Therapist’ Recommends Euthanasia appeared first on Granite Grok.
Randall’s Island in New York is a park used by many residents, young and old, for recreation and soccer games. The New York City Park website claims: An oasis in the middle of New York City, Randall’s Island Park comprises most of an island in the East River, between East Harlem, the South Bronx, and Astoria, Queens.
Randall’s Island is no longer accessible to New York residents because it is now the latest valuable piece of property converted to a facility to house illegal immigrants descending on the sanctuary city. The “shelter” will cost the city $20 million monthly, which is $10,000 per immigrant. Mayor Adams pleads for financial help from Joe Biden and the Federal Government. The people of New York City should be up in arms and throwing Tea into the Hudson for the waste of their tax dollars and the disgusting mess this illegal immigration made of their city. How much is too much for these citizens to accept?
Randall’s Island is just one of the recent events the Biden Administration cannot defend. This weekend, Joe Biden and his Press Secretary, Karine Jeanne-Pierre, looked idiotic regarding Maui’s tragedy. This is the most deadly natural disaster in history, and when reporters asked the President on Monday for his reaction to the fires in Hawaii, his heartfelt words were, “No Comment.” This callous human being just spent 14 days on the Delaware beach, returned to Washington for four days and then returned to the beach for a long weekend.
He was the Vice President for Obama, who called Hawaii home, and when asked for a comment, that was the best he could do. As for KJP, Townhall.com called her the most stupid Press Secretary in history. Who can argue with Townhall? When KJP was asked to comment on Biden’s lack of concern, she told the Press Corps about the call from Hawaii’s Senator Hereeno to President Biden and how thankful he was for the President’s response. The problem here is the Senator is Mazie Hirono, and he is a she. Excellent job on doing your prep work, KJP! You are an embarrassment to the country.
We talked about Biden’s hostage deal with Iran yesterday, so we will not rehash it today, but how about him writing another check for Ukraine? On Thursday, as he was leaving for his long weekend, he had time to ask Congress to give more of our money for Ukraine-not for Hawaii but for his good friend Volodymyr Zelenskyy. You know he is getting a kickback on every dollar he sends to fight the cause for Democracy. The amazing thing about the reporting of this request is how bad the reporting is. The New York Times reported $24 Billion, the Washington Post $20 Billion, PBS was at $45 Billion, and Politico was at $40 Billion. Did these entities have separate briefings where they were purposely given different numbers, or are they just making it up as they go?
You could say that Biden had a bad few days, but this is just another week for our aged and incompetent President. Check that. He is not incompetent but rather treasonous. Every week under Joe Biden’s Presidency is a bad week for America.
The post Every Week Under Joe Biden’s Presidency Is a Bad Week for America appeared first on Granite Grok.
The US military is one of the few institutions in America the left has not infiltrated and undermined completely, but that process is ongoing and in danger of escalating if Air Force Chief of Staff General Charles “C.Q.” Brown (nominated) becomes the next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Brown has a long history of supporting the #woke agenda during his tenure as the head of the US Air Force.
Notably, he has called for selecting and promoting officers, not based on their abilities and performance as warriors, but according to arbitrary quotas determined by the color of their skin or their ethnicity. He sees compelling female personnel to bunk and shower with biological males who “identify as females” as nothing more than a problem of managing discomfort levels. And under his leadership, the Air Force Academy has become a school for ensuring the next generation of that service’s leadership are fully indoctrinated with the radical left’s “woke” agenda.
Such priorities fracture vital unit-cohesion, demoralize those in uniform, discourage recruitment and undermine readiness. America needs commanders who oppose, not promote, these sorts of policies. That is especially true at present, when we may soon find ourselves in a shooting war initiated by the Chinese Communist Party. Consequently, every Senator should vote against Gen. Brown’s nomination.
If you’ve got the time, this webinar goes into detail about the issue and the danger associated with it.
Of particular concern is the prospect that these problems, and their increasingly adverse effect on our armed forces, will be exacerbated if the Senate confirms as the nation’s top military officer a general like CQ Brown. His record, in particular as Air Force Chief of Staff, indicates that he is committed to the critical race doctrine that whites are unalterably racist oppressors of blacks and other minorities and must be limited to some arbitrary quotas among the officer corps. He takes pride in embracing: “diversity” hires and promotions; making servicewomen “comfortable” with bunking and showering with intact males who profess to identify as females; and “woke” indoctrination at the Air Force Academy and elsewhere, including Defense Department schools for military dependents.
This CPDC webinar examines the implications of this cultural Marxist assault on the U.S. military, in particular at a moment when the Chinese Communist Party seems ever-more-intent on complementing its long-running, pre-kinetic “unrestricted warfare” with a shooting war. A panel of brilliant thought-leaders who happen to be black, afford an opportunity to do so in an objective way, free of racist sentiments.
Watch: At What Cost ‘Woke’?: The Marxist Takedown of America’s Military
Please contact your US Senator or (if yours are like mine) any other US Senator that might listen. Oppose the nomination of Air Force Chief of Staff General Charles “C.Q.” Brown as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.
HT | Center for Security Policy
The post Action Alert: Stop the Nomination of Air Force Chief of Staff General Charles “C.Q.” Brown appeared first on Granite Grok.
Someone shared some nsight with me, second hand from Howe Carr so bear with me. He was (so I am told) talking about Donald Trump and something he did for us that doesn’t get enough (or any air). Exposing the level of perfidy to which the political elite would go to protect their dirty secrets.
To paraphrase,
Donald Trump, like most people, didn’t understand what was hiding behind the mask in part because, for years, he was one of them or at least part of their cabal.
He was friends w Hillary and Bill Clinton, for example, and many of the connected wealth and political insiders. He knew them; they knew him. So when he ran for office, he felt certain that he knew who these people were. That he could work with them, doing what he always does: making deals (which is how he succeeded in NYC).
We can see today that this was a mistake.
But I don’t think it was because in doing this, he fully revealed what we’ve got to deal with now, and THAT is the prize. We can solve nothing if we don’t SEE IT.
In my opinion, people are missing what the prize really was. WE SEE and we are here today because we didn’t !!
That’s my paraphrase of the reader’s paraphrase with the comment of whatever Howie Carr was talking about. And I must agree. Who else would have tipped their hand so clearly, exposing the length and depth to which they would go to undermine and unseat anyone, including a duly elected President?
Some of that was backlash at the unexpected rejection of Hillary by The People and their failure to plan for the potential loss to prevent it. What followed was the Democrat Party and the DC Swamp the way they truly are. To quote the reader: “What Donald did was a brutal exercise to open eyes about the reality of just how far down they’ve taken us. We are here because we didn’t get it- we were duped.”
Trump fought back hard, and they used it against him. Then they used it against us. And that’s not stopping unless someone who has seen behind the mask, under the tent flap, and understands what must be done.
Looking at the perspective 2024 Republican Primary field, the list of those likely or capable is thin. And while I’d be fine if DeSantis were also that guy, I’ve not yet seen enough to say that. That leaves Trump. But he’s not electable, you say, which sounds like something someone else’s candidate might say. And it might be true. The people poisoned by the left who have, in turn, poisoned our country will be over-activated to oppose Trump. No one has done anything substantive to prevent a repeat of the bizarre antics of Election night(s) and day(s) 2020. Democrats control elections in key states.
Electability is moot.
We need a freight train, landslide, or tidal wave, no matter who the nominee is. If you’re not capable of that and carrying it up and down the ticket, that means the soap box and ballot box are no longer options.
Prepare yourself accordingly.
The post That Other Thing Trump Did appeared first on Granite Grok.
A lightbulb (the kind banned by Mr. Bluster Biden) went off in my mind, and the purpose of Bluster Biden’s Dystopian America became perfectly clear. Let’s put the pieces of the puzzle together:
We want to thank Charles Bradley for this Op-Ed. If you have an Op-Ed or LTE
you would like us to consider; please submit it to Editor@GraniteGrok.com.
There is more, but if one cannot put these puzzle pieces together, I cannot help. As I tell my children and grandchildren, you cannot cure stupid! Unfortunately, stupidity may cause the loss of our Democracy.
The post Biden’s Dystopian America appeared first on Granite Grok.
Russia is anathema to the Globalists. Regime-change is necessary to allow “investment” … i.e., CONTROL … by Blackrock, State Street, etc., etc. etc.. Every country must submit. There can be no exceptions. There can be no counter-examples to the Globalist world-order.
America is fighting a proxy-war against Russia on behalf of the Globalists.
The agenda is to destroy Russia. Why?
Globalists want to replace Putin because he presides over the last major power in Europe that has a national identity, a national language, a national culture that rests on the foundation of orthodox Christianity.pic.twitter.com/L3USrcrPFp
— Douglas Macgregor (@DougAMacgregor) August 11, 2023
The post Speaking Truth To Power … Why “Putin Is Hitler” … Douglas McGregor Explains, In Two Minutes, Why We Are Fighting A Proxy-War Against Russia appeared first on Granite Grok.
One of the fun things about conspiracy theories isn’t so much the ideas themselves but the left’s conspiracy theories, ‘conspiracy theory.’ They label everything like that now. Even something as benign as yoga can be a breeding ground for right-wing extremists.
And not just yoga. Meditation, wellness, gym and personal trainers, and fitness in general, possibly even foodies and nutritionists, if they happen to think the wrong thoughts. It is all a bubbling wellspring for Qanon anti-vaxxers. That’s the conclusion of beta-male Guardian scribbler James Ball. People who think the wrong things or Gasp! keep their minds open to the possibility that the government is full of sh!t at least once in a while … have to be fascists.
I didn’t look, but does JB have any on-ramp-content to the false civility narrative circa 2020? The one where we can all get along – the kumbayah BS the American left sold to get that bag of China-bribed bones doing business as Joe Biden behind the Resolute Desk or a near enough facsimile? A civility narrative sold by a group that had been as uncivil and impossible to get along with every day of the previous president’s tenure – to him and anyone who may have voted the guy into an election they said was stolen? I bet he does. He was probably one of many uncivil civility hacks pontificating from the UK, but let’s not derail our train of thought.
Personal trainers, people whose life work is health and fitness, might be unvaccinated and oppose mandatory covid vaccination. The not-so-secret term for them, regardless of any other injections they’ve received, is an anti-vaxxer. Anti-vaxxers don’t think covid is real, which is silly. We all know it was created in a lab in Wuhan, China, where the pesky thing snuck out in some janitor’s leftover bat-sushi to infect the world, but only after they had to admit it. Before that, this was also a conspiracy (in theory). One with so much kick that the entire global public health Matrix abandoned hundreds of years of protocol by refusing to call it the Wuhan Flu. It was COVID. SARS CoV2, which, after much hand-wringing and the release of some documents showing it WAS released from a lab in Wuhan, China (that the same people yelling conspiracy didn’t want public), became SARS CoV2-WIV (Wuhan Institute of Virology).
A result of a Chinese bio-weapons program and illegal gain of function research off-shored and funded by Tony ‘The Tiger’ Fauci and the NIH – another conspiracy (in theory) that turned out to be true. One of many, as it turns out, but stop that, you conspiracy theorist theorist. Jay Ball has first-hand stories for us from victims of anti-maskers (masks still don’t against viruses), anti-lockdowns (also debunked as useless and likely to have made matters worse), as well as other policy responses that time and actual science have revealed as flawed, dangerous, or even deadly. It’s as if J-Ball is trapped in a Summer of Love time warp where the only safe spaces for maskless communal activity are looting and arson by anti-semitic black race fascists and communists.
In theory.
To J-Ball, Qanon is a pandemic, and the fitness movement in many, if not all, of its manifestations, has had its watering holes poisoned. Not that this should be a problem – if true. No one is making you do yoga, train with groups or instructors. No one has to hire a chef or nutritionist to feed them (OMG, is that why the Obamas Chef was Drowned off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard?).
That’s the thing about the people you are calling conspirators. They don’t care if you sprinkle mRNA on your Kashi Whole Wheat Biscuit Cinnamon Harvest Cereal or put two drops in each eye before bed. Wear a mask or don’t—distance or don’t. They mostly want to be left alone to their lives and opinions and whatever consequences come of them, even if fitness means fit-n-ess whole meat-lovers pizza in their mouth.
But?
Whiney left-wing journalists, much like their audience and the politicians they keep electing, don’t live that way. The notion of civility hinges on you agreeing with them, and only by refusing to do so is there strife and division. Your repeated failure to get in line drives the totalitarian backlash against bodily autonomy and free speech. If you’d just think and talk like them, they wouldn’t have to embrace the hyperbolic use of excessive government force to shut you up.
After all, everything you say is just a conspiracy, including the government’s abuse of power to silence dissent or liberal consent to it.
They’re just trying to protect mob rule Democracy, and enough with the conspiracy theories already.
The post Yoga is Undermining The Democracy™ appeared first on Granite Grok.
The exodus of human capital is a primary concern for developing countries wishing to stem the tide of emigration. Some believe that emigration prevents poor countries from capitalizing on the talents of their best people. Critics suggest that poor countries would excel if the smartest minds did not emigrate. Theoretically, this sounds plausible; however, it obscures the inspiration for emigration.
If underperforming countries could equip their citizens with superior alternatives, then they would not migrate. Richer countries lure quality immigrants because of their infrastructure. Immigrants are attracted to their universities, institutions, and commercial excellence. Working in a developed country provides greater scope for professional enrichment.
Exposure to first-rate training and cutting-edge technology means that people can create greater value in a developed country. Immigrants would be less impactful had they remained in the developing world. Choosing to remain in an unproductive country only limits the ability of competent people to make a global contribution. Quite often, the genius of the smartest minds is constrained by the limitations of poor countries.
In successful countries, more options exist for people to thrive. Due to economic diversification, opportunities for employment are more plentiful. Further, in richer countries, the private sector plays an instrumental role in development. Therefore, there is less reliance on government employment.
Government has a political agenda, whereas the private sector has an economic agenda, so the growth of government can sap the dynamism of the private sector. Promoting economic freedom in the developing world would curb the level of emigration by unleashing the entrepreneurial talents of citizens. Richer countries exhibit higher levels of economic freedom; therefore, it’s easier for their citizens to become wealthy. For instance, Rwanda is perceived as a rising economic star in Africa, and economists attribute its prosperity to economic freedom.
Unlike Rwanda, some developing countries use the state as a bludgeon to badger citizens. Not only are economic activities severely regulated but corrupt politicians also employ government resources as a tool to elevate cronies. Corruption is another major reason for emigrating. There is a strong perception in developing countries that success is linked to political networks.
Hence, people who are disconnected from positions of influence feel that success is only possible if they emigrate. The perception is that in countries like the United Kingdom and America, no one is above the law. People truly believe that if you work hard in these countries then you will succeed. In rich countries, there are also critiques of meritocracy, but in the developing world it’s the norm for even low-level positions to be politicized, so the credibility of a meritocratic state is seriously doubted.
Additionally, because of the reputation of some countries, citizens encounter discrimination when traveling or doing business. Some countries in the Caribbean do not need a visa to enter America, Canada, or the United Kingdom. Yet Jamaica is not one due to its reputation for criminality. As such, traveling can really be a hassle for Jamaica.
Doing business online is equally arduous for countries known for financial scams. Ambitious people will travel and do more business than the average person; so if their country’s reputation is a barrier to success, then emigration will become a feasible option. Changing a country’s culture is hard and the political establishment might not possess the will to do so. So to secure their future, citizens migrate to better places.
Apart from structural drivers, emigration is fueled by sociocultural factors. In some poor countries it is widely believed that affluence earns people the ire of unscrupulous persons; therefore, to escape the wrath of envious personalities, people emigrate. Jamaicans refer to envious people as being “bad mind,” whereas others talk about the evil eye. A study even shows that Jamaicans cite envy as a reason for emigrating. Clearly, people are emigrating to access better opportunities and to benefit from higher quality social relationships.
Emigrating to a superior country leads to social mobility, so citizens should not be discouraged from doing so. The world gains nothing when talented people are trapped in unproductive places.
Lipton Matthews | Mises Wire
Author: Lipton Matthews is a researcher, business analyst, and contributor to Merion West, The Federalist, American Thinker, Intellectual Takeout, mises.org, and Imaginative Conservative. Visit his YouTube channel, with numerous interviews with a variety of scholars, here. He may be contacted at lo_matthews@yahoo.com or on Twitter (@matthewslipton).
Mises WireWe heartily encourage reprints and shares of Mises Wire articles. If you wish to reproduce an article in your blog, magazine, radio show, newspaper column, classroom material, textbook, discussion group, website, or any other venue, please do so. The original publication source must be included in an appropriate place.
The post Voting with Their Feet: The Lure of Migration appeared first on Granite Grok.
Remember the “summer of love”? When the System unleashed Antifa/BLM riots and violence across America in an attempt to goad Trump into deploying the military to assist their “Trump is Authoritarian” narrative? Do you remember when Antifa/BLM domestic terrorists stormed the White House night after night in May?
How were those actual domestic terrorists treated in comparison to the scores of Trump supporters who have languished in the DC-gulag for years for the crime of being present when the System turned a peaceful protest of the (now) obvious and undeniable rigging of the 2020 election into a riot? More importantly, who was the Attorney General who looked the other way while the System unleashed domestic terror on America in 2020 … including an actual attempt to take over the White House?
If you answered, “Bill Barr,” … THAT’S A BINGO.
Remember an outraged media playing this clip of the Jan 6th insurrection?
No?
That’s b/c it was Antifa & BLM storming the White House & injuring 50+ Secret Service agents
No indictments. No outrage or ‘worst day in our nations history’. Shortly after they burned down a church, pic.twitter.com/lpP7lGs8Iu
— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) August 13, 2023
The post The Good Insurrection appeared first on Granite Grok.
Not all of us are valuable commodities on the international market. Still, some are very attractive to rogue nations who now see Americans as bargaining chips for vast sums of money. People of wealth or power must be cautious should they venture near any of these countries like Iran, North Korea, and even Russia, as these countries now view you as an income source, and Joe Biden has just raised the bar on the value of your head.
Not long ago, America was strong enough and carried enough clout that we never negotiated with terrorists or evil empires regarding hostages. It was painful to watch as Americans were held in captivity, but usually, we found a way to bring them home by diplomacy or militarily. Since the Obama term and the weakening of America on the global front, we now resort to prisoner swaps or payment of large ransoms to recover our captive citizens. Obama, and now Joe Biden, have turned Americans into a valuable revenue stream, and Joe Biden raised the asking price again this week. You can feel good this morning knowing you are worth billions on the open hostage market. Thank you, Joe.
From Fox News:
Biden had negotiated the release of five American hostages from Iran in exchange for a handful of Iranian nationals serving prison sentences for violating sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
Sources told the paper that the U.S. also agreed to unfreeze nearly $6 billion of Iran’s assets in South Korea, transferring the funds into an account in the central bank of Qatar.
Republicans blasted the deal online, with former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo saying Iran “shouldn’t profit from holding Americans hostage.”
Technically, the money paid was not our money but Iranian funds we had frozen as part of sanctions placed on Iran for being a menace in the Middle East and a future nuclear threat to the free world. In this case, who’s money doesn’t matter. We just gave a rogue country set on destroying any country they feel does not align with their warped philosophy a $6 Billion donation to use against us.
Thanks again, Joe.
This action is another example of bad decisions made by Biden and his incompetent Administration that weakens us and usually costs us tremendous amounts of our hard-earned money. In this case, watching people like John Kirby defend this move was tragically humorous. He always feels that talking louder makes him more believable as he gaslights Americans. Under this agreement, the $6 Billion was transferred to the central bank in Qatar, and the Iranians would have to prove a humanitarian need to access any portion of the money. If you believe that for a nanosecond, you also think Joe Biden has no connection to Hunter Biden’s extortion money. I might also think you feel the Easter Bunny on the south lawn is a real rabbit. I can almost guarantee there was a check cut by the Iranians and deposited into one of the dozens of Biden LLC accounts. Joe Biden does nothing that his family does not directly profit from.
This decision impacts us today. Yes, we will bring Americans home to their families, but Biden has placed a target on every American who ventures past our borders. That is the borders we used to have. He has weakened our power to negotiate, and just like Bidenomics, inflation has now hit the value of American lives in hostile lands.
Thanks again, Joe.
The post How Much Are You Worth As A Hostage? appeared first on Granite Grok.
WCAX has this cute little piece about biologists and foresters colluding “to understand and manage a forest in a changing climate.” This is just a suggestion, but you may want to focus on the reality of what Climate Change politics will do to Vermont’s forests.
Related: Is Vermont’s Land Grab About Conservation or Securing Real Estate for Wind and Solar Farms?
First, the fantasy.
It’s called adaptive silviculture, where foresters and biologists team together to try to understand and manage a forest in a changing climate. Essentially, doing research on the area.
Studying things like habitat life, how the forest shifts over time, and the difference between old and new areas of the forest.
Leading forester of the project, Ethan Tapper, says the project has already taught Vermont so much.
“They have been collecting birding data. So, we want to see the way different species of birds are utilizing the area that we are managing before, and after. Because we are recognizing that our bird species are in decline. That a lot of our forests are missing a lot of critical attributes for their habitats,” said Tapper.
Tapper has been leading wildlife walks through the forests to help educate people on the project and how they can safely co-exist with wildlife.
It sounds excellent, and I’m a big fan of husbanding the wooded environs. I used to hike a lot, always carrying out more than in and doing my best to leave footprints and nothing else. And that will always be an issue that needs attention, especially when you have so little wooded landscape to protect. Vermont can’t have Net Zero and protected wildlife unless it plans to outsource environmental destruction and import the power.
I’m not saying they won’t do that; offshoring emissions is already common. But not everyone is all-in on the nightmare. The all-electric future without nuclear or hydro is land intensive. Vermont currently gets a lot of electricity from hydro (imported from Canada), which may need it back because Canada’s pols are also infected with the Nut Zero infection so that the Green Mountain State might have a problem. Their intermittent weather-dependent generation scheme will require a massive amount of ground area. You can’t build solar farms and keep trees, so those must go.
You’ll also need massive battery backup plantations to store power when the intermittent infrastructure can’t meet demand. There’s a detailed analysis of the problem here, but to keep things simple, you need a battery backup capable of retaining an estimated 25.4 days of constant extra power, and maybe more the further north you go. Add storage for on-demand and peak demand, and you better sharpen your axe.
Mathematically, the lower 48 states would need “an annual energy storage requirement of approximately 233,000GWh.” Using an example from the same report, in Queensland, Australia, they have a plan for a 150 MWh battery facility. This is a rendering.
The researcher did the math; we would need 1.55 million of these facilities at several acres a piece (plus surrounding acres of cleared land in the event of a fire) to meet the demand for the lower 48 US states alone—an intractable problem exacerbated by two facts. No one knows if that’ll work, and everyone knows that these are not US Senators. You need to replace every lithium battery on a schedule of a few every few years, even if you get a flawless decade of life from most of them.
That means rebuilding and replacing (can we say renewing?) pricey “infrastructure” with an annoying and incredibly costly frequency without even broaching the problem of the availability of rare-earth metals, mining and manufacturing emissions, transportation, construction, new transmission infrastructure, and the rest of it – most of which will continue to be impossible without fossil fuels.
And impossible to achieve, even if it were tenable, on the estimated timeline.
In other words, the greatest threat to Vermont’s forests is not the fantasy of man-made climate change. It is the reality of Climate Change policy. You will need to clear hundreds if not thousands of acres for solar farms and at least as many, if not more, for local battery backup facilities and access roads for the build and unavoidable upgrades. None of this is possible, even if we had the material and technology on the advertised timeline.
To get anywhere near there from here, the flat land will be covered in solar farms and the green mountains peppered, if not covered, with wind turbines taller than trees (or you’ll be cutting those down, too), with which much of the indigenous wildlife cannot coexist.
Worry not. We are on a similar arc at the end of which you will not likely be able to complain without it affecting your social credit score or some other metric of obedience to the masters who have, ironically, set modernity and environmental protection back a few thousand years in the name of progress.
But it is cute how they think that won’t happen, and I only sort of kind of feel sorry for them.
The post Vermont Biologists and Foresters Pretend There Will be Room Left for “Forests” in Our Net Zero Future appeared first on Granite Grok.
Is the much-hyped “energy transition” starting to crumble at its foundations now? In recent weeks we have seen the following:
This list could go on and on, but the macro view is clear: Everywhere one looks, the aggressive timelines and heavily subsidized plans for a rapid transition are falling apart. Nowhere is the dynamic becoming clearer than in the wind industry. (DAVID BLACKMON: Biden Raided Our Gas Reserves To Help Win An Election. Will He Do It Again?)
In an Aug. 7 report titled “Wind Industry in Crisis as Problems Mount,” the Wall Street Journal catalogues $30 billion in planned investments in new wind projects in the U.S. and elsewhere that have now been delayed due to an expanding variety of factors. “After months of warnings about rising prices and logistical hiccups, developers and would-be buyers of wind power are scrapping contracts, putting off projects and postponing investment decisions,” the story says, emphasizing that the problems are becoming especially severe in the offshore wind business that has been so heavily promoted by the Biden administration.
I wrote a story in July detailing the fact that some of the so-called “Big Oil” companies have recently made big inroads into the offshore wind business, winning bids in the U.S. and Germany for licenses to develop large projects. But the Journal’s story quotes Anders Opedal, CEO of Norwegian oil giant Equinor, saying, “At the moment, we are seeing the industry’s first crisis.”
Along with British oil major BP, Equinor has plans in place to develop three wind farms off the Atlantic coast of New York, but recently warned state officials they would need to renegotiate power prices or the projects would not be able to obtain the needed financing. This demand by the two oil companies echoed a call by traditional wind developer Orsted in June for more subsidies from the U.K. government if its planned projects in the North Sea are to remain viable.
Make no mistake about it: Developing these offshore wind projects doesn’t come cheap. Orsted pulled out of a competitive bidding auction in Germany last month for government licenses to develop 7 GW of new offshore wind capacity when BP and French oil major TotalEnergies ran the final bids up to almost $14 billion.
“Orsted very deliberately chose not to pay record high concession prices for new offshore projects in Germany,” Orsted CEO Mads Nipper said in a post on LinkedIn. Orsted objected to the process that awarded the licenses based on the willingness of developers to pay the government for the right to develop — the same process used in oil and gas leasing all over the world — rather than the government offering more and more subsidies to incentivize development.
Therein lies the central conundrum for this subsidized transition: At some point, wind, like solar, electric vehicles and all the other rent-seeking solutions being promoted in this energy transition will have to become viable without an expectation of permanently rising subsidies, since governments already seeing their credit ratings downgraded due to overwhelming debt won’t be able to just keep printing money forever.
But, at the present moment, the business models in play do not appear to be headed for that outcome. And that’s why this energy transition seems to be falling off the rails.
David Blackmon | The Daily Caller News Service
David Blackmon is an energy writer and consultant based in Texas. He spent 40 years in the oil and gas business, where he specialized in public policy and communications.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
The post Is The Green Energy Transition Falling Off The Rails? appeared first on Granite Grok.
My concern for the 2024 Election is not whether we can get the right candidates up and down the ballot but whether we can beat the Election laws, media bias, and big money. Long gone are the days when the best candidate with the best grasp of the issues has the highest odds of winning.
I will not go so far as to say Donald Trump won the 2020 Election, but I challenge anyone to defend Biden for garnering 81 million votes during a Pandemic and hardly leaving his basement.
I believe a special election in Ohio and a recent vote on an abortion bill in Maine bear me out. Both had abortion implications, but one showed a turnout that was difficult to accept, and the other showed utter contempt for the will of the people. Both had enormous amounts of special interest pro-choice money spent. Let’s break them down.
Ohio Special Election to determine the percentage of votes to amend the state constitution.The current law requires a simple majority of 50% plus 1. Conservatives attempted to change the bar to a supermajority of 60% Plus 1. The reason for this effort was to protect current state abortion laws. If Issue 1 had passed, it would be more difficult for the abortion rights ballot measure to pass in November. Because of the potential of stricter abortion regulations, the PAC money came out big. Over 3 million votes were cast, with the NO votes getting 57% of the votes. The majority of the NO votes came from Ohio’s four big cities- Columbus, Dayton, Cleveland, and Cincinnati. The suburbs voted overwhelmingly YES.
Just two years ago, almost 4 million voters turned out to elect a Governor, Senator, and all Representatives. Republican candidates swept the 2022 Election, which draws attention to the number of votes and how they fell in 2023. You can make up your mind on the number of votes and the side that won the day.
Maine Bill to allow elective abortions up to the moment of birth.In Maine, the State government debated and voted on a new bill that would give the right to abort a fetus up to the moment of birth. Polls showed the support to defeat this bill and protect the unborn was at an astronomical 85%. It is difficult to get 85% of the population to agree on any issue. The State Legislature disregarded the will of the people and passed the late-term abortion provision, and the Governor signed the bill into law. Planned Parenthood not only spent nearly $1 Million to support passage but was present in the House and Senate to whip up votes to pass the bill. T
here is no way to spend that much money in Maine without making individual deposits in Democrat campaign coffers. The will of the people was tabled, and an unpopular Bill was passed. People who were in the Statehouse for both votes claimed the sight of Planned Parenthood supporters whipping support was a slap to the Democratic process.
We have much to do before 2024. Pick the right candidate, raise massive amounts of money, and keep a watchful eye on every voting spot to ensure the credibility of the voting process. We also have to keep writing and letting people know the truth and to success or failure of Republican candidates. Today, it looks like the battlefield is slanted against us.
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