CONVERSATION about choice in education generally centers on the positive effect such programs have for students. From academic gains to improved student mental health, the overwhelming research consensus is favorable.

We want to thank Commissioner Frank Edelblut for this Contribution – Please direct yours to Editor@GraniteGrok.com.

EdChoice publishes a report, The 123s of School Choice, that consolidates research in this area. Out of 187 research studies of school choice, 84% show a positive effect.

The benefits of education choice for students are borne out by decades of research. But choice can do even more. It can be the driving force that saves public education.

Demographic changes have significantly affected public education. Public school enrollment in New Hampshire peaked in 2002. Since then, the public schools have lost 46,000 students. This trend is negatively affecting both K-12 and post-secondary education systems. It is not expected to reverse in the foreseeable future.

As enrollment has declined, schools have experienced rising costs. A 22% decline in the number of students calls for savings, which isn’t always easy to achieve. Trimming costs in a dynamic commercial industry is tough enough. Trying to accomplish that in a public-sector industry is even tougher. The result is escalating costs that far outstrip inflation and strain the ability for citizens to support the school system.

We know that 2022 and 2023 have been filled with unsettling news that student performance is not where it should be. While everyone acknowledges the negative effect of COVID on student academic outcomes, as well as mental health, COVID made these declines worse. But it didn’t cause them. As the National Assessment Governing Board recently reported: “The pandemic worsened a pre-pandemic trend in math and reading among fourth graders.”

The Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA), an assessment company used by many schools, reported this month that despite unprecedented additional funding to schools ($190 billion in COVID aid) and the efforts of educators across the country, accelerated student learning has not occurred. Fortunately, New Hampshire is bucking this trend, though student performance still falls short of our aspirations.

COVID highlighted another concern as well. During COVID remote instruction, many parents observed their children’s classroom instruction for the first time. This led to calls in New Hampshire and nationwide for greater transparency and greater input by parents into what their children are learning.

Today, parents and taxpayers are demanding unprecedented levels of flexibility, transparency and accountability from our public schools. The schools should be able to offer what parents want, but the system isn’t designed to be as responsive as parents rightfully insist that it be.

Here in New Hampshire, we’ve worked hard to make the system more responsive and flexible. We’re expanding public charter schools so that more parents will have a local public school alternative available for their children. We’ve created Innovation Schools, which allow public school districts some of the same flexibility charter schools enjoy. We created Learn Everywhere so students can get high school credit for learning that takes place outside the classroom. And we created Education Freedom Accounts so that lower-income parents can shop for the best available education for their children.

Critics claim that creating more options for parents will harm public education. On the contrary, giving families more choices will be the catalyst that helps public education satisfy all students’ needs.

Public education is filled with individuals who are smart, motivated and deeply caring. Educators want to serve children, and they’re not opposed to embracing innovative approaches and methods. But too often the system lacks the sort of flexibility that allows the private sector to respond more quickly to changing consumer demand.

Education is filled with creative and innovative entrepreneurs (edupreneurs) who are already responding to the changing education marketplace. New Hampshire has created the tools to empower public education to compete.

That’s why we must encourage public education to harness the same market forces that will create a vibrant, dynamic, and highly adaptive education economy.As we’ve seen, too many families are fleeing the system in frustration. Why not encourage the system to use the tools that it has and offer them more flexibility and more options so they don’t have to leave the system to get the education they seek?

Efforts to enhance public education have been with us for decades. Some of these innovations survive, but parents are saying they’re tired of waiting for results. Why make them wait for decades more? By then, how many more will have left?

No matter the industry, competition improves services and lowers costs. It can do the same for public education, but only if we free our educators from the bureaucratic shackles that make it hard for them to compete. Give them the same incentives that education entrepreneurs already have and look out. They’ll dazzle parents. We just have to encourage them to do it.

Frank Edelblut is commissioner of the New Hampshire Department of Education. He lives in Wilton.

The post Education Choice will Save Public School appeared first on Granite Grok.

The Millennial generation, born between 1981 and 1996, has become a driving force behind the vegan movement, prioritizing ethical, health, and environmental considerations. The rise of veganism among Millennials reflects a deeper change in attitudes towards food, animal welfare, and sustainability. Let’s explore the factors that have motivated this generation to embrace a plant-based lifestyle.

Ethical Considerations

At the heart of many Millennials’ decision to go vegan are ethical considerations, with animal welfare taking the top spot. For many, the treatment of animals in industrial farming practices simply does not align with their personal values. Documentaries, social media influencers, and increased awareness have fueled a growing compassion for animals, leading to a rejection of products associated with cruelty, and a surge in alternative, plant-based products such as vegan ice cream.

What’s more, the Millennial generation is acutely aware of the environmental impact of their choices. They recognize the extensive resources required to raise livestock and the corresponding carbon footprint. As such, veganism is often an active choice to reduce one’s environmental impact.

Health Awareness

The connection between diet and wellbeing is no longer a novel idea for many Millennials. Armed with a plethora of information and a desire to live a healthier lifestyle, many are choosing plant-based diets for their potential benefits in disease prevention, weight management, and overall wellness.

For some, the move to veganism is a necessary response to food allergies or intolerances. As more people become aware of their bodies’ needs and reactions to different foods, veganism often emerges as a viable option for dietary comfort and balance.

Accessibility and Convenience

In 2023, veganism is no longer a fringe movement confined to health food stores. Today, you can find vegan options in almost every mainstream supermarket, restaurant, and even fast-food chains. For Millennials, this has made the transition to a vegan lifestyle more feasible and enjoyable.

Along with this, technology has made going vegan even easier. From apps that help locate vegan restaurants to online communities offering recipes and support, technology has played a key role in facilitating the growing Millennial adoption of veganism. The digital era has made information and resources readily available to those interested in making the shift.

Cultural Shifts

The Millennial generation has created a sense of community around veganism. Online platforms and social media channels have created spaces for sharing, learning, and encouragement, turning a dietary choice into a shared cultural experience.

What’s more, popular influencers and celebrities who are openly vegan have significantly impacted the views and choices of many Millennials. Not only have they made veganism trendy, but they also provide validation and inspiration for those considering the change.

Conscious Consumerism

Millennials are not only influencing food trends but also shaping the market through their purchasing decisions. A preference for ethical and sustainable products among this generation has led to a surge in demand for vegan-friendly goods.

Brands and companies are responding by expanding their vegan ranges, recognizing that ethical consumerism isn’t just a trend, but a growing force in the market.

The rise of veganism among Millennials has had a ripple effect, shaping markets, influencing policy, and perhaps most importantly, inspiring future generations to think more consciously about the food they consume.

The post Millennials and Veganism: A Generation’s Commitment to Ethical Eating appeared first on Granite Grok.

Even if you are a total COVID vaccine homer, the data never justified giving it to anyone under twenty, but parents and kids were frightened, cajoled, or coerced into getting it, and some were harmed. And not just once. Myocarditis in teens can recur.

And that is not some right-wing anti-vaxxer conspiracy – not that they’ve not been more right about it than the consensus left. This comes from Science Direct.com.

Note the opening sentence. It has become a staple of researchers who want to do science but fear losing funding if they don’t tithe (at least verbally) to the COVID Cults gods.

But don’t stop there. What follows is alarming (reformatted).

 

Whilst there has been significant public health benefits associated with global use of COVID-19 spike protein vaccines, potential serious adverse events following immunization have been reported. Acute myocarditis is a rare complication of COVID19 vaccines and often it is self-limiting. We describe two cases experiencing recurrent myocarditis following mRNA COVID-19 vaccine despite a prior episode with full clinical recovery. Between September 2021-September 2022 we observed two male adolescents with recurrent myocarditis related to mRNA-based-COVID19 vaccine.

During the first episode both patients presented with fever and chest pain few days after their second dose of BNT162b2 mRNA Covid-19 Vaccine (Comirnaty®). The blood exams showed increased cardiac enzymes. In addition, complete viral panel was run, showing HHV7 positivity in a single case. The left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) was normal at echocardiogram but cardiac magnetic resonance scanning (CMR) was consistent with myocarditis. They were treated with supportive treatment with full recovery.

The 6 months follow-up demonstrated good clinical conditions with normal cardiological findings. The CMR showed persistent lesions in left ventricle ‘s wall with LGE. After some months the patients presented at emergency department with fever and chest pain and increased cardiac enzymes. No decreased LVEF was observed. The CMR showed new focal areas of edema in the first case report and stable lesions in the second one. …

More efforts are necessary to depict the underlying mechanisms of myocarditis after SARS-CoV2 vaccination to understand the risk of relapsing and the long-term sequelae.

Key takeaways. The myocarditis followed injection with an mRNA COVID vaccine. The heart was damaged, but they clinically recovered. Some months later, they had a second incidence of vaccine-induced myocarditis and no one knows what’s going on.

 

Studies have shown myocarditis requiring hospitalization may occur in as many as 1 in 3,000 teenage boys or young adult men who receive a Covid jab, with the highest risk after the second dose. Many studies show Moderna’s shot, which has more mRNA than Pfizer’s, has a higher risk.

The underlying reason that the mRNAs cause myocarditis – and why it seems to affect young men more than anyone else – remains a mystery.

 

Young Americans who, while not at risk of COVID infection or transmission, now live with a chronic debilitating condition that could recur randomly. That sounds like a public health emergency.

 

As the connection between the mRNAs and myocarditis became more clear, they downplayed its risks, calling it mild and transient.

But studies from South Korea, Qatar, and the Tokyo medical examiner’s office have proved that mRNA myocarditis can kill and has led to dozens of sudden deaths of young adults in those countries. The link to the deaths was generally discovered only after autopsies or medical record reviews of deaths within days or weeks of vaccinations.

The United States and most other mRNA vaccine countries have not conducted similar reviews, so the total post-jab myocarditis death toll remains a mystery.

 

And now a question I have asked often during the COVID era.  I’d say after the COVID era, but I’m not convinced our global masters agree it is over. How many need to die, or who has to die?  We have kids entering into their early adulthood handicapped by bad public health policy and thr sad answer is it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter to them who dies.

We had a young nephew of a Congressman die, very likely from an acute cardiac incident at a local swimming hole after COVID vaccination. He died, and the first instinct of the Jabbernaughts and the media was nothing to see here. Tragic, but oh look, Ukraine, Aliens, Gas Prices, another Trump indictment, election deniers, climate change, abortion!

Yes, that was an abortion in his 60th trimester. And he’s not the only one.

One more point. In May, we reported a 151% spike in myocarditis in the US military. Since then we’ve discovered that the European Journal of Heart Failure has looked at post-COVID-vaccine-induced myocarditis (local copy).

 

• None of the participants with elevated markers of myocardial injury related to mRNA vaccination had a history of cardiac disease
• our findings confirmed the study hypothesis. mRNA-1273 booster vaccination-associated elevation of markers of myocardial injury occurred in about one out of 35 persons.
• systemic reactogenicity (fever, chills, body aches), and chest pain occurred with comparable frequency in participants with versus without mRNA-1273 booster vaccine-associated cTnT elevations.
• mRNA-1273 booster vaccine-associated myocardial injury occurred significantly more often in women versus men(3.7% versus 0.8%).
• [The] median age of participants developing mRNA-1273 vaccine-associated myocardial injury was 46 years.

 

And it looks like it could recur at any time. What’s safe about that?

 

The post COVID Vaxxed Kids That Recovered from Myocarditis are Getting It Again appeared first on Granite Grok.

<edia talking heads eager for another four years of Donald Trump scandal stories have been quick to dismiss the prospects of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis since he officially entered the contest for the Republican presidential nomination barely two months ago.

Recent polls, both national and from early primary states, show DeSantis trailing former President Trump by double digits, and a staff shakeup within the DeSantis campaign has driven speculation among donors that DeSantis is struggling. His critics even pointed to a DeSantis motorcade fender-bender as evidence that his campaign lacked momentum.

The great DeSantis pile-on has been going on since the Florida governor won re-election by a landslide last year and became the presumptive candidate to beat for the GOP nomination.

It’s pretty tricky to write Gov. DeSantis’ obituary before the race officially starts, but that’s what the media and Trump’s allies appear to be trying to do. (RELATED: CHRISTIAN WHITON: Ron DeSantis Will Revive The Middle Class. Here’s How)

It’s not that national polls in a primary contest don’t matter, it’s just that they don’t matter much. Data on where the conservative base of the Grand Old Party stands compared to donors is interesting, and it’s certainly a warning that the populist wing and the party elites aren’t fully aligned. But that’s not exactly breaking news, and it’s not a determinate factor in a nominating contest that’s decided at the state level.

Former President Trump may still have an iron grip on the populist base of the Republican Party, but he’s not invincible — and he knows it.

The Republican presidential primary is a complex and drawn-out process of barnstorming early states to woo GOP voters and delegates until one candidate has enough support to earn the nomination at next summer’s Republican convention in Milwaukee. The process can be chaotic, but it’s designed to allow a broad field of hopefuls to make their pitch to Republican voters, avoiding an undemocratic coronation by party insiders.

Trump and his allies know — and the latest campaign finance reports confirm — that he doesn’t have the resources for a protracted primary fight. Trump needs to end challenges to his primacy over the GOP quickly.

According to the media’s analysis of campaign finance disclosures, Trump’s network of political committees has paid roughly $60 million in legal fees since he lost the 2020 election. Trump may dominate the Republican primary field today, but he’s bleeding cash at an unsustainable rate, and his legal troubles are not going away anytime soon. The longer the primary drags on, the weaker the former president becomes.

 

 

In the dash for cash, DeSantis and his allied campaign committees are by far the frontrunners, with nearly $120 million in the bank. The Trump campaign has about half that amount between his fund-raising committees and super PAC. South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott is in third place with roughly $40 million.

As far as the polls go, Iowa’s January 15 presidential caucus is the first real test of the nomination battle, and Trump’s showing in polls in the Hawkeye State differs from his performance in national surveys.

A recent New York Times/Siena College survey of the Iowa caucus highlights Trump’s weakness at the state level. While he leads DeSantis 43 percent to 20 percent with likely caucusgoers, he’s still below 50 percent. With nearly five months before the Iowa caucus, there’s time — though not a lot — for Trump’s challengers to close that gap.

A win in Iowa for Trump would undoubtedly be a major blow to DeSantis and the rest of the field of hopefuls. But Trump’s support is softer than the oft-quoted 37-percent floor. The base is with him, but even the most hardcore conservatives are leaving the door cracked to other options. However, those voters can’t be expected to jump ship until they know they have a winning alternative. And that’s where the primary process comes in. The base like the former president but also wants to start winning again. DeSantis and the other challenges must demonstrate to voters during primary season that they can deliver on that promise.

A consensus alternative to Trump may not have emerged yet, but DeSantis is by far the closest out of the pack of hopefuls. He is the only other candidate polling in double digits. His favorability has remained consistent despite daily attacks from Trump and critiques in the media — the next most popular candidate is Sen. Scott, who has yet to break the 10-percent ceiling — and he has the war chest to go all the way to the GOP convention.

If the determining factor is electability next November — and I would argue it is — then Gov. DeSantis is the clear choice for GOP voters. (RELATED: DAVID S. JACKSON: Trump Backers Are Smearing America’s Best Hope For Real Conservative Change)

DeSantis is promising to put Republicans back in a position to lead the country out of the swamp of the Biden administration. The new economic independence plan that DeSantis rolled out last week shows he wants to move the nation forward and get back to the things that matter most to American voters.

Dan Eberhart; DeSantis donor, chief executive officer of Canary, LLC, a Denver, Colorado-based drilling-services company, and managing partner of Eberhart Capital, LLC.

Reminder: Content about candidates or by candidates is not an endorsement by GraniteGrok.com or its authors.

 

Dan Eberhart | Daily Caller News Service

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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 Don’t Write Off Ron DeSantis Just Yet appeared first on Granite Grok.

I am a news junkie. I am not ashamed to admit my addiction. I enjoy watching the four-square view on YouTube TV to see what FOX News, CNN, MSNBC, and the BBC are covering simultaneously. It is amazing to not only see what they are reporting, but more telling is what they are choosing not to cover. Though these networks are not affiliated, they are definitely being orchestrated. The stories covered, the talking points, and the video clips are all too synchronized to be by chance. This is not a case of one network reporting a story and the others jumping on. All of the mainstream media outlets are choosing what their viewers will not see. This media collusion could be used for an anti-trust case against ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, and their internet partners.

You can see an extension of this malpractice when you observe a White House Press Briefing. Where are the probing questions from the mainstream or print journalists? Where is the curiosity for the rest of the story? When will we see these reporters and outlets perform the function they were given their Freedom of Press by the Constitution? These people and outlets were to be the government’s watchdog on behalf of the people. These networks and print media are not watchdogs but patsies for the President, his administration, and his family. The conspiracy is so apparent it should be an embarrassment to their reputation. They do not seem to care.

The dichotomy that makes their actions so obvious is the rabid enthusiasm they give to any of the negative stories about Former President Donald Trump versus the total avoidance of similar stories involving Biden, et al. In the five days after the release of the Devon Archer interview with Congress, ABC, CBS, NBC, and CNN gave the story zero minutes-not a mention of Devon Archer and his damaging testimony about Hunter Biden and the connection between Hunter and Joe Biden. Only MSNBC touched the story but for only 3 minutes and 45 seconds. This sanitizing of the news is why such a high percentage of the population has not a clue about the happenings of Biden, Hunter, the money, and the criminal empire built by Joe and Hunter Biden.

I spent time last night with two women who were totally ignorant of many of the subjects I attempted to touch on with them. One was a young professional woman in her twenties, and the other was a retired school administrator. The young lady had no idea of the Biden money laundering scheme or, even more alarming, the Fentanyl crisis and deaths in America. The former assistant high school principal was equally unaware of the nearly $20 Million extorted by the Biden Family uncovered so far by House GOP Congressmen or about CRT and the WOKE culture. This is incomprehensible and a small sampling but indicative of the ignorance of the facts by the majority of Americans thanks to this concerted effort by the Left Wing media.

I do not profess to a guess of the person, or persons, pulling the strings of the media, but they are doing a tremendous disservice to America. Their work may even be criminal. We must be thankful for the efforts of FOX News, The New York Post, Newsmax, and even Australia’s SkyNews. Fortunately, these outlets dominate their respective markets and touch a good percentage of the public. Their viewership and readership prove there are Patriotic Americans with a quest for the facts and the truth.

The post Who Is The Puppeteer For The Mainstream Media appeared first on Granite Grok.

American progressives always sound better in the original Chinese, but perhaps some Canadian English will do. Canada has just passed C-11, a regulatory package that gives the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission control of the internet.

 

C-11 has given the government the ability to regulate user content on social media, it has given itself the ability to censor content that it doesn’t like, but, more importantly, it has given itself the ability to control every aspect of your online experience. We are potentially moving from the open and rambunctious world wide web to a controlled online experience where we can access what the government allows us to access.

 

We watched as Canada censored, silenced, arrested, and even demanded banks freeze the accounts of people protesting its policies. It became clear it was willing to do almost anything to end protests and objections to its behavior. How would this not be worse when it comes to streamed internet content?

 

Given that radio stations are required to ensure that 35% of the popular music they play is Canadian content, how far-fetched is it that this will be the case for Canadian consumers of Spotify, Apple Music or Amazon? What about a CRTC decree that Netflix or Paramount Plus must stream a certain amount of Canadian content to be allowed to operate here in Canada? …

We have entered the great unknown for the future of the online world in Canada. All the major platforms that we use each and every day are now regulated by the CRTC.

 

Not long ago, Canada was prosecuting so-called hate speech laws in kangaroo courts, so what are the odds they’ll abuse this? I’m going with “inevitable.” As soon as the regulators can get their feet underneath them, they’ll be trampling on people’s rights as quickly and as often as possible.

American progressives will be jealous.

They have been pining for something like this here, but that’s a tougher row to hoe. America’s free speech protections are unique in the world. Even the FBI is in trouble for colluding with social media platforms to interfere in elections and censor content to which the political elite object.

The American left may have to console itself with the knowledge that the Canadian government can and will censor content from the US in Canada.

Exit question(s): Is C-11 incentive enough for whiney progs to actually move to Canada – like they promised, knowing they would not be subject to speech they oppose? And how long before they realize what that truly means?

Put another way, are they stupid enough to believe that they will never disagree with the government or that – once given free rein – it would never censor them?

 

 

The post Canada Passes Far-Reaching Internet Censorship Law appeared first on Granite Grok.

The Biden-regime believe that one of the imperatives of the federal government is to promote abortions. Indeed, the Biden-regime is using military-funding to help pay for abortions. Senator Tommy Tuberville has blocked promotions in order to force the regime to stop. Nikki Haley thinks that’s “shameful”:

… Tuberville placed a hold on military promotions when the Defense Department implemented a new abortion policy allowing servicemembers three weeks of paid leave and travel in pursuit of the deadly procedure. Federal law prohibits U.S. tax dollars from funding abortion. … Haley railed against Tuberville’s move to rip the Pentagon out of the abortion business as “shameful” and tied the senator’s effort to the military’s recruiting crisis.

Nikki says it is “totally wrong” for the Defense Department to fund abortions. If you believe that Nikki would, as President, actually fight for any of the things GOP-voters believe in … then your level of gullibility is, to borrow a phrase, “shameful.”

 

The post Nikki Haley … Abortion-Queen appeared first on Granite Grok.

Former Executive Councilor and failed candidate for governor Andru Volinsky is representing two folks suing the state of New Hampshire after it removed a historical marker honoring devoted communist and activist Elizabeth Gurley Flynn.

 

According to the complaint submitted by Attorney Andru Volinsky on behalf of Mary Lee Sargent and Arnie Alpert, the plaintiffs “are without remedies at law or in equity other than the restoration of the Flynn Marker to its location near Montgomery and Court Streets in Concord.”

 

I’m not saying they don’t have a case. The marker was removed with alacrity after it made local and then national news. Far too quickly for anything approaching the durm and strang of a typical interaction with the bureaucratic process. It is possible someone skipped a few Is and Ts along the way.

Defendants are accused of violating state law,

 

“including, but not limited to, the State’s Administrative Procedures Act, R.S.A. 541-A; the Historic Markers Program, R.S.A. 227-C:5 and 236:40; and the Plaintiffs’ rights to the due process of law as guaranteed by the New Hampshire Constitution by interfering with the Plaintiffs’ right to duly petition for the approval and erection of a historical marker near the birthplace of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn in Concord, New Hampshire.”

 

Their other argument is that the provisions for historical markers are not limited to ideology, which made me laugh out loud.

 

Sargent said, “The marker was illegally removed based on ideological considerations that fly in the face of the historical marker program’s purpose.” Sargent taught American history for several decades at colleges and universities in the Midwest and in New Hampshire.

 

Few, if any, of those leaning left oppose the removal or destruction of American History, from flags to statues to how it is taught. It may not be long for this world if it hurts someone’s feelings or can be linked to some human rights violation or injustice (actual or alleged). But if Mary Lee Sargent is correct about ideology, don’t those all need to go back?

And does that open us up to honoring every slave owner, racist, fascist, or white supremacist of historical interest or influence who was born or lived in New Hampshire. Elizabeth Gurley Flynn’s ideological passion, after all, resulted in the ethnic and political persecution, cleansing, and deaths of many millions of people.

 

If we add to this list the deaths caused by communist regimes that the Soviet Union created and supported—including those in Eastern Europe, China, Cuba, North Korea, Vietnam and Cambodia—the total number of victims is closer to 100 million. That makes communism the greatest catastrophe in human history.

 

Communist regimes murdered blacks, Jews, Women, Children, Christians, and homosexuals, but that does not begin to plumb the depths of incarceration, abuse, discrimination, and intolerance credited to Elizabeth Gurley Flynn’s preferred ideology.

If that’s worth celebrating, and why wouldn’t Democrats want that – it is, after all, the promise of their political ambitions; perhaps the answer is to put the marker back. Elizabeth Gurley Flynn represents not just Concord’s past but its future. A movement disguised as pro-labor and pro-democracy destined to use and undermine the people it claims to defend to erect a violent, intolerant, despotic one-party state.

If that’s what you want to celebrate, have at it. Granite Staters deserve to see it until some peaceful protesters pull it out of the ground in the name of social justice and toss it into the Merrimack River.

That’s not a suggestion, by the way, but it might be situational irony.

 

Update: With apologies to Arnie for referring to him as a woman in the original published version. 

The post Maybe We SHOULD Put Communist Elizabeth Gurley Flynn’s Historical Marker Back appeared first on Granite Grok.

“Experts” at the Federal Reserve and other central banks proudly broadcast the potential “financial inclusion” that could be achieved with a central bank digital currency (CBDC). In the Fed’s main CBDC paper, “Money and Payments: The U.S. Dollar in the Age of Digital Transformation,” they make it clear: “Promoting financial inclusion—particularly for economically vulnerable households and communities—is a high priority for the Federal Reserve . . . a CBDC could reduce common barriers to financial inclusion.”

The term has a ring to it that signals support for progressive goals. “Inclusion” is part of the Orwellian trio of terms “diversity, inclusion, and equity,” which, as Dr. Michael Rectenwald writes, means “surveillance, punishment of the ‘privileged,’ sacrifice of national citizens to global interests, and the labeling as ‘dangerous’ and marking for (virtual) elimination those supposed members or leaders of ‘hate groups’ who oppose such measures.” The central banks’ use of “financial inclusion” involves the same reversal of meanings.

Financial Inclusion and Unbanked Households

Consider that a retail CBDC would be like having a bank account with the Federal Reserve, even if it is intermediated by another bank. There is a lot of guesswork about how a CBDC will be implemented, but some say that it will not just be like having a bank account with the Fed, but that it could be exactly that.

Either way, if a CBDC were genuinely aimed at financial inclusion, it would offer something to those who have chosen to forgo a bank account entirely. This “unbanked” population constitutes about 5.4 percent of US households, according to a 2021 Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) survey. The survey asked each household why they do not have a bank account, and the responses indicate that minimum balance requirements, privacy, trust, and fees are the most significant factors.

Figure 1: Unbanked households’ reasons for not having a bank account, 2021 (percent)

Source: FDIC, 2021 FDIC National Survey of Unbanked and Underbanked Households (FDIC, 2022), fig. ES.3.

The critical question, then, is this: what does a CBDC offer these households that physical cash and other nonbank financial services (e.g., check cashing, money orders, prepaid cards) do not?

Privacy (or Lack Thereof)

A CBDC undermines privacy. Whatever a central bank might say about privacy protection with a CBDC can be safely dismissed. The Fed paper, for example, says, “Protecting consumer privacy is critical. Any CBDC would need to strike an appropriate balance, however, between safeguarding the privacy rights of consumers and affording the transparency necessary to deter criminal activity.” We should not conflate the characteristics of a CBDC with those of cryptocurrencies in general, which offer anonymity and pseudonymity to their users.

Consider how the IRS recently pried open PayPal, Venmo, and Cash App accounts with transactions over $600. Consider also that the Supreme Court just ruled that the IRS can investigate your bank accounts without notification in some circumstances, including if you are a friend, family member, or associate of someone who owes the IRS.

Beyond taxes, banks also willingly hand over personal information (even without a warrant or formal request) to the FBI. This data, which includes previous firearm purchases, belongs to people who show up at the wrong protest or who were merely in the vicinity as the data is collected based on transactions within a specific geographic area.

The lack of privacy with bank accounts certainly contributes to the distrust people have for banks, as noted in the survey. This shows that “financial inclusion” is a mere buzzword as there is nothing about a CBDC that would gain the trust of unbanked households, who are not excluded from the banking system but actively avoid it.

Fees and Negative Interest Rates

According to the survey, fees are another commonly cited reason for being unbanked. People avoid banks because the fees are steep and unpredictable.

Although there is no certainty regarding how a CBDC would operate, many see that it could finally offer the holy grail of monetary policy: the ability to impose negative interest rates. In effect, this would be a fee for holding a CBDC.

After the 2008 crash, the Fed reached the “zero lower bound” for nominal interest rates. They were unable to stimulate more spending through their interest rate targeting approach. While there were a few outlandish ideas about imposing a negative interest rate on cash, like the idea of Greg Mankiw’s student to remove the legal tender status of all currency with a serial number ending in a randomly selected digit, it is just too difficult to impose a fee on the cash in your wallet or safe.

With a digital currency, it becomes effortless, especially if the use of physical cash is significantly diminished or even eliminated altogether. The monetary policy authorities would simply press a button and deduct a certain amount of CBDC from everyone’s accounts. Think of the spending they would encourage if everybody knew their unspent money would be subject to such a penalty!

Conclusion

The “financial inclusion” rhetoric in central bank papers and speeches on CBDCs is laughable. Presently, people avoid banks because they distrust banks, value privacy, and despise fees. A CBDC wouldn’t help with any of these concerns. Instead of promoting inclusion, a CBDC would become the ultimate tool for financial intrusion and control.

The tyrannical potential is not a secret, even for the army of technocrats pushing for CBDCs. At a recent World Economic Forum event in China, Eswar Prasad matter-of-factly brandished the inevitable weaponization of CBDCs:

And one final note that I’ll make is that if you think about the benefits of digital money, there are huge potential gains. It’s not just about digital forms of physical currency—you can have programmability, units of central bank currency with expiry dates. You could have, as I argue in my book, a potentially better, or some people might say, darker world, where the government decides that units of central bank money can be used to purchase some things, but not other things that it deems less desirable, like, say, ammunition or drugs or pornography or something of the sort. And that is very powerful in terms of the use of a CBDC.

Of course, any moral qualms we have regarding the items he listed are irrelevant. It is clear that the state will use CBDCs to push us toward anything the state favors and away from anything the state doesn’t. Programmable money means programmable citizens.

Author:

Contact Jonathan Newman

Dr. Jonathan Newman is a Fellow at the Mises Institute. He earned his PhD at Auburn University while a Research Fellow at the Mises Institute. He was the recipient of the 2021 Gary G. Schlarbaum Award to a Promising Young Scholar for Excellence in Research and Teaching. His research focuses on Austrian economics, inflation and business cycles, and the history of economic thought. He has taught courses on Macroeconomics and Quantitative Economics: Uses and Limitations in the Mises Graduate School.

 

 

 

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 CBDCs: The Ultimate Tool of Financial Intrusion appeared first on Granite Grok.

The Sanders Institute might feel the Bern after a recent Fox News report that showed 200K from Senator Sander’s Campaign funds getting shoveled into the nonprofit created by his wife and stepson to…pay his stepson a “living wage.”

It does not say that anywhere on the website, but that appears to be the extent of its service to the community.

 

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders quietly funneled $200,000 from his campaign’s coffers to his wife’s nonprofit institute, which appears to do very little work and pays six figures’ worth of compensation to her son, Fox News Digital has found.

The independent senator’s committee cut two $100,000 checks to the Sanders Institute for reported charitable contributions in January and March, its Federal Election Commission records show. The expenditures are the largest from the Sanders campaign to any entity this election cycle.

 

According to Fox, Stepson David Driscoll runs the organization, which paid him $152,653 in salary and other compensation in 2021. To do what? Fox News could not find anything remotely linked to the organization’s purpose. They report a website with lots of words and promises but not much else.

At least we know what’s keeping Jane O’Meara Sanders after she ran a local Vermont College into the ground.

 

Burlington College announced today that it will close on May 27 after it found itself unable to recover from “the crushing weight of the debt” incurred under Jane O’Meara Sanders, the college’s former president and wife of Bernie Sanders.

 

Jane’s job and the college she “ran” went away in 2016. She and Bernie’s stepson “opened” the Sanders Institute in 2017.

Nothing odd about that. She needed something to do, so why not laundry some campaign donations into your family’s pockets in the name of socialism? That is, after all, how it works.

And I find myself in similar circumstances to Jane, with a few exceptions. My “day job” is going away, but I didn’t run the business into the ground—quite the contrary. But supply chains and customer interest have shifted since COVID. What used to be our bread and butter is not, and the evolution of the business in that direction does not require the tasks I perform. Having run businesses, I get it. It’s inconvenient for me, but from an operations standpoint, it makes sense. I do not, however, have a step-dad with gobs of dollars earned, pirated, or raised for campaigns to create make-work jobs.

But I am trying to fund a full-time gig running the Grok, our PAC, and some actual reporting around New Hampshire. It’s a sound investment for interested parties because we’ve already shown we can create something of value for Conservatarians. We’ve got well-documented reach and influence to build on for less than half the cost of what Driscoll scooped up for doing nothing but being related through marriage to Socialist Senator Sanders.

Maybe I should ask Bernie to write me a check.

While we wait, now that the communist cat is out of the black bag, will Jane and David erect a Sanders Institute Potemkin village? You would think they’d need to do something besides pretending to be a news site to funnel nearly three times the average national take-home pay to a stepson.

Perhaps they could use the Clinton Global Initiative as a template.

Wait, that was just a money laundering operation as well.

 

The post The Sanders Institute for Laundering Campaign Cash Into Relatives Pockets appeared first on Granite Grok.

Dear Ethics Committee,

It has become apparent that the New Hampshire courts do not respect the separation of powers and that there is, iI beleive, a racketeering enterprise going on that stems back to and involves current NH Supreme Court Chief Justice Gordon MacDonald.

In his capacity as Attorney General, MacDonald attempted to block the release of police officer names on the “Laurie list.”  One of those police officers whose name did ultimately appear is New Hampshire’s top sex crimes detective James F. McLaughlin.

Attorney General Gordon MacDonald brought James F. McLaughlin out of retirement to work on the Grand Jury Criminal Investigation into St. Paul’s School with Concord Police Detective Julie Curtin & Lieutenant Sean Ford between July 2017 and August 2018 when the report was finalized.

In June 2018, James F. McLaughlin’s name was added to the Laurie List with reference to the falsification of statements dating to 1985.

One of the cases being investigated by the detectives in the Grand Jury Criminal Investigation into St. Paul’s School was that of Lacy Crawford, whose case was called “the smoking gun.”  In Lacy’s memoir “Notes on a Silencing,” she documents the involvement of James F McLaughlin. She also states that AG Gordon MacDonald suddenly decided to take no more evidence from the police detectives on her case.

I believe that this is tied to Gordon MacDonald’s knowledge that James F. McLaughlin had been added to the Laurie list and that Gordon MacDonald was compromised since he introduced him to the investigation into St. Paul’s School. Instead of dealing with this, Gordon MacDonald covered it up and arranged the settlement agreement with St. Paul’s School requiring a compliance officer and a contract with the NHCADSV, who had lobbied him for the investigation. He upheld the state’s convictions against Owen Labrie in the full knowledge that he was protecting two corrupt police officers involved in the investigation into St. Paul’s School: James F McLaughlin and Julie Curtin (whose misconduct is documented in the criminal trial records).

Gordon MacDonald’s ex-business partner, David Vicinanzo, commended Judge Richard McNamara’s ruling to keep the Grand Jury Criminal Investigation report private. How convenient: Vicinanzo provided legal counsel (per his own resume) to the NHCADSV, who got a contract out of it, and to members of the St. Paul’s community who were named in the grand jury report.

Gordon MacDonald (and David Vicinanzo) had been the legal counsel for the Diocese of Manchester priest sex abuse cases and settlements which came about after James F. McLaughlin investigated Father Gordon MacRae. Gordon MacDonald was well aware that James F McLaughlin had made false statements (some of which he corrected himself later) in that investigation. And he was well aware that witnesses in the MacRae trial had stated that they were offered payments. He was also well aware that Julie Curtin, working under Gordon MacDonald and Jane Young and reporting to James F. McLaughlin, it appears, was obtaining files from St. Paul’s school and cold-calling potential victims to encourage them to make accusations against wealthy alumni. And that Julie Curtin was being authorized by his office to make intercept calls to these alumni who would be threatened with criminal charges but could buy their way out if they paid six figures. Julie Curtin made one such intercept call in December 2018. I was contacted by the target of that call in Spring 2020, and I alerted Archibald Cox, St. Paul’s Board of Trustees, of the call. I also alerted him to my belief that Concord Police were sending out unsolicited photos of minor girls in order to federally entrap.

The representation of the Diocese of Manchester for Gordon MacDonald stretches to the involvement of the Diocese of Manchester and Monsignor Edward Arsenault in Catholic Risk Retention Management, Catholic Charities, and the Catholic Medical Center, where Arsenault was responsible for increasing profits. Arsenault was jailed in 2014 for defrauding the diocese and the CMC as well as a dead priest’s estate.  The remainder of his sentence was vacated by the judge, whose case became the basis for the Laurie list.  Arsenault was released under Gordon MacDonald’s watch as AG.

CMC has been fined $3.8 million in a kickback scheme, and the administrators are now being investigated for the cover-ups of medical malpractice. Alex Walker is the CEO of CMC, having previously served as legal counsel.

As you know, Gordon MacDonald has had to recuse himself from cases involving police misconduct. James F. McLaughlin is currently being investigated, I understand. However, given his relationship with Gordon MacDonald and Gordon MacDonald’s relationship with both the St Paul’s School and Diocese of Manchester cases, it would appear that New Hampshire’s Supreme Court Chief Justice has some skeletons to hide that would be in the public interest to air for the safety and wellbeing of the citizens who pay for his position. AGs and New Hampshire Supreme Court Chief Justices cannot be involved in the cover-up of crimes to protect their own reputation.

You can read my article on this here.

Email from Claire best to the DOJ Ethics committee From: Claire Best <xxxx@xxxxxx> Subject: Organized Crime within New Hampshire’s Courts – Gordon MacDonald
Date: August 7, 2023 at 8:29:48 AM PDT
To: Ethics@doj.nh.gov

The post Organized Crime within New Hampshire’s Courts appeared first on Granite Grok.

Conglomerates upload and offload brands and businesses all the time, but selling is typically only something you do if the price is right or you need to hedge some bad bets. I’m not sure which this is, but post-Bud Man replacement Mulvaney, it looks bad for AB.

 

Tilray, a Canadian cannabis company, will be purchasing Shock Top, Breckenridge Brewery, Blue Point Brewing Company, 10 Barrel Brewing Company, Redhook Brewery, Widmer Brothers Brewing, Square Mile Cider Company and Hiball Energy. The deal is expected to be finalized in Sept. 2023 for $85 million, according to a Tilray 8-K filing.

In addition to the beer brands, Anheuser-Busch will also be selling off the brands’ employees, breweries and associated brewpubs.

 

Fat trimming or opportunism, you decide. Bud Light has taken a beating, but Mulvaney has yet to do as much damage to the stock price as COVID.  The Orange arrow is the drop at the beginning of COVID, and the purple arrow is where the price was before Mulvaney struck.

 

 

Mulvaney has yet to drive the price down to April 2020 levels, but the boycott has clearly had an impact on business. And while people got over COVID, bud drinkers seem less inclined to get over Muvalney – whose sin, in case you forgot, was being a spokesmodel for women when there are more than four billion actual women who could have done that job.

Most of the #woke actors responsible have been shown the door but at the expense of a lot of working-class folks from bottlers to distributors who got “canned” because some stooge for the social justice narrative thought it would be a good idea to represent women with prancing doofus.

Mulvaney has since fled to Peru to commune with Llamas.

Hey, maybe BUD should replace the Clydesdales with some Alpaca. Lose the Dalmatian and replace it with one of those purse-sized dogs. How much worse could it get?

 

HT | Daily Wire

 

The post Anheuser-Busch Sells off 8 Brands with the Associated Employees, Breweries, and Brew Pubs appeared first on Granite Grok.

Early in 2017, Senator Chuck Schumer stated that then-newly elected President Donald Trump was dumb to be antagonizing the intelligence community because “they have six ways from Sunday to get back at you.”

Senator Schumer seems to have been onto something, given the possible involvement of US national security officials in the various attempts to remove President Trump from office and then sabotage his reelection campaign.

As powerful as the intelligence agencies are, there is another secretive government institution that also has great ability to harm, or help, politicians: the Federal Reserve. By manipulating the money supply and interest rates, the Fed can cause a temporary boom or slowdown. As we have seen over the past several years, the Federal Reserve’s money creation will also lead to rising prices, which can offset any economic benefits the average American receives from a Fed-created boom.

While the Fed is responsible for boom and bust cycles that plague the American economy, most people give the credit or blame for a strong or weak economy to the president and other elected officials. Partisan politics play a role in this too, like when Republicans labeled the price inflation created by the Fed’s unprecedented money creation “Bidenflation,” suggesting Biden was responsible.

Since the Federal Reserve’s creation, presidents have pressured the Fed to implement monetary policies helpful to their administrations. Usually, the Fed tries to accommodate presidents, which is why economists refer to the political business cycle. However, the Fed does not always accommodate presidents. President George H.W. Bush and members of his administration blamed his 1992 loss on Fed Chairman Greenspan’s refusal to lower interest rates to help the economy recover from a recession.

Trump, as a presidential candidate, accused the Fed of keeping rates low in 2016 to help Hillary Clinton. Then, Trump, as president, appointed Jerome Powell to be chairman of the Federal Reserve. Trump proceeded to regularly criticize Powell on Twitter for not lowering interest rates, even though rates were already at historically low levels. Trump was criticized for trying to influence the Fed even though almost every president tries in some way or another to influence the Fed’s monetary policies. Trump’s mean tweets certainly do not compare to Lyndon Johnson, who once shoved Fed Chair William Martin against a wall after a Fed interest rate increase that would hinder financing of the Great Society at home and the Vietnam War abroad.

Biden has stated that he would respect the Fed’s independence. So, it makes sense that Powell would prefer four more years of Biden’s silence to four more years of Trump’s online attacks. The desire to help, or at least not hurt, Biden could be the reason the Fed is signaling it will stop raising rates next year. This may also be one reason many “mainstream” economic commentators are saying the Fed has succeeded in bringing down inflation without throwing the economy into recession.

If President Trump had pushed for passage of the Audit the Fed legislation, he might not have had to worry about a secretive central bank undermining his campaign to regain the presidency. Furthermore, if Trump’s opponents really care about protecting the American people, they would focus on the threats to liberty, prosperity, and limited constitutional government posed by the Federal Reserve’s fiat money insurrection.

 

Copyright © 2023 by RonPaul Institute. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit and a live link are given.

The post Will The Fed End Trump? appeared first on Granite Grok.

When you’re unfamiliar with Nevada’s deep details, you probably think of this state as the host of Las Vegas and a massive desert. While those two features are true, they’re not even close to the only things The Silver State offers.

With over three million people living here, there has to be something more than the attractions of the Vegas strip keeping them in place. So what’s Nevada have that keeps people coming?

The benefits of this state abound and are ideal for anyone looking for natural beauty, entertainment, and family-friendly living. What’s there to attract you? Read on to find out why so many people think Nevada is a great place to call home.

1. A Thriving Job Market

While unemployment rates are on the rise, Nevada’s job market is thriving. Sure, you can easily find a job working in a casino in many cities other than Vegas, like the scenic area of Lake Tahoe, but there are various other employment opportunities, too.

Mining for gold and other minerals is a well-paying job here. You’ll also find plenty of work in construction and education throughout the state. As the cannabis industry expands, more dispensaries open up for those who have Nevada medical marijuana licenses. (More about how to get your MMJ card here.)

From guiding tourist attractions to working in renowned healthcare facilities, the job market in Nevada is booming, and it’s ready for you to become part of it.

2. Entrepreneurism is Encouraged

Of course, choosing a solopreneur- and small businesses-friendly state is essential if you would rather work for yourself. Nevada’s tax rate is notoriously low, making it easier for small businesses to stay afloat during those early years.

There’s no individual income tax or corporate tax. However, businesses do have a gross receipts tax. The state tax and local tax have an average combined total of 8.23%.

Other benefits for business owners include the elimination of franchise taxes or taxes on corporate shares and the ability for corporations to hold, purchase, transfer, and sell shares of their own stock — a right that many states do not allow.

3. Mother Nature Practiced Her Best Work Here

If the beauty of nature is important to you, Nevada doesn’t disappoint. In fact, in certain places of the state, it can seem like Mother Nature was showing off.

The vast deserts have their own desolate yet breathtaking wonder as you explore the plants, animals, and geography of the sandy plains. Massive mountains are waiting to be explored, and no matter how many times you trek their trails, there will always be something new to see.

Canyons and forests spread out across the state, creating a landscape where you can see tropical paradises and snow on the same day at certain parts of the year!

4. Diversity is Welcomed

The State of Nevada was built on multiple cultures, including the Native American tribes of Paiute, Shoshone, and Washoe.

It’s not necessarily a melting pot, as each culture’s diversity is celebrated and allowed to remain authentic and unique. However, it’s a place you can live as yourself and feel just as at home as your tribal, native, or foreign neighbor.

5. Gambling is Legal

And, of course, there’s the fun of trying to strike it rich! You don’t have to be a gold miner panning for rare minerals. Just head to the nearest casino!

Living in Nevada, you have your choice of one of hundreds of buildings, indoor and outdoor. You can gamble at a slot machine in a gas station or grocery store. If cards are your thing, you can play for money without worrying about breaking any laws.

Hitting the casino is a fun way to celebrate special occasions for millions of people each year. Yet, you want to play safely. Follow these tips to ensure gambling stays a hobby and doesn’t interfere with your finances and daily life.

6. Shopping and Food are Limitless

Is shopping your favorite hobby? Are you a foodie? The seemingly endless shopping malls, boutiques, restaurants, and cafes are spread out across Nevada, giving you plenty of places to window shop or enjoy a meal.

Because of the cultural diversity in the state, you’ll find restaurants and shops that include traditional cuisine, jewelry, clothes, and crafts. Shop for souvenirs to send home, or explore what other cultures enjoy as part of their regular life.

Conclusion

Nevada is so much more than it is stereotyped as. This is the ideal to state to call home if you’re looking for stability, entertainment, natural beauty, and delicious food!

The post The Benefits of Living in Nevada: Why It’s a Great Place to Call Home appeared first on Granite Grok.

The proxy war in Ukraine appears to be spreading to Niger, where a recent coup d’état ousted President Mohamed Bazoum and sparked a series of events that may lead to a larger regional military conflict.

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

France, a long-standing ally of Niger, has condemned the coup. The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs reaffirmed its commitment to press freedom, freedom of expression, and the protection of journalists.  This comes after the junta blocked the signals of French broadcaster France 24 and Radio France Internationale.

The move was seen as a direct affront to France and further strained a tense situation.

Meanwhile, Russia, through the Wagner Group with its influence in Africa, seems to be capitalizing on the situation. At the recent Russia-Africa Summit, Vladimir Putin stood next to Ibrahim Traore, the military officer who seized power in Burkina Faso.  This act of solidarity with the coup leaders is raising concerns among other African leaders.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) issued an ultimatum to the coup leaders. Reinstate President Bazoum or face military intervention.  Nigeria, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, and Benin have signaled their readiness to engage in military action if the ultimatum is not respected.  But, there is a lack of trust among ECOWAS members, which could hinder a coordinated response.

Burkina Faso, Guinea, and Mali are known as the ‘Coup Association.’  They have pledged to defend Niger against any foreign intervention.  These countries are also friendly with Russia and are warning neighboring African states against intervening in Niger’s affairs.

The ousted President, Mr. Bazoum, has called on the international community, particularly the American government, to help restore constitutional order. His plea underscores the consequences of the coup, which includes growing Russian influence propagated by the Wagner Group in the Sahel region.

Diplomatic negotiations are underway to prevent a conflict that could engulf Russia and the West in another proxy war. The stakes are high.  The world is watching anxiously as Africa becomes the latest battleground in the struggle for global dominance.

What is apparent is the unfolding crisis in Niger is more than just a civil war or a regional conflict.  It’s a complex web of power struggles, alliances, and interests that could ignite a larger, more destructive war.

It’s important for the international community to think through the alternatives.

 

The post How About an African Proxy War? appeared first on Granite Grok.

Have you seen the ‘Ads’ for the latest COVID pulp fiction paperback thriller? In this installment, the goddess of discord and strife, Eris, code name EG.5, takes control of the headlines of your favorite government-run information portal, pretending to be unbiased media.

It’s the latest variant which is strange because everything they have to say sounds the same.

Politico says, “Although hospitalizations from the coronavirus have risen slightly over the summer in the US, the Biden administration has continued to express optimism about beating the pandemic.”

That’s odd. I thought the pandemic was over.

USA Today writes, “Eris has already surpassed Arcturus in the US, becoming the most prevalent variant in the two-week period ending on August 5, with 17.3% of cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).”

As if 17.3 percent means any more than 98.5 percent did the first time they played this broken record.

Live Science adds, “All four of these subvariants belong to the broader XBB lineage, which will serve as the target of the new COVID-19 boosters coming this fall.”

And now we know why the media cares. They’re brought to you by Pfizer or would like to be, so they are peddling the latest bottle of piss as an essential part of your pharmacological diet—the latest cure for declining “sales” from the fiscal line of COVID injection treatment variants.

Boosting revenues!

The same cures that are responsible for cases of flu in the summer in the first place.

Remember when we didn’t get flu in the summertime? Those were the days. Carefree, fancy-free. The public health industrial complex scared us with mosquito-borne illness, tick bites, and drowning. Encephalitis. Lyme. And we’ve still got those, but they’re not as attractive as Eris, whose increase in cases is based on – at least in theory – people locked down (trapped inside) by the heat or the rain.

That’s interesting. People forced to stay inside have effected more cases of covid.

So what are the symptoms, aside from a decline in booster uptake and what Off Guardian observed as the sudden August cooling in the UK that ended all that warming hysteria?

• Runny or stuffy nose
• Headache
• Fatigue
• Sneezing
• Sore throat
• Coughing
• Changes to sense of smell

Or perhaps it’s not COVID. As it turns out, these are the symptoms of many things. The flu, the common cold, Lyme, HIV, Meningitis, adenovirus, pneumonia, carbon monoxide poisoning, Sepsis, blood cancer, Mononucleosis, cat scratch fever, Babesiosis, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Strep Throat, Bronchitis, RSV, and let’s not forget Flu and COVID vaccines.

So get tested with the test that tests for COVID and then stay home, which was how you got it. Be sure to wear an N95 mask (yes, they’re serious). And stay up to date on your boosters. Compromising your immune system is critical to job creation in the Biden economy—everyone from the test makers to the jab givers to the caretakers and gravediggers.

It’s a little like broken windows theory, except they are breaking people on purpose as a matter of policy and not doing anything about that crime.

 

 

The post Have You Seen the ‘Ads’ for the Latest COVID Pulp Fiction Paperback Thriller? appeared first on Granite Grok.

Quick … two words to describe Ron DeSantis’ New Hampshire surrogates. If you picked PETTY and STUPID … bingo! These people aren’t serious about winning the next election. At best, they are serious about grifting and winning control of the NHGOP.

If you are serious about winning, you don’t go out of your way to insult and alienate the voters you will need to win a general election.

Ron DeSantis’ campaign is a train wreck. His arguments that Trump made horrible personnel decisions are, at best, sadly ironic when you look at his personnel choices, such as Ross Berry.

Campaign blackout rules for 8/7/23 pic.twitter.com/BPiRmDVMxv

— ???????????????? ???????????????????? (@Ross_Berry) August 7, 2023

The post Petty And Stupid appeared first on Granite Grok.

The People’s Republic of Hawaii is a beautiful place populated primarily by progressives. An odd place for people obsessed with sea level rise.  They are big on taxing (HI has the second highest total tax burden in the US) and banning things which can get taxing as well.

Trying to keep track of the rules and prohibitions is exhausting, especially when the public school system is proving less capable than ever of teaching kids to read and write. It’s enough to make you angry and violent, which is why Hawaii wants to ban weapons. They don’t want the people they’ve let down to take it out on them. Blame it on random white men (just not the tourists, please they need those) or Republicans if you can find one.

Whoever you blame, Hawaii has a crime problem. Property crime is higher than the US average across the board (burglary, theft, and motor vehicle theft).

Hawaii has 44 crimes per square mile. For comparison, gun/knife-crazy New Hampshire has four. Hawaii also has four times as many property crimes as the Granite State and nearly double the violent crime.

That’s probably because Hawaii bans butterfly knives (In Hawaii, it is a misdemeanor knowingly to manufacture, sell, transfer, transport, or possess a butterfly knife—no exceptions. Haw. Rev. Stat. § 134-53(a).). Two locals, who felt a strong need to carry these knives for protection (from what, you say!), challenged the law, which the local district court upheld, but a 3-panel verdict of the Ninth Circuit overturned that and remanded it back to the District Court.

 

The panel determined that plaintiffs had standing to challenge § 134-53(a) because they alleged that the Second Amendment provides them with a legally protected interest to purchase butterfly knives, and but for section 134-53(a), they would do so within Hawaii. Plaintiffs further articulated a concrete plan to violate the law, and Hawaii’s history of prosecution under its butterfly ban was good evidence of a credible threat of enforcement.

The panel denied Hawaii’s request to remand this case for further factual or historical development in light of New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n, Inc. v. Bruen, 142 S. Ct. 2111 (2022), determining that further development of the adjudicative facts was unnecessary. The panel held that possession of butterfly knives is conduct covered by the plain text of the Second Amendment. Bladed weapons facially constitute “arms” within the meaning of the Second Amendment, and contemporaneous sources confirm that at the time of the adoption of the Second Amendment, the term “arms” was understood as generally extending to bladed weapons and by necessity, butterfly knives. The Constitution, therefore presumptively guarantees keeping and bearing such instruments for self-defense.

 

..

 

HT | Breitbart

The post Ninth Circuit: Bladed Weapons are Protected by the Second Amendment appeared first on Granite Grok.

If you pay a lot of money to attend college or university, you would hope that your professors might question their own claims and look at counter narratives so that you end up with a well-rounded education.

We want to thank Claire Best for this Contribution – Please direct yours to Editor@GraniteGrok.com.

Recently a few feminist professors have exposed their complete rejection of academic rigor in favor of flawed idealism for their cause and grants. Since they/their academic institutions receive grants using public money, I have no problem calling them out. We should know where our taxpayer money is going, especially with escalating costs of higher education:

Sally Kenney at Tulane University, Tania Tetlow (Tulane & Fordham), Rebecca Richman Cohen (Harvard), Michele Dauber (Stanford Law), Sharyn Potter (University of New Hampshire) are a few names I’ve come across.

Sally J Kenney:

Sally J Kenney’s bio at Tulane University is quite hilarious and not one she should be proud of for the highlights she mentions: The Dartmouth Sexual Assault summit was heavily criticized for its failures to address due process, and Dr David Lisak’s statistics, which he admitted were extremely flawed. “Its On Us” is a political lobby group tied to Blue Crab Strategies, Civic Nation, and the DNC while “The Hunting Ground” is a tainted, racist piece of propaganda filled with several stories and statistics which have not only been debunked but have led to lawsuits. Viewers of “The Hunting Ground” were asked to take the “Its on Us Pledge.” The film premiered at Sundance in January 2015 in a slot sponsored by George Soros’ “Open Societies.” The film’s executive producers include Jennifer Siebel Newsom, who later accused Harvey Weinstein, the film’s distributor, of rape — but not until several years later and after she’d called Rose McGowan on behalf of Harvey Weinstein’s attorney David Boies to ask her how much money it would take to get her to drop allegations against Weinstein.

Later on, Kenney mentions that she worked with the Prout family and their non-profit “I have the Right To” ihavetherightto.org to block former New Hampshire AG Michael Delaney’s nomination to a judicial position on the First Circuit Court of Appeals. Ironically the Prout family’s Government Affairs PR person, Dan Hill of hillimpact.com, who claims he was working all alone with Chessy Prout (recruited accuser of Owen Labrie whose high profile sexual assault arrest warrant was broadcast conveniently in the middle of the 2014 Dartmouth Sexual Assault Summit listed on Kenney’s resume) has now been shown up by Sally Kenney’s bio in which she states she too was working with the Prout family. I wonder if she is a beneficiary of the $21 billion in Government contracts that Dan Hill boasts he helps his clients obtain using special ops tactics and stealth media?

work on sexual violence kenney

Tania Tetlow

Tania Tetlow is currently the President of Fordham University. She was President of Loyola University in New Orleans, but she can be found on YouTube giving lectures at Tulane University in which she states that when she was a prosecutor, she told police that it didn’t matter if their investigations into sexual assault were biased. She led the Domestic Violence Unit at Tulane from 2005–2014. She also states in these videos that they (activist feminists) need to get inside police departments, prosecutors’ offices, and administrations in order to achieve a paradigm shift (funny how Sally Kenny uses the same lingo). Ms. Tetlow was part of a US State Department delegation sent to China in 2014 to advance the feminist agenda. What a disaster — a believer in getting rid of due process heads to China. What could possibly go wrong? China has been pouring millions into US universities and colleges via Confucius Institute Contracts. Kangaroo Courts are right up their street. China must love Tania Tetlow for doing its bidding. I wonder if she’d feel the same way about tainted investigations if she were an Uighur or a student protester in Tiananmen Square.

In 2016, Tulane Chief of Staff Tania Tetlow was a former Federal Prosecutor. In the following clip she discusses how she trained New Orleans police detectives to work hand in hand with the Advocates, and she states that she told the detectives they are not the jury and do not have to be neutral in their investigations.:

The following link begins at 27:34. Listen through 30:34:

Eliminating Sexual Violence — Shifting the Paradigm

Rebecca Richman Cohen

Rebecca Richman Cohen is a Law Lecturer at Harvard when she is not making documentaries or being sponsored by George Soros. Her latest documentary: “Recall Reframed,” smacks of a piece of crisis PR management for the Democratic Party and Dem Caucus Rep/Stanford Law Professor Michele Dauber, who was behind the recall of Judge Aaron Persky following the high-profile sexual assault trial of the People v Brock Turner.

I’m not sure what “research” Ms. Cohen did before she made the documentary, but clearly, she didn’t read some of the very basic statements made by her participants, notably former Judge LaDoris Cordell, who had stated that she thought Michele Dauber wrote the “Emily Doe” victim impact statement herself, not Chanel Miller (a family friend of Michele Dauber’s), the real Emily Doe.

Rebecca Richman Cohen did a Q&A with a group called “Women Against the Registry” a couple of weeks ago after a screening of “Recall Reframed.” She was quite sure that Chanel Miller had written the Emily Doe victim impact statement. One wonders why she never questioned her participant, a former judge, LaDoris Cordell, on this. She didn’t even seem to be aware that many victim impact statements are written by activists/victims advocates and then read in court by the “victim.”

It’s such common practice that a portion of the Emily Doe victim impact statement (which coincidentally Michele Dauber had shared with the filmmakers of “The Hunting Ground” before it was read at sentencing) was plagiarized verbatim in the sentencing of another young man in another state who sits in prison currently and is alleged to be the 3rd target of the same false accuser – who must have run out of ideas to get judicial sympathy so she borrowed from another trial.

I guess Rebecca Cohen is just not interested in questioning propaganda (I assume because subscribing to it conjures the grants to make documentaries?) or looking into the trove of emails revealed in a 2019 Freedom Of Information Act quest by local journalists in Santa Clara County who don’t enjoy the Ivory Tower grants & status that Ms. Cohen uses to make her political film. She defended Michele Dauber, who specifically stated that she’d managed to get California sentencing laws changed in light of the People v Brock Turner (increasing them) for the Democratic Party but claimed that Michele Dauber was not a carceral white feminist. She maintained in the Q&A that she made her film in response to carceral white feminists. So if Michele Dauber is not a carceral white feminist, who are the carceral white feminists she is referring to?

Michele Dauber

Stanford Law Professor Michele Dauber founded the “Enough Voter Movement,” for which Amber Heard was a spokesperson. She instigated the Recall of Judge Persky in the wake of People v Brock Turner, and she colluded behind the scenes of the trial with the Santa Clara County DA. In addition, Michele Dauber co-drafted the unregulated “Dear Colleague” Title IX letter, which Vice President Joe Biden launched at the University of New Hampshire on April 4, 2011, and which spawned a lucrative cottage industry for attorneys, social justice warrior non-profits, and political PR companies recruiting “activists” and “ambassadors” along the way. Dauber herself is a questionable character who appears to be carrying out a Machiavellian operation on a global scale. Machiavelli, per Wikipedia, “notably said that a ruler who is establishing a kingdom or a republic, and is criticized for his deeds, including violence, should be excused when the intention and the result are beneficial to him.”

Michele Dauber was 17 and 4 months pregnant when she got married to a 32-year-old musician. She allegedly has a history of alcoholism and has been accused of driving drunk with her children in the car. Nevertheless, she is a political fundraiser for the Democratic Committee of Silicon Valley and has a vengeance against “Shitty White Men.” Her brother, Michael Landis Dauber, was incarcerated and is a sex offender registrant for alleged incest, although nobody knows if this is one of Michele Dauber’s many hoaxes. The records in Illinois are sealed. From online research, it would appear that Michele Dauber’s parents have taken a side with her brother and that there is a rift in the family — she has even referred to this. Others have called Michele Dauber “dangerous.” A petition which garnered several thousand signatures to have her removed from Stanford has been ignored. It would seem that she must be untouchable and an intelligence asset like Jeffrey Epstein, who apparently doesn’t qualify to be a “shitty white man” in her book.

Retired Palo Alto Judge LaDoris Cordell, a vocal opponent of the movement to unseat Judge Aaron Persky, has accused recall leader Michele Dauber of staging a mailed rape threat containing white powder, which caused two rooms at Stanford Law School to be evacuated yesterday (Feb. 14).

“I’m glad that the powder was harmless. I also question the timing of all of this. This has the hallmarks of a publicity stunt,” Cordell said. “I say that because it is clear that the tide has turned.”

Dauber said one of her former students opened the envelope, which appeared to have been mailed from the Boston area, to find the note reading, “Since you are going to disrobe Persky, I am going to treat you like ‘Emily Doe.’ Let’s see what kind of sentencing I get for being a rich white male.”

Sharyn Potter

Sharyn Potter is an Executive Director and Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of New Hampshire where the unregulated “Dear Colleague” Title IX letter co-drafted by Stanford Law Professor Michele Dauber was introduced in April 2011. She is also Co-Founder of the University’s Prevention Innovation Research Center which has received millions of dollars in grants for “Know Your Power” and “Bystander” training to address sexual violence. “Know Your Power- A Message to America’s Daughters” is, coincidentally, the title of Nancy Pelosi’s 2008 memoir.

Unfortunately Sharyn Potter’s grants appear to have all come from the Department of Justice Office of Violence Against Women and thus the bias in her solutions for ending sexual violence should be tossed out. The proof of the damage of her bias can be seen in the results in New Hampshire where sexual and domestic violence by females upon males & females upon children has been almost completely ignored or forgiven. Title IX forbids gender bias on campus but due to a strategic partnership formed between the White House “Not Alone” task force in January 2014 and the University of New Hampshire, Sharyn Potter and her ideologists have become useful weapons for the non-profit and movement which preceded #MeToo — “Its on Us” — which is tied to both Blue Crab Strategies, Civic Nation (aka “United States of Women”) and Obama, Biden’s and Hillary Clinton’s PR company SKDK.

Sharyn Potter was present at the launch of the unregulated “Dear Colleague” Title IX launch in April 2011. She also spoke at the 2014 Dartmouth Sexual Assault summit during which 18 year old St. Paul’s School scholarship student Owen Labrie’s arrest warrant was announced by the husband of her colleague Amanda Grady Sexton of the NHCADSV which is officially partnered with Sharyn Potter’s UNH PIRC department. Ms. Potter & Ms. Grady Sexton used the trial to implement “Bystander” training at St Paul’s School (there was inclusion of it in a statement made on the day of the verdict). It was so successful at rival prep school Phillips Exeter Academy that it resulted in a retired teacher, Mr. Weber, being ostracized by the school and smeared in front of the community for a sexual assault his alleged victim claims never happened.

Sharyn Potter went on to form “Soteria Solutions” to market the trademarked “Know Your Power” and “Bystander” training. The company shares the exact same logo as Soteria Mutual Holdings in London and Luxembourg which are tied to the CCP linked Binance and Stephen Schwarzmann of BlackStone. Soteria Solutions however continues to be sold around the world. Universities and colleges might want to examine the cool-aid before they pay for it and drink it.

The post Beware the Feminist Activist Professor & Her Research Failures .. for They Have Caused Untold Damage to Society in the Name of “Social Justice.”  appeared first on Granite Grok.

I really liked Ron DeSantis the Governor. I have less and less respect for Ron DeSantis, the candidate for President. Here’s DeSantis pandering to the Regime-media by saying what they want to hear … OF COURSE TRUMP LOST. The correct answer candidate DeSantis: Trump lost a RIGGED election where the FBI and “intelligence community” interfered by planting false stories (Hunter Biden laptop = “Russian disinformation”, Russian “bounties”, etc. etc. etc.), the Regime-media ran with these false stories and CENSORED the truth … where Oligarch Mark Zuckerberg spent nearly half-a-billion to convert election offices in swing-States into Biden-GOTV offices … where States controlled by Democrats and NeverTrump Republicans used COVID as a pretext to allow universal mail-in voting and “drop-boxes” which made these “votes” impossible to verify … ETC. ETC. ETC.

 

The post Ron DeSantis Goes Full Election-Denier appeared first on Granite Grok.