The Manchester Free Press

Sunday • April 28 • 2024

Vol.XVI • No.XVII

Manchester, N.H.

The Unique Strengths of the New Hampshire Legislature

Granite Grok - Sun, 2023-02-12 11:30 +0000

I was asked recently to characterize the unique strengths of the New Hampshire legislature.  Size: largest state legislature by almost a factor of two. We have 400 House reps. The second biggest is Pennsylvania, with 204.

Cost: $100 per year per legislator (plus mileage) compensation. This means it is a hobby, not a job.

Character: the House is not much of a stepping-stone to higher office, especially because the Senate is so small, with only 24 senators. This means we get more retirees with lots of life experience instead of young, ambitious politicos.

Inexpensive campaigns: it is unusual for a returning Rep to spend $1,000 on their campaign. That means they can be self-funded, so they are less beholden to donors and leadership.

Bottom-up: in many places, including the US Congress, the leadership has a lot of power. Committee chairs can kill bills on their own, and leadership controls large pools of campaign funds. In NH, leadership has very little real power. They can give someone the committee they want; they can give them an aisle seat in the House and maybe a good parking space. But all bills get voted on by the full body. Since many heads are better than a few, we get more intelligence applied to problems than in most places.

Corruption: Since we are so large and there is little money needed to campaign, there is almost no opportunity for corruption, especially in the House.

I’d say perhaps the main drawback is our large turnover, with about 1/3 of the body every election; there is less institutional knowledge than there could be. This tends to give more power to the executive branch employees. They can more easily snow the inexperienced Reps and get their way.

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Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

Why Is Sun-King Chris Sununu So Threatened By Marjorie Taylor Greene?

Granite Grok - Sun, 2023-02-12 02:30 +0000

Donald Trump is definitely NOT the most narcissist person in politics. You know that if you live in New Hampshire. Sun-King Sununu is. The latest stop on his LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! pretend-Presidential campaign was some FakeNews podcast, which Sun-King’s unofficial publicist, NH-NeverTrump’s Mikey Graham, breathlessly tweeted about.

One of Mikey Graham’s tweets shows just how petty and shallow our Sun-King really is … he attacks Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene for what she was wearing at the State-of-the-Union:

In Sun-King’s defense he probably lashed out like a teenager at MTG because he was still really, really butt-hurt that Speaker McCarthy chose a real Republican Governor, Governor Huckabee Sanders, to give the Republican response to SOTU.

The post Why Is Sun-King Chris Sununu So Threatened By Marjorie Taylor Greene? appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

Article V Constitutional Convention – Get Ready for the “Hocus Pocus”

Granite Grok - Sun, 2023-02-12 01:00 +0000

Imagine a group calling themselves patriots, afraid to use the powers constitutionally and unanimously bestowed to the states in 1787 from perhaps the greatest men of intellect ever assembled in history.

We want to thank Al Brandano for this Contribution – Please direct yours to Editor@GraniteGrok.com.
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This group’s tactics include hocus pocus, magician’s wand, sleight of hand, and even flying monkeys of FEAR to make you think a Constitutional Convention is the same as an “Article V” Convention of States.

Article V COS simply would allow NH to become the 20th state to authorize faithful delegates picked by the NH legislature to meet with other states and propose amendments to “THIS” Constitution. (Not Change It). To be called to enact on the Federal Government; fiscal restraints, term limits, and restoration of states’ rights. (Supported by nearly 80% of the US population)

Jan 27, 2023, the Day of Enlightenment occurred in Representatives Hall. Approximately #125 supporters took time from family and work to support HCR- 1 Convention of The States. Mr. Michael Farris, renowned constitutional scholar and practiced Supreme Court attorney, eloquently addressed the fears of the Hocus Pocus group, as well as gave a history lesson on policy and procedures of an Article V. Convention.

The chief magician from the Hocus Pocus group decided not to testify in person and left the room expeditiously as Mr. Farris spoke. Sadly this group also has never proposed any solutions to fight “The Run Away Federal Government,” the authors of Article V feared most.

Later in the week, the courage and wisdom of the State legislature and Veterans Affairs Committee passed Article V HCR-1 and shortly after HCR-4 for US term limits.

We are sure the flying monkeys of fear will be released again as HCR-1 and HCR-4 come before the full legislature session. Please contact your state legislator and ask them to take the time to become enlightened. Let’s join together Democrat, Independent, Republican, and Libertarian – make NH proud to be the 20th state of 34 to call for an Article V Convention of the States to stop a RUNAWAY FEDERAL GOVEREMENT.

In Liberty to All

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Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

So New Hampshire Attorney General Johnny-Woke Is Okay With FBI’s Anti-Catholic Bigotry?

Granite Grok - Sat, 2023-02-11 23:30 +0000

Sun-King Sununu’s unofficial publicist … NH-NeverTrump Journal’s RINO-in-Chief Mikey Graham … has been working to position the Sun-King’s lapdog Attorney General Johnny-Woke for a gubernatorial run in 2024. I posted about it in Is The NHGOP Establishment Moving On From Chucky Morse? a few weeks ago. Well Mikey is back at it … trying to rebrand Johnny-Woke as a fierce defender of the Second Amendment:

What FakeNews Mikey Graham fails to mention is that Johnny-Woke has NOT joined a State Attorney General effort to oppose the FBI’s unconstitutional targeting of Catholics. More specifically, on February 10th, Virginia Attorney General, joined by nineteen GOP State Attorney Generals, wrote the US DOJ and FBI demanding explanations and threatening legal action in response to a leaked internal FBI memo that revealed that the FBI intends to identify and treat Catholics as “potential terrorists.”

An excerpt from the letter reveals why Johnny-Woke did not join:

Needless to say, but I will say it anyway because it needs to be said, Johnny-Woke and his sovereign, Sun-King Sununu, through their words and actions have made it fair to assume that they are on the FBI’s side.

The post So New Hampshire Attorney General Johnny-Woke Is Okay With FBI’s Anti-Catholic Bigotry? appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

Is This The Biggest Climate Cult Lie Ever?

Granite Grok - Sat, 2023-02-11 22:00 +0000

The Climate Cult’s record is not good. Their “frontmen” keep making predictions that never come true. Their prescriptions are not “green.” And there is no evidence that their “cure” will result in the changes prophesized. There is, however, evidence that it won’t.

Since the early years, before they put the climate cult dress on their old whore, global warming was about…warming. It still is. No matter what they call it, the problem, as advertised, is warming. The interventions are supposed to prevent warming by lowering emissions. They are happy to confuse pollution and CO2 because it serves their purpose, but they mean the latter. The mythology always has and will turn on lowering the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to prevent … warming.

That’s the deal. Lower CO2. Every confab, meeting, convention, gesticulation, and rant is about lowering CO2. If we can do that, they say, it will slow or stop the laundry list of horrible things to which it has been ascribed, and that may be the biggest lie of all.

Yes, they lie about their research methods and data and what it means, but there is ample evidence of what the earth’s “climate” was like when there was less CO2. It was nasty and brutish and – if we’re honest – a lot more dangerous than it is today.

In other words, there is proof of what earth is like with less CO2 (the desired outcome), and it is not “a safe and stable climate,” as Tony Heller reminds us. Based on the science (historical fact), you could argue that lower CO2 will make all the things the Climate Climate says you should fear worse or – more likely – that the climate has nothing to do with what they claim, and it’s all a scam.

 

 

 

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Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

Medical Freedom Day and More Take Action Today

Granite Grok - Sat, 2023-02-11 20:30 +0000

Thursday, February 16th is a vital day in the NH House HHS Committee. RebuildNH is taking action on 6 bills that day. This could be the most critical day of the year for you to attend the hearings in person.

Please Submit Group communications or Press Releases to editor@granitegrok.com.
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We want to pack the room as much as possible. We understand it is a long day and not everyone can stay for the entire day, but please attend as many hearings as you can.

Wednesday, February 15th, N.H. House
Health, Human Services, and Elderly Affairs
LOB, Room 201-203
  10:00 a.m. – SUPPORT – HB 69, relative to direct payment and membership based health care facilities. Currently in NH, all hospitals and clinics must accept Medicaid, Medicare, and insurance, making them subject to federal government regulation. NH has direct payment and membership based primary care and we have noticed a trend of open-minded and alternative practitioners breaking free of regulations by converting their practices to this model. We need to allow hospitals and clinics such freedom.

 Click here to register your disposition.
 Email the committee.

 

Medical Freedom Day!
Thursday, February 16th, N.H. House
Health, Human Services, and Elderly Affairs
LOB, Room 201-203
  9:00 a.m. – SUPPORT – HB 406, relative to parental access to children’s medical records. There is currently a push for medical facilities to cut off parental access to their child’s medical records at 12 years old. I’ve personally heard several reports of parents changing practices due to this policy. This bill requires that parents have access to their children’s medical records until 18 years old.
 Click here to register your disposition.
 Email the committee.

 

Health, Human Services, and Elderly Affairs
LOB, Room 201-203
  9:45 a.m. – OPPOSE – HB 114, relative to the age at which a minor may receive mental health treatment without parental consent. This bill seeks to allow children as young as 16 years old to receive mental health treatment without parental permission or notification.
 Click here to register your disposition.
 Email the committee.

 

Health, Human Services, and Elderly Affairs
LOB, Room 201-203
  10:30 a.m. – SUPPORT – HB 575, relative to vaccines and pharmaceutical products purchased, promoted, or distributed by the state or its political subdivisions. This bill prohibits the state and its political subdivisions from purchasing, promoting, or distributing vaccines or any pharmaceutical product without human, clinical trials, as we did with the Covid booster.
 Click here to register your disposition.
 Email the committee.

 

Health, Human Services, and Elderly Affairs
LOB, Room 201-203
  11:15 a.m. – SUPPORT – HB 557, relative to the department of health and human services’ rulemaking authority regarding immunization requirements. Currently there are two ways that a vaccine can be added to the school requirement schedule: either through law, which requires the legislature to pass a bill, or through the rulemaking process, unilaterally proposed by the commissioner of DHHS. This bill seeks to eliminate the ability of the department to add vaccines to the school schedule through rulemaking.
 Click here to register your disposition.
 Email the committee.

 

Health, Human Services, and Elderly Affairs
LOB, Room 201-203
  1:00 p.m. – SUPPORT – HB 408, relative to foster children and vaccinations. Several years ago, DHHS amended rules regarding vaccines and foster families to require that all the children in the household be fully vaccinated to ACIP standards in order to care for a foster child. As a result, many capable and loving families stopped fostering children. This bill seeks to eliminate this cruel standard by saying that a child living in the home but not in foster care shall be subject to the same vaccination requirements as any other child in the state with the same right to exemption.
 Click here to register your disposition.
 Email the committee.

 

Health, Human Services, and Elderly Affairs
LOB, Room 201-203
  2:30 p.m. – OPPOSE – HB 425, repealing the statute relative to medical freedom in immunizations. One of RebuildNH’s achievements in 2021 was supporting the passage of the Medical Freedom in Immunizations Act that prohibits Covid vaccine status being a basis to receive public benefit. State universities were one way this law was applied and no student attending a NH state school was required to receive the Covid vaccine. This bill seeks to repeal this law.
 Click here to register your disposition.
 Email the committee.

The post Medical Freedom Day and More Take Action Today appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

Data Point – Credit Card Usage Soaring.

Granite Grok - Sat, 2023-02-11 19:00 +0000

Emphasis mine:

The first three quarters of 2022 have seen a rapid increase in credit card balances, after they contracted sharply during the early part of the COVID pandemic. The chart below depicts the year-over-year percent change in credit card balances—the 15 percent increase seen in the third quarter of 2022 towers over the last eighteen years of data.

 

 

For some added context:

(H/T: NY Federal Reserve via UnusualWhales)

The post Data Point – Credit Card Usage Soaring. appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

Joe, Are You Afraid of FOXNews

Granite Grok - Sat, 2023-02-11 17:30 +0000

Super Bowl Weekend has become a national celebration. It doesn’t matter who the teams are who will compete on the field. It is what happens in the host city, in local pubs, or watching the day-long event on your big-screen TV.

One of the events that many look forward to is the long-standing tradition of the President sitting down with the network of the Game for an exclusive interview. In this year’s case, the President would sit with one of FOXNews’ best interviewers, Shannon Bream. That would be if the President wanted to continue the tradition, but as of today, he may sit this one out. After all, the Game is played on a Sunday, and we know that Joe Biden does not work weekends.

It appears that Joe’s staff will not allow him to participate in an interview where he may have to answer follow-up questions. He would rather sit with George Stephanopoulos or Judy Woodruff, where he can rest assured that nothing he says will go unchallenged.

Joe Biden continues to claim he is the most transparent Administration in history. That does not wash with the actions of this team. Biden has only had 33 press interactions in his first two years. This is a paltry number compared to the more than 200 by Obama and even the 125 by Donald Trump. Biden also has a press office that has proven to be unprepared, unable to give a truthful answer, or maybe worse, refuse to answer. There is little concern for the truth from the Biden Administration, and even Left-leaning bedrocks like the Washington Post or New York Times are souring on the credibility of information emanating from the White House.

Joe Biden sat with NBC and CBS for Super Bowl interviews in the first two years of his term, but sitting with FOX poses a more formidable challenge for the President. Joe’s handlers do not want to take the chance of their man coming off as weak, ineffective, or rambling. The Super Bowl Sunday interview would have a far greater viewership than the State of the Union speech this week. A questionable 72% of Americans graded the State of the Union as favorable. I question that number because that high a percentage would have to include Republicans, and the Right saw nothing favorable in Biden’s address.

Biden still has time to commit to the interview with FOXNews, but if he continues to pass and break the tradition, I would like to see Kevin McCarthy step in to fill the time. This would allow the Speaker of the House to refute claims made by Biden in the SOTU, detail what has been done in 2023, and spell out a platform for a Republican-controlled House of Representatives. This interview would punish Biden for not having the courage or confidence to face the “Evil” Shannon Bream.

It is your call, Mr. President. You can step up and face the tough questions or punt and let Kevin McCarthy shine in the spotlight. My bet says you don’t show up.

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Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

A Perfect Example of NH Democrats Balefully Showing That Federal Power Outweighs Lawful NH Political Decisions

Granite Grok - Sat, 2023-02-11 16:00 +0000

Well, the Federal Ambassador to NH, Jeanne Shaheen, made a promise to override the lawful decision of the NH Executive Council over its refusal to fund Planned Parenthood.

And she enlisted her fellow coven members (Chris Pappas, Annie Kuster, and Maggie Hassan) to get the Feds to overrule what should have been a local decision. Period

Thus, demonstrating a long-term dogma by Democrats that ALL Power should be pushed as high and as centralized as possible.  NEVER should there be any local control if the Federal Govt, from thousands of miles away, can “spank” those locals at a Democrat’s whim if they sit in Congress: (reformatted, emphasis mine):

The Biden administration is stepping in to offer federal grants directly to sex-education programs in Manchester and the Claremont area after the state’s Republican-led Executive Council rejected them. New Hampshire’s congressional delegation had pursued the direct grants after the council turned down repeated attempts to approve accepting the funds on behalf of the state. In 2021, the all-Democratic delegation went the same route when it convinced the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to contract directly with Planned Parenthood of Northern England and other family planning providers that operated abortion clinics.

Now doing it twice shows a pattern of disdain for what NH wants to do for itself. The idea of Federalism, that the Federal Government is tasked to do what it is supposed to do by Constitutional requirements and LEAVE THE STATES TO THEIR OWN ISSUES, is just part of the Democrat’s targeting of Constitutional norms.

And Shaheen has the temerity to call what the NH Executive Council decided a ‘crisis”??

Access to these resources never should have required a federal agency stepping up to resolve a crisis created by GOP executive councilors, but I’m relieved the Department of Health and Human Services heeded my call for assistance. These dollars are urgently needed to help allow providers in New Hampshire to continue offering evidence-based education in their communities, which experience higher-than-average teen pregnancy rates.

Talk about harboring a grievance against Republicans in a local State matter! No, this was not a crisis – merely a political difference. And Hassen is right with her on this:

“I am proud to stand with our trusted medical providers in supporting evidence-based programs that prioritize the needs of our youth,”

Proud to be yet another Democrat in working to make States irrelevant – that only DC matters.  All four of them have decided that the States (back then, the Colonies) created the Federal Government and not the other way around. However, the Democrats are out to prove that the line of “Americans happen to have a Govt instead of a Govt having subjects” can be applied in other ways as well.

And why is that?  The State of New Hampshire is performing heresy with regard to Progressive dogma:

For the past decade, the state embraced the so-called Personal Responsibility Education Program, which addresses many issues, including abstinence from sex, sexually transmitted diseases, gender identity, relationships and decision-making skills.

(H/T: Union Leader)

The post A Perfect Example of NH Democrats Balefully Showing That Federal Power Outweighs Lawful NH Political Decisions appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

Dems Go From Demanding You Use CLF Bulbs to Banning Them

Granite Grok - Sat, 2023-02-11 14:30 +0000

The Obama years saw many things go sideways, including a top-down demand that Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs (CFLs) replace incandescent, the latter to be banned by law. Ten years later, and Dems are banning CFLs.

They are outlawing the sale for reasons we objected to them being forced on us ten years earlier.

 

As of Feb. 17, Vermont will become the first state to ban the sale of compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) bulbs.

Vermont’s Department of Environmental Conservation moved to restrict the sale of “screw-based mercury-containing compact fluorescent lamps” in Feb. 17, 2022, but gave retailers and distributors one year to move any remaining inventory.

 

Their reasoning? Mercury in the bulbs makes them hazardous, and LEDs are comparable in price and use less electricity. But not long ago, the same folks told us we had to buy CFLs as they plotted the doom of incandescent bulbs.

 

While the total ban on incandescents was averted, the old reliable ‘heat-ball’ is still nearing extinction in the US.  When we rang in this new year, January 1st, 2013 began, the ban on the 75 Watt incandescent bulb.

It may no longer be produced or sold once supplies run out.  Its smaller cousins will not be far behind in successive years, leaving us to light our way with candles unless, of course, we’d rather use the state-sponsored (see also mandated) bulb of choice–The Compact Fluorescent or CFL.

CFLs suck. Let me count the ways.

 

And we did. Count the ways. And there were plenty of them (you can read here), but they were the new hot blonde (I prefer brunettes). Everyone was talking about them, promoting them, mandating them—no more Edison bulbs.

And yes, most of the CLFs were made in China, so maybe Barry Obama and his Barry Bros were greasing some Chinese pockets with the scheme. Lord knows he had staff who adored the Mao (mao-mao-mao) thing.

But it wasn’t all bad in hindsight. As nasty as it was, we could argue that the CLF inspired necessary innovation. LED bulbs arrived alongside the CFL fantasy. They were far more expensive than the too-expensive CFL, but they did all of the things attributed to the CFL without the immediate downsides. The mercury. The rush of bureaucrats to issue rules or advice about addressing the dangers of breaking a CFL in your home or office.

In some locales calling local hazmat experts to clean it up was not a joke.

How many people does it take to clean up a broken Compact Fluorescent Light Bulb? That depends on where you lived. In other words, many people were unnecessarily exposed to mercury, and the lower your income, the more mercury you likely added to your environment. Hey, we think we cleaned up the lead, so here’s some mercury.

A lighting choice the progs wanted very badly to make the only one, a tendency we see again with lithium batteries and the green energy movement.

I want to think the current nonsense will lead us to the next better technology, and maybe it will, but at what cost? The world has wasted trillions on garbage technology. Millionaires and billionaires have been born out of the transfer of wealth by governments into these concerns and back to politicians and activist groups. All on the backs of taxpayers and second and third-world citizens effectively trapped as slave labor.

CFLs were lousy, but we can’t directly connect that “moment” in history to a rise in human rights violations. And while they do share a degree of environmental hazard, using a CFL didn’t offshore emissions to foreign countries.

Vermont’s CFL sales ban takes effect this month. California is next, which is different; Vermont usually followed California. And we’d expect other states to pile on, and I support that. They’re nasty. We don’t need them. And we didn’t want them in the first place.

Like socialism, which, sadly, Vermont will not ban, and that’s a real shame. It’s far more dangerous to the people and the environment than compact fluorescent light bulbs.

 

 

The post Dems Go From Demanding You Use CLF Bulbs to Banning Them appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

UBF, Because It Will Make Progs Crap Their Twisted Hoplophobic Panties.

Granite Grok - Sat, 2023-02-11 13:00 +0000

I can’t think of a better reason to get this firearm accessory than that owning it would trigger the average Birkenstocked latte-drinking liberal stooge. What is it? It’s the Pluse Fire UBF (Under-Barrel Flame Thrower).

If we’re being honest with each other, and we are, there’s very little else in the way of practical application for adding this flamethrower to an AR-15. It adds too much weight to the firearm. It’s bulky. It makes it difficult to maneuver or bring to bear. But, the Pulse Fire is designed to be a handheld device.

You could walk around and burn whatever suited your fancy, and speaking of; you might fancy any number of reasons (excuses) to justify spending over $600.00 to spit burning fuel at things. Weeds, wasp nests, or ice removal are some of the suggestions in the video below.

Crowd control? Pepper spray is nasty, but the threat of being set on fire will make people rethink how badly they’d like to break some windows or introduce your face to blunt-force trauma.

And yes, it you mount it and use it on a rifle, that’ll look badass, garner cheers and perhaps envy from your shootin’ buddies, though I’m not sure how many gun ranges are going to let you run it or wives (at home) if you are so blessed.

We do not recommend you buy this “for her” for Valentine’s Day unless it is for her and you know how much she will love and use it – with the understanding that you have to have a lot of confidence in a relationship and perhaps some familiarity with their relationship history to give them a flamethrower.

Or hey, maybe you want one because the very idea of it will make Liberals crap their twisted hoplophobic panties. It’s all about perceived value, yes?

There’s value in that.

Here are two of the vendor’s promotional videos.

Please check state and local laws before getting too excited about this or any personal-use flamethrowers. Handy thing fire, just ask any peaceful protesters, but we don’t encourage illegal behavior, so that’s on you.

 

 

 

Note: GraniteGrok does not benefit in any way if you purchase one of these. 

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Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

Progressives Go From “You Shouldn’t Do That” to “We’ll Make Gov’t Make You Do That” in 3 Heartbeats

Granite Grok - Sat, 2023-02-11 11:30 +0000

From my friend John Hawkins (Culturcidal), a post named “Is This Liberal Right That It’s Wrong to Own Pets?“. The relevant part from his post (emphasis mine):

 

…The piece is obviously building up to what I like to think of as a “standard authoritarian liberal approach” to the whole issue that you see over and over again. It’s an approach that goes something like this, “I am a good and compassionate person and to prove that, I am proclaiming that I have no interest in owning or using (fill in the blank here with cars/SUVS/Bitcoin/gas stoves/pets/meat/the police/cross country airplane flights/oil, natural gas and coal/incandescent light bulbs/etc., etc.), so, therefore, it’s bad for society and should be banned because it takes up unnecessary resources, which therefore means it’s bad for the environment.

Simplified, it looks something like this. “We don’t need this” (which, by the way, often turns out to be pure hypocrisy) becomes “No good people need this,” which eventually turns into, “We need the government to make this illegal.”

 

Bazinga! Go read the whole thing – there are a couple of parts where I chuckled because he was so honest about his “self-interest.”

Now, I think pets are really great, and I have two dogs currently and love’em to death, so I totally disagree with the Guardian post he quotes. However, what John says in the abstract really is important, is very useful for Conservatarian purposes in strategy and tactics, and lays out what I was fighting over at Treehugger for years and years.

That last sentence is EXACTLY the mindset that has taken over. It used to be a stepping-stone process over time in times past.

No longer. As our political polarization has increased, that “stepping stone time” has shortened. Most stock cars off the lot have a “0 to 60” time as a way to judge how fast a car could accelerate (faster being better). Muscle cars (e.g., Camaro, ‘Cuda, Mustang) were always faster than the family sedan or minivan). Nowadays, an electric Tesla can turn in 2-3 seconds times at an upper-middle-class price range that normally would have taken a rich man’s bankroll to buy a gas-powered supercar (starting around $300,000) to come close to that speed.

So, too, has the normal Progressive going from “You shouldn’t” to “Government mandate.”  All because of their perceived Moral Superiority over you stemming from that first step of:

Well, I don’t have one, don’t need one, or ever would do so in the future

That’s the initial surge off the line. Nowadays, that’s the “slow” part of their thinking/reasoning/ ideological bent. The rest (I’m good, so you’re not – lose your liberty) happens at faster and faster speeds, almost to the point of being reflexive.

And then what happens is that their ears shut down, and the blinkers go up.  They won’t listen, can’t be convinced to debate, and they will work hard to take x, y.z away from you because you ARE a bad person.

This brings me to my last point: Progressives are selfish. And they have no or to little sense of freedom or liberty that can or should be ascribed to anyone but themselves.

They want what they want when they want it and are not about to let anyone opposite of them deny what they want.  If something is good enough for them, it will be good enough for anyone else (regardless of circumstances).  The converse also holds true:

If I don’t want it, I’ll see to it that YOU won’t have it either.

Go ahead – as Crowder says: Change my mind.

Or John Hawkins’ mind as well.

The post Progressives Go From “You Shouldn’t Do That” to “We’ll Make Gov’t Make You Do That” in 3 Heartbeats appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

NH Democrats Propose Their Annual Slew of Anti-Gun Bills

The Liberty Block - Sat, 2023-02-11 03:35 +0000

As they do nearly every year, anti-freedom legislators in New Hampshire have once again proposed numerous bills that would restrict the natural right to self-defense and the natural right to privacy. On February 8th, the House Criminal Justice & Public Safety Committee held a hearing for the bills in Representative Hall due to the large turnout. The majority of people who testified on the bills were pro-freedom and opposed the gun control bills. 

The post NH Democrats Propose Their Annual Slew of Anti-Gun Bills appeared first on The Liberty Block.

Prominent NH-NeverTrumper Jokes About Reps Gaetz, MTG and Boebert DROWNING

Granite Grok - Sat, 2023-02-11 02:30 +0000

Tom Rath … Mr. GOP in New Hampshire, who if there were a GOP Mount Rushmore in New Hampshire, would no doubt have his bald head hanging there along with other faux-Republicans like Old-Man Sununu, Judd Greg and Warren Rudman … thinks it would be funny if Representatives Gaetz, Greene and Boebert all drowned. And let’s not forget that Rath is a rabid NeverTrumper … you know the people who told us that Trump’s “mean tweets” rendered him unfit for the Presidency.

 

The post Prominent NH-NeverTrumper Jokes About Reps Gaetz, MTG and Boebert DROWNING appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

Friday Meme Overflow

Granite Grok - Sat, 2023-02-11 01:00 +0000

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

Speaking of, from this week, Monday Memes.  Also don’t forget both complementary parts of my Survival Sunday feature: PREP edition and SITREP edition.

 

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

 

A hat trick of prior essays:

Creating a Preference Tsunami – Granite Grok

Lessons from Candle Smoke – Urban Scoop

Our Children: The Hill to Die On – Granite Grok

 

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

 

A funny collection, stand-alone worthy:

sudden malign creativity – by el gato malo – bad cattitude (substack.com)

 

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I’d pay money to see that happen!

 

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

 

 

 

 

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

 

Anyone who clings to the historically untrue-and thoroughly immoral-doctrine that, ‘violence never settles anything’ I would advise to conjure the ghosts of Napoleon Bonaparte and the Duke of Wellington and let them debate it. The ghost of Hitler could referee, and the jury might well be the Dodo, the Great Auk and the Passenger Pigeon. Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breeds that forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and freedom.

— Robert A. Heinlein

 

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

 

Get squared away, now…

 

 

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

 

  

 

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

 

 

HA HA HA HA HA HA!  Well done!  So many pokes in one meme.

 

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

 

   

 

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

 

https://granitegrok.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/greek-tv-presenter-collapses.mp4

 

TV Presenter Konstantina Klokotara collapsed on stage.  I can’t find anything about her fate after that, but… in the midst of tragedy comes hope.  For along with having this video sent to me was the motto “Another ‘Pfizer flop’”.  Pfizer flop.  Excellent.  Now, set it to music (music video here):

She did the flop… the Pfizer flop…

Or, “And another one gone, another one gone, another one bites the dust…”  Music video here.

Or just simply “Brought to you by Pfizer”.

Inside such grim, gallows-humor needed messages can be implanted.

An idea for some enterprising soul… a compilation of such collapses, set to a karaoke version of Monster Mash, with someone singing “They did the flop… they did the Pfizer flop… they couldn’t stop… the Pfizer plop…”

Or at the end of the compilation, “Brought to you by Pfizer”… or the Queen song superimposed.  Or all variations plus others – limited only by imagination.

 

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

 

 

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

 

Pick of the Post:

 

 

MHO this needs to be printed and mailed to every doctor and pharmacist you know.  And to every politician in your state that doesn’t sign on to stop these Jabs.

 

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

 

BILL WHITTLE: WHY BENGHAZI MATTERS

 

 

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

 

Palate Cleansers:

 

 

Took me a moment.

 

The post Friday Meme Overflow appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

Wherein NH State Rep Mike Bordes Goes COVID-Authoritarian Over a ReBuildNH Tweet – and Gets Ratio’d

Granite Grok - Fri, 2023-02-10 23:30 +0000

His Tweets, now since deleted (probably because of no shame on his part for what he wrote but simply because he got caught) was in responding to this RebuildNH tweet:

To which he responded (screenshot – he deleted his Tweet ):

 

So…

Followed by:

Just as he did over Right To Work and Parental Rights legislation.  Guess he has to keep on the correct side (as he has little of a Right side) Baby Huey’s NH Governor Chris Sununu looking for that future Brass Ring of an Administration job:

And the beatdown continued:

And in case he deletes that tweet, here’s a screenshot:

No, he doesn’t and I’ve been told by several State Reps, present and past, that he’s like this in the NH House. And if you search here for BCRC, you can see Mike Bordes really acting like a jerk.

 

 

 

 

The post Wherein NH State Rep Mike Bordes Goes COVID-Authoritarian Over a ReBuildNH Tweet – and Gets Ratio’d appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

The MYTH That The GOP Has A Majority In The New Hampshire House

Granite Grok - Fri, 2023-02-10 22:00 +0000

A few comments on the post from Cornerstone. First, if it wasn’t Testerman, it would have been some other GOP-Wokester who sided with the Democrats to maintain grooming in New Hampshire schools. Of course, Testerman should be called out as a faux-Republican, but the bigger picture is that the NHGOP really is NOT that GOP at all … unless you believe that corporatism/crony-capitalism is the be all and end all of the GOP.

Next, there will be NO consequences for Testerman. The so-called “leadership” of the House NHGOP … that useless mannequin called Sherm Packard and that libertarian Jason Osborne and their minions … will do nothing … NOTHING … about Testerman. Protecting school children from grooming is NOT important to them … and by extension NOT important to the House GOP.

Next, pretend-Presidential candidate Sun-King Sununu’s loyal lapdog Attorney General Johnny-Woke sided with the Democrats. There is no real Republican Party in New Hampshire.

New Hampshire should NOT be hosting the first-in-the-nation GOP Presidential primary. The NHGOP is totally out-of-step with the GOP in Red States and real, not self-proclaimed, Purple States.

 

The post The MYTH That The GOP Has A Majority In The New Hampshire House appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

Was the Tyre Nichols Hit Jealous Revenge and Would They Tell Us If It Was?

Granite Grok - Fri, 2023-02-10 20:30 +0000

It was beginning to look like the 2020 BLM Summer of Love after Tyre Nichols died from a beating (allegedly) involving five Memphis cops. The BLM/Antifa Marxists got dressed up, but was it for nothing?

Related: Uncomfortable Fact: More Black Americans are in Prison Because of Democrats

There was damage, chaos, and destruction, but within days rumor and fact cut the legs out from under the mostly peaceful protests. Tyre’s beatification by the lefty elites was in danger. News broke that several officers might have been members of an influential gang.

 

Several of the “Cops” who beat Tyre Nichols to death might be Vice Lords Street Gang Members who were embedded into the Memphis Police Department after it allegedly lowered its standards in a desperate need to get bodies into uniforms.

In other words, it might be a gang hit.

 

A few days later, Newsweek (of all places) reported that “The Memphis Police Department is currently investigating rumors regarding a possible connection between Tyre Nichols and the ex-wife or ex-girlfriend of one of the Memphis cops arrested and charged in Nichols’ death.”

The ex-wife/ex-girlfriend narrative is still unconfirmed, and Nichols’ parents deny he had any such relationship, but would they know? Maybe, but let’s look at the action and reaction.

Nichols was tased, pepper-sprayed, and beaten to death at length after a traffic stop by a cadre of black officers with alleged connections to street violence. The traffic stop and the number of “officers” present suggest he was targeted. Why? No other motives have arisen, so it was another black-on-black hate crime, or they had a reason to meet and coordinate this “message.”

Was this street memo meant for someone besides Nichols, or was death not the intended outcome?

It looks Like a Conspiracy.

At least thirteen officers are under investigation concerning the beating death, either terminated or relieved of duty. Two EMTs working for the Memphis Fire Department (who triaged Nichols) have been fired. Two county sheriff’s officers have been let go.

Related: Another Black Mayor Fires Another Black Police Chief over Systemic Racism in Another City Run By Democrats for Decades

This appears to be precisely the systemic institutional police racism that BLM and Democrats used to light the nation on fire in the Summer of 2020.

What happened to the parades, Democrats lining up at the nearest microphone, or renewed calls to defund more city police departments?

Is there some validity to the relationship revenge angle? Was it the unconfirmed connections to a street gang and a potential hit for other reasons? Or, and this is more likely the truth – whether any of those matters turn out to be fact – it was a black-on-black crime – the single most significant cause of injury and death for black Americans.

The democrat media never yanks a narrative rug out from under their political pals unless it advances some other progressive narrative. Distraction or redirection. It is just as easy for the nationals to ignore local outrage as to turn a blind eye to the inhuman disaster at the southern border or all of its domestic tranquility-disrupting side effects.

If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it does it make any noise? If we don’t report it, did it happen? Their answer is no, it did not, and anyone who shines a light – at least these days – gets the Stasi fact check boot on their neck and labeled as a purveyor of disinformation.

It’s a digital hit, the virtual attempt of what was done to Trye Nichols, whose murder is becoming ancient history, the coverage sanitized by the gatekeepers.

 

 

 

The post Was the Tyre Nichols Hit Jealous Revenge and Would They Tell Us If It Was? appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

Beyond The SoundBite Lecture series – Vivek Ramaswamy Part 2 & 3

Granite Grok - Fri, 2023-02-10 19:00 +0000

Part 1 is here. This past Wednesday night at St. Anselm’s Institute of Politics, Vivek Ramaswamy gave an address to a packed (actually, “standing room”) crowd. I’ll tell you, it was well worth spending the travel time down and back to listen to him.  Smooth, problem domain knowledgeable, and spoke from a point of view (an “insider’s” one) that was interesting because I’ve never been such an “insider” as well as from his given industries).

In Part 2 (and more), he starts to go into the interweaving of how BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street (the behemoths in the financial world) are very interlinked and use their stockholder positions in other huge companies to push their ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) philosophy onto everyone – and how it affects you (think: the Communist Chinese “Social Credit Score – but run by “capitalist” companies):



Part 3:



More coming…

And as always, please think about Subscribing to our GraniteGrok YouTube Channel. We’re trying to get to that magical 1,000 number and we need just 45 more people to do so.  Thanks!

The post Beyond The SoundBite Lecture series – Vivek Ramaswamy Part 2 & 3 appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

Rep. Dave Testerman Sides With Democrats, Betrays Women And Girls

Granite Grok - Fri, 2023-02-10 17:30 +0000

Over the past weeks, families and churches around New Hampshire have engaged in tireless advocacy and negotiation to protect the dignity and privacy of women and girls in New Hampshire by working to get HB 396, State Recognition of Biological Sex, to the House floor. On Wednesday night, their efforts were single-handedly demolished by Republican representative Dave Testerman, who joined with Rep. Marjorie Smith and other Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee in a cynical ploy to quietly kill the bill with a so-called “study committee.”

Parents from school districts around the state had desperately contacted the Judiciary Committee to inform them that their daughters are being bullied and harassed—right now—by biological males in locker rooms and restrooms. Rep. Testerman chose to stop the House from urgently protecting the most powerless people among us—our children—and block parents’ concerns from even being debated on the House floor.

On a committee split evenly between Democrats and Republicans, Testerman was the only Republican to vote for Democratic Rep. Marjorie Smith’s motion to “retain” the bill, giving the Democrats the majority they needed to block the bill from coming to the House floor. In the minutes immediately before Testerman’s vote, the Democrats made almost no attempt to disguise the fact that their retention motion was merely a naked attempt to stop the House from voting on the bill—with Rep. Smith joking that they might agree on an amendment for the House to consider “in 10 years.” In other words, Rep. Testerman and the Democrats brazenly used the “retention” mechanism to thwart a bill they did not want to pass.

HB 396 was urgently necessary because school districts—and New Hampshire’s Department of Justice—currently falsely claim that New Hampshire law prohibits all separation on the basis of biological sex. These claims have deceived many schools and other public entities into bowing to gender ideology. Most now use self-declared gender identity alone to separate athletics and private areas, without regard to whether someone has even received medical transitioning.

It is only a matter of time before these same authorities extend these beliefs to our prisons as well. In California, this has already led to a scenario where multiple men with male genitals are the cellmates of incarcerated women.

This bill, introduced by Rep. Jim Kofalt, would have stopped these misrepresentations by clarifying that public entities are not forbidden from using biological sex to separate athletics, private spaces, and prison facilities. This would not even have required any school board or state agency to change their current policies.

Rep. Testerman has reiterated that he voted to “retain” the bill because he plans to eventually send it to a “study committee”—an even worse mechanism than retention, used almost exclusively to kill bills—but has refused to give any further explanation for his vote or lay out his position.

In our advocacy in New Hampshire, we’ve repeatedly seen that backroom dealmaking can often be the order of the day. We do not hesitate to say that this is likely what happened here. Given the circumstances, there is every reason to conclude that Rep. Testerman chose to sell the dignity and privacy of women and girls in return for an unknown political favor.

In May of 2021, a female student was raped in a Loudon County, Virginia bathroom by a biologically male but self-declared non-binary student. When the female student’s father was arrested at a school board meeting for protesting his daughter’s rape, the National School Boards Association cited the arrest in asking the Department of Homeland Security to stop the “domestic terrorism and hate crimes” facing school boards. Rep. Testerman has chosen his side: not wronged fathers and their violated children, but the powerful people who threaten them.

If a similar event occurs in New Hampshire in the coming years—as HB 396 languishes in Rep. Testerman’s bad faith “study committee”—Granite Staters will know who is responsible.

Rep. Testerman’s constituents can contact him through his information provided on the General Court website.

The post Rep. Dave Testerman Sides With Democrats, Betrays Women And Girls appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

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