Saturday • May 18 • 2024
Vol.XVI • No.XX
Manchester, N.H.
Well, my friends, I hate to break the news. After carefully studying the latest Twitter materials, I realized we no longer have a country. Yes, that is what I said. Why? In large part because:
1) Democrats, of course, are and have been openly against the Constitution, individual liberty, and freedom for quite some time now, along with complicit media.
2) Republicans (the GOP establishment) pretend to oppose Democrats, but ironically, only fight those who elected them into office and loot the country alongside their best friends and colleagues, the Democrats.
3) We are tired of being stabbed in the back over and over again by those we elected into public office and claim to stand with us only to arrive in the halls of power, in DC, and reward us by turning their collective backs on us.
Let us be honest, no one, including Trump, ever claimed that he was a savvy politician or a constitutional conservative. Or, for that matter, he never claimed to be George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, or Thomas Jefferson either. He often times is rude, crude, and socially unacceptable. But still, he is the people’s choice of the Republican Party. NO ONE can refute it or disallow us from making that choice. Newt Gingrich also notes, “You don’t have to run around and defend Donald Trump. That is his job. You also do not have to abandon him. There is no alternative at a practical level. He is the nominee.”
Moving from a general description to something more personal, this country has a limited amount of time until it collapses. The current GOP establishment and what constitutes the Democrat Party of today, have literally removed electoral politics from having any effect on policy and we have no time to argue.
At this point in time, Donald Trump is our one and only hope and chance to stop this spiral into oblivion. I am calling on you, the individual freedom-loving person, to play your part in the defense of freedom, and stop voter fraud by the Democrats, not only for your own sake but also for mine and all others who cherish this precious blessing of life and liberty.
To conclude: We Americans greatly cherish freedom, perhaps a bit more than other nations; and we will not stand and watch the destruction of America. We will fight and keep in mind that freedom is not free. Anyone or any party that promises otherwise is either a fool or a charlatan.
God Bless America,
The post We No Longer Have a Country appeared first on Granite Grok.
The religious fascists in the Taliban have taken a break from shining all the weapons Joe left in Afghanistan to do what we said they’d do. Be the Taliban.
Related: Projection: Democrat Calls Republicans #Taliban After His Democrat Turns 19 Million Women Into Slaves
Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers have banned university education for women nationwide, as they continue to crush rights to education and freedom.
Despite promising a softer rule when they seized power last year, the Taliban have ratcheted up restrictions on all aspects of women’s lives, ignoring international outrage.
The country’s Minister for Higher Education, Neda Mohammad Nadeem, issued a letter to all government and private universities instructing for the rule to be enforced.
The nation includes approximately 19 million women who can no longer aspire to a higher education. Sorry – they can no longer even aspire to secondary education.
Young girls were also excluded from returning to secondary school , severely limiting university intake. … Even funfairs and gyms have become no-go areas for women due to the Taliban’s restrictions on women’s rights. …
Many teenage girls have been married off early – often to much older men of their father’s choice.
Women have been pushed out of many government jobs – or are being paid a slashed salary to stay at home.
They are also barred from travelling without a male relative, and must cover up outside of the home, ideally with a burqa.
Related: The Taliban Get “The Band” Back Together … Bring Out Your Dead, Edition
All because Joe pulled out early. But Whoever is Running the Biden Administration State Department issued a strongly worded statement.
The Taliban should expect that this decision, which is in contravention to the commitments they have made repeatedly and publicly to their own people, will carry concrete costs for them,’ State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters in Washington.
Taliban returns to cleaning and loading weapons left by Biden. Picks teeth with a knife.
Yeah, whatever.
The post Taliban Joe’s ‘Legacy’ Grows – Women in Afghanistan Banned from University, Secondary Education, Gov. Jobs … appeared first on Granite Grok.
What Happened This Year (2022)? When I scan the horizon, I am not looking for particulars. I am always trying to look behind the scenes. And since I don’t have a viewer to take me there, I rely on guessing what’s going on.
We want to thank Mary Maxwell for this Contribution – Please direct yours to Editor@GraniteGrok.com.
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Not very satisfactory, but for me it’s always the important thing: What are the Big Planners getting up to? Are they worried that we dissidents are outing them? Who are the deciders? Are they stalled by disagreement with one another?
The following 2002 happenings made the mainstream news (that is, in the English language which is the only language I can read): war in Ukraine, big protests in Brazil and Sri Lanka, warnings of financial collapse and food shortages (blamed on Covid), an uptick in talk of further need for flu shots, and a lot of violent crime in US including a school shooting in Uvalde. Much money was allocated to alleviate climate change. There was constant rehashing the event known as the “Jan 6” invasion of the Capitol in 2021, and excitement about New York state’s prosecution of a former President for tax fraud. Millions of immigrants arrived, with apparent blessing of the government.
Simultaneously, the dissident press was revealing what it could about the pandemic, such as the illegality of the mandates, the concealment by media of thousands of deaths from vaccines, and the amazing arrival of dictatorship in Canada and Australia as part of the Covid scene. In the conservative press, there was quite an uproar about the FBI deeming parents “terrorists,” for arguing at school board meetings. There was also opposition to teaching “critical race theory” in school. The intervention to help Ukrainians was seen as a US war-stoking move. A movie entitled “2000 Mules” was said to prove the rigging of the 2020 election.
It is worth noting that the two levels are operating on parallel (the mainstream and the dissidents) and each has quite a different picture of reality. For the mainstream, “climate change” is mentioned as if it is settled science. For the dissidents, climate change is a hoax — the planet is cooling, not warming up. For the mainstream, most folks who invaded the Capitol, on Jan 6 did so in hopes of preventing the inauguration of Joe Biden on Jan 20. Dissidents see the Invasion as a performance designed by Insiders, aimed at discrediting Republicans and causing Americans to believe the end of democracy has now occurred.
InvestigatingI suppose the conflicting realities could be subjected to honest investigations — e.g., climate change, the origin of Covid, and what the Jan 6 participants were actually doing. However, the right to “investigate” is widely considered the prerogative of government. Thus, the mainstream side of the aforementioned arguments can find itself “proven” by investigations, while the ideas put out by dissidents are spoken of as fanciful.
The government position is parroted by the media. Indeed, the media appears to work for the government. Thanks to television, the media enters most homes every day, for hours. If the government wants something to be conveyed, it will appear on the six o’clock news, for free. If it’s a cultural matter, it may also appear on the front cover of magazines sold near the check-out counter at supermarkets, or be conveyed through comedy shows or the words of songs.
At this point let’s ask: What are other ways (non-government, non-media) that the matters in controversy could be investigated? Please believe me when I say that in my youth in the 1950 and ’60s, it was absolutely normal to look at institutions other than government to investigate, or at least offer an authoritative opinion on, any matter about which there was major disagreement.
Here are six such institutions: science, academia, religion, civil rights groups, professional societies, and media itself, when it was called journalism — proudly labelled The Fourth Estate. Of course, we were also happy to submit a problem to Congress or the courts. Additionally, the population would listen respectfully to a public intellectual, a person whose rationality and humanity had been established in a previous case or two.
In short, the outcome of an investigation, in the olden days, couldn’t be dead-sure predicted, as it can today. I judge that the very predictability of outcomes, when matters are put to Congress or the courts, should alert us to the fact that those two groups are not doing their jobs!
Those Other InstitutionsMaybe we could bring those six groups back to a position of trustworthiness. If they were able to turn out a good product in the 1960s, who’s to say that they can’t do so again in the near future? First, the membership of those groups would have to clean out the infiltrators, the traitors, the bribed, and the many individuals who seem mentally unable to reason. (There are necessarily a lot of those, as children in the last one or two generations did not get trained to reason, as part of their education!)
What of science? Most people graduating with a science degree in US, who want to make a career of it, must connect to a salary. That means industry or academia. If asked to solve a controversy, it is only natural that they will have one eye on the likely reaction of their employer. They will self-censor. I self-censor a lot myself — “you hafta.” If the scientist works in research, she will need to bring in the grants. But, as she well knows, grants are mainly given where government or industry want certain results. Does she want to demonstrate that the climate is cooling, not warming? The grant office will not respond.
What of academia? In 1999, I was conducting a survey of the persons (including myself) who had made submissions to the Australian Senate as to the question “Should we sign the MAI?” (Multilateral Agreement on Investment). That was a treaty that would have handed a lot of power to globalists. If I recall correctly, at least 98% of the submissions gave arguments for NOT joining such a treaty. Surprisingly, one of the pro-treaty submissions came from the Association of Vice Chancellors. (Australian term for university presidents). The only reason I could think of was that Australian universities get major income from foreign students, so maybe that gives them a pro-globalist sentiment. But maybe that’s not the reason. Anyway, Australia typically accepts a UN’s recommendation, regardless of whether Aussies want it.
What about religion? Of the three most populous religions in the US at the moment, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, none seem to be “for the people.” None have made a stink about the creeping totalitarianism. They seem to say “Render everything to Caesar because, hey, everything is Caesar’s anyway, isn’t it?” If you are looking for an easy, bribery-type explanation, you might say that the churches, synagogues, and mosques need to maintain the value of their real estate by not losing their tax-exemption on land. But I think it is weirder than that. I think the religious bosses are mind-controlled. Referring, again, to the Olden Days, oh those halcyon olden days, a preacher put “principles first.” Nothing less would do. Ay-men.
What about Civil Rights Groups? Oh dear. A group that has the word “rights” in it, no longer fights for people’s rights? There were two groups you could go to and truly expect results: the American Civil Liberties Union and Amnesty International. If they joined a lawsuit as amicus curiae, the court had better pay attention: the ACLU or AI would lay out the law. Who lays out the law today? Not them. Anyway, they can dodge by not taking cases that would require them to, say, question the official story of 9-11. And if a prisoner has been suffering for decades, on an unfair conviction, it used to be AI’s role to spring him. Not now. Especially if he is a “terrorist” imprisoned on a provably bogus charge. “Let’s not go there. It could harm national security.”
What about professional societies? The two most famous professional societies, the AMA and the ABA, are doomed from the start. They claim in their mission statements that they are the upholders of medicine and the law — two great gifts to mankind. Yet they are also a guild for their members. If a conflict of interest arises, which principle will prevail — the good of mankind or the good of the members? Clearly the latter. “It goes without saying,” right? But even aside from that, there is the somewhat hidden fact that it is government that controls those two professions. If Caesar lost that control, lawyers and doctors would be able to do great things. Their hands are tied by, respectively, the American Bar Association and the American Medical Association. The AMA has achieved its dominance over every physician in the US by using a state-by-state method to win control both of licensing boards and medical schools. The ABA gets to squash mankind-minded lawyers by tricky wording in the Higher Education Opportunity Act. Although I implied that the four institutions above (science, academia, religions, and civil rights organizations) can make a comeback, there is no hope for ABA and AMA. Off with their heads! They ruin the two professions, structurally.
What about journalism? Finally, to the Fourth Estate. The thing a journalist needs most is free speech. How do humans mainly differ from animals? They can talk. Hence, they can exchange knowledge. (“This river has rhinos in it.”) They can en-lighten one another and en-courage one another. After a while, Homo sapiens invented writing. From that point, it became possible to teach widely, to think by rules of logic, and to develop ideas imaginatively. Debate flourished in books and papers. As we all know, along came Rupert Murdoch (so to speak), and that was the end of journalism. Media became a propaganda tool par excellence. Quite possibly it has actually altered our brains. But this can be corrected. Journalism is self-correcting, isn’t it?
Free Speech, Anyone?Recall my dividing the events of 2022 into those seen by one side and those seen by the other. I claimed that media-government has acquired new reign over America (to our very great detriment, I believe). I pointed to the problem whereby if some people observe a wrong, and want the matter investigated, the media and government will speak una voce in their interpretation of facts (“Trump’s election deniers got violent on Jan 6”), and also in their solutions (“Imprison those white supremacists now”).
Luckily there is such a thing as the alternative press. Admittedly, much of it is owned and occupied by You-know-whim — but not all of it. The Internet was open to dissidents from the medical profession (e.g., Peter McCullough), the clergy (Bishop Carlos Vigano), the legal profession (Serene Teffaha), academia (oops, I can’t think of one), and so forth.
Thanks to this, we are not in the Room 101 situation that Winston Smith was in, when Big Brother’s minion, O’Brien, was able to get Winston to give up all hope and switch off the reasoning portion of his brain. (“Do something for the sake of honor? Hey, not me, thanks.”)
Lately there is even the hint that new debate about free speech will arise, as it should. We have seen, just this week, that the DoJ gave Twitter the names of people it wanted blacklisted. This opens the question: what is Twitter, and more importantly, what the hell is the DoJ?
I conclude by suggesting that we look into the matter of the “lockout” of our investigatory tradition that has occurred via the marriage of media and government. We need search no further than the last four words of Amendment 10 in the Bill of Rights:
“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, not prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.”
The post A New Use for the Last Four Words of the Bill of Rights appeared first on Granite Grok.
New Hampshire’s been rated number one for a lot of things. Public Safety, Quality of Life, Average Income, Low Crime, even (whatever I’ve forgotten), but roads?
That’s a new one for me, but here it is. Consumer Affairs asked residents about the roads, and Granite State managed to squeak out the top spot.
Click the link to see your states very brief report.
States with the best roadsThe states with the best roads frequently perform maintenance on their streets and have significant infrastructure budgets, as well as residents with good things to say about the roads they drive on each day.
Only about 3% of rural roads and 8% of urban roads in New Hampshire are considered poor, according to the International Roughness Index. …
More on that ina moment. First, what about the worst states?
Which states have the worst roads?
We chose the states with the worst roads based on the roughness of the pavement and highway maintenance and safety budgets. Scroll down to check out the full ranked list and see where your state lands.
What about New York State? Their roards are terrible and have been for decades. Massachusetts roads are reprehensible. Fear not, intrepid motorists, NY came in twelfth worst, with Massachusetts lagging a bit in the eighteen spot. This suggests, based on my limited experience, that Hawaii has terrible roads.
I don’t recall Rhode Island being all that bad, but I never spent much time there, so I’m not a good benchmark.
I have, however, driven all over southern New Hampshire. While driving part-time for UPS over several years I was on every sort of road the state had to offer. But I’m familiar with mud season, and unpaved roads are common. Though most are in very good shape until spring comes. If you like muddin’ then you might be in for a free-for-all, otherwise, getting stuck in mud is much worse and messier than snow.
By the way, the featured image is not, to the best of my knowledge, in New Hampshire.
HT | Consumer Affairs
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Hijacking an existing holiday to get some adherents for your new one is as old as time. And if you’ve no idea the exact date of the thing you are celebrating, then it makes sense to piggyback away. Eases the conversion process.
You can let the peeps pretend to participate in the new one while quietly revering the old, and at some point across time, the old one is “taught” or talked (or beaten) out of the culture.
Add to this Nancy Pelosi, who pretends to be a Catholic but ignores what it teaches, which – given how she dismisses her oath to the US Constitution – was easy enough to swing. She’s a piece of work whose stewardship in Congress has “left a dent” in America that we may not be able to pound back out.
She has (however), it’s rumored, been good to the liquor industry, and you’d be right to wonder if they were involved in this fiasco the way David DePape “was involved” in the assault on her husband. In her closing remarks before the House recessed for “The Holidays,” Nancy took a moment to ‘wish everyone a happy, healthy and safe new year, happy holidays, merry Christmas, happy Schwanza, happy Hanukkah… whatever it is you celebrate, be safe.’
A quick note to the Daily Mail. I believe the proper spelling is “Shwanzaa,” which may be a matter of editorial preference, like ignoring Pelosi’s wearing of the Kente Cloth scarf attributed to African slave traders in honor of George Floyd, a career criminal and drug addict who actually had a lot in common with the guy who invented Kwanzaa. A “secular, “nonreligious” pan-African holiday” created by then violent, deranged, radical black nationalist (and alleged FBI Informant), Maulana Karenga (See also Ron Karenga).
Hey, we’re not judging who you choose as your spiritual advisor, but George chose Fentanyl, and it killed him.
Crazy Ron, on the other hand, correctly planted his “celebration” around the same time as the Winter Solstice, Yule, Saturnalia, Hanukkah, and Christmas (to name a few) though I suspect Festivus, another secular “holiday” (also) created in 1966, is more popular.
Nancy (her again?) is required by the gods of social justice to mention Kwanzaa (not Festivus), which she failed to do, instead creating a new holiday called Shwanza (or Shwanzaa) which, if I’m not mistaken, is inspired by limousine-liberals, who worship 90 or better proof alcohols, lying, scheming, and the laundering of tax dollars (to name a few).
The more familiar term for that “celebration” is Congress but hey, Happy Shwanzaa, and may the Schwartz be with you!
HT | Daily Mail
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You likely can’t get one in time for the big day, or maybe you can (did you?), but think of all the sleep the anti-gun lefties will lose thinking about how to regulate them. Common sense flamethrower-drone laws. Moms for…something.
The video below has one used in China, which the video says can be repurposed to rescue people at sea. I think they spelled rescue wrong. Anyway, this one is burning wasp nests out of trees. Looks cool (in a hot way) with huge potential for public unrest applications.
I did some looking. There are flamethrower add-ons for certain types of drones (1499.00), then there’s the DJI M300.
The DJI M300 drone flamethrower was developed based on DJI SDK. It is a split-type modular quick-release design, small size, and easy to assemble. It is controlled by OSDK link + APP, and the control distance is no longer limited, you can control the fire thrower launching as far as the drone flight, It is more efficient to use a high-pressure diaphragm pump. , energy-saving, increase the nozzle vector control function, improve the operation effect under special flight conditions.
The loudspeaker attachment looks regime ready. “Everyone, please return to your homes for donkey-fu lockdown.” That’s when you cruise in with your flamethrower version and engage in some of that public unrest I mentioned earlier (price not listed, call for a quote).
I’m sure there are other models available if your interest is piqued.
So here’s the one whacking wasps in China. It’s about $13,000.00
The post Last Minute Christmas Gift: How About a Drone with a Flamethrower? appeared first on Granite Grok.
We can expect someone like Chris Pappas, who has a rubber spine and weak knees, to vote online with his Progressive party, but the second sin is to remain unaccountable for what he did and tout his actions to the people of New Hampshire like he has our backs.
What is worse, a Congressman voting to pass a $1.7 Trillion, 4,000-plus page piece of legislation that he obviously did not read, or that the same Congressman sent an email bragging about how he served his constituents by doing so? I contend the latter is the more egregious. Mr. Pappas, there is virtually nothing in this bill that is good for New Hampshire.
Let’s look at how Chris Pappas gaslighted Granite Staters with his “accomplishments’ by signing this bill.
Today I helped pass a government funding package with key New Hampshire priorities that I secured including reducing energy costs, fighting fentanyl trafficking, supporting public safety, improving veteran care, and investing in our workforce.
How do you define New Hampshire’s priorities? We have always thrived for small government, balance budgets, and not harming the economy with legislation. The Omnibus bill you pat yourself on the back for signing satisfies none of the NH priorities. What you did is sign a bill that will dump nearly two trillion dollars into our economy, fueling inflation and pushing us toward recession.
Securing Funding for Community-Driven Projects
I secured funding through our community-driven process for 15 common-sense, local projects that will support our first responders and law enforcement, strengthen our manufacturing and skilled workforce, invest in our infrastructure, and help New Hampshire families and children. I worked closely with community leaders across the First District to deliver this funding for local priorities, and I look forward to seeing the wide range of benefits from economic growth to improving public safety.
There are infrastructure projects in this bill that are worthwhile, but why were they not addressed in the 2020 Infrastructure Bill? There are projects that define wasteful pork.
Community College System Of New Hampshire
This funding will be used to extend classrooms at the Susan Huard Advanced Technologies center to include an outdoor laboratory to better prepare graduates to meet the needs of a diversified workforce.
$1,000,000
What does an outside laboratory at $1 Million dollars have to do with diversity?
Saint Anselm College
This funding will be used to help create a state-of-the-art health care facility using cutting-edge technology to help create a path for students to build healthcare careers in New Hampshire.
$2,200,000
Saint A’s is a private institution. Why are the taxpayers of America funding a facility on a private institution’s property?
Support For Veterans
Three of my bipartisan veterans’ bills were included in this package. The VA Beneficiary Debt Collection Improvement Act will improve VA’s debt collection process and protect veterans from undue financial strain. The VA Supply Chain Resiliency Act will strengthen VA supply chains and ensure our veterans receive the best possible medical care. The Improving VA Accountability to Prevent Sexual Harassment and Discrimination Act will improve policies and oversight of how the VA addresses systemic issues of sexual harassment and discrimination. The inclusion of these bills helps fulfill our promise to ensure that our veterans receive the highest level of care and service.
In case you forgot, Chris. The purpose of our military is to protect the people and the sovereignty of our country. Did you give any consideration to increasing the pay level of our military? Maybe you can funnel some of the expense of illegal immigrants to keeping our active military above the poverty level and from future dependency on government support. You obviously are more concerned with equality and diversity than military readiness. Thank God you and your Progressive counterparts were not around in the forty’s, or we would be speaking German or Japanese.
Measures to Combat Drug Trafficking
Bipartisan legislation that I introduced alongside Congressman Newhouse extended emergency measures to address trafficking of fentanyl analogues through December 31, 2024 was also included in the package. This legislation will ensure that law enforcement retains the tools they need to seize fentanyl-related substances and combat drug trafficking. I’ll continue to work across the aisle and alongside law enforcement and public safety experts to keep our families and communities safe.
Instead of securing the barn door, you think seizure after the fact is the solution. Wrong again, as usual. You have never indicated concern for our open Border under Joe Biden. The Fentanyl crossing is killing 100,000 Americans a year. To put that number in context, it only took 166,000 votes to send you back to Congress. Always after-thinking. Is it too hard for Progressives to analyze a problem, think ahead, and formulate a solution? Or do feelings always have to get in the way of facts.
You are proud of your accomplishments, but half of New Hampshire is embarrassed by your foolish thinking and spending. Enjoy yourself this month as the Republicans will tighten the reigns next.
.
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In a mad race to be more despotic and manipulative than Australia or New Zealand, Canada has used ‘Mrs. Clause’ to get kids masked and Jabbed.
No good tyranny will work if you forget to get the kiddies, so Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. Teresa Tam, pretends to call the North Pole for a health check, where she gets Mrs. Clause.
Santa’s main squeeze is very happy to see so many Canadian on the nice list (they got vaccinated and are up to date like Mr. and Mrs. Clause).
“It just warms my heart to see everyone in Canada, especially kids, working so hard to keep the holidays safe for all.”
“I always tell Santa to make a list and check it twice.
“One: stay up to date on your vaccinations.
“Two: wear a mask in crowded indoor places and make sure it’s nice and snug.
“Three: wash your hands to the tune of jingle bells, Jingle Bells …”
There is one important safety tip. While Mrs. Clause is a bit too Glee Club Perky (the cupcake house does lend itself to the sticky sweetness of it), Dr. Tam’s delivery is almost unbearable. No one is winning any awards for this performance unless it’s for agitprop.
And it’s probably better in the original Russian.
Parents and Caregivers, I had a great chat with Mrs. Claus about things we can do to make this a happy and healthy holiday season. Here’s the scoop from the #NorthPole: pic.twitter.com/pgKY5NPEyV
— Dr. Theresa Tam (@CPHO_Canada) December 21, 2022
HT | The Burning Platform
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Unless you are a serious amateur or professional, you are using your smartphone to take photos or videos. I decided that for most GraniteGrok work, I decided to get a high end smartphone instead of a new prosumer video camera.
Thus far, I haven’t been disappointed.
And thus, I have noticed that I see very few “camera cameras” in peoples’ hands. And this chart shows why – call it a “camera cliff”?
Yes, that IS a cliff!
(H/T: Caveman Circus)
The post Data Point – Cameras vs Smartphones appeared first on Granite Grok.
No wonder Freedom of Information laws have had to be created in the past decade or so. So many elected officials have been hiding so many underhanded dealings that once could be expected to be uncovered by real reporters. Sadly, they are now few and far between. They used to keep those officials thinking about their lower inclinations far more than today. Well, don’t expect all to come out sparkling clean and shiny, nope, check this one.
Per (PatriotWise.com) It appears Gary Gensler, chairman of the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been caught removing events from the public version of his calendar with any mention of his meetings with Hillary Clinton and George Soros, and the essential information about those encounters.
It took a lawsuit by Energy Policy Advocates, a watchdog group, which had detected some glitches in the published calendar for them to get the internal documents ( the rest of the story).
As readers may know, the SEC has been getting some pushback for trying to get a climate disclosure rule requiring publicly traded companies to share carbon emissions data – as if SEC needed more power. The only possible reason SEC would want or need this rule would be to enforce more restrictions on fossil fuels as per the Biden agenda, even while having no reasonable replacement for those fuels and driving prices even higher for them.
The aforementioned meetings detail coverups that appeared to be regarding this power grab attempt by SEC. Energy Policy Advocates lawyer Chris Horner said it is “astonishing” that Soros received advice from the SEC chairman Gensler days before Soros wrote an article in the Wall Street Journal supporting the rule and on the mega-call donors for more SEC power.
We can make a pretty good guess now why the details of these meetings were scrubbed from the public record. Another underhanded plan to push the climate control scam, shown by any number of articles here at the ‘Grok,C02 emissions has not affected climate temperatures one bit. So unless those green “experts” can explain why it’s still cold out after CO2 levels are up, we can feel safe denying any more power to the SEC.
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In a Concord Monitor Op-Ed published on July 5, 2021, I explained why the Democrats were likely to eschew New Hampshire’s First in the Nation (FITN) Primary due to identity politics.
It was an easy prediction.
Joe Biden finished fifth in the 2020 N.H. Primary balloting and left the Granite State for South Carolina while votes were still being cast. That wasn’t very generous to all of Biden’s New Hampshire supporters who worked so hard for him, only to see him bug out on them while it was still daylight on Primary Day.
And Kamala Harris received all of 129 votes that February 11th. So one wouldn’t really expect either Biden or Harris to advocate for our FITN status. And Biden clearly made a deal with South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn to pick an African* American woman as a running mate. It now appears that Biden also agreed to advocate for South Carolina to replace N.H. as the first primary state.
Nice.
The knock on New Hampshire is that it is too old and too white and doesn’t reflect America. But South Carolina’s Democrat electorate is around 60% black—which perhaps doesn’t quite reflect America either.
One might characterize the sordid saga as simply reflecting “identity politics,” which has sadly become a mainstay of Dem political calculus.
Biden’s virtue-signaling ruled out 95% of possible VP candidates due to race and gender. Ponder the egregiousness of it all. So now we have a failing and incoherent eighty-year-old president and an unpopular and incompetent vice-president. American adversaries must chortle and cheer.
However, due to state law, New Hampshire will still have the FITN—even though Democrats will supposedly stay away. But unencumbered by identity politics, Republican presidential aspirants will still campaign here, and Granite Staters will still benefit from the associated spending and media coverage. Thank you, GOP!
But what about the Dems?
Don’t be misled by Biden’s claim that he’s running for a second term. He has to say that, lest he be reduced to ineffective lame duck status before the 118th Congress even convenes. But most Dems don’t want him to run—and he won’t. By July Biden will announce his “retirement.”
It’s another easy prediction.
It’s only the latest in an endless litany of lies, exaggerations, embellishments, misstatements, and plagiarism from our craven Commander-in-Chief.
But will subsequent Dem candidates show up in New Hampshire?
Yes.
Initially, surrogates will thump tubs for Dem contenders. But the surrogate campaigns will eventually yield to the real deals visiting us.
Welcome, Gavin Newsom!
The Democrat National Committee won’t sanction delegates from a “pirate” primary. But Dem candidates will still come, thumbing their noses at Biden and the DNC. They’ll want that all-important momentum (if not delegates) going into South Carolina and Nevada. Although not all will come. Afraid of “disrespecting” the South Carolina Dem electorate, some will stay away to pay homage to identity politics. It will be interesting—and fun—to see who comes and who doesn’t and how they all spin things.
Decades from now historians may look back at this era of American politics and wonder how our country detoured down so many dead-end roads marked by baffling signposts with jargon about identity politics, gender identification, climate emergencies, open borders, and more. Hopefully by then we’ll have put divisive and poisonous identity politics behind us. Perhaps by then we’ll be electing people to important positions based on their inherent merits and ethical qualities as opposed to their gender or ethnicity.
But in the shorter term, folks around here wonder if there will be a consequential New Hampshire Presidential Primary in 2024. I say, “Yes. There will be”
And that’s yet another easy prediction!
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A retired professor and former Marine Corps officer, State Rep. Mike Moffett of Loudon chairs the House Committee on State-Federal Relations.
The post Democrats, Primaries, and Identity Politics appeared first on Granite Grok.
Classrooms are out of control in some of our schools in New Hampshire. So what happened? Why are so many parents in school districts like Keene (SAU29) talking about the lack of discipline in the schools? Some of these parents are asking why the restrooms are locked? Why can’t students use the restroom in their school?
Unfortunately education fads come and go. As an education researcher, I have seen failed fads come back years later only to fail again.
Restorative Justice may be a new fad that parents are hearing about. While this may work for some kids, it has created chaos in the classroom for many schools. It’s so bad in SAU29 that there is an Instagram account showing the fights between students that happen frequently.
Several months ago the district set up a school meeting with parents so they could share their concerns and frustrations. I watched the meeting, and felt parents believed that something would be done to address the problems. A few months later, parents are still frustrated by the chaos in the school.
What is going on?
There could be many reasons for this lack of discipline and consequences. In this video, you will hear a teacher describe how Restorative Justice has failed in his school. Is this the problem in SAU29? Maybe it’s time to start asking questions.
This new approach to bad behavior is negatively impacting the quality of education children are receiving in these schools. The teacher does go on to explain how this approach does have a positive side to it if implemented properly. Maybe there is some value within the program that can be extracted, but it makes you wonder how this is also failing in so many schools where it’s being implemented.
In this article, Restorative Circles are called out for being unethical, and have no place in a public school.
In the past decade, the role of the teacher in schools has slowly shifted from pedagogue to therapist. Perhaps the most glaring example of this shift is the practice called “circle conversations.” These circles are cousins of the non-punitive approach to discipline called restorative justice, and are intended to be community-building prophylactics.
I’ve touched on this shift of public schools into mental health clinics in the past. While school administrators sit in denial that they are treating, servicing and assessing the mental health of their students, many of us know exactly what is going on.
New Hampshire legislators have also stuck their nose in the discipline arena. In 2020 I warned that pending legislation would create a problem in our schools. HB1558 was signed into law, and one has to now wonder, is this new law helping to also create chaos in the classroom?
There could be many factors that are contributing to what this teacher in the video is describing as chaos. Near the end he talks about how this fad seems to be puttering out. Going back to the old way of making sure there are consequences to bad behavior is making more sense.
The post Classrooms in Crisis Because of Restorative Justice? appeared first on Granite Grok.
Americans have been buying more than a million firearms a year for the last few years. Latest estimates of firearms is over 400 million arms in our population. So that’s a lot of homes that could conceivably house a weapon that could be used to defend its inhabitants.
And these three miscreants decided to play Russian Roulette. Reformatted, emphasis mine:
Three crooks enter home, and one fires at homeowner. But victim is armed, too — and shoots gunman dead as other two suspects flee.
Three individuals entered a southern Louisiana home Tuesday night, and one of the intruders fired a gun at the homeowner. But it turns out the homeowner was armed as well — and fatally shot the gunman as the other two suspects fled the Jeanerette residence.
The Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Office said the intruders entered the home in the 9000 block of Old Jeanerette Road around 10:30 p.m. One of the intruders had a gun and fired it at the homeowner — but the homeowner returned fire and fatally wounded the intruder, the sheriff’s office said. The two remaining suspects fled the home and were still at large Tuesday night.
Deputies responded to a call about the home invasion and found the deceased male inside the home, the sheriff’s office said. The deceased male’s name was being withheld pending an investigation and notification of family, authorities added.
Yet another case of when you want to take something that belongs to someone else, think it over a few times as you may find out that your life may be taken instead. The only downside is that his companions received no consequence at all. Hope they did get caught later on.
Those commenting on the post about the home invasion and fatal shooting seemed pleased about the outcome:
(H/T: The Blaze)
The post Second Amendment Happy Ending of the Day – Three Go In, Only Two Go Out. They Assumed Wrongly appeared first on Granite Grok.
Today marks the 109th anniversary of the creation of the Federal Reserve on December 23, 1913, when President Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act into law. The financial insiders rejoice this holiday season, as they have every Christmas Eve for the last 109 years, congratulating themselves on their stupendous fortunes and looking forward to a prosperous new year!
The post Anniversary of the Downfall of the Dollar appeared first on The Liberty Block.
What we all witnessed in Washington was bizarre. None of it good, nor in the interest of this nation or its people. The day began with yet another boondoggle being foisted upon the taxpayers of this country.
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A 1.7 TRILLION DOLLAR “Omnibus Bill.”
Omnibus means it’s stuffed with anything and everything the vested interests want to fund with public money. This latest grift comprises 4000 pages, and of course, it is too large and involved for anyone to read it and understand the scope of the spending. But it must be passed now!
As the Speaker of the House admonished the nation years ago, promoting a different scam, “We need to pass the bill to find out what’s in it.” It worked, then why not now? After all, the ruling Uniparty in DC thinks the American electorate is stupid and completely controllable.
This “Omnibus” contains something for everyone except for the people it should preserve, promote and protect- American citizens. There’s money in there to assist foreign countries in securing their borders, but nothing for the US to secure its own with Mexico.
It also contains another 45 BILLION DOLLARS for our latest and favoritest client state, Ukraine. The same country that cannot or will not account for the billions of dollars already gifted to them by the American people, who increasingly do not support the extent of United States involvement in this horrible foreign adventure precipitated by the Biden Administration.
The day ended with that evil little dictator from Ukraine doing his song and dance, demanding more money from America and anyone else that might be listening. Unshaven and wearing a sweatshirt in the well of the House of Representatives, the former comedian said everything he was told to say while the bought & paid-for Congresscritters lapped it all up. Must see TV!
Then the media and talking heads went to work, trying to equate his address to Churchill’s speech in the same venue at the end of 1941. There are no valid parallels between World War II and the current Eastern European hostilities, and that midget macquereau is no Churchill. Far from it- he’s an autocrat who rules Ukraine with an iron fist, shutting down all dissent as well as the media and religious organizations who don’t toe the line. All while he’s lining his pockets, and everyone else’s connected with the foreign and military aid grift.
As bad as the Ukrainian-Russian Conflict is, it did not initially constitute a clear and present danger to the United States and was certainly not an existential threat to our country or people. This war may well be an existential threat to our corrupt President and Uniparty fellow travelers, but that is a very different thing.
It seems that the number of Americans understanding this important difference is growing, and growing at a faster clip than the Beltway ruling class can handle- that’s a good thing. Perhaps our rulers will once again fear their constituency more than their donors. That would also be a good thing. It’s beyond time that we all wake up and speak up.
The post It Is Not Our War, and Zelensky Is Not Churchill appeared first on Granite Grok.
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 and Meme Overflow. Also don’t forget my Survival Sunday feature, now in two parts: PREP edition and SITREP edition.
*** Warning, a few possibly off-color ones, in case tender eyes are about ***
Depending on, my next MEME post may be Wednesday given that Sunday is Christmas. So – once more – Merry Christmas!! I will get a Survival Sunday PREP Edition out though… it might be short but it’ll be there. Tempus fugit.
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https://media.gab.com/system/media_attachments/files/123/266/613/playable/21022b42cbc658a2.mp4
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The sheer hubris of this. And does this not completely parallel the sneering dismissals of… continental drift:
“Utter, damned rot!” said the president of the prestigious American Philosophical Society.
“If we are to believe [this] hypothesis, we must forget everything we have learned in the last 70 years and start all over again,” said another American scientist.
Anyone who “valued his reputation for scientific sanity” would never dare support such a theory, said a British geologist.
There’s an axiom: “You cannot make a man see something when his paycheck depends on him not seeing it”. In this, the above, and disrupters throughout history, one sees sneering dismissal. For example, consider the discovery that puerperal fever was spread by the unwashed hands of doctors helping women give birth. In one account that I read in high school, doctors utterly dismissed this idea that the hands of a “caring, educated, and ‘gentlemanly’ physician” could carry disease. Countless women died needlessly because of this hubris.
This is not “rot” – but hard data:
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Voluntarily. Like a woman with a knife at her throat “voluntarily” accedes to a romantic interlude in an alley. There’s one image I recall of a man, getting the Jab, holding a sign that said “Under Duress”.
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This, right here, is a beautiful meme. Simple, and damned hard hitting. More on Socialism:
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“I’ve said this before, people would ask me, ‘Knowing what you know now, do you wish you had a third term?’ And I used to say, ‘You know what, if I could make an arrangement where I had a stand-in, a front-man or a front-woman and they had an ear piece in and I was just in my basement with my sweats looking through the stuff and I could sort of deliver the lines, but somebody else was doing all the talking and ceremony, I would be fine with that.’ Because I found the work fascinating. I mean, I write about the — even on my worst days, I found puzzling out, you know, these big, complicated, difficult issues, especially if you were working with some great people, to be professionally really satisfying. But I do not miss having to wear a tie every day.”
Barack Obama
December, 2020
What’s different about this musing by Barackus and the clear reality under President Potato?
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Pick of the post:
The more I learn, the more I see it’s lies, illusions, and gaslighting all the way down.
A close second:
When phones had cords, people were free. I admit the convenience, but… so many now are complete slaves to their phones – to the detriment of real life. A repeat image, and one heartbreakingly sad:
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A concluding word from the sage Thomas Sowell about Jew-hatred and their being “middle men minorities” – from an entire chapter in his book Black Rednecks and White Liberals:
And from the same book is this chapter – read aloud – about slavery:
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Coda: A post I did on Gab made it to WRSA:
From an old-old essay of mine:
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Palate Cleansers:
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The post Friday Meme Overflow-Overflow appeared first on Granite Grok.
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How often have we said it? Whatever the Political Left claims, the opposite is always the truth. From Women’s rights to Crime Prevention to Poverty to Lowering Health Care Costs. The end result is always the opposite, and that includes CO2 emissions.
“In 2022, high natural gas prices led to significant fuel switching to coal in electricity generation in Europe, although both gas and coal generation increased as the growth of wind and solar was insufficient to fully offset lower hydro and nuclear power output.”
Coal power generation will rise to a new record in 2022, surpassing its 2021 levels. This is driven by robust coal power growth in India and the European Union (EU) and by small increases in China – and it comes despite a decline in the United States.”
The progs attacked clean or cleaner energy in the name of lowering emissions. The result is more coal used to fill the gaps.
I guess the rest of the world isn’t as interested in returning to the 17th century as American Dems.
And so we’re clear, nothing about the green-energy transition is green or has a damn thing to do with emissions. We’ve beaten that drum for years. But this International Energy Administration report is just embarrassing.
In simple English, … the left’s mindless war on the production of natural gas — one the cleanest and cheapest forms of electric power generation — the price of natural gas surged in 2022 in almost all parts of the world.
In other words, despite spending hundreds of billions of dollars subsidizing fringe energy sources like wind and solar power, the world is nevertheless burning record amounts of coal.
When or if coal becomes a problem they’ll burn more wood. If the wood becomes scarce, they’ll burn whatever burns, none of which is better for the environment than Natural Gas.
Policy aimed at lowering emissions has and will continue to result in more emissions including those from the production use and decommission of the alternatives that cannot (ironically) be made without coal.
Democrats are idiots.
People need to stop voting for them before their voting rights policies reach their natural conclusion – no more voting.
The post The Left’s Green-Energy Agenda Leads to Record Coal Use in 2022 appeared first on Granite Grok.
Maine is on the New England grid, so they’re as screwed as the rest of us. Like the rest of us, their so-called leaders believe sending someone a few hundred dollars to pay a bill solves a problem they or their ideological ancestors created.
Related: New England’s Shortsightedness on Energy Isn’t Just Bad for You, It is Bad for The Green Agenda
As noted here,
The New England energy dearth has been an ongoing concern for years. As reliable energy is decommissioned from the grid, nothing reliable has been proposed to replace it. All while heating oil or gas infrastructure has been delayed, sidetracked, or blocked by environmentalist politicians and their green boots on the ground.
New Hampshire fast-tracked and rubber-stamped a heating assistance bill. You can get a check to help pay for rising heating oil, natural gas/propane, or residential electric bills if eligible. It does nothing to address why these prices have risen and, in some cases, doubled.
Maine tripped over itself to do something similar. Governor Mills’ winter heating assistance plan spends a lot of money because policymakers had their heads up the ass of the green lobby for two decades, and winter has come calling. To be fair some had their heads up their own ass, but the result is similar. It is a dollar-store band-aid that’s going to fall off, but they are pretending this gets them over some hump.
Kirsten Figueroa, the governor’s Commissioner of the Department Appropriations and Financial Affairs, reviewed the provisions, funding sources, and reasons for the $474 million heating aid plan.
More than half of the funds would come from the projected $283 million revenue surplus for the coming year.
Figueroa told the committee, “This bill takes these one-time funding sources to address a hopefully one-time emergency issue to make sure main people have the financial resources to keep them safe, secure, warm and housed this winter.”
Maybe Kirsten thinks Global warming will arrive in time to save them all next fall, but that’s just another lie, like the idea that this is a one-time emergency. Rising fuel and electricity prices are the deliberate result of mostly progressive policy decisions. This is what you wanted.
There is no solution, fake-green or otherwise, that will arise before next winter to pull your fair-trade soy-boy bacon out of this fire (assuming there’s anything with which to start one).
Related: Northeast ‘Energy Policy’ – How About Freezing to Death My Pretties….
And make note of the “projected” 283 million revenue surplus. Democrats are running Maine and were before the midterms. Rule one is to overestimate revenues so those numbers will pay for the planned spending. When the estimates come up short, you deflect the blame to the vagaries of the economy and then make sure everyone knows which vulnerable classes will be harmed if you object to new taxes or hikes in old ones.
The class to which they refer is actually themselves, lobbyists, unions, and grant-grubbing bottom-feeders, but that’s the quiet part no one says out loud. Just keep overestimating so you can raise taxes. It’s how we got New Jersey, New York, California, Massachusetts, etcetera.
Unaffordable budgets, like unaffordable electric rates, all have the same endgame. More government. If a few Mainers need to freeze to death to get there from here, well, they’re sorry the check wasn’t enough. Maybe you should have asked for small bills so you could burn those instead.
The post Maine Legislative Committee Pretends to Address Winter Energy Issues appeared first on Granite Grok.
It took a while for people to realize that Karoline Leavitt was mature enough to send her to Washington to represent New Hampshire’s First Congressional District. She was a young unknown, and though she worked hard to garner support, she did not get ample coverage from the media. She was also at a substantial disadvantage on the money side. Pappas had over $5 Million in his chest, while Leavitt had $3.6 Million in hers. It was a good amount for Leavitt, but she also had a primary to endure.
The scheduling of the NH Primary favors the incumbent. Pappas and Senator Maggie Hassan were in the media a full year before the midterms. They did not have a Primary to contend with, so they spent time and money gaslighting New Hampshire on how incredible they were for the state. With the Primary in September, Leavitt and Don Bolduc had little time to raise funds and formulate a solid midterm plan. I hope the state will push the Primary up in the future. The primary winner needs more time to go head-to-head with the incumbent.
Karoline made no major mistakes and was a solid debater. Her ability to think on the fly showed her grasp of the issues and how well she had prepared. The problem with debates is they are not viewed by many. The one thing we have learned is that elections today are determined by the independents. You will not swing the Democrats and should have the support of the Republicans. But the number of people who define themselves as undeclared is a growing voter block. In my small town, more registered voters are undeclared than Democrats and Republicans combined.
I do not understand why people choose not to declare. These folks used to be called independent, but over the last twenty years, there has been no middle ground in politics. This division makes it extremely difficult to understand the makeup of government in New Hampshire. We have a Republican controlled state government and four Democrats representing us in Washington. It makes no sense.
The next two years are going to be very difficult for Democrat incumbents. If the Border situation remains unchecked, the Fentanyl epidemic a non-issue, and the economy in malaise, those Democrats up for election may find themselves on the outside looking back in. Karoline will be well positioned to take another run at Chris Pappas. She can shed that just-left-college stigma, and people may see her as the vibrant, intelligent woman she is. Hopefully, the Party and the RNC will get behind her and get her the funds she will need to compete on a level field with Pappas.
Karoline has been teasing this week that an announcement is forthcoming on her next move, and obviously, she has to be fully committed if she runs. There are rumors that she may land a contributor position on FOX. That would be a positive should she still have another political run in her system. The exposure would be like free ad spots; she will be treated well with all the Conservatives on the FOX staff. I hope she does return. With her age, energy, and solid Conservative thinking, she can have a long career representing the good people of New Hampshire.
The post Karoline Leavitt for NH-CD1 in 2024 appeared first on Granite Grok.