Saturday • May 4 • 2024
Vol.XVI • No.XVIII
Manchester, N.H.
The headline reads, “New Hampshire charter school enrollment increases 14% in past year” which is good news for parents and students, but is it bad news for public schools?
The department reported there were 4,912 students enrolled in the state’s 28 charter schools as of the start of the 2022-23 school year. That represents 599 more students than the previous school year, when there were 4,313 students overall.
Democrats oppose funding charter schools. They object to tuitioning programs that help our most vulnerable students find the right educational fit. They are not found of Learn Everywhere. Dems also despise the Education Freedom Accounts and, if they had the votes, would undo all of it in a single House session.
They also cling to the lie that allowing some of a town’s education tax dollars to follow the students harms public schools. That it diminishes them in some way.
This is total rubbish.
The School budget gets funded, and even if a student leaves for a charter school, the District keeps most of the money it took from taxpayers to educate a child who is no longer occupying a seat. But it is a lie with a grain of truth. The missing student is a threat of sorts.
If you allow a child to learn outside the corrupting influence of Social Justice influencers, they might learn something. Math, science, history, how to read, critical thinking. These are all a threat to the education establishment and its monopoly. A brand that appeals primarily to progressive partisan politics.
Four thousand nine hundred twelve free-thinking graduates are enough votes to flip a few local races, and those numbers are growing. The current approach at the state level is to add more charter schools. To create more competition. And if you know anything about Democrats and their predisposition, competition is the last thing they want.
So, the Party of choice opposes parental rights and school choice because a mind is a terrible thing to lose to Liberty.
Here’s to hoping those charter numbers grow even more next year.
HT | Valley News
The post NH Public School Enrollment Down While Charter School Enrollment is Up %14 appeared first on Granite Grok.
Joe Biden has obliterated our Southern Border with Mexico in just two years. Under Donald Trump, we had the most secure Border in decades, and the number of illegal crossings was under control.
The Border Patrol and ICE were supported, and the Wall was funded and being built. From day one of the Biden Presidency, Biden has negated every positive action President Trump had enacted, and it had the desired effect. The Border no longer exists, our sovereignty has been destroyed, and millions of unknown, unvetted aliens have flowed into our country. Some say there are 11 million undocumented illegals in the United States. Some say that number may be as high as 30-40 million. To Biden and the Democrats, it is only a number and is not a big deal. There is no limit to the flow of humanity in their mind, and therefore the Border Crisis does not exist.
The Democrats do not see the issue, but the rest of us do, and we know this influx of people from all over the world will change America forever. This unfettered migration is no longer impacting just the Border States. The uncontrolled travel of these people after they are “processed” means that every state has become a Border State. These people are impacting housing, schools, the burden of social welfare programs, and crime. They are destroying any semblance of a plan states had for their future. This is changing the demographics and identity of the United States, not in a good way.
We who are opposed to the Biden “immigration” policy are not being hypocritical. We know that this country was built on immigration and people from every corner of the globe. The merging of these cultures created the patchwork quilt country we love. The number of people allowed to relocate to America each year was controlled. That number depended on Americans’ birth and death rates and how many foreigners we could absorb without taxing our infrastructure and social budgets. Take away those controls, and you have the Biden plan. Open the faucet and let the human flow go. That is Joe’s take on immigration. The Biden Plan is no plan. It is about to get worse.
Depending on how the Courts can stop Biden’s plan, Title 42 is about to end. Title 42 was put in place by Donald Trump to force illegals back into Mexico until they could be vetted and processed. With the end of Title 42, the flow of people will increase and overwhelm our shrinking security forces at what was once our physical Border that defined the geography of America. Our forces are shrinking in two ways. The sheer number of border agents is decreasing, but also is the authority of these men and women. This puts them and our country in danger.
Contrary to Democrat claims, these illegal migrants are not all fleeing from oppressive countries where they are in immediate danger. It is documented that these people come from over 150 countries worldwide. One thing we know is that the vetting process does not exist. We do not know the health of the people crossing or their backgrounds. We know there have been people listed on the terrorist watchlist caught attempting to enter America. We do not know how many have made it through our security. This should scare every American.
Finally, aside from the number of people crossing is the millions of tablets of Fentanyl getting into our country. We know how much is stopped but not what is now in the underbelly of America, killing over 100,000 young people each year. The uncontrolled flow of immigrants and drugs is more than any sovereign country should ever experience. Unfortunately, we are no longer a sovereign country, thanks to Joe Biden.
The post The Southern Border Will Change the Face of America appeared first on Granite Grok.
If you rely on the corporate-media for news, then you probably have no idea that over the past few days massive protests swept China in response to the Party’s Zero-COVID policies. Shamefully, Apple has been helping the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) suppress these protests:
In 2019, @Apple removed an app that helped Hong Kong protesters track the police and they just limited the use of AirDrop in China that anti-lockdown protesters were using to communicate and now they're threatening to de-platform Twitter as videos of protests in China go viral.
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) November 28, 2022
Read that again, please. Apple is threatening to de-platform … essentially cancel Twitter … because Twitter won’t censor what’s going on in China.
Shame on Apple and shame on our “leaders” … you know the ones who wrapped themselves in the Ukrainian flag … for not condemning Apple.
In the interest of balance, I will present what the rebuttal from the Koch/Josiah Bartlett crowd would look like … APPLE IS A PRIVATE COMPANY AND IF THEY WANT TO SUPPORT THE CCP THEY HAVE EVERY RIGHT TO.
Do you get it yet? I’ll spell it out for you. There is no “free market” if a handful of essentially omnipotent corporations can control the narrative. There is no freedom if a handful of essentially omnipotent corporations can control the narrative.
The post How Low Will The Tech-Oligarchs Go … Apple Helps Chinese Communist Party Suppress Protests appeared first on Granite Grok.
We have heard dozens of times in the last couple of years that one thing or another was going to destroy our Democracy. It started with Donald Trump, whose sheer existence was the ultimate threat to our Democracy.
I have to point out that we do not have a democracy in the United States but a republic. There is a tremendous difference, one that is lost on most Democrats. Democrats have no comprehension of the complexity of the Republic and how it allows for every citizen to be of equal importance. The Left would love to see the Republic crumble, the Electoral College abandoned, and the country dominated by the Northeast and Gold Coast elite. That is the Democracy they yearn for with no concern for the middle class or the middle of America. For the Party that always claimed they stood for the little guy, they certainly seem comfortable with their new association with the rich and famous.
Trump was not a big or broad enough target. Hillary set the parameters in 2016 when she included all Republicans in her “Basket of Deplorables.” Some think that may have cost her the election, but it endeared her to her base. You can say that Hillary is a lousy candidate and a miserable manipulative human being, but she is brilliant and knows how to please her followers. That was her goal. Joe took a page from Hillary’s playbook for the midterms and created the Mega MAGAs. He may have stumbled with the phrase and occasionally mispronounced it, but it didn’t matter. The Left loved it, and it worked. Sad, very sad.
Trump has already declared for 2024. Biden has too, but most recognize this will never happen. Trump is not getting the attention I envisioned when he committed. This shun may be due to a new villain on the Democrat list. Elon Musk, a brilliant innovator and darling of the Left with the Tesla, space travel, Space Link, and tunnel-building technology, dared to cross the line by buying Twitter and vowing to return it to its uncensored roots. This man scares the hell out of Democrats. He will reveal the algorithms and the internal memos regarding what and how to censor specific stories that would benefit Democrats. He is going to take us into the sausage factory.
Celebrities are going apoplectic. The White House, specifically Karine Jeanne-Pierre, says they are keeping a close eye on Twitter and will intercede if they get out of line. Out of line means transparent. A transparent Twitter is the latest and most significant threat to Democracy. You can see the panic in their actions and words. The wealthiest man in the world should not have a hand on a social platform. The Justice Department is looking into Musk’s ties with foreign governments. Biden’s ties are not an issue to National Security, but Musk’s are.
The Left had no problem with the Hunter Biden capers being suppressed in 2020. They had no problem with a sitting President being banned from Social platforms. They had no issue with stories about voting irregularities being hushed by msm. Democrats had no concern about the Justice Department and FBI being weaponized against parents who wanted involvement in their children’s education. These hypocrites wish for a controlled flow of information. They want no light shined on the education system that has brainwashed children for decades. These are the things that will kill Democracy. The Left wants Democracy replaced with a controlled, filtered flow of information to the people. When you pull down the shades and prevent the light of transparency, you will bring about a quick death to Democracy. It is pretty clear that this is the plan of the Left. Will the country sit back and let this happen? Only time and the future of our country will tell.
The post How Will Democracy Die appeared first on Granite Grok.
Climate Fraud and its perpetrators (benefactors) continue to insist that they follow the science. Good for you, except for this small problem. There’s nothing scientific about what you do, and science can prove it.
Almost any level of scrutiny unravels the Climate Cult’s fraud, but there’s nothing quite as enjoyable as when someone compares the expert’s testimony then to the same expert testimony now, only to discover it’s not the climate they are interested in at all.
During the 1970s climate scientists blamed the polar vortex on global cooling, but now they blame it on global warming.
HT | RCSB
The post More Climate Cult Fraud Exposed: The Bipolar Vortex appeared first on Granite Grok.
The recount between State Senate Candidates Republican Lou Gargiullo and Democrat Debra Altschiller has been going on for about a week now. Debra Altschiller won the election by 11.4 percentage points or 3,683 votes for District 24.
We want to thank Megan Davis for this Op-Ed – Please direct yours to Editor@GraniteGrok.com.
If you notice the above tally sheet, taken from Debra Altschiller’s Twitter, you will find that Lou Gargiullo was justified when asking for a recount for the election.
If Gargiullo is winning the vote at the time of this photo, I assume that is how the election went.
In the above snapshot from the recount in Hampton, Gargiullo has 118 votes, and Altschiller has 114 votes. That means that Gargiullo is winning by 1%.
How did these two candidates do in the town of Hampton on Nov 8? Altschiller got 1,480 and Gargiullo got 1,299. That means that Altschiller won by 1%.
Thank you, Lou for contesting this vote.
The post Warranted NH Recount appeared first on Granite Grok.
Loyal reader Matt is always sending me stuff – posts from elsewhere as well as a lot of memes; I can only use a small fraction of it but enjoy seeing it come in.
Seeing that I am going to a court hearing a little bit (at the time of this writing, 9 am), I only have a bit of time and this should speak volumes to all of us. President DementiaJoe is now on record in demanding that all semi-automatic weapons be taken away/no longer sold. That would be the majority of the estimated 410 million firearms in the hands of law-abiding citizens.
Note that he NEVER (along with other gun-grabbers and the Civilian Disarmament crowd) ever talks about the amount of gun CRIME that Democrat leaders allow (re: see Chicago) in their controlled urban areas. Take away the five topmost counties for that wonton behavior and the US would be one of the safest nations in the world (subtracting suicides at the same time).
But they always use a bit of Critical Race Theory on us all – we are only a “group” and not Individuals. Thus, whenever anyone in the “group-that-has-a-gun” commits a crime, we ALL must be punished. This is not American jurisprudence in action – it is tribalism and it is about revenge against we who have done no wrong. Note that this is only permissible in one direction – we are not “allowed” to use that same tactic/technique towards them on other issues. If we do, we are the nut-cases, the crazies, and the conspiracy theorists. One way “Otherizing”.
Sidenote: I dryly note that even as Democrats are pro-euthanasia and infanticide-after-abortion murders, they decry only the murders committed with guns…and it’s not the murders they really care about.
Methinks that if Biden was to get his way, “Molon Labe” would come back into style again.
Thanks, Matt!
The post Quick Thought – He’s Right, You Know appeared first on Granite Grok.
The City of Nashua, New Hampshire, took down a “Save Women’s Sports” flag flying on a government building. Even after being notified of the Shurtleff v City of Boston verdict, which clearly upholds equal access under the law, they refused to reinstate it, flagrantly violating the constitution.
Related: Hal Shurtleff on His Free Speech win at the US Supreme Court (Shurtleff v. City of Boston)
Beth Scaer joins Hal to discuss actions from “no puberty blockers for children” to saving women’s sports and wonder out loud — “Where are the women?” “Why are they applauding men winning female beauty contests and competing in women’s sports?”
The audio-only version is available here.
HT | Hal Shurtleff- Catching Fire News
The post Did the City of Nashua, New Hampshire Violate the Constitution? appeared first on Granite Grok.
Iran has been in turmoil for months as women lead a counter-revolution against the oppressive theocratic police state of Iran. Even family members of the Mullahs are stepping up and speaking out. The niece of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had some unkind words for her uncle.
Related: Iranian Women’s Lives Matter, But Neither Hassan Nor Shaheen Seem to Care
“How long do we have to witness oppression by political autocrats in any part of this world? Isn’t the experience of Hitler, Mussolini, Ceaușescu, Gaddafi, Saddam Hussein, Khomeini and his last one, Khamenei, enough?” Moradkhani said.
They arrested Farideh Moradkhani for speaking out.
“For the first time in human history, women are dictating their hidden power over this patriarchal society and showing with all the courage that the place of real power is in the thought and not in the muscle,” Moradkhani said.
Moradkhani called on people worldwide to tell their governments to stop supporting “this murderous and child-killing regime” which she said is not loyal to any of the religious principles of Islam.”The brave Iranians are actually at war with all the governments that support these oppressive rulers,” Moradkhani said.
Is this a good time to remind Democrats that “silence is violence?”
Joe and the Biden Administration Band have been very quiet about the ongoing violence against women and children in the Islamic Republic. The official position appears to be that it’s their thing, and we’re not going to comment. We’re getting the same message on China’s brutal crackdown against protesters.
Are they setting us up for the Biden administration response when Americans finally take to the streets?
Asking for a friend.
HT | UPI
The post Question for Democrats on Iran: I Thought Silence was Violence? appeared first on Granite Grok.
Over the years, I have tried different methods of sticking up for the young lad who was outrageously accused of bombing the Boston Marathon. The methods included writing a book, becoming an amicus curiae, staging a small moot-court appeal in the Watertown Public Library, filing a RICO suit, requesting autopsies for Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Ibragim Todashev, petitioning for a Writ of Error Coram Nobis, and trying to get the judge impeached.
It’s not my job. I do not belong to the Bleeding Hearts Club. Don’t wanna do it anymore. Nevertheless, something made me write a song about the case. Today (November 28, 2022), I video’d myself reading the song aloud. It then struck me that I had always been wasting my time trying to please the court by handling things formalistically. One does this when one is in sniffing distance of a courthouse. It’s a form of virtue signaling. (“Please believe me, Your Honor, I’m legally trained. Yes, whatever you say, Your Honor. I’ll cooperate in every particular. Thank you for honoring me by even looking at me.” Etc.)
I now see that the case against the lad, Dzhokhar (Jahar) Tsarnaev is so ridiculous that no one anywhere should put up with that guy being in prison. He’s in ADX supermax federal prison. Oh, speaking of the fact that it’s a federal prison, please note that one of his crimes (I mean somebody else’s crimes) is the killing of a 27-year-old cop at MIT, Sean Collier. That crime should have been investigated by the state of Massachusetts, and I blame that state for neglecting its duty. The new governor, Her Excellency Maura Healey, should deal with it now.
There I go again! Always trying a second-tier approach. OK, enough. I now offer you my Top Tier approach, and I ask for your support. This has gone on for way too long. Nine years.
[Note: I have nothing to say about the carrying out of a bombing on April 15, 2013, on Boylston St, Boston near the Finish line of the Marathon. I am unable to study it, but have concentrated instead on the FBI’s nominating of 19-year-old Dzhokhar as the bomber. As soon as we clarify that he did not do it, that he was a classic patsy, we can zoom in on the real bombers, can we not?]
The Top Tier Approach
I’ll show the innocence of the accused in direct ways. Here we go:
1. It is said that Dzhikhar’s brother Tamerlan engaged in a shootout on Laurel St, Watertown. One cop, Ric Donahue, was said to have been seriously injured there. It is said that Tamerlan got accidentally run over by his brother (in a carjacked SUV, but that detail doesn’t matter), and bled to death. This is said to have happened at 12:35 am on April 19, 2013, four days after the Marathon.
Well, that is utterly impossible. He is clearly seen on CNN, live broadcast, around 1:05 am in good health. Not run over, not shot at, not bleeding. The CNN photographer, Gabe Ramirez, made a booboo by showing this scene in which the naked Tamerlan is being put into a cop car, as it negates the story of the Laurel St shootout.
Oh, and by the way, Tamerlan was pronounced dead at some point before 6 am, which means of course that he was killed in custody. “They” did not want him alive, as he was to be used to close out the case of the Marathon bombing, which, as you can now see, was done by someone else. I hope you are aware that the killing off of a patsy is standard office procedure.
2. A similar story involves the brother Dzhokhar, whom I refer to by the nickname Jahar. He, too, is said to have participated in the Laurel St shootout, indeed to have thrown an IED incendiary explosive device. (Drama!) That shootout occurred (but with other patsies) at 12.35 am. Ridiculously, Jahar is said to have escaped by car, and then abandoned the car, and was followed on foot by an officer who failed to catch him. I mean, come on.
The action then ended, but at daybreak, the MANHUNT began. This involved troops fully armed, entering the homes of many residents of Watertown and causing trauma. For unknown reasons the governor lifted the curfew at 7 pm, whereupon one man, David Henneberry, went out to his yard for a smoke. His shrink-wrapped boat was there. He allegedly peeked into it and saw blood. So he called 911.
But how did blood get there? The military flew helicopters with infrared cameras, which revealed a body in the boat, not moving. I venture to guess Jahar had been drugged and placed there in order to be killed. A very large number of cops shot 228 bullets into the boat. I asked Sgt John McLennan of the Watertown police about this. He said they were not his men, they were from “agencies.” Please note that in America, we capture a suspect live, we don’t kill him.
On TV we could see the boy, Jahar, standing up getting ready to exit the boat. He is in good shape. No facial injury and no bending over in pain. We can all see a red laser light on his forehead as though the cops will kill him, which I grant could be justified if he presents a threat. Yet as soon as he enters Beth Israel hospital, he is declared to have all sorts of wounds needing surgery. How did he acquire those many wounds?
I deduce that he got wounded after he was captured. I think it’s obvious that the plan was to get rid of him, just as they got rid of Tamerlan, so he could not talk and refute the fairy story about being a Muslim jihadist who bombed a public event to show his hatred for America. Even months later, when we saw him on TV in a prison cell (giving the camera the finger), his face was lopsided.
Oh, I forgot to say that Jeff Campbell, member of the Special Team, said he saw a wound on Jahar’s neck that appeared to have been made by a knife. He told that to CNN’s Anderson Cooper who certainly did not inquire further about it. Have you noticed that reporters don’t ask probing questions anymore?
Are Two Deaths Enough?
So the point was to kill both brothers, although we must admit, one survived. But there was another lad down in Orlando Florida — Ibragim Todashev — who would have enough information (perhaps about Tamerlan being an FBI informant) to upset the applecart. So he had to be killed and indeed was admittedly killed by the FBI. Three of them, plus a Florida state trooper, went to his home allegedly to take a statement. This is contrary to policy, he should have been told to go to their office. After many hours they shot him dead. It is said that he tried to throw a table at one of them. Note: earlier they said he took a samurai sword down from the wall. “Whatever.”
Another death had to be taken care of. The fiction authors of the Marathon bombing story included a couple of colorful scenes depicting the Tsarnaev brothers as fugitives. One scene was a carjacking of the rented SUV of Dun Meng, a Northeastern university student. The point of this for the “plot” was to have Tamerlan confess that he was the bomber, and it also made the SUV the means by which police could track this ‘confessed bomber’ as he drove to Watertown. (The carjackee, Dun Meng, ran away and was able to alert police.)
In fact, Meng allegedly also heard Tamerlan divulge voluntarily that he had just killed the MIT cop. This is the sole basis — and it is no basis at all — for Jahar to have been charged with the murder of that cop, Sean Collier. May I point out, since I have abjured virtue-signaling, that no Boston based guy would dream of entering the formidable MIT campus for purpose of stealing a gun randomly from a cop. Yet that is what the brothers were accused of doing. Makes you wonder if the jurors were plants. Your average Bostonian is not stupid. How could they take all this nonsense on board?
End of Story
I shan’t keep you occupied with any more of the dozens of things I could tell you to demolish this case. If you can’t figure out from the above 4 deaths (Jahar qualifying as a failed death) that the whole system is rotten, no amount of evidence will sway you. You are devoted to the media’s story, and so Jahar must be guilty and worthy of the hangman’s rope. You’ve been had.
Who will join me in marching to the SDX Bastille to spring the prisoner? Are you willing to travel sans culotte to the wintry yards of ADX Colorado? Will you think of a better way for us in New England to say “Enough, enough!” Will you write a song?
The post It Is Completely Impossible To NOT Acquit Tsarnaev appeared first on Granite Grok.
Lord Fauci is infamous for noting that there was no reason for people without symptoms to wear a mask. This made sense because the research said masking healthy people was pointless. Not long after, Fauci flip-flopped, so lawyers asked him about it under oath.
Related: Certified Industrial Hygienist Stephen Petty’s Senate Testimony on Why Masks Don’t or Can’t Work
Among his many public and private statements, he wrote in a Feb. 5, 2020, email that “the typical mask you buy in the drug store is not really effective in keeping out virus, which is small enough to pass through the material.”
About two months later, Fauci and other top officials reversed course and issued widespread masking recommendations, regardless of symptoms.
Asked about the change while under oath on Nov. 23, Fauci couldn’t provide any studies, according to lawyers representing plaintiffs in a case against the federal government.
“He was asked what studies or study changed his mind in that interim, which is what he claimed—he claimed that it was studied. He couldn’t name any,” Jenin Younes, one of the lawyers, told The Epoch Times.
Masks became the very public face of the COID Cult, but their application was no less of a mystery than Fauci’s flip-flop. You were safe at a table in a crowded restaurant sans mask, but if you stood up to use the restroom without it, you’d get stern looks from the COVID Karens because everyone was suddenly at risk. But it made for entertaining blog content.
On Organization day for the state legislature, several Republicans were maskless. Democrats lost their hive mind, but since none of what they peddled as safety makes sense, I wrote this:
Following the CDC guidelines matters … So, if Republicans at organization day were pictured sitting at tables talking to a waiter or waitress and each other, this would all mean nothing. Which is to say, it still means nothing.
Face coverings are no more or less of a deterrent to the spread of SARS CoV2 than tables or waitresses. These are all just affectations.
And Fauci could not name a single study under oath that informed his decision to recommend masks because no such analysis would have justified the change.
After the recommendation to mask, it became a priority to craft some research, and they did, much the way they made up a story to destroy the reputation of Hydroxychloroquine. Hit pieces were designed, after the fact, to justify another government intrusion on liberty.
An affectation that was ineffective against the stated purpose and unhealthy in the name of public health.
And Big Medicine is wondering why a growing portion of the US population no longer trusts them. They can start by refusing to put up with asshats like Anthony Fauci, but that ship may have sailed with the pleasure barge paid for by Big Pharma on which many of these medical professionals are present.
Or is, is the fear of partisan political retribution that has you mum?
In either case, you’ll need to change the institutional notion of “first, do no harm” to “first, do no harm to your career.”
The post Under Oath, Fauci Can’t Name A Single Study That Justified Mass-Masking appeared first on Granite Grok.
If there was any doubt about where today’s military leaders stand on the woke agenda, Admiral Michael Gilday cleared it up in his recent congressional testimony. Rep. Jim Banks was asking the admiral about the suitability of a particular book on the navy’s recommended reading list. Among the outrageous claims in the book, the author argues that our country and our military are fundamentally racist. Banks asked the admiral how that book, and its presumption of systemic racism contribute in any way to morale and cohesion in our military forces.
Gilday responded: “I do know this: Our strength is in our diversity…”
It was the kind of response we might expect from a Miss America contender, nervously trying to explain why America is so great. Coming from a senior naval officer – the chief of naval operations – it was both astonishing and unnerving.
It was the kind of meaningless pablum liberals toss around to justify quota systems, discriminatory college admissions, and open borders. It’s never followed up with an explanation of just how diversity strengthens anything – especially our armed forces.
Most Americans abhor racism, and they welcome diversity in the workforce. But left-wing idealogues have become obsessed with it. They’ve managed to link racial imbalance to the illegal practice of discrimination. The fact is, the two are not necessarily connected. The vast majority of players in the NFL, for example, are people of color.
When leaders succumb to unwarranted pressure to diversify their workforce, time-honored guidelines and standards are inevitably waived or eliminated, and the organizations they lead becomes weaker, not stronger.
No organization can maximize its potential if it aims to artificially create a workforce that matches the make-up of our society at large. By focusing on diversity, equity, and inclusion, it’s too easy to overlook the most competent, the brightest, and the most dedicated people – the ones who truly strengthen any given organization.
We would expect that our commercial airline pilots, our surgeons, and others who hold human life in their hands were chosen for those positions because of their competence, and not because they filled a quota. So how does it strengthen our military if the men and women tasked with keeping America safe are selected and promoted for that reason – simply to make our military more diverse?
People like Gilday probably believe they’re on the right side. They see themselves as social justice warriors, crusaders against racism. But racist, anti-American literature, like the book Gilday was defending, does nothing to promote racial harmony or bolster morale or military cohesion. Writing like that stimulates, propagates, and perpetuates racial animus. And, unfortunately, woke gibberish, even when spoken by naval officers, can’t eliminate those residual, isolated cases of racism that still exist in our society.
Besides, woke warriors are never satisfied. Their goalposts keep moving, and their demands for diversity are never satiated. They’re always looking for another minority or special interest group that feels under-appreciated, demanding their seat at the table. Under the banner of diversity, equity, and inclusion, it’s only a matter of time before more trend-setters like Rachel Levine are vying for Gilday’s position.
It’s safe to say that most Americans watching Admiral Gilday’s testimony would have felt more confident in his leadership if he had told Rep. Banks that: “Racism is wrong. Critical race theory is wrong. Our strength is in our people – the very best, most dedicated people we can find – regardless of race, creed, or gender.”
Gilday is not the only senior military officer who chose to carry the woke guidon. During a congressional hearing, General Mark Miley, Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff, said that he wanted to better understand white rage. Like the term, white guilt, it’s another feel-bad expression introduced by woke warriors, intended to inflict shame on innocent Americans who have long ago embraced the Civil Rights Act and the concept of racial equality. Miley’s confusion over the new terminology is clear. He seemed to think that white rage had something to do with the January 6th incident at the Capitol.
In the best-case scenario, these military commanders haven’t really bought-in to the woke propaganda they’re spewing. If we’re lucky, they’re just kowtowing to a Commander-in-Chief who clearly has. Perhaps when Joe Biden leaves office, he’ll take his woke ideology with him, and our military leaders will experience a Colonel Nicholson moment, slapping their foreheads while muttering, “What have I done?”
It might help them to look back to the words attributed to an undisputed leader in history, Alexander the Great: “I am not afraid of an Army of lions lead by a sheep; I am afraid of sheep lead by a lion.”
The post How Can Woke Warriors Command an Unsurpassed Fighting Force? appeared first on Granite Grok.
I briefly spoke to a group of newly elected NH House reps a few weeks back. Present at the function were members of NH Republican House “Leadership.” I noted the slim nature of their majority and said that we (GraniteGrok) might be able to help them with critical priorities.
That they should let us know.
Stone-faced Moa statues that lot, though I understand they spoke with Skip (later at a social event after the primary function) when he walked up to them. He said they were cordial.
If you failed to notice, we are not here for the “republican party.” We bash everyone equally because we are here for the principles. Ideas that most Democrats oppose and for which too many ‘republicans’ once stood or claimed to support or defend. When they do, we might give praise. When they don’t, it can get ugly.
That will continue until they water them down, and we can no longer support the party. The product of that mission is evident on these pages. We take Republicans to the woodshed the way you’d treat a cheating spouse.
Skip was so livid at their failures of conscience at one point that he divorced them; left the party. And many of us may have agreed with his why, but not all of us did that.
We often disagree on the finer points of policy, tactics, diplomacy, or candidate endorsements, to name a few. My point is that Granite Grok is not some monolithic establishment that demands obedience to some preset ideals. From 20,000 feet, sure, but as you dive down, there are differences of opinion that can come across as catty.
To help you understand how misunderstood this is, I was at a party, and someone who was in Republican leadership at the time scowled at me and said something about his being called a RINO on my website. My first thought was, were you being a RINO? What I said was, feel free to send me an op-ed refuting the accusations, and we’ll let the community decide. No message ever arrived, but my sense at the time was that because someone had said it on our pages, I had also “said it.”
Nope. That’s not how it works. It didn’t work that way when I was just another author, nor now as a co-owner and the guy who ensures we have content daily. My opinion is my own, which applies to everyone who writes or submits content we publish.
If Ed Mosca rakes you over the coals, take it up with Ed. You can write to me and complain about him, but I will tell you the same thing I said to the Republican at the party. Write a rebuttal, prove him wrong or misleading or missing details, and we’ll let the community hash it out.
Other authors’ problems with the way you “Republican” (or Democrat or Free State, or whatever) are not necessarily mine. And mine are not theirs. That’s not to say that if you email me and I decide to look into it, I might not pick a side, and it might not be theirs or yours.
GraniteGrok’s rule number two is to write about whatever you want. Rule number one is adult themes but “kid” friendly (and I don’t mean public school library groomer kid friendly). They can write about anything, usually politics, but those words and ideas belong to them. And while the odds are good that most of the words will be agreeable to a majority of ‘Grok authors, that’s not required in part or whole.
And the fact that we (or any Grokster) did not make time to dispute, question, or debate any published point by anyone else is not an endorsement of their speech.
But with the new session of the State legislature upon us and a razor-thin majority at play, I figured this was an excellent time to remind everyone, including Party Leadership, that Janet Jackson had it right when she said, “What have you done for me lately?”
Or, given that we’re small government folk, “what have you undone for me lately?” And you are always invited to disagree.
As you were.
(Note: I bolded that undone for Steve – I just had to do it as it is almost more important than doing. Heck, it IS more important! -Skip)
The post Housekeeping: One Grokster’s Opinion is Not ‘Our’ Opinion – We are Not a Monolithic Hive Mind appeared first on Granite Grok.
Donald Yacavone is a self-described scholar and lifetime associate of African American studies at Harvard University. He visited the Norwich Bookstore last week to speak about his new book “Teaching White Supremacy”: America’s Democratic Ordeal and the Forging of Our National Identity”. Having seen the announcement on the Hanover Listserv, I was struck by this statement:
“Yacavone lays out the arc of America’s white supremacy from the country’s inception and Revolutionary War years to its nineteenth-century flashpoint of civil war to the civil rights movement of the 1960s and today’s Black Lives Matter.”
The inclusion of Black Lives Matter as a source of cultural necessity rather than as a denunciation of encroaching Marxism had me wondering if the author was another elite socialist masquerading as a scholar.
The term white supremacy, like racism, is losing its meaning from sheer overuse. Like so many other monikers created by the Marxists, it is being used as a combination warning label and insult to denigrate and defame anyone who is not a Marxist. A lack of linguistic integrity in both meaning and purpose is essential to effective political Marxism.
I have the distinct pleasure of having a brother who was a member of a white supremacist group throughout his teen years. His brief stint in prison in his early twenties, where racial supremacist groups/gangs are a matter of survival, only strengthened this twisted ideological view of his fellow man, and this despite having lived for a short period in a foster home run by a black family. Oddly, his time with them was not bad because of them or their race, they were Christians who treated him well. His bitterness was from the letdown suffered by our mom leaving our adulterous father. Essentially, he was fatherless by the age of three, which, like with so many young men, caused a cascade of emotional instability that made him susceptible to gang manipulation. In his case, it was the skinheads/Aryan Brotherhood. For a boy dealing with rejection and inferiority brought about by a deadbeat dad, the idea of being accepted in a superior group is comforting.
Why would I refer to this as a distinct pleasure? Because today my brother is also a Christian who no longer holds his white supremacist worldview. Sure, he still has a rough-around-the-edges way about him, and his opinions regarding people aren’t as refined as say a Harvard intellectual, but they’re also not as absurd. My brother is one of many redemption stories of fatherlessness wreaking havoc only to find an Almighty Father who can make all things new.
I grew up with the same parenting yet never embraced racial hatred. My best friend through middle school into high school, Lanny (short for Orlando), was mulatto and my friend group, largely thanks to sports, was as multicultural as it gets: Scott Lee (Chinese), Mike Nguyen (Vietnamese), Steve Amato (Italian-Jew), Benish Tharakan (Indian), Brian Williams (Native American) Raymond Nacoste (African American), Josh Rodriguez (Mexican), etc. My school was full of all types of ethnicities and virtually none of us held racial animus toward anyone. There were a few in our neighborhood but we all knew who they were, they ostracized themselves, and we shared a certain pity laced with hope for their eventual emancipation from bigotry.
Yacavone begins by claiming he set out to write about the abolitionists only to be inundated with textbooks in the Harvard Library system, mostly from the 1800s, that contained, to his dismay, blatant examples of pedagogical white supremacy. With the erudite sensitivity of a man of Ivy League culture, he pleads his case to an ironically all-white room in the wealthiest town in Vermont. A lone young black woman there to film the event sits at the back. She wears a mask and has a bright rainbow Black Lives Matter patch on her denim jacket. The spirit of progressivism is in the air.
Yacavone’s voice timbers as he recounts the shocking things said by men once considered great by other Americans. His eyes search the room for allies who agree America has always been naughty.
Certainly, the quotes he shares reveal a level of scientific ignorance common at those times. Not unlike the modern Ivy League, the people back then were quick to adopt the latest thing, in their case the idea of race and racial superiority. Though quick to name names Yacavone oddly left out mention of Charles Darwin, who authored perhaps the two greatest texts of white supremacy. Darwin describes native Australians, Mongolians, Africans, Polynesians, and Eskimos as “savages” 180 times in his book Descent of Man & 14 times in his first book, Origin of the Species. I wonder how he missed that.
Yacavone seems less interested in exposing the roots of white supremacy rather than hanging the guilt of adopting it on all of American history. Almost triumphantly he walks us back down corridors of American history to remind us of how ugly, benighted and naive we were as infants. He does so with an implicit moral authority although never tells us from whence his superior morality comes. Like with his audience’s political leanings, it’s assumed.
I can’t help but notice his examples run dry around the 1950s. After that, he relies on anecdotes, one from his hometown in Medford, Massachusetts. We learn of a black girl who says her time at school there caused her to hate being black. We don’t learn why she said it, or from what textbooks, just that she felt that way. This is not scholarship, this is gossip.
Yacavone summons us to recoil with similar horror from a story of a seventh-grade class of black children told by someone at the Boston Children’s Museum that they are not allowed to bring “food, water or watermelon” in with them. Likewise, this proves nothing about white supremacy from American texts as much as it does about a common ignorance of stereotyping and simple stupidity.
I am not Ivy League material, nor have I ever been more thankful for that fact. Yet I can see through Mr. Yacavone’s shoddy approach and incongruent argumentation. However he wasn’t there to win critical thinkers like me over, he was there to sell books to members of the cult of ideological supremacy. He’s a Marxist, whether he admits it or not, and they are the fastest-growing cult in America, and well-established in Cambridge book circles.
How can I say this with confidence? Rather than read the first part of his book, which is to watch him dig up the bones of ignorant Americans and slap them for being dead, I skip to the last chapter titled Renewing the Challenge. What is the threat today I wonder? Who is still teaching white supremacy in our schools? Turns out its Marxists like Mr. Yacavone who can’t accept what the rest of the country already had when we celebrated Sidney Poitier, Aretha Franklin, MLK, Clarence Thomas, Barbara Boxer, Condoleeza Rice, Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Denzel Washingon, Oprah Winfrey, and Barack Obama. The living proof that America is not racist nor does it continue to espouse white supremacy, which may be, for Marxists like Yacavone, its greatest sin.
The post Teaching White Supremacy: Part 1 appeared first on Granite Grok.
In the late 50s into the 60s, Mao’s Communist China was convinced that the USSR had devolved into some pro-Bourgeoisie fascism. It was a significant point of disagreement. All it was was something other than Mao’s Marxism, and that interpretation is accurate for everything on the political left.
Fascism, or National Socialism, is Marxism/Communism/Leninism in any form that some other Marxists deem not Marxism.
Some modern Marxists may love China’s current version of Communism with Chinese Characteristics, but China’s Marxist brain trust a few decades earlier would name it a Fascist nation.
Joe Biden’s America is nearly a fascist nation by these standards or striving to be one. Fascist Governments are (simplified) communists who control property and production without owning it. But one could argue that given the character of Biden’s Administration and the goals of elected Democrats, the plan is to use fascism as a vehicle for Marxism while accusing everyone to their right (The way China had) of being the fascists.
No, the American Federal Government does not own or control the means of production, but they have oligarchs in Energy, Public Health, and increasingly in other sectors of the economy. And the accumulation of our National debt creates an excuse for a massive confiscation of private property (to save the nation or something). To do that, they will need a police state mentality or its equivalent, and such despotisms are inherently fascist.
And they insist we are the fascists.
So, are we fascists? Our authors and readers seek as little government power as possible to ensure maximum liberty without the historical chaos of anarchy. More private property, not less. Their goal is fewer intrusions by the government into the private sector because they distort the free market and price signals, and so on.
In other words, US Democrats call us fascists because we are to the right of them (and as projection, yes), but as long as no one challenges their definition of what a fascist is until they show people what it is and by then, it will be too late.
And they may still succeed, but there’s a problem. We have over 70 years of Marxist thought, which tells us that Fascists are just Marxists doing it wrong or not doing it correctly. We also know that Fascism, Socialism, and Democratic-Socialism all have the same goal. Marxism.
You only need to look at the power structure and methods of rule in each system to understand how closely related they are and how they share similar goals. What else can we do (and I mean, you, us, anyone) to help people understand these rudimentary facts?
It’s easy enough to see when you look at how they operate alongside each other. How do we break the Left’s Fascism narrative control and help people see the truth of it?
Anyone who disagrees with them is a fascist, no matter what their political inclinations.
The post A Quick Word about The Democrat Party’s Fascism appeared first on Granite Grok.
Once again, Douglas Lambert has fallen off the Political High Wire Act that has always been his downfall. His hubris has caused him to believe, again (like the Ray Buckley incident) that he was politically invulnerable and impervious to any reaction. He needs to RESIGN NOW from being an NH GOP Delegate and his Commissioner office. There should be no impropriety from those that are elected representatives.
What will the NH GOP Chair Steve Stepanek and Executive Director Elliot Gault do about that first title and what are the two other Gunstock Area Commissioners, Wood and Conroy (who seem to be “pro-feminists” in outlook), going to do about the second? After all, the Simple Assault, a Criminal Misdemeanor, was committed against a female during the October Belknap County Republican Committee and caught on three GraniteGrok cameras:
There was enough in this video for the Gilford Police to take note and file a report. Yesterday, Douglas Lambert was arrested, booked, and charges brought by the Gilford Police Department.
There was also sufficient evidence in the video that a Judge has taken this charge to the next step in the process. I was to have the charges already but Life intruded.
The hearing is tomorrow at the Belknap County Superior Court (Court Street, Laconia) at 11am for an additional restraining order by the victim to keep Lambert away from her. Again, the Judge thought that there was sufficient merit to have scheduled a hearing rather than simply throwing the whole thing out of court.
That was the standing by Lambert – that it was a simple misunderstanding and that there was nothing there in the below video and it all should have been dismissed. After reading the charges, I’ll be doing a more complete fisking of his own words in the video below versus what the charges hold later. Certainly, there was enough there “there” such that Douglas Lambert was stripped of his Belknap County Republican Committee General Membership status by the General Members at the November BCRC Meeting by a vote of 23 to 13 (3 abstentions):
And yes, the charge is public record – the Gilford Police Log:
Gilford Police Department Page: 1
Dispatch Log From: 11/08/2022 Thru: 11/08/2022 0000 – 2359 Printed: 11/09/2022For Date: 11/08/2022 – Tuesday
Time Call Reason
<snip>
1050 Service of Paperwork
Location/Address: FARMER DR
Oh, and let’s not forget that Douglas tried to intimidate me back in August to silence me in all this foolferol concerning Gunstock by accusing me of stealing his wife’s identity and pointing his bony finger in telling his lawyer that I’m a great suspect:
I do wonder if his wife still doesn’t know that he sent this to me? In any case, I’ve not heard from Lambert nor his lawyer about this “issue”. Nor did Lambert ever forward that “threatening” voice mail he alleges that I sent. My promise still stands – send it and I’ll post it no matter if it makes me look good or bad. Frankly, I don’t think there is one that makes him look better than I or he would have sent it already.
I am planning on being that hearing with cameras and if he decided to have me called to the stand, I’ll show the judge that text as to “temperment, intent, and motive” on my phone.
Speaking of his vaunted “the bony finger” imagery that he is oft wanting to do verbally, I just have to include it in this post as it was wagged in my face after he was kicked out of the meeting:
Dang, how did those words get in there?
The post NH GOP Delegate and Gunstock Area Commissioner Douglas Lambert Arrested and Charged with Simple Assault appeared first on Granite Grok.
Every option for schooling has been overrun by the left. We are seeing more and more homeschooling from this. There are no viable options for schools. With no options out there homeschooling is the only option on the table in this day in age.
The post Public, Private, and Charter Schools, and What’s Wrong With Them All appeared first on The Liberty Block.
Here is a brilliant strategy … if you want to lose (AGAIN) in 2024. Continue to mock and insult Trump voters. Continue to pretend that the 2020 election was the safest, most secure, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, election in history, that Zuckerbucks didn’t matter, that the censorship of the Hunter laptop didn’t matter, etc. etc. etc.:
Of course, as I have said before, “winning” to GOP-eunuchs like Mikey Graham and Patsy Hynes does NOT mean beating the Democrats. It means controlling the Party … which is why they continue to be obsessed with Trump.
This loser-mentality is not manifested just in Trump-derangement. Check out this tweet from one of the “intellectual leaders” of the GOP. Send me to Concord, so I can fight for the big developers!
I just can’t wait to vote in 2024 to increase the profit margins of big developers! (HEAVY, HEAVY, HEAVY sarcasm.) And yet some people wonder why the NHGOP can’t turn out voters. This is a great message IF your universe of voters are KOCH-bots. As election after election after election shows us, the Koch-themes do NOT resonate in New Hampshire.
The post The NHGOP Does NOT Want To Win appeared first on Granite Grok.
A grand jury has indicted Democrat County Supervisor Trey Adkins on 82 felony counts of election fraud, including having “relied on an illegal absentee vote harvesting scheme since he was first elected to public office in 2011, repeating the process in his 2015 and 2019 bids for re-election.”
Investigations have shown that the scheme included hundreds of absentee ballots per election cycle and Adkins, with the help of his aunt, is said to have personally run the operation, showing up at the homes of voters himself with absentee applications and ballots to ensure he would have their vote. As Buchanan County is a small community, the margin of victory in Adkins’ election was only within a couple of hundred votes, giving his scheme all the more impact.
Trey’s aunt was also involved: Sherry Lynn Bailey, … “is facing 12 charges (including)4 counts of False Statement – Election Fraud, 4 counts of Conspiracy to Make a False Statement, and 4 counts of Forgery of Public Record.”
So there are Democrats who have, for at least a decade, been using mail-in ballots to steal elections and relatives of those candidates willing to help.
Before you get too excited, you must remember what Biden, Democrats, and the press have been telling us. We have safe, secure election in the United States. The Virginia state police, courts, and anyone else who believes Adkins is guilty of mail ballot fraud is just an election denier.
And anyone who calls you that is an Election Fraud Denier.
HT | National File
The post Democrat Indicted on 82 Felony Counts Including Illegal Absentee Vote Harvesting Scheme appeared first on Granite Grok.
They’re flying so thick and fast it is amazing. And take heart – there will be a Meme Overflow and I will back-edit to include the link. And there will likely be a Friday Meme Overflow-Overflow. Last week’s Overflow.
Remember, ridicule and mockery are effective weapons:
Now, let the mockery and mayhem begin.
*** Warning, a few possibly off-color ones, in case tender eyes are about ***
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But first, a random sampling of three of my cartoons. Please note these are my concepts but I pay a professional to do them.
Buy the coffee mug!
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I’ve been skeptical of Michelle Obama being a tranny. But a number of pictures have shown up from across Obama’s early years with Barackus and Michael, described as his “close friend”. The faces do bear an uncanny resemblance.
There was one picture, though, that – assuming no editing – cemented it for me (wish I’d saved it). A deformity on “Michael’s” arm… scar or birth defect, I’m not sure. And it matches “Michelle’s” arm. Now, this. And I’ve seen a video of Barackus saying MICHAEL. (Again, assuming no editing or deep-faking.)
Like Barackus’ “slip” My Muslim faith… in which, whether as a Jew or formerly as an atheist, I cannot imagine making that kind of a slip.
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To all those who say “That couldn’t happen here”… there are 20 million Ukrainians dead in the Holodomor that were starved to death in an attempt to create the Socialist Utopia.
The world has seen over 100 million civilians murdered in the pursuit of Socialism.
Remember that Trump was rolling all that back. He was, indeed, making America great again. And to the Socialist, this was anathema. He HAD TO BE STOPPED. So, given the perspective that they’ve murdered millions, what’s a million-odd Americans to stop their hated enemy? I am firmly convinced the Democrats aided and abetted the importation and spread of Covid, as well as helping the body count, to discredit Trump.
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Hence the open war on history, on every tradition, on the family, on everything that has made America specifically, and Western Civilization generally, great. You cannot honestly tell me you can look at what’s happening with all the “woke” stuff and not see the above being done.
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Good catch! That cannot be accidental.
I was discussing this, and similar, things with people on Telegram. One thing I noted was Thomas Sowell’s observation that – if you are of the Elite mentality – you cannot believe the same thing as the “seething masses”. For how can you be superior if you believe the same thing the common man believes. Thus, the Elites MUST adopt beliefs that “set them apart”. If the common man believes pedoville is a bad place to be, you MUST think the opposite. This applies to almost everything they choose to believe. Try it as a thought exercise.
Knowing your enemy includes understanding how they think, and what motivates them. EGO in this case is their motivator: the belief they really are made from finer clay.
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Pick of the post:
Truth.
Now, some government is necessary. But not the level we have now.
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Palate Cleansers:
‘Do something wonderful, people may imitate it.”
– Albert Schweitzer
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The post MONDAY MEMES appeared first on Granite Grok.