The Manchester Free Press

Tuesday • December 10 • 2024

Vol.XVI • No.L

Manchester, N.H.

Florida’s Surgeon General Takes CDC and FDA to the COVID19 Woodshed

Granite Grok - Sat, 2023-05-13 22:30 +0000

The Surgeon General for the state of Florida, Dr. Joseph A. Ladapo, is not well-liked among the liberal intelligentsia. Sure, he’s a successful black man, but that is overshadowed by his refusal to parrot the approved public health narratives.

He’s also Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Surgeon General, which permits the left to indiscriminately discriminate with offensive and racist epithets. The latest outrage, like many before it, started with a tweet.

 

Even with the Pfizer docs available and fisked by third parties – to reveal all the deceptions and obfuscations – the Public Health Industrial Complex can’t bring itself to speak the truth.

 

Florida Surgeon-General Dr. Joseph A. Ladapo letter 1 of 3 Florida Surgeon-General Dr. Joseph A. Ladapo letter 2 of 3 Florida Surgeon-General Dr. Joseph A. Ladapo letter 3 of 3

 

HT | NewsWars

The post Florida’s Surgeon General Takes CDC and FDA to the COVID19 Woodshed appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

Trump Breaks CNN….Again

Granite Grok - Sat, 2023-05-13 21:00 +0000

In case you missed it Donald Trump graciously allowed CNN to interview him by way of interrogation on Wednesday night in Concord, NH.  Emerging to loud applause the embattled former president graciously took a seat next to CNN hopeful Kaitlin Collins who proceeded to wage a mockery of an pre-election inquiry.

CNN has been credited with appearing to return to their once “most trusted name in news” style of unbiased reporting under new management, but it is clear their old habits are hard to break.  Such is the bane of the hopeless elitist ideologues, but at least they deserve credit for trying.

Collins has a history with president Trump who shut her down on multiple occasions in public during his presidency.  Though the introduction and first few moments were cordial, it didn’t take long for Collins to maneuver the dialogue to a series of “gotcha” type sound bites they no doubt were desperate to obtain.

Rather than sit through the CNN broadcast and be pummeled by Pfizer advertisements during the breaks, I decided to watch the Louder With (Steven) Crowder coverage and play along to the drinking game with a nice Temperanillo and cigar.  The rules for taking a drink were:

  • Any mention of January 6th or insurrection
  • Trump says “excuse me”
  • Trump insults the hostess
  • Trump’s impeachments are mentioned
  • Trump drops a “thug life” moment

The nice thing about this format is it made the obvious hit piece much more tolerable given I had to drink rapidly within the first ten minutes.  Luckily it slowed down after that.

Collins asked leading questions attempting to get the unleashed MAGA-log-maniac to heel, only to be reminded why the country picked him and still loves him – he has ZERO respect for the establishment or the elite nor their media lap dogs.

Very clearly commanding the stage Trump would answer her questions in his candidly Trumpian way with her bravely interrupting him to interject her attempted counter-trump cards, such as “will you accept the results of the 2020 election?”  Whatever your feelings about Trump, he remained true to form and would not budge an inch.  This is called integrity.

She moved on to the recent E. Jean Carroll case Trump ostensibly lost calling it “sexual assault” when the verdict was for defamation and battery.  CNN’s mistake was allowing Trump to speak which is when he reminds the audience of how crazy the woman is.  Not admissible in court was her dog’s name “vagina” which Trump enunciated in his uniquely NY accent – which rose to the level of a thug-life moment and one more drink.  For those wondering if this Carroll woman is yet another story-teller I suggest you check out Mr. Reagan’s take.  It appears she may have based her story on a Law and Order episode.  The similarities are uncanny, as was the way she related the story without remorse to Anderson Cooper.

Collins tried to capitalize on the crowd’s questions offered to Trump, which included how he’d handle the war in Ukraine.  “I’d end it in 24 hours” he says, followed by rauckus applause.  The hostess, clad in her virginal white pant suit, attempts to take the moral high ground and get him to stand with Ukraine by suggesting “don’t you want Ukraine to win”.  Trump brings it back to the need to stop the human carnage, and we’re again reminded of his humanity, often overlooked by his critics.

Other topics included: Roe v. Wade, a victory for Trump who loves babies; mass shootings and gun laws, where he focused on mental illness; and the high cost of living under Biden, which was a slam dunk for his economic record including low gas prices.  “Drill baby drill” he said, and we all happily drank to that.

CNN had the event scheduled for 90 minutes only to cut it short at 75 minutes because the hostesses pretty pant-suit was stained red from the absolute beating she was taking.  Though they love to dish it out they can’t take it, which was made evident by the stunned dialogue from the talking heads at the home studio.

CNN to Trump is like Wile E. Coyote to the Road Runner.  Their seemingly endless amounts of Acme props brought out to destroy him in fantastic fashion nearly always backfire in their faces.  Cartoonish and brutish they sally forth for yet another stab at him as if they were goring a bull in a stadium full of adoring fans.

Not that night in Concord though.  The crowd still had that “live free or die” vibe we know and love from the Granite staters.  They applauded the champ multiple times and even boo’d the media darling.

Hats of to the bull.

The post Trump Breaks CNN….Again appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

2A Happy Ending – Guy Walking His Dog Encouters a Battered Woman Fleeing Her Boyfriend, and Guess What?

Granite Grok - Sat, 2023-05-13 19:30 +0000

This seems to be a question I keep asking a lot lately – and it applies here: “What is it about me that I know but that you don’t – but should.” Moral of the Day: Don’t threaten to hurt a man you don’t know is carrying and willing to defend the girlfriend you beat up.

Reformatted, emphasis mine

A concealed carrier fatally shot a man who allegedly threatened to harm him while aggressively approaching him early Monday morning in Maryland. Police were called to the 2900 block of Sedgemore Place in Bryans Road around 3:30 a.m. for a report of a domestic assault in progress, Southern Maryland News Net reported, adding that prior to their arrival, police got a report of gunshots in the same area. Bryans Road is about 40 minutes south of Washington, D.C.

When police arrived, they found a man with gunshot wounds near the intersection of Sedgemore Place and Matthews Road and administered first aid until paramedics arrived, the outlet said. The man — identified as 30-year-old Carl Francis Braxton — was transported to a hospital, where he was later pronounced dead, the outlet added. Braxton was an active-duty firefighter/EMT, according to Washington, D.C., Fire and Rescue Chief John A. Donnelly Sr., the outlet reported.

Braxton reportedly had assaulted his girlfriend inside their townhouse, the outlet said, citing a preliminary investigation. Donnelly’s statement indicated a female 911 caller said a man assaulted and strangled her and was possibly following her outside a home, the outlet added. After reportedly fleeing the home, the woman encountered a man who was walking his dog, the outlet said. Witnesses said Braxton walked aggressively toward the man and threatened to harm him, the outlet said. The man — who has a permit to carry a gun — shot Braxton, the outlet added. Donnelly’s statement indicated Braxton was shot multiple times.

Man sees a damsel in distress, has a dark knight threatening him as well, and turns out to have his own shining armor. Some on the Left would not like that characterization I just made. Well, guess what – I decided to play along with your stereotype of what we think we are.

We who carry take the responsibility of carrying legally (unlike the gang bangers who criminally have guns even if they are prohibited from possessing them) believe it is a heavy burden (Rights also have responsibilities) and not one to be trifled with.

He is out for a walk with his dog and never expected this kind of situation but he was prepared for it.

While the story doesn’t discuss her behavior, state of mind, or dress, I would imagine she was in pretty rough shape. Any man worth his salt would offer her protection from a man like Braxton, who immediately decided to go after him the same way he (allegedly) went after his girlfriend.

Frankly, I carry to protect myself and my family. Friends are also included. But only as a last resort, as I learned from my martial arts training decades ago. Thus, I’ve never had to use any of that training – not once. I hope that I never have to unholster – ever.

Unfortunately, that unnamed protector had to. Braxton made a decision and suffered the consequence – you don’t threaten to hurt people.

 

(H/T: The Blaze)

The post 2A Happy Ending – Guy Walking His Dog Encouters a Battered Woman Fleeing Her Boyfriend, and Guess What? appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

The Conservatarian Exchange Podcast #153

The Liberty Block - Sat, 2023-05-13 19:26 +0000

The Trump verdict in the civil case; the Santos arrest; the congressional press conference on the Bidens’ money scandals; the end of Title 42; immigrants being sent to counties outside of NYC, where their leaders are declaring states of emergency to keep them out; does the UK have the same immigration problem?

The post The Conservatarian Exchange Podcast #153 appeared first on The Liberty Block.

Sun-King Sununu Scolds His Subjects … You Embarrassed Me By Cheering For Trump

Granite Grok - Sat, 2023-05-13 18:00 +0000

The arrogance of Sun-King Sununu knows no bounds. He really does consider himself anointed by some woke-deity or deities rather than an elected public servant. Here he is scolding his subjects … we’re not citizens to Sun-King, but subjects … for “embarrassing” him by cheering for Trump at the CNN “town hall.”

And … by the way … Sun-King said this to JEN PSAKI … former Biden-regime propagandist and current MSNBC propagandist JEN PSAKI. Apparently, Sun-King’s narcissism is so over the top that he can’t see the tragic irony of calling us embarrassing while groveling at PSAKI’s feet for a pat on the royal scalp and an “attaboy.”

The post Sun-King Sununu Scolds His Subjects … You Embarrassed Me By Cheering For Trump appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

Sometimes, It Is A Good Thing To Make People Back Up Their Words – Like From an IEP Meeting

Granite Grok - Sat, 2023-05-13 16:30 +0000

I have said it previously that the Grandson suffers from Fetal Alcohol Syndrome – his birth mother was too selfish in her self-gratification losing streak to think, “what am I doing to my child with my boozing and drugging?”

To the point that after being airlifted to Dartmouth-Hitch to give birth, she left the next morning. To DCYF’s credit, the social worker stationed at D-H pleaded with TMEW if we’d be the “family caregiver,” and things proceeded from there in that he is ours.

F.A.S. has a number of symptoms that are now starting to emerge wider in-depth and deeper in intensity.  And so, he has an IEP under the rubric of delayed development in some areas.  We’re used to IEPs – our two (now grown sons) also had them as well – we know the drill, and I know a lot more about RTKs, Edu-Rules, and Edu-Law. And since becoming a political blogger, I have far less patience with those in such positions that believe the Edu-Industrial Complex has successfully flipped the former relationship that PARENTS are in charge of their children and not the School Districts.

So I’m putting this up because I am hearing that some Districts, when invoking retribution about some “involved” parents (that have become too “involved” for the District’s liking), have been siccing DCYF onto parents in attempts to intimidate them (yes, I’m getting those stories) as this may go further.

Background: at the last “remote learning” day that the District had, I paid much more attention to how that went for the Grandson (and TMEW as well). Let’s say that I was not pleased, that I saw how little attention that the boys received with respect to the girls, that he was lost during it (learning disabilities don’t do well in remotes). Suffice it to say that when there was a lull when there were no students online, I made what I was seeing clear. Less than two minutes to tell her that we’d talk about this at “tomorrow’s meeting and not now,” except that it didn’t happen because the next school day was canceled due to the weather as well.

So TMEW and I dropped it.  The teacher didn’t—wrong move.

Everyone was present at the IEP meeting except for her. Suffice it to say, she decided to come loaded for bear and, to be honest, victimize herself.  I responded, but she kept cutting me off. I finally said, “this meeting is over,” and I stormed out. The Principal saw that and hurriedly went into the meeting. Things didn’t get any better because the teacher, for 45 additional minutes, kept making the meeting about her until TMEW announced, “enough, this is about <the Grandson>.  The only thing substantive that was accomplished that this late in the year was that he was reinstated back into Title I for math as it was clear he has been left behind (we know because he gets “homeschooled” after the school day is over in the Government school). In our eyes, that should have been the case at the beginning of the year as he had been placed in Title I last year and had been given more assistance during the summer (“learning loss avoidance”).

But some things were said and I decided that if those kinds of things were said, I’m going to make them prove their words (here, RULE 4: “Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.” ).  If you state something, that’s now your Rule Book because (to use the language of the Left against them) you are in a position of Power and taking advantage of that Power Imbalance). So, without attribution:

  1. “Don’t do anything that we didn’t tell you to do.”
  2. “You can’t be asking for an IEP and expect him to be in the upper part of the class in another area” (4 times)
  3. “He’d have to be in the bottom 20% to receive Title I math.”

“Oh really,” when TMEW rejoined me after the meeting. If these things are being held to be true, let’s let them prove it because it affects the Grandson. TMEW is the LAST person that wants to get caught up in such a controversy – she’s also the LAST person you want to get riled up. So here they go; the following Right To Knows were issued as a result of this meeting:

  • Ethics Complaint (just “payloads” – if you are interested in the boilerplate, let me know):

Pursuant to the Right to Know Law (RSA. 91-A), I am demanding access, within 5 business days, to the following governmental records:

  • A copy of the District’s Ethics Complaint form(s).
  • A copy of the Process/Instructions/Chain of Custody for submitting, acknowledgment of, status updates, and final decision.

To #1 above:

Pursuant to the Right to Know Law (RSA. 91-A), I am demanding access, within 5 business days, to the following governmental records:

  • Provide the NH RSA(s) that provides such a Power to be able to order a Parent to Cease and Desist in their Constitutional supported Right to educate their offspring
  • Provide the Education rule(s) that provide such a Power over a Parent to not educate their own child.

To #2 and partially #3 above:

At the latest Special Education Meeting, the <redacted> made the remark that our legal son, <the Grandson>, could not be in the situation whereby he is near the top of his class yet still require Title I assistance.

Pursuant to the Right to Know Law (RSA. 91-A), I am demanding access, within 5 business days, to the following governmental records:

  • The evaluation/determination process of how a First Grade student is determined to be on the Bell Curve/class ranking in mathematics/arithmetic relative to his peers
  • The same for reading.

Note: Sometimes, people ought to ask “what is it that THEY (TMEW & I) know that we do not – but should.  While he is “lost” in mathematics, he is already reading at a Third Grade level.

Further, the Responsive Records will also include:

  • <the Grandson>’s standing with his First Grade peers relative to mathematics/arithmetic on a percentage or standard deviation of the Bell Curve that adequately demonstrates the capability of the entire First Grade class relative to the District’s goals for the year.
  • Ditto for reading.

Please note that this Right To Know also serves as our permission to such information pertaining to <the Grandson> as these determination, under FERPA (“any and all education records”) restrictions as necessary release it to us.

And relative to #3:

Pursuant to the Right to Know Law (RSA. 91-A), I am demanding access, within 5 business days, to the following governmental records:

  • The evaluation/determination process of how a student meets the lower 20% of a class, (in this case, Kindergarten and First Grade) in order to be eligible for additional in-school Title I instruction that the District offers. This also includes for after-school Title I instruction.
  • Provide which subjects, within the Kindergarten and First Grade classes, does the District offer Title I additional instruct above and beyond the normal classroom curriculum and instruction.

The Responsive Records will include:

  • Provide the academic data is reviewed to make this determination
  • Provide the process/methodology that uses the information in Item #1 to determine a >20% determination (e.g., threshold or cut-off values)
  • Provide the roles/titles of District Staff that are involved in the process
  • Provide the roles/titles of District Staff that can override any determination a denial or acceptance into Title I eligibility status.
  • Provide the information as to if an override was issued.
  • Provide all of the data outlined above for our legal son, Benjamin Scott Murphy.
  • Provide the District’s year end goals in mathematics/arithmetic for the respective two grade levels in concerning regard as to
  • Provide the District’s milestones are to be achieved at the various points in the school year for the respective two grade levels.

The comment was made during the Special Education meeting that our (to wit: <TMEW and I> legal son, <the Grandson> was not eligible for Title I instruction. Subsequently we were informed that he was going to receive it anyways, showing ambiguity and capriciousness as to how the District’s determination was made.

Not enough Parents, unfortunately, have the temerity to hold their Government employees to account to what they say. Some might have the courage but also have the  fear that their child might suffer retribution for their standing up for their child. I would also posit that far fewer have both the knowledge to do so – I certainly wouldn’t have years ago when our two boys were going through similar types of issues. It has taken me years of being a political activist to sufficient learn the Law and the methods to employ to better advocate now for the Grandson.

And most of all, how many people have a GraniteGrok to get some publicity as to what is going on?

OH WAIT, YOU DO!  If you find yourselves in dealing with some part of Government that is being obstinate AND in which we have some expertise, let us know. We may not be able to help everyone but we can help some.

Like a rumor I just heard about last night  in that some parents’ School Districts are filing bogus claims with DCYF to make trouble for them simply because those Parents expect their Districts to Follow The Law AND always be striving for Excellence – but aren’t.    Skip@GraniteGrok.com

After all – Article 8:

[Art.] 8. [Accountability of Magistrates and Officers; Public’s Right to Know.] All power residing originally in, and being derived from, the people, all the magistrates and officers of government are their substitutes and agents, and at all times accountable to them.  Government, therefore, should be open, accessible, accountable and responsive.  To that end, the public’s right of access to governmental proceedings and records shall not be unreasonably restricted.  The public also has a right to an orderly, lawful, and accountable government.  Therefore, any individual taxpayer eligible to vote in the State, shall have standing to petition the Superior Court to declare whether the State or political subdivision in which the taxpayer resides has spent, or has approved spending, public funds in violation of a law, ordinance, or constitutional provision.  In such a case, the taxpayer shall not have to demonstrate that his or her personal rights were impaired or prejudiced beyond his or her status as a taxpayer.  However, this right shall not apply when the challenged governmental action is the subject of a judicial or administrative decision from which there is a right of appeal by statute or otherwise by the parties to that proceeding.

Remember, they work for us. Sometimes, means must be deployed to remind them of that.

 

 

 

 

The post Sometimes, It Is A Good Thing To Make People Back Up Their Words – Like From an IEP Meeting appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

Twenty Years, $5 Trillion, 2% Results

Granite Grok - Sat, 2023-05-13 15:00 +0000

Obviously, the Green Energy folks led by John Kerry, Al Gore, and the Wiz Kid, Greta Thunberg, are not mathematicians. In the last twenty years, the world has invested $5 Trillion, most of it in America, for a net reduction in fossil fuels of 2%.

That is nearly $17,000 for every citizen in this country on a program that is not based on science and is poorly planned. And the results are abominable. If this were a private sector project, it would be scrapped or paused and retooled. But not with the government. The government solution is more funds (resources) and regulations. It is about seizing more control over the populace. Joe Biden’s White House is circumventing Congress and attacking our cars, air conditioners, gas stoves, washing machines, and dishwashers by instituting standards that will be nearly impossible to achieve. This White House initiative may be the biggest power grab in American history. The only positive we can pull out of this mess is by using Executive Order rather than legislation to force this down our throats, every decision can be reversed with the stroke of a pen, BUT we need to win back the White House to put pen to paper.

This plan was not moved forward as a master plan. It has been dropped piecemeal, with a new appliance added to the list each month. It is not a plan but a whim. This action is designed to assuage the Green Left. Even without significant results, the effort itself is adequate to secure the vote of the Greenies. A win for them is a politician validating their demands by doing anything that looks proactive. Results are immaterial because there were no expectations of the process. By the way, as we are spending a fortune on alternative energy sources, China is putting a new coal-burning plant onboard every 14 days. Does anyone believe that China is concerned with carbon credits or windmills?

We have to get out from under the thumb of these Biden orders as quickly as possible. That will happen only with a Republican in the Oval Office in January 2025. Please, God, give us the strength to survive the next two years of Biden’s term.

Some of these mandates will be challenged by Republicans and find them in front of the Supreme Court, where sanity and reason still flicker. The flame is burning less bright after revelations of outside money filling the corrupt pockets of some of the Justices. The disclosures of significant donations made to Justices Sotomayer and Thomas damaged the image of the Court, which had always been beyond reproach.

The 2024 Election took a few hits this week. Everyone on the Left is upset and disappointed with CNN for giving Trump a significant platform. The Pro-Trump people in the audience were so demonstrably positive of Trump’s performance that CNN opted to avoid live audiences in future Town Hall events. CNN cannot be perceived as giving any positive airtime to Trump. Even some of CNN’s prime celebrities, like Anderson Cooper, were critical of the “despicable” event.

Joe Biden’s approval numbers continue to fall, and Senator Joe Manchin is making more noise about running as a third-party candidate. Three candidates on the ballot in 2024 will make the Presidential race a Saturday afternoon horse race when anyone can win. Republicans must coalesce behind whoever their candidate is on the ballot. We cannot fall into the trap of splintering our base.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The post Twenty Years, $5 Trillion, 2% Results appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

Transgender Club is an Art Class, Childism, Free Sex Change Kits to Kids, School Erases Mother’s Day – Stack of Stuff #45

Granite Grok - Sat, 2023-05-13 13:30 +0000

It never seems to stop and because it never stops, it gets worse and worse. I’ll remind you, this whole “Fundamental Transformation” (yes, an Obama reference) that is turning the relationship of Parents and Children upside down over the broadening of the meaning of sexualizing children and destroying families.  “Childism” is the cause and I have a snippet about that as well.

The Left is just plain evil and what’s even worse, they know it even as they try to “rationalize” it to others. Being godless and without Christian morals, they have decided that depravity is goodness.

Sidenote: I had a discussion with a Libertarian who only notationally believed in God but held that atheists could have a good moral code without going to church. My response was that his holdings were like that of a vampire venture capitalist – once all the money was sucked out of a company over time, there’d be no company left. So, too, with morality – without a constant renewal (like believing in God, going to church, reading the Bible), Society would also run down when a majority would no longer accept it.  Well, here we are and who knew that the innocence of children would be the frontal battlefield?

Oh, the full image of the “Featured Image” above?

Like this one when transgender teacher activists told kids that telling their parents about this club “wasn’t safe”. Transformation – get kids to distrust and then hate their parents (and as always, reformatted and emphasis mine):

  • Colorado Mom Sues School After Secret Trans Group Recruits Her Daughter and Does ‘Unthinkable Things‘

A Colorado momma bear is suing Wellington Middle School in Fort Collins, Colo., after learning they pulled her sixth-grade daughter into a secret transgender recruiting meeting disguised as an “art club.”.

“When she got there, she very quickly learned it was actually a gender and sexuality awareness club,” Erin Lee told Fox News. “The art teacher had invited in an outside presenter into the classroom that day,” Lee continued. “And this woman did absolutely unthinkable things with the kids. What you hear in here, stays in here,” the mystery groomer allegedly told the kids, suggesting that telling their parents wasn’t “safe.”

Lee further disclosed that the guest presenter informed the kids they were transgender if they didn’t feel totally comfy with their gender. “She explained to my daughter that if she is not 100 percent comfortable in her female body, then she’s transgender,” Lee stated. The secret speaker also told the kids they can refer to themselves as “queer” if they haven’t yet decided their gender. The presenter also introduced the 6th graders to the idea of promiscuity. “She talked to them about polyamory,” Lee declared.

Really? At around 12 years old, talking about shacking up with a bunch of their classmates? And this is just great:

“She told them that these new labels that they had just adopted made them more likely to commit suicide and talked to them extensively about suicide,” Lee continued.

And if you didn’t know already from reading just my Stack of Stuff posts, it seems like EVERYONE is trying to influence your children, if not in their classrooms, but from afar. What, they want the kids to tase their parents?  Wouldn’t be surprised…

  • INVESTIGATION: Florida Activists Secretly Ship Free Sex-Change Kits to Children Around the Country

An Epoch Times investigation discovered a Florida activist group secretly sent hundreds of children transgender sex-change kits across the country. The “Build-A-Queer” kits contain breast binders, condoms, fake male genitalia called “packers,” tape used to bind and hide male genitalia, and more. Several of these items can potentially harm children, experts have told The Epoch Times. And some of the group’s actions appear to be illegal, at least according to the laws in some states, including Florida, attorneys said.

Until recently, the group’s giveaways included “Trans Self-Defense Kits” which contained weapons, including knives and tasers. The items were available to children and others who applied online, according to Cielo Sunsarae, director of the Florida group named Queer Trans Project (QTP)….“All of our items are for individuals of all ages,” Sunsarae wrote in a text to The Epoch Times. The group’s website posts no restrictions based on age or a requirement for parental consent.

Getting the picture?  The transgender movement HATES parents and does things to keep them in the dark – and these are just two small snippets. And they have shipped them here to NH.

And you wonder why there seems to be so much hatred by the Left and in the school systems (but I repeat myself) and why we adults are being told so often that a child knows far more then we do and that we should defer to them especially on sexual mutilation surgery and harmful endocrine injections?  You can blame it on “Childism”. I’m only going to take a small snippet but PLEASE READ THIS POST as it is a fundamental morality that has swept the Left and explains why the Blue States are working as fast as they can to separate you from your children:

So far, QTP has mailed 959 kits to recipients in every state except North Dakota, South Dakota, Alaska, Vermont, and Montana, Sunsarae said. The group hopes to double that amount this year. …In an Instagram video, a QTP volunteer hides a breast binder inside T-shirt packaging and tucks makeup into a plushie, offering assurance that items are disguised to keep from being detected.

Sunsarae offers advice on how to hide kits from parents in a YouTube video.

  • Childism Is Another Tenet of Progressivism

Progressives, in their never-ending crusade to force everyone to adhere to their religion, have added another commandment to their list of evils: Childism. They describe it as “anti-child attitudes” which lead to oppression of children. What fresh hell is this? you may be wondering. Not so fresh actually: two psychiatrists, Chester Pierce and Gail Allen, proposed the theory back as 1975. They described it as “the automatic assumption of superiority of any adult over any child.” One can assume that this would include parents as well.

…But in 2012, psychoanalyst Elisabeth Young-Bruehl resurrected the theory in her book, Childism: Confronting Prejudice Against Children. The book’s description reads, in part:

In this groundbreaking volume on the human rights of children, acclaimed analyst, political theorist, and biographer Elisabeth Young-Bruehl argues that prejudice exists against children as a group and that it is comparable to racism, sexism, and homophobia ….

…Rather this emerges from a generation which has acquired these two beliefs: 1) that children are not gifts from God, but are expendable prior to birth; and 2) the ultimate achievement in life comes not from raising responsible children, but from attaining fame on social media.

…The scientific theory of Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget has long instructed those who study child development that there are four stages of cognitive development. Piaget also found that a child can’t begin to understand abstract concepts until the adolescent years. Later, 2009 research from the American Psychological Association asserted that emotional maturity lags behind cognition in those same adolescents. Yet anti-Childists insist that immature children must have authority to control their lives. And adults who would deny them that? They’re exercising bigotry similar to racism.

And this article does a throw back to my first snippet:

The speaker also told students that “parents aren’t safe, and that it’s OK to lie to them about where they are in order to attend this meeting.” The mother added:

She doubled down that parents aren’t safe [and] that heterosexuality and monogamy are not normal.

The school district acknowledged that such a club does exist, but would not address the mother’s allegations. Yet anti-Childists would insist that such undermining of parents is perfectly appropriate. Because a 12-year-old has equal rights to their parents, who are guilty of bigotry should they deny the child what they want.

And schools seems to be perfectly good with the Tyranny of the Minority over Normal people when a single member of the Trans Minority complains. Yet another example of erasing Mothers from their child’s life:

  •  School erases ‘exclusionary’ Mother’s Day sign because woke parent was offended.

The original message, which was crafted by Grade 6 students simply read, “Life does not come with a manual. It comes with a mom.”

“Grade 6 students at Kew Beach came up with the first quote collectively as they prepare for Mother’s Day this weekend, to share how much they care for and depend on their moms,” said Toronto District School Board spokesperson Shari Schwartz-Maltz. The specific Facebook user in question took issue with how the sign didn’t take into account kids from different kinds of families like LGBTQ families.

After receiving a few emails and calls from people who were also offended by the sign, Kew Beach acquiesced and replaced the message on the signage – ridding it entirely of any reference to mothers.

“Upon feedback, the school recognized that this quote does not reflect the inclusivity of our community, and took immediate steps to address the issue. The sign has now been updated with a new message of an encouraging acronym for May,” explained Schwartz-Maltz.

Hey Moms, aren’t you glad that you can be excluded for “inclusionary” reasons?  You don’t matter to them. At all. Because of a sexuality ideology that is Trans-Authoritarian that must be first on EVERYONE’S political / religious totem pole.

But there can be some good news as we continue to approach Peak Trans. Yet another State has decided that sexual mutilation surgery for trans reasons is no better than gouging out an eye, replacing a hand for a hook, and chopping off half a leg for a wooden peg simply because a seven year old identifies as a parent:

  • Missouri bans sex changes, puberty blockers, and hormones for minors, stops boys from competing in girls’ sports

Missouri lawmakers have passed legislation that bans sex changes, puberty blockers, and hormones for minors. A bill that prevents any school from allowing biological males to compete in female sports was also passed. New WindowSenate Bill 49 and New WindowSenate Bill 39 are both expected to be signed by Republican Governor Mike Parson after they were passed largely along party lines, CNN reported.

…SB39, sponsored by state Senator New WindowHolly Thompson Rehder, detailed that elementary schools through post-secondary schools are banned from letting males play in females’ sports.

Of COURSE Democrats voted against it – they are all in on the Childism (see above) cult. Heck, most States won’t let minors get tattoos but chopping of your genitals and breasts are no big deal?  And speaking of stupidity, this from the Minnesota Lt Governor brings new life to ““You make it really difficult to underestimate you.” in another case of Childism:

Yet, “The Science” keeps telling us that childrens’ brains aren’t fully developed until age 26 so I’m supposed to believe a 9-year old that he is really a she so give him bottom surgery before he realizes that that will mean to him at 15-18?

That is, of course, insane. But it is the new orthodoxy not just with Leftist politicians, but the majority of the medical community. A medical community that views going through puberty and growing up as a disease just like diabetes or asthma. The good doctor who compares sterilizing children to giving albuterol to an asthmatic runs the gender clinic at Children’s Hospital, a fine institution within walking distance of the Minnesota State Capitol. She is also an advocate for butchering children. For all the right reasons, of course. But a butcher nonetheless.

..Everything the gender benders are telling you about transgenderism in children is a lie….The killer backlash will come when the victims in their 20s and 30s realize how harmed they have been.

And guess who will be second in line to bear the brunt of the anger (the medical community being the first)?  Yeah, stupid parents who didn’t believe and take to heart that their FIRST job is to protect their children – most often from themselves. Kids, even smart ones, don’t have the wisdom to take care of themselves and do the chess game looking past “when is the ice cream trucking coming???”.  These mutilated kids WILL take it out on their Parents in no uncertain terms as well they should when that wisdom for a child finally arrives and confronts the real evil in their lives – their own Parents who didn’t have a backbone to stand up to this utter nonsense.

And don’t worry, CRT (Critical Race Theory whose main thrust is that you are only as good as your racial group and that ALL whites are oppressive to everyone else) is staggering backwards as well. In addition to all of the DIE staff being let go in corporations as they shed workers that had nothing to do with revenues and profitability, success is happening on legislative fronts as well:

  • Nearly every U.S. state has introduced measures to combat critical race theory: report

A growing number of Americans vehemently oppose critical race theory and have pushed a wide variety of measures to combat it, according to a recently released report from UCLA. The report, “Tracking the attack on Critical Race Theory,” found that in 2021 and 2022, every state except Delaware had government officials introduce “at least one anti-CRT measure at some level.”  The report defines anti-CRT measures as attorney general letters, executive directives, legislation, policies, regulations, resolutions, and statements.

Stating the “anti-CRT campaign has to this point shown no signs of slowing,” researchers found that from January 2021 through December 2022, local, regional state and federal officials and lawmakers “introduced a total of 563 anti-CRT measures, 241 of which have been enacted or adopted.”

The findings suggest efforts to combat critical race theory, primarily inside classrooms, “is not stagnating; indeed, government officials at all levels are introducing an equal or greater number of measures in 2023 as they did in 2021 or 2022,” the report states.

Well, there is one government official that immediately comes to mind here in NH that is against it – 2024 Prez Wannabee (ostensibly) Republican NH Governor Chris Sununu. Think I’m kidding? Just search through GraniteGrok.

Back to schools, again. Not only do they hide what’s going on in their clubs (see above), now there’s a CATHOLIC university that won’t even tell a biological women that their roommate is a transgender biological male???  And James O’Keefe’s new organization, OMG, has brought it to life:

  • Catholic university forces women to room with men

A lot of parents have been sending their kids to religious schools in order to avoid the excesses of Leftist policies. Well, that was a mistake. Catholic universities are just as woke as any other, apparently. Despite the fact that even the liberal Pope has spoken out against transgender ideology, the academic bureaucracy at St. Thomas University in St. Paul is secretly putting trans students into single-sex dorms with women, even hiding their gender from their dormmates.

They even give preferential housing choices if you claim to be trans. Nice.

Now? The school is so committed to ensuring that radical DE&I ideology is promoted that they have a secret policy to put transgender students into single-sex dorms–literally forcing female students to room with men, hiding that fact both from the students and from their parents.

The school is a fraud, literally.

And this Catholic school will face its own judgement – if not in the here and now but before that Great Throne.

And let’s saunter back to Bud light and Dylan Mulvaney – the transgender screwup that keeps of failing. Yep, and the financial dudes are starting to realize that ABInBev can make any good decisions.  And as we know, decisions have consequences – including (at last sighting) losing 26% of your business:

  • Major bank takes action against Anheuser-Busch over Bud Light ‘crisis’: ‘Raises many questions’

HSBC, one of the world’s largest banks, downgraded the stock of Anheuser-Busch InBev this week amid controversy over Bud Light’s partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. Bank analysts downgraded the stock to “hold” status, which means investors should neither sell nor purchase the stock, CNBC reported. In a note, HSBC analyst Carlos Laboy, managing director for the global beverage sector at the bank, justified the downgrade by questioning the ability of Anheuser-Busch InBev executives to understand their consumer base.

“Is ABI’s leadership getting the brand culture transformation right? It’s mixed. At Ambev, we think the answer is ‘yes;’ in the US, we think it’s ‘no,‘” Laboy wrote. “The way this Bud Light crisis came about a month ago, management’s response to it and the loss of unprecedented volume and brand relevance raises many questions.”

He further explained:

Why did its US leadership underestimate the risk of pushback given the recent experience of other firms? Is A-B hiring the best people to grow the brands and gauge risk? If Budweiser and Bud Light are iconic American ideas that have long brought consumers together, why did these marketers fail to invite new consumers without alienating the core base of the firm’s largest brand?

You know, now that I’ve come across that Childism post (above), a lot of what I have been seeing from the Democrats when it comes to children and the Parental Rights movement that is fighting back against Government trying to take away their rights (see “The Republican push for “parental rights” comes at the cost of children” just below, confirming that Parents are evil):

  • ‘Please keep talking’! NY Mag’s Sarah Jones explains how the GOP is the party of far-Right ‘household tyrants’ who want a say in their kids’ educations

Over the past ten years, we’ve spent a lot of time criticizing liberals. Pointing out their many flaws, mocking them, exposing their lies, and just raking them over the coals, really. But one thing we’ve learned is that sometimes, the best strategy is to just be quiet and let the libs own themselves. This is one of those times, courtesy of New York Magazine’s Sarah Jones, who wrote this for the ironically named Intelligencer:

 

Isn’t that just lovely: “comes at the cost to children”?  Yes Conservative parents hate their children. To echo the other Democrat mantra, we want our kids to breathe dirty air and drink polluted water because we don’t care about our children at all.

The right’s real ambition isn’t restoration, though, but expansion; they want to create new rights on top of the privileges parents already enjoy. In the party’s view, parental rights both supersede and exist in conflict with the rights of the child.

 

Well, who knew that Putin is the new Hitler?

Here’s the full piece by Jones.

The post Transgender Club is an Art Class, Childism, Free Sex Change Kits to Kids, School Erases Mother’s Day – Stack of Stuff #45 appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

MIT Student President Commits Hate Hoax to Prove Speech is Too Free

Granite Grok - Sat, 2023-05-13 12:00 +0000

The College Fix reports that MIT’s “student government president has been removed from his position and faces a recall election due to his role in perpetrating two campus hate-crime hoaxes” in opposition to new campus policies supporting free speech.

What a juicy pile of interlocking contradictions.

 

Undergraduate Association President David Spicer helped hang the offensive posters and chalk the quad once in February and then again in mid-April during Campus Preview Weekend, infuriating his peers — even progressive ones who once championed him as a leader in campus diversity and inclusion.

 

The Gay student president was mad that MIT was trying to defend constitutionally protected speech. Hence, he decided to test the boundaries by postering and chalking the campus with hate to see how far things could go.

Yet another case of a marginalized community member frustrated by the absence of actual ‘hate crimes’ perpetrating one to make a point about what wasn’t happening until they did it. Sorry, two. Spicer is alleged to have committed two hate crimes.

As regular readers know, I’m not all-in on the idea of hate crimes or even hate speech. These are made-up ideas by people who traditionally get their panties in a bunch about overcharging by police and district attorneys.

People who insist you accept them for who they are, but when you do, get frustrated by the lack of extra attention they think their marginalized status deserves and commit hate hoaxes to get more. But Spicer took it to a whole new level. He didn’t perpetrate the garden variety hate hoax against himself – he hated on the whole community.

 

“My decision to participate in the postering campaign was not one made lightly. I decided to join in the effort because I wanted, and still want, an MIT that supports students on the margin,” Spicer wrote in an April 27 op-ed in the student newspaper The Tech. …

“While I know that President [Sally] Kornbluth probably has not had to deal with homophobia in her life, I have and probably will for the rest of my life. I want the MIT administration to know the tax they impose on marginalized communities.”

 

Spicer engaged in what he viewed as a necessary exercise. Free speech can harm you like this. But the risk presented by restrictions on speech is far more dangerous. True liberty in any community is rare, and free expression is essential to freedom. If feelings get a say, whose feelings and where does that end?

The guardrails Spicer favors to protect those he claims are marginalized would inevitably marginalize everyone. The government doesn’t give back power. If you let them limit speech beyond the few exceptions in place, they’ll find reasons to limit it further. It is a path to compelled speech which is a restriction on thought itself, and the suppression will not be limited to people you’ve pre-segregated as outside your community.

You have to stop thinking like that. Your community is America, an increasingly marginalized political idea that has made freedom a reality and lifted more people out of poverty than any other in human history—an exceptional exercise whose success has made it the object of hate from outside and within.

One of my biggest gripes about the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion illusion which marches hand and hand toward utopia with many in the LGBT*** movement, is that its goal is (as always) not what they advertise. The same can be said for notions about hate speech or hate crimes. There is speech, and there is crime. And there are speech crimes—libel and slander, incitement, and fighting words, among a few rare others, all with high hurdles to keep speech free.  But their goal is to make you hate free speech and to see its exercise as a crime. And while there’s no crime against being an asshole, it might cost you your gig as a student president, even if you think you had the best intentions.

 

 

HT | The College Fix

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Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

“What Is The Transgender Status of My Legal Son?” Part 3

Granite Grok - Sat, 2023-05-13 10:30 +0000

So, in Part 1, I asked “that question” and the Grandson’s teacher refused to directly answer my question. Part 2 showed me that in simply asking that simple question, the Administration started to monitor that email thread.  However, the Principal, Danielle Bolduc, gave me a direct simple answer: ‘The simple answer to that particular question is no”.

Glad to hear that. Problem is, Policy JBAB still leaves wiggle room for the District to lie to parents (and I’ve posted those issues here on GraniteGrok). So I dunno!

Well, for the time being, I’ll accept the answer at face value. However, Reagan’s words still ring as true and as loudly as they did when he first said them: “Trust, but Verify”.

So, a two-pronged process is now in play.  The first is….wait for it…..a Right To Know (what, you expected something different from me?).  I’ll leave the boiler plate aside for the moment (I have more RTKs to post) but put up the “payloads”. First was one about teaching materials (first one I’ve ever done, believe it or not!):

Pursuant to the Right to Know Law (RSA. 91-A), I am demanding access, within 5 business days, to the following governmental records pertaining to Health/Wellness/Physiology/Sexuality instruction for the following Grade Levels:

  • Kindergarten
  • First Grade

The Responsive Records will include:

  • Provide all curriculum, handouts (including those for which it was mandatory to give back in and NOT to be taken home), books read to children
  • Provide copies and any and all “classroom” materials that can be found within the classroom (including but not limited to “quotes”, posters, flags, and the like).
  • Provide which which District staff (roles/titles) are involved in this instruction area (either the normal classroom teacher, normal classroom aides, or other staff members coming in to assist or teach this kind of material).
  • Provide all lesson plans pertaining to this subject matter, in the two Grade levels, for last and this year.
  • Provide the District’s goals for the respective two grade levels in this regard as to what milestones are to be achieved by the end of the academic school year.

I think that covers most of what I am looking for or at least it’s a good start. Regular readers who have waded through my “xxxx- Stack of Stuff” posts where I do an aggregation of between 5 – 10 Edu-Transgender Activists snippets know what it going on.  The above is part of the “Verify“.  There is a lot more that I can do. In fact, I have also RTK’d the following:

Pursuant to the Right to Know Law (RSA. 91-A), I am demanding access, within 5 business days, to the following governmental records: for all of the District’s electronic information systems that contain directly or are linked to student information:

  • Provide the database schema that shows all database tables containing student information as well as key information linking one table to another

This information can either be represented in graphical, chart, or textual formats (although graphical would be preferred).

Note that the above does NOT include any system or security level tables (see RSA 91-A:5, XI). The latter tables have nothing to do with this demand and are, indeed, unwanted.

For those of you in (or retired from) Information Technology, you know what I just did.  For those of you who do not know what a “schema” is, it is a map of what information is kept within an application. In this case, any of the District’s system that have anything to do with students. Most systems today use databases that organize their information in tables: rows and column.  And there are a lot of them as developers will try to separate such data logically into various tables like this for a high school:

  • A list of students (which each row is a given student)
  • Each student has a homeroom and the student table has a “key” that points to another table that lists classroom used for homerooms (and may have a key field that points back to each student in that homeroom).
  • Each student takes “N” number of classes (another table like homerooms)
  • Each student has “N” number of teachers (so forth and so on).
  • Each teacher teaches “X” number of classes
  • Each class has “Y” number of curriculum items
  • Each curriculum item has a paper audit trail (PO Request, PO Authorization, Purchase Order, Invoices, Payments, et al)

Knowing what the schemas are allows one to start asking more and more questions.

And another RTK that I put in gave them where I will be going based on what I find:

Pursuant to the Right to Know Law (RSA. 91-A), I am demanding access, within 5 business days, to the following governmental records:

  • A copy of the District’s Ethics Complaint form(s).
  • A copy of the Process/Instructions/Chain of Custody for submitting, acknowledgment of, status updates, and final decision.

Oh, I also have a bunch of other RTKs that have been issued based on another meeting.  Those of you whose children have IEP (Individual Education Plans – for those with a disability of one nature or another) may find them “interesting”.

 

 

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Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

Parody for Contrast: What If Sununu Took On The Chinese Communist Party…

Granite Grok - Sat, 2023-05-13 01:30 +0000

New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu took his war against the Chinese Communist Party to a new level this week when he signed three bills into law that severely restrict the CCP’s ability to acquire land in the state of New Hampshire, crack down on the CCP’s data collection of U.S. citizens, and ban CCP influence from the education system.

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A Chinese think tank designated Sununu among the five most aggressive governors in the U.S. against the communist nation back in 2019, several months before the coronavirus pandemic erupted. Since then, Sununu has continued to take an aggressive approach toward China.

Sununu signed three new bills into law on Monday — SB 264, SB 846, and SB 258 — a package the governor’s office called “the strongest legislation in the nation to date to counteract the influence of the United States’ greatest economic, strategic, and security threat — the Chinese Communist Party.”

The trio of new laws:

  • Prevents Chinese entities or affiliates from buying farmland in New Hampshire or land near our military bases and critical infrastructure.
  • Stops sensitive data from being stored on servers that might be owned by entities affiliated with the CCP.
  • Prohibits the Chinese influence that we rooted out of higher education from working its way into [New Hampshire’s] primary and secondary education institutions.
  • Blocks access to dangerous applications, such as TikTok, on government and educational institution servers and devices.

New Hampshire is taking action to stand against the United States’ greatest geopolitical threat — the Chinese Communist Party,” the governor said in a statement. “I’m proud to sign this legislation to stop the purchase of our farmland and land near our military bases and critical infrastructure by Chinese agents, to stop sensitive digital data from being stored in China, and to stop CCP influence in our education system from grade school to grad school. We are following through on our commitment to crack down on Communist China.”

At a press conference where he signed the bills, Sununu noted the numerous advantages that China has over the U.S., including how they use their government to create an unfair trading relationship with the U.S.“Part of the reason we’re in this predicament is because elites in our own country, for a generation, have sought short term profits over long term U.S. interests,” Sununu said. “They thought people were making money, that was good for some, and they didn’t have a long view of how that would work in terms of America’s industrial base here at home, or America’s security abroad.”

The governor’s latest actions against China build off legislation that Sununu signed into law back in 2021. According to the governor’s office, those laws:

  • Strengthens foreign financial connection vetting and disclosure requirements for entities seeking tax-payer-funded grants or contracts from state agencies or political subdivisions.
  • Creates heightened scrutiny of research grant applicants, foreign applicants for research positions, and foreign travel or activities of employees of major research institutions.
  • Requires universities and colleges to disclose foreign donations and grants of $50,000 or more to the State University System Board of Governors or Department of Education. State agencies and political subdivisions are required to report foreign donations and grants of $50,000 or more to the Department of Financial Services.
  • Prohibits specific agreements between state/public entities and the seven countries of concern (Russia, PRC, Cuba, North Korea, Iran, Syria, and Venezuela).
  • Creates new criminal offenses in New Hampshire for the theft and trafficking of trade secrets.
  • Anyone who willfully and without authorization steals or attempts to steal a trade secret and use it for their own benefit will now face a third-degree felony, punishable by up to 5 years in prison. Individuals attempting to sell stolen trade secrets will face a second-degree felony, punishable by up to 15 years in prison
  • If an individual or entity violates this law on behalf of a foreign government, the penalties are severely enhanced — reclassifying the felony one degree higher and increasing the offense severity ranking.

HT | The Daily Wire

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Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

Overload in Public Schools. Or If You’d Rather: Overhead Bloat

Granite Grok - Sat, 2023-05-13 00:00 +0000

My career was spent as a software engineer and consultant. The last twenty years of it were spent working for a manufacturing software vendor, and I spent a lot of time talking with both C-level leaders, the blue-collar workers on the shop floor, and everyone in between. The mantra, at least in well-run shops was:

 

“How do we constantly improve our product most efficiently, get rid of wasted efforts, and drop those savings down to the bottom line in order to lower the price of our product relative to our competitors, make a larger profit, and return that profit to our owners/shareholders?

 

In other words, they had the right eyes on the right prize(s) in their efforts to be the best they can be. And much of that effort was always in discovering excess labor – especially in indirect labor.  DIRECT labor is all those folks that do the creating on the line – they create and assemble the “widgets” (be it the physical “something” you can hold in your hand or the “invisible” software held in your mind).  Indirect labor is everyone else. That’s important because any manager worth their salt knew what that ratio was between the two and was always looking to improve that ratio of direct to overhead.

Not so in education – by a long shot. At least in my hamlet, I was constantly having to educate both the School Board and new Superintendents on this basic measurement by asking them, “what is your indirect/direct labor ratio by headcount and total burden cost?“.  Usually, after a couple of years of demanding that answer as a Budget Committee member, that ratio would improve as “overhead” personnel and burdened costs were lowered (I think it’s time again to start demanding that answer – time for a new Right To Know?). And do you know why this is important?

Manufacturers understand they are going to be held personally responsible for their output and their cost.  Our education system is the complete opposite. Yes, your local schools have costs like manufacturers, and they create “widgets” (usually called our sons and daughters called “students that have been educated”).  But accountability isn’t there as taxpayers don’t ask the harsh questions necessary about how GOOD their output is and generally only grouse about the cost without asking the hard questions of WHY the cost.  My indirect to direct labor question is akin to “Price Point,” and NAEP scores show the quality of their workmanship.

But without taxpayers acting like owners/shareholders asking about such things, you get our educational systems without any “limiting factors”.  And you get Bloat:

 

 

 

And

 

 

 

Bloat – when adults get the money, and the number of kids getting an education drops like a kid going down a playground slide. Make no mistake, that drop in enrollment is happening here in NH as well.

And now you see why my question is so important. Sure, it is easier to point out in overly large school districts, but the scrutiny they receive is also too small for their size. Here in NH, the ordinary citizen CAN provide such oversight and suss out even small savings of the economy – if they bother to look for it.

The best example I can give you is Twitter. Before Elon Musk took over, it had 7.500+ employees.  Afterward, head count (and cost) started to drop – dramatically. Much of the Left, who looked at Twitter as their “playground,” howled that Twitter would cease to work and then exist (both complaining and exulting at the same time). Now, the headcount and the commiserate cost are down to around 1,000.  It’s still working – you can go and read tweets and create your own.  That’s what it was meant for – everything else was “overhead.”

Perhaps y’all should be examining your districts more closely and asking what will be called “embarrassing” questions. Hold them accountable.

Just know it will take you a while to build up your courage and your credibility as you continue to hone your questions to be more insightful and penetrating.

 

(H/T: Powerline)

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Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

The Great Unifier Now Has States Fighting States

Granite Grok - Fri, 2023-05-12 22:30 +0000

One of the beauties of this great country is the 50 states that make up our Republic are allowed autonomy and the freedom to create their character. We have 50 individual states that have their strengths and weaknesses. Since our inception, a healthy competitive nature has existed to attract people to each state as visitors or residents. That is until Joe Biden took the oath of Commander in Chief.

Biden has amplified debate on numerous hot-button issues that have people exiting some states while migrating to others. Two states that have always claimed to be the most desirable in the Union are now hemorrhaging residents. A Representative in the United States represents about 760,000 people. California and New York lost a Representative based on the most recent census IN 2020. Conversely, Florida gained one Representative, while Texas gained two.

Some of these issues include the availability of abortion services, including late-term procedures, income and sales taxes, quality of education, and availability to use your tax dollars for your school choice. The majority Party of the state government was important to some, with Republican-run states gaining population at the expense of Democrat-controlled states. These issues can be contentious, but none have the volatility of illegal immigration. This issue, which will be the signature failure of Joe Biden, is pitting city against city, county against county, and state versus state to the point of court action being the resort.

There are stark differences in philosophy and application between Conservatives and Liberals on most issues, but the differences regarding the influx of illegal aliens are mind-boggling. It starts with the concept of Sovereignty. A country is defined by its geographical boundaries. Republicans believe in secure borders with specific ports of entry. Democrats do not see a need for boundaries and have more of one-world thinking. This flow of humanity is not immigration; to say so is a mockery of the legitimate immigration process and an insult to people who take the correct way to access citizenship.

Today, two comments were made by Democrats that show the absurdity of their beliefs.

President Joe Biden was asked about the troops he sent to the Border and whether it was a sufficient show of force to stem the tide of people crossing our Border. He responded that these troops were not there to be a deterrent but to do the administrative work so that the Border Patrol could do their job and ensure the true function of our Border, which is to facilitate the flow of “asylum seekers” into our country. Biden doesn’t see a Border as a barrier but one long welcome mat to let anyone cross.

How can our President be so wrong? His job is to protect our Sovereignty, and he clearly shows, by his words. he does not understand or believe in our Sovereignty. He is not fit for the job.

Hank Johnson (D-GA) insulted Republicans yesterday with disgusting rhetoric. He claimed that Republicans love seeing illegals lined up on the Border, identifying them as cheap labor, and Republicans would return to slavery if they had their way. This repugnant individual should have been loudly booed by both sides and escorted out of the Capitol. He doesn’t deserve a seat in the People’s House. He is not fit to be a human being.

This fish on the Left is rotting from the head down. Joe Biden is everything but what he promised in 2020, and the Left is okay with that. He is setting an anti-American tone, and it is contagious and sickening.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

Local Paper That Still Hasn’t Published the Truth About COVID Vaccines Wins a Pile of “Journalism” Awards

Granite Grok - Fri, 2023-05-12 21:00 +0000

Corporate media has long since abandoned its role as fourth estate watchdogs digging up bones to expose the truth or inform and protect the public. But they like to give each other awards to further their self-delusion.

Or maybe they are. The Wikipedia definition reads like this emphasis mine.

 

Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the “news of the day” and that informs society to at least some degree of accuracy.

That’s at least somewhat accurate, but that’s not how they’d describe their role. The Union Leader, the object of this piece, says, “There is nothing so powerful as the Truth.” And there’s nothing in that tagline that suggests you must find or report it—the truth. Or that anyone in your industry needs to consider it when handing out awards. The Union Leader (UL) had scooped up seventeen awards at the New England Newspaper & Press Association’s 2022 Better Newspaper Competition.

I laughed out loud when I read that the UL was so well regarded when it comes to being a better newspaper, but that’s not much of an endorsement for the rest of the “news” papers. All of whom have failed miserably at their stated purpose – especially when it comes to the Pandemic response.

Little to nothing outside the box of approved narratives. I found a national wire piece from Reuters about CDC Director Rochelle Wolensky stepping down, but not her admission that the COVID vaccine can spread the virus. I couldn’t find it, but that seems newsworthy to me given all the calls by Democrats (for example) to reserve any return to normal life for passport-wielding recipients of the ineffective “vaccine.”

Talk about a target-rich environment for potential comments. Why did the alleged haters at GraniteGrok have the science right a year before the CDC or nearly anyone in your party? No partisan worries; there were likely a few “Republicans” who made the same mistake. Safe and effective. You could start with the Governor, his Director of Public Health; wait, we’ll get you a list.

But no, the folks in the news business had other news to almost get right. The closest you’ll get to anything outside what we call the approved narratives is this. Christopher Thomson writes a column called Close the Deal. It has musings that suggest things could have gone better. No sh!t. I expect you might also find some off-the-plantation syndicated musings from John Stossel. But nothing by anyone who might get an award from the New England Newspaper & Press Association.

Tens of thousands of experts and countless research papers have emerged dismissing, debunking, and disproving every aspect of the response to COVID, from masks to distancing, to lockdowns, t remote learning, to childhood risk (there was none) to the COVID injections and their lack of both effectiveness and safety.

Search The Union Leader for Vaccine+Safety, and you get garbage results.

 Pfizer’s own documents clearly show known risks that undermined the safe and effective narrative aped by politicians and media over a year after a judge forced them out into the public. A journalist would have chased that data and reported the details, at the very least, in a manner that would allow Granite Staters to make their own decisions. But you won’t find any reporting on that anywhere in New Hampshire’s so-called professional media.

But congratulations on winning 17 awards for being a better newspaper while failing to provide even balanced coverage regarding what may be the most significant scientific fraud in human history after the political “cure” for so-called “global warming.”

 

 

The post Local Paper That Still Hasn’t Published the Truth About COVID Vaccines Wins a Pile of “Journalism” Awards appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

Bill Barr … Swamp Creature Extraordinaire

Granite Grok - Fri, 2023-05-12 19:30 +0000

Because Bill Barr has decided to interject himself into 2024, we should recall what an absolute DISASTER he was as Trump’s Attorney-General. This tweet from Julie Kelly does so succinctly:

Two things that I believe Trump needs to address.

Barr is just one of a series of disastrous personnel decisions … is one. I would like some acknowledgment that there were major mistakes made in staffing the administration AND some assurance that it would not happen in a second term.

The other is COVID. Again, I would like some acknowledgment that there were major mistakes made in handling COVID … i.e., giving Fauci and Birx the keys to the car … AND some assurance that it would not happen in a second term.

 

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Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

If Abortion is Such a Small Percentage of “Women’s Health Care™” Why Are Clinics Still Going Out of Business?

Granite Grok - Fri, 2023-05-12 18:00 +0000

Planned Parenthood Peeps like to crow about how little abortion services account for the greater good these clinics allegedly provide. Was it three percent?

It was. I remember asking a similar question when Planned Parenthood lost a court case and stopped applying for Title X funding for abortions (sorry, women’s health care services). To get money for family planning, they had to separate that from abortions, but abortions were so much more than 3% of their business it would (likely) cost more to do the separating than the family planning reimbursements were worth.

They never said it. They just stopped trying because Planned Parenthood doesn’t do a lot of family planning; they are in the family prevention business. Dr. Leana Wen let that dead cat out of the bag back in 2019 when she publicly admitted, as part of her brief tenure running that operation, that abortion was their core business because it was.

She was too honest, so they had to abort her “occupationally,” but not before she confirmed what everyone knew. These clinics end babies’ lives, and that’s how they make money. If that were not the case returning the question of abortion to the states would not have resulted in hundreds (perhaps thousands) of abortion clinics (doing business as women’s health centers) closing their doors.

There’s no other explanation.

There is no shortage of women, and the Abortion-Left culture war has been adding to their numbers. Something with which Planned Parenthood is helping. They are making more “women” that will need prostate cancer screenings – referred by “women’s health care clinics” that care about the health of “women” and not just making money by performing abortions – because the new women won’t need that service.

And clinics keep closing, which is odd, and not just despite the more “women” math. The COVID-19 vaccines had a significant impact on reproductive freedom. Abortificents doing business as flu vaccines will do that. It was so bad I once jested that Planned Parenthood should sue Pfizer.

 

One of the if not early, then alarming reports to surface after the Jabbernauts began the ‘needle-in-every-arm’ crusade was a rise in miscarriages. Pregnant women were losing babies almost as fast as if they’d taken that horse medicine (Misoprostol) feminists ranted about after SCOTUS un-penumbra’d Roe. v. Wade.

 

It’s a public health crisis. I’m surprised we’ve not heard more about it.

 

 

The post If Abortion is Such a Small Percentage of “Women’s Health Care™” Why Are Clinics Still Going Out of Business? appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

Friday Meme Overflow-Overflow

Granite Grok - Fri, 2023-05-12 16:30 +0000

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

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

 

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

 

 

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

 

PSA – PSA – PSA – PSA – PSA

 

Don’t have time – just a meme dump today.

 

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

 

Reihan Salam: The Issue of Crime Made Me a Conservative

 

 

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

 

 

They don’t reproduce, they recruit.  And internationally.  LGBTQ is a religion, a missionary religion.

 

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

 

 

 

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

 

 

This kind of push across all media – seen at the time – was one reason I started to have my doubts about The Jab.  When the push-push-push to get this into every arm was this intense, I had to wonder something was suspect about it.  It was only then, my “paranoid antennae” vibrating, that I really started to look into it.

 

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

 

 

 

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

 

Pick of the Post:

Two are the winner.

 

 

 

From what I’ve seen the Left is absolutely apoplectic over that townhall meeting.

 

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

 

Palate Cleansers:

 

 

I guarantee two things:

1. Someone has a sense of humor that I like

2. Someone else is offended

 

The post Friday Meme Overflow-Overflow appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

It Rained a Lot in April … for the 7th Year in a Row

Granite Grok - Fri, 2023-05-12 15:00 +0000

April showers bring May flowers, but for a little while, at least this year, it looked like April showers brought May showers. We got a break from the cold and the rain this past week; the same week, NOAA updated its precipitation data.

April was above average again.

It’s not the most exciting news unless you get it and need to get it. The Climate Cult is at war with your way of life. The enviro-fascist movement and its political agitators drive policy on a handful of oft-repeated lies. The temperature is the big one. Everything orbits around the theory that a few degrees of warming will be cataclysmic. That’s nonsense. Rubbish. Absurd. We’re living despite the lie as I type this. It is so not true they had to stop calling it warming. It’s climate change. And the climate changes morning to night, every day, week, month, season, and throughout the years. That’s not on you.

Another Climate Cult (methane impaired) sacred cow has two parts – too much rain (flooding) or not enough rain (drought). We always have too much or too little. It’s never baby bear. The climate can’t be just right (even though these last few days in New England fit the bill). So, we have to talk about it. People need to know or be reminded.

Example

Rainfall in April and early May gave the Cult media an excuse to roll out the narratives on flooding and blame CO2, which means you. There was a flood of headlines about it. But if the recent absence of daily showers (doing business as lovely weather for the next few days) persists, they will flip the coin and work the drought narrative.

As I’ve noted previously, and at least a few times this year, the annual drought festival narrative is coming. When it does, no one will remember the extra precipitation we keep getting in April. And that matters because it counts.

 

April Precipitation NH 1895-2023

 

Looking back, you can compare total annual precipitation against historical averages and the planned outrage required to advance dangerous partisan political agendas like Net-Zero. Looking at the past 128 years, there’s no evidence that the lifestyle they want you to sacrifice is relevant to precipitation in April.

This is the average annual precipitation in New Hampshire from May to April from 1895-2023.

 

Annual NH precipitation May to April 1895-2023

 

Where’s the drought? 1964-1968 when we were where? Heading into what the experts would predict as a new ice age. 1940-43. 1909-1915. 1979-1981.2001-2003. But New Hampshire has been above the 100-year mean more often than not.

It must be an infrastructure problem that Dems in Dover will address with a new utility that taxpayers can fund. So, ignore the drought talk when that comes up. Otherwise, there is a significant risk of flooding when we’re not on the odd-even water restrictions as our lakes and rivers dry up.

Here are 12 months, Aug to July, when it’s as warm and dry as you’d think we could get.

 

Annual NH precipitation Aug to July 1895-2022

 

Not much to see is there, but if you listen to the screeching climate harpies, it’s the end of the world, rain or shine.

It’s not.

 

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Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

Central Bank Digital Currency: Paper Money isn’t the Solution

Granite Grok - Fri, 2023-05-12 13:30 +0000

Physical paper money solves some of the privacy and security issues inherent in central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). But a lot of people seem to have forgotten that government-issued paper fiat is the parent of a CBDC, and it won’t solve the more fundamental problem – whether physical or digital, fiat currency isn’t real money.

What Is CBDC?

Digital currencies are virtual banknotes or coins held in a digital wallet on your computer or smartphone. The difference between a central bank (government) digital currency and peer-to-peer electronic cash such as bitcoin is that the value of the digital currency is backed and controlled by the government, just like traditional paper fiat currency. In fact, a Federal Reserve-issued CBDC would just be a dollar in another form.

But the specter of a CBDC raises new concerns relating to financial privacy and the potential for government control.

At the root of the move toward CBDC is what some call “the war on cash.” For years, governments have looked for ways to eliminate physical cash because it is hard to control. I can put it under my mattress and nobody has to even know I have it. And if you and I do a cash transaction, no record exists. That’s a problem for government officials who would like to tax our transactions, or possibly prohibit them altogether.

Enter CBDCs.

Government-issued digital currencies are sold on the promise of providing a safe, convenient, and more secure alternative to physical cash. We’re also told they will help “stop dangerous criminals” who like the intractability of cash. But there is a darker side – the promise of control. CBDC creates the potential for the government to track and even micromanage consumer spending.

Imagine if there was no cash. It would be impossible to hide even the smallest transaction from the government’s eyes. Something as simple as your morning trip to get a coffee wouldn’t be a secret from government officials. As Bloomberg put it in an article published when China launched a digital yuan pilot program in 2020, digital currency “offers China’s authorities a degree of control never possible with physical money.”

The government could even “turn off” an individual’s ability to make purchases. Bloomberg described just how much control a digital currency could give Chinese officials.

The PBOC has also indicated that it could put limits on the sizes of some transactions, or even require an appointment to make large ones. Some observers wonder whether payments could be linked to the emerging social-credit system, wherein citizens with exemplary behavior are ‘whitelisted’ for privileges, while those with criminal and other infractions find themselves left out. ‘China’s goal is not to make payments more convenient but to replace cash, so it can keep closer tabs on people than it already does,’ argues Aaron Brown, a crypto investor who writes for Bloomberg Opinion.”

Economist Thorsten Polleit outlined the potential for Big Brother-like government control with the advent of a digital euro in an article published by the Mises Wire. As he put it, “the path to becoming a surveillance state regime will accelerate considerably” if and when a digital currency is issued.

You can see why governments are keen on implementing CBDC as quickly as possible.

Is Paper Money the Solution?

As the push to implement CBDC intensifies, opponents are lobbying for policies to preserve the right to use cash, primarily in the form of the US Dollar (USD). This makes sense on the surface. If people have the option to use physical currency, they can simply avoid a CBDC and the inherent control it would provide government actors.

But in the clamor to minimize the impact of CBDC, many have lost sight of the inherent problems with paper fiat money.

As George Mason put it, “The laws making paper currency a legal tender have produced great and numerous evils.”

Thomas Jefferson went further, declaring that “paper is poverty, it is only the ghost of money and not money itself.”

A CBDC would certainly give government more control than it has today, but don’t forget that the government’s monopoly on money, and the Federal Reserve’s ability to create it out of thin air, gives it plenty of control to begin with.

In fact, the Fed is the engine that drives the biggest government in history.

The problem with fiat money – paper or digital –  is the Fed can just fire up the proverbial printing press and make more when the government wants to pay for something. That means there is virtually no restraint on government spending already – and on government power. But when the government just creates trillions of dollars out of thin air, it also erodes away the purchasing power. That makes you poorer.

As Thomas Jefferson warned, “We are to be ruined now by the deluge of bank paper.”

Paper currency is the parent of a CBDC. Central bank digital currency is the same old dollar in a new form with the same problem as paper. Instead of printing new dollars, the Fed can create new digital dollars with a keystroke. Instead of a deluge of paper, we will get a deluge of electronic digits.

In fact, the economy has already moved mostly in that direction with the advent of credit cards and electronic payment systems.

Granted, CBDCs create new worries about privacy and control, but that is not a reason to suddenly embrace the USD as the solution to all of our problems.

But that’s what a lot of people seem to be doing. They’re telling us we have to protect and promote the fiat US Dollar in order to fight a CBDC because government digital currency is so bad. As one opponent of government digital currency put it, “I used to be really critical of Federal Reserve notes. … Compared to CBDC, U.S. Federal Reserve note cash will be wonderful. We will miss it when it is gone.” [Emphasis added]

Note he “used to be” really critical of the USD. Apparently, he’s not anymore because CBDC is so much worse. This mentality drives people away from opposing the original evil that led us here in the first place.

It’s important to remember that Federal Reserve notes were always an evil. CBDC is all of that evil plus some. But that doesn’t make the original evil good or something that should be preserved.

John Adams compared government overreach to cancer.

“The nature of the encroachment upon the American constitution is such, as to grow every day more and more encroaching. Like a cancer, it eats faster and faster every hour.”

What do you do to cancer?

You remove it.

And when cancer metastasizes, you don’t just remove the metastasis; you remove it and the original tumor. No sane person would embrace the original cancer just because the metastasis is worse.

The Path Forward

Relying on fiat paper money might alleviate some of the problems of a CBDC, but it doesn’t strike the root of the problem. The government might not be able to track every purchase if you use paper money, but it will still devalue your dollar every single day – and expand its own power while doing so.

We need currency competition.

That means finding sound money alternatives to federal government-produced and controlled fiat money.

This could come in the form of gold, silver, or non-government cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. It could even involve ways of transacting business we haven’t even thought of yet. But we need money that is not subject to Federal Reserve and government control and manipulation.

Supporting one form of government money over another is not a long-term solution, nor will it ever push the needle forward for the Constitution and liberty.

 

 

 

Mike Maharrey | The Tenth Amendment Center

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Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

Tone-Deaf Democrats Advance Bloated Raise and Benefit Package for Themselves

Granite Grok - Fri, 2023-05-12 12:00 +0000

If you want an example of Democrats being Democrats, the Vermont legislature has one. They are in the process of rewarding themselves (without any public input) for successfully ignoring constituents’ concerns.

Related: Are Vermont Socialists Not Yet Ready To Accept the Price They Must Pay for Socialism?

Elected Democrats don’t feel a responsibility to represent the interests of voters. Once in office, their job is to tell them what they need even when it is not what they want.

The much-hated heat standard bill is a good example. It passed despite significant objections from the peasants. Their governor, who is effectively a cuckold to the Dem majority legislature, listened long enough to veto the bill to no avail. The State Senate has already overridden what is now expected to pass through the lower chamber like sh!t through a goose [which it has – the house has overridden the Veto].

The people didn’t want it, but elected Democrats knew better, and for that, they want to reward themselves with a fast-tracked hike in pay and benefits (S.39).

 

The Vermont House Government Operations Committee yesterday voted 8-4 to send to the House floor a hefty pay raise, adjournment pay, and state employee-level health care benefits for the Legislature.

 

The Legislature currently makes $811/week in session, which is easily 800.00 dollars too much. That rate will rise incrementally to $1,210/week by 2027. The people who know better will also be eligible for health care benefits, $242.00/week in adjournment (out of session) pay. More mileage pay, lodging, meals allowance, childcare expenses, and a slew of other bennies, including raises for leadership, professional development per-diems, and a death benefit for their survivors that amounts to pay they would have received for the session in which they ceased to be.

Measure that greed against its fiscally irresponsible tone-deafness, the crappy economy, inflation, higher energy prices, and additional cost burdens from new legislation (like the heat standard). Everything costs more, thanks to Democrats, so their legislative majority response is typical of their party. You will give us more so we can afford to offset the financial burden of our policies.

The government first, the people last.

New Hampshire Democrats have a similar impulse, but paying for a professional legislature has not come up (that I can recall) in ten or twelve years. Members of our House and Senate get $100.00 a year plus mileage, a legislative license plate, and a drawer at the state house. No benefits unless near-total impunity for exceeding the speed limit to do the people’s business counts.

The House Speaker and Senate President get an office and a few dollars more, but not much. It is a genuine people’s Legislature.

This benefits taxpayers. Short of rising in the ranks to pursue a paid gig at the federal level, there’s not a lot of incentive to do it, do it for long, or abuse it (some still find a way).

Yes, our Legislature has the odd long-term seat warmer, but it is not for pay or benefits. There are none. And it will only stay that way if we can keep Dems out of the majority and something that passes for a Republican warming the governor’s chair. The side effects of this form of government to date have been low crime, high standard of living, low poverty, high quality of life, better health outcomes, lower total tax burden, and a slew of other things that Vermont used to enjoy before the hippies flipped the government.

Vermont has been going downhill ever since, but at least the professional politicians will be doing better, assuming they have the stones to override what should be a quick veto from the governor on the raise and benefits package when this makes it to his desk.

And they do because it’s all about them and not about you.

 

 

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Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

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