Monday • December 4 • 2023
Vol.XV • No.XLIX
Manchester, N.H.
So, how are you weathering this assault by Biden’s puppetmasters in implementing The Green New Deal across every facet of our lives WITHOUT that AOC monstrosity ever being passed by the US House or Senate? Are you liking the fact that the Federal Government has raised your energy costs, your food costs, your clothes costs, your entertainment costs, your “everything else” costs simply to reach that Socialist / Eco-Socialist Nirvana that will force us all into “walkable cities”, have only Public Transportation, limited travel, and turn us all into Vegans by THEIR choice and not yours?
And we used to think that WE controlled our own futures in our own Pursuit of Happiness – do we still, thanks to the UN’s Agenda 21/Agenda 2030 and the “Davos Elites” and our new Rulers formerly called Democrats?
Let it rip, my friends – this is YOUR thread!
The post Friday Open Thread – The Left Is Cloward-Piven’Ing Us on Everything All at the Same Time. appeared first on Granite Grok.
It’s early in the 2022 Governor Campaign and not a lot of people have signed up to run for NH Governor. Certainly, it seems that incumbent Chris Sununu will be running for re-election. Two others have signed up to run against him:
However, there may be others out there that are still mulling over their options and if they can win. That means, in part, getting your family’s buy-in, can you self-fund your campaign/fund raise well, and your name recognition. And, given those, can you, your personality, and your stance on issues resonate with potential voters.
So, here’s a different kind of poll:
So here are the rules (short list – I don’t like to micromanage):
We’ll total up the votes at the end and let you know the results. So here is my mostly arbitrary list of those folks I think should be included:
Do you have a question?Thanks!
The post Poll – who might you vote for in the 2022 NH Governor Campaign? appeared first on Granite Grok.
I listened to Joe Biden’s dramatic speech on Thursday night about his wants and desires for gun control laws in America. He went through a litany of items he called solutions and how deplorable Republicans are for not agreeing with him unconditionally.
Of course, he invoked memories of his son, Beau, as he does in virtually every speech. He talked about his visits with Jill, he does not need to call her Doctor, to Uvalde and Arlington, and of course, he whispered many times, which is his effort at effect.
He called for an end to liability protection against gun manufacturers, which is tantamount to suing GM when someone is injured or killed by a Chevy Impala. He talks about the Grandmother who hands him a note to do something and, in the next breath, attacks Republicans. Inflation belongs to Putin, and mass shootings belong to Republicans. This rhetoric is from the President who claimed to be the unifier and the President for all Americans.
Do we take him at his word tonight in his dramatic twenty-minute emotional speech, or wait for Karine and his keepers to clarify and tell us what the President really meant in his speech this evening? He said nothing about hardening schools or using unspent COVID money to reinforce school security.
The President obviously wants to bring back the Assault Weapons Ban, but there is no clear definition of assault weapons. He also alludes to going after bans on specific handguns, but this is a non-starter. Republicans and legal gun owners will never allow these bans to be successful. He talks about strengthening background checks but does not refer to his other son, Hunter, who lied on his background check and has never faced charges for the felony he committed. Maybe he should focus on Hunter and not Beau when he gives these speeches.
Biden continuously claims that nobody needs high-caliber bullets or high-capacity magazines. So why does the Democrat-sponsored bill before Congress exempt bodyguards from any of the restrictions? Because these people who are writing these bills are far more important than you.
Mr. Mondaire Jones (D-NY) said in committee today precisely what the Democrats want to do. “You will not stop us from taking guns out of your hands. If the Filibuster prevents us, we will abolish it. If the Supreme Court stops us, we will expand it.” When asked for clarification about weapons of war, he said any semi-automatic weapon, period. When it was pointed out that means nearly every pistol or rifle in circulation, he ended the conversation.
Sadly, these people are ignorant of guns, bullets, and classifications of firearms, yet they feel qualified to pass legislation to regulate them. These people look and sound foolish, which is a common phenomenon for Democrats.
It is difficult to take Joe Biden seriously. When he is ranting in an obviously dramatic manner, you want to scream at the hypocrisy of these folks from the Left. Big cities are being shot up nightly by gun-toting gangs. Fentanyl is flooding over our open Southern Border. We have intercepted enough to kill the world’s population many times over. He leads the party that called for defunding Police, and now he wants to tell us how to solve the mass shooting dilemma.
Biden gave an extremely divisive speech and insulted the Republicans. Not the model for obtaining harmony and reaching across the aisle. Again, if somebody wanted to destroy or damage America from within, they would do exactly what Joe Biden and the Democrats are doing. They can point the finger at Republicans, but projection will not get it done.
Ray Writes for GraniteGrok.com and the Liberty Loft
The post Inflation Belongs to Putin, and Mass Shootings Belong to Republicans appeared first on Granite Grok.
Jordan Peterson gave the 2022 commencement address at Hillsdale College, and it was brilliant. He called it (or Maybe Hillsdale did) At the crossroads. That was the subject of the talk. That place where you have an essential choice to make and what that looks like or means philosophically, metaphorically, through a lens of faith and practically speaking.
One of the earlier images he paints about making that decision is the religious idea of Sin. According to Peterson, the Greek and Hebrew derivations of the word Sin relate to archery.
“It’s a lovely notion to know that, because to sin, therefore, means to miss the target, which implies that it has something to do with aim or the lack thereof. I love that. I think it’s so apt. … So, to sin is to aim wrong or to miss the mark. And there’s a variety of ways you can miss the mark, right? Don’t aim at all, that’s a good one. Assume there is no such thing as aim. Assume all aims are equal.
Well, you sin, you miss the mark, what can happen.
What indeed?
So, the idea is that we should aim and aim high, and he explains why. It is better for us, our families, and our communities and the support infrastructure we create both internally and externally by doing this better prepares us for life and inevitable tragedy.
There’s a lot of that, and the manner in which he unravels that meeting at the crossroads also confirms – in my mind – why we must combat relativism and the false progressive gods of behemoth government.
Government has its place, but it has no motivation to aim high or to bear the consequences of aiming low, not aiming at all, or assuming there is no such thing as aim, or that all aims are equal. That, and this is still me, a central government could ever make any of those choices for individuals or communities or states without somehow missing the mark more often than not because we’re all different or worse, hitting the wrong one and causing real harm.
I think we see that all around us today.
That’s not Peterson’s lesson. He’s trying to provide some wisdom on the topic of graduating and finding yourself at a waypoint in life. THat there are many of these, more for some than others because of the choices we make.
That we should aim high and why it’s better, and his process is fascinating to watch. He works his way through the ideas, each having its own value but also a necessary piece of the puzzle that forms the finished image.
I think it’s that good. I hope you do as well.
The post Sin and Government appeared first on Granite Grok.
Fairly new Grokster Ray Cardello had a post ‘The Left Only Sees Gun Control.’ “Over the weekend, we saw Biden resort to his old claim that the Second Amendment is not absolute. That is his interpretation and certainly not shared by many.
“He uses the example that you could not buy a canon at the time of writing the Bill of Rights. That is his assumption and not based on fact. For some unknown reason, Biden is going after 9mm handguns while Kamala Harris wants a ban on assault weapons. There is no connection between 9mm handguns and mass shootings and no such category as assault weapons. How can you defend either of these arguments?
How serious can Democrats claim to be on solving mass shootings when they have no interest in discussing options. There is no securing schools, discussion on mental health issues, or consideration of Red Flag issues. Just take away legal guns from law-abiding citizens.”
If you amy time surfing the ‘Net or watching the Left-leaning “news/opinion” shows on MSNBC, CNN, or the like, they’re all clamoring to confiscate ALL guns. You don’t “need” them in our civilized society. We have “evolved” past such things, they say.
They also have trouble separating inanimate objects from those mental cases and retards (there, THAT will set some Wokesters off!) that have no regard for human life other than their own urges, thoughts, and feelings. These shooters are ONLY about one thing – themselves.
And I blame the Left for changing OUR Culture such as our societal norms allow this to happen. I grew up when a lot of high school kids had their hunting rifles in their pickups from either before school or after school hunts – we didn’t HAVE this problem. The Left has destroyed the idea of Respect for others and has replaced it with the notion that others HAVE to respect ME!
The results speak for themselves.
Anyways, new Commenter Marina Vaslovik has a great recounting of times and countries where the Elite of that country decided to disarm that I’ve decided needs to be on the front page:
Are you considering backing gun control laws? Do you think that because you may not own a gun, the rights guaranteed by the Second Amendment don’t matter?
CONSIDER:
In 1929 the Soviet Union established gun control. From 1929 to 1953, approximately 20 million dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.In 1911, Turkey established gun control. From 1915-1917, 1.5 million Armenians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
Germany established gun control in 1938 and from 1939 to 1945, 13 million Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, the mentally ill, and others, who were unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
China established gun control in 1935. From 1948 to 1952, 20 million political dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
Guatemala established gun control in 1964. From 1964 to 1981, 100,000 Mayan Indians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
Uganda established gun control in 1970. From 1971 to 1979, 300,000 Christians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
Cambodia established gun control in 1956. From 1975 to 1977, one million “educated” people, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
That places total victims who lost their lives because of gun control at approximately 56 million in the last century. Since we should learn from the mistakes of history, the next time someone talks in favor of gun control, find out which group of citizens they wish to have exterminated.
And here is the idea that the Left in the US WON’T accept: it can happen here in the US. They refuse to acknowledge that history can and does repeat itself. Since they don’t accept that America is an “Exceptional Country” on its founding merits, they have changed those merits to THEIR merits.
All bets are now off – destroy the foundational ideas laid down by the Sociological and Political Geniuses that YOU aren’t and you will wind up with the chaos you seek.
Problem is, there are a lot of us who are fighting, still, for our founding ideas:
The post Promoted from the Comments – A History of the Results of Gun Control appeared first on Granite Grok.
The Newburyport News, in an editorial titled, “Violent attacks on journalists also assault the truth,” is reporting multiple acts of vandalism at homes linked to a “journalist” who works for New Hampshire Public Radio or their family members.
A reporter’s current and former homes on Lynn Fells Parkway in Melrose and in Hampstead, N.H., were vandalized May 21. In the Melrose attack, a man spray-painted the words “Just the beginning!” in red on the home, threw a brick through a window and ran away. The incident was caught on a Ring home-security camera. Earlier the same day, in Hampstead, a vandal spray-painted an obscenity on a garage door and threw a brick at the house.
The article predictably invokes the Trump era and his negative opinion of the “the media” but notes that his presidency and the pandemic increased “circulation as readers searched for accurate information about a world that was coming apart around them.”
Up to this point, we have accusations of journalism by NHPR reporters and the notion that “the media” provides accurate information. As a long-time observer, I can tell you that what they do is not objective (There’s a reason why we call NPR Nancy Pelosi Radio). NHPR is just the local franchise.
They cherry-pick the truths they tell and pander to the ruling class narratives, so while brick-throwing is “violent” and the graffiti might be intimidating, “assault on the truth” is a stretch.
Getting paid to do it does give it any more legitimacy than the idea that prostitution makes you good in bed.
That’s not to say these blind squirrels don’t find a nut every once in a while. And maybe a nut has triggered someone who is now spraypainting and brick-throwing. To that point, knock it off and have some perspective. This isn’t about George Floyd’s self-administered overdose ‘suicide’ in police custody.
Violence and intimidation are tools of the Left (assuming this isn’t some left-wing stooge) and are reserved for matters that advance national policy. And this isn’t some “blogger.” We’re talking about Lauren Chooljian, who is an actual “reporter” investigating “Granite Recovery Centers,” which has ties to major players in the New Hampshire equivalent to the DC ruling class swamp.
Major political donors, developers, movers, and shakers. People with a lot of dirt on their hands.
So, it would not be beyond them to use a proxy to intimidate Chooljian if she’s set a fire under their feet, so I’m glad to hear she’ll keep at it. But I think we need to understand that, on the whole, NPR and NHPR are as much a whore to the Left’s national agenda as CNN or MSNBC, ABC, NBC, or CBS. And while breaking a story about corruption in NH is admirable – the place is a cesspit of sins – the Newburyport News headline is laughable.
The professional media in America hides more truth than it reveals. So, while this may be an assault on the First Amendment or an attack on Free Speech, let’s not get too carried away with the idea that every effort serves some greater good.
That’s simply not the case.
The post Someone is “Attacking” An NPR “Journalist” in New Hampshire appeared first on Granite Grok.
Today is June 3rd, 6/03/2022, which is a celebration of all things New Hampshire in the Granite State. 603 is the state’s only area code, and it has adopted the day as its very own.
It is not an official holiday. We don’t get the day off. But you can find things to do around the state in honor of the day. You’ll have to research yourself to find things “603 Day” on June 3rd. It’s not universally acknowledged or practiced celebration. But it is still a thing, and you are encouraged to create your own 603 Day tradition.
It’s your day New Hampshire. Make of it what you want.
The post It’s 603 Day, by the Way, a Celebration of New Hampshire appeared first on Granite Grok.
Ads – Commenter Anon yesterday let me know (and I experienced it myself) that the left and bottom pop-up ads were glitching in that it took TWO tries at closing (or “X-ing out”) those ads. I contacted the ad server vendor and it seems that is now fixed.
PLEASE let me know if you are still experiencing it – while most software operates as “fix it here,” it is almost always fixed everywhere else that code is used, there are still some incidences where said code was not “called” but copy/pasted somewhere else so the bug may still be there.
Also, I have heard that they are “skinny-fying” the left side ad to not cover our content (or as much of it) as it does. MY problem is that I don’t see it – my laptop has a 17″ screen and my external screen is 27.” Thus, I am going to have to rely on you folks to see if, over the next few days, there’s any difference. If not, let me know and I’ll go yammer at them again (and let me know what your display type is: 16″ or smaller, tablet, smartphone, other).
As I said here (“Announcement: PayPal Has Decided to Shut Granitegrok off from Its Services“), Life threw us a bit of a curve ball. Well, almost all of the backend stuff has been done such that we’ve moved to a backup Paypal account so we can still get paid by those who purchase either ad space or aggregate our content on their site. And we can pay our bills (I had moved money over to it just in case this happened to us like it has too many other Conservative sites) as well.
There’s just one more issue left – our wonderful readers that have subscribed to GraniteGrok and send us money on a monthly basis. And I am going to say something that I thought I’d never say:
STOP SENDING US MONEY!
At least through your present subscription. Now that I have your attention, IF you wish to continue to support us, please do the following:
End your present subscription – that goes to the now shut down account. You’ve probably been getting a bounceback/unable to pay notification from Paypal. I know – I get them too (it’s like they’re taunting me for shutting us down).
If you would be so kind, as to sign up once again by either hitting the DONATE button (upper right) or clicking here.
The previous setup was clunky but in the years that have intervened, Paypal made it much easier (in some ways) to make that interface cleaner. However, we understand if you decide not to do so – Paypal created a problem for us that doesn’t require you to fix.
In the meantime, also in the last few years and as Paypal went Big Tech and become Conservative Haters (we’re not the only ones to have fallen afoul of “Community Standards”), the Left taunted the Right with “if you don’t like it, go make your own”.
Silly people – we did and now THEY are the ones outraged that we on the Right followed their New Rules. There are Right-Of-Center payment processors, work-alikes to Paypal, that now exist. We’ll be looking into that and once found, set them up as our backup.
Thanks for your understanding in all this!
The post Maintenance In Progress – Ads, Subscribers, Newsletter appeared first on Granite Grok.
I haven’t seen anything like this around these parts. A vaccinated Australian has written an Op-Ed in which they thank the unvaccinated. For what? “[T]heir perseverance and courage bought us the time to see we were wrong.”
The unvaccinated are the heroes of the last two years as they allowed us all to have a control group in the great experiment and highlight the shortcoming of the Covid vaccines. The unvaccinated carry many battle scars and injuries as they are the people we tried to mentally break, yet no one wants to talk about what we did to them and what they forced “The Science“ to unveil. We knew that the waning immunity of the fully vaccinated had the same risk profile as others within society as the minority of the unvaccinated, yet we marked them for special persecution. You see we said they had not “done the right thing for the greater good” by handing their bodies and medical autonomy over to the State.
It’s quite the mea culpa, actually, complete with plenty of finger-pointing at “leaders” who “ admitted the goal was to make life almost unlivable for the unvaccinated, which was multiplied many times by the collective mob, with the fight taken into workplaces, friendships, and family gatherings.”
Remember, this was Australia. We wrote at least a few pieces on what we thought we knew was happening there. None of it was pleasant. Most of what was happening was fascist. So, this letter puts some of that in focus.
We took pleasure in scapegoating the unvaccinated because after months of engineered lockdowns by political leaders blinded by power, having someone to blame and to burn at the stake felt good. We believed we had logic, love, and truth on our side so it was easy to wish death upon the unvaccinated. Those of us who ridiculed and mocked the non-compliant did it because we were embarrassed by their courage and principles and didn’t think the unvaccinated would make it through unbroken and we turned the holdouts into punching bags.
I’m sure there are places in America where these descriptions carry more weight, but we hear echoes of our experience in those words. But one mea culpa does not a cultural shift, make. “The mobs, the mask Nazis, and the vaccine disciples” are still here, yearning to return us to full-blown, pandemic-lockdown protocols because they “worked.”
No, not to prevent the spread, keep people out of hospitals, or save lives. They were incapable of doing those things. By “worked,” I mean the mass social engineering of the people. And I know you knew that too. That’s what this became, and the unvaccinated, those who refused to bow to the mask nazis of the COVID Karens, were or are all that stood between liberty and public health marshall law.
The opinion author notes near his closing, “We should all try and find some inner gratitude for the unvaccinated as we took the bait by hating them because their perseverance and courage bought us the time to see we were wrong.”
Not everyone has seen that, and far too many refuse. We still have much work to do but I promise we intend to do it.
The post “The War on the Unvaccinated was lost and we should all be very thankful for that.” appeared first on Granite Grok.
A long time ago, in a reality far, far away, the CDC, NIH, and others knew that mass masking couldn’t reduce viral spread. They also knew masking had downsides. But the mask became a symbol of compliance and they ignored their own research. They even invented some to justify masks. But that’s falling apart, again.
Ambarish Chandra and Tracy Beth Høeg recreated the CDC Study that claimed to prove school mask mandates lowered covid cases but did it bigger and better.
We failed to establish a relationship between school masking and pediatric cases using the same methods [as the CDC] but a larger, more nationally diverse population over a longer interval. Our study demonstrates that observational studies of interventions with small to moderate effect sizes are prone to bias caused by selection and omitted variables. Randomized studies can more reliably inform public health policy.”
Inconclusive. No measurable benefit.
Related: Counties With Facemask Mandates Had 85% More “COVID Case Death.”
If the researchers don’t end up dead in the bathtub of some DC hotel, this might move the needle, but with the pandemic-policy ideologues? That seems unlikely. Masking is not a public health policy. It is the picture of Hitler in your home or office in 1940s Germany. The Mao Suit. A personal shrine to Lenin (VI not John). A sign that you have blindly accepted the cold embrace of authoritarianism.
We will not resist.
As for the research, this is a preprint and not yet peer-reviewed, so the Maskers have been beating that drum like Animal from the Muppet Show. It’s Hunter Biden’s Laptop circa Summer/Fall 2000. Misinformation or disinformation. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. A statement whose value will depend on politics and nothing else because that is the only master to which they answer and the politics is the science.
Some say it is unfair to criticize public health for messaging flip-flops—whether about cloth masks, herd immunity, natural immunity, or the vaccines’ effects on transmissibility—because they were just “following the science” as it changed. But in many cases, what evolved was politics, not science. The critics of public health messaging do not begrudge scientific progress—indeed, most of them want more research. Rather, people are upset by unjustified dogmatic certainty in one direction, followed by an immediate swoop to utter confidence in the opposite course of action. The pandemic produced a headfirst leap into a series of unprecedented interventions, from masks to lockdowns to school closures. In the first weeks of the pandemic, speed was necessary, and mistakes were inevitable. What was not necessary or inevitable was the suppression of healthy skepticism and discussion.
We see the same thing here. Someone took the CDC’s mask research and duplicated it as a randomized control trial. They didn’t search for a way to justify the preferred political policy; they replicated the process to arrive at an accurate scientific result.
They claim that pediatric masking does not reduce COVID19 cases. I’ll admit that I like that result. It comports with my view and the product of nearly two years of writing and sharing research on the topic from both armchair and credentialed experts. Add to that personal observation, crunching state data, and a basic understanding of the mechanics of masks and human nature.
Cloth masks are useless. Even with training and control, medical masks are ineffective against a virus. N95 or K95 masks require specialized training, or they fail. And they all have physical, mental, and cultural downsides, especially for children.
Just like the so-called COVID19 vaccine. Low potential for good with a high potential for harm. Which, now that I think about it, is an excellent description of the Democrat Party.
The post New Study: Pediatric Masking (School Mask Mandates) Had No Effect on Number of COVID Cases appeared first on Granite Grok.
The shame of the situation is that proponents of a bill to cancel or forgive outstanding student loans do not understand the process. Or worse, they know and are comfortable with someone else paying their debt. Either situation is disappointing and indicative of a generation weaned on entitlements.
The Squad is pushing for total forgiveness and has made it known that anything less by Joe Biden will violate his campaign promise. Those of us on the Right want zero forgiveness, and any plan by Biden will further fuel historical inflation.
There are around 45 million student borrowers in the U.S. holding about $1.6 trillion in outstanding federal student loan debt. They are waiting anxiously to see what level of relief Biden will sign off on. Let’s look at the three options the President is mulling.
In a separate action involving Student Loan Forgiveness, the U.S. Department of Education announced Wednesday that it would forgive all remaining debt for over half a million borrowers who attended and were defrauded by any campus owned or operated by Corinthian Colleges, the for-profit education chain that closed in 2015.
This is the department’s most significant single student loan discharge ever: An estimated 560,000 borrowers will automatically have their loans totaling an estimated $5.8 billion canceled. They don’t have to apply for a borrower defense discharge; the department says it will discharge the loans without “any additional action on their part.”
Other student loan actions taken by the Biden administration include:
These loans do not simply disappear. The burden shifts to the taxpayer. The students are off the hook at the expense of hardworking Americans. It is an unfair shift or transfer of wealth.
Biden will not do nothing. He has to make an effort to satisfy the Left and Radical Left. The real question is this just a first step to free college education for all Americans? What relief do those who paid back their loans in full receive? What does this forgiveness mean to new students applying for student loans? Nothing beyond immediate relief from existing debt is being discussed. I understand that this act by the Biden administration will add to the inflation number. The burden of the forgiven debt and higher prices for goods and services will hurt the average American. What words of comfort will Biden bestow on them? Stay tuned, and we can all wait for the correction from the White House staff.
Ray Writes for GraniteGrok.com and the Liberty Loft
The post Canceling Loans Means Taxpayers Foot the Bill appeared first on Granite Grok.
It is an expectation by everyone, except Nancy Pelosi, that the Republicans will regain the House and possibly the Senate in November. The latest estimates are for a gain of thirty-five seats for the GOP in the House. Speculation about any swings in the Senate is unclear, and predictions are not forthcoming.
Regaining Congress may not be beneficial for Republicans other than to stop Democrat initiatives. With Biden in the White House, no legislative bills from a Republican House and Senate will ever be signed by the President. The best we can hope for is a stalemate, but it would take Pelosi out of her power position.
Elise Stefanik declared today that if the House flips, investigations into the COVID Origin, the Southern Border Failure, and the Hunter Biden International Money Making Initiative. We need to hear more, not about investigations but legislation. Congress has morphed into a dysfunctional body with an approval rating below the President. People see this branch of government as unable to produce any bills of significance but can spend and waste money at a phenomenal rate. We need to take the pen out of the hand of the President and return to passing laws that have staying power.
Investigations do not bear fruit in Congress. They are partisan events that rarely bring about consequences or accountability unless it is impeachment. Impeachment cannot be on the table for the next Congress. I think the damage Joe Biden has done in his short time is worthy of impeachment proceedings, but the thought of Kamala Harris assuming the Presidency through any means is far worse. Investigations are also very divisive, so let’s put the energy elsewhere unless there is a surety of reason and outcome.
Congress needs to take the lead and tackle some of the biggest challenges faced by our country. Spending is out of control, and we need to stop a growing national debt. Now over $30 trillion, the debt clock needs to unwind. Along with the debt comes inflation. The government cannot control pricing but can impact the printing and flow of money into the system by the government. Far too much “free” money has been sent via stimulus money, creating the highest inflation since Jimmy Carter.
We need legislation to close the Southern Border and address legal immigration. We have been kicking the can down the road for decades. It is time that Washington showed the courage to develop a program that satisfies both sides. We need the Wall completed, and the sovereignty of our country has to be restored.
The flow of illegal drugs into America, specifically Fentanyl, has to be stopped. The Democrats are not seeing 100,000 Fentanyl deaths a year as a problem. The rest of us do, and we know where it comes from and how to stop it. Build the Wall and close the Border.
Gas prices are sucking millions of dollars a day from Americans’ pockets and are especially hurting low to middle-income folks. In 2020, we were energy independent, and now we are back to our old ways of begging our adversaries for oil. We were exporting, and now we are begging. We need to get back to drilling and Fracking, and the prices will come back down.
We have issues brought on by COVID and some from the battle in Ukraine. Most of our problems are self-inflicted by bad decisions and policies. We have watched the White House clean up virtually every statement by Biden. Now it is time for the Republicans to clean up after Biden’s policies. Let’s be prepared with a plan and action when the new Congress is sworn in in January 2023.
Ray Writes for GraniteGrok.com and the Liberty Loft
The post Regaining Congress Cannot be About Investigations appeared first on Granite Grok.
The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh released a documentary titled “What Is A Woman?” to coincide with the beginning of Pride Month, and it has already caused waves among viewers. Whereas the trailer had only provided a glimpse of the documentary’s potential, interviews conducted for the film have now been making the rounds on Twitter exposing thought leaders as complete fools.
One of those interviews features an alleged college professor who can barely begin the interview before becoming visible and audibly agitated over the idea of the truth. Walsh contends to only want to know the truth of biology, which is enough for the professor to blow a gasket.
Take a watch at this very enlightening, if not unproductive, forty-second clip:
This was perhaps the most utterly insane scene of the entire documentary, hands down… @MattWalshBlog pic.twitter.com/qF9MXvsmtv
— Kyle J. Maxwell (@khendriix_) June 2, 2022
Walsh: “I’m not even talking about social context. I’m just trying to start by getting to the truth. You know?”
Professor: “Yeah, I mean I’m really uncomfortable with that language, like, getting to the truth. Again, in social life – “
Walsh: “Why is that uncomfortable?”
Professor: “Because, it sounds actually deeply transphobic to me, umm, and if you keep probing we’re going to stop the interview.”
Walsh: “If I probe about what the truth is?”
Professor: “You keep invoking the word truth, which is condescending and rude. I’m saying to you – “
Walsh: “How is the word truth condescending and rude?”
professor: “Why don’t you tell me what your truth is and you’re walking on thirty seconds more of tonight’s before I get up.”
Needless to say, Twitter wasn’t having any of it. This was just one of several snippets dropped to the social media platform and viewers were clearly taken aback at this professor’s feeble attempts to discuss and debate.
And that’s coming from a college professor…It’s truly remarkable to witness parasitic ideology crumble & die under the wrath of Truth. And it is only Truth that can, and will set us all free.
Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” – John 14:6 “…and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:32
Who are these people that can’t answer basic questions. It’s not just one or two it’s all of them and they see no problem with it. It would just be embarrassing if it wasn’t so dangerous
This is what relativism leads you too. No actual basis for any beliefs you have since nothing is objective. Btw, truth is offensive to him because it is objective. No one has “their truth” just their perceptions of an unchanging truth, and, if different perceptions are deemed…
Wow, that’s a LOT of anxiety, anger, other negative emotions and clues to diagnostic axes. Matt’s interlocutor is not interested in a dialogue; he’s interested in being angry and dismissive.
When I say “I’m just trying to get to the truth,” and that makes the other guy that agitated – I immediately want to address that, before anything else – so, yeah, he wasn’t interrupting – he was focusing on something VERY important… The truth. Objective truth – not personal.
I don’t understand. If I call something ‘transphobic’, it automatically means that I’m right, and that the other person should back down. Those are the rules, right ? Right ?
Hailey Sanibel Writes at The Blue State Conservative
The post A Viral Clip From Matt Walsh’s New Documentary Makes Heads Explode appeared first on Granite Grok.
There is an editorial over at Digger from a pair of Environmental stakeholders titled “Converting to Electricity is Common Sense.” The premise is that gasoline is never getting cheaper, and “Driving and heating homes and businesses are essential to Vermonters’ standard of living.” [so] “Converting to electricity is common sense in need of government support.”
Where to begin.If the government got the hell out of the way, gasoline prices would be much lower. Energy, oil, and all fuels would be a fraction of their current cost. We know this to be true because that’s what happened during the Trump presidency and it could happen again.
But the authors, John McCormick and Louise Diamond say “Sanctions on Russian oil are here to stay,” but before Biden, we had cheap gas and were not relying on Russian oil. Biden created that dependence through policy and then issued sanctions to cut off that supply which looks a lot like more stepping stones on his path toward keeping his promise to end fossil fuel use in America.
Related: The Left’s Electric Car Future Is All Carbon Smoke and Mirrors
The premise of your argument in favor of electricity is based on a lie.
But that’s hardly the only issue.
Converting it all to electricity isn’t like flipping on a light switch. You flick the switch and the light comes on because there is electricity on demand. The result of fossil fuel generation. The only green technology capable of replacing it is nuclear and that’s not even on the table. And the not-so-green alternatives are incapable of meeting existing demand even if we covered the nation with them.
By embracing your common sense the odds increase that flipping that switch does nothing more often than not on that grid to which you’d like to add thousands, sorry, millions of electric vehicles. You know, to get rid of fossil fuel transportation.
An exponential increase in demand with no supply and nothing acceptable in the green energy pipeline that could supply it for decades. It would make what the Left has done to increase the cost of gasoline look like amateur hour.
If, as you claim, driving or heating homes is essential to homes and businesses in Vermont (or anywhere else), the only sensible thing to do is to ignore John McCormick, Louise Diamond, and their Committee to Protect Next Generations.
The only thing they are protecting is a long list of lies.
The post “Converting” to Electricity is Common Sense? In What World? appeared first on Granite Grok.
June 1st through the 10th is “Filing Season” in New Hampshire. It’s when you have that short window of time to decide (if you haven’t thought about it yet – and you should have if you’ve been reading GraniteGrok!) to run for elected office.
This goes from the top of the ticket to the very bottom: Federal office (Senate, US House of Representatives), State (Governor, Executive Council, NH State Senate, NH House of Representatives), County (Sheriff, Court Clerks, Register of Probate), and local town and cities.
Some of you may be reading GraniteGrok as “recon” for the “other side” (e.g., Democrats, Socialists, Anarchists, Communists, Greens), but for the most part, our readers are Conservatives and Libertarians. Some are even Republicans (heh!)! YOU folks are the ones for whom this is written – think hard about running.
As many here, both Groksters and Commenters, have observed and discussed, we are at a tipping point – are we to continue to listen to Ben Franklin’s admonishment of “A Republic, if you can keep it.” While that remark was to a lady who had asked about the result of our Founding Fathers’ work in Philly, it still holds today. He challenged not just her but us as well.
We can yammer all we want here as we do battle in the Arena of Ideas (a necessary battle to hone ideas, stances, and debating techniques), but that is insufficient for “if you can keep it.” More is needed. I’m imploring you to do more – talk is fine, action is better. In fact, badly needed in defense of the political philosophy that we were gifted at our beginning: limited Government, maximal Individual Liberty within an “ordered society” (works well, not ordered around by “rulers”).
I did the action part: I signed up three times to run for my hamlet’s SB2 Budget Committee. The first two with TMEW’s blessings – the third term was under a promise to not run for elected office again. However…
I just came from Town Hall to sign up. No, TMEW hasn’t relented and released me from my promise, so no Town office runs for me. But I did persuade her that running for NH GOP Delegate isn’t like any other elected office. While it is on the ballot, no actual campaigning is needed, and there are only a couple of things that a Delegate does (she demanded, “How much MORE time is this going to take??” – she was happier, not happy, truth be told, but happier, when I explained what it is.
After all, I can’t ask you folks to run for whatever office you KNOW that will make a difference in your life, your family’s lives, and your community’s direction if I didn’t make an effort myself, right? While I CAN point to the past, I asked myself: “what about the present. As Reagan asked, what would I tell the Grandson when he asks, “Bompa, what did you do when they were taking my freedom away”? Working hard, sir, working hard to protect it.
You?
If you are a registered Republican, this is the least you can do. If you have questions, email me at Skip@GraniteGrok.com with your DISQUS name in the email, so I know who you are. I’ll send you the details.
The Establishment Republicans are going to hate me even more.
The post It’s Filing Season for Elected Offices. Look within Yourselves and Ask “I Should Be Making a Difference, Right”? appeared first on Granite Grok.
We hadn’t heard a lot from Kevin Smith, who is running in the Republican Primary to replace Democrat Maggie Hassan in the US Senate from New Hampshire. Skip and Ed have explored the until now invisible candidate, but that has ended. He’s got an Ad on TV
It costs a lot of money to be on TV, even in New Hampshire, and the new Kevin Smith Ad is all over the place, on streaming services and online. And while I’ve whined (I think that’s the correct term) about Hassan’s off-season ads – she’s really in that much danger of losing – this Ad does something none of them did. It defines failure with a very memorable “nickname.”
The ad talks about all the crap that’s come down under Biden, and how Hassan isn’t doing anything substantive. Spending, inflation, debt, shortages, and rising prices. We expected Maggie to do something, and “Maggie Hasn’t.”
Maggie Hassan, Maggie Hasn’t. F-ing Brilliant!
And she’s not done a damn thing except propose something everyone knows would never fly – the gas tax holiday. It’s a Potemkin village of an idea from a Democrat who backs Biden 98% of the time.
She also has a new ad (irony alert) about how she succeeded in getting bipartisan legislation into law having something to do with health care and insurance coverage.
Insurance? Health Care?
Maggie goes to DC and forgets that her last proposed state budget as governor of New Hampshire cut $58 million dollars out of the New Hampshire Department of health and human services budget. Seven million of that from nursing homes. The same budget increased funding to abortion providers in the state and our overly expensive University System that turns out students with more debt than degrees.
Hassan is a party mule who hauls the approved narratives all the way to her voting record. She has also been working the moderate angle for as long as I’ve been aware of her political existence but never lived up to it when it came to votes.
Whatever happens in the GOP primary for this race, Hassan has to go. So, here’s the ad, and whether you like Kevin for the gig or not, make that nickname stick.
Not an Endorsement | Grok FAQ
The post Kevin Smith for US Senate Gets This Right – Introducing “Maggie Hasn’t!” appeared first on Granite Grok.
Almost every High School, come graduation time, has a Senior Prank that is pulled. Sometimes successfully, sometimes not. But given what just happened in Uvalde, TX, where there was much consternation over an open door by a teacher (was it? was it not?) and those sworn to protect Society twiddling their thumbs outside as innocent little ones were slaughtered by a mentally deranged 18-year-old adult…and here is a Master Key involved.
…there is an allegation that a member of the Administration handed out a Master Key to allow the students into the High School after hours.
A few bad words were said when a couple of students got access to the intercom and they have been suspended – but shouldn’t the blame be on that Master Key holder administrator that enabled the behavior and not the kids? And even if they were bad words, if school isn’t in session, wouldn’t Free Speech be in force?
After all, review the Brandi Levy story. Admittedly, a bit different than this event but it is there.
But that ISN’T the story – it’s that Superintendent Steve Tucker is responsible for a staff member blithely handing out a Master Key to a bunch of minor aged kids (or mostly, maybe half – I was 17 when I graduated back when dinosaurs where the “new thing” around…).
And think of the possibility of a bad actor amidst the kids could have set in motion for the next day; who gets to be held responsible? Would that be the Principal Jim McCollumb?
Or should it be, under the Truman doctrine of “The Buck stops here”, Superintendent Steve Tucker (yet another black eye for this incompetent)?
What will the School Board do or will they continue to be mere bootlickers or finally turn into the over watchers and overseers that they should be? Developing story…
The post Laconia School Administrator Gave Master Key to Dozens of Students for “SR. Prank” appeared first on Granite Grok.
It is a simple fact of human existence. People or property that is important or cherished is protected (quite often) with firearms. When more protection is warranted, you add more security, probably armed. This is the way with the government, but not with children in their care.
Are Government schools not responsible for them, after claiming ownership before or above parents, or are they abdicating that on this point?
Kids are not only easy targets for the deranged products of the progressive culture; that status is proudly advertised. This is a gun-free campus. Not that they need the sign. The Left owns government education, and their position on firearms, policing, and public safety is well known. It is a tool to control people, not protect them. And no one knows this better than the deranged radical leftists who make up the majority of mass shooters.
They drink it in like whiskey, the media bartenders lining up shots as fast as possible. The hate-mongering and division are sowed deeply and often until, like sleeper agents they are triggered. Tragedy follows.
And then the party responsible for all of that, Democrats, the one that defends murdering millions of black babies in the womb, the one that masked and poisoned children with a pharmaceutical none of them needed, pretends to care about kids.
Suddenly they are precious.
But if that were true, you’d treat them like everything else you claim is important, including yourselves. You’d surround them with armed security. Instead, you advocate for the opposite.
You claim that disarming the people best able to protect these children will somehow stop those with criminal intent from doing them harm. If that is so, then you should first disarm the Capitol police and the Secret Service. No armed security for political leaders or wealthy insiders.
If you can’t even consider treating our future leaders with as much care as current “leaders,” then the first course of action should not be to punish law-abiding citizens because of criminals. It should be to disarm yourselves and your “security.” Lead by example.
Or maybe children aren’t important or precious to you. Not other people’s children. Children you insist must spend their day shacked up in your government schools. Human beings of so little merit that you not only object to anyone protecting them with firearms, you are working to ensure no one can.
And isn’t that precious.
The post Children Aren’t as Precious as Politicians or We’d Protect Them with Guns appeared first on Granite Grok.
The politicization of the United States Supreme Court has been escalating for decades, going back at least as far as the 1987 nomination of Robert Bork by President Ronald Reagan. Since that time, confirmation battles such as those of Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh, along with hyper enthusiasm for scores of case decisions have seemingly ramped up in intensity.
Yet, perhaps nothing is more illustrative of the impact of outside pressures on the court, and the underlying tension affecting its members and their underlings, than the leaked court opinion from Justice Samuel Alito that came to light a month ago. The unveiling of Alito’s well-reasoned, rational, and brilliantly written draft of the majority opinion in the case of Dobbs V Jackson undoubtedly created the reaction the leaker had been striving for, as outraged leftists had a collective conniption at the prospect of losing federally guaranteed abortion rights with the apparently imminent overturning of Roe V Wade.
But the leak also highlighted the rising partisanship in the court, and the desperation of either clerks, other employees, or certain justices themselves. The Supreme Court had become as politicized as virtually every other public institution, and the security and integrity of the court have come under fire from all sides. Therefore, when the announcement was made that officials within the Supreme Court had launched an investigation into who leaked the documents, many welcomed the news, hoping that the leaker would be rooted out with order in the court restored.
A report yesterday by CNN indicates that those managing the investigation into the leak are serious about getting to the bottom of what happened, and are taking unprecedented steps to do so. They’re not fooling around.
According to CNN:
“Supreme Court officials are escalating their search for the source of the leaked draft opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade, taking steps to require law clerks to provide cell phone records and sign affidavits, three sources with knowledge of the efforts have told CNN.
Some clerks are apparently so alarmed over the moves, particularly the sudden requests for private cell data, that they have begun exploring whether to hire outside counsel.”
Many of us doubted whether the investigation would be conducted in earnest. Was the investigation merely a ploy by Chief Justice John Roberts to quiet critics? Is it just an attempt at damage control? Based on this reporting, it appears that the investigation is indeed functioning with sincerity.
Depending on which expert we listen to, the level of criminality of the leaker’s actions varies. But one point about the leak is clear and non-debatable: Last month’s leak was extremely harmful. As one of the three branches of government, and with its members serving out lifetime appointments, the independence of the Supreme Court of the United States is sacrosanct.
If attempts to influence justices’ opinions via shenanigans such as the leak go unchecked, and if there is no accountability for the perpetrators, the likelihood of similar nonsense occurring in the future increases dramatically. And if that happens, we have a SCOTUS whose credibility could be damaged irreparably. The leaker(s) must be identified and prosecuted to the full extent of the law. And considering the gloves-off approach, they’re taking with the court’s staff, that outcome may indeed be on the horizon.
Jess Lawson writes at The Blue State Conservative
The post SCOTUS Clerks Consider ‘Lawyering Up’ After Investigators into Dobbs Leak Want Cell Phone Data appeared first on Granite Grok.
Let’s say you believe that everything belongs to the State. Nothing you do with yourself nor the product of any labor can ever belong to the person who did the work. Not just that you didn’t build it, but you couldn’t. Now consider how the political party pushing those ideas had made it impossible for people of color to own anything.
The ideological descendants of slavery in America have recreated the plantation culture. Urban landscapes are riddled with crime-filled ghettoes with people trapped in a cycle of dependency. People of color.
It’s not a coincidence. With decades of Democrat rule, it is inevitable. Poverty, subsistence welfare living, homelessness. Their system has denied you an opportunity, so in response, these socialists who don’t want you to own property play the blame game. They blame people who have stuff, white people, the system, racism, and anyone but themselves.
The latest narrative move comes from a professor of Sociology and African American studies. Saida Grundy says that property is racist because blacks historically have been property.
“If we’re going to talk about George Floyd and really understand it, then we need to understand community reactions to it,” Grundy said. “And we often hear politicians, we hear civic leaders from inside Black communities and from outside of them as well… we hear President Biden say, ‘Y’know I understand your frustration, but don’t destroy property.’
“Well, when you say that to Black people, who historically have been property, one of our greatest weapons was the looting of ourselves as property from the system of slavery. And what we see in communities is they are reacting to the very racism of what we call property.”
Historically, you’ve left a lot of the discussion.
Blacks have also historically, and for a lot longer than American Slavery, owned other blacks. Kept them as property. Slavery is millennia older than America and not limited to people of color. Every race and nation has enslaved people, but in the overarching scope of human history, people of color have enslaved more people of color for longer than anyone else.
Africa still has black slavery. Muslims enslaved millions of blacks, Mediterraneans, Indians, and Asians. Human trafficking continues in Africa, the Middle East, and South and Central America.
Blacks have a long history of enslaving their own, so I have a question for the professor. If black people have, do, and still treat other blacks as property, it’s not about property or racism. It’s just evil.
And if the property is racist, and objecting to destroying it is racist, even when it’s the property of black Americans, is that why aborting millions of black babies is supposedly a right?
| Legal Insurrection
The post From the Mouth of a Marxist – Property is Racist! ‘cuz Slavery! appeared first on Granite Grok.