The last two years have seen a dramatic change in our military. Donald Trump rebuilt our armed forces after the Obama Administration had decimated them with severe funding cuts. Joe Biden has picked up where Obama left off.

We have the worst Secretary of Defense ever in Lloyd Austin, who is far more concerned with a WOKE military than a robust national defense.

We have a very unique military that has relied on volunteers to fill its ranks since the selective service and draft was stopped in 1973. The Vietnam War ended, and the Army was not in good favor with most Americans. We have always had a supply of patriotic men and women who have stepped up to protect their country, but that has changed. Every military branch is seeing its lowest recruitment rates this year. Something has changed, and I feel it is a collection of different factors.

For decades, the United States military stood for patriotism and toughness. These were two traits that appealed to a lot of young men and women. They answered their nation’s call and sacrificed years to keep the rest of us safe. Over the last two years, they have seen a change in our military, specifically the Army. The new administration is more concerned with WOKE and may be turning away young patriots.

With recruitment ads that feature young gay women to the lowering of physical standards, the macho image is changing. Lloyd Austin is more concerned about provisions for transgender recruits and enforcing the vaccine mandate than making sure we have the finest fighting machine in the world. Young people who thrive on discipline, training, and toughness will have to look elsewhere. It is not in the man’s Army.

These potential recruits also witnessed the embarrassment of Afghanistan and the needless deaths of thirteen young men and women. Not only do young recruits want to be part of a group that only has one mission; to win and never leave a brother or sister behind. That is not what they see.

The other intangible is the impact on our young people by our education system. We grew up with patriotism, respect for the military, and love of this country. In today’s schools, from the first day of class in kindergarten, our children are now taught to hate their country and its past. History and patriotism are not taught, and the culture is not nurtured.

Teachers are turning their students off to the idea of America being the greatest country on earth and how lucky they are to enjoy the gifts she gives us. Instead, they are taught to curse our past, destroy connection to our history, and believe that radical Democrats will lead them to a better future. It is a philosophy that is not only leaving our military depleted, but destroying our future.

Our children have no connection with America, are not being prepared for the future by our schools, have no motivation for hard work, and expect to be supported and coddled forever. It is not a sustainable recipe for a healthy society. We need a reversal of philosophy quickly, as recruits are not keeping up with those leaving the service.

The post There is a Connection Between the Education System and Military appeared first on Granite Grok.

The New Hampshire Independence PAC helped organize a gathering of about 50 people at the Wearehouse last week and featured networking, vendors, as well as multiple speeches from NHIPAC’s Matt Sabourin, Foundation for NH Independence’s Alu Axelman, author Jordan Cannon, Benjamin Shaffer from Goldback, Club 75 Alliance’s Stephen Villee, The John Birch Society’s Matt Rhodes, Jack Shimek of the Pine Tree Radio Society, state rep candidate Jason Gerhard, and Wearehouse founder Brian Becker. This video features all the speeches from the event:

If I had my druthers the NHGOP candidates would boycott the WMUR “debates” because these “debates” are rigged to help the Democrats. Assuming they don’t, they need to be prepared when Adam Sexton and the other Democrat-activists masquerading as moderators try to distract from the devastation caused by the policies that New Hampshire’s incumbent Democrats have supported. JD Vance shows how it is done:

“I find it interesting how preoccupied you are with [January 6] at a time when people can’t afford groceries, people can’t walk down the street safely. Let’s focus on the significant issues right now, Tim.” — @JDVance1 pic.twitter.com/fbTFc5zo8F

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 10, 2022

The post NHGOP Candidates Should Do What JD Vance Did When WMUR Rigs The Debate appeared first on Granite Grok.

US Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) has a new campaign ad in which he frames the current Democrat majority and administration as idiots.

I almost wish he could have made a more extended ad because there is a long list of things he could say about Democrat priorities that demonstrate how out of touch they are with everyday Americans. But he does say this, among other things.

 

“The Left thinks that government employees have a constitutional right to talk to five-year-olds about sexuality. I know, it’s frustrating to me too, to see our country, which was founded by geniuses, and being run by idiots.”

 

Are enough parents and taxpayers as unnerved by this radical notion to add to the projected Republican wave this November?

If not, then we’re the idiots for not doing enough to convince people that Democrats cannot be allowed to hold power at any level of government.

Here’s the ad, and stick around for the end. He explains the jellyfish.

 

 



 

HT | UAF

The post Stupidity is Painful appeared first on Granite Grok.

As promised in the last Monday Memes, I have an overflow. My meme cup runneth over.  Almost certain about a Friday Overflow-Overflow.  We’ll see.

Now, let the mayhem, mockery, and ridicule resume:

 

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

 

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

 

 

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

 

 

There’s another reason for voting in person on THE DAY – fighting vote fraud.  You see, the majority of people who vote early are likely to be “D” voters.  So they’ve already used up part of their supply.  By voting in person, and as late in the day as possible, you force them to have to scramble if they plan to overcome your vote.  People in haste make mistakes.

 

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

 

 

 

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

 

 

They’ve been saying it for DECADES.  Nobody’s taken them seriously.  And that’s their strength – alas – because people don’t want to believe stuff like this.

Like I said in Just Give Me Yavneh, people don’t WANT to think that their illusory stable world can fall apart.  They have normalcy bias.  The problem is when things go awry, it means people get caught unawares.

 

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

 

 

 

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

 

 

Rules are for the little people.  I keep hammering at this – when the “common Roman” saw how corrupt the Imperial City had become, they ceased being willing to fight for it.

 

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

 

 

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

 

Pick of the post:

 

 

The Left truly believes, in their historic slave-owner fashion, that they still own minorities.  Slave owners then, slave owners now.

 

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

 

 

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

 

Palate cleansers:

 

 

 

The post Meme Overflow appeared first on Granite Grok.

The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) is directly responsible for policies that have undermined years of education for American children, and not just during the COIVD plandemic. So, what does the union president do?

Randi Weingarten travels to Ukraine to meet with union leaders there.

Why?

 

“…to offer solidarity and support in the face of relentless attacks that have forced hundreds of thousands of refugees to flee the country’s east,”” Fox News reported.

“The AFT was invited by the Ukrainian teachers union, the Trade Union of Education and Science Workers, to bear witness and call attention to the effects on children, families and educators and the impact of Russia’s attacks on democracy and democratic institutions,” the press release explained.”

 

And with some creative editing on my part, we get this.

 

“The AFT was invited by parents, to bear witness and call attention to the effects on children, families, and educators and the impact of the Democrat Party and Teacher’s Union policy on American Education, but declined, calling them domestic terrorists, instead.”

 

I’m sure the union has a political interest in reinforcing the Democrat party’s use of Ukraine as another taxpayer-funded laundromat. I feel confident that is the only reason she is there. Create a press event for the complicit media to peddle. But the optics are lousy, even if she is there for other reasons.

Schools in America were in trouble before the public school lockouts. And while online learning is an excellent tool for some kids, the unions and government schools turned it into the alien abduction conspiracy equivalent of lost time. Students woke up after two years of “distance learning” with few, if any, new skills.

They were left behind while teachers and unions collected pay and benefits many of their parents lost due to similar policies.

Randi should be visiting the front lines in the war zones of Chicago, Los Angeles, and Baltimore, not Kyiv and Lviv.

 

 

HT | Gateway Pundit

The post Teacher’s Union President Visits Ukraine “To Bear Witness and Call Attention to the Effects on Children” appeared first on Granite Grok.

Democrat Presidential candidate and former member of Congress Tulsi Gabbard has announced that she is leaving the Democrat Party. “I can no longer remain in today’s Democratic Party that is now under the complete control of an elitist cabal of warmongers driven by cowardly wokeness …

 

I can no longer remain in today’s Democratic Party that is now under the complete control of an elitist cabal of warmongers driven by cowardly wokeness, who divide us by racializing every issue and stoke anti-white racism, actively work to undermine our God-given freedoms, are hostile to people of faith and spirituality, demonize the police and protect criminals at the expense of law-abiding Americans, believe in open borders, weaponize the national security state to go after political opponents, and above all, dragging us ever closer to nuclear war.

She is also asking fellow Democrats to join her: “If you can no longer stomach the direction that so-called woke Democratic Party ideologues are taking our country, I invite you to join me.”

 

Here’s the complete statement from Twitter.

I can no longer remain in today’s Democratic Party that is now under the complete control of an elitist cabal of warmongers driven by cowardly wokeness, who divide us by racializing every issue & stoke anti-white racism, actively work to undermine our God-given freedoms, are… pic.twitter.com/oAuTnxZldf

— Tulsi Gabbard (@TulsiGabbard) October 11, 2022

 

So. Tulsi is calling her “former” party a bunch of extremists. And that they are, so please, by all means, defect – just make sure that means not voting for Democrats even if you no longer choose to register as a party member.

 

 

The post Breaking: Tulsi Gabbard Has Left …The Democrat Party – Asks Other Democrats to Join Her. appeared first on Granite Grok.

Over the course of the past few years, many people have begun to take more of an interest in and a hands-on approach to their personal finance. Driven in part by Covid-19 lockdowns, when people forced to stay indoors decided to assess their assets to pass the time, ensuring a stable and sustainable financial future is now a priority for a lot of people.

As geopolitical issues and other factors influence global markets, we have seen the bite of inflation and rising costs across the world. Now, more than ever, it is important to guarantee the financial health and security of you and your loved ones. What steps and measures can you take to achieve this? Keep reading to find out.

What is Financial Health?

Financial health can be defined as the current state of your financial situation. It encompasses things like income, debt, assets, and savings. Much like your physical and mental health, financial health is vital for your wellbeing, both presently and in the future, and it must be managed and maintained regularly to ensure it remains in a good state.

To be financially healthy means that you are seeing enough income and have enough savings to cover all the outgoings involved with day-to-day life. This includes living expenses, debts, and other obligations. Additionally, someone who is financially healthy would have enough cash reserves to cope with a sudden, unforeseen emergency, such as one that seriously impacted their income.

How can you tell if you are financially healthy? There are a number of methods you can take to evaluate your situation. Read on to find out more.

Measuring Financial Health

Measuring your debt-to-income (DTI) ratio can be a good indicator of the current state of your financial health. This is done by dividing the total of your monthly debt outgoings by your monthly income to get a percentage. The lower the percentage the better, and financial bodies like mortgage lenders will often look at DTI when considering an application.

Checking savings and emergency funds can give you an idea how you’d cope in an emergency, while staying on top of your credit score can ensure you remain attractive to lenders or creditors. While these steps allow you to evaluate your financial health, how do you achieve and maintain it in the first place? Let’s find out.

Saving and Investing

This is perhaps one of the most important steps. Effective saving and investing can work to give you financial security and stability, while also making you attractive to lenders like mortgage brokers. It ensures you have cover in the event of an emergency and gives you something to temporarily fall back on should your income be affected.

One of the best ways to save is through a savings account. There are all types of savings accounts, each with their own unique advantages and disadvantages. Accounts can come with a range of benefits and different interest rates, with some dedicated for specific purposes such as accounts for children or for students.

The key to building up a solid foundation of savings is to start saving early. Your savings will compound, and you can build up a substantial amount with relatively low, regular payments if you start saving when you are young.

Draw up Budgets

Budgets are absolutely vital for managing money, they can stop you from spending beyond your means and can give you a detailed insight into where exactly your money is going.

Start by determining your income, which could be easy or tricky depending on what it is you do for a living. If your income is variable month to month, use an average figure over a set period of time rather than a set monthly amount.

Once you have determined your monthly income you can start calculating how much you spend per month. Breaking down these expenses into groups can give you even more detail as to where the greatest percentage is being spent, allowing you to make adjustments if things seem unbalanced.

Pay off Debts

Debt can mount over time, and it can work to seriously impact your financial health. Whether it is credit card, student loan, or car debt, don’t ignore it in the hopes it will go away. Stay on top of your debt and strive to pay it off as quickly as you can.

Creating a debt repayment strategy can let you evaluate how much it is you owe and give you a timescale for repayment. Make up an inventory of your debt, who you owe, how much, and when the repayments are due. Seeing everything laid out like this can be very helpful and can allow you to formulate a plan moving forward.

Avoid just paying the minimum payment for your debts each month. Interest can mean you just end up paying more over time, and it will keep you in debt for longer. Try and pay more than the minimum whenever possible, this will help you get out of debt faster.

Conclusion

Being in a stable financial state isn’t just beneficial for your monetary situation, it can have significant benefits for your mental health and emotional wellbeing as well. Follow these tips to achieve your desired financial health and safeguard your future.

 

 

The post What Steps Can You Take to Achieve Your Desired Financial Health appeared first on Granite Grok.

The media is doing what it can to hide the recession and food inflation. They talk about monthly numbers without noting how this cumulative price rise is crushing America, the left claims to champion. But will it have the opposite effect?

Related: Inflation Reduction Act Will Hurt America’s Middle Class

People go to the grocery store to buy food weekly, if not more often. If ends were barely meeting before, they can’t find each other now. Prices are not just higher. They are exponentially higher.

To help customers understand it, a bakery posted a list of prices for ingredients they use with their costs in January 2020, January 2022, and July 2022.

 

Inflation causing higher prices at the local bakery, explaining all of the price changes for his ingredients. pic.twitter.com/q51hDV1q3U

— Wall Street Silver (@WallStreetSilv) October 9, 2022

 

Many of these ingredients have more than doubled in price. These price differences paint an ugly picture of an economic mess Democrats are trying to hide. A kitchen table issue over which they are the cause and from which they are trying to run.

They use their majorities to spend (as they always do) trillions we do not have on partisan interests with no regard for the domestic consequence.

That whiteboard is a searchlight in the night shining right on those consequences, and the owner of that bakery might want to prepare for a visit from the FBI for acts of sedition, incitement, treason, insurrection, or plain old domestic terrorism.

That’s supposed to be a joke, but these days, not so much.

 

Related: Watch: What Inflation Really Looks Like.

 

 

The post The “Ingredients” That Make the Inflation Cake appeared first on Granite Grok.

I posted earlier about WMUR … Adam Sexton, more specifically … helping the Chris Pappas campaign deflect from the issues that the voters rank as their top concerns: WMUR Rigging The CD-1 Election. Sexton is actually engaging in multiple levels of bias.

The first level of bias, which I covered in WMUR Rigging The CD-1 Election is covering Social Security as a top issue, when the voters believe that right now we have much bigger fish to fry.

The second level of bias that Sexton engaged in is treating Social Security as a stand-alone issue, when it is NOT … rather, Social Security is simply one part of retirement planning.  Indeed, the value of one’s IRAs, 401-Ks, pensions and other retirement investments typically play a much larger role in determining the standard of living in retirement than Social Security.

Yet Sexton leaves out of his lovely hit-piece on Karoline Leavitt that the values of these other retirement investments has plummeted because of the policies of the Biden-regime … POLICIES THAT CHRIS PAPPAS HAS SUPPORTED … by an order of magnitude of at least 25 percent:

BREAKING: Nasdaq falls to 2-year low on Monday (-1.84%); S&P 500 lost 1.2%

NASDAQ is down 33% in 2022

S&P 500 is down 24.5% in 2022

Stock market losses have wiped out $11 TRILLION from Americans' wealth pic.twitter.com/CCis80fjxv

— InteractivePolls (@IAPolls2022) October 10, 2022

Adam Sexton is FAKE NEWS.

The post Hey Adam Sexton … Why Did You Leave This Out Of Your CD-1 “Coverage” Of Social Security? appeared first on Granite Grok.

I was truly shocked when Don Bolduc flipped after the primary and said he no longer believed the 2020 election was stolen. When Blake Masters in Arizona did the same, I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised. And yet I was.

We want to thank Frances Erlebacher for this Op-Ed Please direct yours to Editor@GraniteGrok.com.

So many Americans believe the election was stolen—55%, including 35% of democrats! (Rasmussen)—that I truly don’t get why candidates are so easily persuaded the “only way” to win a general election is to deny their lying eyes.

I realize few candidates are nimble enough to talk about the 18,000 ballots that magically “showed up” in Arizona one day after the election yet were illegally counted.

Or the tens of thousands of absentee ballots received in Pennsylvania in excess of the number requested/mailed out. Or the many nursing homes in Wisconsin with 100% voter participation (Stalin would be impressed!), a 75+% increase over years when only the mentally competent were able to vote.

Or Michigan, where the only permitted forensic audit showed more than 60% of machine-run ballots had been “manually adjudicated” even though only 1/250,000 is permissible by federal law.

Or (my favorite) that there were only 153 million registered voters TOTAL in the entire country in 2018, so there is no possible way 155 million eligible individuals voted legally in 2020—there was barely any population increase between 2018 and 2020, and new registrations in that time period skewed heavily towards the GOP, much to the chagrin of media pundits.

So here are a few simple responses to the endless trap questions from the media or democrats—sorry, I repeat myself—without seeming to cave or throw supporters under the bus.

*Any election where watchers are not allowed or tricked into leaving is suspect.

*Any election where multiple districts stop counting at exact same time is suspect, especially when the “break” is followed by a huge dump of ballots for the candidate who was losing.

*Democrats and the media (sorry, I repeat myself again) started stealing the 2020 election with the multi-year fake Russia collusion “investigations.”
*Ditto for James Comey and his cohorts at the FBI, who knew from day one the Russia Russia Russia nonsense was a hoax hoax hoax and, later, the Hunter Biden laptop was real, real, real.

Take it from the United Nations; the election was fishy.

The UN training for fraud spotting teaches that an election is most likely fraudulent when poll watchers are not allowed, when certain jurisdictions have unrealistic turnout or excessively one-sided results and when counting stops and the loser pulls ahead when it resumes (especially after midnight). That is how we judge elections around the world—in Venezuela, in Myanmar, in Crimea, and, most recently, in the newly occupied territories of Ukraine.

There is never any proof. Asking for it is just a canard by people who know an election was stolen and want the world to move on.

During an open election, no one calls election challengers “deniers” or “threats to democracy.” Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff, and many more “denied” Donald Trump won in 2016—though YouTube just censored the reel of Democrat election deniers, so that is harder this week. After the 2000 election, the New York Times and Miami Herald spent almost a year and tens of thousands of dollars counting and recounting and recounting the Florida ballots again and again and again, trying to show Al Gore had actually won. This time? Nah, we’re good. Only a democracy killer would question an election!

This brings me to Kari Lake, also in Arizona, who had the best response I’ve seen to a “big lie” question. Without batting an eyelid, she turned the question on the reporter—“Do you believe 81 million Americans voted for Joe Biden?” The silence that followed was breathtaking. Because the dirty little secret we’re not supposed to get is that they all know the 2020 election was riddled with fraud. The media know it, and the Dems know it. Even some RINOs know it, though perhaps they just choose to see nothing.

That’s why they all work so hard to intimidate us, to get us to shut up about it. To say our eyes lied. They hope if the actual “big lie” is repeated often enough, that 81 million live people voted for a man who couldn’t fill a parking lot even with people sitting ten feet apart, we’ll all believe it eventually. Thankfully it’s not working, at least not yet—and if 55% of Americans are willing to tell a pollster they believe fraud affected the 2020 outcome, we know the real number is much higher.

If only more of our candidates could see that, perhaps they’d be more willing to channel Kari Lake and stand their ground because this must never be allowed to happen again.

 

 

The post “Take It” from the United Nations; The Election Was Fishy appeared first on Granite Grok.

Here’s another crowd-sourced problem with which our readers can wrestle. Everywhere I look, I see the exact same news about how David Brock (Media Matters and a million other well-funded Left-wing Projects) created a network of at least 51 fake news sites that ape left-wing stories in swing states.

Hello, New Hampshire!

Reformatted, emphasis – mine!

 

A network of at least 51 locally branded news sites has popped up since last year under names like the Milwaukee Metro Times, the Mecklenburg Herald, and the Tri-City Record. The sites are focused on key swing states with elections in 2021 and 2022: Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Michigan, New Hampshire, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin. …

Each follows a similar template: aggregated local news content and short write-ups about local sports teams and attractions — interspersed with heavily slanted political news aimed at boosting Democratic midterm candidates and attacking Republican opponents.

 

Seacoast Current.com? The NH Bulletin? The Concord Sentinel? None of the above, as far as I can tell (so far). But they are here, somewhere, and I’d like to know who they are and under what name they are doing business.

Brock’s Dem-Money laundromat powers them with content generated by the American Independent, a progressive news source that bills itself a number one resource, though it has very little actual traffic. That might be because the news is written to end up on local sites in swing states.

It’s not local, but it is peddled as that, surrounded by local sports or special interest stories.

Political stories about how gas prices, electricity prices, or the economy are not that bad. It’s all spin to scavenge mid-term scraps for floundering Dems. Like any of Maggie Hassan’s campaign ads. BS that leaves out details that would undermine the message.

If you know what site it is or have a suggestion, please let us know (and don’t say the Concord Monitor, Keene Sentinel, Portsmouth Herald, Union Leader, etc., we know about them).

I sifted through dozens of stories, and not one of them had a complete list of these 51 fake-news sites. I hate when that happens.

 

 

The post If NH has One of David Brock’s Dem Funded ‘Fake News Sites,’ Which One Is It? appeared first on Granite Grok.

Mid-term elections are supposed to be referendums on the party in power … in this case, the Democrat Party. Given that the policies of the Democrat Party have hurt most Americans … out-of-control crime, open-borders (fentanyl), war on domestic fossil fuel production, out-of-control federal spending (inflation) … that is very bad for incumbent Democrats like Chris Pappas.

So here comes WMUR to the rescue … making the election about an issue that currently is not on any voter’s radar in order to distract from all the ruinous Biden-regime policies that Chris Pappas has supported:

 

The post WMUR Rigging The CD-1 Election appeared first on Granite Grok.

The calendar says that today is when we celebrate the exploration chutzpah of some guy we call Columbus. Whatever his faults and they are many, he had the stones to sail off into a world of mystery to answer questions Europe had long pondered. What the hell is over there?

Related: Exposing The “Indigenous People” in North America Lie … (Again!)

It resulted in the discovery of two continents and a new source of slaves.

Oppressing locals has been a historical habit of humans of all colors, races, religions, etc., so that’s not surprising. Those “enslaved people” probably had slaves, some of whom – depending on the culture – were sacrificed to local gods. People who did not originate there much the way the Spanish-speaking world of Central and South America did not speak Spanish until they were conquered and forced to speak it.

None of this matters if you are progressive or carry their water. To them, this Monday in October is an excuse to grind an axe in service to a larger political agenda. It is not Columbus Day; it is ‘Indigenous People’s Day.’ But as we’ve pointed out annually, there were no indigenous people here, just the last people to conquer or occupy lands previously empty or occupied by those they killed or drove out.

I’ve shared a small mountain of content on this here, but one of my favorite examples centers on a social media post by a Lakota Indian flipping off Mount Rushmore.

 

The Black Hills has only had human occupants for about 10,000 years. Since then, several peoples have occupied or conquered the area to call it their own. Before the Europeans took it over, the last tribe to do this was the Lakota Sioux (Lakota), a few of whom are offended that their ancestors were “conquered” or displaced.

Lakota man is not happy, but then, neither I suspect, were “the Cheyenne, Crow, Kiowa, and Pawnee,”

“…when the Lakota arrived in the 18th century, they drove out the other tribes and claimed the land for themselves. The lands soon became sacred to the Lakota Sioux, who called them Paha Sapa, which means “hills that are black.”

The Lakota drove them out, probably through barter, threats, shows of force, or violence. They conquered the land, taking it from the “indigenous people” who occupied it before them, just as those people had done to whoever came before they did.

Those lands and that mountain (Mount Rushmore) were likely unknown to the Lakota until the beginning of the American Revolution. Not sacred at all until much of the eastern seaboard was occupied by increasingly disgruntled Europeans.

That must mean that I can declare New England and as much of the Eastern United States as I feel inclined, sacred European Land. It had been occupied, systematically tamed, and culturally converted (through barter, threats, shows of force, or violence) beginning 150 years (more or less) before the Lakota stumbled into the Black Hills of South Dakota.

 

It drives the point home, yes? The mountain was there for a very long time, surrounded by other tribes or people (for about 10,000 years) before the Lakota killed or ran off the most recent “occupants” and decided the mountain was theirs and that it was sacred. About 200 years later, maybe less, the US government did the same thing to your ancestors and turned it into a national monument.

Related: Pilgrims, Indigenous Peoples, And Progressive Reprogramming on Thanksgiving

The only thing sacred is the perception that your claim was better than anyone else’s and the progressive desire to use that for political purposes.

Do you honestly believe the Left gives a damn about your past claims, sacred or otherwise?

You’d be a poor student of history if you did.

 

 

The post Don’t Forget, Today is NOT Indigenous People’s Day appeared first on Granite Grok.

Joa from “Breaking the Flaw” was in Concord last week with me, Bonnie, and Footloose and we went to the state house with cameras rolling. We encountered a rude woman in the Governor’s office, a security agent leveled a false threat against Coconut the dog, and we had a lengthy conversation with a state rep on various issues.  Here’s the video:

More and more parents are discovering that their children are not learning much in terms of academics. What can parents do about that?

The excuse has been used that teachers are to make their lessons meaningful to children. While that may sound good, some of this involves the students answering all kinds of questions about themselves. They are more focused on self-reflection than any kind of meaningful learning in the core subjects.

Core Knowledge developed a scope and sequence on all subjects for grades k-8. You can go here to download the 2010 sequence.  (SAVE THIS). You can then ask your kids to highlight what they learned so you can see what they are not learning in class.

Ask the teacher to highlight what they will be covering throughout the year. If there is content that they will not cover, it’s time to start asking why.

This is the time to engage the teacher and principal in an effort to refocus the classroom on learning academic content in the core subjects. If you run into resistance, take this all to the Superintendent and then to a public school board meeting. Engage other parents and show them how much content is not being taught.

The Core Knowledge Sequence can easily be incorporated into each grade level for free. The sequence is rich in academic content which will help your children acquire the knowledge they need.

Public education took a turn away from academics when government  entities decided that your local public schools should be medical and mental health clinic. They also think they get to dabble in social engineering. So it’s up to parents and taxpayers to push back and remind them that YOU are the parent, and they are there to instruct your children on academics.

This shouldn’t be a partisan issue. All parents who care about public education need to come together before these schools completely self destruct.

The dumbing down of public education has consequences. Not only is this harming your children, it’s harming public education. The enrollments are dropping as parents discover they can find something better at a local private or religious school. Home-schooling has taken off across the country because parents realize that illiteracy is becoming a bigger problem among high school graduates.

This is one way to push back for quality academic outcomes, and to really support public education in New Hampshire.

The post Now That Public Schools Are Not Focused On Academics, What You Can Do appeared first on Granite Grok.

Comedian George Carlin had a very old joke that went something like this. Is God so powerful that he can make a rock so large that he himself can’t lift it? It was spun as the sort of question a smart-assed kid would ask in Sunday School, but it has genuine real-world applications for the energy industry.

Related: Australia’s Energy Price Problems Get Worse – Will New England Get the Hint?

Can the green energy industry make electricity so expensive that it cannot afford to operate? In this case, the answer is yes.

 

Audun Martinsen, Rystad Energy’s head of energy service research, said high power prices not only pose a significant threat to European decarbonisation efforts but could also result in increased reliance on overseas manufacturing.

“Building a reliable domestic low-carbon supply chain is essential if the continent is going to stick to its goals, including the REPowerEU plan, but as things stand, that is in serious jeopardy,” he added.

 

Absent more affordable fossil fuels, it is becoming too expensive to operate. To quote JoNova, “So much for all the solar jobs. Europeans are being reduced to being installers while the production of panels shifts to coal-fired China because electricity is so much cheaper. Most of the wind turbine industry has already moved to China.”

 

Around 35GW of PV manufacturing projects in Europe are at risk of being mothballed as elevated power prices damage the continent’s efforts to build a solar supply chain, research from Rystad Energy suggests.

The consultancy noted that the energy-intensive nature of both solar PV and battery cell manufacturing processes is leading some operators to temporarily close or abandon production facilities as the cost of doing business escalates.

 

How amusing is it that the Green energy industry has admitted that they require insane amounts of energy to create a product that can’t make insane amounts of energy or at affordable prices?

Related: Planners Are Planning for Blackouts This Winter (for you, not them).

I think we’ve mentioned that a few dozen times. It also applies to wind power, and neither can even happen without burning coal. Something China is happy to do, which is why they manufacture most of the solar components worldwide. They burn insane amounts of dirty coal to do it.

Europe is learning a hard lesson; one American Democrats work hard to subvert. Advertising these contradictions or failures gets you branded as a climate or science denier, but it is they who are in denial.

None of it works. It doesn’t reduce emissions. It offshores them. But China is happy to take your money while our “leaders” cripple western economies, kill jobs, and kneecap our military while ignoring China’s industrialization at our own expense.

And no green jobs to boot, while we pay through the nose for energy while they get rich, making it more expensive.

And no one is reducing emissions; all they do is reduce lifestyles.

 

 

HT | WUWT

The post Irony Alert: Thanks to the High Cost of Renewable Energy, Europe Can’t Afford to Make Renewable Energy appeared first on Granite Grok.

They’re flying so thick and fast it is amazing.  And take heart – there will be a Meme Overflow and I will back-edit to include the link.  And potentially there will be a Friday Meme Overflow-Overflow.  Here’s the Overflow-Overflow from last Friday.

Remember, ridicule and mockery are effective weapons:

1. Ridicule cannot easily be fought
2. Ridicule makes the enemy angry, and angry people make mistakes
3. For those in the “squishy middle” a Thought Splinter (and Part II and Part III) can often be hidden inside humor.  Stand by for Thought Splinters IV… it’s coming, I swear!

Now, let the mockery and mayhem begin.

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

 

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But first, a random sampling of three of my cartoons.  Please note these are my concepts but I pay a professional to do them.

 

 

(Buy the mug)

 

 

 

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Citing Sowell:

 

 

With regards to every vaccine, and the Jab in particular (I separate it out because it’s not a vaccine, even if the CDC did change the definition to help The Jab Cause)… no company will face any consequences unless fraud is shown, at which point – at least, in theory, fraud vitiates everything.  This is why the pharma companies, with the help of the FedGov, are so ruthlessly attempting to squash accusations of fraud.

Whether injections or, honestly, at this point almost any medical intervention… the doctors, the hospitals, and the companies making it need to have a skin in the game.  And speaking of the game:

 

 

I don’t trust anyone who doesn’t share data.  You want to inject something into me, then try and hide the data about it, that’s a brick-on-the-jeweler’s-scale red flag for me.  Same for making changes to the energy grid, farming, etc., based on data and analyses that are not open to independent verification.

Concealed Data: My BS Meter Pegs Out – Granite Grok

 

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As I said in a prior meme fest, showing a similar quote by Barackus Rex, you must – MUST – understand that population dilution/replacement is THE GOAL for the Left.  Thus statements by every single Democrat on stopping illegal aliens was all just a misdirection to make people believe they intended to fix it.  Remember, they have a LONG GAME and are perilously close to the end.  As I predicted in Survival Sunday what the Left will do if they keep the House and make even one Senatorial gain in the Senate:

1. Nuke the filibuster entirely – everything will now be straight majority.

2. Their all-encompassing voting bill, which will cement Democrat majorities at the federal level forever. Included in this will be amnesty and citizenship by 2024 for the millions of illegals that are coming over and getting onto the welfare train. LBJ’s comments about owning blacks in the “Great Society” will echo here with these illegals-now-citizens.

And then, insofar as voting, it’s over.  Done.

 

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Understand, I do not advocate or recommend this.  But whether Antifa or the greenies or whomever, their protesting and blocking traffic or whatever is only tolerated because people tolerate it.  We don’t want to get arrested for anything and we believe in the right to protest.  But I am predicting that, sooner rather than later, people will lose patience.  Patience with the protestors, and patience with the political class that enables this behavior.  And again – not advocating – but if someone’s family or cherished friend dies because an ambulance couldn’t get through due to road blockages, well, use your imagination.  Related to spoiled brat misbehaviors that only continue with the tolerance of society at large:

Furious motorists DRAG Just Stop Oil protesters out of the road as one glues himself to police van | Daily Mail Online

Extinction Rebellion protesters glue hands to Picasso painting at National Gallery of Victoria | Daily Mail Online

 

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Pick of the post:

 

 

Most will not make that leap.

Understand I am not a psychologist, nor do I play one on TV.    But I’ve got more than a few years under my belt, have learned an awful lot about psychology especially from Doctor Sanity (alas she’s stopped blogging), as well as other readings and video viewings.  And in dealing with people with a curious incuriosity (Part 1 and Part 2) I’ve learned that, for the vast majority, they won’t even look at information that makes them uncomfortable, e.g.:

“Sometimes people hold a core belief that is very strong. When they are presented with evidence that works against that belief, the new evidence cannot be accepted. It would create a feeling that is extremely uncomfortable, called cognitive dissonance. And because it is so important to protect the core belief, they will rationalize, ignore and even deny anything that doesn’t fit in with the core belief.”

― Frantz Fanon

Whether climate change, or the Jab, or the appeal of Socialism / Globalism, or anything else – people have tied their sense of moral superiority to a specific belief.  It’s a hard hill to climb to get someone to challenge a belief that makes them feel good about themselves.  And thus, per Sowell, it’s generally fruitless to try and change their minds:

 

 

Instead, we need to follow this advice.  The question is… how; on a practical level… HOW?

“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”

– Buckminster Fuller

 

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HAPPY COLUMBUS DAY!

 

 

An Italian-American’s Heartwarming Defense Of Columbus Day – The Lid (lidblog.com)

 

 

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Palate Cleanser:

 

 

 

 

And while I certainly am captivated by the biblical implications of this… just the sheer, raw miracle of getting 2000-year-old seeds to sprout, grow, and resurrect an extinct species:

 

 

I love dates.  I’ve always played with the idea of trying to make date wine.  Maybe next year in my “copious free time”.

The post MONDAY MEMES appeared first on Granite Grok.

Misspeaking is a tremendous problem for this President. I am not talking about the situations where Joe Biden has been picked up by a “hot” mike and dropped four-letter expletives like he was in a locker room. I am referring to the President describing the nuclear situation we are facing with Russia and Ukraine as Armageddon.

He said this is the closest America and the world have come to nuclear conflict since the Bay of Pigs. Unfortunately, if this claim is true, we do not have JFK in the Oval Office. We have JRB vacationing in Delaware. It took Karine Jeanne-Pierre a couple of days to walk back the President’s statement. That act should not make us warm and fuzzy.

KJP has as much credibility as JRB. That is not much. Just this week, Karine was emphatic that the White House had no plans to withdraw any additional petroleum from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Less than twenty-four hours later, Biden announced another ten million barrels to be withdrawn. Do these two ever communicate with each other?

Neither option is a good one for Americans. First, Biden should be calming the American public. He should not be using hyperbole, as Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) said in defense of Biden’s comments. Auchincloss went on to say we have been enjoying superior leadership from Joe Biden. What planet is he living on? Oh, that’s right. He is from Massachusetts. If he misspoke, then the President should have clarified his comments. If he stands by his words, why is he relaxing in Delaware and not in the Situation Room, working to assuage the global situation? Apparently, to Joe Biden, the potential nuclear option by Russia is tantamount to the Border Crisis, record high gas prices and inflation, and the country now in a recession. None of them warrant concern or action. That is not superior leadership.

The world’s bad actors were licking their lips on January 20, 2021. Donald Trump held these regimes at bay. Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran did not dare to act up while 45 was in the office. With Biden, it is a different story. They know that Biden is weak, and they are all testing his resolve, and they are winning. It is inevitable that Putin will dip into his arsenal to save face and reverse the momentum in Ukraine. Success is the only option for the Russians.

Biden is negating our strength on the global stage. He is weak with some of our foes and is groveling with Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela to fill the gap in our petroleum supply caused by his bad policy decisions. This is so concerning for Joe that he is in Delaware for another weekend of peaceful repose. Americans would like one of the weekends but have not had one since Biden took the oath.

By the way, the Secret Service responded to a Freedom of Information Request this week about the people who have visited Joe Biden during the forty weekends he has spent in Delaware. They claimed there were no records to disclose. For the most transparent administration in history, what are they hiding? There is no way that Biden has not seen anyone during these weekends, but that is the story they expect us to believe. They can expect it, but they will be disappointed. Nobody is buying the word of the Secret Service, which appears to have joined the list of compromised government agencies. Washington needs a deep cleaning. We can all agree on that.

 

The post Armageddon Requires Strong Leadership appeared first on Granite Grok.

One would think that you wouldn’t need a poll to tell you that most Americans oppose obscene or sexually explicit content in public schools. Since this is turning into a national debate, let’s take a look at some of the polling. According to a new Rasmussen poll, voters are overwhelmingly against obscene books in public schools.

 

A new national telephone and online survey by Rasmussen Reports and the Capitol Resource Institute finds that 89% of Likely U.S. voters think it is important that public schools fully inform parents about what is being taught to their children in classrooms, including 70% who say it is Very Important. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Sixty-nine percent (69%) of voters believe books containing explicit sexual depictions of sex acts, including homosexual sex, should not be present in public high school libraries. The majority opposed to sexually explicit books in public school libraries rises to 79% for middle schools and 85% for elementary schools.

AND:
The survey found broad agreement across political and demographic categories. For example, 79% of whites, 73% of both black and Hispanic voters, and 72% of other minorities were at least somewhat concerned that school-age children are being exposed to sexual material that is not age appropriate. Majorities of Republicans (85%), Democrats (56%) and 69% of voters not affiliated with either major party believe it is Very Important that public schools fully inform parents about what is being taught to their children in classrooms.

To those who continue to push these grooming practices, the vast majority of voters do not support this. These are the same people who will be voting on school budgets and other funding for public schools.

The small minority of people who do support these grooming practices should not be working in a public school. They are a danger to your children.

The post POLLING Data On Obscene Books in Public Schools appeared first on Granite Grok.