Did you hear about the recent mass-stabbing in Las Vegas? I actually saw it covered by the regime-media … of course, they left out the part about the stabber being an illegal alien:

NEW: Per ICE source, the suspect charged in a mass stabbing on the Las Vegas strip that left 2 dead & 6 others injured is a Guatemalan national in the U.S. illegally, & he has a criminal record in California. I’m told ICE had no record of 32 y/o Yoni Barrios before this. @FoxNews pic.twitter.com/y6VrDQyTOt

— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) October 7, 2022

The post That Mass-Stabbing In Vegas … Joe Biden Did That appeared first on Granite Grok.

Introduction:

Painting is regarded as one of the most loved hobbies all around the world. A lot of professionals are using their creativity and mind and making unique and wonderful paintings. However, these professionals need a bulk canvas to save their money on individual purchases.

If you want to go oil painting, the canvas will be your main ingredient in this regard.

Is buying canvas in bulk worth your purchase?

Buying canvas in bulk has a lot more perks that are beyond your expectations. You will get a chance to save on this stock for your future use and to get low price fabric in bulk.

Why should you buy canvas in bulk?

You should buy canvas in bulk for the following reasons.

• Most art gallery applications use bulk canvases for their big orders. This fabric is a pocket-friendly ingredient for most painting applications.
• Professional artists use this fabric in bulk because of their regular use and to get rid of the hassle.
• Buying canvas in bulk is also good for Art and Painting teaching centers. Students and learners need canvas in bulk for their practices.
• Moreover, stationary shop owners use this fabric in bulk. They can buy and sell them to gain profits.
• Gift shop owners have to buy these in bulk because of their usage as the best gift wrap. So, for gifting purposes, this fabric is being purchased.
• For all those people who are fond of painting and do it regularly, then they will need this fabric in bulk.

Properties of canvas fabric:

Several useful properties of the canvas fabric are mentioned below.

• This fabric is made with high breathability. So, you can use this fabric if you want proper breathing in your clothes.
• This fabric is also used for its ability to absorb moisture. You can use it for its moisture-wicking abilities. They have high moisture absorbance because of their soft and woven fabric.
• This fabric is made with high heat retention power. You can use this fabric during winter.
• You will find this fabric stretchable. So, the flexibility and stretch ability of this fabric make it unique and useful.
• This fabric is used for making bags, sails, tents, backpacks, shoes, and many other art supplies.

Importance of bulk canvas:

The use of bulk canvas has made it essential to get highly durable and long-lasting fabric for all things, especially for painting surfaces. If you buy them in bulk, then you can make shelters, tents, and much use out of this fabric. Their ability to resist water makes them good enough for outdoor use.

You will see that most of the wedding halls, theaters, and restaurants have their sheds made out of this fabric.

Epilogue:

If you want to get a high-quality canvas at a minimal price range, then do not go for a second thought and get a bulk canvas for all the reasons mentioned above. Canvas is used by painters, artists, and art gallery trainers for its ability to easily dissolve the harsh line that is usually the result of painting brushes. So, if you are satisfied with all these reasons and benefits, then you should go for this bulk canvas purchase.

The post A Complete Guide To Bulk Canvas And Properties Of Canvas appeared first on Granite Grok.

Each Sunday, I take a step away from daily politics and focus on someone who has done extraordinary things or who we may need to know a little better. This week’s focus is on The Eck, a man who played baseball well, could bring the most boring game to life with his voice, and was a genuine man….he never changed in nearly fifty years.

There are few men in sports that bridged my youth with my elder years. Dennis Eckersley was a new type of player in his time. Like Big Pappy defined the DH, Eck defined the closer. His windup and delivery were unique, as was his nomenclature when he moved to the broadcast booth. He made the most boring game exciting with his analysis of every at bat and his unlimited stories. He was a gift for fans for fifty years

One of only two pitchers in Major League history to have both a 20-win season and a 50-save season (John Smoltz is the other), Dennis Eckersley actually had two distinct careers in baseball. Splitting his first 12 seasons between the Cleveland Indians, Boston Red Sox, and Chicago Cubs, the hard-throwing righthander was an effective, albeit somewhat erratic starting pitcher who compiled an overall record of 151-128. After joining the Oakland Athletics in 1987, Eckersley evolved into one of the greatest relief pitchers in baseball history, revolutionizing the role of the “closer” for future generations.

One of my greatest memories of the Eck did not happen in a Red Sox uniform. It was in 1988 when he was a prolific closer for the powerful Oakland A’s. It was the first game of the World Series, and Eck just had to do his thing and close out the win. Uncharacteristically, he walked the tying run, and Tommy Lasorda, the legend manager of the Dodgers, sent the hobbled, almost crippled Kirk Gibson to the plate. This should have been a mismatch, but it may be one of the most incredible at-bats in history. It lasted nearly ten minutes as the count went to 3-2, and Gibson started fouling off Eck’s pitches. Finally, Eck let one pitch take too much of the plate, and Gibson gave it a weak swing but strong enough to put the ball into the bleachers for a game-winning home run.

The crowd went crazy, and Eck watched in disbelief as the ball entered the stands. It was a surreal moment in a hall-of-fame career. It was one of those moments that you always remember. Vin Scully and Joe Garagiola called the game. Two of the baseball broadcast giants. The stars were aligned for something special to happen. Unfortunately for Eck, he did not come out on the winning side of this battle. Eck went on to redefine the reliever role and ended his successful career in Boston. He then moved into the broadcast booth to begin his second career.

Eck was special. He started in the studio as an analyst but soon moved into the booth. A very popular Jerry Remy was having health issues, and Eck was the fill-in until he became the primary analyst in the booth. The Red Sox Nation embraced Eckersley, and he them. He always said he gave the job the passion that defined a city.

Dennis Eckersley is an emotional man and showed that side of him many times during his final broadcast. There were honors from the Red Sox, and halfway through the game, the entire Red Sox team came out of the dugout to salute Dennis Eckersley. The tears flowed, but so did the memories.

Thank you, Eck, for a career to remember, but thank you more for being the bridge to my youth when baseball and sports were more fun. Eck and I are the same age, but he seems bigger than life in many ways. He always found a way to earn that respect. Godspeed, Eck, and may your tomorrows be as fruitful as your yesterdays.

The post Sunday Spotlight: A Delivery and a Voice From My Past appeared first on Granite Grok.

Heh! Pinning virtue-signaling to the door with a railroad spike:

MAY I REPEAT MYSELF? BUTCH IT UP, MARY: Sanctuary New York City Mayor Declares Emergency Over Migrants Taking Sanctuary In NYC.
Your mouth wrote the checks. You should pay them.

Lots of Democrat Big City Mayors (and Governors) have proclaimed themselves to be Sanctuary Cities where ALL are welcome. Yeah, that lasted only long enough until the Red State Governors whose taxpayers have had to foot the bill for Biden’s open borders policies, decided to go all in on “share the misery – and cost”. Chicago, NY City, San Fran, and others are now screaming like stuck pigs over the 10s of thousands of migrants WHO THEY VIRTUE SIGNALED over actually showed up thanks to buses and planes coming from those border states.

But once again, we see that when policies have consequences, Democrats either deny they had it (like “defund the police”), get someone else to pay for it, or denounce others for holding up their own words (like “sanctuary”).  It shows that they are just one long series of cons for which they never want to be held responsible.

(H/T: Instapundit)

The post BlogHeadline of the Day – Seriously, Kvetching about Doing What You Boasted You’d Be Doing? appeared first on Granite Grok.

Vermont has a measure on the ballot to amend its State Constitution. Prop 5 would ar article 22 on Reproductive Liberty does not include the word abortion, but advocates hope that what they wrote will mean that, and it has a lot of support, but not many people understand what it means.

 

The University of New Hampshire survey, commissioned by WCAX, found that 75% of respondents said they would support the measure, known as Proposal 5 or Article 22. Just 18% said they would vote against it and 6% said they were still unsure.

The amendment, which has been approved by the Vermont House and Senate twice over four years, would guarantee “an individual’s right to personal reproductive autonomy.” If approved by a majority of voters in November, it would become part of the Vermont Constitution.

 

With Vermonters poised to take this plunge, we should revisit some oddities that could arise. As noted here:

Article 22 starts with, “reproductive autonomy is central to the liberty and dignity to determine one’s own life course and shall not be denied or infringed.” Even prefaced as referring to reproductive freedom, a talented lawyer could leverage it to mean anything, including a constitutional right to refuse the latest vaccine if it might in some way infringe on that right.

…

[W]hat if a minor wants to get pregnant? Having survived the “right” to abortion and achieved an age where reproduction is possible, are they not entitled to their own reproductive freedom?

Or this,

What if the unborn are, in some future legal context, defined as people? Article 22 would provide the unborn with “an individual right to personal reproductive autonomy [that] is central to the liberty and dignity to determine one’s own life course and shall not be denied or infringed.”

 

And this all matters, but it doesn’t. In the same poll: “Only 45% of the voters polled said they fully understood the amendment’s wording, though another 43% said they understood it “somewhat well.” So, 75% favor a constitutional amendment they don’t exactly understand. In other words, no one knows what it means, but they feel like it’s a good idea.

It reminds me of the NH right to privacy that we added to our Constitution a few years ago. No one, to my knowledge, has invoked it in their defense, and we’ll never know until lawyers and judges argue it out.

The same sounds true for Prop 5, with 75% of Vermonters willing to pass something that 80% of them might or don’t understand, so that self-interested lawyers and our questionable judicial system work out what it means.

 

 

The post Vermont is About to Enshrine Reproductive Liberty into Its Constitution – Whatever That Means appeared first on Granite Grok.

Just look at the cost of Government getting people and cargo into space versus Elon Musk’s SpaceX (which is doing double duty in helping Musk’s satellite communications company, StarLink, take over that industry sector as well).  Sure, in the early years, only Government (Russia, the US) had the resources to do the trailblazing at fast speeds. However, once that first “Space Race” (which was driven for military reasons – the “high ground” always wins in war), things languished until Musk came along.

Could Government have lowered the price of pushing 2.2 Lbs of cargo into space this fast at the rate of innovation and risk (“Fail faster”) that Musk has been driving?

(H/T: The Visual Capitalist)

The post Data Point – Look what Entrepreneurship has done for going to Space! appeared first on Granite Grok.

Emphasis mine:

The number of technologically feasible ways to produce any desired good in a modern economy is virtually infinite, but the subset of these which represent production methods that are also relatively economical is much smaller. Without the benefit of a price system, decision-makers who are faced with the bewildering variety of technologically possible methods of production would hit upon a set of economically feasible methods only by the most bizarre accident. The likely outcome of production that is carried on in the absence of price guidance is that so little would be produced that society would revert to the simple methods of primitive societies.

Thus the aid provided by prices is a reduction in the overwhelmingly numerous possibilities of production methods to a handful that appear profitable ex ante. Of course, only some of these will, as prices continuously change, actually prove profitable ex-post and thus survive through time as regularly employed habits of producers. But by reducing to a manageable size the mind-boggling variety of conceivable methods of production, the price system performs an indispensable service.

-Don Lavoie (“The Market as a Procedure for Discovery and Conveyance of Inarticulate Knowledge)

Prof Don Boudreaux adds the following concerning bureaucrats and politicians ignoring price and only considering “Industrial Policy” (as Biden and Congress have concerning semiconductor manufacturing) and again, like so many other countries “leaders”, they fall prey to the Great Mind Fallacy:

This reality is missed by advocates of industrial policy. By proposing to allocate large quantities of resources by diktat and, hence, in opposition to the manner in which those resources would be allocated by the price system, industrial-policy advocates imagine that, by some miracle, industrial-policy mandarins will somehow know how to allocate those resources in ways that result in better economic outcomes than are achieved by the price system. Industrial-policy advocates never tell us just how industrial-policy mandarins will obtain all the necessary detailed information and knowledge they must obtain in order that these mandarins might have some reasonable prospect of improving the living standards of ordinary people over time.

This is otherwise called Socialism and Communism where top-down decisions are often made for political reasons (or, at least underpinnings that have no basis in economics) thinking it will improve that country’s status in the world (and often never caring about the Individual).

The Price System doesn’t care about the micro or macro levels – it only cares about one small piece of data – what does an item cost to make or deliver, and how can an ROI be built into that price such that consumers will think it is a good value for them (either by a company or an individual) and pay for that item. This happens all up and down the supply chain.

Being a capitalist Society, price is everything and it has proven valuable, especially against those that don’t.

(H/T: Cafe Hayek)

The post Notable Quote – It Is All about the Price! appeared first on Granite Grok.

I shouldn’t have to critique the story on the anti-hate vigil in Laconia (Laconia Daily Sun 10-4-22), but there are too many falsehoods. With apologies to Tom Lehrer: I just hate vigils like that.

On one hand, people can gather all they want. Enjoy the fellowship. On the other hand, the thought that these sorts of gatherings will actually accomplish something is mostly sad.

In addition to the swastikas at Opechee Park were words, faces, and genitals. So, of course, it was hate directed at Jews. Uh-huh. Thus the Human Relations Committee (HRC) swung into action, organizing a vigil to show support for the Jews in the area. A noble thought, unless it was used to tie the graffitists to the “extremists” in the Lakes Region. Of course it was.

Chair David Stamps repeated one of the most easily debunked lies about former President Trump’s comments on Charlottesville. His “there were good people on both sides” comment was directed to the pro- and anti-statue & park-renaming protesters, not the small group of violent actors. (Check YouTube). One protester caused the death of a protester on their side and is serving a life sentence in prison. Good enough? Apparently not. This lie will never die.

The history of the use of the hooked cross goes back perhaps 7,000 years, from “svastika”, which means “good fortune” in Sanskrit. Look it up. While, in modern times, it is most often associated with the National Socialist Worker’s Party (NAZI) and the racism so prevalent in the 1930s, I find it notable that its use is automatically linked with hate and the far-right. Another possibility could be that the symbol was drawn to elicit a reaction. (Success, there.)

I agree with John Moriarity of the Laconia library in that making a bigger deal than necessary would potentially encourage more vandalism. I am skeptical that this vigil will effectively send the message that “they’re not welcome in Laconia”. Is Mr. Stamps planning to run the vandals out on a rail? Tarring and feathering? Just asking.

Per the article, the president of Temple B’nai Israel told the HRC of people supposedly “walking in and out of [a Franklin restaurant] with guns on and that sort of thing”. I would ask what is inherently wrong with carrying a firearm and what other things were allegedly occurring? Funny that I couldn’t find anything online about this issue. One would think that if this was viewed as harassment that a story or two might have made it into area newspapers. Also, if the owner preferred not to allow customers to open carry, she could have easily posted her wishes on the door. It may be a surprise to many, but most lawful gun owners are very considerate.

The near-automatic assumption that gun carriers are “far-right” ignores groups such as: Pink Pistols (LGBT), John Brown Gun Club, National African American Gun Association, Huey P. Newton Gun Club (black), Asian Americans & Pacific Islanders Gun Owners (Asian) and Liberal Gun Club (obvious).

Food for thought.

The post What if You Held a Vigil…and Nobody Came? appeared first on Granite Grok.

My name is Vanessa Sheehan and I am running for re-election to the NH House from Milford in Hillsborough District 43.  I am asking for your vote on November 8th!

My top issues, should I win your trust and your vote, are:

• Economy– Preserve the NH Advantage and never support an income tax or sales tax. Continue the work Republicans have done over this last term to lower taxes, aid small business and maintain a responsible balanced budget.
• Energy– Support policies to reduce energy costs for families and businesses.
• Education– Expand educational choice and protect parents’ natural rights to control the health, education, and welfare of their children.
• Liberty– Protect our Second Amendment rights and safeguard the rights of all people to life, property, freedom, and equal justice under the Constitution.

Voting for me would ensure conservative fiscal responsibility, the preservation of our freedoms and personal liberty, the expansion of school choice, and allowing parents to direct their child’s education (rather than bureaucrats).

Thank you for your time!

The post I Am Vanessa Sheehan and I’m Running for Re-Election to the NH House on Nov 8th! appeared first on Granite Grok.

Is it just me or are we starting to see the price of gas increasing again? Hope not but a couple of stations look like it. One thing is we can be happy we are not out in California where it’s at $6.00 or more but there is no reason it should be above $2.00 gal. around here. Biden (or whoever is actually in control) has only reduced prices enough, by raiding our Strategic Petroleum Reserves, to get through the midterms with as little damage as possible.  However, you can be sure if leftists get reelected prices will soar again.

I had a heating fuel delivery today, the cost was over $1,000.  Almost twice what it has been in years past and it’s not likely to go past December. This is looking like a huge problem for many people unless we have a very mild winter; I’m not holding my breath, though. With rents going up by hundreds per month, it may to come down to heating or eating for some. Another danger is auxiliary heating devices increasing risks of fires as some may resort to them in desperation.

Overall, our American standard of living is taking a hit. It’s not that the rich or politically connected care but the slide down can only be arrested if we replace the entrenched career politicians responsible with new blood, conservative candidates. Our four Federal representatives are all Democrats and three out of the four are long-term career politicians. None of the four have represented the needs of the people of NH. During their terms in office, our national debt has risen by trillions. Violent crime infests major cities and is expanding into the rest of the country. Drugs are killing hundreds of thousands flowing across our Mexican border while Leftist Biden administration refuses to enforce our laws at any and all levels. Armed drug gangs control and terrorize whole neighborhoods, fight each other, killing one another, and any innocent bystanders suffer. Local Democrat Mayors refuse to prosecute criminals or protect honest citizens but allow liberal prosecutors to try to railroad any lawful conservative gun owner defending himself from attack from criminals.

Antifa and BLM (the  former being real fascists and the latter are communists and Black Nationalists) are terrorist organizations that riot, loot, burn, and murder but are ignored by the media and even encouraged by these Leftist elected officials.

Universities allow professors to groom students into anti-American radicals and are subsidized by our government while doing so. What could go wrong with that?

If corrections are not made, starting this November 8th, our nation, our Republic, will fall within ten years and we citizens will become subjects with only the rights a totalitarian Leftist government allows. See Communist China, Russia etc.

Vote for correction now or forget crying later.

The post Bouncing Back appeared first on Granite Grok.

The CfB already knocked out the most conservative Republicans in the Primary over most of Belknap County. It is clear that those it missed and survived their Primaries (as in Alton Barnstead – Paul Terry, Barbara Comtois, Peter Vadney) will be targeted again.

CfB is a Democrat-started, funded, and run Political Action Committee (even if the renegade Republican Brian Gallagher has shifted sides and is their Treasurer – you know, the guy that stayed on the Gunstock Area Commission even after he became ineligible – else, why did former Commissioner Gary Kiediasch spend a fair amount of Gunstock Area Resort (re: taxpayer money) on lawyers fees trying to keep him on the GAC?), it exists NOT to have “Reasonable, Responsible Representation” from a Republican standpoint…only Democrats can be reasonable and responsible when it comes to the endpoint – November 8th. Call it a “Revenge PAC” -how DARE those Conservative Republicans on the GAC and Delegation asking intrusive and uncomfortable questions of us – as they should.  WE CANNOT ALLOW THIS!”.

Remember, it’s from a Democrat standpoint and they’ve taken a year-long campaign to do it.  This has been the end goal all along and we’ve Republicans, scared of not being re-elected, either all in on the deal or willing to “ride the strong horse” set up by the CfB months-long Public Relations smear.  I do need to do a fuller post on this but let me get to the point.

Here in Gilford, the Citizens for Belknap successfully knocked out Norm Silber and Glen Aldrich both of whom had excellent House Republican Alliance and NH Liberty Alliance scores meaning true fidelity to Republican values of the NH GOP Platform and the US and NH Constitutions (which this Democrat PAC called “Extremist” – we know that Democrats hate those and thus labeled them “extremists” just like Biden and other top Democrats have been doing for well over a year in shaping the political battlespace. They even canned Gregg Hough who, even being a Republican, did their bidding. I guess his time of being “useful” was over.

I have noticed, in my town, that the remaining CfB signs still standing (many have been taken down, given their purpose of knocking off Republicans is over) are surrounded NOT by the Democrat endorsed Republicans (except for Tim Lang running for NH State Senate) but by Democrats. ALL of them running in Gilford.

Like Lisa DiMartino’s signs. I’ve posted about her earlier. Years ago, how she threatened, at a School District Deliberative Session that if the Town folks didn’t give higher raises, she used her disabled child as a political pawn and declared that she’d want the District to send him to a place similar to Crotchet Mtn for care costing hundreds of thousands of dollars. In layman terms, that is called extortion.

More recently, I posted about her voting record in the NH House (“Gilford Democrat Lisa Dimartino Is Campaigning as a Moderate but She’s Really Not“). This was sent in by a loyal reader and if she gets in, this may well be the result:

So here’s the question: which of the remaining Gilford Republicans that the CfB “supported”, are now going to get it in the neck when their next “Scorecard” comes out?  Certainly they are not going to stay with the four Republicans they endorsed (upper left hand corner):

Citizens for Belknap RINO Report

To make way for DiMartino or the other three running Democrats, will it be incumbents Russ Dumais or Harry Bean (who, in breaking the RSA 91A and RSA 24:9-d laws in calling for the Aug 1st illegal Belknap County Delegation meeting) who get knocked off? Or first timers David Nagel or Richard Beaudoin?

I’m betting that DiMartino is going to be “endorsed” over either the latter two as their usefulness will be completed.  I’m also betting that Dumais will be shoved aside as well just because NOT DEMOCRAT!

Harry Bean’s position is harder to figure – he’s still “useful” as the CfB and allied Republicans forced Mike Sylvia out of the Chair and he has a LOT of family in Gilford to vote for him. The question becomes which Democrat becomes the odd man out because Bean has become co-opted (or captured, if you wish).  Doubt me?

Which Conservative do you know is really going to say they are going to work with hard Left Democrats, like DiMartino, when the respective principles of each Party are totally orthogonal to each other?  He wrote:

I would like to take a second to thank everybody who voted in the primary Sept. 13, especially those who put their confidence in me, and to remind you to vote at the general election on Nov. 8. It is very important to all of us to get out and vote. I believe that if the Republicans, independents and Democrats work together, we should be capable of coming to a compromise on most issues. Communication is a must.

Rep. Harry H. Bean

He knows what the Democrat voting record is in the NH House so this gives me cause for great concern? Tell me Harry, have you even thought that out?  Tell us how you would compromise on the income tax that ALL Democrats want to put into place here in NH?  What’s the compromise on the Second Amendment where the Democrats want to put stringent restrictions on citizens bordering on complete civilian disarmement (think David Meuse) – how many of your firearms are you willing to compromise on?  How about Parental Rights – both Democrat Congresstwits Kuster and Pappas just voted down legislation, sponsored by Republicans, that would put Parents TOTALLY back into control of the education and health concerns of their children. Do you agree that children, when in schools, are now the property of the State?  Democrats do, Harry.

And of course, all of the Tim Lang gang (Tim Lang, Mike Bordes, Travis O’Hara, Doug Trottier) took Union money filtered through the Common Sense PAC (Brodie DeShaies, chair and treasurer) – what is the compromise, Harry, where Republicans want anyone to have the freedom to work where ever they want (Right To Work) and Democrats want to continue to lock people out of those jobs via Union demanded “closed shops” (and vote against Right To Work, like the Lang Gang)?

Abortion, Harry?  Republicans just start the first steps of saving the lives of unborn children – not a single Democrat voted for that. They insist on abortion right up until birth – and some even afterwards (remember Democrat Virginia Governor Northam advocating for what is infanticide – “just walk away from the baby” – and there are some here in NH that would agree.

How about charter schools? Republicans are about freedom for education instead of stuck in a given zip code. Tell us, Harry, what is the compromise where ONLY Public Schools are possible with Democrats.

I could go on for issue after issue – what you NEED to tell us how, in concrete terms, how your “compromise” would be achieved in this “political chasm” environment.

You’ve helped the CfB in their aims, knowingly or unknowingly.  They call me an Extremist for simply holding Republican positions. You’ve known me for YEARS, Harry, and you know I have the same principles that I did when we met on the Gilford Budget Committee – its called being Consistent.  Do you consider me to be an Extremist now?  You certainly didn’t when we served together. In fact, you were quite complementary – do you remember what you said back then?

No, Harry, either what you wrote was election pandering or you have no clue (even having spent multiple sessions in the NH House so I know it isn’t the latter). But this is why they MAY endorse you – but I won’t be surprised if you get the shaft in that next “voters guide”.

So, to square the circle – I will be very surprised if DiMartino isn’t endorsed. I won’t be surprised if they give all four of the Republicans running in my District the heave ho.

And you’ll have no one to blame but yourselves

The post What’s the Over/ Under That Citizens for Belknap Will Endorse Democrat Lisa Dimartino over a “Reasonable, Responsible Republican”? appeared first on Granite Grok.

After basking in the fiery glow of BLM Summer, the geniuses running the city of Burlington, Vermont, defunded their police force. The 30% budget cut had two immediate effects. Crime rose, and they had trouble hiring police officers. But they’ve decided on a temporary solution.

Related: Burlington Police Chief Lacks Manpower to Investigate Murder-Suicide Because BLM-Appeasing City Council Defunded Them

 

Mayor Miro Weinberger’s office said the patrols would begin as soon as this week and confirmed that the city will pay the expense out of the police budget. The troopers will be paid at their overtime rate plus travel expenses, according to Silverman.

“Despite all the steps that we have taken to expand our public safety resources in the downtown since the spring, it is clear that we need to do even more until the current climate improves,” Weinberger said in a statement.

 

The overtime is voluntary, probably because the state of Vermont, a larger reflection of progressive Burlington, is having trouble hiring state troopers.

Burlington has offered a 15,000.00 dollar signing bonus, but this pro-defund, sanctuary city, authorized for 87 police officers, only has 62 – roughly 30% fewer staff (irony alert!).

The Vermont State Police is authorized for 333 Troopers but is down about 50 officers.

Related: Keep a Close Eye on the (National) Socialists Running Burlington, Vermont…

 

State troopers can take shifts during evening hours from Wednesday through Saturday, according to state police spokesperson Adam Silverman. They will not be responding to 911 calls unless called for backup. He said the elective overtime comes after a request from the city and is expected to last for 30 days.

“Our directive is to conduct high-visibility patrols only,” Silverman said.

 

So, the defund-the-police-democrats admit that an elevated police presence will do what? Give assurance to non-criminals that the city is doing something. Convince people they are not high on crime and low on peace and order. Shore up their standing as competent city managers?

Will the progressives in Burlington care? I know business owners are outraged at the rise in property crime, but this city “legalized” human sex trafficking and allows illegal aliens to vote in local elections.

Related: 2021: New Hampshire Ranked Safest State in America Again, While Vermont Begins Liberal Slide…

The Democrat agenda is sunning it into the ground in real-time while we watch. The same unpleasant end that has dominated cities like New York, Chicago, Baltimore, and Washington, DC.

And that brings us back to Mayor Miro Weinberger, who said, “Despite all the steps that we have taken to expand our public safety resources in the downtown since the spring, it is clear that we need to do even more until the current climate improves.”

Are they truly this stupid?

The only thing that will fix the problems in Burlington are voters who stop casting ballots for Democrats and elected officials who don’t have their heads up their asses. And I don’t think that cesspool of progressives has it in them.

 

 

HT | Vermont Digger

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In a delicious irony, the greenies that thought they were outsmarting and healing mother nature got laughed at last as Hurricane Ian tragically tore through swaths of Florida and crippled electric vehicles.

Now, this isn’t to say we celebrate their destruction and temporary immobility, but it is absolutely worth pointing out that humanity’s existence on planet earth will continue to be a fight for survival. Sometimes the best teacher is hard knocks.

Most rational people recognize one of the best tools in this man-versus-nature struggle has been fossil fuels in the last one hundred years, as it has enabled massive exploitation of travel, heating, cooling, and comfort. Maybe a few more folks will wake up and stop jumping on the eco-communism bandwagon.

Electric vehicle batteries are already under fire for the way lithium is mined, and how they don’t last for nearly as long as advertised, among other things, and now Florida’s top fire marshall pointed out one more:

There’s a ton of EVs disabled from Ian. As those batteries corrode, fires start. That’s a new challenge that our firefighters haven’t faced before. At least on this kind of scale.

Good grief. Patronis later followed up with a second tweet saying: “It takes special training and understanding of EVs to ensure these fires are put out quickly and safely. Thanks to [North Collier Fire Rescue] for their hard work.”

It that tweet, Patronis added several videos of firefighters dousing flaming EVs with special retardants and safely ending further threats:

Another commenter on Twitter took the battery fire issue to the next level, which would once more be a cataclysmic irony in the midst of our insane green push.

I keep waiting for them to start forest fires in California, Oregon, and Washington. I wouldn’t want one parked in my garage – and some public parking lots are refusing to allow them. Can’t blame them.

Fox News added that it was unsure of just how many vehicles were impacted by the storm, though it did note the issue comes just as Joe Biden is ramping up efforts to move away from gas-powered cars:

The Biden administration has also taken a number of steps to incentivize Americans to shift to EVs. The president signed the Inflation Reduction Act, a bill that included a provision that awards Americans a tax credit worth $7,500 per EV purchase, into law in August, and the Department of Transportation has worked to create a federal EV highway charging network.

However, critics have blasted the administration for giving a “false impression” about EVs, noting that they are expensive and often unreliable.

“[The EV push] is really kind of a con job,” Myron Ebell, the director of the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Center for Energy and Environment, told FOX Business in July. “It may be a good deal for some people in some places under some circumstances. But by-and-large right now, it’s not a good deal.”

 

Hailey Sanibel writes at The Blue State Conservative.

The post “Electric Vehicles Are Exploding From Water Damage” appeared first on Granite Grok.

I’m looking for some help on this story. A student at Trinity High School did something stupid and was punished for it, but that wasn’t enough. The guy leading BLM Manchester is alleged to have published personal information about the student to their army of Marxist haters.

I need screen grabs, links to reports, and details of any kind if you have time or can find some.

This is what I’ve got to work with so far.

 

Black Lives Matter NH has just initiated a doxing and harassment campaign against a minor attending a NH high school.

The uproar appears to be over a racially insensitive (and stupid) poster the kid made. It seems the kid received discipline for it already at school – appropriately I think.

The UNH law student who runs BLM put this kids face out to an army of bloodthirsty Marxists. I fully expect him and his family are going to get death threats, and require protection over this.

 

And.

 

Manchester Black Lives Matter viscously went after a Trinity student. What he did was stupid. His apology was not enough. He has been doxxed and threatened because of her. When I tried to say that Trinity did in fact take it very seriously but this kid has now been threatens, this was her response.

Of particular interest are any comments by NH Democrats in support of doxxing, which is illegal in New Hampshire.

One individual informed me, “This kid had his life ruined tonight, and Jan Schmidt and Rep. Chretian are celebrating. They all make me sick.”

Jan Schmidt was the prime sponsor of HB1159, which would have created a special carve out for state reps and their family members, allowing them to pursue lawsuits against anyone whose speech hurt their feelings by defining it as doxxing or cyberbullying.

Imagine our surprise to hear that a Democrat interested in protecting certain people from cyberbullying or doxxing supports whatever the head of Manchester BLM has done to cyberbully and doxx a high school student and their family.

Trinity High School has received threats of violence in the wake of this and canceled all activities for the weekend.

And the title says allegedly because I don’t have any physical evidence of this, but I would like some. I’m swamped this weekend and don’t have a lot of time to research to put more meat on this story. If you can help, I appreciate that.

You can email it to me at steve@granitegrok.com

 

The post Director of BLM Manchester “Allegedly” Doxxed a Manchester High School Kid appeared first on Granite Grok.

It is amazing how school officials are SELLING parents on submitting their children to psychological practices and evaluations in school. Do they receive training on how to sell snake oil?

I wouldn’t let my children participate in any of this Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) which is code for gathering mental health data on your children to build psychological profiles on them!

In Greenland, here’s the sales job they provided to parents from the school counselor:

The school counselor providing mental health services to your children, without telling you that’s what she’s actually doing, is supposed to be exciting?

Here is what is posted on the website:
Kimochis for Mental Health Professionals:

The Kimochis® Feeling Pillows Guide: Activities for Mental Health Professionals to Help Children Process and Regulate Big Feelingselevates the feeling pillows to a therapeutic intervention that provides novel ways to help children ages 5-12* process and regulate BIG emotions.

Created through the collaboration of a clinical psychologist, educational director and Kimochis® co-founder, and tested by child therapists around the country, the 49 activities provided in this guidebook will lead children to:

• Actively communicate feelings with more showing and less talking
• Build the mind-body connection which underlies the belief that ‘feelings fuel behavior’
• Confront hard to have feelings by being physically able to hold, move, sort, hide and throw them around
• Nurture compassion for self and others

*Everyone has feelings and these activities are easily adapted for children of all ages, working one-on-one and in groups. Adults too can benefit from having feelings they can see and touch!

Nothing in her email to parents says anything about mental health services through this “for-profit” vendor. SEL providers need to be clear and honest with parents when it comes to SEL programs they will be using in the classroom. Since when do all children need mental health services through a school counselor? Shouldn’t this be reserved for children who may need extra support in the classroom? With INFORMED consent by parents and guardians ?

If you were to take your child to a Child Psychologist who is trained and educated in the field of Child Psychology, your children would be receiving treatment by a professional that must follow a strict code of ethics. You would know that your child is being treated and assessed on their mental health, and their privacy would be protected.

SEL vendors do not provide privacy protections for children. All you have to do is look at the vendor’s privacy policy, it’s NOT private.

This is not just about their grades or attendance records. This is about their mental health. That data is used to build a psychological profile on your children. Not only will they mine this sensitive data on your kids, but they can also share it too.

The laws that govern your child’s privacy were gutted in 2011 by Presidents Obama. There used to be a provision that included the restriction on sharing student information without parental consent. That is no longer in place for these vendors. You can read about that here.

Fortunately there is one law in place that requires schools to obtain parental consent on mental health assessment and treatment. You can bet the Ed Tech Vendors are NOT happy about this because they will not be able to mine as much data from families who refuse.

Here is the federal law. It’s important that SEL is not part of your child’s program at school without your explicit approval:

 

 

Nothing in the notice asks for consent from parents.  If you have not consented to have your child participate in this kind of SEL mental health therapy, there are a few things you can do.

1) File a complaint with the New Hampshire Department of Education
2) Check the license of the school counselor, file a complaint with the licensing board
3) Talk to an attorney to see if this is a violation of federal law and file a lawsuit
4) Take all of this to the school board so they know what is going on

You can now see that this kind of mental health treatment in schools are being sold to parents. The problem isn’t about helping to make the classroom more cohesive or promote better behavior, that can be done without the data mining. The problem is that once your child’s mental health data leaves the district, you have no idea where it goes from there.

This program, used by mental health professionals in practice outside the school, may find this to be an effective tool. The difference is, an educated and trained professional in the mental health field would be assessing and treating children who need extra mental health support. They would be required by license, to keep your child’s mental health information private and it wouldn’t take away from time that should be spent on education.

Kimochi references their “five core social and emotional competencies as outlined by the Collaborative for Academic and Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL).” What they don’t tell you is that CASEL no longer supports focusing on academics in the classroom. They talk about that here:

 

SEL turns public schools into mental health clinics. This shifts focus away from academic excellence, and is sold to you as something  “exciting.”

As children get older, this will continue, but more data will be mined. Here is how this snake oil was sold in SAU16 & SAU21.

The mental health of our children is extremely important, but remember these are the same people who locked kids out of school creating a mental health crisis among for many of these children. Now they are tasked with treating your child’s mental health?

The best thing to do is say NO to SEL. No to the assessments OR treatment. DO NOT CONSENT.

School administrators need to go back to making sure the schools are providing a joyful environment. If they can’t provide that, then they shouldn’t be working in the schools. This isn’t rocket science.

For the children who need additional support, that should only be provided by PhD Child Psychologists who must follow a strict code of ethics. Your children need their mental health information protected, and parents need to be told the truth about what is going on with your children.

This email does not provide you with the necessary information, and there is nothing about what will be collected on your children, and shared.

 

The post Greenland Counselor Misleading Parents on SEL/Psychological Profiling ? appeared first on Granite Grok.

New Hampshire Democrat Bobbi Boudman is running for state rep in Carroll County 7 (Ossipee, Tuftonboro, Wolfeboro), and she’s had a thought about the problem of unwanted pregnancies. Women “can’t share their DNA,” so men’s DNA needs to be regulated.

I’m not kidding; check this out.

 

 

The most startling thing about this rant might be the implication that an unborn baby is a life (a developing life form). That’s a radical notion for an abortion-or-bust left that is happy to kill that life at birth and, depending on whom you ask, some weeks or months after.

I’m sure they’ll bring it up in Dem caucus counseling should she manage to get elected.

As for the other thing, if we accept that a woman (whatever that is) cannot “share” her DNA but a man can, then are we abandoning #BelieveWomen #NoMeansNo, and all the assorted #Consent hashtags? We’d have to agree that a woman’s body is not hers. It is not her choice to grab the bait, yank the bobber or swallow the hook.

She’s the castle keep, and he’s the payload in the trebuchet lobbed over the battlement.

The last time I checked, that was called rape, and we have laws against that, not to mention millions of protest hours about women being the final word on what goes inside them (unless it’s a COVID vaccine).

YOU are the gatekeeper of your DNA. It is your property, secured in your vault and guarded by you. Or not.

As a bipedal female hominid running as a Democrat for elected office, are you renouncing all of that in pursuit of your premise?

And it is not some new idea for Bobbi, by the way. Last year she publicly announced the same plan.

 

 

I agree that the best way to prevent an unwanted pregnancy is not to get pregnant, but Bobbi is not preaching abstinence. As she notes, sex feels good, and I guess women shouldn’t have to be responsible for what they do in pursuit of pleasure or something.

That would explain Democrats’ pursuit of taxation – it just feels so good to take other people’s stuff and spend it on their priorities that they can’t help themselves.

As for the notarized document, how about a marriage license -another idea the New Wave Dems will not love. That’s how we used to do it, and there were far fewer unwanted pregnancies or births out of wedlock (without a license, to borrow your parlance).

But that’s backward thinking which is not at all progressive.

So, what’s next? Women can’t be guilty of murder? My mistake; we already have that it’s called conception to live-birth abortion, and men – I am told – have no say in that, even if their unregulated DNA caused all the trouble.

 

 

 

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Ivan Ilyin’s “On Resistance to Evil by Force” (trans by K Benois) was first published in Berlin in 1925. The author makes many philosophical points, some of which depend on the divine origin of the New Testament, but I will cherry-pick for points that may help us figure out what to do about the evil in our midst right now.

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

Our situation is like that which Ilyin found himself in when he realized how disastrous the 1917 Russian Revolution was: his country had collapsed. He wrote the book while in exile in Germany, where he and other “White Russians” had been deported in 1922.

His book is not about boots on the ground but about souls in heaven. Still, it can teach us a lot about boots on the ground.

Who Is Evil Today?

Do you remember “the fall of the wall” in 1989? The wall in Berlin that had separated East and West Germany since 1945 was occasionally breached by protestors — who were shot on sight — but by the late 1980s, Communism was collapsing, and the wall could not hold. German families were reunited. At that point, the government in Bonn that had run the western part of Germany was able to raid the Communist headquarters of the eastern part.

They found that the spy organization STASI had employed, or otherwise commanded, a full 30% of East German citizens. Many divorces followed when people learned that their spouse had worked for an evil government! I deduced from the STASI figure that 30% is probably the minimum proportion of spies and collaborators needed to keep oppressed people oppressed. Sad to say, looking around me now, I think the number of collaborators in the US is far greater than 30%.

Here’s hoping they got sucked in rather unknowingly and would like a way out. It seems that every, and I do mean every news reporter on TV, is part of a big game. They hand out amazing lies every day, and these are lies that underpin a takeover of our government. Are such media persons, as individuals, deluded? Or have they made a choice? And what of the medical personnel who have wittingly or unwittingly contributed to the vaccine tragedy?

Quoting Ilyin’s Diagnosis of Passivity (Non-resistance to Evil)

Ilyn’s Chapter 2 is entitled “On Non-Resistance to Evil.” He writes:

“What would “non-resistance” [to evil] mean, in the sense of the absence of any resistance? This would mean accepting evil: letting it in and giving it freedom, scope and power. If under these conditions the uprising of evil occurred, and non-resistance continued, it would mean subordination to it, a surrender of the self to it, participation in it, and finally, turning oneself into its instrument, … its plaything, an absorbed element thereof.” (p 7)

I hasten to say that I [MM] have never diagnosed anyone in this way. My stuff is usually about people being psychologically ‘in denial’ or simply being ignorant of the power schemes that have bought them out. In fact, when “defending” folks who rail against conspiracy theory, I have often diagnosed their central problem as conformity. Following the crowd is a strong controller of human behavior! It is very hard to speak out.

But let’s check out more of Ilyin’s profound analysis of human morality and immorality. He says (still in Chapter 2):

“Therefore the non-resistor of evil sooner or later arrives at the need to assure himself that evil is not so bad and that it is not so definitively evil, that it has some positive features, that there are many of them, that they may even predominate…. And when aversion subsides and evil is no longer experienced as evil, then acceptance imperceptibly becomes total: the soul begins to believe that black is white, adapts to match, becomes black itself, and finds that it approves and enjoys, and, of course, this gives evil great pleasure. ” (p 8) ]Emphasis added]

My Take on This

Ilyin goes on to say that “the non-resistor to evil is absorbed by it and becomes possessed.”
I honestly don’t know if Ivan Ilyin is correct. The strongest evil that I have been exposed to (but only second hand and third hand) has to do with the MK-Ultra program, and related atrocities committed by Tavistock in its search for micro-control of the human individual.

Experimenters used cruelty and terror in the way a cook might use a blender or a frying pan: “whatever works is OK.” And the persons doing it were not, I believe, chosen from a pool of psychopaths. Schoolteachers, psychologists, nurses, all participated. I am still stumped as to how they overcame their moral proclivities. Possibly Ilyin is right. Possibly the human brain takes whatever is happening and works it into a pattern of OK-ness.

(Note: the method of the lying TV reporter may differ greatly from that of the guy who turns on the electric current to torture a 3-year-old. Or maybe not?)

I reached out to buy Ilyin’s book when it was recommended by a man who is grasping with all his might to find out what’s up with the “war in Ukraine.” And, by the way, that war brings me back to the issue of the dishonest news service. Were we to understand that Rupert Murdoch and other moguls create wars by guiding public opinion deceptively, we could look with jaundiced eyes at any report in the press about “uprisings” or “coups.”

Indeed, it would be nice if Rupert said “Anything you read in my papers was written to give me and the other Big-Boy globalists a financial advantage and a reduction in your sovereignty.” We in the audience would be all set. Evil would have advertised itself as evil. But oh no, these media bosses give us a parallel set of pieties: they remind us that journalists rely on facts, that our overseas interventions are humanitarian, and blah, blah, blah.

The Book’s Title: On Resistance to Evil by Force

Next, let’s get down to a part of the book “On Resistance to Evil by Force” to see what tricks the author can hand us that may stimulate real physical resistance to today’s evil-doers. (Hmm: should these tricks have been used to stop the initial success of the Bolshevik Revolution, or to get the native population of southern Africa to trip up Cecil Rhodes?) Ilyin summarizes it like this, in Chapter 21: “A strong man sees the tragedy of his situation and goes out to meet it, enter it, and eliminate it.”

But wait. You haven’t lived till you’ve read Chapter 4 “On Inducement and Violence” (which Ilyin wrote to counteract Tolstoy’s theory, popular at the time, that violence is the evil). The external physical action is not what matters. What matters is the state of your soul, your freedom to choose and decide.

I can’t cover the details here; the point is that it’s up to each person to allow or not allow herself to be induced to think or do what the other person is inducing her to do. Also, therefore, she act wrongly if she makes someone do something unwillingly. Each sovereign person has control over his participation in evil. Ilyin writes:

“Tolstoy and his adherents see only self-coercion (‘violence over one’s own body’) and physical violence against others…. [They don’t acknowledge] the possibility of mental compulsion and mental violence towards others. [Hence they reject as evil] all unnecessary and godless interference in the lives of others.” (p 28)

I ask: How about those TV reporters? How about teachers who are still naming the wrong assassin for JFK? Aren’t they performing violence on the listener’s mind?

Ilyin’s Caution about the Sword

Ilyin says: “Man finds himself compelled to help others in their struggle to stop the activities of those who have already surrendered to evil and are seeking universal destruction.” Since the word “sword” appears in the title of this chapter you would expect that he gets right down to it, and rules morally on whether you are allowed to kill.

“Fighting evil always requires heroism. Not only when it is exercised in the form of internal efforts, educating and cultivating his spiritual wings but also in the form of a compelling and suppressing sword.” (p 194)

The verb ‘to suppress’ in this book means holding activity back such as imprisoning a person.

“Christ did not teach the sword. He taught love. But not once, not in a single word, did He condemn the sword, neither in the sense of an organized state for which the sword is the last sanction, not in the sense of military tiles and affairs. [See] His words on the paying of taxes, and in a conversation with Pilate. … It is love that raises us to great heights: both to the sacrifice of unrighteousness and to the sacrifice of life.” (pp 195-196)

 

“When a person enters into conflict with villains and resorts to force, the sword, or cunning [there’s not much discussion of cunning in Ilyin’s book], he has [no] right to lay aside the burden of decision and responsibility and transfer this to the divine. The man who fights villains must see for himself, perceive and evaluate all the conditions…he must understand that he is forced to resort to these means….” (p 184)

 

“The resistance to evil [i.e., use of force] is always a matter of what is pious, righteous, and orderly.” It is impossible to impose an absolute prohibition against force and the sword [per Tolstoy’s pacificism] for recourse to them can become morally and religiously mandatory.” (p 181)

Forgiveness for the Sinner? More than That!

I can’t do justice to this book “On Resistance to Evil by Force.” Note: it hardly mentions law. I love to rely on law, such as my favorite High Court of Australia ruling, in Zecevic v DPP:

“The question to be asked in the end is simple. It is whether the accused believed upon reasonable grounds that it was necessary in self-defence to do what he did. If he had that belief and there were reasonable grounds for it, or if the jury is left in reasonable doubt about [it] he is entitled to an acquittal.”

Ivan Ilyin goes deeper:

“If an attacker assails a ‘beloved’ person and I prefer at that moment that they be killed rather than to put myself in physical opposition to the attacker, then all my love turns out to be an example of affected grandstanding.” (p 78)

Or try this:

“Of course justice is better and greater than injustice, but moral perfection is even greater and even better than justice. Therefore, reference to the fact that ‘execution is just punishment for the villain’ does not mean that we can wash our hands of the broader conclusion: this just penalty cannot and should not be recognized as the morally perfect way of dealing with people.” (p 179)

It’s clear that Ilyin truly believes in holiness and in your duty to help others achieve holiness. I can only recommend that you read more of the book if you are spiritually inclined. Or are open to persuasion in that area.

I admit that I cheated a bit by looking for his “justifications” for things that I want to see justified. Here he speaks of the person who is too weak to act:

“He sins in his own way, in his own way he addresses his weakness and malicious inclinations, but he takes upon himself the guilt of the villain (for he indulges him and passively abets his atrocities).” (p174)

Wow! And Ilyin also opines that when God said, “Love your enemy,” He did not mean Love God’s enemies!

Get Lifted Up

Finally, I have to tell you that I was shocked at the extent to which this author encourages us to help the sinners to stop sinning. Just imagine how easy it could be for your Aunt Tillie to stop being afraid of 9-11 truth, if she felt she was on a mission to make life nicer for, say, Dick Cheney. By improving his character and giving him a chance at perfection. I mean it’s better than telling her that it’s her duty to whoop him.

Alternatively, you could discreetly read this passage to her:

“It is clear that the man with his back to evil, not seeing [it], cannot solve the problem because he extinguishes it in himself, relieves himself of its burden, dulls its severity and resulting anguish, and deprives himself of any right to participate in a discussion of the issue.” (p55).

It is pleasing to hear that Ilyin is the favorite philosopher of Russia’s current leader, Vladimir Putin.

 

 

The post What to Do about the Evil in Our Midst? appeared first on Granite Grok.

Our country as we know it is in grave danger. Big Government Socialism has a strong foothold in the entire Federal bureaucracy, in many state agencies and big cities, as well as in the educational, entertainment, news and information, big tech, and an overwhelming number of other cultural institutions.

Abraham Lincoln, contemplating the state of the nation as he was facing an impending Civil War, wrote that “we shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth.” Our once-great country is facing those same choices today.

November’s elections could be the beginning of our return to greatness or the final phase of our demise. The choices we make will determine whether we continue the relentless drive toward Big Government Socialism, or begin to reverse course back to prosperity and freedom.

We want to thank Ted Lloyd for this Op-Ed. If you have an Op-Ed or LTE
you would like us to consider, please submit it to Editor@GraniteGrok.com.

Think of the dozens of changes made by the Biden administration over the 20 short months it has been in power. If you honestly appraise whether we are better off than before you will clearly see that we are not.

Republicans recently released their “Commitment to America,” which is the plan for the concrete actions they will take when and if they regain majorities in Congress. The four pillars of the plan are “an economy that’s strong; a nation that’s safe; a future that’s built on freedom; and a government that’s accountable. See the specifics at www.republicanleader.gov/commitment/.

Our economy is plagued by rampant inflation and an impending recession. Our energy independence has evaporated, and energy costs have exploded. Home values are declining and interest rates are rising. Economic growth is stagnant, dragged down by trillions in wasteful spending. Is this strength? No!

We can do better.

Nearly 4 million immigrants have illegally crossed our borders since Biden was inaugurated. Chinese fentanyl crosses our border at record rates. Fentanyl poisoning is the leading cause of death for adults 18-45. “Defund the police” movements have decimated our police forces. Skyrocketing crime is destroying our our cities. Is that making us safe? No!

We can do better.

Our military is bogged down in woke-ism, active duty personnel is well below planned levels, highly trained sailors, soldiers, and marines are dishonorably discharged for declining vaccinations, and $80 billion worth of equipment, armaments, and aircraft were abandoned when a world class military air base was left to the Taliban. And an estimated 70-100,000 military translators, aides, and other workers with US visas were denied exfiltration from Afghanistan. Based on this, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping have judged our nation to be weak, and have accelerated their plans for global domination. Is that making us safe? No!

We can do better.

Despite the end of the pandemic, mandates and restrictions continue. Our doctors and pharmacists are forbidden to provide proven treatments which conflict with the officially sanctioned vaccinations and medications. Restrictions on guns and ammunition continue despite Supreme Court reaffirmations of our 2nd Amendment rights. Conservative authors, filmmakers, politicians, and ordinary citizens are censored with impunity on the internet. Are we really free? No!

We can do better.

News stories about potentially illegal actions by our current President’s family were censored and suppressed, impacting the 2020 election. Senators and Representatives come to Washington poor and leave rich. The House of Representatives continues its hate-filled propaganda circus over January 6th, while refusing to look at the questionable actions of the Speaker of the house, the DC mayor, and her police. The FBI stages paramilitary raids on the administration’s political enemies, yet refuses to declassify embarrassing or incriminating information under the guise of “national security sources and methods.” Is this accountability? No!

We can do better.

The Democrats on the other hand have told us their three primary arguments for getting our vote in November: climate change being the number 1 existential threat to our country, women’s health (read abortion) rights being taken away, and everything Trump is a “big lie.” If you disagree, and you know that a strong economy, a safe nation, protection of our freedom, and an accountable government are much more important than Democrat talking points, it’s critical that you vote on November 8th, and that you vote Republican up and down the ballot.

Thank you!

The post Vote Republican on November 8th appeared first on Granite Grok.

After Conquering Twitter, Elon Musk Set To Invade Facebook

The world of social media geopolitics is undergoing a shift of apocalyptic proportions.

The world’s richest man Elon Musk was seen shirtless riding on a pale stallion as he entered Twitter headquarters just outside San Francisco. The Twitter office atmosphere, normally placid consisting of quietly sipped lattes and the soft buzzing of indoor Segways was bedlam. Loud shrieks were reported by passersby and bodies could be seen jettisoning themselves from the one-story building onto the well-manicured lawn below.

Serried by a band of IPad toting millennials dressed in business casual jeans and cleverly sloganed t-shirts, Musk strode triumphantly to his new office with the corner window overlooking the Whole Foods Market across the street. He immediately tore down the portraits of Stalin and Mao and replaced them with a war map of the social media landscape.

Just a few miles away, the Facebook headquarters was abuzz with rumors of a hostile takeover by the Musk army. For months, reports have been leaking out of Facebook headquarters that the small collection of conservative employees being held against their will by the cruel tyrant Mark Zuckerberg had sealed off a portion of the Instagram department preparing to vote on fully annexing themselves to Twitter.

Musk is reported to have been circling the Twitter campus repeatedly yelling “ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED!?” as soon-to-be former employees, binary and non, lay curled up in the fetal positions sobbing along the promenade.

Banana’s social media war correspondents will remain on the ground via Zoom for continued reports.

The post Musk To Annex Instagram from Facebook appeared first on Granite Grok.

Libertine:

A libertine is a person devoid of most moral principles, a sense of responsibility, or sexual restraints, which they see as unnecessary or undesirable, and is especially someone who ignores or even spurns accepted morals and forms of behaviour observed by the larger society.[1][2] Libertinism is described as an extreme form of hedonism.[3] Libertines put value on physical pleasures, meaning those experienced through the senses. As a philosophy, libertinism gained new-found adherents in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, particularly in France and Great Britain. Notable among these were John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, and the Marquis de Sade.

As opposed to ordered Liberty but contrasting the two is a whole ‘nother series of posts that I’m not willing to dive into right now (perhaps later, just not now).

The reason I am doing THIS post is this one from CNN that illustrates the nuttiness and chaos that we Normals are supposed to put up with because of this social contagion called Transgenderism.  It renders history not just moot but to be abolished, it treats biology as a thing that one can skip one way this moment to the other way in the next moment, and the use of pronouns (while not as bad as some others I’ve read) to be useless (the redefining of our common language so as to no longer be precise but muddied, muddled, and moronic).

Reality has no problem in knocking them off their dysphoria (reformatted, emphasis mine):

‘We’re a part of this movement, too.’ Transgender and nonbinary people say they feel excluded from the abortion fight

(CNN) — Mikiko Galpin still feels the impact of being sexually assaulted by someone he thought he could trust – and the tough decisions he was forced to make after multiple pregnancy scares. When Roe v. Wade was overturned in June, it was a sad and heavy moment for the 29-year-old transgender man. He was taken back to the first time he took a pregnancy test prior to transitioning. He recalls crying in the passenger seat of a friend’s car at 2 a.m. trying to search for a pharmacy that was still open so he could buy a pregnancy test.

Look, I’m not making light or sport about getting molested or raped.  That is not my point and NO ONE should ever suffer that harm.

What I AM objecting to is the complete rejection that he was a girl at that point of his life – but with the use of “preferred pronouns”, one can only scratch their heads going “what, a man who gets raped needs a pregnancy test?”; certainly that was my thought as I first missed “prior to transitioning” as I was speed reading to make sense of the post’s title.

Sorry, this makes no biological sense whatsoever – men can’t get pregnant. And this is part of the Chaos that transgenderism is bringing to Society: that “What, HUH?” moments in which you wonder what is going on. Gaslighting is what this is – an attempt to make you believe, at a psychological level, something you KNOW isn’t true.

Sorry, men and men and can’t get pregnant. In this case, girls and women can get pregnant – and no yammering about how one can be the other without transgressing absolute facts is true. But that’s the point – to do away with absolutes.  The Left hates absolutes – those that believe that there are fundamental things that exist outside of themselves like sex and gender are the same thing, cannot be manipulated for any ideological reason.

Jane can’t be Johnny no matter how hard she tries.

At the time, Galpin said he felt trapped and didn’t know where to turn while navigating the complexities of a pregnancy scare resulting from a traumatic experience. An anxious Galpin feared the potential of upending his life to care for a baby at a young age.

“I just wanted to get a pregnancy test and know if I was pregnant at that point, and just feeling that complete sense of having no control over this really big part of your life,” Galpin said. “I think when the decision came down, I had that same feeling of not having control over this very momentous and personal thing that myself and other people who have reproductive abilities are going to go through in the coming months and years.”

Although Galpin turned out not to be pregnant, those fears about who gets to decide his reproductive rights still linger.

Few people like being out of control and what happened shouldn’t have.  But “who gets to decide HIS reproductive rights ” brings most people to thinking “Vasectomy? Physical castration?” and not abortion.  Again, one has to double-think everything in this kind of presentation – and that shouldn’t have to happen, doesn’t happen, unless language has been co-opted for ideological purposes.

In short, it creates chaos of thought because chaos of speech is deliberately happening to us all right now.

There is much more to the CNN piece that I’m not going to fisk but it is all about women who believe they are men. It is replete, however with the corruption of our language to make us believe that which we know is not real.

Oh, it may be real to that person. I’ve been saying for a few years now that if you think you are something that you aren’t (a man believing he is a woman or a girl thinking she is a boy), knock yourself out. If your family and friends accept that, more power to you.  However, leave me out of it. DON’T demand that I have to accept your gender dysphoria and, even worse, affirm who you are.  Not your place to demand that I bow to your libertinism.

Sidenote: Note not only the pronoun mangling in the post but is also had “misgendering” and “cisgender”. Tell me, before 10 years ago, did you ever hear anyone speak or write in those terms?  No, neither have I. And yet, there is an explosion of such “ideological words” that typical “hip” Leftists are spouting from their Moral Superiority high horse. Include “genderfluidity” and “transition” as if that terminology is based on fact.

No, you may present yourself as a guy today and a gal tomorrow (or even both during the same day) but presentation isn’t reality. You can’t “fluidly” change your biology and trying to enforce your groupthink that gender and biological sex are different.

And if you are ragingly insisting that they are, well, you are Oppressing me to be a Marginalized Person of Faith.

Stick that in your pipe and smoke it.

(H/T: CNN)

The post Welcome to the Chaos of CNN writing about Transgender Men, mangling history and grammar, and what this is doing to Society? appeared first on Granite Grok.