[Last] week, the House met for the last time to vote on all committee of conference reports. No amendments allowed – just yes or no. And a motion to table is a non-debatable motion to kill the bill.

We want to thank Rep. Carol McGuire for this Contribution – Please direct yours to Steve@GraniteGrok.com.
You can review our ‘Op-Ed Guidelines‘ on the FAQ Page.

ysh June 14

The post Your State House – The Last Session appeared first on Granite Grok.

The legislature passed just this year S.220 – An act relating to Vermont’s public libraries. The ostensible need for the law was summed up by the WCAX headline, “Vermont Senate advances bill to discourage book banning.” This was, in great part, a reaction by our legislators to parents around the country objecting to highly sexualized materials being made available to age-inappropriate audiences in school libraries.

If you don’t believe the books in question are age inappropriate for middle schoolers, watch Senator Kennedy (R-Louisiana) read a passage from one of the books parents are objecting to. But do be very much warned! Once you click that link, you will not be able to un-hear what you hear there. It is quite disturbing. But, making this kind of material available to children without parental consent or oversight is what our lawmakers were really defending with S.220 by lowering the age of oversight from sixteen to twelve. Yup, twelve.

Unless authorized by other provisions of law, the library’s officers, employees, and volunteers shall not disclose the records except: (4) to custodial parents or guardians of patrons under age 16 12 years of age…

At this point, I do want to say that in my opinion the hype about “banning” books in schools is in many cases is overblown by both sides. The decision whether or not to teach a certain book in a class isn’t a “ban” on the book not chosen. It’s a question of priorities. We can argue if it’s a good idea to not teach Huckleberry Finn, To Kill a Mockingbird, or The Great Gatsby (it’s a terrible choice not to teach all of them) in favor of I, Rigoberta Menchú (trash) and The Kite Runner (great book, but canon literature?), and that debate would be healthy and fun to have.

Similarly, the desire to keep arguably pornographic material out of the hands and eyes of children isn’t really so much about banning books as it is about making appropriate choices.

But back to this legislation empowering librarians to safeguard the First Amendment by wielding S.220 as a sword against those who would stifle controversial points of view, and a hat tip to a BTL reader who shared this experience with Burlington’s Fletcher Free Library after asking about Riley Gains new book, Swimming Against the Current, Fighting for Common Sense in a World That’s Lost its Mind.

For those unfamiliar (and do come out from under your rock), Gains was a champion female college level swimmer who had her title taken away by a biological male competing as a woman. Since then, Gains has become an outspoken advocate for, according to her webpage, “…women’s single-sex spaces, advocating for equality and fairness, and standing up for women’s safety, privacy, and equal opportunities.” She is having an impact, and, needless to say, the transgender community does not like her. At all.

So, when this Burlington resident asked to borrow a copy of her book from the local library, this was the response:

Thank you for your recent title request of Swimming Against the Current by Riley Gaines. Unfortunately, the title you requested doesn’t meet our collection development policy criteria for purchase, and the book is unavailable to request through the inter-library loan system.  We do try our best to fulfill all patron requests when possible.

Take care,

Erin

Really? Google “Riley Gains” and you get thousands of news hits. Her story, intertwined with that of transgender swimmer Lia Thomas, has been front page news since 2021. Gains is emerging as one of the most powerful feminist voices of her generation. Her book doesn’t meet your criteria? Not just for purchasing the book yourself (sure, space is limited) but not even borrowing it from another library that does stock it? This sounds an awful lot like, as the term is used today, a book ban!

A further inquiry summed up in a quick paraphrase here of “WTF”, got the more detailed explanation,

… the selection aids used by staff have been more clearly defined as: “Review in a standard reviewing source (e.g., Booklist, School Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews); reviews and discussion in national newspapers and magazines, local publications, broadcast media, and reputable online sources.”

The number of items published each year is huge and we cannot be subject matter experts in everything, so we rely on these reviews especially for non-fiction. Unfortunately, I could not find a review of “Swimming Against the Current” in any of the publications listed above, nor The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, etc.

And this is how the Left works its censorship magic: If none of us like it, none of us pay attention to it. If we don’t pay attention to it, it doesn’t exist. If it doesn’t exist, how can it be censorship not to make it available? Here, maybe you’d enjoy some child pornography instead. Bring some home to the kids!

So, in conclusion, it appears S.220 (now Act 150) is less about ending “book bans,” but rather empowering librarians to ban the books and points of view our lawmakers want banned, and insulating them from transparency and public criticism in the process.

 

Rob Roper is a freelance writer with 20 years of experience in Vermont politics, including three years of service as chair of the Vermont Republican Party and nine years as President of the Ethan Allen Institute, Vermont’s free-market think tank. He is also a regular contributor to VermontGrok.

The post Who’s Banning Books Now? appeared first on Granite Grok.

Enron Corporation may have declared bankruptcy in 2001, but the company’s effect on America’s electric grid can still be seen today in states like California and Texas, where power prices are soaring and reliability is declining.

The push to treat electricity as a commodity instead of a service is particularly punishing in California, where electricity prices are increasing three times faster than in the rest of the U.S.

https://www.youtube.com/@JuiceTheSeries

cc

The post JUICE: Power, Politics & The Grid – Part II appeared first on Granite Grok.

There is a story going around about how Kay, a single mom in Manchester, isn’t eligible for an Education Freebie Account (EFA) because she’s $90 over the income cutoff.

The conclusion reached by the author of the story is that we should have universal eligibility for EFAs.  But that’s backward.

First, note that cut-offs based on ‘income’ have always been kind of a goofy thing, and not just for the reason illustrated in the story.

Instead of setting up hard limits, why not have a sliding scale?  Have parents fill out the usual forms for financial aid (which have been refined over decades), and if they’re eligible for only a little help, give them a little; and if eligible for more, give them more.

Second, what counts isn’t ‘income’, but disposable income, and also assets.  The question has to be:  Once you’ve accounted for other necessities, how much can you come up with — not just from your income, but by selling off luxuries — to put towards the education of your own children?

This should also be the approach to public schools, by the way — which are a form of assistance, but one that’s handed out indiscriminately.  You should contribute what you can to the education of your own kids, and only if you fall short should the burden be shouldered by your neighbors.

(We have someone in our town who, freed of the requirement to come up with the $50,000 or so that our town was paying each year in tuition for her children, has been able to put that money into real estate.  So, she now owns several properties in the area, effectively gifted to her by taxpayers — one of whom had to have his daughter take out a personal loan to pay his school taxes.)

The answer isn’t to make public schools and EFAs handouts to people who may not need them. The answer is to make both into means-tested programs, with parents contributing as much as they can.

(You want to see school costs rolled back?  This is how you do it, with parents suddenly leading the effort instead of fighting it.)

Note that sliding scales for assistance aren’t a new idea.  We already see it with certain kinds of tax deductions and credits that phase out according to net income rather than gross income.  The more you make, the less assistance you get, and vice versa.  If you make enough that you don’t need any assistance, you don’t get any.

As far as Kay’s situation is concerned, the fact that $90 is the difference between no assistance and full assistance is ridiculous, but not in the way the author implies, and the solution isn’t the one he suggests.

The proper way to avoid this problem (and a lot of others) isn’t universal eligibility for EFAs but means testing for both public schools and EFAs.  They’re both forms of welfare and should be treated as such:

Four Simple Rules for Funding Education

The post Make Welfare … Welfare again appeared first on Granite Grok.

Informative post in NH-NeverTrump Journal about how OUT-OF-CONTROL “education” spending is in New Hampshire. I am … and have been for some time … so sick and tired of listening to the Sununu-bots/GOP-bots/Ayotte-bots repeating “New Hampshire Advantage,” “don’t mass up New Hampshire,” blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

New Hampshire SPENDS MORE on a per-pupil basis than virtually every other State in America.

And WORSE, our teachers are underpaid compared to other States because we pump so much money into the CRT/DEI/grooming bureaucracy. But what “conservatives” in New Hampshire are really good at (perhaps the ONLY thing they’re good at) is PRETENDING … pretending that Sununu, Ayotte, Morse are conservatives, pretending that a conservative can win in CD-2, pretending that New Hampshire is fiscally conservative, pretending that many, many school districts aren’t engaged in pushing CRT/DEI/grooming.

The LINK.

The post Calling New Hampshire “Fiscally Conservative” Is Such Gaslighting appeared first on Granite Grok.

Car manufacturers make little, if any, money on EV sales. A dearth of charging stations discourages new buyers, who are also put off by high sticker prices. Sales of new electric vehicles have dropped off, as have used resale values. Manufacturers nevertheless proclaim these machines are here to stay and that they will keep making them regardless of whether consumers are willing to buy them. This upside-down sales plan may prove troubling for carmakers and consumers alike.

An Unusual Business Model

If traditional business models were in play, manufacturers would presumably produce cars that buyers desire rather than seek to create a market that doesn’t exist. However, in the ideological milieu of climate change urgency, the corporate tail seeks to wag the consumer dog, fueled by massive state and federal subsidies, EPA regulations that penalize gas-powered vehicle manufacture, and relentless propaganda that EVs will save the world. This tension between buyer and seller will unfold over time as either a win for green technology as sales improve or a loss for carmakers as buyers favor gasoline over electricity for transportation.

Car manufacturers have entered into an adversarial relationship with the majority of their customer base. One recent poll reported that 46% of respondents claimed they were unlikely or very unlikely to buy an EV. Of the electric units currently sold, 78% are categorized as “premium” or high-priced models. Mainstream American buyers are discouraged by high prices, range anxiety (fears of running out of power), and a lack of charging stations. Wealthier buyers are more likely to afford home charging stations as well as fancier chariots. It is unclear how manufacturers propose to bridge this stubborn divide.

Charging stations remain a sticky wicket for most buyers. Although the Biden administration pledged $7.5 billion to install charging stations nationally, to date there are only about 40,000, and a quarter of those are in California. The Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory counsels that at least 180,000 charging stations will be required by 2030. This chicken-and-egg competition between EVs and the stations needed to charge them will continue until sufficient charging facilities have been installed, which industry advocates claim will help EV sales turn the corner.

However, consumer complaints about charging reliability compound the availability problem. Increasingly, claims of environmental benefits are dented by revelations that lithium mines and aluminum smelting for EVs adversely impact the ecosystem. Grid capacity to meet the demands of those theoretical 180,000 stations is also in question. Consequently, resale values have plummeted for existing models.

New EPA tailpipe emission rules effectively mandate that 56% of all new car sales will be EVs by 2032, yet that percentage far exceeds current sales levels. Inflation remains sticky, the economy is wobbling, and President Biden just slapped Chinese EVs with a 100% tariff. In such a climate, the competition for car sales appears to be less between consumers and manufacturers and more between policymakers, regulators, and money printers.

The EV Future

General Motors and Ford still need to make a profit in EV sales, and both companies seek to design more affordable vehicles with broader model options. Despite slumping sales and high pricing, GM CEO Mary Barra claims the company remains committed to a 100% electric car fleet – regardless of how many Americans still want to buy a gas-powered car. GM claims it plans to sell exclusively electric models by 2035.  Historically, consumers have driven product demand, but today’s manufacturers have put the cart before the horse. According to Ford CEO Jim Farley, “the journey on EVs is inevitable, in our eyes.” And a GM spokesperson told NPR: “Although the rate of growth has slowed recently, EV demand is clearly moving in the right direction.”

It may be that manufacturers can successfully dictate demand for future car purchases to their customer base. Should the economy decline, food and housing inflation persist, charging stations remain a pipe dream, and reliability of vehicles and chargers continue to be problematic, the best-laid climate plans of carmakers may leave behind showrooms full of new EV museum pieces while workers are laid off and consumers favor affordable, vintage, gas-powered transport. This showdown will determine the outcome of the current tension between car manufacturers and their reluctant buyers, which one observer aptly described as “a troubling gap between expectations and reality.”

 

John Klar is an Attorney, farmer, and author. Mostly farmer… And Regular Contributor to GraniteGrok and VermontGrok.

The post Is EV Manufacturing Exceeding Demand? appeared first on Granite Grok.

If you submitted an Op-Ed and we didn’t publish it (yet), there’s a good reason. Our stable of contributors (Groksters) has been cranking out a lot of material. Last week, I addressed this (to some degree) by dropping a lot more content than usual, but I’m reluctant to do it again.

When we exceed a certain threshold for updates, people stop clicking and reading. Put another way, it doesn’t increase traffic, and fewer people will likely read your content. Upcoming site design changes might mitigate that, and on that point, the design team tried uploading a test version of the new site to the new server. There were some issues, and they are working them out.

Anyway, new site – soon. I hope. And the home page layout is different from anything we’ve ever done before. The goal is a wider appeal to broader audiences across New England and the Nation. We’re Still GraniteGrok, but we’ve sorted things so people can get to what they want to ‘Grok! —New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, Regional staff, National Stuff, and Global Stuff. They each have their own section on the home page and their own “page behind that,” and while some topics will cross categories – and the stuff up top will be the most recent, it’s … different.

I hope you like it. We also expect it to be quite a bit faster than the old one. I have not seen what the mobile version looks like, but once this is up and stable, debugged, tweaked, and seamless, we’ll move on to the mobile app, and that shouldn’t matter so much.

Fundraising.

The economy sucks, and we appreciate you giving what you can when you can, but I am obligated to bring it up a lot because this only works if we raise enough funds. Last year, we did well, but we did not raise enough, and I had to take part-time work to make up the difference. It is work I can mostly do from home. But I do it for several hours every day, so I am not free to do any of the reporting from Concord or event hopping I’d hoped to do. The session is over, so there’s that, but the campaign season has jump-started at the State level, and we will miss out on most of that, events, and so on.

I’m fine if you don’t care about us reporting from campaign events, but there are other stories we won’t be able to chase or follow up on. I get a lot of stuff I can’t commit to because of the time required to do it properly. I don’t have it.

We’ll get there at some point, just not this year and not yet.

We are currently raising funds for fiscal 2025, and we have a long way to go. It is mid-June, and we’ve got about 13% of what we need. At a minimum, we need to get to 60%, which is what happened last year. The recently updated ads to fundraise have resulted in some response, but since neither Skip nor I is any good at this part, it is a problem. And everyone is asking for money: campaigns, non-Protifts, Activists, and us.

If you are good at this fundraising thing, we could use your help.

Other Business

There is no word yet on whether we will attempt another Groktoberfest this year. Planning will have to start soon, and as noted above, we need to find ways to cover expenses. It’s an election year, so we’ll see what the venue situation looks like and what the costs are. We did make some money on last year’s event, so it is worth looking at.

And, as always, Thanks for reading!

 

The post Op-Eds, Fundraising, and Updates appeared first on Granite Grok.

“Representative” Jessica Grill … remember her bitter clingers? The “State Rep” is either actually a thirteen-year-old who lives on TikTok or who aspires to be a thirteen-year-old who lives on TikTok. The “State Rep” who ideates about having sex with older men on her X.

Well, here she goes again. Dropping “F-bombs’ on her X, presumably to try to convince herself that she is just so young and hip and cool.

The post Manchester Is “Represented” By The Dumbest People appeared first on Granite Grok.

Wooden phone cases are a unique and stylish option that combines natural beauty with modern functionality. These cases offer a distinctive look and feel that sets them apart from the more common plastic or silicone options.

This section will explore the various aspects of wooden phone cases, highlighting their benefits, materials, and the craftsmanship involved.

Visit https://woodgraw.com/collections/wooden-iphone-cases to explore our collection now!

What is a Wooden Phone Case? Understanding Its Unique Appeal

A wooden phone case is made from natural wood, often combined with other materials like leather or TPU for added protection and flexibility. These cases are handcrafted, ensuring that each one has a unique pattern and texture.

Key Benefits of Wooden Phone Cases:

1. Aesthetic Appeal: The natural grain and texture of wood provide a unique and elegant look, making each case a one-of-a-kind accessory.
2. Eco-Friendly: Wood is a renewable resource, making wooden cases an environmentally friendly option compared to plastic cases.
3. Durability: High-quality wooden cases are treated with oils and waxes to protect against moisture and wear, ensuring long-lasting use.
4. Comfort: Wooden cases offer a warm, comfortable feel in hand, contrasting with the often cold and slippery feel of plastic or metal cases.

What Material is Best for Wooden Phone Cases? Exploring Options

Wooden phone cases can be made from various types of wood, each offering different characteristics and benefits. Below is a comparison of popular woods used in phone cases.

Woodgraw’s Expertise in Wooden Cases: Woodgraw specializes in creating high-quality wooden phone cases using walnut and oak. Their craftsmen meticulously select the best wood, ensuring each piece is unique and beautiful. The wood is treated with natural oil and wax to enhance its durability and appearance, providing a perfect blend of nature and technology.

Why Choose a Wooden Phone Case? Comparing Benefits

When deciding on a phone case, it’s essential to consider the benefits that different materials offer. Wooden cases provide several advantages that make them an attractive option for many users.

Comparison of Wooden Phone Cases vs. Other Materials:

Woodgraw’s wooden cases stand out due to their unique design and the natural beauty of the materials used. The combination of wood and leather not only offers robust protection but also adds a touch of sophistication to your device. Each case is handcrafted, ensuring that no two cases are exactly alike.

Craftsmanship and Care: Ensuring Longevity of Wooden Phone Cases

Wooden phone cases require careful craftsmanship to ensure their durability and beauty. Woodgraw’s artisans take pride in their work, from selecting the best quality wood to applying natural oils and waxes for protection. This attention to detail ensures that each case not only looks stunning but also provides long-lasting protection for your phone.

Caring for Your Wooden Phone Case:

1. Cleaning: Use a soft, dry cloth to clean the surface of the case. Avoid using harsh chemicals or abrasive materials.
2. Maintenance: Periodically treat the case with a small amount of natural oil to maintain its finish and protect against moisture.
3. Handling: Handle with care to avoid drops and impacts, which can damage the wood.

By choosing a wooden phone case, you not only protect your phone but also make a statement with a unique and eco-friendly accessory. Woodgraw’s dedication to quality and craftsmanship ensures that each case is a masterpiece, ready to complement your style and enhance your device.

Customization and Personalization: Making Your Wooden Phone Case Unique

One of the standout features of wooden phone cases is the ability to customize and personalize them. Unlike mass-produced plastic cases, wooden cases offer a canvas for individual expression and unique designs.

Customization Options for Wooden Phone Cases

Engraving: Many wooden phone cases can be personalized with engraved designs, names, or initials. This adds a personal touch and makes the case truly one-of-a-kind.

Mixing Materials: Combining wood with other materials like leather or metal can create a distinctive look. For example, Woodgraw offers cases that blend natural wood with high-quality leather, providing both aesthetic appeal and enhanced functionality.

Design Variations: Wooden phone cases come in various designs, from minimalistic and sleek to intricate and detailed. Choose a design that reflects your personality and style.

Wood Types and Finishes: Different types of wood and finishes can be selected to match your preferences. Whether you prefer the dark, rich tones of walnut or the light, elegant look of maple, there’s a wooden case to suit your taste.

Sustainability and Environmental Impact: The Eco-Friendly Choice

In today’s environmentally conscious world, choosing eco-friendly products is more important than ever. Wooden phone cases offer a sustainable alternative to plastic and synthetic materials.

Sustainable Sourcing: Reputable manufacturers, like Woodgraw, ensure that their wood is sourced from sustainable forests. This helps in maintaining ecological balance and promoting responsible forestry practices.

Biodegradability: Unlike plastic, which can take centuries to decompose, wood is biodegradable. This means that wooden phone cases have a significantly lower environmental impact at the end of their lifecycle.

Reduced Carbon Footprint: The production process for wooden cases typically has a lower carbon footprint compared to plastic or metal cases. This is due to the natural, less energy-intensive processes involved in woodworking.

Support for Local Artisans: Purchasing a handcrafted wooden phone case often supports local artisans and small businesses, promoting sustainable economic practices and preserving traditional craftsmanship.

Practical Tips for Choosing the Right Wooden Phone Case

Selecting the perfect wooden phone case involves considering several factors. Here are some practical tips to guide your decision:

Compatibility: Ensure that the wooden case you choose is compatible with your specific phone model. Check for precise cutouts for buttons, ports, and the camera.

Protection Level: Consider how much protection you need. If you frequently drop your phone, look for a wooden case with reinforced corners and shock-absorbing features.

Weight and Thickness: Wooden cases can vary in weight and thickness. Choose a case that offers a good balance between protection and comfort in hand.

Aesthetic Preferences: Think about the look and feel you prefer. Different woods and finishes can create vastly different appearances, from rustic and rugged to polished and refined.

Budget: Wooden phone cases can range in price. While high-quality handcrafted cases may be more expensive, they often provide better durability and a more unique appearance.

Testimonials and User Experiences: Real Feedback from Wooden Case Users

To provide a well-rounded view, it’s helpful to consider the experiences of others who have used wooden phone cases. Here are some testimonials from users:

Emma, Graphic Designer: “I love my Woodgraw phone case! The walnut wood gives it a classy look, and I get compliments on it all the time. Plus, it’s surprisingly durable.”

Alex, Environmental Activist: “Choosing a wooden case was an easy decision for me. It’s eco-friendly, and I appreciate the craftsmanship that goes into each case. My bamboo case has held up well over the past year.”

Sarah, Student: “I had my initials engraved on my oak phone case, and it turned out beautifully. It’s a great conversation starter and fits my phone perfectly.”

Conclusion

Wooden phone cases offer a unique combination of natural beauty, durability, and eco-friendliness. With various customization options and the ability to support sustainable practices, they provide an excellent alternative to traditional phone cases. Whether you’re looking for a stylish accessory or a robust protective case, wooden phone cases like those from Woodgraw are a fantastic choice. Embrace the elegance of nature and protect your device with a case that’s as unique as you are.

The post Elevate Your Style with Unique Wooden Phone Cases appeared first on Granite Grok.

It was in the low to mid-90s the past two days and will be the same today. Everyone around here is looking for ways to stay cool, checking on elderly neighbors, and keeping their pets indoors. But one thousand nine hundred fifty miles west of me, they got a foot of snow.

A low pressure system will bring heavy wet snow to portions of the Northern Rockies, increasing the risk of power outages and leading to difficult backcountry conditions tonight into Tuesday. Key messages are provided in the graphic below.

6/16 – ICYMI: A low pressure system will bring heavy wet snow to portions of the Northern Rockies, increasing the risk of power outages and leading to difficult backcountry conditions tonight into Tuesday. Key messages are provided in the graphic below. #mtwx #idwx pic.twitter.com/bNBFhRvIEe

— NWS Missoula (@NWSMissoula) June 17, 2024

I blame global warming. It is the cause of everything – the proverbial Satan with Western worshipers who want nothing more than to be comfortable, which is an interesting coincidence. I got an email from our electricity provider in the days before the sweltering heat descended upon us. Their suggestion was to find ways to use less electricity. You don’t hear that when it’s cold and snowy – assuming you still have electricity. Freezing to death happens, but so does heat stroke and all that good stuff. This is why they also ask you to care for pets and check on the elderly. But wouldn’t it make more sense to be in a literal position of power? Where the infrastructure can’t wait to handle peak load times like 96-degree days in the Northeast?

It will be hot, but no worries—we have the capacity to spare. So stay cool, and remember to check on your elderly relatives and neighbors. And yes, we could make fists full of money, but your electric usage is your choice. We’re just happy to be able to provide when called upon.

That’s not the world you get to live in when the prevailing position of “leadership” is that you must learn to do with less.

That’s not America. And I’m not saying anyone should be wasteful or misuse the resources. I am suggesting that you don’t create anything, especially comfort, when your priority is convincing people to have less, do less, and be less.

Montana and Idaho’s snow will melt in a few days (at least at the lower altitudes), while the weather here in New Hampshire will get closer to normal. However, the agenda continues to be about decline and characterized by minimalism while the elites and ruling class spend away our future.

Minimalism should be a choice, not a command.

The post Montana and Idaho Got Cold Air and Up to a Foot of Snow This Week appeared first on Granite Grok.

We have talked about President Joe Biden freezing three times in the last two weeks. He went into a trance at the Juneteenth festival, surrounded by folks dancing and clapping, but not stoic Joe. He was frozen like a statue.

In Italy, at the G7 meeting, where the heads of state focused on the skydiver who landed closest to the group, Joe was walking off toward another group of divers when he was stopped and turned around by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. Finally, Joe was on stage with Barack Obama at a fundraiser when he froze again and was rescued by Obama, who led Joe off the stage. These three situations happened within ten days.

When Karine Jean-Pierre was asked about the situation, she immediately claimed Right-wing media teams manipulated the videos to make the president look especially bad. She called the videos “cheap fake,” and the news agencies should be called out for spreading misinformation or disinformation. KJP is the one who should be called out. The videos in question were official pool feeds of the event and were shown in their entirety. Nobody in the briefing room challenged the liar secretary. KJP is a National Embarrassment. She went on to say these fakes show how desperate the Republicans are that instead of talking about the many accomplishments of Biden, they disparage him instead.

Legacy media joined forces with the White House, and people like Nicole Wallace and Joe Scarborough were apoplectic in their reporting of the Cheap Fakes. These mainstream media outlets had nothing to say about the White House refusing to release the audio version of the President’s interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur. They know the tone of the audio transcript would be very dangerous for the president.

In another document that should be rather innocuous is the Defense Budget proposal. Ordinarily the budget is given its new budget number based on the previous year’s numbers. Fortunately, someone on the Right performed their due diligence and read the budget. Buried in the text was an edict to have every female register for the draft upon her 18th birthday. Republican members of Congress were furious when they learned of the additional verbiage added to the budget and vowed not to vote for any defense bill calling for young women to register for the draft.

KJP lectured the White House Press Pool, and it is disappointing that not a single person stood their ground and told Karine she was wrong. These “reporters” are part of the problem when they hear a blatant falsehood and do not challenge the person spewing the misinformation. They are complicit in their inaction. The actions of the White House are a perfect example of projection, and it is insulting.  I had two articles censored by Facebook last week that contained nothing but facts and opinions. Still,  this woman, who speaks for the President, can lie to us every time her lips move behind the mic is destructive to the government’s credibility. Thankfully we have only seven months left before she is retired.

The post Lies And Deceit Will Be Biden Legacy appeared first on Granite Grok.

In January 2024, there was a meeting of the New Hampshire House State-Federal Relations and Veteran Affairs committee. The committee heard two separate bills on secession.

The first one, CACR 20, would be a constitutional amendment that would see the people of NH vote to amend the constitution to say that if the federal government’s national debt reaches $40 trillion, New Hampshire shall peacefully secede from the union.
The second one, HB1130 would form a commission to study everything we would need to know about secession, such as economic impact.

This is video of the full public hearing for both bills and the people’s testimonies.

On Wednesday morning, NHexit.US announced that local liberty activists in New Hampshire have hired a chartered airplane pilot to fly a pro-independence banner over the three largest cities in the state. Over the past few years, the calls for serious discussions on peaceful separation of New Hampshire from DC and the union have grown dramatically. New Hampshire is already home to the most influential liberty movement in the world.

Notable events since 2021 include:

• legislation to place an independence referendum on the ballot which was sponsored by nine lawmakers in the New Hampshire House
• a poll by SurveyUSA finding that almost 100% of NH residents strongly resent the federal government and 29% are ready to secede immediately
• increasing demands by lawmakers and the centrist governor telling the DC tyrants to back off 
• An abundance of pro-independence sentiment, including flags for the Granite Republic, hats, T-shirts, books, articles, and podcasts, and even a national anthem

This Saturday, an airplane banner could be added to that list. The tentative plan is for the banner to fly over Nashua, Manchester, and Concord. If you look up while in one of these cities, you just might be able to snap a photo or record a video of the banner. We encourage our readers to post their photos to social media with the tags #NHexit, #secession, and #NHpolitics. 

Additionally, the question of secession will be asked by another highly reputable pollster. The University of New Hampshire is currently conducting a political survey that includes multiple questions related to New Hampshire independence. The results could be published within days or a few weeks. 

 

 

The post Secession Airplane Banner Flying Over Merrimack Valley Saturday appeared first on Foundation for New Hampshire Independence.

A recent poll conducted by SurveyUSA on behalf of the Foundation for New Hampshire Independence (FNHI) shows that while the peaceful separation of New Hampshire from the federal government has low support among politicians, it has significant support among registered voters.

According to an overwhelming number of respondents, the people of the United States are getting more and more divided over important issues like LGBT rights, guns, abortion, election integrity, race relations, involvement in foreign wars, climate change, immigration, and so on (91%).  Nearly as many fear that if this trend continues, it will lead to increases in political violence (89%).

Large majorities of respondents agreed that the federal government doesn’t have their best interests in mind (67%); that it violates their rights more than it protects those rights (65%); that it produces laws, regulations, and court rulings that are incompatible with New Hampshire’s culture of freedom (63%); and that its financial decisions and economic regulations hurt our livelihoods, and could lead to inflation and bankruptcy (77%).

In short, 63% of respondents feel that their state can be trusted more than the federal government.

One possible way forward would be for New Hampshire to begin ignoring federal laws and regulations regarding matters reserved to the States by the 10th Amendment. Fewer than half of respondents believe that the federal government should be able to force New Hampshire to follow federal mandates and laws regarding cannabis (27%), medicine (37%), public health (42%), education (41%), welfare (42%, firearms (42%), businesses (38%), and abortion (33%).

This approach, also referred to as ‘nullification’ is common, currently being utilized by dozens of states, and is consistent with the recent enactment of New Hampshire HB 1178, ‘prohibiting the state from enforcing any federal statute, regulation, or Presidential Executive Order that restricts or regulates the right of the people to keep and bear arms’. 

However, a more comprehensive way forward would be for New Hampshire to reclaim its sovereignty, peacefully separating from the federal government to govern itself as an independent country, an idea that was supported by 29% of respondents and 52% of Republicans. Only 58% of respondents do not support immediate and full secession from the federal government today. More than 2/5 of respondents agreed that the state should be able to do this without securing permission from the federal government (43%). And only 3% of respondents would support the use of military force by the federal government to interfere with such a separation.

Again, while politicians declined to put the question to the people, more than 2/5 of respondents support the idea of placing independence on the ballot (42%) while only 47% currently oppose it.

History is filled with proposals that seemed at first to be politically impossible, but after serious discussion and evolving circumstances, proved to be politically inevitable. To take just one example, shall-issue laws for concealed carry licenses, once viewed as extreme, are now the law in nearly every state. As the results of this poll show, peaceful separation already has more support now than shall-issue laws had in 1990. Today, not only is shall-issue the norm, but 25 states allow their residents to carry concealed guns without even requiring a permit. If New Hampshire independence follows a similar path, it may only be a few short years away from broad adoption. 

The survey also found strong support for independence and extreme discontent with DC politicians among all 8 states polled. In Texas, 90% of Republicans recently endorsed putting secession on the ballot, officially placing the position in their platform. California progressives have a strong independence movement of their own, and surveys show that around half of Californians support or are open to independence from the union. Progressives in Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington also support independence. States like South Carolina, Florida, and many other states have new independence movements that are rapidly growing, as well. 

The post New Hampshire Survey Shows Disdain For DC, Support For Independence appeared first on Foundation for New Hampshire Independence.

Over the past few weeks, a group of pro-freedom activists in New Hampshire has been holding informal meetings to brainstorm how to best promote independence in the next legislative session. Predictably, progressive authoritarians have already begun to attack the concepts of independence and liberty. A few conservatives cling to hope that they can fix DC and all 50 states, convince all Democrats to embrace conservative liberty values, and ‘save America’. 

 

I have written dozens of articles, published three books, and produced hundreds of videos making the case for a national divorce from the authoritarians. Here are just 100 reasons why every New Hampshire citizen who supports freedom should support a bill and a ballot referendum on independence from DC. 

 

1. Without the federal income tax, we’d each save around $25,000/year right off the bat.
2. The IRS is corrupt, tyrannical, and about to grow by 80,000 employees and billions of dollars. Years ago, they were caught targeting conservatives. Now, they are surely much more polarized and hateful against us. I could live without them.
3. The ATF is extremely anti-gun. They have been one of the biggest reasons that federal gun control laws have grown increasingly strict. The ATF passes laws and bypasses Congress. Once the murderous criminal, Dave Chipman is confirmed as the new ATF director, things will get much worse. I could live without the ATF. Once we divorce DC by declaring independence from the union, the ATF will no longer have jurisdiction over us. 
4. The CDC is out of control, and the agency will only ever grow more tyrannical. This was before corona-fascism made the CDC into the most harmful agency to liberty of all 400 illegal executive agencies. By the way, did you know that the CDC took legal ownership over every rental property in the united states?
5. I don’t trust Joe Biden to run my life or to do anything that could impact me. I have around 28 trillion reasons for distrusting that corrupt, evil, demented sociopath. 
6. I don’t trust Congress to run my life. They have proven time and again that they support authoritarian socialism. Even with majorities in the House and the Senate and even with Trump in the White House, Congress did nearly nothing to expand liberty. But they did pass many laws that violated my natural rights. 
7. The federal government benefits from terribly untrustworthy elections, such as the one in 2020. Once HR1 passes into law, all elections in the united states will be required to abide by the same insane rules that caused us all to doubt the legitimacy of the 2020 election.
8. Once HR51 passes into law, DC will be a state, complete with two more hardcore socialist Senators. The Democrats will control the Senate forever.
9. If you aren’t a big fan of sobriety checkpoints, you’ll be happy to learn that they are federally funded. Once we divorce the feds, it’s unlikely that any local police dept. will spend the money on the checkpoints. 
10. If you aren’t a big fan of immigration checkpoints, you’ll be happy to learn that they are federally funded and/or conducted. Once we divorce the feds, it’s unlikely that any local police dept. will spend the money on the checkpoints. 
11.  Local cops only use tanks, drones, BEARcats, and other aggressive military gear against us because the feds give them those toys. Once we cut ties with DC, our local cops will return to their proper role as peace officers instead of acting as soldiers against us.
12. One of the reasons that Dictator Sununu locked us down and derailed our economy involved pressure and money from DC encouraging him to do so. 
13. If you don’t like being forced to pay for the DC politicians to wage futile endless wars in dozens of countries all over the world while veterans, women, and babies in our own communities starve on the streets, it means you want to separate from DC. 
14. If you are ready to give up on the war on drugs and stop sending cops to homes to punish people for consuming a plant, separating from DC is the first step you must take. DC politicians STILL consider cannabis a schedule one top-tier dangerous substance that is 100% illegal to possess. 
15. Do you love it when cops steal your property (car, house, money, guns, etc.) without convicting you of a crime? Well, federal law allows law enforcement to seize any property that could be involved in a past, present, or even future crime. And the feds have ‘extended’ that authority to state and local cops. Once we sever ties with DC, cops in NH lose the power of civil asset forfeiture.
16. If you ever wondered why bad cops almost never receive any punishment, you should know that ‘qualified immunity’ is a federal doctrine. Without DC, local cops become much more accountable to their neighbors.
17. The millions of federal regulations cost businesses over 2 trillion dollars each year in lost productivity. Once we divorce DC, our businesses will truly be able to unleash their creativity, making New Hampshire more prosperous than we could ever imagine.
18. Who should decide whether NH accepts illegal aliens or Afghan refugees? Biden and Pelosi or our governor and legislature?
19. Are you tired of being ruled by nine lawyers in long black robes who live in DC and have the power of Gods? If five out of the nine rule a certain way, that becomes the law for all 330,000,000 people in the united states.  
20. The federal reserve and DC politicians have overseen a decline in 99% of the US dollar’s purchasing power over the past century.
21. DC politicians have run up a debt of 28 trillion dollars and counting. And they claim that you and I are responsible for it. 
22. Nearly every politician has ambitions and eventually wishes to be sent to DC. This affects nearly every decision they make. Once DC is no longer in their minds, they will focus on what is most important: you.
23. Federal law enforcement (including the FBI) have shown themselves to be thoroughly corrupt. Even conservative commentators like Dan Bongino have called for their abolition. A few months ago, the FBI and other federal cops came to New Hampshire and violently kidnapped six of my friends. They are charging them with crimes that could result in them spending the remainder of their lives in federal prison. Their excuse? That my friends committed some victimless crimes by using and selling cryptocurrency. Once we leave DC, that will never happen again. 
24. Want a suppressor so that you can save your hearing? They are only illegal because the feds prohibit them. Without the feds, NH would be totally free, and you could put a suppressor on your SBR without any worries. 
25. Are you worried about increasingly strict EPA restrictions on vehicles, houses, and everything else? Once we divorce DC, they will have no jurisdiction over us.
26. Are you sick of random federal judges issuing injunctions that overrule actual laws passed by Congress or state legislatures? An independent NH would not have to worry one bit about federal judges.
27. The DC politicians are destroying the once-mighty American military. Their current secretary of defense and commander-in-chief continually insist that the #1 priority for their military is pleasing LGBT individuals. An independent New Hampshire could have a military with a top priority of defending us against hostile militaries. As it should be.
28. Have you accumulated a respectable net worth? Soon, the federal government will tax your net worth each year in addition to all of the other taxes. 
29. The US Congress literally does not represent you or me.
30. The federal government hates you. Especially if you are white. 
31. Multiple federal court rulings have declared that the first amendment does not protect any speech that is insulting, especially towards a government agent. 
32. Right now, even policies that you think are set by state lawmakers are really controlled by the feds via extortion. 
33. If the thought of Pelosi’s Capitol Police Force growing worries you …. You might support NH independence from DC. 
34. If you would rather have your highway taxes spent on highways … You might be a NHexiter.
35. Do you think that Facebook and Twitter are too powerful and too damaging to liberty? Federal law grants them effective immunity from lawsuits while also granting them the power to manipulate content. They get to act as both a publisher and a platform, whichever suits them at the moment. 
36. If you support sound, free-market money like gold and silver (and crypto) ….You already support NHexit. It’s only a matter of time before the feds ban them.
37. If you are afraid that Donald Trump might become President again …. You just might be a NHexiter.
38. If you are afraid that Kamala Harris might become President…. You just might be a NHexiter.
39. If you think that Title IX is a major reason that free speech and due process in colleges were destroyed, you support NHexit.
40. If you believe that boys should not have a free pass to the girls’ bathrooms, locker rooms, and showers, you support NH independence. 
41. If you can’t count the billions of federal laws….you might support independence.
42. The FDA hurts and kills patients by stifling innovation and preventing people from using medications until the FDA spends decades of time and billions of dollars approving them.
43. Cutting ties with DC would immediately and drastically cut prices and improve the availability of drugs like epinephrine, insulin, loperamide, and many others. 
44. DC politicians use the federal department of education to brainwash your children to hate freedom. Once we are independent, that goes away.
45. The federal government believes that showing online ads to specific cohorts is a crime.
46. If you are not comfortable with the REAL ID becoming a dystopian federal identification card, you might be an NHexit supporter.  
47. Support in Congress for a magazine ban is getting very close to a majority. In a few years, your magazines will be federally illegal. 
48. Once HR127 passes Congress, every firearm will be effectively illegal. Hope you’re ready to turn in your guns to the feds! You are a patriot and not a criminal, so you’d never violate federal law, right? 
49. It is very likely that Congress (or federal regulators) ban armor plates for all civilians very soon. Hope you’re ready to turn in your plates!
50. Even the best ‘conservatives’ in DC are working with Bloomberg to take away your guns.
51. Technically speaking…the federal government should not exist anymore. 
52. Federal judges have ruled that police have no legal obligation to protect you. 
53. The federal government thinks it can take your property by force, as long as it plans to use the property for anything that could benefit the government, including giving your property to companies like Pfizer. Without DC, states and localities have no power of eminent domain (AKA theft of property).
54. Federal politicians from Biden to McConnell and everyone in between consistently sell us out to oligarchs like Putin and Xi to enrich themselves. 
55. We can’t take power back from Congress, even with a Convention of States.
56. The DC politicians incentivize single motherhood and discourage employment. 
57. If you don’t believe that global warming is the biggest threat to our lives, you should not be in the same union as DC, the federal government, and the other states. 
58. If you don’t appreciate being spied on by the NSA and other creepy DC agents and politicians, you should consider divorcing them. 
59. If you don’t want to support the Taliban by providing them with money and military weapons and helicopters, you should leave the union and stop paying federal taxes. 
60. The federal government considers people guilty until proven innocent – the opposite of how it was supposed to be. Peaceful protesters have been receiving punishments in prison for months despite never being convicted. If you support due process, you support NHexit.
61. The federal TSA regularly violates our natural rights, despite literally missing 95% of actual threats. 
62. DC politicians maintain a horrifically managed ‘no-fly list’, which mistakenly puts many people (including babies) onto the list, preventing them from flying. It’s also nearly impossible to get off of the list. 
63. Conservatives from Candace Owens to Matt Walsh have spoken in support of state independence from DC. 
64. Federal government leaders believe that if you don’t wear all the masks they recommend and if you don’t get all of the vaccines they recommend, you are just like the Taliban suicide bombers. 
65. DC politicians prohibit beneficial pipelines that would have been amazing for our national security and economy while simultaneously supporting pipelines for nations that are hostile to us. 
66. Who is arming the violent Mexican drug cartels? Federal agents from DC!
67. The federal government has kidnapped innocent Japanese people and put them in concentration camps. New Hampshire has never done that. And they couldn’t ever do that. Because we all have lots of guns. 
68. The US government banned firearms and ammunition from Russia. New Hampshire would never do that.
69. The US government puts many kids in cages at the border. New Hampshire would handle immigration in a much more sensible and humane way. 
70. Things will literally never change for the better. Even with Trump in the White House and Republicans controlling Congress and the SCOTUS, freedom only diminished and tyranny continued to grow.
71. New Hampshire citizens are the hardest workers and earn the most money, which is demonstrated by our continent-leading median household income. We don’t need DC politicians to be wealthy.
72. New Hampshire is the freest state. Nearly all of our issues are caused by federal laws. Once we are independent, we will be almost 100% free to live as we please!
73. New Hampshire is the safest state. We don’t need DC or other states bringing violence to our peaceful paradise. 
74. Half of the people in the united states believe that Biden was legitimately elected and that Republicans are all traitors, while the other half believes that Biden lost the election and progressives are traitors. How could one country be united if its people hate each other so much? 
75. The DC politicians now feel so entitled to infinite power that they essentially ban medications that could help treat COVID, such as hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin. 
76. DC politicians are so arrogant that they no longer feel the need to pass legislation in Congress; they now use executive orders to pass new laws, including the most recent one forcing all private companies in the united states with over 100 employees to vaccinate their employees or test them for COVID weekly. This will affect 80 million employees. If you don’t want DC sociopaths coming between you and your employer (or you and your doctor), you support independence. 
77. When conservative states began having success treating COVID with monoclonal antibodies Biden and DC politicians began to BLOCK the life-saving treatments from getting to pro-freedom anti-Biden states like Alabama and Florida, potentially causing people to die.
78. DC politicians have made it clear that they will continue to prioritize foreign nationals and illegal immigrants over American citizens like you and me.
79. On the other hand, DC politicians have made it very clear that Cuban immigrants are not welcome here (because they tend to vote for freedom and against communism). 
80. The Biden IRS is now going to monitor every bank account with over $600 in it so that they can tax all people who make any money in any way. Those who receive more than $600 in PayPal transactions in a year will also be subject to taxation, according to experts. Peaceful separation solves this IRS issue because the IRS would no longer have any jurisdiction over us. 
81. When NH adopted federal food laws, it made selling mushrooms illegal, among many other prohibitions. Now, the only way to make it legal for anyone in NH to sell mushrooms is to create more regulation requiring ‘licenses’, which is somewhat counterproductive. The only other way to make mushrooms legal in NH would be to sever ties with DC. 
82. Dictator Biden nominated an actual Soviet communist to be the comptroller of the currency. If you don’t want your country’s financial system to be run by an avowed communist, you support separation from DC.  
83. On 10/8/21, the preliminary deal on a GLOBAL tax on businesses was officially agreed to. A total of 136 countries have signed onto the measure, guaranteeing that they will work together to stomp out businesses seeking to evade taxes by implementing at least a 15% tax on them, no matter where they come from. Once New Hampshire becomes a self-governing state, its low (or absent) tax on business could attract so much business to the state that it could cause the biggest economic boom in world history. 
84. Dictator Biden’s OSHA implemented a vaccine mandate for nearly every worker in the united states. It is extremely unlikely that an individual could beat this in federal courts or via federal legislation. Separating from the union is actually the more practical way to nullify this mandate. 
85. A federal law to require all new cars to have passive drunk-driving monitoring technology is about to go into effect, making all cars in the united states more expensive and much more intrusive. The law does not specify, but the new technology may be tantamount to perpetual breathalyzers and/or eye monitoring in every car. 
86. The medical system and all medical institutions in the united states are becoming increasingly racist towards whites, and it all starts with DC politicians. 
87. The Supreme Court is composed of 9 judges. The SCOTUS is perhaps the most powerful entity in the united states now. These nine judges are either evil or mentally retarded. They certainly do not believe in freedom. Is that who you want to be ruled by?
88. The US House of Representatives passed legislation that would take over control of elections, taking the power that always resided with the states and granting it to DC politicians. Among the many measures in the legislative package was a law that prohibited any election in the united states from requiring ID in order to vote. New Hampshire citizens who would like to retain their voter ID law must either support secession or give up voter ID forever once this federal law passes. 
89. DC politicians just passed a law mandating that all vehicles made after 2026 be equipped with perpetual monitoring systems to detect ‘impaired driving’. The vehicles must also have ‘kill switches’ that allow cops to turn them off at any moment. If you don’t like this policy, secession is the only solution. 
90. In the summer of 2022, federal government will begin to require facial recognition/uploading pictures of your face in order to access tax/ documents on the IRS website.
91. The President announced that the next US Supreme Court Judge he nominates will be a black woman. Upon joining the court, she will likely hear a massively important case involving ‘affirmative action’.
92. DC politicians are literally stealing our organs. In 2021, a policy change at UNOS essentially caused nearly all organs from donors in New Hampshire to be sent to NYC, CT, and MA, harming New Hampshire’s patients who desperately need organs to live. DC is viciously fighting NH legislation that would allow Granite Staters to state their preference that their neighbors be granted priority over foreigners if they pass away with viable organs. 
93. The brilliant experts in DC are using $30,000,000 in taxpayer funds to give out drug paraphernalia, including crack pipes, to drug users. The statement from the DC politicians specifically mentioned that they are being distributed primarily to minorities and that they are to be used for illegal drugs. 
94. Our Lords in DC believe that they must force New Hampshire to build more housing projects so that our state could look more like the Bronx.  
95. Our brilliant Lords in DC are destroying our savings and devaluing our salaries by printing so much money that annual inflation is now at a frightening 9.1% annual rate.
96. DC politicians have been forcing you and me to pay for dangerous bioweapons labs in Ukraine for years. 
97. Your federal tax dollars are being used to pay Tik Tok influencers to create and promote propaganda approved by Dictator Biden. If you don’t want to be forced to fund such endeavors, you may want to consider secession. 
98. If you don’t enjoy paying $6 billion for the annual NIAID budget doled out by Anthony Fauci to fund foreign bioweapons labs and development and approval of ludicrously expensive patented pharmaceuticals and suppress use of cheap off-patent drug, you should consider supporting a vote of NH residents to leave the union.
99. The federal government violates free speech in numerous ways. Leaving their jurisdiction solves these issues and restores freedom of speech, expression, press, association, and worship. 
100. The federal government is increasingly racist. Most recently, Dictator Biden nominated a black woman to be a judge on the highest court because of her gender and skin color. Ironically, she will likely soon be ruling on an affirmative action case. 

 

The post Top 100 Reasons New Hampshire Should Be Independent appeared first on Foundation for New Hampshire Independence.