Wednesday • April 23 • 2025
Vol.XVII • No.XVII
Manchester, N.H.
Quote of the day:
“Made it harder for people to buy stabilized braces. Put a pistol on a brace, it turns into a gun. Makes them more, you can have a higher caliber weapon, a higher caliber bullet coming out of that gun.”
That’s Joe Biden. You can see it here.
The post No Wonder They Want To Make Pistol Braces Illegal! appeared first on Granite Grok.
First, I am merely an “enlightened amateur”. Please vet & check on your own. Caveat emptor. Consider these to be priming the pump for your own investigations. I know this is a long post; I am attempting to put out a lot of information as a resource. Read or skip sections depending on your interests.
Second, I fear spicy time is very close, but even a month of food, water, etc., puts you well ahead of most of the sheeple. IMHO, set your minimum sights on a three-month period.
Third, two things will be critical for having the best chance of making it through:
And please follow both me, Nitzakhon, on Gab… as well as my blog host Granite Grok and also on Telegram Tommy Robinson Official plus his Urban Scoop site. And don’t forget posts sometimes get cloned on American Reveille as well, which is a good site to check out in general.
FYI, here’s a link to the last Survival Sunday.
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June 14th….Boots on the Ground and News you need to know. Things are not getting better.
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Top of the fold:
Coming soon to a store near you?
The increased crime will cause stores to close. The thieves will then need to travel farther to get to places where they can still steal, like viruses infecting new tissue. Soon the collapse of commerce will spread to previously “safe” environments, furthering the chaos and uncertainty that the Globalists want. This is not accidental.
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SITREP sites:
I used to do a SITREP post as a separate, stand-alone. I can’t afford that time any more. Here are some “starter places” for sites that I routinely go to get info about what’s happening.
The sidebar of my old blog, with links to other places. redpilljew
Gates of Vienna
Doug Ross @ Journal (directorblue.blogspot.com)
The Other McCain
TheBlaze
ancipient news
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Oddments – random thoughts on prepping:
Trade goods: Toothbrushes & travel-sized toothpaste. Feminine products. Small soaps. Coffee. Shoelaces. Pens, pencils, paper.
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Prepper Site URLS:
Most have daily articles; revisit daily. Please recommend others in the comments.
Ask a Prepper, how to prepare, survive and thrive, latest news
Mother Earth News
The Organic Prepper Home – The Organic Prepper
SurvivalBlog.com – The Daily Web Log for Prepared Individuals Living in Uncertain Times.
SHTF Blog – Modern Survival
Survival World – Everything You Need To Know to Survive
Homestead Survival Site – How to Live Off The Grid in Comfort and Style
Urban Survival Site | How to Survive a Disaster in the City
Mind4Survival – Survival and Preparedness
Gray Wolf survival
Sustainable Living (sustainablelivingideas.com)
The Classic Survivalist – Surviving in a Modern World
Primal Survivor – Practical and sensible prepping advice
Em Off-grid – We & Our Off The Grid Life – Em OffGrid
Resource for Practical, Daily Prepping Skills for SHTF & Survival (geekprepper.com)
And three aggregate sites listing their top favorite sites & links too:
TOP 50 SURVIVAL & PREPPER BLOGS
The 50 Best Survival Blogs
Prepper Website – Preparedness • Survival • Alternative News
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Specific, one-up articles:
The Desperate Measures The Government Is Secretly Resorting To (askaprepper.com)
This Is Why You Should Not Build A Bunker – Ask a Prepper
Highly Nutritious Foods You Can Grow In Mason Jars – Ask a Prepper
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Related to Spicy Time:
Just wait until the EBT cards get cut off, and they believe that you – as a white person – have a garden and chickens. More charmers:
I’m not trying to provoke a race war here. But understand that there is a significant percentage of that demographic that believes they are OWED. And they want PAYBACK.
—
It’s A New Day! It’s A New Opportunity! | NC Renegades
Our Country is deeply divided. We will not fix this by voting. These people hate us. They want us dead because we will not bow to them. We won’t live in their delusional world. It’s well past time to let them know that we will not go quietly into the night. Are we going to continue to watch TPTB revel in their success of stealing our country and do nothing? Or will we fight? We have lost our Country. Now what are we going to do about it? There is but one way to restore Liberty for the future generations!
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Related to Bushcraft specifically:
None this week.
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Mass immigration is a problem
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Short of years and untold wealth, you cannot possibly be fully prepared for everything (I have to keep reminding myself of that). But even some preparations, ideally at least 90 days of food, water / water purification, etc., puts you head and shoulders in front of the vast majority of the sheeple who will be in jaw-gaping astonishment when the SHTF. The only relevant questions are:
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Life, Death and Arnold
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I have a FORAGING group on Gab. I will check 2-3 times a week to see if people have asked to join.
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Foraging: One-up articles
Mushrooms! Quick-hit style:
10 Mushrooms That You Can Safely Forage This Spring (& More) — First Light Farm (firstlightfarmer.com)
An Illustrated Guide to Mushroom Foraging (& 10 Earthy, Savory Recipes) (food52.com)
Mushroom Foraging: Everything You Need to Know (survivalsullivan.com)
6 Beginner-Friendly Mushrooms You Can Find in Summer | Wild + Whole (themeateater.com)
Foraging for Mushrooms: The Beginner’s Guide – Mushroom Insider
10 Mushrooms You Should Forage This Summer – The Lost Herbs
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Foraging (permanent feature):
Foraging (practicalselfreliance.com)
Wild Harvests (arcadianabe.blogspot.com)
Southern Appalachian Herbs
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Books (permanent feature):
Feasting Free on Wild Edibles (old but good)
The Lost Ways (much more than just foraging)
The Forager’s Guide to Wild Foods
THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO EDIBLE WILD PLANTS FOR BEGINNERS
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Shortages (broadly):
22 Medication Shortages: List of Drugs – Parade: Entertainment, Recipes, Health, Life, Holidays
My pharmacy has now taken to pre-asking if I want refills “so they can be sure to have it on hand”. Understand that NOTHING I take is exotic.
—
10 Biggest Grocery Shortages of 2023 So Far: Eggs, Corn, & More (eatthis.com)
The 13 Food Shortages To Expect In 2023 (thedailymeal.com)
12 items to buy early as supply chain shortages loom | Las Vegas Review-Journal (reviewjournal.com)
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German government prepares to end meat consumption – Rations of just 10 grams daily! — Society’s Child — Sott.net
OF COURSE the ones implementing this won’t live by the rule.
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Gardening, Food Storage, Animals, Food Preservation, Health, and Related:
How to grow butternut squash – Episode 05
Other gardening-related videos, links only:
How to Grow Butternuts, Pumpkins, and Any Other Winter Squash | A Complete Guide – YouTube
DANDELIONS are the BEST INDICATORS of… – YouTube
How to Grow Squash in Containers || Black Gumbo – YouTube
How to Build a Squash Trellis – YouTube
How to Grow ButterNut Squash seed to harvest – YouTube
The Self Sufficient Backyard PDF (Ron And Johanna Melchiore) – YouTube
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8 Long Lasting Pioneer Recipes You Need To Learn By Heart (askaprepper.com)
There’s wisdom in the past.
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Links on old-time food storage (permanent feature):
Thanks to the Canning and Preserving group on Gab, I now have these links:
Preserving foods by drying | How to dry foods safely (uada.edu)
USDA-Complete-Guide-to-Home-Canning-2015-revision.pdf (healthycanning.com)
Canning | SDSU Extension (sdstate.edu)
Food Preservation– Canning | Consumer Food Safety | Washington State University (wsu.edu)
Canning Timer & Checklist App | OSU Extension Catalog | Oregon State University
National Center for Home Food Preservation (uga.edu)
Canning Recipes | Ball® Mason Jars (ballmasonjars.com)
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Topical Books (also permanent):
Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking & Curing
Salumi: The Craft of Italian Dry Curing
A Guide to Canning, Freezing, Curing & Smoking Meat, Fish & Game
The Prepper’s Canning Guide
Pickled Pantry
Fermented Vegetables
Hydroponics and Greenhouse Gardening: 3-in-1 Gardening Book to Grow Vegetables, Herbs, and Fruit All-Year-Round
Hydroponics for Beginners: The Complete Guide to Hydroponic Gardening, Designing and Building Inexpensive DIY Hydroponic Systems…
The Aquaponics Guidebook: Combining Aquaculture and Hydroponics Combining Aquaculture and Hydroponics
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Self-defense (broad)
Beginner’s Guide to Reloading Ammo in 2023 | The Arms Guide
Good basics.
—
I sent this to a martial arts friend, who replied that in a dojo is one thing, but that in the real world these moves take too long.
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Hunting & Fishing:
Nothing this week.
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Concluding thoughts if I’m moved to comment:
Take care of yourself.
This is the last Survival Sunday for a while. I’ll be back. But I am winding down as I need to take a break for my own sanity. My last post before I go off to recharge will be a meme post this Friday.
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A nation that decries nationalism is a nation that is willing to surrender its culture, its history, its very identity.
A nation without identity is nothing more than a land mass; a resource for all and sundry to exploit.
A mere land mass has no emotional pull, no meaning, nothing to inspire men and women to value and protect it.
Thus the motive of the anti-nationalist is clear to see.
— Anonymous
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Palate cleansers:
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Please check out my MEMES collections; last one here. Mockery, ridicule, and the wrapping of uncomfortable truths inside humor can penetrate the cognitive shields of normies far more effectively – IMHO – than dry facts and figures.
The post Survival Sunday appeared first on Granite Grok.
Did you know the Los Angeles Dodgers … to honor Pride Month … held a night to honor a drag group that openly HATES on Catholics and whose “show” is all about mocking and demeaning Catholics:
Why are the LA Dodgers and CA lawmakers proud to honor and celebrate anti-Catholic drag group ‘Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence,’ whose sole claim to fame is their anti-Christian religious bigotry? Everyone, regardless of our religious beliefs, should denounce such hate and… pic.twitter.com/DU99qRSqGm
— Tulsi Gabbard (@TulsiGabbard) June 16, 2023
What would our wonderful Sun-King, Chris Sununu, say? Not to hard to imagine: I am NOT a big-government guy; I am NOT a culture-war guy. The government has NO business telling a private company what it can and cannot do. Blah, blah, blah.
Based on the Big-Pharma propaganda they were spewing to justify corporations coercing people into shooting up with an experimental drug, New Hampshire’s phony “think-tanks,” etc. would be spewing the same the Dodgers are a private company mantra.
Actually, Major League Baseball operates under an anti-trust exemption granted to it by the federal government. In other words, Major League Baseball gets special treatment from the federal government other businesses do NOT get.
But inconvenient facts like that won’t stop the fweemarketeers … like Sun-King Sununu and his cronies … from continuing to make the totally ridiculous argument that we don’t have a “fwee market” if corporations can’t push woke down our throats without any pushback, not even criticism.
The post The Dodgers Are A Private Company … And They Can Be As Anti-Catholic As They Want appeared first on Granite Grok.
Advocates for child rape have, for a long while, been looking for a way to legalize the sexual assault of children. NAMBLA, the North American Man Boy Love Association, has been after it for decades, and it looks like the United Nations is here to help.
The pathway is laid out in a report titled “The 8 March Principles for a Human Rights-Based Approach to Criminal Law Proscribing Conduct Associated with Sex, Reproduction, Drug Use, HIV, Homelessness and Poverty.”
For a number of years now, the UN Secretary-General, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, global and regional human rights mechanisms, bodies and experts, national courts, legislatures and domestic human rights institutions, as well as civil society have grappled with the problem of the harmful human rights impact of criminal laws that proscribe conduct associated with sex, reproduction, HIV, drug use, homelessness and poverty.
Some of the critical human rights issues include the right to abortion, sex outside marriage, homosexual sex rights, how HIV-positive persons are oppressed by disclosure laws, outlawed drug use, as well as matters of poverty and homelessness. In other words, our long history of faith-based morality, as represented in statute, is likely out of date, and they’ve compiled 32 pages of thoughts that – and I’m just guessing – are cover for legalizing adult sex with minors.
The enforcement of criminal law should reflect the rights and capacity of persons under 18 years of age to make decisions about engaging in consensual sexual conduct and their right to be heard in matters concerning them……. Pursuant to their evolving capacities and progressive autonomy, persons under 18 years of age should participate in decisions affecting them, with due regard to their age, maturity, and best interests, and with specific attention to non-discrimination guarantees.
Boom!
Not only could children be considered capable of agreeing to be raped by adults (so it’s not rape), but it might also be a violation of their rights to have laws punishing adults who have sex with minors; to require parental consent for abortions as a result of those encounters; or to suggest that children raped by adults might have been coerced into claiming it was consensual.
The UN has paved the way for a conversation about how these laws we mistakenly believe exist to protect children from physical or psychological harm violate human rights. What they mean is that there are a lot of sick, perverted adults who want to rape minors, and they’d like to make it legal.
They must think the time has arrived. That people are ready to embrace pedophilia as normal.
You won’t get any pushback from the political Left. They are enthusiastic supporters happy to refer to pedophiles as minor-attracted persons. They’ve muddied the gender waters for children, promoting sexualization at a very young age and insisting that kids should be able to self-castrate with drugs or surgery, free from meddling adults who might also be their parents.
Following that logic, it makes sense for the UN to suggest that minors are more than capable of consenting to sex with adults, and so they have.
Would this be a good time to remind everyone of a 2018 scandal that reported as many as 60,000 incidents of sexual assault by UN aid workers, “including rape and sex with underage persons”?
HT | Salvo Mag
The post The United Nations Lays Groundwork for Defining Pedophilia as a Human Right appeared first on Granite Grok.
OK, perhaps the most efficient or useful mode of transportation around, but you have to admit, for someone who seemed to have a ton of extra time on their hands…
After all, everybody needs a hobby…and this one needs a bit of planning ahead of time and a fair amount of available wood by the side of the road.
(H/T: Cheezburger Fail Blog)
The post Who Needs A Gas or Electric Bike When You Can Use STEAM! appeared first on Granite Grok.
Earlier this month, Marshall Simonds Middle School in Burlington, Massachusetts, was at the center of a conflict over a Pride Month celebration. Many students that protested the event are now the targets of criticism from Pride supporters and calls for disciplinary action against the protestors.
I have problems and concerns with both sides of this issue. I am on record as being against celebrating any group of people. I believe in equality, not equity, for everyone, and singling out a specific group of people defeats the spirit of equality. I am going out on a limb to start my arguments and say these protestors should be praised for having the courage to speak their minds. To discipline them sends a wrong message to all children in this school and beyond.
To be clear, this is a Middle School with students aged 11-14. At this age, I find it hard to believe they understand the concept of Pride Month and do not need to be taught the different lifestyles that make up the LGBTQIA+ community. The teachers and administrators of the school forced the Pride concept onto the student body, and I can guarantee that parental consent was not solicited. For teachers to say that the students do not have social awareness should be a reason not to push the Pride concept, but instead, it is used as an argument to hold the protestors accountable for their actions. That sounds like a double standard. Without social awareness, teaching “Pride” is indoctrination.
These students are adolescents, and labels, pro or con, should never be used to describe them. The protestors are labeled as homophobic. You can only be labeled as such if you understand homosexuality. You cannot be against or afraid of something unless you have a basic understanding of the basis of the issue. I cannot put myself into the heads of the protestors, and I lay the blame for this ugly situation at the feet of the adults. It was unnecessary and has put a spotlight and undue pressure on all the students in the school and system.
Proponents of LGBTQIA+ are calling for implementing a DEIJ committee and hiring a DEIJ Counselor for the school staff. They are seizing on this unfortunate circumstance to promote Pride further and push DEIJ into the middle-school curriculum. Just like there is no place for BLM, CRT or the 1619 Project in our schools, pushing DEIJ on children highlights inequality and even racism to children without these concepts. People that claim this country has a systemic racism problem are planting the seeds of racism in our children. They are the people who should be held accountable for their actions, not the few children strong enough to stand up and say no to indoctrination.
I hope the parents of these young protestors stand with their children and do not yield to the pressure of these WOKE teachers and administrators. The move by parents to regain control of their children’s education began during COVID and has to keep the pressure on educators. Parents must remain vigilant and end the injection of social beliefs into the curriculum. It may be trite, but we need less DEIJ and more ABCs. Our schools are failing our children. They have no place in co-parenting our children. They are our kids, not theirs.
The post Is There A Minimum Age For Freedom Of Speech appeared first on Granite Grok.
General Secretary of the Communist Party of New Hampshire, Ray Buckley (oh! So sorry! I meant “New Hampshire Democrat Party”), embodies today’s Communist (there I go again, I mean Democrat) Party. To them, you are a member of a group, a tribe, or a race.
That is, you may NOT see yourself as an individual and others around you as individuals … all to be treated as individuals. Your worth is determined by your status … Christian white male: BAD, very bad, oppressor, privileged, even if he lives in a trailer park … Trans-African-American: GOOD, very good, oppressed, victim; even if parents are mega-millionaire Google execs.
Bobby Kennedy, Jr. is a throwback to that time before the Democrat Party was taken over by Communists … to that time when we were individuals, when Democrats saw the role of government as giving a helping hand to everyone who needed it and acting as a check on corporate power when Democrats opposed forever-wars and believed in civil liberties.
Without any further adieu … here’s Bobby Kennedy telling General Secretary Buckley to go f*** himself:
The Democratic Party Bosses who promote censorship, who have stripped New Hampshire of its rightful First in the Nation primary status, who have shut down debate, who refuse to campaign in New Hampshire, are in no position to tell me who to talk to. I’m going to speak at Porcfest…
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) June 16, 2023
The post Democrat Presidential Candidate RFK, Jr. Tells NH Dem State Party Chairman To Go F*** Himself appeared first on Granite Grok.
Headline: Vermont’s Oldest Loon Dies…” My first thought is that the perennial primary victim of DNC hijinks, Senator Bernie Sanders, had shuffled off his mortal coil. Nope. He’s still kicking. They are talking about a different old bird.
And not bird, in the English sense, and having written that, I’m wondering if you can still call a woman a bird in the UK, and after another thought, if you can, do you have to apply that slang equally to transwomen or you’re a bigot. And who is in charge of policing it?
Sorry for derailing the train of thought. Yes, the old bird was a Loon.
Last Tuesday, Newark Pond Male, as Hanson refers to the loon, was found to have died recently at an estimated age of 31. He was the oldest documented loon in Vermont. It’s possible he could be even older, as that age is based on the assumption that the loon was 6 years old and in his first year of nesting during that first encounter, Hanson said.
Perhaps the old Loon identified as a much younger Loon, in which case the point is moot.
If you are interested, this link has all sorts of exciting things about banding Loons (the bird, not the Sanders).
If you’d like to read some of our thoughts, reporting, or observations about that loon, Bernie Sanders, you can do that here.
The post Vermont’s Oldest Loon Dies – No, It Wasn’t Bernie Sanders appeared first on Granite Grok.
Subtitle: SUE THEM ALL! This will kill of Wild, Wild West of Transgenderism child mutilation by the Medical Community. Next, do what you do to School Districts! Make it too toxic to their wallets and at least one social norm will be restored (“First, Do No Harm”) followed by “Leave The Little Kids Alone!”. There’s been too much, WAY too much, of “boy wears a tutu – he MUST be a girl” and “girl playing with Tonka trucks – she MUST be a boy”. And too many Parents using their kids to either relive their high school “The Cool Kids Clique” days (or having missed it then, trying to be “The Cool Parent” now).
It’s time to put that emotional blackmail line by Trans-Authoritarians to the dustbin of history (along with the tattering of THEIR wallets) of:
“Would you rather have a live daughter or a dead son?”
Whose only purpose is meant to shut down, HARD, any kind of debate from those that disagree with them? Especially by Parents. These are ideological Tyrants and NOW, with $$-signs-in-their-eyes lawyers coming to the fore, we may start to see the air out of this Societal balloon by the de-transitioners who TRULY became someone else’s sick cannon fodder to push a Narrative whose only purpose is to sow chaos and hurt people – THEY are the abusers:
Girl Sues Hospital for Removing Her Breasts at Age 13
A hospital and doctors in California are facing a new lawsuit for removing the breasts of a 13-year-old girl after she claimed she was a boy.
The defendants carried out “ideological and profit-driven medical abuse” when they prescribed her puberty blockers and hormones and, later, performed a double mastectomy, Charles LiMandri, one of the lawyers representing the plaintiff, Layla Jane, said in a statement…While three doctors said Jane was too young for cross-sex hormones, she was eventually referred to several other doctors who prescribed her puberty blockers and hormones. Within six months, they removed her breasts. The hormones and puberty blockers were given based on a single, 75-minute session with Susanne Watson, a psychologist, according to the suit. Dr. Winnie Tong, a plastic surgeon, concluded after a 30-minute session that Jane could have her breasts removed.
“Defendants did not question, elicit, or attempt to understand the psychological events that led Kayla to the mistaken belief that she was transgender, nor did they evaluate, appreciate, or treat her multi-faceted presentation of co-morbid symptoms,” the suit reads. “Instead, Defendants assumed that Kayla, a twelve-year-old emotionally troubled girl, knew best what she needed to improve her mental health and figuratively handed her the prescription pad. There is no other area of medicine where doctors will surgically remove a perfectly healthy body part and intentionally induce a diseased state of the pituitary gland misfunction based simply on the young adolescent patient’s wishes.”
…“The law says children aren’t mature enough to make serious decisions that could have long-lasting consequences like getting a tattoo, driving with friends, drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes, or even voting,” Jane said in a statement:
“So why is it acceptable for 13-year-olds to decide to mutilate their body?”
A 12-year-old girl “knew best” – are you FLIPPING kidding me? Yet, this is what passes for genius-level thinking with parents, hypocritical Hippocratic Oath Takers, and accountants seeing a constant flow of dollars flowing into their coffers And “highly educated” school staff (have to include them – remove that lesion and much of this social contagion goes away – take away 11-15 year old’s smartphones, too). THIS is child abuse of the maximal type.
Now 18, she asked the right question. Unfortunately, the adults in her life 7 years ago didn’t. Sorry, their response was more akin to “Ok, OKAY, we’ll go to MacDonalds and get you a Happy Meal!!!!” when confronted by a strong-willed child (been there, refused that, let them cry – hours later, they forgot what they were trantruming about). The adults were not “adulting” – they gave into their child (and the emotional blackmail, above).
Norway has stopped this practice. Sweden is about to. England is shuttering its largest trans clinic. Several American hospitals (probably seeing this legal tidal tsunami coming at them) have stopped the practice. Even though the Trans Activists are working hard to squash the existence of de-transitioners, the signal can’t be stopped. Now with lawsuits starting to hit the news along with what school districts have been doing with siding with the trans movement, the anti-Trans train has now left the station. More and more, the public at large is turning against it, realizing that the lives of too many kids have been absolutely ruined.
(H/T: The Epoch Times)
The post I Can’t Believe I’m About To Say This – YAY For the Lawyers! appeared first on Granite Grok.
I don’t much care what you believe as long as it doesn’t infringe on the rights of others. A few hundred years ago, some folks risked their lives on an ocean journey for the right to believe what they wanted, and not long after, we had this thing called America.
It’s been touch-and-go ever since, with a few simple rules and a sort of Ten Commandments (the Bill of Rights) to temper the hijinks one might expect from most central governments. The worst system concocted by man except for all the others. One of the rules was no state-sponsored religion which did not prevent the sovereign states from doing that very thing, but political evolution changed that for the better.
The descendants of the folks who survived the dangerous journey across the ocean were free to “worship” anything or nothing. They could discuss it in the press or on a soap box, with the General Government having no say in any of it, not legally. Local peer pressure was another matter, but with the freedom to travel, you could up and move if you had the means or even if you did not.
Somewhere along the way, someone decided that you could get around the prohibition and suppress people’s religious rights (and not long after speech, press, and association) by worshiping things like science or reason, even if the attendant dogma was neither.
Science, hijacked by atheists, has since been reduced to scientism with an accompanying theological absolutism about as anti-science as a thing could be. Some of its greatest sins are recent (climate and COVID come to mind), but the greatest debate revolves like the earth around the sun over origin. The two camps (there are more, but not today) are “You can’t get something from nothing” and “Oh, yes, you damn well can.” The latter, unable to explain where the stuff that erupted from the Big Bang originates, have decided it didn’t and doesn’t need to have even existed.
From Marilyn Prever, writing for Touchstone,
One of the most popular candidates for a “natural process” that may account for “the entire universe” is a random quantum fluctuation, which has the advantage of being virtually nothing at all, and acting upon a new kind of nothingness, a vacuum that somehow has a structure. The idea is that nobody has to pipe up and ask, “But Professor, where did the quantum fluctuation come from?”
You don’t have to account for it, this nothing that can turn into a universe; it’s just there, like the cosmic ocean, or Yggdrasil the World Ash Tree, or whatever is already just there in those charming Babylonian-type creation myths—and very much unlike the unique simplicity of Genesis: “And God said, Let there be light, and there was light.”
The answer to the ignorance of the ineffable in religion is for those who believe themselves exponentially more clever than people of faith to lobby for ineffability in science. The atheists are swooning, but as Prever also notes,
Why is it that the atheists are allowed to freely accuse believers of cowardice and wishful thinking—of not having the guts to face the hard truth—when we believers don’t dare suggest, even ever so delicately, that when someone prefers this non-personal “fluctuation” to the God of Abraham and Moses, there may be something at work besides heroic honesty. After all, belief in a personal God is liable to cost the worshipers something in the way of interference with their sex lives, their reputations, or even their chances of tenure. There are all kinds of wishful thinking.
But even if all the atheists have hearts as pure as the driven snow and all believers are the crabbed, bigoted, fearful yahoos the atheists would like to think they are, I still insist that this updated form of atheism is a perverse and ignoble idea, and answering it does not require a Ph.D. in astrophysics. We only need to ask what kind of hard evidence could possibly be brought forth to prove it, considering that the whole idea of proof depends on the reliability of the human mind—which must be pretty much zilch if that mind is nothing but the effect of random and meaningless processes.
The random and meaningless processes can no longer explain where the quantum fluctuation came from than their alleged ape ancestors could explain the sun or moon. It just is, like the idea that you can believe what you want as long as it doesn’t infringe on the rights of others. And we’d be fine if that were the case, but it’s not. The New Atheism, while more religious, is less tolerant, just like its secular humanist ideological brethren who cluster under the banner of the Political Left. Denominations of the same empty faith, all equally ineffable, but certified as legitimate simply because they pretend it is based on science.
A belief system, perhaps no different than any other. After all, if there is a God, it is reasonable to ask where they came from. What is not reasonable is using scientism to deny everyone else their unexplained first origin or the belief system that sustained it. If we are truly equal under nature or nature’s god, then none of us is entitled to a monopoly on faith or its absence. And wouldn’t demanding otherwise be one of the many sins of which atheists or ‘scientismists’ accuse people of faith?
Believe what you like, just as long as it doesn’t infringe on the rights of others, which includes believing things you do not.
Note: The original version, as published, was unfinished. Apologies for the error, but it has since been remedied.
The post The New Atheism Has New Authorities But the Same Old Problems appeared first on Granite Grok.
On the morning of May 16, I was at the New Hampshire State House handing out flyers to state reps urging them to vote for SB272, the parental rights bill, on behalf of Cornerstone. There were people crowding the hallway that morning, and the majority were there to lobby against the parental rights bills.
A woman standing near me was holding a sign that said, “Protect trans kids from ignorant adults.” I politely asked her if she believes that parents are ignorant.
The man with her responded to my question by aggressively walking up to me and holding his large “I love my trans friend” sign inches from my face, trying to intimidate and harass me and block me from handing out flyers to the legislators walking by. One of the organizers of the anti-parental rights group asked him to step back. The organizer said, “She really likes to say ‘They touched me! They touched me!” insinuating that I lie about progressive activists assaulting me despite the evidence right in front of her that these people do not respect boundaries.
After a few minutes of holding his sign in front of my face and taunting me, he asked for one of the Cornerstone flyers. I handed it to him, and he proceeded to rip the flyer in a comically dramatic fashion.
I discovered my tormentor is Dominic Osmund, a registered lobbyist for 350NH, an organization that lobbies for “Climate Justice.” Osmund was not wearing the legally required orange lobbyist name badge even though he was lobbying legislators, and he was trying to block me from lobbying those same legislators.
Related: Book-Burning ACLU-NH Trans Justice Organizer Axed
This is not my first run-in with a badly-behaving registered lobbyist. The last one was ACLU-NH’s former Trans Justice Organizer Palana Belkin, whom I also blogged about here. Will Dominic Osmund meet the same fate as Palana?
Watch Dominic Osmund’s harassing me here:
The post Aggressive Climate Justice Lobbyist Harasses and Obstructs Parental Rights Activist appeared first on Granite Grok.
Incredible thread by Matt Walsh. Fox News … one you pull back the curtain … is every bit as woke as CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, etc.. “Fair and balanced” is a LIE. Fox News is every bit as much unfair and unbalanced as the networks it wants you to believe it is different from. Fox News is CONTROLLED OPPOSITION … and we know who is doing the controlling. First, let’s get you started with Walsh’s thread:
1/ BREAKING: We've obtained internal docs from @FoxNews employees. Fox Corp is celebrating Pride by encouraging employees to read about “glory holes,” supporting a group that gives sterilizing hormones to homeless youth, & deployed woke AI to monitor everyone. EXPLICIT CONTENT:
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) June 15, 2023
Have you figured out yet who is behind the wokification of Fox? Well if you guessed BLACROCK … winner, winner, chicken-dinner:
The post How Woke Can Fox News Go … As Much As CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, Etc. appeared first on Granite Grok.
Some in the LGB community can probably see it coming. What used to be an expression – albeit a bit oversexualized – of pride in an alternative lifestyle choice has been hijacked. The T and the Q are in the driver’s seat, and the party bus is headed for a cliff.
The over-the-top elements are front and center as they try to normalize gender-transitioning kids. The Democrat party, teachers, schools, and school boards are not pushing back. Parents who do are pilloried and threatened by teachers, boards, and even the DOJ. Pushback was inevitable, and there will be casualties.
And not just the distributors who work for companies like Anheuser Busch.
The push to mutilate kids seems like an odd hill on which to die, but they are playing it not much differently than the problem of moderate Muslims. They exist, but the extremists get more press and run the show. Calls for moderation appear to fall on deaf ears, mostly because they would prefer to be left alone to live or worship in peace. Standing up can cost you your head (rhetorically and literally).
Radicals rule the roost suppressing all dissent by example. Look at what we did to that guy. Do you want to be next? It is an essential tactic of despotic movements, necessary. Radical Isalm has more in common with Stalin and Mao than Washington or Jefferson. The Left’s Democratic-Socialism is equally aligned with mobs that choose to vandalize crisis pregnancy centers in the name of choice, Eco-Warrirors who set forests on fire or derail trains to protect the environment, and the “be you” crowd that needs you to be like them or not at all.
Last year June was Moneypox Month. This year there are nearly 4000 cases in over 50 countries, but it would be intolerant to talk too much about it, and even the World Health Organization is avoiding anything short of regular surveillance announcements.
This year we are seeing pushback in schools, sports, and business. The LGB folks need to figure out what to do with T and Q before the whole mess swings back around, and Pride is little more than a word to describe a bunch of lions who choose to live and hunt together.
In other words, it’s on you to salvage the ruin being perpetuated by the intolerance and overreach of the Transgender movement.
The post Is Pride Month Doomed? appeared first on Granite Grok.
Given our electoral political situation where the Left seems to own the young (normally thought to be from the effort in capturing our Education system), it may seem that a Conservative party may be past history. Or is that more like Jeanne Shaheen’s no more snow prediction of years ago – completely false?
Emphasis mine reformatted
Millennials Are Not an Exception. They’ve Moved to the Right.
Fifteen years ago, a new generation of young voters propelled Barack Obama to a decisive victory that augured a new era of Democratic dominance. Fifteen years later, those once young voters aren’t so young — and aren’t quite so Democratic. In the 2020 presidential election, voters who were 18 to 29 in 2008 backed Joe Biden by 55 percent to 43 percent, according to our estimates, a margin roughly half that of Mr. Obama’s 12 years earlier.
The exit polls show it even closer, with Mr. Biden winning by just 51-45 among voters who were 18 to 27 in 2008 (exit polls report results among those 30 to 39, not 30 to 41 — the group that was 18 to 29 in 2008).
The question is whether or not this holds merely because of the candidate(s).
Obama was a phenom with charisma (and no shortage of an Alinsky mean streak). Biden is a retread with dementia. And the above sample is a very short time span.
Throw the Nixon/Reagan landslides with the rebounds that happened afterward. I keep thinking it is more of a pendulum process rather than just an aging process. After all, if that old saw (half in the title) held true, why is it that there are so many white-haired Progressives in legislatures?
Policies enacted by one side or another, however, can predicate the elections as well.
Not sure if or how that impacts this short time span.
HT | Powerline
The post “…If You’re Not a Conservative by the Time You’re 35, You Have No Brain.” appeared first on Granite Grok.
Dear John Formella – With regard to the lawsuit between John Doe #95 and Nixon Peabody/Russ Rilee and Chuck Douglas. I believe you should know the following.
We want to thank Claire Best for this Contribution – Please direct yours to Editor@GraniteGrok.com.
You can review our ‘Op-Ed Guidelines‘ on the FAQ Page.
When Russ Rilee filed the class action suit for David Meehan et al. v YDC/New Hampshire, I contacted Russ Rilee (and sent a follow-up letter) stating that I believed there was a kids for cash type operation in place re; YDC, and I included several of the people I believe were involved in this including Amanda Grady Sexton and the NHCADSV.
Russ Rilee said to me on the phone, “Nothing would surprise me.” A few months later, I received a letter from Timothy McLaughlin of Shaheen & Gordon, threatening me with a defamation suit if I did not retract statements I had made regarding Amanda Grady Sexton and the NHCADSV’s involvement in a Kids for Cash type scheme.
Obviously, Russ Rilee forwarded my letter to Amanda Grady Sexton and the NHCADSV. My attorney reminded Timothy McLaughlin of my First Amendment Rights. McLaughlin continued to threaten but said he would slow down if I said nothing else while Amanda Grady Sexton was running for re-election in Concord.
What Russ Rilee didn’t reveal to me, and I didn’t know, was that he was working with Amanda Grady Sexton and NHCADSV on the claims against the state for YDC abuse. I then discovered that AG Gordon MacDonald was referring plaintiffs to NHCADSV and that David Vicinanzo was (alongside Shaheen & Gordon) providing counsel to the NHCADSV.
I suspect that the motivation for Shaheen & Gordon’s threat of a defamation suit against me was driven by the NHCADSV’s financial incentives to remain attached to Russ Rilee and David Vicinanzo in the YDC plaintiffs’ cases.
The conflicts of interest with NHCADSV and its relations with Nixon Peabody, Russ Rilee, Chuck Douglas, AG Gordon MacDonald, the NHPD, Congresswoman Ann Kuster, Governor Sununu, Governor Hassan, former AG Michael Delaney are numerous and serious. David Vicinanzo, if you recall, praised Judge Richard McNamara’s decision to keep the Grand Jury Criminal Investigation Report into St Paul’s School private, despite the school’s waiver.
That criminal investigation was carried out by Detective Julie Curtin under instructions of AG Gordon MacDonald and Jane Young. Chuck Douglas got several Jane Doe v St Paul’s School suits out of the Grand Jury Criminal Investigation into St Paul’s School. Amanda Grady Sexton described NH v Owen Labrie as “an opportunity” (literally) in the Concord Monitor – no kidding. Millions were made by her organization, Chuck Douglas, Michael Delaney, Shaheen & Gordon, and others.
NHCADSV got a contract out of it with St Paul’s School. Shaheen & Gordon had represented Andrew Thomson, a witness relied upon by the state whose mother was Governor Hassan’s legal counsel and on the board of trustees represented by Michael Delaney. Michael Delaney had huge conflicts of interest given that he allegedly tampered with witnesses in the criminal trial (including Andrew Thomson) who were then allowed to give testimony even though Prosecutor Catherine Ruffle admitted to Judge Larry Smukler that she knew of a deal that had been made for Andrew Thomson.
AG Gordon MacDonald protected Concord Police Detective Julie Curtin when it was discovered that she’d obtained student files without a warrant, and he failed to recuse himself for arguing to uphold Owen Labrie’s convictions when Julie Curtin was still working for him re; St Paul’s investigation.
Chuck Douglas received $17,000, Amanda Grady Sexton $48,000 to promote Marsy’s Law, and Gordon MacDonald did a TV/Streaming ad for it – but none of their lobby money from Marsy’s Law has been filed with the Secretary of State that I can see.
David Vicinanzo and Russ Rilee claim that the $100 million fund wouldn’t have existed without their lobbying. Would it have existed if they didn’t have their own eyes on 40% of it for themselves?
Chuck Douglas’ partner in the first Jane Doe (Chessy Prout) lawsuit against St Paul’s School, Steve Silverman Esq, admitted to Owen Labrie in August 2017 in a phone call, that the true victim of statutory rape at St Paul’s School was the son of a senior administrator at the school (not Chessy Prout) by an 18-year-old female student (suspended) but that they (Silverman, Prouts, Chuck Douglas, Steven J Kelly Esq) wanted Owen Labrie’s help to get to the “perpetrators with the pockets” – St Paul’s School – promising him access to exculpatory evidence including police evidence (which they had but had not been given to him).
The contents of this phone call were revealed in Owen Labrie’s interview with Amy Robach and ABC/GMA on July 15, 2019.
Amanda Grady Sexton launched a nationwide social media and call campaign to block the interview from airing. Her interest in it not airing, I later realized, was not only because it would have shown the fraud behind his trial and extortion racket but because she had a financial interest in Rapuano & Does v Dartmouth College – also filed by Chuck Douglas & Steven J Kelly.
That suit settled in August 2019 for $14 million, of which Kelly/Douglas got $4.9 million, and NHCADSV got $2.865 million, while the Does got $75K each, and Professor David Bucci committed suicide.
Why should the public pay for these kinds of extortion rackets?
Why should victims of YDC abuse be referred by the AG to the NHCADSV, who have a financial interest both in receiving money from the state and in extortion of both the state and several private institutions (St Paul’s, Dartmouth, Exeter)?
Why is the NH Bar so weak when it comes to an ethical and moral compass, and why does it support RICO?
The post John DOE v Nixon Peabody/Russ Rilee – Important Information for You To Have appeared first on Granite Grok.
Much like in New Hampshire, if a bill sits on a governor’s desk for too long, it passes without a signature. Passed without action and allowed to become law. It is a form of Gubernatorial protest without much protest.
Related: Vermont: A State That Exists Because of a Militia Just Banned Them.
In Vermont, the Democrat majority legislature can easily override “republican” Phil Scott’s veto – and he’s not exactly against much of what the legislature sends to his desk, so the recent land grab bill is officially on the books. Vermont must set aside 30% of the State by 2030 and 50% by 2050, contrary to another progressive project, and will (at some point) require the legislature to change the definitions of some words.
As passed, this Bill’s goals – at least on paper – are to preserve,
Vermont’s California-inspired energy plan will require the State to buy or generate significant amounts of wind and solar electricity. Land conservation grabs and the necessary build-out of green infrastructure cannot co-exist unless Vermont outsources environmental destruction to meet its needs. Someone somewhere will have to give up their ecological reserves, biodiversity, and regenerative agriculture so the “Green” Mountain boyx’ can reach their emissions targets and keep a few lights burning.
Never fear. “The governor asserted in a statement about his decision that the law leaves room for the Agency of Natural Resources to interpret conservation broadly.”
Rep. Amy Sheldon, a Democrat from Middlebury who chairs the House Energy and Natural Resources Committee, says Vermont will only need to get smarter about conservation in the face of climate change.
“This idea of having a goal set in statute for conservation, to me, was always complementary and supportive of our statewide goals of compact village centers surrounded by rural working lands and natural areas,” Sheldon said.
The Chair of the “Energy and Natural Resource Committee” has embraced Newspeak.
Locking up land from development in the name of the biosphere sounds great, but Vermont’s wind and solar-driven future are at odds with the advertised intentions. So, what if the land grab is a play for something else? The State says it is preserving the wilderness in the name of natural resource management, and we know that the definition of conservation is broad. Wind and sunshine are natural resources.
When they can’t keep the lights on, or the heat pumps pumping (in January), selling or leasing some of that state-conserved land to tap into those natural resources won’t be that difficult. And if they are violating the shadows of the penumbras of conservation resource management, a future legislature can redefine the terms of the deal.
They’ll already have the land. And while affordable energy will be in short supply, developers and lobbyists who want to feed on the government’s big gree through will be abundant.
Added after publication: I forgot to note that, yes, this is meant to force people closer to the 15-minute cities scheme. Make open land less available for you to own or use. Cram you into increasingly smaller areas they can control. But to keep that green dream, they’ll still need to cover the land with infrastructure. It is naive to think that’s not how it ends if this is allowed to continue. And you’ll still be left sitting in the dark.
The post Is Vermont’s Land Grab About Conservation or Securing Real Estate for Wind and Solar Farms? appeared first on Granite Grok.
Well done! SDGA’s Annual General Meeting is in the History Books.
Did you know the SDGA was founded in November 2016? We are just about seven years old! Although we don’t have a birthday party in November, we do hold an Annual General Meeting for all our members in May.
This year, on May 13th, we were thrilled to hold the AGM in person at a very accommodating and comfortable venue in Concord. Thank you to the Granite State Baptist Church for once again making its beautiful facilities available to us.
Every annual meeting must have elections for expiring board positions. This year, members elected three new board members.
While you’re at it, save August 21 for a legislator meet and greet on Zoom at 7pm.
Thank you all as we continue with determination to save public education from itself.
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Board Meetings Now on Monday Eves
The SDGA Board is now meeting on Monday nights, once a month. Its first meeting at this time was June 12th at 7pm. Previously, the board met on the first or second Saturday of the month.
Our next board meeting, followed by a legislative brainstorming retreat, will be in person on July 21 in Sunapee.
As a reminder, our monthly board meetings are open to all members. Simply send me an email and I will happily send you the Zoom invitation when it is published.
Help Our Mission
The SDGA needs people to help with the following projects:
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Suspending our Monthly Meet & Greet for the Summer
On the first Friday of every month, SDGA members have been meeting to share food and war stories at Tandy’s Pub and Grille in Concord.
These will be suspended for the summer months. The board will decide at its September meeting if these Meet and Greets will resume in October. Stay tuned.
PLEASE RENEW YOUR YEARLY MEMBERSHIP!
Our web site accepts payment. Renew your yearly membership for only $20. Also consider a Lifetime membership for $200 — you’ll never have to renew your membership again.
You can also set up repeating annual payments so we don’t have to bug you all the time!
NHED News
Since January 2023, students in NH can access a private tutor online for free. Is your school taking advantage of this service?
603 Bright Futures Survey Results were released. Parents praise respectful student/educator relationships; however, student dysregulation, and anxiousness remain a concern.
Articles and Things of Interest:
More and More Teenagers Are Coming to School High, N.Y.C. Teachers Say
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/mental-health/marijuana-use-mental-health-young-adults-weed-rcna84984
Twenty-one states are taking legal action after parents sued their daughter’s Florida school for launching a transgender support plan without parental consent.
Members: Remember to check out the private Members pages on SDGANH.org for recorded past webinars and other useful information.
Housekeeping
Help us with outreach: Are you involved in groups interested in school and school governance-related issues? Local GOP and taxpayer groups come to mind. Invite us to speak.
Annual dues are now due for 2023. If you’re not already a member, and you want to support what you’re seeing and/or get involved, please join SDGA. Fill out an application on our web site. Dues are still only $20, which we’ll ask you for after we process your application.
Next time you renew, consider a Lifetime membership for $200. Renew your yearly membership here.
Or make a donation! We run on a shoestring, and every little bit helps.
Join the SDGA facebook group to see events and announcements and to have discussions about them. The SDGA facebook page shows our announcements only.
SDGA Board Meetings over Zoom
2nd Monday of (almost) every month at 7pm. Members and interested people are welcome. Email us if you’re interested in attending.
Giving voters a voice by empowering elected school district officials to reclaim control over budgets and curriculum.
Warm best,
Donna Green
Vice President, School District Governance Association
SDGAofNH@gmail.com
The post SDGANH June 2023 Newsletter appeared first on Granite Grok.
Hillary Clinton has massive cajones, and nobody should ever put a microphone in front of this woman. Not only has she insulted half of the country again, but she obviously is oblivious to the seriousness of the crimes she has committed and escaped accountability.
If you remember 2016, when running for President against Donald Trump, she referred to Mr. Trump’s supporters as deplorable. It was not only a stupid statement to make for a seasoned politician, but many attribute it as a turning point in the race she eventually lost to Trump. Mrs. Clinton learned nothing from her campaign faux pas as she stepped in it again this week. Clinton was asked about Donald Trump’s indictment for handling classified documents. Hillary went into attack and insult mode against Trump supporters and the Republican Party.
She said Republican “efforts to defend this man are truly beyond anything that I ever thought possible in our country. … It is so profoundly disturbing how this could have been the break. This could have been the opportunity to say, ‘Thank you so much for everything you’ve done for us. We really appreciate it, but this is kind of serious, and so we’re not going to continue to defend you.’ “But no, they’re all in, again. The psychology of this is so hard for me to fully grasp.”
As for Republicans’ support of Trump, Clinton said the GOP is “more like a cult than a political party at this point. They’re going to stick with their leader.”
Clinton spoke on a liberal podcast and felt comfortable talking to the choir. She should have known she was supplying a sound bite for the Right and shown how tone-deaf she is. Deplorable and cult is how Clinton has described over 70 Million Americans. This is from a woman who points the finger at Trump for his handling of classified documents while she had a server in her bathroom and bleached 30,000 emails from it when they were under subpoena.
Adam Schiff is proving to be just as out of touch. Republicans are censuring Schiff for lying about the phony collusion between Trump and the Russians. This action was taken when Schiff criticized Trump, praised the Justice Department for indicting Trump, and doubled down on the collusion story. Schiff cannot help himself. He spent so many Sundays appearing on talk shows professing his Russian fairytale that he actually believed his fiction. Schiff may not be labeling Republicans, but he is insulting their intelligence.
Clinton and Schiff are cut from the same cloth. They both love the attention they derive from speaking to Left-leaning media outlets. These outlets nod their heads in agreement and then spread the word of the Democrat Gospel according to Hillary and Adam. What Schiff did by using his Congressional position to vilify a sitting President and Presidential candidate is election tampering. If we had a nonpartisan Attorney General, there might be ramifications for Schiff. Merrick Garland and Christopher Wray of the FBI are far from nonpartisan, and they are protectors of the Bidens when their job is to protect Americans and the Constitution.
The post Hillary And Schiff Insult Republicans, Again appeared first on Granite Grok.
Mapped: Which Are the World’s Richest Countries?
Measuring GDP per capita is a common measure of the economic wealth on a per person basis. This article sorts countries according to the latest International Monetary Fund (IMF) projections on GDP per capita for 2023.Currently this metric is at $13,920 globally in 2023, up from $13,400 in 2022 and $11,160 in 2020, all nominal figures, not accounting for inflation.
(Click To Embiggen)
The post Data Point – Richest Countries in the World Per Capita appeared first on Granite Grok.
Country music icon Garth Brooks is opening a new bar in Nashville and he is “shameless” in his support of Bud-Light. Indeed, he says that Bud-Light boycotters are a**holes and that there are plenty of other bars for a**holes.
From Breitbart:
“Yes, we’re going to serve every brand of beer. We just are. It’s not our decision to make,” he reportedly said during a Q&A session for Billboard’s Country Live in Conversation.
“If you come into this house, love one another. If you’re an asshole, there are plenty of other places on lower Broadway.”
He continued: “In my existence, one asshole can turn the whole tide down there. My thing is, let’s create a place that you feel safe in.”
Judging from the reaction on Twitter, many of his FORMER fans … you know the ones that Garth considers a**holes … are going to take Garth’s suggestion and take their business elsewhere.
The post Garth Brooks Says Bud-Light Boycotters Are A**holes appeared first on Granite Grok.