“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.”  -Voltaire

In part 1 of this series, we looked at the common method groomers use to ensnare their victims from identifying and personalizing to love bombing and ultimately enslaving. We discussed the main organizations and individuals who use them from relatives to cults to nation-states. The focus now turns to new types and entities who are demonstrably using these same grooming tactics yet on a much larger and more socially acceptable scale. The goal is to expose the tactics and help you understand you and your loved ones as the target for the new age of grooming that’s closing in around us.

As with basic grooming that starts with identifying and information gathering, social media has grown as an ostensibly benign tool for common use while disguising its grooming features from the unwitting. Social media giants like Facebook, Google, Twitter, and Tik-Tok are all using mandatory information gathering via your devices in order for you to participate in their platforms. One might argue this is the price to pay for their services, however, if we look at the other signs of grooming we can see they use, or are being run by people, who hold to these methods.

Facebook, for example, has a lengthy identification process they use to sell your information to third parties who will use marketing strategies, such as identifying vulnerabilities, to then market their products to you. This type of customized meeting of your needs (personalization/love bombing) is virtually identical to how groomers exploit their victims’ vulnerabilities by finding out their desires and meeting them early and often to build trust. Facebook invites you to share even the intimate aspects of your life on their platform, which not only builds an emotional bond for you (never them), but lures in your “friends” to all participate. This was the same method used by Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell as they found girls to massage them and then sent them back to get their friends to bring more into the net. The primary difference being Epstein’s operation was for sexual control while Facebook’s is a social control mechanism. However the method and the goal are the same. Use a false pretense of connecting to personalize your data collection then exploit the participants by using the data they give you to target their needs and create a bond that is difficult, even painful to break.

Psychiatrist and author of Political Ponerology Andrew Lobacewski, explained how psychopaths learn to identify one another even as children. This natural inclination to network follows them well into adulthood. Obscure groups like NAMBLA (North American Man Boy Love Association) form in secret and then meet in relative secret to discuss both their mutual desires as well as to help one another find their preferred targets. Some prefer much younger children where others are attracted to older ones. Social media has become a useful tool for these types of groomers to easily target and track their prey while also using apps on their smart phones to geo-locate those who are careless or naïve. Law enforcement and therapy experts have been warning for years that these online sites will make grooming that much easier. The explosion in the number of missing children and human trafficking only confirm their warnings.

Social media giants like Google, Tik-Tok and Twitter also require your information to use their platforms. Granted, you can falsify it. However, most people are not interested in being dishonest so the number who do participate under pseudonyms is merely the cost of doing business to access the much wider group who don’t. Despite some of these platforms, like Facebook, having an age requirement of eighteen to participate, this doesn’t keep them from gathering millions of photos and information on children: where they are, who their parents are, what they’re like, where they like to go, and so forth. These have quickly become a groomer’s paradise. They have also become a groomer protectorate with Reddit and Twitter recently banning the term “groomer” calling it an LGBTQ slur that rises to the level of hate speech.

Added layers to this widening net include government schools,which virtually all now use social media and/or the internet in teaching children. IF teachers were simpatico with parents as far as the safety of their children were concerned there would be less worry. Sadly the latest generation of teachers has a broad strain of “woke” educators who, by virtue of their woke religion, believe it is their calling to “liberate” children to their true selves and from their parents. This is done by taking them through things like Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), which has recently undergone a Marxist transformation leading to the new title: Transformative SEL. SEL has been in schools for many years, however it has been hijacked of late to focus on the needs of the “marginalized” or “oppressed” groups – namely LGBTQ as can be seen in this paper. Rolled into this call to have SEL adopted nationwide is the method of indoctrinating teachers to adopt it, love-bombing those who play along, shaming and even firing those who don’t while accusing them of being “hateful”, all the while making the end goal to be the “new normal”. If you disagree as a matter of conscience, you will be shunned by these government institutions.

Schools that don’t promote transformative SEL have renegade teachers declare no allegiance to parents or districts by taking it upon themselves to share their sexual identities with children, encourage children to be open to changing theirs while also vowing to keep it a secret from their parents. How do we know this? They brag about it in their Tik Tok videos. Truly – “Let’s keep our talk about your sexual identity a secret from your mommy and daddy” – is now applauded in public spaces alongside the applause of Drag Queen Story Hours coming to a town near you.

The brazenness with which the government and its employees are coming after our children is breathtaking. From a Biden Administration initiative for trans bathrooms backed with threats of taking poor children’s lunch money to DHS head Mayorkas adding parents expressing their constitutionally protected angry speech to a terrorist watch list, the very structure of government sworn to serve you is being weaponized (abuse/intimidate) against you by people you pay with your money. It’s not just the groomers running the asylum, they use the pretense of open, affirming, accepting and tolerant to justify abuse and bullying backed by the most powerful legal and military apparatus in the world.

The Difficulty Schools Have In Policing Grooming

“Woke” Schools Using Grooming Tactics Used by Predators to Seduce Kids…

MI School Employee Who Mocked Anti-Groomer Parents Arrested For Trying To Have Sex With A Minor

The post Groomers Part 2: Power Structures appeared first on Granite Grok.

The Constitution has been interpreted to create two types of citizens, each requiring their own courts. State citizens have District and Circuit courts of the United States. Citizens of the Federal government have United States District courts and the United States courts of Appeal. Everyone thinks that they are a State citizen when, in fact, they are Federal citizens who do not enjoy the Bill of Rights, or most Common Law rights.

Both citizens can be termed “US citizens.”

In the case of Hepburn and Dundas v. Ellzey. (6 US 445, 1805) Mssrs. Hepburn and Dundas lived in the new District of Columbia. They filed a lawsuit in the Federal court in Virginia that refused to hear the case because the plaintiffs were residents of D.C. They were surprised. If someone from another State or Country could file suit, why not them? The reason was that they were Federal citizens and the courts created by the Constitution were only for State citizens or foreigners. The Supreme Court upheld the decision.

 

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

Congress created courts for their Federal citizens. The first one was the United States District court for the District of Columbia; it’s still there. Jumping through history, Puerto Rico was acquired by the Spanish American war as a US territory. A United States District court was placed there in 1900; it’s still there.

Social Security was a New Deal program created in 1935 for the Federal citizens living in D.C., Alaska, Hawaii and the other territories (Title XI, Social Security Act). It was created only for Federal citizens because there is no enumerated power given to Congress to conduct charity in the Several States.

The largest fraud in American history was the failure of Congress and later, the Supreme Court to tell everyone that if they get a Social Security number they are changing their citizenship to that of a Federal citizen with no Bill of Rights or most Common Law rights.

Proofs that everyone is now a Federal citizen are:

1. A Federal form must be filled out before the purchase of a firearm.
2. Everyone is paying an excise tax (income tax) on their property (paycheck, business profits, etc.). Constitutionally, property can only be taxed by a direct tax.
   Congress is unrestrained by the Constitution when legislating for its citizens. So, unconstitutional laws are passed and upheld by the U.S. courts, (eg. 9th Circuit).
   U.S. judges legislate, the President rules by mandate, and the bureaucracy is unchecked.
   Only judges from the US Court of Appeals will ever be elevated to the Supreme Court. Judges who have proven themselves to be comfortable with the fraud. Remember Prof. Zork ?
   More times than not, decisions like Roe v. Wade are based upon the 14th Amendment and no other part of the Constitution. The 14th Amendment (1868) made the newly freed slaves Federal citizens.
   The only Federal trial court now is US District Court. The courts are in DC, the territories, and after 1948 in every one of the Several States (HR 3214, 1948).

All of these proofs are in plain sight and yet, people have such a poor understanding of the Constitution they can’t realize what has happened. It’s almost like the fable of The Emperor’s New Clothes. If something was true, someone would have said so before now. Ignorance is paralyzing; leaving people incredibly reluctant to actually challenge the established order and they are too busy to confirm the facts for themselves.

Until they do, the Constitution will remain lost in plain sight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The post The Constitution; Lost in Plain Sight appeared first on Granite Grok.

The Centers for Democrat Control and Perversion (CDC) issued guidance after Joe “Fell Here” Biden announced that Monkeypox was a national health emergency. I think he meant donkeypox, but one informs the other; the CDC is telling “Americans” to masturbate.

All the way to the midterms, probably. A lesson from the era of the Ch!nese V!rus.

 

You are your safest sex partner. Masturbation will not spread COVID-19, especially if you wash your hands (and any sex toys) with soap and water for at least 20 seconds before and after sex.

 

That was the NYC department of health, breaking new ground with other suggestions like, “Be creative with sexual positions and physical barriers, like walls, that allow sexual contact while preventing close face to face contact.”

No such luck with the pox upon us (them, they, whatever), but the feds still feel obligated to get more – what’s the term … government into your “bedroom.”

 

“Masturbate together at a distance of at least 6 feet, without touching each other and without touching any rash,” the CDC recommends. “Remember to wash your hands, fetish gear, sex toys, and any fabrics (bedding, towels, clothing) after having sex.”

 

Excuse me, but I’d like to hear this presented on love video by some stuffed suit in a lab coat. Wouldn’t that be amusing? And, oh, sorry, they do have some “cardboard/plastic wrap guidance for the poxxed.

Related: Monkey Pox “Problem” Solved: Gay Men Just Need to Take The Rest of the Summer “Off”

 

“Consider having sex with your clothes on or covering areas where rash is present, reducing as much skin-to-skin contact as possible. If the rash is confined to the genitals or anus, condoms may help; however, condoms alone are likely not enough to prevent monkeypox.”

 

Maybe they could put a mask (or two or three) on the pox. Rumor has it they can be very effective at stopping something. And you might as well wear one, no mouth to poxxed-person contact allowed, and condoms may not work.

To their credit, and this is a rare event, covered on these pages here, suggests taking a break.

 

“If you or a partner has monkeypox, the best way to protect yourself and others is to avoid sex of any kind (oral, anal, vaginal) and do not kiss or touch each other’s bodies while you are sick, especially any rash,” the CDC said. “Do not share things like towels, fetish gear, sex toys, and toothbrushes.”

 

And whatever you do, do not ask that cheating beeyatch how they got it if it wasn’t from you.

And no, there is no emergency. Maybe 6000 since May. That’s 0.0017% of the entire population. Remove the top 5 states, which include DC and New York, and it drops to 0.00067%. And over 95% of cases are among gay men.

Nothing fun about getting the pox but mobilizing the federal government? Really? There’s no good reason but plenty of bad ones.

 

 

HT | Fox News

The post Oh, Joy! – The Centers for Democrat Control and Perversion (CDC) has Sex Advice for Monkeypoxxed Americans … appeared first on Granite Grok.

Well, given how much I’ve been posting about the Gunstock millionaire’s political mob, it was only a matter of time before GraniteGrok commenters were going to evaluate what the mainstream media was reporting versus what theyhave seen in the videos that I’ve been putting up like at my post where I ask a really simple question:

“BREAKING: So Doug Lambert, What Are You Going to Do Now That Another Gunstock Check to the Sununu Campaign Has Surfaced???“

The gist of the post is that a second political donation to the Sununu campaign was made out on a Gunstock Area Commission check by newly restored to the payroll, Gunstock Mountain Resort General Manager Tom Day.  The rumor, as I have not seen the check itself, is that it is for TWICE the first check’s amount: $1,000. Such a deal in “promoting Gunstock” to a sitting Governor!  I added this:

Well, Doug Lambert is now on a Morality pickle, isn’t he?  He was the one doing all of the public agitation to bring Tom Day (the resigned General Manager of Gunstock Mountain Resort) back to Doug’s Sacred Mountain, and the above appears.  So what will Doug Lambert, of the Gunstock Area Commission and DGFIndustrial, what will you do?  Stay “loyal” to your new buddy, Tom Day, or do the right thing and let him go for writing another Gunstock check to a political campaign?

No answer to my question has been forthcoming. In fact, I’ve heard nothing at all on Lambert’s take on this problem that is now his entirely.  He’s in the hot seat and in this seems to be acting like blithering Biden in not making a decision (this from a Trump supporter who he both praised Trump for being decisive and was a co-chair in support of his campaign).

Commenter Manny had this to add (emphasis mine):

Congratulations Doug, not only did you negotiate with the hostage takers, you gave them everything they wanted. You’ve gone from MAGA to leader of the cancel mob in a matter of weeks.

And, by the way Doug, you’ll never appease the left: https://www.laconiadailysun.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/david-buckman-start-solving-problem-at-gunstock-with-a-clean-slate/article_8dd4f25c-110d-11ed-9e9e-d7023b622bb6.html

And that URL points to this – a Letter to the Editor calling for Doug Lambert to resign:

What could be more galling, than after the reckless behavior of many on the Belknap County Delegation that put Gunstock at grave risk, to have newly appointed Gunstock Commissioner Doug Lambert, a fellow traveler of Reps. Mike Sylvia and Norm Silber, explain away the crisis with a reference to far right Republican icon, Barry Goldwater, and a folksy tale about his grandchildren. Total rubbish. The damage inflicted on Gunstock has been substantial. Imagine the negative impact on the resort’s insurance rates which in significant part are determined by the insurers’ confidence in its management. Duh. Doug should Resign now. We should start solving this problem with a clean slate. (David Buckman, Gilford)

Back to Manny’s point in Doug’s flipping over to “the hostage takers”. Actually, it took a few months as I’ve been data mining a number of posts that have been written about Gunstock and noting the dates. I also have an email from Doug that pretty much shows that tipping point when he was Doug V1.0  pinpoints the exact week, perhaps the two day span, where Doug flipped sides and morphed into vicious Doug 2.0.

After all, it is an easy day for me when all I have to do is display someone’s words be they written or in a video; they do the work for me in which I really don’t have to say much at all.  And as you shall see (or in the case of the videos, have already watched), he certainly is speaking for himself and telling everyone who he has become. And how others outside of the Gunstock “bubble” see him.

 

The post Promoted from the Comments: “Yes, Doug Lambert IS That Titular Head”; Commenter Manny nails it appeared first on Granite Grok.

We’ve provided pre and post-bill-to-law coverage on most if not every health freedom bill in this list, but I do not believe we’ve provided them all in one place. That seems like a good idea, and we’d like to thank someone else for doing that for us so we could share it here.

It was sent to me from the FLCCC, but our good friends at RebuildNH created the original list.

Note that many groups were involved in advancing health freedom in the Granite State this session, from bill language to contacting legislators to amendments (not always the ones we wanted) needed to keep bills alive.

A total of fifteen health freedom bills made it to Governor Sununu’s desk. That’s quite an accomplishment given that the State Senate traditionally runs interference for him, and democrats opposed every bill along the way. So, thanks to citizens and activists who reached out to support these fledgling efforts and never gave up even after they got them across the finish line.

We are not done. There’s still work to do, beginning with ensuring we have a veto-proof majority in the next session.

So here is the list.

 

• HB 1466 allows medical practitioners to prescribe medicines for reasons other than their indication and would prohibit the state from punishing pharmacists for filling such prescriptions.
• HB 1495 prohibits the state from requiring businesses to require vaccine or documentation related to vaccination or immunity status.
• HB 1439 allows a designated family member to be present with a patient in a medical facility to serve as a patient advocate.
• HB 1003 prohibits health care providers from refusing to provide care or services based on patient vaccination status.
• HB 1488 prohibits schools, child care agencies, and government health agencies from discriminating against any person who is not included in thestate’ss immunization registry.
• HB 1608 requires the state to inform citizens of their right to withdraw their COVID vaccination status from thestate’ss vaccine registry.
• HB 1606 gives patients the choice to participate in thestate’ss vaccine registry.
• HB 1280 prohibits aparent’ss refusal to vaccinate a child from being used as evidence in any proceeding to terminate parental rights.
• HB 1604 requires state hospitals and medical facilities to grant religious and medical exemptions from vaccination requirements.
• HB 1455 prohibits state enforcement of any federal law, order, or rule that requires an individual to either provide proof of vaccination against COVID-19 or test for the virus more than once per month to keep their job or participate in any other activity.

 

 

RebuildNH | FLCCC

The post New Hampshire’s Ten New Health Freedom Laws Summarized appeared first on Granite Grok.

The testimony that the public brings to elected officials is presented to help them better understand their views. Those who serve the public may not always agree or support those views, but that is the role of an elected official.

School board members serve as representatives of the community as they advocate for the students and the school district. School board members are responsible to the public, to whom they are accountable. That’s why it is vital that the school board maintains open communication with the community.  The role of a school board member is spelled out here in School Board Member Responsibilities :

Establishing a vision and achieving goals to work toward that vision is important, but so is cultivating trust and transparency by keeping the public informed. Treating the public with respect and maintaining transparency through sharing pertinent information can foster trust and respect between the school board and the local community.

That is why the behavior by Kate Belanger, who serves on the North Hampton school board, has been so disappointing. Belanger serves as Vice-Chair, and during the last school board meeting, she made disparaging remarks to me and other constituents who came to speak during “public comments.” One of those speakers happened to be a young girl who showed courage by addressing the board, and sharing her feelings about a possible transgender bathroom policy that would allow biological boys to share the restroom with biological girls.

You can watch four of us address the North Hampton School Board on August 4th here:

August 4th North Hampton School Board meeting

When the time ran out for me to complete what I had prepared for the board, I kindly asked to share my written testimony with the board members. I was about 3/4’s of the way through, so I wanted to make sure they had a copy to finish reading at a more convenient time.

Kate Belanger responded that she was “all set.”  After years of presenting testimony to governing bodies around the state, I had never been dismissed in such a rude and condescending way.

I present testimony to democrats and republicans every year as an advocate for parents, and academic excellence in education. I’ve seen many people run out of time and then hand in written testimony so the legislators can read it at a more convenient time. And even if they never read it, they show courtesy by accepting the testimony.

I did end up sending my testimony to the school board and addressed Belanger’s response to me here. What made this worse was how she responded at the end of the public testimony after the four of us spoke during public comments. One of those people who spoke was a young girl who attends school in North Hampton.

You can hear Belanger comment to the chair that she was using a great amount of restraint while she listened to public comments.
https://u.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=XZP3PQVZy4Yv3Nn5EUXUp1IPGn8EYbHdtUVV

Belanger wasn’t elected to show restraint while her constituents take their time to address their representatives. This is how the democratic process works. If she has to use restraint to hear from four constituents who are bringing their views to their elected representatives, maybe she should never have run for the seat in the first place.

She should apologize to all four of us who offered testimony during that meeting. I won’t hold my breath, but she should apologize to the young girl who showed grace and courage by speaking on behalf of herself and the other girls in her school. This young girl addressed a sensitive subject with compassion and grace, only to be treated with disdain by Belanger, who is supposed to be serving her needs.

The board chair should consider censoring Belanger for this kind of behavior.  Treating a child or any constituent with such scorn fails to meet the role of a school board member. Will other parents and children think twice before speaking during public comments after seeing how Belanger treats speakers she clearly disagrees with?

Sometimes elected officials are not always going to agree with those presenting testimony. That happens every day in Concord, New Hampshire. But representatives and senators must sit there and hear from the public. In 15 years of testifying in Concord, I have never witnessed such contempt as I saw from Belanger.

This is not the way you treat the people you are elected to serve.

It was interesting that the next subject up for discussion at the board meeting was on a statement of inclusivity:

Is this how the Belanger shows a commitment to inclusiveness? Is this how she shows appreciation for diversity of thought? If Belanger is going to vote to support this Resolution of Inclusivity, I hope she will start by showing some respect for community members who come to speak during public comments at school board meetings.

Parents sometimes just want to be heard.  And when parents are treated in such a disparaging manner, they will address it. Here is the email sent from the mother (2nd speaker) to the North Hampton School Board:

———- Forwarded message ———
From: Chelsi ***** <***********>
Date: Thu, Aug 4, 2022, 11:09 PM
Subject: NHS SAU 21 School Board Meeting 8/4

 

Dear NHS School Board Members, 

I am writing to you to express how appalled I am by how one of your Board members, Kate Belanger, conducted and conducts (I have attended previously) herself at these meetings. It is my understanding that a school board member is in an elected position, that the Residents of North Hampton have voted and selected these individuals and entrusted these seats to these Board Members that will take the position seriously, to hear out all of the concerns brought forward by the parents of these students at this school and take those concerns seriously and into consideration. Her continuous snide comments and physical body movements and gestures of how uncomfortable she is when people are speaking, that are speaking out against something that she does not agree with, is appalling.   I find it incredibly immature and unprofessional. She is a representative of our school board and she is misrepresenting them by behaving this way. I heard her several times this evening say that she was shaking when people were speaking. Another time she said, “The amount of self restraint I am practicing right now, I’m shaking”. Do we really want someone representing our school board that gets angry every time someone speaks about something she does not agree with?!  This is not somebody I want representing our school and children. It is obvious she is not open to other opinions, only her own. This is not an appropriate way to conduct business on a school board. I do not want someone like this on the board and I call for her removal. She is not suited for this position. She is biased and will not do or consider what the concerned parents are speaking out about. I spoke this evening, along with my daughter, her father and another concerned individual. We legitimately have serious concerns about things happening at the school. My daughter and all of her friends are terrified about having to share a bathroom with boys. No one wants this. There is a solution that works for everyone by accommodating the students who are gender fluid and using the 4 single stall bathrooms throughout the school. There are possibly 5 of these students and the other 355 students at the school will be subjected to emotional distress by doing it this way.  But yet, bringing forward our concerns, they were met with condescending, snide comments by Kate Belanger which is incredibly unacceptable. I have attached the video for you to see for yourself, the speaking starts at minute 7. At the end of the first speaker, you can hear Kate say that she has no interest in receiving an email from this speaker, which is incredibly rude and inconsiderate. I speak next, while I am speaking, you can hear her say, “I’m shaking”, and then after the last speaker (at minute 25:35) you can hear her say, “The amount of self restraint I am practicing right now, I’m shaking” She needs to be dismissed. I am outraged by this unprofessional and offensive behavior.  https://cdn.townhallstreams.com/vod/_definst_/mp4:north_hampton_nh/2022-08-04_3577098_NHS_School_Board.mp4/playlist.m3u8?wowzaplaystart=0

 

 

 

 

The post North Hampton School Board Member Katelyn Belanger Treats Constituents With Scorn and Disdain appeared first on Granite Grok.

I wrote earlier about the reaction of Mayors Bowser and Adams of D.C. and New York about the buses of illegal aliens they are receiving compliments of the geographic border states. I say geographic only to distinguish the states we used to associate with our Border with Mexico from the Border States of the Northeast.

With Biden erasing the Southern Border and destroying our sovereignty, he has effectively made every state in the country a Border State.

Governor Abbott of Texas has been placing willing illegal aliens on buses and transporting them to New York City and Washington, D.C. The aliens appear to be thrilled with their free ride to the big cities of the Northeast, but, unfortunately, the good folk of the big cities are not so thrilled.

I watched a video this morning of illegals exiting a bus having just made the long trip from Texas. They seemed happy and healthy, but there did not appear to be many family units. I saw plenty of young and middle aged men, but very few women and children. How could that be since we were told the majority of immigrants entering our country illegally were families; fathers, mothers, and children? Why so many single men? It seems that would blow a hole in the logic of anyone who is a proponent of an open Border.

Mayor Bowser is simply looking for aid to help with the influx of new residents to her fair city. Typical Democrat. Throw money at any crisis. It may not solve it, but then you still have the money. A great example of redistribution in its purest form. But Mayor Adams is not one to shy away from a microphone or a media minute, even if the premise makes him look like a fool.

Adams has complained loudly since the buses started to find Times Square. He believes it is immoral for Texas not to suck it up and solve its own problem. He fails to see the disparity of his argument. Mayor Adams has had a few hundred new residents of his city via the Abbott Express. He was invited to Texas by Abbott to come and see firsthand the flow of humanity coming to Texas every day. As many as five thousand per day are becoming the problem of various small Texas towns. That is a far more significant burden than to the Big Apple.

Governor Abbott has invited both Mayor Bowser and Adams. Bowser has declined, but Adams continues to make a fool of himself and his city with each trip to the mic. Adams could actually do himself a favor by taking Abbott up on the invitation. He could draw national attention to himself and the horrors of this Biden immigration policy. He continues to decline and instead tries to make Abbott look the heavy in the matter. It is not working.

There is only one person to blame in this Border Crisis. Joe Biden created this mess when he shut down the Wall and turned his back to the crisis. Kamala Harris is equally to blame and as out of touch with the crisis. Neither Joe nor Kamala has visited the Rio Grande to see the horrors of their bad policy firsthand.

Republicans are trying to manage the crisis. Democrats are doing what they do best. They are begging for more money, and they will make any issue disappear. If not, just repeat the process. God bless the ignorant.

 

 

The post The Foolishness Grows Daily appeared first on Granite Grok.

Yesterday’s VDC article covered the speech given by Vermont Senator and Ultra-mega Socialist Bernie “Uncle Bern” Sanders. Citing a variety of national polls comrade Sanders expressed concern over the following:

• Gallup poll – the approval rating for Congress is at 16% with massive numbers of people disapproving of the work we are doing here.
• University of Chicago poll – a strong majority of Americans believe that the government is “corrupt and rigged against me.”
• USA Today poll – a very strong majority no longer believes that the Democratic or Republican parties are responding to their needs and we need to move to a multi-party system.

We did some investigating into each and found:

• The 16% approval rating came entirely from citizens of California, most of who reported they were “high” during the survey
• The “strong majority” when calculated total 100%; this Windy City poll was also ended early due to high levels of gun violence outside of the polling station that is now boarded up
• We reached out to representatives of both parties for comment and were immediately sent to voicemail where we were asked for donations

Senator Sanders went on to say:

“And, most frighteningly, there is a growing number of Americans who believe that they may have to take up arms against their own government in order to accomplish what they think needs to be done.”

Our analysts reached out to several of the respondents who made these statements and we were told the following:

• “Tell ******* commie Uncle Bernie I’ve been put on at least three terrorist watch lists ever since I liked a picture of Melania Trump on Facebook – she’s wicked hot in that photo, this is my fault?”
• “A friend of mine had me read 1984 and I thought it was off by about thirty years. I don’t want to end up like Winston.”
• “Have you watched the January 6th trials?”
• Our second favorite: “Three words: shall not be infringed.”
• Our favorite: “I was at the capitol on January 6th and made it to the basement only to find a stamp on the floor that said ‘Made in China’.”

We also decided to fact-check this statement by Senator Sanders:

“All of this speaks to a very dangerous moment for American democracy and resembles the conditions that existed in Europe in the 1920s and early 1930s which led to fascism and totalitarianism.”

Rating: MOSTLY TRUE

EXPLANATION: While fascism and totalitarianism did occur in 1920S and 1930s Europe, Senator Sanders forgot to mention the another –ISM that was the biggest threat to citizens and their freedom -COMMUNISM. COMMUNISM would kill over 100 million people between China and the Soviet Union. Senator Sanders honeymooned in the communist Soviet Union, is a believer in a communist utopia and is excited about the one forming Burlington, which may explain this mostly innocent omission.

As for his concerns regarding where politicians rank in terms of popularity, we reached out to our colleagues at the Bananas Research Center located in Vermont where they shared with us their findings from a recent poll. The results are as follows:

 

The post Bananas Research Center: National Survey appeared first on Granite Grok.

UPDATED and BUMPED: bumped from 7/23/22. The email thread involving Rebecca LaPense, Robin Rowe, and Tom Day showing their Anti-Christian outlook is at the bottom of this post.

This proves that Doug Lambert, Jade Wood, Gary Kiedaisch, and others have been lying about Soulfest not happening over the mass resignations of Sr. Management – Tom Day, GM, been trying to get rid of Soulfest for almost a year!  It’s clear this has been a nothing but a political bargaining chip and putup. All that malarky from Tom Day and Cathy White that they didn’t want Soulfest AT ALL anymore.  It was a loser financially from what scuttlebutt has them saying before. But a contract is a contract – until these seemingly Anti-Christianists don’t like having believers, people of faith, around. Until it can be useful for their political means of getting rid of the people asking hard questions about subjects they wanted to be left in the dark.

OH WAIT!  They wanted it BOTH ways!  Listen to all the screaming in the media AND in the GAC meetings – they wanted them gone but had no problem in using them as both a political cudgeal and as political bait in their PR campaign.  OH, YOU CAN’T HAVE SOULFEST WITHOUT US AT THE HELM.  SAVE us, Obi Wan  Tom Day – make those new GAC Storm Troopers asking us hard questions that would reveal answers that will embarrass us go away!

So while doing this, what as Tom Day doing back in October and November of last year?  Trying to get rid of SoulFest – well before their man-made disaster. From the unredacted billing records run up with Devine-Millimet law firm by Tom Day and Gary Kiedaisch:

Imagine that – you’d think that Tom Day, Gary Kiedaisch, and all of the rest of them have no honor or honesty in a single one of their bones.  They KNEW they were burning the Soulfest candle from both ends – burning Soulfest itself and still using Soulfest to burn the Delegation/GAC members. 

OK, Doug Lambert, soon to be promoted from Secretary to Chair of the GAC (and of DGFIndustrial), whatcha gonna do about this political conundrum? Are you going to correctly call it out for what it is and admit malfeasance? Or are you going to cover it up, just like the good ole boy network in Gilford we went after (and Moultonborough and other towns) in shining Big Flashlights on their misdealing?

Sadly, I’m having to say that he has changed – he has become what he once hated.  But having a sense of grace and forgiveness that you haven’t shown towards either Peter Ness or Dr. Dave Strang, or those on the Delegation, I would be happy to give you a blessing – if you turn from the Dark Side and return to the Light.  Like you said you had to do those 15 years ago.

Besides, we have better cookies.

UPDATED and BUMPED: Originally posted on March 18, 2022.  Please review the email thread below by Becky LaPense, Robin Rowe, and Tom Day (all now former Sr. Mgt) to show you how much they “lived” the respect “lines” they’ve been mouthing at the GAC meetings.

All we have heard from the Gunstock employees has been about a lack of respect towards them from the Gunstock Area Commissioners. That they micromanage them, that they are asking hard questions, that they are demanding information.

No, you are NOT being “put upon,” they were doing their JOBS, and you refused to do yours!  And you, along with Gary Kiedaish, Brian Gallagher, and other prior Commissioners (Ruth Larson, Russ Dumais, and others) didn’t like that the new Commissioners are doing so because they ARE doing the jobs that you folks were supposed to be doing – and didn’t because you were too buddy-buddy. Why else did Kiedaisch run up legal bills over $110K using Gunstock Mountain money in investigating the present Commissioners to get them thrown off?

Doubt me?

That link will bring you right to those unredacted legal bills. Let’s not forget HB1397 which was a DIFFERENT political ploy to remove the GAC from the Belknap County Delegation overview as well.

Anyways, for all of the tongue lashing that Becky LaPense did a couple of GAC meetings ago (and yes, I have the video of it so I “have receipts”!), I remind you, via their own emails, what they thought about one of their largest customers: Soulfest.  Again.

I’ve been saying that this is all a Saul Alinsky political stunt. At the last meeting, during the public comment session, I brought up his stunt that forced then Chicago Mayor Daly to hire Alinsky’s followers by making sure that the bathrooms in the airport were unavailable when long-haul jet passengers went quickly looking for bathrooms after deplaning only to find that all the urinals and stalls were filled and those filling them never moved.

Well, having the planned mass resignation by Sr. Mgt of Gunstock Mountain Resort can now be branded their version of the O’Hare stunt. With less than two weeks before SoulFest is to start, they intended to see that SoulFest wouldn’t happen and then blame the GAC for it for “disrespecting” them.  Not only would they give the customer they hate a thumb in the eye, but they also are intent on making the Commissioners look like failures.

Nice plan, Brian Beihl!  Use this pretext as a political cudgel (favorite word, lately) in order to skew the Republican Primary (September) for your pliable candidates and then control the General Election in November to return the GAC to your control.

But here’s the more insidious part of the plan:

The secondary plan was that Biehl would use this, given how much of a Democrat partisan he is, to start to break down the Conservative hold on Belknap County and start changing it to be a Progressive / Democrat one. Thus, Kiedaisch, McLear, McLaughlin, Gallagher, Dumais, and the rest could be called “unwitting dupes”.  Remember that Citizens for Belknap is a hard Left Democrat.

Anyways, look at the email thread – and it’s clear that these two events, one by happenstance (the cartoon) have been wedded to a “direct action” stunt.

 

Those of us who live in the Lakes Region know what SoulFest is all about.  It is a Christian-based gathering that is heavy on all kinds of Christian music, sermons, and fellowship that scatters over a good part of the Gunstock property.

And to all accounts that I am familiar with, mostly well-behaved, family-oriented events.  After all, how “bad” can things get if people are….worshipping God?

It’s not like they’re breaking things, assaulting others, getting drunk with the resulting lewd acts, or stealing, amirite?

Oh, to be sure, there are bad apples in EVERY group (there’s a reason why the phrase “Back Row Baptists” exists as in “after a rowdy Saturday night, just close enough to the pulpit back here”), so I’m not going to be an apologist here. But if not hatred, there’s certainly, as one person that I’ve shared this with, a certain anti-Christian animus.

So, the folks in the title above are the President and CEO, and the HR Director, respectively. But no respect towards this weekend-long customer, eh?

This is how Gunstock’s Senior Management thinks about a customer like this? With disdain (keep reading)?

Note: I added in their signature information for the clarity of titles/positions.

From: Robin Rowe
To: Tom Day; Rebecca LaPense
Subject: RE: Soulfest
Date: Friday, March 11, 2022 8:24:32 AM

Love it!

Robin Rowe, Director of Resort Services
Direct: 603-737-4351
719 Cherry Valley Road, Gilford, NH 03249

 

From: Tom Day <TDay@gunstock.com>
Sent: Friday, March 11, 2022 7:00 AM
To: Rebecca LaPense <RLaPense@gunstock.com>; Robin Rowe <rrowe@gunstock.com>
Subject: Re: Soulfest

That’s great!

Tom Day
President and General Manager
719 Cherry Valley Road Gilford NH 03249
Get Outlook for iOS

 

From: Rebecca LaPense <RLaPense@gunstock.com>
Sent: Friday, March 11, 2022 6:04:36 AM
To: Tom Day <TDay@gunstock.com>; Robin Rowe <rrowe@gunstock.com>
Subject: Soulfest

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Becky LaPense
HR Director
Gunstock Mountain Resort
603.737.4305

So the real question is – what are the Gunstock Area Commissioners (“GAC”) going to do about this?  Are they going to reach out to the SoulFest producer?

What will they say to their other employees when they hear how little Day, Rowe, and LaPense make of this customer while all the time exhorting their reports to treat customers with respect and white gloves?

And, sorry, there is little room for a collective non-apology apology from these three.  They lead this organization from an operational standpoint – but the GAC is responsible for it all. Heads should roll for insulting Soulfest – let’s see if these three intolerant ones do the right thing and hand each other pink slips.

 

 

The post UPDATED and BUMPED: Now Also Part of a Political Stunt. “So This Is What Tom Day, Rebecca Lapense, and Robin Rowe Think of a Large Gunstock Christian Customer: Soulfest” appeared first on Granite Grok.

Too much going on in too little time. No, I’m not going to whine but even in the middle of the day as I set this post up, the bed is looking VERY enticing.  But with Gunstock almost 24/7, even Steve just asked “Are you alive?”.  That’s not good!

So as always, your voices reign supreme so talk about what you’re up to!  Likin’ all the political ads starting to pop up on your TV screens?

The post Friday Open Thread – I’m exhausted appeared first on Granite Grok.

I sent a new RSA 91:A (“Right To Know”) demand to Commissioners Doug Lambert (also of DGFIndustrial) and Jade Wood (also NH GOP Area 5 Vice Chair) concerning any taxes that a public Company must pay to the State of NH on a regular basis:

—— Original Message ——
From: “Skip” <Skip@granitegrok.com>
To: “Doug Lambert” <dlambert@gunstockcommissioners.org>; “Jade Wood” <jwood@gunstockcommissioners.org>
Sent: 8/5/2022 9:41:09 AM
Subject: RSA 91:A demand – payment of taxes information

Commissioners Lambert and Wood,

Please find attached the Right To Know demand, as well as reproduced below, for a certain number of business taxes paid to the State of NH as well as information as to the public ownership of Gunstock Mountain Resort.

Sincerely,

-Skip

Skip Murphy
Co-Founder, co-owner
GraniteGrok.com | Skip@GraniteGrok.com | 603-630-6644
Dominating the political Bandwidth in New Hampshire

Here is that RTK:

Pursuant to the Right to Know Law (RSA. 91-A:4 (I) ), I am demanding access, within 5 business days, to the below enumerated governmental records Otherwise, if this cannot be fulfilled with the mandated 5 business day window per RSA 91-A, please advise when the Responsive Records will be made available.

This request is for the listing of payments for taxes to the State of NH by Gunstock Mountain Resort for the time period of January 1, 2000 through to end of day, today, August 5, 2022:

• Business Enterprise Tax
• Business Profit Tax
• Meals and Room Taxes
• Any and all monies received by Gunstock fromthe State of NH or any of its subdivisions during the 2020,2021,2022 fiscal years.
• The listing of the corporators/top five stockholders in this enterprise.

Per RSA 91-A:4 IV(c) If you deny any portion of this request, please cite the specific exemption used to justify the denial to make each record, or part thereof, available for inspection along with a brief explanation of how the exemption applies to the information withheld.

As you are aware, in 2016, the New Hampshire Supreme Court ruled that a governmental body in possession of records is required to produce them in electronic media using standard of common file formats: Green v. SAU #55, 168 N.H. 796, 801 (2016). Unless there is some reason that it is not reasonably practicable for you to produce these records in the requested format, I ask that you either do so or explain why it is not practicable for you to comply.

Please also note, per RSA 91-A:4 III, III-a, and III-b, you are required to maintain the safety and accessibility of such responsive records. This also includes such responsive records (e.g., emails) which may have been deleted from respective Inboxes but are still available on the applicable email server or in your / email host backup system(s).

Please let me know when these records will be sent to me for inspection. You may email the responsive records to me at Skip@GraniteGrok.com. If the volume turns out to be substantial, I have already set up a Dropbox folder for all of the responsive records to be uploaded.

Thank you for your lawful attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

Skip Murphy
GraniteGrok.com

The 5 business day clock, as they say on the reality TV show “Forged in Fire” (edged weapon competition) – “STARTS NOW!”; due now by next Friday.

 

 

The post Gunstock Mountain Resort – An Rsa 91:a Demand – Payment of Taxes Information appeared first on Granite Grok.

The United Nations has teamed up with like-minded globalist terror groups like Twitter to stamp out conspiracy theories. This latest anti-free-speech scheme is called “#ThinkBeforeSharing: Stop the spread of conspiracy theories.”

 

The UN wants you to know that events are NOT “secretly manipulated behind the scenes by powerful forces with negative intent” and if you encounter anybody who thinks the global elite are conspiring to consolidate power and dictate global events, you must take action. According to UNESCO, “if you are certain you have encountered a conspiracy theory” on the internet then you must post a relevant link to a “fact-checking website” in the comments.

 

So when will the United Nations be shuttering the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change? The IPCC has issued more conspiracy at the exorbitant expense and to the detriment of all nations, including those in the second and third world.

Nothing they have prophesied, scried, prognosticated, or predicted has come to pass, and they’ve been at it for over three decades.

In other words, most of its work was nothing more than a conspiracy theory spread by the very “fact-checkers” you suggest people consult when confronted with anything that contradicts them.

Suppose you genuinely intend to declare war on wild theory and unjustified conjecture. Might I suggest looking in a mirror and leaving the rest of us to sift and decipher the growing mass of information ourselves?

While not always able to determine truth from fiction, recent events have made it easier for even the dullest among us. If the government or the UN promotes it, it is probably crap.

 

 

 

The post The United Nations Decalres War on … Itself? appeared first on Granite Grok.

Each threat, or potential threat, must be evaluated uniquely.

With that said, we cannot engage China in a protracted proxy war as we have with Russia through Ukraine. The Chinese Communists are masters of protracted and indirect conflict, and they are extremely patient.

Historically the underlying Chinese Communist conflict strategy has been focused on protracted conflicts. They have also been averse to direct confrontation until they have sapped the strength of their opponent.

I would say that the Chinese Communist Party behaves like a venomous snake toward its enemies. First, it bites its’ victim and then injects its venom, and then when the victim is paralyzed, it consumes the victim.

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

At this juncture, I propose the following as one strategic political option to peacefully but firmly deal with the Chinese Communist thirst for Taiwan, which is really a greater thirst for the unification of everything they claim is Chinese, including their international economic “colonies.”

We break the initiative of the Chinese Communists with regards to Taiwan by using Article IV Section 3 “New States” and have Congress convene for the purpose of offering Taiwan admission as our 51st State.

Yes, one strategy that would really demand and demonstrate our strength is to offer Taiwan admission as the 51st State.

Of course, the Taiwanese people would have to freely vote for acceptance of the offer. Additionally, this strategy should be accompanied by a strong emphasis on otherwise maintaining peace with China, as well as immediately ending the sanctions on Russia and the aid being given to Ukraine.

Lastly, if the Taiwanese reject the offer, then we should immediately remove ourselves from the conflict over Taiwan entirely; but ideologically unify and prepare ourselves to hold the line against CCP expansion.

 

 

Reminder: Content about candidates or by candidates is not an endorsement by GraniteGrok.com or its authors.

The post What if we Made Taiwan the 51st US State? appeared first on Granite Grok.

On Wednesday morning, a kindergarten was attacked, leaving six people injured and at least three people dead. A 48-year-old man has been arrested and is being charged with murder.

Though it’s not certain yet whether children were included among the victims, authorities have stated that they are working to “treat injured children and comfort victims’ families in a timely manner.”

The alleged perpetrator was apprehended 12 hours after the attack after fleeing the scene to a nearby mountainous region, which was followed by an extensive manhunt. That search included over 1,000 police officers.

It’s a horrific story, and our prayers and sympathies go out to those poor families. Assuming the man is indeed guilty of that which he is accused, we can only hope that he is punished to the full extent of the law.

But for such a terrible story, we have to wonder: Why has it not received more coverage? Why has it been largely ignored by our media and government? The answer is threefold:

– First, this cowardly attack happened in China, a country with which Democrats and their media are smitten.

– Second, the weapon used in the attack was a knife, not a mean, old, dirty gun.

– And third, the prudent remedy being applied is completely contradictory to the narrative of America’s left regarding school shootings.

According to CNN:

“Chinese authorities have arrested a man suspected of killing three people and injuring six in a stabbing attack at a kindergarten in southern Jiangxi province Wednesday, according to local public security officials. Police said the suspect, identified as 48-year-old Liu Xiaohui, fled to a mountainous area in a neighboring county after the attack, triggering a search by more than 1,000 police officers.”

Bloody carnage… innocent victims… and an evil man appears to be responsible. Sounds like a story our media would hype for weeks. But the attack occurred in China, and the American left would have us believe that only the U.S. has such incidents. The man was obviously Chinese, which means they can’t blame his motivation on ‘White Supremacy,’ though we shouldn’t be surprised if they try. And since the attack was conducted with a knife and not a firearm, the storyline that gun control is the proper solution evaporates.

Now, let’s consider how Chinese officials are looking to ensure such horror doesn’t happen again:

“Schools in the area have been urged to ‘ strengthen campus safety.’

‘All schools in all regions need to work with public security (and) other departments to immediately and comprehensively carry out a major investigation and rectification of potential safety issues on campuses, including kindergartens,’ the ministry said, adding that schools with ‘insufficient security personnel or insufficient security measures” would be closed for the rest of the summer term.’”

So, their solution is to increase security at the schools? And they’re so committed to the idea that they’re keeping schools shut until their security can be enhanced? Strange, isn’t it? Shouldn’t the Chinese officials be blaming political opponents by connecting non-existent dots and proposing new legislation to outlaw knives?

Refraining from politicization and focusing on the families and the root cause of the problem is a prudent thing to do, but that approach doesn’t appeal to Democrats here at home. Prioritizing the perpetrator rather than the tool that he used to commit his atrocity makes a world of sense, but that method doesn’t score them political points with their brainwashed followers. And fixing the problem of violence aimed at school children and teachers by increasing security measures and personnel sounds like a reasonable answer to the problem, but that wouldn’t allow our friends on the left to exploit the situation.

This story is extremely sad, in more ways than one.

 

 

Jordan Case Writes at The Blue State Conservative

The post A Kindergarten Was Attacked and No One Is Talking About It: Why? appeared first on Granite Grok.

Public Libraries used to be gateways to learning. Well, that’s what they told us. And it’s true, even now, even when that learnin’ paid for by tax dollars seems inappropriate. But that doesn’t mean you have to keep funding it.

 

Voters in Jamestown Township, a politically conservative community in Ottawa County, rejected renewal Tuesday of a millage that would support the Patmos Library. That vote guts the library’s operating budget in 2023 — 84 percent of the library’s $245,000 budget comes from property taxes collected through a millage. …

The reason?

“…according to voters who spoke to Bridge Tuesday: Books in the adult and young adult section of the Patmos Library that depict, in some cases in detail, same-sex relationships.

 

Ann Marie Banfield gave us a hint of what that might be yesterday. That same day someone sent me photos of pages from the same book that depicted a minor engaged in a same-sex oral sex act, among other things.

Ann Marie was referring to a Library App where this content was available to your kids, and this content appears to be growing in quantity. Readily available to your children.

The people paying the bills in Michigan just said no and if that bugs you consider this. What if the porn was heterosexual? WHat possible motivation would someone have for making that available to minors?

The same holds true for any other sort, so knock off the crap about discrimmination and intolerance for your lifestyle becasue if sexualizing children is your lifestyle, you belong in prison.

 

 

The post Locals Defund Public Library Over Books With Same-Sex Porn appeared first on Granite Grok.

Managing your money can be difficult, especially if you’re living paycheck to paycheck and having difficulty paying down your debt. So what are the five basics of money management? And how can they help you?

The First Basic Rule – Know What You have

One of the first steps to building a stable foundation for your financial life is understanding what you have. That means assets, income streams, and debts. This means you need to build a budget.

You should write down the income you received over the past few months, and average it out. Then you’ll want to take a look at what you’re spending every month, these are your expenses and they should be categorized based on your level of need. Rent should be listed as your number one need; this is because it’s one of the most difficult expenses to actually reduce.

Utilities are number 2, they’re also important, but you could probably stand to reduce your expenditure without impacting your quality of life too greatly. Then start moving line-by-line, and figuring out what you need and what you don’t. You should also take note of any debts you have, including their interest rates, and any information about penalties that may apply if you fail to make payments.

Once you’re well aware of what you have, it’s time to move on to step two.

The Second Basic Rule – Cutting Costs

Cutting costs in your life can be a difficult thing at first. Purchases often seem necessary at first, but in retrospect, you might find there were other options you could’ve considered. One such case of this can be found at the grocery store.

When you’re filling up your cart, what are you filling it up with? And I don’t mean what specific items. I mean what brands? What’s the price per ounce? Are you buying in bulk? Did you spend extra on something you could’ve got a dollar cheaper at another store with a coupon? You don’t have to get incredibly granular, but putting some extra thought into your purchases, and paying attention to details on the price tags, can save you a lot of money over time.

And, allow you to either start building up savings or start chipping away at your debts. You could also consider turning the A/C up 2 degrees in the summer, or turning the heater down the same amount during the winter, as your A/C bill can take up a substantial portion of your electricity costs.

The Third Basic Rule – Only Take Loans that Increase Your Ability to Make Money

Loans. To most people, they look like a one-way ticket to debt and obligation. And for most consumers, that’s true. Businesses and the rich, however, see it differently. For them, loans are a way to leverage their future earnings in a way that allows them to increase their profits in the future.

So how does this apply to you? Well, let’s think of a few examples of “Good Loans”. A mortgage, it’s a loan you take out for a place to live. While you slowly pay down your debt, you have access to a living space that allows you to perform the daily functions needed to hold down a job. You sleep there, you shower there you keep your valuables there. So as long as the mortgage terms are good and don’t exceed your means, this type of loan increases your ability to earn an income.

Another example is car loans.

If you’ve ever been poor, you’ve likely driven a car that cost at most $1500. And you know exactly how reliable those are. While a $15,000 dollar vehicle might cost a lot more, and put you in a lot of debt, over the long run, you’ll have a vehicle that is far more reliable.

That means fewer trips to the mechanic, less time missing work, and likely an increased fuel economy over the 15 or 20-year-old scrapheap you’re used to driving.

While taking on any large loan like that is a big decision, and requires a lot of research, there are ways to leverage your future earnings potential to increase your ability to earn.

The Fourth Basic Rule – Pay Down Your Most Expensive Debt First

One of the main topics in Dave Ramsey’s book, which you can learn more about the 7 Baby Steps from Bills.com, paying down your most expensive debt first can help you massively.

What does that mean exactly? Say you have one debt that totals $1000 dollars, and another that’s only $100 dollars, which debt is more expensive? If you said, “There’s not enough information to know”, congratulations, you’re correct! What’s important to know is the interest rate on that debt, the fees associated with it, and how often the debt is compounded.

Say you have $100 of credit card debt, and missing a payment activates a late fee of $35 every month, with 2% interest on top of it all. This debt should take precedence over, say, a $1000 dollar debt with 3.5% interest, but a 3-month grace period on late fees. By focusing on the debt that costs more over time, you lessen both your current and future financial obligations, and it helps you achieve your goal of debt elimination far quicker.

The Fifth Basic Rule – Spend Money to Make Money

Saving for retirement can be one of the biggest hurdles in your financial life, but the sooner you’re capable of doing so, the better. While saving for retirement can be difficult as you’re only beginning to establish yourself in the modern world, getting money into an investment account, like a mutual fund, can be a great way to start accruing that wealth.

The goal for savings should be 20% of your income, but we all fall short sometimes. So any amount is better than nothing. If you have access to an employer-sponsored 401k, that should be one of your first choices, especially in the case that they match your investments, as that doubles your starting capital. However you end up getting there, you’ll be glad you asked, “What are the five basics of money management?”.

 

The post What are The Five Basics of Money Management? appeared first on Granite Grok.

To the members of the North Hampton School Board: Thank you for your thoughtful consideration on the important matter of the Seacoast Outright training for teachers in SAU21.

Since I was unable to present all of my testimony because of the time limit, I am enclosing the full testimony as I mentioned tonight.

To Ms. Belanger, I am unsure of the reasoning for your comment that you were “all set” when I said I would send this email so you could read the rest of what I wanted to share during public comments. I speak before many governmental bodies, including the House and Senate Education Committees in Concord.

These committees are made up of elected officials from both political parties. No one has ever commented that they were “all set” when a member of the public was unable to complete their testimony and then offered to email the committee members the full text. I will not assume your reasoning, but I have to be honest, your response to me, a constituent and taxpayer in the district where you are supposed to serve as our representative on the school board, came across as rude and condescending. I hope you will reconsider how you respond to people who come to offer public comments from this point forward.

I kindly request that the testimony below be reflected in the School Board minutes.

August 4th : Testimony to the SAU21 North Hampton School Board:

Good evening, my name is Ann Marie Banfield. I am a resident of SAU21 and currently reside in North Hampton. Thank you for your service to our community.

I presented testimony to the SAU21 school board a few weeks ago regarding the upcoming training session in September for teachers in SAU21 by Seacoast Outright. As someone who is active in New Hampshire supporting academic excellence in public education, I urged the board members to reconsider this decision and cancel the training session.

Today I’m here to make that request of the North Hampton school board.

Seacoast Outright is a political organization with a political agenda. We should all be asking why a political organization will be presenting training to school personnel in an effort to filter their political viewpoint down to the children in this district.

What if some of the teachers or families have a different worldview? How will that be handled? How is it inclusive to those families who may not share these political views? Why is this training exclusive of diverse viewpoints? How does this respect the diversified families in North Hampton?

While Seacoast Outright does not offer medical advice, they do include links to various websites that do.

For instance, they provide a list of resources on their website that students and teachers would be able to access.

These resources include information on top surgeries, bottom surgeries, and hormonal therapy for children who are experiencing gender dysphoria.

Seacoast Outright tries to relieve itself of any responsibility when offering children medical advice, but by putting links on their website directing children to biased medical resources, they are directing families to resources that share their political viewpoint.

Let’s start with the hormonal therapy that was listed as services offered by their medical resources.

Puberty blockers now come with a warning label from the Food and Drug Administration. The warning was issued after six minors (ages 5-12) experienced severe symptoms.

The minors were all biological females, and suffered from symptoms such as; tumor-like masses in the brain, seeing bright lights that aren’t there, headache or vomiting, swelling of the optic nerve, increased blood pressure, and eye paralysis.

At the 2021 conference of the American Academy of Pediatrics, 80% of the members supported a resolution calling for “more debate and discussion of the risks, benefits, and uncertainties inherent in the practice of medically transitioning minors.” Pediatric medical professionals are still wading through all of the medical issues impacting children with gender dysphoria.

Seacoast Outright published nothing about the warning from the FDA on their website, but includes resources that provide puberty blockers for children.

In May of 2021, the Swedish Karolinska University Hospital, chose to stop administering hormone blockers to children with transgender issues due to its controversial nature, potential side effects, and the lack of scientific support for the treatment’s efficacy.

In one particularly shocking case, a girl who wanted to become a boy began taking hormone-blocking drugs at just 11 years old. Almost five years after the treatment began, the puberty-pausing drugs induced osteoporosis and permanently damaged the teen’s vertebrae, severely limiting the teen’s mobility.

The chief physician and pediatric endocrinologist who treats children suffering from gender dysphoria slammed the use of hormone-blocking drugs, and called it “chemical castration.”

Who will take responsibility if one of the children in our district suffers from these severe and sometimes life-long medical problems? Seacoast Outright? The administrators? The School Board?

What about top surgeries and bottom surgeries? There is no information that I could find on the Seacoast Outright website that explains how some children are now publicly sharing their feelings of regret after removing their breasts and testicles.

This is the danger when political organizations become the “experts” instead of actual unbiased medical experts who are not tied to any political organization.

But one must ask, how does any of this help the teachers in the classroom when it comes to improving academic outcomes?

With some students not meeting proficiency in the core classes, shouldn’t that be the focus in our school district? When we are spending about $30k/student, how do you reconcile the money spent for teacher training in this way? Children need their teachers in the classroom, and many teachers will complain privately that these training sessions are a waste of time and precious resources.

In the late 90’s and early 2000’s, Massachusetts’s schools focused on academic achievement. Part of that included teacher training that was focused on helping them understand the core subject content. They put a plan in place to focus on making their public schools the best in the country, and they succeed.

Teachers were given basic math tests, and many of them failed. This wasn’t a time to bash teachers but the time to support teachers in the best ways possible. Helping the teachers to know and understand the academic content helped them to better educate the children in the public schools.

The children in Massachusetts ranked at the top on the national tests and scored well on the TIMSS international test in math and science. Massachusetts children were able to compete with students in countries like Singapore.

This kind of training is supported by the community and will help improve the public schools.

If we have families that decide to remove their children from the school because they see more politicization taking place in their school, we also lose some of our government funding.

These sensitive topics are about medical and mental health care that no one in this district has expertise in.

If administrators are going to engage with individuals in New Hampshire on this topic, then they should be speaking directly to medical and mental health professionals who have no political bias, and focus primarily on what’s best for children experiencing gender dysphoria.

All viewpoints should be presented, not just one. That’s exclusive not inclusive.

While I fully respect and can appreciate any political organizations advocating for their issues, I do not believe this is a wise use of taxpayers dollars, nor do I believe that turning the district into a political battleground is good for the school or community.

You can watch this testimony here (Begin at about 7 min), and please watch the family right after.

The post “Why is a Political Activist Organization Presenting Training to School Personnel?” appeared first on Granite Grok.

In June 1794 the United States Congress passed a tax on the ownership of carriages. The tax called for a levy, “Upon all carriages for the conveyance of persons, which shall be kept by or for any person for his or her own use, or to be let out to hire or for the conveyance of passengers, the several duties and rates following.”

This tax levy seemed to confirm some of the greatest fears of the Anti-Federalists during the ratification debates.

In a letter to Thomas Jefferson, James Madison lamented, “The tax on carriages succeeded in spite of the Constitution.”

Many protested the tax through civil disobedience. As discussed in a previous article, Daniel Lawrence Hylton, a wealthy Virginia businessman, refused to pay it because in his opinion it was unconstitutional and void. This led to the landmark Supreme Court Case  Hylton v. United States.

From the beginning, the taxing clause (Article I, §  8 Cl 1) evoked strong opposition from the Anti-Federalists. Some even warned that if the states adopted the Constitution as it was, they would experience a tyranny worse than they had endured under Britain.

The Anti-Federalists cited five major flaws with the general taxation clause of the new proposed Constitution.

First, they believe the clause was so vague that its interpretation could allow taxation of virtually any source within the country. The Anti-Federalist Brutus produced possibly the most widely read Anti-Federalist documents at the time of the ratification.  Clearly dissatisfied with the federalist explanations of the taxation clause, Brutus V notes that the apparent vagueness of the clause could allow the federal government unlimited taxing authority.

“To detail the particulars comprehended in the general terms, taxes, duties, imposts and excises, would require a volume, instead of a single piece in a news-paper. Indeed it would be a task far beyond my ability, and to which no one can be competent, unless possessed of a mind capable of comprehending every possible source of revenue; for they extend to every possible way of raising money, whether by direct or indirect taxation.”

Interestingly, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase confirmed this opinion in the Hylton case.

Brutus went on to explain the dangers that could ensue if his opinion was correct:

“It will lead to the passing of a vast number of laws, which may affect the personal rights of the citizens of the states, expose their property to fines and confiscation and put their lives in jeopardy. It opens a door to the appointment of a swarm of revenue and excise officers to prey upon the honest and industrious part of the community, eat up their substance and riot on the spoils of the country.”

Brutus was correct; Congress would decide how constitutional articles are defined. However, they would do so with the rubber stamp of the Supreme Court in Hylton.

Second, the Anti-Federalists believed the Constitution in its present form left the states defenseless against federal overreach in the area of taxation.  In a letter concerning federal power, the Federal Farmer wrote:

The state governments then, we are told, will stand between the arbitrary exercise of power and the people. True they may, but armless and helpless, perhaps, with the privilege of making a noise when hurt. This is no more than individuals may do. Does the constitution provide a single check for a single measure by which the state governments can constitutionally and regularly check the arbitrary measures of congress?

In the Farmer’s opinion, the proposed Constitution contained no express provision for the states to check any law or arbitrary use of federal power.

Third, the Anti-Federalists noted that the taxing authority granted to the federal government, in conjunction with the Necessary and Proper Clause of the Constitution would destroy the sovereignty of the states and give the federal government unlimited taxing power. A Republican Federalist wrote:

“To give them the power of laying taxes, duties, imposts and excises by way of providing for the welfare of the United States, and then constitute them judges of what is necessary for these purposes, is giving them power to satisfy at the expense of the state’s any whim which ambition or the love of ostentatious might suggest to them. But yet every law that’s made will be binding, for they have an additional power expressly granted them to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all the powers vested by this constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or office thereof.”

Here James Warren, a prominent Massachusetts Anti-Federalist, specifically cites Article I, § 8, Clause 18 – the Necessary and Proper Clause. Warren keenly observes that the Necessary and Proper Clause will empower the federal government to be the ultimate judges of what taxes they may levy on the states. It would also give Congress the ability to pass any law they chose. Thus, they would have unlimited power of taxation over the states.

Fourth, the Anti-Federalists argued that a lack of limitations on the taxation clause would allow revenue to be channeled into military spending, particularly a standing army. The nation’s recent experience with the British military made many founders acutely aware of the dangers of a standing army. History had also shown them the threat a standing army posed to an existing government when controlled by the likes of Caesar.

Indeed, George Mason at the Virginia ratifying convention exclaimed, what havoc desolation and destruction have been perpetrated by standing armies. In many Anti-Federalists’ opinions, Article I, § 8, Clause 12 hinted at this danger. In his eighth essay, Brutus wrote:

“The power to raise armies is indefinite and unlimited and authorizes the raising of forces as well in peace as in war. Brutus notes the vagueness of this clause as he did with the general taxation clause.“

Samuel Bryan, writing under the name Centinel, argued that the new nation was moving further towards militarism than even Britain, as parliament was only allowed to authorize the raising of troops for one year at a time. However, the Anti-Federalists understood that the real danger of the army clause lay in its coupling with the general taxation clause. A series of Anti-Federalist essays under the pen name An Old Whig appeared in the Philadelphia Independent Gazetteer. The Old Whig wrote:

“The unlimited power of taxation will give them the command of all the treasures of the continent, a standing army will be wholly at their devotion.“

An Old Whig warned the American people that if the new government was permitted unlimited taxing power, eventually a standing army would be a distinct possibility.

In a speech before the Massachusetts ratifying convention, Williams Symmes hinted at what a standing army might be used for, he stated:

“For sir, I also disapprove of the power to collect, which is here vested in Congress. It is a power sir to burden us with a standing army.“

Symmes suggested that the purpose of a standing army would indeed be used for the purpose of collecting taxes:

“Congress may spend money in aid of the general welfare, the line must still be drawn between one welfare and another, between particular and general, this discretion however is not confined to the courts. The discretion belongs to Congress, unless the choice is clearly wrong, a display of arbitrary power, not an exercise of judgment. This is now familiar law.”

Patrick Henry at the Virginia ratifying convention introduced a fifth criticism of the general taxation clause. Henry argued that by ascending to the new constitution, the people of the states would subject themselves to a situation of double taxation. 

“In the scheme of energetic government, that people will find two sets of tax gathers the state and the federal sheriff’s. This it seems to me will produce such dreadful oppression as the people cannot possibly bear. The Federal Sheriff may commit what oppression make what distresses he pleases. As and ruin you with impunity for how are you to tie his hands. by ratifying the constitution, the people of the states would in effect place themselves under mandatory Federal and State Taxation.”

Patrick Henry also rejected the Federalist argument that the federal government, comprised of the people’s representatives, would reflect foremost each State’s own interest:

“I shall be told in this place, that those who are to tax us are our representatives. To this I answer that there is no real check to prevent their ruining us. There is no actual responsibility.  The only semblance of a check is the negative power of not re-electing them. This sir, is but a feeble barrier, when their personal interest, their ambition and avarice, come to be put in contrast with the happiness of the people. All checks founded on anything but self-love will not avail.”

In Henry’s mind, federal dependence on the State’s power will not be a check against federal overreach because individual representatives will always act out of self-interest first and State interest second.

In the next article, we will examine the Federalists’ arguments against the Anti-Federalists’ fears, as well as why the Anti-Federalists would ultimately, turn out to have been correct in their interpretation of the taxing power.

 

 

Bob Fiedler | Republished with permission from The Tenth Amendment Center

The post The Prophetic Anti-Federalist Warnings About Constitutional Taxing Power appeared first on Granite Grok.

I’ve been at this a while now, and there’s one thing I can say with some certainty. The most dangerous armed ‘militia group’ in the United States is probably the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The FBI is armed and partisan. They don’t care about the law. They engage in domestic terror tactics but what makes them worse is they are pretending to protect people and enforce laws to which they appear unaccountable.

Lying, hiding exculpatory evidence, things that would get you indicted by them, come and go like a breeze without moving as much as a stray hair on their politicized heads.

I’d say they’ve become the CIA, but that might offend the Central Intelligence Agency, which also appears to be engaged in domestic terror operations inside the US alongside the FBI.

From faking gubernatorial abductions to setting up citizens as insurrectionists, entrapment appears to be the second best thing they are good at after avoiding prosecution (or is it helping political assets avoid prosecution?).

Let’s call it a toss-up.

All we need is a leaked memo, like the one making the rounds leaked to Project Veritas.

The “Domestic Terrorism Symbols Guide” was leaked to Project Veritas, which released images of the bulletin on its website and social media on Aug. 2. It includes such common images as the Gadsden flag, the Betsy Ross flag, and the Liberty Tree. …

 

But maybe not every time or all the time.

 

“The use or sharing of these symbols alone should not independently be considered evidence of MVE presence or affiliation, or serve as an indicator of illegal activity, as many individuals use these symbols for their original historic meaning or other non-violent purposes,” the bulletin reads.

 

Domestic Terrorism Definition Explainer: We will pick and choose what it means based on who, when, and whim.

 

Widespread use of symbols and quotes from American history, especially the Revolutionary War, exists within MVE networks,” the bulletin says. “Historic and contemporary military themes are common for MVE symbols.”

 

And…the founding of the nation was an act of domestic terrorism!

And, if you happen to be the tyrannical monarch or carry their water, then I suppose that would be true.

 

 

The post In “Leaked Memo” FBI … Identifies Itself as Militant Domestic Terror Group appeared first on Granite Grok.

In our lifetime, we have had bad Presidents. See Jimmy Carter. We have had disgraced Presidents. See Richard Nixon. And we have had Presidents who hated our great country. See Barack Obama. And we have had Presidents who loved this country.

See Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump. But we never had a President beholden to so many of our enemies as President Joe Biden.

China continues to show how much they own Biden because of the millions of dollars they gave the Biden Cartel through Hunter Biden. The weakness we are showing the world when it comes to Russia, China, North Korea, and even Iran is embarrassing. We are no longer a superpower to be feared but a cartel to be bought. Joe Biden has shown us that you can be in Washington for fifty years, be Vice President, and hide in your basement to win the Presidency, and it is all about personal gain.

That last paragraph was hard to write. I love this country and all it has stood for throughout the years. No other country in history has sent more of its treasure to aid other countries. We have been a model country that people will risk their lives to breach our borders to enjoy, and the Biden family has sold us out for millions of dollars. The arrogance and self-righteousness of the Bidens are palpable, and probably the worst of the lot is the matriarch, Jill Biden. She is fully aware that her husband is not fit for the office, yet she has pushed him to the limits, and the American people are paying the price.

Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan has exposed Biden as a puppet of the Chines government. There was no significant purpose to her trip other than a photo op and to escape the United States while her husband was facing the ramifications of his recent DUI arrest. There is no evidence to prove the White House leaked the plans for her trip, but it is evident that Biden disapproved of her stop in Taiwan. The Defense Department was not pleased with her decision, but Nancy listened to no one. She landed in Taiwan and ruffled the feathers of the Chinese government.

China went on the offensive and used the media to express its anger at Pelosi’s trip. They even threatened to shoot down Air Force Two if it dared to enter China’s airspace. No hyperbole. she put the world on the brink. China did not attack, but they have already implemented strict import and export restrictions on Taiwan, and they will be escalating its live military exercises in the Taiwan Straight. For this, she got nothing more than to secure her role as possibly the most influential person in Washington.

In the meantime, Biden remained silent and feckless. He never called out the Chinese government for the rhetoric or subsequent action. How can he? He is on their payroll. We have a President who, in the face of danger from any of our significant enemies, is powerless because he took the money.

The continued threat of COVID and mandates by the powerful teachers’ unions, record high gas prices, a porous Southern Border, historic high inflation numbers, thousands of dead Americans from Chinese Fentanyl, and now the recession are not enough damage for Biden to reign down on America. Now he is powerless to protect our National Security because of money. Millions of dollars he and his son, Hunter, have taken in at the expense of you and me. Forget his second term. Joe Biden should be indicted, but he won’t.

The post Never Have We Had Such a Compromised President appeared first on Granite Grok.