The Manchester Free Press

Tuesday • October 8 • 2024

Vol.XVI • No.XLI

Manchester, N.H.

Randi Weingarten is What is Wrong With Unions

Granite Grok - Sat, 2022-10-15 13:30 +0000

RANDI WEINGARTEN is president of the 1.7 million-member American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO, representing teachers; paraprofessionals and school-related personnel; higher education faculty and staff; nurses and other healthcare professionals; local, state, and federal government employees; and early childhood educators.

The AFT is dedicated to believing that every person in America deserves the freedom to thrive, fueled by opportunity, justice, and a voice in our democracy. This freedom is achieved through an economy that works for all, including the ability to form a union; great public schools and affordable higher education; healthcare as a right; retirement security; the right to vote and civil rights; a vibrant democracy; and safe, welcoming and healthy environments and communities.

The AFT and its members advance these principles through community engagement, organizing, collective bargaining, and political activism, and primarily through members’ work—we care, fight, show up and vote. Randi Weingarten has accumulated a net worth of $5 million for her efforts. Much more than any of her members will ever see. Randi Weingarten is a pariah.

The purpose of the union is passé. Unions have no place in politics or policy setting. They no longer have to be concerned with workplace conditions. They no longer need to be concerned with an hourly wage. Pensions are not an issue so let’s make it about equity and reproductive rights. They have outlived their purpose and are trying to find relevance.

To ensure full disclosure, I was in management for my entire career. I never thought about joining a union until I had to when I started driving a bus. I was so angry this week as two union reps were standing outside our bus lot handing out political flyers. The Teamsters union is pushing a candidate for NH Governor high on women’s reproductive rights. Abortion is not reproductive, and calling it such is a lie. Why should a single penny of my dues go to a political campaign? No, make it stop. I am Pro-life, and you insult me when you take my hard-earned money, disregard my beliefs, and spend my money against my beliefs.

Weingarten was responsible for our children losing nearly two years of their education. The government gave her the money she wanted, but that was not enough. She wants total control of our children to turn them into America-hating Socialists. Until this woman erases every semblance of our past and recreates our children in her image, will she be satisfied.

Weingarten was in Ukraine this week. Why, and who paid for this excursion to a war zone? She claimed she was there to support the Ukraine Teacher’s Union. She has already destroyed our education system. Now she wants to go global. One of her most bizarre statements was that what Putin has done is atrocious, and she will not let him get away with it. What the hell is she going to do? Throw a chalkboard eraser at him. How stupid, but Liberals will listen and back this evil person.

Randi Weingarten is not for teachers. She is not for our kids. She is for Randi Weingarten, and she is being successful because people are allowing her. Stop her…..Now.

 

 

The post Randi Weingarten is What is Wrong With Unions appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

Chris Pappas Can See a Russian Family Having Dinner From His Front Porch

Granite Grok - Sat, 2022-10-15 12:00 +0000

The Pappas campaign has struggled with legitimacy for years. He’s got a white-collar political activist in a commercial pretending (much like Pappas himself) to be a blue-collar guy. And now there’s an ad with a “New Hampshire” family eating dinner who are actually Russian, living in Moscow.

Reformatted.

 

Pappas has released a new ad that begins, “Here in New Hampshire, we keep the government out of our homes…” But the kitchen where a happy family is enjoying corn on the cob and orange juice in the Pappas ad appears to be not in Manchester but in Moscow.

The video is from the stock footage company Pond5. According to the description on its website, it was shot by Daria Kozyreva in Russia.

 

Karoline Leavitt has some thoughts (also care of NH Journal),

 

“First, Chris Pappas made his Democrat Party lawyer friend dress up as a mechanic for his TV ad because real blue-collar, middle-class workers in our state don’t support him. … Now, Chris Pappas is using footage of a Russian family eating an extravagant dinner while real families in our state cannot afford to feed their children or heat their homes.

 

That’s all true, but the thing that struck me as more dishonest than showing a Russian family having a feast passed off as Granite Staters was the opening ad copy. “Here in New Hampshire, we keep the government out of our homes and out of our doctor’s offices.”

Seriously?

New Hampshire Democrats lined up to try and force people to get the COVID shots. Many objected to allowing doctors to prescribe FDA-licensed drugs that were in the best interests of their patients. Some Dems wanted them punished if they tried.

The Left also promoted, we could even say demanded, that adults and children be required to get an experimental pharmaceutical injection to attend any school, keep a job, or take part in normal everyday life.

If there was a way to get between people and their doctors during COVID, Democrats were all in on that. It was their reason for living, and anyone who dared to keep the government from getting between doctors and patients was smeared, pilloried, or labeled vaccine-hesitant or a science denier, including doctors.

As for homes, I don’t have time to dredge it all up, but there is no shortage of regulatory or legislative intrusion from the Left into everyday life, so the premise of this ad is absurd. But that’s not nearly as fun as this.

It’s been fourteen years since John McCain picked Governor Sarah Palin as his VP. The media lost its mind, and with the help of the leftist cabal, they created fables about the woman, few if any, based on any scrap of truth, but to which Democrats still cling. Like Tina Fey, pretending to be Palin, saying she could see Russia from her front porch.

As Granite Staters and Americans struggle to afford high energy costs and food prices that have (in some cases) doubled, Chris Pappas can see a well-fed Russian family at the dinner table “from his front porch.”

And they are all white. Does that make Pappas a racist as well?

 

 

The post Chris Pappas Can See a Russian Family Having Dinner From His Front Porch appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

The Record of My Republican Colleagues and I Speaks for Itself

Granite Grok - Sat, 2022-10-15 10:30 +0000

My name is Dawn Johnson, and I am running for reelection to continue being Laconia’s voice in Concord. It has been an honor to represent you these past two years, and I promise to continue delivering results for our city.

We want to thank Dawn Johnson for this Op-Ed – Please direct yours to Editor@GraniteGrok.com.

The record of my Republican colleagues and I speaks for itself. Together, we lowered both personal and business taxes all while producing a state budget surplus.

  • We reduced regulations and provided property tax relief by returning money to cities and towns.
  • We protected our Second Amendment from a barrage of assaults from the far left.
  • We worked to reform the Governor’s Emergency Powers to ensure that the rights of all citizens are protected in the future.
  • In the last two years, we sent over $12 million back to Laconia with over $1 million in direct property tax relief.
  • Finally, we passed measures to strengthen the integrity of our elections and advanced educational excellence for all New Hampshire children.

I graduated from Belmont High School, and my family has lived in the area for 50 years. My husband and I have been married for 22 years and have two amazing children.

We live in the house where my husband was born and raised. I have an associate’s degree in accounting and do bookkeeping for small businesses in the area. I also enjoy working for two local restaurants where I can learn more about Granite Staters’ problems.

I will continue to stand up for religious freedom, families, freedom, and facts. We need to stop the rising prices of gas, food, electricity, and protect everyone from more government. I will fight to lower costs and reduce taxes so you can keep more money in your pocket.

If you would like to talk more about the issues facing our state, I would love to talk to you. Please email me at staterep@dawnjohnson4nh.com so I can learn more about the issues you care about. You can also donate and volunteer by going to my website, https://dawnjohnson4nh.com/

I humbly ask for your vote on November 8th in Belknap-Laconia District 5. As your Republican representative, I will continue to fight for faith, family, freedom, and facts.

 

God Bless and Thank you

Sincerely

 

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

The post The Record of My Republican Colleagues and I Speaks for Itself appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

The Elimination of Top-Down Rule

Granite Grok - Sat, 2022-10-15 01:30 +0000

Throughout history, since the inception of civilization itself, the masses have been ruled by the powerful, which, if honestly defined, are the most vicious. All ruling classes have established their rule through wanton savagery. If you don’t submit, you will be killed or incarcerated. Hence, we have our very own DC Gitmo.

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

However, by the grace of God, the ruling class made the mistake of actually making the instrument of their demise, the smartphone. Of course, that wasn’t their intention. They figured they could give the masses smartphones to shut them up, much like a pacifier. But it turns out that aside from being a marvelous invention of entertainment, a smartphone is also a marvelous tool of communication. Not only can it be used to entertain, but it can also be used to govern as it is possible to poll an entire population as to what they believe is the correct decision on any given matter, and it can be done at lightning speed and at no cost.

For the first time in history, it is possible for the world to be governed by the governed instead of by the most vicious, and that, I contend, is going to be the greatest event in human history. In the very near future, more and more people are going to be made aware of the opportunity the masses have to overthrow this world of top-down tyranny and replace it with governance OF the people, BY the people, and FOR the people.

It is almost a miracle and too good to be true that we might very soon have a world where the fruits of the people serve the people instead of just a handful of the worst of humanity. Our top-down rulers are not nice or good people. They are a cancer that feeds off the body public. Not a single one of them has ever done an honest day’s work while at the same time expect to be treated like God’s gifts to the world. They live in the utmost luxury and never concern themselves a wit about how most people have to struggle just to get by.

But soon, very soon, millions of people will become aware of just how easy it is to have a government where everyone is an equal and voting member in the decision-making process. Then we will see just how rich and fair our lives can be when not burdened by a cancer of a ruling class.

 

 

The post The Elimination of Top-Down Rule appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

Random Change is Useless

Granite Grok - Sat, 2022-10-15 00:00 +0000

I always cringed at campaigns that claimed: “Vote for Joe, It’s Time For Change.” What does that mean? What are we changing and why? What will the change look like, and will society be better off?

We took away two days to remember those evil men from the past, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, and replaced them with one generic day; President’s Day. How did that work out?

We erased the man who helped a ragtag group of farmers and merchants defeat the most outstanding military of its time and defined our Presidency. We eradicated the man who defeated slavery and healed our divided country after a bloody civil war. We now have a generic day to remember Richard Nixon, who left his office in disgrace, and Jimmy Carter, who left the country in shambles. How did that work out?

The Democrat Party has become the crusaders of change with little concern for what is left in their wake. It is about being the face of the “change of the day,” and no explanation is needed. Look at the actions of Joe Biden on his first day in office. He used his pen to sign a stack of Executive Orders with the primary intention of supplanting Trump’s policies and initiatives, but without a plan to replace them with strategies that deliver positive results. He stopped the border wall construction and Remain in Mexico agreement with Mexico. No plan was in play to secure the Border, so we now have over two million illegal aliens crossing the Rio Grande and entering all parts of our country. New England may be thousands of miles from the Border, but we are all Border States under Biden’s leadership.

Along with the flood of illegals is the influx of drugs, specifically Fentanyl. We are losing over 100,000 Americans between 18 and 45, poisoned by this evil drug manufactured in China and processed by the cartels in Mexico. It was essential to change the situation at the Mexican Border to keep the promises Biden made to his base during the campaign. He had no plan to replace what he ended, and now we have chaos at the Border. We have lost our sovereignty, but we have change. Isn’t that great?

The voters decided they wanted a calmer, gentler President who didn’t Tweet. What they got in Biden is all of that and more. A part-time President with no respect on the Global stage, the Joe Biden Presidency has disrupted the world’s stability. Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, and Saudi Arabia did not dare step out of line with Trump at the helm. With Joe Biden, the Paper Lion, in the Oval Office, these countries know that there will be no resistance to anything they do by Joe Biden. Eighty-one million people, dead and alive, voted for change, and they certainly got it. We now have war in Ukraine, Taiwan under threat, Korean missiles flying toward Japan, and Iran on the verge of having nuclear weapons aimed at Israel. Saudi Arabia and OPEC Plus are giving Joe the middle finger instead of the oil desperately needed by America and the world.

In less than two years, we have taken a country poised to rebound from the Pandemic and turned it into Jimmy Carter’s America. But we have change. Shouldn’t that make us feel good?

The post Random Change is Useless appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

The FBI (Deliberately?) Undercounts Active Shooter Events Stopped or Prevented by Armed Civilians

Granite Grok - Fri, 2022-10-14 22:30 +0000

The Federal Bureau of Insurrection (FBI) likes to keep statistics. They were never complete or trustworthy, but the last few years have demonstrated that the agency is partisan and prone to misleading the public. This is no less true regarding the benefits of armed, law-abiding citizens.

AWR Hawkins, reporting for Breitbart News, has some interesting statistics about active shooter events, armed civilians, and FBI statistics. It seems “The Bureau” – likely short on manpower because they are too busy framing presidents and civilians for imagined crimes – got the numbers wrong.

And we’re not just talking about a rounding error.

According to the FBI, civilians stopped or ended around 3% of active shooter events. The real number is closer to 34%.

AWR Hawkins explains.

 

 

The post The FBI (Deliberately?) Undercounts Active Shooter Events Stopped or Prevented by Armed Civilians appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

Belknap County Republican Committee: In the Case of Gregg Hough vs GraniteGrok

Granite Grok - Fri, 2022-10-14 21:00 +0000

Well, I think is the end of this particular running saga – but politics is not rational. To recap, soon-to-be former Rep. Gregg Hough is trying is employ what Gunstock Area Commissioner Doug Lambert (of DGF Industrial) used on fellow Republicans and Gunstock Area Commissioners Peter Ness and Dr. David Strang.

Make something up and then get other people to believe it by repeatedly leveling it against the target.

That “make something up” doesn’t make it true but is a demagogue’s tool. In the case of Lambert, it was “THEY VIOLATED THEIR OATHS!” which I proved false, but there’s that old “a lie circles the globe twice before the Truth puts on its shoes” thing. Lambert and Commissioner Jade Wood (NH GOP Area 5 Vice Chair) eventually bullied the political novice into resigning (look at the number of videos here on GraniteGrok from the Gunstock Area Commission meetings). I’ll get back to that in a few minutes.

Hough Hough Hough

Gregg Hough sent an accusation to the BCRC Executive Committee demanding that GraniteGrok no longer be allowed to report on the BCRC meetings. Loyal readers also know that I had warned him, as my new Elected Representative, to not to be part of the Delegation August 1st meeting. He told me that he wouldn’t – and then did. I told him that I would work against his reelection – you don’t lie to constituents.  It seems natural, then, to think that his action was a reaction to mine even though it had nothing to do with mine..  He also sent his accusation to the entire Belknap Delegation as well and making it a public issue by a public figure.

Conclusion? The starting up of the technique to make GraniteGrok (and me) toxic in a similar (but different) manner to Ness and Strang.  Simply a revenge/PR play, especially as it continues on (just ask both Hough and Lambert and the attendees at the BCRC meetings last few meetings).

And I posted my rebuttal here. And in response, sent it also the Delegation.

Yesterday, I received the following.  Note the word “unfounded” (emphasis mine):

BELKNAP COUNTY REPUBLICAN COMMITTEE

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

The Executive Committee of the Belknap County Republican Committee (the “BCRC”) met on Wednesday, August 24, 2022, at 243 Mountain Drive in Gilford, to consider, among other matters, a request by General Member and State Representative Gregg Hough that the Granite Grok, a well-known political blog operated principally by BCRC General Member Skip Murphy, be barred or prohibited from making audio and/or video recordings at meetings of the BCRC.

Since January of 2021he Granite Grok has been the only press outlet permitted in BCRC meetings and allowed to make recordings of what transpires at such meetings.

Note: I actually consider we Groksters as all political activists, but we are a media outlet.

Representative Hough had presented a written request with his reasons for requesting the bar, and he was permitted an essentially unlimited time in which to make a verbal presentation to the BCRC Exec. Committee.

Skip Murphy had presented an extensive written answer to the Hough complaint including a justification of the continued presence of the ‘Grok at BCRC meetings.  Mr. Murphy was also allowed an essentially unlimited time in which to make a verbal presentation to the BCRC Exec. Committee.

Mr. Murphy indicated that any time a guest speaker at a BCRC meeting requested that his or her presentation not be recorded or be edited in some fashion, he always agreed to such request without exception.  He also indicated that if any participant in a BCRC meeting did not want his or her comments made openly in the meeting to be reported by the Grok, he would honor any such request.

After extensive discussion and due consideration by the BCRC Executive Committee, it was decided by a unanimous vote of all members present that the Hough complaint was unfounded and it was thus dismissed without further action being taken on it.

BCRC Secretary Priscilla Bean was absent and did not participate in the hearing or vote on this matter.

Norm Silber
Chair, Belknap County Republican Committee

This was delivered live during last night’s BCRC meeting. There was no protestation from Gregg Hough at that time:

Given that this was now public knowledge, I asked the Chair to be able to release the video of the hearing. I reasoned that if this went into a judicial matter, I wanted to be protected against a he said / she said. It would also protect Hough if that scenario was reversed; the cameras were allowed to roll.

Today, as this matter has become public, I asked for permission to post up those videos (from three different angles) in their entirety such that it could not be said that any deceptive editing had been done. Permission from the Chair was given:

Angle 1:

 

Angle 2:

 

Angle 3:

 

He and Lambert continue their effort to disbar GraniteGrok from reporting on BCRC meetings – and sully our reputation. They both continue to blame me for Hough’s loss in the Primary (I did state that I would work for his loss as he lied to me) even though:

  • Gov. Sununu said he wanted him defeated
  • The NH House Freedom Caucus believes he’s nuts for picking a fight with GraniteGrok
  • The Democrat PAC Citizens for Belknap (even after doing their bidding) marked him for defeat in the Primary
  • And Rep and candidate for NH Senate Tim Lang decided to vote for himself for Vice-Chair of the Delegation instead of voting for Hough.

Frankly, compared to the first three, any influence the ‘Grok had would have been minor. But Lambert’s upset at me for not taking a knee, either.

And there’s another entity that he has just royally ticked off. I get to post that video later as I got a tangential mention.

Going forward, IF they are successful in taking over the BCRC like they have the GAC and the Delegation, they will still have me to deal with.  As you heard during the recordings of the hearing, the question was offered “what are you going to do if a registered Republican attends, takes notes, and write about the meeting later, can you stop them from doing so due to First Amendment Rights? They couldn’t even stop anyone from simply hauling out a smartphone and videoing the meeting on their own.

Think of that ramification…and last night was a doozy for clips to comment upon.

 

The post Belknap County Republican Committee: In the Case of Gregg Hough vs GraniteGrok appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

Hassan And Pappas Did That … Mortgage Rates Hit 20-Year High

Granite Grok - Fri, 2022-10-14 19:30 +0000

You may not be able to afford a home, or afford a better home, but Maggie Hassan and Chris Pappas won’t let that distract from what’s important … TO THEM AND THEIR LEFTIST ILK … ABORTION up to (and perhaps after) the instant of birth and GROOMING:

Oh … and I left out … pushing the world closer to nuclear war. But DON’T expect ADAM SEXTON to cover any of that … Hassan’s and Pappas’ agenda is also HIS agenda.

The post Hassan And Pappas Did That … Mortgage Rates Hit 20-Year High appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

Wettest September in NH in Over Ten Years and No one Says A Word About It (Until now).

Granite Grok - Fri, 2022-10-14 18:00 +0000

Drought, drought, drought. We heard it all summer. Even when it rained. “Experts,” say it won’t be enough to alleviate the drought. But here we are, nine months out of twelve, and guess what?

It was the wettest September in eleven years. It is in the top 20 for total precipitation since 1895 at #19.

 

 

That seems like a story to me, but I guess not. We wouldn’t want to mess with drought, drought, drought.

Drought, drought, drought.

We did have several months of below-normal rainfall. Let’s just be clear about that. While April 2022 had above-average rainfall, May, June, and July were dry. August was above the 120-year mean but below the trend. And Septmebr was very wet.

Given all that, the big question must be this. After September, where are we compared to the annual average (Oct 2021 to Sept 2022)?

 

 

We’re just over the mean but below the trend, which seems fair. New Hampshire has been a lot wetter since the Global Warming narrative took root, and maybe that affects the drought reporting but is that how it should be?

It is if you have an agenda.

Will the weather cooperate? October feels wetter to me so far, but it has been above mean every year but one in the past ten, with a majority of those above the rising trend. We’ll need close to five inches of rain this month to beat 2021 and the trend. If we don’t, we should expect to hear Drought, drought, drought. It is, after all, the only song they know.

Sorry, flood flood flood is also popular, but it never drowns out drought, drought, drought because the latter allows for more control, and it’s a lot scarier to have no water than too much. But New Hampshire’s history is dominated by a lot less precipitation than we’ve been getting in recent decades.

 

 

Note: The Jan to Dec mean for NH through 2021 is 44.04 inches.

 

The post Wettest September in NH in Over Ten Years and No one Says A Word About It (Until now). appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

Friday Meme Overflow-Overflow

Granite Grok - Fri, 2022-10-14 16:30 +0000

As predicted in the last Monday Memes, and in the Meme Overflow, I have an overflow-overflow.  Enjoy, and Happy Friday!

If you could, if you send a meme to someone, please say that you found it here (or whichever meme post is appropriate) and give the link.  In theory, it will get at least some to pop over and look.  The idea being is that they may peruse other memes which might then get through as Thought Splinters.  (Part 1Part 2Part 3).  Part IV is making snails-pace progress and I have a few other things I’m also poking at.  Work is… work and I’m playing project manager for a home remodel project too which takes a lot more time than I thought it would.

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

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

 

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

 

 

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

 

 

 

For some time now, watching Cancel Culture, I have thought to myself that their erasure of everything that is traditional, everything that has a history, everything that makes our culture American… that this was a replay of the cultural purges that eliminated the FOUR OLDS.

But it’s more than an erasure of our culture; the erasure of people virtually is a dress rehearsal.  Once you can disappear a person from all social life it’s not a far step to disappear them from life itself:

 

 

Not like it’s not been done before.  Socialistopia needs its foundation.

 

 

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

 

 

 

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After that whole Holocaust thing. we hanged who?

  • The Nazi party officials
  • The Nazi camp guards (who were “Just following orders”…)
  • The medical people who experimented on unwilling victims
  • The media people that aided in the Nazi atrocities – and in covering them up

We need Nuremberg II.

 

 

 

For some of the big names, like Fauci, Birx, and others, I’d raffle off the chance to pull the lever.  Or, auction it off.

 

 

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

 

 

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In a book that the late great Walter E. Williams sent me – I was honored to have had an occasional correspondence with him, and his autographed-to-me picture hangs on my wall – he had an essay that pointed out that crime rates were much lower back when there were far fewer gun control laws.  And so he asked “What’s different”?

The answer is obvious: culture.

But that’s too simplistic an answer for the Left – a Left bent on razing our current culture to the ground so they can rebuild anew.

 

 

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

 

  

 

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Pick of the post:

 

 

Troll Level: GODDESS!

 

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

 

Classic Whittle:

 

 

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

 

Palate Cleanser:

 

 

The post Friday Meme Overflow-Overflow appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

The Importance of Employee Insights

Granite Grok - Fri, 2022-10-14 16:10 +0000

Far too often, company policies are crafted at the top and handed down from the top, with no consideration of the people who will be required to work for them. Meanwhile, who is in a better position to tell you what will work and why, than the people doing the job?

Understanding how your people feel about their work and taking steps to ensure their needs are addressed is of the utmost importance to your organization’s potential for success.

And, that just begins to scratch the surface of the importance of employee insights.

What Are Employee Insights?

If more companies put the same effort into understanding their employees that they put into understanding their customers they’d be far better off. A positive employee experience is just as important as a positive customer experience. In fact, employee satisfaction is absolutely vital to the profitability of your company.

An employee insight verbalizes what a worker perceives and observes about the workplace over the course of doing their jobs.  These experiences can have a direct impact on your ability to hire, motivate and retain. And, just as it is more cost effective to hold on to an existing customer than get a new one, it is far less expensive to hold on to an existing employee than it is to seek, vet, hire and train a new one.

Meanwhile, along with the rise of social media has come the ability for people to share the nature of their work experiences. If word gets around that your company is a lousy place at which to work, in addition to struggling to hold on to people, you’re going to have trouble attracting top talent in the first place.

Gathering Employee Insights

The best way to find out how people feel about something is to ask them. However, they must be asked in a way that assures them their opinions are valued and more importantly — won’t result in some sort of negative backlash. In other words, you must make sure people feel safe telling you what they really think.

In most cases, insight gathering is conducted by way of annual surveys. These can be useful, particularly when cloaked in anonymity. However, this form of employee engagement must be crafted in such a way as to provide opportunities to expound upon the questions.

To that end, open-ended questions tend to glean more actionable data than do numerical surveys, in which people are asked to rate something on a numerical scale. These do not provide respondents with an opportunity to express nuanced opinions, which are absolutely critical to gaining useful employee insights.

Survey Types

In most cases, the more narrowly focused the survey, the higher quality data you’ll get. With that in mind, there are four basic types of employee surveys:

Engagement surveys are designed to gather information about how your employees feel about their jobs — and why they feel the way they do.

Experience surveys provide an opportunity for employees to express their overall satisfaction and motivation levels.

Effectiveness surveys provide an opportunity for employees to express their opinions about the performances of their peers.

Pulse surveys, short, quick, and conducted more frequently, can serve as bellwethers between annual surveys of the types listed above.

You Must Go Beyond Surveys

Equally as important as establishing the safety of your respondents is taking action based upon the employee insights provided. If people call attention to something, they expect some sort of change to come from their effort.

Morale suffers when employees are continually surveyed and things stay the same. Eventually, you will no longer get truthful responses, apathy will set in and attrition will begin to occur.

Again, the whole point of gaining employee insights is to ensure that your team feels valued, supported, and appreciated. Ignoring survey results will have the exact opposite effect. Share the results of the survey with the respondents. Tell them what actions will be taken as a result of what the survey’s revelations.

Then — take those actions.

 

The post The Importance of Employee Insights appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

Genderbred Person Pops up In Local NH Middle School – Time to Check Yours?

Granite Grok - Fri, 2022-10-14 15:00 +0000

It’s beginning to look a lot like the transgender agenda “genderbread” person is a more common part of Middle School life than just the school in Rhode Island I wrote about yesterday.

Related: Gingerbread Man Goes From ‘Genderless Figure’ to “Genderbread” Transgender-Sex-Education Aid

 

Someone emailed me a picture of it as part of a display in a local middle school in New Hampshire.

 

 

It features at the center of this LGBT display on a wall (I am told) at the Raymond, NH, Middle School.

My source says that since this photograph was taken, ‘It’ has been taken down. I’m unsure if “it” is the entire display or the genderbread component. I’m getting clarification. [Update: the display was up in July and taken down after  – probably at the end of the school year.]

Related: Depopulation Progs Aren’t Transing Your Kids Out Of Empathy

While we wait, you may want to investigate (just for fun) if your Middle School is peddling this unscientific voodoo too. I suspect this “program” to reprogram young minds will turn up in Middle Schools across the gender-fluid-increasingly-less-fruited plains.

And while we wait to hear about that, what do you think about this?

I like how Equality Wins jumps off the upper left corner. It’s so not true, for example. If your position on the gender spectrum is heterosexual, shut the hell up about it. Just saying it is oppressive, bigot. You have no right to express any opinion not approved by the Gaystapo.

But born this way has been proven to be biologically incorrect. No DNA evidence supports it. Just as there is no genetic evidence for why you might prefer blondes, brunettes, redheads, or short bald, pierced people with tattoos, it is nurtured, not nature, by you or others. It’s a choice. Everything, after all, is a choice.

So, yes, you can help who you “love.”

And I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with any of that. Adults are expected to make choices and live with them or learn from them. The issue is public schools using taxpayer dollars and public property to nurture a partisan sexual agenda in other people’s children.A plana you would prefer to hide from the parents and taxpayers.

Deliberate deception is an unwise position to defend with any practice.

Related: This Transgender Business Has Only One Logical Conclusion – “Mao Suits”

Puberty blockers, for example, can kill kids. Transed kids are more likely to experience anxiety and attempt and succeed at suicide. Even in the most caring communities, they are more likely to smoke and abuse drugs and alcohol. These issues are endemic in the community.

I don’t see any of these facts on the LGBTQIA display. You’d think an institution dedicated to education would ensure the kiddies had all the information that they’d be allies for the truth. I guess equality of information is not part of the program?

That makes it propaganda, so I’m glad they took it down, but I bet that’s not the only example.

 

 

The post Genderbred Person Pops up In Local NH Middle School – Time to Check Yours? appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

Against Democracy Worship

Granite Grok - Fri, 2022-10-14 13:30 +0000

If you would be so charitable with your time as to truly contemplate this piece (perhaps at length), I would sincerely like to impress upon you something of the most extreme importance in political thought.

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

The area I would like to explore is the deepest levels of political utility – perhaps even metaphysical.

I intend to demonstrate to you that there are two fundamentally divergent, incompatible, mutually exclusive, and outright warring views – presuppositions, really – about why politics?

Our founders – the original ones, not the refounders of the progressive era, nor their contemporaries of the civil rights era – built for us a “republic, if [we] can keep it.” Yet all we hear today is “Democracy!” What explains this, and what’s the difference, anyway?

To understand that, we must take a brief detour to the philosophy of Hobbes, who described the nature of human relations as a power game, wherein all human interaction can be broken down into a struggle between persons with different interests seeking to impose their will on the other. In his mind, there is no mutually beneficial relationship – just complicated webs of deceits that, when the individual stands triggered, the builder may pounce to consume a foe and express his will – his libido dominandi, or “will do dominate.”

Politics, when viewed through this lens, becomes likewise a complicated game of wielding power to dominate and impose one’s will. This is at the very heart of the concept, and near-worship of, Democracy. You see, Democracy is little more than the expression of a collective libido dominandi and the attempted legitimization of the subjugation of a minority.

After all, in a pure democracy, there are no limits to what the majority can do to you or to me, so long as there is consensus. This consensus, in turn, becomes the mechanism by which people mitigate the natural guilt that comes from being a tyrant – they spread the blame so thinly through democratic consensus that they feel little at all.

This is not the way our founders saw politics. For them, there was something above the concept of domination, and the act of tyranny itself, was not looked upon kindly. The “thing” above it we can simply refer to as “the good,” and a groundbreaking attempt to capture a portion of it on parchment can be found in the Bill of Rights (including the various state versions).

For those who view the natural state of affairs in human relations as sometimes unfortunate and unkind but nevertheless strive for something better – an ethic – democracy itself becomes little more than the least terrible of options. It is certainly nothing to be worshipped. Democracy will, unattended by an ethic and concept of “the good,” always degenerate into two wolves and a sheep deciding on lunch.

The founder’s concept was based on a difficult and perhaps impossible question, “how do we secure the rights of men in perpetuity?”

These rights were rights to be free from tyranny in all forms: in their person, papers, effects, conscience, associations, religion, bodily integrity, use of arms, commerce, and so on.

They were not rights to things, such as food, clothing, housing, and healthcare – you cannot have a positive right to a thing without making a man into a slave on your behalf and unleashing the furious violence of government in the process. Those who would worship at the altar of Democracy, and harbor the libido dominandi against their fellow citizens, are the enemy of a republic.

I plead with you, do not view government as a tool of domination to impose your selfish will. View government as an imperfect and inherently dangerous device with which we can imperfectly strive for an ethical vision – the ethical vision of the founders: the inherent, God-given, inseverable, incontrovertible, incorruptible, and unimpeachable natural rights of man.

 

Mike Belcher is a candidate for State Representative for Carrol County, District 4, out of Wakefield, NH, and can be found at www.MikeBelcher4NH.com

 

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

The post Against Democracy Worship appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

RSA 91A Right To Know: Information on SoulFest

Granite Grok - Fri, 2022-10-14 12:00 +0000

From: Norman J Silber
Sent: Thursday, October 13, 2022, 5:44 PM
To: tday@gunstock.com
Subject: RSA 91-A demand/request
To Tom Day- President & General Manager of the Gunstock Recreation Area:

Pursuant to the provisions of New Hampshire Revised Statutes Annotated Chapter 91-A, I hereby demand that you furnish me with the following documents within the time periods required by the statutes in that chapter:

1-  Copies of each and every contract or agreement for Soulfest (also known as the Soulfest Christian Music Festival), and any amendments thereto.

2.  Copies of any and all documents that reflect or show the Gross Revenues from Soulfest for each of the past 5 years, broken down by year.  Please note this is gross revenue, not gross profit.

3.  Copies of any and all documents that reflect or show the number of attendees at the Soulfest event for each of the past 5 years, broken down by year.

4.  Copies of any and all documents that reflect or show Gross Revenue from the campground at Gunstock for each of the past 5 years for the week of Soulfest.

5.  Copies of any and all documents that reflect or show a number of campground vacancies during the week of Soulfest for each of the past 5 years.

6.  Copies of any and all emails to, from, and/or between Soulfest management or staff or employees and any Gunstock employees, including management and Gunstock Area Commissioners.

7.  Copies of any and all documents that reflect or show any payouts from Gunstock to Soulfest for contract termination.

In accordance with 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.

Please note that 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 /common file formats: Green v. SAU #55, 168 NH 796, 801 (2016). Unless there is some valid 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 that under 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 njs@silbersnh.com.  However, if the volume turns out to be substantial, I can provide you with a Dropbox folder for all of the responsive records to be uploaded.

 

Norman J. Silber

Member of The Florida Bar & the New Hampshire Bar

The post RSA 91A Right To Know: Information on SoulFest appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

Friday Morning Funny – Speeding is the Answer to Traffic Problems.

Granite Grok - Fri, 2022-10-14 10:30 +0000

It’s been a while since I did a ‘Wake up and Laugh’ because I wasn’t finding anything that amused me enough to share. Guess what?

I think this qualifies.

It’s short, and the topic is something we can all relate to – driving, traffic, how it should be, and how it is: merging, left-hand turns, traffic circles, and more.

Brad Upton “speeds” us through it, so see if you are like him or those other drivers.

 

The post Friday Morning Funny – Speeding is the Answer to Traffic Problems. appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

So the Gilford Shaw’s Decided to Dump the Weir’s Times Because of Space Limitations? I Went and Checked.

Granite Grok - Fri, 2022-10-14 10:30 +0000

Yesterday I posted up the video of the BCRC Keynote Speaker, Brendan Smith of the Weirs Times. He talked about how Bob Lawton had founded this free weekly newspaper, its growth, and how it was distributed across NH. He did bring up that even they have run into Cancel Culture where a couple of people complained about it being distributed – because of a fairly new column called Letters from God (remember, this is a Conservative media outlet by design):

Here is an excerpt from that video where he talks about how differently Market Basket and Shaw’s Supermarkets reacted to complaints concerning the content of the “Letters from God” column that mentioned LGBT:

Full Disclosure – I have not had the time yet to go read them but that shouldn’t matter. What SHOULD matter is Free Speech vs the Cancel Movement that is trying to crush and silence people because a very few don’t like what others either believe or are saying (and yes, I have a post or two in the works about that as well).

Well, since I had to go out and do some errands anyways (Lowe’s, across the street from the Gilford Shaw’s), I went over and decided to see for myself how “crowded” their “front alley” was (the long rectangular area where you are directed to the entrance/exit doors and where some seasonal merchandise is often displayed). To be honest, I was rather underwhelmed by the claim of “not enough room for a newsstand:

https://granitegrok.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Shaws-Supermarket-Gilford-entrance-exit-hallway.mp4

I had called Brendan before I went just to double check and upon my request, he sent me the URL to where one could find the Weirs times across the State – Only in Concord and Dover

  • Shaw’s (Damante Drive, Concord)
  • Shaw’s (Fort Eddy Road, Concord)
  • Shaw’s (Dover)

There are 127 Shaw’s locations in the US – all in New England:

  • Maine (19)
  • Massachusetts (55)
  • New Hampshire (26)
  • Rhode Island (8)
  • Vermont (19)

So I’m going to contact Shaw’s of Gilford and ask about this now that I have went and looked.  And, perhaps, ask the corporate office to ask how many unique complaints there were.

This could be rather interesting. But I have a request, ‘Grok readers!

If you frequent any of those Shaw’s not in Concord or Dover, especially in NH,  would you please let me know what you find (as most Shaw’s are similarly constructed): Is it so filled such that a rather small newsstand could not be located there?  Or does it look like my video – is it rather empty?  And if you frequent a Shaw’s that is NOT on the first list, please let me know, too, what its “space condition” is?

I think we all know what the real reason is – and it isn’t about space.

The post So the Gilford Shaw’s Decided to Dump the Weir’s Times Because of Space Limitations? I Went and Checked. appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

BCRC October Meeting: Keynote Speaker: Brendon Smith, Editor of the Weirs Times

Granite Grok - Fri, 2022-10-14 01:30 +0000

Last night was a rather contentious meeting of the Belknap County Republican Party – most because of two agitators (see, I can play the “unnamed” blame game, too). But the details of that will be coming later.

As the title states, Brendan Smith came to give a bit of the history of and what the Weirs Times covers. As a weekly publication, it is very well known here in the Lakes Region of NH as it is an offshoot project of the late Bob Lawton who wanted, in addition to founding and running Funspot (the world’s largest arcade), wanted a newspaper that would be Conservative where the other media outlets in the area/State.

Note: he is open to folks who wish to write articles to submit them (Brendan@Weirs.com) and looking for submissions to its “Mail Boat” – otherwise known as Letters to the Editor. He took a few questions after his address.

From his address, I took away two possible “micro-projects” that I may be asking you, loyal readers, to look into!

The post BCRC October Meeting: Keynote Speaker: Brendon Smith, Editor of the Weirs Times appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

Meaningful Questions to Ask Candidates

Granite Grok - Fri, 2022-10-14 00:00 +0000

Every election cycle, candidates make promises to their constituents – but many times those promises are rarely fulfilled. To make matters worse, once in office, politicians have a 90+% chance for re-election – which is why the swamp never gets drained.

We (the voters) keep repeating this insane cycle. It’s like when Lucy promises to hold the football for Charlie Brown and then pulls it away at the last second. We know exactly what will happen, but Charlie Brown falls for the same false promise every time.

And when it comes to voting, we are a lot like Charlie Brown. We don’t have that same clarity when we cast our votes – and fall for the same unfulfilled promises every election.

This is a never-ending cycle that needs to end.

That’s why you need to ask your candidates specific questions that are important to you. Only then will you get specific answers that will provide you with better insights as to how well they align with your concerns and positions.

Here are two questionnaires in PDF format that you can download and use as you like: one is for state office candidates, and the second for federal office candidates. They were written by the Government Integrity Project a few months ago. Feel free to use them, re-write them, put your name/logo on them, or develop your own.

The bottom line… make sure to ask your candidates specific questions that are important to you. Only then will you be in a position to cast an informed vote!

 

 

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Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

Moderna Has a New mRNA Vaxx (To Help with the Heart Problems Created by Their Last mRNA Vaxx?)

Granite Grok - Thu, 2022-10-13 22:30 +0000

Moderna’s COVID-19 vaxx has been linked to a significant rise in heart-related issues among (mostly) young, healthy men. Incidents of heart problems are up over 80% in men 18-39 years of age. And all-cause mortality in the 18-49 age group is off the charts.

Related: Pediatric Cardiologist Says mRNA Spike Proteins are Toxic to the Human Heart

 

New cases of heart inflammation are on the rise following the C19 mRNA injection “carpet bombing,” but never fear. Moderna is here to help.

 

Speaking with SkyNews Australia Business Weekend, [Moderna CEO Stéphane] Bancel detailed Moderna’s new experimental mRNA injection, which he says will “grow back new blood vessels and revascularize the heart.” Naturally, the multi-millionaire Big Pharma executive whose company made billions and counting by conducting illegal gene therapy experimentation on billions of unsuspecting people touted the developments as “super exciting,” before clarifying the treatment would “inject mRNA in people’s heart[s].”

 

They think this is super-exciting. They are SUPER excited.

Quick question. If you suddenly find yourself at increased risk because you did not “deny” the last vaccine, will you be a vaccine denier if you refuse this one?

Asking for a friend.

 

 

 

HT | Gateway Pundit

The post Moderna Has a New mRNA Vaxx (To Help with the Heart Problems Created by Their Last mRNA Vaxx?) appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

Press Release: Keith Murphy for State Senate 10/20/2022 Fundraiser

Granite Grok - Thu, 2022-10-13 21:00 +0000

Four-term former State Representative Keith Murphy is the Republican nominee for State Senate District 16.

Keith Murphy is holding a Fall Fundraiser at Murphy’s Taproom in Bedford on October 20th at 6 PM. State Senate District 16 is the towns of Candia, Goffstown, Hooksett, Raymond, and Manchester ward 1.

This State Senate seat was identified as the best New Hampshire State Senate pick-up opportunity for Republicans in 2022. Learn more about Keith Murphy at his website KeithMurphy4NH.com.

Where: Murphy’s Taproom & Carriage House, 393 State Rte 101, Bedford, NH 03110
When: Thursday, October 20th, from 6:00 PM until 8:00 PM

Please visit https://keithmurphy4nh.com/oct-20th-fundraiser/ to learn more or to buy tickets.

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Keith Carlsen
603-997-1446
keithcarlsen@gmail.com

 

###

The post Press Release: Keith Murphy for State Senate 10/20/2022 Fundraiser appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

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