Friday • July 1 • 2022
Vol.XIV • No.XXVI
Manchester, N.H.
Proper cause to carry concealed is a common requirement of state or local jurisdictions if you need to apply for permission to exercise that right, but the US Supreme Court just declared it unconstitutional.
The case is New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen.
[Justice Clarence] Thomas writes that “New York’s proper-cause requirement violates the Fourteenth Amendment by preventing law-abiding citizens with ordinary self-defense needs from exercising their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms in public for self-defense.”
“It is undisputed that petitioners Koch and Nash—two ordinary, law-abiding, adult citizens—are part of ‘the people’ whom the Second Amendment protects,” Thomas said further, citing Heller. “And no party disputes that handguns are weapons ‘in common use’ today for self-defense,” he wrote.
“The Court has little difficulty concluding also that the plain text of the Second Amendment protects Koch’s and Nash’s proposed course of conduct—carrying handguns publicly for self-defense. Nothing in the Second Amendment’s text draws a home/public distinction with respect to the right to keep and bear arms, and the definition of ‘bear’ naturally encompasses public carry. Moreover, the Second Amendment guarantees an “individual right to possess and carry weapons in case of confrontation,’… and confrontation can surely take place outside the home.”
Prior to this decision, “The only way for New Yorkers to obtain an unrestricted permit was to prove that they had “proper cause” to do so. A person had to “demonstrate a special need for self-protection distinguishable from that of the general community.”
“The constitutional right to bear arms in public for self-defense is not ‘a second-class right, subject to an entirely different body of rules than the other Bill of Rights guarantees,'” the Court states, citing McDonald.
“The exercise of other constitutional rights does not require individuals to demonstrate to government officers some special need. The Second Amendment right to carry arms in public for selfdefense is no different. New York’s proper-cause requirement violates the Fourteenth Amendment by preventing law-abiding citizens with ordinary self-defense needs from exercising their right to keep and bear arms in public.”
It is a big win for liberty, so we should expect a fresh round of narratives about court-packing, especially with Dobbs v Jackson still waiting to see the final draft light of day.
The post Breaking News – “Supreme Court Strikes Down New York Concealed Carry Restrictions” appeared first on Granite Grok.
There was another mass shooting in America on Monday, and the carnage was horrific. A total of nine people were shot, all of them were taken to nearby hospitals, and at least one person is dead: a 21-year-old college basketball player who, by all accounts, wasn’t just a terrific athlete but was also a genuinely good person.
At least one promising young life has been lost, and several other lives have been permanently changed for the worse. Devasting injuries, or at the very least the traumatic impact on the victims’ mental health, will likely linger for the rest of the victims’ lives.
But there’s been virtually no mention of this violence in the mainstream media. The leftwing broadcast networks of CBS, ABC, NBC, and PBS devoted virtually nonstop coverage to the horrific shooting in Uvalde last month but haven’t even mentioned this shooting on Monday. The leftwing legacy print media – including the New York Times, Washington Post, and USA Today – have either downplayed its significance or have ignored it entirely. And, of course, the far-left cable news channels of CNN and MSNBC could not be bothered with giving the story coverage.
But, why? Why has this story been so widely brushed off? The answer is simple: Because of where it happened. Monday’s mass shooting of nine people happened in New York City, first and foremost, and that’s a city run by Democrats. Furthermore, the incident happened on 139th Street in Manhattan. And for those of you who are unfamiliar with the Big Apple’s geography, that part of the city is considered Harlem, a neighborhood whose residents are almost exclusively black.
According to the New York Post:
“A college hoops star had his promising career snuffed out when he came home from school for the summer — and ended up senselessly gunned down in a mass shooting in Harlem early Monday. Darius Lee, 21, a local basketball standout, was pronounced dead at Lincoln Medical Center — as his distraught mother frantically scoured the neighborhood begging for news of her son, a local activist said.”
While we don’t know with certainty the race of the shooter(s), we can safely assume that they were black. We can make this assumption because statistics show that violent crimes against black victims are usually committed by other black folks. That statistic holds true with other races as well, incidentally, where violent crimes are generally committed against and by people of the same race. We can also draw this conclusion because if the police suspected the shooters were white, this story would have been the top story on the news for days on end.
Has President Joe Biden commented on this senseless tragedy? What about Democrats like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer who continue to holler about gun control at every opportunity? What about Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), both of whom represent constituents in New York City, and neither of whom seems capable of shutting up regarding the topic of ‘Black Lives Matter.’
The fact is this: Democrats and their media care about, and report on, mass shootings when the circumstances of such violence fit their narrative. First and foremost, black folks shooting other black folks doesn’t align with the left’s storyline that white supremacists are the major threat to Americans. But we also have the issue of New York being a deep blue city with Democrats controlling all branches of government, and some of the strictest gun laws in the country.
Mass shootings are only worth covering and discussing if white folks do the shooting (i.e. the Buffalo shooting last month) or if it occurs in a red state (i.e. the Uvalde shooting only a few weeks later). Democrats and their media cronies can’t acknowledge black-on-black crime because that’s supposed to be a myth.
Democrats can’t admit that cities like New York and Chicago with their oppressive gun laws have a problem with gun violence because the gun control for which they advocate is supposed to solve those problems. And neighborhoods such as Harlem, where advocates push to ‘defund the police’ and then move out to safer neighborhoods to avoid the violence, are supposed to be peaceful and harmonious.
Indeed, mass shootings are a problem only if certain boxes are checked off. People dying from gunshots are only worth discussing if it happens in red states. And black lives matter, but only when we’re talking about the threats in the context of police brutality. Democrats and their media are remarkably hypocritical, and Monday’s shooting in Harlem is just one more example.
Jess Lawson writes at The Blue State Conservative
The post There Was a Mass Shooting On Monday, So Why Don’t Democrats Care? appeared first on Granite Grok.
In October 2020, a group of concerned residents sued the City of Minneapolis. Their gripe? They actively defunded the police department and that caused the number of officers to fall below that required by the city charter. Oh, and an exponential rise in crime.
The City tried to get the case tossed but was rebuked, and the suit was allowed to proceed. Twenty months later, the Minnesota State Supreme Court has arrived at a ruling. The City has an obligation to fulfill the obligation in the charter or demonstrate why it can’t.
Fox 9 News reports that the state’s highest court sided with eight Minneapolis residents who sued the mayor and council members for dumping police officers well below the rate at which the city charter promised. The citizens argued that there are only 621 officers on duty after the 2020 defunding blitz and riots following the death of George Floyd.
If you’re wondering whether that mattered, it did, and not just because of the riots the progressive mayor and council supported along with BLM and Antifa.
‘REALLY OUT OF CONTROL’: Violent crimes have surged in Minneapolis and St. Paul, with a combined record 135 homicides last year. https://t.co/blGKj63LKp pic.twitter.com/A4erDnPzYM
— Fox News (@FoxNews) June 17, 2022
Minneapolis can’t hold a candle to Chicago or Baltimore. However, a record number of homicides is still a record, and it all follows from a deliberate effort to encourage criminal activity and kneecap the only means the City has to address it. You can’t respond to calls for any crime if you are constantly understaffed. And those asked to take on the extra work will burn out quickly and maybe even become the next national news sensation.
That’s why a lof cops walked. Retired or just quit. It happened in Democrat-run cities all across the looted land. Democrats decided to stand with BLM, not the police who worked for them. Leaving that job would have been easy, and I’m surprised more of them didn’t do just that.
The case is in the hands of a county judge who will be responsible for following up on the City and its obligation. The charter requires them to hire and retain “0.0017 sworn police officers per Minneapolis resident.” The City has only had 621 and, by law, must have at least 731.
Fox News reports that 300 officers left or were defunded out of their jobs when the Mayor and Council rushed to appease Black Lives Matter back in 2020. And while a few councilors admitted the error of their ways not long after the original vote to defund, I have to wonder how the City will respond or if they can even hire the number of officers required by law.
No one wants to work for activists in government, just waiting for someone with whom they can make an example. It’s not an environment conducive to exemplary work. But whose fault is that? The people of Minneapolis? They voted for these idiots and have been elevating their ideological brethren for decades.
And while these 18 citizens succeeded in getting the state’s highest court to tell the mayor to follow the law, that’s not typically anything Democrats care much about unless it works as political leverage to their benefit. This does not.
I’m sure they’ll go through the motions, but the decision allows them to explain why they have been unable to hire more officers. At no point will that include their commitment to hanging them out to dry for another round of virtue-signaling and maybe even some national media attention, unlike this decision which won’t be getting the same coverage George Floyd’s overdose-suicide garnered.
Is that a good enough reason why they can’t fulfill the requirement in the city charter? And if so, then why not just change the charter? It’s not as if Democrats care about crime. If they did, they’d allow citizens to defend themselves instead of reducing everyone to a victim in a city that can’t hire enough police officers but can expect to add plenty of criminals given those circumstances.
HT | PJ Media
The post Minneapolis Residents Who Sued City for Defunding the Police Win in State Supreme Court appeared first on Granite Grok.
How Governor Groomer plays fast and loose with the truth. Here he is insinuating … FALSELY … that Biden’s “progressive energy policies” were a complete surprise to him:
At presser this AM, @GovChrisSununu calls out @POTUS Biden’s “progressive energy policies from Day One,” notes gas prices have nearly doubled.@NHGOP @NHDems #NHPolitics pic.twitter.com/XJ4Vp2C6q8
— NH Journal (@NewHampJournal) June 22, 2022
No Groomer … Biden had made it clear throughout the campaign that he intended to knee-cap the domestic fossil-fuel industry. Yet our narcissist Sun-King tacitly supported Biden … changing New Hampshire’s election laws to allow no-excuse (fear of contracting COVID) mail-in voting, refusing to attend Trump rallies, supporting the Left’s mantra that Biden was “President-Elect” while example after example of election-impropriety mounted in the days after the election.
Governor Groomer KNEW that Biden intended to cripple domestic fossil fuel, but supported him anyways. He OWNS Biden’s “progressive energy policies.”
The post Governor Groomer (aka Sun-King Sununu) Owns Biden’s “Progressive Energy Policies” appeared first on Granite Grok.
Joe Biden is habitually taking four-day weekends at his Delaware beach house. The good thing about this scene is that he can do no damage to the country on a weekend vacation. The bad thing is that nobody else in his administration does anything while he is away, which is good and bad.
We should have the best and brightest on the President’s team. Unfortunately, Biden was more intent on having the most diverse administration, starting with Kamala Harris, rather than the most qualified. We are paying the price for that initiative.
We are hit with many crises simultaneously, and nobody in the Cabinet knows how to react. The three people we should be leaning on are the Secretary of Transportation, Energy, and Treasury. These three people, Buttigieg, Granholm, and Yellen, continue to go on weekend talk shows and claim the President and his staff have done everything possible to curb rising gas prices, inflation, or supply chain issues.
Saying that means they have no new ideas or a plan to solve any of the issues wreaking havoc on Americans’ budgets. They have exhausted their thoughts on the problems, and this is another reason for changes. Biden is loyal to these people or concerned about blowback from the special interest groups he assuaged when he put this team together. How would he explain to the LGBTQ+ community that he had to fire Mayor Pete, especially after becoming a mother of two?
Biden addressed the nation on Wednesday afternoon, just before an early dinner and bedtime. I am being sarcastic, but what President addresses the nation at 2 PM? He primarily talked about the energy situation, but like his speech to the AFL-CIO last week which I disputed every sentence, today’s speech was full of mistruths. Say them often enough, get the media to support them, and the people will believe them.
Two big storylines were him continuing to blame the inflation on Putin at the same time Jerome Powell is before Congress saying inflation began when Biden’s term began. Who is telling the truth? The second was announcing the suspension of the Federal Gas Tax for three months.
This Tax Holiday will save the average American less than $20 for the 90 days. In the words of Barrack Obama, the holiday is a pure gimmick and meaningless to Americans. It is a political stunt and not an effective policy move. It is disingenuous to the American people, but Biden is playing it like a difference-maker. That is how out of touch he is.
The new term I picked up from Biden and a couple of his advisors who also spoke yesterday was “we are at war.” This talking point is referring to the Ukraine situation. Biden is trying to put Americans to a moral test by asking if we are willing to pay high gas prices or see Ukraine overrun by Putin? This new approach to gaslighting the country is nothing fair or logical.
We are not at war. We are funding Ukraine’s defense with arms and money, but we are not a country at war. This is not Putin’s gas tax. This is Biden’s Failed Gas Tax. This is not Ukraine’s inflation. This is Biden’s Inflation which started long before the conflict in Ukraine. Biden is playing a physiological word game with the American people. He is certainly not smart enough to pull this off.
His poll numbers continue to slip, and more of the media is turning away from him. This is looking more like a failed Presidency every day, and even Jim Clyburn, the kingmaker who delivered Biden to the White House, has abandoned the President.
Biden is done, but not America. The people are stronger than Biden’s failed policies. We will take the pain, knowing relief and change are coming in November.
The post Joe, Get Your Head Out of the Sand appeared first on Granite Grok.
And yet another sell-out of GOP voters by Mitch’s Morons. The list, courtesy of MTG, of Senate GOP who voted with the Democrats for Red Flag laws:
I can’t express the damage these Republican Senators have done. pic.twitter.com/0hHQXt4TAJ
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (@RepMTG) June 22, 2022
I haven’t heard a peep from Chucky or Kev about this. A pretty good indication, I’d say, that if either ends up in the Senate they would be one of Mitch’s Morons.
The post Mitch’s Morons (Why It’s Pointless To Vote Republican) appeared first on Granite Grok.
School’s out for summer…only if you’re a loser! We at Bananas Academy are winners and we’re looking for other winners who would rather spend their summer bettering themselves instead of soaking up the short lived New England sun wasting expensive gas on adventures and chasing members of the opposite sex for momentary pleasure and lasting memories. As we say at Bananas Academy, you don’t have that highly evolved monkey brain for nothing, it’s made for Bananas!
Adulting: Spanking 101
It is a lost art and we intend to reclaim it. Learn the basics of the when, where, who, why and how to spank and spank well.
Home Economics: Prepping for the Apocalypse
The signs are all here: pestilence, drought, famines, transhumans, and both the Red Sox and Cubs won the World Series. The anti-christ is fluffing his eternal stone pillow and Jesus is lacing up his sandals getting ready to tread the wine press. Speaking of wine, have you seen the make your own wine kits on Amazon? We have those and more!
Political Philosophy: Rules for Radicals 2.0
Saul Alinsky’s time honored classic handbook on how to terrorize your political enemies while convincing the world you’re the victim. These well-worn tactics first gained traction in the Great Cherubim Rebellion (recognized in the book’s dedication) can be seen being used in such great bowel stirring movements as the Watts Riots, Occupy Wall Street, BLM’s Summer of Love, and the most recent Terror Reins Supreme: Let’s Kill Kavanaugh mob. This advanced class includes:
P.E. is for Pervert Educators
With the concomitant rise in obesity and perverts among public school staff, we have developed a summer course that is sure to get you in the best shape of your entire perverted life! Nobody likes to do cardio, but when one of our volunteer dads starts chasing you down the street with their shotgun you’ll be lapping Caitlyn Jenner in his prime!
Biology 101: What Is A Woman?
Women, like Rubik’s cubes, are nearly impossible to figure out. No one knows this better than men and other women. Like a Picasso painting their identity and moods can change from either side of their many faces, to the point now the world is so confused many don’t even recognize a woman when s/he’s standing right in front of them. This course attempts to answer that once common knowledge biological question.
Sign up today using PROMO CODE: SUMBANANAS to get 20% off any of the above classes. All of our classes are accredited by the NFNAA* (National Fake News Accrediting Agency). All credits are non-refundable nor transferrable, not even to community colleges. Take advantage now of our 100% no money down, no money back guarantee.
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Yep, our early straw poll is going on right now over here. And I am looking for for an answer – Hypothesis: will the ranking that you folks determine now hold true, for each race, when we redo them in late August? While being an unscientific and self-selected activity, it’s still an indication of what the outlook of our readers happens to be. Thus far, voting is fast and furious!
Then on either Saturday (or Monday, depending on how I feel or can remember), I’ll start the US Senate one as well.
The post UPDATE: Get your vote in for the Grok Early Straw Poll: Who for NH Governor? appeared first on Granite Grok.
I assume that in New Hampshire, your electric car runs on natural gas (see below). Either way, wouldn’t it be progressive to close all the charging stations in order to reduce the demand for electricity, which should reduce the cost of electricity for working people?
The wealthy people who own electric cars can afford to buy gasoline-powered cars for the winter, and they would simply be doing directly … powering their autos with fossil fuels … what they are now doing indirectly.
– “So what’s charging the batteries right now? What’s the source of electricity?”
– “About 95% coal.”
pic.twitter.com/3ldUXSdnZ6— Dr. Eli David (@DrEliDavid) June 20, 2022
The post Your Electric Car Runs on Coal appeared first on Granite Grok.
Governor Sununu signed legislation last week that allows law-abiding gun owners to carry a handgun on a snowmobile or OHRV just like they do in their cars and trucks and concealed on their person nearly everywhere else in the state. Democrats, as usual, crapped the same old anti-gun kittens.
House Democratic Leader Rep. David E. Cote, D-Nashua, said: “For years, Republicans have refused any common-sense legislation to reduce the risk of preventable tragedy with firearms.
“Instead, they pass unnecessary laws to invite the potential for needless firearm accidents in our state.” …
“And this legislation makes recreation more dangerous and less appealing to travelers. I find it inexplicable that while Granite Staters across New Hampshire have been taking to the streets to demand gun violence prevention, Governor Sununu continues to enact bills threatening our public safety,” Cote said.
Democrats, Common-sense, violence prevention? None of these words even go together.
Thousands of soft targets across America, resulting in the needless loss of young life as children are gunned down by criminals, are a byproduct of the Democrat’s common-sense gun violence prevention. Gun Free zones account for a super-majority of these attacks. The Left’s common-sense response is to ensure only the shooter – who doesn’t care about the law – is armed.
Chicago, the Left’s common-sense gun law Mecca, likely has (just about?) every “law” House Democrat Leader David Eeeee a Gun! Cote would like. A total of 1472 people have been shot in the first five months of 2022 in the Windy City – and 276 of those have died.
In 2020 common-sense violence-prevention-Chicago had 350 homicides while gun-crazy Constitutional Carry New Hampshire had 12.
So, the Left’s common-sense gun laws only make sense to criminals (and Democrats if and where they are different) who, for the record, didn’t care about the law prohibiting firearms on snowmobiles and OHRVs before the passage of HB1636.
They were already ignoring it.
But to Democrat David Eeeee a gun! Cote, allowing law-abiding citizens the same privilege will lead to tragedy and threatens public safety.
At least he didn’t say there would be blood in the streets.
The post Gov. Sununu Returns Freedom to Granite Staters, Local Democrat Loses His Frikkin Mind … appeared first on Granite Grok.
I do not want one and will fight tooth and nail before being forced into one. We have two full-size SUVs and one Class C Motor Home. We pull a boat with one vehicle, and the other transports many golfers and their clubs/carts. The usage makes a full-size a necessity for both.
The Motor Home speaks for itself. There are currently no EV RVs available, but:
From the website: Drivin’ & Vibin’
In 2019, a German company produced an electric RV. The Iridium E-Mobil RV had two sizes of battery packs, creating two models. The model that travels up to 249 miles before recharging was priced at $219,000. The one that went 124 miles is $188,000. By comparison, the 2022 announcement by Winnebago that can travel 125 miles per charge will be well over $100,000. It appears that number will be increasing exponentially as time passes before they build a model RV.
So, to replace our three vehicles with comparable electric vehicles would be about $400,000. Not a price we are willing to pay, and we are not ready to give up our lifestyle for electric charging stations.
The Biden Administration, nor anyone else in the green-thinking government has thought this through. The cost, travel range, charging stations, modification to the home electrical system, size and variety of vehicles, expansion of the electrical grid, and even the end game for old/damaged batteries, nothing is planned. The EV batteries are expensive, huge, heavy, and full of toxic chemicals, making disposal extremely challenging.
The President took the one step that he thinks will stimulate all subsequent actions. He declared war on the fossil fuel industry. Biden killed the Keystone Pipeline, which would have brought millions of barrels a year from Canada. He limited drilling and fracking. He is going after the profits of major oil companies. None of these steps will encourage the production and distribution of oil and gas, and, oh yeah, gas prices have more than doubled since Joe took office.
Biden’s actions have taken a toll on every American, but it is still not enough for the AOCs and John Kerrys of the world. The Radical, Far-Left, Green Democrats want quicker action. They have no plan, but they want a fossil-fuel-free America now.
Texas just introduced a plan to install a network of EV charging stations. The Texas Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Plan unveiled by TxDOT earlier this month was driven by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act signed into law by President Biden in November, which created funding programs for EV charging infrastructure for states.
According to TxDOT, 80% of funding for the program will be covered by the federal government, with Texas receiving $407.8 million from the Federal Highway Administration over the next five years. The remaining 20% will be covered by third parties, and no state funds will be used for the project, the agency said.
So this is a $500 million project to build 237 stations or roughly $2.1 million per station. Texas has 268,000 square miles, so, again, one charging station for every 1,000 square miles. Do you see a problem here? There are 168,000 locations selling gas to the public in the USA. Let’s say there is an average of 6 pumps at each location. At the rate in the Texas plan, you are looking at $2.2 TRILLION to replace every gas pump in America. It takes about 5 minutes to fill a vehicle with gas and 45 minutes to charge an EV. Can you see the lines forming now? There is no plan.
Is the environment important? Of course, it is, but we have been told for thirty years that we have just a few years before becoming extinct. We cannot succumb to alarmists and be smart about a universal plan. America cannot solve the climate issue alone, and we need an effort from all countries. America accounts for only 10% of emissions. Our efforts alone will have little impact on the world.
We must stop these knee-jerk reactions like pulling the plug on gas and oil before the other steps are ready for conversion to alternative energy sources. We need to stop Biden and minimize his negative impact on the country until we retire him, like a gas-guzzling car, in November.
The post Does Anyone Have a Plan for Electric Vehicles? appeared first on Granite Grok.
We have all heard the statement, “Anti-abortion activists want to ban abortion but do not help the child once it’s born.” We are viewed as only caring about ending abortion, but that is far from true.
While ending abortion and making it unthinkable is our goal, we also realize that women seek abortions because they feel helpless, scared, unable to provide for a child, or even inconvenienced. The mother, at the moment she finds out that she is pregnant, needs a helping hand, support, and encouragement. It’s our job in the pro-life community to help address these concerns.
We, at New Hampshire Right to Life, focus on all aspects of that life. We focus on the life in the womb, especially when we fight against abortion and promote the personhood of that life. But we also focus on the woman.
We support and promote Pregnancy Resource Centers, where moms can receive pregnancy tests and ultrasounds, pregnancy and financial support, essential baby items like diapers, cribs, clothes, etc, and parenting classes. Recently, the New Hampshire Right to Life Educational Trust Fund gave $500 grants to 10 local pregnancy resource centers to help these women get the help and support that they need.
We want to thank New Hampshire Right to Life for this Op-Ed. Please direct yours to Editor@GraniteGrok.com.
Did you know that if a woman is pregnant and is in need of a home there are places in New Hampshire that provide a safe living environment for both her and the baby? St. Gianna’s Place is one of those homes. There you will find community, support, a safe living environment, and parenting and educational classes. This place truly focuses on the woman and empowers her. Mothers are reminded that they can have a baby and go to school or have a career too. New Hampshire Right to Life is proud to support this pro-life and pro-woman place.
And lastly, support for the woman is also provided after the tragedy of abortion. New Hampshire Right to Life sponsors Rachel’s Vineyard, a weekend healing retreat for women who had an abortion or participated in an abortion. Abortion not only kills the child, but also hurts the mother emotionally, spiritually, and even physically. Sometimes those effects are not felt or realized until years later. The weekend helps the women grieve the loss of their children, forgive themselves for participating in the child’s death, and look to a hopeful future.
New Hampshire Right to Life, and in fact the entire pro-life community, are more than just anti-abortion. In fact, you can say that we are truly pro-women since we focus on meeting the needs of women both during and after unplanned pregnancies. For more information about New Hampshire Right to Life please visit: https://nhrtl.org/
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Every time Republicans suggest lowering a tax, Democrats lose their minds. Tobacco, Meals, Vehicle, Real Estate, pick a tax, any tax. It is irresponsible—bad policy. Women will starve, and children will die. Cats and dogs, living together!
Gas taxes?
For the past several years, especially here in New England, the Progs have been working to advance a scheme not just to raise gas taxes but to hand that taxing power to an unelected board. The Transportation Climate Initiate (TCI) died when Biden’s campaign promise to end fossil fuels as policy drove gas prices so high adding to them would have been political suicide. Even Democrat Governors walked away.
But before that, raising gas taxes was a moral imperative. Save the planet for the unaborted children they wanted to inject with an experimental pharmaceutical none of them needed.
With gas at around five dollars per gallon, thanks to Fuel Can Joe, lowering them is the moral imperative if it could save the Dems even one congressional seat. Congress, top-heavy with donkeys, is no longer flinging poo at the idea of a Federal Gas Tax Holiday.
It has to make Maggie “I vote with Biden 98% of the Time” Hassan happy and unhappy. When she proposed that gimmick, her press sold it as bucking her party, but that ship sailed, took on water, and sank. Almost everyone inside the beltway with a (D) after their name feels a bit like a deer staring down the headlights of an onrushing November election. If a gimmick keeps them from gasping for their last political breath in a rhetorical ditch on November 9th, they’ll embrace it.
Gimmicks are, after all, the Left’s stock and trade. Gun control laws result in more gun crime. The war on poverty laundered trillions through friendly NGOs without fixing that problem, and drugs won the other war, again at a high cost to taxpayers. The entire environmental charade is sleight of hand. And women’s rights? If anyone can be a woman, then no one can.
A three-month federal gasoline tax hiatus lowers the numbers but doesn’t keep them from scrolling upward again as a result of policy.
It will put a buck or three back into the people’s pockets at every fill-up but for how long? Biden kept his promise and broke the oil and gas industry in America. Dems wanted lower production. Demanded it. You can pretend to backtrack, but things on this scale don’t just get fixed quickly, and Dems prefer them broken. The goal was to end fossil fuels.
The federal lease policy under Biden and Democrats has created a declining long-term decline in production, so all this posturing has a half-life, as does their approach to fracking and every aspect of fossil fuel mineral development and extraction. They said they’d end it and meant that.
So, when the gas “holiday” is over – assuming they go for it – gas prices will spike. Will it be months or weeks before the mid-terms? I can see them extending it until after November, but it’s too little too late. A band-aid on a lost limb they can’t grow back. Not while Democrats hold the keys to the country.
And none of this will lessen the effects of inflation, shortages, and the declining quality of life average Americans have come to know and suspect under the “leadership” of Joe Biden. Joe did that, and Democrats are why we have him.
They should expect to pay a political price for that but will do whatever it takes to kick that can down the road to 2024, including gimmicks like a gas tax holiday.
The post Donkey Party: Raising Gas Taxes Was a Moral Imperative, Now “Lowering” Them Is … appeared first on Granite Grok.
ACTION NEEDED! Call the Governor, and ask him to sign RebuildNH supported bills this week.
Three RebuildNH supported bills arrived on Gov. Sununu’s desk:
TAKE ACTION: Please call Governor Sununu’s office and ask him to sign these bills: 603-271-2121.
Please Submit Group communications or Press Releases for consideration
to editor@granitegrok.com. Submission is not a guarantee of publication.
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It has been weeks since the Supreme Court memo about the upcoming Roe Vs. Wade decision was leaked, and the demonstrations began outside the homes of conservative justices. There is a law in the books that no level of authority is heeding.
The law is clear. There are to be no demonstrations or protests at the private residence of a Supreme Court Justice or Federal Judge. Daily protests have been at justice’s homes, and their addresses have been posted publicly. Police have a protective perimeter keeping protestors away, but nobody has been arrested for the apparent violation of the law.
There are many issues with enforcing the law to protect our current justices. First and foremost is promoting the protests by the President and his staff. They disagree with a written law and encourage people to protest 24/7 outside the justice’s homes. The addresses of the conservative justices were made public by the group Ruth Sent Us. The President continues to support the protests even after the attempted assassination of Brett Kavanaugh.
Next, is Attorney General Merrick Garland ignoring the law and his responsibility to enforce all laws. He is not speaking on the issue, and one possibility is payback for him not getting an opportunity to be on the bench after being nominated by President Obama. The probable reason is Biden telling him to stand down. The President is the premier crime fighter in the country and for him to act in this manner is criminal.
Finally, there is a perimeter of armed authorities guarding each of the six conservative justices. Still, they are not engaging with, discouraging, or arresting any of the protesters who are breaking the law.
Seeing the young girls protesting this weekend in front of Amy Coney Barrett’s home harkens questions about where their parents are. These girls look to be of high school age, wearing the same costume: white pants with bloodied crotches, white shirts with green hands holding each breast, wrists taped and holding a “fetus” in their hands. These girls are reported to be members of the pro-choice group Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights.
I challenge that these girls understand Roe Vs. Wade or what it means to give control of Abortion Rights back to the states. These girls are pawns, and the adults using them should be ashamed.
The opinion from the Court was expected weeks ago and will probably be released this week. Rumors are that Roberts has been lobbying for a watered-down compromise. If that is true and a result of the protests, it is a travesty. The Court must stay apolitical and insulated from public outcry. The task of the Supreme Court is to decide cases based on the Constitution. Public opinion should mean nothing.
Should the ruling come down and supplant Roe Vs. Wade on a Federal level, there will be violence from the Pro-Choice faction. They promised violence, and they will deliver.
Abortion rights have been a hot-button topic for more than fifty years. If the Left would do their homework and try to understand what is happening, they would step back. They will not do that because they react to emotions and not facts. The Court is merely correcting a flaw in the original law, returning it to the states where people can decide.
This situation calls for leadership and education on both sides. The Left lacks that leadership; thus, we will have protests, violence, and probably people hurt. All unnecessary.
The post When Does This Protesting End? appeared first on Granite Grok.
Typical Porcfest: Selling Cannabis for Goldbacks
On tonight’s Free Talk Live broadcast from Porcfest, host Mark Edge said he’s been to a lot of Porcfests, and the attendance this year is already exceeding the levels of a typical Friday from past years. That means Rogers Campground is already packed, on day number two of a weeklong event that tends to build its attendance as the weekend approaches. Posts to social media reveal a variety of vendors who are accepting Goldbacks and Cryptocurrency, as is to be expected at an event packed with libertarians, voluntarists, and liberty-loving anarchists.
Last year’s Porcfest was the first-ever sellout at 2,500 tickets. This year – the nineteenth annual – the event sold out again, and they maxxed out the tickets to 3,000! Every campsite in the park is completely sold out. The record-setting attendance in the last two years is no chance event – interest in the Free State Project has shot up dramatically since the insane COVID crackdowns in 2020. In fact, 2021 also saw more people migrating to New Hampshire as part of the FSP, than any previous year. 2022’s NH freedom migration numbers will likely eclipse 2021.
The nearly two-decades the FSP has been encouraging libertarian migration to NH has paid off as earlier movers have laid an amazing groundwork of activism organizations and resources for later migrants. NH libertarians are winning elections, with dozens of Free Staters in state house seats. We have built the largest community of freedom-loving activists on Earth. It is no longer a pie-in-the-sky idea, but a longterm, proven success. The more people move here as part of the FSP, the stronger the libertarian influence in the state. Success breeds success.
Free Talk Live at Porcfest 2022
Meanwhile, the statists in New Hampshire are freaking out over our tremendous successes thus far, as the FreeStateNH account on Twitter is constantly pointing out. Statists in positions of power ignore libertarians in every other state, because they have no influence and will never threaten the status quo. More liberty activists are realizing that concentrating activism works and are picking up and moving to New Hampshire. Porcfest is the premier excuse to come visit NH and experience what it’s like to be around more freedom-loving people that you can count for an entire week.
If you don’t have a ticket to Porcfest this year, you can try to buy some on the secondary market from people who can’t go. You can find more information about that here.
Whether you can attend or not, you can tune in every day to Free Talk Live for the latest discussion and interviews from the campground. Our broadcasts will continue through the end of Porcfest and the following week for Forkfest. Forkfest is the decentralized follow-up to Porcfest. Entering its sixth year, Forkfest has no tickets so in order to attend, one need only reserve a tent site, RV site, or motel room from Rogers Campground between June 27th and July 3rd.
Sadly, due to the insane bail restrictions on me because of the Crypto Six case, I can only go up for the day, as I have to be home each night by 11pm. However, last year I couldn’t even leave my home at all, so going up for one day is better than zero. This year, I’ll be at Porcfest on Friday where I’m honored to be able to speak on the pavilion main stage at 1pm. I hope to see you there!
(Image H/T: Liberal Logic 101)
From a post titled “Welcome to Secular Relativist Hell” (a great blogline all on its own; reformatted, emphasis mine):
It is not the least bit hyperbolic here in the year of our Lord 2022 to aver that the United States has lost its way. Fingers of blame are pointed in so many directions that the casual observer could think it’s impossible to say that just one or two things are the root of our present national malaise. Well, I’m not a casual observer and have no problem saying that this country’s woes can be traced to the abandonment of God and moral absolutes for the false comfort of secular relativism.
…The final verse of Judges says, “In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes.” At least we know that moral relativism isn’t new.
We need look no further than the abortion issue to see the perils of tossing all morality out of the window. Secular relativists have powers of rationalization that enable them to come to any conclusion they want. They begin by convincing themselves that the life that abortion terminates isn’t really a life. To reach that conclusion, one has to completely dismiss biology.
…People who truly believe that they have the right to the world being exactly as they want it have no problem justifying any means to help craft their impossible world, from ruining careers to ending lives. It’s the impetus for everything from Twitter cancel culture mobs to mass shooters.
And then goes to this quote (again, reformatted, emphasis mine):
The millennial generation might be surprised to learn that theirs is the first without guns in school. Just 30 years ago, high school kids rode the bus with rifles and shot their guns at high school rifle ranges. After another school shooting, it’s time to ask: what changed?
Cross guns off the list of things that changed in thirty years. In 1985, semi-automatic rifles existed, and a semi-automatic rifle was used in Florida. Guns didn’t suddenly decide to visit mayhem on schools. Guns can’t decide. We can also cross the Second Amendment off the list. It existed for over 200 years before this wickedness unfolded. Nothing changed in the Constitution. That leaves us with some uncomfortable possibilities remaining.
What has changed from thirty years ago when kids could take firearms into school responsibly and today might involve some difficult truths.
And what would those difficult truths be?
What has changed is that a good chunk of America no longer believes in God, truth, or the existence of real evil (calling one’s political opponents “evil” isn’t the same thing).
Emotional fragility coupled with a sense of entitlement (Participation trophy!) is a toxic societal cocktail and it’s literally killing us.
And that’s just the beginning of the problems. Without a belief in something larger and greater than oneself to whom you will be held accountable, there are no limitations to what you can rationalize to suit yourself. We’ve seen the insertion of “MY truth” as a common phrase on the Woke Left (re: “every man did what was right in his own eyes”). When each person determines what truth is for them, and then expects everyone else (who may have a “truth” of their own that conflicts with the other) to accept it unconditionally, Society fractures.
We go from A Truth based Society to one “built” on chaos – how can it be otherwise when there is absolutely no agreement on what is true or not? There can be little as far as the meetings of the minds – how can political disputes be mitigated when the “first principles” and “end result” have nothing in common?
The Left is changing our norms out from underneath it – causing much angst on their side that the rest of us can’t see “their truth” in that Oppressors / Oppressed / Power struggles are the foundation of public life. We, on the other side, are starting to get past that “slow to anger” phase and are now well on that path in fighting back – we’re tired of not being left alone.
An explosion is brewing. If we are lucky, it will only be political.
The post Indeed – It’s Not the Guns. Operative Question: How Has Society Changed? appeared first on Granite Grok.
Is reality and science finally taking hold in the sports world when it comes to men that think they are women participating in sports meant for women only? Some additional thoughts buried in here as well:
FINA just eliminated all transgender women who have undergone male puberty from swimming competition. Thus, unless parents commit child abuse before that growth stage hits, there will be no more men (e.g., William “Lia” Thomas) taking team spots and championships away from biological women. This is also starting to happen in other sports as well – rugby, bicycling, weightlifting with more to follow as they are evaluating solid evidence instead bowing to the yelling and yammering of a tiny number of militant sexual identity bullies.
FIFA, on the other hand, just eliminated ALL testosterone standards in soccer. Let the Law of Unintended Consequences run amok. Don’t worry, when the Division 1 men who didn’t get onto professional teams and invade the female teams, there will be a reckoning and things will be put correct.
And hopefully we can put this madness behind us. Not just the idea that women should have a “sports space” (versus a “safe space”) of their own. It should be that Gender Identity should no longer trump Biological Identity. No more of political pressure and “me, Me, ME!!!” in allowing the Tryanny of the Minority sowing chaos for the rest of us.
The post Skip’s Sauntering Snippets – #16 – Peak Transgenderism at both ends of its Spectrum appeared first on Granite Grok.
Last Wednesday night(6/15) was a joint meeting of the Gilford and Gilmanton School Boards held in Gilmanton rather than in Gilford (happens a few times a year) but in two parts. The first part was concerning the High School; Gilmanton tuitions its high schoolers to Gilford and that’s why this two-part meeting is held. It should be obvious that Gilmanton has a vested interest in the programs, the goings-on, and the actual, forecasted, or implied costs (that would affect tuition) present and future.
This video, however, is not that meeting. It is the second part of that joint meeting – Gilford School Board’s own meeting (Gilmanton still invited). And I have to say, for the first time, since Policy JBAB was discussed and then voted into approval, after years of haranguing (by me), and launching my lawsuit against the District for being anti-Free Speech (“preferred pronouns mandatory”) and lying to Parents about the transgender status of their children (by commission or by omission), the Board had a discussion on its Policy (under Agenda item “Other”).
Gilford School Board member Kyle Sanborn decided, having argued against the policy before coming on the Board, that it was time to revisit it. Why?
I would like to think that if my lawsuit is not thrown out a second time for lack of standing, I would win on the merits as there is NO NH law that allows the Board (a mere subdivision of the State in this Dillon’s Rule State) such Powers as canceling Freedom of Speech and lying to Parents. I also have informed the Board that, like Hillary (I know, I know; stay with me here), I shall Persist.
What good Dad would go the distance to keep his son from harm?
So listen to the discussions which were limited to the part of JBAB dedicated to the idea “Shall we continue to Lie to Parents?”. LISTEN HARD, to those that are in favor of doing so and those that are in agreement with Kyle that lying to Parents should NEVER be tolerated in that it is a Moral Wrong.
This has taken quite some time to get to this point. Let’s see what transpires going forward.
The post Cracks in the Gilford School Board’s Continuing Support of Policy Jbab (Unfreedom of Speech, Lying to Parents)? appeared first on Granite Grok.