The Buses keep rolling. From Texas, Florida, and Arizona, the Governors are filling the buses with illegal immigrants and shipping them North. With destinations like the sanctuary cities of San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, and New York, the southern Border States have had enough, spent too much, and are making a point in a dramatic fashion that gets some attention.

This influx of humanity is placing a burden of multiple magnitudes on these Northern cities, and their Mayors, all Democrats, are irate at Joe Biden and are putting pressure on him to finally stem the tide of illegals entering our country. Mayor Adams is finally seeing the light. This catastrophe is not the fault of Ron DeSantis or Greg Abbott. They are working to save what remains of their great states after nearly three years of failed Biden policies on the Border. It is fruitless to talk about Biden’s policies, for his only plan is to abolish the Border and let in millions of unvetted, unvaccinated illegals worldwide.

If the illegals formed a state, they would be the 15th largest state in our country. Over seven million people, and we do not know who they are, where they came from, or, worse, where they have gone. These people are given a piece of paper telling them to report for a hearing in three years and set free. Our government has already lost 85,000 minors who have probably fallen into illegal labor situations or, God forbid, the sex trade. America is the largest market for children for sex in the world. Let that sink in. And you wonder why none of the visitors to Epstein’s Island have been investigated.

Mayor Adams claims the migrant crisis will destroy New York City, and it is not hyperbole. Over 100,000 people are filling hotels, shelters, and temporary encampments. They are absorbing resources earmarked for needy New York residents who are now going without. Thousands of non-English speaking children are overcrowding the schools, and people are living on the streets with colder weather coming soon. The situation is not going to improve because there is no plan to solve the migrant flow. People want the Border closed, and the President is not listening.

Congresspeople Cortez and Nadler visited the Big Apple today and were shouted down by protestors as they both said the problem needs more Federal funding. There is no plan, but throw more cash at it, and the problem disappears. That is the Democrat solution to every crisis. They also kept referring to these people as Venezuelans. They obviously were playing to one voting block, as nobody knows where these people came from. They made fools of themselves and insulted us by saying we must embrace these people because we are all Americans. These people are anything but Americans. They are demanding work permits and driver’s licenses for all so these people can begin to support themselves. How about deportation orders and let them come back legally?

These people protesting today were not wearing MAGA hats. These people are New Yorkers who supported and helped Biden win his office. They are angry, and Democrats are losing these people. Finally, one protestor summed this up perfectly. He said the government shut down businesses and our lives for two years during the Pandemic. People had to skip food to buy school supplies for their children. These people are given shelter, food, cell phones, and cash; New Yorkers have seen enough. This day of anger in NYC is just the icing on the cake for the worst week in Joe Biden’s Presidency. He is going to the beach. See you Monday!

The post New York Has No Vacancies? Send Those Buses To Rehoboth Beach appeared first on Granite Grok.

If you’ve missed the ongoing legal ruckus over (former Democrat State Senator) Jeff Woodburn’s Domestic assault circus, it has been a wild ride. Post-conviction, Mr. Woodburn got the State Supreme Court to dismiss and remand his case because the trial court refused to admit certain evidence.

As a pre-trial for the new trial evolves, Woodburn has asked for evidence to be allowed while the State has requested that it not, and for good reason. Woodburn’s “evidence” amounts to proving Woodburn had, on several previous occasions, attempted to distance himself from conflict and that the alleged victim acted to prevent this. It is meant to reinforce the defendant’s claim that what he is accused of was self-defense, but his journal and other evidence document anger issues and own frustration with them.

The problem, however, is his proof.

 

 

The State Supreme Court, had they known, might have ruled differently, but the value of the evidence was not on trial. The trial court’s rejection of the evidence (or how it was rejected) was, and Woodburn won that battle but to no good end. The evidence the court rejected that got him his retrial has been rejected again on much more well-documented grounds.

 

 

If Woodburn is again convicted on any counts, he has nowhere to go but the pokey, community, or something suitable to a pasty white former Democrat lawmaker with liberal privilege. Or maybe just the conviction hung about his neck is adequate. He hasn’t run for public office again, which is a win for taxpayers.

But you can never know what might follow, though, at this point, I think they should call this case – which has dragged on for years – Woodburn vs. Woodburn.

 

 

The post Jeff Woodburn vs. Jeff Woodburn appeared first on Granite Grok.

The prevailing narrative is that the pandemic shutdowns affected student performance in public schools. As seen in our prior two articles, data from the Croydon, NH Village School, and statewide data from the New Hampshire Student Assessment System (NHSAS), the National Assessment of Educational Progress test do not support this narrative.

The data clearly shows that reading scores were decreasing well before the pandemic. Moreover, it also showed conclusively that fewer than half of NH’s students had been scoring proficient or better for decades.

In this article, we take an in-depth look at what happened to performance before and after the pandemic shutdowns in Vermont, using its statewide test, the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC), and the NAEP test.

Vermont students have taken the SBAC every year in grades 3 through 9 since 2015. The tests were not administered in 2020 because of the school shutdowns caused by the COVID pandemic. In 2021, the SBAC was optional. Scores for 2023 are not yet available. The VT Agency of Education did not respond to a request for this data. However, because VT changed to the Cognia test, it would be hard to compare the 2023 results to previous years’ SBAC scores.

The VT SBAC Reading chart (below) shows the percentage of students in grades 3 through 9 who performed at or above proficiency in reading from 2018 to 2022. In 2022, just over 40% of 3rd-grade students (bottom line in chart) were considered proficient or above in reading. That means 60% of students were reading below grade level, a full year after returning to in-person schooling.

 

 

Performance in 2021 was better than in 2022, which is hard to explain. The chart shows that pre-pandemic performance had been poor since at least 2018, with about 50% of 3rd-grade students (bottom line in the chart) scoring proficient or above in reading. Though a ten-point drop is pretty significant, the fact remains that about half of Vermont’s students were not able to read at grade level before the pandemic. The chart shows a steady decline since 2018 for most grades, with all of them doing poorly across the years.

As we know, student ability can’t be measured by just one test. So, as we did with New Hampshire, we will look at how Vermont’s students did on a national test.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP, pronounced “nape”) is often called “The Nation’s Report Card.” Since 1969, NAEP has been designed and used by the education establishment to let everyone know how well the United States is educating its children. They report results for each state for grades 4 and 8.

According to this test, Vermont students are about average compared to other states.

Vermont has NAEP scores for grades 4 and 8 in reading and math since 2002. In reading, as shown in the NAEP Reading chart (below), the number of students reading at or above proficient for grades 4 (blue line) and 8 (orange line) hovered around 40% from 2002 to 2019.

 

 

The grade 8 scores started to go down in 2019, before the pandemic. While shutdown affected the grade 4 scores a little, the data shows that the scores have been poor for over 20 years. Since 2002, around 60% of Vermont’s students have not been able to read at grade level. In 2022, the number edged closer to 65%.

As with New Hampshire, Vermont’s data shows dismal proficiency rates that stretch back more than twenty years. That Vermont made its state test optional in 2021 complicates the picture because that testing cohort deviates from the norm. However, Vermont’s data does show that if the scores got worse, it wasn’t by much. This is important because the narrative that “things got worse” suggests that things were going fine before when they weren’t.

This story is part of a series where we show how the pandemic shutdowns in Vermont and New Hampshire affected student performance on state and national standardized tests. Prior installments in this series were published in the Eagle Times on September 9 and 12 and in Grok part 1 and part 2.

Next, we’ll take a look at test scores and reading instruction at Killington Elementary School in Killington, VT.

This article first appeared in the Eagle Times and was edited slightly.

 

The post How the Pandemic Shutdown Affected Student Performance: Vermont (part 3 of 8) appeared first on Granite Grok.

Fox News firing Tucker may be the best thing that ever happened to him. Unleashed from the restraint of being a media Moguls talking head, Tucker Carlson has been on a tear, ripping up the fruited plain with rants exposing the disconnects and corruption of American politics, and no just inside the Beltway.

 

Carlson took a trip to Michigan and had some choice words for Gretchen Wittmer and her ilk, but he didn’t stop there. Texas Governor Abbot got a lashing, and well deserved, it would seem. Attacks wielded with a news anchor’s acumen but with populist common-sense WTF semantics. YOu can do something but you won’t. What is wrong with you?

 

What do Gretchen Whitmer and Greg Abbot have in common? Unfortunately, quite a bit. pic.twitter.com/QCwk7371kJ

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) September 12, 2023

 

He’s not wrong about any of it, which is why every installment of Tucker on Twitter, sorry X (doesn’t roll off the tongue like it used to), gathers tens of millions of views. The guy is tearing it up, which got me wondering. Given the trajectory of his public musings, what if Trump asked him to be his VP?

I’m not sure he’d accept. He probably accepts that he can do a lot more outside than in, but is it a crazy idea to suggest it? If it is, then why not go here: how about Tucker Carlson as a Republican President’s press secretary? It would probably be a huge pay cut but talk about must-watch television.

 

 

The post VP Tucker Carlson? appeared first on Granite Grok.

On September 11, when the President should have been in New York, Pennsylvania, or Washington, D.C., honoring the victims of 9/11 and the many First Responders who, when the planes crashed, ran into and not away from danger, he was a continent away.

We have lost nearly as many First Responders who died from diseases resulting from the toxic environment they encountered when trying to save lives as those killed by the initial crashes and explosions—nearly 5,000 deaths due to three terrorist attacks. Instead, Joe Biden broke tradition and went to Alaska to address some troops with a speech highlighted by an ill-timed joke and an easily debunked lie.

By the end of the day, the anger over the President’s handling of the day boiled over. The Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, notified Congress of an agreement between the Administration and the terrorist state of Iran. Under the terms of the deal, Iran and the United States would swap five prisoners, and we would unfreeze $6 Billion of Iranian money that America had seized. The money will be placed into banks under the control of Qatar. The timing of this deal is inappropriate and insulting to the American people.

According to John Kirby, Iran can only use the funds for humanitarian purposes, and Iran will have to satisfy specific requirements to the Qatar government to access the funds. This is where naive comes into play. The Iranian government has already declared the money is theirs, and they will use and spend it on what they want. Joe Biden, Antony Blinken, and the Administration know the truth. Still, they do not want to admit they bought the release of five Americans and put a monetary value on every American head. On one of the most solemn days on our calendar, this Administration weakened our national security by buying the freedom of five unjustly incarcerated Americans by one of our most dangerous geopolitical foes. Is it great to have these Americans back home on American soil? Of course, but the timing and details of the deal could not be worse. John Kirby can stand in front of a mediocre group of White House reporters until he is blue in the face, and he will not be able to put a positive spin on this story.

When Kirby was asked about the safety of Americans traveling abroad, he referred them to the State Department website, where foreign countries are coded for their danger level. Iran is designated as a “D” level threat for Dangerous. Unfortunately, with the actions of Joe Biden, stepping outside our Borders (the ones we used to have) is now a danger for every American as we now have a $1 Billion price tag on our heads.

I say the Administration is naive, but I think it is worse than that. I think that Biden is complicit with every enemy nation you can name. Russia, China, Korea, and Iran are all getting favorable treatment from Biden at a time when he should be ratcheting up the pressure. Just like the tax dollars going to Ukraine, keep an eye on that $6 Billion, and you will undoubtedly see a check drawn against it and deposited into one of Biden’s twenty LLC accounts. This man and his family has to go down, and I hope, maybe blind faith, that this impeachment inquiry is the first step in the process

The post Inept, Disrespectful, And Naive appeared first on Granite Grok.

Pivotal in remaining a strong and credible party, you need to have the trust of your constituents. Without that trust within the bounds of the law, both the individual and the collective will be stifled, resulting in an enterprise unworthy of the name.

The Republican Party needs to rejuvenate its support base and overall credibility. Republican Party is on life support as it is today. It is no longer a mystery; the Republican Party has lost touch with its constituents and the American people. They don’t connect and don’t care. For example, the US Senate is not serving the intended role of protecting the individual states’ autonomy and authority. Senators view themselves as part of the national government, not as a defender of the state’s interest and sovereignty.

What do you think can be done? First and foremost, we must have term limits. Vital to the effort’s success is abandoning old suspicions, parochial thinking, and scheming for special privileges for any individual or group. Goodwill and work for the common good are required of all. This new beginning is a paradigm shift from the destructive ways of the past. There is much to be gained by all when justice and equity are not exclusive to the few. Justice in all its forms, as is the case with freedom, must be the guiding principle of our Republican Party. They don’t fight; they cave in.

This Party can’t even agree on a single bill to pass. A lack of unity and leadership has weakened this Party. Despite many promises to the American people, Obamacare is still alive and well. “For American voters expecting their Republican-dominated House and Senate and the White House to honor their years of repeal promises and repeal Obamacare. In a move that’s no surprise to anyone, the late John McCain voted against the embarrassingly named ‘Skinny Repeal,’ voted against his Party (or is it his Party?), and voted to keep Obamacare going.

Many people can no longer differentiate between the Democrats and the Republicans. Not to mention, this Party ultimately betrayed the American people during the Obama administration. They just watched and did nothing.

According to Rasmussen Reports, Republican voters are far more likely than Democrats to say their party bosses are out of touch with the voter base. Seventy-three percent of Republicans think their party leaders are out of step with the rank-and-file, the survey shows.

Republican Party has become one of the rich, for the rich, and has lost touch with people. The Party has lost its ability to govern despite having the majority in the House and Senate numerous times and Republican President. They have their agenda.

Time is of the essence; either do your job for which you were elected or resign so that we can have new blood injected into that Party. You can no longer function.

The post The Republican Party Is on Life Support appeared first on Granite Grok.

September is living up to its reputation as the peak month for Hurricanes. Storms are pouring off the west coast of Africa in rapid succession, Lee being the latest Hurricane, followed by TD 15, which is projected to be CAT3 when it reaches the Sargasso Sea in a few days.

 

Here is Tropical Depression 15, isolated from the radar map above. It currently has sustained winds of  35 mph, according to NOAA.

 

 

The track looks similar to Lee but a bit further out. Lee ran straight toward Georgia, then the dogleg right, and drifted east. Maine might have avoided the heavy rain if it had more time to sail further east.

This tropical depression (15) is pointed right at Washington DC, which, if I recall the commenters from a previous Hurricane Lee post, is where some readers thought the storm needed to land. I’m sure a few of them are saying, “Stay on target,” but what are the odds it does what Lee did with a slightly more north and easterly swing? Good to excellent. Between when I started this post and this morning, the projection did that exact thing.

 

 

There’s not much chance of it getting anywhere near us, but to NOAA’s credit, this year’s forecast will be much closer than the 2022 projections, which were just lousy. But how close will it have to wait until November?

Until then, it’s very active, and we’ll try to keep track of these things as they pile up in the Northern Atlantic and hope most of them are like Margot, who is still twirling about the middle of the ocean as a Tropical storm.

 

 

The post As Hurricane (Tropical Storm) Lee Finishes Its “Drive-By,” Who’s Next? appeared first on Granite Grok.

Despite massive support from legacy and social media, the political landscape is moving away from Democrats and Joe Biden, according to recent polls conducted by the Wall Street Journal, Gallup, and the Associated Press.

As of 2004, nearly a third of voters settled into either Republican, Democrat, or Independent categories.  As of this year, nearly fifty percent (49%) of Americans will vote as Independents, with the two major parties dropping down to twenty-five percent each.  Analysts believe this indicates implicit disapproval of the two-party system, where both parties have become more tribal and politically adversarial rather than beholden to voters and their needs.

The WSJ poll found the economy as the most important issue to all registered voters, especially Republicans.  From a list of thirty-three areas of concern ranging from immigration to far-left and far-right movements, climate change, and racial issues, the economy and immigration ranked the highest among all registered voters polled, which was consistent with registered Republicans.

The AP Poll, conducted by the University of Chicago on behalf of the Associated Press and Fox News, revealed these Independents still slightly favor Democrats to Republicans mainly due to lack of Republicans ability to clearly identify their plans to deal with the nation’s issues.  However, the trend shows the nation of Independents moving strongly in the direction of Republicans over the last two years, going from a 15% preference to Dems now down to just 4%.

Another dramatic realignment between the two parties is the shift in working-class voters to Republican.  Nine of the ten wealthiest districts in the US (mostly California, New York, and D.C.) still favor voting Democrat, however, the middle to lower-income voters align with conservatives.  Given the overwhelming concern with the economy, this bodes well for conservative candidates who can articulate winning strategies to improve the current cost of living woes.

Looking to the presidential candidates, we see a tie between Donald Trump and Joe Biden for approval and disapproval among registered voters.  Both candidates receive relatively low favorability at 39% “totally approve” rating.  However, Biden is overwhelmingly considered unfit to serve a second term with nearly three-quarters (74%) of the nation believing he is “too old” and sixty percent stating he is not “mentally fit” for the office.  Trump’s approval in these areas hovers around fifty percent favorability.

Among the other presidential hopefuls with significant approval are Ron Desantis, Vivek Ramaswamy, Nikki Haley, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who sees a 35% approval rating from Democrats but 49% from Republicans.  Kennedy’s approval among Democrat voters is only one percentage point ahead of Kamala Harris.  Other possible Democrat nominees, such as Gavin Newsome and Michelle Obama, were not mentioned.  Desantis’ approval among Republicans who will vote in the primary was higher than Trump’s in April of this year (84% to 78%) but has fallen behind as of August (75% to 70%).  National polls however show he still lags behind Trump by nearly 50 points as the Republican nominee, with the rest of the field even further back.

The recent indictments of Donald Trump reveal that one-third (33%) of Americans believe it is both politically motivated and without merit, while another third (34%) believe it is legitimate and not politically motivated, with another 22% saying it is legitimate but also politically motivated.  61% of Republicans believe it is illegitimate and politically motivated.  A breakdown of each indictment (1) taking classified documents and obstructing efforts to get them back (2) attempt to overturn the election (3) conspiracy to reverse the election, reveals virtually the same picture – a third each believing it’s illegitimate and political or legitimate and not politically motivated with roughly 70% of Republicans believing it’s the former.

The recent call to impeach Joe Biden sees 46% of registered voters strongly disapproving it, with another 32% in favor of it.  This may be as a result of impeachment fatigue, economic woes, and fears of resources wasted in Congress while the country and world are in apparent high states of turmoil and not because Joe Biden hasn’t done anything worthy of impeachment.  Why? 45-50% of those same voters believe Biden is either “corrupt” or did “something illegal”.  With the story relating to his son Hunter’s laptop, 34% of registered voters said they are less likely to vote for Biden if the allegations are true.

The war in Ukraine has become increasingly unpopular with all voters.  38% of Americans now believe we are “doing too much” to help the Ukrainians up from just 6% in March.

Analysis for a Joe Biden presidency

None of the numbers look good for Joe Biden to repeat as president of the United States.  The demographic numbers are all moving away from the Democratic party to either the middle or right of center.  Even his constituents overwhelmingly suggest he is either too old (74%) or mentally unfit (60%) and the evidence mounts daily as Biden famously wanders off both physically and verbally at nearly every public event.  With the Republican party now holding sway with the middle and lower-income voters and an economy moving Americans into that group daily, the picture looks bleak for another Biden term in office.  Even the defense of Biden by his media paratroopers hasn’t been able to sway public opinion to help retain legitimacy.  If you thought his purported record 81 million votes in 2020 was unlikely, it will take every act of political legerdemain known to man to prop him up again.

The anti-Trump strategy

The Democrats have made their strategy to defeat Donald Trump if he is the nominee, crystal clear.  Character assassination in the media, along with removal from the ballots in every state they can pull it off.  If prison doesn’t work, then some suggest an actual assassination, but we’ll have to wait and see.  As they did in 2020, the cable/tv media will mobilize yet again to denounce Trump 24/7. Facebook and Google will massage social media and internet traffic as much as humanly possible to impair Republican campaigns. 

They obviously don’t have a pro-Biden voter base, let alone favorability among all voters, so the tactic becomes “anyone but Trump.”  Toss in some lockdowns over a now weakening virus that really only threatens a tiny percentage of the population and a call for more mail-in ballots, and you can see the numbers hopping up like a bar graph in the middle of the night.  Sprinkle in some political mules to carry the load and put the teenage voter alongside the illegal immigrant voter, and you have the icing on the half-baked cake that is Democrat party legitimacy.

Whether the numbers show it, or you know it or not, Donald Trump and MAGA are an “existential threat to our Democracy”.  Therefore, the ends justify the means.

Buckle up, folks. The road to the 2024 elections is looking to be a very bumpy ride.

 

The post Polls Of American Voters Shows Major Shift To Independent and Anti-Biden appeared first on Granite Grok.

So the Biden-Regime has indicted the Regime’s Figurehead-President’s son. The purpose of this indictment? To protect the “Big Guy,” the Regime’s Figurehead-President. The crimes in the indictment are the handful of crimes committed by Hunter that did NOT involve the Big Guy. Get it?

Federal grand jury indicts Hunter Biden on three gun charges + could face up to 25 years in prison if found guilty of the felony counts. @RepJamesComer said the charges fell short, “This is the one crime he committed that you can't tie Joe Biden into.” pic.twitter.com/Ko8d8T6EkD

— Catherine Herridge (@CBS_Herridge) September 14, 2023

Don’t be fooled.

Today's indictment of Hunter Biden for gun felonies is just more coverup by Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss, who has protected the Bidens for years.

Weiss, handpicked by both Democrat home-state senators in Delaware, let the statute of limitations expire on…

— Mike Davis (@mrddmia) September 14, 2023

OPINION: The #HunterBiden Gun Indictment Is A Distraction Designed To Refocus Media Off Of @JoeBiden Selling His Elected Office! pic.twitter.com/841ZaPPu43

— John Basham (@JohnBasham) September 14, 2023

The post The Hunter Indictment … It’s All About Protecting The Big Guy appeared first on Granite Grok.

In true Democrat fashion, Chicago is proposing a government solution to address a problem it created. Local markets and grocery chains, unable to protect their employees or customers, or make a profit where “petty” theft is not prosecuted, have pulled up stakes. Chicago’s mayor to the rescue?

 

All Chicagoans deserve to live near convenient, affordable, healthy grocery options. We know access to grocery stores is already a challenge for many residents, especially on the South and West sides. A better, stronger, safer future is one where our youth and our communities have access to the tools and resources they need to thrive. My administration is committed to advancing innovative, whole-of-government approaches to address these inequities.

 

Did you run the capitalist markets out so of town you could socialize groceries, or is this just you responding to a problem created by Democrat policy that coincidentally socializes food shopping?

 

“The city of Chicago is reimagining the role government can play in our lives by exploring a public option for grocery stores via a municipally owned grocery store and market,” Pawar said. “Not dissimilar from the way a library or the postal service operates, a public option offers economic choice and power to communities.”

 

Any government anything in Chicago will ultimately cost and waste billions, so that’s baked in regardless of the claims of city officials, but that’s not what I want explained. My question is whether the city-owned stores will tolerate the rampant unprosecuted shoplifting that drove other businesses away. And if not, how could you possibly suggest that taxpayers won’t be on the hook for the losses on top of the cost of doing business, and if they are, why wouldn’t that just encourage more theft?

 

HT | Breitbart

The post Will Chicago’s Proposed City-Owned Grocery Stores let Criminals Shop Lift? (Which is Why the Old Stores left) appeared first on Granite Grok.

Kirk Cameron’s recently published children’s book, Pride Comes Before the Fall, is a charming story about the dangers inherent in being overly prideful rather than humble.  While some detractors have labeled this book by the former child TV star as “anti-gay” because of its message about pride, Cameron prefers to call it “pro-humility.”

If you live in the state of New Hampshire, however, don’t go to your local public library to get a copy of this book because you won’t find it unless you live in one particular town.*  You’ll have a much easier time finding Gender Queer, Maia Kobabe’s graphic memoir, which is available at more than half of New Hampshire’s 232 libraries, or Juno Dawson’s “how to” guide, This Book Is Gay, held by fifty-two.

Library users have a better than even chance of finding critical race theory guru Ibram X. Kendi’s How To Be an Antiracist available in any given public library in New Hampshire. But if you want to read Why I Stand, the autobiography of Isaac Washington, the NBA player who refused to kneel when his teammates chose to do so, you’ll have a hard time getting your hands on it; only two libraries in the entire state include it in their collections.

A similar situation is evident when evaluating library holdings related to the controversial issue of climate change. Heaven and Earth: Global Warming, the Missing Science, a book by Australian geologist and former University of Melbourne professor Ian Plimer (accused of being a “climate change denier”), is nowhere to be found in New Hampshire’s public library system.  Meanwhile, The Climate Book by Greta Thunberg, an obviously ghostwritten treatise, is owned by seventy-three libraries statewide.

These are just a few of the head-shaking facts I found when searching the New Hampshire State Library’s interlibrary loan (ILL) database, the purpose of which is to facilitate the sharing of resources among the state’s public libraries.  While my information is limited to one small purplish state, it reflects a troubling situation that is likely a problem throughout the country: public library collections are favoring woke material over conservative books, and this begs the question, “Who is really banning whom?”

The main definition provided for the verb “ban” on Dictionary.com is “to prohibit, forbid, or bar.”  All these words suggest an action that will prevent something from happening, perhaps even involving a rule or law.  The epithet “book banner” should similarly, therefore, describe someone who will prevent the reading of a particular book or books.  Increasingly nowadays, “book banner” is a term used to describe parents who object to certain books being shelved in the children’s room of their local public library.  Such parents, however, are not actually prohibiting anyone from reading anything.  They just want some books on sensitive subjects regarding sex and gender moved to other areas in the library so that children are not exposed to this material without parental consent.  Most of these parents recognize the right of adults to have access to these titles, including parents who might choose to have their children read them.  The reality is that the term “book banner” is being used as a scare tactic by woke librarians and library organizations to mislead the public into believing that some parents are ushering in a neo-Nazi society that will ultimately lead to the throwing of books into raging bonfires.  Nothing could be further from the truth!

In order for a book to be truly banned, it must be impossible to read; you cannot get it anywhere, not in your local library, not at another library, not at your local bookstore, not even on Amazon.  Such banning requires government suppression such as that which did actually occur during the Nazi era in Germany.  What parents are doing in libraries is not banning books.

The only way to completely avoid what is erroneously being called book banning today is to buy every single book that is currently being published.  That is obviously impossible considering that the average public library, especially in small-town New Hampshire, has limited shelf space with room for only a few tens of thousands of books.  Obtaining most books not held by your local library, however, is actually quite easy thanks to interlibrary loan (ILL).  The existence of ILL should negate the book-banning argument because this service, which allows patrons to get just about any book they might want, is supposed to prevent the prohibition that characterizes a ban.

There’s an insidious problem with the ILL system, however, because it does not allow patrons to get certain books, and those prohibited books are often conservative titles, as reflected by the examples I have offered above.  Conversely, it is very easy to get what many would describe as woke titles.  Analyzing the results of my various ILL database searches suggests a troubling answer to the question, “Who’s banning whom?”

The bottom line is that it is much easier to obtain left-leaning woke material via ILL and much harder to get more conservative titles.  The situation reflected in the ILL database of a purplish state like New Hampshire speaks volumes about the lack of balance between different ideologies—an imbalance that likely exists in other states.  The lack of conservative titles available through ILL is a direct result of the purchasing decisions made by individual public libraries, decisions that inordinately favor woke titles.  It is a situation that is also reflected in new book displays at public libraries, which are far more likely to highlight left-leaning titles than conservatively themed ones.

A few years ago, I requested that my local public library purchase a new book—Michael Knowles, Amazon’s #1 bestseller Speechless: Controlling Words, Controlling Minds.  This book is about the weaponization of political correctness, and it is written by a well-known conservative writer, so not surprisingly, my request was denied. The library justified this denial by claiming that there were no positive reviews of this book.  While I was easily able to find a lot of positive feedback online about this title, librarians, following the mandates of the American Library Association, only consider reviews in left-leaning publications like Library Journal and The New York Times.

When a book requested by a tax-paying citizen is not selected for a public library collection, this situation could be considered a “book ban” using the same twisted meaning that the woke left is pushing. In an article entitled “Is It ‘Banning’ To Reject the Book in the First Place,” Neal McCloskey asserts:

“…it is just as much ‘banning’ for public institutions to reject books in the first place as to remove them later on. The ultimate result is the same: not making a book available for the public to borrow. Of course, this is not really banning, which would be to prohibit people from reading a book at all—making it illegal to purchase or possess—not refusing to let people borrow it for free. But if people want to misapply the term, they should misapply it equally.”

While the existence of the ILL system, which facilitates rather than prohibits the obtaining of books, should negate the “book banner” argument, at the same time an analysis of selected library holdings reveals that the left is actually “banning” books (using their own distorted definition) rather than the conservatives that they hypocritically criticize.  So let’s get the woke librarians and opponents of true intellectual freedom to stop using the term “book ban” unless it truly applies to the situation.  This emotionally charged term has been misused long enough.  It’s time for logic and common sense to ban the egregious misuse of the pejorative epithet “book banner” and to stop demonizing concerned parents by labeling them with this derogatory term.

 

This article originally appeared on New Hampshire State Representative Arlene Quaratiello’s Substack newsletter “No Shushing Now: Exposing Today’s Woke Libraries.”  Subscribe for free at arlenequaratiello.substack.com.  

The post Who’s Banning Whom? – The Hypocrisy of Being Called a “Book Banner” appeared first on Granite Grok.

During the Summer of Love (2020), Democrats demanded you support Black Lives Matter. Democrat politicians willingly defunded city police forces in the name of protecting minorities. Inner-city crime (predictably) skyrocketed, so Dem DAs hid that hockey stick (on paper) by not calling a long list of crimes… crime.

But it still looks like crime to the minorities trapped in those neighborhoods. At the same time, the leaders of Black Lives Matter took the billions donated to BLM to protect them and moved to peaceful white suburbs while inner-city blacks watched that crime drive away businesses and jobs.

Democrats, who made all of this possible, aren’t taking any responsibility; in fact, they’ve lined up a new scapegoat.

 

A recent editorial column in The New York Times, “Kia and Hyundai Helped Enable a Crime Wave. They Should Pay for It,” has been part of a spate of national and local media stories blaming the massive surge in car thefts on the Korean automaker. (Kia is owned by Hyundai.)

A number of blue cities beset by crime and auto thefts have decided to sue the automakers following the success of a class-action lawsuit earlier this year. On the list of cities suing Kia and Hyundai are Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, and New York.

The contention here is that it’s the fault of the South Korean car companies for making some of their vehicles too easy to steal.

 

Kia and Hyundai (same company) have made moves to improve anti-theft security, but Democrats have set their heart on treating cars like guns. The thing is the problem, not the person, and it is not the Left’s fault for making crime pay. These self-stealing cars are to blame, as is the company that made them, which only tells me that Hyundai isn’t donating enough to Democrats.

I’m sure the Left has other motives, but the root of the problem is those damn Dems. Chicago was a warzone before BLM, with nothing but Democrats to blame. They run the city. They run and set policies for the police department. They fund, defund, or trample on cops, making it harder to get anyone to do that job. And it has been that way for decades.

There is no one else to blame for whatever happens in Chicago but the Democrat party where Black Lives Don’t Matter, not even to black Democrat politicians. Oh, sure, maybe when they get started, but The Windy City Political Machine swallows them up or spits them out.

Hyundai didn’t disarm everyone except those who could afford security and the criminals. They aren’t responsible for going soft on crime. Democrats did that.

Here’s Omni Ceren, writing at X in response to some left-wing babbling nonsense about car thefts in Chicago.

 

Why would Kia and Hyundai do this? https://t.co/zNqS06vETa pic.twitter.com/YwaLbfqRja

— Omri Ceren (@omriceren) September 6, 2023

 

In related car news, beginning with the Dem party-sponsored riots, carjackings in Chicago went up 134% from 2019 to 2020. Those are cars stolen from people still in them, and that number has not much declined. Since 2020, the average reported annual number of carjackings is 1645, more than double the three-year average before 2020.

 

 

Did Hyundai do that too?

Is the carmaker also responsible for the decline in carjacking arrests, which dropped from nearly 10% of the criminals responsible to about 6%?

C’mon, man, explain that away. And not just in Chicago. Every city (or state) run by Democrats will encounter this sort of deflection. Burlington, Vermont, has recently begun its death spiral into the toilet of systemic Democrat rule, and we’ve been following that in real-time.

It’s a disease that starts with (d), with only one treatment. Vote regularly and not for Democrats. But the other thing they can’t seem to escape is the belief that, at some point, all this misery will end, and things will get better. Sorry. Chicago is about as good as that gets, and your future looks much more like those even more dangerous Cities Marc told us about in Mexico.

That is the future of progressivism. San Francisco’s poop and needle map, declining tourism, rising crime, and bigger budgets that make the few fat, safe, and happy and leave everyone else with less, and not just becasue someone stole their Hyundai.

 

 

 

The post Democrats Blame Car Maker for Rise in Auto Thefts to Distract From Their Crappy Record on Crime appeared first on Granite Grok.

In New Hampshire the RINO problem is spelled S-U-N-U-N-U. In Texas it’s spelled B-U-S-H. Here’s Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s Impeachment-Lawyer torching the Bushies. If you don’t want to watch the entire video, start at 1:15.

The post Must See … Ken Paxton’s Impeachment Lawyer Says Bush Era In Texas Has Ended And Tells Bushies To Go Back To Maine appeared first on Granite Grok.

New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan was asked to investigate whether Donald Trump could be kept off the New Hampshire ballot for things he’d neither been tried nor convicted. It was a stupid ask, but Scanlan honored the request anyway. His response is … diplomatic.

 

“There is no mention in the New Hampshire state statute that a candidate in a New Hampshire presidential primary can be disqualified using the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution mentioning insurrection or rebellion,” he told news outlets in a statement. “There is nothing in the 14th Amendment that suggests that exercising the provisions of that amendment should take place during the delegate selection process held by the different states.” …

Mr. Scanlan said that “nothing in our state statue that gives the secretary of state the discretion in entertaining qualification issues once a candidate swears under the penalty of perjury that they meet the qualifications to be president.” He added that once the candidate applies according to the proper procedures, their name “will appear on the ballot.”

 

He is saying that I, as Secretary of State (SoS), have no legal ground to stand on, but I have a feeling that we’d get a different answer if our SoS was that wacky Dem Colin Van Ostern. Van Ostern stepped up for a shot at the gig two sessions back, but the legislature did not pick him. Had they, he’d likely still be in the job. New Hampshire Secretary of State has a hired-for-life feel that matches only Supreme Court Justices.

That’s a trend unlikely to last, but Scanlan’s response suggests he’d like to remain neutral and so-employed, not that Democrats won’t call him a Trump stooge for following the law. The never-Trumpers might also be miffed, but that didn’t stop Scanlen from expanding on his point.

 

“At a time when we need U.S. election officials to ensure transparency and build confidence among voters around the country, the delegate selection process should not be the battleground to test this constitutional question,” he added.

 

A brief note to other states. Whatever you are doing, regardless of if I agree, this isn’t the place to do it. Besides, as I noted here,

 

Trump running in New Hampshire is good for political tourism. You may not like him, but he will draw a small fortune that fills hotels and restaurants and lights a fire under the local economy. Trump on the Ballot is good for New Hampshire.

 

And Trump is only ahead about 50 points nationally, though much less in NH, which is also good for New Hampshire. A tighter race makes things exciting and amps up political tourism, which these days might be the only value we get out of any of this.

 

HT | ZeroHedge

The post NH Sec-o-State Dave Scanlen: No Reason to Keep Trump off NH Primary Ballot appeared first on Granite Grok.

An unassuming 72-year-old Maine physician named Meryl Nass has gripped the COVID-19 misinformation bull by its poisoned horns.  Maine’s physician licensing board suspended her from practicing in a blatant push to silence her right to free speech in a medical field in which Meryl holds special expertise.

Meryl Nass has filed a sharp-fanged lawsuit to bring this overreaching regulatory body to account.  The lengths to which Maine’s licensing board has gone to silence this tiger woman reveals the complete folly of the government-controlled COVID-19 narrative.

Who Is Doctor Nass?

Meryl Nass began her MIT education while still a teenager.  She is an acknowledged medical expert on man-made epidemics, including her seminal work in Rhodesia’s 1978 anthrax outbreak, which she proved was due to biological warfare in 1992.  Dr. Nass cares deeply about her patients, reflected in her humble intensity, precise analysis, prolific writing, and passionate determination to speak truth to farcical regulators who overstep their authority.

Maine’s Board of Licensure in Medicine (BOLIM) organized its campaign to silence Dr. Nass early.  After all, she had raised doubts about COVID-19 origins, the efficacy of masks, and the safety of vaccines.  She had also dared prescribe anti-viral drugs that the government had discouraged without evidence of harm, before there were official therapies (vaccines) available.  It was not just regular Joes on social media who were not permitted to question the official narrative; it was doctors with advanced knowledge and expertise in these very fields.

Maine’s Weapons of Nass Destruction

Maine’s Kafkaesque attack on the distinguished Dr. Nass is comical in its absurdity.  Dr. Nass has consistently defied efforts to hinder her ability to provide optimal patient care.  She forwarded copies of her public testimony before the New Hampshire Legislature to the Board, in which she challenged the Big Pharma fear-porn mantra.

At one point, she misrepresented a COVID-infected patient’s illness to a pharmacist as Lyme Disease to secure medication (available for Lyme sufferers but not available to COVID-19 patients due to unwritten threats to pharmacists from state health agencies!), and then she immediately wrote to the Maine authorities and informed them of what she had done — and what a travesty it was that she should have to jump through such obscene hoops to save lives.

And so the State of Maine went after her full force, for allegedly lying in violation of ethics rules as well as spreading misinformation and prescribing ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine.  But Dr. Nass lied to a pharmacist to save a patient.  Must a lawyer similarly reveal confidential information about her client to state agencies upon request, even when sworn to protect that client’s rights?  In either profession, it is ridiculous to claim a paramount duty that overrides the primary directive for the client/patient.

In contrast, Maine’s BOLIM deliberately misrepresented the excessive expert witness fees it paid its primary expert witness who testified against Dr. Nass to another state agency, which is a fraudulent diversion of taxpayer money.  Dr. Nass’s complaint recites:

96. According to documents obtained from the BOLIM under the Maine Freedom of Access Act, in order to secure the payments to pay Dr. Faust, the BOLIM represented to the Maine Department of Procurement Services in its Blanket Contract Justification & Amendment Form that experts are paid a “maximum” of $175 per hour for time attending hearing and $125 hour for consultation and preparation time. When making those representations to another Maine state agency, the BOLIM had already paid Dr. Faust $10,500 at his $500 per hour rate and intended to continue paying Dr. Faust $500 per hour for future services[.] … The fact that the BOLIM is violating its own expert witness policies and misleading another Maine state agency substantiates its retaliatory animus against Dr. Nass.

The Board issued a position statement early in the pandemic warning that questioning official (Big Pharma– and WHO-dictated?) edicts about vaccines or alternative therapies would be considered unethical, claiming:

Assessments and treatments of Covid-19 by physicians and physician assistants will be evaluated by the BOLIM in the same manner it evaluates assessments and treatments of any other disease process. Treatments and recommendations regarding Covid-19 that fall below the standard of care as established by medical experts and legitimate medical research are potentially subject to disciplinary action. Similarly, a physician or physician assistant who issues a vaccine exemption without conducting an appropriate examination and without a finding of a legitimate medical reason supporting such an exemption within the standard of care may be placing their licenses at risk of disciplinary action.

But assessments and treatments for COVID-19 were not evaluated in the same manner as other diseases, for which physicians are commonly allowed latitude to use off-label drugs to seek effective therapies.  This common practice was jettisoned during the pandemic, as officials who could not possibly know whether alternative therapies were effective prevented patients from receiving any care at all while they awaited the vaunted jab.  Maine’s BOLIM also tightened regulatory oversight of medical exemptions, investigating and punishing doctors for issuing medical waivers for COVID vaccines, despite Maine law permitting doctors to freely issue medical waivers.  And when Meryl Nass got uppity, Maine’s BOLIM mandated that she undergo a psychiatric examination in a failed effort to torment and discredit her, as well as to generate the evidence needed to justify suspending her license.

Maine’s actions against the hero Nass are hardly isolated incidents.  A cohesive messaging plan accompanied the spread of COVID-19, rolled out in concert, evidently pre-planned.  Dr. Nass’s case is a textbook display of government regulatory overreach, exposing Maine’s BOLIM as a captured agency that represents the best interest of not the public but corporate purveyors of dubious products.

Dr. Nass’s August 16 complaint against the Board alleges that Maine’s BOLIM violated her First Amendment and other rights under both the U.S. and Maine Constitutions, defiantly proclaiming:

Dr. Nass intends to enjoy her free speech rights, including engaging in speech critical of the governmental handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, the safety and efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine, alternative treatments for COVID-19, and the BOLIM’s pretextual effort to punish her for her speech. 112. Dr. Nass has a reasonable, objective fear of prosecution under 32 M.R.S. § 3282 for her speech. The Position Statement expressly threatens doctors with disciplinary action if they “generate and spread COVID-19 vaccine misinformation or disinformation.” The BOLIM carried through on that threat by prosecuting Dr. Nass for criticizing the COVID-19 vaccine and the governmental response to the pandemic. Even now, the BOLIM continues with an overzealous and pretextual effort to suspend her medical license on trivial and baseless grounds.

Warrior Nass Will Not Be Silenced!

Meryl Nass and her attorneys are on the front lines of an information battle about a disease that is simultaneously a constitutional fracas about our rights to even have a discussion about what treatments a doctor can provide to a patient, absent government interference.  Future health care, the doctor-patient relationship, and citizens’ rights hang in the balance.

Fortunately, the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit just ruled that the Biden administration compromised First Amendment liberties by quashing so-called “COVID misinformation.”  First Amendment liberties should not be squashed by the government against which the Constitution was erected as defense — certainly not by corrupt bureaucrats who stifle scientific inquiry and ethical patient care.  A medical degree is not required to know the vital importance of free thought.  Meryl Nass, the mouse that roared, roars for us all.

Join the opposition, and learn truths about globalist plans to dominate humanity, at Dr. Nass’s website, doortofreedom.org.

 

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

The post Meet the Doctor Who’s Fighting the COVID Oppression Machine appeared first on Granite Grok.

COVID is flu. This is an inflammatory statement in today’s societies all around the world. If you propose this to almost anyone, you’ll get scoffed at. A decade ago, this statement wouldn’t have meant anything. Yet, now, it is the truest statement regarding the events of the past few years. It is precisely the truth.

In the mod 2010s, I was living in Hong Kong, a city with a very specific history related to pandemics and bioweapons. The city-state in 2003 suffered under an epidemic of SARS— severe acute respiratory syndrome. The event was so traumatic to the city that there is a memorial to the medics and doctors who lost their lives fighting that outbreak in the early 2000s.

Of course, SARS is also a variant of flu— albeit it is perhaps a more wicked one. There have been several outbreaks of SARS in the past couple of decades. One was in Hong Kong, and a second in the MidEast— the Emirates, Doha, and Qatar. Were those planned and intentional? Was that biowarfare being waged unbeknownst to the public at large? Likely. The occurrence of these events coincided closely with major political movements and elections in the affected countries.

That is why the COVID pandemic is especially troublesome, coming alongside Klaus Schwab’s “Great Reset” agenda. Essentially, the effect was to impact the entire planet with an issue that everyone would have to deal with simultaneously. Now, in the wake of such an event, a certain cadre of people have realized that they have the ability to make such a global impact. They seem very willing to routinely attack the public civilizational consciousness with negative, destructive, deadly events as if they are totally incapable of bringing positive, compassionate loving occurrences to the people of the planet.

They want one thing: money. And they have no consideration for whether that is aligned with good or bad actions. They have no concern for ethics or morals, only their own bank account balance.

COVID created over 100 new billionaires globally as wealth was transferred from governments buying vaccines and concerned citizens to the pocketbooks of Big Pharma. These companies have become major sponsors of corporate media channels worldwide. That is why so many people express disbelief about the equation of COVID and flu.

What is flu? The CDC in the USA tracked flu for many years. The number of people killed by a variant of flu, which until 2020 was referred to along a lineage of H1NX, was between 50,000 and 90,000 annually. This was referred to as the flu burden, and there were many charts depicting the seasonal and annual cycles. That all stopped in 2020.

Flu suddenly disappeared. It was replaced linguistically by the word COVID, along with a whole set of opinions that were considered acceptable and mainstream. Anyone not parroting those ideas and instead presenting contrary beliefs was made a public example of— shunned, fired, canceled. This was a despicable time in our recent history determined by despicable people— folks who deserve to be in prison, like Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff, and Anthony Fauci.

But COVID is not different than flu because it is an influenza by definition. Not only that, but it is a rhinovirus, just like the H1N1 lineage. It is a coronavirus, just like SARS. It is an upper respiratory illness that is preventable by maintaining a healthy diet and exercise, the essentials for a robust immune system. This was not a brand new virus that nobody knew anything about. This was a tool used by a global cabal intent on not allowing Donald Trump to serve another consecutive presidential term in the USA and on making money by doing anything possible to hold on to power.

That is why we must hold that COVID is flu. Because the people who implemented COVID and forced everyone to play a charade of masks, social distancing, and cancel culture are also the people fomenting World War III in Ukraine, and they are the people forcing transvestite culture on the planet, and they are the people conspiring to create a migrant crisis in the EU and US, and they are the people who are trying to control our every thought via Big Tech.

We can defeat them, and we must. They represent a strain of human culture that is unnecessary. We do not have to resort to such power-obsessed, maniacal, sociopathic ways to make money. There are ways to make money that do not rely on creating human suffering.

Support me in ensuring that the evil creatures who oppose the reality that COVID is flu never hold great political power again and create a better future where all mankind can prosper.

 

The post Let’s face it: COVID is flu appeared first on Granite Grok.

I might be wasting my time thinking this is something plausible, but as a quick run down, back in July 2021, I posted on Facebook encouraging parents to do their research on childhood vaccinations and not to just blindly trust their doctor.

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

They are paid bonuses if children get all their CDC-recommended immunizations.

I also stated that Pfizer is one of the AAP’s biggest donors, so they have a vested interest in encouraging as many jabs as possible. I even put in that I am not anti-vax. I’m pro-educating yourself and advocating for your children.

I was permanently banned the next morning.

I stated facts, not misinformation. I actually bookmarked the sites on my phone that night in case anyone disagreed with me or wanted more info. But they took all 13 years’ worth of my pictures and videos, tagged pics/videos, and refused to give them back to me.

Prior to being permanently banned, I had NEVER received a warning or any sort of suspension or Facebook jail in over 13 Years!

I was hoping to find others who were permanently banned from Facebook back when the Biden admin worked with social media to silence people. If so, I’d love to find a way to connect with you and find out if there are any lawyers who think there is a lawsuit here and any willing to take it on.

I’m not looking for money, I’m looking for vindication of the tyranny we are dealing with and want to make an example of how wrong it is. It needs to stop. I had 13 years’ worth of memories on there, and I’d like to hold the administration/Facebook accountable for taking that from me without any offer of allowing me to know the actual reason for being banned and not allowing me an option of removing my pics/videos.

There wasn’t even an option to remove all of your info easily until recently.

I’ve reached out to other state’s members of Congress because I know better than to reach out the the ones we have “representing” us in NH, nor have I had any luck (not surprisingly) regarding the hearings they have been holding – to see if there is a list of people banned because of this and if I’m on it.

I have had to create multiple aliases’ on FB because all the local homeschooling groups use FB as their event-planning and resource-sharing platform (I homeschool my daughters).  But those accounts get disabled after a few weeks when they realize it is me.

I have been unable to access all of the fun homeschooling opportunities for my daughters, and that is so unfair to them.

 

The post Have You Been Permanently Banned from Facebook? appeared first on Granite Grok.

Breach!!! The Capitol has been breached!!! Right … if you believe a breach means being allowed access by “law enforcement” and entering through that access in an orderly and peaceful manner.

Of course, we never see this footage from the Regime-Media … just the same clip over and over and over again of barricades being torn down and windows smashed by … MOST LIKELY … federal agents/plants.

Tonkin Gulf, Weapons-of-Mass-Destruction in Iraq, Obamacare-Will-Reduce-Premiums-By-An-Average-$2,500, Trump-is-a-Russian-agent, mostly-peaceful-protests, Biden-got-81-million-votes, ETC., ETC., ETC..

UNSEEN FOOTAGE: DC cops retreat from position on upper west terrace around 2:30 on January 6. They had been attacking the crowd with gas, stun grenades, rubber bullets for over an hour.

They left that door unprotected.

Moments later, it was opened from inside… pic.twitter.com/GaZS2QWzIJ

— Julie Kelly (@julie_kelly2) September 13, 2023

 

The post The Capitol Has Been “BREACHED” … Footage Shows DC Police Deliberately Making Entry Accessible And Protestors Entering In Orderly Manner appeared first on Granite Grok.

In the 2011-2012 New Hampshire legislature, the Republican Super-Majority in both chambers was something unprecedented in politics. They passed a budget lower than the one they inherited. It is a rare thing.

No Republican majority legislature in New Hampshire has done it since then. Most legislatures don’t even attempt it. Reducing new spending, maybe. Lowering taxes, sure, but passing a budget that is hundreds of millions less than the one before it is rare. I’m not even sure it’s ever been done but that one time.

It is also unusual for elected officials to give up whatever passes for their pay. Congress is famous for giving itself raises no matter what the economy is doing. Donald Trump, on the other hand, donated all of his paychecks as President, but he’s mean. Sure he is.

The Selectboard in Pelham, New Hampshire, isn’t exactly a big-ticket spend, but they get stipends, and in the interests of their constituents, and likely becasue of the current economic conditions, they change the sum in the Seletmans budget to 1.00. It’s not a done deal, but that’s what they’ve decided for now.

By a vote of four-to-one, they reduced their annual stipend from 6,500.00 a year to one dollar. (at 1′ 48″ if you are so inclined).

According to the town website, those individuals are Kevin Cote, Jaie Bergeron, Heather Corbett, Charlene Takesian, and Jason Croteau, and by a vote of 4-1 the move was approved. Who was the dissenting vote? If you knew her, you’d be able to guess. Charlene Takesian. She used to be in the NH State House, where she pretended to be a Republican. Her last NHHRA score showed her voting with Republicans only 50% of the time.

It looks like not much has changed.

And while we could cheer the rest of the select board saving the town’s taxpayers a few bucks, my contact in town says that in the same meeting, they debated what to do with an $800,000.00 dollar surplus.

 

They are holding $800,000 in a slush fund that belongs to the people of Pelham. Time to hold them accountable by exposing this scam. The average property tax hike for Pelham was $1,000 per household. How much financial tax abuse can we endure?

 

Giving some of it back to taxpayers did not appear to be a priority. (at 2′ 18″, again, if so inclined) and this throws a lot of cold water on the earlier vote, but the people of Pelham get to decide what, if any of that means when these offices are up for re-election.

 

 

 

The post Local Selectboard Reduces its Annual Stipend from $6500.00 Each to 1$ appeared first on Granite Grok.

As we approach Constitution Day on September 17, eighteen Vermont elected officials, including our Lieutenant Governor, signed a shocking letter calling for the expansion of the U.S. Supreme Court by four members. Signing this letter should disqualify them all from holding any public office, not for the idea of expanding the Court – there’s nothing in the Constitution stipulating the number of members the Court has to have – but for the reasons they put forward for the change.

Let’s go through their letter and shed a little light on what is basically an insurrectionist call to delegitimize and overthrow a co-equal branch of our government, undermining the Constitution and our small “r” republican system. The letter goes…

Today, the Republican-appointed supermajority that controls the Supreme Court is an existential threat to our rights and our democracy. To secure the future of our rights, our democracy, and our ability to govern as state and local elected officials, we need to expand the Court and restore balance.

This is blatant attempt to politicize the Supreme Court, which was and is supposed to be separated from and be a check and balance on the partisan passions that drive the elected branches of government. The Court’s loyalty is to the Constitution, not to the voters or the other branches of government. That’s by design. Yet the stated purpose here is to alter the makeup of the Court along political lines to bring it into sync with the partisan political agenda of the Democrat party.  As such, the letter signers are essentially attempting to overthrow a legitimately appointed, co-equal branch of government, undermining the Constitution they all swore an oath to uphold.

The Supreme Court is controlled by an extremist supermajority that is enacting a partisan Republican agenda instead of following the Constitution and the rule of law. As we saw in the decision overturning Roe v. Wade…

No, what the signers of the letter don’t like is that this Court is actually upholding the Constitution by striking down laws that violate the Constitutional rights of U.S. citizens and/or overstep the bounds of the authority granted to lawmakers by the Constitution.

Our Constitution is designed to limit the powers of government, especially the federal government. The signers of this letter do not want the powers of government subjected to Constitutional limitations, as what they ultimately seek is a Left-wing dictatorship in the guise of a democracy with themselves in charge. No thanks!

It’s interesting that they use the overturning of Roe v. Wade as their example of overstepping bounds. They couldn’t have picked a worse one. Where in the Constitution does it discuss abortion? It doesn’t. The 10th Amendment reserves those issues not specifically delegated to federal government to the States, or the people, which is exactly what the Court ruled – it returned the issue to the states to decide per the Constitution and via the democratically elected officials in those states, who are responsible to their voters. In other words, this Court restored the democratic process – you know, democracy! — by following rather than ignoring the Constitution.

This is what the letter signers don’t like.

…no right is safe from the radical, far-right justices who control this Court.

Although this court has made some rulings that leave me scratching my head, I’m pretty sure the rights to freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the press (which is not exclusively the media, but every citizen’s individual right to publish their opinions with the same freedom that we have to speak them), freedom of association, the right to bear arms, and to a generally the the preservation of decision making by states and, more importantly, the people are in much better hands with this Court than any recent configuration.

It is precisely these rights that the signers of this letter want to take away (just look at their voting records and the legislation that they sponsor), which is why they see the need to overthrow the third branch of Government.

We are especially concerned about voting rights and democracy, as the Court routinely steps in to make it easier for Republicans to suppress the vote, gerrymander districts,…

What the radical Leftist signers of this letter don’t like is the fact that the Courts are stepping in to make it harder Leftist legislatures to pass laws making it easier to cheat in elections. They worry about democracy? Do they forget that we established the most dynamic, successful democratic nation in history for over two and a quarter centuries without the “benefit” of mail in ballots, ballot harvesting, drop boxes, or early voting a month and a half in advance? What creates confidence in electoral results is a clear chain of custody for each ballot from voter to vote counter, and this is precisely what they are trying to do away with.

As for gerrymandering, it is supremely ironic that many of the signers of this letter wouldn’t be in elected office today were it not for the gerrymandering done by the Democratic Supermajority in Montpelier during redistricting following the 2020 census. Full disclosure, I served on the Reapportionment Board, and the partisan Democrats totally rejected the tri-partisan map put forward by the Board calling for all single member legislative districts – a concept that had overwhelming public support. So much for their love of democracy and distain for rigging the map!

As elected officials, we are especially concerned that the Court is making it harder for the elected branches at all levels to actually solve problems. The Court repeatedly steps in to overturn or restrict democratically enacted policies that do not align with the Republican Party’s agenda. We must be able to solve the urgent issues facing this country without being stymied by partisan judges who routinely overstep their authority.

The arrogance here is breathtaking! This being a free country founded upon the principles of individual rights and limited government – you know, those rights codified in the Constitution you say you’re so concerned about — it is not your job to solve most of the problems you think it is your business to solve. In fact, most of the problems that exist today are the result of you overstepping your authority and sticking your incompetent fingers where they do not belong in the private affairs of citizens.

The Constitution states that you “shall pass no laws” abridging citizens’ freedom of speech and press, the right to keep and bear arms, allowing unreasonable searches and seizures — or do anything not specifically spelled out in the Constitution. When you try to do these things, it is the Courts job to “stymie” you. That is the whole point of the Court. You don’t like it, so you’re trying to overthrow the branch of government that serves as a check and balance on your greed for power.

The Court’s overreach is all the more concerning because the Republican supermajority is illegitimate. Republicans blocked Merrick Garland’s nomination, rammed through Brett Kavanaugh despite credible charges of perjury and sexual assault, and confirmed Amy Coney Barrett after 60 million Americans had already voted in the presidential election.

Interesting…. When elected officials say the 2020 presidential election was illegitimate and call for it to be overturned (not a position I am endorsing, but just pointing out the hypocrisy here) they are accused of insurrection and subjected to criminal indictment and be banned from future ballots. But when you say that the makeup of the Court – an co-equal branch of government to the executive (and legislative) — is illegitimate and should be overturned, that’s totally cool I guess? Nope. Same thing. You all need to be thrown into the same cell with Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani.

As for your reasoning about Merrick Garland, etc., could you please point out where any those moves, albeit political hardball, was outside the Constitutional authority of the Senate? Remember that the Constitution you are ostensibly worried about requires the “advice and consent” of the Senate in appointing Supreme Court justices. In each of the cases you cite, the Senators either consented or did not consent to the President’s nominee per the rules of the Senate and the U.S. Constitution.

This Court has been hijacked by far-right special interests, and Americans will not be able to trust it until it has been reformed.

Nope. Elections in a democratic republic have consequences – those for senators as well as presidents – and the Court members were all duly nominated by the duly elected president and confirmed by the duly elected Senate per the rules set forth in the Constitution. No hijacking here. This is what de-mo-cra-cy looks like!

Expanding the Court by adding four seats is the clearly constitutional way to restore balance. It is in line with American history, and it will restore balance without delay. We join the growing movement of Americans demanding expansion to protect our rights and our democracy.

Yeah, right. I look forward to 2025, after Republicans retake the Senate and the White House, for your support in expanding the Court by four more seats. What the heck, let’s make it six. Because if what you’re advocating for is really a good idea for the Constitution and Democracy today, it’s should be timeless and therefore just as good two years from now. If not, you’re all just a bunch of partisan hacks trying to undermine and overthrow a legitimately established co-equal branch of our government.

Here are the insurrectionists who signed the letter:

Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman (D/P-VT)

State Sen. Martine Gulick (D-Chittenden Central)

State Sen. Nader Hashim (D-Windham)

State Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale (D-Chittenden Southeast)

State Sen. Tanya Vyhovsky (D-Chittenden Central)

State Sen. Anne Watson (D-Washington)

State Sen. Becca White (D-Windsor)

State Rep. Daisy Berbeco (Chittenden 21)

State Rep. Mari Cordes (D-Addison 4)

State Rep. Bobby Farlice-Rubio (Caledonia 1)

State Rep. Troy Headrick (P-Chittenden 15)

State Rep. Emilie Kornheiser (D-Windham 7)

State Rep. Emilie Krasnow (D-Chittenden 9)

State Rep. Kate Logan (P-Chittenden 16)

State Rep. Emma Mulvaney-Stanak (P-Chittenden 17)

State Rep. Monique Priestley (D-Orange 2)

State Rep. Taylor Small (P-Chittenden 21)

State Rep. Joseph “Chip” Troiano (D-Caledonia 2)

 

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

The post The “Expand the Supreme Court” Letter Is a Call for Insurrection. appeared first on Granite Grok.