This is not the first time Rep. Jim White has proposed this legislation, but it is back after the Lewiston, Maine, shooting. The bill would make property owners of gun-free zones liable if disarmed individuals were harmed as a result of that restriction.

Do you agree?

Gun-free zones appear statistically to be the more significant threat to public safety. Shooters, regardless of their grasp of reality, always seem capable of choosing locations where people are known to be disarmed. Making these areas less common can only limit victim-rich environments and, by extension, (perhaps) the incidents themselves.

A simple public safety measure opposed by public safety advocates, which Rep White is trying to get around.

 

White’s bill is similar to one that came before the Legislature in 2017 and was opposed by the Maine Gun Safety Coalition and the Retail Association of Maine. It was voted down in committee and didn’t get a vote by the full Legislature.

The idea has virtually no chance of winning the support of the Democratic controlled Legislature, which this year easily rejected efforts to allow guns in schools based on some of the same arguments.

But the bill highlights an ongoing national debate about the impact of gun-free zones, especially in communities that have been hit hard by gun violence.

“I think the situation in Lewiston might bring to light the necessity of this,” said White, who owns J. White Gunsmithing, a firearms shop in Guilford. “The most vulnerable among us are put in a more vulnerable situation because of these gun-free zones.”

 

We might feel inclined to say something like, how can you embrace the idea of the government adding another layer of enforcement upon property owners? The answer, I think, is that we’re not. We’re removing it. The Constitution is clear about the right to keep and bear arms. Principally, this is a defense against tyranny, specifically from your government. But there is no way to know precisely where, when, or how tyranny may present itself or through what machination. We uphold that right by prohibiting you from being disarmed anywhere you have a right to be (or have been invited).

As for tyrannous plots and intrigues (aside from the ones where we might think the government set up and triggered a shooter), many of the gunmen, after the fact, are revealed to be people known to the government (police, mental or public health, locals) who needed attention the State increasingly claims it is best suited to provide then does not—individuals who should trigger so-called safeguards that disarm others but never them.

The courts (also the government) have made it clear they (the government) have no obligation to protect you, so we presume this would include failing to prevent crimes whose scope rises as the result of laws that disarm us when it is clearly up to us to defend ourselves.

Rep, White’s law increasingly makes sense when confronted with all of that nonsense, but again, not in a state like Maine where Democrats increasingly control the government. Places where mass shootings will likely increase as a result of these facts. They will disarm you. They will allow others to disarm you. No one is or will be held responsible for what happens to you. Perhaps not even the shooter, who will likely end up dead, which is what many of them wanted or expected. Something an armed citizen could have provided much sooner with less injury and loss of life if permitted to exercise their natural right to defend themselves.

 

The post Should Owners of Gun-Free Zones Be Liable if Disarmed Citizens Are Shot or Killed? appeared first on Granite Grok.

Two new reports on Vermont’s Renewable Energy Standard, one by the Department of Public Service and Sustainable Energy Advantage and the other by an organization called Brattle, confirm what we’ve been pointing out for a long time – Vermont’s so-called green energy mandates are all cost and no benefit for the Vermonters who get stuck paying the bills.

And those costs are huge.

The DPS report focuses primarily on what the impact of the Renewable Energy Standard does to electric costs and ratepayers’ bills, and that will be the focus of this article. Brattle touches on this as well but also delves into the overall economic impact of the policy, which I will save for another time. (Spoiler alert: it’s all bad.)

The most important aspect of these two analyses is that they put the lie to the advocates’ talking point that the benefits of decarbonizing our economy and electrifying everything outweigh the costs. Nope.

The “big benefits” claim is based on a fiction wrapped in a fib called the “Social Cost of Carbon.” The Social Cost of Carbon is a mostly made-up calculation that attempts to affix a price to the negative economic impacts of releasing a ton of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels. It is highly subjective. Under the last three administrations, it has been officially pegged at $43 a ton (Obama), $3 to $5 a ton (Trump), and $51 a ton (Biden).

If you’re a fan of The Office, think of the Social Cost of Carbon as like Kevin’s magical accounting number, keleven, defined wonderfully by the Urban Dictionary as “a fictitious number used by an incompetent or corrupt individual to balance accounting books.” So, when the costs of your ideological “green” boondoggle are going to cost voters $2 billion, likely upsetting them, just add your $2.2 billion social cost of carbon keleven to the ledger, and presto, you’re back in the black!

A year ago, I wrote an in-depth article on the Social Cost of Carbon; the Climate plan’s costs are real. Savings, not so much, if you want more on this topic. But the short version of the gimmick is that while the costs of green energy policies are born entirely by Vermonters, any benefits are spread thinly across the globe. This means that only an infinitesimally minuscule, undetectable amount of any benefit from Vermonters’ “investment” actually accrues to Vermonters.

As explained by Dean Murphy of Brattle, “The increment of global carbon emissions or the decrement to global carbon emissions from Vermont going from its current RES (Renewable Energy Standard) to 100 percent will be very, very small. And the impact that will be felt globally will be very, very small because Vermont is a very small part of the world. And those increments to those costs in Vermont of flooding, climate change, changes in temperature, etcetera, because Vermont’s own contribution to the global climate is very small, the effects that you feel in Vermont are very small. You’ll feel much more impact from what happens in China and India than you will from what you did in Vermont.”

What’s happening in China and India is not carbon reduction—quite the opposite. The same goes for Russia and most if not all of the developing world in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. In other words, Vermont will see no benefits – cost-wise or trauma-wise — from reduced flooding or other impacts from severe weather in the future as a result of our renewable energy policy. The money we waste on these policies, however, is money we won’t have to prepare for any future natural disasters caused by the two new Chinese coal-fired power plants that come online every week. Or just Mother Nature doing her thing?

So, when advocates for these policies say, yes, we may be throwing hundreds of millions of your dollars at this, but we have to balance the cost of paying for these policies with the cost of floods, etc, you are free and encouraged to go ahead and point and shout “liar, liar, pants on fire.” There is no balance. In fact, we get stuck paying for both the cost of “going green” and any natural disaster that might have been prevented if we used that money to adapt to cope with evolving weather patterns.

Now, exactly how much money are we pouring into this hole of no return? According to TJ Poor of the Department of Public Service, if we continue with our current “business as usual” Renewable Energy Standard policy it will cost Vermont ratepayers about $130 million a year extra on our electric bills. If we adjust the Renewable Energy Standard along the lines of what is currently being proposed by the Renewable Energy Standard Working Group, that increases by another $50 million per year to $190 million per year.

Think of this a “Green Virtue Signaling Tax.” We get almost no material benefit for this otherwise unnecessary expense at a tremendous opportunity cost.

As Poor concludes, Vermont’s Renewable Energy policy “is not cost-effective for Vermont ratepayers…. And so those are the tradeoffs that  we need to evaluate… how much Vermont ratepayers should pay for societal benefits.” I can tell you that our elected so-called representatives have a very different idea about what that number should be than do the people who are sticking with the bill.

 

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 Two New Studies Show Renewable Energy Policy Is All Cost/No Benefit for Ratepayers appeared first on Granite Grok.

Milei won the election with 56% of the general election vote, more than any US President has attained in a general election since Reagan in 1984. And the Argentine turnout of 76% of voters is far higher than we have experienced in over a century. Biden allegedly won in 2020 with around 80 million votes out of 340 million Americans (less than a quarter of the humans). Milei’s 14 million votes amounts to almost a third of the humans in Argentina. 

The post Anarchist Milei Wins Argentine Presidency; Begins Gutting Government ASAP appeared first on The Liberty Block.

Gender clinics welcome parent involvement as long as they do what they’re told.

Dartmouth Health recently testified that giving children puberty blockers and hormones is “rendered following consultation with medical and mental health professionals and parents and guardians.” But parents are given one option: social and medical transition.

Parents who push back against puberty blockers and hormones for their children can expect to face emotional blackmail and end runs around their authority.

Dartmouth Health coerces moms and dads with the suicide myth. They tell parents that their children are at immediate risk of suicide unless parents affirm their delusions and agree to let the clinic provide what they euphemistically call “gender-affirming care” (GAC). (Related: Trans or Die: The Ideological Blindness of a Dartmouth Health Endocrinologist.)

 

Detransitioner Prisha Mosley described this emotional blackmail when she testified to Maine legislators about the 15-minute appointment where she was diagnosed as being transgender:

She asked questions like ‘Do you like your period? Do you get along better with boys?’ And when I answered those questions honestly, she looked me in my eyes and told me ‘You are a boy.’ I remember my dad looking like he was in shock, and my mother was crying, and they just asked them, ‘Would you rather have a dead daughter or a living son?”

We get a sense of the pressure Dartmouth Health puts on parents from pediatric endocrinologist Dr. Frances Lim-Liberty’s Concord Monitor Op-Ed.  “I had seen Nick a couple of months ago, and the family was ready to start gender-affirming hormone therapy at that visit. Today, they were no longer on the same page.”

When the parents expressed concern that their daughter might change her mind, Lim-Liberty responded, “But what if he doesn’t change his mind? What have we done then?”

Lim-Liberty conjures the suicide myth in another anecdote, this one about a boy whose parents had refused to sign the hormone consent form for three years. “My biggest fear manifested, would she make it to her 18th birthday, just three months away?” She describes her plans to wait out the parents. “I promise her we will start medical affirmation as soon as she turns 18.”

In her March testimony against HB619 which would ban sex-trait modifications for minors, Dartmouth Health internist Dr. Simrun Bal  said that decisions about the medical transition of minors should be in the hands of the “patient, family, and physicians.” But she made it clear that she has no qualms about undermining parents who aren’t on board with social and medical transitions.

We often encounter parents who may not be supportive, and in that case the child turns to other trusted role models in their life, like teachers, peers, and others in the community who are leaders. I worry that not accessing those supportive social supports will mean difficulties in accessing care and going through a potential transition.

Even if parents find therapists and physicians who are concerned about the harms of GAC, our conversion therapy ban, signed by Gov. Chris Sununu, makes it a crime for them to help a confused girl learn to be comfortable with her own female body.

Parents and guardians can even lose custody if they don’t affirm their children’s new identity.

Until lawmakers regulate the medical industry or lawsuits end these practices, it’s important for parents to protect their children from white-coated activists who put profit and ideology above medical science and their patients’ welfare.

 

The post Night Cap: Sit Down and Shut Up: The Myth of Parent Involvement in Child Transing appeared first on Granite Grok.

What would be the difference between a Nikki Haley or Chris Christie presidency and a Biden presidency? Nothing positive IF you are an actual Republican. Haley/Christie would pour even more money (that we don’t have) into that military-industrial feed trough known as the War in Ukraine.

But that’s not a positive change IF you are an actual Republican.

Neither Haley nor Christie would actually close the border. Both are donor-class Republicans, and donor-class Republicans are essentially Democrats who want to cut taxes. Neither would actually reduce out-of-control spending. Instead, we would hear how cutting taxes will unleash economic growth, which will bring in more tax revenue (which is often true, but which the UniParty then immediately spends). Neither would actually “get tough” with China because the donor class believes in America-last … they call it free trade … trade policies.

Yet, if the polls are to be believed, one-third of New Hampshire “Republicans” are going to vote for these neocon imposters.

The post One -Third Of “Republicans” In New Hampshire Aren’t Even Republicans appeared first on Granite Grok.

Republicans in New Hampshire might want to call Lousiana and ask them what the secret sauce is to their recent electoral success. After Saturday’s run-off elections, “Republicans secured all of Louisiana’s statewide offices for the first time since 2015.”

 

The GOP success, in a state that has had a Democrat in the governor’s office for the past eight years, means that Republicans secured all of Louisiana’s statewide offices for the first time since 2015. In addition, the GOP holds a two-third supermajority in the House and Senate.

Liz Murrill was elected as attorney general, Nancy Landry as secretary of state and John Fleming as treasurer. The results also mean Louisiana will have its first female attorney general and first woman elected as secretary of state.

Saturday’s election completes the shaping of Louisiana’s executive branch, where most incumbents didn’t seek reelection and opened the door for new leadership in some of the most powerful positions.

 

The media has played up Republican losses in an apparent effort to depress energy and turnout. You can’t win. Don’t bother trying. But Louisiana tells a different story. Successive victories have given Republicans control of every state office with supermajorities in both chambers of the legislature.

And maybe it’s not as big a story as it could be coming out of the otherwise dee-red South. Had it happened in New Hampshire, it might be more telling, but the Republicans here have struggled to win special elections with one bright spot. Recent Municipal elections went far better for the GOP than is the norm. Manchester, the State’s largest city, returned a Republican to the Mayor’s office after six years of Democrat rule. It also gave the board of alderman a favorable GOP majority.

The Louisana special election last Saturday had a low turnout, too, so we see the intersection. The Media and Dems are hyping wins to try and shore up a base that appears unwilling to come out in adequate numbers for every election consistently, and they are projecting that on Republicans.

No one doubts that the left is planning to steal 2024, but you must be “stealably” close to make it less noticeable. If they can’t get their voters to vote Dem in large enough numbers, it will be increasingly difficult to hide what they are doing.

I’m sure they’ll find a way around that, and as we’ve noted repeatedly from several authors, there’s no evidence Republicans are doing enough, if anything, to make it harder. Absent that, the rest of it is, as they say, rearranging deck chairs on another Titanic.

 

 

The post It’s Not all Bad News: Louisiana Republicans Just Took Complete Control of State Government appeared first on Granite Grok.

Last week, on November 10, 2023, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario held a hearing as to whether the revocation of Mark Trozzi’s medical license was the correct penalty.

The College had already made, on November 1st, a finding of dishonorable and unprofessional conduct — as Trozzi had, contrary to the “recommendations” of the College, written exemptions for patients from the Covid vaccine (“unless they had developed myocarditis from the first shot”), and had publicly questioned the science of the Pfizer vaccine.

Note: I see that Russ Payne, in a Letter to the Editor of The Weirs Times, says that the shot has killed more young men than died in the Vietnam War. Thank you, Weirs Times, for publishing that. (What am I saying? This is New Hampshire, right?)

Dr Trozzi’s “penalty phase” hearing was open to the public via Zoom, which I attended. We were told not to record it or even take a screenshot or face a large fine. Don’t know if it’s something I could be extradited to Canada for, but anyway, I stayed my hand. Note: Trozzi’s punishment — for doing the right thing — includes a $71,000 billing to the doctor of the Tribunal’s costs. Not chickenfeed!

Still, Dr. Trozzi’s attorney, Mr. Michael Alexander, rose to the occasion by submitting that the matter of free expression, a Charter right in Canada, was relevant to the penalty. He said that the punishment of Trozzi for speaking out could have a chilling effect on other doctors. He also held forth and was not shouted down on the principle of distrusting government. “That’s why we have checks and balances; that’s why we maintain sovereignty of the provinces” — etc.

Ms. Whitner, whom I took to be the tribunal’s prosecutor, said that Mark Trozzi is not limited in what he can say but what he can say as a physician. She referred to his holding the privilege of the right to practice medicine in Ontario.

If it’s a privilege, who has the right to bestow that privilege? How does it get to be called a “privilege.” Presumably, a government saw that there was a need for standards of the medical industry, and consulted with that industry, who then provided the standards. Please see my new book, “Society Is the Authority.”

You should have heard Ms Whitner going on about the sins (she did not say ‘sins’) of Dr Trozzi, such as that he peddled (she did not say ‘peddled’) misinformation. Of course, she did say ‘misinformation,’ as that is one of the counts on which he has been charged.

I feel sorry for Ms Whitner. Not because she is a liar. Rather, because she is not a liar, I gather that she thinks anything that comes out of Pharma or WHO is trustworthy. I am sure she believes it is wrong for a doctor to discourage vaccination. Not because the College forbids it but because it is just plain wrong to discourage vaccination!

Ms Whitner must have been intelligent enough to get into medical school and intelligent enough to graduate therefrom. She must have, at one point, learned about Dr. Semmelweis and how he had been right even though he was drummed out of practicing obstetrics. The Semmelweis phenomenon is well known. Does Dr Whitmer think that Semmelweis is the only ‘Semmelweis’?

Turning the Tables

But now, enough! Enough with whimpering about such sad things as the injustice to Trozzi or the loss of cognition by Whitner. Let’s get down to business. Police business. When will the murderous vaccinations stop?

As far as I am aware, there have been no indictments for homicide or even for manslaughter. There may be some lawsuits in the works for wrongful death, but that is not enough. At least one state has passed a law to prevent infants from being given a Covid shot.

I am currently on the FITN ballot for the Republican Presidential primary on 23 January. I am going to push for the arrest of Fauci, as demanded by Senator Rand Paul. And if Merrick Garland does not cooperate, then the arrest of Garland for obstruction of justice.

But even that does not punch hard enough. Thousands of people were deliberately murdered.

Oh, and I propose the extraditing of Albert Bourla, president of Pfizer. We all know that the US and the UK have an extradition treaty unless you’ve never heard the name “Assange” — who, in any case, is an Australian citizen, thus bringing up the whole area of hosti humani generis — the ultimate in extraterritorial law.

Wow, I never thought I’d be talking hosti humani generis. Skies the limit! Let’s go, Granite Staters!

 

— Mary Maxwell can be reached at her website www.ConstitutionAndTruth.com On the Saturday after Thanksgiving, November 25, from 12 noon to 2pm, Mary will conduct a friendly meeting at which you can put forth suggestions for amending the US Constitution. It’s BYOA. (Bring your own anger.) Venue: Concord Community Center, 16 Canterbury Rd, adjacent to the Walgreens on Loudon Rd.

The post Vax Critic Not Giving Up, Even With His Medical License Hanging in the Balance appeared first on Granite Grok.

This story about Slade Sohmer should be one of those irony-alert posts of which I’m so fond. Sohmer, who has been praised by Clinton Fixer John Podesta and who reportedly helped “debunk” pizza gate (as debunker and denier), just got busted with a boatload of kiddie porn.

 

On October 17, during a search at Sohmer’s residence in Otis, the Berkshire Law Enforcement Task Force confiscated a phone containing hundreds of child pornography images and videos, as per an affidavit presented in court. Among the disturbing contents, a video allegedly recorded by Sohmer of a minor being raped was found, according to Berkshire Eagle.

Some of the photographs, more than 1,300, and videos in Sohmer’s collection show kids as young as 3 or 4 years old.

Along with the photos, police also found text messages that were reportedly sent by Sohmer and shared details on how to kidnap and rape a child. Those troubling conversations, according to Berkshire Assistant District Attorney Marianne Shelvey, added “a level of extreme cruelty” to the case.

 

If you are not entirely on the same page about Pizzagate, here’s an excellent synopsis.

 

For those who missed the most explosive pedophilia exposé to-date, The People’s Voice broke the news back in 2016 that there was evidence of pedophile “code words” used in emails from John Podesta released by WikiLeaks.

Numerous emails from the Chairman of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign incongruously referred to food items such as pasta, cheese pizza, and ice cream in ways the FBI warned are used as code-words by pedophiles.

Since then, despite the mainstream media attempting to downplay the story as a “conspiracy theory,” numerous mainstream journalists and figures connected to elite pedophiles have been arrested for the very crime they attempted to “debunk.”

 

Jeffrey Epstein is dead because of his knowledge and complicity in an elite pedophile ring, so there is plenty of there there, but how unsurprising is it that this goon (Sohmer) has hordes of child porn, including texts on how to kidnap and rape a child.

Quick question: does any part of that secret method involve grooming them in public schools with inappropriate sexual material?

 

The post Podesta-Linked Pizzagate ‘Debunker’ Arrested for Possession and Distribution of … Child Porn appeared first on Granite Grok.

One thing is painfully evident after Chinese President Xi’s visit to San Francisco. Xi read Donald Trump’s best-selling book, and Joe Biden awaits the movie.

Biden and his team of political interns are attempting to spin this event as evidence of Joe Biden’s powerful grasp of Foreign Affairs when, in actuality, Biden and America got taken to the cleaners by the Dictator from China. Governor Gavin Newsom paved the city streets of San Francisco to cover the human waste and the homeless were bused to Oakland for a mini vacation. The red carpet was rolled out for Xi, and he took advantage of every blue light special. America came away from the visit with nothing but Chinese promises. We would have done better with a bag of cheap fortune cookies.

I highlighted ten crucial topics this week that should have been on Biden’s list to address with Xi, but Xi ran this meeting with Biden and his team sitting across the table, nodding their heads like bobblehead dolls. Even John Kerry, sitting just three spots from Biden, never had a chance to blow hot air about climate change. What was he doing at this meeting? Biden has mistakenly referred to Kerry as Secretary, but the former Secretary of State has no official position in this Government. He tried in vain to nod with the others, but the years of Botox restricted all mobility.

Seeing Xi looking across the table at an aged President Biden was not an encouraging sight. I say aged not so much about his 80 years but about his inability to instill strength and faith that he is capable of the office. He has shown too often that he is not. This Summit was a mismatch, and for the four hours these teams met, Xi controlled the room. In proper dictator form, he made his demands, and the Biden team said, yes, sir. We came away with two concessions. Our militaries would resume direct communication, and China would curb some of the Fentanyl sent to America. That is like getting a grab bag. There is no way of quantifying either of those promises. Why was communication ever stopped, and why are we receiving any Fentanyl from China? Fentanyl is a synthetic poison that is killing Americans. Fentanyl is not a recreational drug. It is chemical Russian Roulette and is added to legitimate drugs taken by unsuspecting people who then become statistics.

In addition to the Summit between the two leaders, Xi hosted a dinner with some of the most prominent business leaders in the country. Some executives paid $40,000 to sit at the head table with Xi. This dinner and meeting aimed to attract American business back to China. Donald Trump spent four years working to get companies to repatriate to America. Biden invites Xi to woo our companies back to China. Apparently, exporting jobs to China is a platform of Bidenomics.

Folks, we cannot imagine the terrible things that this President and his staff do daily to destroy our country. Never have we had such an anti-America President in our White House, and we must do all we can to make sure Joe Biden is a one-term President. What he did this week to placate President Xi Jinping must be highlighted and repeated every day until Election Day.

The post The Art Of The “Steal” appeared first on Granite Grok.

First, I am merely an “enlightened amateur”.  Please vet & check on your own.  Caveat emptor.  Consider these to be priming the pump for your own investigations.  I know this is a long post; I am attempting to put out a lot of information as a resource.  Read or skip sections depending on your interests.

Second, I fear spicy time is very close, but even a month of food, water, etc., puts you well ahead of most of the sheeple.  IMHO, set your minimum sights on a three-month period.

Third, two things will be critical for having the best chance of making it through:

1. Mentality: first and foremost in survival is having a flexible mentality and cultivating the ability to adapt. Vanity has no place in survival.
2. Develop a meatspace network of people that are likeminded: cultivate your community ties and build alliances with neighbors (note: don’t babble about the Jab or globalists or depopulation, or start pointing political fingers when doing this)… and remember, the first rule of PREP CLUB is that there is no prep club.

And please follow both me, Nitzakhon, on Gab… as well as my blog host Granite Grok.

FYI, here’s a link to the last Survival Sunday.  And please note – these posts are a lot of time for me, so that’s why I’m not doing them every week.  More like once every couple of months.  They do grow over time as I find material to put in.

 

 

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

 

Nazi survivor tells how Hitler rose. Who reminds her of Hitler? Not who you think!

 

 

Learn from history.  She did say something that bothered me: to wit, the idea that if more people had read Hitler’s book then he would have been stopped.  IMHO untrue.

 

 

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

 

Top of the fold:

How I survived a year of SHTF in 90s Bosnia – PrepHole

A smart man learns from his mistakes.  A wise man learns from the mistakes and lessons of others.

—

Bayou Renaissance Man: If you use a period in your email address, be warned…

The more I see about how patched-together tech is, the less I like it.

 

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

 

This just appeared in my mailbox this morning, so I have no idea about accuracy, etc., but… check it out!

Top 17 Podcasts for Survivalists and Doomsday Preppers – Modern Survival Online

 

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

 

SITREP sites:

I used to do a SITREP post as a separate, stand-alone.  I can’t afford that time any more.  Here are some “starter places” for sites that I routinely go to get info about what’s happening.

The sidebar of my old blog, with links to other places.   redpilljew

Gates of Vienna

Doug Ross @ Journal (directorblue.blogspot.com)

The Other McCain

TheBlaze

ancipient news

 

Prepper Site URLS:

Most have daily articles; revisit daily.  Please recommend others in the comments.

Ask a Prepper, how to prepare, survive and thrive, latest news

Mother Earth News

The Organic Prepper Home – The Organic Prepper

SurvivalBlog.com – The Daily Web Log for Prepared Individuals Living in Uncertain Times.

SHTF Blog – Modern Survival

Survival World – Everything You Need To Know to Survive

Homestead Survival Site – How to Live Off The Grid in Comfort and Style

Urban Survival Site | How to Survive a Disaster in the City

Mind4Survival – Survival and Preparedness

Gray Wolf survival

Sustainable Living (sustainablelivingideas.com)

The Classic Survivalist – Surviving in a Modern World

Primal Survivor – Practical and sensible prepping advice

Em Off-grid – We & Our Off The Grid Life – Em OffGrid

Resource for Practical, Daily Prepping Skills for SHTF & Survival (geekprepper.com)

And three aggregate sites listing their top favorite sites & links too:

TOP 50 SURVIVAL & PREPPER BLOGS

The 50 Best Survival Blogs

Prepper Website – Preparedness • Survival • Alternative News

—

Specific, one-up articles:

DIY Rainwater Harvesting System – Ask a Prepper

I’d do this but for the wife who’d have a cow.  (I have said this before, but I cannot explain her hostility to my desire to become more self-sufficient and prepped than clinical-level denial and trauma from her experience growing up during the breakup of the USSR.

—

8 Nuclear Attack Myths You Should Stop Believing – Ask a Prepper

If WWIII lights off, odds are good I’d survive the blasting phase of it given where I live.  It’s the fallout and other effects that concern me.

—

Foods You Should Never Cook in Cast Iron – Ask a Prepper

Good ideas on cast iron care.  Though there is some disagreement…

—

Off Grid Life: The Dark Side That No One Talks About – Ask a Prepper

In the ideal world I’d like to be partially off the grid.  Far enough out, and defensible enough with good neighbors, that I’m reasonably secure and self-sufficient – at least within the community around me.  But I do like the internet and having electricity.

—

I Hope You’re Not That Kind of Prepper – Ask a Prepper

I’m between the two types listed.  My problems are, first, time.  Second, a wife who absolutely does not support any prepping activities.  From the same site:

Food Prepping Skills I Learned in the Military – Ask a Prepper

How to Keep Your Generator Running in Silence – Ask a Prepper

—

Related to Spicy Time:

12 Items That Are Still Good After They Go Bad – Ask a Prepper

Very useful.

—

If Your Neighbor Does This, Avoid Him at All Costs – Ask a Prepper

Which is why, in the ideal and perfect situation, I’d like to move to a place where I can be pretty much assured everyone around me is of a similar mindset.

—

EMP Survival Stockpile: What Are You Still Missing? – Ask a Prepper

If I were a “smart” adversary and had the capacity, I’d EMP the US.  And then wait a month and do it again.  And another month, and do it once more.  (Not like nobody else has ever thought of this!)  So be very careful after an EMP and bringing out all your electronics from their wrappings…

—

10 Forgotten Nose-to-Tail Recipes – Ask a Prepper

I’ve had most organ meats.  Some are OK.  Some, like sweetbreads (pancreas) I really like.  And a couple are of the I’d have to be starving to have that again variety.

—

Now, I’ve seen this guy in multiple shorts, and while I am hoping and praying that none of the things I’ve seen him demonstrate are ever needed… if it’s truly grid-down, SHTF territory, things will not be “normal” and you’ll need to defend yourself, your family, and your community.

 

https://granitegrok.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/oil-balloon.mp4

 

—

How to Become Invisible to FEMA in a Crisis – Ask a Prepper

And this is the problem of prepping in general; unless you have a locked and well-hidden secret bunker, there’s a reasonable chance they’ll just come and take what you’ve got.

—

5 Items to Remember for When Disaster Strikes – American Thinker

Good list.

—

 

How to Evade A Professional Military (Tracking, Countertracking)

 

 

Unvetted – because I don’t have the background – but it looks interesting!

 

—

Related to Bushcraft specifically:

 

Making a Dakota Fire Hole in the sand

 

 

Related:

 

How to make an IMPROVISED FIELD OVEN

 

 

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

 

Short of years and untold wealth, you cannot possibly be fully prepared for everything (I have to keep reminding myself of that).  But even some preparations, ideally at least 90 days of food, water / water purification, etc., puts you head and shoulders in front of the vast majority of the sheeple who will be in jaw-gaping astonishment when the SHTF.  The only relevant questions are:

1. When does it start?
2. How bad will it get?
3. How long will it last?
4. What will the aftermath look like?

 

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

 

 

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

 

I have a FORAGING group on Gab.  I will check 2-3 times a week to see if people have asked to join.

—

Foraging: One-up articles

My Family Survival Plan How to Make Your Own Aspirin

My immediate thought was weeping willows.  So…

How to Make Aspirin from a Willow Tree (readymaderesources.com)

How to Make Aspirin from a Willow Tree « Home Remedies :: WonderHowTo

—

Foraging (permanent feature):

Foraging (practicalselfreliance.com)

Wild Harvests (arcadianabe.blogspot.com)

Southern Appalachian Herbs

—

Books (permanent feature):

Feasting Free on Wild Edibles (old but good)

The Lost Ways (much more than just foraging)

The Forager’s Guide to Wild Foods

THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO EDIBLE WILD PLANTS FOR BEGINNERS

 

=+=+=

Shortages (broadly):

What Happens When the Government Takes Control of Your Food – Ask a Prepper

What was it Milton Friedman said?  Put the government in charge of the Sahara Desert, and soon there will be a shortage of sand.

 

=+=+=

Gardening, Food Storage, Animals, Food Preservation, Health, and Related:

30 Years Shelf-Life Survival Soup (In A Jar) – Ask a Prepper

You need grains and legumes together if you’re going to get a “complete set” of amino acids – unless you have meat to add, in which case you’re good.

—

Barbour Chickens – Liz Barbour’s Creative Feast (thecreativefeast.com)

Interesting idea to get them from one place to another safely.  More regarding chickens:

How to Ferment Chicken Feed for Better Hen Health & Eggs ~ Homestead and Chill

Winter Chicken Guide – NO Heat Open Air Coop & Cold Weather Tips – YouTube

—

A simple steam sterilizer for farm dairy utensils : Ayers, S. Henry (Samuel Henry) : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Now this is neat!

—

Growing Lentils: Varieties, Planting Guide, Care, Problems, and Harvest (morningchores.com)

I like lentils.

—

Lots of gardening videos, links only:

Why do potatoes grow in bags of soil have so many tubers? Here is the answer – YouTube

Growing Potatoes on the Terrace is very easy, lots of big and beautiful tubers – YouTube

Turn ONE Sweet Potato Into 100 LBS Of Sweet Potatoes By Growing SWEET POTATO SLIPS! [Complete Guide] – YouTube

5 Tips How to Grow a Ton of Sweet Potato in One Container or Garden Bed – YouTube

—

31 Days of Growing Food for Self-Sufficiency – Off Grid Living (pcn-channel.com)

Video.

—

How to Can Sausages for 10+ Years Shelf Life – Ask a Prepper

Good stuff.

—

How To Make A Hotbed To Grow Food Through Winter (ruralsprout.com)

Useful, especially in colder areas.  From the same site:

10 Vegetables To Plant In Fall For An Early Spring Harvest (ruralsprout.com)

And related:

Grow Vegetables and Herbs Indoors from Scraps – Healthy Holistic Living (healthy-holistic-living.com)

—

Links on old-time food storage (permanent feature):

Thanks to the Canning and Preserving group on Gab, I now have these links:

Preserving foods by drying | How to dry foods safely (uada.edu)

USDA-Complete-Guide-to-Home-Canning-2015-revision.pdf (healthycanning.com)

Canning | SDSU Extension (sdstate.edu)

Food Preservation– Canning | Consumer Food Safety | Washington State University (wsu.edu)

Canning Timer & Checklist App | OSU Extension Catalog | Oregon State University

National Center for Home Food Preservation (uga.edu)

Canning Recipes | Ball® Mason Jars (ballmasonjars.com)

—

Topical Books (also permanent):

Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking & Curing

Salumi: The Craft of Italian Dry Curing

A Guide to Canning, Freezing, Curing & Smoking Meat, Fish & Game

The Prepper’s Canning Guide

Pickled Pantry

Fermented Vegetables

Hydroponics and Greenhouse Gardening: 3-in-1 Gardening Book to Grow Vegetables, Herbs, and Fruit All-Year-Round

Hydroponics for Beginners: The Complete Guide to Hydroponic Gardening, Designing and Building Inexpensive DIY Hydroponic Systems…

The Aquaponics Guidebook: Combining Aquaculture and Hydroponics Combining Aquaculture and Hydroponics

 

=+=+=

Self-defense (broad)

Gas Station Carjacking – Gun Free Zone

Situational awareness.  Have it.  That guy was taken totally unaware.  From the same site:

It needs to be legal to run a roadblock – Gun Free Zone

More on this incident, with comments about cities in general:

Bayou Renaissance Man: Remember what I said about cities?

—

Gun Confiscation Is Always a Prelude to Genocide’-Hiding in plain sight’, The U.N.has been advertising for the following position for the past several years:’DISARMAMENT, DEMOBILIZATION AND REINTEGRATION OFFICER’ – Preppgroup (home.blog)

 

 

—

 

Self Defense Against A Baseball Bat Attack

 

 

Gotta be quick, but the follow-up needs to be to get inside the bat and attack.

—

How to Make Your House Invisible After SHTF – Ask a Prepper

Obviously you can’t literally be invisible, but you can achieve the same effect. Your goal is to make your home blend into the background. You don’t want it to stand out; you don’t want people walking past to stop and think “That’s unusual.”

—

Law enforcers are quietly shifting the traditional concept of self defense in favor of the criminals: Here’s what you need to know – LeoHohmann.com

You MUST understand that law enforcement is no longer your friend.  Maybe individual cops still are… but certainly not the legal system in general.

—

 

How to Prepare for a Home Invasion – Home Defense Tips

 

 

And several related videos (links only):

5 Self-Defense Moves Every Woman Should Know | HER Network – YouTube

Here’s an Easy Way to Defend Against a Shirt Grab Attack! – YouTube

5 most common attacks and how to stop them – YouTube

How To End a Fight in 3 seconds – YouTube

5 Common Concealed Carry Mistakes New Gun Owners Make – YouTube

How to Defend Against Dog Attack – YouTube

How to Survive a Dog Attack – YouTube

Worst Things To Do in a Dog Attack – YouTube

 

=+=+=

Hunting & Fishing:

Some videos – links only – about deer hunting:

Top 10 Deer Hunting Tips – YouTube

Deer Sounds You Should Know! Fundamental Breakdown – YouTube

How to Butcher a Deer at Home | The Bearded Butchers – YouTube

Beginner’s Guide to Deer Hunting – YouTube

Hunting Checklist: What Do I Need For Deer Hunting (11 Essentials) – YouTube

15 Deer Hunt Tips! – YouTube

5 Deer Hunting Tips I Wish I Knew Sooner – YouTube

Top 10 Deer Hunting Mistakes – YouTube

This Will Drop a Deer Instantly – YouTube

Skin and Process a Deer in 10 Minutes Without Gutting It – YouTube

Whitetail Hunting Tips 101: Deer Senses – YouTube

What is Camouflage to Deer? What Do Deer See? – Deer and Deer Hunting Video Tips – YouTube

—

50 Great Hunting Tips | Outdoor Life

19 Solid DIY Public-Land Hunting Tips | Field & Stream (fieldandstream.com)

50 Expert Tips for Hunting the Whitetail Rut | Field & Stream (fieldandstream.com)

There’s one issue with deer hunting.  Every yahoo will have the same idea – I’m gonna go get me a deer! – and so the woods will be filled with people who won’t check the shot, won’t be overly concerned with hunter safety, and the deer population will be hammered to, likely, near zero overnight.  Same for turkeys or other game.  Same, honestly, for fishing.  And in a true SHTF situation, tempers will be “testy” at best when different parties / groups interact over what’s perceived as a very finite, and dwindling, resource.

 

=+=+=

Concluding thoughts if I’m moved to comment:

 

There’s a scene in the book “Red Storm Rising” in which one of the main characters, a Navy officer, is on deck with an enlisted man.  Everyone knows that WWIII is about to kick off.  The sailor asks the officer: “So, when’s it gonna start, sir”?

“Soon”.

I fear the truth of this fiction will follow in reality.  Soon.  The question is why.

First, war.  Whether it starts in the Middle East, or China/Taiwan, or Russia polishing off Ukraine and NATO acting… or any of other possibilities, things that kick off will probably spread.

Second:

 

 

And:

CDC Claims On Vaccination And Natural Immunity Made Without Seeing Underlying Data: FOIA Document | ZeroHedge

The damage The Jab did is about to crack through to a preference-cascade awareness, I think.  There will be millions in this country furious at that.  And around the world.

Third, the interest on the debt has now topped one trillion dollars.  Economic death spiral imminent.

Soft Landing? More Like Crash Landing | ZeroHedge

Fourth, Islamic-pushed unrest across Europe and America… the current Israel-Palestine thing is just the ticket for the invaders to really start acting up and taking over.

Fifth, the J6 footage is revealing uncomfortable truths about what really happened there:

New J6 Footage Shows Capitol Police May Have Incited Riot By Firing Munitions Into Peaceful Crowd | ZeroHedge

EXCLUSIVE | J6 Police Body Cam Footage Is Uncovered by The Gateway Pundit’s Alicia Powe – Troves of Body Cam Footage Listed and Linked Below | The Gateway Pundit | by Alicia Powe

BREAKING J6 VIDEO: Undercover Officer Disguised as Trump Supporter Flashes Badge to Cops As He Enters US Capitol on Jan. 6 | The Gateway Pundit | by Jim Hoft

More – embrace the power of AND with the above and possibly other things I’m not seeing.

Yes, things are about to get messy.  To cover up.  To erase.  To distract.

Soon.

 

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

 

Palate cleansers:

 

—

—

 

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

 

Please check out my MEMES collections.  Mockery, ridicule, and the wrapping of uncomfortable truths inside humor can penetrate the cognitive shields of normies far more effectively – IMHO – than dry facts and figures.

And if you find this post useful and informative, please:

Buy Me a Coffee

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The post Survival Sunday appeared first on Granite Grok.

Endometriosis South Coast has chosen a man who lives as a woman to be their CEO, and it’s raised the hackles on several backs as a result. But not all of the arguments for outrage make sense to me.

 

Endometriosis South Coast (ESC) announced on X, formerly known as Twitter, that Labour activist Steph Richards would be leading the organisation.

Ms Richards has previously claimed trans people can change their biological sex ‘a little bit’ and boasted about running a ‘safe space’ where men could dress up as women in secret, including as ‘schoolgirls’.

ECS’s announcement of Ms Richards’ appointment also came with a statement next to her image that said: ‘Isn’t it ridiculous I’ve got to my 40s before any medical professionals even mentioned endometriosis.’

Trans women, who are biological males that identify as women, do not and cannot have a uterus and, therefore, can never suffer from endometriosis.

I am not moved by this at all. Adults can play dress up all they want, and no one should care. Nor should they care if the CEO of an Airline has ever been a pilot. I would bet that a majority of doctors who diagnose and successfully treat Endometriosis are men, as are researchers funded by wealthy men, who help them look for better cures or treatments. I doubt the researchers are refusing the money or the doctors are rejecting the results, treatments, or cures.

The only divergence from this line of thought with any value is whether the non-profit insists you view their new CEO as a woman, in which case, the crime is denying an actual woman a job by giving it to a man in a dress.

On that point,

Kellie-Jay Keen, founder of Let Women Speak movement, was critical of the language used by the charity and said it ‘ignored women’ and branded the appointment ‘barmy.’

‘Everyone has lost their collective minds,’ she added. ‘The losers are women who suffered from endometriosis who have to rely on a charity that won’t call them “women” but “people” but who will call a man a women.

‘This is an absolute disaster and affront to all women who suffer from endometriosis, which is about 10 percent of women. It’s really insulting.

‘I think it’s doubly insulting they will use female language for him but not for a suffer the condition.’

 

This has legs, and they might be hairy and talk about gender confusion. She’s a she, but actual women with the condition in question are genderless flesh to be referred to in sexless language that contradicts the nature of a condition you can’t get absent the thing women have and men don’t—a womb. And there are easily tens of thousands of actual women who are as or more capable – whether they’ve suffered from Endometriosis or not (if that’s another axe worth grinding) who could put a womb back into the job of CEO.

If you think that matters.

 

The post Charity for Womb Condition Hires Wombless Transwoman as Its CEO appeared first on Granite Grok.

Thomas Hooker: Founder of Connecticut. You read that correctly, and it is a historical fact that a Pastor founded the State of Connecticut and was influential in writing the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, which some have called the world’s first written democratic constitution establishing a representative government.

So, let’s look at this remarkable man and his legacy to the church and the political foundation of American Democracy.

He, of course, was a pilgrim (one seeking freedom from tyranny) in England. Settling in the Netherlands briefly and then transitioning to the Massachusetts Colony for religious freedom as many Puritans did. He arrived in Boston and settled in Newton, Massachusetts, later renamed Cambridge. He became the Pastor of First Parish Church. His parish became known affectionately as “Mr. Hooker’s Company”.

He was a very influential speaker and forward thinker. A man who was unafraid to question the established rules of church or society. This led him to conflict with the famous minister of Boston, John Cotton.

I must remind the readers of the close association of church and politics in the 1600-1700’s of America’s founding. It was an easy transition for his pulpit to flow into society, seeking to correct the injustices of laws imposed by preference and fear, not truth and fact, whether in the church or society at large.

The main issue he dealt with was voting rights. In Massachusetts, voting rights were limited to freemen, i.e., individuals formally admitted to the church after a detailed and rigorous review of their religious views and experiences. He opposed this oppression of voting rights. This is what led him into opposition with John Cotton. After the disagreement, he and Rev. Samuel Stone led a group of settlers to travel through the Connecticut Valley and to form the town of Hartford, which was soon to be developed into the colony of Connecticut.

In May 1638, a General Court met to write a constitution for the new town and colony being formed. Pastor Hooker was politically active now since opposing the society’s rule of voting. He preached a sermon that espoused the idea of a Social Contract, stating that authority (state/governmental) was only granted with the people’s consent. On January 14, 1639, the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut were ratified, and this would be the first written constitution in America and a foundation for future founding documents, including the US Constitution. This document included the greater voting rights for individuals. It also had oaths of office, which the governor and magistrates were required to take. Both of these oaths included lines that said they would agree to…” promote the public good and peace of the same, according to the best of my skill, as also will maintain all lawful privileges of this Commonwealth: as also that all wholesome cases that are or shall be made by lawful authority here established, be duly executed; and will further the execution of Justice according to the rule of God’s word.

So, again, the term separation of church and state was a very thin line if it even existed, especially in the interpretation of the last 40 years of lawyers seeking to separate religion from public life in America. The influence of Christian ministers in our country’s founding is really without dispute for any serious person reading the accurate history of our founding. I hope and pray that, somehow, our kids can once again learn about the incredible people who were instrumental in the birthing and building of this great nation. May God grant us a reprieve from social engineering and bring some solid civics and true history back to our classrooms and Universities.

Until Next Week…

ALLEN

The post 1639 and the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut – The First Written Constitution in America appeared first on Granite Grok.

In New Hampshire, if you violate election law, you can have your right to vote in the state revoked. Forever. It is rarely used, but perhaps it should be, especially when we are talking about those who steal political signs.

It is a big problem, especially in New Hampshire. I can’t tell you how many sign-stealing stories we’ve published, but it is a sliver of a reaction to the sum of all incidents. Hundred, if not thousands, of signs go missing, and while a few are waiting at a local town shed – having been moved by town employees who could not do their jobs otherwise (this is legal), many are taken as a political statement of opposition.

That is illegal.

 

…

Later, while continuing to patrol the area, the officer was in the area Fort Eddy Road area and saw the three people again, only this time, the officer said one of the three people appeared to be removing signs from the public way, and walking away with them, according to Deputy Chief John Thomas of the Concord Police Department. The officer headed over to the Fort Eddy Road parking lot of Pizzeria Uno where the three people were to find out what was going on. The officer said inside the back of a vehicle was a pile of signs, Thomas said.

“All of them were Trump signs,” he said.

The suspect accused of pulling the signs up and taking them was identified as Hannah Elizabeth Lawrence, 18, of Clearview Drive in Bow. She was arrested and charged with remove-deface political advertising, a misdemeanor.

 

I don’t care whose signs they were, you are not going to send a message to anyone to stop this activity until you put some teeth into the punishment. Losing the right to vote for election law violations should apply. All those educators who encourage students to vote (typically for Democrats) would go out of their way to tell them not to steal signs.

If they can’t vote for Democrats, what good are they?

Hannah is 18 years old. She will likely get a tiny fine and a slap on the wrist, if that. Something that would look great on any aspiring progressive resume. It would be viewed as an honor and encourage more of the same behavior. Radical groups would line up to reimburse her (or others) for the fine. Maybe even pay her to engage in the activity.

However, they can’t give her back the lost right to vote. She should lose it. That would send a message.

 

The post Should Hannah Elizabeth Lawrence Lose Her Right to Vote in NH? appeared first on Granite Grok.

Philip Goff’s new book Why? The Purpose of the Universe is an outstanding investigation of cosmic purpose written from the author’s panpsychist point of view. It’s an impressive contribution to metaphysics, but, you may ask, why I am talking about it in this week’s column? The answer is that the author includes an appendix, “P.S. Is Taxation Theft?,” in which he raises some very relevant points about libertarianism. You may now wonder why a book on cosmic purpose includes a section about the moral status of taxation, but the answer to this you will have to find out for yourself. If the curiosity leads you to read the book, all the better.

Goff says that many people assume they have a right to all of their income and property. If the state taxes part of what you own, it is stealing from you, in just the same way a thief who absconds with some of your property has done. Libertarians who think this way assume that people have a natural right to property, but this assumption is no more than one of three possible theories of property rights, and moreover the one Goff finds the least plausible. The other two theories are the left-libertarian position that people own the natural resources of the earth in common and the social constructivist view that the people in each society decide for themselves the permissible scope of property rights. Goff leans toward the social constructivist account, though he attaches some weight to the common-resources view as well. Neither of these latter two theories has the consequence that people are entitled to all of their pretax income and property: according to them, taxation isn’t theft.

Goff explains why left-libertarianism allows taxation:

Left-libertarianism will certainly rule out some forms of taxation as immoral. If I have acquired land or natural resources in a way that is consistent with the equal moral claim of others, and through my own labour I increase the value of these resources, it is wrong for the state to tax that wealth away from me. But left-libertarian theories leave considerable latitude for the state to alter the distribution of wealth, perhaps through taxation, if some take more than their fair share of land or natural resources.

And of course social constructivism does so also:

It is plausible that human flourishing requires certain legally protected rights to property, and hence most social constructivists will advocate a system of property rights. At the same time, there are other things of value—perhaps equality, perhaps reward for hard work and/or social contribution . . . —and in order to promote these other values, most social constructivists propose making property rights conditional on the payment of taxes. In the absence of pre-existing property rights, there is no moral reason to respect the existing distribution of wealth.

As this passage makes evident, Goff’s version of social constructivism isn’t based on the claim that morality is nothing more than the subjective preferences of individuals or groups of individuals. He thinks that there are objective values—and makes considerable (and in my view successful) attempts to show this—but these values don’t include natural property rights.

After he presents these competing theories of property rights, Goff rejects the libertarian view, the only one of the three theories according to which taxation is theft. He notes that if you accept the natural property rights that Murray Rothbard and Robert Nozick defend, then you must reject the theory that property rights are socially constructed and also the theory that people have an equal right to natural resources. He is especially troubled by the latter rejection:

The second requirement—the denial of equal rights over the natural world—is particularly implausible. On the right-libertarian view, it is morally acceptable for one person to claim a vastly unequal proportion of land and resources for himself, resulting in his propertyless neighbours being forced to work for him to avoid starvation. By what right can the natural world be appropriated in this way?

Suppose that Goff is correct that you can’t appropriate so much land that everyone else must work for you on whatever terms you set forward. It doesn’t follow from this that everyone has an equal claim to all natural resources. A defender of the natural-right-to-property position could say that the way you are allowed to appropriate property excludes the outcome Goff depicts. You aren’t, for example, allowed to appropriate vast areas of land simply by declaring that you own it.

Further, why is the left-libertarian view of equal ownership of resources supposed to operate only as an objection to the natural-right-to-property view? Why doesn’t it also constrain the social constructivist view that Goff adopts? Does an equal right to resources negate libertarian ownership but somehow cease to exist once social constructivism comes up for consideration?

Goff then advances a startling claim:

Moreover, even if right-libertarianism is true, even if there are natural property rights, even if such rights allow private individuals to carve off for themselves a vastly unequal share of natural resources, even then we cannot make sense of the idea that actual people living today have a moral claim on their pre-tax income. (emphasis in original)

Goff’s argument for this claim rests on a premise we can all accept: we don’t live in a libertarian society. In our society, there are all sorts of state interferences with the free market, including redistributive taxation and the provision of “public goods.” “But even the smallest such state intervention entails that the market distribution of income no longer reflects the free choices of citizens, and hence by the lights of right-libertarianism the citizens of these countries have no moral claim on their pre-tax income” (emphasis in original).

This is an odd argument, and its oddness will become apparent if you recall Goff’s starting point. He is assuming that people have natural property rights—he of course doesn’t think they do, but he wants to show that even on the assumption that they do, people have no right to their pretax income. But from this assumption, how does the state acquire any right to take anything at all? The state’s violations of rights don’t become self-justifying because these very violations make it hard to figure out exactly what property rights people have.

So far as I am aware, Goff’s argument is original, but in philosophy, originality isn’t always a virtue.

David Gordon is a Senior Fellow at the Mises Institute and editor of the Mises Review.

David Gordon | Mises Wire

Mises Wire We heartily encourage reprints and shares of Mises Wire articles. If you wish to reproduce an article in your blog, magazine, radio show, newspaper column, classroom material, textbook, discussion group, website, or any other venue, please do so. The original publication source must be included in an appropriate place.

The post The Taxman Cometh appeared first on Granite Grok.

We welcomed Meagan to the show as a new co-host; is it possible that Jews are moving left and will that last? Is Nikki Haley’s war-hawkishness in tune with the base of the party? Is Desantis’ lacking the stridency of Haley and Ramaswamy in debates what keeps him from catching on with primary voters? Are immigrants choosing to leave the U.S. because it does not live up to what they were promised and isn’t that to be encouraged? San Francisco cleaning up for Xi Jinping; will this make people realize that government can be competent? Ed P. – “clean streets for Xi but not for thee”

The post The Conservatarian Exchange Podcast #180 appeared first on The Liberty Block.

In June, one of the books on display for Pride month was a charming-looking board book titled “Being You,” for ages 2 to 5, with a bunch of happy children on the cover. If you look more closely, the subtitle “A First Conversation About Gender” exposes the sinister intentions of the author to promote radical gender ideology to toddlers.

Gender ideology is not about “Being You.” It’s about children conforming to the gender stereotype that their family, friends, and school enforce on them.

A theater owner who had a show promoting transgenderism to kids recently told me that we have to medically transition kids or else they will “get the sh*$ kicked out of them every day.”

"Kids are becoming sterile and anorgasmic."
"How does that matter to you?"
Beth discusses the dangers of gender medicine with a Colorado Springs theater owner. pic.twitter.com/GlsRWmuAqM

— Sidewalk Steve (@Sidewalk_Steve) October 10, 2023

According to this logic, the bullies dictate to the kids who are gender nonconforming that they must undergo risky and life-changing medical procedures or they will be physically abused.

The gender cultists start with babies and toddlers, teaching them that they might have been born in the wrong body if they don’t conform exactly to rigid gender stereotypes. If a boy plays with dolls or a girl plays with trucks, then Boston Children’s Hospital says that is a sign they are trans.

If a boy wants to wear his hair long or a girl wants to wear her hair short, then it’s better to transition them than allow them to have a different appearance than their peers expect.

If your toddler daughter tries to pee standing up; your son doesn't want to a haircut or plays with "opposite gender toys," they might be transgender and need treatment from Boston Children's. Transgenderism is a religion practiced by the medical industry. #NHPolitics pic.twitter.com/g925u7PPBn

— Sidewalk Steve (@Sidewalk_Steve) April 20, 2023

In the book, the kids work together in the name of fairness to change the girls’ restroom into an “All Gender” restroom where girls won’t have privacy from boys and apparently leaving the boys’ restroom to be a place where boys can have privacy from girls. This is misogyny.

Why did the Nashua Library staff choose to add this book to their collection and why did the children’s librarian choose this book for the Pride display? Why are we paying them with our tax dollars to promote this soul and body-destroying ideology to toddlers?

Related: Gender Cult Propaganda in the Nashua Library Children’s Room

 

The post Night Cap: Library Promotes Gender Propaganda to Toddlers appeared first on Granite Grok.

The world is fractured over the Israel-Hamas conflict, reflecting changing attitudes toward the State of Israel, especially in America. Pro-Palestine college protests have not merely opposed civilian casualties in Gaza but called for eliminating Israel entirely under the mantra “from the river to the sea.”

These are essentially calls for genocide against the chief victims of the Nazi Holocaust!

Many far-left students and political opportunists have been conditioned by social justice ideology to view the entire world through an oppressor-oppressed lens. Critical Race Theory (CRT) applies this theory to race, ascribing all disparities in wealth and achievement to racial oppression.

However, the Jewish experience in America doesn’t fit CRT at all: Jews have thrived in the US (as have Asians). Family and community ties are better predictors of positive outcomes than skin color, revealing the deep flaws inherent in CRT. Thus, social justice activists label Jews as “Super White” traitors to the cause of the oppressed or to deny their racial identity. (They displayed this when Whoopi Goldberg infamously claimed Hitler’s genocide against the Jews was “not about race.”)

The dangers of this race-based CRT ideology are displayed in bold antisemitism by left-leaning college activists. LGBTQ+ advocates are standing with Hamas, chanting “Intifada” and condemning Israel. Yet these same groups would be persecuted in most Muslim nations and enjoy relative freedom in Israel. The horrific assaults against Israeli civilians are shrugged off as justified, and Israel’s very right to exist is under attack. Hamas and gays are strange bedfellows indeed….

This incongruous alliance is explained by the neo-Marxist ideology of social justice, which claims that all people are divided into classes of oppressed versus oppressors. Nuances of Jewish history are overcome using oversimplifying comparisons with colonization, apartheid, or even American slavery. It is by virtue of CRT that Jews are now condemned; sandwiched between the experience of US blacks in slavery and the Palestinians in Gaza, the Holocaust eclipsed.

BLM and other proponents of CRT do not openly criticize Jewish people, but neither do they acknowledge Jews as fellow victims of oppression. As with Asians excelling in America, any group that succeeds is attacked as oppressive. This sentiment was foreshadowed long ago by James Baldwin when he wrote, “The Jew profits from his status in America, and he must expect Negroes to distrust him for it.” CRT gives legs to that racist sentiment.

The survival of the State of Israel is linked to social justice ideology and the culture wars raging in America today. The outcomes of both battles hang in the balance and will determine whether the Judeo-Christian worldview survives.

 

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

The post Israel is Undermined by Critical Race Theory appeared first on Granite Grok.

I’m not sure if they’ve got guillotine logos made up yet, but a coalition of groups easily identified as Marxists has formed a coven of free-market-hating hucksters looking to impose a 3% wealth tax on Vermont’s excessively successful (as defined by the thieves).

 

“We all see the effects of increased income inequality, as wages for the vast majority of Vermonters are not keeping up with rising costs of living,” Heilweil said Thursday. “We see the effects of insufficient revenue being raised to provide basic services, and we see the inevitable costs of these goods and services — public goods that the government should be providing — being passed on to low- and middle-income taxpayers who can least afford them, while our current tax structure protects the wealth of a small number of residents.”

The newly formed coalition includes seven interest groups: the Public Assets Institute, American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont, Vermont Conservation Voters, Vermont Early Childhood Advocacy Alliance, Vermont Natural Resources Council, Vermont-National Education Association and Voices for Vermont’s Children.

 

They were inspired by the 4% surcharge on income over one million recently instituted by Massachusetts. If they are successful in the pursuit, and why wouldn’t they be, they should print up T-hirts that say, “If they can drive away wealth creation, so can we.” That is what inevitably happens. People with mobility can escape a confiscatory government. They can also take any jobs and opportunities that wealth fosters with them. While those left behind find themselves left paying for the spending spree, Democrats took based on revenues they no longer have.

The Communists at the Valley News don’t seem to care about any of that. They are beside themselves with glee, writing,

 

Now, the conversation over fair taxation has moved from the national stage to statehouses. Proponents of the Fair Share for Vermont proposal on Thursday pointed to Massachusetts’ new millionaires tax, a 4% tax surcharge on income exceeding $1 million, as an example.

In Vermont’s left-leaning legislature, at least one chamber seems eager to take on the topic this coming legislative session. Rep. Emilie Kornheiser, D-Brattleboro, who chairs the House’s tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, told VTDigger that on her committee’s to-do list is to “get our heads fully around taxing wealth and what that means, and what the definition of income is.”

 

Translation: politicians who are convinced that there is no limit to how much wealth a government can or should accumulate will define what wealth and income mean – not for themselves – but for you. “Revenue” that, using every example of government theft as taxation as our baseline, could be laundered into the hands of wealthy people who – coincidentally – are donating to their re-election campaigns with whatever is left after it gets ground into dust by the unsustainable cost of running that sort of government.

And always to the applause of special interest groups who will beg the government to take more while the people they claim this will help will – as always –  be hit hardest.

 

The post In Surprise Move (Not!) Marxists Announce That They’d Like to Tax The Rich appeared first on Granite Grok.

As the Biden administration gets closer to finalizing its proposed rule banning the sale of menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars nationwide, a well-known aphorism comes to mind: “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”

The administration’s logic behind the federal ban is that doing so will reduce smoking and correspondingly improve public health. This is the same logic used to justify increasing tobacco taxes or banning tobacco and vaping products at the state level.

When a state bans flavored tobacco or increases excise taxes on cigarettes, legal cigarette sales in the state tend to fall as a result. But what about illegal and out-of-state sales?

High cigarette taxes and bans on flavored tobacco products create black and gray markets through which smugglers become the new suppliers of these products.

Tax rates and smuggling

The Mackinac Center for Public Policy tracks cigarette smuggling in the United States. Its 2021 report showed how cigarette smuggling increases as excise tax rates on tobacco products increase.

New York, which taxes cigarettes $4.35 a pack, saw the highest rate of inbound smuggling—54.48%. The total number of smuggled packs, more than 254 million, was second in the country behind California’s more than 465 million. California also had the second-highest inbound smuggling rate (44.02%) and a tax rate of $2.87 per pack.

When taxes get high enough to encourage large-scale smuggling, tax revenue falls as people stop buying from legal vendors and start buying on the street, and as some vendors switch to out-of-state suppliers and simply don’t report or pay taxes on those purchases. As a result of their high taxes, California and New York saw the two largest revenue losses—more than $1.3 billion and $1.1 billion, respectively.

With a tax rate of $3.51 per pack, Massachusetts had the fourth-highest inbound smuggling rate (37.59%) and the ninth-highest number of smuggled packs (more than 63 million), resulting in the sixth-largest revenue loss (nearly $224 million) in 2021.

Where were these Massachusetts and New York smugglers purchasing these products? Mostly in New Hampshire.

With by far the lowest state tax on cigarette products in the Northeast ($1.78 per pack), the Granite State saw one of the highest outbound smuggling rates in 2021 (-34.13%, which translates to more than 32 million packs).

As smugglers crossed into New Hampshire to purchase cigarettes, the State of New Hampshire collected an additional $58 million in revenue.

High cigarette taxes incentivize illicit market activity, encouraging smugglers to purchase products in low-tax states, cross state lines with them, and consume or resell the products in high-tax states.

A similar dynamic takes place when a state bans tobacco products.

Bans and black markets

After Massachusetts banned flavored tobacco in 2019, JAMA Internal Medicine found that flavored tobacco sales dropped in the state. Successful policy, right?

Not so fast. “In fact, the flavor ban has been far from successful, as sales in both New Hampshire and Rhode Island experienced double-digit growth—almost making up for the entire decrease in Massachusetts,” according to the Tax Foundation.

After Massachusetts’ ban, total sales of flavored tobacco in New England fell by only about 1% from June 2019–May 2020 to June 2020–May 2021.

While sales of flavored tobacco decreased by 24% in Massachusetts between the year before the ban to the year after the ban, they increased by 22% in New Hampshire, 18% in Rhode Island, and 6% in Vermont.

In Fiscal Year 2021, Massachusetts lost out on $125 million in tobacco excise tax revenue as sales shifted to other states.

It’s a mistake to equate falling cigarette sales at licensed, regulated shops with an equivalent decline in smoking. The evidence shows that high taxes and bans on tobacco products shift a lot of activity to the black market.

A University of California at San Diego study of Massachusetts licensed tobacco retailers in the two years before and the two years after the flavored cigarette ban found that the number of new tobacco retail licenses fell by 53% after the ban, with the total number of retail licenses falling by 5.8%. This finding, combined with the documented increases in out-of-state sales and cross-border smuggling, underscores the point that the ban has not ended menthol cigarette smoking in Massachusetts but rather has moved these products onto the black market.

Responding to incentives

Massachusetts created strong incentives for people to buy tobacco products elsewhere and bring them into the state for personal use and/or sales. People responded just as expected.

It’s important to recognize that criminals respond to incentives, too. Gangs and drug smugglers can increase their revenues by adding cigarette smuggling to their repertoire of illicit activities. In the name of public health, states can find themselves strengthening existing organized crime networks and even creating new ones by imposing bans or high tax rates.

Bans and punitive tax rates also induce evasive behaviors among otherwise law-abiding citizens.

The Massachusetts Department of Revenue’s Illegal Tobacco Task Force issues press releases boasting of its enforcement of the state’s tobacco laws. Those press releases list people charged with running large-scale smuggling operations that include flavored tobacco, vapes, and marijuana. But they also include store owners arrested, convicted, and jailed for purchasing tobacco products out of state to avoid Massachusetts’ high taxes.

It’s worth noting that the task force is part of the Department of Revenue. It was created “to address the problem of illegal tobacco distribution in the Commonwealth and the loss of millions of dollars of legitimate tax revenues to the state every year [emphasis added].” Massachusetts’ tax policy stimulated so much tax evasion that the state created a separate team just to find and punish tax evaders.

The solution to this interstate smuggling, some advocates argue, is a nationwide ban. Such policies used to be called “prohibition.” But as that term has fallen out of political favor, advocates instead use the term “ban” now.

There is a large overlap between the people who want to ban tobacco and vaping products and the people who want to maximize government revenue for social welfare programs. Those two goals are in conflict. A Tax Foundation analysis of a proposed menthol cigarette ban shows how.

“A nationwide ban would result in a federal revenue decline of $1.9 billion in the first full year after prohibition,” according to the Tax Foundation. “In the states, the decline in excise tax revenue would be $2.6 billion, the decline in sales tax revenue would be $892 million, and the decline in MSA payments would be $1.2 billion, for a total state revenue loss of $4.7 billion.”

In New Hampshire, where menthol cigarettes make up 34% of the state’s market, a federal ban would mean more than $49 million in lost revenue, of which 71% would be a decline in excise tax revenue.

And just like Massachusetts’ ban resulted in 90% of its lost sales merely moving to neighboring states, a federal ban would increase sales and consumption of other tobacco products like non-flavored cigarettes, and it would move sales and consumption of menthol cigarettes underground.

For example, according to the Reason Foundation, “approximately 22 million additional packs of nonmenthol cigarettes were sold in those states in the year after [Massachusetts’] flavor ban, leading to a net increase in cigarette sales.”

Where will illicit menthol cigarettes come from after a nationwide ban is enacted? The same place so many other banned products do: China.

In 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned flavored vaping products. It boasts that since the ban, it has rejected 99% of requests to sell new e-cigarettes, implying that the ban has reduced access to undesired products.

But CBS News reported in June that the “number of different electronic cigarette devices sold in the U.S. has nearly tripled to over 9,000 since 2020.”

The FDA’s ban excludes disposable vape products. So, predictably, consumers migrated to disposables. But closing that “loophole” isn’t the solution advocates think it is. The surge in different vape products sold has been “driven almost entirely by a wave of unauthorized [emphasis added] disposable vapes from China.”

Consumers and suppliers always find ways to circumvent federal bans.

The primary achievement of such bans will be to replace legal, regulated products with illegal, unregulated ones, often from unscrupulous manufacturers. In a legal market, manufacturers and sellers have strong incentives to build market share by building trust with consumers. Legal markets promote accountability. Black markets do the opposite. Manufacturers and sellers have strong incentives to conceal their identities, which weakens accountability and reduces consumer safety.

Any federal ban would bolster illicit trade, flooding the market with less safe products from unaccountable manufacturers.

The goal of high cigarette taxes and flavored tobacco bans may be an altruistic one, namely, to reduce smoking and improve public health. But the actual outcome of such policies is what’s important. Creating black markets, reducing accountability, shifting money from legitimate businesses to criminal networks, and reducing overall economic and personal freedom create a net negative for the economy and society.

Reducing teen smoking is a worthy goal, which is why it’s already illegal for teens to smoke. Rather than using policy levers that distort market incentives and infringe on the personal freedom of adults, activists should focus on improving their efforts to educate young people about the risks of smoking.

 

Mitchell Scacchi | JBartlett

The post Bans and High Taxes Fuel Black Markets for Tobacco & Vape Products appeared first on Granite Grok.

Rumors abound that the US military can’t achieve recruitment quotas. Insiders and a few veterans groups are insisting that the thinking behind not signing up is spurious – that it’s not that bad under Biden, but this letter from the US Army suggests there are issues.

Care of Igor Chudov, who reminds us that “We were assured that these discharges would “not affect military readiness.”

 

 

Yeah, so sorry about that blight on your record. How about if we pretend that never happened and you can come back?

My first thought is, how much is this like a situation where the city of Minneapolis – which is not a crime-riddles dumpster fire – said, sorry about that Geroge Floyd thing? We’ll parole Derrik, say Floyd died of a fentanyl overdose, and you can come back to work for the city police department. We didn’t mean to stab you in the back and defund you.

“Hell no” comes to mind as a response absent what would be a perfectly justifiable curse-riddled tirade. Nothing else about you or how you approach situations is different. You degraded us and called us names, and upon discovering that wold make you look bad, you’re looking for an easy out.

Screw you.

But that’s just me.

And yes, I am a strong believer in forgiveness, but there’s a catch. You have to be truly repentant, and I have no doubt that the US military, under its current command structure, is trying to rearrange deck chairs on the Titanic, and they need a few more chairs. Absent common sense reform away from #woke nonsense that has no place in any military and a complete change in command, you’ll take the record correction, but unless we get invaded, you get to clean this mess up yourself.

Or am I being too harsh?

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