Some reaction to a post by the GOP candidate in the Rockingham-1 State Rep special election: Outside Money and Influence in the Rockingham District. 1 State Representative Special Election.  The post begins with the candidate describing his surprise (perhaps dismay) at seeing a television ad for his opponent.

Tip of the hat to the Democrats. They are in it to win it. They may be my enemies (because as Communists, they see/treat me as the enemy, and if you see/treat me as the enemy … then you are my enemy), but I can respect their commitment to winning.

The candidate then takes issue with the ad because:

What I find concerning about this ad, and it should also concern the voters of Northwood and Nottingham, is this. Nowhere in this ad does Hal say that he wants to represent the people of District 1 at the State House in Concord. Hal’s implication is that he will represent a political agenda in the State House rather than the people of our great community of District 1. I am committed to representing the principles and values of the fine people of our community. I will be YOUR voice at the State House in Concord.

This makes no sense to me. There are no shared “principles and values” among the voters. From reviewing the election results in 2022 for this district, approximately half are on the Right and half are on the Left. The Right and the Left in today’s America do not have common principles and values. That means the candidate CANNOT be everyone’s voice … that is impossible.

The Left have their principles and values. The Right has a totally different set of principles and values. What the GOP candidate is calling “a political agenda” … to quote the ad, “reproductive choice – climate change – and education” … are the values and principles of the Left. The Democrat candidate is through this ad, and I am sure by many other means, working to turn out voters who share his “political agenda.” I sure hope the GOP candidate is doing the same for his voters.

I hope he has asked the State Party apparatus and the GOP “leaders” in the House when his television ad will start running. And if the answer is NEVER, then I hope he will share that in his next post to Granite Grok.

The candidate goes on to complain that:

Yes – I am pro-life, and “reproductive choice” is not on the ballot. There is already a law on the books concerning abortion.

This is SO WRONG. Abortion is always on the ballot because Roe v. Wade was overturned. That means the political branches are in charge of setting abortion policy. If the candidate supports the current law … abortion-on-demand (or if you prefer access to abortion) through the first six months … then he better be telling the voters just that as opposed to it’s “not on the ballot.” Given that New Hampshire voters are among the most permissive on abortion, simply refusing to talk about it is NOT a winning strategy.

One final bit of unsolicited advice. It concerns this:

Are outsiders trying to influence our district’s election? Well, if you are a resident of Northwood, you may have received political postcards from New Jersey and Georgia. One of the fundamental principles of an election is that the people of that district get to choose a local resident to represent them. For too long, outsiders have been trying to impact and sway our district’s election. It is time we all stand up – get out and vote – and elect a representative of and for the people.

I love the passion and the substance. But everyone who reads Granite Grok, who can vote for you, is already going to vote for you. Turn that into a mailer or, better yet, that television ad that House GOP leadership should be running for you.

 

The post Rockingham-1 Special Election: Democrats In It To Win It … Is The NHGOP? appeared first on Granite Grok.

The machine is working overtime to get the weak-minded wound up about the new strains of COVID when the genuine concern is recent mutations of the COVID narrative. Things are getting McCarthyesqe out there; COVID could lurk almost anywhere, waiting to take advantage of you, vaccinated or not.

 

CDC Reports New SARS CoV-2 Sublineage BA.2.86 Variant Found In US Wastewater pic.twitter.com/9DcWEiP3rS

— The Triune Times (@TriuneTimes) August 26, 2023

I can think of many things in wastewater over whose presence I’ve no concern, including COVID. But I confess to being a bit skeptical about the finding. It is too general. I’m also suspicious about the ability of the virus to survive in the medium enough to be detectable. Oh, and the CDC is a politicized cabal of lying little bitches.

There’s that.

 

Wastewater Detection: A U.S. wastewater sample that was collected as part of routine monitoring in the National Wastewater Surveillance System (NWSS) has preliminarily indicated the presence of the BA.2.86 variant. Scientists are investigating this sample and will continue to closely monitor wastewater for further or more widespread evidence of BA.2.86. NWSS is one of multiple monitoring systems CDC uses to detect variants within the United States, and is meant to be used with other COVID-19 public health data to better understand COVID-19’s spread. Learn more about wastewater monitoring in the United States.

 

Preliminary. Scientists are investigating.

Sure.

And the response to the identification of BA.2.86 in wastewater? Get vaccinated. I stubbed my toe – get vaccinated. Look, it’s a day that ends in ‘Y’. Get vaccinated.

Don’t get me wrong. I’ve had plenty of “vaccinations,” just none for which I have no use, like the mRNA immunity killing COVID juice, and not just because of the risk of myocarditis, especially if you are older. Who wouldn’t want heart complications, right? I react poorly to flu vaccines, as in – it’s the only time I ever get the flu. Given that all the “guidance” is concerned with preventing that, my best course of action is to avoid the so-called cure.

I still got COVID. It was a three-day affair followed by a sudden breakup (I started seeing Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine on the side). COVID still wanted me, but I was done with the relationship, and we’ve not seen each other since, despite her changing her name several times to try and fool me (same old whose, new dress, if you know what I mean).

My “friends” at the FDA, the CDC, DHHS, DNC, ABC, CBS, NBC, and MSNBC still think I need to consider getting jabbed, but that’s a hard no. Not because I’m against vaccines, but because I promised early on to wait for the human test trials to be completed (the science), and those didn’t go well. Billions of test subjects and all sorts of things went sideways. I have side effects from my statin, but we have an understanding. It would be insensitive of me to introduce exponential complications from an injection that has proven more effective at helping you get COVID than not.

And I’m not a doctor, and this isn’t medical advice, but don’t swim in wastewater, especially when it is doing business as science from the CDC or news from the media.

 

 

The post Beware: COVID-19 is Lurking Behind the Commies Hiding in Your Bushes (and Your Sewage) appeared first on Granite Grok.

The Left can celebrate the day, but they will live to dread it. The indictment of Donald Trump and 18 of his lawyers and staff is a shot across the bow by a corrupt Democrat political machine that cannot rely on the mechanisms they built to manipulate the 2024 election.

They need to punish and eliminate the opposition just like regimes do in Third World Countries. Fani Willis is a farce, a tool for the Left, a facilitator for the Bidens, and a narcissist seizing an opportunity she can parlay into future career goals. Like the other Liberal DAs who have been a part of this initiative, Bragg and Jack Smith are also using the Trump indictments as shining accomplishments of their careers and stepping stones to bigger and better appointments. It is a sad turning point in our history and a tarnish on the most crucial job in America and possibly the world, The Presidency.

Trump is the first President to be indicted, let alone four times, and there may be more to come. The stature and respect for the office, if not the man, has been ruined forever. The other thing the Democrats have done is to open the door for future actions. I cannot see Republicans being so bold as to attack, and possibly jail, a political foe and possible opposing candidate. But the precedent has been set. How will Joe Biden look in his mug shot in 2025? This scheme is election-altering and interference. The Left will not admit that, and the media, which is supposed to protect us from the Government, is complicit and on board with the plan. MSNBC, CNN, and all Liberal news and opinion outlets are acting in unison to condemn the former President and anyone who still supports him. It is disheartening watching any of the Left-leaning stations, but especially MSNBC. They are reveling in the situation that Trump finds himself in. It is like a bunch of kids on Christmas morning. They do not even try to hide their joy. It is a pathetic display for people who claim to be journalists.

Watching the number of people exuberant in the booking of a former president was unsettling. Even if they disagree with Trump politically or even like the man, there should be a modicum of respect for the office. To be acting in their fashion is to affirm the disdain they have for this country and the Constitution. They want this man stripped of all rights and privileges of a former President before he is tried in a court of law. As an American, he is entitled to be considered innocent until proven otherwise. These people are so excited about Trump’s mug shot that the Constitution is irrelevant.

They mocked his photo, his motorcade, and his security detail. They mocked everything about the man. But with their constraint of the man, they may have unleashed a movement. They have so angered the core of this country with their arrogance and disregard for the rule of law that they may have secured the Presidency for the man they scorn. So their moment of satisfaction may lead to the moment of them on their knees screaming into the air as the networks declare the winner and 47th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump. That is what we Americans call justice, and it feels great.

The post Turn The Anger Of The Mug Shot Into Victory appeared first on Granite Grok.

Marx and Engels wrote the Communist Manifesto in the mid-to-late 19th century, foretelling the coming revolution of the working class over the bourgeoisie— the capital elite. In the 20th century, the critical theory of the times was feminism, the rise of women and their championing of their own rights in the workplace, in professional life, and in public life.

Both Marxism and feminism have played their course successfully attaining what were the initial goals of their movements, the overthrow of the capitalist elite after the industrial revolution that occurred in most countries largely during what we call today World War One and Two. The civil rights movement granted women the right to vote, and lots of them into positions of corporate and government power all over the world. In the 21st century, we now see a new critical theory emerge the theory— that of the woke.

Wokism began as a sort of enlightenment movement, a counterculture fomenting out of socioeconomic disparities across Western cultures. In this sense, it stems from the failure of the Marxists to succeed in the USA and EU. The Western capital elites have pressed their economic advantages, refusing to give ground or allow governments to properly tax their hordes, squeezing society out of every last penny in order to fulfill their own selfish, greedy desires for full control and autonomy, fulfilling their own sovereignty under the maximum of Gordon Gekko: “Greed is good.”

Being woke entailed being enlightened to a set of principles or set of ideas, but it was not true Enlightenment in the Buddhist or Dharmic sense. Condensed or in a spiritual sense, wokism has nothing to do with universal ideas or maxims. It does not seek to relieve suffering or ground itself in compassion. Wokism relies solely on sociocultural factors, mainly race and identity. By stirring up passions and politicizing identity, wokism seeks to achieve societal change.

In some ways, wokism is the rule of the minority. It’s a relatively small group that feels disenfranchised and disconnected from society at large, ignored by the majority. In reality, this disconnect is mainly of their own doing and in their own minds. They build their own social networks, their own local cultures, and they refuse to connect to larger social structures that define regional or national societies. They do not go into the halls of power at their local state, Congress, or municipal City Council to challenge authority or make their voices heard. Instead, they operate in back alleyways and on the fringes. At least, this was the case up until the 2010s

It was at that point that they began to make organized efforts to achieve positions of power all around the USA. They didn’t do this through cooperation and collaboration. They didn’t do this by attempting to win the vote in democratic ways. They did this largely through social pressures, illegal electioneering, cultural devices like canceling their opponents, and, in some cases, violent kinetic hostility. This is not a movement that is meant to sustain, uphold, or reinforce a democratic society. Like Marxism, it exists on revolution and then spectacularly fails.

Why do the woke continue to exist? They are financed. They are financed by large corporate interests who have largely been educated through a system that reinforces a set of values underpinning woke ideology. These are mostly all based on power and how power is wielded. The woke, obsessed with power, blame all societal problems on racial animus, specifically white supremacy. Interestingly enough, many of the woke are themselves black supremacists. So, in some ways, this is a very racial ideology stemming from racial hatred. The woke main aim is to deconstruct the society and re-create a new society, but they have not actually clearly defined what that new society is, only that they will be in control of it.

Among all of their criticisms, the wokists have never truly defined their proposed alternative model of governance: socioeconomic, structuring, social interaction, or economic interaction. The result is that as they come into positions of power, they do whatever they like, and they typically have no education other than this academically derived understanding of race, power, and identity — based on theories that essentially constitute a mix of feminist and Marxist class, gender and race-based hatred. They lock the skills and connections necessary to prosperously govern a country. In all instances where wokists have come to power, their movement has been hijacked or led to such high levels of incompetence that they find themselves administering and governing a society that crumbles.

Wokism is a naturally and inherently destructive movement. It’s a movement largely akin to a screaming toddler who wants something very badly or wants to express an emotion but is unable to clearly put it into words. And if the thing they want so badly is ever achieved, it only goes on to scream about the next thing. There are no real skills that can be offered other than a continuing line of tantrums, emotional outbursts, and nonsensical wailings— chiefly expressions of hatred and discontent aimed at targets along lines of racialized and sexualized hatred.

In the United States today, the woke have taken the presidency and erected as a puppet to protect themselves from criticism, an old senile octogenarian who, as a career politician, could help them to understand the levers of governance but who is inherently limited by his own stigmatisms, personality, and character. They lack the maturity to substantiate meaningful dialogue in the civil society that could nurture progress or lay the foundations for any sort of prosperity, instead screaming nonsense and taking what they want. Anyone who opposes the wokists is silenced or ostracized. In this way, wokeism, when it takes power and holds positions of power, metastasizes into an authoritarian, oppressive force. Still lacking maturity and wisdom, the woke flail about protecting and enriching themselves, with no real awareness as to the wider impacts and ramifications of their actions. No real long-term strategic objectives, lacking even the ability to clearly define a policy framework. Instead, everything is simply a reaction or done on a whim.

For the wokists, the longing to destroy patriarchal, white society is really their only agenda other than self-preservation and self-enrichment. This longing based on race, sex, and gender hatred is largely a product of a misunderstanding of the nature of history and a refusal to work with the tools of the present to move forward in a peaceful and collaborative way. They have constructed for themselves a scarecrow out of sexist and racist ill will.

Discontent with what they see as a patriarchal power structure globally, they oppress and destroy what white men do from every angle. They are the ultimate Misandrists. Even as women have come to parity with men in many fields, the woke continue in their crusade without really understanding where they, themselves, actually sit in the course of events— lacking all self-awareness and presence of mind. They do not understand the present but act only on their own stigmatized understandings of historical events, projecting these ideas onto others despite their inaccuracy or scientific falsehood.

Discontent with what they see as a racial, white-constructed power system, globally, they oppress whites and seek to destroy them. The woke do not see power structures constructed by other racial groups, and they do not consider the racial or socioeconomic structures of other countries. They are oblivious to the reality that some countries are homogenously black, semite, or Han. In fact, they only look at the country where they live in and the society they live in. These countries are largely in the European and North American political sphere. The woke are overwhelmingly obsessed with creating their own interpretations of historical events, which are often so highly mischaracterized and disconnected from real events that following any thread of logic becomes impossible. Their understanding of history is convoluted and fundamentally born out of sexist and racist animus.

Wokism has largely been hijacked. What was once a fringe movement in the United States that spread slowly to Western Europe has now been financed by globalist corporatist elites and governments seeking the destruction of the USA. It is being promoted and supported by countries who have it in their interest to see the United States and the European Union destroyed, checked, and brought to their knees. Many capitalists have simply used the movement to generate profit and growth for their own companies, while some Marxists and socialists have bought in for the revolutionary fervor and cashed out by stealing and misappropriating collecting funds. What was initially intended to be used for social good has been captured and steered by movements attempting to achieve the goal of depopulating the planet— the transhumanists. 

Ultimately, wokism is an ideology of deception. They claim to be enlightened. They are only enlightened to their own hatred along the lines of politicized identity. Lacking awareness of the nature of universal forces or the present state of the human condition. With no interest for self-development and hardly an ounce of compassion for anyone— not even themselves, the woke exist on lies that they tell to themselves and that they spread to others in order to deflect from the true nature of their nebulous, destructive ideology.

 

The post Wokism: The Latest Critical Theory appeared first on Granite Grok.

I’ve been doing some day trips that land me in or near Portsmouth, New Hampshire’s mecca for poorly thought-out anti-plastic policy. From ‘shopping bags‘ to paperboard containers, their war on plastic is relentless, even when those replacements are worse for the environment.

We’ve debunked the ocean plastic myth, and even drinking straws declared a scourge based on land and sea, with the appropriate response from progressive posers. Since then, paper straws have continued to make their way into restaurants and the mouths of their patrons without much pushback. I’ve seen my fair share around Portsmouth, and I always have the same thought. How can this engineered paper tube use less energy or emit less carbon? The answer is it can’t. What’s worse, research out of Europe, following up on research in the US, suggests a majority of them could leach (drumroll) forever chemicals into people using them.

We’ve jumped past choice and virtue signaling to potential harm, but not much about being environmentally conscious – as peddled by progressives – does anything but make matters worse (by their own standards).

Energy

According to Strawlific.com, ” Each paper straw made requires about 96 kilojoules of energy and emits 4.1 grams of carbon pollutants. However, these numbers mean nothing without something to compare them to.” …

Each plastic straw produced will need around 39 kilojoules of energy and output 1.5 grams of carbon emissions. You read that right, paper straws produce almost three times the amount of carbon dioxide. (In past posts, we’ve shared sources ((2020)) that say it is more like 5.4 times as much.)

 

Get Green Now.com says,

 

For one, many people believe that paper products are less resource-intensive to manufacture than plastic straws. After all, paper is biodegradable and comes from trees, which is a renewable resource.

Unfortunately, that is simply not the case! In fact, paper products in general require more energy and resources to manufacture than plastic products (Source). This may seem counter-intuitive, but it’s actually true!

 

Both sites, by the by, insist plastic is worse based on anecdotal, unverified or debunked narratives common to the anti-oil Left so they are not anti-straw, and neither is the New Atlas. They published a piece on 8/24/2023 titled “Paper straws not so eco-friendly, 90% contain toxic “forever chemicals.” The culprit appears to be PFOA and PFAS, which have been labeled as forever chemicals but absent any actual evidence. It is assumed they are by the same sort of people who ponder anti-plastic policies in places like Portsmouth.

 

The majority of brands tested (69%) contained PFAS, with 18 different PFAS detected in total. Paper straws were most likely to contain PFAS, with the chemicals detected in 90% of the brands tested, albeit in highly variable concentrations. Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), a compound linked to high cholesterol, a reduced immune response, thyroid disease and increased kidney and testicular cancer, was most frequently detected. PFOA has been banned globally since 2020. Also detected were trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) and trifluoromethanesulfonic acid (TFMS), ultra-short-chain PFAS that are highly water-soluble and so might leach out of straws into drinks.

 

The US Study that inspired the European one can be found here: ‘The last straw: Characterization of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in commercially available plant-based drinking straws.’ It’s about as exciting a read as your average court opinion, but if PFAS and PFOS keep you up at night (I sleep like a drunk Irishman even when sober), you might want to carry your own straws with you.

 

To be safe, the researchers suggest people start using stainless steel straws, or ditch straws altogether.

“The presence of PFAS in paper and bamboo straws shows they are not necessarily biodegradable,” Groffen said. “We did not detect any PFAS in stainless steel straws, so I would advise consumers to use this type of straw – or just avoid using straws at all.”

 

I had to rely on older data for the energy burden of stainless steel straws but they also had numbers for glass as well as th number of uses required to abate the carbon cost.

 

[A] single stainless steel straw is responsible for using 2420 kJ of energy, releasing 217 grams of carbon dioxide, and costs $3.00. A single glass straw is responsible for using 1105 kJ of energy, releasing 65.2 grams of carbon dioxide emissions, and costs $0.32. … A single bamboo straw is responsible for 754 kJ of energy, releasing 38.8 grams of carbon dioxide emissions, and costs $1.29. In order to abate the embedded energy and carbon dioxide emissions incorporated in a stainless steel straw, glass straw, and bamboo straw, the stainless steel straw must be reused 102 times (energy) and 149 times (carbon dioxide), the glass straw must be reused 45 times to make up for both embedded energy and carbon dioxide, and the bamboo straw must be reused 32 times (energy) and 27 times (carbon dioxide), rather than purchase and dispose of a plastic straw.

 

The linked resource has different factors for paper and plastic that show paper as less energy dependent, but that may be the result of the early versions that sucked, as in you couldn’t. Paper straws are much more robust in 2023 than in 2018, making them functional beyond a sip or two, which I suspect explains the higher energy and carbon cited above. All of which leads to a common conclusion when dealing with the knee-jerk left. Plastic straws aren’t that bad and never were, and while switching should be a matter of choice, paper might be the wrong choice, and depending on where you go, you might not get to decide.

 

 

The post Paper Straws Require More Energy and Carbon Emissions to Make Than Plastic and … appeared first on Granite Grok.

Whether you love Donald Trump and are daily festooned with MAGA paraphernalia or despise everything about him, if you reflect on Trump’s trials, you may have a real whiskey, tango, foxtrot moment.

The problem isn’t the indictments and whether they are bogus and political or sound and prudent. The lawyers and the courts will duke it out, and someday we’ll know, or at least we’ll have the best answer the system can produce. No, the issue is Trump’s bail.

According to “How Courts Work,” posted on the ABA website September 9, 2019:

Bail is the amount of money defendants must post to be released from custody until their trial. Bail is not a fine. It is not supposed to be used as punishment. The purpose of bail is simply to ensure that defendants will appear for trial and all pretrial hearings for which they must be present.

That probably comports well with what you thought – the purpose of Trump’s bail is to ensure he doesn’t skip town. In the Fulton County case, his bail was set at $200,000. (RELATED: JOHN STOSSEL: Are We Really Stuck With Trump And Biden?)

Perhaps the Fulton County court is unaware Donald Trump is running for President of the United States, is dominating his Republican competition, and often leads his likely opponent in the general election, Joe Biden. Skip town, Donald? Biden should be so lucky.

Or maybe the Fulton Country court is unaware Donald Trump may be the most recognized man on the planet. There may be an igloo in Antarctica he could hide in, but that’s about it.

Is the court aware Trump is surrounded by a large team of Secret Service agents? Slip away unnoticed? I think not.

Finally, surely the court must have noticed Trump thinks he’s innocent of all charges and will bring enormous legal talent to bear to prove it. You don’t bolt if you truly believe you’re going to win.

 

 

So, what’s the point of requiring a man to post bail when he has a metaphysically measured 0.00% chance of skipping town? To try to embarrass Trump further. But the real effect is to prove beyond a reasonable doubt the prosecutor, country District Attorney Fani Willis, is far more interested in the politics and the fame than she is the law.

If Trump were willing (I heard this notion so it’s not original with me), then he should change his mind and tear up the bail agreement. Show up, be arrested, and then be taken to jail. The Secret Service would immediately invoke their federal authority and force the county to empty out the jail to ensure the former President’s safety. Then watch the thousands, then tens of thousands, then more and more come to the jail to protest. Even MSNBC would be forced to cover it. (RELATED: ALAN DERSHOWITZ: Trump’s Georgia Prosecutor Isn’t Being Truthful)

Or, more likely, watch the Court and Willis squeak like little mice and say, never mind, Mr. Trump. See you in a few weeks. There would be plenty of embarrassment, but not for Trump.

This is in no way a defense of Donald Trump. It is yet another indictment of our justice system run amok in political mud. And it is a call to American jurists to remember that the rule of law only prevails when lady justice holds the scales, blindfold securely in place. If the jurists who know best won’t police the system, then those who know far less will, and then we really will want a blindfold.

JD Foster is the former chief economist at the Office of Management and Budget and former chief economist and senior vice president at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. He now resides in relative freedom in the hills of Idaho.

 

JD Foster | Daily Caller News Service

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline, and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

The post This Proves That Trump’s Prosecutors Are Playing Politics, And It Has Nothing To Do With His Charges appeared first on Granite Grok.

Folks who have dug in on the idea that Lahahia was leveled as part of a Directed Energy Weapon test or attack will see this as misdirection, but so will the Climate Cult Global Warming wildfire crowd. Maui County has sued The Hawaiian Electric Company for negligence.

Related: Maui “Wildfire” Likely Caused by Hawaii Electric/Downed Powerlines

 

The lawsuit said the destruction could have been avoided and that the utility had a duty “to properly maintain and repair the electric transmission lines, and other equipment including utility poles associated with their transmission of electricity, and to keep vegetation properly trimmed and maintained so as to prevent contact with overhead power lines and other electric equipment.”

The utility knew that high winds “would topple power poles, knock down power lines, and ignite vegetation,” the lawsuit said. “Defendants also knew that if their overhead electrical equipment ignited a fire, it would spread at a critically rapid rate.”

 

Maui isn’t suing Mother Nature or the makers of SUVs, or even Big Oil, so the sustained winds of the Climate Alarmists just took a hit, not that they much care. News of the lawsuit is getting reported, but not with the hyperbolic 24/7 hysteria afforded the climate-implicated complications before it. Imagery that will stay with people while the more pedestrian explanation scrolls off the home page or the Kyron into the archive.

That’s not to say there is no room here for Climate Zealots to claim new victories. The lawsuit alleges negligence on the part of HEC. They knew about the drought, the invasive, dry grass, and the high winds from Hurricane Dora a few hundred miles south of the Islands.

It is a hat trick of symptoms already peddled as a byproduct of man’s influence on the climate. It is the not-so-invisible hand of the climate economy. Weather equals fevered panic equals money laundering. More of that strategic chaos, not to be confused with actual man-made ills in places like Chicago, where crime is up exponentially thanks to the Democrat-made war on policing, law, and order.

But it is the same.

No alarms sounded, no water in the hydrants, and the government “knew about the drought, the invasive, dry grass, and the high winds from Hurricane Dora a few hundred miles south of the Islands.”

Maui County should be suing itself, but that would be silly, and there’s no money in it. The California Camp Fire was a raging climate catastrophe until the government realized how much money it could make suing the electric company it failed to regulate and supervise in the interest of public safety in a state that overregulates everything.

California forest policy also had plenty to do with the tinderbox that resulted in 85 deaths, but PG&E got the blame instead of bureaucrats, politicians, and policy.

And while Hawaiian Electric is “very disappointed that Maui County chose this litigious path while the investigation is still unfolding,” I think they know they are over a barrel. Progressive policy lends itself to disasters in the making, and someone has to take the blame when they lead to the strategic chaos not just baked in but necessary for those failed politicians and regulators to seize more power.

Lahania is a tragedy for many reasons, but the most important one is that the government is as much or more to blame as anyone, and that’s the last thing anyone involved will try to fix.

 

 

The post Maui Sues Hawaiian Electric for Negligence Leading to Lahaina Fire When it Should Probably Sue Itself appeared first on Granite Grok.

If the Left can take down President Trump. … the, by a landslide margin, choice of GOP voters to be their Presidential nominee in 2024 … with completely BOGUS criminal charges, who can’t they take down? Do you really believe they would stop with Trump? Were the COVID-rules for voting (mail-in voting and drop-boxes), the ballot-harvesting, the Regime-media/Big-Tech censorship and Deep State disinformation, Zuckerbucks, etc. just a one-time deal to elect Biden in 2020 … or are elections still being rigged?

Yet, with the exception of Vivek, the GOP Presidential wanna-be’s are telling us we have to “move on” past Trump. WRONG; WRONG; WRONG … the lawfare against Trump is the most important issue, the defining, issue of 2024. The lawfare against Trump raises the fundamental issue of whether certain Americans … actual Republican voters … get to choose their candidates or whether the Left and their allies, the GOP donor-class, which believes that the GOP’s role is “controlled opposition,” get to choose for them. Whether it is a crime to question obviously rigged elections, forever-wars and the Deep State. Sun-King Sununu … as FAUX a Republican as there ever has been … believes that the donor-class should run the GOP:

 

Every GOP candidate at the Faux “debate” … with the exception of Vivek … appears to agree with Sununu. For example, DeSantis’ tells us we have to make the race about 2024, not 2020. The lawfare against Trump is happening NOW, Governor DeSantis. Four totally BOGUS indictments … the use of the criminal justice system to prevent a candidate that the Uniparty sees as the greatest threat to their precious war in Ukraine, their “free trade” with China, their open-borders, etc. from running for President. And you are okay with that? Do NOT tell me you are going to end the “weaponization” of the federal government when you are looking the other way … to please the donor-class … from the weaponization of the federal government to destroy Trump.

Why is Vivek the exception? Perhaps because he isn the only candidate not dependent upon the donor class:

Going rhetorical scorched earth on this insanity and its implications for our country is the easiest gimme in all of politics right now, and only one guy is doing it. And it happens to be the guy who isn’t entirely dependent on the GOP establishment for his future. Why is that?

— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) August 25, 2023

 

The post The Lawfare Against Trump Is The Most Important Issue … Why Is Vivek The Only One Willing To Talk About It? appeared first on Granite Grok.

What is going on in New Hampshire has just been exposed in California. All of you who have been victims of court corruption will relate to the article below, whether family courts, civil courts, or criminal courts. We have seen it over and over and over again.

It is RICO, and now, in California, it is being investigated as such. It must be investigated as such in New Hampshire.

Chuck Douglas wrote the Guide to Family Law. He is chair of the judicial selection committee. Start there. He’s on his 5th wife, I believe. His 4th wife allegedly found condom (receipts) in his wastebasket from having an (alleged) affair with his secretary in their law firm office. He was also representing the secretary at the time.

The judge in his divorce from his 4th wife, resigned in 2007 for financial fraud – hiding disbarred spouse’s assets. That says it all, really.

“Coffey reportedly said in her letter of resignation that she took issue with the high court’s opinion sanctioning her, asserting that the court was selective in its characterization of her actions in creating land trusts to protect her disbarred husband’s finances.”

Chuck Douglas’s sent a teenage rape victim back to YDC after she failed to name her abuser, and the state had paid for a secret abortion before he filed dozens of claims against the Diocese of Manchester, St. Paul’s School, and Dartmouth College for alleged victims, many of whom had been solicited and offered money if they became victims.

This is NH Courts for you. It is grotesque. They care not about real victims; they care not about children or families. Just check out Open Corporates for all the hidden companies, real estate, and shell organizations.

“I feel like all I did was become a victim of a violent crime, and now, all of a sudden, my life’s falling apart,” Gackle said.

But new information has come out that suggests Gackle wasn’t just the victim of a horrific assault; he was also the victim of a secretive, tight-knit circle of Santa Clara County Superior Court judges, lawyers, law enforcement officials, and reporters known as the Bench-Bar-Media-Police Committee (BBMP).

The history of the committee suggests that the government officials who organized and ran the group – and the “off-the-record” meetings – used it to influence local media and protect judges and law enforcement officials from scrutiny, scandal, and accountability.

 

 

Email edited (slightly) from the original

The post What Is Going On in New Hampshire Has Just Been Exposed in California. appeared first on Granite Grok.

I cannot guarantee this will be done every week.  Between memes, work, family, etc., I’m swamped.  But still… trying to get info out as I believe things are getting to a head, and sooner than we think possible. 

Request: I am hoping to connect with, and get mentored by, someone in the southern NH area that can help me set up and “run” my pressure canner.  Also, someone in the same area that understands how to do no-refrigeration-needed sausage making / meat preservation.

 

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

 

Brace Yourselves, Because What The Elites Have Planned Is Going To Absolutely Devastate The US Economy ⋆ Conservative Firing Line

And, per a marine friend, likely before the 2024 election.  Thus giving rationale to “temporarily” postponing the election while they get it sorted out.

 

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

 

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 and also on Telegram Tommy Robinson Official plus his Urban Scoop site.  And don’t forget posts sometimes get cloned on American Reveille as well, which is a good site to check out in general.

FYI, here’s a link to the last Survival Sunday.

 

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

 

Messenger RNA “Vaccines” in Meat Animals

Determined to get mRNA into you.  BAMN.

 

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

 

Top of the fold:

INSANITY: Biden Regime Proposes Ban on Sale of Portable Gas Generators, Raising Concerns for Power Outage Reliance | The Gateway Pundit | by Jim Hᴏft

I should grab something that has enough “umph” to power my well.  As a backup to my backup generator.

—

West Africa military chiefs prepare possible Niger mission – Insider Paper

Another flash point added to the mix.

 

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

 

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

 

=+=+=

Oddments – random thoughts on prepping:

• Stuff for car oil changes.  And car maintenance in general – bulbs, belts, who knows what?

 

 

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:

Create a Collapse Supply List – The Organic Prepper

Older, but good.

—

How Gangs Operate Post-Collapse – The Organic Prepper

Useful.

—

What Will You Do When You Run Out of Stored Fuel? – The Organic Prepper

In the long term it’s bicycles, tricycles, etc.

—

Related to Spicy Time:

Bayou Renaissance Man: Cooking during a prolonged emergency

The big question IMHO is short or long term?  Long-long term, it’s over a wood fire in some form, or with something solar.  Two more from the same site, different topics:

Bayou Renaissance Man: Drone warfare: coming to a suburb near you?

Bayou Renaissance Man: Looks like crime by the homeless is getting organized

—

Related to Bushcraft specifically:

 

5 Survival Traps and Snares that WORK! – Primitive Traps

 

 

Another couple of trapping videos (links only):

10+ Bushcraft Skills and Wilderness Survival Hacks – YouTube

Man Survives in the Wild Using Primitive Fishing Traps| by @rampe201 – YouTube

—

 

Old School Survival Camping – No Tent, No Sleeping Bag – Exploring Appalachia

 

 

Related (link only):

Lost in Alaska – How to NOT Freeze to Death! Winter Survival Camping & Bushcraft (No Tent or Bag) – YouTube

11 Essential Knots for Survival and Bug Out – YouTube

Build All Natural Bark Roof Bushcraft Shelter in Winter Snow (bitchute.com)

—

A Beginner’s Guide To Trapping (prepperswill.com)

Some good tips.  Related:

Building traps and snares

 

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

Top 5 Rules of Stockpiling!

 

 

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

 

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

40+ Wild Plants You Can Make into Flour (practicalselfreliance.com)

Lots of alternatives to regular flour.  Another:

How to Make Birch Bark Flour (Plus Birch Shortbread Cookies) (practicalselfreliance.com)

—

50+ Edible Wild Berries & Fruits ~ A Foragers Guide (practicalselfreliance.com)

And then the opposite – not to eat:

Poisonous Berries ~ A Forager’s Guide (practicalselfreliance.com)

—

Foraging Beech Nuts (practicalselfreliance.com)

One person I know has, I think, one of these.  Need to ask to come over to double-check.

—

Medicinal Shrubs and Woody Vines: Corylus, Hazelnut (substack.com)

Not just for food!

—

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):

‘Some will go hungry, some will starve’: Global rice shortages feared after India bans exports | World News | Sky News

This will have ripple effects, even if you don’t eat rice specifically.

—

Drug And Food Shortages Are Here, And They Will Get A Lot Worse… | ZeroHedge

Trouble ahead.

 

=+=+=

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

 

My Clever Ways to MANIPULATE Tomatoes to Produce Early, Often, and Nonstop

 

 

Other gardening videos, links only:

You’re Killing Your Tomatoes if You Do This, 5 MISTAKES You Can’t Afford to Make Growing Tomatoes – YouTube

2 Ways To Grow Zucchini And Summer Squash You May Not Know – YouTube

How to Build a Mini RAISED BED Using ONE PALLET, FREE Backyard Gardening! – YouTube

Doing This ONE THING Eliminates 90% of PEST PROBLEMS in the Garden – YouTube

The Holy Grail Homestead Plant & The Secrets to Grow It – YouTube

A Simple Composting System for Small Farms | Four Winds Farm – YouTube

1/8 Acre Abundance: FULL TOUR + BEST TIPS for Growing – YouTube

Your Cucumbers Will LOVE You For This: 5 Things To Do NOW! – YouTube

When are Potatoes Ready to Harvest? – YouTube

Grow More Sweet Potatoes FAST & CHEAP! – YouTube

How to Grow: Potatoes in Pots / Homegrown Garden – YouTube

Unbelievable Backyard Garden Harvest, This is What I Harvested Today! – YouTube

Harvesting Your Garlic – The Definitive Guide For Beginners – YouTube

I Made A Tomato Trellis With The Biggest Yields! – YouTube

 

—

 

Make ANY Fruit Into Crystal Clear Jam…

 

 

—

55 Gardening Resources to Help You Have the Best Harvest Ever (theorganicprepper.com)

Sweeping with many references.

—

A Prepper’s Guide to Personal Hygiene When the SHTF – The Organic Prepper

So many things to think about!  And I did not know soaps could break down.

—

Using eggs in the garden – 5 expert tips | Homes & Gardens (homesandgardens.com)

I have a big bag of cleaned eggshells, fragmented, that I use.

—

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)

I sometimes get the feeling I’m talking to a brick wall…

I wish I could live farther out.

—

Blending In While Carrying Concealed | An Official Journal Of The NRA (shootingillustrated.com)

Useful.

 

=+=+=

Hunting & Fishing:

 

=+=+=

Concluding thoughts if I’m moved to comment:

Blind mystic Baba Vanga makes nuclear disaster prediction for 2023 (nypost.com)

I’m not one for psychics.  In one place where I used to live there was a prominent psychic / palm reader.  I used to joke that I’d take them seriously if they put up a sign with my name, the correct date / time, inviting me in.

But given that she died quite a while ago… and that there seems to be a push for something with Russia… something to consider.

 

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

 

Biden Crime Family Chalkboard: The Corruption Charge that Could Take Joe DOWN | Ep 297

 

 

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

Palate cleansers:

—

—

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

 

Please check out my MEMES collections; last one here.  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.

 

The post Survival Sunday appeared first on Granite Grok.

First of all, the RNC should IMMEDIATELY strip New Hampshire of FITN for even considering the absurd, politically driven, Democrat/NeverTrump snake-oil conspiracy theory that the 14th Amendment bars Trump from running for President. Earth to Ronna. Earth to Ronna.

Second, if the Constitution and the rule of law really mattered to the grifters pushing this insane argument … then maybe they should have read Professor Jonathan Turley’s take before bloviating to the media. Earth to Dirty-Dave Scanlan. Earth to Dirty-Dave Scanlan. Some excerpts:

… Democrats have long pushed this theory about the 14th Amendment as a way of disqualifying not only Trump but also dozens of Republican members of Congress. For some, it is the ultimate Hail Mary pass if four indictments, roughly 100 criminal charges and more than a dozen opposing candidates fail to get the job done.  ..

… I simply fail to see how the text, history or purpose of the 14th Amendment even remotely favors this view. Despite the extensive research of Baude and Paulsen, their analysis ends where it began: Was January 6 an insurrection or rebellion? …

… despite formal articles of the second impeachment and years of experts insisting that Trump was guilty of incitement and insurrection, Special Counsel Jack Smith notably did not charge him with any such crime.

The reason is obvious. The evidence and constitutional standards would not have supported a charge of incitement or insurrection. …

… That leaves us with the argument that any effort to stop a constitutional process is akin to an insurrection or rebellion under the 14th Amendment. If that were the standard, any protests — including the anti-Trump protests and the certification challenges to electoral votes in 2016 — could also be cited as disqualifying. If that were the case, figures such as Rep. Jamie Raskin (D., Md) could be summarily purged from office for having sought to overturn an election.

Notice how Dirty-Dave Scanlan is NOT talking about removing from the ballot all the Democrats who pushed the Russia collusion hoax or any of the other equally FALSE challenges to the 2016 election.

Golly, gee … I wonder why.

 

The post Dear Dirty-Dave Scanlan … Meet Professor Jonathan Turley appeared first on Granite Grok.

Hurricane Hilary, doing business as a tropical storm, gave Southern California and Arizona much-needed rain. Yes, they had a lot of winter runoff, but they are terrible at managing it, so more is usually better.

The aquifers will be happy, as are the climate alarmists, but the Northern Atlantic and the Gulf are the new hotness.

Three depressions, one of them a named Storm (Franklin), are milling about. Franklin has 90-mile-per-hour winds and is projected to brush past Bermuda but is not currently a threat to anything else (cue Hey, It’s Franklin).

 

 

Invest 92L is a disorganized mess east of Franklin, visible in the image above. NOAA projects a 10% chance of cyclone formation in the next 48 hours, and while we wait, we’ve got Tropical Depression 10 currently over the Yucatan Peninsula.

 

 

With maximum sustained winds of 35 miles per hour, TD10 is poised to pick up strength as it crosses the Gulf of Mexico before landing in North Florida and the Panhandle. Moving at five mph, it is forecast to reach hurricane strength before making landfall in three days, which would give us our first actual hurricane of the season. Governor DeSantis has already declared a state of emergency to mobilize resources.

Looking further out, other than Invest 92L, nothing new has formed on the Western Coast of Africa, but we are in the heart of Hurricane Season until the end of September, and after several months of mucking about, it is game on!

There is nothing left to do now but prepare for the climate hysteria and wait to see what sort of storm hits the coast.

If you’d like to geek out, The Heartland Institute’s Climate Change Round Table #77 focuses on Hurricane Season, the warm Atlantic, and some regular features you might find fun or disturbing – we won’t judge.

 

 

The post Hurricane Season has Arrived! Tropical Depression Expected to Make US Landfall as a Hurricane. appeared first on Granite Grok.

Recall Prof. Sowell’s truism about minimum wages, that “The Real Minimum Wage is Zero” is talking about the person who DOESN’T get the job because the Government has artificially screwed up the Marketplace by hiking the cost of doing business.

An otherwise potential aide to an organization is priced out, based on their skill sets (or lack thereof), for the economic worth of that job.

Companies aren’t job providers for the sake of giving someone a job. That’s just welfare, and companies aren’t in that business. They are in business to make a profit; making a profit tells the company owners/shareholders and managers that what the company is doing is properly serving their customers.

And that’s the nub of the problem – too many engaging in AND criticizing the American free market system (such as it is, as too much Government has intruded) have forgotten the First Rule of Capitalism: A company exists to serve the people that are its clients and consumers. When you don’t, even with all kinds of stupid platitudes to the contrary, the customer will move on.

We’ve had that real-world example in front of us – you don’t make fun of your customers and expect to “live long and profitable.  As NHnative tells us over at “Billy Busch Offers to Buy BUD Back” (reformatted, emphasis mine):

I talked to the beer drinker in my world about all this recently.

You had a whole lot of middle-aged and older men that were loyal to that brown bottle. The ones that drank way too much of it that began having waistline issues had switched over to Bud Light…There was a whole lot of brand loyalty.. it was the beer they grew up on. A lot of these people hadn’t really strayed much- if at all.

BUT then they pissed that crowd off and they quit on them- which then set them free.

What they did was learned that there are just tons of other beers, ales, and hard cider, (have you seen the beer aisle lately at the grocery store?).

What this guy said to me was:

“Ya know, that beer is really sh*t beer and I didn’t realize how bad it was until I went out and tried all these others- I ain’t going back- why go back when there is all this other stuff out here that is much better and ain’t pushing a Tranny at me???“

What Bud Light did was give them a reason to quit– and once they did that, they saw that the grass is greener on the other sides of the beer aisle.. and they won’t be back and it’s for several reasons really- what they did combined with the fact that there are so many other products they like more now. So ‘Manly’ new ad campaigns are not going to have any impact at all on these people.

I think the real lessons here are ones that many of us old-timers know: You don’t bite the hand that feeds you.

The Political Activists that are running businesses need to learn that business and political activism are not necessarily a combination that is going to work for the entire market.

If you can get by on 50% of the population- then go for it.

But if making money is your goal, they you’ll need more than that and that means removing politics from the business.

“Give them a reason to quit” is what happened when it became known that the Political Activist at the head of all this, Alissa Heinerscheid, had dissed all of the blue-collar workers as “frat boys” and let the world know that she despised her current customers and wanted new ones. At that instant, she let us all know that she didn’t think that serving customers was important anymore. Customers believed her and acted accordingly.

You know, like the Democrats who despise the current American electorate (because we can’t stomach their condescending manners and their autocratic policies) are trying to import (by opening up our borders) a brand new one.

 

The post Promoted From The Comments: Bud Forgot Who is REALLY In Charge appeared first on Granite Grok.

“A fair, open, and competitive marketplace has long been a cornerstone of the American economy, while excessive market concentration threatens basic economic liberties, democratic accountability, and the welfare of workers, farmers, small businesses, startups, and consumers.”

These words were the opening statement of a White House executive order by Joe Biden to save economic freedom in theory by limiting it in reality through government intervention. Biden is right that competition is the cornerstone to a prosperous economy, but the best way to promote competition is less regulation instead of more of it. When business decisions are up to bureaucrats instead of actual business owners accountable to their customer base, it’s the consumer who will lose the most.

Inefficiency of Efficiency as a Policy

Two of the most successful businesses in American history are Standard Oil and Walmart. They became that way because they were relentless at being the most efficient in their businesses. As both companies grew, they expanded their operations into new ventures, but these were services and products whose purpose was to support the main business. This is known as vertical integration.

Standard Oil manufactured their own barrels and railroad tanker cars instead of purchasing through a third party because they were able to make a better product for themselves at a lower cost and were able to save overhead on the markup that a supplier would charge.

Walmart created their own distribution network that was exclusive for their store’s use. They used their own trucks and drivers to deliver stock to and from their stores instead of relying on someone else. This efficiency that they created from being their own distributors also had the compounding effect of improving how they managed their inventory, which meant that not only did they have low prices but also always had stock.

These two examples led to both companies overtaking their competition and increasing their market shares for their industries. Standard Oil acquired many of its smaller competitors in the oil refining industry with the results being that many people working at the acquired firms received jobs with Standard Oil, and the price of oil fell during their growth because they passed their efficiencies on to their customers through the lower prices they charged. Today the company is remembered as the original big bad monopoly, but its negative reputation doesn’t match the facts.

Kmart was America’s largest discount chain as Walmart was growing. Walmart not only went on to become number one through their superior business practices, but Kmart today is now practically out of business. That is how things are supposed to work in a free market, but today’s politicians feel like they have the need to regulate this because it’s not fair to the business owners that ended up losing the game, despite making a lot of money as they played it.

Instead, today there would be calls for Walmart to spin off their distribution centers, and we might later find out that those politicians received donations from Kmart. Or there might have been regulators preventing the Standard Oil drums and cars being used because they weren’t from an approved third party. In each of these hypothetical situations, the government would be promoting competition but through fragmentation, and the cost of this would be greater inefficiency, less innovation, and higher prices for consumers.

Small Businesses Can Compete against Behemoths

In Sam Walton’s autobiography Made in America, he acknowledged the criticism that his company, Walmart, was outcompeting smaller businesses which was leading to their closure. Instead of defending himself, he laid out a strategy for smaller businesses to compete with him and enter a specialized market. He knew that he might stock a little bit of everything from every category, but he couldn’t offer it all. So it would be up to the shop down the road to fulfill that need for the customer.

Likewise, Amazon is considered a villain by many for its business practices and the ability of its online store to often outcompete its brick-and-mortar counterparts. But less than forty years ago, the company did not exist. There were much larger chain stores, like Sears, that sold everything under the sun. If they didn’t have what you wanted in the store, they had it in the catalogue. The big businesses of yesterday seemed impossible to compete against when they were at their peak, but the landscape always changes with rises and falls. Today Sears is out of business while Amazon dominates retail. Amazon did this because they sold books online, became the best at it, and then expanded their product lines.

Government Regulations Hurt Competition

Government rules and regulations bear heavy costs on businesses in many ways. For example, many states require companies to purchase workers’ compensation insurance even if the business is one employee (the owner) and he pays himself almost nothing. Instead of benefiting the new business, government helps subsidize the larger businesses. Likewise, some areas charge businesses license fees for the privilege of working out of their homes. As the lists and requirements go on, so do the costs and the time to make sure you are in compliance. And if something is out of order, more capital resources are wasted through fines, and time dealing with these issues is time spent away from running the business.

When John D. Rockefeller would visit his competitors that he wanted to acquire, he would bring Standard Oil’s accounting books with him. This was a time before government income taxes and modern accounting procedures, so everything in his books was transparent and easy to understand. And what most of his rivals understood after viewing the books was that Standard Oil was a much more efficient operation than the one they were running. Most business owners tend to relax after the money starts to roll in, but not Rockefeller.

Innovation and a relentless work ethic were John D. Rockefeller’s competitive advantages over his rivals. He made those traits part of his company’s core values, and he was able to outcompete others in his industry. As his company grew, he created new products, new jobs, and drove prices down for consumers while increasing quality.

Imagine how different the world would be today had regulators stepped in and told Rockefeller and the companies he was acquiring that they couldn’t join because everything is better when a lot of small companies compete over a small pie instead of a few large companies making the pie bigger. It wouldn’t be fair to the consumers if the government put their finger on the scale to make sure that the less competent get a bigger advantage over the more competent.

Of course, the fairest way to make sure there is honest competition is through fewer rules and less interference, not more. But the people in Washington setting the policies right now don’t want to hear that.

 

Daniel Kowalski is an American businessman experienced with the emerging markets of Africa. His writings have been published with Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) and Western Journal Opinion.

 

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 Government Imposed “Competition” Harms Competition appeared first on Granite Grok.

A government that thinks there are too many of us, that we are some sort of burden, and encourages medically assisted suicide will always make its citizens suicidal and then pretend it is a kindness to kill them.

That is not speculation or conspiracy theory; it is a fact. Over the past several years, nation-states have gone to great lengths to ensure mental health distress, chronic drug abuse, and illness. At the same time, the more progressive players have either instituted medically assisted suicide or made it easier for you to “qualify.”

Depending on how far gone, the State will declare its political opponents (agitators who brought them to power and agitators who oppose their power) mentally unfit, make them disappear in jails or in mental institutions where they will either kill themselves (suicide), or ask to die (assisted suicide).

We’ve shared plenty of slippery slope examples already but we’ve got two more.

Assisted suicides in California jump 63% in just one year.

The latest report by the state includes the data for 2022 assisted suicides. It shows that “853 individuals died following their ingestion of the prescribed aid- in-dying drug(s), which includes 50 individuals who received prescriptions prior to 2022.”

In 2021, 522 people died after taking drugs prescribed under the law. This means there was a 63 percent increase between 2021 and 2022.

Assisted suicide deaths in Quebec now the highest in the world.

Euthanasia in Quebec has reached seven percent of deaths, the highest in the world. Nonetheless, the head of the province’s Commission on End-of-Life Care, Dr. Michel Bureau, found it necessary to email a veiled rebuke to MAiD (Medical Assistance in Dying) doctors in Quebec.

According to Radio Canada, he said that there are too many euthanasia deaths administered at the limit of legal conditions and that there have been a number of MAiD deaths that have not complied with all the conditions of the legislation. He had to remind doctors that old age is not a serious and incurable condition – a criterion for a legal MAiD death.

 

But old age, like poverty, represents a significant burden on resources from which there is no return. People who are not working or unable to work tie up or drain resources. In a socialized healthcare system, I can guarantee you that “counselors” are hinting at or suggesting – even to people who are otherwise healthy – that medically assisted suicide is an option to consider.

If you think that won’t result in permission creep, then you need to brush up on progressivism. The old, poor, infirm, or chronically ill get in the way of progress. The State will find a “compassionate” way to execute them, and normalizing medically assisted suicide is the key to solving all your inconvenient political problems.

 

The post Progressive Governing 101: If You Make Life Miserable People Will Volunteer to Kill Themselves appeared first on Granite Grok.

A federal campaign to combat COVID-19 fraud has resulted in 718 enforcement actions so far. Criminal charges have been brought against 371 defendants for crimes related to more than $836 million in alleged Covid fraud.

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How much waste, fraud, and abuse is there in the Covid spending?

The U.S. Department of Justice made a PR show this week out of their efforts. Attorney General Merrick Garland said,

 

“… The Justice Department has now seized over $1.4 billion in COVID-19 relief funds that criminals had stolen and charged over 3,000 defendants with crimes in federal districts across the country…”

 

Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco made the announcement launching two additional Covid Fraud Enforcement Strike Forces: one at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado, the other from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey. Monaco says,

 

“…The two new Strike Forces launched today will increase our reach as we continue to pursue fraudsters and recover taxpayer funds, no matter how long it takes…”

 

The two new strike forces are in addition to three others launched in September 2022. They are working from the Eastern and Central Districts of California, the Southern District of Florida, and the District of Maryland.

The 718 law enforcement actions include criminal charges, civil charges, forfeitures, guilty pleas, and sentencings, with a combined total actual loss of more than $836 million, according to the Justice Department.

Criminal charges were filed against 371 defendants, 119 of whomdefendants pled guilty or were convicted at trial.  More than $57 million in court-ordered restitution was imposed. If collected that’s a 3.8% recovery rate while prosecutors and law enforcement secured forfeiture of more than $231.4 million, that’s another 15.2% recovery.

Do you know what now happens with the recovered $288.4 million or how much the DoJ spend to recover the money? Nope.

We know federal agencies failed to use some of the tools at their disposal to prevent fraud. Did you know there’s a “Do Not Pay” list?

Don’t feel bad; neither did the people in the Government who disbursed the money even though the U.S. Treasury had set up the list of suspicious payees who should trigger additional screening.

 

The post How Much Waste, Fraud, and Abuse Is There in the COVID Spending? appeared first on Granite Grok.

The CDC has decided to formally announce that the vaccines you got that weren’t safe or effective against older variants of SARS-CoV2-WIV may not protect you from newer strains. Or is it that your declining obedience to the approved public health fascism will not be tolerated?

 

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stated Wednesday the new BA.2.86 COVID-19 lineage may cause infection in people who received vaccines or previously had the virus.

The CDC said it is too soon to know whether this might cause more severe illness compared with previous variants. But due to the high number of mutations detected in this lineage, there were concerns about its impact on immunity from vaccines and previous infections, the agency said.

 

Wait, there’s more.

 

“The large number of mutations in this variant raises concerns of greater escape from existing immunity from vaccines and previous infections compared with other recent variants,” the CDC stated in its assessment. “For example, one analysis of mutations suggests the difference may be as large as or greater than that between BA.2 and XBB.1.5, which circulated nearly a year apart.”

 

So, get your butt to the local pusher and get boosted with a recent version of the Jab Juice (that can’t possibly be effective against rapidly mutating variants). We promise we’ve changed the labels on the old bottles that were piling up and will continue to pretend it is necessary to prevent “severe illness.”

And don’t worry about the side effects. That’s all conspiracy chatter (even though most of it has been confirmed by documents released by the FDA).

What is not a conspiracy is that every year, the flu causes severe illness in some people. Old people, sick people, frail people. Some of them die. And seasonal flu has always been a profit silo for vaxx makers, but until 2020, we didn’t have to violate natural rights and shut the world down so they could buy more beachfront to watch the seas rise.

That’s the virus we should be concerned about.

And what’s this bit about existing immunity in the vaccinated? That’s a stretch. The data suggests the vaccinated are more likely to suffer from an impaired immune system, making them more susceptible to everything, including your BS.

The solution is not another dose (or two), but Joe Biden intends to spend a few billion on them. No worries if you don’t line up to get them; they are paid for, and in return, the government will hound you and put you on a list. The (other) bad news? People will line up to spin the revolver for another round of COVID vaccine Side-Effect Roulette.

Which, ironically, will put a more significant strain on the healthcare system as more people become susceptible to severe illness. Think of it as government-assisted suicide by other means.

 

HT | Epoch Times

The post CDC: New Variants May Cause Infection Among Vaccinated – (No, Kidding?) appeared first on Granite Grok.

Watching MSNBC on the morning after the first GOP Primary Debate makes me question what I watched for two hours the previous night. The cable network feels that having as many talking heads on the screen somehow lends credibility to their narrative.

When you have the likes of Mike Barnacle, who lost his job in Boston for plagiarism, and Reverend Al Sharpton, who made a fortune as a racist and then avoided paying taxes on his earnings, the field of political “experts’ is a fraud. Joe Scarborough tells the group what to say and think, Mika sits by his side with her bobbing head, and the panel spews the lies and propaganda the Left endorses. This network and CNN are dangerous for Democracy because they feed half of our country with filtered news and lies. They call the reporting of outlets like FOXNews and SKYNews conspiracy theories. Well, let’s break down their claims. Russian Conspiracy With Trump This is a favorite as they stretched this lie for over two years. The segment that was so rich was with Rachel Maddow and Hillary Clinton discussing the indictments of Donald Trump. Here is Hillary gloating about the system working where she beat and manipulated the system to avoid indictment and to influence an election….and she walks free. Sorry, Hillary, but the system is broken. Trump’s Call to Ukraine They impeached Trump on this lie, and now that the facts are available that exonerate him and point the finger of truth at Biden, the media avoids or denies it. Hunter Biden Laptop It was known but denied by the FBI since 2019, and the media conspired with 51 former Intelligence officers to validate the fabricated story. Hiding this story and its connection with Joe Biden cost Trump the 2020 election and gave us President Joe Biden. We will probably never see anyone held accountable for this charade, but the same people in on this fix call for Trump to be locked up for life. The Biden Money Laundering Corp We should have a separate tax rate for this type of business. With over 20 fake LLCs to funnel money through and documentation of Hunter Biden visiting 12 countries on Air Force 1 or 2 with his father, I have yet to hear a msm hack call for justice in this case. With the know take at over $20 Million by the Biden Cartel with no taxes paid, how many years in jail should Joe pay? Taxes are the least of the crime. How about treason for taking bribes from foreign adversaries? I will go to jail for saying it before Joe or Hunter do. I could go on, but the cesspool is simply too deep. The Biden Administration, including the Justice Department and the FBI, is corrupt and inflicting unmeasurable damage on our country. Half the country will know nothing of these as they get their news from these ultra-biased cable channels or their network affiliates. How these people can look at themselves in the mirror is beyond comprehension. These righteous hacks, dozens of them, should all be stripped from the airwaves. They are the real propagandists. They are the ones who should be pointing in the mirror at themselves.

The post MSNBC Doubles Down On Propaganda appeared first on Granite Grok.

It is important to understand that the human mind is not a perfect discerner of objective reality. It is said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Similarly, it can be said that reality is in the mind of the beholder. The outside world only supplies bits and pieces of raw material that the mind puts together to form its perception—reality.

Depending on the type and number of bits and pieces that a given mind receives and its already in-place data, its reality can be very different from that of another mind.

The more prescribed and homogeneous a group, the greater the group’s consensual reality, since the members share much in common experiential input and reinforce each other’s mindset. Thus, members of a given religious order, for instance, tend to think much more similarly to one another than to members of other groups with different experiential histories.

Various approximations of the objective reality, therefore, rule the mind. The degree to which these approximations deviate from the larger group’s consensual reality determines their delusional extent and severity.

A narcotic mainliner, for instance, under the influence of the drug, may become convinced that a bug is burrowing under his skin. In his absolute, although false, certitude of the reality of his perception, cocaine users are known to take a knife to their own body to dig the burrowing bug out before it has penetrated too deeply.

A methamphetamine user’s reality is often distorted differently. Under the influence of the drug, an intense paranoia overtakes him. His reality is dominated by the belief that one or more people are lurking about to harm or kill him. He may wield a deadly weapon, searching for the assailants from room to room, from closet to closet.

If you believe that a bug is camping deeply in your body, you might try to dig the non-existent bug out. If you believe that people are lurking around the house to harm or kill you, you go after them before they get you. If you believe that all the troubles of the world are due to the evil-doings of the non-Muslims who war against Allah, then you do all you can to fight and kill them, particularly since Allah tells you in the Quran it is your duty to do so. (2:191-193) (3:151)

The drug-induced delusions are hallucinations. They are dramatic and usually transitory, while religiously-based implantation of ideas program the mind with lasting delusions.

Delusions, even when they are at great variance from the objective reality, can rule the mind without the need for drugs or because of neurological dysfunctions or other factors. The young and the less-educated are most vulnerable to believing charlatans, con artists, and cunning clerics’ claims as truth and reality.

A tragic example of the young’s susceptibility to induced delusion is the case of thousands of Iranian children who were used as human minesweepers in the last Iran-Iraq war. The mullahs issued made-in-China plastic keys for paradise to children as an enticement to go forward and clear the minefield with their bodies ahead of the military’s armored vehicles. The children believed the murderers and rushed to their deaths, thinking that they were headed for Islam’s glorious paradise.

The repeated, intense indoctrination of the children even changed the perception of some of the charlatan mullahs. They believed their lies, took their keys to Allah’s paradise, and rushed to their death, clinging to the plastic trinkets. Hence, some of the puppeteers, in this instance, became puppets themselves. Such are the follies and fallibilities of the human mind.

Therefore, it is understandable that many higher-up Islamic puppeteers, who are usually brainwashed from early childhood, devote their fortunes and persons to implementing their deeply engrained delusions.

Deluded by the threats and promises of Islam, poor or rich Muslims vie with one another to further the violent cause of Allah.

Many non-Muslims are also victims of a different, yet just as deadly, delusion. They believe that Islam is a religion of peace, only a small minority of Muslims are jihadists, and Muslims can be reasoned to abandon the Quran-mandated elimination of the non-believers. These well-meaning simpletons are just as deluded as the fanatic jihadists by refusing to acknowledge the fact that one cannot be a Muslim and not abide by the dictates of the Quran.

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Did you know that Joe Biden has a health Czar? His name is Dr. George Koob, and he’s doing a terrible job. Joe is a frikkin’ wreck. Wait, my bad. Koob’s gig isn’t Health Czarin’ Biden; it is the rest of us (I thought that was the Surgeon General’s Job?).

Dr. Koob has it in his head that anecdotes about alcohol and health are misleading, and Americans should reduce their consumption of beer, wine, and spirits.

 

Americans could be urged by officials to drink no more than two beers a week as part of strict new alcohol guidelines.

Biden’s health czar told DailyMail.com the USDA could revise its alcohol advice to match Canada‘s, where people are advised to have just two drinks per week.

Dr George Koob — who admits enjoying a couple of glasses of Chardonnay a week — said he was watching Canada’s ‘big experiment’ with interest.

 

Canada is a role model … for the collapse of human rights and dignity. They’ve been at war with free speech and freedom to travel and locked bank accounts of political opponents. Canada also has a statist obsession with solving the problems it created with sanctioned assisted suicide. And their healthcare system – that’s a real winner (see previous reference to medically assisted suicide).

So yeah, let’s follow that example.

 

‘If there’s health benefits [to drinking less alcohol], I think people will start to re-evaluate where we’re at [in the US],’ he told DailyMail.com.

 

Recent data suggests that following the American federal government’s health guidance can harm your health. Alcohol consumption skyrocketed under the yoke of otherwise ineffective COVID mandates, as did drug addiction and overdose, domestic abuse, and unassisted suicide.

All preventable if we had only reduced our consumption of Government mandates. And that’s without getting into the pharmaceutical cures, suppression of safe treatments, the death by hospital protocol, and lives lost to peaceful progressive protests.

But back to the Koob problem.

Alcohol taxes play a prominent role in the budgets of most states. In New Hampshire, the state controls the liquor business – has a monopoly, in fact, on everything but beer and wine. Is the Koobster going to subsidize the loss of revenue if the Feds were to get serious and take the Czar’s health recommendations to its logical conclusion?

The two drinks maximum per week?

How do you enforce that? What are the greater impacts of lost revenues at bars and restaurants, wage attrition, income and job loss, and the mental health stress that follows?

People in that situation could probably use a drink, so thank the maker; most states have medical or legalized marijuana sales. None of those people can buy or own a firearm or travel with their medicinals across state lines – it violates federal law (unless your name rhymes with Hunter Biden) – but maybe they’ll get stoned enough not to care?

That’s all just theoretical fun and games, of course. Dr. Koob has no police powers. He’s just making observations on your dime as an expert in the field. But it looks a lot like a trial balloon to me, and as you know, those things are allowed to float across the country for days, taking pictures of our missile silo locations and military installations.

On a positive note (I suppose), Bud Light is already ahead of the game on minimizing intake, and all they had to do was anoint some prancing dufus to represent women, and people dropped that drink like a bad habit.

 

HT | Daily Mail

The post How about The ‘Health Benefits’ of Less Government? appeared first on Granite Grok.