Former Executive Councilor and failed candidate for governor Andru Volinsky is representing two folks suing the state of New Hampshire after it removed a historical marker honoring devoted communist and activist Elizabeth Gurley Flynn.

 

According to the complaint submitted by Attorney Andru Volinsky on behalf of Mary Lee Sargent and Arnie Alpert, the plaintiffs “are without remedies at law or in equity other than the restoration of the Flynn Marker to its location near Montgomery and Court Streets in Concord.”

 

I’m not saying they don’t have a case. The marker was removed with alacrity after it made local and then national news. Far too quickly for anything approaching the durm and strang of a typical interaction with the bureaucratic process. It is possible someone skipped a few Is and Ts along the way.

Defendants are accused of violating state law,

 

“including, but not limited to, the State’s Administrative Procedures Act, R.S.A. 541-A; the Historic Markers Program, R.S.A. 227-C:5 and 236:40; and the Plaintiffs’ rights to the due process of law as guaranteed by the New Hampshire Constitution by interfering with the Plaintiffs’ right to duly petition for the approval and erection of a historical marker near the birthplace of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn in Concord, New Hampshire.”

 

Their other argument is that the provisions for historical markers are not limited to ideology, which made me laugh out loud.

 

Sargent said, “The marker was illegally removed based on ideological considerations that fly in the face of the historical marker program’s purpose.” Sargent taught American history for several decades at colleges and universities in the Midwest and in New Hampshire.

 

Few, if any, of those leaning left oppose the removal or destruction of American History, from flags to statues to how it is taught. It may not be long for this world if it hurts someone’s feelings or can be linked to some human rights violation or injustice (actual or alleged). But if Mary Lee Sargent is correct about ideology, don’t those all need to go back?

And does that open us up to honoring every slave owner, racist, fascist, or white supremacist of historical interest or influence who was born or lived in New Hampshire. Elizabeth Gurley Flynn’s ideological passion, after all, resulted in the ethnic and political persecution, cleansing, and deaths of many millions of people.

 

If we add to this list the deaths caused by communist regimes that the Soviet Union created and supported—including those in Eastern Europe, China, Cuba, North Korea, Vietnam and Cambodia—the total number of victims is closer to 100 million. That makes communism the greatest catastrophe in human history.

 

Communist regimes murdered blacks, Jews, Women, Children, Christians, and homosexuals, but that does not begin to plumb the depths of incarceration, abuse, discrimination, and intolerance credited to Elizabeth Gurley Flynn’s preferred ideology.

If that’s worth celebrating, and why wouldn’t Democrats want that – it is, after all, the promise of their political ambitions; perhaps the answer is to put the marker back. Elizabeth Gurley Flynn represents not just Concord’s past but its future. A movement disguised as pro-labor and pro-democracy destined to use and undermine the people it claims to defend to erect a violent, intolerant, despotic one-party state.

If that’s what you want to celebrate, have at it. Granite Staters deserve to see it until some peaceful protesters pull it out of the ground in the name of social justice and toss it into the Merrimack River.

That’s not a suggestion, by the way, but it might be situational irony.

 

Update: With apologies to Arnie for referring to him as a woman in the original published version. 

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“Experts” at the Federal Reserve and other central banks proudly broadcast the potential “financial inclusion” that could be achieved with a central bank digital currency (CBDC). In the Fed’s main CBDC paper, “Money and Payments: The U.S. Dollar in the Age of Digital Transformation,” they make it clear: “Promoting financial inclusion—particularly for economically vulnerable households and communities—is a high priority for the Federal Reserve . . . a CBDC could reduce common barriers to financial inclusion.”

The term has a ring to it that signals support for progressive goals. “Inclusion” is part of the Orwellian trio of terms “diversity, inclusion, and equity,” which, as Dr. Michael Rectenwald writes, means “surveillance, punishment of the ‘privileged,’ sacrifice of national citizens to global interests, and the labeling as ‘dangerous’ and marking for (virtual) elimination those supposed members or leaders of ‘hate groups’ who oppose such measures.” The central banks’ use of “financial inclusion” involves the same reversal of meanings.

Financial Inclusion and Unbanked Households

Consider that a retail CBDC would be like having a bank account with the Federal Reserve, even if it is intermediated by another bank. There is a lot of guesswork about how a CBDC will be implemented, but some say that it will not just be like having a bank account with the Fed, but that it could be exactly that.

Either way, if a CBDC were genuinely aimed at financial inclusion, it would offer something to those who have chosen to forgo a bank account entirely. This “unbanked” population constitutes about 5.4 percent of US households, according to a 2021 Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) survey. The survey asked each household why they do not have a bank account, and the responses indicate that minimum balance requirements, privacy, trust, and fees are the most significant factors.

Figure 1: Unbanked households’ reasons for not having a bank account, 2021 (percent)

Source: FDIC, 2021 FDIC National Survey of Unbanked and Underbanked Households (FDIC, 2022), fig. ES.3.

The critical question, then, is this: what does a CBDC offer these households that physical cash and other nonbank financial services (e.g., check cashing, money orders, prepaid cards) do not?

Privacy (or Lack Thereof)

A CBDC undermines privacy. Whatever a central bank might say about privacy protection with a CBDC can be safely dismissed. The Fed paper, for example, says, “Protecting consumer privacy is critical. Any CBDC would need to strike an appropriate balance, however, between safeguarding the privacy rights of consumers and affording the transparency necessary to deter criminal activity.” We should not conflate the characteristics of a CBDC with those of cryptocurrencies in general, which offer anonymity and pseudonymity to their users.

Consider how the IRS recently pried open PayPal, Venmo, and Cash App accounts with transactions over $600. Consider also that the Supreme Court just ruled that the IRS can investigate your bank accounts without notification in some circumstances, including if you are a friend, family member, or associate of someone who owes the IRS.

Beyond taxes, banks also willingly hand over personal information (even without a warrant or formal request) to the FBI. This data, which includes previous firearm purchases, belongs to people who show up at the wrong protest or who were merely in the vicinity as the data is collected based on transactions within a specific geographic area.

The lack of privacy with bank accounts certainly contributes to the distrust people have for banks, as noted in the survey. This shows that “financial inclusion” is a mere buzzword as there is nothing about a CBDC that would gain the trust of unbanked households, who are not excluded from the banking system but actively avoid it.

Fees and Negative Interest Rates

According to the survey, fees are another commonly cited reason for being unbanked. People avoid banks because the fees are steep and unpredictable.

Although there is no certainty regarding how a CBDC would operate, many see that it could finally offer the holy grail of monetary policy: the ability to impose negative interest rates. In effect, this would be a fee for holding a CBDC.

After the 2008 crash, the Fed reached the “zero lower bound” for nominal interest rates. They were unable to stimulate more spending through their interest rate targeting approach. While there were a few outlandish ideas about imposing a negative interest rate on cash, like the idea of Greg Mankiw’s student to remove the legal tender status of all currency with a serial number ending in a randomly selected digit, it is just too difficult to impose a fee on the cash in your wallet or safe.

With a digital currency, it becomes effortless, especially if the use of physical cash is significantly diminished or even eliminated altogether. The monetary policy authorities would simply press a button and deduct a certain amount of CBDC from everyone’s accounts. Think of the spending they would encourage if everybody knew their unspent money would be subject to such a penalty!

Conclusion

The “financial inclusion” rhetoric in central bank papers and speeches on CBDCs is laughable. Presently, people avoid banks because they distrust banks, value privacy, and despise fees. A CBDC wouldn’t help with any of these concerns. Instead of promoting inclusion, a CBDC would become the ultimate tool for financial intrusion and control.

The tyrannical potential is not a secret, even for the army of technocrats pushing for CBDCs. At a recent World Economic Forum event in China, Eswar Prasad matter-of-factly brandished the inevitable weaponization of CBDCs:

And one final note that I’ll make is that if you think about the benefits of digital money, there are huge potential gains. It’s not just about digital forms of physical currency—you can have programmability, units of central bank currency with expiry dates. You could have, as I argue in my book, a potentially better, or some people might say, darker world, where the government decides that units of central bank money can be used to purchase some things, but not other things that it deems less desirable, like, say, ammunition or drugs or pornography or something of the sort. And that is very powerful in terms of the use of a CBDC.

Of course, any moral qualms we have regarding the items he listed are irrelevant. It is clear that the state will use CBDCs to push us toward anything the state favors and away from anything the state doesn’t. Programmable money means programmable citizens.

Author:

Contact Jonathan Newman

Dr. Jonathan Newman is a Fellow at the Mises Institute. He earned his PhD at Auburn University while a Research Fellow at the Mises Institute. He was the recipient of the 2021 Gary G. Schlarbaum Award to a Promising Young Scholar for Excellence in Research and Teaching. His research focuses on Austrian economics, inflation and business cycles, and the history of economic thought. He has taught courses on Macroeconomics and Quantitative Economics: Uses and Limitations in the Mises Graduate School.

 

 

 

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The Sanders Institute might feel the Bern after a recent Fox News report that showed 200K from Senator Sander’s Campaign funds getting shoveled into the nonprofit created by his wife and stepson to…pay his stepson a “living wage.”

It does not say that anywhere on the website, but that appears to be the extent of its service to the community.

 

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders quietly funneled $200,000 from his campaign’s coffers to his wife’s nonprofit institute, which appears to do very little work and pays six figures’ worth of compensation to her son, Fox News Digital has found.

The independent senator’s committee cut two $100,000 checks to the Sanders Institute for reported charitable contributions in January and March, its Federal Election Commission records show. The expenditures are the largest from the Sanders campaign to any entity this election cycle.

 

According to Fox, Stepson David Driscoll runs the organization, which paid him $152,653 in salary and other compensation in 2021. To do what? Fox News could not find anything remotely linked to the organization’s purpose. They report a website with lots of words and promises but not much else.

At least we know what’s keeping Jane O’Meara Sanders after she ran a local Vermont College into the ground.

 

Burlington College announced today that it will close on May 27 after it found itself unable to recover from “the crushing weight of the debt” incurred under Jane O’Meara Sanders, the college’s former president and wife of Bernie Sanders.

 

Jane’s job and the college she “ran” went away in 2016. She and Bernie’s stepson “opened” the Sanders Institute in 2017.

Nothing odd about that. She needed something to do, so why not laundry some campaign donations into your family’s pockets in the name of socialism? That is, after all, how it works.

And I find myself in similar circumstances to Jane, with a few exceptions. My “day job” is going away, but I didn’t run the business into the ground—quite the contrary. But supply chains and customer interest have shifted since COVID. What used to be our bread and butter is not, and the evolution of the business in that direction does not require the tasks I perform. Having run businesses, I get it. It’s inconvenient for me, but from an operations standpoint, it makes sense. I do not, however, have a step-dad with gobs of dollars earned, pirated, or raised for campaigns to create make-work jobs.

But I am trying to fund a full-time gig running the Grok, our PAC, and some actual reporting around New Hampshire. It’s a sound investment for interested parties because we’ve already shown we can create something of value for Conservatarians. We’ve got well-documented reach and influence to build on for less than half the cost of what Driscoll scooped up for doing nothing but being related through marriage to Socialist Senator Sanders.

Maybe I should ask Bernie to write me a check.

While we wait, now that the communist cat is out of the black bag, will Jane and David erect a Sanders Institute Potemkin village? You would think they’d need to do something besides pretending to be a news site to funnel nearly three times the average national take-home pay to a stepson.

Perhaps they could use the Clinton Global Initiative as a template.

Wait, that was just a money laundering operation as well.

 

The post The Sanders Institute for Laundering Campaign Cash Into Relatives Pockets appeared first on Granite Grok.

Dear Ethics Committee,

It has become apparent that the New Hampshire courts do not respect the separation of powers and that there is, iI beleive, a racketeering enterprise going on that stems back to and involves current NH Supreme Court Chief Justice Gordon MacDonald.

In his capacity as Attorney General, MacDonald attempted to block the release of police officer names on the “Laurie list.”  One of those police officers whose name did ultimately appear is New Hampshire’s top sex crimes detective James F. McLaughlin.

Attorney General Gordon MacDonald brought James F. McLaughlin out of retirement to work on the Grand Jury Criminal Investigation into St. Paul’s School with Concord Police Detective Julie Curtin & Lieutenant Sean Ford between July 2017 and August 2018 when the report was finalized.

In June 2018, James F. McLaughlin’s name was added to the Laurie List with reference to the falsification of statements dating to 1985.

One of the cases being investigated by the detectives in the Grand Jury Criminal Investigation into St. Paul’s School was that of Lacy Crawford, whose case was called “the smoking gun.”  In Lacy’s memoir “Notes on a Silencing,” she documents the involvement of James F McLaughlin. She also states that AG Gordon MacDonald suddenly decided to take no more evidence from the police detectives on her case.

I believe that this is tied to Gordon MacDonald’s knowledge that James F. McLaughlin had been added to the Laurie list and that Gordon MacDonald was compromised since he introduced him to the investigation into St. Paul’s School. Instead of dealing with this, Gordon MacDonald covered it up and arranged the settlement agreement with St. Paul’s School requiring a compliance officer and a contract with the NHCADSV, who had lobbied him for the investigation. He upheld the state’s convictions against Owen Labrie in the full knowledge that he was protecting two corrupt police officers involved in the investigation into St. Paul’s School: James F McLaughlin and Julie Curtin (whose misconduct is documented in the criminal trial records).

Gordon MacDonald’s ex-business partner, David Vicinanzo, commended Judge Richard McNamara’s ruling to keep the Grand Jury Criminal Investigation report private. How convenient: Vicinanzo provided legal counsel (per his own resume) to the NHCADSV, who got a contract out of it, and to members of the St. Paul’s community who were named in the grand jury report.

Gordon MacDonald (and David Vicinanzo) had been the legal counsel for the Diocese of Manchester priest sex abuse cases and settlements which came about after James F. McLaughlin investigated Father Gordon MacRae. Gordon MacDonald was well aware that James F McLaughlin had made false statements (some of which he corrected himself later) in that investigation. And he was well aware that witnesses in the MacRae trial had stated that they were offered payments. He was also well aware that Julie Curtin, working under Gordon MacDonald and Jane Young and reporting to James F. McLaughlin, it appears, was obtaining files from St. Paul’s school and cold-calling potential victims to encourage them to make accusations against wealthy alumni. And that Julie Curtin was being authorized by his office to make intercept calls to these alumni who would be threatened with criminal charges but could buy their way out if they paid six figures. Julie Curtin made one such intercept call in December 2018. I was contacted by the target of that call in Spring 2020, and I alerted Archibald Cox, St. Paul’s Board of Trustees, of the call. I also alerted him to my belief that Concord Police were sending out unsolicited photos of minor girls in order to federally entrap.

The representation of the Diocese of Manchester for Gordon MacDonald stretches to the involvement of the Diocese of Manchester and Monsignor Edward Arsenault in Catholic Risk Retention Management, Catholic Charities, and the Catholic Medical Center, where Arsenault was responsible for increasing profits. Arsenault was jailed in 2014 for defrauding the diocese and the CMC as well as a dead priest’s estate.  The remainder of his sentence was vacated by the judge, whose case became the basis for the Laurie list.  Arsenault was released under Gordon MacDonald’s watch as AG.

CMC has been fined $3.8 million in a kickback scheme, and the administrators are now being investigated for the cover-ups of medical malpractice. Alex Walker is the CEO of CMC, having previously served as legal counsel.

As you know, Gordon MacDonald has had to recuse himself from cases involving police misconduct. James F. McLaughlin is currently being investigated, I understand. However, given his relationship with Gordon MacDonald and Gordon MacDonald’s relationship with both the St Paul’s School and Diocese of Manchester cases, it would appear that New Hampshire’s Supreme Court Chief Justice has some skeletons to hide that would be in the public interest to air for the safety and wellbeing of the citizens who pay for his position. AGs and New Hampshire Supreme Court Chief Justices cannot be involved in the cover-up of crimes to protect their own reputation.

You can read my article on this here.

Email from Claire best to the DOJ Ethics committee From: Claire Best <xxxx@xxxxxx> Subject: Organized Crime within New Hampshire’s Courts – Gordon MacDonald
Date: August 7, 2023 at 8:29:48 AM PDT
To: Ethics@doj.nh.gov

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Conglomerates upload and offload brands and businesses all the time, but selling is typically only something you do if the price is right or you need to hedge some bad bets. I’m not sure which this is, but post-Bud Man replacement Mulvaney, it looks bad for AB.

 

Tilray, a Canadian cannabis company, will be purchasing Shock Top, Breckenridge Brewery, Blue Point Brewing Company, 10 Barrel Brewing Company, Redhook Brewery, Widmer Brothers Brewing, Square Mile Cider Company and Hiball Energy. The deal is expected to be finalized in Sept. 2023 for $85 million, according to a Tilray 8-K filing.

In addition to the beer brands, Anheuser-Busch will also be selling off the brands’ employees, breweries and associated brewpubs.

 

Fat trimming or opportunism, you decide. Bud Light has taken a beating, but Mulvaney has yet to do as much damage to the stock price as COVID.  The Orange arrow is the drop at the beginning of COVID, and the purple arrow is where the price was before Mulvaney struck.

 

 

Mulvaney has yet to drive the price down to April 2020 levels, but the boycott has clearly had an impact on business. And while people got over COVID, bud drinkers seem less inclined to get over Muvalney – whose sin, in case you forgot, was being a spokesmodel for women when there are more than four billion actual women who could have done that job.

Most of the #woke actors responsible have been shown the door but at the expense of a lot of working-class folks from bottlers to distributors who got “canned” because some stooge for the social justice narrative thought it would be a good idea to represent women with prancing doofus.

Mulvaney has since fled to Peru to commune with Llamas.

Hey, maybe BUD should replace the Clydesdales with some Alpaca. Lose the Dalmatian and replace it with one of those purse-sized dogs. How much worse could it get?

 

HT | Daily Wire

 

The post Anheuser-Busch Sells off 8 Brands with the Associated Employees, Breweries, and Brew Pubs appeared first on Granite Grok.

Early in 2017, Senator Chuck Schumer stated that then-newly elected President Donald Trump was dumb to be antagonizing the intelligence community because “they have six ways from Sunday to get back at you.”

Senator Schumer seems to have been onto something, given the possible involvement of US national security officials in the various attempts to remove President Trump from office and then sabotage his reelection campaign.

As powerful as the intelligence agencies are, there is another secretive government institution that also has great ability to harm, or help, politicians: the Federal Reserve. By manipulating the money supply and interest rates, the Fed can cause a temporary boom or slowdown. As we have seen over the past several years, the Federal Reserve’s money creation will also lead to rising prices, which can offset any economic benefits the average American receives from a Fed-created boom.

While the Fed is responsible for boom and bust cycles that plague the American economy, most people give the credit or blame for a strong or weak economy to the president and other elected officials. Partisan politics play a role in this too, like when Republicans labeled the price inflation created by the Fed’s unprecedented money creation “Bidenflation,” suggesting Biden was responsible.

Since the Federal Reserve’s creation, presidents have pressured the Fed to implement monetary policies helpful to their administrations. Usually, the Fed tries to accommodate presidents, which is why economists refer to the political business cycle. However, the Fed does not always accommodate presidents. President George H.W. Bush and members of his administration blamed his 1992 loss on Fed Chairman Greenspan’s refusal to lower interest rates to help the economy recover from a recession.

Trump, as a presidential candidate, accused the Fed of keeping rates low in 2016 to help Hillary Clinton. Then, Trump, as president, appointed Jerome Powell to be chairman of the Federal Reserve. Trump proceeded to regularly criticize Powell on Twitter for not lowering interest rates, even though rates were already at historically low levels. Trump was criticized for trying to influence the Fed even though almost every president tries in some way or another to influence the Fed’s monetary policies. Trump’s mean tweets certainly do not compare to Lyndon Johnson, who once shoved Fed Chair William Martin against a wall after a Fed interest rate increase that would hinder financing of the Great Society at home and the Vietnam War abroad.

Biden has stated that he would respect the Fed’s independence. So, it makes sense that Powell would prefer four more years of Biden’s silence to four more years of Trump’s online attacks. The desire to help, or at least not hurt, Biden could be the reason the Fed is signaling it will stop raising rates next year. This may also be one reason many “mainstream” economic commentators are saying the Fed has succeeded in bringing down inflation without throwing the economy into recession.

If President Trump had pushed for passage of the Audit the Fed legislation, he might not have had to worry about a secretive central bank undermining his campaign to regain the presidency. Furthermore, if Trump’s opponents really care about protecting the American people, they would focus on the threats to liberty, prosperity, and limited constitutional government posed by the Federal Reserve’s fiat money insurrection.

 

Copyright © 2023 by RonPaul Institute. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit and a live link are given.

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When you’re unfamiliar with Nevada’s deep details, you probably think of this state as the host of Las Vegas and a massive desert. While those two features are true, they’re not even close to the only things The Silver State offers.

With over three million people living here, there has to be something more than the attractions of the Vegas strip keeping them in place. So what’s Nevada have that keeps people coming?

The benefits of this state abound and are ideal for anyone looking for natural beauty, entertainment, and family-friendly living. What’s there to attract you? Read on to find out why so many people think Nevada is a great place to call home.

1. A Thriving Job Market

While unemployment rates are on the rise, Nevada’s job market is thriving. Sure, you can easily find a job working in a casino in many cities other than Vegas, like the scenic area of Lake Tahoe, but there are various other employment opportunities, too.

Mining for gold and other minerals is a well-paying job here. You’ll also find plenty of work in construction and education throughout the state. As the cannabis industry expands, more dispensaries open up for those who have Nevada medical marijuana licenses. (More about how to get your MMJ card here.)

From guiding tourist attractions to working in renowned healthcare facilities, the job market in Nevada is booming, and it’s ready for you to become part of it.

2. Entrepreneurism is Encouraged

Of course, choosing a solopreneur- and small businesses-friendly state is essential if you would rather work for yourself. Nevada’s tax rate is notoriously low, making it easier for small businesses to stay afloat during those early years.

There’s no individual income tax or corporate tax. However, businesses do have a gross receipts tax. The state tax and local tax have an average combined total of 8.23%.

Other benefits for business owners include the elimination of franchise taxes or taxes on corporate shares and the ability for corporations to hold, purchase, transfer, and sell shares of their own stock — a right that many states do not allow.

3. Mother Nature Practiced Her Best Work Here

If the beauty of nature is important to you, Nevada doesn’t disappoint. In fact, in certain places of the state, it can seem like Mother Nature was showing off.

The vast deserts have their own desolate yet breathtaking wonder as you explore the plants, animals, and geography of the sandy plains. Massive mountains are waiting to be explored, and no matter how many times you trek their trails, there will always be something new to see.

Canyons and forests spread out across the state, creating a landscape where you can see tropical paradises and snow on the same day at certain parts of the year!

4. Diversity is Welcomed

The State of Nevada was built on multiple cultures, including the Native American tribes of Paiute, Shoshone, and Washoe.

It’s not necessarily a melting pot, as each culture’s diversity is celebrated and allowed to remain authentic and unique. However, it’s a place you can live as yourself and feel just as at home as your tribal, native, or foreign neighbor.

5. Gambling is Legal

And, of course, there’s the fun of trying to strike it rich! You don’t have to be a gold miner panning for rare minerals. Just head to the nearest casino!

Living in Nevada, you have your choice of one of hundreds of buildings, indoor and outdoor. You can gamble at a slot machine in a gas station or grocery store. If cards are your thing, you can play for money without worrying about breaking any laws.

Hitting the casino is a fun way to celebrate special occasions for millions of people each year. Yet, you want to play safely. Follow these tips to ensure gambling stays a hobby and doesn’t interfere with your finances and daily life.

6. Shopping and Food are Limitless

Is shopping your favorite hobby? Are you a foodie? The seemingly endless shopping malls, boutiques, restaurants, and cafes are spread out across Nevada, giving you plenty of places to window shop or enjoy a meal.

Because of the cultural diversity in the state, you’ll find restaurants and shops that include traditional cuisine, jewelry, clothes, and crafts. Shop for souvenirs to send home, or explore what other cultures enjoy as part of their regular life.

Conclusion

Nevada is so much more than it is stereotyped as. This is the ideal to state to call home if you’re looking for stability, entertainment, natural beauty, and delicious food!

The post The Benefits of Living in Nevada: Why It’s a Great Place to Call Home appeared first on Granite Grok.

The proxy war in Ukraine appears to be spreading to Niger, where a recent coup d’état ousted President Mohamed Bazoum and sparked a series of events that may lead to a larger regional military conflict.

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France, a long-standing ally of Niger, has condemned the coup. The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs reaffirmed its commitment to press freedom, freedom of expression, and the protection of journalists.  This comes after the junta blocked the signals of French broadcaster France 24 and Radio France Internationale.

The move was seen as a direct affront to France and further strained a tense situation.

Meanwhile, Russia, through the Wagner Group with its influence in Africa, seems to be capitalizing on the situation. At the recent Russia-Africa Summit, Vladimir Putin stood next to Ibrahim Traore, the military officer who seized power in Burkina Faso.  This act of solidarity with the coup leaders is raising concerns among other African leaders.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) issued an ultimatum to the coup leaders. Reinstate President Bazoum or face military intervention.  Nigeria, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, and Benin have signaled their readiness to engage in military action if the ultimatum is not respected.  But, there is a lack of trust among ECOWAS members, which could hinder a coordinated response.

Burkina Faso, Guinea, and Mali are known as the ‘Coup Association.’  They have pledged to defend Niger against any foreign intervention.  These countries are also friendly with Russia and are warning neighboring African states against intervening in Niger’s affairs.

The ousted President, Mr. Bazoum, has called on the international community, particularly the American government, to help restore constitutional order. His plea underscores the consequences of the coup, which includes growing Russian influence propagated by the Wagner Group in the Sahel region.

Diplomatic negotiations are underway to prevent a conflict that could engulf Russia and the West in another proxy war. The stakes are high.  The world is watching anxiously as Africa becomes the latest battleground in the struggle for global dominance.

What is apparent is the unfolding crisis in Niger is more than just a civil war or a regional conflict.  It’s a complex web of power struggles, alliances, and interests that could ignite a larger, more destructive war.

It’s important for the international community to think through the alternatives.

 

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Have you seen the ‘Ads’ for the latest COVID pulp fiction paperback thriller? In this installment, the goddess of discord and strife, Eris, code name EG.5, takes control of the headlines of your favorite government-run information portal, pretending to be unbiased media.

It’s the latest variant which is strange because everything they have to say sounds the same.

Politico says, “Although hospitalizations from the coronavirus have risen slightly over the summer in the US, the Biden administration has continued to express optimism about beating the pandemic.”

That’s odd. I thought the pandemic was over.

USA Today writes, “Eris has already surpassed Arcturus in the US, becoming the most prevalent variant in the two-week period ending on August 5, with 17.3% of cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).”

As if 17.3 percent means any more than 98.5 percent did the first time they played this broken record.

Live Science adds, “All four of these subvariants belong to the broader XBB lineage, which will serve as the target of the new COVID-19 boosters coming this fall.”

And now we know why the media cares. They’re brought to you by Pfizer or would like to be, so they are peddling the latest bottle of piss as an essential part of your pharmacological diet—the latest cure for declining “sales” from the fiscal line of COVID injection treatment variants.

Boosting revenues!

The same cures that are responsible for cases of flu in the summer in the first place.

Remember when we didn’t get flu in the summertime? Those were the days. Carefree, fancy-free. The public health industrial complex scared us with mosquito-borne illness, tick bites, and drowning. Encephalitis. Lyme. And we’ve still got those, but they’re not as attractive as Eris, whose increase in cases is based on – at least in theory – people locked down (trapped inside) by the heat or the rain.

That’s interesting. People forced to stay inside have effected more cases of covid.

So what are the symptoms, aside from a decline in booster uptake and what Off Guardian observed as the sudden August cooling in the UK that ended all that warming hysteria?

• Runny or stuffy nose
• Headache
• Fatigue
• Sneezing
• Sore throat
• Coughing
• Changes to sense of smell

Or perhaps it’s not COVID. As it turns out, these are the symptoms of many things. The flu, the common cold, Lyme, HIV, Meningitis, adenovirus, pneumonia, carbon monoxide poisoning, Sepsis, blood cancer, Mononucleosis, cat scratch fever, Babesiosis, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Strep Throat, Bronchitis, RSV, and let’s not forget Flu and COVID vaccines.

So get tested with the test that tests for COVID and then stay home, which was how you got it. Be sure to wear an N95 mask (yes, they’re serious). And stay up to date on your boosters. Compromising your immune system is critical to job creation in the Biden economy—everyone from the test makers to the jab givers to the caretakers and gravediggers.

It’s a little like broken windows theory, except they are breaking people on purpose as a matter of policy and not doing anything about that crime.

 

 

The post Have You Seen the ‘Ads’ for the Latest COVID Pulp Fiction Paperback Thriller? appeared first on Granite Grok.

Quick … two words to describe Ron DeSantis’ New Hampshire surrogates. If you picked PETTY and STUPID … bingo! These people aren’t serious about winning the next election. At best, they are serious about grifting and winning control of the NHGOP.

If you are serious about winning, you don’t go out of your way to insult and alienate the voters you will need to win a general election.

Ron DeSantis’ campaign is a train wreck. His arguments that Trump made horrible personnel decisions are, at best, sadly ironic when you look at his personnel choices, such as Ross Berry.

Campaign blackout rules for 8/7/23 pic.twitter.com/BPiRmDVMxv

— ???????????????? ???????????????????? (@Ross_Berry) August 7, 2023

The post Petty And Stupid appeared first on Granite Grok.

The People’s Republic of Hawaii is a beautiful place populated primarily by progressives. An odd place for people obsessed with sea level rise.  They are big on taxing (HI has the second highest total tax burden in the US) and banning things which can get taxing as well.

Trying to keep track of the rules and prohibitions is exhausting, especially when the public school system is proving less capable than ever of teaching kids to read and write. It’s enough to make you angry and violent, which is why Hawaii wants to ban weapons. They don’t want the people they’ve let down to take it out on them. Blame it on random white men (just not the tourists, please they need those) or Republicans if you can find one.

Whoever you blame, Hawaii has a crime problem. Property crime is higher than the US average across the board (burglary, theft, and motor vehicle theft).

Hawaii has 44 crimes per square mile. For comparison, gun/knife-crazy New Hampshire has four. Hawaii also has four times as many property crimes as the Granite State and nearly double the violent crime.

That’s probably because Hawaii bans butterfly knives (In Hawaii, it is a misdemeanor knowingly to manufacture, sell, transfer, transport, or possess a butterfly knife—no exceptions. Haw. Rev. Stat. § 134-53(a).). Two locals, who felt a strong need to carry these knives for protection (from what, you say!), challenged the law, which the local district court upheld, but a 3-panel verdict of the Ninth Circuit overturned that and remanded it back to the District Court.

 

The panel determined that plaintiffs had standing to challenge § 134-53(a) because they alleged that the Second Amendment provides them with a legally protected interest to purchase butterfly knives, and but for section 134-53(a), they would do so within Hawaii. Plaintiffs further articulated a concrete plan to violate the law, and Hawaii’s history of prosecution under its butterfly ban was good evidence of a credible threat of enforcement.

The panel denied Hawaii’s request to remand this case for further factual or historical development in light of New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n, Inc. v. Bruen, 142 S. Ct. 2111 (2022), determining that further development of the adjudicative facts was unnecessary. The panel held that possession of butterfly knives is conduct covered by the plain text of the Second Amendment. Bladed weapons facially constitute “arms” within the meaning of the Second Amendment, and contemporaneous sources confirm that at the time of the adoption of the Second Amendment, the term “arms” was understood as generally extending to bladed weapons and by necessity, butterfly knives. The Constitution, therefore presumptively guarantees keeping and bearing such instruments for self-defense.

 

..

 

HT | Breitbart

The post Ninth Circuit: Bladed Weapons are Protected by the Second Amendment appeared first on Granite Grok.

If you pay a lot of money to attend college or university, you would hope that your professors might question their own claims and look at counter narratives so that you end up with a well-rounded education.

We want to thank Claire Best for this Contribution – Please direct yours to Editor@GraniteGrok.com.

Recently a few feminist professors have exposed their complete rejection of academic rigor in favor of flawed idealism for their cause and grants. Since they/their academic institutions receive grants using public money, I have no problem calling them out. We should know where our taxpayer money is going, especially with escalating costs of higher education:

Sally Kenney at Tulane University, Tania Tetlow (Tulane & Fordham), Rebecca Richman Cohen (Harvard), Michele Dauber (Stanford Law), Sharyn Potter (University of New Hampshire) are a few names I’ve come across.

Sally J Kenney:

Sally J Kenney’s bio at Tulane University is quite hilarious and not one she should be proud of for the highlights she mentions: The Dartmouth Sexual Assault summit was heavily criticized for its failures to address due process, and Dr David Lisak’s statistics, which he admitted were extremely flawed. “Its On Us” is a political lobby group tied to Blue Crab Strategies, Civic Nation, and the DNC while “The Hunting Ground” is a tainted, racist piece of propaganda filled with several stories and statistics which have not only been debunked but have led to lawsuits. Viewers of “The Hunting Ground” were asked to take the “Its on Us Pledge.” The film premiered at Sundance in January 2015 in a slot sponsored by George Soros’ “Open Societies.” The film’s executive producers include Jennifer Siebel Newsom, who later accused Harvey Weinstein, the film’s distributor, of rape — but not until several years later and after she’d called Rose McGowan on behalf of Harvey Weinstein’s attorney David Boies to ask her how much money it would take to get her to drop allegations against Weinstein.

Later on, Kenney mentions that she worked with the Prout family and their non-profit “I have the Right To” ihavetherightto.org to block former New Hampshire AG Michael Delaney’s nomination to a judicial position on the First Circuit Court of Appeals. Ironically the Prout family’s Government Affairs PR person, Dan Hill of hillimpact.com, who claims he was working all alone with Chessy Prout (recruited accuser of Owen Labrie whose high profile sexual assault arrest warrant was broadcast conveniently in the middle of the 2014 Dartmouth Sexual Assault Summit listed on Kenney’s resume) has now been shown up by Sally Kenney’s bio in which she states she too was working with the Prout family. I wonder if she is a beneficiary of the $21 billion in Government contracts that Dan Hill boasts he helps his clients obtain using special ops tactics and stealth media?

work on sexual violence kenney

Tania Tetlow

Tania Tetlow is currently the President of Fordham University. She was President of Loyola University in New Orleans, but she can be found on YouTube giving lectures at Tulane University in which she states that when she was a prosecutor, she told police that it didn’t matter if their investigations into sexual assault were biased. She led the Domestic Violence Unit at Tulane from 2005–2014. She also states in these videos that they (activist feminists) need to get inside police departments, prosecutors’ offices, and administrations in order to achieve a paradigm shift (funny how Sally Kenny uses the same lingo). Ms. Tetlow was part of a US State Department delegation sent to China in 2014 to advance the feminist agenda. What a disaster — a believer in getting rid of due process heads to China. What could possibly go wrong? China has been pouring millions into US universities and colleges via Confucius Institute Contracts. Kangaroo Courts are right up their street. China must love Tania Tetlow for doing its bidding. I wonder if she’d feel the same way about tainted investigations if she were an Uighur or a student protester in Tiananmen Square.

In 2016, Tulane Chief of Staff Tania Tetlow was a former Federal Prosecutor. In the following clip she discusses how she trained New Orleans police detectives to work hand in hand with the Advocates, and she states that she told the detectives they are not the jury and do not have to be neutral in their investigations.:

The following link begins at 27:34. Listen through 30:34:

Eliminating Sexual Violence — Shifting the Paradigm

Rebecca Richman Cohen

Rebecca Richman Cohen is a Law Lecturer at Harvard when she is not making documentaries or being sponsored by George Soros. Her latest documentary: “Recall Reframed,” smacks of a piece of crisis PR management for the Democratic Party and Dem Caucus Rep/Stanford Law Professor Michele Dauber, who was behind the recall of Judge Aaron Persky following the high-profile sexual assault trial of the People v Brock Turner.

I’m not sure what “research” Ms. Cohen did before she made the documentary, but clearly, she didn’t read some of the very basic statements made by her participants, notably former Judge LaDoris Cordell, who had stated that she thought Michele Dauber wrote the “Emily Doe” victim impact statement herself, not Chanel Miller (a family friend of Michele Dauber’s), the real Emily Doe.

Rebecca Richman Cohen did a Q&A with a group called “Women Against the Registry” a couple of weeks ago after a screening of “Recall Reframed.” She was quite sure that Chanel Miller had written the Emily Doe victim impact statement. One wonders why she never questioned her participant, a former judge, LaDoris Cordell, on this. She didn’t even seem to be aware that many victim impact statements are written by activists/victims advocates and then read in court by the “victim.”

It’s such common practice that a portion of the Emily Doe victim impact statement (which coincidentally Michele Dauber had shared with the filmmakers of “The Hunting Ground” before it was read at sentencing) was plagiarized verbatim in the sentencing of another young man in another state who sits in prison currently and is alleged to be the 3rd target of the same false accuser – who must have run out of ideas to get judicial sympathy so she borrowed from another trial.

I guess Rebecca Cohen is just not interested in questioning propaganda (I assume because subscribing to it conjures the grants to make documentaries?) or looking into the trove of emails revealed in a 2019 Freedom Of Information Act quest by local journalists in Santa Clara County who don’t enjoy the Ivory Tower grants & status that Ms. Cohen uses to make her political film. She defended Michele Dauber, who specifically stated that she’d managed to get California sentencing laws changed in light of the People v Brock Turner (increasing them) for the Democratic Party but claimed that Michele Dauber was not a carceral white feminist. She maintained in the Q&A that she made her film in response to carceral white feminists. So if Michele Dauber is not a carceral white feminist, who are the carceral white feminists she is referring to?

Michele Dauber

Stanford Law Professor Michele Dauber founded the “Enough Voter Movement,” for which Amber Heard was a spokesperson. She instigated the Recall of Judge Persky in the wake of People v Brock Turner, and she colluded behind the scenes of the trial with the Santa Clara County DA. In addition, Michele Dauber co-drafted the unregulated “Dear Colleague” Title IX letter, which Vice President Joe Biden launched at the University of New Hampshire on April 4, 2011, and which spawned a lucrative cottage industry for attorneys, social justice warrior non-profits, and political PR companies recruiting “activists” and “ambassadors” along the way. Dauber herself is a questionable character who appears to be carrying out a Machiavellian operation on a global scale. Machiavelli, per Wikipedia, “notably said that a ruler who is establishing a kingdom or a republic, and is criticized for his deeds, including violence, should be excused when the intention and the result are beneficial to him.”

Michele Dauber was 17 and 4 months pregnant when she got married to a 32-year-old musician. She allegedly has a history of alcoholism and has been accused of driving drunk with her children in the car. Nevertheless, she is a political fundraiser for the Democratic Committee of Silicon Valley and has a vengeance against “Shitty White Men.” Her brother, Michael Landis Dauber, was incarcerated and is a sex offender registrant for alleged incest, although nobody knows if this is one of Michele Dauber’s many hoaxes. The records in Illinois are sealed. From online research, it would appear that Michele Dauber’s parents have taken a side with her brother and that there is a rift in the family — she has even referred to this. Others have called Michele Dauber “dangerous.” A petition which garnered several thousand signatures to have her removed from Stanford has been ignored. It would seem that she must be untouchable and an intelligence asset like Jeffrey Epstein, who apparently doesn’t qualify to be a “shitty white man” in her book.

Retired Palo Alto Judge LaDoris Cordell, a vocal opponent of the movement to unseat Judge Aaron Persky, has accused recall leader Michele Dauber of staging a mailed rape threat containing white powder, which caused two rooms at Stanford Law School to be evacuated yesterday (Feb. 14).

“I’m glad that the powder was harmless. I also question the timing of all of this. This has the hallmarks of a publicity stunt,” Cordell said. “I say that because it is clear that the tide has turned.”

Dauber said one of her former students opened the envelope, which appeared to have been mailed from the Boston area, to find the note reading, “Since you are going to disrobe Persky, I am going to treat you like ‘Emily Doe.’ Let’s see what kind of sentencing I get for being a rich white male.”

Sharyn Potter

Sharyn Potter is an Executive Director and Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of New Hampshire where the unregulated “Dear Colleague” Title IX letter co-drafted by Stanford Law Professor Michele Dauber was introduced in April 2011. She is also Co-Founder of the University’s Prevention Innovation Research Center which has received millions of dollars in grants for “Know Your Power” and “Bystander” training to address sexual violence. “Know Your Power- A Message to America’s Daughters” is, coincidentally, the title of Nancy Pelosi’s 2008 memoir.

Unfortunately Sharyn Potter’s grants appear to have all come from the Department of Justice Office of Violence Against Women and thus the bias in her solutions for ending sexual violence should be tossed out. The proof of the damage of her bias can be seen in the results in New Hampshire where sexual and domestic violence by females upon males & females upon children has been almost completely ignored or forgiven. Title IX forbids gender bias on campus but due to a strategic partnership formed between the White House “Not Alone” task force in January 2014 and the University of New Hampshire, Sharyn Potter and her ideologists have become useful weapons for the non-profit and movement which preceded #MeToo — “Its on Us” — which is tied to both Blue Crab Strategies, Civic Nation (aka “United States of Women”) and Obama, Biden’s and Hillary Clinton’s PR company SKDK.

Sharyn Potter was present at the launch of the unregulated “Dear Colleague” Title IX launch in April 2011. She also spoke at the 2014 Dartmouth Sexual Assault summit during which 18 year old St. Paul’s School scholarship student Owen Labrie’s arrest warrant was announced by the husband of her colleague Amanda Grady Sexton of the NHCADSV which is officially partnered with Sharyn Potter’s UNH PIRC department. Ms. Potter & Ms. Grady Sexton used the trial to implement “Bystander” training at St Paul’s School (there was inclusion of it in a statement made on the day of the verdict). It was so successful at rival prep school Phillips Exeter Academy that it resulted in a retired teacher, Mr. Weber, being ostracized by the school and smeared in front of the community for a sexual assault his alleged victim claims never happened.

Sharyn Potter went on to form “Soteria Solutions” to market the trademarked “Know Your Power” and “Bystander” training. The company shares the exact same logo as Soteria Mutual Holdings in London and Luxembourg which are tied to the CCP linked Binance and Stephen Schwarzmann of BlackStone. Soteria Solutions however continues to be sold around the world. Universities and colleges might want to examine the cool-aid before they pay for it and drink it.

The post Beware the Feminist Activist Professor & Her Research Failures .. for They Have Caused Untold Damage to Society in the Name of “Social Justice.”  appeared first on Granite Grok.

I really liked Ron DeSantis the Governor. I have less and less respect for Ron DeSantis, the candidate for President. Here’s DeSantis pandering to the Regime-media by saying what they want to hear … OF COURSE TRUMP LOST. The correct answer candidate DeSantis: Trump lost a RIGGED election where the FBI and “intelligence community” interfered by planting false stories (Hunter Biden laptop = “Russian disinformation”, Russian “bounties”, etc. etc. etc.), the Regime-media ran with these false stories and CENSORED the truth … where Oligarch Mark Zuckerberg spent nearly half-a-billion to convert election offices in swing-States into Biden-GOTV offices … where States controlled by Democrats and NeverTrump Republicans used COVID as a pretext to allow universal mail-in voting and “drop-boxes” which made these “votes” impossible to verify … ETC. ETC. ETC.

 

The post Ron DeSantis Goes Full Election-Denier appeared first on Granite Grok.

As promised in the last Monday Memes, I have an overflow. My meme cup runneth over.  Fairly certain about a Friday Overflow-Overflow.

Let the mayhem, mockery, and ridicule resume:

 

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

 

 

The world is poised to collapse.  The economy is tanking in slow motion (I know people looking for work – and I am for customers – where things are definitely drying up).  Stores are closing in huge numbers with parallel job losses (a recruiter I know mentioned one company laying off multiple thousands).  The world is facing increased instability.  Food shortages are coming and in some places globally already here.  Crime is rampant in many areas, and is spreading to other areas.   WWIII is a distinct possibility.  On and on and on.  And all anyone wants to talk about are the latest sportsball-game, or movies, or Harry-Meghan, or, or, or.  Everything trivial, nothing consequential.

I understand not wanting to talk about uncomfortable things, and yes – there are times when the trivial is what’s OK – but serious things are happening.  This total avoidance of everything, all the time, strikes me as playing ostrich.

 

“We can evade reality, but we cannot evade the consequences of evading reality.”

— Ayn Rand

 

=+=+=

 

 

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

 

Cashless society is here!

 

 

It will be done, slowly-slowly.  Until you use your irises or your palm or chips or whatever.  And far, far too many will be dog-panting Isn’t this cool! eager…

 

https://granitegrok.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/woman-at-whole-foods-pays-by-palm.mp4

 

until the next step of controls come in and they can’t buy that pot roast they wanted for the planned dinner party because they’ve come up to their meat allotment for the month.  The trap is set, the prey approaches…

 

48 Hogs in the trap

 

 

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

 

 

Hashem, I love this country!

 

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

 

 

 

Whether about CBDC, or 15 minute cities, or “climate lockdowns”, or digital IDs, social credit scoring systems, or one-world government, or anything else, I’m seeing the term Whether you like it or not an awful lot these days.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

PSA – PSA – PSA – PSA – PSA

 

Oz MP has MELTDOWN

 

 

I’ve posed this question before, and will again now:

Imagine you truly believe, as this guy clearly does, that mankind (at least, the number we have now) is a direct and dire – and existential – threat to all life on earth.  Imagine that you truly believe, as this guy does as he calls critics “psychopaths”, that those who oppose your good and noble desire to save the planet as not just irredeemably evil, but actively complicit in that biosphere’s murder.

What would you not do to that opposition if you believed that the only thing that could save the planet was fast and drastic action, over their balking?  What would your limit be?

That’s right.

To saaaave the plaaaaaanet from heat death, you’d be perfectly willing to kill your opponents and commit genocide on a scale unimaginable.  And you’d feel perfectly justified in doing so.

EU Backs Bill Gates’ Plan to ‘Fight Global Warming’ by Blocking the Sun – Slay News

 

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

 

THE FIX IS IN: Joe Biden Sits on the Beach, Has No Plans to Hold Campaign Events, Is Not Spending Campaign Money, Holds Few Fundraisers, Has Crappy Poll Numbers, the Worst Record in History, Was Caught in Massive Bribery Scandal, and Democrats Aren’t Worried | The Gateway Pundit | by Jim Hoft

TINVOWOOT.

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

.@MarcoPolo501c3: “We reached out to every single pimp, hooker, drug dealer, and business partner on Hunter Biden’s laptop…

We put all of his emails and photos online… You have FARA violations, money laundering, sex trafficking, and conspiracy to commit bribery…

Not one email has proven to be false… We put all of the metadata out there… When you go through the emails, they clearly show how the Bidens were an agent for a foreign principal…

Hunter was on the hook for Joe Biden’s living expenses… There was a joint bank account between Hunter Biden, Eric Schwerin, and Joe Biden… Emails prove it.

Joe isn’t listed on official documents, but Hunter pays his living expenses, house payments, and everything else…

Hunter’s business paid for Joe’s second iPhone. His burner phone… That phone was exclusively for Hunter and Joe…

The Secret Service didn’t harden the phone. It was a clear national security risk. It was probably bugged by multiple Five Eyes countries…

It’s tax fraud because you got money going to Joe every single year without declaring it as a gift… It is FARA violations, and because it’s FARA violations, it’s money laundering.

Again, this is all laid out through emails, text messages, WhatsApp messages, pictures, screenshots, audio recordings, and videos… Joe Biden got the money through house payments and joint bank accounts…

Hunter blew through a million dollars on hookers and blow in 11 months. At the end of 2018, he asked Joe for a $75k wire so he could check into rehab. The very next day, he’s wiring $10,000 to a Russian pimp…

We have 20 separate drug deals of crack cocaine with the U.S. President’s son. We put the name and number of the drug dealer…

In certain cases, the drug dealer was prosecuted, and Hunter wasn’t… This is the epitome of unequal application of the law.

https://twitter.com/KanekoaTheGreat/status/1687684347913183232

@KanekoaTheGreat

 

And nobody cares.  Not the courts.  Not the enemedia.  Certainly not the half of the country that votes “D”.

 

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

 

Covid and Jab Stuff (Wide Ranging)

Health regulators round the world ignore Covid vaccine damage evidence that’s staring them in the face – The Conservative Woman

VAERS data is crystal clear: The COVID vaccines are killing an estimated 1 person per 1,000 doses (676,000 dead Americans) (kirschsubstack.com)

 

https://granitegrok.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/e6f3356e02641a52.mp4

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

Pick of the post:

 

https://granitegrok.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/climate-mockery.mp4

 

Cross-reference with the PSA above and that loon having a meltdown.  This is mockery and ridicule at its absolute finest.

 

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

 

 

Note what the headline is.  That the idea of protecting cash in the economy is a “far right” idea.  Just like being fit and healthy and eating well is now being pushed to being a sign of “white supremacy”.  Ultimately, anything that stands in the way of the Left is a “far right” idea.

 

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

 

Palate cleansers:

 

—

—

 

The post Meme Overflow appeared first on Granite Grok.

Depending on one’s perspective, technology can be viewed as either an opportunity or a threat. Some people celebrate technical advances, while others show disdain. Entrepreneurs are frequently eager to capitalize on the potential advantages of new technologies, but where entrepreneurs see room for dynamism, naysayers see doom.

In this story, entrepreneurs are akin to wizards who use the magic of technology to improve the world, and naysayers are prophets of pessimism.

In his insightful book The Wizard and the Prophet: Two Remarkable Scientists and Their Dueling Visions to Shape Tomorrow’s World, Charles Mann illustrates the conflicts between wizards and prophets, who both advocate different approaches to solving problems. Wizards trust in the liberating power of technology to improve conditions, and prophets endorse restraining human behavior. Norman Borlaug and William Vogt are the main figures in his work. Both men had an interest in the issues posed by population growth, yet their proposals were opposite.

Borlaug, who is credited as the father of the green revolution, felt that innovations in technology would increase food production and minimize the burdens of population growth. However, Vogt proposed limiting consumption to save humanity. Unlike optimists who thought that affluence was a monumental achievement, Vogt felt that prosperity encouraged overconsumption, and this would lead to the demise of society. Luckily for society, Borlaug’s model became the catalyst for the green revolution, which resulted in the emergence of high-yielding plant varieties.

Scientific advancements in agriculture increased food supplies and staved off famines in developing countries. Despite population increases, the production of cereal crops tripled during the green revolution, and Malthusian predictions did not materialize. Developing countries managed to overcome chronic food deficits, and more crops were cultivated using less land space. Wizards have a better track record of performance than prophets, although the fearmongering of prophets is still influential.

In 1981, Julian Simon published The Ultimate Resource as a response to Paul Ehrlich’s doomsday manifesto, The Population Bomb. Ehrlich preached that population growth would lead to the exhaustion of resources, but Simon turned this argument on its head by contending that population growth churns out new ideas, and ideas lead to an abundance of products and resources. Simon foresaw humans innovating to compensate for shortages and, in the process, even creating superior alternatives. Ehrlich was unimpressed by Simon’s foresight and waged a bet in 1980 arguing that resources would become more expensive.

Ehrlich selected a basket of resources containing copper, chromium, nickel, tin, and tungsten. Fortunately for humanity, Simon emerged victorious, and by 1990, these resources were cheaper, despite fears of scarcity and population growth. Recent research by Marian Tupy and Gale Pooley has further vindicated the assumption of Julian Simon. Their research asserts that population growth is failing to halt the multiplication of resources. Notwithstanding the tremendous population growth from 1980–2018, resources not only became more abundant but also increased at a faster rate than population growth.

The positivity trend gets even better. Intuitively, we think that as the economy expands, people will begin to use more resources; however, Jesse Ausubel has been observing a wave of dematerialization. Although the American economy is generating more products, people are using fewer resources. Promoting the work of Ausubel in his fascinating book How Innovation Flourishes in Freedom, Matt Ridley touts the virtues of innovation:

By 2015 America was using 15 percent less steel, 32 percent less aluminum, and 40 percent less copper than at its peaks of using these metals, even though its population was larger and its output of goods and services much larger. . . . This is not because the American economy is generating fewer products: it’s producing more. It is not because there is more recycling—though there is. It’s because of economies and efficiencies created by innovation.

Innovations provide a world that’s more efficient and livable for human and nonhuman life. But the hysteria of prophets can deter progress by limiting discoveries, and they are powerful agents in the environmental arena. Environmentalists concerned about pollution are lobbying for the mining of minerals that they argue can limit emissions. Deep sea mining is the latest innovation in the environmental industry, yet if the passion of activists is not contained, then we will miss out on opportunities as the Economist suggests.

The Economist notes that the criticisms of activists are questionable and mining in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone will prove to be beneficial:

When it comes to nickel, mining the ccz is greener and cleaner than mining on dry land. Research shows that the amount of carbon stored in the ccz is negligible, meaning that mining will not stir up enough of it into the atmosphere to add to warming. Nor, according to research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will the sediment churned up spread as far or as thickly as claimed. . . . The most serious concern is the threat to diverse organisms that are unknown to science. But life in the ccz is scarce—some 270,000 tonnes of biomass would be destroyed by mining—and mostly microbial. And because the ccz is the oceanic food web’s final stop, there would be few spillovers to other ecosystems.

But unfortunately, prophets of doom like Greta Thunberg and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have a disproportionate influence on policy. Therefore, the biggest threat to the survival of our species will not be social and political challenges that can be solved by intelligence but rather the unproductive influence of negative personalities who sway thought leaders with dangerous rhetoric.

 

Lipton Mathews | Mises Wire

Author: Contact Lipton Matthews

Lipton Matthews is a researcher, business analyst, and contributor to Merion West, The Federalist, American Thinker, Intellectual Takeout, mises.org, and Imaginative Conservative. Visit his YouTube channel, with numerous interviews with a variety of scholars, here. He may be contacted at lo_matthews@yahoo.com or on Twitter (@matthewslipton).

Mises Wire
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The post Real Progress Versus the Progressives appeared first on Granite Grok.

When I first moved to New Hampshire 33 years ago – yes, I predate the Free Staters, the “joke” went like this. The Granite State didn’t have many folks on unemployment or welfare because they bussed them to Massachusetts, where the benefits were better.

The unemployment benefits are better, which is why the Granite State has traditionally had lower unemployment and higher workforce participation. We don’t pay people to sit around. You can’t live on it, so you must find work if you can or move to a state where you can live off sitting on your ass. That has evolved a bit over the years, but it still holds (mostly) true.

And while we’ve seen an uptick in illegals leaking into New Hampshire from Vermont (a sanctuary dumpster fire) and Canada, which is how they got to Vermont, we’re not inundated like … Massachusetts.

Governor Maura Healey, who lives in a shoe (Massachusetts), has so many illegal aliens she doesn’t know what to do. She has declared a state of emergency.

Help, she says.

 

Governor Maura T. Healey today declared that a state of emergency exists in Massachusetts due to rapidly rising numbers of migrant families arriving in Massachusetts in need of shelter and services and a severe lack of shelter availability in the state. The declaration serves as a notice to the federal government and the Commonwealth that the state’s shelter system is rapidly expanding capacity in an unsustainable manner, and that further assistance is urgently needed. There are currently nearly 5,600 families or more than 20,000 individuals in state shelter, including children and pregnant women.

 

This is where we point out that the people she is asking for help created the problem. The Feds left the doos open and refused to do their Constitutional duty to secure the border and control immigration. And while it won’t matter much to Massachusetts, which is run by Democrats, the result of that dereliction is increased fiscal reliance on the Feds and all the strings and regs that come along for the ride.

The central planners, faced with the problem of sovereign states, have long worked to reduce the supremacy of the several into a dependence on the one. Even New Hampshire is not immune. We rely too much on DC dollars and keep electing politicians who can’t get enough of them. Massachusetts is just several orders of magnitude further along that path. And the open-door invasion policy of the Democrat party and the Biden administration isn’t just about embracing an army of individuals cum dependents who are expected to return the favor at the ballot box. The stress forces state governments to cry out for help.

They can’t print their own money, but the Feds can. They’ve printed trillion, devalued the dollar, and created generational debt—taxes due piled on the backs of generations yet to be born. And the feds aren’t worried about balancing that budget because it serves a greater purpose.

It unbalances power.

States need to balance their budgets so the Federal money becomes the drug whose addiction ends their right to self-govern. Massachusetts’ politicians would never get too worked up about losing that or trading it away for a few pieces of silver. It’s just a different sort of sex work. And they don’t care where the money comes from or what they must do to keep getting it. And it is of no consequence to them that they pimped your grandchildren’s labors and liberties out to the central government sugar daddy without their permission which is not, by the way, a voting rights issue.

It’s not human or child trafficking either, but it should be. Adults today are turning children yet to be born into slaves of the state. But that’s progress. They’ll keep on keeping on, and eventually, the Feds will expect things that Massachusetts or its posterity – as Democrat as it has long been – might be disinclined to allow as if that option had not been sold generations before.

The feds will demand, and refusing your pimp gets you beat when you’re a whore, after which they get what they want, especially when there’s no one to defend you or speak for you and your right to defend yourself was long ago legislated away in the name of common sense.

Yes, Massachusetts has a state of emergency, but it is not what they think it is.

And it isn’t just Massachusetts.

 

 

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This is an article that should never be written. I write it to document the stories of the Gold Star Families who gathered in California on Monday to celebrate their lost sons and daughters. The greatest failure of a Commander in Chief is to forget the fallen and disrespect the families they leave behind.

There were thirteen brave men and women who lost their lives trying in vain to protect the thousands of people who were hoping to be airlifted to safety from the hell hole of Afghanistan. These young people were the last line of defense nearly two years ago when they fell victim to a suicide bomber at the perimeter of the airstrip where American jets were taking as many souls as they could. Like the seventh grandchild that Joe Biden worked hard to disavow, Biden has done his best to forget these thirteen heroes and their families.

He does not want to admit to the death of these young people because to do so is to admit to the failure that was the abandonment of Afghanistan by the United States of America. Biden wants to call the operation in Kabul the greatest evacuation of human life in history. Sorry, Joe, you get no accolades from anyone, for this was not an evacuation but a surrender and failure of leadership. A failure that has become the standard of the Biden Administration.

Often, a single image is locked in your memory associated with a significant event. In this case, I recall the President and the First Lady gathered with staff members standing outside the military plane returning the thirteen flag-draped coffins containing the physical remains of these fallen heroes. In a dramatic show of indifference and disrespect, President Joe Biden checked his watch as the color guard carried the coffins down the ramp. Biden had other places to be that were more important than receiving back home thirteen dead military personnel who lost their lives because of the botched plan of Biden and his Pentagon staff. This picture is a disgusting image I wish I could delete from memory.

As mothers and fathers of the fallen came to the microphone, you could hear the pain in their voices but the pride and love in their words. They talked about their son or daughter and the intense love of their country and the military. You could also hear the anger in those same voices as they talked about the failure of this President and his Administration to ignore these Gold Star Families. Joe Biden loves to tell of his son Beau who served in Iraq. Beau came home from Desert Storm and later died of Cancer. Biden usually says that his son died in combat. It is another Biden lie.

Joe tells that story to evoke pity and empathy for his courageous son, yet he does nothing to acknowledge these parents who do not have to embellish the story of fallen children who did die in a combat environment. Maybe the next time Joe uses the memory of his son for impact, we should all check our watches and tell joe we have somewhere else to be.

 

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We’ve covered it for years, but sometimes what you need is something you can share that encapsulates the chaotic contradictions in climate chaos into a neat little package. Wildfires, scorching hot temps, global boiling, Climate change is the new COVID!  Paul Joseph Watson is here to help.

A lot of crazy from the left parsed and packed into nice neat little minutes.

 

 

 

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As I contemplate my next run for governor on the Flatlander Party ticket, I have been paying attention to what some of the “Same old same olds” of the other parties who have already declared their candidacy are using as their campaign platforms.

We want to thank Brendan Smith for this Contribution – Please direct yours to Editor@GraniteGrok.com.

One candidate is an ex-New Hampshire U.S. senator who is back on the trail and getting many endorsements from a bunch of political so and so’s. (I didn’t notice the name of Sally, the woman who works at the convenience store, on the list, I like to wait to see who she endorses.)

I am not sure if this candidate will continue to run on this premise, but she did declare out of the gate that New Hampshire is just a step away from becoming Massachusetts.

As a Flatlander originally from New York, I don’t necessarily disagree since you could substitute New York for Massachusetts and have the same effect. In fact, you could substitute the names of plenty of other states in America.

But my question is, how does electing a popular career politician, backed by big money, change any of that?

It isn’t career politicians that are going to change anything. After all, most candidates on both sides of the aisle who want a chance of winning are beholden to others and are too easily influenced by a handful of flawed humans with gobs of cash who have been really running the show since, well, forever.

So, if elected I promise to be influenced as well, but not by the usual crowd with deep pockets.

Back in February, I proclaimed my faith in Jesus Christ in The Weirs Times. Not an easy thing to do in this day and age. Some Christians are hesitant to share their faith loudly since they are nervous about what others might think of them. They’d rather keep their beliefs to themselves and not rock the morality boat while it is slowly sinking.

For my 2024 campaign I have decided not to be quiet about this. In fact, I was thinking that my campaign slogan might be something like: “I’ll Ask Jesus First.”

In making any decision as governor, I will first pray to the Lord to guide me before I ask for input from the other flawed humans around me like myself. I know it will help provide me with clearer answers and better decisions.

Okay, who out there just thought: “What is he nuts? What kind of campaign is that?”

A difficult one for sure, especially in an increasingly secular state like New Hampshire.

But isn’t it that what you always hear from other candidates anyway, especially so-called “conservative” ones? Though not always so directly.

A lot of politicians, and people in general, are quick to send their “thoughts and prayers” during difficult times and situations, which implies, whether they are even aware or not, that they are planning on asking the Lord for help.

I’m sure some spend a few minutes actually “thinking” about whatever the situation might be, but how many actually pray after they say it? I’d bet not many. Some will say it and then go eat a sandwich. If they truly believe that they should send thoughts and prayers, and it isn’t just lip service, then shouldn’t they also be doing the same thing when faced with any difficult decision?

You never hear anyone honestly say” “That’s terrible. I guess I could send thoughts and prayers, but I’m very busy.”

So, my campaign will be the “thoughts and prayers” (with a bigger focus on the prayers) on spiritual steroids, if you will.

I feel it would be a good idea for the media to confront candidates as to their thinking on this issue as well, but I won’t hold my breath.

Will they commit to expanding on their routine, boilerplate “thoughts and prayers” responses, and commit to some real prayer when the going gets tough and then go and actually pray?

Maybe at the next WMUR debate for governor, the hosts might deviate from their lighthearted “What is your favorite color” type folksy questions at the end of the debate and ask something like: “You have all at one time or another said you offered your thoughts and prayers after a terrible situation. So, did you actually pray after you said this and if so, will you continue to pray when faced with other difficult issues as governor?”

But, of course, I’m guessing no one in the media would dare go down that road and would instead safely pivot to “What is your favorite flavor ice cream?”

I realize that my campaign slogan will not be popular with many, but I don’t care. Professing your faith out loud is always hard. If you have read the Bible, you realize that going in. It’s a battle, and many will do what they can to discredit you based on that alone.
Who are they really working for?

So, will my campaign strategy succeed?

It doesn’t really matter. Even if I lose the governorship, I still will have gained what matters most.

And if you have to ask what that is, then I’ll pray that you get the answer sooner than later.

 

Brendan Smith is the editor of The Weirs Times weekly newspaper, where he also writes the column “A F.O.O.L* (Flatlander’s Observations On Life) In New Hampshire.” Brendan also started The Flatlander Party in New Hampshire in 2000. He is also the author of “The Flatlander Chronicles,” “Best Of A F.O.O.L. In New Hampshire,” and “I Only Did It For The Socks – Stories And Thoughts On Aging,” available at BrendanTSmith.com. Comments are welcome at brendan@weirs.com.

 

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

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Camp Constitution has been blessed with some of the nation’s top instructors in their given fields of expertise, and one of them is Professor Willie Soon.   Professor Soon has been teaching classes and bringing his family to Camp Constitution’s week-long annual family camps since 2017.

We want to thank Hal Shurtleff for this Contribution – Please direct yours to Editor@GraniteGrok.com.

This year, he gave an incredible class debunking global warming and its harmful impact on the world in his class titled “Why We Cannot Trust  The UN’s IPCC’s Temperature Dataset.”

 

 

Please share this video far and wide.

Professor Soon’s bio from the Heartland Insititute’s website:

Dr. Willie W.-H. Soon, an astrophysicist and geoscientist, is a leading authority on the relationship between solar phenomena and global climate. His discoveries challenge computer modelers and advocates who consistently underestimate solar influences on cloud formation, ocean currents, and wind that cause climate to change. He has faced and risen above unethical and often libelous attacks on his research and his character, becoming one of the world’s most respected and influential voices for climate realism.

Dr. Soon is an astrophysicist at the Solar, Stellar, and Planetary Sciences Division of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, a position he has held since 1997. He served as receiving editor for New Astronomy from 2002-2016, astronomer at the Mount Wilson Observatory from 1992-2009, and contributing editor for Environment & Climate News from 1997 to 2000. He is a policy advisor to The Heartland Institute.

Dr. Soon earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in science and a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering from the University of Southern California.

Dr. Soon’s honors include a 1989 IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society Graduate Scholastic Award and a Rockwell Dennis Hunt Scholastic Award from the University of Southern California for the most representative Ph.D. research thesis of 1991.

In 2003, Dr. Soon received the Smithsonian Institution (Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory) Award in official recognition of work  performance reflecting a high standard of accomplishment. In 2004, Soon received the Petr Beckmann award for courage and achievement in defense of scientific truth and freedom from the Doctors for Disaster Preparedness. In 2014, Dr. Soon received the Courage in Defense of Science Award from the George Marshall Institute. In 2017 he received the Frederick Seitz Memorial Award from the Science and Environmental Policy Project.

Dr. Soon is the author of The Maunder Minimum and the Variable Sun-Earth Connection (World Scientific Publishing Company, 2004). He is the coauthor, with Sebastian Lüning, of “Chapter 2: Solar Forcing of Climate” in Climate Change Reconsidered II: Physical Science (The Heartland Institute, 2013); the author of “Sun Shunned” in Climate Change: The Facts 2014 (The Public Affairs Institute: Melbourne, Australia); and coauthor, with S. Baliunas, of “A brief review of the sun-climate connection, with a new insight concerning water vapour” in Climate Change: The Facts 2017 (The Public Affairs Institute: Melbourne, Australia).

Dr. Soon’s research has appeared many times in peer-reviewed journals.

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