There are many legitimate criticisms of Trump. (My sincerest (not in the least) apologies to the certain (not all) Trump-supporters who believe that the man actually can walk on water, BUT Trump, just like everyone else is human, which means he has flaws and weaknesses and makes mistakes.)

But “he didn’t drain The Swamp” is not a legitimate criticism.  The Swamp was and is too powerful and too pervasive. For Trump to have had a shot at actually “draining the Swamp,” he would have needed the cooperation of Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate President Mitch McConnell. Ryan and McConnell, however, were and remain “the Swamp.”  Many … I don’t know exactly how many, but many … members of Congress with an “R” after their name do NOT want to drain the swamp. They’re voting to increase the funding of the very agencies they go on Fox News and denounce.

Check out this timeline of what Trump was up against:

If there wasn’t a deep state before 2016, 7 years of full-spectrum political warfare against the MAGA insurgency has created one by now.

1) They framed Trump for collusion to spy on his campaign
2) When he won anyway, Comey’s FBI an off the books investigation on their own CINC…

— Martyr Made (@martyrmade) August 12, 2023

The permanent government in DC is totally corrupt. And the permanent government in DC is just part of the bigger “System,” “Regime,” whatever-you-want-to-call it … Blackrock, Chase, the Regime-media, Big-Tech (with the exception of Twitter) … that actually controls this country.

You think you are going to vote your way out of this in 2024? How is the GOP-nominee … Trump or anyone else … going to win Pennsylvania when the Democrat-nominee will have banked … I’d say … 2 million votes from Philadelphia within days of  the start of “election month? Wisconsin … where a Communist-majority State Supreme Court is going to allow early-voting by “drop boxes”? The GOP has no hope, no chance, no ability to win ballot-harvesting contests … and that is what elections in the “swing-States” that determine the Presidency have become.

You want to tell me that 2024 is all about “electability”? Fine … then tell me what’s your plan for winning Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia, Arizona, Nevada, Michigan, etc.

The post He Didn’t Drain the Swamp!!! appeared first on Granite Grok.

The Teachers’ Unions wanted smaller class sizes, and they got them, but was this what they were after? Post-COVID, parents are keeping their kids home more than ever because of how Schools have changed and changed their kids.

 

Parents were no longer allowed in the building without appointments, [Rousmery Negrón] said, and punishments were more severe. Everyone seemed less tolerant, more angry. Negrón’s son told her he overheard a teacher mocking his learning disabilities, calling him an ugly name.

Her son didn’t want to go to school anymore. And she didn’t feel he was safe there. …

Across the country, students have been absent at record rates since schools reopened during the pandemic. More than a quarter of students missed at least 10% of the 2021-22 school year, making them chronically absent, according to the most recent data available. Before the pandemic, only 15% of students missed that much school.

All told, an estimated 6.5 million additional students became chronically absent, according to the data, which was compiled by Stanford University education professor Thomas Dee in partnership with The Associated Press.

 

The reader who sent me this sees it in their schools in New Hampshire.

 

 

They don’t want to be there, and this is not the normal “I don’t like school thing.” The schools have also put such fear into parents about being sick. Any kid with a sniffle now stays home. They don’t want to be there anyway. Parents fear that if the school finds out the kid has a belly ache, they’ll be called out of work and made to get the kid- then be required to deal with the pain in the ass that taking them to the doctors is so they don’t send them at any signs of trouble- which w kids is A LOT.

The schools are so mean and ugly now. There is violence now that I’ve never even heard of in our schools. A lot of vaping and drugs. It’s a nightmarish experience that many kids are struggling to survive. My daughter has a friend that  suffering from really bad anxiety. She’s overwhelmed with fear of all sorts of stuff at school. She misses a lot because she has panic attacks – and this issue is not uncommon.

What has gone on since Covid is that the kids’ spirits have just been broken when it comes to school.. they go through the motions- at best. Climate Change fear has them all thinking the world is going to end anyway. The kids are in a state of post-[traumatic] stress disorder as they react to trauma day in and day out. This mental crap makes them physically sick often.

 

It is likely happening everywhere the public health industrial complex held or had sway where CRT discriminates against white kids for the alleged original sin of slavery for which there is no savoir or repentance. Unable to find a bunker or foxhole to hide from the cultural carpet bombing of the LGBTQ agenda, with no air or ground support.

Then there’s the political climate—the blatant liberal bias.

Public school was hard enough when all you had to do was navigate growing up and trying to learn math, science, and history in a building full of kids and mostly left-leaning admin and staff. You must know the approved science and history; questions can become landmines.

Thinking you have a right to an opinion outside the approved dogma will get you institutionally and socially excommunicated, with few adults on site to support you because they’re keeping their heads low to keep their job.

The system says it opposes bullying, but the system is the bully.

 

In seven states, the rate of chronically absent kids doubled for the 2021-22 school year, from 2018-19, before the pandemic. Absences worsened in every state with available data — notably, the analysis found growth in chronic absenteeism did not correlate strongly with state COVID rates.

Kids are staying home for myriad reasons — finances, housing instability, illness, transportation issues, school staffing shortages, anxiety, depression, bullying and generally feeling unwelcome at school.

 

Which means the system has literally let them down. “Absences were more prevalent among Latino, Black, and low-income students, according to Dee’s analysis.”

These kids are not likely to get home-schooled during absences because their single parent might be working one or more jobs to keep them from starving or living on the street.

We used to be one of the most literate countries in the world. These days, our education system is more interested in indoctrination than education, and it has undermined entire generations.

And I’m not convinced that isn’t what the teacher’s unions wanted.

 

The post PCTSD – Post Covid Traumatic School Disorder: Public School Attendance Collapses appeared first on Granite Grok.

At long last, Biden’s Attorney General Merrick Garland has appointed a Special Counsel into Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings. The problem is his choice: U. S. Attorney for Delaware David Weiss, who has already been investigating Hunter Biden for the past five years to no avail.

Congressional Republicans have accomplished more in a year than Weiss and the Department of Justice have in five.

This designation of Weiss seems politically expedient to take the heat off Garland and provide political cover.

More importantly, however, it is contrary to the terms and spirit of the Special Counsel law and further undermines the public’s trust in the Department of Justice.

The point of the Special Counsel is to address a conflict of interest in DOJ’s investigation and prosecution of a crime.  Here the conflict of interest relates to Hunter Biden, the son of the President, with allegations that directly implicate President Biden.  This presents a direct conflict for the Justice Department, which is led by the Attorney General, a Biden appointee.

Accordingly, the applicable law specifies that the Special Counsel “shall be selected from outside the Government.”  Weiss is the U.S. Attorney.  He is not “outside” the Government.  Regardless of his personal integrity or the fact that he was appointed by then President Trump, he now works for Biden and is part of the same DOJ that is the precise focus of the conflict of interest at issue.

Evidence from witnesses before Congressional committees indicates Hunter was engaged in a scheme of influence peddling – selling the Joe Biden brand – earning millions and evading taxes.

Evidence indicates that Joe Biden knew of and participated in business meetings in person and on the phone with Hunter and his business associates for this purpose, and lied about his knowledge and involvement to cover up the wrong doing during the 2020 presidential election and thereafter.

An investigation into Hunter and any related involvement by his father, the President, relating to these serious allegations, requires the independence that can only be achieved by a qualified attorney from outside DOJ.

Garland also announced that Weiss will continue his duties as U.S. Attorney.  This means he is not truly independent. He is still functioning in his role with DOJ. No man can serve two masters. Indeed, this only further intensifies the conflict of interest.

It also means he may not be able to devote his full time to this critically important matter that implicates the President of the United States in an investigation of allegations relating to corrupt foreign influence peddling involving millions of dollars in payments from Chinese and Ukrainian businesses.  The current investigation by Weiss has been ongoing for five years.  Given the severity of the potential wrongdoing both legally and politically, the appointed legal team must be devoted full time to the investigation and operate on an expedited timeline.

Finally, the Special Counsel from outside the Government is warranted to address extraordinary circumstances and to best serve the public interest.  It is difficult to conceive more extraordinary circumstances than the allegations involving Hunter and Joe Biden.

Moreover, and most importantly, a Special Counsel from outside the Government is especially critical to restore public trust in the integrity of the investigation of the Bidens given the appearance of a two-tiered system of justice that seemingly favors the Bidens.

Five years of Weiss’s investigation produced a plea deal that imploded in federal court, the lapsing of the statute of limitations relating to two years of tax evasion charges against Hunter –such a lapse in private legal practice would be gross legal malpractice – and testimony from IRS whistleblowers before Congress that their investigation into Hunter’s alleged tax crimes was directly thwarted by DOJ attorneys.

It is certainly beyond time for a Special Counsel, but Garland should have appointed a qualified attorney from outside DOJ – an appointment that would have better assured independence and public confidence in the outcome. Weiss’ appointment is an obvious attempt to check the Special Counsel box, without providing the level of independence that will ensure a fair, robust investigation in accordance with the law and the facts.

 

Michael Clancy | Daily Caller News Service

Michael Clancy is a lawyer, member of the Federalist Society, and a frequent contributor to The Daily Caller on Constitutional law and political issues. Follow him on Twitter @MikeClancyVA.

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

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 The Bizarre Appointment of David Weiss as Hunter Biden Special Counsel appeared first on Granite Grok.

NOAA’s Temperature Anamoly Data for July (Science) vs. Global Boiling (Science Fiction)

NOAA is not an honest broker when it comes to the question of climate science. Historical data is tampered with constantly – either massaged or disappeared. So let’s look at the July update of the Contiguous US temperature anomaly with that in mind.

Remember, July 2023 was the hottest month ever everywhere or something, so you’d expect an upward spike in the norm.

 

 

This is every month since July 2005, ending in July 2023.

There’s nothing there. It’s not even remarkable. If the media weren’t dancing widdershins around a false narrative for weeks, the outside observer would see nothing out of the ordinary. Nothing hyperbolic. Unless you’d like to remark on how many months prior had more noteworthy shifts.

And this is NOAA. Many of its climate stations are compromised. They adjust their data in favor of their preferred outcome. And still no there, there!

We can see a continuation of eighteen years of flat or slightly cooler average anomalies with a few wild swings but nothing crazy.

Not to worry. We will not see any headlines undermining the consensus cult.

 

 

The post NOAA’s Temperature Anomaly Data for July (Science) vs. Boiling (Science Fiction) appeared first on Granite Grok.

Because that’s what I do. Heck, and it isn’t just singling out that agency – I am a universal hater of folks that either 1) don’t follow their own policies (hmm, I have another set of RTKs to follow up on), or 2) deliberately don’t Follow The Law. It’s just isn’t DCYF – they’re just the topic du jour for me. Not to worry, someone else will screw up and we’ll write about them too. It’s what we do. After all, for right now, I was informed that, in part, a DCYF worker was overheard stating “I think we picked on the wrong family”. Heh! Remember, I’m just a lowly blogger.

Perhaps that last part is really true. What is true is that I’m just an ordinary schlub from central New Hampsha (and I’m stickin’ to it). But it seems that  a couple of lawyers are now reading GraniteGrok, searching for breadcrumbs from what I’ve been told. And I really do like Clair Best’s series on Family Court, DCYF, and about some of the lawyers feeding off of both. And let’s not forget about the Child Advocacy Centers (“CAC”)to boot!

Anyways, I’m digressing. Can I blame in on raising my two ADHD sons? It’s probably, ya know…after all, there’s that old saw “Insanity is hereditary – you get it from your kids”. Move on, Skip.

So I’ve launched a few more Right To Knows. This post summarizes three of them where:

• Number one – if I’m going to be launching shoulder-mounted rockets, I should know where and at whom to direct them
• Number two – is a signal that something awful is heading someone’s way (actually, two people)
• Number three – that special stuff found with in the nose cone or just after it that carries out the mission.

So what am I talking about? So while an event happened back in June in which I had the hankering to write about it then but the typical “Skip gets hit by the usual “Life Tsunami” again. But, better late than never and it still is important in recording how some in the DCYF / CAC environs operate. In this case “our mission takes precedent over Following The Law?” kind of vignette. But first – where’s the target? I asked:

Pursuant to the Right to Know Law (RSA. 91-A:4 (I) ), I am demanding access, within 5 business days, to the below enumerated governmental records:

• The complete organizational (hierarchical) structure of DCYF to include:
  • Name of a given staff member
  • Title of that staff member
  • Name and title to whom they report (as applicable)
  • Name and title of those staff members that report to that given staff member (as applicable).

And it was sent to Amy Fortin, DCYF Investigative Specialist, yesterday. It’s always better to know what the terrain is when trying to hold people accountable. And make no mistake, there are some that hate being held accountable: almost all politicians (for their votes and the policies/mayhem they met upon the rest of us because “it’s good for you and you chuckleheads don’t know what’s good for you”), journalists (who proudly proclaim that they hold people accountable (effectively, only those that aren’t Democrats) but HATE being held accountable by others, especially we peons), and lastly, bureaucrats (who seem, especially of the Progressive persuasion, that they were born to laude over the rest of us). So the above is to let me know who they are.

And to Number Two – the flare that list up part of this battlespace (and also advances this storyline). This time, a bit more of the RTK that was sent to DCYF’s Amy Fortin and to Laurie Grant of the Laconia Child Advocacy Center:

Sidenote: Oh, for those on the Left (and a few with an axe to grind against me/GraniteGrok), ALL RSA 91-A / Right To Knows, once sent, immediately become Government records. In fact, I have done RTKs to see what RTKs an agency or government worker has received. It was rather interesting to find out who thought was interesting or needful to know from our Government. So,I’m not doxxing anyone.

Right to Know demand per RSA 91-A: DCYF Ethics Complaint form

[Art.] 8. [Accountability of Magistrates and Officers; Public’s Right to Know.] All power residing originally in, and being derived from, the people, all the magistrates and officers of government are their substitutes and agents, and at all times accountable to them. Government, therefore, should be open, accessible, accountable and responsive…The public also has a right to an orderly, lawful, and accountable government…

Background:

In order to hold such “officers of government are their substitutes and agents”, there are incidents of outright lawbreaking and incidents of ethics complaints by which normal citizens are held responsible to use to “at all times” keep such people “accountable to them.

Demand:

Pursuant to the Right to Know Law (RSA. 91-A:4 (I) ), I am demanding access, within 5 business days, to the below enumerated governmental records for Citizen complaints against NH State Government staff members:

• Ethics Complaint form(s) used by the Division of Children, Youth and Families
• Ethics Complaint form(s) used by the NH Division of Health and Human Services.
• Ethics Complaint form(s) used by the Laconia Child Advocacy Center / Granite State Children’s Alliance

In addition, I am demanding:

• A copy of the release form that is presented to legal parents / legal guardians in giving DCYF and the CAC permission to interview a child presented to DCYF / CAC upon the demand by DCYF.
• The name and title of the Laconia Police Detective that was present at the meeting on June 22, 2023.

Yes, I am convinced that what they did was wrong. Perhaps illegal – that’s part of why I’m doing this. I don’t know for sure but I certainly get more information.

Oh, and Number Three? Next post (going to start working on it right now) but I’ve gone long again. Steve, our Editor, is long-suffering with me with my penchant for “writing long”.

 

 

The post DCYF – So When You Demand That I Do Something Illegal, I’ll Make It Public. appeared first on Granite Grok.

I have seen the “equalization maps” of voters before that show the boundaries of equal Left Coast/Right Coast vs. the Middle – of the number of voters.

I think this shows the absolute density of voters just in LA County versus, pretty much, the sparseness of people in the rest of the country.

 

 

 

Yes, pretty much; only six states have larger populations than LA County does (or seven if you count the rest of California).

I’ll have to find one of those other maps and update this post later.

 

(H/T: Acid Cow)

The post Why the Left and Right Coasts “Swamp” Fly-Over Country in National Elections appeared first on Granite Grok.

As the debate over inappropriate content rolls forward into the 2023-2024 school year, porn advocates continue to push back against efforts by parents and taxpayers to address access to content that may be inappropriate for kids.

Sexually explicit material that adults cannot legally read or show at public meetings (or to other people’s children without ending up on the sex offenders registry) continues to be accessible in print and online with the blessing of taxpayer-funded institutions.

Defenders of the access cry book banning and censorship in response as if the same content is not privately available to everyone everywhere else. The same could be said for the mountains of content not available at these libraries or through taxpayer-funded online portals. How many titles might that be? Million or just hundreds of thousands?

Are those banned books?

The pat answer is, of course, no, you knuckle-dragging right-wing extremist. People can still buy those books. We simply don’t have room to carry them in the school library, which is correct. You chose those books instead of a mountain of others. You made deliberate decisions on the content for which you’d make space, some of which would get a father arrested if he read it to his neighbor’s son or daughter – perhaps even his own. Put another way, if you wanted to groom a child for sexual abuse, those are the books you’d choose. They are books for groomers. Groomer Lit 101. Sexually explicit “literature” with heterosexual adult-child sex, sexual abuse, rape, gay sex, and drug use. Content that normalizes the sort of behavior necessary for an adult to take sexual advantage of a kid.

If you are not a groomer or claim you are not, you are either lying, aiding and abetting groomers (child molesters), or bat-shit stupid.

You are (in your own comparative parlance) the bartender who kept serving the drunk who killed a visiting family from Kenosha on the interstate—the firearms dealer who sold a rifle to a mass shooter.

You are complicit in grooming, or you are a groomer.

Thus endeth the lesson.

 

The post Groomer Lit (101) – A 2023-2024 ‘Pubic’ School Year Primer for Librarians, School Boards, And Superintendants appeared first on Granite Grok.

I’ve barely been posting much lately because of our latest “DYF entanglement.” While I am not under any gag order (which is usually the case with such Family Court business as DCYF cases), much of our time (TMEW and I) has been spent either taking care of our granddaughter or doing a lot to fulfill upgrades to our home.

 

Sidenote: I found some WONDERFUL contractors, FMS Landscape, Honey Bee Electric, and No Limits Metalwork, that responded quickly based on tight DCYF mandated upgrades. Given the ghosting I’ve had from others, once they heard about our DCYF entanglement, they were very responsive and got the jobs done right and quickly.

 

Taking care of the paperwork, having arguments with DCYF over that paperwork and what information I’d be willing to provide (Article 2-B, baby!), and the major hassles in finding the CWEP classes that we have to take. A lot of time, energy, and time away from blogging. Oh yeah, and shuffling the Grandson and Granddaughter to two sets of summer school on two different schedules three times a week.

Speaking of “arguments over that paperwork,” I ended up having a DOOZY of one. Actually, several pieces of information they wanted us to do, and I rebelled. Cantankerous, if truth be told. Absolute refusal in a couple of them (as in, “Why should I have to do a credit report on my dime and time simply to give it to you? Pull it yourselves”.)

And a financial statement.

In a roundabout way, it was leaked to me that my old entanglements, going back from before dealing with them over the Grandson, was still in their computer system, Bridges; look it up. Want pictures? When you come out, take them yourself.

I have grown tired of the busy work simply, in my humble opinion, DCYF has had such high-profile cases (like Harmony Montgomery), it’s asking WAY more than in the past. Sorry, I’ve successfully navigated three previous times, I’m not going to do anything stupid – but don’t push me.

Well, they didn’t get the message. And they did. Here’s a copy of the form that was sent to me to fill out.  See anything wrong with it? I did – right off the bat.

DCYF Form 1723 Insurance & Safety Verification

If you missed it, here’s where it went sideways – the “Safety Information” top of this abstracted image:

 

 

 

Yep, the part about firearms.

So the Post Title says a “stealth gun registry,” and if you look at the PDF, it has the family name and address text fields in it. If someone checks NO but DCYF finds out later that someone does, that can land them in legal trouble later. If someone says YES, there’s a Gun Registry record. Sure, to be sure, it would be incomplete in that they don’t ask for, nor is room provided for, the number of guns, types of guns, and calibers of guns. It also doesn’t ask about ammo, either.

But do they need more? There have been rumors for years that new or renewed NH Pistol Revolver licenses have a habit of remaining around for years – and in different localities. And I’m quite sure that any such information will stick around in DCYF’s BRIDGES info system:

 

Another Sidenote: Note to self – how far back and how much? That would be an interesting experiment, wouldn’t it?

 

So I refused to give it. After a long discussion, I told the specialist that I already had a Right To Know ready, and that all I had to do was hit SEND. A compromise was reached in that I could blank out that section and submit it. A temporary waiver is in place now until the RTK gets a response. Its payload:

Given that NH is a Dillon’s Rule State, Executive Branch agencies and other subdivisions of the State are strictly restricted to actions specifically enumerated in bills crafted by the NH Legislature. Thus, pursuant to the NH’s Right to Know Law (RSA 91-A:4 (I) ), I am demanding access, within five business days, to the below enumerated governmental records:

• Pertaining to Form 1723 and DCYF] Rule He-C6446.09:
  • Provide the NH RSA and the relevant clause(s) that allow DCYF to create its own “unofficial” gun registry contra:
    • US Constitution, Second Amendment (re: “infringe”)
    • Federal Laws: (National Firearm Act 1934, Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act (1993)
    • NH Constitution, Article 2-a

Which, I can tell you after talking with Grokster (and lawyer and active Second Amendment defender) Norm last night, as I was traveling to a meeting, they will have a hard time justifying. Norm sent this to me this morning (emphasis mine):

Attached is a copy of RSA 650-C:1.  Highlighting by me.

Note that is absolutely nothing in that statue that requires or even suggests that your ammunition must be kept separate from the firearm.

My interpretation is that the DCYF can ask whether you have guns in the home and you can answer that you do and that “they are kept locked up without any access by any minor who may be on the premises, all in accordance with RSA 650-C:1.”

I might also add that “in accordance with the provisions of RSA 650-C:1, the location and status of any ammunition is a private matter and is irrelevant and immaterial and should not require an answer to comply with your duties.”

And I read the RSA 650-C (emphasis mine):

650-C:1 Negligent Storage of Firearms. –

I. Nothing in this section shall be construed to reduce or limit any existing right to purchase and own firearms or ammunition,
or both, or to provide authority to any state or local agency to infringe upon the privacy of any family, home or business except by lawful warrant.

I’m not a lawyer, but I can lean on Norm that this is a “No means NO!” bit. DCYF is an agency in terms of the law. It is a STATE agency. RSA 650-C, on my reading, seems to be a wall fencing DCYF from interfering with us (just as the Constitution is supposed to wall off and constrain the Government from meddling with us).  Thus, this will be interesting in their response.

After all, Article 2-b, right?

The post Is DCYF Guilty of Running a Stealth Gun Registry? It Certainly Seems So … appeared first on Granite Grok.

The Granite State continues to be an island of sanity in a sea of blue politics, but only barely. Despite Republican governors and legislative majorities at the state level, we keep sending Democrats to DC. It doesn’t make sense. But some things do.

We’re the only state cutting taxes. We’ve got the lowest total tax burden in New England, lower poverty rates, better health outcomes, and a long list of positives that recur year after year. We were the first to say no, we’re not joining the Transportation Climate Initiative, and we are neither a sanctuary state nor embracing California Style vehicle standards on the road to Net Zero, and not just because it’s impossible to get there from anywhere, least of all here.

We’re also not handing over our election data to the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC). It’s a left-wing funded “non-profit membership organization created by state election officials to help improve the accuracy of state voter rolls and register more eligible Americans to vote.”

Judicial Watch did some research on ERIC, and the results are less than stellar.

• [O]ver the past year, seven states have pulled out—Alabama, Louisiana, Florida, West Virginia, Missouri, Ohio, and Iowa—citing concerns over data security and the left-wing orientation of the organization.
• Florida withdrew in March, saying the group had rejected proposals that “would have eliminated concerns about ERIC’s potential partisan leanings, and made the information shared with ERIC more secure.”
• ERIC does not actually require that member states “remove ineligible voters from their registration rolls.”
• “[S]tates that do not participate in ERIC had a higher rate of identifying and removing from voter registration rolls individuals who relocated out of a jurisdiction than ERIC member states.”
• ERIC was founded by left-leaning attorney David Becker with $157,000 in grants from the George Soros-funded Pew Charitable Trusts.
•  In September 2020, CEIR received a $70 million grant from the Zuckerberg philanthropies for “voter education programs.”
•  “The large amount of sensitive data provided to ERIC by its member states and the role of the organization in maintaining voter rolls may violate a number of federal statutes,” the JW study notes.

ERIC may have run afoul of other laws at both the federal and state level, which could include- if we were a member – our constitutional right to privacy here in New Hampshire. Thankfully we are not presently at risk for that from them. But we’re the only state in New England that has not hitched its wagon to what looks like another progressive-funded sketchy GOTV effort.

The post One More Awful Thing NH Hasn’t Joined that the Rest of New England Has .. appeared first on Granite Grok.

I apologize in advance for filling your inbox. But child trafficking is something everyone must be alarmed about, and it is in your collective power to do something about it if you have the information.

You may have read Nancy West/In-Depth News Article on the two New Hampshire teens subjected to trauma in a facility in Tennessee. That facility is a DBA for “Youth Opportunities Investment,” which started in 2009 and has facilities around the country.

This is the description of the treatment advertised at Bledsoe, the Youth Opportunities Investment program in Tennessee.

The logo for “Youth Opportunity Investment” is remarkably similar to that of CASA/CASA NH (which may be coincidental or may not be).

Caroline Delaney filed a statement of financial interest in CASA NH. Caroline Delaney was (is?) the legal counsel for the Department of Revenue. She is also on the CASA NH team. The statement of financial interest lists McLane Middleton (Michael Delaney’s law firm).

Michael Delaney (a former AG who allegedly allowed police officers to be paid in cash and who was very involved in promoting “Children’s Advocacy Centers” whose board members are Police, Prosecutors, DAs, and Andrew H Crews of Autofair/Granite One Health/Primary Bank/NH Lottery)  represented Judge Julie Introcaso for her plea deal for whiting out judicial documents and ordering GAL Kathleen Sternenberg to be paid using Apple Pay.

McLane Middleton has a Government Policies and Strategies company registered to it since 2012 or so.  The law firm also received several millions more in PPP loans than any other law firm in New Hampshire.

Michael Delaney was nominated for the position of the First Circuit Court of Appeals by Senators Shaheen & Hassan. The First Circuit covers NH, Mass, Maine, Rhode Island, and Puerto Rico.

The IRS is alleged in this article to be a privately owned Puerto Rican Trust.

Maximus is tied to the IRS. Maximus became a public company in 1996. It had its first no-bid contract in NH for Medicaid in 2004.

Maximus is listed with dozens of accounts in the “Pandora Papers,” and so is Autofair (Andrew H Crews). New Hampshire has the largest amount of any state in the US in Pandora Papers, with $932.5 billion. McLane Middleton sponsored the podcast about it (which to me smacks of a Sam Bankman-Fried move to give $5 million to ProPublica or sponsor Semafor)…especially because McLane Middleton has advertised their ability with foreign, family trusts, etc., in NH.

Kathleen Kerr of NH DHHS/DCYF (for 12 years) received complaints in 1999 from US DHHS OIG regarding failures of NH DCYF, outsourcing of contracts, failures in accounting, etc.

She left to join Policy Studies Inc, which then became Veritas and got purchased by Maximus, and she has been on the board of Maximus since her position for NH DCYF  & Policy Studies Inc.

Maximus, Policy Studies, Virtus, and Children’s Trust Fund are all registered at 10 Ferry Street, Concord, NH, which is the address that was reported to Boston FBI for suspected Child Trafficking in 2016.

If you look at the reports below, you will see that New Hampshire has consistently failed audits by US DHHS for DCYF and Medicaid.  In fact, Lori Schibinette handed in her resignation six days after a US DHHS audit on NH Medicaid showed that the state had double-billed and owed US Gov $7.9 million.

https://www.oig.hhs.gov/oas/reports/region1/11802504.asp
https://oig.hhs.gov/oas/reports/region1/12000006.asp

Anna Carrigan (who brought the whistleblower suit Anna Carrigan v NH) documents the failures of NH DCYF here.

CASA NH has in its documents a desire to refer as many children as possible to CASA.

CASA NH was dropped as a defendant by a judge in a sexual assault case involving two teenagers that was brought by their grandparents.

Maximus’s documents show that children can get referred to their services by teachers, caregivers, etc.

Maximus’ contract with NH (including with DCYF, Youth Detention Center, etc) appears to be tied to NH’s contract with Tennessee, where the Bledsoe Academy is.

Maximus is a key player in how child trafficking and child abuse are allowed to happen.

Lastly, you will notice that in the case against Adam Montgomery over Harmony Montgomery, NH prosecutors dropped welfare fraud charges against Kayla Montgomery. I suspect (but don’t know, so it is a hypothesis) that the State does not want discovery on this that could expose state fraud (as in the Medicaid overbilling that came up in the US DHHS OIG report just before Lori Schibinette stepped down).

Follow the money, and please ask the Executive Counselors and the Governor why financial interests tied to CASA, Maximus, etc, supersede the interests in child welfare. The State collects federal money for the welfare of children. That money is being misused to profiteer and make money off the abuse and trafficking of children. What is NH Treasury, Executive Committee, and Judiciary interest in Maximus, CASA, and Youth Opportunity Investment?

As Richard Bergeron, in citing corruption of the courts in New Hampshire, quoted Aldous Huxley: “Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.”

Child abuse and child trafficking in New Hampshire are intertwined with court corruption and abuse of federal funds.  It can be stopped, but it requires your collective attention and action.

In California, a Public Protection Act bill is being proposed.  Perhaps New Hampshire should consider the same:

PUBLIC PROTECTION ACT

1. Proposal Summary:

“This “Public Protection Act” proposal addresses systemic failures of governance in the State Bar of New Hampshire (“State Bar”) to sustainably restore public trust and reduce disparate impacts upon marginalized communities within family, civil, and criminal justice systems.

2. Problems
Public corruption adversely affects marginalized communities the most (See DOJ Archives). Expert Robert Klitgaard says it follows a simple formula: Corruption = Monopoly – Accountability. …….

The model for an act exists. Why would it not be in everyone’s interests to sign such an act so children can be safe from state exploitation?

Thank you for paying attention. Child abuse and trafficking can be fixed but you have to follow the money to get to the route of the problem before you can fix it. The corruption that is the monopoly without accountability must be broken for the future benefit of all.

 

Email recipients:

To: Mary Ann Dempsey <MDempsey@courts.state.nh.us>
Cc: Parental Equality NH <parental-equalitynh@googlegroups.com>, Robert Mittelholzer <rmittelholzer@nhjcc.com>, Diana Dowd-Werry <ddowd-werry@nhjcc.com>, “generalcounsel@courts.state.nh.us” <generalcounsel@courts.state.nh.us>, Communications@courts.state.nh.us, Lorrie Platt <LPlatt@courts.state.nh.us>, Kathlene Cleveland <kcleveland@nhattyreg.org>, John Formella <john.m.formella@doj.nh.gov>, Anthony Galdieri <anthony.galdieri@doj.nh.gov>, Zachary Wolf <Zachary.C.Wolf@doj.nh.gov>, “Jimenez, Dan” <Dan.A.Jimenez@doj.nh.gov>, “DOJ: Invest Info” <investinfo@doj.nh.gov>, Fbi <bedford.bs@fbi.gov>, “James S. Scully Jr.” <James.F.Scully@nh.gov>, “Sununu.Press@nh.gov” <Sununu.Press@nh.gov>, “Joseph D. Kenney” <Joseph.D.Kenney@nh.gov>, Cinde Warmington <Cinde.Warmington@nh.gov>, Janet Stevens <Janet.L.Stevens@nh.gov>, Ted Gatsas <Ted.Gatsas@nh.gov>, David Wheeler <David.K.Wheeler@nh.gov>, “Richard W. Head” <rhead@courts.state.nh.us>, Governor’s Commission <NHDVcommission@gmail.com>, Mary Krueger <mkrueger@nhla.org>, Danielle Snook <danielle.m.snook@doj.nh.gov>, Andrew Livernois <alivernois@belknapcounty.org>, Alyssa Kuehne <kuehnea@nashuapd.com>, Lyn Schollett <lyn@nhcadsv.org>, Angela Wilkerson <awilkerson@603legalaid.org>, Dianne Martin <DMartin@courts.state.nh.us>, Ann Landry <ann.h.landry@dhhs.nh.gov>, Jodi Nelson <jodi.nelson@leg.state.nh.us>, Sharon Carson <Sharon.Carson@leg.state.nh.us>, Chief David Hobbs <dhobbs@hamptonpd.com>, Chief Janet Bouchard <jbouchard@hooksettpolice.org>, “Dr. Scott Hampton” <endingviolence@comcast.net>, Abbey Simon <Abbey.S.Simon@doc.nh.gov>, Robert Quinn <robert.l.quinn@dos.nh.gov>, Andrea Bonito <abonito@nhpd.org>, “Hon. Edwin Kelly” <ewkelly51@gmail.com>, Mark Pearson <canonpearson@yahoo.com>, Marjorie Smith <msmithpen@aol.com>, Joe Alexander <Joe.Alexander@leg.state.nh.us>, Dana Albrecht <dana.albrecht@hushmail.com>, Lorie Ball <Lorie.Ball@leg.state.nh.us>, Katelyn Kuttab <Katelyn.Kuttab@leg.state.nh.us>, Charles McMahon <cmcmahon55@gmail.com>, Alicia Gregg <Alicia.Gregg@leg.state.nh.us>, Judi Lanza <Judi.Lanza@leg.state.nh.us>, Patrick Long <long55@comcast.net>, Rebecca McBeath <NHStateHouse@gmail.com>, Christina Dyer <christina.dyer@leg.state.nh.us>, Sherman Packard <sherman.packard@leg.state.nh.us>, ~House Special Committee on the Family Div Circuit Court <HouseSpecialCommitteeonFamilyDivCircuitCourt@leg.state.nh.us>, “CFL@leg.state.nh.us” <CFL@leg.state.nh.us>, “HouseJudiciaryCommittee@leg.state.nh.us” <HouseJudiciaryCommittee@leg.state.nh.us>, ~House Criminal Justice and Public Safety <HouseCriminalJusticeandPublicSafety@leg.state.nh.us>, Robin Partello <robinpartello@yahoo.com>, Timber Post <TimberPost@gmail.com>, NH Advocates for Parental Equality <parentalequalitynh@gmail.com>, Kevin Landrigan <klandrigan@unionleader.com>, Representative Chris Pappas <nh01cpima@mail.house.gov>

The post More Information for you on Child Trafficking In New Hampshire appeared first on Granite Grok.

Sun-King Chris Sununu is … OF COURSE … parroting the Koch propaganda that if Trump is the nominee, WE LOSE EVERYTHING!!! EVERYTHING!!! And Mikey Graham’s NH-NeverTrump Journal is … OF COURSE … amplifying the Sun-King’s shill:

In an accompanying post, Mikey … unwittingly I am sure … manages to BOTH totally undermine his claim that Trump lost in 2020 because he was so unpopular and that the 2020 election was NOT rigged:

In 2016, 348,526 voters turned out to back the Democrat for president, Hillary Clinton, while 345,790 turned out for the GOP’s Trump.

Four years later, Trump’s turnout was 365,654, up 19,864 votes (5.7 percent). But the vote for the Democratic nominee, Biden, surged to 424,921, up 76,395, a 22 percent increase.

If 2020 was really the repudiation of Trump that Mikey, Sun-King, the Kochs, etc. claim … he should have gotten LESS votes than in 2016. He did NOT. Just the OPPOSITE. He got early SIX PERCENT MORE.

Do you really believe that Biden received 76,000 LEGITIMATE votes more that HILLARY, the Queen of New Hampshire, did in 2016? A far more believable explanation is that Sun-King Sununu’s exploitation of “the pandemic” to allow what effectively was universal, no-excuse mail-in voting allowed the Biden-campaign to cheat. Per NHPR:

 

The post Michael Graham … Incorrigible Election-Denier appeared first on Granite Grok.

By all accounts, there were more than just a few free blacks who owned black slaves, and while some of them “bought” family members to free them, many were treating them like…slaves. That strikes me as a problem for the reparations crowd.

Think of it as a new twist on an already ever-present problem. The one where you are telling people who never owned slaves that they need to pay some money to people who have never been slaves – but may be descended from … black slave owners.

 

So what do the actual numbers of black slave owners and their slaves tell us? In 1830, the year most carefully studied by Carter G. Woodson, about 13.7 percent (319,599) of the black population was free. Of these, 3,776 free Negroes owned 12,907 slaves, out of a total of 2,009,043 slaves owned in the entire United States, so the numbers of slaves owned by black people over all was quite small by comparison with the number owned by white people. In his essay, ” ‘The Known World’ of Free Black Slaveholders,” Thomas J. Pressly, using Woodson’s statistics, calculated that 54 (or about 1 percent) of these black slave owners in 1830 owned between 20 and 84 slaves; 172 (about 4 percent) owned between 10 to 19 slaves; and 3,550 (about 94 percent) each owned between 1 and 9 slaves. Crucially, 42 percent owned just one slave.

Pressly also shows that the percentage of free black slave owners as the total number of free black heads of families was quite high in several states, namely 43 percent in South Carolina, 40 percent in Louisiana, 26 percent in Mississippi, 25 percent in Alabama and 20 percent in Georgia. So why did these free black people own these slaves?

 

Not in any way a small problem, especially for the white hate crowd. There were, after all, black masters who had white slaves.

 

And for a time, free black people could even “own” the services of white indentured servants in Virginia as well. Free blacks owned slaves in Boston by 1724 and in Connecticut by 1783; by 1790, 48 black people in Maryland owned 143 slaves. One particularly notorious black Maryland farmer named Nat Butler “regularly purchased and sold Negroes for the Southern trade,” Halliburton wrote.

 

It is fair to say that whites could work off their slavery where blacks could not, but then what do you say about the black slaves of black slave owners who kept slaves not just for the life of that slave but their offspring? Descendents who may very well be unaware of their slave-owning family history (like Kamala Harris, who is not even black) lining up with the reparations crowd thinking they are owed something for an injustice perpetrated by their ancestors.

Perhaps we could just go back to the beginning—the part where no one paying reparations owned slaves and no one collecting them ever was a slave. I know that’s not entirely true. The Democrat party has enslaved millions of black Americans (again), trapping them in a cycle of dependency, crime, and lousy schools. And it’s not funny that Democrats advocated for slavery and were the “extremists” who tried to stop any effort at emancipation or to end discrimination.

This reminds me of something I’ve seen before and advocated; if Democrats feel that guilty, tax Democrats to pay for reparations. You’ve got their name and addresses in your GOTV records.

Slavery and discrimination by white Democrats is their legacy, and the black Democrat race pimps are today’s modern-day black slave owners working a system that traps their community in exchange for attention, money, and power (which they do not use to help anyone but themselves).

Start writing checks with your own money. We won’t stop you. And if you come up a bit short, you could ask the descendants of slave-selling black Africans to help you.

 

HT | The Root.com

The post Are You Going to Give Reparations to Descendants of Black Slave Owners? appeared first on Granite Grok.

Recently, I was listening to the Jeff Kuhner Show, which airs on WRKO AM 68 Monday to Friday, 6:00 AM to 10:00 AM. He was interviewing his wife, Grace Vuoto, who calls in every Wednesday for her weekly commentary.

Grace, “who puts liberals in their place,” as Jeff is fond of saying, was making an excellent case against several proposed bills in Massachusetts that would make school children little more than human pin cushions for Big Pharma ending religious exceptions to those opposing vaccinations and allowing minors to consent to receive vaccinations without parental approval.

When Jeff referred to homeschooling, if the bills passed, as a solution, Grace emphatically said that it would only be a “temporary solution” and said something to the effect that we-conservatives should not abandon the government schools.

Many conservatives like Grace think that government schools are salvageable.  I have to respectfully disagree.

 

 

While we should attempt to influence the government schools by running for local school committees, showing up at school committee meetings to voice our objections, doing what we can to promote a semblance of academic excellence, and openly opposing the agenda of the Leftist change agents in the government schools, let’s not deceive ourselves.  The Left has had a near monopoly in our government schools for close to one hundred years.  From the removal of intensive phonetics and replacing it with the literacy-crippling “look-say” method, to the teaching of evolution as fact, to the removal of school prayer, to sex education, to the administering of psychotropic drugs,  to the introduction of Outcome Based Education and Common Core, to the teaching of a general hatred of the United States via Howard Zinn’s error-ridden A People’s History of the United States, to the 1619 Project and Critical Race Theory, to the promotion of the Alphabet Mafia’s perverted agenda, children are at risk mentally,  morally, physically, and spiritually.   Sam Blumenfeld documented all of this in his book  Crimes of the Educators, co-authored by Alex Newman (A link to a free PDF version:  http://blumenfeld.campconstitution.net/Books/Crimes%20of%20the%20Educators.pdf   

We went from the most highly literate nation in the world to a nation of illiterates and semi-illiterates who do not possess basic reading and math skills while harboring a seething hatred of our country, its history, and its Constitution.  I think it is safe to say that those that are rioting, looting, burning, and tearing down statues are not products of the homeschool community.

 

 

With all due respect to Grace, whom I greatly admire, homeschooling is both a viable and vital option.   She isn’t alone; however, as a regular viewer of Newsmax and, up until recently, Fox News, I have never seen one guest representing a member of the homeschool organization.  I have to admit that we in the homeschool community don’t do the best job when it comes to promoting our mission, but that will have to end if we expect to maintain a free nation.

 

 

There are homeschool organizations, both national and state-based.  Some of them are religious, like the Massachusetts Homeschool Organization of Parent Educators (MASS HOPE) https://masshope.org/, Homeschoolers of Maine, and Catholics United for Home Education NH.   Others offer support for black homeschoolers, like National Black Home Educators  https://www.nbhe.net/.

 

 

There are annual homeschool conventions, including Mass HOPE which is held on the last weekend of April in Sturbridge, MA, and The Homeschoolers of Maine, held in Augusta in May.  These conventions are where veteran homeschoolers and new homeschoolers alike can learn about the legal issues concerning homeschoolers, how to begin homeschooling, how to find local homeschool support groups, and where attendees can find curricula that meet their needs.

Vendors include ABEKA, Bob Jones University, and Liberty University, which offer fully accredited k-12 homeschool programs, while other supplemental programs like Demme Learning (Math) and New Life Fine Arts (Drama), and of course, Camp Constitution.  Also included among the vendors are homeschoolers that have their own businesses.

There are homeschool support groups in communities all over the United States where homeschool parents and their children get together on a regular basis for classes, listen to guest instructors, take field trips, learn to dance, play sports, and hold graduation ceremonies.   Contrary to the myth that homeschooled children are sheltered, there is plenty of interaction with other homeschooled students as well as adults.  Indeed, it has been my experience that homeschooled children interact with adults far better than their government school counterparts.

I will mention a few which I recommend with info from their websites:

Freedom Project Academy:

Freedom Project Academy offers a fully accredited, Classical education for Kindergarten through High School. FPA is rooted firmly in the Judeo-Christian values as promoted in the Constitution by our Founding Fathers, who strove to guarantee the preservation of our God-given liberties. Our live classes are delivered online through interactive classrooms to students in all 50 states and a dozen foreign countries, serving missionary and military families overseas.

Freedom Project Partnership teams up with churches and private schools to stream Judeo-Christian classes into brick-and-mortar classrooms across the country. This allows for the rapid expansion of faith-based schools across the nation as the Freedom Project provides all class instruction, assignments, tests, and grading needed to help schools stay on budget. What better way to restore American values than to bring the worlds of faith and education together again?

      https://fpeusa.org/

 

 

Ron Paul Academy:

A student who goes through this curriculum, kindergarten through high school, will have a mastery of the foundations of liberty. There is no other curriculum on the Web to match it.

It does not assign printed textbooks. This saves families a lot of money. Textbooks cost a great deal of money. Almost all of the materials are free: toner and paper only. Only when the materials are copyrighted and time-sensitive — modern business and modern literature — do parents pay for books.

The curriculum is mostly self-taught. If a student gets stuck, he can get help from other students in the course Communities. Students serve as tutors for each other. They learn by teaching, which is a great way to master any new field.

This curriculum teaches students how to write. The teachers in the social sciences and humanities at the high school level have Ph.D. degrees. They are both successful writers. They are both successful businessmen. They will teach your children how to write effectively and fast.

Students start writing in the fourth grade. They do not stop until they finish their final courses. I doubt that they will ever stop.

Every student is asked to set up at least one website. Their weekly papers must be posted on their sites. This is crucial for self-education: public visibility. Students can see what the competition is doing. Most students hate this aspect of the curriculum, but it forces them to do their best with their writing assignments. Parents have an obligation to see to it that their children post their weekly papers. This is the #1 educational task for parents.

The curriculum centers around weekly essays. Parents should read them. If they want to grade them, that’s fine. If they don’t, that’s also fine. But parents had better insist that their children post URL links to their posted weekly essays. These links must be posted on the course forums.

No student who gets through this curriculum will ever need to be nagged to get through college, graduate school, or a career. This curriculum teaches self-discipline. This is a crucial personal habit. It is mostly internal. It develops after years of working in an environment that requires self-discipline.

For students who hustle, they will enter college as juniors. They will quiz out of their first two years of college for about $2,500 total (today’s money, of course). They will get into the workforce as college graduates two years before their peers do.

The man who teaches the public speaking course in grade 9 and the history and literature courses for grades 6 through 8 graduated from an accredited college on his 18th birthday. He paid for his own college education by working part-time in his own home business. It cost him under $12,000. It can be done. I recommend it.

If you are a parent, this should get your attention. I think students should also be motivated. (I am assuming that students want to get out of school fast.)  https://www.ronpaulcurriculum.com

Liberty University Online Academy:

Have you always dreamed of sending your child to private school but felt like you didn’t have a flexible and affordable option? At Liberty University Online Academy (LUOA), you can provide your student with the best of homeschool, private school, and Bible-based education all rolled into one!

Our high-quality K-12 curriculum can be completed from the comfort of your home — so you can work schooling around your life, not the other way around. Additionally, we offer a vast array of resources that are designed to help your student succeed — and to make your job as a homeschooling parent a little easier.

Partner with us and give your student the tools they need to succeed!   https://www.liberty.edu/lp/online-academy

 

 

Abeka:

You want methods and materials that work. That’s what you’ll find with Abeka—a comprehensive, quality curriculum and materials written from a Christian perspective. Now more than ever, each child needs a strong foundation in both academics and character.

We’re here to help homeschooling families, and Christian schools of all sizes give their students the knowledge and skills they need.

For over forty years, schools and homeschooling families have trusted Abeka to provide materials using the traditional approach proven successful throughout education’s history. Professionally illustrated textbooks and teaching aids, hands-on activities, challenging exercises, and our Spiral Learning approach with purposeful repetition and reinforcement of concepts from subject to subject give you all the tools you need to make learning interesting and memorable.

You can choose Abeka with confidence; each subject’s content comes from the work of skilled, dedicated scholars who have conducted primary research. See your students achieve the academic excellence and moral character that leave them equipped for life, just like over one million children developing into lifelong learners with Abeka.  https://www.abeka.com

 The Samuel Blumenfeld Archive:

While not an accredited entity, I  recommend the  Samuel Blumenfeld Archive hosted by Camp Constitution http://blumenfeld.campconstitution.net/main.htm. It contains the works of the late homeschool pioneer Samuel Blumenfeld, who was a dear friend and mentor of mine. It offers, among other things, a free online phonics reading course with all 128 lessons available in audio and video, a cursive writing course, and a basic arithmetic course.  It also contains most of the books, articles, and newsletters authored by Sam as well as dozens of Sam’s lectures in audio and video.

 

It is my earnest prayer that conservative media, both local and national, help promote and support the flourishing homeschool movement.

 

The post Many Think That the Government Schools Are Salvageable.  I Have to Respectfully Disagree. appeared first on Granite Grok.

NOAA’s July update is out, and the first thing I checked was the statewide average precipitation. We got a lot of rain in July of 2023. The statewide average was 8.61 inches, more than double the 100-year average. But it did not set a record.

New Hampshire got 10.61 inches of rain in July 2015 and 10.58 inches in 2021. And yes, your local total might be higher or lower. Some parts got more, others less. And while it was a lot, it wasn’t unprecedented or historically exceptional. Half the years in the past two decades have been below the mean, the other half above. It’s almost as if there’s some natural cycle to it all, eh?

 

 

Rain happens in July, and so does drought, but July in the Granite State has been wetter in more recent years than not.

The other story that dominated the media was the heat. We were boiling in July. It was hot. Summer is like that sometimes. The hottest time of the year, actually. The 100-year average temperature for New Hampshire in July is 66.9 Deg F. July 2023 was 70.4 F. It was hotter in 1921, 1955, 2013, and 2020.

Maximum temps in the Granite State were less impressive. While above the 100-year mean of  78.8 – July 2023, 80.2 – 26 previous Julys had higher maximum temperature averages than 2023.

 

 

July was wet but not the wettest and hot but not the hottest.

 

The post It Was Not the Wettest July in NH History Nor the Hottest appeared first on Granite Grok.

The Pledge of Allegiance is wrong. These United States are not “one nation, indivisible.” They are a federation.

This may seem like semantical nitpicking, but it is an extremely important distinction that impacts how we understand the powers of the general government.

Black’s Law Dictionary explains the difference between a federal and a national government.

“A national government is a government of the people of a single state or nation, united as a community by what is termed the ‘social compact,’ and possessing complete and perfect supremacy over persons and things, so far as they can be made the lawful objects of civil government. A federal government is distinguished from a national government by its being the government of a community of independent and sovereign states, united by compact.”

James Madison made a similar distinction when he explained the nature of the constitutional system in Federalist #39.

It appears, on one hand, that the Constitution is to be founded on the assent and ratification of the people of America, given by deputies elected for the special purpose; but, on the other, that this assent and ratification is to be given by the people, not as individuals composing one entire nation, but as composing the distinct and independent States to which they respectively belong. It is to be the assent and ratification of the several States, derived from the supreme authority in each State, the authority of the people themselves. The act, therefore, establishing the Constitution, will not be a national, but a federal act.

“Each State, in ratifying the Constitution, is considered as a sovereign body, independent of all others, and only to be bound by its own voluntary act. In this relation, then, the new Constitution will, if established, be a federal, and not a national constitution.”

The most important distinction between a national and a federal system is where sovereignty lies. In a national system, sovereignty (final or supreme authority) resides in the nation as a whole. As Alexander Hamilton explained in Federalist #32, “An entire consolidation of the States into one complete national sovereignty would imply an entire subordination of the parts.” In other words, the states would be subservient to the general government and the powers left to each state would be subject to “the general will.”

But Hamilton went on to say that this wasn’t the plan of the convention that created the Constitution. Instead, the framers intended to create a “partial union or consolidation.”

“The State governments would clearly retain all rights of sovereignty which they before had, and which were not, by that act, exclusively delegated to the United States.”

In simplest terms, in a national system, the nation itself is the fundamental political society. In a federal system, each member state is an independent political society that retains its sovereignty and authority. They only give up the power they delegated to the general government. And ultimately, they can take that power back as well.

DELEGATED POWERS

In practice, power is divided and wielded much differently in a national vs a federal system.

In a national system, power isn’t divided at all. The central government exercises total authority and control. Smaller political units such as counties or cities are subservient to the general government. They exist and operate only with the blessing of the central authority and can only exercise powers given to them by the national government.

In a federal system, each member state maintains all authority that wasn’t specifically delegated to the general government. The central authority exists and operates only with the blessing of the member states and it can’t exercise any power not delegated to it.

James Madison outlined the division of powers in the Constitutional system in Federalist #45. He said the powers delegated to the federal government are “few and defined.” Those remaining in the state governments are “numerous and indefinite.”

St. George Tucker wrote the first systematic commentary on the Constitution. He explained the division of powers this way.

“[Federal] jurisdiction extends to certain enumerated objects, only, and leaves to the several states a residuary and inviolable sovereignty over all other objects.”

In one of the first significant speeches in support of ratifying the Constitution, James Wilson emphasized the federated nature of the proposed system, saying that federal power would not come from “tacit implication.” Instead, power would be collected from “the positive grant expressed in the instrument of the union,” and he insisted that every power “not given” by the states to the general government would be “reserved.”

In practice, the federal government can only exercise powers listed in the Constitution. If a power isn’t on the list, the feds can’t exercise it. That power remains with the states and the people.

This division of power is implicit in the way the Constitution was drafted. The fact that they listed specific federal powers logically excludes any powers not on this list. This is a legal principle —Designato unius est exclusio alterius — meaning, “the designation of one is the exclusion of the other.”

Alexander Hamilton confirmed this reading of the Constitution in Federalist #83.

“This specification of particulars [the 18 enumerated powers of Article I, Section 8] evidently excludes all pretension to a general legislative authority, because an affirmative grant of special powers would be absurd as well as useless if a general authority was intended.”

People who fail to understand the difference between a national and a federal government will tend to assume the central authority has far more power than it does.

 

Mike Maharrey | The Tenth Amendment Center

The post America isn’t “One Nation” and that Matters appeared first on Granite Grok.

Test scores in our public schools have been plummeting for years. The COVID Pandemic and remote learning definitely exacerbated the rate of decline. The number of students graduating from high school reading at the elementary school level is embarrassing but also harmful to the future of these students. We are failing our students and, therefore, their future security and earning potential. We have failed ourselves.

This year will bring a new challenge to our educational system. Thousands of children of illegal immigrants will attend schools in every county nationwide. These children will be challenged by language and customs. They will have tremendous issues fitting into a foreign system, and they will be dragging down the results of the entire class. Frustration and failure will heighten the dropout rates, and many of these students will opt for gangs for their future. Nobody wins in this scenario.

Teacher shortages are at an all-time high, meaning classroom sizes need to increase, and students will get less individual attention. The quality of teachers is also lower as the pool of available teachers is too small to meet demand. Everyone that graduates finds a position whether they are qualified or not.

It gets worse. The federal government has lost over 85,000 illegal migrant children of school age. They came across the border and were processed. They were transported to the supposed sponsors’ addresses, which did not exist. They fell through the cracks of the bureaucracy and are now lost. They do not appear in the system. Many of these children will end up in the sex trade or be sold as cheap labor. There is nothing compassionate about the broken Biden Border. It does not exist.

The Teacher’s union’s reaction to this quandary is to ask for more pay and a four-day school week. There is no logic to these demands and their impact on the education process. These demands are the union seeing the shortage of teachers and seizing the opportunity to enhance their way of life and wealth. They do not consider the well-being of the students left behind. Nearly 900 school districts have shifted to 4-day weeks. Schools that have already moved to a shorter week have seen a disproportionate drop in scores. This model may be suitable for teacher recruiting, but certainly not for the students. Everyone would love more time to spend at home with their families, but we must remember that teachers only work 180 days per year. More time off is not what they need. It is all about power and opportunity.

We have completely lost our way with our educational system. We know that the focus has been on indoctrination rather than education, and the falling test scores can quantify this. But the ruling class was not satisfied with indoctrination and wanted to take control of our children. Teachers should have been educators but instead chose to be mentors, and they did not want the parents in the conversation. They replaced the ABCs with CRT, BLM, LGBTQ, and ESG, none of which will prepare our children for their future.

Two things we can do to reverse this hellacious trend are to do away with the Department of Education and bring control of schools back to the local level. The other is to break up the Teacher’s Union. They have become dangerously powerful, and their focus is purely on the Teacher and not the student. This focus has to change before we lose an entire generation of children.

The post With Test Scores Falling, Is Less School The Answer appeared first on Granite Grok.

Everyone will agree that the bathroom is a place where safety should never be compromised! Traditional bathtubs can become a significant hazard for many seniors, people with mobility challenges, or those recovering from injuries. Enter the walk-in bath, a revolutionary solution that not only enhances safety but also offers a luxurious and relaxing bathing experience. But what exactly are walk-in baths, anyway? Here’s everything you need to know about walk-in baths – and why they can transform your bathroom into a safe and comfortable haven.

What are they?

Walk-in baths are specially designed bathtubs with a built-in door allowing easy entry and exit without needing to step over a high ledge. These baths have become increasingly popular due to their safety features and convenience, and they are equipped with features like non-slip surfaces, grab bars, and contoured seating to ensure utmost safety during bathing.

Enhanced safety for seniors and individuals with mobility challenges

One of the primary reasons why you should consider a walk in bath is the safety it provides, especially for seniors and individuals with limited mobility. Traditional bathtubs can be a breeding ground for slips and falls, leading to serious injuries. But walk-in baths eliminate the need for stepping over high barriers, significantly reducing the risk of accidents. With strategically placed grab bars and anti-slip surfaces, users can maintain stability and independence while bathing.

The therapeutic benefits

Aside from the safety aspect, walk-in baths also offer a range of therapeutic benefits. For instance, many models have hydrotherapy and air jets that provide soothing massages, alleviating muscle tension and promoting relaxation. These therapeutic features can be especially beneficial for individuals with arthritis, joint pain, or other physical ailments.

Space and style

Contrary to the notion that walk-in baths are bulky and unattractive, modern designs are sleek and sophisticated, fitting seamlessly into any bathroom décor! Manufacturers today understand the need for space optimization and offer various sizes and configurations to suit different bathrooms. In addition, walk-in baths are available in various materials and finishes, allowing homeowners to maintain their bathroom’s aesthetic appeal.

Easy installation

Some may worry that installing a walk-in bath requires extensive renovations, but the reality is quite the opposite. Most walk-in baths are designed to fit in the same space as your existing bathtub, making installation hassle-free. Professional plumbers can efficiently install the new bath, minimizing disruption and ensuring a smooth transition to a safer bathing experience for everyone in your family!

Financial considerations

While walk-in baths offer numerous benefits, some may be concerned about the cost. It is essential to weigh the expenses against the long-term benefits and increased safety they provide. Additionally, many manufacturers and organizations offer financial assistance or grants for home modifications aimed at enhancing accessibility and safety for seniors and individuals with disabilities.

Walk-in baths are an excellent investment for anyone seeking to create a safe and comfortable bathroom environment. With their emphasis on safety, therapeutic benefits, and space optimization, these baths can transform your bathing routine into a relaxing and secure experience. Whether you are a senior, a person with mobility challenges, or simply value safety in your home, a walk-in bath could be the perfect addition to your bathroom. So, why wait? Take the first step toward a safer bathroom and explore the world of walk-in baths today.

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Almost as soon as Obama uttered those fateful words “We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America,” we have been undergoing a cultural and political revolution without a shot being fired.  And most of us never knew what was coming – or did.

The phrase “Dense Pack” came into popular usage by us on the Right to describe how many things, via Executive Order and legislation passed by Democrat majorities in the US House and Senate, started to change not just our laws but our cultures as well. Obamacare was one, and the effective takeover of the automakers and dealers was another large item.

To me, we are approaching the tipping point; we haven’t already slid to the downside. Van Jones, Obama’s openly Communist friend, and advisor, infamously told us all what was going to happen: “Top Down, Bottom Up, and Inside Out.” And having lived through Obama’s two terms and now believing that Obama is the Puppetmaster behind the Resolute Desk’s chair, it’s clear that the Left hates the America founded by patriots that pledged their lives, honor, and fortunes.

We now see the New Left’s goal all along, in ruling vs. governing, was to destroy it. After all, that’s what the Left does – and too many people haven’t realized it yet.

Victor Davis Hanson, however, among the luminary thinkers on the Right, has a must-read column: “The Remaking of America (Every aspect of American life and culture is under assault).”

We are in the midst of one of the most radical revolutions in American history. It is as far-reaching and dangerous as the turbulent years of the 1850s and 1860s or the 1930s. Every aspect of American life and culture is under assault, including the very processes by which we govern ourselves, and the manner in which we live.

The Revolution began under the Obama administration that sought to divide Americans into oppressed and oppressors, and then substitute race for class victimization. It was empowered by the bicoastal wealth accrued from globalization, and honed during the COVID lockdown, quarantine-fed economic downturn, and the George Floyd riots and their aftermath. The Revolution was boosted by fanatic opposition to the presidency of Donald Trump. And the result is an America that is unrecognizable from what it was a mere decade ago.

Here are 10 upheavals that the Left has successfully wrought.

And he goes on to list the ten items and why these are being turned into cudgels. I’ll list them here but suggest that you go and read the narratives for each. In the aggregate, it is a long read, but with the normal VDH delivery, it is chockful of items, even with his minimalist but plain-speaking style.  In order:

Free expression. In large swatches of American society—particularly the corporation, the media, the government, the public schools, and the university—it is suddenly dangerous to speak freely.

The Weaponization of Justice. …But in the last decade, the Left has viewed the Department of Justice as a political extension of the party—whose unchecked power must properly be directed to hurt enemies and help friends…

The Attack on the Supreme Court. Once the Court achieved a more or less predictable conservative majority, the Left sought to diminish it in a variety of ways…

The Media-Democratic Fusion. …In sum, for the first time in American history, nearly all the major communication and journalistic networks have been fused with a political party. They believe the new role of the media is to advance a shared…

The Destruction of Common Law. By defunding the police in major cities, and by showering leftwing district attorney candidates with millions of dollars in campaign funding, the Left systematically eroded the law as we know it in our major cities…In sum, in blue states and at the federal level, leftwing prosecutors and justices decide to enforce or ignore statutes, pile up or reduce indictments, increase or decrease punishments not on what the law entails, or evidence directs, but on the race, class, or ideology of the perpetrator, usually in connection with the particular status of his victims. If asymmetry in race, class, or ideology is suggested, then the law must modulate in redistributive fashion to contextualize the crime and criminal as a victim rather than a victimizer. The result is the veritable destruction of law and order as we once knew it.

The Erosion of the Military. Rarely has the American people polled so little confidence in the U.S. military. It perceives the Pentagon mission largely one to greenlight social change through the rapidity of the chain of command, not necessarily to maintain deterrence, much less to win all its wars…

Sexes. The heterosexual male and female, marriage, and the nuclear family are all to be suspect. There are three sexes or perhaps still more. English language pronouns are inadequate to reflect sexual diversity.

Race, Not Class. Racial inequality and lack of parity are due to “whiteness.” Racial quotas, segregated dorms, graduations, workshops, and safe spaces are exempt from civil rights statutes given they are necessary to achieve equity…

Debt is a Construct. Modern monetary theory proved that annual deficits and national debt are just a state accounting challenge. So printing more money is an act that properly diminishes the value of existing capital improperly horded by parasitic profiteers…

Universities. …So the role of a university is to create a brief safe space in which graduates can leave with proper training about the terrible history of the United States and the ways in which it must be dismantled and then be rebuilt by the properly trained experts from the ground up. Counterrevolutionaries or deluded liberals and their quaint adherence to a racist and archaic Bill of Rights have no place on these islands of progressive resistance.

 

None of the above was true at the millennium; all are now—with more still to come.

And they are succeeding using their foundational tactic – “Don’t like the results, change the game.” Often this means redefining our common language – certainly, our norms and mores have been attacked. After all, when the Left can get a substantial minority (perhaps, soon, a majority??) to believe that sex can be anything you want, severing it from Reality, we’re goners.

 

(H/T: American Greatness)

 

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The list of things that consensus experts on climate got wrong continues to grow, and it’s gotten so bad some of them can’t bear it. Polar bears, actually. Back when it was global warming, they were doomed, and it was your fault. Guess what?

Related: The Polar Bear Population has Increased 600% Despite Mann-Made Al-Gore Warming

The only polar bears you can’t find are the ones they used to put on cans of Coca-Cola. The real deal is not only doing fine; they are thriving regardless of how much sea ice there is or its thickness.

If you recall, thinning ice – which has also been a consistently inconsistent loser of a prediction for the Consensus Cult – was a predictor of doom for the polar bear. Progressives from every corner declared them endangered, and the climate criers went out among the people. You did this and must repent. No modernity for you. We will take your cheap energy and your right to travel and reduce you to huddled masses yearning to be free.

The bears, they just kept doing their thing, which has been going on a lot longer than the politicization of the weather. If you recall, we’ve shared reports of extreme warmth, little ice, and even arboreal forests in northern Greenland, all throughout Earth’s not-that-distant history. None of that had anything to do with you, and the polar bears, wherever they were, didn’t give a damn, so neither should you.

Or maybe it did.

What if increased CO2 and less dense sea ice or its absence is actually good for polar bear populations?  Or was it opportunists using fraud to enrich themselves and attract undeserved attention?

 

” … far from being “accidental”, polar bear specialists (and Ian Stirling in particular) used the fledgling global warming agenda for their own ends: they employed emotionally manipulative narratives about starving and dying animals to boost funding for their field and ensure their job security. Polar bear specialists fed the climate change beast by providing it with an icon, and then sat back to reap the rewards. I have no doubt Ian Stirling knew exactly what the media and climate activists would do with that short documentary for the CBC back in 1999.”

 

So, consensus scientists are really just politicians and should be treated like them with the understanding that they are more difficult to dislodge, especially when actual politicians keep giving them a platform for their fraud because it advances a particular agenda.

 

 

HT | WUWT

 

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I can’t remember that far back as to when I last played whiffle ball. I do remember, vaguely, that I wasn’t enamored with it – I wasn’t all that good at it.  So normally when a video of guys playing whiffle ball shows up in my feed, it’s swipe left. However, Mark Roper as you can see above. It’s always about the over-engineering to either prove a point or just have fun (and usually both).

You can go to 11:57 if you’re a bit short of time to see how he did the work displayed above. Watching the previous video shows him reliving his “youngster whiffle glory days” only to become completely humiliated when he decided to take his boasting to a Pro Whiffle Ball game and step into the box and onto the mound (yes, there is a “professional league”).

And that meant that a whole bunch of engineering (and the application of my maxim of “Learn the System, Exploit the System) that brought me a bunch of chuckles!

(H/T: YouTube)

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