If a NHGOP-Establishment candidate wins a primary, the mantra will be “UNITY.” For example, if Mowers wins the CD-1 primary we will be told over-and-over-and-over again … by the same voices who refused to support Trump in 2016 and 2020 … that all that matters now is defeating Chris Pappas, that Mowers may not have been your first choice but we have to focus on what UNTES us not what divides us, UNITY, UNITY, UNITY.

EMPTY WORDS … because Sun-King Sununu and his cronies have no intention of supporting Don Bolduc if he is the nominee. Indeed, Sununu’s left-brain, Paul Collins, said as much, without directly saying so, when asked by NH-NeverTrump Journal, if Sununu would support Bolduc:

Granite State Republican insiders tell NHJournal the governor’s brutal attacks on Bolduc mean it is all but certain he will endorse in the race. “How can you say the front-runner isn’t acceptable and then sit on the sidelines and watch him win?” one NHGOP insider said.

So, would Sununu back Bolduc if he becomes the party’s nominee to take on Sen. Maggie Hassan, another target of the governor’s attacks?

“As he always has, the Governor plans to support the republican ticket in November,” said Sununu senior advisor Paul Collins.

Collins could have said YES. He didn’t. Collins could have said that Sun-King will support the nominee. He didn’t. “Support[ing] the Republican ticket in November” is Establishment-speak for Sununu and his cronies have NO intention of supporting Bolduc. They just can’t say so directly because that would make it difficult to preach UNITY if their candidates win in CD-1 and CD-2.

By the way, this is NOT an endorsement of Bolduc. I haven’t decided if or how I’ll vote, but if I were to vote right now it would likely be for Fenton. And, to be clear, this is NOT an endorsement of Fenton either.

The post If Sun-King Sununu Doesn’t Have To Support The Nominees … Why Should You? appeared first on Granite Grok.

Tim Baxter is running for NH’s Congressional District 1, and he participated in the Government Integrity Project’s (GIP) debate for that office this past weekend (link here, debate begins at 51:40).

That was followed up with an interview last night with the GIP’s Ken Eyring and Tom Murray.

Eyring and Murray found Baxter to be a confident, thoughtful, personable, and well-spoken individual who says what he means and means what he says… something that is sorely missing in Congress.

“Increasingly, the vote for Speaker is not only the first vote, the most important… but it’s almost the only vote that matters. And that’s because the Speakership in Congress, which is suppose to be the people’s branch – it’s really run like a dictatorship unfortunately. There’s no amendments, there’s no Bills that are voted on unless the Speaker of the House consents to it.

“The vote for Speaker is not just about getting a conservative, but about getting someone who isn’t corrupt in office, and that’s why I am so strongly against Kevin McCarthy for Speaker.”

Related: Now I Know Why Matt Mowers is Hiding in His Basement Like Joe Biden

When Baxter was asked how he would cast his vote for Speaker, he said Chip Roy or Andy Biggs, and added he keeps hearing the name Andy Biggs from the people who are steadfast on voting against McCarthy.

Later on in the interview, he said,

“The GIP debate was really important for me because it allowed me to distinguish myself from [Karoline] Leavitt.”

“If you are someone who considers yourself a fighter or a Constitutionalist… most of those people are probably deciding between us two.”

“That was really important that I could distinguish myself. We’re running an ad with it now. It’s been on national television that exchange multiple times so, that debate might be more important than the WMUR for me.”

Here is that exchange:

My RINO opponent @kleavittnh is LYING to the people of New Hampshire. She endorsed @GOPLeader and he still wouldn't endorse her. SAD! pic.twitter.com/QvymYZo9BS

— Tim Baxter (@TimBaxterNH) August 17, 2022

Tim Baxter has the receipts regarding how he would represent NH,

“My record as a State Representative has been fighting for the Constitution. I have 100% with the HRA which is NH’s constitutional group. You swore an oath when you become a member of Congress, you swear an oath to the Constitution, not to the swamp.”

The fact that Baxter has a proven voting record is meaningful. Voters have an opportunity to review how he has represented NH in the statehouse – which is an excellent indicator of how he would represent NH in Washington.”

Here is Tim’s interview with the GIP co-founders:

There will be at least three more CD-1 debates before the September 13th GOP Primary: Jack Heath (Radio) this coming Tuesday, WMUR a week before the election, followed two days later by Chris Ryan on the radio.

There are good candidates running for the GOP CD-1 nomination. Baxter is clearly one of them.

 

The post CD-1 Candidate Tim Baxter: Why the Vote for Speaker of the House is “Almost the Only Vote That Matters” appeared first on Granite Grok.

The political Left has been obsessed with population control since before Hitler. From contraception to wage and job antics to actual castration preventing lesser persons from procreating is a hallmark of the progressive pursuit of Utopia. Gender-affirming surgery looks to me to be more of the same.

This strange cult has one major sponsor—the ideological descendants of the progressive social engineers. And what better way to hollow out the gene pool than by creating a cultural concept (Gender spectrum), a legal protection framework (gender rights), and a clinical process (gender-affirming surgery) that is defended as if it were a hill on which to die (as long as it is someone else doing the dying).

The machine uses its monopoly on education to effectively mind-f*** other people’s kids into thinking they are the opposite sex and then insists it is a natural right to allow the same machine to mutilate and disfigure them with chemicals or surgery.

Culture and peer pressure create an army of parents with Munchehasuen by proxy who just go along with it. Others are undermined by a system intent on separating future generations from their parents for strictly political reasons.

Anyone who objects is a hater, a bigot, guilty of discrimination, and pilloried in public for objecting to the propagandizing and mutilation of children.

Millions of lives could be affected. A culling of the masses and at least a few others, all of whom are simply proving themselves unworthy by how easily they are convinced by people who will genealogically inherit the earth.

Many, perhaps a majority of those modified, we’ll eventually commit suicide resulting in a body count that may one day make genocidal authoritarians like Hilter, Mao, and Stalin look like pikers.

 

 

The post Social Engineering: “Gender Affirming Surgery” is Just The Left Legalizing Castration appeared first on Granite Grok.

We love to use euphonism in this country. These terms are carefully crafted to hide the true intention of a more horrific act. Reproductive Rights is one of my favorites. It sounds like the protection of a mother to conceive and deliver a newborn. But, no, Reproductive Rights give a pregnant woman the authority to end her pregnancy by killing her unborn fetus.

A new euphonism to surface is Gender-Affirming Care sounds so innocent. You would think this is giving support to children who may be questioning their sexual identity. But, no, Gender-Affirming Care is the sexual mutilation of children to facilitate their conversion to their opposite gender.

Boston Children’s Hospital is well respected worldwide medical center, but to hear they had performed 65 double mastectomies on teenagers between 2017-2020. They did not hide this service but promoted Hysterectomy and Phalloplasty procedures for children who wanted to transition. When criticism appeared on Twitter and TicToc, the hospital denied the services were offered and called their detractors guilty of Stochastic Terrorism.

Billboard Chris is the father of two teenage girls and has made it his mission to bring attention to the sexual mutilation procedures in America. He is also bringing attention to the use of puberty blockers on children at age ten and surgery at seventeen. Chris walks in front of hospitals that offer these services wearing sandwich-board signs with anti-Gender-Affirming Care messages. He is doing this to protect his daughters and everyone else’s children from these medical monsters.

Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) is not afraid to take a stand and can take the heat. She has presented a bill called the Protect Children’s Innocence Act. This bill would charge anyone performing a physical changing procedure to transition a minor to a Class C Felony. You would think this is a slam-dunk, especially with all Republicans, but Taylor Greene has only managed to secure five co-sponsors. This apprehension makes no sense and may be evidence of the pressure on politicians from the medical industry. These elected representatives have to understand the purpose of their office. Representing our children’s safety is paramount, and nothing is more pressing today than the assault on the born gender of our youth. As she says, we must protect kids from the monsters lurking under their beds.

This Gender-Affirming Care is an extension of the indoctrination of our children by the Department of Education. This is not a gray area, but it is black and white. Educators must teach, and medical professionals must keep our children healthy and whole. The assault on our children has to stop. Our reps must have their feet held to the fire until they own up to their responsibilities. If they have no concern for the young, they deserve to be removed from their office. We cannot procrastinate as a generation, and our future is in jeopardy.

 

 

 

 

The post End Gender-Affirming Care Now appeared first on Granite Grok.

Salem has a 13 for 9 primary, the second largest (after Derry) of all towns. Sadly not a single one of the candidates has an excellent voting record. Four have records that are average, neither bad nor good. One has a mediocre-poor record, and one has a terrible record.

Doucette, Janigian, Sweeney, and Vandecasteele are midstream Republicans – their scores are right around the middle of the pack. John Sytek’s record has been mediocre to poor. 80% of Republicans have scored better. But his record is not nearly as bad as Betty Gay’s.

We want to thank Spec Bowers for this Op-Ed. Please direct yours to Editor@GraniteGrok.com.

In the 2019-2020 biennium, Gay voted with Democrats against Republicans 88 times, which ranked her 2nd (behind only Dan Wolf) as the worst Republican of the term. In 2017-18, she voted wrong 76 times, which was worse than 92% of all Republicans. Her 2021-22 term was better but still worse than 87% of Republicans.

Here are some highlights (lowlights?) of her career.

Bad votes by Gay, Betty (R, Salem) Parental Control     voted FOR restricting parental choice ( 2021 HB251 ) Cost of Living     voted AGAINST lower energy rates ( 2018 HB592 )     voted AGAINST reducing electric rates ( 2019 HB477 )     voted FOR an income tax ( 2018 HB628, 2018 HB628 )     voted FOR higher rooms tax ( 2018 HB1609 ) Constitutional Rights     voted AGAINST repealing a never-used and unconstitutional infringement on free speech ( 2019 HB124 )     voted AGAINST right to keep and bear arms ( 2021 SB141, 2021 SB141 )     voted FOR confiscating guns from law-abiding citizens without any due process ( 2019 HB696, 2019 HB696 )     voted FOR restricting property rights ( 2021 HB177, 2021 HB177 ) Other     voted AGAINST allowing schools to display the national and state mottos ( 2021 HB69 )     voted AGAINST prohibiting sex change surgery for minors ( 2018 HB1532 )     voted FOR banning plastic straws ( 2020 HB1472 )     voted FOR banning styrofoam cups ( 2020 HB1564 On all of these votes at least 80% – in most cases more than 90% – of Republicans voted the other way.

The post RINO Report: Betty Gay appeared first on Granite Grok.

In 2006, I ran in the Republican primary for US House of Reps, against Charlie Bass. Charlie won, but then he lost to the Democrat, Paul Hodes. In 2008, Jennifer Horn ran against Paul Hodes and lost, and then, in 2010, she ran against Charlie Bass and lost in the primary.

Eventually Horn became chair of the NH Republican State Committee.

On December 17, 2020, Ms. Horn announced that she was leaving the Republican Party. She said: “Today’s Republican Party cannot co-exist with the ideal that we know America can be.”  Her video on YouTube that day got a wide range of comments. For example, this one from a lady in Oklahoma:

We want to thank Mary Maxwell for this Op-Ed. Please direct yours to Editor@GraniteGrok.com.

“I have four dogs that I love and they love me back. Whenever I catch them doing something wrong, all I have to do is ask who did it and the guilty one will react with what appears to be remorse and or shame, something Trump or the GOP seem incapable of doing.”

I will comment on that below, but first, here’s an odd remark made yesterday by The Lincoln Project. (I’m not sure it’s the same organization that Jennifer Horn co-founded.)

“Tonight [August 16, 2022], the nation marks the end of the Republican Party. What remains shares the name and branding of the traditional GOP, but is in fact an authoritarian nationalist cult dedicated only to Donald Trump. Liz Cheney stood up to the lawless, reckless attack on our nation led by Donald Trump … and risked and lost her political career as a Republican.

“The Wyoming GOP, supported by millions of corporate dollars from Kevin McCarthy, nominated a reality-denying conspiracy theorist who promotes the “Big Lie.” [Liz Cheney] remains an essential leader of the pro-democracy forces in the United States ….”

Needless to say, I disagree that the Jan 6 Invasion was “led by” Donald Trump. (Anybody can see who really staged it.) And I disagree that The Big Lie is a conspiracy theory — all elections can be software’d if someone has enough drive to do it.

As for the Lincoln Project’s remark that Liz Cheney “is a leader of the pro-democracy forces,” well, please, it should not be dignified with a rebuttal.

Now to the Oklahoma dog owner. Her dogs have enough — whatever — to sense when they are wrong. Clearly, Donald Trump doesn’t have even a gram of that “whatever.” I am not too worried about this lack; his personality is easy to interpret — Trump has to be the Biggest and Best at all times.

But I take seriously the (dog-related) claim about the GOP’s inability to apologize when wrong. That behavior is a normal function of in-group loyalty. It is a problem for every group. Loyalty is an indispensable virtue for our success as a group (nation, club, family, profession, etc.). We praise a loyal person for his moral character, right?

But wait a minute! If loyalty makes one say that a policy of one’s Party, or profession, was good when it’s widely known to have been lousy, that’s clearly not helpful to the Party or the profession. Furthermore, the Enemy (you know whom I mean) will get an extra advantage by mocking the ill-placed loyalty.

I see this all the time. No one wants to be the first to say a negative word, as one will get a very dirty look for being disloyal.

Perhaps Republicans could hold a secret meeting in a sort of Faraday cage, where the chairman will ask members to “go over” some Republican mantras. Anyone who acts “stupidly loyal” will get a rap on the knuckles.

All in the family, all away from reporters.

Honest, I’m not saying the GOP line is in trouble. I think it’s great and am famously committed to it. But these are new times, and something brilliant could emerge if loyalty to the past could stop being the overarching criterion.

Isn’t that how history is made?

 

 

The post Lincoln Project Loves Liz !!! appeared first on Granite Grok.

You’re not ready to hear what I have to say. You’re not ready, we now live under a Communist regime– and I need you to get ready yesterday. The America that you grew up in is gone. The Republic is lost – there is no keeping it. There is only restoring it.

Don’t believe me? You elected a leader with, albeit very real flaws, a heart genuinely oriented towards the traditional American. Look what they’re doing to him. Look what they already did to him:

1. Two impeachments based on manufactured narratives requiring the cooperation of the nation’s vast intelligence apparatus (FBI, CIA, NSA, etc) interfacing directly with the Democrat party, and the many, many NGO’s that exist, effectively, as a fourth branch of government – all to neuter his ability to affect the changes you elected him to make.
2. His military officers – from colonels up to the joint chiefs – affected multiple military coups against him (and the nation) by separating him from his lawful role as commander in chief of the armed forces, repeatedly refusing lawful orders (such as to put down the deadly, Marxist BLM riots of 2020, and refusing to withdraw from mid-east conflict), coordinated directly with the enemy state of China to ensure he had effectively no control over the nuclear arsenal in his last weeks as POTUS. Milley even wrote a resignation letter of the “fall-on-the-sword” type in protest of his administration, but instead of submitting it he, per his own words, chose to remain in the position to resist official policy.

Now, he has been targeted for multiple criminal investigations, the most recent of which resulted in the armed raid of his own, which, properly viewed, represented yet another coup – this time against a possible future administration – over allegations that he is, legally, immunized from in his status as a former President: the espionage act simply does not apply.

Even if this weren’t a fishing expedition surrounding an unconstitutional “general warrant,” which it most certainly was, he cannot be tried per the Constitution – but that won’t stop them from trying, nor, likely, from convicting and imprisoning.

We want to thank Michael Belcher for this Op-Ed. Please direct yours to Editor@GraniteGrok.com.

However, Trump is not alone, nor is he unique. It was leaked within the last few weeks that DeSantis – the other likely 2024 GOP presidential contender – is under criminal investigation by the Department of (Social) Justice.

Neither Trump nor DeSantis is unique here. Even I, myself, had the FBI pay me an official visit requesting to interview me over an article I wrote last year. I am not unique, either. The FBI announced some time ago the intent to increase these “knock and talk” visits for the express purpose of chilling dissident speech.

Ladies and gentlemen, you are not ready to hear it even now, but you must get ready: we now live under a Communist regime.

That is what is meant by “equity,” don’t you know? Equity is not equality. It means the forced redistribution and synthesis of special Marxian properties (Capital, Whiteness, Normativity, Heterosexuality, Privilege). “Equity” is equivalent to Marx’s stage 5 of History (Socialism), which immediately precedes the arrival of the prophesied Communist heaven, Stage 6, or “Communism.” Of course, Communism has never been achieved because it’s impossible – stage 5 “Socialism” (Equity) is when they stack bodies into the millions trying. Stage 5 is where we are now in America.

You’re not ready, but I need you to be.

Your federal government, the leviathan, has been overthrown, its levers of power captured, and they will now be used against you. Why else do you think they need to assign over 80,000 more people, 5,000 more firearms, and 5,000,000 bullets to the IRS? Why else do they censor us across media while manufacturing blatantly false narratives about us? Why is a prosecutorial capacity being built out under the federal legislative branch under the immune-from-scrutiny Capitol Police agency? The answer is that they intend to target their political opposition with every official keystroke, signature, and trigger pull from here on out.

This is not a matter that can or will be resolved by a federal “red wave.” The rot is far, far too deep, too metastasized, and too symbiotic internationally to be undone by a traditionalist executive who will be thwarted at every attempt by the bureaucratic state and woke upper echelon of the officer corps. Nor will a weak legislature that has delegated its authorities to that same deep executive or a mostly politicized and in any way unarmed judiciary ride in to save us.

The Marxists are no longer revolutionaries. They won their revolution. They hold the castle. It is us who now must be counter-revolutionaries and lay siege to the captured institutions.

Mothers and fathers, they are stealing away your children. They are stealing them away ideologically through indoctrination, psychological manipulation under the scientized name of Social Emotional Learning, perverting them with falsehoods of gender and queer theories, racialist theories, and “critical” (Marxist) theories of all sorts in a modern incarnation of Mao’s child-led cultural revolution. These curricula, programs, and perversions are mandated by the federal government using their funding to hold our state hostage.

The train of abuses is long and varied. From the attempted estrangement of our personhood through violation of bodily autonomy, mandated medical experimentation, and restrictions on working, buying, and selling that stole away our ability to provide for our families, and undermined our dignity as made in the image of our creator through the State attempting to put itself as God, through perverting our children to separate them from their natural bonds of affection for family to theft by such excess taxation and debasement of our currency as to threaten us with hyperinflation, to zealously cultish agricultural policies that threaten a future famine, this beast has declared its intentions on you: destruction.

Ladies and gentlemen, this federal leviathan is an abject and total tyranny bringing you, your family, your neighbors, and your state under absolute arbitrary control.

This fact has grave and serious ramifications for how our state must interact with this higher-order political entity: it must take a fundamentally oppositional stance towards it. This state, and the several states broadly, must begin to enact necessary nullification and interposition on behalf of its citizens to protect them from the usurpers above. The State of New Hampshire, as a second sovereign – fully equal to the federal government in authority – must act to prevent the tyrannizing of New Hampshire citizens. It must act not only through permission, or self-determination, but through duty. If it fails in this duty, it fails the citizens of New Hampshire, and if it does fail them at this dangerous moment, as the Federal Republic has been rendered illegitimate, and as an enemy, it will leave it to the citizens themselves to enact self-defense. New Hampshire must not fail to act; it must not leave only terrible options to its citizens.

 

 

The post You’re Not Ready to Hear What I Have to Say … appeared first on Granite Grok.

 For a long time, the Union Leader has taken the side of the GOP Elitist wing of the Republican Party. A number of editorials have extolled the virtues of the “Moderate Republican” candidates. Many working-class voters have voted for these moderates, often times holding their noses while they full well knew the elitist political class was thumbing their noses at the Peasants.

We’ve long heard these very same politicians talk about their Democratic friends they work with in “bipartisan form,” getting screwed with each trade deal, each tax increase, and each new restriction on our freedoms.

When we talk about the “political establishment” or the “deep state,” we are poo-pooed with derision as far right or extreme right, spinning conspiracy theories and tinfoil hattery… Much of which comes from within the Grand Old Party.

Donald Trump brought clarity to what was happening in our politics. And it angered the establishment machine on both sides. They are all content to go to DC and become Millionaires and to hell with the rest of us.

If you notice one common thread, Trump’s campaign was clumsy at times, sloppy, and so was the management of his administration. Unlike administrations past, Trump did not have the machinery in place as the establishment candidates do. Everything we were supposedly happy about with prior administrations was mere Kabuki theater…a Potemkin Village if you will.  Non-political candidates don’t have the fortunes or connections to put on the establishment deep fake. 

There is nothing more galling or angering than the Political class losing its grip on the Republic. That is what we are seeing here.  When you saw the Union Leader endorse Joe Biden, that endorsement was a confirmatory act…Confirming for we the unwashed what we always suspected.

Don Bolduc has a commanding lead in the polls over the other political comers. Why is that if what the media says is true? Without big budgets and TV ads, Don somehow is making headway. I know Don Bolduc. Don Bolduc is able and capable. I am voting for Don Bolduc. 

Remember, Republicans hold office…Democrats hold power. When Trump was first elected, his own party did absolutely nothing. They did nothing under the leadership of Paul Ryan. They passed up volumes of opportunities for no other reason than to punish us for voting for that interloper Trump who stole their White House.

Donald Trump received 70 plus million votes in the last election. To these creatures, we are all stupid and gullible. What is lost on them is that our fortunes and successes are tied to the government creating an environment in which the working class can thrive. The Political Class and Pink-nosed snobs are not the least bit interested or concerned about the American Electorate. We are just a mere backdrop to their personal pursuits.

This is not about what is good for America. This is a Brendan McQuaid temper tantrum because he is not getting his own way. Look at the way things are right now and ask yourself: “If I support a candidate from the establishment class, are things going to change?”

While the patronage press and the faux conservative Union Leader call us all stupid, just keep one fact at the forefront: Given the state of our nation at present, The Union Leader did indeed endorse Joe Biden. There is no getting around that.

Don Bolduc is a threat to Maggie Hassan. She knows it. Her TV ads are lies. She gets all her money from outside of New Hampshire, and she votes with Joe Biden.  Remember that when you vote. And remember that the UL endorsed Joe Biden.

 

 

The post Biden-Endorsing Union Leader takes Shots At Don Bolduc appeared first on Granite Grok.

There is an idea that many people — but especially constitutional law students, who then go on to be public officials — have not been exposed to, which is that there is a proper order to the questions that should be asked when formulating public policy.

Normally those are the standard journalism questions: Who, what, where and when, why, and how?

But that list doesn’t contain the most important question of all, the one that always needs to be asked first: Whether?

That is, the idea of a constitution is to recognize that certain kinds of solutions to certain kinds of problems should simply never be considered. They should be taken off the table before the discussion of how to solve a problem even begins.

Sometimes that’s a question of rights:  Whatever you do, you can’t make people shut up or leave them defenseless.  Sometimes it’s a question of structure:  One branch of government can’t abdicate its responsibilities to another branch or usurp the power of another branch.

When you ignore that initial question — whether you have the power to do what you’re contemplating — you place the public in a peculiar position. They see that the Constitution forbids certain kinds of laws but also see that such laws are in effect.

How does this happen? There are lots of reasons, but the most basic one is that courts have given themselves the power to ignore the simple meanings of words like all and not and even and. This, in fact, makes it impossible to write a law that simply means what it says and that a citizen can understand simply by reading it.

For example, suppose the people decide to express, as a constitutional guarantee, the idea that anyone should be able to say absolutely anything without fear of punishment.  They might say something like Congress, and the states, shall pass no laws abridging freedom of speech.

The First and Fourteenth Amendments already say exactly this.  Clearly, it hasn’t been effective.

Here’s how Justice Hugo Black would have phrased it: Without deviation, without exception, without any ifs, buts, or wherases, the government shall not do something to people either for the views they have or the views they express or the words they speak or write.

But does anyone seriously believe that the courts wouldn’t find a way to ‘interpret’ this to mean whatever they want?

Contrast Black’s view with the view expressed by Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes:  We are under a Constitution, but the Constitution is what the judges say it is.

That is, the courts have taken what used to be a comical passage in children’s literature,

“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.”

and turned it in to a fundamental principle of jurisprudence.

Legislatures, emboldened by the approach of the courts, take advantage of it to treat the constitutional limits placed upon them as mere suggestions to the courts. Their approach becomes: Let’s pass whatever laws we want, and if the court doesn’t like them, it will strike them down, or just rewrite them.

This changes the very idea of public policy in a fundamental way.  What starts out as the idea that law is a way to organize society with the consent of those being organized, ends up as the idea that law is a way for whatever group happens to be in control of the machinery of government to impose its own preferences on everyone else.

And that means the policy of the public with respect to the law is to see law, not as something to be obeyed because it’s just, but as something to be ignored whenever possible because it’s unjust.

That the law is something to work around — an obstacle, instead of a guide — is normally the attitude that we associate with outlaws. The current approach to the regulation of things like guns, speech, education, gambling, recreational drug use, and so on has effectively turned everyone into an outlaw.

That is, by focusing on redefining words instead of rewriting sentences, both the federal and the state governments have undermined respect, not just for laws about guns, speech, drugs, and so on, but for all laws. For the very idea of law.

With respect to the 2nd Amendment in particular, this shift in public opinion regarding the law highlights the wisdom of forbidding government from ever having a monopoly on force.

The only position that allows the law to command the respect that it deserves is: If you want to regulate something, amend the Constitution to delegate that power to Congress, and then we can talk. Until then, any policy that infringes on the right to keep and bear arms should be off the table; and by placing it on the table anyway, you are destroying respect for the law, and ironically demonstrating why gun control laws, even if passed, should be ignored.

It’s easy to be distracted by discussions of things like statistics, public safety, and so on. Government officials who want to abridge rights spend a lot of time and effort pointing at individual trees. It’s the job of the people to keep looking at the forest by always coming back to the fundamental question of whether the government has been delegated the authority to carry out whatever proposal it’s considering.

And when considering that question, it’s a good idea to remember this important point:  You can’t delegate a power that you don’t have.  If you couldn’t do something yourself, or hire someone to do it, you can’t elect someone to do it, either.

So we’ve reached the point where it’s up to the outlaws to rein in the lawmakers.  How ironic is that?

 

The post A Nation of Outlaws appeared first on Granite Grok.

Here we are, about ten days removed from a couple of weeks of the “hottest temps ever” in NH, and proof positive of global warming. Except they weren’t, and aren’t, and now here on my back deck, the temp is 58 degrees on 8-18. It’s still August, so where is that global warming now?

If you ask me this is proof positive global warming is a hoax, then those buying into it are pretty darn dumb. It’s called weather!

Now, these are the same class of folks that buy into Maggie Hassan’s “I’m fighting to lower gas costs for the people of NH”, or “I’m an economics hawk bucking my own Party.” Some hawk, voting 98% of the time for Biden’s failures and disasters?

Want a U.S. Senator that will buck Biden and the Left? That man is Gen. Don Bolduc, who is from right here in Laconia, NH, and rose from Army private to Brigadier General and was wounded twice in combat in service to you and our nation. Now released from active military duty due to wounds suffered in combat, he now seeks only to serve us again as our next Senator from NH. Bolduc’s proven work ethic stands in stark contrast with the go-along-to-get-along Hassan, who has done nothing in all her years in DC to benefit people here in NH. People, Maggie Hassan, is for Maggie Hassan.

Now for all those people who were touting how Socialism is so fair, so much better than Capitalism, how do you like it now? Not even two full years of it, and we have seen failure after failure, disaster after disaster, with massive billions wasted, rampant inflation with no ends in sight, and corruption in nearly every federal government department and agency. Is this what you, the people, were promised or expected? If it is, you are in a small minority, and I think you know it.

The American people want change and want it at all levels of the Government: Federal, State, and local.

Another candidate I support is Lily Tang Williams, who is running for Congress in District 2 here in NH. Born in communist China, suffering the hardships of that totalitarian dictatorship, Ms. Williams escaped to America at the age of 24, speaking no English, rose to become a Law Professor, educator, professional speaker, entrepreneur, mother, and proud American.  Can anyone doubt her history and credentials are so far above her opponent,  Annie Küster, who is another do-nothing seat warmer, as to be laughable? Just surviving Mao’s cultural revolution was a miracle in itself. Her slogan, “I fear the country I love is becoming the country I left.” says it all.

I support and urge all readers to join me in supporting the two strongest candidates I can ever remember running for office here in NH. Don Bolduc and Lily Tang Williams both rose, by incredibly hard work and dedication, into the kind of fearless leaders that we need in this time of desperate need. Join me if you love America that the Left is trying to take from us and support and vote for these two great candidates.

 

 

The post A Personal Endorsement: Don Bolduc and Lily Tang Williams appeared first on Granite Grok.

Parents have been questioning Assistant Superintendent David Hobbs over a decision to hire a leftist political organization to train teachers. Seacoast Outright says that they are there to serve, support, and advocate for LGBTQ+ youth in the seacoast and beyond.

As a far-leftist political organization, they have teamed up with another Marxist political organization, Black Lives Matter. On their website it says, “Seacoast Outright stands in solidarity with Black Lives Matter.”  Under the leadership of Superintendent Meredith Nadeau, the district is going full steam ahead with training led by Seacoast Outright.

As someone who has been involved in the political process for many years, I fully respect political organizations that advocate for their cause. That’s the beauty of this country, we all have a voice at the table. We may disagree on some of our political views, but I will always support and respect those who advocate for their cause.

When it comes to public schools, there is a common belief that this is a place where neutrality is needed. Public schools serve a diverse community with families who have different religious and political views. So when David Hobbs, Assistant Superintendent for SAU21, decided to team up with Seacoast Outright to provide training to teachers, several parents in the community objected. Since I live in the district and pay taxes for these schools, I also lent my voice in opposition.

The political organization could be advocating for any political issue, and I would object. Our schools, children, and teachers should not to be used by any political organization to spread propaganda. But that’s exactly what is happening in September when the training takes place.

It doesn’t matter if it’s LGBTQ, BLM, or a Pro-Choice political organization, none of them should be training public school teachers. If district administrators are going to bring in political organizations, why are they not providing any alternative viewpoints? That’s not inclusion, that’s a political indoctrination.

What happens to a community when partisan politics becomes the focus? The community is then divided.

We saw this after some parents decided to protest this training at Winnacunnet High School. Factions gathered at the school to express their support or opposition. When school administrators take their eyes off of the important task of educating children, and step into the political arena, that’s almost a guarantee that the community will become divided.

How is it inclusive to ignore some of your families when pushing a political agenda on teachers and students?

Is that what we want from the leadership in this school district? To shift focus away from academic excellence to playing partisan politics with our tax dollars? How does that improve the quality of education for children in the school?

There is more to this problem that has erupted in this school district, but one thing we can all see from this decision is, this community is now divided.  Parents aren’t looking for WOKE indoctrination for their children, they are looking for someone to address the 57% of Winnacunnet high school students who DID NOT score proficient in mathematics.

Whether it’s LGBTQ+ , black, brown, Muslim or Christian students, they all deserve to be treated with kindness and respect. Bullying against any child should be handled swiftly. We can all agree that providing a safe environment where there is mutual respect, must be a priority. I stand with all of the children in our district.

Individuals could have been brought in who are not tied to political organizations. Offering teachers information on legal boundaries, medical professionals to discuss medical situations, or mental health providers who can address the need to support students and their families, would have been better received.

Parents of LGBTQ+ children have diverse views on how they want school personnel treating their children. One parent said she didn’t want any part of this because her lesbian daughter did not want to discuss her sexuality with teachers or anyone else in the school. Political organizations do not speak for all of those in that group, and other parents have also made it clear that they don’t want their teachers in the middle of a political battle that has erupted.

When enrollment declines, and parents demand school choice options for their children, don’t be surprised. A divided community that leaves some parents wanting a better quality education for their children, will take their children, remove them from the public schools and become allies in the school choice movement.  That movement is in full force throughout New Hampshire because of the politicization taking place in some of these school districts.

IMG_3174

The post SAU21 (North Hampton, Seabrook, Winnacunnet, etc) Now a Community Divided appeared first on Granite Grok.

Youngster Brodie Deshaies has assembled a horrible voting/legislative record in his first term in the NH House – and I know of at least TWO groups are eyeballing him very closely. They also want to make sure his constituents cast their eyes on him as well. From the Mary Cheswell PAC.  They just received this today and I thought that I’d add a helping hand:

Front Side:

Back side:

(H/T: loyal reader Max)

The post Oh, Rino Brodie Deshaies (Rino-Wolfeboro)? You Might Wish to Ensure Your Rear View Mirror Is Focused appeared first on Granite Grok.

The Left is reading directly from the Marxist playbook on how to break down a Democracy as you transform your country into a Socialist or Communist government and society. The Left has proven to be very patient and methodical as they began phase one over a hundred years ago.

They started indoctrinating our children in 2015, beginning with the colleges and universities. In just four generations, that indoctrination has progressed down to Kindergarten and Preschool, and the capturing of the youth is complete. 

They have taken prayer out of schools and have challenged the Pledge of Allegiance. Some consider our National Anthem a trigger, and monuments and statues have been toppled or removed to erase our historical roots. We have renamed schools to erase the names of our founding fathers because they remind us of how slavery was the foundation of our nation.

The education world has worked very hard to sever the connection of children to their parents to be replaced with the community as the sole need in a child’s life. They have even removed the terms mother and father from records and replaced them with birthing and non-birthing parents. They are working on eliminating gender identity and creating an asexual society. Soon, girls will be stripped of makeup, hairstyles will be uniform, and all children will be in brown jumpsuits. Maybe this is the state of equity that the Left strives for.

Patriotism is taught as evil, and masculinity is toxic, but chivalry is considered condescending. Success is not a goal; meritocracy is dead because it is racist. With the successes the Left has enjoyed, they feel ready for the next step, and that is the eradication of religion.

Keller Independent School District is pulling the Bible after three parents complained about sexual content! The Bible has sold over four billion copies in the last fifty years, making it far and away the most read book in history. The district says the removal is not permanent but only until the investigation of the complaints is complete. In the meantime, they have acknowledged the danger of the Bible by acquiescing to a mere three complaints. This action comes on the heels of an even more bizarre revelation by the Left last week.

From the National Catholic Register:

An article published Sunday in The Atlantic magazine suggests the Rosary has become a symbol of violent, right-wing extremism in the United States.

The article set off a frenzy of reactions among Catholics, ranging from amusement to grave concern over what some see as anti-Catholic sentiment. 

The magazine later changed the article’s headline from “How the Rosary Became an Extremist Symbol” to “How Extremist Gun Culture is Trying to Co-Opt the Rosary.” Among other edits to the text, an image of bullet holes forming the shape of a rosary was replaced with a picture of a rosary. 

Photo from National Catholic Register

This was not a parody on the Babylon Bee but an article in a formerly respected national magazine. I am shocked that there is no wild outrage from the Catholics of the country. To be fair, all religions should be outraged. Keep in mind that large box stores were open during the Pandemic, but houses of worship were forbidden to hold in-person services for nearly two years.

Footnote: I cohosted our monthly radio show this week with my friend Liz Gabert. Life with Liz on WSMN 1590 from Nashua, NH. I hope you will enjoy our discussion.

The post So Predictable. Next Target is Religion appeared first on Granite Grok.

There was no official legislative work in July, but I did meet with the working group on HB 1312. That bill was to address the need for a 1,000-gallon grease trap at an ice cream shack and was held for study in my committee because testimony revealed multiple conflicts between the state building code and various agencies’ rules.

The working group was specifically addressing the issue of grease traps for restaurants on septic tanks and involved the building code review board, code enforcement officers, plumbers, Environmental Services’ septic oversight division, and Health & Human Services restaurant licensing (for public health.) After three meetings and a lot of friendly discussions, it was resolved that the septic rules, plumbing code, and restaurant licensing rules all need to be changed to resolve the discrepancies! The building code review board is identifying other areas where agency rules conflict with the building code, and I expect some legislation to settle conflicts.

I was appointed to the study committee on Office of Professional Licensing and Certification (OPLC) operations. We first meet next week and will be looking at fees, cost allocations to the various boards, and if some boards could be consolidated or deleted.

We want to thank NH State Rep Carol McGuire for this Op-Ed. If you have an Op-Ed or LTE
you would like us to consider, please submit it to Editor@GraniteGrok.com.

It was a pleasure to meet with so many people at the Epsom and Dunbarton Old Home Days! It turns out my primary is contested, but both candidates are pleasant to work with and capable (it’s a two-seat district.) I prefer JR Hoell because he has experience in the legislature and can hit the ground running: I’m campaigning with him. If the primary voters decide otherwise, I’ll support Ernie (or take a break from the legislature!)

The primary election is Tuesday, September 13, and I urge everyone to go vote. Every district is different, but in Epsom, I have contested elections for Governor, US Senator, Congressman, Executive Councilor, state senator, and one representative in Merrimack 14 (I’ve endorsed my husband Dan McGuire), and two representatives in Merrimack 27 (I’m one.) Usually, turnout is low for the Primary elections, so your vote matters more than usual. If you have a favored (or unfavored!) candidate in any of these races, your vote may make the difference.

I’ve also started working on bills for next year. So far, I’ve got some updates for the scope of practice for occupational therapists (requested by their professional organization); and some bills from this year. I’ll probably resubmit my cannabis legalization bill and HB 275, the executive ability to declare a state of emergency (unless we manage to override the veto…) As vice chair (and likely chair next session) of JLCAR (the joint legislative committee on administrative rules), I expect some clarifying amendments to that process. Probably some of the bills being studied in my committee will need further legislation as well.

I’m also looking at the requirements for farm and agricultural plates: the rules are being updated right now, but there’s a lot of confusion among the town clerks and the DMV. At the least, I expect to specify that the town clerk, not the DMV, determines if a vehicle is a “truck” (that is, used for carrying farm goods – the DMV seems to put too much emphasis on the sheet metal rather than the usage) and if a business is a “farm.” I’ve had constituents look for help on both these issues, and right now nobody is sure who decides.

Anyone who has an idea where our laws need to change should get in touch with me soon; I can file bills in September (assuming I win the primary) and all representatives again in November, after the election.

Representative Carol McGuire
carol@mcguire4house.com

The post NH State Rep Carol McGuire – Your State House 08/12/22: Summer Work appeared first on Granite Grok.

According to the available polling, Don Bolduc is blowing out the field in New Hampshire’s GOP Senate primary:

 

According to Sun-King Sununu, the voters supporting Bolduc are NOT SERIOUS voters:

 

 

Given that it appears that Bolduc is going to cruise to victory, Sun-King’s anti-endorsement sure sounds like an endorsement of Maggie Hassan. Will we see Sun-King campaigning with Maggie-the-Red, perhaps with President Xi joining them remotely?

 

 

The post Sun-King Sununu Endorses Maggie Hassan appeared first on Granite Grok.

An auto club in Germany that claims 21 million members ran some controlled charging test electric vehicles to see how efficient that process was. The results put another nail in the value coffin. Not only are they expensive to buy and own, but the average charge also wastes up to 13% of the electricity.

Put another way, the consumer is charged for all the electricity required to fully charge the battery, which is as much as 13% more than the battery can hold.

So, imagine pouring two gallons of gasoline on the ground every time you filled a 20-gallon tank. People would lose their collective minds. But that will be standard for every charge of every vehicle in the utopian electric fleet of the future.

Related: Michael Moore’s Documentary: Green Energy is a Scam and We’re All Fools (Video Added)

ADAC’s Ecotest calculated the kWh needed to fully charge a range of electric vehicle batteries.

 

The result of the test under the same conditions for all electric car models: E-car drivers have to plan for a particularly large amount of power loss for some models – but everyone has to pay extra. According to the ADAC Ecotest, a 100 kWh battery in a Tesla Model X100D actually needs 108.3 kWh. The Kia e-Niro Spirit has 72.3 kWh for a 64 kWh battery. The Jaguar I-PACE EV400 also needs at least 10 kWh more for a 90 kWh battery.

 

With electricity prices scheduled to double in New Hampshire (as an example) and with the cost of EVs still out of the range of most middle and lower-income families, throwing money out the window with every charge might just as well be another tax.

Line loss or transformer loss is baked into the infrastructure. There is no way to transmit electricity without waste (primarily) in the form of heat. Anywhere from 8-15% or more of the electricity generated by power stations is lost before it gets to you. A carbon footprint problem we’re supposed to ignore.

Related: EV Subsidies and Price Hikes, So Which Tail is Wagging What Dog?

But not in the ADAC tests. The consumer pays immediately for the loss of every kWh that exceeded the actual electricity needed to charge the battery.

The gasoline you poured on the pavement.

Dark Future

At present, the infrastructure to charge the existing fleet is inadequate. Rolling brownouts and blackouts are predicted everywhere. There is no plan that puts enough wind or solar into operation, maybe ever, to address the growing demand without EVs. There isn’t enough land for the equipment needed to create that much electricity unless the plan is to need less.

With rates skyrocketing, charging will become unaffordable to all but the most well-off, and we’ve postulated repeatedly that this was always the goal. A point they admit, including after the release of the original Green New Deal, whose author (we can’t ever let you forget this) said, “Do you guys think of it as a climate thing?” Chakrabarti continued. “Because we really think of it as a how-do-you-change-the-entire-economy thing.”

No air travel for you and the end of private transportation.

The goal is to force your mobility profile back into the 19th century. Trains, horses, walking. The only other reasonable explanation is that they are all idiots, and while the rank-and-file prog parrots might be considered that stupid, the people at the top are not.

They’re evil.

 

 

The post More Bad News for EVs – You Pay Up to An Extra 13% for Electrical “Waste” with Every “Fill Up” appeared first on Granite Grok.

So y’all are gonna have to take point and lead this week’s Open Thread yourselves.  Take us all to that Promised Land called “The Weekend”!

Let’r rip!

The post Friday Open Thread – OK, there’s tons of stuff going on but I got nothin’ right now appeared first on Granite Grok.

North Grafton District 3 (Lincoln, Woodstock, Easton, Livermore) has a 2 for 1 primary. One candidate is atrocious; the other does not (yet) have a voting record.

This primary is a rematch of the 2020 primary. Let’s hope that this time Paul Schirduan is the winner because Bonnie Ham is truly atrocious. (She might be a perfectly nice person but her voting record is atrocious.)   Bonnie Ham served four terms from 1999-2006. I have not analyzed her voting record from back then, but at first glance, it does not appear terrible.

We want to thank Spec Bowers for this Op-Ed. Please direct yours to Editor@GraniteGrok.com.

When Ham returned for the 2017-18 term and then again for the 2021-22 term, she became one of the worst RINOs of the decade. In 2017-18 she was 6th worst of all RINOs, voting 100 times against Republicans. In 2021-22 she was even worse, voting against Republicans 121 times to earn 3rd place among the worst RINOs. Ham’s triple-digit bad vote count in two separate biennia earns her a spot in the RINO Hall of Shame. She is one of only four Reps to vote that badly. Here are some highlights (lowlights?) of her recent career.   Bad votes by Ham, Bonnie (R, N Woodstock) Parental Control     voted AGAINST establishing the parental bill of rights.  ( 2022 HB1431 )     voted AGAINST parental choice regarding face masks ( 2022 HB1131 )     voted FOR restricting parental choice ( 2021 HB251 ) Education     voted AGAINST education choice ( 2018 SB193, 2021 HB609, 2022 HB1298 )     voted FOR repealing the education freedom account program. ( 2022 HB1683 )     voted FOR restricting education choice ( 2022 HB1516, 2022 HB1684, 2022 HB1120 ) Cost of Living     voted AGAINST requiring a super-majority vote to override a property tax cap ( 2021 SB52 )     voted FOR higher property taxes for most owners ( 2021 SB102 )     voted FOR requiring state taxpayers to make up for poor investments by the Retirement Board ( 2022 HB1417 ) Constitutional Rights     voted AGAINST prohibiting the suspension of civil liberties even during an emergency ( 2021 HB440 )     voted AGAINST property rights ( 2021 HB402, 2022 HB414 )     voted AGAINST religious liberty ( 2021 HB542 )     voted AGAINST repealing a never-used and unconstitutional infringement on free speech ( 2017 HB589, 2022 HB1625 )     voted AGAINST right to keep and bear arms ( 2021 HB197, 2021 HB307 )     voted AGAINST rights of conscience for medical professionals ( 2022 HB1080 )     voted AGAINST rights of conscience regarding vaccination mandates ( 2022 HB1379, 2022 HB1455, 2022 HB1210 )     voted FOR restricting property rights ( 2021 HB177, 2021 HB177 ) Right to Life     voted AGAINST collecting abortion statistics ( 2018 HB471 ) Election Integrity     voted AGAINST requiring that voters without valid photo id must provide documentation within 7 days ( 2022 SB418, 2022 SB418 )     voted AGAINST strengthening the requirements for documenting the domicile of a person registering to vote ( 2017 SB3 ) Other     voted AGAINST allowing schools to display the national and state mottos ( 2021 HB69 )     voted AGAINST prohibiting sex change surgery for minors ( 2018 HB1532 )     voted AGAINST right to join or not join a union ( 2021 SB61 ) On all of these votes, at least 80% – in most cases more than 90% – of Republicans voted the other way.

The post RINO Report: Bonnie Ham appeared first on Granite Grok.

Maybe one of these epochs, I’ll finally get caught up on stuff.  One of those was about my RSA 91:A Right To Know, issued on August 5th,  concerning taxes paid by Gunstock Mountain Resort (Business Profits Tax, Business Enterprise Tax, Meals & Rooms Tax) as well as the top shareholders in GMR and any monies paid to GMR by other state agencies. The “responsive records” were sent to me on August 10th and for the exact data I requested  – but no narrative or explanation; just the data.  So back on the 10th, I asked for an expansion/definition:

From: Skip <Skip@granitegrok.com>
Sent: Wednesday, August 10, 2022 4:13 PM
To: Cathy White <CWhite@gunstock.com>
Cc: Tom Day <TDay@gunstock.com>; Douglas Lambert <dlambert@GunstockCommissioners.org>; Jade L. Wood <JWood@gunstockcommissioners.org>
Subject: Re: 91:A Request for Taxes 08-05-22
Good afternoon,

I am in receipt of your spreadsheet listing one of the taxes paid by Gunstock Mountain Resort – Meals and Room Taxes.  Thank you for sending that.

I am curious, however as my RSA 91A demand was structured for the last 22 years:

This request is for the listing of payments for taxes to the State of NH by Gunstock Mountain Resort for the time period of January 1, 2000 through to end of day, today, August 5, 2022:

•  Business Enterprise Tax
• Business Profit Tax
• Meals and Room Taxes
• The listing of the corporators/top five stockholders in this enterprise.

Might it have been an oversight that the list of the Meals and Room Taxes supplied as responsive records only go back to Jan 1, 2020? Should I expect to be receiving the earlier years in a second tranche? Thank you for your lawful response in this aspect of my Right To Know.

Secondly, I had also listed the BET and BPT amounts for the same period of time, yet, unlike the MRT amounts, nothing was listed – simply “N/A”.  Am I to assume that N/A, in this response, means “Not Available”, which is to say “Denied”?

RSA 91-A:4 does state:

IV. (a) Each public body or agency shall, upon request for any governmental record reasonably described, make available for inspection and copying any such governmental record within its files when such records are immediately available for such release.

(b) If a public body or agency is unable to make a governmental record available for immediate inspection and copying the public body or agency shall, within 5 business days of a request:

(1) Make such record available;
(2) Deny the request; or
(3) Provide a written statement of the time reasonably necessary to determine whether the request shall be granted or denied and the reason for the delay.

(c) A public body or agency denying, in whole or part, inspection or copying of any record shall provide a written statement of the specific exemption authorizing the withholding of the record and a brief explanation of how the exemption applies to the record withheld.

Since only the attached spreadsheet was supplied with no explanation or narrative accompanying it in your email body, please inform me as to why this information was not supplied as outlined above.

As to the last item, am I to assume, SHOULD I assume, that there are no shareholders involved with Gunstock Mountain Resort (e.g., “none” does mean “none”)?

Kindest regards,

-Skip

And I did get a reply the next day (which means I’m late by 6 business days in putting up the response (emphasis mine):

—— Original Message ——
From: “Douglas Lambert” <dlambert@gunstockcommissioners.org>
To: “Cathy White” <CWhite@gunstock.com>; “Skip” <Skip@granitegrok.com>
Cc: “Tom Day” <TDay@gunstock.com>; “Jade L. Wood” <JWood@gunstockcommissioners.org>
Sent: 8/11/2022 8:56:52 PM
Subject: Re: 91:A Request for Taxes 08-05-22

Good evening Mr. Murphy.

Please be advised that the date was initially misread as 2020, not the 2000 as written.

The “N/A” reference does not mean “not available,” it means “not applicable,” as the Gunstock Mountain resort, as a publicly owned institution is not obligated to pay those taxes. This means that this particular answer on the columns listed as such will remain the same going back within your requested period of time.

You are correct in your assumption that there are no shareholders “involved with Gunstock” and that “none” does in fact mean what it says.

For the NH Meals and Rooms tax, it is different, however, and Gunstock DOES pay those when directly operating the food service operation, which has not always been the case during times when that was provided by a privately contracted outside entity.

We are continuing to look back on this data, as some of it is contained on an older computer system that will require some time to retrieve. As you are aware, we cannot create or provide records that do not exist on a particular format. Once we complete our research and analysis, we will finish our response to this request.

We cannot give an exact estimate as to the time of completion until the exact location and disposition of these records is known, other than that it may a week or two rather than a day or so.

Please consider this our response and acknowledgement of your request and know that this will be followed up as the requested information becomes available.

As always, we appreciate your continued interest in the Gunstock Recreation Area.

With warmest regards,

Doug Lambert
Gunstock Area Commission

So as it turns out:

Gunstock Mountain Resort, in not paying BPT or BET taxes, means that it is not a public corporation in the private sector – there are no profits on which to be taxed and there is no need to pay the Enterprise tax to be paid as it is a government agency.  Thus, Commissioner Lambert has confirmed it is not a Private Sector entity.

Hmmm (twirling the small mustache I now thinking over a couple of things but also wondering if I should regrown the WONDERFUL handlebar mustache I had in college 40 years ago)…  I think I’ll also have another question but I’m still waiting for the rest of the R&M tax information to be sent to me.

The post UPDATE II: Gunstock Mountain Resort – An RSA 91:A Demand – Payment of Taxes Information appeared first on Granite Grok.

According to legend, the Greek philosopher Diogenes strolled about with a lamp, purportedly looking for an honest man. Were he in New Hampshire today looking for an honest Democrat he could find one in Bow in the person of former congressman and ambassador Dick Swett?

Swett recently showed his integrity by signing on to a letter along with 34 other prominent Democrats criticizing their party’s “unethical” practices of investing money in Republican primary candidates they perceive as easier to beat in general elections. Dems minimize such shenanigans as “mischief,” but a better word would be “fraud.”

Cast your minds back to 1996. GOP Governor Steve Merrill opted not to run for reelection—creating an opening in the State House corner office. State Senator Jeanne Shaheen immediately declared her candidacy and ran unopposed (of course) in the Democrat primary.

On the Republican side, popular three-term Congressman Bill Zeliff declared a gubernatorial candidacy and was the strong favorite. Conservative activist Ovide Lamontagne also ran a long-shot campaign for the GOP nomination. But on that September 10, Lamontagne stunned Zeliff, 47,556 votes to 43,393.

Shaheen received only 52,328 votes in getting the Dem nomination. But that November, Shaheen trounced Lamontagne to become governor. She’d go on to be the first woman to serve as both governor and senator, three terms as each.

What happened in 1996?

What happened was a concerted effort on the part of Democrats to declare as independents and control the outcome of the GOP Primary. The popular Zeliff had experience and name recognition and would be unbeatable in a general election. Despite passionate conservative support, Lamontagne had limited elective experience and could be portrayed as an ideologue.

So the Dems went all in for Lamontagne over Zeliff in that September GOP primary, as they were sure they could beat Ovide in the general election—which they did.

How do we know this? Because some Dems confessed.

The numbers bear this out. Shaheen’s primary vote total was only slightly ahead of that of both Zeliff’s and Lamontagne’s. See the above tallies. Zeliff/Lamontagne combined for almost 91,000 votes to Shaheen’s 53,328 as erstwhile Dem “Independents” voted for Lamontagne.

So why does this matter today?

It matters because, unlike Republicans, Democrats have few contested primaries. So by declaring as faux “independents”, they can vote in GOP primaries and influence outcomes, and select “weaker” candidates to run against in November.

This is keeping with a long tradition of Dem “mischief” going back to Tammany Hall and the beginning of Democrat “machines.” That’s not to say Republicans haven’t occasionally been guilty of their own mischief. But Dems have turned election mischief into an art form. This behavior is what honest Dems like Swett want stopped as they see it as eroding “our dedication to fair elections.”

Dems even laugh about buying or stealing elections, as when John F. Kennedy joked that his multimillionaire father cautioned him about purchasing too many votes.

“I’m not paying for a landslide,” JFK quoted his dad as saying.

Interestingly, JFK and Richard Nixon essentially tied in the 1960 election, each winning about 49% of the popular vote. Kennedy very narrowly took the key states of Illinois and Texas for an electoral triumph. There was significant evidence of voter fraud in both states (especially in Chicago), and Nixon’s supporters pleaded with him to ask for recounts and to challenge the results in disputed districts. Nixon quickly overrode them and conceded to Kennedy, explaining that he didn’t want to put the country through the turmoil of a disputed election.

Would that our 45th president, who lost by around 7 million votes in 2020, had been as considerate of the American people as Nixon was in 1960? There’s no shortage of GOP critics of President Trump. Why can’t more Democrats be similarly introspective regarding their people and policies? (Beyond Dick Swett and the other 34 folks with integrity.)

The numbers of declared Republicans and declared Democrats are virtually the same in New Hampshire. But check out the vote totals after the Sept. 13 primaries. The GOP numbers will far exceed the Democrat turnout. Folks can draw their own conclusions. It would be refreshing to hear Senator Hassan or Representatives Kuster and Pappas decry and discourage the fraud—a la Dick Swett—as opposed to winking, nodding, and averting their eyes.

Diogenes would likely be satisfied with finding one honest N.H. Democrat—i.e. Dick Swett. But shouldn’t Granite Staters expect more?

 

The post Diogenes, Democrats, and Dick Swett appeared first on Granite Grok.