Sunday • January 25 • 2026
Vol.XVIII • No.IV
Manchester, N.H.
Electric Vehicles have an opportunity to replace the Edsel as the historic reference for transportation marketing failure. The Edsel was “overhyped, unattractive (distinguished by a vertical grille said to resemble a horse collar[2]), and low quality.” It was also introduced during a crappy economy.
The EV is an overweight pack of lies whose “popularity” was compelled into being by progressive politicians and bureaucrats, and the Ford Motor Company has lost billions in 2022 equivalent dollars. A problem repeated in recent years as the government incentivized automakers to invest heavily in Electric Vehicles. Forced might be a better word. Between public statements about ending combustion-driven transportation and stricter fuel economy mandates, carmakers were not given much choice.
Car buyers, however, still have one.
Several years into the push to replace gas-powered engines with EVs has met an impenetrable wall named reality. EVs are not any of the things promised. Production has been scaled back as inventory piles up, dealers refuse to take more of it, and billions in losses are written off. Ford has taken a beating, and its latest mea culpa comes in production cuts for its EV truck line.
Ford planned to produce around 3,200 F-150 Lightnings per week in 2024 at the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn, Michigan, which assembles all of the electric pickup trucks produced by Ford. Ford announced last month that it was cutting its production of the trucks in half, all the way down to 1,600 per week.
Ford has slashed $12 billion in EV investments as it struggles to sell its all-electric vehicles to consumers who have numerous concerns about transitioning from gas to electric, especially as retail prices for most EVs remain high.
Ford is shuffling employees to gas-powered production lines and hiring workers to build cars people want and can almost afford, as opposed to the impossible-to-afford EVs, which have only gotten more expensive. And the demand for rare earth metals has done little more than jack up costs and transfer wealth to China.
Given the Biden family’s cozy relationship with the CCP, you’d be right to wonder if this wasn’t just another way to make protection-money payments or extortion money, but it’s not just Biden. The left is obsessed with crushing the fossil fuel industry. Biden ran for office on it. The Dems are nearly all-in on the lie—the rich ones, at least. But you can only put so many lawn ornaments in your driveway (it’s not safe to park them in the garage), and the nation is running out of people who can afford impractical virtue-signal mobiles.
Without further interference from the government – and even it can’t backstop these turds with enough of someone else’s money to make them appealing – the industry is destined to collapse under the excessive weight of its own lithium battery limitations.
That won’t be the end of it. The apocalypse cult won’t let it go, but that’s not the biggest issue. Much like wind and solar waste, no one went in having end-of-life solutions for toxic components, and there is a lot of that out there – some of it aging in dealer lots.
No worries. I’m sure the EPA will make some rules to address another mess the government has made, and we’ll get to pay for that too.
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In one of my previous articles, I told the story of how my request for Michael Knowles’ Amazon #1 bestseller Speechless: Controlling Words, Controlling Minds was denied by my local public library.
While I used this anecdote as an example of the double standard that libraries use when referring to “banned” books, I am bringing it up again here to highlight the dysfunctional process by which librarians select books. Speechless is about the weaponization of political correctness and is written by a well-known conservative writer, so it was not surprising that my request was denied. In fact, I had used this request as a test, and my public library acted as I predicted it would. While the library justified its denial by claiming that there were no positive reviews of this book, I was easily able to find a lot of complimentary feedback online about this title and the fact that it was the number one book on Amazon for a substantial period of time also attested to its worthiness to be added to my library’s collection.
Librarians, however, look for reviews in a small number of “professional” publications like Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, and ALA’s own Booklist, and all of these sources, as you would expect, inordinately promote woke material and overlook worthy but conservatively themed items. Additionally, librarians are motivated to buy material that has won annual book awards, many given by the ALA. Unfortunately, most awards in general these days, from the Oscars on down, are not based on merit but on how well nominees align with an organization’s political agenda.
When librarians decide which books they will purchase for their collections using taxpayer dollars, you’d think that they would consider which books their users actually want or need to read. Sadly, this is not what happens in most publicly funded libraries. Instead, these librarians are influenced by woke review sources and annual book awards to buy those books that they, along with the organizations they look to for guidance, think their patrons should read.
We want to thank Arlene Quaratiello for this Contribution – Please direct yours to Steve@GraniteGrok.com.
You can review our ‘Op-Ed Guidelines‘ on the FAQ Page.
When I recently visited the home page of Kirkus Reviews, a popular source among collection development librarians, the featured story was a glowing review of the newly released film Origins. This documentary is based on the book Caste: The Origin of Our Discontent by Isabel Wilkerson, a book which Kirkus describes as “a sweeping survey of how ingrained systems of social categorization. . . have led to horrific crimes and injustices throughout history . . . and how such systems have been used to oppress a wide range of people.” The woke point of view conveyed by this review is echoed throughout the publication and is also reflected by the books that are awarded the annual Kirkus Prize.
The 2023 fiction winner was The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, a novel that portrays the “solidarity” of Jews and Blacks against “the many local White Christians” who “frown upon the easygoing relationship between” these two groups. The non-fiction prize went to Our Migrant Souls: A Meditation on Race and the Meanings and Myths of “Latino,” which Kirkus described as a “powerful look at what it means to be a member of a community that, though large, remains marginalized.” Finally, the “young readers” award was given to American Redux: Visual Stories from Our Dynamic History, in which the historical “contributions of women, people of color, individuals with disabilities, and LGBTQ+ people are featured prominently.”
Kirkus Reviews also offers a “curation service” featuring “diversity collections,” which was “developed to help librarians find diverse books that meet modern standards of sensitivity and respect.” Books highlighted here include Metaracism: How Systemic Racism Devastates Black Lives and The Pink Line: Journeys across the World’s Queer Frontiers. My purpose in pointing out all of these specific books is not to object to their being published and read because that would violate the tenets of free speech; what we must take issue with is the clear promotion and celebration of books that convey racial and sexual themes while practically ignoring any other type of book.
This obvious promotion is also seen in Library Journal, another influential book review source for collection development librarians. Among the books it celebrates in its “Best of 2023” list is Lucky Red, in which author Claudia Cravens “skillfully blends Western tropes…into her queer coming-of-age story” set in “the town’s woman-run brothel.” Of the ten “best” books recommended in the “Romance” category, two are described as “gay romances,” while the lesbian romance Mrs. Nash’s Ashes features the “delightfully quirky grumpy/sunshine romance” between the titular female character and a woman named Elsie. Chef’s Choice is “a charming queer romance” featuring two transgender characters, one identifying as a woman and another as a man. With such a large percentage of recommended books on LJ’s “Best of 2023” list featuring LGBT characters, it is hard to deny the clear over-representation of such books in this particular sample.
The American Library Association has its own review publication called Booklist. Its October 2023 issue featured the article “Essentials: Here Be Drag Queens,” which provides a “celebration of modern drag” by recommending fourteen titles, including the picture books Auntie Uncle: Drag Queen Hero and If You’re a Drag Queen and You Know It. For older children, Booklist recommends Martin Mclean: Middle School Queen, which tells the story of a boy who wants to compete in an all-ages drag contest. In Kings, Queens and In-Betweens, recommended for high school students, “17-year-old lesbian Nima, just rejected by her longtime crush and best friend, stumbles into a drag show at a local fair” where “she finds a fascinating and accepting community, as well new confidence and a potential new romance.”
In addition to the reviews provided by Booklist to promote its woke agenda, the ALA also gives out a number of awards that celebrate books that reinforce this agenda and strongly influence purchasing decisions. One of this organization’s most coveted accolades is the Stonewall Book Award for “LGBTQIA+” literature, which the Rainbow Roundtable sponsors. In addition to the awards given for adult fiction and non-fiction, prizes have also been given for “young adult” books and even children’s books for over a decade. In fact, in 2021, a board book, We Are Little Feminists Families, was given Stonewall’s Mike Morgan and Larry Romans Children’s & Young Adult Literature Award. Last year, this award was given to “Love, Violet,” a book that suggests that an innocent friendship between two girls is homosexual, and also to When the Angels Left the Old Country, a “young adult” novel in which, according to Kirkus Reviews, “Queerness and gender fluidity thread through both the human and supernatural characters.”
As I pointed out in my previous article about the misnamed category of “young adult” literature, When the Angels Left the Old Country was also a runner-up for the Printz Award given to a book that the ALA believes “exemplifies literary excellence in young adult literature.” The other four books that the ALA considered “excellent” were:
With the Printz Award winner and its four runners-up all having racial and sexual themes, there is no denying the inordinate attention given to books focused on gender or race, suggesting that these are the only themes worthy of merit in our society.
The American Library Association has not cornered the market on book awards. The National Book Awards are presented each year by the National Book Foundation. This year’s fiction winner was Blackouts by Juston Torres, which addresses “the distortions and erasures of queer history” (NPR). Three of the four honorable mention winners are on racial themes, including:
As I have already mentioned, my purpose in writing this article has not been to bash individual books. I have simply tried to provide anecdotal evidence to expose the woke agenda of most book review sources and award programs, an agenda that would likely be supported, if I had the time, by a more objective statistical analysis. What concerns me is the clear promotion of these books, which dominate every review source and are inordinately given awards, drowning out books on a multitude of other topics. As a result, the impressionable and predominantly left-leaning staff members of most publicly funded libraries end up purchasing a disproportionate number of these titles, and these books often just sit on the shelves, rarely getting checked out because patrons are simply not interested in reading them, nor should they feel that they should read them.
Meanwhile, review sources and awards are often cited as justification for their purchase in town and school district budget reports. Those who are hired to run our publicly funded libraries need to realize that the real justification for buying any book in a public or school library is how well it serves the needs of its users, not how well it reflects a woke organization’s questionable agenda, nor what awards it has been given by these organizations or what their glowing reviews have to say.
| Substack
The post “And the Winner Is…” (How Librarians Decide What We Should Read) appeared first on Granite Grok.
This is from a Substack article by Chris Bray, writing about progressives who are upset that Texas is defending its border. It has my irony meter pegged at 10:
The people who run formally declared sanctuary states and sanctuary cities are very very upset that state and local officials are refusing to acknowledge the federal government’s supremacy in matters of immigration and border security.
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Every other Tuesday evening in Hartford/White River Junction, the town holds its Select Board meeting, with the first few minutes open to public comments. This week’s meeting saw several members of the town chiding Board Member Lannie Collins for his statement made regarding the controversial event sweeping the nation – Drag Queen Story Hour.
Pride Center Vermont and the Vermont Chapter Drag Queen Story Hour recently attempted to hold the event at the Northern Stage theatre in downtown White River, however it was disrupted due to a bomb threat which turned out to be a hoax. The threat was issued via email and was said to have come from an encrypted Russian server which leaves the question – who perpetrated the hoax? (For more on the rise of hate crime hoaxes read this book)
The comment controversy began with board member Ally Tufenkjian referring to a recent drag event as “a positive experience” to which Collins replied ““I take deference to it being labeled a positive experience because some people in our community would not view those events at Northern Stage as a positive experience,” Collins said during Selectboard comments earlier this month. “That is a personal expression and is not shared by all members of the board or all residents within the town. And I don’t think it’s appropriate (for Selectboard members) to make personal statements about whether it is positive or negative.”
Though rarely attended by townsfolk, and rarely viewed online due to their pedantic and bureaucratic nature, this meeting saw a relatively packed house by Hartford standards. It seems word got out Mr. Collins exercised his right to voice his concern on behalf of those in town who share his apprehension given the event is not only categorical grooming of children but has been riddled with child sex offenders around the country. Collins detractors either are unaware or simply aren’t concerned the children’s safety may be compromised in the name of diversity and inclusion.
A look at the performers that evening finds Drag Queens *Emoji Nightmare and *Katniss Everqueer. (*WARNING: One look at their social media and it’s obvious they promote highly sexualized behavior.)
Emoji Nightmare is a man from tiny Cambridge, Vermont, whose real name is Justin Marsh. Marsh grew up in Cambridge on a dairy farm where he lives to this day. His day job is as a financial advisor, while his evening and hobbyist passion seems to be all things drag.
Katniss’ bio mentions her work with autistic and disabled children, among other interests, but another concerning statement tells us she likes to portray Silence of the Lambs and Lot’s O Huggin’ Bear. Who is Lot’s O Huggin’ Bear? The Disney Fandom page describes the character as:
“…the main antagonist of the animated film Toy Story 3. He is a large, magenta-pink strawberry-scented teddy bear who ruled Sunnyside Daycare with the iron fist of a prison warden, despite his advertised sweet nature.”
Furthermore, I don’t think anyone takes issue with older people, be they teens or adults, helping children learn to read. However, improving literacy is not what Drag Queen Story Hour is about. They even say as much:
“DQSH captures the imagination and play of the gender fluidity of childhood and gives kids glamorous, positive, and unabashedly queer role models,” RADAR Productions writes about the program on its website. “In spaces like this, kids are able to see people who defy rigid gender restrictions and imagine a world where people can present as they wish, where dress-up is real.”
In other words, having a stable identity is “rigid,” and looking to those who defy societal norms as “role models” is to be lauded as good for children. This is only one aspect of the event adults who object take issue with.
The more concerning issue, especially for those who understand predatory behavior, is the same setting allows grown men to be disguised as women to unwitting children. Men have long been the predatory class when it comes to sex crimes against children. The Stop It Now site reports that “males made up almost 88% of perpetrators.” There is not a more perfect scenario for a predator than to be able to access children in disguise as something innocent, especially if the disguise includes convincing parents they are there to help the child.
This is not to say Justin or Kat are predators, but their chosen method for “queering children” also happens to be ideal for those who would sexually abuse them. Grooming requires time and a necessary drawing down of one’s guardedness, both the child’s and parents’. This is why predators gravitate toward positions like coaching, daycare, clergy, and school jobs because they need to have the appearance of wanting to help children.
A counterargument I heard is, “But what about priests”? Or, for that matter, what about coaches and teachers? Should we prevent them from being around children? No, but they also aren’t posing as something they aren’t nor specifically targeting children in a sexualized manner, while drag queens are – deliberately. Those other vocations also require background checks – DQSH does not.
Not all drag queens support these story hours, nor do all members of the LGBTQ+ community. Those outspoken against it agree with their hetero-normative peers it’s inappropriate for children and clearly a method of grooming. The group Gays Against Groomers grew out of this concern. There statement:
Gays Against Groomers is a 501(c)4 nonprofit organization of gay people and others within the community who oppose the recent trend of indoctrinating, sexualizing and medicalizing children under the guise of “LGBTQIA+”
Still, what proof is there that predators would use such an innocent and fun event to target children? Here are just four instances out of many:
· Judge who headed ‘Drag Queen Story Hour’ sponsor arrested on child porn charges
Other concerning factors as it relates to the potential targeting of children with this type of event in Vermont:
(source: Stop It Now)
Lastly, and perhaps most shocking, the popularity of DQSH extends overseas, especially in the UK, where the incidence of sex crimes against children is now most commonly perpetrated by other children.
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First, I would be remiss if I didn’t note that I became aware of this latest assault on liberty in New Hampshire from the NeverTrump, RINO website NH-Journal, a/k/a NH-NeverTrump-Journal. So what happened is a January 19th decision by the New Hampshire Supreme Court that essentially said you have no right to expressive speech in New Hampshire (here’s the link):
New Hampshire v. Bossi.
In a nutshell, Chris Sun-King Sununu’s Supremos upheld the criminal trespass conviction of a woman who protested a school board’s mask mandate by entering the school board’s PUBLIC meeting without a mask. While Sun-King’s Supremos never address the freedom of speech implications of their ukase, the decision is all about freedom of speech.
There is NO, and there never was any, medical justification for mask mandates. A mask mandate, therefore, requires the attendees of the meeting to engage in expressive political speech that the attendee may disagree with: e.g., obedience to authority, support for the Sununu-Regime, etc., etc., etc.. Not wearing a mask is also political speech …e.g., opposition to COVID-tyranny, disapproval of the Sununu-Regime, etc.
Criminalizing the refusal to wear a mask is criminalizing political speech. Moreover, under the same ignore-freedom-of-speech analysis used by Sun-King Sununu’s Supremos, the school-board could forbid people from wearing MAGA hats to school board meetings or anti-DEI hats or shirts, etc., etc., etc..
But I know … I know … it’s okay that Sununu’s Supremos have ruled that incorrect political speech in New Hampshire can be criminalized because Sun-King Sununu is really, really, really good on the Second Amendment, and he cut business taxes!!!!
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It’s one thing to support a candidate, but New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu is just embarrassing himself. He’s drunk on the attention and has lost control of himself. Haley seriously underperformed in Iowa and lost by more than ten points in New Hampshire. And now she’s shedding donors.
Rich Democrat funder Reid Hoffman has derailed his money train to Haley, and he’s not alone. With no path to the nomination anywhere in sight, Sununu’s Haley fan club is going to have to do more than yap about how great he thinks she is. There’s no path. It’s Haley or Trump, and Trump’s base won’t vote for her. Neither will a bunch of primary-meddling Democrats who’d never vote for her in general (yes, we heard a few more stories about NH Dems trying to vote for Haley), and even on his worst day, Biden beats a Republican nominee elected by Democrats.
But wait, there’s more.
A Republican fundraiser told CNBC on Wednesday that three clients who each helped Haley raise up to $100,000 for her campaign are now opting out of assisting the former U.N. ambassador.
Others explained that while they plan to speak out publicly in support of Haley, they aren’t convinced they’ll be able to raise much money for her campaign since she’s winless so far in the primary season. -CNBC
Winless and unlikely to win anytime soon. She isn’t on the ballot in the Nevada Caucus, and South Carolina loves Trump. Nationally, Haley is down by as many as 63 points, which means at least 20 points and probably 40, even if Democrats meddle in other states. That’s a “yuge” gap, and on those terms, the calls for her to get out now so the party can focus on November seem justified.
So what value is left, other than to spend a pile of cash against Trump that could be directed at Dem opponents?
There are – I eyeballed it, so this might not be exact – just over twenty mixed or open Republican primaries, of which New Hampshire is one. I’ve heard from insiders and outsiders alike who were not all that keen on the recent effort to close the primary in New Hampshire. The zeal to encourage Democrats to meddle in their election has helped them turn a corner. They are willing to talk about and support a closed Republican primary.
In a state that is 40% registered independent, it will force fence-sitters to pick a side to have a voice in those contests. Some will continue to argue that closing the primary is not fair, but if that’s true, then no private organization should be allowed to decide who votes on their leadership, priorities, principles, or direction. That’s what the primary is, and a small number of Republicans have gone too far to undermine it in their quest to slow Trump’s train.
That’s politics, and it’s part of the process, but so are the side effects.
Regardless of your thoughts about him or her, Chris Sununu has been a great advocate for Haley. But as he serves his last year as governor and transitions to whatever comes after that, it may have cost him the respect of many in his own political party. I should say more, he’d already lost much from many. And for what?
A candidate that can’t beat an opponent for whom he has said he would vote.
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Car exhausts have chemicals in the fumes, as we all know, as do any fossil fuels being burned, including planes. So even without specific chemicals being injected into the Contrail, it is still technically a Chem Trail.
They are called Condensation Trails or Contrails; this is the same effect of a car warming up in the extreme cold. When Planes fly at altitude from 20,000 to 40,000 feet it is Extremely cold at that altitude. Thus creating condensation in their exhaust fumes.
Also, dispersal at those altitudes could go a long way before coming down. If they were trying to spray chemicals on us, they should be at lower altitudes. And since the prevailing winds up there are east to west, spraying NH at altitude would end up over the ocean.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t trust the government, never got jabbed and never will, will not wear a mask again; I avoided the mask as much as possible during the Govid (Government Virus Disease) B.S., do not believe Oswald acted alone, well he thought he acted alone, but was set up, and still not 100% on the 1st moon landing.
We want to thank Ken Goodall for this Contribution – Please direct yours to Steve@GraniteGrok.com.
You can review our ‘Op-Ed Guidelines‘ on the FAQ Page.
I need good scientific proof of this Cloud Seeding, Weather Modifications, or the intentional injection of pollutants into the air. And Yes, I know all about HB1700; just wonder exactly how they plan on enforcing it, tracking planes to their home bases, and handing them tickets.
I do not believe the cost analysis of the bill is anywhere near the real cost.
Then, the Karens, complaining about Wood or Pellet smoke next and how the bill is written, the NH DOE will have to investigate. I had heard that the Smokehouse in Ossipee was forced to fix their exhaust so you would not see smoke rising from the little piggy. I did not doubt the story.
I am here and ready to learn, but please, scientific sites only. I have no energy to research all this myself; I have enough conspiracy theories to defend as it is.
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