The Manchester Free Press

Monday • December 8 • 2025

Vol.XVII • No.L

Manchester, N.H.

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News – Politics – Opinion – Podcasts
Updated: 9 min 6 sec ago

Perky CDC Director: This COVID Season Get Vaccinated and Wear a Mask

Sun, 2023-12-10 13:00 +0000

Perky CDC Director Mandy Cohen seems to have been picked for the job based on her communications skills, though she does have a bunch of letters after her name. And while the delivery is better, the message is the same.

With elevated cases of Flu, RSV, and even Pneumonia, the CDC wants you to know that you should do what you’ve always done to protect yourself, where “Always” means since mid-2020, and where “protection” means those things that didn’t work.

Masks were a fail. The Shots made things worse. But here we are, so this message is for those still not paying attention because the rest of us can’t believe it.

 

 

COVID and flu vaccines, masking, and staying home if you are sick. The last one is the only one we’ve always done, so credit where due, but without knowing whether cases of this, that, or the other thing are up – well, they should be. It is almost winter. That’s also something we’ve always done. And I understand that Perky Mandy must do her Public Service Announcements. Pfizer money doesn’t launder itself. And maybe she’s just another useful idiot.

A perky, useful idiot. The CDC Glee Club president. The vaccine cheerleader. This is the program. It may have resulted in millions of unnecessary deaths worldwide, but much like socialism, if we keep trying, it will eventually work. Get vaccinated. Obstruct your airway. Again, with the understanding that we do not know what they mean by “work,” but we have our suspicions.

 

The post Perky CDC Director: This COVID Season Get Vaccinated and Wear a Mask appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

This Time, He’ll Keep His Clothes On, but Hopefully, His Story Will Be Stripped Bare

Sun, 2023-12-10 11:30 +0000

Nobody can say Hunter Biden doesn’t see himself above all others. Being the son of Joe Biden, he learned early on that he was one of the elites in America and rules do not apply to that group. Hunter Biden has been a self-proclaimed porn star, pop artist, and chief financial officer of the Biden Family Cartel.

CFO may not be totally accurate as Hunter was the front man who shook down foreign companies, officials, and governments for money in exchange for access to his Vice President, now President, father. Hunter had one of his Dad’s puppets in his corner protecting the First Son, but that puppet has been forced to the center of the ring. Special counsel David Weiss leveled a nine-count indictment against Hunter Biden late Thursday, accusing President Joe Biden’s son of failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes from 2016 to 2020.

There is so much to this story that is not in the headline. The period that Hunter failed to file with the IRS goes back to 2014, but due to Weiss dragging his feet, the statute of limitations has run out on the sins of those earlier years. Coincidentally, those earlier years are when Joe was the Vice President. Weiss did his job well, not for the American people, but for the Biden family by ensuring the information from this period never hits the light of day. Hunter’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, caused many to scratch their heads when he claimed that Hunter was charged solely because he is a Biden. Most people with minimal insight see the special treatment Hunter received by delaying action on these charges for five years. If his name were not Biden, he would be in prison serving his sentence. Attorney Lowell got the message on Biden Communications: lie, lie again, and end your lie with “That’s a fact.” It is that last part that makes everything so believable. People are beginning to see through the smoke.

The glitch in the Biden Administration’s handling of Hunter’s felonious crimes was the IRS Whistle Blowers. These two gentlemen came before Congress, at dire penalties to their careers, exposed the delay tactics of David Weiss, and crushed the plea deal Weiss tried to ram through the system. They stood their ground in front of a barrage from the Democrat members of the committee, and their conviction was absolute. They were not going to let the injustice they witnessed go unchecked. Weiss had no choice but to act quickly to bring indictments against Hunter Biden in Los Angeles. This trial will take place next year while Joe is trying to win a second term and continue the era of Biden Corruption in D.C.

This action by Weiss comes on the heels of Hunter being subpoenaed to appear in front of a House Committee, and he is to appear next week or face possible contempt charges.

Hunter displayed a higher level of hubris by offering to testify in front of the House Ways and Means Committee regarding his role in the Biden Family money laundering scheme. The problem is that Hunter had already been served a subpoena to testify, so he really did not have an option. He was subpoenaed for a closed-door meeting. He has offered to testify in a public hearing. Hunter loves the bright lights and thinks the truth will be buried in a closed hearing. He will probably negotiate for a primetime made-for-TV hearing.

Getting into Hunter Biden’s head is a scary thought. It is challenging to uncover his motive for pushing for a public hearing. There does not appear to be an upside, but he has a history of airing his sins on primetime, as he did a 60 Minutes interview to discuss his Pornhub videos, womanizing, and drug use. He is banking on the format of a public hearing being easier to manipulate. Jordan and Comer will have no part in his offer. He can have his public hearing after the private deposition and the release of the transcripts to the public. Hunter may have directed his porn videos, but he is only the star of this show. Comer and Jordan will be calling the shots, and Hunter will keep his clothes on, but hopefully, his story will be stripped naked.

The post This Time, He’ll Keep His Clothes On, but Hopefully, His Story Will Be Stripped Bare appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

Night Cap: Dear “Tough Conservative” Kelly Ayotte … So, How Are You Going To Pay

Sun, 2023-12-10 02:30 +0000

Context: After a “judge” in the New Hampshire trial, courts attacked our democracy (yes, bitter-clingers, this was an actual attack on democracy) by

“ordering” that “the State” (which has no money of its own) spend an additional one-half a billion on public education (which means, dear bitter-clingers, that the “judge” is ordering the legislature and governor to raise taxes or to spend less on roads, police, etc.), some Democrats began talking about not eliminating the Interest and Dividends Tax as is planned.

Kelly Ayotte’s response: NYET.

This is a fine response EXCEPT we know from Kelly’s stint as Attorney General that she AGREES with the Democrats that the judiciary has the power to tell the elected branches how much to spend on public education and what kind of taxes can be used to raise that money. More specifically, as Attorney General, Ayotte NEVER argued that the Claremont decisions and their progeny were illegitimate and should be overturned. Rather, she accepted the absurd premise that the judiciary has the power to tell the elected branches how much to spend on public education and what kind of taxes can be used to raise that money.

In other words, there really is NOT that much difference between Ayotte and the Democrats on this looming issue. Needless to say, the can is being kicked down the road via an appeal to the New Hampshire Supreme School Board … oh, I’m sorry, I meant Supreme Court. But what if that appeal is unsuccessful? Voters deserve to know exactly what every gubernatorial candidate would do in that scenario. So, “tough conservative,” Kelly … how are you going to pay???

The post Night Cap: Dear “Tough Conservative” Kelly Ayotte … So, How Are You Going To Pay appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

While Freedom Flourishes in New Hampshire, the Rest of New England Is a Different Story

Sun, 2023-12-10 01:00 +0000

Most of New England has some work to do to keep up with New Hampshire’s status as the nation’s freest state. In the latest edition of the Cato Institute’s Freedom in the 50 States report, while New Hampshire finishes first in overall freedom (an index of personal and economic freedom), the other five New England states each finish in the bottom half among all 50 states.

Overall freedom:

  • New Hampshire: #1
  • Massachusetts: #26
  • Connecticut: #33
  • Rhode Island: #36
  • Vermont: #42
  • Maine: #43

When breaking down the rankings, all New England states do well on personal freedom (Connecticut being the lowest ranked at No. 16), but New Hampshire rises above the rest on economic freedom.

Economic freedom:

  • New Hampshire: #1
  • Massachusetts: #32
  • Connecticut: #33
  • Rhode Island: #37
  • Vermont: #43
  • Maine: #45

The two components of the economic freedom index are fiscal and regulatory freedom, on which New Hampshire also scores much higher than its regional neighbors.

Fiscal freedom:

  • New Hampshire: #2
  • Massachusetts: #18
  • Connecticut: #20
  • Rhode Island: #22
  • Maine: #41
  • Vermont: #46

Regulatory freedom:

  • New Hampshire: #17
  • Massachusetts: #39
  • Connecticut: #40
  • Rhode Island: #42
  • Vermont: #43
  • Maine: #45

Needless to say, all of New England, New Hampshire included, could use some regulatory reform. (These rankings accounted for laws enacted as of December 31, 2022, meaning New Hampshire’s universal license recognition law didn’t make the cut.)

In the Fraser Institute’s Economic Freedom of North America 2023, New Hampshire is first in economic freedom among all North American jurisdictions, while Connecticut is the next “freest” at No. 25 among just the 50 U.S. states. After that, it’s Massachusetts (28th), Maine (41st), Rhode Island (42nd), and Vermont (48th).

How free your state is directly affects many important outcomes. One is the movement of people.

“Fiscal, regulatory, and personal freedom are all independently, positively, statistically significantly correlated with net in-migration,” write William Ruger and Jason Sorens, authors of Freedom in the 50 States.

It’s no surprise, then, that New Hampshire is winning the migration game. According to data collected by Kenneth Johnson at the UNH Carsey School of Public Policy, the Granite State experienced a net migration gain of 18,300 in 2021 and 2022. Forty-four percent of those migrants came from Massachusetts, 8% came from Maine and Vermont combined, and 14% came from elsewhere in the Northeast.

New Hampshire was one of only two New England states to see its population increase every year from 2018–2022, growing to nearly 1.4 million today—a 6% increase since 2010—while a state like Vermont sits at about 647,000 people. (The other was Maine, which saw a migration surge during the COVID-19 pandemic.)

Net in-migration isn’t something New Hampshire can take for granted. More people died in the Granite State than were born in 2021 and 2022, and New Hampshire consistently has one of the lowest birth rates in the country, meaning the state’s recent population growth has been entirely due to those moving into the state.

And what explains the Granite State’s net migration gain? “One channel by which economic freedom affects in-migration is by increasing economic growth,” Ruger and Sorens write. “We found a robust relationship between economic freedom in one year and income growth in the next.”

The bottom line is that freedom isn’t just valuable in its own right (which it is). Freedom, fundamentally, leads to greater economic opportunity and prosperity. More freedom generally means more of the other two as well.

New Hampshire’s median household income of $83,449 is $15,000 higher than Vermont’s and $20,000 higher than Maine’s.

While the rest of New England champions increased government spending for social programs and public welfare, higher tax rates, more regulation, and top-down control over education and the economy, they get in return lower levels of economic opportunity, growth, and prosperity than New Hampshire does.

Mitchell Scacchi | JBartlett

The post While Freedom Flourishes in New Hampshire, the Rest of New England Is a Different Story appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

Sandy Cortez “Exposes” Herself …

Sat, 2023-12-09 23:30 +0000

Alexandria Ocasio Cortex, the recently minted millionaire (yes, it’s true) and former bartender, shared some keen-Cortez insight on the rising objections to boys being allowed to participate in girls’ sports. “Exposing,” if you like – not just the problem – but some of the contradictions in her argument.

 

Aren’t genital exams the Dem Party’s bread and Butter regardless of age? Hello, abortion! I’m not sure how familiar you are with those, but to have one, you need your “genitals examined.” Too extreme? Well, there are several situations where a medical professional might examine girls or women in that vicinity. Women’s Health Care – as I understand the Democrat definition, is impossible without it. That vicinity is the center, the apex of health for women from the progressive side of every aisle. A strange development after decades of suffrage and women’s rights marches (even some with cute pink pussy hats) whose point was to have the world view women as something other than that.

You Could say that in preparation for a lifetime of being defined as a vagina by an entire political party, we should “open up all women and girls to genital examinations when they are underage.”  Good practice for when the world is run by tyrannical men pretending to be women.

So, is this a privacy issue? That would be ironic.

The one-time “physical” is standard practice in all school sports.

Your concerns would allow boys who are attracted to girls to get their creep on in bathrooms and locker rooms  -“examining girls’ genitals” frequently and potentially at length. Obviously, in this context, the words examination and genitals cover a lot of territory, not just in the number of girls or the frequency of observation but in various states of dress and undress.

The infamous Lia Thomas is alleged to have been – on occasion – visibly aroused in the ladies’ swim team locker room, which, adding to the Sandy Cortez narrative, reminds us that the girls in her world are being forced to “examine” genitals against their will. (Related: College Hack: Just Do This Guys, And You Can Parade Naked Through Women’s Locker Rooms …)

And if we understand correctly, the discomfort at being examined once by a medical professional is significant, while objecting to being examined regularly in various states of undress by a boy (who could be naked with an erection) is bigoted. Peeping Tom only needs to change his name to Tammy, and exhibitionism and peeping become a right; its rejection is an act of discrimination.

More unpunishable crimes on the streets of the naked city.

And while the odds of serious injury are less common among pre-pubescent athletes, allowing the comingling of sexes based on how one feels (as in, I feel like staring at girls in their underwear without fear of punishment) not long into puberty, boys pretending to be girls present a significant “women’s health risk.”

Again, defenders will insist that rights trump risks, and generally speaking, as a society, we police after the fact, but is that truly an argument you’d like to make in the wake of years of rape-culture rhetoric? Men pretending to be women who are transferred to women’s prisons have an alarmingly common tendency to rape actual women.

It seems like that’s the culture you’re looking for, in which case women had best think about changing their party of preference before their daughters find themselves examining male genitals in ways that would be inappropriate to explain on these pages.

 

The post Sandy Cortez “Exposes” Herself … appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

The New Hampshire Republican State Committee, AT BEST, Is A Joke

Sat, 2023-12-09 22:00 +0000

The New Hampshire Republican State Committee is “looking forward” to ABC News hosting a Republican debate. Have they ever watched the ABC Nightly News with David Muir? It is 30 minutes of schilling for the Biden regime and attacking actual Republicans.

Why would any institution charged with electing Republicans be “looking forward” to having a panel of activists posing as journalists asking GOP candidates questions that are not important to GOP voters and are intended to embarrass and weaken the GOP candidates?

 

 

Why? Because FITN is a grift. It is about the elites making money and feeding their egos. The Republican State Committee is a grift. No institution that actually had as its objective electing Republicans would be “partnering” with Fake News ABC, never mind “looking forward” to partnering with Fake News ABC. At best, the Republican State Committee is a joke. But you know as well as I do it’s a grift.

The post The New Hampshire Republican State Committee, AT BEST, Is A Joke appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

Bananas: GOP IV – The Phantom Menace

Sat, 2023-12-09 20:30 +0000

And then there were four… The Republican national championship has been whittled down to its final four competitors, and not without controversy.

Despite having an undefeated polling season and walking away with gigantic lead after gigantic lead, Donald Trump was nowhere to be found as the season-ending playoff among GOP hopefuls saw four candidates all having at least one loss on their record – they weren’t Donald Trump.

Sweet home Alabama was the site for this last and almost best brouhaha, where the crimson tidal wave crashed on the stage like the 2022 election season.  Both contestants and moderators brought their A games, but in a country with the educational standards of a Mad-lib an A just isn’t what it used to be.

Hosting the event was media upstart News Nation, which, like the debate stage, has become a clearing house for also-rans.  Elizabeth Vargas, Megyn Kelly, and Eliana Johnson were the moderators, and these fiery vixens had carefully crafted questions intending to evoke the highest in journalistic inquiry since the nation was confronted with that timeless query, “What is a woman”?  Don’t bother asking these ladies because manning up was the soup du jour as two of the three men on the stage set out to make misogyny great again!

Megyn Kelly began the interlocution by suggesting one of them had the chance to become “leader of the free world” if only they could overcome a fifty-point deficit held by Grand Wizard Trump, who CNN and MSNBC reported was either harassing the next Miss Universe or holding another MAGA Klan Rally.  At this point what difference does it make, right Hillary?

Fixing her gaze on Florida Governor Ron Desantis, she reminded him he was trailing the aspiring dictator even in his home state of Florida.  Desantis quickly retorted by listing off the string of successes he’d had in combating leftist-woke ideologues in his home state before reminding Mrs. Kelly of her failed NBC show then pointing out Mrs. Haley’s eye-shadow was too dark for her dress, which would set the tone for the rest of the evening.

Haley was next to respond to a question about her entanglements with big banks and defense contractors and whether or not she would be beholden to them rather than the voters.  Still stinging from Desantis’ slight, she said, “Ron’s just jealous they want someone who actually knows how to wear heels,” which elicited thunderous applause from her high-paying cheering section.

Speaking of heels Vivek Ramaswamy wasted no time in turning his sights on Haley.  Fielding a question about his viability due to a recent drop in the polls, he suggested the stilettoed former governor from South Carolina couldn’t find Ukraine on a map before challenging her to play Are You Smarter Than A Third Grader with his nine-year-old son, who was recently accepted to his alma mater Harvard.  This elicited a cacophony of boos from the third-grade loving crowd of southerners, which quickly turned into cheers after he yelled out “Roll Tide!” while holding up a picture of Alabama football coach Nick Saban.

A game Chris Christie could be seen stewing on the sideline as he leaned against his podium in a three-point stance like an offensive lineman.  Clad in an oxygen mask and gulping down water with a look on his face that said, “Put me in coach,” Christie gamely came to the wounded Haley’s defense by calling Ramaswamy a “blow-hard” and then took a long drag from his mask before calling a time-out.

The half-time show featured 98 year-old Dolly Parton dressed in a cheerleader costume where she sang a few of the GOP favorites.  Mrs. Parton bravely tip-toed up and down the stage, accompanied by two midgets she appeared to have smuggled inside her bustier.  Also wearing seven-inch heels, which were the envy of more than one of the debaters, she belted out such conservative classics as “9 to 5”, “Take This Job and Shove It” by Johnny Paycheck, and “Money” by Pink Floyd.  Praise the Lord and pass the ridiculously overpriced ammunition, I say!

Desantis and Ramaswamy had been working on some plays during the break, then came out in another coordinated offensive set where both men set blocks for the beleaguered phantom menace Trump before running the ball up the middle again right at a defense-contractor-less Haley, who was performing CPR on a fallen Christie and his political ambitions.

Color commentators Tony Romo and Jim Nantz cried foul on behalf of the apparent abusing of a woman by two men in a competitive event but were silenced after Ramaswamy and Desantis emerged from the pile wearing wigs, lipstick, and sensible shoes while holding a sign that read “Queers for Palestine”.  This was clearly a play to gain votes from the crowd of collegial attendees but sadly for the panderers they failed to appreciate the context of the moment and after the jeering crowd of genteel southerners calmed down both were censured by the moderators for “harassing and bullying” a fellow candidate, which turns out is a big no-no.

Finally, the candidates were asked to choose a president from whom they drew inspiration.  A resuscitated Christie went first, choosing Ronald Reagan, then proceeded to pitch his new book titled “What Would Reagan Do?”  Clearly, in the holiday spirit, Christie then donned a Santa Claus costume and walked to the edge of the stage before casting dozens of WWRD bracelets into the mostly Reaganite worshiping crowd, just in time for Christmas.  Haley chose Hillary Clinton as her former president yet was reminded by Eliana she didn’t win back in 2016 and came dangerously close to calling her an election denier, also a no-no for conservatives.  Desantis made the unusual choice of Vermont’s very own silent Calvin Coolidge, then dared Mrs. Haley to name which state he hailed from.

Lastly, Ramaswamy paused briefly before waxing historically on the merits of yet another famous misogynist, Thomas Jefferson, who, he aptly pointed out, not only wrote the Declaration of Independence at a youthful thirty-three years of age but also “invented the swivel chair you ladies are sitting on” to the moderators, none of whom seemed to be as impressed as the seats themselves.

An exit poll was taken, and the results showed the candidates ranked as follows:

  • Desantis 2%
  • Haley & Ramaswamy tied at 1.5%
  • Christie -14%
  • Donald Trump 113%

 

The post Bananas: GOP IV – The Phantom Menace appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

[Update!] Is Facebook Fraudulently Fishing for Voter Data Using NH SOS Dave Scanlan’s Name?

Sat, 2023-12-09 19:00 +0000

Facebook has been tossing up an alert asking if you are registered to vote. I ignored it when I saw it, as did a few other folks who noticed, but a Grok reader screen grabbed it, and it found its way to my inbox.

 

 

I’m waiting on Secretary State of Dave Scanlan to confirm this, but I had a secondhand conversation with someone who spoke to him. He said that his office has nothing to do with it, and he did not give anyone permission to use his name or office.

This is a big deal, and for our readers outside New Hampshire, please let us know if you’ve seen that yet or when you do. It seems likely this will be appearing either before your primary or just in general.

We will do a follow-up as soon as we have confirmation from the Secretary of State and any details about what his office has planned in response.

12/9/23 3:30 pm Update!

Secretary of State Dave Scanlan has responded to my email about whatever it is Facebook is doing.

Steve, Thanks for sending me this. This is the voter information lookup page on our website, however we do not contact voters in this manner. I will be alerting the attorney general. Dave

We will report any additional updates as we receive them.

 

The post [Update!] Is Facebook Fraudulently Fishing for Voter Data Using NH SOS Dave Scanlan’s Name? appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

Sexual Assault as Warfare

Sat, 2023-12-09 17:30 +0000

Monday this past week, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said,  “One of the reasons that [Hamas] doesn’t want to turn over women that they’ve been holding hostage… is they don’t want those women to be able to talk about what happened to them during their time in custody.”

He later added he meant sexual violence. He also said that this issue played into why the ceasefire ended late last week.  It is why Hamas doesn’t want to re-engage in talks. Mr. Miller’s statement caught some people by surprise.

It caused media outlets to react with a degree of alarm. CNN interviewed Democrat Pramila Jayapal, who claimed that she and other Democrats condemn Hamas and their tactic of rape but that it is also important to “be balanced about bringing in the outrages against the Palestinians.”

We want to thank Marc Abear for this Contribution – Please direct yours to Editor@GraniteGrok.com.
You can review our ‘Op-Ed Guidelines‘ on the FAQ Page.

Hamas denies the allegations made in the State Department’s allegations.  They issued a statement Monday saying their fighters are Muslim. They would never engage in sexual assault. In that same statement, they also said they never attacked the music festival in Israel.

The music festival was where Hamas fighters paraglided in, slaughtered, and raped over 100 people. That’s on video. Also on video and retold by a survivor from that festival was a young woman assaulted by a gang of Palestinians who shot her in the head when they concluded their assault.

That story was published on Sunday by the Times of London.

Make of the warzone reporting what you will.  Just know there are facts somewhere.  They will vindicate one position and condemn the other, but is Hamas using sexual assault as a form of warfare?  Does Islam condone such a thing?  Have you heard condemnation by Islam of the tactics?  Why are many Democrats and Progressives not reacting to it?  Why aren’t they reacting, at least not negatively?

 

Reminder: The views and opinions expressed in Op-Eds are those of the author and may not reflect the opinion of GraniteGrok.com or its authors.

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Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

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