The Manchester Free Press

Thursday • January 22 • 2026

Vol.XVIII • No.IV

Manchester, N.H.

Syndicate content Granite Grok
News – Politics – Opinion – Podcasts
Updated: 17 min 39 sec ago

Canadian Who Blamed Wildfires on the Government Pleads Guilty to 14 Counts of Arson

Wed, 2024-01-24 15:00 +0000

As if the climate cult needed fuel for its wildfire narrative, Quebec lit up like a Christmas tree in June Last year. We showed satellite images of multiple fires starting almost simultaneously under a clear sky (so not lightning strikes). Not lighting. Not Climate change. Brian Paré.

Bri-Bri made the case online that the government set those fires, and given how Prime Minister ‘Troo-doh!’ is always looking for a climate axe to grind, why not? “[Paré] repeatedly posted conspiracy theories suggesting the fires had been set by the government in an attempt to coerce the public into believing in climate change.” But there are plenty of examples of climate cultists starting fires (or derailing trains) to create environmental catastrophes, not on the scale of minorities and hate hoaxes or consenting college girls crying rape the next day, but the scope of these less frequent events is typically greater.

On May 31 at 8:30 pm, the town of Chapais issued a mandatory evacuation order due to the raging fires, in particular the fire at Lake Cavan as well as the airport fire, two fires that are included in the charges and were caused by the accused,” [Prosecutor Marie-Phillippe] Charron stated.

We reported on Canadian forest fires last summer. You couldn’t avoid it. The smoke had converted the airspace over US cities to match the gloomy dystopian reality on the ground (after decades of Democrat rule). A week into the alleged man-caused climate disaster, it was obvious men were involved more directly. “In the past months, Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) have arrested several arsonists who have been charged with lighting fires across several provinces, including Nova Scotia, Yukon, British Columbia, and Alberta. The motive behind lighting the fires is unclear. One Albertan, John Cook, has been arrested and charged with 10 counts of arson after setting a string of wildfires in and around Cold Lake, a hamlet near Edmonton.”

Paré (Brian) pleaded guilty “to 13 counts of arson and one count of arson with disregard for human life at a courthouse in Chibougamau, Quebec on Monday. Two further charges of breaking and entering, and causing a public nuisance have been conditionally suspended.” That’s fourteen fires on him, to which he has copped. There may be more to which he has not.

Those wild fires were man-made but not the way the Climate fearmongers would prefer. Fires set by arsonists are a product of the culture, not the climate. Some people just want to see the woods burn.

 

The post Canadian Who Blamed Wildfires on the Government Pleads Guilty to 14 Counts of Arson appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

Last Weeks Comment of the Week (And a Clarification about Comment Rules)

Wed, 2024-01-24 14:00 +0000

You guys do not make this easy. Another great week of comment content and the addition of a few new names I don’t recall seeing or seeing in a while. Thanks for reading and engaging not just the content but each other.

We did have some intrigue last week. I received emails challenging whether certain First Amendment exercises were unconscionable and, therefore, not protected speech. After review, the alleged offenses were deemed protected. That will piss someone off, no doubt, but I can’t help how you feel, and I won’t delete content or ban someone unless there is a clear incitement to violence or explicit threats against a person or group.

Trolls don’t get that consideration, for the record, nor does the inappropriate or excessive reliance on the use of “adult language.” No porn, obviously, with rare exceptions related to the current debate of age-appropriate material in schools and libraries. When possible, we will edit out the offense and not the speaker, but repeat offenses could get you the boot in part for wasting our time.

I was also asked about why someone got banned for something while others with perhaps an opposing opinion were not. I didn’t ban them so that one is still under investigation – I’m waiting on them for more details.

This isn’t rocket science—attack issues, not people.

And, as a side note, I have a lot of emails left to sort and several submitted op-eds to review. If you sent a piece, it is likley waiting for me to get to it.

Comment of the Week

Many a great remark we shared last week, and I am seeing longer and more involved debates on some posts, which is exactly what we want. I apologize for not being nearly as engaged as many of our authors, but I find myself overly busy, and since we missed our fundraising target for 24, I am pulling in other work to make up the difference. If you’d like to help us reach the goal this year, you know what to do.

I pulled at least two dozen great comments to review for last week, but as you all know, there can be only one.

Dan McGuire.

Ian (deliberately, I think) misses the point. This constitutional amendment is a direct attack on the incorrect Claremont supreme court decision from the 90’s. That decision said that “cherish” meant “pay for”. He is right that it never did, but that’s not what they said. This is the subtle way to kick them in the pants to changing that ruling, without having to reprint the constitution. Of course, it will never pass because so many D’s love dem an adequate education, but at least we can get the issue percolating again. The real bit I think you should consider is what was the 1784 meaning of “public schools”. Might it be the current British meaning of the phrase, i.e. what we now call private schools? [I will, of course, be using Ian’s point about “and” as part of the argument to reinterpret “cherish”. As inigo Montoya said, “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” ]

There were plenty of other comments as good, but Dan’s unique take on this issue intrigued me. “The real bit I think you should consider is what was the 1784 meaning of “public schools.”

I’d not seen it or heard it (and maybe I missed it elsewhere), so thanks to Ian for inspiring Dan to write it – Ian, as always, has a lot of keen insights on this and other issues. And isn’t that what this is all about? Conversations that allow debate move the needle in our minds to a perspective we’d not yet considered.

I think it is. That’s what I want to build here and we’ve always had a great foundation to rise from.

Congrats to Dan, and since we’re halfway through this week, I need to start looking for the next winner.

 

The post Last Weeks Comment of the Week (And a Clarification about Comment Rules) appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

NH Shows Power Of The Democrat Machine

Wed, 2024-01-24 13:00 +0000

In a remarkable segment of the FOX News coverage of the New Hampshire Primary, Charles Payne went off on Democrat pundit Jessica Tarloff on the divisiveness of Joe Biden and the Democrat message. Payne is a brilliant business and political analyst and is a Black man.

On Tuesday night, in an emotional moment, Payne set Tarloff straight on the difference between Trump taking on individuals like DeSantis and Haley and the President of the United States denigrating half of the country by calling them MAGAs in a derogatory manner. MAGA is an acronym coined by Donald Trump to denote his Make America Great Again movement. Biden has taken the term MAGA and twisted it to describe the demonic, Nazi-like, radical, white supremacist followers of Donald Trump who are anti-American and a danger to Democracy.

As a man who grew up knowing the racism Charles Payne experienced as a black child in New York, he dispelled the notion that Trump is a racist and minimized his personality that takes on opponents with terse terms versus Biden labeling half the country as disgusting human beings. His claim is the vitriol that Biden spews is far more damaging to the country. I could not agree more and have written about it often.

But aside from this uncharacteristic emotional outburst, Charles is a numbers guy, and the results of the 2024 NH Primary are a numerologist’s playground. New Hampshire has a unique voter demographic where the largest block of registered voters identify as Independent. There are roughly 303,000 Democrats, 299,000 Republicans, and 400,000 Unafiliated or Independents registered to vote in the Granite State. NH allows Independents to vote in the Primary on the Party ballot of choice and then change their affiliation back to Independent after voting. It makes predicting elections very difficult in New Hampshire as you need to identify the trend of 400,000 voters that can go either way. The Independents played a significant role in Tuesday’s results.

I covered in a previous article why Joe Biden did not appear on the Democrat ballot, and he won the Democrat race on the wings of a successful write-in campaign, though the Democrat vote count was suppressed. There were over 300,000 Republican votes cast and only 96,000 Democrat votes. There was evidence of many Independents casting their vote for Nikki Haley, but their vote was more Anti-Trump than Pro-Haley. This Independent movement accounted for the closer-than-expected margin of victory for Trump. Many polls had Trump up by 20-30 percent over Haley, and the actual margin was closer to 12%.

This anomaly makes it difficult to analyze the results of New Hampshire to predict future primary election results in upcoming states like South Carolina and Nevada. The Southern NH counties, which tend to be more Liberal, were within the 10-15% range for Trump, and Haley actually won the Western Strafford county. The Northern Coos county, which tends to be more traditionally Conservative, gave Trump a 30% margin.

The write-in victory for Biden and the Independent votes for Trump shows the power of the Democrat machine. The Republicans will not only have to beat Biden at the ballot box in November but simultaneously fight off the Leftist ground game. It will be a battle for Trump and the Republicans to win, but the stakes require our best effort.

 

The post NH Shows Power Of The Democrat Machine appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

New Hampshire Primary Election Results – Trump Wins with 55% of the Vote, Dems Diss Biden!

Wed, 2024-01-24 11:00 +0000

The New Hampshire primary has come and gone – well, not quite gone. I’m sure we’ll have a few messes in Aisle 5, but the counting is about as over as it’s going to be, and we have results we’re meant to accept as legitimate.

Donald Trump won with over 50% of the vote. That was what everyone was predicting. Haley, however, managed 43%, which was higher than expected (results are not final).

 

DONALD TRUMP

Republican RACE NOT CALLED
163,700 54.55%

NIKKI HALEY

Republican
129,646 43.20%

RON DESANTIS

Republican
2,046 0.68%

CHRIS CHRISTIE

Republican
1,270 0.42%

TOTAL WRITE-INS

Republican
1,061 0.35%

VIVEK RAMASWAMY

Republican
687 0.23%

MIKE PENCE

Republican
353 0.12%

RYAN BINKLEY

Republican
265 0.09%

MARY MAXWELL

Republican
243 0.08%

 

On the other side, nearly half of NH Democrats did not support the write-in Biden campaign. And yes, the 14% of unprocessed write-ins could be ‘Cease Fire.‘

 

JOE BIDEN (WRITE-IN)

Democrat RACE NOT CALLED
54,570 51.50%

DEAN PHILLIPS

Democrat
20,976 19.80%

UNPROCESSED WRITE-IN

Democrat
14,967 14.13%

OTHER WRITE-INS

Democrat
6,583 6.21%

MARIANNE WILLIAMSON

Democrat
5,016 4.73%

DEREK NADEAU

Democrat
1,180 1.11%

VERMIN SUPREME

Democrat
639 0.60%

JOHN VAIL

Democrat
506 0.48%

DONALD PICARD

Democrat
272 0.26%

PAPERBOY PRINCE

Democrat
220 0.21%

MARK GREENSTEIN

Democrat
202 0.19%

We will be providing more analysis of this as the week progresses, including balancing these results against the guests we spoke to on Radio Row. For now, the quick take is this. Trump’s train is still rolling. Haley looked better here, getting more of the anyone but Trump vote but she’s not likely to find similar success as we move down the primary calendar.

As for Biden, he skipped New Hampshire, created problems for his supporters here, and nearly 50% of them took Dean Phillip’s advice (I think it was Dean). Biden wrote you off, so why would you write him in? Incumbents typically get 80%. Biden barely broke 505.

The post New Hampshire Primary Election Results – Trump Wins with 55% of the Vote, Dems Diss Biden! appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

Night Cap: Kennedy’s ‘Giant Sucking Sound’ Threatens Biden

Wed, 2024-01-24 03:00 +0000

Harrowing predictions of national political division for 2024 have heightened as polls show Joe Biden’s approval ratings plummet. Haters of Donald Trump are froth-mouthed over his clear and growing lead, notwithstanding a pull-out-all-ethical-stops legal and propaganda campaign by Democrats to discredit him and even knock him out of the race.

Neither of the traditional parties will accept their Democrat or Republican adversary as POTUS.

Into that breach strides the increasingly influential third-horse option: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

His natural base begins with disgruntled Bernie Sanders supporters. It is very possible that Bernie Sanders would have defeated Donald Trump in the 2016 election had he not been cheated by the Democrat leadership of the nomination for president in lieu of Hillary Clinton.

Many erstwhile Sanders supporters then shifted to Donald Trump, swinging the election away from the presumed Clinton dynastic succession.

RFK, Jr. has been even more bluntly snubbed than Bernie Sanders by the Democrat establishment.

Unlike the Bern, though, RFK, Jr. has not laid down and played possum – he has mounted a viable, steadily expanding third-candidate challenge.

When he announced his presidential candidacy, RFK, Jr. emphatically declared that he identified as a Democrat.  Despite the vaunted Kennedy name and decades of RFK, Jr.’s aggressive environmental litigation against chemical pollution, the mainstream media and DNC shunned him because of his willingness to question COVID vaccines and the wisdom of lockdowns during the pandemic.

Rather than fall on his sword for Joe Biden’s ascension a la Bernie redux, RFK, Jr. then tirelessly toured the alternative media world, reaching millions of American ears through Joe Rogan, Russell Brand, Bari Weiss, Jordan Peterson, and others.

Kennedy’s approval ratings have grown.  This has revealed the toxic bias of many media outlets to Americans intrigued by Kennedy’s willingness to speak truth to power.  Kennedy directly fingers Big Pharma and government health agencies for their COVID-19 pandemic actions, alleging mRNA vaccines were unsafe for children and insufficiently tested, that alternative therapies were unreasonably discouraged and that the disease was exploited to expand government powers.  His recent book is titled “The Wuhan Cover-Up and the Terrifying Bioweapons Arms Race.”

RFK. Jr. has vigorously challenged the national media, and that is giving some Americans hope.  His Kennedy name is a political phoenix from the nation’s 1960s ashes which appeals to some. Yet plenty of Kennedy family members in the Democrat establishment disavow him, which kills the ‘dynasty’ vulnerability.  He is growing in popularity with younger voters disenchanted with established two-party perfidy.  And he is attractive to people who hate Trump but can’t stomach Biden, and vice versa.

When Ross Perot famously challenged the two-party establishment as an independent candidate in the 1992 presidential election, he ominously warned the nation of the “giant sucking sound” of lost American jobs if the North American Free Trade Agreement was enacted.  Perot was right about job losses, but the nation was distrustful of third-party dark horses, and the candidates (George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton) did not deliver the vitriol of the 2024 Trump-Biden battle.

Now, the political climate may be warming for an odd underdog.

Though many observers predicted that RFK, Jr.’s run as an independent would throttle Joe Biden’s election run, and it has, Kennedy’s popularity has also drawn from votes that would otherwise be cast for Trump.  The Los Angeles Times, in a story dated January 8, projects that 16% of voters from the Democrat side would move from Biden to RFK, Jr, while 11% of Republicans would move to Kennedy from Trump. Kennedy’s frank depiction of globalist corporations seeking to dominate the world through control of currency, food, and health is a message that resonates even with some conservatives.

Democrats who refused to contemplate Bernie Sanders in 2016 likely threw Hillary to the historical dustbin and propelled Donald Trump into the White House.  With monkey-wrench RFK, Jr. robustly running as a third-party candidate, will Democrats repeat the 2016 election blunder and back Biden over Kennedy, undermining the Camelot candidate and resurrecting The Donald?  That risk has escalated dramatically since Kennedy announced his independent challenge.

The stakes for an American election have arguably never been higher than in 2024.  RFK, Jr. is roiling the political landscape as he speaks truth to power.  Not since Ross Perot has an independent candidate garnered as much electoral support.  A January 10 Quinnipiac poll puts Kennedy at 11% of the vote in a five-way 2024 match-up: already enough to swing the election result.

RFK, Jr. is the only candidate whose positive favorability ratings have outweighed his negatives.  Bobby, Jr. is an unheard-of animal: a Democrat favorably viewed by most Republicans. This makes him a force to reckon with – not ignore – in 2024.

The Democrat party is prepared to lose the election with Biden rather than win with Kennedy. However, Republicans, too, must now be wary of the implications of a three-way race for Donald Trump.

John Klar is an Attorney, farmer, and author. Mostly farmer… And Regular Contributor to GraniteGrok and VermontGrok.

The post Night Cap: Kennedy’s ‘Giant Sucking Sound’ Threatens Biden appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

Town Clerk Ballot Hijinks in Hopkinton, New Hampshire

Wed, 2024-01-24 01:00 +0000

It looks like business as usual at the polls in New Hampshire, by which I mean we’ve got strange things happening. This story comes to us form the People’s Republic of Hopkinton.

 

I went to bring up my ballot and asked to put it in hand count, but despite a sign that said hand count, the slot was shut and unavailable. The clerk said, oh, just put it in here. We’re going to be counting them later. I said this is bizarre. I have never voted this way; this slot is supposed to be open and available. She says don’t worry.

My son came up a few minutes later, and she tried the same thing; however, this time, there was another person next to her, and she told my son to hold on. She got out a key to open the door access, and he put it in.

I said this isn’t legal; that slot can’t be blocked, and you made me put mine in the machine; the town clerk said oh, I didn’t know.

You could tell she was lying and getting nervous. The town clerk has a purple shirt on in the picture above; if you zoom in, the plastic tub alongside the machine is for people to put their ‘ballot pens’ in.

It’s so close to the machine that you would almost miss seeing the sign that says paper ballot. Also, why do they have ballot pens? 

One more story from the Primary day election, from Merrimack. Two residents registered as Democrats were at the table to check in to vote. They wanted to take Republican ballots even though they were registered as Democrats. The clerk would not allow it and directed them to the Same-day registration table to “register” their complaint.  I am told they were very unhappy – they clearly intended to meddle in the Republican primary but did not know they needed to change their party registration back in October to do that.

We don’t know what happened there, but Haley advocates will take votes from anyone so feel free to decide who to blame for that.

And send us your election day stories. We’ll try to get them published. We don’t need to use your name, but we do need to confirm who you are.

 

The post Town Clerk Ballot Hijinks in Hopkinton, New Hampshire appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

So What Was in Those Impeachment Articles against Trump Way Back in 2019?

Tue, 2024-01-23 23:00 +0000

I am sorry to learn that Ron DeSantis has dropped out of the presidential race today. He was one of the few governors to eschew the vax mandates. The New Hampshire presidential primary is only 40 hours away. The Dem candidates include Marianne Williamson and Dean Phillips, but not Biden, as he refused to participate. The only two big Repub candidates remaining are Trump and Nikki Haley.

(I, too, am on that ballot but am only mentioning the big names. Us little guys have no possible chance of getting many votes, thanks to the expense of publicity.)

Nikki has spent many millions and yet has another ten months to campaign! I have received 32 of her large postcard mailouts. They don’t say much except that she will “stand up to China” (fancy that!), and old people should not hold office. She is a lass of 51 summers.

I do not support Trump. I don’t think he’s got what it takes. However, I disapprove of Congress’s second attempt to impeach him just before he left office in January 2021. I don’t believe any of the nonsense about an insurrection. Surely, the Jan 6 affair was staged.

And as I have said many times, a president phoning a state official (in this case, Georgia’s Sec’y of State Brad Raffensperger) to ask him to “find” some missing votes is perfectly legal. If they were missing, they need to be found. Anyway, a president has no authority to force the matter.

Now for a re-look at the 2019 Impeachment. Note: the only other two presidents who got impeached were Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998. They and Trump were “acquitted’ by a close margin in the Senate. Nixon resigned in 1974 before any articles of impeachment were filed. (Note: Clinton did far, far worse things than the ones stated in his Articles of Impeachment.)

Today, I went to Google to check on the 2021 “second impeachment of Trump.” Mine eyes lingered on the page that directed us to the first impeachment, so I decided to go there instead. Holy smoke! What a scene. Congress is blaming a president for obstructing such things as subpoenas related to the investigation of himself. Is this deja vu or what?

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

Westminster Comes A-calling

In case anyone has lost track of the action, let me give a crude rundown. Since 1990, or earlier, our Congress has been stealthily westminsterized. That is, it is like the British system at Westminster, broken into two parties, where all party members vote predictably — according to what the boss of the party (e.g., Pelosi or Pelosi’s hidden boss) wants.

When I lived in Australia, which officially has a Westminster system, I got used to such an intellectually impoverished set-up.

There are two terrible consequences of a Party parliament. One, the individual rep or senator is freed from the burden of having to think. He/she just says, “Yes, Sir.” Two, each group emphasizes its difference from the other group, then this gets emotional and hence irrational, and juvenile.

In America, Media helps by labeling the states as Red or Blue. And if you are a Red member of Congress, you’d hate to be caught agreeing, on any subject, with the Blues. Childish but true. In fact, if the Blues came up with a good idea, you would block it just so the public would not congratulate the Blues for having provided the nation with something good. Oh, mia patria!

So when the first Articles to Impeach Trump came along, persons such as myself took the process to be “the usual.” I did not bother to read them. I heard that they were about Russiagate — that our president had allowed a foreign nation to influence our election (something we do left, right, and center worldwide). It was pitched as an earnest move by Dems to hit Trump simply because he is Republican.

But now I see that the Articles also say that The Executive obstructed The Legislature. This is just the sort of turf war that the Founding Fathers wanted all three branches to engage in. The Constitution’s balance of power depends on it.

I am Red, and I hereby confess my guilt that I fully downgraded anything in those Blue impeachment Articles because they were Blue. Granted, I was also influenced by information on the Internet that Russiagate was false and did not happen.

Today, I do not even know if Russiagate happened. I doubt that such a thing deserves the suffix “gate.” I seem to recall Jeff Sessions or another Trump cabinet member being grilled as to whether a Russian diplomat was in the room. Diplomats can be in our rooms! Oh please, do we have to be so led by the nose?

Now for That First Impeachment of President Trump

I will now display the two articles of the First impeachment, dated 2019. I have abridged the text about 50%, but only to reduce lengthy formal phrases. Never did I change anything.

Lest you think I am doing this to be anti-Trump (I already am anti-Trump), wait till you see the denouement. The things that the Blues are accusing a Red of are just like what the Reds today should be accusing Blue Biden of — obstruction of Congress.

Go, Red Reps! And Blue reps! Get that criminal Biden, and his former NIH man Fauci, and his in-a-trance Mayorkas and Garland, off the field. Don’t waste another minute! Help! Help!

I urge all citizens to toss their colors off for a while and get back to what the Constitution says, and see how our presidents do not give a damn. But the Congresspersons are just as bad. They can only see Red/Blue competition. (I give Marjorie Taylor Greene credit. No doubt there are a few others– of both parties!! — who should get a medal for trying.)

Here it is. You can see it in full at congress.gov. It is House Resolution 755 from the first session of our One Hundred Sixteenth Congress: Articles of Impeachment Against Donald John Trump. December 18, 2019

CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, RESOLUTION.

Resolved That Donald John Trump, President of the United States, is impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors and that the following articles of impeachment be exhibited to the United States Senate:

Articles of impeachment exhibited by the House of Representatives of the United States of America in the name of itself and of the people of the United States of America against Donald John Trump, President of the United States of America, in maintenance and support of its impeachment against him for high crimes and misdemeanors.

ARTICLE I: ABUSE OF POWER

… In his conduct of the office of President of the United States—and in violation of his constitutional oath faithfully to… the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution…, and in violation of his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed—Donald J. Trump has abused the powers of the Presidency, in that: [he] solicited the interference of a foreign government, Ukraine, in the 2020 United States Presidential election.
[This] included soliciting the Government of Ukraine to publicly announce investigations that would benefit his reelection, harm the election prospects of a political opponent [Obama’s VP, Joe Biden], and influence the 2020 United States Presidential election to his advantage.

President Trump also sought to pressure the Government of Ukraine to take these steps by conditioning official United States Government acts of significant value to Ukraine on its public announcement of the investigations. [He did this] … for corrupt purposes in pursuit of personal political benefit. In so doing, [he] … undermined the integrity of the United States democratic process. He thus ignored and injured the interests of the Nation.

President Trump engaged in this scheme or course of conduct through the following means:

(1) President Trump—acting both directly and through his agents within and outside the United States Government—corruptly solicited the Government of Ukraine to publicly announce investigations into …
(B) a discredited theory promoted by Russia alleging that Ukraine—rather than Russia—interfered in the 2016 United States
(2) With the same corrupt motives, President Trump—acting both directly and through his agents within and outside the United States Government—conditioned two official acts on the public announcements that he had requested— (A) the release of $391 million of United States taxpayer funds that Congress had appropriated on a bipartisan basis for the purpose of providing vital military and security assistance to Ukraine to oppose Russian aggression and which President Trump had ordered suspended; …

ARTICLE II: OBSTRUCTION OF CONGRESS
… The House of Representatives has engaged in an impeachment inquiry focused on President Trump’s corrupt solicitation of the Government of Ukraine to interfere in the 2020 United States Presidential election.

As part of this impeachment inquiry, the Committees undertaking the investigation served subpoenas seeking documents and testimony deemed vital to the inquiry from various Executive Branch agencies and offices, and current and former officials.

In response, without lawful cause or excuse, President Trump directed Executive Branch agencies, offices, and officials not to comply with those subpoenas. [Outrageous, no?]

President Trump thus interposed the powers of the Presidency against the lawful subpoenas of the House of Representatives, and assumed to himself functions and judgments necessary to the exercise of the “sole Power of Impeachment” vested by the Constitution in the House of Representatives.

President Trump abused the powers of his high office through the following means:
(1) Directing the White House to defy a lawful subpoena by withholding the production of documents sought therein by the Committees.
(2) Directing other Executive Branch agencies and offices to defy lawful subpoenas and withhold the production of documents and records from the Committees—in response to which the Department of State, Office of Management and Budget, Department of Energy, and Department of Defense refused to produce a single document or record.
(3) Directing current and former Executive Branch officials not to cooperate with the Committees—in response to which nine Administration officials defied subpoenas for testimony, namely John Michael “Mick” Mulvaney, Robert B. Blair, John A. Eisenberg, Michael Ellis, Preston Wells Griffith, Russell T. Vought, Michael Duffey, Brian McCormack, and T. Ulrich Brechbuhl.

… This abuse of office served to cover up the President’s own repeated misconduct and to seize and control the power of impeachment—and thus to nullify a vital constitutional safeguard vested solely in the House of Representatives.

In all of this, President Trump has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as President and subversive of constitutional government, to the great prejudice of the cause of law and justice, and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States.

Wherefore, President Trump, by such conduct, has demonstrated that he will remain a threat to the Constitution if allowed to remain in office, and has acted in a manner grossly incompatible with self-governance and the rule of law. President Trump thus warrants impeachment and trial, removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust, or profit under the United States.

Commentary

Oh, yes, that last bit reminds me that an aim of the Blues was to prevent Red Trump from holding office in the future. This isn’t the same as the later effort (Second Impeachment) to lower the 14th Amendment boom on him. But it is worth mentioning — per two states’ rulings to keep TRUMP OFF THE BALLOT.
The 14th Amendment says that a rebel (insurrectionist, whatever) must not again become an officer of the US — unless Congress okays it. That’s enough and plenty to guide the judge to say that Trump should be allowed to be on all 50 ballots. Were the appeals judge to say No, Congress would never arrive at its power, clearly stated in the 14th Amendment, to lift the restriction on the rebel.

So even if Trump has been a rebel on Jan 6 (and I say he was no rebel), the judge should not permit any such nonsense as ballot-blockage.

I don’t want to be there if a judge rules otherwise.

Please. Everybody, don’t let your colors guide your thoughts on the Constitution. There is nothing in the parchment to support the idea of colors anyway. We do NOT have a Westminster parliament. We have “We the People” advising our reps and senators.

–Mary Maxwell hopes you will visit her campaign website at www.ConstitutionAndTruth.com

The post So What Was in Those Impeachment Articles against Trump Way Back in 2019? appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

Comment of the Week (for Last Week) Will be Named Wednesday

Tue, 2024-01-23 22:00 +0000

With three days of all-day broadcasting and the prep to make sure that all happened without too many hiccups, I did not have time to choose a commenter of the week for last week. Yet. I will.

We will announce that on Wednesday and reach out to them for an address to which we will ship a Grok Goodie.

Thanks for your patience.

As for all the broadcasting, that will get sliced up and shared here in the coming days, though, admittedly, Post-Primary, so some of it might not be as fresh, but it will provide contrast to the actual results.

That could not be helped.

 

The post Comment of the Week (for Last Week) Will be Named Wednesday appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

Biden Ignoring NH Speaks Volumes

Tue, 2024-01-23 21:00 +0000

President Joe Biden does not appear on the 2024 New Hampshire Presidential Primary ballot. As you drive the backroads of New Hampshire, you see yard signs urging Democrats to write in Joe Biden on Tuesday’s ballot.

This effort seems like a futile move to push the President to a victory in a state that he has abandoned, dissed, belittled, and showed disregard for the Constitution of the country and New Hampshire. Biden is not on the ballot for many reasons, but none are valid.

You need to review history for Biden’s primary reason. In 2020, Biden had horrific showings in the Iowa Caucuses and the New Hampshire Primary. His third attempt at the White House was dead until Representative Jim Clyburn (D-SC) came to his friend’s rescue. With South Carolina next on the Primary schedule, Clyburn pulled out all the stops to manufacture a win for Biden, who then rolled over the Democrat field to win the nomination. Jim Clyburn and South Carolina were the kingmakers in 2020.

Biden had the DNC move South Carolina ahead of New Hampshire in the 2024 schedule to reward Clyburn and South Carolina, stripping the First in the Nation label from the Granite State. The problem is that NH stipulates in its state Constitution that it must be the first primary election, regardless of any other state’s actions. NH responded to the DNC and scheduled the NH Primary a week before the SC election. This move caused Biden to get vindictive. He first refused to file paperwork to be on the NH ballot, and then he had the DNC designate there would be no delegates from NH at the Democrat Convention. Spiteful Biden made NH irrelevant in choosing the Democrat candidate for President for the 2024 election. With Biden’s actions, why should anyone waste a write-in vote for this man?

The polls show Biden with a significant lead in New Hampshire, but that is because he has derailed the primary process. He would not acknowledge any of his Democrat challengers, Kennedy or Williamson, by debating them and, on several occasions, denied requests from Kennedy for security assistance. Biden is working hard to stay out of the public eye for the entire election cycle. He does not want anyone to see the aging man in charge or hear his disjointed message. His only chance of winning reelection is to stay in his basement, as he did in 2020.

While Biden hides from Americans, he has two primary surrogates who will campaign for him and a willing media to assist him in any way possible. The First Lady, Jill Biden, and Vice President Kamala Harris have begun hitting the media trail. Jill Biden did a softball session with Mika Brzezinski of Morning Joe on MSNBC. This poor showing was a rehearsed session that should have been paid for by the Biden Campaign. Kamala visited the set of The View for a love fest. There was not a single hard-hitting question in either, and that is what we can expect for 2024.

The results from New Hampshire will not be surprising, but the effects of what Biden did to the state needs to be reported. Let’s see how the networks tell the story on Tuesday night.

 

The post Biden Ignoring NH Speaks Volumes appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

The Manchester Free Press aims to bring together in one place everything that you need to know about what’s happening in the Free State of New Hampshire.

As of August 2021, we are currently in the process of removing dead links and feeds, and updating the site with newer ones.

Articles

Media

Blogs

Our friends & allies

New Hampshire

United States