It’s time to talk about the Londonderry Lions Club again. A topic that I have been talking about for a long time but feel the need to cover once again. I was inducted into the club in April of 2022 and sat in on a members briefing in which the treasurer said they had record rental Revenue income during covid.

Later that summer, the Lions leadership, without a vote from their members, worked with the town of Londonderry to quit the Morrison Hall lease. The Joint public statement from the Club and the Town claimed that the Club had declining revenue during covid, but this directly contradicted what was told to members about Club finances.

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Having filed a 91a for town records, and armed with the knowledge that the club had misrepresented their revenue, I started an email chain to members in September of 2022 that eventually resulted in me being discharged from the club. The “official” reason stated was that I was being divisive, but prominent longtime members who now serve both in our Town and at the State later claimed credit for planning my removal. This series of internal club emails were later maliciously forwarded to town Councilor Jim Butler, who read them at a July 2023 Public Meeting of the Council to try to disparage my public image at that time.

The club relied on the taxpayer to offset the upkeep of the hall for many years until the Town Finance Director was finally told that this was a violation of their lease. Coincidentally, the Club quit their lease shortly thereafter. The decision-making behind this process is still being driven by the Town Council and not the citizens, as recently noted by a member of our budget committee. The Town Council only did a listening session because council candidate Shawn Faber held one first. The Planning Board was outright disrespectful towards public comment on the topic. Incredibly, the possibility was stated at a recent public meeting that the property may revert to the Club. Am I the only one who feels like this is morally wrong to give a historical property back to people who did not fulfill their obligations in maintaining it?

I understand many people do not want the tax burden of another property on the town books, but surely we can do something better than giving the property back to a dishonest and disloyal group of people like the Lions. The Lions’ community service to the town of Londonderry has largely come at the expense of a disenfranchised taxpayer. I do not believe we should give them a building, or buy their trees, or let them test our kids’ eyesight.

Until and unless the Lions Officers at large present a check to the Town for repayment for past Hall upkeep, I highly encourage you to donate your time elsewhere. Donate your money elsewhere.

 

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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The Scott Administration made big news last week when they warned of an unprecedented impending property tax increase for next year of 18.5 percent. Driven by a 12 percent year-over-year increase in public school spending, they anticipate this will add another $650 to the bill of a $250,000 home.

FYI, the median price of a home in Vermont in 2022 was $310,000.

Vermont already spends more per pupil than almost every other state in the Union at the official count of $22,953, but the NEA pegged the number at $25,053 in 2022-23, which is the number you get when you simply divide the education budget by the number of students. And what are we getting for all this increased spending year after year? An unmitigated disaster of falling student outcomes, rising classroom violence, and a shockingly arrogant lack of accountability or common sense by public school officials.

Here’s a rundown of some recent stories.

I have written previously about Curt Hier’s ongoing battles with the Slate Valley School Board in which Hier, a school board member himself, is trying to discover the extent of abuse in his district, particularly against students with disabilities, regarding the use of “seclusion and restraint” – euphemisms for locking kids in closets or pinning them to the ground. Rather than joining Hier’s attempts to get to the bottom of this, his fellow school board members joined with school officials to attack Heir, attempted to remove him from the board and block the information he seeks from becoming public.

Good news on this front: Judge Mary Miles Teachout sided with Hier’s public records request, stating, “The transparency policy of the (Public Records) Act would be served by making such records available as long as individual privacy of students is protected. Without access to the only government records documenting compliance with its detailed policy on the use of restraint and seclusion in schools, the public has no access to information collected by the government on whether Rule 4500 policy is actually being responsibly implemented (Rutland Herald).” Umm… yeah!

The school pledged to appeal the ruling to keep their compliance (or lack thereof) with the law secret. We hear so often in the debate over school choice in Vermont that public schools are transparent and accountable, whereas independent schools are not. This episode should put the lie to that claim. Public schools are neither transparent nor accountable to the public, and don’t think they should be.

Note: “Seclusion and restraint” abuses are not isolated to Fair Haven. There is currently a bill in the legislature, H.409, to address this statewide problem.

In Morrisville’s Peoples Academy, there was recently an incident in which a student was stabbed through the hand by another student who brought a six-inch serrated knife to school. While the details of what actually happened between the two students are disputed, the key beef school officials have is with the parent of the student who was injured for reporting the incident to the police.

According to the News & Citizen, Mindy Marshall, the boy’s mother, “… alleged that Peoples principal Phil Grant told her to keep the incident under wraps as he didn’t want the media reporting on the incident…. Marshall also said that she and other parents found it upsetting that there was no public communication between the school and parents that a stabbing occurred at the school.”

Again, so much for transparency and accountability regarding student safety.

In Hinesburg, a police chase ended on the grounds of the Community School where kindergarteners were outside playing. School officials refused to let the police search the area because they worried the sight of law enforcement officers would scare the children. Later, a loaded gun and a bag of what is suspected to be cocaine were found – by students. Likely but unconfirmed, they were second graders (WCAX). This is how public school officials interpret “safety first” for our kids.

Similarly, the principal of Burlington High School was compelled to resign after she resorted to pulling a fire alarm in order to break up a fight. Much was made about her judgment in pulling the alarm, but the question remains: what was happening that was so bad that she felt her best option was to resort to such a drastic action? And where were the school security officers? Oh yeah, they were let go because seeing them caused trauma or some such logic.

But despite all this, the kids are learning, right? Wrong.

As has been reported, Vermont test scores are dropping significantly and have been for over a decade. A recent deep dive revealed that our public schools have been teaching kids to read the wrong way for over a generation. Along that line comes a story from the Brattleboro Reformer, Low Reading Scores Alarm BFUHS Board, in which the Bellows Falls Union High School principal revealed that half of the freshman class “were reading at a first-grade or elementary school level.”

And for these kinds of results – culturally and academically — the people running our public schools want us to pay 18.5 percent more on top of our already exorbitant property tax bills? $25,000 per year per kid isn’t enough?

Clearly, money isn’t the problem. It is the way the system is structured and being operated that is the problem.

Did you know that Vermont public schools don’t have to go through any accreditation process to show that they are performing to standards? Our independent schools do. Every five years. And it is an arduous process involving in-depth auditing and outside review.

According to the Associated Independent Schools of New England, “The goals of an accreditation through AISNE are quality assurance and continued school improvement. AISNE accreditation is a system of accountability that requires self-reflection, analysis, and planning for the future. Comprehensive in scope, it is based on a set of standards that define the characteristics of independent schools. AISNE accreditation attests to substantial compliance with established qualitative standards, integrity in statements to the public describing the school’s program, school commitment to improvement, and sufficiency of institutional resources.”

In Vermont, if an independent school cannot successfully pass through the accreditation process – again, every five years – it is not allowed to receive public money through the tuitioning system. This is a big reason why you don’t hear stories about kids attending Vermont independent schools not being able to read or being locked in “blue rooms” because discipline in the classroom is gone.

Public school advocates big lie in trying to shut out and shut down independent schools is that they don’t have to do all the things public schools have to do. Fairness! Okay. How about the 2024 legislature passes a law that mandates every Vermont public school must follow the same rigorous review and accreditation process that independent schools have to pass? That would not only be fair, it would also be of tremendous benefit to our students, families, and taxpayers.

But until our public school system demonstrates it is capable of reform, willing to be transparent, can reasonably guarantee the safety of our students, and, you know, is competent to teach them to do things like math and to read, Vermonters should send a loud and clear message: not another dime!

The post An 18 Percent Property Tax Increase Will Not Fix Our Public Schools appeared first on Granite Grok.

The Marxist goons in Leftistan (DBA California) passed a law requiring retailers with 500 or more employees to include a gender-neutral children’s section or face a 500.00 fine. Well, of course, they did, but wait until you hear what the sponsor had to say about it.

 

Assemblyman Evan Low (D-Campbell), who introduced the legislation, said, “We need to stop stigmatizing what’s acceptable for certain genders and just let kids be kids.” The bill, he said, was designed to “encourage more businesses across California and the U.S. to avoid reinforcing harmful and outdated stereotypes.”

“Part of it is to make sure if you’re a young girl that you can find a police car, fire truck, a periodic table or a dinosaur,” Low reportedly said. “And then similarly, if you’re a boy, if you’re more artistic and want to play with glitter, why not? Why should you feel the stigma of saying, ‘Oh, this should be shamed,’ and going to a different location?”

There are more reasons to make fun of this statement than we can shake a copy of Gender Queer at, but in the interest of staying over the target, we need to ignore them. They are distractions like how a parent might buy their daughter a truck or their son glitter without the state forcing stores to carry things they’d not otherwise sell to appease the virtue-signaling idgits in Sacramento. Or how they could deliberately go to stores that have these things to do that without any mandate. Or not. The issue is that a gender warrior of the land of the genderless genderqueers assumes boys like trucks and police cars and the Periodic Table and girls are more artistic and like glitter.

Bigot!

Bigot! Bigot! Bigot! And isn’t that the problem? Take Drag Queens, for example. Burlesque queens would be more appropriate. Men dressed as caricatures of slutty women. What’s gender-neutral about that? Nothing. Not a damn thing. It is insulting to not just women but slutty women.

It is lousy cross-dressing. Something you’d expect to see coming out of the Target-Sponsored clown car at the gender-neutral circus, except, as we noted, it’s not neutral.

Garish and over the top is OK, as long as you’re honest about what it is, and yes, I brought it up to make a point. If California can force retailers to carry products for which their customers don’t typically shop, when can we expect a new law mandating costumes and makeup for drag queens? They can’t shop just anywhere for that stuff. Shouldn’t they be able to find what they need at Home Depot or Hobby Lobby – if they happen to be either handy, artistic, or crafty – and isn’t the absence of such accouterments shameful?

Drag shows are all about promiscuity and sex. Think of all the entenders one might double with a DEWALT 20v 1/2 inch drill driver on a tool belt wrapped around your green sequined velvet Mikado (knee-length to show off your rhinestoned snake-print leather lace-up Doc Martens)? All of which Home Depot would have to sell if Assemblyman Evan Low’s law was taken to its illogical conclusion.

You can’t just be neutral about gender; just ask him about the toys boys and girls prefer.

So, what does one “not stock” to make room for what the state says you must have on hand to satisfy an abuse that can never end because it would be discrimination even to define what “gender neutral” means?

And here’s the thing about that. Retailers must make decisions about the already high cost of doing business in much of California. At some point, it will no longer make sense to be there.

Especially if the inspectors show up and cite them because the “gender-neutral” section had just been looted by shoplifters who know they won’t be prosecuted.

 

The post Sponsor of California’s New Gender-Neutral “Toy” Mandate … Genders Toys appeared first on Granite Grok.

I recently received a text from an old Marine Corps buddy who now teaches history at Clemson University. “What’s up with the Celtics floor at the Garden? No more parquet?”

I hadn’t watched much early-season basketball, so I went to YouTube to check the look. Not pretty. Then I read a post by @SamLaFranceNBA.

For the first time in franchise history, the Boston Celtics will be playing some of their home games on a court that doesn’t have a parquet design … [earlier] the NBA officially unveiled the alternate court designs that all 30 teams will use for In-Season Tournament games. Boston’s design features a dark green paint job with a wooden-colored runway down the center. The “city edition” logo for the Celtics is featured at center court, on top of a painting of the NBA Cup trophy. In a statement, the NBA said that the alternate courts will be used for all group-stage and quarterfinal tournament games. The league added that the goal is to make it “instantly clear” to fans when they are watching an In-Season Tournament game.

 

The in-season tournament gimmick is grist for a different mill (i.e., material for another column), but the absence of the parquet is a big issue for many Celtic fans. You see, the Celtic product largely involves tradition—more so than any other NBA team.

Tradition.

Holiday traditions are especially sacrosanct. Detroit Lions home games on Thanksgiving. My mom’s Christmas popcorn balls. The Indy 500 on Memorial Day.

Don’t mess with tradition. Yankee pinstripes. Throwing hats on the ice for hat tricks. Cutting down the net. The seventh inning stretch.

And the Celtic parquet.

As Henry James said, “It takes an endless amount of history to make even a little tradition.”

As Winston Churchill said, “Without tradition, art is a flock of sheep without a shepherd.”

As Woody Allen said, “Tradition is the illusion of permanence.”

Tradition binds together generations, providing common experiences and shared imagery. Mess with tradition at your own peril. (Google “New Coke.”)

Our military services are dealing with terrific recruiting challenges. There are several reasons for this. But a significant cause for the recruiting crisis involves eschewing traditions. For example, Marine Corps female recruits no longer train separately from males. And when veterans no longer sense those traditional ties to the military, they’re less likely to encourage sons or daughters, nieces or nephews, friends or acquaintances, etc. to consider joining the military. There is great intangible recruiting value to honoring tradition.

The current presidential administration now imposes “woke” values onto our military. There’s less focus on warfighting and more focus on social justice. Now the Biden administration wants to use the military to fight “climate change.” No wonder Army enlistments fell 25% short of goals in 2022. Hopefully the next administration will return to celebrating traditional values relating to camaraderie, patriotism, and service as opposed to dreary and dubious woke values relating to “diversity, equity, and inclusion.” Our enemies must love seeing our military focusing so much time and energy on politically correct wokeness. It’s becoming a national security issue.

Tradition.

Consider the lyrics to that wonderful song from that that Academy Award winning film:

“Tradition! Without our traditions our lives would be as shaky as … a fiddler on the roof!”

Truth.

So, may the Celtics bring back the parquet floor and may the military cut back the woke insanity.

Merry (traditional) Christmas!

The post Traditions, Troops, and Hoops appeared first on Granite Grok.

A judge’s recent decision on another Right to Know Lawsuit in New Hampshire could cost the Town of Londonderry a pretty chunk of change in Court and legal fees.

I only bring that part up because the case exposes for our amusement just how corrupt and contemptible a local government can be. While not the slimy cistern of obstruction we know as Nashua, Londonderry has been circling its own drain for years. And without getting into a debate about any war waged by its self-proclaimed political elite against Londonderry Times publisher Deb Paul, this case was indeed frivolous.

The Judge used the word repeatedly in the decision. Frivolous. The Town had no basis for refusing the RSA 91a request for the documents in question but having read them, I can see why there might have been some interest in hiding them. They make Town Manager Michael Malaguti looks like a whiney little bitch.

Malaguti filed a sexual harassment complaint (creating a hostile work environment) with the Town based on this exchange, publicly available from a public Town’sg on the Town’s website.

 

COUNCILOR PAUL: . . . I believe that’s conflict of interest with the Planner being in economic development. You have
somebody seducing businesses to come here and then looking at their plans. That’s not a conflict of interest? That’s not a setup for a law firm, a lawsuit? No.
CHAIRMAN FARRELL Ok, we don’t seduce anybody.
COUNCILOR PAUL: Well, entice, intrigue, convince, use a word.
CHARMAN FARRELL: We follow the guidelines and follow the laws of the State of New Hampshire.
COUNCILOR PAUL: It’s still a conflict for me.

 

No one in their right mind – and a keen observer might discern that Malaguit appears trapped in his Left mind – would construe that to be harassment implicit, explicit, inferred, backhanded, or otherwise unless they are fragile and ill-suited for the job of town manager … or vindictive.

And then deny access to the email and attached letter of complaint to the accused. Deb Paul had to sue the Town for refusing to cough it up, and the Court took the Town and Malaguti to the woodshed.

 

This case involves a frivolous complaint of sexual harassment, brought in apparent bad faith. The complaint was brought by the highest administrative officer of a town. He brought the complaint against an elected official to have her censured for what she said at an on­the­record, public hearing. The views she expressed, and the language that she used, was constitutionally and statutorily protected political speech. …

Make no mistake, Malaguti’s accusation of sexual harassment was frivolous. …

On the record provided by the parties, it is impossible to view Councilor Paul’s comments as sexual harassment, or as sexual anything, or as a comment on the gender of the Town Planner/Development Director. Malaguti’s complaint that Councilor Paul attacked the personal integrity of the Town Planner/Development Director is equally specious.

 

The Judge goes on to provide numerous examples in context, including dictionary definitions of the word ‘seduced’ that have no sexual connotation of any sort. It is embarrassing or should be, and (again) perhaps that is why Londonderry worked diligently to hide it.

So what is it that doesn’t offend them about Malaguti’s behavior? In his effort to smear her, Londonderry lost a bunch of money, damaged himself and the Town, and wait – why don’t I just quote him?

 

 

I’d be curious to know if people thought that the war raging against Deb Paul by the Town of Londonderry, represented by this completely fabricated sexual harassment fiasco – exacerbated by the absurd obstruction undone by the 91-a court case – is the sort of disparaging, discriminating, harassment, the Town of Londonderry should never tolerate.

 

The post Londonderry Needs a Town Manager That isn’t a Whiney Little Bitch appeared first on Granite Grok.

Christmas is undoubtedly the most recognized and celebrated holiday around the world, and the owner of its namesake easily the most known human in all of history, and for good reason.  No human being has ever had the impact of Jesus Christ – alive or dead or resurrected.

For most people throughout history, Jesus was either an archetype or, for those of us since His resurrection, an almost mythical figure we try to know through stories and legend.  At Christmastime, we are reminded of His miraculous birth, immaculately conceived, heralded by angels singing to shepherds, and visited by star-seeking Magi from the Far East.  The story of His birth alone is larger than life and one that is known worldwide.  A birth so significant we set the human calendar by it (B.C. Before Christ, A.D. Anno Domini / “Year of the Lord”).

Christmastime is special for many reasons, however, it has taken on a parallel meaning for many.  Rather than a celebration of God’s gift of salvation wrapped in a manger, it has become a commercial festival of gifts wrapped by Amazon and under a tree.  Though the gift-giving and seasonal flavor are nice they pale in comparison to the real reason for the season, which is Christ Himself, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  The One who’s name is above all names and titles are above all titles because, He was not just the Son of God, He is God the Son, and there is an important distinction.

The title Son of God can often be construed as Jesus was somehow lesser than God, yet that is not the case at all.  He said so Himself, and Paul reiterates it in the book of Colossians:

“The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.  For in Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through Him and for Him.” (Colossians 1:15&16)

Consider again then why this time of year is so special and why our ancestors sought fit to reorient time itself to His birth.  Christ is God Himself come to dwell and reveal the God we all wonder about to us – Emmanuel i.e. “God with us”.  It’s in this very act we see the God of the Universe, creator of all things – Heavens and Earth – chooses to be known by us, not just believed in.  Again, He said so to the prophet Jeremiah:

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.  You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.  I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity.” (Jeremiah 29:11-14)

This seems to be the mistake so many people who wrestle with God fail to grasp, the full-hearted seeking of Him now that He chooses not to be physically with us.  This is the core of faith and also the way to build it.  It can almost seem like He’s playing an impossible game of hide and seek, but He isn’t.  He is there, and He wants you to know He’s there, and He’s given you the way to know it.

Many of us fail to seek with all of our hearts because we either believe our half-hearted attempts were good enough or we lose faith in world that falls so horribly short of even our minimal hopes and expectations we don’t want to suffer the thought God is the ultimate disappointment by not being real.

Even though our ancestors from all over the world changed times, penned scripture, faithfully shared their testimonies, wrote songs, and even made His word the best-selling and most-distributed book of all time, the worry that God won’t meet us in this life in a way that is meaningful and assuring is often too much to bear to risk putting our entire heart on the line.  The thought of the disappointment can be too painful, and for many who no longer believe they have walked through that pain sorely disappointed.  Why God?  Why haven’t you answered me?

I, too, was once in that place in life, ready to give up on any hope God was real let alone good or trustworthy. At perhaps my lowest point in life, which is often precisely where He needs you to be to cry out with all your heart, is when He met me for the first time in a way I couldn’t deny was Jesus, God the Son.

Despite my disdain for Christians and their book, I was so broken and lost I figured, “what did I have to lose?” having lost almost everything.  From a humble and contrite heart, I finally let go of my anger, bitterness, and resentment toward God for the horrible life I’d lived and asked Him for help.  More specifically, I asked Jesus, having learned from some Christians, to ask in His name as He says to in the gospel of John:

“Until now you have not asked for anything in my name.  Ask and you will receive and your joy will be complete.” (John 16:24)

And I kept asking and kept talking to the Jesus I couldn’t see.  And He kept answering in ways I couldn’t deny – someone was listening.  Though I doubted at times and chalked it up to coincidence, I kept going back to the same well and asking again, in His name, always humble and always trusting the same Jesus would answer again.  He did, again, and again, and again.

It’s been twenty years since I started to seek Him with all my heart, and it’s been twenty years of a life punctuated by divine answers to my deepest needs and warmest desires.   I have come to know Him and, more importantly, come to know He knows me and my needs better than I know myself.  The comfort and peace that come with that are beyond description, but they are as real as the sun in the sky.

It was angels that knew God who broke into song that night, just like those who have known Him throughout history are compelled to do the same.  It’s in the knowing Him that our souls rejoice and are comforted to know the Christ of Christmas.  The one who healed the lame, gave sight to the blind, calmed the raging storms, and walked among mankind long enough to change the very way we view history and also how we consider eternity.

So this Christmas, I hope you stop and listen to the words and consider Who it is about which it is sung.

“Joy to the world, the Lord has come, let Heaven and nature sing!”

He is more than a song and a set of legendary stories.  He is the God who made you and wants to know you, and you to know Him, at Christmas and every day unto eternity.

Merry Christmas!

 

The post Knowing the Christ of Christmas appeared first on Granite Grok.

To all those who are sending in memes, thank you!  Keep them coming please, as it helps me gather weaponry to fight the Left.  Please do share this post, and if you share an individual meme, consider mentioning you saw it on the Grok!

Speaking of, from this week, Monday Edition and Wednesday Edition.  Also check out my latest Israel-focused meme & commentary post if this is a subject of interest to you.

 

*** Warning, a few possibly off-color ones, in case tender eyes are about ***

 

The day after, but critical to never forget:

 

 

>>>>>=====<<<<<

 

 

 

That’s the problem.  All these things, whether the Jab / depopulation, or CBDC, or whatever… for the vast majority of people, it’s too big.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prescient.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The idea that the net could go down, or the power could be out for more than an hour or three, or that you might be targeted and frozen out for wrongthink literally does not cross the minds of the vast majority of people.

 

 

 

 

This is astonishing on so many levels I can’t fully wrap my mind around it.

 

 

I’ve never looked… but I did see one meme a while ago of a woman with a bathrobe open to her navel.  Former teacher.  Salary $40-something K per year.  Now, about that same amount per month.  While I certainly do not condone it, at all, I do understand the economic incentive.

 

 

 

 

What’s that conventional wisdom?  They who name a number first lose?

 

 

 

 

 

The lie is believed blindly because it makes people feel good about themselves.

 

 

 

 

 

>>>>>=====<<<<<

 

PSA – PSA – PSA – PSA – PSA

 

 

This is something I never considered, but damn, that’s clever.

 

>>>>>=====<<<<<

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

>>>>>=====<<<<<

 

Pick of the Post:

 

Now, I’m not saying the sun’s been engineered.  But… how utterly convenient the timing, no?

 

 

>>>>>=====<<<<<

 

Palate Cleansers:

 

—

—

 

>>>>>=====<<<<<

 

And don’t forget… come back Monday for another edition.  Same Meme Time.  Same Meme channel.

Please do consider buying me a coffee.

 

 

>>>>>=====<<<<<

 

The post Friday Meme Overflow-Overflow appeared first on Granite Grok.

The goal is to get people to give up their mobility, which coincides both practually and culturally with the idea of freedom—the right to travel without papers anywhere in the nation. But if you want to enter Manhattan, it will cost you a lot more, thanks to a new mobility control plan.

New York’s Governor, Frau Hochul, she of the surveillance, child propagandizing, and public health detention state, has announced a traffic reduction scheme for the congestion zones on Manhattan Island.

 

“New York city will be the first city in America to charge Americans just to go to work in the morning”

“Americans will have to pay $23 per day”

“Passenger vehicles will be charged $15 to enter the congestion zone”

“Trucks between $26 and $36”

“The tolls will be charged once… pic.twitter.com/kMiREg4pI6

— Wall Street Silver (@WallStreetSilv) December 6, 2023

 

The unicorn principle, the fantasy, is that this will reduce transportation emissions by forcing people to pay the city to use crowded, infection-spreading public transportation. What it will actually do is drive up the price of everything moved into the city every day. Not perhaps by a noticeable sum. A drink in Manhattan already costs more than twenty dollars. Everything is expensive. But adding to the cost of doing business always adds to the costs paid by customers.

For some, this might be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. They didn’t move after the COVID tyranny. They’ve suffered through the exponential rise in crime and endured the burden of illegal immigrants and the swelling sea of homelessness. Perhaps this is that ‘one more thing,’ the result of which would be increased migration away from the Big Crapple and the State of New York.

Those who will leave are those who can. This typically means upper middle class and upper class. People of relative means who are not rich by modern standards but who represent the middle class. Not impoverished or poor. Not exactly blue-collar, though many blue-collar trades make what many would call rich man’s wages. And not the very rich who view the new sums as less than loose change.

We’ve seen it in San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Chicago, and New York. The true final form of the policies of the progressive project. A two-class system. The Elite and the dependent.

It will not be absolute, but these rising burdens will push the lower-middle class and the poor further down the economic ladder – widening the gap as those who can leave do. So, in a way, Hochul’s plan will work. There will be fewer cars and trucks in Manhattan, but with fewer dollars from tolls, fees, and taxes, there will also be less revenue. The new “traffic” tax meant to backstop infrastructure or other improvements – much of which will never reach a single bolt or shovelful of asphalt – will cost more in the long run.

Manhattan and New York will, ultimately, pay a higher toll, and they are just too damn ideologically captured by the lies they tell each other about the role of government and people to see it.

Or perhaps New Yorkers will find themselves a Republican Governor and Mayor who will walk the state back off the ledge.

Sorry. Just having my own little unicorn moment.

 

The post The New Manhattan Island “Toll” appeared first on Granite Grok.

Imagine that you go to a mechanic because you have a problem with your car. He says:  Give me several thousand dollars up front, and leave your car.  And when you come back for it, maybe it will be fixed.  Maybe it will be in worse shape, although that doesn’t usually happen.

In either case, you can’t get your money back, but you can try again later if you’d like.

You might think:  I’ll find another mechanic! But because of the laws enacted by the legislature and the regulations promulgated by the Department of Mechanics, all mechanics work the same way.

You pay, and then you pray that you’ll get what you paid for.   And if your prayers aren’t answered, too bad for you!

But I’m just kidding around, right?  No one could get away with operating on this model for very long.

Unless we’re talking about schools.  Because the pay-and-pray model is exactly how schools operate.

You send your kid off to a school like Newport.  The school has an impressive-sounding mission statement,

The mission of the Newport School District is to inspire, prepare and challenge all students with a relevant, rigorous curriculum, driven by outstanding instructional leaders in partnership with our families, businesses, and community, consistent with our core values.

and budget to match — about $21,000 per student.

And yet, only about twelve percent of the kids in Newport schools can read at the most basic level of proficiency.  This is the kind of performance we expect from schools in Baltimore or Chicago.

But it is rare to find a school district in New Hampshire where more than half the kids can read proficiently.

So, on the one hand, it seems natural to ask:  Why don’t schools do better?  And many people do find themselves asking this question.

But there’s an even more natural question that hardly anyone ever seems to ask:  Why should anyone expect schools to do better, when we make it abundantly clear that they don’t need to?

 

The post Pay-and-Pray Funding appeared first on Granite Grok.

It is almost impossible at this point to let Huter Biden walk away without a rhetorical public flogging for his complicated lifestyle. Drugs, hookers, drugs, baby mamas, hidden assets, and all the access for income ‘deals’ of which he was a part.

But, when it comes to the Department of Justice, the latter is little more than small talk. Cocktail party rumor no one they need not pursue. How Hunter got the money and where it went is not an object of concern. It is his failure to tithe to the IRS gods that is problematic. Despite being surrounded by patriots, Hunter did ot give The State its fair share of his ill-gotten gains. But rather than charge him for the methods by which he acquired his wealth, they are more concerned about their cut.

The IRS is not that different from the Big Guy.

 

Instead of paying his taxes, Mr. Biden “spent this money on drugs, escorts and girlfriends, luxury hotels and rental properties, exotic cars, clothing, and other items of a personal nature, in short, everything but his taxes,” reads the indictment.

According to Mr. Weiss, the charges include three counts of failure to pay taxes for the years 2016, 2017, and 2019, and three counts of failure to file tax returns for the years 2017 and 2018.

“The Defendant spent millions of dollars on an extravagant lifestyle at the same time he chose not to pay his taxes,” reads the indictment.

A Trial for Show

Whatever passes for a trial should be political theatre of little consequence from which Hunter will be expected to apologize, pay fines, and perform some community service, as if selling access to a Vice President to enrich his family is not a public good. A show trial but not the sort engaged in by the J6 committee. This could ease Hunter’s current public image from a reckless son of the elite to a repentant advocate for reform. He could not just seek rehab for any of his indulgences but become a champion of it.

Drug abuse and overdose are a hallmark of Democrat rule in this century. What better poster child for another money laundering scheme than Hunter and a charity through which he can pretend to care about the other addicts enabled by Oval Office policy almost as loose as Hunter himself?

A show trial. As in, for show. Nothing terrible will happen to Hunter unless someone believes he can be leveraged against someone of actual value in the manifold of Democrat Party Demigods. If that were the case, they’d put him in lockup (overnight without bail), have someone shiv him, and then use the family’s grief to fast-walk Joe from the political stage at some point before the November 2024 election.

If This Were Westeros, They Could Send Him to The Wall

I’m spit-balling. A lot of scenarios come to mind. A toothless verdict. Mistrial. A presidential pardon. But with Joe having long since mentally passed his use-by date, even as a Muppet, Hunter isn’t good for much but causing trouble for the people in power.

Pedo-peddler of the elites, Jeffrey Epstein didn’t hang himself. DNC email leaker Seth Rich wasn’t murdered in a robbery gone wrong. I find it unlikely Mark Middleton killed himself with a shotgun with a power cord noose around his neck (just in case the Biden Boomstick didn’t do the job). And Jill Biden isn’t Michelle Obama or Hillary Clinton. Hunter is a deadweight the Media Industrial Complex had managed to protect because of his father, but Joe’s utility is due to sunset.

Perhaps the show trial is a means to distract from his other sins on the way to making him a martyr.

It’s the only punishment he’s likely to suffer, and if he can’t talk, everyone who benefitted from his “business dealings” can breathe a little easier.

Or not.

The post Hunter Biden’s Indictment – I Predict a Different Sort of Show Trial appeared first on Granite Grok.

A group of nuns has filed suit to force Smith & Wesson to stop manufacturing AR-15 rifles. The basis of the suit, according to the nuns, is that these rifles have no purpose other than mass murder.

Is that why the police have them?  So they can commit mass murder?

If the answer is yes, then the police should stop carrying AR-15 rifles and, for that matter, any other semi-automatic weapons.

If the answer is no, then this suit is ridiculous on its face since it is based on a demonstrably false claim.

Which is it?

And will Smith & Wesson countersue for court costs when the suit is tossed?  I hope they will – to set a precedent for anyone else who might contemplate trying this in the future.

 

The post Nunsense appeared first on Granite Grok.

A new crescendo in histrionics was evident in the latest National Climate Assessment Report released on November 14. As energy prices rise and global efforts to dominate fossil fuels, food production, and international travel are embraced by the Biden administration, the credibility of the climate change narrative is wobbling, and for good reason.

What is increasingly clear to many is that even if humanity is warming the globe, the renewable energy “solutions” on offer are ineffective, if not counterproductive.

Bogus Climate Report

The recent Fifth National Climate Assessment Report strains credibility in two particular spheres: making broad claims attributing meteorological events to climate change that may likely have different causes and peddling renewable energy technologies while avoiding their manufacturing contribution to pollution and warming. The report states that the US must achieve “net zero” carbon emissions in order to avert certain catastrophes and that inadequate progress has been achieved:

While US greenhouse gas emissions are falling, the current rate of decline is not sufficient to meet national and international climate commitments and goals. … US greenhouse gas emissions decreased by less than 1% per year on average between 2005 and 2019.

Chinese Pollution?

This analysis raises an important question: If the US decreases its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 1% per year and China’s increases by 2% or more, is there a “net zero” impact on the planetary climate? This issue is often raised as a “hands tied behind our back” rationalization for why the US must not unilaterally compromise its economy to save the planet when other economies are not. But it highlights a much more important inquiry: How much of China’s increase in GHG emissions is attributable to the renewable technology products or components (e.g., solar panels, EVs) manufactured there and shipped to the US?

The US government has issued what appears to be a massive Climate Propaganda Report. Completely ignoring the GHG emissions of products manufactured to reduce GHGs is a dangerous game. It is increasingly obvious that burning coal to manufacture solar panels and digging mines to excavate lithium for EVs generate enormous quantities of GHG emissions – much of it in China and other nations abroad – that create further environmental damage. And yet energy consumption and toxic pollution are systematically excluded from consideration of the “net” impact on the environment of these technologies.

When these additional costs are factored in, it becomes immediately clear that 1) the net impact of solar panels and EVs on the environment is still destructive, perhaps more than current consumption practices, and 2) there are not enough physical resources on the planet to replace existing energy technologies with renewable alternatives.

These facts are ignored by self-anointed “climate warriors” who appear more interested in fighting ideological battles than they are in waging war against pollution. There is astronomical money to be made in manufacturing government-subsidized, government-mandated products, whether those products are solar panels or EVs. This is a terrifying moral hazard: a collusion of government and corporate interests.

Targeting Profits Over Carbon

The federal government is not out to ban NASCAR racing – what is its environmental impact? How about lawn-mowing, golfing, or downhill skiing? If saving the world is at stake, why are these industries ignored while cows are targeted, and solar panels are subsidized on the backs of the poor? Perhaps the answer has more to do with power and money than saving the planet.

This answer explains the other fatuous shortcoming of the report: It links everything to climate change. Canadian and Maui wildfires? Not human mismanagement of forests but humans’ carbon dioxide. Diminishing groundwater supplies in the Midwest? Not human pumping of ever more groundwater to irrigate almond and wine plantations, but humans’ carbon dioxide. Vermont’s record flooding and cool temperatures while the nation was in a heat wave? Well, climate change of course: no actual evidence required.

An Ideological Scam

It may be that humans are warming the globe, but not as fast as those who are exploiting the situation claim. Cash-to-clunkers was a scam that retired functional vehicles early while boosting new car sales with government subsidies (as intended). Ethanol as fuel is a joke, both environmentally and as a source of energy security. People’s ears may be itching to hear false hopes, but the sad truth is that these are all demonstrable scams.

The report states: “Across all regions of the US, people are experiencing warming temperatures and longer-lasting heatwaves.” This is not entirely true: Mount Washington set a national record low in February, and Vermont saw several record low-temperature days as well as a very unseasonably cool summer. But since it is presumed a priori that all weather patterns prove the theory of GHG impacts, there is no hope for “real science.” If it gets warmer, it is human-caused; if it gets colder or wetter, it is human-caused. As with social justice ideology in general, all roads lead to the party line.

Climate Facts

That party line is crumbling under the weight of human need and science – the science of measuring the full costs of manufacturing fancy EVs, both in regressive wealth transfers from the poor to the rich and in assessing the externalized costs of manufacturing (and disposing of) EVs, solar panels, and windmills. The name “renewable” is a deliberate misnomer: The report seeks to disconnect US-generated carbon dioxide from Chinese emissions, yet US consumption of renewables is inseparable from Chinese pollution. There is no net zero in our backyard when the costs of production of renewable energy gadgets – at home or abroad – are accurately calculated rather than externalized to China. They are instead deliberately avoided. Climate change orthodoxy is about power over other humans, not power to save the planet. Next thing you know, Biden et al. will be chastising China for its GHG and pollution emissions – the ones it generates by making piles of cash selling polluting “renewable” technologies to Americans.

 

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

 

The post Night Cap – US Climate Assessment Report: Dogma Over Truth appeared first on Granite Grok.

Ever wonder if you were living in the Dystopian States of America? Senator Rand Paul’s Deception: The Great Covid Cover-Up, published October 10, 2023, does not disarm those haunting feelings.

This book is not for those who wish to place everything we have learned during the covid-19 control program in a memory hole. To the contrary, Paul is encouraging those who would pursue the truth to join him in confronting the difficult questions this period raises, including the origin of the covid-19 organism: did it arise naturally and spill over from an animal into the human species, or did it emerge as an accident from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV). He further asks what our government has done to conceal its possible funding of the WIV “gain-of-function” research that was being done there. He explores the tangential issues of the nature of the organism’s transmission and the efficacy of such measures as masking, social distancing, and the selective shutting down of the United States economy and the nation’s educational systems.

Is all of this significant? Certainly, if we accept that a million Americans lost their lives to covid-19, along with five million worldwide.

Senator Paul’s opening salvo is aimed at how the covid-19 organism arose, making a serious case for its having escaped the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s laboratory where Dr. Shi Zhengli had gained an international reputation as the “bat scientist.” Because the book is primarily chronologically oriented, describing Senator Paul’s efforts to get at the truth about the covid-19 pandemic, the reader does not at first learn who the first three victims of covid-19 were. Toward the end of the book, however, we learn their identities. All worked in the WIV, and one, Ben Hu, was a “gain-of-function” researcher and a colleague of Dr. Shi Zhengli.

Was the federal government somehow involved in funding this dangerous gain-of function research? If so, was Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases from 1984 to 2022, somehow involved? The book is full of formal interchanges between Senator Paul and Dr. Fauci. If it served no other purpose, reading these exchanges makes Deception an excellent intellectual investment. The reader should be able to determine who is telling the truth.

Likewise, Deception shines a light on the reaction of the mainstream media to those raising questions about the covid-19 control program. How many people have already forgotten the incessant drumming of the party-line message originating in the government—that the virus had jumped from animals in the Wuhan “wet market” to the human population but that Operation Warp Speed would protect Americans by cutting through the bureaucracy and unnecessary prehuman testing to give them a safe and 95 percent effective vaccine against this new pathogen? Also, what did 95 percent effectiveness mean if not that getting the shots would immunize us and prevent transmission in ways that herd immunity could never achieve without a devastating increase in deaths and hospitalizations?

Deception reminds us that there were attendant social actions, either voluntary or coerced, that were promoted as necessary to slow the transmission of the disease. Masking was one of those measures, something visible that separated those socially responsible from those who would recklessly expose their fellow humans to such dangerous pathogens. If one cloth mask was not totally effective, perhaps two would finally trap those nasty viruses. To be really safe, sanitize every surface touched by those disease-transmitting humans with Clorox.

Never mind that the medical profession already knew that surgical masks were ineffective as barriers against the transmission of viral aerosols. Deception reminds us of the basic math that was being ignored, that the pore size of those masks was six hundred times the size of a covid-19 virus organism. Picture taking a handful of dried peas, throwing them against a chain-link fence, and then counting the number that make it through. Deception identifies masking as nothing more than theater.

Deception also reminds us of the lockdowns that were implemented by governments, including our own but excluding Sweden, which chose to keep its economy and schools open with apparently no ill effect. The book emphasizes the critical loss of education and how forced homeschooling differentially affected families. Those that had an adult at home to monitor the homeschooling survived, but what about the many households where this resource did not exist? Were these families that could afford to fall further behind in education?

The lockdown mentality seemed to bring the authoritarians out of the woodwork, but the most damaging of these authoritarians were the state governors wishing to build an image of being tough on disease. Senator Paul notes that these were primarily Democratic governors, but elsewhere, he finds fault with Republicans who were part of the hysteria. He specifically notes how President Donald Trump—who unleashed Operation Warp Speed, which led to the destruction of supply lines—promoted “stimulating” the economy by sending out substantial checks to virtually everybody. Of course, the federal government had no real wealth to disperse so the ongoing effect was inflation and a significant increase in the federal government’s debt.

Deception is not easy reading. There are parts where the average reader will need to work through medical terminology such as furin cleavage sites. This should not deter the typical reader from getting a sense for these concepts and how they fit into the bigger picture. It is the flow of medical logic that matters.

While Deception may be the most comprehensive view of what might be called the covid-19 control program, it is missing the piece about the Nuremberg Code. The Nuremberg Code arose out of the post–World War II decision to convict the Nazi doctors who were guilty of unethical human experimentation. Seven of these individuals were executed for “crimes against humanity.” A thorough comparison of that code with what might be called the covid-19 control program should reveal that all ten items in the code have been violated under the latter control program. That Deception does not address this important piece in understanding the covid-19 years is no criticism of Senator Paul, who has covered so many of the relevant questions from a critical scientific and political perspective.

Although government officials have announced that the covid-19 pandemic emergency is over as of May 11, 2023, we are still living with the aftermath of the pandemic late into 2023. During the emergency period, we have seen the degree of authoritarianism, disinformation, and hysteria that was unleashed for this one pathogen alone. In an essay from the Institute of Medicine Forum on Microbial Threats, Mark Woolhouse and Eleanor Gaunt of the University of Edinburgh warn that “ongoing global ecological change will continue to produce novel infectious diseases at or near the current rate of three per year.”

Do the math. If we accept that the government can declare medical emergencies at will, then we acknowledge that the government is empowered to eliminate our liberties at any time. This is a power even greater than that enjoyed by Adolf Hitler as he rose to become the absolute dictator of Nazi Germany in 1933. If we accept this, we fail to remember the lessons of history.

That, I believe, is Senator Rand Paul’s contribution to liberty. He won’t allow us to forget.

Phil Duffy is a regular contributor to WFYL’s We the People, the Constitution Matters, a lifelong student of history, and the author of the forthcoming A Tale of Four Cities, an investigation about who really wrote the first modern text on economics and why it matters today.

 

Phil Duffy | Mises Wire

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Merrick Garland is the United States Attorney General and heads up our Justice Department, which includes 115,000 employees. Garland is obviously a very busy man working with Joe Biden and Christopher Wray to find ways to target and harass people with a Conservative ideology.

He also is too busy and understaffed to respond to an urgent letter of request sent to him in August from a United States Senator and Congressman. For five months, Senator Susan Collins and Congressman Jared Golden have been waiting anxiously to get at least a response from Garland, but their wait continues. I can guarantee that Randi Weingarten doesn’t have to wait five months for a response.

Collins and Golden reached out to Merrick Garland for help with the growing problem of illegal, Chinese-owned pot farms that have popped up in Central Maine. These farms are causing fear, anxiety, and health hazards to the residents of rural Maine by a group of Chinese Nationals that many have claimed are more ruthless than the MAFIA. Collins and Golden’s cry for help has remained unanswered.

Maine is a large rural state with a very low population density. Besides a few large city areas like Portland, Augusta, and Auburn/Lewiston, the state comprises small towns with limited law enforcement resources. The State Police is understaffed and stretched across the state. Real estate is relatively cheap, and all of these factors lead to Maine being a target for the Chinese Cartel’s illegal marijuana farms popping up throughout central Maine. There are as many as 200 of the “farms” identified, but the Maine Congressional Delegation cannot get a response from the Justice Department.

Maine State Reps. Mike Soboleski (R-Phillips) has sponsored L.R. 2903, “An Act to Provide Investigative Authority to the Maine State Police, Sheriffs, and Local Police Regarding Maine’s Recreational Cannabis Laws and Ordinances to Ensure Proper Enforcement,” so we can tackle this crisis head-on and take back our land and protect our Maine way of life,” he said.

The fate of L.R. 2903 will hinge on Thursday’s meeting of the Legislative Council, where the bills that will be considered next year will be decided by legislative leadership. Democrats control Maine’s state government, and it will be interesting to see if this Bill sees the light of day. Democrat Governor Janet Mills refused to comment on this developing situation in her state.

We know the Biden Administration is in bed with the Chinese Government, but does this influence extend to our Justice Department? If Washington can turn its head and ignore 100,000 annual deaths caused by Chinese Fentanyl, is it surprising they have no concern over 200 Chinese Nationals turning Maine homes into Pot Farms? The people of Maine cannot let this effort to get help die, nor can the thousands of people who own seasonal homes in the Pine State. We must support Senator Collins and Representative Golden in their efforts and force Governor Mills out of her silence and into action.

I have written about the current state of Maine and the frustration many of us have over the liberal Marijuana and Abortion bills recently passed. Faced now with a severe safety issue facing their constituents, the politicians have gone underground. This situation is a failure of the Government to do the primary job they are tasked with: to protect the people. It is a shame that these shortcomings are forgotten as we go to the polls, and these inept individuals are rewarded with reelection.

The post AG Garland Ignores Maine’s Cry For Help appeared first on Granite Grok.

In the 2024 Republican presidential primary, there have been rumblings outside the massive 46.3-point advantage held by former President Donald Trump. A surprise contender, former ambassador Nikki Haley, is making strides in the polls.

There are two factions inside the Republican Party: one supporting Donald Trump and his America First agenda, and the other supporting the globalist, neocon, establishment, business-as-usual agenda.

The business-as-usual Republican crew is seeking a candidate to defeat Donald Trump, who poses an existential threat to their agenda. The noble horse they chose to gallop toward triumph, Governor Ron DeSantis, unfortunately, has slowed to a crippling halt.

The DeSantis disaster has set off a wild race among establishment donors and political operatives as they desperately search for a new horse to bet on. Among all the candidates in the contest, Haley has the most in common with the swamp GOP establishment, which makes her an ideal fit. Nikki Haley is an unrepentant neoconservative who has no shame in her game when it comes to opposing the America First agenda. (RELATED: DEROY MURDOCK: Donald Trump Looks More Electable By The Day)

In 2017, during her tenure as US Ambassador to the United Nations, Haley was an aggressive warmonger. Despite President Trump’s clear demands to pivot away from Bush-era neocon policies, Haley wanted US military intervention in North Korea, Iran, and Syria. In 2021, Haley opposed the US withdrawal of troops in Afghanistan.

“Our enemies have always hoped this day would come,” she said. “They know from history that when America retreats, freedom falters.” It comes as no surprise that after her tenure as the warmongering UN Ambassador, she was rewarded with a cozy paid board position at Boeing.

When it comes to trade, Haley is a globalist and “no fan of tariffs” against our enemies like China — even though they work.

 

Donald Trump stands in stark contrast to Nikki Healy. Trump chose to meet with Kim Jong Un, the leader of North Korea, and forge a peace deal rather than intervene militarily. He de-escalated the evident start to World War III when Iran retaliated for the assassination of Qasem Soleimani. Also, Trump pulled US troops out of Syria. There were no new foreign wars under the Trump presidency.

The United States trade strategy under Trump was the most successful in recent history, particularly in terms of leveling the playing field with China. The Phase One China Trade Act required China to purchase $200 billion in US products and services, which would have decreased the trade deficit to $167 billion dollars. Trump was a thorn in the side of the neocons and globalists; Haley is their silver lining. (RELATED: RASHEED WALTERS: The Case For Donald Trump)

According to Gallup polls, Republican support for the Ukraine war has withered since the start of the conflict. Republican voters have had enough of war, particularly when it comes to Ukraine, which serves as a litmus test for any Republican candidate seeking office and aligning with neoconservative principles.

Contrarily, Haley believes it is the duty of the United States to support Ukraine financially so that they may promote “freedom and democracy” and undermine Russian President Vladimir Putin through proxy. “When you see a freedom-loving country trying to protect their own turf, we should give them every ounce of ammunition they need,” Haley said in 2021. Her words in April 2022 must have made her friends at the military-industrial complex lick their chops, anticipating the hefty profits coming their way.

The American people deserve a president who isn’t in bed with special interests, particularly the military-industrial complex and has no desire to sacrifice American lives for the sake of lining their buddies’ pockets. We yearn for peace and prosperity, a path that can solely be paved by the reemergence of an America First Donald Trump presidency.

 

Rasheed Walters is an entrepreneur, political commentator, and historian who resides in Boston. Follow him on Twitter @rasheednwalters.

Rasheed Walters | Daily Caller

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Matthew Graves is the Biden-Regime’s DOJ’s top persecutor of J6 protesters. His wife is Fatima Gross Graves. They are both COMMUNISTS. They and their ilk are a permanent ruling class, while the rest of us are a permanent underclass that serves their needs and whims.

Anyone who doesn’t like this arrangement is an insurrectionist, treasonous, blah, blah, blah. Here is Fatima telling Congress that female athletes need to “learn to lose gracefully” to males. But just keep pretending that the Democrats aren’t Communists and that we can coexist with them.

 

National Women's Law Center President Fatima Goss Graves, the liberal witness at the Title IX hearing, says that female athletes should "learn to lose gracefully" to biological men. pic.twitter.com/2YPqQDk0cQ

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) December 5, 2023

The post Girls, You Need To “Learn To Lose Gracefully” To Males appeared first on Granite Grok.

The new face of feminism is conservative.

How do I know?  Not ONE democratic congresswoman voted for the Congressional H.R 734 “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2023.” (The vote was straight down party lines with all 219 Republicans voting for the bill.) Think about that! How could any elected woman not vote to support, in essence, an amendment to Tile IX, the wildly successful law enacted by Congress 50 years ago that transformed women’s athletics at all levels of competition? The amendment states, “sex shall be recognized based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.”

It is hard to believe that in 2023 there is controversy about the definition of one’s sex. Confusion about the scientific definition of sex reflects a society with an abundance of mental health issues or just too much privilege and time on its hands. Dress however you want, identify however, but Title IX was in part enacted to provide equal opportunity for female competition, which in effect provided some safeguards from injury. (RELATED: KENDEL EHRLICH: The Government Is Totally Botching Its Most Important Job)

So, where are the likes of Gloria Steinem, the bra-burning leader of the feminist/sexual revolution in the late 60’s and early 70’s? Where is Hillary, the women of the View, and The “Squad”? Nowhere to be found.  Those of us who have been paying attention know the hypocrisy of the feminist left. Their religion is not so much women’s rights as “Democrat.” They never support or have a kind word for Republican women, especially those who have dedicated themselves to their families and communities.

Today, however, we find Riley Gaines and Sarah Huckabee Sanders leading the charge to protect women’s rights.  Sarah ran for governor of Arkansas, so she asked for the responsibility; but Riley Gaines became the new face of feminism because she faced an injustice she never dreamed of.  As a young girl/woman, she put in hundreds of hours of practice swimming against other women, working to achieve ribbons and medals while competing against other females.  And then it all changed:  Riley was forced to swim against a biological male.

How did this happen? How could the NCAA sanction such unfair competition?   It made no sense. Yet, the NCAA did nothing except encourage competitors to keep their mouths shut! This is akin to encouraging domestic violence victims NOT to testify.

It seems that each week brings a new, shocking story about a transgender male competing and winning in women’s sports.  One of latest horror stories is about a biological male playing field hockey at a high school in Massachusetts.  He flung the ball in the air so hard it knocked the teeth out of an opposing female player. (RELATED: BOB EHRLICH: The Sky Is Blue — Believe It)

And now there is a new twist to the horror. A transgender male soccer player threatens to sue rivals for discrimination because the opponent/girls refuse to participate in games against the biological male. Note: one girl has already suffered a broken knee while attempting to block the biological male’s shot.  So where are the parents of these transgender males competing against women?  Are they celebrating their son’s achievements, clapping loudly at the medal ceremonies? Do these parents have daughters who are athletes? Please, SOMEONE make this stop!

Today, Riley tours the country speaking to organizations, campuses (that don’t cancel her), and association meetings that understand the significance in protecting the “woman” part of women’s sports.  Thank you. As for Governor Sanders, she signed an executive order eliminating “woke” language from state documents that attempts to eradicate biological differences.  For example, in Arkansas, the terms, “pregnant people,” “birth giver” and “laboring person” will not appear in state documents. The Governor called those terms “nonsense.” Per “Concerned Women for America, Legislative Action Committee,” 21 states have enacted laws to protect female athletes from unfair competition in sports.  This list includes Arkansas, signed by Governor Sanders’ predecessor, Governor Hutchinson. Let’s keep it going.

These are the new faces of feminism: women who actually support women.  Who would have thunk!

Kendel Ehrlich is the former First Lady of Maryland, a former prosecutor, former Deputy Director of ONDCP, former Director of SMART and former Acting Director of BJA.

 

Kendel Ehrlich | Daily Caller

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

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

 

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You might be hard-pressed to find an argument that our College and University system is failing America. Secondary education is where the indoctrination of American students began, and that poisoning of our children’s minds has finally reached pre-school.

The process is complete, and an entire generation has been indoctrinated from K-16. Let’s get simple. These kids are brainwashed, and higher education has never returned so little for the record high cost. Tuitions have far outpaced the cost of living, and as long as students can secure loans to pay these exorbitant amounts of money, the tuition will continue to rise. It has become a game with these institutions to continue to raise the ceiling while students and society are the losers. Students and their parents are strapped with high-balance loans, and society is burdened with poorly educated students and a generation that hates America and its history. It is time to rethink the economics of higher education.

The protests on campuses against Israel and in support of Hamas and Palestinians have awakened a lot of American minds to the poisonous atmosphere in American colleges and universities. In the spirit of Free Speech and the First Amendment, these institutions refused to shut down the protests that the masses saw as hate speech. The actions of many against Jewish students have instilled a fear that many say brings back memories of 1939. Many of these students have bravely come forward to tell their stories and describe their fears. These institutions are not doing enough to protect these students with Jewish lineage. Many high-level donors are reacting by notifying their Alma Matas they will not be seeing any further donations.

The response of these donors should be a blueprint for what our Government should do. All schools enjoy a tax-exempt status, but to go one more step, Washington gives more than $100 Billion of taxpayer dollars yearly in the name of aid. The other side of that equation is the endowments held by secondary schools. Current estimates have this fund at a balance of $807 Billion. We people claim every day that the rich in this country should pay their fair share in taxes. When an entity has nearly $1 Trillion in the bank, should they be considered wealthy? Should an entity with that kind of surplus be given money from American taxpayers, many of whom are living paycheck to paycheck? Should this entity be exempt from paying taxes when the Government taxes seniors who live on $2,000 a month from Social Security? The obvious answer to all of those questions is a resounding No, but all of these scenarios exist, and nobody questions them.

These institutions have not earned nor deserve our hard-earned money. They have chosen to participate in the reformation of our country and not in the education and preparation of our children to be the next generation of leaders. They have turned out a generation that condemns our past and chooses to tear down our great country. Their option is to replace America with a new socialist alternative, but that should never happen and not on our dime.

The tax-exempt status should be the first tradition to fall. If they can save billions, they can pay taxes. If they can accumulate billions, they do not need tax subsidies. This is not about being fair but about righting a wrong. Colleges and universities have been a party to creating a WOKE society; to me, the party is over.

 

The post Time To Rethink Our Investment In Higher Education appeared first on Granite Grok.

Manchester teachers are getting a new contract. It calls for four more days of professional development. While PD can be beneficial to teachers, taxpayers should be looking at what teachers will be doing during every professional development day.

Several years ago, I attended a presentation by Manchester Proud. The presentation showed everyone how the district would be implementing the fads put forth by education reformers. None of these people had any record of success in improving academic outcomes, but that didn’t matter. People just want to be told that the district is doing something with their tax dollars.

While I was seated for this presentation, I struck up a conversation with a Manchester teacher who had taken the day off of school to attend this event. She told me she was using a professional development day so she could attend. She also mentioned how kids were graduating from the district but didn’t know basic math. There was no mention at this event about ways to improve math education in the district. It was more smoke and mirrors explaining how new education fads would be added.

This is an example of how money spent on professional development can be wasted. PD used to help teachers become better at teaching math or other core subjects will benefit the teachers and students. But as you can see, the taxpayers in Manchester just flushed more of their money down the toilet by paying this teacher to attend an event that would never help her in the classroom.

PD should be scrutinized by the school board and community every year. Money spent to improve the quality of teachers serving in the district could be beneficial to your children.  But as you can see, some of those valuable resources can. be wasted, too.

Four more days to PD is a lot to add to your school budget. Someone should be asking for details and scrutinizing PD every single year.

 

The post Will Manchester Waste More Money on Professional Development for Teachers? appeared first on Granite Grok.

In a recent op-ed, Senator Martin Heinrich of New Mexico explains what makes semi-automatic weapons so dangerous:

AR-15s—the weapons used in a number of mass shootings—aren’t dangerous because of how they look. They are dangerous because they use expanding gas to simultaneously fire a bullet and reload the next round while staying steady on target. The weapon’s primary limitation is how quickly a shooter can pull the trigger.

I wonder if he’s ever actually shot an AR-15 or if his are just nicer than mine, because mine don’t ‘stay steady on target’ between rounds.  Mine recoil, requiring me to reacquire the target before pulling the trigger again.

I think perhaps he’s confusing the use of gas to cycle a round with the use of gas to help a compensator reduce muzzle flip.  In which case, perhaps what he really wants to ban are compensators.

When I teach people about gun safety, I show them how a semi-auto pistol works, and how a revolver works.

First, I point out that with the pistol, each pull of the trigger causes the gun to fire and then load another round:  Fire, load.  Fire, load.  Fire, load.

Next, I point out that with the revolver, the order is different.  Each pull of the trigger causes the gun to load a round and then fire it:  Load, fire.  Load, fire.  Load, fire.

Finally, I ask:  So you can see why a semi-automatic (which fires and then loads) is so much more dangerous than a revolver (which loads and then fires), right?

After twenty years, I am still waiting for someone to say ‘No!  It’s the same thing!’

How fast can you fire a revolver?  Take a look, and then decide for yourself whether Heinrich has any idea at all what he’s talking about.

 

The post Why Semi-Autos Are So Dangerous? It’s the Gas! appeared first on Granite Grok.