Have you ever considered the problem we have created for ourselves? We let relativists, humanists, and scientistism strip the world of mystery and meaning beyond what they see. Their vision is the revealed truth. Their words are sacred.

Take a breath. Think deeply. Are you really allowed to disagree? Are they not, having infiltrated and unraveled nearly every cultural institution, angry earth-bound gods who brook no dissent?

A society increasingly run by men and women who cannot imagine any power greater than themselves (or their faction) is doomed. Not just human liberty. That can’t possibly survive the capricious whim of our temporal masters. We see the weight of it stressing the foundations of our Republic. Disagreeing gets you canceled. Something as simple as a meme could get you arrested. Our cities are overrun by foreign invaders, but not until after those who claimed a monopoly on public safety swore that policing was an injustice.

Even science, the foundation of rationalism, must be of the proper pedigree and toe the “party” line, or it is blaspheme.

Wrong thinking is the problem, but before you can have such a thing, someone with power and influence must decide what it is that is right.

There can be no science in such a place. Ideas, learning, innovation, exploration, and imagination all begin with questions, queries, and wonder. Morality itself, that thing we are supposed to agree on together, that which represents the basis for even common law, is impossible. Not where it is both denied existence but defined for us. A moving target whose restrictions are not universally applied but directed like a weapon at anyone who dares question why?

And our terrestrial gods want it that way. They need it that way. The infiltration of politics into every corner of life brings with it the desire to make everything a moral question, but in the absence of any shared morality. Rather than tell the politics to stay away, tell it that it has no business here, we let the venom exhaust us, followed like day follows night by the political will to intervene in the name of justice.

A lie at the end of which there is no justice at all.

They have so thoroughly poisoned the well that even theft and murder, once universally accepted as violations of our basic human rights, have been turned on their head.

The value of life has been eroded out from under us, beginning decades ago with abortion and moving on more recently to “assisted suicide, whose inevitable path toward state tyranny I have documented elsewhere. But to summarize, life is useful when it serves the temporal gods but a burden even when it is through their actions that it has lot some value.

In numerous American cities, theft has become an acceptable occupation up to an arbitrary point. The local deities who oversee order and justice are content to ignore property crime as if it is beneath them to care about those from whom it has been stolen.

Having stripped the “tree” of its fruit, those short-sighted fools motivated by immediate acts of transitory self-enrichment then act amazed down the road when nothing further grows.

No worries. The government is here to help.

These are not new problems. Human behavior is what it is. It is why the Bible remains relevant. It is why America’s founders framed our government, as best they could, to protect against it. A Republic, if you can keep it. A system of government for a moral people.

Can we? Keep it. Can we keep it in the absence of at least some shred of a shared morality?

Those who have worked patiently for generations to bring it down don’t think we can, and their work is proof enough. They who shouted about fears of a theocracy created a temporal one of their very own—a political belief system in nothing but themselves.

It is one of the many things Democrat-Socialism shares with Fascism and communism: nothing matters but the state (and those who run it).

It sounds hopeless. As if, even were it to come to victorious armed conflict—civil war—how could we replace the common moral underpinnings upon which the Republic once stood? The Constitution is paper and words, and without right-minded people willing to view it as more powerful than their own will, it means nothing.

Human beings will be what they are, and absent some shared morality, each incarnation that follows is little more than another version of mob rule.

I still have hope.

First, I think we need to agree that human rights apply equally to all humans, as would the violation of those rights. Any ‘right’ that we do not all share, regardless of race, religion, age, or sex, is not a human right. It is something else. We should call them what they are – privileges, which, ironically, is the accusation flung by people seeking demographic carveouts that cannot be applied universally.

I’ll leave it at that for now because not much else can be accomplished until we can agree on this.

The people most likely to pursue power in any system are those most inclined to abuse it. They benefit if we are divided and at each other’s throats. The one thing we all share is humanity. If we are all truly equal, and there are natural human rights, then they can only be things we all share.

Everything outside that is a political affectation meant to keep us from agreeing on who the tyrants truly are and that it is they who are guilty of injustice.

| Substack

The post Are We Trapped in a Lie at the End of Which There Is No Justice at All appeared first on Granite Grok.

The first presidential debate of 2024 between the Orange Man and the Old Man went off with all the pomp and circumstance of a game of bingo at the local senior center.  Despite both candidates having a record number of voters in 2020 the hosts at CNN were unable to get any attendees to join the event likely due to the rise in Tourette’s like shouting that occurs among passersby during the fake news network’s on air reporting.  Experts say this new condition is in no way linked to vaccines nor are the rise in myocarditis, pericarditis, auto-immune disorders, miscarriages, heart attacks, strokes, excess deaths, and lawsuits.

CNN super-hosts Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, who fight fake news crimes as the dynamic duo Hebrew and Shebrew, begun the evening by reminding everyone they would be exercising their freedom of the press by tightly controlling the speech of both potential leaders of the free world.  If a candidate were to speak out of order they would take turns applying the Milgram switch to ensure compliance, which many say explains the speech difficulties of president Biden who’s team had been using the switch liberally in preparation for the debate.

Things got off to a slow start at the introduction as it took former vice-president Biden nearly eleven minutes to make his way to the podium followed by president Trump who made his way to the podium at his now well-worn perp-walk pace.

The first question posed by Mr. Tapper put Biden on the defensive regarding an economy that has seen prices up nearly 40% across all markets.  After blaming Trump for “handing it to him” Biden reminded the listeners he was Brigadier General of Scranton, PA during World War II where he single-handedly defeated the German army invasion of the American mainland with his wingman Cornpop which created an economic boom in the “millions or billions”.  Trump’s rejoinder reminded everyone his economy was “a perfect economy” and like “nothing anyone had ever seen before” and “maybe the greatest economy in the history of economies”, which sent the nation’s fact-checkers into a panic as they furiously researched world economies from the past six thousand years only to find out Trump’s claims were “mostly true”.

Asked next what either candidate will do about America’s national debt, which recently passed the thirty-four gazillion mark and leaves us paying more in interest annually than we spend on national defense, both candidates blamed the other while missing the opportunity to celebrate setting yet another record.  Mr. Trump (the current record holder at $8.3 trillion) spent more than all the presidents combined from George Washington to George Bush, while Biden is on pace to break that record having spent just over $6 trillion with weekly phone calls from Volodomyr Zelenskyy and Benjamin Netanyahu expected.  After discovering his feat Trump stated “that’s a lot of presidents and a lot of dead presidents, which many say makes me the greatest of all the living presidents”.

National security threats, particularly those imposed by unborn babies, who could wreak havoc on the life of a young woman ready to have lots of unprotected sex but not ready to deal with the unprotected consequences, was discussed.  President Trump took credit for the overturning of Roe v. Wade back to the states while Mr. Biden took a long and winding road to discuss murderer immigrants and child molesters, with an uncanny level of detail and familiarity that was stopped abruptly by Dana Bash to the relief of everyone watching.

Much of the rest of the debate revealed the Jedi-like ability of both candidates to give answers, just not the answers you’re looking for.  Curious about COVID policy?  How about an explanation of how poorly the other guy is handling tax cuts.  World War III on your mind?  Wait til you hear about how far we can hit golf balls!  This middle schoolyard fight was two Capri Suns and a nap away from being the real deal.

Speaking of real, the Real Debate was held by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over on X where the third most popular candidate enjoyed the luxury of an audience, a free-thinking moderator and coherent thoughts supported by facts.  Despite having the vocal chords of a ’68 Camaro Mr. Kennedy patiently waded through each question pointing out where the other candidates fell short, a brief review of the data and how he would be different.  Kennedy, who’s father and uncle were both assassinated by the same government he hopes to lead, took issue with Joe Biden’s blatant censoring of political speech.  Biden responded ironically by stating “graggamuffins…look…the fact of the matter is…liddle-dee-diddle-dee-doo!”  With 11 million views on X to CNN’s 9 million views the many of the American people, unlike their presidential candidates, are speaking clearly – we’d rather take our chances on Demosthenes with brain worms.

Following the debate members of the media who had voiced unbridled excitement for Joe Biden were stunned to discover what the rest of America had been talking about since 2020.  Namely, Joe Biden had both the mental acuity and physical dexterity of a Roomba, just don’t tell his wife that.

In a related story Julian Assange was freed from incarceration after reaching a plea deal with the US Government.  After returning home was stunned to find another massive Wikileaks data dump revealing emails from inside the US intelligence community offering “three assassinations for the price of one” with the coupon code “NEWSOME2024” at the checkout.

 

 

The post Bananas: Handicapping the Debate appeared first on Granite Grok.

The design team has informed me that everything is ready, and the plan is to move to the newest iteration of The Grok this weekend. Just in time. The old site is not looking so good.

We should be on our new footprint and with our new hosting company sometime on Saturday, July 13th.

I expect an adjustment process, some tweaks, and fixes, and there are things we’ll need to do after the move. The home page is different from any layout we’ve used previously. As hinted previously, we are handling categories and such a bit differently, and not everything may fit or end up where it is supposed to go on day one.

Note that the Daily Grok newsletter will stop for a while, and ‘Grok email addresses will probably not work until we move that too. It’s a work in progress.

Minor site changes and updates will follow until it all works the way we imagined it would, and then I’ll start looking at the next “phases.”

The VIP/subscriber option and a Grok Mobile App.

Well, that’s the plan.

We’ll see how that goes.

And yes, we could always use more financial support. Thanks.

The post The New ‘Grok Goes Live This Weekend … appeared first on Granite Grok.

Joe Biden promised us the most transparent administration in history, which he did not have to commit to, for it is expected with the job. The President of the United States owes it to the American people, not just his supporters, to be truthful to every American. This administration fails miserably.

We have lost track of the number of comments by Joe Biden and his diversity hire press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, which have been corrected and walked back. They are masters of telling you what they want you to believe while giving reasons why they cannot disclose the facts. Here is a suggestion. Just answer the damn question.

Monday’s press briefing was as poor a performance as Biden’s debate debacle. Biden’s flop can be attributed to dementia, but KJP’s performance was pure incompetence. The press corps is turning on this administration out of an attempt to survive. It had been caught in the conspiracy to hide the condition of President Joe Biden at the debate, and now they are trying to act like journalists by devouring KJP. She was flustered, argumentative, and defensive, and at one point, she was pleading for respect from this group, who used to eat out of her hand.

She could not, or would not, answer the question of the day, which involved reports that a particular neurologist who specializes in the treatment of Parkinson’s patients appeared on recent logs visiting the President three times a week. If true, this is serious information that could explain the President’s recent health-related incidents. But KJP was not going to be the one to spill the beans on Joe. She manipulated her answer to avoid the question, and after the fourth or fifth attempt, she resorted to security reasons for not answering. It was unclear whether she was protecting the doctor or the President. Either way, it was a horrible effort. If she were anything except a Black, Gay Female, she would have been terminated as soon as she left the podium.

The topic of Joe Biden’s health and competence would be a non-issue if he had only kept his promise to America in 2020. Knowing his age was already a concern, he assured the voters that he would be a one-term president. He would bridge from the chaos of the Trump Presidency to a more stable Democrat-led future. But in true Biden fashion, he lied and now refuses to step aside for the next generation of leaders. He has gone from reassuring to defiant and shows little mercy to anyone who defects from Team Biden or dares to call for him to step down. It has become apparent that it is Joe and Jill’s mission to maintain the position of power they have achieved, though not necessarily earned. They know their popularity rating is dropping, and they hear the rumbles, but they also know that unless the Democrats use the 25th Amendment, there is no way they can lose their position unless they approve of the movement.

The 2024 Democrat Convention in Chicago may be the most volatile and nasty event we have seen in recent times. It is apropos that the convention is in one of the most violent cities in America.

The post So Much For Transparency appeared first on Granite Grok.

Chip Roy’s Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act (HR8281) does this crazy thing. It says what the federal law already says: Non-citizens cannot vote in US elections. They can’t. It’s illegal. But there’s no mechanism to ensure that. HR8281 says you must prove you are a citizen to register and vote. Provide proof. Neither of New Hampshire’s Dem House Critters voted for it.

They both voted no.

I get that Kuster has short-timers’ diseases and tends to represent only 30-40% of her constituency, but this seems like a no-brainer. It’s a simple way to ensure Americans believe you when you say you want and that we have secure elections with integrity, especially in a climate where there may be tens of millions of potential non-citizen ballot box stuffers shambling across the increasingly fruitless plain.

Letting anyone who wanders across the border to vote sends a different message. One, we must admit, the Democrats have defended in New Hampshire for decades. As a matter of state policy, if you happen to be here on election day, they want you to join in the fun (they must think means more votes for them). And that was the Dem party-line vote in HR8281, but the bill still passed with bipartisan support. Five Democrats voted yea, and every House Republican supported it. 198 Democrats voted no. They are okay with people who are not Americans deciding who represents you in Washington, DC. But I suppose that also makes sense. The priorities of felons (illegal entry is a felony) are not typically the same as those of law-abiding taxpayers and with the exception of Donald Trump (and that guy Sotomayor’s Fed bodyguard shot), Democrats like felons more than they do you or me.

Or, perhaps, this is part of an expanded commitment to access without proof of identity—the opposite of two-factor identification. Not only do we not need to know who you are (no ID), but there’s no need to prove that you are a citizen either. Can we expect this level of detail at the DNC convention in Chicago? Whoever says they are a delegate can vote for Joe’s replacement. That’d be fun to watch, but we know it won’t happen. You can’t get into the local state convention without ID, and they check to make sure you are a Democrat.

Two-factor authentication.

Picking representatives for Congress or a president (and every other race or measure on the ballot)?

Whatever.

 

The post Kuster and Pappas Protect Non-Citizen Voting “Rights” appeared first on Granite Grok.

Many people contacted the Executive Council to ask them to turn down a half million dollar grant that would be used to further support the Multi Tiered System of Support for Behavior in our public schools. The MTSS-B is a framework focused on a child’s behavior and mental health. Now that the MTSS-B has been implemented in New Hampshire Schools, we are discovering all kinds of problems.

This article in Granite Grok explains some of this here.

The Executive Councilors voted to support the grant. Here’s how they voted:
Cindy Warmington (YES)
Janet Stevens (YES)
Ted Gatsas (YES)

Dave Wheeler (NO)
Joe Kenney (NO)

The Commissioner did clarify that the $9k grant would cover MTSS-B, and the rest would be used for substance abuse. One would think this would be an easy vote. They could vote NO on this and then support another grant that would fund substance abuse measures in the schools. Unfortunately, the four councilors still voted for the grant.

Progressives who believe in a cradle-to-grave government system will be thrilled. This is all part of the CDC community school model they want in all public schools.

Dear Commissioner Edelblut,

After listening to the Executive Council meeting on July 10th and your statement on the MTSS-B framework, I wanted to follow up with you on some information you provided to the Council members. I appreciate that you were able to break down the amount of the grant that would be applied to MTSS-B and how the rest of the grant would be distributed.

The concerns that I have raised, along with teachers and other parents, center around the mental health aspect coming from how MTSS-B is being implemented in NH schools. In addition, we also know what Transformative SEL looks like because of how it is presented in SEL programs like Second Step. Transformative SEL will focus on racial injustice through the political ideology of anti-racism. This is a call to political activism through SEL in the classroom. We know that Second Step is used in Merrimack.

Since you cannot be in each school throughout the state, you would not be able to give a firsthand account of exactly how this program is being implemented. We can only go by what the SEL vendors share.

In addition, when districts like Merrimack tell parents that the teacher will be discussing anxiety with students, again, you are not in the classroom where this information will be provided. I’m attaching a file that teachers sent home to parents in Merrimack, where they would be discussing how to control anxiety. This could be why a young student then self-diagnosed herself with depression. She came home from school, claiming to her mother that she believed she was depressed. Those who know this child best would describe her as well-adjusted and happy. Planting seeds of anxiety or depression in a child is not a healthy way to promote good mental health. Providing expert mental health care to a child who is experiencing anxiety in a clinical setting, may be a more appropriate way to address anxiety in a child.

Two young NH boys were playing with swords in the lunchroom with their plastic knives. One accidentally scraped his friend, who then needed a bandaid. The boy who scraped his friend was then given a Psych evaluation against the wishes of his parents. A normal childhood interaction was enough for the school to perform a psych evaluation. I immediately referred the father to an attorney, but today, parents sign all kinds of consent forms at the beginning of the year without realizing that their child could be evaluated for doing what normal boys do.

Now that a psych evaluation has been conducted on a child in a public school, how exactly will that information be used against that child if he wants to become an officer in the military or apply for a job in law enforcement? No one seems to be considering the ramifications of this new experiment on children in public schools. If Medicaid is used to reimburse the district for these services, they must code the child. There is no code for normal.

You also mentioned that this sensitive personal information is FERPA-protected, but you didn’t mention to the Councilors that FERPA was gutted during the Obama administration. The changes now make personal student data available to a list of those who are considered “exceptions.” Prior to the gutting of FERPA, there were no exceptions, and parents would be required to consent before this personal information was shared. This is why privacy experts continue to call for closing the FERPA loophole. We are seeing all kinds of personal information shared without the knowledge or consent of the student or their parents.

Let’s be honest: FERPA doesn’t protect the personal information of students anymore. I think you should have at least explained that to the Councilors. Most parents are misled into thinking FERPA protects their child’s private information, but prior to that change to the law, Keene State wouldn’t have been able to access that personal mental health information on students in our schools.

Keene State BHII accessed personally identifiable mental health information from school counselors as an “exception.”
But what I have a hard time reconciling is how they managed to do this without IRB approval. FERPA allows this personally identifiable information to be shared with “researchers” but IRB is needed when conducting research on children. What we are seeing unfold in our schools is disturbing, and needs to be addressed honestly.

We have schools that are struggling to teach kids to read by 3rd grade, and now they are tasked with providing mental health services. We are seeing unethical practices that violate a student’s right to privacy, guaranteed in the New Hampshire Constitution. This needs to be resolved. If you continue this program in our schools, parents need to be confident that their child’s personal information on behavior or their mental health isn’t shared with anyone without the knowledge or consent of parents. The only exceptions should be those identified by mental health ethicists who make exceptions when a child is in danger to themselves or others.

During the Zoom meeting, the NH LEAs discussed sharing this information among the staff to work as a team. Once again, they have no right to access this sensitive data without the consent of parents, yet here they are talking about how the school’s team should be able to access this private information.

Where specifically are the protections for students in our schools? FERPA is no longer adequate. While I believe those involved would like to provide mental health services to children, the implementation shows us that schools are not set up to do this in a lawful and ethical way.

How much money is being spent on MTSS-B Coordinators while children sit in our local hospitals for sometimes up to a week, waiting for a bed to open at the one mental health facility for children in our state? This program is not only fiscally irresponsible, it’s fraught with numerous problems.

 

—
Ann Marie Banfield
TRUST REQUIRES TRANSPARENCY

Newsletters (2)

The post Executive Council Funds Unethical Mental Health Practices in NH’s Public Schools appeared first on Granite Grok.

An electoral reckoning is due, but so is an electrical one. The two are intertwined. A radical movement led primarily by the progressive left insists Americans must spend more to have less. We must electrify everything, they say. We must build enormous Easter Island-like shrines and monuments to appease the sun and wind gods (as it turns out) for nothing.

Not nothing, I suppose. These investments in the so-called energy transition are crippling the American economy, harming the poor and middle class, growing the anchor of our unproductive democracy, and dividing people over yet another issue that, in real terms, is of no consequence. And even if it were (of consequence), their chosen course is, as usual, exactly the opposite of the one needed (assuming any of their lies were even true).

One of the many dirty secrets is that you can’t build monuments without fossil fuels. The other is that Countries like India and China are building coal-powered infrastructure faster than you can say “global warming.” 

The need for energy in India is so dire, the Modi government just leaned on the power companies to get their act together. Instead of adding the usual 1 – 2 gigawatts of new coal power, which they have for a lot of the last decade, last year they ordered enough gear to build 10 gigawatts. And this year Modi wants them to aim for 31 gigawatts. Which is about the same capacity as the entire coal generation of the Australian National Grid (and our gas plants too).

Somewhat miraculously, they are talking of building them “in the next 5 or 6 years”: India ‘Asks Utilities to Order $33bn in Gear to Lift Coal Output.’

India, like China, Africa, and many parts of Asia, is modernizing. They see an opportunity to no longer be poor. But you need energy for that, and cheap energy is best. It frees up resources to power growth and modernization—things like indoor plumbing, flush toilets, comfortable living, food security, improved quality of life, health care, and longevity. Basic comforts the moderns in the West despise – at least for others. You don’t see them turning in their Suburaus for rickshaws or their walled villas for dirt-floored hovels in overcrowded shantytowns. Job one for them is taking your comforts away and replacing them with uncertainty and fear.

And that’s not even working.

Globally, we spent almost $2 trillion in 2023 to try to force an energy transition. Over the past decade, solar and wind energy use has soared to record levels. But that hasn’t reduced fossil-fuel use, which increased even more over the same period.

I recently explored this in more detail on Substack.

From 2004 to 2022, for example, 4.1 trillion was spent (just on) on wind and solar. What did we get for that (feel free to tack on the added cost of the electricity it generates)? Wind and solar account for 5% of total generation. In the same span of years, energy from hydrocarbons grew 3.4 times faster.

There is no green transition unless, by green, you mean wealth, prosperity, technology, productivity, and influence from the West to the East. The energy transition shifts power (real and political) out of the hands of nations like America and into the hands of India, the Chinese, Russia, and Africa. And it is not a clean transition. Lifting these nations from second or third to first world will produce “emissions” the likes of which this world has never seen.

You’d be right to ask why these activists are trying to squeeze Americans into releasing fewer emissions and not over there demanding they stop working so hard to destroy the globe. America hs vast energy resources it could use (and would use) more cleanly) to lead an air-quality revolution it could share with the balance of the world – creating real jobs and wealth here and abroad in the process.

They are going to burn coal, oil, and gas. You can’t stop them. They are going to be further industrialized. They aren’t worried about air pollution. It’s a problem for the day after they’ve got enough energy and resources to tackle it.

Ignore whether their ideology or culture becomes a bigger threat to global peace and stability (which, in the case of China, seems likely). Just focus on energy, emissions, and Thr greens stated goals for the planet.

Does it make more sense for America to tap its affordable resources to create jobs and wealth for Americans by building technologies that allow the world to have cleaner, more affordable fossil fuel energy (at a fraction of the cost), or should we keep dumping trillions into “green projects” whose components are built by other nations burning coal that will never be capable of meeting basic residential and business needs (forget heavy manufacturing and transportation)?

Even if you believe the planet is in danger and that all of their prognostications are true, nothing about what modern American progressives have done or proposed begins to address the problem, and in most cases, it just makes matters worse.

 

The post Green “Energy Transition” Spent Two Trillion in 2023 and … Fossil Fuel Use Rises appeared first on Granite Grok.

Trump (at a rally on 7/9) called the Biden-Regime’s bluff … offering BidenX TWENTY STROKES in a golf match and to contribute $1 million to a charity of the Regime’s choice if that pathetic, incapacitated, desiccated husk Joe BidenX won. Of course, the Regime declined.

Because BidenX couldn’t even tee off once, he probably couldn’t make contact with the golf ball.

BidenX is an IMPOSTER. A FIGUREHEAD. In a Party of angry women and weak men, BidenX is the weakest of WEAK men. The Left has made this country an international embarrassment.

JUST IN: Donald Trump challenges Biden to another debate before showing him how to swing a golf club and challenging him to a round of golf.

Trump was seen mimicking Biden’s awful golf swing on stage.

The challenge came after Biden said he had a 6 handicap.

“I’m also… pic.twitter.com/2ZCFxfWd4x

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) July 10, 2024

 

 

The post Gutless BidenX Declines $ONE MILLION DOLLAR Golf Match Challenge From Trump appeared first on Granite Grok.

The home page decided it wanted a new look before we were ready to launch the new look. So, no – this is not that. We are working on it. (new content will continue to appear to the right —> or below this post).

Thanks.

The post This is Not the New ‘Grok appeared first on Granite Grok.

How many ILLEGALS will be voting in 2024? I cannot give you an exact number, but I’m certain that we are talking about MILLIONS. Where’s the proof … where’s the proof … where’s the proof … bleat the rank-and-file Commy-bots, the useful idiots like Mikey Graham … the corporate media, etc., etc., etc. Well … if you weren’t planning on having ILLEGALS vote, why would you be threatening to veto a bill that would make it harder for ILLEGALS to vote?

Western democracy is DEAD. Our elections are shams. The only question is how much cheating, rigging and fraud the Left will need to steal another election from the VOTERS (actual Americans) who legally voted for Trump.

The post So You Want (More) Proof Of Voter Fraud appeared first on Granite Grok.

All elected officials, from the President of the United States down to those who serve their towns as public library trustees, take an oath of office. While the wording of these oaths might differ, they have one thing in common: they require the oath-taker to support the United States Constitution. In New Hampshire, town officers are required to “solemnly swear” that they “will bear faith and true allegiance to the United States of America and the state of New Hampshire, and will support the constitution thereof” (NH Constitution Part 2: Article 84).

New Hampshire law also mandates that “any such person who violates said oath after taking the same shall be forthwith dismissed from the office involved” (RSA 42:1). If this law is to be truly abided by and serve as an example to all elected officials, one of the library trustees of Raymond’s Dudley Tucker Library, Jill Galus, should be “dismissed from office.” Back in April 2023, Ms. Galus signed a letter along with two former trustees, the library director, and the former town manager, which resulted in my termination as the assistant director of the Dudley-Tucker Library. The reason for my dismissal? I recruited, supported, and endorsed conservative library trustee candidates in my hometown of Atkinson, which I represent in the state legislature.

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

Soon after I was fired, I realized that my First Amendment rights had been egregiously violated. I had every right to engage in political activities in my own town and on my own time and should not have been terminated for these activities. This is what freedom of speech, enshrined in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, is all about.

After demanding a public hearing and threatening legal action, I was rehired by those who fired me. They rescinded my termination but with no acknowledgment of their errors nor any apology. Because my rehiring with backpay did not seem like adequate justice, I sought legal recourse. Eventually, the American Center for Law and Justice secured a “consent decree” signed by a federal judge acknowledging that those who had fired me were guilty of serious wrongdoing. The decree asserted that my termination due to my political activities “constituted a violation of [my] First Amendment Rights.”

This violation, as attested to by this federal court decree, is a clear violation of the oath of office taken by Jill Galus when she swore to uphold the Constitution as a library trustee. New Hampshire law (RSA 42:1) mandates that she now be removed from office for this violation. The mechanism for implementing this removal is a petition of the Rockingham Superior Court. Before subjecting her town of Raymond to any more costly legal proceedings, Galus should do the right thing and resign her elected position.

The case of a library trustee in a small town might seem unimportant, but the precedent that it would set is far-reaching. No one is above the law, from the highest ranks of the federal government to the elected officials of small towns throughout America. This leveling of the legal playing field is usually considered from the perspective of the most powerful national political figures. But it is just as important to hold our lowest level of government officers to the same standards. Ultimately, nothing is more important than preserving the constitutionally mandated rights of all citizens, especially the right of free speech!

The post Night Cap: No Elected Official Is Above the Law appeared first on Granite Grok.

The lesson that should have been learned from the transformation of U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Roberts from a constitutional-conservative to a buffet-constitutional-conservative … a lesson that should have been learned from the debacle that was David Souter … is that one of the essential attributes of a Supreme Court Justice is toughness.

The nominee must be impervious to media criticism AND media praise.

Tragically, it appears that Amy Coney Barrett is turning into another Souter, Roberts, etc. … more concerned about favorable coverage from the corporate-media than fidelity to the Constitution.

The post Corporate-Media Attempting To “Souter-ize” Amy Coney Barrett appeared first on Granite Grok.

Congressman Wesley Hunt Reveals Jaw-Dropping Trump Story This is amazing. In a tense meeting with Taliban leaders, Trump declared, “I want to leave Afghanistan, but it’s going to be a conditions-based withdrawal,” before issuing a stark warning. “If you harm... Tom Bowler

Security stationed outside the home of Supreme Court Justice Sonya Sotomayor was confronted by an armed man presumed to be a carjacker. They shot him.

“In sum, the Framers did not write the Second Amendment in order to protect a private right of armed self defense.” — Sotomayor, with the dissent in McDonald https://t.co/qSWVRiY444

— David Harsanyi (@davidharsanyi) July 9, 2024

Sotomayor signed on to Justice Breyer’s dissent in McDonald v. City of Chicago.

In sum, the Framers did not write the Second Amendment in order to protect a private right of armed self-defense. There has been, and is, no consensus that the right is, or was, “fundamental.” No broader constitutional interest or principle supports legal treatment of that right as fundamental. To the contrary, broader constitutional concerns of an institutional nature argue strongly against that treatment.

The common man does not get armed US Marshall protection unless they are a high-value convict or witness (or a US Supreme Court Justice whose fan base harasses or threatens the so-called conservative members of the court). Law enforcement has no legal obligation to protect you. And based on Sotomayor’s dissent, the armed carjacker that comes up to your vehicle knows they have a force majority, and you are nothing more than a victim.

That’s her stance, but not the life she is living unless someone is suggesting that everyone has a right to have someone else defend them with a firearm.

 

The post Justice Sotomayor vs. Sotomayor Justice: No Private Right to Self Defense but It’s Okay for Her ‘Security’ to Shoot a Criminal Outside Her Home appeared first on Granite Grok.

A public service announcement. The FBI … aka “Patriot Front” … recently (7/6) held a parade in downtown Nashville. Notice all the beer-bellies, the tattoos, the cross-section of ages … . OH WAIT! There is none of that. Could it be … a bunch of FBI agents, assets, etc., with six-packs and their faces covered to prevent identification?

Would our government ever do such a thing? I’ll bet that if you ask the 51 members of the “intelligence community” who told us that Hunter’s laptop was Russian disinformation, they’d tell you this was REAL.

 

BREAKING: Patriot Front is marching in downtown Nashville.

Can someone finally expose them for who they are. pic.twitter.com/7BErswmULt

— I Meme Therefore I Am (@ImMeme0) July 6, 2024

The post Your Tax Dollars At Work … The FBI Holds A Parade In Nashville appeared first on Granite Grok.

Climate Gate insider Phil Jones became famous—not for being a clever scientist working on a complex problem—not exactly. The problem was complex but not scientific. The globe wasn’t warming as they’d said, and he worked behind the scenes to hide the evidence—to hide the decline.

“I’ve just completed Mike’s [Mann] Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (i.e. from 1981 onwards) and from 1961 for Keith’s [Briffa] to hide the decline.”

—Dr. Phil Jones, Director of the Climatic Research Unit, disclosed Climategate e-mail, Nov. 16, 1999.

Nancy Pelosi has been a fixture in Washington, DC, for so long that if it weren’t for her moving around, she’d be green and covered in pigeon shit. She’s got more advice for her party members and colleagues, which includes the press. Channel Phil Jones.

Pelosi argued during an appearance on MSNBC’s Morning Joe that Democrats should pause the public conversation around Biden’s mental acuity until after the NATO summit taking place in Washington in the coming days.

“I’ve said to everyone, ‘Let’s just hold off,’” Pelosi said. “Whatever you’re thinking, either tell somebody privately, but you don’t have to put that out on the table until we see how we go this week.”

I’m unsure if she’s woken up with a new attitude today, but NATO didn’t go well. Biden’s performance makes Mark Zuckerberg look like an animated human being. He was stiff and read someone else’s words without much enthusiasm (except when yelling PUTIN). It wasn’t inspiring, nor will it lift the pall of concern or shift the conversation back to Trump. And I can hardly think NATO is ready to start a real war with Russia with Biden still in the White House. They aren’t interested in hiding his decline.

I’d expect NATO to take Nancy’s advice and hold off on aggravating Russia further until sometime in 2025.

 

The post Pelosi Channels Phil Jones on Biden: Hide the Decline appeared first on Granite Grok.

There once lived a ruler of a far-off land. The people there called him their president, but he was old and addled and had come to believe that he was really their king. He was also corrupt, greedy, and selfish, caring very little about the people he ruled over. His decrees were becoming progressively bizarre and were driving his country into rack and ruin.

You might wonder how such a man came to power.

Though he really didn’t know much, he knew all about things like scratching backs and peddling influence. Twice before he’d scratched and peddled his way to the brink of success. But on the third try, he had help from an ensemble of devoted prevaricators. They came from all walks of life. There were politicians, newsies, and entertainers. Unlike his run-of-the mill supporters, their loyalty was fanatical, and their knack for deception was unmatched; it seemed to come to them naturally. They had no qualms about lying audaciously, convincingly, and continuously in order to enable and protect the old man – even if meant the ruination of their country.

To that end, it was necessary for them to surrender both their common sense and their self-respect. They considered it a small price to pay. They called themselves the Lickspittles, and their motto was Fides Ante Honoris, (Loyalty Before Integrity.)

Without them, the addled old man could never have become president. It was late in his campaign that a special team of 51 Lickspittles gave him the boost he needed to overcome a major crisis. With their help, his back-scratching skills, a dash of trickery, and a heap of deceit, he was able to fool enough people to win the presidency.

Unfortunately for the people, he ruled in exactly the same way he came to power – with trickery and deceit. He told them they were rich, while many struggled to make ends meet. He told them they were safe and secure, while they were being attacked in the streets. And while the people suffered, he was enriching himself. Soon, their disappointment grew into unhappiness, which then grew into anger. They began to deride the old man, mocking him wherever he went.

Now despite all his power and wealth, he, too grew miserable. “Why can’t I be respected, even admired like the last guy,” he thought. “And why can’t I be smarter, or at least remember where I am?”

Then he heard someone say that clothes make the man. He said to himself, “Maybe a new set of clothes is what I need.” So he set out to find the best clothes his money could buy.

His journey brought him to a shop operated by two unscrupulous tailors. They were even more unscrupulous than their new customer. After listening to his plight, they saw an opportunity. They told him that a new suit of clothes was exactly what he needed.

They told him that they would make him a very special suit, sewn from a very special cloth, woven from very special thread. This suit would have unique qualities. Yes, it would make him popular with the people, but more than that, it would make him appear smart as a whip.

They added one small caveat. Only the most intelligent and perceptive people would see the improvement. Fools and dolts would still see a confused, greedy, and selfish old man.

Incredibly enough, he fell for it. Yes, it sounds crazy, but remember; he was rather addled, and besides, this is just a fable.

So, he watched as the two swindlers pretended to weave invisible thread and sew non-existent cloth into an invisible new suit.

When they were finished, the two con men could barely contain their mirth as their customer disrobed and modeled his new “suit.” He couldn’t wait to get back home and impress the people.

At first, the Lickspittles were aghast! But they were, after all, committed to making him look good. And besides, after hearing the tailors’ caveat, they didn’t want to appear foolish or doltish.

So they showered him with praise, telling him how smart he looked.

All this seemed to fill the man with a renewed sense of pride, prompting him to travel the countryside in his invisible suit, boasting about his imaginary accomplishments. The Lickspittles were right behind him, parroting his words while praising his leadership, his stamina, and yes, his brilliance.

They told the people, “The man is a dynamo! We can’t keep up with him!” “He does more in five minutes than most people do in a day. And smart? Why, he’s smart as a whip!”

But despite their most sincere, convincing lies, the people saw only a naked, pathetic old man.

The Lickspittles were beside themselves. They were becoming laughing stocks! What more could they do to convince the people? One beady-eyed, bespeckled Lickspittle was absolutely livid. He said as sternly as he could, “That man is one smart cookie!” And if you’d rather believe your own two eyes …well then screw you.”

Then on one summer night during his reelection campaign, something inexplicable happened. It was almost magical. The charade began to crumble. A few of the Lickspittles suddenly seemed to develop a modicum of integrity. Or maybe they came to realize that the people no longer believed them. Perhaps they just ran out of audacious lies.

The details of what happened next are unimportant, but as quick as a wink, the old man found himself far away from the president’s mansion and on the beach, where he spent his remaining years frolicking with his six or seven grandchildren.

And the people were happy again.

The post The President’s New Clothes (With Apologies to Hans Christian Andersen) appeared first on Granite Grok.

We journey once more into the midweek breach to embrace the meme and nothing but the meme! A hump-day tradition whose burden I assumed but not (perhaps) for very much longer).

Nitazakhon might be back to this one soon. We shall see.

But enough of this pithy banter.

Memes!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The post Midweek Memes – The Future Belongs to Those Who Believe In the Beauty of Their … Memes appeared first on Granite Grok.

Politics in NH are interesting, as I’m sure anyone who is paying attention would agree. Hot topics, promises, and clever lies abound.

I’d be seriously slacking in my role as a Homeschool Advocate if I didn’t take the time to touch on the hot topic that has plagued our community for a number of years and become a front-and-center key platform push for politicians in our state.

Let me preface my statements here by sharing that these are my own thoughts and opinions, based on years and years of experience, advocacy and work as a freedom-minded home educator in NH and Southern Maine. If you want a list of “who I think I am” you could easily find it outside of this blog post, but since people have asked I’ll touch on that, too.

What it comes down to is that I am a mouthpiece for the home education community and have been for some time. I feel comfortable making the blanket statement that the politicians, families and organizations I’m addressing here are made up of some good, well-intentioned folks, but also hope to convey that the elephant in the room is quite huge. There are politicians, families and organizations who are *not* and are benefiting financially and/or politically off of our misplaced trust and misinformation.

That last bit hurts some feelings, but I’ve never been one to mince words when it comes to the topic of home education freedom.

The EFA program is bad for NH home education.

There it is, friends! I’ve been everywhere from gracious, slow to speak, heavy on nuance to blunt and some have said downright aggressive on this topic, and it’s time to cut the coddling and tell you what I know.

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

Myth #1: The EFA program is good for NH.

Truth: The EFA bill was rammed through our legislature because it couldn’t (rightly so) pass a straight vote. It was pitched as a way for less than one dozen, *low-income, urban* students to escape public school. The bill was sloppy, with no accountability for taxpayers, families, or the government. Those of us who follow the legislature have seen firsthand the hyper-partisan climate and the resulting onslaught of bills attempting to kill it from within. Families have been marketed and lied to regarding the implications of the program, and I have consistently, transparently shared the short and long-term devastation this program causes for home education in NH. None of this is good for our community.

Myth #2: It’s Your Tax Money Anyway, It’s “The Money Follows the Child.”

Truth: Anyone can easily and effectively debunk this often-repeated marketing tagline by simply looking at their tax bill. It’s not your tax money; it’s everyone’s tax money. The small fraction of money that one pays that actually ends up funding this program is minuscule in comparison to the award amounts and managing organization’s outrageous fees.

Those folks who believe that “taxation is theft” have been the most surprising in their enthusiastic support of this program, so much so that “school choice” has become part of the Free State Project platform. If taxation is theft, why are you just fine with everyone else paying for your kid’s pottery wheel and Jiu-Jitsu lessons? I surely don’t know. It’s not your money.

The fact that the majority of EFA families pay for private school tuition with the funds should alarm those of us who understand that the government runs what the government funds, but I guess that’s outside the scope of this article.

Myth #3: I’m still a homeschooler if I sign up for the EFA program.

Truth: Legally, the EFA pathway is a fourth, completely separate educational status according to the state. It is governed by a different and distinct set of laws than home education. EFA (government) funds can be used for a number of (government) approved vendors.

Although the EFA legislation was modeled after home education law, it is not the same. The long-fought, ongoing battle for parental rights, minimal requirements and freedom of choice in enrichment programs, curriculum, and other educational services is the result of persistent advocacy over decades.

Functionally, EFA families might choose to homeschool their children. EFA families might look similar in many ways to home educators, but they are not the same. There are yearly deadlines, databases and approvals needed in the EFA program. EFA families do not have graduation requirements Equal Access, or *the right to utilize whatever/whoever/whenever* they want to educate their children without purchase approval from outside agencies. This is not the same as RSA193:a home education. Can you call yourself a homeschooler? Sure, we can call ourselves whatever we choose, I’m convinced of that. But the fact remains that I have personally spent countless hours supporting freedom from these differences. I will not get caught up in semantics.

Myth #4: “It’s no big deal to take the money/Amanda, you’re just a rich, entitled person who doesn’t understand how this has changed My life!”

Truth: It is actually a big deal to take government money. Listen, I’ve been doing this a long time and have seen the culture shift in the home education community after COVID from that of home-grown, grassroots, connections-driven to “provide “x” for me, and if it gets hard, I’ll just send them to school mentality.

Parents are leaving public school in droves and expecting the same government-implemented supports, programs, freebies and resources. The “lifers” are fewer and those of us on the front lines to advocate are but a handful.

I’m old, I get it, but I have four children, one income, and a special needs child, and I have sacrificed untold hours and resources to home-educate my children over 17 years, and I have a lifetime left. I create, innovate, show up, support, and rally for our community. I, too, have exclusively shopped in the free section. I have had to say, “I’m sorry, but we can’t afford that price,” more often than not, so I figure out alternatives. The alternatives take a lot of sacrifices of time and energy- yet I’m beholden to only my family. I have spent hours driving all over the state, online consulting and volunteering in order to encourage the free market education community.

I have bartered, sat in countless meetings and legislative sessions, served on HEAC, and showed up at my local school board to fight for the home education community. I did it, and you can, too, *without working against the freedom to home-educate in NH.* I still do it, and I’m doing it right now. My youngest child cannot take the martial arts class that he desperately desires, yet the very first thing the Sensei said to me as I tried to barter my services for a discount was, “Just sign up for that Class Wallet; it would be free!” It wouldn’t be free, Sensei.

Your short-term ability to do extras or buy a brand new curriculum does not outweigh our freedom.

The long-term implications are clear, as in other states with similar programs: more government oversight, more laws passed, more narrow definitions and allowances, and more regulation. Accepting government money might change your life in seemingly positive ways right now, but it is devastating to our collective lives for these reasons now and in the not-so-distant future. This is a big deal, and I guess I do know precisely “who I think I am.” (my snark here is directed at the hate mail I receive from people who do not know me in real life at all)

Myth #5: A (any) managing organization’s administrator/vendor/politician is trustworthy.

Truth: There is an extreme conflict of interest happening with the EFA managing organization/vendors/politicians, the taxpayers, and the families involved. The managing organization makes a *whopping* 10% of all of the money that goes out the door. Look up how much similar program administrators get in other states for yourself – max 3 to 4 percent. The organization also manages the education tax credit, which is a true scholarship that needs to be fundraised from local businesses. The managing organization marketed directly to the ETC recipients to sign up for the EFA program, insisting that “there’s no difference” between the two programs. Both are income-based, but the similarities end there. The Administrator of the EFA program helped craft the legislation, markets the program at political events all across our state, and lies by omission during presentations by repeatedly focusing on emotional pitches instead of the facts.

I know families who feel “swindled” and “lied to” because the implications were never shared – “I was never told it was a different pathway/I had to turn things in/I’d be in a database/ I had to terminate my home education program.”

The EFA program has become a self-contained market where educational providers are racing to grab the cash. Scandals and closures are ramping up in NH and other states due to mismanagement. The “educational innovation” that is touted as the future is all based on families signing up for the EFA. Providers can (and do) charge exorbitant fees for their services *because they can* and freely market the EFA as the way to enroll. This is currently happening with Kaipod and Prenda. Can’t afford the thousands of dollars after the federal grant ends in September? Just sign up for the EFA! This is literally what I was told in person. These vendors are at the same info sessions and political events. At least one high-ranking politician, who is front and center of the EFA push in NH, benefits financially (personally) from the EFA-driven “learning co-op” that his wife directs. Let this sink in, folks. ***A leader in the legislature benefits financially from the expansion of the program.*** I’m not sure how this giant red flag has gotten a pass, but these obvious conflicts of interest have not gone unnoticed by the other side of the aisle or any of us who are paying attention.

Is it any wonder why the legislature has been absolutely swamped with targeted bills looking to control the program? To control everything from what is purchased, who purchases it, assessments, data, you name it. And as the title of this post states, it’s election season. I don’t care what side of the aisle one lands on; this is all incredibly murky at best, and if the (very partisan/close split) legislature, Governor, or Commissioner of Education changes, EFA families are all at risk. In mid-June, the vote to expand the program failed. If the Republicans lose any of these branches of government, “mean” blog posts are going to be the least of EFA families’ worries.

The managing organization and the Commissioner are both on record refusing the required audits of the EFA program, and a local State Rep said to me, “Kate Baker would rather close the program than share that information.” I hear, “Kate won’t let that happen,” when anyone questions anything that is troublesome on the horizon. It’s been happening for a number of years now. Is it a red flag that they refuse to share the required information for the required audits by the Committee tasked with overseeing the program? I’d say it is.

Myth #6: You need the EFA program to provide an excellent, tailored, engaging home education program for your children.

Truth: You don’t need government money, the strings attached, or the implications involved in signing up for the EFA program. There are countless ways to frugally curate your home education program. Coordinate, lead, barter, connect, pay it forward, sacrifice. Pioneers who came before us did it and we can, too. *Get involved and educate others on the value of the true freedom of home education!*

All this to say, don’t take their word for it. Heck, don’t take *my* word for it! Everything I have said here is publicly available information for those willing to uncover it. As with any election season, please consider your votes wisely. The Republican party is fully immersed in using the EFA program to help them get elected. The Democrats are fully immersed in using (killing) the EFA program to help get elected. Since none of them will actually admit any of this, all the more reason to get involved.

The post ‘Tis the (Election) Season appeared first on Granite Grok.

So-called independent web portals keep popping up in New Hampshire. They are well funded with professional staff, but try not to look it because they are actually partisan political fronts pretending to be unbiased, disinterested observers. They want you to trust them.

You can’t.

They may even say they care about New Hampshire, Live Free or Die! Granite Post News is one of the more recent inventions. Within seconds of clicking the link that hit my inbox, I could tell what this was. But before we get to that, here’s who they claim to be.

No one cares more about our state than the people who live here. And that’s us. Our experienced team of journalists all call New Hampshire home. We know you because we are you. We’re here to cut through the fog of disinformation and half-truths meant to confuse and distract from what we cherish most about our state and our country. That’s why we’re committed to reporting based on facts, science, and what matters most to Granite Staters.

They admit to believing in a living wage, centered reporting, quality education, and strong democracy. That sounds a lot like a Liberal-funded front group pretending to be something it is not. A band of locals who care about New Hampshire.

Related: Liberal Foundations Offer 500 Million In Grants to “Revitalize Local News” (You Mean Progressive Echo Chambers, Yes?)

Sorry. Not even close. But not everyone will notice or realize, so we are here to help.

Granite Post News is owned and run by Courier Newsroom. Courier is a creature of ACRONYM.

One newer group heralding the new era of pseudo-news outlets is ACRONYM, a liberal dark money group with an affiliated super PAC called PACRONYM. The nonprofit also is an investor in a for-profit digital consulting firm that gained notoriety for its role in launching Shadow Inc., the secretive vendor behind a vote tabulation app at the center of the pandemonium at the Iowa Democratic caucuses. ACRONYM announced it was divesting in Shadow Inc. shortly thereafter.

ACRONYM is behind Courier Newsroom, a network of websites emulating progressive local news outlets. Courier has faced scrutiny for exploiting the collapse of local journalism to spread “hyperlocal partisan propaganda.” It claims to operate “independent from” ACRONYM and says ownership is shared with “other investors.” But a new tax return obtained by OpenSecrets lists ACRONYM as the full owner of Courier as of April. 30, 2019, the most recent date on record. An ACRONYM spokesperson told OpenSecrets that Courier has attracted multiple private investors since that time.

Websites affiliated with Courier Newsroom that appear to be free-standing local news outlets are actually part of a coordinated effort with deep ties to Democractic political operatives. OpenSecrets first revealed the network’s digital ad spending at the Investigative Reporters and Editors NICAR conference in March.

ACRONYM has millions to spend on its networks and mission, and this isn’t our first dip of the toe into Couriers waters. In the run-up to the midterms, the same dark money was doing the same fake media song and dance. We uncovered four outlets in the Granite State of the original 51.

Granite Post News looks to be a bit less cut and paste, but the underlying partisan mission is the same.

Consider yourself informed.

And one more point, since this always comes up if an “outlet” or an advocate decides to play denier or engage in pushback. We have no issue with you being who you are. Just admit it. Let the people know, and they can decide how to value the opinion and reporting you have to offer.

 

The ‘Grok and Grok Media are reader-supported. No deep pockets. Just shoestrings and a strong desire to protect New Hampshire. You can begin or continue to support us and our mission here.  Thank You!

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