Last week, Joe Biden’s FBI gave NYC Mayor Adams’ top fundraiser an early morning wake-up call. Something about conspiring with foreign governments to collect illegal campaign contributions. One of the few things on which Joe Biden might be an expert. I labeled it a warning shot over Adams’ bow.

 

The FBI recently showed up at the home of Brianna Suggs. She’s an associate of New York City Mayor Eric Adams. She’s also a fundraiser for a mayor who has been increasingly critical of the “migrant” situation and the impact it is having on his sanctuary city.

 

Mayor Adams has been getting feisty about the situation as hotels once flooded with tourists get taken over by hordes of relocated border jumpers. Businesses continue to abandon the city, still struggling with covid apocalypse departures. But everyone continues to pretend this has nothing to do with Eric Adams or his bitching about Biden’s Migrant invasion, and now the FBI has seized two iPhones and an iPad belonging to the Mayor.

 

The search was first reported by the New York Times, which said the probe centered on whether the campaign had conspired with the Turkish government to receive illegal foreign donations.

…

A search warrant reviewed by the New York Times reportedly indicates prosecutors are looking into whether the Adams campaign conspired with Turkey’s government or individuals with ties to Turkey to violate campaign finance law.

Investigators also want to know if the Adams campaign kicked back any benefits to the country or these individuals in exchange for donations.

Foreign nationals are barred from making contributions to US election campaigns.

Law enforcement officials familiar with the matter told CNN that the alleged scheme being investigated by the FBI would have allowed money coming from foreign entities to be masked as donations from American citizens.

 

Adams is cooperating, but what other choice does he have?

And if the Bidenistas are sending a message to Adams, it is a curious choice. The Biden crime family’s pockets have swelled in the wake of foreign influence operations using VP Joe Biden’s name and access as collateral.

Not that foreign money hasn’t been polluting campaigns without a whisper of interest from the alleged authorities. Another example of something that happens that everyone knows is left hanging like a noose with no one in it.

I still feel strongly that whoever is Running the Biden administration got their dander up about Adams’ complaints ala ‘illegal alien invasion’ and has decided to send a message.

It makes you wonder if Obama has someone else in mind to run New York City, and if so, who?

 

 

 

The post Biden’s FBI Just Sent Another Message to NYC Mayor Eric Adams appeared first on Granite Grok.

What does Iran have on Barack Obama and Joe Biden? What kind of a deal did these two Presidents cut with the number one supporter of terrorism in the world? For nearly sixteen years, Obama and Biden have been clearing the way for Iran to build tremendous wealth, and the cash flow was only interrupted for four years when Donald Trump sat behind the big desk and slapped sanctions on Iran, not pad their fund.

Let’s examine just how much money was diverted to Iran during Obama’s two terms and Biden’s one term. I think you will be shocked at the number, but it is still growing.

Estimates vary, but the consensus is that Barack Obama is responsible for $150 Billion injected into the Iran economy. Most of this money comes from unfreezing Iran’s assets as part of the Iran nuclear deal signed by Barack Obama. This cash was in addition to the pallet of money and gold bars a U.S. cargo plane delivered to seal the nuclear deal. Obama admitted to giving Iran $400 million. Obama knew that Iran was financing Hamas and their terrorist activities in the Middle East and that some of this money given to Iran would end up in the hands of Hamas and Hezbollah. Obama consummated the deal anyway.

When Trump took office in 2021, he immediately terminated the nuclear deal with Iran and again froze their assets. Unfortunately, the damage had already been done, and Hamas and Hezbollah had the funds they needed. Without access to their cash, Iran was quiet for the four years that Trump was in office. All of that changed on day one of Biden’s first term. Biden signed executive orders to re-enter the nuclear agreement and released the sanctions imposed by Trump. Iran and the Democrat party were back in business.

Obama said this week that nobody’s hands are clean when it comes to the Middle East and this current battle between Israel and Hamas. He is absolutely correct, and his and Joe Biden’s are very bloody hands. When Biden took office, Iran was virtually broke. By releasing the sanctions on Iran and allowing them to start selling oil to Russia once again, their cash reserve has increased by $80 billion in less than three years. This money is the direct result of Joe Biden’s policies. This money is being used to fund Hamas and resulted in the slaughter of over 1400 Israelis on October 7.

There is no upside to what Joe Biden had done. There was no benefit to the United States or the world for allowing Iran to be again this close to having nuclear weapons. The only conclusion that a logical person can come to is that some of this money given to Iran found its way into the Democrat Party or Obama or Biden’s personal bank accounts. There is nothing that these two presidents have done that has not benefited them personally. There is no argument that these two men dislike America that much that they would get into bed with Iran to put Israel and the world in danger

The post Obama And Biden Funded Iran And Their Attack On Israel appeared first on Granite Grok.

Here is yet more evidence that the 2020 election was rigged. In brief, election workers in Georgia questioned absentee ballots that showed signs of actually being mailed.

The trial court judge … like the other judges sitting on lawsuits challenging the propriety of the 2020 election … dismissed the lawsuit on a technicality. An appeals court has reversed the trial court. Stay tuned.

 

There is NO EVIDENCE, they claim
(because it's been kept secret for over 3 years)

Take it to COURT, they whine
(GA Supreme Court said bring out the ballots)

No JUDGE has found, they assert
(because they all run away)

Joe Biden didn't 'WIN' Georgia in 2020, you can now reply https://t.co/7OxYspHIGW

— Rasmussen Reports (@Rasmussen_Poll) November 10, 2023

Reminder that Raffensperger never performed an actual audit of GA election results.

All the “audit” did was verify that "the only software or firmware on the components was certified for use" by SoS Office. https://t.co/dnNxfN6sme

— Jeff Carlson (@themarketswork) November 10, 2023

 

The post 150,000 Fraudulent Absentee Ballots For Biden In Georgia? appeared first on Granite Grok.

The Nov. 7 elections were a sobering reminder that we live in a godless country. For the sane, it’s terrifying to realize the people voting with you on which laws and politicians will hold power have forgotten what human dignity is. Still, the blame for Ohio voters passing Issue 1 is not with the immoral hoards. Conservatives are responsible for this loss.

Voter turnout for Tuesday’s election was embarrassingly low, considering the topic of constitutional importance was whether or not the state would be creating an open season for the killing of unborn babies. It seems like such a no-brainer. Of course, the littlest ones among us deserve the most care. Conservatives had the chance to remind our fellow countrymen what it means to protect the truly vulnerable in our society, and instead, they stayed home.

 

The 57% of Ohio voters who chose to put abortion rights in the state constitution yesterday is right in line with national public opinion on the matter in recent years: Surveys have consistently shown ~60% support for legal abortion. https://t.co/d6MdEWwl6z pic.twitter.com/TngQzCpxZY

— John Gramlich (@johngramlich) November 8, 2023

 

Despite all the talk about being the party of common sense, the unofficial numbers show that only 48% of Ohio’s eligible voters showed up to vote on Tuesday. This continues a trend of decreasing voter turnout that started in 2018. This excludes the 2020 presidential race, but outside of having former President Donald Trump on the ballot, there hasn’t been a single issue that forces otherwise apathetic Republican voters to cast their ballot. (ROOKE: Leftist Moral Rot, Not Conservative Bullying, Killed The Alabama Drag Queen Preacher)

 

Completely stupid and naive to tell pro-lifers to compromise on abortion. The pro-abortion side isn’t interested in compromise. They’re for abortion on demand through all nine months without apology – nothing less. They will fight as adamantly against a 25 week ban as they will…

— Allie Beth Stuckey (@conservmillen) November 8, 2023

 

The Republican Party failed miserably to prepare for this election. ABC exit polls found that “46 percent of people who voted in Ohio today said they voted for Biden in 2020, versus 43 percent for Trump.”

Surely, there are a lot of reasons why people did not show up to polls yesterday that have nothing to do with their views on abortion. However, it is undeniable that this issue deserves galvanizing support from the party that claims to understand the importance of human life and what it means to give everyone a chance at life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

The narrative coming from the GOP machine is that abortion is a losing issue. While gaining favor with the Susan B. Anthony List is important in a Republican primary, they act like any general election leaves them with both hands tied behind their back. The idea is to ignore it and hope their opponent doesn’t bring it up.

Voting is possibly one of the easiest ways Republicans can participate in their government — so it’s shocking there were not enough voters willing to show up to protect innocent life on Tuesday. Still, why would any voter wait in a government line on a cold November Tuesday to vote for a political party’s objectives when they act like losing is all they can deliver?

Democrats run every election with the understanding that defeat is not an option and the only way to win is if voters actually cast their ballot. It’s no surprise when they mop the floor with Republicans. The GOP’s leadership can’t even reach out to ballot and voter registration expert Scott Pressler, who runs a one-man machine ping-ponging operation across the country, teaching people how to create more Republican voters.

Pressler says he has contacted GOP Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel for 207 unanswered days to ask for help in overhauling their campaign strategy, according to a Wednesday Twitter post.

Why wouldn’t the leader of the GOP want to connect with someone who single-handedly created the party’s only effective response to the Democrat’s well-oiled election machine? Did they decide that losing every election and blaming it on Trump would be an effective voter turnout strategy in the future? The base is tuning them out and refusing to show up to vote.

It’s not enough to sprinkle a few yard signs around town a couple of weeks before the race is over. Democrats act in military precision, going door-to-door and getting their voters to the polls. (ROOKE: The Only Thing The GOP Loves More Than Donor Money Is Losing To The Dems)

Where is the GOP’s outreach to the thousands of young people marching for life around the country every year? The perfect group to ask to go out and spur voters into action. Democrats dominate Republicans in these off-year races because they concentrate on voter turnout no matter what’s on the ballet or how it gets counted.

GOP messaging needs to change. Republicans have no answer when Democrats go on television and claim that the GOP wants to take away the right to an abortion, even for cases of incest, while flashing some stock footage of a little girl playing with her toys. The cases of abortion from rape or incest are nominal compared to the number of elective abortions performed in the U.S. Still, it’s hard to fathom a little girl getting pregnant after a horrific rape, and Democrats understand the messaging behind it puts conservatives on defense.

Rather than compassionately convey their answers to helping single pregnant women get the support they need or calling for harsher punishments for abusers, the GOP flounders. Conservatives should be telling women they are important enough to protect during their most vulnerable time. Single women vote for the Democrats offering them death because the only other political party is putting its head down, hoping not to get called on.

Mary Rooke is a reporter at the Daily Caller and host of “Trad-ish with Mary Rooke.”

Mary Rooke | 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.

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.

The post Cry About Abortion All You Want, But Know Conservatives Are To Blame appeared first on Granite Grok.

You might not like Trump, but you have to respect him. The ruling class, swamp rats, are terrified of this guy. And since the left always tells you who poses the greatest threat to their agenda, that has to mean something. You get to decide, and if you live in Minnesota, you still get to choose at the ballot box.

 

Former President Donald Trump will stay on the Minnesota primary ballot after the state supreme court on Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit seeking end his candidacy under a rarely-used constitutional provision that forbids those who “engaged in insurrection” from holding office.

The Minnesota Supreme Court declined to become the first in history to use Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to prevent someone from running for the presidency. The court dodged the central question of the lawsuit — does Trump’s role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol disqualify him from the presidency — by ruling that state law allows parties to put whomever they want on the primary ballot.

 

The Trump deranged will still have an opportunity to try and keep him off the general election ballot. The Minnesota Supreme Court made no judgment there, leaving the door open, which we should expect one or more well-funded left-wing groups to pursue. They’ve got the money and the time, but do they have the political capital?

Think of it as a boy in a dress who cried wolf. The Dems have gone all-in for years, throwing everything at the wall, but nothing sticks. Their fourth estate stenographers trumpet every engagement as the big one. This time, we’ve got him. But they never get him, and the current raft of prosecution reveals a trio of corrupt above-the-law prosecutors whose cases are thin partisan gruel.

The Dems made a yuge deal about Trump having unauthorized access to documents he declassified that were in his possession while he still had top-secret clearance (every former president has it). Leaving those facts out won’t survive long-term scrutiny. However, I suspect they hope to keep the will pulled down over voters’ eyes until after November 2024, which is not, contrary to past protestations, election interference.

And there’s the rub. Hate him, love him, suspect he will drive left-Wing turnout leading to a down-ticket wipeout – whatever your concern – if you refuse to stand up and protest how they’ve manipulated the process, you’ve no grounds to complain when they come for someone you do like. And if you don’t stand up, they will.

 

The post If You Thought Trump Would Be off the Primary Ballot in Minnesota, That’s Not Happening appeared first on Granite Grok.

Let me note the date and time … Friday, November 10th, 10 AM. Guess who has NOT condemned yesterday’s “protest” at UNH by some hard-left student group that featured the chant of “from the river to the sea.” The “Leader” of the Democrats (Communists would be more accurate) in the New Hampshire House of Representatives … Matty Wilhelm.

I previously posted about Matty, who considers himself the moral compass of New Hampshire, tweeting about various non-local issues but ignoring the antisemitism IN AMERICA following the Hamas attack on Israel  … New Hampshire House Leader Is Soft On Antisemitism.

 Now, it is no longer NOT a local issue. But just keep pretending that Matty and his ilk are the “loyal opposition,” and we share the same objectives and just differ over how to get there.

 

The post Guess Who Has NOT Condemned UNH’s “From The River To The Sea” appeared first on Granite Grok.

Six years ago, following the incident in which a violent mob of Middlebury students chased author and social scientist Charles Murray off the stage, assaulting and injuring a faculty member in the process, I wrote an article titled “Stop Calling Them Snowflakes.”

The piece referenced the parallels between George Orwell’s Animal Farm, where Napoleon (the dictator pig) “educates” in isolation a litter of puppies before unleashing them as his obedient attack dogs, shouting down or viciously suppressing any opposition, and the students on college campuses of the day.

I concluded, “So, let’s stop referring to these students as ‘snowflakes,’ which implies fragility and a certain amount of insignificance, and recognize them for what they are – the isolated, brainwashed, fiercely loyal, and dangerous attack dogs of an aspiring totalitarian regime.”

Sadly, if things have changed at all since then, it’s only for the worse.

What has become undeniably clear since October 7 and the Hamas attack on innocent civilian Israeli families and concert goers is that we are systematically raising a generation of young adults – at great taxpayer expense no less — who are perfectly willing to cheer on an antisemitic, anti-women’s rights, anti-gay rights, overtly genocidal, internationally recognized terrorist organization that is committing crimes against humanity on par with those of the sickest Nazis – Dr. Josef Mengele comes to mind – and they call it social justice!

When I took an introduction to ethics class in college, as well as, come to think of it, Psychology 101, and in several history and political science classes a question routinely came up: how could millions of otherwise normal German citizens simply go along with a plan to commit the industrialized genocide of every Jew in Europe and, presumably, that accomplished, the world? Answer: many were “educated” and propagandized into believing what they were doing was right and just and received the “social proof,” to steal a term from behavioral economics, from enough respected community leaders and authority figures to believe that this was indeed the case.

Nazis didn’t think of themselves as evil. Far from it. As Hitler proclaimed in Mein Kampf, “by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord [p. 60].” They rather saw themselves as oppressed victims who were standing up as the Social Justice Warriors of their day. Jews (in today’s vernacular maybe it would be called “Jew-supremacy”) for the Nazis was essentially what “white-supremacy,” or the “patriarchy,” or “systemic racism” is for today’s Woke: they represented the powerful economic and cultural institutions and conventions controlled by an oppressor class to victimize and exploit the innocent who, absent that corrupting presence, would thrive in peace. So, they justified a solution to this problem. A Final one. And almost everyone went along because everyone was going along.

Those who disagreed were frightened or brutalized into silence, or worse into complicity in the holocaust that sprung from this cancerous state of mind as it gained widespread and then total political power. Better, after all, to be putting others on the trains than to be put on the train yourself.

How all that happened was what we were never supposed to forget. But we are living and watching an alarmingly similar attitude develop today in America.

Our schools, through Critical Race Theory or DEI or Woke – whatever you want to call it – are indoctrinating young people into a dangerously tribalist, grievance dominated world view every bit as toxic as Aryan versus Jew in the 1930s. Be it anti-racist versus racist, white (and white-adjacent) versus BIPOC, or oppressor class versus marginalized class, the adults today are forcing the kids into camps and to choose sides and pick fights in a culture war. This is a twisted recipe for widespread mutual animosity if not outright group on group hatred. It’s the systematic “othering” of those superficially different from you.

Add to this dynamic a rewards structure that incentivizes students to exhibit the greatest amount of intolerance for the ostensibly intolerable “other”, and you can see why we have an increasing intensity toward theatrical and even violent reactions to every perceived offense. It’s what leads the so-assumed best and brightest of the upcoming generation to chant, “F— the Jews,” throughout the quads of our most elite universities, and parrot slogans for genocide with an enthusiasm that would make Joseph Goebbels proud. But this is how our schools, television, news media, and politicians have trained these young people to think and act. It’s not good!

If there is any silver lining to the war between Israel and Hamas, it is that the horrific reaction by these students has awakened (reWoke? unWoke?) at least some on the Left to the youthful monster that they have helped to create. Some are taking steps to reverse the damage by stopping their funding of universities, calling for the removal of teachers and administrators who spew this bile, and blackballing students who march for genocide from future employment.

Vermont’s leaders and parents and education taxpayers need to speak up as well. All of us do if we are to reverse this dangerous trend in education that starts in grade school. It was therefore extremely disheartening to read that amidst this turmoil the Essex-Westford School District released a policy stating, “This nation would not have evolved as it has without the genocide of the indigenous people, nor would the economic infrastructure exist as it does without the enslavement of native African people and their descendants. In an effort to recognize and undo the harm of centuries of systemic inequities and oppression, we begin with this lens and framework.”

This “lens and framework” is the same one that feeds the kind of hatred and justifies violence on the scale of flying in on paragliders and mowing down hundreds of innocent people peacefully dancing in a field because that’s what so-called decolonization looks like.

By warping children’s perceptions of their world by filtering it through this dark and dystopian “lens and framework” we are not really undoing any harm committed in the past, but we are very much sowing the seeds of harms that will be committed in our future, and in many places, our present.

So, let’s get back to teaching kids through a “lens and framework” that we are all created equal, and should be treated so under the law. That each of us has inalienable rights, including those to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. We all have and should respect each other’s rights to free speech, religion, and association. This country, the United States, was founded upon these principles at a time in history when none of them was “self-evident.” That they are today is testimony to how far we have come in living up to those principles, even if we don’t always do so perfectly.

The exceptional ideas that gave birth to this nation are what have attracted people of all races, religions and cultures and allowed us live side by side not just in peace, but to build together the most prosperous and successful nation ever in the history of humanity. It’s an incredibly optimistic story! A bumpy road at times, for sure, but there is much more to be proud of than ashamed. So be proud. Learn from our history and look forward to doing your part to make the next chapter of our nation “more perfect” than the last.

 

Rob Roper is a freelance writer with 20 years of experience in Vermont politics, including three years of service as chair of the Vermont Republican Party and nine years as President of the Ethan Allen Institute, Vermont’s free-market think tank. He is also a regular contributor to VermontGrok.

The post The Hamas/Israeli Conflict Exposed a Horrible Flaw In How We’re Educating Our Own Kids appeared first on Granite Grok.

The parallel media has been reporting on several instances where adopters of the all-electric future appear to have swallowed a red pill. Net Zero is not so much an emissions goal as a result for investors, so they are talking their green elsewhere.

 

Just as the quarterly reporting season revealed crippling losses for wind power and EV’s, so it is with Solar energy.

The general US S&P shares index gained 15% this year but The Invesco Solar ETF (Fund) which invests in solar energy stocks around the world — fell by a dire 40%. Even the US “Inflation Reduction Act” couldn’t save the solar sector. As finances tighten with rising interest rates, apparently solar panel orders are among the first to be cancelled.

This collapse is despite the ongoing support of tax dollars from government subsidies, price support, and new project funding: the government’s gold-digging, green-energy trophy wife. At first, she was the darling of Net Zero, but she has maxed out the credit cards and overextended her spending. All while “hubby” was dumping trillions into foreign wars.

The American economy isn’t the only one in the world, but when it struggles, the world feels it and the Bidenistas have been waterboarding Uncle Sam, and it has wide-ranging side effects.

 

Some of the worst performers in the whole US share market are solar shares, with SolarEdge and Enphase losing 70% each this year.  A few weeks ago, the CEO of SolarEdge said revenues this quarter were about half of what was expected. He blamed  “unexpected cancellations” from European distributors. But US demand was down too. Indeed, the bad news started in California, the largest market in the US, when the government slashed home solar  “net metering” payments in April by about 75%. Suddenly, it was going to take 10 years to pay off the panels. Solar panels were a luxury item.

 

Inflation is beating the crap out of everyone. Overextended governments are looking for revenue to fill fiscal potholes. Cutting off the trophy wife is easier than making hard decisions about streamlining government. Austerity that is not limited to marketplace meddling. When the economic rubber hits the road, those people fretting about the imagined harms of a government shutdown will be the first to shut down anything and everything to keep their glorious government funded.

At the same time, Middle America’s misguided belief that humans are responsible for climate change is having a collapse of its own.

 

According to the results of new survey, there’s been a sizeable shift in just the last five years in the percentage of Americans who believe humans are the primary driver of climate change as opposed to natural changes in the environment.

Though three-quarters of Americans believe climate change is happening, only 49% say it’s mostly or entirely precipitated by human activity — an 11% drop since 2018.

Digging into the demographics, the falloff was most pronounced among Democrats and independents. In 2018, 72% of Democrats said climate change is mostly or entirely a result of human activities; in 2023, that figure fell to 60%. For independents, the decline was even steeper: from 61% in 2018 to 42% in 2023.

Creeping doubt about humans’ impact on climate could be affecting the choices people are making, or not making, to reduce their carbon footprint.

 

The shift is not huge, but it is meaningful, driven by a handful of crap sandwiches. To get there from here, they will have to sacrifice. They will have infrastructure in their backyard. The Green Dream/nightmare requires tens of thousands of acres of “infrastructure” to create intermittent power that needs more infrastructure to get to you.

And you’ll have to pay for it. Or, you can harden the grid and support natural gas, cleaner coal, oil, hydro, and nuclear -almost none of which you will pay and whose generation will save you money compared to so-called green alternatives. A fact that isn’t presumed to have penetrated the collective consciousness but could.

Investors are skittish, EV makers are pausing expansions, and developers are backing out of projects. As the rats jump ship, Mr. Mrs. and Miss America must step up to ensure that the politicians don’t decide to spend even more of your money on a scheme no one else wants. That happens in the voting booth and in numbers sufficient to prevent the vote-by-mail fraudsters from stuffing the ballot box.

 

 

 

The post As EV Makers Discover There is No There There Solar Stocks are Crashing appeared first on Granite Grok.

It is a distinct honor to recognize my dear friend, a West Point graduate who received a Silver Star for Gallantry and heroism in Action, a Purple Heart for his wounds, an Air Medal, and a Combat Infantryman’s Badge, the Honorable Captain  Allen Clark.

“There are a host of heroes to whom this country owes a debt it can never repay. Allen Clark lost both his legs while serving his country in Vietnam. When he came home, his body was broken, but his spirit never faltered. He went back to school. He earned his master’s degree in business administration. He served his state in a high government post and is now a successful businessman. He’s an inspiration to all who know him.” – President Ronald Reagan.

His service as a Special Forces officer in the heart of Vietnam marked the beginning of an intense transformation. Allen served as a U.S. Army Special Forces captain in Vietnam when he was wounded. He lost both his legs to a mortar shell. On his encampment, he exhibited incredible bravery, even as he endured severe injuries and the loss of friends and fellow officers. His life was saved by the heroic actions of a young medic, and from that moment on, Allen’s path took an unexpected turn.

Allen authored several books, an autobiography, Wounded Soldier, Healing Warrior, “Foreword by Ross Perot. Valor in Vietnam, “Foreword by LTG Dave Palmer, former Superintendent U.S. Military Academy at West Point.” Soldiers, Blood and Bloodied Money Wars, and the Ruling Elites, Foreword by LTC Allen West. Chronicles of Honor, Courage, and Sacrifice (http://www.valorinvietnam.com, (http://www.woundedsoldierhealingwarrior.com)

“Allen’s passionate commitment to public service and to helping veterans began with an appointment in 1979 as the Special Assistant for Administration to Texas Governor William P. Clements, Jr.  In 1981, Allen was President Ronald Reagan’s selection to be Deputy Administrator for the Veterans Administration (now the Department of Veterans Affairs).  However, he chose to remain in Texas, where in 1982, he received the Texas Republican Party’s nomination to run for State Treasurer in a race that former Texas State Governor Ann Richards won.  In 1989, he was nominated by President George H.W. Bush and confirmed by the U.S. Senate as Assistant Secretary for Veterans Liaison and Program Coordination at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.  In 1991, he received his second VA confirmation as Director of the National Cemetery System. He served until the end of the President George H. W. Bush administration.”

In a distant time and a distant land, a war was fought that forever altered the course of many lives. Allen’s story, both then and now, is about duty, honor, integrity, and love of country. It is also a story of valor, endurance, and faith. Allen has faced immense challenges and overcome them with unwavering determination, and his journey from wounded soldier to healing warrior is nothing short of inspiring.  Allen often speaks of his profound faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Multiple surgeries and months of physical and psychological therapy followed, and he found himself grappling with the profound emotional depths of trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder. But he didn’t give up. He persevered through these challenging times, seeking healing and recovery with unyielding resolve.

His journey from a healthy, self-assured officer to a man with a broken body is a testament to his strength and resilience. He faced worries about whether he would ever walk again and confronted the consequences of the choices he made to serve his country in Vietnam.

Despite the adversity Allen faced, he discovered a deeper well of strength and courage within himself, and he found a new purpose in life. He achieved success in both the realms of public service and business, earning the admiration and respect of internationally respected political, business, and journalistic leaders.

Allen founded his lay ministry Combat Faith, where he visited Warrior Transition Battalions at all the major Army bases. He shares his healing story and mentors individual veterans and active military members. His own healing process is a testament to his enduring commitment to those who serve. Allen’s ministry offers hope and guidance to those struggling with the scars of war, giving them the tools to find peace and personal victory.

 

Allen is a devout Christian and a staunch follower of Lord Jesus Christ. Allen often speaks about the importance of traditional values in America, which resonates with many Americans who value these principles as essential to the nation’s moral fabric.

Allen shares his insights through his books, offering guidance and support to others who face extraordinary life challenges. Through his experience, he has developed a unique perspective on addressing unhealed hurts, unmet needs, and unresolved issues. His approach is a beacon of hope for those who carry the weight of past traumas and seek a path toward healing.

His book, “Wounded Soldier, Healing Warrior,” is a tribute to his remarkable journey, inspiring and guiding others on their recovery paths. Allen’s public speaking and sharing his story of victory over adversity has touched the hearts of countless audiences.

Allen’s dedication to helping veterans and his unwavering support for those who have served their country is truly commendable. His beautiful wife, Linda, is a living example of the resilience of the human spirit and the ability to overcome even the most challenging obstacles.

While we honor him, let us thank him for his service, sacrifices, and commitment to making his beloved America and the world a better place for all. He is a hero in every sense of the word, and his legacy will continue to inspire future generations. I am honored to call him my friend.

The post Honoring Captain Allen Clark: A Wounded Hero appeared first on Granite Grok.

The term “mental illness” has gained near-ubiquitous status in our daily lives.  Once a rarity among friends and relatives today it seems those without a mental illness are in the minority.  Among the flagship mental illnesses are depression, ADD/ADHD, and gender dysphoria.

The field of psychology, considered a soft science, has sought to validate itself among the sciences with its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM).  The DSM is a rather weighty tome filled with categorical entries for virtually every mental illness one can think of, which may be part of its problem.

A 2020 presentation given by Dr. James Davies (PhD), Co-Founder of the Council for Evidence-Based Psychiatry, details the history of the DSM while exposing its un-scientific structure and many financial entanglements of its contributors.  His concern rose among the many similarly disturbed voices within the practices of psychology and psychiatry who saw their disciplines being compromised by bad medicine.  Namely, Dr. Davies and his colleagues noticed that their understanding of mental illness felt more like an illusion rather than a proper diagnosis, and much of the preferred treatments rested on weak evidence, poor causal links, and a heavy reliance on pharmaceuticals.

The history of systematic mental illness diagnoses goes back to the 1800s.  In 1844, the  Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions for the Insane was formed.  In 1860, Florence Nightingale made a proposal for an international practice of systematically gathering statistics per medical diagnoses and care.  By 1872, the American Medical Association published its first Nomenclature of Diseases with a section devoted to Disorders of the Intellect, though its use was short-lived.  By World War 2, the influence of the American military was felt.  Much of the use of psychological terminology and diagnoses was run through the office of the Surgeon General, and military psychiatrists worked in coordination with Hospitals to develop Medical 203, the new standard of categorization.  In 1948, the World Health Organization intervened by taking over the International List of Causes of Death (ILCD) and renamed it the International Statistical Classification of Diseases (ICD).  The APA was then commissioned to develop a US-based manual that birthed the first DSM in 1952.

The 1960s saw the rise of social change agents impacting the veracity of one particular disorder – homosexuality.  Prior to the research of Evelyn Hooker, it was deemed a type of “sociopathic personality disturbance”.  Based on the findings of her lone study where she compared the reported mental well-adjusted nature of homosexual to heterosexual men were essentially the same, homosexuality was down-graded to “sexual orientation disturbance.”  However, this was not the result of etiological discovery, but the combination of Hooker and Alfred Kinsey’s highly controversial work and pressure from activists gathered at the site of the 1974 DSM convention in San Francisco.  As the panel discussed the matter, activists shouted down and ridiculed those who deemed it a mental disorder.  Rather than a matter of scientific discovery and analysis, the change was the result of a paucity of medical research combined with social pressures from unqualified activists.  Dr. Davies speech notes this pattern of modification continues to this day; only now the influence over psychiatric medicine include the interests of large-scale pharmaceutical interests.

Seeking to understand the development of today’s DSM, Davies reached out to the chair of the DSM-III task force, Robert Spitzer.  Spitzer spent most of his time in practice at Columbia University in New York.  Now living in Princeton, NJ, he agreed to meet with Davies to enlighten him about his involvement in the advancement of the DSM.  Among his admissions were the criteria for determining changes to psychiatric categories that simply arrived as the result of a democratic vote.  This is not science, points out Davies.  Among the anecdotes he learns, those tasked with determining appropriate nomenclature and symptoms were hand-selected professionals who sat in meetings and debated the merits until they reached consensus.  The similarity to the terminology used by Dr. Anthony Fauci during the COVID pandemic, where he likened himself to “the science,” with science also being identified via consensus rather than falsifiable evidentiary results that can be replicated by other scientists helps the laity see the “science” of psychology could easily go off the rails of the crazy train otherwise known as pseudo-science.

Like we’ve learned with Fauci and Big Pharma, thanks to internal whistle-blowers and external critics like Robert F. Kennedy Jr., there are strange bedfellows who were never intended to share the same room.  The integrity of science, as well as commerce, is upheld by non-interested third-party agencies intended to give accountability for the purpose of best practices and best outcomes.  Davies discovered this same type of medical incest, which sullies the good work of actual medical science.  In one case, he notes Astra-Zeneca used a questionable DSM condition called “Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder” to release a drug targeting women who presented as such.  Claiming a new medication would help treat it the company made billions in sales to women whom Davies states were suffering from completely normal female hormonal issues and not a disorder.  It turns out the new medication wasn’t new at all but was simply re-named re-packaged Prozac.  This was also not a one-off occurrence.

As I researched the history of the DSM, I came across this entry from Wikipedia (equally questionable as a scientific source, however, this illustrates the point):

“Obscuring the Root Causes of Psychological Distress

The role of the DSM-5 in protecting the interests of wealthy and politically powerful owners of the means of production in the United States has been criticized as well.[113] Placing the blame for predictable and common psychological distress caused by the deleterious effects of economic inequality in the United States on individuals by attributing it to mental pathology has been criticized as hindering change of the root causes of the distress.[113] “

The citation [113]?  Zeira A (February 2022). “Mental Health Challenges Related to Neoliberal Capitalism in the United States.” Community Mental Health Journal. 58

UNSPECIFIED – CIRCA 1865: Karl Marx (1818-1883), philosopher and German politician. (Photo by Roger Viollet Collection/Getty Images)

This entry uses the language of Karl Marx to criticize the entire field of American psychiatric medicine. It also raises the question – who is behind the Community Mental Health Journal and should they be included among those worth citing?  One is reminded of the Greivance Studies Affair exposing the rise of quasi-academic journals.  Perhaps the most egregious was feminist studies journal Afilia: Journal of Women and Social Work acceptance of a re-write of the thirteenth chapter of Hitler’s Mein Kampf replacing “Jews” with “men”.

Curiously, the author of Political Ponerology noted Karl Marx exhibited “schizoidal personality disorder” as he and his fellow students of psychology observed the machinations and abuses of communism among their populace.  People with schizoid personality disorder exhibit a marked lack of emotion, lack of motivation, and almost no desire to form relationships with others. In other words, the entry is the pot calling the kettle black by virtue of the inmates taking over the asylum, if you’ll allow the mixed metaphors.  Where is this headed? 

Just this week we saw the release of the Covington school shooter’s manifesto.  In it we see their notes riddled with vitriol using the language of woke ideology (re: cultural Marxism), which explains her desire to kill “crackers” and children, even praying God would bless her slaughter to achieve a high body count. 

How does this relate to the DSM?

The DSM-V was the top-selling book on Amazon upon its release.  It currently holds the top five spots in Amazon’s psychiatric category.  It also generates most of the operational costs of the American Psychiatric Association, around six million dollars each year.  When Davies asked to speak with the contributors to DSM-V, he was denied as they were all forced to sign confidentiality agreements.  This lack of transparency for such a significant influencer of America’s mental health is alarming. 

 Rather than hold itself together with scientific rigor, it has indeed been captured by those seeking to control the means of production, in this case, the production of sound mental health criteria, and in the process, they are normalizing pseudo-science and, by proxy, mental illness. 

Davies also noted Autism has now been redefined to limit the spectrum in the DSM-V; it’s simply no longer a diagnosis for many who may, in fact, have it.  Odd that the industry that has been successfully sued for causing autism via vaccines also has its financial tentacles entwined in this quasi-medical manual and enjoys the benefit of this disappearing act. 

Furthermore, each DSM grows in the number of mental illnesses and sub-categories it lists.  Thus, if this is the standard, it explains in part why we hear of our mental health crises, as it is both real and manufactured. 

Dr. Davies believes we need to scrap the DSM and start over.  As someone who has several family, friends, and clients who struggle with mental illness, I couldn’t agree more. 

 

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How ironic is it that the Left would choose death as the political hill to die on? Killing unborn babies is so important to their voters that they are willing to abort the economy, public safety, national defense, property rights, and liberty itself in exchange.

What is evermore baffling is that Republicans would stay home instead of trying to stop it. The abortion issue isn’t just about some notion that own have a right to their bodies (Democrats have proven that to be a lie). It is that abortion candidates are a threat to our very existence. By supporting political candidates who promise to protect that “choice,” you have to give up the right to choose anything else, perhaps ever again.

Democrats who run on abortion are going to make every other aspect of your existence difficult, if not miserable, and our current circumstances are proof.

Housing costs, food inflation, energy prices, open borders, national security, printing money to pay for foreign wars, grooming children, harassing parents, the rising surveillance state, more mandates, higher taxes, a partisan police state that can’t even keep us safe, picking winners and losers, driving small businesses into failure and bankruptcy, unemployment, over-spending, the government medical industrial complex, loss of privacy, all of that, and more.

It’s not just about whether or not you are ending the life of an unborn child. By electing these candidates, you are aborting the ability to choose anything but what the government wants for you.

You abort opportunity.

You abort liberty.

You abort America.

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There appears to be no issue that motivates voters as much as Abortion rights. You can maybe add the legalization of recreational Marijuana as a close second. There were a limited number of states with elections this year, but three states in particular should be warning signs for both Parties.

Ohio and Virginia showed the power of Abortion rights as voting was unusually heavy in both states. Voters in Ohio blocked any future restrictions on the phase of pregnancy that a woman can choose to terminate her pregnancy.

Virginia was a more significant blow to Republicans and shows where the priorities are for Democrats. Republican Governor Youngkin has been making incredible strides in the traditionally Blue Commonwealth by restoring the parent’s role in the education process and bringing stability and savings to Virginia’s financial condition. Youngkin had the House on his side and hoped to flip the Senate. Voters were motivated to stop Republicans from restricting Abortion to the first fifteen weeks of a pregnancy. They came out and voted for Abortion over their children, kept the Senate Blue, and took the House back from the Republicans. These results put up a roadblock for Youngkin’s agenda for the remainder of his only term as Governor. Virginia has a one-and-done law for Governor, and Youngkin’s term ends in 2026, meaning gridlock for two years in Virginia.

The Republicans did maintain the corner office in Mississippi as the Governor was re-elected. There was no abortion question on the ballot. The GOP has to solve several issues before 2024. They must develop a stance on Abortion that is palatable for both sides of the aisle. To say no to Abortion will no longer work. There must be a viable time frame and concessions for specific situations, such as rape and incest. Possession of Marijuana is still a Federal Offense, but the states are overriding the Federal Statute if it is the will of the people. New Hampshire is holding out on Pot Shops, but my adopted state of Maine has a pot shop every mile on state highways. The pot industry is now the third largest industry in Maine, behind only Lobster and Wood. Trust me, when you drive in Maine, you know pot use is far too prevalent.

Republicans also need to embrace early voting and strengthen their ground game. One is a concession or compromise, and the latter is a need to get onto the street and talk to the people. Republicans can solve this issue by rolling up their sleeves and doing the work. We cannot sit back and wait for Biden to fail so badly that we don’t win the election but Biden loses it. The polls continue to favor Trump over Biden, but Trump is one guilty verdict away from these polls being worthless. The Republican debates trudge on with the battle for second place. These debates and all of the second-tier candidates are insignificant as long as Donald Trump is a free man and the leading candidate.

With two candidates under such intense legal issues, Trump with his 91 indictments and Biden with his looming impeachment action and possible indictments, we have never seen a Presidential election with so many potential complications that may derail either or both leading candidates. The Republicans cannot fail in 2024 and need strong leadership from Ronna McDaniel, head of the RNC. A unified, concerted effort is needed to end this Biden/Obama destruction of America. As for the Democrats, unless there is a ballot question for Abortion or Marijuana, there is no motivation for their supporters. Killing babies and getting high is more important to Democrats than a solid economy, stopping inflation, returning us to energy independence, and getting our schools back to educating, not indoctrinating, our children. Democrats should be embarrassed by the message they sent to America last night, but you need a conscience to be embarrassed.

The post Off Year Elections Show Abortion Still Number One Issue appeared first on Granite Grok.

Prager U has published a “short” documentary on X titled DETRANS. “The Dangers of Gender-Affirming Care serves as a wake-up call to all of us: our children are in danger and it’s up to us to protect them.”

I’m adding it as an extra post with comments (which we can engage in below in comments), if you are interested.

 

WATCH NOW!

PragerU’s NEW short documentary DETRANS: The Dangers of Gender-Affirming Care serves as a wake-up call to all of us: our children are in danger and it’s up to us to protect them.

— PragerU (@prageru) November 8, 2023

 

The post Prager U (Short) Documentary – DETRANS appeared first on Granite Grok.

Olympic gold medalist Caster Semenya has set a new standard for small talk at meetings, banquets, weddings, or any gathering where you might encounter women you’ve never met before. And I’m sure it’s likely to catch on as quickly as the culture that justifies it.

Do you have testicles?

Maybe don’t lead with that one. I don’t think it is ready to be the ice-breaker opening, certainly not as a pickup line, unless you are looking for women with testicles, and I’m thinking with rare exceptions, you may not need to ask. But a growing number of women have them, testicles, and it’s not their fault. It is something with which they have to contend while robbing women without testicles – at least in competitive sports – of scholarships, opportunities, and even awards.

And none of that is their fault.

It is also unfair to judge them or limit them from competing with scrotum-less women. It is not (for example) Caster Semenya’s fault that “she” was born with testicles or the levels of testosterone they afford “her” or other “women” burdened with the deformity. But Athletic associations and national and international courts have noticed the difference and chosen to have a say in whether that “deformity” does, in fact, matter.

 

[A] Swiss court upheld 2018 regulations from the IAAF, the track-and-field world governing body now named World Athletics, barring Semenya and other athletes with “differences of sex development” (DSD) from running in certain races, including the 800-m, unless they lowered their testosterone levels to a certain threshold via medical intervention. Semenya refused, and she’s continued to fight the regulations.

 

Why would they step in?

 

On June 30, 2019, South African runner Caster Semenya—already a three-time world champ and two-time Olympic gold medalist in the 800-m—lined up at the starting line at Stanford University, to roars from the American crowd. She would win the prestigious Prefontaine Classic, with a time of 1 min. 55.70 sec., the fastest 800-m time ever run on American soil. It was her 31rd straight victory in the 800-m. Fans crowded around a fence after it was over to voice their appreciation for the superstar.

 

Caster’s testicles would appear to provide an advantage against textile-less women in – at the very least – the 800 meter, and after 31 consecutive victories, you’d be right to ask why women would even compete in this category. Sorry, I mean women without testicles. And so we see the problem. While Caster may be of the opinion that testicles don’t make him less of a woman, they do appear to make him a better athlete than women who lack them, sort of like a performance-enhancing drug.

Governing bodies have a vested interest in regulating the use of performance-enhancing drugs even when they are not your fault. As such – at least in the case of the IAAF – women with testicles will need to compete against other “equally impaired” individuals whether they identify as women or not.

By”equipment” advantage, if you like, to achieve the parity missing from, say, the women’s 800 meters.

The alternative is, of course, a more balanced women’s field in which they all have testicles, but then what about the women without them? What happens to their rights? Is this the new glass ceiling? The foundation of second-class citizenship, at least in contests of sport. And who will step up to defend them from this new discrimination?

And why did the women’s rights movement, after finally achieving most if not all of their aims, decide to toss women under the equipment bus?

 

“My testicles don’t make me less of a woman” – Caster Semenya

Of course, this outlandish statement went totally unchallenged this morning

Semenya is not a woman with high testosterone levels. He is a male with normal testosterone levels. pic.twitter.com/LKhkP7SnlN

— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) November 7, 2023

The post Night Cap: Women’s Olympic Gold Medalist says, “Testicles … Don’t Make Me Less a Woman” appeared first on Granite Grok.

In open defiance of several United States Supreme Court rulings on gun ownership, Illinois has enacted a ban on certain kinds of commonly owned firearms and has required owners of other kinds of commonly owned firearms to register them with the state.

So far, compliance with the registration requirement seems to be well under 1%.  That’s the good news.

The bad news is that if you refuse to comply and you get caught the first time, that’s a misdemeanor, but the second time it’s a felony.  Which means you lose1 your right to own any kind of gun.

In other words, if the government says you have to register your guns, and you decide that it has no authority to do so, you are no longer law-abiding.  You are a felon — guilty of the ‘crime’ of believing that the federal constitution actually means what it says.

So according to the government — and for that matter, according to the NRA and the vast majority of ‘gun rights supporters’ that I’ve met — you can’t have guns.

And even when the Supreme Court gets around to striking down that law in a few years, your felony conviction will still stand.  So unless you have a pile of money and several years to devote to having it overturned, that won’t be of much help to you.

It’s time for people who think that only ‘law-abiding Americans’ have the right to keep and bear arms to rethink that position, which is what allows laws like this to exist in the first place.

At the very least, simply refusing to be disarmed (or to give the government the information it would need later to disarm you) shouldn’t be grounds for disarming you.  That’s the kind of thing that we should be reading about only in novels like Catch-22 and not in our law books.

 

¹ To be more precise, you don’t actually lose the right, because it is inalienable, which means it can’t be taken from you or even surrendered voluntarily.  If you’re a person, you have the right to self-defense and to own the tools necessary for self-defense.  But the state will punish you for trying to exercise that right.

 

 

 

 

The post Catch-223? appeared first on Granite Grok.

If you shop at convenience stores, you may have noticed that checking for proof of age during tobacco & alcohol purchases has quietly moved from viewing the customer’s driver’s license to electronically scanning our licenses.  I first noticed this at Circle K stores and then found the same practice in others.

Our privacy is once again under attack in a seemingly “small” way, but I became alarmed enough to dive into the legality.

A trusted State Rep pointed me to state law RSA 263:12.  The last section of this law prohibits the scanning of my driver’s license with all of my personal information on it without my consent (with an exception for pawnbrokers, scrap metal dealers, and other secondhand dealers).

RSA 263:12 states in part,

It shall be a misdemeanor for any person to:

1. Knowingly scan, record, retain, or store, in any electronic form or format, personal information, as defined in RSA 260:14, obtained from any license, unless authorized by the department. Nothing in this paragraph shall prohibit a person from transferring, in non-electronic form or format, personal information contained on the face of a license to another person, provided that the consent of the license holder is obtained if the transfer is not to a law enforcement agency.

I filed a complaint with the NH Attorney General’s office that the law – as well as my Constitutional Right to privacy – was violated. The response I received confirmed my concern as I was pointed to the phrase in RSA 263:12 X “unless authorized by the department.”

The “Department” referred to in RSA 263:12 is the NH Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), which is run by unelected bureaucrats and political appointees free to push their political ideologies with apparently no desire by the NH Department of Justice to provide any oversight or enforcement.

Below is how The Department of Motor Vehicles and the NH Attorney General’s office washed their hands of their responsibilities to monitor and safely regulate who can access, scan, and store our personal data. They closed the case in typical Jedi Mind Trick fashion, inferring “there was nothing to see here” – but as you will see, can not back up their finding of no wrongdoing.

The Attorney General’s office identified DMV “rule” Saf-C 5606.05 which was written by those ideological, political appointees in the DMV, to unconstitutionally violate our Right to privacy.  Therefore, I was told that Circle K was “authorized” (by those appointed ideologues) to scan my license electronically, and the case was closed.

DMV rule Saf-C 5606.05 states:

(a) Notwithstanding any rule to the contrary, the department authorizes the scanning of personal information from any license in any electronic form or format so long as all the following conditions are met:

(1) The equipment used to scan such personal information does not visibly identify any personal information other than driver license number and name;

(2) The equipment used to scan personal information does not retain, store, or transfer any personal information, other than driver license number and name, for any period of time; and

(3) The equipment used to scan personal information does not store any personal information, other than driver license number and name, in a central repository disaster recovery central repository, such as a cold site or hot site, whether on-site or in a remote location.

So, I asked the AG’s office three simple questions:

Before closing the case, did you confirm the following:

1. Verify the equipment “does not visibly identify any personal information, other than driver license number and name”? If so, how did you do this? Please provide documentation to prove this finding. Driver licenses have other personal information on them, including date of birth, address, etc…
2. Verify the equipment “does not retain, store or transfer any personal information, other than driver license number and name, for any period of time.” Please provide proof the equipment that is used to scan licenses by Circle K does not retain unauthorized data.
3. Please provide proof that you verified the Circle K equipment “does not store any personal information, other than driver license number and name, in a central repository, disaster recovery central repository, such as a cold site or hot site whether on-site or in a remote location.”

It appears they did not.

Instead of answering my questions, they told me I had to talk with the DMV – but could not/would not give me a contact at “The Department.”  I found that to be a strange response from an investigative body that is tasked with enforcing the law based on facts.

How could the AG’s office close the case and not have answers to the very pertinent questions I raised? Did Circle K violate the law or not?

Stay tuned…

 

The post Are Convenience Stores Violating Your Privacy? appeared first on Granite Grok.

Aaron Day is running for President, but not to win. He is on a mission to increase awareness about a looming issue he believes will come to the fore before November 2024, and it could mean the end of liberty in America as we know it.

I’ve known Aaron for a number of years in various capacities as a candidate for office, grassroots activist, and in a number of roles in between. He recently wrote a book and is traveling around the country talking to audiences, other Presidential candidates, Senators, and others about the threat of digital currency and how close we actually are to having one.

Note: The podcast is presented as is. The working concept is five questions, uncut. The video was recorded on Riverside FM and was not altered or edited. Length will depend on the answers, but the target is 10-15 minutes. This maiden voyage is a few minutes longer, but as noted, these will not be edited.

Here is my interview with Aaron Day. [Watch it on YouTube, Rumble, Facebook, or GAB.]

 

 

 

 

The post Watch: Five Questions with Presidential Candidate Aaron Day appeared first on Granite Grok.

Almost eighty years ago, Margaret Scoggin, a librarian at the New York Public Library, made an odd choice. As one of the founders of the NYPL children’s branch in the early 1940s, Scoggin had been contributing a column to Library Journal called “Books for Older Boys and Girls.”  In 1944, she inexplicably decided that her articles should instead be published under the title “Books for Young Adults.”

This decision catapulted the group of children for whom she was recommending books into an age bracket to which they did not actually belong.  It is to Miss Scoggin, therefore, who first coined the term “young adult,” that we owe the existence of this illogical category used only by librarians and publishers to promote books for readers aged twelve and up who are actually still children.

The American Library Association arbitrarily defines a “young adult” as a library patron between the ages of twelve and eighteen. This category does not only apply to public library patrons but also includes middle and high school students who use their school libraries.  Legally, however, adulthood is not attained until a person turns eighteen, so the youngest adult cannot possibly be younger than eighteen years old.  The age at which an individual becomes an adult also called the “age of majority,” is set at eighteen years in forty-seven states (in Alabama, Nebraska, and Mississippi, you have to be even older).

Medically, adulthood is similarly defined.  The American Medical Association and the National Institutes of Health only consider those who are eighteen and older to be adults; 13 to 17-year-olds are categorized as “adolescents.”  Considering these standards, “young adult” emerges as an illogical term.  “Pre-adults,” odd as it sounds, would make more sense, being similar to the term “preteen,” which is used, according to Merriam-Webster, to designate a child younger than thirteen. (The trendy word “tween” is also frequently used in libraries to specify children between young childhood and adolescence, generally ages 8-12.)

So, what explains this push by librarians and publishers to erroneously refer to children as adults?  Is it merely an innocuous marketing technique, or is the motivation behind it more insidious?  Some more library history may help to answer this question.  Where Scoggin got the notion to suddenly refer to older children as young adults is unclear, but in speculating about her reasons for suggesting this change, a look at the influences upon her, including her educational background might shed some light on this mystery.

In the 1940s, Scoggin attended Columbia University’s School of Library Service, the first “library school” established in the United States.  Two decades earlier, Columbia University had become the epicenter of Communist intellectual activity in the United States led by Frankfurt School intellectuals who relocated there from Germany.  It is well documented that Columbia University’s Teachers College and other departments at this institution of “higher education” were strongly influenced by Communist ideology at this time, so it is likely that the library school was similarly affected.

In the past year, the political infiltration of the American Library Association has become quite obvious as self-proclaimed Marxist Emily Drabinski has taken over the leadership of the organization.  Considering the origins of training programs for librarians, however, the roots of ALA’s ideological takeover may likely be traced back to the time of Margaret Scoggin.

Manhattan Institute Senior Fellow Chris Rufo recently appeared on Fox’s Jesse Watters Primetime. In the beginning of the segment, “Dirty Books Are Being Used to Advance the Marxist Dream,” a clip was shown of Deborah Caldwell-Stone, Director of ALA’s “Office for Intellectual Freedom,” admitting to a “sustained messaging” program to “reframe” and “promote” inappropriate books on sexual themes as “diverse materials …that are about inclusion and fairness.”  When asked why the ALA is pushing this agenda, Rufo explained, “The goal of Marxist political leaders since the beginning was always to abolish the nuclear family,” an institution which they consider one of the “impediments to the revolution,” and to have kids reject “notions of ‘heteropatriarchy’” to “advance the revolution” and “to dissolve the moral notions of children and their families.”

One of the goals of Marxism, as Rufo suggests, is to eliminate parental authority so that children become mere wards of the state.  The sooner children are not under the control of their parents, the sooner they will be more easily controlled by the government.  Indeed, Karl Marx called for the abolition of the family in The Communist Manifesto because he believed that children were being exploited by their parents.  Considering its current agenda, the values of the American Library Association appear to align with Marx, and its organizational structure supports its agenda.

Just as there is a separate section in most public libraries designated as “young adult,” the American Library Association has a distinct branch called the Young Adults Library Services Association (YALSA).  It should be no big surprise that Margaret Scoggin, thanks to her efforts to promote “young adult” literature, was appointed the first president of YALSA’s precursor, the Young Adult Services Division, which was founded in 1957.  This organization was rebranded as YALSA in 1992 and continues its mission of influencing the publishing industry and libraries nationwide in accordance with its Marxist ideology.

YALSA’s recent award-winning books clearly reflect its woke agenda.  Jason Reynolds is YALSA’s recipient of the 2023 Margaret A. Edwards Award, established in 1988, which “honors an author, as well as a specific body of his or her work, for significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature.”  What was one of Reynolds’s “significant and lasting” contributions to YA literature?—a book he co-authored in 2020 with CRT-guru Ibram X. Kendi titled Stamped: Racism, Anti-racism, and You.

Meanwhile, the YALSA Printz Award is given to “a book that exemplifies literary excellence in young adult literature.”  This year’s prize went to All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir, a novel based on a victim/oppressor worldview, which Kirkus Reviews praises for confronting “head-on the complicated realities of life in a world that is not designed for the oppressed to thrive in.” In Scout’s Honor, by Lily Anderson, one of the four honorable mention books in this category, “the cast displays an effervescent mix of racial and ethnic identities” (also from Kirkus Reviews), which certainly checks off the box for any ALA-award winning book requiring that its theme relates to racial or gender ideology.

In the latter category are the three other “honorable mention” books for the 2023 Printz Award.  These include Icebreaker, featuring a gay romance between two hockey players, When the Angels Left the Old Country, in which, according to Kirkus Reviews, “Queerness and gender fluidity thread through both the human and supernatural characters,” and Queer Ducks (and Other Animals): The Natural World of Animal Sexuality, a book that “offers nature-based analogs for many types of human sexual orientation and gender identity” according to a BookPage review.

With all of the YALSA Printz-ward-winning books being geared towards racial and sexual themes, there is an obvious overemphasis on woke ideology in material recommended for readers aged 12-18 (ALA’s arbitrary definition of “young adult”).

As part of the obvious agenda of libraries towards getting woke literature into the hands of older children, ALA supports all efforts to allow this age group to access these books without parental knowledge.  The ALA believes that children should be allowed to read books like Gender Queer and Lawn Boy without any parental consent, even if such books are shelved in the adult section of the library.  Article VII of the ALA’s “Library Bill of Rights,” which was not added until 2019, eighty years after the original “Bill of Rights” was written, states that all people, no matter how old, “possess a right to privacy and confidentiality in their library use.”

This initially sounds like a good thing until you realize that it undermines those parental rights that should supersede it.  ALA also “opposes all attempts to restrict access to library services, materials, and facilities based on the age of library users.” Most current state laws maintain the confidentiality of library records for all ages so that parents are not permitted to know what books their children are reading.  The ALA is just fine with this situation and opposes all efforts to amend state law so that parents would be allowed to access their children’s library records.

Considering how strongly the ALA promotes woke literature to children, baffled parents are left wondering why.  The answer is simple: the American Library Association is just following the Marxist dictate to undermine the authority of parents.  That’s why libraries, predominantly managed by adherents to the ALA agenda, can’t just let kids be kids.  To weaken the family, kids must become adults (or “young adults”) as soon as possible!

The cancer that had its roots decades ago has metastasized, and the only cure lies with parents and concerned citizens who vehemently reject the indoctrination supported by the American Library Association.  They must support all efforts to have their towns and states cut financial ties with ALA, elect conservative library trustees who will reject ALA’s toxic agenda, and demand that their state representatives support legislation allowing parents to have access to their children’s library records.

 

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I’d call this developing, and that’s not just a photography play on words. Pictures have hit the internet taken by photographers who appear to have been embedded with Hamas militants as they invaded Isreal.

 

The AP, CNN, Reuters, and The New York Times used footage and photos from reporters embedded with Hamas terrorists during their slaughter of hundreds of Jews.

These Western media outlets then posted the photos in their coverage of this horrendous surprise attack on Israel.

AP reporter Hassan Eslaiah took photos and video while traveling with Hamas killers during the massacre. Hassan also provided photos to CNN.

Yousef Masoud provided photos to The New York Times.

Hassan Eslaiah was seen with Hamas leader Yahya, Sinwar following the slaughter of Jews.

 

I don’t suppose we’ll ever learn how they knew to be there before the events of October 7th. You know, to capture the history of it.

 

On October 7, Hamas terrorists were not the only ones who documented the war crimes they had committed during their deadly rampage across southern Israel. Some of their atrocities were captured by Gaza-based photojournalists working for the Associated Press and Reuters news agencies whose early morning presence at the breached border area raises serious ethical questions.

What were they doing there so early on what would ordinarily have been a quiet Saturday morning? Was it coordinated with Hamas? Did the respectable wire services, which published their photos, approve of their presence inside enemy territory, together with the terrorist infiltrators? Did the photojournalists who freelance for other media, like CNN and The New York Times, notify these outlets? Judging from the pictures of lynching, kidnapping and storming of an Israeli kibbutz, it seems like the border has been breached not only physically, but also journalistically.

 

As ghoulish as that sounds – a word that keeps popping up to describe the premeditation media’s indifference to the death and destruction they signed up to record – what are the odds one or more of these “reporters” gets nominated for a Pulitzer?

 

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The picture book “The Meaning of Pride,” targeted at ages 4 to 7, was prominently displayed in June in the Nashua Library’s children’s room. Six months before, Kristin Beck, who is featured in the book as a “transgender woman,” reclaimed his identity as a man.

Chris Beck, a decorated Navy SEAL, described the trauma and mental health problems he was facing when he was falsely sold transition as a cure by quack medical professionals at the Veterans Administration.

A year before, in August 2022, singer Demi Lovato, who had claimed a non-binary identity and is also featured in the book, said, “Recently, I’ve been feeling more feminine, and so I’ve adopted she/her again.” Demi has been very public about her struggles with mental health problems and drug addiction. If you have followed Demi over the years, it is pretty obvious that adopting a non-binary identity was a way for her to cope with these challenges, and it failed.

Both Demi Lovato and Chris Beck are people with serious mental health struggles who have detransitioned or desisted from a gender identity, and yet their gender transition is being sold to kids in “The Meaning of Pride” as something to emulate.

Related: The Truth Leaks Out: Dolls and Trucks Are for Everyone

It would be helpful if the library featured age-appropriate books about detransitioners and shared the pain and regret detransitioners deal with. I don’t expect we will be seeing those books in the library’s children’s room or the teen room because the American Library Association-approved book review journals won’t endorse them. It’s tragic that these important stories are being withheld from children.

I am delighted that the Nashua Library acquired “Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters,” which highlights the harm being done to kids and teens, as well as other gender-critical books for adults, but we need more books for the children’s and teen rooms that push back on the propaganda being fed kids and teens about gender ideology in books like “The Meaning of Pride.”

 

 

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