Scottsbluff, Nebraska, approved a 5.2 MW Solar farm meant to “help the city achieve its goal to reduce our carbon footprint and stabilize city costs for the next 25 years.” One hail storm has reduced the life expectancy to four years and revealed another weakness.

Solar is land-intensive, water-intensive, has a large front and rear-end carbon footprint, offshores serious environmental harms (mining and manufacture), isn’t easy to recycle (if at all), underperforms both in output and longevity, and … is subject to imminent failure after a midwest hail storm.

 

Solar panels destroyed by large hail north of Scottsbluff, Nebraska last night. #newx Photo Courtesy Matt Larsen #hail pic.twitter.com/2ND7BHmYlB

— Daryl Orr (@WxWyDaryl) June 27, 2023

 

Rumor has it a typical solar panel is made to withstand common weather events like hail, but not baseball-side hail. The result is millions of dollars wasted on an inefficient energy solution that isn’t green and – in this case – effectively useless.

The facility is insured, and everyone is on-site assessing the damage.

 

[Molly] Brown [executive vice president of corporate strategy for GenPro Energy Solutions] believes it’s important to note that the extreme weather system caused significant damage to clean and fossil energy assets alike. While storms are indiscriminate, Brown said this is the first major damage GenPro has sustained since its first solar farm was installed in Lexington, Nebraska in 2017.

“We do get a lot of hailstorms in the Great Plains region, but typically the roofs get more damage than the solar panels.,” Brown told Renewable Energy World.

 

Fair enough, but solar has a lot of downsides, and this isn’t going to help matters.

 

The post Solar Fail – New 5.2 MW Solar Farm Reduced to Ruin by One Hail Storm appeared first on Granite Grok.

A junta is defined as a military or political group that rules a country after taking power by force. This is precisely what the Biden cabal, or as some may call it, ‘administration,’ is.

If we remember correctly, what really happened in 2020, President Trump was bullied and bowed into submission to follow the COVID Project. He was told it would only be two weeks, and then he was personally targeted by a range of sophisticated technology, including signals intelligence warfare, direct military threats from the Democrat Party, and a widespread political revolution by the U.S. Democrat Party intent on destroying the country in order to prevent a second consecutive Trump term.

Next came a summer of widespread race riots led by far-left terror cells and BLM– groups that had for three years been subjected to continued radicalization against the Republican Party and President Trump. These were people who were out of work due to COVID, many of whom, living in socialist Democrat cities (like Chicago, St. Louis, and Los Angeles) relied on the state for subsistence incomes. They had nothing to do besides sit at home and listen to CNN program them for the November elections.

And that 2020 election turned out to be one swung by a sophisticated network of corrupt election managers, Secretaries of States, and poll workers in Nevada, Virginia, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, and Wisconsin. These states saw ridiculous levels of ballot fraud through mail-in and other means, which is still coming to light and which has spurned a long list of books, documentaries, and legal cases.

In fact, it seems that the people who have engaged in covering the spectacle of fraud that was the 2020 election have preferred that the fraud continue because they now make such a solid income off of uncovering the fraud.

If you remember, in December 2020, the Biden junta started broadcasting press conferences with a POTUS elect seal, pretending that the November 3 results were legitimate. This programmed into Americans’ minds that Biden’s victory had been legitimate.

Next was J6, which was when the junta truly took control and locked down. This event was straight out of the totalitarian playbook, mirroring the Nazi Party’s Reichstag Fire in Berlin circa 1933. That event kicked off over a decade of totalitarian rule in Germany that led to the greatest civilizational catastrophes of war in modern history.

The District of Columbia became a military state, basically under martial law. A massive steel fence was erected around the U.S. Capitol and the National Mall. By the time the inauguration came around, the entire country was still locked down, allegedly for COVID. Almost nobody showed up for the party except the most sycophantic DC residents and national political figures.

The Biden junta didn’t wait long to bring the country into open war. They worked hard during 2021 to provoke and poke Russia and successfully encouraged Moscow to open kinetic hostility with an invasion of Ukraine in February of 2022, just one year after Biden’s inauguration.

The nature of the Biden junta is built to withstand political pressure. Any push against it is socially difficult since Biden himself is friends with most DC politicians, having served in office for nearly fifty years since 1972. He is a career politician– the kind that shouldn’t exist in a true democracy.

His entire administration has had one purpose– to destroy the United States of America. Political operatives in Beijing bragged in 2020 about installing Biden because he is easy to manipulate. Well, can you see that now? Biden has promoted an agenda that has ripped apart the U.S.– most U.S. citizens have been programmed for the past twenty years to think this is normal. The ones who resist are in a position where they know that organized resistance will be met with martial law and the state has been weaponized against them.

The U.S. Democrat Party’s agenda is twisted and backward– they aim for maximum illness, orienting towards depopulation and forced sterilization of citizens through national policy and a foreign policy based on war and projected weakness. Most U.S. citizens supporting the Democrats have been bullied and terrified into submission. They rely on federal and state aid, and they are victims of cults of personality. Most U.S. Democrat supporters prioritize identity politics over everything else.

This agenda is based on the premise, whether intentional or not, that democracy is best served when it is intentionally subverted at the federal level, which leads to citizens being forced to speak up, stand up, and fight back against a corrupted federal government.

This is totally backward for real progress and prosperity.

 

The post The Purposeful Backwardness of the Biden Junta appeared first on Granite Grok.

The Public Health Industrial Complex has a problem. Its missionaries denied people their religious rights (among others), pimped various protocols, and mandated treatments and preventions. The Amish didn’t do any of that and fared 90 times better.

The government couldn’t make them do any of the things they wanted the rest of us to do and the result was stunning. “Amish communities completely ignored the guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Amish families did not get vaccinated or wear masks, nor did they engage in lockdowns, social distancing, or any other type of restrictions.”

By all estimates, 90% of the Amish population of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania (about 45000 souls) caught COVID, but their COVID Death rates were 90 times lower. Of the few that did shuffle off their mortal coil, it is not clear that COVID was even the cause, so that number might be higher, but 90 times lower is damning enough.

If saving lives was the goal, a vaccine and science-denying population had significantly better outcomes by ignoring every ‘expert’ recommendation.

Either the “experts” were wrong about everything, or the Amish are among God’s protected people.

I’d be open to suggestions that both are true.

 

The Amish Died of COVID at a Rate 90 Times LOWER Than the Rest of America

“I did the calculation,” testified @stkirsch in front of the Pennsylvania State Senate.

Given five Amish people died in Lancaster Country, PA, “the Amish died at a rate 90 times lower than the infection… pic.twitter.com/qa0EhPfssH

— The Vigilant Fox (@VigilantFox) June 28, 2023

 

“[Kirsch] added that diseases like ADD, autoimmune disease, PANDAS PANS, or epilepsy basically don’t exist among Amish children.”
 

If its God, the secular humanist Scientism has two problems.

The post Did God Save the Amish from COVID or Was It Just Common Sense? appeared first on Granite Grok.

Conventional wisdom seems to be that affirmative action in the United States began with an executive order issued by JFK in 1961, which (ironically) mandated government contactors to ‘take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed, and that employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin’.

Without regard to.

In the years since then, without regard to came to mean with special attention given to.  But now SCOTUS has brought things full circle.

Crucially, it appears that the reason the Supreme Court can tell Harvard how to conduct its admissions is that Harvard accepts money (via contracts and sub-contracts) from the federal government.

So if Harvard really believes that having a sufficiently racially diverse student body is essential to its mission, there’s a simple — and perfectly legal — way to keep doing what it’s been doing.

All Harvard — with its $53 billion endowment — has to do is stop taking federal money.

The post Reviving Affirmative Action appeared first on Granite Grok.

The State Attorney General has a burning desire to address the negative effects of social media on young people. The Governor signed an executive order. The State Dept of Ed is expected to create a new curriculum to address it. But nothing about puberty blockers.

 

His office began investigating the link between social media use and physical and mental health harms in 2021. Three months ago, Formella joined 46 other attorneys general in an investigation of negative experiences associated with using TikTok.

Gov. Chris Sununu has joined the effort too. He signed an executive order in June requiring state agencies to help students and parents better understand and protect themselves from the harmful effects of social media use.

He gave the departments of Education and Health and Human Services until September to create guidelines for K-12 curriculum about social media’s effect on health.

 

Planned Parenthood is padding its pockets by operating as a proxy mental health clinic for the gender mills. Public schools are exposing children to sexually mature material. So-called educators are deliberately confusing kids about their sexuality long before their brains or bodies are even ready to have the discussion. Puberty blockers, dangerous drugs with serious side effects, including death, are pushed to prevent suicide in kids who have been confused (making them exponentially more likely to kill themselves). Dartmouth-Hitchcock is mutilating and sterilizing children for profit.

And Governor Groomer’s priority is to ignore that public health threat and take a serious look at social media.

Social media is a problem. It’s a bigger problem than we know, and I’m not saying it doesn’t deserve some attention.

 

It seems that having relentless visibility into the lives of others has the alarming effect of compromising the mental health of many adolescent females. It calls to mind the possibility that social media is a 21st century corollary to Tolkien’s palantir, at least to this extent: adolescents who look into the social media orb have an alarming probability of being harmed by doing so. …

What is striking about Haidt’s analysis is the extent to which these young women’s mental health is damaged for reasons unrelated to whether the actual circumstances of their lives have really changed. It is apparently the mere act of marinating in the comparative knowledge of the lives of others that elevates levels of depression and self-loathing.

 

Women live to overthink things, and that has benefits and pitfalls. Young women tend to embrace the latter until they’ve achieved some level of maturity (or is it wisdom). Social media is, to put it bluntly, bad for them. It is not much better for boys. The government’s response to this has been to use it as an excuse to expose them to things that further confuse them sexually and psychologically and then translate the resulting depression into the opportunity to sterilize them with drugs (puberty blockers) or to mutilate them (sexual reassignment surgery).

The hospitals are happy for the added billing opportunities, and the political left feels comfortable packaging the damaged goods as a victim class (they created) for whom they pretend to advocate.

I doubt Governor Groom or his AG are planning to explore those unpleasant truths in their examination of social media’s impact on the physical and mental health of the kiddies.

I can save you all time, money, and even some lives and remind you that we don’t let kids drive, use drugs, or drink alcohol for a reason. They are even prohibited from viewing movies and TV content without an adult’s consent. Their brains are not likely ready, and social media has proven to be in the same category.

Keeping them away from it can’t be more difficult than the Feds using Big Tech to violate millions of Americans’ First Amendment rights or any of that COVID-Policy crap under which it trapped us with much enthusiasm.

Social media, while bad for kids’ self-esteem, is not nearly as big a threat to them as the government. The public-school transgender agenda is proof enough of that. And you want to be their “parents”? Find a way to ban them from the self-esteem-murdering influence of social media until they are old enough to drink.

Absent that, perhaps messing with their mental health by confusing them about what body they are in will have to do.

The post NH AG Want’s To Know About The Negative Impact of “Puberty Blockers” on Young People … Sorry, I Meant “Social Media” appeared first on Granite Grok.

Joe Biden on July Fourth:

As our nation celebrates Independence Day, we pray for the day when our communities will be free from gun violence.  It is within our power to once again ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, to require safe storage of guns, to end gun manufacturers’ immunity from liability, and to enact universal background checks.

Note that he’s not talking about putting any of those limitations on the police or other government agents.  Just on you.

So, on a day when we celebrate the ability of armed citizens to break free from their oppressive government… the guy who has presided over some of the worst assaults ever on the Bill of Rights, and some of the most egregious expansions ever of illegitimate government power, is saying that we should cede still more of our ultimate check against tyranny to his oppressive government.

As Holly Golightly would say, the mind reels.

The post Senile AND Tone-Deaf appeared first on Granite Grok.

This is getting to be a problem. People dancing proudly across the gender spectrum keep turning up as mass shooters—the latest is Kimbrady Carriker, arrested in the July 3rd mass shooting in Philadelphia.

 

Mr. Carriker is a male, according to authorities. However, archived images show Mr. Carriker wearing women’s clothing, and officials used they/them pronouns when referring to the suspect. Mr. Carriker has posted on Facebook in support of various groups, including Black Lives Matter, and posted in support of gun ownership.

 

There are a lot of BLM and Antifa folks who are in favor of gun ownership. They fail to realize that once they’ve misused that right to destabilize the nation – to advance Socialism, their progressive political masters will round them up, disarm them, and pile their rapidly cooling remains in the nearest ditch.

Don’t worry; you’ll be in good company. Academics, lawyers, and an army of activists will likely join you – dead weight as it were after the arrival of the one-party state. I’m not making it up. If they’d taught you any actual history, you’d have seen it coming. You can’t leave disgruntled serial troublemakers around, and they can never be armed.

The truth of the revolution will be as unpleasant for all of them as for the rest of us. Utopia is a community sh!t hole occupied by all but a few. That’s what they meant by diversity, equity, and inclusion.

On a positive note, the elites will rarely, if ever, want for viable organ replacements. There are always plenty of those, and should a specific need arise, the law will find a suitable donor (thanks to socialized medicine and digital medical records) and suicide them with or without a show trial because assisted suicide is always an option.

As for the BLM supporting transvestite mass-shooter, we won’t hear much about that. And don’t you dare suggest that people with this disability should be considered mentally ineligible to own firearms? They are the crucible for the next generation of mass shooters whose efforts will herald the narratives needed to disarm the law-abiding population.

 

 

The post Philly Mass-Shooter is a Pro- BLM Transvestite With They/Them Pronouns appeared first on Granite Grok.

As you all know, DCYF decided to reveal my personal information to people I don’t know. Sure, intentions may (giving the benefit of the doubt) be good, but there are two sides to this. Yes, the Granddaughter needs to stay in contact with their families, but what are the costs to the foster families put in the same situation DCYF has created?

Unlike most, I take a different tack with Government, as you all know. I am going to use the greatest tool that Government has given to Citizens in following the demand laid upon us all in Article 8 of the NH Constitution (holding elected officials and bureaucrats accountable), especially in light that my Article 2-B Rights, IMHO, were violated (abuse of my personal information).

So, my latest Right To Know:

Right to Know Request per RSA 91-A: “Family Connections”: contacting out-of-home placement children by non-accused family members and friends

Pursuant to the Right to Know Law (RSA. 91-A), I am demanding access, within 5 business days, to the following governmental records:

For the Division of Children,Youth and Families, define the processes by which it identifies non-immediate family members or family friends that are then given contact information in order to reach an out-of-home child placed with other relatives | foster family | group home.

The Responsive Records are to include:

People:

• Provide the Title/Role of the “project manager” for the following steps.
• Provide the process by which these “contact information people” (or “CIPs”) are selected. This will include immediate, secondary, or tertiary family members and/or close family friends.
• Provide the complete mechanism process by which these CIPs are vetted for safety with respect to the child and the foster family.
• Provide the “scoring mechanism(s)” that “selects in” or “selects out” the CIPs for each of the above two processes.
  • Provide the data items used to set a “score” by which they would be included to set a score for a CIP.
  • Provide the relative importance priority of each of those data elements.
  • Provided the source / origin of each of those data items.

Notification:

• Provide the Title/Role of the “notifier” for the following steps:
• Provide the process used to determine when notifications are triggered to go to the CIPs
• Provide the delivery routings by which notifications are sent out:
  • telephonically
  • email
  • letter/registered letter
  • other
• Provide the processs by which the foster or kinship care providers caring for the out-of-home placement child asked for consent to have their personal information released to the CIPs?
  • Provide the form used to acquire that consent.
  • Provide the delivery mechanisms (see delivery routings, above) to the care providers.
  • Provide the process used if the care givers refuse to give consent but are competent providers by any other DCYF attribute.

Legal Responsibility:

• Provide is DCYF’s legal responsibility in protecting the child from the CIPs that are passed through the vetting process but turn out to be bad actors those caring for removed or place children?
• Ditto the care givers.
• Provide the DCYF protocol(s) that are employed when, as the result of provider contact information being released:
  • the child is attacked or harassed by a CIP?
  • the providers are attacked or harassed by a CIP because they are seen as agents of DCYF?
• Provide the remedies, specified by pertinent DCYF protocols, upplied by DCYF:
  • for the child
  • for the providers

Per RSA 91-A:4 IV(c) If you deny any portion of this request, please cite the specific exemption used to justify the denial to make each record, or part thereof, available for inspection along with a brief explanation of how the exemption applies to the information withheld.

As you are aware, in 2016, the New Hampshire Supreme Court ruled that a governmental body in possession of records is required to produce them in electronic media using standard common file formats: Green v. SAU #55, 168 N.H. 796, 801 (2016). Unless there is a valid reason that it is not reasonably practicable for you to produce these records in the requested format, I ask that you either do so or explain why it is not practicable for you to comply. In this case, .TXT, .DOC, or .PDF files would suffice.

Please also note, per RSA 91-A:4 III, III-a, and III-b, you are required to maintain the safety and accessibility of such responsive records.

Please let me know when these records will be sent to me for inspection. If you have questions, don’t hesitate to reach out. You may email the responsive records to me at Skip@GraniteGrok.com. If the volume turns out to be substantial, I have already set up a Dropbox folder for those responsive records to which they can be uploaded.

Thank you for your lawful attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

-Skip
Skip@GraniteGrok.com

DCYF decided to “ramp it up”; two can play that game. With vigor.

The post DCYF – Let’s See What Is Under Your Kimono On This, Shall We? appeared first on Granite Grok.

Bill Schubart, a regular columnist for VT Digger among his many hats, never ceases to amaze me with his writing. He always provides an intriguing, insightful menu of facts and discoveries followed by a totally incongruous, twistedly partisan conclusion that makes absolutely no sense.

Please welcome Robert Roper, who will be joining us as an author/contributor when VermontGrok opens its doors.

His latest effort, There’s a lot more to education than education, doesn’t disappoint in this regard.

Schubart’s general observation throughout the piece is that Vermont’s public education system is crap and has been trending that way for over a decade. It’s a point hard to argue against, especially since the latest NEAP (a.k.a. the National Report Card) scores just came in showing dramatic declines in math and reading throughout the system. Schubart even cites the stats: “a 4-point decline in reading and 9-point decline in mathematics. It also compared these with the 2012-13 school year a decade earlier — well before Covid began in 2020. There’s a decade-long decline of 7 points in reading and 14 in math.”

Schubart then provides some fascinating personal experiences that corroborate the numbers. He and his wife over the past three years hosted two foreign exchange students from Moldavia and Serbia. At the ends of these students’ overall positive experiences in the US, Schubart reports:

 

“[T]here was one common disappointment. That was our school system, which they both found very disappointing when compared with the education they had had in their home countries.

Other than their American history course — and athletics — they felt they had learned little or nothing. They had already studied much of the math and science….

“Beyond the disappointment in pedagogy and course work, their biggest complaint was about the classroom culture, which they described as chaotic and hostile to learning. Their descriptions were consistent.

“Students who wanted to learn sat in a horseshoe around the teacher’s desk, students in the next rows back might be texting or watching movies on their cellphones with earbuds, while the kids in the back rows carried on open conversations, entirely ignoring the teacher.”

 

Double-checking his sources, Schubart questioned the school’s principal, who confirmed that this was indeed the dynamic at play in the classrooms of what is supposed to be one of the state’s best public high schools.

Schubart then laments the good old days in the late 1960s when he was a young teacher at Mount Abraham. Back then, the staff understood they were to maintain a culture of respect and learning – and did — and the students, for the most part, understood their role fell in line.

All good, well-thought-out stuff up to this point, but here’s where Schubart’s characteristically left-leaning refusal to see reality, even when it is so glaringly obvious given the clear and overwhelming evidence, takes over and drives the man’s brain off its intellectual rails.  What does he blame this sorry state of affairs on?

 

“But if the child sits at home and listens to their parents run down the school for whatever reason — demanding removal of certain books from the school library, lobbying to eliminate courses they don’t personally approve of, complaining about property taxes they pay to fund public education, for example — their animus against their child’s school and classroom will likely take root in the child and the child will have implicit permission to come to school laden with a variety of disrespects.”

 

Seriously, LMAO! SMH! WTAF? as the kids on their phones not paying attention to teacher might type. I’m sure the same kids who are boisterously ignoring Mrs. Wormwood’s algebra lesson are sitting respectfully at the dinner table hanging on their parents’ every word regarding Vermont’s incomprehensibly complex property tax system.

Schubart can’t bring himself to recognize or admit that since he first graced a classroom at the dawn of the age of Aquarius, leftist thinkers and culture warriors have come to dominate our public education system, certainly here in Vermont. It is they who are overwhelmingly responsible for the classroom culture and the curriculum that exists today. Does Schubart really not understand that the respect and discipline that existed during his teaching days was just the product of a racist patriarchy? Expecting all kids to sit quietly and pay attention is just an expression of his own white privilege?

At one point Schubart laments the fact that his European exchange students spoke three or four languages fluently, having taken classes since the first grade. We, he sadly notes, don’t teach foreign languages in elementary or middle school anymore. Yeah! We’ve replaced such courses with politically charged “green” propaganda and curricula influenced by critical race theory (CRT).

Students aren’t paying attention to the teacher? Maybe that has something to do with the fact that the leftist politicians and activists in and outside the classroom have spent all of these kids’ lives telling them that the adults from previous generations – like the one standing in front of the blackboard with the wooden pointer — are all systematically racist, sexist, and homophobic guardians of an oppressive society that has, among its many sins, laid waste to the planet these youngsters will inherit. Why would anyone pay attention to someone with that resume? If you want real authority on a subject, look to a fifteen-year-old (now nineteen-year-old) high school dropout whose major achievement is having collected a few million followers on Instagram.

Schubart notes that we are witnessing a rise in mental health issues with students of all ages. Again, maybe that has something to do with the fact that schools are relentlessly scaring the daylights out of children by bombarding them with a messages of hopelessness over unsolvable climate change, ubiquitous gun violence, incurable racism, and, oh by the way, you’re probably a boy trapped in a girl’s body or vice versa, let’s explore that! Just don’t tell mom and dad because the people you live with and are dependent upon can’t be trusted. But, hey, be well!

No, none of this occurs to Schubart, or if it does he sees his job as deflecting attention away from the real roots of the problems and onto the politically correct scapegoats – conservative parents.

If kids are emotionally damaged and failing to learn, it must be because mom and dad are critically pondering in the presence of their children why their property tax bills have doubled over the past two decades with declining results to show for it. Or it’s because those same bad parents are questioning the school’s decisions to replace Huckleberry Finn and To Kill a Mockingbird with Gender Queer and The 1619 Project in the syllabus.

According to Bill Schubart – and unfortunately a lot of people think like him — the very real problems that exist and are getting worse in our public school system (and, from there impacting our youth as a whole) are not the fault of the left-wing, so-called “experts” running the system. It’s the fault of the ungrateful masses for calling attention to the experts’ failed results, questioning the experts’ demonstrably ineffective methods, and demanding something better for their children. What nerve!

Of course, others might review the same evidence as Mr. Schubart and come to an entirely different conclusion. Let’s certainly hope so.

 

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

The post Who’s Responsible for Failing Schools? … Parents who Notice and Complain, says Columnist. appeared first on Granite Grok.

Who really runs this country? Blackrock.

Nobody capable of independent-thought and even a cursory knowledge of history believes the Putin-is-Hitler-and-we-have-to-stop-him-before-he-conquers-the-whole-world fairy tale that is used to try to justify America’s proxy-war against Russia in the Ukraine. This is Blackrock’s war. This is the military-industrial complex that President Eisenhower warned us about:

A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be might, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction. . . . American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. . . . This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. . . .Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. . . . In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

This is the Deep-State’s war. Hitler-is-Putin is today’s Tomkin Gulf … today’s Saddam has WMD’s. Fortunately, most GOP voters oppose forever wars. It’s just the donor class that profits from these wars … and GOP “leaders” who represent the donors, not the voters … who support them.

Nothing to see here. Just taxpayers being forced to pay off Ukraine’s debts to Blackrock:

“We found $4.5B worth of payments from the US Agency for International Development to pay off Ukraine’s sovereign debt. Much of which is owned by the global investment firm BlackRock.” @MaxBlumenthal found the receipts. US taxpayers are getting hosed. pic.twitter.com/GN4k4VVzbG

— Marty Bent (@MartyBent) July 2, 2023

 

 

The post Your Periodic Reminder That We’re At War With Russia To Profit Blackrock appeared first on Granite Grok.

We’ve written about Lab Grown meat and plant-based products pretending to be meat. Their carbon footprint is larger. It costs more than the real thing. And while plant-based fake meat’s nutritional claims are spurious, with cloned meat, they are a mystery.

 

Two California companies, Good Meat and Upside Foods, are now approved to sell chicken created from animal cells in the United States. The U.S. is just the second country in the world — after Singapore — to allow the commercial sale of lab-grown meat, which is also referred to as “cultured” and “cell-cultivated” meat.

[Registered dietitian Diana] Rodgers told the Post that she is concerned about a lack of publicly-available nutritional information regarding lab-grown meat. When asked whether lab-grown meat was healthy or not, Rodgers said, “We just don’t know.”

 

And yes, it is cloned meat. Manufacturers grow it in metal tanks in a lab “from the cells of chickens, salt, and a base of soy and wheat.”

 

“I’d rather eat my shoe than lab-grown meat,” Rodgers told the Post. “McDonald’s is still better because the meat is a better option for vitamins,” she added later.

 

It will only be available in commercial applications like restaurants at first but don’t expect the menu to say Cloned Chicken Marsala or Cloned Lemon Chicken. Nor engineered, and not Lab Grown, either. I’d like the boneless (as if there’s any lab variety) chicken wing product, Buffalo sauce, hot. It’s perfect; there’s no wing nor any actual chicken. Dip it in a side of synthetic bleu cheese slurry and take a bite for Gaia, except not really.

 

“… growing meat in a lab appears to be twenty-five times more dangerous to the planet (emissions-wise) than beef on the hoof if that sort of thing concerns you. Not I, but the hypocrisy of anti-co2 hypocrites replacing essential protein with garbage whose manufacture releases exponentially more carbon than the real thing (since they pretend to care) does.

 

Much like the Northeast’s Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), it will be effective at raising revenues but not at reducing emissions.

According to the reporting, it will sell for about 20.00/pound so the war on real meat must continue for clone meat to compete on price. Bill Gates on team cloned meat, so you can guess how that’s going to go. The lack of details about what’s in it or the actual nutritional value will remain a mystery, so feel free to call it what it is.

Mystery meat.

 

The post We Should Call Lab Grown Meat, Cloned Meat – Or Better Yet, Mystery Meat. appeared first on Granite Grok.

For someone who analyzes voting records, it is sad to see how Belknap has changed. For the last decade, the Belknap delegation (the group of State Reps from Belknap) has had the best voting record of all counties.

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

Now, they have some of the worst voting records. Some Reps with very good records are gone, some new Reps have bad records, and some old Reps have records worse than before.

The 2023 RINO Report shows the median RINO score for all Republicans is 1.5%. Only 10% of all Republicans have scores worse than 8%. Only 15 of 200 Republicans have double-digit scores.

In Belknap, the median score is 2.3% (vs. 1.5% statewide); four of its 15 Reps (27% vs. 10% statewide) have scores worse than 8%. Belknap has four Reps above 10% – more than any other county. Its average RINO score is the second worst of all ten counties.

 

Bordes, Mike	32.8%
Nagel, David	13.9%
Trottier, Douglas	13.7%
O’Hara, Travis	11.1%
Bogert, Steven	6.8%
Beaudoin, Richard	3.7%
Harvey-Bolia, Juliet	2.7%
McCarter, Nikki	2.3%
Varney, Peter	1.6%
Dumais, Russell	0.8%
Terry, Paul	0.7%
Comtois, Barbara	0.0%
Smart, Lisa	0.0%
Ploszaj, Tom	0.0%
Bean, Harry	0.0%

 

Mike Bordes has the second worse score of all 200 Republicans. He voted 38 times with Democrats against a super-majority, in most cases 95%, of Republicans. Nagel and Trottier are in the top 10 of the worst RINOs. O’Hara is barely better at the 11th worst. Trottier had the worst attendance of all Republicans; O’Hara was second worst.

More than 95% of Republican Reps supported SB272 (Parents’ Bill of Rights in Education), which among other things, says that teachers should not lie to parents about the potential gender transitioning of children.

Bordes strenuously opposed the Parents’ Bill of Rights, even to the point of co-sponsoring a Democrat amendment to weaken the bill. To a lesser extent, Nagel and O’Hara also opposed the Parents’ Bill of Rights. Nagel co-sponsored another Democrat amendment to weaken the bill.

The post RINO Report – Belknap County appeared first on Granite Grok.

Wednesday is meme overflow day around here—an opportunity to feast on the visual leftovers from Monday. You can also take a leap in the Wayback machine to last Friday’s overflow or just proceed to the latest pile of mockery we’ve curated for your amusement.

We’ve tapped memes, political and non-political, with the odd interesting photo to break things up.

Note: There may be some adult content, and not always kid friendly. Please use your discretion when viewing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The post Meme Overflow appeared first on Granite Grok.

If you were to talk about the nature of the World Economic Forum and its initiatives over the past decade in real terms, you’d probably be labeled a conspiracy theorist. This is one of the most popular smears around today when anyone attempts to put their finger on the most significant problem facing the world today.

Yet, it is actually right on and correct. When we attempt to clarify the driving forces behind problematic movements of global change, we are theorizing, just like Galileo theorized about heliocentrism and how Newton theorized about gravity.

A small group of individuals working in concert, although not in regular communication, is driving global developments. These prominently include Klaus Schwab, Bill Gates, George Soros (and now his radical son Alex), and a group of sycophantic supporters surrounding them. They all have one thing in common– their agenda is focused on depopulation.

This is not a movement that is seeking to prioritize the health and well-being of all global citizens. No, it is not that enlightened. This WEF-led agenda seeks to protect and make prosperous a small group of cooperating and collaborating, no more than ten to twenty thousand people, at the expense of everyone else. In fact, everyone else, in their opinion, is cattle. Simply a product. When they use the term human resources for them, humans are simply another resource to be exploited. These are extremely warped and twisted people who have a disgusting perspective on the way the planet and its civilization work.

Imagine if the mayor of a city only sought to promote the health and well-being of the 100 richest people. Everyone else could die, and all policies were built precisely to expedite those people’s deaths. In fact, the faster everyone died, the better. Businesses in this hellhole would be built to profit off of those deaths. State policy would be built to promote ideologies that would encourage shorter lifespans, unhealthier people, and easy access to deadly substances.

Well, that is how most countries work today on this planet.

The leaders of the nations of Earth have created a veritable hell for the citizens of the planet. The only way to escape is to learn as much as you can about the nature of this hellish prison and to fight to change it.

Unfortunately for most, laws are in place to prevent the swift and expeditious removal of the very people who have created this civilizational structure. The only way to alter the course is to see that people with a healthier, more prosperous, and more enlightened perspective are given the reigns of power.

Case in point of this nauseating reality is the COVID project, which led to one very positive outcome – the people who are part of this corporatist-globalist syndicate, this corrupted demonic ideology of widespread illness, poverty, and destruction, have been blatantly put on stage. It is clear which parties support this agenda of wrongheadedness and elitism.

Now it is up to us to oust those people to ensure a more prosperous, healthier, and stronger future for our civilization.

 

The post Destroying the Corporatist-Globalist Syndicate appeared first on Granite Grok.

“A federal judge has made a historic ruling by partially granting an injunction that blocks various Biden administration officials and government agencies like the Justice Department and the FBI from working with big tech firms to censor posts on social media.”

More from the Epoch Times.

 

The judge, Terry A. Doughty, wrote in the July 4 judgment (pdf) that various government agencies, including the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the U.S. Department of State, the Department of Justice (DOJ), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are prohibited from taking a range of actions with regards to social media companies.

Specifically, the agencies and their staff members are prohibited from meeting or contacting by phone, email, text message or “engaging in any communication of any kind with social-media companies urging, encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner for removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech,” per the injunction.

The agencies are also barred from flagging content on posts on social media platforms and forwarding them to the companies with requests for action such as removing or otherwise suppressing their reach.

Encouraging or otherwise egging on social media companies to change their guidelines for the removal, suppression, or reduction of content that contains protected free speech by the government is also not allowed.

 

Injunctions are typically partial (this one is) and temporary. Big Gov can still flag criminal activity and threats to national security, which – if you understand anything about Democrats and the Deep State, includes speech to which they object. The games will likely continue with the injunction in place while legal challenges proceed. Louisiana and Missouri are suing the government, given the evidence uncovered in the Twitter Files (and I suspect other sources). The judge refused to dismiss their case, claiming it has merit.

Given the fraction of the systemic suppression of First Amendment Rights of which we are aware, merit appears to be an understatement. A blow to the whole notion that these were actions by private companies when in fact, they were targeted acts at the behest of federal agents and bureaucrats.

I doubt the suit will end well for the Government. Free Speech somehow manages to retain a level of respect most other bits of our founding docs can’t manage. And SCOTUS continues to be the First Amendment’s friend – and that’s where this will inevitably end. But it won’t mean a heck of a lot if someone doesn’t clarify what the government can call ‘criminal activity and threats to national security.’

There’s also the matter of enforcement. The same branch of government responsible for the offense is the one that is supposed to police against potential infringements. That’ll never happen. It will be up to state AGs to do that, and if you failed to notice, there are a few states missing from the lawsuit, including mine.

 

 

HT | Dr. Meryl Nass

The post Federal Judge to Deep State – No More Telling Big Tech Who to Censor appeared first on Granite Grok.

After reading several recent articles in the GraniteGrok concerning the “NH9,” I can only come to the conclusion that we have an integrity problem in both the governor’s Office and now the Department of Public Safety.

Both of whom should have followed the adage that bad news does not get better with age and simply informed us as to what really happened. We would respect you more if you simply admitted your mistake and apologized to these individuals and to the citizens of New Hampshire.

What we did receive is a non-believable deceptive response to a FOIA request from the Commissioner of Public Safety. Apparently, no one is taking responsibility for the improper arrest of these citizens and the violation of their civil rights to peacefully assemble. The video is particularly troubling in showcasing the State Police being used to intimidate citizens and placing them in a very unfavorable light.

While at the same time, a simple threat of a subpoena compelling the sworn testimony of the Governor was sufficient to have all charges dropped. This was a red flag telling us that there is more to this story. Neither the Governor nor the Commissioner will publicly comment and inform us of the reasons for these unlawful arrests. Remaining mute is not acceptable. Leaders don’t act this way.

This abuse of executive branch power started with COVID and has continued to the present. I believe it is time for either the state legislature or our judicial branch to conduct an independent inquiry and to quickly tell us who authorized these arrests and why or compel the Governor and the Commissioner to defend their actions.

Hopefully, this will remain in the public square until we get a satisfactory answer while those arrested continue to seek proper redress. It would be further problematic if an investigation reveals that there is, in fact, information responsive to this FOIA request and was not made available to the public in accordance with state law.

Over to you Commissioner.

The post NH State Police vs “The People” appeared first on Granite Grok.

After watching this, I forgot what I was looking for when I tripped over it (digitally speaking). A young woman in the audience asks Jordan Peterson a question about men in the #meetoo age.

Peterson opens with how birth control changed relationships and culture—a major league transformation in human interaction. Women were freed from involuntary reproduction. “That’s never been the case in the entire history of the planet.”

He references cultural sea change and the decades of experimentation, “well, how’d that go? A little hard on the family. That’s not so good for kids.” And he keeps going from there because “It turns out that sex is a lot more complicated than we thought.”

He ventures into the current day circumstances and where we find ourselves several decades later with different rules from what applied to most of human history. When it is okay to have sex and what consent means, intimacy and marriage; it’s a great exploration of the subject. And what’s up with the #MeToo Mob response, campus rape chaos, and an unexpected progressive contradiction.

The remarks run just under 8 minutes.

A few quick points about EM Daily: neither of the tags they use is relevant. The student was formerly progressive and is reformed by her own admission, so she is not a progressive student. And at no point do we know if she is left speechless. Also, Peterson never says, “Sex has never been free.”

The video is absolutely worth your time; it just annoys me when nothing about what drew you to click is present. In this rare case, the product was better than the clickbait.

Enjoy.

 

 

The post Jordan Peterson: Birth Control, Sex, Culture, Men, Women, Consent, and #MeToo … appeared first on Granite Grok.

Online casinos have revolutionized how people enjoy gambling and playing their favorite casino games. Gone are the days when you had to travel to a physical casino to experience the thrill of blackjack, roulette, or slots. With the advent of online casinos, you can now indulge in your favorite games from home. However, choosing a reliable online casino is essential to ensure a safe and enjoyable gaming experience. This article will explore the benefits of playing at a trusted online casino and how it can enhance your gaming experience.

Safety and Security

One of the primary concerns when playing at an online fun 88 casino is the safety and security of your personal and financial information. A reliable online casino will prioritize protecting players’ data by implementing state-of-the-art encryption technology. This ensures that your details remain confidential and your financial transactions are secure. Additionally, trusted online casinos are licensed and regulated by reputable gambling authorities, providing an extra layer of security and ensuring fair gameplay.

Wide Selection of Games

Another advantage of playing at a reliable online casino is the vast array of games available. Whether you prefer classic table games like blackjack and roulette or modern video slots with captivating themes and graphics, you’ll find a variety of options to suit your preferences. These online platforms partner with top-tier software providers to offer high-quality games with smooth gameplay, realistic sound effects, and immersive visuals. You can explore new games and discover exciting experiences with such a diverse selection.

Convenience and Accessibility

One of the main reasons online casinos have gained immense popularity is their convenience. You no longer need to plan trips to physical casinos or adhere to their operating hours. Instead, you can access your favorite games anytime or at night from anywhere with an internet connection. This flexibility allows you to enjoy your gaming sessions at your own pace, fitting seamlessly into your schedule. Whether you have a few minutes to spare or want to indulge in an extended gaming session, an online casino is always accessible.

Bonuses and Rewards

Reliable online casinos understand the importance of rewarding their players. They offer a variety of bonuses and promotions to enhance your gaming experience and increase your chances of winning. These include welcome bonuses, free spins, loyalty programs, and special tournaments. By taking advantage of these incentives, you can maximize your gameplay and boost your winnings. However, reading and understanding the terms and conditions associated with these offers is crucial to ensure a smooth and enjoyable gaming experience.

Conclusion

Playing your favorite game at a reliable online fun 88 casino provides numerous advantages, including safety and security, a wide selection of games, convenience, and accessibility, as well as exciting bonuses and rewards. With the rapid advancement of technology, online casinos continue to evolve, offering increasingly immersive and realistic gaming experiences. However, choosing a reputable and trustworthy online casino that prioritizes player safety and provides a fair and enjoyable gaming environment is essential. So, sit back, relax, and let the virtual casino bring the thrill of gambling to your fingertips. Enjoy playing your favorite game, and may luck be on your side!

The post Enjoy Playing Your Favorite Game at a Reliable Online Casino appeared first on Granite Grok.

Do you remember that steam-powered bicycle I shared a few weeks back? It was hand-built, firewood, and puffs of smoke – and not that fast…

 

 

But it was amusing to see what someone with way too much time on their hands could do to answer the question, “Hey, can you hold ma beer?”

This, however, is an animal of a very DIFFERENT sort. It is highly machined, and costly, and the outgassing steam is more like a jet engine than the “puff, puff, putter, putter” of the bicycle:

Fastest steam-powered motorcycle in history tears up the 1/8th mile

A husband-and-wife precision engineering team has set a new world record standing 1/8th mile time for steam-powered motorcycles. The Force of Nature is effectively a rocket on wheels, and the team says it should go much faster in the next attempt.

British couple Graham and Diane Sykes took their creation to Elvington Speed Week to lay down a record-breaking time of 3.878 seconds for the standing eighth, with a recorded exit speed of 163.8 mph (264 km/h). Graham was aboard the steam-powered dragster for the attempt, and said the bike continued to accelerate, passing 180 mph (290 km/h) some way after the post.

 

 



“There is still lots more power to come, and I feel sure we will run quicker in the coming months,” the team wrote in a blog post.

Very interesting…

 

HT | New Atlas

The post Remember That Steam Powered Bicycle? Way Better This Time! appeared first on Granite Grok.

Pivotal in remaining a strong and credible party, you need to have the trust of your constituents. Without that trust within the bounds of the law, both the individual and the collective will be stifled, resulting in an enterprise unworthy of the name.

The Republican Party needs to rejuvenate its support base and overall credibility. Republican Party is on life support as it is today. It is no longer a mystery; the Republican Party has lost touch with its constituents and the American people. They don’t connect and don’t care. For example, the US Senate is not serving the intended role of protecting the individual states’ autonomy and authority. Senators view themselves as part of the national government, not as a defender of the state’s interest and sovereignty.

What do you think can be done? First and foremost, we must have term limits. Vital to the effort’s success is abandoning old suspicions, parochial thinking, and scheming for special privileges for any individual or group. Goodwill and work for the common good are required of all. This new beginning is a paradigm shift from the destructive ways of the past. There is much to be gained by all when justice and equity are not exclusive to the few. Justice in all its forms, as is the case with freedom, must be the guiding principle of our Republican Party.

This Party can’t even agree on a single bill to pass. A lack of unity and leadership has weakened this Party. Despite many promises to the American people, Obamacare is still alive and well. “For American voters expecting their Republican-dominated House and Senate and the White House to honor their years of repeal promises and repeal Obamacare. In a move that’s no surprise to anyone, the late John McCain voted against the embarrassingly named ‘Skinny Repeal,’ voted against his Party (or is it his Party?), and voted to keep Obamacare going.

Many people can no longer differentiate between the Democrats and the Republicans. Not to mention, this Party ultimately betrayed the American people during the Obama administration. They just watched and did nothing.

According to Rasmussen Reports, Republican voters are far more likely than Democrats to say their party bosses are out of touch with the voter base. Seventy-three percent of Republicans think their party leaders are out of step with the rank-and-file, the survey shows.

Republican Party has become one of the rich, for the rich, and has lost touch with people. The Party has lost its ability to govern despite having the majority in the House, Senate, and Republican President.

Time is of the essence; either do your job for which you were elected or resign so that we can have new blood injected into that Party. You can no longer function.

 

 

The post Fellow Republicans, appeared first on Granite Grok.