Friday • December 13 • 2024
Vol.XVI • No.L
Manchester, N.H.
CBS got an inch in its pants to follow the lab-leak breadcrumbs, but not to Wuhan, China, and the Institute of Virology. Not exactly. The lab leak theory has, for lack of a better term, leaked, and when you can no longer hide the truth, job one is to affix blame.
Preferably on your political opponents and ideally on the biggest threats to the uniparty. In other words, this isn’t about honesty, integrity, or accountability, they are looking to pin this on Donald Trump, and it’s as plain as the nose on both of its faces.
“We’ve got new details to share with you today about an investigation into U.S. funding the Chinese research lab in the city at the center of the pandemic,” co-anchor Michelle Miller announced. “It’s raising questions about how closely past administrations were following the use of the money.”
That last sentence in the lede is the giveaway. Someone who was president before the current arrangement should have been paying closer attention to the expenses, and they don’t mean Barry Obama. If this was going on and he missed it, that’s not his fault. Nor are the Biolabs in Ukraine or anything else. He’s B’rock O’Bama, the smartest man in any room. The myth, the legend, the myth. Forced to leap buildings in a single bound with the dead weight of Joe Biden tied to him for eight years. How he managed to get anything done at all is a miracle, and that’s what it was.
The Beer Summit. Remember that. 6/11/212. Being invisible during a crisis takes a lot of effort.
Anyway, not him. The guy between Barry and the cabal of Marxists working China’s Joe Biden puppet. That guy. I think CBS will be looking very closely at the books to see what was going on while Trump was tweeting.
So, no, I don’t think the serail fraudsters at CBS are taking this lab leak thing seriously, but they are using it to promote an approved line of inquiry. CBS is legendary for that.
And that’s just some recent stuff. How about Dan Rather and the Bush National Guard Story right before an election. CBS helped hide the hunter Biden Laptop story which was credible and has since risen to the top of the cistern alongside the lab-leak conspiracy.
Anyway, some in the new media are hopeful that this turnabout by CBS, alongside all the other signs (we’ve shared a few) but I’m not convinced it’s anything but cover for another Trump hit, if not soon, then during the heated parts of the season.
The post CBS Decides To Investigate Wuhan Institute Lab-Leak … To Blame Trump. appeared first on Granite Grok.
Trust – such an ephemeral thing. Now, I did include Speaker Packard on a previous email concerning a Right To Know. Didn’t hear back. So I’m making it more explicit in now both of the Republican Leaders are now responsible for Following The Law act accordingly. After all, they can instruct the proper IT people who take care of NH House of Representatives emails to fork them over.
—— Original Message ——
From “Skip” <Skip@granitegrok.com>
To “Sherman Packard” <Sherman.Packard@leg.state.nh.us>; “Jason Osborne” <Jason@osborne4nh.com>; Jason.Osborne@leg.state.nh.us
Date 3/18/2023 1:26:38 PM
Subject Right To Know Demand for the Legislative emails of the NH House Representatives from Belknap CountyGood afternoon NH House Speaker Packard and NH House Majority Leader Osborne,
Please find attached (and replicated below), an RSA 91-A demand for all of the official NH Legislative emails either sent to or sent by Belknap County Representatives using the leg.state.nh.us email domain. The period of time is from 1/1/23 to 3/20/23, inclusive.
Partial deliveries of the Responsive Records will be accepted.
-Skip
Skip Murphy
Founder, co-owner
GraniteGrok.com | Skip@GraniteGrok.com |
Dominating the political Bandwidth in New Hampshire
Pursuant to the Right to Know Law (RSA. 91-A:4 (I) ), I am demanding access, within 5 business days, to the below enumerated governmental records for the period starting January 1, 2023 to March 20, 2023, inclusive. Otherwise, if this cannot be fulfilled within that mandated window per RSA 91-A:4 IV b, please advise when the Responsive Records will be made available.
New Hampshire has made it clear that information held by the Government is the Peoples’ information with very few exceptions:
[Art.] 8. [Accountability of Magistrates and Officers; Public’s Right to Know.] All power residing originally in, and being derived from, the people, all the magistrates and officers of government are their substitutes and agents, and at all times accountable to them . Government, therefore, should be open, accessible, accountable and responsive . To that end, the public’s right of access to governmental proceedings and records shall not be unreasonably restricted …
June 2, 1784
Amended 1976 by providing right of access to governmental proceedings and records.
Amended 2018 by providing that taxpayers have standing to bring actions against the government
From RSA 91-A (excerpted, emphasis mine):
91-A:4 Minutes and Records Available for Public Inspection. –
I. Every citizen during the regular or business hours of all public bodies or agencies, and on the regular business premises of such public bodies or agencies, has the right to inspect all governmental records in the possession, custody, or control of such public bodies or agencies, including minutes of meetings of the public bodies, and to copy and make memoranda or abstracts of the records or minutes so inspected, except as otherwise prohibited by statute or RSA 91-A:5. In this section, ” to copy ” means the reproduction of original records by whatever method, including but not limited to photography, photostatic copy, printing, or electronic or tape recording.
I am demanding any and all emails (with any such attachments) for the enumerated period above from the NH Legislative email addresses associated with the following NH State Representatives from Belknap County:
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, unavailable 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 some reason that it is not reasonably practical to produce such, explain why it is not practical to comply.
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. This also includes such responsive records (e.g., emails, query files, data files, et al) which may have been deleted from respective Inboxes but are still available on the applicable email server(s) or in your / email host backup system(s).
Please let me know when these records will be sent to me for inspection. 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 to use in uploading those responsive records.
Thank you for your lawful attention to this matter.
Sincerely,
Skip Murphy
GraniteGrok.com
The post Belknap County Delegation – A Right To Know to Sherm Packard and Jason Osborne (NH Speaker of the House & NH House Majority Leader) appeared first on Granite Grok.
Introducing the new Eversource Math! We double your rates and give you triple the power outages in return! And these aren’t your parents’ power outages!
We want to thank Bill for this Op-Ed. If you have an Op-Ed or LTE
you would like us to consider, please submit it to Editor@GraniteGrok.com.
Oh no, these are the new, green outages that last for days and days, where you suckers customers get to experience the joys of truly Green Energy living.
No electricity means less power generation, which comes from dirty, stinky fossil fuels. So while you peons customers are living the Greta [Thuneberg Lifestyle (you’re welcome!), we’re padding our Green, carbon diversification account! A win-win for us, your woke power company.
The post Quick Thought: The New Math (Brought to You by Eversource) appeared first on Granite Grok.
Pfizer made tens of tens of billion on a “vaccine” (that continues to reap financial rewards) despite not preventing infection or spread with side effects up to and including sudden death. Pfizer responded to that failure with Paxlovid, which you also paid for and didn’t work.
I know this looks like a road we’ve been down before. Paxlovid doesn’t appear to clear the virus but it suppresses symptoms. But have you seen the streaming service onslaught of commercials? The tagline is ‘If it’s COVID, PAXLOVID. If you don’t pay to avoid commercials on streaming (like Hulu), they are impossible to avoid—every break, sometimes more than once.
“If it’s COVID, PAXLOVID!”
Why? Because the US government bought millions of pills at $530.00 a dose for another emergency use authorized drug that doesn’t work, and they need to move those pills. With roughly 70% of the country with at least one Jab, there’s plenty of opportunity for folks with COVID-Vaxx depressed immunity to get COVID then Paxlovid.
But, again, Paxlovid does not appear to clear the virus, so after day 5 (that’s $2,650.00 in pills prepaid for by taxpayers), suppressed symptoms might begin to re-emerge. By the end of week two, you have COVID again, which might be worse. More COVID? No F****** way Paxlovid. In fact, maybe skip it altogether.
Paxlovid is trending. Just a reminder…. 44 severe drug interactions (including statins,) toxic to liver and kidneys, contains an HIV drug with a black box warning, increased risk of rebound infection, poorly tolerated due to metallic taste, costs taxpayers $530+
— Mary Talley Bowden MD (@MdBreathe) March 16, 2023
I was aware of the cost, the millions of doses pre-paid for by the Biden Administration, and the COVID Rebound – because the drug does not appear to clear the virus – but the dangerous drug interactions are new to me, as are the toxic liver and kidney risks.
According to GoodRx, Paxlovid contains Ritonavir (a drug used to treat HIV/AIDS patients) known to cause liver damage.
If you go to Paxlovid.com, you will find this warning.
PAXLOVID is not approved to prevent COVID-19, treat severe or critical COVID-19, or to be used for more than 5 days. There are certain medications that should not be taken with PAXLOVID.
Further down the page is the list of drugs that cannot be mingled with Paxlovid.
There is also a warning not to use Paxlovid if you have kidney disease, so there’s the kidney link.
Before taking PAXLOVID, tell your healthcare provider if you:
All for what? COVID rebound?
The post Got COVID, Stay Away From Paxlovid! appeared first on Granite Grok.
Interesting and the phrase from my previous post kept coming back: “It’s Not a Flattering One”. To recap from the Daily Sun article (emphasis mine):
“We serve at the will of the sheriff. He doesn’t have to explain anything to us. We got discharge letters served to us by a deputy, which I guess is required, but he didn’t even speak to us,” Grenier said. Grenier also categorized the hiring of three of Wright’s political supporters, Rich Mann, Jim McIntyre, and Rep. Doug Trottier (R-Belmont), as a political “quid pro quo.”
Recently, McIntyre was promoted to chief deputy, and Trottier to sergeant. As a state representative, Trottier sits on the Belknap County Delegation, and recently brought HB 357, which would double the term of office for Belknap County attorney, register of deeds, treasurer and sheriff. Rep. Travis O’Hara (R-Belmont) recently applied for a position as a dispatcher, but did not get the job.
This was a “work-alike” to a similar bill that was passed last year to boost the same positions there for Rockingham County from two to four years. I don’t have any really good ideas as to WHY that should be but certainly one why not:
Two years may be short enough to get rid of bad people in an office. Four years may be WAY too long. And NH doesn’t have a recall mechanism for any office. So, we’d be stuck with someone longer than necessary.
Now the bill was “laid on the table” (think: “died”) so it isn’t going to happen and I should just let it go. However, given the Reps involved (NH State Reps Trottier (R), Juliet Harvey-Bolia (R), Mike Bordes (R), and Steven Bogert (R) ) as Sponsors, I wanted to watch the testimony and listen for myself as to why it got tabled – and heard at least two reasons why it shouldn’t have moved forward:
To that latter point, if you are short for time, wasn’t true. I know – I phoned.
Here’s the video of the NH House testimony on it. In order: NH State Rep Steve Bogert, Belknap County Sheriff Bill Wright, Kate Horgan of the NH Association of Counties, and then Bogert was recalled to answer more questions – which gave rise to this post.
Now, two things for context:
So listen closely yourself and think “what’s missing here?”. Note that I’ve started the video at the HB357 hearing time: 26:47. My takeaways/notes:
Weasel Words #1 The nuance/impression that was left hanging in my mind after he was done was that the Delegation had discussed the bill and were either unanimous in support or at least a majority of them supported it. Selective wording Hold this thought for a couple…
Backstory – the history is that the previous bill had been passed through committee but during the floor fight (debate) on the NH House floor (ALL the reps and not just the committee) made it clear that no bill like this would be for ALL counties all at once. Each County, like what Belknap was doing now and Rockingham last year, had to bring their own case forward AND do it with the support of its County Delegation (the Reps in each County). THIS committee made that point over and over again.
“…sponsored by legislators from Belknap and in your testimony, you made the comment that Belknap County has support from their Delegation. Could you expound on that and clarify what exactly what you mean by that statement?
Hogan: It is my understanding, and I would defer to the sponsor, to confirm this but that their Delegation discussed this bill and supports this bill but I would defer to the Representative from Belknap County to confirm that.
Oopsies – caught red-handed. As a lobbyist, she made the required impression in trying to the Committee to believe that the bill had the requisite support. The “I would defer to” was the admission she was making it up (I think), trying to get out of a jam, and putting the onus on either Bogert (who was present) or Trottier (who wasn’t).
DID the Delegation discuss it and was consensus achieved?
Bogert: “the bill itself did not officially come up before the Delegation in a Delegation meeting. It had been discussed individually and as you can note that four of the sponsors are from the Delegation itself.
Trying to get out of the hole he dug for himself, that last bit.
Another Rep asked, “Were any of the Delegation opposed to the bill?”
Bogert: To my knowledge, no
Verbiage is right from an old-time snake oil salesman. And very checkable – I called a few. ALL of them said, “No, I oppose the bill“.
So , there was NO consensus. And NO, not all individual Reps were contacted. And no, the four Reps sponsoring the bill are not a plurality.
So it seems that Bogert, and perhaps the others in on this, didn’t WANT to know who didn’t support the bill because then he would have had to admit it. Plausible Deniability and obfuscation.
Lied by Omission by not telling the WHOLE truth (which would have been talking about the Delegation and ALL the Reps’ stances). He, Wright, and Hogan, in my opinion, tried to mislead the Committee.
For that, Wright and Bogert should suffer a consequence. The problem, under the Law, is that I don’t know of one other than slashing the Sheriff’s salary as part of the budget process (which won’t happen) and keeping Bogert off any other Delegation Committees (which, given Harry Bean as Chair), won’t happen either.
But I’m quite sure that doing this bit of shoe leather work will make me the bad guy, once again.
Right, Chair Harry Bean?
Tried to get away with something and got caught.
All it takes is a normal citizen, thinking logically, to look into something and ask some simple questions. And you know what THAT takeaway is?
What else are they trying to pull without anyone else knowing about it?
The solution is always MORE speech and Big Flashlights rather than Governmental Dark Corners.
The post So About The Belknap County Delegation Supporting Sheriff Bill Wright’s HB357 (4 year terms)… appeared first on Granite Grok.
The Left’s gender war-on-women freight train has been gaining speed lately as they lose things left and right: scholarships, jobs, awards, and their history. If you’d like to see the final form, especially regarding sports, Vermont just showed you their cards.
Related: Vermont Principal’s Association Not Interested In Actual Diversity
Title IX was created to ensure that girls and women had the same opportunities in sports as men. A few decades along and all the recent ‘boys can be girls’ business has folks wondering what that means for Title IX. Here’s your answer: “Vermont bans a high school from athletics for objecting to boys in girls’ sports.”
The end of sanctioned inter-state competition without which there can be no pursuit of scholarships, especially for young women. I’d say it’s a bit ironic that as more boys play on girls’ teams, fewer girls will be on teams, let alone winning games or awards. And for some, it won’t matter, but if a scholarship is the only path to a college or an elite school, the Vermont Principal’s Association just damned poor, underserved communities of girls, the very thing Title IX exists to serve ….unless they bend that Marxist knee.
Treat sex and gender as we say, and we’ll let you lose to boys who are stronger and twice your size. Hey, you might not get hurt, and you may even win once and a while, and that’s a risk they are willing to make you take.
In other words, the advances of Title IX have been erased, and if you don’t like it, play with dolls or bake cookies (right, Hillary?).
Update: The original featured image was incorrect and has been replaced after publication.
The post Vermont Shows You How Title IX vs the Left’s War On Women Ends appeared first on Granite Grok.
And he looked so nice, too, bless his heart! Yes, Thad Riley, the failed candidate for NH Governor and current NH GOP E-Board member (Assistant Secretary), has accomplished a feat unlike all the other members – he got a Democrat, elected over the Republican.
Melissa Litchfield, for the Brentwood Selectboard.
So the operative question is “How many Republican votes did Thad Riley swing to the Democrat Party? I’m betting that he’ll never tell but I’m also betting that he’s quite pleased with himself for doing so.
And the other operative question is how many of the NH GOP Executive Board members will either pull him aside or openly rebuke him for doing so? After all, it’s not like the NH GOP needs yet another black eye, but here it is. He may not care about his reputation but he is certainly tarnishing theirs, right?
It’s one thing if an individual Republican does a “cross-over” on their own. However, Riley (and others) were elected to represent Republican ideals and defend the NH GOP Platform as well as its Bylaws – not only in letter but in spirit as well.
Political Discipline…what a concept and it’s clear that Riley has no regard to who brung him to the dance with this stupid move. Is it stupidity, or an overwhelming urge to be liked by everyone, ego, or something else? I’ve know folks like this before and the answer to those questions generally come out eventually “beyond the shadow of the pale”.
Way to go, Thad!
You know Thad, when I dropped this post, I was hoping that you’d man up enough to retract calling us liars (emphasis mine):
“Granite Grok is a group of right wing Liars“.
Methinks that you should as my clock is ticking. I shall repeat: put up or apologize. Show us your proof or we may well be meeting in a room you don’t want to be in.
Mean while, other irregularities in Brentwood appeared. Did you embolden the Brentwood Democrats into thinking other hijinks were permissible since you ended up being an electoral push-over?
Like this sign that the Democrats said could be inside the polling place:
Brentwood Democrat sign in polling place(click to embiggen)
And yes, that is Paul Kleinman, the guy that Thad Riley endorsed over Republican Melissa Litchfield, on the right if you haven’t figured it out (he is holding his sign as well, after all).
And oh, about the Brentwood Supervisor of the Checklist? Remember, it doesn’t matter who votes but who COUNTS the votes…
Oh, and yet ANOTHER well known Republican has done the same thing and I have receipts. Ante up sir – I’ll be looking to receiving YOUR apology as well..
To be continued…
The post Thad Riley Is Unique among Current NHGOP E-Board Members: He Helped a Democrat Get Elected over a Republican appeared first on Granite Grok.
Joe Biden is what I call a Convenient Catholic. He portrays himself as a devout Catholic to the point you might think he is still an altar boy on weekends when away from his day job.
He is so convenient a Catholic that recently, the Church hinted it might deny Biden receiving the Sacraments, including Holy Communion.
Biden has flip-flopped on numerous issues during his fifty-year political career. The Crime Bill he claims, was one of his biggest accomplishments as Senator, to an era of going soft on crime, and now not agreeing with the Washington, D.C. Crime Bill. He was Pro-Life before he became Pro-choice. He was against Gay Marriage in the Senate before he supported Gay Unions as VP and President. If you do not agree with one of Biden’s policy stands, just wait a day, and it may change.
Some people may change their beliefs over time as facts and data change. Sometimes, we respect people for allowing their stands to evolve. For Biden, however, this has happened too often and appears to be because it is politically expedient. Some of his flips are not endearing him with Democrats. Specifically, his decision on the D.C. Crime Bill and the drilling in Alaska have many people shaking their heads.
Biden’s life is a series of flip-flops which makes it very difficult to take any of his policy positions seriously. That makes it difficult for his opponents as well as his proponents. That is not what you want or need in a leader. You should expect consistency in beliefs, and you do not get that with Joe.
Most Presidents will track toward the middle as they enter the second half of the first term. This tactic worked well for Bill Clinton, allowing him to win a second term easily. You could argue that Joe Biden is taking a page from Bill, but there seems to be much doubt about Biden’s commitment to run. There are obvious questions about his health and mental well-being, and he has to be looking at his horrendous poll numbers. Jill is all in for a run, and for that, she should be vilified, but her desires for four more years in the White House may not align with Joe’s, and certainly not with the American voters. If, and damn, that is a big if, the election is fair, there are so many Republicans who would beat Joe handily.
One thing that will come back to kick Joe in the butt is not making changes in his staff. Take your pick. Buttigieg, Mayorkas, Granholm, Garland, and even Yellin have underperformed. For Joe not to identify these deficiencies is a knock on his leadership abilities. His base will overlook this, but independents will not.
The other element that will blow up a second run, which would actually be his fourth, is the Hunter situation. The money trail is getting more robust, and the House smells blood in the water. They will push to get Hunter charged in plenty of time to kill Biden’s thoughts of a second term. Of course, he could pray for divine intervention, but I am not sure his call will be answered.
The post Biden Invokes His Religious Beliefs appeared first on Granite Grok.
Remember his claim that with Trump gone, he was going to reestablish America’s standing in the world?
Yeah, this from Australia shows us how well that’s going…
No further words from me are warranted.
(H/T: PJ Media)
The post Fixing America’s Status In the World: How Joe Biden Is Perceived in Other Countries. appeared first on Granite Grok.
Several of the various COVID-response totems have taken a turn tumbling off the dais with the blessing of the ruling class mouthpiece media. Few apologies, but several new narratives are looking to soften the memory.
And how about this one? It’s your fault.
New “research” suggests that if you weren’t getting more than six hours of sleep each night when you lined up to get your vaccine ticket punched, this might have compromised any advertised immunity.
Trigger warning. The researchers use the words, men and women because their ‘data’ suggests unexplained differences.
The research, published in Current Biology, found strong evidence that sleeping for less than six hours reduces the immune response to vaccination in men – although the effect was more variable in women, probably due to fluctuating sex hormone levels.
“We know from immunology studies that sex hormones influence the immune system,” said Spiegel. “In women, immunity is influenced by the state of the menstrual cycle, the use of contraceptives, and [whether they have gone through menopause], but unfortunately, none of the studies that we summarised had any data about sex hormone levels.”
When both sexes were taken into account, the effect of short sleep was comparable to the waning of the antibody response to the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine after two months. The researchers said: “If similar to the influenza and hepatitis vaccines … then insufficient sleep around the time of Covid-19 vaccination may reduce antibody titers in the same range as the waning of the response to the most commonly administered vaccine over two months.”
That pull quote has more couches than Jordan’s Furniture. If similar. May. But they did admit The Jab wanes after two months which has become a new normal, but they made up for it with this. “They also found that the immunological impact of insufficient sleep was greater for adults aged 18 to 60, compared with older adults.”
So, what you are saying is that all the people who didn’t need The Jab and got it after a few bad nights of sleep – probably caused by months of fearmongering by the media, partisan politicians, and so-called public health officials – were more likely to have received less immunity.
This is the same group whose all-cause mortality skyrocketed in the shadow of the global push to put one of these needles in every arm. Are we to assume that COVID nightmares spawned by lies about masks, distancing, cases, and mortality is also responsible for myocarditis, ischemic strokes, clotting, and healthy people dropping dead after they got The Shot!?
This has all the hallmarks of a narrative mule. The research is sketchy, the assumptions cloudy – and wait for it – “Spiegel emphasised, however, that more research was needed to quantify exactly how much sleep was needed – and to unpick the role of sex hormones in vaccination response – before firm guidance could be issued.”
In summation, we don’t know anything, but we’d like you to begin to believe that if it didn’t work, that was your fault.
HT | GP
The post New Narrative: It’s Your Fault The COVID-19 Vaccine Didn’t Work appeared first on Granite Grok.
Yep, another Right To Know. Yep, another “thing” with the Belknap County Delegation, and now it’s about our taxes paid out over admitted illegal Budget Review meetings. The County told us this themselves:
Good morning,
Because the Budget Review Committee meetings were not publicly posted, the Committee will have to schedule a properly posted meeting to ratify the action taken at the previous meetings. This should be done with enough time remaining in March to properly notice a Delegation meeting to follow through with last night’s agenda.
That email effectively admits the Delegation’s violation of RSA 91-A:2, II (excerpted, emphasis mine):
II. Subject to the provisions of RSA 91-A:3, all meetings, whether held in person, by means of telephone or electronic communication, or in any other manner, shall be open to the public ..Except in an emergency or when there is a meeting of a legislative committee, a notice of the time and place of each such meeting , including a nonpublic session, shall be posted in 2 appropriate places one of which may be the public body’s Internet website , if such exists, or shall be printed in a newspaper of general circulation in the city or town at least 24 hours , excluding Sundays and legal holidays, prior to such meetings.
NOT ok that Chair Harry Bean and his passel of Right To Know Misfits didn’t Follow The Law in the first place, and I proved it here by asking for financial records and copies of the ads placed for Delegation meetings. The results showed that only two Notices had been placed and none of the Budget Review subcommittees.
Now, most politically aware folks here in NH know that our State Reps and Senators get $100/year + mileage (and “Leadership” can be a smidge more). Did you know that Reps attending Delegation meetings of any type also get paid for them? Yesssir – $25/day plus mileage. That’s what they get for LEGAL meetings.
Should they be paid for ILLEGAL meetings? So, to get the appropriate background, I issued yet another Right To Know – the payload:
This request concerns any payments made to Belknap County Delegation members for attending any improperly noticed, thus illegal, meetings during the time period specified above. While members are due compensation for LAWFUL meetings, per RSA249-ee (emphasis mine):
24:9-ee Compensation for County Conventions. – Members of each county convention shall receive from the county treasury a sum not to exceed $25 per day for actual attendance at meetings of their respective conventions and an allowance for travel expenses to and from the place of meeting at a rate per mile not in excess of the rate allowed by the United States Internal Revenue Service to be set by a vote of the respective county convention. They are not entitled to receive any compensation or mileage for attending such meetings when such meetings are held at the state house in Concord on a legislative day.
And
Thus, I am demanding that the Belknap Delegation / Belknap County Administration provide the following Financial Records:
- Any documentation submitted to the Chair | County Administrator | other County staff by each member signifying a request for such payments per RSA24:9-ee for attending the now declared illegally called Budget Review Committee meetings.
- The expenditure transaction history from any and all General Ledger accounts used to pay each attending Delegation member of the now declared illegally called Budget Review Committee meetings for specified $25 attendance fees and travel allowances.
- Copies of any remittances to such attending members for their attendance (e.g., cash, check, ACH, Paypal, Venmo, or other electronic payment system) for the now declared illegally called Budget Review Committee meetings.
They seem to think so, especially with Delegation Chair Harry Bean leading the way. All that has to happen is that a form with the details must be filled out by each Rep and signed by that Rep by the end of that day of the meeting – there is no oversight by anyone (Chair, Vice-Chair, the County Administration). The “Honor System”.
County Administrator Deb Shackett sent the information back the next day and the following received payments:
Reminder – we are a Dillon’s Rule State. That means that only those actions set out in duly enacted legislation. That means you can’t just make up or rationalize “stuff” that seems to be covered (but really outside of the written law). Only that which is explicitly listed | enumerated in Laws are allowed. Everything else is prohibited.
They’ve admitted that the meetings were illegal (“were not publicly posted“).
Even a cursory examination of the verbiage (see above) says “meetings” in RSA 249-ee doesn’t cover illegal meetings else “illegal” would have been in the language. It also doesn’t state “all meetings” which, depending on one’s intent and a broad intent, might cover illegal meetings. Maybe.
These BudReview meetings were illegal by the simple mandate of RSA91-A: post notices properly or you can’t have the meeting. Ditto for RSA24:9-D. It just seems that these folks just believe they are above / outside the Law – it’s the only conclusion I can come to.
There is no provision RSA24 for payment for attending illegal meetings (or aborted, or canceled, or other adjectives for “other than legal”) as the above email infers by stating the reason for a “redo”. None of those Representatives should have been paid for any of those three BudReview meetings. But they did.
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Who watches the watchers?
So where is the Leadership on this? Both the Delegation Chair (Harry Bean) and Subcommittee Chair (Steven Bogert)? Where is the ethical leadership in all this – or just a case of feeding from the trough because no one would complain? Honor, much?
Apparently, only this lowly blogger is going for the details and who is wondering WHY I HAVE TO DO THIS IN THE FIRST PLACE? If the Delegation has overwatch responsibility over the County Budget, shouldn’t THEY be doing the Right Things in the Correct Way?
Corruption? Malfeasance, Cutting Corners (heh! “Chair Cutting Corners Bean” – I just culturally appropriated a Trump tactic here. With Bean having been a huge Trump supporter, he shouldn’t mind, right?).
Honesty should prevail instead of an attitude of either “dang, we got caught”. Or, as it was reported to me, that Delegation Chair Harry Bean said, upon being approached by NH State Rep Barbara Comtois (not part of the Subcommittee but part of the Delegation) that “ratifying” the tainted results from the illegal meetings (again, not properly noticed so the Public didn’t know about them) with others around the two of them:
“So sue me”
REALLY, Harry? What a condescending attitude. Unfortunately, too many of our public servants have decided to morph into being our Public Masters and have engendered that attitude knowing that few citizens have the time and the financial wherewithal to undergo that laborious and expensive task. It’s at attitude that screams “SCREW YOU!” to we regular people and a complete indifference to right and wrong. Good to know, Harry Bean, good to know.
It also screams “Don’t get in my way”. So, how MUCH, Harry, are you going to raise our taxes on us, again? That number of 35% stuck in my mind
And my craw as a taxpayer.
Trust?
Yet again, it’s another indication of a lowering (or complete dissipation) of standards and morals. It seems that, with this crew, it’s a case of “whatever we can get away believing nobody’s looking”. And wait until my post about HB357, NH State Rep Steven Bogert, and Belknap Sheriff Bill Wright shows up.
Wrap all those bolded adjectives above and I ask: who of those folks will be the first to return that “illegal meeting” money? What’s the over/under that ANY of them will?
The post Did Members of The Belknap County Delegation Get Paid for Attending Illegal (Not Publicly Noticed) Meetings? appeared first on Granite Grok.
If you do even a minimal amount of looking, you will discover that the political Left’s anti-gun violence laws result in more violence. That’s deliberate, but they’re not lying when they say they want to reduce gun violence.
They are not talking about today, next week, or even next year. Disarming law-abiding citizens is guaranteed to increase violence, especially gun violence. So what do they mean?
At some point down the road, when the Ruling Class is the only ones with guns, and all the people who disagree with them have been “addressed” (killed, slaughtered, tortured, put in labor camps, or just imprisoned), there will be a reduction gun violence.
All you have to do is give up your rights, allow the government to define that to which you are entitled, and do whatever they say.
This is what they mean by utopia.
If you’d like an example, like test driving a car or sitting on a sofa you may be thinking about purchasing, there are several. We could look at Castro’s Cuba, Stalin’s Russia, Mao’s China, or the Kim family dynasty in North Korea. Both Hitler and Mussolini had National Socialist utopias. The trains ran on time, or they killed you (and maybe your family) and put some other lucky party hack in charge.
Tyrannical despotisms over oppressed peoples. That’s what they are after.
And yes, there will still be lots of violence, but it won’t be gun violence because that’s not what they call it when the government hoots someone. In utopia, they call that justice.
The post What it Means When Democrats Say They “Want to Reduce Gun Violence” appeared first on Granite Grok.
Heh! Fredocon*, indeed! Emphasis mine: “…Then there is Chris Sununu, scion of the family that brought us Justice Souter. He’s been a terrific governor of New Hampshire if you define “terrific” as capitulating to everything the left wants.”
He failed to redistrict the state into winnable GOP districts. He digs abortion. He also – like his political doppelganger Hogan’s Hero Sandwich – refused to do something useful and at least try to win us another GOP Senate seat, instead putting self above party so he could entertain his delusion that the GOP might ever nominate him for president. And, of course, he’s down on the dudes who can win. Sununu is really upset with Donald Trump because oh well I never we’re better than that that’s not who we are blah blah blah. He does not like DeSantis because DeSantis fights and wins instead of surrenders and loses, which is what this Maple Syrup Fredo thinks is the GOP’s role. Remember, true conservatism is losing gently.
Sununu is one of those principled Republican who never met an alleged principle that kept us from winning that he didn’t like. He thinks that we are required not to use our power – the power of government via our elected officials – to order our society and culture as we see fit. However, he sees nothing wrong with woke corporations using their power – economic, cultural, and governmental as well – to order our society and culture as they and their ESG/diversity directors see fit. The notion that we are somehow morally obligated to forego the only means we have of protecting our interests while the left and its catspaws can do whatever they please is a bizarre notion that we in the base long ago abandoned. But this guy has not moved on.
In his mind, we are forever compelled to watch conservatism be defeated in the name of conservatism…
So, where is he wrong, Sununu Supporters, outside of financial matters (well, THIS proposed budget is a bit sketchy for me to be saying that) and guns?
And other than here in NH, what poll shows him higher than his vaunted 5% cut-off point? Time’s a tickin’, Guv:
Mr. Sununu also warned minor candidates not to carve up the field:
“I think there’s a lot of hope and opportunity for good candidates to get in, drive the message where it needs to be,” he said. “But the discipline is getting out, too. The discipline and saying, ‘Look, you’re only polling at 5%, you got to get out.’ We don’t want a crowded field here.”
So, how is that aging? Not well, so, I’m going to hold him to it. How is he doing? Let’s just say the phrase “5%, you got to get out” will haunt him.
*= Brother Fredo from the Godfather movie series where he went against The Family and received his Consequence. I posit that Schlichter has a nice little analogy here – posing that Sununu was part of the Republican Party family but constantly going against “The Family” with his words and actions.
HT | Kurt Schlichter (“The 2024 GOP Primary’s Fredocon Lane“)
The post And Another Guy Disses Chris Sununu for Prez – Correct Observations and He Doesn’t Even Live Here! appeared first on Granite Grok.
After years of politicizing clean air and water, it is only a matter of time before the Left argues against both, and they will. China is their template. A polluting, uncaring superpower praised for its response to climate change.
Related: Democide: Blocking Ivermectin Likely Cost 800,000+ American Lives
A response that is ruining the air and water in China while doing the same in third-world countries mining rare earth metals for the race to net-zero freedom – as in no liberty, much like in China. So, it’s no surprise they’ve bad-mouthed drugs like Ivermectin and supplements like vitamin D.
The evidence suggests that both are cheap, helpful prophylactics that aid your immune system in resisting the flu plague they’ve released across the land. We’ve discussed why they hated on Ivermectin at length. If there is viable existing treatment, the FDA can’t issue emergency use authorization. The map dots lead you to the only possible conclusion, and so it is with vitamin D3.
There have been repeated threats that the FDA plans to regulate the wild-west vitamin supplement industry but not over the potential for malfeasance or fraud – and not that the FDA doesn’t want to keep its monopoly on both. Supplements might put roadblocks between you and their public health industrial complex utopia.
Vitamin D3 might be the Cherubim with the flaming sword.
But there is no shortage of research on the benefits of Vitamin D supplementation to the human immune system. Experts say, add Zinc, C, and a few others – assuming you can’t and don’t get enough through a healthy diet – and you are donning the immune system equivalent of the armor of God. It’s not foolproof and may not be suitable for everyone (ask a medical professional you trust if you can find one), but it’s right enough that the Left has hated on it – which is always a giveaway.
The ruling class (led by Democrats) is good at telling what scares them.
Vitamin D scares them because it is safe and effective and fosters independence from socialized medical mandates. To make matters worse, a ten-year study was just released that suggests vitamin D therapy can reduce incidents of dementia by 40%.
The large-scale study (with over 12,000 participants) spanned ten years — so there’s lots of data over a lengthy time frame that the corporate media is going to have a hard time refuting. In the conclusion, the researchers implored the scientific community to build upon their findings in future research, with more specific analysis of the intriguing differences in the dementia-fighting benefits of vitamin D by sex (women experienced a greater benefit than men).
Wait a minute. Vitamin D knows more about biology than Supreme Court Nominees (it can tell the difference between biological men and women!). That’s something! Perhaps the Left should discredit it with accusations of bigotry but be careful.
Vitamin D supplementation might be what people of color need as a first line of defense against flu, SRV, Pneumonia, COVID-19, and even common colds. Generations of ancestors helped develop darker skin to protect them from an environment with so much sunlight, while our shared ancestors who migrated north paled so their bodies could create more vitamin D with less sunshine. Their bodies can’t produce enough of it where the sun is less direct, as in much of the US.
In other words, scaring people of color away from vitamin D may put their health at risk (racist!), but then so would scaring them away from Ivermectin, and the “experts” keep doing that.
Maybe they are hoping for a rise in dementia as well to keep everyone mentally close to the progressive norm.
The post Another Great Reason to Take Vitamin D appeared first on Granite Grok.
Apologies for the delay, but we’d like to thank everyone who helped with the February Fundraiser. It ran from Mid February to early March, and we reached our goal last week.
We are still waiting on a few promised checks that got us there, but we expect them in the next few days.
So … THANK YOU!
Your generous response is humbling, and we greatly appreciate your voluntary contributions. The next step is nailing down our webmistress to get some of the modifications you’ve helped fund implemented. We also need to nail down the retired guy who is working to elevate several other projects, but this is still a hobby for him as well, and life keeps getting in the way [Yes, that would be me, folks…sigh -Skip]
‘Grok App development was idled and will need to get rebooted. As a mobile platform, it should have a less pervasive ad experience (which I, like you, do not love). It will also allow us (I want ) to offer an ad-free experience for subscribers on phones and tablets (details and viability are still on the drawing board).
I also want an ad-free browser version for subscribers, but that is down the road a bit, and it may have to wait for the next site-wide renovation.
The improved search feature is in the debate stage – as in what we can do with the WordPress environment in which we live, but that will be sooner rather than later.
We are also working on all the numerous broken image links that frequently end at 404 not found errors – a situation we facilitated and need to rectify.
There is also some backend stuff that needs to be addressed and requires the paid services of tech professionals.
Your donations will help offset some of those costs, and (again) we appreciate the help, the support, and as always, thank you so much for reading GraniteGrok.com.
The post We Reached Our Fundraising Goal! – Thank You! appeared first on Granite Grok.
Governor DeSantis, I understand that you will visit Woke Hampshire on April 14th to headline the NHGOP’s premier fundraiser, the Amos Tuck Dinner. There are a few things about Woke Hampshire that you should know.
First, Woke Hampshire is neither a Red State nor a Purple State. It is a Blue State. The last time the GOP Presidential candidate got more than fifty percent of the vote was 1988. And since COVID it has gotten much bluer. Senator Hassan was elected in 2016 by barely more than 1,000 votes. In 2022 she was reelected by more than 55,000 votes.
Woke Hampshire has become much bluer recently for two reasons. One is that Governor Sununu was one of the more extreme COVID Governors. To borrow a phrase, he chose Fauciism over freedom. His lockdowns, mask-mandates, tacit encouragement of businesses to impose vaccine-mandates, among other things, drove Red voters to leave the State.
The other reason is that Sununu, since being elected Governor in 2016, has fully embraced and encouraged woke. In 2018, he signed a transgender bill into law, which his own Attorney General says requires schools to allow boys to compete in girls’ sports and use girls’ locker rooms. In 2021, he refused to sign a bill banning CRT until the legislature watered it down to the point that it is meaningless. His embrace of woke has made the State a magnet for Blue voters as the 2022 elections showed.
Second, you will repeatedly hear two terms, “local control” and “limited government,” used to describe Woke Hampshire’s supposedly true brand of conservatism. To paraphrase the Princess Bride, in Woke Hampshire these terms do not mean what you think they mean.
Local control is the justification given for State government turning a blind eye to the Diversity-Equity-Inclusion toxin that is pervasive in the State’s public schools. For example, just last session, the Republican-controlled House, at the behest of Governor Sununu, killed a parental rights bill. Local control is a myth. Public school districts in New Hampshire are actually run by unaccountable and woke bureaucracies that are, at best, indifferent to the remonstrations of parents at school board meetings. It appears that around two-thirds of every education dollar is spent outside the classroom to feed this bureaucracy.
Limited government is the justification given for State government doing nothing to protect people from big business pushing woke such as vaccine-mandates, CRT and DEI. Limited government is also a myth. In 2019, the Democrat-controlled legislature with the support of all but one Republican State Senator passed and the Republican Governor signed a bill codifying Obamacare into State law. Just this year every Republican State Senator voted to make Obamacare Medicaid Expansion permanent.
Woke Hampshire has no business leading off the GOP Presidential primaries because it is not a barometer of what matters to the GOP base or to Independents. Don’t let it tarnish your brand.
The post An Open Letter To Ron DeSantis … Some Things You Should Know About Woke Hampshire appeared first on Granite Grok.
The Tuesday Nor’Easter dumped some serious snow on Nothern New England, and while the meteorologists tried to get it right, they blew it again.
Areas projected to get the most snow got double the estimate (or nearly), while many places got disparate measurements in different parts of town. Merrimack, for example, has an “official” total of 12 inches, but late Tuesday afternoon, I had the dog in the backyard, and it was up to my knees.
I am not exactly tall, but there was at least 18 inches of new snow back there. My large 90-pound lab was groundhog and prairie dogging it (he loves snow); the stuff was so deep. Other parts of my yard had less but also had tree cover. Was the average across town 12 inches? Maybe, but I got more, and I bet many of you did as well.
So tell us? Did you measure? How much snow did you get? And tell us how that compared to the “official” measurements published by WMUR (and shared below).
We want to hear your snow stories and your downed tree stories, whatever you got!
Harrisville and Richmond tied for the highest reported (by the way) at 38 inches of snow. Hanover said they only received 1″ of snow.
New Hampshire Snow Totals Care of WMUR.
The post How Much Snow Did You REALLY Get This Week? appeared first on Granite Grok.
OK, I’ve got tons of stuff built up, and this is back from February when “Pothole Pete” (his nickname from his time as Mayor of South Bend, IN) finally deigned to visit E. Palestine where the train wreck (HIS area of expertise) disaster happened.
Of COURSE, people are asking, “what took so long?” but Petey Buttigieg’s “personal time” is a higher priority than lives and property being ruined.
This young reporter from Turning Point has it exactly right and with the right attitude toward someone who seems annoyed that he has to deal with this (I guess he’d rather be virtue-signaling pulling his bicycle out of his SUV to ride the last couple of blocks to work for fawning cameras):
WATCH: Sec. Pete Buttigieg's team FREAKS OUT when asked why it took him almost 3 weeks to come and speak to residents of East Palestine. His press secretary BEGS reporter to turn off the cameras.
Source: Savanah Hernandez @ Frontlines Show pic.twitter.com/IKatLEunbs
— Cory Reynolds Republican Of Maine (@RepublicanCoryR) February 24, 2023
Lady, YOU’RE the Press Secretary! You are expected to take questions all the time, every time, and anywhere. I know that there are people who want to control the Narrative and the environment, which is EXACTLY what she was trying to do.
Big #FAIL as she has now invoked the Streisand Effect. So instead of trying to speak the Narrative on the down low, she blew it up. Her annoyed face was wonderful in expressing her ire.
And Chubbs (I can say that as being a former Chubb myself, but he’s got me beat by a couple of magnitudes) that butted in didn’t make it any better. Sorry, high elected officials ARE responsible to us. It’s really too bad that Petey made her take the heat as he just rushed by, also looking annoyed that he, Our Highness Who Checks a Few Diversity Boxes, that others wanted him to take the question instead.
So I’ll include this as I brought it up at the event I was at Wednesday night and chuckles all around to those that heard it:
Challenge: withOUT looking it up, how many can you name? I can only name two.
The post FUNNY! This Young Lady Warms the Cockles of My Heart; The More Mature (?) DOT Press Secretary, Not So Much appeared first on Granite Grok.
Chuck Todd’s tenure in Machine Media included genuflecting to the gods of progressive government every time he entered the press room. Offering sacrifice to the approved narratives.
Well, maybe not every time but most of the time. I’m not going to sift the jetsam of his love affair for the few times he’s committed acts of journalism. This guy will defend a security-risk drug addict with a prostitute baby mama ‘cuz his last name is Biden, so I’m not sure I’d find anything. He frequently commits (to quote Howie Carr) the journalistic equivalent of unprotected sex.
Then we’ve got this. Chuck implores you to get vaccinated. Get others vaccinated. And stop spreading misinformation.
It has aged about as well as milk.
Those of us peddling the so-called misinformation have turned out to be not just truth-tellers but scientific truth. And most of us are still around, while the vaccinated are getting sick and dropping dead because they listened to Chuck Todd.
Is Chuck planning to jump on the COVID apology tour? Maybe a do-over. Or will he find a way to blame the sudden deaths of young people on January 6th, climate change, Donald Trump, or parents objecting to porn at school board meetings?
It’s not like the truth ever stopped Chuck before.
The post A Quick Reminder from the Medical Experts at MSNBC … appeared first on Granite Grok.