It’s easy to virtue signal highly when the cost is so low; when the rubber hits the road, however, not so much. Take sanctuary cities run by Democrats (or States or towns or whatever) who have LOUDLY proclaimed that illegal aliens are welcome.

You know, just like Nantucket Island (in MA) did this summer. Proclaimed their love for those whose first actions here in the US was to break our law BEFORE, ran around like chickens when DeSantis “helped” them live up to their virtue signaling, and then AFTERWARDS, saw how little their virtue signaling and word (as in “keeping your word”) actually meant.

So, too, San Francisco, but with a twist. We all know that their absolutely misbegotten Progressive/Woke policies have turned it into a third-world hellhole with respect to the homeless AND its refusal to enforce their laws (or just do away with them altogether). Thus, this caught my eye (reformatted, emphasis mine):

San Francisco reconsiders ‘sanctuary city’ status amid fentanyl overdose crisis

Officials in San Francisco are considering withdrawing certain “sanctuary city” protections due to a rising fentanyl crisis that has led to a shocking number of overdoses, New WindowKRON-TV reported. Member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors Matt Dorsey, a Democrat appointed by Mayor London Breed (D) last year, said in a Tuesday statement:

“It is time to withdraw the protection of sanctuary from undocumented immigrants trafficking fentanyl on our streets.”

Yeah, still can’t let go of the Liberal Reality Distortion Field – really, “undocumented”?  Step one – to start solving a problem, you have to NAME that problem.  Using euphemisms like “undocumented” means you’re not serious as you are still “relieving them” of responsibility. How about “illegal criminals” instead? Sure, I know that’s still an oxymoron as well (if you are an illegal, you’re also a criminal) but at least a bit closer to reality.

According to investigators, as many as half of the individuals selling drugs in the city are illegal immigrants. Currently, the city’s sanctuary status prohibits San Francisco authorities from aiding Immigration and Customs Enforcement in most circumstances.

Dorsey introduced legislation to revoke sanctuary protections from illegal immigrants who have contributed to the fentanyl crisis.

Yep, self-induced policy mayhem.  And harm – of its own citizens. But at least someone is starting to wake up from their Woke-induced coma (even if only just enough to get re-elected):

However, Dorsey’s status exceptions would only apply to illegal immigrants convicted of fentanyl-dealing within the last seven years and then reconvicted of another fentanyl-dealing felony or violent felony. If passed, the legislation could make it easier to deport them.

If Dorsey was serious and wanted to do right by them,

“I’m asking my colleagues to update our ‘Due Process for All’ ordinance to add fentanyl-dealing felonies alongside violent felonies,” Dorsey told New WindowKQED. “The whole idea of sanctuary was to create a safe environment so that local governments could serve immigrant communities, including undocumented immigrant communities, and have their trust. To do otherwise would be to empower organized crime and elements that might exploit people who are in vulnerable situations.”

Clueless. Absolutely clueless.

Alas and alack, if put into practice, this half-hearted and lackluster change may help their virtue-signaling lives but will end up being a mere minor annoyance to the “organized crime” cartels who are just rubbing their hands together in glee, knowing their profits will be unaffected.

Virtue-signaling – saying something that says nothing at all and means even less when reality comes barging in.  And that reality?

Last year, in the city’s Tenderloin district, the San Francisco Police Department seized more than 65 kilograms, or approximately 144 pounds, of fentanyl. “With just two milligrams of fentanyl estimated to be a lethal overdose for most people, SFPDʼs drug seizure haul from street-level drug dealers in 2022 represents enough fentanyl to kill every adult in California,” Dorsey stated.

But it does seem that there are some that are just happy with the dying status quo:

FreeSF, a coalition of organizations that advocate for immigrant rights, said it was “deeply disappointed” with Dorsey’s proposal.

“Sanctuary policies are crucial to upholding our values of equality and including — and to building strong, safe, and flourishing communities for all. The board must recognize that the sanctuary ordinance is an essential part of the solution,” FreeSF said.

Ideology over drugs.  Haven’t they ever heard the phrase “it’s hard to go through life being stupid”?

(H/T: The Blaze)

The post Reality Is Starting to Bite HARD on San Francisco’s “Sanctuary City” Proclamation appeared first on Granite Grok.

George Washington and Abraham Lincoln are arguably the two greatest leaders in the history of the United States. Two great Presidents. Two great Americans. For many years, we would come together as a nation and celebrate each of their respective birthdays.

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Washington’s on February 22nd. Lincoln’s on February 12th. Then, in 1968, Congress enacted a law establishing Presidents’ Day – combining the two birthdays, extending the celebration to include ‘all Presidents,’ and requiring the holiday be observed on a Monday in February as part of a three-day weekend.

Inevitably, in the course of this transition, something important has been lost. That is the sheer magnitude of what each of these two great men accomplished on behalf of our country and their enormously positive impact. Washington’s leadership through the Revolutionary War and serving as President for the first eight years of our nation. Lincoln’s shepherding the country through its most traumatic and perilous time – our Civil War. So, as we celebrate this Presidents’ Day and enjoy our three-day weekend with family and friends, let’s each pause for a moment to reflect on the character, courage, and sheer greatness of these two men and how their accomplishments have shaped this great nation and therefore our lives today.

Over the course of our nation’s 246-year history, there have been 46 Presidents of the United States, each one with their own influence and impact on the course of our history. Some have been good leaders, while others somewhat less so. Yet, there is only a handful whose legacies border on what could be considered almost mystical. These are individuals whose names are synonymous with the office of the presidency, because of their uniquely strong and resilient leadership feature on our currency and our monuments. Names like Jefferson, Roosevelt, or Reagan might come to mind. Yet as we celebrate Presidents’ Day this coming Monday, there are two individuals who stand above the rest. They’re individuals who not only led us during our nation’s most trying times but laid the foundations for the growth and evolution of our nation in ways that still impact us today. Those two are of course George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.

But what sets these two men apart from the other 44 presidents, many of whom also led us through perilous moments just as they did? When we look at the history and legacy of these two men, it must be said that their leadership each came at a time during our fledgling history when we didn’t just face external threats, but internal and existential ones that threatened the continuation of this American experiment. In Washington’s case, it was declaring our freedom from the stranglehold of the British empire, guiding our nation through its earliest and most vulnerable period, and then relinquishing control of the presidency. In Lincoln, it was the emancipation of enslaved peoples and the preservation of the union. Each of these men demonstrated a moral character that came to not only set the standard for what is expected of a President to this day but how we as Americans define ourselves. It’s their legacies we use to compare the quality of both a presidential candidate and a sitting president. And when we’ve forgotten or neglected their legacies, we tend to find ourselves with leaders unsuited for the office.

In the immediate moments following the death of President Lincoln on April 15th, 1865, his friend and the country’s Secretary of War at the time Edwin Stanton eloquently stated, “He now belongs to the ages.” It was befitting of a president who himself is often considered the most eloquent of our 46 presidents. It’s also a statement that encapsulates the legacies of both men whose tremendous vision, fortitude, and guidance have continued to transcend generations, are whose legacies offer seemingly timeless lessons. And though Presidents’ Day is now meant to celebrate the legacy of all of our presidents, it’s the standard set by Washington and Lincoln that all have tried to emulate.

The post Presidents’ Day – Much More than Just a Three-Day Weekend! appeared first on Granite Grok.

A recent article in the Concord Monitor regarding Primo “Howie” Leung, the Rundlett Middle School and Concord High School teacher who was arrested for sexual assault on April 3rd, 2019, should be setting off alarm bells in New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

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Four years after his initial arrest, he has yet to be prosecuted in New Hampshire, and his trial in Massachusetts has been delayed a sixth time. He is being prosecuted in Massachusetts because Concord (New Hampshire) Police Detectives Julie Curtin and Sean Ford claimed that his “victim,” Fabiana McLeod, was repeatedly sexually assaulted at the Fessenden private boarding school in Massachusetts while he was teaching there during the summer and she was assisting.

After Howie Leung’s arrest, an independent investigation into Concord School District’s alleged cover-ups was launched. Originally Robin Melone of Wadleigh Starr & Peters PLLC had been hired for the investigation.

But the school board dropped Robin Melone due to her role in defending St Paul’s School’s graduate Owen Labrie for his retrial hearing and NH Supreme Court Appeals (both denied after Congresswoman Ann Kuster made sure to insert her public influence at strategic junctures to steer judicial outcome).

Instead, Djuna Perkins, with a solo practice, completed the report on the Concord Schools. It was heavily redacted. She had been a prosecutor in Massachusetts and received a one-star rating in reviews but she spoke on NPR in 2014 regarding “consent” in campus sexual assault cases.

Mark Rufo, also of Wadleigh Starr & Peters PLLC, filed a suit against the Concord School District on behalf of Fabiana McLeod, which settled for $545,000. It would appear that the basis for this lawsuit relied primarily on the April 3rd affidavit and statements of Concord Police Detectives Julie Curtin and Sean Ford.

The essence of the Brady violation in Labrie’s trial had been that the prosecutor had made a statement to the judge about a deal made with a state witness (Labrie’s roommate, Andrew Thomson — son of Lucy Hodder, then Governor Maggie Hassan’s legal counsel) which, had it been known to the defendant and the jury, would have perjured this witness. Detective Julie Curtin had referred to this witness’s (perjury) statement in her affidavit, which she used for an arrest warrant in the Labrie investigation. The prosecutor admitted to the judge that she knew of a deal that had been made with the witness, but she believed that the police didn’t know about the deal. The state sealed this conversation at the time. It was unsealed months later and should have immediately put Julie Curtin on the Laurie list of corrupt police officers and disbarred the prosecutor. Neither happened.

Curiously, the first statement about Howie Leung’s arrest seems to appear on the New Hampshire Department of Education’s site with Tony Schinella as the contact.

Tony Schinella is also a reporter for the Concord Patch, which put out the first announcement of Owen Labrie’s arrest in July 2014 — updated and edited in 2018, right around the date of the Prout family’s civil suit settlement with St Paul’s School. If recollection serves me well, the edit in 2018 was the removal of “a ring of boys” from the original 2014 notice. In other words, all the legacy kids’ names disappeared, leaving just the scholarship student as the lonesome boogeyman.

Tony Schinella reported several times about the Howie Leung case. Who was supplying him with the narrative and why? The police file on Howie Leung pretty much ends in April 2019 right after he was arrested — according to the Concord Monitor articles. There are no moves to prosecute him in New Hampshire even though his arrest was made in the State after an investigation by Concord police.

Primex (New Hampshire Public Risk Management Group), the insurer for Concord School district, shelled out $1–1.5 million for civil claims filed by Mark Rufo/Wadleigh Starr & Peters PLLC, according to news reports, although precious little official documentation on this is publicly available. The board members of Primex are board members of Public School Districts, including Concord’s. Why would a public school district’s insurance exchange pay out such large sums of money prior to proof of a crime having been committed which wasn’t even worthy of prosecution in New Hampshire? Concord Police and the NHCADSV as well as Wadleigh Starr & Peters PLLC, and the DA of Merrimack County were all aware of Police Detective Julie Curtin’s credibility issues. Wouldn’t they want to do due diligence — for the credibility of their own profession as much as anything else?

A “Howie Leung Loophole” law was passed, and recently a female teacher was arrested and charged under it.

The teacher came from a private school — a school with deep pockets like St Paul’s, like the Fessenden School, like Dartmouth College, like Phillips Exeter Academy which have all been hit with civil suits seeking millions. Linking each of these cases, you can find the NHCADSV and/or Concord Police Detective Julie Curtin, who is trained in “best practices” by the NHCADSV.

Julie Curtin’s investigation/witness payment budget is approved by the City of Concord Public Safety Committee, chaired by Amanda Grady Sexton, the Director of Public Affairs for the NHCADSV, whose bio states that she works with police and prosecutors to shape the narrative pretrial. One of the civil attorneys she worked with on the St. Paul’s and Dartmouth suits states that they get in front of the Associated Press and arrange creative ways to get the message out when the “victims” can’t. One of their methods is to use 3rd party “experts” such as Dr. David Lisak, whose statistics he debunked himself, but that doesn’t seem to matter.

The NHCADSV appears to receive 20% of each civil suit settlement and the attorneys collect 35% of each settlement. It’s a lucrative business and when lies travel faster than the truth, fast bucks can be made while defendants get forgotten for years as the wheels of justice get hindered by money-grabbing political moves.

Convictions Based on Lies: Defining Due Process Protection

Truth has very little to do with the process: Concord Police Detective Julie Curtin refers the selected “victims” (many victims of domestic violence and sexual assault have reported being completely ignored by both police and the NHCADSV) to the civil attorneys and the NHCADSV. She must have had a financial incentive to spend her days, months and years investigating St Paul’s School and Concord School District while ignoring claims of sex abuse where there’s no prospect of a kick-back. If there’s no financial reward involved, it’s not worth bothering with.

It looks as though there is a system of kick-backs from the civil attorneys who rely on Police Detective Julie Curtin’s statements for blackmailing schools into lucrative settlements. It helps that Amanda Grady Sexton’s husband is the political director and reporter for WMUR while Debra Altshiller’s (HAVEN)’s husband, Howard Altschiller, was chair of the New Hampshire Press Association. It also helped when Gordon MacDonald was Attorney General and blocked the release of names of dishonest police on the Laurie List. Geoffrey Ward, assistant Attorney General, made sure to delete the files of 28 corrupt police officers before the Laurie list was ordered to be made public. One of the names that briefly appeared on the public list was that of New Hampshire’s top sex crimes investigator: James F McLaughlin — who taught others of his unlawful tactics, which included federal entrapment and lies. Father Gordon MacRae is languishing in Concord Prison 28 years after he was framed by McLaughlin. He is unable to get justice because from top to bottom of New Hampshire’s justice system, too many people are compromised by the money that was involved in framing him and extorting the Diocese of Manchester. They literally cannot afford for the truth to come out. Payments were made to witnesses to frame Father Gordon MacRae — per several reports — but evidently, judges and prosecutors don’t seem to care, so we must presume they, too, are getting rewards.

Chessy Prout stated in her “memoir” with an introduction by Congresswoman Ann Kuster and co-authored by Boston Globe’s Jenn Abelson- that Detective Julie Curtin told her to “not worry about the details” and to not discuss what had happened with Owen Labrie with anyone, not even her mother.

Julie Curtin’s method seems to be to fabricate as she goes along and hope everyone gets out having made a few million without having to go to trial and get exposed. It is likely for this reason that Concord Police Chief refused to give St Paul’s School alum Lacy Crawford her student file, which Julie Curtin had obtained without a warrant, and then refused to give it to its rightful owner. What is Concord Police Chief Bradley Osgood hiding?

And where is all the money going? It transpires New Hampshire is home to $932.5 billion in Pandora Papers hidden accounts — shell non-profits, shell companies, and trusts.

After the lawsuits against Concord School District following Howie Leung’s arrest were settled, another lawsuit was filed against the Fessenden School in Massachusetts. That lawsuit was dismissed by a judge in August 2022. It failed to meet the most basic standards required to move forward. I understand that the lawsuit also relied on information from Concord Police Detective Julie Curtin’s and Sean Ford’s original statements in April 2019. Those statements included allegations of sexual assault in other states that have declined to prosecute. Could it be that the statements were fabricated to guilt schools & their insurers into coughing up millions for ambulance chasers receiving a referral from Concord Police?

There has been no further action taken against Howie Leung by Paul Halvorsen, DA for Merrimack County, Concord New Hampshire. Halvorsen was endorsed as a candidate by the NHCADSV and he used to be a board member on the City of Concord Council. Coincidentally, he shares the same last name as Truna Halvorsen who allegedly made a complaint about Howie Leung but was never interviewed for Djuna Perkins’ report. This article is also by Tony Schinella of the Concord Patch:

Concord Police Lt. Sean Ford said investigators were aware of Halverson’s claims but he said he could not speak about the Leung case since it was an open investigation.

Halverson was not questioned by the Concord School District’s private investigator, Djuna Perkins of DP Law, a former Boston prosecutor.

Howie Leung’s trial in Massachusetts has been delayed until the fall of 2023. Concord Police Detective Julie Curtin no longer works for the City of Concord’s police. She’s moved to Epping police department. She and Sean Ford were the police officers who were the investigators for the Attorney General’s Grand Jury Criminal Investigation into St Paul’s School after he’d been lobbied by the NHCADSV. That report was ordered to be kept private despite the school’s waiver of privacy. It yielded several civil suits.

The NHCADSV’s legal counsel, David Vicinanzo, praised Judge Richard McNamara’s decision to keep it private. The NHCADSV benefited from several civil suits and a contract with the school.

Transparency doesn’t suit the public officials’ shady enterprise. After extorting the Diocese of Manchester, St Paul’s School, Phillips Exeter Academy, Dartmouth College, Concord School District, and Fessenden School for nebulous claims, I wonder who the next target will be.

The post When Public Officials Racketeer — New Hampshire in the Spotlight appeared first on Granite Grok.

The politicized Left does this thing where they take your objection to something and pretend it’s absolute. They do that because that is how they operate, and they assume we’re like them. Not so.

Examples.

Minors should not have access to material that is inappropriate. As a corollary, taxpayers should not be paying for that material. It continues to be widely available in the public and private domain, easily accessible to anyone of any age, but the Left accuses you of book banning.

Here’s another one.

 

He doesn’t understand we just want CHOICE. His side is forcing their will on everyone else. https://t.co/fzak9Ww3xH

— RebuildNH (@RebuildNH) February 16, 2023

In response to the covid vaccine mandates from employers, healthcare, and political sub-divisions, conscientious objectors asked to be excluded. Please leave us alone. We do not consent, or we have concerns, or there are religious or conscience objections. We’ve looked at your data, and we (or our kids) don’t need it.

The Left’s response has been to find ways to make you get the shots, from fearmongering to bullying to mandates or intimidation. They labeled you, discriminated against you (job loss, passports, limited public access), then accused you of not wanting anyone to get “vaccinated?”

Exercises of free speech used to provide information that has been suppressed are labeled as disinformation or misinformation. But all anyone ever wanted was the choice to say no and the protected right to share why.

We’re not fighting against your access to The Jab. Neither is RebuildNH or NH Health Freedom. If you want to wear a mask, do it. Feel safer locked in your home; stay there. You can’t wait for the next booster; good luck with that. And please, speak freely about why you think that is important and why you disagree with people who don’t.

What we get from the Left instead is institutionalized message control, censorship, and militant intolerance to any idea or practice outside that which you’ve decided best suits you.

So, banning mandates is not denying the mRNA shots. And even though the research shows no real public health value and a significant risk of public health harm, we’re not stopping you from having your say or rolling up a sleeve to get the next iteration.

No one is preventing you from playing vaccine roulette with your life. That’s your choice.

We just want you to respect ours, but we know you are likely incapable.

So we do this.

 

 

The post We Are Not Saying You Can’t Get The Jab™ if You Want It appeared first on Granite Grok.

On Feb. 8, Montana Governor Greg Gianforte sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland informing him the state will not enforce the recent ATF rule on pistol braces based on a state law prohibiting enforcement of some federal gun control that was passed in 2021.

Pistol braces serve as stabilizers that enable a shooter to fire with one hand. On Jan 13, the  ATF issued a rule authorized by an unconstitutional executive order requiring potentially any gun equipped with a pistol brace to be registered with the feds.

According to the ATF rule, guns with pistol braces are now subject to a new “factoring criteria” point system, which will be used to determine if the firearm and pistol brace combination are now categorized as “short-barreled rifles” under the National Firearms Act. This is the same law used to regulate machine guns and sound suppressors. The rule doesn’t ban pistol braces, but it requires anybody that has a gun equipped with one to register the firearm with the feds if it goes beyond a certain threshold in the point system. If they don’t register it, the must destroy it. The registration process will come with a tax, and if history provides any indication it could take up to a year to complete the registration process.

Additionally, the ATF still claims the authority to classify a firearm and accessory as a short-barreled rifle under the NFA even if it does not cross the threshold of their point system.

In 2021, Montana passed a law prohibiting police officers, state employees, and employees of any political subdivision of the state from enforcing, assisting in the enforcement of, or otherwise cooperating in the enforcement of any new “federal ban” on firearms, magazines, or ammunition. A “federal ban” is defined as any federal law, executive order, rule, or regulation that was enacted after Jan. 1, 2021, “that infringes upon, calls in question, or prohibits, restricts, or requires individual licensure for or registration of the purchase, ownership, possession, transfer, or use of any firearm, any magazine or other ammunition feeding device, or other firearm accessory.”

The pistol brace registration rule clearly falls under the law’s definition of a “federal ban.”

Gov. Gianforte’s letter informs the U.S. attorney general that, “As a matter of law, the State of Montana and its political subdivisions cannot enforce, or assist the ATF with enforcement, of this rule.”

Our right to keep and bear arms is integral to Montana’s and our nation’s rich heritage. That’s why we prohibited the enforcement of federal gun bans in Montana, like @ATFHQ‘s pistol brace rule. pic.twitter.com/Hq34yU16PZ

— Governor Greg Gianforte (@GovGianforte) February 9, 2023

Gianforte also writes that the pistol brace rule “further erodes the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding Montanans.”

“Our right to keep and bear arms is integral to Montana’s and our nation’s rich heritage, and this rule directly violates our long-held traditions. The rule also ignores the design and intent of stabilizing braces – to help disabled veterans fire large format pistols.”

Gary Marbut of the Montana Shooting Sports Association and many others worked tirelessly for years to get this first-step ban against federal gun control passed in 2021.

Three other states – Missouri, Arizona and Idaho – also have laws on the books that prohibit state or local enforcement of specific federal gun control, including this pistol brace registration scheme.

EFFECTIVE

The federal government relies heavily on state cooperation to implement and enforce almost all of its laws, regulations and acts – including gun control. By simply withdrawing this necessary cooperation, states and localities can nullify many federal actions in effect. As noted by the National Governors’ Association during the partial government shutdown of 2013, “states are partners with the federal government on most federal programs.”

With just a few thousand enforcement agents, the ATF doesn’t have the personnel or resources to enforce its gun control regulations without massive support from the states. That means every time a state refuses to cooperate with the enforcement of federal gun control – including this new rule – it sets the foundation for the people to nullify those acts in practice and effect.

Based on James Madison’s advice for states and individuals in Federalist #46, a “refusal to cooperate with officers of the Union” represents an extremely effective method to bring down federal gun control measures because most enforcement actions rely on help, support and leadership from state and local governments.

Fox News senior judicial analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano agreed. In a televised discussion on the issue, he noted that a single state taking this step would make federal gun laws “nearly impossible” to enforce.

“Partnerships don’t work too well when half the team quits,” said Michael Boldin of the Tenth Amendment Center. “By withdrawing all resources and participation in federal gun control, states and even local governments can help bring these unconstitutional acts to their much-needed end.”

LEGAL BASIS

States can legally bar their employees and agents from enforcing federal gun control. They can also prohibit the use of state resources for the same. Refusal to cooperate with federal enforcement rests on a well-established legal principle known as the anti-commandeering doctrine.

Simply put, the federal government cannot force states to help implement or enforce any federal act or program. The anti-commandeering doctrine is based primarily on five Supreme Court cases dating back to 1842. Printz v. U.S. serves as the cornerstone.

“We held in New York that Congress cannot compel the States to enact or enforce a federal regulatory program. Today we hold that Congress cannot circumvent that prohibition by conscripting the States’ officers directly. The Federal Government may neither issue directives requiring the States to address particular problems, nor command the States’ officers, or those of their political subdivisions, to administer or enforce a federal regulatory program. It matters not whether policy making is involved, and no case by case weighing of the burdens or benefits is necessary; such commands are fundamentally incompatible with our constitutional system of dual sovereignty”

No determination of constitutionality is necessary to invoke the anti-commandeering doctrine. State and local governments can refuse to enforce federal laws or implement federal programs whether they are constitutional or not.

 

 

Mike Maharrey | The Tenth Amendment Center

The post Montana Governor Informs Feds State Won’t Enforce New Pistol Brace Gun Control Rule appeared first on Granite Grok.

So Sun-King Sununu in a dress … that would be the Sun-Princess, Nikki Haley … is running for President to keep funding that corrupt kleptocracy called Ukraine AND cut Social Security … but ONLY for younger voters.

This must be some kind of record … it took Sun-Princess just a few hours to show that she is totally out of touch with real Republican voters and a throwback … albeit a throwback in a dress and, as she apparently intends to keep telling us, in brown skin (her words, not mine) … to the globalist/corporatist GOP of Presidents John McCain and Mitt Romney. Oh, wait … those two warmongering globalists weren’t elected President.

So here’s Sun-Princess showing that she doesn’t understand … or thinks voters don’t understand … that Ukraine … where Zelensky outlawed opposition politics parties, the Orthodox Church and controls the media … is a kleptocracy, not a democracy:

.@NikkiHaley: "This war is not about Ukraine, this is about a war for freedom and it’s a war that we have to win." #fitn #nhpolitics pic.twitter.com/k1tCTGKbhM

— Kevin Landrigan (@KlandriganUL) February 17, 2023

And here is the Sun-Princess having a Marie Antoinette moment. Let America’s young peasants eat cake. What a way to attract young voters … vote for us so you can get less Social Security than your parents.

 

The post Sun-Princess Nikki Haley … Billions For Ukraine, Pennies For America’s Young Peasants appeared first on Granite Grok.

WMUR has a nifty bit of Hospital Industrial Complex PR peddled as news. Dartmouth Hitchcock (DH) expresses concern about access to health care in rural New Hampshire but never mentions how they are to blame.

 

“We are seeing some stress fractures, and we need to attend to it now,” said Dr. Joanne Conroy, CEO and president of Dartmouth Health.

Conroy is calling on her colleagues to address the strain on New Hampshire’s health care system, particularly in rural areas.

“So we don’t get to that point where people cannot find an institution that can care for them,” she said.

The cause? According to the DH, “issues from the pandemic still plague hospitals, including high health care costs, supply chain problems and, especially, staff shortages.”

The problem is real, but everything else in this piece is smoke and mirrors.

Thanks to the legislature, Hospitals in New Hampshire have enjoyed a monopoly on health care. It has, if not wholly, nearly wiped out any prospect of genuine private practice. I don’t believe you can be a country doctor or run a clinic in this state without being hog-tied to the nearest hospital.

If you manage to find a location outside their mandatory sphere of influence, unless I remember incorrectly, the cost to set up and operate is prohibitive.

Based on what folks up north have told me, the result is white coat flight. The vaccine mandates for employees did contribute to the staffing issue, especially for nurses, but doctors are also fleeing.

 

I’ve heard and know some have closed their practices due to insurance, NH regulations, and Dartmouth who runs them out of business (according to them) – practice w/us (DM) or don’t practice a all.

We have lost 3 dentists In 3 years, w/no replacement. We lost our Podiatrist who moved to FL for better business reasons. AND, we just lost our ONLY retina specialist and now have to drive to Concord. We lost our PCP and are now back w/our PCP in Derry which is over 90 miles from here because we cannot get one here!

 

I reached out to someone else with some expertise on the topic, and they added that “a lot of medical professionals have left for biotech and other industries. Plus, many medical professionals don’t want to live in rural areas.”

Other issues include the decade-long abrasion created by ObamaCare, and COVID vaccine mandates, though we have no reliable data on attrition related to that. Hospitals required this of healthcare workers. Get the Jab. A few said no thanks and left, some were escorted out, and some will never enter the workspace.

As for costs, that’s been a problem for decades. We can go back several decades to State Senator Jeanne Shaheen, who pushed legislation that drove insurance companies and providers out of New Hampshire. Driving out competition created the insurance and public health cartels that control access and cost in the Granite State. It set the foundation for the problem bemoaned by Dartmouth Hitchcock and their buddy Maggie Hassan.

 

U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-New Hampshire, brought the issue to Capitol Hill during a hearing Thursday.

“While it’s essential that we train more registered nurses, we also need these nurses to practice in rural areas in states like New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont,” Hassan said.

 

Hassan is good buddies with the woman who wrecked health care in New Hampshire. She even did her part as a State Senator and a governor. They both back more federal intrusion and control over local access and care.

If you are unsure what that will look like, ask Dartmouth Hitchcock. It’s a problem they claim they want to fix, but whose fixes they generally oppose at the expense of not just rural care but cost and access everywhere.

If you are serious about people finding someone who can care for them, you’ll have to relinquish your monopoly. We need competition and medical practice free of your influence. Accept insurance from providers in other states (assuming you don’t do that now)—Incentivise rural private practice by offering hospital access without demanding the operation by your leave.

The cure is less of what’s been happening for decades to your benefit, so the odds of it changing or getting better are likely nil.

The post Dartmouth Hitchcock Helped Cause the Rural Health Care Crisis in New Hampshire appeared first on Granite Grok.

We heard from three of the Democrat’s finest voices this week. No, Joe Biden is not one of them because his comments on Thursday continued to show how flawed his thinking is. I shouldn’t say flawed because that work implies wrong.

Joe Biden’s thinking is defective. He cannot think clearly despite Karine Jean-Pierre saying Joe Biden is the best communicator in the Administration. What exactly say about the rest of the gang?

The three I am referring to are Alexandria Cortez (D-NY), Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI), and the Democrat Golden-Boy, Gavin Newsom (D-CA). In three short statements, these three divulged the true intent of the Democrat Party and the extent of the fear generated by the Right.

Gavin Newsom is tearing into the GOP for not going along with his new gun-control laws. He mocked them by saying the current level of gun violence is a cost of freedom. He joked about thoughts and prayers at the expense of freedom. Far be it for him to think a person could have freedom and prayer. To a Democrat, both of those ideas are evil. What they want is a purely secular society where people worship the governing class, and the governing class will cripple you with restrictions on your life. No wonder people are leaving California by the thousands, which is okay with Newsom. We will replace them with illegal citizens, give them the right to vote, and ensure our dominance and control forever.

Gretchen Whitmer should not even have a job after nearly being recalled for the damage she did to Michigan during COVID. But the ignorant voters returned her to her throne, and from there, she continued to rule. She believes there is a widespread use of 3-D printing, turning most semi-automatic guns into fully-automatic. She cannot verify this but uses it as an excuse to confiscate weapons from the public. I agree that many people should not have guns, but using a concocted reason is not the way to seize them. She, too, went after thoughts and prayers. She must have gotten the same talking points memo as Gavin and said that the era of thoughts and prayers is over, and it is time to disarm the public. Do you see a pattern here? Tear down religion and prayer and disarm the masses. They will be easier to control if not packing.

And then there is Sandy Cortez. She cannot stand religion so much that she was triggered by two Super Bowl ads purchased by Right Wing Conservative groups. These ads have been running for months and are pro-Jesus in nature. “He Gets Us” is an American religious advertising campaign launched in 2022 by The Servant Christian Foundation, a non-profit primarily comprising anonymous donors. The campaign aims to “reintroduce” the “Jesus of the Bible” to younger demographics and religious skeptics.

Sandy is Hispanic, and we know these folks are usually some of the most religious people you will find. Maybe Sandy lost her way while at Boston University or while shaking drinks behind the bar. Whichever the case, she has no use for religion. She has a problem with TV ads promoting Jesus, but she has no problem with young children exposed to gender identity and sexuality options in grade schools. Her priorities are a mess, but should we be surprised by her track record?

The GOP may not have had the successful midterms they had hoped, but with Joe Biden’s poor performance, they will have another grab at the ring in 2024. If they can get their act together and focus on what America and being American should look like, they should be far more successful in 2024.

The post Coming For Your Guns…and Prayers appeared first on Granite Grok.

I have to ask, where are the defenders of life? I mean of the unborn, whom they are killing via abortions in NH, to the tune of about 2,000 a year (a guestimate because NH does not track the number of abortions).

We want to thank John Sellers for this Contribution – Please direct yours to Editor@GraniteGrok.com.

I and a few others were at the public hearings at the state house fighting against allowing abortions up to birth and trying to persuade legislators to ratchet back abortion to when a heartbeat has been detected.

What are a few?

Maybe 40 people over the course of two days testifying on seven bills (good and bad) that could become law. Where are our churches, Pro-Life, and Religious people that are against abortions? Do they see what is going on, or are they that blind/busy or just don’t care?

I personally invited about 150 people (plus published the invite on the Grok) to these two days of hearings, and only five showed up five. I must be a bad salesman… And we wonder why the other side keeps winning; well, there are the numbers for you. Maybe saving babies is just not worth it, and we should call it a day. What say you? Five people make for a tough, tough battle. We have the same lack of help when it comes to educational issues.

There were some great testimonies over the past two days, but there could have been many more if you were there. I even talked to my wife about this and found out she has a great testimony, and it would have been awesome for the legislators to hear it. You never know what someone says that may change their view on an issue.

We have so many problems and so few people to fight. Most of us hate exercise (I do), but we have to start pushing (exercising) yourself to get to the state house, town meeting, school board meetings and to the voting booth. This is hard work, but if we don’t work hard, we lose.

Maybe I’ll see you at the next battle. Stay tune, because there are plenty of them. God help us all…

The post We Are The Defenders of Life appeared first on Granite Grok.

The two most hated words among the Left’s Wokesters and SJWs are assimilation and tolerance.  Come here and be Americans and not just your nationality in a different place.

Reformatted, emphasis mine:

“…Of course, he’s right. Upon hearing this, the dumbest, and most obnoxious, panelist then compares assimilation to ‘erasure.’

Someone might explain to her that having purple hair and blaming everything on “white supremacy” has about as much to do with her ancestral roots as McDonald’s or Marxism.

…Even within these subgroups there are often deep differences. It’s just another reminder of why the identitarianism of “white” and “black” is so incredibly stupid and destructive.

But American life offers space to honor all those ethnic and religious heritages, as anyone who lives here knows, while also demanding newcomers embrace ones that make a diverse culture work. Despite all our sloganeering about “diversity” making us stronger — and it certainly enhances our personal and cultural lives — what makes us “stronger” is the ability to convince disparate groups of people with disparate traditions to adopt a set of societal norms and ethos. This means sharing a broad, unifying philosophy and a common understanding about civic life: a respect for the law and order and the foundational liberal ideas of rights, governance, and liberty; a common language; a belief in a meritocratic society; and the ability to live and let live by minding your own business. The United States, notwithstanding all its obvious injustices and sins, does this better than any place in the world.

-David Harsarnyi (“Get Married. Have Kids. Stay Together. Mind Your Own Business.”)

 

Celebrate your past ethnicity but don’t demand that everyone put your lifestyle and outlook above their own. That’s the REAL “safe space” that the Left demands but does not practice itself.

Ditto their idea of “inclusive” – you MUST be and do what we tell you to be “included” and “tolerated.

1984 all the way down.  And they are dragging America down with their ideology.  THEY are the true Oppressors – of the traditional American definition of tolerance (“I don’t like what you are doing, but just stay out of my face, and I’ll do the same for you”) as they just are unable to stay in their own lane.  Instead, they want to take everyone else’s lane away from them.

Instead, they are hellbent on Balkanizing the US – and we’ve seen what happens when Societies fracture: a hot civil war.  They haven’t figured out that when you push patient people past their breaking points, they will explode with a fury that knows no bounds, no manners, and no tolerance for anyone, not them (yes, Wokesters, that’s a warning that many others are also saying out loud).

People, after a point, will refuse to have Cloward-Piven foisted upon them.

 

The post Wokesters Need to Relearn This: REAL Ethnic American Diversity Celebrates Cultures But Gives Everyone “Space” appeared first on Granite Grok.

It distresses me to hear conservative media figures like Tucker Carlson and Howie Carr jumping on the ‘we need to enforce the gun control laws we already have’ bandwagon.

We don’t need to enforce them.  We need to get rid of them.

Consider this headline from Fox News:

A felony charge against Anthony McRae that was dropped in 2019 would have prevented him from purchasing the two handguns, which police say were obtained legally.

What was that felony charge?  Carrying a concealed handgun without a license.

Should it be a felony to speak without a license?  To attend a worship service without a license?  To have a child without a license?

Note that while a tiny percentage of guns are ever used in a crime, and a tiny percentage of gun owners ever commit a crime, every  crime is committed by someone whose parents had a child.  Letting people have children is orders of magnitude more dangerous than letting people carry guns could ever be.

It’s tragic that McRae used his handguns in such an awful way.  And there are, perhaps, many things that we might do to reduce the number of similar incidents in the future.

But those things must not include requiring licenses to exercise fundamental rights — those rights that precede government, and that government is formed to protect.

As Clarence Thomas explained in NYSRPA v. Bruen:

The constitutional right to bear arms in public for self-defense is not “a second-class right, subject to an entirely different body of rules than the other Bill of Rights guarantees.”  We know of no other constitutional right that an individual may exercise only after demonstrating to government officers some special need. That is not how the First Amendment works when it comes to unpopular speech or the free exercise of religion. It is not how the Sixth Amendment works when it comes to a defendant’s right to confront the witnesses against him. And it is not how the Second Amendment works when it comes to public carry for self-defense.

The law that McRae wasn’t prosecuted for breaking shouldn’t have existed in the first place.

But every time someone calls for ‘enforcing the gun control laws we already have’, it legitimizes the idea that you should have to ask the government for permission to defend yourself — and by extension, to exercise any of your fundamental rights.

One of the first things we teach children is that the ends don’t justify the means.  Unfortunately, when tragedy strikes, it’s also one of the first things that is forgotten, even by people who should know better.

So please, please, please:  Stop saying that we should enforce laws that require you to beg for permission to exercise your fundamental rights, laws that shouldn’t even exist.  The felony charge you avoid may be your own.

The post Your Conception Permit, Please appeared first on Granite Grok.

I made it known to NH State Rep Dave Testerman that he could explain his vote on HB396 (relative to state recognition of biological sex), which caused a lot of angst on the Right.  Below is his response. We thank him for sending this in. – Skip.

 

I seemed to have raised an awful row in the legislature by simply saying a bill, HB396 was not ready for prime time. The supporters wanted to put that House Bill on the floor for a long and heated debate. The opponents were willing to give them that debate. I did not think this was worth our time.

And now we come to the real and avoided firestorm.

HB396 avoids the recognition of biological sex. While the intentions of the sponsors are admirable, this bill does nothing because biological sex is already listed as a choice. This bill will do nothing to prevent the crowning of a male in a beauty pageant for females. This was already done this year. This bill avoids the elephant in the room, that one can be defined as an “other”. The silence gives an acceptance to that practice. Our “new” books are filled with the recognition of “others”.

In my opinion, the sponsors of the bill would better serve their intentions by repealing the RSA’s that indicate that there are more than two biological sexes. In my opinion, the sponsors of the bill would better serve their intentions by repealing the RSA’s that indicate that there are more than two biological sexes.

The fact is the simple reason there aren’t. We just don’t want to admit it.

For these reasons I believe the bill needed more work and I voted to retain the bill in committee. With our very close margins that was possible.

If you want to have some coffee and a chat, you can reach me at (603) 320-9524 or at dave@sanbornhall.net. Enjoy this lovely Winter.

Cheers!

Dave Testerman
Representative
Merrimack District 3
Franklin

The post NH State Rep Dave Testerman: Why I Voted “Retain” on HB396 Concerning Biological Sex and Decisions appeared first on Granite Grok.

In what can only be a gift from the marketing gods, the State of Vermont is advancing legalized death tourism. As in, come kill yourself here. Right next to the Live Free or Die State.

Related: Vermont Passes Bill to Make The State a Sanctuary For Death and Dismemberment

We may need to retool our State Motto because while you can live free or die, the government has not sanctioned medically induced suicide aside from its continued promotion of the crap-shoot COVID-19 vaccines variants branded as boosters. Those can kill you. But no assisted suicide. So, we could go with Live Free in New Hampshire and Die in Vermont.

One of our readers wondered if or how the pushing-up daisies state might would the start of Dead Tourist Season, and I reminded her that it’s always dead tourist season in Vermont. Last year the state ensconced S74 into law, which permits death by zoom call. If the latest advance in sanctioned suicide becomes law, and we’ve no reasons to suspect otherwise, you won’t even have to go to Vermont to “die” there.

Talk about a failed attempt at tourism.

Maybe.

The Assisted Suicide Lobby has been fighting to allow this practice. Mailing lethal drugs access the country after a facetime with a “physician.”

Packed in plain paper like they say they do with sex toys or other conspicuous items you might not want the postal worker, delivery guy, or neighbors knowing about?

Anyway, for the record, Live Free or Die was about risking your life to protect something worth living for, which includes, in my mind, not giving the government regulator authority to regulate”legal” suicide. It’s a terrible idea destined for abuse as a political tool. Much neater than the way people close to the Clintons killed themselves (wink-wink).

The Machine just needs to decide that whatever’s going on that they don’t like is a sign of mental illness (refusing a vaccine, objecting to Democrat policies). The next thing you know, people are “committing compassion acts” that end their inconvenient lives all over the increasingly unfruited plains.

And Vermont can’t wait to get there from here.

 

 

The post Live Free In New Hampshire or Die in Vermont appeared first on Granite Grok.

Dave Walker needs your help to win his seat! We have several door launches, phone banks, and other activities where you can help get Dave elected!

Please Submit Group communications or Press Releases to editor@granitegrok.com.
Submission is not a guarantee of publication.

• Saturday, 2/18, 10 am: Super Saturday Door Launch, meeting at 59 Brock St. Rochester
• Sunday, 2/19, 12 pm: Door Knocking, meeting at 59 Brock St. Rochester
• Monday, 2/20, 12 pm: President’s Day Door Launch and Phone Bank, meeting at 120 Washington St. Rochester

We also need volunteers on Election Day, Tuesday, 2/21, between 7 am and 7 pm to make phone calls and drive voters to the polls. We will be meeting at 120 Washington St., Rochester.

If you plan on attending a door launch, be sure to bring your phone. If you are attending our phone banks, bring your phone, phone charger, and laptop if you have one!

If you are able to attend any or all of these events, please email me at jgagnon@nhrsc.com.

Thank you!
Joe Gagnon
House Caucus Director

Donate Today

 

 

Reminder: Content about candidates or by candidates is not an endorsement by GraniteGrok.com or its authors.

The post Special Election Alert: We Need Your Help in the Final Days! appeared first on Granite Grok.

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

Speaking of, from this week, Monday Memes and Meme Overflow.  Also don’t forget both complementary parts of my Survival Sunday feature: PREP edition and SITREP edition.

 

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

 

A hat trick of prior essays:

A Famous Poem Stanza – Forward in Christ Magazine

—

Ideological Superorganisms – Granite Grok

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Hitler’s Missing Speech – Liberty’s Torch (libertystorch.info)

 

 

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Bumper stickers!  We have bumper stickers!

 

Here.

 

Here.

 

Here.

 

Here.  And in .223 too.

 

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Regretfully I agree.  More:

 

 

Caveat: I don’t want this to be true.  I really don’t.  I want a good – and peaceful – solution.  Increasingly, though, I don’t think there is one.  Alas.

 

 

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Just what are we loosing on the world?

Artificial intelligence could be misused to design biological weapons, warn scientists after their AI came up with 40,000 potentially toxic drugs in just six hours – David Icke

Don’t forget – apparently AI can reprogram itself:

Scientists Made a Mind-Bending Discovery About How AI Actually Works | NC Renegades

We have sci-fi littered with warnings of creating AI.  And we’re rushing ahead…

 

 

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Bill Whittle – Racism – Democrats and Republicans switch sides?

 

 

And a recent one, on his website:

Gen Z vs. Reality – Bill Whittle

Young people — specifically young women — who have bought into the entire Leftist narrative are increasingly finding themselves utterly ALONE. And this first real contact with reality doesn’t seem to be something they can talk or scream their way out of. Is this the beginning of the end of the Woke nightmare?

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I’ve mentioned this concept before – from Failure Modes and Effects Analysis, specifically, the RPN number – that it’s the probability times the consequences that matter (and also an assessment that the failure will escape detection to get to the customer).  As an example of risk times consequences, consider two games that have the precise same odds:  Rolling a “6” on a die and having to pay someone a fiver, or getting the full chamber in a game of Russian Roulette.  Which would you rather play?

So now what are we to think of this potential to rapidly evolve the Covid virus?

Molnupiravir (Lageviro) antiviral treatment lead to the rapid accrual of hundreds of SARS-CoV-2 mutations; study demonstrates that Molnupiravir can ‘supercharge’ viral evolution potentially generating (substack.com)

Now remember – the drug companies are, IIRC, completely indemnified from any harms that come from this stuff.  Including supercharged viruses.

Remember Viox as just one example – the pharma company KNEW there were risks but launched anyway.  Injured and dead people are just a cost of doing business.  Like they are with The Jab:

 

 

48,817 DEAD and 5 MILLION Injured Following COVID-19 Vaccines in European Database of Adverse Reactions

From the total of injuries recorded, almost half of them (2,177,286) are serious injuries.

 

TOTAL INJURIES & DEATHS

Comirnaty BioNTech/ Pfizer: 23,210 deaths and 2,667,243 injuries

SPIKEVAX/Moderna: 12,703 deaths and 870,106 injuries

VAXZEVRIA Astra Zeneca 9,667deaths and 1,388,494 injuries

JANSSEN J&J: 3,234 deaths and 178,053 injuries

NUVAXOVID Novavax: 3 deaths and 3,987 injuries

 

So to those who say that it’s only a small chance it’ll trigger something truly horrible, I say… it’s not the chances alone.  It’s the consequences if it happens.

So, a modest proposal: Start with repealing the 1986 vaccine indemnification law.  And then, somehow, let’s put another skin in the game… IMHO involving trees, ropes, and pharma executives should they put something on the market they know carries such high risks regardless of the chances… ???

 

What say you?

 

 

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In Islam there is the rule of reconquest.  I don’t know the precise phraseology, but the gist of it is that any land once controlled by Islam, no matter how long ago, MUST be reconquered in the name of Islam.  Thus, Jews having their ancestral home back on a land area the size of Massachusetts is – no matter what the status of Arabs there (including being in the Israeli Knesset, some apartheid!) – an abomination in the eyes of Islam.  As to Israel being apartheid, etc., let’s hear from people who know better:

 

 

 

If you’re pro-Israel, like I am, and want to donate – you’d do worse than by giving some Israeli soldiers Purim baskets.  Connections Israel is a group to whom I’ve donated for years.  They’re good people.

PURIM | connectionsisrael

 

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Rand Paul goes after health institutions that refused critical care to unvaxxed patients – TheBlaze

“The COVID-19 Vaccination Non-Discrimination Act will protect the rights of vulnerable patients to make their own health care choices and ensure that federal taxpayer dollars do not support facilities that turn away patients based on their COVID-19 vaccination status,” he added.

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Pick of the Post:

 

 

So many parallel jabs in this.  It’s masterful.  And related to that:

 

 

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Facts and Fallacies with Thomas Sowell

 

 

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Palate Cleansers:

 

 

—

 

Ain’t that the truth.

—

 

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

Maine is getting colder. It’s a fact. There’s been no warming in the past decade. They’ve recently experienced record-setting cold, which won’t help the trend, but hey, stop that. Warming! Look at the Gulf of Maine!

The Portland Press Herald just had the journalist equivalent of unprotected sex a the Climate Cult narrative. “Last year was second warmest on record in Gulf of Maine.” If you visit the Gulf of Main Research Institute, which likely gets more money (or the appearance of relevance) from grants in the wake of climate fearmongering, they insist that climate change is a threat (and hey, how about a donation so we can keep saying that).

“It may be startling to realize that the last two years were the warmest on record,” Reidmiller said. “It’s even more sobering to recognize that they’re likely to be among the coolest ones we’ll experience for the foreseeable future.”

Is it? Warming. It sure as heck fire is, but that’s about as meaningless as that recent record-setting cold without some context. First, and Mainers know this for a fact, climate activists and the government are the biggest threat to Maine seafood production and the jobs and prosperity it creates. Second, if you ignore the headline and look at history, this “almost record” is neither strange, exceptional, nor caused by your advanced western lifestyle.

 

 

Notice anything not remotely alarming in the temperature trend history? The Gulf of Maine gets warmer and then colder without any consideration at all toward the narrative fashion of “scientists” freaking out to scare people and politicians into giving them more grant money.

The 150-year trend, a much more reliable indicator of ‘Climate,’ is flat. As for CO2 at that 1930s peak – see also a previous hottest year on record for the Gulf of Maine – global CO2 emissions were measured at just under 310 ppm. As CO2 rose, the temperature fell, then rose, then fell.

We’re over 420 ppm, assuming that’s accurate, and along the way, the Gulf cooled to a near-record low which, if you are an actual scientist, suggests the temps are probably due to plummeting sometime in the next ten years.

That’s not what they are selling, but odds are good we’ll be here to check the shelf life on the expert commentary that these record-warm years are “likely to be among the coolest ones we’ll experience for the foreseeable future.”

 

The post Scary Gulf or Maine “Second Warmest Year on Record” Headline Is Out of Context Fearmongering appeared first on Granite Grok.

There’s increasing chatter that Biden ordered US Navy SEALs to plant delayed bombs on the Nordstream pipeline.

Biden, like everybody else, knows that Americans rally around a US president when we’re involved in a war.

Recall Vietnam when we all rallied to the cause when the US destroyer USS Turner Joy DD-951 was “attacked” by North Vietnamese PT boats. Except that it wasn’t.

The boats in question may have been sea surface clutter on those much earlier radar screens which didn’t have the computerized cleaning and sea surface filters like they do today. But LBJ jumped on it, paying no attention to those cranky Pentagon naysayers.

We want to thank John Burtis 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.

 

And thus the 5,000 US advisors in South Vietnam soon became 550,000. All in a place where many of my friends served and were killed for it.

Sadly, for us all, the truth eventually leaks or scampers out of its hiding places.

If Biden ordered this, through the black back channel, he is doing everything he can to get us, draped as we all are with winter woolens over our eyes, to prance gayly into war. But today’s wars, unbeknownst to a Biden, who is still wedded to Amtrak’s deteriorating tracks and service and this elderly Corvette sitting in an insecure garage piled high with the classified documents he illegally purloined as a vice president, move at the speed of light.

When I say the speed of light, I mean the speed at which electromagnetic signals propagate. And these signals launch ICBMs, SLBMs, and cruise missiles.

Today’s war will be fought with hypersonic nuclear-armed cruise missiles. The victors at sea will be those who first correctly interpret the blips on their Aegis scopes as incoming warheads and react first.

The days of Lord Nelson, General George S. Patton, and Norman Schwartzkopf are long gone. Tanks will no longer fight tanks as they did at al Agheila in Cyrenaica and 44 Eastings in the Gulf War. Tanks are part of a limited war today.

A world war today, something that will move infinitely faster than any of our past wars during the radio age, may be over in 10 minutes – the fly time of an ICBM from Russia to DC or from Montana and Nebraska to Moscow.

Speed to Biden is 85 mph in a rickety Corvette. War speed today is Mach 23, the speed of our LGM33 Minuteman III ICBM with its MIRV warheads where some of these warheads are decoys and the real ones pack a huge megaton punch. Similar statistics are owned by our submarine-launched D-5 Trident IIs.

These missiles possess significant advances beyond the relatively slow-reacting, liquid-fueled, remotely-controlled ICBMs of Biden’s generation.

On the Russian side, despite Putin’s illness and inanity, they’ll employ the R-36M2 Voyevoda (SS-18 Mod 6). It was first deployed in 1988 and is an extremely capable ICBM with a greater throw weight than ours because they are less accurate. Instead of hitting Pensacola with a surgical strike, it’ll land like a post maul on a pack of Ohio blue tip matches.

When a pipeline is destroyed the action devolves into a finite yet unforeseeable series of decision branches.

There is no way that Joe Biden or the pronoun concerned and Princeton trained General Milley can guess the outcomes of a single act of war or its myriad of possible responses.

But once the genie is released, there’s no way out.

The post No Way Out appeared first on Granite Grok.

New Hampshire Democrats have proposed legislation permitting illegal aliens to obtain a New Hampshire driver’s license. HB374 is disguised as a privacy bill, which is sneaky, but the thing is full of traps.

The giveaway comes early. The description or analysis, a summation of the purpose of the legislation, states that (emphasis mine).

This bill prohibits the department of transportation from disclosing any record that identifies whether the type of driver’s license that a person holds meets federal standards for identification, prohibits motor vehicle information form being shared with federal immigration enforcement agencies conducting civil investigations, and amends which information is required for driver’s license applications.

 

There is a net-zero reason for ICE to investigate a legal citizen unless they are aiding illegal citizens in illegal activity, so that’s strike one.

Strike two (emphasis in original).

No person, business, government, or any entity within the boundaries of the United States shall refuse the presentation of a Real ID or non-Real ID driver’s license as a form of identification. However, a driver’s license shall not be considered prima facie evidence of a person’s citizenship, immigration status, or eligibility to work or vote in the state.

The bill tries to give all those non-resident voters a solid, and it’s a big problem in the Granite State. HB374 would enshrine in state law that a driver’s license is not proof of citizenship or residency. Not just in New Hampshire but anywhere. If I read this right, a person using an out-of-state license to register to vote in New Hampshire could not be defined as an out-of-state resident and intelligible to vote regardless of what other statutes might say.

I’m not sure if that came up in the debate. My analysis is post-mortem. As Judy Aron reported Wednesday morning, the day after the vote, HB374 was killed on the floor of the NH House.

 

We learned that illegal aliens still will not be able to obtain a driver’s license in NH. HB 374 was killed 191-179 because 191 House members understand that with a driver’s license in NH, one can vote, obtain government benefits, open bank accounts, and do a myriad of other things that legal citizens can do. Giving illegal aliens driver’s licenses only aids and abets illegal aliens to live and work illegally in the US and rewards them for violating immigration laws. We don’t want that, but apparently, most House Democrats do.

 

Providing a social security number when applying for a license has never been a requirement in nH for a non-REAL-ID license, but this bill reinforces that, probably because illegals won’t have one.

It’s all very sketchy, and yes, the bill died this year, but they will bring it back. And not just to give licenses to non-citizens. That language about driver’s licenses not linking you to a legal address is dangerous, and we need to watch out for it in any bill the Dems put forward.

 

 

The post NH Legislature Kills Dems Trap-Laden Driver’s License Bill appeared first on Granite Grok.

It has been nearly two weeks since the Norfolk Southern freight train derailed and set off a series of events that may plague this small town in northwest Ohio for generations.

I am amazed how few people I speak with have even heard of this tragedy, but when you see how little attention the mainstream media is giving, it becomes clear why that is. The unfortunate thing is how little attention the government is offering. This lack of action is becoming the trademark of this Administration. Just as they do with the Border Crisis, Fentanyl poisonings, infant formula shortages, or skyrocketing crime on our streets, they ignore the problem hoping it will fade away. For the poor souls of E. Palestine, the crash and subsequent plume of smoke from the chemical burn will haunt them forever.

We have so many agencies in this country. They all soak up our tax dollars, and usually, FEMA does an excellent job of lending a helping hand when a tragedy hits America. FEMA, like the EPA, CDC, DOT, and you can probably add some more acronyms, are AWOL in Ohio. Ignore them, and the problem will go away. The people of East Palestine, and the surrounding region, deserve better. A town hall meeting was held last night in E. Palestine to give the residents an opportunity to get their questions and concerns addressed. These people were snubbed, as nobody from the train company, DOT Secretary Buttigieg, or anyone of significance who could lend answers and comfort.

As if the accident and spill were not bad enough, in its haste to get the rail line back open, Norfolk Southern chose to consolidate all of the spilled toxic waste, place it in a pit, set it on fire, and then cover it with sand. This decision was made solely to get the trains moving with no consideration for the health of the people and region. A class suit has been filed against Norfolk Southern.

The complaint alleges that, rather than engaging in safer, more prudent and more costly efforts to properly contain and clean up the spill, Norfolk Southern chose a cheaper, less safe containment method — setting the spilled chemicals on fire, creating a 1-million-pound-plus chemical burn pit, and releasing Phosgene Gas into the atmosphere. Phosgene gas is a deadly chemical warfare agent banned under the Geneva Protocol.

“From chemicals that cause nausea and vomiting to a substance responsible for the majority of chemical warfare deaths during World War I, the people of East Palestine and the surrounding communities are facing an unprecedented array of threats to their health,” said Morgan & Morgan attorneys Frank Petosa and Rene Rocha.

People’s homes and property have no value as they sit on a toxic waste site. Animals and fish are dying. People are showing signs of respiratory distress. The air is toxic. The land is damaged, and people are scared. In their time of need, when their lives have been turned upside down, and the lives of every resident are in jeopardy, the government, Joe Biden and Company, has turned its back.

The Governors of Ohio and neighboring Pennsylvania have told the residents that they can safely return to their homes. They have no basis for giving that direction. They cannot assure the quality of the air, water, or land, nor how large an area is impacted. They are sending people home to a future of unknown health risks. It is a reckless and foolhardy act on the part of people that should be trusted. The government’s fundamental responsibility is the safety of its people. In this case, the people of East Palestine are being sacrificed in the name of expediency. The lawsuit should be expanded to include the government and every agency that failed to answer the call for help.

The post The Residents of East Palestine Are Simply Collateral Damage appeared first on Granite Grok.

And probably many of our readers as well. After all, these two have no idea what a landline is. 

This is rather amusing to watch as they try to figure it out. After all, they ARE the “Smartphone Only” Generation.

Teenagers try to operate a strange, ancient contraption pic.twitter.com/pLbGd297aP

— Steve Stewart-Williams (@SteveStuWill) February 12, 2023

Wonder what they would have thought of a “Princess Phone” or an on-the-wall one?  And only the Good Lord above knows what they would have thought of the old-fashioned “have to crank it first” wood wall phones…

(HT: Linkiest – Feb 16))

And with this story…

It’s Getting Harder To Live Without A Smartphone, And That’s A Massive Problem

The infrastructure for living without a smartphone in the West is slowly disappearing. Thanks to societal changes made during the pandemic-induced lockdowns of 2020, many temporary adjustments — QR code menus, digital boarding passes — have become permanent. Nowadays it’s rare to go to a restaurant without grabbing your phone for access to a menu or for ordering takeout. Some concert venues actually require guests to show their tickets from their mobile devices. In my Washington, D.C. apartment building, tenants open door locks via Bluetooth technology through their phones. To travel internationally — especially during the height of Covid-19 travel restrictions — many were required to provide health attestation forms via QR code. But QR codes require a smartphone to download.

 “I’m suddenly surrounded by QR codes. There are now Airbnb doors I can’t open, cars I can’t start, menus I can’t read. Paper menus have vanished; ordering food has become an ordeal,” Jen Wasserstein, an immigration lawyer in Spain, writes for The Guardian. Her column describes the shame she endures as an iPhone-less individual for simply asking for directions or boarding a flight. She uses a flip phone to make important calls.

And yet, Wasserstein is choosing to live how most Americans lived just more than 10 years ago. Have iPhones clouded our memories so much that we can’t remember a time without them?

…I may go back to a mere phone-call-only flip-phone (I loved my Motorola Razor…).

The post Palate Cleanser: Ancient Technology? What Does That Make Me? appeared first on Granite Grok.