Cannon Mountain is at it again – now demanding $25 million from state taxpayers to replace a part-time ski lift that is only halfway through its engineered life (the tramway).

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

Why is a “self-funded” state-owned ski area looking to take more money from taxpayers for such an egregious project? And how are they going to treat this new lift, considering they’ve already had three major emergency lift repairs in the past year from lack of maintenance?

Ask the following “Republican” state senators, who are sponsoring SB 55, why our tax dollars should be funding this wasteful project:
Gendreau (R), Jeb Bradley (R), Lang (R), Avard (R), Carson (R),

SB 55 goes before the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday afternoon.  You can register your opinion here:  https://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/remotecommittee/senate.aspx

And e-mail the committee here:  James.Gray@leg.state.nh.us; Daniel.Innis@leg.state.nh.us; Regina.Birdsell@leg.state.nh.us; Howard.Pearl@leg.state.nh.us; Jeb.Bradley@leg.state.nh.us; Cindy.Rosenwald@leg.state.nh.us; Lou.Dallesandro@leg.state.nh.us; debra.martone@leg.state.nh.us

The post Why Is a “Self-Funded” State-Owned Ski Area Looking To Take More Money from Taxpayers appeared first on Granite Grok.

There aren’t enough rare earth metals for the New World Order, generation capacity, infrastructure, money to pay for it, or time to build it if we could. So, are New Hampshire Democrats stooges of villains?

Related: California Bureaucrats to Create NH State Laws?

House Bill 92 requires adopting the “innovative vehicle emissions standards pursuant to section 177 of the federal Clean Air Act.”

Innovative?

In the name of emissions reductions, California demands unique blends of motor fuels. It requires specific vehicle modifications on its roads; if yours doesn’t have them, you can’t drive it there. And, famously, it has banned all combustion vehicles by 2035, an announcement right after which it had to ask citizens not to charge their EVs because there wasn’t enough electricity.

HB92 would tie New Hampshire to a room full of unelected bureaucrats over 3000 miles away based on rules that can’t be met and are worse for the environment than doing nothing.

The first-order problem is that they deprive you of choice, but there are so many other problems we can’t ignore. You’re not cutting emissions. You are offshoring them. EVs are too expensive. Electricity is too expensive. And we’ll need a lot more power we don’t and won’t have (hello rationing!), 

There aren’t enough rare earth metals to build the vehicles and infrastructure and replace them as they wear out. The process of mining is not just emissions-heavy. There are significant human rights and human trafficking issues. Manufacturing batteries, vehicles, grid upgrades, and charging infrastructure is emissions-heavy.

We can ignore all that at our peril, but you can’t disregard this. There is not enough time or material to achieve the stated goal. Period. California’s Clean Air standard as it applies to vehicles in a fantasy. Pursuing it would require tradeoffs that would redirect resources to such a degree as to create significant economic hardships through price hikes, including the cost of electricity to run homes and businesses, if the electricity is even available.

Scarcity is part and parcel of this vision.

It will drive up the cost of vehicles, and vehicle ownership, including operating and repair costs, all for nothing. Literally nothing. EVs are not greener. They create an increased risk of fire, producing significant toxic emissions and burning hot such that fire departments need to use thousands of gallons of water to contain them until they burn out.

Assuming there is any electricity to charge them. Energy will also be scarce, not just for charging vehicles or running the economy. You might not have enough to keep the lights on or heat your homes in winter.

If that doesn’t get you, we can step back to giving California Bureaucrats power to regulate what happens in New Hampshire. I can see Democrats loving that, but does anyone else?

 

 

The post Democrat Bill Would Tie NH to California Emission Rules (That Ban Combustion Engine Vehicles) appeared first on Granite Grok.

July 1990 
The young Urologist just finished his residency and there was new hope for men with prostate cancer. A protein referred to as prostate-specific antigen (PSA) had been identified and seemed to be a useful screening test to look for early prostate cancer.

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

Curable prostate cancer is most often asymptomatic and a digital rectal exam (very operator dependent} was the only {albeit a poor one} available screening tool. The diagnosis numbers had not changed for many decades, and approximately 70% of all prostate cancer cases were incurable at the time of their discovery.

During the next 18 years, the backload of undiagnosed prostate cancer was detected and treated. The system came into a new steady state with the death rate of prostate cancer declining and almost all new prostate cancers were found at a curable stage. Since many prostate cancers grow slowly and do not impact life expectancy the next issue facing the urologic medical community was figuring out which cancers to treat. Studies from Europe were pointing toward the observation of cancers that did not have aggressive characteristics. Holding invasive treatment, unless over time there were signs of advancing disease. Things were looking very good for the future of American men who were diagnosed with prostate cancer.

2008
The United States Preventive Services Task Force composed of primary care physicians (not all practicing) and government bureaucrats reviewed the medical literature and recommended against PSA screening for men over 75 years of age. Despite the fact that American men were living longer and the old adage that most men died with, rather than of, prostate cancer was being challenged, this went into effect.

2009
The same task force recommended stopping screening mammograms for women under 50 years of age. The outrage from feminist activist groups was immediate. There are a few things a politician will respond to, and angry feminists are at the top of the list {think abortion}. Washington moved quickly and by statute screening mammograms for women under 50 became available. Unfortunately, women do not have a prostate, because if they did, the present prostate cancer resurgence would have undoubtedly been avoided.

2012
The United States Preventive Service Task Force decided to challenge the famous quote attributed to Einstein, that doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome is the definition of insanity, and recommended stopping all PSA screening.

The effect was drastic. Primary care providers stopped ordering PSA and to make things even more challenging they stopped doing routine digital rectal exams. Given early curable prostate cancer has no symptoms and there are no other screening tests for prostate cancer, the stage was set for trouble. And the clock began to tick.

Since no one was looking, the number of new prostate cancer diagnoses dropped precipitously. The government task force beamed with their brilliance.

2018
The government task force did not change its position but softened its rhetoric. Their new recommendation was a PSA could be obtained for a patient between 55 and 70 years of age, only after he discussed the risks and benefits of screening for prostate cancer with his primary care provider. The new recommendation didn’t change much. The patient didn’t get a rectal exam and if they didn’t ask for a PSA, most of them never got one.

2022
Ten years have passed since the task force’s recommendation to stop PSA screening. America’s tank of undiagnosed prostate cancer is starting to overflow. The National Cancer Association came out with its statistics and except for prostate cancer, almost all cancers across America were down. And to make matters worse, newly discovered prostate cancers are being diagnosed at an incurable stage.

To those of us that for the last three decades practiced Urology there was no surprise that a government agency made up of elites had Doubled Down on Dumb and put American men at risk. Einstein was right again and maybe his theory of time relativity is also coming into play because; American prostate cancer detection has moved back to the future. The date might as well be 1985.

Similar to the incompetent members of the US Preventive Task Force who brought about the Prostate cancer fiasco, instead of using competency and merit, President Biden has filled his cabinet with equity-chosen ideologues. In the guise of climate change, equity, and redistribution of wealth(socialism), these unqualified neophytes destroyed America’s energy independence (skyrocketing energy costs), spent trillions of dollars the country does not have, left Americans behind in Afghanistan, opened our borders to 6 million illegal immigrants along with youth killing fentanyl and lit the fires of inflation.

But perhaps the best American Government example of Doubling Down on Dumb and expecting a different outcome is the rising national debt.
The national debt is approaching 32 trillion dollars with a GDP to Debt ratio of 125%. It is generally thought when this ratio goes above 77% the country involved will have difficulty maintaining healthy growth or an adequate GDP. Just like the US Preventive Task Force’s incompetence that has resulted in a pernicious prostate cancer bubble, our entire Government (and many economists) has bought into the fallacious concept that because the American dollar is the world’s reserve currency, the United States can borrow, print and spend unlimited amounts of money.

These are the same Elite Ideologues who ignored the basic economic rules of inflation and flooded the world with too many newly printed dollars chasing too few goods, awakening the corrosive effects of inflation. The Federal Reserve has increased interest rates in hopes of bringing inflation down to less than 2%. But if inflation is not tamed quickly, over the next several years the US Government is going to have to refinance its debt at higher interest rates. The resulting annual interest payment on the National debt will approach 1 trillion dollars, and in effect, America will be insolvent. All the while China, Russia, India, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and others plot ways to end the American dollar’s dominance as the world’s currency.

The economic tsunami of this developing bubble is now starting to show signs of building. Just like the resurgence of Prostate cancer, it is not a question of if, but when the deficit bubble will pop.

2023
The future looks bleak, as America still has to contend with a President and US Senate who continue to Double Down on Dumb, expecting a different outcome, demanding that unworkable and disastrous policies continue to be funded and followed.

But America has been down before and came back stronger and better. We have a glimmer of hope. Republicans now control the House of Representatives and wasteful spending will stop. Real investigations will unearth the truth of Biden family corruption and how big tech and the FBI/DOJ’s involvement tilted the 2020 presidential election. And the SCOTUS will put a stop to affirmative action, and the legality of equity will fall with the decision.

But to fix the rest, America must stop Doubling Down on Dumb!
2024 is coming!!
Vote!!!!

The post Doubling Down on Dumb appeared first on Granite Grok.

From WMUR: “Milford [NH] students are allowed to use whichever bathroom, locker room or participate on whichever sports team is in accordance with the gender identity they consistently assert at school, according to Christi Michaud, superintendent of Milford School District. But some parents are taking issue with that.”

My husband wrote about a mother who is taking issue with the abuse that her daughter and her friends experienced at Milford Middle School. From her testimony on bill HB396:

Our young girls were exposed in the locker room when this transgender individual and their friends, some of who also identify as animals, came in and watched them inappropriately, then over the following weeks, continued to bully them and make rude comments about their bodies in retaliation for these victims making a complaint to the school’s administration.

The same transgender student was urinating in the girls’ bathroom with the stall door open when my daughter and her friend entered the bathroom, but their complaints to the guidance office were brushed off.

Related: Gender-Fluid Boy and Furry Friends Terrorize Girls at Middle School

The Milford School Board is meeting Monday at 7 pm at Milford High School to discuss the district’s transgender bathroom policy and whether to reinstate student restroom and locker room use according to biological sex. The pro-trans crowd is holding a protest in support of continuing to allow boys to run amok in the girls’ facilities. We will be counter-protesting them.

Please join us Monday, February 6 from 6 to 7 pm outside Milford High School, 100 West St, Milford, NH in support of girls’ safety and privacy. We will have signs for you to hold or bring your own.

 

The post Protest Monday Against Milford Schools Letting Boys Run Amok in Girls’ Private Spaces appeared first on Granite Grok.

If you missed it, the hot new blonde in scaremongering medicine might be Valley Fever. She’s raised her pretty little headline, flipped her hair back, and asked you to check her out, but we’ve got bigger problems.

Connecticut River Valley Fever.

Valley Fever is caused by a fungus “that lives in the soil and is breathed in dusty situations, whether it’s a dust storm or around construction or excavation.” It is more common in California and Arizona, and only “5% to 10% of people who get Valley fever will develop serious or long-term lung problems.”

So why have they brought it up? Philadelphia and Kansas City are playing a game in Arizona in a week, and, well?

 

“If you’re just traveling to the airport and to the hotel and to the Super Bowl, you’re probably going to be fine,” Perkins said. “If you’re out hiking in the desert, you might want to give some consideration to your risk for development of Valley fever.”

Mask sales must be slipping.

Meanwhile, closer to my home, we have a far more severe infection that runs 24/7/365. I’ll call it Connecticut River Valley Fever. Vermont is a nasty shade of blue, and it leaks. The septage creeps across the Connecticut river and infects neighboring towns on the New Hampshire side of the valley. They, in turn, poison the wells of neighboring towns, spreading the diseases of liberalism across New Hampshire.

Granite Stater’s make jokes about people moving up from Massachusetts, which has been a problem for decades, but this is worse. And the only cure for it is the boot of tyranny.

We’ve seen our fair share of boots in recent years, which has inspired the despots to reach for more. The only prophylactic for that is state and local governments that resist the allure of that kind of power, and is anyone reading this convinced we’ve got that?

I’m not.

The post Valley Fever is the Latest Med Scare, But Connecticut River Valley Fever is a Bigger Threat appeared first on Granite Grok.

Today I would usually publish a Sunday Spotlight, but what is happening in the sky over our mainland is too important not to address today.

I always got a kick out of ordering Chinese take-out. No matter what you ordered or the quantity, it will always be ready in 10 minutes. Egg Rolls, Steak Teriyaki, Chicken Fried Rice…..10 minutes Shrimp with Lobster Sauce, Chicken teriyaki, Beef Fried Rice….10 Minutes. Joe and Hunter Biden on a silver platter…10 minutes. The variety of your choices does not matter. It will all be ready in 10 minutes. The Chinese own our President, and what will he not allow the People’s Republic of China to do to America and Americans? Covid, Fentanyl, theft of intellectual property, and now a surveillance balloon traveling at will over our mainland, and what is Joe Biden doing? Eating popcorn and watching old movies in Delaware with Dr. Jill. Pathetic.

This floating airship is not a weather balloon but a surveillance device. In actuality, it’s a “trial” balloon. China is testing American leadership to see how far we can be provoked before we react. We have known about it for months. It is a violation of our air space and sovereignty. It violates international law. Yet the Pentagon and Administration claim it is not a threat. Are you kidding, or do they think we are all ignorant? They are underestimating the acumen of the American people. The Pentagon admits they do not have knowledge of the equipment on the balloon but that they have neutralized the information-seeking equipment. These two statements cannot both be factual. Again, we are given a story and not the truth.

Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon’s press secretary, met with the media on Friday and did his best Karine Jean-Pierre impersonation. We watch this situation unfold as we allow this camera in the sky to traverse our mainland over some of our most sensitive military bases. Why do these people even hold these briefings if they refuse to answer questions? This dodge and deflect is not transparent. It is insulting. And as the day progresses, and these spokespeople need to walk back earlier comments, it shows we are fed a narrative, not the facts. We expect the Chinese to lie to us, but we should insist on our government giving us a straight story. Washington continues to disappoint us. On Saturday, a second balloon was detected over Latin America. It is not ironic that our heartland and Central America are regions where the Chinese have bought land.

It appears that inaction is the plan of our administration to handle this assault by China. We should not be surprised. Inaction is how Biden has dealt with the source of the COVID virus, Fentanyl, the theft of American intellectual property, the inhumane treatment of the Uyghurs, and now a violation of our sovereign airspace. A compromised President, such as Joe Biden, is extremely dangerous to our National Security. When our most significant adversary can run roughshod over our country, our President has violated his most crucial role: protecting the homeland and its people.

Anytime our country has faced a situation that threatens us in any way, the President has gone before the people to answer questions, calm the masses, and explain our mission to rectify. We have gotten nothing from Biden. Joe Biden is a weak, feckless, compromised “leader” of our country, and we will feel his impact for years. America is a pawn in the relationship between the Biden Cartel and China.

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Jp Cortez, Sound Money Defense League Madison, Wisconsin - (February 4th, 2023) – A large bipartisan contingent of Wisconsin legislators seek to end Wisconsin’s controversial practice of levying sales tax on purchases of gold and silver. Senate Bill 33, primarily... Tom Bowler

The Democrat Party, it seems, has always had the ability and propensity to exploit crises and catastrophes whenever and wherever they find them.

More than 10 years ago, as Barack Obama’s Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanual flaunted that concept, publicly admitting, “You never let a serious crisis go to waste…It’s an opportunity to do things you’d think you could not do before.”

Later, his long-time friend, Hillary Clinton, echoed his words. And though Joe Biden doesn’t seem to remember much these days, he never forgot the Emanuel Doctrine or its corollary: One man’s misfortune is another man’s opportunity. While more than a million Americans were suffering and dying during the Covid pandemic, Biden called it an “incredible opportunity” to fundamentally transform the country. Biden and the Democrats still see pain and suffering as opportunities to further the Democrat agenda.

On Tuesday Biden is scheduled to deliver his second State of the Union Address. Most Americans know something is not right with the country. A recent Marist poll indicates that 62 percent of Americans believe the union is no longer strong. Other polls show that 71 percent of the country is on the wrong track. But we won’t hear about that from Biden on Tuesday. Instead, his speech will consist mostly of political spin and distortion, flaunting America’s strength and his “successes” over the past two years. He sees success when things go from utterly untenable to simply terrible.

Biden certainly won’t talk about the flood of illegal immigrants invading our country, the anarchy spreading across our cities, the fentanyl poisoning our citizens, or the Chinese surveillance balloons meandering through our skies.

Looking at the invited guests, though, it’s pretty clear that there will be a healthy dose of the Emanuel Doctrine.

There were two human tragedies in recent months that captured the attention of a nation. On January 21st, 11 people were killed and nine others injured during a shooting spree at a Lunar New Year celebration in Monterey Park, CA. The perpetrator left the scene and arrived at a dance studio a few minutes away in Alhambra, brandishing the same weapon. There, he was subdued by an unarmed civilian, Brandon Tsay, who was, of course, celebrated as a hero.

Before that, an incident occurred that had an even greater impact than the Monterey Park shooting. On January 7th, five black Memphis police officers, attempting to arrest a black motorist for no apparent reason, savagely beat him. His name was Tyre Nichols, and soon after, he died of his injuries. Not since the George Floyd case has the nation been so shocked and appalled.

Biden and the Democrats have invited Brandon Tsay and the family of Tyre Nichols to attend the State of the Union Address on Tuesday.

Tsay deserves to be honored and his heroism recognized, but we know Biden won’t stop there. He seizes on every opportunity that comes his way to talk about gun violence in America. He’ll likely use this shooting and those 11 deaths to call for more restrictions on our Second Amendment rights and to further advance his anti-gun agenda.

Like the family members of the Monterey Park massacre, the Nichols family is suffering unimaginable grief. But Democrats see it as nothing more than another opportunity. The question is, how will Biden exploit it? Reasonable people know that race was not an issue in Tyre’s death. Everyone involved was black. Still, incredibly enough, some race-obsessed fanatics have somehow tried to blame “white supremacy.”

No, Biden can’t use this tragedy to promote systemic racism or white supremacy. But he can use it to further demonize our police departments – even though the catastrophic impact of anti-police sentiment is already apparent. Nonetheless, he’ll probably still talk about more restraints on local law enforcement, and may even raise the issue of nationalizing the police.

The Constitution mandates that the president “from time to time give to the Congress information of the state of the Union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.” That’s the basis for the annual State of the Union Address. Of course, past presidents have also used that venue to promote their political agendas. But today’s Democrats see it not as an objective report on the state of the Union, but as a propaganda tool, and an opportunity to exploit the despair of fellow citizens.

The post Two Senseless Tragedies, Two Opportunities for Pitiless Democrats appeared first on Granite Grok.

The City of Nashua has installed office signs that say, “By Appointment Only.” Has the City has eliminated access to records available for immediate inspection? Yes. You have to schedule an appointment, but the City won’t provide an appointment.

Catch-22.

Given these signs posted all over City Hall, does this mean that a Citizen who knocks on the door to speak with someone or schedules an appointment is subject to arrest for trespassing? As Attorney Bolton has stated, are we just citizens out to disrupt the operation of government?

On January 23, 2023, I emailed Dir. Cummings with a request to meet with him or anyone who could provide some answers on the Mohawk Tannery project. The mayor indicated in his personal newsletter, released last week that the project is full-steam ahead. The City has a well-documented history of moving forward rapidly on multi-million dollar projects with little public input.

The Phone number, 589-3020, on the plaque rings to an unanswered and unrecorded line, so you cannot set up an appointment. Just another City game to harass citizens.

On January 27, 2023, I received a response from Gary Perrin. Mr. Perrin’s first sentence in his response is that this is not a “Right-to-Know request (RTK). This is an interesting twofold response. Has the City now decided that basic questions or requests for a meeting are NOT RTK requests?

20230127- Mohawk Tannery Meeting RESP.RTK.2023067.GP

Why did Director Cummings give Gary Perrin, hired into the Right to Know paralegal position with the job title of Records Administrator, this question to respond to if it was NOT an RTK request or a request for a record?

It is not Gary Perrin’s job to answer this.

The request for a meeting was not answered, was logged as 2023-067AS for city tracking, and was formally responded to five days later as if it was an RTK request. This was Dir. Cummings’s responsibility to respond to.

I stopped by City Hall to speak with Mr. Perrin and ask if I could set up an Appointment with Mr. Cummings. He stated that he was only the Records Administrator and could not help me. I asked who could help me, and he wouldn’t respond other than to state it was not “his job”.

I told Mr. Perrin that he did not answer my question in his response for an appointment. He said it was not his job to do that. He explained that my question was not a Right-to-Know request and I agreed with him. I asked him why he responded to it, if it was not his job. Mr. Perrin was silent.

Mr. Perrin explained that Dir. Cummings gave him the email to respond to. I asked him why he didn’t hand it back to Dir. Cummings and inform him that this was not his job, after all, he was vociferously expressing to me that it wasn’t his job. Mr. Perrin was silent. I pointed out to Mr. Perrin the Plaque on the door that says “By Appointment Only.” So who can schedule an appointment? Nobody will give you an appointment or respond to your request. Catch- 22

Dir Cummings, the Mayor and City officials are committing acts of Official Oppression under RSA 643:1 by leading citizens to believe that appointments must be scheduled, establishing an unanswered or recorded phone line, and then never responding to requests for appointments or scheduling an appointment. This has been going on for years.

A public servant, as defined in RSA 640:2, II, is guilty of a misdemeanor if, with a purpose to benefit himself or another or to harm another, he knowingly commits an unauthorized act which purports to be an act of his office; or knowingly refrains from performing a duty imposed on him by law or clearly inherent in the nature of his office.

Mayor Donchess and Mr. Cummings stop wasting our tax dollars and needlessly creating paperwork, purchasing plaques and harassing citizens by establishing “rules of engagement” that are maliciously fictitious and designed to prevent people from understanding what their government is doing.

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Remember Nikki Haley? Governor of South Carolina, who left that gig to be Trump’s United Nations Ambassador, who left that gig after only two years. Well … Nikki is planning to announce on February 15th that she is running for President.

So … it’s time for a nickname for Nikki. Like New Hampshire’s Sun-King Chris Sununu, Nikki was a big supporter of the BLM riots in 2020 … and like the Sun-King she believes that George Floyd should be canonized. So, perhaps, the Sun-Queen … or since she isn’t a sitting Governor perhaps Sun-Princess or Sun-Duchess? Let me know in the comments.

And a few other things about Nikki. In 2011, when she was Governor of Georgia, she was selected by the World Economic Forum as one of its “Young Global Leaders.” She also supports the military-industrial/BlackRock/etc. proxy-war against Russia:

Russia’s war in Ukraine is bigger than just Europe. It's the story of freedom over oppression, democracy over dictatorship, and Putin vs. the West.

— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) March 9, 2022

Should Presidential-candidate-wanna-be Sun-King Sununu be nervous about the Sun-Princess eating into his single-digit support? Which NHGOP “insider”/”consultant”/”operative”/”strategist” will the Sun-Princess choose to guide her coronation? I’m sure whoever gets to cash in on Sun-Princess will be described as a “big get” by the local FakeNews. YAWN.

The post Nikki Who? … The Sun-Princess Cometh appeared first on Granite Grok.

Commenter Mike Remski left a humorous comment on my “I’m Agreeing With NH Senator Cindy Rosenwald (D-Nashua)?? Why, Yes I Am” post concerning personal privacy vs the State trying to hoover up data on Moms that had just given birth. Had nothing directly to do with the post’s topic – except for “other questions” that might me asked by a doctor:

First [appointment] with a new Dr. He’s going through his list of questions, asks me “Do you feel safe at home?”

I answer “Yes, because my wife would kill me if I said No”.

It was beautiful. He completely froze for about 7 secs, turned slowly to see me with a huge grin on my face. Took 15 mins to convince him that I was just busting him.

Told my wife and she went to get the cast iron frying pan…..

I laughed – how could you not?

My doctor of almost 40 years retired and was assigned to another doctor in the practice that he had started.  I was wondering if I was going to get that question.

I would have answered with yep – I have a CVN-65 (nuclear USS Enterprise (carrier), an A-10 (“Warthog”, Lightening II, close ground attack jet), an M1296 (Stryker armored personnel carrier) and a  Mark 48 ADCAP (nuclear attack submarine torpedo).

Then let him figure it out that I was mimicking Mike Remski, just differently.

The post Promoted from the Comments – “Do You Feel Safe at Home?” appeared first on Granite Grok.

Joe Biden is again taking bows for results for which he has no impact. He is bragging to America about the 12 million jobs he has created in his first two years. More jobs than any other President in four years

. He doesn’t point out that 10 million of those jobs are the people who lost their jobs due to the Pandemic are returning to work. He points to the unemployment rate down to 3.5% but doesn’t talk about the 750,000 people who have dropped out of the workforce. Put those people back into the calculation and watch that unemployment number balloon.

Inflation is outpacing pay increases, so the breathing room that the President always points to is more of a gasp for air. Food and energy costs are eating up people’s paychecks. Withdrawals from savings accounts and hardship draw from 401K accounts are at a record high.
Retail and energy sectors are announcing huge numbers of planned layoffs as revenues are not meeting expectations, and the IT industry is bracing for a recession.

He was gloating over the low unemployment rates for Blacks and Hispanics. But, again, this does not factor in those who have dropped out of the workplace. Nor does he address the impact of minority employment when these millions of illegal aliens stop sucking on the government’s breast and need to hit the workforce. It is easy to make the picture attractive when you only tell half the story. There is no energy shortage in this White House, as the gaslights burn 24/7. There has always been a question of credibility with our government, but the Biden Administration has resolved that question. If anyone’s lips move in the White House, they lie.

It really is disheartening that we are now cynical of every data point the government supplies us. We have heard about impending mass layoffs for weeks, and then the January job numbers are announced, blowing away expectations. According to the Department of Labor, 517,000 jobs were added in January. These numbers are often modified after being published, and is this another form of gaslighting? Announce positive numbers, and then when nobody is waiting for data, the actual results are published.

What I found more offensive than Biden taking false credit for the positive job numbers and his perception of the economy is his disparaging the state of the economy he inherited in 2021. First, he is formulating a false narrative about the state of the economy he inherited from Trump, and he only tells part of the story. In January 2021, we were still in the grips of the Covid Pandemic. The economy was growing, with January being the first positive growth in four months, and inflation was at a menial 2.2%. He continues, as does his Press Secretary, KJP, to work to convince America that Trump handed Biden an economy in shambles. It is not valid, and other than the unemployment number due to the Pandemic, we were in a good place and on the road to recovery. Our economy didn’t tank until Joe Biden declared war on the petroleum industry and gave us nearly 10% inflation and $5.00 gasoline.

The misinformation from this administration far exceeds any fake Russian misinformation that our media could ever conjure. Biden and his team will vacate the White House at some point, but the damage they are causing will last for years. That will be the Legacy of Scranton Joe. That will be how we remember AmtraK Joe. Hopefully, we can forget Joe Biden. He has.

 

The post Joe, You Don’t Create Jobs appeared first on Granite Grok.

The thought that immediately came to mind was “When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is liberty.”  Yet, here we are where The People are starting to believe that Government is the largest problem in their lives.

In a new survey conducted in January, Americans said the government/poor leadership is “the most important problem facing this country today.” The second most important problem cited is inflation. In the survey of 1,011 adults, aged 18 and older, Gallup asked, “What do you think is the most important problem facing this country today?”

Overall:

But look at the “Partisanship divide – BOTH Republicans and Democrats are solid on this:

So, Govt it is!  Going back to the quote – how to make that second clause rise in priority?

(H/T:  CNSNews)

The post Data Point – When Citizens Believe that GOVERNMENT Is Their Largest Problem… appeared first on Granite Grok.

If Jay Newton is right, why are many workers poor after each minimum wage increase? Why, after about 24 minimum wage increases over 70 years, haven’t we achieved economic nirvana where everyone’s rich and no one’s poor? Minimum wage laws aren’t a panacea; they’re attractive-sounding political programs designed to get votes.

A higher minimum wage makes it harder to get people’s most important job, their first job; the job that starts people toward prosperity.

New Hampshire is creating jobs and increasing wages without a minimum wage increase (see page 4 of the Jan. 25 Laconia Daily Sun). Local starting wages are $14-$16 per hour.

The 2014 Seattle $15-per-hour minimum wage increase helped some, mostly experienced, workers minimally, about $5 a week (here and here). Other workers suffered reduced work hours, were laid off, and/or had their employer-paid benefits cut. Most businesses can’t just absorb increased costs.

Minimum wage increases, without productivity improvements, ripple through the economy, causing inflation that hurts poor people the most (higher skilled workers get increases, businesses raise prices, taxes increase, etc.).

When initially considering minimum wage laws, the Labor Department said that they were “likely to produce undesirable effects upon” the Puerto Rico and Virgin Island economies. If a minimum wage hurts their economies, why not others? Minimum wage laws are politically, not economically, motivated.

During the pandemic, billionaires became richer because government changed how people work and consume (rewarding investors) and shut down businesses providing millions of jobs, especially blue-collar ones.

To help poor Americans, remove the illegal aliens who depress wages, take jobs, and raise their living costs; encourage investment to provide more and better jobs; buy American-made goods; and improve education to improve American workers’ skills.

Don’t fall for the false promises of minimum wage increases.

The post When Faced with Higher Wages, Poor People Suffer the Most appeared first on Granite Grok.

Mike Gleason, Money Metals Weekly Market Wrap Wyoming Senate Embraces Plans for State Gold Reserves, Payment System As the Federal Reserve winds down its rate hiking campaign, precious metals bulls are anticipating a favorable environment for gains ahead. On Wednesday,... Tom Bowler

Instapundit had these tweets from Michael Shellenberger (not in his Twitter feed anymore) on information from Pew Research on how US Journalists see their jobs vs. how the Public see how they SHOULD be doing it.

There’s a pattern there – and the younger “journalists” will soon find out that if you call yourself a news journalist that is indistinguishable from a political operative, you’ll soon be saying, “want fries with that?” or taunts of “learn to code.” WAIT!  Mcdonald’s is working to robotize ALL of its operations, and the rise of AI bots like ChatGPT is replacing low-level programmers)

 

 

They call themselves NEWS reporters – not opinion writers. And they wonder why the public no longer trusts them to report just News.  We KNOW they are Woke; we KNOW they slant Left, because COLLEGE!

Remember that TV ad for the room freshener that talked about being “Nose Blind”?  Yeah, that – journalists don’t understand they “stink” at their jobs, but they are so in the “room” they can no longer smell their biases.

This:

 

 

We have become segmented by age and smaller and smaller subsections of the population. Those people reading the Huffington Post and (formerly TreeHugger) are the kinds of folks reading the Washington Beacon or the Epoch Times (they may be reading the NY Times). This is similar to the geographical “Grand Sorting” that is happening as people migrate to Red or Blue States.

And it seems to not only be hammering in the biases of their readers and watchers but the Journalists themselves.  It’s the Lefty journalists that are responsible for “misinformation” because they no longer accept the idea of Free Speech and that everyone gets to have an opinion.

 

 

But if you disagree with their monoculture, you are to be persecuted.

 

The post And US Journalists Wonder Why the Public Is Ignoring Them? appeared first on Granite Grok.

Computer Numerical Control (CNC) router machines can be used to produce a wide variety of projects. However, if you are looking for the perfect ministry addition to help grow your business, definitely look into a CNC router machine.

From sign timber, cabinet work timber, distance plastic fabrication, non-ferrous distance essence machining, press timber etc., CNC router machines can offer you a whole other position to grow your business. CNC router machines run on computer numerical control and robotic technology.

This means that upon downloading a software program to the machine that tells the machine exactly what to do and what to do, basically, all the driver has to do is press the launch button while the machine loads the content. . Yes, it fills and requires very little mortal intervention.

One hand can supervise the operation of several machines at a time. Once started, the machine will continue to operate until the program tells it to stop. CNC router machines come in different sizes giving you more design possibilities depending on the size of the material and what you can create. Of course, there will be very little waste because the machine will cut all the necessary corridors using one spacer (unless the design is very large and demands a lot of material).

For the machine to operate the various systems

Virmer is a program that would need to be written for each design. You can save the program that the programmer wrote and use it any time in the future when you may need to copy a project. However, the design will of course, not be exactly the same if it does. With computer numerical control technology, you can guarantee that every time the program is used; You will get exactly the same finished product. Copying is a simple process.

A router has motors that actually help the system to cut in all directions on its axis. The drive system is important to the machine because the better it is, the better the quality of your routine. CNC router bits are actually controlled by a spindle and come in many different shapes and sizes as you will know if you are using a power tool with drill bits. It is important to note that whenever you operate any machine you have to think about safety first and this is true when using a CNC router.

Although the machine comes with guards that can protect your hands from injury while feeding the material, you should also use common sense while operating the machine. There is also a stop button system on the color corridor of the machine. Still, you should wear gloves and sound-blocking equipment as backup protection to avoid accidents. A CNC router machine is also provident because once you program it, you don’t have to keep an eye on it. Rather, you can switch to another task or take a break when it suits you. It also opens up the opportunity to do systems that used to tolerate a platoon of people.

The post What is Computer Numerical Control (CNC)? appeared first on Granite Grok.

Vermont has a lot of things we don’t have here in New Hampshire. They’ve got a State income tax. They’ve also got a majority Democrat legislature, and yes, those two things are related.

They are a sanctuary state which explains the exponential increase in border crossings, and have advanced more gun restrictions as crime rates climb. So, when I saw this headline, I knew what it meant, but it also meant something else to me.

“Vermonters Encouraged to Support Threatened and Endangered Species Recovery with Nongame Tax Checkoff.”

Because you have to pay state income taxes in Vermont, they can also ask you for things like donations to the Nongame Wildlife Fund.

 

“Every dollar Vermonters donate to Nongame Wildlife Fund on their taxes is nearly tripled,” says Rosalind Renfrew, the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department’s Wildlife Diversity Program Manager.  “Donations are leveraged by matching federal grants, meaning that every dollar donated secures another $2 in federal funds for Vermont’s wildlife.”

 

They mention a sturgeon and a bat, but if we’re being honest, the most endangered “species” in Vermont is principled Republicans. The National GOP ATMs – and I’m not implying any of them are principled Republicans – have more or less written the state off, expecting little or no return for their money. In other words, they can’t even get a RINO elected except Governor Phil Scott, who is a token now that the legislature has veto-proof majorities.

And he’s barely purple, leaning blue.

Things are bad. Massachusetts bad. It won’t be long before successive speakers of the Vermont House find themselves in jail for corruption or fraud or something. Even re-elected while in prison (we’ve had that happen on our side of the Connecticut river. It’s a Democrat thing). But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Instead of lining up to beg for alms from the state budget (or almost everything), you could elect candidates who would eventually create a state economy that allows you to succeed. Where keeping what you earn is a bigger priority than finding new ways to take it from you. A place where you don’t have to ask a bureaucrat about your carbon offset balance and do you have enough social credit points to cook some of those insect-based weiners they’ll make you eat.

Where identifying as an illegal “migrant” will get you more rights and benefits than if you were actually born there.

Democrats suck, by which I mean the lives and livelihoods of everyone in their ideological blast radius. Which is to say, what is endangered is Vermonters and Vermont.

I wonder what Ethan, Ira, and Ebeneezer Allen would think of that?

 

 

The post Vermonters Encouraged to Support Threatened and Endangered Species Recovery … You Mean Republicans, Right? appeared first on Granite Grok.

Again, from the same post from TH: Are British Conservatives Really Committed to Climate Action?  Note the nuance of the structure of the post title – can we TRUST Conservatives? Do they really accept Climate Change – and are willing to use Government (in this case, the new and then quickly former Prime Minister Liz Truss) to force the change WE want onto everyone else?

Not well stated but look at that title again and we see the difference between European  and American governance. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that Europeans have been conditioned, over a few thousand years, to do what they’re told (with a few exceptions along the way). Americans still, however, retain a bit of that distrust of Government. Up until the Pandemic, that is, when many of our fellow Americans gave up their freedoms for security – with Government diktats being the Oppressors (I’m thinking of you, NH Gov. Chris Sununu!).

Anyways, the same commenter I talked about in my last post, gr8bkset decided to take ANOTHER crack against Conservatives:

The goals of conservatives is to save THEIR money from being spent on the masses. They believe they’re rich enough and old enough to outlive climate change. Dying with a bunch of $$ left does them and society no good.

Well, I as a Conservatarian take issue with that.  Painting us all as Scrooge McDucks seems to be the purview of all of the Greenies – that is, green with envy. If we won’t think like them, slander us.  It’s not a new thing but his statement is clear – the only good purpose is what benefits Society. And I’ll add, that rich person could have spent millions or more funding all kinds of philanthropic ventures. After all, just look back to the Gilded Age where the rich were called Robber Barons. But they also funded libraries, hospitals, and other works.

Another Socialist agree with him, Stephanie, with “Sadly True”. Then Vindaloo Bugaboo asked her a pointed question:

Whom do you consult with first when deciding what you want to do with your own money, Stephanie? Anyone?

Just asking for a friend.

OUCH! I then moved the conversation to where the Eco-Socialists have little expertise: Government and governance with THE question that generally goes unanswered (shades of Bruce Curry):

Answer this: whose money is it FIRST? Whose money is it really?

One of the Pillars of our Constitutional Republic is the Right to Private Property – and yes, wealth is part of Property. Where do *I* get off in demanding that your money be taken from you, forcibly, to spend it on my home? That’s what your words are agreeing to, that “it’s no longer yours when MY purpose needs it”.

So let me also ask this: Where in the US Constitution is the enumerated Power for the Federal Government to do such things? I don’t care if it is a good idea or not, but another Pillar is The Rule of Law. We keep ignoring that at our peril.

And let me ask you the same question that I ask others that “somebody has to DO something!”:

Then do something – stop being lazy, form a non-profit, get donors, and do it yourself.

American Society USED to be all about self-reliance and voluntary responsibility for others. When De Tocqueville toured the US in the mid-1800, he was agape at how little people bothered with Government (and the converse, how little Govt interfered with us). With the rise of Big Government starting with Wilson, shoved into higher gear with FDR, Nixon giving it a shove, and Obama going into overdrive, those two attributes have withered away.

As I said during my 10 years on my hamlet’s Budget Committee: “it’s not OUR money but we should spend that money like that taxpayer, from whom we have TAKEN the money from, would”.

And then a non-American, Annie Cass, decided continues the trope that Conservatives hoard their money. It’s the bolded part that shows what she believes to be THE Proper Role of Government:

Sidenote: as I’ve said before, studies have shown that the opposite is true in that Socialists tend to give less money and time than Conservatives. The former believes that Government should do such things. The latter believe we INDIVIDUALLY are mandated to do so for others.

Those of you advocating fracking need to revisit the reasons why those wells were capped – clean water is as pressing a need as energy, and if ONE source of energy messes up the ONLY source of non-bottled water you’ve got, other sources of energy start to look not only good, but absolutely necessary.

I really don’t know why they call them “conservatives” when the only thing they’re really interested in conserving is the size of their bank accounts. The lives of their constituents are of little apparent account to them. British people are going to die this winter because they can’t heat their houses. Most of these people will not be welfare recipients, but full time workers. Many of these full time workers are employed, directly or indirectly, by people who pay themselves many thousands a week for working no harder than the people who actually produce the goods or services they sell.

It is the duty of governments to tax those who are paid much more than the average person so that those whose entire income barely covers food and rent aren’t bled further. Conservatives have a track record of allowing the poor to literally starve and freeze so that their wealthy mates aren’t troubled by having their wealth diminished. They only do anything different if the results of business as usual are so outrageous that it just can’t be sold to the electorate. As a significant proportion of the British public won’t be able to find the extra money to cover multiplying energy costs this coming winter, Truss is forced to make noises about helping out. You can be certain that, if humanly possible, the cost of that bill won’t be coming out of her backers’ back pockets. So the rush for cheap-and-dirty fuel is on.

Russia can’t capitulate soon enough.

So if the other side is trying to convince me to join them, insulting me to my face (“Conservatives have a track record of allowing the poor to literally starve and freeze so that their wealthy mates aren’t troubled by having their wealth diminished”) isn’t going to work.  Mostly because it isn’t true. But she decided to go to that Governmental purpose:

It is the duty of governments to tax those who are paid much more than the average person so that those whose entire income barely covers food and rent aren’t bled further.

Not in the US it isn’t – our Declaration of Independence (the philosophical underpinning of our Constitution) clearly states what the Proper Role of Government is.

I’ll say again what I said earlier but a bit differently – show me where in the US Constitution, which Article and Clause gives the Federal Government the enumerated Power to do what you claim it should be doing?

Yes, I know, too many Americans are clueless about the “fence” in which the Constitution is/was supposed to keep us safe from Government in providing for that the Proper Role and that the Feds do so much more than it should (a bug, not a feature).

For that, I blame our poor education system that no longer teaches basic Civics such that voters would “kick the bums out” that stray beyond that fence.

And it’s, like many Americans unfortunately, she has no idea what a Constitution is for – really, a place where excuses are made?

Not being a US citizen I’m not sure quite what excuses your constitution gives for allowing your government to work for only a proportion of your citizenry, and not all of it. From the outside, the US looks like a slave state which never quite got over having to replace actual slaves with wage slaves. It only gets away with allowing the predators to rule because so many US citizens dream of being one of them. It’s your cultural DNA that gives you poor domestic infrastructure and literal beggars on the streets. But hey, if that’s what the people want . . .

Heh! My quick response:

Slave State

BINGO – I win! DRINK!

I’ll give her some excuse for not being an American citizen. However, it’s clear that many Americans now think the same thing. Really, “wage slave”?

Do I get the chance to say “Hey, Biden’s in charge and he PROMISED that other countries would look upon us better than that Mean Tweeter”.

So, is Biden succeeding?

The post Treehugger – After Being Insulted, I Ask THE Important Question! appeared first on Granite Grok.

Needless to say … but I will say it anyway … to anyone who says this is NOT a clip of Biden and Kamala learning about the Chinese spy balloon, but rather a clip from F-Troop … you are speaking the language of white supremacy.

And another thing, the reason the Biden-regime is watching helplessly … because BlackRock, Vanguard, etc. and Big-Tech have TRILLIONS invested in China and they absolutely will NOT tolerate that investment being placed at risk for something so quaint as the idea that America is a sovereign country, as opposed to another brick in the wall of the global economy.

The post BREAKING!!!! …. Exclusive Footage Of President Biden Learning About The Chinese Spy Balloon appeared first on Granite Grok.