We are bombarded with bad news every day, and it feels like it has worsened since the onset of COVID in 2020. We incessantly hear how bad our economy is, how high our home-heating oil will be, how many illegals have crossed the Border today, how bad the weather will be, and if we will be back in masks after the holidays.

Many have turned away from the daily news, feeling that not knowing is more manageable than dealing. We are in information overload and losing our sensitivity to major issues that need our attention. This is a dangerous place for our minds to occupy. We are getting numb, and we cannot allow that to happen.

Two issues that I feel we are beginning to overlook because we have heard about them so often are drug deaths or poisoning and homelessness. Only certain media outlets cover these stories, which means that large blocks of our population are unaware of the magnitude of these issues. Our government officials ignore them, which keeps the media from covering them. This is precisely why you will not see Biden or Harris make the journey to the Border. To do so would force the press that is avoiding the crisis to bring their cameras to the scene,
and then the curtain is pulled back. Ignorance is far better than accountability for politicians.

We all know the source and route Fentanyl takes to arrive in our country. Drug cartels are getting more creative and daring every day to get this poison into the United States. Seeing the intercepted quantities is proof, but understanding that we are only capturing the tip of the mountain should scare every American. The Southern Border states are not unique to the plague of Fentanyl deaths as once it clears the Border, it spreads quickly to every state, making every state a Border State. With now, over 100,000 deaths of young adults between 18-45, Fentanyl is now the leading cause of death for that age group. Fentanyl is not a drug addiction problem but a drug poisoning problem. Treating it like another opioid is the wrong approach. We must cut the head off the Fentanyl snake and eliminate it at the source. Either stop the shipments from China before they hit Mexico or destroy the drug labs and the cartels producing the final product. This crisis is a terrorist attack on our country, and we need the government to have the cajones to solve it.

The homelessness epidemic is another complex issue. It is twofold: for some, it is economic, and for others, it is drug-related or a mental health issue. Either way, the solution that cities like Los Angeles use are wrong. To take the homeless off the street, carte Blanche, and give them free housing in hotels or motels is wrong and will only encourage more people with similar issues to relocate for a free roof over their heads. Boston is dispensing free needles to homeless addicts. These are lazy and costly ways to sweep the matter out of sight and hopefully out of mind. Their thinking is to promote safer drug use rather than solve the problem. The mental health issue is exacerbated by closing clinics and facilities where these people can get help. Now they are a danger to themselves and the neighborhoods they land.

These problems are not going away by ignoring them, but if society is complicit with the methods of government and we numb ourselves to the point where they are accepted as normal, then we have lost. The problems will become generational and another reason we are quickly losing the inner cities. We can stop and deal with them now or earmark them as another reason for the collapse of this great country.

The post We Cannot Get Numb to Drug Deaths & Homelessness appeared first on Granite Grok.

A little over a year ago, at the beginning of the “vaccinated athletes are dropping dead” era, Merck announced a new pill. Sold as a treatment for people at risk of severe COVID illness, Molnupiravir could confuse the crap out of COVID, effectively stopping it dead.

Skip wrote about the announcement here on October 2, 2021. According to the report,

 

How effective was the drug in trials? So effective that an independent panel looked at some preliminary data and told Merck there was no reason to see those trials through to completion. The pill was obviously working. …the new therapeutic involves a breakthrough as well. Instead of attacking viral proteins, molnupiravir scrambles the invader’s genes to stop it from replicating. In other words, it hacks the virus.

 

Allahpundit at Hot Air (occasional deep-state stooge) powdered it with hearts and smiley faces. Skip’s write-up is hopeful, but he’s no fool. He closed the piece with, “If all this turns out to be true.”

Guess what?

Molnupiravir does scramble COVID’s genes but not exactly the way they sold it. The drug deliberately mutates it in the host (you) to create variants and that was the point.

Igor Chudov explains why Merck thought this was such a great idea.

 

Before we consider this study, let me point out that most mutations (in viruses and animals) are deadly and make the organism unable to reproduce. Such was the hope with Molnupiravir: its designers expected that mutations caused by the drug would make the Sars-Cov-2 virus unable to reproduce, thus stopping the infection.

 

The sales pitch was that you could trick COVID into mutating and it would die in the host but not kill the host. So, what about the bad news?

 

…SOME mutated copies remain viable – and create new variants!

 

Let’s skip back up the page a moment to this: “How effective was the drug in trials? So effective that an independent panel looked at some preliminary data and told Merck there was no reason to see those trials through to completion.”

Was that such a good idea?

Chudov’s article includes a recent pre-print of research showing that Molnupiravir can create viable transmissible variants. He also includes warnings. From Science.org, Nov 2021.

 

William Haseltine, a virologist formerly at Harvard University known for his work on HIV and the human genome project, suggests that by inducing viral mutations, molnupiravir could spur the rise of new viral variants more dangerous than today’s. “You are putting a drug into circulation that is a potent mutagen at a time when we are deeply concerned about new variants,” says Haseltine, who outlined his concern Monday in a Forbes blog post. “I can’t imagine doing anything more dangerous.”

 

Also linked by Chudov, from BMJ – Nov 4, 2021.

 

Molnupiravir clearly induces intense mutagenesis in SARS-CoV-2,3 and this accounts for its efficacy. But β-d-N4-hydroxycytidine, the active metabolite of molnupiravir, is not only cytotoxic but also mutagenic in mammalian cells.4 The drug may damage DNA.

 

The FDA Advisory Panel was aware of these risks and others, including birth defects (if used during pregnancy) but still voted to give it authorization.

Your government promptly laundered billions into Merck to buy it for anyone, just as they did with Pfizer and Paxlovid (which doesn’t work either but may be less dangerous than Molnupiravir). A fact that New Hampshire State Epidemiologist Dr. Chan may have known. He suggested that Paxlovid was more effective. Maybe he meant to say less dangerous.

A casual search of New Hampshire’s Fourth Estate finds very little warning. WMUR had nothing. The Union Leader had several pieces, but only this warning one time (subscriber only) emphasis mine.

 

Some of the FDA’s experts have said that could lead to more troublesome variants.

There have also been some safety concerns around the drug because it may affect bone cartilage and growth.

Due to that reason, Merck’s drug is not authorized for use in patients younger than 18, the FDA said. The pill is not recommended for use during pregnancy, the agency added.

The agency advised that men of reproductive potential use a reliable method of birth control during treatment with molnupiravir, and for at least three months after the final dose.

 

 

Note: The FDA EUA Fact Sheet does note that you should not use this if pregnant or if you could become pregnant. I did not see any mention of the risk you’d become a variant factory/super-spreader. That seems important, and its absence is significant, especially since “some experts” said.

 

 

HT | Igor Chudov Substack

The post Another FDA “Win” – Molnupiravir Could Turn Patients into COVID Variant Super-Spreaders appeared first on Granite Grok.

So in the previous posts, I have been explaining the first parts of what NH’s RSA 91-A, the Right To Know Law,  covers – definitions, who or what it can be “pointed” to, and what kind of meetings it covers. However, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy and I’m going to switch things up a bit given a tip I received last night. I do have to give the tipster a call a bit later on this morning (it’s only 8:30 am as I write this and I know the tipster is a night owl) and provide more of an update but it’s a great example to interwine with this series.

Thus, this is what I sent to the Franklin School District (SAU 18) this morning to the School Board members (emphasis mine):

—— Original Message ——
From: “Skip” <Skip@granitegrok.com>
To: tdow@gm.sau18.org; dcarrier@gm.sau18.org; dbrown@gm.sau18.org; ecote@gm.sau18.org; lcass@gm.sau18.org; ccormier@gm.sau18.org; cmartin@gm.sau18.org; pdoucette@gm.sau18.org; maube@gm.sau18.org
Sent: 12/27/2022 8:53:40 AM
Subject: RSA 91A Right To Know demand – the SAU 18 Library Card Catalog

Good morning,

Please find attached to this email my Right To Know concerning the District’s card catalog for its libraries. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact me

I have reproduced this RSA 91A demand below.

Thank you for your lawful response.

-Skip

Skip Murphy
Founder, co-owner
GraniteGrok.com | Skip@GraniteGrok.com
Dominating the political Bandwidth in New Hampshire

So note what I did:

I sent it, NOT to the Superintendent (a public employee) but to the governing body of the District.  In terms of an RSA 91-A dement, the School Board members are the Public Body referenced in RSA 91-A:1-a Definitions:

VI. ” Public body ” means any of the following:…
(d) Any legislative body, governing body, board, commission, committee, agency, or authority of any county, town, municipal corporation, school district, school administrative unit, chartered public school, or other political subdivision, or any committee, subcommittee, or subordinate body thereof, or advisory committee thereto.

After all, the School Board, when you reference other State Statutes, are in charge of EVERYTHING in a School District. Unfortunately, many having not bothered to read such statutes themselves, they get led into the “lull” that they are only responsible for setting budgets and policies and then they simply hand everything off to the “professionals” – in this case, the Superintendent”. Make no mistake, however, THEY are the responsible ones, like it or not and part of this process that I do is to ensure that they know it over the time that it takes to get them to Follow The Law.

I also emailed it to them. One does not have to formally send in a written hardcopy nor does it have to be notarized.  Emails are perfectly fine and acceptable form of communication. Now, there will be some Districts that demand that you use a “form email” on one of their website pages. I don’t care for it at all but they make it impossible to know what the School Board members’ email addresses are so you’re stuck in that regard (yet another tactic that School Boards use to not have to interact with the hoi polloi, I guess. It also generally means that the “email” will go to an employee first for “screening”.

I’ve had that done in the past and then find out that one or more of the School Board members who, once again, are supposed to be in charge. In that case, is it “School Board Members In Name Only” as “he who controls the communications controls the entity”?

Here is the Right To Know attached to the email. Although I have yet to go over the relevant parts of RSA 91-A, I have bolded the parts of my demand that directly tie back to the language of RSA 91-A as I prefer to not allow much, if any, “wiggle room”.  I’ll talk about THAT bit in subsequent posts. However, it all goes back to what you should have learned in elementary school when writing a story: Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How.

Oh, by the way? They can ask but the Public Body is not entitled to know the “Why” of the demand – and I’m not telling them now. Not yet if I do at all.

Pursuant to the Right to Know Law (RSA. 91-A:4 (I) ), I am demanding access, within 5 business days, to the below enumerated governmental records. Otherwise, if this cannot be fulfilled within that mandated window per RSA 91-A, please advise when the Responsive Records will be made available.

This request is for the Franklin/SAU 18 School District library “card catalog”. This is for any and all books located in the following:

• District-wide “main” library
• Each school within the District’s “main” library
• If a school has multiple “main” libraries (such as Brockton High, Brockton, MA)
• All classrooms with cataloged books that are tracked by the District.

The information for each Responsive Record shall include:

• Name of the book
• Name of the Author(s)
• Content Summary
• ISBN identification (or other such designated ID)
• Name of the School
• If a School has multiple libraries, a designation of which library is being referenced (in the case of Brockton High, the five libraries: Red, Azure/Blue, Green, Yellow, and the Science libraries)
• Name/designation of the Classroom within a School

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

As you are aware, in 2016, the New Hampshire Supreme Court ruled that a governmental body in possession of records is required to produce them in electronic media using standard common file formats: Green v. SAU #55, 168 N.H. 796, 801 (2016). Unless there is some reason that it is not reasonably practical to produce such, explain why it is not practical to comply.

Please also note, per RSA 91-A:4 III, III-a, and III-b, you are required to maintain the safety and accessibility of such responsive records. This also includes such responsive records (e.g., emails) which may have been deleted from respective Inboxes but are still available on the applicable email server or in your / email host backup system(s).

Please let me know when these records will be sent to me for inspection. You may email the responsive records to me at Skip@GraniteGrok.com. If the volume turns out to be substantial, I have already set up a Dropbox folder to use in uploading those responsive records.

Thank you for your lawful attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

Skip Murphy
GraniteGrok.com

So now you have a complete RTK for review and I’ll use it when discussing more of RSA 91-A.

And yes, the “5 business day clock” has already started ticking…

The post A Tutorial: How to Create a Right To Know to Hold Your Government Accountable – A Quick Practicum and Example appeared first on Granite Grok.

Coleman Hughs writes an excellent piece at The Free Press that addresses the matter of color blindness. Not the medical condition but the social, cultural, and political one.

Coleman’s topic is an upcoming SCOTUS decision on “race-based affirmative action in college admissions” and whether universities should be able to “see race,” which then evolves into the debate about the history of colorblind politics and culture and the current climate.

 

Not seeing race is the surest way, these days, to signal that you aren’t on the right side of this divide. Indeed, the term “color-blind” has become anathema to rightthink, and if you live in elite institutions—universities, corporate America, the mainstream media—the quickest way to demonstrate that you just don’t get it is to say, “I don’t see color” or “I was taught to treat everyone the same.”

Once considered a progressive attitude, color-blindness is now seen as backwards—a cheap surrender in the face of racism, at best; or a cover for deeply held racist beliefs, at worst.

The modern self-proclaimed anti-racists have made it clear that you can’t be white and innocent of racism. Past crimes are your crimes. Colorblindness as an idea is painted as a construct of right-wing think tanks.

Kimberlé Crenshaw has criticized the “color-blind view of civil rights” that she alleges “developed in the neoconservative ‘think tanks’ during the seventies.” George Lipsitz, a Black Studies professor at UC Santa Barbara, writes in Seeing Race Again: Countering Colorblindness across the Disciplines, which he co-edited with Crenshaw, that color-blindness is part of a “long-standing historical whiteness protection program” associated with “indigenous dispossession, colonial conquest, slavery, segregation, and immigrant exclusion.”

He then explores the truth (read it all here),

Among the main goals of the Civil Rights Movement was the elimination of laws and policies that used the category of race in any way. In fact, that was the first demand made by the original March On Washington movement of the 1940s (which successfully pressured Franklin Roosevelt to integrate the defense industry). It was also the first argument made by the NAACP in their Brown vs. Board appellate brief. To paint color-blindness as a reactionary or racist idea—rather than a key goal of the Civil Rights Movement—requires ignoring the historical record.

But isn’t that the case with everything? The Left is constantly at war with history because it has a way of reminding us that what they advocate for is not in the best interests of the people, just the people in power.

This is no different, except that advocates use the sins of one form of slavery to entrap the descendants of slaves (and many who were not) in another. They are no different than the African kings or tribes who capture blacks to sell into slavery – human lives bartered for material wealth. Something is still practiced on the continent that these “scholars” and authors are doing right now with their book tours and lecture circuits. Selling out black Americans with the promise of equality if they advocate for an oppressive form of government where there can be none.

Colorblindness is the answer. It must therefore be their enemy because equality is not their endgame.

The post Colorblindness Is the Answer. It Must Therefore Be Their Enemy appeared first on Granite Grok.