Monday • November 25 • 2024
Vol.XVI • No.XLVIII
Manchester, N.H.
The Maine Legislature is helping to increase Mainers’ distrust and skepticism of their elected officials. The Democrats are using “placeholders” to hide the true intention of a bill and buy time to finalize the details of the legislation.
Take “An Act Regarding Health Care in the State,” filed earlier this year. The title seemed harmless enough until the actual details were released. The bill concerns abortion rights, but to this day, you cannot find the details on the State of Maine website. But you can get close if you examine the 620 pages of testimony generated by the committee.
It is a deceitful practice used by bill sponsors who know it will not be popular with the people to minimize interference from public activists who would descend upon the statehouse in protest.
Concept bills are sometimes filed without an outline and just a title. About 250 of these pesky concept bills have been submitted in 2024, which is 25% more than in 2023 and more than four times the number from 20 years ago, attracting bipartisan support to stop the practice of concept bills. Sen. Rick Bennet, R-Oxford, and Rep. Anne Perry, D-Calais, are both veteran legislators and are taking action to reform and stop the use of concept bills. They recognize these are being used to deceive the public, which should never be the goal of legislators. Concept Bills accounted for 11% of all bills introduced in 2024. That is double the number in 2015, and that is not a trend the Democrats should be proud of. House Speaker Rachel Talbot-Ross, D-Portland, defends the concept bills as invaluable tools. In a statement of pure Democrat word salad, she said these concept bills are essential and problematic.
Nicholas Jacobs, an assistant professor of government at Colby College, says using concept bills can make divisive ideas even more divisive. Rep Perry is finding out just how true the professor’s words are. Though Perry has voiced reservations about concept bills, she is using the practice with L.D 227, which would safeguard gender-affirming and abortion care from out-of-state laws, basically making Maine a sanctuary state for both services. The bill was filed as a concept bill, which may have avoided public interaction, but Perry had no issue seeking the help of Planned Parenthood to draft the legislation. Perry’s experience with L.D 227 has taught her a painful lesson, which has given her the impetus to be an advocate to eliminate the process.
It might be helpful to their cause if the Democrats were not so hypocritical on this subject. Sen Craig Hickman, D-Winthrop, agrees that granges are needed, but not before he uses the concept or placeholder bill to rewrite cannabis laws for Maine. These Democrats who acknowledge change is required recognize it will not happen for this session, so they are making the best of that and using the concept bill process to the max. This legislative session may be the most negatively transformative in Maine history. The question for the future will be when the Republicans regain power, and it will happen eventually, can they reverse many of these atrocious and radical bills, or is the damage to Maine permanent?
The post Is Deceit Necessary To Pass Bills? appeared first on Granite Grok.
States that open the door to medically assisted dying on the argument that it is compassionate are being used to leverage empathy for the terminally ill to advance a completely different agenda.
Every progressive leap of this sort results in a trip down the same slippery slope, in some instances more quickly than others, toward a culture that encourages ending life to relieve itself of the burden of … people.
Imperfect children, depressed adults, long wait times for procedures, the homeless and economically challenged, mental health patients, those without enough insurance, drug and alcohol addiction, the list gets longer everywhere it gets a foothold. Every inch of mission creep increases the loss of the productive lives of people who are neither in chronic physical pain nor terminal.
I don’t mean to sound cruel or unsympathetic, but as I’ve said more than once, the question isn’t whether someone has the right to die if they want (as a sovereign individual, they must). The issue is government regulation that devolves into policies of deliberate depopulation for political convenience.
I have witnessed chronic pain in a terminal family member, and as horrible as that is, once open, this door never closes, and it leads inexorably to an incompetent and uncaring bureaucratic state that recommends (encourages) suicide for productive people rather than help or heal them. A state that may be in part responsible for the circumstances leading to this final diagnosis.
If you’d like to explore the slippery slope, I’ve assembled a list of content on the topic from the past few years in no particular order. Please take a moment to (at least) skim all the titles and click on a few to unpack what’s inside. I think you’ll find this not a path on which we should step, no matter how we think it will make us feel (or look) today.
The post Before You Put NH on the Assisted Suicide Slippery Slope (HB1283), Please Read This! appeared first on Granite Grok.
I have been in court for over three years, arguing for transparency in Nashua’s public records. The experience has been profoundly disappointing. The courts are overburdened and under-resourced and often appear aligned with the city.
In a Right-to-Know hearing last May, Judge Colburn ruled that the claims regarding record requests to various Boards and Committees were “moot.” Her order was likely based on the City’s responses to the Judge’s inquiries about its record-keeping procedures. The city’s response was not wholly truthful, as can be demonstrated by its post-court inaction. Now that ten months have passed, an objective assessor would likely conclude that changes have been made to further restrict access to public reports.
Nashua has been embroiled in Right-to-Know litigation since 2020, and no court order has resulted in meaningful changes. Judges must put too much faith in Nashua’s attorneys to implement what they state in court. The result has been that pro se citizens continue to be treated as ‘Barbarians at the Gates’. Why are Nashua’s attorneys so willing to ignore both the RTK law’s intent and the Court’s urging to get their house in order? I suspect that the city attorneys know the judges will align with the city, and the court will do its utmost to accommodate the city. This might be a reasonable approach if the City were dealing in good faith and honoring their words stated in court. Yet, the City maintains its rigidity and fights change, understanding the Court is overburdened and unable to expedite these cases. It is nearly impossible for Citizens to win in a stacked and sluggish Court.
What is missing to correct records problems:
Attorney Rice provided common-sense input at the Nackey Loeb Sunshine Week Panel forum on March 11, 2024. She focused on the need for open communication between the departments and the citizens. She stated, “Emails are awkward,” and they are ineffective at getting to the records citizens seek. Nashua now operates only through emails, subjecting certain citizens to a more burdensome process. Further restrictions have been made to impede citizens from interacting with city officials.
Nashua attorneys appear to have a strategy to delay while playing the virtuous victim, playing the blame game, and marginalizing citizens rather than respecting the intent of the RTK law, acting as leaders, and instituting necessary improvements to curb litigation. Hence, lawsuits continue.
Citizens should not be blamed for this RTK litigation. The Court should examine the Nashua City Attorney’s behavior in the RTK cases. Also, might there be court process improvements to address maneuvers that impede timely resolution?
Justice Delayed is Justice Denied
The post If You Want to Change the Right to Know Law, Give Citizens More Power, Not The Government appeared first on Granite Grok.
As I’ve been warning about, there is no real privacy protections anymore in our public schools. Even when they say that privacy protections are in place, don’t believe it. The federal law that is supposed to protect student privacy has exceptions which opens the door for tech vendors to amass all kinds of personal information on students.
The Manchester School District recently sent out a parent survey. As Jon DiPietro noted in an X post:
This is why it’s important to understand that your children’s personal information is not private, and you need to be extra cautious about what information you allow the school to collect.
The post Manchester School District Misleads Parents on Personal Privacy Protections appeared first on Granite Grok.
A few days ago, we shared reporting on J6 Committee antics showing premeditation and bias: the Select Committee (Chair Thompson and Vice-Chair Cheney) hid or deleted files, testimony, or witness interviews. Recorded testimony and related transcripts were not archived with the House Clerk.
You have to be a particular sort of extra-special Republican to get away with that, especially after the made-for-TV show trial and cherry-picked anti-Trump invective, much of which was debunked in real-time and later wound up in Rep. Loudermilk’s investigation of the investigation report.
“Despite the driver of the president’s SUV testifying under oath that the (Cassidy) Hutchinson story was false, the select committee chose to validate and promote Hutchinson’s version of the story as fact, “they stated in the report.” The select committee hid the driver’s full testimony and only favorably mentioned his testimony in its final report, it did not release the full transcript.”
Between all the contradictions and all the evidence that was mishandled, lost, or destroyed by the “J6 investigators,” Rep. Barry Loudermilk has suggested criminal referrals for obstruction of Justice are possible, with former House Rep (no longer protected by House Rules) Liz Cheney at the top of the list.
(He) believes that Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the chairman of the now-disbanded Jan. 6 select committee, allowed then-Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) to make decisions for the panel.
“There’s still documents that we need to get hold of. We still don’t have passwords for the encrypted documents,” Mr. Loudermilk said. “It’s amazing that you know, when I asked the former Chairman Bennie Thompson, ‘All I want you to do is give me the passwords.’ He said, ‘I don’t even know what you’re talking about.’
In proper uniparty fashion,
Ms. Cheney, who lost her Wyoming Republican primary by more than 40 percentage points, suggested on social media platform X that Mr. Loudermilk and others are lying and trying to “cover up what [President Trump] did” on Jan. 6. She also recently wrote that people should instead read her committee’s report.
Would that be the partisan report whose veracity cannot be verified without access to hidden or deleted testimony never filed with the House Clerk or evidence protected by passwords no one has? That report?
While Democrats control the White House, any referral to Justice will be slow-walked, stalled, or handled with kid gloves. No one in the Obama-Bush-Cheney alliance wants to besmirch their J6 narrative before November. Loudermilk probably knows this, so I wouldn’t expect any high-value target to get referred to Main Justice for anything.
If Trump wins, the win sticks and he survives to be sworn in, Cheney might not be so lucky.
Exit question: How many palettes of bricks will the DNC have delivered to the doorstep of every migrant shantytown, shelter, hotel, or motel around election time, one for each harvested ballot or more?
The post How Cool Would It Be if Lizard Cheney Was Charged With Obstruction of Justice? appeared first on Granite Grok.
Most people are at least vaguely familiar with the story of the original Trojan Horse. According to legend, sometime around the 12th or 13th century BC, Greece and Troy were at war. The Greek army was unable to breach the defenses of the heavily fortified city of Troy, so it devised a plan. It decided to build an enormous wooden horse and left it outside the city, seemingly as a peace offering, a gift. Hidden inside the horse, though, was an elite group of Greek fighters, and after it was towed inside the city gates, the warriors emerged and destroyed the city.
The term “Trojan Horse” has come to mean anything that may appear innocuous, but is intended to cause harm. Today, most computer users associate the term with a type of computer virus – malicious software designed to spy on the user’s on-line activity, or to collect sensitive, personal information.
The wildly popular TikTok is offered free of charge – a gift with no apparent strings attached. As a social media platform allowing users to post short videos on line, it’s easy to understand its popularity. It gives users, mostly young people, hungry for attention and exposure, an opportunity to perform before an audience. Some of the video postings can be entertaining, funny, and even illuminating and informative. But they can also be deceptive, morally corrosive, and even dangerous – especially for young, impressionable minds. And like all Trojan Horse viruses, this app collects personal information on its users.
So how is that a threat to our national security? The problem is that TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company headquartered in Beijing and controlled by the Communist Chinese government, which ultimately controls the content.
Today, our president likes to call China a competitor. He wants us to believe that we’re engaged in some sort of a game with the CCP – something akin to horseshoes or lawn darts. But geopolitical experts tell us China is not a friendly competitor. It should be considered an adversary, or even an enemy. Anyone doubting that need only look at China’s routine theft of America’s intellectual property, its belligerence toward Taiwan, its territorial expansion in the South China Sea via those artificial islands, and its bloated military. They need only look at China’s treatment of the Uyghurs to understand that the CCP is a ruthless, oppressive government, bent on world domination.
And it doesn’t have to be accomplished militarily.
It would be foolhardy to offer America’s enemies intimate knowledge of our nation’s psyche, or to allow Communist China’s propaganda machine to mold the impressionable minds of young Americans. That’s why TikTok has been called a threat to national security.
And social media platforms aren’t the only means China has to infiltrate America. There are other ways it can exert its influence and eventually dominate our country.
It can try to take control of our energy resources or our food supplies. It can work to transform our strong and proud citizenry into a nation of passive, compliant drug addicts, by feeding us unlimited amounts of narcotics.
It’s all happening today under the watchful eye of Joe Biden. In fact, in many cases, Biden is doing more than allowing it to happen. He’s facilitating it.
It was Biden who depleted our Strategic Petroleum Reserves to alarmingly low levels, where they remain today. It was Biden who sold millions of gallons of that precious commodity to China, while at the same time relentlessly pushing green energy. That has increased our dependence on Chinese-manufactured solar cells and batteries. And it’s Biden who’s allowing the Chinese to buy-up millions of acres of our farmland, essential to the world’s food supply.
Perhaps Biden’s biggest favor to the CCP is his open border policy. There’s no evidence whatsoever to suggest that Biden’s 10 million “newcomers,” including 37,000 Chinese, have any intention of pledging allegiance to this country or even assimilating American values. But common sense and the law of averages tell us that a percentage of them are planning to do us harm.
And the fentanyl streaming across Biden’s open borders has already killed or incapacitated hundreds of thousands of our citizens. If it continues, it will lead to the utter decimation of a once-proud nation.
Then there’s the China spy balloon, which Biden allowed to meander across our countryside, sucking up national defense data. And the China Initiative that Biden abruptly cancelled. That program was designed to track China’s espionage activity in this country.
For the Chinese Communist Party, Joe Biden is the gift that keeps on giving.
Some attribute that to Biden’s incompetence and his obvious cognitive decline. Others believe the millions of dollars the CCP paid to his family may have something to do with it. Shamefully, still others close their eyes and pretend that none of it is happening.
If the efforts by Congress to sever China’s ties with TikTok succeeds, it will remove one obvious threat to our national security. Unfortunately, there is still Joe Biden.
Peter Lemiska
(This article first appeared on Americanthinker.com)
The post China Doesn’t Need a Trojan Horse – It Has Joe Biden. appeared first on Granite Grok.
What is Christian Nationalism, Exactly? This was the heading of an article by N.Y. Times writer David French. The article was a response to the new documentary entitled “God and Country”. Christian Nationalism is supposedly this belief that the “fate of the church is closely tied to the outcome of any political election.”
The Declaration of Independence said our inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness come not from King George III but from our Creator. We were founded as a Judeo-Christian nation. “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”—John Adams.
Do not buy into the newest iteration of the left’s imagined new threat, “Christian Nationalism.” It is Christians who are under attack.
Mr. French then goes on to connect the politically motivated dots by claiming this fervor of the gullible can lead to anything, including the stealing of an election. Ah, a second reference to the “orange man bad.” with reference to the January 6th, 2021 unarmed riot.
We want to thank Russ Wiles for this Contribution – Please direct yours to Steve@GraniteGrok.com.
You can review our ‘Op-Ed Guidelines‘ on the FAQ Page.
Silly me, I thought that the secular Marxists were our worry for their attack on Christianity. A teacher gets suspended for giving a student a bible. A football coach gets placed on leave for saying a prayer on the field at the end of a game. Evangelical colleges like Gordon College in Massachusetts and Kings College in New York have had their accreditation challenged.
Christian adoption agencies, hospitals, and crisis pregnancy centers have come under attack. School prayer and bible studies on school property is improper. And speaking of Rob Reiner, who is the real-life embodiment of his role of “Meathead” in “All in the Family, don’t you just love to be chastised by an atheist who quotes from the bible?
The Christian Nationalism bogeyman is another phony agenda of the Marxist-Democrat party. Destroy Christians and Jews, and you can shred the foundation of our Constitution. Apparently, a growing number of imposter Christians, described as “white Christian nationalists,” are threatening democracy and are behind the so-called January 6th “insurrection.” Balderdash! It was not an insurrection, Mr. Reiner. No wonder your documentary was a box office bomb. People are not that stupid.
The post Night Cap: Castigating Christians with a Broad Brush appeared first on Granite Grok.
(white) goldstandard-03-21-24-S.pdf
(gold) goldstandard-03-21-24-S-y.pdf
The post Senate Gold Standard – March 21, 2024 appeared first on NH Liberty Alliance.
You have likely heard the tale by now. A US Navy medic is alleged to have been silenced by superiors for leaking DOD health data, which begs a few interesting questions about how the government “managed” the health and safety of our “troops” over—we’ll just call it—the last few years.
Was it COVID, masking, the lack of certain preventatives, or an emphasis on a particular chemical intervention? It might have been Jill Biden’s fault, the war in Ukraine, something the millions of illegals carried over from the third world, food inflation, generational debt, or having to listen to Joe’s Hate of the Union Addresses.
Big mystery.
No, not really.
That the deaths and health injuries are anything but rare is evident from the report by a US Navy medic that Department of Defense data show that US Navy pilots have suffered a:
937% increase in heart failure
152% increase in cardiomyopathy
69% increase in ischemic heart disease
36% increase in hypertensive disease
63% increase in other forms of heart disease
There’s only one thing all of these “DOD” employees have in common, and it’s a problem for the weak-tea effort to soft-sell complications and uncommonness.
The corrupt US Department of Defense, a ramp for the excess profits of the armaments industry, tried to blame the events on the Covid virus itself. However, “according to information published by the US Army, 97% of active-duty U.S. troops are fully vaccinated, 90% of Army National Guard members are fully vaccinated, and 91% of U.S. Army Reserve members are fully vaccinated.”
So, if the “vaccine” did not cause the deaths and health injuries, and the virus was responsible, obviously the “vaccine” was totally ineffective in protecting against the virus.
And they are still pushing the Jab as safer than catching COVID.
The post A 937% Increase in Heart Failure? appeared first on Granite Grok.
Proponents of HB1283 argue that, per a UNH survey, 71% of the people of NH were in favor of assisted suicide. After obtaining the survey and speaking with UNH, I found out that the NH Alliance for End-of-Life Options paid $1800 for the survey.
I am not challenging the intent of HB 1283 (the assisted suicide bill) itself, but it has many flaws.
The second survey question asks, “Do you identify as having a disability?” It then goes on to describe “Disability” in detail. That sent up a huge red flag, and when I asked the Director of the Alliance why ask this question, she could offer no explanation. I also was able to uncover that the poll was conducted with the Granite State Panel, which receives compensation for surveys they participate in. Related: Slippery Meet Slope …
I have multiple concerns about the assisted suicide bill HB1283.There is no residency requirement. This means that technically anyone in the world can come to New Hampshire with a terminal illness to end their life.
The term Health Care entity, as described, “means an entity or institution, other than an individual, that is licensed to provide any form of health care in the State “can include a weight loss clinic, a Medi spa., or a dentist office.
A Health Care provider, as per RSA 329, “329:1 Practice. – Any person shall be regarded as practicing medicine under the meaning of this chapter who shall diagnose, treat, perform surgery, or prescribe any treatment of medicine for any disease or human ailment. “Surgery” means any procedure, including but not limited to laser, in which human tissue is cut, shaped, burned, vaporized, or otherwise structurally altered, except that this section shall not apply to any person to whom authority is given by any other statute to perform acts which might otherwise be deemed the practice of medicine. “Laser” means light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation.” used to prescribe or consult in this process is very vague.
This means that two Nurse Practitioners whom you have never met before would be able to set up a clinic to exclusively provide access to assisted suicide since there is nothing in the Bill that requires the involvement of your treating Physician. It doesn’t even say that your Medical Record has to come from your treating physician.
We want to thank Rep Kristine Perez for this Contribution – Please direct yours to Steve@GraniteGrok.com.
You can review our ‘Op-Ed Guidelines‘ on the FAQ Page.
Home Health and Hospice require an individual to be perceived (as) in their last six months of life as determined by their regular treating physician and a hospice physician. They must also have a Palliative performance scale of < or = to 50-60%, dependence of 3 or their 6 ADLs, and stop treatment of their condition.
None of these are requirements for ending one’s life in this Bill. There is no mention of the treating physician’s involvement at all.
Page 2: lines 18- 20: All providers are qualified to make a diagnosis and prognosis, although “there is no standard life expectancy for a patient to be considered terminal”, according to Wikipedia
Line 25: This is stated to be self-administered, yet no witness is required. How do we know what happens to the drugs once obtained? Vermont said that a percentage of individuals don’t actually use them, and if so, what happens to this deadly cocktail in that case? This Bill has no provision for that as well.
Page 3: IV: Who provides the health record? Is it obtained from the treating physician? Who requests it or can the individual just bring it in complete or incomplete and does it say that their life expectancy is less than 6 months?
Page 4: line 2: “end my life in a peaceful manner.” The Canadian Association of MAID “acknowledges that patients who ingest assisted suicide drugs can experience burning, nausea, vomiting, regurgitation especially if the patient has difficulty swallowing large volume of liquids.” Seizures can also be a side effect of these drugs. Oregon reports that 14.8% of individuals have reported experiencing difficulty swallowing or drug regurgitation, as well as seizures. We have peaceful in the Bill, but there is certainly no guarantee of that.
Page 5: line 9: Allows the lethal prescription to be picked up 48 hours after prescribed. This is a very short time and doesn’t allow for the reality of the situation to be absorbed.
Page 6+ eliminates any liability for anyone or any place . That is also a red flag. No liability for the initial prescribing individual or the consulting individual!
Page 7: lines 9-12 states that “Actions taken in accordance with this chapter shall not be construed for any purpose to constitute suicide, assisted suicide, euthanasia, mercy killing, homicide or adult abuse under the law.” Why is this in there? I could not find a definition for MAiD without assisted suicide being mentioned. MAiD is medically assisted suicide.
Lines 18-20: Coercion: Earlier in this Bill, it was stated that one could not coerce an individual to participate in MAiD. No consequences were stated for such action. Yet if one attempts to stop an individual from following through on their MAiD, it is a class B felony! Why?
Page 8: lines 32-36: we cannot dictate to insurance companies (life. Health. Accident, or annuities) that they would be required to forgo the terms of their policies. I spoke with two insurance agents who expressed great concerns. They also questioned why accident and annuities were included.
Page 9: Death Certificate: Why is this not on the certificate? The terminal illness should perhaps be the primary cause of death, and MAiD the secondary. Causes of death are used for statistical reasons and to track life expectancy for diagnosed conditions.
This Bill is also against the Platform of Republican Principles.
The National Council on Disabilities is against MAiD, as is the State Veterans Affairs Council and numerous other groups in the State and the Nation.
The post A Long List of Problems with New Hampshire’s Assisted Suicide Bill (HB1283) appeared first on Granite Grok.
Our latest VA Whistleblower continues to deliver on an aspect of the VA that is under-reported. In the previous installment, we published evidence of poor management and the mishandling of taxpayer dollars regarding priorities. Party first, Veterans later, if you like. This time, we’re taking it national.
The VA is holding a large gathering in Chicago at the end of the month despite a worsening fiscal situation it kept under wraps until the President’s budget was announced. From our Whistleblower: ‘This is a huge story that has not been reported, and I don’t know why.‘
Almost every VA facility across the country is currently in a deficit situation. These deficits range anywhere from $3-4M up to $100M. Hospitals have been struggling since the new year to decrease their onboard staffing, leading to staffing situations across the nation. That itself is the issue that has yet to be widely reported in the news, and congressional offices are just getting wind of it
The scandal I bring to you all in the press is that as the VA struggles to pay for salaried clerks, police, doctors, and nurses to staff hospitals, the VA leaders are treating themselves to a week in Chicago for the American College of Healthcare Executives conference next week.
The tuition for this meeting is well over a $1000, hotels are charging maximum rates $250-350 a night while VA leaders wine and dine with each other for the week while hospitals struggle to staff the facilities. ACHE attendance is not a requirement, it’s simply mingling with private sector healthcare facilities.
Priorities?
I would actually question why the VA would pay for any staff member to attend this. Clearly, the optics of VA leaders wining and dining while their hospitals try to hire staff is bad. This is nothing but an opportunity for VA leaders to schmooze with others at the taxpayer’s expense at a time of multi-billion dollar shortfall projections, yes, billions
I’m not suggesting this is 20 or 30 staff members attending, but literally hundreds of VA employees.
Not to worry. The Veterans administration has guidance regarding such matters.
And here they are, gathering by the hundreds to pat each other on the back about how these rules don’t apply to them.
The Whistleblower requests under FOIA a listing of all VA attendees to this event and the cost associated with their travel if anyone has the bandwidth for that.
We’ll share the details if or when you ever get a response.
The post Whistleblower: No Money to Hire Help, But VA Leadership is Still Partying in Chicago Next Week. appeared first on Granite Grok.
It is now common knowledge there is a wide spectrum of national security issues resulting from open borders and deliberate waves of mass migration. These issues have an economic and public safety impact on the USA and its taxpayers. The magnitude of this issue should bring into question the federal income tax.
A recent study conducted by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) has verified the economic costs illegal immigrants have on American taxpayers. Some of the main statistics show the government costs of illegal immigration have increased by 35 billion dollars in the last five years. The net cost to the average American taxpayer is $1,156.00 a year. Also, many illegal immigrants receive financial incentives in the form of net cash profit from refundable tax credits. For more information, please click the link to view the study. Please click here to read the report.
Also, a data metric sheet compiled by US Customs and Border Protection has verified the total number of encounters at ports of entry between the two following groups: 1). Illegal immigrants trying to gain entry 2). Immigrants in the US illegally already (if I interpret it correctly). A chronological comparison of total encounters from 2017-2023 shows an incremental yet sharp increase in the volume of illegal immigration just along ports of entry. Click Here for the Customs and Border Protection data sheet.
We want to thank Ryan Bennett for this Contribution – Please direct yours to Steve@GraniteGrok.com.
You can review our ‘Op-Ed Guidelines‘ on the FAQ Page.
These overlapping financial and public safety impacts also strain existing human and civic institutional resources at the federal and state levels. The lack of assimilation to American values and a disdain for the Constitution disrupt the educational efficiency and opportunities for Americanized legal immigrants and citizens. With a nation that has a crumbling infrastructure, porous borders, a pedophilia-promoting agenda in the schools, and gender ideology, neoliberal climate change mantras, and critical race theory agendas pushed in woke corporations that go along with this, why should US citizens give their hard-earned income to a financial system that has capitulated to the allied open border anarcho-Marxist and transhumanist corporate fascist strands of totalitarianism?
Why should Americans keep paying the federal income tax if it is only fueling the very beast overwhelming our public, economic and civic well-being? Our tax money is used to circumvent sovereign American laws via a corrupt de-facto bankrupt administrative state that conflicts with the Judeo-Christian framework our founders fought so hard for.
Most Americans cannot even tackle understanding the basics of our mammoth financial system, let alone weave through the confusing (intentionally so) bureaucratic layers of administrative penal codes, regulations, statutes, etc., that have incrementally worked against us financially. The same convoluted system is now giving illegal immigrants financial incentives in states like California. Gangs are running rampant in parts of NYC. Illegal immigrants are getting free housing in multiple states while other illegals sexually assault, rape, and mug innocent people across the USA.
Call me radical, but I would like to bet millions of Americans feel this sentiment to some degree but may not want to express it. I think Americans should research the true history of the federal income tax, the meaning of the word “income” from the time our Constitution was written and seriously consider what the intent of the income tax was before FDR’s New Deal. Combine that with the present-day taxpayer-funded anarch-terrorist and cartel-based networks residing in sanctuary city nodes across the USA, and ask yourself, “Would you ever personally fund something to this nature?” I would assume no, so then why should “We the People” fund the same system we would all refuse to fund individually as people? Just my opinion. Rant over.
The views and opinions expressed by contributors are those of the author and may not reflect the opinion or position of Grok Media, GraniteGrok.com, its authors, advertisers, donors, or sponsors.
The post Should Americans Stop Paying Their Federal Income Tax Until the Open Border Crisis Resolves? appeared first on Granite Grok.
Hello Monday my old enemy…
Take heart – there will be both a Wednesday and Friday Edition. Last week’s Friday Edition.
Remember, ridicule and mockery are effective weapons:
Now, let the mockery and mayhem begin.
*** Warning, a few possibly off-color ones, in case tender eyes are about ***
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Cue the line from the movie The Octagon: The world, it does not want to be saved… only to be left alone”.
I’ve said it many times: up until the whole Covid thing, I was firmly in the “vaccines are good” camp. And, at least in theory, I would still hold true to that; the idea that you could pre-arm the immune system against a dangerous pathogen is an incredible thing. It’s great in principle, but sorely lacking in execution. And seeing how corrupt both industry and our alleged governmental watchdogs are, I’m now a confirmed anti-vaxxer.
At some point, you have to give up when – no matter how you try – they simply won’t understand.
Welcome to the “subscription model” of the new economy. Like Anal Schwab’s WEF says, you’ll own nothing.
I was thinking, as I parked late this morning and looked at my house, of a phrase by Thomas Jefferson: “I have a right to nothing which another has the right to take away”. If I don’t pay my taxes on my house, my house gets taken away. Ergo, I don’t really own my own property.
The ONLY THING that gives you away is your voice? Seriously? This is psychotic-level delusion.
Well, yeah, until a JDAM drops on you.
Know that your biggest enemy has a “D” after their name.
Weep for these magnificent trees.
That timing wouldn’t surprise me at all.
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PSA – PSA – PSA – PSA – PSA
To quote one of my all-time favorite movie lines, “Boy, do I hate being right all the time”.
Remember what I said, a post or so ago, about “Interspecies affection” coming after “Minor Attraction”? And speaking of the latter:
I have to wonder now…
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A skill the Democrats (and farther Left) have mastered.
Anyone who thinks Covid and The Jab “spontaneously happened” is outright delusional. Related:
I think that’s right, actually.
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Link section (some mine, some from my Jarhead friend):
Taiwan confirms presence of US special forces — RT World News
As though this couldn’t be considered a provocation.
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A Deal With the Digital Devil – Chronicles (chroniclesmagazine.org)
The tools we create will soon be our masters. And from the same site:
Social Contract Theory as Feathered Serpent – Chronicles (chroniclesmagazine.org)
Being Human – Chronicles (chroniclesmagazine.org)
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The Big Squeeze: Over 140,000 U.S. Farms Lost In 5 Years (technocracy.news)
From 2019. And only getting worse. And this, from 2022:
When Collectivists Have Full Control – by FIA Ranch (substack.com)
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‘Trusted Messengers:’ Volunteer Censors Trained to Control Your Community’s Speech – Foundation for Freedom Online
Censorship accelerating. Related:
Send Your Neighbor To Prison For “WrongSpeak,” Get $2,000 From Taxpayers in State of Washington – Liberty Sentinel
As you weigh whether people in your life would turn you in, remember, to too many, you are the enemy. This quote by Huxley applies:
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Dr. Leana Wen, arguably most stupid doctor & television talking head, outdone only by the former CDC Director Walensky & Drs. Peter Jüni & I Bogoch of Ontario, what a bunch of idiots! Dolts! MORONS! (substack.com)
Not just a useful idiot – the cause of the outbreak of Measles and other diseases is the open borders. On the Jab:
A new type of analysis of the COVID vaccine trials finds even more exaggeration of their benefits than we knew (substack.com)
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West Point Dumps MacArthur Formulation: Elevates Army Loyalty Above Country. Democrats Plan Military Government? | Blog Posts | VDARE.com
Subsuming the military for political ends.
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France’s Skyrocketing Threat :: Gatestone Institute
And yet, so many are open to bringing in more and more and more.
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Follow up on the Boeing exec turned whistle-blower that “committed suicide” just days before he was supposed to testify about quality & safety issues at Boeing:
Borepatch: Jeffery Epstein Could Not Be Reached For Comment
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In a severe turn towards tyranny, our northern neighbor (Canada) is looking at creating laws that would allow them to arrest you not only for what you say online, but what you MIGHT say online. Just like the movie “Minority Report” from a decade ago (which had a “Department of Pre-Crime”), the Canadian version will have people looking at your posts and deciding whether or not you COULD say something they don’t like. And if this does becomes law, they can arrest you BEFORE YOU ACTUALLY DO ANYTHING, then put you in PRISON. Even the leftists agree that several changes would need to be made to the judicial system to make this fly, but hey, who cares about rights & free speech when we need to control the peasants, right?:
Trudeau Demands Life In Prison For Speech Crimes (substack.com)
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It certainly looks like the Biden Admin does NOT want Israel to win the war against Hamas. Since Hamas is a terrorist organization, it makes you wonder why? Maybe because TPTB really don’t WANT peace in the middle east. They want a forever war instead (more money to be made). Honestly, I’m getting really sick of how most of the world treats Israel (and Jews in general) as 2nd class people (or worse):
https://www.mindingthecampus.org/2024/03/16/escalation-towards-an-independent-terrorist-state/
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Unfortunately, antisemitism is rising all over the West, but Europe is definitely feeling it much more than then the USA (at least for now). Some Jewish families have bags packed & ready to go in case they need to abandon their homes and leave on a moments notice. Here is an interview from Belgium with a young Jewish boy and a Holocaust survivor both saying that things are getting scary, and Jews need to think about leaving:
As bad as things are for Jews in the US, it’s much worse in Western Europe ~ Elder Of Ziyon – Israel News
Related antisemitism:
https://twitter.com/DrEliDavid/status/1769012309504987639
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Jeffery Tucker of the Epoch Times asks a really good question: What do we do if the government just ignores the Supreme Court and does (or continues doing) the same thing that the Court slapped down? Slo-Joe & crew have already done it at least twice already (telling landlords during Covid that they cannot charge rent OR evict people, SCOTUS said NO, but they did it anyway). And recently, with the forgiveness of student loans (Joe even BRAGGED about defying SCOTUS). So what DO we do if they are ignoring the highest court?
What If the President Ignores the Supreme Court? | The Epoch Times
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Another article about all the info your car collects on you (and reports back to the car company so they can monetize you). In this case, the author’s insurance rates went up 21% after his car started reporting his driving habits to the insurance companies. This is another reason why I rebuilt & drive a 22 year old truck, and I also have a 19 year old minivan (no “report back”). However, I’m sure that someday soon, it will be “required” to have a “report back” box installed in any vehicle driven on public roads, and you’ll be fined and/or arrested for NOT having one. Can’t allow the peasants to have unrestricted movement, now can we?:
https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/03/11/2342228/automakers-are-sharing-consumers-driving-behavior-with-insurance-companies
As an aside, I person I know from work had to go to China (on business) last month (February), and her phone battery died while she was gathering her luggage at the airport. It was cold & windy, so she wrapped her scarf around her face & head just before she exited the airport to get a cab. The Chinese police stopped her less than a minute later because their facial recognition cameras could not identify her and they could not get a ping from her phone. Think about that: 1 minute to be looked at, run through the database, shown as a “non-identified person”, and the police deployed to stop you. THAT’s what the current surveillance tech can do in China (at least in any urban area), and what the globalists want everywhere (if we let it).
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A “mass shooting” in Philly, but it’s being buried because the shooters were all black. The article goes on to show how the news manipulates the narrative so that it LOOKS like white people are the bad ones, when the reality is that 90%+ of black shooting deaths are caused by other blacks.:
Now We Know Why That Philly Mass Shooting Story Vanished – PJ Media
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In another “not good for the country” article, the F-35 “do everything” fighter jet which is currently being fielded by ALL of America’s forces is majorly lacking in actual “fight readiness”. The BEST report they could give is 55% “mission capable” (which means the plane can fly and do at least ONE mission), but the real truth teller is “full mission capable” (FMC), which means it’s ready to do ANY mission within it’s design parameters. According to the report, across the services only 30% of our “best fighter jets ever” are FMC! That means that after 21 years of development time (10 of those being EXTRA time not budgeted for), billions in cost overruns, and thousands of wasted hours training the F-35 crews (not to mention selling off a LOT of good, usable F-18 and F-16 jets to our “allies”), 70% of our F-35 fleet is NOT COMBAT READY! This is a disgrace. Just as a measure, in the Marine Corps in the 1980’s, if more than 15% of a unit’s aircraft were not FMC at any particular time, the Commanding Officer of that unit better have a damn good reason, or they could be relieved of command. But the Military/Industrial complex wanted the F-35, because it was incredibly expensive (lots of ways to make money), and incredibly complicated (lots of reasons for cost overruns). So they make money while the US Forces are forced to accept a plane that is too complicated to keep it flying. Think about going to war with a peer (or near-peer) adversary and having 70% of your fighter jets be not combat ready. But hey, a lot of money was made…
https://www.theepochtimes.com/opinion/70-percent-or-more-of-f-35s-may-not-be-combat-capable-5605487
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For those who willingly took the jab, we question your sanity. And for those who were forced to take the jab to continue working, we will pray for you. A recent study has suggested that males who were jabbed will lose 24 years of life span, passing away at 56 (on average). That’s a whole generation of men that will not help (or see) their grandchildren grow up. Also, there has been a LOT of studies showing major negative changes in the fertility of both men and women who have been jabbed, so these people may not ever have children, let alone grandchildren.
https://twitter.com/JimFergusonUK/status/176892643774921150
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For the “next” plandemic, the WEF is working on ways to make SURE you take whatever pills they are pushing. This is a WEF video from 2018 talking about how micro-transponders can now be put into pills, so they will know when you take it, and how long it was in your body. “Sir, you haven’t taken your Soma in 3 days, so your food ration has been terminated. If you want to eat again, take your Soma”…
https://twitter.com/BGatesIsaPyscho/status/1768964056830882300
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Lastly: A funny for you: This is a “song” response to a liberal expecting that we should just magically know what pronoun to call their “enlightenedness”, and it’s hilarious:
https://twitter.com/Commonsensepre2/status/1768279560603181084
>>>>>=====<<<<<
Pick of the post:
This is, I think, very telling – and not just about him, but about ALL the Globalists and, in general, about ALL that would call themselves our masters. Vanity, after all, is Satan’s favorite sin.
>>>>>=====<<<<<
Palate Cleansers:
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Sent that to my son, who replied Damn!
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Oh, this looks so, so familiar.
>>>>>=====<<<<<
Come back Wednesday for another edition. Same Meme Time. Same Meme channel.
Please do consider buying me a coffee.
Buy Me a Coffee
>>>>>=====<<<<<
The post MONDAY MEMES appeared first on Granite Grok.
They may call themselves Democrats. But they are Communists. Needless to say, they would deny being Communists. Indeed, they would roll their eyes and scoff at the suggestion. Yet their goal of “transforming” America by making it more “diverse,” “equitable,” “inclusive,” blah, blah, blah, is simply the latest manifestation of Stalin’s purges, Mao’s Cultural Revolution, Pol Pot’s re-education, etc.
This post is about State Representative Damond Ford, a Democrat (Communist, actually) who nominally represents several wards in Manchester, New Hampshire. To borrow a phrase from Sam Cooke, Damond Ford doesn’t know much about history.
Ford’s X is breathtaking … but that is NOT meant as a compliment. It is a bacchanalia of vulgarity, profanity, and anti-white racism. This post is about the following X (formerly tweet):
Actually, non-Africans enslaved Africans for centuries before the Western slave trade began. Arab Muslims began enslaving non-Muslim Africans in the seventh century … one thousand years before the Atlantic slave trade began. Muslims were not allowed to be enslaved per Islamic law. So race-based slavery was an Arab/Muslim thing long, long, long before it was “an American/Christian thing.”
As for the magnitude of the Arab Muslim slave trade … the estimates I have seen range from 10 million to 17 million. The journey of the enslaved Africans across the Sahara was unbelievably brutal and cruel … adjectives that also describe the Atlantic route.
To be clear, I am NOT saying that the Arab Muslim slave trade was worse than the Western slave trade or that it justifies the Western slave trade … what I am saying is that Damond Ford is full of shit in claiming that race-based slavery was uniquely “an American/Christian thing.”
Ford’s uninformed and inaccurate explanation of the African slave trade is the “honest history” he wants taught to schoolchildren. It is based not on any neutral and objective study of history but what even a cursory review of his X makes unarguable … an obsession with race that facilitates the Left’s agenda of “transforming” America.
The only thing that really distinguishes Damond Ford and his ilk from Pol Pot, Mao, Stalin, etc., is that the latter obtained sufficient power to destroy the lives of hundreds of millions. Pray that Ford and his ilk never obtain such power.
The post State Rep Damond Ford Doesn’t Know Much About History appeared first on Granite Grok.
Dr. Jill has this guy named Anthony Bernal working for her. Her “top aide” for a decade (while Joe was Barry’s VP until the present day) and, according to reports, makes the work environment toxic.
From comments about people’s sexuality to opining on the penis size of colleges, Bernal’s alleged trail of harassment has revealed at least two problems for the Bidens. First, a dozen individuals have come forward to share stories about Bernal’s bullying with the New York Post. The second is that there is universal agreement (at least from those cited in the reporting) that everyone knows about it, but the Bidens do nothing to stop it and never have.
“It comes from the top. The Bidens are more interested in shielding a known predator than protecting [verbal] abuse victims.”
So much for the adults talking over, not that this was ever true. Joe Biden is a toxic work environment and has been for years. Inappropriate touching, sniffing, and an inability to grasp the concept of personal space. He swam naked in front of female Secret Service members on his detail, and then there is Ashley Biden’s diary. Joe is a creepy toxic freak, so with that as a role model, what incentive would Jill or Joe have to say boo to Bernal, who appears to use his close association with power as an excuse to be a bullying sexist asshole?
“They [the Bidens]talk a big game about integrity, decency, and kindness but when you work for the Bidens, you experience anything but that,” said another former White House adviser, who, like other sources, asked for anonymity in order to speak candidly and for fear of retaliation.
“They choose to surround themselves with bullies who run around the White House like mean girls, making the president and first lady look like phonies to everyone in Washington because everyone on the inside talks about what happens there on the outside.”
And it’s not just Bernal. The Post notes other members of the Biden White House were also abusive. “Three people contacted the [The White House Counsel’s] office last fall. They requested an investigation into Ian Mellul, a former associate director of presidential advance, and Brie Moore, a former director of press advance.”
Talking to their superiors resulted in … nothing. This is not to diminish or dismiss their discomfort, but this is just like the sort of Government they’ve helped create—one where they ignore their own, destroy them if need be, to protect the ability to abuse power.
Contrast this to all the narratives about Trump being toxic, and it looks like more projection. Democrats are reporting on superiors, all the way to the top, about sexual harassment and bullying, and nothing is being done about it.
And if they complained openly, they’d get fired or worse.
The post Jill Biden’s Top Aide is A Toxic Gay Bully Who Sexually Harasses White House Staff appeared first on Granite Grok.
When I learned that Ian Underwood’s latest book was available, I eagerly awaited an opportunity to buy it. An in-person sale that didn’t require excessive miles on my odometer. Today was the day because his wife had a table at an event in my zip code.
A few hours later, I plowed through it as it was easy to read like all the others in his collection.
But before I get into discussing the book, it’s important to share some relevant details about myself that are not included in my review of the first 3 of his books (that I read).
While nobody likes people who talk about themselves too much, think of what I will say more like a disclaimer for the sake of rigorous honesty. After all, Page 10 says it’s the author’s hope that people on both sides of the ESA controversy will be more open and honest about what their goals actually are. More on that in a moment, but my disclosure is about the relationship between my wallet and OPK (other people’s kids). I don’t have kids, I never wanted kids, and I resent being forced to pay OPK-related expenses. It’s important to get that out in the open in keeping with Page 10’s words and while reviewing talking points 1 and 2 of 4, so let’s get started.
The back cover says the following:
“I’m neither for nor against ESAs. All my libertarian friends say I’m supposed to like ESAs. But I’ve never found the arguments for them persuasive. This book is a record of my attempts to figure out exactly why.”
To me, that’s the subject of the book, and I’ll offer my own thoughts on how reading the book changed them.
There are four arguments on Page 9 that are hammered out in articulate detail over the next 124 pages. They are as follows:
1) ESAs reduce overall spending, thus saving taxpayers money.
2) ESAs can eventually provide a replacement for public schools.
3) ESAs create conditions in which free market competition will reduce costs and improve quality.
4) ESAs represent an improvement over what I call the Standard Model for helping the poor that had been developed and refined over generations.
Starting with the first argument, which I agreed with until this book debunked it, Page 7 nails it with the words “shifting” and “saving” and makes clear that they are NOT interchangeable. Many simple comparisons are made that Dr. Frank would approve of. He likes to say, “Explain it to me like I’m a kid.” This book does that. Always be cautious of the word “free” because it usually means that someone else is paying for it.
As for the second argument, I was an ardent supporter. I use the word “was” because my parade has been rained on with the author’s comparison of EFAs to UBI and some of their mutual nuts and bolts. There’s a lot of merit to the arguments, but you’ll have to read the book yourself. Personally, I’d like to see “Gov-Ed,” as Chris Salcedo calls it, totally defunded and taxes refunded(or at least reduced). For reasons noted earlier, I would get to keep what’s rightfully mine in the first place, and those who have kids could use their tax savings to fund what serves the best interest of their young. Easy-peasy. No redistribution involved and personal responsibility prevails.
Buy – Stop Lying About Education Savings Accounts
Unfortunately, what I personally want to see happen is an unrealistic goal due to a variety of reasons we all can think of. Therefore, I had always thought of the second argument for EFAs as a “starve the beast” strategy with the ultimate bonus result of vaporizing all its (what author JT Gatto called) “parasite” entities, especially the NTU. But the merits of the second argument have been called into question, so, onto the third.
There are some great Milton Friedman references poking holes into the third argument. In fact, the author renames this fantasy free market, the “freeBIE market.” One highlight is the pointing out that a free market is between TWO entities; the producer and the consumer. Once the government is involved in playing Robin Hood, you have THREE players involved. Read the book to learn more.
The fourth argument involves the public’s perception of social problems, such a poverty. Those who are poor don’t like the suffering that goes with the territory and those who are not poor don’t like the problems that go with having the poor among them, so there’s a dichotomy. Both parties agree that the problem exists, but not necessarily on the definition of “the problem” and the preferred solution. The Standard Model is explained in detail, and examples are given, such as Section 8, welfare, food stamps, etc. Then it’s explained how EFAs should be renamed “educaid,” as that’s the model being used, with all the flaws included. Again, you can learn more about the flaws in the book.
All in all, great talking points are made, and I feel enlightened, particularly by the Page 56 comment about how the (enemy camp)opponents of EFAs are wise to the “starve the beast” strategy in the second argument. I’m certainly not advocating pulling the plug on EFAs like the enemy camp is, but future bills that expand the eligibility for EFAs now give me pause. And at what point must one view the threshold as the poor subsidizing its wealthier neighbors(who can pay their own way)?
Then there’s the Trojan Horse that Ann Marie Banfield has been sounding the alarm on for quite some time: the globalist takeover of ALL forms of education that are not Gov-Ed. So that goes back to my preferred desire that Gov-Ed be defunded, and taxpayers get to keep their money. However, we still need to do something about “Claremont 2.0” before it wreaks havoc on NH’s future.
Buy – Stop Lying About Education Savings Accounts
The post Book Report: “Stop Lying about Education Savings Accounts” appeared first on Granite Grok.
The Biden-Regime/UniParty proxy-war against Russia has accomplished the opposite of what the warmongers assured us it was accomplishing. The Russian economy has been strengthened, not weakened, and the Russian military has been honed into a far, far, far more capable military force from when we supposedly began “degrading” Russia’s military capability.
Of course, you won’t hear any of these FACTS from the Regime-media (or the UniParty media, a/k/a Fox News) … our supposed “free press” is still regurgitating the incoherent Deep State talking points that Ukraine is simultaneously degrading the Russian military, but somehow this degraded Russian military is a threat to conquer all of Europe if we stop shoveling billions at the military-industrial complex.
David Sacks has been one of the voices of reason and truth about the proxy-war. He explains below how the proxy-war has produced a stronger Russian economy and military. Well worth spending a few minutes reading:
BIDEN’S BIG BACKFIRE
Last week I gave a talk at the American Moment conference in D.C. in which I compared Biden’s claims at the beginning of the Ukraine War to how it has actually turned out.
I explained how Biden’s policy has backfired in 4 key areas:
1) ECONOMIC
At the… https://t.co/r60eXbyQWy
— David Sacks (@DavidSacks) March 12, 2024
And below is an explanation why the Biden-Regime/UniParty/WEF sanctions have failed so miserably:
This is hands-down the best explanation I've heard on why sanctions on Russia backfired, and why they were never going to succeed in the first place.
By economist James K. Galbraith, professor at the University of Texas at Austin.
Best quote of his explanation: "This is a… pic.twitter.com/59thvpHt9B
— Arnaud Bertrand (@RnaudBertrand) March 11, 2024
The post Night Cap: Biden And The UniParty Have Strengthened The Economy And The Military … of Russia appeared first on Granite Grok.
The Biden administration aims to establish 30 gigawatts of offshore wind power on U.S. coasts by 2030 and has put half a billion into just Offshore Wind—with a focus primarily on the East Coast.
Offshore wind is not even reasonably priced! The cost of electricity from offshore wind is taking off, as New York awarded contracts to two developers in February 2024 at prices more than double what Massachusetts negotiated during its last procurement.
A press release issued by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul indicated the average cost of the two contracts in New York is $150.15 per megawatt hour. The press release said the price “is on par with the latest market prices,” but it’s a sticker-shock leap from the $76.73-per-megawatt-hour price that Massachusetts negotiated with Avangrid in March 2023.
Avangrid paid a $48 million penalty to terminate that contract in July last year, saying rising interest rates, inflation, and economic upheaval caused by the war in Ukraine made the contract terms unworkable. That decision set off a domino effect in the industry, as a number of projects up and down the Atlantic seaboard were terminated.
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On the banking front, a $1.5 Trillion ESG Debt Market Has Started Bleeding Clients. Bankers say clients are wary of “greenwashing” allegations. Sustainability-linked loan issuance is down 74% year-to-date. [“Greenwashing”: Misleading the public to believe that a company or other entity is doing more to protect the environment than it is, greenwashing promotes false solutions to the climate crisis that distract from and delay concrete and credible action. ]
That is what is going on, and our oceans are paying the ultimate price. In comes Blackrock, Vanguard, State Street, and TRowe, all jumping onto the “Energy Transition” business, flushing money into the laundromat.
Where’s all the Biden offshore wind money going? Most of it is to foreign companies and their employees. Vestas (Danish), Siemens Gamesa (German), Orsted (Danish), Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (Japan), and Even GE’s involvement in wind is located in Europe, primarily in France, NOT the USA!
Then there is the “Jones Act” or the USA getting all those “green” jobs and green industries Biden promised. The Jones Act is a 100-year-old law that means that only US‐built and US‐registered vessels can transport goods by water in the United States. No existing Wind Turbine Installation Vehicles (WTIVs) comply with these restrictions, barring them from transporting wind turbine components to installation sites from nearby US ports. Jan 2, 2024…
But they found a way around that problem by using a feeder vessel. They bring it to New York on a barge. They hire stevedores (a person employed or a contractor engaged at a dock to load and unload cargo from ships) to unload from the barge onto land. They wait for a different vessel to show up at the barge, and then the stevedores take the stuff off of land and put it back on to the barge so that they can, with the different vessel, pick it up and then put it down.
They pulled this for the Block Island (US first Offshore Wind Farm) Wind Farm, too. That one tested the waters for the rest of them. So much for the USA getting all those “green” technology jobs.
The Vineyard Wind project (off Martha’s Vineyard) promised jobs to local workers, yet out of the nearly 1,800 union and nonunion workers hired by Vineyard Wind since January, only eight were from the Vineyard. Only one of those hires was a union job. Foreign companies bringing foreign workers and using foreign technology. That is not what the current Green New Deal and their people promised.
Wind and Solar are “Energy Transition” action items and are ripe for investors, seeing the billions pumped into Offshore Wind. They are the new “gold ring” for investors like Blackrock, Vanguard, and others, pumping money in and draining money out—our money. Our government has become the world’s biggest Laundromat.
Part 1 – The Whales; Part 2-The Money; Part 3-The Data and Part 4- What this means for NH
The post Save the Whales, No – Save The Wind! Part 2: FOLLOW THE MONEY appeared first on Granite Grok.
Inspired by yesterday’s Facebook post by former Attorney General Kelly Ayotte regarding her affection for law enforcement and a recent piece on her primary opponent, Chuck Morse, I have an important question for BOTH of them. What do they plan to do with Formella?
If I’m not mistaken, his term expires a little over a year from now. He was appointed by the Damn Emperor without a resume rich in prosecution and confirmed by the executive council. Seeing Warmington, another lawyer, sparring with him on January 31 makes me think that she was a lone dissenter in a 4-1 approval, but I sent an email to the EC secretary to confirm what the vote indeed was. That also reminds me that it’s a good idea to ask executive council candidates, incumbents and challengers alike, if they would approve his reappointment, assuming it happens.
A lousy attorney general is no laughing matter. Remember what Formella’s predecessor, Gordon MacDonald, did and did not do. He, through his henchman Attorney Nicholas Chong Yen, said out-of-state Dartmouth students could vote in the 2020 election despite the campus being closed all semester due to covid. He also “did a Comey” on former Nashua school board member and Grokster Doris Hohensee when he sat on her complaint of the NTU electioneering for almost a year, dismissing it about a month before The Great Heist. Doris’s complaint, loaded with evidence, was ignored by lots of lawyers, including our mayor and Attorney Bolton.
While Formella is an improvement from Gordon MacDonald and he handled Warmington’s January 31 attacks well, he is not without fault. There is plenty to discuss about him and things that happened on his watch, including the 10/13/21 executive council arrests, the 20 months of tormenting lawfare that followed for the nine victims, and all the unpleasantness associated with the youth center scandal.
This statement’s mission is not so much to serve as an attack on Formella but a wake-up call to the voters to get themselves informed. Know your candidates on your primary slate and what they plan to do as governor and executive councilor when it’s time to choose the next attorney general and make them go on record. Most higher office candidates stump with scripted talking points, but when it’s time to take questions, take advantage of opportunities to get to know stuff that’s important(to us, not them).
The post Speaking of Lawyers, Let’s Talk About The Attorney General appeared first on Granite Grok.
The Reverend Jeremiah Wright was more or less unknown before Barry Obama ran for President. One of Wright’s more famous idioms, perhaps due to the frequently shared recording of him saying it, was that after 9/11, America’s chickens were coming home to roost. Much like Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth, it still has legs.
A phrase meant to infer one thing but useful for so many others in “right back at you” fashion.
Today’s roosting chicken lesson comes to us courtesy of the Summer of Love, BLM, and the Defund movement. A stupid idea based on a problem created by Democrats whose goal is chaos, disorder, and – I have long posited – a nationalized police force controlled from inside the Beltway in DC.
Pittsburgh’s Bureau of Police is responding to staffing shortages by foregoing any officer presence in dispatch offices 3 a.m. to 7 a.m. daily.
The Daily Mail reported that the cut was announced last month by Pittsburgh police chief Larry Scirotto, who noted, “Data said that from 3 a.m. to 7 a.m that we had 8% of our call volume, yet we had 33% of our personnel working during those periods of time.”
Scirotto’s decision comes as the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police has dwindled to just 740 officers.
Great news for the people of Pittsburgh if you think the cops are racists. Fewer of them are available less often, on top of the already declining racism and oppression announced in February.
In late February, Breitbart News pointed out Scirotto also made clear officers would not be responding to 911 calls that are not reporting in-progress emergencies, regardless of the time of day the calls came in.
Rejoice, rejoice; there is no end in sight to the decline in oppressive police racism, but being a minority victim of crime will, more than likely, continue to rise. Nothing, as they say, is ever truly “free.”
According to Neighborhood Scout, Pittsburg is “safer” than only six other places in America. You have a 1 in 33 chance of being a victim of property crime and a 1 in 177 chance of being a victim of violent crime.
There are an average of 187 crimes per square mile, so if you think you might soon be a victim of crime, try to avoid 3 am and 7 am, which is as counterintuitive as it sounds. Given the opportunity, criminals will pick the path of least resistance, and Pittsburgh just told them not just when that might be but when it is.
The post “Defund the Police” Chickens … Come Home to Roost in Pittsburgh appeared first on Granite Grok.