Monday • November 25 • 2024
Vol.XVI • No.XLVIII
Manchester, N.H.
Since attaining supermajority status in Montpelier, the Democrats’ education policy can be explained as “give the government school monopoly (the VTNEA, superintendents association, etc.) whatever they want!”
This included universal “free” school meals, expanded pre-k spending and control over birth to five care, and a new pupil weighting system guaranteeing more spending on certain classes of students. This cocktail exploded in their – OUR – faces in the form of an anticipated 20 percent plus property tax increase.
Now, they are desperate to paper over this colossal political screw-up, and their plan to do so is not to spend within our means but rather to raise more taxes to feed into the education fund to “buy down” the impact on property taxes. In other words, continue to take more and more money from taxpayers to give to their political cronies, just out of different pockets, in the hopes we can be fooled into thinking we’re somehow getting a deal.
It’s not a new strategy. The Education Fund is currently fed by the property tax, 1/3 of the sales & use tax, ¼ of the meals & rooms tax, the state lottery, and a handful of other minor sources. My friend John McClaughry dubbed the public-school special interests “The Blob” after the 1950 horror movie monster that grew ever larger by subsuming – killing and destroying — everything in its path. It’s an apt description, and The Blob is on the move again!
The House Ways & Means Committee is currently debating what other new revenue sources can be thrown into the expanding path of The Blob. Here are the top candidates:
According to the Joint Fiscal Office, each 0.1 percent increase in the sales tax would raise approximately $9.3 million. Of course, this would make Vermont even less competitive with neighbors New Hampshire, which has no sales tax, and New York, which has a 4 percent sales tax. It was also pointed out that the sales tax is a regressive tax hitting lower-income people harder than those with higher incomes.
Expanding the sales tax base – the things subject to the sales tax – could squeeze as much as $271 million by including groceries, medical products, residential energy, clothing, and footwear. These things are currently exempt from the sales tax because, well, people need them to survive. Taxing them would be cruel and unusual. But, you know, if the VTNEA wants the money….
The JFO ran the numbers on taxing just “sugar-sweetened” beverages – soda, sports drinks, energy drinks, ready-to-drink teas, and coffees, etc. — at either 1 cent or 2 cents per ounce (so 12 to 24 cents per twelve-ounce can/bottle, but it also applies to syrups and powders to which water is added). This would extract an estimated $15.2 to $29.8 million from thirsty Vermonters. However, Rep. Peter Anthony (D-Barre) floated the idea of taxing ALL sweetened beverages, an idea the chair Emily Kornheiser said she could potentially get on board with, regardless of what the sweetener was. This would roughly double the take. Hey, why not? The VTNEA wants the money.
Of note, no other state has a sugar or otherwise sweetened beverage tax, although a handful of municipalities do. So, look for “Vermont will lead the way!” propaganda to come if this takes off.
Democrats in the legislature have been salivating about the Cloud Tax on software as a service for over a decade, and this might just be the year! (Because the VTNEA wants the money.) For the most part Vermont does not tax services (more on that in a moment). This tax, which would cost Vermonters roughly $20 million per year, would hit things like your Microsoft Office or Google Apps subscriptions, Quickbooks, Mailchimp, Toast or Square, Force, Amazon Web Services, and with cruel irony, TurboTax, so you’ll get to pay a tax to pay your taxes.
While this has implications for everybody, it will be particularly painful for small businesses that need these software services to operate competitively.
Although a general expansion of the 6 percent sales tax on goods to include services – everything from school tuition, legal advice, hair salons, personal trainers, lawncare, etc. – was not part of the JFO presentation, it was raised by members of the committee. The JFO presenter referred them to the Rand Study done in 2023 to determine new revenue streams to fund expanded government-run pre-k. That study showed that expanding the sales tax to services at the 6 percent rate would extract $105 to $143 million, depending upon what and how many exemptions are allowed.
Currently, candy is considered a grocery and is exempt from the sales tax. Taxing it at 6 percent would only raise $3.7 million, but as long as you’re stealing, you might as well do so from babies. The VTNEA wants the money!
The tragedy of all this taxing and spending – or perhaps the intent – was pointed out by Representative Scott Beck (R-St. Johnsbury). “Given how we define education spending and calculate the yield, this would be worse because you’d get all of the taxes and not get property taxes down at all.” Asked to elaborate, Beck went on, “If you pour all of this money into the system, the districts are going to spend it up because it’s cheap money. I mean, we’ve added in the last – with Wayfair [v. South Dakota sales tax SCOTUS decision] We’ve added $100 million in sales tax to the Education Fund, and look what’s happened to property taxes. The money’s cheap to the districts, and so they spend it.”
Just like The Blob monster that it is.
Rob Roper is a freelance writer with 20 years of experience in Vermont politics, including three years of service as chair of the Vermont Republican Party and nine years as President of the Ethan Allen Institute, Vermont’s free-market think tank. He is also a regular contributor to VermontGrok.
The post The Democrat Solution to High Property Taxes Is… More Higher Taxes! appeared first on Granite Grok.
It’s appropriate that the 28th annual meeting of the United Nations Climate Summit is called the “Conference of Parties.” Each year, they have a party destroying the liberty of the American people.
Most Americans remain ignorant that the U.S. delegates are among the cheerleaders clapping for the tyranny of the global domination goals to regiment the whole world with environmental controls.
President Biden immediately reversed the Trump Administration policies that slowed this process down. For at least 28 years, the globalist left has consistently put America at the forefront of promoting audacious controls. Do you realize that this past December, throughout COP28, in Dubai, UAE, the U.S. and Western governments pledged suicidal energy policies? All the communists, socialists, and Islamic nations celebrate how naive American delegates are at this Conference of Parties. This action to make America first will economically destroy us.
This action reminds me of a similar scenario going on in the 1937 Soviet Union. Standing in the crowd after listening to an impassioned speech praising Joe Stalin by his deputy, Alexander Solzhenitsyn stood among the fear and terror written on each man’s face, clapping long and loud for one of history’s most prolific and evil mass murderers. Fake enthusiasm, intimidated souls mimicking one another, fearing not to stop. Eleven dreadful long minutes passed. Finally, the director of the paper factory boldly sat down, and all the rest followed, ending the applause. That night, this man was arrested and, after interrogation, given ten years in prison. Their final warning to him: “Don’t ever be the first to stop applauding.” In today’s America, it is concerning that the Democratic left and RINOs do not fake their enthusiasm for these liberty-destroying policies. They never stop applauding.
We want to thank Russ Payne for this Contribution – Please direct yours to Steve@GraniteGrok.com.
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It is obvious that the goal of President Biden’s policies is not to put America’s interest first. He signed unconstitutional Executive Orders to destroy the energy independence achieved under President Trump. Alex Newman’s TNA 1/29/24 article points out how our delegation to the COP28 Climate Summit puts America last: “Ironically, those coal-fired plants being built across China are powering the very factories producing the economical and environmentally devastating solar panels and windmills subsidized by struggling Western taxpayers — systems that will end up imposing even higher costs on American consumers.” What Hypocrisy? Communist, socialist, and Islamic regimes make oil deals at the UN Climate Summit to phase out fossil fuels, but America must be first!
The New American asks Senators Lisa Murkowski (R – Alaska) and Tom Carper (D-Del) a similar question, “Why does the U.S. government commit economic suicide to “save the climate” even as the regime ruling Communist China keeps building coal-fired power plants at an unprecedented rate?” Of the few answers given, they: “… simply insisted that Beijing should follow suit after the United States jumps off the cliff into economic oblivion.”
Something is terribly wrong when our government, elected by “we the people,” pledges its loyalties to the UNCOP28 plans without the permission of Congress. The silent majority must wake up and speak out when Congress ignores American interests. Contact state and federal representation — Senators and Representatives – with phone calls, emails, and snail mail — to warn them to stop representing the UN’s Agenda 2130 and COP28 pledges. Check out the facts at the Voice of Freedom: https://thenewamerican.com/print/phasing-out-oil-or-america/
The post Never Stop Applauding … Or Else! appeared first on Granite Grok.
Within weeks of the Biden Administration embedding itself in the Oval Office (Like a tick), it announced that the Houthi rebels in Yemen were not, as the Trump administration had declared, terrorists. Except they were.
The Houthi movement, which is officially called Ansarallah (or Ansar Allah, for “supporters of God”), brags a slogan which reads: “God is great, death to the U.S., death to Israel, curse the Jews, and victory for Islam.” …
The obvious presumption was that the Bidenistas were tossing Iran’s Proxy and, therefore, Iran a bone, claiming it was about ensuring humanitarian relief. And why not? The Bidenistas hate America and Israel, so it was a better fit than OJ’s glove.
In exchange, the Houthis continued to recruit child soldiers, bomb airports, and kill civilians – they even raided the US Embassy in Yemen before the year was out.
Not much had changed in the intervening years until someone decided to report on the years of “almost peaceful protesting” as if it were something new. Forever wars, distraction from Team Biden failures during a presidential election year, corn pop? Any guess is as good as the next, but the US started bombing Yemen as a matter of policy (so much for the humanitarian aid), and Biden Inc. has had a change of heart on the Houthi. They are to be rebranded as a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist.”
This decision comes after the group has repeatedly attacked United States interests, including commercial ships in the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea. National Security Official Jake Sullivan stated that this move is aimed at impeding terrorist funding to the Houthis.
This fits (hand-and-glove?) with the Deep State theatrical presentation: we’re mad at Iran for something that reeks of some sort of John Kerry visiting the Mullah co-production stage play. Democrats love Iran and have longed for a shift in regional power away from Saudi Arabia. The distraction is an excuse to increase inflation by throwing billions at weapons makers (who love anyone that gives them money), while the depopulation left gets something the like. Wars kill a lot of people. Sure, they release a lot of carbon into the atmosphere, but someone did some math in case anyone asks.
The number of people killed offsets the CO2 released to kill them or something like that.
War is now a planetary good, so we should expect more of it, but you have to have an antagonist. In Ukraine it’s Russia, in Israel it’s both sides, and in Yemen it is now the Houthi, who Iran may have given up for the sake or perception. Trump winning is bad for Iran and the Democrats, so what’s a few martyrs? They can also find more.
The post Biden and the Houthis – Live Shows Daily! appeared first on Granite Grok.
And so another week begins.
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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Genocide.
Same applies to property taxes. It’s essentially rent paid to the state for the land they can confiscate if you don’t pay it.
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PSA – PSA – PSA – PSA – PSA
This is an incredibly important point. As Mark Steyn said, demographics is destiny.
All these illegals are going to be dependent on FedGov for years (assuming we don’t collapse Cloward-Piven style, which IMHO is the whole point of the exercise).
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Links (some mine, some my Jarhead friend):
Study: Psychological Interventions Do Not Work on Climate Skeptics – Watts Up With That?
So, basically, by force.
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Moonbattery Trans Baby Molester Goes Free as Libs Target Dissidents – Moonbattery
I want off this planet. Stat.
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Bayou Renaissance Man: China’s Communist Party gets even more protectionist
China is, IMHO, an economic house of cards. And not just China:
Soaring debt pushing wealthy nations to ‘fiscal death’ – The Burning Platform
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A Bad Day for America :: SteynOnline
Another nail in the coffin for free speech. More:
To HELL With Free Speech: Democrat Senator Warner Pushes For More Censorship, Big Tech-Government Collusion To Silence Americans ⋆ Conservative Firing Line
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Steve Kirsch: CDC FORGOT to warn the public that COVID-19 vaccines cause DEMENTIA * 100PercentFedUp.com * by Noah
That would explain why a lot of Covidians I know, who have been Jabbed multiple times, seem less sharp than before. Related:
Embalmers Continue to See White, Fibrous Blood Clots in the Bodies of Vaccine Recipients › American Greatness (amgreatness.com)
The Covid-19 “vaccine” (and probably the “boosters” as well), are still causing massive blood clots, according to morticians and embalmers.
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The “Far Right” Pounces | Power Line (powerlineblog.com)
If the far right consists of those who are horrified by gang rapes of 13 year old girls, count me in.
Me too.
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The Feral Irishman: So, Basically, We Are On Our Own… It’s Only A Matter Time…
A sheriff from Ohio lays out that attacks on our country “are not a matter if, but when”, and that when it happens, we are on our own, so prep accordingly. The video is about 25 minutes and worth listening to.
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The Obama ‘Nudge Unit’ Rides Again – American Thinker
The government is “nudging” us again (not that they ever really stopped). And my own essay on nudging:
The Fly on the Urinal – Urban Scoop
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Mail-In Ballot Fraud Study Finds Trump ‘Almost Certainly’ Won In 2020 | ZeroHedge
A new study has shown massive fraud in the 2020 mail-in ballots (up to 25%) and that means that yes, Trump DID win 2020, and was cheated out of the election by fraud. The question is this: Who will actually bring this to bear LEGALLY, and hold the fraudsters (and everyone who covered it up) accountable? Added: What judge has the stones knowing the kind of firestorm they’d be stepping into?
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Major News Outlets Continue Losing Millions Amid Anti-Trump Coverage (conservativebrief.com)
In the “What did you expect” department, major news outlets and publications are going under, because people aren’t watching them anymore. Gee, I wonder why? Maybe because you sold your souls to the Marxist left and the “news” you publish is nothing but pure propaganda?
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Squatters Taking Over Homes All Over The US On An Industrial Scale And Turning Them Into Dens Of Crime – The Lid (lidblog.com)
As people are forced to leave their homes due to foreclosure, more and more homes are being taken over by squatters & used for crime.
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Twitter video: The Great Set-Up
This is a fascinating video, entitled The Great Set-up, Part 1 that ties together the set-up of the Covid-19 “plandemic” and how this was all planned out 15 or more years ago. But the information was covered up, definitions changed, and laws flat out ignored to push this on the entire world. Also, the evidence this Doctor uncovered was shown to many people who had the power to do something about it. But instead, they SQUASHED it. It’s a little over 34 minutes, but really worth your time, as you need to realize that the world powers (including our own government) are willing to literally MURDER us for profit and/or power.
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Horrifying Mid-Flight Emergency: Passenger Dies After ‘Liters of Blood Comes Out of His Mouth and Nose’ – Vigilant News Network
From a good friend of mine comes a link to an article about a man who is VERY sick, but is allowed to board and fly on an international flight. Midway through the flight, he starting having blood coming out his nose and mouth, and eventually died. The really strange thing is this: No one from the flight was quarantined after this happened! You have to ask yourself WHY NOT? Do they want a sickness like this to spread? Well, maybe they do.
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Pick of the post:
Two early 20th century cartoons. Could be talking about today.
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Palate Cleansers:
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Come back Wednesday for another edition. Same Meme Time. Same Meme channel.
Please do consider buying me a coffee.
Buy Me a Coffee
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The post MONDAY MEMES appeared first on Granite Grok.
How sweet is it that Joe Biden’s political career was torpedoed by the man he has used to destroy anyone who got in the way of the Democrat destruction of America? Special Counsel Robert Hur may have published the scathing report on Joe Biden’s mishandling of classified documents, but it was Biden’s buddy, Attorney General Merrick Garland, who signed off on and delivered the damning document to Congress and the world.
Some may say Garland never read the report, but what he signed was worse than if Biden was tried and found guilty of espionage. Garland did his best impersonation of Judas and presented the report that proved to the world that Joe Biden is not mentally competent. Joe Biden, President and leader of the free world, is an old man who lacks the memory recall to defend himself, let alone be within ten feet of the nuclear football.
The White House has been in damage control since the release of the report on Thursday afternoon. The report details why Biden will not be charged with illegal possession of classified documents because no jury would ever find an old, feeble, mentally incompetent Joe Biden guilty of the charges. Karine Jeanne-Pierre, Ian Sams, and the liberal mainstream media did their best to spin and distort the Special Counsel report but failed.
The media defended Biden and crucified Hur, but the evidence is insurmountable. The Dems can tell us till they are blue in the face that Biden is of sound mind, but Thursday’s prime-time press conference was all America needed to see. After Biden’s hapless effort to fend off the newly stoked media, it was evident that Joe Biden was done. Stick a fork in him and start planning his Presidential library. Ensure plenty of room for the Corvette, the broken lamp, and the dilapidated boxes of classified documents from the family garage.
The free-for-all starts on Monday. Biden and Doctor Jill will not quit, but Michelle Obama, Gavin Newsom, and Kamala Harris will be fighting for the top slot on the 2024 Democrat ballot. There are others like Hochul (NY) and Whitmer (MI) who think they have what it takes, but they need to look in the mirror and realize they are not able to manage a state, let alone 50 states and the endless caravan of humanity crossing the Rio Grande.
It is getting late in the game for a passing of the baton. Super Tuesday is coming quickly, as is the convention. The convention in Chicago may resemble a WWE battle rather than a party convention. Newsom will probably emerge as the front-runner. After all, he has been running since 2023. Obama is the only one who can bring them all together, but after twelve years of Obama’s Presidency, do we really want four more with Michelle as the figurehead? With no political experience and an ego that will match any narcissist, the country cannot handle a Michelle Obama Presidency. Let’s face it. The Democrats are screwed, but they did it to themselves when they put Biden in the White House.
The post Biden is Done, So, What Next? appeared first on Granite Grok.
Another good week for engagement between readers with several articles exceeding 60 comments each. And quite a few new names have popped up in the mix. That’s what it’s all about, in our opinion.
It makes my job harder – I say that every week, but it’s true, and I like it.
A few mentions before we crown last week’s winner. Jewbacca (love that handle), Recognizing truth, greenmanpostal, Jay, Tony, J.Page, The Ornery Nurse, Ua Nemhnainn, Ian, Nitzakhon, NHNative, Steve Earle, DiverDuck, TombstoneGabby, Landigns Elf, QuillPig, DavidS, Skip (posting @GraniteGrok), Ken, the other Ken, the other Jay, Jeff, Mike, Cantdog, Dan McGuire, StillStanding, Truth Hurts The Weak, Doyle, Agent Liberty, Jefferson Voltaire, Publius, and many (many!) more.
We welcome you all and appreciate your engagement, but as we say (almost every week), there can be only one.
David S. Please email me at steve@granitegrok.com so I can get a mailing address.
David S (reformatted) [GOP Voters are Not Very Good at Voting]
I think the REAL problem stems from the GOP NOT having REAL PRINCIPLES that they both understand AND stick to. Say what you want about libertarian ideals, but they are consistent.
When I ran for office, I may not have known everything about every subject, but when asked about something I didn’t fully know, my response was always in favor of the individual over the collective, getting rid of the government role, increasing freedom, liberty, choice, and personal responsibility.
Sadly, I think that too many in the GOP suffer from the same “internal schizophrenia” (as I call it) that plagues those in the democrat party. They believe in economic freedom but can’t allow personal freedom (or visa versa for the democrats). They NEVER seem to understand that there is ONLY FREEDOM, not two different kinds that can be separated or treated separately.
If you have NO foundation upon which to build your platform or principles, you can easily be led astray by polls, hollow arguments, or simply raw cash.
The absence of well-rooted principles continues to be a problem, as does the speed with which those claiming to have them depart from that – at all levels of government.
Note 1: Several runners-up are worthy of additional attention, so I hope to find time to feature them in posts later this week.
Note 2: Jim Peschke (last week’s winner), please email me (or email me again) at steve@granitegrok.com. I still need your mailing address.
The post This Week’s Comment of the Week Winner Is … appeared first on Granite Grok.
Non-journalist Tucker Carlson, that’s what the REAL media is calling him (maybe he’s just a reporter?), got something none of them could. An interview with the sinister dark lord of the once-fading Soviet Empire, Vlad the Putin. Their jealousy is embarrassing to everyone but them, which is great for us.
We didn’t lie about the Steele Dossier, Hunter’s Laptop, Hillary’s Server, VP Biden’s illegal possession of classified Docs, COVID/the response/the vaccine, but here they are, begging for credibility on the question of someone who has been doing journalism professionally for decades getting someone else’s side on a list of issues from NATO expansion to bombing Russian pipelines, to that war in Ukraine thing.
An interview they wanted but did not get, at which they claim they’d ask hard questions, which we know they would not. The goal would be not to pry the truth from a former KGB agent and Russian President for Life but to control whatever message came out of the conversation.
You and I are too stupid to understand what it all means. It is far too complex for us to manage. Therefore, they are obligated to engage in censorship and message control to ensure our baby-bird brains receive only the information nutrients they deliver.
Musk’s X, Tucker’s TCN, Joe Rogan, and many others (including the ‘Grok, in its own way) keep jumping the speech barriers and side-stepping the censorship landmines to expose you to ideas they can’t control, what the presstitutes and their Big Tech allies call misinformation or disinformation -even malformation.
How’s that working out?
The total for all of these shows combined is just shy of 32 million. Remember, back in 1968, Walter Cronkite drew an average of 27 million viewers just for his broadcast. Compare that to Tucker’s numbers — as of 9:06 pm Saturday night (Eastern Standard Time), it has 186 million views. In other words, Tucker is attracting 6 times more viewers than ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC combined. And he is not spending one dime on advertising trying to attract viewers.
CNN’s numbers are really pathetic. Their “top” show only attracted 733,000 viewers. Tucker blew through that number in the first 30 minutes of his interview with Putin. When you stop to consider the hundreds of millions of dollars the media companies with so few viewers, you must wonder, “How long can this go on?”
How long, indeed. That same REAL media has followed Big Tech’s example and shed tens of thousands of jobs, which, ironically, is what they voted for. Instead of following the Trump economy example post-covid, he did what Democrats always do. He made it more expensive to do business while making it harder to attract business: inflation, energy prices, food prices. The Obama-Era economic new normal that Trump destroyed with record jobs and economic growth returned when Igor (Biden) and his keepers took possession of the Executive Branch.
If the numbers are right, about 90% or more of the people who are losing their jobs in Big Tech, Media, and Entertainment chose that over prosperity and mean tweets.
Elections do have consequences, as does letting a political party steal them, which Democrats do to each other, so let’s not pretend they won’t do it to Republicans. And maybe they realize it, but likley not. The bubble in which they live is thick, like their skulls.
Carlson got what they wanted, and he’s embarrassing them with its appeal as fewer people tune in exclusively to their fits and rants about silencing any “journalism” whose product they cannot control.
If you are in our audience, you’ve likely seen it and decided for yourself, but if not, we’d never stand between you and you making up your own mind. Unlike the left and the Machine Media, we understand that everyone makes mistakes, and only through open debate do we find some agreement on the truth (and maybe just end up agreeing to disagree).
Here’s Tucker and Vlad having a chat.
Ep. 73 The Vladimir Putin Interview pic.twitter.com/67YuZRkfLL
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) February 8, 2024
The post Tucker Is Attracting 6 Times More Viewers Than ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC Combined appeared first on Granite Grok.
Americans have been very lax with their Blessings. In a country that offers so much, how is it that we take it all for granted without caring to ensure its operational integrity? No wonder that today, we are on the precipice of joining the rest of the third-world inhabitants!
Logic and common sense tell us that our freedoms all come with limitations. Think about safety on the highways; posted along with the speed is the word “limit.”
It’s required and even practical since men and women usually require controls. So, on this point, while certain acts have received freedom’s legal pass, explain the actual speech involved when burning our National flag or the value of “privacy” after becoming pregnant?
These queries are citizen-related; what about those that the citizens elect for representation? This two-sided coin meshes and thus increases the election of buffoons or worse. Once again, freedom only works properly when a responsible, alert, and informed citizenry is its guide.
For some time, those graduating with law degrees never once opened up or studied the law of our land, our Constitution. The majority of representatives have law degrees. Although otherwise upstanding, why is this law degree such an attraction for holding office to both the candidate and the voter?
This leads to two obvious injustices which have remained either unnoticed or, more likely, unknown. Over time, both have sewn a terrible web of intrigue and criminality.
The first is this weighty weapon of issuing an “Executive Order.” Its frequent defense is that George Washington issued them! Yes, he did, but what is not mentioned is that he used them sparingly and within the proper legal framework. As its title infers, they were strictly for issuing corrective measures to problems within his “Executive” branch. Today’s version of EO usage is similar to transforming a young and innocent lady into a common streetwalker!
Still, it’s a problem solver. Can’t get it through Congress? “Don’t worry about that old fuddy-duddy document from 1787 or the system of governing which has worked so well, we’ll just pass an EO!” The subsequent results from these illegal actions are the proof! And now, with the American people experiencing this abuse for so long, it’s considered routine!
The second Constitutional crime came with the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment. The basic purpose of its writing was to ensure equal rights to those who were freed. So, it would seem that this needn’t be an Amendment but rather a legal directive with an expiration date. However, even the legal ratification of the Fourteenth seems questionable given the late Congressman Lawrence P. McDonald’s book, We Hold These Truths.
To quote, “Three-fourths of the states did not ratify the proposed amendment, as required by the Constitution; but…Congress had the Secretary of State proclaim it ratified anyway –on July 20, 1868.” He further states, “…the Fourteenth would have foredoomed freedom under constitutional law because it conflicts so sharply with the rest of the Constitution.” Back then, it was an accepted fact that ratification by the rebellious states was a precondition to being re-admitted into the Union.
More affecting and more understandable is this asinine judicial interpretation that once an illegal enters American soil, her forthcoming baby will be granted citizenship! This interpretation directly challenges the purpose of America’s immigration process and requirements if all an immigrant has to do is to sneak in through the southern border so that her child would be automatically rewarded!
Another knock on the Fourteenth is the redundancy. It repeats the “due process clause” of the Fifth Amendment and the “equal protection clause” of its previous Thirteenth Amendment. Still, its judicial referencing continues.
Today’s Courts depend too much on this particular amendment. It has gotten to the point that it is a catch-all for so many assorted rulings. It seems that the late Congressman may have been correct when theorizing “…would have foredoomed freedom…”
Quelling any reader curiosity, Rep. McDonald is a relative unknown today since he was among those aboard the #007 flight of the Korean Airlines, which received scant media notice, simply due to the fact that it was downed by none other than our Russian trading partners.
The post Doubtful At Best appeared first on Granite Grok.
Let me first say that this statement is about the incompetent finance committee chair and my former opponent, Alderman Dowd, and not me. I want to get that disclaimer on record before I get accused of being a sore loser. Last November, I lost to him 830-1003 with 182 undervotes.
I want to share a quick refresher of what kind of big-spending swamp rat he is, though I have a correction to offer; he’s even swampier because I mistakenly said he’s been in office since 2013. He’s actually been in office since 2011. Click here.
And if that didn’t wake up your memory, click here for a summary of his record as his condo association chair.
So here he is, a few months into his 7th term, which makes him even swampier than Annie Kuster, in this 4-minute video montage involving Tuesday’s BoA meeting where more money is being requested:
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Yes, elections do have consequences, but the City doesn’t seem to take that matter seriously enough! If the worst property tax assault doesn’t get people off the couch to go vote for a new mayor(Mike Soucy), then what will? I’m aware that not everyone likes me, but what do all these Dowd supporters like? I ask because Dowd previously had some respectable and qualified opponents, as I noted in my first piece here.
With filing time for the next city election, assuming we’re still having elections, being a little over 18 months from now, it’s not too early to think about recruiting an opponent that can take him out. He’s got a lot in common with D’Allesandro, just not the “Senator Manchin-like” attributes.
Dowd is a decaying old man who’s NOT going to retire. His political career is in desperate need of euthanasia. Ward 2 voters need to do it for ALL of Nashua.
The post Night Cap: Voter’s Regrets? appeared first on Granite Grok.
Democrat Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) has proposed legislation to address the issue of non-governmental paramilitary operations or militias (my words, not his). Our previous coverage got a lot of traction and input from readers.
Here’s one example.
10 U.S. Code § 246 – Militia: composition and classes
(a) The militia of the United States consists of all able-bodied males at least 17 years of age and, except as provided in section 313 of title 32, under 45 years of age who are, or who have made a declaration of intention to become, citizens of the United States and of female citizens of the United States who are members of the National Guard.
(b) The classes of the militia are—
(1) the organized militia, which consists of the National Guard and the Naval Militia; and
(2) the unorganized militia, which consists of the members of the militia who are not members of the National Guard or the Naval Militia.
The militia is a state military force, and the National Guard is a sub-military force of the militia…per the above, it’s known as the organized militia.
Those individuals between 17-44 not part of the organized militia…per the above are known as the unorganized militia.
So, federal law recognizes and specifies the individuals comprising the unorganized militia. This causes a problem when trying to impose bans.
In addition, in the Constitution, there is a clause for arming a state militia when called into the actual service of the US by an act of Congress. If you read the debates in the Constitutional Convention on this clause, they said it would give Congress 3 options…it could choose…1-by the federal government…2-by their individual state governments…or…wait for it…3-BY THE INDIVIDUAL MILITIA MEMBERS. This was before the 2nd Amendment. So, there was a right to own a firearm, and since this arming clause has never been changed, it remains. This also means these individuals have the right to purchase one. In fact, because of this, it could be argued they are required to have one. If so-called assault weapons are military-grade weapons, then they could never, by general law, prevent or ban members of the unorganized militia from owning one.
Also, last time I checked, every State has a similar militia break down as the above. This opens up another argument.
You can wade through the debate and comments under my original post here. This time around, I’m sharing something else someone sent me. An article in The Cowboy Daily out of Wyoming had some interesting insight into the contradictions and consequences of Markey’s bill as currently written.
The Preventing Private Paramilitary Act of 2024 could potentially be used to ban just about any gun-related activity, Cody firearms instructor Bill Tallen told Cowboy State Daily.
Tallen cites several issues, including
He also suggests that tactical training, civilian live fire drills, and perhaps even school skeet shooting programs could become illegal under the legislation as written.
Given how badly this bill is put together, I’m beginning to wonder whether the Feds have some op in place that will result in a timely “militia-like” action (say along the southern border) that is meant to make opponents look bad or catalyze some amended form of Markey’s Bill to advance.
It’s not like that’s never happened before – Project Gun Runner is but one example.
The post Some More Thoughts on Ed Markey’s Anti-Militia Bill … From Here to Wyoming appeared first on Granite Grok.
There is a massive gas leak at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. The Administration marched out a new surrogate, Ian Sam’s, to meet the Press, and he did more gaslighting than a street light on Beacon Street. He twisted and contorted the Special Counsel Report and made it quite clear Joe Biden is innocent because Joe Biden said so…Full Stop.
I love how the Biden Gang uses the term Full Stop like that gives any argument Presidential Credibility. There is a clear target on Special Counsel Robert Hurr, for he buried Joe Biden with his report. If President Biden plans on a second term, he must drive the Corvette over Hurr.
Since Trump became ensnarled in his Confidential Document case, Biden has been trying to convince us how seriously he takes the handling of Confidential Information and Documents. What he really meant was how he loves to take Confidential Papers. As a Senator or Vice President, Biden never had the authority to remove these documents from their secure locations. We now know he has been doing just that for at least 15 years and knew he was in possession of them seven years ago. To have them was a crime, and to lie about returning them as soon as discovered was a lie. That is the level of credibility we get with this lifelong political hack.
It is wrong to attempt to recap a 400-page report in a blog, but the bottom line is the President was not charged, as Trump was for the same offense, because Hurr recognized that no jury would ever find the aged old man with memory issues guilty of the crimes he should be charged for. The immediate claims of Hurr’s political motives started flying as soon as the gaslighting began, but they forgot one very important fact. Hurr wrote the report, but AG Merrick Garland had to sign off on it before it was released. Hurr might be a Trump appointee two Delaware Democrats recommended, but Garland is in Biden’s back pocket, so what is his political motive?
Last night, the White House made a tragic strategic mistake in letting Biden go to the podium after 8 o’clock unprepared and beyond his mindful hours. The Press was unusually angered, and he allowed them under his skin. His temper flared, and he again confused two countries and leaders. Gaffs? No, his mind is mush, and it is sad and dangerous to watch. One equally dangerous thing, if genuine, is how blind Democrats are to the fact this man is Bernie enjoying a weekend in Rehoboth Beach. But can we really judge the assessments of Nancy Pelosi, Kamala Harris, Eric Swalwell, and Gavin Newsome? Absolutely not. These Dems will say anything to get four more years out of Biden, and they have no other options at this point in the race.
This report is a binary situation. Biden should have been charged, or the 25th Amendment should have removed him. He is either guilty or mentally incompetent. Allowing him to remain in office is a threat to our national security. He has to go. And that is a Full Stop.
The post Joe Has Been Breaking The Law For Years, He Just Forgot appeared first on Granite Grok.
Some Pelham residents attended the annual Deliberative Session this week. Residents listened to the details of the school operating budget that will be placed on the ballot in March. Residents will then decide if they want to support the budget as presented or vote it down. If they do not support the budget, the default budget will be the budget that will be used.
During the proceedings, one resident brought forward a motion to reduce the budget by about $17,000.00. This money is used to pay dues to the New Hampshire School Administrators Association. (NHSAA)
The NHSAA lobbies the legislature on proposed legislation that could become law. This means that taxpayers are paying for lobbyists to weigh in on legislation in Concord. But is this even fair to taxpayers?
This same week, the New Hampshire Legislative Administration Committee heard testimony on House Bill 1479. This legislation, if passed into law, would regulate the use of public funds for lobbying activities and establish certain additional enforcement mechanisms. Many taxpayers are fed up paying the salaries of lobbyists who offer one-sided political opinions on legislation—especially when they disagree with those one-sided political viewpoints.
A few weeks ago, the NHSAA lobbyist testified against legislation that would prohibit materials that are obscene or harmful to minors in school and create a procedure for removal and cause of action.
Some of the materials available to children in public schools are obscene and pornographic. One parent even testified how the books now include hyperlinks that could put children in danger by connecting them with sexual predators. HB1419 would protect children from accessing this kind of harmful material. When children are assigned Chromebooks in school, the firewall blocks pornographic websites, so why are pornographic books ok for children to access?
Taxpayers are forced to fund these lobbyists with the dues that come out of the school budget. Not only is this unfair, it’s a scam on taxpayers. Teachers have to pay for their lobbyists, why do taxpayers have to pay for the lobbyists working on behalf of school administrators?
This money could be better spent on bonuses for teachers and paraprofessionals and then eventually returned to the taxpayers in the following years.
Chip McGee, Superintendent in Pelham, spoke after this motion was made to stop paying dues to the NHSAA. He attempts to make the audience believe he’s just adding to the discussion by mentioning how the NHSAA also lobbied to change the requirement for families to fill out the FASFA before a student graduates from high school.
There is no need for this lobbying organization to attend these hearings, McGee can send written testimony himself to weigh in on legislation. That would save Pelham $17,000.00, and residents wouldn’t be paying for lobbyists who lobby against their views.
It wasn’t long ago that McGee was in the hot seat when he was working as the Superintendent in Bedford:
Superintendent of Bedford Schools Chip McGee resigned today after public outcry over his decision to authorize a district staffer to testify on behalf of Kristie Torbick, a former Bedford guidance counselor convicted of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old student in Exeter.
https://www.nhpr.org/news/2018-07-27/bedford-superintendent-resigns-amid-controversy-over-staffers-testimony-at-sexual-assault-hearing
One would think that after hearing from a resident who has concerns about the NHSAA opposing legislation that prohibits obscenity in public schools, McGee would be a little more empathetic to taxpayers who do not want to pay for this kind of lobbying. Instead, you can see him make a compelling case to keep scamming the taxpayers by sending that money to the NHSAA. Not once does he mention anything about concern for pornographic content that has now seeped into our public schools. He just glosses over that fact and points to the NHSAA’s efforts to lobby for another Bill.
What has happened to the leadership in our public schools? Why are they so callous about sexual predators and obscene materials that are available to children?
Stopitnow.org is an organization dedicated to stopping the sexual abuse of children. They explain on their website that when adults give children pornographic content, that is considered sexual abuse.
A Pelham resident says taxpayers shouldn’t fund lobbyists who oppose prohibiting the practice of sexual abuse, and Superintendent McGee makes the case that this organization did something he agreed with. Is it any wonder that trust in school officials by parents is at an all-time low?
Superintendent Chip McGee was driven out of Bedford by the parents, only to show up in Pelham. Now that he’s in Pelham, it doesn’t appear he’s learned anything from the last fiasco that brought about his resignation.
One thing’s for sure, if they have money to waste on this expenditure, we know that this district isn’t hurting for funding. They claim they need to raise the budget for needed expenses when, in fact, they are wasting money on lobbyists who do not want to protect children in our public schools. Parents and taxpayers are losing trust in their public schools, which doesn’t help public education at all. Check those declining enrollment numbers!
Source NH Dept. of Ed
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For years people have urged me, including my wife, to write a book. I would usually respond with, “Why write a book when I can promote books already in publication and better than anything I can do.” Back in 2011, we started Camp Constitution Press and reprinted a chapter of a book titled “From Farm Boy to Financier” by Frank Vanderlip.
The chapter concerned the secret meeting at Jekyll Island, Georgia, where the plot to create the Federal Reserve was hatched. Mr. Vanderlip was one of the attendees. Since then, we have reprinted and published a number of books, including Color, Communism, and Common Sense, On the Supposed Change of Temperature in Winter by Noah Webster. (That’s right, Noah Webster refuted global warning back in 1810) and First Scout for General Patton, written by my late friend from Laconia, Bob Kingsbury. However, since my visit to the Harvard Medical School library in January 2020, I need to publish what I discovered and uncovered.
We want to thank Hal Shurtleff for this Contribution – Please direct yours to Steve@GraniteGrok.com.
You can review our ‘Op-Ed Guidelines‘ on the FAQ Page.
It isn’t a massive tome, only 98 pages, and it consists mainly of transcribed letters between Margaret Sanger and Dr. Clarence Gamble with pictures of the originals. It also contains a little-known speech by Martin Luther King titled “Family Planning: A Special and Urgent Concern,” which was read by his wife Coretta in 1966 at Planned Parenthood’s First Annual Margaret Sanger Award Ceremony. King was the first recipient of the award. The Corporate media will not make any mention of how King and many other black leaders collaborated with avowed racist Sanger to promote birth control and later abortion in the black community.
Background to the book:I learned about Margaret Sanger’s “Negro Project” in the book Grand Illusions: The Legacy of Planned Parenthood by George Grant back in the late 1980s. Some years later, while doing some research for an article on Planned Parenthood, I found a copy of the letter written by Sanger to Dr. Gamble dated December 10, 1939, in which Sanger writes about the ‘Negro Project” and the need to elicit the support of black doctors and clergy. She wrote:
Page 2 of Margaret Sanger’s “negro letter.”“We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population, and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members.”
Her supporters, who are legion in the United States, tell us that this has been taken out of context. But in her book The Pivot of Civilization, Sanger advocated for “the elimination of human weeds” and for “the sterilization of genetically inferior races.” The fact that she had white supremacist and KKK member Lothrop Stoddard and Dr. Ernst Rudin, the Nazi in charge of Germany’s forced sterilization, collaborating with her, belies the claims of her apologists -one of whom is Hillary Clinton.
Get The Book: The Racist Roots of Planned Parenthood and Its Legacy of Death
In 2018, I noticed that the letter address of the letter to Gamble was Adams St in Milton, a mile or so from Lower Mills, in Boston’s Dorchester section. In November of 2018, we sponsored some speaking engagements for Rev. Steve Craft, our camp chaplain in the Boston area. I asked Rev Craft if he would like to be in a video across the street from Gamble’s former home and read the letter with commentary from both of us. And on Friday, November 30, we did so. While recording the video, it dawned on me that George H. W. Bush was born a short distance from the Gamble residence. Prescott Bush-H.W.’s father- was Planned Parenthood’s first treasurer. Interestingly enough, we got word that H.W. died that same day. The video is available on Camp Constitution’s YouTube channel.
I subsequently learned that Dr. Gamble’s papers were housed at the Countway Library, Harvard University’s School of Medicine’s Library, the largest medical school library in the world located in Boston. I visited the library in January of 2020, and while I wasn’t able to find any letters between Bush and Gamble, I did find a batch of letters between Sanger and Gamble.
Who is Dr. Clarence Gamble?Dr. Gamble was an heir to the Proctor and Gamble fortune. His grandfather was a co-founder of the company. He graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1920. He, like most of Sanger’s associates, was a supporter of eugenics and forced sterilizations. He was an integral part of both the Negro Project and the Puerto Rican Project-a program that used Puerto Rican women as guinea pigs to test the birth control pill. In 1946, Gamble founded the North Carolina Human Betterment League. In 1957, he founded what is now known as Pathfinder International, which provides “reproductive health” and services in Africa and Asia.
Rev. Steve Craft with the former home of Dr. Gamble in the background.)The book also has short biographies of people mentioned in the correspondence, including Albert Lasker, the man who was the primary funder of the Negro Project. Lasker was known as “The Father of Modern Advertising.” Lasker was a Republican and his wife Mary, a close colleague of Sanger, was a Democrat. They both lobbied for socialized medicine and federal funding of medical research. They created the Lasker Foundation. If you go to the Lasker Foundation’s website, you will find glowing praise of its founders. I contacted the foundation asking for a statement on its racist roots, but I never heard back.
We were pleased and honored to get many endorsements for the book including actress Stacy Dash who starred in the move “Roe v Wade,” former abortion nurse Julie Wilkinson who played the abortion nurse in the movie ‘UnPlanned: The Abby Johnson Story, and Ed Martin of the Phyllis Schlafly Eagles.
Dr. Jefferson, with the author, 1995I dedicated the book to my late friend, Dr Mildren Jefferson, the first black woman to graduate from Harvard Medical School. In the wake of the infamous but now repealed “Roe v Wade,” Dr. Jefferson said: I am not willing to turn this great land of ours into just another exclusive reservation where only the perfect, the privileged, and the planned have the right to life.”
Sanger has been successful beyond her wildest dreams. The black population in the United States is at a steady thirteen percent. In New York City, almost half of black pregnancies end in abortion, and every single black Democrat in Congress supports abortion. While the founders of the modern Pro-Life Movement were primarily Catholic Democrats, as of this writing, there is only one Pro-Life Democrat in Congress- Henry Cuellar. There are many pro-abortion Republicans as well. The first two states to decriminalize abortion were NY and CA, both led by Republican governors. We hope that our book helps to shed some much-needed light on this dark chapter in our history, and our earnest prayer is that God will change the hearts and minds of those in the abortion industry.
The book is available on Camp Constitution’s website and on Amazon: The Racist Roots of Planned Parenthood and Its Legacy of Death
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“I feel like I’ve stepped back in time.” An all-too-common phrase recited by almost every healthcare provider when they start working at the Manchester Veteran’s Affairs (VA) Medical Center after working in the private sector. We all joke about our period of “VA culture shock,” but when the fog clears, it becomes clear that something is very wrong.
Something systemic that extends far beyond the crumbling walls of the VA.
Recently, the Secretary of VA visited Manchester VA, bringing the same recycled message of “change” that others before him have used, but with the added goal of “restoring trust,” something his predecessors have not delivered. Veteran organizations have written some glowing reviews of the new secretary, and I hope their optimism isn’t wasted. But, working on the inside, I will say he is only one human being who is far too insulated to know what the experience is on the front lines of VA Healthcare.
This is something that plagues leadership in the VA and something many whistleblowers before me have reported. While high-level managers are insulated, they are reliant on a system of metrics, numbers, and percentages. With a hyper-focus on metrics, the chain of command looks for ways to improve numbers to make their VA look better. Inevitably, this leads to the manipulation of data in ways that may not even be noticed at first glance by people who are participating in a system of “we’ve always done it that way.”
In 2015, the Manchester VA produced a group of whistleblowers, mostly doctors, all with chilling tales of malfeasance and poor oversight of VA programs and metrics. The most serious of these was the story of a doctor who found Veterans had unnecessary spinal cord injuries due to poor care or management of care by the Manchester VA. In the end, the VA was forced to investigate after the group went public with their allegations. When the VA reported their findings, they stated that almost all allegations were “unfounded.” Imagine your doctor telling you that your inability to walk and the fact you wear diapers was because of poor medical care, only to have the VA outright deny this? Knowing this doctor was one of the more well-respected pain doctors in the area, does this restore trust with the Veteran community? These doctors blew the whistle the same year a federal court awarded a Manchester VA patient $21M due to poor management of a stroke, leading to a second, more devastating stroke.
What is often missed in reviewing these public stories about the VA is why the whistleblowers decided to go public in the first place. The group in 2015 hired an attorney to represent them after they had exhausted all internal reporting methods, which are extensive. Only in the public light did the VA decide to investigate, and members of Congress made promises of more oversight. More oversight and more layers were added to an already bureaucratic system.
The obvious question at this point is, why aren’t there more whistleblowers? I’m here to tell you there are many, many more that are swept away under the bureaucratic system of federal oversight. This system is tasked with oversight of VA systems and investigation of whistleblower complaints. As VA employees, we have yearly training that encourages us to “report wrongdoing.” The training lists a myriad of oversight agencies and how to contact them with your concerns. A new agency called the “Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection” was set up as a response to news reports of whistleblower retaliation in the VA. Though they have already had their own scandal and accounts of bullying within, some lawmakers question this as an ineffective, redundant agency.
I spent years reporting many issues concerning the care of our nation’s Veterans to multiple levels of management in Manchester and received almost no response on most issues and never any resolution. I recall one meeting I had with a middle manager (the VA has many layers of management) and my surprise at how I only received a medicated-looking stare as I told my observations, including:
Any one of these issues should have been addressed and thoroughly investigated, but in a world of mixed messaging, promises were made and not delivered. Even after all the news stories of issues in the VA, management seemed either unable or uninterested in addressing these issues. Before I left the Manchester VA, I worked up the courage to file a whistleblower complaint and thought I would finally get some resolution and closure on what I see as a profound injustice. I was wrong.
In the next installment of this series, we will explore the process whistleblowers experience and how the system is set up against them. You may be surprised what happened when I informed our elected representatives in Washington DC, of these issues.
The post Whistleblower: The Manchester VA is A Microcosm of Everything Wrong With the Federal Government appeared first on Granite Grok.
Hello, Friends of Freedom,
Let’s continue this week on our observance of what makes “GOOD GOVERNMENT.” Last week we discussed the foundation of all good government is TRUTH. This week, let’s look at another issue in line with truth. MORALY IN LEGISLATION.
To broach the subject of morality in today’s culture is to avail oneself of an on-slot of vitriolic speech. However, the whims of culture can never change the Laws of the universe that God has set in place for the profitability of humanity. Nature teaches us the moral code of right and wrong. It is ingrained in our psychological makeup that there is right and wrong. The scriptures do declare in numerous passages the state of human kind devoid of God’s place in their conscience. One great example is Paul’s letter to the Romans. Let’s look at chapter one of Romans verses 18-24, Here it reads:
“ For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, the did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
Therefore God gave them up to the lust of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because the exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.”
Paul goes on to describe a culture given to practices that are neither God-honoring nor things that would advance mankind. The list of morality issues he brings out are as old as mankind. What is happening in America by government legislation is that we are advancing the lowest level of human activity to become the normal way of life. I am sure you remember the court cases in the 1970s where pornography was on trial as to its legality. A phrase was adopted that, at the time, allowed the SCOTUS to sidestep the issue rather than make it illegal to anyone other than minors. That phrase was, “You can’t legislate morality,” spoken by Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, this phrase became the pass the legislature needed to continue to allow moral corruption spawned by pornography and to allow it to be protected by law as long as consenting adults are involved.
We want to thank Pastor Allen Cook for this Contribution – Please direct yours to Steve@GraniteGrok.com.
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However, there has perhaps never been a more misguided phrase.
The truth, however, is that every law and regulation we accept to govern us has in it some inherent idea of the good it will produce for us, and others who argue against the law being passed often try to show how detrimental the law being passed can be to the well begin of the populace. There is no way that any government seeking to uphold the betterment of its people could ever say that morality is neutral. No law is morally neutral. It (the law) advances the ideas and wishes of those who are seeking to implement its execution on the population.
So, let us not be deceived, government is never neutral, indeed it cannot be. If there is not a direct purpose of good stated with laws then there is certainly an applied purpose. That purpose may be moral or immoral; however, it is never neutral.
Micah Watson, Associate Professor of Political Science at Calvin University, has an excellent article entitled, “WHY WE CAN’T BUT HELP LEGiSLATE MORALITY.” Look it up on the web.
He states that” all legislation is moral.” That is the travesty of the current climate we are facing where we are using the legalese to allow innocent children to be subjected to life altering drugs and surgical proceeders that will never make them the opposite sex but will forever make them incapable physically of being the sex they were created by God to be.
It is not good government to continue on this path of the destruction of the next generation. It is morally repugnant to destroy a child in such a manner. Yet here we are and I cannot help but hear the Apostles words of worshiping the creature, the creation apart from its creator.
I will close with one thought, well a few actually…
When you buy a product from the store as you open it there are explicit instructions on how to operate it or to assemble it, etc.,. if by any chance things are not working out you have an address and phone number too contact the manufacturer, i.e. the designer, and creator of the product. Why would you do that? Because they envisioned the product before it was created and also oversaw the actual creation of it. They know how it was DESIGNED to work. So, looking at humanity we realize that we have a creator, the facts of this are everywhere if we are willing to look honestly. We also have numerous scriptures that detail for us the design of the Creator. Two passage are: one, in the book of Jeremiah chapter one where God says I designed you in the womb to be a voice to the nations, and secondly, Psalms 39 where King David says,. you formed me in secret in my mothers womb. You fashioned me to be what you wanted me to be.
We all know that children fantasize about all sort so things, have imaginary friends, and have deep feelings as their minds are developing. What a travesty that we are not honoring the Creator in this arena. He made them male and female. Perhaps some kids are having trouble with their feelings (not their bodies?). So why not counsel and love them through the moments they are going through. Instead we are creating government agencies, spending millions of dollars on drugs and surgeries, passing destructive legislation to harm families, and ultimately impairing the beautiful way God made them to be. This is NOT GOOD GOVERNMENT!
And in closing if we have folks in government who insist on promoting the destruction of a child in this way perhaps we could lend a hand (a vote) in allowing them to return to civil life instead of legislating what they perceive as a morality that is dangerous and completely irreversible in the future life of that child.
Till Next Week….
Allen
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The beauty of a blatantly biased government-funded project like NewsGuard is that we can measure how much we can trust any news source they’ve audited by reversing what the scores mean. The closer you get to zero, the more likely the content is not controlled by or at least aping the uniparty line.
As we near 100, the scope of their collaboration – deliberate or accidental becomes as clear as Vodka.
“…organizations that receive a perfect 100 from NewsGuard include The New York Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Politico, The New Yorker, TIME, Yahoo! News, The Guardian, The Economist and USA Today — all rated Lean Left or Left by AllSides.”
Every one of them has been fingered in numerous acts of journalistic fraud long before the COVID lies began, and that’s the keystone. If you fail to toe the Medical Industrial Complex narrative on SARS CoV2- even today, NewsGuard will doc you on their ratings. The higher your score, the more often you spread government, UN, CDC, FDA, and WHO lies about masks, distancing, lockdowns, early treatment, why affordable drugs were blacklisted or prohibited (as in some states), or – the big one, the “vaccines.”
NewsGuard has provided us with an easy filter for unbalanced reporting that favored what amounted to State-sanctioned medical misinformation and disinformation—a canary in a coal mine.
So, NewsGuard is good for something.
GraniteGrok got a 37.5, which is not the lowest possible score, but it’s close. We got some credit for disclosing ownership, handling the differences between news and opinion responsibly, clearly labeling advertising, ensuring readers know about potential conflicts of interest, and including names and bios of authors. We got dinged for spreading misinformation (about vaccines and COVID, believe it or not), and they didn’t like how we addressed errors in articles.
We do issue corrections when necessary, but that’s unusually rare. If you’re talking about opinions, well, explain how you got your own opinion wrong, to which our response is – we let everyone work it out in comments. NewsGuard didn’t like that, but why would they? Many in the media stopped allowing comments because they can’t afford a moderator, and now they are firing everyone else. Staff are being let loose across the information landscape from papers to magazines to television.
Could it be because of their ridiculously high NewsGuard ratings? And that’s your homework assignment. If you can find NewsGuard ratings on local media, share them with us so we can educate the public on who is working at working toward the truth, no matter how messy that can be, and who is pandering to the political messaging of the uniparty.
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Shane Sirois, a rep from the lovely red town of New Ipswich, emailed me, identifying himself as a member of the Vax Injury Caucus. He was putting out an all-hands-on-deck call for action because SB 319 had a hearing in the Senate HHS committee on 1/10/24. Like I’ve said before, Nashua owes red towns its gratitude for serving us unserved folks in the House.
Furthermore, Nashua is dependent on New Ipswich for senate representation, so of course, I answered the call. Plus, I support(ed) the bill.
This bill, as you can see by clicking on the link, bans government purchasing and distribution of vaccines with insufficient human trial data, to use my own words. I rallied up the troops in my own spheres of influence and the hearing can be viewed in this link.
SB 319 is between 4h05 and 5h22min.
Dr. Chan and his colleague appeared for this bill and must have used the word “robust” more than Humphrey Bogart said, “here’s looking at you, kid” in Casablanca. Dr Chan also lied into the mic while answering questions, but that’s another story that you can talk to Nurse Terese about sometime.
This was my first hearing chaired by Senator Regina Birdsell, and it went smoothly for the most part, but she did voice her objection to speakers criticizing other speakers. I’ve become somewhat seasoned at pushing the envelope when it comes to decorum, so I expressed my disdain for Dr. Chan without saying his name the moment I took a seat at the mic and referred to Jeb and Regina as “the swing votes.” (at 4h50min) And those two “swung” the wrong way!
So it was no surprise that the committee recommendation, 4-1 with my senator dissenting, was a referral to interim study. We all know this is the quiet way to euthanize a bill. Suzanne Prentiss from the enemy camp presented the recommendation to the whole senate yesterday, and it was no surprise that the man with the gavel “shepherded the senate sheeple” into adopting the recommendation.
“But wait, there’s more”(on Regina), as those late-night UHF TV infomercials say.
Today, I was combing through next week’s hearing calendar in search of another bill in the same committee. I found it scheduled for Wednesday, 2/14, along with a few others.
That was when I stumbled upon SB 402 with its lone sponsor, the committee chair, allowing pharmacists to administer The Jab.
Naturally, this piqued my interest. And it also brought back the memory of seeing the sponsor muzzled in the senate chamber on 1/26/23. I don’t easily forget such minutia, and I decided to look into Follow the Money dot org.
Now, it has been pointed out that taking pharma money is not uncommon on both sides of the aisle, but how much do you, dear reader, think is the maximum amount acceptable? And what about the taker’s voting record following the donation? It is, after all, called “follow the money” dot org, but I encourage people to also look elsewhere for confirmation. Some suggestions would be open secrets dot org or even the Secretary of State’s office. Do the due diligence you see fit, especially if you vote in District 19.
The post Is Sen. Regina Birdsell Part of the Covid Cult? You Decide. appeared first on Granite Grok.
The fun thing about the Democrat Dictionary, as infrequent as the installments are, is that no matter what the word is, it only ever means what Democrats think it means when they think it. The word Democracy is an excellent example of this.
They can’t shut up about it, Democracy. Defending it, saving it, honoring and protecting it, by which they mean their definition of it, not actual Democracy.
Democracy to Democrats is about people having the freedom to choose from a pool of candidates the Democrats allow, with the winner being whom they decide if the voters choose the wrong one (ask a Bernie supporter if I’m wrong).
So powerful is the Democrat commitment to their definition of Democracy that it also applies to the Republican Party, of which none of them are members and who would never be allowed to pick the Democrat’s nominee. While Democrats will go out of their way to pretend to be Republicans (for voting purposes) to pick the Democrat’s opponent, hoping that their candidate will win more easily.
They’ve gotten so keen on picking both nominees that in states where Democrats hold offices and power over elections, they have moved repeatedly to prevent the Republican party, a private organization, from deciding which of its candidates can be on its primary ballot – using government power over the voting process (printing of ballots) to enforce their will upon Republicans to limit whom they may choose for a candidate for President.
This is about as honest an example of what Democracy means to Democrats as you’ll ever find.
Democracy is not about Democracy; it is about using the government to get whatever it is Democrats want, whenever they want it.
And yes, we do live in a constitutional republic, which doesn’t work for Democrats, so they call it a Democracy. That and they love mobs, and there’s nothing quite like making 49.9% of the people do something because you’ve demonstrated – by fact of fiction – that you’ve convinced 50.1% to let the government do it to you.
The post Night Cap: Democrat Dictionary – ‘Democracy’ appeared first on Granite Grok.
Hawaii is Blue. If not for California, it would likely be the progressive poster child for failed policy. It is run by statists who appoint statist judges, but in an odd twist, the State’s Supreme Court has discovered federalism … as an excuse to deny an individual right.
In a February 7th ruling, the high court announced that it did not have to listen to the US Supreme Court or any precedent related to its interpretation of the Second Amendment to the US Constitution.
Christopher Wilson was arrested seven years ago for carrying a handgun for protection while hiking. Being in Hawaii, he was charged with multiple firearms violations and introduced to the tedious and expensive court system. Hawaii does not allow you to carry outside “the home if you are able to get permission to carry at all. Seven years later the State’s highest court has ruled against Wilson.
“We reject Wilson’s constitutional challenges. Conventional interpretive modalities and [Hawaii’s] historical tradition of firearm regulation rule out an individual right to keep and bear arms under the [Hawaii] Constitution.”
Jacob Sullum, writing at Reason, observes (with reference to District of Columbia v. Heller, McDonald v. Chicago, and New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, that,
The Hawaii Supreme Court thinks all of those cases were wrongly decided. In a ruling issued on Wednesday, the court sides with the Heller dissenters by embracing the view that “the right of the people to keep and bear arms”—unlike “the right of the people peaceably to assemble” (protected by the First Amendment), “the right of the people” to be secure from “unreasonable searches and seizures” (protected by the Fourth Amendment), and the unspecified rights “retained by the people” under the Ninth Amendment—does not refer to an individual right. Rather, the Hawaii Supreme Court says, the Second Amendment involves a “collective right” that is relevant only in the context of militia service.
It appears to me that Hawaii’s “historical” tradition is to selectively acknowledge rights as individual or collective based on partisan political interest. The very reason why we have a Federal Constitution, which Hawaii accepted as the highest law of the land when it joined the nation. And yes, we can have endless conversations about courts and constitutions and not following those words or these words or the vagaries of time and definitions, and it’s all legitimate grist for that mill. But at its simplest, you shouldn’t either see all the natural rights as an individual or none of them and make that case to the people so they can vote accordingly.
That’s not how any of it works because while there is some ground-level momentum toward collectivism in regard to rights like free speech, we still have some way to go to see the whole stable subdued by the creeping Marxists who love the word federalism if they can use it to deny people rights.
You can find a lot of inside baseball and background on State v. Wilson here if you like getting into the weeds.
The post Hawaii Discovers ‘Federalism’ – Refuses to Acknowledge Bruen in Decision Requiring License to Carry appeared first on Granite Grok.
On Friday, New Hampshire State Representative Mike Belcher (R-Wakefield) posted a press release to X regarding violations of free speech by government-run colleges in New Hampshire. A bill proposed in this session by eight Representatives and three Senators would address the issue by prohibiting the college administrators from discriminating against political speech they oppose.
The post Bill Would Address Violations of Free Speech By Government-Run Colleges appeared first on The Liberty Block.