The federal government has put the nation so far in debt that it has become common practice for the ‘Grok to remind anyone they are encouraging taxation without representation. You are spending the labor of Americans who won’t be born for years and have no voice but will be responsible for the spending and debt service.

When locals brag about it, I find myself offended. When it happens to be a solar farm – and in Derry, well – how could I resist taking a few shots?

 

The project, planned for about 10 acres of unused landfill property off Kendall Pond Road, has been researched and planned for several years.

And now, thanks to a $500,000 Congressional Directed Project grant opportunity, that could bring support for costs. Derry Public Works has been working through the United States Department of Energy in applying for and meeting all criteria to secure the grant funding. And getting that financial support could help the town save money on electricity costs as part of the planned solar project that could be in place by next November, with Burlington, Vermont-based Encore Renewable Energy handling the work.

 

Some will say, whether they believe it or not, that by doing this, they are saving the planet for their grandchildren or great-grandchildren. Those who will bear the cost burden of this exercise. As if this might be a fair exchange. Sadly, none of that is correct. The carbon footprint of the mining and manufacture of their components is significant. The decommissioning of aged-out panels, which will no longer even be in use when Derry’s descendants are old enough to work and begin to pay the debt service, has a high environmental cost. True, we may have figured that out by then, but any electricity savings today’s residents might realize are dwarfed by the debt cost burden created by spending money that doesn’t even exist.

Parity is impossible, even if you think solar farms can save the planet – a proposition even wildly progressive filmmaker Michale Moore does not believe.

The only nice thing I have to say about this is that they chose to put it over an unused landfill, but it would be better for everyone now and in generations to come if locals would stop pretending that grants from the Feds are free money. There is no such thing, and bribing today’s taxpayers with the promise of a few shekels at the expense of future taxpayers needs to stop, but voters everywhere need to understand this and vote in every election.

Every. Damn. One.

The wider the margin in favor of sanity, the harder they are to steal.

One more point, and maybe this is a homework assignment for our readers in Derry. What strings have the Feds attached to this grant that the town likely has not shared?

 

The post Night Cap: Derry Helps Add to the National Debt appeared first on Granite Grok.

The story of the sudden collapse of Harvard President Claudine Gay’s career should have nothing to do with DEI. The storyline should be about someone not qualified and prepared for the job being removed before any more damage could be done to the Harvard brand. But Gay herself made this situation about race with her poorly worded resignation.

Claudine Gay was President of Harvard University for a mere six months. The end of her tenure began with a very poor showing in front of Congress last month when three Presidents of Ivy League Colleges were asked to testify about anti-Semitic behavior on their campuses in response to the Israeli-Hamas conflict. The Presidents of Penn, MIT, and Harvard had difficulty condemning the antisemitism protests by their students. The three fell under incredible scrutiny because of their testimony. The University of Pennsylvania President M. Elizabeth Magill resigned last month, and the focus has been on Gay since, with many on both sides asking for her resignation. They got the resignation this week, but it was as ugly as her testimony.

In addition to Gay’s performance in front of Congress and her inability or desire to curb the anti-Israel protests, over 50 instances of plagiarism have been brought to light in many of Gay’s published works and her Doctorate dissertation. If a student at Harvard is found guilty of plagiarism, they are either suspended or removed permanently from the school. This policy does not apply equally to the school’s administrators. Though Gay has been removed as president, she will remain on Harvard’s faculty at a salary of nearly $800,000 yearly. She may be bruised, but still rewarded.

Gay’s comments as she leaves bring the ugly cloud of Racism into the situation, but also may disclose why she was named to the office. Al Sharpton said that Gay dented the glass ceiling, and her removal is happening partly because she is a Black woman. Many might say, especially after her talents have been scrutinized and her propensity to plagiarize is shown to be rampant, that she was only in the office because she is a Black woman. Claudine Gay might be the most prominent individual in academia to exemplify the dangers of DEI in the decision process for those placed in positions of authority. I specified academia because Joe Biden’s administration is the government’s example of your inadequate staff when based on DEI standards rather than meritocracy.

Gay claimed in her exit comments that she was frightened by the personal attacks and threats fueled by racial animus she was subjected to. This comment is coming from a woman who did not take steps to protect Jewish students on her campus who feared for their lives because of the anti-Semitic animus their fellow Harvard students subjected to them. Gay says that she resigned from her position, but the truth is she was forced out. She was forced by irate donors and fueled by her performance and record. She may not have been hired on merit, but she certainly was pushed out because she lacked it.

The person Harvard chooses to replace, Claudine Gay, will show the status of DEI. Still, the evidence is mounting that this very dangerous methodology used to rank people harms education, business, and government. DEI must DIE for us to regain a higher level of excellence.

The post Did Claudine Gay Kill DEI? appeared first on Granite Grok.

Climate alarmists have long warned that extreme cold weather events are a consequence of climate change and will worsen. Weather records, however, demonstrate this is not true. It is challenging to trust absolutist claims of anthropogenic climatic warming when those making such claims display such ideological dishonesty.

Extreme cold weather events have been declining in frequency, duration, and extent for decades. Science has also unraveled many of the mysteries of global weather patterns – such as El Nino, which is currently expected to spike temperatures as well as amplify the downward sweep of the polar jet stream.

Chilly Climate Alarms

Unfortunately, claims of climate change are too often couched in the warped lens of presumptive, un-scientific bias. Any aberration in the weather or climate is laid at the feet of the Goddess of “Just End Oil” through a reductionist, climate-binary narrative that demands unquestioning fear lest one be branded an Earth-destroying climate denier.

Water loss is thus attributed to climate change from greenhouse gases, without regard to steadily increasing human irrigation drawdowns from surface waters and underground aquifers at rates faster than these can replenish naturally. Wildfires caused by misguided government management are blamed wholly on climate change from fossil fuels. Flooding, hurricanes, tornadoes, etc. – every time a natural event occurs, what was once contractually termed “an Act of God” is now immediately labeled “an Act of Man’s carbon sin.”

El Nino is predicted to be very strong in the coming months, warming many areas. (Climate Crisis!) It is also predicted to amplify swings in the polar jet stream, causing sharp cold snaps. (Climate Crisis!). Cold or hot, El Nino or El Nina, all temperatures and storms precipitate howls of doom and demands for increased power from the Climate Warrior Clan.

Scary Ice Age Scenarios

The World Economic Forum perpetuates the false-flag climatology with scaremongering headlines like “How does climate change affect extreme cold-weather events?” Greenpeace UK incredibly claims:

“…global warming is thought to be behind extreme cold snaps, especially in places that don’t usually experience them. Scientists think it’s possible that warmer Arctic seas could be causing clouds of warmer air in the atmosphere, making the polar vortex more prone to wobbling or waving. That’s why sudden bitterly cold weather is actually further evidence of global warming. And while scientists disagree on how quickly the Gulf Stream could collapse, the only way to avoid the UK plunging into a permanent deep freeze is to stop climate change.”

Carbon Isn’t Causing Extreme Cold

However, science clearly shows that extreme cold weather events have declined. The recent US National Climate Assessment states “Despite some recent damaging cold events, overall cold extremes are becoming less frequent and milder.” The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Climate Extremes Index shows a clear trend toward less extreme cold.  The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concludes that “… it is virtually certain that there has been…a decrease in the number of cold days and nights on the global scale since 1950. Both the coldest extremes and hottest extremes display increasing temperatures.”

So according to the climate scripture of the prophets of climate science themselves, extreme cold snaps have declined in frequency, duration, and severity. It is hard to fault so-called “climate deniers” for dulling their ears to the cacophony of ideologues crying global-warming-wolf, when the cult members ignore their own Priests of Climatology.

Climate Propaganda is Extremely Cold

“Rain, sun, sleet, or snow: It’s all your fault, don’tcha know?” Neo-Marxism must deconstruct and shame in order to appropriate more power to fashion a clean energy future in which the globe will be equitably, anthropogenically cooled in a New Weather Utopia. (Never mind the Chinese coal plants manufacturing US solar panels and EV components.)

Exalting the climate scientist magicians of the New Postmodern Age, the world is told by Green New Deal Socialists that “a new field of science has developed to determine how climate change directly impacts extreme weather events: extreme weather attribution.” The old term, in the lexicon of Orwell and Huxley, was “extreme weather propaganda.” All weather is “attributed” to the evil human species, in the climate doom pathology. There is no escape ….

The post Climate Warriors Send Chilling Message appeared first on Granite Grok.

THIRD PLACE: Tucker Carlson. When he was fired by Faux News in April, Tucker Carlson was supposed to go gently into the good night. He didn’t. By defying Faux, Tucker exposed Faux as merely “controlled opposition,” as opposed to a real conservative alternative to Regime-media.

“They” … they being the UniParty … hate Tucker for many of the same reasons they hate Trump. Tucker points out what total all-talk-no-action frauds GOP “leaders” are on the border. He asks questions the UniParty does not want asked, such as how Russia can simultaneously be on the verge of being defeated in Ukraine, but at the same time a threat to conquer all of Europe if the U.S. stops pouring hundreds of billions into the military-industrial complex.

SECOND PLACE: Matt Gaetz. But for Matt Gaetz, Kevin McCarthy would still be Speaker of the House. Gaetz called McCarthy’s bluff. More specifically, McCarthy reneged on the promises he made to become Speaker, betting that nobody would dare go after him and that he was free to continue funding Biden’s agenda … especially the proxy war against Russia, a/k/a the “War in Ukraine” … which is the same agenda as the big-donors and big-lobbyists. McCarthy lost that bet. It remains to be seen how much of an improvement Speaker Johnson will be. But what Gaetz made obvious is that McCarthy and his ilk are UniParty frauds who don’t give a damn about the GOP voters they supposedly represent.

FIRST PLACE: Elon Musk. Without Elon Musk there effectively would be no free speech in the U.S. The constitutional right to free speech is merely words written on paper if the government, acting through the big corporations that control modern communications, can censor information and go unchallenged when they feed the public false information. The suppression of free speech in 2020 was a big part of how the election was rigged. Elon Musk’s “X” alone, in contrast to Facebook, to Google, to pre-Musk Twitter, serves as a venue where Americans can effectively exercise their right to free speech. Without Musk, Tucker would be a footnote and McCarthy would still be Speaker of the House.

The post 2023 Person Of The Year appeared first on Granite Grok.

Starting in 2024, the Protect Illinois Communities Act (PICA) requires residents of Illinois who own a variety of so-called ‘assault rifles’ to register these guns with the state police.

The bad news is that, so far, courts below SCOTUS have either been upholding the law or refusing to hear challenges to it.

The good news is that there has been little or no compliance with this law.  Well under 1% of gun owners have complied, which means that well under 1% of the guns that are probably out there have been registered.

(Because they haven’t been registered, we don’t really know who has which guns. Which is the whole point of disallowing gun registries, right?)

But there’s even better news.  With a couple of exceptions (you can guess which ones), the chief law enforcement officers of the various counties in the state — elected County Sheriffs — have openly stated that they will be completely ignoring the law, as it so clearly conflicts with the Second and Fourteenth Amendments.

Here’s what the Courthouse News Service (CNS) had to say about this:

This mass non-compliance presents a major political challenge for Illinois’ ruling Democrats. It doesn’t mean much that the party spent 2023 fighting for PICA in the courts, if those charged with enforcing the law decide they don’t care what the courts say.

Exactly.

And that’s the first step towards getting things back on track:  For those who enforce the law to decide that the Constitution means what it says, and not what a bunch of pretend potentates say it means, and that they should be guided by the former, not the latter.

Here’s the second step:  For those who are supposed to obey laws like PICA to come to the same conclusion. A lot of gun owners have apparently taken that step.  Let’s hope they’re soon joined by people whose other rights are being trampled.

 

The post Mass Non-Compliance Presents a Major Political Challenge…For Democrats appeared first on Granite Grok.

As promised in Monday Memes, I have an overflow. And hang on baby… Friday’s coming!

Let the mayhem, mockery, and ridicule resume:

 

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

 

 

>>>>>=====<<<<<

 

 

Related:

 

 

At the risk of being crass, you just have to know that every illegal female with even the remote possibility of being fertile is – let me be delicate – attempting to get pregnant.  Because 9 months after that, comes the Golden Ticket.

 

 

I don’t think the protestors have any thought that their protests make people like them or want to look into their cause.  IMHO they’re merely showing their power… and how the police, etc., must bend to them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The bottom center one really hit me.  I’ve seen multiple memes about the fact that a father used to be able to support a family with his own salary… not rely on the wife having to work too.

 

 

 

But… but… but our intellectual and moral superiors assure us that’s not real Communism.

 

 

 

 

Speaking of puberty blockers, etc.:

 

 

DeWine was a squish when I lived in Ohio.  Hasn’t changed.

 

 

A good leader, who understood his power came from The People, would take the message sent by the Blade Runners as a signal for correction.  The fact that he doesn’t indicates he doesn’t see The People as his boss…

 

 

 

 

 

This is very long, but an excellent essay:

Breaking the Spell: MindSpace, Trance Warfare, and Neuro Linguistic Programming – the Canadian patriot

So far the feedback from those persons to whom I’ve sent it has been very positive.  And quite a few AHA! moments as I read it.

 

 

 

Every time I’ve gone to the hospital I have them PRINT OUT the admissions form; I don’t sign the little electronic pad.  On EACH PAGE I put NO COVID VACCINATION… to be broadened to NO VACCINATIONS AT ALL next time… initial and date, sign the last page, and photograph each page before handing it to them.  Not bulletproof but at least you have that if they do do something.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Is there anyone with any illusions about how the Native Americans would have treated the White Europeans had the levels of technology been reversed, and it was they who crossed the Atlantic to Europe?

 

>>>>>=====<<<<<

 

PSA – PSA – PSA – PSA – PSA

 

 

In anticipation of a Survival Sunday this weekend.

 

>>>>>=====<<<<<

 

 

 

 

Remember that unless it’s an ultra-red area, it only takes a relatively small amount to flip it blue.  They plan in terms of decades.

 

 

 

 

 

RIP officer.  But… the media wouldn’t release descriptions while the perps were still at large???

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

>>>>>=====<<<<<

 

Pick of the Post:

 

 

Not just because of the Jew hatred there… this has been simmering in a cauldron of hate for everything American and eveything Western Civilization for years and years.  But, finally, it’s coming to light.

 

>>>>>=====<<<<<

 

Palate cleansers:

 

—

—

 

>>>>>=====<<<<<

 

Come back on Friday for more memes.  Same meme time.  Same meme channel.

 

>>>>>=====<<<<<

 

The post Meme Overflow appeared first on Granite Grok.

We like to think of judges as learned arbiters, thoroughly knowledgeable in the finer details of the law and, above all, eminently honest and fair – nonpartisan and unbiased. That’s especially true of Supreme Court justices.

Sometimes, they don’t meet our expectations. Take, for example, those four justices serving on Colorado’s supreme court. Their recent ruling, excluding Donald Trump from Colorado’s 2024 presidential ballot, exposed those so-called arbiters of justice as nothing more than political hacks.

All those years in Ivy League law schools certainly gave them intricate knowledge of our legal system, but like some others in the legal profession, they chose to use that knowledge to justify a forgone conclusion rather than dispense justice. Using ambiguous laws, obscure courtroom decisions, and twisted logic, they succeeded in convincing Trump haters across the country that their decision was based on solid legal grounds. But others understand that had they used simple common sense, they would likely have reached a different decision.

Instead, they first had to accept the absurd Democrat lie that the incident at the Capitol on January 6, 2021 was an “insurrection.” They created a labored and contorted legal explanation rationalizing that position.

They should have first checked a dictionary for the most common definition of the word – “an organized attempt by a group of people to defeat their government and take control of their country, usually by violence.”

Then they could have taken a closer look at the 14th Amendment, which was written in the wake of a bloody Civil War that ripped our country apart and killed 620,000 Americans. That’s what the writers of the amendment had in mind when the included the words “insurrection or rebellion.” They were clearly were not thinking of some disorderly protest at the Capitol.

They could have simply watched the January 6th videos taken inside the Capitol – the ones posted by the Committee on House Administration. They would have seen what looked like tour groups meandering through the building. They would have seen no hint of an armed rebellion.

Yes, if they had only been guided by common sense, rather than unbounded hatred of Donald Trump, we wouldn’t be talking about this today.

To eliminate Trump from the ballot, they also had to explain how Trump, himself, “engaged in insurrection,” even though he’s never been convicted of, or even charged with that offense. His speech that day did contain some fiery rhetoric – but it was no different than the rhetoric regularly used by other politicians. More significant was the cautionary remark Trump made to the crowd: “I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.” Those don’t sound like the words of an insurrectionist.

This isn’t the first time that Democrats have tried to abuse the Constitution and override the will of the American people.

In 2016 they orchestrated the failed Russia collusion hoax. In 2020, they successfully manipulated the presidential election, helped by 50 former intelligence professionals and Trump-haters in the news and social media. Last-minute, illegal changes to election laws in Pennsylvania and other states also helped them saddle the country with their chosen candidate, a thoroughly corrupt stooge – a globalist bent on destroying America’s sovereignty. Sadly, their concerted efforts to defeat Trump also decimated public trust in an election process that was once the envy of the world.

And when obsessed Democrats forged ahead with two frivolous impeachments and a slew of bogus indictments, does anyone believe it was about the will of the people?

Now, as the 2024 election approaches, their tactics have become more desperate and more brazen, but just as despicable. Democrats are appealing to state authorities to remove Trump from their ballots.

Those four obscure Democrat-appointed justices told 1.3 million Coloradan Trump voters that they’ll just have to find another candidate. If that doesn’t defy the democratic concept of free and open elections, how about this? Like a tin-pot dictator, Democrat Secretary of State of Maine, just spat in the eyes of Trump supporters, nearly half the state’s voting population. Short on both legal credentials and common sense, she gleefully jumped aboard the Bump Trump Bandwagon, declaring the former president an insurrectionist, and proclaiming that he would be excluded from Maine’s ballot.

In less than 12 months the American people will elect a president to lead them out of this morass – to stop the invasion on our southern border, restore our once-thriving economy, and regain our respect on the world stage. Donald Trump has accomplished all that in the past, and polls indicate that voters would reelect him today over Joe Biden. A handful of zealots in a few Democrat-controlled states are trying to upend our election process and stop Trump at any cost – even at the expense of our republic.

Most legal experts expect the U.S. Supreme Court to end their insane gambit, but even if that happens, voters will have to remain vigilant. We’ve seen what desperate Democrats are capable of in their frantic quest for power.

The post Another Desperate Gambit by Democrats appeared first on Granite Grok.

Several authors on the ‘Grok have suggested that the inside-the-beltway crowd and their Demp Party masters have no intention of letting Joe Biden be their candidate come November 2024. They may “let him” win the nomination but then perp-walk him into retirement for any number of reasons.

Biden’s departure could happen on the convention’s last night or days after. He is honored but poor health, blah, blah, blah. I’m not sure what the DNC has planned for Jill Biden. She won’t want to go quietly into any goodnight, but that’s never stopped the uniparty before. Kamla will have to go, too, quietly or not. She’s worse than him without any of the obvious excuses.

The ‘Grok has been milking this theory for a while, but who will be the stand-in?

In tonight’s performance of the US Presidential elections, the part of Joe Biden will be played by [blank]. There are at least a few Dems on the bench who would like the coach to put them in, but California Governor Gavin Newsom seems the most likely not that they won’t get California to vote Democrat come election night. He’s young, creepy, wants the job, and isn’t named Clinton.

It’ll be someone younger, dynamic, capable of basic human speech, and a reliable Marxist.

Preident Trump agrees it won’t be Biden. In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News, Donald Trump said he “can’t believe he’s going to be the nominee.”

 

“He’s a cheater. He’s a scoundrel. He’s a bad guy,” Trump told Breitbart News of Biden. “But in his life, he’s always been able to convince people he’s this really nice guy. I laugh when they say, ‘Trump is the evil one, and he’s the nice one.’ That’s the one thing he’s been able to do. All you have to do is look at his credentials. When you compare him today to 15 or 20 years ago, he’s a different kind of a guy. The guy can’t talk. The guy can’t put two sentences together. So I do think this: I cannot believe he’s going to be the nominee. I hope he is. But I can’t believe he’s going to be the nominee.” …

Asked later in the interview again what he thinks happens among Democrats if they ditch both Biden and Harris from the ticket and who replaces them, Trump again said he is unsure who might emerge but said he thinks it will be a “free-for-all” among Democrats to try to seize the top spot on the ballot.

“That I can’t tell you,” Trump said. “There will be a point at which it’s a free-for-all.”

“I don’t think that Biden will make it to the gate,” Trump added.

There could be a mad dash for that red flag. Power is the defining principle of Democrat politics and the goal of every card-carrying party member. It is a preferred form of government that doesn’t provide much in the way of job security or personal protection. If leadership sees you as a threat to power, your days are numbered.

It is why many of us have also had conversations about if or when that same Bog Government establishment will try to take a shot at Trump, as in assassination. If he’s that big of a threat to their power, what are they waiting for?

I’m sure it’s come up and for more reasons than being rid of a dangerous opponent. It would likely start the civil war for which they’ve been pining—the chance to declare Martial law to impose a wide range of restrictions.

Biden was acceptable because they could control him. Use him as the face of their progressive tyranny. Breaking America is the goal. If it only takes one bullet, they’d be more than happy to take the shot.

 

The post Trump Agrees With Us – Biden Won’t be the Dems ‘Guy’ Come November appeared first on Granite Grok.

The Vermont Legislature returns to Montpelier on January 3rd, and the Democrat Supermajority’s first order of business in the House is a 10 percent state income tax hike. Of course, the bill is titled “S.56 – An act relating to child care and early childhood education” because, you know, “for the children,” but….

Sections 24 -27 lay it out clear that should S.56 become law, income tax rates will increase by bracket from 3.65% to 3.8% (a 9 percent increase) on those earning $42,150 or less, from 6.6% to 7.3% (an 11 percent increase) on those earning between $42,151 and $102,200, from 7.6% to 8.3% (a nine percent increase) on those earning between $102,201 and $213,150, and from 8.75% to 9.6% (a 10 percent increase) on those earning more than that.

According to the Joint Fiscal Office, this would mean an overall income tax increase on Vermonters of $125.4 million in 2025.

Oh, but they’re not done yet! This bill calls for another income tax increase – a “Supplemental Personal Income Tax Increase” — in 2027 by brackets to 3.8%, 7.5%, 8.55%, and 10.05%, which would suck an additional $57.5 million out of working Vermonters’ wallets in 2028 on top of that.

What’s all this for, you ask? The complete hostile takeover of pre-kindergarten childcare – mostly small businesses run by women – by the bloated, corrupt, inefficient, ineffective, but politically powerful public school monopoly.

Yes, the same folks who for multiple decades were failing to teach our kids to read properly are locking special needs students in “blue rooms” when they’re not physically pinning them to the floor, who are responsible for over a dozen years worth of declining test scores, walked out on kids and families during COVID, and who are more interested in cramming woke ideology down students’ throats than teaching them how to balance a checkbook (and here I think we can see why)… want to start the process of miseducating and indoctrinating our kids a few years earlier. And they’re generously willing to perform this service for just a few hundred million dollars a year. Maybe make it half a billion when all is said and done—nice round number.

So, if you thought the new 0.44 percent payroll tax passed just last year that will start sucking $120 million directly out of working Vermonters’ paychecks this July, plus the anticipated 18.5 percent property tax increase would be enough to cover this early childcare nut, it seems you were grossly mistaken. After all, it’s not cheap supplying taxpayer funded childcare subsidies to families earning 575% of the federal poverty level. This means, yes, if this bill becomes law, Vermonters in the lowest income bracket will be paying 9 percent more in income taxes to provide benefits for people earning over $200,000 a year. Quit complaining, poor folks. That’s “your fair share,” according to the lingo.

2024 is an election year, and just so you know, S.56 was sponsored by 17 of the 23 Democrat Senators and passed the Senate last year on a roll call vote of 24-6. Every Democrat voted for it, and one Republican.

Now it’s in the House, and you have a chance to let your Representatives know what you think about all this. Please do!

 

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 Democrats Open 2024 Session with 10% Income Tax Hike appeared first on Granite Grok.

Oh, Love! The eternal rhythm, a symphony echoing through existence’s core! Is love a mere sentiment? Far from it, it’s the relentless beat in the human heart. Love, a master weaver, stitches reality’s fabric with intricate artistry, painting the world with hues of compassion, understanding, and boundless connection.

Love transcends time and breaks mortality’s shackles, granting glimpses into the infinite. It is the flame dancing with joy in newborn eyes, glowing with possibilities. Unbound by birth or death, love lingers like celestial fragrance, outlasting mortal limitations in the vast expanse.

If life’s a theatre, then love and only love take the lead, breathing life into the mundane, transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary, and guiding creativity’s flame. Love is a guiding star for art, poetry, patriotism, and philosophers’ pursuits, and love fuels unwavering fervor and unravels existence’s profound roots.

Love inspires, provokes emotions, and is an undisputed sovereign, ruling hearts with benevolence and poise. Love is the alchemy that transmutes despair into joy. Love is like the magician wielding its wand with divine precision and turning the commonplace into the extraordinary with regal decision.
Love, the sacred fire, warms the coldest corners, turning dwellings into havens, and is a foundation for homes and the mortar binding families in unbreakable bonds. Lit by love’s flames, hearths bring hope, dispelling shadows and illuminating unity’s path.

Love conducts the symphony as life’s music plays, melodies of shared moments.

What molds existence’s disparate elements into a masterpiece? Love, the sculptor – beyond mere attractive features, a synergy of souls connecting, creating profound beauty. An artisan of aesthetics, love illuminates gestures and smiles, crafting a beauty radiating from within, authentic and combined.

In the grand ballet of existence, love pirouettes with grace and passion. Without it, we’re spectators in a monochrome world devoid of vibrancy. With love, life transforms into a kaleidoscope, with emotions vividly painted, transcending challenges and bringing joy and fulfillment.

In love’s divine embrace, Earth becomes a celestial haven, mere mortals ascend to god-like stature, embraced by a timeless force.

Not a fleeting emotion but an eternal flame echoing through eternity, love is all we need – the alpha and omega guiding us to heaven on Earth.

And yet, even amidst the anguish and heartache, love’s essence remains eternal. It is a force that cannot be extinguished, for it resides in the deepest recesses of our souls. Though my heart may bear the scars of betrayal, I know that love has the power to heal and mend. Through the depths of our pain, we discover our resilience and capacity to rise above the ironies of life and find solace in the light of forgiveness.

Love, with all its complexities and contradictions, remains the guiding force that leads us through the darkest nights towards the promise of a new dawn.

 

The post Night Cap: The Power of Love appeared first on Granite Grok.

The polls show it, and the voters swapping parties prove it. There is a movement away from the Democrats and policies that do not resemble the Party of JFK or even Bill Clinton, for that matter.

2023 will be known as the year the Radicals went too far for even their own Party, and many are jumping off the Radical bandwagon and hoping it did not go so far down the wrong track that there is no getting back.

2023 was a disastrous year for America unless you intended to complete Obama’s mission to transform this once-great country into a Socialist dystopia. If that is your case, you partied last night like it was 1999.

2023 will be remembered as the year of the mandates and restrictions placed on the masses by a President with such a low approval rating that he has no chance of reelection. He went all in and did as much damage as possible, knowing he would only have one shot. But, Boy, did he make that shot hurt.

We have suffered the effects of bad presidents, but we always caught the problem in time so the next commander-in-chief could right the ship. Jimmy Carter was considered by many to be our worst president. He damaged our country at home and abroad, but Ronald Reagan came along and relit the beacon on the hill. There may be no Ronald Reagan-like president strong enough to right the wrongs of Joe Biden.

To list all of the radical, no, extreme actions taken by Biden and the Left would depress even the most optimistic. But we must write them all down to realize how badly we are hurt so we know how, or if, we can fix the mess.

Starting with the evacuation, or surrender, of Afghanistan, we showed we are not the world’s superpower but also that we lack strength and leadership. We turned away from twenty years of effort and walked away, leaving Americans behind as well as enough equipment to arm a small nation. Yet, we have the audacity to believe we can dictate the terms of engagement to Israel, which is defending herself after being attacked. We keep putting billions of dollars into Ukraine like a drunken gambler sitting at a slot machine waiting for cherries but only spinning lemons. We cannot defend our borders but tell others how to protect theirs. We are no longer the America that our needy friends can turn to for help.

At home, we squandered our precious energy independence for the sake of a dysfunctional effort to save the planet. We have imposed a death sentence on the internal combustion engine that built this great land. We think we can replace it with a battery-driven alternative and then rely on our number one nemesis, China, to give us the batteries. We are destroying our open land and seas with solar farms and windmills that are inefficient as they are ugly, and we call it progress. We are foolish and shortsighted and have not devised a plan that will work.

We still have a crime epidemic that is not unique to the big cities. Crime increases are everywhere and will escalate as the illegal aliens continue to pour across the Border and spread throughout the land. Fentanyl is still killing Americans and is just as critical as the human flow across the Rio Grande. The Border is hemorrhaging at 3 million illegals per year, and Biden, Mayorkas, and Harris contend the Border is secure.

Finally, we have inflation. Biden continues to preach the benefits of Bidenomics, but the reality is not positive. Inflation continues to outpace income, and with states putting Minimum Wage Laws into effect today, with some as high as $20.00 per hour, many will be seeing massive layoffs. That is not going to ignite the base.

There is nothing positive to report about Biden’s performance. Well, that is not 100% true. Biden does have only one year left in the Oval Office, which is good news for Americans.

 

The post Night Cap: The Pendulum May Be Swinging But Can We Recover appeared first on Granite Grok.

I’ve read convincing arguments that any number of individuals who are or were ineligible for the office of Vice President or President of the United States may have held the job or run for it. Why should this year’s exercise be any different?

Barry Soetoro may not have been the first birth blanket outrage, but he was not the last. We’ve had one since then. Kamala Harris has been identified as ineligible for the office she occupies.

 

In a 2020 Newsweek article, Eastman argued that Harris would only qualify as a constitutionally eligible natural-born citizen if her parents were “lawful permanent residents at the time of her birth.” However, in the case of Harris, if her parents were “merely temporary visitors,” then she patently did not qualify as a natural-born citizen pursuant to Article II, Section 1.

 

Harris’ ineligibility was no more of a deterrent than an obvious lack of qualification (for her or her boss), but since Barry O, the question of qualification tends to illicit outrage (how dare you!) in proportion to the amount of melanin in your skin, unless you are a Republican. Some have identified Vivek Ramaswamy as ineligible despite his darker tone, and Nikki Haley, whose status as a Republican is suspect to many, is having her citizenship qualifications questioned.

 

In Nikki Haley’s case, it is well documented that neither one of her parents were citizens, natural born or naturalized, at the time of her birth in 1972. It has been previously reported that a South Carolina-based newspaper included a quote from the Office of Nikki Haley, stating that “her parents were not U.S. citizens at the time of her birth in 1972 and did not become citizens until 1978 and 2003.” Thus, although the parents may have been lawful residents at the time of her birth on South Carolina soil, which may or may not confer her with the privileges of citizenship, it is important to note that she does not qualify for the Constitution’s higher requirement of natural-born citizenship.

 

Haley is not my first choice, so I’ll be accused of being a bully or some such thing for bringing it up, but two facts are indisputable. First, the Constitution on this question has been ignored repeatedly, and second, the facts regarding natural born versus Birthright do not lean in Nikki’s favor. I’ll add one more because it may be the only point we can all agree on. Democrats will rediscover a devotion to originalism to undermine or challenge her legitimacy to run if nominated or, if she wins, to hold the office. This, therefore, suggests that we at least listen to the argument so we can intelligently make a case one way or the other.

 

A central concern for the architects of the nascent American republic was that only the most qualified statesmen be eligible for the country’s highest office. In his Commentaries, Joseph Story elaborated that “[i]t is indispensable… that the president should be a natural born citizen of the United States… [T]he general propriety of the exclusion of foreigners, in common cases, will scarcely be doubted by any sound statesman.” Joseph Story, who enjoyed over a thirty-year reign as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, famously elaborated the principles of the republicanism of Alexander Hamilton and John Marshall well into the mid-nineteenth century. His Commentaries specifically distinguished between natural born and naturalized citizens, the latter of whom were ineligible to run for president, despite qualifying for the privileges of citizenship. This view is supported by the best legal commentary of the day, Emmerich de Vattel’s Law of Nature and of Nations, a contemporaneous authority for the Founding Fathers on questions of citizenship. de Vattel’s work states that “[t]he natives, or natural-born citizens, are those born in the country, of parents who are citizens.”

 

I believe the Constitution is clear, but we’ve found ourselves saddled with a general ignorance or indifference that would make that matter. Neither of Haley’s parents was a citizen when she was born. She is eligible to be a citizen, but neither president nor vice president by this interpretation, and I’m sure it came up before she ran or since, and they’ve decided they can get around it.

Okay.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but getting around the Constitution’s limitation on the function and power of the general government is a leading concern among people who are more likely to vote in a Republican primary. Would it be too much to ask what other limitations of the document they are prepared to subvert or ignore?

 

Update: I made a few post-publication edits. ‘Melanin,’ not ‘melatonin,’ and instead of undermining a challenge to her legitimacy, we’ve changed it to undermine or challenge.

The post It’s Nikki Haley’s Turn to Be Ineligible for the Office of President of the United States appeared first on Granite Grok.

Greetings and happy new year! A suggested New Year’s resolution that doesn’t involve diet and exercise is in the title above, with emphasis on the word “town.” I say that for two reasons. One of them is that local elections are arguably just as important as their state and federal counterparts.

The other is that cities have their elections in odd-numbered years. Welcome to 2024. Living in a trashy blue city that just dropped the ball in a recent and excellent window of opportunity to remove the mayor and drain the swamp, I am urging you, faithful readers, not to let such a train wreck happen in YOUR TOWN. Local elections matter. A separate statement could be made about how who is locally elected affects your future property taxes and how local funds are (mis)used, but there is a solution. Step up to be your “town crier.”

 

 

Primary Day, January 23, is coming soon and a perfect opportunity to hang out at the polls poised in a non partisan manner to make the PSA. A talented and generous veteran graphic artist has already designed the template and has the September and November dates, in addition to January 23, already populated. All you need to do is provide the local dates on which town voters must vote. This varies from town to town, and sometimes there is more than one date. Loudon, pictured, is an example.

Interested people can visit here to get the graphic for their town and order distribution materials at a discount. (cards, magnets, etc.) Or make your own leaflets by printing the image. But hurry! January 23 is approaching soon, and that’s the first big distribution opportunity. If you can profile voters as they leave the polls, approach potentially like-minded ones and remind them that only a small number of people turn out to vote, usually people on town payroll and their families and friends. Tell them their votes are needed for the reasons I mentioned, and hand them something with the important dates to take home and mark their calendars. If you don’t do this in time for January 23, there are always Saturday mornings at your local dump to put in an hour or two, just like candidates do when election time is near. You can do this at or outside other large gathering events, but keep in mind soliciting issues and cold weather as town voting usually happens in the late winter and early spring.

We’ve all seen those bumper stickers that say, “Think globally, act locally.” Here is your opportunity to act locally. And if you live in a city, lend a hand in the suburbs. Suburbs matter. It’s those voters that get us city slickers representation in the Senate and executive council. Do them a solid.

 

The post “Resolve” To Help Improve Voter Turnout in Town Elections. appeared first on Granite Grok.

Every legislative session is presented with too many bills and, in recent years, too slim of a majority to get the good ones to the Governor. But because we have so many new ideas, there are always some you might not expect, like legislation to ban weather modification.

To be clear, I’m not making fun of the bill or its sponsors. In a world where some folks can’t shut up about unnecessary “emissions” or pollutants in our atmosphere, this should play well on both sides of the aisle. New Hampshire House Bill 1700 (HB1700),

 

[E]stablishes a regulatory process to prevent the intentional release of polluting emissions, in New Hampshire’s atmosphere and at ground level and provides penalties for violations. This bill requires reports of such violations to be made by state officials and members of the public to the department of environmental services air resources division of compliance and requires New Hampshire county sheriffs carry to enforce the provisions.

 

What emissions? The intentional release of polluting emissions, including cloud seeding, weather modification, excessive electromagnetic radio frequency, and microwave radiation.

 

The general court finds that many atmospheric activities such as weather modification, stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI), solar radiation modification (SRM), and other forms of geoengineering, involving the intentional release of polluting emissions, harm human health and safety, the environment, agriculture, wildlife, aviation, state security, and the economy of the state of New Hampshire.

 

Without using the word chem-trails, which can trigger people, the bill does address a genuine set of circumstances. From public figures to leading universities, there is chatter about aerosolizing the atmosphere with material to block the sun. We have less information about what that means than we did about the COVID vaccines, and we can assume it is neither safe nor effective.

Absent the knowledge or understanding, knowing that the agents or agencies likely to suggest or attempt such a thing will lie about it. That our elites have, at best, a declining opinion of human life and, at worst, a commitment to end it in their depopulation quest, this is not a ridiculous piece of legislation.

One of the sponsors is a friend, so I’d expect them to offer some follow-up, but if I’m honest, I don’t know how far this bill will likely go. I hope we get some vigorous debate in the comments, but the current makeup of the State House and Senate do not suggest to me success with the understanding that you are guaranteed to miss 100% of the shots you never take.

There are factions who mean to spread things in the air above us. They are not shy about it, and if we lack any sense of transparency, limits, or regulation, we might find ourselves subject to man-caused atmospheric effects without knowledge of recourse.

This is worth discussing.

 

The post NH Bill Seeks to Ban Cloud Seeding and Other Forms of Atmospheric Geoengineering appeared first on Granite Grok.

I am writing with regard to the proposed bill to legalize assisted suicide in New Hampshire, which you have been (rightly) concerned about. I was horrified to learn that this is being proposed and packaged as a “medical freedom” bill.

I think one aspect you have not yet argued that is fundamentally important is that it is WORSE than the beginning of a slippery slope to eugenicism, such as Canada and the UK have undertaken in horrible ways. New Hampshire tried but ultimately failed to pass several key parental rights bills, including clear language protecting the decision-making rights of parents for minor children in medical scenarios. Children will NOT be the decision-makers for themselves right from the get-go.

It will literally be a life-and-death battle between parents and hospitals for the lives of children right from the beginning.

Because high profile cases like that of Ewa Kowalski are sadly not unique; children and minors are frequently removed from their parents’ guardianship in hospital situations when some officiating person does not see eye to eye with the parent or feels challenged by them (see the case of Justine Pelletier, from Connecticut, a few years ago, and Boston Children’s.) This is moving backward, not forward, in the cause of freedom!

I am morally opposed to suicide, but if you ask me, the issue is nowhere near being a philosophically consistent freedom position, either. One cannot simply ignore all the other legal apparatus and what it means in conjunction with one’s proposed legislation. If those freedom people who philosophically support the concept of a right to a death wish to formulate that as legislation and remain consistent, they must do so only after they have successfully warded off the state from the rights of parents, families, the religious, etc., in medical situations. Something that was grossly violated, I may add, for many thousands of Americans for the duration of Covid.

From the beginning, it is my belief that such a bill as this, if passed, will enable hospitals and doctors to take the decision to terminate out of the hands of parents and into their own when it comes to children. They always want our children.

From a very concerned mother of four and staunch supporter of genuine medical freedom.

 

The post A Life-And-Death Battle Between Parents and Hospitals for the Lives of Children appeared first on Granite Grok.

Legions of well-meaning individuals will have or are about to resolve or promise or pander to the idea of better health. Diets, exercise, and even yoga top the list of wellness doctrines embraced – perhaps in the alcoholic stupor – as part of the New Year ‘resolution’ tradition.

Most of these will fail, a few with the addition of expensive coat holders or sweater dryers originally designed and built as stationary bikes, treadmills, ellipticals, or weight machines. Some with pricey subscriptions to content meant to inspire, but you have to get on the equipment and then come back.

The goals are well meant but often lacking in proper motivation past the, well, it’s New Year’s, so this is a good time to act like I’ve changed since yesterday. There are a few who manage to pull it off but not most because they lack the proper incentive.

We are here to help, as is the young lady in the short video below with her words of wisdom to which I’ll ask, is this enough motivation for you to get in shape?

 

Why do you run?

pic.twitter.com/kPBN3wFKOw

— Declaration of Memes (@LibertyCappy) December 29, 2023

 

What do you think? That or something like it, and is it motivating enough? Maybe you could “run” for something else too—public office, to the polls to vote in local elections. To a public meeting or to a laptop to hold public and elected officials’ feet to the fire?

Plenty of options. Let us know what you plan to do.

 

The post Need a Better Reason to ‘Get In Shape’ in 2024 … appeared first on Granite Grok.

A bill pre-filed in the New Hampshire House would effectively ban government surveillance using facial recognition in the state. The passage of this bill would not only help protect privacy in New Hampshire, but it would also hinder one aspect of the federal surveillance state.

Rep. Thomas Cormen, along with a bipartisan coalition of 10 legislators, filed House Bill 1688 (HB1688) on Dec. 15. Provisions in the legislation would prohibit AI used for “real-time and remote biometric identification systems used for surveillance in public spaces, such as facial recognition, except when used to locate a missing or abducted person.”

AI is an important aspect of all current facial recognition systems. ReFaces is a biometrics company that sells facial recognition systems. According to its website, “the majority of modern facial recognition algorithms have some semblance of integrated deep learning and neural network.”

“Intelligent, AI-based software can instantaneously search databases of faces and compare them to one or multiple faces that are detected in a scene. In an instant, you can get highly accurate results.”

In effect, the passage of HB 1688 would ban government facial recognition surveillance in public spaces.

IMPACT ON FEDERAL PROGRAMS

A 2019 report revealed that the federal government has turned state driver’s license photos into a giant facial recognition database, putting virtually every driver in America in a perpetual electronic police lineup. The revelations generated widespread outrage, but the story wasn’t new. The federal government has been developing a massive facial recognition system for years.

The FBI rolled out a nationwide facial recognition program in the fall of 2014, with the goal of building a giant biometric database with pictures provided by the states and corporate friends.

In 2016, the Center on Privacy and Technology at Georgetown Law released “The Perpetual Lineup,” a massive report on law enforcement use of facial recognition technology in the U.S. You can read the complete report at perpetuallineup.org. The organization conducted a year-long investigation and collected more than 15,000 pages of documents through more than 100 public records requests. The report paints a disturbing picture of intense cooperation between the federal government, and state and local law enforcement to develop a massive facial recognition database.

“Face recognition is a powerful technology that requires strict oversight. But those controls, by and large, don’t exist today,” report co-author Clare Garvie said. “With only a few exceptions, there are no laws governing police use of the technology, no standards ensuring its accuracy, and no systems checking for bias. It’s a wild west.”

Despite the outrage generated by these reports, Congress has done nothing to roll back this facial recognition program.

There are many technical and legal problems with facial recognition, including significant concerns about the accuracy of the technology, particularly when reading the facial features of minority populations. During a test run by the ACLU of Northern California, facial recognition misidentified 26 members of the California legislature as people in a database of arrest photos.

With facial recognition technology, police and other government officials can track individuals in real time. These systems allow law enforcement agents to use video cameras and continually scan everybody who walks by. According to the report, several major police departments have expressed an interest in this type of real-time tracking. Documents revealed agencies in at least five major cities, including Los Angeles, either claimed to run real-time face recognition off of street cameras, bought technology with the capability, or expressed written interest in buying it.

In all likelihood, the federal government heavily involves itself in helping state and local agencies obtain this technology. The feds provide grant money to local law enforcement agencies for a vast array of surveillance gear, including ALPRs, stingray devices and drones. The federal government essentially encourages and funds a giant nationwide surveillance net and then taps into the information via fusion centers and the Information Sharing Environment (ISE).

Fusion centers were sold as a tool to combat terrorism, but that is not how they are being used. The ACLU pointed to a bipartisan congressional report to demonstrate the true nature of government fusion centers: “They haven’t contributed anything meaningful to counterterrorism efforts. Instead, they have largely served as police surveillance and information sharing nodes for law enforcement efforts targeting the frequent subjects of police attention: Black and brown people, immigrants, dissidents, and the poor.”

Fusion centers operate within the broader ISE. According to its website, the ISE “provides analysts, operators, and investigators with information needed to enhance national security. These analysts, operators, and investigators…have mission needs to collaborate and share information with each other and with private sector partners and our foreign allies.” In other words, ISE serves as a conduit for the sharing of information gathered without a warrant. Known ISE partners include the Office of Director of National Intelligence which oversees 17 federal agencies and organizations, including the NSA. ISE utilizes these partnerships to collect and share data on the millions of unwitting people they track.

Reports that the Berkeley Police Department in cooperation with a federal fusion center deployed cameras equipped to surveil a “free speech” rally and Antifa counterprotests provided the first solid link between the federal government and local authorities in facial recognition surveillance.

In a nutshell, without state and local cooperation, the feds have a much more difficult time gathering information. The passage of state laws and local ordinances banning and limiting facial recognition eliminates one avenue for gathering facial recognition data. Simply put, data that doesn’t exist cannot be entered into federal databases.

WHAT’S NEXT

HB1688 will be officially introduced when the New Hampshire legislature convenes on Jan. 3. It will be referred to the House Executive Departments and Administration Committee, where it must receive a hearing and a vote before moving forward in the legislative process. An “ought to pass” recommendation would greatly increase the bill’s chance of passage in the full House.

 

Mike Maharrey | Tenth Amendment Center

We want to thank The Tenth Amendment Center for being a partner and supporter of Independent Media. You can support us here, or if you prefer to donate by check, email steve@granitegrok com for details.

The post NH Bill Would Ban A.I. Facial Recognition Surveillance appeared first on Granite Grok.

Two-hundred-and-thirty-one US military members have submitted a letter to the American people, shared with United States military command. In it, they accuse ‘leadership’ of unconstitutional lawless behavior, experimentation on members of the military, and disregard for the harm caused by forced COVID vaccination.

 

While implementing the COVID-19 vaccine mandate, military leaders broke the law, trampled constitutional rights, denied informed consent, permitted unwilling medical experimentation, and suppressed the free exercise of religion.

 

The letter is to us, explaining their commitment to seek accountability. “To rebuild trust and the rule of law, particularly in the armed forces.” And the culpability is not limited to those in uniform. They pledge to do everything legally possible to demonstrate how other agencies in the government “can put their own house in order.”

 

At 4am EST today (a few min ago), senior military leaders received an email with a letter attached called the Declaration of Military Accountability. I know because I sent the email. I sent it on behalf of myself & 230 other signatories of the letter. The letter is not addressed to the military leaders but rather to the American people. The email was merely to inform these military leaders that there is group of troops & vets pledging to the American public that we will do everything lawfully within our power to stop the willful destruction of our military by its own leadership. Let’s take our country back in 2024 & let’s begin by defending our military from its own leadership. You can find the body of the letter below. Soon we’ll have it on a website where you can find it as well, along with the names of the 231 signatories.

 

Here’s the tweet and the letter below.

 

At 4am EST today (a few min ago), senior military leaders received an email with a letter attached called the Declaration of Military Accountability. I know because I sent the email. I sent it on behalf of myself & 230 other signatories of the letter. The letter is not addressed… pic.twitter.com/jFkF3FmcA8

— Brad Miller (@BradMiller1010) January 1, 2024

 

 

Nice words, as they say. Inspiring, much like the Declaration of Independence, which ended with, “And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.”

What do we expect the DoD and the US Military to do to the 231 cosigners of this Declaration of Military Accountability?

He says, Troops and vets. I can’t imagine it will be pleasant for those who are active military.

Thoughts?

 

The post A Declaration of Military Accountability … appeared first on Granite Grok.

A perfect record, the governor predicted, would guarantee a chance to compete for greatness, inspiring his 5-year-old son to take a Sharpie in hand earlier this year, stand on his tiptoes, and lovingly graffiti the front of the DeSantis campaign bus. Barely above the headlights, in big block letters, the young fan wrote, “Florida State.”

If the university’s football team stayed perfect, the governor told his kids, FSU would make the four-team NCAA postseason. Triumph followed as the Florida State Seminoles team went through their 13-game schedule undefeated and untied. Perfect, in other words. Then a cruel snub that challenged the DeSantis family worldview: The College Football Playoff committee voted to elevate more popular schools over the team that did everything right. Excellence may be its own reward, but it doesn’t always swing enough votes. At least, that is, for the favorite football team of the Florida first family. And perhaps for presidential campaigns.

It is four days before Christmas. DeSantis is again in Iowa, and though his season is still far from over, the situation is far from rosy.

A former high school football coach, the governor draws from the hard-nosed pep talks he once delivered at halftime: “Stay dedicated to the mission, you’re not gonna be denied, and execute your plan.”

DeSantis has been blitzing Iowa non-stop, making stops in all 99 counties, many of them more than once. Ahead of the holidays, he mops up the western side of the state where he tells voters the country needs “a new birth of freedom” and promises to be their “change agent.” This isn’t just talk. Voters can see what he did in Florida. On policy, and more importantly, on getting that policy enacted into law, DeSantis has what many conservatives consider a perfect record.

But if it hasn’t already, the race for the Republican nomination may be shifting from a conversation about the fate of the country to a question about the fate of one man. “This whole legal stuff has had a big impact on the overall dynamics,” DeSantis says of how former President Trump’s myriad of felony counts and other legal challenges to his empire and his candidacy have changed the race. And this, among other factors, he says during an interview with RealClearPolitics, is “beyond my control.”

The pandemic made the “American Carnage” Trump invoked worse, the governor argues aboard the bus as it rumbles past cozy farmhouses decorated for Christmas. Worse even, he says, “than it was in 2016.”

“Are we going to have some type of accountability?” he asks. “Are we going to have a reckoning for this, or are we just going to act like everyone did such a great job?” DeSantis wants that conversation. But Trump won’t even show up to discuss it. What DeSantis considers his marquee accomplishment – how he handled a once-in-a-century crisis, refusing to lock down when Trump acquiesced – is becoming an afterthought.

“The 21st century: The three biggest events: 9/11 and the wars that followed, the Great Recession, and then COVID,” he says, moving his hand along an invisible timeline and pounding a tray table to punctuate each ugly epoch. The virus, and its still festering wounds, DeSantis continues, “had a broader impact than the other two events combined. And yet, here we are. We’re not even discussing that.”

The moderators asked exactly “one question even involving COVID” during all the primary debates, he complains, and then to make matters worse, “The former president, because he won’t debate on the stage, has not had to defend his record.”

Trump’s legal troubles now dominate the headlines once reserved for the virus. Two days prior, the Colorado Supreme Court had ruled that the former president was disqualified from holding office again because he engaged in an insurrection ahead of Jan. 6. DeSantis opposes the move “as a matter of principle” and warns that the decision “takes us down a road that’s not going to be good for this country when a court can disqualify you without a criminal conviction.”

“But let’s just be clear,” DeSantis continues, “Trump is fine with weaponization if it’s against people he doesn’t like.” For proof, he points to a complaint filed with the Florida Ethics Commission. It was “bogus” and quickly dismissed, but he notes that when the complaint was filed by Trump allies, they explicitly called “to have me ejected from the office of governor.”

He doesn’t make much of Vivek Ramaswamy’s demand, either, that the field boycott Colorado in solidarity. “If one of Trump’s competitors was removed by a state Supreme Court,” DeSantis says almost chuckling at the absurdity of the notion, “is there any chance in hell he would remove himself in solidarity? He’d spike the football!”

As Trump hustles to make the race about “retribution” and his martyrdom, DeSantis sees a trap. “This is all very strategic,” he warns while diagnosing a paradox: Democrats want to run against the former president. “They realize those indictments are beneficial to him in a primary” but also set up “a massive legal wringer” ahead of a general election. “I think they totally understand it.” And indeed, they do.

Trump’s own pollster, John McLaughlin, told RCP ahead of the first indictment that “this is really helping us.” A close friend of President Biden, Dick Harpootlian, even admitted to RCP that he was “praying” Republicans would set up Trump as the nominee for Democrats to knock down.

A popular former president adored by a sympathetic conservative media, DeSantis admits, “makes it harder for a guy like me to get oxygen.” But the candidate is stoic. “That’s just the landscape, and so a lot of that is beyond your control,” he says. “You’ve just got to do the best you can here on the ground to win the vote.”

DeSantis laughs when asked about speculation that Ramaswamy, who has repeatedly praised Trump as the greatest president in modern history, is running with a future cabinet seat in mind. If that’s the case, the millennial entrepreneur should have just issued an endorsement rather than enter the race: “He is obviously not running against Trump.” Focus on the wrong president though, he warns, and his party will lose: “Republicans should want the election framed as a referendum on the failure of Joe Biden, and how we get America out of this mess.” Unsurprisingly, he says the future ought to look like Florida.

Some Iowa Republicans have paused their holiday plans to hear about “the Florida model.” They learn, if they didn’t know already, about the Florida COVID experience, the reformed Florida public school system, the Florida war with the Disney Co., the Florida debt that is down by 25%, the year-after-year tax cuts in Florida, the Florida migration boom, and much, much more about Florida.

DeSantis sells himself as much as he pitches the Sunshine State for export. “You have the opportunity to change the trajectory of the country,” he promises. Make him the nominee, he later adds, and Republicans will win “just like we did in Florida.” On a night when the GOP was bitterly underwhelmed, DeSantis barely broke a sweat. He won reelection last year by a historic 20 percentage points.

Some voters come to hear him already convinced. During a stop in Coralville, Wyatt Landuyt-Krueger, a 21-year-old corrections officer wearing DeSantis campaign merch, asks the governor about mortgage rates. DeSantis gives a long answer that touches on the free market, the Federal Reserve, and energy independence driving down inflation. “I liked his answer,” the Zoomer replies, calling it “absolutely comprehensive.”

Others welcome the process of being persuaded. After another town hall, this one just outside Ainsworth, retired small business owner Patty Koller is also impressed by the DeSantis record. She came to the session leaning toward Trump, but leaves impressed with DeSantis. “He’s just solid,” she reports. “Very intelligent and sincere.”

Voters ask more than a dozen questions. No one says anything about the latest Washington Beltway fascination, namely the super PAC responsible for funding most of the DeSantis advertising, canvassing programs, and the candidate’s travel. It is reportedly imploding.

The DeSantis campaign ceded significant funds and traditional responsibilities to Never Back Down, an auspicious and historic bet that is now in danger of backfiring. The organization’s operation has been the polar opposite of what DeSantis promises to bring to the White House. Jeff Roe, the PAC’s chief architect, resigned last week from the group plagued by blunders and backbiting.

“I don’t have control over it, and that’s the problem with how this is set up. If I controlled it, I would own it, and I would obviously have run it in a good way,” DeSantis tells RCP. “It’s just an independent group, and so the dynamics there are things that I just have no visibility into whatsoever.”

Would he do anything differently if he could start over again, perhaps the now infamous decision to launch his campaign on Twitter? Despite glitches, DeSantis still considers the audio live stream a success. “There was so much interest that it crashed the site,” he says of the launch that attracted 300,000 listeners in the moment and 3.4 million listeners in the following 24 hours.

More generally though, he says of the campaign, “There’s always different things that you can do. Anytime I’ve done anything, I can look back and say that.” The last few months, DeSantis reports, have been a significant success. He won the endorsement of Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds and then Iowa kingmaker Bob Vander Plaats. He warmed up for the fourth GOP debate by taking California Gov. Gavin Newsom to task during an exhibition in primetime on Fox News.

“We are clicking,” DeSantis insists as he blankets Iowa. “We are doing good.” Does he enjoy the process of campaigning, though? DeSantis has heard the question before, phrased in various ways: It goes to the heart of whether he’s struggling in the polls because he’s charisma-challenged. DeSantis doesn’t object to the question. “It’s fun,” he replies with a shrug during another long day in Iowa.

Trump has not put in that kind of work. The former president prefers parachuting into early states for big rallies rather than meeting voters one-on-one at the diner or the firehouse. More recently, Trump can be found with a posse sitting ringside at UFC cage fights.

The governor has crashed big events like that before. He received a warm welcome last year during a surprise visit to Pepsi Gulf Coast Jam when he walked on stage and told a crowd gathered for country music that the festival had been made possible “because Florida chose freedom over ‘Faucism.’” And both men attended the Iowa vs. Iowa State football game earlier this year. Trump watched from a private suite. DeSantis sat in the stands.

“Ultimately, that’s not my bread and butter,” he says of the celebrity cameo. “I mean, I’m not an entertainer. I’m a leader. And a leader has got to be able to get the job done and deliver results.” Podcasts are a more natural fit, and his last stop before heading home for Christmas is a hayloft.

DeSantis sits opposite Sawyer and Tork Whisler, the father and son duo who host “Barn Talk.” They are the Joe Rogans of agriculture, and on their farm, the governor seems in his element. Behind the microphone for an hour, he discusses everything from the intersection of the U.S. Constitution’s Interstate Commerce Clause and the pork-packing industry to environmental regulations. He can’t help but brag about his son, the Seminoles fan.

A highlight from the campaign: a stop in Sioux City the morning of the Big Ten title game. DeSantis brought his 5-year-old on stage with him and put him on the spot. “I didn’t rehearse it with him,” he recalls on the podcast. “I was like, Mason who is going to win Iowa vs. Michigan?” A cute moment to be sure, it could have just as easily ended in disaster. As DeSantis brought the microphone within his son’s reach, he admits thinking, “If this kid chooses Michigan, he’s going to get booed.” He shouldn’t have worried. Mason hollered “Iowa!” The crowd went wild.

The Barn Talk guys love the story, and when the recording wraps, they invite the governor to come back anytime. He appreciates the hospitality. It’s a change of pace.

DeSantis has weathered more attacks than anyone else in the race, absorbing constant hits from Trump, the rest of the field, and Democrats. More campaign money had been spent to tear down the governor by the end of the summer than to attack either Trump or Biden. Even old friends started taking shots.

Right after news broke that Fox News had ousted Tucker Carlson, the candidate called the pundit. “He was really good TV,” DeSantis says of the former Fox News firebrand. The two were often of the same mind, and “Tucker Carlson Tonight” served as a sort of conservative safe space complete with an average of 3 million viewers on any given weeknight. DeSantis rebelled against pandemic protocols and went to war with Disney on the primetime programming until Fox gave Carlson the boot. DeSantis called to tell the pundit he was “saddened” by the news. They haven’t spoken since. That hasn’t stopped Carlson from attacking.

“His donor, Ken Griffin, told him to change his view on Ukraine from it’s a regional conflict we shouldn’t get involved to it’s a super important thing we should send more money,” Carlson claimed earlier this month at a Trump-friendly Turning Point USA conference. “One donor got him to change his view,” said the pundit, who is reportedly in the running to be Trump’s VP. “And these so-called conservatives are supporting that like it’s the most important thing ever.”

The governor had initially described the land war in Europe as “a territorial dispute,” only to clarify later in an interview with Piers Morgan that Russian President Vladimir Putin was “a war criminal.” Critics pounced on that clarification, but if DeSantis is tainted because he supports a Cold War era-type proxy war with Russia, no one told his two biggest congressional allies.

DeSantis brought both Reps. Chip Roy of Texas and Thomas Massie of Kentucky with him to Iowa this month, campaigning arm-in-arm with the two most prominent Ukraine skeptics in the House. He says he has “no beef” with Carlson. All the same, the governor seems annoyed at this kind of attack.

“I’ve never said it was the most important thing ever,” DeSantis replies. “I haven’t changed my position either.” He comes to his stances after deep study, he explains, not after calls with donors, even someone with oversized influence like the CEO of Citadel Capital. “Nobody got to me on anything. And in fact, Griffin has not supported my presidential campaign,” he says. “It’s a total false premise.”

DeSantis then offers his analysis of the conflict more than 5,000 miles away. After dinging Biden for failing to articulate “an end game” and reiterating that he opposes anything approaching “a blank check,” he gives two broad “guiding principles.” First, he says, “to ensure that wider conflicts are not breaking out in Europe.” Second, to see to it “that Russia is kept in a box.”

“In terms of all the nitty gritty,” the governor replies when asked what the DeSantis administration’s definition of victory would be, “we’re going to see what it looks like in January of 2025.”

Putin is the aggressor, but American interests are preeminent in the mind of DeSantis, who sees China, not Russia, as the bigger threat. Voters perk up when he lays out his “strategy of denial” for the Indo-Pacific, and they applaud when he not only promises to ban the Chinese purchase of American farmland but also notes that he did it already in Florida.

He doesn’t buy the argument from Nikki Haley, though, that Beijing will back off from wanting to swallow Taiwan if Moscow is denied in Ukraine. “She has even linked Hamas attacking Israel to Russia,” the governor says, noting the former ambassador’s recent remarks. “She said Hamas chose to attack on Oct. 7 because that was Putin’s birthday. That’s a conspiracy theory! Give me a break.”

DeSantis and Haley will meet the Wednesday before the Iowa caucuses. On stage, Florida’s governor and South Carolina’s former governor (and Trump administration U.N. ambassador) will clash over their visions, and he will again defend a record that is nearly faultless in the eyes of the right. He did the work in Florida, and he will promise again that he can do it for the country if given a chance. That starts with Iowa, where he trails by 32 points in the RealClearPolitics Average.

“The model that we’ve done in Florida,” DeSantis tells voters at his last stop of the day, “will lead us to not just victory in 2024 at the presidential level,” but also congressional majorities, “and then a reelected president in 2028. I don’t think anything less than that will get the job done.”

“Don’t listen to the media, don’t listen to them cite polls,” he warns. Look to his record instead, he urges the Iowa crowd. As for the polling and the ephemera, “Put it aside and do what you think is right.”

Back on the bus, as the day draws to a close, the candidate predicts that all the hard work will soon be worth it. “I think you’re going to see it really come to fruition when we get to the caucus,” DeSantis tells RCP. After all, the governor did all the leg work already.

He gave conservatives nearly everything they wanted in Florida. He now hopes Iowa will save him from the capricious fate of the Florida Seminoles who will watch the college football playoffs from the sidelines. Perhaps this time, in a conservative electorate swayed by policy, a perfect record will not go unrewarded.

 

Philip Wegmann | RealClear Wire

The post Ron Desantis Struggles With Unrewarded Excellence appeared first on Granite Grok.

We remember an Andy Sanborn, from nearly 15 years ago. A small business owner who stepped up with others to voice opposition to the then-all-Democrat New Hampshire State government and a budget bristling with new taxes. It vaulted him into politics and eventually a gig as a State Senator. That’s not this guy.

I’ve not spoken to Andy in many years, but a slew of circumstances hath laid him low, and the latest is a ruling by Independent Hearing Officer Michael King. In response to a long list of accusations from the State and the Gaming Commission, King has revoked Sanborn’s Casino license.

 

Thirteen state conclusions of law were granted, while 19 were denied. Many of the denied conclusions were denied due to not being relevant to the proceeding “and better left for determination by another agency.” Sanborn can operate the casino until Jan. 1, 2024, when the license is suspended and the casino must cease operations. He then has six months to sell the casino. If Sanborn fails to sell the business, the license will be fully revoked.

The accusations against Sanborn included increasing rent payments to himself from $500 a month to as much as $20,000 a month across several years, according to a state audit. The total amount appears to be more than a quarter of a century of advance rental payments. Sanborn was also accused of misusing more than $800,000 in coronavirus relief money for the business to buy himself and his wife sports cars.

 

We can’t speak to the numerous accusations of impropriety, including the misuse of COVID money not mentioned in the pull quote, but taken in the larger context of how governments and graft work, we’re partial to ‘Grok contributor Ian Underwood’s conclusion in this piece on the alleged scandal.

 

 

Taking money from your fellow citizens under false pretenses?  That’s wrong and illegal.

Forcing your fellow citizens to buy something for you that you could afford to buy for yourself?  That’s wrong, but legal.

Spending the money freed up by government largess on luxuries?  That’s just normal behavior in modern America.  One wonders why it’s taking up so much space in news reports on Sanborn’s activities.

Maybe he should have spent the money on real estate instead.

 

In other words, if there is any serious concern about waste, fraud, and abuse (of COVID money or any other laundering scheme, the watchdogs had best broaden the scope of their steely gaze lest this look like targeting.

If he done wrong then bring suitable justice, just don’t leave anyone else out of it.

 

The post Night Cap: Sanborn Loses Gaming License – Forced to Halt Operation on Jan 1 appeared first on Granite Grok.