The Manchester Free Press

Tuesday • November 26 • 2024

Vol.XVI • No.XLVIII

Manchester, N.H.

When I get a Chance to get Away from the Internet for a While …

Granite Grok - Wed, 2023-08-23 10:30 +0000

Captain Jack (Kimball) took me out on a boat Sunday (with my wife and his girlfriend), and we went looking for sea mammals. We’ve been out a few times and whale-watching once. We saw whales then, but the video was not much to see. This time, we did better.

We saw a lot of seals and half a dozen whales (Humpback and Minke) and had an overall great day, but because of the rock and sway of the boat, some of the videos I shot rank somewhere between the Zapruder Film and classic 70s “video” of bigfoot.

Given that it was water, perhaps the monster of Loch Ness would be a more apt description, but since I took a lot of videos, the odds landed in my favor, and a few of them were decent enough to share.

This is by far the best video, front to back, of one of our encounters with whales, of which there were many. We saw at least five or six different Humpbacks (I believe that’s what they were) and one Minke, all in the same vicinity, about 7 to 8 miles past the Isle of Shoals.

Here’s that above-average look from my reams of “footage.” You get a bit of whale tail at the end if you watch it all.

 

 

Earlier in the day, we sidled up to Boon Island in search of seals. At least 30 bobbing in the water near us, just checking out the boat. I shot several more videos, but most of them look similar. We’re looking at the seals, and the seals are looking at us, and plenty of me trying to get shots as they came near the boat (only for them to go underwater before I got the camera pointed that way).

That’s what all the side-to-side movement is. The up and down is the boat or me trying to compensate.

 

 

A beautiful day to be out on the water.

I lost my hat once while we were zooming out to see the seals, but we fetched it. It needed a bath. We also moored at Isle of Shoals after the whales to hang out and enjoy the afternoon.

And the Featured Image is NOT mine. It comes to us care of the Seacoast Science Center, which specializes in Marine Mammal rescue.

 

The post When I get a Chance to get Away from the Internet for a While … appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

The City of Nashua Gives Us Cause to Distrust Government

Granite Grok - Wed, 2023-08-23 01:30 +0000

Finally, the Union Leader appears to have returned to what it used to do: champion the Individual over the Government (with its Leftward bent lately, it has been taking the side of the Government).

In this case, however, contra to what the Southern Poverty Law Center would contend (that Government should always be foremost in any process or disagreement, especially those ending in court), Grokster Laurie Ortolano won her Right to Know case to get Government Records (emails) that the City of Nashua had in its possession/authority. After all, such a law as RSA 91-A (the Right To Know) was created to keep the Government in check.

Remember, the Government is supposed to be serving us and not the other way around. And I’m glad to have helped her by letting her know that:

  • RSA 91-A DEMANDS that electronic records be kept as long as they do paper-based records (RSA 91-A:4, III-a and III-b (“The mere transfer of an electronic record to a readily accessible “deleted items” folder or similar location on a computer shall not constitute deletion of the record.”)
  • I informed her about backup systems – be they the “moved to backup tapes” or other kinds of media (hard drives, SSDs, CDs, et al) that would hold such emails for far longer than Nashua’s normal mail server.

The court system agreed with her several times. Nashua, however, refused to fork them over (and other “Responsive Records”) as well.  Now the NH Supreme Court has laid the smackdown on Nashua’s Mayor Donchess and his flunkies. They wanted to play “hide the sausage” (e.g., the backup tapes), and NHSC brought out a meat cleaver and a blowtorch.

And yet, the SPLC calls GraniteGrok “anti-Government”? This case is just one in a long line of examples set by Nashua that end up with one conclusion:

Government cannot always be trusted to do the right things

Sometimes, accidents or oversights happen – and when corrected when pointing them out, great. However, there are those in Government that have gotten a ‘tude that they outrank the rest of us. In the case of Nashua, they’ve been proving it for years.

Laurie needs to be thanked by all of us for investing her time and money to root out malfeasance while being slimed by government and government-aligned slimeballs.

One has to wonder how much was spent by the City of Nashua, from the start to now, in refusing to Follow the Law.

Oh, WAIT – we can work that out!

 

The post The City of Nashua Gives Us Cause to Distrust Government appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

The Debate over Biased Media Isn’t Just Over – The Left Killed It, and They are so Proud!

Granite Grok - Wed, 2023-08-23 00:00 +0000

A UT Austin Journalism course has abandoned all pretense and objectivity. No more debate about whether the mostly liberal media is, in fact a partisan propaganda arm of the central planners and progressive plotters. They’ve embraced “be you.”

That means being partisan voices for whatever the latest thing is.

 

The “Solidarity Journalism Initiative” at University of Texas at Austin teaches students to “convey outrage” and and abandon neutrality with the funding of top tech companies and George Soros’ Open Society Foundations.

The initiative, which is part of the University of Texas at Austin’s Center for Media Engagement, “helps journalists, journalism educators, and journalism students improve coverage of marginalized communities,” according to its website.

 

Marginalized communities suggest minority communities, but I feel comfortable saying that’s not true. No one reporting in, about, or from any of these “jurisdictions” is going to be talking about their white minority populations.

 

“List of U.S. communities with African-American majority populations in 2020”

Population over 100,000

  • Birmingham (2020, 68.12%)
  • Montgomery (2020, 59.99%)
  • Mobile (2020, 51.06%)

Population 25,000 to 99,999

  • Bessemer (2020, 69.59%)

Population 10,000 to 24,999

  • Fairfield (2020, 94.74%)
  • Forestdale CDP (2020, 78.65%)
  • Prichard (2020, 84.58%)
  • Selma (2020, 82.12%)

Population 5,000 to 9,999

  • Demopolis (2020, 54.02%)
  • Grayson Valley CDP (2020, 51.97%)
  • Lanett (2020, 58.79%)
  • Midfield (2020, 84.03%)
  • Tuskegee (2020, 94.34%)

Population 1,000 to 4,999

  • Aliceville (2020, 77.12%)[1]
  • Brighton (2020, 77.24%)
  • Brundidge (2020, 67.34%)
  • Camden (2020, 58.48%)
  • Camp Hill (2020, 86.98%)
  • Clayton (2020, 62.38%)
  • Eutaw (2020, 81.99%)
  • Evergreen (2020, 59.52%)
  • Fort Deposit (2020, 76.90%)
  • Georgiana (2020, 72.51%)
  • Goodwater (2020, 75.29%)
  • Greensboro (2020, 67.76%)
  • Lipscomb (2020, 61.79%)
  • Livingston (2020, 58.47%)
  • Marion (2020, 68.83%)
  • Mount Vernon (2020, 74.15%)
  • Selmont-West Selmont CDP (2020, 94.53%)
  • Union Springs (2020, 75.88%)
  • Uniontown (2020, 90.32%)
  • York (2020, 89.56%)

Population 100 to 999

  • Akron (2020, 88.44%)
  • Autaugaville (2020, 66.79%)[2]
  • Beatrice (2020, 66.18%)
  • Boligee (2020, 89.70%)
  • Boykin (2020, 93.75%)
  • Colony (2020, 83.33%)
  • Edgewater CDP (2020, 69.57%)
  • Epes (2020, 94.49%)
  • Five Points (2020, 52.63%)
  • Forkland (2020, 87.87%)
  • Franklin (2020, 80.17%)
  • Geiger (2020, 70.97%)
  • Gordon (2020, 64.63%)
  • Gordonville (2020, 94.29%)
  • Hayneville (2020, 83.86%)
  • Hillsboro (2020, 82.80%)
  • Hissop CDP (2020, 74.64%)
  • Hobson City (2020, 80.63%)
  • Hurtsboro (2020, 53.87%)
  • Lisman (2020, 92.04%)
  • Macedonia (2020, 87.14%)
  • Midway (2020, 93.59%)
  • Mosses (2020, 96.40%)
  • Newbern (2020, 63.91%)
  • Nixburg CDP (2020, 66.87%)★
  • North Courtland (2020, 96.07%)
  • Pine Hill (2020, 53.56%)
  • Pickensville (2020, 61.40%)
  • Shorter (2020, 70.13%)
  • Union (2020, 97.78%)
  • Vredenburgh (2020, 92.79%)
  • White Hall (2020, 94.17%)
  • Yellow Bluff (2020, 98.56%)

Population under 100

  • Catherine CDP (2020, 56.92%)
  • Dayton (2020, 64.29%)
  • Emelle (2020, 81.25%)
  • McMullen (2020, 87.50%)
  • Memphis (2020, 82.76%)
  • Ridgeville (2020, 59.04%)

 

Much like the mantra that there is no such thing as racism against whites (or Asians unless it is by whites), the cultural revolution will not brook the notion of white minorities. Not here, not in South Africa, not anywhere.

And I’m not implying that people who have majorities in these places are not marginalized for any number of reasons, including the color of their skin. The point is that any pretense at reporting the world objectively has long been thought lost, and UT Austin is simply coming out of the closet.

 

The post The Debate over Biased Media Isn’t Just Over – The Left Killed It, and They are so Proud! appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

The “Putin Is Hitler” Argument Is … STUPID

Granite Grok - Tue, 2023-08-22 22:30 +0000

Excellent piece on Real Clear Politics (a Hugh Hewitt interview of David Sacks) showing the stupidity of the “Putin is Hitler” argument. Let me add a couple of points. Anyone who has done even a cursory examination of the relevant history knows that  Hitler always intended to engage in a war of conquest in the East. Hitler said so in his books … that lebensraum thing.

Also we now know that  Germany’s economic position in 1941 left it no choice but to attack the Soviet Union. Hitler’s socialist economic policies had wrecked the German economy by the late 1930s … which explains the timing of the invasions of Austria and Czechoslovakia. Add to that the British blockade and Germany was on the brink of economic collapse in 1941. There was no choice but to go East at that point … to the Soviet Union where the oil and the food was.

Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland were all stepping-stones to the ultimate objective … the invasion of the Soviet Union. France had to be dealt with before the Soviet Union in order to avoid a repeat of World War One’s two-front war.

The situation in Ukraine today is in no way analogous to Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland in the late 1930s. There is zero evidence that the invasion of Ukraine is a stepping-stone to westward expansion. The “evidence” presented by the warmongers is simply shrieking that “Putin is Hitler” and that anyone who does not support war against Russia has fallen for “Russian disinformation” and/or is a Putin supporter … which is NOT evidence in the least. Rather, it is uncontrolled hysteria/rage or LIES to justify their forever-war fetish.

From the interview:

HUGH HEWITT: I think if Winston Churchill could channel in right now, he would say you’re forgetting the Sudetenland, you’re forgetting the Anschluss, you’re forgetting Munich, David. You’re forgetting everything I tried to warn Neville about, and before him, Stanley Baldwin. How would you respond to that ghost?

DAVID SACKS: Well, I mean, this is always the neocon argument, is that it’s always 1938 and our enemy is always Hitler–

HEWITT: I’m not a neocon, I’m a Reagan conservative!

SACKS: Okay, well, let’s just say that this is always the argument that you hear, is that it’s always 1938, that our enemy is always Hitler, and engaging in any diplomacy whatsoever would be akin to appeasement, and you’re Neville Chamberlain. And so this is what I’ve been hearing throughout this war. And what I would just say is that every historical circumstance is different. I think, you know, I’m very familiar with what happened in World War II and what led up to it, and I just think that the situation we have today really bears no resemblance to that.

I don’t think the idea that Putin is Hitler is a serious argument. I don’t think that this is primarily a war of conquest. I think the cause, the causes of this war have been known for decades, which mainly has to do with Russian security concerns which the West continuously ignored. We ignored the advice of George Kennan in the 1990s in bringing NATO right up to Russia’s door. He predicted that would be a tragic mistake that would end in hostilities. We ignored the advice of our own ambassador to Moscow in 2008, Bill Burns, who is now the CIA director, who told us that expanding NATO to Ukraine was a red line for the Russians, not just Putin, but the entire Russian elite. It was absolutely a red line for Gorbachev and Yeltsin, as well as various liberal reformers inside of Russia. We ignored the advice of Kissinger and Mearsheimer, Professor Mearsheimer in 2014 who warned us we were headed for this war unless we agree to make Ukraine a neutral country.

And instead, we ignored all of this advice for many years, and we persisted in this crusade to bring Ukraine into NATO and basically turn it into a giant military base on Russia’s most vulnerable border. And not surprisingly, Russia reacted quite negatively to this, as was predicted many times over the years by all the experts I mentioned, including many others.

 

The post The “Putin Is Hitler” Argument Is … STUPID appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

How do You Feel About Getting Your EV Stuck in a Snowstorm or Traffic Jam?

Granite Grok - Tue, 2023-08-22 21:00 +0000

Every time I think we’ve milked this cow for as much spoiled milk as it’s worth, something makes the political pressure to move everyone to electric vehicles more ridiculous, especially in places where it gets cold.

Related: Science Once Again Punches Net Zero In Its Stupid Face

Electric systems bleed power under normal circumstances through transmission loss, so every use or “fill up” of your Electric chariot is dumping some of that “fuel” onto the ground, so to speak. It can add as much as 13% to the cost of every charge. That’s generated electricity you pay for that you don’t get to use.

Multiply that by thousands or millions of vehicles.

You’ll have a further decline in efficiency in cold weather.

If you lose power – which will be more often than ever as “we” expand to inefficient weather-dependent generation – how then (genius!) will you charge that decreased-range paperweight in your driveway?

 

“How often in Maine do people lose power?” Morris posited. “Especially in the winter, if they lose power, they’re not going to be able to charge their vehicle.”

It is common in the Northeast to have storms knock out power for days or even weeks. Run the generators, but are you prepared for that additional load, and will you even have a generator (the same folks at war with your current ride are after those too)? Some of those folks are in Maine and on a mission to transition to electric vehicles, which are expensive and impractical, but especially in a state like Maine. Big, rural, wintery.

We just wrote about their insane proposal to begin a shift toward EV freight and delivery vehicles. It’s ridiculous, but the evil progressive heart wants what it wants without much thought to the details. One former California resident who now lives in Maine spoke at a hearing about the proposed EV plan.

 

“Don’t turn Maine into California,” he said defiantly.

Barkley wasn’t done, adding that Governor Gavin Newsom’s (D-CA) example is not one that Maine should follow.

“I am not a fan of any of these policies,” he explained. “We don’t need Gavin Newsom and the policies of California to come in here to Maine.”

 

John did not look at the small print before he chose Maine. It is a primarily rural landscape (yeah!) ruled by its progressive cities (boo!), much like Oregon and Washington State, and is “Pining” to follow Vermont into the same Liberal ‘sh!t hole.

Governor Mills is quick to point out that “she is against adopting the sort of policy proposed by the Environmental Protection Board,” but that is not entirely true. As a Democrat, her goal is to advance Democrat ideas. To be one of the collective. She doesn’t want to be some backward Dem from backwater Maine. The Newsoms of her party will make fun of her. No useless commuter rail to nowhere? No EV mandate? Well, I see you did pass abortion from conception until puberty. Still, you’ll need assisted suicide for the poor and people we label mentally challenged (political opponents), or you can’t come to the Trotsky Dance of the Commie Cotillion.

Related: Would You Drive an EV if You Knew The Human Cost?

So Maine’s got problems. Especially in an EV in January. Stuck in a traffic jam for hours. In the snow and cold. As the cars run out of charge. No way to charge them, no lights, no heat.

Only FEMA will have fuel-powered generators because the Biden administration regulated them into unaffordability or out of existence (or will). And in that situation, how do you get them where they are needed? Helicopters?

And John, those EV delivery and freight trucks Maine wants everyone in will also cost a fortune which will add another ‘cost of everything’ to the cost of everything because they will carry less (bridge and road weight limits), which means more of those trucks and all the carbon emitted to make them and break them when they die way before their time, like us, which as we know is the true goal.

 

The post How do You Feel About Getting Your EV Stuck in a Snowstorm or Traffic Jam? appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

Burgess Biopower: Upon Which I Wag a Finger at Kevin Avard and a Thanks to Chris Sununu

Granite Grok - Tue, 2023-08-22 19:30 +0000

One of the ‘Grok mantras: Spank’em when they’re wrong and thank’em when they’re right. Generally, it’s Kevin getting the latter and Sununu the former. However, after years of elected representatives doing the Hidden Tax Tango and sending our monies to ‘burn” in the Burgess Biopower plant (whichuses low-grade wood to fuel its boilers to generate electricity), three things are clear.

Related: It Would Cost NH at Least 135 million Less to Pay Burgess Biomass Workers to do Nothing Than to Renew the Planned Subsidy

…Oh wait – a note from the NH GOP on what the Party believes in.

 

From the Platform:

  • We, the people of the New Hampshire Republican Party, do stand united in our dedication to preserving freedom, limited government and unlimited opportunity for all.
  • We believe, above all else, in the founding principle that all people are created equal, endowed by our Creator with the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, unimpeded by intrusive government regulation and control.
  • We believe that individual liberty is guaranteed under the Constitutions of the United States and New Hampshire, that the liberty of the people must be protected above the power of the government, and that it is only through an adherence to our founding documents that we will continue to grow as a free, Constitutional Republic.
  • We believe in free people, free markets and free enterprise.
  • We believe that economies flourish when all people retain as much of their hard earned income as possible, to spend and invest as they see fit.
  • We believe that low taxes are the result of low spending; that government has a moral obligation to the people to be as cost effective as possible, to always limit spending and growth of government, and to cut spending and cost of government at every possible turn.
  • We believe that local government should not be allowed to infringe on individual rights and that the state should ensure protections from such local government overreach.
  • We, the people of the New Hampshire Republican Party, pledge to our neighbors across our great, beautiful and proud state, that we remain dedicated to maintaining a limited, affordable government, to lead with integrity, character and compassion, and to forever defend the freedom that has made the United States of America a beacon of hope for all people.
  • That the present Democratic Administration has far exceeded our worst apprehensions in its measureless subserviency to the exactions of (special) interests…and in its general and unvarying abuse of the power intrusted to it by a confiding people…

I’ll have more to add about why I plucked those “sincere beliefs” in a bit but back to the plot. First up – WHY did NH State Senator Kevin Avard (R) say this in direct contradiction to the above (emphasis mine, reformatted:

It is accurate, to be sure. House Bill 142 passed the New Hampshire House and Senate with overwhelming bipartisan support. But, this bill is more than just legislation both parties can agree on. After years of study by Republicans and Democrats, House Bill 142 represents the best of the legislative process: a solutions-based bill that preserves a critical baseload power producer and economic engine, while at the same time protecting ratepayers.

Governor Chris Sununu will have his say on House Bill 142 soon and I stand with dozens and dozens of my Republican and Democrat colleagues in encouraging him to sign this important legislation.

Further, Burgess BioPower supports more than 240 jobs statewide, generates more than $70 million in annual economic activity, and it has been the chief catalyst in reinvigorating the local economy in Berlin and throughout northern New Hampshire over the past decade. Still, some try to boil Burgess’ biopower down to cost. Doing so is short-sighted and completely misses the mark on both the value Burgess provides, and the way in which previous legislation impacts the plant.

Burgess sells its energy to Eversource at a fixed price under a long-term contract. When the plant first began operating, Eversource (then PSNH) used Burgess’ power for default service, the price most residential customers pay…

…Opponents say a veto of this bill would benefit ratepayers. That is just not accurate. If House Bill 142 fails, customers are not going to see lower electricity rates as a result, as costs associated with HB 142 have already been paid.

Let me address the points in the Platform and apply them to Kevin’s missive (to which I GREATLY disagree with):

  1. Opportunity does not translate to success.  If you think that it should, you’ve strayed into the Progressive Democrat/Socialist territory of “equity” which translates as “everyone will have the same success as everyone else – and no more. We’ll use Government to make that happen – by force if need be”. Opportunity means the chance to succeed – and the equal chance to FAIL.
  2. Well, once again, we see the Republican Party (proxy by its elected State Reps and Senators) being rudely dismissive of its own philosophy by exacting “intrusive government regulation and control” by forcing all of NH citizens to support an otherwise failing entity. While Kevin praises his work, he really is trying to tell us “oh, trust us – we’ve done this same thing in the past so you should believe us when I tell you that it’s only for your own good that you are supporting a failing company. It’s isn’t Corporate Welfare or Crony Capitalism when we allow Burgess’s lobbyists / vendors to sway us from the Platform.
  3. “That the liberty of the people must be protected above the power of the government“…in this case, Kevin joined in by using the power of Government to force many of us to do what we otherwise wouldn’t have done.  Government stepped in, with its Big Stick and with Republicans at the fore, to make the “free marketplace” bend to Government’s will. Choice was taken from us by the “power of the Government” and Kevin was really happy with that. Remember, part of Liberty includes OUR choices in where and to whom we send our dollars to. That choice was taken away.
  4. “We believe in free people, free markets and free enterprise.” And Kevin decided that we wouldn’t be free in this regard, that Government control of the marketplace was imperative, and that Burgess effectively became an agent/agency of the State. After all, without the State’s “taxation by proxy”, Burgess would have shut down years ago. Now, it most like will.  And that, too, is part of the Free Marketplace. Been there, done that: Government did bail out Honeywell Information Systems, Wang Laboratories, and Digital Equipment Corp, all billion dollar behemoths, when I was a mere programmer. Why should Government now bail out loggers?
  5. “..retain as much of their hard earned income as possible, to spend and invest as they see fit.” If HB142 had been put into Law, THOSE platitudes would have gone by the wayside, wouldn’t they? And the Central Planners of Industry smiled…
  6. growth of government”  – Certainly, when Government strays out of its lane, or in this case, deliberately crosses the lines, to get involved in matters that it shouldn’t, it grows. And having done it once, it will do it again. And then the Theory of the Slippery Slide comes in – precedent was set long ago and Kevin and company are whizzing along like they were at Cranmore (don’t get me started on THAT issue).
  7. “…that the state should ensure protections from such local government overreach.” NOW do “from such local State government overreach.
  8. So, is supporting a Special Interest that has actively been doing the “Rent-seeking Shuffle” for our money for years “to lead with integrity, character and compassion”?

And lastly:

…Democratic Administration has far exceeded our worst apprehensions in its measureless subserviency to the exactions of (special) interests

Well, well. Do I REALLY need to say any more?  Oh yes, yes, I do:

Hypocrites all.  All of you.

Republicans decided to send money, that wasn’t theirs, to an entity that became a parasite on Government. I predict that, as many entities before, it will become part of the “Creative Destruction” that gave us our leading economy. Well, it’s leading for the moment but as the Republicans join in with the Socialists-formerly-known-as-Democrats, that will continue to wither away – “slowly at first…” than what Xi is doing to China’s as he is injecting more and more Communistic control over its State enterprises and private entities.

Until it becomes “…and then suddenly”.

Of Course!  Three of my County Reps voted FOR continued Government involvement in the marketplace just like almost all the Democrats in throwing away free market principles:

  • Steven Bogert (not surprised at all)
  • Juliet Harvey-Bolia
  • Tom Ploszaj (WHAT got into HIM on this??)

Winners and losers. Government should NEVER be in that position, but here we are. And this is just the small piece. Remember, Kevin mentioned the most damning part of winners and losers NH Government Policy:

That changed a few years into the contract, when the Legislature determined that Eversource should stop generating power and begin a competitive bidding process for default service.

And THAT result sent our electricity skyrocketing this summer in doubling as Eversource now had no control over the price it paid.  And the Southern Poverty Law Center wonders why GraniteGrok is anti-[Big]Government?  Yes, we happily earn that badge. After all, it was Government, as Kevin points out, did it to us all.

By continuing to demand subsidies from Concord, Burgess shows that for all of the chest-thumping on its website, it can’t compete on its own. Instead, it resorted, time after time, to not making itself better but relying on Crony Capitalism.

So when I saw that Sununu had done the RIGHT thing that should have happened from the get go:

Sununu vetoes continued taxpayer subsidies for Berlin biomass plant

Declaring “Enough is Enough,” Gov. Chris Sununu vetoed legislation to extend ratepayer subsidies for the Burgess Biopower Plant in Berlin, the region’s largest renewable energy project. In a highly critical veto message, Sununu said he has signed two state laws and given project owners five years to find a sustainable financial model to continue operating the plant, which produces energy from wood chips.

“To sign this bill (HB 142) would continue to allow Burgess Biopower to collect millions of dollars in ratepayer subsidies every month with no hope of a solution and wipe out their debt obligation to our ratepayers,” Sununu wrote.

“After a decade of continuous government support with nothing to show for it, such an ask is unconscionable. To sign this bill would violate my obligation to protect the consumers of New Hampshire from perpetual adverse financial investments. This company has failed the city of Berlin, the region, and the ratepayers of New Hampshire. Enough is Enough!”

The decision sets up a competitive veto fight when the Legislature returns in January. The project has a lot of bipartisan support, starting with Senate President Jeb Bradley, R-Wolfeboro, who helped broker the original deal.

Bradley hasn’t met an industry he didn’t like meddling in.  If you REALLY want to point fingers, he’s the reason for the “electrical mess” that has roiled NH for years.

The veto should stand.

 

The post Burgess Biopower: Upon Which I Wag a Finger at Kevin Avard and a Thanks to Chris Sununu appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

Spaces, the Final Frontier for Free Speech

The Liberty Block - Tue, 2023-08-22 18:01 +0000

I've spent the last month on Spaces. Here's what I've observed. First and foremost, there is so much untapped potential. Many people still don't know what it is or what it's all about. In my opinion, it has the potential to supplant live radio if done correctly. I encourage anyone who has a smaller news platform, organization, or a cause to get active on Spaces. 

The post Spaces, the Final Frontier for Free Speech appeared first on The Liberty Block.

Gentlemen, And Lady, Start Your Debate

Granite Grok - Tue, 2023-08-22 18:00 +0000

Living in New Hampshire gives me early exposure to the Presidential Campaign Season. We have seen most of the candidates in the Granite State as they share their time between New Hampshire and Iowa. Most candidates must now be sick of Pulled Pork and Funnel Cakes.

The real season begins this week with Wednesday’s first GOP debate in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The moderators will be Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum of FOXNews. The number of candidates appearing onstage is still in doubt, as is whether front-runner Donald Trump will participate. It is a mistake and a disservice to the voters should he decide to stay away.

I understand the need for a diverse field of presidential candidates. Still, I do not see it making for a favorable, productive debate as it shortens the time for questions and rebuttals, which we want to hear in a debate. There is also much talk about each candidate’s strategy and whether the field will “gang up” on Ron DeSantis, who has a strong hold on second place behind Donald Trump. Getting ugly and personal in attacks does not serve the electorate well. I would like to see the bar set higher for a ticket to the debate stage. If you cannot muster more than one or two percent of the votes after weeks on the trail, you probably should consider dropping out rather than your opening line for debate night.

Nobody on the GOP candidate roster is saying anything new except Vivek Ramaswamy. He is not a politician, which should be a massive plus to voters disheartened by the Washington handling of Donald Trump and the negative impact on our country of lifelong politician Joe Biden. He is young and relates well with the critical millennial voters, but he is brilliant and focused enough for the more seasoned GOP voter. Vivek also appeals to the crucial independent block that will ultimately decide the winner in 2024. As of this weekend, some polls have him tied with DeSantis for second as he surges and the Florida Governor continues to slide. You may see fringe candidates shooting arrows at Ramaswamy, but he has shown himself to be confident and unflappable. Vivek does not shy away from any question and is prepared with a well-thought-out response to them all.

It will be interesting to see who moves the dial, and the real loser may be Trump if he does not show up. Baier and MacCallum are pros, and I am glad to see them with the first debate on the schedule. They will ask good questions and keep the large field focused. This is a big night for Republicans, but especially Conservatives. The 2024 election cannot be lost. A second term by Joe Biden, or even a first term by Gavin Newsom or Gretchen Whitmer, will be catastrophic for America we know, and another step towards the total transformational goal of Progressives. Our candidate cannot only be able to beat Republicans but attract Independents. Wednesday will give us a good idea of who that candidate will be.

The post Gentlemen, And Lady, Start Your Debate appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

If Biden Gets That Lockdown Fever Will “Shutdown Sununu” Go Along With It Again?

Granite Grok - Tue, 2023-08-22 16:30 +0000

I got this from someone that has provided me with reliable information. Yes, he’s a firehose of an emailer, but his missives generally check out, so even though this is coming from InfoWars, I’m going to go with it.

EXCLUSIVE: Biden Admin Preparing to Bring Back FULL Covid Restrictions, Rollout to Begin Mid-September.

The reason this might have legs is other emails saying the same thing, and yes, rumblings are being heard about “get your seasonal COVID shot.” It could end up being another Internet Trolling Gag (is 4Chan having fun again at our expense?), but even if it is, the operative question it generates for us all to answer for ourselves is interesting, infuriating, and scary all at the same time:

What will I do IF it is true? Will I march around like a faceless NPC or drone or act like the Citizen I’m supposed to be and demand that the Constitution’s restrictions on Government be followed?

It did turn out that those restrictions stemmed from the Trump and Biden (or should I just say Fauci and get it over with??) administrations as they weaponized their agencies to quash any dissent from their “guidance.” And that label ended up morphing into an amorphous rule of Law.  Who knew that word had legal standing to us Normal people?

And who thought that Government would take control over our lives as they did?

Chris Sununu locked us all down here in NH and took Constitutional Rights away (e.g., keep the State’s liquor stores open but terminate our Right of Assembly and Religious Freedom of Worship and Expression away?).

My tipster made it clear:

No. We will not participate.  We’ve been through this farce, and we know what their goal is.  RESIST!

Which is to push us as far as they think we will bend – and, if we let them, martial law. “Show me your papers” will be a non-existent statement if they have clapped you into a jail cell.

Note the time – just as the Republican Primary season begins in earnest. They can only get one candidate off the table with the Democrat-honed tactic of Lawfare (yes, think Trump). But think of it – all rallies are brushed aside, people cannot gather, if the low level of campaigns can’t happen (think door knocking or meeting at campaign offices and a dozen other such activities), what does that do to Republican candidates?

Yeah, another way to clear the table. Mail-in voting, ballot harvesting, a few ways to watch the process, and all the kinds of shenanigans that have come to light since the 2020 election; would we end up with Biden and a Democrat “run of the legislative table” and this time, for good?

As an engineer, I hate sounding like a conspiracy theorist, but while the courts haven’t specifically declared outright fraud, there were a lot of “coincidences” that have everyone questioning if the election can or will be fairly administered. Again, just look at the Lawfare being applied against Trump and any lawyer trying to assist him. The Left is going all out to destroy these peoples’ legal careers – heck, I watched what happened here in Belknap County during the “Gunstock Incident” when the Left and Rich decided that THEIR best interests were being microscoped. There were a lot of political gallows erected and used against good men and women that didn’t have the means to fight back.

As the image states:

The lie you participate in today becomes the future you live in tomorrow

“Today” was yesterday and, again, if true, tomorrow comes in just a few short weeks”. We found out that we were lied to over and over and over again by a Government that is now confused as to why we lack trust in it. That they have to wage War over “misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation” and destroyed peoples’ reputations. And now, any doctor, for instance, can prescribe Ivermectin and what many of us said was true and we were called “science deniers” – that masks were useless too especially the cloth and paper ones.

Wag the Dog returns and this time, the Leftist dog will be out for actual blood.

EXCLUSIVE: Biden Admin Preparing to Bring Back FULL Covid Restrictions, Rollout to Begin Mid-September

TSA & Border Patrol whistleblowers have alerted Infowars of a Biden administration plot to unleash a FULL Covid lockdown that will begin in September.

We can stop this! Never let the establishment control the masses with fear again!

Whistleblowers from the TSA and Border Patrol have raised the alarm to Infowars that the Biden administration is setting the stage for full Covid lockdowns that will begin with incremental restrictions like masking TSA employees in mid-September.

The first source, a high-level TSA official confirmed and known to Infowars, reached out to Infowars and cited a Tuesday meeting in which TSA managers were told new memorandums & policies were being completed that would reimplement masking, starting with TSA & airport employees as early as mid-September.

The TSA official also said next week they will receive new guidelines on how the policy will escalate: by mid-October, mask-wearing will be required by pilots, flight staff, passengers, and airport patrons.

After hearing from the TSA manager, Infowars reached out to our trusted Border Patrol source who is also a manager. This source confirmed the same directives were being given to Border Patrol.

They were told it was not a matter of “if” but “when” official Covid numbers will go back up and they expect by mid-October a return to forced-masking policies that the Biden administration previously only reluctantly ended after massive pressure.

Both whistleblowers were told this rollout will be in tandem with the new Covid “variant” hysteria that the MSM has been reporting on this week.

Fear. Scare. Create chaos and use it for the wrong purposes (at least for us; for them, it’s just what the doctor ordered). Sure – and how many of the illegal immigrants will continue to tsunami over our borders with nay a check on THEIR COVID shot history?

Speaking of doctors, a doctor friend of mine said this in relationship to an article they received from a medical journal:

Is Masking Still Best Practice to Reduce COVID-19 Transmission in Clinical Settings?

The response was correct:

STILL?  STILL!?  What the f… are they talking about?  It never f…ing was to begin with!!

Unbelievable (as of 6/16/2023):

Preventive measures, including masks (N95 respirators, surgical, and cloth), are recommended to reduce risk for COVID-19. Mask types vary in filtration efficacy, fluid resistance, and fit.

A new study urges people to continue wearing protective masks in medical settings, even though the US public health emergency declaration around COVID-19 has expired.

Masks continue to lower the risk of catching the virus during medical visits, says the study, published online May 16 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.[1] And there was not much difference between wearing surgical masks and N95 respirators in healthcare settings.

Researchers reviewed 3 randomized trials and 21 observational studies to compare the effectiveness of those masks and cloth masks in reducing COVID-19 transmission.

“[M]asking in interactions between patients and health care personnel should continue to receive serious consideration as a patient safety measure,” says an opinion article accompanying the study.[2]

“In our enthusiasm to return to the appearance and feeling of normalcy, and as institutions decide which mitigation strategies to discontinue, we strongly advocate not discarding this important lesson learned for the sake of our patients’ safety,” the opinion authors write.

Surgical masks limit the spread of aerosols and droplets from people who have influenza, coronaviruses, or other respiratory viruses, CNN reported. And although masks are not 100% effective, they substantially lower the amount of virus put into the air via coughing and talking.

The cynical side of me is asking the political rhetorical question of the day:

Whose water is this author carrying?  Even better: if he has made political donations, to whom or what Party/PAC?

 

The post If Biden Gets That Lockdown Fever Will “Shutdown Sununu” Go Along With It Again? appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

The Right Move for Women’s Chess

Granite Grok - Tue, 2023-08-22 15:00 +0000

Lots of laughter and mockery ensued last week when the International Chess Federation announced that trans women (men who call themselves women) would not be allowed to play in women’s tournaments.

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

Even some conservatives opined that this is one “sport” where physical strength is not an issue, so who cares if men play women? I bet not one of these “experts” ever played chess, at least not seriously, or stopped to consider why women’s tournaments exist.

When I was a young teen, a family friend used to host a “friendly” chess tournament every year. Categories were simply adult and youth. The adults were always ALL men, and among the non-adults, I was usually the only girl. A lot of them took the game seriously—throughout the year, they read chess books and played-out famous games to improve their skills.

I rarely won a game at this neighborhood event, but when I did, it was often met with anger. Partly because I was a girl, of course, but mostly because I didn’t know or care about “opening gambits,” “end games,” and whatever comes in between. I just liked playing. In fact, I most likely won because I didn’t follow the expected pattern.

I pretty much stopped playing after high school, though I did teach my daughter the game. In middle school, she joined the chess club and actually went to some tournaments with timers and referees, and rule books. Sadly her experience was similar to mine, though worse as these were not “friendly” events. They were serious—no one chatted, some of the boys were very aggressive, and the kids were even expected to dress up. There were never more than a couple of girls, and as partners were chosen by draw, the girls rarely played each other even though they wanted to. My daughter didn’t enjoy the tournaments and soon gave up chess altogether.

I’ve never been to one, but I’m guessing the women-only events are run to encourage more girls to play and stick with the game. I read that only 12% of all chess players are women, so one can see that without a women’s category, a girl would rarely play another girl.

Any woman who wishes to can play in open tournaments. If a trans individual wants to play competitively, he/she can do that too. I applaud the chess federation’s decision to maintain women-only tournaments. I hope it encourages many girls and women to continue playing rather than drop out like my daughter and I did.

 

 

The post The Right Move for Women’s Chess appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

Promoted from the Comments: Wag the Dog, Who’s Government is it, and Rich Men North of Richmond

Granite Grok - Tue, 2023-08-22 13:30 +0000

I haven’t done one of these kinds of posts for a while, and while going through my emails on Sunday after being OoO (“Out Of The Office”) on Saturday, these caught my eye as they each spoke to the REAL threat to our “Democracy.”

 

Sidenote: No, it’s not all the things that the Left is trying to blame being a threat or danger to our “Democracy.” First, we aren’t a Democracy. We’re a Constitutional Republic. Our Founders knew from studying history that direct Democracy always ended up badly. It should be telling that’s what the Democrats want – a direct Democracy so they would have the unbridled Power they so avidly seek at all costs.

Remember – WE who do not ascribe to the Left’s Narrative or philosophy are a danger to them and their continuing assault against the Constitution. It’s that decades-old redefining of our common language. In essence, getting the low-information voters to believe that the Constitution, and those that protect it, are the bad guys.

 

First up is the old Clinton “Hail Mary Throw” or “Wag the Dog.” When Bill was trying to distract the American public from his cheating on Hillary with his White House intern Monica Lewinsky.  NHnative, in a comment on my “Jeanne Shaheen: “Snowfall Is A Thing of the Past” wrote,

 

Have y’all noticed that as the dollar crashes, the debt rises, the interest rates climb- and all we hear about is the weather and Ukraine?

 

Distraction. Self-importance. As if Government shouldn’t be telling us what’s really important (in this case, Ukraine)? We’ve been heading towards our Financial Bridge that Congress and <insert President so-and-so here> have been “termiting” for 50 years.

But as Mike Remski points out in “Vermont Doesn’t Have a Sales Tax Holiday Because …”

It’s always difficult to give up revenue in the state.

And there is the “government” in less than 12 words.

Effin morons. It’s not “revenue” it’s MY MONEY.

Ah yes, the “Bruce Currie question” – who’s money is it FIRST? Reminder: Bruce refused, for years, to answer my question until I finally caught him.

Put those two comments together, and it is clear that Government believes that it is set apart from the rest of us.

Actually, that’s EXACTLY what the Founders wanted – a separate and subservient government that only acted when Civil Society didn’t solve problems or in matters delineated in the Constitution. It has now decided (as in, those that claim superiority to us in all ways) that ITS survival and power should come before those who gave their consent to be government.

I really am starting to wonder about that last part. Are we the abused trapped in an abusive relationship, or is this why the Southern Poverty Law Center called us “anti-Government” (they forgot to put “Big” in front of “Government”)?  WHY should we continue to give our assent?

Yes, I’m doing the head-scratching bit.

And to wind this up, let’s return to NHnative again on her comment in “It’s NOT Republican vs. Democrat … It’s The Rich Men North of Richmond Versus Us“:

This has 25 Million views right now and it’s been trending number one for days.

If you want your mind blown, start reading the comments here under the song..there are over 100,000 of them. You’ll float back and forth between mad as hell and broken-hearted.

It’s one American after another that is understanding that we’re busting our asses and being screwed over.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqSA-SY5Hro&ab_channel=radiowv

[Verse 1]
I’ve been sellin’ my soul, workin’ all-day
Overtime hours for bullshit pay
So I can sit out here and waste my life away
Drag back home and drown my troubles away

[Pre-Chorus]
It’s a damn shame what the world’s gotten to
For people like me and people like you
Wish I could just wake up and it not be true
But it is, oh, it is

 

I doubt that the SPLC owns enough electrons and pixels to adequately catalog everyone that is claiming the sentiment expressed by this song for themselves.

But then again, the SPLC is a swamp creature that continuously crawls up to Big Government denizens in saying “issss preciousss” in doing their bidding to get their gold.

‘Cept people are starting to rebel against both.

I am afraid that we have been in a Cold War for quite some time – will it go hot? Or is it when and not if?

Sidenote: Yes, I could have used Gollum as the Featured Image above. But I so wanted to use Jeanne Shaheen in my post about her talking about no more snow but went the other way with the skier. So I used it now.

So here’s Gollum:

 

 

A person who has lost his soul and being to Power that he cannot ever fully control. There are a lot of people in Government that get captured BY the Power of Government that never realize or are cognizant of what they have given themselves up to.

 

 

The post Promoted from the Comments: Wag the Dog, Who’s Government is it, and Rich Men North of Richmond appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

Another Unlawful Arrest in New Hampshire?

Granite Grok - Tue, 2023-08-22 12:00 +0000

For years, publisher Deb Paul has been stirring the pot in Londonderry, and you can tell she is doing a good job. The local Towney elite are not fans. They are so displeased with her first amendment exercises that it almost looks like someone got her arrested. For what?

 

Here in New Hampshire, the influence of small-town politics has led to the arrest of a weekly newspaper publisher, Debra Paul of the Londonderry Times. In November, on the day before Thanksgiving, Deb Paul will be in a courtroom, defending herself against the might of the Attorney General’s Office.

Deb Paul stands accused of violating NH RSA 664, titled “POLITICAL EXPENDITURES AND CONTRIBUTIONS,” due to her publication of political advertisements that allegedly did not adhere to the exact letter of the law requiring to the signing of ads for town elections and their labeling as “Political Advertising.” …

The attorney general’s announcement of Deb Paul’s arrest indicated she had received warnings on prior occasions regarding the labeling of political advertising. These warnings appear to have shifted the responsibility for education and enforcement of RSA 664 away from the secretary of state and the attorney general, and transferred compliance from campaigns to Deb Paul herself.

 

According to the Union Leader (quoted above), there is no provision in the over 9000 words of the law for arrest or detention, so I looked. The only place the word arrest appears in the law is to clarify that no political advertising shall appear on vehicles used to make arrests. The only fines listed are for pre-recorded campaign calls or misrepresenting the origin of a political call.

Violations are to be directed at campaigns, not publishers.

But Deb Paul is charged with multiple Class A misdemeanors (a word that never appears in RSA 664:14) and has been forced to finance her defense against the charges (which sounds a lot like a fine not listed in the statute – and that’s likely the purpose).

 

Threatening a local publisher with thousands of dollars in fines and possible jail time, while requiring spending many thousands in legal defense costs is a solid way to shut them down. Luckily for the First Amendment, Deb Paul does not crumble that easily and has been fighting. Her prosecution is a misuse of the attorney general’s limited resources and creates a chilling effect on local news when it is needed most.

 

None of that needed to happen, but this AG under this Governor is known for frivolous prosecution for effect. The NH 9 is the most well-known example among our readers, but the AG went after a local White Supremacy group for “civil rights” violations when they were peacefully exercising their first amendment rights. It’s okay not to like their message, but how do we feel about the message being sent by the NH AG’s office?

Or are the various accusers in any or all of these circumstances assuming their connection to power will shield them from arbitrary acts of government power?

That could prove to be a bigger mistake than the AG arresting and charging Deb Paul.

 

 

The post Another Unlawful Arrest in New Hampshire? appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

Is America Suffering From Irreconcilable Differences

Granite Grok - Tue, 2023-08-22 10:30 +0000

His versus hers. Black versus white. The Left versus The Right. Call or label it however you like. Americans are quickly approaching that point in a relationship where all communication and civility ends, and the two sides split up their possessions, friends, and even the pets to go their separate ways.

America is getting so polarized that there will not even be discussions about visitation rights. There will not be any.

There will be much finger-pointing and assigning of blame. The Liberal side will say the Conservatives are about keeping the races separate, sovereignty, focused on making money and destroying the world. The Conservatives will claim the Liberals have given up on America, erased her borders, lost their way on genders and families, and don’t know the difference between weather and climate. It has gone from differences in opinion to all-out war and well past the point of counseling.

Holiday dinners will never be the same.

Vivek Ramaswamy had a conversation this week with a member of the LGBTQIA++ community that went viral online. I’m not too fond of the ++ and the term viral, but let’s stay on point. Vivek fielded the question with a calm, even voice, a well-thought-out answer, and compassion for the questioner and ended the interaction with a handshake and a thank you.

This viral moment was what we used to call communication and manners, but neither of those traits exists in today’s American culture. They have been replaced with conflict and canceling. I am a fan of Ramaswamy and admire his brilliance and demeanor. Still, twenty years ago, this discussion would not have been newsworthy or garnered over one million views on people’s computer screens. This phenomenon proves that the two sides have lost the ability to share their thoughts, and when we see a glimmer of the past, it becomes a global event.

In 2020, Joe Biden promised to be the one to unite our country and return civility and decency to the White House. He lied, Americans bought it, and we now have the most incompetent, corrupt President in our history. Joe Biden will be credited with widening the gap and bringing us to the point of no return. And he did it with a whisper. So what do we do now?

Just like a breakdown of a family, the two sides have to be mature enough to share the same table the other side. We must force our way through the salad and main course and let the small talk begin over coffee and dessert. Who can fight over French-pressed coffee and Pecan pie? Just pass the cream and sugar, please.

It will take some time for the dust to settle to see what we have left of America, and then we need to rebuild her slowly and somehow as one. This is what we need in 2024 is someone who can counsel our differences but with the strength and courage to ensure the finished product resembles the design of our forefathers. They must have the traits that Vivek Ramaswamy still does and be an example of what it means to be an American. It may sound impossible, but it is our only hope for if Biden pulls off another miraculous victory, he will continue to drive the wedge between us and complete the job of Barack Obama to transform America.

 

The post Is America Suffering From Irreconcilable Differences appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

Believe It Or Not

Granite Grok - Tue, 2023-08-22 03:00 +0000

I’m not one to put to much faith in early polls but this one is at least an eyebrow-raiser. RMG Research’s latest poll has this result:

  1. Trump = 60%
  2. Ramaswamy = 13%
  3. DeSantis = 8%

How accurate this is will be argued back and forth but it does indicate Trump is by far the most popular Republican candidate, no question about it.

This is in spite of all the fake accusations and indictments that Leftist activist State Attorney Generals are throwing at him. Even if he is in a jail cell on Election Day 2024, he will be our candidate and I believe we can still reelect him President for another four years.

The post Believe It Or Not appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

China Enters the Doom Loop

Granite Grok - Tue, 2023-08-22 01:30 +0000

China’s authoritarian gerontocracy has built a Doom Loop with Chinese characteristics, with over half the economy now crashing.

Chinese exports are now plunging at the fastest pace since the covid lockdowns: Exports fell 14.5% on the year, driven by a 21% drop in exports to Europe and a 23% drop to the US.

Meanwhile, imports to China are also falling — 12.4% on the year — as shrinking manufacturing buys fewer inputs and households buy less.

In short, foreigners aren’t buying, and the Chinese aren’t spending either.

 

 

This is all a problem for Chinese factories because they’re obscenely overbuilt thanks to cheap central bank money and government subsidies. To give a sense, the FT reported that Chinese automakers can produce 40 million cars a year, but the Chinese only buy 20 to 25 million. China’s now actually throttling new car production — denying production licenses. Even as the US is pouring hundreds of billions into production, that will soon be swept by cut-rate Chinese EV’s.

Manufacturing makes up over 27% of the Chinese economy and has contracted for four straight months now, bringing quarterly GDP growth nationwide to just 0.8%. The economy just officially entered deflation for the first time since the 2008 crisis.

 

 

Meanwhile, China’s comically indebted housing industry — also roughly one-quarter of the Chinese economy — is showing new distress, threatening the life savings of millions who could lose it all on empty apartment buildings. Just last week major homebuilder Country Garden, held up by China’s government as the poster-child of prudence and a model for the rest of the industry, missed two bond payments on their total $200 billion in debt, leading to a debt downgrade from the now ubiquitous Moody’s.

Considering this is all coming with youth employment at record highs — above 20% — it could signal political trouble.

 

Can China Reverse the Slide?

What’s driving the manufacturing pain is largely out of China’s control: Westerners not buying stuff. Korea’s exports also fell 17%, while 5 of 7 Asian countries contracted last month. Just about the only country buying is, ironically, Russia. Which, alas, is a tiny market: Mexico with nukes, as the saying goes.

 

 

China can’t do much about Americans and Europeans not buying — that’s our recessions talking, and it’s getting worse in both the US and Europe. Meaning more plunging exports and falling factory prices in China. Eventually, prices fall to the point that factories shutter, the overcapacity dries up, and prices can recover. Of course, at the expense of potentially millions of jobs and millions of freshly unemployed youth.

As for the property boom, it was driven by cheap money — buying an apartment was a no-lose proposition for millions of Chinese who plowed their life savings into empty cities that, apparently, cannot defy gravity forever.

Meaning the main solution — and China’s go-to whenever the economy slows — is to crank out more cheap money by cutting interest rates and handing tens of billions more to homebuilders.

The problem is that China is now swimming in debt — it has $50 trillion in non-financial debt, even higher than the US as a proportion of GDP. This raises fears of a Japan-style deleveraging, leading to potentially years of slow growth. Deflation, of course, makes those debts even bigger. This limits China’s easy options.

The Overhyped China Story

China taking over the world has been the story of the decade.

In reality, President Xi’s decade-long rule has been terrible for the Chinese economy, replacing China’s free market miracle with regulatory crackdowns to hobble any political threats and channel capital to state-dominated industries. The upshot is growth under Xi has been about 5 to 6 percent — a far cry from the miracle days and pretty standard for a poor country.

 

 

Xi’s covid lockdowns have been monumentally destructive, his post-covid recovery has fizzled, and now China is running straight into a global recession. Xi is probably too careful to, say, invade Taiwan to soak up all those unemployed youth. But then, I thought that about Putin, too, and I was wrong.

As for the US and Europe, expect China’s manufacturing problems to flood us with cheap goods. Which is great for consumers and should take some of the edge off inflation short-term, at the expense of what’s left of American and European manufacturing.

Author: Peter St. Onge is a Mises Institute Associated Scholar and an Economic Research Fellow at the Heritage Foundation.  For more content from Dr. St. Onge, subscribe to his newsletter where he writes about Austrian economics and cryptocurrency.

Peter St. Onge | The Mises Wire

Originally published at PeterStOnge.com. The article has been edited for the Mises Wire.

 

Mises Wire

We heartily encourage reprints and shares of Mises Wire articles. If you wish to reproduce an article in your blog, magazine, radio show, newspaper column, classroom material, textbook, discussion group, website, or any other venue, please do so. The original publication source must be included in an appropriate place.

The post China Enters the Doom Loop appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

Maui’s Other Catastrophic “Climate” Emergency – Sea Level Has Steadily Declined for the Past 4 Years

Granite Grok - Tue, 2023-08-22 00:00 +0000

New Hampshire has a red-headed stepchild it is hiding in the basement. Since 2012 catastrophic sea level rise has fallen. That’s not news. Neither were power lines causing the Maui “wildfires.” Another climate “catastrophe that’s not newsworthy is Maui’s collapsing tide levels.

 

Since at least 2019 the tide gauge at Kahului, Hawaii, on the Islan od Maui, has shown a sharp downward trend.

 

 

If I were Time magazine or Newsweek or CNN, I’d have a beautiful graphic of how, historically, the tides are receding. I’m not them, nor o I need to beautify the decline, but I can isolate it from the image above to make the point with a big arrow for effect.

 

 

While the world watches Hawaii annex the burned areas for some new social engineering project still to be named, the surrounding ocean has abandoned the narrative.

In nearby Kawaihae, they are experiencing a similar decline.

 

 

 

Hilo and Honolulu have similar profiles, but everywhere you look, there’s a declining trend, not as pronounced or prolonged as New Hampshire’s, but enough that, if the approved narrative were receding seas, you’d not hear the end of it.

And isn’t that truly the point?

None of this has much to do with anything related to the climate, and that represents a significant threat to human liberty and prosperity.

 

 

The post Maui’s Other Catastrophic “Climate” Emergency – Sea Level Has Steadily Declined for the Past 4 Years appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

Hillary Clinton Just Gave Away The Left’s Playbook For Censorship And Oppression

Granite Grok - Mon, 2023-08-21 22:30 +0000

Hillary Clinton and her powerful media affiliates seem to have co-opted the title of my book, “The Weaponization of Loneliness,” for the purpose of repackaging their propagandistic narrative against Trump voters and freedom of speech.

In her recent conversation with Rachel Maddow, Clinton spoke of “the weaponization of loneliness” to vilify those who disagree with her, portraying them as villains responsible for the crisis of America’s polarization and loneliness epidemic. The springboard for that interview was Clinton’s recent 3500-word essay in the Atlantic, headlined “The Weaponization of Loneliness.”

Most of Clinton’s interview with Maddow was a giddy chit-chat over the latest rollout of indictments against President Trump. Clinton interjected the term “weaponization of loneliness” to blame her usual suspects of deliberately sowing all of the division and distrust America is experiencing. Her article is a cataloged enemies list that includes anyone skeptical of the handling of the 2020 elections and anyone who doesn’t blindly trust our institutions and government.

She also uses smears like “alt-right” and “conspiracy theorist.” As I’ve written, such polarizing name-calling has always been a staple of those who want to shut down conversation, isolate those who disagree and enforce compliance with increasingly bizarre demands. By relying so heavily on demonization rather than substantive analysis of America’s current crisis of isolation, Clinton herself is practicing the weaponization of loneliness on an amplified scale.

The Actual Thesis

“The Weaponization of Loneliness” represents my thesis which was decades in the making. The resulting book is a multi-faceted deep dive into the history, the science and the culture behind the phenomenon of social isolation as a political weapon. There is a process by which we go down that rabbit hole. It’s urgent for Americans to become conscious of that process, to become far more aware of how vulnerable we are to having our fears of ostracism exploited by bad actors. We are losing our freedom because of that fear.

Ponder how so many people are manipulated into joining dangerous cults. Also consider the phenomenon of Stockholm syndrome, whereby the isolated captive bonds with the captor out of a sense of dependency and despair.

How do such things happen? First, human beings have a primal terror of social rejection and a corresponding urge to conform to the demands of authority. Anybody who seeks power — whether a gaslighting partner, a toxic boss, a cult leader or a totalitarian dictator — can exploit this fear to achieve their goals.

There is a “machinery of loneliness” operating in our society that isolates us and destabilizes our relationships. The “machine’s” three main components are identity politics, political correctness and mob agitation.

Identity politics serves to erase us as unique individuals by assigning us group identities as either oppressor or victim. Political correctness induces us into self-censorship by threatening us with ostracism. Mobs can take different forms, but they enforce all of the above. Other components include propaganda, political censorship, the criminalization of comedy, snitch culture and much more. Demonizing labels (such as “bigot!” “anti-vaxxer!” “transphobe!”) along with political censorship play a huge role in stoking that terror.

 

 

The tyrant’s big prize in this game is to control the private sphere of life, our web of relationships of family, friends, faith and community. Tyrants have always targeted that sphere because that’s where people get their inner strength. It’s rich with knowledge, conversations, ideas and influences. If that sphere is captured, we become atomized, a condition leading to our demoralization and a loss of strength to resist tyranny.

These methods and goals are not new. As a student of totalitarian systems, I noticed how social isolation was critical to all tyrannical rule through modern history. A few examples are the Jacobin mobs of the French Revolution, the brutal war on private life in Soviet Russia, the Nazi’s brutal regime of identity politics (dubbed “racial hygiene”) and Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution in China whereby mobs of Red Guard youth inflicted violent struggle sessions on any perceived political enemy.

All of the above point to a process of the weaponization of loneliness. By contrast, Clinton uses the term simply to demonize her political opponents. If you disagree with her, you are “sowing dissension.”

Clinton often complains that people don’t trust the government enough. Seriously. But government policies over the past many decades have actually cultivated isolation by encouraging government dependency, contributing to family breakdown and undermining free speech and freedom of association, among other ills.

The COVID mandates literally enforced our isolation and deceived us into thinking it would only last a couple of weeks, not years. How can reasonable people trust a government that forces them to choose between an experimental injection or their livelihood? Or that brutally separates them from dying loved ones? Or that instructs them to snitch on their neighbors? Yet Clinton is allied with all such policies and demands trust.

All the tactics of the weaponization of loneliness are right there in Clinton’s Atlantic article and Maddow interview: the psychological projection, the use of a huge media monopoly to enforce a narrative, the constant deception and the claim that free speech should be suppressed under the guise of protecting us from “misinformation.”

How do people keep falling into these traps?  And how do tyrants get away with it?

My answer is that human beings have not yet developed a conscious enough that’s aware of the process. We don’t appreciate how much our fear of ostracism dictates what we say, how we act and with whom we associate. Tyrants have always harnessed that fear to pit us against one another.

That’s what the weaponization of loneliness really means. If we don’t put checks on that process, we can’t sustain civil society or healthy communities. Instead, we get government-controlled pseudo “Hillary-villages” where our speech, our ideas, our families and our associations are regulated. If you read the surgeon general’s advisory that Clinton promotes in her Atlantic article, you can easily detect a blueprint for building them.

In sum, Hillary Clinton’s use of the title “The Weaponization of Loneliness” is beyond weird. It transcends academic theft because she has such a mammoth censorship-industrial complex at her disposal. This gives her and her base a good chance to drown out a thesis that I believe can really help Americans build the awareness they need to escape that trap. I can only conclude that the term has been hijacked because it builds awareness of how the propaganda we’re constantly fed is used for silencing, dividing and conquering.

Stella Morabito is the author of  The Weaponization of Loneliness: How Tyrants Stoke Our Fear of Isolation to Silence, Divide, and Conquer. She is a senior contributor to The Federalist where she has written extensively on the social fallout of propaganda and group think.

 

Stella Morabito | Daily Caller News Service

 

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

The post Hillary Clinton Just Gave Away The Left’s Playbook For Censorship And Oppression appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

The Bigger Threat Than Climate Change

Granite Grok - Mon, 2023-08-21 21:00 +0000

The New England overnight has been cool in August, the nighttime sleeping temperatures at their optimum – which means cold enough to need blankets and very comfortable, in my opinion. Not exactly what you’d call a warming trend, but you could say the climate changed.

Related: It Was Not the Wettest July in NH History Nor the Hottest

And it does.

Around here, it changes in minutes, but it has always done that. Nothing new about it. But THIS is, maybe. August is not known for its cool nights, certainly not coming out of what was billed as the hottest month ever, everywhere, and forever. That was hogwash, but you would think global warming being what it is and CO2 accumulating the way they claim it does, there would be no end to the misery index.

No end, if you mean, lefties ranting every summer about how hot July gets.

 

  • NOAA’s Temperature Anomaly Data for July (Science) vs. Boiling (Science Fiction)
  • It’s Hot Out, but It’s Been a Lot Hotter, In More Places, For Longer, with Less CO2 – And Anything Else is a Lie
  • Sorry, but July 3rd, 2023 Was the … 49th Hottest July 3rd on Record
  • 2022: Biden Says July 2022 Third Hottest Ever! – Sorry, Try 17th, or Maybe Even 42nd.
  • 2021: The Hottest Lie On Record?
  • 2019: Sorry, July 2019 was NOT the Hottest on Record
  • 2019: Friday, Saturday and Sunday Will Be Hot. But July, 1911 Was Hotter for Longer
  • 2016: Hottest July Ever? Still not Even Close
  • 2016: July 2016 Hottest Ever? Nope. Just Kind of Average.

 

Does anyone else detect a pattern? July is hot, and Democrats lie.

And July is an excellent month to spread lies because it is the hottest month of the year (around here) every year, and sleeping is critical to health, and hot nights mess with that. Tired and uncomfortable people might be inclined to go along with the narrative flow.

Wow, it’s hot. Yup, global warming. Don’t you mean climate change? Huh? Oh, yeah.

But August is not cooperating, and it’s been dreamy. But no one is writing headlines about how comfortable the weather in August has been for sleeping. Who the heck would click on that? How about Joe Biden spends a gazillion dollars because it was hot last month? Or, Maui burns, Brooklyn burns, Ukraine burns, I’m detecting another pattern.

Big headlines, but none of them are as big as the grant money available for folks willing and ready to declare consensus as the new gold standard in scientific theory. Excuse me for being a non-scientist, but if some group of people connected to or funded by the government can decide things, and declare that everyone (who matters) agrees, then there are no such things as theory, only mandates.

Dictates.

And isn’t that a bigger threat? “Scientists” that are willing to produce results their sugar daddy wants – especially when Daddy is the Federal government? It sets a standard for the culture that leads to politicians and a government that could justify almost anything, from killing the unborn to killing the poor or folks with mental illness to a public health protocol that kills people.

How about a media machine more interested in repeating that than finding the truth?

 

 

The post The Bigger Threat Than Climate Change appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

Our Republic, Parents, and Education

Granite Grok - Mon, 2023-08-21 19:30 +0000

I want to remind folks what we are up against and comprehend the evil around us that HATES our LIBERTIES, FREEDOM, and the Constitutional Republic by calling it a DEMOCRACY, never using the word REPUBLIC.

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

This evil includes Biden’s Build Back Better, now costing us more in medical, energy, groceries, housing, and of course, electric everything.

Natural gas and nuclear to them are unclean and unsafe, and the next loss is our LIBERTY to use wood-burning stoves and how many miles you can drive.

One thing about the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA, in case you didn’t notice) it has done the opposite of reducing inflation since it was instituted. The nay-sayers will call me a lair or blame Trump, but you cannot hide the truth forever, but maybe long enough to fool the people into voting incorrectly.

Then there’s this from Adolf Hitler. “The state must declare the child to be the most precious treasure of the people, as long as the government is perceived as working for the benefit of the children, the people will happily endure almost any curtailment of liberty and any deprivation.”

Or how about Joseph Stalin? “Education is a weapon whose effect depends on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed.”

Vladimir Lenin said, “Destroy the family, you destroy the country.”

We are a Democratic Constitutional Republic (democratically elected legislators in a “Republic” making laws limited by the NH and US Constitution, Bill of Rights), not a Democracy (mob rule, NH and US Constitution, Bill of Rights meaningless, majority rule).

Parents, you have options for schooling, AND you may qualify for the Education Freedom Account (school choice) to help pay for it.

Voters, stop being deceived by the Democrats saying one thing and doing the opposite. Don’t forget the democrats voted against the family by voting down HB10 and SB272 Parental Rights bills to save the family.

 

The post Our Republic, Parents, and Education appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

The US Air Force is Broken

Granite Grok - Mon, 2023-08-21 18:00 +0000

If you need another reason why Air Force Chief of Staff General Charles “C.Q.” Brown is a #woke threat to the US military and national security (he is nominated to be the new head of the joint chiefs), we’ve got it.

 

Enter USAF Col. Benjamin Jonsson. He was nominated by *President Biden to be promoted to brigadier general. Col. Jonsson is white. And “woke.”

Col. Jonsson believes the “problem” with the Air Force is “white colonels” like himself—but not really him, just all the other white colonels.

After the death of Saintly George Floyd, Jonsson penned an article for Air Force Times “calling out” his fellow Caucasian USAF colonels.

“As white colonels, you and I are the biggest barriers to change if we do not personally address racial injustice in our Air Force,” Col. Jonsson began.

 

Jonsson is a product of General Brown’s Air Force and, like Brown, thinks there is too much whiteness and too many white people in the US Air Force. But is you call him out, he’s got the pat progressive response.

 

“Defensiveness is a predictable response by white people to any discussion of racial injustice,” Col. Justice Warrior continued. “White colonels are no exception. We are largely blind to institutional racism, and we take offense to any suggestion that our system advantaged us at the expense of others. …

“Start by developing a game plan, he preached. “A good primer is to read or listen to the short book, ‘White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism,’ by Robin DiAngelo. Dear white colonel, it is time to give a damn. Aim High.”

 

Which is a very strange thing to say about voluntary service. Maybe the Air Force is like Hockey. People of color would rather be somewhere else. It’s not the NHL’s fault if a person with brown skin prefers Soccer, Basketball, Baseball, or Football. Why can’t this also apply to states like New Hampshire, Maine, and Vermont (more than just mostly white and cool or cold seven months out of twelve, or the Air Force?

Gotta be racism or some sort of supremacy or tunnel vision or something.

How about Obama-style white guilt as a vehicle for false morality? A problem manufactured by cultural Marxists for the same Marxists to “solve.” Translated, that means the systemic destruction of American institutions by progressives.

The goal isn’t diversity or equity, they are certainly not color-blind, so the only goal left is weakening the country, and a dysfunctional fighting force will get you there.

Reminder

General Charles “C.Q.” Brown’s Senate vote for confirmation as the new head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is in a few weeks. Should he succeed in the appointment, we can expect every branch to bend (or bend further) to his #woke agenda.

Contact your US Senator and ask them to vote against his nomination.

 

HT | PJ Media

The post The US Air Force is Broken appeared first on Granite Grok.

Categories: Blogs, New Hampshire

The Manchester Free Press aims to bring together in one place everything that you need to know about what’s happening in the Free State of New Hampshire.

As of August 2021, we are currently in the process of removing dead links and feeds, and updating the site with newer ones.

Articles

Media

Blogs

Our friends & allies

New Hampshire

United States