The Granite State continues to be an island of sanity in a sea of blue politics, but only barely. Despite Republican governors and legislative majorities at the state level, we keep sending Democrats to DC. It doesn’t make sense. But some things do.

We’re the only state cutting taxes. We’ve got the lowest total tax burden in New England, lower poverty rates, better health outcomes, and a long list of positives that recur year after year. We were the first to say no, we’re not joining the Transportation Climate Initiative, and we are neither a sanctuary state nor embracing California Style vehicle standards on the road to Net Zero, and not just because it’s impossible to get there from anywhere, least of all here.

We’re also not handing over our election data to the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC). It’s a left-wing funded “non-profit membership organization created by state election officials to help improve the accuracy of state voter rolls and register more eligible Americans to vote.”

Judicial Watch did some research on ERIC, and the results are less than stellar.

• [O]ver the past year, seven states have pulled out—Alabama, Louisiana, Florida, West Virginia, Missouri, Ohio, and Iowa—citing concerns over data security and the left-wing orientation of the organization.
• Florida withdrew in March, saying the group had rejected proposals that “would have eliminated concerns about ERIC’s potential partisan leanings, and made the information shared with ERIC more secure.”
• ERIC does not actually require that member states “remove ineligible voters from their registration rolls.”
• “[S]tates that do not participate in ERIC had a higher rate of identifying and removing from voter registration rolls individuals who relocated out of a jurisdiction than ERIC member states.”
• ERIC was founded by left-leaning attorney David Becker with $157,000 in grants from the George Soros-funded Pew Charitable Trusts.
•  In September 2020, CEIR received a $70 million grant from the Zuckerberg philanthropies for “voter education programs.”
•  “The large amount of sensitive data provided to ERIC by its member states and the role of the organization in maintaining voter rolls may violate a number of federal statutes,” the JW study notes.

ERIC may have run afoul of other laws at both the federal and state level, which could include- if we were a member – our constitutional right to privacy here in New Hampshire. Thankfully we are not presently at risk for that from them. But we’re the only state in New England that has not hitched its wagon to what looks like another progressive-funded sketchy GOTV effort.

The post One More Awful Thing NH Hasn’t Joined that the Rest of New England Has .. appeared first on Granite Grok.

I apologize in advance for filling your inbox. But child trafficking is something everyone must be alarmed about, and it is in your collective power to do something about it if you have the information.

You may have read Nancy West/In-Depth News Article on the two New Hampshire teens subjected to trauma in a facility in Tennessee. That facility is a DBA for “Youth Opportunities Investment,” which started in 2009 and has facilities around the country.

This is the description of the treatment advertised at Bledsoe, the Youth Opportunities Investment program in Tennessee.

The logo for “Youth Opportunity Investment” is remarkably similar to that of CASA/CASA NH (which may be coincidental or may not be).

Caroline Delaney filed a statement of financial interest in CASA NH. Caroline Delaney was (is?) the legal counsel for the Department of Revenue. She is also on the CASA NH team. The statement of financial interest lists McLane Middleton (Michael Delaney’s law firm).

Michael Delaney (a former AG who allegedly allowed police officers to be paid in cash and who was very involved in promoting “Children’s Advocacy Centers” whose board members are Police, Prosecutors, DAs, and Andrew H Crews of Autofair/Granite One Health/Primary Bank/NH Lottery)  represented Judge Julie Introcaso for her plea deal for whiting out judicial documents and ordering GAL Kathleen Sternenberg to be paid using Apple Pay.

McLane Middleton has a Government Policies and Strategies company registered to it since 2012 or so.  The law firm also received several millions more in PPP loans than any other law firm in New Hampshire.

Michael Delaney was nominated for the position of the First Circuit Court of Appeals by Senators Shaheen & Hassan. The First Circuit covers NH, Mass, Maine, Rhode Island, and Puerto Rico.

The IRS is alleged in this article to be a privately owned Puerto Rican Trust.

Maximus is tied to the IRS. Maximus became a public company in 1996. It had its first no-bid contract in NH for Medicaid in 2004.

Maximus is listed with dozens of accounts in the “Pandora Papers,” and so is Autofair (Andrew H Crews). New Hampshire has the largest amount of any state in the US in Pandora Papers, with $932.5 billion. McLane Middleton sponsored the podcast about it (which to me smacks of a Sam Bankman-Fried move to give $5 million to ProPublica or sponsor Semafor)…especially because McLane Middleton has advertised their ability with foreign, family trusts, etc., in NH.

Kathleen Kerr of NH DHHS/DCYF (for 12 years) received complaints in 1999 from US DHHS OIG regarding failures of NH DCYF, outsourcing of contracts, failures in accounting, etc.

She left to join Policy Studies Inc, which then became Veritas and got purchased by Maximus, and she has been on the board of Maximus since her position for NH DCYF  & Policy Studies Inc.

Maximus, Policy Studies, Virtus, and Children’s Trust Fund are all registered at 10 Ferry Street, Concord, NH, which is the address that was reported to Boston FBI for suspected Child Trafficking in 2016.

If you look at the reports below, you will see that New Hampshire has consistently failed audits by US DHHS for DCYF and Medicaid.  In fact, Lori Schibinette handed in her resignation six days after a US DHHS audit on NH Medicaid showed that the state had double-billed and owed US Gov $7.9 million.

https://www.oig.hhs.gov/oas/reports/region1/11802504.asp
https://oig.hhs.gov/oas/reports/region1/12000006.asp

Anna Carrigan (who brought the whistleblower suit Anna Carrigan v NH) documents the failures of NH DCYF here.

CASA NH has in its documents a desire to refer as many children as possible to CASA.

CASA NH was dropped as a defendant by a judge in a sexual assault case involving two teenagers that was brought by their grandparents.

Maximus’s documents show that children can get referred to their services by teachers, caregivers, etc.

Maximus’ contract with NH (including with DCYF, Youth Detention Center, etc) appears to be tied to NH’s contract with Tennessee, where the Bledsoe Academy is.

Maximus is a key player in how child trafficking and child abuse are allowed to happen.

Lastly, you will notice that in the case against Adam Montgomery over Harmony Montgomery, NH prosecutors dropped welfare fraud charges against Kayla Montgomery. I suspect (but don’t know, so it is a hypothesis) that the State does not want discovery on this that could expose state fraud (as in the Medicaid overbilling that came up in the US DHHS OIG report just before Lori Schibinette stepped down).

Follow the money, and please ask the Executive Counselors and the Governor why financial interests tied to CASA, Maximus, etc, supersede the interests in child welfare. The State collects federal money for the welfare of children. That money is being misused to profiteer and make money off the abuse and trafficking of children. What is NH Treasury, Executive Committee, and Judiciary interest in Maximus, CASA, and Youth Opportunity Investment?

As Richard Bergeron, in citing corruption of the courts in New Hampshire, quoted Aldous Huxley: “Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.”

Child abuse and child trafficking in New Hampshire are intertwined with court corruption and abuse of federal funds.  It can be stopped, but it requires your collective attention and action.

In California, a Public Protection Act bill is being proposed.  Perhaps New Hampshire should consider the same:

PUBLIC PROTECTION ACT

1. Proposal Summary:

“This “Public Protection Act” proposal addresses systemic failures of governance in the State Bar of New Hampshire (“State Bar”) to sustainably restore public trust and reduce disparate impacts upon marginalized communities within family, civil, and criminal justice systems.

2. Problems
Public corruption adversely affects marginalized communities the most (See DOJ Archives). Expert Robert Klitgaard says it follows a simple formula: Corruption = Monopoly – Accountability. …….

The model for an act exists. Why would it not be in everyone’s interests to sign such an act so children can be safe from state exploitation?

Thank you for paying attention. Child abuse and trafficking can be fixed but you have to follow the money to get to the route of the problem before you can fix it. The corruption that is the monopoly without accountability must be broken for the future benefit of all.

 

Email recipients:

To: Mary Ann Dempsey <MDempsey@courts.state.nh.us>
Cc: Parental Equality NH <parental-equalitynh@googlegroups.com>, Robert Mittelholzer <rmittelholzer@nhjcc.com>, Diana Dowd-Werry <ddowd-werry@nhjcc.com>, “generalcounsel@courts.state.nh.us” <generalcounsel@courts.state.nh.us>, Communications@courts.state.nh.us, Lorrie Platt <LPlatt@courts.state.nh.us>, Kathlene Cleveland <kcleveland@nhattyreg.org>, John Formella <john.m.formella@doj.nh.gov>, Anthony Galdieri <anthony.galdieri@doj.nh.gov>, Zachary Wolf <Zachary.C.Wolf@doj.nh.gov>, “Jimenez, Dan” <Dan.A.Jimenez@doj.nh.gov>, “DOJ: Invest Info” <investinfo@doj.nh.gov>, Fbi <bedford.bs@fbi.gov>, “James S. Scully Jr.” <James.F.Scully@nh.gov>, “Sununu.Press@nh.gov” <Sununu.Press@nh.gov>, “Joseph D. Kenney” <Joseph.D.Kenney@nh.gov>, Cinde Warmington <Cinde.Warmington@nh.gov>, Janet Stevens <Janet.L.Stevens@nh.gov>, Ted Gatsas <Ted.Gatsas@nh.gov>, David Wheeler <David.K.Wheeler@nh.gov>, “Richard W. Head” <rhead@courts.state.nh.us>, Governor’s Commission <NHDVcommission@gmail.com>, Mary Krueger <mkrueger@nhla.org>, Danielle Snook <danielle.m.snook@doj.nh.gov>, Andrew Livernois <alivernois@belknapcounty.org>, Alyssa Kuehne <kuehnea@nashuapd.com>, Lyn Schollett <lyn@nhcadsv.org>, Angela Wilkerson <awilkerson@603legalaid.org>, Dianne Martin <DMartin@courts.state.nh.us>, Ann Landry <ann.h.landry@dhhs.nh.gov>, Jodi Nelson <jodi.nelson@leg.state.nh.us>, Sharon Carson <Sharon.Carson@leg.state.nh.us>, Chief David Hobbs <dhobbs@hamptonpd.com>, Chief Janet Bouchard <jbouchard@hooksettpolice.org>, “Dr. Scott Hampton” <endingviolence@comcast.net>, Abbey Simon <Abbey.S.Simon@doc.nh.gov>, Robert Quinn <robert.l.quinn@dos.nh.gov>, Andrea Bonito <abonito@nhpd.org>, “Hon. Edwin Kelly” <ewkelly51@gmail.com>, Mark Pearson <canonpearson@yahoo.com>, Marjorie Smith <msmithpen@aol.com>, Joe Alexander <Joe.Alexander@leg.state.nh.us>, Dana Albrecht <dana.albrecht@hushmail.com>, Lorie Ball <Lorie.Ball@leg.state.nh.us>, Katelyn Kuttab <Katelyn.Kuttab@leg.state.nh.us>, Charles McMahon <cmcmahon55@gmail.com>, Alicia Gregg <Alicia.Gregg@leg.state.nh.us>, Judi Lanza <Judi.Lanza@leg.state.nh.us>, Patrick Long <long55@comcast.net>, Rebecca McBeath <NHStateHouse@gmail.com>, Christina Dyer <christina.dyer@leg.state.nh.us>, Sherman Packard <sherman.packard@leg.state.nh.us>, ~House Special Committee on the Family Div Circuit Court <HouseSpecialCommitteeonFamilyDivCircuitCourt@leg.state.nh.us>, “CFL@leg.state.nh.us” <CFL@leg.state.nh.us>, “HouseJudiciaryCommittee@leg.state.nh.us” <HouseJudiciaryCommittee@leg.state.nh.us>, ~House Criminal Justice and Public Safety <HouseCriminalJusticeandPublicSafety@leg.state.nh.us>, Robin Partello <robinpartello@yahoo.com>, Timber Post <TimberPost@gmail.com>, NH Advocates for Parental Equality <parentalequalitynh@gmail.com>, Kevin Landrigan <klandrigan@unionleader.com>, Representative Chris Pappas <nh01cpima@mail.house.gov>

The post More Information for you on Child Trafficking In New Hampshire appeared first on Granite Grok.

Sun-King Chris Sununu is … OF COURSE … parroting the Koch propaganda that if Trump is the nominee, WE LOSE EVERYTHING!!! EVERYTHING!!! And Mikey Graham’s NH-NeverTrump Journal is … OF COURSE … amplifying the Sun-King’s shill:

In an accompanying post, Mikey … unwittingly I am sure … manages to BOTH totally undermine his claim that Trump lost in 2020 because he was so unpopular and that the 2020 election was NOT rigged:

In 2016, 348,526 voters turned out to back the Democrat for president, Hillary Clinton, while 345,790 turned out for the GOP’s Trump.

Four years later, Trump’s turnout was 365,654, up 19,864 votes (5.7 percent). But the vote for the Democratic nominee, Biden, surged to 424,921, up 76,395, a 22 percent increase.

If 2020 was really the repudiation of Trump that Mikey, Sun-King, the Kochs, etc. claim … he should have gotten LESS votes than in 2016. He did NOT. Just the OPPOSITE. He got early SIX PERCENT MORE.

Do you really believe that Biden received 76,000 LEGITIMATE votes more that HILLARY, the Queen of New Hampshire, did in 2016? A far more believable explanation is that Sun-King Sununu’s exploitation of “the pandemic” to allow what effectively was universal, no-excuse mail-in voting allowed the Biden-campaign to cheat. Per NHPR:

 

The post Michael Graham … Incorrigible Election-Denier appeared first on Granite Grok.

By all accounts, there were more than just a few free blacks who owned black slaves, and while some of them “bought” family members to free them, many were treating them like…slaves. That strikes me as a problem for the reparations crowd.

Think of it as a new twist on an already ever-present problem. The one where you are telling people who never owned slaves that they need to pay some money to people who have never been slaves – but may be descended from … black slave owners.

 

So what do the actual numbers of black slave owners and their slaves tell us? In 1830, the year most carefully studied by Carter G. Woodson, about 13.7 percent (319,599) of the black population was free. Of these, 3,776 free Negroes owned 12,907 slaves, out of a total of 2,009,043 slaves owned in the entire United States, so the numbers of slaves owned by black people over all was quite small by comparison with the number owned by white people. In his essay, ” ‘The Known World’ of Free Black Slaveholders,” Thomas J. Pressly, using Woodson’s statistics, calculated that 54 (or about 1 percent) of these black slave owners in 1830 owned between 20 and 84 slaves; 172 (about 4 percent) owned between 10 to 19 slaves; and 3,550 (about 94 percent) each owned between 1 and 9 slaves. Crucially, 42 percent owned just one slave.

Pressly also shows that the percentage of free black slave owners as the total number of free black heads of families was quite high in several states, namely 43 percent in South Carolina, 40 percent in Louisiana, 26 percent in Mississippi, 25 percent in Alabama and 20 percent in Georgia. So why did these free black people own these slaves?

 

Not in any way a small problem, especially for the white hate crowd. There were, after all, black masters who had white slaves.

 

And for a time, free black people could even “own” the services of white indentured servants in Virginia as well. Free blacks owned slaves in Boston by 1724 and in Connecticut by 1783; by 1790, 48 black people in Maryland owned 143 slaves. One particularly notorious black Maryland farmer named Nat Butler “regularly purchased and sold Negroes for the Southern trade,” Halliburton wrote.

 

It is fair to say that whites could work off their slavery where blacks could not, but then what do you say about the black slaves of black slave owners who kept slaves not just for the life of that slave but their offspring? Descendents who may very well be unaware of their slave-owning family history (like Kamala Harris, who is not even black) lining up with the reparations crowd thinking they are owed something for an injustice perpetrated by their ancestors.

Perhaps we could just go back to the beginning—the part where no one paying reparations owned slaves and no one collecting them ever was a slave. I know that’s not entirely true. The Democrat party has enslaved millions of black Americans (again), trapping them in a cycle of dependency, crime, and lousy schools. And it’s not funny that Democrats advocated for slavery and were the “extremists” who tried to stop any effort at emancipation or to end discrimination.

This reminds me of something I’ve seen before and advocated; if Democrats feel that guilty, tax Democrats to pay for reparations. You’ve got their name and addresses in your GOTV records.

Slavery and discrimination by white Democrats is their legacy, and the black Democrat race pimps are today’s modern-day black slave owners working a system that traps their community in exchange for attention, money, and power (which they do not use to help anyone but themselves).

Start writing checks with your own money. We won’t stop you. And if you come up a bit short, you could ask the descendants of slave-selling black Africans to help you.

 

HT | The Root.com

The post Are You Going to Give Reparations to Descendants of Black Slave Owners? appeared first on Granite Grok.

Recently, I was listening to the Jeff Kuhner Show, which airs on WRKO AM 68 Monday to Friday, 6:00 AM to 10:00 AM. He was interviewing his wife, Grace Vuoto, who calls in every Wednesday for her weekly commentary.

Grace, “who puts liberals in their place,” as Jeff is fond of saying, was making an excellent case against several proposed bills in Massachusetts that would make school children little more than human pin cushions for Big Pharma ending religious exceptions to those opposing vaccinations and allowing minors to consent to receive vaccinations without parental approval.

When Jeff referred to homeschooling, if the bills passed, as a solution, Grace emphatically said that it would only be a “temporary solution” and said something to the effect that we-conservatives should not abandon the government schools.

Many conservatives like Grace think that government schools are salvageable.  I have to respectfully disagree.

 

 

While we should attempt to influence the government schools by running for local school committees, showing up at school committee meetings to voice our objections, doing what we can to promote a semblance of academic excellence, and openly opposing the agenda of the Leftist change agents in the government schools, let’s not deceive ourselves.  The Left has had a near monopoly in our government schools for close to one hundred years.  From the removal of intensive phonetics and replacing it with the literacy-crippling “look-say” method, to the teaching of evolution as fact, to the removal of school prayer, to sex education, to the administering of psychotropic drugs,  to the introduction of Outcome Based Education and Common Core, to the teaching of a general hatred of the United States via Howard Zinn’s error-ridden A People’s History of the United States, to the 1619 Project and Critical Race Theory, to the promotion of the Alphabet Mafia’s perverted agenda, children are at risk mentally,  morally, physically, and spiritually.   Sam Blumenfeld documented all of this in his book  Crimes of the Educators, co-authored by Alex Newman (A link to a free PDF version:  http://blumenfeld.campconstitution.net/Books/Crimes%20of%20the%20Educators.pdf   

We went from the most highly literate nation in the world to a nation of illiterates and semi-illiterates who do not possess basic reading and math skills while harboring a seething hatred of our country, its history, and its Constitution.  I think it is safe to say that those that are rioting, looting, burning, and tearing down statues are not products of the homeschool community.

 

 

With all due respect to Grace, whom I greatly admire, homeschooling is both a viable and vital option.   She isn’t alone; however, as a regular viewer of Newsmax and, up until recently, Fox News, I have never seen one guest representing a member of the homeschool organization.  I have to admit that we in the homeschool community don’t do the best job when it comes to promoting our mission, but that will have to end if we expect to maintain a free nation.

 

 

There are homeschool organizations, both national and state-based.  Some of them are religious, like the Massachusetts Homeschool Organization of Parent Educators (MASS HOPE) https://masshope.org/, Homeschoolers of Maine, and Catholics United for Home Education NH.   Others offer support for black homeschoolers, like National Black Home Educators  https://www.nbhe.net/.

 

 

There are annual homeschool conventions, including Mass HOPE which is held on the last weekend of April in Sturbridge, MA, and The Homeschoolers of Maine, held in Augusta in May.  These conventions are where veteran homeschoolers and new homeschoolers alike can learn about the legal issues concerning homeschoolers, how to begin homeschooling, how to find local homeschool support groups, and where attendees can find curricula that meet their needs.

Vendors include ABEKA, Bob Jones University, and Liberty University, which offer fully accredited k-12 homeschool programs, while other supplemental programs like Demme Learning (Math) and New Life Fine Arts (Drama), and of course, Camp Constitution.  Also included among the vendors are homeschoolers that have their own businesses.

There are homeschool support groups in communities all over the United States where homeschool parents and their children get together on a regular basis for classes, listen to guest instructors, take field trips, learn to dance, play sports, and hold graduation ceremonies.   Contrary to the myth that homeschooled children are sheltered, there is plenty of interaction with other homeschooled students as well as adults.  Indeed, it has been my experience that homeschooled children interact with adults far better than their government school counterparts.

I will mention a few which I recommend with info from their websites:

Freedom Project Academy:

Freedom Project Academy offers a fully accredited, Classical education for Kindergarten through High School. FPA is rooted firmly in the Judeo-Christian values as promoted in the Constitution by our Founding Fathers, who strove to guarantee the preservation of our God-given liberties. Our live classes are delivered online through interactive classrooms to students in all 50 states and a dozen foreign countries, serving missionary and military families overseas.

Freedom Project Partnership teams up with churches and private schools to stream Judeo-Christian classes into brick-and-mortar classrooms across the country. This allows for the rapid expansion of faith-based schools across the nation as the Freedom Project provides all class instruction, assignments, tests, and grading needed to help schools stay on budget. What better way to restore American values than to bring the worlds of faith and education together again?

      https://fpeusa.org/

 

 

Ron Paul Academy:

A student who goes through this curriculum, kindergarten through high school, will have a mastery of the foundations of liberty. There is no other curriculum on the Web to match it.

It does not assign printed textbooks. This saves families a lot of money. Textbooks cost a great deal of money. Almost all of the materials are free: toner and paper only. Only when the materials are copyrighted and time-sensitive — modern business and modern literature — do parents pay for books.

The curriculum is mostly self-taught. If a student gets stuck, he can get help from other students in the course Communities. Students serve as tutors for each other. They learn by teaching, which is a great way to master any new field.

This curriculum teaches students how to write. The teachers in the social sciences and humanities at the high school level have Ph.D. degrees. They are both successful writers. They are both successful businessmen. They will teach your children how to write effectively and fast.

Students start writing in the fourth grade. They do not stop until they finish their final courses. I doubt that they will ever stop.

Every student is asked to set up at least one website. Their weekly papers must be posted on their sites. This is crucial for self-education: public visibility. Students can see what the competition is doing. Most students hate this aspect of the curriculum, but it forces them to do their best with their writing assignments. Parents have an obligation to see to it that their children post their weekly papers. This is the #1 educational task for parents.

The curriculum centers around weekly essays. Parents should read them. If they want to grade them, that’s fine. If they don’t, that’s also fine. But parents had better insist that their children post URL links to their posted weekly essays. These links must be posted on the course forums.

No student who gets through this curriculum will ever need to be nagged to get through college, graduate school, or a career. This curriculum teaches self-discipline. This is a crucial personal habit. It is mostly internal. It develops after years of working in an environment that requires self-discipline.

For students who hustle, they will enter college as juniors. They will quiz out of their first two years of college for about $2,500 total (today’s money, of course). They will get into the workforce as college graduates two years before their peers do.

The man who teaches the public speaking course in grade 9 and the history and literature courses for grades 6 through 8 graduated from an accredited college on his 18th birthday. He paid for his own college education by working part-time in his own home business. It cost him under $12,000. It can be done. I recommend it.

If you are a parent, this should get your attention. I think students should also be motivated. (I am assuming that students want to get out of school fast.)  https://www.ronpaulcurriculum.com

Liberty University Online Academy:

Have you always dreamed of sending your child to private school but felt like you didn’t have a flexible and affordable option? At Liberty University Online Academy (LUOA), you can provide your student with the best of homeschool, private school, and Bible-based education all rolled into one!

Our high-quality K-12 curriculum can be completed from the comfort of your home — so you can work schooling around your life, not the other way around. Additionally, we offer a vast array of resources that are designed to help your student succeed — and to make your job as a homeschooling parent a little easier.

Partner with us and give your student the tools they need to succeed!   https://www.liberty.edu/lp/online-academy

 

 

Abeka:

You want methods and materials that work. That’s what you’ll find with Abeka—a comprehensive, quality curriculum and materials written from a Christian perspective. Now more than ever, each child needs a strong foundation in both academics and character.

We’re here to help homeschooling families, and Christian schools of all sizes give their students the knowledge and skills they need.

For over forty years, schools and homeschooling families have trusted Abeka to provide materials using the traditional approach proven successful throughout education’s history. Professionally illustrated textbooks and teaching aids, hands-on activities, challenging exercises, and our Spiral Learning approach with purposeful repetition and reinforcement of concepts from subject to subject give you all the tools you need to make learning interesting and memorable.

You can choose Abeka with confidence; each subject’s content comes from the work of skilled, dedicated scholars who have conducted primary research. See your students achieve the academic excellence and moral character that leave them equipped for life, just like over one million children developing into lifelong learners with Abeka.  https://www.abeka.com

 The Samuel Blumenfeld Archive:

While not an accredited entity, I  recommend the  Samuel Blumenfeld Archive hosted by Camp Constitution http://blumenfeld.campconstitution.net/main.htm. It contains the works of the late homeschool pioneer Samuel Blumenfeld, who was a dear friend and mentor of mine. It offers, among other things, a free online phonics reading course with all 128 lessons available in audio and video, a cursive writing course, and a basic arithmetic course.  It also contains most of the books, articles, and newsletters authored by Sam as well as dozens of Sam’s lectures in audio and video.

 

It is my earnest prayer that conservative media, both local and national, help promote and support the flourishing homeschool movement.

 

The post Many Think That the Government Schools Are Salvageable.  I Have to Respectfully Disagree. appeared first on Granite Grok.

NOAA’s July update is out, and the first thing I checked was the statewide average precipitation. We got a lot of rain in July of 2023. The statewide average was 8.61 inches, more than double the 100-year average. But it did not set a record.

New Hampshire got 10.61 inches of rain in July 2015 and 10.58 inches in 2021. And yes, your local total might be higher or lower. Some parts got more, others less. And while it was a lot, it wasn’t unprecedented or historically exceptional. Half the years in the past two decades have been below the mean, the other half above. It’s almost as if there’s some natural cycle to it all, eh?

 

 

Rain happens in July, and so does drought, but July in the Granite State has been wetter in more recent years than not.

The other story that dominated the media was the heat. We were boiling in July. It was hot. Summer is like that sometimes. The hottest time of the year, actually. The 100-year average temperature for New Hampshire in July is 66.9 Deg F. July 2023 was 70.4 F. It was hotter in 1921, 1955, 2013, and 2020.

Maximum temps in the Granite State were less impressive. While above the 100-year mean of  78.8 – July 2023, 80.2 – 26 previous Julys had higher maximum temperature averages than 2023.

 

 

July was wet but not the wettest and hot but not the hottest.

 

The post It Was Not the Wettest July in NH History Nor the Hottest appeared first on Granite Grok.

The Pledge of Allegiance is wrong. These United States are not “one nation, indivisible.” They are a federation.

This may seem like semantical nitpicking, but it is an extremely important distinction that impacts how we understand the powers of the general government.

Black’s Law Dictionary explains the difference between a federal and a national government.

“A national government is a government of the people of a single state or nation, united as a community by what is termed the ‘social compact,’ and possessing complete and perfect supremacy over persons and things, so far as they can be made the lawful objects of civil government. A federal government is distinguished from a national government by its being the government of a community of independent and sovereign states, united by compact.”

James Madison made a similar distinction when he explained the nature of the constitutional system in Federalist #39.

It appears, on one hand, that the Constitution is to be founded on the assent and ratification of the people of America, given by deputies elected for the special purpose; but, on the other, that this assent and ratification is to be given by the people, not as individuals composing one entire nation, but as composing the distinct and independent States to which they respectively belong. It is to be the assent and ratification of the several States, derived from the supreme authority in each State, the authority of the people themselves. The act, therefore, establishing the Constitution, will not be a national, but a federal act.

“Each State, in ratifying the Constitution, is considered as a sovereign body, independent of all others, and only to be bound by its own voluntary act. In this relation, then, the new Constitution will, if established, be a federal, and not a national constitution.”

The most important distinction between a national and a federal system is where sovereignty lies. In a national system, sovereignty (final or supreme authority) resides in the nation as a whole. As Alexander Hamilton explained in Federalist #32, “An entire consolidation of the States into one complete national sovereignty would imply an entire subordination of the parts.” In other words, the states would be subservient to the general government and the powers left to each state would be subject to “the general will.”

But Hamilton went on to say that this wasn’t the plan of the convention that created the Constitution. Instead, the framers intended to create a “partial union or consolidation.”

“The State governments would clearly retain all rights of sovereignty which they before had, and which were not, by that act, exclusively delegated to the United States.”

In simplest terms, in a national system, the nation itself is the fundamental political society. In a federal system, each member state is an independent political society that retains its sovereignty and authority. They only give up the power they delegated to the general government. And ultimately, they can take that power back as well.

DELEGATED POWERS

In practice, power is divided and wielded much differently in a national vs a federal system.

In a national system, power isn’t divided at all. The central government exercises total authority and control. Smaller political units such as counties or cities are subservient to the general government. They exist and operate only with the blessing of the central authority and can only exercise powers given to them by the national government.

In a federal system, each member state maintains all authority that wasn’t specifically delegated to the general government. The central authority exists and operates only with the blessing of the member states and it can’t exercise any power not delegated to it.

James Madison outlined the division of powers in the Constitutional system in Federalist #45. He said the powers delegated to the federal government are “few and defined.” Those remaining in the state governments are “numerous and indefinite.”

St. George Tucker wrote the first systematic commentary on the Constitution. He explained the division of powers this way.

“[Federal] jurisdiction extends to certain enumerated objects, only, and leaves to the several states a residuary and inviolable sovereignty over all other objects.”

In one of the first significant speeches in support of ratifying the Constitution, James Wilson emphasized the federated nature of the proposed system, saying that federal power would not come from “tacit implication.” Instead, power would be collected from “the positive grant expressed in the instrument of the union,” and he insisted that every power “not given” by the states to the general government would be “reserved.”

In practice, the federal government can only exercise powers listed in the Constitution. If a power isn’t on the list, the feds can’t exercise it. That power remains with the states and the people.

This division of power is implicit in the way the Constitution was drafted. The fact that they listed specific federal powers logically excludes any powers not on this list. This is a legal principle —Designato unius est exclusio alterius — meaning, “the designation of one is the exclusion of the other.”

Alexander Hamilton confirmed this reading of the Constitution in Federalist #83.

“This specification of particulars [the 18 enumerated powers of Article I, Section 8] evidently excludes all pretension to a general legislative authority, because an affirmative grant of special powers would be absurd as well as useless if a general authority was intended.”

People who fail to understand the difference between a national and a federal government will tend to assume the central authority has far more power than it does.

 

Mike Maharrey | The Tenth Amendment Center

The post America isn’t “One Nation” and that Matters appeared first on Granite Grok.

Test scores in our public schools have been plummeting for years. The COVID Pandemic and remote learning definitely exacerbated the rate of decline. The number of students graduating from high school reading at the elementary school level is embarrassing but also harmful to the future of these students. We are failing our students and, therefore, their future security and earning potential. We have failed ourselves.

This year will bring a new challenge to our educational system. Thousands of children of illegal immigrants will attend schools in every county nationwide. These children will be challenged by language and customs. They will have tremendous issues fitting into a foreign system, and they will be dragging down the results of the entire class. Frustration and failure will heighten the dropout rates, and many of these students will opt for gangs for their future. Nobody wins in this scenario.

Teacher shortages are at an all-time high, meaning classroom sizes need to increase, and students will get less individual attention. The quality of teachers is also lower as the pool of available teachers is too small to meet demand. Everyone that graduates finds a position whether they are qualified or not.

It gets worse. The federal government has lost over 85,000 illegal migrant children of school age. They came across the border and were processed. They were transported to the supposed sponsors’ addresses, which did not exist. They fell through the cracks of the bureaucracy and are now lost. They do not appear in the system. Many of these children will end up in the sex trade or be sold as cheap labor. There is nothing compassionate about the broken Biden Border. It does not exist.

The Teacher’s union’s reaction to this quandary is to ask for more pay and a four-day school week. There is no logic to these demands and their impact on the education process. These demands are the union seeing the shortage of teachers and seizing the opportunity to enhance their way of life and wealth. They do not consider the well-being of the students left behind. Nearly 900 school districts have shifted to 4-day weeks. Schools that have already moved to a shorter week have seen a disproportionate drop in scores. This model may be suitable for teacher recruiting, but certainly not for the students. Everyone would love more time to spend at home with their families, but we must remember that teachers only work 180 days per year. More time off is not what they need. It is all about power and opportunity.

We have completely lost our way with our educational system. We know that the focus has been on indoctrination rather than education, and the falling test scores can quantify this. But the ruling class was not satisfied with indoctrination and wanted to take control of our children. Teachers should have been educators but instead chose to be mentors, and they did not want the parents in the conversation. They replaced the ABCs with CRT, BLM, LGBTQ, and ESG, none of which will prepare our children for their future.

Two things we can do to reverse this hellacious trend are to do away with the Department of Education and bring control of schools back to the local level. The other is to break up the Teacher’s Union. They have become dangerously powerful, and their focus is purely on the Teacher and not the student. This focus has to change before we lose an entire generation of children.

The post With Test Scores Falling, Is Less School The Answer appeared first on Granite Grok.

Everyone will agree that the bathroom is a place where safety should never be compromised! Traditional bathtubs can become a significant hazard for many seniors, people with mobility challenges, or those recovering from injuries. Enter the walk-in bath, a revolutionary solution that not only enhances safety but also offers a luxurious and relaxing bathing experience. But what exactly are walk-in baths, anyway? Here’s everything you need to know about walk-in baths – and why they can transform your bathroom into a safe and comfortable haven.

What are they?

Walk-in baths are specially designed bathtubs with a built-in door allowing easy entry and exit without needing to step over a high ledge. These baths have become increasingly popular due to their safety features and convenience, and they are equipped with features like non-slip surfaces, grab bars, and contoured seating to ensure utmost safety during bathing.

Enhanced safety for seniors and individuals with mobility challenges

One of the primary reasons why you should consider a walk in bath is the safety it provides, especially for seniors and individuals with limited mobility. Traditional bathtubs can be a breeding ground for slips and falls, leading to serious injuries. But walk-in baths eliminate the need for stepping over high barriers, significantly reducing the risk of accidents. With strategically placed grab bars and anti-slip surfaces, users can maintain stability and independence while bathing.

The therapeutic benefits

Aside from the safety aspect, walk-in baths also offer a range of therapeutic benefits. For instance, many models have hydrotherapy and air jets that provide soothing massages, alleviating muscle tension and promoting relaxation. These therapeutic features can be especially beneficial for individuals with arthritis, joint pain, or other physical ailments.

Space and style

Contrary to the notion that walk-in baths are bulky and unattractive, modern designs are sleek and sophisticated, fitting seamlessly into any bathroom décor! Manufacturers today understand the need for space optimization and offer various sizes and configurations to suit different bathrooms. In addition, walk-in baths are available in various materials and finishes, allowing homeowners to maintain their bathroom’s aesthetic appeal.

Easy installation

Some may worry that installing a walk-in bath requires extensive renovations, but the reality is quite the opposite. Most walk-in baths are designed to fit in the same space as your existing bathtub, making installation hassle-free. Professional plumbers can efficiently install the new bath, minimizing disruption and ensuring a smooth transition to a safer bathing experience for everyone in your family!

Financial considerations

While walk-in baths offer numerous benefits, some may be concerned about the cost. It is essential to weigh the expenses against the long-term benefits and increased safety they provide. Additionally, many manufacturers and organizations offer financial assistance or grants for home modifications aimed at enhancing accessibility and safety for seniors and individuals with disabilities.

Walk-in baths are an excellent investment for anyone seeking to create a safe and comfortable bathroom environment. With their emphasis on safety, therapeutic benefits, and space optimization, these baths can transform your bathing routine into a relaxing and secure experience. Whether you are a senior, a person with mobility challenges, or simply value safety in your home, a walk-in bath could be the perfect addition to your bathroom. So, why wait? Take the first step toward a safer bathroom and explore the world of walk-in baths today.

The post Everything You Need to Know About Walk-In Baths – and Why They Can Make Bathrooms Safe Again! appeared first on Granite Grok.

Almost as soon as Obama uttered those fateful words “We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America,” we have been undergoing a cultural and political revolution without a shot being fired.  And most of us never knew what was coming – or did.

The phrase “Dense Pack” came into popular usage by us on the Right to describe how many things, via Executive Order and legislation passed by Democrat majorities in the US House and Senate, started to change not just our laws but our cultures as well. Obamacare was one, and the effective takeover of the automakers and dealers was another large item.

To me, we are approaching the tipping point; we haven’t already slid to the downside. Van Jones, Obama’s openly Communist friend, and advisor, infamously told us all what was going to happen: “Top Down, Bottom Up, and Inside Out.” And having lived through Obama’s two terms and now believing that Obama is the Puppetmaster behind the Resolute Desk’s chair, it’s clear that the Left hates the America founded by patriots that pledged their lives, honor, and fortunes.

We now see the New Left’s goal all along, in ruling vs. governing, was to destroy it. After all, that’s what the Left does – and too many people haven’t realized it yet.

Victor Davis Hanson, however, among the luminary thinkers on the Right, has a must-read column: “The Remaking of America (Every aspect of American life and culture is under assault).”

We are in the midst of one of the most radical revolutions in American history. It is as far-reaching and dangerous as the turbulent years of the 1850s and 1860s or the 1930s. Every aspect of American life and culture is under assault, including the very processes by which we govern ourselves, and the manner in which we live.

The Revolution began under the Obama administration that sought to divide Americans into oppressed and oppressors, and then substitute race for class victimization. It was empowered by the bicoastal wealth accrued from globalization, and honed during the COVID lockdown, quarantine-fed economic downturn, and the George Floyd riots and their aftermath. The Revolution was boosted by fanatic opposition to the presidency of Donald Trump. And the result is an America that is unrecognizable from what it was a mere decade ago.

Here are 10 upheavals that the Left has successfully wrought.

And he goes on to list the ten items and why these are being turned into cudgels. I’ll list them here but suggest that you go and read the narratives for each. In the aggregate, it is a long read, but with the normal VDH delivery, it is chockful of items, even with his minimalist but plain-speaking style.  In order:

Free expression. In large swatches of American society—particularly the corporation, the media, the government, the public schools, and the university—it is suddenly dangerous to speak freely.

The Weaponization of Justice. …But in the last decade, the Left has viewed the Department of Justice as a political extension of the party—whose unchecked power must properly be directed to hurt enemies and help friends…

The Attack on the Supreme Court. Once the Court achieved a more or less predictable conservative majority, the Left sought to diminish it in a variety of ways…

The Media-Democratic Fusion. …In sum, for the first time in American history, nearly all the major communication and journalistic networks have been fused with a political party. They believe the new role of the media is to advance a shared…

The Destruction of Common Law. By defunding the police in major cities, and by showering leftwing district attorney candidates with millions of dollars in campaign funding, the Left systematically eroded the law as we know it in our major cities…In sum, in blue states and at the federal level, leftwing prosecutors and justices decide to enforce or ignore statutes, pile up or reduce indictments, increase or decrease punishments not on what the law entails, or evidence directs, but on the race, class, or ideology of the perpetrator, usually in connection with the particular status of his victims. If asymmetry in race, class, or ideology is suggested, then the law must modulate in redistributive fashion to contextualize the crime and criminal as a victim rather than a victimizer. The result is the veritable destruction of law and order as we once knew it.

The Erosion of the Military. Rarely has the American people polled so little confidence in the U.S. military. It perceives the Pentagon mission largely one to greenlight social change through the rapidity of the chain of command, not necessarily to maintain deterrence, much less to win all its wars…

Sexes. The heterosexual male and female, marriage, and the nuclear family are all to be suspect. There are three sexes or perhaps still more. English language pronouns are inadequate to reflect sexual diversity.

Race, Not Class. Racial inequality and lack of parity are due to “whiteness.” Racial quotas, segregated dorms, graduations, workshops, and safe spaces are exempt from civil rights statutes given they are necessary to achieve equity…

Debt is a Construct. Modern monetary theory proved that annual deficits and national debt are just a state accounting challenge. So printing more money is an act that properly diminishes the value of existing capital improperly horded by parasitic profiteers…

Universities. …So the role of a university is to create a brief safe space in which graduates can leave with proper training about the terrible history of the United States and the ways in which it must be dismantled and then be rebuilt by the properly trained experts from the ground up. Counterrevolutionaries or deluded liberals and their quaint adherence to a racist and archaic Bill of Rights have no place on these islands of progressive resistance.

 

None of the above was true at the millennium; all are now—with more still to come.

And they are succeeding using their foundational tactic – “Don’t like the results, change the game.” Often this means redefining our common language – certainly, our norms and mores have been attacked. After all, when the Left can get a substantial minority (perhaps, soon, a majority??) to believe that sex can be anything you want, severing it from Reality, we’re goners.

 

(H/T: American Greatness)

 

The post America IS Being Remade And Not In Our Founders’ Design appeared first on Granite Grok.

The list of things that consensus experts on climate got wrong continues to grow, and it’s gotten so bad some of them can’t bear it. Polar bears, actually. Back when it was global warming, they were doomed, and it was your fault. Guess what?

Related: The Polar Bear Population has Increased 600% Despite Mann-Made Al-Gore Warming

The only polar bears you can’t find are the ones they used to put on cans of Coca-Cola. The real deal is not only doing fine; they are thriving regardless of how much sea ice there is or its thickness.

If you recall, thinning ice – which has also been a consistently inconsistent loser of a prediction for the Consensus Cult – was a predictor of doom for the polar bear. Progressives from every corner declared them endangered, and the climate criers went out among the people. You did this and must repent. No modernity for you. We will take your cheap energy and your right to travel and reduce you to huddled masses yearning to be free.

The bears, they just kept doing their thing, which has been going on a lot longer than the politicization of the weather. If you recall, we’ve shared reports of extreme warmth, little ice, and even arboreal forests in northern Greenland, all throughout Earth’s not-that-distant history. None of that had anything to do with you, and the polar bears, wherever they were, didn’t give a damn, so neither should you.

Or maybe it did.

What if increased CO2 and less dense sea ice or its absence is actually good for polar bear populations?  Or was it opportunists using fraud to enrich themselves and attract undeserved attention?

 

” … far from being “accidental”, polar bear specialists (and Ian Stirling in particular) used the fledgling global warming agenda for their own ends: they employed emotionally manipulative narratives about starving and dying animals to boost funding for their field and ensure their job security. Polar bear specialists fed the climate change beast by providing it with an icon, and then sat back to reap the rewards. I have no doubt Ian Stirling knew exactly what the media and climate activists would do with that short documentary for the CBC back in 1999.”

 

So, consensus scientists are really just politicians and should be treated like them with the understanding that they are more difficult to dislodge, especially when actual politicians keep giving them a platform for their fraud because it advances a particular agenda.

 

 

HT | WUWT

 

The post More Polar Bears than you Can Shake a Hockey Stick at …. appeared first on Granite Grok.

I can’t remember that far back as to when I last played whiffle ball. I do remember, vaguely, that I wasn’t enamored with it – I wasn’t all that good at it.  So normally when a video of guys playing whiffle ball shows up in my feed, it’s swipe left. However, Mark Roper as you can see above. It’s always about the over-engineering to either prove a point or just have fun (and usually both).

You can go to 11:57 if you’re a bit short of time to see how he did the work displayed above. Watching the previous video shows him reliving his “youngster whiffle glory days” only to become completely humiliated when he decided to take his boasting to a Pro Whiffle Ball game and step into the box and onto the mound (yes, there is a “professional league”).

And that meant that a whole bunch of engineering (and the application of my maxim of “Learn the System, Exploit the System) that brought me a bunch of chuckles!

(H/T: YouTube)

The post Palate Cleanser – Mark Roper Decides To Re-Engineer A Whiffle Ball to Beat The Pros appeared first on Granite Grok.

The people who would use a disaster for their financial advantage are not very different from those who do the same from elected office. The latter has a police force, a flimsy claim to a popular mandate, and pays lip series to justice, but the criminality isn’t much different.

So, I was amused when I read this headline from the Bennington Banner: “State: Beware flood-related scams and frauds.”

 

The Department of Financial Regulation (DFR) warns consumers to be on alert for potential insurance-related and investment frauds and scams following the recent flood event in Vermont. Natural disasters like floods can give rise to financial scams because bad actors take advantage of times of vulnerability. Vermonters should be on the lookout for opportunistic financial scams and report any suspected or known fraud to DFR as soon as possible.

 

You should beware but don’t limit yourself to scams running outside the so-called halls of climate justice. Blue Vermont is top-heavy with Climat Cultists running scams at taxpayer expense. Millions are laundered out of working-class pockets by progressive politicians to replace affordable modernity with a subsistence lifestyle akin to second or third-world nations.

Their thievery knows no bounds, while their solutions create more problems and solve none unless the goal is theft of your labor, its fruits, mobility, and freedom. And you can kiss reliable heat, light, and comfort goodbye.

It is one of the biggest scams in human history.

Don’t get me wrong; you need to be aware and alert daily for dirty tricksters, but the best of them run for and get elected to public office, using natural cyclic events to advance a restrictive political agenda that is dangerous to your well-being and liberty.

It is the biggest scam of all.

 

The post Vermont Warns Residents About Flood-Related Scams, Fails to Mention Its Own Fraud appeared first on Granite Grok.

When the Communists Democrats get power, they use it. When the Republicans get power, they DON’T (except for things that matter to the GOP-ruling class: business tax cuts, multi-family-housing, etc.) .

As a result, the Communists Democrats are able to advance their agenda, while the Republicans are always on the defensive. Here is a great example.

The Communists Democrats went unhinged because the state Board of Education was considering adding a video series on financial literacy from PragerU to the Learn Everywhere program:

 

 

From the linked article:

“We have approved charter schools with strong left-of-center perspectives, we’ve approved schools with strong DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) components, and no one complained about that. We’re not trying to impose a political view on students; we’re trying to create options for students,” [Drew] Cline said.

Why is the State Board of Education approving DEI schools? To get a pat on the head from the Communists Democrats? To avoid being criticized by the Communists Democrats? Whatever the reason … approving DEI schools is the political equivalent of unconditional surrender.

Cline has NO IDEA what he is talking about when he says that DEI is apolitical. It is totally political. It is part of the Communist Democrat gospel. Cline is aiding and abetting the Communists Democrats indoctrinating children, and growing a new generation of  Communist Democrat voters.

This is why the NHGOP loses. Unlike the Communists Democrats, its leaders don’t know how winning is done.

 

The post And Another Example Of Why The NHGOP Is LOSING appeared first on Granite Grok.

I was unaware of this current event until I saw you and Ryan on TV yesterday. I definitely support the Prager U class for a variety of reasons. Through much talk with JJ Valera, I assume you are completely familiar with all the content in the Ian Underwood books.

I’ve read them all and have to say that I’m totally on board with all his talking points regarding education. And I think the Prager U material is an excellent resource. I say that not just as a Prager U fan but as a daughter of a retired accountant that served on a school committee in Massachusetts.

And if I’m not mistaken, Garland’s son-in-law is the founder of Panorama Education, a Marxist software company contracted by government schools. So if the enemy camp is to oppose Prager U because they dislike the way of life that it promotes, the material associated with the Garland family should be opposed with equal fervor.

The post Good Morning, Frank, and Happy Friday! appeared first on Granite Grok.

To all those who are sending in memes, thank you!  Keep them coming please, as it helps me gather weaponry to fight the Left.  Please do share this post, and if you share an individual meme, consider mentioning you saw it on the Grok!

Speaking of, from this week, Monday Memes and Meme Overflow.

 

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

 

 

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

 

 

Really good book on Che:

Exposing the Real Che Guevara by Humberto Fontova: 9781595230522 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

And his buddy Fidel:

Fidel: Hollywood’s Favorite Tyrant: Fontova, Humberto: 9780895260437: Amazon.com: Books

 

 

Yet they keep trying.

 

 

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

 

 

 

And then the enemedia wonders why we don’t believe them.

 

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

 

PSA – PSA – PSA – PSA – PSA

 

Are you diabetic?  I am – found out that I am last year.  I’m on insulin… which, parenthetically, makes my likely lifespan in SHTF a lot shorter than I had thought just a couple of years ago.

So I’ve been paying particular attention to the possibility of mRNA, etc., in injectables.  After all, the Globalists are hot-n-bothered to eliminate 95%+ of us, and who better to start with than those of us with medication dependencies?

Now, this:

Darkfield Microscopy of Lantus Insulin Shows Self Assembly Hydrogel (rumble.com)

This is one data point.  Worrying, yes, but in the words of magician and paranormal debunker James Randi:

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof.

I’d want to see this verified / validated by other researchers.

Still, heads-up people.  More on the Jab / Covid:

 

 

 

 

I’d bet they had this in the works in some form long before they had a clue about the technology necessary to do it.

 

 

 

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

 

The Horror of Having Children

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

Scientist admits the ‘overwhelming consensus’ on the climate change crisis is ‘manufactured’ (nypost.com)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Remember: wind is driven by the sun.  Waves are driven by wind… driven by the sun.  Block the sun and the power fades in a “renewables” world.  Now, imagine you’re living in THE LINE when the power goes out – or at least becomes unreliable.

 

NEOM | What is THE LINE?

 

 

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

 

 

Problem – Reaction – Solution.

 

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

 

Pick of the Post:

 

In my mind, a three way tie.  All made me LOL.

 

 

 

 

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

 

A MAJOR Recession Is ‘Just Around The Corner’ (Says HSBC)

 

 

Related:

 

Economic Collapse: ‘All Banks To Fail’, Fed’s Powell To Resign | Peter Schiff & David Hay

 

 

IMHO, a crash is coming “whether you want it or not”.  (See what I did there?  Xref to my last meme post.)

 

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

 

Palate Cleansers:

 

—

—

 

 

 

The post Friday Meme Overflow-Overflow appeared first on Granite Grok.

Joe Biden visited the Grand Canyon on Wednesday and showed his lack of concern for America and his loyalty to Russia once more. Some may view his visit as an outstanding President committed to fighting Climate Change and preserving one of our greatest natural landmarks.

If you are one of these people, the President duped you once again. This visit was a well-orchestrated trip filled with plenty of ulterior missions. Of course, it started with opening messages from Biden that he either messed up or his writers are idiots. He proclaimed the Grand Canyon as one of the 9 Wonders of the World. A grade school student knows or used to know there are only 7 Wonders of the World, and the Grand Canyon is not one of them. But this is from a man who does not know if he has six or seven grandchildren.

He then had a one-on-one interview with a member of the media. Not a hard-hitting journalist from a news agency that might ask him tough questions about his true intent for the trip or about his Crime Family. No, he answered questions from a softball-throwing employee of The Weather Channel. Biden could not have had an easier session if he had met with one of the costumed characters from the Disney Channel. And let’s point out that Left-Wing Mega-Donor, Byron Allen, owns The Weather Channel. He was definitely in safe hands.

Biden was at the Canyon to declare the area a National Monument. By signing a national monument designation for the Grand Canyon, turning the decades-long visions of Native American tribes and environmentalists into reality, Biden sold out our National Security and took care of his friends, the Russians.

By designating the Canyon and the surrounding one million acres a National Monument, he shut down any mining activity on that land, and this was the true mission for this charade. Biden effectively closed the vast majority of our Uranium mines under the guise of protecting the climate and maybe our greatest national treasure, The Grand Canyon. Biden pleased the Native Americans and the Environmentalists. He secured worldwide Uranium dominance for Russia. He again turned on America and made us a weaker, more vulnerable country. It was quite a day for the President, who is obviously committed to destroying this country.

Coming off an extended vacation at his Delaware beach house, the President looked old and rusty. His voice was more slurred than usual. His thoughts and answers to questions wandered. Our weak and failing chief executive cast a contrasting shadow across the mighty Grand Canyon. The Russians were smiling down on Biden on this day.

By cutting off the Grand Canyon mines, along with the recent coup in Niger, which is now falling under Russian influence, two of the more prominent sources of our Uranium have been cut off. Uranium is critical to our Nuclear Defense, medical testing, and any future expansion of a nuclear energy program.

Dressed in his casual attire and donning a baseball cap, Joe Biden may have looked like the great protector of our natural landscape, but in actuality, he was securing more power for Russia who probably just made another multi-million dollar deposit into one of Joe Biden’s many off-shore bank accounts. On Tuesday, Joe Biden showed again why we must open an impeachment inquiry into this corrupt and ruthless President.

The post Biden Visits Grand Canyon, Winks At Russians appeared first on Granite Grok.

Government gun buybacks have a great reputation for accumulating unwanted or dysfunctional firearms in exchange for easy cash with zero evidence they reduce violent crime. That’s no reason not to embrace them for a more meaningful purpose.

Related: Gun Buybacks Don’t Work, but Kamala Harris Would Make Them Mandatory

Several libertarian activists gathered in Manchester recently for a “gun buyback” event where they attempted to persuade Manchester police to trade their guns for $25 gift cards. Organizers and attendees said they wanted to bring attention to police violence and “qualified immunity” which protects officers from responsibility for their actions. Kudos to Justin O’Donnell for being there and getting video:

 

 

 

No weapons but plenty of awareness which is always a good thing.

The post Libertarian Gun Buy-Back Offers Gift Cards and Doughnuts For Surrendered Police Weapons appeared first on Granite Grok.

Remember this about slavery and racism: As of 300 years ago, slavery had been a normal practice nearly worldwide throughout human history. In the U.S., free Blacks, as well as whites, owned slaves (e.g., in 1830, about 3,770 blacks owned slaves).

What changed the worldwide attitude toward slavery? Christianity: the Christian principle that all men are created in the image of God and, therefore, slavery is a sin.

Christians began arguing about slavery in Roman times. In the late 18th and early 19th century, Christians who favored abolishing slavery gained enough power in Great Britain to begin the effort to abolish it. Following Britain’s lead, other European powers joined, fought, and eliminated slavery in their empires by about the end of the 19th century.

It was European (white) Christians who provided the military power and paid the great human and financial cost to change the worldwide attitude toward outlawing and abolishing slavery; it wasn’t Africans or Asians or any other religion that led the fight and paid the cost to eliminate slavery.

Some say that all white Americans benefit from slavery; that’s ridiculous. In the Civil War, hundreds of thousands of wives and children lost their husbands, fathers, and main providers. Most formerly rich slave owners became destitute, having contributed their fortunes to the war effort and had their formerly valuable slaves (some worth $40,000 each) freed without compensation.

Since the Civil War, Democrats have been dividing Americans by race while blaming Republicans for the problems that Democrats themselves create.

The U.S. outlaws discrimination on the basis of race. The only obvious, apparent systemic racism against Black Americans is in the bad schools, dangerous neighborhoods, government abuse, and the poor jobs, housing, and other services provided in Democrat-controlled cities.

 

The post Christianity Ended Slavery appeared first on Granite Grok.

CONVERSATION about choice in education generally centers on the positive effect such programs have for students. From academic gains to improved student mental health, the overwhelming research consensus is favorable.

We want to thank Commissioner Frank Edelblut for this Contribution – Please direct yours to Editor@GraniteGrok.com.

EdChoice publishes a report, The 123s of School Choice, that consolidates research in this area. Out of 187 research studies of school choice, 84% show a positive effect.

The benefits of education choice for students are borne out by decades of research. But choice can do even more. It can be the driving force that saves public education.

Demographic changes have significantly affected public education. Public school enrollment in New Hampshire peaked in 2002. Since then, the public schools have lost 46,000 students. This trend is negatively affecting both K-12 and post-secondary education systems. It is not expected to reverse in the foreseeable future.

As enrollment has declined, schools have experienced rising costs. A 22% decline in the number of students calls for savings, which isn’t always easy to achieve. Trimming costs in a dynamic commercial industry is tough enough. Trying to accomplish that in a public-sector industry is even tougher. The result is escalating costs that far outstrip inflation and strain the ability for citizens to support the school system.

We know that 2022 and 2023 have been filled with unsettling news that student performance is not where it should be. While everyone acknowledges the negative effect of COVID on student academic outcomes, as well as mental health, COVID made these declines worse. But it didn’t cause them. As the National Assessment Governing Board recently reported: “The pandemic worsened a pre-pandemic trend in math and reading among fourth graders.”

The Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA), an assessment company used by many schools, reported this month that despite unprecedented additional funding to schools ($190 billion in COVID aid) and the efforts of educators across the country, accelerated student learning has not occurred. Fortunately, New Hampshire is bucking this trend, though student performance still falls short of our aspirations.

COVID highlighted another concern as well. During COVID remote instruction, many parents observed their children’s classroom instruction for the first time. This led to calls in New Hampshire and nationwide for greater transparency and greater input by parents into what their children are learning.

Today, parents and taxpayers are demanding unprecedented levels of flexibility, transparency and accountability from our public schools. The schools should be able to offer what parents want, but the system isn’t designed to be as responsive as parents rightfully insist that it be.

Here in New Hampshire, we’ve worked hard to make the system more responsive and flexible. We’re expanding public charter schools so that more parents will have a local public school alternative available for their children. We’ve created Innovation Schools, which allow public school districts some of the same flexibility charter schools enjoy. We created Learn Everywhere so students can get high school credit for learning that takes place outside the classroom. And we created Education Freedom Accounts so that lower-income parents can shop for the best available education for their children.

Critics claim that creating more options for parents will harm public education. On the contrary, giving families more choices will be the catalyst that helps public education satisfy all students’ needs.

Public education is filled with individuals who are smart, motivated and deeply caring. Educators want to serve children, and they’re not opposed to embracing innovative approaches and methods. But too often the system lacks the sort of flexibility that allows the private sector to respond more quickly to changing consumer demand.

Education is filled with creative and innovative entrepreneurs (edupreneurs) who are already responding to the changing education marketplace. New Hampshire has created the tools to empower public education to compete.

That’s why we must encourage public education to harness the same market forces that will create a vibrant, dynamic, and highly adaptive education economy.As we’ve seen, too many families are fleeing the system in frustration. Why not encourage the system to use the tools that it has and offer them more flexibility and more options so they don’t have to leave the system to get the education they seek?

Efforts to enhance public education have been with us for decades. Some of these innovations survive, but parents are saying they’re tired of waiting for results. Why make them wait for decades more? By then, how many more will have left?

No matter the industry, competition improves services and lowers costs. It can do the same for public education, but only if we free our educators from the bureaucratic shackles that make it hard for them to compete. Give them the same incentives that education entrepreneurs already have and look out. They’ll dazzle parents. We just have to encourage them to do it.

Frank Edelblut is commissioner of the New Hampshire Department of Education. He lives in Wilton.

The post Education Choice will Save Public School appeared first on Granite Grok.