Depending on one’s perspective, technology can be viewed as either an opportunity or a threat. Some people celebrate technical advances, while others show disdain. Entrepreneurs are frequently eager to capitalize on the potential advantages of new technologies, but where entrepreneurs see room for dynamism, naysayers see doom.

In this story, entrepreneurs are akin to wizards who use the magic of technology to improve the world, and naysayers are prophets of pessimism.

In his insightful book The Wizard and the Prophet: Two Remarkable Scientists and Their Dueling Visions to Shape Tomorrow’s World, Charles Mann illustrates the conflicts between wizards and prophets, who both advocate different approaches to solving problems. Wizards trust in the liberating power of technology to improve conditions, and prophets endorse restraining human behavior. Norman Borlaug and William Vogt are the main figures in his work. Both men had an interest in the issues posed by population growth, yet their proposals were opposite.

Borlaug, who is credited as the father of the green revolution, felt that innovations in technology would increase food production and minimize the burdens of population growth. However, Vogt proposed limiting consumption to save humanity. Unlike optimists who thought that affluence was a monumental achievement, Vogt felt that prosperity encouraged overconsumption, and this would lead to the demise of society. Luckily for society, Borlaug’s model became the catalyst for the green revolution, which resulted in the emergence of high-yielding plant varieties.

Scientific advancements in agriculture increased food supplies and staved off famines in developing countries. Despite population increases, the production of cereal crops tripled during the green revolution, and Malthusian predictions did not materialize. Developing countries managed to overcome chronic food deficits, and more crops were cultivated using less land space. Wizards have a better track record of performance than prophets, although the fearmongering of prophets is still influential.

In 1981, Julian Simon published The Ultimate Resource as a response to Paul Ehrlich’s doomsday manifesto, The Population Bomb. Ehrlich preached that population growth would lead to the exhaustion of resources, but Simon turned this argument on its head by contending that population growth churns out new ideas, and ideas lead to an abundance of products and resources. Simon foresaw humans innovating to compensate for shortages and, in the process, even creating superior alternatives. Ehrlich was unimpressed by Simon’s foresight and waged a bet in 1980 arguing that resources would become more expensive.

Ehrlich selected a basket of resources containing copper, chromium, nickel, tin, and tungsten. Fortunately for humanity, Simon emerged victorious, and by 1990, these resources were cheaper, despite fears of scarcity and population growth. Recent research by Marian Tupy and Gale Pooley has further vindicated the assumption of Julian Simon. Their research asserts that population growth is failing to halt the multiplication of resources. Notwithstanding the tremendous population growth from 1980–2018, resources not only became more abundant but also increased at a faster rate than population growth.

The positivity trend gets even better. Intuitively, we think that as the economy expands, people will begin to use more resources; however, Jesse Ausubel has been observing a wave of dematerialization. Although the American economy is generating more products, people are using fewer resources. Promoting the work of Ausubel in his fascinating book How Innovation Flourishes in Freedom, Matt Ridley touts the virtues of innovation:

By 2015 America was using 15 percent less steel, 32 percent less aluminum, and 40 percent less copper than at its peaks of using these metals, even though its population was larger and its output of goods and services much larger. . . . This is not because the American economy is generating fewer products: it’s producing more. It is not because there is more recycling—though there is. It’s because of economies and efficiencies created by innovation.

Innovations provide a world that’s more efficient and livable for human and nonhuman life. But the hysteria of prophets can deter progress by limiting discoveries, and they are powerful agents in the environmental arena. Environmentalists concerned about pollution are lobbying for the mining of minerals that they argue can limit emissions. Deep sea mining is the latest innovation in the environmental industry, yet if the passion of activists is not contained, then we will miss out on opportunities as the Economist suggests.

The Economist notes that the criticisms of activists are questionable and mining in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone will prove to be beneficial:

When it comes to nickel, mining the ccz is greener and cleaner than mining on dry land. Research shows that the amount of carbon stored in the ccz is negligible, meaning that mining will not stir up enough of it into the atmosphere to add to warming. Nor, according to research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will the sediment churned up spread as far or as thickly as claimed. . . . The most serious concern is the threat to diverse organisms that are unknown to science. But life in the ccz is scarce—some 270,000 tonnes of biomass would be destroyed by mining—and mostly microbial. And because the ccz is the oceanic food web’s final stop, there would be few spillovers to other ecosystems.

But unfortunately, prophets of doom like Greta Thunberg and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have a disproportionate influence on policy. Therefore, the biggest threat to the survival of our species will not be social and political challenges that can be solved by intelligence but rather the unproductive influence of negative personalities who sway thought leaders with dangerous rhetoric.

Lipton Mathews | Mises Wire

Author: Contact Lipton Matthews

Lipton Matthews is a researcher, business analyst, and contributor to Merion West, The Federalist, American Thinker, Intellectual Takeout, mises.org, and Imaginative Conservative. Visit his YouTube channel, with numerous interviews with a variety of scholars, here. He may be contacted at lo_matthews@yahoo.com or on Twitter (@matthewslipton).

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When I first moved to New Hampshire 33 years ago – yes, I predate the Free Staters, the “joke” went like this. The Granite State didn’t have many folks on unemployment or welfare because they bussed them to Massachusetts, where the benefits were better.

The unemployment benefits are better, which is why the Granite State has traditionally had lower unemployment and higher workforce participation. We don’t pay people to sit around. You can’t live on it, so you must find work if you can or move to a state where you can live off sitting on your ass. That has evolved a bit over the years, but it still holds (mostly) true.

And while we’ve seen an uptick in illegals leaking into New Hampshire from Vermont (a sanctuary dumpster fire) and Canada, which is how they got to Vermont, we’re not inundated like … Massachusetts.

Governor Maura Healey, who lives in a shoe (Massachusetts), has so many illegal aliens she doesn’t know what to do. She has declared a state of emergency.

Help, she says.

Governor Maura T. Healey today declared that a state of emergency exists in Massachusetts due to rapidly rising numbers of migrant families arriving in Massachusetts in need of shelter and services and a severe lack of shelter availability in the state. The declaration serves as a notice to the federal government and the Commonwealth that the state’s shelter system is rapidly expanding capacity in an unsustainable manner, and that further assistance is urgently needed. There are currently nearly 5,600 families or more than 20,000 individuals in state shelter, including children and pregnant women.

This is where we point out that the people she is asking for help created the problem. The Feds left the doos open and refused to do their Constitutional duty to secure the border and control immigration. And while it won’t matter much to Massachusetts, which is run by Democrats, the result of that dereliction is increased fiscal reliance on the Feds and all the strings and regs that come along for the ride.

The central planners, faced with the problem of sovereign states, have long worked to reduce the supremacy of the several into a dependence on the one. Even New Hampshire is not immune. We rely too much on DC dollars and keep electing politicians who can’t get enough of them. Massachusetts is just several orders of magnitude further along that path. And the open-door invasion policy of the Democrat party and the Biden administration isn’t just about embracing an army of individuals cum dependents who are expected to return the favor at the ballot box. The stress forces state governments to cry out for help.

They can’t print their own money, but the Feds can. They’ve printed trillion, devalued the dollar, and created generational debt—taxes due piled on the backs of generations yet to be born. And the feds aren’t worried about balancing that budget because it serves a greater purpose.

It unbalances power.

States need to balance their budgets so the Federal money becomes the drug whose addiction ends their right to self-govern. Massachusetts’ politicians would never get too worked up about losing that or trading it away for a few pieces of silver. It’s just a different sort of sex work. And they don’t care where the money comes from or what they must do to keep getting it. And it is of no consequence to them that they pimped your grandchildren’s labors and liberties out to the central government sugar daddy without their permission which is not, by the way, a voting rights issue.

It’s not human or child trafficking either, but it should be. Adults today are turning children yet to be born into slaves of the state. But that’s progress. They’ll keep on keeping on, and eventually, the Feds will expect things that Massachusetts or its posterity – as Democrat as it has long been – might be disinclined to allow as if that option had not been sold generations before.

The feds will demand, and refusing your pimp gets you beat when you’re a whore, after which they get what they want, especially when there’s no one to defend you or speak for you and your right to defend yourself was long ago legislated away in the name of common sense.

Yes, Massachusetts has a state of emergency, but it is not what they think it is.

And it isn’t just Massachusetts.

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This is an article that should never be written. I write it to document the stories of the Gold Star Families who gathered in California on Monday to celebrate their lost sons and daughters. The greatest failure of a Commander in Chief is to forget the fallen and disrespect the families they leave behind.

There were thirteen brave men and women who lost their lives trying in vain to protect the thousands of people who were hoping to be airlifted to safety from the hell hole of Afghanistan. These young people were the last line of defense nearly two years ago when they fell victim to a suicide bomber at the perimeter of the airstrip where American jets were taking as many souls as they could. Like the seventh grandchild that Joe Biden worked hard to disavow, Biden has done his best to forget these thirteen heroes and their families.

He does not want to admit to the death of these young people because to do so is to admit to the failure that was the abandonment of Afghanistan by the United States of America. Biden wants to call the operation in Kabul the greatest evacuation of human life in history. Sorry, Joe, you get no accolades from anyone, for this was not an evacuation but a surrender and failure of leadership. A failure that has become the standard of the Biden Administration.

Often, a single image is locked in your memory associated with a significant event. In this case, I recall the President and the First Lady gathered with staff members standing outside the military plane returning the thirteen flag-draped coffins containing the physical remains of these fallen heroes. In a dramatic show of indifference and disrespect, President Joe Biden checked his watch as the color guard carried the coffins down the ramp. Biden had other places to be that were more important than receiving back home thirteen dead military personnel who lost their lives because of the botched plan of Biden and his Pentagon staff. This picture is a disgusting image I wish I could delete from memory.

As mothers and fathers of the fallen came to the microphone, you could hear the pain in their voices but the pride and love in their words. They talked about their son or daughter and the intense love of their country and the military. You could also hear the anger in those same voices as they talked about the failure of this President and his Administration to ignore these Gold Star Families. Joe Biden loves to tell of his son Beau who served in Iraq. Beau came home from Desert Storm and later died of Cancer. Biden usually says that his son died in combat. It is another Biden lie.

Joe tells that story to evoke pity and empathy for his courageous son, yet he does nothing to acknowledge these parents who do not have to embellish the story of fallen children who did die in a combat environment. Maybe the next time Joe uses the memory of his son for impact, we should all check our watches and tell joe we have somewhere else to be.

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We’ve covered it for years, but sometimes what you need is something you can share that encapsulates the chaotic contradictions in climate chaos into a neat little package. Wildfires, scorching hot temps, global boiling, Climate change is the new COVID!  Paul Joseph Watson is here to help.

A lot of crazy from the left parsed and packed into nice neat little minutes.

The post And Now a Message From Paul Joseph Watson on Climate Chaos! appeared first on Granite Grok.

As I contemplate my next run for governor on the Flatlander Party ticket, I have been paying attention to what some of the “Same old same olds” of the other parties who have already declared their candidacy are using as their campaign platforms.

We want to thank Brendan Smith for this Contribution – Please direct yours to Editor@GraniteGrok.com.

One candidate is an ex-New Hampshire U.S. senator who is back on the trail and getting many endorsements from a bunch of political so and so’s. (I didn’t notice the name of Sally, the woman who works at the convenience store, on the list, I like to wait to see who she endorses.)

I am not sure if this candidate will continue to run on this premise, but she did declare out of the gate that New Hampshire is just a step away from becoming Massachusetts.

As a Flatlander originally from New York, I don’t necessarily disagree since you could substitute New York for Massachusetts and have the same effect. In fact, you could substitute the names of plenty of other states in America.

But my question is, how does electing a popular career politician, backed by big money, change any of that?

It isn’t career politicians that are going to change anything. After all, most candidates on both sides of the aisle who want a chance of winning are beholden to others and are too easily influenced by a handful of flawed humans with gobs of cash who have been really running the show since, well, forever.

So, if elected I promise to be influenced as well, but not by the usual crowd with deep pockets.

Back in February, I proclaimed my faith in Jesus Christ in The Weirs Times. Not an easy thing to do in this day and age. Some Christians are hesitant to share their faith loudly since they are nervous about what others might think of them. They’d rather keep their beliefs to themselves and not rock the morality boat while it is slowly sinking.

For my 2024 campaign I have decided not to be quiet about this. In fact, I was thinking that my campaign slogan might be something like: “I’ll Ask Jesus First.”

In making any decision as governor, I will first pray to the Lord to guide me before I ask for input from the other flawed humans around me like myself. I know it will help provide me with clearer answers and better decisions.

Okay, who out there just thought: “What is he nuts? What kind of campaign is that?”

A difficult one for sure, especially in an increasingly secular state like New Hampshire.

But isn’t it that what you always hear from other candidates anyway, especially so-called “conservative” ones? Though not always so directly.

A lot of politicians, and people in general, are quick to send their “thoughts and prayers” during difficult times and situations, which implies, whether they are even aware or not, that they are planning on asking the Lord for help.

I’m sure some spend a few minutes actually “thinking” about whatever the situation might be, but how many actually pray after they say it? I’d bet not many. Some will say it and then go eat a sandwich. If they truly believe that they should send thoughts and prayers, and it isn’t just lip service, then shouldn’t they also be doing the same thing when faced with any difficult decision?

You never hear anyone honestly say” “That’s terrible. I guess I could send thoughts and prayers, but I’m very busy.”

So, my campaign will be the “thoughts and prayers” (with a bigger focus on the prayers) on spiritual steroids, if you will.

I feel it would be a good idea for the media to confront candidates as to their thinking on this issue as well, but I won’t hold my breath.

Will they commit to expanding on their routine, boilerplate “thoughts and prayers” responses, and commit to some real prayer when the going gets tough and then go and actually pray?

Maybe at the next WMUR debate for governor, the hosts might deviate from their lighthearted “What is your favorite color” type folksy questions at the end of the debate and ask something like: “You have all at one time or another said you offered your thoughts and prayers after a terrible situation. So, did you actually pray after you said this and if so, will you continue to pray when faced with other difficult issues as governor?”

But, of course, I’m guessing no one in the media would dare go down that road and would instead safely pivot to “What is your favorite flavor ice cream?”

I realize that my campaign slogan will not be popular with many, but I don’t care. Professing your faith out loud is always hard. If you have read the Bible, you realize that going in. It’s a battle, and many will do what they can to discredit you based on that alone.
Who are they really working for?

So, will my campaign strategy succeed?

It doesn’t really matter. Even if I lose the governorship, I still will have gained what matters most.

And if you have to ask what that is, then I’ll pray that you get the answer sooner than later.

Brendan Smith is the editor of The Weirs Times weekly newspaper, where he also writes the column “A F.O.O.L* (Flatlander’s Observations On Life) In New Hampshire.” Brendan also started The Flatlander Party in New Hampshire in 2000. He is also the author of “The Flatlander Chronicles,” “Best Of A F.O.O.L. In New Hampshire,” and “I Only Did It For The Socks – Stories And Thoughts On Aging,” available at BrendanTSmith.com. Comments are welcome at brendan@weirs.com.

Reminder: Content about candidates or by candidates is not an endorsement by GraniteGrok.com or its authors.

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Camp Constitution has been blessed with some of the nation’s top instructors in their given fields of expertise, and one of them is Professor Willie Soon.   Professor Soon has been teaching classes and bringing his family to Camp Constitution’s week-long annual family camps since 2017.

We want to thank Hal Shurtleff for this Contribution – Please direct yours to Editor@GraniteGrok.com.

This year, he gave an incredible class debunking global warming and its harmful impact on the world in his class titled “Why We Cannot Trust  The UN’s IPCC’s Temperature Dataset.”

Please share this video far and wide.

Professor Soon’s bio from the Heartland Insititute’s website:

Dr. Willie W.-H. Soon, an astrophysicist and geoscientist, is a leading authority on the relationship between solar phenomena and global climate. His discoveries challenge computer modelers and advocates who consistently underestimate solar influences on cloud formation, ocean currents, and wind that cause climate to change. He has faced and risen above unethical and often libelous attacks on his research and his character, becoming one of the world’s most respected and influential voices for climate realism.

Dr. Soon is an astrophysicist at the Solar, Stellar, and Planetary Sciences Division of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, a position he has held since 1997. He served as receiving editor for New Astronomy from 2002-2016, astronomer at the Mount Wilson Observatory from 1992-2009, and contributing editor for Environment & Climate News from 1997 to 2000. He is a policy advisor to The Heartland Institute.

Dr. Soon earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in science and a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering from the University of Southern California.

Dr. Soon’s honors include a 1989 IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society Graduate Scholastic Award and a Rockwell Dennis Hunt Scholastic Award from the University of Southern California for the most representative Ph.D. research thesis of 1991.

In 2003, Dr. Soon received the Smithsonian Institution (Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory) Award in official recognition of work  performance reflecting a high standard of accomplishment. In 2004, Soon received the Petr Beckmann award for courage and achievement in defense of scientific truth and freedom from the Doctors for Disaster Preparedness. In 2014, Dr. Soon received the Courage in Defense of Science Award from the George Marshall Institute. In 2017 he received the Frederick Seitz Memorial Award from the Science and Environmental Policy Project.

Dr. Soon is the author of The Maunder Minimum and the Variable Sun-Earth Connection (World Scientific Publishing Company, 2004). He is the coauthor, with Sebastian Lüning, of “Chapter 2: Solar Forcing of Climate” in Climate Change Reconsidered II: Physical Science (The Heartland Institute, 2013); the author of “Sun Shunned” in Climate Change: The Facts 2014 (The Public Affairs Institute: Melbourne, Australia); and coauthor, with S. Baliunas, of “A brief review of the sun-climate connection, with a new insight concerning water vapour” in Climate Change: The Facts 2017 (The Public Affairs Institute: Melbourne, Australia).

Dr. Soon’s research has appeared many times in peer-reviewed journals.

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With each headline or chyron across your TV screen, we wait for the next item or service that some Democrat wants to eliminate or restrict. I can envision these folks driving or walking the city streets, and rather than come up with a plan to get the homeless off the sidewalks, they are salivating about their next item to target. Their mission has become so foolish you cannot believe how far they will go to control our lives.

This initiative is fueled by the radical extremists that push the buttons of the Democrat agenda. But the tone is set by the President, who has seemingly developed a Restriction of the Month Program. He, of course, started with our internal combustion cars. With no plan, Biden set an arbitrary deadline to have us abandon our favorite car or SUV for a battery-operated alternative. There has been no consideration for improvements to an already stressed power grid or the number of charging stations needed to keep Americans moving. Even the auto manufacturers are dragging their feet to get on board Biden’s green dream. Electric vehicles (EVs) have been expensive for manufacturers, and they currently lose money on every EV coming off the line. This idea was not appropriately planned and is certainly not being sold well to American drivers. That sounds about right for the Biden Administration.

After our cars, Biden aimed at our refrigerator, air conditioner, washing machine, dishwasher, gas stoves, and water heaters. Nothing we use to facilitate our days or make our lives easier is off-limits for Biden.

While Biden is attacking the big-ticket items in our homes and garages, he leaves the low-hanging fruit for State and Local Environmental Crusaders. By the most recent news stories, these low-level autocrats are getting into the flow and enjoying their power. It started slowly with simple straws. This may seem trivial, but in retrospect, this initiative may have been a trial balloon to test resistance and pushback. They must have been satisfied with the results as paper straws are nearly impossible to find in some fast food restaurants. So in New York, it was time to go bigger, and the first big item targeted was the wood-burning ovens that New York Pizza Shops are famous for. The fact that most of these pizza shops are family owned and the cost of a new oven might force them to close their doors was not their concern. The sweet-smelling smoke had to go in the name of Climate Change.

With pizza shops on their knees, it was time to go after the whipped cream and cherry. This weekend, far-left Brooklyn Councilman Lincoln Restler pushed new legislation requiring Mr. Softee and other Big Apple ice cream trucks to stop powering their soft-serve machines and freezers with fuel generators. Converting these trucks to solar and electric freezers will cost an estimated $5,000 per truck. This legislation will result in fewer trucks or higher prices for that ice cream sandwich to inner city kids. Excellent work, Councilman.

These seem like insignificant issues with all of the problems facing New York. But for people craving power, why go after challenging matters like crime, drugs, and illegal immigration when you can shut down a pizza shop or soft-serve ice cream truck? We will never see our big cities come back while we have politicians with such warped priorities.

The post A Target On The Ice Cream Truck, What’s Next appeared first on Granite Grok.

Oh, joy! The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has decided that by 2032 all vehicles on the road shall get an average of 58 miles per gallon. There are zero combustion engines or hybrids that can achieve that requirement today. None.

As of today, there isn’t single new car available that can comply with this decree. “Comply” in italics to mark the outrageousness of the “administration” of such decrees, which no one in this “democracy” of ours ever had a chance to vote for – or against. The only car that comes close to being able to “comply” is the Toyota Prius, a small hybrid – and even it doesn’t quite get there. It averages 57 MPG.

The new number would still apply to their fleet average, so they could still sell larger vehicles if they find a way to add models that get significantly better than 58 MPG or its equivalent. Yes, they likely mean more earth wrecking, road wrecking, fire-risk emission monsters (EVs) in their fleets.

[Forbes] The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration proposal calls for vehicle manufacturers to start boosting their Corporate Average Fuel Economy, or CAFE, target starting in 2027. It seeks an improvement of 2% per year for cars and 4% per year for light trucks. The goal is to hit a fleetwide average of 58 mpg by 2032. A final rule won’t come until after a 60-day public comment period is concluded.

and,

[The Drive.com] CAFE standards do not take drivetrains into account, meaning electrification will be helpful (if not crucial) for avoiding sharply escalating fines for falling short. Their calculation, however, is designed to reduce the effect of extreme outliers, which EVs represent, so meeting the proposed CAFE standard will still require major fuel economy gains across the rest of automakers’ lineups. That would likely require broader electrification instead of the ineffective but oft-emphasized all-EV strategy. Greater volumes of plug-in hybrids, or PHEVs, could also achieve the desired effect. (It could also tighten the belt enough on light trucks to make crossovers less economical, encouraging consumers to downsize.)

If this NHTSA thought bubble sticks the landing and DOT gets its way, automakers would need to begin to retool their businesses if they want to keep selling cars that meet the demands of the government (not the people).  But automakers are not just sitting on their hands.

The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which represents GM, Toyota, Volkswagen and others has asked the EPA to soften its emissions proposal, calling it “neither reasonable nor achievable.”

I don’t think automakers care how they make their money, proof being their inability to have much effect on federal interference in their marketplace. If they have to make EVs, they will. The issue for them is the timeframe. Nine years is a long time to spend in prison, but the innovation they seek isn’t even within reach. And if it were, the infrastructure to charge all the new hybrid and EV vehicles doesn’t exist, and I think that’s the point.

Biden’s NHTSA and DOT want to push hard for charging infrastructure to make the unaffordable EVs less unappealing. If there is some arbitrary mandate that will reduce driving options, pressure will mount for local and state politicians to get involved whether they want that or not.

The appearance of progress, however, is not progress. And the goal of the Left continues to focus on forcing you into a lifestyle where individual transportation is unaffordable. Which, in turn, forces you into their preferred living environment; walkable 15-minute ghettoes of the future.

None of this was ever about saving the planet, but the war on the Right to Travel is real, and stripping future generations of any notion of at-will movement anywhere in the US, forget the world, is on their bucket list.

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I just came back from TN, and up and down the state, from Nashville to eastern TN, it’s like a literal boom town. New businesses (from mom-and-pop shops to large corporations) are everywhere. Shopping malls (massive ones) every few exits off I 40, and not an empty parking space to be found.

We want to thank Bill Willis for this Contribution – Please direct yours to Editor@GraniteGrok.com.

Every restaurant we visited, from chains to one-off family-owned joints, was packed with people. New housing areas (NOT multifamily housing, but traditional single-family home neighborhoods) are being built everywhere you turn. There was a lively, positive vibe throughout the state. The roads and highways are packed with people every hour of the day — commerce, income, and opportunity.

Look around you in NH. Do you see a thriving economy? If someone claims that, perhaps they need to get out more. Go to the capital city, Concord, and half of every strip mall or office building is empty, boarded up, for lease. The mall in Concord, which used to be a happening place when I moved to the area in the late 2000s, is a frigging ghost town, with tumbleweeds blowing through the completely empty and dust-filled parking lot. Go inside the mall, and the only people you will see are senior citizens taking their daily constitutional — from a thriving driver of the local economy and job provider to a covered walking track for people that don’t have or won’t spend a spare dime there.

And yet there’s Sununu for years, gaslighting us all, repeating his tired talking points about the resilient and strong NH economy. “We have one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country!” No sh!t, Sherlock — that’s not difficult to do when you only have 1.4 M people in the entire state. There are more things that need to be done than people. But there are not enough of the types of jobs that create wealth. In fact, NH is losing those types of jobs. (As you well know.)

Part of the reason is New Hampshire’s inexplicably myopic and downright stupid business tax regulations and policies. New Hampshire is not business-friendly. When was the last time a major corporation announced they were moving their HQ to NH? Hahahaha, right? Tesla? Amazon? We can’t even get frigging Hardees.

And when confronted with the reality of the situation here, the apologists trot out the lame-ass “It’s all Covid’s fault, wah!” bullish!t. If that’s the case, why are so many other states (RED states, keep in mind) thriving now? It’s because of their POLICIES. Period.

Am I saying let’s turn NH into an overpopulated copy of a different state? Of course not. But the only way to get things back on the right track in NH is to face reality and admit the state is in a crisis. No, not for elites with big money like Sununu, but for normal, hard-working citizens trying to do the right thing, support their families, and stay off the government dole.

By the way, I have a good friend who lives in the Columbus area of Ohio. He says the same thing is happening there. Expansion, opportunity, growth. All missing from Sununu’s magic “thriving” New Hampshire. Good riddance to Sununu. He can’t leave soon enough.

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Once in a while, we run across a situation where two people have opposing claims that can’t really be resolved through compromise or adjudication or mediation.

We used to have a mechanism for dealing with this kind of situation:  the duel.  We’ve since outlawed the duel in favor of other resolution mechanisms, but it might be time to bring it back because there are some situations where its replacements just can’t get the job done.

In particular, could we apply the mechanism of the duel to the situation of the unwanted pregnancy?

Note that a duel doesn’t have to be fair. In fact, in most situations, it won’t be fair.  One of the parties will be better with a sword, a spear, a pistol, a poison dart, an airplane-mounted machine gun, a phaser, or whatever the choice of weapon is. That’s why the challenged party traditionally gets the choice of weapon.

A duel just has to give both parties a sporting chance. It has to present the possibility of real harm — even death — to both of them.

There are two obvious problems that have to be overcome. First, what kinds of weapons could be used by an unborn child? Second, how would the unborn child express his choice of weapon?

But maybe we can finesse those questions by embracing fairness instead of dismissing it.

That is, the fairest possible duel would involve tossing a coin, something that depends on luck rather than skill.  Heads, you shoot yourself; tails, I shoot myself.  At its heart, a duel isn’t really about the exercise of skill. It’s about the willingness to accept responsibility, to display honor.

So we could do this for unwanted pregnancies. Both parties show up with their seconds in a remote field at dawn, where a neutral referee flips a coin. Heads, the pregnancy is terminated. Tails, the pregnancy continues — which, it’s always worth pointing out, is something that could end up killing the woman.

Note that a coin toss (50%) is halfway between ‘on demand’ (100%) and ‘under no circumstances’ (0%).  The mother has to accept a substantial risk; the unborn baby at least gets a sporting chance at survival.

Until we develop technology that will let a woman evict an unborn baby from her body without also killing it — that is, to terminate the pregnancy without terminating the life — this may be the best we can hope for. You want to get an abortion? You have to submit to a duel with the baby first.

I know I know:  Like a lot of ideas, this one seems crazy — until you compare it to the other ideas we’ve tried.

The post Crazy or Crazier? (Part 2) appeared first on Granite Grok.

The Financial Times has dropped a report that sheds much-needed light on companies bragging about their environmental, social, and governance scores (ESG). It turns out they are a lot like ISO. A way for people to make money while pretending to do something that matters.

In the latter decades of the last century, someone thought we needed a metric to measure a company’s commitment to quality control. ISO 9000, ISO 9001, and so on. Quality control matters but in the real world, your customers measure it and then decide whether or not to do business with you. But ISO was never an honest indication of anything other than your ability to meet the stated standard.

I was a Quality Control Manager. I wrote and managed an ISO system. We paid third-party auditors to certify our process, laundering money into the hands of alleged experts whose only job was ensuring that employees followed the documented procedures. You could write any instructions you wanted. It could produce crap. As long as the workers followed it and the end product met the documented requirements, you could get ISO certified.

That’s a bastardization of an oversimplification. We did a lot to ensure quality because staying in business demanded it. My job was to figure out how to make my job less necessary. Work with the managers and staff to determine how to efficiently get the best results and reduce waste, defects, and errors. What we didn’t need to do was spend many thousands more annually keeping and updating an entire ISO system that we could pay an external ISO auditor to verify. Except we did. This latest thing captured many industries, and the ISO label, meaningless as it could be, got you more business while an entire industry (see also abscess) grew to service it.

Quality Control always mattered, but suddenly there was a new expense item for an extra-judicial overseer everyone agreed to pay for the BS label. And like all such constructs, it only seemed to get more extensive and expensive, self-important, corrupt, and corruptible. ISO auditors could fail you because they felt like it or pass you for the same reason.

The quality control auditors needed quality control, which was a downstream expense in and of itself – creating this massive bureaucracy that cost millions across multiple industries annually but produced nothing.

Pandering to social justice is also expensive, and many companies hired experts to make them appear #woke, only to discover how wasteful and unproductive that can be – and ESG is no different. It creates a perception for investors, potential business partners, or consumers that you’ve done something. That something is a bunch of paper in binders (or on company servers) that don’t mean anything in practical terms—Potemkin social and climate justice.

From The Fiscal Times.

Companies rated highly on widely accepted environmental, social and governance metrics pollute just as much as lowly rated companies, research has found. This perverse lack of correlation holds even if companies’ carbon intensity — their carbon emissions per unit of revenue or market capitalisation — is compared purely to their environmental rating, according to Scientific Beta, an index provider and consultancy. …

ESG ratings have little to no relation to carbon intensity, even when considering only the environmental pillar of these ratings,” said Felix Goltz, research director at Scientific Beta. “It doesn’t seem that people have actually looked at [the correlations]. They are surprisingly low.”

And this makes perfect sense. Net Zero, Electric Vehicles, Wind, and Solar are all affectations assigned a false perception. None of them is good for the environment; many may be worse than what they are meant to replace. Things with which we could do more and inevitably emit less (if that mattered) will be mothballed and replaced with environmental shibboleths that are less useful and dirtier than their predecessors. But they have been assigned a symbolism to which they have no right.

“The carbon intensity reduction of green [ie low carbon intensity] portfolios can be effectively cancelled out by adding ESG objectives.”

And we’re not even talking about investing in (for example) solar, which enables the world’s number one ocean polluter, air polluter, carbon emitter, and (perhaps) human rights violator China. But it is still viewed as earth friendly.

If you want to install solar, don’t pretend you are not enabling environmental disaster and the opposite of pro-rights, human, social, or environmental. It is one of many deceptions perpetrated upon us at great expense.

Think of it like gloves on food service workers. They look like they do something, and in a minimal sense, there is a value, but if you don’t change them between tasks, you can still cross-contaminate food and surfaces – which is why you are told they need to wear them. Not used properly, they do the opposite of the stated purpose. Or you could wash your hands a lot and skip the gloves, which are themselves an added expanse with a front and backend carbon footprint and a potential environmental hazard.

Medical face masks are another example. They may keep you from sneezing or spitting into an open chest cavity, but they don’t stop the spread of germs and never did. And the moment you touch them, that minimal advantage is lost – but people still think they can do things they cannot while frequently adjusting them, voiding what little value they had. And no one – even medical professionals who know these truths – are allowed to communicate them. It would destroy the illusion.

ESG is annother illusion. It is an affectation that hides harm and distracts from meaningful investment and innovation in things that could improve the air and water worldwide, not just in the places you can see – all to make more money.

HT | ZeroHedge

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Reports of a new underground railroad spiriting people from captivity on the west coast have emerged in recent days.  Families, mostly white, conservative, and/or Christians, are leaving in the dead of night via a network of rural routes and safe houses.

It is still uncertain where the railroad began, with many claiming California, others Oregon and still others certain it started in Washington.  Sitting around a campfire, several of the investigative journalists covering the story bandied around the likely genesis.

“California just legalized sex with minors, and no one can find a decent scriptwriter,” pointed out one anonymous camper.

“Yeah, but women in Portland, Oregon, are being beaten by homeless people, yet it’s illegal to box a kangaroo!” another voice cried out from the shadows.

“That’s nothing, Supreme Chancellor of Washington, Bill Gates, just funded super ticks that make people allergic to meat, and the state banned lollipops!” decried another incredulous reporter.

The erstwhile outdoorsmen comforted themselves by passing around a handle of maple moonshine (which is not only legal in Vermont but encouraged) despite having lost two of their compatriots.  One was arrested for painting his horse, and the other for failing to leave his house while naked.

In an ironic twist, the new railroad sees many of its escapees fleeing the north and west while heading south to freedom in hopes of finding a decent Chik-Fil-A.  The thought of escaping to a place where you’re free but not so free you can keep your donkey in a bathtub, as in Georgia, has many packing up to make the treacherous trip.  Some have made it all the way to Alabama, where they were protected from saboteurs who were executed for putting salt on the railroad tracks.

Mexico also became a destination for those seeking asylum, including thousands of migrants who had recently crossed into America.

“Estados Unidos está lleno de locos” shared one passenger as he strode defiantly back over the border.  “Al menos los cárteles no querían que comiéramos insectos y nuestras mujeres saben jugar al fútbol” which was lost in translation since Banana’s Media doesn’t have anyone who speaks native Texan.

There was some discussion of using one of the original routes to escape to Canada, however, many of the passengers feared being ruled by fancy lad Governor Justin Trudeau who exercised a limp-wristed iron fist over his citizenry during the pandemic.  Still, many remain hopeful as Trudeau’s wife recently had the good sense to divorce him after reports arose she decided she likes men, as does her estranged husband.

Vermont, once the first colony in the union to abolish slavery, has been rumored to be yet another state ready to see its nearly 3% Christian population fleeing to safer spaces like Florida; however, time estimates for construction of the Vermont underground railroad forecast well into the 2030s due to the anticipated wait time for Larry, Daryl, and Daryl to finish arguing over the road work after the recent floods.

At least in Vermont, they have the good sense to make sure their women get their husband’s permission before getting false teeth and keep those atheists in check by telling them to keep their blasphemy holes shut about the God they don’t want to believe in.

Amen.

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There are a lot of numbers and stats out there, as well as gun-grabbing groups spouting “White Extremist!” and “Right Wing!” as soon as news of another mass shooting flashes across the Left-leaning Mainstream Media.

They don’t bother with actual FBI stats – the “gold” standard, for as much as the politically weaponized FBI can be trusted.

But it’s always the case that as soon as the facts come out, as in the shooter was “Democrat, Socialist, Transgender, Black, other minority” or any “protected class” (that decided it wasn’t going to “protect” someone else), the Press “move on” and the story gets the “after-birth” abortion treatment.

If it were about me, the story would have “legs,” and WUMR would howl about it for weeks. Ray Buckley and company would use it over and over again (you know Ray, the guy that makes it clear that Parents are WAITING to beat their gender dysphoric kids to death at the mere sight of a tutu or some such thing).

Sidenote: Despite all RINOS (Mike Bordes, Travis O’Hara, Dave Nagel) that flaunt the NH GOP Platform or how Republican Leadership has for years magnificently failed to meet any kind of Platform discipline against them for years, I’m still happy to say that I’m a good Conservatarian but only a registered Republican to vote in the Primaries.

So, for all of the yammering by Republican Leadership about being pro-gun, why isn’t this question asked more often when they proudly proclaim that they support the Second Amendment? Why aren’t they ALSO asking this question??

What percentage of gun crimes are committed by Republicans?

— Scott Adams (@ScottAdamsSays) June 10, 2023

As I said above, the Left will use ANY Republican-associated incident for years afterward. Why is that Republican Leadership? Why aren’t you returning fire (pun intended)?

Or is the reason for “why aren’t you?” because you are only comfortable taking the safe path by preaching to the choir but deliberately failing to use that question as an opportunity to go after the Constitution Deniers?

Are you telling me that a cartoonist has bigger stones than you?

HT | Instapundit

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Do you ever wonder why CRT, DEI, woke, etc., is so pervasive? It’s because, to paraphrase Patrick Bet-David, a relative handful of people have accumulated enough power to run everything. And, sorry to have to tell you this, bitter-clingers, as long as people like Larry Fink (Blackrock), Jamie Dimon (Chase), etc., etc. possess this power, it is, at best, wishful thinking to call America a Republic or a Democracy.

It is also, at best, wishful thinking to claim that Blackrock, Chase, State Street, etc. represent the free market and totally absurd to claim that the solution is … if you don’t like how they’re pushing woke, then build your own multinational trillion dollar investment company. The vast majority of investors in Blackrock have no idea that THEIR money is being used to attack their values, manipulate their children and, indeed, eradicate their very way of life. Allowing a relative handful of people to have this much power is not a free market … it is the “O” word as in OLIGARCHY.

The post Must See Joe Rogan Experience … Patrick Bet-David On Who Actually Runs Everything appeared first on Granite Grok.

Soccer is not my favorite sport, and there are not many sports that I do not enjoy. It may fall just above men’s polo or synchronized swimming. Women’s soccer is by far my least favorite sport and sports team for several reasons.

I dislike the National Women’s Team – primarily – because they are the most pampered, self-absorbed., and unpatriotic group of athletes ever to wear the uniform adorned with the United States flag. Because of my feelings towards this team, I am sad to say I was glad to see them eliminated from the 2023 World Cup.

The hype was tremendous for this team as they entered the competition. They were favored to win the championship as most thought they were the superior team in a field of 32 countries, a historic number of teams. The U.S. team had one win and two draws through today, which were not enough to move them onto the next round of play. This year, the U.S. Team was eliminated from further play after a reasonably strong 3-1 opening win against Vietnam. This victory would become the last win the United States team would enjoy this year.

The next three matches against the Netherlands, Portugal, and Sweden did not earn a win for Team U.S.A., but one goal in total and a final loss of 5-4 goals in the Swedish game of extra kicks. Their 5-point total was the lowest ever achieved by the U.S. at a Women’s World Cup, despite the inaugural 1991 edition only awarding 2 points for a win instead of 3. They lost to Sweden on penalties in the round of 16, achieving their worst-ever World Cup result and leaving without a medal for the first time. This group of underachievers was done playing for 2023 and a massive disappointment for U.S. Women’s Soccer.

There were no standout performances, as there was very little offensive output for Team U.S.A. This team failed to live up to the hype and pre-tournament predictions but was still able to create controversy with their off-field actions. The U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team has sparked controversy for not singing the national anthem at the World Cup. The reasons behind some players’ silence remain unclear, continuing a trend of anthem demonstrations that started in 2015. The constant barrage of anti-American rhetoric by their leader, the legendary Megan Rapinoe, and her constant demands for higher compensation equal to the men’s soccer program, were a distraction from the team’s performance and led to the lack of support for the team by Americans.

Any reporting that the early elimination from the competition is most rewarding to Conservatives oversimplifies the feelings about this team. This team never represented America or American ideals and underperformed on the field. The United States female soccer program needs a complete make-over, and the retirement of Rapinoe is a good start for the future.

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This has been lying around in my stack of stuff for a while, but it is still amusing. It is an ad for a recruiting firm, RedBalloon, that contributor Pam Brown referenced back in 2021 (“Finding Freedom“).

And no, we’re not getting paid for putting it up. Doesn’t matter – when you are watching and thinking about the words, it IS how the Left is distorting our normality by changing how people are perceived (character traits, intellectual horsepower, motivation, work ethic, care of family and friends) to simply immutable attributes (race, chromosomes) to changeable-on-a-whim ones (“this morning, I was a male, now I’m female, and tonite I’ll be ten other “genders” all at once and you WILL affirm and love every single one).

After all, Woke is part of Social Justice, and we ALL know how fast somebody is pulling that chain around in random ways – simply because they can in attempting to drive the rest of us nuts.

But only if we let them. I’ve easily learned that if I laugh at them, the table gets turned rather quickly. You know, like making a 5-year-old frustrated for sport (and then I give him a big hug – the SJWs, I just laugh harder and longer. They’re even easier to frustrate.).

Anyways, the commercial hits all the right top notes: “If You Are Struggling to Define ‘Woke,’ a Viral Ad From RedBalloon Makes it Child’s Play.”

One of the most absurd talking points lately is that people who oppose the radical left’s agenda should stop using the term woke because it can’t be defined. Unless you have been asleep since Jan. 21, 2021, you see examples of it almost every day in the White House press briefing and whenever the dementia-patient-in-chief appears in public to pander to his far-left constituents.

Perhaps the best definition of woke is the one memorialized when Justice Potter Stewart tried to define hard-core pornography in 1964. “I know it when I see it.” A more technical explanation would be an ideology that requires adherents to view people as atomized individuals. Then society must provide social benefits and punishments based on the full complement of observable and claimed characteristics in a complex intersectional ranking system.



This laborious exercise divides society into the oppressors and the oppressed… It is also why some employment applications and medical forms now ask for your “gender assigned at birth.”

…The worst part of wokeness, aside from it showing up in public school curricula, is how it has invaded the workplace. As corporations try to satisfy the newest requirement set upon them by the Human Rights Council, DEI training proliferates. Some of it morphs into expecting employees to engage in outright activism for left-wing causes.

…And God forbid that you say the newest unutterable phrase or make an O.K. sign. Some companies even have their own version of a struggle session, where you confess your privilege and apologize to coworkers who score more points in the Oppression Olympics than you do. Pay no attention to the fact that half of those you somehow oppressed are probably senior to you and make more money. It is enough to make you feel like the guy in the head-desk gif banging his head.

I am so glad that, being retired, I don’t have to worry about my paycheck being dependent on what I say or do that has NOTHING to do with my actual job responsibilities and how successful I am in doing them. Frankly, I would think that with all of this nuttiness (although it seems since 2021 when DIE and Wokeness were peaking), it would be pushing Conservatives along in a directed fashion: make your own job.

Be an entrepreneur and control the atmosphere in your company.

HT | PJ Media

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Summer has the habit of being warmer than the rest of the year, which encourages more travel and typically drives up fuel prices—demand, supply, you know, the drill. But prices have been unusually high, which CBS claims has something to do with Global Boiling.

Related: Kool-Aid Drinking Congresscritter Says Blaming Biden for High Gas Prices is Un-American.

The spike in gas prices has NOTHING to do with Bidenomics. CBS Host @GayleKing says that it’s actually due to the weather.

KING: “Have you noticed a recent surge in gas prices this summer?…

Extreme heat is playing a role.” pic.twitter.com/FygxxhEMtu

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) August 4, 2023

I guess Gayle ignores Democrats when they do things to deliberately drive up gas prices, so blaming the hot weather – admittedly a progressive media double-tap – sounds silly. But since she broke the seal on that narrative, We must assume she doesn’t know that warmer weather improves fuel economy, which would reduce consumption and potentially suppress prices. Use less and get more; need less.

Hot weather can actually increase your fuel economy. Your engine warms up to an efficient temperature faster; summer grades of gasoline can have slightly more energy; and warm air causes less aerodynamic drag than cold air.

Warm weather causes fuels to expand, which also adds to the fuel economy benefits, but that’s not going to offset much, if any, consumption, which brings us back to energy policy. Joe Biden promised to end fossil fuels. He campaigned on it and has used the power of his office to do that, which … drove up gas prices.

Democrats in Congress got busted telling energy company CEO’s to lower production, which would … drive up prices.

Joe Biden kneecapped domestic production on day one and more than a few days since, which drove up gas prices.

That created increased foreign dependency, which  … drives up gas prices.

Barry Obama made it clear that his policies which are Joe’s policies would make gasoline very expensive. The Dems have not been shy about engaging in policy to end fossil fuels. The New Green Deal or any of its bits rammed into other legislation would .. drive up gas prices.

Here in the Northeast, Democrats pushed hard for the Transportation Climate Initiative, which aimed to make motor fuels cost more.

Gasoline taxes at the state and federal levels have always been promoted as a way to reduce transportation emissions by making gasoline too expensive for … economically disadvantaged folks and working-class people.

Gas prices have been high for a while. So, long that people stopped complaining about it. But the recent price spike as we approach an election year has to be addressed lest the planned harm falls at the feet of the people who are typically proud sponsors of raising the price of a gallon of gas.

It’s not deliberate policy to make motor fuel cost more; it’s global warming, which – as you all know – is responsible for everything, the way a child’s invisible friend broke the lamp or spilled the juice, or put chewing gum in his sister’s hair, even after admitting to wanting to do it.

The post CBS Says Hot Weather Responsible for Rising Gas Prices … Ignores How Biden Promise to End Fossil Fuels Would Raise Gas Prices appeared first on Granite Grok.

So … your favorite author recently posted Trump Is Going To Prison … But Just Keep Pretending Everything Else About The 2024 Election Won’t Also Be Rigged, which not surprisingly generated outrage from the just-keep-pretending crowd. But there was one comment that merits consideration and comment. It is this:

Of course, Trump is guilty. As President, he did NOT start any new wars … defied Congress (which was controlled by the GOP for two years) and tried to build a border wall … and actually got tough (as opposed to just talking tough) on China. That’s what he’s guilty of. That’s why the Uni-party is desperate to prevent Trump from becoming President again … even if it means putting him in prison for the rest of his life.

The “charges” the Biden regime has brought against Trump are a sham. The real crimes are what I listed above.

And anybody who believes that Trump is going to get a fair trial is either DELUSIONAL or a propagandist. No J6 defendant has gotten a fair trial. The “judge” is a Communist who has had no compunction about destroying the lives of anyone who questions the System’s narrative that the 2020 election was NOT rigged.

That’s the same Tanya Chutkan who represented Theranos at Boies Schiller (the firm that hired Fusion GPS to attack Theranos whistleblowers) and then presided as judge in the U.S. House lawsuit against Fusion GPS. Completely corrupt. https://t.co/3HvYcuBe3B

— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) August 1, 2023

The DC jury will consist of a bunch of Communists who believe that Trump is Hitler and MAGA are Nazis. Question: what would you do to stop the next Hitler? Answer: Anything.

REMINDER: If you get arrested in D.C., your jury will be made up of 12 people who think like this: https://t.co/sm0zWsFMkQ

— Jesse Kelly (@JesseKellyDC) August 3, 2023

The post Of Course Trump is GUILTY appeared first on Granite Grok.

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:

I wish more people really understood the difference between the two as I believe it is one of the most pernicious uses of the Left’s “redefining our Common Language out from underneath us all.”

“Equity” is a term chosen because it sounds kind of like “equality,” which Americans support. But it means the opposite of equality. Equality constrains authorities by forcing them to treat everyone the same.

The whole point of “equity” is to break authorities free of that constraint, so that they can favor those they wish to favor, and disfavor those they wish to punish.

And we know that the Left is all about punishment and revenge for questioning them, committing the “sin” of disobeying their philosophy or attempting to show that their Narrative(s) on the issues are wrong.

Our American ideal is that everyone is equal before the law and that our Founding Fathers designed a system in which no one was any better with respect to Government than anyone else. Yes, it hasn’t always worked out that way, but our system has, many times, self-corrected itself.

The move by the Left to insert “equity” and, when possible, supplant “equality” altogether is being done to:

• Allow them to be intolerant towards anyone they deem to be “problematic” or “disposable.”
• Legally give them the means to pick winners and losers AND THEN share either the spoils of controlling government or punish “the Others.”

In short, bring back Discrimination after a century and a half of America trying to erase it. Not just using Race (they being the Party of Slavery, KKK, and Jim Crow – which they are now trying to rewrite history (shades of Soviet Union’s Communism of “he who controls the past controls the present; he who controls present controls the future”). Along with “protected classes,” it will result in a tiered American Society – exactly what our Founding Fathers fought against.

I keep wondering: when will the run-of-the-mill folks realize this?

Note about the image at the top: I don’t think the artist realizes what he was doing when it was done.

I’m betting that it was supposed to show that if Government treats everyone “equally” (the number of boxes under each child), there are still some that will never succeed at a task (here, writing on the board in the left frame). However, the rightmost frame shows what actually happens:

• Look at the number of boxes under each child in the leftmost frame
• Notice the height that one of them can reach in the leftmost one

See the result of redistributing (by the Government agent, the teacher)? Yep, the redistribution of boxes has created the “equity of outcome,” – but different kids are treated differently and completely implements “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.”  Certainly, the image shows the “from” part in how Government will react to implementing “equity” – those that are capable of doing more will have things taken from them. Simply because they can do and be more – how is that fair?

And what is taken from him, in this case, is given to another – but only in part, as the smallest child only got one box from the two that the tallest child had in the beginning.

And now EVERYONE is now operating at the lowest (artificially) common level. After all, no one can be any better than anyone else, right?

Oh, that “missing” box? As we have seen, “equity” will result in Government deciding all things – including “skimming off the top” from those most capable for themselves instead of a complete redistribution.

Oh wait, isn’t this happening now?

Remember, too, what Hillary Clinton famously said:

“We’re going to take things away from you” – Hillary Clinton, June 2004

Bernie Sanders approved the message (except he’s still reneging on giving up two of his valuable homes for “the common good”). Neither has Hillary.  But we’re supposed to be all happy as they take stuff from we common folks.

(H/T: Instapundit)

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