Tuesday • November 26 • 2024
Vol.XVI • No.XLVIII
Manchester, N.H.
The City that never sleeps has a new ordinance on the books. It encourages fellow New Yorkers to rat out local businesses that hand out extra napkins, condiments, containers, or utensils without customers asking for them.
That’s not what it says, but there’s no practical way to identify violators aside from inspections, but Mayor Adams and his city councilors are hoping for help from the COVID rat squad to locate potential targets.
COVID revealed the willingness of neighbors to out you, and Liberal NYC has tapped into it with what is being sold as a way to reduce waste, something contrary to the very existence of Democrats.
Effective July 31, 2023, New York City food service establishments* providing take-out and delivery service must comply with these restrictions:
*NOTE: These restrictions do not apply to self-serve stations inside a food service establishment.
The ordinance went into effect yesterday but will not result in citations or fines until July 2024, after which “Businesses should be prepared for visits from inspectors, at least annually as part of routine inspections or 311 investigations, …”
And now for reality.
Having spent some time in the food service industry, I can tell you that with thin margins, the desire to keep costs down is baked in. Anyone who has used a drive-thru will know that. You ask for extra napkins or condiments because they deliberately give you too few – with rare exceptions.
Now and again, you will encounter the slighted server who, when asked, seizes a fistful of packets and drops them into your paper sack. I suppose that is the waste they are after, but as an environmental impact policy, this ordinance is useless. Business owners need to cut waste; it’s the customers that work against that.
And the ordinance isn’t trying to stop you from asking or businesses from giving.
They will find a way to cite businesses. To justify the resources directed at the alleged problem, they must, which, if we are honest, is a more considerable waste.
Perhaps New Yorkers should audit the New York City Government if they think the planet needs saving. Office supply waste, office space, heating, cooling, transportation, staffing, you get the point. Every department, stuffed with left-wingers and everything your tax dollars pay for, is like a rental car.
Talk about the potential for reducing waste.
HT | GP
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The post NYC Ordinance Looks to Cut Waste – Ignores City Government Completely appeared first on Granite Grok.
There was a story over the weekend that deserves your attention about a Chinese-owned laboratory in Reedley, California. Reedley, California, which is about 25 miles southeast of Stockton, and it had vials of deadly pathogens, things like HIV, covid, E.coli, herpes, and Malaria, among others.
It was owned by a Chinese national and had about a thousand mice, some living, some dead, to go along with lab equipment and the pathogens.
It was uncovered during the follow-up of a building inspector observation. A building inspector noticed something not to code at the warehouse building on a tour of the business area. It was a garden hose draining something out of the back of the building, which was illegal so a search warrant was obtained.
The warehouse lab equipment included about 30 refrigerators and freezers, animals, vials of human blood, and other substances. State and federal health officials, including the CDC, were called in. Over 20 viruses, bacteria, and parasites were identified at the facility.
The owner of the operation is a Nevada-based company called Prestige Biotech. A Chinese national named Xiuqin Yao is the listed owner. He has not been very cooperative, but he did say that the stuff in the warehouse belongs to Universal Meditech, a bankrupt company based in Fresno, California. Court documents show he has listed various addresses for himself and his company, all vacant buildings or enterprises in China.
State and Federal criminal investigations are underway.
Not that the FBI did not find the lab. The CIA did not find it. Homeland Security didn’t find it either. It wasn’t found by some hotdog state investigator. An alert building inspector spotted a hose draining where it should not have been draining.
The FBI opens a China investigation every 10 hours. There aren’t enough agents to do that work. Chinese nationals, wherever they are around the world, are required by Chinese law to work as directed for the CCP, the military, or the intelligence service. We know that…
This means Mr. Yao would unleash the pathogens in his lab onto the American people if China told him to do so. If he refuses, his family and friends in China end up hurt, jailed, or killed. This all adds up to a national security shortcoming. We know that…
Are you beginning to feel like it is early 2001? Back before the World Trade Center… before 9/11? Our federal government was not paying attention. America and Americans are not protected against Chinese threats. Our government is not taking the threat seriously. If they were… would we have an open southern border?
The post What Would You Do If You Were China and America’s Enemy? appeared first on Granite Grok.
I’m not shy about my objection to assisted suicide, by which I mean – in case you were not clear – state-legalized and managed euthanasia. It is, as most of my content on the subject begins, a slippery slope that gets slicker quicker, and we’ve been observing that in real-time.
Canada and Vermont border my home state of New Hampshire, and both have recently amped up or accelerated their ideas about regime-approved Medical Assistance in Dying, lead by progressive majorities. And it’s no coincidence that they get it from their ideological ancestors – eugenicists who sought to engineer better societies.
It is why I am so persistent in my warnings about stopping its, pardon the pun, progression. This a problem well articulated by Wesley J. Smith, a bioethicist to whom my headline owes its credit. Amanda Witt cites him in a recent piece in Salvo Mag titled “How Kindness Became Cruelty.” The topic is assisted suicide, euthanasia, and the evolution and – almost literally, explosion – of the public/political acceptance of government-sanctioned suicide.
Under the sub-head ‘A Culture of Death, Witt writes,
In the past few years “death on demand” laws have sprung up in Germany, Austria, Spain, Portugal, New Zealand, the Netherlands, and Canada. A few weeks ago Britain’s Royal College of Surgeons declared themselves “neutral” on the issue of physician-assisted suicide.
In Canada, Smith points out, “8 percent of people who die in Quebec are now killed by doctors or nurses.” He goes on to say that, “as if that weren’t enough, Quebec loosened the ‘strict guidelines’ again to allow people to order themselves killed in advance if they become incompetent.”
Notice that last part. Medically assisted dying is available as a remedy for not only intractable pain, but as a remedy for what Smith calls “existential anxiety.”
Governments, especially ones that believe they should manage everything, tend to create the misery assisted suicide will inevitably relieve. They also overpromise and overspend, so finding reasons to lighten the load is increasingly a budget decision wrapped in a compassionate language whose roots are eugenic. This is increasingly true when the same government ranks depopulation as a priority to … save the planet.
You would be wise to reverse-think the logic as in, the crisis was imagined to justify eugenics later, because the shoe fits. But you need not even make that leap, true though it may be. As Smith also notes,
“.. Smith says, this is the primary reason why people seek assisted suicide now—not because of physical pain, but because of existential pain. People fear the future. “
A fear created and managed by the government via what is, more often than not, a complicit media. A government that “is characteristically glacial when processing disability benefit claims but Johnny-on-the-Spot when you want the government to kill you.”
Smith says there have “even been stories of case workers suggesting euthanasia to disabled people denied independent-living assistance, and to veterans with PTSD as an answer to their ‘suffering’ caused by a lack of social services.”
And then, of death there is no end.
“Once a society accepts the noxious notion that killing is an acceptable answer to human suffering,” Smith writes, “the definition of ‘suffering’ never stops expanding.”
Today in various countries people can be killed because they are mentally ill, disabled, anxious, afraid of the future, or lonely. They can be killed because bystanders—including medical professionals—are tired of caring for them, or deem them unfit to live, or want to save money, or want to harvest their organs.
Landing us squarely at the bottom of the slippery slope where the state justifies chemical execution to relieve its suffering. Sanctioned death becomes a resource, a problem solver, a means to political ends, no different than any other despotic regime who, for all their faults, never had the gall to say they were doing it to ease suffering.
The post “The Noxious Notion That Killing Is an Acceptable Answer to Human Suffering,” appeared first on Granite Grok.
One only needs to check the news occasionally to know that there is at least a half-trillion dollars of noncollectable student loan debt out there. Those loans, a huge percentage of them being owed to non-government entities, may never be fully repaid.
The original (first) “plan” was to transfer only federal student loan debt to the taxpayers by repaying those loans from tax revenue. When the multi-state backed lawsuit against this plan hit the SCOTUS, a majority of justices (because it only takes a majority) decided that the plan needed Congressional approval. It was just too much money and affected too many people for this to be a simple “rule change”. They decided that the original plan – to assist service members, veterans, and first responders – was being stretched to include those who were neither service members, veterans, nor first responders. SCOTUS said “sorry, you can’t do that without a specific law passed by Congress.”
The next (current) plan is to extend the delay to the time that repayments must begin – but only for a certain percentage of those who still have student loan debt. This plan is still under consideration, but there are already signs that another lawsuit will be filed against this plan as well.
Back when Joe Biden was a senator, the bankruptcy laws were changed to make it extremely difficult to discharge student loans during a bankruptcy proceeding. In fact, not only was it difficult, but for too many… it was impossible. The one debt that remained after other debts were negotiated was the student loan debt. And for some, the amount of debt was crushingly high.
The result of this law meant that universities knew that their loans would be backed by the US Government in case of default. And, without any brakes being applied on the loan process, they kept raising their tuition fees. Sometimes by 10% or more per semester. After all, they knew they’d eventually get their money – no matter what.
Late last year, the Biden administration released new “guidance” on student loan handling in bankruptcy. That “guidance” was released as a way to convince some people that The Government Is Here To Help. An overview of that “guidance” can be found on the National Consumer Law Center page https://library.nclc.org/article/new-process-discharge-student-loans-bankruptcy.
But until laws are changed to allow student debt to be fully considered in bankruptcy, that “guidance” is still optional to a bankruptcy court. That court can still decide that not one dime of the $70,000 debt for nursing college may be discharged, even if it is the sole reason that the nursing graduate cannot qualify for a home loan based on standard liquidity calculations.
Ok, so what’s the solution?
There’s a fairly easy way to open the relief valve on student loan debt: allow them to be fully discharged in a bankruptcy proceeding. Pass a law that student loans must be the first expense considered in a bankruptcy hearing and cannot be put aside in favor of other debt.
This solves two problems: student borrowers who can barely make ends meet due to their (sometimes) $800-$1200/mo student loan debt repayment can now use that $800-$1200/mo for living expenses. The elimination of that $70,000 debt also means that their liquidity calculation might now be positive enough for them to possibly qualify for a home loan.
The second problem that gets solved is entirely related to higher education. By telling universities (and their lenders) that they might now have to “eat” loans that might never be repaid, they might actually begin to change their curricula toward programs that teach usable and employable skills. They might spend more time pushing STEM curricula – with graduates able to earn enough to repay the loans – and less time teaching mostly-useless “studies” curricula.
After all, being a part-time barista with a $100,00 degree in basket weaving studies — well, that’s just not a path to success. And any university that would lend $100,000 so a student can get a degree in basket weaving studies deserves to be stuck with the bill.
A graduate with a STEM degree has an excellent chance of being hired, well-paid, and able to pay off that loan while also being able to afford a home.
Don’t get me wrong: if a student wants to spend $100,000 and get a degree in basket weaving studies, they should be allowed to do so. But a university should know that they won’t be able to get federal or commercial backing for a degree program that doesn’t result in a usable skill (even if one of the courses is Barista 201).
The post How To Fix the “Student Loan” Problem appeared first on Granite Grok.
“Sammy Roth, LA Times staff writer, wrote: “What’s more important: Keeping the lights on 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, or solving the climate crisis?”
The answer depends on whether you think you’ll be one of the folks in the dark or have to travel to centralized cooling centers because you don’t get to have AC in your living space (note I did not use the word home).
We can assume the LA Times staff writer, working at an essential business, expects to have full-time access to the comforts of modern living so that they can “report” the “news” to the people because this is not actually a question, it is an answer.
We know what is more important to the political elite and their water carriers. The sentence that follows is not hypothetical; it is a warning. The planned policy will result in brownouts and blackouts. There will be power shortages. You must make yourself ready to embrace sacrifices heaped upon you to satisfy their political urges. Things they will not suffer because, in any two-class system, there have to be haves who travel )often on) private planes, drive large vehicles, eat from diverse menus, and live in comfortable homes. We wouldn’t want those responsible for your misery to be distracted from their duties.
They took affordable, abundant energy away, so it is incumbent on them to prepare you for the consequences they will never suffer.
It is another psy-op and it tells you something. The question yous should be asking? Why doesn’t CO2 align with any of the alledged doom? How is it that none of your predictions ever come true?
And the big one; would getting rid of politicians and media peddling these lies improve my quality of life while making it more comfortable and affordable?
Yes. Yes it would
Plenty more here.
HT | WUWT
The post Preparing the BattleSpace: ‘Would an Occasional Blackout Help Solve Climate Change?’ appeared first on Granite Grok.
You’ve been lied to. America is not “one nation.” I know this feels shocking. You’ve proclaimed the United States of America is “one nation, under God, indivisible” your entire life. But you’ve been parroting a myth.
Over time, the one-nation myth became gospel. Historians, politicians and nationalists of every stripe wove the myth into the psyche of the American people. But if we start pulling at the treads, the myth unravels.
It is true that the U.S. system of government possesses some national characteristics. The United States face the world as a unified nation. They have a national defense and engage in trade with other countries as a nation. But at its core, the U.S. is something fundamentally different. That’s because the United States operate under a federal government, not a national government.
This may seem like semantics, but the two systems differ in important ways. Most significantly, national governments wield much more power than their federal counterparts.
Black’s Law Dictionary clarifies the legal distinction between a national and a federal system.
“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.”
In a nutshell, a nation operates as a single, unified political society. A federation is made up of multiple independent political societies united for specific purposes.
In a national system, the central government maintains complete control. While cities, counties, parishes, or other subdivisions may exist within a nation, their governments have no autonomy. They remain totally subservient to the central authority.
In a federal system, each member state maintains its sovereignty (ultimate authority). While it delegates some power to the general government, and in so doing voluntarily relinquishes control over certain objects, it never gives up its sovereignty. The central government can only exercise specifically delegated powers and cannot generally interfere with the internal policies of each member state unless it is in pursuance of those powers.
Although Alexander Hamilton held strong nationalist convictions, even he conceded the United States were not “one nation” in Federalist #32.
“An entire consolidation of the States into one complete national sovereignty would imply an entire subordination of the parts; and whatever powers might remain in them, would be altogether dependent on the general will. But the plan of the convention aims only at 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.” [Emphasis added]
We see this in the ratification of the Constitution. The people ratified the Constitution through the existing sovereign political societies – the states. The Constitution itself makes this distinction in Article 7.
“The Ratification of the Conventions of nine States, shall be sufficient for the Establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the Same.”
It wasn’t the mass of Americans ratifying the Constitution as “one nation.” It was the people of each individual state adopting the Constitution. Their independent actions created a political union between those states choosing to ratify. James Madison and other founders referred to this as a “compact.” It was entirely possible for nine states to form the union with four remaining independent, sovereign nations. In other words, the ratification by those nine states would not have bound the people in the other four.
In fact, Rhode Island was the last of the original colonies to approve the Constitution, and it did not send representatives to Congress until after ratification. Clearly, by that point, a vast majority of the American population was represented by ratifying states, yet that fact did not bind the people of Rhode Island to the Union. The state didn’t join the union until the people of the state gave the go-ahead.
James Madison reiterated the distinction between a federal and national government 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.” [Emphasis added]
In Federalist #39, Madison alludes to a very important fundamental principle — sovereignty is in the people.
Mercy Otis Warren summed it up in the simplest way possible.
“The origin of all power is in the people.”
The British had a different idea. As Massachusetts royal governor Sir Francis Bernard explained, they believed in the “supreme superintendency of the government,” and that “in this plentitude of power, it is absolute, uncontrollable, and accountable to none; and therefore in a political sense, can do no wrong.”
The American revolutionaries fought a long bloody war to free themselves from this system and replace it with a system in which, as James Wilson described it, “the supreme, absolute, and uncontrollable power REMAINS in the people.”
So, when we talk about “state sovereignty,” it doesn’t imply that the state government is sovereign. We don’t mean the geographical area possesses some kind of mystical power. We are really talking about the sovereignty of the people organized into their most fundamental political societies – the states.
James Madison explained this distinction in the Virginia Report of 1800.
The Report served as an in-depth defense of the Virginia Resolutions of 1798. In the resolutions, Madison asserted that “in case of a deliberate, palpable, and dangerous exercise of other powers, not granted by the said compact [Constitution], the states who are parties thereto, have the right, and are in duty bound, to interpose for arresting the progress of the evil, and for maintaining within their respective limits, the authorities, rights and liberties appertaining to them.”
In his Report of 1800, Madison explained exactly what the term “states” means in relation to sovereignty in the American system.
“The other position involved in this branch of the resolution, namely, ‘that the states are parties to the Constitution or compact,’ is in the judgment of the committee, equally free from objection. It is indeed true that the term ‘States,’ is sometimes used in a vague sense, and sometimes in different senses, according to the subject to which it is applied. Thus it sometimes means the separate sections of territory occupied by the political societies within each; sometimes the particular governments, established by those societies; sometimes those societies as organized into those particular governments; and lastly, it means the people composing those political societies, in their highest sovereign capacity. Although it might be wished that the perfection of language admitted less diversity in the signification of the same words, yet little inconveniency is produced by it, where the true sense can be collected with certainty from the different applications. In the present instance whatever different constructions of the term ‘States,’ in the resolution may have been entertained, all will at least concur in that last mentioned; because in that sense, the Constitution was submitted to the “States”: In that sense the ‘States’ ratified it; and in that sense of the term ‘States,’ they are consequently parties to the compact from which the powers of the Federal Government result.” [Emphasis added]
The people of the states are the fundamental building block of the American political system. The United States are not one nation made up of “one American people.” They are a union of sovereign political societies with the final authority residing in the people themselves.
We can see from this discussion that the “one nation” myth isn’t just harmless semantics. If we embrace this myth, we end up with a general government that is much more powerful than intended. It creates a centralized system. The founding generation called this “consolidation,” and they viewed it as detrimental to liberty. In fact, during the Virginia ratifying convention, Patrick Henry said, “Dangers are to be apprehended in whatever manner we proceed; but those of a consolidation are the most destructive,” and he warned that it would “end in the destruction of our liberties.”
Thomas Jefferson also warned us about consolidation, saying that a centralized, consolidated government would lead to “corruption, plunder, and waste.”
He was right. That’s exactly the legacy of the “one nation” myth.
Michael Maharrey | The Tenth Amendment Center
The post Unraveling the “One Nation” Myth appeared first on Granite Grok.
I’ve written many posts and pages on indigenous people and America. You could, and should when you have time, explore the catalog because there are things there that will make your lib “friends” snap like twigs. But sometimes, you need something more straightforward; easier to digest.
Here is an excellent short video on a related topic (below). A common statement made by the left or the ignorant on the rare occasion when they are not the same thing. The idea is that modern or current-day descendants – many of them indigenous to North America (as in, you were born here) – live on stolen land.
And why the left works this angle so hard.
It is a heck of an argument from a group that doesn’t think you own anything you worked for, eh? People who claim a preeminent right to steal from you for whatever they desire. And so it is with land stolen from people who stole it from someone else, just like all of history all around the world.
Enjoy.
The post Are We Living on Stolen Land? Nope! appeared first on Granite Grok.
We live in exciting times. Newfangled technologies and sustainable practices are reinventing energy consumption for the 21st century. Let’s take this journey right to our backyards. It’s time to be a part of this energy revolution.
Embracing Nature’s PowerThe sun’s power is no longer an untapped resource; it’s become a familiar sight on American rooftops. The beauty of solar power lies in its renewability, capable of not just powering homes but also contributing excess energy to the grid.
In smart home devices, touchscreen thermostats are a game-changer. They’re intuitive, easy to use, and, most importantly, allow homeowners to control their energy consumption. With a simple touch, homeowners can adjust the temperature even when they’re miles away, ensuring that no kilowatt-hour goes to waste.
The Rise of Energy-Efficient AppliancesEnergy-efficient appliances are stalwarts in the battle against wasteful consumption, delivering top-notch performance without guzzling power. Take the humble lightbulb. An energy-efficient LED bulb consumes 75% less energy and shines bright for 25 times longer. Each upgrade can stack up to significant energy savings over time.
Going Green with Building PracticesConstruction and design industries are actively participating in this energy revolution, championing the cause of green building practices. These are no longer niche strategies a few avant-garde architects and builders adopted. Instead, they’ve seeped into the mainstream and are changing how we construct our living spaces.
At the heart of these green building practices lies the commitment to the efficient use of resources. There’s a growing trend of insulating construction materials with excellent thermal properties, creating a barrier against energy leakage. The roof, walls, or floors – every part of the house can contribute to energy savings.
Energy Efficient WindowsThe story continues with windows about more than just letting in natural light or providing a good view. Energy-efficient windows are making their mark in modern homes. They reduce the demand for heating and cooling systems, reducing energy consumption without compromising indoor comfort.
Save Water, Help Save the PlanetWater is another critical resource that green building practices aim to conserve. By integrating water-saving fixtures in homes, there’s an apparent reduction in the amount of water used, resulting in lesser energy needed for water heating and treatment. Think about low-flow showerheads, dual-flush toilets, or aerated faucets – these fixtures save water and contribute to energy efficiency.
The beauty of adopting these green building practices is that it’s a win-win situation. Not only do these strategies reduce energy consumption significantly, but they also lead to more comfortable and healthier living spaces. The indoor temperature stays more constant, the air quality improves, and the environmental impact is minimized.
Walking the Tightrope: Sustainability and EconomyFinding the balance between sustainability and the economy is like hitting the bullseye. It’s the art of saving a few dollars while also saving the planet. Practical measures such as maximizing natural light, installing programmable thermostats, and planting trees around the house for a natural cooling effect can be tremendously effective.
Shaping Our Energy FutureReinventing energy consumption for the 21st century is a task that extends beyond fancy gadgets and avant-garde practices. It involves a paradigm shift, recognizing that each small step taken towards conservation matters. It calls for understanding our roles – as homeowners, consumers, and guardians of our planet.
As we look towards a future brimming with possibilities, it’s clear that the onus is on us to shape it. Will we rise to the occasion and usher in an age of energy efficiency, where modern comforts and sustainable practices coexist? The answer lies in the choices we make today. It’s high time we redefined our relationship with energy. After all, aren’t we all stakeholders in preserving this beautiful planet?
The post Reinventing Energy Consumption for the 21st Century appeared first on Granite Grok.
NH currently allows only one type of voting machine to be used in NH elections. Those voting machines use 1980s technology, and they are clearly at the end of their life.
NH’s Secretary of State, along with the Ballot Law Commission, have invited state legislators and members of the public to view a demonstration of four different voting machines this coming Wednesday, August 2, 2023 (Clear Ballot, Dominion Voting Systems, Election Systems & Software (“ES&S”), and VotingWorks).
“Attendees will be given the opportunity to feed ballots through each device and score and rate the devices against each other. The Secretary of State’s Office plans to compile the feedback and present it to the Ballot Law Commission. We encourage you to attend as your input will be invaluable.”
There will be two sessions in the Legislative Office Building, Second Floor, 33 North State Street, Concord, NH 03301. The first session will begin at 9 am, and the other at 1 pm. Each session is expected to be similar and last about 3.5 hours each. Consider attending and respectfully sharing your thoughts with Secretary of State Dave Scanlan and the members of the Ballot Law Commission.
You can register to attend by clicking here – but you need to register before 11:56pm tonight!
I appreciate the open and transparent process that the Secretary of State and the Ballot Law Commission are taking when seeking to replace NH’s nearly obsolete voting machines. But I respectfully disagree with their approach to evaluate potential replacement voting machines for New Hampshire.
To my knowledge, none of those in attendance who will represent NH’s interests on Wednesday (including myself) is qualified to properly evaluate and certify the security and accuracy of any voting machine. Not the Secretary of State nor anyone from his team, not anyone serving on the Ballot Law Commission, nor any state legislator or member of the public. None of the attendees will have the technical expertise that is necessary to certify which voting machines, if any, are safe and secure to count votes in NH elections.
I make that statement with the utmost respect for the Secretary of State, those who serve on the Ballot Law Commission, our State Legislators, and every member of the public who plans to attend.
There are very few people in the world who do not have a conflict of interest – AND – have the knowledge and expertise to perform a multitude of tests on electronic voting machines… but to my knowledge, none of those people are involved in the process of analyzing and certifying new voting machines for NH.
Professor J. Alex Halderman is an expert. He wrote a damning security analysis report over two years ago on the Dominion ImageCast X Ballot Marking Devices machines that Georgia is using. That report was so disturbing to the judge it was sealed from public view and just recently released.
Read the report before you vote below.
Now tell us what you think (three polls, open until Wed at midnight).
Regarding the Use of Voting Machines in New Hampshire Elections (Choose One):
Should NH purchase a voting machine if an unbiased expert like Professor J. Alex Halderman provides a report to NH that indicates that machine has flaws of any kind, including potential security issues?
The post POLL: Should NH Ban Voting Machines or Purchase New Ones? appeared first on Granite Grok.
They’re flying so thick and fast it is amazing.
Take heart – there will be a Meme Overflow and almost certainly a Friday Meme Overflow-Overflow. Last week’s Overflow-Overflow.
Remember, ridicule and mockery are effective weapons:
Now, let the mockery and mayhem begin.
*** Warning, a few possibly off-color ones, in case tender eyes are about ***
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Pantry Shaming (FIXED! Sorry about that, gang)
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That’s why the Left works, so desperately, to change language.
I was thinking, in the wee hours as I am wont to do more often than I like, about this new push to criminalize not using a person’s preferred pronouns. There were two ripple effects that I see.
First… if you’re a convicted criminal, a felon (per Michigan’s proposed – passed into law? – law), what can you not do? That’s right, boys and girls, you can’t own a firearm. And what side of the political spectrum is more inclined to not accede to the trans psychosis and not use them? Ding ding ding – yes, that’s right, Conservatives. What a way to entrap Conservatives with yet another way to strip them of their guns! The Left may be insane, but they’re also fiendishly clever.
But there’s another effect, as excellently captured in this quote:
“Political correctness is communist propaganda writ small. In my study of communist societies, I came to the conclusion that the purpose of communist propaganda was not to persuade or convince, not to inform, but to humiliate; and therefore, the less it corresponded to reality the better. When people are forced to remain silent when they are being told the most obvious lies, or even worse when they are forced to repeat the lies themselves, they lose once and for all their sense of probity. To assent to obvious lies is in some small way to become evil oneself. One’s standing to resist anything is thus eroded, and even destroyed. A society of emasculated liars is easy to control. I think if you examine political correctness, it has the same effect and is intended to.”
― Theodore Dalrymple
By creating speech that’s criminal, it shuts down debate. It makes people afraid. And it bends peoples’ minds to accept what isn’t true for the sake of safety. Or, at least, a perceived temporary safety.
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Jim Caviezel’s Powerful Speech at Patriot Double Down
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PSA – PSA – PSA – PSA – PSA
https://gab.com/system/media_attachments/files/137/760/331/original/841285816404af4a.mp4
That cannot be accidental. The more I look and see, the more I am becoming convinced that the entire entertainment-industrial complex is utterly compromised by people who see evil as good. Remember what James Woods said:
There’s more here. There’s a Sowell quote, I don’t have it directly so apologies for whatever butchering happens as I dredge it from memory, but it’s to the effect that those who believe themselves to be superior – morally, educationally, intellectually, etc. – are compelled to believe something different than the common man. For how can they consider themselves better / superior if they believe the same thing the “seething masses of deplorables” believe?
Thus, for example related here, if the “common man” believes in G-d and worships Him to whatever extent they do, then to be superior one must worship something other than G-d. That leaves Satan.
And yes, Judaism has Satan too.
It explains so much. If the common person loves their country, is G-d-fearing, believes in stable male-female families… pick the topic… then the Leftist “superior intellect”
is compelled to differentiate themselves from that group by believing and thinking something else. Also read this:
Regurgitating the Apple: How Modern Liberals “Think” | The Heritage Foundation
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So… natural doctor Joseph Mercola had his corporate, as well as both employee and personal accounts of himself and family members, suddenly shut down by Chase Bank.
90 Miles From Tyranny : Chase Shuts Down Dissident Doctor’s Business Account and His Employees’ Accounts Without Warning or Explanation (ninetymilesfromtyranny.blogspot.com)
Don’t forget British politician Nigel Farage has likewise been “debanked”, as discussed on the Grok.
The Left Has Plans for You – Granite Grok
It is virtually impossible these days to function without a bank account. Yet another way to compel you to accede to The Narrative.
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Powder Keg Europe: Wagner Forces and Equipment Massing Near Polish Border – Warsaw and Baltic Countries May Shut the Whole NATO Frontier – New Brigade Is Formed To Fight Russian Military Contractors | The Gateway Pundit | by Paul Serran
No meme here. Just a realization that our US government, and what seems like most Western European nations, are push-push-pushing for an all out war with Russia. More:
Pentagon Approves Hazard Pay For US Troops In Ukraine, Paving Way For Possible Expanded Presence | ZeroHedge
Hazard pay… for those IN UKRAINE.
Read that again.
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Neil Oliver: ‘…they’re in our homes & minds!’
Speaking of being in minds… implanted ads that come up when you sleep?
https://granitegrok.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/dream-manipulation.mp4
This is real:
How Advertisers Serve Ads While You Sleep | Dream Implantation (popularmechanics.com)
As the guy in the video states, if companies are talking about it NOW… for how long have Globalists and their minions been doing it to you?
Most people sleep with their phones near them (I always put it on airplane mode, and generally it’s a good several feet away from me). What if… what if the microphone hears your breathing pattern and knows when you’re asleep. And then plays, juuuuuust ever so softly, some subliminal message? It could be an ad. It could be more dangerous. Obey The State. Take the Jab. Hate your country. And so on.
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Pick of the post:
https://granitegrok.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/ending-your-blood-line.mp4
This is probably one of the most insidiously vile, most disgustingly evil things I’ve ever seen. Convincing people to end their blood lines – for the plaaaaanet and such, of course. And, of course, this kind of ad will never, EVER, be seen in non-Western countries. Non-white blood lines are, apparently, just fine and dandy.
Considering the idea of an intentional “white genocide” plan has been, for years, one of the lines I simply refused to cross. I could not wrap my mind around it. No longer. I now firmly believe there are groups – some Jewish (alas) and many not (also alas) – who want to see all white people genocided. White people created Western Civilization, the greatest civilization that’s ever been. And people want it destroyed? People want the people that created it destroyed?
In The Name of Hashem Himself… why?
As I’ve mentioned, visually, I’m as pasty white as you can get. Absent my kippa I could stroll into a KKK rally and not get a second glance. Aside from one survey – on which, as a joke, I “identified” myself as Middle Eastern – I’ve always considered myself white. Guess I’m on the list.
But like I’ve told my kids: from the very first cell, until you, there is an unbroken chain of reproduction. You owe it to every being in that chain, human or not, to continue it. This is your obligation.
Genesis 1:28
Though I can’t resist this chance to tell this joke:
After the ark landed, Noah told the animals to go forth and multiply.
Some time later he saw two snakes in the grass, childless. He asked why they had not multiplied. They replied We can’t, we’re adders.
So an angel of the Lord whispered in Noah’s ear, and he quickly cut down some saplings and made a rough-hewn platform. He told the snakes they could now multiply as he’d made them a log table.
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Monday Musical Memory:
“The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” – Gordon Lightfoot (HD w/ Lyrics)
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Palate Cleansers:
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The post MONDAY MEMES appeared first on Granite Grok.
Parallel to the hottest heated hotness ever narrative are the ‘wildfires’ raging across the landscapes of countries where it is also hot. But much like many of the fires blamed on global warming, the culprit – while human influence – is arsonists.
This one was spotted by a drone in Calabria, Italy.
Oh look. Police drone caught a suspected arsonist in Calabria, southern Italy, during the widespread wildfires in Sicily and Sardinia. This is unstoppable global arson. pic.twitter.com/04KBUmuE8O
— David Vance (@DVATW) July 28, 2023
Roberto Occhiuto, the president of the Calabria region, expressed his determination to take strong action against arsonists. He disclosed that 22 such suspects had been apprehended last year through drone surveillance, according to the Independent.
The ongoing wildfires in Italy’s southern region have caused substantial loss of life and property. Sicily, the southern island of Italy, has been particularly hard hit. The regional president confirmed that three elderly individuals lost their lives in the fires. The Italian Fire Department reported that they battled nearly 1,400 fires between Sunday and Tuesday, including 650 in Sicily and 390 in Calabria.
Numerous fires named on climate change or global warming have been attributed to arson in California, Brazil, Australia, and Canada (to name a few).
HT | GP
The post Suspected Arsonist Caught Starting Fires in Italy and Sicily appeared first on Granite Grok.
Every election is always said to be the most important of our lifetime. This claim is usually from lifelong politicians who want to hold onto their elected position because they would never last in the corporate world. I believe, no, I fear that the 2024 General Election will be my life’s most critical election.
America is at a tipping point. She has been pushed to the cliff’s edge, and it will only take one more election cycle for the Left to push it off to extinction. Hyperbole? I don’t think so. What the Left has done in the last two years to fulfill Barack Obama’s pledge to transform America is staggering and sad. It is sad for us who still believe in the American dream instilled in us as children. It is sad for us who truly love this country and the opportunities it has given us and our families. It is sad for us who still revere our young and brilliant Founding Fathers who envisioned this incredible country but warned us of its fragility. That fragility is being put to its test.
We hear from the Left that MAGA Republicans threaten our Democracy, which is ironic because Democracy is the last thing the Left wants for America. The Left has embraced the vision of a Socialistic America given to them by President Obama. The young people that Obama influenced with his plan to transform America have grown to be the young leaders of today who hate America as she has been and strive to tear her down. If they remain in power in 2024, they might just put the wrecking ball to the America we love.
This attack on America is not just at the National level, where we have seen factions of the government, like the IRS and the FBI, weaponized against its people, where we have seen our sovereignty destroyed and our history condemned. Not just in Washington, where our politicians replace our God-given rights with man-made restrictions. Who we elect as President in 2024 will decide the fate of America. If we return Biden to the White House or pass the baton to Gavin Newsom or Gretchen Whitmer, we will continue down this destructive path and end our great Republic. Suppose we can overcome the obstacles and put a Conservative Republican in the Oval Office. In that case, we may have time to correct the damage, get America back on the path to recovery, and restore its beacon of hope to the world.
We also need to look at our state and local elections, which are also at a very tenuous point. I split my time between New Hampshire and Maine. Both have interesting and crucial elections that the General Election will heavily influence. Outcomes are always challenging to predict when the turnout is high, which is usually the case every four years. New Hampshire will have two House seats up for grabs, but a tremendous amount of attention will be in Concord, where many will vie for the Governor’s office being vacated by Chris Sununu. With a state in flux between Red and Blue, it is imperative that the Republicans hold onto the Executive branch to protect against Sales and Income Tax. We also need to keep abortion under control. If a Democrat wins this race, the state could change forever.
In Maine, the two House seats are also on the ballot, but all eyes will be on the Senate race. Angus King, the Independent, will be running. He is the Junior Senator from Maine but will be 81 on Election Day and 87 if he serves his full term. Susan Collins is not on the ballot, and though only 70, she appears to be in declining health. The next two Senate elections will be significant for Maine and the balance of power in the Washington. Maine needs help, and the Democrats in charge are not supplying any. The economy is stalled, Marijuana sales is now the third-ranked industry in the state, the lobster industry is over-regulated, and illegal immigration is stressing the budget.
So much attention will be placed on the drama surrounding the election of our next President, but every race, up and down the ballot, will impact our future. Get educated, get involved, and make a difference in whether we save or lose America.
The post What Does The 2024 Election Mean To You appeared first on Granite Grok.
The Vermont Public Utilities Commission has instructed Avangrid Renewables to no longer track and report bat and bird strikes (deaths) at its 15-turbine Deerfield Wind project in Searsburg and Readsboro. Why?
“The number of carcasses found near the turbines was on the low end of similar projects in the Northeast.”
The Public Utility Commission agreed to let the company stop measuring bird and bat mortality after the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources signed off on the 5-year report.
Permitting limitations require Wind Farm Project Developers and operators to reduce the turning speed of turbines during certain hours when wildlife might be active to reduce strikes or deaths of bats or birds. But if you do that, you deliberately decrease the electricity you might produce. Given how inefficient an unpredictable so-called green energy can be, anyone tooting its horn might have some incentive to report better numbers.
Removing those restrictions would help, and while I’m not saying that’s what happened at the Deerfield Wind project, the absence of actionable data makes me think that may be precisely what happened.
What exactly is the low end for similar projects in the Northeast? We don’t know, and I went looking. Any related links to reporting at Vermont’s PUC ended with “Page not Found.” A site search of the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) and the Agency of Natural Resources (ANR) sites produced little related to the Deerfield Project.
I did find a draft with some details that included a section on “incidental takings.”
That’s all I found, so we do not know how many bird or bat strikes occurred or if that is low for the Northeast. If someone can figure that out, we’d be well on our way to something that looks like transparency, but not without direct inquiries or phone calls.
Shouldn’t that sort of thing be easier to access online to avoid this sort of speculation?
The PUC and ANR have signed off on allowing the wind farm to operate normally regardless of bird or bat strikes because the number of reported carcasses is low. How do we know they are not underreporting the kills or hiding evidence?
Is the PUC or ANR doing the looking and counting, and if so, can you guarantee the operators don’t have people scooping up and hiding evidence before they can find it?
And where are the rabid environmentalists, some of whom support wind energy but are equally concerned about the impacts on wildlife? They continue to object before, during, and after development, including in the local press.
The Burlington Free Press Oct 7, 2016 Deerfield wind destroys.
Rutland Herald Sep 20, 2016 protest Deerfield wind project.
Rutland Herald Jul 28 2022.
They are out there but not likely readers of these pages, concerned about the foreign involvement and initial and ongoing environmental impact.
If anyone, pro or con, can find out more, please let me know. I’m very curious about the impact and the likelihood that the facts are being hidden to favor so-called renewable energy interests. It’s not like they don’t ignore the effects of mining, manufacturing, transportation, installation, and use.
There is ample reason to think skulduggery is afoot.
The post When it Comes to Wind Farm Bat and Bird Strikes How Many is ‘Not Many’? appeared first on Granite Grok.
After all, after years of commenting over at Treehugger, that was the normal response. Anyone not going along with the 1.5-degree lifestyle to save GAIA was a self-centered climate denier who is so selfish as to doom everyone to a fiery Hell on Earth. Thus, showing us that they hated themselves almost as badly as they do Normal people by rebuking modern lifestyles.
And China now responds with “Chumps – you really believed us? Hahahahaha!”. They only nebulously said “We’ll start lowering our carbon emissions somewhere twenty years down the line” and the West took it to heart TRUSTING that they do so. Stockholm Syndrome like, they ignored that China is a developed nation, second largest GDP, and pumping out a new coal-fired electrical generation plant weekly. Yet, all these Eco-Socialists, desiring to strip the rest of us of our Freedom (as this is all about who controls our choices – us or Government of which they have firm control right now) and energy usage, don’t have stars in their eyes but Chinese solar panels.
I’m wondering how much therapy they’re making appointments for (reformatted, emphasis mine): China has abandoned the Paris climate agreements.
China Abandons the Paris Climate Agreements; America Should Be so Lucky
… Now, in a move that should come as a surprise to no one, China has abandoned the Paris climate agreements.
It was a bad week for anyone who thought China would cooperate on emissions reduction. President Xi Jinping reiterated that his country would set its own path on the issue and not be influenced by outside factors, according to the Washington Post and Bloomberg. This contradicts Xi’s 2015 Paris Agreement pledges to reduce its carbon emissions at the latest after 2030.
Xi’s remarks came while climate envoy and former secretary of state John Kerry was visiting Beijing to reopen a dialogue. This was shortly after Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived, and just before former secretary of state Henry Kissinger, the architect of opening China to the West 50 years ago, came for a visit.
Bait and Switch. Same tactic, different issue. The Communist Chinese did this with Britain over Hong Kong in agreeing that if Britain “returned” their colony, the ChiComs would honor their agreement to allow Hong Kong to rule itself and, pretty much, leave it alone. We all know how well that worked out. Again, the West said “we’ll trust you and make that agreement” while it steals our intellectual property, puts its own Police on OUR sovereign soil, buying up our farmland, manipulates its currency against the Dollar, and intimidates its neighbors and takes their lands. And still, the West’s “intellectual elites” keep wanting to do business with Xi?
Xi: “Silly people – you ARE that stupid.
And in this, got all the Western nations to eviscerate their energy usage, reliability, and supplies while China keeps on making big smoke signals from their coal plants. And now, it’s clear it was all a con but the people that have gotten rooked are we, the people. Our “rulers”, who turned out to be so gullible, are morons. Can I start the naming with John Kerry (aka “Lurch) who does the Pollution Two-Step in a year more than I’ll make in my lifetime?
I almost never say this, but this time, the Chinese are right. And it puts the Western nations, which still adhere to the Paris Agreement, in an awkward spot. Why? Because, if it’s carbon emissions you’re worried about, there can be no reduction without China (and India) on board. Here’s what Xi had to say:
“Based on China’s energy and resource endowments, we will advance initiatives to reach peak carbon emissions in a well-planned and phased way, in line with the principle of getting the new before discarding the old,” he announced in an address to the Communist Party Congress, as reported by Time.
Xi’s remarks should resound in the halls of the Environmental Protection Agency, which is planning to impose billions of dollars of costs on Americans to reduce U.S. emissions. China has repeatedly stated that it has no intention of going along with the Western push to net-zero.
Even as the West are prostrating themselves energy-wise (enfeebling us all to do their own Virtue-Signaling preening with the Davos people who will NEVER suffer the impoverishness being wreacked upon us), Xi is doing “China First”. And, I will admit, as he should be. Meanwhile, OUR leaders, especially Biden, are implementing America Last. It’s clear that they believe we are guilty of some sin and, in their climate theology, are handing out penitences to be carried out as they lead us to our collective energy purgatory.
(HT: RedState)
The post China Dumps the Pretense” – Abandons the Paris Climate Agreements; Will Eco-Socialists Call China “Selfish”? appeared first on Granite Grok.
McConnell’s silent few seconds with some of the medical info explained by Lazer, who co-hosted the show from the Western Aleutian Islands; will this have any political implications concerning comparisons to Biden? Hunter Biden’s plea bargain hearing, with some disagreement on the panel as to whether the deal was entirely scrapped; can a president pardon himself? What if anything are the limits on presidential pardons? Texas putting buoys to block immigrants; did the bank that debanked Farage back down?
The post The Conservatarian Exchange Podcast #164 appeared first on The Liberty Block.
Although there are various strategies to “avoid” probate anywhere, there are two general situations in which New Hampshire residents may have to deal with probate matters in Florida. Those situations are (a) a NH resident dies owning Florida real estate, typically a vacation residence; and (b) a NH resident has a relative who dies as a Florida resident. In either case, what to do? The following overview might be helpful or informative.
In the first case, it is assumed that initial probate proceedings will be initiated in New Hampshire, making any Florida proceeding “ancillary” probate. In the other case, the probate proceeding in Florida is “plenary.”
Unlike New Hampshire, with its 10 counties, Florida is large, with 67 counties, divided into 20 judicial circuits. With 2 levels of trial courts, probate matters in Florida fall under the jurisdiction of the Circuit Court for the county in which the decedent owned property or in which the decedent died as a permanent resident. Some, but not all, judicial circuits in Florida have established probate divisions, or, alternatively, designated one or more circuit judges to handle probate matters, either exclusively or together with other matters within the court’s jurisdiction.
All probate matters in Florida are handled through the state’s “e-filing” (electronic filing) system. The Florida Bar has developed an extensive set of forms designed to cover almost every conceivable probate matter, the latest set of which number 201 different forms. Those forms are not available online but rather are only available for purchase from one of several authorized vendors, and the forms are typically updated each year. Since the forms have their form numbers and revision dates (typically annual revisions of some but not all forms) on their footers, it is believed that most judges prefer to see the standardized forms utilized, and some judges are known to have bounced submissions using forms that have not been updated by the latest revision.
Assuming that there are no conflicting claims as to a will’s validity or to any petitions for administration, the Florida proceedings will likely be handled on an ex parte basis (meaning one-sided without opposition and matters will be decided by the Judge alone without argument from anyone in opposition) and no in-person hearings will be required.
The Florida nomenclature for what is called an executor or executrix in other states is a “Personal Representative,” commonly referred to as the “PR.” And most (but not all) papers filed in the Florida proceeding are not required to be notarized, although they may expressly state that they are executed under penalties of perjury.
A probate proceeding in Florida is initiated with the filing of a Petition for Administration, typically by the PR named in the will, but if not available for any reason or if there is no will, a PR chosen by a majority in the interest of the beneficiaries of the estate. It is usual and customary for all beneficiaries to execute a joinder in the Petition, including a waiver of formal notice of the proceedings.
In an ancillary administration, “exemplified” copies (bearing certifications by the NH court clerk and applicable judge) of the NH probate proceedings must be filed electronically as well as filed in hard copy with the Florida Court. In any probate proceeding, a scanned copy of the death certificate must be e-filed and the original filed with the Court. And in any probate proceeding in Florida, a copy of the paid funeral bill and a Department of Revenue form attesting to the absence of any liability for estate taxes (if any is not due) must be e-filed.
If the decedent owned Florida real estate, a certified copy of the death certificate and the Department of Revenue form regarding estate taxes should also be recorded in the land records.
If any of the decedent’s Florida real estate is to be sold before the estate administration is closed, there is a procedure for obtaining Court authorization for such a sale, as well as applicable forms.
Florida law requires that the PR either be a Florida resident or, if not a Florida resident, within certain degrees of relationship with the decedent. The PR must designate a Florida resident as its agent for service of process, and if not a resident of the county in which the action is pending, the agent must be a member of The Florida Bar resident anywhere in Florida.
In a testate estate, even if the will waives the requirement of a bond for the PR, it is strictly up to the Court whether to waive the bond or not. In estates in which there are no liquid assets, it would be customary to file a petition to waive bond, joined in by the beneficiaries, whether there is a will or not and irrespective of what the will might say. If there are liquid assets, the Court will likely require the posting of a bond. Some probate judges will allow the use of a restricted bank depository in lieu of a bond if requested.
In an intestate estate, an Affidavit of Heirship will typically be required, setting out a detailed family tree of the decedent.
Proposed orders are drafted by counsel and submitted to the Court, usually in Word, either using the e-file system, or, in some counties, using a different specialized electronic system for use by the Judges specifically for orders.
After the requirements have been met, the Court will typically issue an order appointing the PR, and, if applicable, admitting the will to probate, as well as issuance of Letters of Administration evidencing the appointment and authority of the PR% to act for the estate. If a bond is required, the Order will state the amount of the bond needed.
Promptly after issuance of Letters, the PR must publish a Notice to Creditors in a newspaper in the relevant county, the first (of two) publication of which starts the running of a 3-month period in which creditors must file claims or be barred. Naturally, there is a procedure for disputing and resolving any claims that might be filed.
Unless expressly waived, the PR must also serve a copy of a Notice of Administration on a variety of persons who may have an interest in the estate; and the PR must also serve a copy of the Notice of Administration on the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration in Tallahassee unless the decedent was under age 55 at death.
The PR is required to file an Inventory within 60 days after issuance of Letters.
After expiration of the creditors’ period and assuming either no claims were filed or any filed claims have been disposed of, and assuming a nontaxable estate, a Petition for Discharge can be filed, usually with broad consents and waivers from all estate beneficiaries.
Waivers from all estate beneficiaries typically waive, among other things, any requirement that the PR must file a formal accounting of all transactions in the estate.
If the decedent owned Florida real estate, it would be appropriate for the PR to execute and record in the land records a release deed (documentary excise tax, essentially the Florida deed transfer tax, of $0.70, plus recording costs, must be paid, irrespective of the value of the property) indicating that the property was not required to be sold to cover administrative expenses and vesting title in the specific beneficiary(ies), before filing the Petition for Discharge.
If the estate was taxable (i.e. liable for federal estate tax) , an IRS Estate Tax Closing Letter and proof of payment of the tax specified in the Closing Letter must be filed with the Court prior to filing the Petition for Discharge. There is no Florida estate or inheritance tax.
Then, assuming no unresolved disputes, the Court would enter an Order of Discharge of the PR and releasing any bond that might have been posted.
So, if things proceed in the regular order and without complications, and if the estate is not taxable, the Florida proceedings can usually be completed in much less than a year.
Finally, there is a much-abbreviated procedure available for estates in which the value of the estate, less the value of property exempt from creditor claims, does not exceed $75,000, or that the decedent has been dead for more than 2 years.
The contents of this post are intended to convey general information only and not to provide legal advice or opinions. The contents of this post and viewing of the information in this post should not be construed as, and should not be relied upon for, legal or tax advice in any particular circumstance or fact situation. The information presented in this post may not reflect the most current legal developments. No action should be taken in reliance on the information contained in this post and all liability in respect to actions taken or not taken based on any or all of the contents of this post is disclaimed to the fullest extent permitted by law. A reader’s own attorney should be contacted for advice on specific legal issues. Nothing in this post is an offer to represent any reader, and nothing in this post is intended to create an attorney-client relationship. An attorney-client relationship may only be established through direct attorney-to-client communication that is confirmed by the execution of a written engagement agreement. The content of any unsolicited email sent to the author of this post will not create an attorney-client relationship and the contents of such unsolicited email shall not be considered confidential. This post is not intended as advertising or as a solicitation for legal services.
A little more information about Norm above the normal Grokster bio (below):
Norman was admitted to the Florida Bar in 1970 and the NH Bar in 2008. A Tampa native, he practiced in Miami for approximately 40 years before moving permanently to New Hampshire in 2012. Prior to practicing law in Florida, he served as a trust officer in a Wall Street trust company for nearly 3 years. He has served two terms as a New Hampshire State Representative from Belknap County. He can be contacted at njs@silbersnh.com.
The post Florida Probate: Nothing to Fear appeared first on Granite Grok.
Back in March, I wrote that a new movement was starting to come into view. Instead of using “Trans-Authoritarians” (except in the title), I used “Trans-Bullies”. However, the message was clear: the LGBs aren’t groovin’ with the T’s (Transgenders).
Nothing but bullies with chips on their shoulders, trying to portray themselves as “victims”, and a penchant for aggressively trying to ruin other peoples’ lives that refuse to go along with their delusions.
From a post at RedState:
It should be understood that these activists do not speak for the entirety of the LGBT community. I’ve met too many from that community that thinks the activists are garbage and they, like most people, want to be left alone to live their lives. However, the [Transgender] activists are ironically making people wary of the community at large, and judging by the reactions to Pikamee’s bullying, they’re making it worse.
I’ve been saying for a while (right, LGBT Advocate Chris Erchull?) that we are now seeing Peak Trans. Like a firecracker that first goes slow as the fuse is lit and then goes BOOM! are we starting to see that end in sight of the tsunami that swept through our K-12 education system, transitioning it from concentrating on academic rigor to sexuality and emotions?
Look at this graph:
While the view is that homosexual marriage should remain legal, the LGBs are correct in that the Trans-Authoritarians have at least tarnished the movement (at best) or really turned people off with their vehement and emotional rhetoric (“do you want a dead son or a live daughter?”) and ultra-concentration of demanding only THEIR speech forms be used and pushing pornography reachable by young children, and pushing that “sexuality instead of academic rigor” in schools.
Because they’re “special victims,” dontcha know.
The graph shows that not only have the Trans-Authoritarians turned off the large swath of people (especially parents who are NOT happy that schools have decided that they are just breeders and that SCHOOLS have decided that THEY own children, not us, that anger is starting to affect the LGBs as a whole.
Sidenote let me repeat that; the State (e.g., government, which schools certainly are Government) is now demanding control over our children, and parents are irrelevant. Just see California, Minnesota, and Washington have all but stripped any agency by parents when it comes to transgender issues. ALL are Democrat “owned”. And our NH Federal Representatives are fine with that.
When you push degeneracy and deviancy to new heights and create a new sexual slur, “cisgender,” against normal people (straight folks make up 97% of the population), call we who try to live by Biblical standards “bigots,” and another made up term (“transphobes”), more and more are starting to, and now shoving back.
Good. They deserve it. ALWAYS punch bullies in the nose.
(H/T: Powerline)
The post No Wonder the LGBT Movement Wants to “Dump the T”? appeared first on Granite Grok.
Canada, much like with deforestation, is all-in on depopulation. Medical Assistance in Dying is all the rage. Death by lethal injection is inhumane unless you’re the average troubled citizen ready to end it all, but not if you had your junk removed, added a fake vagina, regret it, and want to die.
A gender-confused Alberta man who says his life has been irreversibly changed by genital surgery is upset that he has been denied medically assisted suicide.
And mental health issues are not off the table when it comes to government-sanctioned-self-execution. The list of rubber-stamp reasons grows annually as ethicists float trial balloons for convincing people to kick their own bucket – like allowing the poor to commit suicide ‘cuz they are poor. Just a thought, but assisted lethal injections are up 35% in the Great White North, but no joy for Duchess Lois of Alberta.
Lois has suggested that his status as a First Nations Canadian, his sterility, and his identity as a “transsexual woman” have bearing in his attempt to be euthanized.
“I’m accessing M.A.I.D [sic] as a sterilized first nations person of treaty 6, who is also a post-op transsexual woman of 14 years,” he had previously announced in a January post.
“I qualify for it as someone who is sterilized and who has undergone vaginoplasty,” he added “Two things that cannot be reversed or relieved.” …
According to the doctor, Lois stated that his current health situation causes him to suffer “intolerable” physical or psychological suffering which cannot be relieved under conditions he considered “acceptable.” Lois claimed to have been struggling with inadequate pain control since his surgery.
The doctor said no despite choric pain after irreversible surgery. Lois can’t take it anymore.
Unfortunately, Lois’ post-operative pain is not unique. A recent study on the side effects of radical genital surgeries discovered that 81% of those who had undergone the cosmetic procedures in the past five years reported experiencing pain simply from normal movement in the weeks and months that followed. Many other side effects manifest themselves as well.
If the government or the medical experts were raking in money, they’d probably say yes, not that we want them doing that. Can you imagine what would happen if the government endorsed lethal injection as assisted suicide was a profit silo? No one would know the name of the Duchess Lois of Alberta, who will now, likely, be forced to commit suicide the old-fashioned way.
And guess who gets blamed for that unassisted suicide? Straight people, that’s who.
The post Assisted-Suicide-Crazy Canada Won’t Let Man End His Life After Gender Surgery Gone Wrong appeared first on Granite Grok.
Headlines at big corporate media outlets typically go through a process. So what process resulted in a headline by CNN that lead someone else to write this gem: “CNN Says Infant Deaths Could Be Solved With Abortion.”
In amazing fashion, CNN continues to display how beholden the outlet is to abortions. Just a couple of weeks ago, we covered how the channel was upset to learn that the toughened abortion law led to 10,000 more births than anticipated. Now comes this gem from the same brilliant outlet, where it is said to be tragic that there was an increase in infant mortality as a result of this law.
Their position is that these children did not need to die – if only they had been aborted. Of course, just ignore that over 9,700 babies are thriving.
Texas’ abortion restrictions – some of the strictest in the country – may be fueling a sudden spike in infant mortality https://t.co/XnXojxJlYM
— CNN (@CNN) July 20, 2023
ALL abortions result in a baby’s death—every single one. A baby is a developing human that requires nurturing all throughout pregnancy. Simply calling it gestation or using the Latin/medical terms of the different stages during pregnancy (e.g., fertilization, zygote, blastocyst, embryo, fetus), it is still a baby—a human being.
And a death is a death regardless of whether or not it is a natural one (bad genetics, problem pregnancy, illness, accident) or deliberate murder.
What we are seeing is yet another application of the Left’s redefinition of our common language – in this case, the substitution of “fetus” for baby so as to deny its humanness. EVERYONE cares about a baby; “fetus” not so much. A “fetus” is just a thing – a baby is like us.
In doing so, the Left has Otherized babies, so deliberately murdering them, under the other redefinition of “reproductive healthcare,” is no longer considered to be a sinful and mortal crime. So CNN’s reporting, ignoring the fact that abortion IS murder in that someone dies, is true to the Left’s morality.
The same tactic that’s applied to Conservatives, Libertarians, or anyone else that doesn’t accept or affirm the Left’s worldview – after all, we’re “domestic terrorists” and “extremists.” We are those that they wish to extinguish in one way or another.
HT | Townhall
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Right after the George Floyd protests, Alexander Prout posted a Tweet with a letter demanding reparations for black students at St, Paul’s School. He asked people to sign the letter. An alum posted under it that it was tied to China.
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I didn’t think much about it at the time, but then I found out that Chessy Prout was given a Gov Affairs PR person in 2015 who specializes in PR for DoD contractors (of which NHCADSV and RAIN are both) using stealth special ops tactics and so on.
In 2017 Chessy Prout got a speaking engagement agency based in Albany, New York, and Hong Kong. Then there was much fanfare that she was taking #MeToo to Hong Kong. #MeToo is an artificially created psy-op as far as I can make out. And it was tied to Creative Artists Agency (CAA), which represents the Bidens, the Obamas, Valerie Jarrett, Arne Duncan, Tina Tchen, and others. CAA also has offices in Hong Kong and Beijing.
Under the original NYT article about Harvey Weinstein in October 2017, a guy called Donald Barnatt posted a comment along the lines of “all those who have suffered like this in Hollywood say #MeToo.” That comment was ignored, but several days later, after the Obamas and Clintons hadn’t made any comments, suddenly, Alyssa Milano (married to a CAA agent) comes out with #MeToo, and the whole thing went viral.
Then in January 2018, Times Up was launched with a PR campaign run by SKDK (Anita Dunn and Hillary Rosen – Obama’s and Clinton’s PR people) and with $13 million out of CAA. Hillary Rosen has admitted that SKDK has bought fake social media engagement handles for likes etc. (admitted in 2016, I believe). And Chessy Prout’s #IhavetheRightTo organization measures its success by the number of #engagements but doesn’t record any income or expenses.
Patrice Cullors of BLM is repped by SKDK, and so is Times Up, and so is Its On Us, which protested, with NHCADSV and others, the interview with Owen Labrie on ABC in the middle of the Dartmouth settlement mediation negotiation, which ponied up $14 million.
$2.865 million of that went to the NHCADSV, and that money, I think, then went to “Every voice Matters coalition,” which is part of Its On Us, which is part of Civic Nation and Blue Crab Strategies, and thus the DNC who may have been completely taken over at this point by CCP interests.
In 2014 the State Department sponsored a delegation to go to China to discuss the feminist agenda. And in that delegation, Tania Tetlow JD was included, who spoke at Tulane University to administrators, telling them that it didn’t matter if Title IX and Sexual misconduct investigations were tainted but that they (feminists activists) had to get inside police departments, administrators offices, prosecutors offices.
Tania Tetlow, partnered with Sally J. Kenny, spoke at the Dartmouth Sexual Assault Summit in 2014, introduced by Congresswoman Ann Kuster. And I just discovered that not only was she involved in “Its On Us” but that she also worked with the Prout family and “I Have The Right To” to block Michael Delaney from the First Circuit Court of Appeals.
Due Process is a fundamental right to a democratic & free society. There’s only one reason I can think of as to why these feminist activists don’t want due process, and that has to do with being bought by CCP interests. And that’s why I think that UNH should be investigated since it all started there, and UNH was partnered with the Confucius Institute.
Dan Hill, the Government Affairs PR rep that represented Chessy Prout and “I Have the Right To,” is pretty ticked off with me, but now he’s backtracking and trying to maintain that he operated all alone with Chessy Prout – just him and her. I never asked him how many people he was working with, but it is telling that he spilled this because I think he’s clearly concerned that I’m onto them and the RICO of it all involving CCP interests behind it.
Why did Joe Biden choose UNH to introduce “Dear Colleague” in 2011?
Why did the Podesta leaks include mention of a China Agenda and women’s rights non-profit for Hillary backed by China (about conversations between Lyn Forester de Rothschild and Hillary).
And why did “Vital Voices” start spawning offices globally between 2012 and 2016? SKDK represents Vital Voices. The Prouts are ambassadors, and Alexander Prout is Chair of Vital Voices Solidarity. He also worked in Hong Kong, and Asia is his specialty.
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