We’ve said a thing or two about Electric Vehicles not being the green dream the Climate Cult promised. It is a problem they can’t escape, even if they overcome their impracticality in wide-open America, which seems unlikely. But they have their advocates, including actor Rowan Atkinson, but even he’s got concerns.

 

As you may know, the government has proposed a ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030. The problem with the initiative is that it seems to be based on conclusions drawn from only one part of a car’s operating life: what comes out of the exhaust pipe. Electric cars, of course, have zero exhaust emissions, which is a welcome development, particularly in respect of the air quality in city centres. But if you zoom out a bit and look at a bigger picture that includes the car’s manufacture, the situation is very different. In advance of the Cop26 climate conference in Glasgow in 2021, Volvo released figures claiming that greenhouse gas emissions during production of an electric car are 70% higher than when manufacturing a petrol one. How so? The problem lies with the lithium-ion batteries fitted currently to nearly all electric vehicles: they’re absurdly heavy, many rare earth metals and huge amounts of energy are required to make them, and they only last about 10 years. It seems a perverse choice of hardware with which to lead the automobile’s fight against the climate crisis.

 

Does it sound different coming from a famous actor? Maybe not, because who are these people but folks who pretend for a living? Why would I care? I’m inclined to agree, but the Mr. Bean actor has some credentials.

 

Electric motoring is, in theory, a subject about which I should know something. My first university degree was in electrical and electronic engineering, with a subsequent master’s in control systems. Combine this, perhaps surprising, academic pathway with a lifelong passion for the motorcar, and you can see why I was drawn into an early adoption of electric vehicles.

 

He’s also a longtime “employee” in an industry bristling with left-wing advocates who will use their reach to promote Marxist ideas most of them don’t even understand. That may put the rank-and-file pronoun pondering progressive in good company if by good you mean the end of modernity, prosperity, and comfort for the peasants, but most folks should be suspicious, even when they come out on what appears to be your side of an issue.

Atkinson’s remarks come to us from a lengthy piece in The Guardian, and he’s got more to say.

 

Unsurprisingly, a lot of effort is going into finding something better. New, so-called solid-state batteries are being developed that should charge more quickly and could be about a third of the weight of the current ones – but they are years away from being on sale, by which time, of course, we will have made millions of overweight electric cars with rapidly obsolescing batteries.

 

Atkinson ponders advances in hydrogen technology as a replacement, but as Eric Worrall notes at WUWT, it is a dangerous commodity with handling problems that might prevent it from reaching escape velocity. Rowan adds that it might be the only escape from fossil fuels for heavy trucks and equipment, and if they can make that work, there might be motivation to downscale for passenger vehicles.

That is a fair point, and he makes several other reasonable suggestions. In other words, he’s not bashing EVs; he’s walking through the problems and options because Lithium batteries appear more an interim step toward what might work. All of which leads to his almost hitting the mark.

 

As an environmentalist once said to me, if you really need a car, buy an old one and use it as little as possible.

 

Loving the motorcar is the problem; in the United States, it is a multi-generational-cultural problem. The automobile is as much a symbol of freedom and mobility as the American Bald Eagle. And while coast-hugging elites can’t see it from their urban plantations, most of the country is wide-open and unsettled, and most of us can’t cross it in a Jetstream, and it seems like they don’t want us crossing it at all.

The point of it all is to make mobility a luxury so that we are forced to gather in their 15-minute ghettoes where they can keep an eye on us. Rowan Atkinson is closer than many but still too far away. The environment that’s the problem isn’t the biosphere. It is any theater in which notions of an unalienable right to liberty remain.

Mobility, the inherent right to travel, must die so future generations won’t feel so inclined to be free. Once you accept that truth, the rest is arranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

 

 

HT | WUWT

The post Rowan Atkinson: Loves EVs But Admits They’re Not That Green appeared first on Granite Grok.

According to Sun-King Sununu, Trump is a LOSER. Indeed, His Majesty has called him a three-time LOSER … 2018, 2020 and 2022. Yet His Majesty is simultaneously telling us that the lack of a Trump endorsement … you know that same three-time LOSER Trump … is the reason Chuck Morse lost, more like got his Establishment ass kicked, by Don Bolduc.

This is so Sun-King Sununu … a narcissist who believes he is the proverbial “smartest man in the room” … who believes he can baffle everyone with his babble. NO, Your Majesty … you are a BABBLING FOOL; you are your own Court Jester.

The post Sun-King Sununu Is His Own Royal Jester appeared first on Granite Grok.

On June 2, 1787, Benjamin Franklin delivered a speech at the Philadelphia Convention opposing a provision in the proposed Constitution to pay the president a salary. The speech reveals some important aspects of human nature that we should keep in mind today.

Franklin submitted a change to the proposed Constitution stipulating that instead of paying a salary, the president’s “necessary expenses shall be defrayed,” but the chief executive “shall receive no salary, stipend, fee, or reward whatsoever for their services.”

According to Madison’s Notes on the Debates on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, Franklin made the motion for the change and asked to read a prepared statement because “being very sensible of the effect of age on his memory, he had been unwilling to trust to that for the observations which seemed to support his motion.”  James Wilson offered to read the letter and Madison included the text in his notes in its entirety.

Franklin was concerned about paying the president a salary because of human nature. He wrote that the combination of two passions –  power and the opportunity for financial gain – would create factions, divide the nation and even incite wars.

“There are two passions which have a powerful influence on the affairs of men. These are ambition and avarice; the love of power, and the love of money. Separately, each of these has great force in prompting men to action; but when united in view of the same object, they have in many minds the most violent effects. Place before the eyes of such men a post of honor, that shall be at the same time a place of profit, and they will move heaven and earth to obtain it.”

In Franklin’s mind, it was all about incentives and the type of people such a system would attract.

“It will not be the wise and moderate, the lovers of peace and good order, the men fittest for the trust. It will be the bold and the violent, the men of strong passions and indefatigable activity in their selfish pursuits. These will thrust themselves into your government, and be your rulers.”

Franklin went on to warn that if the door was opened with even a modest salary, people in power would constantly strive for more, writing that “reasons will never be wanting for proposed augmentations. And there will always be a party for giving more to the rulers, that the rulers may be able in return to give more to them.”

Franklin said the government would eventually become a mechanism to enrich those who hold power at the expense of the general population. When that happens, large numbers of people will grow to resent supporting this mechanism. Franklin warned about what would happen – warfare between the governing and the governed.

“Hence, as all history informs us, there has been in every state and kingdom a constant kind of warfare between the governing and governed, the one striving to obtain more for its support, and the other to pay less. And this has alone occasioned great convulsions, actual civil wars, ending either in dethroning of the princes or enslaving of the people.”

Because government has the power, it usually wins this war with “the revenues of princes constantly increasing, and we see that they are never satisfied but always in want of more.”

“The more the people are discontented with the oppression of taxes, the greater need the prince has of money to distribute among his partisans, and pay the troops that are to suppress all resistance, and enable him to plunder at pleasure.”

Franklin worried that the combination of power and money would eventually lead the U.S. back to monarchy.

“But this catastrophe I think may be long delayed, if in our proposed system we do not sow the seeds of contention, faction, and tumult, by making our posts of honor places of profit.”

Franklin’s motion did not carry the day. Under the Constitution, as ratified, “The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services, a Compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the Period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that Period any other Emolument from the United States, or any of them.”

Currently, the presidential salary is set at $400,000 per year. While this is modest when compared to CEO salaries in the corporate world, it is still a substantial sum of money. Furthermore, people in government positions — including the presidency — seem to find ways to enrich themselves while in power far beyond their government checks. There is no doubt the presidency offers both a post of honor and at the same time a place of profit.

As a result, many of the things Franklin warned about have come to pass, particularly his prediction that the bold and the violent, the men of strong passions and indefatigable activity in their selfish pursuits would thrust themselves into government.

We’ve also seen the development of factions and constant warfare between the governing and governed.

The lesson is that we can’t wish away human nature. We can’t trust people with power. As George Mason astutely said, “Those who have power in their hands will not give it up while they can retain it. On the contrary, we know they will always, when they can, rather increase it.”

When you combine this impulse with a system that rewards greed, you are asking for trouble.

 

 

Mike Maharrey | The Tenth Amendment Center

The post Benjamin Franklin Speech Exposes the Inherent Danger of Power and Money appeared first on Granite Grok.

If you don’t like Twitter and like Tucker Carlson, we’re here to help. The first episode of Tucker on Twitter was released the other day, and we’ve curated it here for you, on Twitter or off.

Carlson opens with the recent destruction of a Damn in the Ukraine/Russia proxy war, the various players, on his way to discussing the real problem that the story represents

The non-Twitter version is available here.

Ep. 1 pic.twitter.com/O7CdPjF830

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) June 6, 2023

 

The post Tucker on Twitter Ep 1 appeared first on Granite Grok.

As promised in the last Monday Memes, I have an overflow. My meme cup runneth over.  Fairly certain about a Friday Overflow-Overflow.

Also, for those prepper-minded, my last Survival Sunday (albeit a week old):

Survival Sunday – Unified – Granite Grok

Now, let the mayhem, mockery, and ridicule resume:

 

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

 

 

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

 

I am a day late – scheduling.  But lest we forget the enormity of D-Day…  (HT Peter Grant):

 

 

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

 

Obesity, Diabetes, Cancer and You | Dr. Peter Attia | EP 360

 

 

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

 

 

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

 

 

I cannot compromise with cancer.  I cannot find common ground with gangrene.  The Left must be crushed, utterly, or we perish.

 

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

 

   

 

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

 

 

So who remembers our “good and dear friend” Klaus Anal Schwab discussing ze frightening scenario of a cyber attack on the power grid?

 

https://granitegrok.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/cyber-attacks-next.mp4

 

And remember what I wrote about in the last Monday Memes – what I see as a clear and deliberate push to trigger WWIII.  They could do it themselves, then blame Russia and use that as an Article 5 invocation for all of NATO to turn on Russia.  And don’t forget the dam getting blown up.  Qui bono?  Ukraine.  But it will – I fear – be presented as a “Responsibility to Protect” thing.

What is R2P? – Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect (globalr2p.org)

The Responsibility to Protect populations from genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing has emerged as an important global principle since the adoption of the UN World Summit Outcome Document in 2005.

Remember, NATO is having war games – huge ones – this month.  What a coincidence that such a thing happens.  Again, QUI BONO?

 

 

As I understand it, this also cuts Crimea off from its main water supply.  Somehow, after all the effort to gain control of Crimea, I do not see Russia deliberately doing this.  But Ukraine?  Ukraine benefits.  And NATO benefits from having casus belli to initiate a “Responsibility to Protect” action against Russia.  And thus the Globalists get their Jab-effect masking war + depopulation.  Don’t think collectivists are that murderous?  Just look at how many civilians the Communists have murdered already.

 

 

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

 

CPR: Yes or No?

 

 

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

 

 

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

 

 

None in the US.  It is only wealthy societies that can afford the expenses of being clean.

 

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

 

 

 

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

 

Pick of the post:

 

 

What’s the US exporting?  Perversion and corruption.  No wonder so many around the world increasingly hate us.  No wonder religious countries – especially Islamic countries – increasingly see us as evil.  Related to that:

State Dept Pushes LGBTQ ‘Pride’ Everywhere Except Muslim World – Daniel Greenfield / Sultan Knish articles

 

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

 

 

And from where did this transplanted uterus come, pray tell?  Oh, from a WOMAN!

World’s first baby is born from a transplanted uterus implanted by a robot | Daily Mail Online

Gag.  Retch.

 

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

 

Palate cleansers:

 

—

—

 

The post Meme Overflow appeared first on Granite Grok.

Well, as Steve informed us, Chris Sununu benched himself with this:

To win, Republicans need our message to appeal to new voters, and we can do this without sacrificing classic conservative principles of individual liberty, low taxes and local control. But we must abandon the issues that are solely made for social media headlines, such as banning books or issuing curriculum fiats to local school districts hundreds of miles away from state capitals. Republicans should re-embrace local control and let parents within their own communities decide what’s right.

And Steve rejoined with a most excellent translation:

Governor Groomer is doubling down on porn in schools, systemic racism against white kids, and using the Left’s narratives. Good boy, Chris. Hey, can you be a character witness in Democrat Chairman Buckley’s defamation trial?

Which can be summarized as:

Chris Sununu is officially now a NeverTrumper

Which the only results those morons accomplished in 2020 was to help elect Biden. So once again, Sununu’s late to the party. And now has proclaimed that he’s fully against between a third and a half of the Republican base.  Yeah, that would have been a winning hand given that he his best band of national polling results was betwee 0.5%- 1%. And in today’s RealClearPolitics aggregate polling, he’s still only at 1% – far less than the 5% he so thought he’d rise to handily to get to the debate stage.

Even with his ferocious frenzy of appearances on the illiberal talking head spots (really, “The View”?  Remember, the Left isn’t going to vote in the Republican primaries).  And I would have to wonder that in my snap unscientific poll (plaudits to Steve for his technical “clean up”) how he would have faired against Chuck Morse (5.24%), Kelly Ayotte (64.92%), or Frank Edelblut (29.84%)?

So now the only question is “what’s the over/under that he’d run for a fifth term (co-asked with “will that kill the Republican legislative majorities”?)? Or is it a talking head or consulting gig?

Anyways, this series has run its course and I’m glad it’s done. But gladder that we’d have Republican in the Oval Office aligned with Democrats socially – and shoving their Culture War spawned Overton Window so far to the Left that it’s outside Pluto’s orbit.

UPDATE: forgot that I had a “Notable Quote” to go along with this aborted effort (perfect word choice for a pro-abortion Republican); emphasis mine:

It should be a rule that if you want to announce whether you’re running for president, no less than five people have to know who you are and what you do for a living. Reporters in Washington don’t count.

Hey, that “five” fits right in Sununu’s “five” but five people is a whole lot less than “poll percentage”; brutal.  And the beginning of the next sentence is even more brutal:

A man named Chris Sununu declared in a Washington Post op-ed this week that he will, in fact, not be seeking the Republican presidential nomination, and I honestly doubt that even three people reading this could identify Sununu in a lineup of pudgy white men. I’d heard of him before but had no idea what he looked like and wasn’t even sure if he was still an elected official. As it turns out, he’s the sitting governor of New Hampshire.

But more importantly, if you’re going to announce a campaign or explain why you’re not running, the reasons for it shouldn’t be maddeningly stupid. That Sununu chose the Post to lay out his thought process was already a clue that this wasn’t something Republican voters needed to be concerned with. But his explanation was equal parts delusional and pathetic in declaring how noble he believes he is by not running because he will instead be more effective on the sidelines lecturing the base about what should and shouldn’t be important to them.

Because as we all know, the Washington Post (aka, “WaPo”) is SUCH a bastion of conservatism and Republicanism (/sarc). And for him to yammer about “individual liberty” after what  he did during COVID to ELIMINATE individual liberties is shameful and nothing less than whitewashing himself.  Ask anyone who IS (rather than just calling themselves such) Conservative knows better what cape Sununu is trying on at the “campaign store”.

“To win, Republicans need our message to appeal to new voters, and we can do this without sacrificing classic conservative principles of individual liberty, low taxes and local control,” wrote Sununu. “But we must abandon the issues that are solely made for social media headlines, such as banning books or issuing curriculum fiats to local school districts hundreds of miles away from state capitals.”

Do I REALLY need to remind you that it was Sununu that unlocked that Culture War door (SB263) that let the Left stroll through the door and gaslight us all that pornography is a necessary component for “learning” academic subjects (snort!).

Yes, Sununu is one of those Republicans who still believes winning national elections can be done with slogans about tax cuts and “free markets.” In other words, he is the kind of Republican who believes he’s elected to do nothing.

The post Chris Sununu Presidential Poll Watch – The Finale appeared first on Granite Grok.

The Republican Party is on a mission,  as in every election cycle, to equate civility with unity. Let’s not say negative things about those other GOP candidates lest we spark a civil war and create division. They want us to talk about our shared vision as if we had one.

Is it paying lip service to the idea that Republicans will defend natural rights? To set forth a platform of ideas so that candidates we elect can make excuses for ignoring or undermining them? Or is it a national party committed to winning and then doing nothing with victory? I know what it is = bashing Donald Trump.

That’s something under which Republicans could unite. And I’m fine with that, but it should apply all the way around with a few thin and flimsy guardrails (no defamation, fraud, or incitement), and let’s see who crosses the finish line.

It’s messy, but everyone is invited to play along—even the John McCains at the party. You remember him. In 2016, helped add credibility to the Steele Dossier, which turned out to be defamation, fraud, and incitement. Entire movements on the Republican side rose up to resist the guy based on Democrat party lies.

That wasn’t the first time or the last. So, bring your tired, poor, huddled opinions, yearning to breathe free. The wretched tweets from your social media shore. Bring your own torch (light) while you’re at it, and shine it brightly on everything and everyone.

Being right or wrong is not nearly as important as the exercise of plumbing the truth, and civility may not make it to the end of the road, but that’s okay because we need to stop training our side to be passive. It’s not working. Democrats are not civil, not to each other or anyone else. Their fanatic street mobs are mentally unstable radicals whose only moral compass is a party that kills babies, cheats women, and mutilates children. And they hate free speech.

Passivity doesn’t advance liberty, and neither do the Republicans who can’t stop talking about keeping your powder dry in primaries. And if you are not sure what that looks like, watch how the establishment treats Trump and then do unto others.

No violence or intimidation; those are left Wing tactics—free Speech on full power, especially when they tell you in their own quaint little way to shut the hell up.

 

 

The post Free Speech vs. Calls to Pander to Republican Primary “Civility” appeared first on Granite Grok.

In business, as in so many other elements of modern life, fads and trends come and go quickly, and it takes a truly innovational concept to “stick” and become a success.

Outsourcing is one of those outstandingly effective and efficient (yet still relatively new) processes which can drastically improve the core functionality of a company. With that being said, continue reading to learn the four key benefits of outsourcing for manufacturing companies.

1. Substantially Reduced Business Costs

First and foremost, every business manager understands the supreme importance of ensuring that there is enough money in the pot to be able to continue trading for another year, and for those companies focused on longevity, reducing costs is always of optimum importance.

Outsourcing will allow you to do just that, with the provision of highly trained employees who are specifically knowledgeable about one area of your company and who do not need to be trained at the expense of your business—unlike your current members of staff.

2. Unprecedented Access to the Latest Industry Technologies

One of the primary advantages of choosing to outsource one or more core business processes is the fact that your company will be afforded access to the latest software packages and technologies that the industry has to offer.

Even small and seemingly irrelevant components of your most-used and valuable equipment, such as the sanitary clamps for your system, can be upgraded and updated, meaning outsourcing cleaning and maintenance processes can drastically improve the performance of a machine.

3. More Time to Focus on Other Areas of the Company

Another huge benefit of choosing to outsource a particular area of the company is the extra time it will provide you to turn your attention to other (just as important or even more so) needs of the business.

Social media management, for example, is one of the most popular sectors chosen by companies across the entire spectrum of industries to outsource to a renowned third-party company, mainly as not only does this take the commitment out of your own hands, but also as it always tends to raise customer satisfaction levels.

It would also be worth pointing out that outsourcing social media management will also mean you can reap the rewards of having an accessible social media profile for customers and clients that is essentially immune to differences in time zones.

4. A Greater Level of Flexibility

When a company chooses to complete all tasks and projects in-house, with their existing employees, not only is it likely that not one person is fully trained and experienced in one area, but this also means more money is needed to pay staff.

Outsourcing a particular project or repetitive task, however, results in you only needing to hire these relevant and niche employees for the duration of the time needed for project completion.

In downtimes, or during times of the year when your company profits are generally lower than the rest of the time, this will enable you to reduce your costs, which could make a huge difference to the financial position of the business.

The post 4 Benefits of Outsourcing for Manufacturing Companies Across All Industries appeared first on Granite Grok.

NH Governor Chris Sununu to be subpoenaed to testify at the hearing of Teresa (Grinnell) Bastarache regarding his involvement in the illegal arrest of (Grinnell) Bastarache and eight other NH citizens

PDF Press Release 6-6-2023

 

 

The post NH Governor Chris Sununu Subpoenaed for Ordering Illegal Arrests appeared first on Granite Grok.

It’s been five years since Canada Free Press admitted that solar panel waste is a toxic environmental nightmare, and no one had a plan. We still don’t have a plan. NH tried to get a clue in 2022, but the State Senate killed it, and now a new piece reminds us the problem can only get worse.

 

The challenge of recycling these discarded panels is even more daunting. Traditional recycling methods, while able to recover most of the aluminum and glass, struggle to extract and reclaim the more precious materials, like silver and copper. According to Mr. Nicolas Defrenne, over 60% of the value of solar panels is contained in just 3% of their weight. However, these materials are intertwined with other components, making them economically challenging to separate.

 

Never fear. The solution is here. Much the way politicians made electricity unnecessarily expensive so that renewables could try and compete, rare earth metals have become so expensive that there may be a way to make money trying to recover that 3% and recycle it back into production. The friends and family members of well-connected elites are standing by to invest just as they did in government-subsidized solar.

It will cost a lot of money, but no worries, all those costs will be passed down to consumers and ratepayers directly – in costs and charges, and indirectly – through taxes, inflation, and the higher cost of everything everywhere that result from higher energy prices.

The green in green energy continues to be cash money changing hands from yours to theirs, and the only environment they care about is the one that keeps that scheme alive.

 

 

HT | WUWT

The post BBC Admits Solar Panel Waste Is a Huge Environmental Problem (Or Did They Mean Opportunity?) appeared first on Granite Grok.

Most of us have seen clay motion animation cartoons when we (Boomers) were young.  At that time, I never knew how they were made, which was part of the magic!

The Grandson is BIG into LEGO models (from his allowance, he just bought two yesterday and TMEW spent the evening putting them together last night. With that in mind, when I stumbled across this last night (at the time of this writing), I’m going to watch him watch this today.

LEGO Stop-Motion! – Kevin Parry
by u/Western_Giraffe9517 in oddlysatisfying

It will be interesting to see if he wants to try.

(H/T: Reddit via Linkiest)

The post Palate Cleanser: Watch Kevin Parry Build a LEGO Model Video (Stop Motion) appeared first on Granite Grok.

Liberty mom Shalon Spaulding was charged with “Child Endangerment” for the dastardly “crime” of leaving her two-year-old in her car with the AC on and the child strapped into the carseat. A busybody who happens to work for the Merrimack County Attorney, one Donna Barnett, was the one who called in the police. Shalon’s husband, Jay Noone, was given permission to be her “attorney-in-fact” and was able to get the police officer to admit that the child was not endangered. However, the robed man ended up finding her guilty days later.

The good news is, in New Hampshire, on a “Class A Misdemeanor” a guilty finding from a bench trial can be appealed “de novo”, and they start all over again in “Superior Court” with a full jury. Stay tuned to Free Keene for the latest on this ridiculous attack on parental freedoms, and enjoy this full video of Shalon’s arraignment and trial:

I have never been a fan of Jamie Raskin. I have always thought that Raskin is second only to Adam Schiff as the most obnoxious and out-of-touch member of Congress. He is a person who loves the camera, even with his current bout with cancer and a different fashionable head cover daily.

But this Sunday, Raskin was on the CNN opinion show, “State of the Union,” and displayed his warped thinking.

In our current polarized environment, it is not only typical but expected that politicians have to be diametrically opposed to their counterparts on the other side of the aisle. Does that mean they must throw common sense and reality out the window? Apparently so, according to Raskin’s comments.

The first topic was the potential contempt charges by Congress against FBI Director Christopher Wray. Raskin is the Ranking Member of the powerful House Oversight Committee. Representative Jim Comer has been working to get a whistleblower report from the FBI for weeks. The document is not classified, and the whistleblower has been determined to have high credibility. The document, an FD-1023 form, is reported to detail a potential bribe of then Vice President Joe Biden by a foreign government for his support of specific legislation.

If true, the offense could lead to impeachment proceedings against President Joe Biden. Though the FBI falls under the scrutiny of the Oversight Committee, Wray has denied the form to the committee despite a subpoena demanding Wray turn over the document. Wray has finally capitulated that Comer and Raskin could view the document in a Capitol s&if on Monday but could not take possession of the document. This action by Wray does not satisfy the subpoena, but not according to Raskin.

Raskin was adamant that the Republicans were overreacting in proceeding with contempt charges against Wray. He claims that Wray has cooperated completely and done everything asked of him. There is only one truth to a situation. Wray in no way cooperated, and his actions point to the FBI Director protecting the sitting President. This is a black-and-white situation, but Raskin sees it through magical glasses. He could not be more wrong in his assessment and comments.

The second topic involves Biden’s decision not to be active on the campaign trail and refusal to debate any Democrat challengers for his job. Most see Biden’s actions as designed to protect him from his current mental acuity. Biden’s handlers do not want to have Biden in public or in any situation where he may suffer from his usual gaffes. Raskin does not see it that way.

Raskin claims that Biden’s current state of mind should not impact his electability. Raskin feels people should vote for Biden solely on his years of service and accomplishments. Raskin sees no value in discussing Biden’s view of the future or having his views challenged by either Democrat or Republican challengers. Raskin could not be more wrong. Elections are certainly about accomplishments but also the future. If Joe Biden is declining so quickly that many do not see him as fit to be President today, the thought of Joe Biden as President five or six years from now is disconcerting. Raskin saying he is comfortable with Biden and not concerned about his accelerated aging process should direct attention to Raskin’s suitability to serve.

Raskin should be embarrassed by his performance on CNN, but these leaders on the Left are immune to critique and constantly circling the wagons around this President. They best hope these circles don’t become firing squads when the facts about the Bidens start falling.

The post Jamie Raskin Is Proof Of DC Insanity appeared first on Granite Grok.

A dam being blown up in Ukraine—will we ever now who did it? RFK Jr—is he a viable threat to Biden? Will he pull in any republicans? NYC Mayor Adams considering putting immigrants into private homes—how close is that to the third amendment or takings clause? should DeSantis respond to Trump’s every slight or utterance? Should he wait for debates to respond to almost anything? Pride flag vs confederate flag—can both be seen by others as threatening? the cover of glamour magazine in Britain with a pregnant “man”.

The post The Conservatarian Exchange Podcast #157 appeared first on The Liberty Block.

There is such a disconnect between the Establishment-GOP and reality. The Establishment-GOP … in the words of Mitch McConnell … believe, or at least want Americans to believe, that that the most important thing going on is the Blackrock/Chase/insert-name-of-globalist-institution War in Ukraine. It’s NOT. Not even top-50. DeSantis had it right when he said that it was a border dispute that does not affect vital American interests … until his donors who see dollar bills every time another Ukrainian or Russian dies needlessly demanded that he retract the truth.

To his credit, DeSantis understands … or at least I think he understands … that WOKE, not Putin, is an actual existential threat to America. “Family-friendly,” as defined by the WOKE-dictionary, means promoting dildos to children.

At Boston's family-friendly "Trans Resistance March" over the weekend, a Boston Medical Center @The_BMC table gave out snacks and dildos. #Trans

Video by @RebsBrannon: pic.twitter.com/QN1TfDpjn9

— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) June 5, 2023

The post Don’t Worry … Those Dildos Are Family-Friendly appeared first on Granite Grok.

Constitutions don’t enforce themselves. That’s why James Madison called them “parchment barriers.” While there are plenty of examples of this at the federal level, it’s worth looking at a situation at the state level that perhaps demonstrates this even more so.

Despite the clear intent of the state constitution, the Washington Supreme Court recently upheld an illegal capital gains income tax by simply changing the definition of a few words and declaring the tax to be legal.

To understand how absurd the situation is, you need to know a little about Washington’s history.

Under the Washington State Constitution, property can only be taxed at a uniform rate. That means the state property tax must be the same rate regardless of where you live. Back in the early 1900s, there was an effort to tax other types of intangible property, such as income. The problem was that as written, the state constitution required intangible property to be taxed at the same rate as tangible property like real estate. Having a 6 percent tax on property and income from stocks and bonds wasn’t what proponents had in mind.

So, in the 1930s the fourteenth amendment to the Washington State Constitution was approved by voters allowing for different property tax rates for separate classes of property. It also included a definition of property as “all things tangible and intangible, subject to ownership.” The pro-amendment section of the voter pamphlet at the time made it clear that its purpose was to allow the taxation of income at a different rate than other tangible property.

In the 1933 Washington Supreme Court decision in Culliton v. Chase overturning a progressive income tax, the high court wrote that “it would certainly defy the ingenuity of the most profound lexicographer to formulate a more comprehensive definition of ‘property’ than that found in the Washington state constitution. Income is either property under our fourteenth amendment or no one owns it. If that is true, anyone can use our incomes who has the power to seize or obtain them by foul means.”

In the decades that followed, the Washington Supreme Court repeatedly held that a progressive income tax was illegal in Washington state due to these two constitutional provisions. At the same time, voters consistently rejected proposals for a progressive income tax at the ballot box.

After a progressive income tax failed at the ballot box yet again in 2010 via Initiative 1098, a movement grew attempting to enact it through the courts instead of a constitutional amendment. Proponents hoped a politically-friendly court would rule on ideological grounds rather than jurisprudence. In 2017, the city of Seattle approved a local income tax that was challenged in court, and though it was overturned by a court of appeals, the Washington Supreme Court refused to take up the case.

Then in 2021, the state legislature enacted a capital gains income tax above a certain income threshold – except there was a catch. They didn’t call it an “income tax.” Instead, they described the tax on the income derived from the sales of capital gains as an “excise tax.”

As former government reform director at the Washington Policy Center Jason Mercier extensively documented, there’s no such thing as a capital gains excise tax. By definition, an excise tax is paid regardless of whether a profit is made from the sale. Washington state’s capital gains “excise tax” only applies when the sale nets profit.

No state imposes an excise tax on capital gains, and the Internal Revenue Service itself insists a capital gains tax is an income tax.

You’d think the new tax wouldn’t stand a chance, and if it actually made it to the state’s highest court, the judges wouldn’t uphold it.

But that’s exactly what happened.

In its opinion, the Washington Supreme Court simply reiterated that it was an excise tax because, well, they said it is and the state tax system is racist so they need this tax. If you think that’s an exaggeration, read the majority opinion yourselves. It is perhaps one of the worst legal arguments you’ll ever encounter.

While there is an ongoing lawsuit to overturn the tax for violating the U.S. Constitution, it’s irrelevant to the point here. What should have been an ironclad constitutional restriction on a certain type of tax was demolished, not through amending the constitution to allow for a progressive income tax, but through judicial fiat and word magic. The judges literally declared that words that mean one thing now mean something else in order to circumvent the meaning of a written constitution.

What makes it even more inexcusable is that, unlike the U.S. court system, Washington Supreme Court judges are elected and can be removed. So can the legislators who proposed and voted for an illegal tax. But when left to themselves, none of these branches of government maintained the rule of law.

All of it could have been avoided if voters had been more vigilant to protect and defend the state constitution because, just like the U.S. Constitution, it does not and will never enforce itself.

Washington residents likely face learning this lesson the hard way via a potential income tax on all levels of income. Americans elsewhere would do well to learn by their example.

 

TJ Martinell | The Tenth Amendment Center

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Does anyone in the army of self-proclaimed activists called the Tyre Extinguishers (deflating tires on SUVs across Europe in the name of their false green god) know how much additional carbon will be emitted due to their actions?

Assuming you think that’s a problem, and the dolts deflating tires certainly do. And I’m not sure about Europe, but in the US, in most locales across the fruited plain, the act is a misdemeanor—criminal mischief. It could also get you hot-winged (pepper spray), tazed, or shot, again, depending on where you take it to the SUV-driving Man and get caught.

But then, much like every other little green lie, the secret has always been not to get caught, even while bragging about what you do.

“Overall, activists associated with the Tyre Extinguishers are responsible for deflating tires on more than 10,000 SUVs. On a single night in November last year, the group boasted that its members “disarmed” more than 900 SUVs in a coordinated action across multiple cities in the U.S. and Europe,” according to FOX News.

 

How many unnecessary calls (cellular networks emit carbon) were made for tow trucks or auto club services to come and reinflate them, or calls to the police who had to drive out to file a report? And how often was it two of these things and not just one? Call the police. Call the European equivalent of AAA. Emissions, emissions, emissions.

Depending on the miles driven, round trip by police or services, plus the emissions from the compressors to reinflate the tires or generators to run the compressors, you’ve likely added a pile of unnecessary crap into the biosphere … in the name of reducing it.

And did you walk to wherever it is you went to deflate all the tires, or did you catch a ride there and there and there and back?

I know, they think – big picture – this will be a net win, but it is no different than anything else the greens claim. Neither wind nor solar are green, and for good measure, wind turbines kill birds, bats, and now whales. Solar recycling is a monster of an environmental hazard and starting to get out of hand, and wind turbines are too. And none of that idiocy can be accomplished without burning coal to make coke for steel and using natural gas or other fossil fuels.

I’d suggest that the problem is fumes inhaled while gluing yourselves to things, but this 600 cm3 brain-thinking predates that idiocy. Green activists are stupid. But not just stupid. They’ve offered the world’s vandals an excuse to cause more unnecessary emissions with their mischief, some of whom will escalate to tire slashing, which is all the things noted above, plus the carbon footprint to make, deliver, install replacements, and dispose of the damaged tires.

And while dumb and counter-productive, I confess to being excited about this trend coming to America. At least a few green weenies will likely get their asses kicked by an equal number of gold ole’ boys, but there is a way you might prevent that. Focus on the greater Washington, DC, area. There is an abundance of oversized black vehicles with tinted windows. If you get caught, try showing them your Liberal Privilege card. Maybe they’ll treat it like shoplifting in many a modern Democrat-Run city and punish the person who ratted you out.

 

 

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The political and financial class breathed a sigh of relief when Congress passed the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023. The bill suspends the debt ceiling for two years, thus avoiding the establishment’s nightmare of a government default on its debt. Rather, it allows the government to continue adding trillions of dollars of debt that will be monetized by the Federal Reserve.

Of course, this default will be felt by the people in the form of an inflation tax. This inflation tax may be the worst of all taxes, because it is both hidden and regressive. Politicians love to point the finger at greedy corporations, labor unions, and even consumers for increasing prices instead of taking responsibility for the legislation they pass that incentivizes the Federal Reserve to create more inflation.

Republican supporters of the bill claim it begins to roll back the excessive spending of the Biden years. While the bill does rescind $28 billion of unspent COVID funds, it just recycles that money into the Fiscal Year 2024 budget. Thus it does not save taxpayers a dime. The bill does cap domestic discretionary spending for Fiscal Year 2024 at $704  billion and spending for Fiscal Year 2025 at $711 billion. However, these caps come from a budget whose baseline includes the increased COVID spending. The bill only cuts spending by 0.1 to 0.2 percent of gross domestic product over the next two years  – assuming Congress does not reverse the cuts. Of course, it makes no attempt to actually cut spending, much less eradicate any illegitimate and unconstitutional government agencies, cabinet departments, or programs.

Even though “defense” is the third largest item in the budget (behind social security, Medicare, and interest in the national debt), our annual military budget alone is more than the combined budgets of the next ten biggest spending countries. The Fiscal Responsibility Act doesn’t take a penny away from the military budget; instead, it matches President Biden’s request for a 3.2 percent increase.  This increase comes despite the fact that the Pentagon has never complied with the law requiring it to pass an audit.

Biden’s military budget is the largest in United States history and probably world history. Deep  State Republicans like South Carolina Senator Lindsay Graham never met a war he didn’t love.  Graham and his allies threatened to block passage of the bill unless the military spending was increased and more taxpayer money—and Ukraine and Russian lives — wasted in the Ukraine-Russian conflict.

Hawks alienate current and potential allies with their hyper-interventionist policies. This, along with the increasing national debt, is leading to increased challenges to the US dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency. The dollar’s status is the only reason Congress has been able to run up such a huge deficit without causing a major economic crisis.

The Fiscal Responsibility Act will result in increased government spending, debt, and deficits. It will also further erode the value of the United States Dollar, thus making it more likely that the US dollar will lose its world reserve currency status sooner rather than later. The Fiscal Responsibility Act is to fiscal responsibility as the Affordable Care Act is to affordable health care and as the Patriot Act is to true Patriotism. Perhaps a future Congress will introduce legislation that actually begins to cut back on the size and scope of government called the Fiscal Irresponsibility Act!

 

Copyright © 2023 by RonPaul Institute. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit and a live link are given.

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Last year the Woodsville Fire District had sued the Town of Haverhill for $490K in road funds as specified in SB 75, but they never “[gave] bond to the Town,” a critical requirement to meet before any taxpayer funds were released to the District.

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I sent an urgent email to those Haverhill Selectboard officials to hopefully delay/prevent the signing of any agreement with Woodsville Fire District based on this lack of bond.

Woodsville Fire District never gave bond to the Town for the $490,000.00 they were suing for in court.

Please see attached emails, as they will provide proof of my statements.

All information is located on the Town of Haverhill website, but I was the only resident to read it thoroughly.

The Town of Haverhill was prevented from ever presenting this issue in court as a result of the deliberate actions of Selectboard members Fred Garofalo, Steve Robbins, Michael Graham, Katie Williams, and Kevin Knapp.

Williams and Knapp had been on the Selectboard for only two months at that time.

All Selectboard members voted unanimously, without hesitation, to award Woodsville Fire District $490,000.00 of taxpayer money in a closed settlement agreement instead of going to court.

This rush to settle conveniently eliminated the need for the surety bond, as required by SB75.

There was no attempt even to delay the settlement meeting, so an investigation into the bond issue could be performed.

The time and date stamps of the attached emails demonstrate a deliberate delay in consulting the Town Attorney by the Selectboard Chair until after the settlement negotiation was concluded.

The Town of Haverhill was prematurely blocked from having their day in court by this Selectboard, ensuring that Woodsville Fire District could get their money.

Timeline to consider while reading attached emails, attached in order:

1. Monday, May 30th, 2022 at 1:44 PM

My original urgent email indicating the lack of a surety bond, sent to all Haverhill Selectboard members

2. Monday, May 30th, 2022 at 9:31 PM

Initial email response by Haverhill SB Chair Fred Garofalo stating he would check with the Town attorney regarding this discovery. (6.5 hours later)

3. Tuesday, May 31st, 2022 at 10:15 AM (During closed meeting)

Email response by Haverhill SB member Katie Williams during the closed settlement meeting regarding Woodsville Fire District. (1.5 hours into the closed meeting)

This response from Katie Williams came during the 9 am closed meeting with Woodsville Fire District before the settlement agreement had been signed.

Concerned residents had gathered at the Clifford Building to protest the settlement but were soon sent home by the Selectboard.

Michael Graham, Katie Williams, and Kevin Knapp refused briefings on multiple occasions from the Haverhill Town Attorney in the days prior to, and during this settlement meeting.

All Selectboard members received my urgent email the night before via BCC.

4. Wednesday, June 8, 2022 1:39 PM

Email sent from Chairman Fred Garofalo to Vice Chairman Steve Robbins stating that there was no issue and Woodsville Fire District would get their money upon signing the settlement agreement at the next SB meeting.

5. Wednesday, June 8th, 2022 at 9:27 PM

Email response from Chairman Fred Garofalo admitting to me that the Town of Haverhill could have filed for injunctive relief due to the lack of a surety bond, per the Haverhill Town Attorney.

This was too late, however, because they had already signed the settlement agreement 8 days before.

That’s how they bypassed the need for the surety bond before releasing funds, which Woodsville Fire District would not have been able to obtain after the fact.

Chairman Garofalo had cut and pasted the information from his email with Vice Chair Robbins in his email response to me regarding the statement from the Town Attorney, minus his commentary to Vice Chair Robbins.

The fourth email listed, resulting from a separate 91-A request,  demonstrates that there was never any intention to stop the signing of a settlement agreement with Woodsville Fire District in spite of the fact they never obtained the bond.

The members of that Selectboard should be held accountable for rushing to sign an agreement and awarding road money to Woodsville Fire District when the District did not meet this critical requirement of  SB 75.

The Selectboard members in question deliberately ignored the surety bond requirement and then unethically eliminated it by signing the settlement agreement with Woodsville Fire District.

The law that Woodsville Fire District used as the basis of its lawsuit is clear. Lines 11-14 required them to “give bond to the Town,” which they clearly did not do and is not the same as being bonded individually.

 

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Barry Obama is concerned about America’s divided conversation. “I’m much older than you… when I was coming up, you had three TV stations, and people were getting a similar sense of what is true and what isn’t, what was real and what was not.”  Translation: We had message control, and now we don’t.

 

“Today, what I’m most concerned about is because of the splintering of the media, we almost occupy different realities,” Obama said, adding “If something happens, in the past, everybody could say, all right, we may disagree on how to solve it, but at least we all agree that, yeah, that’s an issue.”

“Now people will say, well, that didn’t happen, or I don’t believe that,” he complained, asserting that “one of, I think, the goals of the Obama Foundation, and one of the goals of my post-presidency, is how do we return to that common conversation? How can we have a common set of facts?”

 

So, to clarify, if things were Obama’s way, Hillary never had an illegal email server, Benghazi was caused by a YouTube video, and the Steele Dossier was not a pack of lies spun up to smear and impeach a duly elected president. Hunter’s Laptop would be Russian Disinformation, SARS C0V2 came from some Chinese wet market and not a Lab in Wuhan, and the climate cult didn’t get every single prediction wrong.

I’ve kept the list deliberately short. We could go deep on Biden (for example), but I try to stick to my own word limit for articles on GranteGrok, and such an expedition would most certainly exceed it before I got to the point. Obama is trying to go yard for the ongoing disinformation narrative the Dems have been spinning as a way to innoculate Americans into accepting limitations on speech, and we can see why? They spend so much time lying and deceiving people that without such protections, the truth emerges, and the despotism for which they pine cannot brook speech on these terms.

It’s a problem, and they are hoping to convince America we need to let them solve it in their favor. Misinformation is protected speech. Even the Congressional Research Service has to admit as much.

 

The Supreme Court has said the Free Speech Clause protects false speech when viewed as a broad category, but the government may restrict limited subcategories of false speech without violating the First Amendment. For example, defamation, fraud, political advertisements, and broadcast speech are subject to special considerations.

 

But that’s about it.  And even those often fall under the strictest of scrutiny because the exercise of free speech and a truly free press – as opposed to Barry’s contrived muppet media – is essential to liberty.

 

The Supreme Court has recognized that false statements may not add much value to the marketplace of ideas. Even so, there is a concern that by prohibiting false speech, the government would also “chill” more valuable speech, meaning it would cause people to self-censor out of fear of violating the law. Consequently, the First Amendment creates “breathing space” protecting the false statements and hyperbole that are “inevitable in free debate.”

 

You would think these nuances would please the Left, given its penchant for deceit, but it is not enough. They seek to control the message because, as noted above, their preferred form of government is impossible. Obama implies we are better off if we are all on the same page. It is simpler, easier, and I guess the government would be doing us a favor and making our lives easier.

But,

The only model that asks nothing of its citizens in terms of learning, autonomy and decision-making is the authoritarian one. By arguing that freedom from speech is often more important than freedom of speech, advocates unwittingly embrace the nineteenth-century (anti-)speech justification for czarist power: the idea that the Russian peasant has the best kind of freedom, the freedom from the burden of freedom itself (because it surely is a burden).

 

 

 

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