I get it, old news. So, old the internet has almost moved on, except it can’t get out of its’ own way. Sure, Robert Kennedy Jr. filing to challenge Slow Joe Biden is a thing, but there’s another thing: the media framing of Robert Kennedy Jr.

AP’s headline reads: “Anti-vaccine activist RFK Jr. challenging Biden in 2024.”

Robert Kennedy Jr. is an anti-vaccine activist. That’s like saying Jeanne Shaheen is an anti-tax activist for opposing the SCOUTS decision that opened the floodgates for states to milk out-of-state residents for sales taxes. Shaheen never met a tax she didn’t like. And she loves the idea of taxing people who buy things in New Hampshire. But the anti-sales-tax culture in the Granite State forces her to act as if she opposes them.

But anyone who signs off on tripling the federal debt during her tenure in Congress is not anti-tax. They are triple-double-dog-down on taxing people who have not yet been born. She is enslaving future generations who manage to get past her abortion-on-demand gatekeepers.

And Robert Kennedy Jr. is not an anti-vaxxer. He is, however, suspicious of the mRNA injections, the approval process, the lack of transparency, recalibrated messaging (retooling the lies if you prefer), and the mountain of evidence this vaccine is a greater health risk than the flu infection it cannot even prevent.

Search Robert F. Kennedy Jr, and you get swamped with the AP headline or versions of it. ‘Anti-Vaccine Activist.’Vaccine denier. These are outrageous lies told by infantile media whores peddling a political pimp narrative.

And yes, Kennedy has been suspicious of “vaccines” for a while and more so of mandates – but the AP piece is breathless in its attempt to frame him as a patriarch of right-wing conspiracies, which, as we’ve discovered, is just another way of saying truths the media refuses to tell -preferring to peddle the crib notes fed to them by the Biden Administration donor class.

A class that, while Trump was president, was as virulently anti-vaccine as you could be. And here we have a Democrat who distrusts the public health industrial complex and the Medical Corporatism of his fellow libs. Is he a threat to Biden? Not as much of a threat as Biden is to Biden, but unlike stumbling mumbling Joe, Robert Kennedy Jr. has no left-wing backup.

Joe, who has about as much influence in his own administration as a cardboard cut-out with a tape recorder taped to the back, just has to not die and avoid saying something his handlers can’t walk back, and they’ve got the media industrial complex to help them. But Democrat primary voters are not in love with another four years of whoever is running the Biden Administration. They overwhelming want someone else. Robert Kennedy Jr. is someone else, and he’s broken the seventh seal. It is open season for challenging Joe Biden, and you can bet someone else’s property there are Democrats waiting to join that circus. TO be that other “guy.”

So, at the very least, thank you for that.

 

FYI – Robert Kennedy Jr will be in Hanover, NH, on April 26th to offer remarks on the Pandemic response. He has been added as s special guest to the “College Covid-19 Vaccine Mandates – Scientific, Ethical, and Legal Considerations: A Roundtable Discussion and Dinner Event.”

The post Robert Kennedy Jr. Challenges Biden for 2024 Presidential Bid – The Media Response is… appeared first on Granite Grok.

Out of tragedy comes a voice of leadership and, more important, reason. The senseless killing spree of teenagers in Ocklawaha, Florida, for three days, has ended thanks to law enforcement’s swift action.

The bodies of three 16 and 17-year-old teens were found between Thursday, March 30, and Saturday, April 1. Marion County Sheriff Bill Woods held a press conference on Monday to announce the arrest of two male teens, believed to be the killers of the three innocent young people.

Sheriff Woods took to the microphone and delivered a fact-filled speech that evolved into a fiery message that was not what the gun control crowd wanted to hear. Many, including President Joe Biden, always go to banning guns for all as the solution to senseless acts of killing. Whether an accidental shooting of a director on a movie set or a mass killing in a school, these people always want to ignore the killer and convict the gun. These folks did not want to hear what Sheriff Billy Woods had to say on Monday.

Woods showed confidence and strength when he spoke directly to the reporters in the room and the people listening everywhere. He first broke a golden rule by displaying the pictures of the two minors arrested for the killings. Often, the people who commit the crime are protected by authorities, but not this time. Woods pointed to the two large images on the monitor to his left. The photos of the 12 and 17-year-old boys arrested in this case were there for all to see. There is still one more suspect at large, and he is a 16-year-old.

Sherrif Woods is a breath of fresh air in his approach to this press conference. He was not in the mood to take foolish questions and was clear in his response to the guns used by the two juveniles.

“There are individuals out there viewing, and includes some of you media, that want to blame the one thing that has no ability or the capacity to commit the crime itself, and that’s the gun. These individuals committed the crime,” Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods said.

He said that with all of the gun laws we have, criminals will still get guns. No gun laws we add will change that fact. Politicians that look to gun control as a solution are looking in the wrong direction.

“Now, although we had out there and it was gang-related, we have nothing specific to say that it was any rivalry or anything to such that cause. But, however, each and every one of them in some shape or form is associated with a gang,” he said.

Woods was very clear in his opinion that the breakdown in the family unit is at the core of gang violence and growth. He also pointed the finger at our failing educational system that is not preparing students intellectually but not holding them accountable for their actions.

I will not be surprised when Sheriff Billy Woods is in front of Congress to testify about his beliefs, and the Republicans will be delinquent if they miss the opportunity to use this voice of clarity.

 

The post Florida Sheriff Speaks The Truth appeared first on Granite Grok.

The 1948 Administrative Powers Act gave the Executive Branch, 75 years down the line, the Powers to be its own Government. I hate Congress for passing it and, in doing so, making itself irrelevant. Congress can’t even do their primary jobs anymore.

The Executive Branch is laughing itself all the way to the Federal Register (where our Freedoms and Liberties go to die by the cut of a million rules, regulations, guidance, and “Dear Colleague” letters.

They came for our showerheads. They came for our lightbulbs (incandescent bulbs can no longer be sold on Aug 1st). They came for our energy sources. They came for our gas stoves (and our fridges, dishwashers, clothes washers & dryers, biological sex, now for our air conditioners…oh, and gas generators just now). The makeup of our local communities (Federal overriding local community zoning). And now, the Biden Administration is going to fulfill Obama’s “radically transform the United States” by taking away our gas-powered cars. Literally, anything that uses energy types that they don’t like.

And yes, I STILL want to blame the guy that ruined gas cans for all of us. I spill more on the ground and let more vapors into the air than I ever have before.

Wasn’t “W. Virginia vs. EPA” enough to shock the EPA bureaucrats back into sensibilities? No, they didn’t care then, and they don’t care. They are proving that the vaunted Progressive “Administrative State,” the ultimate goal since the early 1900s, was to destroy/make irrelevant the Constitution and our democratic voting processes.

WHERE DOES THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH HAVE THE POWER TO DO THIS???  To obsolete yet another industry just because they think they “know what’s best for us”?

‘Complete Transformation’: New Biden Rule Would Force Automakers to Ditch Gas, Sell Electric Vehicles

The Biden administration is set to unveil new environmental regulations that would force U.S. automakers to sell electric vehicles over their gas-powered counterparts, a move experts say will kill jobs and bring major supply chain issues.

President Joe Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency will announce on Wednesday a proposed rule to limit tailpipe emissions. That rule, according to the New York Times, will impose a strict emissions limit on vehicles sold—so strict that it will force automakers to ensure that two-thirds of the vehicles they sell are electric by 2032. “This is a massive undertaking,” said Alliance for Automotive Innovation president John Bozzella, who represents U.S. automakers. “It is nothing short of a complete transformation of the automotive industrial base and the automotive market.”

Again, WHO GIVES THEM THIS POWER?  This is nothing short of Sovietizing our transportation system.  For all the times that the Left calls the Right “fascists,” the Democrat/Progressives in the EPA (you know, the “Party of Government” in both meanings of the phrase) are proving that the spirit of Mussolini is alive and well. They are proving that they don’t have to OWN the means of production to CONTROL the means of production.

Free Market sensibilities are over if this is allowed to continue. The problem is that Obamacare did the same thing to healthcare – and the Party we expected to stop it went along with it.

We rebelled against the British King for a similar mindset of “We tell you, and you WILL obey us.” Yet, we accept this from people who believe that receiving a government paycheck THAT WE PAY FOR gives them this kind of Power?

This isn’t about gas vs. electric – it’s about control. Price them out of the budget of ordinary households? You’ve taken them away. Remove the gas to power them? You’ve taken them away.  Ditto for EVs.   Now what can you do? If they can turn off your internet-connected furnace or air conditioners, they can do it to your EV.

They will be, with no uncertainty about it, smiling. They have no sense of “limited government” because they are becoming intoxicated with telling us how we will live. We’re becoming modern-day serfs…

You know what’s needed? A modification kit for our gas vehicles – cut another hole on the other side of our vehicles from the gas one that would allow any EV charger to be inserted into it and tie up that charger. You know, like Saul Alinsky did to O’Hare airport (had his activists take up every toilet seat/urinal when jumbo jets started their unloading of “very full” passengers).

Mark Tapscott (at Instapundit, where I first saw this story) has this ending comment:

But what if two-thirds of the people buying new vehicles prefer an internal combustion engine under their shiny new hoods? The results of a recent survey for AP, NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, and the Energy Policy Institute show less than one in five Americans say they intend to buy an EV.

Apparently, EPA officials haven’t read this, which explains why America will never go EV.

They don’t care. The government has reached the point that they will reach for ANYTHING as long as they think they can get away with it. Remember Biden and his Eviction Moratorium?  He knew it was unconstitutional at the time but did it anyways. It was ruled unconstitutional and voided.  What was his reaction?

Issued it again.  Daring SCOTUS to rule against him again, thinking that it would take so long to rise to SCOTUS that it wouldn’t matter.  They ruled against him the next week. Even today, you see Democrats, like AOC and Senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon), telling Biden to ignore the Federal judge that ruled against mifepristone (the abortion pill).

Not mad enough?

• The Institutionalized Minds Of Most Americans
• Machiavelli & The Globalists: Why The Elites Despise Independent Thought

I’ve oft said that The State has pushed true charities out of Civil Society. Now we are seeing our Freedom and Agency suffering the same fate.

 

The post The Expansion of The Tyrannical Admininstrative State is In Overdrive – Can It Be Stopped? appeared first on Granite Grok.

Paying your taxes is patriotic. I think I’ve heard that somewhere. But Democrat Kary Jencks, who just squeaked out a win in a selectman’s race in New Boston, isn’t. Their last property tax bill is three-plus months late and now includes interest due and a late fee.

We have the address but have redacted it.

 

It appears to be a business and residence,  so – maybe the check is in the mail? It might be, but this does not appear to be the first time. The Dec 2019 entry indicates the amount due was transferred to a tax lien.

 

 

Congrats on the win, by the way, and might I add the increased value of the property? And that’s the assessed value, not the market value. Forest for the Tree Business, right?

And will you be working to lower property taxes in town so you can afford them or blaming the state and Chris Sununu or some other Republicans?

Did you run on that? I hear you only won by 19 votes, and it seems that passing the buck and the bill might have cost you the race if that was public knowledge.

And no, avoiding taxes does not disqualify you from elected office. It may (in fact!) be precisely the sort of person for a gig that impacts the tax rate. But Jencks is a Democrat, and I’ve never met a Dem that didn’t increase spending and, therefore, taxes to pay for it, which is kind of the point here.

I also think we all know that if you want to lower property taxes in an NH town, the School Board is the place to do that. Wait! Jencks is not just a school board member. She is the board chairman.

You better get those property taxes paid before some poor child misses out on whatever passes for quality education in New Boston. Think of it as your patriotic duty.

 

 

The post New Boston Democrat Selectman/School Board Chair Hasn’t Paid Their Property Taxes appeared first on Granite Grok.

Gavin Newsom is making it quite clear that he wants to be President sooner than later. There are two problems with his plans. One, he would have to primary against sitting President Joe Biden. And the second, he would have to run on his horrendous record as Mayor of San Francisco and Governor of California. Gavin Newsom is clearly one of the most narcissistic individuals in politics and is maybe rivaled by a fellow resident of San Francisco, Nancy Pelosi. The other thing these two have in common is they were both caught on video violating their own mandates during COVID. They both see themselves above the law and the ordinary people.

Newsome is seen in the picture below with his rolled-up sleeves walking through the Rose Garden and entering the Oval Office. The problem with this is that the President was not in the White House at the time. It seems disrespectful to enter one’s office when it is unoccupied. But Newsom accomplished his goal of getting some video of himself looking cool and Presidential entering the White House. His supporters lapped it up while his dissenters saw through the photo op.

Newsom has survived his political career in California with charisma, tons of money, and the support of the party and media. That may work in the Golden State, but when he gets on the debate stage in the primary or general, he will be exposed by his record as leader of his city and state.

Under his watch as governor, California has lost nearly 400,000 tax-paying residents. These people were replaced by over two million undocumented, illegal aliens. The Reparations Task Force has been meeting throughout California to help state officials examine how slavery and systemic racism have harmed African Americans and how the state should respond. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the 2020 law creating the task force, which is tasked to develop reparations proposals for the Legislature by July.

Newsom sees the Presidency as the next logical step in his political journey. Obviously, his many supporters who are bankrolling his venture have bought into the aura that is Gavin Newsom, if not the reality of his record. Joe Biden and his administration have shown us that a record and accomplishments are not necessary to win the game of politics-it is money and the media.

Newsom has produced a video called Fight for Democracy, and according to ABC10 Reporter Morgan Rynor, Newsome used $10 Million left over from his gubernatorial campaign to fund the project. He may not have announced his candidacy for the Oval Office, but his checkbook has.

The national media declared Newsom the Democrat candidate in 2024, should Joe Biden not run or the President’s corruption issues prevent him from running. Newsom may just be caught up in himself so much that he will take on Biden, and it will be interesting to see how the party accepts him or how badly it divides those on the Left. Newsom may force Biden to commit to running, an announcement the President seems content to put off as long as possible.

The post Newsom Measured For Drapes While In Oval Office appeared first on Granite Grok.

We read stories about China, Iran, Brazil, and others doing more business in their native currencies as if it were the end and people are wondering what to do about the collapse of the US Dollar as the world’s trading currency of choice.

There would be economic upheavals and no one is saying this is the breeze that portends a coming storm, but the process is (apparently) not as simple as that.

 

[S]ecurities analyst Ed Dowd tells Flyover Conservatives here that, counter to a lot of the catastrophism emanating from the Alternative News and perhaps counterintuitively, the smart money is now moving into cash to buy bargains in the future.

He says, “Cash is not a bad place to be and a lot of the smartest people I know are starting to go into cash and just waiting for the storm to pass and then do what JP Morgan of old would do and buy while there’s ‘blood in the streets.’”

As another financial guy personally told me yesterday, the US dollar is still the world’s reserve currency. While 100% of global trade used to be conducted in the dollar, with the recent exodus, it’s now “only” 97%.

 

It’s a dicey topic that gets at least as much breathing room as the Feds seizing your 401K (or what’s left of it). Government spending is out of control, and you can only print more fiat currency for so long. At some point, the Feds have to cut spending, or they need to rob everyone else to pay for their addiction. The latter is preferred, any reason will do, and the history of progressives pursuing utopia tells us it is inevitable.

They will run out of other people’s money.

I can’t speak to the non-advice advice, but safe havens for cash are never a bad idea in the short term with the understanding that if we don’t get the politics right, it won’t matter. They will come for it in all its forms, and they won’t ask nicely.

 

 

 

 

The post Is the Dollar Reserve Currency Panic Overblown? appeared first on Granite Grok.

CONCORD, NH (April 11, 2023) – NH’s Senate Judiciary Committee voted today to recommend rejecting two bills: HB224 (which would repeal the penalties for NH’s moderate, 6-month abortion ban) and HB88 (introduce a right to abortion in the law).

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

Jason Hennessey, President of NH Right to Life, said: “The Senate Judiciary Committee today responded to the overwhelming weight of testimony in support of protecting mothers and preborn babies with the Fetal Life Protection Act by rejecting HB224 and HB88. Rather than offering real help to mothers in need, these bills offered only death.”

On HB224, Jason Hennessey said:

“HB224 tried to trick the legislature into legalizing risky late-term abortions for any reason by claiming that the FLPA’s penalties would worsen NH’s “maternity deserts” where mothers cannot obtain healthcare. Once you dig a little, this doesn’t make sense. The facts are: 1) NH is one of the few states with no current maternity deserts, 2) only a very small percentage of obstetricians do any elective abortions, and 3) almost all states ban the abortion of viable children. On top of that, elective abortion through birth is not only extreme to a super-majority of Granite Staters, but is only allowed in 7 countries in the world, including N. Korea and China.

The FLPA only stops the killing of healthy children who could be delivered immediately and left at the hospital under our Safe Haven law.

The Senate Judiciary members rejecting HB224 should be commended for seeing it for the extreme legislation that it is: legalized elective abortion through birth.”

Sources for the quote above include:

1) https://www.marchofdimes.org/maternity-care-deserts-report

2) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010782417305218

3) https://www.guttmacher.org/state-policy/explore/state-policies-later-abortions

Super-majority of Granite Staters agree with some abortion restrictions: https://www.anselm.edu/sites/default/files/Documents/NHIOP/Polls/SACSC_NHSW_0822_Book1.pdf

NH Right to Life’s testimony on HB224 goes much deeper into this, and is available upon request.

Please Submit Group communications or Press Releases to editor@granitegrok.com.
Submission is not a guarantee of publication.

On HB88, Jason Hennessey said:

“HB88 would codify injustice into our laws by saying that some people do not deserve the rights that others have. The bill is also legally questionable, in that it attempts to bind future legislatures without being part of the constitution.”

Some have suggested that HB88’s imprecise wording could be interpreted to allow anyone to end anyone else’s pregnancy.

NH’s Fetal Life Protection Act (the FLPA, RSA 329:43-50 ) protects viable, preborn babies at about 6 months (24 weeks), with exceptions for the life and health of the mother, as well as fatal fetal anomalies. Thus, the only abortions it prohibits are late-term elective abortions.

Links:

HB88: https://gencourt.state.nh.us/bill_status/billinfo.aspx?id=35

HB224: https://gencourt.state.nh.us/bill_status/billinfo.aspx?id=369&inflect=2

NH Right to Life is New Hampshire’s largest and oldest organization dedicated to the pro-life cause.

Contact:
Jason Hennessey
President, NH Right to Life
(603) 230-8136
life@nhrtl.org

Home

The post NH Right to Life Applauds NH Senate Judiciary Committee’s Rejections of HB224 and HB88. 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 two Survival Sundays:

Survival Sunday – Sunday PREP Edition – Granite Grok

Survival Sunday – Thursday SITREP Edition – Granite Grok

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

 

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

 

 

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On the plus side, these ungrateful whiney simps will be the first to die off in a SHTF situation.

 

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I’ll freely confess, I don’t particularly care for beer and – in general – don’t drink a lot (on the few times I do drink beer, I prefer stronger beers – and when I get a chance I’ll buy local stuff… there’s one restaurant near me that has its own brewery in it).  And that was before I became diabetic.  Grrrr.  But, if you’re going to boycott, TELL THEM WHY.  The pain of dropping sales is, IMHO, obvious, but the more explicit you can make it the better.

Contact Us | Anheuser-Busch

 

 

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Also see:

The Big Lie: Exposing the Nazi Roots of the American Left

And an older book:

Liberal Fascism

This was an absolute eye-opener to me; I was, when I read the first one, much more aware thanks to this second.  Wow!

 

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Pick of the post:

 

 

 

The more I see about the world, the more I am convinced that the answer to Lara’s We don’t know musing is… ALL OF THEM.  And related:

 

 

Again, experiencing Betrayal Trauma over this, I am beginning to realize that not only have the last years been moving towards not being free.  I’m wondering if it was all a stage thing like Zappa once said:

 

“The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it’s profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater.”

― Frank Zappa

 

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Palate cleansers:

 

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I remember seeing this movie in 3-D.  With the glasses.  Excellent!

 

The post Meme Overflow appeared first on Granite Grok.

Before 2020, I don’t think you’ll find many articles on GraniteGrok about medical facemasks or face covering with an alleged medical purpose. Maybe one or two. It’s 2023, and we’ve got close to 400 of them, and guess what?

You were right.

 

“Masks interfered with O2-uptake and CO2-release and compromised respiratory compensation,” the review states. “Though evaluated wearing durations are shorter than daily/prolonged use, outcomes independently validate mask-induced exhaustion-syndrome (MIES) and down-stream physio-metabolic disfunctions. MIES can have long-term clinical consequences, especially for vulnerable groups.”

Continuous rebreathing of carbon dioxide results in the “right-shift of hemoglobin-O2 saturation curve.”

“Since O2 and CO2 homeostasis influences diverse down-stream metabolic processes, corresponding changes toward clinically concerning directions may lead to unfavorable consequences such as transient hypoxemia and hypercarbia, increased breath humidity, and body temperature along with compromised physiological compensations,” the review states.

The review also said that several mask-related symptoms may have been misinterpreted as symptoms of long COVID. “In any case, the possible MIES contrasts with the WHO definition of health,” it states, referring to the World Health Organization.

None of this, I admit, is new to you, who have been reading here or sending us links to similar research for as long as we’ve been told we have to wear facemasks. It is data these researchers sifted at length to arrive at their summary. This a conclusion that makes perfect sense in a world where politicians won’t make room for it.

 

It suggested that the side effects of face masks be assessed based on risk-benefit analysis after taking into consideration their effectiveness against viral transmissions. If “strong empirical evidence” showing the effectiveness of masks is absent, the study recommended that wearing masks should not be mandated, “let alone enforced by law.”

 

Red Bull does not give you actual wings, but politicos, so-called public health experts, the media (which knows little about anything), and the Karens would have you believe it will if that advances the correct agenda.

Before the COVID mandates, the evidence on masking was clear as vodka. Medical masks worn by professionals – the ones they asked you to use – are not meant to prevent viral transmission. They are incapable of it, and the manufacturers have long been required to state as much to avoid being called out by consumer advocacy groups, government agents, or agencies pretending to be about consumer protection.

At best, they might prevent you from spitting on someone or them on you, but that’s not how airborne viruses find new hosts. Viability on surfaces is fleeting and inefficient. It can happen, but the perceived benefit does not outweigh the risk, including the threat mandates present to natural rights and liberties.

We’ve said it many times. Freedom is far more fragile and rare than human life, so preserving it is job one, and too many of us are still sleeping on the job, and a few of us are still wearing facemasks that don’t do any of the things attributed to them but can cause medical harm.

 

 

The post These Researchers Reviewed 2,168 Face Mask Studies, And You Were Right! appeared first on Granite Grok.

Making up lies, and creditable lies is difficult. Besides, no one is smart enough to remember all the lies they tell and then end up giving themselves away. But, when you speak the truth you don’t have to remember anything.

Truth is not something you make up, as lies are. Truth is a universal treasure that belongs to all and sets us free. President Trump won the 2020 presidential election in a landslide, and that is the truth that must be repeated.

“We are on the precipice – this is essentially a new American Revolution, and anybody who wants this country to remain free needs to step up right now. These are federal felonies. Altering a vote or changing a ballot is a federal felony. People need to come forward now and get on the right side of this issue and report the fraud they know existed in Dominion voting systems because that was what it was created to do,” Powell said.

At a time when the world is in torment and uncertainty, the American people—true to the values that have always been at the core of America’s identity—strongly put their faith in President Trump and the future.

Unfortunately, under the pretense of Chinese virus hysteria, the Socialist-Democrats implemented a national, orchestrated drive to relax accountability in the voting process and allow massive mail-in ballots to pour in, which they evidently exploited with massive voter fraud that enabled them to flip a lopsided presidential election.

The release of a forensic audit of Dominion Voting Systems Software in Antrim County, Michigan, has shown that the voting machines are “intentionally and purposefully designed with inherent errors to create systemic fraud and influence election results.”

Trump won this election in a huge landslide, and the machine’s algorithm fraud was not enough for Biden to win, therefore, the extra illegal mail-in ballots started flowing in at 2 am/ 3 am and even days after.

We are witnessing an international plot and a coup d’etat to exploit a manufactured virus to support a utopian society in order to steer toward a New World Order.

What we as Americans should do now, knowing full well that our election was stolen in bright daylight and right in front of billions of people watching it worldwide live? Surrendering is not an option!

Perhaps Patrick Henry can answer this question:

“It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace — but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring the clash of resounding arms to our ears! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”

 

The post Surrendering is Not an Option! appeared first on Granite Grok.

The Democrat party is the party of death, but they are also the party of fear, and one of the more recent terms to join their lexicon is forever chemicals. Anything that gets into your body accumulates and never leaves, like Democrat Socialism.

I was reminded of this when a Boston Herald headline popped up in the daily pile of emails. “US states including Vermont and California consider ban on cosmetics with ‘forever chemicals’.” For those new to the question, everything has the potential to cause harm, even things that can do great good, but the dose makes the poison. There is, for example, no evidence of which I am aware that PFOA or PFAS are forever chemicals, but they can lead to cancer in high enough concentrations, so the left uses them to make your water so expensive that you are forced to use less.

Use less came before “it’s a forever chemical,” and we know the Ruling Class, led by Democrats, could care less about your water quality. Flint, Michigan, The Colorado River contamination, East Palestine. It’s politics first for them in every instance.

A parallel example is energy prices and emissions. Driving prices up forces people to use less, and offshoring emissions makes it look like they care. But both instances are about control.

So what about the Boston Herald Headline? States like California and Vermont (same state, different sides of the country) have a burning desire to regulate, and the cosmetics industry is an enormous target.

 

In Vermont, the state Senate gave final approval this week to legislation that would prohibit manufacturers and suppliers from selling or distributing any cosmetics or menstrual products in the state that have perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, as well as a number of other chemicals including lead and formaldehyde.

The products include shampoo, makeup, deodorant, sunscreen, hair dyes and more, said state Sen. Terry Williams, a Republican, and member of the Senate Committee on Health and Welfare. …

“We must stop importing dangerous chemicals like PFAS into our state so we can prevent the harms they are causing up and down the supply chain — from their production and use to their disposal,” Lauren Hierl, executive director of Vermont Conservation Voters, said in a statement.

 

This is based on assumptions put forth by the politically compromised EPA, complete with the forever chemical label. But there’s no proof of that. Yes, significant exposure presents some risk of cancer, but workers who handle the stuff have never had any higher incidence of cancer than those who don’t, and I’ve yet to see any research that contradicts that. But let’s run with it, shall we?

Hormone blockers given to pre-pubescent kids will forever alter their biology. Surgical interventions that remove or replace sex parts are forever. The sort of government that Democrats want is forever – even suggesting a reduction in growth is labeled a drastic cut in funding, and nothing they erect ever goes away.

The COVID vaccines may be, for many, a forever chemical.

But if ever there was a thing that represented a danger to life, liberty, and happiness (forever), it is progressive governance. Democrat rule is the biggest threat to your longevity and quality of life.

So what’s the answer? Education. Democrats seem to think they have a monopoly on that, so teach, don’t regulate. Tell people you think this stuff might be dangerous and why, then let them assume the risk. It’s how free and open societies work things out, and if we are being honest, the government’s track record in determining what is safe and effective is lousy.

But that comes with risks. Open debate allows other details some time at the podium. And it abrogates the true mission; their busybody obsession with control and the desire to grow government at every opportunity to ensure it.

It’s a sure sign that you need to be wary. The moment the “experts” and their Deep State presstitutes in the media try to squelch opposing ideas, it’s a scam.

 

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Trust me – I’d rather not have to send a second demand for School Districts to respond to a valid Right To know. I’d rather have it a two-email process as in “Here’s the RTK” and “Here are the demanded Responsive Records.” Quick, easy, and done.

But my last email had to be sent and it did have a result.

Recap:

• Sent off the RSA 91-A demand for the Hinsdale School District / SAU92 on 3/22 for the District’s card catalog(s).
• Received their response – “look it up yourself” on 3/28
• Replied on 3/29 – you are out of compliance as “it is the lawful responsibility of the Responder to fully supply the Responsive Records and not shift that burden to a Requester” to retrieve the Responsive Records that are not covered by RSA 91-A:5 Exemptions.  Lawyers write for the ‘Grok.
• Called (left vmail) and emailed Jodie Holmquist (SAU92 Business Administrator) that ghosting me won’t work – Ask your legal counsel about Clauses 7 & 8.

I’m a bit late in posting this up but here we go.

—— Original Message ——
From “Jodie Holmquist” <jholmquist@hnhsd.org>
To “Skip” <skip@granitegrok.com>
Date 4/7/2023 12:17:44 PM
Subject RTK Request

Dear Mr. Murphy,

As a further response to your RTK request for information on library books in the Hinsdale School District, I am attaching an Excel spreadsheet for each of our two libraries with the author, title and ISBN number for books.  Your request for content summary in an Excel format is more difficult.  Our district librarian has been in communication with Destiny in an effort to comply with your request and has learned that our system provides the content summary as an html document.  I am including those links as well.

Thank you,

Jodie

And I thanked her for sending a partial delivery of Responsive Records and looking forward to the rest:

—— Original Message ——
From “Skip” <Skip@granitegrok.com>
To “Jodie Holmquist” <jholmquist@hnhsd.org>
Date 4/7/2023 2:04:14 PM
Subject Re: RTK Request

Jodie,

Thanks for sending these files along.  I’ll review them later on today and compare them against the data elements listed in my RTK.

If your librarian needs assistance, I can help.

Thank you for the partial delivery of the Responsive Records.

-Skip

So we shall see what happens.

To be continued…

 

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The Nashville, Tennessee, school shooting was a hate crime. Domestic terrorism perpetuated by self-proclaimed transgender Audrey Hale. Such people want “revenge” against those who disagree with their agenda.

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

Online trans community posts include:

“Trans kids are being killed by legislation.”
“Death before Detransition”

Trans posters in trans online forums and Twitter promote violence against “TERFs” and “fascists.” In other words, people who want to protect children from their deviant sexuality.

One video on social media is a boy with curly brown hair, wearing a midriff-bearing T-shirt, loading a full magazine into an AR-15, and cycling a few rounds through the chamber.

A trans activist called the Nashville Christian school a “Right Wing Institution” right after Audrey Hale’s sick, twisted rampage.

The Left’s Marxist propagandists, like Todd Bookman of NHPR, are stoking fear, hatred, and violence amongst transgender people. He is inciting mentally ill people to violence. Gender Dysphoria is a known mental illness.

“You have to be dangerous back, why some LGBTQ people are taking up arms.”

Bookman quotes Sharon, an LGBTQ competitive shooter, “There are people that just looking at me will want to hurt me. ”

That’s rather delusional and paranoid. Where are the Democrats with their red flag laws now?

From PJ Media, William Whitworth, a 19-year-old male that claims to be female, was arrested for threatening various schools. Police found his copy of The Communist Manifesto, by Karl Marx, amid the squalor of filth and rotting take-out food in his dwelling.

Dr.Peter McCullough, MD, MPH, quotes a British study that concludes the most notable risks for those who change genders is suicide and homicide. Perhaps we should focus on treating gender dysphoria rather than humoring the mentally ill before they kill more of us.

I never found Klinger on MASH attractive. Just comedic, as intended. If this tiny percentage of humanity wants armed conflict with conservative veterans, bikers, Their families, and friends, that’s an hour we’ll never get back. LOL.

Trans Day of Vengeance. Wear a mask. Yeah, right.

On a final note, there are video stills of Audrey Hale’s shoes by school cameras and police body cam. One shows sneakers with a white slash; the other shows sneakers with flames on them. What if liberals, conservatives, and transgenders are being manipulated by the alphabet agencies?

Food for thought.

 

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When you have kids, you start looking around for all the harmful things they might do by accident, like stick a finger in a socket, drink cleaning fluids from under the sink, climb out a second-story window, fall down some stairs, or drown in a toilet, and so on.

And you install devices — covers, locks, gates, caps — to keep those things from happening.

And you do it before you’re overwhelmed by sleep deprivation or other forms of stress.  While you’re still able to think calmly and clearly about the future.

That’s the basic idea behind a constitution, and especially a bill of rights. They are devices installed by adults to keep children from doing things that would cause great harm — like passing laws to abridge freedom of speech, infringe the right to keep and bear arms or deprive people of their livelihoods in the name of public health — because they just don’t know any better.

That is, a constitution, and a bill of rights, are essentially child-proofing devices.

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Four staffers for the White House will try to leverage hundreds of social media influencers to peddle Biden’s’accomplishments’ in the run-up to the 2024 Presidential Election. That shouldn’t take long. He doesn’t have any.

But do they need help? Between the progressive zombies, the bot farms, and big tech’s partisan interests, it’s not difficult to find “someone” online willing to lie to protect the ongoing decline of America at the hands of radical domestic terrorists doing business as the Democrat Party. There are more of them than you can shake a stick at (or at whom you can shake a stick, if you prefer).

No shortage, and as difficult as it is to accept, we have not reached peak stupid. To get there from here, Obama Biden staffers hope to lower the IQ in every room to sell Biden’s America to young voters. The ones whose debt he did not cancel. Whose jobs he killed and wages he made worthless.

Them?

 

“We’re trying to reach young people, but also moms who use different platforms to get information and climate activists and people whose main way of getting information is digital,” Jen O’Malley Dillon, White House deputy chief of staff, told Axios.

In addition to the digital strategy team working with Biden, the content creators could potentially set up camp in a dedicated briefing space at the White House to meet in person or remotely.

 

It’s a good thing the TikTok generation feasts daily on a diet of Democrat drivel. The ask should be easy. Hey, you know that crap you peddle daily. Depression, misery, generational hopelessness, and helplessness. Can you swing in a few good words about Joe Biden and how he made that romanticized utopian experience you are having possible? Tell them he’ll finance their lethargy with poverty-level subsistence living basic income. Just face DC a few times a day, bend over, and kiss your ass goodbye.

And don’t forget to mumble!

Oh, and do some “spontaneous” organic protests now and again (we’ll send you details in advance), suppress other people’s speech, support men pretending to be women, and then throw yourselves off that bridge we’re trying to sell you when we come up short on the promises.

Hey, we were right about that COVID vaccine, yeah? Safe and effective for kids who didn’t need it (and our condolences on the student death of your friends – that was Trump’s fault). The irreversible gender surgery for minors – and don’t listen to those detransitioning conspiracy theorists. Legalized Marijuana! Porn in schools. And, of course, Yes –  a guy older than Moses with the intellectual agility of a small soap dish can relate to what matters to you. Joe loves fondling young people.

I bet it goes well for them as long as no one has to read anything. Expecting kids who graduate to be able to read is racist.

 

Exit question: it looks like they might be running this out of the White House, which – correct me if I’m wrong – but I think this violates Federal Election law (as if they care).

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Sir Isaac Newton wasn’t a political thinker like Marcus Cicero or John Locke. He was a scientist. Indeed, he exemplified the Scientific Revolution—an event that changed not only how people thought about the physical universe, but also how they thought about politics and government.

In that way, Newton and his scientific colleagues greatly affected the U.S. Constitution.

Newton and the Scientific Revolution

Aristotle’s works dominated the theory and practice of science throughout antiquity and the Middle Ages. Aristotle’s dominance faded during the Renaissance, however, and in the ensuing years. Nicolaus Copernicus refined the already-existing theory that the sun, not Earth, was at the center of the solar system. Johannes Kepler described the nature of planetary orbits. Francis Bacon outlined the scientific method. Galileo Galilei made discoveries in physics and astronomy. René Descartes’ mathematics facilitated the integration of math and physics. Gottfried Leibnitz advanced the fields of mathematics, physics, and philosophy.

Newton was the exemplar of this enlightened age.

He was born in 1643 (by our current calendar) in Lincolnshire, England. He had a difficult childhood, and his talents surfaced rather late. His string of astounding discoveries began after he enrolled at Cambridge University.

Newton invented calculus and made breakthroughs in optics and the laws of motion. His Latin term for the universal attractive force—gravitas, “heaviness”—gave us our word “gravity.” Encyclopaedia Britannica describes his book “Principia Mathematica” as “the fundamental work for the whole of modern science.”

Later in life, Newton became president of the Royal Society and warden of the British mint. He became deeply involved in the mint’s operations. The first scientist to be knighted, Sir Isaac died in 1727, at the age of 84.

Effects on Political Thought

The Scientific Revolution, and particularly Newton’s work, taught men that the universe wasn’t willful or chaotic, but governed by rules of order. Once you knew the rules, the physical universe became predictable. The physical world was, in 18th-century parlance, a “mechanical” place.

Newton’s fame encouraged others to tinker with mathematics, machinery, and astronomical models. Garry Wills’ book “Inventing America” describes both the 18th-century fascination with mechanical order and balance, and the efforts to apply “mechanics” to politics. Wills wrote of the Declaration of Independence, for example, “The Declaration’s opening is Newtonian. It lays down the law.” Wills added that “Newton’s ordering of the inanimate universe led men to seek an equivalent pattern in human activity.”

Effects on the Constitution

Participants in the 1787–1790 debates over the framing and ratification of the Constitution frequently drew analogies between scientific law and political and constitutional systems. Illustrative are some observations by John Dickinson during the Constitutional Convention. Here is their context:

The early days of the convention were dominated by arguments for a powerful national government that would relegate the states to wholly subordinate roles. James Wilson and James Madison were among those making such arguments.

Madison also favored a small aristocratic Senate. He claimed that a larger Senate would have insufficient influence. He compared the case to that of the tribunes in the Roman Republic: When their number was increased, Madison said, they lost influence.

On June 7, 1787, Dickinson decided he had had enough of this. According to Madison’s own notes, here is what Dickinson said:

“The preservation of the States in a certain degree of agency [i.e., independent activity] is indispensable [sic]. It will produce that collision between the different authorities which should be wished for in order to check each other. To attempt to abolish the States altogether, would degrade the Councils of our Country, would be impracticable, would be ruinous. He compared the proposed National System to the Solar System, in which the States were the planets, and ought to be left to move freely in their proper orbits. The Gentleman from Pa. [Mr. Wilson] wished he said to extinguish these planets. If the State Governments were excluded from all agency in the national one, and all power drawn from the people at large, the consequence would be that the national Govt. would move in the same direction as the State Govts. now do, and would run into all the same mischiefs. The reform would only unite the 13 small streams into one great current pursuing the same course without any opposition whatever. He adhered to the opinion that the Senate ought to be composed of a large number, and that their influence from family weight & other causes would be increased thereby. He did not admit that the Tribunes lost their weight in proportion as their no. was augmented and gave a historical sketch of this institution. If the reasoning of [Mr. Madison] was good it would prove that the number of the Senate ought to be reduced below ten, the highest no. of the Tribunitial corps.”

Notice how Dickinson reduced Madison’s argument about the Roman tribunes to an absurdity. More important for present purposes, however, were Dickinson’s mechanical modes of expression: “collision between … authorities,” the solar system, the flow of a great river, references to “weight.”

Analogies like these occur throughout the constitutional debates. Participants besides Dickinson enlisted the solar system in particular. A writer using the pen name “Marcus” asserted that under the Constitution, “The State Judiciary will be a satellite waiting upon its proper planet: That of the Union like the sun, cherishing and preserving a whole planetary system.”

My favorite example from this genre comes from the Massachusetts ratifying convention, held in early 1788. Opponents of the Constitution had been arguing for annual elections, which, they said, were suggested by nature itself.

William Hershel had discovered the planet Uranus only seven years previously. A supporter of the Constitution, James Bowdoin, took advantage of the discovery to make a point at the opponents’ expense:

“[I]f the revolution of the heavenly bodies is to be the principle to regulate elections, it was not fixed to any period, as in some of the systems it would be very short; and in the last-discovered planet it would be eighty of our years.”

Charles Turner rose in response:

“In reply to the Hon. Mr. Bowdoin, … He was, he said, greatly in favor of annual elections, and he thought … it would be establishing a dangerous precedent to adopt a change; for … the principle may so operate, as, in time, our elections will be as seldom as the revolution of the star the honorable gentleman talks of.”

Effect on the Constitution’s Structure

Much of the final Constitution resembles an interlocked and finely tuned machine. As Charles Carroll of Carrollton wrote:

“The three distinct powers of the federal Govt. are skilfully [sic] combined so as to balance each other, by that reciprocal check & counterpoise, which the most approved writers on Govt. consider as its chief perfection … [T]he several State-Governments will always keep it within its own & proper sphere of action: [T]hus while it restrains the State-Governments within their orbits, it is by them retained within its own; acting, & acted upon it will produce that order, that stability in the civil, which we see exists in the physical world, where if I may compare great things to small, every planet, every center of each system attracting & attracted, repelling, & repelled keeps that station, & rolls within those spheres, which the great Author of all being has prescribed to each.”

Further exemplifying the intricate and balanced structure is the Constitution’s Article V, which sets forth the amendment process. Madison was its principal draftsman, and it shows that he shared his generation’s “mechanical” mode of thought:

• Article V prescribes two ways of proposing amendments—a more democratically based congressional method and a state-government-based convention method.
• For Congress to consider proposing, only a voting majority need agree; but to actually propose, two-thirds of each house must agree.
• Conversely, for a convention to consider an amendment, two-thirds of the states must agree; but for the convention to propose only a voting majority of states need agree.
• Paralleling the two ways of proposing are the two ways of ratifying: by popularly elected state conventions (considered the more democratic mode) or by state legislatures (more state-government based).
• Both methods of ratification require approval by three-fourths of the states, a margin that ensures both widespread state agreement and widespread popular agreement.

Balance and order. All very Newtonian.

Read prior installments here: first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth.

 

 

TJ Martinelli | The Tenth Amendment Center

 

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Sun-King Sununu tweeted about Easter, but his tweet said NOTHING about Easter being a Christian holiday:

Now contrast Sun-King’s treatment of Easter to his treatment of Eid-al-Fitr:

To be clear, I have no problem with Sun-King recognizing Eid-al-Fitr. My problem is with Sun-King treating Christians as second class citizens. It is a complete falsehood to claim that Sun-King focuses on the “fiscal issues” and avoids the so-called “cultural issues.” Sun-King does take sides on the “cultural issues” and it is NOT the side of most GOP voters … and again, to be clear, what I mean by the side of most GOP voters is treating Easter as a Christian holiday, celebrating the risen Christ NOT bunnies.

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Why Does Planned Parenthood Want to Hide Details of Its Gender-Transition Hormone Drug Therapy Business

Planned Parenthood kills more babies than anyone, ever, in history, but that’s not a big enough business. They are branching out, and while abortion drives the bus, if you are interested in gender transition drugs, just ask.

 

Many Planned Parenthood health centers are able to offer gender-affirming hormone treatment (sometimes called GAHT). The best way to learn about the services available in your area is to contact your nearest Planned Parenthood health center.

If your closest Planned Parenthood health center doesn’t offer gender-affirming hormone treatments, and you want them to, you can tell them. Hearing from patients helps your nearest Planned Parenthood add services that you need. They may be able to recommend a trans-friendly doctor in your area who provides the services you need.

 

A story out of Missouri brought this to my attention.

 

“Following discovery that Planned Parenthood provides life-altering gender transition drugs to children without any therapy assessment, we asked them to provide basic documents to explain themselves, including why its procedures depart so far from any recognized standard of care

— Attorney General Andrew Bailey (@AGAndrewBailey) March 31, 2023

 

But it’s not exactly a secret, so why is PP in MO working so hard to hide the details?

 

Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey demanded documents from Planned Parenthood after finding out that the clinic provides “life-altering gender transition drugs to children with any therapy assessment,” spokeswoman Madeline Sieren said in a statement. She described that as a departure from standard care.

Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri sued in response, trying to block access to its records. In court filings, the healthcare provider argued Bailey has no authority to investigate the clinic, which is inspected by the state health department.

So, yes, they are offering these “treatments,” and no, they don’t want you to know the who, what, where, when, and how? Not private health details. You can only demand those where COVID is concerned. The AG doesn’t need personal info. What he’s looking for is evidence of procedure and transparency after a whistleblower “alleged that physicians [at a separate transition facility] did not warn patients and parents enough about potential side effects of puberty blockers and hormones, and that doctors pressured parents to consent to treatment.”

In a series of tweets, the AG outlined the nature of the interest.

 

“Following discovery that Planned Parenthood provides life-altering gender transition drugs to children without any therapy assessment, we asked them to provide basic documents to explain themselves, including why its procedures depart so far from any recognized standard of care  Planned Parenthood is a member of the activist organization WPATH, which has long called for ‘extensive exploration of psychological issues’ ‘before any physical interventions are considered.’  But rather than provide a single document to explain why it is departing so far from WPATH’s standard, Planned Parenthood is running to court to try to hide everything. Missourians should be very concerned.  There is also a growing recognition that there is not yet solid evidentiary support for gender transition interventions.  As the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has determined,  ‘There is a lack of current evidence-based guidance for the care of children and adolescents who identify as transgender, particularly regarding the benefits and harms of pubertal suppression, medical affirmation with hormone therapy, and surgical affirmation.’  That’s why Finland, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, among others, have declared this to be ‘experimental’ and have substantially limited the circumstances where these interventions can be prescribed.  Planned Parenthood’s decision not to follow the science, and not to even explain why it will not follow the science, is very concerning.  We look forward to prevailing in this request for information and learning what is truly going on with Planned Parenthood in connection with gender transition issues.” (10/10) 

Planned Parenthood of St Louis and southwestern Missouri sued to keep their secrets which is their right but not a good look. Planned Parenthood has no aftercare. They are a chop shop that typically outsources the “women’s health” side to third parties so it can focus on abortion. If they are handing out hormone therapy drugs, I’m confident it’s as haphazard an operation as the rest of the business. And that’s a good reason to ask questions.

Gender therapy drugs can kill kids. Dead. If PP isn’t providing proper informed consent, there are legal issues. They do not have the immunity provided to the Covidistas.

And yes, I checked Planned Parenthood of Northern New England (the local area tax-dollars to Dem campaign cash laundromat) and did not see anything obvious. Nothing popped more locally, either. But as you read in the first pull quote, PP offers them; all you need to do is ask.

We assume that enough interest will spark an activist war against local legislatures to ensure they can wreck kids’ lives without costly evaluations, documentation, reporting, or follow-up.

There is, of course, one other problem. Can they still call it “women’s” health care if they are transitioning boys to girls or vice versa? And why do they call it that anyway? They can’t even tell you what a woman is. How could they possibly know how to transition you to or from what they can’t define?

Talk about a paradox.

 

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A popular narrative is that the COVID pandemic shutdowns made things worse for public schools, so we should cut them some slack.  But there are two problems with this.

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

First, the narrative is not supported by the data.  Scores were already decreasing (for reading) or stagnant (for math) before the pandemic started.  It’s not like there was progress to be interrupted.

Second, the amount of slack that was already given to public schools over the several decades preceding the shutdowns is nearly beyond belief.  There hasn’t been a time since the NAEP tests started (half a century ago) when it hasn’t been reasonably accurate to say:  About half of kids in public schools are performing below the lowest levels of proficiency in reading and math.  This is true no matter where you look, and no matter when you look.

The one score on which public schools have made substantial gains is in dollars spent per student.  Currently, the per-student cost of a K-12 education exceeds the median cost of a house in many school districts.

For homeschooling parents, there is good news, and there is bad news.  The good news is:  Whatever you’re doing, it’s likely to be better than what they’re doing in the public schools, because it could hardly be worse.

The bad news is:  Even if your own children are educated properly, they will still be surrounded by generations of public-school graduates, and will have to pay for an increasingly dysfunctional and expensive public school system.

Below, we take an in-depth look at what happened to scores on the New Hampshire Statewide Assessment (SAS), the test formerly known as the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), and the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) before, during, and after the pandemic shutdowns.  We also look at the per-student cost of K-12 education in New Hampshire over the same period.

 

The NH SAS

The New Hampshire Statewide Assessment System (NH SAS) is administered yearly to students attending traditional public and charter schools in grades 3-8. The SAT is administered to NH students in grade 11 — it’s free, and it’s required.

Parents may exempt their child from taking these tests. They do not have to supply a reason, and the school has to provide an educational activity for the student to do during the period their classmates are taking the assessment. These tests are not used as graduation requirements.

There is no minimum performance required of students — except inasmuch as RSA 193-H:2 requires public schools to have “all pupils at the proficient level or above on the statewide assessment.”

No school in New Hampshire is in compliance with this law.  We might ask what purpose is served by these tests, but that is not the purpose of this review.

The New Hampshire Department of Education (NH DOE) has a record of statewide assessment data since 2016, which includes the NH SAS (grades 3-8) and the SAT (grade 11). The tests were not administered in 2020 because of school shutdowns due to the COVID pandemic. We’ll call this the shutdown year.

In what follows, we will use the phrase ‘the score’ to refer to ‘the percentage of students performing at or above the most basic level of proficiency’ on any given test.

Summary of NH SAS Scores Since 2016

The following chart shows an overall summary of the score on the state standardized tests in grades 3-8 and 11 in English Language Arts (ELA) and Mathematics.

 

 

We see that ELA scores (blue) have been dropping linearly since 2016. (That is, we can draw a nearly straight line connecting the tops of all the blue bars.) In 2016, the score was just over 60%.  (This means that nearly 40% — that is, 4 out of 10 students — performed below proficiency). In 2022, the score was about 50%. There was no extra drop after the shutdown for ELA. In other words, ELA scores seem to be just where they would be anyway, if the shutdown had never happened.

Math scores (orange) tell a different story. The score was just below 50% for all four years prior to the shutdown. After the shutdown it dropped to just under 40% and remained there in 2022. The scores were bad before, and are worse now. So, math scores show a marked decline after the shutdown.

(It’s just speculation, but this is consistent with the idea that students forgot the math they’d learned earlier. Which is another way of saying that they hadn’t really learned it.)

It might be helpful to view how these scores changed from year to year. The numbers in the chart below are computed by subtracting the previous year from the current year. (The difference shown in 2021 was from 2019, since the test wasn’t given in 2020.)

We can see that there’s a decrease in the ELA score (blue) every year, both before and after the shutdown. As described earlier, scores for ELA were dropping before the shutdown and continued in the same fashion into 2021.  The drop from 2019 to 2021 appears large because it represents two years of decline, instead of just one.

The math score (orange) was approximately the same for each year before the shutdown (which is why you can’t see any orange bars for 2018 and 2019).  Then there is a large (10%) drop in the score the year after the shutdown, followed by an increase in the score two years after the shutdown.

 

 

Individual Grades

Now let’s look at grades 3-8 and 11 individually to see if that tells a different story.

The chart below shows the score for ELA alone. It shows a 5-year progression for each grade, made up of 2 bars (for 2018 and 2019), a space (for the 2020 the shutdown year), and 2 more bars (for 2021 and 2022). We see that in each of grades 3 through 8 there’s a drop in scores after the shutdown year, though sometimes not by very much (e.g., grade 6). That’s consistent with the overall scores for grades 3-8, discussed above. However, grade 11 shows consistent scores before and after the shutdown, which is different from the overall scores shown earlier.

 

 

 

Students in grade 11 take the SAT, which is a different test from the NH SAS, and not directly comparable, even though the state combines them in its overall summary. Also, students take no standardized test in grades 9 and 10.

Math scores in the individual grades drop after the shutdown each year in grades 3 through 8 (yellow is below orange), but then the numbers start to rise (compare light blue to yellow). This is different from the overall scores in math. More specifically, the math score goes down after 3rd grade and remains static in the middle grades (look at any one color across grades 5-8 in the math graph below).

There is also an exception for grade 11 for SAT math, where the numbers remain at about the same levels, hovering at around 40%. (Again, that’s 6 out of every 10 students performing below proficiency).

 

 

Notes

• None of the scores are good.
• The providers of the NH SAS have done formal analyses of content validity to make sure it tests the content covered in the NH College and Career Ready Standards that teachers are required to teach each year. That is, it tests what it’s supposed to be testing.
• The NH SAS is not a high stakes test. That means that nothing hangs on a student’s score. Students who care about their test grades will try to perform well; those who don’t may just fill in bubbles.
• For students who don’t plan to go to college, the SAT is likewise not a high stakes test.

 

NAEP: The Nation’s Report Card

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP, pronounced “nape”) is often called The Nation’s Report Card.  It is the largest nationally representative and continuing assessment of what students in public schools in the United States know and are able to do in various subjects in grades 4, 8, and 12.

Since 1969, NAEP has been a common measure of student achievement across the country in mathematics, reading, science, and many other subjects. Depending on the assessment, NAEP report cards provide national, state, and some district-level results, as well as results for different demographic groups. NAEP is also used to compare performance in the US to performance in other countries, for example, in contrast to the PISA and TIMSS tests. NAEP reports four levels of performance: Below Basic, Basic, Proficient, and Advanced.

NAEP scores in New Hampshire tell a different story than the NH SAS and SAT scores. Looking at the chart below, the ELA scores for grades 4 and 8 were rising (ever so slightly) since 2003, but dropped in 2019, which was a year before the shutdown. Whatever happened in 2019 was not the shutdown.

NAEP normally tests in odd years, but they skipped 2021 and instead tested in 2022, with scores that were even lower than 2019 (although not significantly different statistically).

 

 

Looking at the chart below, math scores were on the rise for both grades 4 and 8 through 2013. Fourth grade scores (blue) dropped in 2015, continuing the downward trend through 2022. Eighth graders (orange) didn’t score as well as the 4th graders through 2013, stagnated from 2013-2017, but also took a downturn in 2019 that continued in 2022. Grade 8 looks like they took more of a shutdown hit than Grade 4, but both downswings started well before the shutdown.

Again, we should state clearly that all these NAEP scores are abysmal. They show that even at its high in 2015, 55% of grade 8 students were not reading at a proficient level (previous chart above). In math (below), the peak was in 2013, with 41% of NH 4th-grade students performing below proficiency. What’s more, if you go back far enough, the 2022 scores might just be part of a normal variance.

 

 

NH Per-Student Cost

The growth in the yearly cost per pupil in NH’s public schools, preschool through grade 12, is shown in the chart below. For fun, we compare each yearly increase to inflation since 2017.

The blue bars show the per-student cost growing (from 2017) at the rate of inflation.  The orange bars show the actual growth, which is considerably larger.

By 2021-22, the excess grew to 10% of the total (about $1,800 additional per child).  And this is only going back to 2017.  Imagine if we started the inflation analysis 40 years ago.

 

 

Again, keep in mind that this is the cost of a school system in which half the students are failing to reach even the lowest levels of proficiency in reading and math. The mind reels.

 

Conclusion

The narrative that the COVID pandemic shutdowns made things worse for public schools is not supported by the data.  Scores were already decreasing (for reading) or stagnant (for math) before the pandemic started.  It’s not like there was progress to be interrupted by the shutdown.

About half of kids in public schools are performing below the lowest levels of proficiency in reading and math. This has been true for a long time.

The one score on which public schools have made substantial gains is in dollars spent per student.  The per-student cost of a K-12 education exceeds the median cost of a house in many school districts and rises beyond inflation every year.

 

| Granite State Home Educators

The post Did COVID Shutdowns Affect NH Student Performance? appeared first on Granite Grok.

The headline from the Epoch Times is “Switzerland Stops Recommending COVID-19 Vaccination,” but is that the real story? It sounds like a win for the so-called anti-vaxxers. The Jab is terrible, and hey, the Swiss have said Nicht mehr (Aucun, Non più, ajunge). No more!

Related: New Research: COVID and Flu Vaccines Are Not “Preventing” Hospitalization

 

Switzerland’s Federal Office of Public Health now says that “no COVID-19 vaccination is recommended for spring/summer 2023.” People designated at high risk also aren’t recommended to get a COVID-19 vaccine, authorities said.

 

Why?

Switzerland claims to have evidence that 98% of the population has COVID antibodies. Summer is not big for flu (they say), so now seems like an excellent time to delist the mRNA poison as something the government suggests officially… unless you want it.

 

Swiss authorities nodded to the short-lived protection as they noted that people designated at high risk from COVID-19 can still receive a vaccine, despite the lack of recommendation, after consultation with their doctor.

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So, there’s no reason to harass the folks who took a hard pass?

Switzerland’s population is 8.8 million. They claim 4.399 million cases of COIVD, with 4.378 million recovered. But only 69% have received one dose; on average, only 10% have in the past six months. That’s not dissimilar to other countries, including the US. Uptake has waned significantly, and in Switzerland, half the population may have never had COVID though they may have been exposed. So?

 

“Vaccination may be wise in individual cases, as it improves protection against developing severe COVID-19 for several months,” they said.

People at high risk include those aged 65 or older and pregnant women.

 

That’s some bad advice, none of which is proven—quite the opposite. COVID vaccination increases the chance of disease and severe disease, including death. Pfizer/Moderna, the FDA, and who knows who else in the so-called public health industrial complex also knew The Jab caused miscarriages.

 

People who aren’t determined to be at high risk from COVID-19 can also get a COVID-19 vaccine but will have to pay a fee since they’re getting a vaccine that isn’t recommended, authorities said. Those at high risk who receive a shot recommended by the doctor won’t have to pay, as the vaccination will be covered by health insurance.

 

In other words, the “Swiss authorities” are not saying you no longer need it. They are saying the government will no longer pay for it, but if you would like to embrace the risk, knock yourself out – perhaps literally.

At least for the summer. The “authorities” reserve the right to renew a recommendation that you get more poison before winter arrives, though it does not look like the population will line up if they do.

That is good news.

 

 

 

The post Switzerland Declares COVID Herd Immunity – But You Can Keep Poisoning Yourself If You Want appeared first on Granite Grok.