Sunday • November 24 • 2024
Vol.XVI • No.XLVII
Manchester, N.H.
And he looked so nice, too, bless his heart! Yes, Thad Riley, the failed candidate for NH Governor and current NH GOP E-Board member (Assistant Secretary), has accomplished a feat unlike all the other members – he got a Democrat, elected over the Republican.
Melissa Litchfield, for the Brentwood Selectboard.
So the operative question is “How many Republican votes did Thad Riley swing to the Democrat Party? I’m betting that he’ll never tell but I’m also betting that he’s quite pleased with himself for doing so.
And the other operative question is how many of the NH GOP Executive Board members will either pull him aside or openly rebuke him for doing so? After all, it’s not like the NH GOP needs yet another black eye, but here it is. He may not care about his reputation but he is certainly tarnishing theirs, right?
It’s one thing if an individual Republican does a “cross-over” on their own. However, Riley (and others) were elected to represent Republican ideals and defend the NH GOP Platform as well as its Bylaws – not only in letter but in spirit as well.
Political Discipline…what a concept and it’s clear that Riley has no regard to who brung him to the dance with this stupid move. Is it stupidity, or an overwhelming urge to be liked by everyone, ego, or something else? I’ve know folks like this before and the answer to those questions generally come out eventually “beyond the shadow of the pale”.
Way to go, Thad!
You know Thad, when I dropped this post, I was hoping that you’d man up enough to retract calling us liars (emphasis mine):
“Granite Grok is a group of right wing Liars“.
Methinks that you should as my clock is ticking. I shall repeat: put up or apologize. Show us your proof or we may well be meeting in a room you don’t want to be in.
Mean while, other irregularities in Brentwood appeared. Did you embolden the Brentwood Democrats into thinking other hijinks were permissible since you ended up being an electoral push-over?
Like this sign that the Democrats said could be inside the polling place:
Brentwood Democrat sign in polling place(click to embiggen)
And yes, that is Paul Kleinman, the guy that Thad Riley endorsed over Republican Melissa Litchfield, on the right if you haven’t figured it out (he is holding his sign as well, after all).
And oh, about the Brentwood Supervisor of the Checklist? Remember, it doesn’t matter who votes but who COUNTS the votes…
Oh, and yet ANOTHER well known Republican has done the same thing and I have receipts. Ante up sir – I’ll be looking to receiving YOUR apology as well..
To be continued…
The post Thad Riley Is Unique among Current NHGOP E-Board Members: He Helped a Democrat Get Elected over a Republican appeared first on Granite Grok.
Joe Biden is what I call a Convenient Catholic. He portrays himself as a devout Catholic to the point you might think he is still an altar boy on weekends when away from his day job.
He is so convenient a Catholic that recently, the Church hinted it might deny Biden receiving the Sacraments, including Holy Communion.
Biden has flip-flopped on numerous issues during his fifty-year political career. The Crime Bill he claims, was one of his biggest accomplishments as Senator, to an era of going soft on crime, and now not agreeing with the Washington, D.C. Crime Bill. He was Pro-Life before he became Pro-choice. He was against Gay Marriage in the Senate before he supported Gay Unions as VP and President. If you do not agree with one of Biden’s policy stands, just wait a day, and it may change.
Some people may change their beliefs over time as facts and data change. Sometimes, we respect people for allowing their stands to evolve. For Biden, however, this has happened too often and appears to be because it is politically expedient. Some of his flips are not endearing him with Democrats. Specifically, his decision on the D.C. Crime Bill and the drilling in Alaska have many people shaking their heads.
Biden’s life is a series of flip-flops which makes it very difficult to take any of his policy positions seriously. That makes it difficult for his opponents as well as his proponents. That is not what you want or need in a leader. You should expect consistency in beliefs, and you do not get that with Joe.
Most Presidents will track toward the middle as they enter the second half of the first term. This tactic worked well for Bill Clinton, allowing him to win a second term easily. You could argue that Joe Biden is taking a page from Bill, but there seems to be much doubt about Biden’s commitment to run. There are obvious questions about his health and mental well-being, and he has to be looking at his horrendous poll numbers. Jill is all in for a run, and for that, she should be vilified, but her desires for four more years in the White House may not align with Joe’s, and certainly not with the American voters. If, and damn, that is a big if, the election is fair, there are so many Republicans who would beat Joe handily.
One thing that will come back to kick Joe in the butt is not making changes in his staff. Take your pick. Buttigieg, Mayorkas, Granholm, Garland, and even Yellin have underperformed. For Joe not to identify these deficiencies is a knock on his leadership abilities. His base will overlook this, but independents will not.
The other element that will blow up a second run, which would actually be his fourth, is the Hunter situation. The money trail is getting more robust, and the House smells blood in the water. They will push to get Hunter charged in plenty of time to kill Biden’s thoughts of a second term. Of course, he could pray for divine intervention, but I am not sure his call will be answered.
The post Biden Invokes His Religious Beliefs appeared first on Granite Grok.
CONCORD, N.H. — New Hampshire is starting an Automated Victim Information and Notification System, to keep crime victims aware of an offender's status via text messages, emails and phone calls. Victim advocates will be registering crime victims, who will then maintain a personal profile to update their notification preferences and contact information. WATCH VIDEO
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Remember his claim that with Trump gone, he was going to reestablish America’s standing in the world?
Yeah, this from Australia shows us how well that’s going…
No further words from me are warranted.
(H/T: PJ Media)
The post Fixing America’s Status In the World: How Joe Biden Is Perceived in Other Countries. appeared first on Granite Grok.
Several of the various COVID-response totems have taken a turn tumbling off the dais with the blessing of the ruling class mouthpiece media. Few apologies, but several new narratives are looking to soften the memory.
And how about this one? It’s your fault.
New “research” suggests that if you weren’t getting more than six hours of sleep each night when you lined up to get your vaccine ticket punched, this might have compromised any advertised immunity.
Trigger warning. The researchers use the words, men and women because their ‘data’ suggests unexplained differences.
The research, published in Current Biology, found strong evidence that sleeping for less than six hours reduces the immune response to vaccination in men – although the effect was more variable in women, probably due to fluctuating sex hormone levels.
“We know from immunology studies that sex hormones influence the immune system,” said Spiegel. “In women, immunity is influenced by the state of the menstrual cycle, the use of contraceptives, and [whether they have gone through menopause], but unfortunately, none of the studies that we summarised had any data about sex hormone levels.”
When both sexes were taken into account, the effect of short sleep was comparable to the waning of the antibody response to the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine after two months. The researchers said: “If similar to the influenza and hepatitis vaccines … then insufficient sleep around the time of Covid-19 vaccination may reduce antibody titers in the same range as the waning of the response to the most commonly administered vaccine over two months.”
That pull quote has more couches than Jordan’s Furniture. If similar. May. But they did admit The Jab wanes after two months which has become a new normal, but they made up for it with this. “They also found that the immunological impact of insufficient sleep was greater for adults aged 18 to 60, compared with older adults.”
So, what you are saying is that all the people who didn’t need The Jab and got it after a few bad nights of sleep – probably caused by months of fearmongering by the media, partisan politicians, and so-called public health officials – were more likely to have received less immunity.
This is the same group whose all-cause mortality skyrocketed in the shadow of the global push to put one of these needles in every arm. Are we to assume that COVID nightmares spawned by lies about masks, distancing, cases, and mortality is also responsible for myocarditis, ischemic strokes, clotting, and healthy people dropping dead after they got The Shot!?
This has all the hallmarks of a narrative mule. The research is sketchy, the assumptions cloudy – and wait for it – “Spiegel emphasised, however, that more research was needed to quantify exactly how much sleep was needed – and to unpick the role of sex hormones in vaccination response – before firm guidance could be issued.”
In summation, we don’t know anything, but we’d like you to begin to believe that if it didn’t work, that was your fault.
HT | GP
The post New Narrative: It’s Your Fault The COVID-19 Vaccine Didn’t Work appeared first on Granite Grok.
Yep, another Right To Know. Yep, another “thing” with the Belknap County Delegation, and now it’s about our taxes paid out over admitted illegal Budget Review meetings. The County told us this themselves:
Good morning,
Because the Budget Review Committee meetings were not publicly posted, the Committee will have to schedule a properly posted meeting to ratify the action taken at the previous meetings. This should be done with enough time remaining in March to properly notice a Delegation meeting to follow through with last night’s agenda.
That email effectively admits the Delegation’s violation of RSA 91-A:2, II (excerpted, emphasis mine):
II. Subject to the provisions of RSA 91-A:3, all meetings, whether held in person, by means of telephone or electronic communication, or in any other manner, shall be open to the public ..Except in an emergency or when there is a meeting of a legislative committee, a notice of the time and place of each such meeting , including a nonpublic session, shall be posted in 2 appropriate places one of which may be the public body’s Internet website , if such exists, or shall be printed in a newspaper of general circulation in the city or town at least 24 hours , excluding Sundays and legal holidays, prior to such meetings.
NOT ok that Chair Harry Bean and his passel of Right To Know Misfits didn’t Follow The Law in the first place, and I proved it here by asking for financial records and copies of the ads placed for Delegation meetings. The results showed that only two Notices had been placed and none of the Budget Review subcommittees.
Now, most politically aware folks here in NH know that our State Reps and Senators get $100/year + mileage (and “Leadership” can be a smidge more). Did you know that Reps attending Delegation meetings of any type also get paid for them? Yesssir – $25/day plus mileage. That’s what they get for LEGAL meetings.
Should they be paid for ILLEGAL meetings? So, to get the appropriate background, I issued yet another Right To Know – the payload:
This request concerns any payments made to Belknap County Delegation members for attending any improperly noticed, thus illegal, meetings during the time period specified above. While members are due compensation for LAWFUL meetings, per RSA249-ee (emphasis mine):
24:9-ee Compensation for County Conventions. – Members of each county convention shall receive from the county treasury a sum not to exceed $25 per day for actual attendance at meetings of their respective conventions and an allowance for travel expenses to and from the place of meeting at a rate per mile not in excess of the rate allowed by the United States Internal Revenue Service to be set by a vote of the respective county convention. They are not entitled to receive any compensation or mileage for attending such meetings when such meetings are held at the state house in Concord on a legislative day.
And
Thus, I am demanding that the Belknap Delegation / Belknap County Administration provide the following Financial Records:
- Any documentation submitted to the Chair | County Administrator | other County staff by each member signifying a request for such payments per RSA24:9-ee for attending the now declared illegally called Budget Review Committee meetings.
- The expenditure transaction history from any and all General Ledger accounts used to pay each attending Delegation member of the now declared illegally called Budget Review Committee meetings for specified $25 attendance fees and travel allowances.
- Copies of any remittances to such attending members for their attendance (e.g., cash, check, ACH, Paypal, Venmo, or other electronic payment system) for the now declared illegally called Budget Review Committee meetings.
They seem to think so, especially with Delegation Chair Harry Bean leading the way. All that has to happen is that a form with the details must be filled out by each Rep and signed by that Rep by the end of that day of the meeting – there is no oversight by anyone (Chair, Vice-Chair, the County Administration). The “Honor System”.
County Administrator Deb Shackett sent the information back the next day and the following received payments:
Reminder – we are a Dillon’s Rule State. That means that only those actions set out in duly enacted legislation. That means you can’t just make up or rationalize “stuff” that seems to be covered (but really outside of the written law). Only that which is explicitly listed | enumerated in Laws are allowed. Everything else is prohibited.
They’ve admitted that the meetings were illegal (“were not publicly posted“).
Even a cursory examination of the verbiage (see above) says “meetings” in RSA 249-ee doesn’t cover illegal meetings else “illegal” would have been in the language. It also doesn’t state “all meetings” which, depending on one’s intent and a broad intent, might cover illegal meetings. Maybe.
These BudReview meetings were illegal by the simple mandate of RSA91-A: post notices properly or you can’t have the meeting. Ditto for RSA24:9-D. It just seems that these folks just believe they are above / outside the Law – it’s the only conclusion I can come to.
There is no provision RSA24 for payment for attending illegal meetings (or aborted, or canceled, or other adjectives for “other than legal”) as the above email infers by stating the reason for a “redo”. None of those Representatives should have been paid for any of those three BudReview meetings. But they did.
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Who watches the watchers?
So where is the Leadership on this? Both the Delegation Chair (Harry Bean) and Subcommittee Chair (Steven Bogert)? Where is the ethical leadership in all this – or just a case of feeding from the trough because no one would complain? Honor, much?
Apparently, only this lowly blogger is going for the details and who is wondering WHY I HAVE TO DO THIS IN THE FIRST PLACE? If the Delegation has overwatch responsibility over the County Budget, shouldn’t THEY be doing the Right Things in the Correct Way?
Corruption? Malfeasance, Cutting Corners (heh! “Chair Cutting Corners Bean” – I just culturally appropriated a Trump tactic here. With Bean having been a huge Trump supporter, he shouldn’t mind, right?).
Honesty should prevail instead of an attitude of either “dang, we got caught”. Or, as it was reported to me, that Delegation Chair Harry Bean said, upon being approached by NH State Rep Barbara Comtois (not part of the Subcommittee but part of the Delegation) that “ratifying” the tainted results from the illegal meetings (again, not properly noticed so the Public didn’t know about them) with others around the two of them:
“So sue me”
REALLY, Harry? What a condescending attitude. Unfortunately, too many of our public servants have decided to morph into being our Public Masters and have engendered that attitude knowing that few citizens have the time and the financial wherewithal to undergo that laborious and expensive task. It’s at attitude that screams “SCREW YOU!” to we regular people and a complete indifference to right and wrong. Good to know, Harry Bean, good to know.
It also screams “Don’t get in my way”. So, how MUCH, Harry, are you going to raise our taxes on us, again? That number of 35% stuck in my mind
And my craw as a taxpayer.
Trust?
Yet again, it’s another indication of a lowering (or complete dissipation) of standards and morals. It seems that, with this crew, it’s a case of “whatever we can get away believing nobody’s looking”. And wait until my post about HB357, NH State Rep Steven Bogert, and Belknap Sheriff Bill Wright shows up.
Wrap all those bolded adjectives above and I ask: who of those folks will be the first to return that “illegal meeting” money? What’s the over/under that ANY of them will?
The post Did Members of The Belknap County Delegation Get Paid for Attending Illegal (Not Publicly Noticed) Meetings? appeared first on Granite Grok.
If you do even a minimal amount of looking, you will discover that the political Left’s anti-gun violence laws result in more violence. That’s deliberate, but they’re not lying when they say they want to reduce gun violence.
They are not talking about today, next week, or even next year. Disarming law-abiding citizens is guaranteed to increase violence, especially gun violence. So what do they mean?
At some point down the road, when the Ruling Class is the only ones with guns, and all the people who disagree with them have been “addressed” (killed, slaughtered, tortured, put in labor camps, or just imprisoned), there will be a reduction gun violence.
All you have to do is give up your rights, allow the government to define that to which you are entitled, and do whatever they say.
This is what they mean by utopia.
If you’d like an example, like test driving a car or sitting on a sofa you may be thinking about purchasing, there are several. We could look at Castro’s Cuba, Stalin’s Russia, Mao’s China, or the Kim family dynasty in North Korea. Both Hitler and Mussolini had National Socialist utopias. The trains ran on time, or they killed you (and maybe your family) and put some other lucky party hack in charge.
Tyrannical despotisms over oppressed peoples. That’s what they are after.
And yes, there will still be lots of violence, but it won’t be gun violence because that’s not what they call it when the government hoots someone. In utopia, they call that justice.
The post What it Means When Democrats Say They “Want to Reduce Gun Violence” appeared first on Granite Grok.
Heh! Fredocon*, indeed! Emphasis mine: “…Then there is Chris Sununu, scion of the family that brought us Justice Souter. He’s been a terrific governor of New Hampshire if you define “terrific” as capitulating to everything the left wants.”
He failed to redistrict the state into winnable GOP districts. He digs abortion. He also – like his political doppelganger Hogan’s Hero Sandwich – refused to do something useful and at least try to win us another GOP Senate seat, instead putting self above party so he could entertain his delusion that the GOP might ever nominate him for president. And, of course, he’s down on the dudes who can win. Sununu is really upset with Donald Trump because oh well I never we’re better than that that’s not who we are blah blah blah. He does not like DeSantis because DeSantis fights and wins instead of surrenders and loses, which is what this Maple Syrup Fredo thinks is the GOP’s role. Remember, true conservatism is losing gently.
Sununu is one of those principled Republican who never met an alleged principle that kept us from winning that he didn’t like. He thinks that we are required not to use our power – the power of government via our elected officials – to order our society and culture as we see fit. However, he sees nothing wrong with woke corporations using their power – economic, cultural, and governmental as well – to order our society and culture as they and their ESG/diversity directors see fit. The notion that we are somehow morally obligated to forego the only means we have of protecting our interests while the left and its catspaws can do whatever they please is a bizarre notion that we in the base long ago abandoned. But this guy has not moved on.
In his mind, we are forever compelled to watch conservatism be defeated in the name of conservatism…
So, where is he wrong, Sununu Supporters, outside of financial matters (well, THIS proposed budget is a bit sketchy for me to be saying that) and guns?
And other than here in NH, what poll shows him higher than his vaunted 5% cut-off point? Time’s a tickin’, Guv:
Mr. Sununu also warned minor candidates not to carve up the field:
“I think there’s a lot of hope and opportunity for good candidates to get in, drive the message where it needs to be,” he said. “But the discipline is getting out, too. The discipline and saying, ‘Look, you’re only polling at 5%, you got to get out.’ We don’t want a crowded field here.”
So, how is that aging? Not well, so, I’m going to hold him to it. How is he doing? Let’s just say the phrase “5%, you got to get out” will haunt him.
*= Brother Fredo from the Godfather movie series where he went against The Family and received his Consequence. I posit that Schlichter has a nice little analogy here – posing that Sununu was part of the Republican Party family but constantly going against “The Family” with his words and actions.
HT | Kurt Schlichter (“The 2024 GOP Primary’s Fredocon Lane“)
The post And Another Guy Disses Chris Sununu for Prez – Correct Observations and He Doesn’t Even Live Here! appeared first on Granite Grok.
After years of politicizing clean air and water, it is only a matter of time before the Left argues against both, and they will. China is their template. A polluting, uncaring superpower praised for its response to climate change.
Related: Democide: Blocking Ivermectin Likely Cost 800,000+ American Lives
A response that is ruining the air and water in China while doing the same in third-world countries mining rare earth metals for the race to net-zero freedom – as in no liberty, much like in China. So, it’s no surprise they’ve bad-mouthed drugs like Ivermectin and supplements like vitamin D.
The evidence suggests that both are cheap, helpful prophylactics that aid your immune system in resisting the flu plague they’ve released across the land. We’ve discussed why they hated on Ivermectin at length. If there is viable existing treatment, the FDA can’t issue emergency use authorization. The map dots lead you to the only possible conclusion, and so it is with vitamin D3.
There have been repeated threats that the FDA plans to regulate the wild-west vitamin supplement industry but not over the potential for malfeasance or fraud – and not that the FDA doesn’t want to keep its monopoly on both. Supplements might put roadblocks between you and their public health industrial complex utopia.
Vitamin D3 might be the Cherubim with the flaming sword.
But there is no shortage of research on the benefits of Vitamin D supplementation to the human immune system. Experts say, add Zinc, C, and a few others – assuming you can’t and don’t get enough through a healthy diet – and you are donning the immune system equivalent of the armor of God. It’s not foolproof and may not be suitable for everyone (ask a medical professional you trust if you can find one), but it’s right enough that the Left has hated on it – which is always a giveaway.
The ruling class (led by Democrats) is good at telling what scares them.
Vitamin D scares them because it is safe and effective and fosters independence from socialized medical mandates. To make matters worse, a ten-year study was just released that suggests vitamin D therapy can reduce incidents of dementia by 40%.
The large-scale study (with over 12,000 participants) spanned ten years — so there’s lots of data over a lengthy time frame that the corporate media is going to have a hard time refuting. In the conclusion, the researchers implored the scientific community to build upon their findings in future research, with more specific analysis of the intriguing differences in the dementia-fighting benefits of vitamin D by sex (women experienced a greater benefit than men).
Wait a minute. Vitamin D knows more about biology than Supreme Court Nominees (it can tell the difference between biological men and women!). That’s something! Perhaps the Left should discredit it with accusations of bigotry but be careful.
Vitamin D supplementation might be what people of color need as a first line of defense against flu, SRV, Pneumonia, COVID-19, and even common colds. Generations of ancestors helped develop darker skin to protect them from an environment with so much sunlight, while our shared ancestors who migrated north paled so their bodies could create more vitamin D with less sunshine. Their bodies can’t produce enough of it where the sun is less direct, as in much of the US.
In other words, scaring people of color away from vitamin D may put their health at risk (racist!), but then so would scaring them away from Ivermectin, and the “experts” keep doing that.
Maybe they are hoping for a rise in dementia as well to keep everyone mentally close to the progressive norm.
The post Another Great Reason to Take Vitamin D appeared first on Granite Grok.
Apologies for the delay, but we’d like to thank everyone who helped with the February Fundraiser. It ran from Mid February to early March, and we reached our goal last week.
We are still waiting on a few promised checks that got us there, but we expect them in the next few days.
So … THANK YOU!
Your generous response is humbling, and we greatly appreciate your voluntary contributions. The next step is nailing down our webmistress to get some of the modifications you’ve helped fund implemented. We also need to nail down the retired guy who is working to elevate several other projects, but this is still a hobby for him as well, and life keeps getting in the way [Yes, that would be me, folks…sigh -Skip]
‘Grok App development was idled and will need to get rebooted. As a mobile platform, it should have a less pervasive ad experience (which I, like you, do not love). It will also allow us (I want ) to offer an ad-free experience for subscribers on phones and tablets (details and viability are still on the drawing board).
I also want an ad-free browser version for subscribers, but that is down the road a bit, and it may have to wait for the next site-wide renovation.
The improved search feature is in the debate stage – as in what we can do with the WordPress environment in which we live, but that will be sooner rather than later.
We are also working on all the numerous broken image links that frequently end at 404 not found errors – a situation we facilitated and need to rectify.
There is also some backend stuff that needs to be addressed and requires the paid services of tech professionals.
Your donations will help offset some of those costs, and (again) we appreciate the help, the support, and as always, thank you so much for reading GraniteGrok.com.
The post We Reached Our Fundraising Goal! – Thank You! appeared first on Granite Grok.
Governor DeSantis, I understand that you will visit Woke Hampshire on April 14th to headline the NHGOP’s premier fundraiser, the Amos Tuck Dinner. There are a few things about Woke Hampshire that you should know.
First, Woke Hampshire is neither a Red State nor a Purple State. It is a Blue State. The last time the GOP Presidential candidate got more than fifty percent of the vote was 1988. And since COVID it has gotten much bluer. Senator Hassan was elected in 2016 by barely more than 1,000 votes. In 2022 she was reelected by more than 55,000 votes.
Woke Hampshire has become much bluer recently for two reasons. One is that Governor Sununu was one of the more extreme COVID Governors. To borrow a phrase, he chose Fauciism over freedom. His lockdowns, mask-mandates, tacit encouragement of businesses to impose vaccine-mandates, among other things, drove Red voters to leave the State.
The other reason is that Sununu, since being elected Governor in 2016, has fully embraced and encouraged woke. In 2018, he signed a transgender bill into law, which his own Attorney General says requires schools to allow boys to compete in girls’ sports and use girls’ locker rooms. In 2021, he refused to sign a bill banning CRT until the legislature watered it down to the point that it is meaningless. His embrace of woke has made the State a magnet for Blue voters as the 2022 elections showed.
Second, you will repeatedly hear two terms, “local control” and “limited government,” used to describe Woke Hampshire’s supposedly true brand of conservatism. To paraphrase the Princess Bride, in Woke Hampshire these terms do not mean what you think they mean.
Local control is the justification given for State government turning a blind eye to the Diversity-Equity-Inclusion toxin that is pervasive in the State’s public schools. For example, just last session, the Republican-controlled House, at the behest of Governor Sununu, killed a parental rights bill. Local control is a myth. Public school districts in New Hampshire are actually run by unaccountable and woke bureaucracies that are, at best, indifferent to the remonstrations of parents at school board meetings. It appears that around two-thirds of every education dollar is spent outside the classroom to feed this bureaucracy.
Limited government is the justification given for State government doing nothing to protect people from big business pushing woke such as vaccine-mandates, CRT and DEI. Limited government is also a myth. In 2019, the Democrat-controlled legislature with the support of all but one Republican State Senator passed and the Republican Governor signed a bill codifying Obamacare into State law. Just this year every Republican State Senator voted to make Obamacare Medicaid Expansion permanent.
Woke Hampshire has no business leading off the GOP Presidential primaries because it is not a barometer of what matters to the GOP base or to Independents. Don’t let it tarnish your brand.
The post An Open Letter To Ron DeSantis … Some Things You Should Know About Woke Hampshire appeared first on Granite Grok.
The Tuesday Nor’Easter dumped some serious snow on Nothern New England, and while the meteorologists tried to get it right, they blew it again.
Areas projected to get the most snow got double the estimate (or nearly), while many places got disparate measurements in different parts of town. Merrimack, for example, has an “official” total of 12 inches, but late Tuesday afternoon, I had the dog in the backyard, and it was up to my knees.
I am not exactly tall, but there was at least 18 inches of new snow back there. My large 90-pound lab was groundhog and prairie dogging it (he loves snow); the stuff was so deep. Other parts of my yard had less but also had tree cover. Was the average across town 12 inches? Maybe, but I got more, and I bet many of you did as well.
So tell us? Did you measure? How much snow did you get? And tell us how that compared to the “official” measurements published by WMUR (and shared below).
We want to hear your snow stories and your downed tree stories, whatever you got!
Harrisville and Richmond tied for the highest reported (by the way) at 38 inches of snow. Hanover said they only received 1″ of snow.
New Hampshire Snow Totals Care of WMUR.
The post How Much Snow Did You REALLY Get This Week? appeared first on Granite Grok.
OK, I’ve got tons of stuff built up, and this is back from February when “Pothole Pete” (his nickname from his time as Mayor of South Bend, IN) finally deigned to visit E. Palestine where the train wreck (HIS area of expertise) disaster happened.
Of COURSE, people are asking, “what took so long?” but Petey Buttigieg’s “personal time” is a higher priority than lives and property being ruined.
This young reporter from Turning Point has it exactly right and with the right attitude toward someone who seems annoyed that he has to deal with this (I guess he’d rather be virtue-signaling pulling his bicycle out of his SUV to ride the last couple of blocks to work for fawning cameras):
WATCH: Sec. Pete Buttigieg's team FREAKS OUT when asked why it took him almost 3 weeks to come and speak to residents of East Palestine. His press secretary BEGS reporter to turn off the cameras.
Source: Savanah Hernandez @ Frontlines Show pic.twitter.com/IKatLEunbs
— Cory Reynolds Republican Of Maine (@RepublicanCoryR) February 24, 2023
Lady, YOU’RE the Press Secretary! You are expected to take questions all the time, every time, and anywhere. I know that there are people who want to control the Narrative and the environment, which is EXACTLY what she was trying to do.
Big #FAIL as she has now invoked the Streisand Effect. So instead of trying to speak the Narrative on the down low, she blew it up. Her annoyed face was wonderful in expressing her ire.
And Chubbs (I can say that as being a former Chubb myself, but he’s got me beat by a couple of magnitudes) that butted in didn’t make it any better. Sorry, high elected officials ARE responsible to us. It’s really too bad that Petey made her take the heat as he just rushed by, also looking annoyed that he, Our Highness Who Checks a Few Diversity Boxes, that others wanted him to take the question instead.
So I’ll include this as I brought it up at the event I was at Wednesday night and chuckles all around to those that heard it:
Challenge: withOUT looking it up, how many can you name? I can only name two.
The post FUNNY! This Young Lady Warms the Cockles of My Heart; The More Mature (?) DOT Press Secretary, Not So Much appeared first on Granite Grok.
Chuck Todd’s tenure in Machine Media included genuflecting to the gods of progressive government every time he entered the press room. Offering sacrifice to the approved narratives.
Well, maybe not every time but most of the time. I’m not going to sift the jetsam of his love affair for the few times he’s committed acts of journalism. This guy will defend a security-risk drug addict with a prostitute baby mama ‘cuz his last name is Biden, so I’m not sure I’d find anything. He frequently commits (to quote Howie Carr) the journalistic equivalent of unprotected sex.
Then we’ve got this. Chuck implores you to get vaccinated. Get others vaccinated. And stop spreading misinformation.
It has aged about as well as milk.
Those of us peddling the so-called misinformation have turned out to be not just truth-tellers but scientific truth. And most of us are still around, while the vaccinated are getting sick and dropping dead because they listened to Chuck Todd.
Is Chuck planning to jump on the COVID apology tour? Maybe a do-over. Or will he find a way to blame the sudden deaths of young people on January 6th, climate change, Donald Trump, or parents objecting to porn at school board meetings?
It’s not like the truth ever stopped Chuck before.
The post A Quick Reminder from the Medical Experts at MSNBC … appeared first on Granite Grok.
Lisa Logan has connected the dots on the Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) in our local schools, and how it relates to the Social Credit System. SEL is part of the Multi-Tiered System of Support that has now been implemented in schools across the state.
MTSS-B is a mental health framework for schools to follow.
All of this came through the SAMHSA mental health grant so that our schools could be turned into mental health clinics. Keep watch because soon schools will become medical clinics too. It’s part of the CDC’s vision for public education.
This has become one big mess, considering that now we have schools sharing your child’s mental health data with Plymouth State, Antioch University and Keene State. The amount of money we are paying in order to just implement this mental health scheme in our schools could be better used to actually treat children who are in desperate need of mental health care. Some of these kids are waiting in emergency rooms and local hospitals because mental health treatment is not always available. Where there is the biggest need in New Hampshire, that need is not being met. Instead we are paying evaluators to tell us how wonderful the MTSS-B system is working in our schools.
I guess we are supposed to ignore the increasing violence teachers have reported in Nashua and Keene. While they shift focus away from real consequences for bad behavior, to positive behavior programs, it looks like some kids are just not responding. This is another example of a one-size-fits-all model handed down to us by the federal government.
On top of this colossal waste of taxpayer dollars, what does this really mean for your children?
Lisa Logan spells it all out in her article titled: SEL+ESG=Social Credit System. How the Emergence of ESGs & the Imperative to Teach, Score, and Track Social and Emotional Learning is Setting the Stage for a Future Social Credit System
SEL is included in Tier 1 of the Multi-Tiered System of Support. Like all government programs, they promise a lot but deliver little. Remember how well No Child Left Behind worked? Remember how poorly crafted our state Common Core Standards are working? Now they are going to address the mental health of our children in schools. The same people who shut down the public schools, and harmed the mental health of students, are tasked with treating your child’s mental health. What can go wrong?
In this scheme we’ve discovered that schools are not even following basic codes of ethics when it comes to sharing your child’s mental health data. School personnel are delivering your child’s mental health data to Keene State/BHII without parental knowledge or consent.
Lisa Logan writes about SEL:
…..most children learn those skills in their early years just from being a part of a family who has healthy, positive interactions that they observe and take part in on a daily basis. Granted, there are children that don’t grow up in a stable environment and SEL was originally brought into schools to deal with kids that needed specialized instruction in that area. That isn’t the case any longer. State School Boards (at the direction of the Department of Education) have decided that EVERY kid needs support in that area and they are teaching social emotional learning as a school-wide intervention. This has been spurred on by states having to report back to the federal government on non-academic factors (like the social and emotional health of their students) in order to receive federal money, like is required by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).
That’s why Keene State/ BHII needs this sensitive and private data on your children. They have to report back to the federal government.
You can see from the agreement Keene State has with area schools what kind of data they are collecting on your child and family here:
Why do they need to know your religious and political affiliation? Why do they need to know your child’s social security number? Keene State is supposed to be evaluating the MTSS-B program in our schools, and reporting back to the federal government. But even that is a scheme since there is no real independent or peer reviewed studies on how MTSS-B is working in our public schools. What Keene State prepared looks more like a marketing brochure than any critical analysis on the program.
Logan goes on to address the shift away from learning academics, to the focus on soft skills for the workforce:
Underlying all of this curricula and assessments are the 5 Core Competencies set by The Collaborative for Academic Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL). They rate and review all SEL programs and are seen as the standard-bearer for SEL, creating the definitions for and ideal targets of social and emotional learning. Currently, the focus is on cultivating soft skills that are ideal for what the workforce desires. CASEL has been establishing Collaborating States Initiatives to create a community of practicefor states across the nation whose shared goal is to “connect education and workforce policy through an SEL lens.” Essentially, State Boards of Education agree to align what social and emotional competencies students should be taught to what business/industry partners deem the “correct” ones. Accordingly, SEL instruction is integrated into K-12 programs, curricula, or related experiences to teach the competencies employers want the most, which are increasingly becoming less about academic skills and more about subjective, non-academic skills.
Competency Based Education is a dumbed down workforce training model that shifts focus away from literacy and academic excellence, to a focus on children learning workforce skills. This changes the focus of public education away from educating for literacy, to training for low-level jobs. When you see your school’s proficiency scores, or international testing comparisons, keep in mind that our education system is focused on mediocrity, and not excellence.
Logan goes on to explain how emotional intelligence is now a priority for employers. Public education is now all about what’s good for corporate America versus what is best for your child. All of this sensitive mental health data on your children is gathered and shared without your knowledge or consent. On top of that, SEL is moving into the realm of “transformative” SEL which will focus on race and equity:
How will emotional intelligence be measured? Through the social and emotional learning scores of future candidates, collected as data that follows them from preschool through age 20 in statewide longitudinal data systems along with their academic scores. That data is gleaned from SEL assessments built around curricula that’s aligned to CASEL’s 5-Core competencies.
Except CASEL’s definition of social and emotional learning and their 5-Core competencies made a seismic shift in 2020. Their new definition, Transformative Social and Emotional Learning, has SEL now centered around a racial and “equity” lens. CASEL leaders believe that “racialized oppression was foundational to the establishment of the United States” and have adopted the Marxist Critical Race Theorist view that the U.S. is systemically racist.
SEL is now going WOKE too.
As such, the new goal of SEL programs that align to CASEL’s standards is to groom students into thinking that the systems of society are intentionally built to be oppressive toward certain groups of people, and that they need to become agents of change (social justice activists) who want to overthrow those systems to make them more “equitable.”
SEL lessons, like those found in the program Second Step, manipulate the definitions of empathy and perspective-taking in their K-5 program to frame that being kind means you have to “do something,” which later becomes “choose a disruption strategy” by 8th grade. These disruption strategies encourage students to come up with concrete plans to advocate for causes related to race, gender and sexuality. Being that the assessments (like the surveys/screeners conducted by Panorama Education) also align to CASEL’s standards, they are measuring compliance to & students’ adoption of these Marxist values, attitudes, and beliefs, which will be scored and collected as data that reflects their “emotional intelligence.”
What does all of this mean for your child? We know that schools are sharing competencies with colleges, so when your child applies to a college, what SEL information will be shared? Logan goes on to share this disturbing scenario:
The ramifications of this are frightening. Forbes notes that hiring decisions that used to be made based on schools attended, grades, and the status of their last employment are shifting to more intangible qualities like “high EQ.”
What does all of this mean when your child leaves public education and begins looking for a job? Logan says:
What it means for companies to “hire an inclusive workforce” will require much more than just making sure their hiring practices reflect a racially diverse populace, but also that the employees they hire display the soft skills of “inclusivity.” How will they be held accountable? Environmental Social and Corporate Governance Scores (ESG).
Soft skills, that are now required through Competency Based Education, have moved away from workforce skills, to personal attitudes on race. Does that mean your child better be parroting the Critical Race Theory narrative in order to qualify for a job as an accountant?
There’s more:
Not to mention that organizations like the Gates-funded Data Quality Campaign and Jeb Bush’s Chiefs for Change are lobbying for linking student-level data between education and workforce agencies, via the statewide longitudinal data systems. They are asking Congress to lift the ban on a NATIONAL student database, creating a federal student unit record by passing the College Transparency Act.
At this point, I cannot advise any parent to allow their child to participate in the MTSS-B framework. I cannot advise your child working with any school counselors, or participate in Social and Emotional Learning at school. You can certainly try to avoid all of this as some parents have tried to opt out of SEL, but some of the SEL will be embedded in other subjects. The best thing to do is to look for a school that does not provide any of this in school.
From unethical practices to avoid informed consent to the data mining and sharing of your child’s mental health information, your child needs to be protected.
Your child’s mental health is extremely important. But there are good reasons why there are privacy laws in place, and ethical codes of conduct that cover consent. You now have to be concerned how they will weaponize your child’s attitudes on political issues against them when applying for a job. It’s not worth it.
Place your child in a school that does not dabble in pseudo-psychology. If your child needs extra help with their mental health, seek assistance from a licensed Child Psychologist Phd outside the school. Find a professional that follows the APA Code of Ethics. This way you know that they will be looking out for your child’s best interest.
Watch for more information on this in the near future. AS I continue to investigate the mental health clinics in our schools, the more disturbing this becomes.
READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE.
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If you measured Saint Patrick by the typical American experience, you’d think (much like Cinco De Mayo) St. Parick was a gluttonous boozer. Leave it to America to turn something into gluttonous boozing. It’s Arbor day; let’s drink to the trees!
Cinco de Mayo commemorates the anniversary of Mexico’s 1862 victory over the Second French Empire at the Battle of Puebla. In the US, it’s about drinking and eating. So are the months of November and December. The Fourth of July. Labor Day, Memorial Day, St. Patrick’s Day didn’t have a chance. But what about St. Patrick?
According to the autobiographical Confessio of Patrick, when he was about sixteen, he was captured by Irish pirates from his home in Britain and taken as a slave to Ireland, looking after animals; he lived there for six years before escaping and returning to his family. After becoming a cleric, he returned to northern and western Ireland. In later life, he served as a bishop, but little is known about the places where he worked. By the seventh century, he had already come to be revered as the patron saint of Ireland.
Ironically, at least according to this account, when the “holiday” was celebrated in earlier years, “pubs closed and observers went to church.”
From History.com.
In the centuries following Patrick’s death (believed to have been on March 17, 461), the mythology surrounding his life became ever more ingrained in the Irish culture: Perhaps the most well-known legend of St. Patrick is that he explained the Holy Trinity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) using the three leaves of a native Irish clover, the shamrock.
These days pagans fill the pubs, and there is little or no mention of a church unless it is ” the church key,” which gets a lot of use on March 17.
Greeting card companies, decoration makers, brewers, and bottlers of ales and spirits are all beneficiaries of the American experience. The corned beef industry also enjoys an uptick in sales alongside the cabbage cart guy: food, beer, fun, and lots of advice about drinking responsibly and designated drivers.
Not at all a bad idea.
If your plans include excess, please bring someone who will remain sober so you can get home alive. You wouldn’t want to shuffle off your mortal coil and meet St. Patrick accidentally.
Or worse, send someone else in your place.
Have fun. Be safe—and Happy St. Patrick’s Day.
The post Who The Heck is This St. Patrick Person, Anyway? appeared first on Granite Grok.
To all those who are sending in memes, thank you! Keep them coming please, as it helps me gather weaponry to fight the Left. Please do share this post, and if you share an individual meme, consider mentioning you saw it on the Grok!
Still swamped with a work crunch so please forgive the just-meme-dumping. Enjoy, and TGIF! And the last meme post:
MONDAY MEMES – Granite Grok
Hoping to be able to come up for air and resume my normal schedule in a week or so. But I HAVE to get this done…
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Just one special comment here.
Understand, the vast majority of “normies” truly believe they are smarter, more educated, let alone just plain more moral and ethical and better people than we “deplorables” and “foil hat nutjobs”. For them to recognize that we – the people they look down on and disdain – were RIGHT?
Unthinkable.
It would shake their selves and self-image to the core.
Whether on The Jab, or Covid being a lab leak, or “climate change”, or the stability of the financial system, or the Potato being the best President Resident evah, for them to admit being wrong when their being right is central to their self image is impossible. It’s why talking with them – even with evidence – goes nowhere. Very few people have the self-introspection and humility to admit error on this scale.
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Pick of the post:
The post Friday Meme Overflow appeared first on Granite Grok.
I don’t spend much time on Twitter, but when I do, there is usually something of value waiting to be found. Millions of opportunities exist daily, so the odds are almost always in favor of that happening. Like this picture of Joe Biden. A moment in time captured…
As Jason Howerton wonders, what’s all this then?
Can someone explain what actually happened here? pic.twitter.com/giQJmcV87Y
— Jason Howerton (@jason_howerton) March 17, 2023
What indeed!
While we wait for the memes, I’d like to encourage y’all to caption this bad boy. If you are not able to comment because you refuse to give DISQUS your details, you can email it to me with the subject line: “Biden Caption contest” to steve@granitegrok.com.
I’ll share the good ones in a few days.
The post Caption This Photo of Joe Biden Doing … What Is He Doing! appeared first on Granite Grok.