A little over a year ago, at the beginning of the “vaccinated athletes are dropping dead” era, Merck announced a new pill. Sold as a treatment for people at risk of severe COVID illness, Molnupiravir could confuse the crap out of COVID, effectively stopping it dead.

Skip wrote about the announcement here on October 2, 2021. According to the report,

 

How effective was the drug in trials? So effective that an independent panel looked at some preliminary data and told Merck there was no reason to see those trials through to completion. The pill was obviously working. …the new therapeutic involves a breakthrough as well. Instead of attacking viral proteins, molnupiravir scrambles the invader’s genes to stop it from replicating. In other words, it hacks the virus.

 

Allahpundit at Hot Air (occasional deep-state stooge) powdered it with hearts and smiley faces. Skip’s write-up is hopeful, but he’s no fool. He closed the piece with, “If all this turns out to be true.”

Guess what?

Molnupiravir does scramble COVID’s genes but not exactly the way they sold it. The drug deliberately mutates it in the host (you) to create variants and that was the point.

Igor Chudov explains why Merck thought this was such a great idea.

 

Before we consider this study, let me point out that most mutations (in viruses and animals) are deadly and make the organism unable to reproduce. Such was the hope with Molnupiravir: its designers expected that mutations caused by the drug would make the Sars-Cov-2 virus unable to reproduce, thus stopping the infection.

 

The sales pitch was that you could trick COVID into mutating and it would die in the host but not kill the host. So, what about the bad news?

 

…SOME mutated copies remain viable – and create new variants!

 

Let’s skip back up the page a moment to this: “How effective was the drug in trials? So effective that an independent panel looked at some preliminary data and told Merck there was no reason to see those trials through to completion.”

Was that such a good idea?

Chudov’s article includes a recent pre-print of research showing that Molnupiravir can create viable transmissible variants. He also includes warnings. From Science.org, Nov 2021.

 

William Haseltine, a virologist formerly at Harvard University known for his work on HIV and the human genome project, suggests that by inducing viral mutations, molnupiravir could spur the rise of new viral variants more dangerous than today’s. “You are putting a drug into circulation that is a potent mutagen at a time when we are deeply concerned about new variants,” says Haseltine, who outlined his concern Monday in a Forbes blog post. “I can’t imagine doing anything more dangerous.”

 

Also linked by Chudov, from BMJ – Nov 4, 2021.

 

Molnupiravir clearly induces intense mutagenesis in SARS-CoV-2,3 and this accounts for its efficacy. But β-d-N4-hydroxycytidine, the active metabolite of molnupiravir, is not only cytotoxic but also mutagenic in mammalian cells.4 The drug may damage DNA.

 

The FDA Advisory Panel was aware of these risks and others, including birth defects (if used during pregnancy) but still voted to give it authorization.

Your government promptly laundered billions into Merck to buy it for anyone, just as they did with Pfizer and Paxlovid (which doesn’t work either but may be less dangerous than Molnupiravir). A fact that New Hampshire State Epidemiologist Dr. Chan may have known. He suggested that Paxlovid was more effective. Maybe he meant to say less dangerous.

A casual search of New Hampshire’s Fourth Estate finds very little warning. WMUR had nothing. The Union Leader had several pieces, but only this warning one time (subscriber only) emphasis mine.

 

Some of the FDA’s experts have said that could lead to more troublesome variants.

There have also been some safety concerns around the drug because it may affect bone cartilage and growth.

Due to that reason, Merck’s drug is not authorized for use in patients younger than 18, the FDA said. The pill is not recommended for use during pregnancy, the agency added.

The agency advised that men of reproductive potential use a reliable method of birth control during treatment with molnupiravir, and for at least three months after the final dose.

 

 

Note: The FDA EUA Fact Sheet does note that you should not use this if pregnant or if you could become pregnant. I did not see any mention of the risk you’d become a variant factory/super-spreader. That seems important, and its absence is significant, especially since “some experts” said.

 

 

HT | Igor Chudov Substack

The post Another FDA “Win” – Molnupiravir Could Turn Patients into COVID Variant Super-Spreaders appeared first on Granite Grok.

So in the previous posts, I have been explaining the first parts of what NH’s RSA 91-A, the Right To Know Law,  covers – definitions, who or what it can be “pointed” to, and what kind of meetings it covers. However, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy and I’m going to switch things up a bit given a tip I received last night. I do have to give the tipster a call a bit later on this morning (it’s only 8:30 am as I write this and I know the tipster is a night owl) and provide more of an update but it’s a great example to interwine with this series.

Thus, this is what I sent to the Franklin School District (SAU 18) this morning to the School Board members (emphasis mine):

—— Original Message ——
From: “Skip” <Skip@granitegrok.com>
To: tdow@gm.sau18.org; dcarrier@gm.sau18.org; dbrown@gm.sau18.org; ecote@gm.sau18.org; lcass@gm.sau18.org; ccormier@gm.sau18.org; cmartin@gm.sau18.org; pdoucette@gm.sau18.org; maube@gm.sau18.org
Sent: 12/27/2022 8:53:40 AM
Subject: RSA 91A Right To Know demand – the SAU 18 Library Card Catalog

Good morning,

Please find attached to this email my Right To Know concerning the District’s card catalog for its libraries. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact me

I have reproduced this RSA 91A demand below.

Thank you for your lawful response.

-Skip

Skip Murphy
Founder, co-owner
GraniteGrok.com | Skip@GraniteGrok.com
Dominating the political Bandwidth in New Hampshire

So note what I did:

I sent it, NOT to the Superintendent (a public employee) but to the governing body of the District.  In terms of an RSA 91-A dement, the School Board members are the Public Body referenced in RSA 91-A:1-a Definitions:

VI. ” Public body ” means any of the following:…
(d) Any legislative body, governing body, board, commission, committee, agency, or authority of any county, town, municipal corporation, school district, school administrative unit, chartered public school, or other political subdivision, or any committee, subcommittee, or subordinate body thereof, or advisory committee thereto.

After all, the School Board, when you reference other State Statutes, are in charge of EVERYTHING in a School District. Unfortunately, many having not bothered to read such statutes themselves, they get led into the “lull” that they are only responsible for setting budgets and policies and then they simply hand everything off to the “professionals” – in this case, the Superintendent”. Make no mistake, however, THEY are the responsible ones, like it or not and part of this process that I do is to ensure that they know it over the time that it takes to get them to Follow The Law.

I also emailed it to them. One does not have to formally send in a written hardcopy nor does it have to be notarized.  Emails are perfectly fine and acceptable form of communication. Now, there will be some Districts that demand that you use a “form email” on one of their website pages. I don’t care for it at all but they make it impossible to know what the School Board members’ email addresses are so you’re stuck in that regard (yet another tactic that School Boards use to not have to interact with the hoi polloi, I guess. It also generally means that the “email” will go to an employee first for “screening”.

I’ve had that done in the past and then find out that one or more of the School Board members who, once again, are supposed to be in charge. In that case, is it “School Board Members In Name Only” as “he who controls the communications controls the entity”?

Here is the Right To Know attached to the email. Although I have yet to go over the relevant parts of RSA 91-A, I have bolded the parts of my demand that directly tie back to the language of RSA 91-A as I prefer to not allow much, if any, “wiggle room”.  I’ll talk about THAT bit in subsequent posts. However, it all goes back to what you should have learned in elementary school when writing a story: Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How.

Oh, by the way? They can ask but the Public Body is not entitled to know the “Why” of the demand – and I’m not telling them now. Not yet if I do at all.

Pursuant to the Right to Know Law (RSA. 91-A:4 (I) ), I am demanding access, within 5 business days, to the below enumerated governmental records. Otherwise, if this cannot be fulfilled within that mandated window per RSA 91-A, please advise when the Responsive Records will be made available.

This request is for the Franklin/SAU 18 School District library “card catalog”. This is for any and all books located in the following:

• District-wide “main” library
• Each school within the District’s “main” library
• If a school has multiple “main” libraries (such as Brockton High, Brockton, MA)
• All classrooms with cataloged books that are tracked by the District.

The information for each Responsive Record shall include:

• Name of the book
• Name of the Author(s)
• Content Summary
• ISBN identification (or other such designated ID)
• Name of the School
• If a School has multiple libraries, a designation of which library is being referenced (in the case of Brockton High, the five libraries: Red, Azure/Blue, Green, Yellow, and the Science libraries)
• Name/designation of the Classroom within a School

Per RSA 91-A:4 IV(c) If you deny any portion of this request, please cite the specific exemption used to justify the denial to make each record, or part thereof, unavailable for inspection along with a brief explanation of how the exemption applies to the information withheld.

As you are aware, in 2016, the New Hampshire Supreme Court ruled that a governmental body in possession of records is required to produce them in electronic media using standard common file formats: Green v. SAU #55, 168 N.H. 796, 801 (2016). Unless there is some reason that it is not reasonably practical to produce such, explain why it is not practical to comply.

Please also note, per RSA 91-A:4 III, III-a, and III-b, you are required to maintain the safety and accessibility of such responsive records. This also includes such responsive records (e.g., emails) which may have been deleted from respective Inboxes but are still available on the applicable email server or in your / email host backup system(s).

Please let me know when these records will be sent to me for inspection. You may email the responsive records to me at Skip@GraniteGrok.com. If the volume turns out to be substantial, I have already set up a Dropbox folder to use in uploading those responsive records.

Thank you for your lawful attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

Skip Murphy
GraniteGrok.com

So now you have a complete RTK for review and I’ll use it when discussing more of RSA 91-A.

And yes, the “5 business day clock” has already started ticking…

The post A Tutorial: How to Create a Right To Know to Hold Your Government Accountable – A Quick Practicum and Example appeared first on Granite Grok.

Coleman Hughs writes an excellent piece at The Free Press that addresses the matter of color blindness. Not the medical condition but the social, cultural, and political one.

Coleman’s topic is an upcoming SCOTUS decision on “race-based affirmative action in college admissions” and whether universities should be able to “see race,” which then evolves into the debate about the history of colorblind politics and culture and the current climate.

 

Not seeing race is the surest way, these days, to signal that you aren’t on the right side of this divide. Indeed, the term “color-blind” has become anathema to rightthink, and if you live in elite institutions—universities, corporate America, the mainstream media—the quickest way to demonstrate that you just don’t get it is to say, “I don’t see color” or “I was taught to treat everyone the same.”

Once considered a progressive attitude, color-blindness is now seen as backwards—a cheap surrender in the face of racism, at best; or a cover for deeply held racist beliefs, at worst.

The modern self-proclaimed anti-racists have made it clear that you can’t be white and innocent of racism. Past crimes are your crimes. Colorblindness as an idea is painted as a construct of right-wing think tanks.

Kimberlé Crenshaw has criticized the “color-blind view of civil rights” that she alleges “developed in the neoconservative ‘think tanks’ during the seventies.” George Lipsitz, a Black Studies professor at UC Santa Barbara, writes in Seeing Race Again: Countering Colorblindness across the Disciplines, which he co-edited with Crenshaw, that color-blindness is part of a “long-standing historical whiteness protection program” associated with “indigenous dispossession, colonial conquest, slavery, segregation, and immigrant exclusion.”

He then explores the truth (read it all here),

Among the main goals of the Civil Rights Movement was the elimination of laws and policies that used the category of race in any way. In fact, that was the first demand made by the original March On Washington movement of the 1940s (which successfully pressured Franklin Roosevelt to integrate the defense industry). It was also the first argument made by the NAACP in their Brown vs. Board appellate brief. To paint color-blindness as a reactionary or racist idea—rather than a key goal of the Civil Rights Movement—requires ignoring the historical record.

But isn’t that the case with everything? The Left is constantly at war with history because it has a way of reminding us that what they advocate for is not in the best interests of the people, just the people in power.

This is no different, except that advocates use the sins of one form of slavery to entrap the descendants of slaves (and many who were not) in another. They are no different than the African kings or tribes who capture blacks to sell into slavery – human lives bartered for material wealth. Something is still practiced on the continent that these “scholars” and authors are doing right now with their book tours and lecture circuits. Selling out black Americans with the promise of equality if they advocate for an oppressive form of government where there can be none.

Colorblindness is the answer. It must therefore be their enemy because equality is not their endgame.

The post Colorblindness Is the Answer. It Must Therefore Be Their Enemy appeared first on Granite Grok.

Most people are familiar with the famous line from a newspaper editorial written more than 100 years ago. “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus” is found in the published response to a letter sent by eight-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon.

She was having doubts about the existence of Santa Claus and penned a letter to the editor of The Sun, a prominent newspaper of the day. She wanted some assurance that Santa was real, and wrote, “Papa said if you see it in the Sun, it’s so.”

This timeless story is mainly about the spirit of Christmas and the resourcefulness of an inquisitive young girl. But the advice of Virginia’s father, the words that prompted her to write her letter, also offer some insight into how the public perceived the news media in those days. When he told her, “If you see it in the Sun, it’s so,” it revealed just how much trust he had in the press.

There were no national polls 100 years ago, but there’s no reason to believe that Americans distrusted the press back then. Like that father, most Americans likely believed everything reported in the papers. Newspapers, the only source of current events, were certainly more trusted than they are today.

According to an October Gallup poll, trust in mass media is now at a record low. The poll shows that between 1972 and 2022, those who had a great deal or fair amount of trust in mass media dropped from 68 to 34 percent.

And there’s a political slant to the poll. It tells us that Democrats who had a great deal or fair amount of trust in the media dropped from 74 to 70 percent during that period, while Republican trust dropped from 68 to 14 percent during the same time frame.

That comes as no surprise. Liberal bias in the media today overwhelmingly favors Democrats. Most of what is written in mainstream media supports the Democrat position.

Those in the media may dispute that, but the numbers don’t lie. Over recent years, those journalists who identify as Democrat vastly outnumber the ones who call themselves Republican.

And there’s tangible evidence suggesting that mainstream media regularly puts liberal causes before objective reporting.

Just before the 2020 presidential election, the New York Post broke the deeply troubling story suggesting that then-presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, were involved in some unethical, perhaps illegal dealings with America’s adversaries. The Post had acquired a copy of the hard drive from Hunter’s laptop computer and used its contents to support the story. It was a credible scandal that would have caused irreparable damage to the Biden campaign. In fact, it was later revealed that one in six Biden voters would have changed their vote if only they had known about the scandal.

But they simply didn’t know about it because the mainstream and social media suppressed the story for months, labeling it “Russian disinformation.”

Here’s another example.

Those attuned to the immigration crisis on our southern border have been mystified by the lack of widespread outrage. How could a U.S. President, the man most responsible for the security of our country, simply ignore our immigration laws, and submit to a veritable invasion by millions of unidentified foreign citizens?

A recent poll by the Harvard Center for American Political Studies/Harris indicates that 64 percent of Americans agree that the number of illegal border crossings has increased during the Biden Administration, but more than half of the respondents believe the number of illegal crossings to be less than 500 thousand per year. The actual number is estimated at more than two million each year.

There can only be one reason why so many see the border crisis as nothing more than a “challenge” left by the previous administration, rather than the humanitarian catastrophe and national security threat that it is. They are oblivious to the truth because the Democrats and the mainstream media don’t want them to see the truth.

Our news media once had a noble purpose. It’s the reason freedom of the press is guaranteed in the First Amendment to our Constitution. They were intended to act as sentinels – guardians of our liberty. They’re supposed to expose government corruption – not to act as tools of propaganda for either political party.

Virginia O’Hanlon, her father, and the Sun are long gone. Today’s news media are no longer the guardians of liberty they were intended to be. Instead, they’ve become tools of the Democrat Party and purveyors of ignorance.

The post How the Mainstream Media Dispenses Ignorance for the Democrat Party appeared first on Granite Grok.

As Europe fights to keep warm this winter, going so far as to burn coal to keep the lights on, the reached from reality EU bureaucrats approved a new carbon tax on the old energy (heating and motor fuels), part of which will fund conversions to the new energy that isn’t working.

 

EU legislators agreed early on Sunday (18 December) to introduce a carbon price on buildings and road transport fuels, with a new €87-billion social climate fund established in parallel to cushion the impact on households and help them invest in green solutions.

The new carbon price will apply to petrol, diesel and heating fuels such as natural gas whose climate warming emissions have continued to rise over the years despite attempts to decarbonise.

 

By “decarbonise,” they mean offshore the carbon to places like China, where all the “green” stuff will be manufactured using dirty coal, oil, and whatever else you need to burn to make modern living possible. And China will be doing just that. Advancing technology, infrastructure, and its military using the currency of “western” democracies committed to backward-engineering your lifestyle.

There are (of course) exceptions.

 

Agriculture and fisheries won’t have to pay the extra carbon cost because they are “sensitive” sectors, Liese admitted. Trains running on diesel are also out of the scope of the system and won’t see their carbon emissions taxed as a result.

The new scheme will entail higher prices at the pump: up to 10.5 cents for a litre of petrol and 12 cents for diesel, according to a study by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Research.

Heating fuels like gas, heating oil and coal will see their prices increase as well, to the detriment of poorer EU member states, which rely more heavily on dirty fossil heaters.

 

This is how you will be made to pay for an energy transition that doesn’t work, isn’t green, and that you do not want.

What’s next? A new tax on bread, cereals, and meats to fund your transition to bugs and leaves? With exceptions. No one responsible for running the government will be expected to live that way. And yes, you’d expect protests. And yes, the new carbon tax has been framed the same way.

Do you remember the yellow vest protests? They began in France when it proposed a gasoline tax. For months, citizens protested and started fires until France backed off to end the unrest. I’ve no clue if the tax reappeared, but the problem did not go unrecognized with regard to the new EU tax.

 

Last year, the chairman of the European Parliament warned lawmakers the tax could trigger political protests, Euractiv reported, noting that lawmakers have since advanced an €87 billion “Social Climate Fund” in a bid to help Europeans finance their personal shift away from fossil fuels.

 

The catchphrase is in that quote. To help finance. I’m not familiar with the EU’s finances, but it’s a great big, mostly unaccountable room full of progressives coming up with ways to spend other people’s money. Their thinking is no different than any other room full of lefties. Spend first, find funding later.

The Transporation Climate Initiative’s heyday, short as it was, got enthusiasts primed for its potential to plug budget holes. Sure, they’d spend a few bucks on the green dream of lowering transportation emissions. Offshore emissions to second and third-world countries with atrocious human rights records in exchange for the mining of rare earth metals needed to play this game of make-believe. But some or most of it will eventually disappear down the budget rabbit hole through the laundromat and back out the other side – always finding a way into their campaign contributions.

Net-Zero is pilfering pockets for political power, not any other sort. And while Europeans have accepted a widening range of tyrannies raising the price of gas is a sore spot. Perhaps that is why they post-dated the abuse to 2027. Everyone will have been distracted by a laundry list of the next big thing and forgotten about the laundromat the EU promised to build in 2022.

 

 

The post You Will Be Made to Pay for an Energy Transition That Doesn’t Work, Isn’t Green, and That You Do Not Want. appeared first on Granite Grok.

There is reality, and then there is the created perception. There is what we can see and hear, and there is the fog and the gaslighting that most people see through the lens of the mainstream media. The Right sees Kamala Harris as a major disappointment as Vice President and has failed at every task she has been assigned. As we close out year two of the Biden-Harris White House, the media is portraying the first Black, Southeast Asian, and Female Vice President as misunderstood, misrepresented, and performing ably in her role as second in command for the United States of America. Are we witnessing the start of the media’s effort to elevate Kamala Harris to the top spot in 2024? God help us if that is true.

It is typical for the media to produce softball-filled interviews of the President and Vice President as we close out the year. That is if the team in the White House is Democrat. The msm feels it is their role to make the American people feel good about who is in charge as we turn the page on a new year. This task is challenging as they put a wrap on 2022 because the country is not in a good place because of the failures of the current team in the White House. And so the spin begins.

Kamala Harris sat down with three Left-leaning media outlets this month; the Washington Post, Vanity Fair, and NPR. They all did their best to make the Vice President a victim of misinformation from the Right and someone who has cracked many glass ceilings and is a more than capable second in command to President Joe Biden. Their efforts show an incredible use of smoke and mirrors.

Washington Post opinion piece, editorial board member and MSNBC host Jonathan Capehart said that Harris has “ably fulfilled” her role alongside President Biden, with a record that shows she is better than her portrayal in the media. Capehart went on to list the successes of the VP’s many overseas trips and how she showed strength as a woman in light of the overturning of Roe v. Wade. He also cited the misconception that the many departures of Harris’ staff were a reflection of her competence.

Vanity Fair, a long-time mouthpiece for the Democrats, published a piece by far-Left writer Molly Jong-Fast titled “Kamala Harris, A Very Turbulent Year in America, and the Challenge of Being First.” Jong-Fast portrayed Harris as a victim, saying, “perhaps it’s a function of the world we all inhabit, but the female vice president is way friendlier and more accommodating than a man in her position would ever be.” I am unsure what accommodating has to do with conveying someone’s level of competence or lack thereof.

Much of the piece discussed abortion rights and women in leadership. But the article also touched on immigration, which Jong-Fast described as a “favorite cudgel” by Republicans against the Biden administration. The author apparently shares the Administration’s view that the Right exaggerates the disastrous crisis at our Southern Border.

And finally, there is the NPR White House correspondent Asma Khalid’s piece. The publicly funded network should be neutral but fails miserably and is always Left-leaning. This piece lacked any semblance of hard-hitting journalism, as evidenced by this softball effort: “By definition, this feels like a tough job. I mean, you are someone’s No. 2 by definition. Do you feel like you found your own lane? And I’m curious what the toughest aspect for you has been these last couple of years?” Khalid asked Harris during the interview.

This White House is in a precarious position as the country looks toward 2024. Biden’s numbers continue to show disfavor by the American voters, and his continued slide mentally makes a second run for office improbable. The Biden team and msm continue to say he is mentally and physically fit for the job, but his actions and missteps paint quite a different picture. The Democrats have to devise a Plan B, and abandoning Harris would prove how disastrous this duo has been for the country. Convincing America that Kamala Harris is able and ready to step up and become the first Black, Southeast Asian, and female President is their only plan.

And so, the gaslighting begins. Trying to take a woman who is unlikeable and incompetent and convince America that she is the person to lead us in the future should be an impossible task. These three pieces may be the preface of more to come, and if so, we are witnessing the start of our first media-choreographed Presidential election. That is if you do not count Barack Obama.

 

 

 

The post Stop Kamala Now, Before the Media Elects Her President appeared first on Granite Grok.

Five feet of snow in Buffalo NY and it’s still coming down out there. Roofs are collapsing, the power is off, emergency equipment is stuck in snow drifts and people are dying.

This storm is covering almost the entire northern half of the U.S., the cold air is all the way down to northern Florida, and another one is building out west. If this next one is half as bad as the one going now, I say we start burning the electric cars.

So, can we expect all those believers in “climate change, aka global warming,” to come to their senses and recognize that no such thing is happening? Don’t you believe it! This thing has nothing whatsoever to do with science, weather, climate, or anything except political power and control. To the boots on the ground, the true believers, the sign-waving heroes of saving the world, it’s a religious calling and nothing will sway them from doing their duty. Make some snowballs for your freezer to throw at these fanatics come July as reminders.

Biden and the Liberal Left should be held to account for their irresponsible programs. Killing our oil-producing industry without the slightest ability to replace it within the next fifty years or so and then only if we start building atomic energy-producing plants because the Chinese can’t manufacture anywhere near enough solar panels even if they enslave half of Asia. Oh wait, they have most of China enslaved already.

Maybe by the 2024 election, all those sheeple who voted for liberals will finally have had enough of their nonsense and will kick them out.

Hope so.

 

The post Storm of the Century? appeared first on Granite Grok.

If you’re concerned about the decline in academic standards, the harm done by shutdowns and mandatory masking, and the politicization of our public schools, please consider running for School Board in your district. We need to take back control of our schools and renew their focus on academic achievement.

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

Upcoming 603 Alliance Candidate Training: January 21st in Concord

 

The 603 Alliance is here to help, offering free campaign training and guidance to qualified candidates. NOW IS THE TIME TO GET STARTED. Our ONE AND ONLY training session this year will take place on Saturday, January 21st, from 9 AM to 5 PM in Concord.

If you’re interested in attending, please fill out our CANDIDATE SURVEY. (Click here for the survey).

If you want to know more about the role of a School Board member, what’s involved, and how you can get started, please check out our recorded webinar from last year.

Questions? e-mail info@603alliance.org for more information.

 

GET INVOLVED: Rochester Special Election Volunteer to help elect David Walker
We need all hands on deck to help elect David Walker to the NH House.

The House currently has 201 Republicans and 197 Democrats. Over the next two years, a great many bills could hinge on just one or two votes. Since the November State Rep election for Rochester Ward 4 was an exact tie, there will be a runoff election in Rochester on February 21st.

CLICK HERE TO HELP DAVID WALKER WIN
OR
DONATE TO SUPPORT DAVID WALKER FOR STATE REP

We need help with door-knocking, lit drops, sign waves, phone calls, and driving people to the polls on election day.

 

The post Call for Candidates: Run for School Board! appeared first on Granite Grok.

In Part 3, we talked about the definitions of what’s important when trying to work within the RSA 91-A strictures – WHO can you demand something from, WHAT can you demand, and “Body this and Body that”.  Not in tremendous detail but enough to get started with. Now, we start to get in on “Meetings” – which one do Politicians MUST allow you to attend and which ones Politicians CAN lock you out of.  To the latter, there are some decent reasons why but too often it is abused. That is called a “Non-Public” meeting and that will be the subject of the next post.

This post will address what “Open Meetings” are and why they are important to attend (or if you can’t, there’s more on the notes/recordings that must be kept so that any actions taken during that meeting can be reviewed).  These Open Meetings SHOULD be the vast majority of the meetings of interest. Again, going back to the NH Constitution:

[Art.] 8. [Accountability of Magistrates and Officers; Public’s Right to Know.] All power residing originally in, and being derived from, the people, all the magistrates and officers of government are their substitutes and agents, and at all times accountable to them.  Government, therefore, should be open, accessible, accountable and responsive.  To that end, the public’s right of access to governmental proceedings and records shall not be unreasonably restricted.  The public also has a right to an orderly, lawful, and accountable government.

There may be those that would argue with me but I would say that this puts people FIRST, we citizens, over the actions of the Government that is to serve us.  That really is the purpose of Government – to protect our Liberties and Freedoms. In doing so, those that we elect and hire, serve us and do the services that we have told Government to do for us and on our behalf.

I note the irony that this law is needed – as those in Government have decided to flip that intended relationship upside down.   So, WHAT is a meeting? And what ISN’T a meeting?  Reformatted and emphasis mine. Also, I am going to put my remarks “in line” with the language from the Law; consider this a bit of a “fisking”.

A meeting IS:

91-A:2 Meetings Open to Public. –
I. For the purpose of this chapter, a ” meeting ” means the convening of a quorum of the membership of a public body, as defined in RSA 91-A:1-a, VI, or the majority of the members of such public body if the rules of that body define “quorum” as more than a majority of its members, whether in person, by means of telephone or electronic communication, or in any other manner such that all participating members are able to communicate with each other contemporaneously, subject to the provisions set forth in RSA 91-A:2, III, for the purpose of discussing or acting upon a matter or matters over which the public body has supervision, control, jurisdiction, or advisory power.

So, what is a Public Body in this sense?  The “WHO or WHAT” Examples: A City Council, town Selectboard, a School Board, a Water District, Library of Trustees, Supervisors of the Checklist, the NH House, the NH Senate, the NH Board of Education, a Budget Committee (advisory or SB2) – and any subcommittees, sub-boards, sub-commissions under those.

So that last bit that is bolded: you either have elected representatives, employees, or a mix gathered together to do things. That could be either talking about issues, assigning people to get things done, signing contracts or other documents – and taking votes. Votes, especially by roll call, are most important to US to whom these people are to be accountable. A Public Body can vote by raising their hands or by a voice vote (“Yea” or “Nay”) but it’s harder to track who is voting what. IF AT ALL POSSIBLE, in any setting, demand that a roll call be done so that you know where the members stand on an issue – but I’m getting ahead of myself.  In short, however, these are the “governmental units” that make decisions and assign people to “git’r done”.

HOPEFULLY, you have been to such meetings.  Most are similar though the “purpose” of each group (“Public Body”) is different – Selectmen manage a town, School Board has oversight over a school district, and so forth. If not, start. You NEVER want to take things for granted and make no mistake:

These people are making decisions that will affect you and your family – and you don’t know what they are doing?

We ARE supposed to be an informed electorate and particpitory system – your responsibility is to get involved EVEN if it is just one part of Government. Then get another family member or friend to do another one.  But that’s just me.

And this part is important and speaks to times that just those Public Body members (Trustees of the Cemeteries, Board of Firemen) can meet by themselves and defines, in part, what a meeting ISN’T:

A chance, social, or other encounter not convened for the purpose of discussing or acting upon such matters shall not constitute a meeting if no decisions are made regarding such matters.

Small towns are just that – small. Just because all the Selectmen get invited to a Party, or the Budget Committee asked to address the Rotary, doesn’t automatically mean a meeting is happening or should be considered to be a meeting by others. If Steve, John, and Ringo pass each other on the street and say hi, that’s not a meeting. However, IF they start talking shop – that’s a problem!

And here are some of the “purposes” that do NOT fall under an “Open Meeting”.   In fact, there is a whole set of exceptions that are allowable to make a meeting a “Non-public meeting” – which will be another post.

“Meeting” shall also not include:

(a) Strategy or negotiations with respect to collective bargaining;
(b) Consultation with legal counsel;
(c) A caucus consisting of elected members of a public body of the same political party who were elected on a partisan basis at a state general election or elected on a partisan basis by a town or city which has adopted a partisan ballot system pursuant to RSA 669:12 or RSA 44:2; or
(d) Circulation of draft documents which, when finalized, are intended only to formalize decisions previously made in a meeting; provided, that nothing in this subparagraph shall be construed to alter or affect the application of any other section of RSA 91-A to such documents or related communications.

The State, a town, or any other subdivision of the State that has to come to terms with one or more unions?  That’s (A).

All kinds of “subdivisions of the State” also get sued or have to sue others. There may be legal questions that come up either because the folks in charge have no idea where to look, have some half-baked ideas of what SHOULD happen (but fortunately, mostly, realized they’re half-baked) or that an RSA or regulation isn’t clear.  That’s (B).

Of COURSE, the Republican / Democrat / Libertarians have a carve-out all their own – they have put themselves above the law simply to talk political talk and make political decisions. Sometimes, those decisions are about new laws that will affect YOU and your family. Note the word “partisan” – which means that politicians are branded with an R, D, L, I, S, G, or some other letter denoting their political Party affiliation.  The rest of NH, that have “non-partisan” officially races do not have this “privilege”.  That’s (C).

Sidenote: c’mon, does ANYONE believe that I ran for office in my town did it as a Democrat or Socialist? Of COURSE we all know, pretty much, who belongs to which party. What a charade!

And lastly is the “passing out of the packets” – all the docs that get created, given to, or have to be signed to become legal. Just as long as there isn’t any other jawboning going on.  That’s (D).

And that’s just the first part!

Next post will take on Clause II et al.

 

 

Previous Posts:

• Part 1 – What is the Purpose of a Right To Know demand?
• Part 2 – Why is it Constitutional?
• Part 3 – What are the Terms (Definitions)?

The post A Tutorial: How to Create a Right To Know to Hold Your Government Accountable – Part 4 appeared first on Granite Grok.

I thought this is hilarious – but it also makes a great point:

Yes, being a pre-teen and teenager is hard and can be VERY hard. Yet, more and more evidence is coming in that “going trans” isn’t from an internal mental illness that needs to be carefully taken into account but from those suffering from  “social contagion“. Note at the very end the mention of the image of that older “culture thing” that was called “Goth”. Parents and “those in authority” hated it – which made it more popular as kids love to push buttons.

Some kids want to be different, some kids want to be “counter-culture cool”, and some just don’t fit in but are looking for a “place” to do so. Humans NEED to be part of a social group except for those that are “militant introverts”. You know, those that proudly wear a T-Shirt that states “Does No Play Well With Others – Proudly”? My Eldest did – he didn’t fit in because he wanted his own path and found few willing to go with him. So he shrugged his shoulders ONCE and walked down that trail. He’s happy, he’s tolerant (barely, at times), but doesn’t suffer fools at all. If you think *I’m* snarky, you’ll just adore him (heh!)!

Is this the answer for all?  No, I doubt it. But I’m betting more will take “a hint” than the “serious transgender therapists” may do who are true hammer believers and everyone else is a nail, won’t like this at all. I’m kinda looking forward to their emails (snort).

And when they do, I have no doubt, once again, they’ll prove the point that the Left has no humor. I’m betting I’ll hear back from 603 Equality and Planned Transgender Parenthood.

(H/T: reader Matt)

The post Palate Cleanser – The Left Has Little Sense of Humor for Their Theology Being Confronted – Especially This One appeared first on Granite Grok.

I really like reading comments from you readers – witty, smart, and on point. I have to admit and apologize that I kinda fell down on reading and moderating the last couple of months, though. We had a volunteer that took over moderation for a number of months for me so I could write more, and do some other political activism as well, but she can’t continue so it has fallen back to me again.  However, I did have to delete almost 21,000 of them from an email folder I had set them with a “rule” that automatically did the routing for me (yes, I kept a lot around).

So, “Promoted from the Comments” – in the spirit of “catching up”, I’m going to aggregate some of them here.  First, I wanted to echo something that Steve had left in a comment on his post “One Grokster’s Opinion is Not ‘Our’ Opinion – We are Not a Monolithic Hive Mind” in which he pointed out:

• We’re not a mouthpiece for the Republican Party but for the PRINCIPLES it says it supposedly believes in; we’re not a Party organ that will just play its tune.
• There are differences in opinion between the writers – and that’s fine with me. If necessary, I will talk to them. YOU may talk to them (or about them) in the comments.
• You don’t like what we write about you?  Tell us where we went wrong about what you said or did. However, if you DID do what we reported you said or did…

And then left a comment to reinforce that when NHnative asked for we writers to comment more often instead of “writing then scooting” (emphasis mine):

This is absolutely a town square in print. And each speaker owns their words.

If you’ve got an issue with those words take it up with them. If the words get vicious or threatening, take it up with me or Skip.

And I know I do not spend much time in comments because most days I do not have the time to spend. I’ll see if I can work on that but I’m re-starting a large project so best intentions may be about as far as that goes for now.

And you can bet that I will do something about it.  And as I have seen, the writers HAVE been trying to do more interacting. Which also means, I have to, once again, resurrect GrokMeetups…

Even though Steve admitted that he got caught by a parody Tweet on “Misgendering a Pet Can Result in Serious Microsubconscious Distress” , Commenter NHnative has this that still applies to what we all see what’s been done to our Society (emphasis mine):

I was just about to post this very thing.
I feel like they are turning our country into a psych ward.

They spend too much time lost in their own head.. surrounded by like minded people.
They wind up in an unhealthy ‘eco-system’ if you will.. it’s an echo chamber where there is nothing at all there that we’d call ‘normal’ penetrating their bubble.

Ann Marie Banfield has “Johnny Can’t Read or Do Math, but Philanthropists Are Making Sure He Learns ‘Equity’” lamenting that schools have become Therapists instead of Educators.  Yeah, that will help our students compete in the real world (see image, topmost). Commenter Julie has this stunningly sad statistic that conforms with a few studies we found that that mirror “Go Woke, Go Broke” but adapted it to “Go Woke, Go Stupid” (emphasis mine):

Dover NH. math in 2019 scores per NHDOE 38%, 2010 they were 78% …

My post, “Blogline of the Day – I’ve Been Saying This for a Long Time. It May Now Be Here” which brought up that with the Federal Bank raising interest rates, “…the INTEREST payment on our National Debt could be our largest line item in the budget”. Commenter NHnative went into the why of it (emphasis mine, reformatted):

Skip I am so glad you bring this up.

I have been wanting to see a money/finance person start writing for Grok because money and politics is essentially ONE. You cannot manage money if you don’t have a firm understanding of geopolitics and vice versa.

First of all.. we have a band of criminals in the White House that are not trying to fix anything- they are trying to break it all because they think that is how they can fix things.. And we are, like you say, getting into dangerous territory here.

I don’t think that many people get that we are not looking at INFLATION. We are looking at the decreased value of the dollar. And when you get this, then you see it’s pretty bad and scary.
We’re going to wind up like the Venezuelans if the adults in the room don’t take the wheel soon.

In my opinion the Fed needs to go…we’ve been enduring a heist since the Fed was created. The printing presses need to go, we need gold backed money because as we can all see, running an economy on consumerism and debt – then printing the money to support the planet- it’s not working out so well for the diminishing American Taxpayers.

Another reason I like Donald Trump is because he has such a good knowledge of all this stuff…Joe Biden can barely speak clearly.

And one more – again from NHnative (er, she is PROLIFIC!) on Steve’s “Sex Toys for Justice!“. His post is summariezed in two sentences:

There was a time when expressing your sexuality in a public space was inappropriate. The new rule is to lay it out there and demand others acknowledge it.

It seems that the Left believes that we are mere slaves to our emotions and urges AND YOU WILL LIKE IT!  Her comment (emphasis mine) was in response to a previous one:

Omg I am so sorry this is happening to you…But guess what.. stories like this are happening to darn near all of us now.

We were raised here in NH, by very conservative NH native parents– and in a red state even. My sisters went to work in the local school for no reason other than to work mothers hours and get out of the house. Now some 30 years later they are both stark raving mad Democrats. My mom says “I cannot get over how dumb they are! I did not raise these kids this way..”

Mum and I have been told not to discuss politics at the holidays or anything at all that makes them feel uncomfortable– which is just about anything and everything. Yes, it’s very stressful and we don’t even get together anymore now at this point. There are so many families today that are just destroyed.. it’s so sad.

I sounds like you need to have your sister buy out your half of the lake house. I cannot fathom being in a deal like that with her. There are plenty of lake houses out there, get yourself a new one and put a couple states between hers and yours.

Which is exactly what the Left wants – to go tribal politically instead of on the nuclear and extended family.  No longer E Pluribus Unum but the Balkanization of America is their end goal. After all if no one is talking to each other, so much the easier to control them by changing Society out from underneath them (as it seems that the Government School system did to her sisters).

I’ll do the other ones later.

The post Promoted from the Comments – a Grab Bag. And More Moderating appeared first on Granite Grok.

Just a massive meme dump.  Time!  Have to figure out the new drone.

 

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They’re flying so thick and fast it is amazing.  There will be a Meme Overflow and certainly a Friday Meme Overflow-Overflow.  Last week’s Overflow.

Remember, ridicule and mockery are effective weapons:

1. Ridicule cannot easily be fought
2. Ridicule makes the enemy angry, and angry people make mistakes
3. For those in the “squishy middle” a Thought Splinter (and Part II and Part III and Part IV) can often be hidden inside humor.

Now, let the mockery and mayhem begin.

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

 

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But first, a random sampling of three of my cartoons.  Please note these are my concepts but I pay a professional to do them.

 

 

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Buy the T-shirt!

 

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Pick of the post:

 

 

At a guess, 70-80 percent of people just want to be told what to do.  Because freedom requires responsibility, and most people would prefer to outsource that to someone else.  Related to that concept – letting others filter information and make decisions about what’s believable:

 

 

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Palate Cleansers:

 

 

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The post MONDAY MEMES appeared first on Granite Grok.

Sun-King Chris Sununu is NOT really running for President. The Sun-King was too lazy (to fundraise) and thin-skinned (the dishonest ad campaign against New Hampshire’s ban on late-term abortions) to run for the Senate. He is NOT going to mount a serious campaign for the presidency. So what is going on?

One explanation is that the Sun-King is playing the role of hatchet-man at the behest of some Senate RINO or gubernatorial RINO who plans to run, but lacks the plumbing to directly attack Trump. In return, Sununu would receive some cushy Cabinet gig.

Another explanation is that the Sun-King is playing the role of hatchet-man for his ideological soul-mates in the McConnell endless-wars, open-borders wing of the GOP.

Or, perhaps, Sununu’s toe-in-the-presidential waters just reflects his boundless narcissism … look at me! …. look at me! … everyone look at me!

Whatever the explanation, it is thoroughly safe to say that Sun-King Chris Sununu … whose political positions are anathema to the clear majority of Republican voters outside of the RINO Northeast … is NOT really running for President.

The post Whose Dirty Work is Sun-King Sununu Doing? appeared first on Granite Grok.

Zimbabwe is looking to capitalize on the West’s Green Energy “Future.” Citing its Base Minerals Export Control Act if you want to move lithium out of the country, you’ll need first to process it in Zimbabwe*. Otherwise, no joy.

 

On December 20, Zimbabwe’s ministry of Mines and Mining Development in a directive published under the nation’s Base Minerals Export Control Act said that the move was made to “ensure that the vision of the president to see the country becoming an upper-middle income economy has been realized.”

Winston Chitando following the export ban said: “No lithium-bearing ores, or unbeneficiated lithium whatsoever, shall be exported from Zimbabwe to another country except under the written permit of the minister.”

 

China, which has spent the past decade making mineral arrangments with second and third-world countries, is exempt.

 

According to Reuters, Chinese mining giants and lithium ion battery material manufacturers Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt, Sinomine Resource Group and Chengxin Lithium Group acquired several lithium mine and have bagged projects worth a combined $678 million in Zimbabwe and are at various stages of developing mines and processing plants. These companies are exempted from the ban.

 

China will also (very likely) be capitalizing on the wealth of minerals and natural resources available in Afghanistan but let’s not get distracted by that.

China, China, China, and the UK have secured mineral rights and are presumably prepared to meet the nation’s expectations. Create jobs here to process material and build batteries in Zimbabwe. And it’s a smart move. They’ve got a lot of lithium, and as noted elsewhere on our pages, there are not enough known reserves of it and other rare earth metals to achieve the West’s fairy-tale promise of Net-Zero using current technology.

The price has skyrocketed in recent years and could make Zimbabwe a very wealthy nation though to date, that’s primarily meant making a few people rich while the balance of the people remains at or near poverty. That may be what happens here, though we can’t say.

We can say that while America appears committed to the road, they are not doing a great job of clearing a path for it.

 

 

HT | News18.com

The post Zimbabwe Bans* Lithium Exports In Time for Push to Net-Zero appeared first on Granite Grok.

 MERRY CHRISTMAS!  Thus, this is not as long as normal.  See you later for Monday Memes.  And this is late, both because of Comcast being down and my having bought Monopoly for the kids.  I’d forgotten how loooooong that game goes.

 

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First, I am merely an “enlightened amateur”.  Please vet & check on your own.  Caveat emptor.  Consider these to be priming the pump for your own investigations.  I know this is a long post; I am attempting to put out a lot of information as a resource.  Read or skip sections depending on your interests.

Second, I fear spicy time is very close, but even a month of food, water, etc., puts you well ahead of most of the sheeple.  IMHO, set your minimum sights on a three-month period.

Third, two things will be critical for having the best chance of making it through:

1. Mentality: first and foremost in survival is having a flexible mentality and cultivating the ability to adapt. Vanity has no place in survival.
2. Develop a meatspace network of people that are likeminded: cultivate your community ties and build alliances with neighbors (note: don’t babble about the Jab or globalists or depopulation, or start pointing political fingers when doing this)… and remember, the first rule of PREP CLUB is that there is no prep club.

And please follow both me, Nitzakhon, on Gab… as well as my blog host Granite Grok and also on Telegram Tommy Robinson Official plus his Urban Scoop site.  And don’t forget posts sometimes get cloned on American Reveille as well, which is a good site to check out in general.

FYI, here’s a link to the last Survival Sunday – SITREP Edition.

 

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Not my idea of a vacation, but… useful to know.

 

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Top of the fold:

 

Just… it’s coming.

 

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Prepper Site URLS:

Most have daily articles; revisit daily.  Please recommend others in the comments.

Ask a Prepper, how to prepare, survive and thrive, latest news

Mother Earth News

The Organic Prepper Home – The Organic Prepper

SurvivalBlog.com – The Daily Web Log for Prepared Individuals Living in Uncertain Times.

SHTF Blog – Modern Survival

Survival World – Everything You Need To Know to Survive

Homestead Survival Site – How to Live Off The Grid in Comfort and Style

Urban Survival Site | How to Survive a Disaster in the City

Mind4Survival – Survival and Preparedness

Gray Wolf survival

Sustainable Living (sustainablelivingideas.com)

The Classic Survivalist – Surviving in a Modern World

Primal Survivor – Practical and sensible prepping advice

Em Off-grid – We & Our Off The Grid Life – Em OffGrid

Resource for Practical, Daily Prepping Skills for SHTF & Survival (geekprepper.com) (new)

And three aggregate sites listing their top favorite sites & links too:

TOP 50 SURVIVAL & PREPPER BLOGS

The 50 Best Survival Blogs

Prepper Website – Preparedness • Survival • Alternative News

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Specific, one-up articles:

Christmas in Venezuela – The Organic Prepper

Learn from the experiences of others.  Related:

Mentally Prepare Yourself for the EPIC Economic SHTF That’s Coming (theorganicprepper.com)

Emergency Binders: What Should Preppers Put in Them? (mind4survival.com)

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Why Should Preppers Care About Mass Formation Psychosis? (theorganicprepper.com)

Many warning signs today.

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Rechargeable Emergency Items To Always Have In The House (askaprepper.com)

Depends on your ability to get power.  Realistically, if the power goes out for a year – Hashem forbid – most people will be dead.

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5 Insanely Delicious Thrifty Things to Make with Crushed Tomatoes (thefrugalite.com)

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Related to Spicy Time:

Aim Small, Miss Small – According To Hoyt

We are in a strange place and no mistake. I mean, it’s been said for a long time that we’re in that awkward space when it’s too late to vote them out, but too early to start shooting.

It used to be amusing. Not laughing right now.

Added to that no sane person wants to start shooting, because we know if it ever starts it will make the French Terror look like a teddy bear picnic. And that the left isn’t sane and in their all-consuming lust for power they don’t realize the rest of us aren’t merely holding the worst back, but we are the worst that we’re holding back. And good men tested to the limits of their self-control can break: When tired, when sick, when despairing, when their children cry with hunger.

 

 

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The Chicago bottleneck

Ideas.  Strictly as an intellectual exercise, of course.

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Interesting thoughts on field and fighting gear from a Ukraine veteran

What’s useful and what’s useless.

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Short of years and untold wealth, you cannot possibly be fully prepared for everything (I have to keep reminding myself of that).  But even some preparations, ideally at least 90 days of food, water / water purification, etc., puts you head and shoulders in front of the vast majority of the sheeple who will be in jaw-gaping astonishment when the SHTF.  The only relevant questions are:

1. When does it start?
2. How bad will it get?
3. How long will it last?
4. What will the aftermath look like?

 

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https://youtu.be/01aFP88qfQs

 

Fascinating.  But at the end he goes off into man made climate change.  Still, a lot of info I didn’t know – or at least not to the level of detail that I do now.

 

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Foraging:

 

I just started a FORAGING group on Gab.

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One-up articles

6 Backyard Plants You Can Turn Into Bread – Ask a Prepper

I keep an eye out for crabgrass specifically, and make mental notes of the location.  If it weren’t for the wife I’d just seed the whole backyard with it.  Musing: Assuming we’re still around in society next year, I’ll harvest some crabgrass and seed some vacant lots around as an off-site reservoir.

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Foraging (permanent feature):

Foraging (practicalselfreliance.com)

Wild Harvests (arcadianabe.blogspot.com)

Southern Appalachian Herbs

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Books (permanent feature):

Feasting Free on Wild Edibles (old but good)

The Lost Ways (much more than just foraging)

The Forager’s Guide to Wild Foods

THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO EDIBLE WILD PLANTS FOR BEGINNERS

 

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Shortages (broadly):

 

 

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‘Tripledemic’ Leading to Shortage of Children’s Pain Medications (legalinsurrection.com)

Had a hard time finding both cough syrup and cough drops the other day too.

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Fire Breaks Out at Saginaw County Grain Elevator – Fire Could Burn for Another Week – Latest Fire at a Food Processing Plant (thegatewaypundit.com)

 

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Gardening, Canning, and Other Food Preservation:

Canning Lemons ~ Three Ways (practicalselfreliance.com)

Interesting that, with all that acid, heat is still recommended.  I can understand sealing it, but…

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How To Make Survival Dandelion Jelly with 2 Years Shelf Life – Ask a Prepper

Just remember to get your dandelions from pesticide-free areas.  From the same site:

10 Long Shelf-Life Canned Foods Every Prepper Should Consider Stockpiling – Ask a Prepper

When opening cans, listen for the hiss.  If you don’t hear that vacuum-breaking hiss, MHO, not fit for human consumption.  Now, you can dump it outside – if in a suitable environment – to feed the animals… and then harvest those animals.  On that:

How To Craft A Deadly Slingshot – Ask a Prepper

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20 Ways To Preserve Eggs – Ask a Prepper

From the above:

How To Pickle Eggs – Ask a Prepper

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Links on old-time food storage (permanent feature):

Thanks to the Canning and Preserving group on Gab, I now have these links:

Preserving foods by drying | How to dry foods safely (uada.edu)

USDA-Complete-Guide-to-Home-Canning-2015-revision.pdf (healthycanning.com)

Canning | SDSU Extension (sdstate.edu)

Food Preservation– Canning | Consumer Food Safety | Washington State University (wsu.edu)

Canning Timer & Checklist App | OSU Extension Catalog | Oregon State University

National Center for Home Food Preservation (uga.edu)

Canning Recipes | Ball® Mason Jars (ballmasonjars.com)

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Topical Books (also permanent):

Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking & Curing

Salumi: The Craft of Italian Dry Curing

A Guide to Canning, Freezing, Curing & Smoking Meat, Fish & Game

The Prepper’s Canning Guide

Pickled Pantry

Fermented Vegetables

Hydroponics and Greenhouse Gardening: 3-in-1 Gardening Book to Grow Vegetables, Herbs, and Fruit All-Year-Round

Hydroponics for Beginners: The Complete Guide to Hydroponic Gardening, Designing and Building Inexpensive DIY Hydroponic Systems…

The Aquaponics Guidebook: Combining Aquaculture and Hydroponics Combining Aquaculture and Hydroponics

 

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Self-defense (broad) & Hunting:

Burglar Climbs Through Bedroom Window, Homeowner Shoots Him Dead

Taxpayer relief shot IMHO.

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5 Freedom-Based Solutions to Mass Shootings – American Thinker

IMHO – the riskier you make it for the perp, the less likely they are to try.

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SCOTUS says you can carry a gun. NJ says says ‘Go ahead and try’…

Got to know the state laws.  I was talking with someone the other day who does competitive shooting tournaments.  He said that despite there being a federal law that if guns are legal in the state where you started and to where you are going, there are some states that will nail you anyway.  E.g., when he drives to the Midwest to compete it’s pucker-factor through all of New York state.

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BARR: Banks Might Start Closing Accounts Of Customers Who Buy Too Many Guns Or Too Much Ammo | The Daily Caller

It’s not illegal when private companies do it.  So if this starts – understand that banks are limiting your purchasing of a legal product.

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Concealed Carry Mistakes You Have To Avoid At All Costs (askaprepper.com)

All good advice.

 

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Concluding thoughts if I’m moved to comment:

 

Simply – Merry Christmas to you Christians, a brilliant last night of Chanukah to all Jews, and in general may the coming year be one of revelation and victory of good.

 

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Palate cleansers:

 

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Please check out my MEMES collections; last one here.  Mockery, ridicule, and the wrapping of uncomfortable truths inside humor can penetrate the cognitive shields of normies far more effectively – IMHO – than dry facts and figures.

 

The post Survival Sunday (on Monday) – PREP Edition appeared first on Granite Grok.

In early December, we reported on Old Glory Bank. Not #Woke, no ESG, and no BS. Banking for ordinary people. Well, the idea’s been catching. Based in Dallas, Texas, but available worldwide, ProLife Bank would “honor God’s wealth and inspire change in our world.”

Related: Say Hello to Old Glory Bank. It’s not #Woke, No ESG, and No BS.

‘A bank for everyone, banking God’s purpose.’

 

Honoring God first, serving people, and always choosing to support life…ALL life.

ProLifeBank [PROPOSED] is an alternative to the legacy banking systems who, for years, have been unaccountable for their support of the largest abortion provider and other organizations that oppose God’s moral laws. ProLifeBank [PROPOSED] is creating and stewarding a movement in banking that is secure, uncancellable, and abiding to the will of God. We’re standing firm in the wake of woke financial systems with a heart to serve the Lord.

 

Like Old Glory, it is still in its planning stages, and like with the announcement of Old Glory, I must ask the same question. Given that they are trying to operate off the plantation, “the other banks and the regulators will be on them like white on rice. Especially the federal regulators. It’s what they do, and with the encouragement of the existing banking system, I’m sure they will be appropriately motivated.”

Old Glory is based in Oklahoma. ProLife plans to set up shop in Texas, and here’s the deal. Those states must be prepared and willing to defend their right to operate on their terms. As former Assistant Secretary of Housing Catherine Austin Fitts notes in this lengthy interview,

 

…, there is no Right vs Left.  There is no Trump vs Biden.  There is a machine in control of a spending machine that is financed with our taxes, and debt borrowed in our name, that is being sold into our pension funds and retirement accounts…

And (emphasis in the original),

The financial coup has reached a point where if you want sovereignty, the only person who can deliver that is your state governor and your legislature…

If you’ve got a great state AG, if you have great legislature, if you have a great governor, you better start supporting them.  They are the people that can protect your sovereignty.  You need governmental sovereignty if you are going to have individual sovereignty, and you better do it now.  You have no time to be entertained by Joe Biden, Trump and Hunter Biden.”

 

These new banks are great ideas, and it’s not just banks. Still, suppose your state, governor, and AG are not prepared to go to war on the issue of state sovereignty and their obligation to protect and defend your natural rights (the only reason governments are formed). In that case, you are dipping a tiny tow in a big pool. The beasties in the dark waters are going to take your leg.

I think you still have to try with the understanding that things might go sideways before you are ready.

And kudos to ProLife Bank and Old Glory for stepping up and pushing back. We all need to do more of that, I think.

 

The post First Old Glory Bank (No ESG BS) and Now ProLife Bank appeared first on Granite Grok.

Dear Sununu-sycophants, Sununu-apologists and Sununu-cultists, please explain to me why State liquor stores are “essential,” but gyms and churches are not. You can’t, of course.

Yet you continue to blindly support everything the abortion-obsessed Sun-King says and does, including his failed stewardship of the State during COVID-mania. Americans, however, rejected the COVID-tyranny of the Sun-King and other COVID-tyrants like Charlie Baker, Gavin Newson and Andrew Cuomo.

The chart below, which is from the census shows domestic migration during the thick of COVID-mania. Notice that New Hampshire is NOT among the top ten for population growth:

What’s that you say? Its not fair to compare poor, little purple New Hampshire to big, bad red Florida and Texas? Well, here is domestic migration on a percentage basis and AGAIN no Granite State:

 

 

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Filtering your world through the absurd has become a fashionable hobby, especially for attendees of Indoctrination U (hundreds of franchise locations nationwide). And sure, some of them are just playing along to keep the mob off their heels, but many of these kids are aiding and abetting.

There’s plenty of evidence on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Snapchat, and … sense, as they say, is no longer common (or perhaps never was), but things have gotten out of hand.

 

Campus Reform’s Logan Dubil interviewed students at the University of Pittsburgh about the fact that the classic tune “Frosty the Snowman” assumes Frosty’s pronouns, and fails to consider the possibility of Frosty choosing to be non-binary or gender non-conforming.

“I haven’t thought of that, but I definitely do agree,” one student said.

Another told Dubil that “saying man versus woman can definitely exclude people.”

 

I’d be curious to hear the non-binary version of a classic Christmas song for kids. Wait, scratch that. I’ve seen what passes for children’s literature. No one could read the lyrics in public, so singing them would get you charged with obscenity. How about this instead?

 

Frosty, the groomer, was an SJW thug
With some porno books and an Ed degree
And some gender-affirming drugs
Frosty, the groomer, is as real as right folks claim
Says she’s white as snow, but the parents know
that he’ll maim their kids someday.

…

One more point. I think Joe Biden needs to stop saying, “c’mon, man.” It’s not inclusive.

 

 

 

And in case you have to hear it.

 

 

The post ICYMI – ‘Frosty The Snowman’ – Not Inclusive Enough appeared first on Granite Grok.

Title IX was signed into law in 1972 as part of the Education Amendment of 1972. It prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or other education program that receives funding from the federal government. It was designed to level the playing field for women in athletics and sports at all levels of education. It has provided the opportunity for many women to gain access to colleges and universities, especially for advanced degrees. It has also created an explosion in the number of women involved in interscholastic sports. Female participation at the high school level has grown by 1057 percent, and 614 percent at the college level. Sport-related scholarships have also increased proportionately, which has made it possible for more women to pursue college educations. By all accounts, Title IX was a tremendous success.

The Women’s Movement has also significantly impacted advancing women in academics, sports, and business. Things have happened dramatically in the last few years to destroy the advances made over the last five decades, and it makes one wonder where the politicians and women’s groups are in protecting women’s rights. As Title IX turns 50, it may be on life support or worse.

Women appear to be losing the battle with the LGBTQ community. Both are favorites of the Left, but the LGBTQ and WOKE are much stronger, and women are taking it on the chin. Transgender women have added a new level of complexity to the equality issue, with Progressives sitting on the fence. Not taking a stand is how the Progressives look to address the situation. They can hope it will go away, but that is futile thinking.

The fiasco of women’s collegiate swimming will be looked upon as the point that Title IX went into the intensive care unit. University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas became the first transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division I title after finishing first in the women’s 500-yard freestyle event In March. Lia Thomas used to go by the name William Thomas. That was before the male swimmer opted to identify as a female and compete as a women swimmer on the U of Penn Women’s swim team. William was an average swimmer on the men’s team but a champion on the women’s team. Lia Thomas is depriving women of scholarships and more by competing unfairly to make champions losers.

Colleges are not the only level to feel the pain of the WOKE Progressives. High schools are dealing with boys identifying as women and being allowed to use the women’s (girls’) locker rooms. This is setting up an unsafe situation for the biological girls, but schools and school boards are so far giving the nod to those born as boys but identifying as girls. Parents who complain are shut down, and the situation is becoming more common with the lack of decisive action to shut down this nonsense.

Women are by no means weak, but they need our protection from men who think they can put on a women’s bathing suit and declare themself a woman. Men have no place in a woman’s locker room or a woman’s team, period. Women who were denied a victory or record by a male competitor need to be made whole. The NCAA needs to get control of this situation, stop yielding to the WOKE, and preserve women’s athletics.

The post Title IX Turns 50…and Dies appeared first on Granite Grok.

The Cloward-Pivening of America continues as the Democrats stress the economy, banks, international relations, supply chains, and people’s patience. Oh, and then there are the estimated 5 million illegals who have “joined us” since Biden hit the Oval Office less than two years ago.

Southern border states (or popular destinations for illegal border crossers) have been sending them on planes or busses to New York, DC, and now near VP Kamal Harris’ residence.

Three buses full of ‘migrants’ were migrated to her “lawn” (not far from, at least) on Christmas Eve, promptly put on another bus, and relocated faster than you get an illegal off Martha’s Vineyard.

 

#HappeningNow the second bus of migrants has arrived here in D.C. near VP Kamala Harris’ home. They are boarding another bus taking them to a church. Was just told by someone helping bring them to the church that this bus came from Texas: pic.twitter.com/Sp4upqz1yB

— Christian Flores (@CFloresNews) December 25, 2022

 

No word on whether her majesty was at home, though I suspect not. I’m sure she had some cackling to do with “family” and “friends” back in California. I’ve no intel to prove that. The only place I can be sure we will not find Madam Vice President is anywhere near the Southern Border, overwhelmed as they’ve been for nearly two years straight.

 

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