Americans have been buying more than a million firearms a year for the last few years. Latest estimates of firearms is over 400 million arms in our population.  So that’s a lot of homes that could conceivably house a weapon that could be used to defend its inhabitants.

And these three miscreants decided to play Russian Roulette. Reformatted, emphasis mine:

Three crooks enter home, and one fires at homeowner. But victim is armed, too — and shoots gunman dead as other two suspects flee.

Three individuals entered a southern Louisiana home Tuesday night, and one of the intruders fired a gun at the homeowner. But it turns out the homeowner was armed as well — and fatally shot the gunman as the other two suspects fled the Jeanerette residence.

The Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Office said the intruders entered the home in the 9000 block of Old Jeanerette Road around 10:30 p.m. One of the intruders had a gun and fired it at the homeowner — but the homeowner returned fire and fatally wounded the intruder, the sheriff’s office said. The two remaining suspects fled the home and were still at large Tuesday night.

Deputies responded to a call about the home invasion and found the deceased male inside the home, the sheriff’s office said. The deceased male’s name was being withheld pending an investigation and notification of family, authorities added.

Yet another case of when you want to take something that belongs to someone else, think it over a few times as you may find out that your life may be taken instead. The only downside is that his companions received no consequence at all. Hope they did get caught later on.

Those commenting on the post about the home invasion and fatal shooting seemed pleased about the outcome:

(H/T: The Blaze)

 

The post Second Amendment Happy Ending of the Day – Three Go In, Only Two Go Out. They Assumed Wrongly appeared first on Granite Grok.

Today marks the 109th anniversary of the creation of the Federal Reserve on December 23, 1913, when President Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act into law. The financial insiders rejoice this holiday season, as they have every Christmas Eve for the last 109 years, congratulating themselves on their stupendous fortunes and looking forward to a prosperous new year!

The post Anniversary of the Downfall of the Dollar appeared first on The Liberty Block.

What we all witnessed in Washington was bizarre. None of it good, nor in the interest of this nation or its people. The day began with yet another boondoggle being foisted upon the taxpayers of this country.

We want to thank Ted Ropple for this Contribution – Please direct yours to Editor@GraniteGrok.com.
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A 1.7 TRILLION DOLLAR “Omnibus Bill.”

Omnibus means it’s stuffed with anything and everything the vested interests want to fund with public money. This latest grift comprises 4000 pages, and of course, it is too large and involved for anyone to read it and understand the scope of the spending. But it must be passed now!

As the Speaker of the House admonished the nation years ago, promoting a different scam, “We need to pass the bill to find out what’s in it.” It worked, then why not now? After all, the ruling Uniparty in DC thinks the American electorate is stupid and completely controllable.

This “Omnibus” contains something for everyone except for the people it should preserve, promote and protect- American citizens. There’s money in there to assist foreign countries in securing their borders, but nothing for the US to secure its own with Mexico.

It also contains another 45 BILLION DOLLARS for our latest and favoritest client state, Ukraine. The same country that cannot or will not account for the billions of dollars already gifted to them by the American people, who increasingly do not support the extent of United States involvement in this horrible foreign adventure precipitated by the Biden Administration.

The day ended with that evil little dictator from Ukraine doing his song and dance, demanding more money from America and anyone else that might be listening. Unshaven and wearing a sweatshirt in the well of the House of Representatives, the former comedian said everything he was told to say while the bought & paid-for Congresscritters lapped it all up. Must see TV!

Then the media and talking heads went to work, trying to equate his address to Churchill’s speech in the same venue at the end of 1941. There are no valid parallels between World War II and the current Eastern European hostilities, and that midget macquereau is no Churchill.  Far from it- he’s an autocrat who rules Ukraine with an iron fist, shutting down all dissent as well as the media and religious organizations who don’t toe the line. All while he’s lining his pockets, and everyone else’s connected with the foreign and military aid grift.

As bad as the Ukrainian-Russian Conflict is, it did not initially constitute a clear and present danger to the United States and was certainly not an existential threat to our country or people. This war may well be an existential threat to our corrupt President and Uniparty fellow travelers, but that is a very different thing.

It seems that the number of Americans understanding this important difference is growing, and growing at a faster clip than the Beltway ruling class can handle- that’s a good thing. Perhaps our rulers will once again fear their constituency more than their donors. That would also be a good thing. It’s beyond time that we all wake up and speak up.

The post It Is Not Our War, and Zelensky Is Not Churchill 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!

Speaking of, from this week, Monday Memes and Meme Overflow.  Also don’t forget my Survival Sunday feature, now in two parts:  PREP edition and SITREP edition.

 

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

 

Depending on, my next MEME post may be Wednesday given that Sunday is Christmas.  So – once more – Merry Christmas!!  I will get a Survival Sunday PREP Edition out though… it might be short but it’ll be there.  Tempus fugit.

 

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

 

https://media.gab.com/system/media_attachments/files/123/266/613/playable/21022b42cbc658a2.mp4

 

 

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The sheer hubris of this.  And does this not completely parallel the sneering dismissals of… continental drift:

“Utter, damned rot!” said the president of the prestigious American Philosophical Society.

“If we are to believe [this] hypothesis, we must forget everything we have learned in the last 70 years and start all over again,” said another American scientist.

Anyone who “valued his reputation for scientific sanity” would never dare support such a theory, said a British geologist.

There’s an axiom: “You cannot make a man see something when his paycheck depends on him not seeing it”.  In this, the above, and disrupters throughout history, one sees sneering dismissal.  For example, consider the discovery that puerperal fever was spread by the unwashed hands of doctors helping women give birth.  In one account that I read in high school, doctors utterly dismissed this idea that the hands of a “caring, educated, and ‘gentlemanly’ physician” could carry disease.  Countless women died needlessly because of this hubris.

This is not “rot” – but hard data:

 

 

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Voluntarily.  Like a woman with a knife at her throat “voluntarily” accedes to a romantic interlude in an alley.  There’s one image I recall of a man, getting the Jab, holding a sign that said “Under Duress”.

 

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This, right here, is a beautiful meme.  Simple, and damned hard hitting.  More on Socialism:

 

 

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“I’ve said this before, people would ask me, ‘Knowing what you know now, do you wish you had a third term?’ And I used to say, ‘You know what, if I could make an arrangement where I had a stand-in, a front-man or a front-woman and they had an ear piece in and I was just in my basement with my sweats looking through the stuff and I could sort of deliver the lines, but somebody else was doing all the talking and ceremony, I would be fine with that.’ Because I found the work fascinating. I mean, I write about the — even on my worst days, I found puzzling out, you know, these big, complicated, difficult issues, especially if you were working with some great people, to be professionally really satisfying. But I do not miss having to wear a tie every day.”

Barack Obama

December, 2020

 

What’s different about this musing by Barackus and the clear reality under President Potato?

 

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

 

Pick of the post:

 

 

The more I learn, the more I see it’s lies, illusions, and gaslighting all the way down.

A close second:

 

 

When phones had cords, people were free.  I admit the convenience, but… so many now are complete slaves to their phones – to the detriment of real life.  A repeat image, and one heartbreakingly sad:

 

 

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

 

A concluding word from the sage Thomas Sowell about Jew-hatred and their being “middle men minorities” – from an entire chapter in his book Black Rednecks and White Liberals:

 

 

And from the same book is this chapter – read aloud – about slavery:

 

 

 

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

 

Coda: A post I did on Gab made it to WRSA:

 

 

From an old-old essay of mine:

 

 

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Palate Cleansers:

 

 

—

 

 

—

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The post Friday Meme Overflow-Overflow appeared first on Granite Grok.

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How often have we said it? Whatever the Political Left claims, the opposite is always the truth. From Women’s rights to Crime Prevention to Poverty to Lowering Health Care Costs. The end result is always the opposite, and that includes CO2 emissions.

 

“In 2022, high natural gas prices led to significant fuel switching to coal in electricity generation in Europe, although both gas and coal generation increased as the growth of wind and solar was insufficient to fully offset lower hydro and nuclear power output.”

Coal power generation will rise to a new record in 2022, surpassing its 2021 levels. This is driven by robust coal power growth in India and the European Union (EU) and by small increases in China – and it comes despite a decline in the United States.”

 

The progs attacked clean or cleaner energy in the name of lowering emissions. The result is more coal used to fill the gaps.

I guess the rest of the world isn’t as interested in returning to the 17th century as American Dems.

And so we’re clear, nothing about the green-energy transition is green or has a damn thing to do with emissions. We’ve beaten that drum for years. But this International Energy Administration report is just embarrassing.

 

In simple English, … the left’s mindless war on the production of natural gas — one the cleanest and cheapest forms of electric power generation — the price of natural gas surged in 2022 in almost all parts of the world.

In other words, despite spending hundreds of billions of dollars subsidizing fringe energy sources like wind and solar power, the world is nevertheless burning record amounts of coal.

 

When or if coal becomes a problem they’ll burn more wood. If the wood becomes scarce, they’ll burn whatever burns, none of which is better for the environment than Natural Gas.

Policy aimed at lowering emissions has and will continue to result in more emissions including those from the production use and decommission of the alternatives that cannot (ironically) be made without coal.

Democrats are idiots.

People need to stop voting for them before their voting rights policies reach their natural conclusion – no more voting.

 

 

The post The Left’s Green-Energy Agenda Leads to Record Coal Use in 2022 appeared first on Granite Grok.

Maine is on the New England grid, so they’re as screwed as the rest of us. Like the rest of us, their so-called leaders believe sending someone a few hundred dollars to pay a bill solves a problem they or their ideological ancestors created.

Related: New England’s Shortsightedness on Energy Isn’t Just Bad for You, It is Bad for The Green Agenda

As noted here,

 

 The New England energy dearth has been an ongoing concern for years. As reliable energy is decommissioned from the grid, nothing reliable has been proposed to replace it. All while heating oil or gas infrastructure has been delayed, sidetracked, or blocked by environmentalist politicians and their green boots on the ground.

 

New Hampshire fast-tracked and rubber-stamped a heating assistance bill. You can get a check to help pay for rising heating oil, natural gas/propane, or residential electric bills if eligible. It does nothing to address why these prices have risen and, in some cases, doubled.

Maine tripped over itself to do something similar. Governor Mills’ winter heating assistance plan spends a lot of money because policymakers had their heads up the ass of the green lobby for two decades, and winter has come calling. To be fair some had their heads up their own ass, but the result is similar. It is a dollar-store band-aid that’s going to fall off, but they are pretending this gets them over some hump.

 

Kirsten Figueroa, the governor’s Commissioner of the Department Appropriations and Financial Affairs, reviewed the provisions, funding sources, and reasons for the $474 million heating aid plan.

More than half of the funds would come from the projected $283 million revenue surplus for the coming year.

Figueroa told the committee, “This bill takes these one-time funding sources to address a hopefully one-time emergency issue to make sure main people have the financial resources to keep them safe, secure, warm and housed this winter.”

 

Maybe Kirsten thinks Global warming will arrive in time to save them all next fall, but that’s just another lie, like the idea that this is a one-time emergency. Rising fuel and electricity prices are the deliberate result of mostly progressive policy decisions. This is what you wanted.

There is no solution, fake-green or otherwise, that will arise before next winter to pull your fair-trade soy-boy bacon out of this fire (assuming there’s anything with which to start one).

Related: Northeast ‘Energy Policy’ – How About Freezing to Death My Pretties….

And make note of the “projected” 283 million revenue surplus. Democrats are running Maine and were before the midterms. Rule one is to overestimate revenues so those numbers will pay for the planned spending. When the estimates come up short, you deflect the blame to the vagaries of the economy and then make sure everyone knows which vulnerable classes will be harmed if you object to new taxes or hikes in old ones.

The class to which they refer is actually themselves, lobbyists, unions, and grant-grubbing bottom-feeders, but that’s the quiet part no one says out loud. Just keep overestimating so you can raise taxes. It’s how we got New Jersey, New York, California, Massachusetts, etcetera.

Unaffordable budgets, like unaffordable electric rates, all have the same endgame. More government. If a few Mainers need to freeze to death to get there from here, well, they’re sorry the check wasn’t enough. Maybe you should have asked for small bills so you could burn those instead.

 

The post Maine Legislative Committee Pretends to Address Winter Energy Issues appeared first on Granite Grok.

It took a while for people to realize that Karoline Leavitt was mature enough to send her to Washington to represent New Hampshire’s First Congressional District. She was a young unknown, and though she worked hard to garner support, she did not get ample coverage from the media. She was also at a substantial disadvantage on the money side. Pappas had over $5 Million in his chest, while Leavitt had $3.6 Million in hers. It was a good amount for Leavitt, but she also had a primary to endure.

The scheduling of the NH Primary favors the incumbent. Pappas and Senator Maggie Hassan were in the media a full year before the midterms. They did not have a Primary to contend with, so they spent time and money gaslighting New Hampshire on how incredible they were for the state. With the Primary in September, Leavitt and Don Bolduc had little time to raise funds and formulate a solid midterm plan. I hope the state will push the Primary up in the future. The primary winner needs more time to go head-to-head with the incumbent.

Karoline made no major mistakes and was a solid debater. Her ability to think on the fly showed her grasp of the issues and how well she had prepared. The problem with debates is they are not viewed by many. The one thing we have learned is that elections today are determined by the independents. You will not swing the Democrats and should have the support of the Republicans. But the number of people who define themselves as undeclared is a growing voter block. In my small town, more registered voters are undeclared than Democrats and Republicans combined.

I do not understand why people choose not to declare. These folks used to be called independent, but over the last twenty years, there has been no middle ground in politics. This division makes it extremely difficult to understand the makeup of government in New Hampshire. We have a Republican controlled state government and four Democrats representing us in Washington. It makes no sense.

The next two years are going to be very difficult for Democrat incumbents. If the Border situation remains unchecked, the Fentanyl epidemic a non-issue, and the economy in malaise, those Democrats up for election may find themselves on the outside looking back in. Karoline will be well positioned to take another run at Chris Pappas. She can shed that just-left-college stigma, and people may see her as the vibrant, intelligent woman she is. Hopefully, the Party and the RNC will get behind her and get her the funds she will need to compete on a level field with Pappas.

Karoline has been teasing this week that an announcement is forthcoming on her next move, and obviously, she has to be fully committed if she runs. There are rumors that she may land a contributor position on FOX. That would be a positive should she still have another political run in her system. The exposure would be like free ad spots; she will be treated well with all the Conservatives on the FOX staff. I hope she does return. With her age, energy, and solid Conservative thinking, she can have a long career representing the good people of New Hampshire.

 

 

 

 

The post Karoline Leavitt for NH-CD1 in 2024 appeared first on Granite Grok.

While New Hampshire may be lacking in major professional sports teams, there’s no shortage of stars rising through the college ranks. Over at New Hampshire University, one of the standout soccer players right now is Moise Bombito.

Bombito is a young Canadian defender with a bright future. Named among a select bunch of players in the new Generation Adidas class, he’s also won awards after a breakthrough year.

Bombito’s Progression

As 2022 comes to a close, Moise Bombito is starting to hit the headlines. News of that Generation Adidas acknowledgment came through earlier in December, before it was announced that the young Canadian had won the ECAC defensive player of the year award.

Hailing from Montreal, but very much a product of New Hampshire, Bombito has also been selected in the ECAC All Star team. It’s been an exceptional season and there are many that feel he can go all the way. His national team is young and developing and it’s almost certain that Canadian scouts see Moise Bombito as a name for the future.

All Eyes on Canada

If Moise Bombito continues to focus on his soccer career, the target must be the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Canada, along with Mexico and the United States, will be co-hosting the tournament and have already pre-qualified on that basis.

The current Canadian side made it through to the 2022 tournament via the regular qualification route. It was the first time since 1986 that the country had progressed to the finals, but they were predictably eliminated at the group stage.

With a young and talented roster that includes top class players such as Alphonso Davies, Jonathan David and Liam Millar, there is hope that Canada will fare better in 2026.

Format Shake Up

Canada may also benefit from an expanded 2026 World Cup that will welcome 48 teams for the first time. While the exact format has yet to be determined, that expansion may help the country progress from beyond the groups.

For now, the Canadians remain among the outsiders to progress. Early betting markets have already started to emerge for 2026 and Canada are firmly among the underdogs. Progress of those odds can be tracked at sbo.net where over 275 sportsbooks are connected.

As 2026 draws closer, the markets will start to fill up. Visitors to the site can monitor any updates while taking in sports news and opinion articles. There are comprehensive sportsbook reviews for all of the operators on the list. With almost 300 to choose from, it’s also possible to get directly involved.

Each bookmaker affiliated to SBO can welcome eligible new customers. After completing a secure registration form, new account holders may also be able to look forward to a generous opening promotion.

Help with adding deposits can be found via a plethora of funding providers while customer services are on hand when needed. Those who play regularly may find a loyalty program, while there will almost certainly be a mobile app and other sports to bet on.

It’s one of the most useful sites for the betting community and Moise Bombito may well have a part to play at the 2026 World Cup.

Moise Bombito’s Career Path

From University, the traditional route for college students is to join the professional ranks. Major League Soccer doesn’t have the same draft system as the NFL or NBA, but there will definitely be teams monitoring Moise Bombito.

There are currently three Canadian franchises in MLS. Toronto FC, CF Montreal and the Vancouver Whitecaps may all be potential destinations. That would offer a good starting point in pro soccer but, if Bombito is as good as some media outlets are suggesting, he may be a target for some of the big clubs around Europe.

The scouting system reaches far and wide these days and those top sides have already captured the best Canadian players. Alphonso Davies is with Bayern Munich while Jonathan David is at Lille and Liam Millar at Basel.

If he wants to stay closer to his current base in New Hampshire, Moise Bombito’s options may be limited. The chances are that he will be making a significant move, but New Hampshire University can be proud of the role that they have played in Bombito’s development.

 

The post New Hampshire University Soccer Star Bombito set for Bright Future appeared first on Granite Grok.

On December 21st New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu banned TikTok from all state government devices. His reasoning? The potential for spying, data harvesting, and even espionage. Meanwhile, UNH just renewed a contract with China’s Confucius Institute.

The Confucius Institutes are a recognized front for Chinese influence peddling and are considered an espionage risk by the CIA.

 

The CIA has issued a classified report detailing China’s far-reaching foreign influence operations campaign in the United States, which imparts financial incentives as leverage to permeate American institutions.

 

We’ve published a few pieces on the relationship over the years.

 

• Has the University of New Hampshire Been ‘Colluding’ With the Chinese Government?
• UNH is Still Associated with a Communist Chinese Foreign Influence Operation.
• Good Time to Remind Everyone that UNH Runs a Propaganda arm of the Chinese Government?
• Heads up, UNH – Congress is Investigating Chinese Infiltration of US Campuses.

 

But back in August of 2022, NHPR Reported that, despite concerns, UNH had just renewed its contract with the Confucius Institute.

 

The University of New Hampshire is renewing a long-term contract with a China-based group that’s raised concerns among U.S. intelligence agencies. Confucius Institutes, which partner with colleges and universities around the globe, have been accused of serving as propaganda outlets of the Chinese government.

Supporters, however, say the Institutes provide students in the U.S. with classes and programs they couldn’t otherwise access.

 

Irony alert. The Confucius Institute provides China with resources it couldn’t otherwise access in America.

None of those Chinese Language professors is here without the permission of the Chinese Government and a mandate. While in America, they will engage in espionage, influence peddling, and propaganda. They don’t have a choice.

China will threaten their families if they refuse or fail to provide updates. This applies to almost every Chinese National deployed to the United States with their Government’s permission. And you can’t come without permission.

That’s not to say everyone from China is a spy. Many have escaped, sought asylum, or escaped from under the influence of the CCP. We know a few who are better Americans than a lot of Americans. But if the potential or risk for spying and espionage is a concern on state devices using a popular video app, why isn’t the UNH Campus and system – to which these professors have access- a problem?

UNH clearly expressed some concern before renewing the new five-year contract.

The better question might be, since China allegedly pays the freight for the UNH Confucius Institute, what other Chinese money has found its way into the pockets of UNH and those who operate it to get them to ignore their concerns?

 

 

The post Sununu Bans TikTok ‘cuz Spying, But UNH Renewed a Contract with China’s Confucius Institute appeared first on Granite Grok.

Emhasis mine:

Since the French Revolution, leftwing politics, as distinct from the liberal sort, have been essentially about revenge, including in Great Britain with the founding of the Labour Party in 1900, an event recently characterized by the Daily Telegraph as an act of vengeance. Then, leftist vengeance meant class vengeance. While it remains so to some degree, it has lately been greatly expanded, complicated and fortified by identity politics, in which class resentments are compounded and confused by innumerable others hitherto unimagined — and some, indeed, almost unimaginable. Most began as aspects of what was called “grievance” politics, which over the past decade or so has matured as revenge politics: the politics of a bitter, irrational, infantile, implacable, wholly gratifying and fulfilling rage. As the Democratic Party has moved rapidly and resolutely leftward over the past six or seven years, the Donkeys’ political agenda has been narrowed and reduced to one of programmatic revenge: “Let a thousand flowers bloom.”

Since the 1960s, the American left (inspired and aided by the agents of leftism abroad, in Europe, South America, the Soviet Union and in China) had been searching for a fundamental, essential constitutional weakness in American society and the American polity that they could develop as a fatal flaw by exaggerating and exploiting it. What remained of the Old Left thought it was capitalist economics. The New Left agreed, but added what it saw as authoritarian capitalist culture. The inventors of the 1619 Project thought they had discovered it in slavery. In recent years Democrats had a brainstorm and decided it was repressive identity politics. As they were also the institutional propagandists on behalf of multiculturalism and mass global immigration, destructive inspiration came naturally to them here. Americans loved capitalism. Slavery had been abolished a century and a half before, and relations between blacks and whites in the United States were improving drastically — obviously so. Many other countries had histories of economic inequality and slavery, including European and American ones; neither was unique to the United States. …

-Chilton Williamson, Jr (The grievance games of the Left aim for one thing:: revenge)

 

I can summarize this easily – they blame everything that is wrong on everyone else but themselves, using any obscure “wrongness” as a weapon against everyone else.

(H/T: Hot Air)

The post Notable Quote – On the Left, It Is Always about the Revenge appeared first on Granite Grok.

Sisti Informs Us The Fight For Peace Will Continue After Today’s Guilty Verdict On All Counts In Crypto6 Trial

I have some unfortunate news to announce. It saddens me to no end. I don’t know how to continue, but I will. As we all know the state is pure evil and lied, deceived, and manipulated there way into achieving a guilty verdict in this case. It isn’t over yet though. Ian’s a fighter. Ian and attorney Sisti will be appealing each and every count.

If nothing else comes of this Ian’s sacrifice will hopefully still lead to something wonderful. A reinvigoration to keep fighting. Ian’s been working at bringing peace, freedom, and love to New Hampshire for a decade and we’re not that far from achieving victory.

The Free State Project and greater migration movement grows day by day, week by week, and year by year. We don’t win every battle, but every battle brings us a little closer to achieving liberty in our lifetime. It’s because of people like Ian Freeman that New Hampshire will be free one day. There will be a place for people who strive for peace to call home. It may not be achieved today, but it’ll be achieved none-the-less. It’ll be achieved in our lifetime if I have anything to say about it. We’re 8-10 years away from having real control over the state. Further out maybe even independence from the goons that call themselves the federal government.

The government may be able to take out Ian Freeman in physical form, but they’ve already lost the war for peace even if they don’t know it yet. Over the past several years we’ve seen this state go from 20 to 30 to 40 to 50 free stater state reps about every 2 years (not including another ~50 liberty friendly reps). Each and every year since I moved to New Hampshire in 2016 there have been a record numbers of new movers. Just a few short years ago it was so very hard to see a free state. I can’t say that any more and it’s in big part thanks to Ian Freeman. Thank you Ian.

http://freedomdecrypted.com/public_html/other-content/ian-verdict-guilty.mp4

Crypto6 Day 10: Closing Statements

~20 Crypto6 Supporters Out In Support

Name: Mohamed Aly

Q Do?

A Curry Indian Restaurant Owner & Operator

13 years

Prior to NH lived in NY

Moved from NY to NH

Q Do you know Ian?

A Yes

Problem in Keene no Mosque

Q Do you recall the year you met Ian?

A Yes, a couple

We were looking for prier and Ian also has a place that is church and that how I met him and he help us out

So he let us set up Mosque in Church

7-8 months there

Q That was through his church?

A Yes

I open’d restaurant and I was suffering and I mentioned to Ian and he helped me with bitcoin and get more business.

Q Did he charge you for this?

A No!

He gave free tablet and helped with setup. It brought in business.

Q Do you consider Ian a man whose got integrity?

A I don’t know but with me he got friends to help me

Prosecution cross examines

Q Preached there for 7-8 months, Will Coley was Imam?

A No Imam

He converted to Muslim

[the above was a little confusing because Will Coley was the Imam of the Mosque during that year in which the Mosque came to be and was operated, but had to leave and shut it down due to his family needing to take care of sick father far away, but he may mean they didn’t have a Imam at the time or that they don’t have a Imam now nor a Mosque, and this was never clarified by either side, but also doesn’t really matter that much as he did clearly testified to the church donating the space for a Mosque to the minority Muslim community, it could also be he just ?didn’t remember? as this was quite a few years ago now]

Q Was he selling bitcoin in name of Mosque?

A No no idea

He said he could help with bitcoin

New witness

Name: Paul Nigg

Q Where live?

A Newton MA

Former assistant dean

Q What was contact with Ian?

A At height of lock down freeman called about my mother

Q Topic?

A My mother had been defrauded and he was trying to return money

Q How many contacts?

A 2 times and 3 months

Even when we ran into blocks he tried to overcome them

Q How much did your mother lose?

A $11,000

The money was money to help a disabled aunt

Q Multiple texts and phone calls?

A Yes many many texts and a few calls

Q Was he capable of getting the money back?

A Yes

I told him he should deduct postage and associated costs. It was less than $100.

Q He charge you?

A No, no fee

Q What happened?

A Someone convinced my mother to transfer money and we don’t know that is and it ended up in Freeman’s business.

Prosecutor cross examines witness

Q Not personally involved?

A No

Q Based on what mother and freeman told you?

A Yes, but I had picture of drivers license

Q You don’t know his account was frozen?

A No, but a bank closed his account

Q Mr Freeman didn’t lose any money on this transaction?

A I don’t know

Q He didn’t send any bitcoin?

A Right

[this is kinda misleading because the guy doesn’t know if Ian sent any bitcoin to the scammer and it could be the case that he sent the churches bitcoin to the scammer]

Defense redirect

Q $11,000 sent?

A Yes

Q Freeman contacted you?

A Yes

[notice how it wasn’t the bank that contacted him or his mother, but freeman]

Q You got money back?

A Yes, minus what I told him to deduct for his costs was almost nothing

Defense rests

And the closing statements begin!

Prosecutor

Plenty of excuses from Ian Freeman, but most of all that he is somehow not responsible because the feds can’t find the scammers.

[it’s going to be hard to not comment on every other word here because every other word is a lie or a manipulation that comes out of the prosecutors mouth during his closing statements, lets start with word 3, Ian didn’t make excuses for his actions, but he did explain what was actually going on rather than just conjecture about it like the prosecution and allude to wrongdoing of one kind or another, and why would Ian Freeman be responsible for the crimes of another individual who he had NOTHING to do with???? He never used the feds not being able to find the scammers as an excuse to his own behavior, but rather to point out the immoral behavior of the feds and the lack of integrity those who were persecuting hold]

You know it is hard to find scammers

[or maybe you’re just lazy and incompetent because Ian Freeman and the church recorded IDs of the scammers so you DO have something to go on if ever even bothered to ask, and other law enforcement actually DID ask and Ian Freeman DID assist them in tracking down the scammers in those incidents]

Freeman charged high fees

[no he didn’t, the church charged market rate or below market rate even, and the thing that increased those rates over time was the governments crackdown on bitcoin, so it’s actually you ass holes who are to blame for the “high fees” among non-high-volume non-exchange sellers of crypto]

and scammers wouldn’t want to pay that but they did because anonymous bitcoin hides their tracks

[your own witnesses testified to the fact bitcoin isn’t anonymous and these scammers weren’t anonymous either and you know why? It’s because the church has a policy of doing KYC and has the IDs of the scammers and you introduced that evidence and so even if you can claim it’s pseudo anonymous it’s NOT in this case]

Freeman was offering an important service that scammers needed and they paid him a pretty penny for it

[not more than market rate they didn’t]

He is the one who makes the scammers hard to find.

[this is an outright lie because Ian recorded the IDs of all his customers so that in the event a scammer got through the KYC he could provide law enforcement or a private investigator with evidence and trail to go, the church was not the place to go to for anonymous bitcoin or pseudo anonymous bitcoin]

He intentionally setup the business to help scammers

[it’s NOT a business as was already proven, it was registered as a church with the state and the dbas are NOT churches in their own right, merely other names for the SAME entity, any other entity was run by another person that WAS NOT IAN you moron]

He paid less than 1% for his bitcoin

[again, not his bitcoin, it was the churches bitcoin, and the church had a board of directions which has had different people on it over the years]

He then sold it for big fees. 14% at kiosks and 10% on Telegram. Up to 21% on localbitcoin.

[these are NOT big fees and they’re higher than the rates in at least the vending machine than I paid in the early days of the machines before there was a crackdown on bitcoin, I was paying 8% from the churches machines, not that I bought bitcoin often, but I did at least a couple of times, the government regulated ATMs in nearby MA actually charge 20% hmmm now whose ripping people off… can we say GOVERNMENT, and as far as the 21%, that actually makes sense, and it was probably even higher than that in SOME instances if these #s are being pulled from the entire pool of folks you charged in this case, and the reason is because if you take money via credit card or paypal or similar you’ll lose that money and its super high risk, but it’s probably also the case that these people are buying relatively small amounts of crypto by comparison to people paying via a wire transfer or cash deposit at a bank so that actually makes a lot of sense, and remember that this is NOT the profit, as there are costs to this as high as 6%, because of things like credit card fees, paypal fees, venmo fees, etc which once you take that into consideration it’s close to 14%, not 21%]

“You won’t see freeman walk arm and arm with scammers” Sisti said, no he’s too smart for that, but he did with a wing and a nod:

“Do not tell our staff why you want to buy our crypto”

[that’s not a wink and a nod, that is a security issue because if someone is told that they’re dealing drugs you’re at risk of charges if you go through with the sale, but staff at a restaurant or similar place aren’t going to be able to stop the transaction from going through, potentially making them victims of government abuse just like you are doing in this very case ass hole]

No questions no matter how vulnerable the victim appeared to be.

[this outright false as was shown by the fact the church had a policy of calling people who appeared to be potential victims]

Not everyone was a criminal who bought bitcoin, but the big ones, the repeat ones absolutely.

[really? You showed us something 8-9 victims during this entire case and while it appeared there might have been a few who were scammers who used a few different people to deposit money it was also the case that the church only received a small amount of the overall amount lost by the victim meaning even had the church caught it the scam wouldn’t have stopped the victim from losing money]

Not a single witness testified they bought them for themselves.

[this is another outright lie, as Dale Chapman testified for the defense that Ian Freeman helped her buy bitcoin from the churches vending machines for herself, and while not for monetary reasons, but rather technical learnings she would have done well over the past 5 years that she’s been holding crypto]

At that midnight nightcap he spilled it. If you fall in love with a guy from Africa I can’t stop it ya gona do what ya gona do.

[really, this is “spilling it”, Ian was stated facts. Just like you can’t stop these scams from happening neither can Ian Freeman, neither can your precious regulated financial institutions which also let all these scams go through and unlike the church the banks actually are regulated]

1. Money transmitting business constantly transmitting bitcoin

[no, because bitcoin doesn’t move from one state to another or from one country to another, and it was the churches bitcoin, not someone elses, which is VERY different than walmart taking someone elses value and sending it to some other location or moving it to another person, the church isn’t moving anything on behalf of another, the church is only figuratively moving it’s own thing to you]

2. Business effective interstate commerce

Accepted money from out of state/country

3. Unlicensed

He did not register

[he had no obligation to register because part of the statute says it’s for people making a profit, not for those doing it for charity and your own witness testified that there are exceptions and one of those included an example of someone not making money off it doing it once]

Conspiracy

Involves more than one person.

Rietman knew he needed license and still helped Freeman.

[No he didn’t. He testified that he would need a license if he setup his vending machine business differently than that of the church.]

Money laundering conspiracy

Agreement to launder money

Wink and nod is all that is needed and freeman did that with undercover agent that told freeman he sold drugs and then sold undercover bitcoin.

[except that he didn’t, he explicitly told the undercover he couldn’t do business with him, that he wouldn’t do business with him, and the undercover than went around freeman to a vending machine without freemans permission and bought crypto at a rate higher than when freeman wanted his ‘business’]

Money laundering count

Sisti will tell you freeman “did not engage in transaction” with undercover but he did

[no, this is an outright lie, he didn’t, and the evidence proves it, he went to a VENDING machine, didn’t tell freeman he was doing it and freeman had no means of stopping him]

Tax evasion

He had income weather he likes it or not.

He blames everyone but himself

[what a crock of shit, under the IRS’s own website he owed nothing because he didn’t even have to file let alone pay taxes unless there was some other side gig that he was doing for money which wasn’t the case]

Defense closing statement

Good morning.

I have a bit to suggest: Be objective, rational, reasonable. Ian and I appreciate your service. It’s not the time to be hanging around a court there are a few services that are important most and jury service its a service we appreciate.

Proof beyond a reasonable doubt is the highest in the world. Presumption of innocence. Ian didn’t have to take the stand. He could be found not guilty just by lack of evidence.

He said I made absurd arguments.

[pretty sure he’s referencing the prosecutor above]

But one thing I ask you not to do is speculate.

You can’t go home wondering.

The prosecutor cherry picked.

Do you know how many transactions Ian has gone through?

6,000

Most folks we did not get to ask questions.

People over 65 are too old to be interested in bitcoin is just insulting.

You know what else is insulting is we didn’t see Aria.

She didn’t testify that she conspired with Ian.

The people we had up here had integrity.

Renee wanted to change plea.

Chris he said he wanted to start business, but it was different, and he said “I don’t have inventory so I would be a transmitter”

Saying it’s simple is a red flag and that is what the prosecutor said.

Innuendo from a podcast you can pick up on from anywhere in the world? Really?

What is he really doing?

He is warning people of scams because he knows of scammers.

You don’t have to bitcoin to be scammed. People use gift cards every day.

The church wasn’t an illusion to Mohammad.

That’s not a scam, not an illusion.

If they are going to paint that church is a scam they should bring in someone with an opinion.

Why not? Because they don’t want to face the fact.

No you don’t need a shrine, you don’t need bells.

It has a mission, it does community service, it does charitable giving.

In fact the church sometimes has higher ideals than others.

The innuendo was throughout the closing.

You will hear instructions from the judge and if you follow it you will make the right decision.

The reality is anyone and everybody knows Ian as a good guy.

He is not flamboyant, he doesn’t drive a fancy car.

He lives in an humble abode.

He knew the FBI knew about it for years.

He didn’t throw the computer in the river.

You know they have been observing him for years.

They know he was non-violent, they knew all of them were non-violent.

He had a peace flag hanging up.

That morning 5 people got a 6am wake-up.

Plays security video

[the below video is an edited version of the copy played, the music included in this below copy was NOT played for the jurors]

Thats the face of this investigation.

It’s exaggerated, jumps to conclusions, an over reaction.

And you know what, it just damn mean.

Two bearcats, battering rams smashing through property doors windows.

If you want to start calling names.

You can do that pretty easily.

That is not where Osama bin Laden lives.

That is not where some arms dealer lives.

Why would they do that?

Why would they target him?

Maybe they just don’t like him

Officer safety?

I bet in middle of night Bonnie doesn’t forget that.

I bet Nobody doesn’t forget that.

I know Ian doesn’t forget that.

I don’t want to bad mouth these agencies, but you saw it. It was just despicable. It was misguided. Just like this prosecution.

When we are done you are the boss.

There is a defense for each charge and you have to go back and figure out if there is guilt for each charge.

Unlicensed MSB its not.

What you heard is sub-accounting 101.

His gains haven’t been examined.

Ian says it’s a church.

Ian says it’s a reinvestment in the community.

When you re-buy bitcoin you aren’t making profit you are simply reinvesting the churches assets.

They don’t examine like a business.

They want you to go home wondering.

Money transmission means money transmission. One place to another, one person to another.

Ian the only one in the court probably said doesn’t move.

It’s complicated.

It is not an entity.

It is formed and destroyed.

But this isn’t our burden, this is their burden.

They didn’t bring in a blockchain expert.

If they didn’t do it then it’s their fault.

License requirement is for a business, it’s not a business, it’s not transmitting its not required.

Ian initially thought FinCEN document was a scam.

Did anyone take the stand and say yes we’re in the business to transmit funds? No. Did Renee? No. Did Rietman? No, he said he would if required.

There is no agreement there is no conspiracy.

They throw things up and hope something sticks.

There were thousands of positive feedbacks.

They want you to think they were all scammers.

They want to make it evil.

They are asking you to speculate.

They sure would like to have evidence but they don’t.

The innuendo that freeman sells at a higher rate, cute, but did they bring any other vendors selling on localbitcoin or Telegram in? No.

If they want to say he is selling at a higher rate bring someone in to prove it.

They want you to buy in.

But that isn’t your job, but to take what was said throw it into crucible, examine, and see what is true.

How many other people sell on telgram, on localbitcoin? thousands

It’s an open market dozen and dozens and hundreds of other vendors.

Buy they brought in none.

You are not going to bring in itbit with millions of users and compare it to Ian Freeman with mere thousands.

Real criminals if you will destroy computers if they want to continue, but Ian knew since 2018 and he didn’t.

He keeps his records, he has nothing to fear because he wasn’t doing anything wrong.

The banfoon of the undercover agent tried, but Ian still refused.

They want to say because he refused he is guilty.

How about because he refused he is innocent.

Yea it’s there I can’t tell you you can do that.

And the undercover says OK.

The machine is 30 miles away and goes and pumps in $20,000 of your money and Ian doesn’t know what he is doing.

If he was buddy buddy why didn’t he cut him a break? He did before.

They are telling you he can remotely control it, did he do it then? No

How many times does someone have to refuse business?

They are saying because he has invited the guy to a party months later he is guilty?

He didn’t get angry at the guy. He just couldn’t do business with him.

They got a wagon without a horse.

The money laundering charge is a joke.

Money laundering conspiracy.

Bring just one person in.

But people they bring in say no that didn’t happen.

Income tax evasion 2016-2019.

Kinda interesting.

Half hour and we come up with

How much does he owe and could he owe no taxes? Maybe not

How can this be tax evasion when they don’t even know if he owes taxes?

Unlike the rest of us Ian didn’t get a letter and an opportunity to explain he was a church that he does not owe anything.

Does he want to pay taxes? No. Does anyone? Hell no

But I betchas all others to explain

Here there is no invitation

Don’t give me a standard deduction

How much is he worth?

No one knows because they never asked him to come in

I don’t get to stand up again like the prosecutor.

I can’t get up and refute what he says but you do.

I’m asking you to stand up to mr a frame

Don’t rush it

Don’t do him a favor

no time to give the government a gift

Thank you very much for your service.

Prosecutor responds

Don’t do government a gift the government doesn’t get anything from convicting freeman.

Church, but entry to his house

It’s irrelevant, swat team doesn’t matter

mr freeman is anti government

He has weapons

People rents rooms in house

[you know what makes people anti-government, it’s people like you]

The weapons were there for anyone to use

[no they weren’t, they were Matt’s weapons in Matt’s room, and no one would have used those weapons for violence and you knew that going in]

He said we cherry picked

You saw every single photo in Telegram folder

[umm yea cherry picking because you didn’t take a random sampling of everything, you selectively picked a folder that happened to have for reasons unknown to everybody a group that leaned in one direction, which might have been because those were savings of people who were getting extra scrutiny]

He didn’t throw anything away

Well it was encrypted

[it was a weak password that you could crack in a matter of weeks don’t give me that crap, it’s not like you did a live forensics on it and extracted a strong password to gain access, it would have had to have been less than 8 characters non random]

And he didn’t save all Telegram chats

[I am really curious what the hell that even means, you can delete chats, but so can the other person… seems like an attempt to mislead the jury]

He says he is not transmitting

It’s not a fancy word

It goes up and it goes down its transmitting

[wow- that’s the worst definition or explanation of transmitting that I’ve ever heard, I don’t even know I’d try that with a 3 year old]

Ian said license requirement letter was a scam.

You heard his own words say

He said something interesting.

He said a word I’d never heard before called social engineering. He explained it.

We didn’t put it in any evidence about higher fee, but we did with kraken.

[except this is manipulative and misleading because you are comparing him to an f’ing exchange not other comparable vendors]

 

Ian Freeman, the government’s “kingpin” of the Crypto6 takes the stand

Crypto6 Day 9

The day’s finally here! The defense’s evidence and witnesses get to testify and be introduced.

Defense goes first

Name: Keith Murphy

Lives in Manchester

Owns a restaurant and bar, aka Murphy’s Taproom since 2007

Murphy’s been in the industry for 30 years.

Q Physically type of spot?

A Southern New Hampshire university, 60% alcoholic beverages, 40% food, types of crowds depend on what is happening accrsoss the street due to the arena.

Q Is the front of the establishment glass?

A Yes, showroom style windows

Q Regulated by liquor commission?

A Yes, they come in from time to time

Q Law enforcement?

A Yes, but we never have any fights or problems

Q Do you take bitcoin?

A Yes, since 2013.

I was approached around 2013 and someone said they could put a machine in my lobby.

Q Do you know who?

A I believe it was Mr Freeman

I didn’t dabble in bitcoin yet

Q What decade?

A 2013 I think

Q How long have you had a machine in the business?

A 9 years

Mr Freeman’s machine was not the first machine though. The first one in had problems.

Q And Mr Freemans?

A No, very reliable.

After it’s initial placement I did not see Mr Freeman, but someone would come in and empty the machine monthly.

Q Where was it?

A In the lobby

Q Was it used frequently?

A Yes

Q Any issues or complaints?

A No

Q Anyone ever have an issue with the fees charged?

A No

Q Any complaints about errors in amounts given?

A No

Q Any regulators have an issue?

A No, not until the day it was taken away

Prosecutor’s turn:

Q What was the financial arrangement?

A We’d get a percentage of the fees to cover internet, space, etc

Q You didn’t have much interaction?

A I didn’t touch it

Q Do you know what this symbol is?

A No

Q Do you know what this sticker is covering?

A No

Q Did you have any conversation if it was regulated?

A No

Q No idea how it was operated?

A No

Q Did other people pick up monthly?

A Yes

Q Are you aware of a police compliant involving the machine?

A No

Q In 2019 did the manager tell you about a scam involving $5,000?

A No

Defense Redirect

Q Would I be right in saying you were not approached about the legitimacy of the machine?

A That is correct

Prosecutor asks some more questions:

Q Did you need permission from liquor commission to put the machine in?

A No

New witness

Name: Max Santanastaso

Q Where do you live?

A Winchester, NH

Q How long?

A 6 years

Q Education?

A MA and tech school

Q Were you in the military?

A Yea, Army

Q Do you know Ian?

A Yes

First heard of FTL, then met Ian at nightcap after moving to Keene

Q What is nightcap?

A Just a nighttime event. I just happened to walk by after getting some pizza.

Q Subject of crypto meetups?

A Once sold crypto to Ian

Q How experienced with bitcoin are you?

A Not very

I got some I didn’t really want and I offloaded it to Ian

Q Ian ever help you?

A No

Q Is Ian involved in church stuff?

A Yes, events, protests, etc

Q How well do you know Ian?

A Pretty well

I follow Ian because he had integrity

I find people with those qualities important to me

Q Reputation in community?

A Good

Prosecutor cross examines

Q When asked how many times you met up with him New years even and crypto meetup?

A Yea

Q Your knowledge comes from show?

A Both, but majority not in person

Q Did you make profit from sale of crypto to Ian?

A No

Q I got what I was given

New witness

Owner Of Little Zoes Testifies For Ian

Name: Edward Frster

Little Zoes Owner

Anthrum NH

Q You have had contact with Ian?

A Yes

Q What do you do?

A I own a pizza place

Q How long have you owned it?

A Since 2011

Business is good, it’s called Little Zoes, at the Center Of Keene

Q How did you meet Ian?

A I don’t recall exactly, but we went to Porcfest to sell Pizza and there were a # of people. Ian was one from Keene that I met. I learned about bitcoin at the event. Ian was extremely knowledgeable about a lot things like how to incorporate it into the business.

We have a system where money is printed and has no value.

I like the idea of crypto.

We use all kinds of money.

We exchange value in all kinds of ways.

Q Was his knowledge free of charge?

A Yes, in fact he felt bad that he gave me bad advice once when I lost a few hundred dollars and he replaced it. Lots of shady people out there in the world. He’s a good respectable guy.

Q How is his reputation?

A Nothing negative. Pro freedom.

Q Honesty? Trustworthy?

A Never heard anything bad

Prosecutor goes:

Q Did he approach you?

A No, others did ask me to take crypto at Porcfest.

I leaned a lot from Ian though.

Q Business a formal relationship?

A Yea, but when I did not understand. They held bitcoin meetings at my restaurant occasionally.

Q Didn’t tell you about bitcoin selling business?

A No

How does one sell bitcoin? I thought it was an exchange.

Defense

Q Did he provide you solid advice?

A Yes, he was out for everyone to be successful, but his own. I’m shocked we are even here.

New witness

Name: Adam Mosher

Lives in Newport

Small restraunt owner

Taco Beyondo

[best burritos in New Hampshire, hmm scratch that, the world]

Q When did you get to know Ian?

A Last 4 years

Q A bunch of people came in who were super respectful

We accept crypto

Q When did you start?

A 2018 or 2019 maybe

Q Did that come to your attention through Ian?

A Yes it did

We got a tablet that was provided and crypto went to phones wallet

Q If you had problems?

A I’d call Ian and he’d help out

Q Any charge?

A No charge

Always seemed like a straight up kinda guy

Prosecutor asks some questions:

Q Your business successful?

A Yes

Q Ever have bank accounts shut down?

A No

Q He was customer?

A Yes

Q Professional?

A Yea, I mean outside too

Defense asks some more Qs:

Q Your interest is money mainly?

A Yes

Q Ian open’d door?

A yea

Q Did he teach you?

A My staff more, but yea

Q He charge you?

A no

Q He pay with crypto?

A He has, but I don’t know what he usually does as I work behind the scenes in the kitchen

New Witness

Elderly Lady Who Was Kind And Testified On Behalf Of Ian After Receiving Crypto Assistance From Him For Years

Name: Dale Chapman

Lives in Amherst, MA

Retired Spanish teacher

75 years old!!!

[she looks really good for 75, I know her through crypto meetups, but didn’t know her age, and I didn’t realize she was elderly]

Q Do you know Ian?

A yes

Q How did you get to know Ian?

A In 2012 I could not find anyone who knew anything about bitcoin and at some point someone recommended I check out a meetup in Keene.  There were different people, but a few regulars.

Q Who did you get most advice from?

A I asked everyone. Ian taught me how to use a vending machine.

Q How many meetups?

A Since 2016 or 2017 every 2 months except in the winter. 5 times a year maybe.

Q Who had most advice or knowledge?

A Ian had the most knowledge, but did not push his knowledge on me.

He is the guy I would want to go with when I had questions because he would always go out of his way to figure out my macbook which no one else knew either.

Q Did he charge you?

A No, and funny you should ask because others offered to help for $150 / hour

Q Was it good advice?

A Yes, but since this case started he hasn’t been able to help so I’m still stuck.

Q What is his reputation in the community?

A Well, I’m not from Keene, but he is respectful and civil.

Prosecutor asks questions:

Q Ever deal with localbitcoin?

A No

Q Ever buy from him on Telegram?

A No

People helped me setup Telegram

Q Did you pay fee?

A I don’t know

I don’t use it for money, but because I wanted to learn the technology

Q Anyone help at home?

A There are a few, but the Keene group is way more helpful

Defense goes:

Q Any complaints about the vending machine you used?

A No

Prosecutor asks some more questions:

Q Do you know if regulated with government?

A No, don’t know if it is required

Carylin Urbanski, Owner Of Kirby’s Qs in Alstead NH Testifies

New witness

Name: Carylin Urbanski

Langdon NH

Software Consultant

Barque Business in Alstead

6 years

Q Do you know Ian?

A Yes, socially

He’s a good customer and we have friends in common

Ian would bring a lot of business to our restaurant and he helped get us on the map for bitcoin.

Q Is he someone you relied on for advice?

A Yes, and it was not his product

Q Was he knowledgeable?

A Yes

Customers would come in because we took cryptocurrency

Q Did he ever charge you?

A No, super generous too, he’d even give people free crypto

Q Is he charitable?

A Yes

Helping move, get established, other charities

There was a case after my husband died where he offered to help if I needed anything

Prosecutor asks some questions:

Q Do you know what he did for business?

A No, just that he promotes bitcoin

Q He had resources?

A Yes, correct

Q you don’t know where his money came from?

A I’d be uncomfortable asking anyone that

Q How much time did he spend helping you?

A 5-10 hours

100 Nights Director in Keene Testifies About Donations From Shire Free Church

New witness

Name: Linda Cambiar

Lives in Keene, NH

How long? Since 1976

What do you do? Executive director of a homeless shelter

Q Busiest week of the year?

A Yes, very

Q 100 nights?

A Founder setup to be open during 100 coldest nights of the year

It’s now 365 nights, but the name 100 nights is hard to change

Q You know Ian?

A Yes

Q When did you first meet?

A I started in 2013 he had been donor since the shelter was first started. One of the original donors in fact. Little help in the early days so I got to know Ian.

Q What is this?

A It’s a little app called Little Green Light that shows donators contributions. This is Ian’s history.

Q Giving for over a decade?

A Yes

Q Last contribution taken out just a few days ago in fact

A Right

Q So this is a regular donation from church?

A Yes

Q Info on shelter?

Permanently 36 beds

Provide a resource center

Laundry, showers, transport, case manager for those who we might be able to help get back to a normal life

Q Big deal?

A Yes, all over

Q How well do you know Ian?

A Not very well, but know of church

Q Those are straight gifts, the church gets nothing back?

A Right

Prosecutor asks some questions

Q Regulated in New Hampshire?

A Yes

Q Do you make sure you comply with the law?

A yes

[this prosecutor as all prosecutors are is a manipulative piece of shit as he’s suggesting that because the church isn’t registered as 501(3)c and presumably the shelter is that the church is somehow breaking the law when it’s not as churches are not obligated to register even though they can under the IRS’s own rules]

Q You file forms with the IRS?

A Yes

Q Charitable trust with state?

A Yes

Church donating since 2014 shown on screen

Things to note: Church sponsored masquerade ball put on by the shelter to raise money for the shelter for $1000 in 2014. The church also donated a substantial amount via a partial bitcoin which was auctioned off.

[that is the founding of 100 nights, but the church pre-dates this, but this is 2-years prior to any accusation of the church or Ian selling crypto- yet the church was supposed setup to be a money laundering operation for scammers according to the prosecution, it makes no sense, and had buildings and assets donated to it and started donating and doing good work in the community prior to 2016, including advocating bitcoin not bombs]

Q Asking $10 in may, in aug… repeats

[appears to be trying to suggest donations are insignificant which is sort of true if this was the only thing the church was donating to or doing relative to the revenues being generated from the sale of crypto but it wasn’t]

A yes, yes, yes, yest repeats

Q $120 in 2018?

A Yes

[this goes on for a bit going through each $10 donation for the entire length of time the church donated, which is insulting because the church made other larger donations at various points to the shelter, but because most of them are $10 / month it comes off as if almost nothing has been donated by comparison to what the church brings in from the sale of crypto]

Q Do you disclose donors?

A Only if over $5,000 yr

Q Did you get 5 million?

A No, we just got over 1 million this year for the first time

[the prosecutor  is asking this unfair question because the incoming amounts to bank accounts  adds up to millions even though the fees from it doesn’t add up to this… so by implication the prosecutor is misleading the jury into thinking the church is donating some trivial amount and Ian is pocketing the money]

Defense asks some more questions

Q He’s given a total of $6,400?

A Yes, and he donated to auction too

Q What was that?

A It was part of a bitcoin

[which I don’t know what it was at the time of the donation, but it was probably not nothing]

Q Is it fair to say he has been a consistent donor?

A Yes, we appreciate every penny

Prosecutor

Q Since 2010 he has donated $6,400 right?

A Yes

Defense

Q That was the cash aspect, not the bitcoin?

A Yes

New witness

Name: Ian Freeman

Judge speaks

“no one can require you to testify”

Not even your lawer

Q Is it your decision?

A Yes

Q Have you consulted with your lawyer?

A Yes

Defense

Q Born?

A Flordia

Q How long in Florida?

A 26 years

Q Education?

A Mostly government school and a gifted school

Q When did you leave Florida?

A 2006

Q What did you do?

A Free Talk Live

It’s a show that today airs on 180 radio stations. It’s been on continuously since 2002.

Q Do you get sponsors?

A Some and grateful, not glamorous

Q What is your opinion of talk radio?

A In Florida shows didn’t allow people to talk who had a difference of opinion. I did not like that so my show is open to people to call in about anything they want.

Q When did you hear about bitcoin?

A I think it was 2011 and someone called into the program, we were a bit skeptical at first.

Then later we had a meeting with a guy Gavin and we went to a Taiwanese restaurant and he answered every question I had and I got it.

Q What is vision?

A Going back to history governments have been clipping edges off gold and silver coins to debase their money. The government does that today, but through other means. The government has been inflating our money. Satoshi created this thing that doesn’t rely on this. So when the government prints more dollars you have more dollars chasing for the same amount of goods.

A lot of us noticed this and Satoshi did something about it. No one had any idea it was going to take off. But someone bought pizza with it in maybe 2010 and that was the first time it had a value. At first it was worth zero up till this point.My show had an advertiser memory dealer who was probably a millionaire at this point. He wasn’t likely to sell to our listeners, but wanted to support us. He heard a call about bitcoin on the show. He then bought a large amount of coin.

He already pouring dollars into the show for adds, but he asked if he could pay in bitcoin, and I said well, we need dollars to pay bills, but how about we take 10 or 15 percent in bitcoin from you.

Q So what is it worth now?

A $16,000

Roger is still an advertiser to this day.

In 2013 we founded the shire free church because we were a show focused on a moral message. I donated everything I had to the church. Around this time I had opportunity to spread bitcoin and it met with the churches mission. We are not a profit seeking entity but when bitcoin is sold money is brought in. The dollar and euros and such is immoral. It is used to go to war. The Church mission is to foster peace through any means necessary.

Q When was first bitcoin machine?

A My friend was running a thrift store at the time the machines were not expensive maybe $1000 so we got one.

Q How do you stock it?

A Well, we already were getting lots of bitcoin, but we did start buying it when stocks got low. We operated a hot wallet which is our own bitcoin. It keeps things simple.

Q When you first started church how well off were you?

A At that point I was already pretty well off as the price of bitcoin had already gone up when we founded the church. I donated everything I owned including a $200,000 home I owned to the church.

Q Do you own a nice car?

A No, always used and no cars now. I drive church car.

Q Any foreign bank accounts?

A Yes, but only because US banks don’t like bitcoin

To me every account I opened was a church account.

Q Do you draw an income?

A No, the church sustains me. I have a parsonage. The church pays for car and gas. I do what god calls me to do which is peace. I’m sure people have heard of radio or TV ministries. That is what I do and lots of others.

Q What about Uganda?

A We tried to help a man start an orphanage by giving him a ton of money. The state department denied him a visa or we would have had him here.We did some ads with Monadnock Shopper which was a bit of an educational initiative. I would give $50 away to anyone who contacted me and entered them to a contest for $500 and donating to local charities.

Q Community service?

A Yea, we certified community service for people have done volunteer work for the court. A couple years after vending machine someone introduced me to localbitcoin and this matches with church mission. So I started doing it.

Q How did it work out?

A Other than the occasional scammer great

Bitcoin is irreversible. So if you encounter a scam artist you can’t claw back the money. Scammers were minority, but were a problem so have to have system to stop it.

At first you would see a car payment that obviously wasn’t the churches so I put in stronger security requirements. This included ID. But then people started doing man in the middle attacks where they’d get someone else do a deposit. We did stop some scammers from scamming older people. We make people write what they were buying to stop it.

Another scammer once deposited cash then verified with me, but after went back into bank and claimed they made a mistake and the bank then gave the person their money back. This was the banks error. It’s also what you call a social engineering.

Now no matter what security you put in place you can’t stop all scams.

Q If someone was scammed what would you do?

A Well, if we got wind of a scam we’d stop it.

Over time we started using a commercial product that let me look up phone numbers and verify the # I was given was in fact the buyer and this enabled me to catch most scammers.

Patrick Brown was a case where Patrick lied to me. He said there was no third person. Banks would never tell us why they closed accounts. But one bank did and that was Patrick Brown victim. Patrick Browns bank called my bank to try and get money back. I spoke for 30 minutes with agent to try and help. This was not the only time we helped law enforcement.

Another man in the middle scam we were able to detect and stop. At localbitcoin we got trade, did KYC, got government ID, she jumped through hoops, she went to bank and did the deed. When I got picture of receipt something was off. It was a scan of a copy of the receipt so I would not complete the transaction. Police got involved and between them and the attorney we got the victims money back.

There was another case with a romance scam detective Yip and there we provided what evidence we could.

Q Why name on account?

A So for Reneee she was an old friend who needed assistance so I trained her on selling bitcoin. She had her own acounts for that purpose. Aria had her own church and we lent her some funds to get started. She was not in bitcoin as long so we helped her get started. Sometimes she could not work so I helped with her account with her permission.

When an account was frozen we were not usually told why. 98% of the time we would be vindicated, but they still would not want to do business with us and would close the account. They would cut us a check because we had evidence we were right. We only lost one case and that was because multiple banks pulled the money back. There were about 6,000 transactions, not 6,000 users, but mostly because some buyers had more than one transactions with us.

Q What # of complaints?

A Very few.

50-75 suuposed victims out of about 6,000 according to the prosecution.

If someone believes they love someone they will lie. I have even said to people “have you ever met your husband”. Some scams are really hard to defeat.

Q How did you meet this guy?

A The guy did repeated transactions online.

A You did not know him?

A No

It seemed he was aware of crypto movement in New Hampshire and that was his basis for coming out. I met him at our meetups. He did good job of making himself appear as though he believed in liberty.

Q Up to then had he indicated any crime?

A No, not till a nightcap meetup.

He had said he was a used card dealer in Albany. I did not have a conversation with him about drugs, but I did overhear it. That was a red alert. He was a cop or a moron. Basically I was well aware that the government does these operations and that I was being investigated. I knew they would try this because they always do. I figured he was undercover even though in the chat I said I didn’t think he was because I wanted to see what he’d do next.

Q So you said no way?

A Right

I said knowingly because I knew the law and they do the same thing. What was unusual here is he was never able to meet me alone. In other cases he probably intimidated people into selling him crypto. He looks like a mob person so very intimidating to most people.

Q So he brings up thirsty owl vending machine after this?

A Yes, and I said Ok

Q So you had no idea that he was going to vending machine?

A Right

Q So he went without your knowledge?

A Right

I see reports of people buying, but not who is buying

Q There are no cameras?

A No

Q There was nothing you could do to stop him?

A What should I have done? Tackled him? We don’t have anybody there.

Q Did you agree to launder money?

A No, I didn’t and wouldn’t do that

Q Muslim community?

A Will Coley who is an imam asked if there would be space available to help with a muslim community. I said yes we had a building we could contribute. This was an actual mosque.  We also had the bitcoin embacy and its hard to find classes in the real world so chris give classes.

Q What is a trade name?

A It is just another name for the same entity. So the NH Peace Church was just another name for the Shire Free Church.

Q Purpose of the trade name?

A Banking purpose

Q Church Of The Invisible Hand?

A Two seperate things. It has its own beliefs.

Q Reformed Satanic Church?

A Another thing.

It doesn’t mean believe in the devil.

It got to a point that I gave localbitcoin small stuff to help.

The Crypto Church is also the Shire Free Church and has a board of directors.

Churches are not corporations. In legal land you can get a tax ID even though you don’t pay taxes as a church.

And you get this because without it you can’t get a bank account.

The IRS has the #. The IRS did sent a letter in Spanish and it asked for updated address. I saw no reason to respond.

Vending

Q The ones church operated what was your understanding of obligations?

A We hired a lawyer, Seth Hipple, to tell us what we needed to do. It turned out nothing.

Q Is bitcoin transmitting?

A No

The words are used to communicate, but it’s not what is actually happening. You can’t cook the books is the one benefit. Unspent transactions output. When it is spent it doesn’t move at all. It stays in the same place.

Q The bitcoin in your machine were owned by the church?

A That is correct

Q So it’s not owned by a business, but a church?

A Right

Q You see the FinCEN letter?

A Yea, it came into a sort of catch all email account and it looked like a letter sent to all venders. I was suspisious of it because when a government agency wants to communicate with you they send you a physical letter or possibly certified mail even. I thought maybe it was even spam.

Q What age range?

A All ages. They probably skipped other folder because it had more people of all ages in it.

Q Any basis for government average age?

A Not at all, but it’s true older people tend to have more money.

Q Any bank unusual?

A Yes, one actually. There was one bank that a manager contact infor was included with a letter about closing an account. So I asked him why. What I learned from a meeting with him is that banks have to understand the nature of the activity.

I called every bank in Manchester and asked about bitcoin and every one said no.

Q Quotes for investment?

A Yes because it’s best investment

Q Rare coin?

A So what makes bitcoin value is its rarity. There will only ever be 21 million coins produced.

Q Donation?

A Everything we did was for the benefit of the mission of the church. The terms of trade said it and elsewhere and should have been known by all buyers.

ftl_ian feedback

I achieved pro level status at localbitcoin based on volume and was concerned about ratings.

church.shiresociety.com has the church’s mission statement and other information about the Shire Free Church I am a minister of.

Ian Reads off the mission statement of the church:

Declaration

The Shire Free Church offers a sanctuary for those seeking an escape from state churches. The Shire Free Church is an interfaith, diverse group of people who may not share identical theological beliefs. As a member in or minister of the Shire Free Church, you are a sovereign individual and may be the faith of your choice whether it be Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Daoist, Jewish, Quaker, etc, or following your inner light. Monotheists, polytheists, pantheists, panentheists, and atheists are all welcome, as long as you are peaceful. The Shire Free Church was organized in Keene in the year 2013 and serves all of the Shire.

Mission

We don’t claim to have all the answers.
We are open to all peaceful people.
We want to learn from each other.

It is our mission, inspired by God, Allah, the Universe, and the inner light – to foster peace. We understand that in order to have peace in the world, one must have it inside oneself first – the “purification of the soul”, as our Muslim friends call it.

Unification in Diversity – A Statement of Beliefs

What unifies the Shire Free Church and its diverse members is peace, love, and liberty. There are many paths to God – one for every individual. The Shire Free Church does not define a specific path beyond those parameters that must be your foundation: peace as your way, love as your guide, and liberty as your light.

Maxim:

“Be the best you can be and harm no other in his person or property.”

Virtues:

Compassion Forgiveness Empathy Humility

Honesty Kindness Patience Personal Responsibility

Productive Work Self-improvement Thinking

Visiting and Joining the Shire Free Church

The only requirements to visit or join the Shire Free Church are that you are of peace and do not advocate the use of force to achieve social or political goals. In order to join the Shire Free Church, you must be a signer of the Shire Society Declaration. There are no requirements or induction rituals. You need not ask permission from anyone in the church – simply make the decision to be a part of the Shire Free Church for yourself. You may stay a member as long as your words and actions show you are of peace. To this end, each Shire Free Church member may decide the validity of any other claimed member based on their word and deed.

Ordination of Church Ministers

Shire Free Church ministers have full control over their churches, church projects, and parsonages. Our structure is non-hierarchical. The Shire Free Church is a private group that welcome interested people who meet the moral qualifications to join as stated above. To become ordained, you must be a signer of the Shire Society declaration as well as agree with the mission and statement of beliefs of the church. To receive your official Ordained Minister card, please reach out to existing ministry via the contact information below.

Contact a Minister

You can contact a minister by using the Shire Society forum.

Church Locations

You may be a member of the Shire Free Church regardless of your physical location, but it is recommended you move physically to the Shire in order to secure more of your liberty with like-minded brothers and sisters.

The Shire Free Church exists wherever its members gather. Currently, ministers have parsonages in the following locations:

• Keene: Click for blog posts from Keene ministers. Shire Free Church: Monadnock is also part of the Universal Life Church.
• Manchester
• Tilton

Special thanks to our friends at the Peaceful Assembly Church in Grafton. In memory of PAC’s pastor John Connell, whose inspiration was critical in forming the Shire Free Church. Thank you, John.

Q Is this common theme since inception?

A Yes

Q It lays out how to contact minister?

A Yes

Q When put out?

A 2013

[notice that this is ~3 years before the governments accused Ian or the church of committing any crime via the way of selling bitcoin, if the church was setup for the purpose of money laundering it’s insane to think that it was planned out 3 years in advance of the crime, before Ian even knew how to sell bitcoin, and likely before the first vending machine existed]

Q If anyone wanted to know about church they could have looked at website?

A Yes, or called radio program even

Q Awakened in early morning hours of March 16 of 2021. Agent said there is supposed to be a call out. Do you recall that?

A No, and my friend who was awake heard nothing either

First thought was teens threw a brick at the house because our peace flag has been ripped down a number of times over the years. What I found in my robe was a drone flying through my window. I requested my girlfriend could put on a robe cause she was completely naked.

Q 4 in home?

A Yes

Q Matt a gun owner?

A Yes, licenses gun owner

Everyone was detained

Q Why did they destroy cameras?

A It looked like they were up to no good and hiding what they were doing

Q Did anyone explain why?

A No

Tax evasion

Q You receieved no letters right?

A Nothing at all

Q Anyone ever call you?

A Not at all

Q File anything?

A No because under the IRS rules chuches don’t pay taxes or have to file anything

Q At any point were you trying to do anything illegal?

A No

Q Anything illegal?

A I may have smoked some canibis

Prosecutor

Q You call yourself a minister?

A That is correct

Q Did you write it?

A Yes, with some others

Q Banks research people?

A Yes, it would seem to be step 1

Q You have people call into your show?

A yes including undercover agents

Q You talk about current events?

A Yes, and theology and other topics

She lists topics on one nights show

Q Parsanage at 73 Leverett St?

A Yes

Q You bought and donated to church?

A Yes

Q You tried to get property tax exempt?

A Yes, it was rejected, and to try and sue was the only option. We didn’t have the funds at the time.

Q Does the church pay for gas and clothing?

A Yes, it does

Q And when you travel?

A Yes, but only a couple events

Q And the church is how you make money?

A No

Q It’s donations that make it possible to get food

A Of course

Q Did you give a substantial amount to chairty?

A That would depend on what you consider a lot, but yea

Showing building with Mosque inside

[at this point things stop and the government admits to monitoring the radio show and the judge says he would have too, as a former prosecutor]

[the prosecutor wants to play the Free Keene video of Will Coley incident with City Of Keene government, but the judge appears to deny it for reasons unknown, probably because it wasn’t provided to the defense correctly, see below for your pleasure]

 

 

Q Your church donated to a Uganda orphanage $35,000?

A Sounds about right

Q The percent commision of this sale is about what donated to the Uganda orphanage, right?

A About, yes

FinCEN letter

Prosecutor

Q You testified you got FinCEN email

A Yea

Q Prior you had your lawyer write a letter?

A Yes

Prosecutor brings up tax exemption for church document

Golden rule

“Do not tell our staff why you want to buy cryptocurrency”

Prosecutor going through photos and asking you think this person is legitimate customer?

[answer is yes for all]

Defense

Q Feedback are important?

A Very important

Q You had highest feedback rating on site?

A Yea

Q Did anyone complain?

A No

Q Any negatives?

A Yes, but from scammerss, “you require too much verification”

Q Did banks stop any transaction?

A No

Q What did you think of FinCEN letter?

A It was scam

Q Did any one follow up?

A No

Q What did you understand your status to be?

A Registering as a 501(3)c actually restricts what a church can do so the free church movement is a movement of churchs to can this status. Donations to any church can receieve tax free money even if they don’t register under 501(3)c status.

Q Why the sign?

A We didn’t want a store employee to be in an acwaked position if somone told them of a crime. It was to protect everyone because pivacy matters.

 

I have to confess I stole that title from Tucker Carlson. Tucker is one of my favorite news people because he is fearless. He has no allegiance to the Right or Left, and if his reporting upsets either or both, so be it. Tucker’s goal is to uncover the truth, and because of his quest for honesty, Tucker Carlson lives with a target on his back. The only difference from day to day is the direction of the shots he takes. They come from all sides, including the media. Ironically, all reporters used to be what Tucker Carlson is. The rest just lost their way and nerve.

The Press in America is designed to be free. This concept was so important to our forefathers that they wrote the guarantee of a Free Press into the Constitution. The reason the Press was so important to the designers of our country was to have someone watch the government and protect the people. They were to observe, investigate and report the truth to the American people. The Press was urged to be the watchdog and to keep the government accountable. The problem today is that the government funds the Press, or media, to manipulate the message. The FBI has bastardized the right to a free press, giving Twitter over $3 Million for burying their version of the Hunter Biden Laptop saga.

We have been asking ourselves the same question about a variety of issues. Why are these people doing such irrational things? What is their motivation? The answer may be as simple and obvious as they act as if they are God. We, on the Right, know damn well that these people are not God or anywhere close to him. But this would explain why the Left believes they can control the climate, decide on appropriate gender, and even control people’s thoughts. They think they are immortal, and if we can shatter this thinking, then maybe, we can come to some middle ground of ideas. That is a huge maybe.

This interference by the FBI, DOJ, The White House, or any other government entity cannot repeat. We are learning more each day as Elon Musk and Twitter continue to make public facts about how the government used Twitter to influence the 2020 and 2022 elections. We also know from Mark Zuckerberg’s testimony that the FBI also had contact with Facebook. The House will begin hearings on January 3, and the Press will have to cover the proceedings. This will be the first glimpse that many on the Left will have into an ugly conspiracy that we on the Right have known about for some time. The problem will be accountability. The DOJ under Merrick Garland and a Democrat controlled Senate, will block any attempt at prosecuting those found guilty.

At least the curtain will be pulled back. We must find what Christopher Wray’s part was in this plot and who else in the FBI hierarchy needs to be pulled onto the carpet. The Hunter Biden Laptop has to be opened, and the facts brought to the world. We must find out the extent of how much Joe Biden is compromised. This is going to be a dark time for our government but those who are breaking the rules must now pay the price. We cannot undo the damage created by toying with our election process, but steps must be implemented to make sure it never happens again.

 

The post People Who Think They Are God, & Those Who Know They Are Not appeared first on Granite Grok.

Yep, I have a few of these to catch up on. What started as an observation by TreeHugger author Lloyd Alter that Germans were “gamifying” the use of less energy (“Germans Are Competing With Each Other to Save Energy“), my first thought was “oh, competing to see who could have a worse standard of living faster AND be proud of it?”. He did point out in his third paragraph, however, that some of the techniques were silly, stupid, and could get them killed:

The Journal also reports that Germans are boasting on social media about lowering the thermostats, wearing thermal underwear, and even “lighting outdoor grills and camping stoves in their apartments,” which is a good way to get asphyxiated. They are baking bread in the toaster and “deleting unneeded programs and apps from digital devices,” which will save zero energy.

Well, look on the bright side – after you’re dead, your energy usage goes to zero, right? Unless you want to get as fanatical as some of the THers and claim that they are STILL “consuming” carbon-based energy when the landscapers run their lawnmowers over your grave and trim around your headstone. But Lloyd also brought up my secondary heating source, wood (being primary at night and on cloudy days instead of passive solar). So one conservative wag started the ball rolling with:

Bob Baal: So will this mean fewer articles on TH about the evils of burning wood?

Enviros hate the idea of woodstoves – particulate pollution (e.g., smoke if you aren’t burning “hot”) as well as “using” the embedded carbon and releasing it back into the atmosphere as part of the process of burning it. But given that the article was being positive about it, Bob asked THE question as Lloyd generally is really down on wood as a heat source. Lloyd did say he did have another post against wood the next day but I took that opportunity by the horns…

GraniteGrok: heh!

As I bask, on a couch, in my wood stove’s gentle heat (a Vermont Casting’s Defiant, if anyone cares) with a contented smile on my face…

…as I try to forget what my electric bill is costing me.

And then we were off to the races about capitalism which was kicked off by my swipe against Eversource’s doubling of the cost of electricity (thanks ESG!).  Another Commenter by the name of freedomev decided to show us his ignorance of what Capitalism is – and isn’t.  So I decided it was a most proper time to “learn him some edumacation”. Note: he’s stubborn so this goes long.

And like I have advocated before, we cannot refuse an opportunity to engage in the debate, especially when we know that the other side either doesn’t know what they are talking about (this case) or you want to clear up the misconception (this case again) or create an Object Lesson (triple threat – and those of you who teach Sunday School in churches et al know what an O.L is).

So, we see that freedomev’s premise about capitalism is wrong from the get go – a perfect place in which exploit the debate. Reformatted, emphasis mine:

freedomev   -> GraniteGrok
If capitalism was good you’d have a low temp Rankine closed system motor/alternator making serious power from that stove.
But where are they? We’ve had the tech 90 yrs yet you can’t buy one, a wood/waste fired CHP, a heat/cold storage unit, etc.

So there’s the fault, right of the bat – the assumption that Capitalism is bad. Simply because there isn’t a product on the market as he wants. Nobody is supplying a need that he assumes that capitalism should have already figured out.  But note that an alternative economic system isn’t offered – only that Capitalism is bad.

Tag, I’m it – and showed him how he could make LOTS of money if he’d only take advantage of Capitalism’s democratization of the marketplace

GraniteGrok  -> freedomev

If capitalism was good

Actually, you are proving that it works! Sounds like you have found a hole (or at least a small niche) in the HVAC marketplace, sir! Make it and they shall buy it, right?

I plead ignorance of the tech you speak of – HAS anyone tried before? If the answer is no, it isn’t capitalism that is at fault so your premise is wrong. But you may proceed!

If the answer is yes but were unable to scale it up at a prices that consumers will pay for it, capitalism still worked correctly. You do know why, right?

And we see the next untenable supposition about Capitalism:

freedomev  -> GraniteGrok
Capitalism is supposed to supply what we need, we need those and they don’t so, no it doesn’t.

The tech is the same as in a heat pump, just in reverse as a heat motor, dead simple.

I’m too old, not my expertise, to do that but should and needs to be available as can work from 400F stored heat generating, heating on demand, saving a lot of battery demand and runs off solar, yard, other wastes, etc.

Your explanation of capitalism is so flawed, to be laughable. As capitalism is turning out to be. While we need it, it needs to be more controlled, guided or will eat itself.

Yeah, we’ve all seen what top-down “guided” economies have accomplished and ended up doing. crashing and burning. But yet again, another opportunity:

GraniteGrok  -> freedomev
You have a wrong headed idea of capitalism. Yes, capitalism serves people. This best economic system that has ever been devised (letting people choose for themselves) does supply a lot of things that people want and need.

What it ISN’T is a sorcerer’s box that automatically conjures up new products out of thin air. It DOES provide, however, the ability for someone to think of a new product, design it, manufacture it, market it, and hopefully sell it.

The marketplace (i.e., consumers) will decide if it is a product they want. For instance, the cell phone. Today, few people would be willing to do without it. However, the patent office is full of ideas that consumers went “never mind, don’t want it”.

That’s not a FAILURE of the market, that’s the market saying “we don’t want or need it” in sufficient numbers to make it worth someone’s time, effort, and capital to carry onward with it.

There are a lot of things that people, like yourself, complain that “capitalism” doesn’t provide. What you are really saying is “I hate it when others won’t waste their time, effort, and capital to give me what I want or what I think they should be doing for me”.

…but should and needs to be available

That’s merely an opinion – it’s not capitalism. It would be if you got past your idea that you’re too “old”, get off your duff, and get it down. Or persuade someone else to do it – and help them.

“Guided economies”. Yeah, that’s worked out EVAH! so well over the last century and a half. Again, look up the Great Mind Fallacy to see why.

Note in his response he wants others to make economic decisions for him without his input. And a third bad assumption of capitalism – in totally missing my admonition above that individuals make the decisions on their own. He just can’t give up the notion that because a product he wants doesn’t exist, it proves that Capitalism is a failure (absolute nonsense). And look at the “THEY” part – another false assumption:

freedomev   -> GraniteGrok
Guided corporations that is for sure. They promised capitalism would provide and doesn’t come anywhere near right. They force you to take what they give for them.
And when that is poisoning people, oil wars for profit, needs to end.

And no one is forcing anyone to take anything. The marketplace offers; it cannot “force” as he is implying. Again, the socialist/communist influence among the Eco-Socialists.  And this is where I really wind up:

GraniteGrok -> freedomev
WHO said capitalism promised anything.

Remember, the base principle/action of capitalism is this – a voluntary exchange in which each person believes they are receiving a better value than what they are giving.

Example: I am willing to buy your widget because I believe your widget is worth more to me than the money I would give you to pay for it. You, on the other hand, believe my money is a better value for you than your widget does for you.

That’s it. That’s capitalism at its basic level.

Look at the base elements:

– I have money
– You have a product.

A match happens.

Or not as in I like your widget but not at the price you want. I can counter offer your price. You can either accept or not. If not and no exchange of values happen.

NOTHING is ever sure – there is RISK in capitalism of either not having sufficient money (I can’t buy a Rolls even though I need a car) or no one wants your product.

Strictly an economic decision.

Yes, the gubbmint gets in the way of this basic transaction – sometimes helpful, often not helpful. YMWV.

Other systems are both economic AND political in nature and often, the political is primary (your “guiding”).

How can some far away bureaucrat know what is best for either you or me in our transaction? Govt only creates friction in that transaction and often gets details wrong.

And that last question never got answered.

This debate is needful for all of us to have, do, and win. Too often, those on the Left have an ill-composed idea of what Capitalism is and how it works.  Their view is ALWAYS top-down like their view of how our Government should be functioning (e.g., Feds rule over the States that rule over localities) starting with corporations. We need to switch the field of debate to a bottom up one – that Individuals are primary in this.

FreedomEV believes that the “faceless ‘they’ of Capitalism” is always top down and trying to force consumers to buy the things THEY tell them to. We need to make the case that it is individual consumers that are in charge – and should be. We should ALWAYS fight the urge to conflate and intertwine the idea that Government and Capitalism should always be the same.

After all, that’s what socialism and communism do, just as Islam does the same thing with Government and Religion.

Capitalism is the only economic system that is free from either (or should be). It DOES require Individual Freedom to be successful – but it also expands that Individual Freedom as well by putting MORE decision making into the hands of Individuals.

 

The post Disqus Doodlings – A Full on Assault and Defense of Capitalism vs a “Guided Economy” appeared first on Granite Grok.

Here is Mitch McConnell telling America that the priorities of GOP-voters … open Southern border, fentanyl, crime, inflation, CRT, 1619, etc., etc., etc. … do NOT matter at all to Mitch and his cronies-in-grift. No; what matters is endless war to enrich the military-industrial complex:

McConnell: "Providing assistance for Ukrainians to defeat the Russians is the number one priority for the United States right now according to most Republicans. That's how we see the challenges confronting the country at the moment." pic.twitter.com/NPmzWRzoz1

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) December 20, 2022

And the omnibus bill, that the GOP swamp-creatures support? Another total sell-out of GOP-voters:

My team and I are reading through the omnibus bill today – all $1.7 trillion and 4,155 pages of it.

Follow along for some of the most egregious provisions in the bill

— Rep. Dan Bishop (@RepDanBishop) December 20, 2022

Maybe … just maybe … voters looked past all the annoying text messages from the RNC in the midterms and said, “What’s the point in voting GOP”?

The post And Yet They Claim They’re NOT The Reason There Was No Red Wave … appeared first on Granite Grok.

Ian, by Joa from Breaking The Flaw

Today was a short day with about a dozen crypto6 supporters making it to the trial, but not terribly unsurprising as people showing up late didn’t get to see anything and many can’t make an entire day due to work and other obligations. So over all a decent turnout. The complete summary of the days events are posted below in full.

The prosecution tried to undermine Ian’s credibility through a dirty joke involving Renee being a dominatrix taking money from boyfriends from all over the country. No, she didn’t do that, but that was the point the prosecutor was making. Keep in mind that other witnesses also testified that Ian consistently said never to lie to the banks.

There was some question as to whether or not Renee was pressured into taking a plea deal through threats of 8-10 years in prison should she not.

It is revealed by Renee that the reason for the church outreach was that bitcoin undermines the governments ability to to go to war or do evil stuff. The money was not raised for a profit, or business, but for charitable cause.

The most interesting thing that happened though was the defense brought up the fact that the prosecution couldn’t prove that a bitcoin transaction was money transmission. You can have a transaction without transmission occurring. I can buy land and there is a transaction involved, but that land can’t be transmitted.

Continuation Of Renee’s Testimony

Prosecutor

Communications from chat show Renee and Ian were discussing how to make a bank happy

The prosecutor is using  a joke about Renee getting cash deposits from boyfriends she’s got all over the country in an effort to undermine her/Ian’s credibility.

From a chat log they show “We’re not registered”

Q Did you understand that to relate to your operation?

A Yes

Audio from chat played talking about another case where someone is convicted of a similar crime for selling crypto even though they did register with FinCEN

Q Did Ian have ability to see money being put into the vending machine?

A Yes

Q What does ‘major wale’ mean (from chat)?

A Someone was filing the machine with money

From chat log: “26% of machine”

Q Is that the percentage of the vending machined filled with cash?

A Yes

Q At this time were you just doing CVM connections for Mr Freeman?

A I think so

Defense

Q This Murphys is Murphy’s bar in Manchester?

A Yes

Q Do you know how long it was there?

A A year maybe I think

Q How often did you pick up?

A It was a weekly thing

Q Was it open to the public to use?

A Yes

Q How big was the machine?

A It was a foot and a half by two feet

Sticker on the door said it was there

Q The owner knew it was there, right?

A Yea

Q Ever hear any complaints from the owner, law enforcement, or anyone?

A No

Q What did you do?

A Walk in and put cash from machine in bag and walk out

Q Anyone stop you and say what you were doing was illegal?

A No

Q Any police officer walking down the street could see it, right?

A Yes

Q Can you explain plea deal?

A 8-10 years in jail was the potential sentence I was told if I took it to trial so the logical thing to do was to take a plea deal and get no jail time, but would be a felon for the rest of my life.

Q Who said 8-10 years?

A The prosecution

Q Do you think you did anything illegal?

A No, neither that or anything wrong

Q Why then take a plea deal?

A I was just scared

Q Never conspired or did anything with Ian that was illegal?

A  Yes

Q Why buy and sell bitcoin? What was mission?

A To keep as much money as possible out of governments hands because they do evil stuff with it.

Q Was this a church mission?

A Yea

Q Was anyone being scammed?

A No

Q if you thought someone was being scammed what would you do?

A We wouldn’t sell to them

Q Did you purposely engage in money transmission or anything unlawful?

A No

My understanding is it was not a business

Q Did Ian force you to do any of this stuff?

A No

Q You could stay with Ian a do this money thing or not right?

A Correct

Q Can you tell people about Ian’s lifestyle?

A He lives a modest lifestyle, definitely not a life of the rich and famous

Q What does he drive?

A Rev 4

Q So an older used car?

A Yes

Q So you called him rich because he doesn’t have to beg and scrape for money?

A Yes

Q Do you know where church money went?

A Yes, homeless shelter and other stuff

Q Do you know what he preaches?

A Yea, always show people bitcoin wallet

Q Does he charge it?

A No

Redirect from prosecution

Q Was one of the questions at sentencing that you lied to banks?

A Yes, because I was compelled to do as part of plea deal

[Renee asks for her lawyer]

[testimony resumes w/o consultation with lawyer as you can’t talk to your lawyer during testimony]

[The prosecutor doesn’t like the truth and appear to be threatening her with perjury via intimidation for revealing the system is rigged]

Judge says:

You can’t consult with counsel while testifying, but council wasn’t properly “in” the court due to COVID and tech issue which is why we recessed to the jury.

Q Why did you tell the judge laplanet you were guilty was that a truthful answer?

A Yes

[effectively she is forced to lie because if she does not they can charge her with perjury which is messed up because you are required to perjure yourself to get a plea deal effectively]

Q Were you represented by a lawyer during the proffer?

A Yes

Q After consulting with your lawyer you accepted the plea deal?

A Right

Q you had agreed to open bank account and sell bitcoin for Mr Freeman? And that it was unregistered?

A Yes

Q You did it for church outreach?

A Yes

May 16, 2020 signal conversation

Renee:

So my option is limited work or have attention brought to myself

I’d like to make the most amount of money with the least amount of risk

Q So you did church outreach and you were paid for it?

A Yes, both things are true

Q You told…

A I don’t really trust Melanie Neighbours so I don’t know

Q You yourself said Mr Freeman was rich

A Yea

Cross defense

Q you don’t consider Ian a wealthy man?

A No

Q Not at all?

A Yea

Q Then you said he was only rich by comparison to you being really poor?

A Right

Q Was this a super pressure situation?

A Yes

[he’s referring to why she took the plea deal]

Q Why did you switch lawyer?

A I hope to change my plea

Q Your intent is now to withdraw?

A Yes, if I can

Q Did you conspire to do anything illegal?

A No

Q Did you take plans to make sure were legal?

A Yes

Prosecutor asks some more questions

Q Were you a dominatrix?

A No

Q Wasn’t true right?

A Yea

[they’re referencing the joke about her being a dominatrix and having men all over the internet depositing money into her account]

Defense goes again

Q Did any bank lose any money?

A No

Prosecutor again

Q How do you know that?

A I was told that by the prosecutor

[this was hilarious as they used their own words against them, and this was 100% true, the prosecutor in two difference sentencing hearings said that there were no financial losses by the banks and this was part of the reason for the sentence given]

Defense again

Q The banks gave you your money back when they closed your account, right?

A Yes

Q No restitution was ordered at your sentencing, right?

A Right

Judge Speaks

Prosecution rests it’s case.

Prosecution has the burden of proof.

Tomorrow the defense can, but doesn’t have to put on a defense.

Defense makes motions on money laundering charges

Refer to heroin dealer

Asks to dismiss

Interaction was rejected after Ian learned of illegal activity.

He said he could not agree to sell bitcoin to the undercover agent.

He did not aid or accompany or encourage in any shape or form and did not give discounted rate to the undercover.

Prior to knowing the undercover was a drug deal Ian gave a 10% rate to the agent. After refusal the agent got the normal 14% from the vending machine.

This is not circumstantial evidence, but direct direct evidence.

No control over that vending machine the undercover used.

There was no evidence presented that Ian even knew the guy bought crypt at the machine.

Prosecutor responds

Our view is that he is not refusing under all circumstances, but it has to be low key.

It was a wink and a nod situation.

Evidence is sufficient to get past rule 29.

[this is crazy because that was never said or clearly communicated, and he outright refused in actual words]

Judge speaks:

Can he even monitor from Keene, yes, but does he even know?

Prosecutor speaks

He is watching

[except he isn’t, he is only alerted when money is going into the machine and how much, not who, and even that depends on him paying attention to those alerts on his phone/his phone having connectivity and at the time he probably didn’t have connectivity as he was driving back from Taco Beyondo where the is poor cellular reception between Hillsboro and Keene, but even if he got an alert he wouldn’t have seen it because he was driving]

Judge speaks

Active and seeing watching getting cash is different than seeing undercover do it

Defense speaks

Agent didn’t say he was going to do it

Tax Evasion

Whether or not he even owes government taxes.

This is a joke.

He was never asked for documentation.

There was no exploration into profit or loss.

It was all speculation.

No falsifying documentation occurred.

He didn’t do anything.

The IRS agent just did a standard deduction.

No overhead, not take, not charitable deductions.

Nothing.

Or even that he is a non-profit.

It’s all a myth.

We don’t even know there is other money.

You can’t just make up it up and they did.

Prosecution speaks

She looked at locatbtc records and case for each trade over above standard costs.

Chat from localbitcoin

Judge speaks

Income proven, but was he required to file “not owe anything” is concerning.

I need law on this, not just testimony.

Defense speaks

Look at the actual exchange: “may not owe any taxes at all”

It would also have to be wilful and intentional.

It’s like a “gotcha game” here.

Never sent letter or even tried to get contact like they normally do for everyone else.

[remember the IRS agent testified that they were out to get him and didn’t follow standard procedure because of it]

Judge talks

The evasion charges seem unusual giving no prior contact occurred based on my experience as a judge and former prosecutor.

Money transmission

Defense speaks:

They didn’t show any evidence of transition.

No blockchain evidence was shown.

Does it even transfer?

Is it actually a transfer?

Devoid of transfer evidence.

I hope we are not leaving it to the imagination of the jury.

They are not in money transmission business.

They didn’t claim to be a business.

They claim to be a church.

But transmission itself is a bigger issue.

No testimony as to what transmission even means in relation to this case.

They are worried as to what a wallet is and that hasn’t even been defined.

Prosecution speaks

Money transmission someone explained it.

What wallets were.

FinCEN testified transmission of crypto is money transmission.

And evidence those transactions happened.

Judge speaks

What we didn’t get

What evidence do we have tying his wallet to anyone in this case?

Defense speaks

Proved transactions not transmissions.

It is the act of transmitting that is in question.

Judge speaks

Ok, it is the understanding of it that is the problem

I’ll take it under advisement

End of Day 8

Forewarned is forearmed.  Thus, this is intended to be a compilation of articles, with my commentary, to try and get like-minded people to grasp what’s coming.  Even merely being aware of events in the world will make you better prepared than the hordes of sheeple.

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.

For prep materials, please see:

Survival Sunday – PREP Edition – Granite Grok

 

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

 

 

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

 

Top of the fold:

‘Deep dive’ into Biden laptop reveals 459 illegal acts (wnd.com)

Nothing will happen.  And thus the perception of the “common American” that the entire edifice is corrupt and rotten to the core proceeds apace.  Rome, er, America is set to fall.  Related:

Jake Lang Update: Feds Prevent J-6 Political Prisoner Who Has been Locked up for 2 Years from Speaking with His Attorney and Planning His Defense (thegatewaypundit.com)

—

Adverse events in Pfizer trial may have been underreported by 10X or more (substack.com)

Pfizer claims no cases of anaphylaxis.  Whistle blower cites at least 10 cases.  These statements cannot both be true.  And if Pfizer lied, that’s fraud, and fraud vitiates all protections.  RTWT.  MHO… even if it’s crystal clear, it’s going to take a judge with some serious cojones to do this, because no judge is going to want to go against The Narrative, not to mention the enemedia scorn plus governmental pressure they will get if they rule that Pfizer did commit fraud.

 

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

 

 

On the radio, Howie Carr, they were discussing this and how – if this happens – it will “look so bad for the Left”.  Horsefeathers.  They’re so blinded by hate they will burn this country down to get Trump.  To wit:

Dems Vote to Release Six Years of Trump Tax Returns in Stunning Invasion of Privacy – RedState

The Dems of course found a sleazy way around that. The tax code allows the committee to look at people’s tax returns to provide “oversight” of the Internal Revenue Service, and by writing an official report on their findings, then those returns can legally become public as part of the report.

Nice.

 

 

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

 

Deep State / Coming Tyranny / WEF / Globalists (broad):

 

 

And it will be sold to you as a good and noble thing.  Remember, these people have unlimited funds to buy the best psychologists and mass marketers to come up with the slickest slogans.  Related:

 

 

 

And more:

 

 

Quote from the source article:

A Deutsche Bank Research document says that an “eco-dictatorship” will be necessary to achieve net zero.

Tyranny done with the best of intentions – for if saving the planet is not the greatest of noble causes, what could be?  Where have I heard something like this being discussed?

 

(Link to AZQUOTES per their policy.)

 

Remember the Green Police ad (video, 1 minute)?  Related:

The Elite’s Plan For A No-Car Society — Guest Post by Otto Moibul – William M. Briggs (wmbriggs.com)

No car for YOU.  Nor land for you:

 

 

For the Elites, however… that’s a different story.

The Tyranny of the Minority › American Greatness (amgreatness.com)

—

Elections Have Consequences: This is What New Yorkers Voted For – Here are Few of the Bills Expected to Pass in January (thegatewaypundit.com)

These legislations are direct violations of Constitutional rights and the Nuremberg Code.

 

 

Oh, and that wasn’t an election.  It was a theft of power, and you know it.

—

The Sound Of Settled Science – Small Dead Animals

The case for “climate change” was always weak.  And yet, people with whom I discuss this have zero curiosity.  It’s merely accepted on faith – which is what it is.

—

The world you once knew is OVER: 12 must-see predictions (and solutions) for 2023 (citizens.news)

Collection of predictions.

—

EU Funds Test of Biometric Payments From Digital Wallets

It’ll be sold as convenient and safe.

 

=+=+=

Protecting Children:

 

 

—

Library Board votes to exclude graphic books after MassResistance outrage

It CAN be done.  Meanwhile:

Let’s Go Brandon: Cultural Marxist Biden Regime Targets Texas School District for Removing Sexually Explicit LGBTQ Books (thegatewaypundit.com)

—

 

 

Seven Hairy Hells what’s being shown to kids???  Done to kids?

The Balenciaga Pedogate Story is WAY WORSE Than You Think it is (rumble.com)

15 minute video.  (May be a repeat.)

—

Ace of Spades HQ (mu.nu)

Determined to add “P” to the LGBTQ.

 

=+=+=

National Security (specifically):

Nothing that tickled my interest found this week.

 

=+=+=

Shortages (broadly):

Nothing that tickled my interest found this week.

 

=+=+=

On The Jab (and Covid)

Raconteur Report: I’m Sure It’s Just Wild Coincidence

I’m very afraid for my Jabbed-twice-with-Moderna and boosted (at least once) with Pfizer wife.  Related:

7% of Vaccinated Americans Have Suffered Major Side Effects From COVID-19 Jab: Poll

—

NEIL OLIVER: THE SILENCE IS DEAFENING ON THE BIGGEST STORY IN THE WORLD – The Phaser

Video – can’t find it on youtube so you need to click through.

—

Excess Mortality in Germany, Part One | Gates of Vienna

The data in Germany, and elsewhere, are compelling.  But nobody wants to admit they were wrong.  And the ones doing this deliberately know they did it and don’t care.

—

 

 

=+=+=

Inflation:

Over 60 Percent Of Americans Now Living Paycheck To Paycheck Thanks To Bidenflation (thegatewaypundit.com)

Middle class is supposed to be beyond such living.  At least, that’s my understanding.  So what’s your line in the sand?

What’s Your Line In The Sand? The $25 Burger? | ZeroHedge

—

Small Businesses Report Hardship Due to Inflation This Christmas Season

Goldman Sachs released survey data that found that 52% of surveyed small business owners say that their profitability “has not met expectations. Even while an overwhelming 79% have increased prices compared to last year.”

 

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

 

 

I’ve actually ordered the book.  Know thyself is a very important concept.

 

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

 

Enemedia:

 

 

“Learn to code”.

 

=+=+=

Migration / Immigration

Biden Administration Sues Arizona For Building Border Wall…

It’s clear to anyone with three or more brain cells that talk with each other that this invasion is deliberate.  More:

Border Patrol Union Blasts Biden, Tweets ‘This Is Not Leadership, It’s Cowardice’ – RedState

Governor Abbott: If Title 42 ends “it’s gonna be total chaos” at the border – HotAir

55,000 migrants begin to mass toward the U.S. southern border – American Thinker

Reports: Illegals Are Taking Over Streets In El Paso, And Soon Will In Yuma | Blog Posts | VDARE.com

—

At Real Clear Investigations: Europe Shows a Clear Link Between Immigration and Crime — Like the One the U.S. Seriously Downplays (crimeresearch.org)

The link is clear.  If you’re willing to remove the ideological lenses.

—

England’s migrant transformation is even bigger than America’s – American Thinker

Goodbye England.  And America.  This, below, is not sustainable.

Tyranny by omission – American Thinker

Illegal immigration a larger problem in the West – American Thinker

Unprecedented Migration Crisis Continues as the White House Must Replace Disenfranchised Americans – The Last Refuge (theconservativetreehouse.com)

—

Workers would face 40pc tax on pay to fund new universal basic income – Independent.ie

Prioritization of the aliens over the natives.

Replacement Migration: Your Government Hates You (bitchute.com)

Video, about 15 minutes.

—

MSNBC Reporter: Illegal Immigrants Told Me “They Just Walked Right In” To The United States…

And yet, the administration says the border is not open:

WH: “It Would Be Wrong To Think That The Border Is Open. It Is Not Open.”

Democracy Dies in Darkness: Biden Regime Forbids US Border Patrol Officials from Releasing Total Daily Illegal Alien Apprehensions on Social Media

—

Diversity is our strength? French city of Nice now features emergency buttons in churches after Islamic terror attacks (rmx.news)

IMHO better to react with some well-placed high-velocity lead poisoning.  Followed by wrapping the perps in a pigskin as they’re buried.

 

=+=+=

Know your Leftist / Globalist / Jihadist enemy:

Hollywood Lib: Biden “Most Successful” President In Last 60 Years…

Liberalism is truly a mental disease.  Two books on that:

Liberalism Is A Mental Disorder

The Liberal Mind: The Psychological Causes of Political Madness

—

Leftists Aren’t Capable Of Surviving Economic Collapse – Here’s Why

Not in the main, no, but… they do have military people on the Left.

—

Why Are Communists Determined to Destroy the US? – American Thinker

Only MISSIONARIES can hold onto a belief like this, intergenerationally.  Until we understand that this is truly a religious war against an enemy that BELIEVES, we will certainly lose.

—

California college trustee wants to ‘cull’ conservative faculty, ‘take ’em to the slaughterhouse’ | Conservative Action Alerts | conservativeactionalerts.com

They don’t think of you as human.  And I’m learning to embrace feeling the same way about them.  Alas.

 

=+=+=

Economy at large:

 

 

—

Debt as a millstone around our economic necks

I have tried to teach my kids that there is no “good debt”.  There is necessary debt, but no debt is “good”.  More:

Everything Is Fine… Until It Isn’t | ZeroHedge

—

Major Economic Contraction Coming In 2023 – Followed By Even More Inflation – Alt-Market.us (link in original)

My position is that the central bank has a global agenda that eclipses any national loyalty, and that it requires the decline of the American economy in order to expedite the introduction of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) linked together through the IMF. So far they are getting exactly what they want and they are perfectly aware of what they are doing.

US Leading Economic Indicators Plunge Most ‘Since Lehman’

—

 

 

—

The real economic facts are hidden beneath the hype

Insightful.  Thoughts I hadn’t considered.  From the same site:

Bayou Renaissance Man: Prostitution as a sign of economic decline

Making ends meet financially by making ends meet literally.

 

=+=+=

US Stability (broad catch-all):

Our Parasitic Generation › American Greatness (amgreatness.com)

A nation in decline.  Related:

Striking New School Students Demand All A’s

Invert the old saw – now it’s “Never trust anyone under 30”.  Especially if your life is on the line and it’s a young doctor.

—

Report: CDC buried study at behest of gun control advocates – Bearing Arms

Understand – government has, can, and will lie to you.  If you trust government, you have a crisis of trust.  More:

The FBI Has Lost All Forms Of Trust And Credibility After ‘Twitter Files’ Revelations

Most medical professionals don’t believe the public health establishment – HotAir

—

Google Wants the Races Separate and Hating Each Other – PJ Media

You want more race hate?  Because this is how you make more race hate.  More:

 

https://media.gab.com/system/media_attachments/files/122/939/679/playable/64ba412c8789d319.mp4

 

https://media.gab.com/system/media_attachments/files/122/946/779/playable/274cab4f4c582650.mp4

 

Never mind the initial, utterly savage attack.  How the follow-on people going by ignore this injured woman and actually force her to move so they can open the door.  And some of the others – high velocity lead poisoning is warranted in some instances IMHO.

Heads up and be situationally aware.

—

40% of students at liberal arts colleges now identify as LGBTQ, study finds – American Thinker (bolding added):

Why did God bother to make us male and female? (“Male and female He created them.”) It appears fewer and fewer people wish to mate with and/or spend their lives with members of the opposite sex, though a rapidly growing number of folks want to be a member of the opposite sex. This is surpassingly strange and could only have happened with the concurrent collapse of Christianity and the ascent of “higher education.”

Why do you think there’s been such a systematic assault on religion?  It’s to hide the new religion in the skin of the old:

Church Erases Jesus & Nativity in Christmas Carol, Replaces Them With “Queer” People – Summit News

—

Kari Lake Expert Witness: Missized Ballots That Caused Election Day Chaos Could Not Have Been An Accident › American Greatness (amgreatness.com)

Agree.  And the question is where were those ballots used?  Lake-leaning areas?  Related:

Mail-in Ballots Forever › American Greatness (amgreatness.com)

RTWT.  And:

Trump Was a Mistake › American Greatness (amgreatness.com)  (Italics replaced with underlining.)

But from the Republican perspective, it was better to lose the presidential race and have a Democrat in power with whom they could work—one who could play the game and be part of the machine—than it was to have someone who couldn’t be controlled. They never again made the mistake of nominating a man who wasn’t under their thumb. At least, not until 2016.

So remember: The GOP isn’t really our party. It never was. That is the central truth that the Trump phenomenon has exposed—or exposed anew. It’s a political machine, just like the Democratic Party, and it wants to run itself, not be run by “ordinary” people like you and me. Trump’s nomination the first time around, from the GOP’s perspective, was a huge mistake, just as TR’s had been. And they have no intention of repeating that kind of mistake.

The GOP and the Democrats and the media are all agreed on one, central point: Trump cannot become president again. All these power groups’ motivations are different, but their interests are aligned, and the stakes are practically existential.

…

So, be prepared to hear nothing about Trump’s candidacy, nothing about his massive rallies, nothing about the unwavering enthusiasm of his supporters. Be prepared to hear only one thing: That the “people” don’t want him. But don’t believe it. Remember which people are doing the talking.

—

10 Steps to Save America › American Greatness (amgreatness.com)

Good steps.  The trick is to get them done.  And I don’t think they can get done.  IMHO we’re well past the event horizon of being able to climb back from the collapse without “discontinuities”.

 

=+=+=

World Stability (broad catch-all):

“How Close Are We to Something Awful?” – Tucker Carlson Explains that US Patriot Missiles Sent to Ukraine Will Require US Troops to Run Them (thegatewaypundit.com)

What happens if / when US TROOPS are directly involved in the shooting down of a Russian plane?  Related:

British general admits UK deployed troops to Ukraine — RT Russia & Former Soviet Union

Related, and scary – if you have a survival instinct:

 

 

—

 

 

There can be ZERO trust in any federal agency at this point.

—

US Sends Infantry Unit To Base Just Miles Away From Russian Border In Estonia | ZeroHedge

Provocation.

—

India deploys 50,000 troops to Himalayas, prepares for conflict with China | news.com.au — Australia’s leading news site

A possible flashpoint most don’t think about.

 

 

And an assessment from one flashpoint:

World order on verge of cliff – first Israeli national intel assessment – Israel News – The Jerusalem Post (jpost.com)

—

BREAKING UPDATE: Multiple people dead after gas pipeline explodes in Russia’s Chuvashia – Euro Weekly News

This is HOW MANY such “incidents” in Russian energy?  And incidents with Russia in general:

Russian City Suffers Casualties – 14,000 Without Power After Ukraine Cross Border Attack | ZeroHedge

 

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

 

(Language)

 

https://media.gab.com/system/media_attachments/files/067/348/658/playable/1d037020969494ca.mp4

 

As I understand it, not only did he die under “strange” circumstances, but the coroner who did the autopsy did as well.

 

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

 

Specific to energy:

The Black Old Deal: Global Coal Demand Hits All Time High | ZeroHedge

The Global Gas Crunch Is Set To Worsen As China Reopens | ZeroHedge

Germany’s Gas Reserves “Emptying At Record Speed” As Country Struggles To Keep Warm, Lights On

Germans Must Prepare to Shiver in the Dark | Gates of Vienna

Britain Braces for Rolling Power Cuts: Arctic Blast Leaves Households on the Brink of Outages and Blackouts as Officials Blame ‘Wfh’ Met Office for Failing to Predict the Severity of Our Latest Big Freeze

Grid Bottlenecks Could Derail Europe’s Renewable Energy Boom | ZeroHedge

This is Scary

Squeeeeeezed.

—

Americans Face Elevated Winter Power Outage Risks From Tight Fuel Supplies, Faltering Grid: Report | ZeroHedge

A fragile system.

—

Huge fire engulfs Russian oil refinery in suspected sabotage attack | Metro News

Any number of possible actors.  And as I understand it this is three attacks in a week.  Poking the bear.

—

Russia Receives Oil Delivery Requests from Poland and Germany Despite EU Sanctions (financial-world.org)

If it were up to me I’d tell these countries to go pound sand.

 

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

 

“When you have strict censorship of the internet, young students cannot receive a full education. Their view of the world is imbalanced. There can be no true discussion of the issues.”

– Ai Weiwei

 

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

 

Big Tech in general:

Anti-chippers are the latest group of awful people we now have to worry about – IQfy

I so desperately want this to be satire.  But… poking around the site a little, I don’t see indicators that it’s a satire site.  Can people really be this eager to be marked and tagged like farm animals?

 

=+=+=

Catch-all miscellaneous:

Russians adapted to US-made HIMARS systems, top Ukrainian general claims — RT Russia & Former Soviet Union

War is the best of schools, wherein those who don’t adapt and try to outpace the other side… lose.

—

To hell with Iran, China and Hunter: Americans are suffering (freewestmedia.com)

Amen!

—

Miscellany – Liberty’s Torch (libertystorch.info)

Multi-topic post.  All good.

—

WHY JEWS HATE GUNS (jpfo.org)

Of all peoples, you’d think we would be into arms like nobody else.  Yet we’re not on average.  A good write-up.

 

=+=+=

Concluding thoughts if I’m moved to comment:

 

Simple: Merry Christmas.

 

 

And happy Chanukah!

 

 

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

 

(Video seems blank, but it does work when you click.)

 

 

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

 

Palate cleansers:

 

 

—

 

I’ve had any number of interviews where I got the feeling they were looking to have me solve an existing problem.  BTDT, made that mistake once.

—

 

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

 

Please check out my MEME collection.  Here’s the last one.

 

The post Survival Sunday – Thursday SITREP Edition appeared first on Granite Grok.

We’ve visited and revisited numerous issues relating to the alleged COVID vaccines, their efficacy, side effects or harms, and especially policy like mandates or passports. But there’s one point, in particular, we need to revisit.

When Donald Trump was president, most progs said they wouldn’t get the vaccine because – get this, science! That was their messaging, up and down the fourth estate. And it showed up in polling.

 

Media/left’s attempts at undermining a possible pre-election Wuhan coronavirus vaccine are working, according to a recent CBS News poll: https://t.co/YwHhQ6Vhl6 pic.twitter.com/Ixp6tJ0nNt

— Sister Toldjah (@sistertoldjah) September 10, 2020

 

Trump didn’t have anything to do with the actual science behind the vaccine, but non-supporters expressed concern which, for the more vocal, translated into no damn way.

 

“I will say that I would not trust Donald Trump and it would have to be a credible source of information that talks about the efficacy and the reliability of whatever he’s talking about,” Harris told CNN’s Dana Bash around the same time.

 

That sums up the establishment Left’s position until Biden set foot in Oval Office. At that point, the same vaccines (and science!) would be so fabulous that everyone would want them. Need them. They said, everyone. If you dared to take their pre-election position, you were (much like with elections) a denier.

The term, like opinions, only applies to political opponents who oppose the current position of the Democrat machine. And there is no denying it. This was never about public health, and after two years of living with their demands, we know that to be true.

Harms are irrelevant in the wake of preferred policy, and that’s never going to change. The question is, and continues to be, how much damage will it take before a super-majority of voters accept that and cast more ballots to remove them than they can fake?

 

 

The post Reminder: The COVID Vaccines Are About Party Loyalty not Public Health appeared first on Granite Grok.

Yes, a blast from my past. I was playing with these things when it was common to have to do this:

Standardization?  Sure – but only to a point. Frankly, I hated printer cables. Period. And serial cables were often on my “oh, crap” list especially when Device A HAD to connect to Device B for the CFO who had to get something done a half hour ago.

I remember having a bag a bag of “converters” like that shown in the image in trying match up the pins and then the genders (male and female – plugs and holes). I also remember having, at times, having to do some really weird gymcrackery to get some situations to work. And yes, a “three plug converter chain” was a rather simple one.  I’m betting that there are those of you out there with heads going “yep, that’s right”.

And I’m also sure that there are those of you out there going “what ARE those things?” as you never had to deal with this. USB has made life much easier – and WiFi/Bluetooth have made it  almost a no brainer.  You folks will never feel the frustration at having to do this and will never share in the victory of seeing your “redneck technology” actually make those two devices talk to each other.

CERTAINLY, some of you out there have a history like this, yes?

(H/T: Cheezburger)

The post Palate Cleanser – I Used to Have to Do This Back in the Day appeared first on Granite Grok.