Saturday • November 23 • 2024
Vol.XVI • No.XLVII
Manchester, N.H.
I REALLY wish I had been present to hear THAT conversation about a new baby’s naming process. This is PERFECT! Just PERFECT!
If I have to explain it to you, well, I’m not going to do that. Ask someone else as it is there in black and white. And a bit of a pun.
(H/T: Pleated Jeans)
The post Humor – Delivery While Driving to the Hospital appeared first on Granite Grok.
We do not get a chance to see Joe Biden questioned by the media folks who spend their days following our President and ensuring he is held accountable for his actions.
Because of this void in the “transparent” administration, we must rely on the President’s surrogates, especially his Press Secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, to explain the workings of the White House and to answer questions.
This is not a perfect system, but we must rely on it to see behind the curtain.
There are two blaring issues why this system of communication is inadequate. The first is that Karine Jean-Pierre is not the right person for the job. The truth is, KJP is in her position because she checked off three boxes on the Diversity Checklist. She is a Black Gay Woman. Besides her diversity, she is inadequately equipped to serve as an effective Press Secretary. The other is the spineless White House Press Corp., Except for the FOX News journalists Peter Doocy and Jacqui Heinrich. No journalist will ever ask tough questions of Jean-Pierre or dare to ask a follow-up.
An example is what happened today during the White House Briefing. Joe Biden is going to Arizona today to celebrate a new chip manufacturing facility. KJP was asked if Biden would visit the Border while he was in a Border State. Rather than answer the question, she turned it around, saying, “what is more important is what the Republicans are going to do to solve the immigration system.” Nobody, not a soul, pressed her to answer the question posed to her. A terrible non-answer, but she got away with it.
As a second act, Biden was questioned while boarding Marine One to leave for Arizona. A reporter shouted, “Mr. President, why are you going to a Border State and not to the Border?” The President responded that a more critical situation was happening with the new factory than the Border. That is a cheap political answer, but with no follow-up, Biden wins the exchange. The obvious next question is, you will only be 200 miles from the Border. Can’t you visit the factory and the Border? Can’t you walk and chew gum as you tell us? That question was not asked.
You will not see Biden or his Border Czar, Harris, anywhere near the Border. If either of these Executive Branch members ever goes to the Border, the press/media will need to go, too. The mainstream media has done an excellent job of keeping the Border off the Prime-Time news cycle. That omission is precisely what the White House needs.
The other example is KJP being asked about the dump of info about the Biden Money Cartel from Elon Musk and Twitter. Karine says the White House will not respond because this information is old news and no longer pertinent. Oh, really? What you are calling “old news” is a story you have denied to exist for over two years. It cannot be both. If you claimed it never existed, and now it is in your face, how is that old news? It is fresh and damaging to the President, which is why he will not respond. She also disparages Twitter by claiming that hate and anti-Semitic content is rising. There is just no evidence this is true. This White House is the best at gaslighting the American people.
Most people see Karine dismissed soon, but the Press Corp has to start doing its job. They are supposed to uncover the facts. To do so, you have to ask tough questions. Give it a try. You might find it rewarding.
The post Karine Has an Excuse, the Journalists Do Not appeared first on Granite Grok.
The reality of Dec 7, 1941, is 2,403 military men growing up during the depression lost their lives for a mere salary of 36 bucks a month. For loved ones, the memory of their loss still deeply hurts on this 81st Anniversary of Pearl Harbor and the war it triggered.
We want to thank Russ Payne for this Op-Ed – Please direct yours to Editor@GraniteGrok.com.
Remembering these realities of that time, one can see how this climate of fear demanded revenge, and Congress declared war.
Consider how this emotionalized traumatic sneak attack threatening our homeland seemed only to have tunnel vision. The whole nation was caught up in vengeance; “Remember Pearl Harbor!”
Even while ignoring that, 120,000 Japanese Americans suddenly lost their liberty. It seemed blindness of hate for all Japanese Americans followed. Protections the Constitution secures for all Americans in the Bill of Rights were denied the Japanese as President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, essentially imprisoning 120,000 people in internment camps from 1942 to 1945, of which 2/3 were citizens. For an unknown sober evaluation of reactions to the fear this event sparked, go here.
Today’s “suspension of civil liberties” has a precedent that was aimed at Japanese Americans during WWII. Only this time, we are at war with not just a bug but the “ones behind the bug.” The president suspended the individual inherent rights of all Americans. And Congress, with their silence, represents the president’s agenda, not ours.
Atrocious violations of civil rights then only affected the Japanese. Looking the other way was easy in the war climate. Japanese Americans became victims of illegal government action that took their natural inherent rights.
Executive Orders, again, have been the tool that violates American liberty today. They have activated a force operating over and above the law in a similar climate of fear as in WWII. The unvaccinated are the enemy of the state.
All Americans must realize that our Constitution was created to control the government, not our people. George Washington’s powerful words warn us: Government is not reason , it is not eloquence, it is like fire a dangerous servant and a fearful master.”
The post Pearl Harbor appeared first on Granite Grok.
Yep, this “movement” is back. People have more wealth than they have need or want but are happy to encircle everyone else with wealth like theirs to be hoovered up by Government. No, they can’t seem to figure out how to spend it on themselves or for other “good motives”. They simply want to be relieved of their “burden” by having Government take it from them in taxes. I wrote about this years ago (2011) concerning the “Patriotic Millionaires” who were demanding exactly that as in “I have too much so take it from me because I can’t fund a library, a hospital, a museum, or any other “public good” on my own.” Please sirs, make me poorer!:
- You know how I can tell this is a Progressive idea, vs just “Patriotic Millionaires”? First, just look at some of the names on their list…Not exactly rock-ribbed conservatives in this bunch, eh? Also, the tactics:
- A collective mentality with an insistence that ALL pay – not just the willing. As Chris over at RightWingNews put it in playing at being a liberal: “Why should I pay more unless they force me to pay more?”. They simply wish to achieve the Progressive ideal of the top paying the entire freight for society’s bill of Government.
- No indication that the other side of the equation, spending, be addressed.
An unwillingness to “just do it” and send a check if they really felt this strongly about “be Patriotic – send money!”.
…”We want to pay more taxes,” said California millionaire Doug Edwards, a former marketing director for Google (GOOG, Fortune 500). “If you’re fortunate, and you make more than a million dollars a year, you ought to pay more taxes.” And the most stunning part – who was doing the organizing of these folks: “The Patriotic Millionaires campaign”, pulled together quickly by the Agenda Project in New York City,”. Once again, we meet up with Erica Payne (who said “This is not an orchestrated campaign”).
And it’s that last bit that shows how mean and revengeful Progressives are. “I should do THIS to myself. And I’ll make sure all others like me, like it or not, are forced to contribute”. Rather selfish, I’d say. However, that was back in 2011 and a lot of our culture has changed since then – the wrong way. We’ve been through the Social Justice Warrior schtick so now the younger generation doesn’t have to be dragooned into this, they’ve been marinating in this faux “justice” for years. And here is a GREAT act of stupidity – and laziness (reformatted, emphasis mine):
I’m an heiress ‘annoyed’ by my multibillion-dollar inheritance and want nearly all of it taxed away
A German heir inheriting billions of dollars from her extremely wealthy grandparents said she was “annoyed” by the incoming fortune and wants nearly all of it to be taxed away. The surprising response from Marlene Engelhorn, of Austria, came after her grandmother died last month — leaving behind the massive sum of money that came from the family’s centuries-old chemical company (BASF).
“The dream scenario is I get taxed,” the 30-year-old told the New York Times. Last year, in a profile by Vice News, Engelhorn told the outlet in German that “nobody should have that much tax-free money and power.”
I’m betting she’s no fan of Elon Musk right now. Or Bezos (founder of Amazon and owner of the Washington Post). And it seems that the Patriotic Millionaires went worldwide in wanting to let other rich people make their own decisions:
Engelhorn is the co-founder of a group called Tax Me Now, an initiative of affluent people who want wealth to be redistributed through greater taxes on the rich in Germany and Austria. The heir specifically advocates for high taxes on inherited wealth because, she says, the money isn’t earned by the inheritor and should thus be democratically allocated.
Yeah, that last bit – socialism. Not content to figure out her own way to be poor (hey, just WRITE A ONE TIME CHECK TO THE GOVERNMENT, missy!), she wants Government to relieve her of that burden. And not content with that, she wants to drag everyone else along with her against their will. If this addled SJW with misbegotten ideas wants to put herself into the poor house, let her. That doesn’t mean that she should have the power to do that to others. As I seem to be saying, more and more, there are too many people who can’t keep their noses out of other peoples’ business.
I wonder how many people worked to have this done:
Austria, where Englehorn resides, opted to abolish its inheritance tax in 2008.
(H/T: NY Post)
The post Mixing the American “Patriotic Millionaires” with a Self-Delusional SJW Billionairess Is Not a Good Combo appeared first on Granite Grok.
The process of immigrating to the United States isn’t always simple, but it can be easier if you have an American family member who sponsors you and your family members in the country legally through what’s called family immigration.
Here are five things to know about this process to help your case along the way.
1. Do Your ResearchLearning about how each case is handled by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) or its predecessor agency, Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), is essential.
Each situation will be different depending on your family’s situation, but doing your research may help you predict what kind of questions you’ll be asked so you can make sure that all needed documents are in order for a smooth submission.
2. Get the Help of an Experienced LawyerOften times immigrants will reach out to lawyers before they’ve even decided if they have a case or not. First, you should seek out information from trusted and reliable sources on your own.
Online forums are a great place to start. And make sure you know what stage of immigration you’re in – this could make a difference in whether or not it’s worth hiring an attorney for your case.
The more informed you are about your options before going into a meeting with a lawyer, the better off you’ll be down the road.
3. Gather All the Required DocumentsThe most important thing for a family immigration case is for you and your family members to have a clear understanding of what type of visa you’re eligible for. The next step will be gathering documents.
You’ll need several different types, depending on your specific situation: passports, birth certificates, marriage licenses and divorce decrees (if applicable), school records, and medical reports are just some examples. Make sure you gather all these things before meeting with an attorney.
If they’re already familiar with your situation when they review everything, it could save them time in determining how to proceed with your case.
4. Get Ready for the InterviewIf you’re petitioning for a family member, chances are you’ll be interviewed. While there are numerous ways to prepare for an interview, one way is by simply talking about it with your children, spouse, or partner, with friends and family.
An immigration officer doesn’t want to see a lot of nervous fidgeting; rather, they want to see someone who is comfortable in their own skin and has taken ownership of their application(s).
5. Understand the Requirements of the K-1 Fiancé VisaIf you want to bring your fiancé from abroad, you’ll need a fiancé visa. The U.S. Department of State determines who qualifies for a K-1 visa and if your relationship is bona fide, meaning it’s not fraudulent or just an immigration scam.
The K-1 visa requires that you and your partner plan to marry within 90 days of arriving in the US; all applicants must prove they have met in person at least once within two years before applying.
Once you get married, your spouse can apply for permanent residency status.
ConclusionOverall, these five family immigration tips are designed to help make sure your case is as strong as possible when you present it.
If you have any questions about immigration to the US for family members, click here to get detailed information about your specific case.
The post 5 Family Immigration Tips to Improve Your Chances of Success appeared first on Granite Grok.
Protest Outside US District Court Ahead Of Trial
The first day of the Crypto6 trial (Dec 6th, 2022) went well for the Crypto6’s defense. More on that in a bit. There appeared to be about ~25 supporters in attendance although not everyone was in any one place all at once. Some were protesting outside, some were denied entry to the courthouse due to an attempt at suppressing support for the crypto6 through new ID and mask rules. 4+ people were denied access for having religious or health objections to the new mask mandate. 3+ people were explicitly denied entry for a newly created and enforced ID rule written in response to people Crypto6 supporters objecting to a not legally authorized demand for ID that existed prior to November. The paperwork was finally obtained evidencing this and is available from the Telegram and Matrix read-only update groups which can be joined via links at TheCrypto6.com
Many news organizations came out to report on the only jury trail to be held in the past 2+ years at US District Count in the District Of New Hampshire. The short list of reporting organizations that were in attendance included at least NBC, the Union Leader, the Sentinel, and an independent documentary crew.
One of the most interesting things I learned about the jury selection process at the federal level is that while it’s “open” to the public to attend the majority of the proceedings are secret. The judge started off with providing information on the process and there being juror questions. Potential jurors were then questioned, of which we learned nothing more than there name and what each potential juror looked like in ~2-3 hours of interviews. In the background all you could hear was some classical music playing over the loudspeaker.
The judge qualified 36 jurors and of those 15 were selected for jury duty with 4 alternatives selected.
The process gives the defense and prosecution an opportunity to ask the group of jurors questions. Some of these were quite interesting.
Except for at the end of the trail the prosecution generally goes first, as they have the burden of proof.
The prosecution utilized this time to ask these questions of the jurors or potential jurors:
How many don’t own a PC? Two responded that they didn’t.
How many don’t own a smart phone? One person responded that they didn’t (he did have a landline however).
How many don’t have an email address? One responded that they have no email address.
They also asked about social media to which nearly everyone had some form of social media.
A question on how many in the crowd were early adopters got a response that only 5 in the crowd would consider themselves early adopters. An early adopter is someone who seeks out the latest technology rather than waiting until it’s established and more widespread to pick it up.
Interestingly while most didn’t consider themselves early adopters about half considered themselves tech savvy and two indicated that they were uncomfortable with tech altogether.
Nearly everyone indicated that they had at least heard of crypto before, but just one indicated that they owned crypto. That juror was promptly dismissed.
Most of the crowd believed that the average age of a crypto user was under 30.
Only half of the crowd had heard of the Nigerian prince email scam and the same was true of the grandson in jail scam.
The general consensus of the jurors was that older people were more vulnerable to scams.
The defense utilized this time to ask the following questions:
What is the reason people have not bought crypto? Some of the reasons given by juror included:
– I work too hard to give my money away
– I don’t understand it
– It’s a pyramid scheme
– I prefer physical assets that have tangible value
– Scared of hackers
– Volatility
Many thought that people not understanding it made it good tool for scammers to take advantage of.
Many believed crypto to be what scammers use.
Of the juror or potential jurors 10 thought that crypto led to more scams.
One juror said in the early days of crypto it was not backed by government.
At least one juror felt he leaned toward crypto being “shady”.
I made as many statistical observations as I could. While not ideal this boiled down to the federal court utilizing a very secretive process by which to select jurors. While the jury selection process is open to the public the actual interview questions and responses are not. This leaves the public with nothing other than what might be available from statistical observations based on outwardly appearances. Thus you may get a feel for the potential juror makeup without any good idea if the process was actually fair or just.
– 22 out of 36 potential jurors had gray hair, no hair, or hair loss
– 10 or more of the 36 potential jurors had brought their own masks to court rather than utilize ones provided by the court at no charge
– 16 of the 36 potential jurors were women
– 100% of the potential jurors were white
– 12 of 36 juror wore glasses
Of the 36 potential jurors they concluded by selecting 15 with 4 being alternatives that can be utilized should people get sick or otherwise miss a day of jury duty.
At this point the judge adjourns the jury for lunch, but not before saying that the jurors will not be exiting from the front door of the building due to “a lot of activity”. This was code for Mr Bitcoin. Mr Bitcoin attended a protest outside the courthouse alongside many reporters and other peace loving activists who support Ian Freeman & the Crypto6.
Once the jurors are released for lunch a bit more back and forth occurs in the courtroom between the judge, defense lawyer, and prosecutor’s team of lawyers.
One issue that was brought up is that the prosecution wants to utilize a prior co-defendant Renee Spinella as a witness in the case. As she has taken a plea deal she could in theory be forced to testify. However there remains an issue because while she can’t be charged again at the federal level forcing her to testify could be self incriminating at the state level should one of any number of intertwining states wish to prosecute her. This is not considered an issue of double jeopardy, but what it does mean is she is likely able to take the 5th despite having taken a plea deal. The defense also revealed that she is considering withdrawing her plea. However, this is unlikely to actually be possible as the circumstances where this can be done are severely limited. If she was poorly advised there however may be grounds for withdrawal, but such withdrawal are rarely granted as the burden on the defendant of proving incompetence is high.
One of the most interesting things in the trial was that jurors were explicitly banned from tooting. Tooting is like Tweeting, but via a more decentralized or federated technology. While there is a standard protocol this generally means Mastodon. This may very well be the first time a federal court has brought up a decentralized or federated social networking platform.
Another interesting note is that the judge said that witnesses will not be wearing masks.
Prosecution
Ian ran a money transmitting business.
That business was a money laundering business.
The one goal to not know where the money came from.
He was involved in romance scams.
He would receive scam money and give Bitcoin in return.
He was intentionally disengaged to serve scammers.
It’s your business. Don’t tell me what you use the Bitcoin for.
No expert is needed to understand Bitcoin.
Selling Bitcoin is not illegal, but Ian’s selling of Bitcoin was illegal.
Bitcoin is pseudo anonymous.
There is no name or account info.
Nobody knows its yours unless you tell them.
It can’t be recalled.
These unique properties are desired by scammers.
Victims don’t know what Bitcoin is.
Ian’s business was involved in:
– Cash deposits
– Wire transfers
– Stacks of cash sent via the mail
Ian charged 10% and sometimes 20% fees!
Ian helped scammers remain anonymous.
There are laws to stop the very types of crimes Ian engaged in.
Businesses have to comply with rules to protect people. This primarily revolves around the bank secrecy act.
This includes:
– Registering with FinCIN
– Having an anti money laundering policy
– Filing suspicious activity reports with the government
He also had an obligation to stop suspicious activity.
– He did not register
– He did not do other things like file currency transaction reports
– Or file suspicious activity reports
He boasted he respected the scammers privacy.
Ian sold crypto via:
– Kiosks
– LocalBitcoins.com
– Telegram
His central basis for doing business was: what you do with your bitcoin is your business. Don’t tell me what you do with it.
Kiosk not registered
Completely anonymous
He advertised:
“You can get crypto online in various ways. The cheaper ones don’t respect your privacy.”
He’d say to employees:
– Big spenders
– Major wales
He had signs that said “Do not tell staff what you do with your coin. It’s your business to do what you want with it.”
This catered to scammers.
Ian proceeded to expand the business from kiosks to online crypto sales and hired employees.
This enabled him to reach people nationwide.
This was more complicated and he had to use banks to do it.
Banks follow rules.
They would frequently close Ian’s accounts.
At this point she admits Ian did KYC and said that to banks when he did disputes.
He directed people to tell banks deposits were:
– Church donations
– Purchases of virtual goods
– Rare coins
Then afterward he told people to write a different note on receipts about purchasing Bitcoin.
He would sometimes ask for a phone # to verify people knew what they were doing.
He would claim to be a victim to the banks when a recall occurred.
Ian said to contact him via Telegram and in PC he kept selfies of pics on his PC.
Victims never communicated with Ian.
He never asked too many questions.
We’re going to talk about one victim. A 76 year old victim. She sent 3 transactions totally $75,000 over 3 days. Ian charged a 10% fee.
Ian hired people to open banks accounts.
Ian opened bank accounts or had people open bank accounts in the name of churches. Church Of The Invisible Hand. The Shire Free Church. Crypto Church Of NH. Reformed Satanic Temple. Shire Peace Church.
Never told banks he opened accounts for Bitcoin.
He would tell banks he opened accounts for church outreach.
He never paid taxes.
– Conspiracy
– Tax evasion
– Money laundering of wire frauds
He shared 55 clients with Aria.
He made a sale of Bitcoin to an undercover FBI agent posing as a drug dealer.
In response to questions from the undercover FBI agent posing as a drug dealer asking about KYC Ian responded he disables all that.
The undercover agent went and bought crypto from one of Ian’s vending machines two weeks later and paid a 14% fee.
Ian “looked the other way”.
At this point the defense lawyer gets up and has the opportunity to make his own opening statement and responds to many of the claims of the prosecutor:
Can’t omit things.
(Ie meaning the government is lying)
Sisti says: “government made up stories”, “freemans not a scammer”
If freeman worked with scammers “place scammer on stand”
(note: there is no scammer on the prosecution’s witness list to base the argument of him working with scammers off)
[They] “investigated Ian for years”
[They] “made him out to be bad man”
Ian is most likely the least violent man in this courtroom.
Ian got money back from a scammer for a mother.
He helped a Texas investigator.
Church is real.
Church does real things.
Aided homeless in Keene.
Fed the homeless.
Helped with the courts.
Helped with community service.
“Setup orphanages in Uganda”
Lots of misconceptions going around.
Time to clear the air.
Freeman setup a mosque for the Keene’s Muslim community.
He helps local businesses accept Bitcoin.
He shows them how to do it for free!
Many businesses use his help.
Freeman is not secretive.
Photos have his name on them.
Record of transactions.
Warns people of scams.
Refuses to partake in scams.
He rejects deals.
He turns people away.
He works with law enforcement, on more than one occasion.
Money transmission came info effect post 2002.
Bitcoin did not exist in 2002.
Statute does not even mention Bitcoin.
Corrected only after arrest, and the law then only went into effect in Jan 2021.
Freeman is not in a business.
He’s not even transmitting anything.
Freeman relied on the law to protect himself.
Freeman sought a licensed attorney for legal opinion and relied upon that legal opinion:
The legal opinion said:
1. He was not operating a business
2. Church is not involved in exchange
3. Bitcoin is owned by church, not involved in moving other peoples money
No criminal intent whatsoever.
The banking commissioner of New Hampshire even testified that they are not money transmitters, but simply vending crypto.
Nefarious actors do not get:
– Drivers license photos
– Photos, selfies
All this was preserved for years.
What bank allowed $750,000 to be transferred by a 76 year old?
Freeman is not working hand in hand with scammers.
He warned people of scammers and they still would do transactions.
The undercover agent posing as a drug dealer is a sorry excuse to hang charges on Ian.
Ian refused to do business with the undercover agent.
Freeman told him no.
Why did the undercover agent need to go to the vending machine if Ian agreed to sell him crypto?
This was a “forced transaction”.
Told after the fact.
“I can not tell you you can use that”
What was he suppose to do? Post an armed guard in front of the vending machine?
Vending machines were operated for years at one location without problems. The owner at Murphy’s Taproom said there were zero complaints.
Murphy’s Taproom is open to the public, police, liquor commission, etc.
Remember what I said earlier. We are a “rule of law nation”.
It’s not a “good enough system” that we have.
You all agreed to follow the rules.
We need you now to watch and keep an open mind.
Burden of proof is on them, and it is a heavy one, “beyond a reasonable doubt”.
Sisti asks jury to vote “not guilty”- they failed
That concludes day 1 of the Crypto6 trial.
For more details, pictures, videos, etc on the days events visit TheCrypto6.com and join the Matrix or Telegram read-only Crypto6 updates group. We have links to articles written by others, pictures, videos, and more.
Need a comment for a story your writing on the Crypto6? Want to get in touch? Need copyright sign off for your paper? Contact chris at thinkpenguin com for footage, pictures, potential interviews with those involved or surrounding the Crypto6 and more.
COVID is the conspiracy to Control, Observe, Vaccinate, and ID everyone. Many courageous people in China are offering us an opportunity to wake up to this fact. Whatever our faith, let us take a moment to pray for these people who risk their lives to put their humanity and their souls ahead of their fear.
We want to thank Tejasinha Sivalingam for this Op-Ed – Please direct yours to Editor@GraniteGrok.com.
Heed the call to freedom made by these courageous Chinese! Their commitment to individual rights and popular sovereignty is akin to our own. Freedom does not belong to one ethnic group, nor to one religion, nor to any other subgroup or division of people; it is the inalienable drive within humans.
After you watch the news and feel the ember of freedom glow within you, fight the urge to dismiss your own enthusiasm and desire for greater freedom with, “at least we aren’t China.”
Our freedom is measured by our own potential, not the depravity of the CCP!
If we use someone else’s authoritarian depravity as the measure of our own freedom, then we will be boiled like frogs. In case you are not aware, we are already being boiled like frogs!
The CCP’s authoritarianism is simply more gross and overt than the authoritarianism we experience here. Popular sovereignty in the United States is a well-guided rubber stamp; a horse race in which you don’t choose the horses, and the odds are never in your favor. Rights are just a feel-good comfort blanket. The laws that are made and the way they are interpreted serve the wealthy and powerful, with a few exceptions to give you hope!
Today, let these courageous Chinese protestors inspire us each to find new ways to peacefully, legally, and lawfully contribute to the end of the global public health and “green” authoritarian agenda and reverse the legislation and common law precedents that have been set and are being leveraged against us and our progeny. Let us again live our founding ideology of individual rights, State sovereignty, and continued U.S. unity and independence.
The post Let These Courageous Chinese Protestors Inspire Us appeared first on Granite Grok.
Yet another list of schools acting badly, sexual identity political groups acting worse, porn in the public school systems, and the question of the day: WHY do we taxpayers keep putting up with this degeneracy? And yes, we should start making degeneracy and debauchery common words again. As always, reformmating and emphasis mine).
Read through, if you haven’t the time for these all, to see the last snippet.
Here’s a perfect example of the beginning of a great Venn diagram. At least the school admins did the right thing and we need to thank them for it:
Duval County Public Schools has ended a 25-year relationship with a local LGBT youth organization citing “apparent inappropriate conduct.” Jacksonville Area Sexual Minority Youth Network (JASMYN) fell out of favor with the school district after a parent complained after seeing a social media post by the organization showing a minor participating in a lewd novelty card game. The post that raised concerns was about a JASYMN event called “Satargaze,” said Melissa Bernhardt, lead educator for the Duval County chapter of County Citizens Defending Freedom.
The memory game by Drunk Stoned or Stupid involves collecting matched pairs of images of male genitalia of varying sizes and skin colors. It can be found on web stores such as Amazon, and is marked with a disclaimer that it’s for players at least 18 years old.
“The district simply cannot partner with the organization given their use of program materials that the district believes to be inappropriate for use with children,” Duval County Superintendent Diana Greene wrote in a prepared statement released on Nov. 29. “Although JASMYN has been a partner to the district for over 20 years, providing support and resources for students, staff, and the community, we have decided to terminate our current services agreement with their organization.”
In an interview with News4Jax television station, JASMYN CEO Cindy Watson called the post a “regrettable mistake” but said the game was never available to minors.
“Regrettable” translates as “we got caught”. And don’t you just LOVE the framing on this, with JASYMN trying to portray themselves as “normal” (as in “let’s normalize porn and degeneracy”) by decrying Citizens Defending Freedom as “an overreaction to a far-right extremist website spreading inflammatory misinformation about our HIV prevention work with young adults,” . Yeah, you already admitted to it but you’re trying smear the folks that caught you? Man up – you did it and you deserve to lose the contract.
And now Parents are REALLY starting to push back in force. Note which “new” Religious group is now taking part. For years, the Left has “tossed” Christians around wantonly – a lack of fear. Let’s see what happens now:
Monday’s Dearborn Public Schools board meeting never made it as far as the public comment period. The agenda included a deeply contentious issue: the district’s policy for removing books from school libraries. The meeting was attended by an overflow crowd. Most were young men, some led by Muslim religious leaders— a contrast to the largely Christian groups that have led other efforts to restrict books in Michigan libraries. Some people at the Dearborn meeting held signs with anti-LGBTQ messages.
Many in the crowd were upset by one book in particular: “This Book is Gay,” by Juno Dawson. It’s a young adult non-fiction book on gender and sexuality. The book includes rough pencil drawings of male and female anatomy, which one group brought to the board meeting enlarged, on poster board, saying they were inappropriate for children.
The book was being reviewed for appropriateness by the school district after a parent objected. The parent also asked for the removal of five other books, which are also under review: Push; The Lovely Bones; Eleanor & Park; Red, White and Royal Blue; All Boys Aren’t Blue. Hundreds of protesters packed a Dearborn Public Schools board meeting this week and shut it down with cries of anger over certain LGBTQ books they said are too sexually explicit for children…
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Too often, the Right has warned the Left “you wouldn’t do this if we were Muslim, would you?”. Now, Muslims are involved.
And we’re back to Hillary’s whackadoodle claim that it takes a village to raise a child. What she REALLY meant is that children actually belong to the village and not the actual parents. Now we have Kamala doing the same thing:
Kamala: Your children are ‘our children’ and that’s why we have to fight climate crisis
KAMALA HARRIS: "When you see our kids, and I truly believe that they are our children, they are the children of our country, of our communities, I mean, our future is really bright if we prioritize them, and therefore prioritize the climate crisis." pic.twitter.com/4NTK0wdIwF
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 11, 2022
“When you see our kids, and I truly believe that they are our children, they are the children of our country, of our communities, I mean, our future is really bright if we prioritize them, and therefore prioritize the climate crisis,” Harris said, confusing many and angering more.
Not your, Parents. Theirs. Period. And people voted her into office with this.
OK, word salad style of speaking that Toes Up has made infamous in doing her nonsense. Perhaps we should take it as complete blather in just filling time and space but having heard this from others on the Left too often, we ought to be paying attention to the supposed second most powerful politician in our country.
And this next thing is starting to “be a thing” – LGBT et al have a Right to porn in schools. Really? Haven’t seen that Article in the US or NH Constitution lately. But “civil rights” groups seem to believe it is. And I bet that NONE of them are Conservative:
A coalition of seven civil rights groups filed a complaint this week accusing two school districts in Texas of discriminating against transgender and “gender non-conforming” students.
…In the complaint filed Monday with the ED’s Office of Civil Rights, the groups claim that a policy at the Keller ISD that bans books that discuss “gender fluidity” violates Title IX, the federal civil rights legislation that prohibits schools that receive federal funds from discriminating on the basis of sex. The school district reportedly did this last week, according to The Hill.
“The effect of the policy, absent federal civil rights intervention, will be to stigmatize LGBTQ+ and particularly transgender, non-binary, gender diverse, and intersex students in Keller ISD, to uniquely deprive them of the opportunity to read books that reflect their identities, and to create an environment in which unlawful discrimination flourishes,” the complaint reportedly said.
And not once did I see in this post that normal kids have the right to see porn – just those that claim that their sexual identities and proclivities do. OH WAIT! The Left is always yammering about that sex and gender are different – so why are these groups trying to, against their ideological bents, push that identity politics? If they are using “sex”, are they trying to say that porn is only allowed to one of the two sexes (heh!)?
And great question next:
Earlier this year, a team of NHS researchers was asked to investigate why there has been such a huge rise in the number of adolescent biological girls seeking referrals to gender clinics. According to a study commissioned by NHS England, 10 years ago there were just under 250 referrals, most of them boys, to the Gender Identity Development Service (Gids), run by the Tavistock and Portman NHS foundation trust in London. Last year, there were more than 5,000, which was twice the number in the previous year. And the largest group, about two-thirds, now consisted of “birth-registered females first presenting in adolescence with gender-related distress”, the report said.
…The mother of one girl who came out as trans at the age of 12 said it was “very difficult to describe the feeling of being the parent of a trans-identified child”. “We were terrified of being accused of being bigoted,” said the woman, who asked to remain anonymous to protect her child’s privacy. “We felt we were expected to accept her decision unhesitatingly. I felt so apologetic that I was questioning whether my miserable teenage daughter was genuinely a boy,” she said.
And the fear is real – the TransActivists are very militant and are very loud and demanding. Using the argument of “would you want a dead daughter or a live son?” is fear inspiring and promises retribution forever against parents who aren’t willing to have their pre- or early-teen start in taking off-brand drugs to “transition” and undergo surgical mutilation. After all, stories of detransitioners are becoming more and more known and this data factoid is starting to gain ground:
…Published in October, the draft seems to put greater emphasis on the possibility that, for some, particularly pre-pubescent, children, this may be a “transient phase”.
And many of those detransitioners are now admitting that they thought going trans would solve their mental health issues – and it didn’t. The chicken before the egg here is that they are admitting that they didn’t deal with those mental health issues FIRST before considering drugs and a knife to solve those issues.
Some point to puberty, periods and unease with a changing body shape coinciding with the interest in becoming gender non-conforming. Others have questioned whether their child’s autism might be a relevant factor. (The Cass report stated that approximately one-third of children and young people being referred to the Tavistock had autism or other types of neurodiversity.) And others wonder if pre-existing signs of depression and mental health problems have been the cause or the result of gender uncertainty. Possible influences they cite include childhood bullying, sexual harassment and abuse and the hyper-sexualisation of society, or a child’s early understanding of sexism, making them feel it may be easier to live as a man than as a woman.
And we, as Parents and “Prove it!” type folks ought to be demanding much more in the way of peer-reviewed studies with methodologies that can be replicated. They hate that part.
Children and adolescents suffering from gender dysphoria in the U.S. need treatment guided by a systematic review of the evidence, according to philosopher Moti Gorin, a professor at Colorado State University, in a November 17 essay for The Hastings Center, a bioethics research institute. American medicine is a global outlier here, as other countries such as Sweden, Finland and the United Kingdom have conducted their own reviews and have pulled back on treatment with drugs and surgery based on the findings, Gorin (pictured) wrote. Gorin pointed to an investigative report that found some U.S. clinics will prescribe puberty blocker drugs or hormones without a thorough evaluation, even after a single meeting, according to Reuters.
The guidelines of major U.S. medical organizations, like the Endocrine Society and the American Academy of Pediatrics, “are not based on systematic reviews of the benefits of these treatments,” according to Gorin. Meanwhile, Sweden, Finland, and the United Kingdom, which have conducted their own reviews of the evidence, all recommend therapy, psychiatric care and treatment for accompanying disorders, such as depression, Gorin wrote. They discourage surgery or drugs like puberty blockers in most cases.
The time to conduct a systematic review is now. There has been a sharp increase in the number of minors diagnosed with gender dysphoria in the U.S. An analysis of insurance claims found that in 2017, 15,172 patients aged 6 to 17 were diagnosed with gender dysphoria; in 2021, the number grew to 42, 167, an increase of roughly 300%. Other countries have also seen an increase in minors presenting with gender dysphoria….
Given the vulnerability of youths with gender dysphoria, inconsistencies in clinical guidance for treating these patients are both ethically concerning and medically consequential. A patient in Sweden, Finland, or England will receive blockers or cross-sex hormones only in exceptional circumstances, while some clinics in the U.S. will prescribe them after a single meeting…
Summed up in two words: shoddy and profit.
And School Districts and School Board Associations are really starting to rethink their trans activism, often with leaving their trumpeted policies now on the floor. Why? Parents are tired of seeing their Constitutional and Parental Rights tossed aside in the name of progress and anti-religion bigotry and are bringing lawsuits. LIke that which has happened to that Randolph school District where a boy decided to call himself a trans girl and sat in the locker room and (reportedly) oogled the teenaged girls volleyball players in various states of undress in their locker room. And when these normal girls, already at that vulnerable age, complained, THEY lost their “right” to the locker room. A lawsuit is turning that around:
Lawyers representing Randolph Union High School (RUHS) in Randolph, Vermont, persuaded school officials to drop their threats of punishment upon receiving a 124-page lawsuit filed by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF).
At issue: the school’s determination to force its transgender policies upon a 14-year-old girl and her father. For daring to question those policies — i.e., complaining when a male who declared himself to be a female entered the girls’ locker room to observe them undressing — RUHS officials demanded that the student, Blake Allen, “take part in a restorative circle … to help her understand the rights of [transgender] students to access public accommodation … in a manner consistent with their [self-proclaimed] gender identity.”
School officials also demanded that her father, Travis Allen, apologize for a Facebook post challenging the mother of the transgender male/female over the veracity of a Facebook post she made defending her transgender male/female son/daughter.
Travis Allen and his fourteen-year-old daughter, Blake, were punished for expressing their views on a matter of profound public concern: whether a teenage male who identifies as female should be permitted to change in a girls’ locker room regardless of the discomfort experienced by girls in that room.
In objecting to a male being in the room while the girls are changing, Travis and Blake each made comments underscoring that the trans-identifying student is in fact a male, including by using male pronouns.
Indeed, their view of the student’s maleness was foundational to their opinions on appropriate use of the locker room.
Yet, their remarks were too much for Defendants’ transgender orthodoxy — Travis was deemed to have “” the student, while Blake was found guilty of “harassment” and “bullying” — so Defendants disciplined both of them.
misgendered
And last time I looked, the politically made up term “misgendering” (and its associated twin “deadnaming”) isn’t a criminal offense. I’m betting a lot of Trans activists would LOVE to have both codified into law – they don’t care about Free Speech. Fortunately, they aren’t.
It’s happening here in NH as well – I’ve “won” 1/2 my lawsuit against the Gilford School Board in removing the coercion of Government mandated speech (“preferred pronouns”) from their policy. Still working on the “lying to Parents about their child’s transgender status” bit, though.
ADF claimed that by doing so the school officials violated the Allens’ First and Fourteenth Amendment rights:
Defendants are state actors and violate the First Amendment when they attempt to dictate what may be said on matters of public concern. And they cannot discriminate against speech on the basis of its viewpoint.
Yet, that is exactly what happened here. Defendants punished Travis and Blake for saying that a male is a male, as a matter of sex and biology, regardless of the gender identity that the male has assumed.
Fourteenth, eh? I’m going to have to look into that more…
And more on research:
…Increasingly, research suggests otherwise. Until recently, activists were able to hide behind a very limited number of studies, some of which even seemed to confirm what those activists wanted to hear. No more. With a 900% increase in young people claiming gender dysphoria over the percentage of Gen Xers who claim likewise, the amount of data in recent years has sharply increased.*
The data is overwhelming. Contrary to what is consistently filling our newsfeeds, there is a disturbing lack of evidence that intervening in a child’s gender development produces beneficial results of any kind. More than that, many studies are showing a strong potential for lasting harm.
Read the links in this linked short post.
Not any healthier or safer?
Sexual revolutionaries care about the revolution, not safety or prevention, which is why all data to the contrary will be ignored.
Sexualizing childhood in the name of harm reduction is the latest roll in our rolling sexual revolution. We are told that childhood sexual education is necessary to prevent suicide and interpersonal violence, prevent AIDS, avoid pregnancy, and build a safe environment in schools. According to what is known as “minority stress” theory, people with non-heterosexual orientations experience an endless series of microaggressions, overt rejections, invidious discrimination, or stigmatization that undermines their psychiatric and physical health.
And indeed, the social environment has become much less stressful for sexual minorities than it was 50 years ago. The average age for coming out of the closet among Americans has decreased from 26 years old for those roughly born in the 1970s to 16.9 years old for those born in this century. The average age for same-sex sexual activity is decreased from 19.2 years old for those born in the 1970s to 16.3 for the younger cohort, driven by “marked improvements in the social and legal environments for sexual minorities,” according to UCLA epidemiologist Ilan Meyer. But less stress has not brought with it the better health that the minority stress model predicted. In fact, nearly all psychological and physical problems persist at just about the same rate they did before the gay rights movement.
According to Meyer’s study, “we found little evidence that the social and legal improvements during the past 50 years … have altered the experience of sexual minorities people in terms of exposure to minority stressors and resultant adverse mental health outcomes.” Younger cohorts have higher suicide attempt rates (30 percent) than the older cohort (21 percent). The younger group reports more everyday discrimination, more psychological distress, more stigma, and more internalized homophobia. All in all, according to these scholars, “our findings are clearly inconsistent with the [minority stress] hypothesis.”
In another study, J. Michael Bailey, an early adopter of the minority stress model in the 1990s, could find “no evidence to support” minority stress predictions and, he acknowledges, that “there is much evidence against it.”
Greater tolerance of sexual minorities has not led to better health outcomes or lower suicide rates or to decreases in neuroticism among gay men. Health and psychological results in the tolerant Netherlands, Bailey points out, are not much different from the results of the supposedly intolerant United States. Suicide rates barely budged in nations that have adopted same-sex marriage.
Appealing to widely-accepted values like safety and prevention in order to promote sexual identity education to children was a deliberate rhetorical strategy from LGBT advocates. Kevin Jennings, founder of the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), delivered a speech to gay activists on March 5, 1995, laying out the strategy:
If the Radical Right can succeed in portraying us as preying on children, we will lose. Their language — ‘promoting homosexuality’ is one example — is laced with subtle and not-so-subtle innuendo that we are ‘after their kids.’ We must learn from the abortion struggle, where the clever claiming of the term ‘pro-life’ allowed those who opposed abortion on demand to frame the issue to their advantage…
We immediately seized upon the opponent’s calling card — safety — and explained how homophobia represents a threat to students’ safety by creating a climate where violence, name-calling, health problems, and suicide are common.
You mean like the San Francisco Gay Men’s Choir that actually admitted that the goal IS to go after our children? t’s an open slap in the face for we that try hard to keep the innocence of children intact for as long as possible. We know that they aren’t sufficiently developed mentally to realize what is happening – and preying groups like this are trying to take full advantage just like the SJW/CRT-obsessed teachers are in our school systems.
“You think we’ll just corrupt your kids if our agenda goes unchecked? Funny, just this once, you’re correct. We’ll convert your children, bit by bit.”
The San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus released a song outlining how they’ll "convert your children."
Read more: https://t.co/1j9DybR12W pic.twitter.com/xyNs1RS7Z9
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) July 7, 2021
Calling it “tolerant and fair”. Their words – we just reported it back last year.
GLSEN developed “Safe Space Kits” under Jennings’ leadership. It supplied these kits to schools free of charge. These kits recommended the establishment of ally clubs, playing short films, and using gay-friendly lesson plans and special LGBT themed books in classes. They were all designed to address anti-LGBT prejudice. It was all about prevention.
For Meyer, continued psychological and physiological health disparities are sufficient to show that minorities must be stressed. As they put it, their findings “call attention to the continued need to recognize threats to the health and well-being of sexual minority people across all ages and to remind us that LGBT equality remains elusive.”
Clearly, the only answer LGBT advocates see is to step on the gas. We must accelerate the sexual revolution and expand sexual identity awareness education to ever earlier ages in order to relieve the stress of sexual minorities. Improvements in their health and safety will only come when the sexual revolution has achieved its end. Even incremental improvements cannot be expected until then.
Sexual revolutionaries care about the revolution — not safety or prevention, so all data to the contrary will be ignored or turned to the advantage of the revolution. We see this in the current monkeypox debate, where the transmission of the disease is obscured so as not to stigmatize the gay community by calling attention to certain extreme sexual practices that many gays consider essential to their identity. Whereas masking and social isolation were widely accepted as the indicated means to prevent the spread of Covid, asking gay men to limit their sexual activity to stop the spread of monkeypox is called unrealistic and hateful.
Note that monkeypox quickly disappeared from the media’s radar screens once it became clear that it was yet another homosexual disease based on voluntary interactions.
Scientists who are interested in reality must see that health problems are endemic in the gay community, and not because of a lack of sensitivity on the part of society. Suicide is more prevalent precisely because of dynamics sown into rejecting one’s body as a guide to one’s identity. Anal cancer among gay men is not caused by stigma.
When confronted with reality, sexual revolutionaries embrace an endless, rolling revolution. Science is not likely to guide us out of the revolution, but a willingness to see will — and sometimes science still would have us see.
The post School Boots LGBT Group Over Lewd Card Game! – Stack of Stuff #29 appeared first on Granite Grok.
Depending on who you ask, Marxism must evolve from an agrarian to an industrial/capitalist ‘look’ before true Communism can get to work and create the utopia we’ve been promised. But Marxism is an economic fairy tale told by an idgit that always ends the same way.
It’s a totalitarian autocracy or oligarchy that proves a government that promises you everything can take it away. Just ask the dissident Chinese, residents of Taiwan, and women in Iran (a faith-based Marxist/Fascist despotism) how it’s working out.
Let’s call it Communism with Communist characteristics.
Another soviet style tactic to enjoin the “take it away” clause is rapidly developing in the west. The disagreeable get diagnosed with a mental illness and treated accordingly (drugs, confinement, … reeducation).
COVID proved it was possible, and depending on where you live, being healthy without the benefit of “vaccination” could be grounds for therapy and the introduction of psychotropic drugs and observation with the option for restraint if you protest too much.
While not every “western nation” is ready to make that leap (Australia, Canada, and New Zealand seem prepared to run with it), other forms of Despotism along the Marxist/Fascist line are finding acceptance under the umbrella of saving the planet. Green was always red. Still, another thing COVID demonstrated was some tolerance for an authoritarian itch if you made it scary enough. The Watermellon Marxists have been at this for decades, but a few have decided it’s now or never.
In Oxfordshire, England, the local despots on the County Council have decided to take a more significant leap to the left and constrict the movement of the people with a WEF/NWO idea called the 15-minute city.
Oxfordshire County Council yesterday approved plans to lock residents into one of six zones to ‘save the planet’ from global warming. The latest stage in the ’15 minute city’ agenda is to place electronic gates on key roads in and out of the city, confining residents to their own neighbourhoods.
Under the new scheme if residents want to leave their zone they will need permission from the Council who gets to decide who is worthy of freedom and who isn’t. Under the new scheme residents will be allowed to leave their zone a maximum of 100 days per year, but in order to even gain this every resident will have to register their car details with the council who will then track their movements via smart cameras round the city.
These experts will factionalize their territory with movement controls that will (presumably) require internal tracking/passports in the name of Climate Lockdowns. Oxfordshire, which includes Oxford College England, will test the program out in 2024, assuming the people don’t come to their senses and replace (depose) the county council that wants to impose it.
We’re talking Chinese smart-city 101, which leads to social credit scores, and the “everyone is an informant” carrot/stick culture that follows. Let’s call it England with Chinese Characteristics, though I think we can agree not so Great Britain has been on this road for some time, and the Oxfordshire County Council is what you get when you stay on that path.
I don’t imagine they can put up much resistance after decades of making excuses for allowing themselves to be disarmed by the government. And the brain trust at Oxford College is probably in love with the idea.
And I’d bet the real test isn’t whether climate lockdowns do any of the planet-saving things the climateers promise. It’s about the willingness of the peasants to be herded like the sheep their “leaders” believe them to be.
HT | WUWT
The post Oxfordshire Embraces English Law … With Chinese Characteristics appeared first on Granite Grok.
The two largest Cities in New Hampshire, Manchester, and Nashua, both have experienced democratic leaders. Nashua elected Mayor Jim Donchess and Manchester elected Mayor Joyce Craig.
Last year, Manchester released updated assessments as part of the DRA required process for maintaining property equity. Manchester saw sharp increases in their assessments due to the rapidly accelerating residential real estate market. The commercial and industrial properties did not rise at the same rate as residential properties which created a tax shift onto the residential properties. This correlated with higher tax bills for many.
Manchester did a good job, early on, trying to prepare property owners for the new assessments. In September 2021, the preliminary tax rate was released in conjunction with the new assessments so property owners would understand the tax implications and save for their December bills. Mayor Craig wisely put all the bad news out to the public at once.
Not once did Mayor Craig blame the state for requiring properties to be assessed fairly. She never stated that if it were her choice, she simply would have chosen not to perform the update. Rather, as expected of a leader, she held forums and supported the work of the contractor and assessing office.
Nashua’s Mayor took a different approach to public relations regarding the new assessments. Nashua saw the same assessment trends as seen in Manchester’s 2021 data. The tax burden shifted to residential properties and many property owners received shocking tax bills.
Nashua’s Mayor did little to prepare the public. No explanatory letter was sent to property owners in the July or December tax bills. Nashua property assessments were released in September, but the Mayor kept the estimated tax rate tight to the vest, choosing non-disclosure. The rate was released in November, when the tax bills were mailed to property owners, leaving little time to scrap together the additional money.
Unlike Mayor Craig, Mayor Donchess repeatedly blamed the state for creating statewide rules to maintain fair and uniform property assessments. The Mayor’s declarations of blame most recently occurred at the November 22, 2022 Board of Alderman Meeting. the Mayor stated:
…The revaluation is a state-mandated State ordered revaluation one that we were required to do following a very detailed set of State rules, state regulations and state laws, now it is not something that I would have chosen to do at this time…
The Mayor’s position to publicly disavow the process of maintaining equitable data leaves Nashua’s assessing office with a credibility and moral problem. Who wants to work for a Mayor who disparages the process and their important work?
Mayor Donchess backed a $303 million, Board approved, City Budget The Mayor’s choice to fund many new projects contributed to a higher tax rate, but this Mayor is masterful at placing the blame elsewhere.
No one likes a bigger tax bill. Mayor Donchess’ tactics to ambush citizens and then blame the state for the process is cowardice. Let’s find a leader for Nashua that knows how to shoulder responsibility.
The post No One Likes A Bigger Tax Bill appeared first on Granite Grok.
Aaron has a post labeled “Teaching White Supremacy: Part 1” that brings up what one Donald Yacavone has done in furthering the splintering of America’s motto of “E Pluribus Unum” (out of many, one) by inflaming race relations:
“Yacavone lays out the arc of America’s white supremacy from the country’s inception and Revolutionary War years to its nineteenth-century flashpoint of civil war to the civil rights movement of the 1960s and today’s Black Lives Matter.”
Go read it and then read this comment from Bill589‘s description that it doesn’t have to be this way because it WASN’T always this way. It took our educational system, infested with SJWs and race-baiters, in turning the movement to be racial colorblind to strictly seeing Society through the dark lens of the Left’s racism:
In my rural neighborhood in the 60s/70s my friends and I knew we were all different and sometimes even joked about the differences: To the by far tallest one of us I’d say in a false soft ‘screaming’ voice things like, “Mark. Can you here me up there?” And he’d bop me on the head. Or I’d ask the poka-dotted one of us(freckles), “If you caught the measles, how would you know?” And the darker skinned one of us gave and took as much as the rest of us. All of us knowing, obviously, that these differences were meaningless, and we were tight and true friends.
It wasn’t until 4th grade at school that I learned a best friend was truly different. And we were told that my friend was ‘black’ and I was ‘white’.
I remember while walking the couple miles home I told my friend that I am not white. I am tan. A little darker here and there especially in the summer.
My friend told me that he was brown and gold. He lifted up his shirt and pushed out his stomach. He bent backwards so much he dropped one of his school books…. And his stomach was a beautiful gold.
Our parents raised us right. It took our public school to teach us that race is important = racism.
While the intentions MAY have been good (yes, I highly doubt it), race-grievance has been flourish for decades and rankes #2 in my eyes in splitting Americans apart (with Progressive gender identity politics shoving it aside to now be #1). It didn’t used to be this way as I agree with Bill589. Our education has gone from “we’re all one” to enhancing the perpetual struggle and war between each tiny subset of the Democrat identity politics groupings. It isn’t part of the solution – it is a good part of the problem.
Thanks to Bill589 for pointing it out.
The post Promoted From Comments: “It Took Our Public School To Teach Us That Race Is Important = Racism.” appeared first on Granite Grok.
From: Chris Ager <chrisager@aol.com>
To: “nhcommitteeman@protonmail.com” <nhcommitteeman@protonmail.com>
Date: 12/05/2022 9:06 PM
Subject: NHGOP Chair Position
State Committee Members,
It has been an honor and privilege to have served as Hillsborough County Chairman for the past 4 years and National Committeeman for the last 3 years.
I have decided to run for NHGOP Chairman at the annual meeting in Salem on January 28th.
I’d like to thank Chairman Stepanek and Vice Chairman Tucker for their 4 years of dedicated service to the Party. Steve and Pam have done a great job in recruitment and our financials are in a much better position thank to their efforts.
A press release going out tonight is below.
Chris Ager
603.318.4437 c
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 5, 2022
Chris Ager Announces Candidacy for NHGOP Chairman
AMHERST, NH – Today, Chris Ager released this statement announcing his candidacy to be Chairman of the New Hampshire Republican Party.
“I am excited to announce my candidacy for Chairman of the New Hampshire Republican Party. I have and will continue to fight to protect our First in the Nation Primary and tirelessly advocated for our principles of lower taxes, smaller government, individual responsibility, and local control as outlined in the platform. As we approach 2024, it is imperative we unite as a party behind these conservative principles and continue to build a well-oiled machine focused on achieving electoral success.”
Chris Ager is an Army Veteran and current Republican National Committeeman for New Hampshire and Hillsborough County Republican Committee Chairman.
The post Breaking News: RNC Committeeman and Hillsborough County Chair Chris Ager Announces Run for NH GOP Chair appeared first on Granite Grok.
The Vermont state motto is “Freedom and Unity.” They should take a cue from the Pokemon franchise and change it to ‘Gotta Jab ‘Em All.’
Related: The Next Time Someone Accuses You of Vaccine Misinformation, Give Them a Dose of This Medicine
The Vermont Health Equity Initiative (VHEI) is promoting vaccine* clinics and encouraging Black, indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) to line up for the experimental pharmaceutical or a booster ( and you don’t need to wait six months, they say).
The 94% white state has collective guilt. White liberals are exponentially more likely to have lined up for The Jab, while many people of color took the same approach I did. Let’s wait for the human test trials to run their course before committing. They were wise to wait on the sidelines, but the Progs can’t abide dissent, especially among their own identity politics victim classes. It’s unseemly.
VHEI to the rescue.
C’mon down, it’s free, and it’s also a great opportunity to see just how much information you can pry out of them. Informed consent. Emergency Use anything requires informed consent. But to date, any actual truth about the risks has been saddled with terms like conspiracy theory or vaccine denier. No one wants to tell you what’s in them or what they know could happen.
And we know they know. Who are they? The New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, the FDA, and the CDC, as well as Pfizer and Moderna. Before any COVID Jab was authorized, a wide range of potentially high-risk side effects was well known.
First, let’s remind ourselves what was known about potential adverse events before any Covid-19 vaccine was administered to the general public:
Well-known and undisclosed, violating state, federal, and international law. A practice defended by politicians and “health professionals” from towns, counties, states, to nation-states. These informed consent deniers insisted the drug was safe and effective when it turned out it was neither.
The VHEI appears equally indifferent and looking to Jab as many folks as they can convince, so why not use it as an opportunity? You have a right to informed consent. Show up and ask for evidence of the risks associated with the vaccine*. Use any or all of the bulleted points above to compare with whatever they have to show you. If you see these things missing, ask why?
How can this be informed consent when the CDC knows these risks exist, but they are not being communicated to people of color before injection?
Why is majority white-guilt Vermont allowing this to occur?
Read up, be prepared and record it if you can. And remember that if you feel comfortable and informed, getting The Jab is your decision, but there are risks, and everyone deserves to know all of them before they consent. Or why the experts would hide them from you.
And we must always protect any individual’s right to say no.
Note: Be polite but firm, and feel free to try this at any clinic anywhere, not just Vermont, then let us know how it goes.
HT | The Burning Platform
The post Vermont Vaccine Clinic is an Opportunity to Test Informed Consent Rules appeared first on Granite Grok.
I’ve been holding onto this post for a long time as it is one of those “philosophical” type posts that interest me a lot. Unfortunately, it’s not only densely written, it’s long – Rob Natelson is a good writer and by golly, I wanted to bring it to you. However, I’ve not discovered a good way to do so that allows me to bring value so I’ll just say “read these snippets and then go read the whole thing in context“. It IS important to we, American Citizens, re-learnhow far our legal system has strayed from the intent of our young Founders.
Understanding the Constitution: Originalism Wasn’t Invented by Partisan Republicans
“Although originalists disagree among themselves over some details, they share one core belief: The courts should read the U.S. Constitution much the same way they read other documents … [understanding] a document the same way the document’s creators understood it.”
Without the discipline of originalism, judges can, and do, inject their own preferences into the Constitution. In other words, they become unelected lawmakers. Occasionally, we aren’t certain about the exact meaning of a constitutional phrase. In such cases, even originalist judges must exercise discretion.
<snip>
James Wilson was one of our leading Founders. In a lecture at what is now the University of Pennsylvania, he made the following observation:
“Every plausible notion in favour of arbitrary power, appearing in a respectable dress, is received with eagerness, protected with vigilance, and diffused with solicitude, by an arbitrary government.”
Translation: not a fan.
The truth of his comment is shown by the plethora of professors who pander to arbitrary, centralized power. Because the Constitution controls and limits power, they often spread nonsense about the Constitution. And, sometimes, it’s nonsense on stilts. One illustration of nonsense on stilts is the claim that originalism was a partisan political idea cooked up by conservatives during the Reagan administration. The truth is that, although the label “originalism” is new, the idea it represents is very old.
<snip>
Unlike Greek and Roman legal systems, the English legal system was the direct ancestor of our own. For English lawyers and judges, the guide for interpreting legal documents was “the intent of the makers”—that is, the understanding of the parties. If an English judge had to determine the meaning of a phrase in a contract, he asked: “How did the parties to this contract understand this phrase? And if the evidence isn’t clear on this point, what was their most likely understanding?”
Similarly, if the disputed language appeared in a parliamentary statute, the judge asked: “How did the members of Parliament who voted for this law understand the phrase? Or, if the evidence isn’t clear on this point, what was their most likely understanding?”. This is pure originalism. And it was in full flower 500 years ago, if not earlier. In a 2007 scholarly article, I explained how it worked in practice (pdf).
This is a good place for a related observation: Many people confuse originalism with textualism. They are not the same thing.
Originalism is applying a document according to how its creators understood it. Textualism is a particular way of achieving that result. Textualism sometimes is appropriate and sometimes not. Textualism means searching for the parties’ understanding from the text of the document only. A textualist doesn’t consider outside evidence, such as prior history or testimony about what the parties intended.
Like I said, go read the whole thing. I will leave it as an exercise for the reader to think about the last part of his post under “Later History“. C’mon back afterwards and tell me what you think in the comments.
The post “Understanding the Constitution: Originalism Wasn’t Invented by Partisan Republicans” appeared first on Granite Grok.
Last week I noticed that a few more folks are “waking up” and starting to realize perhaps everything the government has been telling them for the past few years hasn’t necessarily been the truth. More people are speaking up and asking questions, and that’s good to see.
It’s also fun to watch as more and more uncomfortable questions are put to our incompetent leaders, especially as the government-perpetrated lies and myths about the recent SARS-CoV-2 “Pandemic” are being exposed. Whether it be about masks preventing the spread of the virus (they don’t) or about the efficacy and safety of the vaccines our government has tried so, so hard to make mandatory for one and all, one can take some satisfaction in watching the talking heads squirm.
To ensure it is again said out loud, the efficacy of the vaccines is poor at best. The safety records of these mRNA concoctions have been suppressed by our government officials, drug manufacturers, and the so-called media that is supposed to hold the people in charge to account. They cause much more harm than we’ve been told. This is being reported worldwide, except by the vaunted US legacy media. Do your own research.
Not only do the vaccines not prevent the transmission of the virus, current statistics indicate that since their adoption, more people dying of coronavirus have been vaccinated. Imagine that! It’s good to see that the adoption of the latest booster offering is proving to be low. More of the folks are realizing the inefficacy of these mRNA cocktails combined with their adverse effects and saying, “No, thanks.” Not only are adults spurning further vaccines, they’re keeping the needles out of their kid’s arms, which I think bodes well for our future.
So while the CDC promotes a booster every two months, it’s looking like the mandatory vaccine policy imposed upon our military will be lifted (to the great chagrin of the Ultra Woke Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin).
And meanwhile, the illegals continue to stream across the southern border, with no vaccines required of any kind. I don’t know if our government and country have reached “Peak Stupidity” yet, but we are certainly working hard to get there.
The other pile of incredible hypocrisy that again grabbed my attention is the relegation of the Heroic Ukrainian Struggle to the back pages below the fold.
When this foolishness started earlier this year, I came out pretty quickly with an assessment of why it was happening. I haven’t changed my mind a bit, and as the pageant plays out in Eastern Europe, it is quite clear what this is all about. It boils down to a few basic points:
1. Ukraine is a corrupt, failed state, made more so by the intercession of the Obama Administration in 2014 to overthrow a legally-elected government, installing the circus monkey comedian that is supposed to be in charge now.
2. This “war” is nothing more than a money laundering operation for US politicians and arms manufacturers. The US declares aid, the money is divided up by the usual suspects in Ukraine (Zelensky & Co.) and US (Biden & Co., along with most of Congress). The arms manufacturers get their share, as some weapons find their way to the conflict, and the US military places orders to replace the equipment “donated.”
3. Despite the narratives pushed by the western press regarding this conflict, the Ukrainians are being ground up piecemeal, and the Russians will get exactly what they want- a buffer zone between NATO and Russia.
4. The big losers here are the Ukrainian civilians, dying to enrich politicians, and the EU as a whole, as their leadership is so feckless to believe they can mandate anything to Putin. They cannot. But they can freeze, and it’s looking like this winter they will.
But this is all being tamped down, I suppose for the same reasons as the Pandemic- the story doesn’t hold, and the narratives are falling apart. Just recently, the Biden Administration reportedly cannot account for $20 Billion in recent aid to Ukraine. Whoops. Not a good look, especially with the opposing party taking control of the House next month.
Reports of Ukrainian government officials buying luxury real estate outside of Ukraine probably don’t help, either. And why are US & NATO weapons delivered to Ukraine as “aid” showing up in Africa now? Move along; nothing to see here…
Bold prediction: By this time next year, and perhaps much sooner, Zelensky is gone, and the Russia-Ukraine conflict is settled. Ole’ Creepy Joe needs this story to go away.
This year has been something else, hasn’t it? My bet is that 2023 will be worse as harsh economic realities set in. I hope I’m wrong, and it turns out to be a year of unicorns and rainbows, but let’s all hang on and finish the ride, OK?
Ted Ropple
West Charleston, VT
www.tedropple.com
The post Last Week’s Leftovers – December 5, 2022 appeared first on Granite Grok.
I was mesmerized by the number of dollar bills going down range. I know that I couldn’t afford it, but I could certainly giggle over it – Quad Miniguns on a WW II anti-aircraft turret. Just WOW!
We know next to nothing about the origin, the purpose or the who behind this amazing piece of Americana full-auto metal awesomeness. Not that we really need to. Reportedly quad Dillon Miniguns fitted into a World War II-era anti-aircraft turret, the video emerged from the recent Big Sandy Shoot in Arizona. With the famed Knob Creek Machine Gun Shoot no more, the Big Sandy might just be the best machine gun shoot still running. As for Dillon, we’ll reach out to them to see what more we can learn about this project, if it was indeed them as the masterminds.
But in the meantime, we just wanted to share this sick video of full-auto madness. As you watch, be sure to look closely and spot the foot. That’s right, there’s a gunner amid all that turret metal. Can you imagine the sensation of sending that many rounds downrange?
Hope he had a quad set of ears on!
snagged off facebook, too good not to share
entire rounds spent on this must have cost more than I can ever dream of earning lmfao pic.twitter.com/ZPSrZHqU3J
— snafu (@SNaFu_1313) October 25, 2022
Satisfying. Just because…sometimes you just don’t need a reason or a need.
(H/T: Tactical Life)
The post Palate Cleanser – “Rounds Spent on This Must Have Cost More Than I Can Ever Dream Of Earning…” appeared first on Granite Grok.
Maybe it is because of Biden’s inflation/recession. Perhaps it is because no time slots were available for more campaign spots. Maybe it was the crossover spending where the Parties donated to the opponents. The dollars and numbers I want to detail are for New Hampshire.
New Hampshire is a small state when you are talking about voters. New Hampshire gets more attention than she deserves regarding elections. New Hampshire shows why the Electoral College is so important to our Republic. We had three federal-level positions on the 2022 ballot- one Senator and two Congresspeople (is that a word?). All three incumbents were Democrats, and all successfully held their seats. It was expected that two of these seats would have flipped according to performance and the polls. So much for the experts.
Senator Maggie Hassan was running for a second term. She was labeled a soft candidate, and the potential of Republicans flipping the seat was high. Hassan started her media blitz in the fall of 2021, a full year before the election. The first phase was about what an incredible Senator we had with Maggie. If you believed her ads, she was a rainmaker for passing bills as if she was the writer and sole signer. It was pure gaslighting. Once her opponent was determined, the ads went negative, and most were fact-checked as inaccurate. It didn’t matter. The ads were relentless, and the rebuttals never saw the light of day. Hassan spent $114 per vote. Politics is repulsive.
Let’s look at the three races and the difference in money spent.
Senator
Maggie Hassan, the Democrat incumbent, spent $38 Million
Don Bolduc, the Republican challenger, spent $1.9 Million
House District 1
Chris Pappas, the Democrat incumbent, spent $3.7 Million
Karoline Leavitt, the Republican challenger, spent $2.6 Million
House District 2
Ann Kuster, the Democrat incumbent, spent $3.3 Million
Bob Burns, the Republican challenger, spent $199 Thousand
The disparity is enormous and is key to why the state has stayed Blue at the Federal level. The state is solid Red at the statewide level, which is somewhat of a conundrum. The good thing is that the state staying Red will prevent the Democrats from implementing a State Income or Sales Tax. This is essential to New Hampshire’s future.
These numbers are obscene, but as I said, New Hampshire is a small state. Georgia is holding a Senatorial run-off election tomorrow. It seems like the election started weeks ago with the early voting so popular. The polls and media contend the race is close and depends on turnout. To believe that is to set yourself up for disappointment. I see no way that Raphael Warnock loses to Herschel Walker. The money line agrees. Warnock and Walker will spend a combined $380 Million for the right to sit in the Upper Chamber. Warnock is outspending Walker three to one. There appears to be no limit to what people will pay for power.
Politics is a repulsive bloodsport, but it is the system we have. Until the Republicans learn to get down in the gutter with the Left, we may continue to lose. We cannot lose. Losing means the end of this incredible experiment. True Americans are not ready to take down the flag and turn off the lights. So we will keep fighting. Sometimes it is not about the money. Sometimes it is about patriotism and being on the right side of the equation.
The post $45 Million Doesn’t Buy What it Used To appeared first on Granite Grok.
Melanie Levesque is a candidate for New Hampshire Secretary of State. She has stated publicly in a Hollis/Brookline School Board Meeting, that her life’s hero is Angela Davis, the ’60s era self-defined America-hating Communist/Racist (now there’s a combo for you). Angela Davis currently teaches at the University of California/Sant Cruz. Her resume boasts that she has been a member of the Communist Party USA since the 1960’s when she also worked with the Weathermen Underground, where they killed cops and Brinks Guards in my hometown (Nyack, NY). Davis and her friends repeatedly stated they wanted to overthrow the United States by force and certainly, their murder rampages and bombings speak to that.
While being confronted several times on the matter, Melanie Levesque has never disavowed her publicly stated admiration for Angela Davis. Further, Melanie also has repeatedly taken funds (over hundreds of thousands of dollars) from “Emily’s List”, the George Soros political war chest for lefty radical campaigns.
We want to thank Doug Davidson for this Op-Ed. If you have an Op-Ed or LTE
you would like us to consider, please submit it to Editor@GraniteGrok.com.
In her bid for Secretary of State, Melanie is boasting that she is going to “bring the office into the 21st Century”; Ergo, voter drop boxes, mail-in ballots, online voting, and voter registration for illegals, all Soros-backed election hi-jacking tools.
Fortunately, the voters of New Hampshire have already decided – repeatedly – they don’t want Melanie anywhere near Concord. She would be a disaster as Secretary of State so make sure your representative doesn’t vote for her.
The post Melanie Levesque, Running for NH Secretary of State, Is Not Fit for the Office appeared first on Granite Grok.
When it comes to betting, one of the most important things that you need to take into account is the odds. Simply put, the odds are the probability of a particular outcome happening. And while in some cases they may be quite easy to calculate, in others they can be quite tricky.
Nevertheless, knowing how to calculate and interpret betting odds can be quite beneficial, especially if you’re looking to make some money out of your hobby. The best chance to practice it is to find a reputable casino like https://betinia.se/sv/sport and set your knowledge in some good use.
How do oddset betting systems work?Oddset betting systems can vary quite a bit in how they work. However, there are some general principles that all oddset betting systems share. First and foremost, oddset betting systems are designed to help you win money by correctly predicting the outcomes of sporting events. To do this, oddset betting systems typically use a point spread. This is a number that represents the difference between the two teams or players involved in the event. The point spread is used to even out the odds so that both sides are equally likely to win.
In order to place a bet using an oddset system, you will need to find a bookmaker that offers this type of betting. Once you have found a bookmaker, you will need to choose which event you want to bet on. When choosing an event, you will need to consider the point spread and decide which team or player you think will win. Once you have made your selection, you will need to place your bet and wait for the results of the event. If your prediction is correct, you will win money based on the odds that were set by the bookmaker.
What is the difference between decimal and fractional odds?Decimal odds are simply the decimal value of the fractional odds, plus one. So, if a bookmaker is offering odds of 3/1 (or 4.00 in decimal form), your potential return would be three times your stake, plus your original stake. Fractional odds are most popular in the UK and Ireland, while decimal odds are more popular in Europe and Australia.
Are there any benefits to betting on oddset?There are a few benefits to betting on oddset. First, it can be a way to potentially make some money. Second, it can be a way to add excitement to watching a game. You can find great betting odds in any good sportsbook with options to bet on nearly every sport. Keep in mind to shop around for the best odds. When you get a hang of it, you can easily place bets in more than one sportsbook. This can give you something to root for if your favorite team is not doing well.
In conclusion, if you want to win big at oddset betting, you have to be willing to put in the time to research odds and make smart bets.
The post Betting Oddset: How to Get the Best Odds on Your Bets appeared first on Granite Grok.
Tossing this in for a laugh, a snicker, a head shake, or – perhaps – some other reaction. I’m sure the average Progressive will be offended by this, and that might be all the incentive you need to watch it.
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