In my last article, I noted that back in February 2023, the Director of Racial Equity, Xusana Davis, warned in testimony that the Clean Heat Standard in its then-current form was not an equitable piece of legislation, listed a number of problems with the bill, and hasn’t been heard from since. Weirdly so. This got me wondering: where are Davis and her Office in all this mess? Bueller?… Bueller?….

Here we have a law that is supposed to change how our entire economy works and our very way of life – with lots of so-called “social justice” and “equity” issues at stake, not to mention the accompanying tornado of politically correct, social justice warrior lingo, official and unofficial — and the Office of Racial Equity (which its website insists is “not exclusively focused on only certain racial and ethnic groups—we support equity for all of Vermont’s residents and visitors,” so we all have a stake in its ostensible mission of fairness) has absolutely nothing to say about it? Again, I say, weird.

The Climate Council has nine members from the Administration on it, plus five more non-member appointees to subcommittees – NONE from the Office of Racial (But Not Really Racial!) Equity. Not even on the Council’s Just Transitions subcommittee for which, one would think, it would be a natural if not critical fit.

The Public Utilities Commission’s Equity Advisory Group on the Clean Heat Standard has three Administration members representing the Department of Public Service, the Department of Children and Families, and the Vermont State Housing Authority. But NO ONE from the Office of Racial (But Not Really Racial!) Equity Office. For crying out loud, the two entities have the same operative word in their titles, but… no? Weird.

Are Davis and her Office being ironically discriminated against? Intentionally silenced on this issue? If so, they don’t seem to care. About that, this, or apparently anything. It turns out my mystification about the Office’s disinterested silence on climate policy isn’t limited to just climate policy.

According to the Racial Equity Office’s state website, the last public meeting it held took place on July 26, 2023. The one before that on March 15, 2023. There are currently no events listed on its calendar.

As far as I can tell, neither Davis nor anyone in her office has ever issued a press release on any policy, anything of substance, or really anything at all. Every press release posted on its webpage is a reprint of something put out by the Governor’s office recognizing one day of recognition or another, the last one being a boilerplate hat tip to Black History Month last February signed by Governor Scott.

Even this year, when the Vermont legislature moved forward a proposed Constitutional Amendment adding an “equal protection” clause, PR.4, the Office of Racial (But Not Really Racial) Equity didn’t release a public statement as concise as “Yippee!” That’s weird.

A Google search of “Xusana Davis VT/news” returns less than a page of hits, the latest of which is an October 2023 article on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to supply translation services in emergency situations in which she is quoted. Interesting, but more important than an energy policy that will likely impact low-income and other economically vulnerable Vermonters’ ability to survive winter and/or afford to stay in their homes? I don’t think so!

It’s almost as if this whole office is just an expensive, taxpayer-funded, BS façade that is intended to be seen (as a “social justice” fig leaf to distract and placate the masses of low-information Leftist drones) but not heard, certainly not in any meaningful way on any policy of substance. And its members seem okay with that role.

The near total lack of documented activity by the Office after early 2023 led me to wonder if the thing had been quietly shut down, just as Burlington recently defunded its not particularly useful Racial Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity department to help curb out-of-control spending. But no. There in the state budget was listed the salary and benefits package for the “Exec. Dir. Of Racial Equity” at $167,143, plus two more additions to the team, an Education and Outreach Associate and an Equity Policy and Research Analyst at $103,123 and $95,553 respectively, bringing the office’ complement up to five members.

All doing what and to what end, one asks.

When the highly touted equity goals in arguably the most far-reaching economically disruptive policy in our state are overtly and aggressively tossed out the window… (Quote: “We’re taxing the poor so that the rich can benefit,” Christopher Trombly, Equity Advisory Group. Quote: “We don’t do things based on helping poor people. We do things based on saving the world,” Sen. Mark MacDonald on the Clean Heat Standard. Quote: “The whole Clean Heat Standard… was a boondoggle that really is designed to support entrenched interests,” Pike Porter, Equity Advisory Group.)… and the Office of Racial Equity has nothing to say, what good is it? And why should we taxpayers continue to fund it?

 

Rob Roper is a freelance writer with 20 years of experience in Vermont politics, including three years of service as chair of the Vermont Republican Party and nine years as President of the Ethan Allen Institute, Vermont’s free-market think tank. He is also a regular contributor to VermontGrok.

The post Night Cap: Wither Goes the Office of Racial Equity? appeared first on Granite Grok.

It has been extremely disconcerting and frustrating watching our once great country change so dramatically away from the fundamental principles on which our brilliant forefathers created it. That change began with the election of Barack Obama and his call to “fundamentally transform” America into a more Socialistic entity.

We had a brief reprieve during the first Trump Presidency, but then the Pandemic and the abysmal Biden term escalated the transformation called for by Obama. We Conservatives feared our country had been lost, and its total collapse was possible in our lifetime. We could sense the end of the grand experiment that those wise men who created her had predicted. But over the last couple of years, there are signs of a reversal and a return to the sanity of the middle ground politically and philosophically that some of us thought would never happen, and we now have some hope that reports of the death of America were premature.

The first sign of change happened just two years ago, as we just recognized the second anniversary of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. This dramatic change in abortion law could never have happened without Donald Trump being elected and having the opportunity to place three conservative justices on the Court. This decision by the Court stuck a dagger into the souls of the Left and has been their sole focus for the two years since. The insatiable thirst on the Left for reproductive freedom is one of the reasons we have Joe Biden in the White House, but the Left may have finally played its cards too soon. Access to abortions, climate change, eliminating prisons, and DEI became the platform of the Left, and it appears that America has seen enough and is ready to resist this liberalization of America.

The DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) movement born during the George Floyd and BLM era of the Summer of Love in 2022 may have run its course. DEI had become the driving force for schools, businesses, government, and even our military. DEI replaced the goals of excellence and meritocracy, eroding the foundation on which America was built. BLM forced our small town in NH to hire a DEI counselor in 2022 for the school district. This year, he was fired after a group of parents had said enough. We are starting to take back our country.

Louisiana just passed into law a mandate that all public school classrooms throughout the state display the Ten Commandments. This is one of the first steps towards putting God back in the schools where he belongs. Many school changes and drops in test scores can point back to God being expelled from public schools. We are starting to take back our country.

Tennessee just signed into law, making July a month of prayer and fasting. The idea is to bring spirituality and discipline back into the public schools. We are starting to take back our country.

Representative Jamaal Bowman is a far left Squad member and about to lose his seat in the New York Democrat primary. The Squad likes to think they are invincible, but this shows that maybe New York City has seen enough of the Squad, and Sandy Cortez should take a look over her shoulder, too. We are starting to take back our country.

These are tiny steps, and we have a long way to go, but they are heading in the right direction, and we should celebrate every step from the Left toward the center or Right as a win.

The post Signs The Pendulum Is Swinging To The Right appeared first on Granite Grok.

When AFP used to hold national events for bloggers, I used to meet up with John Hawkins to talk shop and yak. In fact, his Right Wing News blog site was one of the first national blog sites to link to us and did so on a number of occasions (again, thanks, John!).

He’s gone through a number of websites, always writing from a conservative standpoint, and at each one, after achieving some notoriety and hits, Big Tech would smother him. So, like Lloyd Alter (Carbon Upfront!) and our own Steve Mac Donald (aptly named Steve’s Substack), John decided to go Substack subscription with Culturecidal, where he won’t get canceled.

John has a post titled “20 Signs That America’s Culture is Deeply Unhealthy.” After writing “The Decline of Christianity in the US” (which was supposed to be a Data Point post, but like many, the post took a different turn, so Steve renamed it) and seeing John parallel it (albeit in a different manner), I thought it would be helpful for Grok readers to see his point of view.

Below are some of his points, but his post starts off by using what a Qatarian wrote about a gay American and Americans trying to shove our culture over Qatar culture. So why does the Left call out Western culture for being “colonialist” when the Left is going all “transgender/multiculti/Social Justice” on others?

But I digress.  Here’s John’s points on the decay of the American morality (abridged in some cases):

1) Abortion: Since the Roe vs. Wade decision in 1973, 63 million children have been slaughtered. That’s approaching ten times as many people who were killed during the Holocaust…is arguably the single most monstrous act by any nation in all of recorded human history.

2) The divorce rate: Depending on which statistics you believe, roughly 40-50% of first marriages end in divorce today and the numbers only go up in 2nd and 3rd marriages. On the other hand, although it’s increasing, the divorce rate in India, for example, is about 1.1%.

Co-habitating is going up. Unfortunately, they fail more often than marriage and at a faster rate. Who pays? The children left behind. If the mother is a serial cohabitator, the effects on a young child are also monstrous as well from a psychological standpoint. With a revolving door of boyfriends, the mom’s attention is on the boyfriend and not on the kids. The younger kids see another father figure pop into their lives; the first couple gets the full attachment treatment from the kids. But as the pop-ins and pop-outs continue to happen, distrust sets in, knowing that this attachment won’t happen because in just a little while, he’ll be gone just like the others.

I’m betting you all know how that turns out as the child ages and then blows up in middle/high school and later. This is future relationship destruction in slow motion.

3) Drug use: Americans are some of the heaviest drug users on planet Earth. The statistics are stunning.

• “37% of the population struggles with illicit drug use and 12% struggle with both alcohol and drug use.”
• *66% of all Americans are actively taking some type of prescription drug. This amounts to 131 million Americans.”
• “Overdose deaths tripled in the decade between 1999 and 2019 (from 6.1 to 21.6 per 100,000). Much of this increase is related to the widespread opioid epidemic that has swept the nation in recent years.”

Do I need to explain how this affects an addict’s family?

4) Authoritarian impulses under COVID: We literally had businesses forced to shut down by the government, people who lost their jobs for refusing to take a poorly tested, dubiously effective vaccine, and police harassing people in churches and on beaches for refusing to bow to capricious, obviously ineffective COVID regulations.

5) The birth rate: A society needs a birth rate of 2.1 children per couple to keep from shrinking without immigration. Currently, in the United States, ours is 1.64. In other words, our civilization is slowly dying off.

6) Marriage: Marriage has often been correctly called, “the bedrock of society.” Yet, in 2021, the average age that Americans first got married was 28.6 years old. That’s up from 22.9 years old in 1920. Meanwhile, only 45% of Americans are married. That’s down from 67.4% in 1960.

And the Left keeps redefining what a family can be, should be, even as it wages war on the traditional nuclear family (e.g., States passing laws that effectively cuts parents out of their childrens’ lives when it comes to gender identity and medical decisions?  That schools should have a higher level authority than Parents?

7) Victim-oriented culture: Americans are increasingly embracing a victim-oriented culture where whoever can portray himself as the most pathetic, the most hurt, and the most victimized is catered to by society.

DEI is correctly labeled as DIE by many conservatives – it is killing American Culture and setting American Society on fire. Fortunately, a new acronym definition is rising on the Right:

Didn’t Earn It

8) Gender confusion: We now have many Americans that have personal pronouns, embrace made-up sexualities, and believe that they can change their gender at will. These false, unscientific beliefs are often even promoted to children in schools.

9) Hatred of America: Liberals in America often demonize their own country, mock patriotic people, and treat their country’s flag like a hateful symbol of intolerance. Seeing so many Americans that openly despise and want to fundamentally transform what has arguably been the most successful and prosperous nation in human history is almost strange beyond belief.

10) Race obsession: No matter how thin the connection may seem to be, nearly EVERYTHING in America gets turned into a racial issue. Farmer’s markets, trees, immigration, skiing, voter ID, national parks – it all gets boiled down to race. It’s utterly obsessive and bizarre.

11) Political obsession: When a society becomes so obsessed with politics that it’s even weirdly shoehorned into sporting events, it makes it extraordinarily difficult for the populace to continue to get along. If even sports aren’t a politics-free zone, almost nowhere will be.

The Left came up with “The Political is Personal, the Personal is Political” and have implemented it completely. NOTHING is out of bounds from politics and NO ONE can escape it.

12 Censorship: In the mainstream media, social media, and many colleges, draconian censorship has been embraced to try to shut down alternate ideas that in more than a few cases, have later proven correct.

There can be only one rightthought and you will be canceled if you don’t adopt it. Between this and #11, we are in an active Culture Civil War not of our making. Whereas many of just want to be part of the Left-Alone Coalition, the Left, in its many manifestations, won’t allow anyone to be left alone or neutral.

13) Sanctioned political violence: In 2020, we saw sanctioned political violence in cities all across the country. Left-wing protesters were allowed to burn, loot and break the law at will with minimal consequences or political interference in many big liberal cities.

14) Cell phone obsession: The average American checks their cell phone 96 times per day.

15) Drag queen story hours: We’re now at a point where everywhere from schools to government agencies are trying to be involved with weird, sexually themed drag shows. It’s nothing less than an attempt to sexualize and groom children on a wide scale.

16) Breakdown of law and order: In many liberal cities, the law essentially sides with the criminals against law-abiding citizens. Criminals are allowed to shoplift without consequences, often aren’t charged or held on bail even if they’re caught and the emphasis is on restraining and defunding the police, not the criminals victimizing the populace.

17) Fake hate crimes: The desire to be considered a victim in America is now so strong that the vast majority of hate crimes turn out to be hoaxes.

18) Declining trust in institutions: Trust in many critical American institutions has cratered to some of the lowest levels in history. Just to name a few examples, only 11% of Americans have a great deal/quite a lot of confidence in television news. That same number for Congress is 7%. Newspapers? 16%. Church/organized religion? 31%. Public schools? 28%. The presidency? 23%.

And deservedly so given that they have rejected traditional American values and have acted in ways that have emphasized what they are doing. We often point that the Left has just about completed its decades Long March through our Institutions – they are now starting to suffer the overreach.

19) Children born to unmarried women: 40% of children are now born to unmarried women. That is compared to roughly 5% of children that were born to unmarried women in 1960.

See #6. Why is this happening? Deliberate destruction of the nuclear family, breaking the bonds of parents to children, and a continual growing trend of Government by those that believe in Government more than individuals, to make Government both Mommy and Daddy until a family is anything and everyone.

Which is to say, a family unit no longer exists. The whole idea of a family is to no longer exist.

20) Differences so great they’re increasing the chances of civil war: Various polls have found that a large percentage of Americans believe we could be on the brink of another civil war.

And like the top of his post, which I’d ask you to read, he adds more to that last point so please read that, too. It seems like lots of conservatives are talking about it as well.

There’s only two comments on John’s post. OK, people, it should be easy for y’all to do FAR more!

 

The post The Downward Spiraling of American Society appeared first on Granite Grok.

The forces of postmodernism require opening with a disclaimer just for the record, so let’s get that formality out of the way because the usual gaslighters await.

Everyone has their own unique pursuit of happiness, and I support gay people being treated with the same baseline respect that straight people would want for themselves, but I’m not here to talk about WHETHER or not there should be a gay parade.  Or should I say “WEATHER or not?”  It did indeed rain on Nashua’s Pride parade on Main St.  I’m sure most fans of such events are likely to blame climate change or blame Trump for that, but I’ll step aside for the religious experts as they’re sure to say it’s an act of God.

Mr. Scaer, who is once again Rosenwald’s opponent and could use all the help he can get fighting that fixture, took some raw video of the parade, which took place in what’s perhaps the geographic center of Senate District 13.

More on geography in a moment, but Beth shared a snippet of Ward 4 Rep Paige Beauchemin in the parade, which took place in Ward 4.  I could go on a side trip about many political products of Ward 4, such as Alderman Lopez, who’s been dubbed “the homelessness champion” by former Alderman Comeau.  There’s also multi-year serial no-show senior swamp rat, former Rep Cote, who was(or still is) suing the Speaker to bring remote participation to the House on session days, and disgraced trans criminal former Rep SM Laughton.  I won’t digress any more on this, so let’s get back to the parade, shall we?

When I commented to Beth about Ms. Melanie Levesque following Paige Beauchemin at a safe (meaning 6+’ for covidiots) distance, she pointed out Beauchemin was also being trailed by Colin Van Ostern (CVO), who happens to be the one selected by Annie Kusturd.

I’ll remind the readers that Annie likes yammering about “strong women,” yet she endorsed CVO, but let’s get back to geography.

Related: DC Insider Maggie Goodlander’s Benghazi Baggage

CVO has no ties to Nashua, which certainly doesn’t prevent his participation in a Nashua parade, and he certainly was not a “fair WEATHER friend” regarding his unconditional participation. Beth commented that he looked miserable and like he didn’t want to be there.  To that, I asked if the OTHER Maggie was there.

Maggie TAMPOSI Goodlander, who likes to use that locally known household name, Tamposi, was not seen in the parade, but that doesn’t necessarily mean she wasn’t there.  Doing my due diligence, I sent Beth a message asking if Goodlander was there and awaited her answer because I was not. Nor did I comb her internet calendars and activities to see what was on her calendar for Saturday afternoon, but let the readers be reminded that she’s a carpetbagger and a fake renter.

The fake residence she is calling home (to the Secretary of State’s office) is 44 High St, which is just a leap, hop, and a skip to the famous Jersey barriers lining the parade on Main St. Has anyone recently seen her entering or leaving the building known as 44 High St?  I think the residents living in one or more of the 155 other units there ought to be asked.

The post Is Carpetbagger Maggie Goodlander Even Living in Nashua? appeared first on Granite Grok.

Everyone should know that JUNETEENTH was NOT the end of slavery in the United States. On June 19, 1865, a Union General ordered the enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation in Texas. The Emancipation Proclamation ONLY applied to States that had seceded.

Slavery persisted in slave-States that had not seceded from the Union until the 13th Amendment was ratified, which was not until December 6, 1865.

Yet here we have the NH Democrats tweeting that Juneteenth was “the end of slavery.”

If you wanted to commemorate the actual end of slavery, then the Holiday would be on December 6th.

To be clear, I don’t have a problem with a holiday commemorating the end of slavery. Indeed, I think such a holiday is quite appropriate. I don’t have a problem with such a holiday being celebrated on June 19th, as long as it is clear what did and did not happen on that date.

What I do have a problem with is how casually the Left rewrites history. It is, in a word, Orwellian.

 

The post New Hampshire Democrats Are Dummies … Or Is It Something More Sinister? appeared first on Granite Grok.

We have once more landed upon the day of hump. Friday, eve, eve day. The middle of the traditional work week. And in celebration of this accomplishment, we bring you crass nonsense, biting sarcasm, and (some) perhaps not entirely appropriate digs on our political opponents.

As a reminder, these are memes. If you feel the need to fact-check one, you should stop looking at memes and return to your Biden Family Climate Cult Hymnal.

These are memes! Memes! And duplicates from past installments are a possibility, but we’ve got an infinite number of theoretical monkeys working to avoid that.

Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The post Midweek Memes – One Small Step for Memes, One Giant Leap for Memekind (I didn’t say in which direction) appeared first on Granite Grok.

What is a Limousine Liberal? “…They are the same people that demand public education for all of you without choice but then send their sniveling little brats to private education with high tuitions. They are…”

Yes, Cinde Warmington, a Democrat running to be the next New Hampshire Governor, knows that sentence very well, don’t you?

Warmington, Craig, and the unions, are all staunch opponents of New Hampshire’s Education Freedom Accounts, the school choice program that allows families to opt out of the public school system.

“We don’t take taxpayer dollars to subsidize private schools,” Warmington told WMUR last year.

Both of Warmington’s children attended the elite Tilton School for secondary education, an independent boarding and preparatory school in New Hampshire. Tilton charges $38,500 for day school and nearly $67,000 for boarding school.

She’s our modern-day Marie Antoinette: “Let them eat cake.” There are people “who want to force you to practice views they refuse to practice.” That’s Grgg Gutfeld, and he has more to say on the matter. This is for you, Cinde.

So this was sort of good. Not bad.@greggutfeld on the definition of

“limousine liberal.”

We hoi polloi understand this. #TheFive pic.twitter.com/hQSK2OXWIE

— Heather Champion (@winningatmylife) March 29, 2024

 

 

The post Cinde Warmington is the Definition of a Limousine Liberal! appeared first on Granite Grok.

Veteran Matt Sabourin dit Choinière filed to run for Rockingham’s District 30 for the NH statehouse and seeks to bring strong conservative leadership and reliable representation to Seabrook.

“The biggest priority right now is stopping offshore wind development in the Gulf of Maine. If these leases are allowed to proceed, our Atlantic food securities will be threatened along with our 400+ year skill set of commercial fishing on the Seacoast. We’re replacing a reliable food source with an unreliable energy source. The Gulf of Maine should be kept wild.”

Matt escaped the lockdowns of New York State and has since immersed himself in the NH Liberty and Patriot communities, advocating for state sovereignty against federal overreach; contributing to the “Defend the Guard” campaign and advising the NH House Nullification Caucus. He has spoken at the New Hampshire Liberty Forum and Freedom fest, and makes time to attend rallies in support of DCYF sex abuse victims.” As an Air Force Officer, Matt oversaw critical maintenance operations for the MQ-9 aircraft weapons system while stationed at Holloman AFB, New Mexico, and deployed to the middle-east in support of Operation Inherent Resolve. Matt has a B.S. in Environmental Engineering from Clarkson University in Potsdam, NY and is also a PADI Master SCUBA diver.

“It’s time to serve again, and with a tight split in the NH house – NH needs committed, dutiful leaders more than ever. Many Americans feel like we’re losing our country. I can’t stand by and watch and wait for someone else to figure it out.”

For more information on Matt’s Campaign, please visit https://matt4nh.com/

 

Reminder: Content about candidates or by candidates is not an endorsement by GraniteGrok.com or its authors.

The post Matt Sabourin 4 New Hampshire appeared first on Granite Grok.

Many Granite Staters have seen the recent report in the New Hampshire Journal regarding the investigation done by the Department of Education of the New Hampshire school teacher who took a student to have an abortion.

The teacher indicated that he or she called in sick to take the student because she did not have anyone “to support them.”  Parents who I have talked with are shocked, and they should be shocked. But should we be shocked, really? After all, despite repeated attempts to pass legislation to support parents, legislation has been blocked by Democrats and many in the education establishment.

In the past two years, legislation on parent’s rights has twice been defeated. This year my constitutional amendment that said “parents have a fundamental right and responsibility to direct the upbringing, education, and care of their minor children” did not get sufficient votes in the New Hampshire House to send it to the voters. We have one glimmer of hope, however.

We want to thank Rep. Glenn Cordelli for this Op-Ed. If you have an Op-Ed or LTE
you would like us to consider, please submit it to steve@GraniteGrok.com.

HB1312 has passed the House and Senate and is headed to the Governor, hopefully, for his signature. I worked on this bill with Representative Kristine Perez of Londonderry who ushered its passage through the legislature.

HB1312 will be just the first step in making sure that there will be no more incidents of teachers aiding children to get abortions. One part of the bill states:

“A school district may not adopt policies, procedures or student support forms that prohibit school district personnel from answering questions from a parent about his or her student’s mental, emotional, or physical health or well-being, sexuality, or a change in related services or monitoring, or that encourage or have the effect of encouraging a student to withhold from a parent such information.”

In other words, if a parent asks, tell them the truth about what is going on with their child in school – no secrets from parents. But requiring parents to be told the truth is just the first step.

Rep. Perez and I have already discussed follow-up legislation (if re-elected) for next year that will provide criminal penalties for any teacher repeating this shameful act of taking a student for an abortion. But we need to go beyond just teachers. We will state that no adult can “traffic” an unemancipated minor child to get an abortion while concealing it from their parents.

This really is not an abortion issue. It is about trafficking children and usurping parent’s rights. This will be a priority for Rep. Perez and myself next year.

The post Teacher’s Taking Students to Get an Abortion Day and Other Parental Rights Issues appeared first on Granite Grok.

Sports is a very fickle part of our lives. I used to be a sports fanatic but certainly less so as I aged and realized how much valuable time sports can consume. I am not a fair-weather fan, only paying attention when the local teams win.

I tend to look for a deeper story in sports that has meaning far deeper than what we see in the highlights. One such situation draws daily attention, while another does not seem to get the attention it deserves.

Caitlin Clark has been a scoring phenom since she first threw a basketball through a hoop. As a collegiate player at Iowa, she scored more points than any other college male or female in history, and she drew record crowds to watch her that many games she played in needed to be moved to larger venues. There had been other big stories in women’s basketball, but none rose to the level of Clark’s. She became the first-round draft pick of the WNBA Indiana Fever. Caitlin has been the target of many physical attacks on the court by jealous opponents who fail to see what Clark is doing to elevate the league and players. Three elements of Clark may be the reason for these players lashing out. Clark is White, Straight, and Christian. It is truly a shame that people see these individual characteristics rather than Caitlin Clark, the person.

The other individual I find fascinating is Joe Mazzulla, the second-year coach of the 2024 NBA Champion Boston Celtics. Mazzulla was thrown into the fire last year when then-coach Ime Udoka was fired for a contract violation. Few people knew much about Mazzulla, and many called for him to be replaced when the Celtics did not bring home a championship. Fortunately, his boss, Brad Stevens, was not one of those people.

Stevens stuck with his coach and pulled off some incredible roster moves to put together the best team in the league from start to finish in 2024. As the season went on, and it was apparent we were witnessing something special, we began to look closer into this coach who seemed to relish his lack of notoriety. As the layers were peeled away, an extraordinary individual was unveiled, displaying a much deeper individual than a championship coach.

I started accumulating videos of Mazzulla in different situations, waiting for one to show a crack in this gem, and have yet to find one. People were asking him questions that might have caused someone to pause before responding, yet the coach had the perfect response each time. One reporter asked if Coach was impacted by members of the Royal Family sitting courtside for one of Boston’s games. His response was, “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph,” which drew a chuckle. Still, he said he only recognized one royal family and was unfamiliar with any other from Great Britain.

In another instance, Coach was asked how he was handling the pressure of The Finals. He replied he met three young women under the age of 21 who had terminal cancer. He thought he was helping them with his visit, but he was impacted by these three women smiling and enjoying the moment as they were dying in bed. They taught the Coach the meaning of life.

Mazzulla does not look at himself as a basketball coach but as a man who goes to work to help others reach their potential. Some say that Brad Stevens is the MVP of the 2024 Celtics for putting a great team together, but it was Joe Mazzulla who took those players and their egos and made them a team with a goal. One of the mottos of the Celtics is, “It is different here.” That difference starts with a man who is a Christian and a husband before a championship coach. We are fortunate that Stevens saw enough in Joe Mazzulla to give this 35-year-old the reigns to the greatest NBA franchise. Mazzulla took those reins and gave Boston its 18th NBA Championship and the promise it would not be the last in the Joe Mazzulla era.

The post Coach Mazzulla, The Man appeared first on Granite Grok.

When you think about LEGO, you might remember it from your youth (or infantilized adulthood). And depending on when you discovered ELGO that could be limited to a handful of different colored bricks, massive Death Star-sized builds, or even that BIONICLE thing they did for a while. How about Drag Queens and Furries?

LEGO (apparently) went woke a while ago but I guess they’ve got more pride now. I’m just leaving this here for your consideration.

LEGO just released a LGBTQ+ Pride video with furries and drag queens marching: pic.twitter.com/ce1MBdxOpk

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) June 20, 2024

One enterprising Xer asked if LEGO would be promoting furries and drag queens worldwide or just in some select locations.

The post LEGO or Did They Mean LEGBTO? appeared first on Granite Grok.

Science is a problem for the Left when it is allowed to be science. Question the norms, challenge assumptions, and test every hypothesis. That should be the consensus, not the Scientism that undermines science to curry political favor.

The latter has complete control of the Left and its media allies, and it is embarrassing how ridiculous it has gotten. The climate business was bad enough, but COVID and the whole gender spectrum thing. It has polluted the culture, and people are afraid to challenge the cultural norms they are advancing.

Sen. John Kennedy is not afraid.

“The differences between biological males and biological females explode during puberty,” he began. “Girls, during puberty, develop 14% smaller hearts. Their lungs are 12% smaller… You cannot debate that. It’s just a biological fact. That helps boys take in oxygen and pump blood more efficiently than girls can. That gives boys a clear edge in endurance sports like swimming, for example, cycling, rowing…”

Girls’ lungs are 12% smaller than boys’ lungs. Their hearts are 14% smaller.

That gives boys a clear edge in endurance sports. pic.twitter.com/cGieBNHDpE

— John Kennedy (@SenJohnKennedy) June 19, 2024

We are not afraid, nor are most of you, so we are in pretty good company. But we need more allies willing not just to speak out but to stand up to this dangerous trend. And if you need some words or inspiration, you’d be hard-pressed to do a better job than this. Moms for Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice is speaking at the Faith and Freedom Summit. Red Meat, my friends.

Moms for Liberty cofounder Tiffany Justice speaks at the Road to Majority @FaithandFreedom summit in Washington DC on June 22, 2024.

“We don’t have time to be angry, now is the time to mobilize!” pic.twitter.com/hIWeI3Pc4R

— Moms for Liberty (@Moms4Liberty) June 23, 2024

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Here’s a question: How much would you pay to know what it’s like to have Nikki Haley in your living room?

Sorry…clarification: How much would you pay to hear what it’s like to have Nikki Haley in your living room so you can be bestowed with second-hand knowledge?

Whatever dollar figure (assuming you would actually pay in dollars) popped into your mind, you may not have realized that someone who is running for office here in New Hampshire has already given an answer to that question and quantified it publicly. The dollar amount ranges from $25,000 to $40,000…and thanks to a video released by the Washington Speakers Bureau last November, we know the person of interest who gave that appraisal is a GOP candidate for the Second Congressional District, Vikram Mansharamani.

Much has been made over the past several years about how government has become dominated by a class of ladder-climbers, bureaucrats, and experts, whose hallmark (besides their glibness) seems to be their desire to push an agenda that always consolidates more power for themselves at the expense of the governed. It’s not your imagination; Washington, D.C., really is a city isolated from the rest of the country. Moreover, it’s a place and a culture dominated by people who can easily wield their credentials and leverage their networks to insulate themselves from the perspectives of the rest of the citizenry. I ought to know. I once lived there.

We want to thank Andy Schaalman for this Contribution – Please direct yours to Steve@GraniteGrok.com.
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Soon after I arrived in the Beltway as a student at American University, it became obvious that there was a template of the kind of person the school wanted its students to emulate. That template included acclaimed authors like Francis Fukuyama, pundits like Fareed Zakaria, “foreign policy experts” like Ian Bremmer, and financial wizards like Nassim Nicholas Taleb. Wonky intellectualism and “global thinking” were prized over common sense everywhere and nearly always. When I hear Vikram Mansharamani talk about the interplay between “the U.S. economy, geopolitics, and the world economy,” it’s like hearing an old song for the first time in over ten years. You may not remember every single lyric, but the familiar chorus comes back to you fast.

Vikram seems like a nice guy, and he probably is. But he gives every indication of being the sort of candidate who wants to go to D.C. to move amongst the crowd of people he considers his intellectual and power-brokering peers. People in that mold make fine talking heads, lobbyists, law professors, diplomats, financial analysts, you name it. They don’t tend to make representatives who see their first duty as being to their constituents.

Which brings me back to the $25,000 to $40,000. To believe that the speaking fee justifies itself, you’d probably have to believe that every person who has insider access to everyone who makes a serious run for public office has obtained the secret to power for themselves. More importantly, to sell the secret to power – or as Vikram has referred to it, “how the sausage is made” – for a price tag, you’d probably have to believe that power is both an unalloyed positive and something that no one had figured out the secret to before. You might even be the sort of person who sees the ultimate things to chase in life as power and success.
I don’t know about you, but I suspect we have enough of those people in D.C. already.

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Everything Steve wrote a while ago about a revolution by conservatives is pretty much true. If the Left is in power, when someone shoots back against Antifa or BLM, they (the Left) would love to declare a national emergency and deploy federalized troops to crush resistance.

But if we can elect Donald Trump, there is a better than even chance that by declaring a national emergency, we would or could use the limited military against those internal terrorist groups, their supporters, and financiers. Also, we need to consider radical Islamists, and all those military-age illegal aliens would likely be a factor.

In the article comments, one writer rightly pointed out that in the first instance, with a democrat-controlled military, the resistance would use guerilla tactics, never engaging the police or military, only assassinations of leftist politicians, media, activists, and infrastructure. How long did the Irish Republican Army fight British rule? Ask yourself.

In the second instance, my hope, roles would be reversed, but we conservatives would have a far better chance of survival as many of us are legally armed and could immediately respond to terrorist threats on site.

Ideally, with a Trump administration, major incidents of violence could be avoided and criminal terrorist gangs arrested early on along with those funding them. But who knows?

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For those of us of “age,” we have watched as the Wall built of the “bricks of Societal Norms” has had every brick removed from it. At first, not much changed – Society still seemed to be the same as it was, and the decay was invisible.

Over time, however, I’ve watched how the nation’s secular religion made headway to the point where it is now like Islam – once it grew to a given point, it started to “throw its weight around.”

Filling a void.

As Statista’s Anna Fleck reports, new data from Gallup shows that church attendance has dropped across all polled Christian groups. As the following chart shows, the biggest drop in attendance in the past 20 years has been amongst Catholics, which has fallen from 45 percent of U.S. adults self-identifying as Catholic saying that they go to religious services weekly or at least every week in 2000-2003, down to 33 percent saying the same in 2021-2023. This is a decrease of 12 percentage points. Catholics’ attendance is lower than their Protestant counterparts, which saw a drop of 4 percentage points in that time frame from 48 percent of worshippers to 44 percent.

 

Lately, it is VERY clear that despite preaching “inclusiveness,” it is antagonistic towards traditional religious beliefs, and anyone protesting against them becomes targeted.

We can now have all but naked and sexualized parades, Governmental blessing of the destruction and theft of private property, the sanctity of marriage is a shambles, the traditional nuclear family is seen as outmoded (and in fact, dissed for being “hetero-privileged”), and the idea of absolute right and wrong has been turned upside down and inside out (right, Van Jones?) to the point it is all but pointless. Gratitude, gratefulness, mercy – all attributes associated with Christianity are being left behind.

There are a lot of churches that have declining seats in the pews and no more so than the formerly “mainline” Protestant denominations. Why?

IMHO, they have decided BIGELY to join that secularization of religion. They have abandoned the Biblical teachings and purpose for the trappings of the current culture and assuaging themselves that they are staying culturally relevant – and refuse to admit that the idea that their main purpose was to save souls and then educate them. Instead, contra to the Bible’s teachings, they hang transgender flags over their doorways and accept any behavior willingly as “being accepting”.

Sure, you have to meet people where they are, but these churches, IMHO, have not only not led them to a path of righteousness but have jumped into bed with them.

And the conservative parishioners no longer attend labeling such behaviors by church leaders as heretical – Truth isn’t variable, it doesn’t change with “the times” – it is what is supposed to be preached and evangelized.

So if there is no spiritual beacons calling the lost in, what happens? Society becomes poorer as the “shared” morality gets splintered and relativistic.

And, unless another Revival begins, not only will churches continue towards their Doom Loop, but so will Society. G. K. Chesterton:

When a man stops believing in God he doesn’t then believe in nothing, he believes anything.

And he becomes his own god. And when that happens, ANYTHING is believable, including that one is god in and of themselves. Morality becomes singular in nature: “my lived experience” and “MY truth” is the relativism that will destroy Society. When one is their own god, Self is the uttermost attribute and of the uttermost importance.

And when billions adopt that outlook, what happens?

Colossians 2:1-5

And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;

15I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. 16So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. 17Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: 18I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. 19As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. 20Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. 21To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. 22He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

 

(H/T: Zero Hedge)

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The people in charge of the summer Olympics (in Paris) are getting a charge out of an Olympic village with NO Air conditioners. They installed a series of cooling pipes under the floors, but the US Olympic Team, Germany, Australia, Italy, Canada, and Britain have their own ideas.

The Germans are probably just excited to be someplace with enough electricity to run an air conditioner, but according to the AP, AC is not very common in France or the EU.

According to the International Energy Agency, fewer than 1 in 10 households in Europe has air conditioning, and the numbers in Paris are lower than that. The study said that of the 1.6 billion AC units in use across the globe in 2016, more than half were in China (570 million) and the United States (375 million). The entire European Union had around 100 million.

China is the place to go for AC and Dirty coal. Good to know.

U.S. Olympic and Paralympic CEO Sarah Hirshland said Friday that while the U.S. team appreciates efforts aimed at sustainability, the federation would be supplying AC units for what is typically the largest contingent of athletes at the Summer Games.

“As you can imagine, this is a period of time in which consistency and predictability is critical for Team USA’s performance,” Hirshland said. “In our conversations with athletes, this was a very high priority and something that the athletes felt was a critical component in their performance capability.”

I wonder if anyone else will join the parade of Western nations telling the French to piss off with their paltry efforts at comfort?

And how amusing would it be if half or more of the competing nations decided to bring AC with them? Talk about increasing the carbon footprint, which brings up another point. Aren’t the Olympics, even without the BYO AC, just a massive waste of emissions we could probably do without?

I’ll let you decide, but if this helps, breaking (breakdancing) is now an official Olympic sport.

The post Paris CA (Climate Accord) Out the Window as Teams Bring AC (Air Conditioners) To Paris Olympics appeared first on Granite Grok.

The UN’s New York City Summit of Future, which will take place on Sept. 21st and 22nd, is meeting “to strengthen global governance for both present and future generations.” The ultimate goal of world government does not include our freedom or independence but rather the unlimited wealth and power of the UN, which promotes Chinese-style controls upon the state.

The purpose of this is to establish multi-lateral protocols that can be quickly activated throughout the globe to respond to “global shocks.” They want global decrees to automatically respond to a wide range of crises at the expense of national sovereignty. (Check out this planned Emergency Platform at: https://gojt.us/zn6i) Even though Biden will robotically wave it by with a kiss, remember, it must pass the Senate. These plans, if accepted, could make this July 4th the last day we celebrate independence.

We want to thank Russ Payne for this Contribution – Please direct yours to Steve@GraniteGrok.com.
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Did you vote for such disloyalty to the U.S. Constitution that takes your tax dollars and spends them to act as a boomerang that targets your liberty? What can one person do? First, implore your Congressmen and Senators to support the Defund Act (H.R. 6645 & S. 3428). Then take advantage of this campaign season: ask incumbent congressmen and candidates to sign the UN Withdrawal pledge form. Get your copies at (https:got.us/iunwp).

President Ronald Reagan’s words point out our noble obligation: “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was like in the United States where men were free.”

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With Independence Day almost here, proud Americans are gearing up to celebrate the birthday of the greatest nation in the world. There’ll be fireworks displays, parades, and family gatherings.

Many will take a moment to reflect on how it all started. Perhaps they’ll pause to think about our founding documents, the American Revolution, and the sacrifices made by those patriotic colonists who fought and died for our independence.

Independence Day is probably the most patriotic day of the year. But this is 2024, and not all Americans are proud.

Anti-American sentiment today runs the gamut from ambivalence to utter disdain. Many will join in the festivities without even knowing what they’re celebrating. Others, sadly enough, will sneer at the celebrations. Some believe that America is racist and xenophobic. Some condemn its capitalist system. Others see themselves as conditional patriots. They say they’re patriotic, but believe our country needs to be fundamentally transformed.

They use patriotism as nothing more than a tool to manipulate the masses, to push an agenda. They’ve used it to justify tax increases, telling us, “It’s time to be patriotic … time to jump in, time to be part of the deal, time to help get America out of the rut.” During the Covid-19 pandemic, they told us that getting vaccinated was “the most patriotic thing you can do.”

But patriotism has nothing to do with taxes or vaccinations. It’s something that seems to elude too many American citizens today. It’s simply a love of country. It means putting America first. It’s supposed to serve as a common bond uniting all citizens. And it’s one reason we’re so deeply divided.

People often forget that even during the American Revolution, not all the colonists supported the patriots and their efforts to break free from an increasingly oppressive government. Many, often for selfish reasons, remained loyal to the British Crown, and even took up arms against the patriots.

It’s a simple fact that America would not exist today, were it not for those visionaries who fought so hard and sacrificed so much to create our constitutional republic. After more than 200 years, the vast majority of Americans still treasure the rights guaranteed by our Constitution, and recognize that document as the supreme law of the land.

But in recent years, some politicians have come to believe that our Constitution is outdated, that the country has outgrown the values and ideals it represents. Consumed with the power entrusted to them, those politicians have forgotten that they all took a solemn oath to protect and defend the Constitution. They’ve forgotten its first three words: “We the people.” So they issue unilateral decrees and edicts that do nothing for the American people, but only benefit themselves and their allies. Untethered to the documents that created America and guided our country throughout its history, they create only havoc.

Havoc at our border, havoc in our streets, havoc in our schools, havoc on the world stage.

They also create 21st Century versions of patriots and loyalists.

Patriots have defended our Constitution throughout our history. They love our country and bear allegiance to the founding principles enshrined in that document. They only want greatness for America. Yet critics call them – those proud constitutionalists – a “threat to democracy.”

On the other side are the loyalists, deep state bureaucrats and misguided citizens willing to close their eyes to all the havoc and pledge their allegiance to a government that brazenly defies all constitutional restraints, a government that’s become increasingly oppressive and corrupt. With blind loyalty, they stand by that government and embrace whatever radical new agenda it introduces. Even if it includes things that would have horrified them just a few short years ago. Even if it leads to the disintegration of our republic. That is the folly of mindless loyalty to unprincipled politicians.

Two and a half centuries ago, Ben Franklin and the Founding Fathers created a new government. Asked to define it, Franklin said it’s “a republic,” but added these cautionary words: “If you can keep it.”

We should consider his warning this July 4th as we celebrate the birth of our nation. We should remember that there are internal and external forces that hate America. They give rise to a pervasive, ominous feeling that our constitutional republic is in serious jeopardy.

In this election, the platforms of the Republican and Democrat parties have been overshadowed. The real struggle will be between patriots – constitutionalists with an abiding love of country – and loyalists, faithful to the politicians who want to destroy it.

 

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Air travel has declined since COVID, and I can’t help but think this is just another progressive Rube-Goldbergian plan to get people to stop traveling. You make it too expensive or too much trouble or too expensive or inaccessible, or even dangerous.

They tried to jab all the pilots, Boeing went #woke, and planes broke. The Airlines have beenfalling in line on diversity quotas, so the Air Line Pilots Association International has decided that certain words are no longer appropriate for their members (while, ironically, the word ‘member’ is not prohibited).

“While the word ‘cockpit’ dates back to the 1900s, it has been and may be used in a derogatory way to exclude women in the piloting profession,” the guide explained, according to Breitbart. “Many women have heard a variation of ‘It is called a cockpit for a reason’ by a male pilot, suggesting that women do not belong in the piloting profession. The intent behind the use of the word is important. … While the word ‘cockpit’ dates back to the 1900s, it has been and may be used in a derogatory way to exclude women in the piloting profession. … Many women have heard a variation of ‘It is called a cockpit for a reason’ by a male pilot, suggesting that women do not belong in the piloting profession. The intent behind the use of the word is important.”

The word Cock, or (Old English) Cocc has a long history of referring to things male (and not in its current derogatory context), so I suppose there is room for consideration, especially if tradition or history is of no consequence but what the hell is this.

The APLA also dislikes using the terms “mother” and “father” because those “may inadvertently ignore different family structures,” such as “caregivers, same-sex parents, stepparents, families with adopted members, and more,” Breitbart noted.

I’ve known my fair share of biological men who were “mothers,” so I’m not inclined to agree. It is certainly not necessary for a pilots association to weigh in on the matter generally or amongst its “members.” People should feel free to call whatever it is whatever they like, and if they ask nicely, friends and family might be inclined to comply with the way people adopt someone’s preferred nickname out of courtesy.

And while corporations or incorporations bending to the cultural winds seems like a sensible thing to do, recent history has shown us that this trend is wholly incompatible with free speech and expression to the point of Obnoxious Orwellian principle. Those who do not speak outside the approved argot are the prevue or petty despots and aspiring tyrants. And pilots ought to be thinking about flying planes and the safety of passengers, not whether they are permitted to use the word cockpit to describe their office space.

After all, given that the criteria for hiring the people who build and maintain their aircraft are more focused on demographics than aptitude paying attention is more important than ever. We wouldn’t want Boeing or the ground crew accused of discrimination because its diverse hires caused a plane to crash that killed the diversity pilot who was trying to fly it from the thing up front where they operate the aircraft.

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Louisiana has a new law that requires the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every public classroom. In a recent post, the question is asked (and answered).

Hasn’t the US Supreme Court already ruled that this kind of thing is blatantly unconstitutional?

Of course, it has.

This might be more than a tad ironic because that very post bemoans that Supreme Court justices have strayed from the original understanding of various constitutional provisions. (It is unclear (to me) if the author believes the Constitution, properly interpreted, prohibits the Louisiana law.)

The Bill of Rights, which contains the First Amendment and the Establishment Clause, was originally understood to apply ONLY to the Federal government. It was originally understood to allow States to promote religion and, indeed, to favor one religion over other religions. The Establishment Clause was not applied by the Supreme Court to States until 1947, via a judicially invented doctrine called “incorporation.”

 

 

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