THE MEDICAL COMMUNITY once supported treating patients suffering from mental illness by hammering a sharp instrument through the eye socket into the brain’s prefrontal cortex. The inventor of this crude surgery even received a Nobel Prize.

Despite severe complications of brain hemorrhage, disability and death — and lack of long-term evidence that the procedure was beneficial — the press touted the surgery as groundbreaking, fueling false hope for families of suffering loved ones.

Tens of thousands of lobotomies were performed in the U.S. before a critical analysis of complications and measured “success” led to its disrepute.

Similarly, as evidence mounts discrediting “gender-affirming” medical treatments for children with gender distress, it is perplexing that the medical community has not established guardrails to protect minors from irreversible surgeries that they may come to regret later in life.

We want to thank Dr. Aida Cerundolo for this Contribution – Please direct yours to Steve@GraniteGrok.com.
You can review our ‘Op-Ed Guidelines‘ on the FAQ Page.

Enter HB 619.

HB 619 prohibits gender reassignment surgeries — such as the creation of an artificial penis or vagina — in patients under the age of 18 who do not otherwise have a disorder of sexual development.

It is natural for clinicians to want to alleviate a child’s gender distress since providing relief and comfort are instincts that feed compassionate medical care. However, evidence-based medicine is the most compassionate care there is. Evidence exposes whether or not treatments are beneficial, and current evidence does not support medicalization of gender-distressed children. In fact, research shows that patients may do worse after gender-affirming procedures, as some studies reveal that overall risk of suicidality increases significantly after these interventions.

In April, British pediatrician Hilary Cass released the largest systematic review of gender medicine research to date commissioned by the United Kingdom’s National Health Service. (Systematic reviews are the gold-standard analysis of evidence that guide best clinical practices.) The Cass Review found no way to know which children will maintain a lasting transgender identity and no reliable evidence that medical treatments help most children with gender distress.

Despite claims that hormones are “lifesaving,” evidence did not demonstrate that hormones reduce the risk of suicide in these children. The Cass Review’s conclusions match findings reached by experts in multiple other countries who have recommended pumping the brakes on “gender-affirming” treatments for children.

A minor in New Hampshire is considered to lack the mental capacity to enter into legal contracts because children are not cognitively mature and may not understand the terms. Likewise, HB 619 protects children from undergoing permanent surgeries on healthy body parts when they likely cannot comprehend the long-term consequences. We know that the frontal cortex, the part of the brain that determines personality and executive function, is underdeveloped until the mid-20s, limiting a child’s ability to make informed decisions. Children are not static but rather have an evolving personality and understanding of themselves, necessitating time and space to grow.

Good medicine isn’t political, yet politics has muddied the waters surrounding gender-distressed children. Opponents of HB 619 argue the legislation antagonizes the transgender community, but the reverse is true. Minors exploring their sexuality and gender are, first and foremost, children with the same cognitive limitations as all children, and they deserve the same protections.

Others point to prominent U.S. medical organizations that support youth medical transition as justification for this approach, but the U.S. has become an outlier among other countries that have shifted practice away from medicalization of gender-dysphoric youth after analyzing the evidence.

HB 619 has bipartisan support because the human instinct to protect children crosses party lines. Labeling children based on their temperament or sexual orientation doesn’t erase their vulnerabilities — all children need the same protections, and medicine must prioritize this responsibility.

Governor Chris Sununu can underscore the importance of protecting New Hampshire’s most vulnerable and precious resource — children — by signing HB 619.

Aida Cerundolo, M.D., is a physician living in Lebanon.

The post Dr. Aida Cerundolo: Governor Can Protect Children by Signing HB 619 appeared first on Granite Grok.

George Washington once warned about the dangers of a two-party system. As I pondered whether to run, my choice seemed clear. Both sides seemed to have trampled on the Constitution, forgetting about the true meaning of Government: to PROTECT the people, not rule them or punish them for their political views or religious beliefs.

That said, I believe that the Republicans believe their past is their future. My proof, you say? Well, Kelly Ayotte and Chuck Morse, this is my proof.

Two years ago, I helped found the Constitution Party of NH. Since then, we have welcomed all Constitutional-minded individuals who are politically homeless due to broken promises from RNC to represent the people, this isn’t a side piece of course. The DNC causes most of the issues with progressives taking over, that is why I decided to run for Governor under the Constitution Party of NH. If you’re fed up regardless of your Party and believe in the Constitution, as the saying goes, our light is on it patriots. Edmond Laplante Chair of Constitution Party Candidate for Governor Laplante4constitutionalnh.com Reminder: Content about candidates or by candidates is not an endorsement by GraniteGrok.com or its authors.

The post Candidate Announcement: Edmond Laplante – Running for Governor of NH appeared first on Granite Grok.

At long last, the SCOTUS has published their decision in U.S. v. Rahimi. The case arose from a conviction of a Texas man named Zackey Rahimi, who was found guilty of violating a federal law. Specifically, Rahimi violated 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(8), which prohibits the possession of firearms by anyone who is the subject of a domestic violence restraining order. Interestingly, the restraining orders are issued by state courts, while the law in question is federal.

The post Alu’s Breakdown of the U.S. v. Rahimi Supreme Court Decision appeared first on The Liberty Block.

One of the few huge mistakes that Trump made was back in 2017 after the Las Vegas shooting at a music festival where 58 people died. He, with the ensuing caterwauling by the anti-Second Amendment folks, commanded the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (“ATF”) to find that bump stocks, by their mere existence, can turn anything into a machine gun.

And the ATF complied.

Bump stocks are the up-leveled use of a redneck arrangement using a rubber band (at its simplest) to allow a shooter to press a trigger faster than most people can do with a semi-automatic rifle. But they still only fired one round per trigger press. One. Only one.

No, it DIDN’T turn it into a fully automatic rifle where one trigger pull can fire multiple rounds at a time (yes, emptying the gazillion-round magazine that the Democrats believe we all have. And so, the lawsuits ensured (Steve covered the 5th Circuit’s slapping the ATF around back in 2018) and finally reached the SCOTUS level – which promptly continued the well-deserved slapping:

The news is in that the Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision, struck down the federal ban on bump stocks approved by President Donald Trump following the tragic Las Vegas shooting in 2017 that resulted in the deaths of 58 people. It was the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.

Here’s what Fox News is reporting:

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that a bump stock does not transform a firearm into an automatic weapon, striking down a federal rule that banned bump stocks.

 In a 6-3 decision, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote, “Congress has long restricted access to “‘machinegun[s],’” a category of firearms defined by the ability to “shoot, automatically more than one shot . . . by a single function of the trigger.”

Get that last part – exactly what I said – multiple rounds with a single press of the trigger.  Or, in this case, the use of the word “function”.

It is needful that words be used precisely and in an exacting manner. They don’t care about anyone’s feelings, which is what the Left went into paroxysms over. To the Left, only intent matters and definitions exist only to be bent out of whack to suit their agenda, which, as we all know, is to eliminate every single civilian-owned gun so as to leave the Government with the Force to go all totalitarian.

Congress made the law defining what a machine gun is, and what SCOTUS did was to defer its reasoning to what Congress wrote – and ONLY what Congress wrote. What the Left and the ATF tried to do (again, with Trump trying to make political points) is “gunwash” that definition to be whatever they wanted. But that wouldn’t be precise, and it wouldn’t follow the law. Congress could have written the law stating, “a machinegun is whatever can fire 100s of rounds per minute without specifying the function/mechanism. But they didn’t. Instead, they described it by using the functional operation rather than the result.

But we, the People of the Gun, have known that for decades – Clarence Thomas made it quite plain and clear:

“Semi-automatic firearms, which require shooters to reengage the trigger for every shot, are not machine guns,” Justice Thomas wrote. “This case asks whether a bump stock—an accessory for a semi-automatic rifle that allows the shooter to rapidly reengage the trigger (and therefore achieve a high rate of fire)—converts the rifle into a ‘machine gun.’ We hold that it does not.

“A bump stock does not convert a semi-automatic rifle into a machine gun any more than a shooter with a lightning-fast trigger finger does.”

We hold that a semi-automatic rifle equipped with a bump stock is not a ‘machine gun’ because it cannot fire more than one shot ‘by a single function of the trigger.’ And, even if it could, it would not do so ‘automatically. ATF therefore exceeded its statutory authority by issuing a Rule that classifies bump stocks as machineguns.

“Exceeded its statutory authority” – 26 U. S. C. §5845(b). Funny how that is going to be seen over and over during this series. And yet, the ATF will put a microscope on those they go after, even for extremely small legal or regulatory violations by FFL or gun owners – all the while, they ignore their own law that regulates them.  Hypocrisy is thy name (even if ordered by their boss).

And once again, an Executive Branch agency gets spanked properly for not following the Law themselves and committing a rather gross level of overreach of their delegated Power (and, by proxy, Trump, their boss). It was no different than School Boards trying to force people into their demanded speech when it comes to Transgender Pronouns and forcing their staff to lie to parents (yes, my favorite bugaboo still).

If the anti-gunners want to make bump stocks illegal, they can certainly do so. All that is required is that legislation doing so be written, submitted to the House and Senate, voted upon and passed, signed by the President, and not found to be unconstitutional from the resulting lawsuits. Thus far, such legislation hasn’t been submitted, voted upon, and signed.

When it came down to it, this case wasn’t about guns, the Second Amendment, feelings, or even the deadly destruction by an evil man. This whole case concerned itself with the actual black letter law that Congress wrote versus what a mere agency declared it to be from their point of view. SCOTUS ruled, “You can’t do that.”

As it should be. Yet another ding in the Chevron Doctrine that states that the judiciary needs to defer to agencies that decide to “interpret” laws anyway they want to.

I’m glad to see that the Law decides that.

The post Night Cap: SCOTUS Rips Bump Stocks Out of the ATF’s Hands appeared first on Granite Grok.

Maybe, just maybe, people want to leave politics behind when they visit an iconic National Park like Yosemite. Maybe, just maybe, they do not want wonders like El Capitan used as political props. Not Woke Communists like Alissandra Murray, though. For the Woke Communists, politics is everything.

And so … not surprising in the least … here is Alissandra Murray amplifying the desecration of El Capitan.

The post Nothing To See Here … Just Alissandra Murray Amplifying The Desecrating Of America’s National Parks appeared first on Granite Grok.

You are URGED to contact the Executive Councilors and urge them to vote AGAINST #52–funding for MTSS-B.

Cinde.Warmington@nh.gov, Ted.Gatsas@nh.gov, David.K.Wheeler@nh.gov, Janet.L.Stevens@nh.gov, Joseph.D.Kenney@nh.gov

#52 Authorize to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding with the New Hampshire Department of Education, Concord, NH, in the amount of $562,000, to support New Hampshire school districts with exploring the feasibility of, or expanding a previously implemented Multi-Tiered System of Supports for Behavioral Health and Wellness and/or Pyramid Model Framework.  Effective July 1, 2024, upon G&C approval through June 30, 2026, with the option to renew for up to four additional years.  100% Other Funds (Governor’s Commission) Download 

Dear Executive Counselors:
I am writing to you regarding #52 and the request to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding with the New Hampshire Department of Education to support New Hampshire school districts in exploring the feasibility of or expanding a previously implemented Multi-Tiered System of Support for Behavioral Health and Wellness and/or Pyramid Model Framework.

I urge you to REJECT this request for funding based on several reasons I will explain below.

The MTSS-B funding requires reporting to the federal government by various contractors. These contractors have been Plymouth State, Antioch University, and now Keene State BHII. The reports prepared are supposed to show how well the MTSS-B framework is working in our public schools. This report looks more like a marketing brochure than any in-depth independent study that’s been peer-reviewed. In addition, I’ve found numerous problems that have erupted since this framework has been implemented in schools across New Hampshire.

1) Lack of Ethical Practices
If you click on this link to Keene State BHII, you will see that under “school mental health,” it says, “Install and evaluate a Multi-Tiered System of Supports for Behavioral Health & Wellness.”  MTSS-B crosses over to mental health assessments and services that are now provided in our public schools. There is a lack of ethical guidelines in place, which I believe has led some schools to ignore consent laws that are in place.

School Counselors do have a Code of Ethics that they must follow. However, school counselors have reported that they were required to share private and sensitive mental health data with Keene State BHII. This was done without the knowledge or consent by parents or students in some of our New Hampshire Schools. (Please see attached School Counselors Code of Ethics under Confidentiality)

2) Violations of Constitutional Right to Privacy
Not only is this unethical, violates the School Counselor’s Code of Ethics, but this action violates a student’s Constitutional Right to Privacy. [Art.] 2-b. [Right of Privacy.] An individual’s right to live free from governmental intrusion in private or personal information is natural, essential, and inherent.

December 5, 2018

3) Violation of Federal Law Every Student Succeeds Act
MTSS-B includes a 3 tiered system of support. The first level involves Social and Emotional Learning (SEL). SEL programs and assessments are now used in the classroom by teachers who are not qualified to assess or administer mental health services to students. School Counselors and Social Workers are also participating in this treatment in the schools but lack the necessary qualifications and education.
I have filed numerous complaints with the New Hampshire Department of Education when schools have administered these assessments and treatments in the schools without parental consent.

ESSA Section 4002 General Protections requires consent by parents or guardians when administering mental health assessments or services in school.

One of New Hampshire’s physicians wrote about how schools are now preparing psychological profiles on students through the SEL assessments here. This is done without informed consent by parents.

4) More evidence Social Workers are violating Federal Law
Superintendents are not mental health professionals, so they do not always understand or know what laws or ethical codes that need to be followed. We’ve turned our public schools into mental health clinics run by education professionals instead of utilizing these resources in an actual mental health clinic where laws are respected, and ethical treatment for children is held in the highest regard.

Executive Director Lynn Stanley, from the New Hampshire Chapter National Association of Social Workers, testified before a Senate Judiciary Committee on SB 573. SB573, as introduced, would have required parental consent for any medical or mental health care. This would have essentially required what ESSA already requires when it comes to consent for mental health services in our schools.

During Ms. Stanley’s testimony she indicated that if this consent law were to pass, it would have a “chilling effect” on school social workers. You can listen to her testimony at the 9:02:00 mark here. I found this testimony to be extremely disturbing since school social workers should be abiding by the federal consent provision in ESSA. This indicated to me that this national organization is either unfamiliar with federal law, or they are freely violating federal consent laws in our public schools.

5) Manipulation of Parental Consent Forms by School Counselors in New Hampshire Schools
I urge you to watch this 20-minute video from a Zoom meeting where Data Analysts from Keene State BHII were present, along with an employee from the New Hampshire Department of Education and several LEAs in our local public schools. You can see at the 20 minute mark, Heather Garcia from Hillsboro-Deering School district, admitted that they changed the consent form so that it does not reflect mental health treatment. This lack of respect for parental rights, and ethical treatment of our children, should cause us all to put a stop to this program in our public schools.

6) SEL programs shift focus to Political Agendas
Transformative SEL moves SEL programs to a political focus.
The Trouble with Social and Emotional Learning 
Second Step SEL program used in some NH schools : Anti-Racism Anti-Bias Resources
Equity Based Social and Emotional Learning

Now that you know that the administrators of this program in our public schools are violating their students’ rights to privacy, and laws that were put in place to protect them, it is critical that any funding for MTSS-B be rejected.  The Senate Health and Human Services Committee rejected additional funding for MTSS-B based on the problems that have been exposed.

Until there is substantial evidence that the people working in our schools, or servicing these federal grants are abiding by ethical guidelines and federal laws, this program needs to be stopped immediately. No funding should be granted without a serious overhaul of the MTSS-B program in our schools. Parents need to know that their child’s mental health information is confidential, will not be shared with anyone, and that they will be fully informed and consent to these practices in our schools.

I urge you to oppose approval of #52 at the June 26th Executive Council meeting.

The post Exec. Council Urged to Reject Funding for Unethical Mental Health Treatment in Our Schools appeared first on Granite Grok.

I concede that America is divided on most issues, but there are some situations where you have to shake your head and question the rationale of the Left. Massachusetts is one of the most liberal states in America, but I would like to have someone from the Bay State justify the ad campaign announced this week that attacks Pro-Life Pregnancy centers with your tax dollars.

This week, the office of Governor Healey announced a “first-in-the-nation public education campaign highlighting the dangers and potential harm of anti-abortion centers, also called ‘crisis pregnancy centers.'” The quick of this is that the state of Massachusetts has spent one million tax dollars to attack clinics where women go to get treatment for their pregnancies and to save their unborn fetuses. Have we become so enamored with killing the unborn that we have to attack women who want to give birth and the clinics that provide them aid? This initiative is sick, and there is no justification.

The ad claims how unsafe these pregnancy clinics are and how safe abortion clinics are in comparison. I am not sure the fetus feels very secure in a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic where they will be cut into pieces and sucked out of their mother’s body with a vacuum cleaner. The ad also claims that since pregnancy resource centers (PRCs) do not commit abortions, they deny women “comprehensive” health care. It also accuses pro-life women’s centers of employing “untrained staff” and spreading “misinformation about abortion.” The alternative name of these PRCs is anti-abortion centers. Maybe the most significant issue here is these PRCs and the births they help happen are bad for business for Planned Parenthood.

This twisted logic by Planned Parenthood and the government is as convoluted as the name itself and the services it offers. Pro-choice advocates live to increase aborted pregnancies, but they use code words to soften their message. Planned Parenthood has nothing to do with parenthood but in preventing parenthood and families. Reproductive care has nothing to do with reproduction but termination. MSNBC published an op-ed on Father’s Day saluting the brave men who supported their partners in ending unwanted pregnancies. That is not insulting but gross, and the possibility this is the thought process of all Pro-Choice individuals makes them dirty.

The state-sponsored assault on pro-life centers gladdened several Democratic politicians, who spoke at its launch. “These are con artists posing as health care professionals,” insisted the second-highest-ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives, Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.). “These clinics present a public health risk,” asserted Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.). Senator Ed Markey (D-Mass.) hoped “pregnant people” would learn about “the dangers of anti-abortion centers that mislead and misinform patients, collect and share their most sensitive health data, and dissuade them from making the medical decisions that are right for them.”

Markey’s words were most disconcerting. ‘Dissuade them from making the medical decisions that are right for them’ insinuates that abortion is the only ‘right’ solution for pregnancy. I hope that pro-life groups will find a way to sue the state of Massachusetts for wasting a million taxpayer dollars and producing this offensive and misleading ad campaign.

The post Massachusetts Uses Tax Dollars to Attack Pregnancy Centers appeared first on Granite Grok.

Watch THIS, bitter-clingers, and then tell me how Trump is somehow going to win a “debate” on CNN. Wake up, bitter-clingers. Wake the ____ up. It is not going to be a real debate. CNN, along with the rest of the “media,” is part of the Biden campaign.

But keep telling me that Biden is going to fall down, or that Trump, somehow, can simultaneously deal with an amphetamine-jacked Biden, who has had a full week to memorize the answers to the questions CNN obviously has already fed him AND two “moderators” who can mute his microphone whenever they wish to “fact check” him.

Good start to debate week on CNN with @kleavittnh being kicked off the air for pointing out Jake Tapper’s history of clear bias against Donald Trump. Welcome to the being kicked off CNN live broadcasts club, Karoline! pic.twitter.com/haUCYU9kpD

— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) June 24, 2024

The post Rigged Debate, Part II … CNN Pulls Plug On Karoline Leavitt For Documenting “Moderator” Jake Tapper’s Extreme Bias appeared first on Granite Grok.

And that we, the voters, aren’t entitled to make our choices known and to boot your arses out when you are no longer representing us? Nice display of condescension. Great display of Government vs its Subjects; “The peasants are revolting!”

Denise Ricciardi seems to have forgotten that we have fought wars over the right to choose our representative—she wants to turn the clock backward.

The question is, is she claiming to be part of the neo-aristocracy or Perceived Nomenklatura? A mask slip, indeed!

Emphasis mine, reformatted.

Sen. Denise Ricciardi, R-Bedford, didn’t mince words when asked about those who tried to recruit candidates to run against her and other GOP incumbents.

“These weren’t conservative Republicans, they’re free staters who aren’t about accomplishing things for the people of New Hampshire but promoting chaos and dissent,” Ricciardi said during a recent interview.

With those words, with that sentiment, she has shown her disdain for the electoral process, that WE get the final say of who is in their cozy little political clubhouse. That THEY resent that we can pluck them out and put someone else in their stead. And in this case, the operative word should be “should.” This is some display from a longer-term State Senator who seemingly believes she is entitled to that seat. That we should give them what they want as we should have no say in the matter.

Sorry, dear, it doesn’t work that way. You’ve lost your way – you’ve stopped being the public servant who is gracious and grateful that voters put you in that seat in the first place. That you have forgotten that THEY own that seat and not you.

You’ve grown too full of yourself.

Seriously, “chaos and dissent”? How does removing you from “the people’s seat” create chaos? Or other incumbents?  Do you think that the “chaos” they see is, in part, being caused by you?  That they are tired of having their outlooks on how things should be dissed by GOPe-ers like yourself; is this your ploy to silence any dissent of you by we, the hoi polloi?  Is this your attempt (totalitarian, I might add) to silence any debate or speech as the Agent of Government that you are?

Good luck with THAT, lady. Just remember that the First Amendment and Article 22 are meant to keep us safe from YOU.

And if those that you are dissing need much of another excuse to put their mark against a different name than yours, thanks for jumping into that ideological barrel and sealing the bung hole by using the Democrats’ favorite phrase du decade of “Free Staters”.  I’m supposing that if you were a State Senator back during the TEA Party movement, you’d be shoulder to shoulder with Ray Buckley who used TEA Partiers, not as a description of those that wanted an in-check government, but as an epithet.

I hope your voters see this. I definitely hope they not just ask you about it but GRILL you over it.

Establishment Harridan.

 

The post Is Her Highness Denise Ricciardi Entitled That Senate Seat? appeared first on Granite Grok.

Monday Monday, can’t trust that day!

Last week’s Friday Edition.

Remember, ridicule and mockery are effective weapons:

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

Now, let the mockery and mayhem begin.

 

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

 

 

 

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Just love this!  DO IT TRUMP!

 

 

And some insight into one of the debate moderators:

 

 

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PSA – PSA – PSA – PSA – PSA

 

I am loath to post a lot of videos but I think this one is critical.  No, not just for the main content about The Potato (well, his puppeteers) trying to create a country of snitches (and thereby sunder us through distrust of one another), but something said early on.

 

https://granitegrok.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Biden_s_DHS_Secret_Police_Wanted_You_to_Rat_Out_Your_Ne_73It5XJCidc.mp4

 

Specifically, how we’re being hit by so many things, all in rapid succession if not totally simultaneously.

You must – MUST – keep in mind that our enemies have been planning this for DECADES, and I truly believe it’s a century or more.  What they’ve spend untold time developing and planning, we’re getting slammed with in rapid-fire succession.  And that’s the plan.  The human mind can only deal with so many stressors at once, and they’re counting on that overwhelming to make us say STOP, STOP, WE’LL DO WHAT YOU WANT JUST MAKE IT STOP!

Know your enemy.  Remember they are MISSIONARIES for Marx.

 

 

Report: DHS Identified Being ‘Religious’ With Domestic Terrorism (thefederalist.com)

Remember, the Lord their Marx is a jealous deity who brooks no rivals.

 

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I should note that Paul Ryan’s “messy divorce” records were SEALED… but somehow got leaked anyway.  Anyone remember when Texas Governor Perry had his academic records leaked which put an end to his presidential ambitions?  Yet the omerta on Barackus’ academic records holds?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beautiful mockery.

 

 

The more I look at the Democrats and their systemic anti-Americanism, the more this post comes to mind:

Regurgitating the Apple: How Modern Liberals “Think” | The Heritage Foundation

I tell a story. It’s not a true story, but it helps crys­tallize my thinking that brought me to become a conservative. I say: Imagine being in a restaurant with an old friend, and you’re catching up, and suddenly he blurts out, “I hate my wife.” You chuckle to yourself because he says it every time you’re together, and you know he doesn’t hate his wife; they’ve been together for 35 years. He loves his daughters, and they’re just like her. No, he doesn’t hate his wife.

So you’re having dinner, and you look out the window and spot his wife, and she’s being beaten up right outside the restaurant. You grab your friend and say, “Come on, let’s help her. Let’s help your wife,” and he says, “Nah, I’m sure she deserves it.” At that moment, it dawns on you: He really does hate his wife.

That’s what 9/11 was to me. For years and years I’d hear my friends from the Left say how evil and horrible and racist and imperialistic and oppressive America is, and I’d chuckle to myself and think, “Oh, they always say that; they love America.” Then on 9/11, we were beaten up, and when I grabbed them by the collar, and I said, “Come on, let’s help her. Let’s help America,” and they said, “Nah, she deserves it.”

At that moment, I realized: They really do hate America. And that began me on what’s now a five-plus-year quest to try to understand the mindset. How could you possibly live in the freest nation in the history of the world and see only oppression? How could you live in the least imperialist power in human history and see us as the ultimate in imperi­alism? How could you live in the least bigoted nation in human history and, as Joe Biden said, “see racism lurking in every dark shadow”?

 

 

 

 

If it can be taken away if you don’t pay the tax, do you really own it?  Or, even after you pay off the bank to get them off your shoulders, are you really just leasing the land from the state?

 

 

Pretty much my plan at this point.  All I ask is that I live long enough to – at the least – get my kids through to adulthood.  Living to see a grandchild or two, bonus.  After that, I’m more than ready to go home (musical video).

 

 

 

 

 

Wish I could have seen the follow-up.

 

 

 

 

They will continue to hound him and anyone like him, regardless of what pretext they have to fabricate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m still a little skeptical about the whole alkali thing, but… from what little I’ve read there does seem to be something to it.  And that’s why, despite really enjoying carbonic acid seltzer, I’ve given up drinking it (with the occasional cheat drink).

 

 

 

 

They don’t reproduce.  They recruit.  And they recruit by selling it as a way to stick it to your parents, to fit in with a group, and to get dopamine hits from praise.

 

 

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

 

PSA – PSA – PSA – PSA – PSA

 

 

I want to be very clear: I do not, in any way, support the Nazi philosophy.  But given that it’s clear to me that Europeans are getting tired of being invaded, I can understand it.  And from here (link omitted, bolding added):

As Tamara so aptly puts it, Europeans can go from ‘zero to jackboots’ faster than you’d believe possible. They’ve done so many times in the past . . . and I strongly suspect that ordinary Europeans (with or without the support of their current political leaders) are about to do so once more.

I will weep at what happens, but I can’t say it’ll be a surprise.  And I will have very little sympathy for the tikkun olam, pro-migration Jews when the backlash hits them too.  Unfortunately, that’ll be a very broad hammer.

 

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

 

 

 

 

OOH, heartbreaking.  OTOH, my extremely limited knowledge of such things… I don’t imagine there were a lot of trees there before given what the ground looks like.  Still, point made IMHO.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Such a violent mob.  /sarc

 

 

 

 

 

To make a Socialist USSA omelet, you break a few eggs lives…

 

 

No, I want this:

 

 

 

 

See my prior substacks on Spanish Flu being likely due (deaths) not to an influenza virus (not a pandemic) but due to toxic aspirin use & no antibiotics for bacterial pneumonia; we may have killed

 

 

I wonder if there was a follow-up to this.

 

 

 

Assuming the baseline is 1990, this represents a 6.1 percent increase in salary every year.  If I did the math right.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At my elementary school there was one boy who dressed in girl’s clothes.  He was openly mocked, even by teachers.  Not like today where he’d be praised, feted, and cheered.

 

 

 

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Link section (some mine, some from my Jarhead friend):

 

WAYNE ROOT: Tucker is Outing Obama as Gay. But Everyone is Missing the Big Story. I’m Obama’s College Classmate. I’ve Been Trying to Warn America for 15 Years! | The Gateway Pundit | by Assistant Editor

First, there is the “Ghost of Columbia” mystery. I was a Pre Law, Political Science major. So was Obama. He had to be in all the same classes as me. But he was never in one class. I never met Obama, never saw him, never heard of him, never met anyone at Columbia who has.

Obama got in, so why didn’t anyone ever see him? My educated guess is Obama was in the Soviet Union studying communism. Columbia had a “sister school” in Moscow. That would be the only real answer as to why Obama was rarely if ever seen at Columbia. He was being groomed way back then by the enemies of America.

I’ve tried to dig into this sister-school thing and had little luck.

—

“This Cannot Go On Forever”: Talking U.S. National Debt | ZeroHedge

Remember my essay?

 

E I Feel Like Sarah Connor The Coming Financial Collapse

 

—

World War 3 Watch:

 

 

Ukraine begins using German weapons to strike Russian territory – Bild — RT World News

President of European nation warns major war could erupt in next 3 to 4 months | WND | by Around the Web

Possibility of nuclear war is now a reality – Martin Jay (odysee.com)

Taiwan detects 41 Chinese aircraft around island – Insider Paper

US permits Ukrainian strikes anywhere beyond conflict front line – Politico — RT World News

 

 

Ukraine kills civilians in Crimea with US-supplied missiles – Russian MOD — RT Russia & Former Soviet Union

Russia blames US for deadly missile attack on Crimea – Insider Paper

Russia stepping up attacks with banned chemical agent: Kyiv – Insider Paper

Pretext for action?  Given my understanding that Russia is winning, why would they do this?

 

 

I truly believe this is where we’re headed, and with malice aforethought.  And other places looking to ignite:

Live Fire Incident: Casualties Reported After North Korean Soldiers Cross Military Demarcation Line | ZeroHedge

—

PRO-HAMAS Biden Regime renegs on $18 billion sale of F-15 Fighter Jets to Israel (barenakedislam.com)

To be honest, the Democrats are abandoning the Jews to curry favor from radical Islamists because they will soon have more voters. They are pouring into the country, and they have a dozen children apiece.

Currying favor with their new and growing vote base.

 

 

American Jews, pay attention.

—

Biological Agents Were Tested on the New York City Subway – Business Insider

Remember what the US has done to its own citizens.  One example.

—

Jab / Vaccines

The Endgame | Voice for Science and Solidarity

A virologist has multiple worries.

—

HUGE! Kash Patel Drops a Bomb — British Court Reveals Paul Ryan Was the First One to Receive a Copy of Steele Dossier Back in 2016 and He Hid This For Years! (VIDEO) | The Gateway Pundit | by Jim Hoft

The GOP Elites are allied with the Dems, and I think it’s on a level we can’t grasp even now.

 

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Pick of the post:

 

 

Many good and worthy ones here, but this one is a gut punch.

 

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Palate Cleansers:

 

 

IIRC there was a person who got some remote tribe internet access, and all they did was watch pr0n all day.

—

—

 

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Come back Wednesday for another edition.  Same Meme Time.  Same Meme channel.

Please do consider buying me a coffee.

Buy Me a Coffee

 

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

 

The post MONDAY MEMES appeared first on Granite Grok.

So bitter-clingers if you read one great literary work … and I encourage you to read as many great literary works as possible, but if you read only one … make it my award-winning four-part (including this) series on Terry Roy playing the role of useful idiot for the Woke-Communists. For your ease of reference, in order … “Useful Idiot,”  “Useful Idiot” Continued … Terry Roy Endorses Alissandra Murray, and Terry Roy, It’s Not 1980 And You Are No Ronald Reagan (Useful Idiot – Part 3).

In our last installment we discussed Terry Red-Flag Roy’s diatribe on X taking umbrage with our expectation that GOP State Reps not serve as campaign props for or endorse Woke-Communists like Alissandra Murray. Roy compared himself and Alissandra Murray to Reagan and Tip O’Neill. I have already discussed that the comparison is as lacking as it is grandiose. A few more words are in order.

The correct pairing would be Reagan and Brezhnev or Reagan and Andropov, because Alissandra Murray is a Woke-Communist and Roy, apparently, manages … how is a mystery … to be a reliable anti-communist vote. Reagan, as you may recall, had the courage to call Communism EVIL. Sadly, many of those who seek to invoke the mantle of Reagan apparently either cannot see Communism … even when posing for a selfie with one … or have a different opinion on the matter than Reagan.

The post Useful Idiot – Part IV … The Correct Pairing Is Reagan and Brezhnev appeared first on Granite Grok.

Electric Vehicles are not green and can’t run clean, and even in their wildest dream, they never could. There isn’t enough of what we need to get there from here, and “there” isn’t even green. And while that might play for some, not everyone wants to hear it so perhaps this will have more impact.

Spokane, Washington, made news after some (presumably bigoted) hooligans marred up a pride mural with tire (skid) marks. The devout are beside themselves with anger and guilt, “condemning these vile acts on no uncertain terms.”

Here is a picture of the vile acts.

I think they doth protest too much, which provides an interesting parallel to the point of this missive. It’s not about the sin of pride, or how it is displayed, or that the police arrested four suspects and charged at least one with a felony count of malicious mischief. Look at the marks again. Felony? Really? Are you planning to defrock him and have him excommunicated from Spokane? No, this is about how the company that likely rented them the scooters that did the deplorable deed responded.

Electric scooters, that is.

In response to the incident, Lime implemented a “no go zone” over the crosswalk. Lime vehicles “aren’t authorized to travel in no go zones,” which it marks with red shading on its app. Entering a “no go zone” will cause a Lime vehicle to “gradually come to a stop,” according to its website, forcing a rider to walk their scooter until it is outside the zone.

Assuming you think they even want us driving anything but EV scooters—which are responsible for a rising number of deaths in apartment fires (EV batteries like to start fires)—the technology to shut off your vehicle exists, and if yours is connected to the Cloud, which most new vehicles, especially Electric ones, are, this is your transportation future.

Your right to travel and right to privacy – whether a shadow of a penumbra or ensconced in your state constitution (as mine is) be damned.

No-go areas for scooters. They could be anywhere based on the whims of the powerful or their water carriers, and we know how quickly many of them want to carry that water. Amd there’s no limit to the types or quantity of control craved. There is certainly no moral constraint. No constitutional constraint – not up front, at least. Why not just no-go everything everywhere, as the need or desire arises?

COVID taught us a lot about that.

I wonder if Spokane is too woke to accommodate a competing EV scooter rental company (NO No-go Scooter Rentals) that doesn’t do that? And (0r), is anyone in Spokane or anywhere else bothered by this? A private company is certainly entitled to express its values as a feature of its business, but we all know that these values are echoed by the current regime. Did The MAN lean on the scooter rental business, or was it of a character such that there was a desire – an eager willingness to make a public statement during the modern bacchanal month of June to protect the gang colors?

It all makes you want to buy a 1974 Ford F100.

The post EVs Aren’t Green So Are They Actually About Control? appeared first on Granite Grok.

During her campaign for Executive Council in District 4, Terese Bastarache passionately condemns the appalling neglect and complicity surrounding the abuse allegations at the Sununu Youth Services Center.

Her opponent, John Stephen, who served as Commissioner of the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), bears a significant burden of responsibility for this scandal.

As DHHS Commissioner, Stephen should have been acutely aware of the horrific abuses occurring under his watch, yet his inaction speaks volumes about his priorities and commitment to vulnerable children. John Stephen’s tenure at DHHS coincided with a period when reports of abuse at the Sununu Youth Services Center were rampant.

Despite being in a position of authority with direct oversight of such institutions, Stephen failed to act decisively or transparently to address these grave issues. His silence and lack of meaningful intervention allowed a cycle of abuse to persist, inflicting untold suffering on the children who were supposed to be under the state’s protection.

We want to thank Frank Staples for this Contribution – Please direct yours to Steve@GraniteGrok.com.
You can review our ‘Op-Ed Guidelines‘ on the FAQ Page.

Terese Bastarache vows to be a different kind of leader—one who will never turn a blind eye to the suffering of the most vulnerable. She criticizes Stephen’s gross negligence and underscores the urgent need for accountability and reform. As Commissioner, Stephen had a moral and legal duty to ensure the safety and well-being of children in state care. His inaction is a betrayal of that duty and a stark indication of his unfitness for public office.

Bastarache’s campaign is fueled by a commitment to justice and the protection of children. She pledges to bring transparency, accountability, and unwavering dedication to the Executive Council. Unlike her opponent, Bastarache will fight tirelessly to ensure that no child in New Hampshire is left to suffer in silence.

She believes that the children of New Hampshire deserve leaders who will stand up for them, confront difficult issues head-on, and take decisive action to prevent such atrocities from ever happening again.

The voters of District 4 deserve a representative who prioritizes the safety and well-being of all citizens, especially the most vulnerable. Terese Bastarache embodies these values and is determined to bring about the change and accountability that has been sorely lacking. Her commitment to justice and child protection is unwavering, making her the clear choice for those who believe in a safer, more compassionate New Hampshire.

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

The post John Stephen Failed to Act appeared first on Granite Grok.

I have absolutely no empathy at all for this mid-wit. Here she is, ASU Senior Breanna Brocker, lamenting how tough her life has turned simply because she didn’t think these through.

Well, what do you expect from a member of the Participation Trophy / Self-Esteem / You’re Special generation? And now she’s found out that Society doesn’t think that she’s special. That it doesn’t care about her misbegotten self-esteem. But she certainly has received yet another Participation Trophy. Just not the kind that she thought she deserved.

Anti-Israel student protester cries over missing graduation after she was arrested, suspended

An Arizona State University senior who was arrested and suspended after trespassing during an anti-Israel protest broke down in tears over missing graduation as a consequence of her actions.

“I’m being restricted from a lot of things right now that I didn’t expect to be for standing up for something I believe in,” Breanna Brocker told ABC15 as she choked up.

…“You know I have family coming in who I have to let them know not come to my graduation ceremonies.”

WATCH: We spoke with ASU senior Breanna Brocker outside the courthouse, who said she will not be able to graduate because the suspension will cause her to miss her final exam pic.twitter.com/FKGaMuzOt7

— Ben Brown (@bdbrown473) May 4, 2024

Did this sad twit learn anything? Does she have a better handle on that old truism that my grandson understands implicitly: “Decisions have Consequences”?  Let’s just say I look forward to seeing Breanne’s name again in the press for all of the wrong reasons:

“I was doing what I believed was right and I still believe it to be right. I would stand up for the cause again, even if it means something negative for me,” she said.

Rush’s old adage still comes to mind: “young skulls full of mush”. I do wonder if there even three brain cells firing against all of the other dead weight in her cranium that are begging her “THINK FIRST, then do” as her no-longer future employers will be giving her the consequences she hasn’t wargamed out.

Her parents must be SO proud of her, spending 10s of thousands of dollars in putting her through four years of school to which they’ll not see that graduation ceremony. SHE might not care but wait until those parents lit into her…

She has learned nothing. Nothing at all.

If she only knew:

 

The post Hamashole Gal Has the FAFO Sads Over Protesting: Missed Graduation After Arrest and Suspension appeared first on Granite Grok.

I did not have this on my Friday Bingo card!  As we New Hampshirites know, the Free State Project had people who put Liberty as the highest Civics value and moved to NH as it was selected to be the State where a few committed people could make a difference according to the Declaration of Independence’s purpose…:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

…and also running for elected office. Why not, as the Democrats have made it clear that they are the Party of Government (that Government is the highest value and have embedded themselves into Government to make that happen)? As it has turned out, ANYone that disagrees with that is subject to all kinds of opprobrium, scorn, and fearmongering (THEY ARE DANGEROUS to Our Democracy!!!!). Democrats desire nothing less than single Party Rule. Problem is, as we are seeing in California, their socialistic totalitarian ways that are bereft of any concern for Individual Liberty  their subjects are unable to make decisions for their own lives.

So, with all that said, I was really amused and bemused to read this:

A “Free State Project” Inspired Gun Owner Migration Strategy to Win Elections

The FSP has had a noticeable impact. As of late 2021, 40 Free Staters had been elected to the New Hampshire legislature, including the House Majority Leader. Besides the electoral wins, the FSP has also had an ideological impact on the Republican Party, making it more libertarian…If you loosely define libertarianism as “fiscally conservative but socially liberal,” that’s only about 16% of the electorate according to Nate Silver. Clearly, the FSP has punched above its weight class, using a thoughtful strategy combined with persistence spanning two decades.

The proof is in the pudding:

New Hampshire entered 2021 with more liberty representatives than ever before.

– 69 of @YALiberty 2020 wins were in NH (25% of their wins)
– 74 @RebuildNH candidates won
– 91 @nhliberty endorsed candidates won
– ~40 Free Staters were elected, including to House Majority Leader pic.twitter.com/Sq83HmxjUZ

— The Free State (@FreeStateNH) December 31, 2021

And I don’t think that I am overstating the fact that NH  Socialists / Progressives / Democrats hate them with white hot passion (right, Jeanne Dietsch?? And add in no small number of GOPe-ers and RINOs that have hated any Libertarian/Conservatarian as well) in keeping them from duplicating California here. Like it was a God-given right to rule or sumptin…

But I digress. So here’s the thought – what if gun owners were willing to uproot themselves in defense of THEIR value of “…keep and bear arms.”?  While one can put forward the supposition that while gun ownership is only a subset of Liberty, the Left has made it a lighthouse to shoot at (yes, pun intended). So what if the 2A-ers did what the FSPers have done (reformatted, emphasis mine):

In my previous article, I talked about how the migration of just 2% of New York gun owners to Pennsylvania can change presidential elections. What if a similar strategy of concentrated fire is replicated nationwide? In other words, what if Second Amendment advocates do what Free Staters have done nationally?

There is an advantage that gun owners have: there are a LOT more of us – close to 100 million – than there are committed libertarians. Since the last presidential election, around 22.3 million people have become first-time gun owners. That gives us a lot of power nationally although our power within states varies. Some states have a higher concentration of us resulting in “wasted votes,” while others have too few of us resulting in our rights getting trampled.

For the four decades I’ve been in NH, we’ve seen the likes of Zandra Rice-Hawkins, David Meuse, and Deb “Hip Check Assault Weapon” Altschiller move into NH while assaulting Freedom type folks with great alacrity – and never admitting their hypocrisy in doing the exact. same. thing. in getting “their” people to move here. Plan?

Taking a page from the Free State Project, Second Amendment voters can embark on a political migration project as follows:

1. Find swing states with the narrowest margins of victory.
2. Migrate disenchanted gun owners from adjacent anti-Second Amendment states.
3. Migrate some “wasted votes” from adjacent strong Second Amendment states.

And the purpose of the Plan?

This strategy should make it harder for an anti-Second Amendment presidential candidate to win an election. Candidates will need to soften their infringement proposals, stop weaponizing the executive branch, and give us a better judiciary if they want to win.

Might it work in Vermont? Maine?  Dunno but it certainly wouldn’t in Massachusetts, NY, Rhode Island. Unsure about Connecticut.  However, here is some musings on a couple of targets: Where?

So, which states should be targets for migration? Starting with the closest states from the past 2 elections, I narrowed it down to those that: 1) had a <5% margin of victory, 2) switched parties between 2016 and 2020. These states, ranked in the order of narrowest margins, are:

• Wisconsin (2016: R 0.77% → 2020: D 0.63%)
• Pennsylvania (2016: R 0.72% → 2020: D 1.16%)
• Michigan (2016: R 0.23% → 2020: D 2.78%)
• Arizona (2016: R 3.50% → 2020: D 0.31%)

And those are all battleground States as well. Snipping out the detailed examples, the results:

It won’t take much to swing these states in a pro-2A direction. For example, Illinois and Iowa have almost 5 million gun owners combined. Just 20,000 of those gun owners migrating to Wisconsin can change presidential elections.

…The Free State Project has shown that organized political migration can have a positive impact. It’s time for gun owners to think and act on a similar strategy.

That’s a gun owner population shift of just 0.4%. And indeed, for all of the Democrats’ caterwauling, the FSP movement has been a positive  here in NH.

So, does this have any merit?  I think so but what’s more important is do YOU think so?

(Note: Porcupine with AR-15 generated by Perplexity AI)

(H/T: Bearing Arms)

The post Night Cap: A Free State Project for the Second Amendment? appeared first on Granite Grok.

Albert Einstein says, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” That is how I see our political system, especially in Maine and New Hampshire. Looking back 40 or 50 years, both states were traditionally conservative. Still, a migration of people left Massachusetts to the less expensive Granite State or the tranquil and beautiful Pine Tree State.

Unfortunately, many of these people forgot why they left Massachusetts, brought their progressive views with them, and worked to make their new home resemble their old. If the system didn’t keep you in the Bay State, why would you think it any better north of the border? But that is what they did. They elected liberal representatives and morphed their new homes into an extension of the old. They took two systems that were working well and broke them—sheer insanity.

People get caught up in their old habits. I was born in Massachusetts, where everyone is born a Kennedy Democrat. I left when I started a family and moved to New Hampshire. I had concluded that I was actually a conservative, and New Hampshire was the place I felt more comfortable for my children. I left my Democrat roots behind and embraced the “Live Free or Die” life of New Hampshire. Unfortunately, Massachusetts followed me up Route 93, and I feel like I am back where my journey began.

Two situations in the last few years show how habits and ignorance of the truth can blur our vision. In 2022, the voters of Pennsylvania re-elected Tony DeLuca, and in 2024, New Jersey re-elected Donald Payne Jr. to another term. The problem is that both candidates were dead. They had died close to Election Day, and the ballots had already been printed to include their names. The voters robotically went to the polls, pulled the D lever, and never checked the pulse of their candidate. Joe Biden is still with us, but in November, millions of Democrats will cast their vote for Joe, and anyone can see he is as effective as DeLuca or Payne.

It may be disrespectful to compare Biden to two men who are deceased, but it is equally insulting for people on the left trying to convince America that Biden is as sharp as ever. This effort to hoodwink the voters starts with the First Lady, who should be charged with elder abuse, and goes right through the staff, stopping at the worst Press Secretary of all time, Karine Jean-Pierre. The Bidens have also gotten the legacy media to abandon their principles and credibility once more to be complicit with this charade.

The Dems will turn out in November. Not the 81 million who put Joe in office, but there will be a good turnout. Real or not will be the question. He will have the Pro-Choice crowd and the Anti-Supreme Court fanatics, but he has lost a lot of the female, Black, and Spanish votes. They are the smart ones who realize the Dems have left them behind for their new love, the illegals. Can they get enough of the old-school Democrats to offset the momentum of the Trump Train? I don’t think so, and I pray not.

The post If It Is Not Working, Do You Keep Doing The Same Thing appeared first on Granite Grok.

Join us for this week’s Manch Talk, where we take a deep dive into the most recent Manchester NH crime stats. We haven’t been keeping an eye on the local po-po, and it shows!

cc

Originally braodcast Apr 5, 2024

The post ICYMI – Manch Talk: A Deep Dive on Manchester NH Crime Stats appeared first on Granite Grok.

Bitter-clingers … you’ll never learn, never figure it out, will you? Next week’s CNN “debate” is RIGGED. The coverage has already been written … Joe Biden put to rest the claims he is too old for a second term. It was Trump, not Biden, who looked confused and fatigued. Biden answered the critics. BLAH, BLAH, BLAH.

Expectations for Trump are impossibly high. While expectations for Biden are so low that they are virtually subterranean … indeed, all Biden need do is show up and not sh*t or p*ss himself and he will be declared everywhere (including the Faux News that you bitter-clingers continue to desperately believe is NOT regime-propaganda) to have “done what he needed to do” and any number of other stupid cliches.

The Regime is giving BidenX an entire week of rest. He’ll probably be off his feet for 20 hours per day and sleeping (under the influence of drugs, of course) for 16 hours per day. And he will be jacked up on amphetamines for the debate. You are going to see a pharmaceutical superman … not the bumbling, mumbling REAL BidenX.

Also, BidenX will already have rehearsed answers to all the questions. Do you really believe, bitter-clingers, that CNN is NOT going to RELEASE THE QUESTIONS TO BIDEN BEFOREHAND? Are you really that naive, bitter-clingers?

Trump, on the other hand, will be asked … maybe … a few disingenuous questions about the economy, inflation, etc., in order to allow the Regime-media to tell you that the debate was NOT rigged. But the emphasis will be on “J6,” “convicted felon,” “democracy is on the ballot” and whatever other themes the Regime wants “debated.”

It is a RIGGED debate … part of a RIGGED election … in a country that has NOT been a functional democracy (or Republic, if you prefer) since the Deep State assassinated JFK.

The post You Are Going To Be Bitterly Disappointed By The “Debate” appeared first on Granite Grok.

Following years of marketing hype proclaiming that fake meats would transform the food industry and modern diets, sobriety has descended on the industry as manufacturers wrestle with declining sales, dissatisfied customers, and difficulties achieving profitability. As the remaining plant-based-meat players scramble to bolster sales and preserve a dwindling market share, meat substitutes are shaping up to be a short-term fad that could not meet expectations. Fake meats will likely remain in stores and some restaurants as a vegan consumer niche but will unlikely displace the animal livestock industry anytime soon.

A Tale of Two Fakes

Fake meats include simulated meat products fashioned from plant and other substitute ingredients (plant-based proteins) and animal cells cultured or lab-grown from plant matter (“cultured” meats, or cell-based proteins). The three chief selling points for both categories have been animal welfare, climate rescue, and improved human health. The products have run aground on issues of affordability and taste. Meat substitutes cost more than real meat but don’t stack up on taste or health benefits. Cultured meats may taste like natural ones but offer no health improvements for their higher price. They are currently more harmful to the climate than cows or chickens because of technological hurdles that require massive energy and enormous externalized environmental costs.

Impossible Foods, a maker of cultured meats, has thus far found profitability impossible. Beyond Meat, a leader in fashioning meat substitutes from plant ingredients, has faced consumer and industry pushback on company claims its products are healthier than natural meats. In response, it has reformulated many of its products to attract consumers with improved taste and nutritional content but continues to suffer a dramatic loss of sales. Its stock price reflects this shift, down from $234.90 a share on July 26, 2019, to $7.19 on May 17, 2024, a nearly 97% drop.

The Fading Novelty of Fake Meats

As one commentator said, fake meats seem “less a world-changing innovation than another food trend whose novelty is wearing thin.” Making plant proteins taste like animal flesh involves additives for flavoring and texture that concoct not an alternative meat but an alternative processed food. Even vegans are turned off by high prices and dubious health benefits. Meat lovers, meanwhile, are passionately resistant to products that seek to ape mother nature, leading several US jurisdictions to prohibit misleading advertising of fake meats or ban the sale of the stuff outright.

The struggles of these bellwether manufacturers of fake meats bode ill for the sector, which broke out with massive venture capital funding and Utopian marketing promises but have crashed on the shoals of dubious health claims, high pricing during a period of sharp food inflation, concerns about claims of sustainability, and consumer taste buds. Promises of widespread fast-food restaurant consumption of meat alternatives have fallen flat as national chains have found sales anemic. Grocery stores and restaurants have pared back shelf and menu space for meat substitutes.

In the long run, fake meats have already passed their brief zenith in consumer popularity. Product novelty has waned while claims of fraud and unhealthiness wax along strongly. Once turned off to products by glowing promises that turn out dim, consumers are not likely to be easily lulled into a repeat expenditure. They may not even sample new products when the taste of the failed ones still lingers on the tongue. Vegans are not enamored with fake blood; meat lovers are not enamored with fake anything.

Health, Cost, Taste

Fake meats, whether cell-grown or plant-processed, have failed to deliver on promises of improved health, environmental benefits, cost, or taste. This leaves perceptions of animal welfare benefits as the sole remaining selling point. But most consumers will not pay extra money for bad-tasting, unhealthy, processed substitutes that hurt the environment in order to spare cows and chickens from perceived hardship.

Beyond Meats is in the fourth ingredient iteration of its burgers, having reduced the salt content, switched out canola oil for healthier avocado oil, and replaced environmentally destructive soy with a mixture of peas, red lentils, brown rice, and fava beans. Still priced higher than a real burger, the factory alternative will have to be mighty tasty and healthy to woo consumers who are determined not to be fooled again.

The world has surpassed Peak Fake Meat and must begin to look beyond faux foods for real solutions.

 

 

 

John Klar is an Attorney, farmer, and author. Mostly farmer… And Regular Contributor to GraniteGrok and VermontGrok.

The post Have Fake Meats Exceeded Their Shelf Life? appeared first on Granite Grok.

The weather (extreme heat in some places and snow in others) and climate change; pending SCOTUS cases including Biden v Missouri re: censorship by social media, Trump’s immunity, Chevron case re: interpretation of statutes by the rule makers in the administrative state/non-delegation issue, the decision on mifepristone, which was decided on issues of standing; why does SCOTUS wait until the end of the term to release decisions? Should we rule out lawfare against truly crooked politicians? Alito suggesting congress could write a bump stock ban into the law; should the government have the power to ban masks? Should citizens have the right to protest anonymously? Will there ever be comeuppance against Fauci? Pfizer? How to circumvent the immunity given Pfizer?

The post The Conservatarian Exchange Podcast #211 appeared first on The Liberty Block.