Commercial fishermen are scratching their heads over the direction in which Erik Anderson, the president of the New Hampshire Commercial Fishermen’s Association (NHCFA), is taking their supposed organization.

There is not one commercial or sport fisherman that supports offshore wind (OSW) in the Gulf of Maine except Eric Anderson. The construction and operation of these monsters have affected marine life, from the largest endangered whale to the smallest crustaceans.

In a recent post, Mr. Anderson sent his members, he quotes, “It’s finally taking shape,” referring to the upcoming BOEM meetings and pending OSW in the Gulf of Maine. He has further gone on to tell people OSW is inevitable. The question is why he is not representing his members. He also referenced in the May newsletter that it’s too late to stop it, and the fishermen had their chance, blaming the fishermen. But the fishermen believed that was what Mr. Anderson was doing!

According to the NH state website on corporations, Mr. Anderson’s nonprofit, NHCFA, has been defunct since 2005. It is also not on the NH Attorney General’s list of current standing Nonprofits.

There are hundreds of members paying Mr. Anderson $50 a year for a defunct organization with no board of directors, minutes, or Internet presence—just a monthly email.

 

In his email newsletter in May, he claimed he has no board of directors and over $5k in an account a secretary, not named, manages.

Mr Anderson first published in his newsletter in May that the NHCFA was not a corporation or a 501c! This was new news to all his “members” since all prior newsletters did not have this disclaimer.

Mr. Anderson also unilaterally decided to back Republican governor candidate Kelly Ayotte in March 2024. Her website proudly boasts the backing of the defunct NHCFA organization!

Is it strange that a former attorney general does not check her campaign sources?

We tried repeatedly to find out if Ms. Ayotte would oppose OSW and received no replies.

There is unsubstantiated talk that Mr. Anderson was instrumental in getting Port Authority Director Gino Marconi placed on suspension but went out of his way to publish in his May newsletter that he was not involved. Perhaps Mr. Marconi doesn’t like OSW either.

Good or bad intentions, fraud is illegal. Were these fishermen who have been paying dues to an individual, some for nearly 20 years, duped into believing it’s a registered non-profit? They are owed answers.

The post Something Smells like Rotten Fish in NH appeared first on Granite Grok.

Apologies for the delay in announcing last week’s comment of the week winner. Things come up and get in the way, but we are happy to announce that you have selected Nitzakhon.

Here’s thw inning comment:

Post: An unholy alliance: Leftism and Islamism Commenter: NITZAKHON If I might, I’d like to dig a level (or two) deeper on why these two seemingly-opposed ideologies are attracted to each other. BOTH Islam and Communism… * Ruthless authoritarian systems * Value the Collective over the Individual * Have America as target #1 * Have any competing religion – for as I’ve been saying for years, Communism is a religion – as enemies Now, what will be entertaining to watch is what happens if they succeed in bringing down America (and more broadly, the West)? Just how quickly will they turn on the other? And in a battle between atheistic Communism (not placing any value on human life) and religious-jihad Islam (ditto), with no more moral limits on WMD use, who would win? Two great books on this: Unholy Alliance: Radical Islam And the American Left United in Hate: The Left’s Romance with Tyranny and Terror Nitzakhon, you know how to reach me.

The post Comment of the Week Winner: NITZAKHON! appeared first on Granite Grok.

Since its founding in 1948, Israel has had a target upon itself for every other country in the Middle East to shoot at. Most Muslim countries, such as Iran and Syria, openly hate Israel and want it obliterated. Israel has been able to fend off these attacks with the help of America, Britain, and France.

These alliances had been unconditional and unyielding until Barack Obama took the Oath of Office in 2009. Biden learned the lesson well as Obama’s Vice President, and he is more aggressive and transparent about his hatred of Israel. This elevation of vitriol may be Biden playing to the radical left wing of the Democrat party.

Biden, Blinken, and Austin have been attempting to micromanage the retaliation by Israel to the Hamas since October 7. They have all been open and loud about the tactics of the Israeli Military. They have been concerned with the number of dead civilians in Gaza and pushed for more humanitarian aid and a cease-fire. Israel has been unyielding in its commitment to obliterate Hamas and its constant threat to Israel and all Jews. These two goals are diametrically opposed and have created considerable friction between Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu.

It was discovered last week that Biden had withheld military arms, which had been approved by Congress and signed by Biden. The President is now claiming he will not supply arms to Israel that may be used to kill more civilians in Gaza. At the same time, Antony Blinken made comments over the weekend that may have fallen a word or two short of accusing Israel of war crimes. Israel is supposed to be our greatest ally in the Middle East, and Joe Biden is doing his best to sabotage that alliance and destroy 75 years of unity between our two countries. For this, Joe Biden should be impeached. This action by Biden is far more egregious than the phone call to Ukraine by Donald Trump, for which he was actually impeached.

These acts and comments come from an Administration that has repeatedly claimed to be in full support of Israel as she retaliates against a brutal insurgence by Hamas on October 7 that resulted in 1,200 dead and countless raped, mutilated, or burned alive. Hostages were taken and are still unaccounted for. There were Americans among the more than 100 taken, but the Biden administration has done little to retrieve our own who have been in captivity for eight months.

I have written about the failures of the Biden military, which makes it ironic that the Biden administration thinks they can tell anyone how to negotiate a war. That would be like me telling Jason Tatum how to run a fast break. All kidding aside, Biden and his team have abandoned Israel for the sake of the fringe element of the party, but what is worse is falsely calling out Israel and then denying them the strategic weaponry that will prevent excessive civilian casualties. For the sake of the Muslim vote, Biden is turning his back on Israel. Another huge mistake that Trump will inherit and be forced to correct.

The post Biden Joins Hamas Against Israel appeared first on Granite Grok.

Before Nitzakhon took over taming the memeasaurus, I used to dabble a bit. I’m not saying I can manage the sort of commitment to it he has shown in the last few years, but since he needs the time, I thought I’d try to fill the space with … more memes.

Something to help you scratch the midweek itch (memes, you dirty-minded fools).

These are presented as is…they are memes. If you think they need to be fact-checked, you are an idiot. Just smile, laugh, shake your head, and when so inclined, share.

Funny Memes, Political memes. Memes! Biden memes. Lots of Biden memes.

And apologies for duplicates from previous meme posts, if there are any.

Here we go!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fini!

 

 

 

The post Mid-Week Memes appeared first on Granite Grok.

The Seabrook school board has been dealing with frustrated parents for a while now. Many of the complaints seem to center around the district’s poor proficiency scores and unresolved behavior problems.

From what I can tell, the board members have begun challenging administrators on some of the decisions they’ve made in the past. This is exactly what a school board should be doing under these circumstances.

Board members are elected by the people, and if the people are bringing them problems, board members need to turn their attention towards those who are in charge.

According to Seacoast Online, Seabrook Elementary’s Principal just resigned. Bryan Belanger began working for Seabrook Elementary School in January 2022, but will be leaving this school year. Seacoast Online: (emphasis mine)

In January 2022, Belanger’s career came full circle, he said, when he signed on to become Seabrook Elementary School’s principal. At the time he said he couldn’t be happier to return, adding he enjoyed every day at SES.

In his resignation letter, Belanger said his primary goal at SES “has been to create an environment where every student and staff member can thrive, and I have dedicated myself wholeheartedly to that mission each day.”

That might be a lovely goal for him, but that doesn’t seem to be the problems that everyone wants fixed.  Here are the biggest problems:

 

Screenshot

 

Screenshot

As you can see, the parents and school board members have different goals from Belanger. They are focused on improving academic outcomes, Belanger is focused on school climate.

Belanger took some parting shots at the school board, as if they are to blame for all of this. Belanger said he, ” believes the School Board’s behavior in recent months has been unethical and detrimental to the students and families. Belanger also mentioned that he didn’t agree with, “the board’s decision on April 16 to turn down more than $1.3 million in two grants. Those grants would have supported student mental health.”

It appears as if the latest excuse for poor performance is to blame it on the students’ mental health. Where is the proof for that? Parents HAVE NOT been coming to school board meetings begging the district to become a mental health provider for their kids. They want their kids to be able to read and write.  They want kids to be accountable for their actions. Students need boundaries and consequences for their behavior.

A child’s mental health is important to everyone, parents included, but they send their kids to school to learn academics. That has to be the priority, and parents are now demanding this.

We know that personally identifiable mental health data (PII) on children has been shared by school counselors without the student’s or parents knowledge or consent. That violates the School Counselor’s Code of Ethics and is a gross violation of a student’s privacy rights. The PII was shared by some New Hampshire schools that received Project Aware Grant money. Why wasn’t Belanger bothered by that?

Charter School to the Rescue? 
The Seacoast is about to see another Charter School open in the Fall. Seacoast Classical Academy is the result of poor performance in SAU16. Parents there were fed up with the declining performance, and dismissing parental concerns. A few parents decided to open up a Charter school focused on academic excellence. The demand for parents to get their children into this school is growing, and they haven’t opened the doors yet.

Seacoast Classical Academy will be incorporating the Scope and Sequence from Core Knowledge. It’s free, and rich in academic content. I sent the link and information to the Superintendent in SAU21 a short time ago. This is what parents want for their children–a quality academic education.

Parents see that their children are struggling to become literate in the core subjects, and they are demanding better. The Seabrook board is responding by refocusing resources on academics. If the school administrators cannot fulfill their main mission, how do they expect to become experts in treating a child’s mental health?

It’s unfortunate Belanger didn’t rise to the occasion, and show the board proof that he would now be focused on academic excellence to reach the important goal of literacy. Instead he appears to be a disgruntled employee who was ok with the status quo, and was bothered that the board was listening to parents, and expecting better.

 

The post Shake Up In The Seabrook Schools, GOOD appeared first on Granite Grok.

A Mother’s Day party in Northboro, Mass, turned deadly when some “young men” with firearms shot and killed a 16-year-old. Several others were injured. A follow-up headline in the Boston Herald was particularly telling. It should have read ‘Welcome to Bide’s America.’

“Deportation hangs over suspects after fatal Northboro shooting.”

Wallisom Texeira Da Silva, 20, of Hyde Park; Arnoldo Nogueira Filho, 19, of Marlboro; and Pedro Desouza-Passos, 27, of Rockland, each appeared hidden behind a board in Westboro District Court on Monday.

Da Silva, the only defendant charged with felony possession of a firearm in addition to illegal possession of ammunition, was ordered held pending a dangerousness hearing later in May. Filho and Desouza-Passos, each charged with illegal possession of ammunition, were ordered held on $45,000 and $25,000 cash bail respectively.

Desouza-Passos has a criminal record with multiple defaults in court but no convictions, attorneys said Monday. Da Silva and Filho both had ICE detainers lodged against them, and all three used a Portuguese translator in court.

A few observations.

If they can be deported, then they are not of “Hyde Park,” “Marlboro,” or “Rockland.” They are here illegally. Massachusetts gave them sanctuary in violation of Federal Immigration law. They illegally obtained firearms in a Blue State with all sorts of ‘Common Sense Gun laws.’ At least one of them has a criminal record and has been arrested and released more than once). A 16-year-old is dead. They might be deported … for illegal possession of firearms.

And this one is going to hurt. Massachusetts residents voted for this. You embraced the Democrat Party line, its candidates, Joe Biden, and everything that comes with it. The crowded rec centers, hotels, and other facilities (I heard they are looking to put “migrants” up in school buildings). You voted for this, and if you say you didn’t know, why didn’t you? We did, and last time I checked, we’re not supposed to be smarter than the progressives.

Da Silva, Filho and Desouza-Passos were found in a vehicle several hours after the shots just before 3 a.m., according to their criminal complaints.

The car was being driven by a young woman, who had the party hosted in honor of her 21st birthday, and all three defendants were in the back seat, police said. With them, they allegedly had two purses with one partially empty 9mm 30-round magazines and two loose 9mm bullets. Da Silva’s passport was found in one bag, police said, and he claimed ownership of the bag, which held one of the 9 mm bullets.

When a 9mm firearm was later found in the grass near the house, Da Silva also claimed ownership of the gun, police said.

Neither Filho nor Desouza-Passos claimed ownership of any of the bags, ammunition or the single firearm, the report states.

There is so much wrong here, but what exactly are we to do or say? A 17-year-old got shot, and a 16-year-old is dead. Were they here illegally as well? How many individuals were illegals at this house party, at which there may have been more than 100 people?

Drugs, cartels, trafficking, illegal possession of firearms, criminal records, rap sheets, and maybe someone gets deported, which looks a lot like letting them go so they can return.

In Biden’s America, they can’t stop them. Both borders are overwhelmed, but Democrats shouldn’t let that affect how they vote. It never has in the past.

This appears to be the America they want to live in.

 

The post In Biden’s America Murderer’s Face ‘Possibility’ of Deportation appeared first on Granite Grok.

Remember the Ashley Biden diary … in which she wrote about being sexualized and having to take inappropriate showers with her daddy, JOE BIDEN? Well Ashley has confirmed that the diary is hers … which means that anyone supporting Biden is supporting a pedophile. Yes, the President of the United States (albeit an imposter/figurehead who “won” a very rigged election) is a PEDOPHILE.

Joe Bidens daughter Ashley Biden has now confirmed that the famous diary is 100% real!
This also makes it 100% clear that Joe Biden is a sick pedophile and his fake Doctor wife Jill Biden, is an enabler. pic.twitter.com/iGjKozWEcT

— Vince Langman (@LangmanVince) May 12, 2024

The post Ashley Biden Confirms Diary Is Hers … And That Joe Biden Is A PEDOPHILE appeared first on Granite Grok.

Ms. Banfield, fellow Grokster, thank you for riding herd on SAU16 and keeping us up-to-date on its numerous outrages, from Sharpie-gate to making athletic participation contingent on following Woke orthodoxy in private communication.

Regarding towns leaving SAU16: When Secretary Edelblut spoke in Brentwood last fall, our tireless pro-taxpayer activist Liz Faria asked him about Brentwood leaving SAU16.

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

The unfortunate bottom line is that Brentwood can do whatever it likes, but there is no way for us to recover the capital we have invested over the years in various SAU16 programs. “You can check out anytime you want,” but your money will never leave.

Further frustrating this is that dozens of new Brentwooders who have borrowed half a million to live in MacMansions here participate in Town Meeting for the sole purpose of proving that they will do what it takes to Fit In.

 

The post Thank You for Riding Herd on SAU16 appeared first on Granite Grok.

When Ed wrote this (Yes, “They Are The Fascists” … But It Has Little To Do With Censorship), my first thought was that he would be referring to what I wrote here (They Are The Fascists).

The latter was about systematized government suppression of speech and the Fascist relationships between the government and Big Tech that facilitate it. Ed’s piece wasn’t about that at all. He shares some important facts, like how Fascism is just another type of socialism and how much Fascism looks like the current Democratic party agenda—that thing they sometimes refer to as Democratic Socialism.

Not anything most of us don’t know, but a refresher is often necessary, especially when you bring receipts. Not every reader will rasp the details or have read connections that add meat to the bones of the conversation.

Totalitarianism By Another Name

They are the same socialist whore in different dresses, which is timely because it all looks like what filmmaker Richard Jeffs describes as Stakeholder Communism. A top-down command-and-control economy that does business as a government because you need a police state to keep everyone in line. Something Klaus Schwab and the Davos globalists are working to develop across the globe. They call it many things, including a Great Reset, but what it is, is   Stakeholder Communism or just communism.

The government (local or global) controls the means of production without owning it. Oligarchs, who serve at the pleasure of The State, manage ‘industries,” projects, or sectors, and wealth is not prohibited among these proxies unless or until they find themselves out of favor. In Frank Herbert’s Dune, if you are useless, they kill you and take your water. Under the Chinese model, they kill you and take your organs. There is no freedom, no free speech, and mobility, and individual activity is monitored or controlled by the state to ensure everyone serves the state.

The political class includes the economic class, and everyone else serves their needs.

Schwab et al. are after a parallel system that is effectively global fascism, and the Chinese, if they don’t like it, will call it that. If you recall (or if you missed it), last Summer, I shared some reading I’d done explaining how, until Mao, Fascism was seen correctly and proudly as a kissing cousin of Communism.

During Mao’s Cultural Revolution, Chinese Communists and their water carriers in the West adopted the idea that everything to the Right of Mao was fascism, including Soviet Communism. Who knew there was something further Left until Mao?

Self-proclaimed Western Intellectuals were smitten with the Marxism of the early 20th century, Mussolini’s Fascism, and Maoist doctrine after it adopted the idea. Failure, poverty, and pogroms were just necessary “ingredients” then as they are now. But it was at this point (more or less) that all capitalism became Fascism. If it was not Mao, it was Fascism, and while future generations of Marxist thinkers in China may have moved past that internal designation (at least openly), American socialists doing business as the Democratic Party can still be heard shouting it from every rooftop.

If it is not what theirs is, it is Fascism.

As is often the case, they are not admonishing the system but projecting their erstwhile desire for it to be the manner in which Americans and the West conduct themselves.

Stakeholder Communism is Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics, which is simply a different version of National Socialism. Control of the memes of production without having to own all of it, but the owners exist only at the pleasure of the State or those who answer to it. Everything else is an affectation. A feudal arrangement, none of which has ever been anywhere near the individual small government liberty side of any political spectrum.

American Democrats calling us Fascists doth protest too much.

 

The post The Leftists Calling Us Fascists Doth Protest Too Much appeared first on Granite Grok.

The world’s most notorious state exponent of anti-Semitism, the Islamic Republic of Iran, is on a path to uproot not only all that is perceived as civilized but to annihilate the greatest threat to its existence, the Iranian people. The mullahs and their mercenaries are wasting precious human lives in order to maintain their power by terrorizing.

The Iranian people are simply hopeless and helpless. Even the United Nations does not come to their rescue. From its past performance, rather than its absence of performance, we know that the UN watchdog is a true disgrace to dogs since all it does is eat, sleep, and look the other way. Furthermore, the dog has no teeth. The vet had to pull all its teeth before the dog became acceptable to the crafty cats that constitute the UN itself.

The Islamic Republic is a unique creature – it is best described as a theocratic aristocracy. The “divinely ordained” rulers maintained themselves in power through an elaborate system of patronage. Lucrative positions, contracts and valued privileges are distributed in this way. The result is that the ruling mullahs enjoy a significant number of supporters in all strata of society – the civil service, the military, the powerful Revolutionary Guards, and the hooligans and thugs who are ready to unleash their vicious attacks on anyone or any group that dares to challenge the in-charge men of Allah.

The illegitimate government of the Islamic Republic is a quisling entity that has betrayed its people, its tradition, and its glorious pre-Islamic achievements and is incessantly working against Iran’s national interest. Iran, under the stranglehold and machinations of the mullahs, has been transformed, in less than three decades, into the lead perpetrator of all that is abhorrent to humanity.

The supreme leader of the Islamic Republic, Ali Khamenei, like his predecessor, Ayatollah Khomeini, whose callous disregard for human life was matched only by his consuming paranoia, allegedly has issued a decree to hang Iranian dissidents publicly in all the towns and villages with a population that exceeds 1,000 people. For Ayatollah Khamenei, dissident viewpoints represent an unacceptable threat. Anyone found questioning the Shari’a law – and many hundreds of thousands were – had to be “weeded out.” The Islamic Republic is on a mission to end human life in Iran.The Islamic Republic has the dubious distinction of executing more children, those under the age of 18, than any other country in the world. Such is the plight of the Iranian people.

Iran’s ruling mullahs are clustered around major factions such as the fundamentalists, the moderates, and the so-called reformists. Yet, the differences among these factions are tactical rather than strategic. One and all share the same overarching goal of defeating the “Crusader-Zionists” by any and all methods possible, bringing about the “end of the world” Armageddon, and thereby creating the requisite conditions for the appearance of the Hidden Imam, the Mahdi, to assume his rule of the world.

“What is the likelihood that the ruling mullahs will actually use the bomb?” you may ask. “If they remain in power long enough to have it, they are very likely to use it, in one form or another,” you are told. At the very least, they will use the bomb for blackmail and intimidation in the region. You may ask how you can help prevent this catastrophe. “Support the Iranian peoples’ struggle for freedom by at least petitioning,” you are told.

In order to achieve total control, the Islamic Republic and its lackeys spawned a series of immense internal purges, beginning in 1988 and known as the “Massacre of Political Prisoners of 1988.” They have intensified their domestic terror in recent months and weeks.

A society that is intense in its struggle for change has a flip side to its idealism: intolerance. This totalitarian regime sees enemies everywhere, enemies who want to destroy the Islamic Revolution and diminish the results of its hard work of creating an Islamic utopia in the land of Cyrus the Great.

The regime seems to be panicking with hyper-suspiciousness. They have installed watchdogs in schools, universities, factories, and all offices across the country and are urged to be vigilant against sabotage, against those who crave freedom and democracy. Many innocent Iranians are being victimized, and the saying has gone around that “when you chop wood, the chips fly.” As with Khamenei, it is believed that some who are innocent will have to be victimized if all of the guilty are to be apprehended.

In fact, they stigmatize, victimize, and murder people without any due process of law. On the slightest suspicion, they arrest, convict, and execute. Few people would deny any longer that Islam and its variants mean, in practice, bloody terrorism, deadly purges, lethal actions, forced hijab, fatal deportations, extrajudicial executions, show trials, and genocide. It is killing hundreds of thousands of innocent people.

Today, the Islamic Republic of Iran is one of the greatest threats to the stability of the civilized world and humanity at large. It continues to impose this horrendous ideology called Islam on the Iranian population. The world must file legal charges against the leaders of the Islamic Republic for their wanton violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights for their crimes against humanity and genocidal actions against religion. 

The regime seems to be panicking.

and political groups; for support of international terrorism; for demolition of religious sites and cemeteries; for rape, torture, and summary executions of prisoners of conscience; forgery of documents; for acts of blackmail and fraud; and much more.

To those misguided advocates of negotiation with the mullahs, beware. The mullahs are on an Allah-mandated mission. They are intoxicated with petrodollars and aim to settle for nothing less than complete domination of the world under the Islamic Ummah. It is precisely for this reason that they consider America and the West as Ofooli, a setting, dying system, while they believe their Islamism is Tolooi, a rising, living order. They are in no mood to negotiate for anything less than the total surrender of democracy, the very anathema to Islamism. This is only one reason, but perhaps one of the greatest reasons, for fostering democracy.

The post Mullahs and Their Mercenaries Are Terrorizing Iran appeared first on Granite Grok.

If the global goal of the globalists was to use COVID to kill people and make them vaccine-hesitant, it did both of those things. But pharmaceutical executives and their investors don’t stay rich on government laundromat money alone. They need to keep innovating, so this strikes me as a step in the wrong direction.

And by step, I mean if the goal is to protect people and keep them alive, so you can keep charging them for things you claim will keep them alive. You need people to do that, and more people equates to more potential profit.

The goals of the depopulationists and these fascist-corporatist capitalists appear at odds. My guess is someone has the math worked out on the back of a cocktail napkin. The perfect number of the right sort of people to keep in their controlled environments ensures they can continue to live well at the expense of others.

And they will be burning fossil fuels. You can’t make and maintain 15-minute cities without them.

That Perpetual Vaccination Intervention

The opening paragraph begins with, “Scientists have created a vaccine that has the potential to protect against a broad range of coronaviruses, including varieties that are not yet even known about.” Before 2020, this would have aroused curiosity and a healthy amount of skepticism. We’d like to see the research, please, and let’s hope it is as promising as people looking for more free money to do more research claim it to be.

The experimental shot, which has been tested in mice, marks a change in strategy towards “proactive vaccinology,” where vaccines are designed and readied for manufacture before a potentially pandemic virus emerges. The vaccine is made by attaching harmless proteins from different coronaviruses to minuscule nanoparticles that are then injected to prime the body’s defences to fight the viruses should they ever invade.

Because the vaccine trains the immune system to target proteins that are shared across many different types of coronavirus, the protection it induces is extremely broad, making it effective against known and unknown viruses in the same family.

The magic, not ever again in your life words, are harmless, proteins, and nanoparticles. Nowhere are the letters m, R, N, or A in proximity, but that platform is the one with which we are familiar when the subject of harmless proteins and nanoparticles rears its uncontrollable side-effect-rearing head. Would those be “spike” proteins? They never say.

Has The Guardian banned the use of the term “spike protein”? A casual search did not produce any results in 2024 that included the two words together in that order.

If that is not enough to scare you away, perhaps this will do the trick.

Prof Mark Howarth, a senior author of the study, said: “Scientists did a great job in quickly producing an extremely effective Covid vaccine during the last pandemic, but the world still had a massive crisis with a huge number of deaths. We need to work out how we can do even better than that in the future, and a powerful component of that is starting to build the vaccines in advance.”

The senior author thinks the jab was extremely effective, which brings me back to my opening. Effective at doing what?

 

The post “Scientists” Testing One-Jab-To-Kill-Them-All ‘Vaccine’ to Fight Multiple “Coronaviruses” appeared first on Granite Grok.

The 2 party system is not what the founders planned for, and I believe it is totally corrupted. My Litmus Test is being able to vote for someone without having to hold my nose. In my first several elections, I was third party and independent.

After Clinton started attacking outdoorsmen and stealing fishing and hunting funds, I became an Anti-Democrat. My first vote for a major party was for a Democrat, Tom Laughlin, who was an actor who played “Billy Jack”. He did not make it past NH.

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

It was not until Trump, whom I could not stand personally but loved what he had to say, that I voted for him twice without holding my nose. He has blown it now.

Either way, this election ends, there is going to be turmoil. When maybe 30 to 40 percent of the people suffer from TDS, it does not look good. My other belief is to Let It Fail. It may be the only way in which we can start over.

 

The post No Matter How This Election Ends, There’s Going to Be Turmoil appeared first on Granite Grok.

There’s a lot of chatter right now about Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., even though he won’t even be on many states ballots this fall, let alone actually scoring one single electoral vote in November’s election.

And while they may know his name, many voters know little about him or his policies to make an informed decision one way or another. True patriots should know that despite expensive advertising and lofty promises, his ideas are downright dangerous, and anyone who identifies as a conservative, or simply as somebody who loves their country, best steer clear.

Here’s what we know about him, from his very own statements. (RELATED: JASON LEWIS: The ‘Deep State’ Is Far Deeper Than Anyone Imagined)

In 2019, Kennedy shared an article defending Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s proposal for a 70% top tax rate, saying that there’s research to “back her up.”

Where would this money go? Not back to the people, because if he wanted this, he’d be in favor of tax cuts. Instead, a huge tax increase would feed an ever-growing, ever-overreaching federal government. This is something he has in common with President Joe Biden and defies our Founders’ vision of empowered people and states, and a specific, limited role for the federal government.

In his heart, Kennedy is a proponent of dangerous Big Government Socialism — where liberal elites have one size fits all ideas — their ideas — for every American, their families and their businesses. Yet history has proven that socialist ideas have destroyed once great countries and are now tearing at the very fabric of America under Joe Biden.

Kennedy has called for governments to divest from fossil fuels. He wants to put a carbon tax on all emissions, which would saddle all hard-working American families with even more inflation when they are already burdened by the failed policies of the Biden administration. The hallmark of Biden’s inflation and all things Bidenomics are high energy prices.

RFK’s policies — in fact, his dream — would have gas prices at $10 a gallon. Energy is a component of everything from heating our homes to the food we eat.

These policies would bankrupt American families and businesses, enrich our advisories like Iran and Russia and HURT the global environment by displacing clean U.S. energy production with foreign sources.

Further, Kennedy has held troubling and problematic relationships with people he not only considers his friends, but also a “truly great partner” — an example includes virulent Antisemite Louis Farrakhan. At a time when Israel is fighting on every front, and with a historic rise of antisemitism on our college campuses, this should be a disqualifying in and of itself.

Liberals know this, which is why they’re so frightened of him. He’s more AOC than AOC is and has described himself as a big proponent of the inflationary and economically unsustainable Green New Deal-he’s called it “huge” and “important.”

He’s more than an anti-Second Amendment gun-grabber, he’s literally called the National Rifle Association “a terror group.” He’s more than an enabler of spending your hard-earned money, he supports Biden’s actions to “cancel” student debt if they were to be approved by Congress. He has endorsed or contributed to every major Democrat in recent history-Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton.

When you look at his record, when you look at what he’s spoken about and what he continues to say, it reminds me of the old saying: If he talks like a liberal, and he walks like a liberal, don’t let it fool you. He’s a liberal.

Doug Burgum | Daily Caller News Service

 

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

We want to thank The Daily Caller for being a partner and supporter of  Independent Media. You can support Independent Media here, or if you prefer to donate by check, email steve@granitegrok com for details.

The post Here’s Why Conservatives Can’t Trust RFK Jr. appeared first on Granite Grok.

President Joe Biden advertised himself as a uniter of Americans but instead seems to have embarked on a crusade to unite government with industry. His disregard for the rule of law parallels an equally dangerous abandonment of fundamental free market principles via government fiat. The latest example is displayed in the administration’s emissions mandates for EV cars and trucks.

EV Fiasco

Biden’s newly proposed EV regulations are just one more straw on the camel’s back of economic reality. Electric vehicles resemble the Biden administration more and more: They do not deliver as advertised, cannot compete without being propped up, take money from the poor to give to the rich, divide the nation, and are used to sabotage the economy. If this sounds extreme, please read on.

The EPA’s long-awaited tailpipe emissions standards are a bureaucrat’s dream and a nightmare for taxpayers and car manufacturers. The 1,184-page rule does not mandate the manufacture of EV cars and trucks; it merely makes compliance with its strictures impossible without doing so.

Like Captain Ahab, Biden doesn’t care if every sailor (or auto worker) is forced to jump ship in his pursuit of the Great White Climate Utopia. Auto emission laws have historically set targets for individual vehicles, leaving manufacturers free to allocate resources to produce models desired by free consumers. The new EPA rules instead set limits on manufacturers’ total fleet emissions, essentially commanding Ford and Chevrolet to produce vehicles that meet stringent diktats, regardless of consumer demand, corporate profitability, or union job security.

Ford Motor Company has cut back plans to ramp up EV production after losing an estimated $64,731 per vehicle in 2023 despite massive state and federal subsidies. Losses would be far greater if not for profitable gas-powered vehicle sales. It seems taxpayers are not being price-gouged by corporations so much as by a government enacting state control of entire industries by regulatory fiat. Dictating what car dealers may offer as inventory may not jibe with consumer desires, and there is no indemnification clause by the EPA to purchase unsold goods.

EV trucks are a particularly bad sell for consumers concerned about range anxiety, failure to function in cold weather, lack of adequate charging stations, and staggering repair bills. Commercial buyers are uninterested in fleets of EV trucks that necessitate work crews taking multiple trips to transport a load that a single gas-powered pickup could handle. Ford is reportedly already cutting back its workforce in Dearborn, MI, due to declining sales of its Lightning EV, powered by dual “in-board” electric motors.

Unconstitutional Overreach

State-owned and state-run entities have a bad track record. The latest EV rules are just one more layer of regulatory “taking” of profits (and restrictions on capital allocation) implemented using dubious, if not blatantly unconstitutional, Biden edicts.

Biden used the Centers for Disease Control to impose a national moratorium on the eviction of renters, though he later recognized that any new order to extend it would be unconstitutional. The Supreme Court struck down his effort to mandate vaccines and testing for employees of large businesses. A federal district judge found that Biden’s race-based policies through the Minority Business Development Agency “flagrantly violated” the Equal Protection Clause. His student loan “forgiveness plan” was held to have abridged Congress’ legislative authority and was “an unconstitutional exercise of Congress’s legislative power and must be vacated.”

A US District Judge ruled that the $1.7 million Inflation Reduction Act was unconstitutionally enacted without the required congressional quorum; another ruled that Biden’s use of the Federal Highway Administration to set climate targets for vehicles “lacked a statutory basis and was invalid.” EPA rules impacting farmers, SEC rules burdening businesses with environmental reporting, and the allegedly illegal cancellation of Alaskan oil leases have all attracted similar criticisms. So much for supporting the rule of law.

Economics Matter

Times have changed under Biden. Social justice “theories” have eclipsed business management with fantasy policies of “universal equity” that threaten universal downfall. Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez burdened that once-prosperous nation with massive social spending “to finance educational, health, food, and housing programs,” which, along with economic mismanagement and corruption, sparked hyperinflation. Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe crippled a well-diversified economy with galloping inflation and bankruptcy through mismanaged state-owned enterprises and debt incurred for education and social services.

The president’s recent EPA rules for tailpipe emissions constitute yet more “preferential access to public procurement and government guidance of investment” through regulatory overreach. Dreams are nice, but somebody has to pay the bills. Rights are dandy, but someone has to take responsibility. The Biden administration chisels away at constitutional safeguards like Woody Woodpecker, imposing impossible dreams on businesses and taxpayers, leaving an economic, environmental, and constitutional disaster zone that America’s grandchildren will be repairing long after Biden has left office.

 

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

The post Progressive EV Mandates and Economic Reality appeared first on Granite Grok.

Every few years, we hear about someone who is convinced they can travel by sea to the North Pole. Depending on which source you consult, that hasn’t happened for over five million years, but thanks to the media charlatans hawking the prognostications of quacks, some are convinced it can be done.

Take a Number and a Seat

There were arboreal forests in northern Greenland 5.3 million years ago, so it can happen, but you’ll have to swallow a big reality sandwich. No one was burning fossil fuels back then unless you could tree, and you’d need to wait another four million years until the best guessers postulate common use. This ‘suggests’ that anthropogenics has nothing to do with it, and it “might be” celestial mechanics.

Related: How Could Our Monkey Ancestors Have Colonized Much of the World During the Hothouse of the PETM, if All That Global Warming Damaged Their Food Supply?

Similar expeditions include the privately funded search for the floating island of plastic debris in the ocean. It’s a big ocean, but neither Google Earth (which only exists thanks to DARPA and the CIA) nor well-meaning investors have been able to find it. Likewise, there isn’t much evidence of accelerated sea level rise, an increase in the frequency or severity of weather events, or that increased funding is capable of either finding some? More money can heighten awareness of the lies and, at some future date, claim that all the things it said that were happening (that were not) have been fixed. Just stop lying, and ta-da!

Global Fascism, led by the WEF, WHO, and UN, fixed it (and stop asking how that happened while India, China, and Africa exponentially expanded their coal-burning economies). Some coal is more equal than others – and I ranted about that to wonder about this.

Stranded Hikers Rescued

New Hampshire Fish and Game had to rescue a pair of hikers in the White Mountains. They call the Mountains that (not because of racism But) because well into the Spring, they are covered with stuff children were not supposed to have known or seen for going on two generations. Snow. It snows up there as late as June and as early as September.

I don’t recall any July snowstorms on Mt. Washington, but I suspect they’ve had a few, even in the fairy tale era of cataclysmic anthropogenic climate disruption.

“The hikers did not take into account winter conditions with below-freezing temperatures and rain,” the release said. “They also were not prepared to deal with deep snow.”

Conservation officers reminded visitors that winter conditions persist in the White Mountains, the release said.

They were from Canada, Eh? Nice folks, I’m certain, who may have been convinced that in mid-May, way down south in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, it has to be warm enough to hike without an adequate understanding of the risks.

The hikers, who were wet and tired, called for rescue after they couldn’t continue in the deep snow at 5:18 p.m. Thursday, May 9, New Hampshire Fish & Game said in a news release.

Three conservation officers met the hikers at 10:10 p.m. and guided them to a road, where they were driven down the mountain, the agency said.

About two dozen hikers get rescued in the Whites annually, and every now and again, someone dies on a mountain in New Hampshire, but Climate Change didn’t kill them. Being unprepared is typically the culprit. You need to do a bit of research. Actual research.

They have mountaintop forecasts, live webcams, and current and expected conditions. But just like the rest of New England, the weather can change quickly, and there’s nothing you can emit (or stop emitting) that will change that

Live MWO Web Cam: Observations Deck

cc

 

The post Hikers Had to Be Rescued – Is Global Warming Hysteria To Blame? appeared first on Granite Grok.

You don’t hear about New Jersey as much as you would think. It’s pretty much an extension of New York and is similarly aligned as a solid Blue state. On Saturday night, New Jersey was anything but quiet, and most of the 80,000 people gathered to rally around the former and soon-to-be President Donald Trump, created a sea of red as far as the cameras could see.

It was a fantastic spectacle and should send shivers of fear up the spine of every Democrat. Joe Biden is using every tool in his bag, some of them unconstitutional, to dampen the impact of Donald Trump, but even keeping him gagged and confined to a New York courtroom for three weeks only heightened the MAGA enthusiasm in the Garden State. Even when he breaks the rules, Biden is a failure, and the momentum is building for a November landslide of Reaganesque proportions.

Fresh off a tense week in court where Alvin Bragg used Stormy Daniels to embarrass the former President but has yet to define the charge against Trump. Judge Merchan has stomped on the Constitution with the restrictions imposed on Trump and the irrelevant testimony he has allowed for the sole purpose of disparaging Trump. He has fined Trump for talking publicly about the trial while allowing Michael Cohen to speak openly on TikTok while wearing a sweatshirt showing Trump behind bars. This trial should be shot down as a mistrial, or a hung jury will acquit Trump, but Merchan has built the appeal. Trump defied all gag orders on Saturday night and spoke freely about the case.

He also had a field day criticizing every aspect of the Biden Presidency, and Joe has given Trump plenty of material. New York Giants great Lawrence Taylor appeared and declared he is no longer a Democrat and is now a member of the MAGA Trump team. Trump pledged to redraw the electoral map in 2024 and would turn states like New Jersey, Wisconsin, and Michigan Red. Every state is in play for Trump, and he deserves every one of them.

Someone else was in attendance and maybe a harbinger of a coming announcement. Greg Burgham is a businessman, Governor of North Dakota, and on the shortlist for Trump’s Vice President choice. Burgham made little impact on his run for President this year, but he has shown that after dropping out of the race, he is a solid middle-of-the-road Republican and a perfect complement to Trump. Trump openly attacked every Republican in the primary field except Burgham, who has been a solid Trump supporter since 2016. That loyalty is paying dividends and has been promised a prominent role in the Trump Administration. He may have parlayed his support into the number two slot and a shot at the big desk in 2028.

As much as Biden gaslights America trying to convince them how great things are, Americans are not sniffing the gas. People understand reality and know the country was in a better place under Trump than Biden. Biden has damaged this country beyond belief and done more to destroy Democracy than Trump could ever conceive. Biden will lose in November, and he should. The American people will never trust a future election if he pulls off a miracle and secures reelection. Those 81 million voters he enjoyed in 2020 will sit this one out.

 

The post New Jersey Turns From Blue To Red, White, and Blue appeared first on Granite Grok.

It is highly likely that the Senate Judiciary Committee will vote on two critical bills, HB 396 and HB 1607, tomorrow. Read on for more information on the bills and how you can help.

HB 396: State Definition of Biological Sex

HB 396 is needed to clarify that nothing in New Hampshire law prevents public facilities from differentiating between the biological sexes in athletic competitions, prisons, locker rooms, restrooms, or places of intimate privacy.

Rather than focusing on a single area such as sports, HB 396, by acknowledging that “any person or organization, public or private,” can make a common-sense classification based on biological sex, provides the most expansive framework to address the ongoing harm to vulnerable women and girls and has the greatest success of becoming law in New Hampshire.

We urge you to contact the committee and ask them to vote Ought To Pass on the bill as is with no amendments. 

CONTACT THE COMMITTEE

Please Submit Group communications or Press Releases to steve@granitegrok.com.
Submission is not a guarantee of publication – Publication is not an endorsement.

HB 1607: Relative to Expanded Save Haven Protections

Last month, there was a public hearing in the Senate on HB 1607, relative to expanded safe haven protections. Now, the Senate has a critical opportunity to position New Hampshire as the leader in infant protections among our New England neighbors.

Earlier this year, the most important part of the bill was removed on the House floor: Section 5 would have ensured parents surrendering a baby would not have to fear prosecution as a result of their surrender. It is critical and necessary to include this exclusionary provision in the expansion of safe haven law to accomplish the law’s goal which is to save lives, NOT catch criminals or deter parents from doing the right thing for their child.

The Senate must re-insert the Section 5 exclusionary provisions of the bill to prioritize the lives of vulnerable infants and ensure parents are not discouraged from using this safe and secure means to surrender their unwanted child.

We urge you to contact the committee and ask them to amend the bill to reinsert the exclusionary rule, and then vote OTP on the bill.

CONTACT THE COMMITTEE

The post Last Chance: Contact the Senate Judiciary on Critical Bills! appeared first on Granite Grok.

The Biden administration’s assault on farmers now includes an openly racist and sexist dimension: allocating $25 billion in federal disaster relief funds to stricken farmers based solely on race and gender. The USDA has dispensed funds using this social justice criterion, employing skin color and gender preference above merit or need in yet another regulatory overreach by the Biden-Harris team. Typical of POTUS Biden’s pattern of defiance against established legal principles, the policy is blatantly unconstitutional and openly discriminates against white farmers.

USDA Discrimination Against White Farmers

The US Department of Agriculture is not empowered by Congress or the US Constitution to allocate taxpayer funds based exclusively on race, yet the nonprofit Southeastern Legal Foundation (SLF) alleges in a recent lawsuit on behalf of white farmers from Texas that it is doing precisely that. Joe Biden has defied a US Supreme Court determination that he cannot “forgive” student loan debt. He used the SEC to impose costly environmental reporting requirements on publicly traded companies, and manipulated EPA regulations to dominate the US car manufacturing industry. The common theme is one of bypassing the Constitution in order to implement social justice ideology.

The challenged USDA regulations favor farmers of color and the female gender over white farmers (of the male kind) for disaster relief. SLF Executive Director Kimberly Hermann alleges that such discriminatory classifications are not authorized by any power granted to USDA by the US Congress:

“The Biden Administration consistently crosses the line by mobilizing executive agencies to do Congress’s job. Once again, it has gone too far. Not only is USDA plainly violating the Constitution, but it is also acting without so much as a whisper from Congress. If Congress wanted USDA to carry out its emergency relief programs in such a drastic way, it would have done so clearly and in express terms. Congress’s silence is deafening.”

Classifying people by their race as a condition of receiving government benefits is … racist. It violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and other federal laws. In its landmark 6-2 ruling in 2023 stating that Harvard unconstitutionally discriminated against Asian Americans, the US Supreme Court Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard stated this clearly:

“Eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it. And the Equal Protection Clause, we have accordingly held, applies ‘without regard to any differences of race, of color, or of nationality’ – it is ‘universal in [its] application.’ Yick Wo, 118 U. S., at 369. For ‘[t]he guarantee of equal protection cannot mean one thing when applied to one individual and something else when applied to a person of another color.’ Regents of Univ. of Cal. v. Bakke, 438 U. S. 265, 289–290 (1978) (opinion of Powell, J.). ‘If both are not accorded the same protection, then it is not equal.’ Id., at 290.”

Violating the Constitution… Again and Again

The male-plaintiff white farmers in the current case, Strickland, et al. v. United States Department of Agriculture, claim they are not being afforded equal treatment for disaster relief based solely on their race or gender. In its April 5, 2024, Brief in Support of a Motion for a Preliminary Injunction barring USDA from discriminating against them, legal counsel assert that USDA has unconstitutionally exceeded its authority:

“The Constitution promises equal treatment to all Americans regardless of their race or sex. It also promises the separation of powers. USDA broke both promises through the disaster and pandemic relief programs challenged here. Since 2020, Congress has appropriated nearly $25 billion to USDA in emergency disaster and pandemic relief to aid farmers. And while Congress never instructed USDA to allocate those funds based on race or sex, that is exactly what USDA did. Through the eight disaster relief programs challenged here, USDA gives more money to some farmers based on those characteristics alone.

“The agricultural sector is of vast economic significance. That makes USDA’s decision to implement race and sex preferences a major question that only Congress can address. When elected officials make this divisive choice, they rightly expect that they will have to answer to the American people. Yet Congress never mentioned race or sex in the relevant disaster relief appropriations. USDA also acted arbitrarily and capriciously by failing to explain its shift to a novel ‘progressive factoring’ system that reduces relief to those who suffer the most losses.”

“Unblemished by Success”

The brief asserts that race-based classifications are presumptively unconstitutional and that this has been made clear to the USDA by Congress. Nevertheless, the brief claims, the USDA continues to employ race-based definitions of “socially disadvantaged” farmers in its regulations, “even though its record of defending its race- and sex-based definitions is “unblemished by success.”

Using race-only criteria permits the transfer of government money to a very wealthy, retired black farmer in preference to a poor white family with young children. This is hardly equitable.

In The Quest for Cosmic Justice, Thomas Sowell explained that efforts to achieve “equity” in the form of equality of outcome in lieu of equality of opportunity inevitably create yet greater inequities. The USDA program also favors “underserved” farmers, including “beginning farmers.” The suit does not claim this classification violates racial prohibitions. Still, it is clearly inequitable – why should newbie farmers, often more likely to make errors as they learn the agricultural ropes, be preferentially compensated for losses over intergenerational farm families? The more the government discriminates using cosmic social “justice” categorizations, the more it undermines both equality and equity.

Marxist Chairman Joe Biden?

The Strickland Brief observes that Sowell’s caution is displayed by the USDA disaster relief policies under POTUS Biden:

“On January 20, 2021, President Biden declared it to be the policy of his administration that the federal government would pursue a ‘comprehensive approach to advancing equity for all’ through ‘an ambitious whole-of-government equity agenda.’ Executive Order 13985, Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government, 86 Fed. Reg. 7009 (Jan. 25, 2021). President Biden doubled down on this order on February 16, 2023, pledging to ‘continuously embed equity into all aspects of Federal decision-making,’ by requiring agencies to ensure ‘equitable outcomes.’ Executive Order 14091, Further Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government, 88 Fed. Reg. 10825 (Feb. 22, 2023); but see Rollerson v. Brazos River Harbor Navigation Dist., 6 F.4th 633, 648 (5th Cir. 2021) (Ho, J., concurring in part and concurring in the judgment) (explaining that the difference between equity and equality is ‘the difference between color blindness and critical race theory’). In furtherance of this whole-of-government approach, Thomas Vilsack, Secretary of USDA, proclaimed that he ‘emphatically agreed’ with the President’s orders. U.S. Dep’t of Agric., Equity Action Plan 2023 Update, 2 (2024), https://perma.cc/PQH3-4B3W. And, at his direction, USDA ‘embraced the Administration’s equity agenda’ and is ‘[c]entering equity in everything [it] do[es].’”

Redistributing wealth through government to achieve equal outcomes is Marxist; doing so using race-only categorizations is boldly unconstitutional. Yet this is precisely what the Biden-Harris administration continues to do through regulatory agencies, in defiance of oaths of office and a 2023 Supreme Court ruling. While claiming Donald Trump and his followers are the greatest threat to the nation, Joe Biden persistently flouts clear laws – and farmers often take the short end of the Biden stick. As SFL observes, “Agriculture is a tough enough livelihood without the added hurdle of discrimination. … Natural disasters don’t discriminate. Neither should USDA.”

 

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

The post Night Cap: White Farmers Matter – USDA Rules Violate the Equal Protection Clause appeared first on Granite Grok.

Mr Town Manager, Mr Chairman,

In response to the highlighted issue, it seems appropriate to establish a code of conduct for members of the town council at the next organizational meeting following the March 2025 election.

It is highly concerning that the town manager pursued a frivolous complaint against former councilwoman Deb Paul but refused to hold Councilman Farrell accountable. Farrell has accosted citizens multiple times outside public meetings.

Related: Complaint Against Town Councilor Dismissed by His Buddies on the Town Council

This is a repeat of an incident with citizen Richard Bielinski that also occurred during John Farrell’s tenure. Captain Breen from the police department witnessed the incident and reportedly advised Councilman Farrell, “You may not want to do that.”

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

At some point, this becomes citizen intimidation. We already have Town employees who laugh about how often we are sued. Let’s not allow a runaway councilman to give us yet one more opportunity to be held liable for something as a community, seeing as it is my tax dollars that pay when these things rise to the level of legal action.

Mr. Town Manager, Mr. Chairman, We’d like to know what steps you are taking to reign in runaway Councilman Farrell, who apparently thinks he can treat citizens however he’d like.

I request a constructive response within five days. Mr Chairman, I would note as a final point that the School Board draws lessons in governance from how you run Public Meetings.

The post Re: ‘Ethics’ Complaint Against Councilor Farrell Dismissed by Town Council appeared first on Granite Grok.

In an article I wrote last September entitled “Judge Arthur Brennan sentenced Father Gordon MacRae to Die in Prison,” I aimed a spotlight at the glaring injustice of the 1994 prosecution of Father Gordon MacRae. Also in these pages, Fr. George David Byers wrote “A Code of Silence in the U.S. Catholic Church: Affidavits.”

It aimed another spotlight at a Church hierarchy morally paralyzed by litigation. A full and transparent view of justice now requires unveiling a related story in the background of the troubling case against Father Gordon MacRae. It’s a story, as the Rev. Richard John Neuhaus once described in the pages of First Things magazine (June/July 2009), “of a Church and a justice system that seem indifferent to justice.”

This account begins in tragedy. Shortly after noon on Friday, May 11, 1979, Peter Linsley, 35, and Jane Linsley, 28, both of Concord, New Hampshire, walked unannounced through the open door of the rectory at Saint Rose of Lima Catholic Church in Littleton, NH, a town of (then) about 5,400 in the north of that state. A year earlier, in May 1978, Peter Linsley was discharged from the state psychiatric hospital on the grounds of the New Hampshire State Prison in Concord. He had been declared no longer a danger to himself or others. He previously entered a plea of innocent by reason of insanity to a charge of aggravated assault on a police officer in July 1977.

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

As the Linsleys barged into the Littleton church rectory in May 1979, two parishioners, Mrs. Patricia Lyons and her son, Michael, had been working inside. The home invaders brandished a pair of .357-caliber Magnum revolvers and declared themselves to be “King and Queen of the Church” sent there by God to “cleanse the temple.” They demanded to see the parish priest.

The priest assigned at Saint Rose of Lima Parish at the time was the Rev. Stephen Scruton. As the drama unfolded in his parish rectory that day, Fr. Scruton was aboard a plane somewhere over the Atlantic headed for a vacation in Ireland. With her son held at gunpoint, Mrs. Lyons telephoned Rev. Joseph Sands in the nearby town of Lancaster, about 15 miles away. At gunpoint, she asked the priest to come immediately. A half-hour later, Father Sands became the Linsleys’ third hostage.

After the arrival of Father Sands, the couple ordered Mrs. Lyons to retrieve a dog left in their car, but once outside, she ran for help. Meanwhile, the priest convinced her son, Mike, to escape by jumping from a second-floor window, reportedly telling him, “If you want to get out alive, get out quickly.” Father Joe Sands thus made himself the sole hostage.

Mrs. Lyons went right to the police. Within a half hour, a State Police SWAT team surrounded the parish house and established a telephone link with the Linsleys. The tape-recorded negotiations went on for the next five hours, ending at 5:22 PM when four shots were fired inside the rectory. Peter Linsley murdered Father Joe Sands, then shot and killed Jane Linsley, and then, finally, turned his gun on himself.

At the time in 1979, sitting New Hampshire Governor, the late Honorable Hugh Gallen was a native of Littleton and a friend of Father Stephen Scruton, whose vacation was cut short as he was quickly returned to a parish mired in tragedy. According to a priest who had once lived in that rectory with Father Scruton, Governor Gallen took command of the scene and ordered the five hours of taped negotiations between the Linsleys and police negotiators to be sealed. The tapes never became public.

That priest, the late Rev. Maurice Rochefort, was a friend of both Father Joe Sands and Father Gordon MacRae, who, in 1979, was still three years away from priesthood ordination. Father Rochefort reportedly once told MacRae that the Littleton rectory and its parish priest were not random targets. He said that the gunman sought revenge against Father Stephen Scruton specifically for some unknown previous encounter at the church. That has long been rumored among priests of the Diocese of Manchester who knew Scruton, but none would respond to inquiries about Father Scruton or this incident.

A few years ago, Father MacRae wrote a haunting and deeply sad article entitled “Dark Night of a Priestly Soul.” It was about a priest he knew in his Diocese who in 2002 tragically took his own life after an accusation surfaced against him from 1972. That accusation was also alleged to have occurred at St. Rose of Lima Parish in Littleton. The accuser in that case also accused another priest, Fr. Stephen Scruton.

During the five years before the tragedy that took the life of Father Joe Sands, Gordon MacRae had been a seminary student with the New York Province of the Capuchin Order. After completing the one-year Capuchin novitiate in 1974, MacRae was assigned to Saint Anthony Friary in Hudson, NH, from where he attended nearby Saint Anselm College. He graduated with degrees in philosophy and psychology, with honors, in 1978. During the summer of 1978, the young seminarian sought the counsel of fellow Capuchin and mentor, Father Benedict Groeschel, as he discerned leaving the Capuchins to pursue graduate studies in theology toward diocesan priesthood.

It was an amiable transition. For the next four years (1978 to 1982), seminarian Gordon MacRae studied at St. Mary Seminary & University in Baltimore, Maryland, where he earned simultaneous graduate degrees in divinity and pastoral counseling and a Pontifical degree in theology. For the next four summers, MacRae worked in a three-year internship as a counselor with the Baltimore County Police Crisis Intervention Unit.

A year after the tragic murder of Father Sands, in June of 1980, Father Stephen Scruton was transferred from Littleton to Saint John Parish in Hudson, NH on the state’s southern border. Because seminarian Gordon MacRae had lived in that community as a Capuchin, he requested to be ordained at Saint John Church on June 5, 1982. He was the only candidate for priesthood ordination for the Diocese of Manchester that year. It was there, in late May and early June of 1982 that he first met Father Stephen Scruton.

During his first year of priesthood, Father MacRae was assigned to a deeply troubled parish where four nuns teaching in the parish school had an open and bitterly fought lawsuit against MacRae’s bishop and diocese. It was a situation that Father MacRae inherited, but had no connection to. His first assignment was in a parish deeply divided by this lawsuit and its state-wide publicity.

For an occasional day off, he would drive to Hudson where he had developed many friendships during his years as a Capuchin. On a few occasions, he also visited the three priests at Saint John Parish in Hudson where he was ordained.

During one of those visits in 1983, a Hudson parish secretary pulled Father MacRae aside and told him of a troubling incident in the rectory. She said that she suspected that Father Scruton’s assistant, Father Mark Fleming, had been sexually abusing an 11-year-old boy in this rectory. She told Father MacRae that she saw nothing specific but that her instinct on this was very strong. She said she tried to discuss this with Father Scruton, the pastor, but he brushed it aside and told her not to mention it to anyone else. Father MacRae reportedly told her that if she saw anything at all that caused her to make such a conclusion, she was obligated to report it to police. Other than that conversation, Father MacRae had no connection whatsoever to that case.

Soon after, in 1983, Father Stephen Scruton reported to officials in the Diocese of Manchester that he walked in on and witnessed his associate, Father Mark Fleming, in a sexual incident with a minor boy from the parish. A report was made by the Diocese to state officials as required by New Hampshire law, and the state launched an investigation.

Nothing of this became public until two decades later when the Diocese of Manchester released its priests’ personnel files in an unprecedented agreement with the State Attorney General’s Office. It was revealed only twenty years after the 1983 investigation by the state that Father Mark Fleming had abused three boys, all brothers. No criminal charges were filed, but Fleming was removed from ministry and placed at a psychiatric treatment center in St. Louis. In a 2003 article, the Nashua (NH) Telegraph reported on this story (Albert McKeon, “Priest Turned in another, then was also caught,” March 6, 2003).

In 1984, a year after the Hudson case involving Fathers Scruton and Fleming, Father Stephen Scruton was arrested for lewd conduct and indecent exposure at a highway rest area near Londonderry, NH. According to news accounts, those charges were dropped when he agreed to a plea deal for a misdemeanor charge of criminal trespass. Scruton was placed on leave of absence for six months, then assigned to a small parish in Bennington, NH to replace a priest on sick leave. Upon that priest’s return, he complained to Diocesan officials that Father Scruton embezzled parish funds. The priest threatened civil litigation, and Scruton was placed on leave again. During this period, he was arrested a second time for lewd conduct and indecent exposure at a highway rest area in Massachusetts. Those charges were never fully processed.

In June of 1985, Father Stephen Scruton was assigned as pastor of Saint Bernard Parish in Keene, NH where Father Gordon MacRae had already served as associate pastor for the preceding two years. I have updated this story in an article at this site entitled, “Truth in Justice: Was the Wrong Catholic Priest Sent to Prison?” This document is well worth the time to understand the nightmarish conditions faced by MacRae in these years of priesthood.

Father Stephen Scruton was arrested once again for lewd conduct and indecent exposure at a highway rest area near Keene. His arrest occurred on the afternoon of Easter Sunday in 1987. In police reports, Father Scruton cited the stresses of Holy Week as the cause for his behavior. He pled guilty to the charge in Keene District Court.

To Father MacRae’s shock, Scruton was not immediately removed from the parish by Diocese of Manchester officials. In fact, MacRae heard nothing from anyone connected to his Diocese throughout Scruton’s arrest and the subsequent news accounts. Father Scruton granted an interview with a Keene Sentinel reporter to tell of how his arrest was an “opportunity” to educate the public about sexual addiction. It was then that Father MacRae picked up the phone and called Church officials to demand Scruton’s removal from the parish. Scruton was sent to a treatment facility in Golden Valley, MN, but not before a local bank official called Father MacRae to report Scruton’s embezzlement of $20,000 in parish funds.

Six years later, in 1994, Father Gordon MacRae faced criminal charges and simultaneous civil lawsuits brought by three brothers, Thomas, Jonathan, and David Grover, alleging abuses from sometime between 1978 and 1983. Dorothy Rabinowitz wrote masterfully about the details of MacRae’s trial, the charges brought by these brothers, and other related claims in “The Wall Street Journal on the Case of Fr. Gordon MacRae.”

Jonathan and David Grover, the first of the Grover brothers to make accusations, claimed to have been repeatedly assaulted in Saint Bernard Rectory in Keene and in other places by both Father Gordon MacRae and Father Stephen Scruton, acting both separately and simultaneously. Both brothers had claimed that these assaults first occurred when they were twelve years old.

An immediate and never-explained problem was that Father MacRae was never inside the Keene rectory until June 1983, when Jonathan Grover was 14 years old and David Grover was just two weeks shy of turning 18. Father Scruton was never inside that rectory until June 1985, when these brothers were 16 and 20, respectively. However, Father Scruton refused to answer any questions put by Father MacRae’s defense before trial and fled the state when an attempt was made to subpoena him.

As these facts emerged pre-trial, the investigating police detective, James F. McLaughlin, did nothing. He recorded no interviews, left no evidence to determine who said what to whom and when. At one point, he gave the Grover brothers a copy of Father MacRae’s resume so they could get their dates straight. Then he simply eliminated Father Stephen Scruton from all future reports in the case as though his name had never come up.

The progression of this story from this point on is utterly shocking. It was documented by me in “Truth in Justice,” linked above.

After the onslaught of mediated settlements, many deceased priests of the Diocese of Manchester were accused and could do nothing, of course, to defend themselves or their names. Nearly 30 years after his tragic murder in the Littleton rectory, Father Joseph Sands was posthumously accused.

In 2008, former FBI Special Agent investigator James Abbott began a three-year investigation of this story. He located former priest Stephen Scruton living in Massachusetts. Agent Abbott placed a telephone call to the number at that address. When he asked for Stephen Scruton, a male voice was heard in the background: “Steve, this is your chance to help Gordon.” When Scruton took the phone, he was highly agitated and nervous. He agreed to be interviewed by the former FBI agent, and they set a date for the interview one week later. When investigator Abbott showed up for the interview, Scruton refused to open the door, saying only that he had consulted with someone in the diocese and now declines to answer any questions. Two weeks later, Stephen Scruton suffered a catastrophic fall on the stairs of a Boston lawyer’s office. He never regained consciousness and died just days later. He took the truth with him.

Former FBI agent James Abbott concluded his report on this investigation: “In my three-year investigation of this matter, I found no evidence that Gordon J. MacRae committed these crimes or any crimes.”

Republished with the Author’s Permission.

The post The Story Buried Under the Fr. Gordon MacRae Case appeared first on Granite Grok.