We all remember the most famous, albeit infamous, speech of Biden’s Presidency in front of an eerie red backdrop, flanked by two marines in dress blues. He told America we were on the brink of disaster. Not a natural disaster, attack from a foreign power, or millions of illegals crossing our Border.

No, what Biden was warning Americans about were MAGA Republicans led by the evil Democracy destroying Donald Trump. This speech was delivered just before the 2022 Midterms and must have worked. A dreadful Blood Red Speech avoided the predicted Red Wave. Will it work in 2024 to put Joe Biden in the White House for four more years?

I genuinely hope not.

As much as Biden talks about the potential damage from another Trump Presidency, we have the reality of the damage done by a Biden Presidency. When a President usually kicks off his re-election campaign, it is with a recap of his accomplishments and a positive vision of the future. We heard neither from Joe Biden on Friday. Friday has always been the black hole for news, and that is when politicians announce things they want to slide under the radar. So why did Biden choose a Friday for his kick-off? Probably hoping it would evade radar because it was a dark, dreary, and divisive speech intended to instill fear rather than hope in voters’ minds.

Biden could not tout his accomplishments on the national or international fronts. The Administration has finally abandoned Bidenomics as the term did not work, nor have his economic policies. We still have high inflation rates destroying household budgets, along with high interest rates that are destroying the American Dream of home ownership. He cannot talk about the Southern Border, where four million illegals are invading our country yearly. We no longer have a sovereign America. He cannot speak about Fentanyl, which is still killing 100,000 young Americans every year.

He cannot talk about a safer world when we still have images of a failed evacuation of Afghanistan, the Middle East at war, and a crisis in Ukraine that sees no end. We are losing ground to China as Iran and North Korea get closer to Nuclear arms. We have ended our energy independence, which makes us weaker internationally.

Biden has stressed diversity over competence in his Administration, and this WOKE philosophy has permeated business and education to the demise of both. There is nothing Joe Biden can point to in his first term, nor tell us how his second will be any better. His message is not hope but fear, and through a weak delivery, alternating from whisper to raised voice, he misses the mark. He can threaten the loss of Democracy from a Trump term, but he has shown us how our liberties have suffered under Joe Biden.

Biden finished his speech and turned to his right, looking dazed and confused. Doctor Jill hurried to his rescue, taking Joe by the hand and guiding him from the stage. This vision is not what America thinks about when we look at our President. Joe Biden’s best days, if there were any, are in the rearview mirror, and the most humane thing Americans can do is send Joe Biden off to retirement. If Jill doesn’t face the obvious with her husband, then we, the voters, will do it for her.

The post Biden “Campaign” Launch Sets Tone – Fear! appeared first on Granite Grok.

There are a lot of reasons why Claudine Gay should never have been running Harvard, but her testimony before Congress isn’t one of them. I went back and watched as much of the hearing as I could stomach, and what I heard all three university presidents saying was: Anti-semitism is bad, but speech is different from action.

I guess I shouldn’t be a university president either because I agree: Anti-semitism is bad, and speech is different from action.

I’m on board with Justice Hugo Black’s definition of freedom of speech, which I think is the best ever offered:

Without deviation, without exception, without any ifs, buts, or whereases, freedom of speech means that you shall not do something to people either for the views they express, or the words they speak or write.

And I’m on board with John Stuart Mill’s defense of free speech, which I also think is the best ever offered:

If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind. Were an opinion a personal possession of no value except to the owner; if to be obstructed in the enjoyment of it were simply a private injury, it would make some difference whether the injury was inflicted only on a few persons or on many. But the peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.

I was hoping that one of the university presidents would ask Elise Stefanik to point to the particular passage in the Harvard, Penn, or MIT code of conduct that she thinks forbids someone from saying something because someone else finds it hurtful, hateful, horrible, or heinous.

In defense of the idea of making people simply shut up about certain subjects, I frequently hear the old and inaccurate claim that ‘you can’t yell fire in a crowded theater.’

In fact, you can do that, and we know that you can because Penn Jillette does it during every Penn & Teller show. It’s not a problem because no one does anything about it. The audience doesn’t get up and stampede out of the theater.

You can yell it, even if there’s no fire, so long as nothing bad happens as a result. There’s no criminal punishment for the speech itself. If significant damage occurs as a result, there may be civil liability. But that’s not a free speech issue. That’s a tort issue.

But if you think there are some ideas that are just too awful to allow people to express them, here’s a question you might ask yourself:

How many times would you have to hear someone call for the eradication of a nation… or for any other action that you currently find reprehensible… before you would actually engage in it?

There’s no number high enough, is there? People could speak to you all day about the most heinous ideas, but in the end, it’s just air being pushed around (or marks being made on paper).

So speech isn’t really the problem, is it?

Calling for something is speech, and being able to call for it without being punished is free speech. In contrast, actually doing the thing is not speech, free or otherwise. We lose sight of that at our peril.

And the way we lose sight of it is for individuals to think:  Sure, I can resist bad ideas, but other people are too stupid to.

Calling for the eradication of Israel is speech. Parachuting into a music festival in Israel and killing hundreds of people is not speech. Launching rockets into downtown Tel Aviv is not speech. Detonating a suicide bomb on a bus in Jerusalem is not speech.

Is this not clear?

If you think someone is wrong, the proper response is to explain why he’s wrong, not to silence him.

Once we decide that ‘calling for the eradication of a nation’ is out of bounds, it’s a short step to saying that ‘calling for the elimination of our democracy’ should be out of bounds, and for many people, that’s the same as supporting Donald Trump.

Is this really a road we want to go down? I agree with Black and Mill that it is not.

Speech is speech and not action. Action is action and not speech. Blurring the line between the two is a ‘cure’ that is orders of magnitude worse, in the long run, than any ‘disease’ that it might be thought to cure in the short run.

Not too long ago someone was convicted and imprisoned for telling someone else to kill himself.  It’s worth asking yourself who you would say was responsible there? The person who just said some words? Who expressed an opinion? Or the person who decided to end his own life and then actually ended it?

If a person is so impressionable that simply being told to do something will override his critical faculties about whether to actually do that thing, perhaps that person should be a ward of the state, and kept 24/7 in an environment where what he sees and hears is carefully and completely controlled. (And he certainly shouldn’t be allowed to vote.)

Logically, the idea that some thoughts are too dangerous to be expressed by anyone because they may have the wrong effect on someone is identical to the idea that guns are too dangerous to be owned by anyone because someone might misuse them.

They’re both examples of Mark Twain’s characterization of censorship as telling a man he can’t have a steak because a baby can’t chew it.

Recall that the heart of the Bruen decision was that we should afford the Second Amendment the same levels of respect and deference that we accord the First Amendment.

You like gun control? Pushing for speech control is exactly how you get more of it.

 

The post Night Cap: You Like Gun Control? Push for Speech Control. appeared first on Granite Grok.

Senator Jeannie … or, perhaps, her “staff” … went on an X (Twitter) harangue about the January 6th “insurrection.” As part of the harangue, she misquoted Ben Franklin, substituting “democracy” for “republic” in the famous admonition, “a republic if you can keep it.” Of course, neither Jeannie nor her staff could even tell you what the difference between a democracy and a republic is, so they have no idea of their gaffe.

Same for the “reporters” and “journalists” who bring us the “news” in New Hampshire … none of them could tell you what the difference between a democracy and a republic is either. And moreover, their role as they see it is to maintain Jeannie and her ilk in power, so even if they understood the gaffe, they would never mention it.

 

 

And, by the way, this “insurrection” appears to have been led by at least 200 FBI “assets”:

 

Ep. 61 This the smartest, best informed account of what actually happened on January 6th. pic.twitter.com/U9yCWRVJSd

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) January 6, 2024

 

The post Is Senator Jeannie That Ignorant … Or Is It The Democrat-Youth Running Her X (Twitter)? appeared first on Granite Grok.

The United States team won gold at the World Junior Hockey Championships in Sweden. The lads were very excited, smiling and singing as the national anthem played in honor of their victory. If you watched it on ESPN you’d have never known they were proud to be American.

 

 

These photos from @usahockey’s #WorldJuniors gold medal win are unbelievable pic.twitter.com/0Ohgmw5Sua

— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) January 7, 2024

 

Proud enough to smile and sing.

 

No kneeling, no purple hair, no selfish political displays, just world champs honoring their flag https://t.co/HwmVodPQRL

— Jake Schneider (@jacobkschneider) January 7, 2024

No kneeling, no purple hair, and no selfish political displays, which must be why ESPN chose not to air it. It might also be the reason why so many Americans won’t watch ESPN.

 

 

 

The post ESPN Cuts Away to Protect You From Young Patriotic American Athletes Proudly Singing the National Anthem appeared first on Granite Grok.

The Democrat National Committee (DNC) is pissed at New Hampshire Democrats. The locals have been acting like votes Democrats cast on our Jan 23rd primary will mean something. The DNC has demanded they stop and the manner in which they’ve done that violates the state’s voter suppression law.

 

 

 

Here is the DNC’s Letter to the New Hampshire State Democrat Party.

Plenty of Dems on the NH Primary Ballot

There will be about 20 Democrats on the Jan 23rd primary ballot, but no Joe Biden, and as far as the DNC is concerned, none of this counts. It’s not sanctioned and, from their perspective, is meaningless. But by demanding this be advertised, they’ve tripped over New Hampshire State law.

 

 

This is hilarious because the DNC is right. As a private corporation, it can set its own rules and schedules and define the terms of engagement. The Democrat “primary” in New Hampshire is – to them – meaningless. Nothing about the outcome will have any effect on how the DNC pretends to practice Democracy in pursuit of its nominee.

The DNC has complete control over what their primary means, but they cannot tell voters not to show up.

But the NH AG is also right. This is still a real election with real candidates, and you cannot actively insist voters not participate. The DNC is breaking the law and demanded that the the State Party do the same.

 

 

The AG is watching. If the DNC or NHDP do anything that looks like vote suppression, they’ll bring the full weight of the state to bear to prevent election meddling and voter suppression. Whatever that means, which typically isn’t much, but in this instance, I think the AG would be looking to draw blood (as in large fines).

 

Here’s the full letter from the AG demanding the DNC cease and desist.

NH AG Letter to NDC voter suppression

The post Breaking: Attorney General Tells Democrat National Committee to Stop Violating NH Election Law! appeared first on Granite Grok.

Let’s talk about an important piece of legislation coming up in committee this week. It is House Resolution 25, scheduled for a public hearing in Legislative Administration on Wednesday, January 10, at 10 am, in the Legislative Office Building, Room 301-303. Here is a cliff notes version.

The New Hampshire Constitution is a legal contract called a Trust Indenture.

John Locke is one of the founding fathers of law who heavily influenced the framers of our Constitutions. He wrote in “Two Treatise of Government,” Chapter 15 Section 171, “Secondly, political power is that power which every man, having in the state of nature, has given up into the hands of the society, and therein to the governors, whom the society hath set over itself, with this express or tacit trust, that it shall be employed for their good, and the preservation of their property…”

New Hampshire Supreme Court, in the case of Wooster v Plymouth, stated, “The second [part of NH Constitution] is, in general, a grant of powers, made by the people to ‘magistrates and officers of government, who are declared (in Part 1 art. 8) to be the grantors’ agents.”

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

In The New Hampshire Constitution, Article 84 Oath of Office says, “….accepting the trust…” While neighboring Vermont says in their Constitution Article 6, “That all power being originally inherent in and consequently derived from the people, therefore, all officers of government, whether legislative or executive, are their trustees and servants and at all times, in a legal way, accountable to them.”

So, from the above writings, we see the intent of the framers was for the Constitutions to be Trust Instruments. These are contracts consisting of an agreement between parties called Grantors, who are the Beneficiaries, and Grantees, who are the Trustees. They have a fiduciary duty to fulfill contractual obligations that are binding in a legal way, meaning the Grantors/Beneficiaries can prosecute Trustees for Breach of Trust.

Trust Instruments are built on fundamental principles, like this Maxim of Law, which states: That which is granted or reserved in a certain specified form must be taken as it is granted, and will not be permitted to be made the subject of any adjustment or compensation on the part of the grantee.

Ex. parte Miller. 2 Hill (NY) 423; Bacon, Max. 26, reg.4.

The above Maxim reinforces the concept that only what is expressly written is granted authority in Part 2 Form of Government, and what is not expressly written is forbidden by way of omission. For example, let’s say I have a Trust Fund. Then let’s say that I create a Trustee position in that Fund, which comes with a written description of the duties of the position. The written duties are: “Trustee will identify cash flowing multi-family real estate properties, and acquire them with funds from the trust, and in the name of the Trust.”

Let’s say I offer you, the reader, the position as Trustee in my Trust Indenture and offer to compensate you $2000.00 for each multi-family you acquire. You agree to be my Trustee, swear oath, and away we go. A month later, we meet for coffee, and you roll up in a Ferrari. I say, “Wow, sweet ride, where did you get the money for that?” You reply, “I bought it with funds from the trust.” I say, “Ummm, where in the Trust Indenture was it written that you could use funds to purchase a car for yourself?” You reply back to me, “Well, it’s not written that I can’t use funds to buy a car for myself.” I think you can see that buying the Ferrari is a Breach of Trust and that a Court will not be siding with you.

The same is true of our state constitution. The express written terms of NH Constitution Part 2 Article 32, for instance, nowhere contain any written grant to add in voting machines. The addition of machines, by any other method than the method the constitution itself prescribes in Part 2 Article 100, is a Breach of Trust. House Resolution 25, if passed, will return us to the Constitutional Provisions as they were before our elections process was altered by way of Legislative Enactment rather than by way of proposing a Constitutional Amendment to The People, requiring a ⅔ majority at the Biennial Elections to pass.

If you care about your power as one of the people under New Hampshire Constitution Part 1 Articles 8, 32, and 38, about the oath of office that all legislators take, and about how we are your contractually obligated Trustees, your support at this hearing is encouraged.

You can read HR25 here. Click on the Bill Version as Introduced on the left side of your screen.

You can submit online testimony here.

Representative Nikki McCarter Belknap 8

The post Restore Trust … in Elections appeared first on Granite Grok.

A lot of things happened as a result of the pandemic. The most critical thing in my mind was how the world was divided. Not by race, religion, age, sex, occupation, or party registration – despite many demographics working to divide us into tribal groups. There was a rise in global awareness of us versus them.

Every sort of person across the world confronted a planet-wide campaign of mass propaganda and coercion. This unified attack on bodily integrity, individualism, and choice, driven entirely by fear and mob tactics – though many were sugar-coated as empathy-entertainment – was almost impossible to ignore. The world was segregated into two classes without regard to any other feature of our lives.

One side demanded blind compliance; the other asked questions and defended the right to ask. The more the vaccine mandate side pushed, the more questions the other side wanted answered. Anyone who dared to respond outside the approved context was labeled a denier and their thoughts and words as misinformation.

Amidst this, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) grew a monster called The Trusted News Initiative (TNI). Its publicly stated goal is to control the news. To control what you see and, therefore, say and think. To define the truth you are permitted to believe while shushing conversations that wander outside their proscribed lines.

 

TNI members work together to build audience trust and to find solutions to tackle challenges of disinformation. By including media organisations and social media platforms, it is the only forum in the world of its kind designed to take on disinformation in real time

 

By “to take on” through censorship and cancel culture while you promote the agreed upon ‘voice’ through a global echo chamber regardless of the truth.

Much of the pandemic ‘science’ this global media cartel advocated has been debunked. The people asking questions were right; those who labeled them deniers or peddlers of misinformation were wrong. But still, they soldier on. In true New Speak (Orwell’s newspeak) fashion, they continue to coordinate across media (mainstream and social) to brute force the preferred language of the globalists into the mouths and minds of everyone.

Its advocates ape the agreed-upon authoritative messaging as its political arms legislate the new media dissidents and their audience out of business. And it is working. Only America has a First Amendment to protect free speech to which the balance of the Western World plays lip service. At the same time, the worst characteristics of Democracy limit the idea of open political expression and debate. The mob rule of the 51% seems more likely to side with them than us.

In its most basic form, Democracy is the right to say no. Yes, you won the election, but no, you cannot rob me of my right to disagree or speak my mind. But, those who dare to question continue to be suppressed by those who share the same messaging as the Globalist industrial complex – that cabal of elites, governments, and corporatists who are the ‘Them” in the Us vs. Them.

The not-so-much politically correct as politically correcting.

Without regard to skin color, faith, occupation, income, sex, gender, age, or any other characteristic, we must rally to defend the human right to be wrong so that we prevent them from securing a monopoly on deciding what is right. How do we do that? Keep asking questions. Challenge the political dogma and its orthodoxy. Refuse to allow your speech to be corralled or compelled. Defend free speech and expression. And yes, support independent media – but not just by donating, reading, or sharing. Put pressure on mainstream or corporate media, especially at the local level, to answer for their disinterest in the independent-minded dissident view.

Media mistrust is at an all-time high, but local media still enjoys some measure of credibility. Does it deserve it? Are they just local versions of the politically correcting ‘Them,’ or do they wander off the plantations defined by groups like TNI? Do they or have they reported the dissenting side? Through most of COVID, they did not, even after months of credible challenges that were correct.

So, what makes you think they’re not doing the same thing with the rest of the news, and are you prepared to call them out on it?

We are, and we’d love your help.

 

The post Information Fascism: Politically Correct Means “Politically Corrected” appeared first on Granite Grok.

And so the week begins.  Cue the Vorlon:

 

 

 

Take heart – there will be both a Wednesday and Friday Edition.  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.

If you are remotely concerned about the world and where we’re headed, please do consider looking at yesterday’s SURVIVAL SUNDAY.

Now, let the mockery and mayhem begin.

 

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

 

 

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

 

 

 

Because they’re not used to independent thinking and standing on their own.  They’re herd beasts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

See this video (link only):

2024- Insurance Companies Must Know Something Big, & Violent IS Coming Our Way – YouTube

 

 

 

Excellent!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tell me who your friends are, I know who you are.

 

 

 

You really have to question the sanity of people who smear those who protest the stabbing of children.

 

 

 

Education is not a bad thing.  It’s the arrogance that often goes with education that’s the real problem.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The more I see of the Epstein list, the more convinced I am the above is 100% exactly right.

 

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

 

PSA – PSA – PSA – PSA – PSA

 

We all know that smartphones are dangerous, privacy-wise.  Your electronic-laden car may be as well – and far more than you think.

Your Car Stores Your Text Messages – Law Enforcement Can Retrieve Them Anytime, Following Federally Rejected Lawsuit | The Gateway Pundit | by Stefanie Ladner, The Western Journal

When you sit in a “digital car” you consent to being recorded and personal data sold « JoNova (joannenova.com.au)

We’ve all known that Alexa et al are always listening:

 

 

What’s next?  Cameras in your house?  Oh, wait:

Nearly a Third of Gen Z Favors the Government Installing Surveillance Cameras in Homes | Cato at Liberty Blog

Surveillance outside.  Surveillance inside.  And don’t forget the obsession of Globalist Yuval Harari – surveillance under your skin.  And in your brain, for even your thoughts are becoming transparent to being viewed as technology improves:

Mind-Decoding Technologies Raise Hopes (and Worries) (undark.org)

And a last note about privacy:

 

 

Artificial Intelligence Is Allowing Them To Construct A Global Surveillance Prison From Which No Escape Is Possible (endoftheamericandream.com)

 

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

 

 

 

Animosities run deep, and long.  For example, looooong before the Sunni / Shia rift, the Arabs and Persians hated each other.  And still do.

 

 

 

 

That’s an interesting observation of a second meaning of the word.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m still betting some pretext will be found to – at least – mandate massive mail in voting.  Assuming we even have an election due to an “unprecedented crisis” that requires a… *cough* “temporary” suspending of elections.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Depending on, I might have some conversations… but I strongly suspect someone flying the stars and bars would at least have an open mind.

 

 

Hell yes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

Special link section:

 

These are mostly links sent to be me by a Jarhead friend of mine; commentary is (mostly) his.  Though I’ve tossed in a couple of my own links with my own commentary.  This is, we both concur, the kind of news that needs to get out more widely.  Link first, comment / excerpt after:

Former Bill Gates vaccine scientist predicts sharp population decline: “up to 30-40% in highly vaccinated countries” (chemicalviolence.com)

In the comments, someone wrote that perhaps global warming and climate change are cover stories for mounting COVID jab deaths and what they mean for the global population.

“It will be blamed on climate change, the Russians or Chinese, white supremacy, etc. and the ‘elites’ will walk away as heroes (in their own eyes),” this person wrote.

Another wrote that with so many wars now occurring, the truth about all that Bossche is speaking of “will be buried.”

“The war and the associated censorship will be used to hide the bodies,” said another. “They will say people died from ‘COVID’ or ‘war.’”

—

Consumers Are Rejecting the Great Reset | The Epoch Times

People are finally starting to wake up to the “great reset” non-sense and saying: NO!

—

The USA’s Army of Illegals – Vox Popoli (voxday.net)

Related:

EPA Is Buying Millions of Dollars Worth of Military-Grade Weapons (independentsentinel.com)

Possibly related to the above, Vox Day writes about how we have a foreign army of at LEAST 1.5 million men ALREADY here in the country, courtesy of the Biden administration’s open border policies.  And the many federal agencies that don’t use guns (like the USPS) that have been buying guns and ammo for the last decade.  Who will use all those guns?  The speculation here (and I agree with the premise) is that the leftists will arm these illegal aliens with the stockpiled guns to subjugate the American citizens.

 

 

—

Biden Says US Troops Will Fight Russian If Ukraine Loses | Armstrong Economics

Biden is already saying that the US will be forced into war with Russia.  Why is that?  Well, what better way to distract the American people from his failed policies than by becoming a war president (with war powers) and having our young men & women killed for a stupid cause?

—

The U.S. Department of Defense Has Been Engaged in Biowarfare Against the American People This Entire Time – POLITICAL MOONSHINE

Related, but from a year ago:

The Department of Defense and Its Biowarfare Against the American People: Contracts and Evidence – POLITICAL MOONSHINE

Here’s an article that lays out the evidence that the DOD was using Covid-19 as a “bio-weapon” on the US populace.  I have not vetted the evidence myself yet (time ever presses), but it’s a pretty strong case.

—

Well Being: Dietary Supplements – by Robert W Malone MD, MS (substack.com)

Big Pharma is trying to get congress to regulate ALL health supplements, forcing smaller firms (who cannot afford all the fancy approvals and/or paperwork) to go out of business.  Meaning that Pharma will control that market too.  And who knows what they’ll be adding to those too?

 

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

 

Pick of the post:

 

 

Now, I’m not saying that all was completely “clean” and lust-free.  I’m sure there were back-room encounters.  But look at the outfits; the girls in modest dresses, and the boys with jackets and ties.  Compare that to an outfit I saw this summer of a teenage girl with, basically, a sports bra, massive midriff exposure, and yoga pants.

We’ve lost something deep in the popular culture.

 

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

 

Palate Cleansers:

 

—

—

 

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

 

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.

Dear Members of the Harvard Community,

Four score and seven semesters ago, our board brought forth on this great campus a new leader conceived in equity and dedicated to the proposition that all women are to be believed – unless they are black, apparently.

Now, we are engaged in a great culture war, testing whether this campus or any university so conceived and so diverse, can long endure. I was met on the great battle-field of this intolerant patriarchy.  I have come to dedicate a portion of my scholarship, now a final resting place of those who gave me their loosely transcribed intellectual property as duplicative language that my doctorate might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this in solidarity.

But, in a larger sense, I cannot dedicate – nay consecrate – nor even hollow – this ground.  In other words, there is not a shovel big enough to bury the past when your work is publicly documented. The brave men and women and non-binary people, living and dead, who are committed to the struggle of not plagiarizing, have consecrated it far above my poor power to add or detract a citation here or an attribution there.  The world will little note, nor long remember what I wrote here, assuming these words are mine, but it can never forget what I did.  It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who submitted it for peer review have thus far so nobly advanced.  It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us – that we are committed to our truths that we hold to be self-evident.  That all Ivy League presidents are not created equal because of white supremacy, no matter how great the endowment by their alumnus, in the pursuit of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one President, me, to dissolve the political bands which has connected she/her with a university and to assume among the Powers of the Earth the separate and equitable station to which the Laws of Nature and the State entitled me via Title IX and the one about Civil Rights, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Womankind requires that I should declare the causes which impel to the Separation or be fired for ethics violations as my attorneys suggested would happen if I didn’t resign.  So be it, amen.

As we welcome a new year and a new semester, I hope we can all look forward to brighter days and try to remember what my grad-pappy once told me.  He said, “Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more.  It is a tale told by an idiot full of sound and fury signifying nothing.”  Or my cousin Snarf Snarf, who said, “Words are just words until action actually starts. But actions speak louder than words, but at the same time, words speak louder actions because sometimes it’s the right thing to do.”  Very cool.

I’ll never forget these words, please don’t forget mine.

In closing, I would like to remind everyone of the great calling Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave us when he said, “Ask not what you can do for your country but what your country can do for you.”

Sincerely,

Claudine Gay

 

 

 

 

The post Bananas Exclusive: Gay Resignation Letter appeared first on Granite Grok.

Let me begin by saying this was not easy. There were many excellent comments on a wide range of topics across nearly every piece of content we published last week. But as they say in the Movie Highlander. There can be only one.

A maxim they then messed with because of profits, but they would not be the first or last to damage an idea with a franchise.

For our purposes, there can be only one winner each week, but there can be many quality comments.

Before I announce the winner this week, I’d like to thank all the commenters like NHNative, gramps, Ian Underwood, Patricia A Arsenault, Agent Liberty, Nitzakhon, 1776Mall dot com, Kimberly Morin, Steve Earle, Bowana, Manny, Dragon, David S, noraNH, Darkoss, Mike Remski, Jatin Jones, Geraldo E V Bentley, and many more. Many more. We’re happy to have you and hope you spread the word and invite others to join you here.

Picking a Comment/Commenter of the Week

I opened a new note in Evernote to store the stuff I liked for review later, and it filled up quickly. I will add that I did not receive many recommendations from the audience or commenters for nominees for best comment of the week. I got one. If you read something that truly impresses you, please email it with a link to steve@granitegrok.com. It will weigh on my decision, which – we should get to.

This week’s winner is Ian Underwood.

There are a lot of reasons why Gay shouldn’t be running Harvard, but her testimony before Congress isn’t one of them. I went back and watched as much of the hearing as I could stomach, and what I heard all three university presidents saying was: Anti-semitism is bad, but speech is different from action.

I guess I shouldn’t be a university president either, because I agree: Anti-semitism is bad, and speech is different from action. I’m on board with Justice Hugo Black’s definition of freedom of speech:

Without deviation, without exception, without any ifs, buts, or whereases, freedom of speech means that you shall not do something to people either for the views they express, or the words they speak or write.

And I’m also on board with John Stuart Mill’s explanation for why this is so important:

If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind. Were an opinion a personal possession of no value except to the owner; if to be obstructed in the enjoyment of it were simply a private injury, it would make some difference whether the injury was inflicted only on a few persons or on many. But the peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.

I was hoping that one of the university presidents would ask Elise Stefanik to point to the particular passage in the Harvard, Penn, or MIT code of conduct that she thinks forbids someone from saying something because someone else finds it hurtful, hateful, horrible, or heinous.

By the way, here’s just one of the many reasons why Claudine Gay shouldn’t be at Harvard, let alone running it:

Ian had several comments in that same thread that were runners-up, and the competition for the win across the week was excellent. Ann Marie Banfield, Ornery Nurse, NHnative, Dragon6, Stan Ding, and a few others were finalists this week.

Keep up the great comments, and you could be next, and thank you to everyone!

 

Do ‘Grok Commenters Have More Fun? – Join the conversation and find out. You could win free stuff!

The post Our First “Comment” of the Week Winner! appeared first on Granite Grok.

The first meeting of the Senate Natural Resources & Energy Committee in 2024 consisted of a round-robin series of members sharing their priorities and wish lists for the new session.

While these wonderful folks who brought you the Clean Heat Carbon Tax in 2023 have even bigger plans for your wallet this year (more details to come later), the “priority” that jumped out was one of Senator Dick McCormack’s (D-Windsor) that they just need to do a better job of explaining to the public that what they are doing isn’t terrible, awful, no-good policy.

“I am not happy,” says McCormack with stern disappointment rippling through his countenance, “with where the public seems to be on what we’re doing. I get constituent calls telling me that we’re wrong to try to raise people’s energy costs.”

Hmm. Maybe one conclusion to draw from these calls from the people who elected you is that you are, in fact, wrong to be passing laws that raise people’s energy costs – that they can’t afford to indulge your ego-driven, save-the-planet god-complex fantasies and you should listen to, respect and represent that perspective in the State House per your job description as an elected official in a representative democracy.

Alas, no. This is not the lesson learned here. As Principal Skinner of The Simpsons might conclude, “Am I so out of touch? No, it’s my constituents who are wrong.”

The problem McCormack sees as needing to be addressed here is that the local yokels are just too ignorant and in the dark about what great things he and his fellow Democrats are doing for them. “I don’t think the public knows that. I don’t think they believe that.” (Well, they don’t, and they shouldn’t, so score one for us!) McCormack’s solution: Work on doing a better job of “how we present the case.” To which I say, go for it! Please.

The irony here is that McCormack himself admitted that he didn’t understand how the Clean Heat Standard law worked, called it a “Rube Goldberg” contraption, but voted for it anyway. (Here’s the video). So, pro tip, if you want to be able to explain to your constituents how a law you passed is supposed to help them, you might want to understand how that law works, what it costs, and how it gets paid for. You didn’t do that. Your colleagues actively and aggressively refused to do that work, which looks, well, kinda shady. Like maybe you’re trying to hide something from us. But now you want to be trusted and, sorry for chuckling, praised? Yeah, no.

McCormack is upset that the public views his and his party’s energy policies from the perspective, “Should the elitists in electric cars be allowed to force real people to spend all that money on their yak yak yak.” Yak yak yak I assume is shorthand for the hundreds of millions, running into billions of dollars, in subsidies for other people’s EVs, weatherization projects, renewable energy boondoggles, etc. and so on down the very long list of pork projects these folks are, in fact, forcing us to spend our money on.

Sigh…. To some extent here I regret having to pick on Senator McCormack because he committed the sin of speaking up. I will give him credit for at least thinking he wants to do a better job of explaining legislation to constituents, as that is a noble aspiration – so long as you’re being honest about what you’re selling.

This is better than the Committee Chairman, Chris Bray (D-Addison) who – not for nothing in his job outside the statehouse is a PR professional who founded the company Common Ground Communications – has done everything in his power to stop any meaningful discussion from occurring about cost or other impacts on real people as a result of these policies. Silence is a communications strategy too.

In response to McCormack’s desire for more and better public communication, Bray said, “It’s hard to have conversations on the topic in part because it’s such a large and amorphous [unintelligible] that people end up thinking near term, close to home. What is it costing me this week? Voting with your wallet as opposed to saying we have a big thing to tackle as a state, as a nation.” Which reveals two things:

1) Bray doesn’t want to make the case to the public because he thinks we’re too stupid to understand or buy into what he thinks is the genuinely important priority (Chris Bray Saves the World with your money! as opposed to you being able to pay your heating bill that was due last week). And, 2) He knows Vermonters are correct in our understanding that these policies are extremely costly, and the more this reality is discussed publicly, the more people are, in fact, going to vote with their wallets – and not for him.

Bray also asked McCormack if he could cite any examples of communicators who have done a good job of explaining why these “green” boondoggles that line the pockets of Party donors at the expense of taxpayers, fuel buyers and electric ratepayers — but let’s be honest have no actual impact on climate — are somehow good for the folks footing the bill. McCormack answered, yes! “I’ve heard it done well many times, but I’m not sure the public bought it.” No, the public didn’t buy it because, unlike you, they actually do understand it.

This recalls a wise insight from advertising guru Bill Bernbach, “A great ad campaign will make a bad product fail faster. It will get more people to know it’s bad.” Which is why I predict Senator McCormack’s New Year’s resolution to do a better job of explaining to his constituents what he and his colleagues are really up to in Montpelier will evaporate pretty quickly. These are bad products, and the faster people learn about them, the faster they will fail.

My resolution is to make sure that happens by keeping the light shining bright! Happy New Year!

 

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

The post State Senator Does His Best to Paraphrase Principal Skinner’s “No, it’s The Children Who Are Wrong” appeared first on Granite Grok.

The WHO (World Health Organization) took center stage during the COVID pandemic as the global coordinator of effective response. Questions about the organization’s proper role – and competence – preceded and now survive the COVID-19 crisis. Was the WHO effective and apolitical in its response, and can it be trusted with its global medical preeminence?

Though bathed in a patina of trust, health agencies have long proven that they can fall victim to the human frailties of error, bureaucratic lethargy, political bias, and hubris. Post-COVID-19, many national interests are pushing to expand the WHO’s authority and funding even more, viewing its faulty responses to the pandemic as justification to allocate more money to shore up those failures. Others take a contrary view, asserting that the organization’s shortcomings during COVID-19 demonstrate intractable problems with no global solution.

Who Is the WHO? The WHO has fared very well post-pandemic, increasing its gross revenue by some $300 million in 2022 to $4,354,000,000 (including $739,000,000 from the United States). As more questions about the COVID virus response are raised, including Wuhan lab origins and potential adverse effects of vaccines, the global jury is still out as to whether the WHO was rescuer or bumbler. Concerns about competence preceded the pandemic. A 2016 article noted:

“Public health specialists, non-governmental organisations and some of the WHO’s biggest donors say the organisation is unwieldy, poor at coordinating responses to epidemics, and too thinly spread. And increasingly it struggles to set its own priorities because many of its donors give it money earmarked for specific projects.

“Some experts inside and outside the organisation say those flaws mean the WHO’s lead role in global health is now at risk.”

Many stakeholders have tried to parlay the COVID-19 debacle into an even more significant future power base for the WHO. The organization is pushing to expand its powers, funding, and global oversight of member nations under the pretense of being better positioned to respond more effectively to future pandemics. Questions about virus origins, gain-of-function research, lab safety, vaccine efficacy, and the appropriateness of quarantining healthy people (and children) have caused many legislators and citizens to pause.

Indeed, the House Select Committee on the Coronavirus Pandemic held a December 13 hearing titled “Reforming the WHO: Ensuring Global Health Security and Accountability.” Americans must ask: Is the federal government seeking to press the WHO on its competence, or politically rejuvenate it using faux hearings to bolster its legitimacy?

A key question is whether the WHO can ever be indeed “independent” from the winds of national politics. History suggests not, including during the recent experience of COVID-19. The WHO presents itself as an objective medical team that “… encourages the strengthening and expansion of the public health administrations of member nations ….” But that airy-fairy ideal ignores the realities on the political ground.

Myanmar, Syria, and the WHO While Myanmar oppressed minority ethnic groups, the WHO worked with its central government, “exacerbating existing political tensions.” In Syria, Brown’s Political Review wrote, the WHO’s well-intentioned efforts aggravated that nation’s civil war:

“WHO’s failings in Syria are not strictly in the public health sphere, as its cooperation with the Syrian government played an indirect role in shaping the Syrian Civil War. The Syrian government has pursued a military strategy that targets the health of rebels …If WHO were more willing to work with Syrian rebel groups to achieve positive health outcomes, it would avoid playing into Assad’s military strategy.”

The Wuhan WHO? Similar concerns were raised when the Wuhan virus began its spread. In an article titled “How China Deceived the WHO,” The Atlantic observed:

“… when the pandemic now consuming the world was still gathering force, a Berkeley research scientist named Xiao Qiang was monitoring China’s official statements about a new coronavirus then spreading through Wuhan and noticed something disturbing. Statements made by the World Health Organization, the international body that advises the world on handling health crises, often echoed China’s messages. “Particularly at the beginning, it was shocking when I again and again saw WHO’s [director-general], when he spoke to the press … almost directly quoting what I read on the Chinese government’s statements,” he told me.”

Gaza Strip and Abortion The evidence the WHO is not independent of political pressures can be seen in its recent proclamations about Gaza. Recounting a litany of health crises in the Gaza Strip, the organization does not address civilian casualties in Israel while engaging in political statesmanship:

“[The WHO] calls on Member States, donors and international humanitarian and development actors to provide humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people, and to ensure the allocation of human and financial resources in order to urgently achieve these objectives.”

The humanitarian crisis in Gaza is enormous, but is inextricable from the (unmentioned by the WHO) attacks on Israeli citizens. The organization’s pronouncements make that conflict appear one-sided and implicate Israel in Geneva Convention violations. Did the WHO rally resources for Russian civilians as well as Ukrainians?

The WHO also endorses abortion, transgenderism, “equity,” sex education, and questions whether age of consent laws should be adjusted to permit minors to consent to sex despite existing protections. This mission creep now extends to every facet of human life: Human “health” touches everything, and so the WHO has expanded its purview far beyond what was contemplated at its formation in 1948. More voices are calling for restraints on the powers of this organization, even as global efforts are underway to use the failings of the COVID-19 response to grant it even more power over sovereign nations.

The post Night Cap: Who Trusts the WHO? appeared first on Granite Grok.

One of our oldest legal concepts is habeas corpus. (‘You must have the body.’)  The basic idea is that you can’t detain someone indefinitely without showing cause why he should be detained.  It gives the accused a right to challenge the accusations against him in court.

In a world without habeas corpus, you could be picked up by the police (or by the FBI), and placed in a cell somewhere without ever being given the chance to be told what you’re accused of, to talk to an attorney, and so on.  You could sit there for years — or maybe forever — without ever having your day in court.

It’s not a world most of us would want to live in.

It’s not a big jump from habeas corpus to what those of us who don’t speak Latin might call habeas convictus. (‘You must have the conviction.’)  The basic idea is that before you punish someone for committing a crime, you have to convict him of committing that crime.

In a world without habeas convictus, you could be fined, imprisoned, or deprived of your property — or prevented from running for office — without ever being convicted of committing a crime of which you’re accused.

Again, it’s not a world most of us would want to live in.  If you’re familiar with Lewis Carroll, you might remember this exchange from Alice in Wonderland:

‘Let the jury consider their verdict,’ the King said, for about the twentieth time that day.

‘No, no!’ said the Queen. ‘Sentence first–verdict afterwards.’

That’s the world we’re heading for now — the world that Colorado’s Supreme Court, Maine’s Secretary of State, and a lot of others would like to live in.

The way we get there is by ignoring the importance of setting precedents.  If you’re familiar with A Man for All Seasons, you might remember this exchange between William Roper and Sir Thomas More:

“So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law!”

“Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?”

“Yes, I’d cut down every law in England to do that!”

“Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned ’round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man’s laws, not God’s! And if you cut them down, and you’re just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I’d give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety’s sake!”

Whether we support him, oppose him, or just don’t care at all about him, we should all be protecting, not Donald Trump, but his rights under the law… for our own safety’s sake.

The case that SCOTUS will be taking up regarding Trump’s ballot eligibility actually is about the 14th Amendment, but not the part that people are focused on.  It has to do with the part that says

nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law

That is, SCOTUS will be considering two questions:

Can you be punished for a crime without first being convicted of it?

Can you be convicted of a crime without first having a trial?

It’s amazing that these questions even have to be adjudicated.  But if the Court decides that the answer to either question is yes, then God save us all… because the law will no longer be able to, having been cut down to deprive the devil — in this case, Donald Trump — of its benefit.

 

The post Habeus Convictus appeared first on Granite Grok.

Like everything else in the 21st Century America, the news cycle has evolved. This evolution has been happening for decades as we watched the slow death of print newspapers to digital versions. Still, even on a cellphone or tablet, the American attention span is inadequate to read news stories.

Most people are satisfied with the smallest, most digested version of the news possible. Headlines are enough for most, though they will never have enough info to discuss the topics of the day. For the young, let’s stipulate under 40, X, Instagram, or TikTok is enough, as long as the reel is short. Regardless of the importance or impact of a new story, a happening is only viable for a few days, and then people move on. Something new has happened and is pinned to the top spot. That old story from two days ago has been moved to the archive. No longer does it fall below the fold or to page 6, but to the archives to live unopened forever. This dynamic is a shame, as some stories need to be played out until the epilogue.

Lahaina and East Palestine are two stories that should not have died. The people in these two communities, separated by half a globe, have been impacted in such a way that they may never know what it is to live an everyday life. What happened to these folks was not of their doing. They were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. East Palestine was the victim of the aging railway that traverses their simple town in the heartland of Ohio. A train carrying a combination of toxic chemicals that, to pronounce them, would sound like a Kamala Harris word salad oratory derailed and dumped its poisonous cargo into the land and water of East Palestine and rendered it unhealthy for years to come. Land was rendered useless as front lawns were turned into toxic waste dumps. Creeks, streams, and even well water made dangerous and undrinkable. These people have lost the nest egg they lived in and will need to find a new place to start over. It has been over a year since the tragedy in East Palestine, and the folks who remain are still waiting for a visit from Joe Biden. Promises left unfulfilled. These folks committed a mortal sin in Biden’s eyes by voting for Trump. They are not important to this President.

Lahaina in Hawaii is similar, but this town was leveled by fire. The blaze was not an accident but was caused by neglect by the local power company. By not performing preventive maintenance on power lines, they created a spontaneous spark and inferno that erased Lahaina from the map. Biden did visit Lahaina, but aid is slowly arriving for these folks, and estimates are that it will be 5-7 years before their homes will be rebuilt. Who can imagine putting their lives on hold for half a decade? No answer is needed.

The East Palestine and Lahaina events were front page, lead story issues for a week or so, a lifetime in the media world. The reporters and news crews soon tired of the story, and something new and shiny caught their attention. I am not calling for videos of scorched land or dead fish floating on tainted water to lead every news hour, but we must not forget these tragedies and their victims until their lives are back on track. These are our brothers and sisters, and, but for the grace of God, it could be us living in a cheap hotel room with only memories of a life we lost. We can continue living our lives, but we must continue to pray and support these folks until they enjoy the same life we wake to every morning.

The post Victims Of A News Cycle On Steroids appeared first on Granite Grok.

In Part 1, I explained the 1993 decision of CLAREMONT SCHOOL DISTRICT V GOVERNOR. Fast forward to “today”: we now have two trial court rulings coming out of the Rockingham Superior Court that is a direct result of this 1993 decision and which essentially order a complete takeover of the New Hampshire School system by the State.

Orders that result in a tax increase of over $549,000,000 and that tell the State what the Educational system must do to fulfill its “duty” to provide an education to each and every student in New Hampshire. It also guts the local system of taxation, transfers enormous wealth from the “wealthy” districts to the poor, and essentially creates a Statewide School district administered from Concord.

Let me begin to explain by giving a short and brief (to be followed with lengthier analysis in subsequent articles) of

1.Conval School District v State Of New Hampshire- no. 213-2019-cv-00069;

2. Steven Rand et al. v The State of New Hampshire no. 215-2022-cv-00167).

(FYI: I never met the Honorable David Ruoff, Judge of the Superior Court for Rockingham County. I have never been in his courtroom. No reason for me to have done either, as I retired from the practice of law years ago and have never held a license in New Hampshire. For this article, I assume he is a very good judge of the highest judicial standards on all levels. Nothing I say here is meant to be directed at him on a personal level; rather, I direct myself to his opinions and the results of those opinions that take multiple giant steps toward destroying a big part of the local control/ direct democracy concepts that I have grown to know and love.)

First, in the Conval case, the Rockingham Superior Court decided to do what no Court, not even the Supreme Court, did in 8 prior decisions:  the Court decided to tell the “People,” the legislature, the Governor, the State Board of Education what a “constitutionally” adequate education requires. The Court took testimony from the “experts” presented by the plaintiff as to what they, the experts, feel/believe should be in every child’s education. The Court then – in total reliance on these experts – determined and delineated what the Constitution of New Hampshire requires of the State to fulfill its duty to provide an education. The Court actually listed the components of this Constitutionally mandated curriculum (which I will discuss in an upcoming article). The Court then declared that the current education system – and any future educational system – would be unconstitutional if it did not follow this Judge’s (expert) stated curriculum.

(Please note: one judge, sitting in one trial court, has now issued an order that determines New Hampshire school curriculum Statewide, and he did it based upon the opinions of “educational experts” who you probably never heard of. And certainly, did not elect. KEEP FURTHER IN MIND- THE GENERAL COURT AND THE GOVERNOR HAD, PREVIOUS TO THIS RULING, MADE THEIR OWN DETERMINATION OF WHAT A CONSTITUTIONALLY ADEQUATE EDUCATION ENTAILED AND WHAT IT COST. A SINGLE JUDGE, SITTING IN A SINGLE COURT, OVERRULED THE DECISION BY THE ELECTED BRANCHES OF GOVERNMENT AND REPLACED THEIR DECISION WITH THE “OPINION” OF UNELECTED EXPERTS.

YIKES!

But there is more. Those pesky experts wanted more. They wanted to overrule the elected folks on the cost of such a system. The elected officials had determined the cost and the tax rate to pay for this Constitutionally mandated education and the experts said “NOPE”-not enough.

To put it bluntly, THE LEGISLATURE AND THE GOVERNOR DETERMINED THE TAX RATE TO BE CHARGED TO PAY FOR ITS VERSION OF THE NECESSARY CURRICULUM AND THE JUDGE, BASED UPON TESTIMONY OF THE “EXPERTS,” RULED THAT THE RATE DETERMINED BY THE ELECTED FOLKS WAS UNCONSTITITIONAL.

HE FURTHER RULED THAT IF THE ELECTED OFFICIALS IMPOSED A TAX RATE ANY LESS THAN WHAT THE “EXPERTS” FELT NECESSARY, THAT SAID TAX RATE WOULD ALSO BE UNCONSTITUTIONAL. IN OTHER WORDS, HE OVERRULED THE ELECTED OFFICIALS ON THE TAX RATE AND IMPOSED THE”EXPERT’S” TAX RATE.

Here is what happened:  The Court began by asking -what does it cost to fund this “Constitutionally ” adequate education? The Court went through all sorts of analyses of funding (AS PROVIDED BY THE “EXPERT”). and decided that the minimum amount to fund this Statewide education – the one ordered by the Court AND DEVISED BY THE EXPERT- was in excess of $7000 per pupil.

The State had determined the cost to be $4100 per pupil. The expert calculated the cost of his program to be at least $7000 dollars and probably closer to $11,000. THE JUDGE ESTIMATED THE “ADDITIONAL” TAXES NEEDED TO FUND HIS PROGRAM WAS APPROXIMATELY $549,000,000. The Court then held that the State must raise the taxes by at least this much, or its entire program would once again be held unconstitutional by this Judge.

The Judge was, of course, not yet done: He ordered that this $549,000,000 must be raised by the State through a Statewide property tax (known as SWEPT).

Here is how SWEPT works: The state assessor calculates this tax by taking the assessed valuation of all property in the State and multiplying that assessed value by a fixed tax rate, which the assessor determines is necessary to raise the amount of money budgeted. Thus, if the State Education budget is 1 billion dollars, the assessor takes the full amount of all assessed values in the state and then divides that into the one billion to get the tax rate per 1000. That rate must be the same throughout the state.  To be clear, every property in the state – all of them – no matter where they are, no matter the needs of their community or their school district – gets assessed at the same rate as all other properties in the State. A two-bedroom condo in Nashua is taxed at the same rate as a $7 million home in Laconia.

This year’s rate is $1.20 per 1000.

A problem arises: It seems that wealthier school districts generate more money than they need to cover the cost per student the State allocates for each student in their district. Other “poorer” districts do not generate enough money to cover the same amount from the assessed valuation of $1.20 per $1000.

To explain: suppose one town has 100 houses valued at $1 million each. Another town has 100 houses valued at $100,000 each. If each taxpayer is charged $1.20 per $1000, it is not hard to realize that the first town will vastly outraise what it needs to cover its $4100 (using the current rate, for example only) per student, and the poorer town will not generate enough.

When that happens, the law forbids adjusting the tax rate. Equity requires everyone to pay the same tax rate.

As such, there is a built-in surplus for many towns and a built-in deficit for others.

NOTE: The current system tells the wealthy districts to keep the “excess” money and spend on their local schools; it tells the poorer districts, “Not to worry, the state will make up the differences.” That is unconstitutional says Judge Ruoff in case number 2, Rand v State of New Hampshire:

2. Rand v State of New Hampshire

Under the current system (SWEPT), THE “EQUITABLE” requirement of uniform tax rates results in excess money being generated in wealthy districts and deficient sums in poorer districts. In the past, the legislature and the Governor, again both Democrat and Republican, decided that the excess money generated would stay in the local taxing district. For example, look at the Hollis-Brookline budget: it shows several million dollars of such excess funding staying in the local coffers. Judge Ruoff rules: ” UNCONSTITUTIONAL.” Why? Because taxes must be equitable, and it is not equitable to allow wealthy districts to have that excess money. It must be paid to the State to be used to fund the deficiency in poorer districts.

In other words, we have one statewide school system funded by one statewide property tax. No more privileges to the wealthy. It’s now a centralized system, controlled in Concord, with equity for all!

I THINK CERTAIN CONCLUSIONS ARE REASONABLE:

1. The Courts have not stated any basis to conclude that the students in New Hampshire are not receiving an “adequate” education. In other words, where is the fire the Courts seem intent on putting out? Not one reference did I read where, NOR DID I FIND any case that is made that the students are receiving an inadequate education? Indeed, by the state’s own logic, an adequate education is bought by spending 4100 dollars. Or $7100. or $11,000. If so, then the students are already getting this “adequate education” because, by the state’s own analysis, the average per-student expenditure-expended by local districts- is over 19,000 a year. The only difference is that the courts want the State to pay it and not the localities. How does changing the identity of the check writer affect the adequacy of the education?

2. Requiring the State to fund 40 to 60 percent of the school budgets effectively transfers control of the schools–all of them- to central command in Concord. That means that whoever controls the Department of Education controls the curriculum of the schools. It’s just one tiny step away from turning over to the same DEI Marxist that runs so many school districts around the country. Money is power. Controlling money is the ultimate power. These rulings, designed to provide an adequate education, are leading to centralized control.

3. Local property tax rates will go up substantially. I live in Hollis. I looked at the statistics on Hollis Brookline schools. They are one of the “wealthy” places that overfund. That resulted, if I read the data correctly, in roughly 2 million coming back to Hollis Brookline. That money is gone under this system. It’s about 10 percent of the budget. Guess what is going to happen to my property taxes.

4. My saddest conclusion:  Local control (parental control) is being replaced with control by “EXPERTS” who are neither elected nor accountable to anyone.

Simply put, these Court decisions are turning over every kid’s education to “experts” who are neither elected nor accountable to anyone. These experts proffer their opinions based upon what they were taught in Universities- you know, the same ones who brought you CRT and DEI and BLM.  Their philosophies, their ideology, and their world view are what will now be crammed down the throats of every student in New Hampshire from a centralized command post in Concord. To me, every kid is different. They learn differently. They progress differently. Every teacher is different. Every school facility is unique. Every town has its own identity and culture. Education at the local level without the “experts” has been around for 250 years. Why should some expert who I never met and will never talk to, dictate what the kids in my town learn?

5. DEI is a horrible theory and should never be read into the New Hampshire Constitution. Especially stuff written 250 years ago. No argument I know of could convince me that the folks writing the New Hampshire Constitution meant to embrace principles of EQUITY (as that term is used in DEI). Yet, is not the “EQUITY” as used in DEI the essence of the numerous court decisions since 1993? Is not EQUITY the entire basis and explanation for this power grab?  Are the Courts not using EQUITY as a filter to interpret the Constitution, as well as to define the State’s duties to control education from Concord?

These two Rockingham superior court cases are not yet final (that I know of). I suspect the cases will be appealed to the Supreme Court. What is the likely ruling at the Supreme Court level? To answer that, I will, in my next article, analyze several Supreme Court decisions that will form a backdrop to the analysis. My Conclusion: this total revamp of the State Education system with centralized control in Concord, a system run by unelected and unaccountable bureaucratic “experts,” will become the law of New Hampshire.

Good luck to the students of Hollis-Brookline. Your white wealthy privilege has done you in. Your schools are about to be subsumed into the New Hampshire Department of Education Unified School District.

But there is GOOD NEWS: this centralized control in Concord by the experts should take effect just in time to enforce the new TITLE IX rules coming out of D. C. You know, the ones that say there are no longer any boys or girls – they all play on same sports, use the same bathroom, robe and disrobe in the same gyms. With this centralized control, no need for the Fed’s to worry about parental objections. Or local school boards that object.

God bless these folks that take care of us. Take down those “live free or die” flags. Don’t need them no more.

 

 

The post Are the State Courts Trying To Transfer Control of School Districts to Central Command in Concord? (Part II) appeared first on Granite Grok.

Special Forces Community endorsed Haley

Last week, a number of Special Forces veterans listening to the Wilkow Majority became apoplectic when Brandon Webb announced that SOFREP had endorsed Nikki Haley. While not a monolithic endorsement, a substantial endorsement, nonetheless.

I was not at all surprised. In fact, it seemed a logical choice for the Special Forces Community to endorse Globalist puppet Nikk Haley. Most lose sight of the fact that the Special Forces community are professional warfighters. To play one’s craft, there must be wars. Thus, the continuation of the self-licking ice cream cone.

Nikki Haley has been endorsed by Linked In Founder Reid Hoffman, who has been funding many of the legal efforts against Donald Trump. Also endorsing Haley, the Klaus Schwab meat puppet is Larry Fink, emperor of DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) and Black Rock CEO. These people are evil fascist corporate overlords.

Fox News is in the bag for Nikki Haley. Their subtle reporting is not subtle enough. Reasonable people watching see right through the veneer. Sending Lawrence Jones into middle American diners where the folks sing Trump’s praises is not a very effective cover.

On January 17, 1961, Outgoing President Eisenhower addressed the American people, warning them about the dangers of the “Military Industrial Complex.” The federal government’s collaboration creating alliances with military and industrial leaders makes American vulnerable. While Eisenhower did think such collaborations were necessary, he also saw them as fraught with abuse of power.

 

 

Nikki Haley is hands down the deep state establishment candidate. She is a globalist meat puppet and stooge for the international globalist constituency. When the endorsements come, make sure you critically analyze why that entity or person is making the endorsement.

Supporters of Nimrata are being duped. Under the guise that a second Trump presidency would be noisy, strife-filled, and full of conflict, those supporters foolishly believe that they would never attack her in the manner the progressive devils are attacking Trump. Why wouldn’t they? If these lawless and fascistic tactics succeed in taking down Trump, why would those tactics not become part of the playbook?

The post Nikki Haley: Globalist Establishment Meat Puppet appeared first on Granite Grok.

I think everyone can agree that Civics education in America is suffering. Graduating students cannot answer basic questions on Civics.  But there is a debate on how to improve Civics education for k-12 students.

I’ve attended public legislative hearings on Civics education in New Hampshire. Everyone agrees that we have a serious problem. It doesn’t surprise me that those testifying, admit that children are devoid of basic Civics knowledge. You would think that this would mean that everyone would want to improve Civics literacy. You’d be wrong.

Political activists see this as an opportunity to turn students into political activists. This is why they want to focus on Civics activism versus Civics literacy. There is a big difference.

NH Civics describes themselves as: The Leader in Civics Education—
We envision a New Hampshire that is first in the nation in citizen preparation and a national leader in civics education.

One would think that this organization would be fighting for Civics literacy for New Hampshire students, but when you look at what they’ve been doing, it makes you wonder.

WESTHEIMER

Back in 2020, NH Civics hosted Joel Westheimer as one of their guest speakers. Westheimer is the son of Ruth Westheimer, the sex therapist. Westheimer is the University Research Chair in Democracy and Education at the University of Ottawa. He is also the education columnist for CBC Radio’s Ottawa Morning and Ontario Today shows.

Westheimer is an author and has written a few books including Pledging Allegiance, the Politics of Patriotism in America’s Schools.  If you scroll through the quotes he includes on his website, you can see that many of the people are considered far leftists. What does that mean for Civics education? Howard Zinn is featured in his book, as the person who wrote the Forward. Howard Zinn’s book “A People’s History of the US” has been used in classrooms across the country.

Mary Grabar exposes Howard Zinn in her book Debunking Howard Zinn: Exposing the Fake History That Turned a Generation against America. 

Scholar Mary Grabar exposes just how wrong in her stunning new book Debunking Howard Zinn, which demolishes Zinn’s Marxist talking points that now dominate American education.

Then there’s the interview with Westheimer and domestic terrorist Bill Ayers:

 

COMMUNITY ORGANIZING

One begins to wonder, what is it that NH Civics has in store for New Hampshire students?

Here is what NH CIVICS considers a good resource for teachers: Guardian of Democracy: The Civic Mission of Schools. The report was produced by the Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools, the Leonore Annenberg Institute of Civics of the Annenberg Center for Public Policy at the University of Pennsylvania.

What does Annenberg Institute for School Reform prioritize for students in public schools? Literacy? Academic excellence? NO. Community Organizing.
The Strengths and Challenges of Community Organizing as an Education.  If you scroll down to the Introduction and go to the last paragraph you will see where they reference Saul Alinksy as a source for community organizing:

 

6 Community organizing has a long history in the United States. Warren (2001), Shirley (1997), and Oakes and Rogers (2006) provide excellent reviews of the historical roots of modern education organizing, including the evolution of the theories of Saul Alinsky and others.

Annenberg can be traced back to domestic terrorist and radical Bill Ayers.

LOCAL COMMUNITY ORGANIZERS

We know NH Listens through the Carsey School of Public Policy, is a Community Organizing group out of UNH.
See:
1) NH Listens? No They Don’t. They Tell! 
2) We’re being followed…..again.. Welcome, NH Listens & the Carsey Institute!

3) SAU16/Exeter: Now Hiding Critical Race Theory Meetings From the Public

4) Community Organizers Coming to Henniker/SAU24 to Divide the Community?  

5) NH Civics? A Front for Radical Leftism in the New Hampshire Classrooms?

So it was interesting to see that NH Civics’ announced that they had hired Executive Director Allyson Ryder.  Prior to joining NH Civics, Ryder worked in higher education at UNH in the Office of Community, Equity and Diversity, and as a Fellow for NH Listens through the Carsey School of Public Policy.
That’s code for, she worked as a community organizer for leftists.

Her Linked-In profile refers to her as a Systems Change Leader:

 

 

Change Agents  seek to change the political landscape and identify the resisters in their community wherever they serve.
See: https://www.amazon.com/Change-Agents-Schools-Barbara-Morris/dp/0931650003

More from Ryder’s Linked-In Profile:

 

Think about the marketing employee who thought she could change the political landscape for Bud Lite.

 

 

One has to wonder what this equity and diversity expert wants to do with New Hampshire children and their whiteness.

COMMISSION ON New Hampshire CIVICS

It’s also important to know that NH Civics is part of the Commission on New Hampshire Civics. This commission was established to develop educational materials to teach the state constitution in New Hampshire schools. The statute law requires this commission to :

The commission shall create a textbook and related curriculum specifically designed for New Hampshire students and teachers to help them explore the history, heritage and principles of the New Hampshire Constitution and the government it established.

One can only imagine what kind of textbook NH Civics has in mind for the students in New Hampshire. Perhaps an anti-American textbook by Howard Zinn?

Even CNN is sounding the alarm on how these political agendas have failed American Universities.

 

 

The Commission has two meetings coming up that you should attend:

COMMISSION on New Hampshire Civics
01/23/2024 1:00 PM @
Department of Education, 25 Hall Street, Granite State College Building, Events Center, Concord Regular Meeting
01/08/2024 2:00 PM @
Department of Education 25 Hall Street, Granite State College Building, Events Center, Concord Regular Meeting

It might be worth watching what comes from the Civics Commission since NH Civics is part of this Commission.

 

The post NH Civics Hires Diversity and Equity Community Organizer as Executive Director appeared first on Granite Grok.

First, I am merely an “enlightened amateur”.  Please vet & check on your own.  Caveat emptor.  Consider these to be priming the pump for your own investigations.  I know this is a long post; I am attempting to put out a lot of information as a resource.  Read or skip sections depending on your interests.

Second, I fear spicy time is very close, but even a month of food, water, etc., puts you well ahead of most of the sheeple.  IMHO, set your minimum sights on a three-month period.

Third, two things will be critical for having the best chance of making it through:

1. Mentality: first and foremost in survival is having a flexible mentality and cultivating the ability to adapt. Vanity has no place in survival.
2. Develop a meatspace network of people that are likeminded: cultivate your community ties and build alliances with neighbors (note: don’t babble about the Jab or globalists or depopulation, or start pointing political fingers when doing this)… and remember, the first rule of PREP CLUB is that there is no prep club.

And please follow both me, Nitzakhon, on Gab… as well as my blog host Granite Grok.  FYI, here’s a link to the last Survival Sunday.

Note that these grow over several weeks.

 

 

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

 

Hope is an expensive commodity. It makes better sense to be prepared.

Thucydides

 

 

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

 

Top of the fold:

 

Well Being: Dietary Supplements – by Robert W Malone MD, MS (substack.com)

They don’t want you healthy.

 

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

 

SITREP sites:

I used to do a SITREP post as a separate, stand-alone.  I can’t afford that time any more.  Here are some “starter places” for sites that I routinely go to get info about what’s happening.

The sidebar of my old blog, with links to other places.   redpilljew

Gates of Vienna

Doug Ross @ Journal (directorblue.blogspot.com)

The Other McCain

TheBlaze

ancipient news

 

=+=+=

Oddments – random thoughts on prepping:

 

Bayou Renaissance Man: Emergency food supplies: points to ponder

Food shortages coming, by dribs and drabs.  MHO is that the supplies will slowly, slowly constrict to avoid mass panic… until the absences become so noticeable that there’s a “preference cascade” where the mass public becomes consciously aware in a very short timespan.

 

=+=+=

Prepper Site URLS:

Most have daily articles; revisit daily.  Please recommend others in the comments.

Ask a Prepper, how to prepare, survive and thrive, latest news

Mother Earth News

The Organic Prepper Home – The Organic Prepper

SurvivalBlog.com – The Daily Web Log for Prepared Individuals Living in Uncertain Times.

SHTF Blog – Modern Survival

Survival World – Everything You Need To Know to Survive

Homestead Survival Site – How to Live Off The Grid in Comfort and Style

Urban Survival Site | How to Survive a Disaster in the City

Mind4Survival – Survival and Preparedness

Gray Wolf survival

Sustainable Living (sustainablelivingideas.com)

The Classic Survivalist – Surviving in a Modern World

Primal Survivor – Practical and sensible prepping advice

Em Off-grid – We & Our Off The Grid Life – Em OffGrid

Resource for Practical, Daily Prepping Skills for SHTF & Survival (geekprepper.com)

Home – Backwoods Home Magazine (new)

Purpose Driven Homestead – Our family is on a journey to rediscover the ways that we can be more self-sufficient in our own backyards. (new)

And three aggregate sites listing their top favorite sites & links too:

TOP 50 SURVIVAL & PREPPER BLOGS

The 50 Best Survival Blogs

Prepper Website – Preparedness • Survival • Alternative News

—

Specific, one-up articles:

Building an Outdoor Oven – Mother Earth News

The technology of the domed oven is ancient. In one of the world’s oldest excavated Neolithic villages, every house had a domed mud oven. That was 9,000 years ago! The technology hasn’t changed. Any refractory dome that has a hole cut into it (so you can heat the oven with an interior fire) will cook pizza and other foods when the fire is still burning. However, the ultimate power of the domed oven is that the dome functions like a battery, absorbing heat while it’s being fired. So, after the fire has died down, you can sweep out the embers and bake bread and casseroles with the stored heat radiating into the oven from the dome. When the oven is nearly cool, you can dry wild mushrooms, herbs, and fruit inside.

—

15 Items Every Prepper Should Hoard – Off-Grid

Video embedded.

—

EMP Proof Batteries For Off-Grid Battery Bank (modernsurvivalblog.com)

Looks like the “old batteries” are best.

—

Related to Spicy Time:

 

If you’re out in the woods, got to build fires with minimal to no smoke.

 

Stop the Smoke, Do THIS to Your Fire Pit

 

 

—

DIY Projects to Hide Your Survival Plants in Plain Sight – Ask a Prepper

Nevertheless, it’s highly likely that those neighbors will remember your garden when food runs out and they want something to eat. That’s when they might be tempted to slip over the fence and see what you have that they can reappropriate for their own use.

This makes it so that the real trick about growing a survival garden is keeping your garden from being obvious. As an alternative, some parts of your garden might end up being obvious, but you’ll want to make sure that not all of it is readily identifiable as a vegetable garden. The more of your garden that you can keep people from recognizing for what it is, the better.

—

 

 

—

EMP: The First 72 Hours – Ask a Prepper

Excellent.  MHO on an EMP.  Anyone with the capability to EMP will likely do it several times, spread out over weeks or even months (assuming retaliations don’t kick off).

Three more from the same site:

These Common Items Will Become a Luxury When SHTF – Ask a Prepper

7 Assumptions That Can Get You Killed When STHF – Ask a Prepper

Meds FEMA Will Take From You in a Crisis. Hide Them Now – Ask a Prepper

—

“It is interesting to hear certain kinds of people insist that the citizen cannot fight the government. This would have been news to the men of Lexington and Concord, as well as the Mujahedeen in Afghanistan. The citizen most certainly can fight the government, and usually wins when he tries. Organized national armies are useful primarily for fighting against other organized national armies. When they try to fight against the people, they find themselves at a very serious disadvantage. If you will just look around at the state of the world today, you will see that the guerillero has the upper hand. Irregulars usually defeat regulars, providing they have the will. Such fighting is horrible to contemplate, but will continue to dominate brute strength.”

— Col Jeff Cooper USMC ret.

Related:

Citizens would win against the U.S. Military, here’s how | by Conor | Sword and Shield | Medium

(May need to register; you do get a “free pass” to 1-2 articles.)

—

Related to Bushcraft specifically:

 

This actually WORKS! Primitive Water Filter Survival Hack!

 

 

More on water:

Ten Ways To Purify Water For Drinking In The Backcountry For Bushcraft, Camping, or Survival – YouTube

Can a Solar Still Generate Enough Fresh Water for Survival? | MythBusters – YouTube

This looks like an awful lot of work, but… on my Rumble channel:

Boiling water with… basically nothing to start with (rumble.com)

And this is interesting – apparently pine works the best!

 

 

—

 

 

 

—

 

DIY Survival Lighter

 

 

Homemade, but kinda neat!

 

And speaking of fire:

Making Fire with a Bootlace and a Knife | How to make Char cloth – YouTube

Good, but could have been a LOT more succinct and concise.

—

Camping Food (odysee.com)

Video.

—

 

 

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

 

 

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

 

Short of years and untold wealth, you cannot possibly be fully prepared for everything (I have to keep reminding myself of that).  But even some preparations, ideally at least 90 days of food, water / water purification, etc., puts you head and shoulders in front of the vast majority of the sheeple who will be in jaw-gaping astonishment when the SHTF.  The only relevant questions are:

1. When does it start?
2. How bad will it get?
3. How long will it last?
4. What will the aftermath look like?

 

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

 

 

 

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

 

I have a FORAGING group on Gab.  I will check 2-3 times a week to see if people have asked to join.

—

Foraging: One-up articles

Site:

Eat The Weeds and other things, too – Foraging, Permaculture, and other things, too

And an article:

Forsythia – Eat The Weeds and other things, too

—

 

How to eat acorns – hot leaching method by boiling the tannic acid out

 

 

—

 

 

—

Foraging (permanent feature):

Foraging (practicalselfreliance.com)

Wild Harvests (arcadianabe.blogspot.com)

Southern Appalachian Herbs

—

Books (permanent feature):

Feasting Free on Wild Edibles (old but good)

The Lost Ways (much more than just foraging)

The Forager’s Guide to Wild Foods

THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO EDIBLE WILD PLANTS FOR BEGINNERS

 

 

=+=+=

Shortages (broadly):

Over 1.3 Million Chickens Will Be Killed at an Ohio Egg Farm * 100PercentFedUp.com * by Daniel

Get ready for the squeeze.  And the war on beef is definitely heating up too

—

 

 

=+=+=

Gardening, Food Storage, Animals, Food Preservation, Health, and Related:

 

Back To Eden Gardening Documentary Film – How to Grow a Regenerative Organic Garden

 

 

Other gardening videos (links only):

Watch This Before You Plant Garlic – YouTube

This ONE Tip Will DOUBLE The Size of Your Garlic Heads! – YouTube

And:

 

On growing potatoes:

 

https://granitegrok.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/grow-your-own-potatoes.mp4

 

Speaking of spuds (and other thinks):

 

 

—

This Pool Noodle Seed Starting Hack Is A Plant Lover’s Dream (housedigest.com)

But be careful of the material and leeching, so I’m not sure how useful.  From the same site:

Edible Gardening – HouseDigest

—

Warning: videos on butchering animals:

How to Butcher a Chicken for Beginners [GRAPHIC] – YouTube

How to Butcher a Rabbit – Details + Tips & Tricks | Creme d’Argent meat rabbits – YouTube

—

General gardening videos (links only):

Composting for Beginners | A Market Gardener’s Guide – YouTube

How To Make Compost Manure From Kitchen Waste, Fast and Easy – YouTube

The Art of Lazy Composting | How to Make High-Quality Compost the Simple Way – YouTube

5 Composting Myths You Should Stop Believing Right Now – YouTube

I’m planning to start a compost pile this spring.  And also, late spring, take the kids to the seacoast to just kick around and explore.  But a thought I’ve had is to gather up a five-gallon bucket of kelp / other seaweed to add to the pile.  Sea grass too – not live, but stuff that’s been washed up.

—

24 Newbie-Friendly Vegetables You Can Easily Grow Indoors (morningchores.com)

And from the same site:

Growing Jerusalem Artichokes: The Complete Guide to Plant, Care, and Harvest (morningchores.com)

—

Homesteading: Raised Beds, Garlic and Aesthetics (substack.com)

Hopefully good info.  Other things in a similar vein:

How to Start Seeds Indoors – How to Germinate Seeds Inside (thepioneerwoman.com)

Vegetable Gardening for Beginners – How to Start a Vegetable Garden (countryliving.com)

—

How to Raise and Breed Mealworms for your Chickens – Fresh Eggs Daily® with Lisa Steele

Looks like a lot of good info there, and on the site in general.  Related:

 

 

—

The Complete Guide to Survival Gardening for Doomers (collapsesurvivalsite.com)

Long and lot of info.

—

 

 

 

 

—

Links on old-time food storage (permanent feature):

Thanks to the Canning and Preserving group on Gab, I now have these links:

Preserving foods by drying | How to dry foods safely (uada.edu)

USDA-Complete-Guide-to-Home-Canning-2015-revision.pdf (healthycanning.com)

Canning | SDSU Extension (sdstate.edu)

Food Preservation– Canning | Consumer Food Safety | Washington State University (wsu.edu)

Canning Timer & Checklist App | OSU Extension Catalog | Oregon State University

National Center for Home Food Preservation (uga.edu)

Canning Recipes | Ball® Mason Jars (ballmasonjars.com)

—

Topical Books (also permanent):

Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking & Curing

Salumi: The Craft of Italian Dry Curing

A Guide to Canning, Freezing, Curing & Smoking Meat, Fish & Game

The Prepper’s Canning Guide

Pickled Pantry

Fermented Vegetables

Hydroponics and Greenhouse Gardening: 3-in-1 Gardening Book to Grow Vegetables, Herbs, and Fruit All-Year-Round

Hydroponics for Beginners: The Complete Guide to Hydroponic Gardening, Designing and Building Inexpensive DIY Hydroponic Systems…

The Aquaponics Guidebook: Combining Aquaculture and Hydroponics Combining Aquaculture and Hydroponics

 

=+=+=

Self-defense (broad)

If you carry concealed and you decide to join USCCA – like I just did – please use this link.

—

 

Assorted links to videos (some seem better than others so YMMV):

Here’s What You Need to Do When You Are Carjacked – YouTube

What To Do When An Intruder Breaks Into Your House At Night – YouTube

I remember reading, IIRC in Massad Ayoob’s In The Gravest Extreme, that he said that an intruder at night has already thought about and planned for the possibility that they might encounter a resident awakened by their presence… and you can be assured that those plans aren’t good for you (he has another, similar, book that looks like an update that I need to get).  Remember – you’re likely still sleepy, and they’re awake and pumped with adrenaline.  Now this is not advice, just a recollection, but my recollection is that if you miraculously get the drop on them, just shoot.  Don’t Hands up! or warn, just shoot.  After all, they’re almost certainly within Tueller Drill distance and they’re pumped to take you out anyway.  My recommendation is that if you have a local cop friend who already knows you have firearms, ask their professional advice which is sure to be all legalese, etc…. and then ask, So, what would you do?

Stop a Dog Fight Instantly – ‘Unlock’ a Biting Dog in SECONDS !! – YouTube

Reasons to carry a FIXED blade – YouTube

Special For Girls || Self Defence || Commando Fitness Club – YouTube

What You Need To Confront Groups Of Armed Violent Criminals – YouTube

SELF DEFENSE PRESSURE POINTS FOR BEGINNERS – SELF DEFENSE 101 – Five Elements Tactical – YouTube

3 Ways to Touch & Sleep People ● Instant Knockout Strike – YouTube

Neck strike.  This can kill.

—

 

I love how the other person at the table just continues eating their ice cream!

 

Situational Awareness!

 

https://granitegrok.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/attacked-a-table.mp4

 

But watching this, I instantly knew those guys walking around the corner were bad news.  And, clearly, so did the guy at the table.

 

=+=+=

Hunting & Fishing:

 

Tanning Deer Hides Start to Finish! How Easy is This? | TUTORIAL | INDIGENOUS SKILLS | DIY

 

 

Other videos (links only):

How to Butcher a Deer at Home | The Bearded Butchers – YouTube

Hide Tanning 101 – How to make Leather from Animal Skins, NATURALY – YouTube

Venison Hind Breakdown #shorts – YouTube

 

 

=+=+=

Concluding thoughts if I’m moved to comment:

 

Something to consider as we watch the rivers of people streaming into our country:

The USA’s Army of Illegals – Vox Popoli (voxday.net)

Related to the literal tsunami of illegals… amongst many other things:

Biden Isn’t Worried About Diseases Seeping Through The Border (thefederalist.com)

 

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

 

Boots on the Ground…Jan. 3rd… MIDDLE EAST is getting ready to EXPLODE…Attack in Iran

 

 

Not to be doom and gloom, but with all the piles of war-tinder around, let alone the things that are already going on… something’s gonna blow.  It could be the Middle East.  It could be China-Taiwan.  Russia looks to be winning in Ukraine despite Western aid.

 

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

 

Palate cleansers:

 

—

—

 

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

 

Please check out my MEMES collections; last one here.  Mockery, ridicule, and the wrapping of uncomfortable truths inside humor can penetrate the cognitive shields of normies far more effectively – IMHO – than dry facts and figures.

And if you enjoyed this post, please do consider buying me a coffee or two:

Buy Me a Coffee

 

The post Survival Sunday appeared first on Granite Grok.

Having spent time with former police, I’ve heard my share of stories about ‘domestics.’ Fights between cohabitating partners if you prefer. I’m also familiar with recovering angry drunks who were abusive – my mom spent her life helping alcoholics in recovery. People hit each other, and some men hit women.

Some guys are more like Comedian Bill Burr, who said, I don’t condone hitting women, but I understand it. He was being funny and real. As I said, people hit each other. And yes, there are plenty of women who hit men. But put them in a ring, and there might be a lot of money in it if you can do it professionally and survive the abuse.

Boxing used to be the sport of kings, but now, thanks to US boxing, it is also the sport of queens. It is allowing men to fight in women’s matches if they claim to be women.

 

We used to call this violence against women. Now we call it a victory for trans rights. The trans cult is a mental health epidemic in our country and it needs to stop. https://t.co/GjDDMrDSn7

— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) January 4, 2024

 

As policies go, this one is slightly better than most I’ve seen.

 

Under the new policy, included in the 2024 rule book, male boxers who transition can compete in the female category so long as they meet certain criteria.

Those under the age of 18 are still required to compete as their birth gender, but adults can choose their category as long as they state their new gender identity and fully complete gender reassignment surgery.

 

But it completely fails to address the actual threat. A male competitor who undergoes surgery still benefits from the increased bone density and muscle mass, height, and weight advantages. A female boxer would have to be crazy to get into the ring with a man who transitioned after maturing into adulthood. The likely difference in reach combined with power puts her at a significant disadvantage.

Transwomen will dominate the sport, effectively erasing it as a path for women to pursue athletically unless they like getting beat by women who were born men.

 

Ebanie Bridges, the bantamweight world titleholder, also said the policy has no place in the world of boxing.

“I don’t care about ‘political correctness,’” she wrote. “It’s politically incorrect to have a man fighting a woman… and [I don’t care] that’s exactly what this is… this society is too soft… This is our health and safety.

“The girls need to stick together or women’s sports in 50 years will be filled with male-born champions.”

She added in a follow-up post: “It’s bad enough having trans women breaking records in other sports like track and field, swimming and powerlifting but it’s a bit different to them breaking our skulls in combat sports where the aim is to HURT YOU, not just break a record.

 

And unlike domestics, where we might suspect something is off until someone ends up dead, we can see it from here. US Boxing just put a hit out on some woman; we just don’t know yet who it is.

 

The post US Boxing Makes ‘Wife Beating’ A Professional Sport appeared first on Granite Grok.

So I just (1/6 10:00 AM) read a post … in fact, it’s the most popular post … Night Cap: Chuck Schumer Explains The Democrat Game Plan Today, which presents the border as a Democrat versus Republican binary dispute. Essentially, if you want open borders, vote Democrat. If you want secure borders, vote Republican.

Republicans want the Border closed and secure. The Democrats want it open and a fast track to citizenship for illegals.

It is what the GOP Establishment wants you to believe.

It is what many … perhaps most … Republican voters want to believe. That the candidate with the “R” after his name is on your side. Except it is NOT true. While there are many Republicans serving in Congress who are sincere about securing the border with no strings attached, there is a critical mass of Republicans who represent the donor-class who will NOT secure the border … and secure should be in quotes: “secure” as in when they say that word it does not mean what you think it means.

When Trump was elected in 2016 … the last free and fair election … he swept into office GOP majorities in both the House and Senate. But the GOP Congress REFUSED to fund a border wall. Because Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell and their ilk represent the donor class, not Republican voters, and the donor class wants open borders … the donor class would call it something like “free markets require the free flow of labor,” which is a lovely euphemism for cheap labor.

The author of Night Cap: Chuck Schumer Explains The Democrat Game Plan Today, presents the House’s passage of H.R. 2 as proof that the border is a Democrat versus Republican binary dispute:

The House passed H.R. 2 last year, and Chuck Schumer will not bring it to the floor for debate. Who is obstructing? KJP says the Republicans do not want comprehensive Immigration Reform. KJP, have you read H.R. 2? I didn’t think so.

The donor-class GOP who voted for H.R. 2 did so knowing full well that it was D.O.A. in the Senate (and that would have been the case even if Cocaine-Mitch was running the show). The much better test of whether the House GOP actually wants something done about the border is their unwillingness to impeach Mayorkas. And as for you bitter-clingers saying that the Senate would NOT have impeached, the Senate would still have been required to hold a trial where the House Impeachment Managers could have shown the American people  how the Biden-Regime has intentionally flooded America with illegals:

740,000 illegals have invaded the border since October 1st, 2023.

We must never stop sharing this list of 19 House Republicans who protected DHS Secretary Mayorkas from impeachment:

Rep. Dan Crenshaw
Rep. Nancy Mace
Rep. Patrick McHenry
Rep. Tom McClintock
Rep. Virginia Foxx…

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) December 28, 2023

And one final … and indisputable … point: It is no longer enough to secure the border. Once the illegals the Biden-Regime has let into the country have children … who by virtue of “birthright citizenship” are citizens and therefore get to vote … and those children reach voting age, there will be tens of millions of new Democrat voters and permanent Democrat majority. The open Southern border is the actual “attack on our sacred democracy.”

But there will be no political will to deport these millions of illegals. Even if somehow … despite the 2024 election already being rigged … you do get a real secure-borders GOP federal government in 2024, the first sob story on ABC, CBS, NBC, etc., and the GOP would crack on the issue of deportations. In twenty years, America will be totally unrecognizable and unsalvageable.

 

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