At least two Vermont college students have helped to start the Student Declaration 2023, which is to ensure that overzealous COVID-19-related mandates are never repeated again on their school campuses.

“We were told that mask, vaccine, and lockdown mandates would be justified by their benefits, yet, in light of the incredible harms these mandates caused, such mandates cannot be justified today,” the Declaration states.

It continues that students have been under a lot of peer pressure to fall into line.

“An undeniable psychological toll fell on every student facing pressure from peers, professors, and university administration to comply with mandates, and many, denied face-to-face contact with others for over a year, found themselves forced to accept medical coercion under duress,” it states.

Two of the Declaration’s three originators are UVM students, Lauren Palmer and Isla Stover. Palmer, according to her Linkedin profile, has studied performance arts and offered homeschool courses. Stover is an avid cyclist. The third person is Nadia Ghazal, a graduate law student.

The petition currently has 94 signatures including nine students, 10 faculty/staff and 75 citizens.

The Declaration further suggests that students who refused COVID vaccines were punished for doing so.

“Those who chose not to vaccinate (a choice owed to all people under a truly democratic society), whether for medical or personal motivations, were made outcasts; they were socially ridiculed, segregated, and blamed, losing scholarships, academic and social opportunities, jobs and internships, medical autonomy and privacy, their ability to see friends and family, all campus platforms for free and uncensored speech, and the most basic human rights of Compassion, Dignity, and Empathy,” it states.

It also accuses academic leaders of abandoning the principles of free speech and public debate.

“It is clear that modern academia and academic leaders have betrayed their commitment to the free and open exchange of ideas, allowing fear, and not reason or common sense, to triumph. The freedom of rational thought must be recovered, and, in order to do this, we must first restore the principles of the university: the quintessential fountain of ideas. Dialogue must again be the foundation of all institutions.”

On the UVM student’s petition webpage it talks about empowering students. It states “Students were once the vehicles of change. We hope our movement on October 23rd empowers students, as well as professors, staff, and inspired community members, to be that vehicle of change once again.”

Similar to the Great Barrington Declaration

The statement is not unlike 2020’s Great Barrington Declaration, which has more than 938,000 signatures including at least 43 medical professionals.

It stated in 2020, “Current lockdown policies are producing devastating effects on short and long-term public health. The results (to name a few) include lower childhood vaccination rates, worsening cardiovascular disease outcomes, fewer cancer screenings and deteriorating mental health – leading to greater excess mortality in years to come, with the working class and younger members of society carrying the heaviest burden. Keeping students out of school is a grave injustice.”

COVID mandates still in national news

In related news, Children’s Health Defense announced last week that a ruling by the New York State Supreme Court in January to strike down the state’s vaccine mandate for healthcare workers will remain after the state’s appeal was dismissed earlier this month. It’s not yet clear what the implications might be in Vermont.

Also, the former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson was in the news recently, warning Americans to reject any return of COVID-related mandates.

“Look at how much control they were able to exercise over the people: shutting down the schools, keeping our children from learning, putting them so far behind. It’s going to take years, maybe decades, for them to catch up again,” he said on Newsmax’s “American Agenda.”

 

Michael Bielawski | Vermont Daily Chronicle

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If you want school systems that work, start by getting rid of teachers’ unions. They are a Special Interest racket to enrich adults and do not better the educational system for the benefit of kids. Doubt me?

Pull the public contract for your town’s unions and then demand to know from your school board how many children score PROFICIENT in the NAEP standardized tests. Prepare to be unhappy with the results.

Or, you could ask current Manchester City Mayor and candidate for NH Governor Joyce Craig. She is a BIG supporter of the teacher’s unions. HOW is that union helping educate those children? It’s not pretty.

There is a solution – after NOT voting for Craig for Governor.

If you think I’m blowing one bad report out of proportions, the National Assessment of Educational Progress [NAEP] report that came out earlier this year found similarly dismal student performance in the public schools. Reading and math proficiency collapsed over the past four years in part because of the teachers unions’ insistence that public school stay closed during COVID — a national act of child abuse.

The Left obsesses about income inequality and the gap between rich and poor. Yet, they are so captive to the teachers unions that they do nothing about what is arguably the most regressive policy in America: our failing public school system. The decline in test scores is only half the story. The other part of the story is that the biggest declines in learning and achievement are among the poorer families.

I’m the furthest thing from an education expert, but I have had five kids. It’s pretty clear that three essential components to an enriching education are discipline in the classroom, high expectations and a classical curriculum. This isn’t that complicated. It’s not like solving a Rubik’s Cube.

Nor is it rocket science. Our education system, before the 70s, was the envy of the world. Then the Left took control – so here we are.

• Control of the classroom – enough of the modified CRT that is Childism. EXPECT GOOD BEHAVIOR – DEMAND IT and help reset the Culture instead of bowing to it.
• Expectations – enough of the bigotry of low expectations and stop calling those that demand to do so “racists” and “culturally inappropriate.”
• Curriculum – enough basketweaving, social-emotional learning, and other non-academics that have risen and are being deployed in favor of academic rigor. I dare school systems to show me their kids ace-ing tests from the 40s, 30s, 1890s…heck, even the current US Citizenship test. Do that, and I’ll allow you to scream at me.

Let me add to those three:

• Stop with the “Education Fads”. Tell your School Boards to not accept new curriculum unless it has been peer-reviewed with results that can be duplicated to be better than what your kids are being fed.
• Make sure that you AS PARENTS can help with homework
• Start demanding that School Boards start elevating academics over athletics. Start handing out “Academic sweaters” rather than “athletic sweaters.”

 

HT |  Hot Air

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We all agree that a calm world results from a strong America. Donald Trump is the first President since Jimmy Carter not to enter U.S. Troops into a new conflict. Part of the reason for that period of peace is Trump rebuilt our military to a point where nobody dared threaten the United States or its allies.

It was Ronald Reagan who coined the term “Peace through strength.” President Reagan hoped that his new military initiatives would not only contain communism but defeat it. Reagan broke the Soviet Union and witnessed the collapse of the Berlin Wall. Joe Biden is the antithesis of Ronald Reagan. Biden has weakened our military by introducing Woke thinking and bad decisions by Biden. Biden opened the door for Russia to invade Ukraine. He has ignored many of the offensive activities of China, and he has allowed Iran to rebound their financial status and accelerate their nuclear program. Tie those situations with the botched Afghanistan debacle, and you have a disastrous foreign policy package.

If not so serious, it would be comical. Biden and his team like to take credit for the way Biden has handled each of these global hotspots, but the truth is these conflicts exist because of him. What he has done is tantamount to saving an elderly person from drowning when you tossed the person overboard in the first place. His reckless policies have turned the world into a powder keg ready to explode.

Joe Biden went to the Resolute Desk and the Oval Office for a prime-time address to the nation. In that setting, there was speculation all day that this was a seminal moment for the President and an opportunity for him to unite the country in a unified effort to save Israel from the latest attempt to obliterate Israel and all Jews. He failed miserably. Instead of coming across as Reaganlike, and finally the leader of the nation and the free world, he came across as the prototypical Liberal and went for our wallets. In what he termed a “small investment,” he detailed his request for $100 Billion that he would present to Congress for speedy consideration.

Now, that kind of money may seem small for someone who has been extorting millions from our foes for decades, but for us in the middle class, that is as painful as trying to balance our budgets with Bidenomics. The significant problems with his request are combining his plea for our money to aid Israel with more funds for Ukraine and asking for $100 Million for Gaza and the Palestinian people. We know he is getting kickbacks from every dollar he sends to Ukraine, and Hamas will scoop up that $100 Million before a single dollar gets to the people for humanitarian aid. He also disappointed many people by continuing to refuse to place the blame on the Hamas and Hezbollah attacks on Israel on Iran, which is obviously holding the strings.

He tried to connect the two struggles as threats to our future freedom, but he failed. Had he focused on Israel, he would have garnered support across the aisles in both chambers. With his approach, he will have a battle in both. I am a realist and did not expect much from Biden on Thursday night. You can put him behind the big desk, but that does not make him a big man. Biden is a weak leader; every time he is behind a microphone and in front of a camera, he looks worse. The only good thing about him sitting for the address is it keeps him off the floor. That small win is insufficient for America, Israel, or the Free World.

 

The post Don’t Give Biden Credit. He Created This Mess appeared first on Granite Grok.

Twenty-five years ago, French Model Laetitia Casta became a household name. Pretty thing, modeled women’s clothes and underwear. She could look sophisticated in a sweater or sexy in a teddy. And she helped start a dynasty that took women’s lingerie from the back of the store to the storefront.

She had a lot of famous help over the years, either famous going in as a model or famous after being one. They later added wings and called them angels—advertising brilliance. But once you’ve advertised sexy women in lingerie with wings (to sell undies, clothes, perfume, and accessories), what’s next? The not-so-obvious choice is transwomen and plus-size models, but they are your ad dollars; throw it at the wall, and maybe it sticks.

There is, of course, the pesky problem of human nature.

Unattractive people do not buy magazines to look at unattractive people; no one does. Nor do the obese. Just ask non-woke Madison Avenue for all its history until the rise of social justice scores and woke stupidity.

Don’t get me wrong (or do; I’m okay with that, too) – body positivity is an essential mental exercise, but it shouldn’t be monopolized as a euphemism for fat women. If the goal is to get you comfortable with a circumstance you can’t change today (or perhaps ever), be it weight, wardrobe, looks, your current work or relationships, or some physical handicap, body positivity as a concept might be what gets you to tomorrow. You need to feel good in your skin to focus on the rest of life because most of us live in that world. The one where what you do matters. Where being productive and valuable matters.

It’s not an easy thing, life, nor is it anyone else’s responsibility to make you feel good about being you (if they told you that they lied), but people will sell you things to get there from here, and there are rules of nature that apply.

A paraplegic competing in a marathon on high-tech “legs” is inspirational. A huge woman in a bustier – who may be the sexiest thing on God’s green earth to her lover, Rubens – will not sell as many bras and panties to everyone else. That doesn’t mean she’s not beautiful (inside or out). She might be a math genius, a soulful singer, a top-shelf software designer, or great with children. All things that should add to the sense of self, value, and inner beauty.

While the world owes you nothing, it cannot define your inner beauty (your job) or how that motivates you. The world will get in your way, but that doesn’t mean your vision is for anyone else because nature has a vision, at least for observable perfection, and we’re all wired into it. The Ad men and women know this, too.

People of all sizes, shapes, ages, and appearances are drawn to many things, but they are almost all drawn to The Golden Ratio. 1:1.618. The entire universe works like magic around it. And while beauty is in the eye of the beholder, universal beauty, regardless of race, culture, time, or space, always comes down to 1 to 1.618. Sticking ‘pretty’ men and large women in panties is not likely to inspire people who don’t typically pay attention to fashion shows or understand the math behind beauty to tune in to yours. They know what looks appealing, and so, once again, do the folks at Victoria’s Secret.

Going woke with oversized and transgender “angels” cost them 1.3 Billion in sales last year, so they’ve re-discovered a secret. It might be Victoria’s, or maybe not. Gillette learned the secret at a much higher price. If you accuse men of being bullies and bigots, they might stop buying your razors and other man-maintenance goodies. Their dance with the woke devil cost P&G about 8 billion.

Budweiser made Bud Light’s sales much lighter, singing to a similar tune. It won’t end them, but they lost millions of customers who’ve found other beers to drink and will never return.

So, what about Victoria’s Secret?

You don’t have to sell all the sizes on the runway to sell all the sizes you sell for every customer who might buy. And it pays to know your customer base. Don’t piss them off to pander to the latest round chambered in the progressive cultural revolver. 

Take their advice. Be You! And Victoria’s Secret has decided to do that.

 

The post After Losing $1.3 Billion “Victoria” Rediscovers The “Secret” appeared first on Granite Grok.

Human ingenuity is a funny thing.  Of course, it has brought us such technological delights as the iPhone and the Thigh-master, however, there is a downside to our eternal optimism in our ability to achieve God-like creativity.

In our quest to solve the world’s many problems, as well as trying to solve problems that aren’t there (looking at you, climate change), our finest minds have sallied forth in hopes of making life easier while trying to save the world, which is a deadly combination.

Elon Musk is one of those Uber geniuses who has honed his talent to achieve what many might have only dreamt of.  Thanks to his uncanny ability to make his dreams a reality we have entered into an age where his products alone might cure our terminal cancer on our way to outer space while sipping a latte and listening to our favorite podcast on yet another use for shiplap.  What’s not to be excited about?

I may not have the pedigree of an Elon Musk, however, I am the World’s First Truly Fake News Reporter, which means I possess a very rare and valuable brain trust, to me at least.  This is why when I was asked by my friend what I thought about self-driving vehicles, I took the stance any reasonable human being should take, which is – that’s a ridiculously bad idea.  Of course, my friend had sixty-thousand rea$on$ to disagree with me, and I was the one asking for a ride, so I was forced to reconsider.

After several minutes of listening to him promote this horrible idea of letting the car drive us I realized I was in for the ride of my likely-to-be-shortened life.  After reluctantly easing into my white vegan leather passenger seat the silent death trap let out a demonic howl that sounded more like a Banshee getting sucked into a black hole than the thunder of horses tearing down the road.  This is the sound of progress, sure.

As we attempted to leave my driveway, the supposedly sentient beast seemed confused about what to do next.  Its owner excused the machine’s hesitance because “it doesn’t recognize your driveway since it’s not on the map.”  We’re not five seconds into the trip, and already, it’s clear there are more bugs than the ones splattered on the windshield.

After “assisting” the rolling robot into position, it takes off down the winding road and comes to a stop at the appropriate time but with the braking sensitivity of a meat cleaver before turning onto the next road.  The next thing I know, we are being driven up the exact middle of the freshly paved road because “it doesn’t have any lines painted on it, so it doesn’t know where the lane is.”  Which I’m sure makes perfect sense to the oncoming motorists who don’t have the same problem until they see us coming.

I try to distract myself by admiring the over-sized R-2 unit’s many bells and whistles, among which is a small flat-screen TV where the stereo controls should be. On it appears a rudimentary 2-D/3-D map of the neighborhood as “we” drive through it.  To my friend, this obviously feels like Star Trek has come to life in his driveway, fair enough.  Star Trek was clearly ahead of its time.  Yet, it required us to suspend our reality.  Evidence Spock was an alien were his pointy ears – really?  The Enterprise’s diversity and inclusion policies were cutting edge, but have another look at those control panels – they were barely ahead of the Commodore 64.  As for that patri archical playboy Captain Kirk, I have a La-z-boy in my living room that rivals his command chair.

 

 

Not to mention, they were only to flip phones at that point in space travel.  Highly suspect.

I feel like I am having to similarly suspend my reality as I consider this piece of Space-X technology that has yet to make it down a stretch of road without my friend attempting to explain why it did the next dangerous thing.  As we get into Hanover, he’s made more excuses for it than a battered housewife for her abusive husband. 

Enter the construction along the Ledyard bridge, and the steely beast starts to convulse like it’s having a seizure, trying to figure out what comes next.  “It doesn’t recognize all these cones,” my friend explains matter-of-factly.  No, it does not.

It also doesn’t recognize the Ivy League privilege enjoyed by the Dartmouth student who just walks right out into traffic and nearly gets hit by Elon’s creation, which was about the only thing it almost got right that day.  I can’t think of a driver who hasn’t secretly wanted to teach the student body about applied physics a time or two while they clog up the campus arteries like high-end extra virgin olive oil.

As we near our destination, we have one more intersection to make it through, and the green goblin does not disappoint.  “I don’t know why it won’t go,” he wonders aloud, finally sounding annoyed.  I know why it won’t go – it’s a machine, not a person. The only thing it has in common is the ability to mess things up spectacularly and look good doing it. It’s not made to rationalize or make judgment decisions.  It lacks nuance and a nervous system.  It doesn’t know how to genuinely solve the problems of human traffic, nor does it keep a record of all the times some idiot violated the rules of the road and nearly ruined your day.

“One day, the road is going to be full of these, and they’ll all be talking to each other, and it will revolutionize the way we travel,” my friend beams, believing this to be a good thing.

Millions of these, talking to each other in Tesla-ese, Toyota-ese, and Ford-ese?

That’s exactly what I’m worried about.

 

The post The Tesla That Drove Me…Bananas! appeared first on Granite Grok.

The jury in the double murder case of Stephen & Djeswende Reid has left for the weekend without a verdict as to Logan Clegg’s guilt or innocence. While the jury deliberates, there’s a very glaring hole in the prosecutors’ arguments.

Compare this statement from In-Depth New Hampshire’s article on the trial from October 19, 2023.

 

“There is no mention of a robbery involved in the murder, but Stephen Reid’s cell phone from that day is still missing. Police were able to use the phone’s Google location data from the phone to find the bodies. However, FBI agent Kevin Hoyland testified Stephen Reid’s phone was downloading and uploading a large amount of data about an hour after the murders, indicating it was being used.”

 

To this statement from an NHPR report on April 25th, 2022, following the discovery of the murders.

 

“The bed was neatly made and a window was open. Both their phones are still in the apartment. My Dad’s wallet is also still in the apartment, and both their cars are here,” Brian wrote.

 

According to prosecutors, Concord police were able to locate the bodies with the help of “the phone.” But if both phones were present in the apartment when the Reids went for the walk, and the FBI agent testified that Stephen Reid’s phone was downloading and uploading a large amount of data about an hour after the murders, then something doesn’t add up in the prosecutor’s statements.

We want to thank Claire Best for this Contribution – Please direct yours to Editor@GraniteGrok.com.
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Stephen Reid worked for The Peace Corps and was involved in US Aid. It makes you wonder if there was something on his phone that had to do with human or organ trafficking (did he know about it? Did someone not want him to know about it?)…or?

International Rescue Committee (related to the work of The Peace Corps, I believe) is located at 10 Ferry Street, Concord. International Rescue Committee is tied to the UN and Jeffrey Epstein, while 10 Ferry Street has also been reported to the FBI for suspected child trafficking. The address also houses Quest Diagnostics, Dataminr, Children’s Trust Fund, Boston Scientific, Maximus Inc…

Former AG Geoffrey Ward deleted the files of police officers on the Laurie List, and he magically found bullet casings a month after the murders. Concord PD DNA lab is completely unreliable. Katie Swango, State Lab DNA Tech, is reliable and testifies to discrepancies she finds, but Merrimack County Prosecutors have ignored her testimony in the past when it doesn’t suit the narrative they are looking for. Was Katie Swango’s lab test entered into the exhibits for the jury? Or did prosecutors convince the judge that only the police lab report should be entered?

When prosecutors just claim that someone is guilty with so many inconsistencies from state witnesses, it makes one question what the prosecutors are hiding and what they really know.

 

The post NH v. Logan Clegg – Merrimack County Superior Court’s Lackadaisical Attention to Details appeared first on Granite Grok.

While I haven’t been writing as much as I have wanted, I’m still surfing, and the dastardly attack by Hamas on Israel has taken the oxygen out of the blogosphere’s room. And, post-attack, Hamas and the Palestinians are trying to make the progressive case for Critical Race Theory – that the Hamas attackers are really just the victims.

Instead of being branded as the oppressors as history has shown us and the Israelis as the victims (which is certainly the case the last few weeks now), Hamas and the Palestinians are “the people of color,” and ALL Israelis have suddenly become “Whites” – thus fulfilling the racist philosophy of CRT’s parameters.

And our Education system is complicit in all this by not teaching us any history of the last 70 years, and certainly, our Leftist Mainstream media is one-sided. To wit: how fast did they move from “Hamas killed Israelis and tortured them” to believing the Hamas propaganda that it was an Israeli air strike that brought down a hospital with 500 deaths? Worldwide, the media pounced on that – only having to slowly walk away when daylight came, and the building was still intact ‘cept for a few broken windows. Never a thought was given by the media “Er, how did the Palestinians get the 500 dead number within an hour if the hospital WAS in rubble? What was the count: 1…2…3…4…500?”.

So like my other Stack of Stuff on Government Schools (which we can’t trust either on Transgenderism/Childism), I’ll put up some facts as I run across them.

• So, how did the Palestinians become victims? Via an American Public Relations firm

And now comes the seed that leads to the current support from the left of “Palestine.” In the early 1960s, the Arab coalition was not only physically losing wars, but was considered bullies of Israel in worldwide media. They were the Goliath that kept losing to David. So they hired the public relations firm of Dudley-Anderson-Yutzy in New York (founded in 1909, no longer in business) to change their image in the world. George Anderson told them they needed a “victim,” a group that would be perceived as smaller and even more abused than the Israelis, and the Palestinian cause was born.

Like I said in the headline, it’s an actual public relations scam. The rich “Palestinian” history that the perpetually aggrieved American protester class thinks is being fought for is a work of creative fiction. It’s an even easier sell to the American Left today, given that they spent all of 2020 convincing themselves that Joe Biden was a thoughtful centrist who would bring some class to the White House.

• And that trope that Hamas are not the same as the regular Palestinian civilians. Well, the latter put the former into power and have kept them there for almost 20 years:

As for Gaza? In 2005, the Israelis, in their eternal quest for peace, gave self-governance to the people of Gaza. In 2007, the people of Gaza elected Hamas as their leadership by over 90%, and they have reelected and kept Hamas in power for these 16 years. Please do not cry for a distinction between the citizens of Gaza and Hamas, for Hamas was and has been elected by the people of Gaza for almost two decades. They’ve made their gullibility a cornerstone of their politics.

• Israel is NOT “apartheid” (emphasis mine):

The only thing that’s lacking from the left’s scenario is any actual apartheid. The term “apartheid” comes from South Africa, where it referred to a system of institutionalized racial segregation and discrimination that was in place from 1948 to 1991. The word itself means “separateness,” and South Africa instituted numerous laws to keep the races apart in schools, workplaces, and areas where the public gathered, such as beaches.

There is absolutely nothing like this in Israel. As my Jihad Watch colleague Hugh Fitzgerald has explained: “In Israel, Arabs sit on the Supreme Court, serve in the Knesset, go abroad as ambassadors. The chairman of Israel’s largest bank, Bank Leumi, is an Arab. Jews and Arabs work in the same factories and offices, play on the same sports teams and in the same orchestras, act in the same films, are treated in the same hospitals by both Jewish and Arab medical personnel, attend the same classes in the same universities. Jews and Arabs own restaurants and start high-tech businesses together. The only difference in their treatment is that Jews must, while Arabs may, serve in the military.”

• And a longer history of that area of the Middle East – one that the Islamic militants of Hamas, Iran, et al never want you to remember or learn if you never have:

Let us start with a brief history lesson. Despite what the media has been preaching for almost 60 years, there is no historical Palestinian state or people. Over 4,000 years ago, there were small tribes living in Canaan, such as Moabites, Amalekites, etc. There was no Palestine of people or land. Then around 3,200 years ago, the 12 tribes of Israel, united under King Saul into the first kingdom in the region, a Jewish theocracy called “Israel.” That split into the kingdoms of Judah and Israel (both Jewish), which were conquered by the Babylonian empire a little over 2,500 years ago. This became the Persian Empire, which was defeated by Alexander the Great, and Israel was controlled by the Greeks.

The Greeks were defeated by the Hasmoneans, and Israel once again became a Jewish state about 2,200 years ago. The Hasmoneans were beaten by the Romans, and there followed a series of kingdoms that controlled Israel: Byzantine, Sassanid, Ummayad, Frankish, Christian, and eventually the Mamluk Dynasty, which controlled the region in the 13th-16th centuries. This is the first time there is a governmental Muslim presence in Israel, but again, it is not related to Palestine as a people or nation at all. The Mamluks ultimately were absorbed into the Ottoman Empire, which controlled the region until it was defeated by the British in the 20th century. Nowhere in this 3,000-year history does Palestine or Palestinians exist or even get discussed. The British created a mandate called “Palestine” on July 24, 1922, which was the first mention of the word in thousands of years.

For over 3,000 years, there has been no such thing as a Palestinian or a country of Palestine! So how did this Palestinian issue even start in modern times? In 1948, U.N. Resolution 181 granted statehood to two states: a Jewish one called Israel and an Arab one called Palestine. This is the first time there is a nation or people with the name of Palestine, even though they were in fact all Jordanians. Immediately, five Arab nations attacked Israel, which continued to be attacked repeatedly for the next 15 years but successfully defended her nationhood.

…At Anderson’s advice, the Palestinian Liberation Organization was established on May 28, 1964. This is the start date of the “Palestinian cause”: 1964. After the 1967 war, when Israel kept Gaza, the Sinai, the Golan Heights, and the West Bank, the concept of the Palestinians as victims became more popular.

• And with the “impending” wiping out of Hamas by the Israeli IDF, what does the Hamas Leadership want to do? Ayup, make more dead people in Gaza to proclaim they are the victims:
  • Hamas Impeding Evacuation Of Americans From Gaza To Egypt, Biden Adviser Says.
  • Hamas Confiscating Car Keys From Civilians To Prevent Them From Leaving Gaza: Intel Reports.

 

The post Some “Inconvenient” Background History Hamas Doesn’t Want You to Know appeared first on Granite Grok.

Most of us recognized Black Lives Matter as a shadow organization when they dominated the news cycle during the “Summer of Love” in 2020. The members of BLM did not resemble the Hippie Movement of the original Summer of Love in 1967.

BLM was a complex con job perpetrated on the American people and government. It was a pyramid-style money-making effort for the few who started and controlled the movement. Still, members of BLM managed to infiltrate many levels of government and remain in office. School boards were a favorite target of these candidates, and they realized how soft and Woke a target our education system was and continues to be. BLM coerced many boards to place their people into DEIJ-related positions. As counselors of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice, these mentors, with their racist and anti-America feelings, have direct contact with impressionable children. This relationship must end.

My hometown of Exeter is a perfect example of the BLM influence. SAU-16 is the administrative body for Exeter and surrounding communities. In 2021, the Seacoast Chapter of Black Lives Matter issued a list of demands for Exeter and other larger towns in New Hampshire’s seacoast area. These demands involved local government, school administration, and the Police Department.

Two things of note: why does BLM even have a chapter in any geographic section of New Hampshire, and what gives them the audacity to believe they can make demands on anyone? They got their way with SAU-16, which hired one of BLM’s members/officers for its newly formed DEIJ department. At a time with falling test scores and the town laying off teachers, the SAU hired a man who claimed to be a member of BLM and was openly bi-sexual, according to his biography. I do not have children in this school district, but if I did, I would not want this man to have any contact with them. His life choices and lifestyle are not the influence Exeter’s children would ever need or want. By the way, he was hired at $150,000 a year when the average teacher’s salary in Exeter is about $55,000 yearly.

This week, Black Lives Matter aligned their support with Gaza and Hamas. We have a DEIJ counselor interacting with our children who support a country and terrorist group that believes in the extermination of Jews and is responsible for the death, massacre, rape, and kidnapping of thousands of Israelites on October 7.

It is time for every municipality in this country to review which employees align themselves with BLM. These relationships should be terminated immediately. This action is not discrimination. It is for the security and safety of our children. We would never hire, I would hope, a supporter or member of the KKK. Why would we want anyone with ties to BLM? BLM got their say and way in 2021. It is now time for the residents of Exeter to have ours.

 

The post Nobody With Ties To BLM Should Be Near Our Children appeared first on Granite Grok.

Maxim Magazine (Australia) just named a transwoman to its latest 100 hottest women list. He’s not even a good-looking guy. It’s quite insulting, so I think the folks over at Maxim Australia wanted some media attention because it used to be a ‘maxim’ that there is no such thing as bad press.

Tell that to Gillette, Bud Light, and Victoria’s Secret (more on them later today).

 

Maxim magazine named a biological male and former Australian rules football player, Danielle Laidley, to its “Hottest 100 Women” list in Australia for 2023, with the trans-identifying man landing in the number 92 spot.

 

There are 99 women, many of whom could qualify as hot – I’ve not seen the list – but there are eight women on the list who were not as hot as the dude in the dress in a magazine whose core audience is heterosexual men, which brings us back to the question, if ‘Danielle’ is “hot,” is it becasue she’s a convicted stalker of women?

 

The magazine released the list on Wednesday and is being blasted not only for honoring a biological male in a list of hot women, but also because three years ago Laidley, who formerly went by the first name of Dean, was arrested for stalking, The Age noted.

In 2020, the Maxim honoree reportedly pleaded guilty to stalking after repeatedly making calls and sending text messages to a woman, also sitting in a car outside her home watching and photographing her, the outlet noted.

 

I’m guessing that Dean decided two things. He needed an image rehab – you’re not allowed to poke fun at transwomen, and being one would conveniently give him access to more women in the bathroom or locker room. And he may have already fancied dressing in women’s clothes, so why not?

But no worries, Western Culture’s not broken. Male predators using woke ideology to gain access to women or girls. It’s almost as we all predicted that. Well, no sh!t, we did (2016).

 

 

Could a truly self-identifying transgender person be a sexual predator? Of course. They could also be a fabulous tenor or great with animals or an amazing mechanic, a-sexual, or indifferent, all of which have nothing to do with the threat being blessed by the idiot-left and their cultural pall-bearers when they insist that “men” who claim to feel like women have a “right” to use the ladies bathroom.

And yes, it is about that.

There are a great deal more sexual predators (by orders of magnitude) than there are self-identifying transgenders. These predators will use that “loophole” as a way to gain access to girls and women in places where they could or may be more vulnerable. … [And]

In the real world, not all men are sexual predators, but some men are, so your opposition to men using the ladies’ room is not about denying manufactured rights to a fraction of a fraction of the population. It is about defending the right of hundreds of millions of girls and women to feel safe in their persons and property in these public spaces.

 

 

I guess down in Australia, at least at Maxim Magazine, that’s hot. I feel bad for Hot Girls 93-100. How do you face your friends? What do you say when the interviewer wonders if there’s something they can do to be hotter than the old guy in a dress?

Exit question. Why not an issue dedicated to a list of the 100 hottest transowmen?

I think we all know the answer.

 

-This is Dani Laidley, a biological male

Dani was just added to the “Hottest 100 Women” list by Maxim Magazine pic.twitter.com/2P4mfywCPy

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) October 19, 2023

 

The post Men’s Magazine Says Ugly Dude in a Dress “Hotter” Than at Least 8 “Hot” Australian Women appeared first on Granite Grok.

What, you haven’t already figured this out? How can you NOT be paying attention if you love your children? “Free speech… that extraordinary thing we have that Muslim countries don’t.”

 

All of that led my brain to a quote that is often falsely attributed to Winston Churchill: “When Muslims are in the minority they are very concerned with minority rights, when they are in the majority there are no minority rights.” The British Bulldog may not have said that, but a look at a map of nations with Sharia law suggests that it’s correct.

 

That phrase “Using our Freedoms and Rights against us” should be dancing in your head right about now. After all, it is about Power – the process of obtaining it (including lying and subterfuge), then aggregating and wielding it.

And while Muslims may have Sharia Law, Socialists & Communists often use “for the common good,” which is just about the same thing. “Disturbing the Peace” can be used for the same purpose.

And then there’s always the “Domestic Terrorist” and “Enemy of the State” that seems to be in more use with the Biden Administration…

 

 

HT:  American Thinker

The post “Free Speech… That Extraordinary Thing We Have That Muslim Countries Don’t.” appeared first on Granite Grok.

Please Come by Fulchino’s Vineyard on Oct. 24th from 6 pm to 8 pm. You are all invited. See the details in the flyer for RSVP.

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

 

 

 

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

The post Lily Tang Williams Campaign Fundraiser Event appeared first on Granite Grok.

If you like the convenience of frozen breaded chicken, Tyson Foods is probably on your shopping list. Nuggets, strips, tenders, flavored varieties. They’ve got a wide selection. It is not fine fare but passable, but those winds may be changing direction.

Tyson has purchased Protix in the name of sustainable protein production. What a strange thing to say. All you had to do was keep up with the chickens, and protein is sustained. Nope. Someone at Tyson has a Climate Justice Rasputin whispering in their ear. Make them eat bugs, she whispers (yes, I gendered Tyson’s Rasputin).

 

Tyson Foods Inc. TSN, 0.66% said Tuesday it is planning to acquire a minority stake in Protix, a Dutch company that’s a leader in insect ingredients, as it works on more sustainable protein production. Tyson did not disclose terms, but said it plans to fund Protix’s global expansion. The two have also entered a joint venture that will create and operate an insect ingredient facility in the continental U.S. “Upon completion, it will be the first at-scale facility of its kind to upcycle food manufacturing byproducts into high-quality insect proteins and lipids which will primarily be used in the pet food, aquaculture, and livestock industries,” Tyson said in a statement.

 

Chickens will eat bugs, so there’s no there there, but pet food? While dogs and cats will eat the odd bug, it’s more of a moving target sort of distraction thing. Oh, look, I can grab that. Done. And I’m no expert, but the pet food industry has been shifting toward more honest ingredients, fewer grains and fillers, and even real meat or some form of crude protein.

Are we expecting the generations of people who have eschewed the idea of having children for raising fur babies to embrace bug bits as a source? Is the Tyson Board seeing a forest for the trees scenario where the war on meat will create a vacuum into which they will be positioned to provide a crude protein alternative?

Related: Data From 175 Countries Says, Eat Meat, Live Longer!

Tyson’s Mission Statement, Who We Are Page, briefly shows us the statement: Raising Expectations for How Much Good Food Can Do. Is there an amendment in the works hinting at how much bugs can do for food? Is anyone going to remind anyone else that bug exoskeletons have components toxic to humans?

I only mention this becasue a global food concern with a struggling stock price has purchased a Dutch bugs-to-protein-business with an eye toward funding its global expansion. Absent all the recent 2020s talk about moving us away from food to bugs, it’s probably a nothingburger. But given the globalist obsession with consuming farmland to prevent farming, food production, and the war on meat, I think I’ll encourage my healthy suspicion about their motives.

 

 

The post Why Did Tyson Buy Bug-Parts-as-Food Business? appeared first on Granite Grok.

Kevin Landrigan spoke to the new chair of NH’s Special Gaming Commission, Patrick Abrami, about charity gaming after Andy and Laurie Sanborn’s alleged misconduct over COVID monies and their ownership of a charity gaming establishment (and the new one they want to build).

I know about it, but I don’t know enough to sound smart about it, much less BE smart about it, so I’m not going to write about that. What I am going to do is talk about impropriety. Impropriety is the quality or condition of being improper—an improper act. And in politics, Optics matter. No, not the faux ones that are ramped up by one side or another for political gain. This one is an unforced error. And this from Landrigan caught my eye:

Laurie Sanborn stepped down from the charity casino commission. She has resisted calls from Democratic leaders that she also step down as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, which acts on all gambling legislation.

If she and Andy have a gambling establishment whose business comes up before the commission, she should never have been on the casino commission in the first place. Wrong decision to have been on it in the first place.

That ALSO should be a given for ALL licensing boards and commission in NH; if you’re a participant in that particular industry, you shouldn’t be on an entity that has oversight and make rules for it.

This should hold for any elected office holder in the House or Senate as well. The LEAST Laurie should do is make the proclamation that she will recuse herself from ANY gambling mentions, discussions, legislation, or votes that might come up. That’s the BARE minimum.

Better is to remove herself from the Leadership position – Impropriety. Remove herself from ANY situation that could place her at risk of being accused of even the hint of an indiscretion. No, I’m not stating that she should resign from the House, but should make sure that ANYONE (and not just Democrats) could make hay with the issue.

And yes, I walked this talk when I was on my Hamlet’s Budget Committee. As my boys were growing up, they were special needs and receiving services from the School District. Whenever that part of the school budget came up, I immediately said that I was recusing myself from all discussions, budget changes, and votes dealing with the Special Education area. I continued that when I was on the BudComm my last term and we had the Grandson with us – Impropriety.

As opposed to Dale Dormody. He campaigned for the BudComm with the caveat that he would never vote on anything to do with the Library as his wife was the Director. Once on the BudComm, his tune began to change:

• I think about keeping my promise
• OK, I’ll vote for library issues but NOT for anything to do with staff
• OK, I will vote on staff issues but not salaries
• Nah, I’ve vote on everything BUT my wife’s salaries (again, the Library Director)
• Nope, I’m voting on everything. And then, with a smile, said, “And there’s nothing you can do to me about it.”

It became known as “The Dormody Rule,” and there was nothing we could do as a Budget Committee. The rest of us resented him for campaigning on certain promises and then did the slow slide to recant from them. We couldn’t remove him, we couldn’t avoid him, we couldn’t ignore any motions (well, perhaps not give a “second” for them), and we couldn’t keep him from voting (or recording his vote).  Why?

He did more research on State Statutes concerning Budget Committees than I had. Being a Dillon’s Rule State, subdivisions of the State (and any subordinate boards and commissions thereof) can only do such things specifically allowed in Law. There is nothing in the BudComm laws that allowed for a recall nor “a throw-off”(of any type from mere shunning to outright removal).

Smuggness.

Impropriety.

So what will Laurie do? Be a Skip or a Dale?

 

HT | Union Leader

The post Impropriety Is A Thing Laurie Sanborn Should Ponder appeared first on Granite Grok.

Jason Williams was elected District Attorney of Loisisana in 2020 with 220,000 little “helpers” from George Soros, and Williams knows who owns him. “Williams declined to prosecute 65% of all criminal cases in New Orleans in 2021.”

As intended by both Soros and the DA, and the Dem party’s ongoing Cloward-Piven-Palooza, crime rose.

 

New Orleans was named the “murder capital of the United States” in 2022, and violent crime was the leading cause of death for children in the city that same year. Auto thefts in the city have increased 104% since 2022, and total crime has increased 8% since the start of the year, police data showed.

 

It was only a matter of time before the chickens came for the DA’s rhetorical “roost.”

 

Williams was walking his 78-year-old mother to his car when two suspects approached the pair, pointed a gun at them and demanded the DA’s car, according to WVUE. The suspects then jumped into the car and drove off before abandoning the vehicle in an undisclosed location and carjacking a young woman in the area 30 minutes later, the NOPD confirmed.

 

No one believes they knew he was the DA, but imagine if they did? His car might not have been jacked. Dude, as thanks for leaving us on the street to engage is acts of self-betterment at the expense of others, we will carjack someone else this evening. Have a nice night.

No one was injured unless we wanted to include the DA’s pride. It’s always a surprise to progressives when the side effects of their policies manage to reach them. Or a surprise how tone-deaf they are in response to that happening.

 

“I think it’s important to reiterate that my mother and I are just a small fraction of the number of people impacted by violence in this city,” he said. “We have to collectively work on crime-prevention efforts, policing efforts and our prosecution efforts.”

 

The Daily Caller reports that since the crime spike in 2021, “The DA still continues to prosecute, on average, only 44% of the criminals who have been charged by police.”

They stole his Lincoln Navigator, which starts at 82,765.

 

 

The post Something About Chickens Coming Home … Soros Funded DA Carjacked at Gun Point appeared first on Granite Grok.

Recently, George Clooney and a bunch of other wealthy actors offered to pony up tens of millions of their dollars to help other, less-wealthy actors afford things like medical care, rent, and food while the Screen Actors Guild renegotiates its contract.

Note what these wealthy actors didn’t do. They didn’t say: We’re going to give money to everyone who needs it, just to our fellow actors.

Also, they didn’t say: We’re going to try to use politics to force other people to give money to these actors. We’ll keep this within the acting community.

Which is to say, although it’s probably unintentional, George and his friends are illustrating a point I made a while ago: That if the Democratic Party really wants to have single-payer healthcare, or subsidized schools that serve as parental surrogates, or any of its other progressive desires, it could do that right now.

All it has to do is say:  The wealthier Democrats will pay the costs of _________ for the less-wealthy Democrats, leaving everyone else out of it:

https://granitegrok.com/blog/2019/03/the-single-payer-party

The party doesn’t have to wait for the government to act or work to wrest control of government so party members can get what they want (or what party leadership tells them they should want).

All the party needs to understand is that to help one group of people — actors, Democrats, parents of gender-confused children, or anyone else — you don’t need to get everyone in on the act.  Especially people who abhor what you’re trying to do, and will fight you every step of the way.

(Similarly, the other major party needs to understand that to control the moral behavior of its members, it can do that without policing the behavior of everyone else.)

Why is this such a difficult thing for people to understand?  I mean, even George Clooney gets it.

 

The post George Clooney Shows the Way Forward appeared first on Granite Grok.

Rigging elections in the Police State of America … you know, Zuckerbucks, false Russia-bounties story, “intelligence community” telling us Hunter’s laptop is “Russia-disinformation” and Big-tech and the Regime-media then censoring the laptop, “ballot-harvesting,” voting-by-mail, etc., etc., etc., is actually “fortifying” democracy.

Mocking rigged elections, in contrast, is a crime against democracy. But just keep pretending America is the “greatest country on the face of the earth,” that the GOP is ever going to do something about the two-tiered system of justice designed to maintain UniParty control, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Ep 1246 – A Trump Supporter Was Just Sent To Federal Prison For A Meme https://t.co/HIEkItzjZ5

— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) October 19, 2023

In 2016 @mskristinawong posted a tweet and video jokingly trying to trick Trump voters into not voting. Douglas Mackey did the exact same thing to Hillary voters. The DOJ just threw Mackey in prison. Wong was never charged with anything, and this tweet is still up. pic.twitter.com/8stqn0n1oS

— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) October 19, 2023

JUST IN: Douglass Mackey has been sentenced to prison for sharing memes about Hillary Clinton & the 2016 election.

His crime? Posting memes about Hillary, joking about being able to vote by phone, similar to how people vote on American Idol.

Mackey will be spending the next… pic.twitter.com/mVWY6Kkr7O

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) October 18, 2023

BREAKING: "Douglass Mackey, a meme maker, got sent to jail for making memes and that’s election interference. The country you grew up in no longer exists"pic.twitter.com/FzGZ9I4OgV

— Jack Poso (@JackPosobiec) October 18, 2023

The post The Police State Of America … Biden-Regime Imprisons Man For Meme Mocking Democrats appeared first on Granite Grok.

Right Side Up Radio has been a weekly installment on (WNTK 99.7) since May of 2023, and ever since we announced VermontGrok, Mike Tagliavia and Bill Huff have been asking me on their radio show to talk VT and NH politics. We finally made it happen.

It was great to be on the radio again. I’ve not done any that I recall since the last episode of Liz Gabert’s Life with Liz, where Skip and I were a regular feature. Whether that was good or bad is up to you (and Liz), but since we can’t seem to get our own podcast legs underneath us (how many misfires so far, four), it was good to be part of one that has.

Based out of Vermont but with an audience across New Hampshire’s left side, I spoke with Bill and Mike about the rise of GraniteGrok and VermontGrok, the slippery slope of Vermont politics, the New Hampshire primary, Politics on both sides of the Connecticut River, and a few other odds and ends.

I had a good time, so please give us a listen and support some conservative radio.

I’m in segments one and two, so you can start from the beginning – but please listen to the end.

 

 

 

The post On the Air with ‘Right Side Up’ – Talking Politics on Both Sides of the Connecticut River appeared first on Granite Grok.

To all those who are sending in memes, thank you!  Keep them coming please, as it helps me gather weaponry to fight the Left.  Please do share this post, and if you share an individual meme, consider mentioning you saw it on the Grok!

Speaking of, from this week, Monday Edition and Wednesday Edition.  Also check out my latest Israel-focused meme & commentary post.  Memes… but also links and commentary about the situation.

 

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

 

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

 

 

ANYONE who thinks bringing a million+ Palestinians here absolutely NEEDS to read Brigitte Gabriel’s book BECAUSE THEY HATE about her experiences with that Palestinian in-migration into then-Catholic Lebanon… and how they took over.

Not only did they merely take over, but all the do-gooder types were pleading “But we protected you, welcomed you, helped you, advocated for you…”  The answer was simple: Stupid Infidel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Understand that for the most of them, the ones that took it in “good faith”, I have enormous sympathy.  Much less so for those who preened about it and wanted to force everyone to take it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

Pick of the Post:

 

 

What is that, a block of Velveeta??  I can feel my arteries hardening just thinking about that…

 

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

 

Palate Cleansers:

 

—

—

 

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

 

And don’t forget… come back Monday for another edition.  Same Meme Time.  Same Meme channel.

 

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

 

The post Friday Meme Overflow-Overflow appeared first on Granite Grok.

Two guys are sitting on a beach; after some small talk, one mentions how they owned a business for many years until the fire. Luckily, they were insured. Everything was taken care of, and they could still retire in style. The second guy looks at the first and says, what a coincidence.

They, too, owed a business, and when a flood took it out, they had adequate coverage and could recoup their losses and retire in style.

The first guy, looking puzzled, turns to the second and says, “How do you start a flood?”

It is not uncommon for a business to burn legitimately, but there is always the chance it was an insurance fire—a way to get out from under a failing business. And not just a business. Homes too. I know that seems cynical, and my apologies. Many people lose much in any number of disasters. The flooding in Vermont this past spring was not as record-setting as advertised, but it was significant. It changed many lives, ended some, and washed out homes, businesses, and livelihoods.

Like the COVID response. The PPP Loans. Medical and bailout money fraud. The system increasingly lends itself to the means and opportunity to do better at someone else’s expense. The entire green energy net-zero movement also comes to mind. And with it, the volatile power cells upon which it stands—lithium Ion batteries. I had to get certified to handle them at the job I used to do. They are considered hazardous materials. They can start fires that take out freighters, trucks, and aircraft. Their ubiquity has taken cars, homes, apartment buildings, businesses, and lives.

Using them to start insurance fires seems logical, as “vehicles” for arson or to hide another crime. Instead of finding the body of the DNC staffer who leaked all the internal emails in a bathtub, they could leave him in his burning Tesla, even though he never owned one. No worries, the FBI is still convinced it’s not suspicious.

New York City, the poster child for the problem of Lithium battery fires, has had more than 200 of them in a single year, and there’s no easy way to put them out.

 

“The lithium-ion battery adds a different degree, when we talk about the fire dynamics of it,” FDNY Deputy Assistant Chief Frank Leeb said at the briefing. “These rooms flash over in just a mere matter of seconds.” …

The problem is that lithium-ion fires burn extremely hot and are virtually impervious to conventional firefighting methods that use water or foam. In fact, lithium reacts very badly to water, which is really a problem if firefighters are attacking a fire for which they don’t know the cause.

 

It follows as night follows day. There will be numerous fires from faulty products, mishandling, or damage, but there will also be some who find it easier to have a delivery bike do the deed than to rely on the old exhaust system or faulty wiring.

And yes, insurance companies, like they have begun to do with electric vehicles, will offset the increased risk with much higher rates for dwelling owners who allow any EV in or on the premises. To protect themselves from mayhem, like how EV batteries can explode when overcome by flood water.

 

The post Are Lithium Ion Batteries the Future of “Insurance” Fires? appeared first on Granite Grok.

For those who remember the days and months that followed 9/11, there is an unnerving feeling of déjà vu about the Hamas attacks on Israel. The same shocking images of carnage and grief dominating the news. The same disbelief that anyone could be so hateful, so monstrous, so evil as to do this to another human being.

“Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”—Hermann Goering, German military commander and Hitler’s designated successor

The same outpourings of support and unity from around the world. The same shared fear that this could easily have happened to us or our loved ones.

Now, once again, the drums of war are sounding on the world stage, not that they ever really stopped. Israel is preparing to invade Gaza, the Palestinians are nearing a humanitarian crisis, and the rest of the world is bracing for whatever blowback comes next.

Here in the United States, as we approach the 22nd anniversary of the USA Patriot Act on October 26, we’re still grappling with the blowback that arises from allowing one’s freedoms to be eviscerated in exchange for the phantom promise of security.

Here are a few lessons that we never learned or learned too late.

Mammoth legislation that expands the government’s powers at the citizenry’s expense will not make anyone safer. Rushed through Congress a mere 45 days after the 9/11 attacks, the USA Patriot Act drove a stake through the heart of the Bill of Rights, undermined civil liberties, expanded the government’s powers, and opened the door to far-reaching surveillance by the government on American citizens.

Pre-emptive strikes will only lead to further blowback. Not content to wage war against Afghanistan, which served as the base for Osama bin Laden, the U.S. embarked on a pre-emptive war against Iraq in order to “stop any adversary challenging America’s military superiority and adopt a strike-first policy against terrorist threats ‘before they’re fully formed.’” We are still suffering the consequences of this failed policy, which resulted in lives lost, taxpayer dollars wasted, the fomenting of hatred against the U.S., and the further radicalization of terrorist cells.

War is costly. There are many reasons to go to war, but those who have advocated that the U.S. remain at war, year after year, are the very entities that have profited most from these endless military occupations and exercises. Thus far, the U.S. taxpayer has been made to shell out more than $8 trillion to wage wars abroad, including the lifetime price of health care for disabled veterans and interest on the national debt. That also does not include the more than hundreds of thousands of civilians killed or the millions displaced from their homes as a result of endless drone strikes and violence.

The tactics and weapons of war, once deployed abroad, will eventually be used against the citizenry at home. The horrors that took place at Abu Ghraib, the American-run prison in Iraq, involved “US military personnel humiliating, hurting and abusing Iraqi prisoners in a myriad of perverse ways. While American servicemen and women smiled and gave thumbs up, naked men were threatened by dogs, or were hooded, forced into sexual positions, placed standing with wires attached to their bodies, or left bleeding on prison floors.” Adding to the descent into moral depravity, the United States government legalized the use of torture, including waterboarding, in violation of international law and in the so-called pursuit of national security. The ramifications have been far-reaching, with domestic police mirroring a battlefield mindset in their encounters with American citizens, including the use of torture tactics at secret locations such as Homan Square in Chicago.

Allowing the government to spy on the citizenry will not reduce acts of terrorism, but it will result in a watched, submissive, surveillance society. Not only did the USA Patriot Act normalize the government’s mass surveillance powers, but it also dramatically expanded the government’s authority to spy on its own citizens without much, if any, oversight. Thus, a byproduct of this post-9/11 age in which we live, whether you’re walking through a store, driving your car, checking email, or talking to friends and family on the phone, you can be sure that some government agency is listening in and tracking your behavior. This doesn’t even begin to touch on the corporate trackers that monitor your purchases, web browsing, Facebook posts, and other activities taking place in the cyber sphere. We have all become data collected in government files.

News cycle distractions are calibrated to ensure that you lose sight of what the government is doing. The average American has a hard time keeping up with and remembering all of the “events,” manufactured or otherwise, which occur like clockwork and keep us distracted, deluded, amused, and insulated from the reality of the American police state. Whether these events are critical or unimportant, when we’re being bombarded with wall-to-wall news coverage and news cycles that change every few days, it’s difficult to stay focused on one thing—namely, holding the government accountable for abiding by the rule of law—and the powers-that-be understand this. In this way, regularly scheduled trivia and/or distractions that keep the citizenry tuned into the various breaking news headlines and entertainment spectacles also keep them tuned out to the government’s steady encroachments on their freedoms.

If you stop holding the government accountable to the rule of law, the only laws it abides by will be the ones used to clamp down on the citizenry. Having failed to hold government officials accountable for abiding by the rule of law, the American people have found themselves saddled with a government that skirts, flouts, and violates the Constitution with little consequence. Overcriminalization, asset forfeiture schemes, police brutality, profit-driven prisons, warrantless surveillance, SWAT team raids, indefinite detentions, covert agencies, and secret courts are just a few of the egregious practices carried out by a government that operates beyond the reach of the law.

Do not turn your country into a battlefield, your citizens into enemy combatants, and your law enforcement officers into extensions of the military. A standing army—something that propelled the early colonists into revolution—strips the citizenry of any vestige of freedom. How can there be any semblance of freedom when there are tanks in the streets, military encampments in cities, Blackhawk helicopters, and armed drones patrolling overhead? It was for this reason that those who established America vested control of the military in a civilian government with a civilian commander-in-chief. They did not want a military government ruled by force. Rather, they opted for a republic bound by the rule of law: the U.S. Constitution. Unfortunately, we in America now find ourselves struggling to retain some semblance of freedom in the face of police and law enforcement agencies that look and act like the military and have just as little regard for the Fourth Amendment, laws such as the NDAA that allow the military to arrest and indefinitely detain American citizens, and military drills that acclimate the American people to the sight of armored tanks in the streets, military encampments in cities, and combat aircraft patrolling overhead.

As long as you remain fearful and distrustful of each other, you will be incapable of standing united against any threats posed by a power-hungry government. Early on, U.S. officials solved the problem of how to implement their authoritarian policies without incurring a citizen uprising: fear. The powers-that-be want us to feel threatened by forces beyond our control (terrorists, shooters, bombers). They want us afraid and dependent on the government and its militarized armies for our safety and well-being. Most of all, they want us distrustful of each other, divided by our prejudices, and at each other’s throats.

Once you trade your freedom for security, the terrorists win. We’ve walked a strange and harrowing road since September 11, 2001, littered with the debris of our once-vaunted liberties. We have gone from a nation that took great pride in being a model of a representative democracy to being a model of how to persuade freedom-loving people to march in lockstep with a police state. And in so doing, we have proven Osama Bin Laden right. He warned that “freedom and human rights in America are doomed. The U.S. government will lead the American people in — and the West in general — into an unbearable hell and a choking life.”

It took a long time to clear away the rubble from the 9/11 attacks.

Yet, as I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, 22 years after the USA Patriot Act was unleashed on a vulnerable nation, we are still reeling from the destruction it has wrought on our freedoms.

 

John W. Whitehead | The Rutherford Institute

The post Postcards from a Police State: 22 Years of Blowback from the USA Patriot Act appeared first on Granite Grok.