I just read (in Reason) that about half of Florida students are participating in some kind of school choice program. So I thought: Wow, things must be looking up in Florida, right? Academic achievement must be soaring because of all that freebie market competition.

I thought I’d go check out the NAEP site. For those of you who don’t know, the National Assessment of Educational Progress is the longitudinal test created by the education establishment to let us know how they’re doing at the job of educating kids.

(So far, what it’s told us is that since 1970, we’ve more than tripled spending — adjusted for inflation — while seeing no measurable increases in student achievement.  That’s how they’re doing.)

It turns out that in Florida, the situation after school choice is pretty much the same as the situation before school choice:  less than half of students are proficient in math and reading.  (The actual percentage has been virtually unchanged for the last 15 years.)

The thing is, this is exactly what we should have expected to see in Florida.  And it’s what we should expect to see in New Hampshire, as we start pouring money into Education Freedom Accounts.

So 15 years from now, when EFAs are being funded at $20,000 per student, and we still have fewer than half our kids reaching proficiency in reading and math, no one should be surprised.

The post School Choice: Florida Leads the Way appeared first on Granite Grok.

He owns 300 acres in the Berkshires, where he set up a commune. His “people” are engaged in protests and vandalism against Jews. He was behind the incident at Elbit Systems in Merrimack (my hometown). Heir to a fortune, he now lives in New Hampshire’s upper valley. He even has a NH Moose plate that reads ‘CCCP.’

His name is Fergie Chambers, and he and his money are on a mission. “[T] to tear down the mechanisms—capitalism, imperialism, liberalism, the rule of law, America.” And?

 

“Make Zionists afraid,” Fergie wrote in a post on his Instagram on November 15. In another he wrote: “We need to start making people who support Israel actually afraid to go out in public. We need to make all of white America afraid that everything they have stolen is going to be burned to the ground. That’s what makes them listen.”

 

Yes, Ferige is rich and white. The product of generations of support for Democrats while accumulating what most Marxists would consider obscene amounts of wealth. It’s OK. Fergie is good if you hate him for being rich. He’s more concerned with using his resources to advance the revolution.

 

Fergie Chambers, an avowed communist since the age of 13, wants everyone to hold it against him forever that he is heir to an enormous fortune. And he’s willing to go to enormous lengths to tear down the mechanisms—capitalism, imperialism, liberalism, the rule of law, America—that delivered it into his lap.

That struggle has taken him from the charming cobblestone streets of his Brooklyn childhood to the mountains of upstate New York to the lake country region of Georgia to the Donbas region of Ukraine and now, back to the woods of the American Northeast, where locals say that his radical political organizing has taken a menacing turn, especially when it comes to the Jewish state on which he’s uniquely fixated.

Where does all the money come from?

 

Until very recently, by dint of his birth, Fergie owned a percentage of Cox Enterprises, a planet-spanning megacorporation, and the third largest private cable provider in the U.S. Over 50,000 people work there. The fact the Coxes still own the company outright makes them the eighth richest family in America, with a net worth around $34 billion.

It’s like if the Murdochs had double the money. But instead of Australia, they’re from America, and instead of conservative, they’re all—except for Fergie and a lone Republican aunt that no one talks to—establishment Democrats.

 

A devoted communist who cashed out of his corporate Family to get involved in direct action.

 

In addition to Fergie and Anne, Stella Schnabel, 39—daughter of the painter Julian, sister of the art dealer Vito—Fergie’s on-off partner, lives here, along with the pair’s two-year-old son, Viktor Gonzo Cox Schnabel Chambers. They’re all still getting their bearings in New Hampshire. They only moved here from Alford this past January for its lax gun laws and low tax burden, after Fergie decided to cash out.

“I don’t want to pay taxes to Uncle Sam,” Fergie tells me. “Objectively, somebody like me should pay almost all of their money in taxes, but if I can legally evade giving that to the U.S. war machine, I will.”

The Free Press article is long and interesting. Fergie Chambers is, if nothing, honest about his motivations and goals, his family, and the long history of Democrat politics that led him ideologically and fiscally to where he is today.

 

James Middleton Cox, the original patriarch, was the Democratic nominee for president in 1920—FDR was his running mate—and two-time governor of Ohio. Fergie’s grandmother, Anne, the only Cox Fergie seems to have anything nice to say about—“She was a bad mother and an absent WASP, but she was not cold as a grandmother”—was the ambassador to Belgium under President Carter. She had a cardboard cutout of Obama in her living room, and she took her private plane to canvass for him in 2008.  …

<Fergie’s father, the eldest boy, is a progressive for his time and a black sheep in his own right. He was a dance major at Bard, and believes deeply, I am told, in the power of chiropractic medicine. He is also a vegetarian and a biodynamic farmer (his farm, Honey Dog, is 15 minutes down the road from Fergie’s Massachusetts outpost) and he is obsessed with bees. He’s married to Nabila Khashoggi, daughter of Adnan, the infamous arms dealer and once the richest man in the world. They have one son: Ulysses Layth Adnan Cox Khashoggi Chambers.

When asked …if he supported Hamas, Fergie answered in the affirmative: “Yes,” and added, “Hamas is an indigenous anti-colonial resistance group.”

 

And Fergie likes to mentor local college kids. Kids who also support names like Bernie Sanders and Liz Warren. What could go wrong? Oh, wait. We know. The whole campus protests domestic terrorism schtick.

More at The Free Press.

The post At Least One Millionaire Marxist Organizing Anti-Semitic Acts Lives in New Hampshire appeared first on Granite Grok.

[Concord, NH. December 14, 2023] The 603 Alliance, a leading conservative grassroots organization in New Hampshire, announces that it is endorsing Mary Jane Beauregard for the position of RNC Committeewoman and Bill O’Brien for the position of RNC Committeeman. The election will take place on January 13th, 2024, at the Annual Meeting of the Republican State Committee.

Bill O’Brien has led the fight for fiscal restraint, lower taxes, less-intrusive government, and a return to common sense. As the NH Speaker of the House, he led Republican efforts to rein in a bloated state budget, defend the 2nd Amendment, and restore a vibrant New Hampshire economy. Since then, he has consistently held to the values espoused in the Republican party platform and is currently representing our state as a member of the RNC. Bill has built a strong network of relationships with other leaders throughout the country. Those relationships will serve him well when he is elected to continue in that role.

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

Mary Jane Beauregard has worked tirelessly for Republicans in our state as the Finance Chair of the NHGOP. During her tenure in that position, she has proven herself to be an effective fundraiser and has consistently demonstrated her ability to work with others toward a common goal. The 603 Alliance Board believes that Mary Jane has the wisdom, experience, and commitment be a strong voice for New Hampshire, advocating for the preservation of our First in the Nation status.

“Bill has been a champion for limited government for many years, and we have no doubt that he will continue to represent New Hampshire effectively,” said Diane Bitter, Board member and co-founder of the 603 Alliance. “We are impressed with Mary Jane’s experience and commitment as well, and look forward to seeing her expand her efforts to the national stage.”

###

ABOUT THE 603 ALLIANCE: The 603 Alliance is a grassroots organization whose mission is to restore Constitutional principles at all levels of our government by championing the principles of free people and free markets, uniting like-minded citizens in support of candidates who will further these principles.

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Santa Claus has come under fire thanks to a small band of elves who were recently hired per the North Pole’s new Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion policy.

For years, the Pole has operated seamlessly thanks to the tremendous work ethic of Santa’s elves. Long respected for their tireless twenty-four-hour shifts, commitment to near-perfect assembly standards, and creating a cheerful workplace atmosphere with low wages based around the elves’ simple diet of candy, candy canes, candy corn, and syrup, Santa’s workshop has fallen to turmoil of late.

This past year has seen a stunning influx of migrant elves who have been flooding across the border in record numbers. At first, the new source of labor was a welcome site, given the high output standards and rising need for toys and gifts worldwide. However, many of the new laborers brought with them new ways of thinking that proved a disruption, with some threatening to start the Pole’s first-ever workers’ strike if their demands were not met.

Claiming unfair labor practices, a non-living wage, sexual harassment and even a few cases of elvish racism a small cadre of unusually noisy and disgruntled elves have formed a committee looking to make systemic changes to the world’s jolliest manufacturing plant. The Global Resistance International Network and Community Headquarters (G.R.I.N.C.H.) recently announced they intend to bring lawsuits against Santa and several of his head elves.

“Santa is the emblem of the Northern Arctic patriarchy, and it’s time he paid reparations,” stated the group’s leader Malcolm Jamaal Jellybelly.  Standing behind Mr. Jellybelly as he made this announcement were the other plaintiffs in the matter, all wearing masks and some holding signs saying such things as “White Christmas Is Racist!” and “Don’t Say Jolly!”

A stunned Santa and Mrs. Claus gazed down from their second-story window in utter dismay. Banana’s Media was able to catch up with the famous toy merchant who had this to say.

“I just don’t understand it.  I’ve been making and delivering toys to all the good girls and boys for over a thousand years.  My elves have always been the happiest creatures on earth.  Mrs. Claus and I believe in giving opportunities to everyone, but we never imagined elves could be this grumpy and thankless!”  A sock-knitting Mrs. Claus could be seen shaking her head in silent agreement as the portly cheer-giver continued. “I’ve never once discriminated against my elves or my reindeer.”

Santa went on to explain he was more than happy to have the new help but noticed they didn’t all seem like genuine elves committed to the Christmas Spirit.  Many of the elves claimed to be seeking asylum from the atrocities that had taken place at the South Pole, where they say global warming caused the polar cap to melt and, with it, washed away their jobs. Bananas Research team fact-checked this claim and found it to be “totally false” with the eastern peninsula ice sheet growing significantly in the 21st century.

“Those little people…l-l-l-lied?” a broken-hearted Santa asked. After we showed him the facts, Santa began to pace around the Jovial Office, muttering.  He could be overheard saying, “If they lied about that, what else did they lie about?”

Among the many reports we came across was talk of “nice privilege.”  The nice privilege, we learned, is enjoyed by children who are deemed nice by Santa, who sees what all children are doing awake or asleep.  Despite the implicit creepiness of this claim, Santa has long been considered a fair arbiter of nice versus naughty behavior in children.  Since the arrival of the new elves, an uproar among the younger elves has emerged, claiming Santa is implicitly biased toward niceness.

“Of course I am!” bellowed a dumbfounded Santa, who reminded everyone if he went by the naughty list, only crack-heads, criminals, and politicians would get gifts.

Another wild claim we were confronted with was Santa’s apparent racism and insensitivity toward people of color.  A YouTube video had been circulating in which Santa appears to be in blackface while singing, “I’m dreaming of a whiiite Christ-maaas!”  Santa maintains it was not on purpose and the result of sliding down millions of chimneys in one night, leaving his face covered in soot.  As a result, for the first time in Christmas history, Santa will be facing charges of breaking and entering brought by a D.A. from the Southern District of New York.

“Why Christmas gotta be white?!” asked a bitter little brown-skinned elf named Darjarius Crinklejeans.

“Look around, Darjarius – do you notice anything?” retorted one elf who has been outspoken against the changing elf-culture.  “Snow is white, you ninny muggins.  White is about the snow.  Have you ever seen black snow?  It’s not a song about race – it’s about the joy of Christmas and winter wonderlands – for the love of Peter Pan, quit making everything about race, Darjarius!”

Also adding to the Christmas chaos is the sudden desire of younger elves wanting to identify as reindeer or even humans.  One suspicious elf parent blames the new children’s books they’ve been printing.  “Have you seen what’s in some of these?  They’re putting them in children’s schools! How can any human being NOT be on the naughty list at this point?”

Another matter of controversy involved the reindeer.  Several of the team were still in shock after Dancer and Prancer both came out as gay, and Vixen said he wants to be a drag queen.  Despite catching many of the other reindeer by surprise, Donner and Blitzen both claimed to have known for years.  “Prancer?  Seriously?  You didn’t see that coming?” They also say they’d seen Vixen sneaking out of Mrs. Claus’ closet on more than one occasion wearing her clothes with a hoof full of children’s books.

Rudolph, once famous for saving Christmas with his shiny red nose, has taken a nose-dive since the Pole has gone sideways. He recently checked into a rehab facility after turning to alcohol and other substances as a way of coping with the many changes in his once innocent frozen playground.

Also upset by the changes are elves who came to Santa’s workshop legally a while back.  A spokesman for the group explained, “We had to wait ten years before Santa recognized us as Citizen Elves of the North Pole,” explained a frustrated Juan Gringobells.  “We had to learn all the words to Here Comes Santa Claus and Winter Wonderland and recite the names of the reindeer from memory, including the fruity ones.  I wish we could go back to when Santa would just pick us up for the day from Gnome Depot.”

Strangely silent since the changes began is Santa’s only neighbor at the pole, Karl Grinch, who extended his record yet again this year for most time spent on the naughty list.

 

 

The post Bananas: Shake Up At the North Pole appeared first on Granite Grok.

Setting off on an adventure from the dynamic urban jungles of the United States to the lively core of Oaxaca, Mexico, is akin to entering a world brimming with cultural richness, historical depth, and stunning natural beauty.

This narrative aims to guide you through an extraordinary shift from the well-known terrains of America to the enchanting and multifaceted cultural mosaic of Oaxaca. In this city, ancient traditions blend seamlessly with modern life.

Preparing for the Journey

Before embarking on this cultural expedition, it’s essential to have all travel documents in order. If you are starting your trip from LA, checking your passport validity before your trip might be a good idea. If your passport is about to expire, passport renewal in LA is a convenient option, ensuring a smooth and worry-free entry into Mexico. This simple step paves the way for an immersive experience in Oaxaca’s colorful milieu.

From Urban Sprawl to Natural Splendor

Leaving behind the urban sprawl of major US cities, travelers find themselves amidst the stunning natural beauty that heralds the approach to Oaxaca. The journey, often embarked upon by air, reveals a drastic shift in scenery—from the structured urbanity of American cities to the sprawling, untamed landscapes of Mexico. The aerial view of Oaxaca is a prelude to the region’s natural wonders, from mist-shrouded mountains to lush valleys, setting the stage for an adventure in a land where nature and civilization have coexisted for thousands of years.

Cultural Contrast and Continuity

Crossing into Mexico, the disparity in daily routines and cultural norms becomes strikingly clear. The transition from the high-speed, productivity-centered way of life typical in the US gives way to a more laid-back, community-oriented approach deeply ingrained in Mexican culture. This transition isn’t just a change in geography but a journey back to where ancient customs and modern conveniences coexist. The colorful streets of Oaxacan towns, lined with colonial architecture and bustling markets, offer a vivid tableau of Mexico’s rich history and cultural heritage.

Oaxaca’s Culinary Delights

Oaxaca is a paradise for food enthusiasts. The region’s cuisine is as diverse as its landscape, offering a fusion of indigenous and Spanish flavors. From the iconic mole, a complex sauce made with an array of ingredients including chocolate and various chilies, to the simple yet delicious tlayudas, a large tortilla smothered in beans and cheese, every dish tells a story of Oaxaca’s rich culinary traditions. Dining in Oaxaca isn’t just about eating; it explores history and culture through the palate.

Artisanal Mastery and Markets

The artisanal crafts of Oaxaca are a testament to the region’s creative spirit. Markets are abuzz with vibrant textiles, intricately designed pottery, and handcrafted jewelry, each piece reflecting the soul of its maker. The Zapotec and Mixtec influences are evident in the designs, with patterns and techniques passed down through generations. Exploring these markets offers a unique insight into the local way of life and an opportunity to support the artisan community.

Festivals: A Celebration of Life and Death

Oaxaca is famous for its vibrant festivals, notably the Day of the Dead or Día de los Muertos. This festival serves as a rich expression of how Mexicans perceive death, not as a finality but as an integral part of life’s ongoing journey. The streets come alive with parades, music, and dance as locals honor their departed loved ones. Witnessing this festival is an unforgettable experience, highlighting the depth and richness of Mexican culture.

The journey from the US to Oaxaca is more than just a physical transition; it’s a voyage through time and culture. Transitioning from the energetic buzz of American metropolises to the timeless cadence of life in Oaxaca, this journey unveils a distinct lens through which the variety and opulence of human society can be appreciated. With its striking sceneries, deep-rooted history, and dynamic cultural fabric, Oaxaca transcends being merely a place to visit. It is a gateway to an alternate realm where history and modernity are interlaced, creating a mosaic of memorable moments and experiences.

The post Unveiling Mexico’s Cultural Tapestry: A Journey from the US to Oaxaca appeared first on Granite Grok.

If you were wondering how serious Florida was about protecting girls’ and women’s sports, this might be your answer. Monarch High School has been put on Administrative probation and fined 16,500.00 for allowing a boy to play on a girl’s volleyball team.

And so we are clear (as Vodak comrade) when we say girl or boy (woman or man) we mean born that way. (The queer spectrum is the social construct.)

Florida’s bylaw 8.62 states that “biological males may not participate on a female team in any sport,” the letter reminds Monarch High School. Policy 16.11.6 states that the “use of an ineligible student when self-reported, may subject the school to a monetary penalty of a minimum of $100 per contest and/or other sanctions.”

F.S. 1006.205(3)(c) states that “athletic teams or sports designated for females, women, or girls may not be open to students of the male sex.”

That male student played in over 30 games, according to the letter, and the athletic association has not “received any corrective actions from Monarch High School.”

 

My one gripe is that the boy played 30 games across two seasons. That strikes me as a lot of “F-ing Around” before Monarch High School was “found out.” If the goal of the rules in statute is to protect opportunities for girls and ensure some level of safety, then this needs serious work.

This, however, makes me smile.

 

The letter additionally states that Monarch High School owes a monetary penalty of $16,500 ($500 per contest, in accordance with Policy 16.11.6), and Monarch High School representatives will be required to attend one of the association’s Compliance Seminars in both 2024 and 2025. The high school will also be required to host association staff for an “eligibility and Compliance Workshop” no later than June 30, 2024.

 

The Left loves to force people into re-education seminars, so – nice touch, but I bet there’s a significant compliance problem up and down the state, and they don’t know it. Progressives have a love-hate relationship with the concept of order. The advent of Marxist rule is all about order, but to get there, you have to break everything without regard to the cost to the people you lie about protecting. Take girls and women, for example. Breaking them is the cost of doing Democrat Socialist business.

Florida could audit a dozen schools in notably progressive political ghettoes, and I bet they’d find most or all ignoring the no boys-in-girls sports rules. Widen the net, and the fines might fund something useful like lawyers for detransitioners, or something. And it would fill up those compliance workshops.

Maybe DeSantis should offer a finders fee to anyone who reports a violation.

It’s a thought.

The post High School Plays FAFO with Florida’s Protections for Biological Girls’ Sports Teams … Gets Fined $16K+ appeared first on Granite Grok.

For the last several months, many of us have been waiting on pins and needles for a judge to tell us what the state constitution says about education, which is remarkable because it’s not like that constitution is written using particularly difficult language.

How many of us would have trouble understanding a sentence like this?

Free and fair competition in the trades and industries is an inherent and essential right of the people and should be protected against all monopolies and conspiracies which tend to hinder or destroy it. 

Do we need a judge to tell us that a public school monopoly in the industry of education is something from which the people are to be protected?

Would we have trouble understanding this sentence?

[I]t shall be the duty of the legislators and magistrates, in all future periods of this government, to cherish the interest of literature and the sciences, and all seminaries and public schools

Do we need a judge to tell us that, whatever ‘cherish’ may mean, it can’t sensibly mean one thing for seminaries (which can’t be funded, operated, or regulated by the state) and something completely different for public schools?

We don’t.  Or we shouldn’t.  But people seem to have lost all confidence in their ability to read simple declarative sentences, and determine what they mean.

How does something like this happen?

Here’s one clue.  We currently have a public school system in which less than half of students can read or do math proficiently.  (And in case you’re thinking this is a recent development, it’s been true since at least the 1970s, when we started collecting NAEP data.) Which means that the system operates largely by having the students sit passively while their teachers ‘explain’ what is in their textbooks.

In other words, the teachers read the books — or at least, the teachers’ guides to the books — and relay that information to the students.  The students have no idea whether that information is being relayed accurately, and no idea that they could check that for themselves by reading the books.  So they have very little choice but to just accept what they’re told.

That’s a hell of a lot of power to put in the hands of teachers — who are, we should never for a moment forget, employees of the state.

Isn’t that how we treat our constitution, and our courts?  The judges work from the opinions of other judges, instead of from teachers’ guides.  But otherwise, it’s pretty much the same.

That’s a hell of a lot of power to put in the hands of judges — who are, we should never for a moment forget, employees of the state.

In 1927, General John McAuley Palmer said that professional armies

threaten government by the people, not because they consciously seek to pervert liberty, but because they relieve the people themselves of the duty of self-defense. A people accustomed to let a special class defend them must sooner or later become unfit for liberty.

I believe the same thing is true of ‘professional readers’, including judges and teachers.  By relieving us of the duty of understanding things for ourselves — and by abusing the power that they gain by doing this — they have made us unfit for liberty.

What can we do about that?  A good first step would be to elect legislators who would be willing to say to the courts:

You are not the boss of us.  We can read the constitution as well as you can.  And we’re no longer going to let you get away with pissing on our legs and telling us that it’s raining.

And a good second step would be to become people who are willing to say the same thing to those legislators.

The post Unfit For Liberty (Part 3, Courts) appeared first on Granite Grok.

Why transgenderism? Simple – a political process to trash heteronormativity and eliminate the difference between men and women, and undermine traditional values to forward socialism and a new way of being.

Listen to Christopher Rufo, the leading authority on Transgenderism, as he quickly recaps how transgenderism BLEW UP into our culture.

And more importantly, WHY! (Note: I just ran across this, even though it’s been out for a few months.)

 

The transgender movement has conquered America life. In a new short film, I explain how the movement gained power and connect the dots between its key intellectuals, billionaire benefactor, and large-scale medical experiments in a Detroit ghetto.

This is the transgender empire: pic.twitter.com/UaQSGD5RL8

— Christopher F. Rufo (@realchrisrufo) July 12, 2023

Also, there is this speech from Mr. Rufo that was captured by Hillsdale College’s Imprimis  (Sept. 23, Volume 52, Number 9). Emphasis mine:

The following is adapted from a talk delivered on September 12, 2023, at the Allan P. Kirby, Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship on Hillsdale’s Washington, D.C., campus, as part of the AWC Family Foundation Lecture Series.

*****

The transgender movement is pressing its agenda everywhere. Most publicly, activist teachers are using classrooms to propagandize on its behalf and activist health professionals are promoting the mutilation of children under the euphemistic banner of “gender-affirming care.” The sudden and pervasive rise of this movement provokes two questions: where did it come from, and how has it proved so successful? The story goes deeper than most Americans know.

In the late 1980s, a group of academics, including Judith Butler, Gayle Rubin, Sandy Stone, and Susan Stryker, established the disciplines of “queer theory” and “transgender studies.” These academics believed gender to be a “social construct” used to oppress racial and sexual minorities, and they denounced the traditional categories of man and woman as a false binary that was conceived to support the system of “heteronormativity”—i.e., the white, male, heterosexual power structure. This system, they argued, had to be ruthlessly deconstructed. And the best way to achieve this, they argued further, was to promote transgenderism. If men can become women, and women men, they believed, the natural structure of Creation could be toppled.

Nothing in the human life and discourse is outside of notion of “Power” – unless you are a Normal person who just wants to live their life unaffected by others. To these totalitarians, however, Power is their ultimate goal in bringing about their Utopian Dystopia – and are willing to sacrifice billions of eggs to make their omelette.

Susan Stryker, a male-to-female transgender professor currently at the University of Arizona, revealed the general thrust and tone of transgender ideology in his Kessler Award Lecture at the City University of New York in 2008, describing his work as “a secular sermon that unabashedly advocates embracing a disruptive and refigurative genderqueer or transgender power as a spiritual resource for social and environmental transformation.” In Stryker’s best-known essay, “My Words to Victor Frankenstein above the Village of Chamounix: Performing Transgender Rage,” he contends that the “transsexual body” is a “technological construction” that represents a war against Western society. “I am a transsexual, and therefore I am a monster,” Stryker writes. And this monster, he continues, is destined to channel its “rage and revenge” against the “naturalized heterosexual order”; against “‘traditional family values’”; and against the “hegemonic oppression” of nature itself.

It is clear from this and from other transgender scholarship that the transgender movement is inherently political. Its reconstruction of personal identity is meant to advance a collective political reconstruction or transformation. Some trans activists even view their movement as the future of Marxism. In a collection of essays titled Transgender Marxism, activist writer Rosa Lee argues that trans people can serve as the new vanguard of the proletariat, promising to abolish heteronormativity in the same way that orthodox Marxism promised to abolish capitalism.

“In a different era,” Lee writes,

Marxists spoke of the construction of a “new socialist man” as a crucial task in the broader process of socialist construction. Today, in a time of both rising fascism and an emergent socialist movement, our challenge is transsexualising our Marxism. We should think [of] the project of transition to communism in our time—communisation—as including the transition to new communist selves, new ways of being and relating to one another.

This is the great project of the transgender movement: to abolish the distinctions of man and woman, to transcend the limitations established by God and nature, and to connect the personal struggle of trans individuals to the political struggle to transform society in a radical way.

From the Fringes to the Center

The trans movement was hatched, then, on the fringes of American academia. But how did it move so quickly to the center of American public life? Like many other things, it began with a flood of cash, as some of the wealthiest people in the country began devoting enormous sums of money to promote transgenderism.

One of these people is Jennifer Pritzker, who was born James Pritzker in 1950. After serving several years in the U.S. Army, Pritzker went into business, having inherited a sizable part of the Hyatt hotel fortune. In 2013, he announced a male-to-female gender transition and was celebrated in the press as the “first trans billionaire.” Almost immediately, he began donating untold millions to universities, schools, hospitals, and activist organizations to promote queer theory and trans medical experiments.

This money was allied with political power, as Pritzker’s cousin, Illinois Democrat Governor J.B. Pritzker, signed legislation in 2019, his first year in office, to inject gender theory into the state education curriculum and to direct state Medicaid funds toward transgender surgeries. Speaking before an audience of trans activists, he proclaimed:

[O]ur state government is firmly on your side, on the side of every gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer person in the state of Illinois. . . . Those of you in this room know better than anyone that marriage equality was never the endgame. . . . We’re gonna make sure that all transgender Illinoisans are ensured their basic human rights and that healthcare services are provided to them so that they can thrive.

Here’s an example of how this combination of well-funded activism and political influence works in practice: Pritzker-funded activists at Lurie Children’s Hospital (the largest children’s hospital in Chicago) provide local schools with training, materials, and personnel who promote gender transitions for children, using the hospital’s reputation to give their ideology a scientific veneer. And the more one investigates, the worse it gets. Children are exposed, for instance, not only to trans ideology, but to concepts such as “kink” (unusual tastes in sexual behavior), “BDSM” (bondage, domination, submission, and masochism), binders to flatten breasts, and prosthetic penises.

Lurie Children’s Hospital, through its outreach presentations in Chicago public schools, encourages teachers and school administrators to support “gender diversity” in their districts, automatically “affirm” students who announce sexual transitions, and “communicate a non-binary understanding of gender” to children in the classroom. The objective, as one version of the presentation suggests, is to disrupt the “entrenched [gender] norms in western society” and facilitate the transition to a more “gender creative” world. School districts are encouraged to designate “Gender Support Coordinators” to help facilitate children’s sexual and gender transitions, which, under the recommended “confidentiality” policy, can be kept secret from parents and families.

In effect, this results in a sophisticated school-to-gender-clinic pipeline. Teachers, counselors, doctors, and activists on social media and elsewhere—many of whom are employed or subsidized by members of the Pritzker family—push children in the direction of what Chicago-area “detransitioner” Helena Kerschner, recalling her own experience, calls “the trans identity rabbit hole.” And despite frequent claims to the contrary, this is not a temporary or reversible process. Of the children who begin puberty blockers, the medical literature suggests that approximately 95 percent move on to cross-sex hormones, and that 50 percent of the females who begin cross-sex hormone treatments move on to “trans-affirming” surgeries.

The Synthesis of All Oppressions

Another place my investigation of the trans movement has taken me is Highland Park, Michigan, a city of roughly 9,000 residents located about six miles north of downtown Detroit. Highland Park has been plagued by poverty, violence, and crime for decades. Many of its homes and businesses have been abandoned or demolished. It is teetering on the edge of insolvency, yet it is home to one institution that is overflowing with funds: the Ruth Ellis Center, metro Detroit’s central laboratory for the synthesis of transgender science and politics.

The Ruth Ellis Center’s marketing pitch is an amalgam of all the usual euphemisms: “trauma-informed care,”…

Sidenote: in taking over 55 hours of DCYF sponsored training to attain a number of Foster Parent certification levels, I found that almost every class had that as a central tenet – that ALL children are suffering from one kind of trauma or another. BTW, few ever mention that DCYF and other governmental child protection service organizations create a goodly amount of this by ripping away a child from their families.

…“restorative justice,” “harm reduction,” “racial equity,” and “gender-affirming care.” In the name of these things, the Ellis Center and its partners conduct large-scale medical experiments on a population of predominantly poor black youths.

Dr. Maureen Connolly, a pediatrician at Henry Ford Health, leads the Ellis Center’s medical partnership, providing puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgical referrals to scores of Detroit kids. Here’s how she describes the child sex-change process:

Transitioning is an umbrella term to describe the process that someone goes through to bring their external self more closely into alignment with their gender identity. For some people that might mean changing their gender expression and the clothes that they wear or how they wear their hair. It might mean using a new name and different pronouns. And that’s wonderful. For others, it can involve taking medication to make their body more closely aligned with how they identify in terms of gender—typically, that’s masculinizing or feminizing medications or hormone therapy. People can also choose to pursue gender-affirming surgeries, which are surgical interventions to bring their body more closely in alignment with their gender identity.

Keep in mind, again, that in the context of her role at the Ellis Center, Connolly is not talking here about the affluent, educated, male-to-female trans individuals who serve as the public face of the trans movement. She is mostly talking about kids from the Detroit ghetto who suffer from high rates of family breakdown, substance abuse, mental illness, and self-destructive behavior. As such, one might suppose that they are especially vulnerable to the claim that gender transition will solve all their problems.

“My name is Righteous, first and foremost,” says an Ellis Center patient who now identifies as non-binary and uses they/them pronouns:

I think I might have been about eight years old when I remembered or that I recall having any thought of being transgender or gender non-conforming. . . . It felt like I was an outsider to this whole world of America. On top of not being, you know, a European-American, I was black. . . . Most of my dysphoria comes from people misgendering me. With gender-affirming care, I could get the hormones I needed for free.

Righteous is thus a perfect example of the new synthesis of transgender science and politics. She works as an activist not only for the trans movement, but also for a broader intersectional coalition (i.e., a coalition of oppressed and marginalized groups), including, for instance, the movement to abolish the police. She represents the identity of the oppressed by both nature and nurture and marshals this unique “positionality” to advance the full suite of left-wing social policies.

Frankenstein Redux

In 1818, Mary Shelley wrote the famous novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. The premise of the book is that modern science, stripped from the constraints of ethics and nature, will end up creating monsters. “Trans-affirming” doctors are the post-modern version of the book’s protagonist, Doctor Frankenstein.

According to survey data, up to 80 percent of trans individuals suffer from serious psychopathologies and one-quarter of black trans youth attempt suicide each year. “Gender-affirming care” largely fails to solve these problems, yet the doctors use these failures to justify even more extreme interventions up to the final one: genital reconstruction.

Dr. Blair Peters is a plastic surgeon (he uses he/they pronouns) who performs trans genital surgeries at the publicly-funded Oregon Health & Science University and whose specialty is creating artificial sex organs. “I think what we’re becoming very known for at OHSU is genital surgery,” he says. “A prime example of that is a procedure called phalloplasty, which is the creation of a penis. And we now have a robotic vaginoplasty program [that] has been a kind of game changer for patient care.”

As I have previously detailed in City Journal, the process for robot-assisted vaginoplasty is gruesome:

According to a handbook published by OHSU, surgeons first cut off the head of the penis and remove the testicles. Then they turn the penile-scrotal skin inside out and, together with abdomen cavity tissue, fashion it into a crude, artificial vagina. “The robotic arms are put through small incisions around your belly button and the side of your belly,” the handbook reads. “They are used to create the space for your vaginal canal between your bladder and your rectum.”

This procedure is plagued with complications. OHSU warns of wound separation, tissue necrosis, graft failure, urine spraying, hematoma, blood clots, vaginal stenosis, rectal injury, fistula, and fecal accidents. Patients must stay in the hospital for a minimum of five days following the procedure, receiving treatment for surgical wounds and having fluid drained through plastic tubes. Once they are home, patients must continue transgender hormone treatments and manually dilate their surgically created “neo-vagina” in perpetuity; otherwise, the tissue will heal, and the cavity will close.

The castration business is booming. According to Peters, the gender clinic at OHSU has “the highest volume on the West Coast”—and with the help of the robot, his team can perform multiple vaginoplasties per day. The phalloplasty program has a 12-to-18-month waiting list for consultations and an additional three-to-six-month waiting list for surgical appointments.

A less common but more symbolically apt surgery performed by Peters and his colleagues is known as “nullification,” in which a smooth, continuous skin covering from the abdomen to the groin is created following a castration or vaginectomy. In other words, the genitalia are replaced by nothing. Nullification surgery is the perfect symbol for the ideology behind the trans movement: the pursuit of the Latin nullum, meaning “nothing”; or the related nihil, the root of the English word “nihilism.” Trans ideology is animated by a profound nihilism that denies human nature and enables barbarism in the name of progress.

***

The future of transgender medicine is in flux. Major American institutions have rallied to its support, with the major medical associations going so far as to call on the federal government to investigate and prosecute its critics. At the same time, some cracks are showing. Detransitioners, a group comprised of mostly young women who have accepted their biological sex after transitioning to various degrees, are going public about the dangers of gender medicine in deeply affecting personal terms. Organizations such as Do No Harm have filed lawsuits and launched advocacy campaigns to curb transgender procedures on minors. And increasing numbers of doctors, who had previously been cowed into silence, are beginning to speak out. State legislators have also taken notice. Earlier this year, I worked with whistleblowers at Texas Children’s Hospital to expose child sex-change procedures that were being conducted in secret. The exposé attracted the attention of Texas lawmakers, who immediately passed the final version of a bill to ban such procedures.

Jennifer Pritzker, Maureen Connolly, Blair Peters, and their ilk occupy the heights of power and prestige, but like Doctor Frankenstein they will not be able to escape the consequences of what they have created. They are condemning legions of children to a lifetime of sorrows and medical necessities, all based on dubious postmodern theories that do not meet the standard of Hippocrates’ injunction in his work Of the Epidemics: “First, do no harm.” Although individuals can be nullified, nature cannot. No matter how advanced trans pharmaceuticals and surgeries become, the biological reality of man and woman cannot be abolished; the natural limitations of God’s Creation cannot be transcended. The attempt to do so will elicit the same heartbreak and alienation captured in the final scene of Mary Shelley’s novel: the hulking monster, shunned by society and betrayed by his father, filled with despair and drifting off into the ice floes—a symbol of the consequence of Promethean hubris.

A doctor at a major children’s hospital had this to say about what puberty blockers do to a child’s mind, body, and soul:

This medication is called a “gonadotropin releasing hormone agonist” and it comes in the form of monthly injections or an implant. And because it simulates the activity of this hormone, it shuts down the activity of the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus is this almond-sized structure in your brain, it’s one of the most primal structures we have, and it controls all the other hormonal structures in your body—your sexual development, your emotions, your fight-or-flight response, everything. . . . And I always think that if someone were to ask me, Where is it that you would look for the divine spark in each individual? I would say that it would be somewhere “beneath the inner chamber,” which is the Greek derivation of the term hypothalamus. To shut down that system is to shut down what makes us human.

This is why we must fight to put the transgender empire out of business forever.

The post From Whence did Transgenderism Spring? appeared first on Granite Grok.

Historically, American businesses used to have a hierarchy where young men and women aspired to climb the ranks to achieve a shot at the corner office. The corner office was always a symbol of power and success, and the nameplate usually read Chief Executive Officer or Chief Operating Officer. It was at the top of the pyramid until now.

The new ruler of maybe every aspect of American life, from Corporate America to Education, is DEI. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion is the new poison destroying America’s heart and soul. No longer is America the Land of Opportunity for all. It is now slanted to those who satisfy the DEI parameters. There is no longer a place for straight white men or women at the top of any corporate structure.

Ironically, DEI is setting back Civil Rights and the Women’s Movement, and Blacks and Females never saw what hit them. When Joe Biden succumbed to the pressures of DEI and proclaimed his Vice President and Supreme Court Nominee would be Black Women, and then named Harris and Brown. These two women have shown they were not qualified for their respective positions and have sullied the prospects of future Black Candidates.

The appearance before Congress last week by Harvard President Claudine Gay was an embarrassment and pointed out her lack of preparedness for the position. Gay made many question her qualifications for the job, and many have made it very simplistic: she is Black and female. Rumors have surfaced that she plagiarized her Doctorate thesis, putting Harvard in an extremely precarious position. Over 700 Harvard faculty have signed a petition supporting Gay, but the calls for her resignation persist. After the U Penn President stepped down, the public pushed for the same from Harvard and MIT. 

Harvard has opted to stand behind their embattled president and say that her plagiarism has already been addressed, which means her actions are recognized and will go unpunished. Plagiarism used to be a significant offense in academics and writing, but under the new rules, you can use someone else’s words as your own and be President of Harvard or the United States. The fact that Harvard cannot move against President Gay is further proof of the power of DEI. Once you bend a knee to the movement, you can never flex your muscles again. This is a vast rabbit hole to slip into.

Hiring parameters currently used by Harvard to comply with their DEI Department are disgusting.

1. White, Asian, and Indian Men are given little consideration and considered overachievers and over-recognized
2. White women are not given the same consideration as their Black counterparts.
3. Black and Brown men and women are given high priority, as are transgender.

The old-school thinking of equal treatment for all, regardless of sex, race, or color, is obviously dead. It used to be that the discrimination of any person based on any parameter other than achievements was a civil rights violation. That thinking no longer has any merit, and having President Biden or Gavin Newsom specify their choices for political positions would be narrowed to Black females, shows how far the words of Martin Luther King Jr have been left behind us. We are no longer an individual but a label to pigeonhole us into a box.

 

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Ben Franklin is supposed to have said:

Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.

A variant that I like better is:

Those who would trade liberty for safety will end up with neither.

As I watch self-described ‘libertarians’ scramble to move away from one coercion-based program (the current public school system) and towards another (school choice), because it will ‘provide better outcomes’, I can’t help thinking that Franklin’s maxim is just a particular case of a more general one:

Those who would trade general principles for specific outcomes will end up with neither. 

 

The post Franklin Revisited appeared first on Granite Grok.

The 640 professors who signed the letter in support of Claudine Gay are all professors at a University whose motto is “Veritas” — the Truth. “Veritas” is used in the mottos of a number of other educational institutions as well.

Who is Claudine Gay? This article below is eye-opening. If the allegations in it are true, then how far away from the truth were Harvard’s board willing to veer in order to appease political pressures from the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights & affiliates pushing “DEI” — “Diversity, Equity & Inclusion”?

The truth is that Harvard would not consider anyone for Claudine Gay’s position who did not tick the “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” boxes. A white male, a Jewish white male, would never have been under consideration for the position.

We want to thank Claire Best for this Contribution – Please direct yours to Editor@GraniteGrok.com.
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We could argue that making the decision not to consider anyone who didn’t fit the DEI criteria helped open up the pool to a wider arena of candidates. But Claudine Gay has a history of alleged plagiarism and fabricated data as well.

Plagiarism gets students disciplined at Harvard and elsewhere, but cheating when it comes to candidates for the Presidency of these educational organizations is excused.

Stanford University (Claudine Gay’s career includes a period at Stanford) hired Marc Tessier-Lavigne as President after he had used falsified images for a scientific research paper. Allegedly, the board knew this when they hired him. It was only when a first-year student journalist wrote about it in the Stanford Daily several years after he was hired and the article received national media attention that Stanford did anything. Marc Tessier-Lavigne stepped down.

“Veritas” should require the truth to be the guide on all campus decisions, including whether or not to fire or hire someone. It also must be the guide for those in charge of federal funds directed towards these campuses for research grants or other initiatives.

When the quest for truth in academia is replaced, we have to wonder why other forces become more important than the truth, especially when academic endorsements are relied upon to guide national think tanks and directives.

If those other forces continue to be more important than the truth, where are Harvard and other educational institutions headed? “Veritas” is minimized on the site of Harvard’s mission statement, which doesn’t mention the word “truth” anywhere on the page:

Do our nation’s educational institutions want to produce critical thinkers and leaders or lemmings? Lemmings are useful for political movements but they are useless when it comes to stating and arguing a case from a knowledgeable position. Claudine Gay was trained for her testimony in front of Congress by a law firm. Her answers cannot, therefore, be called “authentic” or even true to what she does or does not believe.

C. Bradley Thompson stated on X (formerly Twitter) that the Harvard Board is stuck between a rock and a hard place because to fire Claudine Gay would be to succumb to the “mob,” and not to fire her would be showing support of someone who has been accused of plagiarism and somebody who expressed herself to Congress in a way which contradicted sentiment in her own written statements to the Harvard community before she was hired. To quote from his post:

“650+ Harvard professors have signed a letter to the Harvard Corporation in support of President Claudine Gay.

@Harvard is now in crisis. The Harvard Board is now stuck between a rock & a hard place: if they fire Gay (also now accused of plagiarism) the faculty will be in revolt; if they keep her, the university will be saddled with a national disgrace. The faculty letter is also proof that the firing of Gay will have no effect on the moral-intellectual culture

@Harvard is gone. It cannot be saved. Harvard has a $50 billion endowment. It should never again receive a penny of taxpayer money. #defundHarvard”

C. Bradley Thompson labels himself: “Living without lies. Author: America’s Revolutionary Mind; The Redneck Intellectual.”

Alan Dershowitz has commented on Claudine Gay’s Double Standard of Freedom of Speech.

That double standard of Freedom of Speech has been in place since April 4th, 2011, when the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights introduced the “Dear Colleague” Title IX letter, which set out to change America forever. It deliberately set out to get rid of due process on campus and enabled a generation of activists who would profile by gender, race, and religion — thus upending not just Title IX, which forbids discrimination on the basis of sex, but also Title VI, which forbids discrimination on the basis of race & religion.

The question for Harvard and other academic institutions is: Does the truth matter? But it’s also a question for the Department of Education and Department of Justice Office of Violence Against Women who were behind the “Dear Colleague” letter so vehemently harmful to free speech on campus.

If truth, “veritas” doesn’t matter, then what is Harvard, and what purpose does it serve?

 

 

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If you want to open your hearts and homes to kids that life has given a bad hand, you WILL be required to accept what the Biden administration and Democrats establishment’s State Religion: Transgenderism.

Just When I Thought I Was Out, They Pull Me Back In!

If you don’t, you’re just the same oppressors of children as the Parents from whom they were ripped.  After all, “Childism” (the bastard son of Critical Race Theory) DEMANDS that all Parents areoOppressors unless you discard your own personal religious beliefs and whole-hearted embrace this new Transgender State Religion whose High Priest is now Joe Biden (as it IS his Dept. of Health and Human Services monastery that has decreed thusly to be part of its Sacred Texts).

I brought this up there: Shot Across The Bow – Will NH DCYF Take a Knee To The Biden Administration? – that linked here: Lack of ‘Affirmation’ Is Child Abuse: New Biden Rule Applies Transgender Standard to Foster Care:

Transgender orthodoxy may soon become a litmus test for parenthood, according to the logic of a new policy working its way through the Department of Health and Human Services under President Joe Biden.

A new rule in HHS’ Administration for Children and Families would apply the idea that any lack of “affirmation” constitutes a form of child abuse to foster care placements. Once that idea takes root in foster care, child protective services agencies might start applying it more broadly.

I sent an email to DCYF and to NH DHHS Deputy Chief Legal Counsel John Martin back on 11/30/23. I’ve heard but crickets from him on this (I figured that if ANYONE would know, he would, being a Legal matter of great concern), but the other DCYF workers said that they hadn’t heard of this before and that they would start, informally, asking around. Thus far, they can’t find anyone that knows anything about this.

However, I was not the only one seeing this and not the only one negatively reacting to it. The Washington Examiner reported that 19 States Attorney Generals have decided that “This will not pass!”

Pushing back against the Biden administration’s radical identity politics, 19 state attorneys general and numerous conservative and religious organizations last week stood up for religious liberty and for long-standing, effective child adoption services. Good. The Biden proposal at issue is pernicious.

As succinctly put by Advancing American Freedom , a think tank founded by former Vice President Mike Pence, the proposal “would violate the religious freedom of foster care families and ultimately make the shortage of families working within the foster care system worse.” …

The regulation would put children in charge: No matter the child’s biology or anatomy, his or her “self-identified sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression” would rule the day. Adoption and foster care organizations that do not agree to be “trained” — that is, refuse to be indoctrinated — to comply with the “name and pronouns that align with [children’s] gender identity,” no matter how fleeting or ill-considered, will be banned from providing services to homeless children labeled “LGBTQI+.” If readers cross-refer supporting documents cited for the proposed, it is clear that the required “support” presumes a bias in favor of chemical and surgical transitioning procedures.

One of the DCYF wonks told me that almost every Foster Parent family in the North Country would immediately quit. I said that we’d be among them. And yes, TMEW and I were first Foster Parents to the Grandson and THEN formally adopted him. If this new Rule were in place then (not even a Law, just a RULE made up by unassailable, unelected, and smug ideologically driven bureaucrats, who by the dint of receiving a Government paycheck, are making themselves our Overlords any time they wish),  we would have never have had the chance to have Fostered him much less Adopt him.

More:

As the attorneys general also write , the religious-liberty implications of the proposed rule are profound: “This proposed rule seeks to accomplish indirectly what the Supreme Court found unconstitutional just two years ago: remove faith-based providers from the foster care system if they will not conform their religious beliefs on sexual orientation and gender identity.” And: “The proposed rule is unconstitutional because it discriminates against individuals and organizations of faith who want to serve children in the foster care system. The proposed rule also unconstitutionally forces [so-called gender-affirming] speech on foster providers.”

Since the article didn’t mention which ones, I asked Google’s Bard. I dryly note that since Gov. Sununu made “gender identity” a new protected class, New Hampshire is not one of them:

1. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall
2. Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor
3. Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich
4. Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge
5. Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr
6. Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita
7. Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt
8. Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron
9. Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry
10. Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch
11. Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey
12. Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen
13. Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers
14. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost
15. Oklahoma Attorney General John O’Connor
16. South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson
17. South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg
18. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton
19. Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes

So folks, yet another question to be asked of Kelly Ayotte, running for Governor AND a former NH AG: what would she do (WWKD?)!

Free Speech, anyone? These Trans-Authoritarians view it as an obstacle to be broken and shattered instead of a pre-existing Right from God and Nature’s God; something that should be held to be beyond them. However, as they are now considering themselves to be the moral descendants of the Divine Right of Kings, they merely “sniff” at such a legal and Constitutional rebuke to their actions.

Now, an earlier RTK put into Counselor Martin demanded the complete DCYF Organization Chart:

The complete organizational (hierarchical) structure of DCYF to include:

• Name of a given staff member
• Title of that staff member
• Name and title to whom they report (as applicable)
• Name and title of those staff members that report to that given staff member (as applicable).

He did respond, and I have looked at the information. However, I haven’t had, yet, the opportunity to use it.  Given the “crickets,” I guess I will be sending this out to a number of DCYF employees to stir up the nest.

The post State AGs Fight Back Against Feds Requiring Foster Parents To Be “Transgender Affirming” appeared first on Granite Grok.

The Left continues to do a number on minorities. After decades of insisting on segregation with fire and nooses, they pretended to oppose it (for votes, which worked), only to convince minorities to segregate themselves later. And they have. This dorm, this ghetto, this holiday party!

 

The Democratic mayor of Boston has sparked outrage after inviting city councilors to a holiday party intended only for ‘electeds of color.’

Michelle Wu’s invitation for the December 13 ‘Electeds of Color Holiday Party’ appeared to have been sent out to all councilors in error by her aide, Denise DosSantos.

DosSantos followed up the email 15 minutes later apologizing for the invite, clarifying that it was only meant for the city’s six councilors of color. The seven white council members were not welcome.

 

Personally, if you don’t want me at your party, I couldn’t care less about the reason. It might be because I’m Conservative, Christian, Heterosexual, Happily Married, a Parent, Outspoken, Scottish, Not Tall Enough, Wrong Eye Color, Caucasian, or that I just capitalize a bunch of words that didn’t need it. I might write a blog post about it and make fun of your posturing. The virtue signal. The tone-deafness. The party of unity and non-divisiveness BS.

That you tried to hide it and screwed that up so badly.

Anyway, the Wuville thing got caught in my mind, so I felt compelled to butcher some Dr. Seuess.

 

Every Wu Down in Wuville, They Postured a lot…
Pretend to be one thing when really they’re NOT!
They claim they’re not racists; to be one is treason.
But racists they are, no matter the season.
It could be their heads weren’t screwed on just right.
It could be, perhaps, that they’re just so uptight.
But I think that the most likely reason of all,
May have been their black hearts are two sizes too small.
Whatever the reason, and who has a clue,
The Wu’s hated white people more than the Jews.

 

Too much?

I admit it could use some work, but you get the idea. A little satire, a political parody. Quip, jest, jape. And it’s global news from which they find a way back, but not everyone will take it as well as I would, especially in a city that has been pasted, from time to time, as being racist.

 

‘I wanted to apologize for my previous email regarding a Holiday Party for tomorrow,’ DosSantos, a black woman, wrote. ‘I did send that to everyone by accident, and I apologize if my email may have offended or came across as so. Sorry for any confusion this may have caused.’

There was no apology for actually planning to host a racially segregated party. Wu was slammed by outgoing City Councilor Frank Baker, who told the Boston Herald that it was ‘unfortunate and divisive.’

 

And it looks like it is.

 

The post Busted in Boston – All The Racist Wu’s Down in Wu-ville! appeared first on Granite Grok.

Overwhelming every system is necessary to topple the economy. Democrat Socialism is impossible without it. You have to break everything, but NYC Mayor Eric Adams seems to have thought that this did not include breaking him.

It is a mistake that all the useful idiots and water carriers make – that they will not be casualties in the necessary ruin.

 

Adams has projected that the migrant crisis will cost the city $12 billion by 2025 if the flow of new migrants remains the same. New York City has seen more than 150,000 migrants enter its homeless housing system since the spring of 2022, with 66,000 still in its care.

Federal assistance in the crisis has been minimal, with New York City only receiving $150 million so far. However, the White House has requested Congress approve another $1.4 billion in aid for sanctuary cities. …

“We did not walk out from D.C. with any level of optimism that anything is going to drastically change,” Adams said. “It is clear that for the time being, this crisis is going to be carried by the cities. We are at an untenable situation right now.”

 

Funny thing about that. You did this to yourself. New York Democrats made their city a sanctuary for illegal border jumpers. It required the city to find them housing and care for them. It donated to and elected Democrats to higher office who openly supported a borderless nation. Donors, supporters, and fellow elected officials that pilloried anyone who dared object for any reason, be it national security or the humanitarian crisis it would (and did) create.

You don’t deserve help. New Yorkers should carry this crisis alone, as should citizens in Boston, Chicago, and anywhere else. Democrats have ruled for decades, pandering to people about their largess (with other people’s money) and how that somehow made them compassionate. You asked for it. You pay for it.

And hey – they are still spending other people’s money, just closer to home. You’ll need to raise even higher taxes on the people they need to get re-elected. The folks bearing more than just the fiscal burden of the Democrat’s deliberate third-world invasion of America.

The poisoned fruit they themselves sowed.

I guess the question now is, will they do something different or keep electing Democrats? Have they figured out that the Left’s change they can believe in is for the worst, and it is time to pick someone else to run the city, the state, and the country?

 

 

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At this point, any honest and serious discussion about the 2020 election is about HOW rigged it was, not whether it was rigged. And now we have evidence that the scale of mail-in voting fraud was massive … 20 PERCENT of mail-in votes were fraudulent.

So, if you were wondering how Biden did better in New Hampshire than Hillary, now you know. The Biden regime likely owes its “winning” New Hampshire to NeverTrumper Chris Sun-King Sununu and his loyal wingman Gordon MacDonald, who came up with the scheme to allow no-excuse mail-in voting.

Footnote: MacDonald’s reward for helping to rig the election? He was made Chief Justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court.

 

WHOA: Heartland/Rasmussen Poll: One-in-Five Mail-In Voters Admit to Committing at Least One Kind of Voter Fraud During 2020 Election
–17% of mail-in voters admit that in 2020 they voted in a state where they are “no longer a permanent resident”
–21% of mail-in voters admitted…

— Peter Schweizer (@peterschweizer) December 12, 2023

The post And Yet MORE Evidence That The 2020 Election Was Thoroughly RIGGED appeared first on Granite Grok.

I just finished listening to a webinar by the School Funding Fairness Project. Their whole approach to ‘funding’ (which focuses on fairness in spending while totally ignoring fairness in education) is based on two misconceptions.

The first misconception is that the state constitution requires the state to provide each student with an adequate education.

The second is that the state constitution requires ‘uniform taxation.’

The first misconception, I’ve written about elsewhere, but to recap:

Article 83, which is the basis for the Claremont decisions and for the recent Conval decision, says that seminaries and public schools are to be ‘cherished.’  So if the state can’t fund, operate, or regulate seminaries, it can’t do those things for public schools either. Which is to say, the state has no financial responsibility to do anything about public schools, and, in fact, is prohibited from pretending that it does. That’s the sort of thing a fifth-grader can figure out but which routinely escapes law school graduates.

Also, Article 83 says that ‘Free and fair competition in the trades and industries is an inherent and essential right of the people and should be protected against all monopolies and conspiracies which tend to hinder or destroy it.’  The courts have decided that this means it’s the state’s job to fund, operate, and regulate a monopoly to destroy competition in the industry of education.

The second misconception is perhaps even more insidious. You can verify for yourself that the word ‘uniform’ appears nowhere in the state constitution, whether in reference to taxes or anything else. And note that even if the constitution did require taxes to be uniform, that just means that everyone pays the same amount.

But the court (1) pretends that there is a requirement for uniformity and (2) conflates a uniform tax with a uniform tax rate.  Here’s the difference.

Consider three citizens: Manny, Moe, and Jack.  They own properties worth $100 thousand, $1 million, and $10 million, respectively. Now imagine that there is a need to raise $3,000 by taxing them.

Under a uniform tax, each of them would pay $1,000.

Under a uniform tax rate, Manny would pay about $27, Moe would pay about $270, and Jack would pay about $2700.   This is practically the opposite of a ‘uniform tax.’  (It is, in fact, Marxism. Remember back when that was something to be fought?)

So, to sum up. The courts have invented a fictional right to an education and elevated it above an actual right to free and fair competition; they have decided that the best way to protect people against monopolies is to set one up;  they have invented a fictional requirement for uniform taxes; and then decided that this requires uniform tax rates.

I got started in public speaking (and writing) by asking (a variant of) this question:

If the courts aren’t going to take the state constitution seriously, why should any of us — especially those of us who are serving in the legislature — take the courts seriously?

Shenanigans like this illustrate clearly and dramatically why we shouldn’t. And situations like this provide a perfect opportunity for the legislature to remind the courts that the branches are co-equal.  The judicial branch is not, like the pigs at Animal Farm, more equal than the other branches.

A phrase you often hear among siblings is:  You’re not the boss of me.  This is exactly what the legislature needs to say to the courts.  If you agree with me, contact your representatives and let them know that they have your support to tell the courts that the state constitution means what it says, not whatever the courts want it to.

The webinar ended with a plea for sympathetic listeners to ‘harass your representatives’ on this issue, specifically to do whatever the courts tell them to.  So you know your representatives will be hearing from them.  They need to hear from you, too.

The post Uniform Nonsense appeared first on Granite Grok.

As promised in Monday Memes, I have an overflow. Friday is guaranteed – at least from a stockpile of memes POV.

Let the mayhem, mockery, and ridicule resume:

 

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

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

PSA – PSA – PSA – PSA – PSA

 

Ordering a Pizza in 202?:

– Hello! Gordon’s pizza?

– No sir it’s Google’s pizza.

– So it’s a wrong number?

– No sir, Google bought it.

– OK. Take my order please ..

– Well sir, you want the usual?

– The usual? You know me?

– According to our caller ID, in the last 12 times, you ordered pizza with cheeses, sausage, thick crust

– OK! This is it

– May I suggest to you this time ricotta, arugula with dry tomato?

– No, I hate vegetables

– But your cholesterol is not good

– How do you know?

– Through the subscribers guide. We have the result of your blood tests for the last 7 years

– Okay, but I do not want this pizza, I already take medicine

– You have not taken the medicine regularly, 4 months ago, you only purchased a box with 30 tablets at Drugsale Network

– I bought more from another drugstore

– It’s not showing on your credit card

– I paid in cash

– But you did not withdraw that much cash according to your bank statement

– I have other source of cash

– This is not showing as per you last Tax form unless you got it from undeclared income source

-WHAT THE HELL? Enough! I’m sick of Google, Facebook, twitter, WhatsApp. I’m going to an Island without internet,where there is no cell phone line and no one to spy on me

– I understand sir, but you need to renew your passport as it has expired 5 weeks ago..

Welcome to the future

 

Coming a lot sooner than you think.  Consider this bit of news from Dubai:

 

https://granitegrok.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/dubai-in-2024.mp4

 

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

 

 

 

Not a problem.  IMHO it’s crap anyway.

 

 

 

Brings to mind this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No matter how many times I see graphs like this – assuming they’re true of course – that show just how interconnected they all are, I’m still surprised.  Even though I shouldn’t be.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

Pick of the Post:

 

 

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

 

Palate cleansers:

 

 

If I have to have this make me stay up at night, so do you.

—

 

That’s a week on the couch for sure.

—

 

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

 

Come back on Friday for more memes.  Same meme time.  Same meme channel.

 

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

 

The post Meme Overflow appeared first on Granite Grok.

Governor Chris Sununu has decided to kill the presidential aspirations of Nikki Haley, not that she hasn’t tried to do that herself. Sununu endorsed her as his pick for President this week, just six weeks before New Hampshire’s First in the Nation Primary.

 

 

I’m confident that the Sununu homers think Haley is just dreamy. She has that DC political elite insider vibe. Darling Nikki also has the Neocon donor class money, but I’m unsure how many Sununu homers have already picked someone else. Not everyone waited that long, and Chris Christi is getting his support from somewhere. He has passed DeSantis in at least one poll.

(Related: Night Cap: Why Nikki Haley Is The Neoliberals’ Favorite Republican)

Trafalgar Group, with whom I’m unfamiliar, released a sampling yesterday showing Trump still way ahead at 45%, Haley at 18, Christie at 14, DeSantis at 11, Ramaswamy at 10, and Hutchinson at 0%.

Haley could do well here if Independents buy in on the Sununu Schtick, but while we’re on the subject.

 

Haley and Sununu are milking the moment, but Sununu slipped up. As he rambles down the list of everyone who needs to vote for Haley, he starts to say ‘Democrats,’ then catches himself. Too late.

 

Nikki Haley and Chris Sununu are bringing a whole new meaning to the term ‘Republican in Name Only,’ by encouraging Democrat voters and Democrat donors to help decide the Republican nominee. Chris Sununu knows Democrats can’t vote in the Republican primary—it’s illegal! Granite… pic.twitter.com/WmPT0fJZh2

— MAGA War Room (@MAGAIncWarRoom) December 13, 2023

 

Democrats meddling in NH primaries is a contentious topic, so take that however you’d like, but the point Sununu is trying to make is this. Haley can’t win the Republican nomination with Republicans. She needs anyone with a heartbeat to make it to the polls.

What’s next, Chris? Asking out-of-state tuition-paying college kids to vote for Haley? It’s not like you’ve tried to prevent them from meddling in our elections. Maybe start an edibles for Haley get out the vote drive. You will have to compete with Dems trying to get them to write in Biden. They should write in Hunter Biden, but let’s not get lost on that point again.

Don’t expect much. Haley’s base is shared with Christie and DeSantis to a much smaller degree. Ramaswamy isn’t so much a not-Trump. Vivek has been working the DC outsider lane, picking up people who like the idea of Trump (disruptor) but can’t yet openly support the real thing.

The fun begins in Iowa in five weeks and in New Hampshire the week after, and it will likely be over on paper by early March.

I expect Chris Sununu to be disappointed, but he stuck to his promise (for a change) and refused to endorse Trump, which I’ve said would have done more to advance his goal than picking anyone else.

The primary clock is ticking.

 

The post His Excellency Endorses Constitutional Threat, Nikki Haley for President appeared first on Granite Grok.

Similar to President Trump, Prime Minister Netanyahu has become an irritant to the globalist brigade. How dare he call for not only victory but one which includes the last dead Hamas butcher when victory is now considered passé? It’s just no longer the objective!

Ever wonder why America settled for less in Korea and Vietnam when the latter even lacked a navy or an air force? From the victorious ashes of WWII, a different purpose of war emerged in which a more practical conclusion won out over the finality of a traditional victory.

Talk of eliminating the threat source is not now a possibility within certain circles. Aside from the military or national security angle, there is the more commanding “bottom line,” which, from a practical angle, more than justifies it since eliminating the threat equates with eliminating future business potential. With the globalist mindset, threat potentials can be business tools but can also represent an additional asset for gaining, even controlling, the public’s attention.

This craze for “civilian safety, which formerly was termed “collateral damage,” may now be the clarion call for playing fair in war! In addition, public heartstrings need plucking to the point that it’s now viewed as a life-saving (humanitarian) exercise. Conveniently, no mention that it effectively stymies Israel’s military assault from annihilating Hamas since the capabilities of the terrorists are limited to “first strike” or “hit and run” tactics.

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Returning to Israel’s protector, Netanyahu, his intention would end any future Hamas danger while proving to the world the merits of achieving a victory. Lastly, from a military perspective, this cease-fire only offers an opportunity for Hamas to regroup and refortify.

Here at home, America’s uproar once again can be found on her campuses. It’s a replay of the sixties when condemning the war was the rage on campus. This time, their misdirected angst unbelievably centers upon the forces that are justifiably retaliating against those who attacked without cause, ravaged and killed the innocent and helpless.

With this misdirected rerun, America’s next crop of leaders is being once again instilled with the same American hatred that has been proven to last a lifetime since today’s reckless and, in some cases, treasonous leaders were the voices of protest from a few decades ago.

So, with this system now providing its worth, not only will it become engrained into the campus experience, but it will also guarantee the preservation of the tools for violence, which translates into business and influence. With such staying power, all that is missing is UN recognition!

Is it any wonder that this web, which today’s evildoers are re-weaving, would target the nationalism of Trump and Netanyahu? Hence, love of country is targeted, while global profits and its future control remain alive.

As events unfold, there is a smugness appearing from Israeli’s bending to this humanitarian outcry, which is nothing more than the global repackaging of blackmail mixed with public intimidation. This sad drama should be a lesson to our American military as far as their potential abuse from no-win confrontations.

In to this state of affairs, the necessity for loyalty and proven leadership once again becomes substantiated as an essential quality in any candidate running for our American Presidency. This was the norm before the revisionists, and silver-tongued orators arrived, of which their natural or more appropriate venue has always been those sawdust-laden carnivals. Their cotton candy pitching is no match for dealing with the world’s evil regimes.

Was Patton politically correct or mild-mannered? Today’s enemy is not only ruthless and brutal but business-driven and directed. There’s only one leader with a capable and proven track record, and he’s gruff and convincing enough to prevail in this cruel and greedy global arena!

 

The post The Concept of Victory appeared first on Granite Grok.

From “the things we already knew” file, Consumer Reports has found that “Electric vehicle owners continue to report far more problems with their vehicles than owners of conventional cars or hybrids, according to their newly released annual car reliability survey.”

 

The survey reveals that, on average, EVs from the past three model years had 79 percent more problems than conventional cars. Based on owner responses on more than 330,000 vehicles, the survey covers 20 potential problem areas, including engine, transmission, electric motors, leaks, and infotainment systems.

“Most electric cars today are being manufactured by either legacy automakers that are new to EV technology, or by companies like Rivian that are new to making cars,” says Jake Fisher, senior director of auto testing at Consumer Reports. “It’s not surprising that they’re having growing pains and need some time to work out the bugs.” Fisher says some of the most common problems EV owners report are issues with electric drive motors, charging, and EV batteries.

 

Consumer Reports is, for the record, focused on the vehicles themselves and notes that owners did not report issues with home chargers but the cars and their batteries. Nor was it their mission or perhaps even their remit to get lost on the esoteric issues like lifetime emissions reductions that fail to account for the electric source or the vehicle’s beginning or end of life.

EVs are not great for the Environment.

We won’t revisit those here, but you can sift the 240-plus far-from-flattering articles we’ve published on EVs if a trip down memory lane suits you.

Hybrids came out as the winners in this report. Owners reported fewer problems than their combustion-only equivalents. I’m not advocating any vehicle with a lithium battery fire-trap in it, but the transportation transition folks should have stuck with those. Hybrids cost less to make than EVs, augment existing technology, and even manage to get better gas mileage than their gas-only counterparts. Not all. Not all the time. Some fuel-powered vehicles get outstanding mileage without any risks to the planet or the owner associated with a lithium power pack of that size.

I drive a Honda that can get 50+ MPG on the highway, and others do that and better, though they are much smaller, lighter, and offer much less protection in a collision. You can’t tow or haul with them, and that might have been an excellent place to do a Hybrid instead of an EV. Trucks. EV trucks are little more than a virtue signal driveway ornament for people who want to drive a truck but don’t need one. A Hybrid pickup is more practical as a transition innovation, but none of that mattered to the politicians and activists, and we know why.

They aren’t trying to get us all to drive EVs. They are trying to get us all riding bikes or public transport. Car makers only ventured down this path because of government-enforced fleet range mandates and financial incentives. But at the end of the day, the dealer has to manage the unruly customer, reliability issues, and the real problem of working on damaged EVs, which are an enormous fire risk and whose repair costs a small fortune.

One positive outcome, we can hope, is that people who were not paying attention but who read consumer reports (and who might be herded into thinking an EV was a good idea) will avoid EVs altogether. That market is already soft as startups collapse, investment in EV technology wanes, and legacy car makers announce a shift toward more conventional combustion vehicles.

They should leave the market to TESLA and work on improving mileage and emissions technology. It might also be in their best interest, especially the auto workers and their unions, to stop voting for Democrats. They want to end the car industry, and the sooner you work that out and vote for someone else, the longer you’ll get to keep your good-paying American job.

 

The post Consumer Reports: EV Owners Say Their Cars are Unreliable appeared first on Granite Grok.