“…The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works — whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified…” – President Obama, Inauguration (2009)

You would think that the different entities might have gotten a clue over the last 250 years. However, as you can see above, Obama tried to paper over that once an entity grows too big, it can’t keep track of itself. I also believe that he was trying to hide his most “endearing” phrase:

“We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.“

(Progressives and the Proper Role of Government – and Your Subservience to It)

However, back to that first quote that answers his question THEN and certainly continues to answer it NOW. Let me “set the table” (snicker) that the answer for the VAST number of people is to just stay out of the kitchen and walk away from the dining room table…

SHOT: CDC Officially Rebrand Obesity as a ‘Disease’ With ‘No Known Cure’

The CDC has officially rebranded obesity as a ‘disease’ with ‘no known cure’ as part of a plan to remove the stigma of being grossly overweight. The CDC wants the public and medical community to see obesity through the lens of a chronic disease – which coincidentally supports the globalist elite’s depopulation agenda.

That’s right – it’s no longer your “responsibility” because of our proclamation that “it is beyond your control”. Blame it ALL on Big Food – you should absolutely have no guilt in that you created your own condition. Make it a disease so it appears that you have some germ, virus, bacteria, or some other agent beyond your control that is making you lift that next set of calories to your lips and keeps you on the couch instead of walking around. Remove that stigma – and then demonize others who tell you that being FAT (and yes, I was fat) is just fine and dandy.

You’re fine and they are haters for telling you to get healthy.

Nonsense – as someone who has kept 70-80 lbs off for over 3 years now (I admit that I do bounce between that 10-pound variation), the answer lies within in. Sure, having someone to spur you on helps and, like my previous post said, holds you accountable, it can work.

 

And for the Right Hand Not Knowing The Left Hand…

CHASER: Connecticut court rules that obesity is not a disability

A Connecticut court has ruled against a state corrections officer who claimed he was bullied by superiors and denied promotions because of the perception that he was overweight.

The case pitted two state agencies against each other, the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities arguing against the state Department of Correction. The commission argued that the DOC violated Daniel Madden’s rights under the Connecticut Fair Employment Act,  “because he was perceived by the defendant to suffer a disability due to his weight.”

Superior Court Judge Susan Q. Cobb disagreed and ruled that “being overweight or obese or perceived as such is not covered by the act.” The Second Circuit court had previously addressed the issue of obesity as it relates to the Americans with Disabilities Act, “and found that obesity is not a covered physical disability or impairment unless it is the result of an underlying physiological disorder or condition,” she wrote in her ruling.

That latter part is why I chose “VAST,” as there are some people that it IS beyond their control because of diagnosed metabolic issues.

After all, and in summary, for those of you who have also turned grey (even if masked by your barber or hairdresser), try to remember how many times Government has had to redo their recommended food plate/pyramid. How many times has XYZ been deemed to be bad only to recant and state, Oopsies – the science has progressed!

Proving another canard that Science is never settled…

 

 

The post The Science is Never Settled appeared first on Granite Grok.

They’re flying so thick and fast it is amazing.

Take heart – there will be both a Wednesday and Friday Edition.  Last week’s Friday Edition.

Remember, ridicule and mockery are effective weapons:

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

In Thought Splinters IV I discussed my shifting position on chemtrails.  It was pictures like this – not these specifically but ones very much like them – that got me thinking about the topic.  Because I don’t see an innocent explanation for planes outfitted with tanks and hard-line plumbing like this:

 

 

 

If there’s a non-chemtrail, innocent explanation, I’m all ears.

 

 

 

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

 

 

How… convenient this massive attack on Israel happens not long after billions go to Iran (see Grok post on that; also see this about knowing Iran uses money for terror with Hamas thanking Iran for backing them).  Also, I’ve heard reports that Iran is getting close to nuclear breakout.  How… convenient this happens, disrupting possible ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia in a possible alliance-of-convenience against Iran – plus adding in an “excuse” for Iran to use those weapons against the Zionist Entity.  And the Taliban, who just conveniently happened to have billions of dollars worth of American military equipment are conveniently offering to cross Iran and Iraq and Jordan to come help wipe Israel out.  In light of recent events and the Taliban’s offer, I strongly suspect this was one reason all that equipment was left behind.  With malice aforethought.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The above from here.

 

 

 

Real horrors:

Israel: Babies Kidnapped By Muslim Terrorists Held in Cages – Geller Report

Taking Hostages and Desecrating Corpses: Just Another Work Day in Gaza | Gates of Vienna

 

And with what’s going on in Israel I’m hoping you might take a moment to consider some support for Israel.

Commercially:

Note that I don’t post any site here that I haven’t used / bought from myself.

An amazing set of products from the Holy Land.  Judaica Web Store

And you all know my promotion of My Tree in Israel.  Olive oil, red and now white wine, and also whiskey bottles.  All with your own name on the label.  Warning: NOT cheap, but definitely the best olive oil I’ve ever had.  Also, if you want in on this year’s oil harvest, get a move on.

Lots of militaria – Zahal.  I have bullet-resistant stuff from here, though I suspect that right now that’s not available any more.

 

Charities:

Connections Israel – I have donated to them regularly for almost two decades now.

Israel Trees – help plant trees in Israel.  One time I even planted a whole orchard of 100 trees to honor my kids.

 

And just for reference:

Jew-hatred is hard-coded into the Koran:

Islamic Jew-Hatred – Geller Report

Antisemitism in the Qur’an – Winds of Jihad (sheikyermami.com)

And an excellent piece on the Islamic war cry ALLAHU AKHBAR:

Allahu Akbar is Why Muslims Kill – Daniel Greenfield / Sultan Knish articles

Remember that, in the Koran, there is the principle of reconquest: ANY land once held by Islam must be retaken.  It’s a Koranic command.  And lastly, some history worth noting:

The Greatest Murder Machine in History – American Thinker

Myth: The Treaty of Hudaibiya (thereligionofpeace.com)

Which is why I am skeptical of the Abraham Accords…

 

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

 

 

Understand that I have no issue with wealth – even on this scale – that’s earned by providing genuine goods and services.  Good for them.  Inherited / stolen wealth?  Not so much.

 

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

 

 

See the JPFO chart here.

 

 

Related:

 

 

 

They’re called GULAGS, Killary.  And predicted.  This warning from decades ago rings very true.

Larry Grathwohl: Requiem for an American Hero | Frontpage Mag

But Grathwohl’s secret project, which put his life at risk, showed Americans that the WUO aspired to liquidate those people who stubbornly clung to the American ideals that took a daily pounding throughout the national suicide attempt known as the 1960s.

Grathwohl attended a kind of Wannsee Conference at which WUO members plotted the murder of 25 million Americans. At the Wannsee meeting in 1942, Hitler’s cabinet members and senior bureaucrats set in motion the “Final solution to the Jewish question,” that led to the systematic murder of six million Jews.

…

They also believed that their immediate responsibility would be to protect against what they called the counter revolution and they felt that this counter revolution could best be guarded against by creating and establishing reeducation centers in the Southwest where would take all the people who needed to be reeducated into the new way of thinking and teach them how things were going to be.

I asked, well, what is going to happen to those people that we can’t reeducate that are diehard capitalists and the reply was that they’d have to be eliminated. And when I pursued this further they estimated that they would have to eliminate 25 million people in these reeducation centers. And when I say eliminate I mean kill – 25 million people.

I want you to imagine sitting in a room with 25 people most of which have graduate degrees from Columbia and other well known educational centers and hear them figuring out the logistics for the elimination of 25 million people and they were dead serious.”

Worth perusing:

Victims of Communism | Keep the flame of liberty alive

 

 

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

 

 

 

Which is why, again, assuming there is an election in 2024, I think it’ll be meaningless.  Totally rigged.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Problem – Reaction – Solution.  One reason the governments love the gangs… and created them.

 

 

 

I used to say that I can’t wear a mask because I have a rare condition called FBS.  “Functioning Brain Syndrome”.

 

 

 

Do I really believe that there are secretly lizard people?  No.  But I’ve gone from a position of Absolutely impossible to I’m open to see your evidence.

 

 

Funny how “diversity” only goes in one direction.  Like there’s a melanin fetish… or a war on white people.

 

 

 

More on this:

New Zealand Gov’t Exempted Elite From ‘Deadly’ Covid Jabs, While Forcing Vax on Public – The People’s Voice (thepeoplesvoice.tv)

 

 

 

 

 

There’s a reason I call her HER HEINOUS THE CRONE OF CHAPPAQUA.

 

 

 

What have I said, consistently, about this being a century-plus old project?

 

 

 

 

 

Texas prohibits private employers from having Jab mandates.

 

 

IMHO only the first two are actual freedoms.  E.g., “Freedom from want” implies that someone is required to provide for you.

 

 

 

Come on Powerball!  I bought my ticket.  All I ask is the chance to prove that having $500+ million in the bank won’t spoil me.

 

 

Some of the videos I’ve been seeing are utterly horrific.  One, tearing my heart, is a kidnapped female Israeli soldier being taken away, pleading and screaming.  She has to know what’s in store for her as a captive of the Right Hand.

Female al-Azhar prof: Allah allows Muslims to rape non-Muslim women (jihadwatch.org)

 

 

 

And IIRC it was the Rockefellers helping the feminist movement too.

 

 

 

It’s coming.

 

 

 

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

 

Pick of the post:

 

 

Winner right there IMHO.  Hands down.  Because I’m sure the long knives are out for him, from both Left and Right.

 

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

 

 

I’m trying to not overload with videos, abstaining more or less, but this discussion with Dr. David Martin and Tommy Robinson is very enlightening.

Episode 8 Silenced with Tommy Robinson – Dr David Martin (rumble.com)

About 90 minutes.  What amazes me is that Martin’s discovering all this stuff right out in the open.  And still nobody will believe.  Indeed, for the most of the Jabbed sheeple, they’ll keep injecting and will drop / die suddenly rather than admit they’ve been bamboozled.

 

 

 

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

 

Palate Cleansers:

 

—

—

 

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

 

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

 

The post MONDAY MEMES appeared first on Granite Grok.

The Embodied Directions Wellness Sanctuary yoga studio in Dover, NH, hosted a “Kink Affirming Care Training” in September. Therapists who attended could earn three Continuing Education Units from the National Association of Social Workers – NH Chapter (NASW NH).

A Facebook post goes into detail on what the training provided:

Participants will delve into the concepts and practices of kink and BDSM, gaining insight into terminology, roles, and dynamics. Learn to differentiate between kink and abuse while exploring the core values within the kink community. We will explore power exchange relationships with an emphasis on informed consent and negotiation.

BDSM stands for bondage, discipline, dominance and submission, and sadomasochism. Merriam-Webster defines BDSM as “sexual activity involving such practices as the use of physical restraints, the granting and relinquishing of control, and the infliction of pain.”

Related: Book Promoted by Nashua Library to Small Kids Features Bondage Gear

In the second part of the training, broaden your perspectives on relationship diversity as we explore various structures and agreements. We will discuss the difference between cheating and ethical non-monogamy. Address personal and societal biases toward ethical non-monogamy while promoting a sex-positive and inclusive mindset.

Ethical non-monogamy refers to relationships where the participants agree to have more than one romantic or sexual partner at a time. This includes polyamory, open relationships, and swinging.

Throughout the training, participants will explore the importance of effective communication, negotiation, and boundary setting as crucial elements of the relationship. This training is an opportunity to gain basic knowledge and tools to provide affirming and supportive care for individuals in diverse lifestyles.

This class, taught by Katie Hespelein, provided New Hampshire therapists with training on how to guide and encourage their clients to partake in dysfunctional and destructive relationships. Katie wants better for herself, however. She is engaged to be married. She knows that a committed monogamous relationship is what gives her the best chance at good mental health. She promotes mental-health-destroying relationships to others while she refrains from them herself.

Katie Hespelein, the Embodied Directions Wellness Sanctuary, and the NASW NH have a lot to answer for promoting this terrible stuff in our state. I was happy to read that shortly after this training the yoga studio was evicted by their landlord. That is justice.

 

 

The post Training NH Therapists to Affirm BDSM and Kink appeared first on Granite Grok.

On January 28 of this year, at the annual meeting of the full state committee of the Republican Party of New Hampshire, also known as the NHGOP, the body formally adopted a resolution as follows:

• Adoption of a rule that only voters who register as Republicans 30 days prior to the primary election day may receive and mark a Republican ballot for the primary election.
• Requirement that the party chairman notify the secretary of state in writing prior to the filing period for state offices that the Republican Party of New Hampshire has adopted the rule that only voters registered as Republicans prior to any primary election may receive a Republican ballot.
• The Secretary of State for the state of New Hampshire should be instructed that any voter requesting an absentee ballot for the Primary election must be registered as a Republican at least 30 days prior to submitting a request for a Republican absentee ballot.
• Urging the Secretary of State to adjust all voting materials to reflect this requirement for prior registration to receive a Republican ballot for the Primary election.

In other words, the adoption of this resolution and the rules contained in it would change the existing primary elections for the Republican Party from being “open” in which voters registered as “Undeclared” could vote in a Republican primary designed to select the nominee who would run in the general election under the Republican banner, to a “closed” system in which only registered Republicans could vote in such a primary.

This change has been under consideration for many years.

Nevertheless, Chris Ager, the chair of the NHGOP, has reportedly failed to give formal written notice to the NH Secretary of State of the adoption of the resolution and the rules contained within it even after the passage of many months since the adoption of the resolution.

Why? There are many possible explanations for this failure, and real Republicans in New Hampshire should consider the possibilities: inadvertence, negligence, refusal to accept the will of the state committee embodied in the resolution, moral bankruptcy, or some other excuse. Take your pick.

There may still be time for the Secretary of State to be notified formally of this rule change under applicable law so that he could give proper instructions to the various local election officials in the towns and cities before the next primaries.

If you want to urge NHGOP chair Chris Ager to do his duty and give formal notice of the rule change adopted by the NHGOP to the NH Secretary of State immediately, call him at 603-318-4437 and/or email him at ChrisAger@Aol.com.

 

The post Why has NHGOP Chair Ager Failed To Do His Job? appeared first on Granite Grok.

Oregon passes made medically assisted suicide legal in 1998. That year, 16 individuals took their lives with the help of medical professionals. In 2022, that number was 278. 2022 is the year they approved suicide tourism.

To paraphrase Barry Obama on a different subject (electricity rates), “Those numbers would necessarily skyrocket.” They will. We’ve seen it everywhere that governments normalize suicide. Encourages might be the better word while broadening the scope of their growing army of state-employed therapists can consider reasonable grounds to shuffle off your mortal coil, like being a burden.

A burden to the welfare state, including taxpayer-funded health care.

The Oregon Study observed more than just an annual increase in cases of assisted suicide.

 

Over this time, patients’ health funding status changed from predominantly private (65%) to predominantly government support (79.5%), and there was an increase in patients feeling a burden and describing financial concerns as reasons for choosing an assisted death. There has been a reduction in the length of the physician–patient relationship from 18 weeks in 2010 to 5 weeks in 2022, and the proportion.

 

Talk about putting Bidenomics in a new light. You become a burden – or are made to feel as if you are- perhaps due to government policy or interference. Fast-tracked from burden to death (In Hawaii, they’ve reduced the waiting period to five days.

And no one seems to be concerned about that. I think they should, and I’ll leave you with this pulled from a previous article on this subject as you ponder that point.

Eugenics is the foundation of the real progressive utopia. If you legalize suicide, the people you deliberately make miserable will solve your problem for you. Instead of you having to kill them, they might kill themselves with the government’s blessing.

Or, you can just make it look that way.

 

 

HT | LifeSite News

The post Oregon’s Slippery Slope – Nearly 80% Of Assisted Suicides Are People on Government Health Insurance appeared first on Granite Grok.

Before beginning, this needs to be said: the reasons Hamas has control of Palestinian areas are that it has terrorized Palestinians into voting for it in “fair elections,” and it has been “educating” children into a deep hatred of Israel from the time they were born.

I will no longer separate the terms Hamas and Palestinian – because, at this time, there isn’t an atom’s width of difference between the two.

I will only use the term Palestinian because there are effectively no Palestinians who are not supporters of Hamas.  Go ahead: prove me wrong using unbiased sources.

For a very long time, I have wondered whether a two-state solution was possible in Israel.  No matter how many times there were “talks,” those “talks” were almost always followed up by Palestinian “soldiers” shooting at Israeli civilians.  Those unprovoked attacks were invariably followed by celebrations in Palestinian neighborhoods and by funerals in Israeli towns.

For a very long time, we’ve been reading about Palestinian children throwing rocks at Israeli soldiers, sometimes without the soldiers retaliating and sometimes with the soldiers firing back with less-than-fatal ammunition such as rubber bullets.  Palestinian “soldiers” don’t use rubber bullets because they want to kill their target.

But this latest unprovoked attack should finally prove that Palestinians are not now, nor have ever been, interested in peace with Israel.  They are only interested in Israel’s wholesale destruction.

It is time for Israel to finally acknowledge that a “two-state solution” is both impractical and impossible.  Israel must declare the Oslo Accords as inoperative.  It must also put the UN on notice that, as a matter of its own defense, it will no longer operate under UN restrictions.

October 7, 2013, was Israel’s equivalent of Pearl Harbor.  Israel was attacked without warning and without mercy.  Hamas targeted unarmed civilians.  Hundreds have been killed, wounded, or taken prisoner.  Those killed were not “collateral damage”: they were the intended targets.

It is time for Israel to treat its enemy as an enemy and not as a possible friend at some time in the far future.

Blood has been spilled, and not one of us has the right to tell Israel that it should tolerate the blood of yet more innocent lives in the futile search for peace.

 

The post Stand Your Ground, Israel appeared first on Granite Grok.

China recently banned the importation of Japanese seafood, claiming current releases of decade-old wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear power plant threaten citizens’ health. US Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emmanuel was diplomatically dispatched to publicly eat Japanese fish to combat China’s claims. Known for often mercurial statements, Ambassador Emmanuel did not disappoint. But it seems he revealed more than he intended.

Fukushima and Food

The 2011 Tohoku 9.0-magnitude earthquake and resultant tsunami spewed radiation into the air and sea, resulting in the contamination of Japanese fish along with vegetable crops, dairy products, and groundwater. It also was found in human breastmilk, though experts claim levels were insubstantial. There are few, if any, deaths directly attributable to the radiation release, though some 18,500 people died from the quake and tsunami.

Emmanuel countered Chinese slanders of Japanese fish with his own, stating:

“In a world where truth and trust are paramount, Japan’s unwavering commitment to science and transparency is a leading example, and I’m honored to stand in solidarity with them.”

He said he had “no reservations” about eating Japanese fish, reportedly dining on tuna, flounder, and sea bass.

Slamming China

Notably, the ambassador did not eat freshwater fish, which was more contaminated by Fukushima radiation than saltwater species. In the course of this fishy stunt, Emmanuel had no problem disparaging China, including condemnation for its lack of truth and transparency relating to SARS, avian flu, and COVID-19.

Apparently, these criticisms by a Democrat intimate with the Obama and Biden administrations were not racist slurs, as would be alleged were he a conservative. But Emmanuel’s remarks seemed to invite different comparisons than intended: What about the “truth and transparency” of the Biden administration and Dr. Anthony Fauci regarding COVID? What about PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) in US fish? What about carbon dioxide as a pollutant? And by advocating for radioactive fish consumption, is Emmanuel unwittingly plugging the safety of nuclear energy?

Piercing the Cultish Veil

Public shenanigans like emissary Emmanuel’s are hardly new. President Joe Biden made a big show of receiving the mRNA vaccine (though that may have been an innocuous dose of sugar water to help him stay awake and cogent for ten entire minutes). Monsanto advocates have publicly suggested that drinking glyphosate is innocuous. In all these cases, such theatrics prove nothing scientific, despite  Emmanuel’s promises of transparency and “science.” It’s more like snake-oil charlatans or cultish Kool-Aid guzzlers.

Jim Jones spiked Kool-Aid with cyanide in his cult. The Heaven’s Gate crowd also liked the sweet stuff, though the members used the less violent go-to-sleep method of phenobarbitol mixed with apple sauce or pudding to fly off on an imagined spaceship trailing the Comet Hale-Bopp. The Heaven’s Gate dreamers are more likely to be looking down from Hale-Bopp right now than Emmanuel is to tell people the truth about climate change.

In the climate cult, many more lives will be lost than at Jonestown. Toxins spewed from Chinese plants manufacturing EVs and solar panels using coal and chemicals went unmentioned in Rahm’s critique, as did the current crisis in China to dispose of decades-old solar panels that are unrecyclable and useless – anything but “renewable.” As US climate envoy John Kerry chides American farmers for rearing cows, Rahm’s “truth and trust are paramount” hypocrisy rings loud and hollow.

Renewable-energy manufacturing releases far more toxins than Fukushima ever did. Glyphosate has been labeled a “probable human carcinogen” by the World Health Organization, yet the Environmental Protection Agency and US Department of Agriculture tout the stuff as salvific, while Biden crosses swords with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to compel Mexicans to eat GMO corn. US  fish are tainted with American-made PFAS and mercury. While the ambassador to Japan virtue-signals on the harmlessness of nuclear energy, most Americans are gulping daily doses of a different kind of Kool-Aid.

Cyanide kills quickly; phenobarbitol kills peacefully. Cancer and birth defects kill slowly and horrifically, especially in children and infants. The primary cancer caused by radiation impacts the thyroid and is easily treatable; the forever chemicals gushing from manufacturing so-called renewables dwarf all radioactive releases in history.

Carbon Dioxide, Hamburgers, and Fukushima Fish

American children are told life-giving carbon dioxide is the chief culprit in a watch-the-birdie spectacle that distracts from logic and scientific inquiry. The United Nations recently announced that due to accelerated warming, developed nations must promptly reduce meat consumption by 80%! Unmentioned is who will eat the 20% remaining, likely affordable only by the Emmanuels and other laptop elites. The rest of humanity will be force-fed insects and patented synthetic meats concocted in laboratories from GMO crops that destroy soil, water, and human health.

Emmanuel’s surreal theater of public consumption of radioactive fish displayed clueless hypocrisy prevalent among the chattering classes. The climate cultists seek to ban fossil fuels, nuclear energy, and cows, advocating for slow genocide, claiming humanity is killing the world they plan to save. “Let them eat cake! We will eat fresh sushi and filet mignon!”

Emmanuel ought to check his privilege – and his blood for toxins. Perhaps he has been eating too much noxious food. Radiation exposure causes dain bramage.

 

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

The post Carbon Dioxide, Hamburgers, and Fukushima Fish appeared first on Granite Grok.

I can see why older generations don’t want to hire young CryBullies or socialize with them, for that matter—being “on time” used to be an accepted, almost mandatory, social norm in Society—one of the things that “glued” us together.

“Are there accommodations for people struck with Time Blindness?”

Oh sure, we all know those individuals, sometimes couples (really one individual within that couple), that seem to be constitutionally unable to get their act together. Those who think he or she is the center of everyone else’s universe and inconveniencing others is THEIR problem and not his or hers. Or unable to keep themselves organized and focused. I think you get the idea.

Me? I’m the opposite. I’m “late” if I’m just 15 minutes early. And yes, TMEW can be “not happy” as I’m rushing everyone else around to be “Not Late For My Early!”

So, when I came across this video, I knew I had to save it until I had the time to share it.

 



 

I agree with the commenter – it is rude,  irresponsible, and offensive. Yes, we are a society that celebrates the ideal of Individualism and the Rights that go along with that, and that SHOULD be held inviolate. That doesn’t prevent, however, the rest of us from skewering dorks like this “young thang” whose parents and educators failed to shove this into her “no one but me” mentality that time is precious even if you don’t think yours is valuable. That MINE is to ME especially when every day is another step closer to not having any more so DON’T WASTE MINE!

Yet another example of childish behavior from those who can’t spell “decorum” without reading it, much less defining it.

 

HT | YouTube

The post “Time Blindness” appeared first on Granite Grok.

News broke recently about New York City’s Growing Migrant Crisis (GMC). The Sanctuary City that never sleeps is feeling put out and  seeking sanctuary from the teeming mass of Illegals landing on its ‘shores.’

Mayor Eric Adams has been keen to blame southern governors for this bombardment of human flesh, but the UK Daily Mail has another story to tell. It involves the Salvation Army in California, putting Illegals on planes to New York and paying for it with tax dollars laundered through FEMA.

 

The Salvation Army has been facilitating the rampant migration of refugees into New York City, funding their efforts using FEMA emergency cash, and adding to the Big Apple’s crisis.

Reports emerged this week the charity has been helping migrants fly into New York City despite the asylum seekers already being inside the United States.

Assistance documentation printed by the organization was shared to X on Wednesday, showing TSA airport staff are handed a note saying the migrants ‘must cross the country,’ where they will await ICE check-ins.

 

Under whose authority? The Pfederal government.

 

‘At the request of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, The Salvation Army provides services to migrants released into the country by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency,’ said David Jolley, Director of Communications at The Salvation Army USA.

‘The services are fully funded by federal dollars as part of FEMA’s Emergency Food and Shelter Program.

 

As everyone tries to figure out what to do, Joe Biden has announced that becasue of the law, or some such thing, he can’t just stop building a wall that Congress already funded. We are entering an election year. Perhaps his handlers think he must pretend to follow the law for at least a while.

While he’s at it, Biden should meet with Mayor Adams and Mayor Johnson (Chicago’s Brandon) and look at “the law.” Will they be surprised to find that Congress also requires the government to control entry into the United States and that asylum rules are outlined, as are the conditions for the return of illegal entrants?

It’s all in there. All you have to do is read it, and then – this might be confusing to the people in the Executive Branch – Execute the was as passed.

Mayor Adams best not hold his breath except to then use it to ask FEMA to launder your money to him instead of the Salvation Army. He could say ‘separation of church and state’ or some such thing. The Pfeds have been sending billions to Religious charities over decades to relocate illegals relabeled as refugees, and not a peep from the Wall of Separation folks.

Maybe this new man-caused disaster will have them rethinking their tack.

Who am I kidding? This is all deliberate. Overwhelming the system. Mayor Adams will have it suck it up, especially after his trip to the border. He thinks he has problems.

 

The post NYCs ‘Migrant Crisis’ Worsening Thanks to … The Salvation Army? appeared first on Granite Grok.

Apparently, in Prince William County, Virginia, the school board has been looking for ways to cut down on the number of angry comments made by angry parents at their public meetings.

Here’s what they came up with:  They limited the number of speakers to 20 at any one meeting.  The speakers have to sign up ahead of time.  If one of the first 20 to sign up doesn’t show up, or doesn’t speak, his slot can’t be filled by anyone else.

So what happened?

Teachers’ unions orchestrated an effort to have teachers (who are in the middle of renegotiating a contract) sign up for all the spots and then refuse to speak at the meetings — effectively eliminating the public comment sections of the meetings.

You can read more about this here.

I always have mixed feelings when reading about this kind of thing because of my time on the select board of my town.

We had our own share of disruptive behavior at meetings, and at some point, we had to recognize that a board meeting is different than a board hearing and organize our meetings accordingly (holding public comments until the end and limiting comments to three minutes).

The purpose of a board meeting is to do the work of the board — get the bills paid, make decisions about roads and equipment, decide which grants to apply for, and so on.  In order to keep things transparent, meetings are open to the public so that anyone can come and listen.

The purpose of a board hearing is to solicit input from residents regarding things like proposed ordinances, changes to the structure of town government, and so on.  In order to fulfill the purpose of such a meeting, anyone can come and speak.

The thing is, the right to listen is not the same as the right to speak.  If you have any doubt about that, try asking to stand up and speak in a court proceeding or during a session of the legislature.  Those bodies are there to do work, not to listen to input.

I also think about the old joke:  If a tree falls in the forest, and Helen Keller is the only person there, does it make a sound?

If you speak to a board that doesn’t care what you have to say, have you made a sound?  You have — but not because the board is there.  You’ve made a sound because of the other people who are there and the people who will watch the video later on.

I’m surprised that no one has thought of doing this:  Hold a public meeting, put effigies of the board members at the front (possibly with fingers in their ears), and let parents rage — preserving the whole thing for YouTube viewers, who are really the intended target anyway.

(A picture of the effigies would make great fundraising T-shirts. Be sure to send GraniteGrok a share of the proceeds, please.)

The real issue isn’t that you aren’t being allowed to speak at board meetings.  It’s that the board members don’t want to hear what you have to say. And you can’t make them hear it.

But that doesn’t mean they should be able to keep anyone else from hearing it. And the only place they can do that is in a board meeting.  So go to those meetings to listen, but when it’s time to speak, have your own damn meeting.

 

The post If a Comment Drops at a Board Meeting, Does It Make a Sound? appeared first on Granite Grok.

Since the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen, Democrats have crouched in their lairs or stopped over cauldrons brewing up some response. We must disarm the people, they say, so given that decision, what should we do?

Ignore the decision. Deny the right to self-defense or the Constitutional Amendment enumerated to keep the government’s hands off it—business as usual.

The product of their mulling and stewing is the private building consent rule. Legislators would use any leverage found from prohibiting firearms in places like Hospitals, transportation hubs, schools, and government buildings and restrict more public places. Any public places which was an infringement too far. A District Court has stomped on the idea and left it a mess.

Emphasis in the original.

 

“The biggest win was stopping the ‘private building consent rule,’” which declares all private property that is open to the public to be a prohibited place — unless the property owner expressly allows individuals to enter the premises with a firearm.

“These private building consent restrictions were cooked up by anti-Second Amendment advocates to effectively nullify the Bruen decision. They are the heart of the states’ response to Bruen. And courts are having nothing to do with them. Today’s ruling was the fourth on enjoining these private consent rules from taking effect,”

 

Much like the debate over may issue and shall issue, progressive states or their left-leaning political subdivisions throw everything at the wall and hope some of it sticks. From there, they then grow their infringement. Trying to make any list of  “public spaces” a gun-free zone would make legal carry cumbersome to impossible, which is the same thing as an effective ban.

In a surprise ruling, a Maryland court and an Obama-appointed judge have made it clear that this doesn’t work.

 

[District Court Judge George L.] Russell wrote that “The Second Amendment ‘presumptively guarantees’ citizens the right to carry arms ‘in public for self-defense” and that in his opinion, under the proposed law the citizens suing the government “have suffered an injury in fact.”

“State Defendants mischaracterize Plaintiffs’ injury — it is not merely the inability to carry in privately-owned buildings,” he wrote.

“Rather, their injury is the threat of prosecution for carrying firearms in places that, under prevailing law, they have previously had the presumptive right to do so absent express prohibition by the property owner,” Russell wrote.

 

One small step for natural rights, one giant leap for… similar legislation to appear as states return to doing whatever they think of as the people’s business. That’s the thing about Democrats: they don’t stop until your rights are dead!

Here in New Hampshire, where we’ve had recent success protecting the natural right to self-defense from gun grabbers (by rolling back infringements), we should expect to see a few bills that lean in this direction despite the ruling.

It’s annoying, but Republicans could learn something from it.

 

HT | Tactical Sh!t

The post Maryland’s Attempt to Flank the Bruen Decision Has a Bad Day In Court appeared first on Granite Grok.

This week, Republicans and Democrats got together to avert a government shutdown. Too bad. There’s so much that ought to be shut down.

Useless Cabinet departments, for example, like Housing and Urban Development, Labor and Agriculture. Agriculture employs almost 100,000 people. Why? Independent farmers grow our food. They don’t need a giant department.

Let’s get rid of the Department of Education, too. Why does it even exist? Education is a local responsibility and none of the federal government’s business. Yet its spending is up 300% over the last 10 years.

The department didn’t even exist before 1979. Has education improved since then? No. Government’s grand plans, like No Child Left Behind and Common Core, helped no one but bureaucrats. (RELATED: SUZANNE DOWNING: Tell Me Government Is Too Big Without Telling Me It’s Too Big)

Trying to justify itself, the department funded studies of everyone’s favorite government program, Head Start. The “experts” were surprised to learn that the much-praised program has no effect. By third grade, there was no difference between kids that attend and those who don’t.

Education is best left to local governments and parents.

We don’t need a Commerce Department. After all, commerce just happens. Get rid of the bureaucrats and sell the buildings.

Get rid of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

I know, Medicare is popular. “Free” stuff always is. But government’s current health promises are unsustainable. As we live longer and want the newest and best medicines, Medicare is on track to go broke.

I’m on Medicare. I get everything my doctor suggests. I never even ask about price. That’s insane.

Medicare and Social Security take money from the young and give it to those of us who had decades to invest and save. That’s just unfair.

Let people shop for free-market plans. Let the market work.

Once people pay their own bills, competition will drive prices down. Health care would be less confusing and bureaucratic.

Abolish the Food and Drug Administration. It’s a big reason drugs are so expensive. It was created years ago when people were hurt by quack medicines. But today we have the internet; sites like Drugs.com let us decide for ourselves if we want to risk taking a drug.

Get rid of the Drug Enforcement Administration and the destructive War on Drugs. The DEA spends $3 billion a year and does little but raise the price of drugs, switching users from drugs like heroin to deadlier things like fentanyl.

Did we learn nothing from alcohol Prohibition? Banning liquor created Al Capone and organized crime.

Today there are no beer gangs or vodka cartels only because alcohol is legal.

The drug warriors’ rules don’t protect us from drugs. They mostly enrich murderous drug cartels.

Get rid of subsidies for NPR and PBS.

Kill the Export-Import Bank and the Small Business Administration. Businesses should operate on their own. They shouldn’t get handouts and dubious advice from government bureaucrats.

Privatize air traffic control. Canada and dozens of other countries already did, and their systems are safer and work better. That would save $2 billion, and your flight would be more likely to arrive on time.

Likewise, privatize Amtrak. Save $7 billion.

Privatize the post office. Today there are lots of better alternatives. (RELATED: REP ANDY BIGGS: Congress Can’t Continue The Budget Insanity. We’re Standing Against A Continuing Resolution)

Of course, I’m dreaming. Government programs don’t get shut down. They just grow.

Washington claims every one of its activities is crucially important. But that’s nonsense.

If the Nov. 17 deadline isn’t met and the government shuts down, will you even notice?

Few outside the media and the Washington bureaucracy noticed the last shutdown.

Social Security, Medicare, the Postal Service, air traffic control, the passport agency and irresponsible lending to college students will continue during a “government shutdown.”

Democrats, sleazily, say they’d close national parks. That’s a government product that people definitely like. But they are outdoors! It’s stupid to close the gates (Donald Trump didn’t close them during when government shut down during his term).

They’ll close parks because Democrats and many Republicans want to convince us that everything good comes from government.

It doesn’t.

Go ahead. Shut most of it down.

 

John Stossel | Daily Caller News Service

COPYRIGHT 2023 BY JFS PRODUCTIONS INC.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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The post If The Government Shut Down, Would You Even Notice? appeared first on Granite Grok.

The world is a more dangerous place with Joe Biden in the White House, or this case, Delaware. We have been watching our status as a world power erode since January 2021, when Biden raised his hand, took the oath, and began his destruction of America.

We have been watching a futile battle for survival by Ukraine and the rise of China and Russia as evil players on the world stage. We have been watching as Taiwan is under constant threat of assault by China. We have been watching North Korea flex its muscles and strengthen its relationship with Russia. And we have watched as Iran continues to race toward a nuclear weapon. Joe Biden released $6 Billion last month of Iran’s frozen assets, and he tried to get us to believe they could only use the money for humanitarian aid. Joe Biden also thinks that it was a real rabbit that pushed him around the White House lawn at Easter time. Joe Biden is a fool, and now, his fingers are on a deadly attack on Israel.

As we slept on Friday night, militants from Gaza invaded Israel, killing and taking hostage civilians on the streets. These invaders dragged Israelites, both dead and alive, back into Gaza while 2,200 missiles lit the sky above Israel. Fortunately, the Iron Dome effectively intercepted many of the incoming missiles, but it could not hit all of the deadly projectiles, and many hit their mark in the Holy Land.

Israel is always on high alert as they are the target of many of its neighboring countries. It is all hands on deck for Israel as they call 10,000 young men to bolster their active military. Hamas promises to carry the battle deep into Israel, and the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, calls this attack Israel’s 9-11.

Surprisingly, Israel was caught off guard and was not prepared for Friday’s attack. As Gaza troops attacked the defensive boundaries of Israel, they took control of small villages and are now in control of land within Israel’s borders. This attack is the worst on Israel in fifty years, and the consensus is that Iran backs this effort by Hamas. The lax policies of the Biden Administration have paved the way for the aggression by Iran. Trump had crippled Iran with sanctions and slowed their quest for nuclear arms. Biden erased all of those restraints and gave Iran the green light to raise money by selling oil to Russia and speeding up their nuclear program.

Biden said that we pledge our support to Israel sounds hollow and meaningless after allowing Iran to work with Hamas to stage this attack. Every move that Biden makes proves Robert Gates correct when he said it best: Joe Biden has been on the wrong side of every foreign policy debate in decades.

Joe Biden is the wrong person at the wrong time to be behind the desk in the Oval Office. He is harming us at home with the economy and the Border, and now we see how dangerous he is on the international stage. Joe Biden is wrong for America, and Republicans have to unite in their effort to make Biden a one-term President. No more infighting. Unseat Biden and save America.

 

The post When You Give 6 Billion Dollars to Iran … appeared first on Granite Grok.

In the inception of our nation, Pastors played a key role. Unfortunately, that is often overlooked in the annals of recorded history. This week, I want to focus on that role as recorded in history from various sources.

The reason perhaps that their influence is not given the prominence it deserves is because it was not an organized force that could be numbered, and neither was it set forth with a list of goals to be achieved.

However, the pulpits of colonial America were the voice of opposition to loyalty to the Crown.  In fact, King George III said, “This colonial opposition is nothing but a Parsons (pastors) rebellion.”

Independence was boldly preached from scripture in all of the 13 original colonies. The address from the pulpits brought about enthusiasm, and their prayers caused courage to arise in the hearts of the congregants. 

These humble Pastor’s produced the minute-men, who took to arms against the tyranny of the King. The first army of the American Revolution was birthed in the hearts of these men from continual exhortation to resist oppression. The battle of Bunker Hill was the first, and the battle at Lexington and Concord sounded the battle cry of these men to take up arms.

One great example of Pulpit Polity was the preaching of Pastor Peter von Muhlenberg, who was known as “the fighting parson of the American Revolution.” He was the Pastor of the German/English-speaking Episcopal Church in Woodstock, Virginia. He had received a circular letter from General George Washington requesting that military regiments be raised for the army. His famous Sunday sermon was taken out of Ecclesiastes 3:1-8. At the end of his message, he made an appeal to the congregation by stating that “there is at time for war and a time for peace, there is a time to pray and a time to fight.” He then pulled off his clerical robe, and underneath, he was wearing the uniform of a colonel in the Continental Army. His parishioners readily enrolled in the army. He served for eight years.

In 1774, the First Provincial Congress of Massachusetts gave credit and appreciation to the Pulpit ministry as loyal friends of civil and religious freedom. Their address to the clergy is as follows.

“Reverend Sirs: When we contemplate the friendship and assistance of our ancestors, the first settlers of this province (while overwhelmed with distress), received from the pious Pastors of the churches of Christ, who, to enjoy the rights of conscience, fled with them into this land, then a savage wilderness, we find ourselves filled with the most grateful sensations. And we cannot but acknowledge the goodness of Heaven in constantly supplying us with preachers of the gospel whose concern has been in the temporal and spiritual happiness of the people. In a day like this, when all the friends of civil and religious liberty are exerting themselves to deliver this country from its present calamities, we cannot but place great hopes in an order of men who have ever distinguished themselves in their country’s cause; and do, therefore recommend to the ministers of the gospel in the several towns and other places in the colony, that they assist us in avoiding that dreadful slavery with which we now are threatened, by advising the people of their several congregations, as they wish their prosperity, to abide by, and strictly adhere to, the resolutions of the Continental Congress,” at Philadelphia, in October of 1174, “as the most peaceable and probable method in preventing confusion and bloodshed, and of restoring that harmony between Great Britain and these colonies, on which we wish might be established not only the rights and liberties of America, but the lasting happiness of the whole British empire. 

Resolved, That the foregoing address be presented to all the ministers of the gospel in the province.”

So, as you can see, there was no conflict between church and state. The Pastors were respected and received as viable instruments to help in the massive changes that were occurring in the colonies.

In closing, I am providing a list of titles of the numerous ELECTION SERMONS that were preached throughout the colonies during the American Revolution:

1. Government corrupted by Vice, and recovered by Righteousness. A sermon preached by Samuel Langdon, D.D. President of Harvard College in Cambridge.
2. The Sermon preached before the Honorable Council, and the Honorable House Representatives, of the State of Massachusetts-Bay in New England at Boston, May 27, 1778.
3. A Sermon preached before the Honorable Council, and Honorable House of Representatives of the State of Massachusetts-Bay New England, May 31, 1780, by Simeon Howard, A.M.Pastor of West Church in Boston
4. The United State elevated to Glory and Honor. A Sermon, preached before His Excellency Jonathan Trumbull, Esq., L.L. D. Governor and Commandeering Chief, and the Honorable Assembly of the State of Connecticut, convened at Hartford, at the Anniversary Election, May 8th 1783. By Ezra Stiles, D.D., President of Yale College.

These sermons were spoken directly to the need for character in civil government. You can look them up online and read them for yourself. Again, now amazing that secular culture, if you will, was open to the spiritual guidance and input directed to the culture of the day!

Happy Reading!
Pastor Allen Cook
Grace Ministries International
Brentwood NH

 

Pulpit Polity is a regular Sunday morning feature on GraniteGrok.com.

The post Pulpit Polity – The Parsons Rebellion appeared first on Granite Grok.

A consortium of ‘experts’ is making a case for Climate Change. To get there from here, we need a “71 percent reduction in personal vehicle ownership.” Why? All that rare earth metals mining is bad for the planet.

That’s refreshing. Someone who thinks they know everything has come to a conclusion we’ve been sharing with each other for years. The Net Zero fantasy is little more than emissions offshoring. This battery fetish thing is wrecking the planet, local ecosystems, and – to borrow from the Democrat Dictionary, indigenous peoples.

Their solution?

Smaller Lithium batteries, smaller and fewer vehicles, and even smaller homes. Have Less, Do, Less, Be Less. A phrase we attribute to the Democrat party. It’s the Left’s agenda boiled down to a bumper sticker. And they don’t mean them. They mean you.

 

“Making bus routes, metros, and electric bikes faster, safer, and more convenient will disproportionately support low-income and non-white community members – who are more likely to live near high traffic areas and bear the environmental health burdens of relatively poorer air quality compared to higher-income and white counterparts,” the group further said.

 

The dream as marketed is impossible, so we, the consortium, are here to tell you that even as you pretend to promote climate justice, you are doing it wrong. Large, comfortable vehicles with increasingly longer range are not the answer.

 

“This report intends to empower people and policymakers across the country with the arguments, evidence, and proposals they need to advocate for a maximally just transportation future,” the report reads.

 

At least they’re semi-honest about it all. The cost to forcibly transition everyone from fossil fuels needs to be reimagined, and they are the new Pied Pipers of Net Zero; come to lead your children away from the world you live in and place them in Climate Cult foster care where things get increasingly smaller, less useful, and unreliable.

And they are not going to give them back, your children or modernity, even if you agree to play along.

 

The post Climate Consortium Says EV Batteries Need to be Smaller, Their Range Shorter appeared first on Granite Grok.

The title of this article is a question that leads to many others. First, it assumes we are off track, and half the country may think we haven’t gone far enough down the Progressive trail. The followers of Barack Obama and Joe Biden would tell you we have a long way to go to transform America.

I bet they cannot tell you what America should look like, but they know we are not there yet. These folks either do not watch the news or view a filtered version and never see the violence, crime, corruption, and evil permeating our big cities and even our suburbs. I recall a reporter doing a live shot during the Summer of Love. Standing in front of a building engulfed in flames, surrounded by gangs of people throwing objects at the police, he tells his audience that the protests were peaceful and orderly. Please don’t trust your eyes. Trust me as I tell you the truth. What the reporter does is sad, but the fact the technique works is sadder.

If you are in the other half of society, you see and believe we have drifted far off our path. You have traditional values and believe in the reasons our forefathers fought for and worked to draft a blueprint for our incredible nation. Unlike the Left, who see America as evil and needs to be torn down and replaced with something more pure, those on the Right think we have won the lottery being born in America. The Left is disgusted with America, and the Right is thankful for all America offers. The Left cannot forgive our past, and the Right recognizes we have made mistakes but puts them in the context of the time and strive to be better.

Assuming readers of my articles lean right, let’s discuss what it will take and how long it will take to right this ship. Unfortunately, the answer to the second part is much longer than it took to get us to where we are today. The indoctrination of our children took time. Reversing that impact on a generation will require an admission of the indoctrination and then a reprogramming of the majority of our younger people. Our education system has affected the culture of the ages, and getting these people to return to our way of thinking will be tedious and challenging. It is presumptuous to say our way is the right way, but it is certainly better than what we see today and where we are heading.

Our culture has changed in the last forty years. Respect, discipline, and the ability to communicate and have relationships with others is gone. We no longer want to work hard and think we are owed a good life supplied by the Government. We want an education that prepares us for nothing to be paid for by anyone but the student. We have no idea where the money will come from; just keep it coming. We enter businesses by force, strip the shelves of merchandise, and deny accountability, for this is reparations for the harm spread on us by an oppressive elite.

Brick-and-mortar operations are abandoning large cities or putting their merchandise behind glass, lock, and chain. These stores close, leaving the now unemployed staff behind and taking their attraction and tax dollars with them.

Until we can modify this new culture to be more like the nation’s culture of the 60s and 70s, then we will continue to slide towards the slow, painful death we are inflicting on ourselves. The Government cannot solve the issue, but it can work with families, schools, churches, etc, to ensure we are all on the same page. We need to get back to the simplicity of human interaction. The younger generations need to find purpose and relevance if we are ever to get this mess turned around.

 

The post What Will It Take To Get Us Back On Track appeared first on Granite Grok.

On October 10, there will be a rally at the capital for the abuse victims of the Sununu Center from 2:30-6 PM. There was a rally on September 27th, and at that rally, victims shared their stories, and a whistleblower shared her story.

Cases of sexual and physical abuse date back to the founding. What the victims want is a federal investigation into the case.

According to many of the victims, the state was notified about abuses repeatedly and did nothing, so it isn’t prudent for the state to investigate the state. Instead, the victims want the federal government to intervene and handle the case.

Last year, around this time, I interviewed both Frank Staples and Adam Cordero, who are victims of the center. Adam’s story is harrowing. He was sexually abused every night by a night guard, and then the night guard was allowed to take him from the center to his house, where he had full access to abuse him. The individual who okayed that transfer, Evelyn Blaze, became the head of DCYF. She is no longer the head, but she has not faced any consequences for that decision.

At the September 27th rally, there were just about 50 people at the rally, but we hope for a larger turnout for the October 10th rally. Come to show your support and sign a petition to have the federal government investigate the crimes. Let’s shoot for 100 people at this rally.

The post Sununu Center Rally 3.0 appeared first on Granite Grok.

In a blow to due process safeguards that protect Americans against reckless and wrongful arrests by government officials, the U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hold police accountable for misidentifying and wrongly arresting an innocent man twice in five years, then jailing him for three days before taking a few minutes to verify his identity.

Although David Sosa shares the same name as a man from another state named in an outstanding warrant more than 20 years old, he has a different date of birth, height, weight, and social security number, and did not have any tattoos, unlike the suspect listed in the warrant. Nevertheless, police failed to take the necessary, fundamental steps to confirm Sosa’s identity before arresting and jailing him. Weighing in before the Supreme Court in Sosa v. Martin County, Florida, The Rutherford Institute warned that if police are not held accountable for violating Sosa’s rights, then nothing will deter law enforcement officers from wrongfully arresting him over and over again or from committing similar reckless behavior toward other innocent citizens.

“What this case shows is that we have no real due process,” said constitutional attorney John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute and author of Battlefield America: The War on the American People. “If the powers-that-be want to lock you up, then you’ll be locked up, whether you’re innocent or guilty, with no access to the protections our Constitution provides.”

Related: 11th Circuit Says Police Can Detain Anyone for Three Days If They Have the Same Name as The One On Their Warrant

In 2014, David Sosa was stopped for a traffic violation by a sheriff’s deputy for Martin County, Florida, which is where Sosa lived. Sosa worked in research and development of airplane engines. The deputy discovered an arrest warrant for a “David Sosa” from 22 years earlier out of Texas for selling crack cocaine. Even though Sosa had a different date of birth, height, weight, and social security number, and did not have any tattoos as listed for the accused in the warrant, the deputy arrested him anyway. After three hours, the sheriff’s department confirmed Sosa was not the same person named in the warrant and released him. However, four years later, another deputy from the same department made a traffic stop on Sosa and found the same outstanding warrant. Once again, despite the identifying information on the warrant not matching his description and Sosa informing the deputy about the previous misidentification incident, the deputy arrested Sosa on the same warrant. But this time the jail held Sosa for three days before taking just a few minutes to run his fingerprints to confirm his identity and release him.

After his release, Sosa sued the sheriff’s department for violations of his Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights to be free from unreasonable seizure and to not be deprived of liberty without due process, but the trial court ruled that the deputies had not violated Sosa’s rights and dismissed the case. On appeal, the Eleventh Circuit affirmed the dismissal of the case, likewise ruling that Sosa’s constitutional rights were not violated, and a concurring opinion reluctantly claimed that the sheriff’s department would be protected by qualified immunity anyway. In refusing to hear the case, the U.S. Supreme Court lets stand the lower court rulings, which failed to hold police accountable for their reckless actions.

James C. Martin and Taylor A. Marcusson of Reed Smith LLP helped advance the arguments in the brief.

The Rutherford Institute, a nonprofit civil liberties organization, provides legal assistance at no charge to individuals whose constitutional rights have been threatened or violated and educates the public on a wide spectrum of issues affecting their freedoms.

 

| The Rutherford Institute

The post In a Blow to Due Process, Supreme Court Gives Police the Green Light to Misidentify, Arrest and Jail Innocent Americans appeared first on Granite Grok.

We hear time and time again how New Hampshire voters are so engaged, so informed, blah, blah, blah. But there are only two explanations for why New Hampshire voters continue to elect mediocre grifters like Jeanne Shaheen, Annie Kuster, Chris Pappas and MAGGIE HASSAN. Either they are not so engaged, informed, blah, blah, blah OR they are lunatics who support funding actual Nazis … see tweet below where grifter-Hassan pledges unending, unlimited support for the Nazi-infested, Corruptocracy called Ukraine … believe  unborn seven, eight even nine month old babies are NOT human, want to live in a Police State, etc., etc., etc..

The post Maggie Hassan Supports Nazis appeared first on Granite Grok.

There are people (including readers of GraniteGrok) who claim that a school choice program that is funded by taxes is a ‘free market solution’ to the problem of educating children.

I find this odd.  Whether you think school choice is a good idea or a bad one, as long as taxes are involved, it cannot sensibly be called a ‘free market solution.’

Why?

There are lots of possible ways of defining ‘free market.’  Here is Milton Friedman, for example:

The key insight of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations is misleadingly simple: if an exchange between two parties is voluntary, it will not take place unless both believe they will benefit from it.

So people will say:  The exchange of school choice funds between a parent and a school or other provider of services is voluntary.  That makes it a free market exchange, right?

Wrong.  It leaves out a third party to the transaction:  the taxpayers from whom the money was taken against their will.  That is, it’s not a two-party transaction,

X purchases something from Y.

but rather a three-party transaction:

X purchases something from Y, using money taken (by the threat of force) from Z.

If all the parties aren’t participating voluntarily in the transaction, then it’s not a free market.

At least, that’s what I thought until recently.  What I’ve realized, though, is that we’re seeing one of those redefinitions of terms that happen every so often and which turn things on their heads.

That is, the free in free market once referred to something like free will.  It described the voluntary nature of an action.  But now it refers to something like free lunch, where you don’t pay for something because someone else is paying for it.

Note that this makes robbery into a free market transaction.  Suppose I take money from you through the threat of force, then give it to someone else in exchange for a meal.  Or I give it to someone else, who then exchanges it for a meal.  This is a pretty exact analogy to the free market transaction that we call ‘school choice.’

We’ve seen this kind of redefinition before, as when the word right ended up being used as a synonym for the word entitlement — which is actually the opposite of a right in that it requires rights to be violated in order to provide it.

For example, X’s ‘right’ to high-speed Internet or gender-affirming surgery requires violating Z’s right to property in order to pay for it.

It’s like using the word ‘customer’ when you really mean ‘beneficiary.’

There are good reasons to drop this line of argument entirely.

First, it’s misleading, which makes it hard to have sensible discussions about school choice.  This is reason enough to avoid the use of the term.

But perhaps more importantly, when school choice fails to fix any of our actual problems — as all subsidies ultimately do — having spent years describing it as a ‘free market’ program will provide ammunition for people who want to argue that that free markets can’t work.

But if we want people to stop using free market to describe situations where one person is robbed in order to enable two other people to engage in commerce, we need to have a different term to describe those situations.

How about freebie market?

 

The post Freebie Markets appeared first on Granite Grok.