Wednesday • January 8 • 2025
Vol.XVII • No.II
Manchester, N.H.
The Government Integrity Project (GIP) is sad to share the news of Jim Johnson’s passing early this morning at 2:15am after fighting a long, courageous battle against colon cancer. He passed peacefully at home while surrounded by family and friends.
Jim’s dedication to preserving our Rights and freedoms for future generations to come led to Jim serving an integral role within the GIP organization. Along with his close friend, Jim Berlo, they co-founded the GIP’s first local chapter in Brentwood, NH.
During Jim’s time with the GIP, he earned the respect and admiration of all those who he encountered. His love for America and Traditional American Values earned Jim the GIP’s Lifetime Achievement Award “For His Unyielding Defense of our Liberties & Constitutional Rights”.
Jim Johnson will be sorely missed by family, friends, and everyone whose lives he had a tremendous positive impact on.
For those seeking details of Jim’s service, please reach out to Jim Berlo, 978-815-1913.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Information:
Government Integrity Project
Jim Berlo
978-815-1913
Release Date: July 9, 2023
###
The post The Government Integrity Project Mourns the Loss of Jim Johnson appeared first on Granite Grok.
This was fun to watch this changing landscape of the 10 top brands in each year and watching the billions of “worth” ticker up and down for each. My quick takeaways::
Source page. Watch (58 sec).
Success is earned – and by watching Nokia, lost as well. This shows that Capitalism is the only economic system where risk can be rewarded handsomely but ONLY if you serve your customers well. Stop doing so, and you will be punished; customers are in control.
This is EXACTLY why Socialists, Fascists, and Communists hate it – THEY want to control the winners and losers because each of those systems, and the power-hungry apparatchiks within Government who are trying to do the controlling want to remove you as deciding for yourself what’s best.
Just start thinking of them as the snobs / “cool bossy kids cliques” from high school and treat them (and their enabling politicians) exactly as such at any and all opportunity.
HT | Visual Capitalist)
The post What Were The Most Valuable Global Brands from 2002-2022? (Animation) appeared first on Granite Grok.
If this were a matter before their court, Planned Parenthood would have to recuse itself. The question of virginity is of critical economic concern to an operation whose core business depends on the absence of it.
And while they are entitled to an opinion that favors their business model, let’s say I have some thoughts—but first, this.
The idea of virginity comes from outdated — let’s be real, patriarchal— ways of thinking that hurts everyone. pic.twitter.com/QYmNbEZzbw
— Planned Parenthood (@PPFA) June 29, 2023
Virginity is “the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse.” Lots of ideas (social constructs) have sprung around the notion of the value of virginity as well as its absence – notions that continue to evolve, but since we’re going there, Planned Parenthood’s definitions of “life” and “women’s health care” are social constructs. The “right” to an abortion is a social construct.
Isn’t this fun?
Society and culture define and create things, and very few bits of our existence do not meet this criterion. Men and women are born as genetically different mammals, while every inch of the gender spectrum is a social construct. Pregnancy, womanhood, and lactation have all fallen to cultural Marxists constructing social ideas whose purpose is to deconstruct America.
But the modern idea of virginity (any human being who has yet to have intercourse) has been around since before Roe v. Wade, so why are you clinging to a narrow outdated, or stereotypical view of Judeo-Christian patriarchy? To profit from increased unwanted pregnancies.
I think you should just say it.
Don’t save yourself; sleep around. Virgins are bad for business. Unwanted pregnancies create jobs at Planned Parenthood. We can’t terminate pregnancies that haven’t happened.
Pick one or all, and put it on T-shirts, hats, and bumper stickers.
Be proud. Be You!
The post If Virginity is a Social Construct Can’t You Just Claim to Not Be One? appeared first on Granite Grok.
Even as all of the Left’s identity politics groups declaim “The Patriarchy” (er, simply put: “hate all men because….well, because we say so and we don’t have really any better answers”), this from the Transgender flag wavers:
Clown World: Transgender Cyclist Claims Biological Men Are ‘Underrepresented’ in Women’s Sports
Er, aren’t they supposed to be NON-EXISTENT? With that one line, Austin Killips gives away the Left’s entire game – women mean and are less than women. They want to put them back into the kitchen, pregnant, and barefoot (something they have always attributed to us) in a matter of speaking. With this, it’s clear that they want to take something that is of VALUE to women and doing so like an adult taking away a lollipop from a child. Reformatted, emphasis mine:
Austin Killips, a biological male cyclist who competes with biological women, found solace in the cycling community during the USA Cycling Pro Road championships in Knoxville, Tennessee. Having faced backlash after becoming the first transgender woman to win a UCI 2.2-registered stage racing event, he expressed his love for the sport and the support he received from fellow cyclists.
“It was nice to have this experience with others that sort of refuted my anxieties and reminded me that this is a really great and wonderful sport filled with people that I love dearly,” Killips said during an interview with Knox News on Saturday.
In the conversation, Killips also stated his belief that there were not enough biological men competing in women’s sports and expressed fear that backlash against this trend would prevent more men from entering these events:
It’s certainly concerning that the nature of the discourse, the amount of energy that has gone into building this narrative would lead you to believe that there’s this massive number of trans athletes participating in sports and winning all the time, when the reality is that we’re statistically underrepresented. By the number, some of us do well, a lot of us do just fine, are just normal competitors. If the rules say trans people can play, then it doesn’t mean that we can’t win.
Well, dude, get the rest of your Beta male dudes to join in, and you can wipe them off the podiums nice and easy. Keep doing that, and all the other “unable to perform” (athletically – get your thoughts out of the gutter!) will join you. But here’s the money line by author Jeff Charles – and it is the basis for many of us for our intensive pushback on this 2+2=5 delusion:
The issue is that they truly expect to gaslight, cajole, coerce, or shame the rest of us into co-signing that nonsense. Those around him are participating in a mass illusion to make certain folks feel good and virtuous.
In other words, people like Killips want us to all believe something that can never be true – and in his case, taking advantage of weaker females. They have no regard for what is right or wrong.
Sadly, the idea, the morality, and the word “chivalry” has been shoved out of our vernacular by…Feminists who consider it sexist. Well, dears, if you hadn’t knee-jerked it out of the culture, perhaps you wouldn’t be having this problem.
That is, what seems to be a shrinking percentage, as it seems many Feminists are perfectly fine with biological men taking over your spots and shoving you off your own stages.
Outstanding, ladies! And no, Austin Killips, I don’t mean you. Unlike many on the Left that tries to use words to bully people – go ahead, call me a bigot and a transphobe. After all, if you still have a prostate, you can not be a woman.
Oh, and this:
‘It is incredibly painful to be Othered‘ – Austin Killips on division, debate, and building dialogue
And what you are doing ISN’T Othering biological women in their own sport. Why is it that transgenders are so narcissistic that they only make themselves the victims and do not care a whit about victimizing biological women?
The post THEY Are The Patriarchy and Out To Erase Women. appeared first on Granite Grok.
Apropos ABA Rule 8.4, I have cited court corruption before. I have brought it up with the AG’s office, with DA Paul Halvorsen of Merrimack County and it has been brought up and is in the record with the United States Senate Judicial Committee as well. In fact, it is part of the reason why former NH AG Michael Delaney was forced to withdraw his application as a judge to the First Circuit Court of Appeals.
We want to thank Claire Best HERE for this Op-Ed. If you have an Op-Ed or LTE
you would like us to consider, please submit it to Editor@GraniteGrok.com.
To say something is wrong in the New Hampshire Courts and Law Enforcement ranks would be a wild understatement. Judge Julie Introcaso’s misconduct is the tip of the iceberg. Other judges who have been caught out before have also had to resign, and yet the club carries on as if it is above accountability and the law.
Are the New Hampshire courts, judiciary, and police involved in a sex ring, and are they, in fact, intertwined with & complicit in the Diocese of Manchester and the sex abuse scandal? And are non-profits and agencies established to combat sex and child abuse, in fact, complicit in the cover-ups?
The attached letter leads me to believe they are. It is between Judge Bernard Hampsey (who I gather is close to NH Supreme Court Chief Justice Gordon MacDonald) and Rev. James A. “Seamus” MacCormack. It is from May 2002. Please note the denials in it and reference to a letter sent on personal – not court – stationery. What is the need for a judge to send a priest a letter on personal stationery when there is a probe into sex abuse at the diocese in which the AG’s office (where Jim Rosenberg of Shaheen & Gordon worked at the time) is involved?
Apparently, the Executive Director of SNAP sent a letter of resignation yesterday after requests for information about SNAP’s cover-ups of Rev. MacCormack.
The letter attached below seems to suggest a relationship that is not professional between Judge Hampsey and Seamus MacCormack. Where is the separation between church and state? It appears non-existent.
What is that relationship?
There is a complaint from 2008 from a priest who claims he was retaliated against by the Diocese after finding a box of sex toys that former Monsignor Arsenault took from him and told him never to talk about again. Shortly after Arsenault left the Diocese of Manchester and went to work at St Lukes Institute in Maryland – itself mired in controversy and sex scandals. The complaint mentions Seamus MacCormack and the YDC.
Excerpts from the complaint read:
17. In or about October of 2002, the Plaintiff Father Coover discovered large quantities of pornographic materials, guidebooks containing locations of homosexual meeting places nationwide, and sexual attire including items consisting of leather and chains in multiple locations in the church rectory and garage;
18. Plaintiff Father Coover contacted the Diocese to disclose the discovery of such items and to request instruction as to how to proceed;
19. Defendant Father Arsenault, on behalf of Defendant Bishop McCormack and Defendant Diocese, instructed Plaintiff Father Coover to assemble the found items, place the items into a sealed container and deliver the container directly to the Chancery in Manchester, New Hampshire;
20. Plaintiff Father Coover delivered the found materials as instructed and was further instructed by Father Arsenault not to discuss the circumstances with anyone;
From later paragraphs:
41. Thereafter, Defendant Father Arsenault, made false statements to Plaintiff Father Coover’s employer, Youth Development Center (“YDC”) of Manchester, New Hampshire, and was placed on administrative suspension, ultimately resulting in Plaintiff Father Coover’s resignation;
42. Based on information and belief, the administrative suspension resulted solely from false and misleading statements made by Defendant Father Arsenault to staff members of the YDC;
In 2013 Gordon MacDonald (at Nixon Peabody at the time) defended the Diocese in a case brought by a family whose young teen son claimed he was being groomed and shown pornography by a priest.
Why did Assistant AG Jane Young shake hands with former Monsignor Edward Arsenault when he took a plea deal in 2014? Why was he transferred from Concord Men’s Prison to Keene’s jail? Why was he then released on home confinement? Why did Chuck Douglas Esq describe Monsignor Edward Arsenault as so pleasant to work with? According to Caroline Douglas, her ex-husband littered his trash with condoms from a sexual relationship he was having behind her back in their own law offices. And according to other documents, he (at the time New Hampshire’s Supreme Court Chief Justice) was sending impregnated teenage girls from the youth detention center back there after the state arranged an abortion because she wouldn’t name her rapist.
Could it be that her rapist was someone in law enforcement, in fact? David Meehan, I believe, is the plaintiff from YDC who went on video camera to say that he was sodomized by a police officer before going to YDC. And from my research, it would appear that David Vicinanzo, Gordon MacDonald’s former partner at Nixon Peabody, was not happy that a reference to sexual abuse by a police officer was made by his client. Why not? What’s David Vicinanzo’s interest in covering up sex abuse by police officers? Why is the NHCADSV so silent about all of this?
In 2015 or so, Senator & former AG Kelly Ayotte’s aide was caught in a sex trafficking/prostitution ring which she claimed to know nothing about. I find that hard to believe. I am also staggered that the NH Bar took no action to investigate further. Again, NHCADSV was silent.
Is it not appropriate, given the below, for a probe into the involvement of members of the court, police, and other agencies in prostitution, sex trafficking, child trafficking, and child abuse?
Gordon MacDonald, I believe, blamed “victim negligence” to defend the state for child sex abuse at YDC. He also argued to block the release of files of corrupt police officers, and his deputy, Geoffrey Ward, deleted the files of 28 or so with no explanation. Are they hiding sex abuse of minors by police officers or prostitution among their own?
Something is wildly wrong with New Hampshire’s courts and the collusion and cover-ups between AGs office, police, DCYF, and NHCADSV. There have been too many cover-ups for this to go on ignored.
Why is it that someone called Niko Roswell on Instagram under the tag @itsabouttogetloud is stating that his mother, Armida Geiger, a senior administrative assistant at UNH (which receives millions to address, prevent, and research child and sex abuse) and a member of the nonprofit Womenade, was involved in sex trafficking him (Nicholas Huppe at the time) and other boys in Rochester New Hampshire to priests and his grandfather, a decorated marine? He also claims he was sexually abused by his father- a police officer in Rochester. According to his Instagram, his mother worked for the Diocese of Manchester as the Secretary at St. Mary’s Church in Rochester, New Hampshire, and she owned a children’s school. If what Niko Roswell says is true, then he is Victim A of New Hampshire Family Court Corruption, Priest Child Sex Abuse, and Law Enforcement Child Sex Abuse.
How peculiar that Concord police detective Julie Curtin has been hired by Shaheen and Gordon and the Diocese to investigate him? Is she the detective that is hired to protect the exposure of sex rings involving friends of the court, police, and Gordon MacDonald? She has been MacDonald’s lackey to get files without warrants from St Paul’s School, and she has been complicit in an extortion racket, falsification of evidence, witness tampering, and shouldn’t be allowed near any investigation at all. She’s dishonest, and if you doubt my word, then read the trial record of New Hampshire v Owen Labrie and the SANE nurse’s rebuttal of Julie Curtin’s claims about her rape kit report or the State Lab Technician’s testimony about DNA which did not belong to Owen Labrie. And if you read Chessy Prout’s memoir, you might come to the conclusion that Julie Curtin is a child trafficker.
Julie Curtin worked for Gordon MacDonald to investigate St Paul’s school (which included making unsolicited cold calls to anybody she could find to be a victim, to train them for intercept calls (trained by NHCADSV) to wealthy targets after she’d obtained confidential student files without a warrant). And miraculously, there were no criminal proceedings, but there was a lot of money passing hands. I know because I was contacted by one such wealthy target of hers who could hear her training the “victim” she’d solicited on the other end of the line.
All she, Gordon MacDonald, Jane Young, the NHCADSV, Chuck Douglas, Shaheen & Gordon, and co were really interested in was extorting St Paul’s and protecting the crimes committed by their friends, children of their friends, or people whose families were useful to them. Making crooked deals doesn’t protect anyone. In fact, it creates an extremely dangerous environment. Let’s not forget the letter that Gordon MacDonald’s office sent to the publishers of Lacy Crawford’s memoir “Notes on a Silencing” about the inclusion of chapters regarding Julie Curtin. Let’s also not forget Julie Curtin’s admission to Lacy Crawford about secret deals between attorneys going on in her case or the fact that the attorney partner who organized a deal had recently received an award as attorney of the year. It’s sick.
Like so many other instances involving New Hampshire’s courts, police, DCYF, and co, there is a game of pass the buck, smoke and mirrors, hiding of files, and stonewalling when the public inquires. It effectively renders the courts untrustworthy, useless, a waste of public money, and a criminal sex, drug, and child trafficking cartel.
However, law enforcement and the judiciary are paid for by the people and are required to render services for the people – not for the police, priests, school administrators, or certain families with whom they have special relationships. The public does not pay for children to be manipulated, bullied, lied to, sexually abused, drugged up, force-fed scripts, or silenced by police, administrators, DCYF, or the courts.
The below email leads me to believe that members of the NH courts and police were involved in a sex ring. Is Julie Curtin a tool for the courts, Diocese, UNH, police, DCYF, and Shaheen & Gordon to hide that and other crimes, such as drug trafficking and money laundering involving their favored few?
The post Are NH Courts Involved in Hiding Sex Trafficking, Sex Abuse by Their Own? appeared first on Granite Grok.
The Democrats have created a new reason to allow 16-year-old children to vote. If these young people can have gender reassignment, then they must be mature enough to vote. With that warped logic, why stop at 16? Let’s go for it all and shoot for any school-age child. Sound foolish, not in the WOKE world of Democrats.
They claim they are doing this to expand Democracy, but we know this is a power grab for votes.
Representative Grace Meng (D-NY) reintroduced the bill, with the support of Adam Schiff and Sandy Cortez, to lower the voting age to 16, claiming that 16 and 17-year-olds are legally able to work, drive, and pay federal taxes and should therefore have the right to vote. This is hollow logic. I harken back to my high school years when the drinking age was lowered to 18. The reasoning at the time was if an 18-year-old could fight in Vietnam, then they should be able to drink alcohol. This was a disastrous and deadly decision as teenage DUI and traffic deaths escalated, and the legal drinking age was returned to 21. Just because someone of a certain age can do something legally does not correlate to a universal right to do everything.
Democrats used to rely on the support of particular groups of people such as the Jewish, Black, and Brown. Remember Joe Biden’s famous line from the 2020 election, “Well, I tell you what, if you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black.” In recent elections, they have seen the votes from these blocks moving over to the Republicans as these folks realize the loyalty for their votes were not very strong.
Democrats must expand their voting base to guarantee their future political careers, and going after the teen vote makes sense. If high school kids are already indoctrinated to believe Socialism is the correct path for our future, then these children can be programmed to vote for Democrat candidates. The Democrats will not have to work for these votes. They can let the education system do the work for them.
High school students are not socially aware enough to make political decisions, but recent studies show that holds true for most Democrats. In a recent poll, 54% of Democrats had little or no knowledge of current news events, which can be attributed to mainstream media’s lack of coverage of many events. An example is the Hunter Biden fiasco, where the major networks, CNN and MSNBC, gave it nearly zero coverage.
This attempt to lower the voting age has no chance of becoming law as long as the Republicans hold onto one of the chambers of Congress. But rest assured that should the Democrats regain the House and hold the Senate and the Oval Office, this will be one of their hottest priorities, along with statehood for Washington, DC. Maybe instead of patronizing this age group for their votes, Democrats should urge the teacher’s union to educate them and get their academic scores back up to pre-Covid levels. That would be a more challenging task but more beneficial for these young people and the country.
The post Dems Push For The Kiddie Vote, Again appeared first on Granite Grok.
Many in the developed world -not t blinkered by “Social Justice” – have called the movement of millions of Muslim youths (families being a much smaller percentage, just like at our Southern border) “The Clash of Civilizations.” An invasion by non-military means. We were called stupid for doing so by those that we then called “Western Civilization Self-Loathers.”
I watched as the European Government leaders put those “asylum seekers,” many of whom became welfare squatters instead of the “new citizens” they were expecting to make up for their real Citizens’ crashing birth rates.
And guess what? We were right all along.
The Muslims aren’t there for a better life – it is a takeover of the country – and they are there now, sparked in a manner similar to how George Floyd’s death launched the Black Lives Matter movement.
A Muslim man gave a shocking answer amid ongoing rioting in France in a now-viral man-on-the-street interview, telling a reporter it’s now their “turn” to colonize a nation they deem racist.
Thousands have rioted since June 27, when a police officer shot and killed a 17-year-old who investigators say refused to stop for police.
And this “nice boy” had an existing rap sheet to boot. Just like George Floyd, but just like the “Hands Up” co-opters, had another agenda in mind – take down our system here in the US and now it’s being replayed in France under another pretext that doesn’t hold much water except as a man-made flash point.
Muslim immigrants, as well as critics around the world including the U.N., have blamed the riots on “institutional racism” in France.
Yeah, Critical Race Theory went international. ALL Whites, ALL Europeans, and those of European descent are ALWAYS Racists. Balderdash – as we saw with BLM, it is always nothing but a scam that helped the self-avowed Marxists at the top “get theirs” with millions of bribes donations from corporations intentionally mismanaged and ending up in the pockets of very few. The true believers and foot soldiers got bubkis.
Most “migrating to a better life” Muslims in European countries are going to find out that will be their fate in life as well: cannon fodder for those at their top.
And someone finally said what we suspected all along – this is a play for REVENGE, just like BLM was here in the US:
With Marseille, France being recently filled with riots for nearly a week following a fatal police shooting of a Muslim teenager, Ezra went and spoke to members of the Muslim community.
FULL REPORT by @EzraLevant: https://t.co/DYWA6Y4bwM pic.twitter.com/wy0IgCxlR3
— Rebel News (@RebelNewsOnline) July 7, 2023
Sure thing with that “Religion of Peace” there, Baghdad Bob. Right up there with “mostly peaceful” by our media (with building burning in the background) during the BLM and Antifa riots that caused over $2 Billion in damages and killed many.
And we’re seeing the same thing here in the US under the Obama and now Biden Administrations – illegal aliens are given more stuff and privileges than we, who have to pay their freight for being here illegally. Consider it reparations by other means to atone for the Left’s self-loathing and guilt.
Certainly, nothing less and probably a whole lot more. If it is happening there, it will start happening here soon. Remember, “Islam” translates as “submit.”
HT | Daily Wire
The post A Muslim in France Says the Quiet Part Out Loud – “Colonization” appeared first on Granite Grok.
Recently, I saw someone complaining that the Biden administration’s attempts to suppress free speech on social media are inconsistent with promises that Biden made to ‘bring decency and morality’ back to government.
But wait — isn’t it widely accepted that the way to promote decency and morality is to suppress indecency and immorality?
Isn’t that the goal of progressive administrations when they try to curate speech? To keep people from saying things that are indecent (for example, that you ought to be able to own an AR-15) or immoral (for example, that maybe not everyone should get vaccinated)? So that the rest of us can be ‘protected’ from exposure to people with such horrid beliefs?
And isn’t that also the goal of conservative administrations when they try to curate behavior? To keep people from doing things that are indecent (like using recreational drugs) or immoral (like paying for sex)? So that the rest of us can be ‘protected’ from exposure to people with such horrid beliefs?
The cause of all the fuss seems to be that progressives and conservatives agree on the need to suppress indecency and immorality. They disagree only on what constitutes decency and morality.
So when either group gets into power, it tries to force its views on the other group. And when either group gets out of power, it complains about having the other group’s views forced on it.
Probably the most important ‘constitutional principle’ that people tend to forget is that — as Ron Paul pointed out — you can’t give up less than 100 percent of a right. How many conservatives who are now complaining about government censorship would be willing to agree with Hugo Black?
Without deviation, without exception, without any ifs, buts, or whereases, freedom of speech means that you shall not do something to people either for the views they express, or the words they speak or write.
In my experience, most people — including most conservatives — agree in principle with Joe Biden when he says that ‘no rights are absolute.’ They just differ in which exceptions to allow. Which means they have to resort to politics to fight over those exceptions.
As with global nuclear war, the only way to win that game is to stop playing it — to stop thinking of rights as causing problems, and start thinking of them as having consequences:
https://granitegrok.com/blog/2021/03/problem-or-consequence
https://granitegrok.com/blog/2022/05/consequences-are-not-problems
The former view leads to one-size-fits-none government solutions.
The latter view leads to infinitely-customizable individual responses. (It’s also consistent with the idea that governments are formed to protect rights and derive their just powers from the consent of the governed — an idea that, for more than 160 years, GOP platforms have said that the party exists to protect.)
What progressives and conservatives both need to learn is that the best way to get what you want is give up the idea that in order to get it, you have to force everyone else to go along with you:
https://granitegrok.com/blog/2019/03/the-js-have-it
Democrats could have a single-payer health care system for Democrats next year… if they would just leave non-Democrats out of it:
https://granitegrok.com/blog/2019/03/the-single-payer-party
Republicans could have a system that punishes Republicans, but not anyone else, for failing to live up to their own religious principles… if they would just leave non-Republicans out of it:
https://granitegrok.com/blog/2019/03/the-voluntary-exclusion-party
And everyone else could take advantage of what Justice Brandeis called the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men: the right to be let alone.
As Jesus said, before worrying about the mote in your brother’s eye, remove the beam from your own.
The post Point That Finger in the Mirror appeared first on Granite Grok.
Like the [il]Liberal movement itself, it is narcissistic and shallow. Just like Critical Race Theory, transgenderism is skin deep – externalities only. What Walsh points out, and many of us understand, is transgenderism only treats the outward physical manifestations of another sex by those suffering from gender dysphoria (or those swept up the social contagion affecting many pre-teens and teens (and Moms with Munchausen Syndrome by proxy that states their two-year-old toddler understands what sex is and it isn’t what it observably is).
There is that saying that we men have no idea what women are or want. No, not in the way that Walsh’s now infamous (and HATED by the Left every time we on the Right ask it) “What is a Woman?”. He’s a hater, I’m a hater, you can be a hater, too, if you ask it – and demand an answer (Thank you, SCOTUS Justice and Harvard grad Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, for forever making it clear that the Left can’t define what a woman is – the phrase of unending and very deserving comedy).
But Walsh points out what almost all men (unless you are a Beta male, a simpering male feminist or the run of the mill Leftist) intuitively know – unless you’ve trudged miles upon miles in our shoes, you cannot know the burden that we have that women don’t (and he points out wonderfully, the reverse is true as well). He starts out with a clip from Libs of TikTok that we had previously used on GraniteGrok (Me? Steve?) where the transman James laments that being a man is just plain lonely:
This is really sad. Trans man realizes how hard it is to be a man when you’re really a woman.
Males and females are different and no matter what you do to your body, you can’t be the opposite sex. pic.twitter.com/Ib2in2vJrb
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) June 10, 2023
While I put Walsh’s email below for context (I’m on his distro list), here are the important bits (reformatted, emphasis mine):
Here’s what we’re witnessing in this video. A woman was driven, by her own self-loathing and confusion, to reject her womanhood and attempt to become a man. She did not succeed in this pursuit, and never will, but through the help of drugs and surgery, she has managed to create a semi-convincing costume of a man. It is convincing enough, apparently, that most people she encounters reflexively accept and see her as a man. She had imagined that being seen as a man would be a great relief for her, a source of peace and freedom, but instead she has found that manhood is not the utopian fantasyland she imagined it would be. Men in the modern world are, as she has discovered, often deeply isolated, alienated, and alone. It is lonely to be a man, she says. And she’s right.
She did not know this before she set out on the fool’s errand of transitioning, but she has now discovered that men carry a heavy burden, a cross that is invisible to many women. Now she finds herself shouldering just a portion of it, and it has broken her. She wanted to be a man, but was not prepared for what that meant. How could she be? She wasn’t a man and therefore could not have possibly known what it was like to be one.
She still doesn’t know.
Of course, she doesn’t, as she fell for the Left’s belief that we are all just mere interchangeable cogs in their Social Machine. They believe, just like chess pieces, that we can be moved at their command, hither and thither, to further develop THEIR future utopia (at our disruption) via creating chaos. And in this case, how much more chaos can the Left create in greasing the skids by which a person loses all footing on their reality except the skin-deep changes only available by taking drugs (which should be a cautionary tale for other drug decriminalization efforts by the Left and silly Libertarians).
We’re not interchangeable – ALL of us are unique and not just physically, but Walsh covers that as well:
She says that women are deeper and more emotionally mature, which is why it is much less lonely to be a woman. But that isn’t true. Women aren’t deeper or more mature. They are just different. They are women. They are more relational by nature, more empathetic, more affectionate, more emotional, softer in many ways. Women are more fragile; it is easier to hurt them physically and emotionally.
This all can be a source of frustration for us as men, but it’s also what we love about women. We love women because women are women. They are not us. They are different. They have a different way of being, of existing in the universe. They bring another dimension into our lives, and we sense that we need that dimension to be truly whole.
A healthy man doesn’t want to be a woman; he doesn’t want to adopt her ways and her manner of thinking, much less her body but he does want to be with a woman. He wants not to become her, but to be united with her.
I can say this about the inner life of a man because I am one. “James” misses all of this because she isn’t. Instead she surmises that we are simply shallow and emotionally immature. Which is exactly the kind of patronizing, contemptuous anti-male cliche that contributes to the isolation and loneliness that she’s complaining about. It may be true of some men on an individual basis, but generally speaking it is not a lack of depth that causes men to be quieter, more stoic, more reserved, or more distant. It is not even the intentional alienation and marginalization of an aggressively anti-male, masculinity-hating culture, though that is part of the story.
Some of what “James” is tapping into, or at least for the first time noticing, has been an immutable aspect of manhood for as long as the human species has existed. There is indeed more to being a man than simply having male reproductive organs and chromosomes. There is also the actual experience of being a man; the inner life of a man; which runs much deeper than “James” understands, even now. A man tends to be more in tune with the harshest aspects of reality. He is uniquely called to confront the darkness in the world, and uniquely equipped for this calling. It’s not that we don’t feel anything. We do feel, and feel with great depth, but we carry those feelings differently, and often we carry them in silence, alone. This is how we are wired, and the world needs us to be wired this way. Women are also more oriented towards community. They build and depend upon relationships. Men are more solitary by nature. Again, these differences are hardwired.
When we say that men shouldn’t cry, it is not just a joke. There’s an important truth here. The world needs men to pick up their burdens, shoulder them quietly, and get on with business. The more that men become emotional and soft, the more that society ceases to function as it should. We need emotion and softness. That’s why we have women. We also need toughness and hardness. That’s why we’re supposed to have men. The men who fulfill this duty are accused of being unfeeling, of lacking depth, but the truth is that they have a depth that people like James can’t even begin to comprehend. And she probably never will. She has accessed only the surface level of the male experience, and she’s already fleeing for the hills. If she ever got the entire thing; I mean if she was actually able to fully inhabit the mind, the inner life, of a man, it would be torture for her. As it would be for any woman. That’s because women are not meant to carry the burden of manhood, any more than men are meant to carry the burden of womanhood. We are where we belong. Which is the identity we were born with. We cannot comprehend what it’s really like to have any other identity.
He’s right. Absolutely right. We are different, but starting with the now toxic Feminist movement that wishes to banish maleness altogether because they don’t realize the truth that Walsh brings, they simply dismiss that role with “toxic masculinity”.
What those “like a fish needs a bicycle” harridans don’t understand is that THEY are a big part of this problem. They changed the culture by attempting (and in large part, succeeding) to cut men out of the Culture completely. Let’s face it, even as females are glorified, have higher graduation rates in high school and college and are taking the majority of degrees, men are ALWAYS considered to be selfish rapists and layabouts. And DANGEROUS.
You know, its rather serious – the Left is always saying how rotten and DANGEROUS and unequal America is – yet people still want to come here.
If men are so rotten, why is it that women still want to become men?
After all, we’re just not all that privileged anymore, even as we, as husbands, providers, and protectors, still uplift our wives – who ARE women. And after 42 years of marriage, like the insurance company ad, I think I know a thing or two about that – but maybe only a coupla things when I have to admit it. After all, ALL real men still don’t understand their wives completely – and that’s fine as they don’t completely understand us as well.
That’s why we’ve been made to be complementary and not just some cog in a Leftist dissonant Utopia.
Why Women Will Never Know What It???s Like To Be A Man
Anyone who has seen “What is a Woman?” and millions of people have now knows that at the end we do provide an answer to the elusive question. My wife makes an appearance in the very last scene (spoiler) and delivers the correct biologically-sound definition: a woman is an adult human female. That answer is simple and accurate and obviously necessary to establish. But once it has been established, there is plenty more to say about the subject. “What is a Woman” both the question and the film that revolves around it, are meant to be the beginning of a discussion, not the end. A woman is an adult human female ; every woman is that, and must be that but there is so much more to womanhood than its basic biological definition. Just as a man is an adult human male, every man is that, and must be that.
This is a point made, rather accidentally, by a viral Twitter clip featuring a female who, some time ago, changed her name to “James” and attempted to transition into a man. James now calls herself “the trans coach” and offers life advice and motivational tips for other trans people. Yet in a recent video James revealed that she still has a lot to learn about the male identity she is attempting to assume.
What you???re about to watch is truly one of the saddest things you’ve likely seen in a while, but also quite profound in a few different ways. I???ll explain, but first watch:
Now, there’s a lot in that two-minute monologue that’s simply wrong, starting with her calling herself a man, of course but even the wrong parts reveal something essential, if accidentally, about manhood, about trans ideology, and about our culture.
Here’s what we’re witnessing in this video. A woman was driven, by her own self-loathing and confusion, to reject her womanhood and attempt to become a man. She did not succeed in this pursuit, and never will, but through the help of drugs and surgery, she has managed to create a semi-convincing costume of a man. It is convincing enough, apparently, that most people she encounters reflexively accept and see her as a man. She had imagined that being seen as a man would be a great relief for her, a source of peace and freedom, but instead she has found that manhood is not the utopian fantasyland she imagined it would be. Men in the modern world are, as she has discovered, often deeply isolated, alienated, and alone. It is lonely to be a man, she says. And she’s right.
She did not know this before she set out on the fool’s errand of transitioning, but she has now discovered that men carry a heavy burden, a cross that is invisible to many women. Now she finds herself shouldering just a portion of it, and it has broken her. She wanted to be a man, but was not prepared for what that meant. How could she be? She wasn’t a man and therefore could not have possibly known what it was like to be one.
She still doesn’t know.
She says that women are deeper and more emotionally mature, which is why it is much less lonely to be a woman. But that isn’t true. Women aren’t deeper or more mature. They are just different. They are women. They are more relational by nature, more empathetic, more affectionate, more emotional, softer in many ways. Women are more fragile, it is easier to hurt them physically and emotionally.
This all can be a source of frustration for us as men, but it’s also what we love about women. We love women because women are women. They are not us. They are different. They have a different way of being, of existing in the universe. They bring another dimension into our lives, and we sense that we need that dimension to be truly whole.
A healthy man doesn’t want to be a woman, he doesn’t want to adopt her ways and her manner of thinking, much less her body but he does want to be with a woman. He wants not to become her, but to be united with her.
I can say this about the inner life of a man because I am one. “James” misses all of this because she isn’t. Instead she surmises that we are simply shallow and emotionally immature. Which is exactly the kind of patronizing, contemptuous anti-male cliche that contributes to the isolation and loneliness that she’s complaining about. It may be true of some men on an individual basis, but generally speaking it is not a lack of depth that causes men to be quieter, more stoic, more reserved, or more distant. It is not even the intentional alienation and marginalization of an aggressively anti-male, masculinity-hating culture, though that is part of the story.
Some of what “James” is tapping into, or at least for the first time noticing, has been an immutable aspect of manhood for as long as the human species has existed. There is indeed more to being a man than simply having male reproductive organs and chromosomes. There is also the actual experience of being a man, the inner life of a man, which runs much deeper than “James” understands, even now. A man tends to be more in tune with the harshest aspects of reality. He is uniquely called to confront the darkness in the world, and uniquely equipped for this calling. It’s not that we don’t feel anything. We do feel, and feel with great depth, but we carry those feelings differently, and often we carry them in silence, alone. This is how we are wired, and the world needs us to be wired this way. Women are also more oriented towards community. They build and depend upon relationships. Men are more solitary by nature. Again, these differences are hardwired.
When we say that men shouldn’t cry, it is not just a joke. There’s an important truth here. The world needs men to pick up their burdens, shoulder them quietly, and get on with business. The more that men become emotional and soft, the more that society ceases to function as it should. We need emotion and softness. That’s why we have women. We also need toughness and hardness. That’s why we’re supposed to have men. The men who fulfill this duty are accused of being unfeeling, of lacking depth, but the truth is that they have a depth that people like “James” can’t even begin to comprehend. And she probably never will. She has accessed only the surface level of the male experience, and she’s already fleeing for the hills. If she ever got the entire thing ? I mean if she was actually able to fully inhabit the mind, the inner life, of a man, it would be torture for her. As it would be for any woman. That’s because women are not meant to carry the burden of manhood, any more than men are meant to carry the burden of womanhood. We are where we belong. Which is the identity we were born with. We cannot comprehend what it’s really like to have any other identity.
As for “James”, she will not allow herself to comprehend anything. She gets close to partially understanding, but then she makes a left turn and runs away. That’s why at the end she makes sure to clarify that women and allegedly marginalized minorities are still totally justified in treating “cisgender” white males like dirt. She was nearly on the verge of discovering that we are human beings, that we have feelings, that we suffer, but her ideology won’t allow her to finish connecting the dots.
It’s all futile. Just like her transition. It amounts to nothing in the end.
The post Matt Walsh Goes to the Very Heart of Transgenderism – And Defines It’s Superficiality appeared first on Granite Grok.
The “leaders” of the NH-House GOP apparently believe that the voters in New Hampshire are Koch-bots, that their most important issue is cutting business taxes. Stated slightly differently, it’s as if the goal of these “leaders” is not winning elections and gaining actual voting-control of the House, but rather getting a pat on the head and an attaboy from the local Koch organization.
It’s really not that complicated. Any voter who thinks cutting business taxes is the most important issue is already going to vote for the candidate with the “R” after his name. The best that focusing on cutting business taxes is going to achieve with the rest of voters … the vast, vast majority of voters … is NOTHING, and more likely will alienate voters being crushed by high local property taxes and who have seen the NHGOP fail to deliver real wins … not paper wins … on CRT and DEI.
So this is what inspired this post:
It’s also worth mentioning that the NH-House GOP leaders are speaking the language of the Democrats and the GOP-elite. Taxes are NOT “revenues.” Taxpayers, whether they are businesses or humans, are forced to pay taxes. There is no choice. Taxes are TAXES.
Essentially what the NH-House GOP leaders are telling voters is that they intend to, yet again, do absolutely NOTHING about stratospheric local school taxes (such as a HARD cap), because what really matters to them is getting a pat on the head and an attaboy from Koch-world.
The post NH-House GOP … So Totally Out Of Touch … Which Is Why They’ll Be A Numerical Minority Come 2024 appeared first on Granite Grok.
We’ve made sport of Ben & Jerry’s for years, with this past week’s foolishness offering up a cornucopia of opportunities for ridicule. In classic commie fashion, Limousine Libs Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield suggested “America” give back stolen land, just not their stolen land.
B&J no longer own the company, but they get to run a board of directors who cough up progressive hairballs on the brand’s social accounts and pretend it is social justice advocacy. The anti-Jewish Jews took July 4 as an opportunity to show more ignorance than usual. They’ve since been mocked and boycotted, their parent company has lost two billion in market share in just a few days, and now an Abenaki chief has added to the merriment.
Don Stevens, chief of the Nulhegan Band of The Coosuk Abenaki Nation, which is descended from the nation that once controlled parts of modern-day Vermont, told Newsweek in a recent interview that the nation has always been “interested in reclaiming the stewardship of our lands.” …
However, the chief told Newsweek that, despite the ice cream company’s virtue signaling, the tribe “has not been approached in regards to any land back opportunities from Ben & Jerry’s.”
That’s the thing about virtue signaling. That’s all it is. No one in Ben & Jerry’s social justice star chamber is giving up their land, transportation options, or security if they have it. But they feel very deeply about someone else sacrificing in the name of their crusade. It is the social justice equivalent of the Mullahs that preach radicalism; put on this bomb vest and blow something up in the name of Allah while we watch.
The 2020 Summer of Love BLM riots were a great example of this. Mostly peaceful protesters burned out black-owned businesses terrorizing the locals. White liberals demanded we all donate to what turned out to be cash-for mansions for anti-Semites triad. Local Dems sacrificed local police forces to this false god, and the black community was further harmed and continues to suffer. The only Black Lives that Mattered were its board members who got rich on corporate donations.
Cohen and Greenfield are cut from the same progressive cloth. Their ideological agenda would inevitably reduce everyone else into wage slaves at the bottom of a two-class one-party state.
They aren’t giving up their homes or offices. No one on the left is returning anything to anyone. All they do is take, but kudos to Newsweek and Don Stevens for poking them in their ideologically cataract-covered eyes.
“[T]he tribe ‘has not been approached in regards to any land back opportunities from Ben & Jerry’s.'”
Brilliant.
The post Abenaki Chief “Interested in Reclaiming” Stolen Land™ Where Ben & Jerry’s Built Their Corporate Headquarters appeared first on Granite Grok.
People are, with good reason, afraid to let Joe Biden continue in office, given some of the things that come out of his mouth when he goes off script. But here are a couple of recent quotations from his vice president, Kamala Harris.
1) “Culture is — it is a reflection of our moment in our time, right? And in present culture is the way we express how we’re feeling about the moment. And we should always find times to express how we feel about the moment that is a reflection of joy, because as you know, it comes in the morning. We have to find ways to also express the way we feel about the moment in terms of just having language and a connection to how people are experiencing life. And I think about it in that way too.”
2) “So, I think it’s very important, as you have heard from so many incredible leaders, for us at every moment in time — and certainly this one — to see the moment in time in which we exist and are present, and to be able to contextualize it, to understand where we exist in the history and in the moment as it relates not only to the past but the future.”
It’s possible that we’ve been thinking about the vice presidency in the wrong way. Maybe the main job of the Vice President is simply to make the President look good by comparison. In which case, Ms. Harris is perhaps the best Vice President ever.
The post Best Vice President Ever? appeared first on Granite Grok.
Representative Paul Tudor Rockingham 1 Northwood / Nottingham endorses Jim Guzofski in the Republican Primary Special election on August 1st, 2023.
We want to thank Rep. Paul Tudor for this Contribution – Please direct yours to Editor@GraniteGrok.com.
You can review our ‘Op-Ed Guidelines‘ on the FAQ Page.
These are particularly difficult times for New Hampshire with skyrocketing electricity prices, record inflation, and out-of-control gas and heating fuel. We have also experienced the eroding of our personal freedoms and liberties, from parental rights in education to intrusive business regulations, as we saw play out during the Covid pandemic.
There is one candidate for State Representative in Rockingham 1 Northwood Nottingham who will put the people of New Hampshire first, stop government overreach and hold the line on taxes and spending. That candidate is Jim Guzofski. As a two-term selectman in Northwood, with 34 years in the ministry, he is a conservative Republican who understands we need to bring local values to Concord and to stop the politicians from taking more control over our lives.
I’ve known Jim for several years and observed his strong conservative approach to government in Northwood. He is a minority conservative voice on the very progressive Northwood selectmen board. He’s fought hard to toe the line on taxes and return surplus money back to town residents by using it to reduce town tax rates.
Jim strongly opposes any State income or sales taxes and is a strong steward of the taxpayer’s money. Along with being a selectman, he serves as a fire department Chaplain responding to many local calls in support of our Emergency responders and Veterans. To quote Jim,” The dedication and commitment of our emergency responders is astounding. They need our total support through financial funding and prayer as they deal with life-or-death issues. Our veterans, who have already done their service for all of us, need the same type of support.”
Jim supports Freedom of speech, Freedom of religion and is a strong 2nd amendment advocate opposing any restriction to our second amendment rights.
A seasoned professional with years of public service as a pastor and select board member, Jim is the person we need to take on the Democrat candidate in September. This is a very important special election and could determine control of the house. We need every conservative New Hampshire citizen in Rockingham 1 to come out in support of the Republican agenda by voting for Jim Guzofski.
I urge you to vote for Jim Guzofski for State representative on August 1st, 2023.
Reminder: Content about candidates or by candidates is not an endorsement by GraniteGrok.com or its authors.
The post Rep. Paul Tudor Endorses Jim Guzofski in the Republican Primary Special Election on August 1st, 2023 appeared first on Granite Grok.
As you all know, our schools have gone woke, school curriculum is written by Left-leaning (to the point of being Marxists), and media will mouthpiece anything their political Masters tell them to do (not that it takes all that much urging as we all know). So when Grokster Mike made me three offers, I jumped at them all. However, these first:
From GeekPress: Physical Encyclopedia
“I just bought the only physical encyclopedia still in print, and I regret nothing”. (Via H.R.)
…A World Book rep told Quartz in 2019 that the print encyclopedia sold mostly to schools, public libraries, and homeschooling families. Today, Evans says that public and school libraries are still the company’s primary customers. “World Book has a loyal following of librarians who understand the importance of a general reference encyclopedia in print form, accessible to all.”
…The 2023 version spans 17,000 articles spread over 14,000 pages in 22 volumes. The company says it features over 25,000 photographs, illustrations, diagrams, and maps…At a time when most information comes to us for free online (with strings attached, of course), it’s easy to have sticker shock at the $1,199 retail price for the 2023 edition of World Book
and
National Geographic magazine has laid off the last of its staff writers
National Geographic, the iconic yellow framed magazine that has chronicled the natural world for more than 100 years, laid off its last remaining staff writers this week, multiple departing staffers said. The latest round of layoffs at the magazine cut 17 editorial positions, including all of the publication’s staff writers, its entire podcast staff, and a group of editors, including one who’d been on staff for nearly 40 years, a former staffer affected by the layoffs told CNN. The layoffs, which were announced to the staff in April, were part of a wave of cuts from parent company Disney, which resulted in thousands of positions being axed across the media giant.
And the rest of the story…
What you didn’t know was that some long treasured times, in my youth, were spent with my Aunt Barbara and Uncle Larry. My Mom (single parent) would drive us from Brockton down to Mattapoisett to spend the weekend with them (she was my Mom’s older sister). First thing on Friday nights is that we’d make chocolate chip cookies (and yes, they were better than Mom’s (which were pretty good in their own right)). Then I’d head down to the finished cellar and dive into into the NatGeo magazines that spanned back to the early 1900s – you know, BEFORE “woke” was something we all did in the morning and got out of bed.
Sidenote: with the above layoff notice, please note that the National Geographic Society is separate from Disney. But I’m betting they are rather steamed at how their “joint-venture” just turned out.
Hours upon hours were spend down there, just soaking all that information up about all kinds of geography, culture, history, science, habitats; those memories remain with me to this day.
So when Grokster Mike offered the collection that he and Mar-Mar had gathered up over the years (with the backstory that Mar-Mar, being the self-appointed fairy grandmother to The Grandson, had ALWAYS showered him with books of all kinds), I said yes. Dunno where I’m going to put them yet, but as he is downsizing from his digs in the southern part of the State, but I’ll find a place for them such that the Grandson (and others, including ME!) can be sponges for all that material.
And for me, to relive some of those old memories.
As to the first, Mike also offered his hardcopy encyclopedia set (back in the late last century) as well so I snatched them up as well. After all, no wokeness there and it has HISTORY in there that the Left hasn’t corrupted yet. Mike also donated a set of bookcases in which to house them all as his new (transitory?) digs don’t have room for them.
For me, these written pages are solid gold even as I spent the majority of my time online hunting for stuff to write about. They will be treasured for years.
Again, Mike – MANY THANKS! Especially for reawakening old and dormant memories of magazines and A.B. and U.L.
The post Of Old Encyclopedias (Dead Tree Ones) and National Geographic Magazines appeared first on Granite Grok.
My first question, after reading the headline “Court rejects Satanic Temple’s claim that Texas abortion ban violates ‘religious freedom,’” was, does the left want these folks playing so publicly on their team? Satanists are claiming that aborting babies is a religious right (by which they must mean rite).
[The Satanic Temple] is known for agitating against pro-life laws, sponsoring LGBT “pride” events, erecting Satanic statues on public property, and promoting “Satan clubs” on public school property, among other attention-generating antics in support of various left-wing agenda items.
What in the name of Lucifer’s cloven feet is this nonsense?
“SB 8’s ban on abortions after six weeks infringes upon our members’ rights to engage with their chosen religion and to participate in religious rites and rituals,” claimed TST Director of Campaign Operations Erin Helian. “In accordance with our Third Tenet, The Satanic Temple will push back against the Texas legislature’s violation of our members’ bodily autonomy and freedom of choice.”
Admitting that abortion is, or at least might be, a religious sacrifice could be a red-listed bridge too far, even for your average I-Stand-With-Planned-Parenthood T-shirt-wearing blue-haired trans-feminist. You say it is your body, but it is actually an altar to satan, and abortion docs are high priests performing ritual sacrifice. I feel certain they’d all be happy to claim the tax deduction (my body is a temple to satan!) but won’t this put a hitch in Big Abortion’s Gary Cooper step?
Maybe some enterprising new media reporter can ask the next time they take questions at a Press conference: and not just Big A, but ask any of their fully paid-for franchisees doing business as elected officials.
Excuse me, is abortion a religious rite (that’s R-I-T-E) protected by the first amendment?
And in related news, is it worth reminding you that Statan CON in Boston (back in April) required masks and proof of vaccination? That was amusing, but this is just hysterical.
TST is a secular-leftist group that purports to embrace Satan’s name as a “symbol of the Eternal Rebel in opposition to arbitrary authority” while not believing that God, the devil, or other supernatural concepts literally exist, but also promotes satanic rituals.
There is no God nor Satan, but they sued to protect abortion based on religious rights that, banded on their worldview, do not exist.
They are self-admitted lefties. Government is their god, as is satan. That’s an accurate description of the Democrat party if you ask me.
The post This’ll Be Fun: Satanic Group Claims Abortion Ban Violates Their Religious Freedom appeared first on Granite Grok.
I started on this kick back in the late 1990s as I became more politically aware and conscious of how politicians were always on the hunt for my wallet – and there’s nothing wrong with my sense of self-interest in protecting that private property.
My voice got louder once elected to my hamlet’s budget committee when the Town and School Board kept saying, “But it’s Free Money.” All kinds of grants that I asked about and later found were an on-ramp for the Town and School District to spend OUR money – “They’ll pay for one cop and two firemen now, but we must keep them on the payroll and pay all of it after the initial three years.”
It’s the same story with our “sidewalk to nowhere,” for which a six-grade class’s students got a grant. Nothing ever financially ratchets downward – NOTHING.
And thus, we get into this situation:
The problem isn’t purely a function of more debt. The bigger issue is that this new debt comes with a much steeper price tag. Interest on the national debt is rising at an alarming clip. The trailing 12-month (TTM) interest on the debt clocked in at just under $600 billion in May. This was up from $350 billion at the start of 2022, less than 18 months ago. The government has added an extra $250 billion in expenses per year on just debt service.
This is just the beginning of an upward trend. Based on the current interest payments, the Treasury is paying less than 2% interest on the total debt. But a lot of the debt currently on the books was financed at very low rates before the Federal Reserve started its hiking cycle. Every month, some of that super-low-yielding paper matures and has to be replaced by bills, notes and bonds yielding much higher rates. That means interest payments will quickly climb much higher unless rates fall.
Looking at the Treasury sale on June 26 reveals the extent of the problem. The Treasury sold $162 billion in securities, with $120 billion in short-term Treasury bills with high yields.
- $58 billion in six-month bills at an investment yield of 5.45%
- $62 billion in three-month bills at an investment yield of 5.34%.
- $42 billion in two-year notes at a high yield of 4.67%, amid very strong demand. Longer-term yields are still far below short-term yields.
For comparison, the entire US military budget is $858 billion. If interest rates continue to rise, that National Debt Interest is going to soar and can very easily take over most of the Federal budget quickly (go ahead, do the compute exercise if rates go up 3% or 4% over the next few months.
The question then becomes, WHO is going to take the haircut financially? And when that happens, WHO and HOW will be blame apportioned and met out? I would like #HeadsOnPikes for any politician that voted for the policies that led us up to this point. Starting with our own Federal Democrat coven of financial witches…but I’m not averse to going back in time for others (regardless of party affiliation) to do the required “wash, rinse, repeat”.
Will we, the electorate, finally figure out that it is our elected representatives that need to have their political heads (e.g., removal from Congress and the White House) removed?
(H/T: ZeroHedge)
Add this:
Politicians claim their bills bring us good things. Free health care! Child care! A cellphone for all!
But government isn’t Santa Claus. Government is force.
Most every law takes away a little of our money or freedom or both.
The post It’s Not like I Haven’t Been Warning People for Decades… appeared first on Granite Grok.
Yesterday, I scrabbled together a quick comment on Ben & Jerry’s ignorant indigenous Independence Day tweet, but when I saw Rob Roper’s take, mine went into the digital dustbin. I liked his more, but the fates have since blessed me with news that makes for a great follow-up.
Related: Ben & Jerry’s Says, “Hold My Bud Light!”
First, here’s the dopey tweet from Vermont’s socialist millionaires.
This 4th of July, it’s high time we recognize that the US exists on stolen Indigenous land and commit to returning it. Learn more and take action now: https://t.co/45smaBmORH pic.twitter.com/a6qp7LXUAE
— Ben & Jerry’s (@benandjerrys) July 4, 2023
Rob’s headline was prescient. Unilever, which owns Ben & Jerry’s but allows Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield to head a board that sends out stupid tweets, lost two billion in market cap since, as calls for a Bud Light Level boycott of B&Js takes root.
Unilever stock lost about $2 billion in market capitalization amid calls to boycott Ben & Jerry’s ice cream after the company posted a Fourth of July message saying the United States should hand Mount Rushmore over to Native Americans.
Shares of Unilever, the Anglo-Dutch multinational company, dropped about 0.5 percent on Friday, 0.8 percent on Thursday, and 0.5 the previous day. It’s not clear if the drop was due to the calls to boycott Ben & Jerry’s, which has been owned by Unilever since 2000.
That’s a pittance for them. A hiccup. But so was Bud’s before things got serious. We will know soon enough. Ben and Jerry not only stepped in it, they did it on Independence Day with a level of ignorance typically reserved for the corporate media. They picked Mount Rushmore and the Lakota Sioux as the first land we should give back to the indigenous people. Not the land on which sits every Ben & Jerry’s, or any retailer that sells it, or even under their own homes, but Mount Rushmore.
Corporate media-level ignorance.
We’ve written about this very claim, made by the Lakota Sioux who stole the land from the Cheyenne, and they from whomever, and so on back to the original colonization of North America 16,000 give or take years ago when it was land occupied by no one up to that point but has changed hands ever since.
Regular readers will also be familiar with my scores of pieces on the notion of indigenous people in America. There were none. If you were born here, you’re no less indigenous, and if having your property taken is the only other requirement, your government has taken some and is working diligently to steal everyone’s land. That sort of government never gives back, and that’s the same team for whom Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield play.
As for an official Ben & Jerry’s boycott, game on, stop buying it. Just understand that, like Anheuser Busch, which is owned by a foreign colonialist power, Unilever is another foreign multinational. The stock price is reflective of many influences, none of which have to do with you taking your umbrage with the Birkenstock Socialists from Vermont. And if that’s not a good enough reason, do it because of their religious devotion to left-wing talking points; from #MeToo to BDS to Reverse-Racism, they’ll ape whatever hate and ignorance the DC/Media narrative mill coughs up, even on Independence Day.
They sort of hate America and the government that made their wealth possible. You can’t take that away from them, but maybe you can put enough pressure on the brand to get Unilever to disband their social justice board and any future ability to use the brand to express their dopey ideas.
They can, after all, afford to tweet as themselves.
The post Is Ben & Jerry’s Taking a Bud-Light-Level Beating After Ignorant Independence Day Tweet? appeared first on Granite Grok.
It’s the second line:
IS SHE MENTALLY SLOW? SHE HAS TO ASK THAT? ‘It Smells Bad’: Nikki Haley Asks Whether Biden Loves Hunter More Than He Loves America.
The Bidens would sell out America for a used condom and a pack of Twinkies. Arguably they already have.
While everything that has been popping up about Biden Shakedown Inc. consist only of allegations, I would like to say that we are starting to see the “swirling the toilet bowl” phase and none of it is good. I keep thinking back to that infamous line by Biden Sr.: “if that lawyer isn’t fired, I’m taking that billion dollars home with me” (the US, not his home but I wouldn’t be surprised if a bundle here or there made it to Delaware).
But knowing what we do about Junior (that would be Hunter, if you don’t know), I would not be surprised if the Blogline of the Day held true.
(H/T: Instapundit)
Also, this from Instapundit.
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In celebration of American Independence, a Louisiana Judge blocked the Feds from colluding with Big Tech to censor Americans on social media. This was meant to stop the FBI, CIA, CDC, and others from pressuring the platforms to remove content at their discretion. Biden Inc. was not amused.
The Biden administration is appealing a court ruling sharply limiting the ability of federal officials to interact with social media companies about the content contained on their platforms.
In addition, a Justice Department official said Wednesday night that attorneys there plan to act “expeditiously” to seek a stay of the unusual injunction issued on July 4 by U.S. District Court Judge Terry Doughty in response to a lawsuit filed by Louisiana and Missouri last year. …
The Justice Department filed a notice of appeal Wednesday evening that will send Doughty’s opinion and the accompanying injunction to the New Orleans-based 5th Circuit Court of Appeals for review. That court is considered one of the most conservative federal appeals courts in the nation, but previously ruled against Doughty on a couple of disputes about demands for depositions of federal officials in the same litigation.
They won’t find much joy at the Fifth Circuit. But as Politico suggests, an order to revisit the breadth of the ban might be possible. The question turns on this. Will the Fifth Circuit view the actions of the government through big Tech proxies as censorship in violation of America’s First Amendment Rights?
The Feds infiltrated and coordinated with private companies to control what people were allowed to publish or share. Censorship rebranded as stopping misinformation or disinformation. Actions that interfered (or meddled) with election communications.
I don’t think the Feds have a leg to stand on, but like Pooh Bear used to say, you never can tell with bees Circuit Court Judges.
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54% of Americans believe that Joe Biden is doing a lousy job as President. 51% do not approve of the performance of Kamala Harris. Only 34% approve of Biden’s economic performance, and those same people support Biden’s Border policies. A mere 39% polled think Biden has a grip on foreign policy. If your child came home from school with this report card, they might find themselves without certain freedoms for a few weeks. If you were generous, you would give Joe a solid D or about the same grade he got in law school. This Presidency is a disaster and the only reason Jimmy Carter is hanging tough. He wants to ensure he loses his worst rating ever to Joseph Biden.
Two facts Biden, Harris, and Karine Jean-Pierre fall back on when discussing the economy are job and pay growth. Both need asterisks and disclaimers. The 13 million new jobs include the 12 million lost during the Pandemic. You cannot claim new job creation when people return to their pre-COVID positions. When inflation falls back to Earth from a nearly double-digit high, the modest rise in hourly rates is not keeping pace with inflation. Much of the rate increase comes from continued jumps in the minimum wage. These minimum wage increases harm small business owners the most, resulting in rising costs or businesses closing. These added costs add to inflation, and the lousy cycle continues. This is life in the real world, and why nobody is buying into Bidenomics.
Biden went to South Carolina this week to promote Bidenomics. South Carolina is one of the booming Southern states pulling people and businesses from the Northeast and West. There is a boom in states like Texas, Tennessee, Arizona, Florida, and the Carolinas because they are more attractive for many reasons. The crime rates are lower, some of these states have no state income tax, real estate is more affordable, and many are right to work, meaning less union control. This migration is because of forces due to us being a Republic. States can create their economic environment and attract people from other states. Biden does not understand these forces and claims to be the reason for the economic boom. This is simply not true. The boom in these states is despite, not because of, Federal policies. That was not enough for Biden, who had to go even further in his lie. He claimed his policies were better for Red states than Blue states. He was okay with these results because he is President for all Americans, Red or Blue. Even going into his patented whisper, nobody buys what Biden is serving. Bidenomics will be more of a liability than a benefit for Biden in 2024.
Biden and Harris cannot deliver the message, which is why their approval ratings are falling. Bidenomics may have worked for Biden’s Dad, but it does not work for America. Biden claims he is for the middle and lower classes, but if he keeps penalizing the upper class, there will be no growth, and we will continue to be a service, not a production, economy.
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