We learned that Republican attendance still put them in the minority today as compared to the Democrat caucus. With 8 Republican members out, and 4 on the Dem side, it put the numbers around 191D-187R in the morning and hovering around 188D-182R later in the day. It is the reason some nanny state bills passed today.

We learned that SB14, the game camera bill, passed on the consent calendar. On the surface, this is good news as this bill would prohibit someone from putting a game camera on your property without your permission. However, there was some other language tacked onto this bill by the Criminal Justice Committee though: HB473 which would reduce the penalty for a first time drug offender, on a simple personal use amount, drug possession charge from a felony to a misdemeanor. That language was ITL’d by the Senate already and they are likely to kill this bill now with this additional language. This is why the Senate has tucked the game camera language into another House bill (HB221). There are clearly “bill games” afoot between the Senate and the House.

We learned that SB70 passed on a voice vote, which allows for the establishment of an online election information portal. This will allow people to register to vote online and request absentee ballots. Estimated costs to build the portal is $477,000 plus $268,000 per year to maintain thereafter. It also takes “Help America Vote Act” money and puts it towards the purchase of new voting machines for municipalities. I wonder when they will enact a “Stop Voter Fraud Act” to combat the shenanigans that will likely happen when people register to vote, or request absentee ballots, from home or other “remote location”.

We learned that it took us 2 hours to vote on 5 bills before lunchtime, with an hour of time taken up exclusively talking trash with SB61. This is a bill which would direct DES to hire a 3rd party to do some technical analysis to assist DES to develop new and improved landfill siting rules within a 2 year period. No new landfill permits will be granted during that time. The committee amendment passed 312-61, and a more stringent version of the committee amendment died 152-226. In the end, the amended bill passed 236-132, and now goes back to the Senate with its changes. The Senate may decide to kill this bill since they have tucked the original Senate language of SB61 into yet another bill (HB211 – an energy bill). As I said, Senate “bill games” are afoot.

We learned that because the Democrats held a majority, they pulled SB149 off the table and passed it with a roll call vote of 191-187. This was a bill regarding nurse agencies and establishes a licensing and application procedure for them. Nurse agencies are used by our county nursing homes to fill nursing positions that are needed. As usual, more regulation will be put in place in NH by Democrats.

We learned that after lunch the House concurred with the Senate version of HB1 (the budget bill) with a 351-25 vote. HB2 (the trailer bill which directs how the budget is spent) met with some resistance. There was a motion to Table HB2, which failed 44-334. That was followed by a motion to Concur with the Senate. The resulting roll-called vote to Concur was 326-53. Interestingly enough as soon as the vote was concluded, the sun came out. It must be because the House made history by concurring with the Senate changes (by quite a large margin), and not going to a committee of conference. House Majority Leader Jason Osborne (R-Auburn) said that the House and Senate delivered a fiscally responsible spending plan that meets the needs of our state and addresses many of our top priorities, without raising taxes. Contents of the budget included reforms to the emergency powers statute, a 7 year sunset for the Granite Advantage Healthcare Program, and fully repealed our state income tax (the interest and dividends tax) at the end of the biennium.  There was also more money for education too.

We learned that SB204 passed by voice vote and will require that all state-occupied buildings (including liquor stores) have trauma kits and allocate $50,000 to purchase and distribute them.

We learned that SB110 passed with a 190-180 vote, and creates a better definition of “residency” for use by municipal welfare purposes and for hospitals, correctional facilities, treatment program centers, and emergency shelters including motels paid for by service providers. It basically clarifies residency status of transient individuals for purposes of determining responsibility for local assistance.

We learned that all 188 Democrats and 15 Republicans voted to Table SB132. That bill would have prohibited cities from adopting sanctuary city policies. The Table vote was roll called 203-168. The bill mirrored federal law by prohibiting the creation of policies, ordinances, etc., that restrict, limit, or prohibit state or local law enforcement from protecting and serving their communities. The bill reinforces the law enforcement’s ability to communicate with immigration officials on illegal immigration matters.

We learned that SB94, relative to residential child care licensing, passed 329-34. This bill updates the current statutes regarding definitions and licensing renewals requirements for child care providers.

We learned that SB118, requiring children under the age of 2 years to be restrained in a motor vehicle, passed 192-173. It requires parents place their 2 year old (and under) in a rear facing child seat. This was a nanny state bill which has been heard before in the House. In prior years we had enough Republican votes to kill it. Not so much today.

We learned that another nanny state bill passed in a roll called vote: 186-179. That bill was SB256 which requires OHRV operators to complete a safety certification program, even if you’ve driven one for years. However, if you were born before Jan 1, 1978 then you are exempt from such certification. The law would be phased in starting July 1, 2024. Rep. Ted Gorski (R-Bedford) said that with bills like this, NH is fast becoming the “No Fun State”.

We learned that CACR9 – a constitutional amendment providing that the NH primary be the First In The Nation was Tabled via a voice vote. That’s actually a good thing… as this isn’t something that belongs in our NH Constitution anyway.

Finally, as we roll into “Committees of Conference” Season, we’re going to see more “bill games” being played between the House and Senate. Let’s just hope and pray that what comes out of it actually benefits Granite Staters.  Oh, and lest I forget… Governor vetoes… what will he veto?

The post So Kids, What Did We Learn From This Week’s House Session (06/08/23)? appeared first on Granite Grok.

Love Always Wins? Does it? It’s a slogan North Country Pride flies on their flags, but later this week, when Emoji Nightmare comes to Lancaster, the opposite is true. It’s hate they are bringing in, dressed up, and pretending to be something else entirely.

We want to thank Katherine Prudhomme O’Brien for this Contribution – Please direct yours to Editor@GraniteGrok.com.
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A drag performer from North Country Pride, Justin Marsh, known as Emoji Nightmare, will be reading to kids at Weeks Memorial Library.

The reason drag performers exist is to create highly sexualized and raunchy performances for adult entertainment (and that raises the question of why they should be role models for children), but this man’s “artistic” work goes way too far.

In 2022, the Chester, Vermont pubic library postponed, then declined the opportunity to showcase Marsh as Emoji Nightmare after a library trustee brought up his concerns about a cartoon character Marsh created called Cumsterella.

This cartoon depicts a bikini-clad woman with a trash receptacle head covered in the bodily fluids of hundreds of men.

Marsh promotes and sells images of Cumsterella on his social media pages.

In a news article about the canceled program, Marsh implied he was not concerned about the idea of a young child seeing his social media pages. This would include images of Cumsterella.

This is a dangerous attitude. It’s also known as grooming.

Parents would be wise not to bring their children to Marsh for the sake of educating them.

Instead, Marsh is the kind of person a concerned parent would keep their children away from.

If parents want positive images of gay people in American culture, they can take out a book about Sally Ride or Richard Grenell, to name just a few.

There is no way to appropriately describe the Cumsterella cartoon to a child. It’s not ok for any child to stumble upon this image.

Furthermore, you have to wonder what goes through a man’s head that makes him want to create such an image in the first place. Hatred and deep contempt for women come to mind as a reason.

It’s intentionally the most raunchy, disgusting, and dehumanizing image of a woman that anyone could dream up.

To call it gross is an understatement.

It’s not funny; it’s ignorant and offensive.

It’s misogyny in action.

Why would Marsh, who is the director of communications and development at The Pride Center VT, create such a hateful image?
Is his desire to objectify, ridicule, and humiliate women?

Is this what Pride Center VT stands for? And North Country Pride as well?

North Country Pride and The Pride Center VT should feel no pride in the “art” of Justin Marsh/Emoji Nightmare, and parents shouldn’t bring their children to meet such a hate-filled man with dangerous ideas about what children could be exposed to.

 

 

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Editor’s Note: We encourage involved parents and citizens to send these kinds of meeting notes to us so we all can see if there are trends that we otherwise wouldn’t be able to be aware of.  Thanks!

The Governor Wentworth Regional School District includes Brookfield, Effingham, New Durham, Ossipee, Tuftonboro, and Wolfeboro.

 

 

Apparently, there was no sort of reprimand for the public (verbal) attack on citizens of the district from Charlene Seibel as she sat amongst the others and led the meeting as though her actions toward the taxpayers of the school district were somehow justifiable. Actually, she seemed emboldened even. Lack of accountability comes from the top down – beginning with that mastermind currently in the White House.

While we the citizens in attendance were more interested in discussion on items; ACD: Commitment to Religious Neutrality and KB: Title 1 Parent Involvement in Education, Seibel thought it more important to spend twenty minutes discussing policy discrepancy over whether or not Mr. Ed Roundy should have a plaque in his honor hung in the office of the Alumni Association. And add another ten minutes or so to whether or not Chip Skelley would be recognized as he so deserves.

A beautiful presentation was given for Mr. Roundy who passed this last March. Mr. Roundy’s widow and other family members were also in attendance. He had been with the school since its opening until his retirement. It was assumed by the presenter that this plaque would also be hung in the office of the Alumni Association to honor Mr. Roundy’s years of commitment to the district. A simple word to the board and those attending that further review of the Board policy would need to be considered in this matter, then acknowledging the family would have been socially appropriate, but that’s not what happened. What should have been a special moment for the family turned into a circus as Seibel led the Board into this ridiculous rant about Board policy. I was embarrassed for the family and felt the urge to apologize to them.

Furthermore, we had the baseball team in attendance to honor Mr. Chip Skelley and his decades of commitment to our athletes. One by one, they took to the mic to honor Mr. Skelley.

Again, Seibel wielding her power from the bench let the students know that this was not policy. Sadly, one by one the athletes lowered their heads in disappointment and defeat as they walked from the auditorium.

Perhaps, these matters are strictly against policy. But a little class could have been used in how the response came from Seibel.

So while the citizens of GWRSD had hoped to hear discussion on the matters of 1) ACD: Commitment to Religious Neutrality (so does this mean out with Christianity and in with Satanism? If so, do we discover exactly what this entails when our children come home and raid the chicken house for weekly school sacrifices?) and then there is 2) KB: Title 1 Parent Involvement in Education. This brings me to my next subject: SB272.

SB272 was Indefinitely Postponed by House Democrats and a few Republicans and is not eligible for reintroduction in any form for 2 more years. In other words, our state representatives, and senators are weak. Well, most of them (To the strong leaders, know that we appreciate your efforts). And you and your family will pay for that weakness. SB272 was DOA. What does this mean?

This means that all kinds of bad things with your children can be happening at school: drug abuse, sex abuse, gender altering, boys who identify as girls showering with girls, your children identifying as Furries that want to use a litter box in the classroom, all these things can occur in school, and you have no right to know. School policy.

And while one of the most important issues dealing with Board members is the staffing of our teachers; it looks like this year the board will sit this one out…

Six of the board members have authorized the Superintendent to interview and choose staff exclusively without board oversight (you know, the checks and balances put in place) because the majority of the board did not want to interrupt their summer outings. Kudos to Brodie Deshaies, Stefanie King, and Thomas Bickford, who were willing to interrupt their summer outings to ensure that the district hires the best teachers that apply.

On a side note, I might not have fully understood the whole authorizing the Superintendent to hire staff exclusively issue, and I would welcome Brodie, Stefanie, or Thomas to make any corrections to this issue.

Nothing of substance was discussed in the public forum dealing with Charlene Seibels Academic affairs. Nothing.

Seibel was also certain to mention the things that are currently most important in every school in the nation, as well as to her personally (hope I used the proper pronoun there, Charlene) and that is this new alphabet that is in our face constantly, the one that begins with “L” and seems to have no ending. And that the school will now be sensitive to gender-neutral pronouns (Of course, the federal government, with your tax dollars, is incentivizing public schools with the almighty dollar to push all of this gender ideology. It’s always about the money, not a shocker) Then all of that to lead us to this: mental health.

So, curiously, if you teach a child from the first six grades of their scholastic career that; a circle is a circle, hot is hot, left is left, blue is blue, and up is up; well, these things make sense. Then in their seventh year of their scholastic career that you teach a child that a circle is a square, hot is cold, left is right, blue is red, and up is down…and then you reward them as this is the latest social craze, well now then you can see why they might get all frustrated, confused and depressed.

Convincing children that they can change their gender is like that. There is nothing more determined in one’s life than their gender. If you are born a male, you will die a male…everything else is just amputations and cosmetics. These poor students suffering from mental health issues just might be because of the twisted indoctrination that schools are spewing out.

Schools are no longer safe. Public schools will never recover from the depths from which they have fallen (like Lucifer). To truly protect our children, we must find alternative education.

God help us…We need You.

The post Summary of the Governor Wentworth Regional School District Board Meeting 6/5/2023 appeared first on Granite Grok.

You’ve heard stories of men’s soccer teams of varying ages taking on Olympic of FIFA caliber US Women’s teams and drubbing them mercilessly. Here’s the latest example.

At a mixed tournament in NC, the Wrexham Red Dragons took on a US Women’s team and wrecked them. The final score was  12-0, with Wrexham (ironically pronounced wrecks ’em) scoring five goals in the first 14 minutes and seven total in the first half.

 

 

The Soccer Tournament was created by the founders of The Basketball Tournament. “TST” is a high-stakes 7×7 World Cup-style event with $1 million on the line.

Thirty-two teams from eight different countries were in the mix, including 23 former players from the U.S. men’s and women’s national teams with nearly 1,400 matches of combined experience, according to NBC Sports, for the inaugural event in Cary, N.C.

 

The ladies pretended not to care about their impending doom, saying they were just happy to be there blah blah blah, but that was clearly drubbing damage control.

 

“What’s the worst that could happen? We lose 16-0 to Wrexham? We don’t care because we’re living, we’re being bold, we’re being brave.”@HeatherOReilly knows the result isn’t everything.
: @TST7v7 on @peacock pic.twitter.com/ZOkLOAzEpE

— NBC Sports Soccer (@NBCSportsSoccer) June 2, 2023

 

Yes. Bravo for showing up and perhaps knowing you had no shot in hell, but what does this say about men playing women’s sports? It says that birth sex matters. It says there’s an advantage for men and that the level of competition is different. And just so we’re clear, if those are the terms upon which you wish to play, have at it, but you’re not encouraging future generations of girls, and don’t you dare belittle them if they are reluctant to engage in that environment.

Let’s call it choice, except they increasingly don’t have one. They either play with or against the “boys,” or get smeared as bigots and haters. And what do we think this will do to the future of women’s sports?

The time, investment, pain, and all the things they give up for years to elevate their game might be for nothing. Vying for spots on the team that get filled with boys instead of girls. Losing to young men playing gender games who rob girls of success, awards, scholarships, and self-esteem. And let’s not forget the increased chance of injury in that environment.

And what parent will see what’s ahead and encourage a daughter to pursue something that will gobble up vast amounts of their time and her time, and not just personal time, but family time?

There is a long list of benefits to girls who pursue athletics, but the Left’s war on girls and women is robbing them of that, and if you need to know why it matters, Wrexham 12 – USW – 0.

 

 

HT | The Gateway Pundit

The post Men vs Women: The Boys From Wrexham Wrecked ‘Em! appeared first on Granite Grok.

What a LOSER! What a total LOSER! Mike Pence is so COMPLETELY out of touch with GOP voters. The GOP is no longer the Party of upper middle class “suburban moms,” whose concept of struggle is running low on their favorite aperitif. The GOP is the Party of working people who, unlike the old, gone GOP, are DEPENDING on Social Security to be able to retire.

But good, old Mike Pence … a better friend the globalists, Big-Pharma, and the military-industrial complex would be hard-pressed to find … wants to cut Social Security, while continuing to pump hundreds of billions into that corrupt oligarchy called Ukraine because that’s what Blackrock and Chase want … and in Mike Pence’s America, what’s good for Blakrock and Chase is good for America.

The post Mike Pence Announces … I’m Running For President To Cut Your Social Security, And Send the Money To Ukraine appeared first on Granite Grok.

Finding the right senior care living option is an incredibly significant decision. It can greatly impact the well-being and quality of life of your loved ones. This comprehensive guide is on hand to help you gain an understanding of the different options and levels of care available. Read on to discover the unique benefits and considerations of each option to ensure you are making an informed choice that best suits the needs, preferences, and independence levels of your loved ones.

In-Home Care

While there are many different senior living options available, some seniors prefer to stay in their own homes. In this case, in home-care would be the best option. Seniors can receive personalized care and assistance, help with daily activities, medication management, or simply some companionship, all from the comfort of home. This is another great option for seniors who wish to remain independent yet require a level of care. While staying in their home might be ideal, it is only appropriate if it is safe for them to do so.

Active Living

Active living communities are great options for those who are looking to remain active, focus on wellness, have a bustling social life, and maintain their autonomy. These communities often offer amenities such as fitness centers, swimming baths, a stocked fishing lake, bocce ball, walking paths, opportunities for continued learning as well as the chance to take part in social activities. So for those who want to really start living in their golden years, active living could be the perfect option.

Independent Living

Designed for older people who want to protect their independence while living a maintenance-free lifestyle, independent living is the popular choice. With a beautiful range of apartments or houses to choose from, you will be able to live independently while taking advantage of dining options, social activities, and housekeeping services. This style of living is suitable for those who value a sense of community, friendship, and the freedom to live life on their terms.

Assisted Living

Assisted living facilities offer personalized support and care to seniors who may need extra assistance with day-to-day activities but who still wish to be active and live as independently as possible. Assisted living communities offer care plans for residents, as well as 24/7 support, medication management, and assistance with daily tasks. This option is well suited to older adults who are starting to need an increased level of support but don’t want to give up their independence.

Memory Care

This specialized type of care is tailored to those with Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, or any other memory-related conditions. Memory care facilities provide a higher level of care and create a safe and secure environment for seniors. Memory care living offers structured routines and memory-enhancing activities to ensure that seniors enjoy the highest quality of life possible.

Rehabilitation Care

Rehabilitation care is a short-term type of care that caters to seniors who are recovering from surgeries, have suffered an injury, or have medical or mental health issues. It gives seniors the opportunity to receive specialized therapies to aid their recovery..

 

The post How To Select the Right Senior Living Option appeared first on Granite Grok.

Today the New Hampshire legislature passed the State Budget. The Budget trailer bill, which always includes a bunch of non-budgetary wish-list stuff, included state of emergency reform that adds oversight to executive authority.

During the pandemic, existing law allowed the Governor the authority to renew the state of emergency repeatedly, even if or when some thought it was time to end it. There was no mechanism to check the Governor’s power.

The new legislation allows the Governor to declare a state of emergency and renew it twice, but extending it beyond that will require a full vote of the legislature in support. And this is New Hampshire, so that’s no small challenge for a Governor to overcome.

He or she will need to convince them of the necessity. If controlled by the same party, the Senate is typically a rubber stamp for the Governor’s priorities. Not on every issue, but they seem to be more interested in protecting his or her priorities. The New Hampshire House has 400 members, and it can be a bit of a circus—a genuine people’s legislature. The Governor will need to convince most of them to renew any extension, not just for the next 21 days but for every 21 days after.

We commend all the hard work put in by activists like the folks at Rebuild New Hampshire and those in House leadership (in particular) who pushed for this after the State Senate pulled State of Emergency Reform out of the budget but then voted for it after it was put back in.

And yes, Governor Sununu is expected to sign the budget.

 

The post Breaking: NH Legislature Passes State of Emergency Reform appeared first on Granite Grok.

The Town of Hartford Select Board voted to hoist the LGBTQ flag from the town’s municipal building for the month of June (a.k.a. “pride” month).  This was despite vocal opposition from both town members and fellow board member Lannie Collins and Rocket who made the case that the flag has become a symbol of division and should not be compared to the American flag designed to unite us.

Board members Dan Fraser, Mike Hoyt, Ally Tufinkjien, Mary Erdie, and Kim Souza we all in favor and chose not to hear discussion from the town nor raise the issue publicly other than to put it as the last agenda item for that meeting.  This has become the modus operandi for the activists in government in the area who use the cover of silence and deliberately low transparency to achieve their goals.

Hartford historically has been a welcoming town despite struggling through economic woes in the early 2000s.  The downtown area had struggled to maintain healthy businesses and seemed to be looking for its identity and an economic facelift.  It’s since gotten both.

Ripe for gentrification that has taken place since the turn of the century, Hartford/White River Junction now boasts a relatively thriving downtown section surrounding its older infrastructure.  Board member Souza runs the Revolution clothing store around the corner from the town building and just down from the staple façade, the Coolidge Hotel.

Next door and recently recovering from flooding is the Turkish-run eatery, the Tuckerbox, across from another Middle Eastern-themed venue Little Istanbul.  New office buildings boasting modern architecture run counter the town courthouse just around the corner from the main avenue, which also features an area favorite taqueria and bar, Trailbreak.

Nestled along the railroad tracks across from Trailbreak are blue-collar comfort fare Big Fatty’s BBQ catty-corner to high-end dining Elixer.   The new central attraction recently upgraded is the Northern Stage home to off-Broadway and other area productions situated next to The Village, a recently constructed assisted living high rise.  Rio Blanco Salon, Phnom Penh Sandwich Station, and Tip Top pottery round out the eclectic flavor of this now Bohemian district once filled with diners, gift shops, and pizzerias adjacent to the railroad station.

As a resident, it’s not hard to appreciate the economic upgrades to the once-flailing downtown. Hartford, like so many small New England towns, saw its industry shipped overseas only to have those overseas come and reconnoiter the empty infrastructure.  It appears to be in part the realization of the American dream, and one wonders if the new business owners are here for that reason, or is this the realization of the globalist vision riding in on the backs of the progressive political class now prevalent in town?  It’s difficult to tell.

The town has clearly achieved a diversity of businesses and business owners because of its natural American hospitality given to inclusivity.  None of these businesses were subject to harassment or intolerant behavior from the residents.  In fact, the town has welcomed all with relative ease, which explains the rapid growth.  However, the activists on the Board are also pushing to have a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee aimed at solidifying the political power of the progressives who apparently need to ensure the other taxpaying adults in the already diverse, equitable, and inclusive hamlet mind their new woke p’s and q’s.

This will become apparent as the movement’s flag is raised come June 1st, and the unwitting town is put on notice that Hartford, despite its open and affirming citizenry, is now a captured colony of the LGBTQ movement that ironically borrows from the colonial calling card of hoisting a flag to assert authority.

One citizen, yours truly, can’t help but point out the hypocrisy of Board members such as Souza and others who balked and complained about American flags being strewn along the road to commemorate Memorial Day in the freest country on earth.  A flag that represents the highest of ideals for a people who wish to be free and prosper, which is precisely what this country and this town offer to those businesses who have planted their hopes here.  Businesses that would not enjoy the same blessings in Turkey or Cambodia, where LGBTQ rights are suppressed or even outlawed, have found safe haven in America.  America is still the most sought foreign nation to chase the dreams offered due to its freedoms and opportunities made possible by the very founding fathers and Judeo-Christian ethics derided by Souza and her progressive cohort.

Tuesday night, Board member Mary Erdie gave “homework” in the form of a book to the other members. I didn’t catch the title, but I noticed one of the co-authors is Ibram X. Kinde, whose most famous written line is “the only remedy for past discrimination is present discrimination, and the only remedy for present discrimination is future discrimination”.  The absurdity of this proverb creating perpetual discrimination coming from a supposed Christian (his bio calls him an “activist Christian”) is only lost on those who never read Jesus’ repeated commands to forgive and not take an eye for an eye.

This statement is also associated with the notion of white privilege, clearly enjoyed by the likes of Erdie, Souza, Hoyt, Fraser, and Tufinkjien.  (Author’s note: I reject the notion of white privilege and systemic racism in a country and town that has equality of opportunity and elected Barack Obama to the highest position in the land).  The only person of color, so far as I can tell, is Asian-American Rocket, who has repeatedly spoken in support of the American flag and against promoting identity politics.  Rocket is also a left-of-center political thinker who explained he loved his LGBTQ friends and what their flag represents but not to the level of flying it over the town.  He countered my statement last night, stating his concern over extremist rhetoric on either side, whether it’s conflating LGBTQ with pedophilia (I didn’t) or conversely likening the American flag to white supremacy (agreed).

In so doing, he made my point.  If we’re going to be hyper-critical of the American flag and use that as pre-text for tearing it down, then what’s good for the goose is good for the gander, so we’ll measure by the same level of discrimination when considering the pride flag.  Who are its founding fathers?

Last night I started with Dr. John Money (my comment begins at 13:30 of the town’s Youtube video here).  Below this article is the transcript.

John Money

Good evening board members, comrades and activists.

Despite the lack of national identity and obvious culturally divisive nature of the symbol, the board voted to erect the LGBTQ flag over this town municipal building for the month of June, also called unironically “pride” month. 

As of the past few years it’s become en vogue among the dissident left, including in our town, to take issue with the American flag over criticism of the founders participating in the institution of slavery.  Criticism of institutional slavery is fair and should be welcome.  Which is why founders Thomas Jefferson, George Washington and others also wrote at length the struggle they had over the moral failing of the institution which ultimately led to its national demise thanks to the Civil War.  Even more ironic though is the sour grapes here in Vermont.  Why? Vermont was the first state in American history to abolish slavery doing so in 1777, a mere one year after we became a nation.

What if we turn the same critical eye on the founders of the pride flag?

Let’s start with Dr. John Money.

Money is widely considered the founding father of the trans movement.  A sexologist and psychologist who practiced at Johns Hopkins hospital in Baltimore, he is credited with inventing the terms “gender identity” and “gender role”.

Like many sexologists, Money believed pedophilia was a harmless sexuality which, when practiced “properly,” led to the child suffering no harm. In fact, Money’s theories on pedophilia were so sympathetic that, to this day, his work is prominently featured on the website of the North American Man-Boy Love Association (NAMBLA)

In the 1990s, Money allowed himself to be featured in interviews with Paidika, a pedophile psychology journal. In a 1991 interview for the journal, Money is quoted as saying:

“If I were to see the case of a boy aged ten or eleven who’s intensely erotically attracted toward a man in his twenties or thirties, if the relationship is totally mutual, and the bonding is genuinely totally mutual, then I would not call it pathological in any way.”

Money also noted that he “never” reported any pedophiles to police, even those who were actively abusing children due to his belief that adult-child sex was normal and “often beneficial.”

But Money’s views on pedophilia hardly touch the darkest and most depraved facets of his history, those being reserved for the case of David (born Bruce) Reimer.

Born in Canada in 1965, Reimer was the victim of a botched medical circumcision when he at 6 months old. The procedure sought to address a urination problem Reimer was experiencing, but instead, thanks to failed new and experimental medical technology, left his penis mutilated beyond repair.

Reimer’s parents saw the charismatic Money on t.v. and arranged a meeting.  Money was developing his theory of gender reassignment from work with intersex people.  In the Reimer twins he had the perfect test subjects for his theory with David’s twin Brian as the control. 

Money convinced the young parents to reconstruct David’s genitals to create a vulva and raise their son as a girl claiming gender is merely a social construct.

During check-ups, Money would subject the twin boys to disturbing experiments. They were forced to replicate sexual intercourse with each other, touch and inspect each other’s genitals, and watch pornography. Money would show the twins photos from smut magazines and “explicit” sexual photos of kids. He would then prod them about their sexual arousal, and question their attractions. The children were also expected to comply in front of audiences of as many as 6 other adults, and some reports state Money also took photos and videos of the children engaged in rehearsed sexual activity. At the time, both of the twins were just 6 years old.

When alone with the children, Money was abusive and got irate with them for refusing to perform for him. In a later statement, they both recall fearing he would “whup” them if they did not do as he asked and strip their clothes.

As David Reimer aged, he became increasingly resistant to seeing Money, and begged his parents not to force him to go to Baltimore for check-ups. Despite feminizing hormones and surgery, Reimer identified as a male and refused to believe he was a girl though he had never been told he was born a boy — a catastrophic rebuttal of Money’s theories on gender.

By the age of 14, Reimer was experiencing suicidal ideations and refused any further contact with Money. He demanded the truth from his parents, which they eventually told him in 1980.

Despite that, Money proceeded to declare his experiments a success, and his “findings” were used in later studies to justify genital surgeries imposed on some intersex children with ambiguous genitalia.

Both Reimer and his brother would take their own lives, with Brian committing suicide via drug overdose in 2002 after a life-long battle with schizophrenia, and David shooting himself in the head in 2004 at the age of 38. Their parents stated that they attributed their son’s deaths to the trauma imparted upon them from Money’s methods.

Thus began the founding of modern transgenderism thanks to John Money. 

 

The post Hartford Votes To Hoist Pride Flag At Municipal Building – Gets Pushback appeared first on Granite Grok.

Keep in mind this truth. These people didn’t stop drinking beer; they just stopped drinking Bud Light. Market forces continue to work. There are winners and losers, and the Anheuser Busch folks, after slitting their wrists, are looking for a way to stop the bleeding.

First, there’s no evidence they’ve learned anything from that experience despite costing an estimated 27 billion in market cap (so far) as they instead play the look who you are hurting card.

 

On an earnings call last month, Anheuser-Busch InBev CEO Michel Doukeris gestured to the stain the boycott has placed on distributors and salespeople.

‘This situation has impacted our people and especially our frontline workers: The delivery drivers, sales representatives, our wholesalers, Bud owners and servers,’ he said.

‘These people are the fabric of our business. They are our neighbors, family members, and friends. They are in every community in America. We’ve been doing everything we can to support our teams.’

 

Do you know who else are our neighbors, family members, and friends? The people who are drinking someone else’s beer because a half-cocked marketing VP thought using a fake woman to promote fake beer was a good idea. We’ll grow the customer base, she said.

Not so much. But some of these threads in your fabric will begin migrating toward beers with growing demand, and that’s BUD’s real problem. Budweiser doesn’t exactly own the distribution network. If these folks fold up or move on, AB won’t have the infrastructure to move beer people might still want to drink. That’s not a problem they can quickly solve in a boardroom somewhere, especially with the damage the brand has suffered in the past two months.

They’d like to avoid a messy divorce, so maybe an appeal to the heart of America will work.

 

‘These people are our neighbors, family members and friends. They are in every community in America. As we move forward, we will continue doing everything we can to support our teams while working tirelessly to do what we do best – bringing people together over a beer.’

 

Hey, America, if you don’t buy a Bud, these folks will be out of luck. Will they? Is the demise of the brand or your business going to stop bringing people together over a beer or just a cheap, not terribly tasty beer?

Creative destruction works, and you just don’t like the idea of it working on you, so you are not afraid to use a bit of guilt to pull your #woke ass out of a fire you set yourselves.

But if it comes to that, these folks can always learn to code, right?

 

 

HT | The Conservative Treehouse

The post As Sales Continue to Nosedive BUD Tries a Guilt Trip appeared first on Granite Grok.

You can’t manage what you can’t measure” – especially if you don’t know what the measurements are measuring.

For years, TMEW and I have had to deal with IEPs – Individual Education Plans. For some kiddos, it is for academic reasons (some of which are beyond their control). Others, it’s because of behavioral issues. For not a small number of these, it is the intersection of the two. For years, we spent no small amount of time in such meetings after reviewing the contents of such documents, asking some questions, but generally going with the flow (and as it turned out, for better or worse – and it was a mixture of the two).  The linchpin in all that was this: Trust. We had to trust that the experts knew the causes and the fixes and would faithfully carry them out.

Until they couldn’t handle it either.  And that, I have to admit, happened to us 30 years ago (plus or minus)

Sidenote: Parents, ALL kids give you grief and heartache. It comes with the territory but then it can go well past you and into the stratosphere. I am humble enough to say that with BOTH the Eldest and the Youngest (along with a whole raft of other issues), we had to turn to the CHINS (a NH judicial program – Child In Need Of Services) that was supposed to prevent children from going to the next stage: juvenile delinquency. Thankfully, it worked but part of certainly included IEPs. If you get to the end of your rope, it would be worthwhile to look into. While it has changed over the last 30 years since we invoked it (DCYF is now in charge of triggering it instead of Parents), it’s still something that might help.

Anyways, back to the IEPs. For years, we listened, we read, and then we signed. Now skip forward to last week. I refused to sign – my right because of my concern of how it was constructed and my inability:

1. to review it and pick out both the interim and final goals over a task line
2. be able to traverse what is happening (or not) at ground level (day to day instruction and homework) to #1
3. relate that back to the interim milestones (otherwise known as Report Cards – which is another disaster and to which I have complained)
4. understand the Edu-babble used in the IEP that states which test/examination is being used to to evaluate this cognitive ability (or that one, or this other thing) and what each of the numerical ranges actually meant the Grandson.

And having spent years dealing with this, I hit a trigger point and said “you shall not pass” that actually caused this to happen. I asked a question and got “I don’t understand”. Without rehashing the whole bit, I had to ask the same questions several times until I used the phrase “present as” which was then accepted (I think you can guess the rest of question if you’ve been reading the ‘Grok for a while).

Really?  I had to phrase the question in a selectively desired manner to elicit a answer? My response was (paraphrased):

I thought I had phrased my question like a normal person would have. Now you’re telling me that I have to use a specific construction that a NORMAL parent who isn’t immersed in this nonsense would know??? Are you serious?

So I took it and reversed it – an IEP MUST be phrase in a way that a normal person could understand:

• What are the tests being used?
• What do they test, exactly?
• What are the measurement ranges and how do they relate to the Grandson (instead of a generic term)?
• And most importantly, knowing that he has processing issues/stoppages (versus raw horsepower):
  • how is this test relevant?
  • what is it telling you?
  • what are the insights that will be used to tailor the classroom tactics to address it?

Again, as I said during the meeting: “You can’t manage what you can’t measure” and in this case, if you don’t know what the stated measurements are testing, you still can’t manage it.  Or in this case, mitigate his processing stoppages.

The goal is that TMEW and I will know, at any time in time, what should he be able to do in a given subject, what IS he able to do, and how much is left by the end of the school year?  And that is necessary so that WE know what to be doing at home to make that happen.

As I said, we have proven over the years, that we are above the average “involved parents” and if we are to continue that, in, as the Superintendent just said in an email on my outstanding Right to Know’s:

…in their constitutional supported right to educate their offspring

So, Parents, you have that right to know what is needed in language you can understand. I just hit that point whereby I was no longer going to “assume stuff” anymore.

I will say that during the meeting, it seems like my points were received and the IEP is going to be updated so that a regular Parent, unfamiliar with the “inside baseball” language but really WANT to know the details.  I’m no longer that person but if I had issues, I’m betting others are as well.

 

The post So, What Did I Learn Today At The Grandson’s Second IEP? That None Of Us Need To Accept Edu-babble. appeared first on Granite Grok.

The internet machine coughed up a letter to the editor of the Bangor daily news. The law would update how the state pretends recycling is good for Maine or the planet. My first thought? How much carbon will they emit before it’s over?

Related: Is Recycling a “Waste” of Time?

And not just from the redo but the original, the actual rule-making, rule-following, program management, collection, processing, transportation, all of it. And that’s just for beverage containers.

I have the same thoughts about the difference in actual “cost” between leaving other items thought to be recyclable IN the waste stream compared to what is involved in recycling them. All the food cans and milk bottles still need to be rinsed, which has a carbon footprint. Not just the washing but the processing of the water before and after.

Is a paper plate better or worse for the planet than washing the dish it replaced? It doesn’t keep me up at night, but the whole agenda gets everything else so bass-ackward that, as the occasional contrarian, pondering it puts a sparkle in my eye and a skip in my step.

Container return programs accept glass, metal, and plastic, sort them, containerize them, move them, and store them, all before they are broken back down into something by machines before other machines can reuse what can be reused (assuming it doesn’t end up in the ocean off the coast of China. There has always been a considerable cost in carbon to do that (if that matters to you), and the purveyors of such programs hide those costs the way the media emits tons of carbon to conceal the truth about Joe Biden’s side hustles—Hillary’s email server, and everything about Barry Obama.

And while there are no eco-nut-friendly solutions to those last three “problems,” are any of the others less fraught with precarious carbon math like the one I suppose for Maine (NY, MI, or HI)?

And then there’s the cost of making, managing, and enforcing laws that create a lobby with enough carbon-emitting influence to keep its interests alight in the minds of virtue-signaling legislators – along with their staffs, aides, and the populace driving to the collection center to drop off the cans and bottles they’ve greenwashed along the way.

Does the net carbon benefit outweigh the gross emissions?

 

 

The post What’s the Carbon Footprint Of Maine’s 19-Page Container Redemption Modernization Law? appeared first on Granite Grok.

Putin is Hitler! Putin is Hitler! Putin is Hitler! If you don’t support the West’s war on Russia on behalf of Blackrock/Chase/etc. then you support Hitler! That is Chris Christie’s justification for pumping hundreds of billions of dollars into waging war on Russia on behalf of the globalist behemoths and the military industrial complex:

NO, Fat Man, Putin is not Hitler. Hitler believed in a socialism based on race … that his sacred mission was to unite the German people into one nation, and to keep the German blood pure, which would lead to a thousand year third reich, essentially a socialist-Heaven-on-earth. Please, Fat Man, explain to us rubes why you believe that Putin believes he needs lebensraum in Central Europe.

The irony is that the Fat Man and his ilk are supporting actual modern-day Nazis:

NAZIS: For more than a year the media called Putin’s claim that Ukraine is riddled with Nazis a lie. Now the New York Times is admitting it has been asking Ukrainian soldiers to conceal their Nazi patches and tattoos. https://t.co/01pRKXYkxN pic.twitter.com/v42yBWz0vj

— @amuse (@amuse) June 7, 2023

 

The post Chris “Dozen More Donuts” Christie Is An Idiot appeared first on Granite Grok.

As Americans deal with air quality issues from Canadian forest fires, the US media blames big oil and modernity’s sins. The actual cause is a bit less complex. Canadian authorities say arsonists deliberately started these fires.

Related: CO2 Increases “Linked to” Rising Education Costs and More Gun Crimes in Democrat Cities but not Forest Fires.

I’d like to take eco-terrorists for 500, please.

 

In the past months, Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) have arrested several arsonists who have been charged with lighting fires across several provinces including Nova Scotia, Yukon, British Columbia, and Alberta. The motive behind lighting the fires is unclear.  

One Albertan, John Cook, has been arrested and charged with 10 counts of arson after setting a string of wildfires in and around Cold Lake, a hamlet near Edmonton. 

 

We’ve got fires started in at least five provinces by several individuals and a history of direct action by enviro-wackos on global wood and grasslands.

 

• Massive California “Wildfire” (Allegedly) Started by a Former Forestry Student Not Global Warming
• World Wildlife Federation Paid $70,000 to Activists Who Set Fire to Amazon Forest.
• Largest Wildfire in New Mexico’s History … Was Started On Purpose, by the US Government
• Australian Police: Arson is to Blame for Much of the Devastation Caused this Bushfire Season
• Australia’s Brush Fires – Arson is Playing a Huge Role

 

I’m guessing here, but I bet a deep dive into the motive for the alleged arsons will land somewhere near or on top of so-called environmentalist groups dissatisfied with the speed at which the Canadian government is crippling its people and their economy.

That’s speculation, not fact, but whatever the reasoning of affiliation; these are not wildfires. They are criminal acts of arson.

Maybe you could call it mostly peaceful environmental protesting.

I remember when these losers used to protest outside offices or block ships, but these days they block highways, deflate tires, glue themselves to things, try to derail trains, or start “wild” fires.

They’re not wildfires if someone sets them deliberately. That’s not to say there isn’t a fair share of the real thing or that it doesn’t affect the air quality, but it’s not man-made, and taking away your cars and gas stoves won’t change it.

 

HT | LifeSite News & ZeroHedge

The post They Are Not “Wildfires” (in Canada) If Eco-Terrorists Set Them appeared first on Granite Grok.

CONCORD, N.H.—House Freedom Caucus and House Progressive Caucus members are deeply concerned about the Senate Finance version of the 2024-25 Budget.

We want to thank the NH House Freedom Caucus for this Contribution – Please direct yours to Editor@GraniteGrok.com.
You can review our ‘Op-Ed Guidelines‘ on the FAQ Page.

The 2024-25 budget as adopted by the Senate Finance Committee reinstate dangerous provisions that the caucuses worked to remove from the House version via floor amendments.

“Shocked. The only word I can use is shocked,” said Rep. Hoell (R-Dunbarton) regarding the underhandedness of the NH Senate. “Nearly two-thirds of the House voted to strike these provisions via floor amendment when the House considered the budget in April. For Senate to add them back after that is an insult to the process.”

Despite overwhelming bipartisan votes in the House to remove them, the Senate has reinstated provisions establishing a Northern Border Alliance Program that is both wasteful and likely to be used to harass law-abiding individuals based on dubious criteria; removing all legislative limits on the size the Auxiliary State Police; and expanding arbitrary police authority near the border.

“We have seen time and time again, when police are given sweeping powers and little objective criteria, it is often minorities that suffer,” said Rep. Newell (D-Keene) regarding the new police authority in the northern part of the state. “Individual liberties, due process, and respect for people of all backgrounds must always be respected.”

###

About the Freedom Caucus

The New Hampshire House Freedom Caucus is a grassroots organization consisting of legislators and private citizens, who believe in personal liberty and the traditional conservative “Yankee” values that made New Hampshire a great place to live.

The post House Freedom Caucus and House Progressive Caucus Oppose Dangerous Expansion of Police Power appeared first on Granite Grok.

Remember when the LGBT lobby said they only wanted civil unions, then demanded marriage anyway? Our entire experience with the movement, dominated by Left-Wing politics and tactics, echoes that one example.

Related: Gay Activist Couple Accused of Sodomizing Their Adopted Sons and Distributing “Homemade” Child Pornography of the Sexual Abuse.

And it all turned on the idea that you can’t help who you love.

That’s a lie.

You damn well can help who you love, including romantic love and the misguided sexual relativistic fraud that confuses sex with love. You can choose not to love or have sex with anyone. That person is married, they are a couple, or this person is too young.

That’s not to say you might not be attracted to any of those people. You find them engaging, a kindred spirit, fun to be with, similar interests or hobbies, or any of a thousand different parameters, including sexual attraction. It is this natural preference filter that guides us through everything we do, from where we like to sit on a bus or in a restaurant to where we park our cars, who we choose as friends, what we find ugly or attractive, our favorite songs, movies, colors, and why we begin or end relationships, and with whom we are intimate emotionally or physically.

Related: Drag Queen Story Hour Tweet: “Love Knows no Age” Pulled Down – ‘cuz Pedophilia

The correct word to describe this innate human experience is prejudice, but as the word’s negative connotation has taken precedence, that definition has fallen out of favor. Prejudice these days relates to any human feeling or action with which the political left disagrees—another act of fraud like ‘you can’t help who you love.’ Especially when love in the rising dominance of the progressive worldview means sex. A misguided interpretation doomed to end in misery.

That’s not to say there isn’t anything extraordinary about sex, casual sex, or great sex (consensual sex of any sort). Intimate relations with someone you love must not be confused with loving sex or sex with someone with whom you like having sex. Congrats on whatever that is, but be advised; if the love didn’t come first, the odds are good the relationship gets rocky or ends if the sex ends.

I’m not telling you to save yourself until you are in love, but when love comes first, everything else has a better foundation upon which to stand.

And love is one of the significant casualties of the culture war, and the left is almost entirely to blame.

Related: Women’s Health Care Alert: California Women’s Prison Inmates are Being Raped by “Transwomen”

They used the word love to normalize the sexual habits of consenting adults and look where that’s gotten us. The same movement that said they wanted civil unions and not marriage is actively normalizing the government-approved grooming of children while advancing legalized Pedophilia under the title of minor-attracted adults.

They say you can’t help who you love, including children, unless that child’s Navy Seal dad or martial arts instructor mom is standing nearby. And what if it just happens to be a concealed carry state? You can probably help it then, the same way people who can’t help stealing other people’s stuff can more than resist the urge when there’s a police officer next to them.

Don’t confuse lust with love. Lust is a thing, a normal human thing, but it is selfish, whereas love is “the reciprocal selfless quest to give to, rather than take from, their spouse – even if, in fact, both are needy. And both will benefit.”

The progressive worldview centers on a lust for power that cannot exist without taking while it pretends to give. It gives you the right to take from others. It gives you the right to take children from parents and innocence from children. And sometimes, it dares to call it love, but that’s a lie.

 

The post Progressive “Love” Is a Lie appeared first on Granite Grok.

MAID in Canada is an acronym for Medical Assistance in Dying. It states that a person is not guilty of a criminal offense if they provide or assist in providing MAID according to the conditions and safeguards in the law. The Canadian Government created the MAID program in 2016.

Related: Follow the Bouncing Ball: Canada Wrecks Health Care, Legalizes Assisted Suicide, Organ Donations Rise …

That is a lot of verbiages to describe a program that saves money by offering people, especially veterans, an option for expensive long-term care-Death. The Canadian Government created the MAID Practice Standards Task Group to create a Model Practice Standard for medical assistance in dying to support a safe and consistent approach to MAID across the country.

There are many examples of how humane euthanasia can be to older adults suffering from painful diseases without hope of reversing the malady. We may know of people in our families suffering without hope of the pain passing. They have suffered enough and want the pain to end and to end their lives peacefully. That is entirely different than taking someone in their mid-life who suffered a life-altering injury in battle, needs support, and to save money is offered medically assisted suicide as an option. 

A paraplegic former Canadian military member is ripping her Government, which offered to euthanize her after she complained about delays in having a wheelchair lift installed in her home.

Retired Army Corporal Christine Gauthier, who competed for Canada at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Paralympics, testified in Parliament that a Veterans Affairs Canada caseworker offered the opportunity for a medically assisted death – and even to provide the equipment, according to the CBC.

“I have a letter saying that if you’re so desperate, madam, we can offer you MAID, medical assistance in dying,” said Gauthier, who injured her back during a 1989 training accident.

As many as five veterans may have been offered euthanasia equipment by a veterans affairs official, said Veterans Minister Lawrence MacAulay in testimony before the committee last week. Those cases have been referred to the police. MacAulay said all of the instances involved one employee, who has been suspended.

Related: Progressive Trial Balloon: Ethicists Suggest Making it Legal to Euthanize the Poor

After 40,000 Canadians have chosen death under the MAID Program since its inception, Canadians are waking up to the horrors of this government option for healthcare. That new thinking is not stopping the Trudeau-led Government that is actually expanding the program’s reach. Trudeau and his party felt the program was too restrictive. Until now, only physical maladies have qualified people to choose death, but now people living with mental illness can choose euthanasia. How does one determine if someone suffering from mental illness has the state of mind necessary to opt for death?

Add mental illness to the list of MAID qualifiers; Homeless, Poor, Disabled, Newborn Infants, and Mature Children. A state-approved doctor signed off on a depressed teen who wanted to die because he did not have a girlfriend. The parent’s consent is not required for “Mature Children” to choose suicide under the MAID Program. The moral questions here are unlimited. But whether it is abortion up to or beyond the point of birth or allowing Government assisted suicide, the Liberals are showing that sound morals are not required for leadership. Maybe the Liberals have finally gone too far, which is why millennials are moving to the Right. That is good political news for the Right, but it is even better for society. Maybe we can save this world from self-extinction.

The post MAiD in Canada Death Sentence For Veterans And Children appeared first on Granite Grok.

We’ve said a thing or two about Electric Vehicles not being the green dream the Climate Cult promised. It is a problem they can’t escape, even if they overcome their impracticality in wide-open America, which seems unlikely. But they have their advocates, including actor Rowan Atkinson, but even he’s got concerns.

 

As you may know, the government has proposed a ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030. The problem with the initiative is that it seems to be based on conclusions drawn from only one part of a car’s operating life: what comes out of the exhaust pipe. Electric cars, of course, have zero exhaust emissions, which is a welcome development, particularly in respect of the air quality in city centres. But if you zoom out a bit and look at a bigger picture that includes the car’s manufacture, the situation is very different. In advance of the Cop26 climate conference in Glasgow in 2021, Volvo released figures claiming that greenhouse gas emissions during production of an electric car are 70% higher than when manufacturing a petrol one. How so? The problem lies with the lithium-ion batteries fitted currently to nearly all electric vehicles: they’re absurdly heavy, many rare earth metals and huge amounts of energy are required to make them, and they only last about 10 years. It seems a perverse choice of hardware with which to lead the automobile’s fight against the climate crisis.

 

Does it sound different coming from a famous actor? Maybe not, because who are these people but folks who pretend for a living? Why would I care? I’m inclined to agree, but the Mr. Bean actor has some credentials.

 

Electric motoring is, in theory, a subject about which I should know something. My first university degree was in electrical and electronic engineering, with a subsequent master’s in control systems. Combine this, perhaps surprising, academic pathway with a lifelong passion for the motorcar, and you can see why I was drawn into an early adoption of electric vehicles.

 

He’s also a longtime “employee” in an industry bristling with left-wing advocates who will use their reach to promote Marxist ideas most of them don’t even understand. That may put the rank-and-file pronoun pondering progressive in good company if by good you mean the end of modernity, prosperity, and comfort for the peasants, but most folks should be suspicious, even when they come out on what appears to be your side of an issue.

Atkinson’s remarks come to us from a lengthy piece in The Guardian, and he’s got more to say.

 

Unsurprisingly, a lot of effort is going into finding something better. New, so-called solid-state batteries are being developed that should charge more quickly and could be about a third of the weight of the current ones – but they are years away from being on sale, by which time, of course, we will have made millions of overweight electric cars with rapidly obsolescing batteries.

 

Atkinson ponders advances in hydrogen technology as a replacement, but as Eric Worrall notes at WUWT, it is a dangerous commodity with handling problems that might prevent it from reaching escape velocity. Rowan adds that it might be the only escape from fossil fuels for heavy trucks and equipment, and if they can make that work, there might be motivation to downscale for passenger vehicles.

That is a fair point, and he makes several other reasonable suggestions. In other words, he’s not bashing EVs; he’s walking through the problems and options because Lithium batteries appear more an interim step toward what might work. All of which leads to his almost hitting the mark.

 

As an environmentalist once said to me, if you really need a car, buy an old one and use it as little as possible.

 

Loving the motorcar is the problem; in the United States, it is a multi-generational-cultural problem. The automobile is as much a symbol of freedom and mobility as the American Bald Eagle. And while coast-hugging elites can’t see it from their urban plantations, most of the country is wide-open and unsettled, and most of us can’t cross it in a Jetstream, and it seems like they don’t want us crossing it at all.

The point of it all is to make mobility a luxury so that we are forced to gather in their 15-minute ghettoes where they can keep an eye on us. Rowan Atkinson is closer than many but still too far away. The environment that’s the problem isn’t the biosphere. It is any theater in which notions of an unalienable right to liberty remain.

Mobility, the inherent right to travel, must die so future generations won’t feel so inclined to be free. Once you accept that truth, the rest is arranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

 

 

HT | WUWT

The post Rowan Atkinson: Loves EVs But Admits They’re Not That Green appeared first on Granite Grok.

According to Sun-King Sununu, Trump is a LOSER. Indeed, His Majesty has called him a three-time LOSER … 2018, 2020 and 2022. Yet His Majesty is simultaneously telling us that the lack of a Trump endorsement … you know that same three-time LOSER Trump … is the reason Chuck Morse lost, more like got his Establishment ass kicked, by Don Bolduc.

This is so Sun-King Sununu … a narcissist who believes he is the proverbial “smartest man in the room” … who believes he can baffle everyone with his babble. NO, Your Majesty … you are a BABBLING FOOL; you are your own Court Jester.

The post Sun-King Sununu Is His Own Royal Jester appeared first on Granite Grok.

On June 2, 1787, Benjamin Franklin delivered a speech at the Philadelphia Convention opposing a provision in the proposed Constitution to pay the president a salary. The speech reveals some important aspects of human nature that we should keep in mind today.

Franklin submitted a change to the proposed Constitution stipulating that instead of paying a salary, the president’s “necessary expenses shall be defrayed,” but the chief executive “shall receive no salary, stipend, fee, or reward whatsoever for their services.”

According to Madison’s Notes on the Debates on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, Franklin made the motion for the change and asked to read a prepared statement because “being very sensible of the effect of age on his memory, he had been unwilling to trust to that for the observations which seemed to support his motion.”  James Wilson offered to read the letter and Madison included the text in his notes in its entirety.

Franklin was concerned about paying the president a salary because of human nature. He wrote that the combination of two passions –  power and the opportunity for financial gain – would create factions, divide the nation and even incite wars.

“There are two passions which have a powerful influence on the affairs of men. These are ambition and avarice; the love of power, and the love of money. Separately, each of these has great force in prompting men to action; but when united in view of the same object, they have in many minds the most violent effects. Place before the eyes of such men a post of honor, that shall be at the same time a place of profit, and they will move heaven and earth to obtain it.”

In Franklin’s mind, it was all about incentives and the type of people such a system would attract.

“It will not be the wise and moderate, the lovers of peace and good order, the men fittest for the trust. It will be the bold and the violent, the men of strong passions and indefatigable activity in their selfish pursuits. These will thrust themselves into your government, and be your rulers.”

Franklin went on to warn that if the door was opened with even a modest salary, people in power would constantly strive for more, writing that “reasons will never be wanting for proposed augmentations. And there will always be a party for giving more to the rulers, that the rulers may be able in return to give more to them.”

Franklin said the government would eventually become a mechanism to enrich those who hold power at the expense of the general population. When that happens, large numbers of people will grow to resent supporting this mechanism. Franklin warned about what would happen – warfare between the governing and the governed.

“Hence, as all history informs us, there has been in every state and kingdom a constant kind of warfare between the governing and governed, the one striving to obtain more for its support, and the other to pay less. And this has alone occasioned great convulsions, actual civil wars, ending either in dethroning of the princes or enslaving of the people.”

Because government has the power, it usually wins this war with “the revenues of princes constantly increasing, and we see that they are never satisfied but always in want of more.”

“The more the people are discontented with the oppression of taxes, the greater need the prince has of money to distribute among his partisans, and pay the troops that are to suppress all resistance, and enable him to plunder at pleasure.”

Franklin worried that the combination of power and money would eventually lead the U.S. back to monarchy.

“But this catastrophe I think may be long delayed, if in our proposed system we do not sow the seeds of contention, faction, and tumult, by making our posts of honor places of profit.”

Franklin’s motion did not carry the day. Under the Constitution, as ratified, “The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services, a Compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the Period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that Period any other Emolument from the United States, or any of them.”

Currently, the presidential salary is set at $400,000 per year. While this is modest when compared to CEO salaries in the corporate world, it is still a substantial sum of money. Furthermore, people in government positions — including the presidency — seem to find ways to enrich themselves while in power far beyond their government checks. There is no doubt the presidency offers both a post of honor and at the same time a place of profit.

As a result, many of the things Franklin warned about have come to pass, particularly his prediction that the bold and the violent, the men of strong passions and indefatigable activity in their selfish pursuits would thrust themselves into government.

We’ve also seen the development of factions and constant warfare between the governing and governed.

The lesson is that we can’t wish away human nature. We can’t trust people with power. As George Mason astutely said, “Those who have power in their hands will not give it up while they can retain it. On the contrary, we know they will always, when they can, rather increase it.”

When you combine this impulse with a system that rewards greed, you are asking for trouble.

 

 

Mike Maharrey | The Tenth Amendment Center

The post Benjamin Franklin Speech Exposes the Inherent Danger of Power and Money appeared first on Granite Grok.

If you don’t like Twitter and like Tucker Carlson, we’re here to help. The first episode of Tucker on Twitter was released the other day, and we’ve curated it here for you, on Twitter or off.

Carlson opens with the recent destruction of a Damn in the Ukraine/Russia proxy war, the various players, on his way to discussing the real problem that the story represents

The non-Twitter version is available here.

Ep. 1 pic.twitter.com/O7CdPjF830

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) June 6, 2023

 

The post Tucker on Twitter Ep 1 appeared first on Granite Grok.