The Debt Clock does not have much impact on Americans and appears to not have much effect on politicians. The digits keep spinning, the numbers keep climbing, and there seems to be no number large enough to garner concern.

At the turn of the century, just 24 years ago, the National Debt stood at $5 Trillion, and we wondered what we were doing to our future generations. We were strapping them with a debt they would never be able to repay. After 9/11 and the pandemic, the debt exploded to $34 trillion, and nobody has a plan to stop the spinning wheel or pay down the money owed. It is irresponsible, and the guilt falls on both Parties.

To put this number into perspective, the debt equals $103,000 for every man, woman, and child in our country. Biden wants to forgive Student Loans; maybe he should forgive our share of the National Debt. Biden often claims that he has reduced our debt when, in fact, his administration has added $9 Trillion in three years. Over $900 billion a year in interest, yet nobody seems concerned. Forget irresponsible. It is criminal. America and Americans do not seem phased, but the rest of the world is, and they are taking steps to protect themselves.

The dollar has been the gold standard for international trading for decades. For example, petroleum has been valued in dollars per barrel, but that is changing. The Russians, Arabs, Chinese, India, and even Brazil are joining forces to create an international currency to replace the dollar. This will render the dollar worthless. This action by our allies and adversaries alike indicates a loss in credibility of the American monetary system and a conception that the United States may not be capable of paying its bills. This negativity is virgin territory for America and should concern us all.

BRICS is putting pressure on the U.S. monetary system, but what is more of a concern for anyone paying attention is the lack of urgency on behalf of Washington to change its habits. Every time we get to a debt ceiling decision, the minority Party folds, and a continuing resolution is voted on, which kicks the can down the road for later action, or the Parties reach a compromise and raise the debt ceiling. Nobody and neither Party has the guts to hold their position, let the government shut down, and negotiate a serious bill that will fund the government, not the pork, and hold the debt ceiling where it stands.

Just like we do with our household budget, we have to trim expenses. We need to get realistic about what we have coming in and not outspend it. The pork has to stop, and when your reps brag about funds they are bringing back to the state, you have to ask at what cost. It is not their money they are generously giving us; it is our money, and we need people in office who will be better stewards of our money. Foreign governments know we are not being wise with our tax dollars, so it is time to insist our reps get the message.

The post Think The Debt Clock Is No Big Deal, Think Again appeared first on Granite Grok.

Investigative journalists are dropping like a congressional aide’s pants across the U.S. as main stream media lays-off thousands.

Fake news powerhouse the L.A. Times has nearly emptied its Washington D.C. bureau just months before what many consider the biggest election year in American history.  This shocking move has many of the journalists questioning the real reason behind the mass exodus.

“I had no idea this was coming” a shocked Alexandria Ortega-Churchill bemoaned as she placed her remaining office items into her 100% organic hemp Lululemon grocery tote.  Despite being an investigative journalist neither she nor her colleagues had caught wind of the company’s declining readership and ad revenue.  Explaining they just wrote the stories they were told to write and preferred to get their news from Tik-tok, the group of journalists admittedly didn’t bother to read their own publication, let alone any of the others forecasting news media’s burgeoning climate change.

Never ones to get off message the rumors of systemic racism as the cause began to circulate among those given their parting papers.  “I don’t see too many white people leaving the office, do you?” complained Tykesha Barnes whose most famous piece “Being On-Time Is White Supremacy” won a Poo-lister Prize.  Poo-lister Prizes are awarded to journalists whose contribution to the field is considered on par with bathroom tissue.

Also stunned by the news was Washington bureau reporter Tayler Lorentz who appeared inconsolable after hearing her fans would no longer be able to read her feminist opinions.  Consistently identifying white men as the problem in society and calling them racist may be popular with her Millennial and Gen Z audiences but not with the old white guys signing her paychecks apparently.  A besotted and benighted Lorentz barely managed to Tweet / X an image of her weeping hysterically while holding up her resume.

Speaking of resumes the Vermont Daily Chronicle, despite the national trend of losing journalists, has seen record growth over the last year doubling its number of employees and adding a social media department.  It remains atop the list of conservative publications in Vermont thanks in part to having zero competitors.  Despite running the risk of anti-trust litigation as a monopoly, Chief Editor In-Chief Guy Page remains undaunted.

“Our readership makes up less than 1% of the state where fewer and fewer people are learning to read, so I’m not that worried about it” a resolute Page told Banana’s Media via a now unlocatable email.  Page also informed us he has seen a record number of resumes come in from the sea of jobless journalists recently let go.

“The pool is incredibly wide but not very deep” he noted.  When asked whether or not he was able to find any good hires he answered simply “no”.  Pressing him to explain why he told us about the key questions he asks potential candidates, such as “Is America a democracy or republic?” “Can you identify fake news from the real thing?” and “Would you put real maple syrup on your pancakes if Aunt Jemima was on the bottle?”

“Most of them are so confused they don’t even bother to answer.  If I have any doubt I simply hold up a picture of Donald Trump and note their reaction, which is almost always to flail into a raging conniption fit.”  So far not one of the over twelve hundred applicants has received a follow up interview with the cagey editor.

Not wanting to sully his outfit’s reputation by adding infamous purveyors of fake news beyond his lone Truly Professional Fake News Reporter (Johnny Bananas), seems like a sound business decision given the recent trend in avoiding such problematic employees.  Page wanted to make clear that, although Mr. Bananas is a regular contributor to the Chronicle, he is not a paid employee.

“I can’t imagine anyone would pay that guy – he just makes things up. Take this article for example” Page commented before rushing off to do real journalism by talking to people even less trustworthy than members of the media, namely members of Vermont’s legislative body.

When asked to respond to his editors comments Mr. Bananas declined stating he was too busy working on unionizing his fellow employees.

The post Bananas: Journalism Lay-off-Pandemic Sweeps Across America to Vermont appeared first on Granite Grok.

Grokster Ian is fond of reminding us that we should call things what they are – “As Confucius said, the first step towards wisdom is to call things by their right name.” That is sage advice, so I’ll use it here. Maine has a bill that allows the state to take children from their parents. Kidnapping.

There’s nothing new about that, you say – which is true. States kidnap children every day, and not always in the best interest of the child, but this legislation’s kidnapping provision has a defined focus. It claims the state is acting in the interest of the child. It empowers them to abscond with other people’s children so it can provide access to transgender medical services.

If the state decides the child is leaning away from their biological sex, HP1114 (An Act to safeguard gender-affirming health care) would clear the way for kidnapping and mutilation not just in Maine but from other states.

The bill would have allowed the state to take emergency temporary custody of children who want but are unable to obtain transgender medical services, including genital surgery, puberty blockers, and cross-sex hormone therapy.

Law enforcement would also be prohibited under the bill from arresting or extraditing a person based on a warrant from another state that has laws against transgender medical interventions for children.

Courts would also be barred from considering the abduction of a child from a parent “if the taking or retention was for obtaining gender-affirming health care or gender-affirming or gender-affirming mental health care.”

Children who want? Is the state going to get them the toys they want but don’t have or ice cream for dinner or cake for breakfast (which Bill Cosby Fans -pre-date rape scandals – know has eggs, milk, and wheat in it). Words are missing. Adults who think children want and know better, but they have a provision for that as well. Adults with arrest warrants illegally transporting children into Maine (to access the drugs or mutilation) shall not be arrested.

They want to legalize kidnapping and mutilation. It’s a thing in California, so why not Maine? I can think of several reasons, but this is progressive legislation. Children are a lot like a business. You didn’t build that or couldn’t without the auspices of the government, which, ironically – at least until the FED came along and started printing money – couldn’t build anything without you creating wealth for them to take. But, in their heads, since you belong to them, so do your offspring. You can’t have a proper despotism without brainwashed children, and while we’re at it, let’s poison them, neuter them, remove some body parts, and then offer them state-funded mental health services until they can be convinced to kill themselves (MAiD).

The peasants will have fewer children, and those born won’t be able to reproduce. It’s first-world progressive master-race thinking, and do not kid yourselves. The uni-party ruling class isn’t worried that such a bill would be leveraged against them. This sort of thing is for provincial bumpkins or would have been had the judiciary committee in the Maine Legislature not voted unanimously to kill it.

Before the vote, Maine State Sen. Eric Brakey (watch our radio row interview with him here) was quoted as saying, “There are certain lines that I think need to be respected as far as the authority of the family vs. the authority of the state.”

“I feel like this legislation takes a great leap over that line, potentially empowering the state to even take custody of minors in a way that does not feel appropriate to me,” Brakey said.

Encouraging the trafficking of children from other states for treatments or surgeries, they can’t begin to understand does not feel appropriate either. Still, Democrat legislators are sponsoring bills to do that. The public school indoctrinates them. It then gives them mental health assessments without their consent. Then uses that as a basis for ‘abduction.’

That’s just a theory, but I think it sounds. And I’d applaud the rejection by the legislature, but for this. The bill will be back, and if Mainers don’t turn from the left-leaning course upon which they’ve set the state, the next time, it will pass.

The post State Sanctioned Kidnapping and Mutilation appeared first on Granite Grok.

I have just been made aware of a change to HB 1002 that has been proposed in order to charge taxpayers $25.00 an hour for any 91a request that goes over 10 hours. This would cost citizens a minimum of $250 and perhaps more to file for information that they are otherwise legally entitled to, with virtually no oversight as to how a municipality would determine the possible time frames needed to support such costs.

I would like to respectfully request that this Bill be KILLED.

It is my understanding that many of you from our Londonderry delegation recently met at Town Hall and although the town of Londonderry did not broadcast this, I’m willing to bet 91a was no doubt a topic of conversation.

As you are no doubt aware, 91a has largely been used to circumvent providing information to Citizens unless they file such a request and compel the town to release it. If the burden of 91a requests on our municipality is a concern to you, perhaps the town of Londonderry should set up an online repository where citizens can easily access documents that are requested or of interest to other citizens.

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I believe I specifically discussed this issue with speaker Packard and Senator Carson at a sit-down dinner at the Coach Stop Restaurant back in September of 2023, in which both of these parties expressed more concern over my accountability efforts jeopardizing their re-election as opposed to any concern over the lack of transparency issue that I have raised and am raising again. It was disheartening to hear that you were not on the side of Citizen transparency back then, and it is disheartening to see that you are not on the side of Citizen transparency now.

Article 1 Section eight of the New Hampshire state constitution clearly enumerates that the operations of government should be transparent accessible and responsive, and this bill places an unconstitutional burden to government fulfilling that constitutional requirement.

This is uniquely and particularly a concern for Londonderry, as a court of law recently declared the town and town manager to be frivolous in regards to their compliance with 91a; this was specifically highlighted by the case from former Town Councilwoman Deb Paul in which she had to sue to get a document released that the Town maliciously withheld while skirting the legal requirements of 91a. It is without a doubt that this cost burden will be weaponized in a manner just barely skirting the law to withhold as much information that they believe is damaging to the town as possible.

In addition to the unique concerns relevant to the town of Londonderry, I have spoken with citizens in Hudson, Hollis, Chester, Raymond, Derry, and other surrounding municipalities who also feel that this bill will have a chilling effect on citizen access to the workings of governments.

There are already many questions among citizens as to why we should continue to re-elect the same representatives and Senators when we are often dissatisfied with their outcomes on our behalf. Not being on the side of Citizen transparency is an issue that we will no doubt have to address in the public sphere as we get closer to the fall election if you do not turn from this course.

Please remember that you are a representative and a servant of the people and not the manipulative special interests in the town of Londonderry and the state of New Hampshire. Please kill this bill.

The post I Would Like to Respectfully Request That This Bill Be Killed appeared first on Granite Grok.