I read somewhere that the SPLC had fingered GraniteGrok as anti-government. I feel certain they are honored now more than ever, given that The Government has become the thing that drove the Founders to Declare their independence.

 

 We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness—-That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

 

There is a lot of safety and happiness these days, and you can blame the government for that. The cabal of connected insiders bilking the people and the planet for their own benefit. A sort of Global confidence scam, though that wasn’t where I intended to go. The SPLC, a scam all its own, is another establishment tool, but it has been struggling to find relevancy.

Labeling the ‘Grok anti-government isn’t the gesture to get them there beyond this audience, so they’ve come up with a new thing. It’s called CAPTAIN.

 

That stands for Combating Anti-LGBTQ Pseudoscience Through Accessible Informative Narratives. …

What they are doing with CAPTAIN is reviving one of [SPLC founder Morris] Dees’ rare flops, an example of when the fundraising prodigy got too far out ahead of his target market. Two entire decades ago, Morris teamed up with some autogynephilic big brains like economist Donald-Deirdre McCloskey and semiconductor scientist Lynn Conway to try to cancel anyone who’d given a nice blurb to Northwestern U. psychology professor J. Michael Bailey’s book The Man Who Would Be Queen.

 

Combating Anti-LGBTQ Pseudoscience Through Accessible Informative Narratives.

I’m no expert, but I find it unlikely this will take off the way they hoped. It’s too long. It’s cumbersome and conceptually late to the party. Science is no longer the driving force behind the militant transgender agenda. It’s about fear and intimidation. The battle has moved from the streets to grade-school classrooms where groomers and activists are immersing other people’s kids in gender faith dogma.

Munchausen, by proxy in all its forms, is the captain. People, schools, teachers, and parents desperate for attention and acceptance in the go-viral or bust digital world are sacrificing children for clicks and views. They then mislabel it as compassion, forgiveness, and acceptance – none of which has a thing to do with science.

The science  is that it is unhealthy to leave kids alone and let them develop naturally. It is better to inundate them with sexualized literature that includes fringe heterosexual abuse as well as so-called LGBT themes that the average non-anit LGBTQ pro-science apologist should find offensive.

Drugs, cutting, rape, smoking, alcohol abuse, assault, adult child sex and suicide.

It is true that some members of the LGBTQ community are more inclined toward all of the vices, so perhaps that’s at least honest. Even in the most encouraging communities, nearly half will consider or attempt suicide. So, sure, that content might pass as actual LGBTQ “science” if we’re talking psychotherapy, which, if you ask a real scientist, will tell you that is not science at all. It’s pseudoscience. And look, it’s all coming together.

CAPTAIN is really about advancing LGBTQ pseudo-science narratives, which is what everyone else is doing.

Not new. Not likely to make a splash, but they at least got an anti-government blog post out of it on the ‘Grok.

 

The post Have You Met the SPLCs’ New CAPTAIN? appeared first on Granite Grok.

First, she delays her decision. Then she announces her decision. Next, she suspends her decision. The Secretary of State is not usually a high-profile state government position, but Secretary of State Shenna Bellows is making the most of her moment in the spotlight.

She is shining the light on her bad decision-making, bringing political activism into a neutral position, inability to grasp the limitations of her job, and driving a wedge between rural Conservatives and urban WOKE dwellers.

Shenna Bellows posted her decision on her personal X account (@shennabellows), and the 34-page document illustrated her consistent bias through this process of challenges, hearings, and decisions.

This is her conclusion:

I do not reach this conclusion lightly. Democracy is sacred, and the highest court of this State has repeatedly recognized that “no right is more precious in a free country than that of having a voice in the election of those who make the laws under which, as good citizens, we must live.” Melanson v. Secy’ of State, 204 ME 127, 114, 861 A.2d 641 (quoting Burdick .v Takushi, 504 U.S. 428, 41 (1992) (cleaned up). I am mindful that no Secretary of State has ever deprived a presidential candidate of ballot access based on Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment. I am also mindful, however, that no presidential candidate has ever before engaged in insurrection. The oath I swore to uphold the Constitution comes first above all, and my duty under Maine’s election laws, when presented with a Section 336 challenge, is to ensure that candidates who appear on the primary ballot are qualified for the office they seek.

The events of January 6, 2021, were unprecedented and tragic. They were an attack not only upon the Capitol and government officials but also an attack on the rule of law. The evidence here demonstrates that they occurred at the behest of, and with the knowledge and support of, the outgoing President. The US.. The Constitution does not tolerate an assault on the foundations of our government, and Section 36 requires me to act in response.

I conclude that the Rosen and Royal Challengers have met their burden under 21-A M.R.S. § 337(2)(B). They have provided sufficient evidence to demonstrate the falsity of Mr. Trump’s declaration that he meets the qualifications of the office of the presidency. Therefore, as required by 21-A M.R.S. § 336(3), I find that the primary petition of Mr. Trump is invalid.

Her conclusion shows her decision is based more on her shared views of the challengers and less on the law. She is making accusations that the President was involved in an insurrection against the country, yet she will not be able to justify this as Trump was never charged or found guilty of such a crime. She also claims the challengers provided sufficient evidence but neglects to say the other side also provided sufficient evidence to the contrary. Her decision and conclusion is a political tool.

After 34 pages of Kamala Style word salad and a definitive conclusion, she suspends her decision in the same document. She went on:

Given the compresed timeframe, the novel constitutional questions involved, the importance of this case, and impending ballot preparation deadlines, I will suspend the effect of my decision until the Superior Court rules on any appeal, or the time to appeal under 21-A, Section 37 has expired. C.f nI er Manie Clean Fuels, Inc,. 310 A2.d 736, 74 (Me. 1973) (noting administrative agencies are free to fashion their own rules of procedure).

This decision and immediate suspension are further evidence of her inability to perform her job objectively. One thing she has done is keep the Maine Supreme Court and the United States Supreme Court busy going into the New Year.

 

The post Bear Pond Conservative Chronicles: What Is Bellows Endgame appeared first on Granite Grok.

The College Fix went back through its 2023 archives to find things it reported on that someone on one campus or another decided were racist. A White Tower Guide for 2023, if you like. It’s quite the eclectic list.

We won’t duplicate all 71 of them, but instead, pick a few that caught our attention—not wearing a mask, for example. There were several black people on the list who were considered racist, like Sen. Tim Scott or black police officers. Fast Food is racist, as are clean pantries, Body Mass Index, and Public Health Departments.

Clowns, the movie Wonka, the American Flag, Art Therapy, and The Apostle Paul – all racist.

Justice Antonin Scalia

Conservatives

President Abe Lincoln

Governor Ron DeSantis

President Donald Trump

Nathan Bedford Forrest

Ambassador Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy, Vice President Mike Pence, Governor Chris Christie.

All racist.

The Outdoors is racist, as are Florida, the Kansas City Chiefs, and white paint. Math, Dance, Dating Apps, and White People. Racist! In other words, anything, anywhere, at any time, is racist if it fits the circumstances in which racism is the crutch needed, and we’ve been warning the culture warriors about this for a while. The fake hate hoaxes, of which there were at least 19 on US campuses in 2023, according to the College Fix. The ease with which the idea is peddled in circumstances where it has no place.

If you overuse the thing, it will lose its power. At some point, people who were once terrified of being labeled racist and, as such, went out of their way to prevent or avoid actual racism – perhaps even working to end it – won’t give a damn.

That time is now, and it has been coming since the election of Obama. Barry is the black president who destroyed decades of progress almost overnight. He did it to destabilize the nation, and that worked, too. To pit us against each other instead of against a government working every day to make all of us its slaves.

The BLM riots enshrined that division in modern history but only improved a handful of black lives who happened to vote Democrat and used (at least some of) the money they raised by mansions in primarily white neighborhoods.

Given the Democrat party history, the systemic racism of its ideological ancestors, the Left’s modern-day urban plantations, and the failure of black support for Democrats to improve their lives in any meaningful way is being called racist just another institution the Left needed to destroy?

And what happens to black voters when Democrats don’t need them anymore?

 

The post What Happens to Black Voters When Democrats Don’t Need Them Anymore? appeared first on Granite Grok.

The State Chittenden County Prosecutor Sarah George stated at Burlington’s Community Forum on public safety that the overall justice system is not set up for timely investigation and prosecution of repeat-shoplifters.

“There isn’t a legal avenue to just hold people in jail while their cases are pending,” she said. “It is literally against the law and our Constitution to do that. So if someone is stealing repetitively from a store, I would first say that it’s often two months at least until our office knows anything about it, and that’s if we get the cases from law [enforcement].”

She said the police have to finish their investigations before her office gets involved.

“If the cases are investigated and solved, and then those cases come to us, it’s often two months at least until our office knows anything about it. So in that time, people are of course able to continue to engage in that behavior without our office ever knowing it’s happening so much later on,” she said.

She also said that her office cannot lock up anyone without a conviction.

“And then by the time we do, we can’t just hold people in jail,” George said. “They are entitled to their freedom and they are presumed innocent until we have proven at trial that they are guilty and that is another delay while we are attempting to do that so that’s how our system works.”

She continued that she wishes both the police and her office could collect, investigate, and prosecute shoplifting in a more timely manner, but “that is not how our system is designed to work, unfortunately” she said.

The clip can be seen here.

Burlington Mayor says meth and Fentanyl fueling crime

Burlington mayor Miro Weinberger was on the Morning Drive radio show on Wednesday talking about how Fentanyl and meth are fueling the crime crisis.

“Since 2020 Fentanyl and meth have become the dominant drugs in the area and that has been a game changer,” Weinberger said. “Fentanyl is a much more powerful opioid, a much higher risk and overdose and death, it’s an opioid that people have to consume much more frequently, it used to be people if they were heavily addicted they would be using these drugs every 8-to-10 hours, now it’s every 2-to3 hours. People are injecting or smoking this drug 8-to-10 times a day.”

He also talked about how meth makes people behave worse.

“Meth has this terrible side effect of making people very agitated and at times more likely to commit crimes or create other problems,” he said. “That is really the biggest change that I believe is driving this real Vermont-wide and really country-wide challenge with legal drugs right now. The fact that we have so many more homeless people is driven by our problematic housing market is another big component of it. And of course, our ability to address this is also impacted by the loss of officers that we faced.

More thefts over the holiday

There were more thefts over the holiday, especially on Tuesday. There was a request for information put out by state police after someone robbed an Aubuchon Hardware store in Moretown.

The report states, “Troopers received a report of a retail theft that occurred the previous week. Aubuchon Hardware in Moretown, Vermont reported multiple items taken from their store.”

A still from a security camera can be seen here.

Also on Tuesday, there was a car theft at the St. J Subaru dealership. A man on security camera can be seen checking car doors throughout the parking lot and when he finds one that is unlocked with a key still inside, he drives it away.

Stores are not the only target for thefts. The same day there was another incident involving two white men in a red SUV-type vehicle taking four snow tires and four aluminum rims from a residence in Glover.

 

Michael Bielawski | Vermont Daily Chronicle

The post State Prosecutor Says System Not Designed To Investigate and Prosecute Shoplifters … appeared first on Granite Grok.

I’ve tossed the idea out there that Chris Christie is playing bad cop to Haley’s good cop when it comes to Donald Trump. The NJ Governor runs the smear campaign so Haley can take the high road. If she gets the job, Christie gets one, too.

It might only look like that, but it feels right, and a recent report from a Haley Town Hall in New Hampshire makes it feel right, too.

 

A 9-year-old on Thursday labeled former UN Ambassador and presidential hopeful Nikki Haley the “new John Kerry” at a town hall event in New Hampshire, adding that they agree with her political opponent Chris Christie that she is too soft on former President Donald Trump.

“So Chris Christie thinks you’re a flip-flopper on the Donald Trump issue and, honestly, I agree with him. You’re basically the new John Kerry,” the boy, who self-identified as, Adam, told Haley, prompting laughter from the audience. “How can you change your opinion like that in just eight years, and will you pardon Donald Trump?”

Haley said at the town hall that if Trump, who currently faces 91 felony counts, is convicted, she would pardon him.

 

Haley has said nice things about her former boss, but she’s convinced he’s not the guy we need now. She is – High Road.

Another report, not too far separated in the arc of this supposed plot, calls for Christie to drop out so Haley (or DeSantis) can benefit from his voters. By which I mean Haley.

 

 Chris Christie is directly pushing back on calls for him to drop out of the 2024 Republican presidential primary in a new seven-figure ad buy debuting in New Hampshire on Thursday, according to details shared exclusively with CNN.

“Some people say I should drop out of this race. Really? I’m the only one saying Donald Trump is a liar,” the former New Jersey governor, who trails the former president significantly, says in a direct-to-camera ad launching on broadcast and digital platforms.

 

Christie says he can’t drop out. He’s the only Not-Trump candidate taking it to the former president. The low road. He’s in it to smear Trump, and he’s got the TV ad buys to prove it, which should not be construed as Christie trying to improve his standing in either Iowa or New Hampshire. He’s got no chance in hell. He’s less liked than every other candidate by a wide margin. All the numbers are against him, so there is no reason to drop a 7-figure ad buy unless it’s to help someone who can win.

Haley again.

 

“I told you, I think he was the right president at the right time. I told you that I agreed with a lot of his policies. But do I think he’s the right president to go forward? No,” Haley responded to the child, saying that both “pro-trumpers” and “anti-Trumpers” disagree with her critical approach to Trump. “We can’t handle the chaos anymore.”

 

Christie, again.

 

Christie has sharpened his response to voters who question why he stays in the race, arguing that he’s the only one taking on the GOP front-runner directly. …

He told a voter at a house party in Portsmouth last week that if Haley showed him “she was actually running against Donald Trump,” then he “might” consider supporting her.

But, Christie argued, “Nikki won’t answer the question” as to whether she would accept a vice presidential role from Trump, something he and DeSantis have both said they would reject.

 

Maybe I’m wrong, but I still believe this is all for the show. If Haley has real momentum (and that’s subject to debate), she will need Trump fence-sitters and Trump voters to get there. They won’t vote for her if she smears him. She is also the most viable not-Trump candidate this week, and Chrsite will never be viable. It is also the former NJ governor’s mission, and that of his donors, to sideline Trump, and he has performed well as a conduit for campaign cash aimed in that direction.

It makes more sense if true, but when did political decisions or campaigns ever have to make sense?

 

The post Haley Accused of Being Soft on Trump, She Says Christie is Too Hard on Him (So, Am I Right About Those Two?) appeared first on Granite Grok.

Successful public health campaigns and medical advances have enabled the United States to conquer a range of disfiguring and damaging diseases. Polio, which paralyzed thousands of Americans annually, was wiped out by widespread vaccinations. In 1999, the nation’s last hospital for lepers closed its doors in Louisiana.

A global campaign eradicated smallpox, while lethal tuberculosis, the “consumption” that stalked characters in decades of literature, seemed beaten by antibiotics. Measles outbreaks still occur from time to time, but they are small, local, and easily contained.

Recently, however, some of these forgotten but still formidable infectious diseases have begun to reappear in the U.S. For two years running, polio has been detected in some New York water samples, and this fall, leprosy re-emerged in Florida, where cases of malaria have also been recorded.

Health officials say they are not sure why these and other infectious diseases are resurfacing. One distinct possibility, which officials are loath to discuss, is that the millions of migrants who have crossed into the country in recent years could be bringing the scourges with them since many are from countries where such rare diseases persist, and vaccination programs are not robust.

“The recent polio and leprosy cases are almost certainly imports to the U.S.,” said Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a physician and scientist at Stanford University, one of the most outspoken critics of official COVID-19 narratives in the last pandemic that later proved flawed.

And the Biden administration, an aggressive promoter of often mandatory vaccination last time, now is offering little public comment on the connection between disease and the porous borders with which its immigration policy has become widely identified.

Neither the Centers for Disease Control nor the Department of Homeland Security would discuss the issue with RealClearInvestigations. Legal immigrants are required to receive vaccinations for a host of diseases, but the Department of Homeland Security acknowledged it does not have vaccination records for the millions who have entered the U.S. since the Biden administration relaxed border controls upon taking office in January 2021.

“It’s not like there is some Typhoid Mary out there, but this is something people are seeing and thinking about, even if they don’t want to discuss it publicly,” said Art Arthur of the Center for Immigration Studies, which opposes the Biden administration’s border policies.

The reticence of federal agencies has not stopped some local officials, however, from raising public health alarms over massive immigration. New York City Health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan warned in April that at least half of the migrants who have poured into the city had not been vaccinated against polio. The potentially paralyzing and life-threatening virus remains endemic in two countries in the world, Afghanistan and Pakistan, according to the World Health Organization. Since President Biden ordered what proved to be a chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, an estimated 90,000 Afghans have come to the U.S. under the terms of Operation Allies Welcome.

It is not clear if those migrants met the polio vaccination requirement. DHS did not respond to a question about whether medical histories were reviewed in the fast-tracked entry of Afghans who got out of their country before the Taliban reimposed its control.

Vasan’s warning pointed directly to the southern border, which has seen record-shattering arrivals on the Biden administration’s watch.

“More than 50,000 people have come to New York City in the past year shortly after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border,” he wrote in an 11-page letter. “I am writing now to underscore how critical it is that health care providers take a wide range of considerations into account when working with people who are seeking asylum.”

Citing outbreaks of chickenpox in shelters for illegal immigrants, Vasan also noted the arrival of newcomers who either began their journey in a country where tuberculosis is present or passed through such countries en route to the U.S.

The New York City Health Department did not respond to questions from RealClearInvestigations or to a request to speak with Dr. Vasan, but the numbers have only grown since he sent his letter. Since spring 2022, more than 100,000 migrants have arrived in the city, and more than 67,200 were living in taxpayer-funded housing at the end of November, according to the New York Times.

Last year, the first recorded polio case in the U.S. since 2013 was diagnosed in New York State, with the victim described only as an “unvaccinated man.” Also, in 2022, poliovirus was found in the water supply of four New York counties, including Long Island and New York City. Another positive test result was recorded in Rockland County this year, according to the state.

In the U.S., polio vaccinations remain part of “the routine childhood immunization process” under which the CDC recommends four doses. Adults who grew up in the U.S. are vaccinated, the agency said.

The last occurrence prior to the New York diagnosis had been in 1979. Since November 2022, the CDC has begun wastewater testing for the poliovirus, so long extinct in the U.S., in selected areas, but the agency did not respond to questions about those investigations. It does provide information on COVID and monkeypox, the latter a disease that primarily afflicts the gay population.

A thorough investigation, exploring all avenues of transmission and trying to source a virus to its root, is common among virus hunters, and the idea that millions of people coming to the U.S. could inadvertently carry with them some infectious disease is but one possibility. For example, thus far researchers have been unable to pinpoint where the infamous Ebola virus originates in equatorial Africa.

‘Historically Atypical Countries’

The situation in the United States is further complicated by the fact that DHS officials don’t know where all of the more than 7.5 million migrants who’ve arrived since Biden took office are living. Those whom Border Patrol agents have encountered and processed have immigration court dates, but those dates are years in advance. Many people with uncertain immigration status lack health insurance and stay off the grid as much as possible, meaning even if the U.S. launched some kind of vaccination program, it would not know where to concentrate its efforts.

In addition, the historic flood of illegal immigration during the Biden administration has also featured a much more global population. DHS uses the term “historically atypical countries” to describe the panoply of countries outside of Mexico and Central America from which illegal immigration has soared. Between 2011 and 2022, the number of annual encounters involving immigrants from historically atypical countries soared from fewer than 8,000 to almost 1 million. The first six months of 2023 saw more than half of official encounters – these numbers do not include what Border Patrol calls “gotaways” for whom little information is available – from historically atypical countries. But infectious diseases largely forgotten in the U.S. remain public health issues in both hemispheres, and many of those nations have much less robust vaccination programs than most modern Western nations.

In 1988, when the World Health Organization launched the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, wild poliovirus was evident in 125 countries, but the zone where it remains endemic has shrunk to Afghanistan and Pakistan, with most recent cases occurring along the countries’ nearly 1,600-mile border, according to the CDC. Vaccination campaigns have proved problematic under the militant Islamic fundamentalist Taliban, according to the CDC. Oral vaccines in “parts of the south and northeast regions” are “allowed only at health facilities, mosques, and polio vaccination sites.”

In March, Al Jazeera reported that the Taliban would allow a polio vaccination program for children, but precise figures on the country’s overall vaccination rate remain unclear. The World Health Organization estimates that 76% of Afghanistan’s children have received a polio vaccine.

But some countries have even lower vaccination rates. On Nov. 30, for instance, some 700 people, including many from Senegal and Nigeria, walked into the U.S. at the Texas border. Only 63% of Senegal’s children have been vaccinated for polio, and various fevers, hepatitis, and malaria are endemic there. Measles, which the U.S. declared eliminated here in 2000, are an issue, too. The WHO estimates 22 million children missed their first measles vaccine last year and more than half of them live in just 10 countries, all of which fall in the “historically atypical” immigration list.

Measles cases have risen in the U.S., from 13 individual cases in 2020 to 121 in 2022, according to the CDC. Recent outbreaks in Ohio and Illinois have all occurred among unvaccinated children, according to state health officials. The age and nationality of victims is not made public, but the measles vaccination rate is below 70% in many countries that have sent immigrants to the U.S. recently.

While few are publicly pushing the panic button, some public health officials worry that a creeping mistrust of vaccines in the wake of the pandemic may make more Americans vulnerable to dangerous and even deadly scourges. Syphilis, for example, has been on the rise for many years but rose sharply during the pandemic.

COVID-19 has drawn the lion’s share of attention from the public health bureaucracy since 2020, leading to shortfalls in other areas, some experts said.

“All of these diseases are more prevalent in part because of lockdown policies which diverted public health resources and attention worldwide away from its traditional priorities of controlling the spread of these deadly infectious conditions,” Dr. Bhattacharya said, referring to measles and other maladies.

And just as there is no cure for polio, there is no vaccine for some infectious diseases. Malaria, for example, the mosquito-borne fever that killed more workers than yellow fever did when the Panama Canal was built, remains endemic in tropical zones, and its path to rare outbreaks in the U.S. usually follows either a trip made abroad or someone moving here, according to health officials in Florida.

Department spokesman Jae Williams told RCI the exact sources of many infectious disease outbreaks in the Sunshine State remain unknown, but the huge increase in illegal immigrants could be a clue.

“It’s always a possibility, and our most recent malaria cases appeared to be a strain from Central America,” he said. In other words, the malaria could have been brought by a newcomer or picked up by someone who traveled there and returned.

Central Florida this summer saw leprosy return, although the exact source remains a mystery, Williams said. Information about the age, sex, and nationality of victims is not public, and most of those who contracted the infectious, skin-disfiguring disease were described only as “landscapers.” Various accounts have speculated armadillos are to blame, but armadillos are not newcomers to the region. The theory holds that somehow the leprosy bacteria, which generally requires prolonged contact and against which most humans have developed immunity over millennia, is in the dirt armadillos wallow in, and the cases that broke out among landscapers then would be linked to the animals they encounter.

But leprosy is not endemic in Florida. It is most common in parts of southeast Asia, equatorial Africa, and Brazil.

“The influx of people, sure it’s a problem and it’s always a possibility,” Williams said. “But we don’t really know.”

Nevertheless, the questions are being asked with more frequency. On Dec. 19, Ashley St. Clair, a conservative commentator, set off a firestorm on X, formerly Twitter, that her Delta flight from Phoenix to New York was filled with people who had recently been processed, released, and brought to the airport by Border Patrol.

“All the pilots, airline staff, and passengers want to know is: what medical screenings are being done?” she wrote.

Delta did not respond to questions from RCI about what knowledge it had been provided about its passengers.

 

James Varney | RealClear Wire

The post Leprosy, Polio, Malaria, TB, Measles … and Massive Unscreened Illegal Immigration appeared first on Granite Grok.

A woman from British Columbia has announced her relationship with a tree. Not just any tree, an Oak Tree. Vancouver Island resident Sonja Semyonova, who likes the feeling of being tiny and supported by something so strong, discovered her feelings for the tree during COVID.

 

Semyonova claims that this whole thing began back in 2020 during the Covid lockdowns. She would go for walks in the woods and those strolls took her past the tree. Sometime during the summer of 2021, she began to feel something erotic for the tree: “I would lie against it. There was an eroticism with something so big and so old holding my back.”

 

She says there’s no actual sex with the tree despite insisting on how erotic her experience with it is. She likens it to the natural human attraction to the outdoors.

 

 “It’s already present in a lot of people. There’s a reason we want to go for picnics in parks and hike in nature. What we fail to notice is that the reason we want this is to tap into the life force that comes from these things, which is the erotic. I believe that we could gain from having a more symbiotic relationship with nature, that relationship could definitely be erotic.”

 

You are under no obligation to agree. Your next picnic need not be burdened by an internal battle over whether the object of your passion is the person with you (depending on the company) or the surroundings. Wow, the nitrogen level in this grass makes me so horney! It’s just so…green!

Semyonova is clearly a lonely woman for whom cats were not a solution (none big enough or strong enough to own legally, if I had to guess – and where would she keep the litter box?). Her loving a tree doesn’t harm anyone or anything else. She’s entitled to her devotion as long as no one else is forced to acknowledge it as normal or natural, and the tree is not…underage (it appears to be over 50). So, hey, if it makes her happy, whatever, but she’s going to have a hell of a time naming all the children when she’s not stepping on them.

There might be some conflict over pollination, so it should be an open relationship. All those anthers and stigma. It’s one giant, umm …  use your ecosexual imagination. And I have to guess that Mrs. Sonja Semyonova Oak (or is she keeping her last name) is allowed to be ‘inspired’ by other deciduous growth. No conifers, that would be weird. Pine Cones. Seriously!

Christmas cards – no roaring fire. Not a lot of travel together options. I hope she likes hanging out at his/her place. Oh, and “loving” trees as romantic context isn’t even a new idea.

Content warning (sort of).

 

 

The post Night Cap: Ecosexual Existentialism appeared first on Granite Grok.

Honolulu, Hawaii, just came up with an interesting way to prevent its residents from buying guns. Starting next month, you’ll need a permit to buy a gun. (This is already way outside the bounds of Bruen, but it gets worse.)

To get the permit, you’ll need to complete a course taught by a certified instructor. (Sounds a little like a jobs program, doesn’t it?)

Here’s the genius part:  No instructors have been certified. There is no information about what certified instructors would need to teach or how certification would be obtained. It could be years before a certification program is in place. And even then, it could be made so onerous that no one will bother to get certified. Or the course could be made so expensive that most people won’t be able to afford it.

The heart of Bruen is that the Second Amendment is not to be relegated to second-class status. It’s to be given the same deference as the First Amendment.

Could you even imagine a city, county, or state that would require you, before speaking in public, to get a permit by completing a course taught by a certified instructor? The idea is ludicrous on its face.

And for good reason. As early as 1819, the Supreme Court made it clear that ‘the power to tax involves the power to destroy.’ The same is true of the power to license.

That was reaffirmed as recently as 1983 when the Supreme Court declared that Minnesota couldn’t use a tax on ink directed at newspapers that were critical of the state government.

And although he didn’t have any legislative role, Martin Luther King Jr. often reminded us that ‘justice delayed is justice denied.’

What’s happening in Hawaii is a great illustration of why any infringement on a fundamental right, no matter how small or innocuous it may seem, cannot be allowed — because it provides a handle that can be used as leverage by those who would seek to ban the right completely.

You want to engage in speech? You want to keep and bear arms? Are you a person? Then you’re good to go. No tax, permit, license, certificate, or other paperwork required. Have a nice day.

Anything beyond that is an invitation to abuse.

Would you let someone implant a cancer cell in your body? It’s just one little cell. How much damage could it possibly do? 

If not, you should be just as vigilant about allowing one to be implanted in your rights.

 

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A National Rassmussen poll published a few days ago has Trump at 51, Haley at 13, DeSantis at 9, Christie at 9, Ramaswamy at 1,  and Hutchinson with no support. But if you listen to the establishment tools in the media, Haley is closing “the gap.”

What gap and on whom? The inference is Trump, but she’s at least 30 points behind him in New Hampshire, and the last poll out of Iowa had DeSantis in second. You can find pop-up polling or internet polling that suggests things are not as dire for her campaign as they appear, and that’s the point. There is an element of smoke and mirrors, and we get that this works (sometimes), but as Ed Mosca noted here, the most recent New Hampshire Republican primary poll includes registered Democrats, 62% of whom preferred Haley over Trump.

When I saw the poll a few days before Ed’s piece, I thought,

 

Isn’t the story that 62% of Democrats in the NH Republican primary poll picked Nikki Haley? Not sure that’s a positive. https://t.co/YcLXlIf1Ua

— Steve Mac Donald (@TheRealNHSteve) December 20, 2023

 

Some would say look, Haley is so bipartisan. My thought is quite the opposite. If she appeals that much to Democrats, why is she running as a Republican? My other more important thought (subjective as that may be) – since St Anselm’s included Democrats in a poll for a Republican primary in which they cannot vote, did the Dems not en-mass pick Trump? According to the sort of people funding Haley and DeSantis, he is the only candidate who can’t beat Biden. Trump is the guy who will inspire Dems to vote in record numbers and wipe out everyone else on the ticket.

I think the At. Anselm’s poll contradicts that notion.

It has been the practice of Democrats to change their party affiliation in New Hampshire to muddle the GOP Primary. They vote for the candidate they feel can’t beat their own. Get that one nominated, and it improves their odds. We just discussed a recent example here (in another form).

So why didn’t 62% of Democrats choose Donald Trump?

And why does the UMass poll (no Democrats) show Trump with a 30-point lead in New Hampshire while every other survey (including the pop-ups) has Haley closing that pesky gap?

 

Within an hour or so, ARG (American Research Group) released bare bones results showing Haley within 3 points of Trump. Folks, the coordination of messaging with the release of that poll right after the Trump +30 UMass Lowell Poll was released, is very suspect.

UMass Lowell put out crosstabs, a detailed methodology and met basic AAPOR standards of disclosure. The other did not and was pushed by Sununu-friendly media locally and anti-Trump media nationally, to include Mediate and FOX News, outlets which are ignoring the UMass Lowell Poll. …

This is very clearly intended to benefit Nikki Haley. …

 

Fraud and deception are the stock and trade of politics, so we should expect more of this in the weeks before Iowa and New Hampshire. And, perhaps, some of the same from the other sides. DeSantis has much to lose if Haley’s suspect polling goes unanswered, and he invested heavily in Iowa, where he’d held second place for the duration of the contest. I think he still does. But he’s struggling in the Granite State and needs to do well here to move on with any confidence.

Trump? He might want to toss a few rhetorical grenades into the relevant TV markets. Not everyone who will vote for him goes to Trump rallies or reads the glossy mailers. Haley has improved her place in the standings, and the party establishment money is lining up to give her momentum, real or imagined, and it hardly matters because if left unquestioned, one becomes the other.

 

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