New Hampshire Democrat Bobbi Boudman is running for state rep in Carroll County 7 (Ossipee, Tuftonboro, Wolfeboro), and she’s had a thought about the problem of unwanted pregnancies. Women “can’t share their DNA,” so men’s DNA needs to be regulated.

I’m not kidding; check this out.

 

 

The most startling thing about this rant might be the implication that an unborn baby is a life (a developing life form). That’s a radical notion for an abortion-or-bust left that is happy to kill that life at birth and, depending on whom you ask, some weeks or months after.

I’m sure they’ll bring it up in Dem caucus counseling should she manage to get elected.

As for the other thing, if we accept that a woman (whatever that is) cannot “share” her DNA but a man can, then are we abandoning #BelieveWomen #NoMeansNo, and all the assorted #Consent hashtags? We’d have to agree that a woman’s body is not hers. It is not her choice to grab the bait, yank the bobber or swallow the hook.

She’s the castle keep, and he’s the payload in the trebuchet lobbed over the battlement.

The last time I checked, that was called rape, and we have laws against that, not to mention millions of protest hours about women being the final word on what goes inside them (unless it’s a COVID vaccine).

YOU are the gatekeeper of your DNA. It is your property, secured in your vault and guarded by you. Or not.

As a bipedal female hominid running as a Democrat for elected office, are you renouncing all of that in pursuit of your premise?

And it is not some new idea for Bobbi, by the way. Last year she publicly announced the same plan.

 

 

I agree that the best way to prevent an unwanted pregnancy is not to get pregnant, but Bobbi is not preaching abstinence. As she notes, sex feels good, and I guess women shouldn’t have to be responsible for what they do in pursuit of pleasure or something.

That would explain Democrats’ pursuit of taxation – it just feels so good to take other people’s stuff and spend it on their priorities that they can’t help themselves.

As for the notarized document, how about a marriage license -another idea the New Wave Dems will not love. That’s how we used to do it, and there were far fewer unwanted pregnancies or births out of wedlock (without a license, to borrow your parlance).

But that’s backward thinking which is not at all progressive.

So, what’s next? Women can’t be guilty of murder? My mistake; we already have that it’s called conception to live-birth abortion, and men – I am told – have no say in that, even if their unregulated DNA caused all the trouble.

 

 

 

The post Local Democrat Suggests #EjaculationLegislation to Prevent Unwanted Pregnancies appeared first on Granite Grok.

Ivan Ilyin’s “On Resistance to Evil by Force” (trans by K Benois) was first published in Berlin in 1925. The author makes many philosophical points, some of which depend on the divine origin of the New Testament, but I will cherry-pick for points that may help us figure out what to do about the evil in our midst right now.

We want to thank Mary Maxwell for this Op-Ed Please direct yours to Editor@GraniteGrok.com.

Our situation is like that which Ilyin found himself in when he realized how disastrous the 1917 Russian Revolution was: his country had collapsed. He wrote the book while in exile in Germany, where he and other “White Russians” had been deported in 1922.

His book is not about boots on the ground but about souls in heaven. Still, it can teach us a lot about boots on the ground.

Who Is Evil Today?

Do you remember “the fall of the wall” in 1989? The wall in Berlin that had separated East and West Germany since 1945 was occasionally breached by protestors — who were shot on sight — but by the late 1980s, Communism was collapsing, and the wall could not hold. German families were reunited. At that point, the government in Bonn that had run the western part of Germany was able to raid the Communist headquarters of the eastern part.

They found that the spy organization STASI had employed, or otherwise commanded, a full 30% of East German citizens. Many divorces followed when people learned that their spouse had worked for an evil government! I deduced from the STASI figure that 30% is probably the minimum proportion of spies and collaborators needed to keep oppressed people oppressed. Sad to say, looking around me now, I think the number of collaborators in the US is far greater than 30%.

Here’s hoping they got sucked in rather unknowingly and would like a way out. It seems that every, and I do mean every news reporter on TV, is part of a big game. They hand out amazing lies every day, and these are lies that underpin a takeover of our government. Are such media persons, as individuals, deluded? Or have they made a choice? And what of the medical personnel who have wittingly or unwittingly contributed to the vaccine tragedy?

Quoting Ilyin’s Diagnosis of Passivity (Non-resistance to Evil)

Ilyn’s Chapter 2 is entitled “On Non-Resistance to Evil.” He writes:

“What would “non-resistance” [to evil] mean, in the sense of the absence of any resistance? This would mean accepting evil: letting it in and giving it freedom, scope and power. If under these conditions the uprising of evil occurred, and non-resistance continued, it would mean subordination to it, a surrender of the self to it, participation in it, and finally, turning oneself into its instrument, … its plaything, an absorbed element thereof.” (p 7)

I hasten to say that I [MM] have never diagnosed anyone in this way. My stuff is usually about people being psychologically ‘in denial’ or simply being ignorant of the power schemes that have bought them out. In fact, when “defending” folks who rail against conspiracy theory, I have often diagnosed their central problem as conformity. Following the crowd is a strong controller of human behavior! It is very hard to speak out.

But let’s check out more of Ilyin’s profound analysis of human morality and immorality. He says (still in Chapter 2):

“Therefore the non-resistor of evil sooner or later arrives at the need to assure himself that evil is not so bad and that it is not so definitively evil, that it has some positive features, that there are many of them, that they may even predominate…. And when aversion subsides and evil is no longer experienced as evil, then acceptance imperceptibly becomes total: the soul begins to believe that black is white, adapts to match, becomes black itself, and finds that it approves and enjoys, and, of course, this gives evil great pleasure. ” (p 8) ]Emphasis added]

My Take on This

Ilyin goes on to say that “the non-resistor to evil is absorbed by it and becomes possessed.”
I honestly don’t know if Ivan Ilyin is correct. The strongest evil that I have been exposed to (but only second hand and third hand) has to do with the MK-Ultra program, and related atrocities committed by Tavistock in its search for micro-control of the human individual.

Experimenters used cruelty and terror in the way a cook might use a blender or a frying pan: “whatever works is OK.” And the persons doing it were not, I believe, chosen from a pool of psychopaths. Schoolteachers, psychologists, nurses, all participated. I am still stumped as to how they overcame their moral proclivities. Possibly Ilyin is right. Possibly the human brain takes whatever is happening and works it into a pattern of OK-ness.

(Note: the method of the lying TV reporter may differ greatly from that of the guy who turns on the electric current to torture a 3-year-old. Or maybe not?)

I reached out to buy Ilyin’s book when it was recommended by a man who is grasping with all his might to find out what’s up with the “war in Ukraine.” And, by the way, that war brings me back to the issue of the dishonest news service. Were we to understand that Rupert Murdoch and other moguls create wars by guiding public opinion deceptively, we could look with jaundiced eyes at any report in the press about “uprisings” or “coups.”

Indeed, it would be nice if Rupert said “Anything you read in my papers was written to give me and the other Big-Boy globalists a financial advantage and a reduction in your sovereignty.” We in the audience would be all set. Evil would have advertised itself as evil. But oh no, these media bosses give us a parallel set of pieties: they remind us that journalists rely on facts, that our overseas interventions are humanitarian, and blah, blah, blah.

The Book’s Title: On Resistance to Evil by Force

Next, let’s get down to a part of the book “On Resistance to Evil by Force” to see what tricks the author can hand us that may stimulate real physical resistance to today’s evil-doers. (Hmm: should these tricks have been used to stop the initial success of the Bolshevik Revolution, or to get the native population of southern Africa to trip up Cecil Rhodes?) Ilyin summarizes it like this, in Chapter 21: “A strong man sees the tragedy of his situation and goes out to meet it, enter it, and eliminate it.”

But wait. You haven’t lived till you’ve read Chapter 4 “On Inducement and Violence” (which Ilyin wrote to counteract Tolstoy’s theory, popular at the time, that violence is the evil). The external physical action is not what matters. What matters is the state of your soul, your freedom to choose and decide.

I can’t cover the details here; the point is that it’s up to each person to allow or not allow herself to be induced to think or do what the other person is inducing her to do. Also, therefore, she act wrongly if she makes someone do something unwillingly. Each sovereign person has control over his participation in evil. Ilyin writes:

“Tolstoy and his adherents see only self-coercion (‘violence over one’s own body’) and physical violence against others…. [They don’t acknowledge] the possibility of mental compulsion and mental violence towards others. [Hence they reject as evil] all unnecessary and godless interference in the lives of others.” (p 28)

I ask: How about those TV reporters? How about teachers who are still naming the wrong assassin for JFK? Aren’t they performing violence on the listener’s mind?

Ilyin’s Caution about the Sword

Ilyin says: “Man finds himself compelled to help others in their struggle to stop the activities of those who have already surrendered to evil and are seeking universal destruction.” Since the word “sword” appears in the title of this chapter you would expect that he gets right down to it, and rules morally on whether you are allowed to kill.

“Fighting evil always requires heroism. Not only when it is exercised in the form of internal efforts, educating and cultivating his spiritual wings but also in the form of a compelling and suppressing sword.” (p 194)

The verb ‘to suppress’ in this book means holding activity back such as imprisoning a person.

“Christ did not teach the sword. He taught love. But not once, not in a single word, did He condemn the sword, neither in the sense of an organized state for which the sword is the last sanction, not in the sense of military tiles and affairs. [See] His words on the paying of taxes, and in a conversation with Pilate. … It is love that raises us to great heights: both to the sacrifice of unrighteousness and to the sacrifice of life.” (pp 195-196)

 

“When a person enters into conflict with villains and resorts to force, the sword, or cunning [there’s not much discussion of cunning in Ilyin’s book], he has [no] right to lay aside the burden of decision and responsibility and transfer this to the divine. The man who fights villains must see for himself, perceive and evaluate all the conditions…he must understand that he is forced to resort to these means….” (p 184)

 

“The resistance to evil [i.e., use of force] is always a matter of what is pious, righteous, and orderly.” It is impossible to impose an absolute prohibition against force and the sword [per Tolstoy’s pacificism] for recourse to them can become morally and religiously mandatory.” (p 181)

Forgiveness for the Sinner? More than That!

I can’t do justice to this book “On Resistance to Evil by Force.” Note: it hardly mentions law. I love to rely on law, such as my favorite High Court of Australia ruling, in Zecevic v DPP:

“The question to be asked in the end is simple. It is whether the accused believed upon reasonable grounds that it was necessary in self-defence to do what he did. If he had that belief and there were reasonable grounds for it, or if the jury is left in reasonable doubt about [it] he is entitled to an acquittal.”

Ivan Ilyin goes deeper:

“If an attacker assails a ‘beloved’ person and I prefer at that moment that they be killed rather than to put myself in physical opposition to the attacker, then all my love turns out to be an example of affected grandstanding.” (p 78)

Or try this:

“Of course justice is better and greater than injustice, but moral perfection is even greater and even better than justice. Therefore, reference to the fact that ‘execution is just punishment for the villain’ does not mean that we can wash our hands of the broader conclusion: this just penalty cannot and should not be recognized as the morally perfect way of dealing with people.” (p 179)

It’s clear that Ilyin truly believes in holiness and in your duty to help others achieve holiness. I can only recommend that you read more of the book if you are spiritually inclined. Or are open to persuasion in that area.

I admit that I cheated a bit by looking for his “justifications” for things that I want to see justified. Here he speaks of the person who is too weak to act:

“He sins in his own way, in his own way he addresses his weakness and malicious inclinations, but he takes upon himself the guilt of the villain (for he indulges him and passively abets his atrocities).” (p174)

Wow! And Ilyin also opines that when God said, “Love your enemy,” He did not mean Love God’s enemies!

Get Lifted Up

Finally, I have to tell you that I was shocked at the extent to which this author encourages us to help the sinners to stop sinning. Just imagine how easy it could be for your Aunt Tillie to stop being afraid of 9-11 truth, if she felt she was on a mission to make life nicer for, say, Dick Cheney. By improving his character and giving him a chance at perfection. I mean it’s better than telling her that it’s her duty to whoop him.

Alternatively, you could discreetly read this passage to her:

“It is clear that the man with his back to evil, not seeing [it], cannot solve the problem because he extinguishes it in himself, relieves himself of its burden, dulls its severity and resulting anguish, and deprives himself of any right to participate in a discussion of the issue.” (p55).

It is pleasing to hear that Ilyin is the favorite philosopher of Russia’s current leader, Vladimir Putin.

 

 

The post What to Do about the Evil in Our Midst? appeared first on Granite Grok.

Our country as we know it is in grave danger. Big Government Socialism has a strong foothold in the entire Federal bureaucracy, in many state agencies and big cities, as well as in the educational, entertainment, news and information, big tech, and an overwhelming number of other cultural institutions.

Abraham Lincoln, contemplating the state of the nation as he was facing an impending Civil War, wrote that “we shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth.” Our once-great country is facing those same choices today.

November’s elections could be the beginning of our return to greatness or the final phase of our demise. The choices we make will determine whether we continue the relentless drive toward Big Government Socialism, or begin to reverse course back to prosperity and freedom.

We want to thank Ted Lloyd for this Op-Ed. If you have an Op-Ed or LTE
you would like us to consider, please submit it to Editor@GraniteGrok.com.

Think of the dozens of changes made by the Biden administration over the 20 short months it has been in power. If you honestly appraise whether we are better off than before you will clearly see that we are not.

Republicans recently released their “Commitment to America,” which is the plan for the concrete actions they will take when and if they regain majorities in Congress. The four pillars of the plan are “an economy that’s strong; a nation that’s safe; a future that’s built on freedom; and a government that’s accountable. See the specifics at www.republicanleader.gov/commitment/.

Our economy is plagued by rampant inflation and an impending recession. Our energy independence has evaporated, and energy costs have exploded. Home values are declining and interest rates are rising. Economic growth is stagnant, dragged down by trillions in wasteful spending. Is this strength? No!

We can do better.

Nearly 4 million immigrants have illegally crossed our borders since Biden was inaugurated. Chinese fentanyl crosses our border at record rates. Fentanyl poisoning is the leading cause of death for adults 18-45. “Defund the police” movements have decimated our police forces. Skyrocketing crime is destroying our our cities. Is that making us safe? No!

We can do better.

Our military is bogged down in woke-ism, active duty personnel is well below planned levels, highly trained sailors, soldiers, and marines are dishonorably discharged for declining vaccinations, and $80 billion worth of equipment, armaments, and aircraft were abandoned when a world class military air base was left to the Taliban. And an estimated 70-100,000 military translators, aides, and other workers with US visas were denied exfiltration from Afghanistan. Based on this, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping have judged our nation to be weak, and have accelerated their plans for global domination. Is that making us safe? No!

We can do better.

Despite the end of the pandemic, mandates and restrictions continue. Our doctors and pharmacists are forbidden to provide proven treatments which conflict with the officially sanctioned vaccinations and medications. Restrictions on guns and ammunition continue despite Supreme Court reaffirmations of our 2nd Amendment rights. Conservative authors, filmmakers, politicians, and ordinary citizens are censored with impunity on the internet. Are we really free? No!

We can do better.

News stories about potentially illegal actions by our current President’s family were censored and suppressed, impacting the 2020 election. Senators and Representatives come to Washington poor and leave rich. The House of Representatives continues its hate-filled propaganda circus over January 6th, while refusing to look at the questionable actions of the Speaker of the house, the DC mayor, and her police. The FBI stages paramilitary raids on the administration’s political enemies, yet refuses to declassify embarrassing or incriminating information under the guise of “national security sources and methods.” Is this accountability? No!

We can do better.

The Democrats on the other hand have told us their three primary arguments for getting our vote in November: climate change being the number 1 existential threat to our country, women’s health (read abortion) rights being taken away, and everything Trump is a “big lie.” If you disagree, and you know that a strong economy, a safe nation, protection of our freedom, and an accountable government are much more important than Democrat talking points, it’s critical that you vote on November 8th, and that you vote Republican up and down the ballot.

Thank you!

The post Vote Republican on November 8th appeared first on Granite Grok.

After Conquering Twitter, Elon Musk Set To Invade Facebook

The world of social media geopolitics is undergoing a shift of apocalyptic proportions.

The world’s richest man Elon Musk was seen shirtless riding on a pale stallion as he entered Twitter headquarters just outside San Francisco. The Twitter office atmosphere, normally placid consisting of quietly sipped lattes and the soft buzzing of indoor Segways was bedlam. Loud shrieks were reported by passersby and bodies could be seen jettisoning themselves from the one-story building onto the well-manicured lawn below.

Serried by a band of IPad toting millennials dressed in business casual jeans and cleverly sloganed t-shirts, Musk strode triumphantly to his new office with the corner window overlooking the Whole Foods Market across the street. He immediately tore down the portraits of Stalin and Mao and replaced them with a war map of the social media landscape.

Just a few miles away, the Facebook headquarters was abuzz with rumors of a hostile takeover by the Musk army. For months, reports have been leaking out of Facebook headquarters that the small collection of conservative employees being held against their will by the cruel tyrant Mark Zuckerberg had sealed off a portion of the Instagram department preparing to vote on fully annexing themselves to Twitter.

Musk is reported to have been circling the Twitter campus repeatedly yelling “ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED!?” as soon-to-be former employees, binary and non, lay curled up in the fetal positions sobbing along the promenade.

Banana’s social media war correspondents will remain on the ground via Zoom for continued reports.

The post Musk To Annex Instagram from Facebook appeared first on Granite Grok.

Libertine:

A libertine is a person devoid of most moral principles, a sense of responsibility, or sexual restraints, which they see as unnecessary or undesirable, and is especially someone who ignores or even spurns accepted morals and forms of behaviour observed by the larger society.[1][2] Libertinism is described as an extreme form of hedonism.[3] Libertines put value on physical pleasures, meaning those experienced through the senses. As a philosophy, libertinism gained new-found adherents in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, particularly in France and Great Britain. Notable among these were John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, and the Marquis de Sade.

As opposed to ordered Liberty but contrasting the two is a whole ‘nother series of posts that I’m not willing to dive into right now (perhaps later, just not now).

The reason I am doing THIS post is this one from CNN that illustrates the nuttiness and chaos that we Normals are supposed to put up with because of this social contagion called Transgenderism.  It renders history not just moot but to be abolished, it treats biology as a thing that one can skip one way this moment to the other way in the next moment, and the use of pronouns (while not as bad as some others I’ve read) to be useless (the redefining of our common language so as to no longer be precise but muddied, muddled, and moronic).

Reality has no problem in knocking them off their dysphoria (reformatted, emphasis mine):

‘We’re a part of this movement, too.’ Transgender and nonbinary people say they feel excluded from the abortion fight

(CNN) — Mikiko Galpin still feels the impact of being sexually assaulted by someone he thought he could trust – and the tough decisions he was forced to make after multiple pregnancy scares. When Roe v. Wade was overturned in June, it was a sad and heavy moment for the 29-year-old transgender man. He was taken back to the first time he took a pregnancy test prior to transitioning. He recalls crying in the passenger seat of a friend’s car at 2 a.m. trying to search for a pharmacy that was still open so he could buy a pregnancy test.

Look, I’m not making light or sport about getting molested or raped.  That is not my point and NO ONE should ever suffer that harm.

What I AM objecting to is the complete rejection that he was a girl at that point of his life – but with the use of “preferred pronouns”, one can only scratch their heads going “what, a man who gets raped needs a pregnancy test?”; certainly that was my thought as I first missed “prior to transitioning” as I was speed reading to make sense of the post’s title.

Sorry, this makes no biological sense whatsoever – men can’t get pregnant. And this is part of the Chaos that transgenderism is bringing to Society: that “What, HUH?” moments in which you wonder what is going on. Gaslighting is what this is – an attempt to make you believe, at a psychological level, something you KNOW isn’t true.

Sorry, men and men and can’t get pregnant. In this case, girls and women can get pregnant – and no yammering about how one can be the other without transgressing absolute facts is true. But that’s the point – to do away with absolutes.  The Left hates absolutes – those that believe that there are fundamental things that exist outside of themselves like sex and gender are the same thing, cannot be manipulated for any ideological reason.

Jane can’t be Johnny no matter how hard she tries.

At the time, Galpin said he felt trapped and didn’t know where to turn while navigating the complexities of a pregnancy scare resulting from a traumatic experience. An anxious Galpin feared the potential of upending his life to care for a baby at a young age.

“I just wanted to get a pregnancy test and know if I was pregnant at that point, and just feeling that complete sense of having no control over this really big part of your life,” Galpin said. “I think when the decision came down, I had that same feeling of not having control over this very momentous and personal thing that myself and other people who have reproductive abilities are going to go through in the coming months and years.”

Although Galpin turned out not to be pregnant, those fears about who gets to decide his reproductive rights still linger.

Few people like being out of control and what happened shouldn’t have.  But “who gets to decide HIS reproductive rights ” brings most people to thinking “Vasectomy? Physical castration?” and not abortion.  Again, one has to double-think everything in this kind of presentation – and that shouldn’t have to happen, doesn’t happen, unless language has been co-opted for ideological purposes.

In short, it creates chaos of thought because chaos of speech is deliberately happening to us all right now.

There is much more to the CNN piece that I’m not going to fisk but it is all about women who believe they are men. It is replete, however with the corruption of our language to make us believe that which we know is not real.

Oh, it may be real to that person. I’ve been saying for a few years now that if you think you are something that you aren’t (a man believing he is a woman or a girl thinking she is a boy), knock yourself out. If your family and friends accept that, more power to you.  However, leave me out of it. DON’T demand that I have to accept your gender dysphoria and, even worse, affirm who you are.  Not your place to demand that I bow to your libertinism.

Sidenote: Note not only the pronoun mangling in the post but is also had “misgendering” and “cisgender”. Tell me, before 10 years ago, did you ever hear anyone speak or write in those terms?  No, neither have I. And yet, there is an explosion of such “ideological words” that typical “hip” Leftists are spouting from their Moral Superiority high horse. Include “genderfluidity” and “transition” as if that terminology is based on fact.

No, you may present yourself as a guy today and a gal tomorrow (or even both during the same day) but presentation isn’t reality. You can’t “fluidly” change your biology and trying to enforce your groupthink that gender and biological sex are different.

And if you are ragingly insisting that they are, well, you are Oppressing me to be a Marginalized Person of Faith.

Stick that in your pipe and smoke it.

(H/T: CNN)

The post Welcome to the Chaos of CNN writing about Transgender Men, mangling history and grammar, and what this is doing to Society? appeared first on Granite Grok.

If you watch their campaign ads, you would think that the world is safe, the economy is sound, the Border is secure, and the education system is the best in the world. If you buy their message, then you must be living in a bubble.

We have a chance to change our direction with our vote in a few weeks. I am not sure I have faith in the American voters to do the right thing for America. Some people are so entrenched in their lifetime belief that the Democrats are for the little guy, the hardworking American. They are wrong, and we need to convince them why.

Look no further than New York and Pennsylvania to see what I mean. Kathy Hochul was sworn in as Governor when Andrew Cuomo resigned in disgrace. She has proven she is ill-prepared to be the chief executive of any entity, let alone one of our most populous states. While crime is destroying the large cities of her state, her concern has been changing words in state documents to align with WOKE philosophies. People are leaving New York by the thousands, and New York is even losing seats in Congress. She has no plan to change this trend but commands a 20-point lead in her race. Insanity.

In Pennsylvania, we have the Democrat Lieutenant Governor running for Senate. It is unfortunate for John Fetterman to have had a debilitating stroke, but it is unfortunate for the state that he will not step aside and concentrate on getting himself healthy. Before his stroke, Fetterman was still a dangerous politician who was more concerned with the rights of people who broke the law than their victims. Serving on the state parole board, he worked to put hardened criminals back into society quickly. What we got was a rising crime rate.

In New Hampshire, Senator Maggie Hassan was asked what she would do to right the economy and lessen the impact of crime. Her answer was alarming. She said she would continue to do what she has been doing for the last six years. Sorry, Maggie. Bad answer. What you are doing is giving us record inflation, a recession, $31 Trillion of debt, and a less safe state with a severe drug problem. If you think that works for Granite Staters, it is time you step aside.

Look at the list of stands the Democrats have taken:

1. An open Border and unlimited illegal aliens
2. Medical care and free education for illegals
3. Free spending and unbridled inflation
4. A shutdown of our fossil fuel usage and industry
5. Elimination of gas-powered vehicles in fifteen years
6. Keeping parents out of the education system
7. Including CRT and sex education in elementary schools
8. The right for minors to alter their gender without parental consent
9. Abortions up to the time of birth
10. Terminating the life of a fetus that is an abortion survivor 
11. Defunding the police
12. Emptying prisons and medical health facilities
13. Voting rights for illegals
14. Lowering the voting age to sixteen
15. Packing the Supreme Court

That is just a short list. I am sure we can come up with more dangerous policies and beliefs. Democrats call MAGA Republicans a crisis for Democracy. Please explain to me how any of the items on this list are conducive to a healthy and prosperous society. I will not hold my breath waiting for a response. Please vote with your head and not with habits from the past. The Democrat Party is not that of your parents. Your parents would be appalled at the direction the Left has us heading.

The post How Can Any Voter Cast for a Democrat appeared first on Granite Grok.

And the NH State GOP is PAYING for it?  Good going, dufuses, right off target again!  Yep, sent right to my house:

What is Chair Stepanek / Executive Director Eliot Gault?  Is this just more of the “getting a body into the slot” regardless that drives us in the base so nutty?  No discipline at all (something that Stepanek said he was going to start doing at the beginning of his tenure).  And why do I say that?  Let’s start with the NH GOP Platform:

We believe in free people, free markets and free enterprise.

And unions are not about any sense of Freedom. Sure, they have the First Amendment Right to assemble together but why should they have the ability to lock others out of jobs simply through the mechanism of a closed shop (“you must join the union to work here – or pay us tribute if you don’t join”).  It’s CLEAR that the NH GOP SAYS it’s about free markets but when it looks the other way concerning Republicans taking union money, those in charge know that their votes aren’t going to be about Right To Work but, instead, perpetuating Being Turned Away because UNIONS.

Now, Brodie Deshaies will no longer be in the NH State Legislature – as a RINO, several groups independently converged on him during the primary and well illustrated his dismal voting record to his voters.  They took note and tossed him into the trash.  I also noted that his Common Sense PAC received just about all of its campaign money from two unions ( So, Look Where Brodie Deshaies Is Getting His Campaign Money From! Hint: Right to Work). I also noted who much of the funds were disbursed to (“So, Look Where Brodie Deshaies Is Spending His Union Campaign Money To! One of Them Surprised Me“) – mostly those state reps that have been backed by the Democrat organized, funded, and run Political Action Committee called Citizens for Belknap here in (where else?) Belknap County.  They have been dubbed “the Lang Gang” and I’ve illustrated their voting records on Right To Work before (going against the Party). In part, I bet, because of Brodie’s “union contribution”:

• Mike Bordes – $1,000 (twice!). Funny, his website doesn’t talk about supporting unions but does mention “I vow to work across party lines and support common sense movement”. Gotta say thanks, somehow, I guess.  Oh, and to Sununu as well:
• Travis O’Hara – $1,000 (twice!)
• Doug Trottier – $1,000

In that post, I pointed out a surprise – Howard Pearl, who got $5,000 from union money peddling Deshaies.  I dryly note that Right To Work is not one of the issues listed on his ISSUES PAGE. Guess that kind of freedom doesn’t quite make it for him – for 5,000 reasons?

Tim Lang has a website but is devoid of any issue statements so I can’t “remind” him by using the Platform.  However, the UNIONS did remind him that they are demanding his fealty to them – with $5,000, just like with Howard.  Deshaies’s latest PAC filing tells the story: the leader of the Lang Gang is also now on the Union teat:

(click to embiggen)

SO, ladies and gents of the Republican Party? What do you think is going to happen in the NH State Senate if another Right To Work bill appears on the docket this session (and I am told there will be one)?  Will the people that you voted for (in this case, Pearl and Lang), expecting that they will follow the Republican Platform, actually FOLLOW the Platform?  Or simply brushed under the rug as “well, I’m with you 80% of the time – while holding that handful of money behind their backs as they tell you that?

Follow the money. First, you have to FIND the money.  Fortunately, a loyal reader showed me where Brodie’s money was coming from. From there, it was easy to see where it went.

Which Party loves them Union money the most?  It’s still the Democrats – but it is seeping elsewhere.

You reward their stances on this issue by voting for these elective representatives.  You can ALSO tell them “HECK NO!” by voting for someone else.  Heck, write me in as a protest vote if you live in District 2!

Heh!

 

 

The post GOP Candidate Tim Lang (NH Sen. Dist. 2) Is Sucking from the Union PAC Teat – AND Getting the NH GOP to Push Out Mailers for Him? appeared first on Granite Grok.

As predicted in the last Monday Memes, and in the Meme Overflow, I have an overflow-overflow.  Enjoy, and Happy Friday!

If you could, if you send a meme to someone, please say that you found it here (or whichever meme post is appropriate) and give the link.  In theory, it will get at least some to pop over and look.  The idea being is that they may peruse other memes which might then get through as Thought Splinters.  (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3).  Part IV is making snails-pace progress and I have a few other things I’m also poking at.  Work is… work and I’m playing project manager for a home remodel project too.

Now, let the mayhem, mockery, and ridicule resume:

*** Warning, a few possibly off-color ones, in case tender eyes are about ***

Note: Somehow the formatting seems a little off.  Apologies.

 

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OK, that’s really funny.  Also:

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Do I believe gays, etc., should be discriminated against?  No.  But I’m no longer willing to tolerate their behaviors, especially when it impacts my children.

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Years ago, working in a bridge job at a college, it was just before the 2016 election and everyone was in a blind panic that Trump might win.  One person in particular was petrified, “He’ll start a world war”!

HE didn’t, but the party she likes seems determined to actually do it with how hard they’re poking the Russian bear.  But then the Left has played that fear porn recording every election.  Every GOP candidate would start WWIII.  And it will be truly Scadenboner territory – even with a horrific cost – if the Potato actually has it happen on his watch.

 

#Belarus Minister of Defense : #NATO preparing for war.#Minsk cannot ignore the militarization of its Western neighbors, as there is concrete evidence that the countries of the #NATO are preparing their infrastructure and troops for war.#NATORussiaWar pic.twitter.com/5jXfc9hFVI

— UkraineNews (@Ukraine66251776) October 5, 2022

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Pick of the post:

 

And Bill Whittle weighs in on this in an excellent piece about this – specifically, the use of Critical Theory and the lack of context / perspective:

 

 

Bill accurately calls out that Critical Theory never demands context.  It never demands an alternative.  It’s purpose is solely to tear down.

 

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Palate Cleanser:

 

 

 

 

 

The post Friday Meme Overflow-Overflow appeared first on Granite Grok.

This is a cute little clip titled, Why I Vote Democrat.  It gets the message across.  Democrats hate it!  Love the ending – the most important part!

 

(H/T: Dave)

The post Be a Better White Person – Vote Democrat appeared first on Granite Grok.

Hurricane Ian is bringing extraordinary events to the open-air prison that is the island of Cuba, the people are rising up, and the tyrannical government is begging for help from Biden.

Something strange is happening in the communist ‘Utopia’ that is Cuba. Despite what many of the anti-liberty left would have you believe, their socialist national agenda has never worked in the history of mankind. Before we see the blunderbuss of BS on the subject from the enemies of liberty on the left, we need to remind everyone of a few facts:

Despite the ‘embargo’ the US trades with Cuba, it exports about $ 324.1 million worth of goods to Cuba each year.

The ‘embargo’ has many exceptions. Cuba also trades with the rest of the world. So much for the ‘embargo’ excuse.

As they say, facts are stubborn things, this means that anti-liberty leftists don’t have that excuse, and once again, it should be clear that collectivism (communism, Castroism, fascism, leftism, Leninism, socialism, Stalinism, etc.) Has never worked, no matter what it’s called, with it being tried all over the world for the past 400 years, with Cuba being a prime example of that trial and that abject failure.

Now in the aftermath of hurricane Ian, the people have had enough.

When a collectivist government claims to ‘care’ about people and restore ‘equity’ and socialist justice. But only seems to redistribute the wealth – to them. Sound familiar? The people rightfully rise up and start protesting, and as of Sunday night, they’ve taken to the streets for the third day in a row.

This includes this extraordinary video of the State Security of the communist Castro dictatorship forced to retreat from the people:

PROTESTS IN HAVANA CUBA ON SEPT 30, 2022 [Watch]

The illegitimate communist regime of Díaz-Canel is now taking the extraordinary step of begging their fellow collectivists in the Biden regime for help.

After the islandwide blackout caused by Hurricane Ian, Cubans took to the streets in parts of Havana and elsewhere to protest the lack of power and to demand the resignation of President Miguel Díaz-Canel, “Everybody is angry,” said Camilo Condis, a self-employed Havana electrical contractor. “The worst thing is food, which is so difficult to get, and it rots when the power is out.” Mr. Condis said he had no electric power or water pressure in his house.

Cuba fears a repetition of an unprecedented wave of protests in July 2021 that shook the government when tens of thousands of Cubans took to the streets in dozens of towns and cities throughout the island demanding freedom and the resignation of Mr. Díaz-Canel. The demonstrations were also sparked by extended blackouts and deteriorating economic conditions.

In the months following the protests, Cuba charged some 930 people with crimes linked to the demonstrations and imprisoned at least 675 people, some to terms as long as 25 years, according to Cubalex, a human rights organization which monitors the island.

Anti-liberty leftists need to realize that they are on the side of the collectivists, the oppressors, and against the people. You socialists of the nation’s left need to always remember that it’s the far left that is the source of oppression in this world, despite the outright lies you try to tell yourselves.

Despite your fatuous labels and lies, you aren’t ‘progressive’ or the party of freedom. Neither are you the ‘resistance’ that you’ve convinced yourself that you are. You are the oppressors, the people behind the batons and the teargas. You are fighting against the spirit of this song:

HOMELAND AND LIFE: PATRIA Y VIDA. THE SONG THAT IS TAKING OVER CUBA [Watch]

 

 

D Parker Writes at The Blue State Conservative

The post Is Biden Going To Rescue The Castro Dictatorship From The Enraged People Of Cuba? appeared first on Granite Grok.

We’ve covered negative efficacy among the COVID jabbed and boosted, but this is that with a twist. Kaiser Permanente did some research relative to COVID “vaccination,” its insurance plans, and its healthcare business. Maybe they wanted to determine if the unvaccinated cost more. They discovered the opposite.

The Jab is worse than just ineffective.

 

Kaiser did something unusual: it actually sequenced 16,418 positive COVID samples to determine the Omicron subvariant with which the enrollees were infected.

What it found was that for 4 out of 5 Omicron subvariants by 150 days (5 months) post shot, efficacy had fallen into negative territory, and Kaiser’s thrice-vaccinated enrollees were more likely to get COVID than the unvaccinated.

 

The Boosted are at a greater health risk than the unvaccinated, which also means they are a more expensive health risk for insurers. And not just for persistent illness. As we’ve also reported (one example), the post-vaccine world is wrestling with sudden adult death syndrome. I am referring to the 40% plus or minus spike in deaths among otherwise healthy adults in the wake of a massive global push to inject experimental pharmaceuticals into people.

Related: Data From 145 Countries Show The Jab Increased Cases and Deaths

 

Negative efficacy even against death: Well, at least the shots still work against critical illness, right? Wrong! Deaths have largely plummeted across all groups given that Omicron is not nearly as pathogenic as the previous versions of the virus, but data continues to show the overwhelming number of deaths to be among the vaccinated. It turns out that in the month of June, 92% of all COVID deaths in Canada were among the vaccinated, even though they composed a slightly smaller share of the population (85%). Even more telling is the fact that 81% of the deaths were among those who had three or more doses, even though those individuals only account for 34% of the population.

 

And here’s the terrible news. If you are “vaccinated,” you are less likely to get sick and die if you only got the first two shots (but still not less than the unvaccinated). Talk about irony. The Public Health Industrial Complex, upon discovering that they could no longer hide how their cure didn’t work, pushed boosters as the proper response. Another human test trial and the results are in: you are more likely to get sick, more often, need hospitalization, or drop dead if boosted than not.

Either from COVID or something else or from the vaccine damaging you.

 

 

And that’s not just their problem. Jabbed donors are polluting the blood supply, and we have no idea if that translates to similar problems among either the jabbed or not-jabbed who receive this blood.

As for dealing with more COVID, the Public Health Industrial Complex response is another booster – the Biden admin bought millions of them – but it is already obsolete.

 

One of the likely culprits for negative efficacy is that the shots prime the body to respond to a version of the virus that has long since changed, thereby making the natural immune response misfire. Supporters of endless jabs will suggest that this is why they created the new bivalent shot for BA.5 (the one that was studied in eight mice and no humans). However, an entirely new variant is already surging, rendering this shot just as irrelevant and likely counterproductive. According to the CDC, BA.4.6 now represents 13% of all COVID-19 cases and is rising sharply, with some other variants breaking out as well.

 

Obsolete if the plan is to prevent infection from COVID. If you are trying to harm or kill them, the bivalent booster is probably made to order.

 

 

HT | Dr. Meryl Nass – Substack
HT | Daniel Horowitz

The post Insurance Company Discovers Triple Vaxxed More Likley to Get COVID than Unvaccinated appeared first on Granite Grok.

We are living an exciting period of history regarding sportsbook betting in New Hampshire and across the United States. Often used as a political tool to score points and build favour, online gambling is fast becoming a weapon across the US.

Thankfully, the rule-makers working in the Granite State are already ahead of the game, and residents are enjoying their newfound freedoms, betting on futures and other exciting markets, while millions across the land watch on in envy.

When officials lifted the long-running and often controversial ban on betting in the White House, each state has handed the power to make its mind up on betting. Should it be legalised and enjoyed responsibly by millions while the local government sets taxes and benefits from inviting the world’s top names from sportsbook betting to play? It’s certainly appealing as the nation fights back from the devastating effects of the pandemic, which, of course, hit us all financially.

 

Changes were made

In 2019, seeing what was coming and knowing the winds of change were gathering pace, New Hampshire voted to legalise online sportsbook gambling. That means you are no longer required to up sticks and travel for many hours to Las Vegas simply to place a bet on the next NFL game shown live on television or the next big horse race that grabs your fancy. This can now be done at the touch of a button using your smartphone or desktop computer. But that’s not the case everywhere.

Online gambling isn’t yet legal nationwide, which can confuse some people. You can bet at home in New Hampshire, wagering using your smartphone on the totals in an NBA match, but what about when on vacation or working on the road? How do you know which states you can bet in and which trying to do so would see you thrown in jail?

The subject of sports betting is a tricky one at present, with people not entirely clear where they stand. We all want to be good citizens and follow the laws of the land as best we can, but that’s not always easy. It’s even more of a challenge when we aren’t exactly sure what the rules are, or they keep changing. Thankfully, there’s one trick that will always keep you right when online sportsbook betting is involved.

Keep yourself legal

We know online betting is legal in New Hampshire and has been for over three years. Despite the interruption of the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, you would have noticed that the gambling industry is beginning to take root in the region and has become part of everyday life for sports fans in the area. Changes to the laws have even allowed our local sports teams, both professional and amateur, to work closely with major betting brands and collect sponsorship or advertising revenue.

A study of gambling in New Hampshire showed more bets are placed using a smartphone than a desktop computer or at a land-based sportsbook or casino. And that makes keeping on the right side of the law even easier. Simply enable geolocation services on your handset – especially when travelling across the United States and overseas. Your device will now recognise exactly where you are in the world.
Let the app lead you

If you have downloaded a betting app to your handset, you can access it from anywhere. Deposit funds, withdraw winnings, check scores and compare betting odds. This can be done at work, on the train, or whilst out for lunch. Anytime and anywhere.

When you are ready to bet – or want to check the local laws regarding betting – simply fire up your betting app. If gambling is legal in an area you’re in; you will gain access to the app and your betting account in seconds.

Your app will display this information if betting is banned in that region. When attempting to log on to the app, you’ll be met with a message informing you that gambling is illegal in the area and that no bets will be accepted or honoured. When you move around, the location settings on your smartphone easily keep up.

 

 

The post Sports Betting in New Hampshire: What you need to know appeared first on Granite Grok.

Joe Biden has always claimed that he was the best option for President because of his years of experience in the Senate. His claim, like most of his Presidency to date, was bogus. Biden continues to fall flat on the global stage, and his most recent failure is with Saudi Arabia.

In July, Biden visited the rich desert country and fist-pumped the crown prince. This show of friendship was with a man that Biden had called a pariah. Mohammed bin Salman approved the 2018 murder of former Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. In 2019, Biden promised he would make Saudi Arabia “the pariah that they are.” Biden was in Saudi Arabia to beg for oil to ease the crisis in America brought about by Biden’s poor energy policies.

When Joe Biden took office in 2021, the average cost of gasoline was $2.35. In less than two years, that average rose to over $5.00 until he started a withdrawal program from our Strategic Petroleum Reserve. He signed an order to release one million barrels daily for six months. This 180 million barrels, along with reduced demand, did reduce gas prices temporarily, and Biden took credit for the falling prices. About ten days ago, the prices started rising again, and Biden panicked. Biden, and all Democrats, cannot afford costs to spike before the midterms.

This week, OPEC Plus, which is the Middle Eastern oil producers plus Russia, announced they would be cutting their output by two million barrels daily. This is a shocking development for Biden as he felt his diplomacy had secured support from OPEC. Biden now has to dip again into the SPR as he negotiates with other sources of crude. He has already begun to bolster his standing with the rogue regime that controls Venezuela, including a prisoner swap this week. We do not recognize Venezuela as a legitimate country, but Biden is desperate.

The SPR is at its lowest level in forty years. The reserve was put in place to protect our supply of crude in the case of war or natural disaster. It was never meant to be used to manipulate cost. Biden has also sold some of the SPR crude to China. This was never the intent and is another example of how China controls our President.

Yesterday, Administration spokesman John Kirby flat-out lied about domestic fuel output. He claimed that we are producing more crude in America than at any time in our history. He is wrong. We are 50 million barrels less than we were in 2019. Under Donald Trump, we were at record-high production levels and were exporting energy, not begging our enemies for oil. We are jeopardizing our national security to patch bad policies from Joe Biden.

Energy costs/Inflation are high on the list of concerns for voters going into the midterms. Biden thought he was going to see prices continue to fall and make energy a winner for Democrats. He was wrong, which is very common with this President. There are no positives for Democrats in 2022, which makes it difficult to understand why any Democrat is leading in any race. The polls have been shaky for many election cycles. I think they will look foolish again, and the only poll that counts will be the votes cast on November 8th.

The post Biden Diplomacy Falls Short in Middle East appeared first on Granite Grok.

Since the passing last year of New Hampshire’s ban on abortions after 24 weeks (nearly six months), liberals have been busy spreading lies about the new law, claiming that it required a transvaginal ultrasound and that the law requires a woman to carry a dead baby to term. 

With the midterm elections fast approaching, these blatant falsehoods attacking NH’s law and the general state of abortion access nationally have only increased.

A recent ad by the liberal group Women Vote, an arm of Emily’s List, targets Republican U.S. Senate candidate Don Boldoc. The ad features a woman sharing an emotional story of being told by her doctor shortly after finding out she was pregnant with twins that she and her children were at risk of death. As a result, she made the decision to end her babies’ lives. While the situation the woman faced is extremely tragic, it is not about the state of abortion access in New Hampshire. New Hampshire’s ban contains exceptions for fatal fetal anomalies and for life of the mother. But that’s not what this totally deceptive ad would have you believe.

Last week the far-left media outlet, democrats.com, sent out an email falsely claiming that a bill introduced by Sen. Lindsey Graham would ban all abortions. In fact the bill, a version of which Graham introduces every year to shed light on liberal’s radical up-to-birth abortion policies, only refers to banning abortions after 15 weeks gestation, which happens to be a middle ground many Americans agree on. Even so, Sen. Graham’s bills have never been successful, and this one will certainly meet the same fate. Again, the left is not letting the truth get in the way of their deceptive messaging.

Other liberal news outlets and politicians, have spread similar claims. One notable example is the repeated claim by Sen. Maggie Hassan that Mitch McConnell is planning on a national abortion ban, a sentiment the Senator has never expressed.

But Democrats are not the only ones spreading falsehoods about the pro-life community’s stance on abortion. The media has been more than happy to help them. Last week, the Union Leader published a piece which claimed that Cornerstone targeted a number of NH reps, including James Allard, for supporting a bill that would add a fatal fetal anomalies exception to New Hampshire’s 24 week abortion ban. This is not an accurate representation of the original bill or our position. The original HB 1609 entirely nullified the late-term abortion ban, and that’s why we opposed these representatives who supported it. Only later was the bill amended to only exempt fatal fetal anomalies. Those are the facts.

Journalists used to perform basic due diligence by asking for comment or at least checking our website. The fact that they no longer do so is why pro-abortion extremists are able to get away with peddling such blatant falsehoods about the law. While in some cases the problem is carelessness, in others it is a systemic attempt to deceive.

It is up to pro-life citizens in New Hampshire to dispel these falsehoods. You can do this by being well educated about the national debate on abortion, and, most importantly, our own abortion law. As long as we let pro-abortion voices use a foundation of lies to define this critical discussion, we will be fighting a losing battle at the ballot box.

The post Abortion in NH: Setting the Record Straight on Democrat, Media Falsehoods appeared first on Granite Grok.

Florida’s incumbent governor Ron DeSantis made a huge, albeit unsurprising, move in the latest polling among likely voters. A new Mason-Dixon poll conducted at the end of September shows the conservative leader pulling away from Republican-turned-Independent-turned-Democrat rival Charlie Crist.

CBS reported:

As the days count down to the November general election, a new poll shows Republican incumbent Ron DeSantis has opened an 11-point lead over Democratic challenger Charlie Crist in the Florida governor’s race.

Statewide, DeSantis has the support of 52 percent of likely voters, while 41 percent back Crist, according to a Mason-Dixon poll conducted September 26 through September 28. It involved 800 registered voters who all indicated they are likely to vote in the election. 

One percent of those surveyed were split between two other candidates and six percent said they were undecided.

 

Writing on Twitter, Clay Travis said:

 

Ron Desantis has opened up an 11 point lead in his bid for re-election according to a poll from Mason-Dixon research. He won election by less than a point in 2018. If he wins by 11 or more it would be the biggest Republican win in a statewide race in modern Florida history.

— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) October 5, 2022

Ron Desantis has opened up an 11 point lead in his bid for re-election according to a poll from Mason-Dixon research. He won election by less than a point in 2018. If he wins by 11 or more it would be the biggest Republican win in a statewide race in modern Florida history.

Since the poll was held, DeSantis has also guided Florida through the first week of hurricane recovery and is receiving near-universal plaudits from residents and honest media coverage. He was prepared before the arrival of Ian, constantly communicating with residents and updating them with forecasts, and has deployed a huge team of line workers to restore power. It seems likely his growth would not only be sustained but increased following his superb guidance.

Even without the hurricane, it seemed unlikely DeSantis would suffer in the polls given his opponent’s nasty campaign. Previously, he declared that those who would vote for him were “toothless hillbillies” and bizarrely claimed he didn’t want those people voting for him at all.

“Those who support the governor should stay with him and vote for him. I don’t want your vote. If you have that hate in your heart — keep it. I want the vote of the people of Florida who care about our state. Good Democrats, good independents, good Republicans — unify with this ticket,”

As with Joe Biden’s dangerous villainization of political rivals, Crist only reveals the anti-human, nasty streak found in the modern Democrat Party. Anyone not brainwashed by corporate media can see him for what he truly is.

Meanwhile, DeSantis fights for Floridians. He stood up to Disney, he stood up to the overt sexualizaztion of children in public schools, and he has won massive support from people who are fed up with the left’s content push into their lives.

Considering he barely eked out a victory in 2018, his presumed thrashing of Crist in November will be the ultimate memo to America that we want strong moral leadership and that Americans are largely fed up with disgusting leftist ideology.

 

 

Hailey Sanibel writes at The Blue State Conservative.

The post Ron DeSantis Expands Lead Over Democrat Challenger to Double-Digit Margins appeared first on Granite Grok.

The US Department of Education Office of Civil Rights is working hard to push through new regulations for Title IX. It is an appropriate time to reflect on the White House and New Hampshire’s partnership and role in the kangaroo courts of the last decade.

In particular, the criminal trial of New Hampshire versus Owen Labrie, which set a chilling tone for the nation regarding how sexual assault in high schools should be prosecuted.

We want to thank Claire Best for this Op-Ed Please direct yours to Editor@GraniteGrok.com.

Early headlines surrounding the August 2015 high-profile trial of Owen Labrie (St. Paul’s School, Class of 2014) included such terminology as “Rape Culture on Display,” “Elite Prep School,” “Decades-old Tradition of Sexual Conquest Game, “Senior Salute.” St Paul’s School was portrayed as a den of misogyny, emblematic of the “patriarchy.” Labrie himself was described as a Harry Potter look-a-like who used the “nerd defense”. He was described as privileged and arrogant.

Facts matter. Statements by public officials and journalists matter because they become the public record. When those are knowingly false, lives are put in danger, laws are passed under false premise and the public is duped.

Owen Labrie’s accuser’s family (Alexander & Susan Prout) donated $100,000 to St Paul’s School in the Spring of 2013 before Chessy Prout started that fall. Her sister, Lucy Prout, was entering her senior year and applying to college. Lucy Prout had dated Owen Labrie. She also gave him a black eye before graduation while telling police who interviewed her (and documented) that Chessy had actually stated regarding Owen: “I have never said he raped me.” Fifteen months later, Chessy stated on the witness stand: “I was raped, I was violated in so many ways.” The statement came after courtroom witnesses had seen victims’ advocates tapping the shoulder of the prosecutor to say, “She needs to cry more.”

Labrie’s divorced parents’ combined annual income approximated $100,000. He attended St Paul’s School on a full scholarship and had been offered the same by Harvard College. Few of these details ever made it into the news media. I later discovered why: St. Paul’s School was targeted and Owen Labrie framed by the very same group of people who were behind the Rolling Stone’s November 2014 “A Rape on Campus” story which resulted in the defamation suit: “Eramo v Rolling Stone.” That group was The White House “Not Alone” task force formed on January 22, 2014.

The Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights was sued a few months ago after Catherine Lhamon, who was in the office in 2014 and has returned under Biden, ignored requests for correspondence between her and, among others, Laura L Dunn, who was present at NH v Owen Labrie as “personal representative for the victim’s family.” Criminal defense attorney Scott Greenfield wrote in his blog, SimpleJustice, “What Lhamon has to hide from KC Johnson” (Link ) about the suit and the failure of the Department of Education to answer a simple FOIA request.

As part of the St. Paul’s Alumni community by marriage and having been part of the second-year intake of girls at an all-boys prep school in the UK (Sevenoaks School, Kent) in the ’80s, I was drawn into the sensationalist coverage of New Hampshire versus Owen Labrie. Something wasn’t right. I have daughters who were considering high schools at the time.

After receiving the letter from then Rector Michael Hirschfeld announcing the multiple felony and misdemeanor charges against recent graduate Owen Labrie (18) in the summer of 2014, I was shocked that a school would not protect the interests of both accuser and accused before a criminal trial: the interests of privacy, due process and the right to a fair trial. As communications from the school have been sent to the alumni community over the years, it’s apparent that St. Paul’s has largely not been in control of the narrative.

This was never more apparent than on August 28th, 2015, when St Paul’s issued a statement following the jury’s mixed verdict in which it announced that it was starting to use “Bystander” training (Link).

On September 8, 2015, the Boston Globe published an article: “St. Paul’s graduates want to provide a different picture of their school”. I didn’t know it at the time, but I later discovered that the coverage I and so many millions had read or seen on TV was created and controlled by victims’ advocates who had a strategic partnership with the 2014 “Not Alone” White House Task Force and with Concord Police, Merrimack County Prosecutors, gold-digging civil attorneys lobbying for Victims Rights Bills to the Senate, Senator Jeanne Shaheen and Congresswoman Ann Kuster.

The “personal representative” who appeared on TV during the trial for the “victim’s family” – Laura L Dunn – was, in fact, an advisor/member of this White House “Not Alone” task force who was advising Concord Police for their investigation into St Paul’s School and Owen Labrie. That investigation’s budget was approved by the City of Concord Council, whose chair of public safety is Amanda Grady Sexton, Director of Public Affairs for the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic & Sexual Violence. Sexton was also on Senator Jeanne Shaheen’s re-election campaign committee.

Shaheen introduced the Victim’s Bill of Rights in 2016. One of the ambulance-chasing attorneys Laura Dunn had introduced to the Prout family five months before trial, Steven J Kelly Esq, had lobbied the Senate Judicial Committee in May 2015 for the bill. He argued that victims should be consulted throughout the process of a criminal investigation, prosecution, and sentencing. In the abstract, I wouldn’t necessarily disagree, but Kelly has described himself as a “one-stop-shop” for the “not the perfect victim” who trains witnesses, investigators, and prosecutors. Receiving 35% of any settlement he negotiates for “Doe” suits against a school such as St Paul’s, you can see his financial incentive for lobbying for the bill.

In a document published by the National Crime Victims’ Law Institute with a grant from the Department of Justice, Amanda Grady Sexton, and Steven J Kelly describe their tactics for pretrial publicity, getting in front of the associated press, working with police and prosecutors, witnesses and third parties to create and control the narrative (see: Pretrial Publicity…)

It was a strategy they used in New Hampshire v Owen Labrie. Several Does v St Paul’s School suits, and Rapuano & Does v Dartmouth College, which resulted in a $14 million settlement of which the NHCADSV appears to have received $2.865 million. The suit was cited as a probable contributing factor in the suicide of Professor David Bucci. His 10-year-old daughter spoke at his funeral. The Concord Monitor, which had covered the suit, was silent on Bucci’s death (see: NY Times…).

Amanda Grady Sexton’s husband, Adam Sexton, a political director and reporter for WMUR, reported the arrest of Owen Labrie on July 16th, 2014, just one day after Laura L Dunn and members of the White House Task Force had spoken at Dartmouth Sexual Assault Summit introduced by Congresswoman Ann Kuster.

When Owen Labrie turned himself in on July 16th after being blindsided by the arrest warrant with no warning from the prosecutors, Concord Police told him his face would be famous. The police had interviewed him five weeks earlier, refuting his mother’s suggestion that an attorney should be present while he was being questioned. A few days earlier, Chessy Prout had texted him to say, “things are getting out of control” (or similar wording). Why would she text her rapist to say this?

It is my belief, eight years later, as Owen Labrie having just completed several years of probation, eight months incarceration including two months in solitary confinement, endured a failed retrial hearing and two appeals, that both students were used by the White House Task Force. A task force that was working in cahoots with the University of New Hampshire (promoting “Bringing in the Bystander” and “Know Your Power” training paid for via federal grants) and local New Hampshire public officials.

My growing suspicions were validated in November 2019 when I met S. Daniel Carter, another advisor to the White House “Not Alone” task force who described Laura Dunn as his “mentee.” He had co-founded the non-profit SurvJustice with Dunn in 2014, shortly before Labrie’s arrest. He admitted to me that the use of publicity in the case was insensitive and problematic. More concerning was an assertion that his understanding of Dunn’s attendance at the trial was tied to a White House interest in St Paul’s School as opposed to Labrie himself.

SurvJustice, according to its IRS Form 990s, was directly tied to the White House “Not Alone” directive and listed as a resource on its site. Dunn had also made a public statement in September 2014 when Emma Watson became the ambassador for UN Women and the #HeForShe campaign. An excerpt from Rewire News group’s “Power” section by Emily Crocket reads:

As Laura Dunn, founder of the sexual assault survivor advocacy group SurvJustice, told Rewire, campaigns like HeForShe, with an icon for the “Harry Potter generation” behind them, make issues around feminism and sexual violence prevention easier for younger generations to understand.

“It shifts their mindset and maybe challenges the norms accepted by older generations too,” Dunn said.

That is more than a symbolic change. Take our legal system: “The reason a lot of sexual assault cases aren’t prosecuted is, ‘The jury won’t understand, they won’t like that you were drinking,’ that kind of thing,” Dunn said. But when today’s kids grow up to prosecute these cases or serve on juries, “you won’t need an expert to explain rape culture.”

Dunn said that another big part of this shift, especially on the issue of campus sexual assault in the last few years, is due less to celebrities speaking out than to survivors like herself telling their stories to the media, sometimes coming out with their full names and faces. They were no longer anonymous Jane Does but real women demanding real justice, which made some people start to sympathize with them and share their outrage (Link).

Amanda Grady Sexton of the NHCADSV, according to the Concord Monitor, attended the Labrie trial to “keep tabs on the media.” A motion by the Prouts’ representatives (which included Laura Dunn and Steven J Kelly) managed to restrict media access to those journalist who were taking the bait from NHCADSV, police, prosecutors, Dunn and Kelly. Sexton described it as “an opportunity” (Link).

When reports of Labrie’s appeal regarding the computer felony conviction surfaced (the computer felony conviction requires lifetime tier 2 sex offender registration), Amanda Grady Sexton penned an op-ed in the Concord Monitor in which she mentioned both her official titles for the NHCADSV and City of Concord Council but failed to report her organization’s financial interest in seeking sex offender registration for Labrie.

Since 2014, New Hampshire has received close to $1 million under the Adam Walsh Act for Sex Offender Registration. On the same day that the White House’s “Not Alone” paper was published, April 29, 2014, the Department of Justice announced a new grant incentive under the Adam Walsh Act for “Campus Sex Offenses.” The NHCADSV is in charge of the State of New Hampshire’s sex offender registration management.

Steven J Kelly led several lawsuits against St Paul’s School in the wake of NH v Owen Labrie, starting with the Prouts suit against the school on June 1, 2016. Susan Zalkind, reporting for Vice Media, received a copy of the suit before the school was able to obtain a copy from the courts, which had already closed for the day. NBC Today Show and the Concord Monitor were also furnished with copies. The school obtained its copy from Jeremy Blackman at the Concord Monitor, who was given it by “a source.” Zalkind has an entire page of links to articles relating to Labrie. Her coverage had to have been paid for by an interested party connected to Sexton, Dunn, Kelly, and the prosecutors (see: https://zalkind.info/owen-labrie).

When Gordon MacDonald became the Attorney General for New Hampshire, the NHCADSV lobbied him for a Grand Jury Criminal Investigation into St Paul’s School. The report was completed in August 2018, and a settlement agreement was reached with the school that September. Laura Dunn tweeted congratulations to the Prout family for the agreement, which required a compliance officer and a contract with the NHCADSV whose Director of Public Affairs, Amanda Grady Sexton, in her capacity as Chair for the City of Concord’s Public Safety Committee, would have approved the budget for the police’s investigation into the school. The school waived its right to privacy. David Vicinanzo, attorney for the NHCADSV, praised Judge Richard McNamara’s decision to ignore that and to keep the report private. As Mark Hayward of the Union Leader commented: “His ruling decided a case that had been argued in secret”.

The agreement echoed another one reached with the Diocese of Manchester over a decade before. Many of the same people were involved, including AG Gordon MacDonald, who is now New Hampshire’s Supreme Court Chief Justice (link).

The “compliance” officer for the Diocese was Monsignor Edward Arsenault. The police officer involved in the Diocese of Manchester investigation, which resulted in the arrest and prosecution of Father Gordon MacRae, was James F. McLaughlin, who was given a lifetime achievement award in 2016. At the same ceremony, Police Detective Julie Curtin, the officer involved in the St. Paul’s and Labrie investigations, received an award for her work and “justice for the victim.”

Edward Arsenault pled guilty to defrauding the Diocese between the years of 1999 and 2009. He shook hands with Assistant Attorney General Jane Young (now US Attorney for New Hampshire) before going to Concord Men’s Prison, where he was quickly transferred to Keene County Jail in 2014. He was later released from home confinement and is now free to work for the non-profit ReServe under the name Edward Bolognini. His restitution – amounting to almost $300,000 – was miraculously paid off while he was incarcerated.

James F McLaughlin’s name appeared on a list of police officers with credibility issues published earlier this year. He has been known to the New Hampshire Courts for dishonesty since 1985 – a full nine years before Father Gordon MacRae was targeted, prosecuted, and convicted for crimes for which many around the world believe he was framed. MacRae is in his 28th year in Concord men’s prison. He was denied the right to a retrial in 2014 by Judge Larry Smukler, who presided over the Labrie trial in 2015. Smukler similarly denied Labrie a retrial in 2017 and claimed “justice for the victim” in December 2018 as he ordered Labrie back to Merrimack County jail after his appeals to complete his one-year sentence for misdemeanor sexual assault convictions.

Assistant Attorney General Geoffrey Ward deleted the names of 28 corrupt police officers shortly before a New Hampshire bill went into effect this year which would have made them public. Detective Julie Curtin no longer works for the City of Concord. She is employed by Epping Police Department. Numerous requests for an investigation into her tainted investigations, witness, and evidence tampering have gone unanswered.

Lyn Rosenthal of the Department of Justice Office of Violence Against Women said upon leaving office in 2015 that the reason the Obama administration focused on campuses was because if they got it right there, they would influence generations to come. In 2016, she became president of SurvJustice, which lost a lawsuit to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos over due process in Title IX campus sex discrimination. On the board of SurvJustice with Laura Dunn and S. Daniel Carter was Meg Garvin of the NCVLI, which also rewarded Detective Julie Curtin for her work in the St. Paul’s and Labrie investigation.

Lyn Schollett, Executive Director of the NHCADSV, is on the board of directors for Soteria Solutions Inc, which markets “Bringing in the Bystander” and “Know Your Power” training to schools, colleges, and universities around the world. It was recognized by the White House for entrepreneurship using federal grants.

Federal grants to New Hampshire for sexual assault and related research have increased exponentially since 2014, the year that St Paul’s School was targeted and Owen Labrie framed.

To read more, please see my piece on Medium.

 

Claire Best heads Claire Best & Associates, an international talent agency representing some of the most respected names in the entertainment industry for film, television, and commercials that was established in 2010. She had 16 years of experience in the agency business as an owner, C.E.O. and C.O.O. before Claire Best & Associates. Prior to becoming an agent in 2002, Claire was a production executive at New Line Cinema and Fine Line Features where she oversaw the production of many well-known domestic and international feature films from 1996-2001. Claire has also produced and executive produced a number of award winning and critically acclaimed features, shorts, and documentaries. She is a voting member of B.A.F.T.A. and the Television Academy (see: clairebest.net).

 

Reformatted and lightly edited.

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The data continues to show that almost no one under 20 who is unvaccinated needs to fear the Rona. That did not prevent the Covid Cult from trying to put a needle in every student’s arm or from using scare tactics to get it done.

Related: “Vaccine Clinic” Table With Needles and Vials Left Unattended at Milton NH High School

“Public record emails show the Biden administration wanted to ‘leverage’ school sports and activities to coerce vaccination amongst students,” Megan Eileen noted. “… we have seen leveraging athletics and extracurriculars as a way to boost you vaccination as an effective tactic across the county.”

 

They used the threat of students missing games due to Covid-19 exposure and long quarantines:

“Sports and extracurriculars as an important factor for why young people should get vaccinated- they don’t want to jeopardize forfeiting games or missing performances and competitions.” pic.twitter.com/hak0SSIy6i

— Megan Eileen (@MegBeileen) October 5, 2022

To the best of my knowledge, there is no state-level direction in New Hampshire to apply this tactic, but that does not mean it did not happen or find its way into the inboxes or ears of administrators in COVID-Karen districts.

Getting the mRNA vaccination for COVID was heavily promoted with ad buys in the media and chatter from state and local officials.

My question to schools and, more specifically, parents – were kids in your district told they had to get The Jab, or they’d miss band, Cheer, chorus, clubs, team events, or any other activity? Were any of them asked to talk to other students to encourage them to get The Jab?

If the answer is yes, you might want to fire up a right-to-know request to the SAU or administrators in specific schools for emails related to vaccine clinics on public school property.

Related: 16-Year Old “Overdosed” with a Triple Shot of COVID Vaccine at Local School Clinic

The Jab has proven significantly more dangerous to kids than the virus it was purported to treat, so any failure to adequately provide informed consent before the injection of an emergency-use pharmaceutical in a minor – especially in these circumstances –  might have legs.

I’m not a lawyer, and I don’t play one on the Internet, but if you had school board members or the administrators they hire and retain discussing this method of intimidation to unnecessarily innoculate students, it might not play well at re-election time.

 

 

HT | Becker News

 

The post Did NH Schools ‘Pressure’ Kids to Get The Jab™ with Threats of Long Quarantines? appeared first on Granite Grok.

RINO-NeverTrump Governor Larry Hogan came to New Hampshire today. His message? AMNESTY for illegals, AND stop complaining about the Biden-Regime’s open-borders policy. What a total LOSER.

JUST NOW: Maryland Gov. @LarryHogan targets fellow #GOP governors @RonDeSantisFL @GregAbbott_TX for transporting undocumented migrants to progressive cities and islands up north, saying it's "a mistake" and a "publicity stunt" #2024Elections #FITN #nhpolitics #flapol #txpoli pic.twitter.com/kUna1uqjNs

— Paul Steinhauser (@steinhauserNH1) October 6, 2022

The post Hey Larry AMNESTY Hogan … Go Back To DC And Don’t Come Back appeared first on Granite Grok.

The Climate Cult is obsessed with blaming CO2 for warming the globe but won’t call it global warming. It is climate change. And yes, the climate changes. You can see it in the UAH global mean temperatures, but what happens when all that “changing” balances out to nothing?

Related: Global Warming Update: Greenland and Iceland Have Been Cooling for Twenty Years

The folks the cult calls climate deniers call this a pause.

 

 

Despite the so-called epic summer heatwaves, there has been net zero warming since 2015.

 

The New Pause, having paused a month ago, has now lengthened again: this time to exactly eight years. As always, the Pause is calculated as the longest period for which the least-squares linear-regression trend up to the most recent month for which the UAH global mean surface temperature anomaly is available is zero.

 

The alarmists deny the existence of the pause. In their minds, we can concern ourselves with hyperbolic headlines about heat waves and droughts but nothing that balances them, like cooling temps or above-average months of precipitation. You know, the amalgam of weather that defines climate.

Related: Ruh-Roh – “Warming Causes Cooling” Experts Admit Warming Does Not Cause Cooling

New Hampshire, for example, has been getting wetter, but all we hear about in the news is drought or that the rain we get isn’t enough.

 

 

And despite similar headlines this year, it looks like we will have above-average precipitation in 2022 but little to no reporting on it, just like the lack of warming, which looks like the beginning of a global decline in temperature since 2016.

Related: Despite any “Modern Warming,” The Earth has Still Been Cooling for the Past 8,000 Years

 

 

This trend is -0.01 Cº, and given its proximity to the start of the current solar minimum, that spells trouble for the Warmists. That might be why they are spending trillions we don’t have on ideas that don’t work to solve a problem that does not exist.

 

HT | WUWT

Note: The trend line is estimated and not exact and is for observational purposes only. 

The post Is The Planet Cooling? appeared first on Granite Grok.

How many people stop to consider if there are any restrictions on what or how the federal government can tax? Does the Constitution for the United States allow the federal government to tax anything it wants, whenever it wants, and in any way that it wants?

It certainly acts that way. The federal government is always looking for new things to tax.

The most obvious tax is the income tax. However, the federal government also taxes things like gasoline, tobacco, alcoholic beverages, airfare, etc. These are excise taxes, meaning they are levied on an individual product. In some cases, manufacturers pay the tax during production. In other cases, the consumer pays at the time of purchase.

Excise taxes can be used to raise revenue, but they are also used to “modify” behavior.

For instance, gun control supporters proposed a 1000 percent federal tax on AR-15-style rifles. There wasn’t even a pretense of levying this tax to raise revenue. In their minds, a tax that turns a $1,200 rifle into a $12,000 rifle is perfectly justified in order to make the cost of gun ownership prohibitively expensive.

At what point did the federal government begin reading the constitutional taxing power so broadly it could become an instrument of social engineering?

There is a fundamental division between those who construe the federal government’s taxing powers as narrow and finite – and those who embrace a more liberal view on what the federal government can tax and for what ends. This division runs all the way back to the ratification debates.

Let’s start by examining why supporters of the Constitution insisted the taxing power as delegated in Article 1, § 8 was necessary and proper.

The Federalists argued that Congress’ inability to tax under the Articles of Confederation stymied the government’s ability to pay off its war debt and would also frustrate future borrowing attempts. The Treasury Department estimates that the United States debt was $43 million in 1783. Since Congress could not efficiently tax the states, it was unlikely to ever pay off the debt, or any future debt the general government might incur. This, according to the Federalists, would discourage investors from lending to the United States.

Interestingly, it was not the existence of debt that concerned the Federalists. They were more concerned with finding a way to service debt and make interest payments to bondholders. In fact, the ability of a nation to borrow was a fundamental fiscal policy for many Federalists. In a letter to Robert Morris, Alexander Hamilton wrote:

“A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national blessing, it will be a powerful cement of our union. It will also create a necessity for keeping up taxation to a degree, which, without being oppressive, will be a spur to industry.”

For Hamilton, borrowing was extremely important for the economic development of the new nation. However, there had to be a way to service the debt. That would require federal taxation of the states, which the Articles blocked. Thus, for the Federalists, a revision of the Articles of Confederation was vital if the country was to prosper. The Constitution had to include provisions for a stronger central government with expanded taxing powers over the states. This would efficiently provide for the common defense and enable the country to pay down its national debt.

The Federalists realized that getting all 13 state legislatures to agree to a change in taxation policy would be impossible. Therefore, they decided to take the much more radical approach of persuading the country to scrap the Articles of Confederation and adopt an entirely new national constitution in its place.

In Federalist #23, Alexander Hamilton wrote:

“The authorities essential to the common defense are these to raise armies to build and equip fleets to prescribe rules for the government of both to direct their operations to provide for their support. These powers ought to exist without limitation, because it is impossible to foresee or define the extent and variety of national exigencies or the corresponding extent and variety of the means which may be necessary to satisfy them.”

In Hamilton’s opinion, the federal government could demand unlimited taxation to support the common defense.

Antifederalists, on the other hand, were very leery of the taxing power.

In the Federalist Papers, James Madison offered rebuttals to Antifederalist criticisms of the general taxation power.

First, in Federalist #45, he insisted the state governments would keep federal overreach in check

“Thus, each of the principle branches of the federal government will owe its existence more or less to the favor of the State governments and must consequently feel a dependence… towards them.”

Madison argued that the federal government is comprised of members elected by the States. Consequently, the actions of the federal government would ultimately reflect the States’ desires.

Second, in the same essay, Madison argued that because the role of the federal government was limited, taxation would also be limited.

“It is true that the Confederacy is to possess, and may exercise, the power of collecting internal as well as external taxes throughout the states; but it is probable that this power will not be resorted to, except for supplemental sources of revenue… The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the Federal Government… will be exercised principally on external objects, as war peace negotiation and foreign commerce; with which last the power of taxation will, for the most part, be connected.” [Emphasis added]

Madison agreed that the federal government would have the power to tax within the states, but he assured the public that this would probably only be necessary for supplemental revenue. He also assured people that this revenue would principally be for external objects, such as war, peace, negotiation and foreign commerce.

Understandably, Madison’s use of the qualifiers “probably” and “principally” did not satisfy most Antifederalists. And as we have seen, they did not believe claims that a taxing power for limited purposes would serve as a check against its abuse.

Third, Madison contended that there are specific limitations on federal taxation within the Constitution itself.

“It is true, that the Confederacy is to possess, and may exercise, the power of collecting internal as well as external taxes throughout the United States… An option will then be given to the States to supply their quotas by previous collections of their own; and that the eventual collection, under the immediate authority of the Union, will generally be made by the officers, and according to the rules, appointed by the several States.”

It is worth noting that Madison did not say that the people of the states would be taxed directly. Instead, he alludes to a state-based quota system for federal taxation. Madison seems to imply that the federal government would not lay internal taxes on individuals, but that the general government would apportion taxes as a quota to be fulfilled by each state.

This may indeed be the correct interpretation, as Madison did not believe that the Carriage Tax at the center of the Hylton case was Constitutional. However, his meaning is vague. Since the word “quota” does not even appear anywhere in the proposed Constitution what does this term, as used by Madison, even mean?

Later in Federalist 45, Madison writes:

“The Powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the Federal Government are few and defined.”

Madison may have believed that he had already defined the Constitution’s limits on federal taxation in Federalist #41.

“It has been urged and echoed, that the power ‘to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debts, and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States,’ amounts to an unlimited commission to exercise every power which may be alleged to be necessary for the common defense or general welfare. No stronger proof could be given of the distress under which these writers labor for objections, than their stooping to such a misconstruction.”

Madison obviously thought unlimited federal taxation was a misunderstanding of Article I, § 8, Clause 1

He went on to write:

“Had no other enumeration or definition of the powers of the Congress been found in the Constitution, than the general expressions just cited, the authors of the objection might have had some color for it; though it would have been difficult to find a reason for so awkward a form of describing an authority to legislate in all possible cases…”

Madison was clearly unsympathetic to a reading of the Constitution that ignores its built-in limitations on governmental powers. He implied there are other enumerations and definitions of Congressional power within the Constitution that limit the idea of comprehensive federal taxation.

If by “other enumerations” Madison was implying that the army and welfare clauses were already limitations on federal taxation, the Antifederalists would surely not have been persuaded.

However going back once again to Madison’s belief that the 1794 Carriage tax was unconstitutional (see The Prophetic Antifederalist Warnings About Constitutional Taxing Power and The Power of Precedent: How a 1796 Supreme Court Decision Supported Obamacare) and his contention that Congress’ power to tax is defined within the Constitution itself, it is quite possible that the other enumerations he is referring to are the indirect and direct tax clauses found within the Constitution.

Therefore, the apportionment rule that is associated with the direct tax clauses could be the state taxation quotas that Madison mentioned in Federalist #45.

No capitation, or other direct, Tax shall be laid, unless in Proportion to the Census or enumeration herein before directed to be taken.

Article I, § 9, Clause 4

Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several states which may be included within this union, according to their respective numbers.

Article I, § 2, Clause 3

However, if Madison thought these clauses had sufficient force to limit taxation, neither he nor the other Federalists ever clearly explained what these direct and indirect taxes were; or how they would be applied.

Therefore, the question remained: who would provide the authoritative interpretation of what these clauses actually mean? Would it be Supreme Court, Congress, the president, or the several states?

These questions were answered for the first time in Hylton v United States (1796).

This was the opening salvo in what would become a ceaseless war of federal economic subjugation of the people of the several states. And it proved the worst fears of the most alarmist Antifederalists were entirely justified. Not only did every warning they gave soon materialize, but it also continued to grow to a scope beyond anything they conceived.

The Antifederalists correctly predicted that such unlimited taxation would lead to the creation of the largest standing army the world has ever known. But could they have foreseen that this unlimited taxing power would be used in equal measure to tax away our natural right of self-defense and our last line of defense should that standing army ever turn inwards to be used against the people of the several states?

Perhaps the Federalists really believed their vague assurances that an unlimited federal taxing power could yield a limited application and reasonable exercise of that unlimited taxing power. But by 1819, in McCulloch v Maryland, Chief Justice (and notable Federalist) John Marshall embraced the axiom that “the unlimited power to tax is the power to destroy.”

Marshall was entirely correct in that regard, and as members of Congress attempt to use the unlimited power to tax as the power to destroy the Second Amendment, we are witnessing the destructive legacy of the Federalists’ scheme of unlimited taxation.

 

 

Republished with Permission from The Tenth Amendment Center

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