Good Morning, Jill. Or do I need to address you as Dr. Jill? I think this is a perfect day for an honest conversation. The people of America have been talking about it for some time, but maybe you are too close to the forest to see the trees.

Your Joe just turned 81, and we are not talking about taking the keys to the Corvette away from him, but we are thinking more about the keys to the White House. You did it. You pulled off the biggest con on America. You conspired to hide Joe away in the basement of your Delaware home and team up with Jim Clyburn to get your Man elected to the most powerful job in the world. Obviously, you had a quest for personal power and some time in the spotlight, but the gig is up, and it is time to go.

We have all watched a parent or loved one go through the aging process; some handle the voyage better than others. If Joe were just an octogenarian enjoying the sun and a good book, he would not be coming under such scrutiny. However, he is still trying to be President a few days a week, and 300 million Americans are concerned about Joe. Nearly 85% of those millions do not think he can handle the job, even on a part-time basis. The country deserves and needs more, and your legacy as a First Couple will be tarnished by your selfishness to stay beyond your time.

From the campaign, it was obvious that you wanted the White House more than Joe did. You hid him away and propped him up on the rare occasions he ventured into the public. He performed horribly in the debates, and his results were dismal in Iowa and New Hampshire. It was not until Jim Clyburn pushed the buttons in South Carolina that Joe was pushed into the White House.

Time alone does not entitle someone to the Presidency, and Joe had done nothing to earn the job. He has proven his ineptitude for three years. So we have to ask why you do not do the right thing, protect your husband from further failure, and, even worse, convince him not to run for another term. I think the spotlight has to be on you, for it is your greed for more money and power that you will sacrifice your husband for your gain.

As a First Lady, you have no great initiative to your credit. You chose no cause to put your mark. As the evidence mounts, it is clear that the Presidency is a shield from the legal tsunami that Joe, Hunter, and the entire Biden Crime Family would face. You push Joe, and he pushes the Justice Department to keep the Republicans from getting their due for what Joe has done to Trump and the American people. You know, the moment you walk out the door for the last time, hell will first come down on Hunter, and he will quickly turn on the rest of the family. It will not be pretty for you, but it will be sweet justice for us. You have delayed the process. You have done your part. It is not Happy Birthday, Joe. It is adieu.

 

The post Dear Jill, It Is Time To Say Adieu appeared first on Granite Grok.

My first thought when I read this story was that the judge was using the context of the US Supreme Court’s Bruen decision to show how out of touch it was with modern American (for lack of a better word) values. That the Clinton-appointed judge was trying to pry cracks in the decision with an eye toward breaking it.

How?

 

[Glen] Price, now 37, had already been convicted of felony armed robbery three times in the past, federal law prohibited him from owning a gun. So officers charged Price with possessing a firearm as a felon, a federal statute with a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years.

On November 2, however, the federal case against Price was dismissed after U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman, a Clinton appointee, determined that the statute prohibiting felons from possessing firearms was unconstitutional. That law “imposes a far greater burden on the right to keep and bear arms than the historical categorical exclusions from the people’s Second Amendment right,” Gettleman wrote in the 22-page decision.

 

Gettleman is not not wrong. The Second Amendment makes no distinction because the right to self-defense is natural and inherent. You are born with it, and the government is prohibited from denying that. In fact, their job (at least referring to our government) is to protect that right. Bruen affirms this, but the decades-long epidemic of hoplophobia (fear of firearms) has nurtured an unconscious animus toward a well-behaved culture of armed citizens that manifests as the embrace of limitations on the natural right. To catalyze this, opponents paint pictures of the Wild West, shootouts in the streets, and disagreements being settled with gunfire.

My response would be, what, like every day in Chicago or Baltimore, or almost any Democrat-run city with more anti-gun regulations than you could carry comfortably from city hall to your car, assuming it wasn’t stolen while you were inside?

I will add that the elimination of gun-free zones and support for armed, trained, law-abiding citizens would immediately reduce the incidence of mass shootings. (Related: Should Owners of Gun-Free Zones Be Liable if Disarmed Citizens Are Shot or Killed?)

Even those allegedly struggling with mental health issues continue to prove themselves competent enough to find target-rich environments where someone has disarmed everyone.

Having said all that, I don’t think US District Judge Robert Gettleman is trying to make that case. On the contrary, I believe he has deliberately advanced a process of appeals destined to reach the nation’s Highest Court, where the matter will come head-to-head with Bruen.

Can the Justices comport the context of Bruen with a ruling that allows felons found guilty of past gun charges to possess firearms legally?

I want to say yes, but I won’t. Should the case reach the US Supreme Court, the pressure that will be brought to bear will be intense – perhaps even ‘Dobbs v Jackson’ Intense. I don’t think Chief Justice Roberts would survive that. He would inevitably vote with the (so-called) Liberal justices and put the first cracks in Bruen with the goal of turning it into a paper tiger.

It’s just a theory. I could be wrong.

 

The post Judge Says, Statute Prohibiting Felons From Possessing Firearms Is Unconstitutional (Is He Trying to Break Bruen?) appeared first on Granite Grok.

After reviewing the town of Hartford D.E.I. training and discovering that it is a front for cultural Marxism propped up by lies and unproven social theory, I felt obligated to address the Select Board, which mandated it for town employees.

The following is my statement, and the link to the video is here (minutes 9:25-15:00).

Do you like to be lied to?  I don’t think any of us like to be lied to, especially by our government or media. However, the lying has become pathological to the point both government and media are at all-time lows in terms of the trust they have with the American people.  Why is that?

Recently, I watched a documentary film titled “The Greatest Lie Ever Sold,” which is an expose of the organization Black Lives Matter.  It’s important to note the maker of the film is a black woman.   She made the film because she discovered the fraudulent nature of its organizers.  Among the things she cites in the film:

• BLM raised $90 million dollars, and almost none of it went to uplift black communities
• George Floyd, whose death was used by BLM to justify nationwide riots and over $1 billion in property damage, not only had three times the lethal dose of fentanyl in his body, which is why he couldn’t breathe, BLM never used any of the money they raised to help cover the cost of his funeral nor settle his estate
• More than one BLM director in a major city has resigned over the dishonesty of its leaders

Black Lives Matter is an almost sacrosanct term now because, of course, Black Lives Matter.  When I first heard the phrase, I was shocked because, as a rational adult, I can’t imagine who needed to be told Black Lives Matter. Personally, if you’re an adult in America and need to be reminded black lives matter, you’re a pathetic human being.  Likewise, if you feel it’s your place to tell other adults black lives matter, you’re equally ridiculous.

This is grade school-level messaging, which is exactly the point.  Black Lives Matter is a type of double-speak where the apparent meaning is different from the hidden meaning.  Why do I say this?  This is a Marxist tactic.  We know because Patrise Cullors, one of the co-founders of BLM, is on video stating, “we are trained Marxists.”

As the BLM riots burned down my home city of Portland, Oregon, I had to find out what was going on with this group, so I went to their website.  What I found in their mission statement was stunning – it was pure Marxism.  It called for all seven planks of Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto, among which are:

• Abolition of private property
• Abolition of the nation-state and national borders – that is to end America.
• Abolition of religion
• Abolition of inheritance
• Abolition of the nuclear family

They’ve since taken these statements down due to backlash, which is another lie.  They won’t even stand behind their true intent.

Another example of DEI in practice comes just one town south of us in Windsor, where the principal was fired for stating on her private social media account, “All Lives Matter.”  This is her right of free speech to state, especially in private.  However, the Marxists on the school board had her fired for that simple statement – All Lives Matter.  Does anyone disagree?  Do all lives not matter?  The Vermont courts agreed and awarded her $650,000 in damages along with another $225,000 to cover her legal fees.  That’s almost a million dollars the town was forced to pay for the abuse of power.  Is the town of Hartford prepared to face similar lawsuits when someone who either misuses or refuses to use a pronoun gets fired for creating a “hostile work environment”, as your DEI training implied?

Here are some other DEI disasters from just this past month:

• School administrators in Carmel, Indiana, confessed on hidden camera to pushing DEI and Critical Race Theory on students despite telling parents they weren’t – they lied
• A town manager in Wisconsin issued a statement saying the colors red and green and any religious Christmas decorations would not be permitted in the town building because it’s “not inclusive.” So, rather than include decorations specifically related to the holiday, she wants to exclude them.  How is that inclusive?  It’s not, it’s a lie.

These people are often called “social justice warriors.”  It’s not about justice, though, it’s ideology that hides itself as a social theory but is, in fact, a religion.  Why do I say that?  Because Marx said that.  The Communist Manifesto was originally to be titled The Communist Statement of Faith until his comrade Engels suggested it would expose their true aim.  In other words, they lied.

If you’re still not convinced, ask the authors of Critical Race Theory an Introduction.  I have the book.  In the first edition, they state they met to write the book at a convent in Madison, Wisconsin, “surrounded by crucifixes, an odd place for a bunch of Marxists to meet.”  I suppose we should take their word for it.  The second edition removed that passage.  Yet another lie.

Lastly, the concept of white privilege – have any of you heard of this?  It’s the idea tied to America’s history that white people have created systemic privileges, thus systemic racism.  It’s an interesting theory and sounds truly unique, but can anyone tell me where the Han people live in the world?  China.  Yes, like white people are in America, they’re the most popular people group in China.  And one of the key pillars to Mao’s cultural revolution, for those of you who haven’t studied the history, was the concept of Han privilege, just like white privilege. That was in the 1950s.  Mao was a Marxist.

So here it is, DEI uses terms we can all support and should support diversity, equity, and inclusion.  However, that’s not how it’s practiced, which is the big lie.  If the town intends to pursue this type of teaching, I hope it’s prepared to deal with the lies and potentially the lawsuits that also come with it.

 

The post Confronting a Select Board Over Mandated D.E.I. Training appeared first on Granite Grok.

The memes must flow… and they do.

Take heart – there will be both a Wednesday and Friday Edition.  Last week’s Friday Edition.

Remember, ridicule and mockery are effective weapons:

1. Ridicule cannot easily be fought
2. Ridicule makes the enemy angry, and angry people make mistakes
3. For those in the “squishy middle” a Thought Splinter (and Part II and Part III and Part IV) can often be hidden inside humor.

Now, let the mockery and mayhem begin.

 

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

 

 

>>>>>=====<<<<<

 

 

 

WEF Orders World Govt’s To Lower Age of Consent to 12 – The People’s Voice (thepeoplesvoice.tv)

Five years ago if you’d told me there’d be a concerted move – widespread with apparent massive elite support – to legalize this, I’d have laughed.  Not any more.  Incest is also on the table.

Is it truly possible there is a millennia-old pedo cult that is in control at the top?

 

 

 

Just like the real translation of ceasefire in Arabic tends to be a hudna (bolding added):

The “hudna” that Muslims make with non-Muslims can never be more than temporary, and is entered into only because the Muslim side feels it is too weak to conduct open warfare, and would benefit from a respite from open hostilities. Alternatively, a Muslim polity may enter into a hudna with non-Muslims if it has a reasonable expectation that those non-Muslims will soon adopt Islam.

A Ceasefire Deal With Hamas Would Be a Mistake | Frontpage Mag

 

 

 

This is actually a slam on several levels… given the current “Kill the farmer, kill the Boer” ethnic cleansing that’s happening there.

 

 

 

 

As I understand it, Yellowstone IS overdue…

 

 

 

 

 

 

As I understand it, Barackus himself wrote that blurb (at the very least, he had to have approved it).  Now, either it’s untrue… in which case it confirms he was willing to say things about himself – aka lies – that weren’t true to get more attention, or if it is true, one would think that it would invalidate his entire Presidency.

 

 

 

I was having a conversation with my son about piercings.  I don’t find any facial piercings attractive and told him that, and why.

 

 

 

G-d, give me patience… but hurry.

 

 

 

 

I may need some of these.

 

 

 

The damage Soros, et al, have done to America and the West while hiding behind the shield of “That’s anti-Semetic” is incalculable.

 

 

 

We just bought a used car.  Not cheap.  But I saw a used minivan – note, USED – on a lot for more than $40K.  How the hell much was it NEW?  And who can afford that?

 

 

 

Message definitely not thought through.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I sense a disturbance in the Safe and Effective narrative.

 

 

 

 

How many videos have been made showing air safety meters alarming out at the air inside masks?  Video.  Video.  Remember that OSHA (US Health and Safety) would shut down a facility if the workers were exposed to this kind of environment.  And in the name of “safety” and “protecting the children” we forced people – particularly children – to breathe this dangerous soup for hours daily.

 

 

 

Something interesting here.  By my estimation, at least one of those kids has to have been born here.  So, shouldn’t that kid be an “anchor baby” to keep them all here, and confer citizenship on them all by now?  Or is it only non-whites that get that?

 

 

 

 

Interest only on the debt is now more than one trillion dollars.  And set to grow.  Richard Andrew Cloward and his wife Frances Fox Piven are laughing in glee.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

>>>>>=====<<<<<

 

Pick of the post:

 

 

I have maintained that, despite all his flaws, he was not OUR last chance.  He was THEIR last chance.  The persecution he’s experienced as they attempt to keep him from running again is driving his support.  If they keep him out or, worse, take him out… that will be 100% definitive that spicy time is nigh.  Alas.

 

 

>>>>>=====<<<<<

 

Palate Cleansers:

 

—

—

 

>>>>>=====<<<<<

 

Come back Wednesday for another edition.  Same Meme Time.  Same Meme channel.

Please do consider buying me a coffee.

Buy Me a Coffee

My thanks to the person who did already!

>>>>>=====<<<<<

 

The post MONDAY MEMES appeared first on Granite Grok.

As a part of our ongoing effort to have the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services end their unscientific Covid jab recommendations for children, we are asking members of the Joint Legislative Fiscal Committee to vote no on any further Covid spending …

…until the Department of Health and Human Services rescinds their Covid jab recommendation for children.

There is absolutely no benefit for children to receive this vaccine, and the department should be standing for common sense over blind obedience to federal agencies.

[Please contact:]

Kenneth Weyler
Jess Edwards
Mary Jane Wallner
Jeb Bradley
Regina Birdsell
Keith Erf
Peter Leishman
James Gray
Lou D’Allesandro
Cindy Rosenwald

 

[And]

SIGN THE PETITION NO COVID-19 VACCINES FOR KIDS

 

 

Please Submit Group communications or Press Releases to steve@granitegrok.com.
Submission is not a guarantee of publication – Publication is not an endorsement.

 

The post Vote No On Any further Covid Spending … appeared first on Granite Grok.

Fans of  Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ The Watchman will be familiar with the even older phrase, quis custodiet ipsos custodes. Who will guard the guards themselves? Who Watches The Watchmen? After the public release of the footage, Senator Mike Lee thinks Congress needs to look into the J6 Committee.

Who watches The Watchmen?

 

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) is calling for the Jan. 6 Committee to be investigated after House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) announced the release of 40,000 hours of video from the Jan. 6 Capitol incident, with the Utah Republican accusing the panel of intentionally hiding the footage that could provide exculpatory evidence for some Jan. 6 prisoners. …

The footage shows the Capitol premises during the events of Jan. 6, 2021, when protesters upset by what they saw as a stolen 2020 presidential election made their way into the Capitol, some after battling with police.

However, some of the footage shows people casually walking beside police officers, who appear indifferent and let them saunter along.

 

This is not news to our readers. Anyone who takes an interest outside the center-right might be surprised after years of narratives about a violent rebellion against the American experiment. Media B-roll was always of protesters wrestling with barricades or trying to break windows. The Capitol police are seen pushing back against a swell of MAGA humanity.

What was long suspected, that the Feds infiltrated the event, is now known on a new scale—busloads of agents disguised as Trump supporters were in the crowd.

We also know that nothing about this entrapment was of interest to the J6 Committee, nor were the eyewitness accounts of what the newly released footage shows. It was a mostly peaceful protest that devolved into a police tour of the premises, none of which was explored or provided during testimony.

 

Follow the link below to view the January 6th tapes for yourself.

To restore America’s trust and faith in their Government we must have transparency. This is another step towards keeping the promises I made when I was elected to be your Speaker.

This website will be updated…

— Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) November 17, 2023

 

The J6 star chamber had one job. Keep the story newsworthy so the media and public opinion could do to the MAGA movement what the political elites had done to the Tea Party movement a decade earlier. Destroy it.

The difference between the two was that the TEA Party – contrary to the machine narrative – was a genuinely organic uprising of opposition to an exponential increase in government spending under Obama and the planned takeover of health care. It did not coalesce around an individual. Many tried to be that person, but it never happened. The swamp inevitably ground down a movement whose supporters were just folks who wanted to be left alone.

Make America Great Again is a campaign pillar of one man. Donald Trump. His supporters adore him as the cult of personality but one standing on a record of economic and international success. A candidate who made promises he tried to keep. Who said he’d secure the border and tried? Who lowered taxes, made America energy independent, and shepherded one of the best economic recoveries in the nation’s history.

Most people would have to say yes if asked, “Was your life better after Donald Trump took office?”

Four years of trying to destroy him in office and the three years since have only made Donald Trump more popular. The J6 Committee is one failed example, but will there be justice for its injustice? Unlikely. Congress is not known for policing its own. Liz Chaney may be the only casualty, and her voters had to bring that punishment. J6 Dems are all overseers of politically protected Democrat vote ghettoes. Slapping them on the wrist won’t make a whit of difference.

And I’m not even confident Sen. Lee isn’t just making a media moment for his constituents. Why did you hide all of this footage? He knows why? He knew it was hidden. I can’t imagine why too many members of Congress who were not in on it didn’t wonder either before the midterms or after. And for weeks, perhaps months, we can expect to be bombarded with news and reports from the right about what the footage reveals—that which we all knew.

There was no insurrection, which is meaningless if that information does not find its way in front of the 70-80 percent of the voting populace that pays little or no attention to anything beyond the mass media headlines pumped to their devices.

The Presstitutes aren’t going to be showing them any of this leg, so what’s the plan?

As usual, you and I and the people we know need to find a way to get it in front of them. Or, better yet, ask our media outlets why – as self-proclaimed guardians of the truth – they took no interest then (never asked for or demanded the footage) or now (milquetoast coverage of what has been made public).

And what of those held without due process or convicted under pretense? The J6 Committee was always a made-for-TV miniseries with no planned end. Still, real people with regular lives have been harmed and continue to suffer as show-trial victims of a theatrical event based on a one-sided political vendetta. They couldn’t get Trump, so they tried to get his supporters. Make them afraid to back him.

They love him more, and there may be more of them, and ironically, none of it matters if we don’t clean up our elections in the next 11 months. Another topic that could use more attention.

 

The post Sen. Mike Lee Calls for Scrutiny of House J6 Committee After Video Dump appeared first on Granite Grok.

It can be difficult to look at the political left and ascertain just what is going on in their minds. Much of what they say they are about involves looking out for the oppressed, leveling the economic playing field, teaching people to be more tolerant of those outside of the norm, and helping children learn and feel more safe, among other things.

On their face, each of these seems to be worthwhile and even virtuous positions to take, and they are politically speaking.  However, there is another reality that follows the political left as well – their results.

Looking at the apparent “oppressed” championed by the left, such as the BIPOC community, the LGTBQ+ community, women, teens, and the poor, one simply needs to look at the data, empirical and anecdotal, to see if their efforts are having the desired effect.  Perhaps the most obvious group to consider is teens, given that the vast majority of teachers align politically to the left.  Here are the numbers:

• Among English teachers, there are 97 Democrats for every 3 Republican
• Among Health teachers, there are 99 Democrats for every 1 Republican
• Overall, there are 87 Democrats for every 13 Republican teachers

Though the hard sciences and math see more Republican than Democrat teachers, it’s the social and soft sciences where the preponderance of teachers are left, even far left, in their ideological leanings. How far left?  Enough to brag about sexualizing and indoctrinating your children on social media.

If our teens are overwhelmingly taught by Democrats and Progressive left ideologues, are there any studies that can tell us how they’re affecting our children?

There are, and they’re not good.

As of April 2022, the CDC reports that 44% of teens report feeling “persistently sad and hopeless,” up from 37% in 2019.  Though one might be quick to blame the pandemic for this rise, the likelier root cause was two-fold: the handling of the pandemic and the change in schooling during that time.  The handling of the pandemic likewise came down to how the left took action versus the right.  Left-run states like New York and California were tyrannical in lockdowns, vaccine mandates, and doomsday messaging.  Right-leaning states like Florida and Texas were quick to eschew lockdowns, mandates, and fear-mongering. As a result, students from K through 12 either suffered or thrived under these measures. However, overall, the effect on children was negative by looking at the numbers.

CNN reports youth depression and anxiety doubled during the pandemic and no doubt this wasn’t isolated to states with certain political leanings.  Despite the left’s attempts to treat students like adults by including early childhood sex education and year-round LGBTQ++ programming, the kids don’t seem to feel comforted by either when they’re told to wear masks militantly, see their parents get laid off for matters of personal health autonomy, and 24/7 panic messaging regarding COVID, souring race relations and climate change:

The study’s findings are consistent with what Jenna Glover, a child clinical psychologist and director of psychology training at Children’s Hospital Colorado, said she is seeing on the ground. She was not involved in the study.

“The disruption to their routines and consistency is very damaging for a child’s mental health,” Glover said. “They thrive on predictability, which has been absent for over a year.”

The chronic stress and instability children are experiencing can lead to feelings of hopelessness, which is one of the top predictors of suicide ideation, she added.

However, it’s not just the children and teens who are trending downward.  Gallup notes global levels of unhappiness have been on the rise for more than ten years.  They attribute this less to simple economic discrepancies than to a sense of well-being. Though the number of people reporting living a “great life” has more than doubled, those stating they’re living their “worst life” has more than quadrupled. The factors include job satisfaction, financial stress, community life, physical health, and loved ones they can turn to for help.

The pandemic saw a massive flight from left-governed states to those governed by conservatives.  California and New York again saw record numbers of migration to states like Florida, South Carolina, and Texas. Meanwhile, teens were left to wonder about this “new normal” governors like Andrew Cuomo, Gretchen Whitmer, and Gavin Newsom were saying we’d just begun.

Herbert Marcuse, with communist fist raise

Enter Herbert Marcuse, author of three critical writings from the 1960s.  Marcuse, a German expatriate, came to the United States from the Frankfurt School, known for its Marxist thinkers, such as Theodor Adorno and Gyorgy Lucaks.  Marcuse, after a short stint with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the precursor to the CIA, wrote “Essay on Liberation,” “Repressive Tolerance,” and “Eros and Civilization.” 

Disenchanted with the failings of the working class revolution begun by Marx, where capitalism had satisfied the needs of the workers, namely those associated by Gallup with well-being, Marcuse looked out at America in search of revolutionary energy.

In the third chapter of Essay on Liberation, titled “Subverting Forces…in Transition,” he said the revolutionary energy would be found in the “ghetto population” as well as those now labeled LGBTQ+.  They could be roused to see their marginalization and thus be made activists against the capitalist forces in

America.  Marcuse and his protégé, Angela Davis, would champion these ideas to black Americans, alongside the Black Panther Party and Huey Newton. Some sixty years later, we can see his plan still working with BLM, Antifa, and their supporters.  In fact, Marcuse is credited with the ideology behind Antifa.

Antifa logo next to pedophile group NAMBLA

However, it’s the first chapter, titled “A Biological Foundation for Socialism?” where he suggests the movement requires a fundamental change to man’s biology, which he believes can be accomplished:

“The rebellion would then have taken root in the very nature, the “biology” of the individual, and on these new grounds, the rebels would redefine the objectives and the strategy of the political struggle, in which alone the concrete goals of liberation can be determined. Is such a change in the “nature” of man conceivable? I believe so, because technical progress has reached a stage in which reality no longer need be defined by the debilitating competition for social survival and advancement.” (p. 10)

However, Marcuse doesn’t see this nature changing naturally but by manipulating man’s desires via subversion:

“We would have to conclude that liberation would mean subversion against the will and against the prevailing interests of the great majority of the people.” (p. 18)

If you read that to say Marxists will defy the free will of the majority of Americans and their chosen interests by subversion, that is exactly what he is saying.  This is the arrogance of the Marxist left – they believe they are better and they know better than you and I, so much so they can justify subverting your will.

How they don’t see this as crypto-oppression is beyond me.

In part 2, we look at the following arguments Marcuse makes that aim at destabilizing the minds of children as well as the mentally ill influencers from whom he draws his theories.

 

The post The Left and Teenage Mental Illness: Bug or Feature? (Part 1) appeared first on Granite Grok.

This is not the first time Rep. Jim White has proposed this legislation, but it is back after the Lewiston, Maine, shooting. The bill would make property owners of gun-free zones liable if disarmed individuals were harmed as a result of that restriction.

Do you agree?

Gun-free zones appear statistically to be the more significant threat to public safety. Shooters, regardless of their grasp of reality, always seem capable of choosing locations where people are known to be disarmed. Making these areas less common can only limit victim-rich environments and, by extension, (perhaps) the incidents themselves.

A simple public safety measure opposed by public safety advocates, which Rep White is trying to get around.

 

White’s bill is similar to one that came before the Legislature in 2017 and was opposed by the Maine Gun Safety Coalition and the Retail Association of Maine. It was voted down in committee and didn’t get a vote by the full Legislature.

The idea has virtually no chance of winning the support of the Democratic controlled Legislature, which this year easily rejected efforts to allow guns in schools based on some of the same arguments.

But the bill highlights an ongoing national debate about the impact of gun-free zones, especially in communities that have been hit hard by gun violence.

“I think the situation in Lewiston might bring to light the necessity of this,” said White, who owns J. White Gunsmithing, a firearms shop in Guilford. “The most vulnerable among us are put in a more vulnerable situation because of these gun-free zones.”

 

We might feel inclined to say something like, how can you embrace the idea of the government adding another layer of enforcement upon property owners? The answer, I think, is that we’re not. We’re removing it. The Constitution is clear about the right to keep and bear arms. Principally, this is a defense against tyranny, specifically from your government. But there is no way to know precisely where, when, or how tyranny may present itself or through what machination. We uphold that right by prohibiting you from being disarmed anywhere you have a right to be (or have been invited).

As for tyrannous plots and intrigues (aside from the ones where we might think the government set up and triggered a shooter), many of the gunmen, after the fact, are revealed to be people known to the government (police, mental or public health, locals) who needed attention the State increasingly claims it is best suited to provide then does not—individuals who should trigger so-called safeguards that disarm others but never them.

The courts (also the government) have made it clear they (the government) have no obligation to protect you, so we presume this would include failing to prevent crimes whose scope rises as the result of laws that disarm us when it is clearly up to us to defend ourselves.

Rep, White’s law increasingly makes sense when confronted with all of that nonsense, but again, not in a state like Maine where Democrats increasingly control the government. Places where mass shootings will likely increase as a result of these facts. They will disarm you. They will allow others to disarm you. No one is or will be held responsible for what happens to you. Perhaps not even the shooter, who will likely end up dead, which is what many of them wanted or expected. Something an armed citizen could have provided much sooner with less injury and loss of life if permitted to exercise their natural right to defend themselves.

 

The post Should Owners of Gun-Free Zones Be Liable if Disarmed Citizens Are Shot or Killed? appeared first on Granite Grok.

Two new reports on Vermont’s Renewable Energy Standard, one by the Department of Public Service and Sustainable Energy Advantage and the other by an organization called Brattle, confirm what we’ve been pointing out for a long time – Vermont’s so-called green energy mandates are all cost and no benefit for the Vermonters who get stuck paying the bills.

And those costs are huge.

The DPS report focuses primarily on what the impact of the Renewable Energy Standard does to electric costs and ratepayers’ bills, and that will be the focus of this article. Brattle touches on this as well but also delves into the overall economic impact of the policy, which I will save for another time. (Spoiler alert: it’s all bad.)

The most important aspect of these two analyses is that they put the lie to the advocates’ talking point that the benefits of decarbonizing our economy and electrifying everything outweigh the costs. Nope.

The “big benefits” claim is based on a fiction wrapped in a fib called the “Social Cost of Carbon.” The Social Cost of Carbon is a mostly made-up calculation that attempts to affix a price to the negative economic impacts of releasing a ton of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels. It is highly subjective. Under the last three administrations, it has been officially pegged at $43 a ton (Obama), $3 to $5 a ton (Trump), and $51 a ton (Biden).

If you’re a fan of The Office, think of the Social Cost of Carbon as like Kevin’s magical accounting number, keleven, defined wonderfully by the Urban Dictionary as “a fictitious number used by an incompetent or corrupt individual to balance accounting books.” So, when the costs of your ideological “green” boondoggle are going to cost voters $2 billion, likely upsetting them, just add your $2.2 billion social cost of carbon keleven to the ledger, and presto, you’re back in the black!

A year ago, I wrote an in-depth article on the Social Cost of Carbon; the Climate plan’s costs are real. Savings, not so much, if you want more on this topic. But the short version of the gimmick is that while the costs of green energy policies are born entirely by Vermonters, any benefits are spread thinly across the globe. This means that only an infinitesimally minuscule, undetectable amount of any benefit from Vermonters’ “investment” actually accrues to Vermonters.

As explained by Dean Murphy of Brattle, “The increment of global carbon emissions or the decrement to global carbon emissions from Vermont going from its current RES (Renewable Energy Standard) to 100 percent will be very, very small. And the impact that will be felt globally will be very, very small because Vermont is a very small part of the world. And those increments to those costs in Vermont of flooding, climate change, changes in temperature, etcetera, because Vermont’s own contribution to the global climate is very small, the effects that you feel in Vermont are very small. You’ll feel much more impact from what happens in China and India than you will from what you did in Vermont.”

What’s happening in China and India is not carbon reduction—quite the opposite. The same goes for Russia and most if not all of the developing world in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. In other words, Vermont will see no benefits – cost-wise or trauma-wise — from reduced flooding or other impacts from severe weather in the future as a result of our renewable energy policy. The money we waste on these policies, however, is money we won’t have to prepare for any future natural disasters caused by the two new Chinese coal-fired power plants that come online every week. Or just Mother Nature doing her thing?

So, when advocates for these policies say, yes, we may be throwing hundreds of millions of your dollars at this, but we have to balance the cost of paying for these policies with the cost of floods, etc, you are free and encouraged to go ahead and point and shout “liar, liar, pants on fire.” There is no balance. In fact, we get stuck paying for both the cost of “going green” and any natural disaster that might have been prevented if we used that money to adapt to cope with evolving weather patterns.

Now, exactly how much money are we pouring into this hole of no return? According to TJ Poor of the Department of Public Service, if we continue with our current “business as usual” Renewable Energy Standard policy it will cost Vermont ratepayers about $130 million a year extra on our electric bills. If we adjust the Renewable Energy Standard along the lines of what is currently being proposed by the Renewable Energy Standard Working Group, that increases by another $50 million per year to $190 million per year.

Think of this a “Green Virtue Signaling Tax.” We get almost no material benefit for this otherwise unnecessary expense at a tremendous opportunity cost.

As Poor concludes, Vermont’s Renewable Energy policy “is not cost-effective for Vermont ratepayers…. And so those are the tradeoffs that  we need to evaluate… how much Vermont ratepayers should pay for societal benefits.” I can tell you that our elected so-called representatives have a very different idea about what that number should be than do the people who are sticking with the bill.

 

Rob Roper is a freelance writer with 20 years of experience in Vermont politics, including three years of service as chair of the Vermont Republican Party and nine years as President of the Ethan Allen Institute, Vermont’s free-market think tank. He is also a regular contributor to VermontGrok.

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