Don Lemon announced a deal to do a program on X, as have Tulsi Gabbard and some sports guy of whom I’ve never heard, but the addition of Lemon is of most interest. The former CNN critter will provide the left with an excuse to use the platform that Leomn calls “the biggest space for free speech in the world.”

The petty tyrants obsessed with censoring ideas with which they disagree have a problem. They’ve insisted that X, in its Musk-Owned post-government-controlled censorship state, would collapse, die, become a wasteland for hate, and a place for intolerant MAGA Republicans and Nazis as if Nazis don’t have free speech rights in America.

We don’t have to like it, but they do.

These progressive exhortations (in reality) prevent them from having to address how censorious platforms like Facebook and Instagram allow child pornography, pedophile rings, and child sex trafficking but not diverse opinions on the effectiveness of masks, lockdowns, or more invasive chemical interventions.

Laptops owned by Biden’s named Hunter or unsecured servers owned by Clinton’s named Hillary. These subjects are commonly referred to as election interference. And you’d be right to insist on a double standard, two sets of rules, or a two-tiered system of injustice, which the old X (when it was known as Twitter) would have had to filter, alter, shadow-ban, or censor.

And while there might be Nazis and child traffickers on X, it now has Don Lemon, who, regardless of his success there, has opened the door to more capable progressive commentators, all of whom have the right to speak their minds. The Lemon and I won’t agree on much, nor will I find a lot of common ground among most die-hard progressives, but if they flock to X to see Lemon and whoever follows his lead, they’ll need to rethink at least two problems—their hatred for Elon Musk and their position on X and Free Speech.

If it’s anything like the mental health crisis they had with unmasked people during COVID, the online therapy services stand to rake in a fortune.

The post Night Cap: Does Don Lemon’s New Deal on X Create a Problem for Musk-Hating Lefties? appeared first on Granite Grok.

Lost in the recent climate summit at COP28 in Dubai was the shift by environmentalists and governments toward a nuclear energy future. Calls to eliminate fossil fuels and cows predominated as usual, and John Kerry demanded that all coal-fired plants be banned. But a very substantial lane change took place as well: nuclear-powered options were granted a seat at the climate table.

Observers of climate summits may be forgiven if they’re confused over the direction the world is being led to combat the alleged climate-change Armageddon – clearly, the attendees are. Envoys to Dubai flew to the summit conspicuously in jets, dined on meat, and condemned China for its coal-fired plants while calling to manufacture more solar panels and EVs – which are heavily dependent on Chinese coal energy. In the shuffle to redistribute energy resources, it is inevitable that relatively cheap and clean nuclear power would eventually poke its head cautiously into the climate fray.

Environmental purists have long scoffed at nuclear power as an ally against greenhouse gas emissions, but it appears the failure of the renewable energy pathways to deliver the promised salvation has induced the climate obsessives to reassess their Utopian objectives. In what is being diplomatically whitewashed as a nuclear “renaissance” rather than an about-face reversal, global and industry leaders are openly embracing the “nuclear option.” An international agreement signed by 22 nations while at COP28 pledged to triple nuclear energy capacity by 2050. Signatories included the US, Canada, Britain, and the UAE, which touted its own massive investments in nuclear reactors at the climate summit.

This dramatic shift in official climate policy may be driven by the recognition of the frightful shortcomings of renewable energy manufacturing or numerous claims that humanity is already past the point of no return from global warming impacts. Yet a forceful reality for conference attendees – and the world – is that China and other nations are proceeding full steam ahead with nuclear capacity. Perhaps Western nations are fathoming the consequences of being left behind on energy.

Greta Thunberg howls against fossil fuels while demanding more renewable manufacturing – dependent on fossil fuels. The one-issue obsession with carbon dioxide has clouded futurist visions to “save” the world, into what may well prove to be a sort of modern collective energy suicide. Banning oil, natural gas, and coal before the alternatives have been created and implemented is dubious policy. Yet the carbon-focus foible means toxic chemicals spewing from Chinese manufacturing plants have been ignored, as have the consequences of shutting down oil and gas production and distribution. Also overlooked are the economic impacts of reckless government spending.

The most dramatic oversight of the climate agenda, though, may be national security. China is an amused partner at the table – pledging climate policy commitments while ramping up coal-fired plants and nuclear power. China views coal as a national security resource, as it has enormous quantities of black gold. It also understands the power and profitability inherent in nuclear energy, and is currently constructing all six types of fourth-generation nuclear reactors determined by an international consortium to be safer than traditional reactors.

Dreams of Utopia invariably crash down with earthly gravitation. Few but the most extremist environmental groups now insist that nuclear power is off the table, especially as new inroads into nuclear fusion are developed. Proponents of climate change action are increasingly coming to terms with the factual reality that renewable energy manufacturing cannot possibly provide the baseload of power the world requires. This leaves nuclear power as not only a viable option, but the planet’s only known hope for anthropogenic rescue from alleged human-caused global warming.

The post Is a Nuclear Renaissance on the Horizon? appeared first on Granite Grok.

We can only hope that the other faulty pillars of leftism collapse this year the way the Electric Vehicle market has in the past year. Dealers don’t want them Inventory is backing up, manufacturers are losing billions, and now Hertz is not only not going to buy 100,000 of them, it is dumping many of the EVs it has.

“The elevated costs associated with EVs persisted,” Hertz Chief Executive Officer Stephen Scherr said. “Efforts to wrestle it down proved to be more challenging.”

The company hopes that its decision to sell off 20,000+ electric vehicles better balances “supply against expected demand of EVs,” it said in a regulatory filing.

Morgan Stanley analysts said told Reuters that Hertz’s move should be a warning to the entire auto industry about the reality of the electric vehicle market, that they are not that popular and expectations for their growth need to be significantly reduced.

They cost more to buy, a lot more to insure, are expensive to repair, and, in many cases, are a total loss from what might otherwise be a minor accident. You can’t trust them indoors (or shouldn’t due to lithium battery fire risk). Their advertised range rarely meets expectations. Most EVs will never run on non-fossil fuel electricity, and their manufacture and disposal are less than green.

An EV is a lot like any other high-end status vehicle except that it is an expensive and impractical lifestyle accessory with a government mandate.

A pushy Biden Administration commanded automakers to include them to meet revised efficiency mandates, but consumers are losing interest in an investment of that size given the other cost and reliability concerns. Short of buying it for them, the market has plateaued, and that, too, is a concern. Woke states and municipalities have expanded their taxpayer-funded fleets with these turds, and with new models piling up, Biden could easily propose a bailout that puts taxpayers in double jeopardy. The Feds will fund incentives with your dollars to encourage cities and states to pick up the excess inventory, with taxpayers on the hook again for the higher costs of ownership that is scaring off consumers.

And if you are thinking this might be a good time to get in cheap on a used EV formerly in the possession of Hertz, rethink that. The only thing worse than the EV market is the used EV market – another reason to stay away.

The post It “Hertz” – Rental Company to Dump Thousands of Electric Vehicles appeared first on Granite Grok.

Whenever I see and listen to Jamie Raskin (D-DE), I feel the need to wash my hands or shower. Raskin is a prototypical slimy politician who can pontificate on any subject and never tell the truth about any of it. He rose to prominence as part of the team that schemed to impeach Donald Trump and never let the facts or truth get in the way of his version. I think Raskin believes if he talks long enough, his listeners will not even remember the question, let alone the accuracy of Raskin’s answer.

Raskin teamed up with Hunter Biden for a dog and pony show during a hearing of the House Oversight Committee. Seeing Biden and Raskin together gave me visions of Raskin holding the camera during Hunter’s famous PornHub videos. They are both such dirty human beings. Appearing with his attorney, Abbe Lowell, Hunter Biden sat silently in the front row as the committee chair and vice-chair delivered opening statements to a hearing dominated by partisan bickering. Hunter was not expected at the hearing, and it was obvious that this event was coordinated between Hunter and Jamie. Both were prepared and had rehearsed their roles. Hunter’s role was to sit stone-faced and say nothing. At the given time, he, Lowell, and Kevin Morris, Hunter’s Sugar Brother, stood in unison and walked out of the proceedings to address the media.

In the meantime, Raskin was playing his part. In a long soliloquy, he told his version of how the Republicans were using Hunter Biden in a long-shot effort to get to Joe Biden. Raskin’s staff held up printed signs highlighting his speech, evidence this was a pre-planned made-for-TV event. The Representatives traded barbs and insults in an exciting session rarely seen in the Capitol. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) asked, “Who bribed Hunter Biden to be here,” criticizing the surprise appearance. “You are the epitome of white privilege. Coming into the Oversight Committee, spitting in our face, ignoring a congressional subpoena to be deposed. What are you afraid of? You have no balls to come up here,” she said. There were calls for Biden’s immediate arrest and incarceration for defying a Congressional subpoena. When Representative Marjorie Taylor Green (R-GA) spoke, the Biden trio stood and exited, resulting in a verbal beatdown of Biden by Green. Her accusation was that Biden was no match for a strong Conservative woman.

Lowell gave a prepared statement to the media, further reinforcing that this day was choreographed. Biden said little during his visit except for an exchange of words with a FOX reporter. Fox Business’ Hillary Vaughn asked Hunter why he put his father on speakerphone during his meetings. Hunter asked if she had a father and if he ever called her. Vaughn said yes, but never while she was in a business meeting. She landed the punch, and Biden was heard saying she was dangerous.

Hunter Biden is not a good person. We should not judge others, but in Hunter’s case, he has forced that judgment on us. He has not been a good father or husband. He has not been a good son in that he has spent a lifetime profiting from his father’s position and name. He has acted in a fashion to bring shame to the name but shows no remorse. He has extorted millions from foreign countries and companies and helped build a family fortune for his father that the job itself never could. He developed a way to launder millions with a bogus artist career. He has neglected to pay millions in taxes, and at the same time, his father is declaring war on Americans who have done the same. The hypocrisy is palpable. He has defied Congress and is using his father to beat the courts. Hunter Biden is not a good person. He may be winning some battles, but ultimately, he may lose the war. Even his corrupt father may not have enough strings to pull to keep the guilty verdict away from Hunter.

The post I Feel Dirty Watching These Two appeared first on Granite Grok.

City Councilor Ali Sekou is suing his City over a new development next to the Mosque he runs. I shared some thoughts on this a few days ago and wondered if the lawsuit to block new housing was about parking spaces. It’s been a few days, and I think it is about parking.

As a reminder, “the IQRA Islamic Society of Greater Concord sits on a piece of property adjacent to the First Congregational Church at 177 N. Main St, in whose lot (some) Mosque attendees are alleged to have parked.” Parking sucks on Main Street, and the Mosque is but one of its many victims, which is where our story takes a new turn (or should I say an old one).

From that Concord resident and reader:

The Concord ZBA approved the Mosque at its August 2, 2017, meeting. The Mosque project requested six zoning variances beginning June 7, 2017. The first variance request states “to permit 16 parking spaces where 251 spaces are required.”

By the time the August 2 meeting came the ZBA decided that only 47 spaces were required and the 16 onsite parking spots were good enough if they could get an easement from the First Congregational Church next door for 31 more parking spots.

The Concord Monitor reported on the August 2nd meeting, stating the next step would be to get Site Plan approval from the Planning Board.

Maybe I’m partial to promoting my guesses, but how is this not about parking?

I’m not clear on any official parking variance – maybe someone can find out if the Concord Planning Board even approached this – but when the church property was sold, that changed the game. The new property owners’ plan to build apartments was also approved with a parking variance (if I recall), so is it inappropriate for the Mosque to complain about parking or traffic or the character of the area when it – assuming my source is correct – went from needing 251 spaces to 47 spaces, 65.95% of which were not even on the Mosque’s property.

The IQRA Islamic Society of Greater Concord has sued, so a lawyer in a robe will get a shot at telling us what it all means when I think we already know. Zoning and Planning rules exist to give zoning and planning board members something to do. That something is approving development, and to hell with the parking and traffic; the Mosque is wasting its money on the lawsuit.

The City isn’t going to do anything about a parking problem the Mosque accepted on a contingency the City was never going to pursue, and even if it did, it was temporary at best. Short of the IQRA Islamic Society of Greater Concord buying that land, it was always temporary, and they didn’t buy it.

If the Mosque thinks it can win because the City owes it parking, they are going to lose.

The post Concord Mosque Lawsuit Against City – Yeah, It’s About the Parking … appeared first on Granite Grok.

Riley Gaines, former NCAA swimmer now advocate of Save Women’s Sports Act, has been very active this week protesting and speaking at the 2024 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Convention in Phoenix, Arizona, to demand that the organization stop discriminating against female athletes by allowing males to compete in women’s sports.

The NCAA celebrates its decision to include transgender women in women’s sports as Progressive and the right decision for college athletics. The results and data prove otherwise and show the NCAA to be more concerned with being WOKE than right on this issue.

At the convention, swimmers Riley Gaines, Paula Scanlan, Kaylee Alons, and volleyball player Macy Petty continue to call on NCAA President Charlie Baker to meet with them to hear how allowing men in women’s sports hurt them. Baker has ignored numerous requests to meet with female athletes against whom the NCAA has discriminated. Gaines is the most visible of these female athletes. She is a 12x All-American swimmer, 5x SEC Champion, and record holder. However, she was denied the individual championship in her senior year at Kentucky when she was beaten by transgender swimmer Lia Thomas, who had competed at Penn for a few years as a male swimmer.

By the conclusion of Thomas’s swimming career at UPenn in 2022, her rank had moved from 65th on the men’s team to 1st on the women’s team in the 500-yard freestyle and 554th on the men’s team to fifth on the women’s team in the 200-yard freestyle. Thomas found the way to become a champion was not to train and work harder but to become a woman and compete as one. I question how she can look in the mirror or hold up her trophy and feel good about the women she cheated in her quest for fame.

34 Lia Thomas athletes compete in women’s collegiate athletics and are supported by the NCAA. They compete in swimming, basketball, soccer, gymnastics, and volleyball. Not only are women being denied championships and scholarships and having future earnings hampered, but they are also being physically hurt. 

From ABC13 News:

RALEIGH, N.C. (TND) — A high school volleyball player who suffered severe head and neck injuries resulting in long-term concussion symptoms after a girl she says is transgender spiked a ball in her face is now speaking out publicly for the first time.

“Due to the North Carolina High School Athletic Association policy allowing biological males to compete against biological females my life has forever been changed,” Payton McNabb, now a senior at Hiwassee Dam High School in Murphy, North Carolina, said during a Thursday committee hearing of the North Carolina state legislature.

McNabb indicated that, to this day, she is still recovering from her injuries and continues to face other health struggles as a result of what happened, such as impaired vision, partial paralysis on the right side of her body, constant headaches, anxiety, and depression. But to the NCAA, this is just the cost of being a Progressive WOKE institution.

To every level-headed, honest, free-thinker, this inclusion of trans-women is wrong. Still, the beliefs and wishes of the masses are no longer the concern of the government, schools, sports governing bodies, or Progressives in general. It will be challenging to correct these bad decisions when the adults regain control of this country. For the young women denied the fruits of their hard work, there will be no justice, and for the Payton Mcnabbs who are physically harmed, there will be no apology.

The post What Kind Of Man Celebrates ‘Beating’ Women? appeared first on Granite Grok.

Mitch McConnell and his faux-GOP ilk are, as I write this (1/12 10:00 AM), selling out GOP voters on illegal immigration. More specifically, Oklahoma’s faux-GOP Senator Lankford is the figurehead for a plan to essentially amnesty the millions illegals the Biden-Regime has allowed to invade through our Southern border and to legalize future illegal immigration … to the tune of 5,000 per day.

Here is Oklahoma Republican Senator James Lankford Deal for the Southern Border

1) Increase green cards by 50,000/year

2) Work permits for adult children of H-1B holders

3) Immediate work permits to every illegal alien released from custody

4) Taxpayer funded lawyers to… pic.twitter.com/YUI248w8cW

— The Calvin Coolidge Project (@TheCalvinCooli1) January 12, 2024

I’ve warned many times that Americans will cease to exist as we know it once the children of this illegal alien invasion reach voting age. There will be a permanent Democrat majority. It turns out the Left is not willing to wait that long.  Illegals in Arizona can vote in the 2024 Presidential election. Faux News might as well call Arizona for Biden now.

Elon Musk Rightly Says Arizona Doesn’t Verify Federal Voter Citizenship — But The Feds Don’t Let Themhttps://t.co/nHRNkLkZDq

— The Federalist (@FDRLST) January 12, 2024

The post “Legal” For Illegals To Vote In Presidential Election In Arizona … appeared first on Granite Grok.

Here I go again, snow blowing our driveway, shoveling steps, and clearing the car twice each. Two days in a row are more than enough, and now, to top of everything, I had to listen to some “Chicken Little” disaster-promoting forecaster telling me all this cold weather is because of “Arctic warming.”

This supposedly is pushing the jet stream south, carrying the Arctic cold with it. I looked it up, the N. Pole is 40 degrees below zero Fahrenheit. Something tells me Chicken Little is trying to sell me the Brooklyn Bridge.

The funny thing is in 1895, the NY Times wrote, “Globalists think the world may be frozen again.” Glad I missed that. In 1932, Time announced, “melting polar ice to raise sea levels.” I think you’ve heard that before, right? Me too. 1958, Harpers predicted a warning of the “Coming ice age.” Warning folks, it never stops. 1975 News Week, “Mild conditions, Earth’s climate cooling down.” Welcome Al Gore, 1976, and “Global warming”, as that has been debunked, it’s become climate change (same thing rebranded) until today, too tired to get up from my recliner, Chicken Little.

I don’t think these people ever think. I’m sure they never check facts or history. If it sounds good say it, if it changes blame something else or someone else and never ever admit they were wrong.

Did you know that during the Revolutionary War, when the British occupied New City, the Hudson River was frozen so solid British soldiers could pull wheelbarrows full of wood across to heat the homes in Manhattan?

Try that today!

So look folks when you see or hear the Chicken Littles of our world telling you something do not get up from your recliner, change the channel.

The post Baby, I’ts Cold Out … appeared first on Granite Grok.

If we learned anything at all from the drama that was COVID, it is that the government does not take your natural rights, or their protection, seriously. It is not interested in any opinion that is not its own, and using force to get its way is always an option. This should scare more people than it does.

Refusing to get more boosters than there are Rocky movies is not enough. Showing your maskless face in public spaces is inadequate activism. The machine is not happy about the declining uptake of the self-admitted gene therapy failure (they are still pushing), but this will not slow their roll. Controlling your energy (Net-Zero), your commerce (CBDC), your body (Globalist health Mandates), and your mobility (EVs/15-minute cities) are but a beginning. They must control your words, speech, and thoughts. Limit what you see or do by managing what you trust.

We’ve long known about shadowbanning, demonization, suppressing reach, and Facebook jail, but the Twitter files showed us the extent to which the American government would go and how dismissive the State is to having been caught. Big tech pretended its hands were tied. The machine media, our mainstream press, are little more than partners in this war on information, and they continue to do the State’s bidding, presumably under the misguided notion that they will “be allowed to live” (physically or metaphorically) when it is time to start putting people up against the wall.

Women made that mistake and we’re watching its collapse in real time. Minorities as well, though the deception undermining their families has been underway for a while. The machine response has been to blame white people when they should be blaming Democrats regardless of race. A cabal whose true goal for the diversity movement is to silence everyone who disagrees. Gender, sex, age, race, religion. None of that is important. Ideological purity is the only yardstick that matters.

The Columbia Broadcasting System, CBS to the rest of us, is a dutiful stooge of the machine, and it understands two things well. Media it cannot control is a competition, and the government wants to control its competition.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Absolutely. And, we know in the immediate term, the Biden Administration has been concerned about what this will mean for our politics on the campaign trail. The use of deepfakes or misleading voters. What are the (social media) companies doing to prevent that?

JO-LING KENT: You know, the social media companies are telling me that they’re throwing every resource that they have to stop misinformation and disinformation. But the reality is, that this is a sprawling, endless game of whack-a-mole. That information spreads constantly online, and it is continuing to be very hard to stop especially with the arguments and protections of free speech. Now Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, says it removes manipulated media and voter interference misinformation, and the company does utilize fact-checking organizations and beyond. But the reality here is that taking down all of this bad information has always been an impossible task on platforms of that size. And of course, we cannot forget about X, formerly Twitter. Elon Musk and his team have basically allowed the return of conspiracy theorists like Alex Jones, and they’ve also dramatically reduced the size of their Trust and Safety team, Margret.

If you lived through the COVID Drama and the tyranny that rose to make it such, you are familiar with what social media companies do. You can recite numerous examples of the truths it suppressed in favor of lies that interfered in elections. Science and public health debate suffered. Free Speech was not misinformation. The approved narratives of the machine and its media allies were.

It is true that there will always be wrong thinking, poor judgment, and emotional outbursts, shared as opinion, theory, or fact. But as long as there is open debate and rebuttal, the truth will eventually find the light.

We used to have this thing called the Fairness Doctrine, “a policy that required the holders of broadcast licenses both to present controversial issues of public importance and to do so in a manner that fairly reflected differing viewpoints.” Decades later, it was determined that the FCC did not need to enforce it to issue broadcast licenses, and since then, the media landscape has so changed that you’d have to try not to find an opposing opinion which is ironic. As that landscape began to spiral out of control, many on the totalitarian-leaning left, thanks to years of talkers like Rush Limbaugh, wanted the Fairness Doctrine enforced.

Talk Radio and the rise of the blogosphere leading today to podcasts are a testament to at least two things. People will disagree about almost everything, and they like to share that with the world. Human nature meets politics, and that was why most of America’s founders believed that government should be limited and local. Secure a handful of natural rights and Keep the power as close to the people as possible, lest it gets away from them, which it has.

There is no better example of how far away than this; no budding globalist despot, be they elected, appointed, or credentials as a reporter at any level of administration, will ever insist that the media be required to allow opposing opinions on its broadcasts.

I think that says a lot about where we are. The same people who once demanded the right to opposing opinion have since labeled it as misinformation at best and hate speech at worst while hoping to convince a majority that disagreeing with the government in public might be domestic terrorism or a crime against humanity just like it is in China, North Korea, and every Communist/Socialist state.

Left unchallenged, western democracies will try to achieve parity with totalitarian regimes on the matter of public speech, and the response to COVID is proof of that.

The post Remember When the Political Left Wanted a Return to the Fairness Doctrine? That’ll Never Happen Again appeared first on Granite Grok.

I have been NeverNikki for some time now. Still, it is nice to have Rand Paul say that he, too, is NeverNikki. And the Senator has a far, far, far bigger bully-pulpit than I have, so hopefully, his voice will help negate the millions that Leftist billionaires are spending to create Nikki’s “surge.”

Click the tweet to read the entire thread, which lays out the unassailable case of why real Republicans should NOT be supporting Nikki.

I’ve been watching the GOP Primary closely for a while now, and I like various aspects of several candidates – Republicans like President @realDonaldTrump, Governor @RonDeSantis, and @VivekGRamaswamy.

— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) January 12, 2024

As I look over the field, I don’t think I yet have a first choice, but I do know one thing: count me in as #NeverNikki! pic.twitter.com/0RjbBhnwdc

— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) January 12, 2024

The post NeverNikki appeared first on Granite Grok.