Joe Biden is making the rounds of the elites on both coasts this week, and it is not sitting well with the average American. Biden has not been very active on the campaign trail since launching his reelection bid, but he has not been very active on the Presidential trail either.

He has been busy announcing new daily restrictions on Americans that hit us in wallets that are getting very thin with more credit cards than cash.

Biden also has time to be in Boston and Hollywood this week. Biden was joined in Boston by James Taylor for an event that cost donors up to $7,000 to see and hear the two Octogenarians. The $7K is almost equal to the $11K that Bidenomics is costing the American family. Still, it is not even a drop in the bucket compared to the $930,000 the elites of California dished out to dine with the President. This exorbitant amount of money should be embarrassing, but these celebrities will spend it gleefully.

To not support Joe Biden would be UnAmerican in California. Prior to this week, Joe Biden’s Campaign has amassed a record-breaking amount of donations and has $91 Million in the bank. That is about $1 for every vote he received in 2020. Both are ridiculous and questionable amounts.

Joe Biden’s official schedule is very lean on events and contains virtually no official events beyond the daily briefing. He has one daily fundraiser, equating to the usual number of official events our part-time President can handle. There is nothing more important to the Democrat Party than to get Joe reelected for another term. Whoever is pulling the strings behind the curtain only has power if Joe is sitting behind the Resolute Desk. Now when he gets elected, if he gets elected, he can drive off to Reheboth and hop on his bike. He will have done his job.

Get out of the way and let the Mystery Team finish the job of destroying America.

We can joke about the money people are throwing at a President in his 80s, but this is serious business, and big money will go to great lengths to ensure Democrat control for four more years. Joe can brag every day that he is the President of the little people and all people. He can talk about his roots in Scranton, but he has been out of Scranton since he was a young lad.

He is disingenuous to still Chaim the Scranton connection, and the people of Scranton have severed ties with him. Joe Biden is an extremely wealthy man, and he achieved that status by being corrupt. That is the other reason he needs to be reelected. He and his family require the cover of the office, hope we disregard the polls, hold off on Impeachment, and let the 37% of the voters keep pulling for Joe, and put Scranton Joe back in for four more years.

The post While Americans Skimp To Pay For Dinner, Elites Pay $930,000 To Dine With Biden appeared first on Granite Grok.

It’s time to talk about the Londonderry Lions Club again. A topic that I have been talking about for a long time but feel the need to cover once again. I was inducted into the club in April of 2022 and sat in on a members briefing in which the treasurer said they had record rental Revenue income during covid.

Later that summer, the Lions leadership, without a vote from their members, worked with the town of Londonderry to quit the Morrison Hall lease. The Joint public statement from the Club and the Town claimed that the Club had declining revenue during covid, but this directly contradicted what was told to members about Club finances.

We want to thank Jonathan Esposito for this Contribution – Please direct yours to Editor@GraniteGrok.com.
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Having filed a 91a for town records, and armed with the knowledge that the club had misrepresented their revenue, I started an email chain to members in September of 2022 that eventually resulted in me being discharged from the club. The “official” reason stated was that I was being divisive, but prominent longtime members who now serve both in our Town and at the State later claimed credit for planning my removal. This series of internal club emails were later maliciously forwarded to town Councilor Jim Butler, who read them at a July 2023 Public Meeting of the Council to try to disparage my public image at that time.

The club relied on the taxpayer to offset the upkeep of the hall for many years until the Town Finance Director was finally told that this was a violation of their lease. Coincidentally, the Club quit their lease shortly thereafter. The decision-making behind this process is still being driven by the Town Council and not the citizens, as recently noted by a member of our budget committee. The Town Council only did a listening session because council candidate Shawn Faber held one first. The Planning Board was outright disrespectful towards public comment on the topic. Incredibly, the possibility was stated at a recent public meeting that the property may revert to the Club. Am I the only one who feels like this is morally wrong to give a historical property back to people who did not fulfill their obligations in maintaining it?

I understand many people do not want the tax burden of another property on the town books, but surely we can do something better than giving the property back to a dishonest and disloyal group of people like the Lions. The Lions’ community service to the town of Londonderry has largely come at the expense of a disenfranchised taxpayer. I do not believe we should give them a building, or buy their trees, or let them test our kids’ eyesight.

Until and unless the Lions Officers at large present a check to the Town for repayment for past Hall upkeep, I highly encourage you to donate your time elsewhere. Donate your money elsewhere.

 

Reminder: The views and opinions expressed in Op-Eds are those of the author and may not reflect the opinion of GraniteGrok.com or its authors.

The post Night Cap: Be Choosy About Where You Get Your Christmas Tree appeared first on Granite Grok.

The Scott Administration made big news last week when they warned of an unprecedented impending property tax increase for next year of 18.5 percent. Driven by a 12 percent year-over-year increase in public school spending, they anticipate this will add another $650 to the bill of a $250,000 home.

FYI, the median price of a home in Vermont in 2022 was $310,000.

Vermont already spends more per pupil than almost every other state in the Union at the official count of $22,953, but the NEA pegged the number at $25,053 in 2022-23, which is the number you get when you simply divide the education budget by the number of students. And what are we getting for all this increased spending year after year? An unmitigated disaster of falling student outcomes, rising classroom violence, and a shockingly arrogant lack of accountability or common sense by public school officials.

Here’s a rundown of some recent stories.

I have written previously about Curt Hier’s ongoing battles with the Slate Valley School Board in which Hier, a school board member himself, is trying to discover the extent of abuse in his district, particularly against students with disabilities, regarding the use of “seclusion and restraint” – euphemisms for locking kids in closets or pinning them to the ground. Rather than joining Hier’s attempts to get to the bottom of this, his fellow school board members joined with school officials to attack Heir, attempted to remove him from the board and block the information he seeks from becoming public.

Good news on this front: Judge Mary Miles Teachout sided with Hier’s public records request, stating, “The transparency policy of the (Public Records) Act would be served by making such records available as long as individual privacy of students is protected. Without access to the only government records documenting compliance with its detailed policy on the use of restraint and seclusion in schools, the public has no access to information collected by the government on whether Rule 4500 policy is actually being responsibly implemented (Rutland Herald).” Umm… yeah!

The school pledged to appeal the ruling to keep their compliance (or lack thereof) with the law secret. We hear so often in the debate over school choice in Vermont that public schools are transparent and accountable, whereas independent schools are not. This episode should put the lie to that claim. Public schools are neither transparent nor accountable to the public, and don’t think they should be.

Note: “Seclusion and restraint” abuses are not isolated to Fair Haven. There is currently a bill in the legislature, H.409, to address this statewide problem.

In Morrisville’s Peoples Academy, there was recently an incident in which a student was stabbed through the hand by another student who brought a six-inch serrated knife to school. While the details of what actually happened between the two students are disputed, the key beef school officials have is with the parent of the student who was injured for reporting the incident to the police.

According to the News & Citizen, Mindy Marshall, the boy’s mother, “… alleged that Peoples principal Phil Grant told her to keep the incident under wraps as he didn’t want the media reporting on the incident…. Marshall also said that she and other parents found it upsetting that there was no public communication between the school and parents that a stabbing occurred at the school.”

Again, so much for transparency and accountability regarding student safety.

In Hinesburg, a police chase ended on the grounds of the Community School where kindergarteners were outside playing. School officials refused to let the police search the area because they worried the sight of law enforcement officers would scare the children. Later, a loaded gun and a bag of what is suspected to be cocaine were found – by students. Likely but unconfirmed, they were second graders (WCAX). This is how public school officials interpret “safety first” for our kids.

Similarly, the principal of Burlington High School was compelled to resign after she resorted to pulling a fire alarm in order to break up a fight. Much was made about her judgment in pulling the alarm, but the question remains: what was happening that was so bad that she felt her best option was to resort to such a drastic action? And where were the school security officers? Oh yeah, they were let go because seeing them caused trauma or some such logic.

But despite all this, the kids are learning, right? Wrong.

As has been reported, Vermont test scores are dropping significantly and have been for over a decade. A recent deep dive revealed that our public schools have been teaching kids to read the wrong way for over a generation. Along that line comes a story from the Brattleboro Reformer, Low Reading Scores Alarm BFUHS Board, in which the Bellows Falls Union High School principal revealed that half of the freshman class “were reading at a first-grade or elementary school level.”

And for these kinds of results – culturally and academically — the people running our public schools want us to pay 18.5 percent more on top of our already exorbitant property tax bills? $25,000 per year per kid isn’t enough?

Clearly, money isn’t the problem. It is the way the system is structured and being operated that is the problem.

Did you know that Vermont public schools don’t have to go through any accreditation process to show that they are performing to standards? Our independent schools do. Every five years. And it is an arduous process involving in-depth auditing and outside review.

According to the Associated Independent Schools of New England, “The goals of an accreditation through AISNE are quality assurance and continued school improvement. AISNE accreditation is a system of accountability that requires self-reflection, analysis, and planning for the future. Comprehensive in scope, it is based on a set of standards that define the characteristics of independent schools. AISNE accreditation attests to substantial compliance with established qualitative standards, integrity in statements to the public describing the school’s program, school commitment to improvement, and sufficiency of institutional resources.”

In Vermont, if an independent school cannot successfully pass through the accreditation process – again, every five years – it is not allowed to receive public money through the tuitioning system. This is a big reason why you don’t hear stories about kids attending Vermont independent schools not being able to read or being locked in “blue rooms” because discipline in the classroom is gone.

Public school advocates big lie in trying to shut out and shut down independent schools is that they don’t have to do all the things public schools have to do. Fairness! Okay. How about the 2024 legislature passes a law that mandates every Vermont public school must follow the same rigorous review and accreditation process that independent schools have to pass? That would not only be fair, it would also be of tremendous benefit to our students, families, and taxpayers.

But until our public school system demonstrates it is capable of reform, willing to be transparent, can reasonably guarantee the safety of our students, and, you know, is competent to teach them to do things like math and to read, Vermonters should send a loud and clear message: not another dime!

The post An 18 Percent Property Tax Increase Will Not Fix Our Public Schools appeared first on Granite Grok.

The Marxist goons in Leftistan (DBA California) passed a law requiring retailers with 500 or more employees to include a gender-neutral children’s section or face a 500.00 fine. Well, of course, they did, but wait until you hear what the sponsor had to say about it.

 

Assemblyman Evan Low (D-Campbell), who introduced the legislation, said, “We need to stop stigmatizing what’s acceptable for certain genders and just let kids be kids.” The bill, he said, was designed to “encourage more businesses across California and the U.S. to avoid reinforcing harmful and outdated stereotypes.”

“Part of it is to make sure if you’re a young girl that you can find a police car, fire truck, a periodic table or a dinosaur,” Low reportedly said. “And then similarly, if you’re a boy, if you’re more artistic and want to play with glitter, why not? Why should you feel the stigma of saying, ‘Oh, this should be shamed,’ and going to a different location?”

There are more reasons to make fun of this statement than we can shake a copy of Gender Queer at, but in the interest of staying over the target, we need to ignore them. They are distractions like how a parent might buy their daughter a truck or their son glitter without the state forcing stores to carry things they’d not otherwise sell to appease the virtue-signaling idgits in Sacramento. Or how they could deliberately go to stores that have these things to do that without any mandate. Or not. The issue is that a gender warrior of the land of the genderless genderqueers assumes boys like trucks and police cars and the Periodic Table and girls are more artistic and like glitter.

Bigot!

Bigot! Bigot! Bigot! And isn’t that the problem? Take Drag Queens, for example. Burlesque queens would be more appropriate. Men dressed as caricatures of slutty women. What’s gender-neutral about that? Nothing. Not a damn thing. It is insulting to not just women but slutty women.

It is lousy cross-dressing. Something you’d expect to see coming out of the Target-Sponsored clown car at the gender-neutral circus, except, as we noted, it’s not neutral.

Garish and over the top is OK, as long as you’re honest about what it is, and yes, I brought it up to make a point. If California can force retailers to carry products for which their customers don’t typically shop, when can we expect a new law mandating costumes and makeup for drag queens? They can’t shop just anywhere for that stuff. Shouldn’t they be able to find what they need at Home Depot or Hobby Lobby – if they happen to be either handy, artistic, or crafty – and isn’t the absence of such accouterments shameful?

Drag shows are all about promiscuity and sex. Think of all the entenders one might double with a DEWALT 20v 1/2 inch drill driver on a tool belt wrapped around your green sequined velvet Mikado (knee-length to show off your rhinestoned snake-print leather lace-up Doc Martens)? All of which Home Depot would have to sell if Assemblyman Evan Low’s law was taken to its illogical conclusion.

You can’t just be neutral about gender; just ask him about the toys boys and girls prefer.

So, what does one “not stock” to make room for what the state says you must have on hand to satisfy an abuse that can never end because it would be discrimination even to define what “gender neutral” means?

And here’s the thing about that. Retailers must make decisions about the already high cost of doing business in much of California. At some point, it will no longer make sense to be there.

Especially if the inspectors show up and cite them because the “gender-neutral” section had just been looted by shoplifters who know they won’t be prosecuted.

 

The post Sponsor of California’s New Gender-Neutral “Toy” Mandate … Genders Toys appeared first on Granite Grok.

I recently received a text from an old Marine Corps buddy who now teaches history at Clemson University. “What’s up with the Celtics floor at the Garden? No more parquet?”

I hadn’t watched much early-season basketball, so I went to YouTube to check the look. Not pretty. Then I read a post by @SamLaFranceNBA.

For the first time in franchise history, the Boston Celtics will be playing some of their home games on a court that doesn’t have a parquet design … [earlier] the NBA officially unveiled the alternate court designs that all 30 teams will use for In-Season Tournament games. Boston’s design features a dark green paint job with a wooden-colored runway down the center. The “city edition” logo for the Celtics is featured at center court, on top of a painting of the NBA Cup trophy. In a statement, the NBA said that the alternate courts will be used for all group-stage and quarterfinal tournament games. The league added that the goal is to make it “instantly clear” to fans when they are watching an In-Season Tournament game.

 

The in-season tournament gimmick is grist for a different mill (i.e., material for another column), but the absence of the parquet is a big issue for many Celtic fans. You see, the Celtic product largely involves tradition—more so than any other NBA team.

Tradition.

Holiday traditions are especially sacrosanct. Detroit Lions home games on Thanksgiving. My mom’s Christmas popcorn balls. The Indy 500 on Memorial Day.

Don’t mess with tradition. Yankee pinstripes. Throwing hats on the ice for hat tricks. Cutting down the net. The seventh inning stretch.

And the Celtic parquet.

As Henry James said, “It takes an endless amount of history to make even a little tradition.”

As Winston Churchill said, “Without tradition, art is a flock of sheep without a shepherd.”

As Woody Allen said, “Tradition is the illusion of permanence.”

Tradition binds together generations, providing common experiences and shared imagery. Mess with tradition at your own peril. (Google “New Coke.”)

Our military services are dealing with terrific recruiting challenges. There are several reasons for this. But a significant cause for the recruiting crisis involves eschewing traditions. For example, Marine Corps female recruits no longer train separately from males. And when veterans no longer sense those traditional ties to the military, they’re less likely to encourage sons or daughters, nieces or nephews, friends or acquaintances, etc. to consider joining the military. There is great intangible recruiting value to honoring tradition.

The current presidential administration now imposes “woke” values onto our military. There’s less focus on warfighting and more focus on social justice. Now the Biden administration wants to use the military to fight “climate change.” No wonder Army enlistments fell 25% short of goals in 2022. Hopefully the next administration will return to celebrating traditional values relating to camaraderie, patriotism, and service as opposed to dreary and dubious woke values relating to “diversity, equity, and inclusion.” Our enemies must love seeing our military focusing so much time and energy on politically correct wokeness. It’s becoming a national security issue.

Tradition.

Consider the lyrics to that wonderful song from that that Academy Award winning film:

“Tradition! Without our traditions our lives would be as shaky as … a fiddler on the roof!”

Truth.

So, may the Celtics bring back the parquet floor and may the military cut back the woke insanity.

Merry (traditional) Christmas!

The post Traditions, Troops, and Hoops appeared first on Granite Grok.

A judge’s recent decision on another Right to Know Lawsuit in New Hampshire could cost the Town of Londonderry a pretty chunk of change in Court and legal fees.

I only bring that part up because the case exposes for our amusement just how corrupt and contemptible a local government can be. While not the slimy cistern of obstruction we know as Nashua, Londonderry has been circling its own drain for years. And without getting into a debate about any war waged by its self-proclaimed political elite against Londonderry Times publisher Deb Paul, this case was indeed frivolous.

The Judge used the word repeatedly in the decision. Frivolous. The Town had no basis for refusing the RSA 91a request for the documents in question but having read them, I can see why there might have been some interest in hiding them. They make Town Manager Michael Malaguti looks like a whiney little bitch.

Malaguti filed a sexual harassment complaint (creating a hostile work environment) with the Town based on this exchange, publicly available from a public Town’sg on the Town’s website.

 

COUNCILOR PAUL: . . . I believe that’s conflict of interest with the Planner being in economic development. You have
somebody seducing businesses to come here and then looking at their plans. That’s not a conflict of interest? That’s not a setup for a law firm, a lawsuit? No.
CHAIRMAN FARRELL Ok, we don’t seduce anybody.
COUNCILOR PAUL: Well, entice, intrigue, convince, use a word.
CHARMAN FARRELL: We follow the guidelines and follow the laws of the State of New Hampshire.
COUNCILOR PAUL: It’s still a conflict for me.

 

No one in their right mind – and a keen observer might discern that Malaguit appears trapped in his Left mind – would construe that to be harassment implicit, explicit, inferred, backhanded, or otherwise unless they are fragile and ill-suited for the job of town manager … or vindictive.

And then deny access to the email and attached letter of complaint to the accused. Deb Paul had to sue the Town for refusing to cough it up, and the Court took the Town and Malaguti to the woodshed.

 

This case involves a frivolous complaint of sexual harassment, brought in apparent bad faith. The complaint was brought by the highest administrative officer of a town. He brought the complaint against an elected official to have her censured for what she said at an on­the­record, public hearing. The views she expressed, and the language that she used, was constitutionally and statutorily protected political speech. …

Make no mistake, Malaguti’s accusation of sexual harassment was frivolous. …

On the record provided by the parties, it is impossible to view Councilor Paul’s comments as sexual harassment, or as sexual anything, or as a comment on the gender of the Town Planner/Development Director. Malaguti’s complaint that Councilor Paul attacked the personal integrity of the Town Planner/Development Director is equally specious.

 

The Judge goes on to provide numerous examples in context, including dictionary definitions of the word ‘seduced’ that have no sexual connotation of any sort. It is embarrassing or should be, and (again) perhaps that is why Londonderry worked diligently to hide it.

So what is it that doesn’t offend them about Malaguti’s behavior? In his effort to smear her, Londonderry lost a bunch of money, damaged himself and the Town, and wait – why don’t I just quote him?

 

 

I’d be curious to know if people thought that the war raging against Deb Paul by the Town of Londonderry, represented by this completely fabricated sexual harassment fiasco – exacerbated by the absurd obstruction undone by the 91-a court case – is the sort of disparaging, discriminating, harassment, the Town of Londonderry should never tolerate.

 

The post Londonderry Needs a Town Manager That isn’t a Whiney Little Bitch appeared first on Granite Grok.

Christmas is undoubtedly the most recognized and celebrated holiday around the world, and the owner of its namesake easily the most known human in all of history, and for good reason.  No human being has ever had the impact of Jesus Christ – alive or dead or resurrected.

For most people throughout history, Jesus was either an archetype or, for those of us since His resurrection, an almost mythical figure we try to know through stories and legend.  At Christmastime, we are reminded of His miraculous birth, immaculately conceived, heralded by angels singing to shepherds, and visited by star-seeking Magi from the Far East.  The story of His birth alone is larger than life and one that is known worldwide.  A birth so significant we set the human calendar by it (B.C. Before Christ, A.D. Anno Domini / “Year of the Lord”).

Christmastime is special for many reasons, however, it has taken on a parallel meaning for many.  Rather than a celebration of God’s gift of salvation wrapped in a manger, it has become a commercial festival of gifts wrapped by Amazon and under a tree.  Though the gift-giving and seasonal flavor are nice they pale in comparison to the real reason for the season, which is Christ Himself, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  The One who’s name is above all names and titles are above all titles because, He was not just the Son of God, He is God the Son, and there is an important distinction.

The title Son of God can often be construed as Jesus was somehow lesser than God, yet that is not the case at all.  He said so Himself, and Paul reiterates it in the book of Colossians:

“The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.  For in Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through Him and for Him.” (Colossians 1:15&16)

Consider again then why this time of year is so special and why our ancestors sought fit to reorient time itself to His birth.  Christ is God Himself come to dwell and reveal the God we all wonder about to us – Emmanuel i.e. “God with us”.  It’s in this very act we see the God of the Universe, creator of all things – Heavens and Earth – chooses to be known by us, not just believed in.  Again, He said so to the prophet Jeremiah:

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.  You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.  I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity.” (Jeremiah 29:11-14)

This seems to be the mistake so many people who wrestle with God fail to grasp, the full-hearted seeking of Him now that He chooses not to be physically with us.  This is the core of faith and also the way to build it.  It can almost seem like He’s playing an impossible game of hide and seek, but He isn’t.  He is there, and He wants you to know He’s there, and He’s given you the way to know it.

Many of us fail to seek with all of our hearts because we either believe our half-hearted attempts were good enough or we lose faith in world that falls so horribly short of even our minimal hopes and expectations we don’t want to suffer the thought God is the ultimate disappointment by not being real.

Even though our ancestors from all over the world changed times, penned scripture, faithfully shared their testimonies, wrote songs, and even made His word the best-selling and most-distributed book of all time, the worry that God won’t meet us in this life in a way that is meaningful and assuring is often too much to bear to risk putting our entire heart on the line.  The thought of the disappointment can be too painful, and for many who no longer believe they have walked through that pain sorely disappointed.  Why God?  Why haven’t you answered me?

I, too, was once in that place in life, ready to give up on any hope God was real let alone good or trustworthy. At perhaps my lowest point in life, which is often precisely where He needs you to be to cry out with all your heart, is when He met me for the first time in a way I couldn’t deny was Jesus, God the Son.

Despite my disdain for Christians and their book, I was so broken and lost I figured, “what did I have to lose?” having lost almost everything.  From a humble and contrite heart, I finally let go of my anger, bitterness, and resentment toward God for the horrible life I’d lived and asked Him for help.  More specifically, I asked Jesus, having learned from some Christians, to ask in His name as He says to in the gospel of John:

“Until now you have not asked for anything in my name.  Ask and you will receive and your joy will be complete.” (John 16:24)

And I kept asking and kept talking to the Jesus I couldn’t see.  And He kept answering in ways I couldn’t deny – someone was listening.  Though I doubted at times and chalked it up to coincidence, I kept going back to the same well and asking again, in His name, always humble and always trusting the same Jesus would answer again.  He did, again, and again, and again.

It’s been twenty years since I started to seek Him with all my heart, and it’s been twenty years of a life punctuated by divine answers to my deepest needs and warmest desires.   I have come to know Him and, more importantly, come to know He knows me and my needs better than I know myself.  The comfort and peace that come with that are beyond description, but they are as real as the sun in the sky.

It was angels that knew God who broke into song that night, just like those who have known Him throughout history are compelled to do the same.  It’s in the knowing Him that our souls rejoice and are comforted to know the Christ of Christmas.  The one who healed the lame, gave sight to the blind, calmed the raging storms, and walked among mankind long enough to change the very way we view history and also how we consider eternity.

So this Christmas, I hope you stop and listen to the words and consider Who it is about which it is sung.

“Joy to the world, the Lord has come, let Heaven and nature sing!”

He is more than a song and a set of legendary stories.  He is the God who made you and wants to know you, and you to know Him, at Christmas and every day unto eternity.

Merry Christmas!

 

The post Knowing the Christ of Christmas appeared first on Granite Grok.

To all those who are sending in memes, thank you!  Keep them coming please, as it helps me gather weaponry to fight the Left.  Please do share this post, and if you share an individual meme, consider mentioning you saw it on the Grok!

Speaking of, from this week, Monday Edition and Wednesday Edition.  Also check out my latest Israel-focused meme & commentary post if this is a subject of interest to you.

 

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

 

The day after, but critical to never forget:

 

 

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

 

 

 

That’s the problem.  All these things, whether the Jab / depopulation, or CBDC, or whatever… for the vast majority of people, it’s too big.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prescient.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The idea that the net could go down, or the power could be out for more than an hour or three, or that you might be targeted and frozen out for wrongthink literally does not cross the minds of the vast majority of people.

 

 

 

 

This is astonishing on so many levels I can’t fully wrap my mind around it.

 

 

I’ve never looked… but I did see one meme a while ago of a woman with a bathrobe open to her navel.  Former teacher.  Salary $40-something K per year.  Now, about that same amount per month.  While I certainly do not condone it, at all, I do understand the economic incentive.

 

 

 

 

What’s that conventional wisdom?  They who name a number first lose?

 

 

 

 

 

The lie is believed blindly because it makes people feel good about themselves.

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

PSA – PSA – PSA – PSA – PSA

 

 

This is something I never considered, but damn, that’s clever.

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

Pick of the Post:

 

Now, I’m not saying the sun’s been engineered.  But… how utterly convenient the timing, no?

 

 

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

 

Palate Cleansers:

 

—

—

 

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

 

And don’t forget… come back Monday for another edition.  Same Meme Time.  Same Meme channel.

Please do consider buying me a coffee.

 

 

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

 

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

The goal is to get people to give up their mobility, which coincides both practually and culturally with the idea of freedom—the right to travel without papers anywhere in the nation. But if you want to enter Manhattan, it will cost you a lot more, thanks to a new mobility control plan.

New York’s Governor, Frau Hochul, she of the surveillance, child propagandizing, and public health detention state, has announced a traffic reduction scheme for the congestion zones on Manhattan Island.

 

“New York city will be the first city in America to charge Americans just to go to work in the morning”

“Americans will have to pay $23 per day”

“Passenger vehicles will be charged $15 to enter the congestion zone”

“Trucks between $26 and $36”

“The tolls will be charged once… pic.twitter.com/kMiREg4pI6

— Wall Street Silver (@WallStreetSilv) December 6, 2023

 

The unicorn principle, the fantasy, is that this will reduce transportation emissions by forcing people to pay the city to use crowded, infection-spreading public transportation. What it will actually do is drive up the price of everything moved into the city every day. Not perhaps by a noticeable sum. A drink in Manhattan already costs more than twenty dollars. Everything is expensive. But adding to the cost of doing business always adds to the costs paid by customers.

For some, this might be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. They didn’t move after the COVID tyranny. They’ve suffered through the exponential rise in crime and endured the burden of illegal immigrants and the swelling sea of homelessness. Perhaps this is that ‘one more thing,’ the result of which would be increased migration away from the Big Crapple and the State of New York.

Those who will leave are those who can. This typically means upper middle class and upper class. People of relative means who are not rich by modern standards but who represent the middle class. Not impoverished or poor. Not exactly blue-collar, though many blue-collar trades make what many would call rich man’s wages. And not the very rich who view the new sums as less than loose change.

We’ve seen it in San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Chicago, and New York. The true final form of the policies of the progressive project. A two-class system. The Elite and the dependent.

It will not be absolute, but these rising burdens will push the lower-middle class and the poor further down the economic ladder – widening the gap as those who can leave do. So, in a way, Hochul’s plan will work. There will be fewer cars and trucks in Manhattan, but with fewer dollars from tolls, fees, and taxes, there will also be less revenue. The new “traffic” tax meant to backstop infrastructure or other improvements – much of which will never reach a single bolt or shovelful of asphalt – will cost more in the long run.

Manhattan and New York will, ultimately, pay a higher toll, and they are just too damn ideologically captured by the lies they tell each other about the role of government and people to see it.

Or perhaps New Yorkers will find themselves a Republican Governor and Mayor who will walk the state back off the ledge.

Sorry. Just having my own little unicorn moment.

 

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Imagine that you go to a mechanic because you have a problem with your car. He says:  Give me several thousand dollars up front, and leave your car.  And when you come back for it, maybe it will be fixed.  Maybe it will be in worse shape, although that doesn’t usually happen.

In either case, you can’t get your money back, but you can try again later if you’d like.

You might think:  I’ll find another mechanic! But because of the laws enacted by the legislature and the regulations promulgated by the Department of Mechanics, all mechanics work the same way.

You pay, and then you pray that you’ll get what you paid for.   And if your prayers aren’t answered, too bad for you!

But I’m just kidding around, right?  No one could get away with operating on this model for very long.

Unless we’re talking about schools.  Because the pay-and-pray model is exactly how schools operate.

You send your kid off to a school like Newport.  The school has an impressive-sounding mission statement,

The mission of the Newport School District is to inspire, prepare and challenge all students with a relevant, rigorous curriculum, driven by outstanding instructional leaders in partnership with our families, businesses, and community, consistent with our core values.

and budget to match — about $21,000 per student.

And yet, only about twelve percent of the kids in Newport schools can read at the most basic level of proficiency.  This is the kind of performance we expect from schools in Baltimore or Chicago.

But it is rare to find a school district in New Hampshire where more than half the kids can read proficiently.

So, on the one hand, it seems natural to ask:  Why don’t schools do better?  And many people do find themselves asking this question.

But there’s an even more natural question that hardly anyone ever seems to ask:  Why should anyone expect schools to do better, when we make it abundantly clear that they don’t need to?

 

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It is almost impossible at this point to let Huter Biden walk away without a rhetorical public flogging for his complicated lifestyle. Drugs, hookers, drugs, baby mamas, hidden assets, and all the access for income ‘deals’ of which he was a part.

But, when it comes to the Department of Justice, the latter is little more than small talk. Cocktail party rumor no one they need not pursue. How Hunter got the money and where it went is not an object of concern. It is his failure to tithe to the IRS gods that is problematic. Despite being surrounded by patriots, Hunter did ot give The State its fair share of his ill-gotten gains. But rather than charge him for the methods by which he acquired his wealth, they are more concerned about their cut.

The IRS is not that different from the Big Guy.

 

Instead of paying his taxes, Mr. Biden “spent this money on drugs, escorts and girlfriends, luxury hotels and rental properties, exotic cars, clothing, and other items of a personal nature, in short, everything but his taxes,” reads the indictment.

According to Mr. Weiss, the charges include three counts of failure to pay taxes for the years 2016, 2017, and 2019, and three counts of failure to file tax returns for the years 2017 and 2018.

“The Defendant spent millions of dollars on an extravagant lifestyle at the same time he chose not to pay his taxes,” reads the indictment.

A Trial for Show

Whatever passes for a trial should be political theatre of little consequence from which Hunter will be expected to apologize, pay fines, and perform some community service, as if selling access to a Vice President to enrich his family is not a public good. A show trial but not the sort engaged in by the J6 committee. This could ease Hunter’s current public image from a reckless son of the elite to a repentant advocate for reform. He could not just seek rehab for any of his indulgences but become a champion of it.

Drug abuse and overdose are a hallmark of Democrat rule in this century. What better poster child for another money laundering scheme than Hunter and a charity through which he can pretend to care about the other addicts enabled by Oval Office policy almost as loose as Hunter himself?

A show trial. As in, for show. Nothing terrible will happen to Hunter unless someone believes he can be leveraged against someone of actual value in the manifold of Democrat Party Demigods. If that were the case, they’d put him in lockup (overnight without bail), have someone shiv him, and then use the family’s grief to fast-walk Joe from the political stage at some point before the November 2024 election.

If This Were Westeros, They Could Send Him to The Wall

I’m spit-balling. A lot of scenarios come to mind. A toothless verdict. Mistrial. A presidential pardon. But with Joe having long since mentally passed his use-by date, even as a Muppet, Hunter isn’t good for much but causing trouble for the people in power.

Pedo-peddler of the elites, Jeffrey Epstein didn’t hang himself. DNC email leaker Seth Rich wasn’t murdered in a robbery gone wrong. I find it unlikely Mark Middleton killed himself with a shotgun with a power cord noose around his neck (just in case the Biden Boomstick didn’t do the job). And Jill Biden isn’t Michelle Obama or Hillary Clinton. Hunter is a deadweight the Media Industrial Complex had managed to protect because of his father, but Joe’s utility is due to sunset.

Perhaps the show trial is a means to distract from his other sins on the way to making him a martyr.

It’s the only punishment he’s likely to suffer, and if he can’t talk, everyone who benefitted from his “business dealings” can breathe a little easier.

Or not.

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