Is this the end of Section 230, a law that shields tech companies from liability for the third-party content they host? Will the sky fall without 230?

Recently, the House Energy and Commerce Committee proposed a bipartisan bill that would sunset Section 230 at the end of 2025: “Our bill gives Big Tech a choice: Work with Congress to ensure the internet is a safe, healthy place for good, or lose Section 230 protections entirely.”

While the 230 “experts” will have a lot to say on this topic, as an engineer, I prefer to start with real-world examples, not abstract talking points that sound nice on Twitter but don’t work in real life.

Let’s start with how Section 230 affected the child-porn victims in Doe v. Twitter (N.D. Cal. 2021).

In a nightmare for any parent, the victims encountered a perpetrator on Snapchat who pretended to be a 16-year-old girl. After this perpetrator enticed the victims to send nude photos, they extorted the victims to send even more explicit content. The perpetrator then posted this child porn on Twitter; the victims learned about it from their classmates.

Despite numerous reports from multiple users, Twitter did nothing — even after asking for and receiving a copy of one victim’s ID. They only changed their tune when a federal agent intervened.

The victims then sued, credibly alleging that Twitter violated federal child porn laws. Twitter, for its part, did not contest those allegations. They merely argued that Section 230 barred the victims’ legal claim. The court agreed.

Yet when Congress tried to fix that problem with EARN-IT — a bill that would carve federal and state child-porn laws out of 230 — the 230 “experts” reacted like it was a five-alarm fire, resorting to a dirty playbook of tactics that rivaled the nastiness of the net neutrality debates.

Groups like the Taxpayers Protection Alliance spread four-Pinocchio lies about EARN-IT, such as this whopper: “If platforms choose not to encrypt data, the bill requires them to track and identify all users for age verification purposes.” This claim is so far from the truth that the only appropriate response is the “everyone in this room is now dumber” rant from “Billy Madison.”

And may God have mercy on the souls of the 230 “experts” who consider it wise to resort to dirty tactics on a bill meant to stop child porn. Even the Big Tech companies would never tarnish their brand by directly engaging in those sorts of tactics. Instead, they do it indirectly via their trade associations like NetChoice. If it feels like Congress is just throwing its hands up in the air with this proposal to sunset 230, it would be easy to understand why.

So what happens if Section 230 disappears not just for child-porn laws, but for every law? Would the sky fall? No. Not at all. Even without 230’s shield, you still need a sword: a valid cause of action. If you can’t prove that a tech company violated the law, a lawsuit is dead on arrival, with or without 230.

In reality, many frivolous lawsuits that get quickly dismissed due to 230 would still get quickly dismissed without 230, as they don’t credibly allege a violation of any law. Under federal civil procedure, the defendant will win an early motion to dismiss under rule 12(b)(6) if the plaintiff fails to state a claim; this is the same stage at which lawsuits typically get dismissed due to 230.

Claims that censorship of conservatives will increase without 230 are also balderdash. No law makes “disinformation” or “hate speech” illegal — and such a law would violate the First Amendment anyway. There are laws for real problems like child porn, though. Realistically, without 230, there would be more moderation of real problems and less censorship of fake problems.

(The 230 “experts” will quickly point out here that 230 has an exception for federal criminal law. What they often leave out, though, is that this exception only applies to criminal prosecutions by law enforcement. As the child-porn victims in Doe v. Twitter already know, this exception does not apply to civil lawsuits for the same conduct.)

Let’s also dispense with the myth that Section 230 is the “Internet’s First Amendment.” Even without 230, the actual First Amendment would still apply. As a corollary, even without 230, tech companies could not be held strictly liable for every piece of third-party content that they host; strict liability is already unconstitutional per Smith v. California (1959).

If we do repeal and replace 230, though, what should we replace it with? Conservatives, after all, are well-known for using the phrase “repeal and replace” without figuring out the “replace” part. In tech policy, two themes will frequently recur. The first common-sense theme can be summarized in one sentence: “If it’s illegal offline, it should be illegal online.”

The second theme is a uniform national policy. Simply put, the difference between a local coffee shop and a tech startup is that data frequently crosses state lines and coffee does not. As a result, tech companies — both big and small — can get stuck with a patchwork of state laws, which can impose a significant regulatory burden. In a scenario straight out of the song “Hotel California,” if a startup checks out of California and moves to Florida, it may not be able to leave California’s laws behind.

These two themes point to a simple solution: Section 230 should not apply to any federal law. This compromise would protect tech companies from drowning in an endless sea of conflicting state laws, while ensuring that at the federal level, anything that is illegal offline will be illegal online. (Section 230 and state law is a much more nuanced topic.)

In a world where citizens’ voices are often silenced by tech companies’ woke trust and safety departments, things can only get better when those companies are instead governed by laws created by democratic institutions that give every citizen a voice.

 

Mike Wacker is a software engineer and technologist who has previously served as tech fellow in Congress. Follow him on X.com at @m_wacker.

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The post Is Congress About To Destroy The Internet? appeared first on Granite Grok.

House Bill 1711 has been marketed as a sensible bipartisan compromise bill to keep firearms out of the hands of once lawful gun owners deemed mentally unfit. It passed the State House with the help of 25 Republicans, but the GOP Majority Senate held hands and tabled it last week.

The bill would have had New Hampshire join other states that provide mental health data as part of any firearms background check. Governor Sununu liked it so much that he said he’d sign it, but he’ll have to wait for a majority of NH State Senators to vote to take it off the table and put it back in play. That seems unlikely with the session winding down. But why would Sununu sign it?

Despite his numerous flaws, he’s been a good doobie on firearms rights. It may not make up for his other failures, but our policy has been and continues to be to ‘thank them’ when they do good and ‘spank them’ when they do wrong. Signing HB1711 into law would be a bad idea.

The bill would, in limited circumstances, work like a red flag law for persons,

(a)  Adjudicated as not guilty of a crime by reason of insanity;

(b)  Adjudicated as incompetent to stand trial and found by the court to be a danger to themselves or others pursuant to RSA 171-B:2, 135-E:5 or 135:17-a; or

(c)  Involuntarily committed to a mental health facility pursuant to RSA 135-C:34-54.

It sounds sensible, and advocates claim that this narrow restriction is common sense gun law, but no matter how you slice it, this is the proverbial camel’s nose. It opens a door that future legislatures will see as a rubber stamp to push the entire red flag camel into the tent.

The types of mental health designations will expand first, and eventually, the court and the lawyer will disappear in the name of public safety. They will say we can’t wait for due process of any kind – act first, process later. It’ll happen because that is the progressive goal, and HB1711 is an effort to get that ball rolling.

Were it to pass, we would also look forward to an army of state-affiliated therapists swelling to find suitable diagnoses to disarm otherwise ordinary and law-abiding citizens.

Remember, the deep state, in both DC and Concord, thinks that disagreeing with them is a sign of mental illness.

Public Safety

Public safety is the Marcia -Marcia- Marcia of progressive overreach. But if it is such a huge concern, perhaps we should focus on teaching proper safety and (for lack of a better term) carry etiquette. Instead of confusing kids about their gender at the earliest age possible, teach them firearms handling and safety. We used to do it and the nation was safer for it.

Inculcate responsibility and respect. It’s the one thing we haven’t tried in recent decades, and we should because I can’t think of a single place where red flag laws and every other restriction the mostly Democrat gun grabbers have imposed have made the local community safer. Property crime, violent crime, assault, rape, and murder all go up. What makes them go down? Well, if you look at the states with the longest records for low crime, New Hampshire being near the top of that list, they are also the freest states for gun owners. New Hampshire is. That’s not a coincidence.

And HB1711’s bipartisan good intentions aside, while people with mental health issues are a risk, letting legislators down this path is riskier, and once they take the rights, they are not going to give them back.

 

The post Red Flag Camel’s Nose Fails To Get Under New Hampshire’s Tent appeared first on Granite Grok.

The “social justice” movement that’s taken the nation by storm since last summer has descended as leftists employ absurd lies to impose glaring injustices. Perhaps the biggest of these lies being spread by leftist lawmakers is that Vermonters killed off all the Native Americans and must now pay economic penance.

A vile bill, introduced by 18 misinformed legislators, incorporates fraudulent claims to statutorily inflict hateful vengeance in the name of “social justice.” 

H.273, “An act relating to promoting racial and social equity in land access,” proposes to contribute $10 million to a BIPOC-operated bank which will administer the funds for BIPOC applicants to purchase land or housing in “every town in Vermont.” To justify this, the bill incorporates the following fallacious drivel:

“The foundation of our current economic system was built on land that was taken from Abenaki and other Indigenous persons, and the structures of our economic system were constructed with the labor of enslaved persons … The laws and policies of our State and nation severed Indigenous persons from their land while denying them, Black persons, and other Persons of Color from having the opportunity to access and to own land.”

That all sounds horrid, of course, but here’s the thing… It never happened. Not in Vermont, at least. This statute re-writes Vermont’s history, replacing its past with fiction. It attributes violence against Abenakis to all Vermonters, when the reality is that the vast majority of white migrants settled lands nearly empty of Abenaki, back in the 1800s. The Abenaki were nomadic and did not “own land” to be “taken” in the western sense, and the “economic system” alleged in the statute was white subsistence farming, which built Vermont’s economy for some two hundred years—after most Abenaki were gone. The bill alleges that “Centuries of genocide, eugenics, broken treaties, displacement, and land dispossession placed persons of the Abenaki Nations and other Indigenous persons living in Vermont at a great social disadvantage.” While it is true that Abenaki were targeted for forced sterilization, that was a progressive policy of which most white Vermonters were simply not complicit—indeed, poor white farmers were themselves targeted.

The statute also conflates the Abenaki and slaves, yet slavery was prohibited in Vermont by its “laws and policies”—the first Constitution in the nation, in fact, banning slavery. Vermont is so extremely white today because slavery was almost nonexistent in the state’s history. There is no record of Vermont “denying… [people of color]… from having access to land.” It just did not occur, not “systemically,” not ever.

In truth, the historic basis for this kind of legislation is entirely imagined.

Photo of a plaque on the wall of the Vermont State House. The Vermont historical archives are filled with Vermont legislative denunciations of slavery.

TRUE BIPOC VERMONT 

Black people have never lived in Vermont in significant numbers: the 1960 Census (Table 15) reflects 572 Black residents in 1920, 568 in 1930, 584 in 1940, 443 in 1950, and 519 in 1960. The 1910 U.S. Census identified 34 Native Americans residing in Vermont in 1890, 5 in 1900, and 26 in 1910. But the evidence that this demographic makeup is a result of discrimination—or “barriers to the equal enjoyment and economic benefit of land access and homeownership opportunities based on race and ethnicity,” as H. 273 alleges—is scant.

At one point, the bill even calls out Jim Crow laws… (Vermont, of course, was not a Jim Crow state).

Instead, the bill makes a huge show of condemning historic grievances that “BIPOC” Americans may have with the federal government: the General Allotment Act of 1887 (the Dawes Act); policies started 1934 by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Home Owners’ Loan Corporation that were criticized for “denying Black and brown residents equal access to home mortgages, often offering subprime loans that came with unusually severe terms”; or the 1944 Servicemen’s Readjustment Act which created the G.I. Bill of Rights (“Funds from the bill were only made available to White soldiers returning from war and not BIPOC veterans.”). None of these policies were enacted in Vermont or by Vermonters. At one point, the bill even calls out Jim Crow laws: “The rate of ‘Black land-loss’ can be attributed to Jim Crow, racist practices conducted by the USDA and decades of farm busts.” (Vermont, of course, was not a Jim Crow state).

Still, H. 273 seeks to fund land acquisition for those “who have not had equal access to public or private economic benefits due to race, ethnicity, sex, geography, language preference, immigrant or citizen status, sexual orientation, gender identity, socio-economic status, or disability status.” Hundreds of thousands of white Vermonters, meanwhile, have endured a long history of crushing poverty—a history that “native” Vermonters well know, but a history which those who condemn them recast as “white privilege.”

Most “native” Vermonters (now a pejorative term) understand and are humbled by this history. Poor houses existed in numerous Vermont towns. Sheep farming was once relatively profitable, but the wool market peaked in 1851. Then, Vermont shifted its agriculture to dairy—first butter and cheese lugged to Boston; later, fresh milk. But the opening of the railroads undermined dairy prices, and Vermont dairy farming has been in decline ever since. Over the decades, from 1930 to the present, Vermont dairy suffered an “economic freefall.” Vermont’s dairy farms—its primary industry—shrank from 27,000 in 1927 to barely 600 today. Milk prices dropped by more than half during the Great Depression and never fully rebounded.

Social Justice Warriors proclaim that today’s black Vermonters are owed money and land by their white neighbors…

There were a few black farmers through this period, but blacks were mostly spared the abject misery, alcoholism, and despair that strangled white farm families who often lacked food, clothing, and dental or health care. This is what H.273 now fantastically alleges was a period of white privilege enabled by the exploitation of black and Abenaki labor.

Now Social Justice Warriors proclaim that today’s black Vermonters are owed money and land by their white neighbors, for nebulous crimes such as those routinely alleged (and far from proven) against Abenaki natives. “Native peoples” are routinely invoked by just-off-the-bus agitators who claim that only Native Americans (and them) have the right to declare who owns the land. As former legislator Kiah Morris proclaimed, “Unless you are First Nations, you have no right to claim who are real Vermonters. Nativist political platforms are the basest level of discourse.” SJWs use allegations of historic Native suffering to stake their claim—Kiah herself moved to Vermont from Chicago (where presumably, only native people have a right to claim who are really Chicagoans).

Xusana Davis, Vermont’s Executive Director of Racial Equity, echoes this same manipulation. Having moved to Vermont from New York City six months before COVID-19 struck, Xusana stated in a recent podcast:

“What’s most interesting to me is that when we think about a typical Vermonter, it is often the case that people envision somebody who may be white. Oftentimes, people who are white who maybe are born and raised in Vermont, they’ll say, ‘I’m a native Vermonter.’ And I always think, oh, you’re Abenaki? Because if you’re really a native Vermonter, then you’re probably indigenous to the land.”

But there are no Abenaki “indigenous to the land” in that there are no Abenaki with intact culture, language, or genetics. The Cro Magnon have no indigenous sites remaining either, so perhaps exploitation of them can be similarly understood. Why do newly arrived BIPOC ideologues possess the authority to exact retribution from white Vermonters who have lived on family land for 200 uninterrupted years?

 

 

John Klar is an Attorney, farmer, and author. Mostly farmer… And Regular Contributor to GraniteGrok and VermontGrok.

The post Proposed Statute Perverts History appeared first on Granite Grok.

What a speech America’s imposter/figurehead President #DirtyJoeBiden gave at the Morehouse College commencement. Essentially … YOU JUST WASTED FOUR YEARS; YOUR DIPLOMA IS WORTHLESS; NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU LEARN, HOW HARD YOU WORK, IT DOESN’T MATTER BECAUSE AMERICA IS INCURABLY AND PERVASIVELY AND FOREVER RACIST.

What a sick bitch … or more accurately, team of sick-bitches because #DirtyJoe obviously was on drugs and neither wrote the speech or even knew what he was reading … to write/say such things on a day meant to celebrate and inspire the graduates. The sick irony of course is that if any candidate is a RACIST it is #DirtyJoeBiden … if you’re not voting for me then you’re not really Black.

Here is the racist-in-chief spewing hate and division:

 

The post Joe Biden’s Message To Morehouse Grads … You Need The Great White Father More Than Ever appeared first on Granite Grok.

We want to think we were out in front, telling Donald Trump to stop bragging about Operation Warp Speed. We were early adopters of the change in messaging (early 2021, I think). It didn’t stick then, but when I saw him speak in Claremont, New Hampshire, in Early November 2023, he wasn’t tooting any warp-speed horns.

Regular readers will know I’ve been on 45 for years to back away from all his warp-speed talk. To accept that he was snowballed like many of us and took longer than some to realize it – or, at least, his speech writers took too long.

He didn’t talk about it at all except to say that as president, he would (and I’ll add, try to) block funding to schools that teach CRT, that gender-bending grooming business to young kids, and that impose any mask or vaccine mandate.

Lots of applause.

He also mentioned the need to clean out the bureaucracy, which includes the healthcare industrial complex.

This was long before RFK changed to a third party, but there’s some punditry out there on how this has changed Trump’s view on “vaccines.” It likely has and should at least in how Trump frames it. But this headline strikes me as a bit much: “Trump Voters Are Defecting to Robert Kennedy Over the Vaccine Issue.”

It’s May, 2024. If this issue has you thinking Robert Kennedy Jr. is a better deal for America than DJT then low information voter is a compliment. As I noted here, RFK would be a great big finger in the eye as a pick to head HHS in a Trump administration.

Wouldn’t it be the best thing ever if he nominated Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be his Secretary of Health and Human Services? I realize that Kennedy’s ascension to the gig would be another hurdle (similar to the one just described), but this is a dream sequence, so go with it. The smoke clears. He gets the job, and Trump says, welcome to the team, no go clean that shit up.

Would anyone object to that, assuming we woke up and it actually happened?

But when you get off the health freedom plantation (RFKJR is also good on deregulation), he’s a regular Democrat on much of the rest of his platform, and his VP choice is a dead end for anyone even remotely aware of what being MAGA is supposed to mean.

If RFK Jr.’s progressive proclivities beyond individual health rights and reigning in the regulatory abuses were a risk worth taking, Shanahan, the mega-wealthy, ultra-left-wing albatross, is too much to bear.

She is being marketed as a young, pulled-up her own bootstraps girl lifting herself out of poverty. She loved public school, was sexually harassed in the workplace (at least once), and finally rose to financial and social prominence by marrying a billionaire she later divorced and milked for a small fortune. Be that as it may, these days, she is a left-wing lawyer and a proglodyte “philanthropist” who married into big money, amassed wealth, and is a threat to liberty and individual rights.

Not to take Rick Moran at PJ Media to our tiny little woodshed, but his post is about how Trump has to change his messaging to avoid losing his voters to RFK on the vaccine issue. Again, who are these people he is losing, and are they our equivalent of low-information abortion voters?

We are expected to believe that these young American women will trade jobs, wages, safety in public bathrooms, safety on the street, financial privacy, economic liberty, and health freedom (on everything but abortion) for what amounts to the slim chance they might need to end a pregnancy in the third trimester? That’s the debate in my state.

That seems to be the case. Dems won in 2022 (or at least mitigated losses) running on one side of that debate because no one ran on the other side of it.

It must then follow that Trump supporters will give up a chance at cheap gas and electricity, property rights, secure borders, low taxes, global stability, Combustion engine vehicles, an improved economy, better wages, enemies in check, and safer streets for the chance that the Federal government could stop the Blue States from imposing vaccine mandates. I’m having a hard time with that, not because the Democrats are dumb enough to trade everything for third-trimester abortions – some clearly are – it’s that I can’t imagine Trump’s supporters being equally stupid.

Some, no doubt, are just ask DeSantis supporters. His health freedom message was crystal clear during the early part of the campaign, and he was good on almost everything else. Trump was not clear on health freedom, especially vaccine mandates. But when Trump spoke in Claremont, he said no vaccine or mask mandates for American kids. He promised to investigate the FDA and CDC as part of clearing out the bureaucratic morass and corruption. And he claims he’s set his sights on big pharma, including price gouging and outsourcing manufacture and R&D to foreign nations.

If you didn’t know that until just now, that’s his campaign’s fault. They need to fix that if for no other reason than to make it easier for voters who can’t vote for Biden but might not vote for Trump, which is the real problem from where I sit. Trump isn’t losing his voters to RFK; in fact, I think he has been getting them back as RFKJR’s stances beyond health freedom trickle into the collective consciousness.

He might be losing some fence-sitters because of unclear messaging, but he is getting a lot of middle-of-the-road Democrats, including minorities and women, and that’s his key to a potential numerical victory even Democrats can’t steal.

The post Are Trump Voters Defecting to RFK? appeared first on Granite Grok.

So here is a picture of Joe Biden … America’s figurehead, imposter President … with one of New Hampshire’s extremist Woke-Communists, Little-Miss Angie Brennan.

Look at his eyes!

Are you telling me the people running the Biden Regime are NOT drugging Joe before public appearances? Come on, man … JOE IS HIGH AS A KITE.

I will concede that we cannot see Joe’s left hand … and that the smile on Little-Miss Angie’s face seems contrived or maybe could be a painful grimace. BUT I still believe that #DirtyJoeBiden IS ON DRUGS:

And as for Little-Miss Angie’s #Decency … RECALIBRATE YOUR MORAL COMPASS, BABY GIRL. If your conception of #decency is Biden showering with his daughter, sexually assaulting Tara Reade, touching and sniffing women and children at public events, etc. … you don’t know decency, Baby-Girl.

 

The post Can You Guess What Drugs Joe Biden Is On? appeared first on Granite Grok.

You can feel it in the air (Phil Collins or Bernie Seigle?)—the promised energy of a heated Atlantic hurricane Season. The oceans are boiling, and we are overdue for an above-normal number of storms in the Atlantic Basin. This should be a banner year for storms.

The obvious predicament here is that the Cult will declare victory no matter what happens. For example, if we have the coldest May on record, that would be a sign that they have accurately predicted the anthropogenic climate apocalypse.

There’s no losing unless you mean the prediction game. They are bad at that, so let’s review the best guess for 2024.

If you like to bet the NOAA line on hurricane predictions, an easy way to lose money, they’ve got another best guess for 2024: 23 storms, 11 of which will become hurricanes and five of which will reach Category 3 or stronger. Stories of a warm Atlantic suggest this could be closer than in recent years, in which NOAA has blown the call by a wide margin in one form or another. Two years ago, not even close. Last year, total storms were good, but few made landfall, and NOAA had guessed there’d be more.

The reality is they have no clue what the weather is going to be like in a few days, so months, years, or decades are, at best, guesses – a well poisoned by politics and climate cult narratives. It’s not so much science and faith, but there are resources out there that stick to the data and trends based on past years. Weatherbell analytics, for example – and they say we’re screwed on Hurricanes this year.

Basin Forecast

Names Storms 25-30
Hurricanes 14-16
Major Hurricanes 6-8

Impact Forecast

Named storm Impacts 10-14
Hurricane Impacts 5-8
Major Hurricane Impacts 3-5

 

I trust Weatherbell more than NOAA—there are no politics in the analytics. But we won’t know until we know, and the season doesn’t start until June 1st, which is only a few days away. We’re due for some hot days this week after more than a handful of unseasonably cool nights and mild days. Given the hype about Ocean temps and the 2024 El Nino hysteria, you’d think things might get started early.

Eleven days to June 1st.

At the moment, there is nothing to see in the Northern Hemisphere—no activity. It means nothing, but the consensus would have loved a story about a May Hurricane formation. They would say it’s a sign of the apocalypse. We need more money to combat climate change. Stop modernity!

There have been four May Hurricanes since 1889. Two were in 1889 and 1908 when the meaningless concentration of CO2 was even less prevalent. The next was in 1951, and the last was in 1970 when the weather fascists were promising we’d all freeze to death (global cooling, not warming).

May storms are rare  – nor are they indicative of anything related to CO2 or Western living or the fear-mongering to bring it low. Of course, this has no bearing on a cult. More snow supports earlier claims we’d never see snow again. The absence of accelerated sea level rise doesn’t mean it won’t happen if they keep predicting it. More storms, fewer storms, you can’t win. Or can you?

There has been some movement toward sanity. The Cult has been unable to sustain its moratorium on contradicting science. The question as to why we can’t question it, especially given how poorly their models have been, has gained favor.

One monster hurricane could wipe that all out, though. They’ve been working in this room for forty years, and this is not a jury. One dissenter is not enough to find the West not guilty of the climate crimes of which she is accused.

So we keep chipping away.

 

The post Atlantic Hurricane Season is Almost Here – Get Your Climate Hyperbole Ready! appeared first on Granite Grok.

By including Freedom of Speech in the First Amendment, our brilliant forefathers recognized the importance of a person’s right to express their thoughts without rebuke. This freedom was essential at a time when there was so much angst about the British government, emotions were high, and people were stimulated by each other’s actions to speak their minds. Though our forefathers were some of the most incredible thinkers, they could not see hundreds of years into the future and write a law covering the magnitude of changes in how we communicate. The spoken and written words were the only means of communication in the 1700s, and nobody envisioned mass media or the internet. There are so many ways that speech can be twisted and manipulated today. There are also many more ways that people can be vilified and canceled in retaliation for speaking their minds. It is all of these new dynamics that led me to my belief that the First Amendment needs an edit.

I was shocked, though I should not have been, that a petition drive to have Harrison Butker removed from the Kansas City Chiefs is closing in on 100,000 signatures. A tremendous number of close-minded individuals want someone to lose their career because they have the courage to express their thoughts and beliefs in a commencement speech. I will guarantee that only a minute fraction of those signers took the time to listen to the entire speech, but it probably would not change their minds or actions. These people are stirred by the plethora of like-minded celebrities and talking heads who look for a moment of attention by criticizing a person who did nothing but speak his mind. These critics have as much right as Harrison Butker to express their views but no right to call for retaliation against Butker for his. Unfortunately, that is where we have come to, as discussion and debate have been replaced by attacks and cancellations. No way our forefathers saw these times coming.

Another example of this new culture is Enes Kanter Freedom. Freedom is originally from Turkey and came to America to pursue a basketball career. Freedom was very good at his craft and was playing for the Boston Celtics when his career was cut short. The NBA blackballed him for having the courage to speak out about the human rights violations of the Chinese government and the hypocrisy of the NBA’s involvement with China. Freedom has become a vocal opponent of China, Turkey, and other similar regimes and has developed a public speaking career. Still, he is denied the opportunity to play the game he loves because of his beliefs.

In the last five years, we have had the Summer of Love and the Black Lives Matter Movement; many people canceled for their criticism of the COVID vaccine, the successful yet divisive Trump Presidency, the lying and deceitful Biden Presidency, and the anti-Israel campus unrest of 2024. Freedom of Speech protects all, but none are healthy for the country or society.

Freedom of Speech is no longer the protection of one’s thoughts but from the retaliation to those thoughts. Still, those words of response are also protected. Do not get me wrong. I am not suggesting that we have government intervention to decide what is and is not protected, but somebody has to intervene when it comes to outright falsehoods or hurtful speech. Who that would be and when is open for debate. As I said, rethinking Freedom of Speech would be a complex undertaking, but until we find someone with the brilliance of our forefathers to accept the challenge, we will continue to watch it degenerate.

The post Does Freedom Of Speech Need To Be Redefined appeared first on Granite Grok.

Easter holds a special place in the hearts of over 2 billion Christians worldwide. This is a time to celebrate new beginnings and hopes. In Canada, Easter brings the long-awaited transition from winter to the fresh bloom of spring. Families come together to celebrate and commemorate the occasion’s spiritual significance and the joyful family customs and traditions associated with it.

As you celebrate a happy Easter, solar generators may serve as a convenient tool. These devices offer a dependable and clean energy source for various activities that are part and parcel of the happy Easter celebration.

They can light up your garden with festive decorations, keep outdoor gatherings bright and cheerful, and ensure all your devices stay charged. They align perfectly with Easter’s themes of renewal and sustainability. This blend of tradition and innovation enriches the happy Easter experience.

Jackery offers a wide range of solar generators and portable power stations that can alleviate much of the stress during your happy Easter celebrations. Their solar solutions are designed to power almost all the appliances you may need for this Easter. Read on to learn more.

When Is Easter?

The date of Easter is a topic of curiosity and confusion for many as it is determined in a unique way. As Easter falls on different dates every year, people continue to ask: when is Easter this year?

Unlike holidays with fixed dates, Easter’s timing varies annually, falling on the first Sunday after the first full moon (known as Paschal full moon) occurring on or after the vernal equinox. This calculation places Easter anywhere between March 22 and April 25. This year, the Paschal full moon appeared on March 25, so Easter will be on March 31, the first Sunday after the full moon.

The variability of the date of Easter underlines the importance of early preparation for happy Easter celebrations. Knowing that the date can shift from year to year, families, churches, and communities must stay informed to organize events, services, and gatherings that mark this significant occasion. Advance planning ensures that all the elements of Easter unfold smoothly, allowing everyone to fully engage in the joy of the day.

Early preparation also include booking venues, arranging catering, and, importantly, considering how to power any Easter activities. This is where the integration of electric solar generators will be beneficial, as these devices offer a reliable and eco-friendly energy solution that aligns with the true value of a happy Easter.

How Solar Generators Elevate Easter

Solar generators bring a unique blend of convenience and sustainability to your Easter festivities. Here’s how they can play a pivotal role in different aspects for happy Easter celebrations.

• Easter Decorations

Incorporating solar generators into your Easter celebrations opens up a variety of possibilities for innovative and eco-friendly decorations. For instance, you can power not just Easter lanterns and electric bunnies but also a whole array of festive adornments like glowing garlands draped around your garden, vibrant LED egg lights nestled in flower beds, and even solar-powered moving figures that add an elegant touch to your decor. 

Solar generators allow you to extend your decorations beyond the confines of your home to gardens, patios, or any outdoor space. This way, you can illuminate your surroundings in a warm and festive glow that captures the essence of Easter without relying on traditional power sources, which can be highly unreliable at times.

• Easter Dinner

Solar generators will revolutionize your Easter dinner preparations by offering a seamless solution for indoor gatherings and majestic outdoor dining experiences. With a solar generator, all your electric cooking appliances will remain functional throughout the festivities, which will help you keep your celebrations lively and allow you to try new Easter dinner ideas. Some examples of what you can power through a solar generator include an electric oven, electric stove, portable cooktops, electric grills, blenders, refrigerators, warming trays, portable heaters, coffee makers, and electric kettles. This means that you can create an exceptional dining experience in any scenic locale.

• Easter Picnic

The breathtaking scenery of national parks like Jasper National Park in Alberta offers the perfect backdrop for Easter hikes and picnics. But this is not the only place for a memorable picnic in Canada. The country is filled with scenic landscapes that offer unparalleled picnic opportunities to Canadians.

A solar generator can really enhance your Easter picnic experience by bringing modern comforts into the great outdoors. It can also power cameras and drones, ensuring that capturing and sharing fun moments and scenic views remain uninterrupted. It allows you to bring along portable appliances such as refrigerators, heaters, or air conditioners. With a solar generator, you can enjoy a guilt-free outdoor experience, preserving the natural beauty of the locations.

• Easter Hiking

Portable solar generators are an essential companion for hikers during Easter. Solar generators provide the reassurance that your devices will remain powered for safety, communication, and capturing the serene beauty of the landscape. Utilizing solar generators for your hike not only enriches your outdoor adventure but also demonstrates a commitment to eco-friendly practices, aligning with the themes of renewal and sustainability celebrated during Easter and the spring season.

Jackey Empowers a Happy Easter

Jackery offers reliable, efficient, safe, and dependable solar generators that are perfect for different types of electricity needs. Two of their popular solar generators include:

Jackery Solar Generator 1000 Plus

The Jackery Solar Generator 1000 Plus is a versatile and expandable solution for a wide range of scenarios like Easter gatherings, camping, off-road travel, and home emergencies. With its unparalleled output, it stands as the top choice that guarantees you a happy Easter.

Its top features include:

Compact Powerhouse

The Jackery Solar Generator 1000 Plus offers an impressive capacity of 1,264Wh and a robust output of up to 2,000W, capable of powering almost 99% of devices. Its compact design belies its powerful performance, making it the perfect companion for a variety of Easter celebrations. Whether you’re illuminating the night with decorative lights, preparing an outdoor Easter feast, or simply ensuring a smooth and enjoyable event, the Jackery Solar Generator 1000 Plus is ready to support your festive activities.

Expandable Energy

You can enhance the Jackery Solar Generator 1000 Plus by connecting it to up to 3 additional battery packs, expanding its capacity to approximately 5kWh. This expandability ensures 1 to 3 days of backup power, making it an ideal solution for prolonged happy Easter or emergency power outages.

Smart and User-Friendly

Equipped with cutting-edge smart technology, the Jackery Solar Generator 1000 Plus comes with an intuitive APP that facilitates control via WiFi or Bluetooth. This innovative feature simplifies power management, ensuring that your Easter celebrations, and other events, proceed without interruptions.

Usage beyond Easter

The versatility of the Jackery Solar Generator 1000 Plus extends beyond seasonal celebrations. It is an invaluable asset for outdoor activities and a reliable backup during home power outages. Its benefits are also evident for remote workers, outdoor events, and those who lead a dynamic lifestyle requiring portable power solutions.

Safety

Safety is paramount in the design of the Jackery Solar Generator 1000 Plus. It features ChargeShield technology, which ensures a stable power output and safeguards your devices from potential damage.

Jackery Solar Generator 2000 Plus

Jackery presents another innovative and sustainable solar generator: the Jackery Solar Generator 2000 Plus. Its other features include:

Unmatched Capacity and Expandability

The Jackery Solar Generator 2000 Plus boasts a substantial base capacity of 2 kWh, expandable up to an incredible 24 kWh. This capability is particularly beneficial for prolonged Easter celebrations or emergencies, ensuring a steady supply of power for your devices and appliances.

High Performance for Heavy-Duty Use

Designed to support heavy-duty devices with a power output of up to 6000W, the Jackery Solar Generator 2000 Plus can deal with a broad range of energy needs. This solar generator is a one-stop solution for you, from powering electric grills for your happy Easter feast to ensuring your home essentials remain operational during any possible outages.

Rapid Solar Charging

Leveraging advanced IBC Technology, the Jackery Solar Generator 2000 Plus offers ultra-fast solar charging, capable of reaching a full charge in just 2 hours with an optimal solar panel configuration. This swift charging ensures that you always have access to a sustainable power source for all a happy Easter and other power needs.

Multiple Charging Options

The Jackery Solar Generator 2000 Plus provides flexibility with three convenient charging methods: solar, wall, and car charging, ensuring that you always have access to power regardless of your location or situation.

Durability and Safety

The core of the Jackery Solar Generator 2000 Plus is its long-lasting LiFePO4 battery, which guarantees a lifespan of 10 years. Coupled with ChargeShield Technology, the Jackery Solar Generator 2000 Plus provides a safe and efficient charging experience.

Solar generators represent a remarkable advancement in technology. They are known for providing reliable power backup in emergencies and outdoor activities. These solar generators not only offer a sustainable and eco-friendly solution to power various activities for a happy Easter but also embody the themes of renewal and sustainability inherent to the Easter season. With products like the Jackery Solar Generator 1000 Plus and Jackery Solar Generator 2000 Plus, individuals and families can enjoy the convenience and reliability of clean energy this Easter. The versatility and efficiency of these solar generators extend beyond the Easter season, as they provide valuable support for a wide range of activities and emergencies throughout the year.

Wrapping-Up

Jackery is a household name due to its focus on innovation, sustainability, and exceptional customer support. Founded with a vision to bring green energy everywhere, Jackery pioneered in the field of solar generators and solar panels, enabling adventurers to harness the sun’s power for more sustainable outdoor experiences. With a focus on safety through advanced R&D and intelligent manufacturing, coupled with hassle-free customer support, Jackery has become a trusted partner for sustainable and reliable outdoor power needs.

The post How Solar Generators Help You Celebrate a Happy Easter appeared first on Granite Grok.

Navigating the complexities of the digital marketplace can be daunting for any business. That’s where Search My Expert steps in. Established in 2023 by Simranjeet Singh and Amritpal Singh, our platform rapidly became the go-to B2B marketplace in India.

We specialize in connecting business leaders—from CEOs to startup founders—with over 18,000 verified agencies spanning more than 50 service categories, including app development and digital marketing. At SearchMyExpert, we pride ourselves on facilitating precise matches based on your project’s scope, budget, and timelines, ensuring a seamless fit between businesses and agencies.

Access to Premier Experts

At SearchMyExpert, we understand the importance of quality and reliability. Our platform is home to a vast network of over 18,000 verified agencies, each rigorously vetted to meet the highest standards of service and expertise. Whether you need a cutting-edge app developed or your digital marketing strategy overhauled, we connect you with the best in the business. This access to top-tier professionals not only speeds up the selection process but also ensures that you partner with agencies that are equipped to handle your specific challenges and goals.

Customized Solutions for Every Business Need

Every business is unique, with its own set of challenges and objectives. SearchMyExpert excels in understanding these distinct needs and matching businesses with the perfect agency that’s equipped to meet them. Our process is highly personalized, beginning with a detailed assessment of your project requirements. From there, our sales team introduces you to 3-4 agencies that align with your budget, timeline, and scope of work, allowing you to choose the best fit for your project.

Streamlined Communication and Project Management

Efficient communication is key to any project’s success. SearchMyExpert facilitates seamless communication channels between you and your chosen agency. Our platform ensures that all stakeholders are on the same page from the outset, reducing misunderstandings and ensuring a smooth workflow. We also provide comprehensive project management support to oversee the project from inception to delivery, ensuring deadlines are met and outcomes exceed expectations.

Cost-Effective Strategies

Hiring through SearchMyExpert is not just about finding the right agency; it’s also about doing so cost-effectively. Traditional hiring processes can be lengthy and expensive, with no guarantee of results. Our platform, however, streamlines these processes and reduces overhead costs by connecting you directly with pre-vetted agencies. This approach not only cuts down on the initial financial outlay but also maximizes the return on investment through efficient project execution.

Continuous Support and Follow-Up

Our commitment to your success doesn’t end once an agency is hired. SearchMyExpert provides ongoing support throughout your project and beyond. We ensure that agencies deliver on their promises, and we are always available to address any post-completion issues. This continuous support guarantees that the solutions implemented will continue to perform and adapt as your business grows and evolves.

Enhancing Business Growth and Innovation

By partnering with innovative and skilled agencies, businesses can leverage the latest technologies and strategic insights to stay ahead of the curve. SearchMyExpert not only connects you with these agencies but also opens up new avenues for growth and innovation. Our clients often report significant improvements in operational efficiency and market reach as a result of the collaborations facilitated by our platform.

Conclusion

SearchMyExpert is more than just a marketplace for finding agencies; we are a partner in your business growth and success. By connecting you with verified, high-quality agencies and providing ongoing support, we help you harness the full potential of your business projects. We encourage businesses seeking reliable, effective, and innovative solutions to reach out and discover how we can make a significant difference.

The post How SearchMyExpert brings the best to Your Business appeared first on Granite Grok.

A few weeks ago, I did a column about a Los Angeles Laker documentary on Hulu—“Legacy: The True Story of the L.A. Lakers.” Since then, I’ve had the chance to watch another sports documentary about another team with a greater local following—“The Dynasty: New England Patriots.”

Based on the book by Jeff Benedict, this ten-part series can be seen on Apple+ TV.

“The Dynasty” was a nice trip down memory lane. Unlike “The Last Dance” (a documentary on one Chicago Bulls title season in 1998), this Patriots story is a 20-year saga. This Brady/Belichick era saw the team go to nine Super Bowls while narrowly missing out on at least a couple of others.

Dynasty indeed.

No two people would ever create such a story the same way. With twenty (plus) years of material, what should be included and how? The first three episodes covered the 2001 season, which led to the Pats’ first Super Bowl win in 2002. And what a great story that Cinderella Season was.

The producers did a great job getting interviews with people. Quarterback Tom Brady features prominently throughout, as one would expect. (What if he’d opted not to participate? I wonder what they paid him.) Ditto re: Coach Bill Belichick and owner Bob Kraft.

But the many cameos by Bill Parcells and Drew Bledsoe added context and understanding of how the dynasty came about. Brady’s family members, including Brady’s parents and sister, Nancy, added insights and pathos. (Giselle was not part of the cast, but I’m sure that was discussed. I wonder if she was approached.)

Numerous players, media people, and others also helped tell the tale.

I was already familiar with much of the story, i.e., how the New York Giants ruined the Pats’ perfect season in Super Bowl XVII in 2008. But many pieces I’d forgotten or never knew about in the first place. (Like how Vladimir Putin stole a Super Bowl ring from Kraft during the latter’s trip to Russia. Seriously!)

The series could have strictly focused on football. Twenty years of gridiron excellence provide a cornucopia of fabulous “on-the-field” action. But Dynasty is a story of people and communities, with compelling “off-the-field” chapters: Spygate, Deflategate, and the Aaron Hernandez show, all about the late Patriots tight end who was imprisoned for murder.

“F-bombs” were dropped by almost everyone, except maybe Brady’s mom. How profane our sports world is.

A consistent theme involved the relationship between Brady and Belichick, with the quarterback emerging as the sympathetic protagonist and the coach as an unsympathetic jerk—aside from his countless F-bombs. We already knew that Belichick was arrogant and taciturn. But winning six Super Bowls earned Belichick a unique cachet. His success gave him a “diva license.”

The longstanding Brady-Belichick tension was more than I realized. Belichick had such an apparent lasting need to criticize and diminish his GOAT QB—eventually driving him out of town.

Brady won a Super Bowl his first year in Tampa Bay while the Pats quickly descended into mediocrity. Belichick had a losing record in Cleveland and New England before Brady (41-55) and in New England after Brady (25-38). He apparently is interested in another head coaching job. But Dynasty is not going to help his prospects.

Dynasty confirms what we already suspected: that Brady, indeed, was the straw that stirred the Patriot drink and that he deserved the “last laugh” re: his public and not-so-public conflict with Belichick. That outcome is probably the biggest “take-away” from a splendid documentary that brought back many memories—pleasant, poignant, and perplexing.

In addition to reviving memories, Dynasty raises some questions to which answers will likely emerge as time passes.

Like is Putin ever going to return Kraft’s Super Bowl ring?

The post Night Cap: Football’s Patriots (And Putin) appeared first on Granite Grok.

In an ongoing cultural controversy in Vermont, a former House member named Kiah Morris has launched a video attacking Vermonters and their culture as racist. Ms. Morris has employed the empty trope that Vermonters who wish to preserve their traditional culture employ “political tactics [that] are historically consistent in the acceleration of increased discrimination, bias, and hate crimes against ethnic minorities and other marginalized people.”  It becomes necessary to expose the absurd toxicity of such rantings.

Ms. Morris’s words reveal that she is not “from” Vermont.  Yet this student of “gender studies” proclaims that “[u]nless you are First Nations, you have no right to claim who are real Vermonters. Nativist platforms are the basest level of discourse.”  Having immigrated to Vermont, Kiah has decided that she will decide who are real Vermonters.  But does calling herself “African” American make her an appropriator of a foreign culture that she has likely never even visited?  Is Ms. Morris asserting that those who “identify” themselves as disparate from other Americans because of a distant genetic link to Africa “employ the basest level of political discourse” to establish bias against white, “non-African” Americans?

If Louisiana tried to preserve Mardi Gras, Nevada invited people to gamble, or Missouri challenged people to “show me,” would they be guilty of advancing “base nativist platforms”?  In Vermont, a woman from Chicago who self-identifies as “African-American” but is not from Africa is scolding Vermonters for defending the culture into which they were born (that is, to which they are actually native) based solely on their non–American Indian DNA.

This sleight of hand is not so slight. Vermont conflates culture with race in its opioid crisis — blaming higher rates of incarceration of out-of-state (urban) blacks and Hispanics on systemic white nationalism. Ms. Morris further agitates by exerting a novel claim to superiority (of opinion) over the locals, in the process denigrating Vermont’s historic agricultural Green Mountain creed.  The city mouse has determined that the country mouse must be silenced, her guns seized, and her rights to an opinion stripped.  Who here is the usurper of culture?

The cautions of T.S. Eliot in The Waste Land are evidenced in today’s nihilism. Vermont is now being condemned for seeking to preserve its values by those who patch together their own mutable culture from a world where culture is itself being dissolved. Globalization is a destroyer of culture, as world trade has always been.  But there are no new worlds to be colonized — the new oppressors must land on existing shores, plundering from within. Thus, in the name of diversity, Vermont’s schoolbooks are to be rewritten.  But after all the other cultures have been integrated after Vermont country bumpkins have been inculcated into the teachings of the Dalai Lama, the art of hip-hop, and the culture of the ghetto, will Vermont export its culture to Harlem or Tibet in exchange?  Will there remain a distinct Vermont culture, like Louisiana, or Maine, or Texas — or must all submit to the imprint and domination of the Kiah Morris conquistadores?  Will all cultures then meld into a meaningless “Waste Land,” as Eliot predicted?

Per Ms. Morris and her ilk, only “First Nations” people have authority to override her determination of what constitutes Vermont culture — that is, only people of a certain race.  She uses racism to select an extinguished race as authority to dismiss an entire culture as a racist invasion — how convenient, if circuitous.  By this logic, America has no claim to culture.

Vermont is a culture of individualism, not government dependency; farming, not commuting; free speech, not stifling autocracy; of seeing all people as equal.  This existing and longstanding culture will not yield to invasive transplants who foment discord for personal advantage.

Tragically, many white Vermonters have unwittingly joined this insidious virtue-signaling, revealing their nihilistic disconnect from their own culture.  Vermont writer Bill Schubart perorates:

“What to you is a real Vermonter?”  The conventional answer I’ve heard and tacitly subscribed to all my life is — a white person, often from an agrarian background, descended from at least three generations of the same.

But Mr. Schubart’s “tacit subscription” is hardly the truth, as all Vermonters know. Throngs of “foreign-born” people have comfortably integrated into Vermont’s culture, even as many native-born opportunists have become exploiters of Vermont’s land, landscape, and culture for financial gain.  It is Mr. Schubart who designs to equate culture with race and bloodlines, and he, of all people, should know just how pernicious and vicious that is.

Mr. Schubart unintentionally reveals his cultural ignorance when he writes of “the memorable Abenaki land ceremony which made so clear that we are all part of a continuum of stewardship … hardly, as we imagine, the beginning of civilization.”  Perhaps this gentleman just now learned from Abenakis that all humans are necessarily involved with stewardship — and never read Aldo Leopold, Wes Jackson, Wendell Berry, or John Muir.  (By his own admission, he only recently learned from children that he is “a white, privileged, cis-gendered male.”)  But it was he — and not all Vermonters — who apparently imagined himself “the beginning of civilization.”  Vermonters have always known that their ancestors were settlers and that they were stewards of forests and farms.  As Wendell Berry observes, intergenerational farmers (of any color, not just the white ones maligned by Mr. Schubart) are the best stewards of the land.

I was born John Stoddard Klar in Connecticut after being conceived in Vermont.  I am thus a flatlander by birth but a Vermonter by creation!  I live off-grid in Vermont on land purchased by my great-great-great-great-grandfather, Solomon Stoddard, in about 1815.  My paternal grandmother was of significant Abenaki blood, and my paternal grandfather was a German Jew.  My identity has always been woven into this land and Vermont’s rural, anachronistic culture — not my DNA.  When people like Kiah Morris and Bill Schubart employ racism to defame my dozens of forbears, they are calling my mother, grandmothers and grandfathers, cousins, aunts and uncles — and my children — all racists, all invaders with no claim to their own culture.  How absurd can these people be?  What kind of Vermonter labels all Vermonters, and all white people, as racist?  Have they never met any of us, or did they simply gulp down the progressive Kool-Aid in lieu of (native) maple syrup?

Identity politics seems to best serve those who lack identity — Vermonters are already quite aware of their cultural traditions and identity and wish to protect them from carpetbagger vultures (of any color and any birthplace).  We are frugal, tied to our land (often for many generations), in the midst of a national society that flips houses, consumes conspicuously, and is highly mobile.  As the global disintegration, urbanization, and industrialization of human relationships increase, “real” Vermonters wish to preserve those nurturing traditions and values that have weathered time well.  We are trying to reclaim our decaying communities, not denigrate them and their humble histories.  We cling without racism to our nativist traditions.  And without shame.

 

John Klar is an Attorney, farmer, and author. Mostly farmer… And Regular Contributor to GraniteGrok and VermontGrok.

The post Striving to Preserve Your Culture against False Charges of Racism appeared first on Granite Grok.

Recently, Granite Grok published an opinion piece entitled “Something Smells Like Rotten Fish.” I agree: the rotten fish is the anonymous author. My name is David Goethel. I am a semi-retired commercial fisherman with over fifty-five years’ experience and the author of the book Endangered Species, which describes my life as a small boat fisherman in New Hampshire. I am also a dues-paying member of the New Hampshire Commercial Fishermen’s Association.

The author states Erik Anderson supports offshore wind and selectively quotes from the electronic newsletter to support his belief. Nothing could be further from the truth, and reading anonymous’ comments, I feel like I am in a “through the looking glass” moment. The author has apparently never attended a BOEM public hearing. I have, numerous times. Hell no, we won’t go is not considered by BOEM to be valid public comment. Erik always starts each statement with a preference for no offshore wind in the Gulf of Maine(GOM) but then modifies the comment by citing scientific papers or verifiable charts of where fishermen fish.

Our comments have been successful as BOEM repeatedly references our use of science as they have shrunk the call area from over 140 million acres to a little over one million. Remember, we are up against the full force and weight of the federal government, which has been ordered by President Biden to get these areas leased before the next election. Erik’s comments in the newsletter were to people like Anonymous, who have steadfastly refused to engage in the process and are now enraged that leasing is about to commence. As Erik points out, the next possible remedy will be through the courts. Unless someone has spare three-quarters of a million dollars lying around, do not expect equal access under the law.

Next, anonymous states there are hundreds of members paying fifty dollars per year dues. That, too, is false; there are 47 dues-paying members, but the attack does not stop there. Anonymous then selectively cites information from the newsletter to imply fiscal impropriety. The facts are that the corporation was dissolved to save money. The chief expenses are dues to the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA), which has paid legal experts and biologists to represent fishermen nationwide in their uphill battle against OSW. The association also provides funds from collected dues to pay for educational scholarships for sons and daughters of commercial fishermen attending institutions of higher learning. On advice from an accountant many years ago, the association maintains di minimus status with the IRS because we handle so little money.

Not content to just liable Mr. Anderson, anonymous moves on to attempt to smear candidate for Governor Kelly Ayotte. Perhaps Anonymous is a political operative for another campaign? What I do know is there is lots of inference but no fire. I also know I have worked with Kelly Ayotte when she was a senator. She visited fishermen in both Seabrook and Portsmouth and acted on their concerns in Washington. She also held a field hearing about NOAA Fisheries in Portsmouth, saving fishermen the considerable cost of flying to Washington to testify. During those hearings, I found her knowledgeable on fishing subjects, highly intelligent, and decisive. Her grilling of a NOAA Regional Administrator at a hearing at which I testified was memorable. I believe she will be an excellent governor and support the organization’s endorsement.

Finally, anonymous drags suspended Port Authority Director Geno Marconi onto the web, stating without offering any proof that he was suspended because he opposed offshore wind. The waterfront has been buzzing with gossip since the suspension occurred, and Erik, along with numerous others, is listed as the supposed cause of the suspension. Gossip is an unfortunate occurrence in small towns. The only fact we know is that the matter was briefed to the Pease Developments Authority Board by the Attorney General’s Office in a closed session. That body issued a statement saying Mr. Marconi was suspended with pay over a ‘civil matter’. Anyone who tells you anything else is spreading venal gossip and showing their own ignorance.

Erik Anderson donates well over 1000 hours of his time annually to the association so that active fishermen can stay fishing. He covers legislative hearings in Concord, Fish and Game Commission hearings wherever they occur, ASMFC public hearings, as well as NOAA Fisheries hearings. He is not reimbursed one dime, including gasoline, for that coverage. How many of these meetings has anonymous attended?

As an author, I am loath to request Anonymous’s post be taken down. After all, freedom of speech is one of the cornerstones of our democracy. But the First Amendment has limits. One of those is the tenant that you cannot make knowingly false statements that libel another. I do believe, at the very least, that editors should request Anonymous identify themselves so the public can judge the motives for the article.

I am proud to sign my name to this document. I have attached a full copy of Erik’s May 8, 2024 newsletter so readers can see the whole story for themselves.

David T. Goethel
F/V Ellen Diane Too
Hampton, NH

The post Letter to the Editor in Rebuttal of “Anonymous” appeared first on Granite Grok.