Skip, Author at Granite Grok

Quick Thought – On the fallacy of “Self-described Experts” by Maura Sullivan (Democrat Carpetbagger in CD-1)

September 26, 2018September 7, 2018 Skip

which “Supply Sullivan” wants us to swallow: hook, line, and trigger. I haven’t watched the WMUR debates yet but will do so because, well, I should. Still, this sound byte from their News caught my ear (emphasis mine):

“I believe the veterans in Congress are going to lead on this because we have an unassailable credibility when it comes to guns. And we can say on the House floor, we used these in Iraq, people used them in Afghanistan. They don’t belong in Manchester and they don’t belong in Hampton. they don’t belong anywhere in this country.”

-Maura Sullivan

No, you don’t. This is the falsehood by a “in Supply” dud who

“I fully support the Second Amendment!” – no you don’t, Mr. Edwards (Republican candidate for NH CD-1)

September 26, 2018September 4, 2018 Skip

First, let me state this: Groksters have decided to not put out an endorsement in the Republican Primary race in NH First Congressional District. We’ve basically said “a pox on both their houses” for the dumpster fire that has become the norm this go around. We interviewed both; an hour and a half with Andy Sanborn and two and a half with Eddie Edwards. Both were gracious and we were allowed to ask pretty much any question that popped into our heads. Both allowed us to video record their entire times and it was relayed that since not all of the Groksters couldn’t attend the sessions, we wanted them to be able to form their own views from the interviews. We were also given permission, by both, to post the videos if we wanted to. To date, we have not.

Which brings me to the sign above. It became clear that Mr. Edwards did not agree with it during our interview; I grow weary of politicians saying different things to different audiences. In this case, to we Groksters and then to others.

But Bernie, didn’t you Democrats already do that?

September 26, 2018September 4, 2018 Skip

“We will not allow Trump or anybody else to divide us up based on the color of our skin, our religion, our nation and nationality, or our sexual orientation.”

-Bernie Sanders at the annual AFL-CIO Labor Day breakfast (WMUR News 9/3/2018)

Gosh, doesn’t that sounds exactly like the definition of the Democrat Identity Politics Totem Poll – everybody is segregated by skin color, nationality / multiculture, and sexual orientation on which they base their voting and priority messaging? Oh wait – that religion part? Dems don’t much care for religion generally, unless you see their proclivities for socialism / humanism as a religion in and of itself replete with its own sacred texts, songs, assorted readings, chants, and high Priests. And then there’s these observations:

Dear Derry NH – Do you know the voting records of your NH State Representatives? Take a look

September 26, 2018September 4, 2018 Skip

From three organizations that rate the voting records in the NH House: Rating HRA AFP CS Excellent Anne Copp 93% A 94% Good Katherine Prudhomme O’Brien 87% Brian K. Chirichiello 84% B 50% John Potucek 84% A Frank V. Sapareto 83% B 72% Fair John T. O’Connor 74% … Read more

Executive Council District 4: “I don’t need to do anything to win because I’m Ted Gatsas!” – Part 2

September 26, 2018September 4, 2018 Skip

“HAVE A QUESTION FOR TED OR AN IDEA FOR THE CITY OF MANCHESTER?“

Previous post on Ted Gatsas insularity here. I say that because it turns out that I haven’t been the only one trying to reach out to their campaign to arrange a debate between him and Jane Cormier. Same result – no answers or blow offs. You’d think that the Gatsas campaign, with all of his experience as a former NH State Senator, a former Manchester Mayor, and a former Republican candidate for Governor, he would be enthusiastic to show his expertise. C’est la – I guess it isn’t to be. The silence is deafening.

In my last post, I posited ““what can you do for Ted instead of what Ted will do for you”. Well, that may be true as his website as I said before, is rather slim of details. How slim, you might ask? Let’s look at the front page of his website, shall we?

Levi Strauss has just thrown in with gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety

September 26, 2018September 4, 2018 Skip

“While taking a stand can be unpopular with some, doing nothing is no longer an option”

Some, you say? That’s going to be a rather large sum of “somes”, Levi Strauss CEO / President Chip Bergh now that you have announced millions of dollars for those that desire to restrict our Second Amendment Rights. You just announced that you will be:

So today, on top of our previous actions, Levi Strauss & Co. is lending its support for gun violence prevention in three new areas. First, we have established the Safer Tomorrow Fund, which will direct more than $1 million in philanthropic grants from Levi Strauss & Co. over the next four years to fuel the work of nonprofits and youth activists who are working to end gun violence in America.

Cornerstone Action: endorses Jane Cormier in the NH Executive Council District 4 Primary race

September 26, 2018September 4, 2018 Skip

Cornerstone Action Political Action Committee Announces Candidate Endorsements for September 11 Primary Election Cornerstone Action PAC endorses the following candidates for state-level offices. Each of these candidates has a contested primary race. Endorsements are based on high scores on the Cornerstone candidate survey, on voting records, and on consistency between surveys and votes. The Cornerstone Action PAC … Read more

Er, you forgot something, Tom Friel, in your campaign ad!

September 26, 2018September 3, 2018 Skip

And that would be…

Who paid for it?
I take it that you don’t care about two entire towns in your district? Answer after the jump.

I am no fan of the current campaign laws as I think they are used often to preclude competition.

Transgender: Can’t make up he/her/zir/his/her/?? mind what he/she/ze/he/she/?? is??

September 26, 2018September 2, 2018 Skip

And yet we’re the loony-toon ones for thinking this is craziness in the first place? I’ll just leave this here: Any quote from this article won’t do it justice, so let me just share the title: “High-flying lawyer undergoes her THIRD gender re-assignment surgery to become a woman for the second time – after going … Read more

NH Firearms Coalition “you’re anti-gun if you don’t play by our rules” – survey results

September 26, 2018September 2, 2018 Skip

You can go look at their results over at their website listing the candidates sorted which race, what district, and what “grade” they received. Right now, I’m only concentrating on the aggregate result as I think it will bear my hypothesis out – lots of sturm und drang and not a lot “there” there for usable information. For instance:

Who actually filled out their survey?

Republicans: 170
Libertarians: 4
Democrats: 133

Republican elected officials demanding overrides on SB 365 and 446 so that taxpayers have to pay more

September 26, 2018September 2, 2018 Skip

So why are NH State Senators Bob Guida and Kevin Avard (among others, like Jeb Bradley – and hasn’t he monkey’d with our electrical enough to realize what a total hash he’s made of it?) throwing mains pillars of the Platform into a woodchipper? From the NH Constitution:

[Art.] 2. [Natural Rights.] All men have certain natural, essential, and inherent rights among which are, the enjoying and defending life and liberty; acquiring, possessing, and protecting, property; and, in a word, of seeking and obtaining happiness. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by this state on account of race, creed, color, sex or national origin.

Our money is our property. Sure, we give up certain things for a limited government, but is it the Proper Role of Government to continually act as a forceable transfer of said wealth because JOBS? Add to that, these from the NH GOP Platform:

Quick Thought – a really important piece of journalistic information about the Berlin

September 26, 2018September 2, 2018 Skip

From Steve’s post on Woodburn’s Posse and intellectual honesty (or not as the case might be), this caught my eye:

It might also be useful to point out that the Berlin Daily Sun has reporters who are members of the Democrat party, in elected positions. By all accounts, these reporter-party insiders are on the Greiner-Woodburn side of ‘this mess’ while the Berlin Daily Sun is trying to unseal the arrest records.

So when they tell you they are “objectively” reporting the news….yeah, well, you get my drift. The MSM writ tiny – “just trust us – we’re JOURNALISTS!”. Go read Steve’s post for the fuller context but I thought this needed to be on the front page. Especially as it is further proof that the rampart of our “culture” have been captured by the Left posing as being in the middle – center.

Question:

Uh-oh! Did somebody forget to pay their domain registration bill?

September 26, 2018September 2, 2018 Skip

BUMPED from 6/6/2012. Moron. Better stuff coming back in a while – VOTE Bill Kuch!

Somebody wasn’t paying attention to details, were they? It does happen – and it more often than some folks will admit to. However, this is not what I expected to see when I went over to David Boutin’s NH Senate campaign site:

And yes, there are some things that were promised and the stark truth of votes taken. Right, Left, or somewhere in Squishland, all politicians have a record and it isn’t just other politicians that look at those records.

Grok 3.0 – It’s almost time!

September 26, 2018September 1, 2018 Skip

We’ve been waiting a long time for this and, finally, it’s almost here. A lot of background work has been done by Perceptions Studio and yesterday was a massively long prototyping session as to how it will all fit together. We think

Underreported story of the week: American-Mexican bilateral trade deal

September 26, 2018September 1, 2018 Skip

“…Both the U.S. and Mexico have removed trade barriers, eliminated tariffs and subsidies…”

My, my – it looks like the use of tariffs as an economic tool (when wielded correctly) is actually having a positive result. As a Free Trader, if nationally based and anti-free trade tariffs and subsidies are eliminated, this can only be a good thing! Conservative Treehouse has a good synopsis of the intent and result of this decision announced earlier this week on the re-negotiation of the Mexican part of the NAFTA treaty – and note the note about Canada’s unwillingness (emphasis mine):

Under the original 1993 terms and Chapter 22 of the Implementation Act, Lighthizer notifies congress that trade parties have modified the terms; this is the Section 2202 notification of modification. Ninety days after the date of the notification the U.S. and Mexico can sign the new terms of agreement; congressional approval is not required. [Canada can still join the U.S-Mexico agreement but they need to act fast.]

If Canada refuses to join the agreement Lighthizer will follow-up the 2202 modification notification with a Section 2205 notice dissolving the U.S. from the 1993 agreement with Canada; the dissolution is official six months from the date of notification. During the 6 month period, before official dissolution, the U.S. and Canada can enter into new negotiations for a separate bilateral trade agreement.

Quick Thought – but what about all those campaign promises?

September 26, 2018September 1, 2018 Skip

Sheesh – backslapping for the sake of backslapping? I guess that the “Right side of the most august legislative body in the world” didn’t really want to listen to Glenn Reynold’s (of Instapundit fame) maxim:

“Legislate like there’s no tomorrow, because there might not be one. And if they did, the increase in voter enthusiasm could make all the difference in November.”

They didn’t follow it when they started the session, didn’t follow it in mid-stream, and haven’t followed it EVAH! They couldn’t even pass their most vaunted promise – “We’ll repeal Obamacare!”. Sure, they did Tax Reform and they’ve “consented” to Trump’s conservative judicial nominations. But did they, after a few years of having the majority, return to “regular order”? How much and how hard did they really work in getting the GOP Agenda into practice and into law?

The Senate adjourned this week amid self-administered backslaps for “working hard during August” (they worked a grand total of 6.5 days) and donning self-congratulatory laurels as they praised themselves for implementing “major Republican priorities.”

Really, 6.5 days? That’s a lowly

Gunstock Ski Area is not a Proper Role of Government

September 26, 2018September 1, 2018 Skip

Nor is the State of NH’s monopoly on alcohol either that’s for another post. What is said below by a senior member of the Belknap County Delegation that oversees the financial aspect of the County owned Gunstock Ski Area is part of the reason why Government should stick to doing things that Govt (which should be a rather small subset of what they actually do today) and shouldn’t be running and in charge of businesses. The backstory is that Gunstock, located in and owned by Belknap County, wanted things to be “as usual” and in this case, a $600,000 loan. The county delegation said enough was enough and voted no. We see an example of “the local swamp” which mirrors not only the mindset of DC (“business as usual – don’t disturb us!”) but at other local levels as well:

Rep. Frank Tilton, R-Laconia, said the decision not to authorize the revenue anticipation note was short-sighted. “This is basically earth shaking and interfering with how they do business,” he said. “They’ve been working without it this summer and are in bad shape. “Six people are undercutting Gunstock. Their whole mindset is, ‘Don’t spend a penny,’ but businesses have to invest.”

Best comeback:

Isn’t that what it’s supposed to be? A deterrent? – Part 2

September 26, 2018September 1, 2018 Skip

Earlier I pointed out that the high penalty for violating SB3 is $5000 which is being used as an argument against allowing the law to come into force (“The $5,000 fine is financially crushing to college students“). This was pointed out as part of the Democrat testimony against SB3 (reformatted, emphasis mine):

Recent UNH graduate Doug Marino, now working as a volunteer in the Congressional campaign of Democrat Chris Pappas, testified as to his experience in recruiting student voters on campus. “I believe it (SB3) will deter students from voting. College students as it is are extremely busy, particularly first-year students, who are in a new place or on their own for the first time,” he said. “Even those who may want to register to vote may be wary of doing so if they have to sign a document that could potentially carry legal penalties.”

Especially if they are lying?

Data Point – U.S. Workers Report Highest Job Satisfaction Since 2005

September 26, 2018September 1, 2018 Skip

Just more than half of U.S. workers—51%—said they were satisfied with their jobs in 2017, the highest level since 2005, according to a new report from The Conference Board, a business-research group. Over the past seven years, Americans report feeling better about their pay along with a greater sense of job security, both features of an … Read more

Quick Thought – Gosh, TMEW asks the same thing!

September 26, 2018September 1, 2018 Skip

Doesn’t matter where I’m going, she’ll often ask. If she knows if the area is not a great one, she definitely asks (reformatted, emphasis mine):

This morning, in light of recent events, Bobbi replied to my “I’m headed out” with “Do you have a gun?” She was asking out of genuine concern, and so I did not reply sardonically with “I’m wearing pants, aren’t I?” or “Am I in the secure area of an airport?” But I’m not carrying a gun because I’m afraid. I’m carrying a gun because carrying a gun is what I do. If I’m dressed, there’s a Gen4 Glock 19 on my person, whether I’m at home or out and about.