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Co-founder of GraniteGrok, my concern is around Individual Liberty and Freedom and how the Government is taking that away. As an evangelical Christian and Conservative with small "L" libertarian leanings, my fight is with Progressives forcing a collectivized, secular humanistic future upon us. As a TEA Party activist, citizen journalist, and pundit!, my goal is to use the New Media to advance the radical notions of America's Founders back into our culture.

And more words from a Democrat Socialist, Levi Sanders. Guess what’s missing from his rant?

Levi Sanders and Brother from another mother Barry-O
Levi Sanders and ideological brother from another mother Barry-O

“What you just heard is that Chris Pappas doesn’t believe in a ‘Medicare For All’ single-payer healthcare system,” Sanders said. “So I want to ask Chris and all the other people who don’t believe in it:  How do you plan to deal with the issues of co-payments, deductibles and premiums?”

“I talk to people all over the district and they tell me they have stomach aches and anxiety disorders from worrying about what’s happening with their healthcare,” Sanders said. “We need a health care system that is free for every man, woman and child. That means no co-payments, no deductibles and no premiums.”

Which translates to “no self-responsibility”.  In essence, a complete reversal of the American ideal of

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Data Point – And it wasn’t Socialism that caused this!

“In 1820, 94% of the world’s population lived in extreme poverty. In 1990, 34.8%, and in 2015, just 9.6%.”

 

…In the last quarter century, more than 1.25 billion people escaped extreme poverty – that equates to over 138,000 people (i.e., 38,000 more than the Parisian crowd that greeted Father Wresinski in 1987) being lifted out of poverty every day. If it takes you five minutes to read this article, another 480 people will have escaped the shackles of extreme of poverty by the time you finish. Progress is awesome. In 1820, only 60 million people didn’t live in extreme poverty. In 2015, 6.6 billion did not.

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Notable Quote – well, it sure ain’t Jeb Bradley or Chris Sununu

“Where is the politician who has not promised to fight to the death for lower taxes- and who has not proceeded to vote for the very spending projects that make tax cuts impossible?” -Barry Goldwater They LOVE spending other peoples’ money…and like I’ve said for years, don’t listen to what politicians SAY, watch what they … Read more

Does former Supreme Court Justice Kennedy know something, or

…just being observant? Ruth Bader Ginsburg – Age: 85 (5 years past average retirement) Stephen Breyer – Age: 79 (1 year before average retirement) Clarence Thomas – Age: 70 (10 years before average retirement) Samuel Alito – Age: 68 (12 years before average retirement) Sonia Sotomayor – Age: 64 (16 years before average retirement) John Roberts – Age: 63 (17 years … Read more

Thanks for sending more businesses to NH, Charlie!

Minimum wage ladder rungsAnd yet another Republican delivering a win for the Democrat / Socialist agenda.  Steve had the goods (paid family leave) in expanding the Welfare State in MA and pushing the Socialist agenda of “Don’t worry – you don’t have to provide for yourself as everyone else will be coerced to take take of you.”. Ayup, furthering the Progressive mantra that you don’t have to be self-responsible and plan ahead for you and your family. And they wonder why we constantly beat on the GOP?

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker Signs Bill to Raise Minimum Wage to $15

Gov. Charlie Baker (R) of Massachusetts signed a bill Thursday to raise the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2023.
The new law will set the wage to $11 per hour and then raise the pay rate in steps until it hits $15 in five years. The wage for tipped workers will also increase but at a lower rate, going from $3.75 to $6.75 by 2023, according to Mass Live.

The $15 wage will match California for the highest minimum wage in the nation by 2023.

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Data Point – Gallup and Americans view of the NRA

On the political side, 88% of Republicans and 24% of Democrats view the group favorably.”

Gallup view of NRA

Even with the full out attacks by anti-gunners and the media, Americans still have a favorable view of the NRA.  I’m just surprised that it’s only been a 5% drop. And the grassroots organization, even with the vitriol thrown against them, keeps out-raising its detractors:

The NRA’s Political Victory Fund, the gun-rights group’s PAC, raised $1,164,540.23 in the month of May. That’s nearly $325,000 more than the top three gun-control PACs combined. It is also, however, a retreat of $687,783.05 from the NRA PAC’s April fundraising total.

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Janus vs AFSCME – it’s personal (although it’s not AFSCME, it’s NH SEIU’s local chapter 1984)

scotusUPDATE and bumped: Yay!  It looks like the NH Administration is taking this seriously (emphasis mine, reformatted):

The Union Leader obtained a memo Attorney General Gordon MacDonald sent to Administrative Services Commissioner Charles Arlinghaus making it clear that as of the next payroll on July 6 all state workers must give permission to have any fees withheld from their paychecks. “As a result of this decision, the Department of Administrative Services must immediately stop deducting an agency fee from any state employee,” MacDonald wrote.

“No agency fee should be deducted from paychecks issued on that date and thereafter unless the employee has given his or her consent.”

Works for me!  Now to get rid of the idea that a union can negotiate for me better than I can; how could they in that they have no idea what is best for me?

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I was talking with a number of folks this morning at a meeting when the word flashed around.  My go to blog for SCOTUS decisions is SCOTUSblog.com for their play-by-play calling out of the decisions that are released by The Supreme Court of the United States and the on-the-spot quick analysis of what the decisions mean to “the folks” like me who aren’t lawyers and make no claims no how to be such. Amy Howe summed it up well (all emphasis mine):

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Janus vs AFSCME: Let the union hem-hawing on the decision begin!

The Union is Dissolved - Civil War era secession has become popular talk of lateThis will be a running post for a bit as I know that the repercussions are going to last for a while – there’s a whole dump truck load of pebbles that are going to be launched in to the pond and ripple for a long, long time (most will be reformatted, emphasis mine). Let’s start off with this one from the Union Leader :

The court ruled that forcing non-members to pay agency fees to unions whose views they may oppose violates their rights to free speech and free association under the Constitution’s First Amendment. Workers in the public sector who do not want to pay agency fees could start withholding them immediately, said Bill McQuillen, president of the Professional Firefighters of New Hampshire.

“The Supreme Court has spoken and that’s the law of the land,” he said. “It’s an unfortunate decision, as it now makes it more difficult for people to represent the middle-class workers. That having been said, I don’t believe it’s going to have a big impact on our organization because by and large our members want to affiliate with the PFFNH.”

No,

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PragerU: James O’Keefe from Project Veritas

The job of a journalist is to report facts, add context where necessary, and leave it to the consumer to decide what he thinks. In this video, James O’Keefe, founder and president of Project Veritas, explains why fewer and fewer people trust modern-day “journalism.” (H/T: Project Veritas)

Janus vs. AFSCME – a personal take

John_Stark_statue,_Concord_NHUPDATE: As the Supreme court just decided for Janus and against the unions, this post is appropriate.  Best news? SCOTUS rules that public sector union MUST be opt-in for payments.   Essentially, this returns freedom to individuals over the unions; no more paycheck protection for unions.

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“Live Free or Die” – that’s our state motto and unlike many on the Left that find that absolutely abhorrent, it’s one of the reasons why I’ve stayed in the Granite State for over three decades (yep, came for a job, stayed for the motto).  The rest of the motto is not one that is repeated too often, that saying from General John Stark to his former soldiers: “Death is not the worst of all evils“. The Progressives here shudder every time it is stated.

For them, life is not to be free in the traditional sense of the word.  Freedom is the Collective.  Freedom is belonging to such a collective.  It also isn’t about remembering history because much of their philosophy regresses back to the mistakes and catastrophes of the 20th and 19th Centuries when Collectivism tried to overwhelm that most radical of American ideals – the idea that the Individual is sovereign and happens to have a government instead of what most of the world’s history and actions show to be the opposite – a country with subjects.

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Data Point – It looks like the New Normal tax/regulation regime is starting to work

Despite President Trump’s tit-for-tat trade barbs, America’s CEOs are not wasting anytime in taking advantage of his tax reform plan. Over $300 billion was repatriated to the U.S. in the first quarter, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) — the most on record.

“U.S. firms that used to build their factories overseas in order to avoid U.S. taxes, they stopped in their tracks because of the tax bill, they are bringing all the money home,” said Kevin Hassett, chair of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers, during an interview on FOX Business’ Varney & Co. in June.
primary-income-chart

The BEA notes the main driver of the repatriation surge is that companies are no longer taxed on foreign earnings when returning the funds to the U.S. “We fixed that really, really stupid thing” said Hassett. By comparison just $38 billion was repatriated during the same period a year ago.

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I just thought I’d leave this here…not all is rainbows

Celebrating Gay Pride Month Pity the gay community.  They had their thunder stolen by crying kids at the border.  But, retailers are offering many gay pride pieces of merchandise.  H&M, Levi Strauss, Primark and my favorite- Target’s rainbow-themed “Pride Narwhal- are all the rage this month.  But a funny thing happened along the way to the … Read more

Blogline of the Day – About Maggie “The Red” Hassan’s intern, Keene State student Caitlin Marriott

Red Hen restaraunt

“She can spend the week at the Red Hen signing autographs. ” – WZ

(The DC restaurant whose owner told Trump’s Press Secretary and family to leave, and when they did, followed Sarah Sander’s family to another restaurant and organized a mob scene there as well).

The fact that she is only getting suspended for a week says more about Maggie Hassan than Caitlin Marriott.  Sorry (no, NOT! sorry) but if

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Data Point – Tired of all that WINNING! yet? Hardest hit: Obama

IF true, that would be 2.5 times MORE than Obama’s “get used to the 2% new normal as it will never change” economic results.  For those Progressives that are mathematically and economically challenged (I know, I used to tutor them back in the day in college), this is YUUGGGEEE!  Now if we can only freeze … Read more

Data Point: Fake News

Nearly all Republicans and Republican-leaning independents (92%) say that traditional news outlets knowingly report false or misleading stories at least sometimes, according to a new Axios/SurveyMonkey poll. Democrats and non-leaning independents also feel this way, but not nearly to the same extent. 72% agree: media does Fake News. Note that even a majority of Democrats … Read more

Failure – a great illustration why Govt should stay out of the marketplace and work only within its constraints

sticker shock MilkPravda on the Merrimack – that’s what we oft call the Concord Monitor because it almost always advocates for MORE government to solve whatever problem ails us – and here, doubles down when a government policy just isn’t working at all. This time, it is about Government trying to control the marketplace for that common table victual – milk.  Simple milk. It’s putting family farms out of business so what does the Fishwrap do?  That’s right – doubles down.  Notice what its LAST resort happens to be (emphasis mine):

Dairy farms are disappearing, as Taylor told our sister paper, the Valley News, where he once served as managing editor, because a federal program sets the price of milk but does not control the supply. When milk prices drop, farmers add more cows to offset the loss, which then keeps prices down. Milk prices that averaged $24 per hundredweight in 2014 have fallen to $15, less than the cost of production.

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