Steve MacDonald

A Rhode Island Company has convinced the city of Nashua to spend your money.

According to NHPR’s incorrectly named article “Nashua Alderman Unanimously Approve Commuter Rail Memorandum,”

The Tuesday night unanimous approval of the memorandum of understanding means the city can begin work immediately with the Rhode Island-based Boston Surface Railroad Co to create a detailed plan.

I spoke at length about the proposed passenger rail service on Girard at Large a few weeks ago, and how it gets its infrastructure funding.

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I know, they’ve been pretty violent up to this point, but now they have set a date for the actual revolution. I guess.

ON NOVEMBER 4, 2017:
We will gather in the streets and public squares of cities and towns across this country, at first many thousands declaring that this whole regime is illegitimate and that we will not stop until our single demand is met: This Nightmare Must End: the Trump/Pence Regime Must Go!

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The Washington Times has an update on the “take a knee Foundation” doing business as the National Football League. At least two teams are ending such public displays under threat of punishment. The Players association which appears short on Constitutional Scholars these days said, “We should not stifle these discussions and cannot allow our rights to become subservient to the very opinions our Constitution protects. That is what makes us the land of the free and home of the brave.”

Marc Edelman, law professor at the Baruch College Zicklin School of Business, said that players working for a private-sector business like the NFL don’t enjoy First Amendment protections while on the job.

No. You don’t. (Update: Goodell thinks it might be time to ask everyone to stand for the National Anthem)

Meanwhile, over in California, Jerry Brown signed the “middle finger to Trump” bill making California a Sanctuary state. ICE responded.

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Occasional podcast guest and friend of the Grok Warner Todd Huston has found himself a target of the “tolerant left™.” After many years as a conservative writer without issue, someone or a pack of someones has taken to vandalizing his home and property.

Over the course of this year, someone in my neighborhood has targeted me. At first, I thought it was just random vandals as the attacks were penny-ante nonsense, but now I am pretty sure it is being done by someone who knows I am a conservative writer who has a body of work stretching back to 2001 and they are trying to intimidate me.

It started early this year when a flag was pulled off my flag-staff and left ripped and in pieces on my lawn.

Two ruined flags, and an egged garage door later, the idea that it might just be hooligans was still a functional explanation. And then something else happened.

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I’d like to wish the folks out in the Durham area a Happy ‘Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Durham, New Hampshire, is the first municipality in the Granite State to adopt the second Monday in October as ‘Indigenous Peoples’ Day.’

(c/o WMUR)“After much consideration and reflection regarding the discovery of the Americas by Christopher Columbus, the town council has come to support this resolution to designate the second Monday in October as ‘Indigenous Peoples’ Day,’” said Durham Town Administrator Todd Selig. “Not only is it appropriate to our local history, but also to recognize and value indigenous people everywhere. The designation will encourage residents to learn more about the legacy of Christopher Columbus and the ‘Doctrine of Discovery,’ while also recognizing the devastating effects of colonialism on indigenous peoples.”

Durham’s made it an amalgam day, with the European oppressor and the indigenous oppressed sharing billing, but how long do we honestly think that “relationship” is going to last because this feels a lot like progressive incrementalism to me.

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Recent polling shows the NFL, once American’s favorite sport, has plummeted out of favor.

Worse for football, which was already seeing lower TV ratings and empty stadium seats, the month of protests and complaints about them from President Trump drove core fans, men 34-54, away, the most significant indicator that NFL brass aren’t in touch with their base.

The Winston Poll from the Washington-based Winston Group found that the attitude of those fans went from an August rating of 73 percent favorable and 19 percent unfavorable to 42 percent favorable and 47 percent unfavorable, a remarkable turn against the sport.

And it gets worse.

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The Trump Administration has just eliminated the ObamaCare contraceptive mandate.

The Trump administration said Friday it will let a vast universe of employers duck Obamacare’s contraceptive mandate by claiming a religious or moral objection, a long-awaited move that will enthuse pro-life conservatives and enrage advocates who say women’s rights to birth control are being threatened.

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Amazon Prime users pay for a lot of privileges that pay for themselves, especially around the Gift Giving Season. Sure, I like the millions of songs, the streaming television, free reads and loads of other goodies, but what drew me in was free two-day delivery.

It’s a premium service that can save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars a year by getting you stuff you want two days after you decide you want it with free 2-day shipping, from a list of millions of items. But it’s not foolproof. Amazon has long had to rely on third-party carriers to keep their two-day delivery promises. Arrangements that cost them a small fortune in refunds a few “gift-giving seasons” ago when volume exceeded capacity. To remedy that the online retail giant has been trying a few things that give them more control over last-mile logistics. They are looking at getting into the package delivery business.

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Jared the former Subway pitch-guy is in jail. Somehow I missed that.

Former Subway spokesman Jared Fogle was sentenced Thursday to more than 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to federal charges related to child pornography and sexual conduct involving minors.

Fogle faced two counts: traveling to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor, and distribution and receipt of child pornography.

Fogel, who is in minimum security prison, has since threatened to sue the parents of one of his underage victims, and been beaten up in the prison yard.

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I could probably write a post every week about “driving, ” but for the moment let’s limit this to a discussion about situational awareness and lane departures. Are you aware how often you drift over the yellow line on roads with curves or bends in them?

I know it’s your road, I get that, but as long as you have to let me drive on it, I’d appreciate it if you’d put at least a little extra focus into staying centered in your lane instead of floating over the center into mine.

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According to the FDA, a local bakery that sells granola in Massachusetts and New Hampshire has to change its label. Love is not an ingredient.

In a letter dated Sept. 22 to West Concord, Mass.-based Nashoba Brook Bakery, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration took the company to task for a number of food-safety violations and mislabled ingredients. Among them: an ingredient called “love.”

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The Tax Foundation has released their 2017 State Business Tax Climate Index, and New Hampshire ranks 7th best in the nation.

That’s impressive considering how poorly the Granite State did in some key categories. It ranked 46th for Corporate taxes (this report does not account for the recent reductions in that tax), 43rd for Property taxes, and 41st for unemployment taxes.

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Art Woolf, an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Vermont, has an interesting piece in the Burlington Free Press. Interesting, because it hints at a problem in a context most progressives typically ignore.

First, as part of this research professor Woolf reports that as a percentage of total income earned New Hampshire is still one of the lowest taxed states in the Nation. The national average is 10.59 percent, and New Hampshire’s rate is only 8.86 percent. (Vermont’s is over 12%.)

New Hampshire’s rank is important because the article asks questions about spending priorities, values, efficient delivery of services, and just how much you can expect to take and for what.

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