News – Politics – Opinion – Podcasts
Again, I get stuff. Last Thursday, the Cheshire County Republican Committee held a debate for the Republicans vying to be the NH GOP victor in the primary in September for CD-2. What was brought to my attention was this line (video starts at 11:45 into the event):
“Government’s job is to provide opportunity for all of us.”
Let that sink in for a second.
“He’s got Rand Paul, the federal Gun Owners of America, and leader of GraniteGrok on his side.“
Well, of course I wasn’t going to let this go by the boards. Nor am I the type to be silent. So you do know what I did, right? Of course you do: I sent an email to both Kevin Landrigan and Trent Spiner (the Executive Editor of the Union Leader) (emphasis mine):
From: “skipdcm” <Skip@GraniteGrok.com>
To: klandrigan@unionleader.com; TSpiner@UnionLeader.com
Sent: 7/24/2018 9:26:24 AM
Subject: Retraction of a falsehood
I wish to bring this to your attention: http://www.unionleader.com/Kevin-Landrigans-Granite-Status-Self-financed-1st-CD-GOP-hopeful-suddenly-drops-out-07192018
“He’s got Rand Paul, the federal Gun Owners of America, and leader of GraniteGrok on his side.“
Kevin Landrigan, you nor anyone else from the Union Leader, ever contacted me for this deliberatively false statement. I hereby demand a retraction from you and the Union leader both as a separate post on your front page as well as a retraction within the article itself.
By Mark Carbone – President Monadnock Rod and Gun Club
I’m writing Granite Grok today to let you know that the Town of Peterborough is treating us unfairly. Our attorney, Penny Dean along with our VP Tom Harvey, Secretary Jim Pickford and Board Member Martin Bowen are onsite to receive the Town this morning. I will be there in an hour or so.
Under the guise of Code Enforcement/Assessment, the Town and police are set to arrive some 7 minutes ago with heavy equipment. My first notice was last night after 5 with a personal voicemail that just asked me to return a call to the Chief of Police, Scott Guinard that included zero details. I only got a more complete story hours later from our attorney who received an email.
Again attorney Dean is onsite, and WMUR has reported that they will be there.
Immediately after President Trump’s private meeting with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, the two held a press conference that appalled Americans across the political spectrum. It was there that Trump suggested America’s intelligence community was wrong and that the Russians had not actually meddled in our election. To make matters worse, he also trumpeted Putin’s proposal to assist in the Mueller probe, calling it an “incredible offer.” We later learned that part of that suggested deal included the reciprocal interrogation of a former U.S, Ambassador and other Americans by Russian officials in connection with one of their “investigations.”
Clearly, under intense pressure, Trump quickly reversed himself on the meddling issue, and ultimately rejected Putin’s offer of joint investigations.
The kind of Supreme Court Justice someone wants indicates the kind of country he or she wants. Does one want a government that abides by the consent of the governed, as envisioned by the authors of our Declaration of Independence, Constitution and laws passed by Congress, or a government controlled by a Judicial Oligarchy, five or more unelected, unaccountable, and fallible people that impose their will on the American people?
Donning a black robe doesn’t confer wisdom or divinity. Supreme Court Justices made many bad decisions, e.g., approving slavery, “separate but equal”, and interning Japanese-Americans during WWII. Recent decisions outrage Conservatives and Progressives, e.g., eminent domain (Kelo), Citizens United, gun control (Heller), and Obamacare.
Update: I just left a scathing vmail for the UL head honcho and Publisher, Joe McQuaid demanding retractions on the UL front page, within Landrigan’s article, and in their print edition. Let’s see what happens.
Update 2: From Trent Spiner, Exec. Editor, UL @ 1:36pm (my email was at 9:26am) – “…we certainly understand you have not endorsed this cycle and I appreciate you bringing the issue to my attention. We will be issuing a correction shortly”. I’m still waiting for it…
**************
I want a retraction from Landrigan and the UL and will be demanding such.
What am I talking about? This: “He’s got Rand Paul, the federal Gun Owners of America, and leader of GraniteGrok on his side.”
Ok, ok – I’m a bit late with the results so here they are! I asked four questions about doing GraniteGrok meetup where we Groksters would set some times up to physically meet with our readers:
Hey, we’d do these for you – you OUGHT to have a say in these, right? Well, here’s the answers you gave so let me tell you what we’ll do!
It seems that not a week goes by that we don’t hear conservatives and libertarians moaning, ‘Why did we bother to elect Republicans if they’re just going to _____?’
Republicans seem to have forgotten what a political party is for. It’s a way to focus time, effort, energy, and money so that they don’t get dissipated. It’s a way of saying, ‘Instead of chasing all these rabbits, and not getting any of them, let’s just chase this one’.
My name is Linda Rea Camarota and I am a Republican House Representative candidate running in Hillsborough District 7-Bedford. I am a long time Constitutional Conservative and Republican. I believe in local control, limited government, accountability and transparency.
There is a Primary in Bedford. I need my supporters to go out and vote for me on September 11 at the Bedford High School. After winning the Primary, I then need your support at the General Election on November 6.
My husband, Michael, and I have resided in Bedford for the past 30+ years. As a parent, I strive to protect children and, in that mission, I strongly advocate for parental rights. As a medical professional, I believe in protecting citizens’ privacy rights, including school-aged children. School safety is of special interest to me. I was on my high school’s Safety Committee for many years. For the past 3 years, I have attended the Annual Emergency Preparedness Conference to learn from the experts how to be proactive as it relates to school safety. Each year, sessions covered how to respond in instances such as an active shooter.
This past Sunday, Pastor Brian Green had an apt object lesson in his sermon – I thought I’d share this all with you. “…by being in the water, they changed the water.” The full sermon, for context, is here.
The Ninth Circuit Court (three judges not the whole circus) just ruled “that, by the logic of their Peruta vs. San Diego (decision), if concealed carry is not a right, then open carry must be:”
With Peruta the 9th couldn’t find a “right” to concealed carry. Along comes Hawaii which has been making it impossible to open carry “legally.” What’s left?
Three Judges on the Ninth Circuit have concluded that if their court finds both these prohibitions lawful while you could “keep” arms you could never “bear” them. Because “Second Amendment” you can’t prevent or prohibit both.
The Heritage Foundation has published a nationwide calculator that reports the tax savings for the average taxpayer in every congressional district in the country. Being an average taxpayer, I took an interest. And not just to know how much lower will my tax bill be thanks to Mr. Trump and Republicans but what does that mean in actual dollars?
How much of my money were Democrats fighting to keep in DC, and how much are they going to take back the first chance they get?
Suddenly, it’s everywhere. Lately I’ve even heard even libertarians suggesting that it might be a good idea to provide a Universal Basic Income (UBI) to replace the buffet of specific welfare programs that are now available to people who can’t afford things like housing (Section 8), heat (LIHEAP), medical care (Medicaid), food (SNAP), and so on.
This idea is a classic example of what Thomas Sowell calls ‘stage one thinking’, which is the apparent inability (or unwillingness) to appreciate that actions have consequences, and consequences propagate.
(Yes, I know that Milton Friedman advocated for a negative income tax, which is one type of universal basic income. But Friedman also advocated for income tax withholding, which has turned into what we might call ‘the opiate of the taxes’.)
Today is going to be a very busy day, so just a quick continuing thought on the missive I received that was ‘preached’ at a still fairly recent GOP meeting. The author, I remind you, admonished the assembled crowd that they were “not allowed” to audio or video record their speech……then left handouts of the talking points on a table.
This is how I and the other Groksters end up getting stuff because stupenagels still believe that when you ask, secrets are kept. Yeah, especially in this Internet age. And when you leave stuff openly on a table.
To the first part: let’s make this real easy and get to the root cause. It is not because people don’t support Trump, do support Trump; it does, however, all come back to this basic fact:
Winning is only a precursor; what you do afterwards is more important
Years ago, a friend told me about something he calls the ‘baby test’. To take it, raise either arm straight up so your upper arm touches your ear. Bend the arm at the elbow. If you can make a 90-degree angle, you’re not a baby.
It occurs to me that there is a similar test for whether you’re a Republican, although it’s conceptual rather than corporeal. The test is simple. If you believe that it’s more important to achieve particular outcomes than to preserve a set of principles, you’re not a Republican.
The Fiahcrakah (that’s Firecracker to you Flatlanders) – Kimberly is a lady that is never still or quiet. Proprietor of NH Political Buzz, she also writes for us here at GraniteGrok and is the current President of the Womens’ Defense League of NH (“WDLNH”). She is never a lady without a few bon (as well as mal) mots floating on her lips nor from her keyboard. She is “on” all the time and served as the last speaker of the day at the CNHT Annual Picnic (aka “Old Home Day for Conservatives”) and you will enjoy her talk!
Previous video:
Ed is the Chair of the Coalition of NH Taxpayers who puts on the Annual Picnic (aka, “Old Home Day for Conservatives). For decades, he and CNHT have been champions for taxpayer issues be they local (e.g., fighting the “good ole’ boys” networks in small NH towns, or local school boards / municipal committees that have gone off the “RSA reservation”, or local politicians seeking to enrich themselves as taxpayers expense) or state-wide (the foremost expert of voter fraud in NH). In fact, that’s how he led off
After the jump are the other videos, especially about Keith Hanson and The Winslows (and what the town they live in is doing to them illegally):
…is running circles in my head like the above motorcycle of death circle. WHY is the NH GOP so self-defeating? Do they not even care about what the “campaign battlespace” looks like? Wasn’t NH GOP Committeeman Steve Duprey (owner of five hotels in Concord) willing to step in to host such an event (er, skuttlebutt is that he doesn’t cut much of a deal for hosting things like this, especially for allied conservative groups. Then again, he gives money to Planned Parenthood, supports other Democrat issues; and we’re back to “The Stupid Party” again in electing people that don’t care much for what the NH GOP Platform says it stands for but I digress. Again.):
That from an ally over NH Gov. Chris Sununu signing HB1319, the latest Bathroom Bill (aka “today I feel like a women even without the lady bits so I’m going into the ladies room”) and HB587 (gotta let gays be gays and no talking them out of it) which is a sop to the gay lobby and is an affront to both the First Amendment and NH’s Constitution in the matter of denying free speech and free conscious. I wrote this at the time:
So Governor Chris Sununu just told his Conservative and Faith-Based base to buzz off. You just told those that brung you to the dance that you’re in love with another. OK, buzz off we shall – like a buzzsaw. You asked we’ll deliver.
So how do I tell him and NH State Rep Mindi Messmer apart, who is running for US Congress with pretty much the same message