Like Al Letizio and Dennis Senibaldi, here comes this MIT alum (or so says her email address). Out of the blue, I get this email from her (reformatted, emphasis mine):

From: “Donna Sawyer” <dls@alum.mit.edu>
To: skip@granitegrok.com; steve@granitegrok.com
Cc: “Donna Sawyer” <dls@alum.mit.edu>
Sent: 2/5/2018 6:08:59 PM
Subject: Granite Grok site and Windham School District image share from 2/1 article

Hi Skip and Op-Ed,

I hope all is well. I am a Windham, NH resident and I clicked on an article shared on social media bearing the Windham School District sign from 2/1, written by Op-Ed. I realize now this is not a WSD-endorsed article, but an article on your independent PoliGrok LLC site.

Your site shows signs of affiliate marketing. The Amazon links have a tag for “granitecom-20” which typically indicates the site will achieve a profit when folks use your links to purchase on Amazon.

A profit, she says.  That there’s right funny, I don’t care who you are.  Really, a profit?  Hahahaha!  No, that’s getting paid for getting eyeballs.

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The 603 Alliance Facebook page has a troll. Her name is Nanci Fletcher. According to her Facebook profile she lives in New Boston and most days she’s apt to hurl a bit of left-wing pablum our way. It is so devoid of substance it is not worth the trouble but yesterday she crossed a line so it’s time to give the troll credit where it is due.

Under a link to a story about the tragic death of former State Senator Sam Cataldo, Nanci Fletcher of New Boston wrote, “another seat for the Dems.”

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We are happy to announce a return to GrokTalk!, New Hampshire’s only Conservative podcast from New Hampshire’s leading conservative blog site. (etc.)

Segments will be posted Monday through Friday, and each audio file will be ten minutes or less. Today’s segment is as much an equipment and editing test as anything in which I talk about an election law complaint filed by Ray Buckley and the NH Democrat Party.

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Kurt Schlichter takes a much-deserved shot at the ruling class in his latest Townhall.com column and reminds us what we must never forget.

The most basic principle that has been dumped like a Kennedy’s girlfriend is the one the self-appointed establishment hates most. It is the notion that power derives from the consent of the governed, that those using that power answer to us Normals.

They hate that idea, and they reject it. Openly. Without apology.

The Trump election was a shift away from this ruling political class which has so much disdain for regular Americans.

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By Len Turcotte (Adapted from a letter to the chair of the Commerce Subcommittee on HB628)

I met with Richard Lavers (Department of Employment Security) briefly on Wednesday of this week to discuss the spreadsheets he handed out at the Commerce Committee hearing on January 16th (I am currently awaiting further updates). My questions were focused on the assumptions/estimates he utilized in creating the spreadsheets. As you will recall from Lavers’ testimony, my testimony, and multiple statements contained in the two handouts by the Carsey Institute’s Smith, and Institute for Women’s Policy Research Jeffery Hayes, there exists ZERO data regarding “opt-out, opt-in” FMLI programs since no State has ever attempted them.

My questions for Mr. Lavers:

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I was invited to North Carolina to attend a US Commission on Civil Rights hearing by Jay DeLancy of the Voter Integrity Project, a group CNHT has been associated with for quite some time.

I had three minutes, as one of 40 speakers who also got three minutes, to make New Hampshire’s case regarding the disenfranchisement of legal NH citizens by what I like to call a ‘super-enfranchised’ group of voters from out-of-state.

Super-enfranchised voters have more rights than legal NH voters.

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The Republican party in New Hampshire has a problem about which its hands are tied, but you can help. Within its ranks are individuals who have registered and run under their brand but either refuse or are incapable of living up to the ideals.

On issues of free association, life, speech, taxes, elections, transparency, regulation, and even worker’s freedom, these elected officials, while claiming to be Republican, vote more like Democrats. All of them from towns where a registered Democrat has little or no hope of achieving office if they run the way they vote.

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[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8G_5OU7Qc8]

Over the weekend, New Hampshire Senator Jeff Woodburn, representing North Country in District 01, deleted a video of himself boasting about how proud he was to have pushed legislation that would ban bump stocks in the state. The video was posted on his Facebook page and only lasted a couple of minutes but it clearly showed Woodburn’s ignorance about bump stocks and his pretty horrific beliefs about his own constituents.

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For several years I’ve been posting a top-twenty most commented posts for the year. It’s fun, but it is also a flawed metric. So I’ve added a plugin that gives me a better idea of how many unique hits any given article gets. Unique page hits are a better guide than comments because most folks are reader or lurker, not commenter.

So we begin the year with a new monthly feature. GraniteGrok’s Monthly Heavy Hitters.

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This is a curious debate to me. The issue is whether local officials and more specifically local school officials can establish rules (in this case prohibiting firearms on school grounds) where the State Law does not grant them such authority.

The obvious answer should be no.

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As early as next week, the “Gender Identity” bill, also known as the “Trans Bill” or “Bathroom Bill,” could be voted on by the Judiciary Committee in the New Hampshire House of Representatives. House Bill 1319 (HB 1319), AN ACT prohibiting discrimination based on gender identity, is based on the lie that trans people don’t have the same protections against discrimination as everyone else in the State of New Hampshire. They do.

For years, trans people have been using the exact same laws to fight against discrimination as every other Granite Stater. The ramifications of the law, if passed in New Hampshire, are far reaching but one of the biggest and most egregious ramifications of the “gender identity” bill is that women of New Hampshire will become second class citizens if it is passed.

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OK, Fred Butler has another LtE in the local paper and, of course, he is off-point.  Not only off-point in the way that our own inimitable commenter Timothy (factual but of no real relevance in his own special Progressive way) but blames the BudComm for not cutting budgets.  To which I point out, he was part of that problem:

To the Editor,

Fred Butler complains, again, in his Letter of today, of how little the cuts have been to the Municipal and School District budget that the Gilford Budget Committee has made over the years. He knows why – during the time I was on the BuddComm while he was there, I can’t remember a single time he voted in favor of saving taxpayers some money. In fact, near one of the end of BudComm seasons, he argued in favor of more money for the town employees along the lines of “think of the economic impact that would have as they spend it on Christmas presents”.

Shades of Bastiat’s broken window – he failed to mention the economic impact if that money had simply been left in Gilford’s taxpayers wallets.

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Private payrolls grow by 234,000 in January, vs 185,000 expected: ADP/Moody’s Analytics

Private companies hired 234,000 jobs in January, well above expectations for 185,000, according to ADP and Moody’s Analytics.
Service-related industries led with 212,000 new jobs; manufacturing added 12,000 and construction 9,000.
The report often differs significantly from the government’s more closely watched nonfarm payrolls count, with ADP reporting growth of 242,000 in December vs. the Labor Department’s 148,000.

This is good news

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