‘Grok friend John Hawkins (RightWingNews) has a column over at Townhall on 7 observations he’s learned during the last year.  I’ve put the first one up in its entirety as it shows a massive shift on how a lot of folks on the Right are changing their view on morality and politics simply because the Left wins by ignoring traditional morality altogether – character no longer counts; only winning:

7 Things Conservatives Can Learn From Donald Trump’s First Year in Office

Donald Trump’s election felt like a revolutionary act and love him or hate him, his first year in office has rewritten the rules of the political game. That’s why it’s surprising how little political thinking seems to have shifted. There are some big lessons we can learn from Trump’s first year in office.

1) Conservatives Have Lost Faith That Good Behavior Will Be Rewarded: There was a time when conservatives took great pride in being the sort of people who wouldn’t tolerate a Ted Kennedy, Marion Barry or William Jefferson in their ranks. However, eventually conservatives have started asking a basic question: How does this benefit us? Do we get credit from the American people for being more moral than liberals? Is this helping us to succeed? What’s the pragmatic value of doing the right thing beyond feeling superior to the Left? When conservatives concluded there was no practical value to having high standards, standards declined. A lot. In a hurry. Is that a good thing? No, but when you create a situation where virtue is no longer rewarded, you can’t expect virtuous people to slam their heads into a wall forever.

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Union dues: Should state be collection agent?

That was the question asked by a UL editorial and one that I have been saying no to for quite some time.  After all, why should taxpayer monies be used for this – it isn’t for the common good, right?  It is for a special interest group as that is what a union is – a collection of people that extract more wealth (money, time, power) from the majority than they would otherwise be able to do.  Not a slam, not a whack – just a simple statement of what unions, bottomline, do.  Reformatted, emphasis mine:

When the New Hampshire House returns in January, it will take up a bill that would get state government out of the union dues collection business. HB 438, introduced this year by House Majority Leader Dick Hinch, would stop the practice of withholding dues from state employee paychecks, which would require unions representing those workers to collect those dues themselves.

It would not prohibit or restrict membership in unions in any way.

This is not union-busting and it isn’t creating what unions would call “a hostile work environment”.  It would just force them to collect their own damn money themselves.  Simple, easy – after all, if the unions are actually providing value to their members, the members will gladly fork over checks, right? So why are the unions spitting mad and scared?

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Reformatted, emphasis mine:

A 41-year-old pizza delivery driver from Imo’s told St. Louis police he was making food delivery when two men tried to rob him Thursday night, KTVI-TV reported. One of the suspects hit the driver in the head with a gun, the station said. When the victim ran back to his vehicle, KTVI said the same suspect began shooting at him, but the driver had his own gun and returned fire.

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…coded in an outdated assembler language…

Voyager 1 is an important vessel. It’s the fastest spacecraft we’ve got, traveling at around 11 miles per second. It’s also the farthest. Its twin, Voyager 2, is nearly 11 billion miles away from the Sun, pushing through the last layer of our host star’s influence on the space around our system. But Voyager 1 is over 13 billion miles away from the Sun, and has the incredible distinction of being the first human-made object to enter interstellar space.

Yet even from that great distance, the probe still sends messages back to Earth. That’s where the thrusters come in. For decades, a set of thrusters has served to set out tiny, split-second pulses to keep the craft’s antenna pointed toward us. Now those thrusters are getting old, and it’s taking more effort to make Voyager 1 move. The solution? See if the TCM thrusters—which on the one hand haven’t been worn out by constant use over the last few decades, but on the other hand haven’t even been turned on — could take on some of the legwork.

“The Voyager flight team dug up decades-old data

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“We don’t take any money from the state or the federal government. You know why? It’s because I don’t want to serve a piping hot bowl of red tape every day.”

From his UL Op-Ed, Matt hits the nail on the head.  The problem isn’t that the Feds want to make sure that their money (er, our money minus their vigorish) is well spent, it is that it all comes with micro-management. You may have the idea, you may have the sweat, you may have the willingness to do the right thing, but of course some government bureaucrat (or commission or board or some other entity that ISN’T doing the good work you want to do themselves) believes you don’t know HOW to do it – so you now have the privilege of paying taxes to them simply to have them tell you how to do what you want to do, how to spend that which you have left of your treasure, even as they simply sit in a chair with a keyboard (emphasis mine, reformatted):

Another View — Matt Mayberry: A piping hot bowl of red tape

I recently attended the 2017 Londonderry-Derry Chamber of Commerce Annual Dinner. That evening, the Sonshine Soup Kitchen won the Business of the Year Award. Linda German, a firecracker of an activist, talked about making ends meet during hard times, and she said something profound and unfortunately accurate.

“We don’t take any money from the state or the federal government. You know why? It’s because I don’t want to serve a piping hot bowl of red tape every day.” And she’s right. The federal government would come in and dictate things such as serving portions. These volunteers just want to feed people, provide fellowship, and comfort those in need.

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OK, time got away from me – time to put up some more LSRs (which by this time, I’m betting some have been turned into bills).  This time, those who the prime sponsor had a rating of 36% – 50%.  Like the last 4 posts, I’ve bolded a few that caught my eye (yes, I know, I haven’t gone back to review them but hey BUDGET SEASON!):

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Sometimes, I just shake my head.  This started when we were going over “Federal Projects” of which one is Title II whereupon the Feds allocate monies to the Various States and then the State Board of Educations then allocate their share to towns and cities based on grant requests from said towns and cities.  Briefly said, this is money to “improve learning and school staff” (programs to make their teaching capability better). Involved in this is curriculum upgrades – new courses like, say, a new match curriculum for kids in 3rd-5th classes.  Knowing that past experience, we used to flip courses a LOT and while I saw the costs, I never heard what the outcomes were (gee, silly me for wondering, eh?).  So silly engineer me asked the following question (emphasis mine):

Scott, Kirk, and Steve, I am following up on a question that I asked during the Federal Projects subcommittee (in the line of “how do we know if taxpayers are getting sufficient bang for their bucks”):

With respect to the “revamp” question, even if no new curriculum is being introduced, I would still like to know what metrics, especially financial and educational improvement outcomes, were used previously. It goes to the heart of the issue of “we’re spending all this time, effort, and other peoples’ money – what did we get for it?”. Can you, or someone else on the team, dig up that information? What were/are the procedures that you use to determine, in a postmortem / multi-dimensional analysis, whether you got it right, just even, or a failure (to learn from)?

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Mr. Trump took a unique position on Illegal Immigration and international borders when he became president. He let the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) enforce the existing immigration laws. And letting them off the leash Obama put them on has produced some results.

Throughout FY2017, ICE deportation officers and special agents succeeded across a broad range of initiatives and operations. These include disrupting and dismantling illegal drug trafficking networks to arresting and removing aliens, including criminals who are too often released back into our communities.

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Mr. Trump also plans to move the US embassy to Jerusalem.

“It is time to officially recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel,” Mr. Trump said at the White House. “It is the right thing to do.”

He said the new U.S. embassy “will be a magnificent tribute to peace.” The president said his decision is not intended to derail any chance of peace talks.

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From her US Senate Website.

“It is clear that Al Franken has engaged in a pattern of egregious and unacceptable behavior toward women, and he should resign. We are experiencing a sea change in our culture that is long overdue, and we must continue working to empower all women and do everything we can to prevent sexual harassment, misconduct, and assault.”

She’s not alone.

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Steve’s post ended with this thought:

Fifty-Eight Democrats voted for the measure. We’ll have to see if either of Washington’s ambassadors to NH from the House sided with the minority or did what leadership told them to do.

Teamwork, baby!  To help Steve out, I went out and got the info and my, who turned out to be the weasel:

• Annie Kuster: voted yes to the motion to table the motion to impeach
• Carol Shea-Porter: voted “Present“

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By Sen. Kevin Avard

The New Hampshire Senate
Republican Majority Office
Senators oppose turnpike toll hike

Concord, NH – The Governor’s Advisory Commission on Intermodal Transportation (GACIT) held a public hearing on Monday regarding the Department of Transportation plan for a statewide toll hike.

Senate President Chuck Morse (R-Salem), Senate Transportation Committee Chairman Regina Birdsell (R-Hampstead), Senator Kevin Avard (R-Nashua) and Senator Andy Sanborn (R-Bedford) issued the following statements after attending the hearing and speaking in opposition.

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