On March 14^th, the Town of Raymond will be holding its annual vote on warrant articles and open elected positions.   There have been some extremely interesting town meetings and deliberative sessions with the school board, the selectmen and a candidates’ night. During some of these meetings it was brought up that there are over $2 million in unpaid property taxes.

Raymond is a small town with a little over 10,000 people. They collected over $5 million in property taxes alone last year. It seems outrageous that such a small town as such a huge backlog of unpaid property taxes. It adds up to almost the total they are collection each year from those residents who actually pay. During the candidate night, selectman Jack Barnes claimed that the town has to have compassion when it comes to collecting of back taxes. He’s right. Towns do indeed have discretion if people have temporary circumstances that are causing a hardship. Is it really possible that there are $2 million worth of hardships?

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

When former selectman and candidate for the board William Hoitt addressed the unpaid tax issue, he stated that there are animal hides buried all over the place in Raymond and that’s one reason they don’t follow through on collecting taxes. Hoitt maintains the he actually knows where some of this contaminated property is and if a property owner doesn’t pay taxes and the town was to take over their home for that reason, the town would then have to pay to clean up the contamination. No one at the meeting seemed even a little taken aback by this horrifying statement.

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“…the main emphasis of NH Speaker of the House Bill O’Brien, that his main role was to devolve power from Concord and send it back to the citizens and next level down of government and to individual citizens:”

Now, President Trump is sympatico with Bill?  Liberal heads are exploding (and then immediately self-composting) as Trump said the following at the Governors Dinner last night (emphasis mine, reformatted):

“We’re going to give you back a lot of the powers that have been taken away from states and great people and great governors, and you can control it better than the federal government because you’re right on top of it,” Trump said. The president delivered a speech at the National Governors Association meeting on Monday.

He explained that more states needed to compete for the best solutions around the country, citing the importance of citizens holding their state governors accountable.

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I mentioned this yesterday – a bit more info (reformatted, emphasis mine):

SAN DIEGO — U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Friday that it plans to start awarding contracts by mid-April for President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall with Mexico, signaling that he is aggressively pursuing plans to erect “a great wall” along the 2,000-mile border.

The agency said it will request bids on or around March 6 and that companies would have to submit “concept papers” to design and build prototypes by March 10, according to a website for federal contractors. The field of candidates will be narrowed by March 20 and finalists must submit offers with their proposed costs by March 24. The president told the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday that construction will start “very soon” and is “way, way, way ahead of schedule.”

Like him or not, you have to admit that with anything that he can do within the strictures of established Law, he’s keeping his promises and doing it quickly.  So the bids start in about a week – that’s only 6 weeks into his Presidency.

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“The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small,but whether it works — whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified.” – President Obama, Inauguration (2009)

Yeah, this is still Obama’s EPA with Pruitt installed just this past week. In that they can do what they want with our tax money, as, well, because they are the EPA. Actually, it seems to be Fed wide which is why Trump is not liked (yeah, I know, way understatement) with his promise to take down the Administrative or Deep State.  Especially so with the EPA, given how hard they lobbied Congress NOT to allow Pruitt to become the EPA Administrator and with stories about how they are going to do anything they can to stymie the new Administration’s policies to rein them in.

And with this, these EPA employees have just handed Trump and Pruitt their own hang-nooses (emphasis mine, reformatted):

EPA Employees Used Gov’t Purchase Card to Spend $14,985 on Fitness Memberships
Purchases did not comply with any of the internal controls that were tested

Environmental Protection Agency employees used their government purchase cards to spend $14,985 on fitness memberships, according to an audit by the inspector general of the agency. With the goal of assessing the risk of illegal, improper, and erroneous purchases made on the EPA’s purchase card, the auditors evaluated 18 transactions totaling $48,345 and found that none of them complied with any of the internal controls that were tested.

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“When somebody says a (good) guy with a gun can stop a (bad) guy with a gun, we remind them that’s there’s absolutely no evidence that supports that theory and that all of the evidence is actually contrary to that.” – Moms Demand Action Florida director Michelle Gajda, in Group fights gun proposals with two opposing sides in documentary [via wtsp.com].

You know, we can keep this up all day long….good guy with a gun stops a bad guy:

Police: Neighbor intervenes in argument, shoots man about to hit woman with brick

A neighbor with a gun intervened and shot one of two people arguing in the west-central valley Monday night. A man and a woman were arguing on the sidewalk outside a home near West Washington Avenue and North Jones Boulevard before the man began fighting her, Metropolitan Police Department Lt. CJ Jenkins said. The neighbor heard the fight, went outside, saw the man pick up a brick and raise it as if to hit the woman, he said.

The neighbor then took out his handgun and

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“but where and by whom are the parent going to be held responsible and accountable for causing this problem in the first place?”

Or is it trying to have it both ways? Conservative paper, Progressive reporter?  Bonus is that an Officer of the Court is lying (MAN, there’s a lot of that going around lately).  Headline for a piece (reformatted, emphasis mine) by Kevin Landrigan:

Trump order has undocumented immigrants in Manchester on edge

MANCHESTER – As President Donald Trump’s administration spells out the terms of its upgraded crackdown against illegal immigrants, those living here who are undocumented say they have become even more careful about contact with the public.

Illegal alien is the legal term of art.  If you were not born here and entered into the country without following our Rule of Law, you are illegally here.  “Undocumented” is the Progressive / Open Border crowd’s way of “softening” and redirecting attention away from the legal guilt of these people.  “Undocumented” implies “oh, it’s ok to be here – it is just a simple paperwork issue.  Bullcrap – it’s propaganda and the editor for this piece knows it.

So what side ARE you on, UL?

And yes, these illegal aliens SHOULD be on edge and they SHOULD be looking over their collective shoulders – if you have not bothered to follow our pathway(s) to come here legally, you should be scared – you know you are here wrongly.  Let’s also look at the BIAS in this article – not ONCE is there mention of the time and cost that legal immigrants (LEGAL) have expended to be here and not one quote from a legal immigrant in the piece.

But of course the lawyers are here to obfuscate and make the pitiful calls for empathy, understanding – and for ignoring the Law:

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If you have not been following the economics 101 lesson produced and directed by Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney, please pay attention. Kenney and his merry band of  Municipal thieves attempted to raise revenue with a massive wholesale tax increase on sugary beverages. They sold it as a way to fund pre-k and public park restoration. But it’s not going as the planners planned.

Two months into the city’s sweetened-beverage tax, supermarkets and distributors are reporting a 30 percent to 50 percent drop in beverage sales and are planning for layoffs.

One of the city’s largest distributors says it will cut 20 percent of its workforce in March, and an owner of six ShopRite stores in Philadelphia says he expects to shed 300 workers this spring.

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He’s the Army guy that just left his squadmates while in Afghanistan to seek out the Taliban.  He’s also the guy that Obama and crew boosted as being a hero to the point of Obama hosting his parents in the Rose Garden.  And he’s also the guy who is now facing charges of desertion in the face of the enemy.

From hero to zero – strike 1.  His lawyers appealed to Obama near the end of his Presidency to please pardon Bowe and got ignored – strike 2.  And the latest is that his lawyers are claiming that because TRUMP, the case is too prejudicial to continue.  Er, strike

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I’ve been getting some decent traffic from Facebook, but nothing compares to an article I wrote about Syrian Refugees coming to New Hampshire. If you want someone’s attention, write about illegal immigration or refugee resettlement. The jobs and economy narratives are good too, but I think we all know why Mr. Trump won the White House.

Starbucks didn’t get the memo.

(Yahoo! Finance)  Starbucks’ brand has taken a beating since the company announced plans to hire 10,000 refugees worldwide in the next five years in response to Donald Trump’s executive order intended to prevent refugees from entering the US. 

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