Also on today’s menu:
‘Claremont III?’
Another Rate Increase
Many supporters of former president Donald Trump — and even people who did not support him — were viewing the hearings by the Select Committee To Investigate The January 6 Attack On The United States Capitol as showmanship without much purpose other than to distract people from what they saw as more pressing matters. Here’s what Batya Ungar-Sargon, the deputy opinion editor of Newsweek and the author of “Bad News: How Woke Media Is Undermining Democracy,” had to say this morning:
The gross spectacle of that day [Jan. 6] wasn’t some secret scandal that, like Watergate, required deep reporting to uncover the truth. We had all watched it. Anyone who wanted to relive it could stream the documentary on HBO. …
I had thought: January 6 was one of the most covered days in American history. What more can we possibly learn?
The answer is: a lot.
… At one time, Trump spent his rallies talking about jobs and NAFTA and the abandonment of the working class by a contemptuous elite. They stole everything from you, he told his supporters, over and over. The January 6 Committee hearings are revealing in great detail who Trump became in the wake of his loss (or maybe always was): a man singularly focused on a new message. They stole everything from me.
We also learned about President Trump’s callous disregard for the safety of his vice president, Mike Pence. As the rioters at the capitol chanted “Hang Mike Pence” and erected a gallows outside the Capitol, President Trump said “Mike deserves it,” according to Tuesday’s testimony by Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows. Trump fanned the flames by tweeting about Pence’s cowardice. “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!” the President tweeted. Hutchinson was horrified. “As an American, I was disgusted. It was unpatriotic, it was un-American,” she testified.
I’m glad I know about that, and I’m glad I know how brave Vice President Pence was to go ahead with certifying the election, knowing that he’d been abandoned by the president, who should have been a bulwark standing between him and the mob, but instead was an accelerant to their rage. …
January 6 was a horrifying day. But the hearings have exposed more than just more awful details. They’ve revealed the courage of people like [Rusty] Bowers [Speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives]. To watch the hearings is to remember that those better angels Lincoln talked about are a constant choice — one many good Americans made even as a braying mob was demanding fealty to false gods.
‘Claremont III?’
A lawsuit filed against the state in Grafton County Superior Court, by residential and commercial property owners, claims New Hampshire has failed to meet the 1997 Claremont II decision in which the state Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional to use local property taxes with varying rates to meet the state’s obligation to provide an adequate education to students.
Andru Volinsky, who was the lead attorney with John Tobin for the original Claremont education lawsuit, noted that the new lawsuit takes aim at the disparities in property tax rates, the inequities in the collection of the statewide education property tax (SWEPT), and the use of negative local school property tax rates to avoid paying the statewide education tax.
The statewide average for the local education property tax rate was $11.33 per $1,000 of equalized valuation for the 2020-2021 school year. Pemi-Baker towns have tax rates that vary from a high of $15.25 per $1,000 in Campton to lows of $3.33 per $1,000 in Waterville Valley and $6.90 in Holderness. Plymouth, where plaintiff Steve Rand lives and owns property, has a tax rate of $13.69 per $1,000.
Another Rate Increase
The New Hampshire Electric Cooperative has announced a rate increase, from 9.62 cents per kilowatt-hour to 16.98 cents per kWh, which will result in a $37.55 per month increase for the typical residential member using 500 kWh per month, or a 32 percent total bill increase. Members using 1,000 kWh per month will see a total bill increase of $75.09 per month.
Donald M. Kreis of the Office of the Consumer Advocate, pointed out that the Co-Op’s rate “will still be fully five cents cheaper than the rates Eversource and Unitil are implementing on the same day. We should look carefully about why that is, and consider making changes as a result.”
The rate increases are largely attributable to the rising cost of natural gas which is used to make electricity. The price of natural gas is nearly three times its cost at this time last year.
Café Chatter
Supreme Court: The “moral/religious” of Christianity is pushing the limits as to forcing that faith on women. Not all major regions agree. In fact, the Jewish religion says this:
Does Jewish law state that life begins at conception? No, life does not begin at conception under Jewish law. Sources in the Talmud note that the fetus is “mere water” before 40 days of gestation. Following this period, the fetus is considered a physical part of the pregnant individual’s body, not yet having life of its own or independent rights. The fetus is not viewed as separate from the parent’s body until birth begins and the first breath of oxygen into the lungs allows the soul to enter the body.
Does Jewish law assert that it is possible to murder a fetus? No, Jewish law does not consider a fetus to be alive. The Torah, Exodus 21:22-23, recounts a story of two men who are fighting and injure a pregnant woman, resulting in her subsequent miscarriage. The verse explains that if the only harm done is the miscarriage, then the perpetrator must pay a fine. However, if the pregnant person is gravely injured, the penalty shall be a life for a life as in other homicides. The common rabbinical interpretation of this verse is that the men did not commit murder and that the fetus is not a person. The primary concern is the well-being of the person who was injured.
As religion is each person’s own choice, it just makes it more important that we, as a country, do not allow the the line between church and state to become blurred.
— Candace Skurnik
Candidacy: Today, it’s with great pleasure that I am announcing my candidacy as a Republican State Representative for District 18. District 18 includes the towns of Enfield, Canaan, Grafton, Orange, Dorchester, Groton, Hebron, Bridgewater, Bristol, and Alexandria. For further details of who I am and what I stand for, please visit my website JohnSellersNH.com.
I live in Bristol with my wife Donna and together we raised nine kids and ten grandchildren. I served on the Bristol Budget Committee and currently on the Newfound Area School District Budget Committee. I am a USAF veteran. Once ran my own business, was also a business analyst for over 20 years (that just means I crunched a lot of numbers for many large businesses) and now retired.
I am very frugal when spending other people’s money. Because of hyperinflation every dollar means a lot more than it did a years ago. I am also about fighting for freedom, liberty and the constitutions of NH and the US. I remember the days when a kid could just be a kid having fun and learning to grow. When life was simpler because of less government intrusions. I believe we the people can make choices and take risks that are right for us, like making medical decisions (did you know you can buy many prescribed meds that we need a Dr. to OK over the counter in Mexico?), and protecting our kids. This is freedom.
There are many issues facing us today, like rising property taxes, over-reaching government/non-government organizations (NGO), public school systems, school choice allowances, abortion, gun rights, parental rights, cost of living, oil, fuel, electricity, gas/propane, food, and clothing. In the Declaration of Independence, it says, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Our leaders have lost sight of these words. This is where I will step up and work for you, to keep alive the hope of Life, Liberty and pursuit of Happiness and make sure you are heard.
We the people of New Hampshire are very unique among our neighbors in the other New England states. We are a strong, proud, independent, courageous people who live by our motto of LIVE FREE OF DIE. We don’t need government to care for us nor want government to dictate everything that we can and cannot do. Smaller government means less intrusions, restrictions, and taxes.
Vote for John Sellers in the primary on September 13th, and again on November 8th.
Email me at john@johnsellersnh.com or visit JohnSellersNH.com for more information and how you can help support my run for State Representative. We need all hands on deck to fight a battle of our life. NH may be the last stand for freedom, liberty and happiness. God help us and bless us.
— John Sellers
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