Updates on the Delusional

Last week, the NH House had a marathon 2-day voting session that dealt with 500 bills. The sessions began at 9 am. On Thursday (day 2) afternoon the Sergeant–at-Arms was instructed to lock everyone in, in order to keep a quorum. The House sessions are live-streamed, so I was able to watch some of the evening sessions. A stranger to NH would never have realized that NH has serious infrastructure problems, including 300+ bridges on the red list for structural impairments. They would never have known that our tax system is a disaster, causing young people to flee our state, because they can’t afford to buy houses – and old people to flee the state, because they can’t afford to keep their houses. That stranger would have thought that guns and abortion were the most pressing issues in our state.

There were a dozen abortion related bills. Not one of them was written by anyone with even a scrid of medical competency, but all were written by men. These are men who bray about the “nanny state” when it comes to their own lives. Nanny state good for women. By far, the most disturbing speaker was Rep. Warren Groen from Rochester. Readers may recall Groen from the red tailed hawk incident last year. He was the one who felt compelled to give 4^th graders visiting the legislature a lesson in abortion from the House floor. Listening to him describe abortion, even with flat affect, it seemed that for him, this is a near pornographic turn on. It was disturbing.

As we know, the NH Republican party has been hijacked by a roiling mix of Tea Partiers, Free Staters, and John Birchers. The results of this takeover are increasingly obvious, as we see in the events of the last two weeks. State Representative Kyle Tasker, a Republican from Nottingham, was arrested recently for trying to solicit sex from a 14 year old over the internet. The 14 year old proved to be a cop. Tasker sent her texts to set up a meeting while he was at a committee hearing. He served on the Child and Family Law committee. His house was full of drugs and guns, and he was armed when he went to meet up with the 14 year old. Would he have forced himself on her at gunpoint? We will never know. Most of his colleagues in the legislature were appalled by his actions, but Rep. Max Abramson, a Free Stater from Seabrook has repeatedly insisted that Tasker was set up. One wonders how the voters in Abramson’s district feel about his public defense of a 30 year old man trying to arrange sex with a 14 year old. Before he could be expelled, Tasker resigned. There were plenty of warning signs that he was a loose cannon, but they were ignored, and now everyone claims horrified surprise.

Next, Jerry DeLemus, (former GOP candidate for “Constitutional Sheriff”) from Rochester, was arrested by the feds for his role in the Bundy ranch debacle.  It seems the feds didn’t take kindly to a bunch of armed yahoos pointing their weapons at law enforcement, and finally decided to prosecute. There is much bleating from his supporters about “federal land grabs.” Cliven Bundy is a moocher who wasn’t paying the extraordinarily low grazing fees he is assessed for allowing his cattle to graze on public lands. That was the issue and it had nothing to do with land grabs, or Jerry DeLemus, for that matter. He seized the opportunity to ride out to the Bundy ranch with his sniper rifle, which he stopped to have sighted along the way. We are now expected to believe he was there as a “peacemaker.” There are 9 federal charges against DeLemus, who also went out to the Bundy occupation of the Malheur Wildlife Sanctuary in Oregon. Where there are guns and cameras, there is Jerry DeLemus. His wife, Susan, is a state representative, who recently was in the news for referring to Pope Francis as “the anti-Christ.” Rochester.

Republican State Representative Don Leeman of Rochester (where else?) moved out of the ward that elected him to the legislature, in December. He went back to the House in January and told no one. On February 9, he voted in the NH primary – in his old district – the one he didn’t live in any more. That was noticed. An inquiry began. The House Legislative Administration committee found that he didn’t live in his district any longer; therefore he wasn’t qualified to be a representative any longer. Leeman sauntered in with a note from his new landlord, saying he was moving back into the district he’d vacated months earlier, and Speaker Jasper allowed him to stay. This is the very same Republican Party that continually howls about voter fraud. Yet (as we’ve seen before) when one of their own commits it they get whiplash looking the other way. The Union Leader congratulated Leeman on keeping his seat. The NH Republican Party has forfeited the right to ever say another word about voter fraud in this state.

There are signs of an attempt by residents of some towns to stem the tide of reactionary politics. The towns of Rollinsford, Bow, and Dunbarton all voted against eliminating town meeting in favor of SB2. Rollinsford and Dunbarton both voted against a tax cap. Dunbarton voted to hire a part time clerk. Last year they eliminated the position, and everyone in town got a hard lesson in the reality that there’s a lot more to the job of the town clerk than motor vehicle registrations. My favorite town meeting story this year comes from Dunbarton, where a state legislator was running unopposed for the position of town moderator. The town had a candidate’s night on the Saturday before town meeting. The candidate appeared with his sidearm attached. A voter asked if he’d be moderating with a gun, and he said he always wears it. The people in attendance decided they did not want a moderator at the podium with a gun, so they drafted another candidate, and launched a write-in campaign. The write-in candidate won. JR Hoell lost while running unopposed.

As for what’s going on nationally – President Trump is certainly what we deserve, though I don’t think we’re going to like it very much.

published as an op-ed in the March 18 issue of the Conway Daily Sun newspaper

Koch Front Group Wants to Purchase Seat in Rockingham Dist. 13

On Tuesday, April 28, there is a special election for the NH House in Rockingham District 13 (Hampstead and Kingston). 

The candidates are Democrat Carol Croteau of Kingston and Republican Dennis Green of Hampstead. 

Carol has a candidate Facebook page, where she lists her background:

Kingston Municipal Budget Committee-current
Kingston Planning Board-Alternate -current
Kingston Conservation Commission 2010-2013, Alternate- current
30 years Community Service
20 year Business Experience
Co-Founder of Bully Free NH
Board Member of Family Mediation and Juvenile Services

Dennis has a candidate Facebook page too, where he refers to himself as a politician. 
He doesn't list his background, just this:

My name is Dennis Green and I am asking for your support in Hampstead and Kingston's upcoming special election for State Representative. I am a conservative who believes in limited government, prudent spending and local control when it comes to our school districts. My constituents can count on me to support a balanced budget and to oppose any sales or income tax. 

That's just a snippet. The entire "about me" is just as nonspecific and filled with ideological talking points. We don't know if he's ever done any volunteer work in his community. He says he's been self employed, but he doesn't tell us the name of his business. Usually candidates are eager to give voters information. Not this guy. 

A broader search turned up his personal Facebook page. He has privacy controls set so that the casual viewer can't see anything - anything but his friends list. And he has friends! They include: Koch subsidiary Greg Moore - the guy who runs the NH chapter of Americans for Prosperity; Yvonne Dean-Bailey - the young woman who attends Mt. Holyoke in MA, but wants to (with Koch help) be the state rep from Rockingham Dist. 32; John Burt - the legislator who berated 4th graders about hot dogs from the House floor; Free Staters Carol McGuire and Shem Kellog; DJ Bettencourt - disgraced former NH House Majority Leader under Speaker William O'Brien; and the former speaker himself, State Rep. Bill O'Brien. 

Carol has received mostly individual small donations. Her largest donation was $500 from the Rockingham County Democratic Committee. She's raised $4,200.

Dennis has raised $2,050. His biggest donation was $1,000 from O'Brien's House Republican Victory PAC. It's important to note that it's the O'Brien wing of the NH GOP that supports Green. This is the furthest right fringe crowd - those who bray about Agenda 21, Sharia Law, and MOAR GUNZ! 

The Koch Brothers want to see Dennis Green get elected. Americans for Prosperity has been canvassing and making phone calls in this district. The guy doesn't seem to have any local support - but he has the support of outside special interest groups who are willing to spend all kinds of money to buy a seat in the legislature for Mr. Unknown Dennis Green. 

If you have friends in Hampstead or Kingston, urge them to get out and vote tomorrow - and to vote against special interest groups taking control of our legislature. 

NH Republicans in Disarray

We are approximately 10 months away from the NH Primary and the fun has begun. Candidates are visiting the state, some on a fairly consistent basis. They’re confining their energy to the bottom half of the state – as usual. They don’t bother much with the top half until they have to massage us for votes.

The Tea Party sprang into action in 2007. They espoused a sort of glibertarian philosophy; a lot of hard line fringe GOP mixed with some aspects of libertarianism. A lot of this was supported by low information voters who were willing to bellow about taxes, but wanted big gummint to leave their Medicare alone.

Political activists used the Tea Party (and the huge money behind it) to create a schism in the Republican Party, on both the state and national level. The Tea Party has bonded with the liberty crowd. In NH that includes Birchers and Free Staters. We’ve seen the old school Republicans in some areas forced out of office by libertea types. Nowhere is the divide more apparent than in the NH House, where the old school Republicans are in constant conflict with the libertea crowd, led by former Speaker Bill O’Brien. They’ve been a constant and deliberate source of obstruction and delay during House voting sessions. For months the libertea crowd has been carping about how Speaker Shawn Jasper (a conservative Republican) is really a DINO (Democrat in name only) because he was shrewd enough to use Democrats to help him win the speakership. In spite of all the acrimony, somehow Jasper and O’Brien kissed and made up (don’t dwell on the graphics of that) and passed a thoroughly odious budget that reflects the desire of the libertea crowd to “take the state back.” All the way to 1776, it seems.

This weekend, the Republican Party is having the “First in the Nation Leadership Summit” at the Crowne Plaza in Nashua. Both declared candidates, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and Marco Rubio will be present. Also expected are likely candidates Bobby Jindal, Jeb Bush, Carly Fiorina, the Donald, Chris Christie, Mike Huckabee, Rick Perry, and Lindsey Graham.  Other speakers include John Kasich, Joe Scarborough, Frank Lutz, Scott Brown, Fred Barnes, Betsy McCaughey and Kelly Ayotte.

This is a two-day event that is already sold out. They have a slick website, where one can look at the agenda, the speakers, and the various events, including a focus group with Luntz and a media panel that includes Drew Cline of the Union Leader. There was ever any doubt about the Union Leader’s loyalty to the GOP – but it’s nice to see it there in black and white. 

The NH Young Republicans will be having their somewhat controversial convention during this summit. It seems that all of a sudden, at the last minute, applications for 70 new dues paying members of the NH Young Republicans appeared, funded primarily by GOP operative David Chesley, who is going to be Rand Paul’s NH campaign director. This is all about influencing who will become the next chair of the organization.

The day after this Republican shindig is the Summit of Grassroots Activists by the 603 Alliance. It’s at the same venue, and includes at least one of the same speakers, former NY Lieutenant Governor Betsy McCaughey. McCaughey was the lieutenant governor during George Pataki’s first term. He ditched her when he ran for his second term. There are only two female speakers listed at their event, both imported from out of state, McCaughey and Sharron Angle, failed US Senate candidate from Nevada.

From the 603 Alliance website, “A group of conservative activists joined together to create an organization---a movement---an alliance--- of like-minded constitutionalists and conservatives with the goal of impacting who wins the New Hampshire First in the Nation Primary.” That’s exactly how it is written and punctuated.

It’s the libertea crowd. The names of the Steering Committee are listed, but not much else. There’s a press release promising that this event is going to produce a loud bang, much like the shot heard round the world, on the day of their summit. The loud bang potential isn’t obvious from the website, which is dark, unattractive, and rife with florid rhetoric. Given how many Free Staters claim to be in the IT field, one would think they could have come up with something more appealing.

Their speaker list: Betsy McCaughey, Sharron Angle, Andrew Hemingway (former NH gubernatorial candidate), NH State Rep. Bill O’Brien, Aaron Day, who is Chair of the Republican Liberty Alliance and moved to NH as a member of the Free State Project. He’s also the Chairman of the Atlas Society, a group of folks who never grew out of their adolescent obsession with the fiction of Ayn Rand. NH State Rep. Dan Itse who fancies himself a constitutional expert, libertea blogger Mike Rogers, former NH GOP Chair Jack Kimball – businessman and UN conspiracy theorist, and Jason Sorens the founder of the Free State Project.

The Free State Project announced it was moving to NH in 2003, because NH was such a fine, liberty loving small state. They’ve given many reasons over the years, but all are variations on that tune. The tune was meant to distract, something the FSP is very skilled at. They talk about how peaceful and peace loving they are all the time, to distract us from the fact that they’re armed miscreants, coming to NH with the intention of taking over and dismantling our state government. They’ve told us for years that they aren’t political – when the opposite is so obvious. And yes, they told us they chose NH because it was so free. Horse hockey. They chose NH because of the primary. This is their big bid for influencing the primary process. This is the FSP coming out party.

It will be fascinating to see how the schism works this weekend, and how many of the GOP leadership summit speakers and participants hang around to be part of the 603 Alliance Summit. My money is on Rand Paul.

Published as an op-ed in the April 17 edition of the Conway Daily Sun newspaper

Two Free Staters Debate the Merits of Cop Killing

Adam Kokesh and Christopher Cantwell are both Free Staters. Oh, sure - Cantwell was kicked out of the FSP last September, in a big public show, but that's really all it was. He's still their pal. Ian Freeload of Free Keene is constantly imploring Cantwell to move to Keene. The expunging was a charade, aimed at showing the public what nice peaceful folk the FSP are, while they were in the middle of the Concord Bearcat incident, with FSP President Carla Gericke howling outrage and victimhood every day.

As readers may recall, the Concord police chief had filled out a grant form for a Lenco Bearcat citing the potential domestic terrorist threat of the Sovereign Citizens, Occupiers and the Free State Project. The last thing the FSP wanted was to have Cantwell's rhetoric go public to buttress the chief's argument. Cantwell had to be silenced, so that the FSP could continue to spread their bilge about how peaceful they are. It's unfortunate that the complicit media never seems to question how real a commitment to peace a group of armed invaders might actually possess. 

This is hard to listen to. The comment section is painful to read. But you need to hear this discussion about when it's okay to start killing cops, in order to end "the state." This is the real Free State Project, folks. Not the clownchildren chalking on sidewalks in Keene. People who are willing to start shooting cops. Would they stop at cops? I'm pretty sure they'd be willing to shoot anyone who disagrees with their agenda. That's where they're likely to start. 

Live Free or Die on Someone Else's Terms

The 2014 legislative session has begun. This week marked the first day of voting. In the NH House, this meant beginning with dealing with some old business, including possible overrides of three bills that were vetoed over the summer by Governor Hassan. One of those bills was HB 403, a bill to establish a study committee to examine end of life issues. Hassan’s statement on the veto essentially said that we have great advanced directives, and therefore the study committee isn’t necessary.

Governor Hassan has a son who has developmental disabilities. The DD community and their advocates have serious concerns about end of life issues and assisted suicide. People who have developmental disabilities may experience indifferent medical treatment, especially in hospitals, where they are sometimes regarded as something less than human. Their fears of being fodder for euthanasia are not unfounded.

I don’t think Hassan’s (very legitimate) fears should determine our public policy. This was a bill for a study committee. A study committee would involve a lot of different views from all over the spectrum. It would be a big and potentially rich conversation - if it were allowed to happen. It’s great that we have strong advanced directives in NH, but that still means dying on someone else’s terms.

Death is something we apparently aren’t adult enough to discuss or plan for. We have a whole language of euphemisms created to avoid and disguise it. No one dies any more. They “pass away,” or simply “pass.” In a world of sophisticated medical treatment, we need very much to have a big  conversation about how we die, and what our rights in that process are.

Unfortunately, the ability to have thoughtful discussions becomes less likely with each passing day. A look at the comment section of any online WMUR story provides an illustration of the level of public discourse present in our state. The study committee would have been able to transcend that. In fact, the study committee would have provided Governor Hassan and other DD advocates with a platform to educate the public on their concerns, and the awful history of how people with developmental disabilities have been treated. I wish she’d chosen to trust the process.

The House voted not to override the governor’s veto, on a vote of 218-124. Thanks to the shiny new voting system in the House chambers, roll call votes are posted almost automatically on the General Court website. A look at the way folks voted was interesting. There were very clearly those who voted not to overturn the veto out of partisan loyalty to the governor. Just as clearly, there were those who voted to override the veto as a statement of partisan opposition to anything the governor does. There were also those who voted to override the veto for thoughtful reasons. I don’t believe that Gene Chandler or Karen Umberger voted for the override out of sheer partisan mean spiritedness.

The votes from the Free Staters and their allies were also illustrative. These are folks who love to lecture us about freedom and gummint interference, so one might expect them to have been united in their votes to override the veto, and have the conversation about getting Big Gummint out of our personal decisions. One would be sadly disappointed.

Free State Representatives Laura Jones, Carol McGuire, Keith Murphy, Calvin Pratt, Emily Sandblade, and Mark Warden all voted nay on overriding the veto. They love lofty theoretical discussions about freedom and liberty, but when it came right down to the freedom to have a discussion, these liberty lovers voted to shut it down. They’re okay with the state telling you how you get to die.  

Free State Representatives Michael Garcia, Dan McGuire, Tim O’Flaherty, Joel Winters, and Michael Sylvia voted to override the veto, which is consistent with Free State philosophy.

Some of the FSP’s loudest allies voted inconsistently as well. Representatives Burt, Rideout, Itse, and Lambert all voted not to override the veto. George Lambert is so concerned with freedom that he wants to eliminate sugar packets from restaurants, to free you from the awful tyranny of sanitation – but he doesn’t think a study committee on end of life issues is relevant to freedom.

As for those who voted nay out of loyalty to the governor – you disappoint me.

Should someone with a terminal illness be allowed to opt out when they choose? I vote yes for that. The late David Emerson wanted to die about 6 months before he actually did. He should have been able to make that decision. Whose body is it, anyhow? Whose life is it? We ought to dive in and discuss all of the fears, doubts, religious beliefs, and hear all of the pros and cons. Put it all on the table and talk about it – all of it - with respect for every position. If only we could.

“I know of no country in which there is so little independence of mind and real freedom of discussion as in America.”  Alexis de Tocqueville

© sbruce 2014   Bi-weekly column published in the Conway Daily Sun newspaper. 

MOAR GUNZ!

The annual state-by-state health rankings are in from the United Health Foundation. NH is in 5^th place nationally when it comes to the overall health of its residents. This places NH in the middle of the top ten, which is surely nothing to sneer at. That’s the message in every NH mainstream media story about the health rankings thus far. What the NH media isn’t pointing out is that in 2012, NH was in third place. In 2011 we were in second place. Fifth place isn’t terrible, but to get there we had to drop two places, something that one might think is worthy of media mention.

That kind of slippage is the new normal in NH. Our health isn’t as good; our child poverty rate has risen at what should be considered an alarming pace. Our roads and bridges are in terrible condition, our state parks are in increasing disrepair, some of our highway rest stops are still closed, and our telecommunications infrastructure is an embarrassment. Poverty, hunger, and homelessness are on the rise. But hey, NH has some of the least restrictive gun laws in the nation and THAT, my friends, is what is really important. So important that at least a dozen gun bills have been filed for the 2014 legislative session.  Perhaps if we all go out and wave our guns at one of the hundreds of red listed bridges in our state, they will magically repair themselves.

NH has never been a forward thinking state, and now we’re sliding backward. Today’s NH GOP has been taken over by Tea Partiers and libertarians, who think MOAR GUNZ is the answer to everything. They hate planning of any sort, and are actively trying to prevent it on county and regional levels. The libertarians don’t believe in public anything, or that the state should be in charge of roads and bridges. The private sector would do a better job. The Free Staters have yet to volunteer to fix a bridge or repair a highway to show us how well this will work in the future, when they succeed in transforming us into Aynrandshire. Surely a network of differently maintained toll roads will be a real asset when one is attempting to attract business to the state.

Tourism is the #2 business in New Hampshire. Our Fish and Game Dept. is in trouble financially because of our regressive tax structure. Rather than address that, Republican Senator Bob Odell has filed a bill that would require canoe and kayak owners to pay an annual $10 fee for using their non-polluting vessels on our rivers and lakes. The best part of this (from a GOP standpoint) is that the bill (sponsored by a Republican) is being blamed on Democrats. This is right up there with last session’s bill sponsored by GOP Senator Nancy Stiles that would have forced senior citizens to buy a season’s pass each year to use our state parks. Currently, NH residents over the age of 65 are granted free access to state parks. This bill would have initiated a $20 fee for a senior citizen pass. Unfortunately, the NH GOP is far from being ashamed of the lengths that they will go to (gouging old people and canoe owners) to prevent NH’s 27,000 millionaires from paying their fair share of taxes.

NH Republicans made sure that there would be no state exchange system set up to handle the ACA. Now they complain about how things are working (or not working) without state exchanges. The states that created their own exchange networks early on are doing quite well with the ACA. NH Republicans also torpedoed the expansion of Medicaid that would have provided basic insurance coverage to some 50,000 low-wage workers in our state.  This is the kind of thinking that caused NH to drop to 5^th place nationally in terms of overall health. NH’s health ranking has always been a matter of pride for our state, and one that is used as an enticement for companies and families to move here. The Free Staters use it in their advertisements to entice more anarchists to move here to take over the state. Given how many states have embraced expanded Medicaid, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that NH’s numbers will continue to be on a downward spiral while other states will see improved health numbers.

We don’t care about the health of our residents. (Though to be fair, Representatives Neal Kurk and Laurie Sanborn do worry about subsidizing health care for NH’s substantial population of low-income yacht dwellers.) We don’t care about the health of our highways, roads, dams, and bridges. We don’t care about the health of our telecommunications infrastructure. We have a long history of not caring about education. NH ranks a firm 50^th in the nation in state spending on our university system. What do we care about? Spending no money, and MOAR GUNZ!

Recent studies have also shown that NH is not bouncing back from the Great Recession as well or as quickly as our fellow New England states. We have no one but ourselves to blame. NH has failed to invest in the future for decades, and it’s begun to marginalize us and hurt our economy. Nothing short of a disaster is likely to turn that around. If one ever doubts the accuracy of the nickname “granite state” one has only to spend a Wednesday at the NH House of Representatives listening to floor speeches.

© sbruce 2013. Published as a bi-weekly column in the Conway Daily Sun newspaper. 

Elections and Eulogies

New Hampshire cities had municipal elections last week. After the Great Bearcat Media Event in Concord, a number of Free Staters decided to run for the City Council. Given that the Bearcat was a done deal, running on the anti-Bearcat platform wasn’t the best strategy. Most revealed a woeful ignorance of what the job entailed. They all lost.

City and town elections should be nonpartisan – they should be about electing the best person for the job. The key word there is “should.” We all know that partisan politics and ideology sometimes creep in. Former state Republican Party Chairperson, Fergus Cullen, ran for the Dover City Council. Despite billing himself as a humble small businessman (he failed to disclose that he’s the executive director of a far right think tank in Connecticut) he lost. Badly. Cullen has written about the dangers inherent in what the NH Republican Party has become, and now he’s experienced what he predicted.

In addition to the municipal elections, Nashua had a special election in Ward 8 for a state representative. It was an ugly business. Republican Peter Silva (former House Majority leader) had some unattractive things to say about his opposing candidate, Latha Mangipudi. Speaking to the Nashua City Republican Committee, Silva remarked that upon coming out of the polls on primary day, “I thought I was in New Delhi,” referring to the large turnout of Indian American voters. He told his fellow Republicans  “they’d be coming out of the woodwork” to vote for Mangipudi. That effort to rebrand the GOP to be friendlier to women and minorities sure is coming along nicely. Silva refused to apologize, whined about political correctness, and generally dug himself a deeper hole every time he opened his mouth. He lost.

That wasn’t the end of the ugliness in Ward 8. Inside the polling place, Karen Thoman, Secretary of the City Republican Committee was videotaping voters. Apparently she had permission from the City Clerk, who ran it by unnamed “state officials.” (One hopes that this is being investigated.) As one would expect, there was some backlash from angry voters. At least one called her a Nazi. She piously defended herself by stating that she didn’t videotape children. She has standards!  That this videotaping took place ONLY in Ward 8 underscores the sheer nastiness of this special election. The day will come when Republicans want minority votes. (HINT: this isn’t the way to get them.) This kind of conduct only serves to continue the erosion of confidence in our electoral system.

Alcoa stock prices have been on the rise this week, thanks to former state GOP Chairman Jack Kimball. Kimball sent out an email to 50 of his pals warning them that the UN was invading NH. Apparently his daughter saw a convoy of about 50 trucks on the highway. From the email: “It consisted of a wide range of military vehicles, many of them white and nondescript and unmarked." He said they later saw another group of around 10 to 12 18-wheelers, also nondescript and driven by military personnel,” Kimball told the Portsmouth Patch, “We’re on the watch for stuff like this.” The fact that white UN trucks have UN painted on them in big black letters was lost on Mr. Kimball. Turns out, those frightening white trucks belonged to medics from NH, Maine, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island National Guard units, who had been in Maine conducting training exercises. Ooops. Jack had to send out a retraction to his followers.

Kimball also told Patch, "We're all concerned about what's going on with Obama. We've all been talking about what's happening. We've got Chinese troops arriving in Hawaii... and Kansas. There’s a lot of things going on that are very suspicious. There are a lot of people that are very vigilant.

“We” appears to be Kimball’s fellow members of the shiny haberdashery club. Some cursory research reveals that the Chinese troops in Hawaii are there taking part in disaster relief exercises. They’re simulating post-earthquake relief operations. This sort of exchange is an annual exercise that is part of a security cooperation agreement established in 1998. I can find no reputable sources confirming the invasion of Kansas by Chinese troops. Perhaps they’re sneaking in, undercover, in UN trucks.

In other news, NH has lot a couple of the good guys to cancer in the last 2 weeks. Marty Capodice died at home in Concord. Marty was a retired research analyst with the NH Employment Security Economic and Labor Market Information Bureau. He was also a long time house manager at the Capital Center for the Arts. Marty was married to Arnie Arnesen, who can be heard discussing national politics and events on radio in at least 4 states. Marty was a truly happy man – he loved his family, his friends, and his community. He could convince even the most Eeyore amongst us (me) that they could do anything, give them a bear hug, and send them on their way, feeling as if maybe Marty was right. A big loss.

District 1 Executive Councilor Ray Burton died this week. Ray served the North Country in that capacity for 35 years. Since the council districts are based on population, Ray’s district covered 2/3 of the state. It’s a stupidly huge district, but Ray managed to be everywhere at once, handing out combs and remembering the names and faces of everyone he ever met. Ray was a staunch advocate for the oft-forgotten northern part of our state. He was a Republican, but not an ideologue, and he always returned my phone calls. It has also been mildly amusing to watch all of the people who were howling for his resignation 8 years ago offering up accolades now that he’s gone. As a tribute to Ray, I hope we can all agree that no one else can do what he did. District One should be divided into at least 2 parts. Ray had decades to figure it out, something the next person will not. Creating 2 manageable districts would keep the Council at an odd number (no tie votes), and ensure quality representation for the biggest part of the state.