Keeping our distance but still sharing the lurv! Join Tammy and Carla, side-by-side from remote locations as we discuss the state of New Hampshire’s response to the COVID situation, some recommendations about what you can do with your time, and more. Looking for ways to improve your life during these trying times? Here are my 10 Steps YOU can take to IMPROVE your life. (I did them, and so can YOU!)
UPDATE 4/2: The contract with the Manchester Education Association was ratified last night without any public input. According to this Union Leader article, the contract includes salary increases of 1.5 percent in the first year and 3 percent pay hikes in years two and three, resulting in increases to teacher salary costs of $2,479,821 in school year 2021, and $2,217,380 in school year 2022. The total cost of the new contract to the district is pegged at $5,099,128 in school year 2021 and $2,812,977. Hopefully, in return, we will see a reduction in “excessive absenteeism.”
This chart is also informative for people who want to better understand why your property taxes WILL be going up in Manchester during this panic…
On Monday, I learned that the Manchester School Board will hold an emergency meeting tonight, Wednesday, April 1, 2020 to ratified the teachers’ contract that has been outstanding for more than 2 years. Tonight. Amidst everything else that is going on. Amidst many of us being forced to not work or get paid ourselves.
This “emergency meeting” will not be open to public comment. Given how much strain taxpayers are under right now, approving a contract that gives teachers raises without any community input seems… pretty tone-deaf to me.
Since the City is apparently applying the logic of Big Bad Gov, you know, the “you have to pass the contract to know what’s in the contract,” upon learning of the secret weekend negotiations, I immediately filed a Right-to-Know request with Superintendent Goldhardt and Mayor Craig.
Today, I received a response from the Superintendent, including the contract below. Impressive! WTG for open and transparent government. But then…
I had also found a copy of the Tentative Agreement online, but when I went back to use that link for this blog post, I noticed it is no longer available. So much for transparency to the public at large! Boo!
In any event, looks like there’s nothing we can do but sit back and take it. While you’re sitting at home and taking it, you might want to ponder how long that’s going to work for you!
You know how they say, “Fake it till you make it”? Well, two years ago, riddled with chronic fatigue, inflammation, at least fifty pounds overweight, drinking waaaaay too much vino, and generally not function at a peak-anything, I realized, you can only “fake” things up to a point before reality bites. Here’s the truth: You can’t fake health, and you can’t fake skills. And you need both to survive a Zombie Apocalypse…
Here are 10 steps I personally took to change my life for the better. Read about my transformation here, and then CHOOSE to make these changes, too! A better quality of life is within YOUR control. Write down what you want to achieve, and then… do it!
#1: Turn off your TV. The mainstream media wants your attention… it’s how they make money. They don’t care about your feelings. They don’t care about making you anxious. They don’t care about scaring you. In fact, the more anxious and scared you are, the more money they make. If you want to improve your life, the #1 thing you can do is TURN OFF THE NEWS. You can still watch all the shows you love, just make how you consume content a conscious choice, on YOUR terms. I turned off the news years ago, and it radically improved my life!
#2: Get healthy! If the possibility of getting sick in the future is now a “legitimate” reason to suppress millions of citizens’ rights, shutter and destroy businesses, and crash the economy, let’s use this time to get healthy. This means new routines! Get your blood work done to provide a benchmark against which to measure progress.
#3: Change your diet. I lost 65 lbs following an Ancestral/Keto lifestyle. I stopped eating carbs. I stopped eating sugar (except some dark chocolate from time to time, more in Times of Covid, obvi). If immediately eliminating carbs and sugar sounds too hard, try approaching this lifestyle change this way: Cook from scratch until this is over and eat every meal together at the table until then. This simple step will noticeably improve your life!
#4: Turn in early and get 8 hours of sleep. Our brains detox while we sleep, keeping us healthy and sane. Sleep deprivation is a recognized form of torture, so if you aren’t sleeping well, you are… literally *torturing* your body and mind, which might explain some of the serious health problems in this country. Honestly, if The Control Freaks really wanted to make an impact on the health of Americans, let’s get some SWAT police flash-banging down doors to ensure you are getting enough sleep! (Please don’t do this.)
#5: Try something new every day. Use this opportunity to foster curiosity–curiosity is the antidote to stupid. Take a virtual museum tour in a foreign country. Watch all the TED Talks about a subject you are passionate about (I want to learn more about the brain). Learn to cook or bake something new, a fun project you can do with the whole family!
#6: Learn to meditate. No time like the present! There are a slew of YouTube videos of guided meditations, or apps like Waking Up or Calm that can be downloaded straight to your phone. Meditation is something you can even start practicing as a family. Ten minutes a day can make a vast difference and set your kids up for success in life. Start today!
#7: Encrypt your communications. Make sure you install encryption messaging like Signal or Telegram in order to securely communicate with the loved ones in your life.
#8: Volunteer. You can sign up for official NH volunteer programs to help during the coming weeks here, or, like my husband and I have been doing, you can go out and do neighborhood litter pickups, reach out to infirm neighbors to make sure they have what they need, and generally be a decent human being–from six feet away (or, wear a mask and gloves)!
#9: Grow an edible garden. If this sounds intimidating (it does to me!) start small with some counter herbs, then some herbs in the garden, and then work your way up until in a year or two, you will be able to feed your household healthy, nutritious, locally grown and organic food–yours! If this still sounds crazy to you… support a local farmer at farm stalls and markets in your area.
#10 Live! Free people move freely. If you need to go about your business, be considerate and make an effort to comply with safety instructions, but also, while keeping things in perspective, remember YOU are the captain of YOUR LIFE, and YOU, and only YOU control your life, the government does not own you (and if you disagree, we should talk!). Use this time to take charge of your life, grow, and change for the better!
Today’s Union Leader included my Letter to the Editor relating to the secret list of bad cops. Read it online or copied below in full.
Dear Editor,
It’s Sunshine Week when we typically celebrate government transparency and openness. Given the government’s COVID-reaction, our rights are at risk. Before law enforcement knocks on your door, wouldn’t you like to know who to trust?
The Attorney General keeps a list of officers who have been identified by their own police chiefs as having “sustained findings of misconduct.” This list is kept secret from the public.
Yes, you read that right.
The AG keeps a list of suspect LEOs called the Exculpatory Evidence Schedule (formerly the “Laurie’s List”) with about 260 officers’ names on it, all blacked out, with only their departments and misdeeds viewable: falsification of records or evidence; lying in court; egregious dereliction of duty; and excessive use of force.
In April 2019, a judge ordered the list’s disclosure, stating it was “not confidential,” “not exempt from disclosure under RSA 91-A,” and that it is in the public interest to know who these officers are. Doh! Instead of releasing the list, the AG appealed at our expense to maintain its secrecy. Double doh!
Secrecy creates distrust and suspicion, undermining faith and confidence in government and law enforcement. As today’s paper stated: “Trust in public institutions relies on our ability to shine sunlight wherever we find shadows.”
Almost 1,000 Granite Staters signed an online petition started by Right-to-Know NH, a statewide nonpartisan coalition of open government advocates, asking Governor Sununu to end the appeal and release the uncensored list. Banish the shadows, Governor, and help us restore trust!
Yours sincerely,
Carla Gericke
Hooksett Road, Manchester
Feeling blue as a result of being stuck at home? Join your hosts for a rundown on the books and TV shows they’ve been enjoying in an effort to stave off cabin fever on this week’s Told You So!
Free Staters, have you considered what you would do if you were governor of New Hampshire right now? Because I may well one day be, I have, and I understand why Sununu has issued this “stay-at-home” “order,” currently effective 5PM today, March 27 through May 4, 2020. That’s not to say he is right from a moral, legal, or Constitutional perspective, just that I geddit, and am willing to adopt a “watch and wait” attitude for now.
My takeaway from this week’s press conferences, sitting in on calls with Sununu, reading the various orders, and reading posts by his staff, is the following: “The Control Freaks Who Only Understand Coercion Are Demanding We Issue an Order for People to Stay-at-Home,” “I don’t want to do that, but I am scared of making the wrong call and thousands of people dying,” “Here, I know! I’ll play both sides like the excellent politician I am. I’ll give The Control Freaks the order, but also tell The Sanes that ‘this is NOT a shelter-in-place order’ and, nudge, nudge, wink, wink, ask to add your business to the ‘essential business’ list,” and, finally, importantly, “we’re not calling out the National Guard to force people back into their homes.”
Yet.
For now, I am employing a “Keep Calm, But Carry Arms” approach. Not much will change for me. I already work from home. I already shop predominantly online. I already stockpile toilet paper. I already take long isolated walks in the woods. But I will be much less accommodating if, at any stage, for any reason, the population of New Hampshire is ordered to “shelter-in-place.” If martial law is declared, if habeas corpus is suspended in America, I doubt I will comply.
Volunteer: You can sign up for official NH volunteer programs to help during the coming weeks here, or, like my husband and I have been doing, you can go out and do neighborhood litter pickups, reach out to infirm neighbors to make sure they have what they need, and generally be a decent human being–from six feet away (or, wear a mask and gloves)!
Get healthy: If the possibility of getting sick in the future is now a “legitimate” reason to suppress millions of citizens’ rights, shutter and destroy businesses, and crash the economy, let’s use this time to get healthy. Stop eating carbs. Stop eating sugar. If this sounds too hard, try approaching it this way: Cook from scratch until this is over and eat every meal together at the table until then. I bet this simple step will noticeably improve your life!
Turn in early and get 8 hours of sleep: Our brains detox while we sleep, keeping us healthy and sane. Sleep deprivation is a recognized form of torture, so if you aren’t sleeping well, you are… literally *torturing* your body and mind, which might explain some of the serious health problems in this country. Honestly, if The Control Freaks really wanted to make an impact on the health of Americans, let’s get some SWAT police flash-banging down doors to ensure you are getting enough sleep! (Please don’t do that.)
Try something new every day: Use this opportunity to foster curiosity–curiosity is the antidote to stupid. Take a virtual museum tour in a foreign country. Watch all the TED Talks about a subject you are passionate about (I want to learn more about the brain). Learn to cook or bake something new. Last night, I made 90 second microwave paleo mug buns to go with our Broccoli Cheddar soup, and slathered in butter, these rolls were delish! (I’ll post the recipe later.)
Turn off your TV: The mainstream media wants your attention… it’s how they make money. They don’t care about your feelings. They don’t care about making you anxious. They don’t care about scaring you. In fact, the more anxious and scared you are, the more money they make. If you want to improve your life, the #1 thing you can do is TURN OFF THE NEWS. Make this change permanent; I have, and it radically improved my life!
Meditate: No time like the present! There are a slew of YouTube videos of guided meditations, or apps like Waking Up or Calm that can be downloaded straight to your phone. Meditation is something you can even start practicing as a family. Ten minutes a day can make a vast difference and set your kids up for success in life. Start today!
Encrypt your communications: Make sure you install encryption messaging like Signal or Telegram in order to securely communicate with the loved ones in your life.
Live! Free people move freely. If you need to go about your business, be considerate and make an effort to comply with safety instructions, but also, while keeping things in perspective, remember YOU are the captain of YOUR LIFE and you, and only you control your life, the government does not own you. Use this time to take charge of your life, grow, and change for the better!
In this time of COVIDnitive Dissonance and uncertainty, one thing is certain: When you approve a TWO TRILLION dollar stimulus package overnight, you are going to make every American poorer over the long term.
If you don’t grok monetary policy, that’s totally understandable, it’s… complicated. BUT, it you do wonder why it seems like the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer, or why a 3-bedroom house that cost $25,000 in your Pa’s day now costs $300,000… then you are wondering about monetary policy, even if not by that name.
Remember how your parents used to say, “Money doesn’t grow on trees”? Well, once Nixon took America off the Gold Standard in 1971, it now does kind of grow on trees… In the sense that the printing press just makes more of it, or at least, they add a lot of zeroes to the Federal Reserves balance sheets. Magic, right!?!
But wait, Carla, you say, surely if we can just make more money all the time, why couldn’t we just print enough, and IDK, raise the minimum wage to $100 an hour, and instead of the proposed $1,200 per person bailout, why couldn’t we make it, say, $1,000,000 per person!?!? Why, indeed… To answer this question, I recommend reading Ron Paul’s book “End the Fed.”
Or, if you prefer the nutshell version, here’s the answer: Money printing eventually causes hyper-inflation. You know, those sitches you’ve vaguely heard about from the–gasp! past!–where people used bills as toilet paper, where they would take money in wheelbarrows to farmers’ markets to buy an apple, and where people would make fires fueled by burning cash notes to stay warm. That kind of inflation… Sadly, this invisible enemy is little understood by the average person, and the government likes it that way.
“What a lot of people don’t realize is the Federal Reserve actually serves as a taxing authority. Of course, the central bank can’t pass a tax increase. But the creation of money is, in fact, a tax. If they can take a dollar and reduce the value by 50%, they have liquidated debt, which is always necessary. But it’s also a tax because the people’s income gets lowered as well. But the big thing is, not everybody suffers the same consequences… The people who get the money first – the government, big banks, the big corporations, the military-industrial complex – benefit. It’s not because of a free market. It’s caused by crony capitalism and our monetary system.”
Ron Paul
I sent the following Letter to the Editor to the Union Leader last week in honor of national Sunshine Week. Since they failed to publish it, I’m posting it below. If you are wondering what the legal ramifications of Governor Sununu’s “stay-at-home” “order,” you can read his own take HERE (this quote from Chris lightened my concerns significantly, “I want to be clear, though. We are not shutting down our state, sheltering in place, or closing our borders. No state has taken such actions nor does any Governor have the authority to do so.”), the Attorney General’s memo to law enforcement HERE (they have discretion, it’s a misdemeanor, and you will be arrested under “disorderly conduct”–if you get arrested, let me know!), an article about that discretion and law enforcement’s duty to inform HERE, and the Union Leader’s editor’s take, “Questioning authority: A healthy thing even in crisis.”
***
Dear Editor,
It’s Sunshine Week when we typically celebrate government transparency and openness. Given the government’s COVID-reaction, our rights are at risk. Before law enforcement knocks on your door, wouldn’t you like to know who to trust?
The Attorney General keeps a list of officers who have been identified by their own police chiefs as having “sustained findings of misconduct.” This list is kept secret from the public.
Yes, you read that right.
The AG keeps a list of suspect LEOs called the Exculpatory Evidence Schedule (formerly the “Laurie’s List”) with about 260 officers’ names on it, all blacked out, with only their departments and misdeeds viewable: falsification of records or evidence; lying in court; egregious dereliction of duty; and excessive use of force.
In April 2019, a judge ordered the list’s disclosure, stating it was “not confidential,” “not exempt from disclosure under RSA 91-A,” and that it is in the public interest to know who these officers are. Doh! Instead of releasing the list, the AG appealed at our expense to maintain its secrecy. Double doh!
Secrecy creates distrust and suspicion, undermining faith and confidence in government and law enforcement. As today’s paper stated: “Trust in public institutions relies on our ability to shine sunlight wherever we find shadows.”
Almost 1,000 Granite Staters signed an online petition started by Right-to-Know NH, a statewide nonpartisan coalition of open government advocates, asking Governor Sununu to end the appeal and release the uncensored list. Banish the shadows, Governor, and help us restore trust!
Yours sincerely,
Carla Gericke
Hooksett Road
I will write a longer piece soon exploring the legal side of “shelter-in-place” orders and advisories, but here in Manchester, at least, in 2016 after the West Manchester Lockdown we were assured by then police Chief Willard that all shelter-in-place statements made by MPD are advisories. Sadly, NHPR’s show today was disappointing, and lacked any exploration of under what authority and color of law these orders might be issued. Here’s the statement I sent in, which did not make it on air:
“Granite Staters should VOLUNTARILY take all reasonable precautions like decent people do, but I doubt a shelter-in-place *order* would go over well in NH. If it truly becomes necessary for the entire state to stay at home, an *advisory* from Governor Chris Sununu should be sufficient. Basically, people should be considerate, not be jerks, and do everything reasonably necessary to mitigate risks, but it should not be ILLEGAL to go about your life. Free people move freely, and, as the old Ben Franklin wisdom goes, ‘They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.'”
~ Carla Gericke
If you are wondering how YOU can help, it is CRUCIAL that pro-liberty folks start emailing and calling in to these shows to at least bring up our rights, what freedom is and why it matters, and what the legal consequences of martial law is.
LISTEN NOW… While COVID-19 concerns run rampant, the world is hunkering down – but could there be a few silver linings around this cloud of bad news? Join your hosts for their first ever remote recorded episode of Told You So!
PS: Thanks for bearing with us as we upgrade our technology – the audio quality will be better in the next episode!