A few days ago I got an item in the mail supposedly offering me a $100 refund as a Unitil customer. The name on the return address was “SmartEnergy,” not Unitil, so it immediately looked fake. It is.
The text inside says:
“Your order is not automatic.
To get started, you must call:
1-800-485-4839
Your REFUND OPTIONS (choose one):
I. Mail me a $100 Visa Prepaid Card
II. Mail me a $100 refund checkSmartEnergy would like to issue you a $100 refund.
The state of New Hampshire has a system where you can sign up to get emergency alerts. In itself, that’s a good thing, but the way it’s run raises red flags. The registration site is on genasys.com, and registering requires providing more personal information than necessary. The probability is close to 1 that Genasys sells this information. It’s also easy to exploit the system to annoy people.
(more…)
The towns of Auburn and Troy, New Hampshire, have set up “task force agreements” with ICE. According to the Boston Globe, they let the local police ” interrogate people suspected of being present in the country illegally and arrest those accused of violating immigration laws.” The ICE standard of “suspicion” includes looking foreign or speaking with a foreign accent. Accusation (by whom?) is an abnormally low bar for arrest; probable cause is normally required. The Troy police have made at least a dozen arrests for ICE. The towns of Colebrook and Carroll, in the northern part of the state, also have entered agreements with ICE, as have the New Hampshire State Police.
(more…)
That’s the exact title of the 1922 movie — Douglas Fairbanks in Robin Hood — that I’ll be accompanying at the Plaistow (NH) Library on January 13. They called it that because anyone could make a movie called “Robin Hood” to draw off confused moviegoers, but no one else could legally claim superstar Fairbanks was in it.
Many movies have been made about Robin Hood, and there’s no canonical story. Some emphasize his “stealing from the rich and giving to the poor.” Others show him as a partisan of King Richard, fighting against the encroachments of Richard’s brother John. This movie is in the latter category. Robin Hood is the Earl of Huntingdon, fighting the tyranny John exercises while Richard is away for a Crusade. The first part of the movie shows John plotting for power and achieving it, and Huntingdon becomes Robin Hood only after reluctantly deserting his king. His chief enemies are Prince John and Guy of Gisbourne. The Sheriff of Nottingham is basically a walk-on part.
(more…)
ICE has its claws in New Hampshire, even if not as obviously as in some other places. The secret police force has abducted people on multiple occasions. Local politicians are collaborating with ICE in exchange for a little federal money. But New Hampshire residents are pushing back. A new movement called Sanctuary Communities is forming to protest and monitor ICE’s brutal actions.
In my area is the Seacoast Interfaith Sanctuary Community. I’m still finding out what it’s all about, but it looks interesting. It’s been around since 2017 and says its members are “working together to support people facing the threats of immigration detention and deportation.” I’ve sent an email asking to sign up for their mailing list, and I’m still waiting for a reply. Hopefully the person running the list was just away for the weekend. (Update, Nov. 18: Yay! I’m now on the mailing list!)
These groups have been targeted by a campaign of lies. New Hampshire has a law against “sanctuary cities.” It requires law enforcement in every municipality to cooperate with federal immigration officials. The MAGAs are trying to claim it bans private activity protected by the First Amendment. If it did, that would just make the law null and void. Americans’ freedom to gather information and speak out takes precedent over Trump’s wishes.
(more…)