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California deserves to be sued for defying US
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You're darned right that U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is justified in suing California. State officials are behaving as criminals.

I think we should go a step farther. Arrest Gov. Jerry Brown and state Attorney General Xavier Becerra for violating U.S. law and strip them of their offices for violating their oath to defend the Constitution of the United States.

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Seems like state officials have seriously failed because the U.S. News & World Report just listed California as having the worst quality of life based on health care, education, economy, opportunity, infrastructure, crime and corrections, fiscal stability, and quality of life. We are right after New Jersey now which is a very sad commentary on the state of affairs in Sacramento.

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If you can believe it, the city is already making modifications to the CERES sign over Fourth Street. The city is experimenting to see how the lighting appears at night with a white face as opposed to the black faces on the letters now.

Some citizens have complained that it's hard to read at night.

Hindsight is 20/20, they say, but perhaps the Modesto arch signs - with their white faces - should have been looked at first.

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I enjoy being on the email lists of the candidates seeking funds because I get to see what they're thinking. As you know, lots of Democrats are lining up in an effort to take out Jeff Denham who is Ceres' representative in Congress. Virginia Madueno is now demanding that Denham support a bill to have the Center for Disease Control research gun violence.

We already know what causes gun violence: Sin. Some people's hearts are blackened and the causes are many. I wonder how Madueno and her party would respond if the CDC came out with a study saying bullying, lack of supportive and loving parents, violent video games and a complete abandonment of religious faith are causes for student violence, and that a first-line-of-defense solution would be posting armed former military personnel on each campus as we post sky marshals aboard airliners. Do you think she'd sign on to that? Of course not.

Madueno - the former mayor of small Riverbank who wants to leap into Congress - is obsessed with the NRA as are most Democrats. She writes in her email: "Jeff Denham need to know they work for us. Not for the NRA."

I am happy that Denham understands the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution which states: "...the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." It's no comfort that Madueno does not understand what Denham does.

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Speaking of Congressional candidates, notorious carpetbagger T.J. Cox has moved on. He's dropped his campaign against Denham and has moved to tackle Rep. David Valadao, R-Hanford. Cox sees better chances to run against Valadao since the Democrat in that race dropped out.

The political opportunist doesn't even live in either Denham's 10th District or Valadao's 21st. Cox lives in Fresno. If he wins against Valadao he will have to move into the 21st.

In case you don't remember American history lessons, carpet-bagging is legal and is a term to describe a political candidate who seeks election in an area where they have no local connections. It was derived from the practice of northerners who went to the South after the Civil War to profit from the Reconstruction.

If you're a Democrat - and I don't know why you would want to be - then you still have your choice of anti-Denham candidates in Madueno, Josh Harder, Michael "I am the" Eggman, Mike Barkley, Sue Zwahlen, Dotty Nygard and Independent Scott Shoblom.

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Birds of a feather flock together. Madueno was endorsed by former congressional candidate and astronaut Jose Hernandez. In October 2012 I editorialized against Hernandez in his quest to defeat Denham, saying he was "out of orbit with the conservative Valley." Hernandez opposed tax cuts and immigration enforcement, and supported Obamacare and gay marriage- you know, the typical Democrat positions. So I suppose Madueno and Hernandez think alike.

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The California Teachers Association has officially gone off the rails. They now officially support illegal immigration, and stand behind Jerry Brown in his quest to fight enforcement of U.S. immigration law enforcers.

California Teachers Association President Eric Heins said this: "Students in California's public schools speak more than 65 languages. Every one of them deserves an equal opportunity to succeed."

Seems to me like those students - if they came here legally - should be speaking one language for their success.

Heins goes on to say: "In the latest legal assault and lawsuit by the U.S. Justice Department, we stand with Governor Brown, Attorney General Becerra, and the California legislature in defending state laws SB 54, AB 450, and AB 103. These laws were passed to protect all Californians, and to ensure fair treatment of immigrants."

Pure hogwash. SB 54 is a Sanctuary State law and only serves to protect lawbreakers. It is illegal legislation.

AB 450 is also illegal. It FORBIDS companies from cooperating with federal immigration authorities. It penalizes people who want to cooperate with the law. It's also unconstitutional.

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Did you hear that the Trump economy added 313,000 new jobs last month when just 200,000 were expected? I guess tax cuts and reduced regulation really create jobs.

Democrats don't like or tout this job growth. Employment allows people to rely on themselves to eat, rather than depend on the government to feed them. And when people have power, they don't need failed liberal policies that foster dependency, i.e., the hand that feeds.

Speaking of failed policies, did you hear Red Robin is cutting busboy jobs at its 570 restaurants? The reason: Red Robin hopes to save about $8 million this year by canning busboys because of the artificial increased cost of labor otherwise known as minimum wage hikes. "We need to do that to address the labor increases we've seen," Red Robin's chief financial officer Guy Constant said. Democrats like Jerry Brown think money comes out of thin air and tells companies to pay a higher minimum wage without thought to what else happens.

So there you have it. Democrats have more people needing to eat out of their hand because their minimum wage law caused jobs to be lost. Go going, Gov. Brown and others! It's working for you!

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More nonsense from the teachers unions.

I just opened by February copy of the Perspective, the publication for the Community College Council of the California Federation of Teachers and read more anti-corporation propaganda.

As Trump has demonstrated, jobs and economic expansion occur when you cut taxes and onerous legislation. But the California Federation of Teachers thinks we need to tweak Prop. 13 so they can get their hands on more tax money.

As you know, Prop 13 was passed in 1978 because California was going nuts with property taxes. Older property owners especially were hit hard by the escalating cost of property taxes. Passage of the Jarvis-Gann Initiative was the ultimate taxpayer revolt.

It's concerning to read Ian Duckles, VP of the American Federation of Teachers, write that the illegal California Schools and Local Communities Funding Act would "raise billions for local schools by assessing commercial property at fair market value, instead of allowing commercial properties to pay artificially low property taxes." Hello! That's what Prop. 13 was intended to do - freeze the base year of taxes so that taxes would be manageable. I suppose they think the rest of us property owners are ripping off school kids, too! What a crock.

Well, seems like our teachers group thinks corporations should be exempt from Prop. 13. It will never be enough. If they dismantle that then the rest of us are next. There is no end to the appetite of government and the school system. Some of the biggest squandering of money is occurring in schools, especially at the top with overpaid administrators.

Do you have any feedback about this column? Let Jeff know by emailing him at jeffb@cerescourier.com. He will read it, promise.