Gas prices are suddenly higher, thanks to an 8 percent gas tax hike that kicked in on July 1.
The Democrats in Sacramento refused Republican efforts to halt the increase. On a party-line vote on June 27, Assembly Democrats ensured California drivers will pay an extra $600 million next year by rejecting Republicans’ attempt to suspend the state’s gas tax increase. The 8 percent tax hike is a regressive penalty on drivers that will make California’s affordability crisis even worse.
I never hold out hope that Sacramento will rule with common sense so I’m not surprised lawmakers could care less how they continue to make California unaffordable to live in.
California now has the second highest retail gas tax in the country, which is now about $1.28 above the national average.
And why do we continue to vote for this kind of punishment?
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I need to send a thank you card so I can let Democrat Assemblyman Jesse Gabriel know how appreciative I am for saving my life. I just saw his press release titled, “California State Senate Advances Landmark Legislation to Ban Use of Dangerous Food Additives” and just need to express my profound appreciation that his bill will prevent me from buying my favorite candy, Skittles, because it has “dangerous” additives.
I’m being facetious, of course, because I consider this nothing more than more government meddling into my life.
Assembly Bill (AB) 418 would prohibit the manufacture, sale, or distribution of any food product in California containing Red Dye No. 3, Titanium Dioxide, Potassium Bromate, Brominated Vegetable Oil, or Propyl Paraben. The legislator cites “scientific research linking them to significant health harms, including cancer, reproductive issues, and behavioral and developmental issues in children.”
Of course, the Democrat couches his concern for children.
They’re next coming for my other favorite, Diet Coke. Think I’m kidding? Gabriel’s presser states: “Numerous scientific studies have linked these chemicals to significant health harms, including increased risk of cancer, behavioral issues in children, harm to the reproductive system, and damage to the immune system. As a result, the EU and many other nations, including the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, China, and Japan, already have prohibited their use in food, and many major brands and manufacturers—including Coke, Pepsi, Gatorade, Dunkin Donuts, Papa John’s Pizza, and Panera—have voluntarily stopped using these additives in their products.”
No wonder more and more people are desirous to flee the People’s Republic of California. Hey, at least we’ll live longer and just have miserable lives living under the thumb of progressive rule.
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Our president’s failed border handling is resulting in tens of thousands of children being coerced into the sex trade.
The Mexican drug cartels are smuggling children across the U.S.-Mexico border at a cost of $2,500 per child ($8,500) for adults. The only way they can pay that back is by selling their bodies. The cartels also add interest charges, meaning the child will forever be beholden to being used sexually.
Because children are given an advantage into entering the country as a “refugee,” children are being paired up with an unrelated adult. When unaccompanied children come to the border, they are turned over by Border Patrol to HHS, who attempt to find them a sponsor within the country -- typically a family member. But some cartels are ushering some kids back into Mexico to get yet another illegal migrant in. They are called “recycled” children.
Now the Office of Refugee Resettlement’s Unaccompanied Alien Children Program has lost contact with 85,000 children who came across the border as refugees. Maybe delivered into the hands of human traffickers? Or forced to work in dangerous jobs?
A whistleblower further told Congress in April that the government is delivering migrant children to a «sophisticated network» of human traffickers.
All that Health & Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra could say is: «I have never heard that number of 85,000, I don’t know where it comes from and …so I would say it doesn’t sound at all to be realistic, and what we do is we try and follow up as best we can with these kids.”
Anyone who really cares about children would be clamoring for further border protection, including the finishing of the border wall.
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I can say this because I’ve been a resident of this county most of my life but let’s face it, outsiders think we live in a sh**hole.
I can take you to some very charming residential areas in Modesto, such as Sycamore Street; or where the millionaires live east of Oakdale in palatial mansions. But when you’re traveling into the county along 99, the vista is enough to scream ghetto and get through fast.
I’ve never understood why our elected officials don’t put their heads together to begin treating the Tuolumne River like the jewel it could be.
A month ago I spent the day with my son in Sacramento where the waterways are destinations. There are restaurants and recreational uses along the American and Sacramento rivers.
Likewise, last year I saw how Austin lines Lady Bird Lake with walkways that are heavily used by health conscious individuals.
What do we have next to our river? A ghetto trailer park, a wrecking yard, a fence covered in graffiti courtesy of gangs and bored homeless people – all seen by hundreds of thousands of travelers going through Modesto as they mutter to themselves, “What the hell-l-l-l-l-l? It’s embarrassing.
I envision how government could relocate that highly visible eyesore and make it a premiere destination along the river with walkways. We need to line our river with beautiful things, not treat it like a nasty dumpsite.
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At the risk of sounding like an old man resistant to change, I actually preferred the nostalgic look of the old McDonald’s restaurant on Hatch Road near the freeway versus the building that has the personality of a shoe box there now. Is McDonalds trying for a Starbucks feel? As for me, I hope to see more of a Johnny Rocket or In-N-Out Burger feel.
I wish the chain would go back to the truly nostalgic Googie architectural style that you find in the Downey McDonald’s.
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It was 10 years ago today when a beautiful soul named Karen Benziger passed away following a lengthy fight against leukemia.
She was my wife and we were together for 32 years. She gave me four children and sadly her death came a year and a half after the birth of our first grandchild. I remember a time in the hospital when she touched the belly of our pregnant daughter-in-law and prayed over that child she knew she would never see. She commented that despite not having seen the face that the girl would be beautiful. Evelyn was indeed beautiful. Four other grandchildren came since her passing.
When death takes someone you were close to, your life changes. Friendships you had as a couple change. Your mind is occupied with thoughts you didn’t have before. You begin to understand the deep feelings that come with the permanence of death, the realization that there is no tomorrow with that person who was robbed while your life goes on. So that brings on a sense of guilt. Karen spent 51 years on the planet and I am approaching my 62 years, which leaves me with a sense of lingering sorrow.
You begin wondering where souls go when they leave the body. You start wondering how much time you have left. You wonder how it will be during the heavenly reunion with loved ones, what heaven must be like. Will they be waiting for me? You wonder if your days on this planet were lived in a meaningful way, if you used your talents the way you should.
When I was a teen I thought life was so far out ahead of me that it would seem like eternity. Now at age 61, I see how fleeting life is, and how fleeting it is for some like my wife who may have been cheated out of 20 to 30 years. I’ve lived longer than many.
Death is so appallingly ugly that we don’t want to even think of it. Oh, we see tragedy in the news every day but we dismiss it as someone else’s to deal with – until the specter of death walks in our own door and claims one of ours. Then the sorrow is real.
The takeaway is, respect God and make life what you can and leave it a little better than before we can. I know Karen did. She loved her family and God.
We can’t see through the veil that separates life here and the thereafter. But if you don’t have God you don’t have any hope. Life really becomes meaningless without Him.
This column is the opinion of Jeff Benziger, and does not necessarily represent the opinion of The Ceres Courier or 209 Multimedia Corporation. How do you feel about this? Let Jeff know at jeffb@cerescourier.com
