Are you sending out conflicting messages, Gov. Brown? You don't want a wall built to keep out unauthorized persons from entering the country illegally and yet it's not okay - nor should it be - that a 51-year-old homeless man enters your Sacramento home illegally. Hmm.

"He's an open-door policy kind of guy, so I figured the door would be unlocked, or else I wouldn't have ran over there if I thought the door would be locked," said Steven Seeley.

You thought wrong, Steven. Brown only expects us, the people of California, to accept intruders.

* * * * *

The onslaught has started for those of us who are registered voters.

The mailbox is starting to fill up with those slick campaign mailers sent by the candidates and their political machines. I look at them but rarely make my decision based on them. Same goes for campaign signs. (There is a visual blight of campaign signs staked at the corner of Santa Fe and Geer Road southeast of Hughson). They are filled with staged photos with families or select constituents, portraits with confident grins with arms folded, bullet list of achievements, nice sounding platitudes and attractive graphics. Some are replete with names of supporters, designed to influence the voter. "Well, if the sheriff supports him then I should vote for ...."

You get it.

Voting should be taken very seriously. There's a ton to wade through. Read all you can and attend candidate forums if available. There are decisions to make this June for sheriff, judge, state assembly and senate, governor and more.

* * * * *

How long much Californians suffer at the hands of nut jobs in Sacramento? As expected, the liberals are screaming foul play at the suggestion that a new question about citizenship be added to the 2020 Census. They fear the truth.

Leading the charge is California State Attorney General in Xavier Becerra.

In a press release, Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer stated, "The City of Los Angeles has an obligation to ensure the census accurately reflects our diverse population. We will not stand idly by as the Trump Administration brazenly attempts to suppress the count of our residents, and deprive our city of the federal resources and political representation to which we're entitled."

Suppress the count? I thought California was a safe harbor for the sneak-across-the-border-to-burden-all-social-services-and-expect-Californians-to-foot-the-bill aliens. What do they have to fear with Brown & Becerra & Newsome in charge?

* * * * *
Speaking of jokes, did you hear that Democratic state Senator Ricardo Lara wants illegal immigrants to be able to serve on all state and local boards and commissions? That way the takeover of California can be complete!

As if the takeover of Lara's kinfolk isn't enough, he wants us all to pay for an expansion of low-income health programs from 18 to 26 years old for what he calls undocumented adults (and the rest of us accuartely call illegal aliens.)

Lara, who is openly gay, was born to parents who came from Mexico to the US illegally. I suppose that makes him illegal as well.

* * * * *

Speaking of undocumented, I like the T-shirt that reads: "Make our guns illegal and we'll just call them undocumented."

I like when the double standard is called out.

* * * * *
Come on, illegals, keep sneaking across the border. We have a job for every one of you. We will reward you with free benefits. Brown and Lara and others will cover your back. Next thing you know, they'll be letting you vote and you can vote to keep that party in charge. What a wonderful state.

All of them need to be impeached for violating their oaths of office and running roughshod over the rest of us who are expected to put up with this nonsense and if we dare speak out we'll be denigrated as racists.

* * * * *
I had a conversation with Sheriff Adam Christianson last week about the new REACT Center in west Ceres which is designed to prepare inmates for the outside world. The intent is to get them emotionally ready, off of substances, and prepared to find a job. As you can imagine, it's not easy finding work in California, especially when one has few marketable skills and one who has done jail time. It's an admirable goal but one that will probably not be measurable for the short term. You can only help those who want help.

Homelessness in the county is due, in part, to these persons who have been released from jail or prison and who have drug and alcohol addictions. Of course, policies crafted by lawmakers are also making jobs scarcer by running businesses to other states. Our Valley is one of the most impoverished areas of the state.

* * * * *
We're in scary times in our country when teachers belittle students for using Fox News for a classroom assignment. Todd Hein of Fort Wayne, Indiana said his son Jacob was shamed in class by his Spanish teacher at Blackhawk Middle School because he used Fox News as the source to translate a story about a Navy jet encounter with a UFO. The teacher reportedly told Jacob Hein, "I noticed that you cited Fox News on your last article, and I want you to know that Fox News is fake news. It's full of lies, and you're no longer to use Fox News as a source for any of these assignments."

As punishment for using a more fair news source than the over-the-top left-wing-biased media of MSNBC and CNN, Hein was ordered to Google and write a report on "President Trump's many lies." The father asked a meeting with school officials and the teacher admitted her actions. She should be fired if she hasn't been already.

I'm telling you, folks, some on the left have lost their mind and abandoned common sense, courtesy and decorum.

* * * * *
The war on the Second Amendment is being conducted through punitive financial measures and effectively economic boycotts. Did you hear what the New York governor has done? He has threatened to cut ties with any banks or financial institutions which have ties to the National Rifle Association, which has been vilified by the left-wing media. Many banks are kowtowing to the liberal's demands.

The state of New York Department of Financial Services has fined the Lockton Cos LLC $7 million for underwriting NRA branded Carry Guard insurance. Carry Guard protects gun owners from being financially destroyed after using a gun to protect one's self.

New York officials, like those in California, would love to see all insurance companies leave gun owners high and dry, so that the full weight of lawsuits would crush those who use guns as a defense and ultimately cause others to be in total fear of ever using their gun for self-defense. Remember, the goal is to eliminate guns from society.

Unfortunately, that leaves you and I defenseless and at the mercy of an underfunded and understaffed police organization.

Fight for your rights!

* * * * *
Ron Lowe of Nevada City routinely sends us letters of a rabidly leftist nature and I usually don't run them. But I decided to give you an idea of how he thinks.

He has an obvious anti-Christian bias when he speaks about Republicans being a "religious party of anti-abortion, anti-gay, anti-immigration fanatics."

Well, he's intellectually dishonest with that statement. Republicans are anti killing babies, pro-heterosexual marriage and totally in favor of legal immigration.

He says the big difference between the two parties is: "Democrats don't wear their faith on their sleeve. They don't evangelize; they consider it disrespectful to shove their spiritual views down other people's throats."

Funny he should mention that. Democrats, one study suggests, is not very religious.

The Pew Research Center just did a survey and learned 73 percent of Republicans believe in God and are certain he exists while 55 percent of Democrats do. Sixty-one percent of Republicans believe religion is very important in a person's life while 47 percent of Democrats do. When it comes to church attendance, 44 percent of Republicans attend church services at least once a week; only 29 percent for Democrats. Draw your own conclusions about this.

Even funnier is that Lowe castigates Republicans for aligning with God while he does the same. For example, he states "tax cuts for the rich are emphatically not what Jesus would do." I don't think Jesus weighed in on the government weighing more heavily on the rich as far as tax policy goes but He did want us to pay our taxes ("render unto Caesar what is Caesar's). But given that the rich pay 80 percent of all taxes and nearly half of Americans don't pay ANY tax, I'm not sure what Jesus might say, Ron.

Three more points Ron claims:

• "Scripture neither condemns nor prohibits abortion." I'm trying to reconcile that statement with the commandment not to shed innocent blood, one of the things the Lord says he hates.

• "Jesus never said one word about homosexuality." But His close disciples did, of course, and they labeled it a sin.

• That "if Jesus were here today he would not be a Christian nor Republican." While no doubt he would be of no political party, to say the very author of Christianity would not be a Christian causes me to wonder what Ron is smoking up there in Nevada County.

* * * * *

There are five propositions on the June 5 ballot.
Here is my take on each of them:

• Proposition 68. A colossal $4 billion bond measure for creation and rehabilitation of state and local parks, natural resources protection projects, "climate adaptation" projects, water quality and supply projects, and flood protection projects.

Sounds like a good cause but bond financing is not the economical way to finance projects. California has enough debt. Bond measures are deceptive. You think you're voting for something good but it will take approximately $8 billion to pay off the $4 billion of borrowed funds. That means tax increases for Californians.

This is a typical Democratic Party backed proposition that is opposed by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.

First, of the $4 billion dollar bond, only $1.3 billion is actually dedicated to improving parks. A lot of the remaining money is given to politicians to spend on their pet projects. Rural areas like ours probably won't see any of that money.

And why entrust the Department of Parks and Recreation with the money? In 2012, the department threatened to close 70 parks, saying it didn't have the revenue to operate them but an audit revealed they did and were hiding it from the public. Reform the agency before giving more money!

• Proposition 69. It basically would force the recently enacted and wildly unpopular transportation tax increases to be spent on transportation. Duh. Senat or John Moorlach thinks it's lunacy that we have to tell the state Legislature to quit siphoning off transportation dollars for other purposes. State Assemblyman Frank Bigelow, a Republican, is voting no because he says it "fails to protect over $1 billion annually from vehicle weight fees that have been sidetracked since 2011. ALL transportation taxes must be protected from being diverted and misused by politicians, otherwise these games will continue."

• Proposition 70. Vote yes. A yes vote would require a one-time two-thirds vote in each chamber of the Legislature in 2024 or thereafter to pass a spending plan for revenue from the state's cap-and-trade program for greenhouse gases.

If legislators failed to secure a two-thirds vote, revenue would keep collecting in the reserve fund and the state would be unable to spend the money. Between Jan. 1, 2024, and the passage of the spending bill, the measure would also suspend a sales tax exemption for manufacturers, increasing tax revenue about $260 million per year. If legislators succeed at securing a two-thirds vote, revenue would begin to fill the non-reserve Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which requires a simple majority vote to use funds from. Assemblyman Chad Mayes, a Republican, designed Proposition 70 as the result of negotiations between Gov. Brown, Democrats, and legislative Republicans over the future of the state's cap-and-trade program. As Proposition 70 would require a two-thirds (66.6 percent) vote of the Legislature to spend revenue from the program, members of the minority party (Republicans) may be needed to pass a spending plan.

• Proposition 71. This is a common sense measure. It makes the effective date of any successful ballot measure five days after the Secretary of State certifies the election results, which is typically no later than 38 days after an election. Prop. 71 is intended to account for the process of counting vote-by-mail ballots. In other words, it safeguards against premature effective dates without an official determination of how the vote went. For example, when voters approved Prop. 64 on Nov. 8, 2016, the recreational use of marijuana became legal under state law the next day! If Proposition 64 was approved under the process outlined by this 2018 ballot measure, the recreational use of marijuana would have become legal on December 17, 2016. It merely gives time for all the votes to be collected and counted before enacting.

• Proposition 72. Sure. Under current law, taxes increase when property owners make home improvements - even when such improvements have statewide benefit. Proposition 72 would allow people to install rainwater capture systems without triggering higher taxes.

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