A lot of you called the office saying you were upset that my column was absent in last week’s Courier. One lady caller said she hoped I hadn’t been removed.
I have to tell you that I actually missed writing my column last week but I valued my three days off work. That’s why there was no opinion page last week.
There are times when even newspaper editors need some time away with family. We don’t have the luxury of a fill-in editor either to pick up the slack.
While it seemed like work at times, I went camping in Tuolumne County and got to spend time with two of my four children and their families. My youngest grandson, Karter, is an absolute delight to interact with. I think his favorite thing to do at six months old is to stand in my lap and bounce while I stabilize him by holding his hands. His cooing melts this grandfather’s heart.
* * * * *
While I was gone, Trump was indicted on the biggest bag of crap charges imaginable. The double standard is that the Department of Justice – which is in Biden’s control – is going after a former president at election time while ignoring the same things done by Biden and Hillary Clinton. Anyone with an open mind can see these 37 charges were solely crafted in an attempt to take out a very strong presidential contender because Biden feels threatened by him. It’s a political persecution which we’ve never seen before in our country and it represents a true constitutional crisis.
Thirty-two of the 37 charges had to do with retaining classified documents from his administration. They could have easily been rolled into one charge, but Trump is the Devil to them so they have to make it look more serious than it was.
Every president has taken papers from his time as president, including Vice President Biden who had records stored in a box inside his unlocked garage next to his Corvette. But they go after Trump because they hate him.
U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson, an Obama appointee, ruled in 2012 that Bill Clinton did not have to turn over audio tapes made in the White House even though they contained confidential information.
Blinded by hatred of Trump, the DOJ will have to explain the hypocrisy of going after a president it doesn’t like while letting folks like the Clintons skate away without a concern.
* * * * *
When I was shopping at a Sonora grocery store I bumped into the advertising manager of a prominent newspaper. We struck up a conversation about the direction of newspapers. I shared my frustration about how social media has supplanted legitimate news outlets; and he expressed frustration over how “it’s like pulling teeth” to get businesses to advertise since most think social media is the free answer to drive traffic to shops.
Social media has allowed anyone with a cell phone to be Johnny on the spot to report in seconds a traffic crash they may find or the fire that is ripping in their neighborhood. But that’s about as in-depth as you get. Newspapers give you the name and details of that crash or background on that fire or the person who was arrested in the incident down the street in which everyone is asking “what’s going on?”
And don’t ever expect social media to give you details on what your city council just did.
So for all those uninformed folks who were full of questions about the balloon festival as it was happening – the who, what, when, where and why – I say you should be subscribing to the Courier because then you would know. We published at least three articles on the Skies the Limit balloon festival – one days just before – but folks who don’t read newspapers were scrambling for details already provided.
If you care about your city, you’ll read your local newspaper.
* * * * *
If you believe everything Gavin Newsom says about how great a job he’s doing in California then you might be oblivious to reality – or just haven’t taken a trip through the state.
We already know the spin he places on crime. When Sean Hannity mentioned how the governor is failing in the area of crime, pointing out that Whole Foods closed its San Francisco store out of concern about crime and safety of employees and shoppers, Newsom said “it was a bad location to begin with.”
The point is, governor, that the political climate in San Francisco has allowed this to happen. That’s why the voters turned out liberal District Attorney Chesa Boudin was recalled last year. Why Newsom wasn’t recalled in the same way has baffled me.
On June 15 after Gov. Newsom bragged that California “dominates in every major category,” Assembly Republicans released a video highlighting some of the areas where California leads the nation: homelessness, poverty, gas prices, rent burdens, taxes and more. The video, titled “Dominates,” features clips of Newsom throughout his career discussing issues that he still hasn’t solved after two decades in government.
Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher said that while Californians are suffering “Gavin Newsom is busy chasing the national spotlight and pretending like everything’s fine. I can’t tell whether Newsom is ignoring the issues facing our state or is just so checked out from his job that he doesn’t know about them”
* * * * *
If you were to drop onto planet Earth for the first time and were a quick study of language and media, you’d think that the most important people in this country were of the LGBTQ variety.
The push to normalize such a small percentage of the population who aren’t normal is abysmally everywhere. You see it in corporate advertising and polices. You see it in football games, movies, TV shows, nightly news and in schools.
If you were an alien, you’d think the LGB population percentage was great, like 60 percent or higher. Nope, about 3.5 percent of adults in the U.S. “identify” as LGB. And a mere 0.3 percent identify as transgender. Talk about a sliver of the population hijacking our country’s focus.
You would think mothers and fathers should be heralded as the most important people on the planet. They are the ones who are in charge of the greatest challenge of raising children to become the next generation of Americans, wiping butts and runny noses, and cooking and cleaning and reading to their children and helping with the homework and running them to soccer practices. They put their lives on hold while making their children a priority – or at least should. Selfless parents make the pampered and self-centered “it’s all about me” generation obsessed with redefining gender realities look like spoiled human beings who’ve abandoned common sense.
What about the importance of the unsung American worker who puts in long hours of building roads and bridges, standing in assembly lines, shuffling mounds of paperwork so our schools operate efficiently, landscapers who make things look nice, the nurses who stands on her feet for 12 hours at a time, those who work in the slaughterhouses to feed us, the police officers who risk their life to protect us? Why not herald them on a can of Bud Lite instead of a silly ridiculous man who pretends to be a woman?
What about our military personnel who sacrifice so much so we can go to sleep not having to worry about our country being attacked? Why not shine the spotlight on them as the country’s most important people for a while?
I’m done with this obsession over this LGBTQ nonsense. Aren’t you?
* * * * *
The emperor has no clothes. It’s an expression to describe a situation in which people are afraid to criticize someone because the perceived wisdom of the masses is that that someone is important.
So why isn’t the mainstream media ridiculing President Biden for the stupid thing he said last week about guns? Biden said braces for guns “makes it more you can have a higher caliber bullet coming out of that gun” – which is impossible.
In the same speech in West Hartford said he recalled the days when a truck would pull up on the street to sell AR-15s and other weapons, “well guess what? You do that now, you go to jail.”
I’m fairly certain that Biden made up that “truck selling weapons at the curb” story.
We all know that Biden and his party have hyped up gun laws as the panacea for reducing violence committed with guns and gun laws come with sentences for the guilty. So why wasn’t the Left outraged that Hunter Biden, the president’s son, got away with a downgraded weapons charge as a misdemeanor? From on or about Oct. 12, 2018 through October 23, 2018, Hunter Biden possessed a firearm despite knowing he was an unlawful user of and addicted to a controlled substance.
Hunter Biden received taxable income in excess of $1,500,000 annually in calendar years 2017 and 2018. Despite owing in excess of $100,000 in federal income taxes each year, he did not pay the income tax due for either year. If this were Trump, he’d be in an orange jumpsuit and we all know it.
“Why should anybody respect any gun laws if the president’s son gets a pass?” rightfully asked Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. “The American public should be outraged at what amounts to a deplorable double standard.”
And why are gun prohibition lobbying groups quiet about this deal?
Gottlieb noted how President Biden has spent his entire political career campaigning for strict gun control, including bans on so-called “assault weapons” and more recently, an acknowledged effort to prevent the sale of 9mm pistols. But the rules evidently change when the president’s son is involved in a federal gun crime that would result in fines and imprisonment for up to 10 years for anybody else who knowingly lied about not being a prohibited person, to obtain a handgun.
* * * * *
While Gov. Newsom brags that California is the “so-called” 4th largest economy on the planet, millions here live in Third World conditions.
Last year, California enjoyed a $100 billion surplus, and now has an over $30 billion deficit. Despite the fiscally reckless policies that have driven state finances off a cliff, legislative leaders refuse to work across the aisle to draft a financially responsible budget to address the giant deficit. In addition, lawmakers have passed an overly-optimistic budget despite the fact that California will not have the tax revenue data available until October, meaning there should be a special session called in November to address the budget shortfalls.
Newsom’s budget does NOT provide any new funding for surface water storage projects that we desperately need. At the same time, the budget will redirect the already-high gas tax dollars away from maintaining highways and roads into other unrelated projects.
Apparently Democrats are also not willing to budge on the planned 8% gas tax increase coming on July 1, despite that we California drivers are paying some of the highest gas prices in the nation.
The independent Legislative Analyst’s Office warned the state to not pass a budget with ongoing budget deficits. The governor’s own forecasts show operating deficits that range from $14 billion to $17 billion per year over the next four years.
* * * * *
How much city staff time is spent on all these silly proclamations that nobody really pays attention to? Does anyone care that May 21-27 was National Public Works Week in Ceres? Did you consider it important that the mayor declared May 7-13 as Public Service Recognition Week or that May 7-13 was Drinking Water Week?
* * * * *
Since the Ceres City Council has to decide where to spend over $1 million in ARPA funds, how about fixing the roof on Ceres’ oldest house, the Daniel Whitmore House? I hear that the Ceres Historical Society fears it may start leaking. After all, the city owns it. While it’s at it, I also hear that the window sills are literally disintegrating and need repair.
I’m still wondering why nobody on the council wants to spend some ARPA funds on restoring the city’s most prominent eyesore – the paint blistered water tower.
* * * * *
Who is the most dangerous person in the United States? Not Donald Trump. The answer is Randi Weingarten, an openly lesbian president of the American Federation of Teachers, if you ask Mike Pompeo.
Pompeo is a Christian and former CIA director and secretary of state under Trump. Pompeo said this: ““It’s not a close call. If you ask, ‘Who’s the most likely to take this republic down?’ It would be the teachers’ unions, and the filth that they’re teaching our kids, and the fact that they don’t know math and reading or writing.”
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio adds: “Our schools are a cesspool of Marxist indoctrination. Dangerous academic constructs like critical race theory and radical gender theory are being forced on elementary school children.”
She found to keep schools closed for COVID, refusing to recognize science showing it was safe to reopen schools has been devastating for children. She supports Critical Race Theory which essentially tries to shame white students for being white and allowing black students to scream racism all the way into their future.
And when Ron DeSantis pushed for schools to not be grooming grounds and keep smutty books out of school libraries, she slammed him as a bully. She also resents parents speaking out at school board meetings about what they want their children to learn and not to learn in schools. Weingarten also fights school choice and vouchers for parents who want their children removed from public schools.
* * * * *
I think the idea of tipping has gotten a little out of hand. Maybe it’s because of the sense of entitlement that pervades our culture.
I walked into a burger joint recently to buy burgers to go. At the point of sale the very chatty clerk at the counter asked if I wanted to leave a tip. This was not a sit-down establishment and nobody was waiting on a table for me.
The same thing happens when I get a sandwich at Subway. If I use a debit or credit card, the first question I am asked is how much of a tip I want to leave. Mind you, Subway calls their employees “sandwich artists,” as if they paint masterpieces with turkey breast and mustard. Maybe that’s why they expect a tip. Am I being a cheapskate because I don’t feel the need to tip someone to hand me the product – especially since some low skill worker is getting a minimum wage that I’m expected to pay for with higher food prices? What next? Tip the clerk who rings me up my groceries? Or the clerk who waltzes back to the stockroom to fetch a box of size 10 shoes at the shoe store? Certainly nobody sends me tips for the stories I write each week – that’s my job; I don’t expect a tip.
A person could go bankrupt paying all the tips people expect him to pay these days.
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