I’m not surprised. Sacramento Democrats want ALL the control over your choices in your life. Now they want to tell you how much soda you can buy.

That’s right; they want to ban fountain sodas larger than 16 ounces.

Where do I sign the recall petition of any legislator who dares to limit my soda intake?

I will be the first to admit that I drink a lot of Diet Coke. My morning routine has me fill up my 54-ounce reusable cup. I am 175 pounds and hardly obese.

Democrats tend to create their new boogeymen so now they’ve invented “Big Soda” – no pun intended. In order to vilify every cause they don’t like, Democrats slap on labels like “Big Oil,” “Big Tobacco” and now “Big Soda.” How about a term for California legislators? “Big Control”? How about “Big Brother”? Better still is “Big Jerks” for they usurp our freedoms on a daily basis.

Vilifying an entity is their way to give them justification to implement taxes on what they don’t like. They’ve done it with cigarettes, oil companies and booze.

Enough is enough. And, yes, it’s the Democrats who are doing this. Assemblydictators David Chiu and Richard Bloom, both Democrats, introduced this unconstitutional bill. And I hope “Big Soda” slaps a whopping lawsuit on any and all Democrats who vote for this unlawful act.

Assemblyman James Gallagher (R-Yuba City) condemned the legislation when he said: “Californians don’t want to be treated like children. Education – sure, let’s help people make healthier choices. But telling adults they can’t have a Big Gulp or banning soda from the checkout aisle is the kind of government intrusion that people can’t stand.”

If you want any more proof that Democrats are about forcing their will on you, read this quote of Chiu: “…our bill is to make people think twice about their choices.” Read again, “make people think.” Read again: “Make” as in “we WILL make you.”

It is not government’s charge to tell you and I what size soda we can buy any more than they have the right to dictate what color your car is or what brand of toilet plunger you buy! Shame on any legislator who thinks treading on rights out of health concern is lawful.

It’s no wonder people are fleeing California in droves but it’s time for those who remain to fight back. What next? Banning extra large cheese pizzas? Taxing the hell out of Little Debbie? And boy we need a tax on bread and pasta too because that is not good for diabetics to eat (turns to sugar, don’t you know?). Better start levying a tax on Big Milk because guess what, it has sugar added to it (if you don’t believe me read the ingredients). And let’s put the Latino community on notice that they will be limited on the number of flour tortillas they can eat because they have lots of calories in them. When does the war begin on “Big Potato Chip” to summon the assault on Frito-Lay?

Who died and left Democrats God? Oh, that’s right – Democrats banished God in their party platform a few years ago and have falsely assumed His place.

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Speaking a hare-brained ideas from the Left, you can’t make up the lunacy of paying someone to do absolutely nothing.

Why does the progressive Left think believe it’s okay to reward low-income persons with cash that somebody else earned and donated? By now you’ve heard of the incredulous program in Stockton to give a select group of 130 recipients $500 via debit cards each month for doing absolutely nothing. The Universal Basic Income scheme – a staple idea of pure socialism – is robbing someone to give it to someone else who didn’t earn it. As part of the Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration (SEED) program, results will be studied at the end of 18 months to see how it affects lifestyles. I can tell you what the results will be: Recipients will still be in poverty, some may have more to spend on drugs and alcohol, nobody’s life will have been advanced and the short-lived happiness of receiving free money will evaporate like our paychecks.

Did Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society pull anyone out of poverty? No, it was an abject failure.

We’re told the Stockton cash is not tax money. It is coming from what’s called the Economic Security Project which has a website that declares: “It’s time to end poverty and rebuild the middle class in America. We believe cash is an effective way to achieve that.”

Well, yeah, cash is the way you end poverty, duh. But it’s an unsustainable dream. Liberals like Gavin Nuisance, Kamala Harris and Alexandria Orcasio-Cortez like the idea of paying poor people by robbing productive and successful people who make more money via the income tax process. But they never tell you HOW they will pay for the program. Here is the reality: There isn’t enough money to make everyone in the United States comfortable. U.C. Berkeley professor Jesse Rothstein said a universal payment of $12,000 per year to each adult U.S. resident over age 18 would cost roughly $3 trillion per year. Is that a good idea for a country that’s already issued IOUs worth $22 trillion and growing?

Another reality is this: There will always be poor on planet Earth. If you don’t believe me, believe Jesus when He said it in John 12:8.

The folks in Stockton might want to pay attention to a Finnish test of a similar pay-people-for-nothing scheme. Finland’s Minister of Health and Social Affairs, Pirkko Mattila, said the impact the scheme had on employment “seems to have been minor.” Finland has no plans to continue the program, either, despite recipients feeling happier. Now that’s a no-brainer. Wouldn’t you be happier if someone gave you $500 a month for doing nothing?

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We’ve had lots of rain recently and it’s been nice. What’s not so nice is how the climate change crowd comes out of the woodworks to proclaim every variation in weather as proof that you and I are destroying the planet.

I’m a history buff so I happen to know there wasn’t any “the sky is falling” people around in 1862 when this part of the world was flooded was rainwater that cascaded out of the hills and filled the Valley like the catch basin that it is. Those were the days when there were no reservoirs on the Stanislaus, Tuolumne or Merced rivers to save the Valley from inundation.

In December 1861and January 1862 there were was no gas-burning car around to blame when it rained like cats and dogs for weeks solid. The area from Atwater to Stockton was a solid lake, meaning Ceres would have been under water with Turlock and Modesto. Sacramento was so flooded the state Legislature couldn’t meet. Livestock drowned and buildings were destroyed. It made the flood of 1997 look like a puddle. In fact, the Mariposa Gazette in 1862 reported: “From Stockton down to the junction of the Sacramento, the whole country was a sea.”

Just remember that next time you hear of global warming alarmists sounding the bells every time we enter a cold snap, a hot snap, a wet period and a dry period.

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We have a reader in Dave Carreon who challenges just about every point I make against the Left (because he is a liberal). Carreon loves the idea of letting all stream over an open border. When I quoted the cost of illegal immigration on U.S. taxpayers as studied by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), Dave went on the attack, saying FAIR “has been designated as a hate group by the southern poverty law center.”

Well, since Dave brought it up, let’s talk about the Southern Poverty Law Center, which is not actually the benevolent civil rights organization advocating for oppressed minorities like it once was. Today it is a leftist organization that embraces the full tenants of liberalism. The group peddles fear and smears political opponents, embraces open borders, LGBT rights, and other left-wing totems. The group even declared the respected Family Research Council as a “hate group” for its opposition to same-sex marriage.

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It appears the left is into hate crimes – trying to make conservative Trump supporters look bad. I’m talking about “Empire” show actor Jussie Smollett who paid some friends to pretend to be right-wing rednecks – complete with red ball caps – who are so filled with hate they beat up black people. By now you know the truth – he set it all up for publicity, and to demonstrate how much he hates Trump and Trump supporters. This is the ultimate perversion of race baiting.

To think someone could fan the flames of racial tension and sow the seeds of hatred – this could have sparked a Chicago riot – for personal gain is beyond comprehension. Smollett needs to be made an example of and spend some time behind bars instead of in front of a TV camera.

Further shame belongs to the national news media which eagerly reports allegations of wrong-doing by conservatives and ends up eating crow. The media was all over the Smollett case just as they painted the Covington Catholic boys as a bunch of racist jerks – while completely glossing over the fact that they were the ones who was victimized by the foul-mouthed Black Hebrew Israelites idiots who called the minors such things as “racists,” “bigots,” “white crackers,” “faggots” and “incest kids,” “dirty bastards,” and “future school shooters.”

Now one of those students is suing the Washington Post for millions because of their sloppy reporting.

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The Hispanic community has some problems it needs to confront.

The first that comes to mind is violence. A new 91-page study issued by the Violence Policy Center (VPC) titled “Lethal Hispanic/Latino Firearm Victimization in California,” notes that nearly 17,000 Latinos were killed with gun violence in California from 1999 through 2016. The overwhelming majority of fatal gunshot victims were male (15,222) as compared to 1,411 females. Forty-five percent were 10 to 24 years old. The Hispanic firearm homicide victimization rate was more than three times the white firearm homicide victimization rate in 2016. And for Hispanic victims aged 10 to 24, the firearm homicide victimization rate was 6.63 per 100,000, more than four times the white firearm homicide victimization rate for this age group of 1.56 per 100,000.

The second problem Latinos need to confront is that heart disease and diabetes are ravaging their communities. More than 30 million Americans suffer from type 2 diabetes. And millions more have elevated blood sugar levels, so they’re at high risk of developing the disease. Hispanics are 66 percent more likely to be diagnosed with diabetes than whites. The condition now costs the United States $245 billion per year, according to the American Diabetes Association. People living with diabetes are twice as likely to develop heart disease.  In fact, 25 percent of the annual medical costs of those with diabetes are attributed to cardiovascular complications.

What is the problem? A study indicates that Hispanics in the U.S. are 35 percent more likely to be “inactive” than Caucasians. And more than seven in 10 Latino adults are overweight or obese.

Far too many people with diabetes don’t visit the doctor regularly, so they’re less likely to receive diet advice and proper prescriptions. According to the most recent U.S. Census Bureau report, Hispanics are the least likely racial or ethnic group to see a medical provider.

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I guess they’re control freaks down in Louisiana – not just in Sacramento. Did you know it’s against the law to post videos and photos of illegal activity on social media for “notoriety and publicity”? And that includes a fight at school.

That’s dangerous control and I believe unconstitutional. What next? Telling the news media they can’t post video of wars or street crimes?

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I’ve said the Democrats have embraced the culture of death and that was proven this week with the Senate vote on the bill designed to protect the lives of babies outside of the womb who survived an abortion attempt. The Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act would have required that “any health care practitioner present” at the time of a birth “exercise the same degree of professional skill, care, and diligence to preserve the life and health of the child as a reasonably diligent and conscientious health care practitioner would render to any other child born alive at the same gestational age.”

U.S. Senator Ben Sasse wrote the Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, which was supported by 49 Republicans. It needed 60 votes and was defeated by Democrats. Only three Democrats out of 49 voted to support life! Kudos to Democrats Bob Casey,  Joe Manchin and Doug Jones for supporting the bill. But shame on all the others, including every one of the Democratic senators running for president (Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand, Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren.) So in other words, the Democrats want that unwanted baby which is on the table after surviving any abortion attempt to just die. If that’s not an evil doer I don’t know what is.

This column is the opinion of Jeff Benziger, and does not necessarily represent the opinion of The Ceres Courier or Morris Newspaper Corp. of CA. How do you feel about this? Let Jeff know at jeffb@cerescourier.com