It must be pointed out that the state Water Board which voted to steal 40 percent of our stored water last week were all Jerry Brown appointees.
As you know, our communities which rely on water to grow crops and, in some cases, deliver water to our cities, were crying loud for months about the state’s plans to flush up to 40 percent of the water stored in Don Pedro, New Melones and McClure reservoirs out to the sea. We are talking about water stored in dams which were built by irrigation districts decades ago to store up water for farming. Now some members of the State Water Board, who were born after the dams were built, seek to do great damage to Valley farmers.
We all know what the state is up to. They say the water is for fish and salt water intrusion into the Bay but we know it’s really about flushing more water into the Bay so Jerry Brown and successor can suck it up and send it to the vote-rich Los Angeles Basin. Even Ceres City Attorney Tom Hallinan – himself a supporter of Brown’s – admitted publicly that it is all about stealing our water for Jerry Brown’s twin tunnels project.
The state plan won’t improve fish habitat. Besides, it’s an illegal action.
Who are the water board members? Chairwoman Felicia Marcus was appointed by Gov. Brown. Vice Chair Steven Moore was appointed by Brown. Tam M. Doduc is a Brown appointee who is an environmentalist who worked as the Deputy Secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency (Cal/EPA). Dorene D’Adamo of Turlock also appointed by the governor. E. Joaquin Esquivel, a Brown appointee who used to work for liberal Sen. Barbara Boxer. So that’s all you need to know about this decision. Whatever Jerry wants, Jerry gets. I said this in my column of Aug. 1 and it looks like I was spot on.
Be prepared for a decade of lawsuits.
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I know that 21-year-old Ken Hernandez must have been taught by his school and others that you don’t drink and drive. But apparently the Turlock “man” did it anyway and on Friday evening, Dec. 14 he ran his car into another car and killed Freida Pineda, an eighth-grader at Dutcher Middle School, and injured two others.
Lives ruined as a result of his stupidity – the life he took, her family’s lives and his own life. How tragically stupid
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The trolls were out in force on Wednesday on our Facebook page. The left just doesn’t know how to debate intelligently. We posted a teaser on my column, “Homeless problem due to Democrats” and nobody took me on as far as answering the points I made. Instead, they went right to their drawer of insults. Marilyn Zumstein, an occasional critic, wrote this puzzling statement: “Remember that when pointing fingers in blame that there are 4 fingers pointing back at you.” Nick Maynard pointed out an obvious question: “So the homeless problem is Jeff Benziger’s fault?”
Leilani Hagberg suggested I be sent to Alabama, as if I am a product that can be shipped. When we replied that I have no plans to move to Alabama, the sweetheart that she is wrote: “he’s there in mind and spirit.” Did you catch that? If you hold a conservative opinion, you are a redneck, a backwards baboon with teeth missing and walking around barefoot with a straw hat on. Such arrogance on the left.
The prize for the biggest insult goes to Brian Beltran who suggests that my criticism of state lawmakers is “continually contributing to the Russian agenda of stoking the fires of political divide in America.” Brian obviously fell asleep during his U.S. history classes because he surely knows nothing about political divide.
Matt Langrell commented: “Hey jeff quit using the Courier’s ink on crap, write something usefu.l What happend to the 10,000 citizens of Ceres after they lost, were you one of them!!” Hey, Matt, I did write a lot of useful stories in last week’s issue of the Courier. Did you get to read any of them or the 52 issues I published this year?
We’re puzzled as to what Matt means in his reference to the “10,000 citizens of Ceres after they lost.”
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It’s true that Donald Trump was elected president because of his commitment to stem the tide of illegal immigration with increased border security and the wall. Those of us living here in the bread basket of the world in Central California see the effects. We are impacted by unbridled immigration that has flooded our land with unskilled, impoverished immigrants who don’t even care to learn the English language or assimilate into our culture once they arrive.
The left sees an opportunity to pre-empt a Trump re-election by denying him funding for the border wall. Trump wanted $5.2 billion this year and Congress is denying him that as they don’t bat an eye to approve $10.6 billion for aid to southern Mexico and Central America. Yes, your Congress just did that with the votes of Josh Harder types.
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So the genius who has been running the Department of Motor Vehicles (the dreaded DMV) is quitting. It can’t happen soon enough.
Under the reign of Jean Shiomoto – yep, you guessed it, a Jerry Brown hack, DMV offices have become known for its long wait times and improperly registering to vote 23,000 Californians, registering 3,000 license applicants who didn’t want to register as voters and failing to transit 589 voter registrations to elections officials. Her administration also had problems implementing the federally-mandated Real ID cards needed by any American to fly as of Oct. 1, 2020.
I feel the whole plot to sign up illegal aliens as drivers and then automatically cause all drivers to be registered as voters is nothing but a ploy to get more Democrat votes. (Young people and immigrants tend to support Dems). But seeing the DMV screw-ups by a partisan hack sure seems like maybe no mistake at all but intentional. Especially since 1,500 non-citizens were wrongly registered to vote.
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Speaking of illegal aliens, did you see the Dec. 3 Washington Examiner article that the U.S. Census confirmed that 63 percent of “non-citizens” are on welfare meant for poor citizens? That number grows to 70 percent for those here 10 years or more, confirming another concern that once immigrants tap into welfare, they don’t get off it. The numbers are huge. The report said that there are 4,684,784 million non-citizen households receiving welfare! The Center for Immigration Studies studied those numbers and learned that half of those households are illegally in the U.S.!
A border wall has nothing to do with lack of compassion – it has everything to do with sustainability. We cannot continue to harbor and pay for the world’s poor.
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
