You can’t always trust well-regarding apps.
Those of us with iPhones dropped our jaws last week when our weather app showed the Valley projected to reach 122 degrees this Sunday!
Because I no longer trust the Apple weather forecasts, I went to weather.com and as of press time, Sunday is supposed to be 111. Today it’s supposed to hit 111. I see triple-digit heat forecast through June 15.
Multiple days in a row of broiling temperatures means there will livestock and poultry deaths and unfortunately some vulnerable people will be dying as well.
Don’t let your pets suffer. Please.Accommodations like shade and water should be made for all outdoor pets, especially those who are caged or on leashes. If you can you may want to bring them indoors.
If you have an elderly neighbor, check on them. See if they need help. Offer to help pay their electric bill if they feel they can’t afford the A/C to stay cool and alive.
Mostly, pray this excessive heat forecast changes.
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There needs to be far more enforcement of traffic violations.
On my daily commute I invariably see reckless drivers, speeders and red light runners. It costs us all dearly when cars collide, when loved one get hurt or die and when we see our auto insurance premiums increase.
So it was a good thing to see that 146 citations were issued when Ceres Police hosted the June 18 Stanislaus Countywide Integrated Traffic Enforcement (CITE) Team visit. The CITE team is composed of officers from Ceres and neighboring agencies who gather in a specific city to engage in a day of intensified enforcement efforts.
Tickets issued included that for speeding, holding a cell phone while driving and running red lights.
In addition six vehicles were towed.
All of us need reminding that life goes much better when we all drive safely. Quit racing to beat a red light – or outright run them – and to be courteous.
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It’s crazy how many Ceres Planning Commission meetings have been cancelled this year for a lack of business and applications. Since Jan. 1, 10 of 14 regularly scheduled meetings for the commission have been cancelled!
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I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen Ceres Police or any other local police agency for that matter post photos of young girls who are reported missing only to see they are found days later. Those posts typically include a selfie of said missing girl making that stupid duck lip pose; or selfies showing cleavage that screams, “I’m an insecure girl who wants guys ogling over my budding sexuality because I don’t have a daddy at home who shows me love and affection.”
Often the girl has run off with some doofus who is taking advantage of her sexually and reality smacks them both in the face that they can’t survive as nomads.
It’s sad but it’s true: the lack of a dad in the home is bad for kids. According to the 2022 Census, about 18.3 million kids in this country don’t have a dad in the house. That’s about one in four.
It’s not just me saying that fatherlessness is damaging our children. A Rasmussen poll of 1,200 registered voters conducted in 2022, noted that 84% believe a strong family is foundational to a strong America and that parents should bear the primary responsibility for raising children. Only 11% say raising children is a community responsibility. Of those polled, 67% believe that the decline of the family is harmful to American growth and prosperity, and 65% think that children who grow up fatherless are at a significant disadvantage in life.
About 40 percent of American children are born to unwed mothers. No wonder many kids are depressed. It shouldn’t be like this.
Children from fatherless homes are often burdened with lower self-esteem than other children, and suffer emotional problems like anxiety, social withdrawal and depression, and it also leads to an increased risk of suicide and other forms of self-harm.
Fathers are necessary and far too many men are quite skilled at making babies but shoving off their responsibility of raising them.
We have a culture that encourages sexual promiscuity, of course, which often leads to unplanned pregnancies – certainly pregnancies that either place fetuses in the trash can or born to be raised in an impoverished single household where there is no father. We also have a media culture that denigrates dads and men in general. Just watch TV shows and commercials and see how they are portrayed as stupid and how everyone dismisses them – especially white men.
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Is our governor delusional or what?
His pre-recorded State of the State was not really about the dismal conditions of California under his watch but about slamming Republicans nationwide in his sickening quest for power at the national level. He doesn’t attack the GOP at home because they’ve been essentially neutered, put in the back of the bus, so to speak. The GOP in Sacramento has no say in turning the state around because they are outnumbered.
He started out talking about fascism in Europe in 1939 and the “destruction of democracy.” Democrats often accuse the Republicans of things they actually are doing. Newsom just destroyed voters’ wishes to see a ballot measure that would make it harder to increase taxes. He sued to keep the ballot measure off the ballot after it had garnered 1.4 million signatures. So clearly he is adept at election interference. No matter to those in his party who would vote for Satan himself if he had that “D” behind his name?
He spoke of only one state that is “celebrating, not merely ‘tolerating’ diversity.” Diversity, to him, means celebrating the perverse and culture of death.
Newsom blasted conservatives for “telling a woman she’s not in charge of her own body” when it’s really about that OTHER body inside her which God is responsible for bringing into this world. He again calls the desire to preserve life as “extreme” and “radical.” If that’s extreme, what do you call a governor who encourages women from other states to flock to California to have her baby diced into mincemeat?
The biggest joke of the night was his assertion that California “has proven time and time again that it’s willing to tackle the hardest problems” in mentioning the border crisis. This coming from a governor who fought Trump’s expansion of the border wall in the desert over environmental impact concerns. Plus, Newsom has rolled out the red carpet to illegal aliens by promising to consider them for state jobs and paying for medical coverage with our tax money! This is a magnet state for illegals so his claim is pure horse crap.
The ridiculousness of this governor continued when he boldly stated that: “No state has done as much as California in addressing the pernicious problem of homelessness that too many politicians have ignored for too long.” He bragged coming up with a plan which cost $30 billion and not taken care of any problem. He bragged about the clearing of 9,300 homeless camps while failing to mention when Caltrans cleans up this camp it only pops up elsewhere.
There is no solution to the problem until you get a hold on the drugs, many of which are streaming across an open border.
Newsom boasted of going “toe-to-toe with the gun lobby and ideological judges who advance their agenda — and we won’t stop fighting because protecting Californians is our most important job.”
Nowhere in his oath does it say he is to protect Californians – that’s a job for Californians with the means to protect themselves. His oath was to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution” and that document spells out that he has no right to infringe on a law-abiding citizen’s right to bear arms.
If you care about lack of enough water in California you might be chagrined at his line: “We’re in the middle of the largest dam removal project in U.S. history – restoring 400 miles of historic river, and in doing so, restoring a historic way of life that sustained this state for thousands of years.” I don’t know Indian tribes he is talking about making a return to the great fishing hole, but this is a farming state – which needs more reservoirs, not less.
Does anyone else find it absolutely ludicrous that this governor brags that he is “suing them (oil companies) for defiling our planet…” while he climbs aboard a jet to Europe that burns jet fuel refined from those evil companies? All of us who burn fossil fuel are benefitting from transportation as those oil companies “defile” the planet. Get real, Gavin.
Newsom’s lies continue:
• California is not a high-tax state. This state has the highest gas tax in the nation. It also has one of the highest costs of living, which is why the middle class is fleeing like never before.
• California “gives a damn about fast food workers.” Is that’s why he passed a minimum wage of $20 an hour which has caused a loss of nearly 10,000 jobs?
Newsom was the one who ended the death penalty after telling voters he supported it.
He also pushed for passage of Prop. 47, which led to unbridled retail theft. He also is closing prisons when more are needed to house all the violent criminals.
Cocky Newsom bragged about “Weird, wild, free-spirited California. A place that can elect Ronald Reagan and Jerry Brown — back to back.”
And let me add, a weird state because its voters chose to keep a failed governor when they had a chance to give him a boot in the recall election. He makes Gray Davis look like a sterling leader who hardly deserved his 2003 recall.
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I never know who’s reading my column but I was surprised to receive kudos from Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association in Sacramento. He emailed to say I wrote a good piece last week.
The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association is watching after the taxpayers. The only reason our property taxes remain lower is because of what voters approved in 1978, Proposition 13, the Jarvis-Gann Tax Initiative. It caps property tax growth rate at 2 percent annually. So the longer you stay in your house, the more benefit you’ll receive.
The problem is that once your house sells, the next owner pays a much higher property tax based on the new assessed value.
Newsom and company love like to dismantle Prop. 13 so they can increase property taxes so that even more people flee California.
My own father fled California to Alabama where seniors pay no property tax! No wonder people are moving to states which are more affordable, i.e., red states.
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Sacramento Democrats have put forth Senate Bill 1327 which would impose a 7.25 percent tax on all digital advertising revenue on major platform including Google, Amazon, Facebook and X.
SB 1327 proposes to impose a 7.25% tax on gross receipts derived from data extraction transactions to support journalism in the state. “Data extraction transactions” are defined as those where the taxpayer sells user information or access to users to advertisers, and engages in a barter by providing services to a user in full or partial exchange for the ability to display advertisements to the user or collect data about the user. However, a “data extraction transaction” does not include web-hosting services and domain registration. Gross receipts are deemed to be derived from a data extraction transaction if they derive from the sales of advertising services on a digital interface.
The bill would only apply to those persons generating $2.5 billion annually in gross receipts derived from data extraction in the state.
Democrats can’t come out and say it but this is an attempt to prop up the failing liberal rags like McClatchy puts out in Sacramento, Modesto and Fresno.
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Democrats in the state Assembly don’t respect parental rights and don’t want schools notifying parents when their own minor children identify as the wrong gender in school. I’ve written about this before. But last week during a heated debate on the floor of the Assembly over AB 1955, gay member Corey Jackson came close to physically attacking Republican Assemblyman Bill Essayli who opposes the bill.
Read how the Sacramento Bee covered this: “The two never actually came close to attacking each another, but the scene demonstrated the extreme tension around the issue, as LGBTQ lawmakers push back against Republican talking points they feel dehumanize transgender Californians.”
Since when does giving parents respect for notifying when their own child wants to be called Sue when he’s Billy dehumanize trannies? Are Republicans pushing back against Democrat talking points that encourage gender confusion among children as they keep parents in the dark? Who’s backwards on this issue? I’d say most Californians would say the latter.
Essayli has had his microphone cut off because Democrats don’t like what he has to say. Remember, the LGBTQ lobby is a vicious one and they shut down debate all the time.
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
