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I’ll just go ahead and say it: Newsom is evil
Opinion

It’s not enough that Gov. Newsom celebrates the “right” of a woman to exterminate the life of the baby growing inside her, but he’s going out of his way to encourage it. 

I’ll just go ahead and say it: Gavin Newsom is an evil man.

We all get that the governor is okay with abortion but there’s not even a hint of him encouraging women to choose life as an option. With him, it’s full bore promotion of abortion.

The Newsom Administration rolled out a new state website, funded by your taxes and mine, to facilitate abortions at a time when other states led by people of morals are curtailing the butchery.

The governor smugly said: “Abortion is legal, safe and accessible here in California – whether or not you live here, know that we have your back. As Republican states continue rolling back fundamental civil rights and even try to prevent people from accessing information online or crossing state lines for care, you’re welcome here in California and we’ll continue to fight like hell for you.”

At least he acknowledges where his fight stems from – straight from hell – but it’s so in-our-face. Those Republicans, on the other hand, are fighting to preserve life.

If only Newsom “had our backs” when it comes to protecting us from evil-doers but apparently the death culture of the Democrat Party doesn’t apply to convicted Death Row inmates.

Jodi Hicks, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Affiliates California – the agency that makes money off of killing fetuses – said: “No person should be forced to travel outside of their home state for essential health care, including abortion care, yet extreme politicians are making that a reality for millions across the country.”

Did you ever think you’d live in a country where someone would be called an extremist because they don’t think it’s morally right to take the life of a fetus that WILL become a human being if left unmolested?

And why is Hicks and the Left calling abortion “health care”? What’s healthy about dicing up a fetus? They value the life of Death Row inmates more than they do babies! They won’t execute those convicted of murder – calling it cruel and unusual punishment – yet glad handedly usher women into the abortion mill to chop, dice and slice or suck out the life growing within them because the mother doesn’t want it.


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I can’t remember the last time I took a whole week off for vacation. I think it was over 15 years ago, maybe 20. But Sept. 3-10 I vacated the entire state of California. Mind you, this was the week the Central Valley got blasted by the unrelenting furnace of hell.

We flew into Denver, rented an SUV and took a long road trip through Cheyenne, Wyoming and Nebraska and staying in South Dakota. The 1,200-mile journey included Nebraska stops at Scotts Bluff and Carhenge and a quirky homemade mock western village called Dobby’s Frontier Town outside of Alliance. We fed donkeys in Custer State Park, hovered around Mount Rushmore in my first-ever helicopter ride, toured the Crazy Horse monument, stopped in at the fun Wall Drug in Wall, S.D., walked the streets of Deadwood, gazed with amazement at Devil’s Tower and encountered cold and wet weather in Gillette. Of course, I had to experience Cracker Barrel, the restaurant which Ceres has been trying to snag for years despite being ignored by corporate officials.

Nagging was the thought that landscaping at home was likely in the death throes from lack of adequate watering in 112 degrees. I also worried about livestock and chickens and turkeys dying back home like they did about 20 years ago when we had several days of unrelenting heat in excess of 110 degrees.

I loved getting away though.

When you go to another part of the country you can get a sense for how your region measures up. I don’t want to speak disparagingly of my native Central Valley but I need to be brutally honest. It’s what you don’t see that grabs you.

I didn’t see homeless people; maybe one. Not unusual I suppose since a cousin of mine wrapped up an 11-state road trip of 3,973 miles last October and reported that he didn’t see any homeless – until he reached California.

I didn’t see much traffic outside of Rapid City.

I didn’t see any trash or homeless camps littering the sides of roads.

I didn’t see dead and dying lawns unlike the splashes of yellow and brown in drought stricken California.

And I didn’t encounter anyone who was impressed that I lived in California. While visiting the grave of the legendary Wild Bill Hickok in Deadwood’s Mt. Moriah Cemetery, I struck up a conversation with a gentleman who said that I need to get out of California. His perception – and he is spot on – is that our soulless lawmakers have collectively lost their minds. He shared his shock that our voters saved Newsom from recall and said he would never entertain the idea of voting for him as president. I informed him that 29 counties supported his recall and that it was voters in urban areas like his ritzy Marin County and welfare laden Los Angeles County who saved him.

Patriotism runs high in South Dakota, and not just because of the faces of four U.S. presidents carved out of the granite on Mount Rushmore. The greater the distance between you and your neighbor, the more dependent you are on self. Consider that South Dakota has only 914,786 residents spread over 77,116 square miles. By comparison, consider that San Jose has 1,023,083 residents over 181 square miles.

They love freedom in South Dakota too. Their governor, Kristi Noem, didn’t believe in locking down her state during the pandemic unlike the wine-sipping furher in the French Laundry of Napa.

Just about the only vehicles you see on the road are motorcycles and pickups. The T-shirt shops are replete with images of Trump making a comeback.  

If I lived in South Dakota and was dialed into life there, I’d likely see things I dislike. But the only drawback I can sense about South Dakota is that the winters can be a lot colder than here.

While on vacation a cursory check of social media drew us back to reality of the happenings back home. Here I am in a beautiful and peaceful place and I was reminded of the endless drama of the drug-destroyed zombies in Stanislaus County with this post on Facebook: “Transient at Starbucks on McHenry was chasing people with a wrench. She is now bathing in the water fountain.”

I returned to learn that a transient walked into traffic on Highway 99 south of Hatch and got nailed by a big-rig. Seeing homeless people milling at the freeway’s edge south of Hatch Road being blasted by the gush of wind created by big-rigs is nothing new, in fact I wonder why more aren’t turned into roadkill.

Does crap like that happen in South Dakota? I’m sure it does, but I didn’t see it and certainly not to the extent in our state, which is growing its societal cesspool because of our state policies.

California doesn’t have to be this bad but we allow it. But as long as the majority of voters continue to elect and re-elect people who don’t see a problem and don’t have the common sense to solve them the problems will only worsen. Instead of building comprehensive centers to house and rehabilitate the homeless of their drug and alcohol addictions, the state is wasting billions on high-speed rail to get you quickly from LA to Merced. Sheer lunacy.

Instead of building more prisons to house the growing numbers of criminals who are victimizing us all, they are closing some down. Instead of serving up consequences to the thieves and murderers, the state mollycoddles them by letting them out early.


* * * * *


Ceres City Council meetings are sometimes entertaining and a window to things that many of us are unaware of.

Last week there was a lengthy and eye-opening presentation on suicide. Did you know that on average a person a week kills themselves in Stanislaus County. Please read the story in this edition.

One citizen complained about her neighbor’s ongoing illegal construction activities on 10th Street and wants it stopped or she is moving out of Ceres. The city attorney told her it’s a matter in litigation but that concerns about illegal construction should always be directed to Code Enforcement,  (209) 538-5799,

Another citizen wants the city to build a people water fountain for the dog park. (They didn’t think to include one?)

One resident suggested that the city take some of the $4 million of ARPA funds to build an indoor soccer complex at the abandoned Walmart store. The City Council has yet to allocate $3.5 million from the second round and $550,000 left over from the first round of funds.

With unfinished parks still yet to be funded, I don’t see that one happening.


* * * * *


It used to be a time-held tradition that if you promise to take a loan that you pay it back – with interest. But under the Biden presidency, the taxpayers are expected to bail out those with student loans and often the ones who didn’t go to college are expected to pay off their debts. This is fundamentally wrong and unfair which is why all the Republican governors sent a letter to Biden saying they “fundamentally oppose (Biden’s) plan to force American taxpayers to pay off the student loan debt of an elite few.”

The Republicans accurately note that “low-income families and hourly workers will pay off the master’s and doctorate degrees of high salaried lawyers, doctors, and professors. ...  Simply put, your plan rewards the rich and punishes the poor.”


* * * * *


Apparently the campaigns for City Council are being conducted on social media. Some candidates have Facebook pages for their campaigns, others not.

It’s probably not the wisest thing for Mayor Lopez to make endorsements because he could end up serving with a council member he didn’t endorse. But he’s posed for “thumbs up” photos with Rosalinda Vierra and Daniel Martinez on their respective campaign Facebook page.

That apparently triggered District 4 City Council candidate John R. Osgood III who displayed his typical warm and fuzzy self on his Facebook page insultingly stating on Sept. 10: “An endorsement from javier Lopez might not be as good as you think it is , but peas in a pod for sure … both of you constitutionally ignorant and willfully treasonous.”

Then on Sept. 4 came this toxic post from Osgood: “Be very careful what you do when your (sic) angry, or upset. Some people you wrong won’t forget and forgive sometimes just sometimes they make it their goal to make your life hell! Are you ready big boy?”

On Sept. 2 Osgood posted: “Watch what you say when i pressure you , you just might let the truth fall out you (sic) idiotic mouth ! You no good low down sore looser (sic) . You don’t want the war your (sic) waging seriously I have nothing to loose (sic) that power you seek is never achieved !traitor”

Voters beware.


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A lot of people who are getting close to retiring find it troubling how Biden policies are destroying the stock markets.

We had it good under Trump. Median household income under Trump rose from $66,657 in 2016 to $71,186 in 2020, an increase of 6.8 percent in four years. After spending trillions of dollars in federal dollars that we don’t have, median household income dropped from $71,186 to $70,784 between 2020 and 2021. That comes from the U.S. Census Bureau.

And consider that the average household is spending $460 more each month to buy the same basket of goods and services (mostly gas and food) as in 2021, according to the Wall Street Journal.


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On Thursday Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher (Yuba City) issued a statement after sending a number of veto request letters to the governor:

Gallagher said: “I oppose these bills because they continue the dangerous Democratic policy of letting everyone out of prison and removing the penalty for crime. They also increase the cost of almost everything from housing to energy to food. They impede your ability to recall politicians who are failing their constituents and abusing their power. And, perhaps most egregiously, AB 2223 removes all civil and criminal liability and, in fact, doesn’t even allow for the investigation of, the deaths of babies who may have been intentionally murdered in late term pregnancy or after their birth. AB 2223 and the rest of these horrendous bills must be vetoed.”

AB 256 (Kalra): Allows for a defendant to overturn their sentence based on a subjective racial bias standard in their proceedings. 

AB 1925 (Santiago): Removes the requirement for an individual to be a registered voter of a county or district to serve in an appointed office.

AB 2167 (Kalra): Would require the courts to consider “alternatives to incarceration” in all criminal cases. These “alternatives” are not defined in the bill. 

AB 2223 (Wicks): Legalizes late-term abortions and prevents investigations of suspicious infant deaths and immunizes unlicensed abortion providers. 

AB 2438 (Friedman): Diverts gas tax money from road maintenance, traffic flow, and safety projects. 

AB 2582 (Bennett): States the ballot in a local recall election shall not include an election for a successor in the event that the incumbent official is recalled and deprives voters of their right to elect a successor if they recall the incumbent local officer for misconduct in office.

AB 2584 (Berman): Allows recall elections of local officials to be held at the next regularly scheduled election up to 6 months later, instead of at a special election and requires petitions for the recall of school board members to state the cost of the special election. This makes it much more difficult for voters to exercise their constitutional right to recall local officials for misconduct, and deprives them of a speedy process to remove such officials.

SB 955 (Leyva): Allows middle and high school students to request and be excused from school to attend various civic or political events, which can include strikes and political rallies, without any guarantee the parents of that student are aware.

SB 1008 (Becker): Requires a correctional facility to provide inmates with free voice communications, costing potentially millions of dollars.

SB 1020 (Laird): Accelerates California’s 2045 zero-carbon electricity mandate by setting interim targets for utilities beginning in 2035 and by requiring state agencies to use 100% zero-carbon energy before 2036 (rather than 2046) and forces the state and utilities to secure zero-carbon energy resources years ahead of schedule.

SB 1106 (Wiener): Would permit criminals who have not paid their court-ordered restitution to their victims to be paroled to other states, to have their charges reduced or dismissed, and have their crimes expunged.

SB 1157 (Hertzberg): Restricts the residential indoor water use standards from 52.5 gallons per person/day to 47 gallons per person/day and requires the Department of Water Resources (DWR) to conduct studies on the economic benefits and impacts of this standard on water, wastewater, and recycled water systems.

 

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