Parents are increasingly fed up with the liberal crap being infused into public schools and how Democrats want to usurp parental authority.

Democrat State Superintendent of Schools Tony Thurmond appeared before a Chino Valley School Board meeting last week to argue against a policy that requires administrators to inform parents if their child identifies as transgender at school. Thurmond was asked to leave after he wouldn’t shut up and went beyond his time limit. About 85 others were waiting to speak behind him – mostly irate parents.

Get this: Thurmond suggested that if the board adopted the policy that it would violate the privacy rights of students. Translation: He feels parents have no right to know when their own flesh and blood – people they have the responsibility to raise – are confused about sexual issues.

Thurmond is one of the reasons why public schools in California are failing. He thinks notifying parents “threatens (student) safety.” How evil does he think parents are, anyway?

Of course, it’s obvious that he could care less about ticking off parents who tend to be more conservative than the next generation of indoctrinated and groomed voters who will vote for Thurmond’s party.

Of course, after he was humiliated, Thurmond pouted, exaggerating on Twitter that he was “verbally attacked” and calling the conservative parents and school board members as “extremists.” Gotta love how the progressives can’t stand when their liberal policies get pushback from parents who want to raise their kids without the state trying to withhold information about their kids.

And for the record, Thurmond was asked to leave the podium, not “booted” of the meeting like biased media outlets reported. He was being obnoxious in trying to hijack the meeting.

Good for Chino School Board President Sonja Shaw who said Thurmond “is a danger to our students. He continues to push things that pervert children, and he continues to push out parents and bring in policies that create division between families.” Amen!

A reporter on Fox News 11 said the meetings “have gotten so crazy.” She should have added “because the policies put forth by Democrats are increasingly insane.”

When, oh when, will California voters quit inflicting this kind of damage by ballot box choices?

Oh, in case you didn’t know, Thurmond wants to become the next governor. I say, oh hell no to that.

* * * * *

You would think that by the number of insane spending ideas coming from the progressive segment of our collective elected bodies that we have all the money in the world to fritter away.

Evanston, Illinois just became the first city in the country to issue reparations in the form of housing grants. That’s where people who were never slave owners are being forced to pay out money to people who were never slaves. If you’d say that’s a scheme to keep people voting for Democrats and eating out of the hand of government you’d be spot on.

The first phase involves giving 16 residents $25,000 each for home repairs or property costs. The total plan involves doling out $10 million to only black residents with priority going to descendants of Evanston residents who lived in the city between 1919 and 1969 or suffered housing discrimination after 1969. Descendants!

Where is Evanston getting the money to do this? From the city’s shakedown of marijuana retailers.

I find it insane that government would pay descendants for past injustices when laws have been corrected to end housing discrimination. The payouts will not lift up anyone’s economic standing because only education and hard work will do that. What it will do is ensure that people keep voting for Democrats whose policies lift up no one and only make crime rise.

NYC is also paying out $13.7 million to more than 1,300 protestors during the 2020 Black Lives Matter demonstrations (riots) and who were arrested by police. That’s $9,950 each.

I guess it would have been better had NYC police just allowed the protestors to continue on burning police cars, breaking windows and looting stores. 

* * * * *

Let’s talk about SB 94, another insane law dreamt up by Democrats in Sacramento. Let’s call this the “Convicted Murderers Should Not Have to Stay Behind Bars Longer than 20 Years” bill.

Democrat state Senator Dave Cortese of San Jose thinks those who robbed people of their lives “deserve a path to parole.” I’m not one to believe that it’s fair to release murderers when they put others six feet underground.

Look at the way this guy frames his argument: “SB 94 would save the state hundreds of millions of dollars each year by giving older inmates the right to judicial review.” Translate that to: “The state shouldn’t waste money keeping people behind bars where they belong so let’s get them out of prison where they can possibly kill again.”

Cortese feels “people age out of crime,” or in other words, they stop killing as they get older. Not so fast, Dave.

Remember Larry Singleton? He was 51 when in 1978 he picked up and raped 15-year-old hitchhiker Mary Vincent and chopped off her arms with a hatchet and left her for dead after throwing her off a 30-foot cliff in the Del Puerto Canyon. This sick b------d was sentenced to 14 years and released only eight years later. After his release he went back to his native Florida where he was caught stealing things. In court he told the judge that he was a “confused, muddleheaded old man.” In 1997 at age 70 he assaulted and murdered 31-year-old Roxanne Hayes by stabbing her multiple times.

Are these the kinds of people Cortese wants to give a second chance?

State Senator Scott Wiener, the moral reprobate from San Francisco, is all for this bill. Figures. If it doesn’t make sense, he’s all for it. Also in favor of it is Attorney General Rob Bonta, who I would never ever vote for.

* * * * *

Newly elected state Assemblyman Juan Alanis, R-Modesto told me that Democrats will not support any new legislation that will add a day to criminal sentencing. Boy did he get that right. California Democrats blocked a bill to make child trafficking a serious felony with a sentence of 25 years to life.

Senate Bill 14, which passed the state Senate without a single “no” vote, would add trafficking of a minor to the state’s “Three Strikes Law,” which provides enhanced penalties for repeat offenses of certain serious felonies including murder, rape and arson. But on July 11 all six Democrats on the state Assembly Public Safety Committee voted against it.

The public flipped its collective wig. Even Gov. Newsom realized the idiocy of the six and called. Newsom must have come down hard on the six for Liz Ortega, a Democrat representing the San Leandro area, admitted she made a “bad decision.” Four of the six changed their vote: Ortega, chairman Reggie Jones-Sawyer, Miguel Santiago and Rick Chavez Zbur. The two Democrats who still are opposed are Mia Bonta and Isaac Bryan.

* * * * *

As a history buff, I’ve visited a vast number of old cemeteries and I can tell you that I’m usually the only living one when I go. People generally aren’t interested in graveyards where the bones are of people few folks remember. In modern cemeteries we know who is buried because of headstones and cemetery records. That is not the case with so called sacred lands which may or may not contain the remains of Native Americans and which environmentalists use in their fight against dams; they push the narrative of sacred lands where nobody knows who or if they are buried.

This comes up every time there is talk about raising Shasta Dam, which is already in place. Raising Shasta on the upper Sacramento River northwest of Redding, by less than 19 feet to increase reservoir capacity would provide 634,000 more acre-feet of water per year. Environmentalist poo-poo the idea, saying the amount of extra storage is a drop in the bucket for the cost of at least $1.4 billion. As if they are ever for ANY dam! They suggest that flooding the ground around Shasta by 19 feet will flood those “sacred” Winnemem Wintu tribal lands. Never mind that those extra feet would not be flooded at certain dry times of the year or during times of drought.

Remember the words of former Republican state Senator Anthony Cannella, that the Democrats have waged Holy Ji-had against additional water storage in California. Seems the key then to getting more water storage is getting rid of Democrat candidates at the ballot box.

* * * * *

In 2002 country singers Toby Keith and Willie Nelson recorded the song, “Beer for my Horses” which talks about evil forces and putting lawbreakers in their place. Part of the song sung by Nelson goes like this: 

“Grandpappy told my pappy, back in my day, son

A man had to answer for the wicked that he done

Take all the rope in Texas find a tall oak tree

Round up all them bad boys, hang them high in the street

For all the people to see.”

That’s the way it was done back then.

Fast forward to July 2023 and singer Jason Aldean is facing criticism for his song, “Try That In a Small Town” which is mild by comparison to the Toby Keith song:

“Sucker punch somebody on a sidewalk

Carjack an old lady at a red light

Pull a gun on the owner of a liquor store

Ya think it’s cool, well, act a fool if ya like

Cuss out a cop, spit in his face

Stomp on the flag and light it up

Yeah, ya think you’re tough

Well, try that in a small town

See how far ya make it down the road

Around here, we take care of our own

You cross that line, it won’t take long

For you to find out, I recommend you don’t

Try that in a small town.”

Aldean’s song is steeped in right v left mentality. In the big cities, folks are victimized by thugs who in many cases don’t face consequence because big city DAs won’t prosecute. It’s a different world in a small town where folks believe in following the law, preserving one’s way of life through arms and seeing that evil acts meet justice.

Small town America believes in goodness and respecting neighbors and property. Small town America believes in God and justice exacted through punishment that fits the crime – and by that I mean through criminal justice sentences that don’t go easy on evil doers. In fact, if you take a life, you forfeit your own.

But big city America responds by accusing Aldean of being “pro lynching” as they attempt very feebly to suggest white America wants to return to the days of lynchings. To borrow Joe Biden’s favorite line, come on, man. This song is about good old fashioned Americans standing up to evil people who care less about life and property, not lynching people because of skin color. If that calls for using your gun to stop crime, so be it.

In 2017 Aldean saw firsthand the face of evil when he was on stage in Las Vegas and a demented soul armed to the teeth decided to spray innocent folks with bullets, killing 58 and wounding 867.It’s too bad nobody on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel was able to take out Stephen Paddock in his first volley of gunfire.

* * * * *

In the 1990s I attended my brother’s church in Los Angeles where the pastor devoted his entire sermon on why drugs should be decriminalized. Instead of talking about God he held us pew captives to suggest drug-related crimes would stop. I left with an open mind but feeling uncomfortable about his reasoning.

Which brings me to Oregon, where in 2020 the voters passed Ballot Measure 10 which eliminated criminal penalties for possessing small amounts of any drug, including cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine.

Oregon has since experienced sharp rises in overdose deaths.  In the two years after the law took effect, the number of annual overdoses in the state rose by 61 percent, compared with a 13 percent increase nationwide, according to the CDC. 

The state now has one of the highest percentages of adults with a substance-use disorder. And treatment funding has been delayed. It seems with no consequences, fewer people are seeking treatment.

Sixty percent of respondents in an Oregon survey blame Measure 110 for increasing crime, drug addiction and homelessness. A majority, including a majority of Democrats, support bringing back criminal penalties for drug possession. Imagine that.

It is still illegal in Oregon to sell, traffic and possess large amounts of drugs but drug users with small amounts are now only cited for minor drug possession, similar to a traffic ticket. Users with up to a gram of heroin or methamphetamine, or up to 40 oxycodone pills, are given a $100 fine, which can be waived if they call a treatment-referral hotline, funded by, what else, marijuana revenues. During its first 15 months in operation, the hotline received only 119 calls, at a cost to the state of $7,000 per call.

Of 5,299 drug-possession cases filed in Oregon circuit courts since Measure 110, 3,381 blew off the fine and court appearance with no further penalties; and an estimated 1,300 tickets were dismissed or are pending.

Advocates celebrate the drop in arrests but critics say that sidelining law enforcement has made it harder to persuade some drug users to stop using. Without accountability or the ability to drive a better choice, these individuals are left to their own demise.

To finance drug habits, thefts and shoplifting have increased. It seems when homeless druggies are hanging out in shopping centers, shoppers stay away and businesses close. It’s not hard to figure out why. Portland’s Democratic mayor, Ted Wheeler stated: “Portland’s substance-abuse problems have exploded to deadly and disastrous proportions.”

Julia Pinsky, the co-founder of Max’s Mission, a harm-reduction nonprofit in southern Oregon, acknowledged that “some consequences might be a helpful thing” since “some people aren’t capable of stopping drug use on their own. They need additional help.”air

* * * * *

What does California’s kid glove treatment of criminals beget us? More crime of course.

Take for example the case of Daniel Allen Coats, 41, of Turlock who has spent the better part of his life being a societal problem by stealing cars and breaking into houses. He should have been in prison for failing to learn how to live within the bounds of the law but because he was a free man, somebody went to their grave.

In December 2018 an intoxicated Coats was driving and ran into another vehicle in Turlock and killed Jose Manuel Mora, 55, of Hilmar. Coats then fled the scene, leaving a dying man. Coats recently was found guilty and faces a sentence of 30 years in prison for gross vehicular manslaughter.

Let’s review this man’s stellar behavior as a human being:

• On May 8, 2009, Coats broke into a car, stole a purse and took the victim’s house key and using the address from her driver’s license broke into her home in Denair to steal items.

• On May 11, 2010, Coats stole another car in Turlock. He was arrested in Sparks, Nevada driving that stolen car. He was sentenced to six years in prison in 2010 but out in 2014.

• After his release he was arrested in Marin County with burglary tools including bolt cutters and a crowbar and more stolen goods – all while out on bail.

• That arrest occurred while he was out on bail for charges in Stanislaus County stemming from stolen property that was found at his residence. He had apparently broken into another vehicle as his home had stolen goods from it.

• Days later he was found by police. In his lap was a stolen gun.

• While in prison in 2011, Coats and three fellow inmates obtained personal information of other inmates and gave it to co-defendants outside prison who used that information to prepare and file false income tax returns with the IRS, claiming refunds. Coats filed three false tax returns in his own name. In all, the conspiracy resulted in at least 247 false claims for income tax returns. The IRS caught some of these refunds, but paid out approximately 138 fraudulent refunds totaling $219,984.

• In 2016, Coats was convicted for tax fraud and was sentenced to one and a half years in prison and ordered to pay $8,938 in restitution for his role in a conspiracy.

Why wasn’t this man still in prison in December 2018? Had he been, Jose Mora would be alive today.

Californians should be outraged that our state legislators (correction, Democrats) insist on reducing prison sentences and closing prisons. If anything, we need to build more prisons to accommodate the increase in criminals.

* * * * *

I have personally taken note of at least three motorcycle fatalities in the past three months in the region. Two of them were solo crashes, one involving a 71-year-old man! One involved a young woman on Highway 99 in Keyes.

Do people realize when they buy these things how dangerous traveling is?

The Insurance Information Institute reported that in 2020, motorcyclists had a fatality crash rate of 31.64 per 100 million vehicle miles traveled. By comparison, the fatality crash rate of passenger cars was 1.15 per 100 million vehicle miles and for light trucks, it was 0.67 per 100 million vehicle miles traveled. This equates to a nearly 30 times greater risk of being killed in a crash when riding on a motorcycle than riding in a passenger vehicle.

In 2020 there were 67.8 motorcycle crash fatalities for every 100,000 registered vehicles in 2020 as compared to 10.79 for passenger cars and 6.90 for light trucks.

According to the California Highway Patrol in 2021, a total of 13,381 injury and fatality motorcycle crashes occurred in the state. In 2020, 539 motorcyclists were killed in California accidents.

The University of California, Berkeley reports the top five factors in 2020 that contributed to motorcycle crashes serious injuries and fatalities were:

• Speeding – 30.9%

• Improper turning – 22.2%

• Automobiles failing to yield the right-of-way – 16.1%

• Impairment by alcohol or drugs by either the motorcyclist or the driver- 8.9%

• Failing to obey traffic lights or stop signs – 4.4%

Thought I’d pass along this good information in case you’re riding a motorcycle or thinking about buying one.

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