On Friday I was remarking that we hadn’t had a mass shooting in some time. But I quickly added, “It probably won’t be very long before it happens again.” After all it’s summer and the cockroaches are out.

Then the Gilroy Garlic Festival got shot up on Sunday with three dead. Thank God for police and guns which were there within one minute to “neutralize” the 19-year-old human debris known as Santino William Legan.

But lo and behold here come the calls from the Left for more gun control, specifically Gabby Giffords who was the congresswoman who was shot at an Arizona mall in 2011. Giffords runs a nonprofit organization “dedicated to saving lives from gun violence.”

She sent newspapers this statement: “This reality is horrifying. It’s heartbreaking. And the fact that our nation’s leaders continue to fail to protect us should fuel outrage in every American. This must stop – we must stop this.”

Yes this violence is horrifying and needs to stop. But it won’t. The problem is you can’t legislate evil out of hearts. The cold reality is that we cannot stop killing. There’s nothing any national leader can do about it. It started when Cain killed Abel and it will continue until the end of time. But good trumps evil as Gilroy Police demonstrated on Sunday.

As far as this other gang violence nonsense that’s going on here in our county, maybe it’s time we considered public hangings to show others what will happen when you spray bullets into a park, home or school.

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I almost went to the county fair with family members on the last night and am glad I didn’t. The melee between Hispanic gang thugs – fueled by alcohol – and deputies was ridiculous. Why do Californians put up with this crap? By that I mean why do the deceived masses continue electing state leaders who are soft on crime, unconcerned with building more prisons to flush inmates onto the streets, make life easy on illegal aliens and hard on taxpayers?

The question I have is how many of those disrespectful drunken rabble rousers at the Fair were among the estimated 36,000 illegal aliens in our county alone, or perhaps even the 27,000 from nearby Merced County. Stands to reason there were some – I didn’t say all – since liberal politicians have taken fear of deportation away and they’re coming out of the “shadows.” 

Stanislaus County has a population of 545,267. That means 6.6 percent of the population shouldn’t even be in our county and country. Imagine seeing a reduction of 6.6 percent of the traffic off our streets and a far greater percentage of reduced crimes!

* * * * *

Daily we all see drugged-out people walking around, not so much in Ceres, but elsewhere in Stanislaus County. They’ll be screaming at phantoms following them, slapping themselves, pulling their clothes off, staggering into traffic, sleeping on sidewalks, pooping in flower beds, begging for cash outside convenience stores, taking space in fast-food restaurants from actual customers, and hogging up and messing up bathrooms at establishments.

We really need to change the way we deal with bombed-out-of-their minds people tripped out on drugs. It’s not fair to them – or the rest of us who work and pay taxes – to allow them to continue plaguing the streets as meth zombies. It’s a danger to us and to them. Last year a Caltrans crew accidentally killed a homeless woman sleeping in the brush that they were cleaning along Highway 99.

What would be so wrong with rounding up people who are tripping out and sticking them into a padded room until they come down and then “sentence” them into drug addiction programs to deal with their addiction? I’d prefer to see the state not waste billions on a high-speed train and use money instead dealing with humans with significant emotional and drug issues. I get that some people are beyond help and are on a fast path to early death but some can be rescued. It’s worth a change of policy.

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I received a letter from a politician who called for doubling Border Patrol agents, permanently disqualifying any illegal aliens from ever becoming a legal citizen, denying federal benefits to illegal aliens, streamlining deportations, and giving California schools the option of denying to educate children who are here illegally and require schools to verify immigration status when the child is being enrolled.

No, this politician wasn’t Donald Trump. Whoops, I forget the letter was dated May 6, 1996 and from Congressman Gary Condit, a Democrat. If you don’t believe me, I have my copy I’ll email you.

Contrast his views – whether they were authentic or just pandering to a more conservative 18th Congressional District – with Gavin Newsom and Josh Harder and it makes Condit look more conservative than Donald J. Trump! Come to think of it, Condit should have been a Republican with those views. We didn’t appreciate just how conservative Democrats were back when they had some common sense.

* * * * *

Josh Harder, come on. Really? People want to demonstrate the value of heterosexual relationship and you’re worried this “sends a terrible message to our LGBTQ kids, who are five times more likely to attempt suicide than their peers.” A terrible message, really? A planned August march in celebration of some people being heterosexual – indeed the only way to propagate the human race – is going to make things worse for these kids you say “already feel alone and scared”?

I could argue (from a Christian perspective) that it’s “terrible” that society tells kids they should go with their feelings and accept a lifestyle that doesn’t jive with a lot of faith teaching. How does Harder – a member of a Turlock church – get away with promoting values way out of sync with his faith? But then again, our congressman is out of kilter with the values of the MAJORITY of his constituents.

I don’t know any heterosexual people or couples who are unkind or harass anyone on the basis of what gender they prefer to have sex with, but I do know plenty of people of faith who resent being told they must be “tolerant” and “inclusive” while not being extended the same. Our congressman’s words just illustrates that loud and clear. But remember, Harder wasn’t elected to represent Valley values but by Bay Area values and their money. They also bussed in and ballot harvesters so his extreme views could be foisted onto the 10th CD.

I’ve long believed that kids of the so-called community of LGBTQ – that term wasn’t around 10 years ago so I’m still having to remember the latest letter added on – are more likely to kill themselves because they suffer from psychological issues, not because straight people are harassing and calling them names. At a time when society has NEVER been more accepting of them than now, why wouldn’t the LGBTQ suicide rate be plummeting? Look to emotional instability as reason for that high suicide rate, not because of society’s views.

Something is going wrong with many teens, gay or not. In 2017, there were 47 percent more suicides among people aged 15 to 19 than in the year 2000! In fact, Gabbie Giffords herself suggests “Young adults ages 18 to 25 also experience the highest rates of serious mental illness, and suicide attempts that result in death or treatment in a hospital peak between ages 16 and 21. It is well-documented that the biological processes that take place during late adolescence and young adulthood predispose individuals to riskier and less controlled behavior.”

I treat people with respect in my day-to-day dealings – including the gay waiter who waited my table last week – but this newbie congressman is in no position to lecture straight people that they can’t demonstrate in the street like leftists have ramped up during this Administration.

One thing can be certain, the Straight Pride marchers won’t be turning over police cars and throwing rocks like radical leftists routinely do. Expect a peaceful march – until the left shows up.

It’s not Josh’s job as a elected federal official to belittle conservatives and Christians. So, Josh, keep to pertinent issues like eradicating the swamp rat problem in Los Banos.

I can’t wait for 2020.

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I’ve never believed in the nanny state. Years ago while Josh Harder was probably still in college, I editorialized how wrong it is for taxpayers to be stuck with doing the job that the welfare state has told parents they don’t have to do. Feeding kids is the responsibility of parents, not the state. But just like feeding bears in Yosemite, once the government starts feeding them they can’t fend for themselves. They expect the handout of free food at taxpayer expense as if it’s a legal right.

Harder sent out a press release on July 23 titled “Harder slams USDA proposal to take school lunches from poor children.” Cries of Trump stealing food from the mouths of babes is what you would expect from a typical liberal.

This is a direct quote of Joshie’s: ““I don’t know what genius came up with the idea to take school lunches away from our kids, but we can’t let this happen. Literally thousands of children in the Central Valley rely on the school lunch program just to get something to eat – this garbage proposal would rob them of the nutrition they need to stay healthy and get a good education … This proposal is a complete disaster.”

The Democrat Party depends on an underclass to champion so they forever win its vote. Democrat candidates don’t like Americans becoming self-sufficient with no need for government services (Hillary called them a “basket of deplorables.”) They threaten job security. That’s why they downplay the booming economy and are hopeful of a recession so they can have more “needy” people eating out of their hands.

Harder’s presentation is less than honest. The USDA proposal would eliminate a rule that allows people to automatically qualify for the Supplementary Nutrition Assistance (SNAP) program if they are eligible for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. 

According to the USDA, this action would close a loophole that allows individuals with sufficient income and assets to enroll in the program. This loophole was brought to national attention after Rob Undersander, a Minnesota millionaire, received SNAP benefits for 19 months.

Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue said the proposed changes are about “preventing abuse of a critical safety net system, so those who need food assistance the most are the only ones who receive it.”

The proposal is intended to save billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars by preventing people who shouldn’t be taking advantage of it because they can afford to buy their own groceries. Why wouldn’t our congressman be happy that President Trump is at least trying to prevent waste and save taxpayer money?

* * * * *

Harder voted against the proposed budget because he said “we need to have a real conversation about our spending and our deficit. This was a missed opportunity to look at our federal budget and decide how to responsibly invest taxpayer money in our priorities.” But then he speaks out of the other side of his mouth stating “we can’t default on our debt obligations or make radical cuts all at once, but we need to look at the budget the same way families in the Central Valley look at their budgets – you need to spend within your means and make responsible long-term plans.”

Well, if you’re faced with not paying the mortgage, you make cuts right away, not later. That’s how families operate. 

This is funny coming from someone who wants to expand federal debt with an expensive Medicare for all.

* * * * *

It’s easy for politically astute people to see political opportunism at play which the media is altogether eager to capitalize on.

Erica Thomas walked into her Publix grocery store and disregarded the 10 item limit for the express check-out. Since she had 20 another customer was a bit miffed and walked up to her and pointed out she had too many items. It escalated in anger. Thomas pushed back and he called her names .

Let me say I would never berate anyone for having a small number of items in excess of what an express aisle accepts. Erica is pregnant so I would have been gracious.

This pregnant lady was a black Georgia state representative. The verbal assailant – as big a turd as he was – is white.

Thomas saw this as a chance to tie this to Trump in light of him telling the “squad” of four liberal Congresswomen to go home if they don’t like the U.S. In defense of Trump, he said that because he is tired of those four fundamentally trying to turn America into a socialist nation, not a white nation. Erica Thomas went on social media bawling about being mistreated, which was then picked up by the media which is always eager in finding racism in any story.

There’s several problems. Eric Sparkes, insensitive turd, is a member of the Democrat Party, not a Trump supporter. The other thing is that a black store employee told police that she never heard Sparkes tell her to “go back home.” In an ironic twist, Thomas told the man he could leave the store and “go back” if he didn’t like her conduct. She went so far to tell a TV station she feared for her life, no doubt a slight exaggeration uttered in her 15 minutes of fame before TV cameras.

An officer viewed the videotape of the incident and didn’t see Sparkes angry or holding clench fists as Thomas claimed. Thomas was lying or wildly exaggerating. She even went so far as to say she wanted Sparkes arrested for “hate crimes” to be made an example. (There we go with attacking free speech because we don’t like what’s said). Thomas went on, saying that he had no right to call her names. While I do not defend his choice of words, she is wrong, of course, because we do have a right to free speech, whether the message we agree with or not.

During a press conference she was all over the map, saying while she was “all for freedom of speech,” also stated “there’s a difference between freedom of speech and harassment.” 

Democrat Bill deBlassio condemned the incident as “vile racism.” And the Georgia Democrat Party climbed aboard too saying “Trump’s racist rhetoric is emboldening hate across Georgia and our country.”

We need a little grace in our country. All of us have seen people with more items at the checkout stand than allowed. All it costs is a few seconds more of our item. Now these two will be remembered for this for years when a little civility would be sufficed.

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