Oh that ever sneaky, ever dictatorial, punitive Governor Newsom. (Where are those “No Kings” protestors, anyhow?)

He just signed a bill, SB 73, that makes it illegal for any county sheriff, any county district attorney to delve into ballot fraud. It basically allows the Democrat state Attorney General, his Democrat Secretary of State and his own Democrat hide to be the only ones who can delve into election fraud. It’s a bit like the fox putting himself in charge of the hen house.

Imagine blocking an elected DA from investigating voter fraud as they were elected to.

SB 73, as Newsom suggests, prevents ICE agents from going near polling places. Why? Illegal aliens aren’t allowed to vote, I thought.

But the real thick is that the bill and its Assembly companion bill are designed to prevent future Chad Bianco’s from looking into voter fraud as he did in San Bernardino County because an audit of logs showed 611,428 ballots cast but 657,322 votes were reported and certified. AG Rob Bonta shut him down. Why? Isn’t Bonta concerned with voter fraud?

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Sacramento City Councilwoman Mai Vang is running for the 7th Congressional District seat and is now being haunted by videos of her refusing to participate in the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag at council meetings. She not only did not recite the pledge but she turned her back on Old Glory.

Some say Vang she is trying to become the Northern California version of the socialist bartender turned Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC).

Vang faced criticism back when she pulled her anti-American protest and wrote this on Feb. 4, 2025: “As much as I love this country, I use that moment to ground myself – to center our communities and remind myself of the injustices and harm that continue to affect so many, both locally and across the globe, under this nation’s influence.”

Here’s what doesn’t make sense to me: Vang claims to love America but hers is a funny way of showing appreciation for a nation that took in her Hmong refugee parents.

She also suggests that her Pledge protest is to address the injustices of the nation. On top of that she speaks of staying steadfast in the fight of equity. Say again? A woman of ethnic minority who got elected to a city council of a major city and she’s barking about inequality? Laughable.

I don’t think that a woman who fails to appreciate her generous nation – the one so many immigrants are clamoring to enter because of its greatness – belongs anywhere near the U.S. House of Representatives. Hopefully the voters don’t move her on to the general election.

Oh, did I forget to mention that she’s a Democrat?

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It’s mindboggling how blatant the pandering of Democrats to the underclass from where their support tends to come. It’s not enough that the state makes taxpayers foot the bill to feed all school children regardless of income level.

When I was a student at Catherine Everett Elementary School in Modesto in the late 1960s, breakfast was cold cereal at home and my mother packed my lunch (usually bologna sandwiches) in my Batman lunch pail and off to school I went. In junior high we bought lunch meal tickets.

Now Newsom is glad handedly supplying 400 “free” (we pay) diapers for families leaving maternity wards under the Baby2Baby program. Read that as a $77 million “Buying Favors from the Poor So They Vote for Democrats” policy.

Newsom’s press release reads: “The goal of the program is to ease financial strain for families, reduce difficult trade-offs between diapers and other essentials, and support infant health by helping parents maintain an adequate supply of clean diapers.”

No, actually the goal of the Nanny State is making people so utterly dependent on government that they will continue to vote for the hand that feeds it, rather than feed their selves.

Kim Johnson, Secretary of the California Health & Human Services Agency, said, “The first days at home with a newborn should be focused on the love, connection, and joy of an expanded family, not stress about affording diapers.”

An expectant mother has nine months to buy diapers lest she freaks out in a hospital that she doesn’t have any as the baby comes home.

Here’s another thought: Use cloth diapers. When our first two came along in 1984 and 1986 we used cloth diapers. Sure, it was an unpleasant task cleaning out the poop, rinsing them out and bleaching them in a pail for washing but we saved a ton of money and weren’t sending soiled diapers to the landfills.

Of course hidden in the $77 million state program are these gems:

• Baby2Baby buys the diapers from a Mexico plant at a higher cost of regular diapers which you can buy at Walmart. Right now on Amazon you can buy 198 Huggies diapers for $49.22, or 25 cents apiece. Newsom’s diapers are 50 cents apiece;
• Baby2Baby’s office expenses were $2 million;
• Occupancy costs $2 million;
• Conferences, $150,500
• Travel expenses, $700,500.
• 14 employees making over $100,000 in annual salary.

State Assemblyman Carl DeMaio asks why is Baby2Baby even involved as a middleman when it would be cheaper to hand vouchers to parents so they can buy them at the store their selves? Maybe because Newsom’s wife is involved and needs the credit?

This is phony baloney politics at its worst. If the governor and want-to-be president was really concerned about the cost of living for Californians, why not abandon the policies that make life unaffordable? Newsom absolutely would not budge on the call to suspend the gas tax and he certainly won’t eliminate regulations that kill jobs that would enable families to afford those diapers and food and rent.

They cause the fires and then hand you a fire extinguisher to put them out, expecting praise and support for the extinguisher.

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Did you struggle paying your state tax bill last April? I know I did so it doesn’t make me feel anything but angst when I learned that Newsom’s state government bought $189 million to give digital tablets to 90,000 inmates in state prisons. Newsom said he wants to help overcome the “digital equity for justice impacted individuals.”

Congressman James Comer wrote a letter to Newsom to point out how prisoners are taking advantage of the tablets for nefarious purposes. Inmate Nathaniel Diaz, convicted in 2023 of sexual crimes against a 12-year-old girl, began sexually messaging and exploiting the same underage girl. Diaz’s indictment also reveals the exceptionally weak safeguards on California’s prisoner tablet program, as in addition to having two accomplices receive and send sexually explicit images of the victim to him, Diaz was somehow able to call the victim thousands of times.

Newsom, of course, downplays the abuse when he said on X that the prisoners’ use is “monitored, recorded, searchable, and investigated.” Right-t-t-t-t. Sure it is.

And I can imagine there is a lot of swiping of tablets from other inmates that leads to violent encounters.

Aside from the misuses, I am steamed that my taxpayer funds are being used to hand prisoners free computer devices when most of us struggle to buy them for our children.

Did it ever occur to Newsom that prisoner must give up convenience as they pay for their crimes? Why is he always pushing to make prison as accommodating as possible?

What next? Bring in Starbucks kiosks and supply free mochas? Cater Burger King inside the prison walls with loaded debit cards?

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It’s a sad day when Americans who served their country in the military – many in overseas battles – die at the hand of thugs in the homeland.

Kerry Sheron, a 69-year-old Army veteran living on East Mission Boulevard in Escondido, was viciously assaulted on May 20 and was in critical condition until he died Sunday night, May 24.

Thomas Caleb Butler was arrested as the lone suspect who attacked Sheron and a bystander trying to stop the attack Butler is a 32-year-old Navy veteran.

Sheron’s wife believes he was singled out for an attack because of his yard signs supporting President Trump and Make America Great Again displays in the yard. That remains to be proven. The yard display was previously slashed with a knife and other acts of vandalism, neighbors reported.

But he may have been just another kook who dropped through the judicial cracks. Butler’s estranged wife, Breanna Butler, 32, told The California Post that her husband — whom she termed a “nerdy gamer” – acted violently toward his family and dangerously mixed alcohol with his medication “frequently.”

Assuming that Butler hated Trump and any of his supporters, it’s sad that the Left is so intolerant that it dispenses any sense of civility and respect for fellow man. Aside from an absence of political motivation, we have to get a better handle on dangerous mentally ill persons.

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There were some reports circulating that the veterans groups were not welcome at the Ceres High School graduation to present the colors.

Not true, according to the Ceres Unified School District.

James Casey, who serves on the Ceres City Council, said that several attempts were made to contact the high school to see if they wanted the honor guard at the graduation and that no returns calls were made to the commander of the American Legion post. Casey also said he called and heard nothing back. Casey said he went to Board Trustee Lourdes Perez and was told “the high school had no interest” and if he wanted more information he could call and they would explain why.

I asked CUSD Supt. Amy Peterman about the situation and she noted that prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the presentation of colors was a regular part of these ceremonies. After the pandemic, CHS staff attempted to reconnect with their prior contact, but the contact information was no longer valid and the school received no further outreach.

“At no time have veterans been told they are not welcome to participate in commencement ceremonies. CHS would welcome the opportunity to reintroduce the presentation of colors for future graduations.

“Traditions such as the Pledge of Allegiance and performing of the National Anthem continue to be an important part of these ceremonies and are proudly led by students.”

Superintendent Peterman said that there was miscommunication between the school and post leaders and said the district would be working to re-establish their participation in grad ceremonies, if not this week then next year.

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We should all thank God that we broke free from England 250 years ago. Old Mother England has gotten pretty bad these days. They also are allowing unvetted immigrants to change their culture, freedom of speech can be squelched by the government and liberal judges are making headlines with lenient sentences.

Judge Nicholas Rowland gave kid glove treatment to three boys who gang raped two girls months apart while videoing the act, saying he wanted to support the boys’ reintegration into society, adding: “I should avoid criminalizing these children unnecessarily.”

Those boys criminalized their selves by raping females.

He also told the boys: “I have to remember that you are not small adults.”

Well, yes they are small adults.

Last week, one of the victims in the Fordingbridge rape described the sentencing as a “rock straight in my face.” She questioned why she had to endure a trial, reliving her trauma on the witness stand, only to see her abusers walk free.

Rowland, one of Britain’s most experienced criminal trial judges, was challenged by the government last year for an “unduly lenient” sentence in another violent sex case where he sentenced Joshua Blachford to three years and nine months.

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I had the honor of riding around with Steve Whitney, a volunteer with the Ceres Police Department, and I can honestly say he is an unsung hero of the community who just wants to make his community a better place. And he doesn’t seek the limelight.

As we were riding down Nadine Avenue at about 9 a.m., the strong smell of marijuana was blowing through ctrack in the windows. It was as if an invisible cloud had just entered my lungs and I can’t tell you how rank I find it. He replied, “Oh, I smell it all the time.”

Is this what people aspire to in their life? Is life so horrible that one has to escape it by getting high? Surely they are not all using for medicinal purposes.

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