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Using COVID for political purposes
Opinion

Have you been vaccinated?

You know what vaccine I’m talking about. The only one that seems to matter anymore.

Up until 2020 there was no expectation that you would get the seasonal flu shot. Your doctor would ask you if you wanted the flu shot and you either got it or you didn’t.  There was no pressure, no condemnation. It was your choice. No banning from concerts at the Gallo Centre.

Trump’s presidency got the vaccine going but now the Biden White House is weaponizing it. You WILL get vaccinated or else. You will be made to PAY for it. This is about compliance or you will be persecuted. Free choice is out the window.

MSN reported last week: “After a devastating year spent locked down and dreaming of vaccines, there are growing reports of the unvaccinated triggering “’scorn’ and ‘resentment’ among the vaccinated. Some analysts now say this anger is already visible in elections. MSNBC’s Ari Melber is joined by political strategist Chai Komanduri to discuss this growing anger and how it can be used as a political tool. Komanduri argues ‘it’s about time Democrats” use anger to mobilize voters.’”

Did you catch that? Making the unvaccinated the enemy and using them as a lightning rod so Democrats can get more votes. Have you seen anything so disgustingly partisan as this? Talk about pitting Americans against Americans.

Now Los Angeles schools are requiring kids to be vaccinated or they can’ attend school. Really? We are going to take it there even though kids are rarely affected by COVID?

The dirty little secret is that the so-called COVID hospitalizations are inflated numbers. It’s a numbers game. They wanted us to think COVID was so bad that even healthy people could spend their last days on a respirator. How were the reports of hospitalization spiked? Well, if you went to the hospital for being in a car crash, falling off a ladder, being shot, having pneumonia, or cancer treatment, and tested positive for COVID (possibly zero symptoms) you are classified as a COVID patient.


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I have enjoyed watching the long running CBS-TV series “Survivor” for over a decade. The newest season just started last week after its COVID hiatus. It’s getting harder for me to watch.

I feel like they’re using me, a viewer, as a pawn in their liberal agenda as they concentrate large numbers of LGBTQ (and God knows what future letters will be attached) participants on the show to tell their stories to the strains of violin music. CBS continues to push the envelope in using its popular show to normalize deviant lifestyles. 

Season 41’s cast has two lesbians on it, which is okay but with 18 contestants I think CBS has overrepresented the percentage of LGBTQ that exist in society. If a person wants to lead that lifestyle, fine but CBS should make it the focus of their background story. It’s kind of an in-your-face for the vast majority of Americans who still ascribe to traditional values. It’s almost as the CBS execs have a politically correct formula to pick cast members based on ethnicity and sexual preferences, aside from obligatory inclusion of the hot young straight cast. Oh, in an attempt to appease the viewer in the heartland, they included a woman pastor, Shantel Smith. But I’m not impressed after hearing her say that while she can listen to people with empathy admits she can be a “cutthroat.” “I will pray for you and walk you out the door at the same time. I have no problem doing that.” I’m not sure Jesus would ever agree to be on the show, let alone play that way.

When Jeff Probst announced that he wanted change and wanted to stop always saying “Come on in, guys” to competitions – something he’s had no problem saying since the show went on the air 21 years ago – I smelled CBS’ politically correct game at play. “Guys” is routinely accepted today as a term for a group and not necessarily only males. Probst asked the cast if anyone was offended by his tradition. No objections were raised but later at tribal council, contestant Ricard Foye of Washington State pipes up, yep, he has a problem. No surprise given that Foye is a man who is married to a biological woman who is a transgendered man but also having a baby. So I’m not sure I can sort out what that makes Foye, gay or straight, but I’m convinced CBS has an agenda all right.

The incidence of gay, lesbian, bi or transgendered on the show is far over represented from what occurs in real life. According to a new Gallup poll, 5.6 percent of Americans claim they are LGBTQ, up from 3.5 percent in 2012. So that means 94.4 percent are straight.

CBS execs don’t care if they offend most of its viewers’ sensibilities. It’s the small cost of pushing their woke agenda.


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Recently I was having breakfast at Denny’s when I noticed a family of four sitting at the table next to me. It was mom, dad and two daughters. They weren’t talking. All four were in their phones. The girls didn’t stop when the food arrived.

A short while later I saw a large group sit down at a double table. There were about eight or nine of them.  Every one of them was in their phones, except an older gentleman who sat politely with his hands folded. The picture really struck a sad chord in me. Here was a member of the older pre-cell phone generation sitting in silence because nobody younger than him paid him any attention. They couldn’t set aside their social media or whatever it was, for a short spell to have meaningful dialogue.

I also observed the family who was in the hotel hot tub the night before. The young lady, perhaps 14, had her phone as she posed for selfies the entire time. I could swear the duck lips came out too.

While I consider the smart phone to be the greatest invention of my lifetime, it has done much to destroy one-on-one relationships in our country and it’s sad. We should all make an effort to turn off the damned things at the dinner table and actually do what people used to do during dinner – talk!


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It’s amazing how quickly the Biden administration is blowing it and the first year isn’t close to being finished. It’s been an unmitigated disastrous spending spree for which our great-grandchildren will be enslaved to pay with high taxes and mounting debt.


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