Recently the governor announced he wants California to be a no-kill state for cats and dogs. Not having to kill cats and dogs – by finding homes and fostering responsible pet owners – is a great goal. But it’s tragic that Democrats aren’t first calling for such protections for the human fetus. In fact, they are bending over backwards to accommodate infanticide – in a most defiant way.
On Jan. 24 California’s Democratic leaders were defiant after the Trump administration threatened to cut federal healthcare funding over its requirement that insurance plans cover abortions.
Trump is trying to spare babies from being killed but then our smug governor has the gonads to say that by taking away the state’s healthcare funding, Trump would be taking tens of billions of dollars from kids, seniors, the poor and the sick. Newsom went on his Tweet rant: “And yet you call yourself ‘pro-life’ @realDonaldTrump?» Newsom tweeted. “You sicken me.”
No wonder lots of us in California loathe and detest Gov. Newsom. He sickens us.
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There’s a good possibility that Pete Buttigieg will be rolling through Ceres next Friday, which is Valentine’s Day. He’ll be in the Bay Area on Feb. 13-14, fly to Sacramento and then make his way to Turlock, presumably by way of the Modesto Airport.
Democrats are excited about the visit. They probably shouldn’t be too excited because the gay former mayor of South Bend, Indiana (half the size of Modesto), is polling virtually zero support of the black community. It seems the black community is not supportive of a gay president. Translation: he cannot win an election for president.
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The public education system in our country is doing something wrong. Need proof? Look no further than the Newsweek article titled “Half of American adults aren’t aware that six million Jews died in the Holocaust, poll finds.”
It’s worse than that: Only 45 percent know what should be a primary bullet point taught in classrooms.
If they don’t know the basic facts of history – and Hitler exterminating that many innocent people should be a must-know fact –that might explain why so many skulls of mush think socialism is a good thing.
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Homelessness affects all of us in California. Dr. Drew Pinsky, a board-certified physician and addiction medicine specialist who spent most of his career working in a psychiatric hospital, says politicians who just want to provide housing are barking up the wrong tree. He believes over 90 percent of homeless in the state are on meth and that 60 to 85 percent of the homeless are resistant to receive services, shelter and treatment because they are not self-aware of their need. Pinsky also believes many are schizophrenic.
He also faults the state Legislature for failing to hear SB 640 by Republican state Senator John Moorlach who wants to modify the 1967 Lanterman-Petris-Short Act. The act was to “end the inappropriate, indefinite and involuntary commitment of persons with mental health disorders” but it missed the mark by putting severely mentally ill people on the streets and in our prisons because the people who often care for them most—their families—lost all tools to give their loved ones the care they needed, at times, involuntarily. Moorlach summarized that his bill was crafted to clarify the definition of “gravely disabled” and tie in an individual’s capacity to make informed decisions about his or her personal well-being. As it stands he believes jails and prisons have been “converted into makeshift mental institutions and left a high number of seriously mentally ill homeless individuals with no means of treatment or care.”
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In the Modesto Bee video forum involving the three candidates for District 5 supervisor, Bee editor Garth Stapley asked Channce Condit, Tom Hallinan and Mike Kline to rate the current performance of the Ceres City Council. Hallinan declined, saying it wouldn’t be fair to judge the entity he works for as city attorney. (He said he’s going to quit that job if elected). Kline gave it a “B” grade as I remember. Condit gave it a passing C. When asked why, he said essentially because they didn’t bite on his idea that the council give up health benefits – allowed by state law – to help pare down the Community Center deficit.
I told you back in my column of July 3 that Condit’s idea was purely political posturing. I wrote that his suggestion “plays well if you have your eye on future political campaigns – and you’d better believe that the grandson of an ex-congressman and son of a congressional candidate is getting plenty of advice.”
Turns out that I was right. I just didn’t know that this political move would be played so quickly – not even halfway through his council term. That’s bold.
When asked who they supported for the District 1 supervisor’s seat, Condit didn’t bat an eye to suggested that his dad’s cousin, Buck Condit, was best for the job.
It would have been a question to dodge.
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Lest you think that bad drivers are only a phenomenon today, try this newspaper report that I stumbled upon from the Turlock Tribune published Jan. 21, 1920:
“Anybody who needs further proof of the utter boorishness of some of the people driving automobiles around these parts could have found it had they been in the neighborhood of Main and Broadway Monday morning. No less than three or four machines, coming west on Main street, cut in on the Laranjo funeral procession as it turned from Broadway into Main on the way to the cemetery. Maybe the automobile schools that are starting up over the country have in mind just this sort of people. Intellects like these sure need encouragement.”
I suppose there is the same percentage of bad drivers today as there was 100 years ago. But drivers back then weren’t playing with cell phones and the speeds were more like 40-50 mph.
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There are a lot of exciting projects on Ceres’ horizon. On Monday came approval for the Ceres Gateway Center on the triangle-shaped land bounded by Highway 99, Service Road and Mitchell Road. Let’s just hope this one breaks ground soon for their 2021 opening.
And isn’t it odd that Citizens for Ceres is nowhere to be found to raise the same hackles about that project as it was the Supercenter? That fake group was such a crock of you-know-what.
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
