Newsom and his ilk have long preached that the GOP engages in election interference but is now actively engaged in it himself.

After turning parts of California into a Third World Nation through radical policies, the governor now wants to interfere with the politics of red states. It’s galling him that conservative states are winning by electing conservative governors who think radically different than he does. So he has formed a PAC (political action committee) to channel money to defeat red state governors.

While California suffers with high taxes, crumbling infrastructure, criminals who are allowed to steal and kill after serving short sentences, rampant homeless, insufferably high cost of living, lack of housing, a lack of water storage facilities, forests that have been neglected and catch fire every summer and fall, and ever-increasing restrictions on business, Newsom really has no business preaching to other states how to run their affairs. As he neglects his state to troll Republican governors and interfere in other state’s affairs like it’s his business, when was the last time you saw Newsom in Stanislaus County to see firsthand how people are sleeping alongside the freeways? When was the last time he spoke to farmers about their needs for more water storage? Nah, he’s too concerned about Woke students in Arkansas who dislike Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who, by the way, won with 63 percent of the vote over her Democrat rival Chris Jones (35.2 percent).

Of course, Newsom sees no political benefit in visiting Stanislaus County because this county voted to recall him. In his first week as governor, Newsom did visit Monterey Park Tract southwest of Ceres to float the idea of a statewide water tax – which was a trial balloon that failed to fly.

The supremely arrogant Newsom thinks he’s popular but he is wildly unpopular with many – especially among outsiders who see how off-the-rails California has become under his watch. The 2021 recall election showed us that most of the precincts in the state voted to remove him. Among the county voters who wanted him gone were Stanislaus, Tuolumne, Merced, Fresno and 24 other counties. It was only the urban, coastal areas and Southern California who saved him. I’m convinced that Satan could win an election if he ran as a Democrat and I don’t understand their voters’ commitment to that party and its failed program.

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In the ebb and flow of time, city council meetings can attract a different cast of characters who not only make a point to attend but offer their input.

Back in the 1990s it was Mike Rego, Mike Soffa and Irv Gilgert who always showed up. In recent years it’s been Shirley Rogers, Leonard Shepherd, Don Donaldson and John Osgood and now that they have mostly disappeared, Gene Yeakley, Dave Pratt and John Warren.

Dave is a really nice guy when you speak to him one on one. But when he addresses the council in his loud and brash voice, he rarely has anything positive to say. 

Pratt poo-pooed what he called the “idealistic goals” set forth by the council at its March 24 goal setting workshop, adding “it will never work.”

“Your high expectations are up here and your infrastructure is way down here,” Pratt delivered. “You will never have enough funds or the personnel to do them.”

Last week Pratt bemoaned the fact that it takes forever for a person to make their way down Mitchell Road and that the proposed Service / Mitchell interchange “will just make it worse.” He said a Sunday trip down Mitchell Road to access the freeway took him a long time due to the number of traffic lights.

Later in the meeting, the council approved the Dhillon Villas which will guarantee more traffic for Mitchell Road – which will be the first time in recent memory that the city decided to add housing to the predominantly commercial zone. And they did so before a traffic study was commissioned! Talk about a backward process.

The Chris Vierra led council voted 4-1 against virtually the same Dhillon Villas proposal in 2019.

Vice Mayor Bret Silveira dismissed – rather shortsightedly in my opinion – any concern about adding occupants for 145 apartment units in a condensed area on a busy thoroughfare.

Here’s what will happen, mark my words:  The apartments will go in and it will be years – maybe a decade or longer – before you’ll see those commercial buildings go up. Even Walmart slayer Brett Jolley was cagey about when the commercial would be built, suggesting that it will be driven by demand – and we all know it’s a tough time for brick and mortar businesses.

Sorry for being pessimistic but how much of Mitchell Ranch Shopping Center have you seen developed since the Walmart Supercenter opened in 2021? Not even Applebee’s has shown up to build like they indicated they were interested in doing a decade ago. Walmart got its Supercenter and there doesn’t seem to be much effort to filling out the rest of the center.

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I saw a great meme the other day that sums up my view of guns: “A rock in bad hands killed Abel. A rock in good hands killed Goliath. It’s not about the rock.”

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Last week I called Democrats in our state Legislature “anti-parent, anti-police, anti-fetus, anti-Christian, anti-conservative, anti-landlord, anti-white, anti-male, anti-taxpayer, anti-farmer, anti-business, anti-freedom and anti-water storage legislators.”

There is just no end to how they are proving me right.

Since then I learned about two more insane pieces of legislation. The first is AB 742, supported by the Democrats and rejected by Republicans in committee, which forbids police from using police canines to affect an arrest or control crowds.

State Assemblyman Juan Alanis (who spent years with the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Department) and who is now the vice chairman of the Assembly Committee on Public Safety, said he was disappointed that the Democrats did not take advantage of the vast amount of practical experience that he and Assemblyman Tom Lackey have. Alanis and Assemblyman Tom Lackey, cast the committee’s only two no votes. Six Democrats on the committee voted in favor of it.

Lackey is a retired career California Highway Patrol Officer.

I’ve long asserted that Democrats work overtime to ensure that people don’t face bad consequences for their bad behavior. Here’s more proof.

Now along comes yet another bill to neuter police and empower the criminals.

State Senator Steven Bradford (D-Gardena) announced detailed amendments to Senate Bill 50 that would prohibit a police officer from initiating a traffic stop for a low-level violation, unless there is a separate, independent reason.

Bradford is black and thinks police are a racist breed. He must for his press release stated: “We have seen far too many times how traffic stops can rapidly escalate and turn deadly.”

Whoa, stop. Why do some traffic stops turn deadly, senator? Is it not because the driver gives police a bunch of crap and refuses to cooperate and comply with orders as we have seen ad nauseam on social media? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen a white officer take crap from a motorist of color and be called racist for merely pulling them over. It seems to be sport to call police “racist” as they do their job. To be honest, that makes some officers think twice about pulling over a person of color for the grief they could encounter.

I argue this makes us all less safe.

Compton’s favorite Senator Bradford goes on: “In this day and age, there’s no reason why Californians should be stopped and potentially subjected to brutality or dehumanization because of an expired license plate. This legislation will reduce the potential for more harm to innocent members of the public.”

Police don’t “dehumanize” anyone for expired license plates. The problem occurs when the driver spends 10-15 minutes berating the officer as a way of deflecting said driver’s failure to pay for a license tag, refuses orders to show the driver’s license and then refuses to get out of the car when failing to produce said documents. Often the officer is pushed to the limit and if someone delays an officer unnecessarily, force must be used. The officer is not at fault, the one resisting is.

Again, Senator, if a driver acts stupid and defiant, I would expect police to get tough with them. All you are doing is catering to the few (but well publicized) instances in which people pull the race card, and delay officers by failing to cooperate and follow orders.

Police aren’t happy about this. Why should they? Sacramento goes the extra step to tie the hands of police and go soft on the criminals. Any law-abiding citizen who supports the police shouldn’t be happy about this either.

But do you know who is happy about this law? Criminals for sure but specifically the California Black Power Network whose Executive Director James Woodson said: “Black people are disproportionately stopped by law enforcement, and most impacted by racial profiling that places them in potentially harmful and life-threatening situations with police. Shifting the responsibility of enforcing low-level infractions that do not pose danger to the public away from law enforcement agencies is an important step to limiting these interactions and reimagining what public safety looks like.”

In playing identity politics, Senator Bradford is making California less safe. Do you have any idea how many stops for broken headlights or expired tags result in the confiscation of guns and drugs in a car? Not to mention arrests for felony warrants?

Reimagining public safety is a modern catch phrase meaning not sending people to prison but talking to them. This

There is a real war against police and God know it’s not the Republicans behind it.

* * * * *

Speaking of how poorly Newsom is leading California, this is new data. California has the lowest home ownership in the nation at a dismal 18 percent. State government has impeded the building of new homes with its onerous regulation and tax burden. No wonder homelessness is the highest among all 50 states.

Just as Democrats refuse to lower gas taxes to help the middle class, they also refuse to reduce regulations that make it nearly impossible to build and build cheaper in California. In fact, their laws typically drive up the cost of housing, such as the mandate that every new house be installed with solar, which can add $8,400 to $10,000 extra.

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Train derailments seem to be happening with alarming frequency. 

The Federal Railroad Administration has reported that in 2022 alone, there were more than 1,000 train derailments in the United States. Actually, the number was 1,164 derailments. That’s a rough average of three derailments per day. 

It’s a no-brainer why. Trains derail when the rails widen and the cars slip off and scatter like thrown dice.

When the late performer Box Car Willie appeared at the Stanislaus County Fair, he led the media over to the railroad tracks near the fairgrounds and demonstrated how poorly maintained the tracks were. He pulled up some spikes to show what he was talking about. Those spikes work their way loose and up under the weight of train cars.

Another fact is the maintenance of the locomotives and the cars they pull. While safety is always a concern, so is speed. Safety checks are not always given the time or the priority needed to prevent derailments.

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Lots of businesses don’t let the public use their private restrooms. But now they will have to if a citizen produces a doctor’s form. That’s because of AB 1632 passed last year by the state Legislature.

Senate Republicans support medically necessary access to restrooms, but do not support the creation of a restroom police force bent on harassing state businesses. In an example of government overreach, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) requests nine permanent new staff and $1.4 million annually to enforce access to private restrooms under AB 1632.

Throughout the legislative process last year, CDPH stated this was a no-cost bill, but now the department wants to hire a team to investigate, enforce, and fine businesses statewide that are deemed non-compliant. CDPH even wants to establish a database to track and shame “violators,” despite the fact that the bill has no such requirement. Not surprisingly, business groups are concerned with the department’s plan to go beyond the law.

Just another example of why business owners are looking to those red states that Newsom loathes so much.

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The city of Ceres is engaged in a newer practice that honestly needs to end. 

When Traci Dayton Farris and Cambria Pollinger were in charge of the Ceres Recreation Department, the city wasn’t engaged in introducing peddlers to special events. After they left city employment in 2019, the newer recreation staff introduced a peddler’s faire to the Ceres Christmas Festival in Smyrna Park and eliminated the holiday entertainment by local groups. At Friday’s Eggstravaganza event at the Ceres Community Center, the entire large assembly room was filled with vendors trying to sell things – and when I peeked in, nobody was paying them any attention.

The crowds that I saw were young families who were not there to buy things but to entertain their children with fun activities. By the looks of them, they were lower income folks looking for something free to do with the kids on a Friday night. One woman thought I worked for the city and asked if there was an Easter egg hunt, to which I replied, “They didn’t advertise one.”

Most young families today are overwhelmed with the high cost of buying food and gas and paying the rent or the mortgage and probably don’t appreciate the commercial aspect to an event that has religious connections.

While I give the city an “A” for effort, Easter and Christmas events shouldn’t be commercialized with tables of goods being hawked by arts and crafters.

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