I must tell you that at times I feel like a voice crying in the wilderness of California.

I sometimes feel defeated because it seems like the rest of the state – particularly the newer people on the planet – vote the opposite way of the way things should go. However, the success of the petitions to trigger a recall election against our governor gives me hope – but I’m not holding my breath.

I also feel vindication. I had warned Ceres voters about electing two local candidates, Javier Lopez and Couper Condit but they did it anyway. Now those hit-and-run supporters of both men don’t seem to be anywhere in sight to defend their dismal performances.

Lopez was aided in his election efforts by the Condits. Now Ceres voters are seeing collusion between Lopez and Condit in bucking common sense actions.

The Condit sycophants have incorrectly determined that my criticism was rooted in some inexplicable hatred and jealousy toward the Condits. I have taken great pains to cite the actions of both Channce and Couper Condit which are largely self-serving in nature in their quest to climb the political ladder. 

Now, however, others are finally coming around to what I’ve been saying.

Let’s be honest, the only reason that we have the dilemma of a 2-2 split council unable to agree on someone to fill the council seat is that Channce Condit bailed on his commitment to serve out his four-year seat! He had two more years to serve and decided he had to save the county and run for the Board of Supervisors. When I saw that he was putting out campaign signs in yards despite being unopposed, I thought, now here is someone who is fulfilling an ego quest. He wanted his name promoted for reasons we now know.

So now we have four candidates, three with absolutely no city experience, and yet Javier Lopez and Couper Condit won’t support her and have made every excuse under the sun why not to. Laurie Smith is the only choice and everybody but the mayor and his self-appointed vice mayor can see that. In last week’s edition, former Ceres Mayor Louie Arrollo wrote a scathing letter saying: “The decisions made should be based on what is best for the entity and not drawn from past differences of others or out of vengeance.”

Arrollo said it well. For Condit it is precisely about vengeance and power. He wants a councilmember who won’t buck his nonsensical ideas.

Arrollo suggested their resistance to Smith and effective forcing of a special election is borderline malfeasance that could be worthy of a recall campaign.

Former City Councilman Ken Lane also weighed in on the need to appoint Smith, adding: “I don’t know how Councilman Condit and the mayor would not be able to support this. I don’t understand if they really care about our city and don’t have their own agendas, then I would think they would be able to support someone with 12 years of experience on the planning commission and understand truly what’s going on more so than any other candidate that was before the council tonight.”

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The socialists in Congress never let up in their quest to bribe the permanent underclass in exchange for a lock on their seats.

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a black congresswoman from Texas, has renewed the push to give taxpayers’ money to the descendants of black slaves who last breathed over a century ago. Her HR 40, the Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act, would form a commission to study the so-called racial and economic discrimination that continued after slavery and to recommend solutions to Congress.  In other words, Lee doesn’t think any black people today have the freedom to be economically successful because they their great-great-great-great-grandfathers and mothers were slaves. So that means the rest of us, the great-great-great-great-grandsons and daughters of those slave owners have to make up for it. It’s a terrible insult to black people.

Ironically Lee in a hearing said African Americans “have been known as overcomers.”

Apparently not according to Lee.

The measure does not yet have any Republican co-sponsors. Nor should any Democrat support it, but they will. Not all black people are in favor of this race warfare. Heisman Trophy winner Herschel Walker is against the idea, testifying “Is it not creating division, a separation, with different races? I feel it continues to let us know we’re still African American, rather than just American.”

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Apparently Republicans are not allowed to take vacation. U.S. Senator Ted Cruz – my choice for president in 2016 – has been attacked by the Left for leaving frozen Texas where power went out to his house and heading to warmer Cancun.

The Left criticized him for leaving a state in crisis. (Never mind the fact that the governor is in charge of the state). He answered with this: “With school cancelled for the week, our girls asked to take a trip with friends. Wanting to be a good dad, I flew down with them last night and am flying back this afternoon. My staff and I are in constant communication with state and local leaders to get to the bottom of what happened in Texas. We want our power back, our water on, and our homes warm. My team and I will continue using all our resources to keep Texans informed and safe.”

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The recall effort against Gov. Newsom is starting to scare Democrats and in response they are saying some pretty stupid things. State Sen. Steve Glazer (D-Orinda) said the Democrats must get out a message “about why even unhappy Californians should not sign these poisonous petitions.” Ever notice how Democrats will use scary terms for things they don’t like? What is “poisonous” about removing a governor who is driving the state into the ground?

Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis (does anyone know what she even looks like?) said Republicans are guilty of a “quirky opportunity to slip a Republican governor into the bluest state in the union.”

Surely Kounalakis realizes this is not a GOP ploy. People on both side of the political aisle have had it with Newsom, perhaps the most arrogant man to serve as governor in recent memory.

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), a former Bernie Sanders supporter, said Newsom is not on the ballot but the state is. I don’t even know what that means. I’d say it’s more like progressives are on the ballot.

Progressive Joseph Sanberg, a wealthy entrepreneur condemned the recall as “an anti-democratic vessel for unknown, secretive big money groups to take control of state politics.” Sanberg also said “we can’t have a system where a dozen unknown, wealthy, unaccountable people can hijack state politics — and that’s really what’s unfolding.”

Sanberg, for the record, is one of these folks who mistakenly think that poverty can be eradicated. Apparently he hasn’t read Matthew 26:10: “You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”

Sanberg is an elitist bag of money who should realize we should – and do – have a system whereby a disgruntled citizenry can oust a leader who has stepped over the line. There is a groundswell of ordinary citizens who are tired of Newsom keeping his boot to their necks. This is an extraordinary response – which is an outlines system of citizen control – to yet another failing blue state governor.

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The outpouring of love and affection for Rush Limbaugh following his death last week was palpable. It was apparent that tens of millions of Americans enjoyed learning from his radio show and were molded by his way of thinking and his wisdom. 

I started listening to Rush in 1989. Back then I was a young dumb liberal who still clung to the belief that government could solve our ills. Of course, that’s all I heard from the Democrats in my family and my college professors.

The more I listened to Rush the more I questioned those beliefs. He made profound sense of things. I am a conservative today because of what Limbaugh espoused. I listened to him on vacations. I listened to him driving anywhere in the morning. I listened to him at work. I loved and appreciated his patter: “talent on loan from God” and “having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have.” He was entertaining with his catch phrases that included “feminazi,” and his pet names for politicians like “the turtle” for Mitch McConnell, “Plugs” and “Joe Bite-Me” for Joe Biden, “Commie” for Kamala Harris; and his impersonations of Clinton and Obama.

Listeners knew Rush was ill and that he wouldn’t be able to beat his lung cancer but we were hopeful. When he passed it was a punch in the gut. I never met Rush Limbaugh but I felt his loss as though I lost a true friend.

On the other side of the equation was a reprehensible celebration of his death by the Left.  The leftist rag “Rolling Stone” magazine published an inflammatory article that castigated Limbaugh as doing his best to ruin America and who “corrupted the Republican Party, spread hate, racism, and lies, and laid the groundwork for Trumpism.” Not a surprising analysis coming from a rock and roll based magazine.

A lot of the hateful, vile comments came from the Hollywood liberals, such as Bette Midler who said, “#RushLimbaugh has gone to his reward. Bet it’s hot.”

There’s one more entertainer who’s made my list of whose movies I will refuse to watch in the future.

What Bette Midler doesn’t get – because she’s not a believer – is that Rush Limbaugh had a solid faith in Jesus Christ. That was his ticket to Heaven, not any of his works.

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Readers of my column will know that last week I made reference to my nephew, who for someone fresh out of college, resisted being turned into a leftist socialist. He is quite conservative.  I mentioned Justin because he posted on social media: “Can we stop firing people just because they say something ‘controversial.’ The First Amendment is being attacked and this needs to stop! We believe in freedom of speech.”

On the heels on that comes a story about a Texas town mayor who was forced to resign because he dared to make a controversial statement. The statement was totally true, in my opinion, but interpreted as calloused and crass.

Tim Boyd, the mayor of Colorado City, Texas, only reflected his sense of the American spirit of rugged individualism when people began to bellyache when their power went off and they began getting cold. There is only so much the government and power companies can do so he just pointblank told them to fend for themselves, to take of their families. In short, buck up and be the men and women our great-great-great-great-grandparents were when they forged across the land. 

Boyd Tweeted: “No one owes you [or] your family anything; nor is it the local government’s responsibility to support you during trying times like this! Sink or swim it’s your choice! The City and County, along with power providers or any other service owes you NOTHING! I’m sick and tired of people looking for a damn handout! If you don’t have electricity you step up and come up with a game plan to keep your family warm and safe. If you have no water you deal without and think outside the box to survive and supply water to your family. If you are sitting at home in the cold because you have no power and are sitting there waiting for someone to come rescue you because your (sic) lazy is direct result of your raising! Only the strong will survive and the weak will parish (sic). Folks God has given us the tools to support ourselves in times like this. This is sadly a product of a socialist government where they feed people to believe that the FEW will work and others will become dependent for handouts. Am I sorry that you have been dealing without electricity and water? Yes! But I’ll be damned if I’m going to provide for anyone that is capable of doing it themselves!”

Boyd made it clear that he wasn’t talking to the defenseless elderly. “I would never want to hurt the elderly or anyone that is in true need of help to be left to fend for themselves,” Boyd later wrote. “I was only making the statement that those folks that are too lazy to get up and fend for themselves but are capable should not be dealt a handout. I apologize for the wording and some of the phrases that were used!”

Boyd said his wife was “fired” after his comments and that he wasn’t speaking as an official of Colorado City!

I get it. He’s fed up with Americans being dependent wimps, depending on others to do what they should be doing. Our schools are feeding our own kids. Our own government is breaking the bank handing us money for doing nothing and wanting to hand even more to those of color. The government is protecting those who break the law or can’t pay their own bills while punishing the hard-working and successful. This country is half socialist already and is heading like a freight train toward full-blown socialism and disaster is looming.   

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