Is this really about COVID-19 or just an agenda of political control? Power-drunk Gov. Newsom enacted an unconstitutional lockdown of most of California this week. It appears he is hell-bent on destroying the public sector so that we will all be dependent on the government.
It’s good to see people pushing back. There is a recall effort underway. The deadline for collecting signatures was extended from Nov. 17 to March 17. Find one and sign it. Newsom needs to go.
And California Assemblymen James Gallagher (R-Yuba City) and Kevin Kiley (R-Rocklin) prevailed in suing Newsom, saying he did not have the authority to issue an executive order that required vote-by-mail ballots be sent to all registered voters. Sutter County Superior Court Judge Sarah Heckman’s ruling places a permanent injunction against the governor that prevents him from changing existing state law, even during a pandemic.
The court rejected Newsom’s extraordinary claim that a State of Emergency turns California into an autocracy and “centralizes the state’s powers in the hands of the governor.” This is the unlawful basis on which Newsom has collapsed California’s system of checks and balances, issuing 57 Executive Orders and changing over 400 laws unilaterally.
California recalled Gray Davis for far less transgressions so when will the sheeple wake up?
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I had a chance to sit down with Louie Arrollo last Wednesday and we had a great visit.
If you’re a Ceres newcomer or young person you probably don’t know that Louie Arrollo is a local legend. He was a Ceres police officer, assistant principal at Ceres High School before there was a Central Valley High School and served on the Ceres City Council and two non-consecutive terms as mayor where he accomplished quite a bit. He helped get the Smyrna Park skate park built and he helped kick off the Concerts in the Park series.
No offense to the memory of the late Councilman Guillermo Ochoa but if anybody deserves having a park named for someone it is Louie Arrollo who became enmeshed in the community before Ochoa was born. Mr. Arrollo has done more for Ceres than most anyone alive and is perhaps long overdue for the honoring with a park name. The feature on Arrollo is on page 4.
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I am convinced that as time rolls on, people get farther and farther from basic common sense. That is especially true of those who worm their way into elective office.
I happen to agree with Robert G. Ingersoll who said: “It is a thousand times better to have common sense without education than to have education without common sense.”
Common sense was something that preserved life itself.
Quick, give me some examples of public health emergencies. Okay, yeah, chemical spills, sure. Un huh, AIDS, yep. Bubonic plague, yes. Gas line ruptures, fires, absolutely. But common sense was tossed right out the window by the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors last week when they declared that “systemic racism” is a public health emergency.
Systemic as in imbedded in the entire system.
I’m looking around this country and seeing every ethnic category represented in every workplace, even at the highest levels of government and I am expected to swallow this rubbish about racism pervading our culture? To quote Michael McDonald in “Takin’ It to the Streets”: “I ain’t blind and I don’t like what I think I see.”
What I see is a country that mostly gets along just fine each day without shades of racism. But there’s always the stirrers of the pot who have to create a problem for their political advantage. We all know that racism exists here and there in hearts among every ethnicity. But the Democrats infer that the problem of racism is with the white male and if you’re a white cop then watch out. But if racism were as pervasive in our culture as Democrats would have you believe, how would that present itself as a public health emergency?
Racism can never be solved by government. The true solution is changing hearts through faith and the church.
By the way, the Contra Costa board of supes is comprised of only one white male and he is a Democrat. Three are women (Diane Burgis is a confirmed Democrat and the other two probably are) and one man who is black. I’m betting they’re all Democrats.
Never fear, Contra Costa is going to form a committee to once and for all eliminate prejudice! By gosh I don’t know why nobody has thought about that before!
What a wasted effort.
Thank God we have a Board of Supervisors here in Stanislaus County that has the common sense of a farmer. But I fear we’re slowly going the way of the Bay Area with even small cities in Stanislaus County electing leftists to city councils. We used to be a red county, now sadly, a blue county.
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The role of city treasurer is not a greatly important one for it is the city finance director, a hired employee and department head, who bears most of the responsibility for management of city funds.
But having said that, hands down the most qualified of the two candidates on the Nov. 3 ballot was Sopheap Dong-Carreon who is employed as an accountant with the city of Turlock. Her responsibilities include reconciliation of bank accounts, preparing treasury reports for the city’s treasurer, reconciling ledgers and auditing. As treasurer for Turlock PAL, she’s responsible for reconciling bank accounts, investing idle cash into high yield accounts, preparing budget reports and financial statements, and filing annual reports to both the state Franchise Tax Board and federal IRS.
Voters bypassed that experience for Kayla Martinez who has less financial experience. Apparently voters in Ceres weren’t in the mood for candidates with experience. Martinez has a degree in education and is a branch manager of the Plus Group, a temporary staffing agency.
We wish all of our elected officials well as they take office.
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If you think ethnicity had no role in the election, you are deceived. I am convinced there was a lot of voting based solely on the candidates’ surnames. The thought occurred to me when I saw a Mexican restaurant on a prominent corner in Ceres where the only political signs posted were of Latino candidates Lopez, Martinez and Vazquez. (I might add that businesses posting signs is a great way to alienate customers). Again, if we’re only electing candidates on the basis of skin color and not content of ideas and character, then God help us.
Something caught my eye about the results of the Modesto City Council District 6 race where conservative David Wright won the seat with 6,335 votes. Startling is that a politically clueless Jessica Gonzalez, a young employee with socialist ideas who works for an auto shop came in a close second with 5,172 votes. I watched her Bee debate performance and thought she was an inept candidate. How could she have gotten more votes that Bee endorsed Hunter Sauls?
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
