Have you ever noticed how every liberal cause – no matter what it is – is hitched to the wagon of ensuring “disadvantaged communities won’t be left behind”?

It raised its head last week in a press release I received, titled, “NEW REPORT: CA MUST BECOME CARBON NEGATIVE AND DOUBLE EMISSION REDUCTIONS BY 2030 TO HALT INTENSIFYING CLIMATE CRISIS.”

The state must have the most radical environmental policies toward, yet the group that sent this release out – the new campaign Climate-Safe California – claims “California’s climate policies are a scientifically indefensible response to a growing, intensifying crisis.”

Apparently the liberal brain trusts say Earth will reach a “dangerous level of climate change (an average temperature increase of 2.7℉) as early as 2027 – nearly two decades earlier than initially projected.” They instill fear that California is suffering these “monumental climate challenges” with “hotter summers, a shorter rain season, toxic air quality, and wildfires causing hundreds of billions in damages – will grow in intensity by nearly 50 percent over the next 10 years.”

Remember Al Gore telling us back in Dec. 14, 2008 that we had 10 years left, that the polar ice caps would melt in five years and the sea levels rise?

The internet is replete is dire predictions which came to pass as complete farces. Let’s face it, climate change is a cash cow for government. It allows government to bilk businesses out of “cap and trade” dollars and allows government to control you and me. It’s all about control and money, folks. 

Being the radical group they are, Climate-Safe California  wants California to phase out gas-powered vehicles, provide incentives rewarding clean energy generation and (here it comes) jobs in disadvantaged communities, community choice clean energy expansion, ban food waste from landfills, and use working lands and landscapes to capture carbon.

UC Merced professor Teenie Matlock, who helped to write the report, said: “California’s climate policies must show working people and disadvantaged communities that they won’t be left behind.  We need to invest in them to ensure they continue being an essential part of the fabric of California.”

What does that even mean? 

The radical Tom Steyer who ran for president and was rejected by voters far greater than Kamala Harris was, is part of this effort. He said: “California always set the standard for climate leadership but the natural world is demanding even more and it’s demanding it now.”

Oh my gosh, the “natural world” is demanding the state clamp down on us all – now even more than it has! News flash, California is governed by already strict environmental rules. We have a summer blend gas that burns cleaner and costs us all more. We all have to smog our cars to make sure they burn clean.

To put this in perspective, at 39 million people California represents a small fraction of the world’s population of 7.8 billion. China has 1.44 billion. India has 1.39 billion. California has a population equal to 0.028 percent of India’s. And further radical policies of this already-clean state are going to make a difference when these other nations are polluting into the same atmosphere like there’s no tomorrow? 

In 2019, 1.67 million deaths in India were attributable to air pollution. This was nearly one in every five deaths in the country or 17.8 percent of all deaths.

So which nations really need to get with the program? It’s not the USA or the People’s Republic of California.

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I’m surprised the average California voter doesn’t get what the Democrats are up to. I’m surprised they’re not offended at the overt pandering to poor people – enacting policies that look as though they are trying to help the unsuccessful – while virtually assuring they always stay down on the farm, so to speak.

Democrats don’t like successful people. That’s apparent. They want to foster more needy people because needy people always need to be economically “rescued” and they politically reward those who bail them out.

So when Biden said last week he wants to explore raising the top capital gains tax rate for individuals earning over $1 million to between 39.6 percent and 43.4 percent, the stock market took a huge dive. Biden, AKA, Robin Hood, wants to steal from the rich and give to the poor.

There goes the Trump economy.

The good thing is that the mid-term elections are coming up and the Congress likely will flip back to the GOP and halt Biden’s destructive policies.

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The great Liberal Rip-off continues. While working class stiffs have to work to pay the taxes which others are living off of – and paying their own healthcare premiums – the state is gifting 1.6 million people in Covered California with health insurance costing them $1 per month. No surprise, the race-baiters in charge repeat the disadvantaged communities mantra when they praise more tax dollars going to those who aren’t earning it: Covered California executive director Peter Lee said the subsidies will mostly go to those who “need it most … low-income families from the communities of color that have been hardest hit by the pandemic.”

Stupid me, I thought our senior citizens were the ones hardest hit by the pandemic but they’ve already been rescued by Medicare so we don’t need to pander to them. Besides, racial equity is a big way to fleece the taxpayers.

* * * * *

Here we go again. Another white cop shoots black person story with little regard to what the suspect did.

Now we have turmoil fanned by the media about 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant being shot by a Columbus, Ohio officer as she was lunging at two people with a knife.

A knife is as deadly as a gun when contact is made. 

This was a no-brainer case of a justified shooting by an officer. Watch them crucify him for it because of the color of skin.

* * * * *

The Great American Snow Job continues.

While the national media has successfully convinced people that the COVID-19 boogie man is going to grab them by the throat the second they leave their house, return to the workplace or even touch another human being, I’ve enjoyed living as freely as I can.

I go out running as I see people walking outdoors with masks on. Go figure.

I’ve been to church Sunday mornings without a mask and even shook hands. I’ve noticed that people of faith tend to have little fear.

In the last month I’ve stayed two nights at a Mission Viejo hotel and went to the beach at Dana Point. I’d go to Disneyland if they’d open it up.

But there are others who cower in fear. While my conservative dad and stepmom (80 and 73 years old, respectively) freely go everywhere without fear, her liberal Bay Area son came visiting and insisted on eating outdoors and wearing a mask.

Shelby Bernstein told the LA Times: “Maybe it’s like Stockholm syndrome, except our captor is the coronavirus. We’re all so used to the mental and physical havoc it wreaked upon us that any sense of normalcy feels wrong.”

I don’t understand her kind of fear of a flu that is 99.87 percent survivable depending on your health. Indeed, the media hype is the difference why the same people who fear this flu give little consideration to the less-hyped ordinary flu that annually sends 300,000 to 500,000 to the hospital and kills upwards of 61,000 Americans.

It’s time the masks come off in California like they’ve been off in Florida. Herd immunity is essential.

If anything, the pandemic should stress to millions that they’d better get their health in order and get back in shape. Obesity and diabetes and heart disease make people prone to falling to an easily survivable health compromise.

* * * * *

I have never been a fan of executive orders because it places too much control in one official’s hand.

If you need another reason to oust the governor, consider how he just announced he’ll deliver an executive order to ban fracking which will further divide California into regions of haves and have-nots. The proposed ban on fracking will mean job losses, increased gas and food prices making life that much harder for Californians.

Senate Republican Leader Scott Wilk , R-Santa Clarita, said Newsom is creating “two Californias by waging war on the Central Valley. This is the second time this week he has disregarded the needs of the Valley. First, it was a regional drought declaration that benefited his Chardonnay and Brie friends, but snubbed food-producing farmers. Now it is a move to kill jobs by attacking the oil and gas industry. His commitment to ‘equity’ does not extend to ordinary inland Californians. What happened to the governor’s fight for a ‘California for all’?”

In 2019, the oil and gas production industry was responsible for 50,100 jobs, $19 billion in economic output, and $4.4 billion in labor income. It also provided $1.5 billion in taxes, fees, and other revenues to state and local governments in the 2019-20 fiscal year.

* * * * *

We have a real problem with a haughty arrogance in the newer generations these days. I’m specifically talking about those who think authority is to be disregarded, the ones who have zero respect for law and order, the ones who think people should be isolated from their illegal acts.

Look no farther than our own community here in Stanislaus County.

Last week Modesto City Councilman Bill Zoslocki offered a comment during a presentation on the Police Department’s budget, which included talk about de-escalation training and mental health calls. Zoslocki said something very similar to what I just said last week when I wrote: “It’s real simple, folks. When you are pulled over, comply. Call your attorney from jail; don’t fight the officer at the scene. To do so is to be stupid.”

During a Zoom meeting Zoslocki said: “I’d like to talk to the dads out there, and the moms that are listening. Train your kids. You want to maybe save their life. Something my dad taught me — it’s an old-school thing — when an officer approaches you, don’t resist. Let the officer ask the questions. He may seem gruff, he may seem short, he may be trying to solve a problem and understand and see if there is a serious situation. Don’t resist.

“Answer the officer, and if ... back in (the) 1950(s) had I resisted, my dad would have spanked me. And I would ... be sorry for what I did. We can’t seem to do that anymore. But that’s what I want to tell all the moms out there. Teach your kids: Don’t resist. Every officer just wants to get answers, and most of the time you go away because you may not even be the one they are looking for. And that’s a fundamental thing that is missing in society right now is don’t challenge the officer. He’s there to do his job. And he may have to arrest you if you try to challenge him. Would you rather just go home?”

That upset a Bianca Lopez, who was listening in on the Zoom call, said she was “disgusted to my core listening to this nonsense conversation” and told the councilman to “FU.”

She went on to cite the Dec. 29 instance of where Modesto Police Officer Joseph Lamantia fatally shot to death Trevor Seever outside a church. I don’t think many people who have watched the video of the shooting – myself included – would say the officer was justified. The officer gave a command and it appeared the suspect was complying when the volley of shots quickly popped off. In fact, that officer was fired and charged with voluntary manslaughter. On the other hand, Seever’s sister called police because he was sending threatening text messages to his family and put the fear that he was on his way to do harm after buying a gun the day before. Police knew of Seever, who had a drug problem, after learning he posted on social media that “All I want for Christmas is another dead MPD cop.” Officers were given pamphlets of the social media posts before arriving at the scene.

Nobody wants bad or rogue cops abusing anyone. I’m no bootlicker but Lopez profanely subverted the good advice of a wise councilman – she called it nonsense – so she could go on a rant about one local cop. Zoslocki’s advice could in the future save the life of people like George Floyd or Stephon Clark who would be alive today had they complied or surrendered.

It’s like the meme I recently saw, which said: “(Officer Derek) Chauvin immediately stood and calmly placed his hands behind his back. Imagine where we’d be had George (Floyd) done the same.”

In case you’re wondering Lopez is co-founder of Valley Improvement Projects, a group which believes in just about every liberal and environmental cause.

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