On Friday the editors of the Ceres Courier and Turlock Journal sat down in our shared offices with Congressman Tom McClintock for an interview, his first since his district changed to encompass half of Turlock, east Ceres, Hughson, parts of Modesto.
He free answered every question we posed to him, thoughtfully and intelligently. It doesn’t take long to recognize that he is studied in history, measured and principled.
This comes a month after the Modesto Bee bitterly griped that McClintock would not sit down and talk with them. Bee Editor Garth Stapley bellyached in an April 7 piece, titled, “What is Congressman Tom McClintock afraid of? Hard questions, apparently.”
We posed some very good questions to the congressman and his answers were very direct and insightful. He didn’t dodge a single question. We even asked him some of the questions which the Bee stated it wished it could ask him if he’d agreed to an interview.
Maybe the Bee should consider returning to fair reporting and quit being hostile to conservative lawmakers but we know how far left McClatchy leans. Now they are obsessed with equity and inclusion, which is why they’ve lost a lot of readers.
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You can’t find stupider ideas than what’s developing on our university campuses.
Apparently the word “field” is racist now. The University of Southern California thinks it’s hurtful to use the word as in “field of work,” because some Woke folks might mistakenly believe you are referencing sending a slave out to pick tobacco or cotton.
USC’s Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work plans to eliminate the word to “honor and acknowledge inclusion and reject white supremacy, anti-immigrant and anti-blackness ideologies.”
Oh my Lord in Heaven. These folks have lost their collective minds. They are so obsessed with race to the point that it clouds their own intelligence with ridiculousness of the highest order.
I hope they feel better now that they can’t use the word “field.” The question remains: Will they still be triggered if they see Mrs. Fields’ cookie stores in the mall?
Their lives must be truly miserable bound up in all this Wokeness.
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It’s been years seven years since Measure L, the 25-year countywide half-cent sales tax measure for transportation, has passed, and have you noticed any improvements to the roads throughout Stanislaus County? I cannot tell much of a difference at all..
This is what caused former Mayor Chris Vierra to angrily question why streets in his area are still torn up. He expressed dismay at the lack of progress made to improve the roads in Ceres. Vierra said that the public may not be willing to support future tax hikes because they aren’t seeing much improvement.
Voters approved Measure L in November 2016 and Ceres didn’t get its first round of revenue until the spring of 2018. The tax was expected to channel $1.2 million annually for 25 years to Ceres.
To be fair, Ceres’ tack has been to use the funding to preserve the streets with slurry and cape sealing. The sealing projects were interrupted last year so the money could be used to improve Morgan Road. Now that that project has been completed, the city is readying to seal a number of streets to prolong their life and stave off more costly repairs later.
Ceres streets are much better than those in Turlock which are really bad. Measure L did assist Turlock is revamping West Main Street years ago. Road conditions are hit-and-miss throughout Modesto and Stanislaus County. Drive them and you’ll quickly realize that Measure L funds will never generate enough cash to fix the poor condition of roads in Stanislaus County.
There is something seriously wrong in the way that the state of California takes the lion share of tax money, fritters it away, while local governments starve for funding to provide basic services such as hiring police and fixing roads. But hey, the state can spend billions on a high-speed rail that may never come to fruition alongside a woefully restricted Highway 99, the main north-south artery of the Golden State. The priorities of state lawmakers is seriously out of whack.
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Now that the Cere City Council has millions of ARPA dollars to decided how to spend has anyone ever given consideration to fixing the water tower? I mean if the council can take $200,000 to spend on the RAD card program then they could make fixing the Ceres water tower — which has been a highly visible eyesore for many years and a concern of many voters – a priority once and for all.
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The Manteca City Council recently voted 4-1 to allow the so-called LGBTQ “pride flag” fly over city hall there.
You bet I have a problem with it.
True, I don’t live in Manteca and some folks might say it’s none of my business but I am a citizen of California and I don’t believe a specialty flag should be flown over a city building. And I bet all the fans of this action would certainly by screaming at the top of their lungs if a council voted to fly the Christian flag – and yes there is such a flag.
Using a government entity to promote a lifestyle which Christianity does not condone is not okay.
I even bristle at the word “pride” because it’s one of the deadly sins. Pride is the opposite of humility. We live in a narcissistic society that truly thinks it is supreme and can dispense any morals. It’s “my wants” and “my needs” and to hell with everyone else. Humility says something completely different – it is a life of sacrifice, humbleness and service to others; which coincidentally why the Left has reduced motherhood to that of “birthing people.”
Manteca City Councilman Dave Breitenbucher was the only one who had the gumption to vote no. He stated his belief that the American and state flags were all that should be displayed except perhaps the POW or MIA flags along with a blue flag honoring fallen police officers. Doing anything more, he said, would “open a can of worms.”
Yes, a can of worm because a precedent has been set.
So ask yourself this: What other lifestyles which are taboo today will become accepted practices in 50 or 75 years? Will they have their “pride flags” and demand them to be flown over government property? Not a far-fetched concept when you see how in 2022 state Senator Scott Wiener wants adults to be able to have sex with children. I don’t doubt that the way the country is going if that won’t be an accepted practice in a century – with all the in-your-face and in God’s face actions to beat us all into submission.
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Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco is no fan of Gov. Newsom or the state Legislature. He recently told a California Insider journalist that Democrats “are passing laws that make absolutely no sense.”
He noted that all of the 58 county sheriffs in California gather every three months to meet and that not once has Newsom met with them. Every other governor has though. “This governor refuses,” said Sheriff Bianco. “He has never met with us, ever and he has no desire to. He doesn’t want to hear reality. They’re making all these public safety laws and changing laws that are on the books that concern public safety, closing down prisons, letting people out early. He has never consulted with the public safety experts, the ones that deal with it every single day.”
When pressed if the sheriff’s group has invited Newsom, Bianco said, and the answer is “He’s busy. Every governor in our history hasn’t been that busy.”
Bianco says that the small percent of society who are the troublemakers are more violent and have a greater disrespect for laws and authority.
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The Associated Press has become a leftist propaganda machine.
That’s readily apparent in how they insert untrue biases. Last week the AP published an article, “Massachusetts US Attorney Rachael Rollins to resign after Justice Department watchdog probe.” Rollins, a black woman, is a Biden appointee and was backed by the Democrat Party and the likes of Elizabeth Warren. During her term she came under fire for bucking the Boston Police union and failing to prosecute shoplifters, apparently violated ethics. The Republicans considered her a radical leftist.
The AP article suggests that Biden’s Attorney General Merrick Garland “has sought to restore a sense of normalcy and good governance following the turbulent four years of the Trump administration.”
Things were great in America under Trump! The only turbulence caused during his four years was the non-stop partisan attempts to impeach the man over fake charges and the barrage of dishonest reporting.
Good governance? Garland and the FBI are as corrupt as the day is long and doing an amazing job at covering up the bribes accepted by Biden as vice president. In fact when the House Committee looking into the corruption of the Bidens demanded documents from the FBI, they told Congress to go pound sand. That prompted Rep. Tom McClintock to say we have a “very, very serious problem” with the FBI, calling it a “rogue agency” and suggesting Congress may want to consider cutting off its funding.
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Impound a car for 30 days for street racing? Pfff.
What is the solution to these illegal and dangerous sideshows? I kind of like the suggestion of one of my friends: Have police seize the car of the sideshow enthusiast owner and make them watch it be destroyed under a massive crusher.
How fast do you think this nonsense would stop?
Maybe that’s a bit too drastic. But why not seize it and sell it at public auction like we do drug asset forfeiture.
Only in my dreams would this ever happen in liberal California. Remember who is in charge of state laws – the ones who don’t believe that lawbreakers need to pay consequence.
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TikTok, in my opinion, is not doing Americans any favors.
Those living in Montana won’t be able to use it after Jan. 1. Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte signed Senate Bill 419 into law last week which bans TikTok. Trump wanted to but didn’t. Gianforte said he signed the bill to “protect Montanas’ person, private, and sensitive data” from being gathered by China.
The legislation also prevents app companies like Apple and Google from offering TikTok for download.
It’s likely SB 419 will be challenged in court.
TikTok is a huge time waster. It’s causing people to have the attention span of a gnat.
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I have never favored or supported the expansion of cannabis as a legal product. Politicians who like catering to the young voter are also unwilling to do anything about the negative consequences of the proliferation of cannabis stores in California thanks to Prop. 64 – namely the mental illness.
Author Heidi Swan has been studying the negative effects of marijuana and notes THC levels – which make one “high” – have been growing in strength. Marijuana has been prescribed by doctors by decades to help persons with AIDs and cancer and the FDA recommends no more than 30 mg per day and warns of paranoia, hallucinations and nausea.
In the 1990s the illegal marijuana had five percent THC. Now it’s gone to 99 percent because of the legalization of pot. Big cannabis business has genetically developed stronger forms which are more addictive. Swan says the cannabis industry has fought a potency cap under the guise of “medicine.” Legal marijuana dispensaries will allow a patient with a “medical card” to get 2,000 times the 30 mg dose. She asserts that nobody can use that much per day so it’s being sold for profit. Swan is speaking out saying the high potency products are very harmful to the developing brain of those under the age of 25, increasing the risk of psychosis, schizophrenia, anxiety, depression and increase the risk of suicide by five times.
Your state Legislature refused to support SB1097 which would have required cannabis to come with a warning about psychotic ill-effects.
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
