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There’s a lot of silly antics going on in political circles
Opinion

If I grow vegetables in my back yard, I’m considered a vegetable gardener, right?

If Jeff Denham grows crops and sells them, he’s a farmer, right?

It seems rather silly that Josh Harder would go to court to fight Jeff Denham labeling himself a farmer on the ballot. It seems being a “farmer” is an asset in the 10th Congressional District.

Sure, Denham’s primary occupation is that of lawmaker. But he also has ag and ag-related businesses. Harder’s camp lost their court fight to keep Denham because the judge said Denham wasn’t properly served. Harder’s camp is now crying Denham ducked out of sight so he couldn’t be served.

For crying out loud.


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All I wanted to do was share a drone video flying down newly remodeled Fourth Street on the “Ceres, CA – Memories and Current Events” Facebook page. It attracted mostly positive comments but also some negatives. From there it digressed to people complaining that Whitmore needs to be cleaned up and how the city isn’t cracking down on those who have let their properties go to pot. There was a discussion about how nobody cares and how in the good old days people cared and had community values. 

Another drone shot of the Ceres water tower prompted its own discussion. 

One former councilman went on a pointed rampage saying the city manager “doesn’t care about blight” and “refuses to cite” purveyors of blight. He then said: “We will never move forward when some people are determined to make our town look like Oklahoma again.”


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A political worker came to my door two weeks ago from Working America. He said he was a “community organizer” and I was immediately paralyzed with dreadful thoughts of progressive politician Obama. But since the hat was red and white and America was in the title, I thought he might have been representing a conservative cause. He asked for me specifically and asked me a few questions. I thought he was a pollster but suspected he was there for the Big Race. Yeah, that race – the Denham-Harder race.

The first question was about what were the most important issues facing our area and I listed water with the threat of water being stolen by Jerry Brown and his hand-appointed members of the State Water Board as being number 1. Before I had a chance to talk about the homeless, crime and how the Democrats in Sacramento with their high taxes and regulations are primary threats to life in California, he was asking who I was voting for Congress. Denham, I told him, but I could tell my answer caused him to not want to stick around long. He handed me a brochure explaining the need for minimum wage increases and immigration rights and I knew instantly what side he was on. 

I’d bet my bottom dollar that he was a Harder guy.

I wondered what others are saying at their porch doors.

“Denham, who’s that?”

“Harder? Never heard of him.”

I’m sure many have no clue and won’t vote. After all, last November only 21.5 percent of registered voters in Stanislaus County voted. In the presidential election of Trump v. Clinton, 73.38 percent turned out. In the last Congressional election of 2014, 43.3 percent turned out to vote. It’s pretty bad that people only care about voting in a controversial presidential election and not any other time of the year.

Voter apathy is truly heartbreaking – and dangerous to our democracy.


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The polls are saying the race is close but I’m not sure how that can be. I think the Republicans are more motivated to vote than the Democrats. Here is what I know. If you take all the votes for Democrats in the June primary race for the 10th CD, that comes to 58,315 votes. Votes cast for Republicans Denham and Ted Howze combined come to 63,442 votes – which is 5,127 votes more than the Democrats. I would find it incredulous that any Howze votes would go to Harder.


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When I was a young dumb liberal at age 19, I volunteered to work for John Garamendi for state Senate. I walked precincts for the Democrat in Stockton and handed out literature during a parade. I wasn’t even reimbursed for gas money. Funny thing is I had no clue what the guy stood for. I was just enamored by his persona. 

I thought it was funny to see Ryan Schambers, a conservative attending MJC, took photos of Working America and the California Democratic Party offering pay to go out and talk to voters with a recruitment flyer headlined “DUMP TRUMP.” By the way, the CaDEM paper said: “Join the fight against voter suppression!” (Who is the hell is suppressing voters but the people themselves? After all, we’re probably letter illegal aliens to vote since we’re not checking IDs at the polls).

Ryan wrote; “It is funny they have to pay these people $16.50 or $15 per hour to get them to come out and express fake support for a candidate.”

So much for volunteering for your beliefs. Now people have to be paid to be politically active.

John Young answer Ryan’s post by saying, “These are just poor college kids that are trying to make a buck … and they have literally no idea what they are talking about or what they stand for.”

So true. Just ask this former John Garamendi supporter.


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Florida has a big governor’s race coming up, just like here in California.

There Republican Rep. Ron DeSantis and Democrat Tallahassee mayor Andrew Gillum running against each other. To tell this story, you need to know the Republican is white and the Democrat is black. DeSantis was being interviewed on TV and said, “Let’s build off the success we’ve had on (Republican) Gov. Scott. The last thing we need to do is to monkey this up by trying to embrace a socialist agenda with huge tax increases bankrupting the state. That is not going to work.”


Instead of focusing on what Gillum said about a liberal with socialist ideas, the media zeroed in on DeSantis saying “monkey this up,” inferring that it was a racist remark. Black political activists seized on it too.

DeSantis could have avoided this flap by saying “screw it up” or “muck it up” or “mess it up.” Yes. But he said “monkey this up.” Use of the term “monkey it up” doesn’t always indicate someone is racist. After all, monkeys tend to be a raucous, messy animal and have always been known to be as such. You have to always be looking for racism to assume DeSantis said “monkey it up” when he meant electing Gillum would be a mistake that would mess up the state.

Liberals surely weren’t going to vote for DeSantis before his unfortunate choice of words – I only say unfortunate because it handed his opponent a dagger in which could be used – but let’s agree politicians say stupid stuff all the time. It’s bound to happen when you give 20-30 speeches or interviews a day. That doesn’t negate one’s platform. I mean, Joe Biden suggested you couldn’t find a 7-Eleven where a “slight Indian accent” was used. And a black Michigan Democrat lawmaker Bettie Cook Scott recently called her Asian Republican opponent “the ching chong.”

Americans are frankly tired of this kind of gotcha political crap.


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Why does it seem there is zero tolerance on the left – the very group screaming for tolerance?

A El Dorado County high school is a case in point. A 17-year-old Union Mine High School student now faces assault charges after knocking a “Make America Great Again” hat off the head of a classmate and slapping a teacher who intervened.

Video footage captured Jo-Ann Butler, 17, going on a profanity-laden rant during the assault on Aug. 27. Butler was arrested after “verbally berating another student because they were wearing a ‘Make America Great Again’ hat,” according to the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office. Butler claimed the hat was a racist symbol and refused to apologize.

Hold on. Someone wanting to “Make America Great Again” is a symbol of racism? I get that Donald Trump is the object of their hatred, but I have near read any stories where conservatives ripped “Hope & Change” caps off heads of others and slapping a teacher.  Perhaps young Butler has consumed too much left-ring media Kool-Aid and that unemployment among blacks (5.9 percent in May) is the lowest since the 1972. 

Others, of course, have been assaulted for wearing such hats – probably at a much greater rate than Sikhs being assaulted for wearing turbans – in incidences displayed on YouTube. Both are wrong, of course. It’s truly a sad day in America.

A black teenager wearing a MAGA cap was accosted by a white man in San Antonio. He snatched off his hat, threw his drink in his face and said, “You ain’t supportin’ sh--, n-----r” and said he’d burn the hat.

One Asian employee of a Fordham University student café demanded one MAGA hat wearer to remove himself from their “safe zone” and was asked why she did that. She said, “fascism, Nazis!” The only one displaying fascist tendencies was the café employee!

On another college campus, another ignorant woman made a scene by grabbing a MAGA hat off a male and said, “This represents a genocide of a people.” Where did I miss the news coverage that Trump was killing off a whole people? When told by the hat owner that she had no right to steal his property, she said, “Man, f--- your laws.” The Latina also said, “Make America great again? It never was f------g great. Never!” She went on to say “He is recording like I am the criminal here. Your ancestors stole this land, mother f------r.” She also said, “Your freedom of speech is literally killing a lot of people out there. You’re out there wearing hats like these, promoting laws and legislations (sic) that literally kill and murder in the masses people of color.”

The left is totally bonkers. (I’d say “bananas” but someone might accuse me of code racism). Yeah, she came off as crazy girlfriend material but truly, what has happened to the quality of people’s thinking these days? Opiods? CNN overdose?


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More feigned outrage from Gavin Newsom, who wants to be Governor Moonbeam Version 2. He’s upset that John Cox is upset that an illegal alien killed Iowa college student Molly Tibbetts. Newsom knows he’s on the wrong side of sanctuary state policies – if you understand where the majority of Californians are on this. Newsom says Cox is exploiting the tragedy. I say Cox is only telling the truth – there is a lot of crime occurring from people who don’t have any right nor should be here.


Newsom told reporters the Tibbetts case was a tragedy “but to highlight that tragedy and not highlight the success of policies to protect families from deportation, to protect mixed-status families and to protect our diverse communities and our values does an injustice, and that’s just typical ... of the administration and their need and desire to exploit these issues for political gain.”

Sleazy Gavin cites the so-called “success” of policies to protect lawbreakers. He is a HUGE fan of the state harboring and protecting illegal aliens from federal immigration policies. In fact, when he was running for lieutenant governor Sleazy said he’d go to jail to protect illegal aliens being here.

He so quickly forgets. Ten years ago Newsom was mayor of San Francisco – the place where he had an affair with his best friend’s wife – and imposed a city policy that reported undocumented youth arrested for felonies to federal immigration authorities. His decision was made a week after the June 2008 killing of Anthony Bologna, 48, and his sons Michael, 20, and Matthew, 16, in San Francisco. The killer was illegal alien Edwin Ramos, a El Salvador gang member. He had been convicted of three murders in May 2012 but had not been deported. Newsom’s obvious hypocrisy is being called out by defenders of pro illegal alien policy. Former SF County Supervisor David Campos told Newsom he should not “try to rewrite history and portray yourself as a champion of immigrants when you yourself were prominently involved with a policy that led to the separation of families.”

Campos apparently has no problem with children being separated from their parents when they are arrested for drug, robbery, auto theft, or murder crimes, just not for breaking federal immigration policy. 

California continues to continue its slide into the morass of a Third World dump hole thanks to policies enacted by Democrats. If you want it to continue, move Sleazy one office higher. If not, John Cox is the only option this November.


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The assault on our police continues in California.

In hearing recently was AB 931, a bill authored by Assemblywoman Shirley Weber, a Democrat who was fined $4,000 for violating campaign finance reporting laws four years ago. Her knee-jerk reaction bill came after Sacramento police shot and killed thug Stephon Clark who was skulking around at night breaking car windows and committing burglaries. A police helicopter tracked Clark as he tried breaking into a slider of a home and trespassed into another yard. Clark ran from officers on the ground. Two officers tracked him into a backyard where he was ordered to show his hands. Clark moved toward the officers with something in his hand. Clark was shot multiple times and died on the patio. Police later learned that he didn’t have a gun but a cell phone.


Raj Manni, whose daughter was about to marry said thug, wrote an op-ed for the Sacramento Bee in which he made an incredulous statement: “The continued premise of ‘bad guys’ versus ‘good guys’ is no longer acceptable. Instead, AB 931 reminds law enforcement officers that the people they encounter every day have names, families and futures.” As if having a family makes you immune from consequences of breaking the law. I’m not sure what color the sky is in Manni’s world but there are lots of “bad guys” victimizing “good guys.” Ignore it all you want but there are consequences for being bad. Sometimes you end up getting killed when you are out doing stupid or bad thing.

Manni goes on to say: “AB 931 would ensure that law enforcement officers think twice before pulling the trigger, because once a gun is fired and a human life is lost, it is irreversible. A piece of our community dies and fear of law enforcement deepens in communities of color.”

A law that makes officers think twice? How does that work? The majority of officers never want to pull the trigger but have no choice. If anything, AB 931 will make them think twice about being an officer in a state where Democrats are always bashing them and trying their hands! It also has to be frustrating in this Jerry Brown era of putting your life on the line to bust creeps only to see them walk out of jail and get a slap on the wrist. Thirdly, shouldn’t people of any color fear law enforcement WHEN THEY DO BAD THINGS LIKE BREAK INTO CARS AND HOUSES?


Manni concludes that Clark was a “bright soul with so much unrealized potential” who died at the hands of police. A waste of a life yes, but there was nothing bright about a man who died committing petty crimes. And no, Stephon Clark died only because he broke the law and got caught doing them. He would be alive today if he had stopped running like he was ordered and threw up his hands. Perhaps the black community should have thanked the officers for eliminating a neighborhood crime problem rather than pulling the race card and making the police the villains. But then again, the biblical prophet Isaiah wrote this in the New Testament: “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”

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I will be visiting In-N-Out Burger soon thanks to the Democrats’ call for a boycott of the chain for giving money to the Republicans. Eric Bauman, chair of the state Democratic Party, called for the boycott because the chain gave the GOP $25,000 and said “let Trump and his cronies support these creeps…perhaps animal style!”

A Christian family founded In-N-Out Burger.


How do you feel about this? Let Jeff know at jeffb@cerescourier.com