“When he was asked about hate, the elephant in the room was the president,” said Modesto resident Ken Schroeder after Congressman Jeff Denham’s appearance at the Red Event Center in downtown Modesto on Tuesday. The event was sponsored by the Latino Community Roundtable. And even though the president’s name rarely came up during Denham’s question-and- answer session, Donald Trump’s policies hovered like a dark shadow over the entire program. In […]
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The Denham Dossier, Part IV: The war on workers (and women)
Most people who drive frequently have experienced that chilling sensation when an eighteen-wheeler starts drifting over the lane markers and looms like a moving mountain above them. Fortunately, the truck driver usually corrects the drift—often after some frantic honking of the horn and wild gesturing from a panicked commuter. Drifting trucks are most likely the result of driver fatigue. Truck drivers these days are notorious for long hauls and short […]
Wall Street Journal Confirms Fears of Almond Glut
Rising concerns about a glut in the almond market were confirmed by the Wall Street Journal in “U.S. Farmers are Reeling from Chinese Tariffs.” The article cites the Almond Board of California, and says the board is expecting a record crop when the harvesting of some varieties begins in about two weeks. Coupled with the supply increase is the throttling back of demand in China because of steep tariffs, triggering a […]
Almond Glut Coming?
Read more of Steve Ringhoff’s fine work here. A glut is typically defined as the point at which supply exceeds demand. It’s not that simple, of course, since demand may be cyclical even when supply is consistent. And, a glut can result when supply ramps up past consistent or throttled back demand. Storage can smooth out a cycle but that means the producer isn’t paid until well after the time […]
Denham and Zinke: Crimes against Nature
There was a time when Ryan Zinke’s claim to be a Teddy Roosevelt Republican would have elicited laughter heard from Don Pedro Dam to Mount Rushmore. Teddy Roosevelt was one of the first and strongest ever defenders of public lands and wildlife; Donald Trump’s Secretary of the Interior might go down in history as the worst-ever enemy of those same public lands and wildlife. Consider this: Ryan Zinke has already […]
The Denham Dossier, Part III: Water for Tunnels
Jeff Denham has a lot of explaining to do. Once again on his biennial campaign tour, Denham’s latest reelection gambit features Secretary of Interior Ryan Zinke. Secretary Zinke is supposedly helping Congressman Denham work against state requirements for increased flows along our rivers, the so-called, “water grab.” Denham obviously wants to show he has tremendous clout in Washington D.C., but some of his work with fellow Republicans back east isn’t […]
Bruce Frohman on Jeff Denham: Propaganda over Service
Former Modesto City Councilman Bruce Frohman followed Jeff Denham’s long political career well before he won at the federal level and ever since. Although Jeff Denham has not been a good Congressman, he’s a masterful propagandist. He’s even got a billboard praising his failed effort to help promote DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals); that’s real chutzpah. He did not express support for DACA until the law expired and his […]
The Denham Dossier, Part II: The Real Water Grab
Why would a Beverly Hills billionaire donate big money to a congressman whose district is over two-hundred miles away from the billionaire’s business holdings? Because water flows uphill toward money and power, that’s why. Though he lives in a Beverly Hills mansion sometimes known as “Versailles II,” Stewart Resnick’s biggest land holdings are in Kern County and comprise some 180,000 acres, mostly in pistachios. According to Mark Arax, “His 15 […]
The Denham Dossier, Part I: the Immigration Shell Game
Every two years, Congressman Jeff Denham leaves his Virginia home and shows up in California to run his immigration shell and pea game. In the shell and pea game, the object is to follow the pea while it’s supposedly concealed under a shell. The scam is that the operator of the game hides the pea in his hand and only places it under a shell after a player has pointed […]
“The Future has to be bipartisan,” says UC Davis President
Michael Gofman and Matthew Wigler might seem an unlikely pair in today’s world of tribal politics, but the Republican Student Body President from UC Davis and Democrat student government senator at Stanford are working together to study seven of California’s so-called “purple” districts—congressional districts that voted for Hillary Clinton for president but also voted for a Republican congressional representative. Though they might differ on issues and answers, both Gofman and […]