I would like to respond to Mr. Sandford Sr.'s letter this week.

My thanks, Mr. Sandford, for your expressions of giddy anticipation of this week's Realities. Fans can exist as positive or negative expressions of interest. I would characterize you as stereotypically negative, but a fan nevertheless. Now I have two fans. It's a start.

I hope, for the sake of the 1.5 percent of the American population afflicted with gender confusion, homosexuality, and other psychological challenges, that a resolution can be found without bringing-down more than two centuries of American Judeo-Christian culture. Please see: http://godfatherpolitics.com/16779/top-psychiatrist-says-transgenderism-...

You see, the extraordinary opinion of Justice Anthony M. Kennedy in the recent same-sex marriage case will prove to be the straw that really does break the nation's foundational culture, that thing that has guided the remaining 98.5 percent of the American public in determining right from wrong, good from bad, and moral from immoral. We're talking about 5,000 years of moral tradition - "Commandments" - suddenly discarded to assuage the feelings of that special 1.5 percent. How is that different from Esau swapping his birthright for a bowl of slop, or a Judas kiss?

I wholeheartedly agree with Justice Antonin Scalia's dissent, calling Kennedy's swing opinion “a judicial Putsch,” “pretentious,” “egotistic,” “silly,” and filled with “straining-to-be-memorable passages.” It is a supremely outrageous, and ironically unconstitutional usurpation of the people's fundamental rights. This sort of intellectual corruption has opened the floodgates to other constitutional monstrosities like this: "The U.S. Justice Department says in a court filing that transgender students must be allowed to use the restroom that corresponds with their gender identity." Please refer again to above link.

Scalia again: “This [Kennedy's opinion] is a naked judicial claim to legislative — indeed, super-legislative — power; a claim fundamentally at odds with our system of government... “A system of government that makes the people subordinate to a committee of nine unelected lawyers does not deserve to be called a democracy.”
This opinion will not stand. It will fall eventually through a reexamination by a future normal-thinking court, or by the responding violence of a judicially battered electorate. Call that revolution.

Most Americans know that Almighty God matters - too.

Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have many things in common, they are both pathological liars. But Obama is the POTUS while Hillary is merely the wannabe.

The lies are firmly established, repeatedly for Obama during the past 6 years. His statements regarding guns following the recent murderous attack on a South Carolina church are typical. Every point he attempted to make is completely false. I won't waste time repeating the corrections of his falsehoods made by numerous experts.

The point is that Obama is a liar, as pathological as Hillary. What irritates me is the fact that his lies are so common and obvious that they are also insulting to the intelligence of anyone but liberals.

We know Obama and his friends hate firearms. I just wish he would educate himself about firearm's facts before launching into his condemnations. I suggest he purchase a book by world-famous American economist and political commentator, John Richard Lott, Jr., PhD, entitled "More Guns, Less Crime.

Lott, formerly employed by the University of Chicago, Yale University, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Maryland, College Park, and the American Enterprise Institute, is utterly correct in his conclusions. He has studied the subject of guns and their effects upon human societies longer than anyone else, more than 30 years. No credentialed expert has ever successfully faulted his work. Against Lott's information Obama's lies are just ridiculous - except to ignorant liberals.

"He is best known as an advocate in the gun rights debate, particularly his arguments against restrictions on owning and carrying guns. In 2000, Nobel laureate Milton Friedman said that "John Lott has few equals as a perceptive analyst of controversial public policy issues."

Unlike Obama, John Lott's word is credible. That's why liberals rarely quote him.

"As of November 1, 2012, Lott ranked 19th in number of all-time downloads, and 2662nd in scholarly citations of his work, on the Social Science Research Network."

In short, More Guns, [mean] Less Crime. This is indisputable thanks to Lott's diligence in researching the subject. Obama should know that guns are used defensively more than a million times per year in the US. "National surveys" suggested that "98 percent of the time that people use guns defensively, they merely have to brandish a weapon to break off an attack."

Very sad that no one was carrying a gun that day in the church.

It seems like a safe bet, if you're employed as an enemy saboteur, that you will enjoy a long, successful career in America.

If your thing is to smuggle explosives, guns, or box cutters onto American airliners, according to recent official reports, your success rate will be about 97 percent. "According to a report based on an internal investigation, "red teams" with the Department of Homeland Security's Office of the Inspector General were able to get banned items through the screening process in 67 out of 70 tests it conducted across the nation”. The man in charge of security was "reassigned" - not fired. Probably reassigned to Homer Simpson's spot as safety inspector at that nuclear power plant.

The field is wide open as well to ambitious saboteurs in the field of critical communications. Take the Arizona incident last February when just about everything went down. "FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) - Computers, cellphones and landlines in Arizona were knocked out of service for hours, ATMs stopped working, 911 systems were disrupted and businesses were unable to process credit card transactions - all because a vandal apparently sliced through a fiber-optic Internet cable buried under the desert.” There we go again with dat wascally vandal. But never fear, I'm sure a substantial reward is offered for his capture - like the $1,000 reward offered by AT&T for the capture of the "vandal" who has severed 10 fiber optic communication cables around San Francisco Bay Area recently. Reports state officials are "baffled".

Another baffling incident took place about 18 months ago in the San Jose area where, in the dead of night more rascally saboteurs entered a protected Pacific Gas & Electric substation, severed AT&T fiber-optic cables, and for nearly a half-hour fired AK-47 "sniper" rounds into the complex, "knocking out 17 transformers."

Last year, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission accidentally released a document outlining areas where the nation's electrical grid was susceptible to a terror attack. The Wall Street Journal, citing the data, reported that an attack on nine "key" substations could cause power outages nationwide. Well, might as well let the enemy know where to go so we can be there to catch him.

Sabotage seems to be a growth industry now. But none dare call it government-incompetence driven.

Now, back to the news. The question of the day? Just how black do you have to be to be recognized as black?

I don't feel all that great today so I'll just leave a link and a comment.

President Obama is determined to flood America with more millions of illegal aliens. There are probably 40 million here already (forget the official lies about 11 million). Ann Coulter is correct in her conclusions (see !ADIOS, AMERICA!).

We have been overwhelmed. Only someone who intends (in former Vice President Cheney's words) to "take down America" would facilitate such destruction on our country. As our Commander in Chief this makes Obama a traitor.

"Destruction" you say. Yes. Here's a recent news tidbit: NY girl 'barbarically' raped by teen gangsters from El Salvador http://www.wnd.com/2015/06/el-salvador-teen-gangsters-barbarically-rape-... - 2 days ago.

"This poor young woman is so lucky that she is alive. These are vicious young men'." Read this and weep for America. We've been sold-out by this treacherous president. It's time to halt all immigration until we eliminate these alien savages.

Obama wants America impotent and defenseless.

I frequently ask myself if anything is going right with the government, especially during the past six years. It's not an unreasonable question to ask and I usually conclude with a negative answer.

The negative answer may at first sound like an absurd sweeping generalization. But in a broad sense it is not. Looking at the US government, department by department, everything seems to be in failure mode. Like former Vice President Cheney has said, "Obama wants to take America down." And his efforts to do so are obvious; he has eviscerated our armed forces in the face of the enemy, is bankrupting our treasury with his spendthrift policies, undermining our police forces, and exposing us to direct atomic attack in his secret deals with Iran.
Homeland security is a joke, as we have recently learned that 95 percent of airline terminal inspections failed to find guns and explosives. Three sailors in our submarine service have already been jailed for sneaking photos of our new female submariners. Feminists claim that women placed onboard submarines with men, submerged and isolated for months, won't cause a discipline or distraction problem - naaah, of course not.

Former Attorney General Eric Holder has just been replaced with a clone, Loretta Lynch. China and Russia both scoff at American military power and continue their aggression at a rapid pace. We do nothing to stop the ISIS butchery in Africa and the Middle East. The blood of the beheaded babies, murdered fathers, raped, enslaved, and mutilated girls and women is on Obama's hands. Where are those fearless Feminists when we need them? Trying out for our special forces.

Oh, and of course America's immigration nightmare. As Ann Coulter is saying, "Adios America!"

The Katzenjammers are back! This sorry little band must be agonizing over the incredible success of the city council, which replaced them since that fateful election. They (through Fillmore Senior Center Inc.) have filed a complaint against the Fillmore City Council for replacing them as operators of our Fillmore Senior Center with a new staff and board of directors. This group (FSCI) is composed of many friends of the old Katzenjammers who once ruled the roost on the old city council.

It's time for our Council to bring an action against Fillmore Senior Center, Inc. (FSCI) to recover approximately $130,000 which the city had to pay in settlement for the unlawful sexual harassment behavior of its appointed volunteers at the Center.

***

I'm among the few of my extended family who has not visited Ireland. Both sides of my family are Irish and I've fostered a strong, lifelong attachment to the Emerald Isle.

I'm also among the hundreds of millions who were shocked to discover that the young people of Ireland recently voted through referendum (by 62%) to legalize so-called gay "marriage".

Ireland has been a center of Catholic faith for more than a thousand years, 87% in the Republic. The faith reached Ireland in the fourth century. "It was here that the lamp of Latin learning was preserved for the ages. During this age, the great illuminated manuscripts of Ireland were produced. Arguably the finest such work is The Book of Kells which may still be viewed at Trinity College, Dublin."

The traditional Catholic Church is stunned and scandalized by this legitimizing of gay "marriage" into the Irish Constitution by the "young people". Once again we see the work of the Godless liberal Left.

It's been a long-standing desire of mine to visit Ireland, "the Land of Saints and Scholars". But I have lost that desire since it has now become the land of Schismatics and Sodomites.

I say that out of fundamental religious convictions - not modern sociological theory. Saints Brigid, Columba, and Patrick weep over a new lost Irish generation.

CORRECTION: In last week's Realities, some details in my reporting of the incident at the School Farm where a goat was killed, were wrong. Here is a correct report of the facts:

"There were two [feral] dogs that had come onto the school farm. One entered a goat pen and killed one goat and was going after a second goat. The School Farm Tech shot at the dog. Both dogs ran off toward the river and did not return The School District wanted the tech terminated for discharging a firearm in a school zone. A police report was made and the District Attorney's office determined that no law was broken and no charges would be filed. There are no written policies covering the school farm. There were no students at the farm at time of incident. The school board, after a public hearing, determined to reduce the termination to a 30 day's suspension."

My thanks for the correction, and for reminding me that factual accuracy should always come first - except where the liberal media are concerned.

In my opinion the Tech acted responsibly under the circumstances and should be commended for his diligence instead of being punished. He should not lose 30-days pay.

***

Former governor Martin O'Malley is expected to announce his Democratic candidacy for president on May 20. Emphasizing his "youth," posing with his shirt off, he looks much like Putin on horseback. Two posturing hero wannabes. World affairs are now in such a state of emergency, thanks to Obama's disastrous attempts to "fundamentally transform" America, that anything more the Democrats might do before or after the election, can only ignite a conflagration.

The question is not whether Obama will continue to launch more attacks on our Constitution, but whether these efforts can be stopped before the end of his presidency. The latest revelation of his nation-destabilizing schemes is to federalize our state police power. If he succeeds here, he and his crooked Attorneys General can eliminate state-run police forces and institute any changes he wishes to impose upon the American people - such as firearms confiscation, and selective racial application of the law. With our Congress proven to be absolutely impotent to control our rogue president's executive orders, our last resort, according to a recent guest speaker on Hannity, might just be "...taking matters into our own hands."

Something special is supposed to be happening in Fillmore this week - but we've heard nothing about it (as usual) from our Chamber of Commerce. Maybe the Gazette will have something to print about it next week.

I was gone for a few days last week so I just learned of the incident at the School Farm.

Apparently two wild dogs attacked a goat being kept at the farm. The caretaker, attempting to get rid of the dogs, fired a shot but accidently killed the goat. He was punished with a 30-day suspension without pay.

I haven't had time to get all the details of this incident, but I hear the caretaker is a very responsible man who has been at the Farm for a long time. As far as I know, he is responsible for the safety of the structures and animals. There are many wild animals in the adjacent riverbed area, including feral dogs, which pose a danger to the animals. Though the caretaker caused the death of the goat, which is sad, he acted reasonably in accordance with his duty to protect the animals. This is especially true in the absence of established, written guidelines to the contrary.

I regret that he was suspended for 30 days without pay. Who is going to take his place for the next month?

***

Shortly after I finished this week's column I returned to my computer and learned an astonishing new fact: the Pope has just officially recognized the so-called Palestinian State.

I only have time for a quick reaction. This incredibly reckless, thoughtless, and stupid action greatly furthers the cause of war between Israel and Iran. It also clearly identifies the Pope as a far Left political man, which should not be surprising because he is also a member of the Jesuit order. Recognizing the Palestinian State facilitates and justifies its massive terrorist activities.

The Pope is also a defender of the disgraced and condemned (by the church itself) Liberation Theology movement.

As a Roman Catholic myself, I am simply astounded. Pope Francis is a man of the Left, and one I can no longer trust. Doesn't he know that the Palestinian cause is responsible for the Christian Holocaust in the Middle East, and seeks to destroy Israel?!

For the faithful readers of Mr. Farrell's Realities, or as he likes to put it 'his fan' (singular), there will be great disappointment this week. He is on vacation, and as for commentary you are stuck with me.

Although I would like to write about rainbows and unicorns, I am afraid the newest attack on Our freedom of speech rights in Garland, Texas trumps that.

I am surprised by the reaction of some in the news media, blaming the organizers of the Draw Mohammad event for the shooting by two Islamic terrorists. Please don't call them 'extremists'. The base for Islamic Insurgent Conflict, ie. massacre, has been well established in Africa and the Middle East, and famously in Europe with the Charlie Hebdo killings. The 2009 Fort Hood, Texas slaughter of 13 was called ‘an act of terrorism’ by several Senators and General Barry McCaffrey, while the U.S. Dept of defense classified it as 'workplace violence', despite Nodal Malik Hasan's government monitored connection to Yemen-based imam Anwar al-Awlaki.

According to some in the media, who make their living relying on the First Amendment, the cartoon contest invited violence and therefore should not have been held. I suppose the same thing could be said of the Freedom Marches, or on the other end of the scale, Skokie, Illinois (Freedom of Assembly).

But I digress--back to my surprise.

Even the Fox News equivalent of Captain America, Bill O'Reilly, criticized the event with, “It's always cause and effect. This is what happens when you light the fuse, you get violence.”

Martin Luther King lit the fuse. Mahatma Gandhi lit the fuse. Nelson Mandela lit the fuse. There have been a lot of necessary fuses lit in this country; Abraham Lincoln, Kent State, Boston Tea Party.

Garland, Texas already has the First Amendment right to free speech, assembly, and drawing cartoons. The threat is not a cartoon contest. The threat is Islamic terrorists and their determination to impose Sharia law in America, on Americans, violating Our First Amendment right, and our right to breath.

The winner of the Draw Mohammad cartoon contest was Bosch Fawstin, an Albanian, raised in a strict Islamic home in the Bronx. He broke free from Islam in his teens. Watch his gracious, brave and informative acceptance speech at www.jihadwatch.org/2015/05/video-muhammad-cartoon-contest-winner-bosch-f....

In Fawstin’s opinion, even the meekest of Islamic teachings promotes 'misogyny and Jew-hatred'.

Remember Molly Norris? The Islamic faithful do. A Fatwa was placed on her life five years ago after she produced a satirical cartoon depicting Mohammad as a teacup, a cherry, a domino, a spool of thread...you get the idea. She JOKINGLY called for 'Everybody Draw Mohammad Day' (http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/comic-riffs/wp/2015/05/04/just-what-h...). And for this she must die.

Americans have always fought for their freedoms. So if holding a cartoon contest is our new battleground, then everyone grab a crayon and raise it high over your head, and repeat the words of Molly Norris--”Fatwas suck."

In my nearly-27 years in Fillmore I've never seen better cooperation between our school district and our city council. Last night's joint meeting exemplified that fact as the two groups joined together to unify their mutual interests in community affairs. Fillmore will now enjoy shared facilities and responsibilities for our military banner program. We should all be proud of this new-found civility and productivity. Hello and Congratulations to our Fillmore City Council and School District Board. Goodbye to the bad old days of confrontation.

***

The recent riots in Baltimore are facilitated racism - but not white on black racism; it's the other way around. Baltimore's population is more than 50 percent African-American, with a black Mayor, a black police commissioner, and a more than 50 percent black police force. It's mayor is astonishingly clueless regarding even common sense preparations against a looming riot. Too little - too late. Ditto for the city police commissioner. Leftists, gang bangers, Soros anarchists, criminal opportunists set the stage for a perfect storm of chaos - sparked by massive incompetence. The mentality of the activists: like a homeowner yelling, "Do what I say or I'll burn my house down!"

I heard over the radio this morning that it's Earth Day. We should re-name the occasion Creation Day and thank the Father for his generosity - and reject liberals who ignore the Creator while worshiping His creation. They have it backwards.

***

"Just days after the United States announced it would send its own warships to Yemen in order to prevent Iran from smuggling weapons to terror forces fighting there, a flotilla of Iranian destroyers docked in the same area."( By: Adam Kredo Follow @Kredo0).

Another military bluff by our Warrior in Chief, Barack Obama, who has humiliated American armed forces around the world in the face of the enemy. No wonder he celebrates deserters and traitors in the White House rose garden, kowtows to our enemies, Iran, and subverts the security of our friends and allies (Israel). Sending our navy to Yemen to "to prevent Iran from smuggling weapons to terror forces fighting there" is just another strategic lie, another line in the sand, or red line to scare the enemy, another disgusting bluff from the boy who cries wolf.

The world has known for years that, because of Obama, our enemies don't fear us and our friends no longer respect or believe us. Mr. President, you are the only one left who doesn't understand that your bluff has been called and the world sees you as the wannabe emperor without his clothes. If you will indulge a deserving vulgarism, we know you as a slick-talking charlatan, a Little Lord Fauntleroy who farts in silk and plays golf all day.

But our enemies play hard ball, and the future existence of America is at stake. I agree with our former Vice President Dick Cheney: "If you had somebody as president who wanted to take America down, who wanted to fundamentally weaken our position in the world and reduce our capacity to influence events, turn our back on our allies and encourage our adversaries, it would look exactly like what Barack Obama’s doing."

I'll go beyond identifying Obama as Cheney has done; I just think of him as a traitor.

Fillmore High School senior, Jorge Hurtado, received a special Edison scholarship for $40,000 this afternoon. Unfortunately the surprise presentation came a half-hour before press time and we don't have the information for the complete story. Therefore we will run the story next week in living color. Congratulations Mr. Hurtado!

***

A week or so ago I recommended that the Pope concentrate on spiritual matters and leave defense issues to military experts. The Pope, in his Easter address, praised the framework for the Iranian nuclear treaty which would "make the world safer."

This conclusion is not only wrong but holds out false hope for peace, like Chamberlin's naive hope for "peace in our time" by believing in Hitler's promises. Obama's astonishing naiveté will have the immediate effect of locking the world into certain nuclear conflagration in the near future. Iran is the world's leading fomenter of terrorism, the creator of virtually all terrorist groups like ISIS, which have murdered most Christians from the Middle East to North Africa.

Iran is building intercontinental ballistic missiles to which they intend to attach nuclear bombs. It's their express intention to destroy Israel and America. They practice their apocalyptic Islamic goals with bloody enthusiasm.

If this deadly foolish "treaty" is concluded every Middle East nation will seek atomic defensive measures and an atomic conflagration will be inevitable.

And so, Your Holiness, with respect, this is a framework for total atomic war, not peace in our time. To confirm this conclusion ask the bishops of Syria, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Nigeria and other victim countries which have recently experienced the Christian Holocaust.

Our Fillmore School District office has had a sudden face lift.

The old deodar tree taken down on April Fools' Day because it was about as dead as a tree can be. A serious lack of irrigation over the years caused its demise. The sawyer, Luke Klinzing, did an expert job. He counted 50 rings on the stump. Fear of heavy falling limbs made the removal necessary. The impact of the falling stump brought people out of their offices nearly a block away. I suggest the remaining (struggling) tree also be taken down, and perhaps replace them with two matching redwoods.

***

I agree entirely with the comment that former Vice President Dick Cheney made on "The Hugh Hewitt Show" Tuesday night. Cheney said that President Obama's foreign policy actions around the world show a president who wants "to take America down."

Obama is a dangerous man determined to destroy our nation's preeminence as the most stabilizing force among competing nations. He has set the stage for World War III and left America deliberately unprepared by skeletonizing our military, abandoning our traditional allies, like Israel, and befriending our deadliest enemies, like Iran.

Aside from what the Pope may believe, Obama's latest effort at befriending Iran is a suicide mission. The Pope should stick to spiritual matters and leave defense matters to the military. Only a fool would fail to recognize the fact that America is due to be attacked - soon. See Drudge links today.

The whole world, free and otherwise, watches Sec. of State John Kerry plead with Iran to promise not to build a nuclear weapon. On just a handshake. The world is in a state of stunned disbelief at the spectacle of the United States of America begging Iran (the world's foremost terrorist state) to agree not to build the bomb. It all reminds me of a 1969 release by Fifth Dimension entitled Wedding Bell Blues, sung with some urgency "...Oh come on Bill...won't you marry me Bill?!" This deadly national degradation all to provide a "legacy" for Barack Obama.

Even the Arabs are aghast at the proceedings, and now seek their own bomb. FOX news commentator Charles Krauthammer nailed Kerry's character in his March 23 statement: Krauthammer: Kerry Claim is 'Rich' | Freedom's Back. Kerry has sold us out with that "...fake Brahmin accent of yours", Krauthammer said.

It was a pleasure to attend last night's council meeting. Several presentations were awarded. Most impressive to me were those made to the individual volunteers responsible for the creation of Fillmore's new "Pump Track Park". If, like me, you didn't know what such a park was, it's a truly great bicycle recreation area. Our park is unique in Ventura County, being the only one in existence to date.

It is a carefully designed earthen obstacle course for bicycles, including ramps, and numerous jumping areas and curves. What's really neat about the course is the fact that kids of all ages can use it. I've watched very young children run their bikes over the bumps while moms supervised the activities. It's a low-maintenance area designed to burn a lot of energy while negotiating the various-sized hills and valleys. Combined with our new state-of-the-art skateboard park, no kid in Fillmore can complain about not having exciting things to do!

Our new Pump Track Park is just one of the impressive list of Fillmore City Council accomplishments completed during the past couple of years. Please also note the names of individuals and companies who VOLUNTEERED their time and money to create these new facilities. Both the extensive (and expensive) Boys & Girls Club and Pump Track constructions involved extensive, difficult, and time-consuming effort by these extraordinary volunteers.

A plaque at both locations should thank these volunteers to let future beneficiaries of their labor know how the facilities came to be. See two stories on the front page for more details, and fillmoregazette.com.

List of city accomplishments during past couple of years:
Economic Development
Economic Development Strategic Plan – Adopted 2014
Surveyed Downtown Businesses
Fillmore Development Council
The Retail Coach - Retail Analysis
The Stop Project
Family Dollar
Revising Business Park – CAIF allocation formula
Revised Subordination/1st Time Homebuyers Program

Communication
Approved contract new web site
Mobile App
Communication Plan – Adopted 2014
Approved Upgrade of Server Hardware, Internet Services and Phone System

Fiscal
2.4 M carry over in 2013-14 Budget
California Society of Municipal Finance Officers – Operating Budgeting Excellence Award FY 2014-15.
Monthly financial report provided to Council
Investment Policy
Provide detailed analysts on warrant list expenses allocations
Upgraded Financial Software System and added Building/Planning and Human Resources Modules

Infrastructure
Central Avenue Repaved
Traffic Signal Mountain View and 126 on Schedule – Working with Cal Trans project warranted.
Valley Express Bus Service (Santa Paula, Fillmore and Ventura County)
Heritage Valley Regional Transit JPA approved

Litigation
El Dorado Case Settled
Sales tax issue settled

Public Safety
Replaced aging Fire Engine using CDBG Funding
Approved replacement of aging Fire Squad Truck – Using CDBG Funding for 80% of cost.
Obtained a $500,000 Cal-Grip Grant to help suppress and prevent further gang violence through a cooperative effort of police and the community.
Part 1 crimes continued to decrease due to the dedication of resources to problem areas.
Obtained a $215,000 grant from the Fillmore Fire Foundation for replacement hand-held radios and self-contained breathing devices.
Obtained bullet proof vests.
Fire house remodeled

Organizational
Revised Facility Use Policy
Adopted Volunteer Program
Hired - Finance Director, City Manager, Community Development Director, City Engineer and Building Official, Building Inspector, Planning and Building Technician, Assistant Finance Direct, Administrative Assistant, Reclassification of Admin Asst/ Deputy City Clerk to Human Resources Director/Deputy City Clerk. Hired and trained 3 academies of Paramedics and EMTs in the Volunteer Firefighter Program
Eliminated 5% of salary reduction from Employees’ Medical Cafeteria Allowance and Restored to full amount of $675.00
Provided 2% Salary Increase to Employees

Community Services

Competition of the new kitchen equipment at the Multi-Purpose Center for the Senior Nutrition Program. (Oven, hood exhaust system, freezer, refrigerator and kitchen ceiling tiles)
New Senior Nutrition Meal Site – North Fillmore Store Front.
Maintenance at Shiells Park and Delores Day bathrooms. (painted)
Re-model back three rooms and bathroom on the stage area at the Memorial Building.
Memorial Building back patio re-done and painted and the back west outside wall of the Memorial Building was also completely painted.
Three Friendship games for Youth Basketball were held with Santa Paula. Two games in Fillmore and one games in Santa Paula.
Competition of the Tot Lot Play Equipment at Two Rivers Park.
Pump Track Completed

Planning/Building
Completed an update of the City's General Plan Housing Element.
Completed and submitted to the State Department of Finance a Long-Range Property Management Plan for successor redevelopment agency properties as required by state law.
Ventura Street Guidelines adopted and reviewed.
Planning Commission received professional training for first time in 15 years

Other
Gold - Emerging Energy Leader Award – VCREA
Platinum Energy Level Award – April Anticipated
Equestrian Center
Approved adding Enhanced Active Adult Programs
Approved Active Adult Commission
Centennial celebration
Negotiation of an agreement with the school district to resolve the unpaid athletic field water bill matter. Plan in place to fix grass area.

Just a note on an aggravating city problem which doesn't seem to get better.

Central Avenue has one main, heavily used, pedestrian crossing in front of the Towne Theatre. For years now an increasing number of people tend to sit on and congregate around the brick planters on the east and west side.

Typically, six or seven men gather under the shade of the trees, sitting on the planters for most of the day. Usually bicycles, shopping carts or other personal property are tucked into the mix congesting both the sidewalk and crosswalk.

It's usually a congenial, low-key group, quick to tip containers in paper bags to travelers with a smile. But city council members have heard complaints as well about unwelcome comments addressed to female pedestrians walking by.

This is a nuisance problem for the city and a definite turn-off for tourists. The city has made efforts in the past to discourage groups from loitering in high-traffic public areas. If enforcement of a nuisance ordinance isn't working I think a little more brick to make the area uncomfortable for loungers may do the trick.

It's ironic that after spending millions on our beautiful city park, complete with fountain, and comfortable benches under shade trees, located one block away, that the Central Avenue Loungers don't use it.

This is more than a simple nuisance and the council should solve the problem as soon as possible.

***

Just a shout-out for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu! Thank God he has won a new term. He's a brilliant and courageous leader. He would make a great mentor for President Obama - but it's too late.

Conservative radio commentator Dennis Prager always has my attention in the morning, for as long as I can listen-in. He is among the plethora of brilliant conservative voices which own AM radio. Always thoughtful, insightful, and truthful, it's comforting to know they're there.

As I watch Hillary Clinton's opening act in her run for the presidency, a comment by Prager this morning dragged me back to the dark days of the Clinton presidency. He quoted a distinguished political commentator of the 1990s, saying, "Hillary Clinton is a pathological liar." Checking that statement online I find that numerous others have come to the same conclusion. Of course, lying is a family trait with Clintons.

Hillary should be criminally charged for her supreme public act of deceit, concealing the fact that she ran her office of Secretary of State out of her basement, on two private email servers. All national communications were handled this way for four years! She never used official (protected) government servers to transmit top secret information. Happy day for the Russians and Chinese intelligence services.

What worries me, as always, is the continuing popularity of another charlatan, like Obama. America can never recover its world prominence if it continues to elect slick talking fools and pathological liars like Barack Obama and Hillary. But liberals, leftists, and lunatics just love these types; perhaps because they resemble themselves?

Then I see a bold leading headline on DRUDGE, from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette of February 5, 1998, by Michael Kelly, regurgitating, ironically, the rich history of President Bill Clinton's lies, including the infamous "It all depends on what the definition of "is" is."

Have the American people become so stupid as to welcome the Clintonistas back to the White House? Or, have 50 percent of us always been that way?

I would be willing to bet Hillary Clinton does not run for president. If she does, I believe she will lose.
The thought of Clintons returning to the White House is alarming. Former President Bill succeeded in disgracing the office as no other predecessor in the country's history. It's not as alarming as watching Obama at work "fundamentally" changing the nation's social, financial, military, and medical stability, but alarming just the same.

The thought of having both of these love birds occupying the same house again seems comical at the domestic level. She could throw things at Bill with impunity, and sic the Secret Service on him when he's prowling around at night. This has always been the archetypical political marriage of convenience. They are two political peas in a money-power pod.

There is no important difference between Bill and Hillary's moral or ethical makeup. Both have always seen themselves above the law. That's the primary reason she took it upon herself to create and use her own email system during her stint as Secretary of State. She chose to avoid the official state email system altogether, which is protected. Using her own email system permitted her to control which of her emails would be archived, as demanded by law, and which would not. We can reasonably assume now that every official email Hillary sent or received during her years as Obama's Secretary of State has been hacked. I wonder if we can retrieve any messages on the Benghazi "Stand down"?

I don't believe Hillary will ever be president, but then, who knows what that 51 percent of our liberal electorate might do?

Thank you Lord for the rain!

***

Just a reminder that the public is invited to Appreciation Day set for March 1, at the Fillmore First Baptist Church, 1057 First Street in Fillmore. The church invites everyone to join in showing our support for all of our local Law Enforcement, Firefighters, and Emergency Medical Personnel. There will be an emergency vehicle display, and jolly jumpers.

***

I thought it would be interesting to comment on a few headlines from the DRUDGE REPORT. So brace yourself.
"Senate Republicans wave white flag on amnesty". They (Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell) should shut down the government before letting Osama get by with another unconstitutional move. If Republicans fail to keep their word on this issue, again, they deserve the contempt which will follow, and an end to conservative support.

***

"Osama military downsizing leaves U.S. too weak to counter global threats, panel finds”.

The world is more perilous today than in the pre-WWII period. Obama has pink-slipped thousands of our most experienced military personnel, cut back massively on procurement, and demoralized the troops with the blunt stupidity of his Leftist naïveté. China and Russia are boasting of military invincibility and North Korea is building long range missiles. Iran will have a bomb shortly, thanks to Obama's willful stupidity, which will precipitate a nuclear arms race throughout much of the world. Obama is sympathetic to bloody Islamic Jihadism (by an absence of meaningful response) and hostile to our faithful friend, Israel, the only democratic nation in the Middle East. Obama dreams of pacifying the Middle East with a "jobs program" for Islamic child rapists and sex slave entrepreneurs. Obama refuses to keep the promises made to the Ukraine for military protection against Russia (for which Ukraine, in reliance upon those promises, gave up its nuclear weapons) and refuses to provide defensive arms to the Kurds, also as promised.

How foolish, how positively stupid (and dangerous) are Obama's foreign "policies" which betray a complete lack of rational strategy. No rational person could believe his actions will result in anything but national and international catastrophe. The girls in the White House back room are dictating military strategy to our generals while our enemies laugh.

Barack Obama and his cabinet clowns, are killing America.

Last week I commented on the city's decision to end the lease with Fillmore Senior Center, Inc. (FSCI), who have been running our Senior Center. I received the information shortly before we went to press and promised more facts on the issue this week. Mayor Doug Tucker has provided those facts in his letter to the editor this week, so I will bow out of the discussion. If FSCI board members continue hectoring the city over the lease maybe the city should consider a suit to recover the $130,000 the city had to pay to settle harassment claims due to FSCI board members' conduct.

***

U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen has saved the day with his decision to block Obama's unconstitutional immigration move to exempt nearly 5 million illegal aliens from deportation. The country is dissolving in an alien soup while the aliens themselves have become so embolden as to challenge and mock US laws. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) warns us of illegal alien ‘Militancy’ , and Mexican-American journalist Jorge Ramos warns of retribution in 2016. Both of these guys have abandoned their American loyalty as band majors for a foreign country. Remember the story of The Three Little Pigs? "Let me in or I'll huff and I'll puff till I blow the house in". It's past time to defend American sovereignty by securing our borders. Then, we also have the Islamic butchers of ISIS to think about - who just burned 45 innocent people to death.

When the history of America is written (by whomever is left to write it) say 50 years from now, Barack Obama will be recognized as the man who gave away the greatest nation in world history. It's clear to see that every major policy and decision he has made during the past 6 years has damaged our defense and domestic stability. He has gathered into his government some of the most ignorant, incompetent, and treacherous persons, people of the extreme Left.

While he has facilitated the moral dissolution of our domestic society, he has also given aid and comfort to the nation's enemies. It is his disastrous meddling in foreign affairs that will prove to be most directly responsible for America's demise. He will be the reason Iran will get atomic weapons, causing a world-wide arms race.

NATO is a toothless, paper tiger. None of America's old allies has the will or ability to form an effective defense against ISIS and its numerous affiliations. Russia’s Putin will continue his invasions of Europe. North Korea will continue making atomic weapons and ballistic missiles aimed at America. China, with its trillions in hand, will overwhelm Taiwan and other smaller Asian nations because the US is too weak to react, due to Obama defense cut-backs. We also have virtually all of the Middle East and North Africa turning on us.

Then there is Israel - the only democratic nation of the Middle East, and our ONLY friend, which Obama has singled out for abandonment.

Obama should be impeached, convicted for giving aid and comfort to the enemy, removed from office, and jailed. But, then we have Biden to deal with! Button-up your bomb shelter, because Franklin Graham is right in warning - "The storm is coming".