There’s a lot of yak-yak about “civil discourse” these days but I don’t think any of it is sincere. We’re warned about “cyber bullies” but usually in the context of teenagers posting trash about each other online that used to go on the bathroom wall.
Adults do a lot of cyber bullying, I get it all the time. I know, I’m a crusty old broad, but I can tell when somebody is trying to intimidate me into shutting up, just by calling me a “troll” and telling me to “get a life”. I usually don’t post those comments, not because I’m thin-skinned, but because they don’t have anything to do with the conversation. But yesterday I got a comment from a public employee that was post worthy.
John Ferrera, Chief of Staff commented on CA ACA 1 – another attempt to lower the 2/3’s tax measure threshold disguised as a housing bill
“You never comtacted our office for a conversation about your concerns or to explain why local officials should not be able to ask their viters for support of local priorities to support the local economy. So how transparent and engaged are you? The Assemblymember’s phone is everywhere. Her office is in the State Capitol. And she meets daily with people from all over California. But you’re frustrated that you can’t just troll her on social media instead of engaging in a policy discussion. Your choice, not hers. And, by the way, after years of fires in her district in Lake, Sonoma, Yolo, Colusa and Napa, she was the first person to offer assistance to her colleagues dealing with the Camp Fire. You think they may want to ask their voters to support local rebuilding efforts? Under her initiative, they can if they want, and voters must support. If not, nothing happens.”
What a jerk. He could have asked me if I wanted to chat about the bill, and then let it go, instead, he seems to be calling me out, playground style. This comment is so hateful and angry, if he had spoken to me like this in a small room, I think I’d be very uncomfortable. Not only is this man an adult, he’s an adult who gets paid over $100,000/year, plus benefits, to protect the public interest.
He commented on a month old post I wrote about an assembly bill that would lower the 2/3’s voter approval for tax measures to a simple majority – 51 to 55%. But it’s been disguised as a housing measure, using wild fire victims as bait. Read the post here:
I don’t think I wrote anything insulting, I just expressed my outrage at this clever ploy to get us to sign away our voting rights tacked onto a bill that uses fire victims as a shield. Here’s the bill, from Bill Track.
https://www.billtrack50.com/LegislatorDetail/21570
“resolution to propose to the people of the State of California an amendment to the Constitution of the State, by amending Sections 1 and 4 of Article XIII ? A thereof, by amending Section 2 of, and by adding Section 2.5 to, Article XIII ? C thereof, by amending Section 3 of Article XIII ? D thereof, and by amending Section 18 of Article XVI thereof, relating to local finance.”
How could they make this more confusing? This stuff isn’t written for the general public to understand. But you get that, right? “amending Section 18 of Article XVI thereof, relating to local finance.”
It’s pretty obvious, this bill is an attempt to change the system by which bonds are approved and the proceeds spent. Read about that here:
This bill is being carried by assembly member Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, from Dixon-Winters California, near Sacramento. I went to her website to look for contact information, but was asked for my zip code, and then told she didn’t accept mail from outside her district. I think that should be illegal – we’re ALL her constituents, everything she does affects all of us. But we’re not allowed to contact her at her taxpayer supported website?
So I dumped my outrage into a blog, and went about trying to contact various friends of mine about the bill. I didn’t call her a whore, I didn’t give out her private address with 12-packs of eggs, I just suggested that people write to her local newspaper to tell her what they thought. And I made a personal note to remember to keep tabs on the bill.
Then the other day I got the nasty little comment from Ferrera. A pretty nasty, deliberate attempt to bully me into shutting up.
Yeah, good luck with that!
Chico Taxpayers Association 
He is nothing but a political hack who works for a corrupt politician who is a special interest trough feeder.
Of course he doesn’t mention anything about how they use our tax money to push for even higher taxes which benefit the special interests. He and his boss will do everything they can to raise our taxes.
It’s incredibly expensive to live in this state. It has extremely high costs, especially taxes, compared to the rest of the nation and the highest poverty rate. The middle class here is shrinking.
And he and his boss have no clue as to how their actions such as all their tax increases affect us. If they do, they don’t care. All they care about is themselves and their special interest cronies.
Since when is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in staff time and on PR firms scheming for tax increases asking voters for support?
This guy is just another political crook!
You remind me – all legislators have expensive staff pools to do their dirty work. These people all get the salaries, benefits and pensions that are tanking our economy.
It’s nothing but disgusting that the local politicians and bureaucrats spend our own money on staff time and hiring PR firms to scheme for tax increases. Over the years what CARD and the city council has spent must be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
And now this clown and his boss wants to make it even easier for them to raise our taxes. The are nothing but pigs at the trough.
That’s an insult to pigs everywhere and I apologize to the pigs.
What these politicians and their henchmen really are, are thieves!
Thanks for that apology, although, my grandpa had a sow that he couldn’t turn his back on. And a boar will eat piglets any chance he gets.
Besides, there are plenty of other words – embezzlers, racketeers, scumbags, scallywags, etc…
Yeah, you nailed it. What is most offensive is how he tries to mislead about bill, tries to tell us it’s all about housing poor displaced Camp Fire victims. He even appears to be threatening us with no housing if we don’t approve the bill.
Our legislature is a snake pit. When I first read about this bill I wrote to our ass-man James Gallagher. He never responded about the bill, but I was immediately put on his spam mailing list, trying to tell me how wonderful he is and how he’s helping the Camp Fire victims.
What’s the old saying? If you’re taking flak you must be over the right target?
Maybe this joker being riled up means they are afraid people will begin to recognize what a scam they are trying to pull. Why else would he comment?
And then there’s this quote “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”
Yeah, I’m going to have to write a letter to their home town paper, this is too much to ignore.