Letters to the Editor

Cease & Desist Letter

Maybe the single, dumbest, most incoherent thing I’ve seen in my life, [Gonzalez Attacks 1st Amendment, Page 1] from misspelling of names and getting addresses wrong to trying to preempt a campaign mailer, which is like some fever dream fear of Lena’s in a narcotics-induced state rather than anything that could occur on this plane of reality, to the concept of a candidate even thinking she or he would have the power in a constitutional democracy to preempt a campaign mailer, if that mailer even were something real, to trying to silence media outlets in contradiction of the most basic understanding of the first amendment (not to mention Sullivan v NY Times).

One could go on and on if it were worth the time. It really was “frighteningly” stupid, given that the ranting accuser is a state senator. Suffice to say, I don’t know what the hell she’s talking about, and I very much doubt anyone else attacked in the letter does either. I can only imagine that she paid an apparently unethical attorney to use his letterhead for something she herself scribbled while three quarters of the way into a wine bottle or on some other kind of substance.

It actually gives me the creeps how someone could take office and not even have a 6th grade level civics education. Only someone that painfully ignorant of the democratic American order could put her name on that.

And all of that is not even to mention that a state senator would be so abysmally disconnected from a sense of ethics or truth, that it would occur to her that it was okay to fabricate a sheet of stupid. She lives in a world, as we’ve seen is the case lately, where making stuff up, even incredibly stupid stuff that makes the liar just look like an idiot, is acceptable behavior. It’s too much sometimes. We used to elect adults in this city. It’s nauseating to realize we live in local political waters where someone as stone cold dumb as Lena Gonzalez could exist without being drummed out of office.

If only there hadn’t been so many candidates in the special election. Even prostituting herself to the oil industry to the tune of a million-dollar independent expenditure nearly wasn’t enough to save her from public awareness of what pathetic pawn of a councilmember she was.

Actually, the one thing I got out of this letter was that apparently there’s a lot of sh*t in her husband Adam Carillo’s background (rumored to be running for 5th District council, if you can believe a joke like that) that I didn’t know about. But now everyone will make sure to find out exactly what it is Lena’s so afraid of people finding out. Like I say, you really cannot even describe how stupid she is.

This is literally the second time in this campaign that an opponent has literally just made a lot of sh*t up. Where do these morons come from? It’s like you really do have to be this stupid to have such low personal standards to be willing to be part of the City Hall parliament of whores in this town.

The folks in Garcia’s orbit from Cotter to Brezenoff to Cindy Allen to Lena to Herlinda are truly the creepiest most dishonest excuses for humanity. You have to take a shower after just being in the same room with these people.

Ian Patton

In a similar manner I was miffed at the tone and content of the letter as well as to why all of us were lumped together as if we were some sort of cohesive entity.

I’ve met everyone on that list at one point or another but the work I do on social media is my own, and I do not ask or receive permission from anyone to voice my constitutionally protected right of free speech.

In a precursor to Senator Gonzalez’s letter, a week ago today she posted on her reelection page on Facebook that I “have spread lies, hate, furthered racist and misogynistic messaging in mailers” and other blatant lies.

Gonzalez also claims I’ve been “harassing these amazing women leaders” whom she names later in her post as the candidates for Council District 8, Thrash-Ntuk; Council District 6, Saro; Council District 2, Allen; school board candidate Reyes-Uranga; and finally Community College candidate Chico.

Senator Gonzalez ends her social media post encouraging social media platforms to cancel me and encouraging her readers to “unfollow” me. Meanwhile, Gonzalez has continued her years-long practice of blocking me on social media and/or hiding my messages in a clear violation of the First Amendment, the Brown Act and state ethics guidelines.

Carlos Ovalle

I chose to vote for Gonzalez’s opponent, Elizabeth Castillo. Someone outside the corrupted political establishment who truly serves her community and doesn’t waste time on frivolous lawsuits.

Diana Parmeter

Gonzalez needs to identify each statement she says is false and malicious. She cannot simply with a broad stroke pretend every statement critical of her must be deleted. Identify which statements exactly, what published articles. What is false?

Assuming that’s true, what actual damages did it cause? And finally, since she’s a public official she needs to show it was printed or spoken with malice. Until she can identify exactly what she is referring to beyond generalities, she isn’t on solid legal ground and I think she knows it. Also, as long as what is spoken or written is true, she has absolutely no case.

Shayne Michael

Trump

If Trump had captained the titanic. • There is no Iceberg. • We won’t hit an iceberg. • I knew it was an iceberg before anyone else knew. • No one knows icebergs better than I do. • The penguins brought the iceberg here. • No one could have predicted the iceberg. • We cannot allow an iceberg to stop our ship. • The crew is spreading fake news about icebergs. • Some of you have to drown. • I am the best captain, ask anyone.

Paul Christensen

I was taken back when I read you support Trump “for everything he stands for.” In your list of virtues (cliches, really) you attribute to Trump you include honoring, among other things, honoring “veterans.” Apparently, you decided to ignore Trump’s treatment of John McCain and his equally denigrating remarks directed to the Khan family. The Khan’s son, as you may recall, died in combat in the Middle East. Yet Trump had no difficulty disparaging the family and, by implication, their late son. You’re right, they should be honored. Let us ignore the recent statements attributed to Trump regarding those buried in Europe who lost lives in other wars.

You also seem to be enamored with Trump’s border policy. I give you someone else’s evaluation of Trump’s border policy and those who support it: “If one looks at the policy of family separation at the border and realize that it was deliberately designed to cause suffering and thereby act as a warning to asylum seekers, one can only conclude that Trump supporters are the moral equivalent of Nazi apologists in the ‘30s. I mean that quite literally. If you vote for Trump because you are obsessed with marginal tax rates and are therefore willing to turn a blind eye to the evils of our immigration policies – if you consider destroying the lives of innocent children a small price to pay in return for your own increasing comfort – you’re just standing shoulder-to-shoulder with monsters.”

Tom Brayton