Yes, they should do their jobs unmolested by the voice of the masses demanding they do their job.
The author of the ballot initiative, Cheriel Jensen says:
“We, Californians, have the right in our person and families to live, as free as possible, from toxic chemical or toxic process-caused cancer, paralysis, structural or functional birth defects, autism spectrum disorder, diminished intelligence, gut cell genetic alteration, seizures; pregnancy complications, developmental complications, cellular structural damage; structural and functional nerve damage, demyelination, brain tumors, Guillain-Barre syndrome, ALS; fluorosis, brittle bones; joint damage; altered thyroid, testosterone, estrogen, cortisone, sperm counts, pineal gland calcification, early or delayed puberty, extra heavy or lengthy menstrual bleeding, reproductive system damage, or other harmful hormone related impacts; Parkinson’s; Alzheimer’s; eye damage such as reduced vision, dry eyes, twitching eye lids, red eyes, watery eyes, cataracts, macular degeneration, blindness; hearing damage; intestinal bacteria die-off or alteration; chemical bums, rash, eczema, abnormal hair loss, photosensitivity, inflammation, spontaneous nose bleeding, idiopathic thrombocytopenia purpura; breathing difficulty, asthma, voice volume or frequency losses, repeated coughing, choking, rhinitis, chemical sensitivity, allergy, anaphylaxis, immune system deregulation, lupus, fibromyalgia; pancreas, kidney, spleen or liver damage, diabetes; interference with sleep, inability to concentrate; pain, headache, racing heart; body retention of the toxic substance or its’ breakdown products; invasion of living cell wall structures by nanoparticles; or changes to the body’s genetic material, or other adverse conditions”
Note “or other adverse conditions”. That pretty much covers the waterfront. Feel bad? It’s them Toxins.
I respectfully submit that what this initiative aims to ban has not been found to cause every disease or annoying symptom ever described.*
*and not even “any and all forms of poisoning”.
**come to think of it, Jensen may be onto something by citing “diminished intelligence”.
I see she left *the vapors *off that list. Proof she doesn’t know shit.
If my math’s correct, 366,000 would be about two percent of eligible voters. There are just over 18,000,000 eligible voters in California.
Five percent of that is almost a million people.
Are two percent of people stupid? Of course.
The whole initiative process seems, at first glance, like an admirable exercise of democracy, with the people taking control of the political process. What could be bad about that, right? And when it was passed in 1911, during Progressive-era concern about political corruption, it did indeed fulfill some of that promise. But it’s become a bloated and distorted system that is no less subject to venality and stupidity and “special interest” pressures than the legislature itself.
I understand why people want to wrest control of political issues away from politicians, but the initiative system has, in many ways, made the system less able to respond to changing circumstances, and has hamstrung the legislature in ways that actually make it less effective. Politicians aren’t perfect, but we elect them to govern, and the initiative process, as currently implemented, makes that far more difficult. Californians complain about Sacramento being inept and useless, but if that’s the case, the current system is at least partly to blame.
In the 1970s, the ballot initiative gave us a stipulation that any tax increase require a two-thirds majority of both houses of the state legislature. This measure makes it incredibly easy to reduce taxes, and incredibly hard to raise them when the state’s financial situation requires it. Then, last year, the legislature did manage to get the required two-thirds vote and passed an increase in the state gasoline tax. Now, there are people camped outside supermarkets wanting to repeal the tax, and calling for a public vote on ANY tax increase.
I’m not arguing for or against the new gas tax. On the one hand, we could use some spending on infrastructure and transportation; on the other, Sacramento often siphons off money from gas taxes into the general fund and doesn’t actually do enough work on the roads. There are reasonable arguments to be made on both sides.
But the ballot measure process in California has turned into a sort of electoral heckler’s veto, where anyone with enough money to pay some signature-gatherers, or any crazy idea with a few hundred thousand mouth-breathing supporters, can gum up the political works with their pet causes.
You mean, are there only 366,000 stupid Californians, right?
I generally like initiatives. Sometimes elected representatives are just too fearful - or too gerrymandered - to do their job right. We legalized recreational marijuana by initiative here in Washington back in 2012 after the legislature refused to do anything about it. Same story on same-sex marriage.
Two things, though: here in Washington, the title of the initiative is written by a neutral party - the Secretary of State, I believe. I also think courts can have some oversight here. But the party writing and pushing the initiative definitely cannot give it a title like “Clean Environment Initiative” if that isn’t really what it does. Initiatives are also limited to a single subject, so a title would probably end up being more specific.
Secondly, and this is where initiatives in Washington have problems, people will generally vote for new spending programs and for tax cuts. You can’t run a government that way. If I had my druthers, initiatives would have to either be budget-neutral, or revenue effect minus spending effect should be positive.
Another thing that’s different in Washington is that we can’t amend the Constitution by initiative, and law changes can be later amended by the legislature (I think after two years.) Basically, I think we do initiatives better than y’all do, but the argument should really be around reforming the process to make it work better, rather than abolishing it entirely.
Pretty much what I came to say.
2% of the population will support any goddamned stupid idea or theory.
“Should we engage in diplomatic discussions with the cows to purchase their milk from them?”
“Do plants have rights?”
'Would you agree that we’re illegally sending probes to Mars without the permission of the Martians?"
Yeah, you’d probably get at least 2% of the general population to support any of those.
And what about collywobbles and glanders? Huh? Huh? :mad:
Actually it was 46.4%
Someone needs to write up a Dihydrogen Monoxide style petition to shut down the space based fusion powered radiation emitter that as well as being the primary contributor to global warming, causes thousands of cancer deaths each year.
Here’s a comprehensive rundown of the initiative process in Massachusetts, which is less freewheeling than California’s. Marijuana was legalized via initiative, but the law still isn’t fully in effect because the legislature had a shot at amending what the voters chose, and now the regulatory apparatus has to do its song and dance to get the retail licensing and regulation system set up and operating. As it stands now, you can own and smoke pot legally but you still can’t go down to your corner pot store to buy it.
Well, as far as the state government is concerned, you’re okay to have marijuana; the new U.S. Attorney came in yapping about intending to uphold Sessions’ doom to potheads mandate (but after public blowback and meeting with state elected officials has since toned it down). So recreational as well as medical marijuana (legalized earlier) is still in a state of flux here.
I’d sign that! 
How do you define a “poison”? Last I checked, it was a toxic chemical. A real one, not “something that I think I can cleanse through coffee enemas”. If poisoning isn’t caused by poisons what is it caused by, microwave ovens? Someone should have notified Socrates!
It’s never lupus.
Regards,
Shodan
I read an article that had it as 5% of voters. This source has it as 5% of voters in a recent election.
“With the state authorization, Jensen is now clear to start collecting signatures to get the initiative on the ballot this November. She’ll need to collect valid signatures from 365,880 registered voters—five percent of the total votes cast for governor in the November 2014 general election—in order to qualify. She has until August 8 to do so.”
In pre-Internet, pre-alternative media (and pre-alternate fact) days, it would’ve been next to impossible to collect enough signatures. But now - I suspect that Facebook conspiracy and other wackoid groups alone number close to that many California members, nearly all of whom would be eager to sign the petition, assuming they can write legibly and spell their names.
Most anything is a poison at some dosage. Dihydrogen monoxide has an LD50 of 90ml/kg.
We also have fantastic food, beautiful natural scenery of mountains, desert, old growth forests, alpine meadows, and coastal ranges, some of the most progressive political and social movements in the country, one of the great land grant public research university systems, Caltech, the Golden Gate Bridge, the world’s sixth largest economy, zero publc monuments to the Confederacy, and a metric fuckton of sun. So putting up with a few hundred thousand nutters is like coping with drought, living with the nation’s highest gas prices, and enduring the occasional significant earthquake. Totally worth it.
Stranger
Those have to be registered voters too. So she probably needs well over 500k siggies.