Author: North Coast BBQ

Representative Cyrus Javadi
House District 32

2023 Legislative Session Recap
Local Wins
Part of representing you at the Capitol is advocating for the taxes that we pay to the state actually come back to benefit us. As part of the budget bills that ultimately passed, several line items will benefit our North Coast communities.
• $225,000 for Bay City’s Earthquake Isolation Valves for Water Reservoirs.
• $1,267,000 for Tillamook County Shilo Levee Rehabilitation project
• $570,000 for Clatsop Community Action’s Food Bank Warehouse Renovations and Equipment Upgrades
Policy Wins
While the bad legislation gets the majority of the headlines, I was able to help pass some good bipartisan peices of legislation this session.
• SB 406 – Establishes a housing pilot project in Tillamook County to encourage more affordable housing developments.
• HB 3201 – Allows state and local governments to better leverage Federal money in investments into rural broadband expansion.
• HB 2645 – Gives law enforcement more tools to protect communities from fentanyl.
• HB 3584 – Requires schools to notify parents electronically in the case of a security threat at their child’s school.
• HJR 16 – Refers measure to voters to ask if Oregonians want the Legislature to have the power to impeach statewide elected officials.
• HB 3204 – Increases access to virtual charter schools.
• HB 2725 – Lowers prescription drug costs by limiting the power of pharmacy benefit managers.

ODOT Data Breach
Several weeks ago, a massive data breach occured at the Oregon DMV that included unauthorized access to up to 90% of Oregonian’s data, including driver’s license information. ODOT confirmed that some DMV data had been copied and taken while transferring data through a software vendor. The broad-based attack impacted over 2,000 organizations worldwide.
Individuals with active credentials through the DMV (driver’s license, permit, ID card, etc.) SHOULD ASSUME information related to that credential is part of the breach. To protect yourself, regularly monitor your credit and consider freezing your credit. Here is the contact information for the three major credit monitoring agencies:
• Equifax: equifax.com/personal/credit-report-services or 1-800-685-1111
• Experian: experian.com/help or 1-888-397-23742
• TransUnion: transunion.com/credit-help or 1-888-909-8872
Find more information here.

Other Notable New Laws
2024: Impeachment on the Ballot
In the final days of the Legislative session, on unanimous votes in both the House and Senate, House Joint Resolution 16 passed, which will ask voters in 2024 if they want the legislature to have the power to impeach a sitting statewide elected official. No matter your party, impeachment is an important accountability measure. Oregon is the only state in the nation without an impeachment process.
Pumping Gas: You Can Now Do It Yourself! 
Tillamook and Clatsop Counties has some experience with pumping our own gas. For several years now, state law allowed local stations to be open for self-serve between 6pm and 6am. 
But soon, even during the day you’ll be able to pump your own gas. HB 2426 passed this session, allowing Oregonians to pump their own gas. In Columbia County, gas stations may open up to 50% of their pumps to self serve, while the rest will be full-sersvice. But in Tillamook and Clatsop Counties, they may have self-serve at all hours.

Tax Relief for Farmers: HB 2073 and SB 498
Another set of bills that passed in the last hours of the 2023 session were two bills to help family farms.
HB 2073 will put certain agricultural processors on the same playing field as others for purposes of paying the corporate activities tax (CAT).
SB 498 increases the estate tax credit for generational farms, ranches, fisheries, and forests. The estate tax is an unfair double tax imposed after someone’s death. Over 96 percent of our state’s farms and ranches are family owned and operated. Oregon’s tax law should not punish an industry that feeds Oregon and provides essential jobs. Nor should our estate tax policy be in direct conflict with the desire to preserve and protect our family-owned farms and ranches. While I believe the estate tax is a cruel and unfair tax on everyone, this is what we could get passed this session.
Increase Access to Justice for Sex Abuse Survivors
I proudly supported HB 3632 to increase the statute of limitations for first-degree sex crimes from 12 years to 20 years after the crime. Minors will also benefit from this extended timeline by allowing them to come forward before they are 30.

Capitol Phone: 503-986-1432
Capitol Address: 900 Court St. NE, H-373, Salem, Oregon 97301
Email: Rep.CyrusJavadi@oregonlegislature.gov
Website: https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/javadi

Representative Cyrus Javadi
House District 32

2023 Legislative Session Recap
Local Wins
Part of representing you at the Capitol is advocating for the taxes that we pay to the state actually come back to benefit us. As part of the budget bills that ultimately passed, several line items will benefit our North Coast communities.
• $225,000 for Bay City’s Earthquake Isolation Valves for Water Reservoirs.
• $1,267,000 for Tillamook County Shilo Levee Rehabilitation project
• $570,000 for Clatsop Community Action’s Food Bank Warehouse Renovations and Equipment Upgrades
Policy Wins
While the bad legislation gets the majority of the headlines, I was able to help pass some good bipartisan peices of legislation this session.
• SB 406 – Establishes a housing pilot project in Tillamook County to encourage more affordable housing developments.
• HB 3201 – Allows state and local governments to better leverage Federal money in investments into rural broadband expansion.
• HB 2645 – Gives law enforcement more tools to protect communities from fentanyl.
• HB 3584 – Requires schools to notify parents electronically in the case of a security threat at their child’s school.
• HJR 16 – Refers measure to voters to ask if Oregonians want the Legislature to have the power to impeach statewide elected officials.
• HB 3204 – Increases access to virtual charter schools.
• HB 2725 – Lowers prescription drug costs by limiting the power of pharmacy benefit managers.

ODOT Data Breach
Several weeks ago, a massive data breach occured at the Oregon DMV that included unauthorized access to up to 90% of Oregonian’s data, including driver’s license information. ODOT confirmed that some DMV data had been copied and taken while transferring data through a software vendor. The broad-based attack impacted over 2,000 organizations worldwide.
Individuals with active credentials through the DMV (driver’s license, permit, ID card, etc.) SHOULD ASSUME information related to that credential is part of the breach. To protect yourself, regularly monitor your credit and consider freezing your credit. Here is the contact information for the three major credit monitoring agencies:
• Equifax: equifax.com/personal/credit-report-services or 1-800-685-1111
• Experian: experian.com/help or 1-888-397-23742
• TransUnion: transunion.com/credit-help or 1-888-909-8872
Find more information here.

Other Notable New Laws
2024: Impeachment on the Ballot
In the final days of the Legislative session, on unanimous votes in both the House and Senate, House Joint Resolution 16 passed, which will ask voters in 2024 if they want the legislature to have the power to impeach a sitting statewide elected official. No matter your party, impeachment is an important accountability measure. Oregon is the only state in the nation without an impeachment process.
Pumping Gas: You Can Now Do It Yourself! 
Tillamook and Clatsop Counties has some experience with pumping our own gas. For several years now, state law allowed local stations to be open for self-serve between 6pm and 6am. 
But soon, even during the day you’ll be able to pump your own gas. HB 2426 passed this session, allowing Oregonians to pump their own gas. In Columbia County, gas stations may open up to 50% of their pumps to self serve, while the rest will be full-sersvice. But in Tillamook and Clatsop Counties, they may have self-serve at all hours.

Tax Relief for Farmers: HB 2073 and SB 498
Another set of bills that passed in the last hours of the 2023 session were two bills to help family farms.
HB 2073 will put certain agricultural processors on the same playing field as others for purposes of paying the corporate activities tax (CAT).
SB 498 increases the estate tax credit for generational farms, ranches, fisheries, and forests. The estate tax is an unfair double tax imposed after someone’s death. Over 96 percent of our state’s farms and ranches are family owned and operated. Oregon’s tax law should not punish an industry that feeds Oregon and provides essential jobs. Nor should our estate tax policy be in direct conflict with the desire to preserve and protect our family-owned farms and ranches. While I believe the estate tax is a cruel and unfair tax on everyone, this is what we could get passed this session.
Increase Access to Justice for Sex Abuse Survivors
I proudly supported HB 3632 to increase the statute of limitations for first-degree sex crimes from 12 years to 20 years after the crime. Minors will also benefit from this extended timeline by allowing them to come forward before they are 30.

Capitol Phone: 503-986-1432
Capitol Address: 900 Court St. NE, H-373, Salem, Oregon 97301
Email: Rep.CyrusJavadi@oregonlegislature.gov
Website: https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/javadi

Part One: Toddler Nation

I once worked as a childcare provider for the doctors and nurses at the VA hospital in the toddler room. I loved it because toddlers are funny little tyrants. They bite and scream and fall to the floor when they don’t get their way. They are the center of the universe. Other people only exist in relationship to them. If they see it, it’s theirs; if they want it, it’s theirs; if you’re touching it, it’s theirs. If you get in the way of what they want, a tantrum is likely.

Every toddler’s two favorite words? NO and MINE. They’d use all caps, if they could type.

The thing is that for actual human toddlers, all those challenging behaviors like screaming at the store when we don’t get a Hot Wheels, we grow out of in time. Eventually, we learn that we aren’t the center of the universe. We learn that other people have feelings. We learn how to cooperate and follow the rules, when we play together; we learn it feels good to share, and hopefully, we learn how to take care of our biggest emotions like anger and grief.

Unless we don’t.

I’ve been thinking about the adults in our world who seem to have never grown out of toddlerhood. Watch the news, read the paper, scroll through your newsfeed, and see adult toddlers throwing tantrums because they didn’t get their way. They didn’t get elected or their candidate lost, they weren’t picked for the committee they wanted to be on, they didn’t get served fast enough or their order was wrong. Things did not go their way and it was someone else’s fault, so they threw a tantrum and retaliated. They’re holding on to a grudge like it’s a life vest. But it’s not.

We call people who persistently act this way entitled or narcissists. To me, they’re adult toddlers and not cute at all. They lack self-awareness and empathy. They use manipulation and gaslighting to gain power and control of the people around them. This is not a stage of development or something situational but a toxic and persistent pattern of behavior in which other people don’t matter, the rules and laws don’t apply to them and everybody else is to blame for everything, always.

According to professionals who study these things—psychologists, sociologists, criminologists—this behavior can’t be therapied away or punished away. They aren’t interested in changing. They don’t think there’s anything wrong. Their behavior works for them. And, if there is something wrong, it’s somebody else’s fault, not theirs.

I’m no stranger to gaslighting. For fifteen years I lived with someone who could’ve given lessons. Come to think of it, he did. To me. It’s why this subject fascinates me. In intimate partner violence, it’s the way an abuser maintains control. It’s common in abusive relationships that the one doing the violence blames the one on the receiving end for the abuse.

Gaslighting and manipulation happen in all types of relationships though. It might be with a friend or neighbor who lies and spreads gossip about you, or with a boss who makes sexist or racist comments and if you object, tells you you’re being too sensitive or emotional. It could be with a colleague who undermines your work, lies to your boss and takes credit for what you’ve done. It could be with an official you helped elect who lies to constituents, divides the community, and dismisses inconvenient rules or laws. It can be a church that refuses to acknowledge the sexual abuse of kids by clergy, or a cult that requires its members to drink the Kool Aid. You can see it play out on the public stage in the media, and in politics both small town and nationwide.

As I was researching the subject, I found dozens of books and scholarly articles published in the last 5 years about gaslighting by narcissists in the workplace, in social relationships, in the media, and in our public and political life. So, I guess it’s a thing, and it helps to know some of the persistent characteristics of people who behave this way.

They’re charming and nice if you’re not a threat and don’t cross them. If you do, they retaliate. Maybe they use lies and gossip to discredit you. Maybe they use threats or hate mail. Maybe they use the legal system to threaten you like the woman who called the police on a Black birdwatcher in Central Park.

If you call their behavior out, they ask you to prove it, regardless of the evidence. They say that you overreacted or are too emotional. They never accept responsibility for their actions.

They can’t let go of a grudge and man, do they have a list of grudges from years ago to now and a long list of people they believe wronged them. They don’t cooperate or compromise. They’re the finger pointing ‘mansplainers, even if they’re women. They’re always right. They lie and misrepresent inconvenient facts to make their argument.

They spread rumors, half-truths, and lies to divide people and communities. They’re two-faced—nice in public but not so much in private. They’re the screamers at Walmart, at public meetings and whenever the server at the cafe gets their order wrong. They’re the women you see turning to whoever they think is in charge when things don’t go their way. They want to speak to the manager or call the police.

They treat people they think of as less than them—service workers, people with less education or status, people of any marginalized group—like something they stepped in.

They blame their behavior on other people and never take responsibility for their actions. Since other people are always to blame, they play the victim like pro sports.

If they apologize, which is rare, it’s a performance loaded with excuses like I’m sorry but… or lacking awareness of other people like My apologies… followed by all the reasons they aren’t sorry and it’s somebody else’s fault.

The main grab for people with these character traits is always about power and control of other people. In Gaslighting: Recognize Emotionally Abusive People, Dr. Stephanie Sarkis calls their true believers, the “Flying Monkeys”. Flying Monkeys, just like the ones in the Wizard of Oz, help maintain social control by targeting anyone perceived as a threat with stuff like hate mail, threats or acts of physical violence, posting lies and gossip on social media or in the physical or virtual community where you live or work.

In a relationship with someone like this, you’re going to need some firm boundaries and a whole lot of distance because you can’t change, contain, or control them. It’s not your job and they aren’t interested anyway because other people don’t matter, the rules and laws don’t apply to them and everybody else is to blame for everything, always.

In a personal relationship or a work relationship you always have the choice to leave or limit your contact (and in a work relationship you better document everything) but what about in politics or on social media? And what you can do if you’ve been the victim of gaslighting.
Stay tuned for Part Two.

Kim Rosenberg loretta.kim.rosenberg@gmail.com