''Educate a crazy person.''….Who made you the final arbiter of anyone's mental facilities Mr Big Shot? Did the ''Bill O'Reilly fairy '' bestow some unilateral right to you to Repeal the US Constitution as well ? And the Free and Fair debate clause? Is your Royal prononcement the Official Recission of any and all 1st Amendment Rights ? The abolishment of the Equal Protection Clause ?

How about the Right of Assembly….as in collective bargaining….clubs, societies, organizations and other Lawful groups?

Your education often appears to be a degree in being a pompus, self centered, self serving tight wad with little to no concern for his fellow man, or abject want of charity towards others in their festering, jaded, hardened, me me me heart.

That statement amounts to…''If I am not correct, or if you dare disagree with the great….me….you must be….crazy !! '' Uh huh. Millions of crazy people trying to live somewhere in the middle, be tolerant towards all, fair towards all, kind towards all….and we are crazy.

And any cultural shift towrds a more progressive national, state or local agenda….as if by some broad based, popular cultural evolution of sorts, or gained societal enlightenment…..is evil. Bad. Wrong. A pox upon your guided house? Please!

How convenient,,,,Uh uh better go summon your man servant to polish your Rolex…..and lay out your Tuxedo….

To the Opera….James……

If Long Beach, as a majority of voters, fail to see the wisdom of going to the shooting range with a Union Label target. 'unions' are at best, a small aspect of a far more vexing set of factors, not necessarily problems.

However, you have the unmitigated gall, and audacity to conclude, not merely opine, or assert ;

''The Unions destroyed America'' They are the Actual and Proximate cause of all that stains our beloved flag…..Oh right

And his Majesty and most Royal 'HIGH'-ness proclaims……..I insist so….thus it is written,!!,,,,thus it is done.!!….like you are the Great Pharoh building the pyramids in pre biblical times or something……dude…..that oozes bloated, hyper inflated ego, self importance, defacto impotence, and a troubling, if not scary sense of subjective, self aggrandizing, embarrassingly self absorbed sense of entitlement ?

Before you go branding anyone CRAZY….what is your claim to fame? Do you have 5 degrees and the honors that went with them, or simply an Agenda from the far far right, an axe to grind and then burnish on the average guys Levi's ? And a big bowl or sour grapes ?

If we need your 'Education', we'll ask for it……until then, your opinion is simply that, your opinion, and by taking a look at the local, state wide, or National Picture, in the context of this economic cycle, it's business, societal and political realities, some might say that your ' Yacht' is taking on more and more water.

Bummer. Better slash taxes, de regulate again, ban Unions and send me a rebate to buy another yacht…….but stay out of my neighborhood…..

One might conclude, A fortiori ( by force of the most powerful reasoning)….that you are increasingly….All wet.

Now go polish you BENZ and count your Millions.

Real people have work to do and a load of local Neo Con problems to fix.

And a lot of charitable work to continue with. For the greater good.

''A Governement of the People, by the People, and for the People''. Not just whining rich people.

''With liberty, and justice, for ALL''. Not just Richy Rich.

''We hold these truths to be self evident…that ALL, not just the fat and happy, men are created equal'' and are bestowed with the inalienable right Life , Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness''

Your Life seems pretty miserable, you get off on attempting to deny other people their liberty, and you might be wise to strive for more happiness, as long it is not perennially at the expense of others, especially the average person, or the little guy.

Res, you are absolutely powerless to change this alone…..and you are impotent in the face of the voters absent a constituency. Your consituency has plenty of points to assert, wonderful, but you have to be legally blind, and deaf, to think that your philosophy is gaining momentum, or traction, credence, or meaningful, demonstrable viability.?

Assess the political or legal, or societal landscape ?

Be realistic, not merely bitter. Prioritize our real, actual problems, and 'Unions' are not even on the radar.

Oh, since you live in Naples, you might like this one. We commissioned a PHD study to demonstrate how much Naples and the Peninsula have sunk due to Oil Extraction, absent adequate water re-injection. You see the oil industry gets special cost saving exemptions, and must drive the bottom line by being less than a good neighbor at times.

Since you LOVE such things…..love this. Your home has sunk, lower to the water line, due to inadequate water re injection by the Bixby's, Thums, etc. to boost profits….non union style…..over 40 inches in the last 41 years ??

DeLong knows about it, so does the City……happy with your Government ? The De regulated Oil Companies ? Driving the bottom line by slashing, shifting, or deferring present day costs to future generations ?

This town has a lot of problems, and City Hall needs some areas cleaned up. Having the worst, or second worst Air in America, the worst ocean in California, rife influence peddling, worrysome lack of transparency, escalating gun violence, school cut backs, police cut backs, ethical lapses all over, and this cloistered Old Guard first mentality, seems far more troubling to many than an all out assault on the withering Unions ?

Excellent Essay, compelling choice of words. Astute reasoning. More to kick around soon. Working on a big Law Suit to fix a few messes around here, and set the stage for meaningful reforms.

Thank you for advancing the debate and sharing your passion to be fair, and do good, by all, not simply towards the chosen….or exceptionally self centered , or inordiinately greedy.

What a waste of intelligent, well thought out, information sharing. I cannot believe that I've actually found a person on this blog who has a clue.

The Sean Hannity-Rush Limbaugh-Tea Bagging-Corporate Automatons on these sites just spew the Big-Money vomit-talking points of “blame taxes and the little guys.” They rarely look at the corporate welfare (in the trillions), the corporate tax loopholes (which allow most Billion-Dollar Corporations to pay almost NO taxes), and the insane influence peddling that these corporations inflict upon our political system.

To blame unions for the sad state in California (or our nation) is the most preposterous propaganda diarrhea these people have promulgated. The fat-cat, millionaire/billionaire aristocrats in the United States have convinced these low-to-middle class non-thinkers to do their dirty work for them.

Meanwhile, the folks making millions and billions of dollars by dismantling manufacturing in our country and moving it to Mexico; the ones that make millions and billions of dollars by avoiding taxes with off-shore scams; the ones that make millions and billions of dollars by short-changing the very country which provided them to opportunity and infrastructure to make their money; continue to shake their heads at their good fortune of having masses of blind, ignorant talking heads, and laugh all the way to the bank. All this, while they gut-and-destroy our middle class, and by that, our nation.

We are quickly heading to a feudal system in the country. Don't kid yourself, the war on unions, and the free trade push, and the huge increase in wealth concentration at the very top, and the eroding middle class, are all part of a very deliberate scheme of the super rich and greedy. They only want more and more and more, and unless we wake up, it will soon be too late to stop them. This is unpatriotic.

You want to talk about our forefathers and the constitution? Our founders FEARED corporate wealth and power. They formed our government and institutions to STOP THE CONCENTRATION OF WEATLH AND POWER. That IS NOT democracy, that is “Corpocracy,” and will soon lead to a very few having all the wealth and power, and the rest of us tilling their fields, and working their land. Look at virtually all of western civilization's history. The “middle class” is rare, and only present in civilizations that have GOVERNMENT REGUALTION that curbs the power of wealth and corporations.

I've gone on too long…I'm sure the right-wingers got lost after the first couple of lines.

Good luck to you, and God Bless America!!

I do pay my taxes. And I am the little guy.

It's impossible to to educate a crazy person I suppose. Can't say I didn't try.