Nice Facility Ya’s Got There

The Pacific Maritime Association is planning to strike the two largest West Coast ports, Los Angeles and Long Beach. Talks haven’t gone as favorably toward the union as it wishes, so….

The union laid bare its attitude toward port management and toward us average Americans generally.

A timely agreement matters not only to the parties at the table, but to the entire Southern California supply chain and to the local, state, and national economies that depend on it.

That’s just naked extortion, and it’s putting those not anywhere close to the negotiations under union threat, using them as hostages. Not only is this union threatening the ports’ ability to function and earn the income needed to pay up, it’s also threatening all of the hostages it’s taken, us average Americans who make up those local, state, and national economies.

Yet another union is demonstrating why it should be decertified.

Further, in any other milieu than union “negotiations,” contracts signed under duress would be held invalid. If unions aren’t going to be decertified, then at the least, contracts signed while a strike, or a lockout, is in progress or within some serious time period after the end of a strike or lockout should be held invalid, having been signed under duress.

Some Crime Statistics

Here are some crime statistics, courtesy of the WSJ‘s James Freeman. These are national level, and it’s true that there are distinct local pockets of crime that are significantly higher than these national numbers. The national numbers tell the larger tale, though.

  • violent crime excluding simple assault declined 25%, from 9.9 per 1,000 persons age 12 or older in 2024 to 7.4 per 1,000 in 2025
  • aggravated assault rate declined 31% in 2025 from 2024
  • property victimization rate declined 19% in 2025 from 2024
  • burglary or trespassing rates declined 25% in 2025 from 2024
  • motor vehicle theft declined 30% in 2025 from 2024
  • other types of household theft declined 19% in 2025 from 2024

2025 is the first year of Trump II’s administration. 2024 is the Progressive-Democrat ex-President Joe Biden’s last year. Nor were those declines a continuation of any trend. Over the four years of Biden’s reign,

  • felony violent crime rose 59%
  • violent crime, including misdemeanor simple assault, increased 42%

These are the improvements that the Progressive-Democratic Party wants to undo with its midterm candidates’ avowals to abolish ICE and throw open our borders; reduce funding for, if not defund, our city and State police forces; empty our prisons; let those accused of violent crimes freely walk our streets on bail; and threats to “investigate” young folks contemplating jobs in the Trump administration.