was really, really cool; that they were sticking it to the man or speaking truth to power or some such drivel. In all likelihood, most of the crowd was paid staff of SEIU’s locals and their national office along with staffers from other unions there for “solidarity.” Unions have a lot of trouble getting actual “members” out for stuff like this, so they rely on paid union staff to thicken up the crowd and friendly media to make it look larger.

This was not an exercise of the right to peaceably assemble or of freedom of speech; this was simple trespass the moment they crossed the line from the street to private property. As I understand it, even the assembly in the street was not properly permitted, which SHOULD have led to arrests.

That said, it isn’t a simple question for government leaders. These are probably Democrat governments, so they aren’t likely to do anything to any union unless that union directly attacks somebody in their administration. But even a legitimate non-partisan or Republican local government would face a delimna. Do you want to give them their Saul Alinsky moment? I’ve never had to deal with a union assault on a private home or individual, but I’ve dealt with lots of illegal assemblies and impermissible pickets. Usually just a phone call to the union head threatening to sue the union will take care of illegal pickets, but that is in the collective bargaining arena, not poltical as this was. With illegal assemblies at government buildings and such, my own belief was that unless they did something really awful, it was best to ignore them; what they wanted was for you to call the cops so they could get good vids of the cops hauling away their “peaceful protesters.” Rest assured they’ll keep that in the news for days with allegations of police brutality and sexual harassment.

There’s been lots of bravado here about meeting them at the door with a shotgun, and I’ve participated in it too. I would do that here in Alaska, though even here in Juneau, I would probably be charged and could be convicted if the prosecutor got the right jury of 12 morons with drivers’ licences. In a Blue place like the DC suburbs, you would at minimum be charged with assault, maybe attempted murder, and premeditated murder if you actually killed one or more of them, and they could find a jury to convict you of being a tea partier, a conservative, certainly being a Republican would be a crime to many juries. In places like that, I wouldn’t even brandish a weapon outside my front door and I’d only fire it if someone was actually coming in a door or window; you might sucessfully assert self-defense if they were actually entering your door or window. So, in the Blue and Purple places, we are already in the Third World when it comes to self-defense against these sorts of actions – and they aren’t likely to do much of this stuff in the Red places.

for pest control; that’d work, but you’d have to be expecting them to get it set up.

the Republicans tried to set up a non-profit to counter the Democrat coup. The leftist/Soros/Gill cabal attacked the contributors to the Republican non-profit. Rather than thugs, they used pet lawyers and lawsuits, ethics complaints, and allegations of campaign finance violations, but the idea is the same.

They want to silence anyone who opposes them and have been fairly sucessful at it.

during a Democrat administration unless a union goes off the reservation and directly attacks the Administration or a prominent member of the Administration without permission.