Ain't we just the powerfulest!

 The title to this letter to the editor in the print edition of today's paper was "Blame the greenies for higher prices."
It began:

Who causes entanglements to keep their job? Environmentalists became stronger when they realize they never produced a product to sell. They constantly charged fees or taxes on manufacturing businesses, farms and electrical companies in order to keep their job and paycheck.

 
We wondered what on earth or in the heavens the letter writer might have meant by this. The first sentence, "Who causes entanglements to keep their job?" is, to begin with, illiterate. The subject could be either singular or plural, the verb is singular,, the possessive is plural but modifies a single object.
But, of course! The rightwing is permitted to be ungrammatical because we all know what they mean. To quote Henry James, unknown to the rightwing, "American politics is largely the organization of hatreds."
Just as long as your hate is pure, that's what matters.
Moving forward, "Environmentalists became stronger when they realize they never produced a product to sell." We begin with a past tense, "became," moving on to a present tense, "realize," then back again to "produced a product to sell." One possible interpretation of this garble is that there is or therewas some sort of moment, perceived by local chambers of commerce and the real estate industry, when a lightning bolt struck or strikes and environmentalists have or had an epiphany: just like real estate brokers, that they didn't produce a product to sell either.
But that's only if you consider the buying and selling of bricks and mortar a product. In fact, many environmentalists are scientists, who produce science that has, for example, predicted global warming, measures air pollution, water pollution, the extinction of species, the ever greater income gap in America, land subsidence, the nutrition of hay, detects toxic molds, expansive clays, diabetes, asthma, COPD, cancer,  and many other concerns of interest to local residents. Science has produced respectable products for 25 centuries, minus of few known as that Dark Ages. But during that period, the Arabs made tremendous contributions to science. 

They constantly charged fees or taxes on manufacturing businesses, farms and electrical companies in order to keep their job and paycheck.

We are not familiar with any environmental group with taxing power.
Moving on to the major charges, environmentalists are blamed for the foreclosure crisis. While we can understand why the local real estate industry, which along with Stockton and Modesto, would like to forget achieving the highest per capita foreclosure rates in the nation for several years, would try to blame it on environmentalists, responsible opinion is unanimous that it was largely the fault of real estate brokers and mortgage lenders working in concert to sell homes to people who could not afford them. The largest banks in the world have paid billions in reparations, laws have been passed to try to forestall another casino real estate market, but neither the laws nor their enforcement give knowledgeable observers much faith that it won't happen again.
In fact, if the local land-use authorities, the cities of Merced and Merced County, had simply obeyed environmental law and regulation, the area would have avoided the full violence financial agencies visited down on the heads of unwary home buyers and speculators.
But Merced, home of the newest University of California campus, achieved national prominence as a place where the gap between housing prices and income was the largest in the land. As state Senate Pro Tem John Burton, D-SF put it at the time, that campus was the "biggest boondoggle" he'd ever seen, and he'd seen Candlestick Park. McClatchy Sacramento columnist Dan Walters called UC Merced "nothing but a land deal," which, until today, remains its dominant characteristic.

Overzealous environmentalists refuse to allow the clearing of thick brush in our forests or the cutting of trees. It depletes the water we have underground because water stays on the surface.

 
Again, this is nonsense, but it doesn't matter. The more irrational hatred it stirs up the better, in the wishes of the author. The term "Overzealous environmentalists refuse" is linked to illogical garble. But, hey, since its them environmentalists, damn the absurdity of the claim.
 
Finally, environmentalists are blamed for the drought and its consequences.
Now ain't we just the powerfulest in the land! -- blj
 
 
3-10-16
Merced Sun-Star
Carol Campodonica: Laying blame for high electricity, food prices
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/article647515...
Who causes entanglements to keep their job? Environmentalists became stronger when they realize they never produced a product to sell. They constantly charged fees or taxes on manufacturing businesses, farms and electrical companies in order to keep their job and paycheck.
Environmentalists wish to tear down dams that provide water for farms and electrical energy to businesses and homes. In addition, they won’t allow new dams. Instead, they have helped create higher utility bills.
Environmentalists became overzealous and businesses folded and jobs were lost, which created the foreclosures of many family homes through the years.
Overzealous environmentalists refuse to allow the clearing of thick brush in our forests or the cutting of trees. It depletes the water we have underground because water stays on the surface.
Have you noticed the rise in food prices each week? You can count on the environmentalist to have a hand in it because farmers are having to dig wells that cost $100,000 or more. Environmentalists refuse to follow the Constitution. In fact, they override the Constitution, taking away our liberty by laws eroding American businesses.
CAROL CAMPODONICA, MERCED