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What's The Matter With Oakland?
The Atlantic ^ | 11/3/11 | Megan McArdle

Posted on 11/04/2011 4:19:38 AM PDT by Haiku Guy

Cards on the table: y'all know that the Occupy protests and I don't agree politically. Nonetheless, I've been basically supportive of their right to protest, sympathetic to their frustrations with the system, and interested in their problems (and solutions) of self organization in a rather chaotic and fluid situation. Unless there were clear and dramatic harms to the community, I figured the cops should leave them alone until the protests dispersed naturally.

(snip)

At this point, the movement is hurting itself more than it's helping--at least, if you think their goal is to peacefully and democratically push for changes in the laws, a task for which they are going to require some support beyond the committed left. If you don't, of course . . . well, that has all sorts of implications.

If I suggest that the movement, and the left, needs to control this before the public really turns on OWS, I'll be accused of concern trolling. So I'll just say that despite our substantial disagreements, (and doubts about the effectiveness) I've been broadly supportive of the OWS project of organizing for change. However, if events continue to go in an Oakland direction, I'm going to become rather hostile to the movement. And I doubt that I'm the only one.

(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: anarchists; breakdownofcivility; butrapingisok; california; commies; doyouwantalist; ivorytowerpress; limoliberalmedia; lootingshops; oakland; occupyoakland; ows; ows2justrunwild; pansifiedmayors; paradesneedpermits; parasitesonparade; pervertsafezone; potisjustdandy; ralliesneedpermits; rapeisfine; sellingdrugs; smashingstorewindows; smokingistaboo; teapartypays4permits; throwingbricks; throwingglassbottles; throwingrocks; tossmolotovcocktails; trustfundhippies; waivers4ows
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To: Haiku Guy
One of McArdle's many errors is that she assumes that the violent protesters in Oakland are carbon-copies of the milquetoast just-wanna-get-high idiots protesting in Lower Manhattan. Oakland radicals have a long history of attempting to foment violent revolution. The Oakland protest was more confrontational and violent from the git-go.

Maybe if she wrote for The Pacific...

These bastards are anything but "pacific".

41 posted on 11/04/2011 5:37:24 AM PDT by ROCKLOBSTER ( Celebrate Republicans Freed the Slaves Month.)
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To: Haiku Guy

Nice post. And I loved your passion. About time we get angry and tell the b******* “we won’t take it any more”.


42 posted on 11/04/2011 5:40:01 AM PDT by dools0007world
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To: Haiku Guy

lex parsimoniae


43 posted on 11/04/2011 5:41:24 AM PDT by RavenATB ("Destroy the family and you destroy the country!" ~Vladimir Lenin)
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To: Haiku Guy

Didn’t some OWS guys in Pheonix show up with AR-15’s??


44 posted on 11/04/2011 5:41:45 AM PDT by GeronL (The Right to Life came before the Right to Happiness)
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To: kcvl

EEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee....


45 posted on 11/04/2011 5:41:55 AM PDT by StAnDeliver (/)
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To: expat1000
"But they don't disperse 'naturally'. And these won't, unless it is due to the weather. The 'protesters' will force a confrontation and the 'protest' will end in violence. That is what they want, some point will be proved in their own minds that way, and they will get it."

From what I read previously, the builder who confronted a group of anarchists breaking into his building would have been justified in shooting several of them. Instead, he showed a shotgun and they retreated. So the OWS mob will have to keep trying until their get their symbols.

46 posted on 11/04/2011 5:42:49 AM PDT by Truth29
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To: Haiku Guy

Megan Mccardle-— stupid liberal-—ah but I repeat myself


47 posted on 11/04/2011 5:44:03 AM PDT by Nifster
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To: GeronL
Didn’t some OWS guys in Pheonix show up with AR-15’s??

...And handed out fliers explaining that they were there to defend the protesters against the police officers. Seems a little bit provacative to me.

The truth is, when you throw a protest, there is no such thing as quality control. Just like we have our idiot wing-nut LaRouchies with their Obama/Hitler pictures, the OWS protesters brought these rifle-toting nuts out of the woodwork.

But the MFM tries to tie our nuts to the Tea Party, and they just ignore all the OWS nutjobs, and refuse to report what is going on.

48 posted on 11/04/2011 5:50:27 AM PDT by Haiku Guy (We don't need to Occupy Wall Street... We need to Occupy K Street!)
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To: Haiku Guy
She is a total nitwit. But I don't turn her off, because she's unintentionally amusing in her libtardism...
49 posted on 11/04/2011 5:51:10 AM PDT by StAnDeliver (/)
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To: Haiku Guy

If they’d tried to pull me out of my Navigator, my 2 ever-present passengers, Messrs Smith & Wesson, would have loudly (.357 magnum hollow points) protested.


50 posted on 11/04/2011 5:52:09 AM PDT by libstripper
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To: SECURE AMERICA

So some people claim guns freighten them and the world shakes. So what’s next? At some point these loons will say conservatives frighten them—hell they already are. Are we to be banned, too?

The word “frighten” is a PC word that is used to silence the left’s opponents.


51 posted on 11/04/2011 5:58:04 AM PDT by dools0007world
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To: Haiku Guy

..start with the Mayor and it goes down hill from there


52 posted on 11/04/2011 6:18:27 AM PDT by Doogle ((USAF.68-73..8th TFW Ubon Thailand..never store a threat you should have eliminated))
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Some of you are obviously too young to remember the original "Law & Order".

If these jugheads turn violent nationwide, the first GOP candidate to deliver a "Law & Order" campaign will win the general by 300+ EV.

53 posted on 11/04/2011 6:25:53 AM PDT by StAnDeliver (/)
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To: Haiku Guy

The fish rots from the head down.


54 posted on 11/04/2011 6:27:59 AM PDT by theDentist (fybo; qwerty ergo typo : i type, therefore i misspelll)
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To: Doogle

When Megan McArdle asks “What’s Wrong With Oakland”, she assumes that there is nothing wrong with the OWS protesters in Oakland. The fact is, the Oakland variant is more hard-core and potentially violent than the OWS protester you will find in most other cities, because Oakland has been at this violent revolution stuff since the 1960s.

Most other parts of the country got past that stage. The East Bay... not so much...


55 posted on 11/04/2011 6:28:28 AM PDT by Haiku Guy (We don't need to Occupy Wall Street... We need to Occupy K Street!)
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To: Haiku Guy
Most other parts of the country got past that stage. The East Bay... not so much...

keep the masses angry.point the finger and get rich

56 posted on 11/04/2011 6:36:12 AM PDT by Doogle ((USAF.68-73..8th TFW Ubon Thailand..never store a threat you should have eliminated))
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To: Haiku Guy
It's amazing how they give legitimacy to the OWS mob even though their 'issues' are all over the place and only by random happen to intersect with some of the TEA party concerns, and even then for completely different reasons.

57 posted on 11/04/2011 6:37:59 AM PDT by BitWielder1 (Corporate Profits are better than Government Waste)
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To: Carry_Okie

‘Look at how carefully the commies have been planting the idea that violence is a legitimate response to the economic collapse the left engineered.”

And couple that with the parallel “we can’t wait for Congress”, things become clearer.


58 posted on 11/04/2011 6:41:52 AM PDT by DBrow
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To: All

b


59 posted on 11/04/2011 6:48:57 AM PDT by Maverick68
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To: kcvl

UGH... Megan McCurdle. I bet she doesn’t shave her pits.


60 posted on 11/04/2011 7:14:08 AM PDT by ViLaLuz (2 Chronicles 7:14)
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