Me too. Yesterday I came out of trader joes and saw most cars in the parking lot had flyers flapping on their windshields flapping in the breeze. They asked for support of the Occupy Oakland general strike to be held today, 11/2/11. It asked, among other things - "...simply do not spend any money today..."

While I am trying to do what I can to support the cause, I'd prefer a bit more notice to be able to not spend money all day.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... 813D90.DTL

The city pd is unhappy with the mayor, claiming she threw them under the bus after the violence last week. They called her a flip-flopper. She was an activest at Berkeley in the '60s. She has given most city employees time off to attend the strike. PD is unhappy that they must all work. The mayor says she wants essential services like pd, fd, nurses, parameds, etc to remain fully staffed.

I hope all involved find a way to remain peaceful.

I've been looking for answers to how we got here for some time. I found this article about the loss of countervailing power...

http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/02 ... ine?page=1

It is 4 pages long, but explains (with links to supporting docs) how the author believes we got here.

I hope that the protests that are springing up across the country will eventually lead to the kind of power needed to overcome 30 years of the road we are on, where both parties cater only to those with big money. Please read it and post your thoughts.

One of the many songs I learned as a child from my parents (and passed on to our kids) is found in the player at the end of this article.

http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/11/occ ... trike-1946

How did it go today in Oakland, DRR? I'm seeing nothing on FB or the mainstream media. All I hear from the usual folks is the cry to alledge Herman Cain to death.

I'm no Cain fan but a) we don't have but one fact: they took the money and b) could we find a better way to judge candidates than digging through the trash? I mean, what's next, will we make them clean it up and pay the fine?

We are governed by insane children who like to beat on the sane ones. Village of the Slammed, or the Dumbwich Cuckoos.

UPDATE: MSNBC is covering it right now. Cool. Looks like a lot of folks showed and they are very diverse. Wow! They shut down the Port of Oakland. WAY TO GO PEOPLE!

Sorry its so late, just got back from dinner. Everything I hear is its going well. Lots of support and no violence. As the young people say, "Its on like king kong."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... ss.bayarea

http://www.npr.org/2011/11/02/141947731 ... for-strike

Update: a couple of reports of vandalism, broken windows, graffitti.
The port is closed until at least 06:00.
Live feeds at the bottom of this report...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/0 ... 72768.html

I saw about Oakland on the news. Someone posted this on Arlo and Pete on Facebook:

http://www.crystalair.com/story.php?id=201110011

I got a kick outta it.

Well if that made you laugh, here is more...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-j- ... f=politics

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/04/us/pr ... olent.html

nyt plays up VIOLENCE.

Yeah nor surprising, DRR. This has a vaguely familiar feel to it. "Dirty hippies", "anarchists", end of civilization, yadda. Didn't take them long to start hitting the fear button now that race isn't working.

Today kids of a local high school went to the school board to protest a change of name for their school when the new building is open. Here's the fun part: it is a majority black school that wants to keep the name "Lee". The school is actually named after the highway, not the man. The Highway is named after the man. The kids don't care. They just don't want their brand screwed around with for the sake of the sins of their forefathers and the guilting of their fathers. IOW, these people don't give a frik for left or right. They want what is theirs. This is interesting. This movement admires Arlo; authentic, the real deal. They will sing This Little Light of Mine. Nary a Dylan song to be heard. They've finally seen through the faux left that enriches itself, the limousine liberals, and they are having none of it.

That's a sea change. And I just read from RSR that CNN had Arlo on today talking about OWS. Freakin' wow. I am starting to think there is hope for this. Wish I had seen that. Wonder what he had to say?

Some violence did happen after midnight back in town. So many of the real people tried very hard to stop them. Cops were forced to react, after staying cool all day. This wrongly smears the whole peaceful event though. Our local paper put 2 pics on the front page. Yep, nothing but the miscreants in action. The black bloc. 60 bad vs 5,000 good.

<5k peace loving people, doing it right and the press puts only the pics of window smashing morons on the front page. So many people only see and hear that sound bite, snap fact crap, and then fully believe it. A co-worker said a shop owner was killed. No truth to that at all. I asked for details. He said he did not know, only read it on a crawler while getting ready for work. I had to make an effort to calmly explain the reason we do not watch the news on tv. They are selling something. Fear de jour. Its business.

A picture says a thousand words, none of them where about the good things that happened in Oakland yesterday. How can you fix that? Eyes on the prize I suppose.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... ss.bayarea

Update:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... ewsbayarea

Thanks for the heads up on the Arlo interview. Post a link if you find it.

Anyone get a chance to read the Kevin Drum article about the loss of the counterveiling power of the unions from MJ I posted?

Here you go Doug......Mary posted them over on another thread.

Arlo on CNN:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-g9at8C ... ture=share

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAl46a2x ... ture=share
EDIT:
Update: For some reason these links didn't post right and don't go anywhere. Go to the "Arlo on CNN" thread --- the links Mary posted there are functional.

Thanks Kevin, I am going to look at them now.

Update: I had to find Mary's link, these were dead.

Ben Stein...You live in a different world. These kids are trying to get by in the world we allowed to become very difficult for them to get ahead. I get how some of them act out. I just try to tell them it hurts them way more than it helps. While it is true there are kids that are not brought up well, there are also those that get it.

Let me share a personal email exchange with my oldest from yesterday...

I had sent her the satireical huffpost that I also posted here. Her response follows...

the huffpost article was funny, i like the author's attitude. i haven't read the mother jones article yet though. my disappointment in obama is due to all the hype. i was so pumped about having a fresh, new, young, black democrat for prez -the opposite of bush- that i let the idea of who i wanted obama to be overshadow his actual abilities. i'm let down because he wasn't able to live up to the hype. not his fault but my own. the "HOPE" image comes to mind. that's how i felt about him....hopeful. he was going straighten out the disaster that bush had created during his time in the white house. he was going to be the voice of the people because he was just like us. unfortunately i think he was thrust into the role without much experience and was unprepared for the complete and total disaster that was left for him. i feel like he doesn't have much of a voice, and the only time he really did was when he was campaigning. i'm not really bothered by it though, i'm so thankful it's obama in office when i think of some of the alternatives! my hope for this country is freedom from corporate control and greed, basic human rights for all (including proper housing, healthcare, low cost nutritious foods, quality education, equal rights & marriage equality,) easier access to legal citizenship, and less value placed on materials and more value placed on education, ethics, and community service. i think americans are controlled by greed (the greed of big business that makes things ridiculously expensive and our own greed that makes us willing to pay more for crap that we don't need). this greed causes us to work more, experience more stress and anxiety, spend less time with our families, eat poorly (due to $ and time constraints), spend less time exercising (because we are too tired from all the work and all the crap we eat), which leads to health probs and an increased need for healthcare. because we are so stressed and overworked we spend less time with our kids so they don't do as well in school and get into trouble because they're on their own more, which leads to increased crime, overcrowded jails, and a whole bunch of ignorant people running around our country. if greed were under control, i think so many other things would fall into place. unfortunately greed is an illness and there is no cure. the only way i can solve that problem is in my own little world, where i work hard to teach my children to be good people and to value education, humor, and following the golden rule rather than the whole "bigger, better, faster, more!" mentality. we have to stay positive and do our part. when i room a patient with a bad attitude, it's my personal motto to "kill 'em with kindness." typically the cold, negative attitude is melted by my warm smile, and they leave the office with a different attitude. i imagine that person may go home and not yell at their kid tonight because they feel better, and hopefully the cycle continues. pay it forward, so to speak. that's how i imagine it, but of course there are those a-holes who will never be happy. anyway, i feel like if i do my part every day, i may make a difference in someone's life and they may in turn make a difference to someone else. we each have a responsibility to our country. it's not just up to obama!
i love you dad, thanks for raising me to think for myself and fight for the greater good!

My note: She gets it. I did not do it alone, my wife and I did it together. I know kids need jobs to have a bright future to look forward to. Ben Stien may never understand that. Don't get me started on student loans.

Jackie's Youtube video of the CNN interview made it's way to me on FB this morning. FB has become very peculiar in how and when things arrive so I didn't see it last night. I pulled a 12+ hour shift behind the wire last night and am a bit punchy from the long days of late. That video is a real picker upper.

Hearts will rise. The movement is the message. Gotta go back to the beastie plant today and that video is my cup o cheer. Thanks!

Len, I hope you are ok tonight.