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Your brilliant text makes us hope that americans stand up the philosophy of consumption and it is possible to maintain their leadership. Unfortunately when in Russia the conversation starts about employment, health care or education you all understand - this is what you need to request, but do not understand how and from whom. After the failures of the last stage of history, can be called the common such point of view " Democracy is NOT the power of the people. It is the power of the greedy and mean of thieves and murderers, these parasites! Now understand that even the most democratic-minded people, which were deceived words that have no real meaning... "
In recent weeks, 3 organizations have pulled out of commercial real estate deals in downtown (taking 300-400 jobs). This article mentions 2 restaurants may also close in the wake of the encampment.
That is really disappointing. (Business as usual in other business districts)
So many have worked so hard and this is just another example of getting kicked when you are down...
Oakland isn't home to throngs of Fortune 500 companies, Banking or High Tech...
Many people in Oakland are doing their best to simply get by.
Hundreds of millions have been spent improving infrastructure downtown to attract business and revitalize the economy...
I live in Oakland and all I hear from friends is they will avoid Oakland and I should get out while I can.
The port has been the one shining light in an otherwise bankrupt city...
The up coming election is again asking for more taxes from the citizens...
Hundreds of millions have been spent improving infrastructure downtown to attract business and revitalize the economy...
I live in Oakland and all I hear from friends is they will avoid Oakland and I should get out while I can.
The port has been the one shining light in an otherwise bankrupt city...
The up coming election is again asking for more taxes from the citizens...
I know! I am the Oakland cheerleader in my circle. I have friends who live in Berkeley, SF, San Jose, the Peninsula etc.
Probably what was most depressing. A peninsula acquaintance, who has been to Oakland maybe 3 times, posted about her husbands experience on Wednesday as a police officer brought in to help. He said it was lawless, dangerous, etc and that most protesters were violent towards the police.
I responded, that the normal people were probably at home already, leaving the pesky .01% to ruin things since it all happened so late in the evening.
I really didn't know what to make of the whole thing. I mean graffiti on Whole Foods? WF isn't really the worst corporate citizen out there, they generally pay good wages and support the community. And then to hear about the vandalism at Oakollectiv? I was crushed. I mean, Oakollective sells stuff made in Oakland.
I have been wanting to purchase a condo downtown, but with these regular protests, I really don't know what to think.
My friend's office has had early closures, and full day closures at least 6 times over the past 2 years due to random protests and the threat of violence downtown. They are commited to being in Oakland, so this wouldn't necessarily push then to relocate elsewhere in the Bay Area. But for the average business, it might be too much. I don't hear about protests in downtown SF forcing businesses to close early. They only cause inconvenience for commuters in terms of traffic. Why is that "protesters" think it is OK to trash Oakland.
Whole Foods came as a huge surprise as did business that closed in solidarity with the movement...
I have family that will no longer visit and a cousin that lives in Europe called to see if I was OK because of the International news coverage.
The most accurate figures I have read show less than a third of those arrested hail from Oakland... that should tell us something.
A few years ago I happened to be in Olympia WA when the port was shut down and the town was trashed over the return of the Stryker brigade's from deployment... these guys were coming home and were in shock...
Again, almost no one hailed from Olympia and yet the citizens of Olympia were left to deal with the aftermath...
The sympathy I had for the movement is quickly eroding...
We have two birthdays to celebrate this month... I had suggested to co-workers several weeks ago that I make reservations at one of the Downtown Oakland eateries... everyone was on board if not enthusiastic.... almost everyone has cancelled unless I move the dinner to Walnut Creek or similar...
Last edited by Ultrarunner; 11-07-2011 at 09:49 PM..
We have two birthdays to celebrate this month... I had suggested to co-workers several weeks ago that I make reservations at one of the Downtown Oakland eateries... everyone was on board if not enthusiastic.... almost everyone has cancelled unless I move the dinner to Walnut Creek or similar...
Why not move the event to Piedmont Av? College Av? Lakeshore Av? Grand Av? Telegraph Av around 51st?
There are plenty of excellent restaurants NOT in downtown.
Also, Jack London Square hasnt really been affected by the Occupy thingy.
At this point, the media coverage has solidified those on the fence...
I'm the one consciously or subconsciously trying to showcase my City.
Every time things are looking up, something comes along to change it.
Off topic...
Last week a PGE lineman was on the street making a repair... I briefly spoke with the guy and he asked me how long I lived here... told him I'm just about a lifelong Oakland resident.
He went on to say that he lives and normally works in Livermore and couldn't believe how nice this area is... I said Oakland has lots of nice areas... he laughed and said he couldn't tell his wife where he was working today because she would worry herself sick and mentioned they don't even go to the ball games anymore since the Oscar Grant riots
Perceptions, good are bad, are the reality we face...
So many have worked so hard and this is just another example of getting kicked when you are down...
Oakland isn't home to throngs of Fortune 500 companies, Banking or High Tech...
Many people in Oakland are doing their best to simply get by.
Hundreds of millions have been spent improving infrastructure downtown to attract business and revitalize the economy...
I live in Oakland and all I hear from friends is they will avoid Oakland and I should get out while I can.
The port has been the one shining light in an otherwise bankrupt city...
The up coming election is again asking for more taxes from the citizens...
Your first line could have been written in frustration with the behavior of the 1%.
It is a shame that there is collateral damage. Really. But the collateral damage to 90% of us citizens from the behavior of the top 10% (I dont limit it to the top 1%) is far worse. At some point the people who are getting trashed have to take a stand. Figure out a better way to protest to effect change and I'm sure it will be embraced. But the historical reality is that when things like moving your bank account are proposed in and of themselves, they go nowhere. When they are proposed in a synergism with dramatic protest in the streets, where the threat of social unrest becomes graphic, that's when Bank America reverses a decision. It was a small step. But it is an example of how outrageous reaction has to be in order to get even the slightest response.
I'm all in favor of stopping the decline of America by other than raucous protest in the streets. But, quite obviously, simply voting our interests is not sufficient to stop the carnage being wreaked by the uber-wealthy-political synergism running amok as it is. Though I've laughed at the Tea Party antics since their inception, the motivation on the part of most Tea-Partiers was to "take back" electorate interest in politics. Did it work? What a total debacle of dysfunction it has become!
In the end, though, this too shall pass ... Oakland will recover and return to being a vibrant downtown experience. If some hard-working, well-intentioned, honest business people go down before this stabilizes -- that's truly a shame. That's collateral damage. Happens in every war. Saddest part.
Your first line could have been written in frustration with the behavior of the 1%.
It is a shame that there is collateral damage. Really. But the collateral damage to 90% of us citizens from the behavior of the top 10% (I dont limit it to the top 1%) is far worse. At some point the people who are getting trashed have to take a stand. Figure out a better way to protest to effect change and I'm sure it will be embraced. But the historical reality is that when things like moving your bank account are proposed in and of themselves, they go nowhere. When they are proposed in a synergism with dramatic protest in the streets, where the threat of social unrest becomes graphic, that's when Bank America reverses a decision. It was a small step. But it is an example of how outrageous reaction has to be in order to get even the slightest response.
I'm all in favor of stopping the decline of America by other than raucous protest in the streets. But, quite obviously, simply voting our interests is not sufficient to stop the carnage being wreaked by the uber-wealthy-political synergism running amok as it is. Though I've laughed at the Tea Party antics since their inception, the motivation on the part of most Tea-Partiers was to "take back" electorate interest in politics. Did it work? What a total debacle of dysfunction it has become!
In the end, though, this too shall pass ... Oakland will recover and return to being a vibrant downtown experience. If some hard-working, well-intentioned, honest business people go down before this stabilizes -- that's truly a shame. That's collateral damage. Happens in every war. Saddest part.
It isn't a war if you have no weapons.. occupying your local neighborhood and trashing your 'hood' isn't a war.. It's just stupid.
Financial war is fought with money on a day to day basis..
You think banks are evil .. go dissolve your bank account from the nearest public bank and move it to a credit union .. deal w/ the lack of offerings and services that the big banks have.. lack of physical local branches and international.. international transaction support/etc ..
You aren't profiting a bank w/ your below performing account balance .. you are actually costing them money .. Before they made actual limits, from insider information i have, banks would actually target 'cost accounts' (low deposit accounts) in order to try to get customers to leave... You think have physical locations across the u.s and abroad, 24/7 support, internet account access, wire transfer, bill pay services, tens of thousands of employees is free? you think they make enough money off your measly $1,000 checking account to pay for this? hell no.. before now, they covered such costs w/ fees/etc.. The smart a$$ govt. cut those and so they are charging for it.. you don't like it? hit the f*ckn road. It's called freedom as a consumer.. Close your dam account like an informed consumer and go to a bank that more suits your needs. <- intelligent people do this everyday..it's called shopping around .. there's no need to create a dam protest about it.. use your friggin head and stop being an idiot.
No one is stopping you but yourselves.. tired of the 1%, 10%, 20%, 30% whatever slice you decide to make up today that doesn't encompass you? stop doing day to day sh8t that makes them rich. stop buying sh*t you don't need.. Stop wasting your time playing with stupid iphone apps, tweeting, and d*cking around on facebook ..
People b*tch about the rich but then **** away their time and money making them rich : News Headlines
all sorts of contradictory stuff ... markets are up .. profits are up .. bank stocks are up .. amid all the jacka$$ery in the streets.. where the f*ck were these people 3-4 years ago ? sitting on their behinds.. now that the dust has settled, they want to run around creating a scene.. just glad in the middle class areas in the bay, that this sh*t hasn't spread down here .. keep this crap over in hippie SF and hipster Oakland .. in the core bay area where hard working educated middle class families and immigrants are living the american dream... we don't necessarily get duped by some idiots in a suit promising us the impossible ..
at the core, it starts with education.. when you have one and have some sense about the world, you are less apt to get screwed over by anybody.. you don't buy materialistic b.s w/ your money, make someone rich, and then ***** about it .. you work on growing your intelligence, awareness, and understanding so that you aren't a chess piece.. you are a chess player.. a player who navigates carefully through the world and ensures their lives aren't exploited by people along many rungs .. poor/middle/rich..
a leech is a leech and they are present at all economic levels.. you go out and make a rich person rich via buying stupid sh*t and not being involved/informed (because you got better things to do) .. and then when stuff starts impacting you wanna roam the streets making noise and carrying on (still uninformed) .. idiots
I agree with a lot of the recent posts, but let's get one thing straight. The vast majority of occupiers and protestors weren't the ones that have trashed Oakland, opportunistic anarchists are the ones who should be held accountable. While I'm not a full fledged supporter of the occupy movement, I am definitely a sympathizer. If they really want their cause to be heard and to bring about actual change, they need to better organize themselves and make damned well sure that criminals and social deviants aren't serving as their mouth piece.
I agree with a lot of the recent posts, but let's get one thing straight. The vast majority of occupiers and protestors weren't the ones that have trashed Oakland, opportunistic anarchists are the ones who should be held accountable. While I'm not a full fledged supporter of the occupy movement, I am definitely a sympathizer. If they really want their cause to be heard and to bring about actual change, they need to better organize themselves and make damned well sure that criminals and social deviants aren't serving as their mouth piece.
As I recall, you 'organize' and protest/support various things everyday with where you place your money. The greatest leader is yourself .. and you determine/vote who gets rich with every purchase. Many of the purchases being things you don't need, there literally is no excuse.
My problem w/ the whole movement is that it has no leadership, goal, purpose, etc etc etc .. What are you occupying? Capitalism? LOL . If so, have some conviction and move to a country not ran under capitalism .. I guaranteed you it will be 100x worse than here..
If you are protesting capitalism, be realistic about the huge role you play in it .. the huge role all of these protesters play in it .. you want to protest the rich .. protest some of the rich you have made rich. so, if you are in this protest and own an iphone .. make sure to point to yourself and call yourself a hypocrite .. If a plane dumped a billion dollars on the movement, none of em would have sh8t to say .. in fact, before this crisis began lasting some years and slowly began impacting their lives, no one gave a sh*t about the huge amounts of f*cked up crap going on in the country....
Social deviants and anarchist in your midst.. why don't the protesters have some conviction and police the protest.. why don't they tackle them to the ground, zip-tie them and make a civil arrest ?
The protest in my mind is a disorganized mess and while some good is coming of it .. it is very useless, pointless, and still filled w/ tons of uninformed/uneducated people.. w/o it you can't contribute much to the issues and just serve as noise... so, you point out the anarchist and misfits.. be sure to point out the uninformed just creating noise.. they are equally as unproductive. I went out to occupy SF and more than half of the idiots there had no understanding of economics, capitalism, business, wth they were actually protesting... ask them what would be their ideal situation and it amounts to handouts .. the big reason why we are in this sh*t in the first place...
a bunch of people who see others w/ something.. w/o understanding how they got it .. want others to take it and give it to them.. reminds me of the morons in greece.
People rant about wallstreet impacting their ability to live.. what about the city the neighborhood land lord who takes 40% of your income every month in rent .. imagine if that was cut in half what kind of lives everyone would have...
There are crooks, liars, leeches, and thieves all along the economic food chain
. What a lot of these people are protesting amounts to hypocritical given the day to day actions they commit to .. Until more informed and intelligent people take over the ranks, I think the whole thing is laughable and a joke
Life is tough .. it's 50x tougher in other countries. If you have no understanding of the various structures of society/economics/capitalism, all you are saying is.. That guy has something that i dont have .. its unfair and I want a system/structure that gives me more of what that guy has ..
and i think the mindset of such a stand is quite clear and w/o any form of higher moral grounding
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(And our downtown isn't filled with much of the 1%)
