Comments

1
SOUNDS LIKE THERE'S FINALLY SOME ADULTS IN THE ROOM. TOO BAD THAT THEY'VE LOST THE BATTLE TO KEEP THE ISSUE ON ECONOMIC INJUSTICES RATHER THAN STUPID SHIT ABOUT OCCUPYING A PARK.
2
Can you explain how any of these issues are canaries in a coal mine?
3
@FC: I AM NOT THE ONE MAKING THESE CLAIMS; BUT I THINK THE SPEAKER WAS TRYING TO SAY THAT THE PROBLEMS THEY'RE EXPERIENCING ARE FORESHADOWING BIGGER PROBLEMS THAT MIGHT HAPPEN IN THE FUTURE. BUT YOU'RE CORRECT, THEY ARE NOT LITERALLY CANARIES AND THEY'RE NOT LITERALLY IN A COAL MINE.
4
So they have $10K.
How greedy.

What was their 'economic message' again?
5
If the majority of them couldn't even get a minority to open up a street for transportation - what chance does a reasonable end have?
6
Where's the news about the big, brave show of support they are going to have for a local union by marching through the streets?
So, a march for the homeless and a march for a union.
Big wow.
I can feel the thundering steps of change upon us.
7
Thanks Graham, I think I understand. They're saying their inability to enforce the drug/alcohol rules enforced by the state on their homeless/mentally disabled population will foreshadow an assault/crackdown by Portland police as has been seen in other cities?

The canary being the warning, i.e. drug/alcohol arrests, increased police reporting to media on bad behavior and the coal mine is the police/city clearing them out forcibly?
8
@FC: I THINK YOU'RE OVER-EXAMINING THE METAPHOR. REALLY, I THINK SHE'S JUST SAYING THAT THE PROBLEMS THEY'RE HAVING NOW ARE INDICATORS THAT IF THEY DON'T DO SOMETHING SOON, THOSE PROBLEMS WILL GET WORSE.
9
Thanks Graham. Sorry for the over-questioning! I’ve been having a rather binary brain day. I need more coffee to loosen up the wires.
10
"THEY'VE LOST THE BATTLE TO KEEP THE ISSUE ON ECONOMIC INJUSTICES RATHER THAN STUPID SHIT ABOUT OCCUPYING A PARK"

Exactly. This is all just logistics about the occupation, bogging downt the message. Just because you protest economic inequality doesn't mean that you should physically start a camp to give direct service. The advocacy and the direct service are two different things.

Pull out of the park and start trying to recreate the original march. Do it every month or two. I'll happily join you.
11
It's funny because when people marched every month or two to stop the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, people sitting on the sidelines and even some participants carped about how an occasional march wouldn't influence anything, that a more sustained presence was needed (and they were right). Now that we have that, people are criticizing it from the opposite standpoint. Occupations and sit-ins are old tactics that sometimes achieve good ends. Sitting on the sidelines criticizing protestors has never achieved anything per se, especially when it's any number of damned-if-they-do-damned-if-they-don't criticisms.
That they supposedly don't have a plain, coherent message is another one of these. If there were more of that kind of message coming out of this, the armchair experts would criticize it for being simplistic, rigid, and monolithic.
12
Uptwinkles for geyser!
13
another thing that has doomed the 'occupy' from the start... this twinkle BS.
Seriously.
14
These protests would go so much smoother if everyone started listening to the people in charge of them.
15
Just no one please restrict my access to those killer Red Tops and WMD's.

Please wait...

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