Occupy Baltimore "mic checked" Karl Rove at a symposium speech on my undergraduate campus this week (article and video):

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/201...-youtube-video

Like the majority of my friends at Hopkins I'm no fan of Karl's, but everyone I've talked to there has been pissed about it. A big complaint is that the Occupiers planted in the audience were not Hopkins students, but they felt justified in disrupting the entire event for everyone.

The Milton S. Eisenhower symposium is a year-long speaker series run by Hopkins students and funded by the university, and though it is primarily for Hopkins students, faculty and staff, it is free and open to the public in an effort to give back to the Baltimore community. They've had some pretty controversial speakers in the past (and the protestors that come with) but no one has ever actually tried to derail the speaker like this, as far as I know.

In the Youtube video you can hear booing in the background from the other attendees at the Occupiers. Most of the people I know who were there don't agree with Karl Rove's politics, but they wanted to hear what he had to say. IMHO the protestors' actions were in very poor taste.

Occupy Portland was a mess Dee. Rat infestations, lice outbreaks, herion dens (tents) popping up. It's a public safety concern. The police and city officials are in a difficult situation because can't stand back and let this continue due to health and safety reasons, but if they evict these people from parks, busses, etc there is conflict. It is what it is.

Count me in with the 99% who is annoyed and feels these people are actually the .099% and they do not represent me.

Generally speaking, I am both annoyed and amused. I am all for their right to speak out and protest--within reason. As with every movement and everything, there is the good with the bad. There is the necessary with the unnecessary. There is the much-needed-voices-for-change with the batshit-crazy-sitchoassdownsomewhere.

And let us not forget that the social movement is not the end goal. The end goal should be (insert whatever end goal(s) the majority of the Occupiers claim to have). The end goal will not be attained quickly so I hope the Occupiers do not intend to sleep on the street until there is this absolute and visible change.

Last but definitely not least, it never fails that when certain groups of people (read: predominantly white people who are working class and middle class and find once in a while opportunities to express their relative deprivation) feel oppressed or exercise their voice of oppression, these certain groups want the world to stop. Don't kid yourself, the world has not stopped as much as people want to believe--the 1% is not shitting its pants as heavily as people would like to pretend they are. These certain groups want to pretend that they are the first group of people (read: most important group of people) to really experience what they are experiencing and the first to cry out so strongly in an attempt to be a voice for change. "We are Occupying and if you don't drink what we're pouring then YOU are part of the problem. What are YOU doing for change?!" Uh...the same thing that those of us who are involved in the community and with different power minority groups have been doing for years. Where have YOU been...oh yeah, you just realized that your shit also stinks and want to sit in the "Oppressed Chair."

Have your seat in the "Oppressed Chair" until most of you decide to get back into the “(for some, conditionally) Privileged Chair." Either way, don't take opportunities from the other 99% while you're busy protesting.

*LIKE!*

I so want to respond properly, but I'm just too tired (this week is insane.) So for now, I'm going with, "Yeah...^^^^...that. What they said."

Occupy Detroit has packed up and are occupying a warehouse (that was donated to them) and looking for other space. They are still having general assemblies twice a week and planning direct actions, including a mic check at a mall on Black Friday and some protests at Walmart on Black Friday. Today, the Detroit Police Chief praised them.. front page article in the Detroit Free Press today:

http://www.freep.com/article/2011112...xt|FRONTPAGE|s

I watched the "eviction" of the Occupy DC on CNN last weekend. I found it to be amusing and annoying on the part of the Occupiers.

Occupy NY:

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/20...ng-occupy-camp

Can someone remind me of what the purpose of this Occupy movement is?

No one knows :(