http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/28/10260959-dozens-arrested-at-occupy-oakland-protesters-break-into-city-hall

Looks like the Occupy movement has started homing in on actual places to take over, at least in Oakland. They attempted to take over a convention center and broke into City Hall Saturday (kind of a big deal)

Occupy Oakland is numerous, well organized (if any Occupy movement can be spoken of as "well organized") and militant. Their mode of action seems to be to shut down large, prominent city facilities. They also know it is not difficult to provoke the Oakland police into overreacting.

Their goal seems to be to force the city to take seriously its responsibility for caring for the homeless and the desperately poor (there are many in Oakland), by making camp in prominent places to feed and shelter the homeless.

I really don't know what this movement is about at all. (If anyone does)

My kneejerk reaction is to tell them all to get a job and stop wasting taxpayer money by all these stupid actions

Occupy protesters claim they're standing up for the rights of the little man... while causing rampant property damage that the little man has to pay for.

I'm not surprised to see the actions of the Occupy protestors escalating. Lots of people aren't particularly happy about the current state of affairs here in the US, and the original Occupy protests were just an initial expression of that unhappiness. The more the government response is to try to ignore and marginalize people trying to make their unhappiness heard, the more I think we're going to see the severity of protests increase.

That's okay, their kneejerk reaction would be to tell you there aren't any jobs. And really, there aren't, if it takes an associates degree or bachalor's degree to get the competetive job of fast food cashier. That's not a joke, the few jobs that are open are entry-level jobs, and a college degree of some kind is the only way to put yourself ahead of most applicants. And if students in math, science, engineering, stuff like that, have no choice but to get into fast food careers or serve as waiters, then no, the jobs aren't there. And they should have been.

You must be kidding. I've seen Fox News talk about how no one knows what the occupy movement is about, then I've seen CNN actually go in and ask people what it was about and everybody said that we need to get corporations out of our government. Then Fox went in and had, not a reporter, but a CEO of a company asking questions, and the volume on the responses was turned down so as to be inaudible. And Fox continues to report that no one knows what the occupy movement is about.

Come on guys, watch more than one news channel.

I'm pretty sure the Oakland police were beating the shit out of them well before they escalated to any significant degree. Oakland police are thugs, I think they may actually be worse than the LAPD.

That is putting it nicely. Oakland and LAPD have a long, long history of killing, brutality, and corruption that could even make some cops in the Balkans blush.

Or just don't watch news channels.

Using the internet for news has proven to be most reliable.

I completely agree, it's only going to alot worse before it's gets any better. Let's face it the 'Have's and our elected officials really dont give a shit about you or me, moreover every four years they continue to make the same promises that they never intend to keep. Just my cents.

As an aside, up here in Wisconsin there was a story a few weeks back about how statewide there are something like 20,000 unfilled technical jobs in manufacturing - things like CNC operators, welders, and machinists, and many of them were starting at $40k or so.

The problem, the story went on to say, was that college has been sold as the best, sometimes even the only, way to reach that middle class dream. The emphasis, then, in primary education has been college prep while all-but-ignoring the technical fields that also pay quite well but don't have that college cachet. The funny thing is that these technical degrees are usually much cheaper, take a lot less time, prepare the students for actual work right away, and put them in fields where they're able to pay off whatever student loan debt might have accrued and be well on their way to making a solid life for themselves.

Meanwhile, in my segment of manufacturing, quite a number of the shop owners are those without a "normal" college degree but with manufacturing skills earned through OJT, hard work, and maybe some formal technical education.

The main advantage that young folks have is the ability to move, perhaps even out of the country, in order to find jobs. Which quite honestly ends up being a very attractive choice as there are no protections against age discrimination aimed at the young and quite a few for the over 40 set.

But, if one isn't able to leave the country for whatever reason, it can get quite bleak.

The world is soon to collapse under the weight of their valiant stand.

In other news. Stephen Hester received a near £1m bonus for totally fucking up a company.

You're doing good work guys.